My apologies.
I am reluctantly throwing in the towel on Friday’s post. I was really hoping to make it through my first week back, but after trying, and failing, to write tonight, I’ve just got nothing left to give.
As usual, we’ll be back on Monday to catch up on what we missed. And hopefully by then my aching shoulder and I will both be rested and ready to work.
Just a quick update.
I was really hoping to be back by now. But my doctor tells me.a that, while my shoulder surgery was successful, they had to do a lot more work than they expected. And I haven’t bounced back the way I had planned.
So please accept my apologies. I’ll try to be back to our regular schedule next week.
My apologies.
I was hoping to post one last time before my shoulder surgery. But my surgery time was move up several hours, which means I should be sleeping already if I’m going to make it on time.
I’ll be out for most, if not all, of the month. But we should have a number of guest posts between now and then, so keep checking back. Or better yet, sign up for the email list over there on the right to ensure you won’t miss anything.
Stay safe out there, and ride with a smile on your face. And I’ll see you again in a few weeks.
My apologies.
I ran out of time to write a new Morning Links for today, after spending my time last night writing about yet another tragic bicycling death instead.
And frankly, after writing about the needless loss of a loving 18-year old kid with a bright future, I just don’t have the heart for it.
We’ll be back tomorrow, as usual, to catch up on anything we missed the past couple days.
My apologies.
After caring for my wife, taking care of the dog, running errands, meeting with a radio producer, making dinner and doing dishes, along with tending to my own duties and injuries, I’ve got nothing left to give tonight.
So please excuse today’s absence. We’ll be back as usual tomorrow to catch up on everything we missed today.
My apologies.
I had every intention of posting a new Morning Links today after yesterday’s unexcused absence.
But after spending my night writing about two fallen bicyclists, in Oceanside and Cathedral City, there’s no time left for anything else — especially since I have to be up in a few hours to care for my wife’s broken shoulder. Not to mention my own banged up ribs and shoulder.
We’ll be back bright and early Monday to catch up on what we missed. And next week should go a little smoother.
Well, that was fun.
Just hours after posting on here that I didn’t know how I was going to make it through the coming months, I found out when I found myself in the back of an ambulance hauling ass down Sunset Blvd.
As best as we’ve managed to put things together, I apparently suffered a sudden, extreme drop in blood pressure when I get up to use the bathroom, which dropped me down with it.
When my wife couldn’t rouse me, she called 911, and I spent the better part of yesterday morning in the emergency room.
They sent me home late in the day when a series of X-rays and CAT scans came up negative, concluding that nothing was broken, and my brain had managed to survive a sudden conversation with the floor.
Although I do have excruciating pain in my right ribs, and may have done further damage to my already torn rotator cuff.
Good times.
As for the sudden drop in blood pressure, the ER doc said it’s just one of those things.
Because of that pain, and the difficulty I’ve had just writing this, I won’t be posting a Morning Links update today. And I’m not even going to bother editing this, so if there’s some major screwup here, so be it.
As for next week, it depends on how I bounce back over the weekend, so stay tuned.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go to bed and whimper myself to sleep.
My apologies.
I’m caught up in tax hell, trying to get my taxes done on time. We’ll be back tomorrow to catch up on anything we missed today.
Then share it — and keep sharing it — with everyone you know, on every platform you can.
We’re slowly gaining signatures, up to 1,027 now, so keep it going! Urge everyone you know to sign the petition, until the mayor agrees to meet with us!
Photo is an 1897 military bicycle with a machine gun mounted on the handlebars.
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My apologies for yesterday’s unexcused absence.
My Monday went to hell before I even got out of bed, and didn’t get any better until late that night, by which time I was too tired to form a thought, let alone a sentence.
That was followed yesterday by a shot in my right eye to control bleeding in the retina, yet another of the boundless joys of diabetes.
Good times.
But if you’re reading this, I guess that means I literally saw my way through my work tonight. So there’s that, anyway.
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A Marin columnist says a proposal to remove the bike lane on the Richmond-San Raphael Bridge on weekdays doesn’t go far enough, and he wants to give the lane back to drivers full time, even on days when they don’t need it. Because autos uber alles, evidently.
Providence, Rhode Island is considering the same thing, as city officials debate a plan to close the bike lane on a local bridge to make more room for motor vehicles. After all, it makes far more sense to remove alternatives to driving than to try to get more people out of their cars. Right?
Police in Yorkshire, England are looking for the person who ran away after pushing a woman off her bicycle in a “wholly unprovoked attack.”
New bike symbols on a London street appear to encourage people to ride in the door zone and into parked cars in an apparent attempt to thin the herd, while the city insists they were “carefully developed in line with guidance.”
Residents of a UK city are “furious” over “confusing” bicycle symbols painted on a street with no bike lanes, apparently unable to comprehend that bike riders are encourage to ride there.
British motorists slam a photo of a Dutch father carrying his five kids on his cargo bike, claiming he’s endangering them and that not one is wearing a helmet, while one driver bizarrely claims almost everyone in the Netherlands wears a helmet, in a country where almost no one does.
Police in Salinas posted a number to call to report kids riding their bikes recklessly and without regard for their own and drivers’ safety. Because evidently, teen and tween kids on a bikes are the real risk on the streets, not the people in the big, dangerous machines.
Police in the Sultanate of Oman have arrested over 20 young people and seized more than 200 unlicensed motorcycles and bicycles for traffic violations, in a crackdown on reckless riding during Ramadan. Because, once again, the real danger is kids on bikes of all kinds, motor and otherwise.
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Streetsblog talks with former Bicycling editor and South Bay-based bike writer Peter Flax about his new book, Live to Ride: Finding Joy and Meaning on a Bicycle. Which is a lot of italics for one lousy sentence.
West Hollywood gave Bird the bird, and will now allow only Lime e-scooters to besmirch their streets.
Caltrans is finally putting its money where its Complete Streets policy is, pledging to invest a cool billion dollars into bike lanes across the state over the next four years.
Streetsblog offers a non-comprehensive list of sustainable transportation bills to watch in this year’s state legislative session. Which is better than the legislature’s usual non-comprehendible bills.
About damn time. The hit-and-run death of fallen Oceanside bicyclist and mother Tracey Gross is raising concerns about the safety of bike riders on State Route 76, where at least eight people were injured riding bikes over the most recent five year period. Those concerns should have been raised when the first person was struck, not the latest.
The small farming community of Lamont, located southeast of Bakersfield, just got its first protected bike lane.
Bad news from Davis, where a UC freshman is in a coma after she was struck by a driver while riding her bike on campus. Parents should have a right to expect their kids will be safe when they send them off to college.
Streetsblog accuses New York officials of putting safety last, after four Brooklyn neighborhoods named Vision Zero “Bike Priority Areas” in 2017 still don’t have any protected bike lanes. To which Los Angeles says “hold my beer.”
A Manhattan community board rejected a planned ebike charging hub intended to replace an abandoned newsstand, after concluding it looked too modern.
The mayor of Hoboken, New Jersey signed a bill requiring ebike delivery riders to be licensed by the city, saying he was doing it in the “spirit of collaboration” despite shortcomings in the law. Even though no one bothered to collaborate with the low-wage workers.
WaPo is the latest newspaper to pick up the story of the Atlanta bike rider who tows a large magnet behind his bike to clear the streets of flat-inducing nails, screws and other metallic detritus. More proof that not all heroes wear capes. Or tights, for that matter.
Momentum offers an introductory guide to Velomobiles, and writes that “getting serious about active transportation in Europe it starts with street parking.”
A writer for Cycling Weekly debunks common myths about fat bicyclists, who turn out to be pretty much like anyone else who rides a bike, but bigger.
British Columbia authorities are investigating after a bike rider was injured by a mountie driving an unmarked car.
Hundreds of bicyclists rode for cleaner air in Birmingham, England.
A British newspaper says ebikes are the future of urban transport in the UK.
Another Cycling Weekly writer says he went to the Netherlands, and saw for himself how much better bicycling could be in the UK. And pretty much anywhere else, for that matter.
They get it, too. The Irish government is considering new financial incentives to encourage bicycling, after the country’s Cycle to Work program failed to entice enough people to bike to work and leave their cars at home.
Pope Francis sold the Pinarello Dogma given to him by Egan Bernal for the equivalent of more than $15,000, which was half the predicted price for the holy roadie.
An Austrian study reports that an average of 600 children are injured by bicycle handlebars each year, with half involving tears and bruises to the liver, pancreas or spleen.
A drunk driver in India plowed his SUV into a car, three motorcyclists and a bicyclist, leaving the bicycle literally folded in half, and one person in critical condition. And you can probably guess which person that was.
A heartbreaking photo shows a Palestinian boy sitting next to his bicycle in front of a building destroyed by an Israeli bombardment in Rafah.
A new Chinese study shows that ebikes serve as a crucial alternative to cars, as well as complementing transit services, and that banning ebikes “would not be conducive to curbing car growth.”
Cyclist answers the burning question of what the hell is a soigneur?
Bicycling reports that former Tour de France champ Egan Bernal took a remarkable third place at this year’s Volta a Catalunya, behind Tadej Pogačar and Mikel Landa, just two years after a near fatal crash in his native Colombia. Read it on AOL this time if the magazine blocks you.
Your next gravel bike could cost more than a cheap new car — unless you’d rather have a track bike that costs more than a decent one. Your next full-suspension mountain bike could be made of plywood.
And this is who we share the road with. Or the river, in this case.
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Oh, and fuck Putin
The good news is, we enjoyed a great CicLAvia on Sunday.
The bad news is, yet another of the many joys of diabetes is that I just don’t bounce back afterwards anymore. Or maybe I’m just getting old.
One way or another, I’m way too wiped out to work.
So enjoy a few pictures from our Sunday CicLAvia experience, highlighting lowriders both wheeled and otherwise, Melrose murals, pedicab rides, and Queen’s Best Stumpy Dog Rescue.
So in our case, maybe it was more of a CorgLAvia.
We’ll be back tomorrow to catch up with everything we missed, after I get a little sleep.
Okay, a lot of sleep.
