Archive for Morning Links

Fake cop busted for kidnapping bike-riding boy, tech turns cars into “candy store of distraction,” and LAFD says wear a helmet

July 7, 2022 / / 2 comments

There was a frightening crime in Panorama City Wednesday morning, when a fake cop allegedly kidnapped a 13-year old boy after crashing into his bike.

The victim, who wasn’t publicly identified, was riding his bike near Van Nuys Boulevard and Tupper Street when he was struck by a pickup driven by 38-year old Ottoniel Mendoza.

Mendoza got out of his truck, identified himself as a cop while flashing a badge, and ordered the boy to get into his truck. He was arrested nearby after a witness called police and followed Mendoza as he drove away.

He was booked on suspicion of kidnapping; other counts likely to be added later after the DA reviews the case.

His victim was taken to a hospital with minor injuries from the crash, lucky to escape safe and unharmed.

A passenger in the truck was released without charges.

Thanks to Tony Toretto for the heads-up.

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The LA Times says increasing technology is turning modern cars into a “candy store of distraction,” comparing the problem to overwhelmed military helicopter pilots in the 1980s.

The paper also notes that 70% of drivers admit to using their cellphones behind the wheel, a figure that rises to 86% for people who use their cars for work.

Just in case you’re wondering why they don’t seem to see you.

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The Los Angeles Fire Department wants you to wear a helmet and ride safely if you’re going to Sunday’s South LA CicLAvia.

https://twitter.com/LAFDtalk/status/1544854637022306305

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Streetsblog LA is hosting their annual summer fund drive, hoping to raise $15,000 over the next two months.

And yes, I plan to give what little I can to support their vital work reporting on LA transportation issues.

The website also announced the August 3rd date for their first in-person Streetsie Awards party in three years, honoring L.A. County Supervisor Holly Mitchell.

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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.

There’s a special place in hell for the Connecticut man who pushed an 11-year old biracial boy off his bicycle; advocates are calling for him to be charged with a hate crime. 

But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.

Detroit police are looking for a suspect who seriously injured a 51-year old man in a bike-by shooting.

Police in New York are looking for a pair of teenage ebike riders who got into a fistfight with another man, before pulling guns and firing at him on the sidewalk in broad daylight.

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Local

Los Angeles is bringing safety improvements to a 4.5-mile section of Western Ave between Martin Luther King Jr. and Century boulevards in South LA. Although the project appears to include sharrows instead of bike lanes, which have been shown to be literally worse than nothing. 

LAist offers more information on the coming Rail to Rail Active Transportation Project through South LA and Inglewood, tentatively scheduled to open in two years.

Long Beach wants to improve community policing by putting more cops on bikes and walking beats.

Wonder Woman star Gal Gadot is one us. Or at least knows the value of posing with a bicycle on the beach.

 

State 

Speaking of a special place in hell, someone — presumably a mountain biker — cut several branches and bushes overhanging a trail in the Del Mar Mesa Preserve, apparently in an effort to increase speed while reducing the trail’s difficulty.

Too many memorials line the streets of San Diego’s Barrio Logan neighborhood, where residents and business owners have complained for years about the lack of traffic safety for pedestrians and cyclists; three people have been killed already this year, including last month’s death of a 63-year old ebike rider.

Mountain Bike Action recommends the off-road, all-levels Sapwi Bike Park and Sapwi Flow Trail Project in Thousand Oaks, a joint project of the Concerned Off-Road Bicyclists Association (CORBA) and Conejo Recreation and Park District.

 

National

Good idea. A bicycle insurance company is now offering nationwide coverage for damage to your bike, as well as optional theft coverage.

A new study says it doesn’t matter whether you ride your bike midweek or on weekends, as long as you ride.

They get it. A newspaper in Bend, Oregon says prioritizing people over cars won’t happen overnight, but it’s worth the effort, as the city fails to live up to its bike-friendly reputation.

Ebikes are now welcome wherever bicycles are allowed in Arizona’s Grand Canyon National Park.

Five of the best social bike rides for your next trip to Denver.

Drivers in Austin, Texas can’t seem to avoid a new curb-protected bike lane, with a local resident reporting at least one blown tire there every day; city officials say it’s needed on a section of roadway where the previous painted bike lane failed to prevent several traffic deaths and serious injuries.

Seriously? A Minnesota teenager is dead because 72-year old driver says he lost control of his control of his pickup when he sneezed, and slammed into the boy’s bike after going off the road at 55 mph; he tested under the legal alcohol limit, despite smelling of booze and showing signs of impairment.

Parking won out over a planned bike lane in Louisville, Kentucky, after residents complained and city officials suddenly discovered the street wasn’t wide enough for them.

Speaking of Louisville, a woman is calling for accountability after a hit-and-run driver left a popular bike advocate lying critically injured in the roadway. Maybe if the city prioritized people over parking, things like that might be a little less likely.

A New York website considers how ebikes can help the city meet its climate goals.

Good question. A DC website asks why we treat traffic safety as if it’s less important than transit safety.

 

International

British Columbia bike and safety advocates are calling for mandatory side bars on large trucks, after a frightening crash where a bike rider was right hooked by a driver turning right on a red light; the crash came just one week after another rider was killed in a similar crash. Banning right on red would help, too.

It looks like Britain can kiss pro-bike, pro-Brexit Prime Minister Boris Johnson goodbye, after one too many scandals.

Bike Radar ogles Danish city bikes while in in the country for the first stages of the Tour de France.

A Pakistani court has sentenced a Christian bike mechanic to death for blasphemy, in a dispute that began when Muslim customer demanded a discount after getting his bike fixed.

A new Honda ebike combines a ped-assist bike with a throttle-controlled, sit-down scooter.

A New Zealand op-ed says Vision Zero should account for the premature deaths caused by car pollution, as well as from traffic violence.

 

Competitive Cycling

Aussie Simon Clarke claimed his first Tour de France stage victory in a photo finish over Dutch cyclist Taco van der Hoorn in Wednesday’s cobbled sixth stage, while Wout Van Aert held on to the yellow jersey by a slim 13-second margin.

Bicycling asks if Neilson Powless is America’s sleeper Tour de France threat, after his solo breakaway was caught in the final kilometer; if he could have held on, he would have started today’s stage in the yellow jersey. As usual, read it on Yahoo if the magazine blocks you. 

Slovenia’s Primož Roglič lost two minutes to the race leaders after a crash forced him to borrow a spectator’s chair to pop his dislocated shoulder back in place.

Roglič’s Jumbo-Visma teammate Jonas Vingegaard had to make up time after getting dropped by the peloton following a disastrous series of bike changes, as he struggled to find one he could actually ride.

https://twitter.com/flobikes/status/1544728920024563713?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1544728920024563713%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fcyclingmagazine.ca%2Fsections%2Fnews%2Fjumbo-vismas-bike-change-was-the-most-hectic-near-disaster-ever%2F

 

Finally…

Use a little magnetic attraction to keep your skirt down on a bike. If you’re carrying drug paraphernalia and stolen credit cards on your bike, put a damn light on it, already.

And forget hi-viz. Apparently even riding naked on a tandem isn’t enough to be seen by drivers.

Or one driver, anyway.

………

Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Caltrans plans PCH bike lanes in Malibu, guilty verdict in DUI killing of LB family, and more on Griffith Park Drive closure

July 6, 2022 / / Comments Off on Caltrans plans PCH bike lanes in Malibu, guilty verdict in DUI killing of LB family, and more on Griffith Park Drive closure

Caltrans is finally taking steps to tame SoCal’s killer highway.

Maybe.

The state transportation agency, which has responsibility for deadly Pacific Coast Highway, announced tentative plans to stripe bike lanes on a 16-mile stretch of PCH, from Malibu Lagoon to the Ventura County Line.

However, according to the Santa Monica Daily Press, Malibu officials complained about what they called vague plans, which could include the removal of over 2,000 roadside parking spaces.

And the state Coastal Commission might have something to say about it, since their rules prohibit the removal of beach access parking, while requiring some form of mitigation.

Never mind that the Malibu mayor’s primary concern seemed to be whether bicyclists would be ticketed for riding in the traffic lanes instead of the bike lane.

So much for the city’s flirtation with accommodating people on bicycles in recent years.

Maybe he should be asking why the state agency insists on having a major highway run through the heart of the coastal city, instead of turning it into a Complete Street Main Street to serve the needs of all residents and road users, rather than primarily benefitting cut-through commuter traffic.

And yes, CVC 21208 requires bicyclists to use the bike lane if they’re riding slower than the speed of traffic.

The plans call for a painted, Class II bike lane, although bike riders called for a buffer zone next to any remaining parking, as well as next to traffic speeding by at — or often above — the 50 to 55 mph speed limit.

Someone also asked why the bike lane was planned for the west side of the city, rather than the east side where it’s needed more.

Good question.

Thanks to Austin Brown for the heads-up.

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This is who we share the road with.

A 23-year old Long Beach man faces up to 45 years behind bars after he was convicted of three counts each of murder and gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated for killing an entire family on Halloween night in 2019.

Carlo Adrian Navarro was just 20 years old when he drunkenly drove onto the sidewalk, striking a mother and father, and their three-year old son, as they were walking home from trick or treating.

He’ll be sentenced in September.

With a little luck he could be out by the time he’s 50.

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As we mentioned yesterday, Los Angeles has closed a roughly one-mile section of Griffith Park Drive in Griffith Park to cars, at least for now.

The pilot closure comes in response to drivers using the park as a cut-through route to avoid freeway traffic, putting bike riders, pedestrians and other park users at risk.

Streetsblog reports it’s part of a multi-phase effort to fast track safety improvements to the park.

SAFE, aka Streets Are For Everyone, the traffic safety organization founded by Finish the Ride’s Damian Kevitt, hosted a ride on Saturday attended by hundreds of bike riders to mark the closure.

Lionel Mares shared his photos from the ride.

SAFE and Finish the Ride Founder Damian Kevitt

LACBC Executive Director Eli Akira Kaufman, Streets For All founder Michael Schneider, and California State Senator Anthony Portantino

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Claremont Cyclist / CLR Effect author Michael Wagner sends us a photo from the July Ride Around Pomona, saying the long line of broken bollards doesn’t instill much confidence in the ability of drivers around the Cal Poly campus.

If your kid goes there, you might want to call just to make sure they’re okay.

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Streetfilms says Emeryville, California mayor John Bauters is the biking mayor your city needs.

Especially if your city is Los Angeles.

Never mind that Bauters sports Peter Flax’s Sharrows Are Bullshit t-shirt.

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British tennis pro Cameron Norrie is one of us.

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Stephen Hallet forwards this context-free photo he ran across recently.

Something tells me there’s a story there. Albeit a painful one.

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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.

No surprise here. Texas officials dramatically undercharged a driver who intentionally drove onto the wrong side of the road, instead of the felony assault with a deadly weapon the crime calls for. 

But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.

A Houston man made his getaway by bicycle after robbing a Burger King with a gun pointed at a worker’s head.

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Local

Metro has begun construction on the Rail to Rail Active Transportation Project, a 5.5-mile shared use path connecting the A (Blue) Line and the upcoming K (Crenshaw/LAX) Line through Inglewood and South Los Angeles.

The Fullerton Observer offers photos from that city’s 4th of July holiday bike parade.

 

State 

There’s a special place in hell for the hit-and-run driver who fled after striking a 13-year-old bike rider in Merced County, leaving the boy hospitalized with minor injuries.

 

National

Accessory maker Knog is introducing a waterproof, Apple-compatible “super loud bike alarm and highly accurate bike finder.”

Road Bike Rider offers advice for long-distance riding with “at least some measure of comfort.”

A Portland man faces multiple charges for a racially biased attack on a bike-riding man and his five-year old daughter, after yelling slurs based on their Japanese ancestry while repeatedly punching the father in the head, as well as punching the little girl in her bike helmet. There’s not a pit deep enough for a jerk like that.

Denver is renewing its ebike rebate program after an initial rush depleted the funds in a matter of days. Meanwhile, California’s ebike rebate program continues to tread water waiting for the people in charge to get their shit together.

Chicago Streetsblog complains that People For Bikes ranks the city well below “car-centric, bicycle-sparse metropolises like Houston and Los Angeles” in their annual ranking of bike-friendly cities.

Gotham gets mini street sweepers to clean the city’s protected bike lanes.

 

International

Alleged killer Kaitlin Armstrong reportedly fled the US using her sister’s passport, and had a receipt for plastic surgery when she was arrested in Costa Rica last week; she faces a first degree murder charge for the fatal shooting of gravel cyclist Moriah “Mo” Wilson.

Apparently, hit-and-run isn’t just an American problem, as drivers have fled in over 1,500 crashes in the last three and a half years in England’s West Midlands, including 28 fatal crashes.

A new Polish study suggests male bike riders should stand on their pedals every ten minutes to avoid genital damage that can lead to erectile disfunction and fertility problems.

Cairo, Egypt is unveiling a 45 dock, 500 bike bikeshare system to fight climate change while providing an alternative to the city’s crushing traffic.

 

Competitive Cycling

Wout van Aert won Tuesday’s stage four of the Tour de France to extend his hold on the yellow jersey; Red Bull profiles the Belgian ‘cross champ as he turns his attention to road cycling.

The annual 2,700-mile Tour Divide is becoming even more extreme, as climate change-driven wildfires, flooding and extreme drought conditions pushed competitors to the edge.

The inaugural Life Time Grand Prix moves on to Beaver, Utah this weekend with the 70-mile, mixed terrain Crusher in the Tushar race, featuring “60 handpicked WorldTour roadies, gravel pros, track world champions and MTB Olympians” competing for a $250,000 purse.

 

Finally…

If you’re going to use an excavator to break into a bike shop, make sure you can get the bikes out past the rubble afterwards.

And who doesn’t need a little monkey-faced Wednesday weirdness?

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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Healthy Streets LA submits signatures, moves forward in city council; and Moriah “Mo” Wilson killer busted in Costa Rica

July 5, 2022 / / One comment

So, did I miss anything last week?

Thankfully, my head and stomach finally returned to their standard state late last week, after doing my best to sleep it off all week. 

Now we’re back, with a lot to catch up on.

And no, that fool photo up there refers to the following story, not me. Although the resemblance is uncanny. 

Photo by 1195798 from Pixabay.

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As a former president famously said, “Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice…won’t get fooled again.”

Let’s hope we don’t.

It was more than a decade ago when a group of LA bicyclists calling themselves the Bike Writers Collective developed the Cyclists Bill of Rights, calling for common sense entitlements for people who ride bikes.

(Full disclosure, I was briefly a member of the group after this Bill of Rights was written.)

Like the right to “travel safely and free from fear”, the “full support of the judicial system,” and the “right to routine accommodations in all roadway projects and improvements.”

It made so much sense, it was provisionally adopted by the Los Angeles City Council in 2008.

Which is apparently what they do when they want to make something go away.

The proposal was sent to the city attorney’s office for review, before being routed to various city agencies and council committees, with an ultimate goal of writing it into city code and including it in the upcoming 2010 bike plan.

And that was the last anyone ever heard of it.

Which should serve as fair warning as the city considers preemptively adopting the Healthy Streets LA ballot proposal.

This past week, Streets For All submitted over 102,000 signatures in support of the proposal, which would require the city to implement the long-forgotten mobility plan whenever a street mentioned in it is resurfaced.

Assuming enough signatures are validated, it would go before city voters, possibly as early as this fall.

But that’s where it gets interesting.

Because before the public has a chance to vote on it, it will go before the city council, who will have the option of adopting it outright.

If they do, it will immediately become law, and require a vote of the public before it can be modified or repealed.

Meanwhile, the city has also voted to move forward with their own version of the plan, based on the Healthy Streets initiative.

The motion, which passed unanimously — although safe streets opponents Paul Koretz and the recently defeated “Roadkill” Gil Cedillo were absent, along with former mayoral candidate Joe Buscaino — sends it back to the city attorney’s office to draft it into an ordinance.

Sound familiar?

The council will have the option of adopting the Healthy Streets plan, their own plan, or approving both. Or neither., for that matter

According to Streetsblog, Streets For All founder Michael Schneider says the best approach would be for the city to adopt them both.

“There are things in the ordinance, good things, that aren’t in the initiative,” explained Schneider after delivering the signatures earlier today. His advice to the Council? “Adopt ours, and then adopt yours as the implementation mechanism.”

The worst option would be for the city to approve a watered down, toothless version of the ordinance that would allow them to back out of implementing the plan whenever a councilmember decides it would be inconvenient to someone — whether motorists, police or the fire department.

Which could be altered or revoked by future council action at any time.

And which is pretty much what we have right now, resulting in less than 3% of the mobility plan being striped, seven years after it was adopted. And just 13 years before it’s supposed to be completely built-out.

Which means, if the city does adopt a weak-ass version, it will be up to the voters to correct their mistake.

So it’s great that the city is moving forward with their own version of the Healthy Streets LA proposal.

But it’s up to us to stay on top of them, and at the same time, keeping moving forward on the ballot initiative, to ensure we don’t get fooled again.

Or as another former president put it, “Trust, but verify.”

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While we were gone, Kaitlin Marie Armstrong was busted in Costa Rica, after 43 days on the run for the May killing of top gravel cyclist Moriah “Mo” Wilson in Austin, Texas.

The 34-year old fugitive was captured at a hostel on Santa Teresa Beach in Provincia de Puntarenas.

Armstrong was reportedly traveling on a borrowed passport under an assumed name. She was returned to the US to face murder charges.

Wilson was repeatedly shot, apparently in a fit of jealousy for the crime of briefly dating Armstrong’s boyfriend, 35-year old cyclist Colin Strickland, and maintaining their friendship.

US Marshalls tracked Armstrong down by following her obsession with yoga classes, despite dying her hair in an effort to hide her identity.

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The LACBC has taken a stand against the recently passed ordinance criminalizing bike chop shops, urging the mayor to veto it.

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Enough said.

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This is how fast a tragedy can happen. And how it can be avoided by a matter of inches, and sheer luck.

https://twitter.com/adamatic521/status/1540765682689658884

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Women cyclists competing in the road race at the US Road Cycling National Championships took a knee to protest the recent overturning of Roe vs Wade.

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This is what it looks like when a whole country bikes instead of driving.

https://twitter.com/annaholligan/status/1542205441069010946

Thanks to Keith Johnson for the link. 

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They get it. A British police department explains why drivers don’t really want people on bikes to ride single file, regardless of what they might think.

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We haven’t had much success getting Hollywood to #biketheOscars.

Maybe we’re just asking the wrong country.

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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.

No bias here. After six-year old boy was knocked down on a San Diego bike path by a pair of kids on ebikes, a surf website says ebikes are “piloted exclusively by the lazy and selfish and/or young and spoiled, (who) fly down bike paths, sidewalks, anywhere pedestrians amble at full speed cloaked in the gauze of “environmentalism.” Um, sure.

No bias here, either. A chain of UK coffee shops says they don’t serve people on bicycles in their drive-throughs because “they’re not road legal, taxed or insured.” 

But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.

A 17-year old English boy faces a dangerous driving charge for fleeing the scene after running down an 80-year old pedestrian with his ebike. Yet another reminder to always slow down and ride safely around pedestrians. And stop if you hit someone, dammit. 

Also in the UK, a 29-year old man faces a charge of “wanton or furious driving while being in charge of a bicycle” for killing a 29-year old woman as she was crossing the street.

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Local

Cars are now officially banned from a roughly one-mile section of Griffith Park Drive in Griffith Park, at least for now. More on that tomorrow.

Once again, bad police training has raised its ugly head, after an LAPD spokesperson tells Spanish speakers it’s illegal to ride a bike on a sidewalk in Los Angeles, even though it’s perfectly legal as long as you respect others on the sidewalk.

A man was in stable condition after he was shot while riding a bicycle in central Long Beach early yesterday morning; police have not identified a suspect or motive.

CicLAvia is back, taking over the streets of South LA this Sunday. Or a street, anyway.

Speaking of Streets For All, the transportation PAC is hosting a another virtual happy hour on July 13th, this time featuring LA County District 1 Supervisor Hilda Solis.

 

State 

Several thousand bike riders turned out for a patriotic bike ride through Huntington Beach, in just the ride’s third year.

A kindhearted Castro Valley man fixes up donated bikes, and gives them to people who can’t afford one.

 

National

He gets it. Former President Barack Obama called on cities to fight sprawl and create “livable density…that allows us to take mass transit and take bicycles.”

Writing for Jalopnik, the co-host of The War on Cars podcast says “ban cars” is an inaccurate and incomplete summary of a complex issue, but he means it anyway.

A writer for Slate calls out Joe Biden’s “misguided” plan to suspend the federal gas tax.

A British man is riding across the US to call attention to testicular cancer, under the hashtag #BikingForBalls. No, really.

The Chicago Police Department has opened an internal investigation after a man claiming to be an off-duty cop was filmed pinning a 14-year old boy to the ground, and accusing him of stealing his son’s bike; the boy’s mother accused the cop of racial bias, saying when the boy simply tried to move it because it was blocking the sidewalk.

Police in the Bronx are looking for a hit-and-run driver in a stolen Jeep who killed a bike rider in a high speed crash, then removed a baby from the back of the Jeep, and made off in another SUV.

The carnage continues on American roads, when a DC driver crashed into a man on a bicycle before slamming into a fireworks stand; both the bike rider and a worker at the stand were killed. The driver apparently lost control due to a medical event.

 

International

Amazon is replacing its London delivery vans with a fleet of mini delivery van-style e-cargo bikes.

A British bicycling website says abuse on the roads keeps many women from riding, who might otherwise take to their bikes. The same story could be written for any American city or state.

Copenhagen’s bicycling chef is combining bikes and cuisine to give customers a ride to remember.

A new German study puts ebikes ahead of electric cars as the most popular and attractive form of electric vehicle.

Horrible news from Kolkata, India, where a 25-year old man was electrocuted when he tried to remove fallen electrical wires that got tangled with his bicycle wheels.

A 57-year old Kiwi man has ridden his bike everywhere for more than 40 years, without ever owning a car.

 

Competitive Cycling

Swiss cyclist Stefan Küng learned the hard way that you’re not supposed to grab another competitor’s helmet, grasping Ruben Guerreiro’s skid lid during Saturday’s stage two of the Tour de France.

Danish rider Magnus Cort was a hero to the hometown crowds during Sunday’s stage three, cementing his hold on the polka dot climber’s jersey with an 81-mile breakaway.

There always seems to be a mass crash during the early stages, and Sunday’s stage three was no exception, with several of the leading contenders losing time they’ll have to make up in the coming weeks.

Dutch pro Annemiek van Vleuten cemented her lead in Italy’s Giro Donne with a win in stage four.

LA-based L39ION of Los Angeles swept the podium for the women’s national crit championship, as Kendall Ryan took a bunch sprint ahead of teammates Skyler Schneider and her own sister, Alexis Ryan; 19-year old Sebastopol CA resident Luke Lamperti successfully defended his title on the men’s side.

Kyle Murphy and Emma Langley won the men’s and women’s road cycling Nats.

Veteran cyclist Alejandro Valverde suffered minor injuries when he and a teammate were struck by a driver while training in Spain on Saturday.

Team Novo Nordisk, the pro team composed entirely of cyclists with type 1 diabetes, is out with a new documentary; you can see it here.

 

Finally…

Chances are, you’ve never ridden a bicycle at 169 mph, with or without a tow. Now you, too, can ride your bike on half a wheel.

And I seriously need this one on my wall.

https://twitter.com/davidguenel/status/1541360691742916608

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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

South Dakota AG impeached over fatal hit-and-run, win a Metro Bike membership, and cam-enforced blocked bike lanes

June 24, 2022 / / 2 comments

The South Dakota state senate convicted Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg on impeachment charges, removing him from office.

And demonstrating to their counterparts in Washington DC that is it is, in fact, possible, despite all appearances to the contrary.

The Army reserve officer had received a slap on the wrist for the hit-and-run death of a pedestrian two years ago, after pleading no contest to making an illegal lane change and using a phone while driving, claiming he thought he had hit a deer.

Never mind that he never stopped to find out.

The senate’s action made it clear they found his story questionable, at best. As did virtually everyone else who heard it.

Couldn’t have happened to a more deserving jerk.

Photo from Ekaterina Bolovtsova on Pexels. Thanks to Nina Moskol for the heads-up.

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Metro is offering a chance to win a free one-year bikeshare membership just for completing their Metro Bike user survey.

There are a few weeks left to take our Annual Metro Bike Share User Survey. This survey is open to everyone and should take less than 15 minutes to complete. All feedback is welcome, even if you haven’t used Metro Bike Share before.

Everyone who completes the survey will be entered in a raffle for a chance to win a 365-Day Metro Bike Share Pass ($150 value) and some sweet Metro Bike Share gear.

Take the survey today! This survey will be accepting responses until June 30, 2022.

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About damn time.

London will start using camera enforcement to ticket drivers who block bike lanes. Now the rest of the world just has to catch up.

Not surprisingly, at least one London tabloid considers it an attack on those poor, beleaguered drivers.

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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.

No shit. A Toronto lawyer and bike advocate says cracking down on bike riders for speeding in a park is a waste of resources. 

But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.

Demonstrating a keen grasp of the obvious, a Portland serial bank robber who made his getaway by bicycle admits what he did was wrong. Gee, you think?

An Oxford, England man was sprayed with what appears to be pepper spray by a bike-riding teenaged boy after an argument on a shared-use path.

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Local

Bicycling talks with Finish the Ride and Streets Are For Everyone founder Damian Kevitt about how a near-fatal hit-and-run motivated him to make Los Angeles a better place for people on bicycles. As usual, read it on Yahoo if the magazine blocks you.

UCLA Bicycle Academy Secretary Dr. Michael Cahn takes the university to task for removing a bike lane during construction of the new Rosenfeld Hall, and replacing it with a dumpster. Which is an apt metaphor if I’ve ever seen one.

The former Biking Black Hole of Beverly Hills continues its ongoing efforts to become more bike friendly, approving plans for bike lanes and sharrows on Doheny Blvd, from Burton Way to Whitworth Dr. Although someone should tell them that sharrows are literally worse than nothing.

Santa Monica-based micromobility startup Veo is expanding the footprint of their sit-down, moped-style scooters into LA’s Westside.

 

State 

Fullerton officials voted to rip out the Walk on Wilshire bike lane, concluding that it was little used, and the removal would improve traffic flow. Although if a bike lane isn’t used, it’s usually a sign it should be improved, not removed.

Oakland approved plans for a long-delayed Complete Streets remake of 14th Street, too late to save the life of a bike-riding father who was killed by a speeding hit-and-run driver in front of his kids.

 

National

Forbes offers their picks for the best bike helmets for every kind of rider, while Engadget recommends what they consider the best bike accessories you can buy.

An architecture website considers how to store your bike in small spaces.

Colorado sheriff’s deputies finally busted the driver who witnesses allege intentionally ran down a pair of women riding bicycles, leaving one woman in a coma.

CNN offers a timeline of the events leading up to and following the shooting of gravel cyclist Moriah “Mo” Wilson, after the car belonging to her alleged killer was found at a Texas car dealership.

They get it. A Milwaukee public radio station says improving street design could help curb reckless driving in the city.

Police in Wisconsin busted a pouting, 62-year old man for the hit-and-run death of a bike-riding man, once again claiming he thought he hit a deer. Which seems to be the universal Get Out of Jail Free card for hit-and-run drivers in northern states.

Life is cheap in Massachusetts, where a driver walked without a single day behind bars for killing a 69-year old man on a bicycle while she was FaceTiming with a friend — but at least she lost her driver’s license for 15 years. Not that losing a license seems to stop anyone from getting behind the wheel anyway, though.

New York is investing $178.8 million for improving active transportation in the state.

New York-based FEND will launch the first folding bike helmet with built-in front and rear lights, after a crowdfunding page raised nearly four times the $20,000 goal.

The mass carnage on the streets continues, as three people in their 60s were seriously injured when a 16-year old driver left-crossed them as they rode in a Florida bike lane, turning her car directly in front of a couple on a tandem and a man on his own bike. Proving once again you can’t spell “carnage” without “car.”

 

International

Bike Radar offers a complete buyers guide to adaptive bicycles.

Hong Kong may move to require helmets for all bike riders, citing an increase in crashes involving bicyclists. Never mind that helmets are designed to protect against slow speed falls, not collisions with cars and their drivers.

 

Competitive Cycling

Italian cycling great Mario Cipollini faces two and a half years behind bars on charges of domestic abuse for stalking and threatening his ex-wife, both before and after their marriage, including breaking her bicycle in half so she couldn’t ride it without him.

Lawson Craddock defended his title in the elite men’s time trial title at USA Cycling Pro Road National Championships, edging 20-year old Magnus Sheffield.

Leah Thomas won the women’s time trial title, beating four-time US time trial champ Amber Neben by a whopping 44 seconds.

A Knoxville, Tennessee news site suggests five cyclists to watch at the national championships this weekend.

 

Finally…

That feeling when your big, clunky plastic bike comes sans chain. Everything Google says you always wanted to know about the Tour de France and weren’t afraid to ask.

And strip down and saddle up for tomorrow’s Los Angeles edition of the World Naked Bike Ride.

………

Thanks to David E for his generous donation to help support this site, and keep SoCal’s best source for bike news coming your way every day. Your generosity, and the support of our sponsors, is what keeps this site going. 

………

Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

Category: Morning Links / Tags: ,

Create true multimodal networks for vibrant cities, Griffith Park Drive closes to cars next week, and ticketing speeding bicyclists

June 23, 2022 / / Comments Off on Create true multimodal networks for vibrant cities, Griffith Park Drive closes to cars next week, and ticketing speeding bicyclists

They get it.

The World Resources Institute says the secret to creating vibrant US cities — and meeting US climate goals — is to invest in true multimodal transportation.

The group calls for a coordinated system of various modes of transportation that work for the entire community.

Transportation emits more climate-warming greenhouse gases than any other sector in the United States, so cutting carbon from transport is also essential to achieving the ambitious goal of reducing emissions 50%-52% by 2030. Recent modeling from America Is All In, a coalition of state and local climate leaders, shows that emissions reductions in the transportation sector can contribute more than one-third of what’s needed to reach the 2030 U.S. climate goal.

The key is to go multi-modal: not just cars, buses, rail, bicycles or walking, but a coordinated system of various modes of transportation. States, tribes, cities, universities and businesses have vital roles to play in developing clean multi-modal transportation systems that work for the entire community while fostering health, safety and economic prosperity.

Photo by Blue Bird from Pexels.

………

About damn time.

Griffith Park Drive will be closed to cars between Travel Town and Mount Hollywood Drive starting next week, part of a pilot program to “reduce cut-through traffic and improve safety for pedestrians, cyclists and wildlife.”

Now do the rest of the streets in Griffith Park. Because parks are for people, not cars.

………

Bicycling questions whether bicyclists should be subject to speeding tickets in Toronto’s High Park, where police are using speed guns to enforce a 13 mph speed limit. Unfortunately, this one doesn’t seem to be available on Yahoo, so you’re on your own if the magazine blocks you.

I’ve long questioned whether speed limits, like the 8 mph limit on the boardwalk in Hermosa Beach, are enforceable for people on bicycles without cycling computers or other forms of speedometers.

After all, how can you be punished for breaking a law if you have no viable way of knowing you’re breaking it?

………

The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.

Even a deaf cat knows ice cream trucks don’t belong in the bike lanes on London’s Westminster Bridge.

A Scottish national time trial champ said she wanted to quit the sport after men on motorcycles leered at her and tried to knock her off her bike on two separate occasions. Seriously, guys. Give that Neanderthal crap a rest.

But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.

A Jamaican truck driver refused to stop after a man rolled a bicycle into his path, in what may have been a robbery attempt.

A man in Donnybrook, Ireland was the victim of a real donnybrook when he was severely beaten by a man riding on a bike path, after reflexively putting out an elbow to protect himself from the distracted rider.

………

Local

Streetsblog reports the long-promised bike lanes on the North Spring Street Bridge connecting Lincoln Heights and Chinatown should finally be striped in the coming months, after nearby street resurfacing is finished.

A woman and her dogs were killed by lightening while walking on the San Gabriel River bike trail in Pico Rivera yesterday. A tragic reminder to always seek shelter anytime you see lightening or hear thunder, and get away from your bike if it has a metal frame.

 

State 

The head of Caltrans District 7, which covers Los Angeles and Ventura counties, got a promotion to become the new leader of the state transportation agency.

Encinitas opened the newest segment of the North Coast Bike Trail, offering bike riders and pedestrians a view of the San Elijo Lagoon from a giant concrete jellyfish.

A UC Santa Barbara geography professor is crowdsourcing data for Bike Maps to identify the city’s best bike routes and worst hot spots.

The co-owners of Emeryville-based Clif Bar are now billionaires, after walking away from a $120 million buyout offer 22 years ago.

A Chico man faces seven years to life behind bars after pleading guilty to the random, senseless shooting of a man riding on a bike path two years ago, when he was just 17.

 

National

No, The Atlantic didn’t call Biden’s bike crash heroic.

Bike Hacks helps you plan what to bring on an overnight bikepacking trip. I’d add bug spray to that list. And a bike.

A Seattle man was been charged with assault and theft for stealing someone’s bicycle in a strong-arm robbery and illegally riding it onto a freeway; that came after he shattered a bus door when the driver wouldn’t let him on at an intersection.

My former home state of Colorado has the second-highest rate of bike commuters in the US, behind only Oregon, although it’s still a relatively paltry 1.1%.

Speaking of Colorado, the state held its Bike to Work Day yesterday, although most of the news stories are hidden behind paywalls; here’s one from Colorado Springs that isn’t. However, the day was marred when a bike rider was killed when he was run down by a pickup driver.

A 60-something Black stroke survivor is riding from Maine to Florida to call attention to stroke awareness, as well as her nonprofit Heels on Wheels; she’s already completed rides from Florida to California, and down the West Coast.

Local readers crowdsource the best places to ride a bike in Massachusetts.

A group of MIT students are riding across the US to conduct STEM workshops — science, technology, engineering and math — for students along the way.

A Pennsylvania driver faces DUI and drug charges for running down a woman on a bicycle while attempting to pass another car on the right.

 

International

Cycling News offers a guide to selling your old bike, while Road.cc goes deep on how to choose a bike helmet.

They get it, too. Toronto’s Globe and Mail calls for Vision Zero to end the 2,000 traffic deaths in the country each year, saying road deaths are never really accidents.

An 83-year old English man says he’s lucky to be alive after falling down a set of steps while attempting to walk his bike down a steep hill while wearing cycling cleats; the stairs were installed as an alternative for people unable, or unwilling, to ride the steep descent.

Credit British acting legend Dame Judy Dench with providing a full 10% — the equivalent of $2,334 — of the $24,333 goal for a man riding his bike across the US to raise funds to fight MS.

Life is cheap in the UK, where a driver high on ecstasy and coke got three years for killing a man riding a bicycle; he was five times over the legal limit for ecstasy and six times the limit for cocaine. Which bizarrely means there’s actually a legal amount of illegal drugs you can have in your system.

Police in Dubai have seized 400 bicycles and mopeds in a crackdown on scofflaw riders.

A Sydney, Australia paper says bike riders and pedestrians want separate trails, not shared paths.

 

Competitive Cycling

VeloNews offers a preview of today’s men’s and women’s elite time trials at the US Professional Road National Championships.

Nineteen-year old Luke Lamperti wants to prove last year’s US crit title was no fluke, setting his sights on the national road race championship to improve his chances of making the World Tour next year.

 

Finally…

That feeling when Strava reveals the location of secret military installations. Or when you get a settlement for getting busted for twerking in a bike lane.

And something tells me there’s a story here.

………

Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Worrying about what we don’t know, Los Angeles earns modest rank in bike city ratings, and LA bans bike chop shops

June 22, 2022 / / One comment

This is what keeps me up at night.

As bad as things are on our streets, I worry about the crashes we don’t hear about, wondering how many bike riders are seriously injured, or worse, without ever making the news.

And just how many more victims there are that we may never know about.

That this fatal crash from March, which only now made the news in the foreign press.

According to a Belizean website, 49-year old Sgt. Brian Martinez, a native of the country living in Los Angeles, was killed while training for a Holy Saturday bicycling classic; a lawyer’s website puts the location of the crash in Carson.

The story only came to light when his mother donated bike gear belonging to the 20-year US Army vet to the country’s cycling federation.

I’ll try to write about it later today.

This isn’t the only case like this, though. I’ve heard of at least three other bicycling fatalities that I haven’t been able to document already this year.

Like the woman who was injured when a driver in a street takeover slammed into her bike; a recent news story mentioned her death in passing, but didn’t give any information. And without her name or date of birth, it’s almost impossible to verify her death with the coroner’s nearly useless website.

So I continue to dread stories like this, where we find out about it long after the fact. And worry even more about the ones we may never hear about.

While wondering if our roads are even more dangerous than we think.

Photo by Ted McDonald from Pixabay.

………

People For Bikes unveiled their latest ranking of North American cities, bikeable and otherwise, topped by Provincetown, Massachusetts; Davis, California; and Fayette, Missouri.

Los Angeles scored a modest 31 city rating, placing it 313th out of 1105 cities.

Which sounds about right for a city that has failed to build out it’s bike plan, let alone fund Vision Zero or the transportation segment of mayor’s Green New Deal.

Non-Angelenos can look up your city here.

………

As expected, Los Angeles has banned bike chop shops, at least in theory, after the city council voted for an ordinance to prohibit working on bicycles on public property.

According to KNBC-4,

The ordinance is modeled after one already in effect in Long Beach to prohibit the assembly, disassembly, sale, offer of sale, distribution of bicycles and bicycle parts on public property or within the public right-of- way.

It includes a provision allowing people to repair their own bikes to make them ready to ride, although people have questioned whether that provision offers strong enough protections for everyday riders.

The new law is designed to target the open air bicycle chop shops that have sprouted up around the city, usually in conjunction with homeless camps.

Police have complained that there’s little they could do to target them, since most stolen bikes are never reported to the police, and the value of the bikes seldom reach the $950 threshold for felony theft. Even if they happen to catch them before the bikes are dismantled and sold for parts.

This law gives police a tool to go after them, although it also offers a high potential for abuse.

Whether it actually ends up reducing bike theft, or just leads to harassment of people living on the streets remains to be seen.

………

Must be nice.

Qualified Contra Costa County residents can get rebates up to $500 on a new ebike.

………

The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.

The Colorado driver accused of intentionally running down a pair of bike riders remains at large, three days after fleeing the scene and abandoning his truck, leaving one woman with life-threatening injuries.

But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.

English police are looking for a hit-and-run bike rider who “rammed into” another man riding his bike, sending the victim over his handlebars.

………

Local

West Hollywood dockless e-scooter provider Wheels has sold itself to New York-based micromobility firm Helbiz for an undisclosed sum.

Construction work has begun on Pasadena’s Union Street Cycle Track Project, a 1.5 mile, two-way curb-protected bike lane on Union Street from Hill Ave to Arroyo Parkway.

The owners of Velo Pasadena hosted a fundraising ride last weekend, raising over $10,000 to support a pair of Armenian Paralympic cyclists competing in July’s European Youth Summer Olympic Festival in Slovakia.

Santa Clarita is looking for volunteers to help maintain tracks at the city’s Trek Bike Park.

LA Taco goes biking for street food in Long Beach.

 

State 

Calbike shares an open letter from a coalition of 20 bike advocacy organizations opposing AB 371, which could kill bikeshare and e-scooters in California by requiring providers to carry liability insurance for all their devices and users.

A pair of Idaho women were seriously injured riding rented ebikes on a Balboa Island nature trail, with neither one having any idea what happened; a crowdfunding page to help pay their medical bills has raised more than double the modest $2,000 goal.

 

National

No surprise here. American drivers crashed into buildings an average of 100 times per day, every day. Most of which seem to happen right here in the LA area.

Best Reviews considers the top options for indoor bike storage, while Cycling News rates the best bike trailers to bring your kids with you on your rides.

An editor for Bicycling rides his first gravel grinder, and leaves hungry for more. As usual, read it on Yahoo if the magazine blocks you.

Bike Snob’s Eben Weiss says Hollywood once again got bicycling wrong, in its first foray into celluloid gravel biking.

That’s more like it. A new camper van from a Portland company comes complete with its own bicycle repair shop and room for six bicycles.

Low-end ebike prices continue to fall, with Washington-based bikemaker Gen3 discounting their existing stock to $899.

A Chicago alderman wants to add signage and step up towing of drivers stopped in bike lanes. Or just let bike riders submit photos of drivers blocking bike lanes, and mail out fines. Big fines.

This is why people continue to die on our streets. The taxi that crashed into a bike rider before careening into a group of pedestrians on a New York sidewalk, sending six people to the hospital, had 18 moving violations in just the last 18 months, although it’s unknown if the same driver was behind the wheel for all of them.

Once again, authorities are struggling to identify a fallen bicyclist, this time in Harrisburg PA, where a woman was killed when she was cut off by a driver making a U-turn, while riding without identification. Seriously, never ride without some form of ID, even if that means writing your effing name and contact info on your ass with a Sharpie.

Once again, Florida is the deadliest state for bicyclists in the US, topping California despite having roughly half the population.

 

International

Unbelievable. Canadian mounties blame the victim in a right hook collision, ruling that a bike rider’s speed was the cause of a crash with a water truck, not the fact that the truck driver turned across the multi-use path he was riding on.

Toronto police are cracking down on bike riders ignoring the speed limit in a city park, although they’re just issuing warnings for now.

Brussels bikeshare service Billy Bikes has gone belly up, blaming the pandemic for a slowdown that forced it into receivership. Which means you, too, could be the proud owner of a turnkey European bikeshare system.

Your next German ebike could be made entirely from recyclable plastic, right down to the one-piece wheels.

 

Competitive Cycling

Cycling Weekly looks forward to this week’s US road cycling nationals in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Dutch national road champ Amy Pieters continues her painfully slow recovery from a near-fatal traumatic brain injury while training with the Dutch national team just before Christmas; Pieters can now communicate nonverbally, but is still unable to move her right arm and leg.

Irish cyclist Stephen Clancy is out to show he can still compete, riding for the all-diabetic Team Novo Nordisk ten years after being diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes.

A new documentary is in the works about 1890s Black cycling legend Major Taylor, assuming the director can raise $1 million to fund the film; so far, he’s just $989,440 short.

 

Finally…

Your new Colnago could match your shoes, if you happen to wear Tod’s and have an extra 18 grand lying around. And that feeling when you pat yourself on the back for blocking an annual bike ride.

………

Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

Category: Morning Links / Tags: ,

Updating traffic violence news, Healthy Streets LA turns in 120,000 signatures, and OC applies for bikeway grant

June 21, 2022 / / Comments Off on Updating traffic violence news, Healthy Streets LA turns in 120,000 signatures, and OC applies for bikeway grant

Happy first day of summer! And belated Juneteenth and Father’s Day greetings! 

Maybe one of these days I’ll actually catch up to the calendar. 

………

Let’s start by updating a pair of tragedies we mentioned yesterday.

First is an Illinois county judge who was killed when he was rear-ended by a 73-year old driver. Today brought news that he had been riding with his wife on a roadway rated by the state as unfriendly for bikes, yet which was inexplicably recommended by Google Maps; he was also a board member for a statewide bike advocacy group.

We had also mentioned that a Buffalo, NY woman was killed when a driver plowed into a group of three bike-riding women; today we learned the victim was popular singer-songwriter in the area. Police believe the crash occurred when the driver suffered some sort of medical emergency.

………

This is just a fraction of the 120,000 signatures they’re ready to turn in for the Healthy Streets LA ballot proposition.

Don’t forget tomorrow’s 2:15 pm special public meeting of the LA City Council’s Public Works and Transportation Committees to discuss a proposal to adopt the wording of the ballot proposition before it goes to a public vote this November.

………

This could be a big plus for OC bike riders.

https://twitter.com/mikeocbike/status/1539032871440027648

………

The estimable Will Campbell struck out in an effort to bike to the new Sandy Koufax statue at Dodger Stadium.

https://twitter.com/wildbell/status/1539032190868000768

………

Lionel Mares forwards photos from Saturday’s ride along the LA River with LACBC and California Sate Senator Maria Elena Durazo and LACBC Executive Director Eli Akira Kaufman.

Speaking of the LACBC, any donations to the bike advocacy group will be matched dollar for dollar by Warner Bros. Discovery for the next month, up to a total of $25,000.

………

An inspiring new video demonstrates how an adaptive athlete helped Jackson Hole, Wyoming’s “deepest, darkest” mountain bike trail welcome adaptive bike riders.

………

The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.

Denver area sheriff’s deputies are looking for a man with a long criminal record who allegedly swerved his pickup onto the shoulder of a highway to attack a group of bicyclists Sunday morning, critically injuring one woman; deputies found his abandoned truck that night, after he had stopped briefly to dislodge a bicycle stuck underneath it.

………

Local

Former LACBC board member and Laemmle Theaters owner Greg Laemmle is hosting his popular Tour de Laemmle this Sunday, welcoming anyone who wants to join him in riding to the recently sold Laemmle Playhouse 7 one last time.

The star of the documentary Q Ball was released from prison after 24 long years; he had been sentenced to life behind bars for his third strike conviction after Long Beach police found him in possession of a gun when they stopped him for riding his bike without a light. Otherwise known as a pretext stop, giving cops an excuse to stop and search someone.

 

State 

Food giant Mondelēz International got the munchies, and gobbled up Emeryville-based maker of Clif Bars for a whopping $2.9 billion. Yes, that’s billions with a B.

 

National

File this one under bad ideas. President Biden is considering a temporary pause in the already too low federal gas tax, which hasn’t been raised in 29 years. There are better ways to address the pain of high gas taxes than cutting funds that support transportation spending. Like tax rebates funded by a windfall profits tax on oil companies.

No, that wasn’t former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki making fun of Donald Trump after Biden fell off his bike.

Bike Hacks offers tips on how to feel safe and confident on the road while riding at night.

A Portland man has filed suit against the city, alleging he was injured by a flashbang grenade and beaten by police during the 2020 racial justice protests, and unable to reclaim his bicycle after it was seized by officers.

A new entry-level, retro-style cruiser ebike from Seattle bikemaker E-Velo is specifically designed for riders under 5’10” tall. Although I would hardly call $3,500 “entry-level.”

Pittsburgh has installed the city’s first advisory bike lane, which channels drivers into a shared center lane, while allowing them to briefly move into the bike and pedestrian lanes on either side — just like the one that was unceremoniously ripped out in San Diego.

This is who we share the road with. Six people were injured, three critically, when a New York cabbie hit a bike rider after rounding a corner, then jumped the curb, slamming into several pedestrians and pinning two women against a wall; once again, police suspect the driver may have suffered some sort of medical episode.

Police in Tupelo, Mississippi struggled to identify a man who was killed in a hit-and-run while riding his bike Friday, before members of the public came up with his name several hours later. One more reminder to always carry ID with you when you ride — preferably something that won’t get stolen if you’re incapacitated.

 

International

A new Colombian law named for a 13-year old victim of traffic violence killed riding his bike commits the country to improving traffic safety through the safe systems approach, while reducing speed limits and adopting UN regulations for vehicle standards and licensing.

Canadian musician DJ JaBig is entering the final leg of a 10,000-mile ride through the US to raise funds for World Bicycle Relief; he’s less than $1,000 short of his $16,500 goal.

Bath, England decides to trade up, replacing two golf courses with a new bike park.

Angry bike riders complain about ice cream trucks illegally parked in the protected bike lanes on London’s Westminster Bridge.

Israeli approved plans to crack down on bike and e-scooter riders for crimes like riding distracted and not wearing a helmet.

 

Competitive Cycling

Cycling Weekly talks with Alexey Vermeulen, who bailed on a brief road cycling career to earn six figures as a gravel privateer.

Win a bike race, celebrate with a dip in the pool in full kit.

And avoid that awkward sprint to the finish with a spirited round of Rochambeau.

https://twitter.com/eurosport/status/1538145608309084160?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1538145608309084160%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cyclingweekly.com%2Fnews%2Ftweets-of-the-week-rock-paper-scissors-at-a-bike-race-the-other-geraint-thomas-and-quinten-hermans-makes-a-splash

 

Finally…

Why wait for bikes to hit the road when you can run them down in the shop? That feeling when a stray bike wheel shuts down the entire subway.

And once again, a bike rider is a hero. If only to our feathered friends.

But wait, there’s more!

Thanks to TEOTWAWKI, aka TRutt, for the heads-up.

………

Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

BOLO alert for hit-and-run driver, council committee meeting considers Healthy Streets LA, and Biden takes a fall

June 20, 2022 / / One comment

Be on the lookout for a hit-and-run driver who left a bike-riding man with serious injuries last week.

According to the LAPD, the victim was struck by the driver of a 2006 burgundy Toyota Highlander around noon Wednesday, at the at the intersection of Olympic Boulevard and Mateo Street in DTLA.

The driver was described as a Hispanic male in his early 20s.

There is a standing $25,000 reward for any hit-and-run resulting in serious injuries in the City of Los Angeles.

Anyone with information is urged to call Detective Juan Campos, Central Traffic Detectives, at 213/833-3713, or email 31480@lapd.online.

………

Mark your calendar for this Wednesday, when a joint session of the Los Angeles City Council’s Public Works and Transportation Committees will consider advancing Council President Nury Martinez’s motion to adopt the principles of the Healthy Streets LA ballot proposal.

The proposal calls for building out the previously approved Mobility Plan 2035 whenever a street in the plan gets resurfaced; the city has currently built out just 3% of the plan in the seven years since it was adopted.

At that rate, they should call it Mobility Plan 2268, since that’s how long it would take the city to finish it.

If they actually did.

This proposal probably won’t have the teeth of the ballot proposal, which would require the city to carry it out.

But it’s still a big step forward, and would serve as a strong backup if the ballot measure fails at the ballot box this fall.

………

President Joe Biden took a tumble off his bike Saturday when his foot got caught in a toe clip — something that’s happened to virtually anyone who has ever used them.

Fortunately, nothing but his pride was injured, although social media had a field day with it.

Surprisingly, even former President Donald Trump expressed his concern, while repeating his vow to never ride a bicycle.

Although the second part of that should surprise exactly no one.

Thanks to Megan Lynch for the heads-up.

………

Robert Leone forwards word that Camp Pendleton will be doing construction work affecting the bike path through the base.

1. From 22 June to 8 July, there will be constructions on Vandegrift near the intersection of Stuart Mesa Rd/Ash St.  This construction will impact the bike path due to lane closure so cyclists need to be extra careful and maintain single file, per Base requirement.

2. From 9 July to 22 July, Vandengrift Rd west of the Stuart Mesa/Ash St intersection will be closed to inbound and outbound traffic 24/7 and that forces us to close the bike path from the Main gate to the Las Pulgas gate.

………

Evidently, he did more than just play Auld Lang Syne every New Years.

………

Once again, bike riders are heroes. A group of Forth Worth bicyclists paused in the middle of their weekly ride to rescue a dog who had been abandoned on a bridge support.

………

This may be the best, if not strangest, 11 minutes of your day.

I mean, after all, who wouldn’t fall for someone with a flying bicycle?

Thanks to Steven Hallett for the link.

………

If you’re going to use an axel grinder to steal a bicycle in broad daylight, maybe make sure it doesn’t belong to a British Member of Parliament first.

https://twitter.com/helenhayes_/status/1537331125776941059

………

This is who we share the schoolyard with.

………

We may have to deal with aggressive SoCal drivers, but at least we don’t have to worry about leopard attacks.

………

The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.

No bias here. San Diego’s CBS8 continues their steady drumbeat of negative stories about the city’s new bike lanes, this time citing confusion over the reverse angled parking protecting bike lanes on Park Blvd in University Heights.

British drivers are up in arms over bicyclists with helmet and bike cams capturing their bad driving and reporting them to the police. Or maybe it’s just the British tabloids trying to stir up trouble to sell more papers.

Meanwhile, a London columnist says blame bicyclists for “stoking the flames of the road culture war” with their bike cams. Evidently, because drivers don’t like to get caught breaking the law, let alone held accountable for it.

But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.

A Fairfield, California ex-con was arrested after using bear spray on a cop who tried to stop him; police found a nail gun converted to fire .22 caliber bullets in his backpack.

………

Local

An adjunct professor from Pacific Oaks College makes the case for the Arroyo Link, which would be the city’s first protected bike and pedestrian path, connecting Old Town Pasadena with the Arroyo Seco.

A West Hollywood man found healing on his first AIDS/LifeCycle ride following the death of his twin brother from the disease.

 

State 

Unbelievable. San Diego continues to destroy bicycles as part of their homeless camp cleanups. Never mind that they might need them for transportation, or that the bikes might actually belong to someone else.

A 27-year old former UCLA soccer player is riding a bike again thanks to San Diego’s Blind Stoker’s Club, after a stage 3 malignant brain melanoma left him blind, and with cognitive, memory and speech issues.

Sad news from Oakland, where a 42-year old father was killed by a hit-and-run driver while riding bikes with his two young sons, who were uninjured; the city received funding for a protected bike lane on the street six years ago, but never moved forward with it.

 

National

The National Transportation Safety Board, aka NTSB, examines how Helsinki, Finland achieved zero pedestrian deaths — along with Hoboken, New Jersey. Apparently, something that can only be achieved by cities starting with H.

Outside says plan to spend around $100 to $160 on your next mountain bike helmet.

Sad news from Illinois, where a Schuyler County judge was killed when his bike was rear-ended by a 73-year old driver in a bigass pickup.

A 32-year old Detroit man remains missing, three years after he disappeared while riding his bike.

Hundreds of Boston women are learning to ride bikes, as the city builds more protected bike lanes.

Yet another motoring mass casualty event, when a driver in Buffalo, New York plowed into a group of three women riding bicycles, killing one and seriously injuring the other two; the driver kept going until she crashed into a pair of parked cars.

Actress Julia Fox is one of us, riding an ebike in her revealing red carpet outfit to get to a friend’s screening at the Tribeca Film Festival.

A 34-year old Florida woman faces charges for killing a man riding bikes with his father outside Key West while she was high on meth.

 

International

Bike Radar offers a buyer’s guide to balance bikes for discerning toddlers.

More bad news, this time from Mexico City, where a 22-year old Mormon missionary was killed when he crashed his bike falling on a steep, slippery hill.

A new $1,200 British ebike conversion kit uses a disc brake rotor to power your bike.

Life is cheap in the UK, where a woman received just 15 months behind bars for killing a bike rider while illegally using her cellphone.

A shortage of nighttime taxis has led to a 41% increase in drunk bicycling in Seoul, Korea, as people turn to the city’s bikeshare system instead.

 

Competitive Cycling

VeloNews anoints 20-year old Brit Leo Hayter the next big thing, following his win at the Giro d’Italia Giovani Under 23, otherwise known as the Baby Giro. Raise your hand if you even knew that was a thing.

Fears rise that Covid could put this year’s Tour de France at risk after the disease tore through the peloton at the Tour de Suisse, causing around 30 riders to abandon the race.

Cycling Weekly looks at the early adopters who are carving out a career in gravel racing.

Pro cyclist Colin Strickland says he’s shellshocked to find himself in the middle of a fatal love triangle, as police allege his girlfriend, Kaitlin Armstrong, killed gravel cyclist Moriah “Mo” Wilson in a fit of jealousy.

 

Finally…

Who needs pedals when you have a drone to power your bike? Your next ebike could transform into a kick scooter, as long as you’re willing to do without pedals.

And let’s see you do this while pedaling.

………

Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Possible closure of Griffith Park Drive, more on bike chop shop ban, and fallen AIDS/LifeCycle rider remembered

June 17, 2022 / / Comments Off on Possible closure of Griffith Park Drive, more on bike chop shop ban, and fallen AIDS/LifeCycle rider remembered

My apologies for another unexcused absence yesterday.

I’m still battling debilitating bouts of dizziness and brain fog, which my doctors insist is a form of neurological migraines. But which haven’t responded to medication or drastic changes in diet.

Which makes me think maybe they missed the mark this time.

Most days I can struggle through it. But others, like yesterday, it knocks me on my ass.

Photo by Athena from Pexels.

………

There may be hope for Griffith Park yet.

Sam forwards a Reddit post about a planned closure of Griffith Park Drive from Travel Town to Mt. Hollywood Drive.

While it’s shorter than the original proposal, this is a huge step forward in removing cars from the park, and reducing the kind of cut-through traffic that resulted in the April death of Andrew Jelmert on Crystal Springs Drive.

Parks should be for people. Not an alternative to driving the freeway.

EMAIL SUPPORT for Griffith Park pilot project program Road Closure from Travel Town to backside of Mt Hollywood Dr!!!!!
byu/onlyfreckles inBikeLA

………

Streetsblog’s Sahra Suliaman calls the new LA ordinance banning bike chop shops a remnant of outgoing CD15 Councilmember Joe Bucaino’s failed “broken sidewalks” campaign for mayor.

The proposal, which passed by an 11 to 3 vote, must go back to the council next week after failing to receive a unanimous vote for approval in its first reading. A second vote only needs a majority vote for approval, virtually guaranteeing its passage.

Meanwhile, Bike Portland’s Jonathan Maus points out that “laws enforced by police against vulnerable people have a way of being abused and unfairly implemented.”

………

The hometown newspaper of fallen bicyclist Glen Brown remembers the AIDS/LifeCycle rider who was killed in a solo bike crash just blocks from the Los Angeles finish this past weekend.

The 57-year old Illinois man was on his third ride to raise funds and awareness to fight HIV/AIDS, after riding from Minneapolis to Chicago and Boston to New York.

………

Let’s talk bike helmets.

Discover looks at the science behind bicycle helmets protecting bicyclists, pointing out the benefits of helmets, as well as the limited protection they offer at speeds above 20 mph. And how mandatory helmet laws can have a contradictory effect by reducing ridership.

Meanwhile, a new study from the UK shows that only one-in-five competitive cyclists are aware of the limited protection offered by bike helmets, including the fact that most helmets don’t protect against concussions.

And Lime has opened a popup Helmet Hair Salon in London, to address the one-in-five bike and scooter riders who won’t wear a helmet because they don’t want helmet hair.

………

Active SGV is asking for your support for the Arroyo Link to connect Pasadena to the Arroyo Seco.

………

Megan Lynch forwards a tweet expressing the frustration many UC Davis students feel, after the inherent conflict of interest when a 19-year old student was killed by a truck owned by the university, in a crash investigated by the campus police.

https://twitter.com/plgepts/status/1537635937290575872

………

The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.

A 77-year old British driver whines that he passed with plenty of room, after he was fined the equivalent of over $2,200 when his illegally close pass was caught on a bike cam and sent to the cops. Which we really should be able to do here in the US, but can’t. 

But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.

For once, a freeway traffic tie-up really was the fault of someone on a bicycle. A Seattle man was arrested after stealing a bicycle in a strong arm robbery, then riding it onto an Interstate highway and fighting with the cops when they tried to stop him.

Former New York Rangers star Sean Avery walked with time served for using his e-scooter to bash the door of a car blocking a bike lane, after arguing with the driver. We all know the feeling, but violence is never the answer, as tempting as it may be.

A Nottingham, England man faces charges after threatening to shoot a pawnbroker in the head after the shop refused to take his bicycle because they didn’t have room for it, then smashed a window on his way out.

………

Local

The new $588 million Sixth Street Viaduct will finally open next month, three years late and $100 million over budget; the July 9th opening will be limited to pedestrians, with the following day open to bike riders and pedestrians, before the bridge opens to motor vehicles on July 11th.

Metro is pushing to use the upcoming ’28 Los Angeles Olympics as a catalyst to request federal funding for additional transportation projects, including new bike paths and bikeshare stations.

Speaking of Metro, the agency lists both online and in-person bike classes for the remainder of the month, as well as a handful of community bike rides — starting with tonight’s ride from Africatown in Leimert Park to Biddy Mason Park.

 

State 

A 55-year old Encinitas man continues to ride his bike hundreds of miles each month, despite suffering from stage four pancreatic cancer for the past eight years.

Police in McKinleyville are looking for the heartless hit-and-run van driver who ran a red light and hit a man on his bike, then got out of her vehicle to look at him lying on the ground before getting back in and driving away.

 

National

A Next City op-ed says it’s time to let Black and Brown people take the lead on reducing traffic deaths, since they’re at the greatest risk.

Bicycling examines the current state of the manhunt for Kaitlin Armstrong, the accused killer of gravel cyclist Moriah “Mo” Wilson, including new clues to her whereabouts. Unfortunately, this one doesn’t appear to be available on Yahoo, so you’re on your own if the magazine blocks you.

Planetopedia examines the concept of Tactical Urbanism.

Stranger Things star Matthew Modine is set to star in a new movie about a cycling team for at-risk youth.

Summer is almost here, and Momentum wants to tell you how to plan a bike picnic in just 15 minutes.

CNN takes a look at how competitive mountain bikers keep their cool while blazing across inches of trail on the edge of steep mountain sides.

An Arizona man discusses learning how to function again after losing his leg when a tow truck driver plowed into a group of bike riders last year, killing one woman and sending four riders to the ER.

Yes, please. Austin Texas is now offering a bike lane bounty for anyone who reports a driver blocking a bike lane; the person who turns them in gets 25% of the ticket revenue. You could make enough to retire if we had that here in LA.

Heartbreaking news from Chicago, where an 11-year old boy was killed by a hit-and-run driver while riding his bike, the third child killed by traffic violence in the city in just two weeks.

Tom Vanderbilt takes a bike tour through New York’s Hudson Valley, discovering a rich countryside and “farm to glass” whiskey.

A North Carolina postal worker faces charges for killing a 62-year old man riding his bike on the sidewalk, after exiting a parking lot in his mail truck without yielding to the bike rider.

 

International

Forbes examines the World Naked Bike Ride, which protests “the indecent exposure of people and the planet to cars and the pollution they create.”

Charges were dropped against a Windsor, Ontario driver accused of the drunken, hit-and-run death of a man riding a bicycle after she was found dead; no word on the cause of death.

Life is cheap in the UK, where a speeding British motorcyclist was sentenced to just 20 months behind bars for killing a man riding a bike, while riding at more than double the 30 mph speed limit.

A German website asks if bicyclists and drivers will ever learn to live with each other, or continue to remain in a constant state of road rage.

Interesting idea. A new Japanese cargo bike prototype offers a compact, three-wheeled, double-decker design.

 

Competitive Cycling

EF Education has just two riders remaining in the Tour de Suiss, after four team members were forced to abandon after catching Covid. Which serves as yet another reminder that the disease hasn’t gone anywhere, as much as we might wish it was over.

Cycling’s governing body tightened the rules for transgender cyclists, raising the transition period on low testosterone to two years, while reducing the maximum level of testosterone

A 25-year old Wyoming man competing in the Tour Divide was forced to abandon when he wrecked his bike in Glacier National Park, then got lost trying to make his way back, and was trapped by flood waters.

 

Finally…

That feeling when the “more affordable” bike from a pair of retired cycling stars goes for a mere $5,990. Or when you find a Penny Farthing just hanging on the wall.

And when a naked bike ride photobombs your wedding pictures.

………

Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , ,

LA approves ban on bike chop shops, and environmental groups pull support for awful Geary-designed LA River plan

June 15, 2022 / / Comments Off on LA approves ban on bike chop shops, and environmental groups pull support for awful Geary-designed LA River plan

As expected, the Los Angeles City Council passed an ordinance to ban open air bike chop shops on public property.

The ordinance is intended to give police a tool to address the proliferation of chop shops dealing in stolen bicycles, often found in homeless encampments throughout the city.

Here’s how CD15 Councilmember Joe Buscaino described the ordinance.

He said the new law, which is modeled after a similar one in the city of Long Beach, would target people in possession of five or more bicycle parts, a bicycle frame with the gear cables or brake cables cut, two or more bicycles with missing parts, or three or more bicycles on public property.

It also is written to specifically exclude people with a valid business license, as well as someone fixing their own bicycle.

While bike theft and receiving stolen merchandise are already illegal, LAPD officers tell me it can be difficult to make a case, since most bikes are never reported stolen, and it’s almost impossible to identify a bicycle once it’s been dismantled.

Even if they can make a case, it’s usually just a misdemeanor, since it’s hard to prove the value of the stolen bikes are more than the $950 value for grand theft. Which means the suspects are usually back on the street doing business again within days.

Whether this will be successful in preventing bike thefts, or simply becomes a tool for harassing and criminalizing homeless people, remains to be seen.

………

Environmental groups have pulled their support of the proposed LA River master plan, accusing officials of ignoring their recommendations for the awful Frank Geary designed plan.

His designs would simply hide the river’s concrete channels under elevated parks, rather than return it to a more natural state.

Hopefully, it will never get built, even if it is approved.

But it will inevitably get tied up in court, and delay any real action on improving the river for years, if not decades.

………

Local

He gets it. In an interview at LAX, Hanging with Mr. Cooper star Mark Curry says stop complaining about high gas prices and start riding a bike.

Active SGV led a toxic tour of Avocado Heights and City of Industry sites threatened by pollution, culminating with a stop at lead battery recycling plant Ecobat.

Long Beach plans to move forward with highway interchange improvement projects that would have been part of the now-cancelled 710 Freeway widening, including some protected bike lanes.

Lime is planning to test a new electric motor scooter with a top speed of 20 mph in Long Beach, deploying several hundred of the bikes in the city.

 

State 

Bills are starting to move forward in the state legislature again after it passed a budget framework, including one that would provide CEQA exemptions for sustainable transportation projects.

Yes, please. A San Francisco city supervisor wants to start holding public town halls after every traffic fatality. Although that might be just a tad impractical in Los Angeles.

 

National

Slate says traffic safety ads may be good at making puns, but they don’t change driver behavior to improve safety.

Colorado is preparing a $12 million statewide ebike rebate program, in the wake of Denver’s highly successful one. Meanwhile, California’s $10 million ebike rebate program remains in limbo, with no estimated start date.

A group of military vets are planning a 1,900 mile, 41 day ride to recreate the legendary ride of the Buffalo Soldiers, who rode from Missoula, Montana to St. Louis to prove bicycles could be a viable form of transportation for the military.

Heartbreaking news from South Dakota, where a 53-year old Canadian man was killed by a truck driver while on an 838-mile bike ride to raise awareness about kidney disease, and raise funds for a kidney transplant for his granddaughter; the crowdfunding campaign for her transplant has raised over $22,000, topping the $20,000 goal.

Over 200 people turned out for Boston’s first Pride bike ride.

ESPN’s ESPY award winner Jason McElwain was seriously injured when he was hit by a driver while riding his bike in Greece, New York; the autistic student manager of his high school basketball team, McElwain gained fame when the coach put him in near the end of the team’s final home game, and he responded by sinking seven three-point shots. He’s now a motivational speaker.

UPS is testing small battery-powered delivery trucks designed to operate in New York bike lanes. In other words, just one more obstacle putting bike riders at risk. Thanks to Megan Lynch for the heads-up.

Hoboken, New Jersey could decide that 20 is plenty, as the city council considers a proposal to lower city streets to 20 mph.

Seriously? Police in Philadelphia are looking for a burglar who broke into a bike shop and stole a 1996 military prototype bicycle worth an estimated — wait for it — $100,000. For that price, it must be made from Unobtanium.

An artist painted a message of hope in a Pennsylvania town, after the man she had planned to paint it with was killed by a driver while riding his bike. As usual, read it on Yahoo if Bicycling blocks you.

 

International

Electrek asks if Urban Arrow’s new e-cargo bike is the luxury SUV of the ebike world.

POC’s newest bike helmet is made for sustainability, made of 50% recycled materials and designed to be easily disassembled and recycled at the end of its usefulness.

A man walking his dog stepped in to rescue an 82-year old English man after he was knocked off his bike and attacked by a frenzied cow; he used the man’s bicycle to fend off the one-ton animal until it turned to attack another man.

An Irish delivery rider has been acquitted of murder for stabbing a 16-year old boy to death, agreeing he acted in self-defense when he was attacked by a group of teenagers while trying to reclaim another delivery rider’s stolen bicycle.

The capital city of Estonia will give kids the equivalent of $105 to buy a bicycle to encourage them to start riding.

He gets it, too. The mayor of Bengaluru, India says the city’s bikeways can’t have a real impact until they’re connected in a viable network; the city plans to build 378 miles of bike lanes by 2035.

A secondhand ebike has helped a longtime New Zealand bike advocate fall back in love with bicycling on his 37-mile commute.

 

Competitive Cycling

Cycling Tips explains how to follow the Race Across America, aka RAAM, which started yesterday.

Nice ad featuring L39ion of Los Angeles founder Justin Williams for Vuori.

 

Finally…

Evidently, bike polo is still a thing. If you’re already wanted by the cops for threatening a woman with a switchblade, maybe don’t ride an illegal motorized bike.

And bike riders are the new Atlas.

………

Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , ,
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