So get out there and ride your bike. But take a few moments along the way to remember why you have the day off. Assuming you do, of course.
We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools. — Dr. Martin Luther King
And don’t forget, this is the last day to nominate some deserving person to win a new bicycle. So get your entry in by midnight tonight, and tell us why they deserve to win a free bike from Beachbikes.net!
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Today’s common theme, appropriately enough for the day, is compassion for others.
Abandoned bikes at a Cambridge University college are finding their way to Africa to help people who have to travel long distances for food, water and work.
And a pair of Palestinian–Canadian sisters are selling up-cycled Japanese frames to raise funds to buy bikes for children in refugee camps around Ramallah and on the border between Syria and Turkey; they’ve already donated over 30 bicycles. Credit Peter Flax with the link.
So in case you’ve ever wondered, bicycles, and the people who ride them, really do help make this a better world.
An OpEd in the Times calls for a bike ferry across the “Del Rey Straights” separating the South Bay section of the beachfront bike path from Venice, as well as stairs allowing baseball fans to walk from Chinatown to Dodger Stadium.
A Wyoming paper calls on the city of Cheyenne to keep a bike registration law on the books to fund bike education and marketing programs. Except the amount raised from cyclists probably wouldn’t cover the administrative costs.
After supporters donate nearly £6,000 — over $8600 — to buy UK Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn a £475 bike, he says he’ll buy it himself and give the money to charity. Meanwhile, a man explains why he started the campaign.
A new Dublin greenwave will guarantee bike riders get all green lights along a bus corridor, as long as they maintain an average 12.5 mph speed; buses will be limited to the same speed, so bicyclists shouldn’t have to worry about obstructing them or being passed.
A pair of French cyclists become instant celebrities in India’s Uttar Pradesh state after riding through 11 countries to promote water conservation.
A writer for the Daily Mail recommends a leisurely 136 mile ride around the island of Mauritius off the coast of Madagascar. Or maybe you’d prefer riding through the lush scenery of St. Lucia in the Caribbean. I’ll gladly take either one, thank you. Or maybe both.
An Aussie state plans to profit off the heads of bike riders, as a tripling of fines for not wearing a helmet is expected to bring in $1.5 million.
An Australian site asks, but doesn’t really answer, what drives people to commit acts of vigilantism; an 82-year old cyclist suffered a brain hemorrhage and broken ribs as a result of someone tossing tens of thousands of tacks along a popular bicycling route for years.
We’ve got a lot of ground to cover today, so grab your coffee and settle in.
And don’t forget, just three more days to nominate someone to win a new bicycle in our first-ever bike giveaway. So take a moment to tell us who you think deserves to win a free bike from Beachbikes.net today!
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For once, the punishment fits the crime.
And not surprisingly, it comes from Orange County, where the DA and courts take traffic crime seriously, especially when it involves the loss of an innocent life.
Despite signing a statement following a 2011 DUI conviction that he could face a murder charge if he killed someone while driving under the influence, Eagleson shot up with heroin before getting behind the wheel with two additional drugs in his system that may have amplified the effects of the illegal narcotic.
Witnesses reported seeing him weaving dangerously along PCH. But before police could respond, he plowed into Eagleson’s bike, leaving him to die in the street as he drove on; Stephany’s lawyer claimed he was too high to comprehend what had happened.
He also says the self-described substance abuse counselor had planned to enter rehab the next day, too late for everyone concerned.
Stephany’s actions, piled atop a long string of priors, left Eagleson’s wife without a husband, and dashed their plans to have a child together after she had long been told she would never be able to. And left his mother grieving a son taken away too soon, and hoping his killer never again sees the light of day.
Shooting heroin and getting into a car after being through several rehabs and after being warned of the consequences is mind blowing,” the judge said.
“Yes, Mr. Stephany (you) did not set out to kill again that day, but when you act with such disregard for the safety of others, this can happen.
The sad fact is that two lives were ended that day, and two families shattered. One life lost on the side of the road, through no fault of his own, and the other lost behind bars through his own actions, his parents left to grieve a son lost to drugs.
Despite the possible life term, it’s likely that Stephany will get out of prison one day. Whether he will come out a better man is highly debatable.
Thanks to Louis, Edward M. Rubinstein and our anonymous OC source for the heads-up.
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Streetsblog’s Joe Linton provides a full report on Wednesday’s meeting on closing the Northvale Gap in the new Expo Line bike path.
In a case of major irony, two of the proposals would run on Northvale Road, directly in front of the homeowners who fought to keep the bike path from running behind their homes. Although the street has a steep hill that could cause many riders to seek an alternate route.
It’s also ironic that the price tag to complete the .7 mile gap runs between $13 million and $52 million.
It was only six years ago that some cyclists rose up to oppose a $30 million plan to extend the beachfront bike path two miles from Will Rogers State Beach nearly to Malibu, bypassing the narrow section of PCH where riders are currently forced to take the lane in front of often speeding traffic.
At $15 million per mile, it would actually have been cheaper than the least expensive option for closing the Northvale Gap.
The obvious choice, given the hill on Northvale, is to place the bike path next to the train line, precisely where the small group of homeowners fought to prevent it.
But where the $52 million to pay for it will come from is a very good question.
As is whether building the most expensive sub-one-mile of bikeway in the city is the best use for funds that could build many more miles somewhere else.
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Let’s help a guy out. And possibly help ourselves in the process.
Former San Francisco Bicycle Coalition staffer and current Bike the Vote LA volunteer Marc Caswell is conducting a study of the many Peak Hour Lanes throughout the City of Los Angeles to determine if they affect safety.
For my Masters in Urban Planning, I’m trying to determine if LA’s Peak Hour Tow Away Zones (PHTAZ) have an impact on street safety.
We know that the city has implemented these policies with no attention to safety — but simply to move cars. And they automatically preclude a street from the ability to have a bike lane (since the curb lane becomes traffic) — or from having pedestrian bulb-outs. So, they are inherently prohibiting safety improvements.
But — I want to know if these unexpected, temporary, and erratic parking restrictions are creating driver confusion and/or increasing the rates of crashes — for all modes.
When I chose this project, I planned to map the crashes to the streets and assumed that the LADOT would have a map of all these zones — but they don’t. They don’t even have a list. I’ve had to use Google Street View and my own knowledge to find the 211 miles I’ve found so far…
But, now I need to open it up to the rest of the region and crowdsource the information. So, I’ve published the map — and am calling on the public to help me identify the blocks I may have missed.
Take a look. And if you see one missing, add it to the map.
The results could make a real difference in how our streets look in the future.
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Recently, we featured a guest post from Harv describing his ride through the streets of NELA for some pre-Christmas shopping.
Today he offers his first attempt at a bike-building video, capturing what he calls a typical (for him) project, taking a vintage lugged steel road bike frame and making it into an urban bike to navigate the busy streets of LA.
And here’s the finished product.
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In the USA Network’s new show Colony, the people of Los Angeles travel by bicycle following an occupation by invading aliens. Except for the bad guys, who travel in massive SUVs.
Streetsblog’s Joe Linton will talk parking, CicLAvia, Vision Zero, rail construction, bike lanes, bike-share, speed, safety, trade-offs and more on Sunday morning when he’s interviewed on classic rock station The Sound at 100.3 FM.
Horrible news from San Jose, as a bike rider was killed by a hit-and-run driver who hit him, then backed over him again in what police describe as an intentional act. That should result in at least a second degree murder charge once they find the bastard.
National
It’s six years behind bars for a Seattle man in the drunken death of a bicyclist; the driver admitted to downing four beers and an Adderall before driving. Meanwhile, a Delaware driver gets eight years for the drunken hit-and-run death of a bike rider — with his three kids in the car, no less — after downing as many as seven drinks before getting behind the wheel.
The crowdfunding campaign to buy Britain’s bike-riding Labour Party leader a new bike is now up to £5,745 — the equivalent of nearly $8200 — which is just a tad over the £475 goal. Cycling Weekly looks at five bikes he could buy with that.
A British Good Samaritan ran to help a cyclist who was hit from behind by a van, only to discover he was colleague from her work at a local hospital.
An Arizona man takes his first bike ride in 30 years, a three-day, 87-mile trip through the Champagne region of France just 16 weeks after surgery for prostate cancer.
A new Berlin-based bike registry offers near-impossible to remove titanium micro-tags to identify your bike if it’s stolen.
Great piece from a British woman who left her London flat last July to bike to, and through, the Middle East in order to better understand it. One key point in our refugee-fearing times — she says she hasn’t met a single Muslim with the slightest sympathy for ISIS on her travels.
Don’t forget, there’s just four more days to nominate someone you know to win a new bicycle in our first-ever bike giveaway. So take a moment to tell us who you think deserves to win a free bike from Beachbikes.net today!
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Do they know something we don’t?
A field deputy for Westside Councilmember Paul Koretz assured the Westwood Neighborhood Council that a bike lane slated for Westwood Blvd north of Wilshire Blvd in the Village will be removed from the new Mobility Plan.
Even though he doesn’t have the authority to do that. And even though a proposal to remove it, or any other bike lane, from the plan must first be approved by the city Planning Commission, then face a hearing by the city council Transportation and Planning and Land Use Management Committees, before being voted on by the full council.
To this point, there have been no public discussions of the matter by any of those bodies.
Any secret discussions or backroom deals attempting to bypass that process would be a violation of the state’s Brown Act, which requires that all meetings of official bodies be held in public. And would likely invalidate any decisions resulting from it.
So let’s hope that she just misspoke or was misquoted, and meant to say that Koretz will attempt to have the bike lane removed from the plan.
Because we all have a right to be heard before any decision is made.
Especially the wrong one.
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CiclaValley catches up on the latest details of the LA River bike path closure. The good news is most of the barriers will be on the opposite side of the river from the bike path. However, he says the path will close for construction of the barriers between Riverside and Glendale Blvd for two weeks starting on the 26th; no word yet on whether it will reopen in full or in part once the work is finished.
Meanwhile, LADOT Bike Blog fills in the history and the background of the flood control efforts on LA’s concrete river.
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Tres shock! A new study shows what we already knew — sharrows don’t improve safety, and they don’t seem to increase ridership, either.
Meanwhile, another study suggests that biking infrastructure and gentrification mirror one another, making it difficult to say which one causes the other.
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Semi-reformed celeb bad boy Justin Bieber nearly takes out an entire cycling team that was training in the ‘Bu, inexplicably running out in front of the riders waving his arms while they cruised down PCH at 25 mph.
However, all was forgiven when he posed for selfies with the riders, who forgot to ask why he did it in the first place.
There’s now more hope on Hope Street, as the DTLA street gets a new parklet.
A UCLA alum is filming a documentary about the problems bike riders face, focusing on last year’s Emmy Ride; the film’s executive producer is former Ad Men producer Tom Smuts, who started the ride.
Another former UCLA student writes that she has continued to ride after graduating, commuting to work, leading rides and volunteering as an advocate for safer streets. And it all began with the school’s program to rent out commuter bikes to students for $45 a quarter.
Mark your calendar. BikeSGV lists the seven — count ‘em — open streets events scheduled for the LA area this year.
State
Three Leucadia coffee shops will soon get bike corrals in the North San Diego County community.
Sad news from the Bay Area, as an 80-year old Novato sidewalk cyclist was killed in a collision with a 16-year old driver who was making a left turn out of a parking lot.
Streetsblog talks with the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition’s new interim ED.
Best wishes to one of last year’s AIDS Lifecycle riders, Sonoma-area winemaker Chuck Hovey, who is recovering from a massive stroke he suffered just a week after finishing the ride.
In a crime that appears to be getting more common, a Sacramento cyclist is bike-jacked at knifepoint. Expanding the city’s bait bike program won’t help with that kind of theft, even though it lead to around 60 busts last year.
An Oklahoma driver will face a felony manslaughter charge for the distracted driving death of a cyclist, who was biking across the country building and repairing homes; the woman who was riding with him is still recovering from her injuries.
Even the sponsor of the Missouri bill which would require every bicycle to have a 15-foot orange fluorescent flag agrees that it’s ridiculous; he claims he just wanted to get people talking about bike safety. He previously co-sponsored a bill that would have banned bikes from state roads if there was a bike trail within two miles of the highway.
A Massachusetts eighth grader testifies in front of a state legislative committee in support of a pair of bike safety bills, after his father was nearly caught between a bus and a row of parked cars when it cut into the bike lane as they were riding together.
A Georgia nurse who just happened to by passing by saved the life of a bike rider when he collapsed from a heart attack in the middle of an intersection.
It took four cops to put an “arrogant” Irish bike rider in a squad car after he was busted for insisting on his “right to cycle in the manner in which he insisted he cycled;” during the incident, he called the Irish equivalent of 911 in an effort to report the police to the police.
So much for that friendly welcome to Europe. Norway is sending bike-riding Syrian refugees back to Russia the same way they came after they exploited a loophole banning anyone from walking or driving across the border.
The National continues its recent coverage of bicycling in the United Arab Emirates and beyond, this time offering a look at riding in Rwanda.
And it’s a common tactic for bike thieves to lock another bike to yours so they can come back later to take it. But what does it mean when someone ties a cute little dog up to your bike?
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Thanks to John Hall for his generous donation to support this site. Contributions are always welcome in any amount, for any reason.
January 14, 2016 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Morning Links: Alleged drunk hit-and-run driver faces charges, and Che Garcetti leads urban streets revolution
Unfortunately, I was tied up in a meeting last night, and didn’t have time to write the usual daily bike news roundup. But there are too many good stories to skip entirely, so let’s call this Morning Links Lite.
And come back later today, when we’ll have a different take on Describe Your Ride.
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Don’t forget, there’s less than one week to nominate someone you know to win a new bicycle in our first-ever bike giveaway. So take a moment to tell us who you think deserves to win a free bike from Beachbikes.net today!
A police officer heard the collision, and stopped Rodriguez after seeing the damaged car speed away; a second officer found Ruiz-Villanueva lying dead at the scene.
She faces a well-deserved 15 year behind bars if she’s convicted, though the DA will most likely plead the case out for far less.
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Newsweek calls LA Mayor Eric Garcetti the Che Guevara of SoCal infrastructure as he leads an urban revolution that, if successful, could spread across the country.
However, the story also relies on the old misleading stat that only 1% of Angelenos commute by bike, which fails to include other transportation riders such as students, shoppers or anyone who uses a bike for just part of their commute.
And it neglects to mention the huge jump in Santa Monica ridership after the city built a complete bike network, which should serve as a model for LA, and prove that people here will ride if they’re just given a share of the streets.
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Speaking of remaking our streets — and the inevitable blowback cited in the Newsweek story — a petition on Change.org calls for the removal of bike lanes on York Blvd, claiming they cause major congestion at rush hour, overflow traffic on side streets and lost sales for local businesses.
Meanwhile, a counter petition says au contraire, most people want keep the bike lanes right where they are. Sign the latter if you live, work or ride in the area.
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On top of all the other bad news yesterday, a man was murdered while riding his bike in Carson Tuesday evening. Police are looking for two suspects who ran away after shooting him; motive is unknown.
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Police bust a career petty thief living in Leisure World in Seal Beach; the area saw a jump in stolen bicycles after he moved into the community following his latest release from jail.
But in a very generous gesture, his family has requested that any further donations go the Inland Empire Biking Alliance, even though the fund has raised only $305 of the $2,000 goal.
Something similar happened to a cyclist right here in LA recently; we should have the story soon.
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Also in the Bagdad by the Bay, a bike deliveryman says he was brutally beaten by a cop, apparently for using his cellphone while cycling, which isn’t illegal.
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After Utah firefighters save the life of a college student who was nearly killed in a collision, they take up a collection to buy him a new bike.
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Cyclelicious reports that a proposed law in Missouri would require all bike riders to have a 15-foot tall orange fluorescent flag attached to their bicycles, apparently to protect riders from low-flying aircraft.
Edinburgh police are on the lookout for a “scruffy” bike rider with dark circles around his eyes who allegedly kicked a toddler as he rode by on his mountain bike.
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We may have to deal with LA drivers, but at least we don’t have to worry crashing into a sheep on a high speed descent.
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An Aussie motorcycle cop rode up next to a moving bicyclist and pushed him off his bike in the middle of a busy intersection, allegedly for the crime of riding through a red light and not wearing a helmet.
Police claim the rider had refused to stop when the cop tried to pull him over, but witnesses told a different story.
But whether that will include bike riders remains to be seen, despite the anti-bike hysteria in the comments.
The base is currently the only approved route for bicyclists connecting OC with North San Diego County, since riders are banned from the 5 Freeway. Its scenic views and relatively low, though sometimes heavily armed, traffic also makes it a very popular route for recreational riders and group rides.
Closing the base to riders would almost certainly force the state to open the freeway to bicyclists, which is the case in other areas where there is no alternate riding route. Although I can’t imagine anyone willingly trading the quiet roads of Camp Pendleton for a rock and glass-strewn shoulder with semis buzzing by at 70 mph or more.
It may turn out to be much ado about nothing, as a message from the base indicates that no decision has been made regarding bicycle access after the 1st. There have been similar scares in the past with no action taken restricting riders.
However, it does serve as a reminder that, like with the VA grounds in West LA, bicyclists are guests on federal property, and expected to act accordingly; Pendleton has their own rules that riders are expected to observe.
And while one commenter worries about bike-borne ISIS terrorists sneaking in to attack the base, it’s the people on two wheels who have faced the greatest danger.
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Just a touch of schadenfreude yesterday, as I watched a car driving in a bike lane nearly get doored by a driver who didn’t bother to look before throwing his door open.
And no, neither of them seemed to have a clue what just happened.
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Local
CiclaValley questions the necessity of closing a large portion of the LA River bike path to put up flood control barriers, and the effect it will have on businesses in Frogtown and Elysian Valley.
Bikabout offers a 12-city bucket list of where they want to wander by bike this year, including the City of Angels and our own CicLAvia.
The LA Times wonders which NFL stadium plan would screw up traffic the least; the Inglewood site got the nod from the NFL. The owner of the stadium should be required to pay for a rail extension to serve the site, as well as safe cycling infrastructure and bike parking facilities to provide an alternative to driving to the games and other events.
Santa Monica police will once again be on the lookout for traffic violations that put bicyclists and pedestrians at risk this Saturday, regardless of who commits them. So be on your best behavior while riding through the city this weekend.
Long Beach will host its second Beach Streets ciclovía on a still-secret route through the Downtown area on Saturday, March 19th, less than two weeks after the next Valley CicLAvia.
State
People for Bikes quotes the reactions of six Californians on Caltrans’ new guidelines for protected bike lanes, including LADOT maven Seleta Reynolds and BikeSD’s Sam Ollinger.
Bicycling says to give hoverboards a wide berth now that they’re banished to the bike lanes, since you never know when they’ll burst into flames. The magazine also talks to the amazing Jo Celso, the San Diego pro cyclist who beat Hodgkin’s to come back stronger than ever.
A new survey says one in ten Americans would steal a bike for $10,000; for a billion, 12% of men would be willing to kill you. Then again, I’ve run into some drivers who seem willing to do it for free.
Cheyenne WY considers eliminating the city’s largely ignored bicycle licensing requirement; only one person bothered to register a bike under the current law last year.
A New York writer says a Vision Zero law protecting pedestrians and bicyclists isn’t necessary because, you know, accidents happen and drivers just can’t be held responsible for killing someone.
Horrific testimony from an Alabama cyclist in the trial of the driver who ran down her two riding partners; the driver claims the sun was in his eyes, though she disputes that.
More evidence that bicycling benefits Parkinson’s patients, as a patients’ symptoms disappear during a Maryland spin class.
Now that’s more like it. A prolific British bike thief has been given a lifetime ban from even coming within 13 feet of bicycle unless he can prove he owns it.
A road raging driver from the UK gets nearly five years for the death of a 69-year old bike advocate following an argument; the Afghan vet, who suffers from severe depression and PTSD following his service, says he doesn’t even remember making contact with the victim’s bike.
Copenhagenize says yawning bike riders are the best sign of a bicycle-friendly city.
India plans to build smart cities to address the country’s many urban ills; a writer says smart thinking about bicycles needs to be part of the process.
It’s one thing to get pissed off at a driver; spitting and hurling racial abuse is another matter. Seriously, if you’re going to ride your bike to a friend’s house when it’s 8° outside, put some damn gloves on.
And that’s one way to do it, as two boys each take a pedal to share a single bike.
Just one more week to help someone you know win new bicycle. Read more about our first-ever bike giveaway and suggest who deserves to win a free bike from Beachbikes.net!
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The Marvin Braude bike path on Dockwieler Beach in Playa del Rey remains closed due to damage from last week’s rains and heavy surf. And is likely to stay that way for some time.
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In a heartwarming story from Montebello, a Sherman Oaks triathlete sets up a gofundme account for a wheelchair-bound homeless man who suffered two broken legs when he was hit by a car while on his way to a hospital for follow-up care for a leg infection.
She met him while riding a double metric century before the holidays; completing the circle, the man, who once worked as an EMT, helped save the life of a stranger who had collapsed from a heart attack while riding his bike last year.
As of this writing, the fund had raised just over $3,000 of the $5,000 goal.
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Local
The Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition is pushing for 10% of a possible transportation sales tax measure to be set aside for biking and walking projects, while noting that other areas commit more.
Melissa McCarthy is one of us, going for a pre-Golden Globes ride with her family.
Streetsblog’s Damien Newton kicks off a new series of podcasts focused on sustainable transportation in the San Gabriel Valley by talking with Glendale Mayor Ara Najarian and Bike SGV’s Andrew Yip.
Improvements in bicycling safety appear to be paying off in San Luis Obispo, as bike collisions are down 20% since 2009 even as ridership increases; overall traffic collisions in the city reached their lowest point in 15 years.
Great piece from the Bay Area looking at streets that are dangerous by design for bicyclists and pedestrians to an extent that would be unacceptable for roads designed for motor vehicles. The story notes that traffic fatalities are three times higher in California cities on streets laid out after 1950, before California’s deadly auto-centrism took over.
Fairfield police use a bait bike to bust five bike thieves. As the story implies, most bike thieves don’t suffer any real consequences; we need to change the law to make the theft of any bike a felony, regardless of value.
National
Bicycling offers advice on how to deal with angry drivers. Nothing defuses an angry confrontation faster than pulling out your phone and taking a photo of the driver and his or her license plate, while making a show of dialing 911 will almost always get them to drive away. Just don’t stand in front of their car while you do it.
Seattle moves forward with a one-mile protected bike lane on a popular riding route that preserves 90% of parking along the street, but at a surprising political cost for a city that supports bicycling.
A Colorado driver gets eight years for killing a bicyclist while driving drunk; the judge wanted to show more leniency, but the driver showed no hint of remorse or taking responsibility for his drinking. Contrast that with a Georgia case where a motorist got off with one year of probation after pleading to vehicular homicide in the death of a cyclist.
Kentucky considers a bill requiring children under 12 to wear a bike helmet.
Kirstie Alley is one of us, riding through New York with her friends helped her lose 50 pounds and keep it off for the past year.
Seriously? New Jersey considers forming a commission to study how to better protect bicyclists and pedestrians. Because it takes a commission to find proven solutions like protected bike lanes, better crosswalks, slower speeds and prioritizing people over motor vehicles?
A Baltimore man was stabbed to death and robbed following a confrontation with a group of men while riding his bike; two teens are charged with his murder while police look for other suspects. Always try to ride away from confrontations, and remember no bike — or anything else you have on you — is worth you life.
A British cyclist lost her life because of a water-filled pothole that was supposed to have been fixed weeks earlier — and finally was, two days too late.
UK track cyclist Victoria Williamson is expected to make a full recovery after shattering her pelvis, ribs and several vertebrae in a crash with a Dutch competitor last week.
A new study from the Netherlands shows bicycling is so popular the country’s bike lanes are bursting at the seams. Note to City Lab: Referring to the Netherlands as Holland is like calling the US West Virginia.
That solar bike path in the Netherlands has proven successful after a full year of use, although the energy produced is far more expensive than other sources.
January 11, 2016 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Morning Links: Bike lanes on WeHo’s Fairfax, news from the ‘cross Nats, and bike riding kung fu Buddhist nuns
Just one more week to help someone you know win a new bicycle. Read more about our first-ever bike giveaway and suggest who deserves to win a free bike from Beachbikes.net.
Even if that person is you.
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Fairfax Ave could soon have a continuous bike lane from Hollywood Blvd to Melrose Ave.
The lanes would connect with existing bike lanes on Fairfax north of Fountain, as well as planned lanes between Willoughby and Melrose in the City of LA. The WeHo website suggests they might even extend below Melrose; however, that would likely require removing parking from the narrow, small business-lined street.
Which isn’t likely to happen given the city’s risk-averse culture.
Still, it’s nice to see a little coordination between the two cities to provide a badly needed north-south route for bike riders in that part of town.
Santa Monica will create a new coastal zoning plan, taking into account the new bikeshare program, as well as future sea level rises due to global warming.
The Daily News looks at Winnetka’s five-year old Girlz Gone Riding mountain bike club, which has grown to include chapters in San Diego and the Inland Empire. Note to Daily News: 1,000 Facebook members sounds impressive, but chances are, they’re no more real than Facebook friends.
If you build it, they don’t always come. A bikeshare program operated by a British rail system has averaged only one rental per station every six days.
Remarkably, all five candidates for London mayor have endorsed banning cars from one of the city’s busiest, and most polluted, streets, as well as implementing an Idaho stop law. Maybe we could get the losers to run for office here.
A road raging Brit bike rider is confined to a curfew for attacking a driver who allegedly passed too close. Seriously, keep your anger and your fists to yourself, no matter how much you think the other party might deserve it. On the other hand, if a bike rider is smashing in your window and threatening to kill you, you may not have given “ample room” after all.
Now that’s a good dog. A British police dog sniffs out a stolen mountain bike worth over $4,300.
Adventure Journal relates the story of Polish cyclist Kazimierz Nowak, who twice rode the full length of Africa in the 1930s as the world was building up to global war.
A Kiwi expat competes in 14 mile time trial on Friday and goes a 46 mile bike ride on Saturday, then gets married that night.
The death of a young bike-riding mother leads to a campaign for more and safer bike lanes in the Philippines.
A Singapore cyclist offers a whopping $10 to forget the whole thing after crashing into a three-year old and knocking out his tooth.
January 8, 2016 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Morning Links: All hands on deck for Expo Line bike path, hit-and-run goes global, and Culver founder one of us
Streetsblog’s Joe Linton writes that there will be an all-hands-on-deck meeting next Wednesday to discuss closing the Northvale gap in the new Expo bikeway.
After neighborhood NIMBY’s in the upscale Cheviot Hills neighborhood failed to stop the train, they turned their attention halting the bike path, expressing fear that bike-riding burglars and two-wheeled peeping Toms would soon terrorize the area.
Which is only a slight exaggeration.
Meanwhile, funding dried up amid disputes over where to locate the path, and where — or if —there should be access to the neighborhood.
Linton writes that Councilmember Paul Koretz, who has made it his life’s mission to keep bikes off Westwood Blvd, is working to close the gap in what would be the only continuous bikeway from Downtown to the Beach.
There will undoubtedly be many people opposing the bike path going through their neighborhood, so as he notes, if you live, work, bike, or breathe in this part of West Los Angeles, you need to be there to voice your support.
It takes place from 6 pm to 8 pm at the Palms-Rancho Park Branch Library, 2920 Overland Ave.
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Clearly, hit-and-run is a worldwide problem.
A New Hampshire cyclist was lucky to escape with bruises when he was hit by a driver who sped away; police later arrested the suspect for hit-and-run, as well being a felon in possession of an unlicensed gun.
A British man faces “substantial” jail time for driving away after killing a cyclist while speeding at over twice the 30 mph limit.
The founder of Culver City was one of us. Before coming to California, Harry Culver rode in 53-day, 4,120 mile bike race ending at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Caltrans buys an Encinitas strawberry field to convert it into a park and ride and freeway access ramp, as well as community gardens and open space; the facility will include bike lockers and a bike lane that connects to bike paths planned for the area. Maybe they should call it a bike and ride.
San Diego’s City Heights neighborhood gets a road diet and buffered bike lanes to improve safety after a close vote by the neighborhood planning committee.
Next time you’re in Morro Bay, check out the new bike park that opened over the holidays.
A Seattle radio host continues his anti-bike rants, this time saying if officials really care about bike safety, they should ban bike riders from going through a parking lot they’re legally entitled to use, since a protected bike lane will be built nearby. It’s not safety he’s concerned about; it’s really about the money and lost parking spaces for a bike lane he opposes.
Vermont considers a bill that would require right-turning drivers to yield to bikes, and allow motorists to cross a yellow line to pass a bicycle.
Bike riding in New Zealand is getting safer as it gets more popular.
The mayor of Taipei will ride his bike 21 hours tomorrow to promote the Velo-City Global Conference to be held in his city next month.
Finally…
How does someone fail to see a stopped bus before crashing your bike into it? When a bus company driving instructor says running over cyclists is a public service, you’ve got to wonder what he’s teaching his students.
First, they suggest that bicycles are registered with the state of California, which doesn’t license bikes. Instead, CVC 39002 allows local jurisdictions to license bikes at their discretion. Meanwhile, CVC 39003 (same link) makes it clear that the licenses must be issued by the city, county or some other agency they designate.
Not the state.
Second, they charge a modest $10 for a new two-year license, and just $5 to renew an existing license.
But both of those amounts are illegal and excessive.
According to CVC 39004 (ditto), those same jurisdictions are allowed to charge no more than $4 per year for a new license, and $2 a year for a renewal.
Which means Davis is overcharging bicyclists by a whopping 25%. Or a measly $1 or 50¢ a year, respectively, depending on how you want to look at it. Although that’s no small amount when multiplied by the tens of thousands of bikes in the city.
Either way, the program is in clear violation of state law.
Something to remember if your city or county has a bike licensing program, or is considering one.
On the other hand, the registration program is helping a number of UC Davis students get their bikes back, after Dixon police bust a pair of thieves with 31 hot bikes.
Meanwhile, California Streetsblog names Santa Monica Assemblymember Richard Bloom as Legislator of the Year.
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I’m not really tuned into the SoCal bike racing scene. But if David Huntsman and Seth Davidson both say there’s something wrong with the sport’s local governing body, then something is definitely rotten in our cycling state of Denmark.
Besides, if you can’t trust a couple of bike riding lawyers, who can you trust?
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Following up on yesterday’s tech news, Sony ups the ante to take on GoPro in the action cam market, while Nikon introduces a cam offering 360° views. Of course, the only way to make that work is to mount it on the outside of your handlebars or the very top of your helmet. And then sit up very straight.
The newest member of the Baseball Hall of Fame is one of us.
Outside offers a profile on Ned Overend, who’s still kicking fat bike ass at age 60 — 26 years after his mountain bike world championship.
An interesting study from the University of Washington finds neighborhood density is the primary factor that encourages low and middle income residents to walk or bike; for wealthier people, the attractiveness of their neighborhood is key.
It takes a real jerk to steal a motorized recumbent from an Iowa man battling stomach cancer who used it as his only form of transportation.
A Florida paper shows what a difference it can make when the press calls attention to bicycle safety instead of trolling bike riders.
Nothing like starting young. A pair of Florida boys, just seven and eight years old, are under arrest for an attempted strong-arm bike jacking. No one hates bike thieves more than I do, but handcuffing a seven-year old seems a tad extreme.
A Canadian writer offers lessons learned from 100,000 kilometers — 62,137 miles — on the seat of a bike.
A British site offers advice on how to make your bike commute more like the Tour de France, while Road.cc pipes in with some additional suggestions. Although getting someone to hurl abuse at you is no challenge in LA traffic.
A new study shows London bike riders are six times fitter than other commuters.
It takes a major jerk to punch a 62-year old British woman after shoving his bike into her, regardless of what she may have said to him.
A 24-year old biology student works to become the first professional cyclist from Burkina Faso. If there are any bike makers reading this, send this guy a new racing bike. Now.
An Aussie expat living in Ho Chi Minh City has set out to ride every road connecting north and south Vietnam.
Finally…
Nothing like banning a doper after he stops racing. It doesn’t do a lot of good to sue the Forest Service for failing to maintain an illegal bike trail.
Like maybe a bike helmet with a built-in brake light, turn signals and a Bluetooth speaker, that calls for help if you crash. Pick it up if you drop it, or you may find paramedics knocking on your door.
Uni-directional bike cams are so passé. New helmets from Giro and Bell will feature a 360° video camera, though there doesn’t seem to be a road bike version planned for the near future. Then again, maybe what you need is a mini-bike cam that wraps around your wrist.
And Garmin unveils a new heads-up display that projects turn-by-turn GPS directions, texts and notifications directly onto your glasses, as well as radar alerts of traffic approaching from behind. Or you could learn to look behind you, or get a mirror, and leave all that crap behind and just enjoy the ride.
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The amazing Katie Compton discusses battling depression, an antibiotic-resistant staph infection and a rare, cramp-causing genetic disorder, none of which has prevented her from reigning as America’s greatest cyclocross racer.
Meanwhile, North Carolina expects to see a boost in tourism from this week’s USA Cycling Cyclo-Cross National Championships, while VeloNews offers a video preview of the course. Note to press: You can call it the Nationals, Nats or the National Championships, but please don’t call it the Nationals Championships.
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Local
LADOT Bike Blog offers timely advice on how to ride your bike through an LA El Niño, although speeding up the red lights for cyclists would be nice, too. Or you could take my approach, and just pull the covers over your head until next week.
Streetsblog’s Joe Linton looks forward to what 2016 could bring for livable streets, including bikeshare in DTLA, protected bike lanes on Venice Blvd and showdowns over the Mobility Plan.
A barely intelligible rant from an anonymous Portland woman accuses a bicyclist of “secretly incubating a veliciraptor’s (sic) egg inside (her) womb” for defending her right to the road, before she hauled off and hit the writer’s boyfriend when he confronted her for hogging it. Boy, would I like to hear the other side of this one.
Seattle residents — and a ranting writer — think a new cycle track designed to improve safety will actually make things worse for pedestrians, and ask the city to impose a 10 mph speed limit and force cyclists to stop at each of the 18 pedestrian crossings along the way. Which would be the best way to ensure riders won’t use it; besides, studies show protected bikeways improve safety for everyone, not just the people on bikes.
Now that’s more like it. A Fargo bike thief faces up to ten years in prison for stealing a $10,000 bike. I’d settle for seeing thieves serve just one year for stealing a bike worth up to a tenth of that.
Double good news from Illinois, as a pair of business owners pitch in to get a wounded vet a new adaptive bike after his was stolen; meanwhile, police recovered his bike, which will be repaired and sent to someone else with disabilities.
An unlicensed teen is charged with fleeing the scene on foot after killing a cyclist while driving a stolen car; as an 18-year old, he will likely charged as an adult. Which means he should be going away for a long time.
A famed cycling photographer is being forced to sell the barely-ridden dream bike that won best in class at last year’s UK hand-built bike show, due to a degenerative bone disorder.
A road raging London cabbie is charged with using his taxi as a weapon to ram a bike rider off the road after a dispute over parking in a bike lane.
A video compilation shows a series of close calls for cyclists on the streets of Malta. Which doesn’t look a lot different than riding the sometimes mean streets of LA.
Leave it to the Dutch to develop the Boncho, a stiff-front bicycle poncho. Which would certainly come in handy in LA this week; then again, so would pontoons.
