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.
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.
May 10, 2024 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Move along, nothing to see here – Just stop killing us, already edition.
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.
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.
March 27, 2024 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on The war on bikes shifts into high gear, “There Are No Accidents” author on Bike Talk, and Paris bike boom keeps booming
Just 279 days until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025.
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!
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.
………
Like we note below, the war on cars may be a myth, but war on bikes is shifting into high gear, as the past few days have seen an unusual number of attacks on bicyclists and bike infrastructure.
Starting with a bizarre rant from a West Hollywood columnist who claims the city’s new bike lanes are “just an experiment in social engineering, and we are its test subjects,” followed by “We must not allow ourselves to be herded like sheep toward a future we didn’t choose by technocrats who think they know what’s best for us. Whether or not we’re driving a vehicle, it’s time for us to take the wheel back.” Because forcing people into cars, whether they want it or not, isn’t social engineering, apparently. And some of us would prefer to take the handlebars.
A self-professed bike-riding San Diego mayoral candidate attacks spending on bike lanes and bike paths, while failing to mention that it’s for the entire region, not just the city. It’s also funded by the San Diego Association of Governments, aka SANDAG, rather than coming out of city coffers, as he suggests. And once again confirming that the people who claim they ride bikes are the ones you have to watch out for.
“Countless” Edinburgh residents are up in arms, telling city leaders to “get their priorities straight,” after the city celebrated the opening of a new protected bike lane intended to make the city safer and more navigable. After all, who really wants safe streets when you can keep putting everyone at risk from people going “zoom, zoom,” while wrapped in a couple tons of high-powered glass and steel?
Even the animals are getting into the act, as a New Zealand Staffordshire Bull Terrier will now be under stricter restrictions after attacking a bike-riding 75-year old woman and a postal carrier because it’s triggered by bicycle saddlebags, according to its owner. Maybe the dog just prefers a nice set of panniers.
Meanwhile, one lonely voice of sanity speaks up, as a writer for The Guardianquestions why the right has declared war on bicyclists, which have somehow become the bete noire for the anti-woke, anti-green, anti-liberal crowd.
I made an appearance on Bike Talk last week to talk about the rise in cyclist and pedestrian "accidents" in the U.S. Here's the playback if you missed it. Thanks for having me @BikeTalkPFK! https://t.co/QW3rwdhMSg
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
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?
Streetsblogaccuses 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.”
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.
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.”
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.
January 19, 2024 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on LA Times endorses Healthy Streets LA initiative in March vote, and SCAG to study turning highways into boulevards
Frustrated by the lack of political will and bureaucracy, street safety advocates collected enough signatures to put Healthy Streets LA, or Measure HLA, on the March ballot. The initiative would force the city to carry out the improvements in the Mobility Plan. Any time city departments repave at least one-eighth of a mile of street, they would have to add the improvements outlined in the plan, whether bike lanes, bus lanes, pedestrian enhancements or fixes to ease vehicle traffic.
This makes sense. When city crews have to repaint the lines when repaving a street, why not restripe the roads according to the Mobility Plan at the same time? Yet in a city as large as Los Angeles, making this a smooth process is not always easy. The multiple departments responsible for street paving, engineering and transportation safety struggle to coordinate and have missed opportunities to install Mobility Plan projects. The mandate of Measure HLA would, ideally, prompt City Hall to better organize street work programs and make Mobility Plan improvements a part of routine road maintenance.
The paper concludes their editorial this way.
Measure HLA has broad support among neighborhood councils, environmental, labor and business groups. Their members understand that Los Angeles needs to evolve into a city that is safer for pedestrians, bicyclists, transit users and, yes, even motorists. The plan recognizes that Angelenos will still drive — it includes 80 miles of streets that are prioritized for vehicle travel and projects that help drivers maintain safe, consistent speeds and reliable travel times.
The rising number of traffic deaths is a preventable tragedy. Voters have the power to make Los Angeles’ streets safer. Vote yes on Measure HLA.
No bias here. Underground hip-hop artist Gorilla Nems, aka Travis Doyle, took out his anger on New York’s Complete Street transformation over the past decade or so, telling a podcast host “Fuck bike lanes…this ain’t Copenhagen,” while instructing his followers to ignore walk signals and just cross the street anytime they want, after looking both ways.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
The Metro board delayed a vote to award Metro Bike management to Lyft, after ride hail drivers and delivery riders teamed with bikeshare workers to protest the proposed contract. But you’ll have to subscribe the Daily News or find a way around the paper’s draconian paywall if you want to read about it.
Police in Huntington Beach are using bait bikes to bust bike thieves. Something the LAPD still won’t do over fears they’ll be accused of entrapment.
They get it, sort of. A Simi Valley paper says safety is a two-way street, but drivers shoulder most of the responsibility to look out for vulnerable bike riders. Although they should go to cliche jail for trotting out the tired two-way street metaphor.
The future of the Tour of Britain, the Women’s Tour and other British races could be in doubt because the organizer of the races entered liquidation proceedings, after losing their license to conduct the races over an unpaid fee totaling the equivalent of over $884,000.
