Morning Links: Metro talks congestion pricing, induced demand goes both ways, and FilmedByBike this Sat

January 25, 2019 / / One comment

Metro’s board of supervisors considered congestion pricing to discourage driving and fund the 28 by 28 initiative at their monthly meeting on Thursday, but decided not to decide until next month.

The plan would provide funding to complete 28 transit projects in time for the 2028 LA Olympics. Metro’s CEO has also discussed using congestion pricing funds to provide free bus and train rides throughout the LA area.

LA’s ever-worsening traffic congestion means we have a choice between encouraging people to leave their cars behind by making it more convenient to ride a bike or use transit, or taking painful steps to force them to.

But the city’s ever-present NIMBYs, entitled drivers and traffic safety deniers have fought to block bike lanes, and too many spineless city officials have caved in to them.

So now congestion pricing is on the table. Whether they like it or not.

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More evidence that induced demand goes both ways.

The Seattle Times looks into where the 90,000 drivers who formerly used the city’s shorefront Alaskan Way Viaduct every day went once it was closed down, and before the new tunnel meant to replace it opens.

The paper concludes that some drivers moved to another highway, some switched to transit, and some took to their bicycles.

But most, they say, either changed their commutes, or simply stayed home.

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Looks like LAist and LA Magazine know a good thing when they see them.

LAist recommends The Frogtown Show comedy night at the Spoke Bicycle Cafe along the LA River Bike Path in Elysian Valley Saturday Night.

And both recommend FilmedByBike — Los Angeles at the Boomtown Brewery in Aliso Village on Sunday. Admission includes two movie screenings, a panel discussion, raffle and 25 exhibitors with bike demos. Correction: Earlier I wrote it was on Saturday; it’s actually Sunday. Thanks to Joe Linton for the correction.

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An impatient driver forced his way through an Oakland protest, running over a bicycle — after the rider jumped off — then ran over the leg of a blind homeless man, while driving on the sidewalk.

Remarkably, no arrest was made, as police appeared to make excuses for the driver.

You can see some of the event below, despite the shaky camera work.

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You can’t keep a good man down.

Or off an arena with his camera crew, evidently.

A British court ruled that YouTube star Ryan Taylor can legally post video of his scofflaw BMX ride on top of London’s massive O2 Arena.

Even if it encourages others to copy his dangerous stunt.

And eve if his ride was interrupted by a police helicopter.

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Local

This is who we share the roads with. A woman was arrested for killing a MacArther Park pedestrian Wednesday night; the victim was walking in a crosswalk when he was run down by the driver, who was viewing messages using WhatsApp.

LADOT is hosting a mixer for community-based organizations and community leaders on February 19, from 3 to 6 pm.

More on the selection of homegrown Long Beach bike service provider Pedal Movement to operate and expand the city’s bikeshare program.

State

Santa Cruz, which already has the state’s second-highest bike commuting rate, will raise downtown parking fees to finance efforts to further increase bike and transit use.

Bay Area bike riders say not so fast to plans to steal back a long-promised bike and pedestrian lane on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge and give it to the same drivers who claim the other five lanes.

A San Francisco TV station honors Richmond’s Rich City Rides for its work building community around bicycle rides and projects.

National

Entrepreneur talks with William Shatner, the new captain of the starship Pedego.

No bias here. A Seattle website accuses “anti-car ideologues” at area DOTs of forcing bicycles on an unwilling populace.

Oh, well that’s okay, then. A hit-and-run driver who killed a bike rider in Salt Lake City told police he fled the scene because he was scared. Even if that was the case, he should have turned himself in the next day — after he sobered up, most likely.

A 19-year old Wyoming man’s self-funded film captures the spirit of freeride mountain biking.

Dallas isn’t afraid of road diets, unlike a certain SoCal city I could name. The Texas city approved plans to reduce a major streets from six lanes to four to make room for bike lanes and wider sidewalks. The same sort of six-to-four lane reduction was what made some Mar Vista drivers apoplectic, demanding its removal.

E-scooters could finally get the green light in Gotham, as scooter companies descend on the city to lobby for their approval. However, Gothamist warns there could be roadblocks ahead.

A 62-year old Brooklyn bike rider was awarded $2.25 million after suing the city accusing a police detective of shoving him into a parked car, suffering permanent injuries; needless to say, the officer denied touching him, bur security video — hidden from the defense for four years — showed otherwise.

US Education Secretary Betsy DeVos will be confined to a wheelchair and walker for the next several months as she recovers from a painful broken pelvis and hip socket suffered in a bicycling crash; still no word on whether if was a solo fall or if she was hit by a driver.

A proposed DC ordinance would give scooter and ebike riders involved in crashes the same rights as regular bicyclists and pedestrians.

Bighearted North Carolina police pitch in to replace a bike that was stolen from a young girl, whose father is suffering from stage 4 pancreatic cancer.

Life remains cheap in Louisiana, where the driver who got just 90 days for killing a bike-riding city councilman gets another 90 days for injuring his riding companion. But he’ll serve just 17 days of that.

Georgia thieves steal a page from the Middle Ages and the Old West, laying a tree branch across a bridge to force a bike rider to stop; when he tried to move it, they popped out with guns and stole his cellphone. Although victims in the Middle Ages and Old West hardly ever carried cellphones with them.

He gets it. A Gainesville FL writer considers his transportation options, and concludes that cars are expensive and cumbersome, and nothing beats a bike.

The Tampa Bay Times says it’s time to make the dangerous city — and the entire state of Florida — safer for people walking and on bicycles.

International

Bike Portland looks at the bikeways of Baja.

Singer, rapper and producer Ray J plans to stay involved in the business, after selling his e-scooter company to a Canadian concern for a price tag in the high seven figures. The money will help rollout the scooters throughout North America.

A Vancouver newspaper asks if a proposal to put bike lanes and a walkway down the center of an existing bridge is smart planning or the first step towards Carmaggedon.

A British Columbia bike rider asks if the impatient driver who nearly ran her down was as frightened by it as she was. Probably not.

A Saskatoon, Canada teenager just became the youngest person to ride a bike around the world, covering nearly 20,000 miles through 16 countries.

A new report says building community bike hubs could encourage more bicycling in the Toronto suburbs; the hubs provide access to bicycles, repairs, tools and other items and services to promote bicycling in areas with no bike lanes and very few bicyclists.

The younger brother of royal spouse Kate Middleton is one of us, as he takes his two dogs for a cargo bike ride.

An “anti-social” bike mob is accused of frightening shoppers at a local mall, riding directly at them while hurling abuse.

It’s not every day that a bike thief asks to be put in prison to break his spiral of addiction; a Belfast judge was happy to oblige. Because everyone knows there are no drugs behind bars. Right?

Retired pro cycling favorite Jens Voigt tells an Indian newspaper that the problem with Millennials is they want to be millionaires in two weeks, and life doesn’t work that way. Don’t blame me, take it up with Jensie.

An Indian environmental website says bicycling would have huge benefits for the country, but the high cost of bicycles and a lack of a bicycling ecosystem are holding it back.

NIMBYs are everywhere. Even in South Africa, where white homeowners are fighting to have a new separated bike lane removed from their street.

A Singapore paper says don’t give up on dockless bike sharing yet.

Competitive Cycling

CiclaValley offers scenes from the SoCal Cross season finale.

Finally…

Turning bike parts into art. Even cartoon pigs have to wear bike helmets, ven if they originally didn’t.

And seriously, when you’re carrying meth on your bike after dark, put a damn light on it.

It might even help see the soft dirt when you flee from the police.

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

Morning Links: Don’t walk the streets of Bakersfield, Wag heads enter scooter wars, and bike hating deer

January 24, 2019 / / One comment

Even Buck Owens would probably think twice about walking the streets of Bakersfield these days.

The Central Valley city is the seventh most deadly city for people to walk in the US, and the only one in the top nine that’s not in Florida.

Then again, you probably don’t want to walk at all in the Bible Belt.

Surprisingly, though, Los Angeles didn’t even make the top 20.

………

A new Los Angeles-based startup created by the founders of the Wag dog walking service has hit the streets of San Diego.

Jonathan and Joshua Viner are positioning Wheels as the next generation in dockless personal mobility, a cross between an e-scooter and mini-bicycle that allows the rider to be seated instead of standing.

You can even recharge your cellphone. And play your music while you’re at it.

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We may have to deal with distracted LA drivers, but at least we don’t have to worry about taking a massive header over a bike-hating deer.

Usually.

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Turns out the left lane isn’t always the fast lane.

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Local

Sahra Sulaiman writes that Leimert Park bike crew Black Kids on Bikes passed the community service torch to a younger generation of bike riders at this year’s King Day Parade.

Streetsblog says the Arroyo Seco Bike/Walk Path is damaged from the recent rains, but still passable.

Popular Mechanics recommends three affordably priced bikes from Burbank’s Pure Cycles.

Homegrown bike service company Pedal Movement will take over operation of the Long Beach Bike Share, which will be expanding into more areas of the city.

State

The Orange County physician who prescribed drugs to driver who fatally ran down Costa Mesa firefighter Mike Kreza has pled not guilty to charges of illegally prescribing opioids; drugs from the alleged Dr. Feelgood also made their way into the hands of the Borderline shooter.

An Anaheim man was killed in a suspected gang shooting while riding his bicycle Tuesday night.

Bike SD co-sponsored a one-night Holiday Lane last December, closing down a major Pacific Beach street for a carfree community celebration.

Hats off to a group of kindhearted Thousand Oaks teenagers, who are collecting 400 bicycles, as well as wheelchairs, crutches and shipping costs, for impoverished kids in Puerto Rico and Africa.

A San Luis Obispo Facebook group forms the basis of a 280 member, all female mountain biking group called SLO Dirt Girls.

Sad news from Fresno, where a bike rider was killed when a driver was briefly blinded by another car’s headlights.

Candidates for the board of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition are being challenged on whether the bike advocacy group should accept money from car companies.

The Marin transportation board wants to steal a lane on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge back from pedestrians and bicyclists just a tad sooner than expected, cutting a promised pilot program from four years to six months so they can give it back to motorists.

Friends can’t explain why a Marin County man was riding bike on a freeway, where he was struck and killed by at least three separate drivers as he swerved back and forth across all three traffic lanes.

National

He gets it. In a Newsweek op-ed, a GOP advisor questions why car-choked cities are banning e-scooters. More proof that common sense traffic solutions are not a partisan issue.

A new analytical tool based on publicly available cellphone data allows cities to get a more detailed picture of how many people are walking and biking, and where they’re going.

CNN recommends walking or riding a bikeshare bike to maintain a healthy lifestyle while traveling for business.

The Shift Up podcast discusses why a Denver man shuttered his bike shop, and started his own line of $800 DIY cargo bike kits.

Denver gives its Vision Zero program a passing grade, even though traffic fatalities are up in the Mile High City.

You may soon be able to get drunk and ride your bike in North Dakota. Or your horse.

They get it. A Minnesota newspaper tells readers to be a hero and don’t drive distracted.

Seriously? A Minnesota police chief is serving a one week suspension for choking a 12-year old boy he mistakenly thought was trying to steal his mountain bike, when the kid was actually just trying to pick it up after it had been knocked down. I hate bike thieves as much as anyone, but he should have been fired the moment he put his hands on the kid’s neck.

New York police are looking for a bike rider who attacked an Uber driver and his car with a U-lock, then jumped on the roof and hood when the driver attempted to get away. There’s never an excuse for violence. But you’d think the press might wonder what the driver might have done to provoke it.

Residents of New York’s West Village complain about derelict bicycles left on the sidewalks.

A New Orleans artist yarn bombed a bikeshare bike, covering everything but the wheels and pedals.

Fort Lauderdale FL is banning e-scooters during spring break, apparently preferring to jam the streets with smog belching cars than allow partying students to get around on small, clean machines.

A Miami TV station shows video of the Wheels Up, Guns Down protest in Miami that led to a white driver pulling a gun and yelling racial epithets at a group of black teenagers; the bike riders were protesting the redevelopment of a housing project. The incident is being investigated as a hate crime.

International

Road.cc tests whether the new Pinarello Nytro ebike is faster uphill than a lightweight roadie.

Turner Prize-winning artist Grayson Perry discusses why he loves riding his Vogue Elite bicycle around London. Note to Christies — it’s called a Dutch-style bicycle, not a ladies bike.

Sad news from Columbia, where a former dean from Vassar College was killed less than two-thirds of a mile into a planned 750-mile ride through the country.

Bolivia’s famed Death Road proved aptly named for a New Zealand bike rider, who slipped off a rain-slicked roadway and down a cliff while on a mountain bike tour with his fiancée.

Victoria, British Columbia plans to sacrifice a tree in one of the city’s busiest intersections to make room for bike lanes and a scramble crosswalk; urban forest advocates say not so fast.

For a monthly fee, a Dutch startup provides a working transportation bike and handles all the maintenance and repairs.

The most shocking thing about this video of a Swiss synchronized cycling team isn’t their amazing performance, it’s that AOL is still around.

National Geographic looks at the new 1,500-mile bike path that will connect cities and towns in eight Balkan countries when it’s completed. Thanks to the Previn Report for the heads-up.

A 27-year old Afghan man is trying to improve children’s literacy by riding his bike across the country handing out free books.

A homeless Australian man pled guilty to the hit-and-run death of a bicycling Dutch tourist; he was speeding at twice the speed limit in a stolen car on his way to buy drugs when he crashed the car.

Finally…

Now you, too, can be a virtual pro cyclist. Cars burst into flames, bikes aren’t supposed to.

And maybe there’s a better place they could have put this.

Just saying.

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

Morning Links: Armed man threatens black teens, Americans buy climate change, and yes, Harrison Ford is a man

January 23, 2019 / / 8 comments

Here’s a truly disgusting story from Miami.

A racist asshole white motorist was arrested for pulling a gun on a group of young black teens riding their bicycles in the city’s Martin Luther King Day Wheels Up, Guns Down protest.

He got out of his expensive Mercedes SUV with the weapon when the woman he was with complained that one of the teens ran over her foot, after she had gotten out to demand that the riders get the hell out of their way.

He then approached them, gun in hand and screaming racist taunts, according to the Miami New Times.

“Get the fuck out of here!” the man yells as he confronts the teens. 

“You fucking losers. You fucking stupid n*****s. You’re all fucking dumb-ass fucking n*****s,” he says while he paces around the group. Even as he finally walks away, he continues to call the kids the N-word…

On Instagram, Miami Commissioner Keon Hardemon said Bartlett should be hit with more serious charges. “Assault with a deadly weapon and calling them n——rs sounds like a hate crime to me,” he wrote. 

Sounds about right to me.

See for yourself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktLdxhiiRTw

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Apparently, it only takes an unending series of major natural disasters for Americans to finally accept climate change.

According to a Yale study, 73% of Americans now accept that climate change is real, and 72% say it’s personally important to them.

Unfortunately, our current president remains in the remaining 27%.

And time is rapidly running out.

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In today’s LA edition of He’s One of Us, we look at the age 70+ celebrity contingent rolling on our streets.

If Arnold Schwarzenegger wore a camo jacket and rode a camo fat ebike through Los Angeles in hopes no one would notice him, it didn’t work.

Seriously? A British tabloid zooms in on Harrison Ford’s bike shorts as he goes for a ride in Marina del Rey, and seems surprised to discover he’s a man.

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Local

UCLA’s Daily Bruin looks at LA’s controversial speed limit increases, which allow police to once again use speed guns to enforce them.

LA’s favorite ex-pro cyclist is teaming with the LACBC this Saturday for the 4th Annual Clean Up Mulholland With Phil Gaimon to clear trash from one of the city’s most popular riding routes.

Pasadena is looking for input for their proposed Complete Streets Blueprint Tool to guide the makeover of the city’s streets.

State

A new San Diego company will come out and pick up all those unwanted e-scooters and dockless bikes for free, charging the dockless companies to come pick them up.

San Jose’s mayor talks with a local radio station about his recent “scary” bike wreck. As opposed to all those calm and relaxing bike wrecks, I guess.

Once again, a man has been found dead on the side of the road near his damaged bicycle as the result of an apparent hit-and-run, this time near Covelo in rural Mendocino County. So when the hell will officials finally take this deadly crime seriously, and do something to crack down on the statewide epidemic of drivers who flee the scene of a crash?

National

CityLab considers the great divide in how Americans commute to work, saying the country is cleaving into separate nations where one favors biking, walking and transit, while the other continues to revolve around their cars.

Seattle’s bike hating shock jock says city leaders will pursue congestion pricing and more bike lanes at their peril.

Speaking of Seattle, bike commuting has spiked in the first week of the Seattle Squeeze — the period between the closure of a major coastal highway and before a new tunnel opens in a few weeks. Maybe some of those new bike riders will decide they like it and keep riding. And support for those bike lanes will go up.

Bighearted Las Vegas school police pitched in to buy a boy a new bicycle after his was stolen off his grade school campus.

The overwhelming majority of Minneapolis bike crashes take place on just 3% of the city’s streets.

Life is cheap in Indiana, where a stoned driver got off with just two years behind bars and six years probation for killing an eight-year old boy as he played in his own backyard; she felt the bump as she ran him down, but kept going because she thought it was a bicycle and she might as well finish parking. I would have given her the full eight years for killing the kid, with another eight for fucking stupidity.

New York safe streets advocates rallied outside the studio where The View is shot to protest Whoopie Goldberg’s anti-bike lane comments.

DC gets serious about Vision Zero following a rash of traffic deaths, creating a dedicated Vision Zero office and hiring a new director. Maybe Los Angeles could take the hint and follow their example.

A New Orleans bike rider was critically injured after somehow crashing with a motorcycle cop escorting a funeral.

I want to be like him when I grow up. An 87-year old Pensacola man affectionately known as Bill the Bike Man refurbishes bicycles and gives them to homeless men and women.

International

Good idea. Bike Magazine suggests putting a spare car key on your bike’s multitool. Although a better idea might be just getting rid of your car altogether.

A St. Vincent bike thief swears he just borrowed it and was bringing it back when he got busted. Sure, let’s go with that.

If you build it, they will come. A Toronto newspaper says the city should get moving on expanding a network of separated bike lanes after a pilot program resulted in a tenfold increase in ridership, while collisions dropped 73%. More proof that safe bike lanes work — if they actually connect and form a real network. Even in cities where the average January temperatures are just a tad below LA’s balmy 68°.

On the other hand, Toronto advocates say the city has failed to deliver on its ambitious bike plan. Sort of like a certain SoCal city I could name that adopted an ambitious bike plan back in 2010, then put it on the shelf.

Finishing our trifecta from north of the border, Toronto police cracked down on distracted drivers, writing 670 citations in just two days.

When police in an English city were too busy to help a newspaper editor recover his stolen bike, his staff jumped into action and stole it back for him.

British bike exports rose 16.1% ever the past five years to the equivalent of over $93 million; exports to Asia more than doubled. US exports, not so much.

The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes goes on. Especially in the UK, where a bicyclist was lucky to avoid injuries when a jerk in passing a van reached out and pushed him off his bike.

Apparently Britain has a problem keeping elderly drivers off the road, as the 92-year old queen goes for a drive just days after her 97-year old husband rolled his Rover, after cutting off another driver.

The European Parliament decides that EU ebike riders won’t have to carry liability insurance after all.

When bike stunts go wrong. Popular Italian bike collective Dafne Fixed posted their blooper reel.

A bike-riding Pakistani woman writes that the government should have protected women planning a bike rally, and men “need to reflect on their own culpability for making this country so unsafe for women.”

A Ugandan entrepreneur is specializing in building bamboo bikes for just $350 to $450 apiece.

A South African website offers advice on flying with a bike. I’ve flown mine several times, but seldom on purpose. And the landings usually weren’t very pretty.

Competitive Cycling

The BBC offers beautiful photos from the 14th annual Strathpuffer 24-hour mountain bike challenge in the Scottish Highlands.

BMX Freestyle competitions have been axed from the first-ever Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) World Beach Games, set to take place in San Diego this September.

Finally…

The game to play when you have a burning urge to do a backflip off the Eiffel Tower on a tandem bike. No, you can’t just dump a privately owned dockless bikeshare bike in the dump.

And when you’re carrying meth and riding a stolen bike, stop for the damn red light, already. And if you lost a $2,500 bicycle around Santa Monica lately, check with the police.

Category: Morning Links /

Update: San Bernardino man killed while riding bike in Highland hit-and-run

January 22, 2019 / / One comment

Now we have a little more information about yesterday’s fatal bike crash in Highland.

The Highland Community News is reporting that sheriff’s deputies received a call of a someone lying in the street around 8:30 pm Monday.

Deputies responded to the intersection of Sterling Avenue and Ninth Street, where they found the victim. They determined he’d been riding his bike when he was struck by a hit-and-run driver headed south on Sterling.

He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The San Bernardino Sun identifies the victim as 54-year old San Bernardino resident Dereck Alexander.

In a story that’s not online yet, KCBS-2 reports Alexander was a cancer survivor who’d fought for his life after having an ear and part of his skull removed.

A street view of the Highland itersection shows a four lane roadway with center turn lane on Sterling, with one general lane and a bike lane in each direction on Ninth; the intersection is controlled by a traffic signal in every direction.

Without witnesses, there’s no way to know who may have had the right-of-way at the time of the crash.

Anyone with information is urged to call San Bernardino County Sheriff’s deputies at 909/425-9793.

When the driver is caught, he or she should face a murder charge for making a conscious decision to let Alexander die in the street.

This is at least the fourth bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the first I’m aware of in San Bernardino County.

Update: That heartbreaking KCBS-2/KCAL-9 story is now online.

According to the report, Alexander was wearing a hi-viz vest while riding home on Sterling Ave. Yet the driver apparently didn’t see him, and never bothered to stop.

His niece called his killer “heartless,” as the family struggles to understand how anyone could just leave him like that — just like the loved ones of virtually any victim of hit-and-run.

And who can blame her? That’s about the mildest term I would use.

But perhaps most heartbreaking of all is the image of his dog by the gate, waiting for an owner who will never come home.

A GoFundMe account to help pay his funeral expenses has raised $125 of the $8,000 goal in the first several hours.

My deepest sympathy and prayers for Dereck Alexander and all his loved ones.

Thanks to Erik Griswold and Jeff Vaughn for the heads-up.

Category: Injuries and Fatalities / Tags: , , , ,

Morning Links: Highland cyclist killed, Arroyo Seco Bike Path washed away, and more fallout from Whoopiegate

January 22, 2019 / / Comments Off on Morning Links: Highland cyclist killed, Arroyo Seco Bike Path washed away, and more fallout from Whoopiegate

In case you missed it yesterday, an LA-based traffic safety denier penned a virtually fact free, alternative universe op-ed attacking road diets and Vision Zero that was inexplicably published in Saturday’s Wall Street Journal, apparently without the benefit of fact checking.

You can see my dissection and rebuttal of his arguments here.

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Tragic news from Highland, where Erik Griswold forwards word that bike rider was killed in a collision yesterday.

No other information is available at this time.

We’ll have more details when they become available.

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The Eastside Bike Club reports that a section of the Arroyo Seco Bike Path washed away in the recent storms.

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More fallout from Whoopiegate, as New York Governor Andrew Cuomo becomes just the latest high profile figure to incorrectly blame New York City’s traffic problems on bike lanes and pedestrian plazas.

This comes after Whoopie Goldberg blamed delays in her daily car commute from New Jersey on a New York bike lane that doesn’t even exist.

Meanwhile, the mother of a fallen bicyclist ripped Whoopie over her comments. And New York’s Families for Safe Streets asked to be invited on the View to explain how bike lanes might have saved their loved ones.

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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes goes on. Especially in the UK.

An English farmer got off with just 12-months probation for a punishment pass on a bicyclist with his tractor, followed by a brake check that nearly rammed the rider into the spikes on his equipment, followed by a physical assault, all because “They [cyclists] are always in the way; always annoying like that.”

A British bicyclist was shot with a pellet gun while riding at an offroad BMX and mountain bike track.

And the latest in a rash of violent bike-jackings in the UK.

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Peshawar, Pakistan’s first-ever woman’s bicycle rally was cancelled after three conservative religious groups threatened to protest it; a spokesperson for one group accused the women spreading obscenity by riding bikes.

Pakistanis reportedly reacted in outrage at the cancellation. Or at least, some did, anyway.

And organizers blamed another group for risking the lives of participants by leaking plans for the event.

Meanwhile, sad news as two members of the Pakistani national cycling team suffered life-threatening injuries in a training crash; no word on whether there was a driver involved.

Thanks to Megan Lynch for the heads-up.

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No sympathy from BBC presenter Jeremy Vine, who trolled Prince Philip with bike cam video of a careless driver cutting off a bicyclist, just days after His Royal Husband rolled his Rover after apparently cutting off another driver.

Naturally, the 97-year old prince played the universal Get Out of Jail Free Card, claiming he was “dazzled” by the sun.

Although a better play might have just been to say “my wife is the Queen.” Even if the other driver does want him prosecuted.

As with any elderly driver, though, the question is who could actually get him to stop driving, even if he does pose a risk to others.

Thanks to John Dammon for the tip.

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Um, okay.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9yoEMiCOP0

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Local

According to Spectrum News 1, CD5 Councilmember Paul Koretz is working to make LA a leader in environmental action. Although I don’t understand how blocking pre-approved, shovel-ready bike lanes and maintaining the deadly automotive hegemony on our streets makes Los Angeles a leader in anything except dangerous streets and worsening air.

The new cable news channel did redeem itself, however, by doing reports on ghost bikes, and bike theft in DTLA.

The national Winter Bike to Work Day will finally be coming to the City of Angels, as the LACBC announced it will be observing the event on Friday, February 8th. Now the ball is in LADOT’s and Metro’s court to promote the event. Or even mention it, for that matter.

LADOT is hiring an assistant general manager for external affairs.

The Los Angeles Times looks at LA County’s attempt to shove the e-scooter genie back in the bottle, as it struggles to avoid becoming another Venice or Santa Monica. Because really, who would want more clean, efficient personal transportation when you can still squeeze a few more cars onto the streets?

Speaking of the Times, the paper endorses congestion pricing on LA freeways, but questions whether Metro can do it in a way that is both effective and fair. Although using the funds to expand bus service and bikeways, while eliminating transit fares, is a good start.

Hollywood is hopping on the ebike bandwagon, with everyone from Miley Cyrus and Vin Diesel to Jay Leno, Ellen DeGeneres and William Shatner getting on the pedals.

Downey is launching its new docked bikeshare program this Thursday, in conjunction with Metro.

A new law will allow Santa Monica’s Breeze docked bikeshare to integrate more smoothly with bikeshare systems in surrounding cities.

State

The allegedly stoned driver accused of running down Costa Mesa Fire Captain Mike Kreza as he rode in a Mission Viejo bike lane has entered a not guilty plea; 25-year old Stephen Taylor Scarpa is being held on a $2 million bond.

Thieves broke into a bike shop in San Diego’s North Park neighborhood early Sunday, making off with three bikes worth up to $3,000.

Reminiscent of the Trousdale Gap in the Expo Line bike path, the operators of a Bakersfield golf course and local residents complain about plans for a bike path, fearing it would allow nefarious bike riders access to their properties. Trousdale residents blocked the bike path through their neighborhood, afraid bike-riding burglars would ride off with their flatscreen TVs.

The San Francisco Chronicle suggests three great rides through the wine country around Healdsburg, ranging from 11 to 33 miles.

Bad news from Marin County, where a bike rider was killed after reportedly swerving his bike across all five lanes of southbound Highway 101.

A Redding writer says bicycles mean freedom for kids. Funny thing, it works that way for adults, too.

National

In what may be the best news in today’s briefing, Bicycling says new research shows swearing can make you a better bicyclist. Although if that was really true, I’d be wearing a yellow jersey by now.

There may be hope yet. The National Committee on Uniform Traffic Control Devices has ordered traffic engineers to consider pedestrian and bicycle activity on streets when setting speed limits, which could finally mark the beginning of the end for the deadly 85th Percentile Law.

A police website calls walking, biking and mounted patrols fundamental elements to community policing.

Seattle residents want more and better transit; bike lanes, not so much.

A Colorado Springs CO bike advocate says the solution to traffic congestion is not more cars; it’s giving people more choices.

Horrifying news from Michigan, where a bike rider was dragged several hundred feet after getting hit by the driver of a snow plow; the driver claimed he never say him and didn’t realize he’d hit anyone. Remarkably, the victim survived, though he’s in critical condition.

The New York Times considers the physical and psychological toll of brutal car commutes; an LA study showed extreme evening freeway traffic led to a 9% increase in domestic violence. Of course, there’s an easy solution to that — if you don’t have to drive, don’t. And support bikeways that make it easier to make that quality-of-life saving choice.

A DC columnist says there are too many misfits rolling on the streets.

A 24-year old Virginia man has spent the last 14 years sending donated bicycles around the world to people in need, founding the nonprofit organization Wheels to Africa when he was just ten years old.

Am I the only one who thinks Los Angeles needs more bike path-adjacent outdoor beer gardens, like this one in New Orleans?

The head of a Macon, Georgia ministry explains how a recycled bicycle can change a person’s life.

International

Road.cc endorses what they consider essential wet weather cycle clothes and gear. Which comes just a little too late for LA’s great flood of 2019.

Canadian Cycling Magazine asks when is it too cold to ride a bike? In Los Angeles, that’s usually any time the temperature dips down into the 60s. Brrrrr.

Carlton Reid talks with Vancouver bike advocates Chris and Melissa Bruntlett — the couple behind the Modacity site and authors of Building the Cycling City: the Dutch Blueprint for Urban Vitality — about their upcoming move to the Netherlands, where Chris will take over as international communications manager for the Dutch Cycling Embassy.

Can a story be heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time? After an eight-year old British Columbia boy who loved trucks was killed in a collision while riding his bike, over 150 truck drivers turned out in a massive convoy in his honor.

A new Toronto report makes a compelling case for protected bike lanes; a pilot cycle track project increased total street capacity and improved safety at very little cost.

This year’s London edition of the World Naked Bike Ride will take place on the Queen’s birthday, with organizers planning to sing a naked birthday salute outside Buckingham Palace.

A British mountain biker says dogs are a bicyclist’s best friend.

An 84-year old, blind UK veteran and lifelong bike rider has gotten back on a tandem bike for the the first time since he lost his sight twenty years ago.

As private delivery services move towards using various forms of ebikes, the Irish postal service announces plans to eliminate bicycle and walking deliveries by the end of the year.

Germany has opened the first three miles of what will eventually be a 62-mile, completely carfree bicycle superhighway.

I’m putting this one on my own bike bucket list. Once it’s completed, a new European bike path will extend 1,200 miles through eight European countries, connecting Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, Kosovo, Serbia and Macedonia through a series of singletrack, gravel and paved pathways through the Balkans.

Unlike Pakistani women, Egypt’s She Can Ride initiative has been met with approval as they work to get more women on bikes, with over 600 participants ranging from three years old to 57.

An Indian state approves plans to resume distributing bicycles to residents, as long as they aren’t crappy. The bicycles, that is, not the residents.

A 22-year old Japanese man says he’s on a mission to become the youngest person to ride from Cape Town, South Africa to Cairo, Egypt, after riding through much of Europe. But he ran out of time to continue his ride through the US.

Welcome to Christchurch, New Zealand, home of the red light-running motorists.

It’s now against the law to ride your bike drunk in Thailand. Then again, the fine is the equivalent of just $15.71.

Competitive Cycling

The era of doping may be over, but somehow, bike racers keep getting caught — and not just the pros. Forty-two-year old Miami masters cyclist Michel Carrillo was banned for four years for doping with Lance’s drug of choice, EPO, as well as steroids and testosterone.

Attorney and former US Cycling Team member David Huntsman says if you’re interested in bike racing, reach out to him on Twitter to learn more.

Finally…

Repeat after me. When you’re a convicted felon with two outstanding felony drug warrants riding a bicycle while carrying an illegal concealed weapon, put a damn light on it already. Who could turn down a bike-riding unicorn raising funds for a sick kid — let alone two of them?

And soon, your bike won’t even need you anymore.

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

Vision Zero is not a fad — and it’s not making our streets more deadly

January 21, 2019 / / 15 comments

A traffic safety denying op-ed in the Wall Street Journal claims both. And couldn’t be more wrong.

………

No Morning Links today.

I had planned to take Martin Luther King Jr. Day off, and post some inspirational words to remind us all to treat everyone like our own brothers and sisters, especially in these turbulent times.

But I felt it was necessary to address an op-ed that was inexplicably published in the Wall Street Journal on Saturday, without the apparent benefit of senior editors or fact checkers.

We’ll be back tomorrow with a massive four days worth of links to the latest bike news stories from over the weekend.

Today we’re going to discuss Vision Zero, road diets and traffic safety deniers.

Because sometimes, these people just piss me off.

………

Awhile back, I coined the term traffic safety deniers to describe people who reject the well-established science of traffic safety.

Just like climate change deniers reject the established science behind climate change, for no other reason than they choose not to believe it, or the experts in the field, evidence be damned.

Like lawyer and writer Christopher D. LeGras, who penned a virtually fact free, alternative universe op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, claiming that Vision Zero is nothing but a “road diet fad.” And that it’s having the opposite effect of what is intended, by somehow magically increasing the death toll on our streets.

Or I should say former lawyer, since he apparently gave up his membership in the bar to write full time, resulting in a collection of short fiction published by the small LA-based imprint Rare Bird Books.

Unfortunately, his op-ed reads like a work of fiction, as well.

He starts innocently enough, telling the tale of a 65-year old woman who broke her leg falling on the sidewalk in Mar Vista, suffering a compound fracture. And says it took the fire department paramedics ten minutes to get there, even though the station was just five blocks away.

But in which direction, he doesn’t say.

Yet somehow extrapolates that to blame the road diet on Venice Blvd — and every road diet everywhere else — and Vision Zero in general.

Los Angeles, like cities nationwide, is transforming its streets. In July 2017 the city installed a “road diet” on a 0.8-mile stretch of Venice Boulevard in Mar Vista, reducing four lanes to two and adding bike lanes separated from traffic by parking buffers. The project is part of Mayor Eric Garcetti’s Vision Zero initiative, which aims to eliminate traffic fatalities in the city by 2025. Launched in 2015, Vision Zero is the most radical transformation of how people move through Los Angeles since the dawn of the freeway era 75 years ago.

By almost any metric it’s been a disaster. Pedestrian deaths have nearly doubled, from 74 in 2015 to 135 in 2017, the last year for which data are available. After years of improvement, Los Angeles again has the world’s worst traffic, according to the transportation research firm Inrix. Miles of vehicles idling in gridlock have reduced air quality to 1980s levels.

Well, it ain’t necessarily so

Problem is, the road diet on Venice was part of Mayor Eric Garcetti’s Great Streets program. A community driven project that had been in the works since 2015, and had nothing to do with LA’s Vision Zero, which was only announced in August of the same year.

In fact, Vision Zero in Los Angeles was just vaporware until the Vision Zero Action Plan was released in January, 2017 — two years after community groups began work on a Complete Streets makeover of Venice Blvd, and the same year the Mar Vista Great Streets project was installed.

Never mind that the road diet on Venice reduced it from a massive six lanes to a more manageable four, to reduce crossing distances to improve safety for pedestrians and increase livability.

Not two lanes, as LeGras inexplicably claimed.

Then there’s the claim that pedestrian deaths spiked in 2017, two years after Mayor Garcetti announced the Vision Zero program.

But somehow, before any significant work had been done on Vision Zero, because the action plan, and the High Injury Network it’s based upon, weren’t even released until that year.

Not to mention that none of those pedestrians were killed on streets where Vision Zero improvements had already been installed. So rather than being the fault of Vision Zero in some vague, unidentified way, they can be blamed on the dangerous, deadly LA streets that Vision Zero is intended to fix.

Which is about like blaming the vet because your cat got pregnant after he fixed your dog.

And don’t get me started on LeGras’ laughable implication that Vision Zero is somehow responsible for LA’s worsening traffic and air pollution.

Traffic is bad on streets throughout the LA area, including the other 85 or so other cities in LA County that don’t have Vision Zero programs. Let alone on the streets that haven’t seen any Vision Zero improvements at all. Which is most of them.

Oddly, traffic also sucks on most, if not all, LA-area freeways, which have yet to see a single bike lane or road diet.

The reason LA traffic is getting worse is a population that’s growing by an estimated 50,000 a year, with most of the new arrivals bringing cars with them, or buying one as soon as they get here.

Along with countless kids who receive or buy a car as soon as they’re old enough to drive, resulting in four or five cars cramming the driveways of many family homes. When they’re not out helping to cram the streets.

Combine all that with a record number of miles driven in the US last year, as lower gas prices encouraged more people to drive more. Something that’s reflected in dropping ridership on LA Metro, as more people switch from buses and trains to private vehicles — adding to the traffic LeGras complains about.

And no, LA air quality is nowhere near 1980 levels.

Then again, he also seems to confuse normal traffic congestion with gridlock — defined as a situation in which drivers are unable to move in any direction.

If you can get through a traffic light in two or three cycles, or turn in any direction to get out of it, it ain’t gridlock.

It’s traffic.

By my count, that’s six false statements in just two paragraphs. Unfortunately, he didn’t stop there.

Nothing succeeds like the successes of Vision Zero

Like the next paragraph, where he somehow concludes that light rail lines have anything to do with Vision Zero. (Hint: they don’t.)

Or the following one, where he implies that Vision Zero projects in the Big Apple have failed to make significant improvements. Even though, after five years of Vision Zero, and countless road diets and other safety projects, New York traffic fatalities are at their lowest level since motor vehicles took over the streets. And pedestrian deaths are at their lowest level since 1910.

While bicycling fatalities have gone up in New York, that’s more reflective of a massive 150% increase in ridership as more people feel safer on the streets.

And rather than leading to increased traffic congestion, the changes have actually improved traffic flow.

While individual firefighters may complain that bike lanes delay response in emergencies, as LaGras claims, the facts don’t bear that out.

In fact, more fire departments are realizing that safety improvements on the streets reduce the need for dangerous emergency responses. Which means fewer people they have to scrape up off the streets and try to patch back together.

Meanwhile, more enlightened cities are deciding that is better to build fire engines that fit the streets, rather than widen streets to fit the fire engines.

The myth of the Foothill Blvd evacuation disaster

Then there’s this.

During the 2017 La Tuna Fire, the biggest in Los Angeles in half a century, a road diet on Foothill Boulevard the in Sunland-Tujunga neighborhood bottlenecked evacuations. After the fire a neighborhood association voted to go off the road diet. The city ignored the request and instead added another one to La Tuna Canyon Road.

That’s a myth that has been circulating in the anti-road diet, traffic safety denier community for some time.

While the road diet on Foothill has unfairly gotten the blame, the real problem stemmed from the closure of the 210 Freeway further up the road. Traffic backed up from that closure down to, and through, Foothill Blvd — not from Foothill back.

Officials never considered it a serious enough problem to remove the bollards protecting the bike lanes, or to introduce other emergency measures, including contraflow lanes, on Foothill.

I’m told that an engineer involved in the evacuations said that people on Foothill were never in danger. And fire officials said they had no problem getting through.

With or without a road diet, relying on private motor vehicles to evacuate any population center will always be problematic, as cars break down and run out of gas, and fallible human drivers try to squeeze in and turn around without sufficient space to do so.

LeGras is correct, however, that a road diet was implemented on deadly La Tuna Canyon, following the near fatal crash that left Keith Jackson in a coma for three weeks.

One of the few things he got right.

But rather than reducing road space, it merely reduced the amount of traffic lanes in places — leaving exactly the same amount of space available in the event of an emergency as there was before.

He closes this way,

It’s noble to want to make America’s streets as safe as they can be. But government officials shouldn’t impose projects on communities that don’t work, inconvenience residents, hurt businesses and impede emergency responders in the process.

Had he bothered to do the slighted bit of research, he might have discovered that most people like the Complete Streets that result from the implementation of road diets and bike lanes.

And that road diets and bike lanes have proven good for businesses across the US. And Canada, too.

Emergency response times tell the real tale

As for impeding emergency responders, let’s go back to that 65-year old Mar Vista woman with the broken leg.

A ten minute response time in any emergency should be unacceptable. But countless things can take place to delay emergency responders that have nothing to do with road diets.

It took far longer than that for paramedics to arrive when my father-in-law suffered a fatal heart attack. And that was in a residential neighborhood, in the afternoon, before Vision Zero and road diets were a gleam in Eric Garcetti’s eye.

Responders can be delayed by the same sort of traffic congestion you’ll find on any other major street in Los Angeles, with or without road diets or any other form of traffic calming or safety improvements.

Never mind motorists who don’t have the sense to pull to the right like the law requires. Which seems to be the majority of LA drivers these days.

But if there was a significant problem, it would show up in the fire department’s response times. Yet the average response for Mar Vista’s Station 62 is just four seconds slower than the average EMS response for the city as a whole.

Four seconds.

I sincerely hope Renee Khoury’s mother Rebecca recovers completely from her broken leg.

As for Mr. LeGras, it’s probably a good thing he’s not practicing law anymore, if he built his cases on such flimsy, easily disproven evidence.

But I do hope he continues to write.

Judging from this op-ed, he should have a fine future in fiction.

Thanks to Alissa Walker and Felicia G for their help in researching this piece.

Category: Advocacy & Politics / Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Morning Links: Tamika Butler moves to LA’s Toole Design, suspect busted in Hyperion hit-and-run, and LA SciFi Bike

January 17, 2019 / / One comment

She’s back.

After stepping away from local bike advocacy for a few years, Tamika Butler is stepping back onto the field.

The former head of the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition is taking a position as Director of Planning, California, and Director of Equity and Inclusion for Toole Design Group, working out of their Los Angeles office.

This is how the company announced the hire.

A civil rights attorney with a diverse background in law, nonprofit leadership, and community engagement, Tamika brings a unique perspective to the intersection of transportation, inequality, community, and shared values. Formerly the executive director of the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, Tamika helped the LACBC shift its advocacy platform to include and incorporate the voices of communities of color, LGBTQ communities, and young people into its work improving active transportation in Los Angeles County. Her three-year tenure leading the LACBC brought numerous advocacy wins and earned the organization national attention for its work on ensuring that bicycle planning and programs across Los Angeles County includes and acknowledges its community members’ values and lived experiences.

In addition to her responsibilities on planning projects, Tamika will also lead Toole Design’s internal efforts to become a more diverse, inclusive workplace that employs people of all backgrounds. This includes collaborating with Human Resources on recruiting and hiring practices, leading trainings for staff, and serving as a resource for colleagues across the country.

Let’s hope they know what they’re getting into.

During her too-brief stay with the LACBC, Butler quickly rose to national prominence as a public speaker and community leader, challenging the predominately white world of bike advocacy to broaden its horizons and refocus its efforts on creating genuine equity on our streets. A role she continued after she left the coalition.

As the above link shows, she’s not one to pull her punches, which has led to inevitable pushback, and sometimes anger, from those she challenges.

But she’s opened far more eyes, and caused countless people in and out of the advocacy world to rethink their approaches to communities of color.

Myself included.

I’d say I hope Toole allows her to keep up her fight for inclusiveness. But knowing Tamika, from my own time with the LACBC, I doubt she would have taken the job if they had restricted her voice in any way.

So let’s welcome her back.

And look forward to many more years of speaking truth to power, and challenging us all.

………

A suspect has been arrested in the hit-and-run death of a mother who was gathering recyclables on Hyperion Ave to pay for her daughter’s college tuition.

Meanwhile, a crowdfunding page in her honor has already raised nearly $4,000 over the $15,000 goal.

I’m told that community members reached out to LADOT and Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell’s office over two years ago to request safety improvements to the intersection where she died, but never got a response.

Let alone any action.

Which sadly shouldn’t surprise anyone.

………

Your next bike could have levers instead of pedals.

A new Kickstarter campaign from an LA-based inventor promises to let you ride more efficiently with less effort. And on a very cool, if very strange, SciFi-looking frame.

All for the low, low price of $3,600 for just the frame and drive system; all the other components — wheels, seat, handlebars, etc — are on you.

Although so far, it’s raised just $211 of the $347,000 goal, with 28 days to go.

………

Local

The LACBC’s next Sunday Funday Ride will take a tour of historic San Fernando and Pacoima on February 3rd, for anyone who’d rather ride than watch the Super Bowl pregame. Which should be just about everyone, unless the Rams win on Sunday.

London’s Evening Standard offers what they call the ultimate feel good guide to Los Angeles — as long as Los Angeles doesn’t extend much beyond the Westside. But at least they recommend renting a bike and riding the beachfront Marvin Braude bike path.

Culver City will hold a ribbon cutting next Friday for segment 7 of the Park to Playa Trail, a 13-mile regional trail connecting Baldwin Hills to the Pacific Ocean.

State

A proposal in the state legislature would eliminate the need for duplicate federal and state environmental reviews for roadways, bikeways and pedestrian projects, reducing costs and speeding the approval process.

Encinitas may cut the speed limit on the Coast Highway from 35 mph to 30, in advance of construction on new bike lanes and sidewalks.

Perhaps making up for the demise of Interbike, the opening day of the inaugural CABDA West bike expo in Del Mar drew 1,200 retailers, mostly from Southern California.

Robert Leone forwards this story about the UC San Diego fencing team deciding to wear helmets any time they bike or skateboard, noting that fencing was one of the first sports to require helmets. Then again, they also have swords, which should help immensely in slicing through traffic or cutting across campus.

A San Diego man is asking for the public’s help in identifying the thief who stole the bicycle he was using to recover from injuries suffered in a motorcycle crash. On the other hand, that’s about what you can expect when you leave an unlocked bike on your front porch.

A Canadian writer goes mountain biking at SkyPark at Santa’s Village near Lake Arrowhead.

A year in, not everyone in Santa Cruz is happy with Jump’s dockless ebike program.

A new San Francisco bike brand can be ordered online and built up for whatever kind of riding you want, from gravel to touring. And then a local bike shop or mechanic will put it together for you.

National

Nothing like a DARPA designed foldie for the next time you need to jump out of a plane and hit the ground rolling.

This is why you shouldn’t fight with a bike thief. An Albuquerque man was fatally shot after struggling with a man who tried to take his bike as he waited for a bus. Seriously, just let it go. No bike is worth your life.

The company behind the late, lamented Interbike trade show floats a trial balloon, saying they could combine a bike trade show with Denver’s Outdoor Retailer shows.

Bicycling injuries and fatalities spiked in Dallas last year; a local magazine blames the introduction of bikeshare on streets without bike lanes. Although as others have told me, correlation does not equal causation; blaming bikeshare is meaningless until we know how many of those deaths and injuries happened to bikeshare riders.

A Boston area bicyclist and former selectman says bike lanes would be great, but they’re a luxury until the crappy pavement is fixed.

Bicycling says Whoopie couldn’t be more wrong about bike lanes, and the one she complained about on The View doesn’t even exist. She didn’t seem any calmer the next day, either. Meanwhile, a writer for Denver Streetsblog says he still loves Whoopie, even though she hates bikes.

A Philadelphia councilmember wants to know if e-scooters are good for black neighborhoods not served by the city’s bikeshare system. Although a better option would be a bikeshare system that serves everyone.

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is in a wheelchair as she recovers from a broken hip socket and pelvis suffered in a recent bike crash.

Orlando FL follows Santa Monica’s lead, and installs parking boxes where dockless bikeshare ebikes can be left and picked up without blocking sidewalks. Los Angeles, not so much.

Good Samaritans use a floor jack to rescue a Florida bike rider after he was run over by a pickup driver and trapped under the truck.

International

Road.cc considers 15 things they say every cyclist loves. Which, of course, not everyone does.

Bicycling as a moving meditation to keep you grounded. I’ve long considered riding a bicycle a form of meditation, and the only place I’ve ever experienced the Zen state of satori.

A UK columnist says bicyclists should have properly policed, protected bike lanes, and drivers should have to retake their driver’s test every seven years.

A British man faces serious charges after he was busted for the hit-and-run bike crash that left a 70-year old woman with life-changing injuries.

A bike-riding Brit hit man has been convicted of two murders, tied to the crimes by his fitness tracker. Note to the wise: If you plan to kill anyone, leave the Apple Watch and Fitbit behind.

Only in Ireland would a story on bike safety begin by quoting George Orwell and the poet Philip Larkin.

No bias here. A former Irish mayor describes bicyclists as “vicious.”

You can now legally use your e-scooters and hoverboards in Denmark’s bike lanes.

A New Zealand driver slammed into a group of bicyclists riding home from a race, hitting two directly, while several others fell like dominos; fortunately, none of the victims were seriously injured. And do we really need to say the driver kept going without stopping?

An Aussie news site offers tips on what kind of bike you should get.

Complaints about bikeshare were up 450% in Shanghai last year, making up nearly 20% of all complaints the city received.

Also in Shanghai, a man got a month in detention for running down a bike rider while still drunk from the night before.

Competitive Cycling

The Amgen Tour of California releases this year’s designs for the leader’s jerseys.

Bike Snob’s Eben Weiss says drug testing a 90-year old cyclist is just going too damn far.

Finally…

Yes, it may wrap around your waist and sit on your hip, but don’t call it a fanny pack. The key to preventing bike theft is finding a safe place to park it.

And Lance Armstrong, venture capitalist.

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

Morning Links: Metro plans congestion pricing, CiclaValley gets right hooked, and Whoopi hates bike lanes

January 17, 2019 / / Comments Off on Morning Links: Metro plans congestion pricing, CiclaValley gets right hooked, and Whoopi hates bike lanes

In a surprising revelation, Metro’s CEO says the transit agency will move forward with plans for congestion pricing on LA freeways.

The fees are intended to ease traffic and get cars off the roads, while providing funding to fast-track transit projects and subsidize free fares on buses and trains.

Although knowing LA drivers, it’s likely congestion pricing to just shift traffic onto already overcrowded surface streets unless steps are taken to mitigate it at the same time.

Meanwhile, Streetsblog’s Joe Linton lists the benefits of congestion pricing.

And New York Streetsblog says a New York columnist is wrong when he calls congestion pricing a scam.

Which is putting it mildly.

………

CiclaValley nearly gets right hooked from the left lane, and asks how many other “wrong things” the driver did.

On the other hand, it’s nice to note he’s not the only bike commuter out there, even in today’s rainy weather.

………

Evidently, Whoopi Goldberg is no fan of bike lanes.

She took New York’s Mayor de Blasio to task when he appeared on The View to discuss his recent proposals, including Vision Zero.

“It all sounds good, but you know what’s pissing me off?” said Goldberg…

“You built 83 miles of protected bike lanes, and I like people who ride, but I don’t think you understand the impact of taking something like Tenth Avenue, which is six lanes, down to two-and-a-half — particularly when you have a winter storm and you can’t move. None of that movable, so nothing flows,” added Goldberg, referring to the Tenth Avenue dedicated bike lane.

Although she might have been exaggerating slightly, as Gothamist points out.

It’s not clear if Goldberg was referring to the bike lane on Amsterdam Avenue between 72nd and 110th, which the DOT says has not meaningfully affected traffic flow, or the planned bike lane on 10th between 52nd and 72nd, which will only require repurposing one lane of traffic, and will delay traffic by five seconds. 

She was just getting started, though.

“And I am just saying you might want to take a look at all of this because you now have [Gov.] Cuomo coming in talking about congestion pricing and I kind of feel like it’s a set up,” said Goldberg, to loud applause from the audience. “I am upset that you love these bikes, but you don’t tell people to put helmets on,” she added. “We tell children to put helmets on.”

“We have nine-block-long trucks delivering, and they can’t make the turns,” she added. “What feasibility study did y’all do when you decided to put these in? I noticed they are not on Madison Avenue, and they are not on Park Avenue?”

Which sounds like a good argument to put them on Madison and Park Aves to me.

Never mind that she begins by trotting out the inevitable support for people who ride bicycles, as long as they don’t get in the way of her commute from her $2 million New Jersey home.

And don’t get me started on how bike helmets can prevent some head injuries, but aren’t magic talismans to somehow prevent crashes or injuries to any other part of the body.

Gothamist also has this to say about her complaints over congestion pricing.

Studies have shown that congestion pricing is a “scam” if you think charging predominately wealthier New Yorkers to travel into Manhattan is a scam—only 4 percent of New Yorkers who commute into Manhattan take a private car, and more than half of that group are “high income” individuals. Variety has reported that Whoopi Goldberg is paid around $5 to $6 million a year to appear on The View. 

The View tapes at 57 West 66th Street, steps from where cyclist Madison Jane Lyden was killed by a garbage truck driver last year, increasing demands for a two way bike lane along Central Park West. 

………

Local

Maybe someone can explain why Los Angeles, with its nearly perfect winter weather — present circumstances not withstanding — continues to ignore Winter Bike to Work Day, which is scheduled for Friday, February 8th.

Just heartbreaking. A speeding hit-and-run driver lost control on Hyperion before slamming into a building. And killed a mother of three who was sorting the trash looking for cans to help pay her daughter’s college tuition — then got out of his car to inspect the damage before driving off.

Things are changing already in Westwood after the breakup of the overly conservative Westwood Neighborhood Council, as the new North Westwood NC votes to support a plan to remove four parking spaces to create a parklet on Glendon Ave.

State

Ebike prices continue to drop, as former fixie maker Aventon introduces a $1,000 model at Del Mar’s CABDA West trade show.

Santa Clara is the latest city to attempt to shove the e-scooter genie back into the bottle, banning the devices until next December.

National

A new white paper from The City Fix suggests three ways cities can harness the benefits of the bikeshare revolution.

Safe Routes to Schools has released their 2019 guide to starting and growing a safe routes to schools program.

If you like to do your cycling inside — which is starting to look better and better here in SoCal — and don’t mind parting with $2,200, CNET says the Peloton Bike is a worthy splurge. Except for the water bottle holders.

After riding 14,000 miles across the US, Alaska, Ghana, Mexico and Cuba, a Washington woman takes a deep dive into the lost history of female bicycle explorers, and shares what she learned.

A cow made a mad dash for freedom from an Alaskan rodeo six months ago, and has continued to evade cowboys and fat bike riders in the frozen wilderness.

Evidently, Lance’s settlement with the feds left him with a few bucks, as Architectural Digest visits his art-filled Aspen home, complete with a new Banksy he bought online.

A Colorado man is back behind bars after making a break from county jail on a bicycle and facing additional charges for the escape; he would have been a free man in less than two weeks with a little more patience.

The University of Colorado offers tips to prevent the #1 crime on campus — bike theft.

Nice guy. After a judge orders a hit-and-run driver to apologize to the ten-year old upstate New York boy he sideswiped, the man responded with a snarky non-apology, saying he’s “very sorry that you rode into the side of the car I was driving.” The judge scheduled a hearing today to reconsider his decision to dismiss the case. Let’s hope that judge finds a deep hole to shove him into.

International

Good question. A Trinidad newspaper wants to know what’s going on with the investigations into three people who were killed while riding their bikes on the island in November and December.

Yet another pedestrian has been injured in a collision with a bike rider in the UK, as Scottish shopkeepers rushed to help a young man who suffered serious head injuries in the crash; no word on whether the rider stopped.

British police are looking for a mountain biker who punched a pedestrian in the face as he rode by, in what appears to be a random attack.

A short video from the BBC asks if popping wheelies can keep kids away from knife crime.

Spanish actor Dani Rovira was lucky to survive a horrifying crash with a distracted driver; the cameras were rolling as he and a companion were riding from Barcelona to Rome to raise awareness for Rett syndrome when the driver plowed into them. As always, be sure you really want to see the crash before you hit play, because you can’t unsee it once you do. Thanks to Victor Bale for the heads-up.

Who says you can’t carry things on a bike? After all his neighbors refused to help because she was from a lower caste, an Indian teenager carries the body of his dead mother up to two and a half miles on his bicycle to be cremated.

Six New Zealand men are proposing what would be an 80-mile mountain bike loop.

A group of bighearted Aussie bicyclists belonging to Bicycles for Humanity shipped forty donated bicycles to help impoverished people in Malawi.

Forget license plates for bicyclists. Shanghai is using facial recognition to bust scofflaw bike and scooter riders who stop in the crosswalk.

Competitive Cycling

Cyclist talks with a domestique about the life of pro cycling’s invisible men.

An American cycling journalist travels to Central America and discovers pura vida at the Vuelta Ciclista a Costa Rica.

British cyclist Jess Varnish lost her employment discrimination and whistle-blower case against British Cycling after she was dropped from the team; the court ruled that she wasn’t an employee in dismissing the case.

Finally…

Repeat after me — when you’ve got an outstanding warrant for assaulting a police officer, don’t ride your bike on the damn sidewalk. Now you, too, can have your very own $140,000, 3D-printed bicycle. Yes, $140,000.

And America’s president thinks if you bike too much, you’ll use up all your energy and drop dead.

No, really.

Category: Morning Links /

Morning Links: Bike riding pervs and hit-and-run bike riders, LA stands in for NYC bikeshare, and cops in bike lanes

January 16, 2019 / / Comments Off on Morning Links: Bike riding pervs and hit-and-run bike riders, LA stands in for NYC bikeshare, and cops in bike lanes

Today’s common theme is bike-riding sexual predators, and hit-and-run bike riders.

Sheriff’s deputies in Woodside CA are searching for a bike rider who grabbed a girl’s ass as she walked on a high school campus Monday night. Thanks to Robert Leone for the heads-up. And no, there’s no effing excuse for that, ever.

A bike-riding Hungarian man will spend a well-deserved four years in a UK prison for groping 21 women as he rode by over a 13-week period.

Meanwhile, British police bust a hit-and-run bike rider after a collision with a 70-year old woman crossing the street that left the victim with what police describe as life-changing injuries.

And police in another English town are investigating a crash between a bike rider and a pedestrian that left the victim with a serious head injury.

………

Either Downtown Los Angeles is once again standing in for New York, or New York bikeshare Citi Bike has decided to give LA’s Metro Bike a run for its money.

https://twitter.com/StevenMWhite/status/1085221735815761923

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LA cops just insist on parking in bike lanes.

https://twitter.com/topomodesto/status/1085265487959740416

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I want to be like him when I grow up.

An 82-year old Englishman is back on his mountain bike after beating cancer.

………

Stop whatever you’re doing, and take two minutes to watch former BMX pro Matt Row rip through a Welsh mountain bike trail as if he was still riding a stunt bike.

It may just be the best thing you see today.

………

Local

Los Angeles County dropped plans to ban e-scooters from the streets in unincorporated areas after discovering it wouldn’t stand up in court, ordering staff to draw up plans by March to regulate scooters instead.

I’m not a fan of Santa Clarita’s Head’s Up traffic safety campaign, but it may be working; traffic collisions are projected to drop 14% in the city last year.

As we enter our third consecutive day of rain, a floating bike might come in handy for SoCal bicyclists right about now. Just a suggestion.

State

No bias here. After a bike rider was struck by a Costa Mesa cop, the Daily Pilot questions whether the rider had “safety gear” or lights, but doesn’t question the driver’s actions in any way — or even mention one. Meanwhile, a new study points out six ways the media is still blaming the victims.

Mission Viejo will host a bike rodeo and workshop for the city’s Bikeway Master Plan on January 26th.

An op-ed from an Orange County healthcare consultant says better health is as easy as riding a bike.

Del Mar will be hosting the inaugural CABDA West bicycle expo this week, with 1,150 attendees from 410 bike shops.

The family of a fallen bicyclist calls for changes on the Fresno street where he was killed, blaming a lack of bike lanes and street lights for his death. Thanks to Frank Lehnerz for the tip.

San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo says he learned the hard way that SUVs don’t bend, as he returns to city hall two weeks after broadsiding one in a New Year’s bike crash. Thanks to Patt Morrison for the link.

San Jose transportation columnist Mr.Roadshow explains the what and why behind all those different bike markings on the street.

National

An engineering website says the only correct number of traffic deaths is zero.

Wired asks if advocates are selling out by going to work for tech companies as they move into the bike world. If you can call companies like Uber, Lyft and Lime tech companies.

Bike commuting appeared to spike in Seattle this week in the Emerald City’s version of Carmageddon, as the seaside Alaskan Way Viaduct was shut down, three weeks before the tunnel replacing it is set to open.

A new Seattle study shows that only 20% of dockless bikeshare riders wear helmets despite the city’s mandatory helmet law, compared to 90% of riders using their own bikes.

A bighearted Wyoming man has given away over 7,000 bicycles in the last two years; he started the Lauralynn Project after giving an extra bike to a woman who had one stolen, then bought two more for her kids.

Dallas plans to increase the amount of bike lanes in the city to accommodate new dockless bikeshare, ebikes and e-scooters.

An Ohio driver pled guilty to vehicular manslaughter in the death of a bike rider, even though he claimed the sun was in his eyes. Which is usually a Get Out of Jail Free excuse for most motorists, even though it shouldn’t be.

A 34-year old Tennessee woman dropped 160 pounds by getting on her bike after her father died from a heart attack.

A New York state woman faces charges after lying to the police; she allegedly struck a ten-year old boy with her car, then walked up to police officers investigating the crash and told them the driver fled in another direction.

Life is cheap in New York, where a garbage truck driver who killed a bike-riding Australian tourist walked with just a $1,000 fine despite drinking beer before driving, after prosecutors couldn’t prove he was drunk.

Talk about not getting it. A Virginia letter writer says Vision Zero is just a plot to increase congestion and force more cars off the street.

Heartbreaking story. Bicycling asks who has the right to remove a ghost bike, as a Virginia property owner ignores a mother’s pain and removes the ghost bike honoring her daughter, even though it wasn’t on his property.

A Florida newspaper compares bicycling versus running, and concludes that running burns more calories, but bicycling is safer. They also note that Men’s Health says you can expect to crash on your bike just once every 900,000 miles. Which means I’m way above average.

International

The Sierra Club profiles a woman who got back on a bike for the first time in 12 years after leaving Iran for Canada, and has no intention of getting off.

Good piece from a BC planning student, who says we can do a lot more to improve safety on our streets — starting with dumping the big trucks and SUVs.

Caught on video: This is how easy it is for British bike thieves to steal a $5,000 ebike.

Bike Europe calls for action to fight a plan to require liability insurance to ride an ebike on the continent.

Here’s one for your mountain bike bucket list — shredding the trails of Italy’s South Sardinia.

The town of Karditsa has become one Greece’s most bike friendly cities, with one bicycle for every two residents.

Two men from Nepal were arrested in Tokyo after getting drunk, stealing a bicycle and placing it on a set of train tracks, where it was run over, damaging the train and delaying morning commuters. Must have seemed like a good idea at the time.

A Singaporean bike rider and the truck driver who rammed him off the in a viral road rage video last month are both facing serious charges as a result of the clash.

The South China Morning Post says blockchain can save what’s left of the dockless bikeshare industry following the collapse of Chinese bikeshare providers.

Competitive Cycling

Good news from Italy, where 18-year old junior cyclist Samuele Manfredi has come out of a medically induced coma, a month after he was run over by a driver while on a training ride.

The Australian Broadcast Network says descending at over 60 mph remains one of cycling’s greatest tests of nerve.

Outside writes that pros won’t ruin gravel racing. Probably.

Finally…

Probably not the best idea to punch a bike thief if he didn’t really steal your bike. Riding your bike without handlebars is now officially reckless.

And how to tell when you’re wheelie bad.

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

Morning Links: New bill requires Complete Streets on state roads, and SD man suffers life threatening injuries

January 15, 2019 / / One comment

A new bill in the state legislature would require Caltrans to make changes to improve safety for bicyclists and pedestrians whenever they maintain or improve any state highways.

And that includes requiring Complete Streets on state-owned surface streets such as LA’s Sepulveda and Santa Monica Blvd, and Pacific Coast Highway in the ‘Bu.

SB 127, sponsored by San Francisco State Senator Scott Weiner, would shift the focus of California’s transportation department to serving all road users, not just the ones in the big, dangerous machines. Unlike what it has done throughout its existence.

It would also require state transportation funding programs to prioritize pedestrian and bicyclist safety.

According to Streetsblog California,

Senator Wiener said his goals with S.B.127 are threefold: to increase safety, to help people live healthier lives by encouraging more use of active transportation modes, and to create better climate outcomes by giving people the option to use environmentally friendly travel modes. “That can only happen if it’s safe to do so,” he said.

“Caltrans has historically treated these surface streets as if they were the same as a major traditional highway,” said Senator Wiener, “and they’re not. We need to make sure these streets are safe for all users.”

The bill will undoubtedly meet opposition from entrenched motorist interests, just like any other recent Complete Streets bill that seems to threaten the automotive hegemony on our streets.

But it could make a real, and lasting, difference in the way Californians get around.

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Sad news from San Diego, where a man suffered life-threatening injuries in a collision while riding his bike in the Linda Vista neighborhood.

Unfortunately, a message from a police watch commander makes it clear he’s not expected to survive.

Thanks to Phillip Young for the heads-up.

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That hardly ever happens in real life.

After a very close call, a truck driver pulled over to apologize to the bike rider he nearly ran down.

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There’s a reason why bike racers ride instead of rapping.

https://twitter.com/AstanaTeam/status/1084816681682300928

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Local

Santa Monica provides a three-month update on the city’s Shared Mobility Pilot Program, including 52 bike and scooter parking zones throughout the city, with plans for up to 50 more. That compares favorably with LA’s zero.

A Dallas magazine says Santa Monica-based Bird has quietly backed off plans to give cities money to build more bike lanes, after apparently running out of venture capital cash.

State

San Jose’s mayor is back at work following his New Year’s Day bike crash.

A San Francisco-based company is using cellphone data to measure bicycle and pedestrian traffic to improve traffic planning.

San Francisco Streetsblog’s Roger Rudick takes local officials to task, correctly noting that Vision Zero requires a total commitment to safety and responsibility. Someone please tell our mayor and city council that. And LADOT. And the LAPD. And LA Vision Zero.

National

If you own a 2017 or later Specialized with Specialized’s Future Shock front road suspension feature, you should stop riding it immediately and take it back to a dealer for repairs under a recall.

Business Insider lists their picks for the best bike helmets in five different categories.

Bicycling says doing any kind of physical activity for just 30 minutes a day will help you live longer. Like bicycling, for instance.

Police in Everett WA are trying to identify a man seen riding a bicycle in the area, after he was found dead in a local park.

A Washington man says if a BMX rider is wearing a mask or a bandana, police should assume they’re criminals and violate their constitutional rights. And let ’em sue if they don’t like it.

Writing in Bicycle Retailer, a staff member from Bike Utah says better infrastructure in the answer to growth in ridership and the bike industry.

Unbelievable. A road raging Illinois driver repeatedly slammed into a bike rider, then ran over him, breaking his arm, leg and pelvis, before she was arrested driving away with his bike still stuck under her SUV. Then was acquitted of attempted murder and six other felony counts a year later by reason of insanity. By that standard, there are a lot of crazy people behind the wheel. Thanks again to Phillip Young.

Chicago and New York both held extensive public meetings on how and where to expand their public bikeshare systems — and promptly ignored the results.

A Massachusetts magazine calls for a “radical rethinking” of Boston’s major streets, describing them as “grotesquely overbuilt, inequitably allocating nearly all their space to single-occupant motor vehicles.”

Apparently having missed the memo that bikes are good for business, New York business owners are demanding that the city rip out new bike lanes that were installed as part of a now-cancelled plan to shut down a subway for maintenance. Because parking.

A Philly bike cop sues the department, alleging bias against Italian-Americans.

A Virginia newspaper remembers a local icon known for decades as Bicycle Charlie due to his ever-present bicycle. Except his name was Floyd.

International

The European Union is considering a plan that would require ebike riders to carry liability insurance — which is not required for any other type of bicycles — in an apparent attempt to kill the market for them.

A 12-year old London boy was lucky to escape with minor injuries after riding into the path of a bus as he tried to escape from older boys who were chasing him.

Irish police bust a suspect bike thief, and recover five hot bikes and a stash of coke and weed.

An Aussie rider’s high-end Pinarello road bike is now a melted carbon mess after his add-on ebike hub caught fire — and couldn’t be approached to put it out because the CO2 canisters in his seat bag started exploding.

Three Australian bicyclists suffered minor injuries in a rare bike on bike on bike crash.

No bias here. An Aussie motorcycling group has called for bicyclists to be forced to wear unique numbers somewhere on their body, so they can be charged for violating traffic laws. Never mind that unlike motorcyclists and drivers, bicyclists pose minimal risk to others.

Competitive Cycling

Slovenian cyclist Jani Brajkovic got off with just a ten-month ban for failing a doping test, after he convinced officials he ingested it accidentally as part of a supplement.

The former team physician for Team Sky and British Cycling faces doping related criminal charges.

Great story about a Cat 2 bike racer from Arkansas, who lost his leg as a result of a crash while playing bike polo — then won a national championship in individual pursuit, along with another silver and a bronze, at the recent Paralympic National Championships.

A 15-year old British boy is the first champion of the five-day E-Bike Desert Challenge through the sands of the Moroccan desert.

Finally…

If you want to lose weight, get a job as a bicycle courier. More proof bike shorts look ridiculous in the absence of a bicycle, no matter what decade you’re in.

And if you’re riding your bike while drunk as a skunk and tossing the empties, half empties and full cans into your bike trailer, put a damn light on it already.

And don’t threaten the cops that pull you over.

Seriously.

Category: General / Tags: , , , , , , ,
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