Morning Links: Busting bike thieves around the world, CiclaValley rides Riverside Drive, and coke dart doping

September 7, 2018 / / 3 comments

Today’s common theme is stolen bikes and the thieves who take them.

Bike thieves in Moab UT aren’t bothering to break bike locks, but stealing the entire bike rack along with the bicycle. Only use bike racks that are embedded in the concrete. And make sure there are no cuts in the rack, which thieves often hide under stickers.

Edmonton, Alberta police bust a prolific bike thief, recovering 83 bikes worth up to $20,000. Which is a good reminder to register your bikes now, so you’ll be protected if it someone like that comes to visit your bike.

A British cop out rides a suspected bike thief in a high-speed bike chase caught on first-person bodycam video.

Police in Dublin, Ireland are starting a “Lock it or lose it” campaign, after bike thieves make off with nearly 10,000 bicycles in two and a half years; nationwide, the total is at least 14,000, with more thefts unreported.

As today’s photo shows, bike thieves don’t always take the whole bike at once. Which means you need to secure as much of your bike as possible

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Local

CiclaValley rides the newly redesigned bike lanes on Burbank’s Riverside Drive, and finds them lacking.

KABC-7 discovers the Cycling Savvy program from the nonprofit American Cycling Education Association, including their instructions to take the lane.

Speaking of KABC-7, they talk with the Dream Riders bicycling down the Pacific Coast on the 37-day “Journey to Justice” tour from Seattle to San Diego as they stop in Long Beach.

 

State

A San Clemente letter writer says the greatest risk in allowing bikes on the beach path is that pedestrians may get startled.

An overweight, 68-year old Bakersfield bike rider hears a shouted request to put on a shirt, and politely but firmly says no.

The bike path paralleling Mission Road, aka State Route 246, will be closed for repairs east of Solvang for three weeks, starting September 17th.

A writer for Streetsblog says it’s time to stop hiding behind studies and process, and install a protected bike lane on San Francisco’s Valencia Street.

 

National

Bike Snob says give kids bikes, not helmets, arguing that helmet giveaways are an act of surrender to our dangerous streets.

Streetsblog reports a handful of states are throwing away millions of dollars in transportation funds that could go to build desperately needed sidewalks, bike lanes or trails.

A standup comic is riding down the left coast on a tour of open mic nights, while raising funds to buy 20 bikes through Bicycle Relief.

Nice gesture from the US Air Force, which sent members of the Air Force Cycling Team to assist fellow riders at this year’s RAGBRAI, calling them Guardian Angels of the Road.

One Chicago bicyclist was killed, and another critically injured, in separate dooring incidents.

In a study from Boston, researcher conclude what we already knew — local planning and zoning board meetings are dominated by older, wealthier NIMBYs. Which can be confirmed by virtually anyone who has attended a public meeting to argue for safer streets.

A Harvard research scientist makes the case for designing greener streets, starting with making room for bicycles and trees.

A writer for New York Streetsblog says the state needs to stop treating drivers and bike riders the same, subject to the same $190 fine for running a red light. Even though bike riders pose significantly less risk to others.

A Louisiana grand jury has declined to return a negligent homicide charge against the driver who killed a Baton Rouge city councilman as he rode with a friend, settling instead for a charge of reckless operation of a motor vehicle.

Tampa city leaders express concern that the police are still unfairly ticketing black bike riders when the new police chief shows up without any stats to address it.

 

International

Toronto bicyclists are riding with pool noodles to demonstrate the one-meter passing distance required by law, and often ignored.

A London driver — and a tabloid paper — freaks out over a man in a suit talking on a cellphone as he rides down the street, even though that’s not illegal for bike riders. Unfortunately, the video won’t play in this country.

An actor from the Game of Thrones is riding 980 miles across the UK on a tandem with his father, who suffers for Parkinson’s, to raise funds for a Parkinson’s charity.

The bike mayor of Bangaluru, aka Bangalore, says there’s no denying that bicycling is essential in the city.

The African Cycling Foundation has donated six bicycles to students in Nigeria to help them get to school — and stay in it.

An Australian government conference asks the same question everyone else keeps asking, how can we get more women back on their bikes.

The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes goes on. A road raging Chinese driver gets out of his car and attacks a bike rider with a machete. Until the rider turns the tables and kills the driver with his own knife.

 

Competitive Cycling

The winner of Thursday’s stage of the Vuelta was lucky to escape injury when a boneheaded race official stepped in front of his bike shortly after the end of the race, bringing down several riders.

You may never win a grand tour, but you can live like it, as the sprawling Georgian-style Minnesota estate belonging America’s last remaining Tour de France winner can be yours for a mere $4.9 million.

More proof that it’s not just cyclists who dope, as a professional darts player — yes, darts — has been banned for two years after testing showed a metabolite of cocaine in his system; he blamed it on a night of excess partying.

 

Finally…

Your next bike shorts could cost $300 — without a chamois. It’s one thing to win a KOM, another to beat a horse.

And you can relax now that autonomous cars have giant fake eyes to look at you with.

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If you want to join the Militant Angeleno and me for the first-ever Militant Angeleno’s Epic CicLAvia Tour on September 30th, RSVP by emailing MilitantAngeleno@gmail.com. 

We want to guarantee a relatively small group to make sure we can keep the group together, and everyone can hear.

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , ,

Morning Links: Motorist blames Vision Zero, the real problems on our streets, and the best bicycle dog chase ever

September 6, 2018 / / Comments Off on Morning Links: Motorist blames Vision Zero, the real problems on our streets, and the best bicycle dog chase ever

Honestly, I don’t even know where to start with this one.

A writer for the extremist National Motorists Association blames New York’s Vision Zero for everything this side of the Lindberg kidnapping.

Vision Zero is a huge nightmare for everyone that lives or works in NYC. Since the introduction here of Vision Zero, commute times have more than doubled. The city has introduced road diets, has converted streets for bike and bus only lanes and has gotten rid of left turn lanes. These changes have made NYC streets nearly impassable. Road rage has now become more common due to frustration, crowded roads and less space to drive.

Under the Vision Zero regime, driving to work during morning rush hour takes hours instead of minutes. NYC has become anti-car and really anti-transit too since there seems to be little money available to fix the decrepit subway system. The use of congestion pricing to help pay for the subway won’t help either. Is it fair to make motorists pay for public transportation when we might not even use it?

Never mind that improving public transportation relieves pressure on the traffic grid, as more people choose not to drive.

Let alone his unsupported claim that commute times have doubled — or maybe it’s gone from mere minutes to hours, since he doesn’t seem sure.

Which you’d think would result in higher stress levels, though most New Yorkers seem to disagree.

He also takes offense at “entitled” pedestrians and bike riders who apparently throw themselves in front of those poor, put-upon motorists in hopes of getting hit.

Road diets are one thing but another side product of Vision Zero is that it has produced  a generation of distracted and entitled pedestrians who expect motorists to yield to them as soon as they step foot into the street even when crossing against the light or outside of legal crosswalks. I have witnessed so many close calls where pedestrians with intent moved in front of a moving vehicle because they know whatever happens, the motorist will always be at fault. The same holds true for bicyclists who seem to think that the rules of the road do not apply to them.

But seriously, it’s worth reading, if only to understand who we share the roads with.

Or because you need a good laugh.

Photo by Stanley Nguma via Pexels.com

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Good question.

A mobility blogger says cities are dithering with e-scooter caps, while ignoring the real problem.

When was the last time cities like San Fransisco, Santa Monica, or Los Angeles threatened Ford or GM with cease and desist letters, or slapped them with vehicle caps, or threatened to ban them from cities for creating, say SUVs, that are even more deadly than regular cars, even when we knew they were more deadly 14 years ago?

………

Stop whatever you’re doing, and check out the best bike chase in recent memory, as a couple of ebike riders pursue a runaway dog in a hair-raising ride through the streets of New York.

And be sure to stick around for the surprising denouement.

Update: Unfortunately, it looks like they’ve taken down the original version I’d embedded.

Here’s a less edited and non-captioned version of the video. But it’s worth clicking on the link above to get the full effect.

Thanks to Jeff Vaughn for the heads-up. And the best laugh I’ve had in weeks.

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Local

If you’re headed to the 13th Annual AltCar Expo and Conference in Santa Monica this weekend, go by bicycle and take advantage of the free bike valet. Or better yet, just forget the car and buy a good ebike or cargo bike instead.

Talk about the cup half full. While everyone else saw LA’s e-scooter pilot program as compromise to keep scooters on the streets, KNBC-4 says it will force thousands of scooters off them.

 

State

An Op-Ed in the Desert Sun calls for creating protected bike lanes in a planned makeover of Indian Canyon Drive to create a Complete Street that works for everyone.

Something virtually every bike rider can relate to, as a Thousand Oaks bike rider was forced to jam on the brakes when a driver cut across two lanes of traffic to make a right turn from the left lane.  Let’s give a shout out to TOPD deputy Mike Berg, who says bike riders are at fault in some of the crashes between bicyclists and drivers in the Conejo Valley. Which is undoubtedly true, as is the obverse. 

Protected bike lanes barely win out over parking spaces in San Luis Obispo, as residents argue a cycle track would actually make bicycling more dangerous.

A mobility website asks if San Francisco just solved scooter sharing.

 

National

Treehugger says we all have to stop obsessing about bike helmets, because “in most interactions between bike and truck, the helmet doesn’t make much of a difference,” and just isn’t relevant to the real safety discussion.

A writer for Strong Towns says maybe we need to talk about the dangers of bicycling, as well as advocating for more riders. Because it’s not fair or honest to to do one without the other.

Bicycling says if you really like spin class, try riding a real bicycle once in a while.

Two young Korean men finished a 70-day trip across the US to call attention to Korean comfort women in WWII; only 27 survivors remain today.

A Chicago bike rider was seriously injured by a woman fleeing in a stolen car, just seconds after barely missing a father taking his kids home in a cargo bike.

New signs tell Chicago bike riders to walk their bikes on what is supposed to be a multi-use trail, after a single “crackpot” threatened to sue the city.

New York police wanted to file charges in the case of an Australian tourist who was killed in a crash with a garbage truck after a taxi driver cut her off in the bike lane, but the district attorney refused to accept the case.

A New York website says Central Park is an oasis for bicyclists — if they can get there.

 

International

Practice makes perfect. Yamaha is out with their 25th generation of ebikes, after inventing the ped-assist category in 1993.

A Vancouver bike commuter says the city’s holier-than-thou bicyclists are ruining it for everyone; his point is that a little courtesy and respect for others make a big difference. Although he could make the point just as effectively without stereotyping the people he complains about.

No bias here. A Winnipeg TV station says a bike rider was killed when “collided” with a semi. After all, it couldn’t possibly be that a truck driver actually hit the person on the bike.

Toronto’s mayor calls for a crackdown on loud cars and motorcycles, saying their owners should be heavily fined for creating disturbances. Please, please, please let that spread here to LA. Thanks to Norm Bradwell for the link.

Chinese dockless bikeshare provider Mobike has thrown in the towel in Manchester, England after too much vandalism and too many stolen bikes.

The British government has dropped plans to raise the floor for liability claims to the equivalent of $6,500, which would prevent most bike riders from filing claims for minor injuries.

Britain’s roads minister — the equivalent of our Secretary of Transportation — tells parliament that segregated bike infrastructure is critical for improving traffic safety.

Local residents are threatening to sue to stop a 100-mile closed course UK ride that’s expected to draw up to 15,000 riders; they also plan a walking protest to block the route of the ride.

A German man who now lives on his bike plans to set a new record by riding over 14,000 miles from the Arctic Circle to Argentina in under 125 days.

 

Finally…

Not even bike-riding police commissioners are safe from lawbreaking drivers. When you can’t make the ride for the first time in 18 years, so your friends try to recreate it for him.

And hats off to whoever heroically filmed a British man being beaten by a bike thief in a strong-arm robbery, while a suited man politely tries to sort of, but not really, intervene.

It’s not like anyone would actually want to do something to stop it or anything.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ajcsLBv8c4

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If you want to join the Militant Angeleno and me for the first-ever Militant Angeleno’s Epic CicLAvia Tour on September 30th, RSVP by emailing MilitantAngeleno@gmail.com. 

We want to guarantee a relatively small group to make sure we can keep the group together, and everyone can hear.

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

Morning Links: Surprise LA win for scooters, dockless bikeshare and ebikes, and bizarre concept bikes

September 5, 2018 / / Comments Off on Morning Links: Surprise LA win for scooters, dockless bikeshare and ebikes, and bizarre concept bikes

One quick note on yesterday’s announcement, before we get on to the big news about scooters.

If you want to join the Militant Angeleno and me for the first-ever Militant Angeleno’s Epic CicLAvia Tour, RSVP by emailing MilitantAngeleno@gmail.com. 

We want to guarantee a relatively small group to make sure we can keep the group together, and everyone can hear.

………

Now, on to the day’s big news, as cooler heads finally prevailed in the great e-scooter debate at LA City Hall on Tuesday.

Rather than remove scooters from the mean streets of Los Angeles, as a handful of councilmembers had threatened to do, the council followed the example of Santa Monica and Long Beach by establishing a pilot program while the city works out a final set of rules.

Under the program, both dockless scooters and bikeshare bikes, which had previously been largely prohibited, will be allowed back on the streets.

According to the LA Times,

The companies will be limited to 3,000 scooters or bikes anywhere in the city, but can deploy up to 2,500 more in low-income areas, and an additional 5,000 vehicles in low-income neighborhoods of the San Fernando Valley.

That 3,000 figure represents a significant decrease from the roughly 15,000 scooters Bird alone has already deployed on the streets.

In addition, scooters will be limited to the current top speed of 15 mph, and both bikes and scooters must be parked upright near street furniture, such as benches, bike racks and parking meters, on the other edge of the sidewalk.

Never mind that it is currently illegal to lock a bike to a parking meter in most of the city to avoid blocking handicapped access.

Any offending devices must be removed by the provider within two hours, or the city will charge them to do it.

Or people could just, you know, pick them up and move them out of the way, like I’ve done on a number of occasions.

Providers will also be required to make half of their bicycles ebikes to assist older or handicapped riders, or ensure that at least 1% of their fleet is handicapped accessible.

The process to grant licenses could take up to four months; however, both Bird and Lime are being grandfathered in, and will be allowed to keep up to 3,000 bikes and scooters on the streets in the meantime.

Those limits won’t apply to CD15 and CD4, in the Harbor and Westside areas, respectively, where pilot programs are already in place. So the actual total could be significantly higher.

A quote from the Times piece sums the day’s somewhat messy debate up nicely.

“Some folks see the dawn of scooters as a great opportunity,” said Westside Councilman Mike Bonin. “There are some who consider them to be a tremendous nuisance, blocking our sidewalks, and causing problems for seniors, children and people with disabilities.”

He added: “I happen to agree that both perspectives are true.”

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Just say no to these bizarre attempts to reinvent the bicycle.

Although that forkless bike is kind of cool.

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Forget the post Labor Day stress, and take a couple minutes to follow along on a killer singletrack ride.

Thanks to David Wolfberg for the link.

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Local

The LA Times examines the failure of the Metro Bike bikeshare in Pasadena due to low ridership, and the program’s continued failure to land a sponsor.

 

State

Tres shock! After a San Luis Obispo news site runs an expose informing the public that sometimes the city’s bike-friendly environmentalist mayor sometimes accepts rides in a car, the city’s newspaper says, “so what?”

Davis is marking the 50th anniversary of its first-in-the-nation bike lane network, while serving as a model for its Korean sister city.

A Marin columnist says work is continuing to add a bikeway to the upper deck of the Richmond bridge, and says if the county won’t spring for a bike count to ensure people are actually using it, the paper will do it themselves.

 

National

Outside’s gear editor says it’s the smallest companies that will be hurt most by Trump’s tariffs on bikes and other outdoor equipment, and calls on readers to comment on the program by tomorrow.

NASCAR champ Jimmie Johnson is stock car racing’s evangelist for bicycling.

Great idea. A middle school program available in Idaho, and 16 other states, helps students with behavioral or attention issues sharpen their focus and burn off excess energy by riding mountain bikes before school three days a week.

An Arkansas man has been sentenced to life without parole for the murder and robbery of a well-known world-traveling cyclist.

A Michigan TV station explains what bike boxes are and why. And how to use them.

A Michigan Navy vet with PTSD credits bicycling with helping him lose 280 pounds, and saving his own life.

Bighearted Michigan volunteers fix bicycles for homeless people in a church parking lot every month.

New York’s mayor has halted unprecedented plans to rip out a protected bike lane to satisfy a disgruntled congressman.

The Tennessee driver caught on video fleeing the scene after running down a bicyclist on the Natchez Trace Parkway has been sentenced to ten months in federal prison following his guilty plea; he had originally claimed someone had thrown a bike at his car. Seriously.

A 70-year old Alabama man was killed in a collision with a police officer; needless to say, the local mayor says it was just a tragic accident.

 

International

Bike Radar asks if riding easier gears is a sign of weakness.

The Department of DIY strikes in Toronto, where self-described safety vigilantes take traffic safety improvements into their own hands.

The BBC throws cold water on rumors of a serial killer stalking the canals of Manchester, England, after someone pushed a bike rider into one.

An 81-year old woman donates the Flying Scot bike she used to set a record for the 230-mile crossing of Scotland in 1967 to a local museum, after it was refurbished by her 71-year old friend.

Yesterday, we linked to the youngest bicyclist to ride the full length of Britain; today, it’s an 87-year old man who may be the oldest.

It will take the famed Paris Velib’ bikeshare system at least another year to get back to normal operation after a disastrous change in management companies last year. The question is whether it can get back on it’s feet in time to survive the competition from dockless bikeshare.

Travel & Leisure says the one thing every visitor to Copenhagen has to do is tour the city by bike.

A Croatian inventer has developed an $11,500 ebike favored by Lionel Messi and other top soccer stars. Even if it looks like an offroad motorcycle. Or maybe because it does.

A South African man has developed a prosthetic leg designed to “withstand the intense rigours of mountain bike competitions,” after losing his own leg in 2016.

Bike advocates in Perth, Australia show city councilors why they need to preserve bike paths by taking them for a ride on them. Which once again brings up the question of why no one has never done that with LA city leaders, when most agreed to meet and ride with bicyclists when they completed the LACBC’s candidate surveys.

In a move so rational it’s head spinning, traffic speeds in Aukland, New Zealand are set to drop in the city centers due to an increase in traffic deaths. Unlike California, where speeding drivers set the speed limits, safety be damned.

Singapore cuts the speed limit for bicycles and personal mobility devices used on sidewalks to less than 7 mph; the city-state will also require bike riders to wear helmets.

China has opened a nearly eight-mile long bicycle highway.

 

Competitive Cycling

VeloNews calls 22-year old Marin County cross-country mountain biker Kate Courtney “perhaps the most talented young American cyclist racing today.”

Rouleur trumps that, calling Vincenzo Nibali “Arguably the finest, most complete racer of the current generation.” Even if he doesn’t always race like it.

Cycling Tips offers a photographic look back at the first week of the Vuelta; after a double blowout on Tuesday, only one second separates the leaders.

Go ahead and hit the CBD; the weed-derived product is no longer banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency.

 

Finally…

You can do anything by bike — even conduct a religious pilgrimage. Credit a bicycle and cycling maps for the first cross-county car trip.

And it takes a real schmuck to rearrange a giant bicycle display into one.

 

Category: Morning Links /

Morning Links: BikinginLA & Militant Angeleno host epic CicLAvia tour, and the worldwide war on bikes goes on

September 4, 2018 / / One comment

Okay, so the Militant Angeleno and I may or may not have a small announcement to make.

You may be familiar with the Militant through the Epic CicLAvia Tours he’s prepared for virtually every CicLAvia.

Few, if any, people are more knowledgable about the City of Angels, offering surprising details both large and small.

Yet, he’s never been seen in public.

Until now.

The Militant Angeleno will make his first ever public appearance when we team up to lead The Militant’s Epic CicLAvia Tour at the LA Phil 100 x CicLAvia: Celebrate LA! on Sunday, September 30th.

We’ll meet near Disney Hall at 12 noon; just look for the guy dressed head to toe in camo.

That won’t be me.

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Apparently, an ebike really can help you arrive at work feeling fresher.

A new European study shows ebike riders sweat three times less than people riding regular bicycles, and arrived at their destinations with a lower heartbeat and body temperature.

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The war on cars may be a myth, but the worldwide war on bikes goes on.

Alabama police refuse to do anything after a bike rider is intentionally run down by a driver, who fled the scene afterwards, because the police didn’t want to waste resources since he wasn’t injured or killed or anything.

A British music teacher was lucky to escape with rope burns when someone sabotaged a bikeway by stringing wire across the trail.

A Scotsman was seriously injured when he was deliberately targeted by a car driver following an altercation with a group of men.

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Police are looking for the scumbag — and I use the term advisedly — who fled the scene after running down a pair of San Jose kids on their bikes.

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An elderly Singapore bicyclist gets doored by a cab passenger, who clearly doesn’t give a damn. But at least the driver had the decency to help him up.

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Local

USA Today takes a visit to the Palos Verdes Peninsula, calling it a hidden rural, coastal gem at the end of the beachfront bike path, where bicycling and surfing are the top sports, as any South Bay cyclist can attest.

Zach Rynew, aka CiclaValley, talks bicycling on Bike Talk.

 

State

A bighearted Castro Valley man has a founded a nonprofit he called Bad Business Model Bikes to restore vintage bikes and give them to people in need, for whatever reason.

The San Francisco Chronicle says buses and RVs pose a risk to bike riders on the East Bay’s Mt. Diablo.

 

National

Treehugger’s Lloyd Alter wonders why there’s a constant press to make bike helmets mandatory, but no one is pushing for car helmets — even though car crashes are the biggest cause of head injuries.

A seven-year old mountain bike network has helped bring nearly 30,000 riders and an extra $2 million a year to a Minnesota town, helping to make it one of Outside magazine’s best places to live.

A Chicago community leader says he’s the latest victim of the city’s “broken windows” crackdown on bicycling violations in black neighborhoods, after he was ticketed for riding on an otherwise empty sidewalk.

Bowing to pressure from a Congressional representative, New York will take the unprecedented step of ripping out a protected bike lane; business owners didn’t like it because it made it harder to park illegally.

The New Yorker explains what the other bike signals mean.

New York is taking the first steps to legalize e-scooters in the city, despite the lack of safe places to ride them. Jalopnik worries New York will find a way to ruin it, like it ruins everything else.

The New York Times says virtually nothing has changed after a series of shocking hit-and-run deaths in the city five years ago, except for a name change of the police unit assigned to investigate them.

As if hit-and-run drivers aren’t bad enough, police in New York are looking for a group of ATV riders who fled the scene after killing a bike rider in a crash; witnesses report the riders may have intentionally pulled the victim off his bike.

Saving the best of New York for last, the New York Post’s bike hating columnist is back with a racist, sexist rant that insists only spoiled, young, white males ride bikes, despite obvious evidence to the contrary. I’d say his bosses should make him ride a bike in the city to see what it’s really like, but he probably wouldn’t be able to sit on the saddle with his head so far up his own ass.

The same day that column ran, the Post published another story which points out the real problem, saying over 45% of New York drivers speed, and half of those do it while looking at their phones.

New Orleans bike advocates will be constructing their own temporary protected bike lanes pilot projects to test different types of protected lanes, as well as demonstrate how well they work. Maybe if we tried more pilot projects like this in Los Angeles, we might have better luck making them permanent.

 

International

A writer for Vice says he biked the most dangerous road in the world in Bolivia, and lived to tell the tale. Thanks to Brandi D’Amore for the heads-up.

London takes the next step in fighting smog and climate change by banning everything but electric cars, the newest hybrids, hydrogen vehicles and bikes or ebikes during morning and evening rush hours on nine streets dubbed “ultra-low emissions zones.”

A UK lawyer known as “Mr. Loophole” calls for bicyclists to wear identification placards large enough to be read at a distance, and face fines and point penalties just like drivers. Even though bike riders pose just a minute fraction of the risk to others that drivers do.

A British ultracyclist has reset his record for the most countries visited by bike in a seven day period, traveling through 15 European countries in a single week; he had originally set the record last year, only to see someone else break it a month later.

A new study from the UK casts doubt on the benefits of bikeshare, saying they don’t improve health, reduce CO2 emissions, or reduce congestion on the roads. All of which seem highly questionable.

Dublin residents worry that improving safety for people on bicycles with a parking-protected bike lane will mean speeding bicyclists making things worse for people on foot.

When you’re in the mood to suffer in breathtaking surroundings: A bicycling tour through the mountains of Catalunya, Spain.

Life is cheap in Dubai, where a 22-year old civil defense officer has been sentenced to just six months behind bars and the equivalent of a $3,500 fine for running down a woman training for an Emirati cycling team while he was racing another driver; he was also ordered to pay $54,000 to the victim’s family.

A Saudi Arabian professor was surprised to learn all his government benefits were frozen due to a number of unpaid — and apparently secret — tickets for reckless and distracted bike riding, as well as “drifting” while riding his three-wheeled recumbent; the tickets and fines were all dropped after a social media backlash. And thanks to the article, we now know the Saudi term for a ‘bent is “jariya.”

More trouble for Ofo, as the Chinese dockless bikeshare company is being sued by a 120-year old bikemaker for failing to pay for the equivalent of over $10 million worth of bicycles, and cancelling orders for three million more.

 

Competitive Cycling

The newest track US cycling star is an enduro wrench who rose out of the Kansas corn to set a world record in the 4,000 meters. Twice.

Now you can compete on, if not with, Geraint Thomas.

Another cycling team bites the dust, as Britain’s One Pro Cycling is dropping its men’s team to focus on their women’s team. The good news is it speaks volumes about the growth of women’s cycling.

Cycling Weekly considers why there’s been an increase in compression spinal fractures in pro cycling this year.

As if having to dodge race motos isn’t bad enough, now pro cyclists have to dodge helicopters in the Vuelta, as one rider was injured when he was blown off his bike by copter’s downdraft.

 

Finally…

What could be better than combining bicycles, Dickens and gin? When N + 1 equals 140. It’s not the World Naked Bike Ride if you do it alone. No. Just…no.

And that four-year old bike rider who went viral after giving a truck driver a thumbs up for safe pass is now the youngest person to ride the full length of Great Britain.

 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , ,

Morning Links: Uber & Lyft join Bird & Lime in SaMo, San Gabriel River path closure, and Metro bus squeeze play

August 31, 2018 / / 4 comments

Tomorrow marks the beginning of the three-day Labor Day weekend.

Which means the streets will be filled with drivers leaving work early this afternoon to get a head start on the weekend. And the drinking — and smoking — will start soon after, and continue through Monday. 

Standard holiday rules apply. Assume every driver you see on the streets is under the influence. And those who aren’t are more likely to be looking at their phones than looking for you.

So ride accordingly.

Ride your bike safely and defensively. I want to see you back here bright and early Tuesday morning. 

Photo by Michael Spadoni from pexels.com

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Cooler heads prevailed in Santa Monica, which chose existing e-scooter providers Bird and Lime to participate in a year-long pilot program, along with newcomers Uber and Lyft.

Yes, that Uber and Lyft.

Each company will be allowed to provide up to 1,000 scooters and 2,000 ebikes in the coastal city, with 750 scooters allowed in the initial rollout.

Uber appears to be the only one of the four which currently has ebikes available with their Jump bikes. Presumably Lyft and Lime will follow suit, though it’s unclear if Bird has any interest in getting into the bikeshare business.

Let’s hope Los Angeles, which was supposed to send out cease and desist letters to both Bird and Lime this week, is paying attention.

Because this is how a smart city does it.

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A look at data in Charlotte NC shows that on a level playing field, dockless e-scooters are kicking dockless bikeshare’s ass, with nearly four times as many trips taken on scooters.

However, that could change once e-bikeshare is added to the mix.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg takes a look at Uber’s new Jump scooter.

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Mark your calendar if you ride the San Gabriel River Bike Path in Long Beach.

The city is working with the Los Angeles Department of Public Works on a plans for a one-day closure of the bike path between 2nd Street and 7th Street (California State Highway 22) next month.

The closure is tentatively set for September 17, 2018 from 8 am to 5 pm; plans should be finalized in another week or two.

Thanks to Long Beach Mobility & Healthy Living Programs Officer Michelle Mowery for the heads-up.

………

CiclaValley got caught in a squeeze play with a Metro Bus in DTLA. Something that should never, ever happen.

Period.

………

Local

Streetsblog’s Damien Newton says the MyFigueroa project opened to muted applause, thanks to too many compromises and what ended up as just a semi-protected bike lane, due to a lack of political support and opportunities for public involvement.

Speaking of Streetsblog, Joe Linton notices LA’s incredible disappearing sharrows on 4th Street, and Rosewood Ave. Personally, I consider sharrows a failed experiment; used correctly, they’re good for wayfinding and positioning riders outside the door zone, but little else.

The LACBC’s monthly Sunday Funday ride will meet up with twenty immigration rights advocates riding from Seattle to San Diego for a tour of Long Beach this Sunday.

A Santa Clarita magazine says the city’s Heads Up safety campaign may be working, with collisions down 12% over the first five months of this year.

Writing for the Long Beach Post, Brian Addison suggests the planned expansion of the 710 Freeway won’t be good for the surrounding communities. Or for people on foot or bikes, despite the promises.

 

State

The California legislature has passed AB 2989, which will limit dockless e-scooters to 15 mph, and remove the ridiculous helmet requirement. Now it’s on to the governor’s desk, where we have to worry whether we’ll get Jerry Browned once again.

Streetsblog urges a no vote on Prop 6, which would remove the state’s new gas tax to pay for desperately needed roadway repairs, calling it “an incoherent and childish effort to distract you from Donald Trump.”

A San Diego website recommends the top four things to do on an ebike in the city.

Life is cheap in San Luis Obispo, where a distracted driver walks with probation and community service in the death of a world-class triathlete, thanks in part to the kindness and forgiveness of the victim’s family. Thanks to Victor Bale for the heads-up.

San Francisco will bring back e-scooters after a four month ban, but gives the contracts to a couple of firms most scooter users have never heard of.

A columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle looks at the arrest of Rich City Rides founder Najari Smith for playing his music too loud and allegedly resisting arrest while leading a group ride, aka Biking While Black. His supporters will rally for Smith at a court hearing scheduled for this morning on the noise violation charge. No doubt he’ll be surrounded by countless drivers arrested in Oakland for bumping loud music from their cars. Right?

Frustration boiled over at a meeting to discuss the death of an Oakland man who was killed in a collision while riding his bike, as family members complained about a lack of information and the slow pace of the investigation.

 

National

Bike lawyer Bob Mionske starts a conversation on legal liability for group rides.

The booming popularity of ebikes is outpacing attempts to regulate them, as only 10 states have passed legislation to reclassify them. One of those ten is California, which should get credit for pioneering the regulations the others have copied.

Bike Snob goes e-scooting in Portland, and finds them “both highly convenient and laughably benign.” And wonder’s what’s not to like.

Ride carefully out there. A Baltimore bike rider is in critical condition after a collision with another bicyclist.

No bias here. After two bike riders are killed in separate hit-and-runs in a matter of hours in a Kentucky town, the local police urge riders to wear helmets and hi-viz instead of telling drivers not to hit people, and if they do, stop.

In an attempt to keep dockless bikeshare bikes from cluttering the sidewalks, DC makes the situation worse by requiring that they be locked to a bike rack or street sign at the end of each ride, which will greatly reduce the amount of available bike parking for everyone else.

A bicyclist is passing through Louisiana on her way to Key West in an attempt to be the first woman with a prosthetic leg to bike across the US.

After a Lousiana city councilman was killed when his bike was run down from behind by a negligent driver, the parish where the crash occurred naturally responds with a series of punitive, victim-blaming proposals aimed at the people on two wheels, instead of the ones in the big, dangerous machines.

 

International

No bias here, either. A British Columbia letter writer says no one uses the new bike lanes, and those who do are usually towing carts full of stolen goods.

An Alberta letter writer patiently explains that when a bike rider hits a dog, or anything else, they’re more likely to fall over than ride away.

Ottawa police stress that a woman was injured when she fell on her own while riding on a separated bike lane, and hit a passing truck when she fell. If someone can fall off their bike and hit another vehicle, it’s passing too damn close. And it could have been the close pass that caused her to fall.

A suspect has been arrested in the ebike hit-and-run that left a London woman critically injured as she was trying to cross the street. Security cam video clearly shows the victim dart out into the path of the rider, something that has been left out of the previous press reports. Just like with many motor vehicle crashes, if the bike rider had remained at the scene, there probably wouldn’t have been any charges. Or hysterical tabloid stories, for that matter.

A heroic Brit jumped into a moving van and wrestled the driver’s feet of the pedals to stop him after he ran over a bike rider, then led bystanders in pushing the van up a hill to get it off the victim, who was hospitalized in serious but stable condition.

It’s three years behind bars for an English driver who critically injured two bike riders because he was having an argument with his girlfriend — via video chat while driving.

Like most early car makers, Britain’s Aston Martin was founded by bicyclists. Which means James Bond could have been one of us, too.

A UK letter writer brings out every cliche in the book to call bicyclists an “absolute menace.”

British advocacy group Cycling UK calls on the government to address a fear of cycling, as a new study shows fears about road safety is the main reason that keeps people off their bikes.

A new French study looks at whether there’s really any benefit to drafting uphill. And concludes there’s more than they thought.

Another ride to add to your bike bucket list — traveling from the German birthplace of the bicycle to the gateway to the Black Forest. Then again, word is the Netherlands isn’t bad, either.

A business writer says South Africans are becoming addicted to overseas cycling events.

An Australian study says it could save the country $380 million dollars a year if motor vehicle occupants all wore bicycle helmets. Remember that if a driver gets on your case for not wearing one. And before you get on mine, yes, I always wear a helmet when I ride, but believe grownups should be able to make that decision for themselves.

A Chinese volunteer teaching in Africa took the long way home, riding nearly 10,000 miles from Benin to the Forbidden Kingdom.

 

Competitive Cycling

A Kiwi cyclist reports he got death threats after getting angry with a teammate while winning gold in mountain biking at the Commonwealth Games earlier this year.

In today’s mostly spoiler-free Vuelta event, a rider goes from last place to first in the space of 24 hours.

 

Finally…

If it’s divided from the roadway, pained green and has little pictures of a bicycle stenciled on it, it may not be intended for motor vehicles. Sharrows do not a bike boulevard make.

And when you can’t remember the name of the foreign dignitary visiting your country, just call him “the bicycle guy.”

 

 

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Morning Links: LAPD recovers possibly stolen bikes, Los Feliz NC gets real with Ryu, and ticketing trucks in SaMo

August 30, 2018 / / Comments Off on Morning Links: LAPD recovers possibly stolen bikes, Los Feliz NC gets real with Ryu, and ticketing trucks in SaMo

If you had a bike stolen recently in Santa Monica or Venice, you might want to check with the LAPD’s Pacific Division.

According to the LA Times, the driver of a pickup crashed into two other vehicles as he was fleeing the police. The chase began when officers discovered the truck had been stolen a few days earlier in Bakersfield.

Three people were hospitalized, including a passenger in the truck.

After police arrested the driver, they discovered a number of bicycles in the back of the truck, and were checking to see if they had been stolen.

However, given that most bike thefts are never reported to the police, if the bikes weren’t registered, there’s a good chance they won’t show up in a police database.

Which means the thief will get away with it — assuming they are stolen.

And the owners may never see them again.

Thanks to Joe Linton for the heads-up.

………

I can’t say I’m familiar with the members of the Los Feliz Neighborhood Council. But after reading this letter, I could kiss every one of them.

This especially matters as Ryu contemplates ripping out the highly successful road diet on Rowena — after he already cancelled the desperately-needed road diet planned for 6th Street behind LACMA in the Miracle Mile neighborhood.

LA’s Vision Zero program is already at risk of dying before it has even been implemented, thanks to the auto-centric reactions of city councilmembers who, like Ryu, seem to fear angry drivers more than they fear blood on their hands.

And to answer the question posed in the letter, there is no acceptable number of traffic deaths.

None.

I’d love to see a version of this letter forwarded to every member of the city council. Especially CD1’s “Roadkill” Gil Cedillo and CD5’s Paul “Killer” Koretz.

Thanks to Alissa Walker for posting the letter.

………

File this one under things that never happen in real life.

Yes, that’s a Santa Monica police officer ticketing a delivery driver double-parked in the San Vicente bike lane.

I complained about delivery drivers blocking the bike lanes for years when I regularly rode that route, and never got any results. From the police or the delivery companies.

And was harassed so much that I had to block the comments on my videos of bike lane-blocking trucks on my YouTube channel, and finally had to delete the videos entirely.

Which seems to be what’s happening in Reddit, as redditors argue that police are overreacting to what they consider a minor inconvenience for people on bikes.

Even though blocking those bike lanes forces riders out into the general traffic lanes on a section of roadway where few drivers seem to pay attention to much of anything, including the speed limit.

Still, it’s good to see SaMo police taking this seriously.

Let’s hope they keep it up. And maybe delivery drivers will finally find somewhere else to park.

Thanks again to the esteemed Mr. Linton.

………

The war on cars is a myth, but the war on bikes goes on.

A Toronto bike rider shook his head as he passed a driver blocking an off-road cycle track. So the motorist drove down the road to the next crossing point, waited for other riders to pass, then intentionally plowed into him.

And denied afterwards that he hit anyone.

Fortunately, the whole thing was caught on video.

He now faces charges for hit-and-run and failing to report a collision, as well as failure to yield. Even though he should have been charged with assault with a deadly weapon.

And then a local website has the audacity to say “Both drivers and cyclists are responsible when it comes to road safety.”

Which is like telling shooting victims they have a responsibility to stay out of the way of bullets.

Then there’s this one, where an impatient and indignorant driver can’t even manage to wait a few seconds for a bike rider to have room to pull over and let her pass.

And evidently concludes that the woman on the bike doesn’t belong there, because there’s no bike lane on a street that’s too narrow for one.

https://twitter.com/THREADRIOT/status/1034625219879739395

………

Local

Coldplay’s Chris Martin is one of us, as he goes for a bike ride in the ‘Bu.

 

State

The proposed Peninsula Bikeway promises to connect the cities of Mountain View, Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Atherton and Redwood City, and eventually extend across the entire South Bay Peninsula.

 

National

NPR reports on the great American e-scooter debate, saying dockless scooters are gaining popularity and scorn across the US.

El Paso TX bike riders get a shiny new two-way cycle track along a street car route.

A legally blind Indiana man put over 2,000 miles on his bike in the last year, despite his vision problems — until he was taken down by a pothole. A reminder that bad roads pose a risk to everyone on bikes, but some more than others.

A Cincinnati city councilmember says scooter companies like Bird and Lime should be held responsible for the actions of the people who use them. Which I’m all in favor of, as long as the same rule applies to a few other companies, like Tesla, Ford, GMC, Chrysler, BMW, Mercedes, Lexus, Toyota, Honda, Kia, et al.

Providence RI gets creative with outreach to build support for a bike lane project, including day-long popups. Then again, if people in Rhode Island are anything like people in LA, once the bike lanes are installed, they’ll insist they were never consulted and the popups never happened.

In a study that runs counter to what we’re usually told, Boston researchers conclude that lowering speed limits actually does result in lower speeds. Which we should remember the next time we’re told that raising speeds under the deadly 85 percentile law really doesn’t matter.

Facing as much as 40 years behind bars — or as little as nothing — a New Orleans driver who fled the scene after killing a bike-riding artist begs forgiveness from the victim’s family, saying he thinks about the crash every day. Chances are, they do too.

 

International

A British Columbia woman credits her bike helmet with saving her life when a pickup driver literally ran over her head.

A Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario bike shop has become a haven for bike tourists. And having a free pump track in back doesn’t hurt.

Montreal business owners are fighting a planned bike path along a wide industrial corridor, saying it will increase traffic and angry drivers, even though it will just narrow the overly wide traffic lanes without removing any lanes or parking.

Caught on video: Road.cc talks with a British bikemaker about how hard it is to design a bicycle.

Forty percent of the residents of Malmö, Sweden bike to work or school every day, thanks to a 200-mile bike lane network that makes bicycling the fastest way across the city.

A Bangalore, India website says the city has done nothing to promote bicycling or ensure the safety of bicyclists, despite the 45,000 bike riders in the city.

Life is cheap in Australia, where a driver was acquitted on a charge of dangerous driving in the death of a bike rider, who apparently just magically appeared in front of him.

Police in Australia’s Queensland state have started a new “Stay Wider of the Rider” campaign to fight close passes by drivers.

 

Competitive Cycling

Great piece from Bicycling about LA’s own CNCPT cycling team — aka Concept — made up entirely of people of color. And dedicated to blowing up the sport, in a good way.

The Vuelta saw a long breakaway in Wednesday’s stage, and a change in the leader’s jersey.

Britain’s Mark Cavendish is shutting down his cycling season after being diagnosed with the Epstein-Barr virus; he ranks second on the all-time Tour de France list with 30 stage victories.

Italy’s Vincenzo Nibali continues to have pain in his back after suffering a vertebra fracture in a crash during the Tour de France, and questions whether he will ever be the same again.

 

Finally…

No, it’s not okay to right hook someone in a bike lane. Pedestrians say people on bikes should wear license plates.

And as former pro and current Cookie Monster Phil Gaiman will attest, people who ride bicycles need a good fuel source.

………

I was hoping to attend today’s official opening of the MyFigueroa Complete Streets project, but it looks like a busy day with too many obligations will keep me away. 

If you go, try to corner LA Mayor Eric Garcetti — assuming he’s not too busy running for president to show up — and ask how Vision Zero can work if councilmembers have the power to block projects like MyFig in their own districts. 

And how it can possibly succeed if his own office isn’t willing to go out and fight for it.

I think we’d all like to hear the answers to that.

 

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

Morning Links: Cooler heads in the e-scooters debate, improving MyFig, and parking in a protected bike lane

August 29, 2018 / / One comment

Here are a couple of the smartest takes on the great e-scooters debate I’ve seen yet.

LA’s own CD15 Councilmember Joe Buscaino penned a great Op-Ed for the Los Angeles Daily News, in which he pointed out the real problem on our streets.

And it ain’t scooters.

Most of those concerned cited safety as their primary issue with dockless scooters- they disrupt traffic when ridden in traffic lanes, cause conflict when taken on the sidewalk by scofflaw riders, and cause accessibility issues when parked in all kinds of inappropriate places.

I understand these sentiments, because I see all the same issues on our streets and sidewalks — with cars. Cars clog our streets everyday in traffic jams which are only made worse when collisions occur. I see cars parked on the sidewalk and on front lawns all the time.

The worst part about cars is the manner in whic*h people are severely injured or even killed due to vehicle collisions. This isn’t some abstract problem — we have good hard evidence that children in America are twice as likely to die in traffic collisions relative to other affluent nations. Traffic collisions are the leading cause of death for children ages 2-14 in Los Angeles.

So while I get the concern for safety on scooters, it strikes me as misplaced to blame the scooters rather than the 4,000-pound steel machines that are actually hurting people.

It’s definitely worth reading the whole thing. And maybe remembering his name when Eric Garcetti is termed out as mayor in 2022.

In another great take, a writer for a governing website says cars cause all the same problems that people complain about e-scooters causing, but scooters don’t pose a risk to others. And smart planners will make room for them.

An Oakland panel discussion tackles the topic of e-scooters, saying they pose the potential to divert drivers for short trips up to three miles, and could be the key to getting safe bike lanes.

And an Op-Ed in the LA Times says let tech solve the problem of e-scooters.

Photo shamelessly borrowed from the Bird website.

………

As we’ve mentioned a few times, the long-delayed MyFigueroa project is finally getting an official unveiling on Thursday, after nearly a decade of planning and too many compromises.

Which have left some people ecstatic over the new protected bikeway, and others wondering why the city even bothered.

Fortunately, the LACBC and other bike advocates have made progress in addressing those complaints directly with LADOT.

Here’s what Michael MacDonald of Bike the Vote LA had to say.

We’ve been working behind the scenes in dialog with our local representatives and LADOT about the concerns that many have communicated in this group and on Twitter. We still have work to do, but we’ve made some significant progress that I wanted to share.

Most notably, those of you who visit 7th and Figueroa should find that the ‘beg buttons’ are gone. There are still pedestrian buttons at this intersection, but they aren’t mandatory in order to receive a green walk signal. Similarly, by Thursday the bike signals at Olympic and 9th St should default to a green light on every signal cycle.

We’re hoping to continue to make some progress on the signal design, illegal parking in the bike lane, and improving the look and feel of bike infrastructure to be something that people of all ages and abilities can use comfortably.

If you care about this project — and I believe all in this group do — I would encourage you to attend the opening event on Thursday morning.

Hope to see you there.

 

And this is how LADOT responded to the complaints, in addition to offering a detailed explanation of what was done and why.

Based on community comments, LADOT has made these adjustments to MyFigueroa:

  • Added bollards in areas where the bike lanes are generally unprotected and do not operate with bicycle signals, and for more physical separation and to discourage vehicles from stopping in the bike lane to load or unload or to park illegally
  • Allowed for better signal progression and reduced travel time for bicyclists by adjusting signal timing and instituting rest-in-red for the bicycle and right turn signal indicators
  • Extended the MyFig project north to facilitate a continuous protected northbound bike lane from 11th Street to Wilshire Boulevard (bike lane previously became unprotected at 8th Street and terminated at 7th Street) to allow for a more robust connection to bike lanes on 7th Street and the bike lane on Figueroa Street which continues to Cesar E. Chavez Avenue/Sunset Boulevard

………

Richard Rosenthal forwards word that Long Beach has installed a much needed parking-protected bike lane on Bellflower Blvd.

But not everyone seems to have gotten the memo.

Although you’d think the bike symbol right behind his car might have been a clue.

………

CicLAvia is holding a meeting to discuss the next event on September 30th, which will end in my figurative backyard.

………

LAPD Sgt. Helper has more than lived up to his name, going out of his way to help LA’s bicycling community.

Now it’s our turn to repay him.

A bike cop and bicyclist himself, Helper is raising funds to ride in next year’s Police Unity Tour to honor fallen officers and raise funds for a National Law Enforcement Officer’s Memorial and Museum.

In other words, a good guy riding his bike to raise funds for a great cause. If that doesn’t make you open your wallet and make a donation, I don’t know what will.

And yes, I may be broke these days. But I still managed to scrape a little together to help him out.

………

Local

Now it makes a more sense. Yesterday we linked to a story saying the Gabriel National Recreation Trail was reopening this weekend thanks to the efforts of volunteers. But make that the popular Gabrielino Trail singletrack path through the Angeles National Forest.

TMZ reports actress Maura Tierney appeared to be okay a day after she was hit by a driver while riding in the Washington Blvd bike lane in Marina del Rey, as a paparazzo catches her walking gingerly near her home. Just be glad you don’t have photographers waiting in the bushes outside your door after your next crash.

Bellflower is looking for input as they develop a new active transportation plan. Thanks to Bike SGV for the link.

 

State

No news is good news. Right?

 

National

The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes goes on, as a Utah endurance cyclist was the victim of a jerk in a truck rolling coal — and they have a photograph to prove it. But the state police apparently don’t give a damn.

This is who we share the roads with. A Colorado Springs CO news team was lucky to survive when they were nearly run down by a driver while reporting live from a crime scene — even though they were standing in a bike lane. Or maybe because they were in a bike lane. Thanks to Jeff Vaughn for the heads-up.

A Fargo ND city commissioner calls for raising bicycle traffic tickets from $5 to $20, saying traffic infractions committed on a bike should be treated the same as those committed in a motor vehicle. Because bikes pose just as much risk to others as cars and SUVs, right? And if they’re charging drivers just $20, something is seriously wrong. 

A San Antonio company is offering ebike conversion kits to transform your ride into an up to 30 mph speedster for a mere $800 to $1,200.

This is why people continue to die on our streets. An Indiana man got a gentle caress on the wrist for running down a bike rider while high on methadone, leaving his victim seriously injured. Somehow, the judge was convinced to allow him to serve the paltry one year sentence at home, despite two prior convictions.

The NYPD is targeting delivery riders for using illegal throttle-controlled ebikes, rather than ticketing the companies they work for — even though the law clearly says the employer is responsible.

The New York driver who left a car parked in a bike lane with a note saying it predated the lane explained himself, saying the bike lane was painted around the car two days after he left on a weeklong vacation.

You’ve got to be kidding. A DC police spokesperson calls dead pedestrians lazy for getting killed by drivers, and the unquestioning local ABC affiliate runs with the demonstrably false story.

 

International

Vox talks with Chris and Melissa Bruntlett, the couple behind Vancouver’s Modacity, and authors of Building the Cycling City: The Dutch Blueprint for Urban Vitality.

Nova Scotia businesses are discovering the benefits of catering to bike tourists.

Chinese dockless bikeshare company Mobike is bringing their new ebikes to the streets of London to offer “sweat-free cycling.”

It’s happened again. A London bicyclist fled the scene after critically injuring a woman in a collision as she was crossing the street; police found his abandoned bike a mile away. Just to be clear, people on bikes, scooters, skateboards or anything else have just as much responsibility to remain at the scene and help a victim as drivers do, but too often don’t. So just stop already.

A British HuffPo writer says you shouldn’t listen to pro cyclists about the helmet debate, noting that bicycling is safer than walking.

Now that’s how you make a point. Two weeks after the Lord Mayor of Dublin was caught parking his official car in a bike lane, Irish bicyclists gave him a new bike so he can use the lane legally next time.

I want to be like him when I grow up. A 97-year old Dutchman rides his bike to old folks homes to play piano five days a week. Of course, that means I’d have to learn to play one.

It was a dark and stormy night. A bike tour in a Mumbai suburb gives riders a thrill with scary stories as they travel the city on two wheels.

A New Zealand city see sharrows as the bicycling solution to narrow streets and parked cars.

Caught on video: A New Zealand security camera captured a bike-riding boy getting hit by a van driver; fortunately, he wasn’t seriously injured. As always with videos like this, be sure it’s really something you want to see before you click the link, because you can’t unsee it.

Caught on video too: A pair of helmet-less bicyclists ride through an Aussie freeway tunnel on bikeshare bikes, apparently changing their mind halfway through and jumping on a ledge before transportation workers pick them up.

 

Competitive Cycling

Three-time national road champ Megan Guarnier announced her retirement from pro cycling after next month’s world championships. Her eleven-year career included wins in the Giro Rosa, Tour of California and Emakumeen Saria, as well as this year’s Women’s Tour de Yorkshire; she’s leaving to pursue an MD/PhD in neuroscience.

Screw spoilers. Popular American cyclist Ben King made his mark on the Vuelta, winning Tuesday’s stage in a sprint to the finish after what ended up as a two-man breakaway.

The folding of the Aqua Blue Sport Continental cycling team means there’s now another 15 riders and support staff looking for work.

Former Jelly Belly and US team member Corey Steinbrecher says he’s glad he raced clean; he’s now a resident at a Tennessee hospital after graduating medical school.

 

Finally…

At least we don’t have to dodge tigers. Maybe there’s an explanation for LA drivers after all.

And why did the chicken cross the road? Apparently to creep out and harass kids on the way to school.

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

Morning Links: Mostly blank bike guide to SaMo, bike-riding actress hit in Marina, and a road-raging hell spawn

August 28, 2018 / / One comment

Bike travel site Bikabout offers a bike tourism guide to Santa Monica.

Or maybe not, since most of the site is still appears to be vaporware.

And clicking one beachfront bike path photo just takes you to to the Denver Art Museum.

………

How to tell when someone doesn’t ride a bike.

After actress Maura Tierney was hit by a driver while riding her bicycle in Marina del Rey, a blogger wonders how it could have happened since the street has a bike lane.

Maybe someone could explain it to her.

………

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

Someone sabotaged a Boston-area bike path with razor blades, which slashed a rider’s tire. And could have resulted in serious injuries.

Police in the UK are looking for two men on a motorcycle who tried to push a man off his bicycle.

………

Local

Downtown News says the MyFigueroa Complete Streets project is finally ready to roll. Although as Curbed points out, it still has some major bugs to work out.

CiclaValley urges you to turn out for a public workshop for safety improvements on Winnetka Ave, including a proposal to add a mile of bike lanes that offer genuine connectivity for a change.

Good news for mountain bikers, as the Gabriel National Recreation Trail through the Arroyo Seco canyon reopens this weekend, nine years after it was destroyed by the flooding that followed the Station Fire.

 

State

Nice gesture. A cycling club in Coronado bought pizza for the local fire department in appreciation for the care they gave an injured rider.

A San Luis Obispo woman complains that a group of retired NIMBY homeowners were allowed to dominate a recent planning commission meeting, and urges the city to approve the bikeway they came out to oppose.

Lyft is building a geofence around a pair of San Francisco streets to prevent drivers from stopping in the bike lanes to pickup or drop-off passengers.

Vox explains the sudden proliferation of e-scooters across the US — despite their sudden disappearance from the streets of San Francisco — saying there’s a lot of latent demand for a quick and cheap way to get around.

It probably shouldn’t surprise anyone that half of the injuries treated at San Francisco General Hospital result from traffic collisions; bicyclists accounted for 16% of those hospitalization costs, while pedestrians made up 44%.

Bay Area residents are urged to attend a court hearing this Friday to support Rich City Rides founder Najari Smith, who was arrested and jailed for a weekend over what appears to amount to a charge of Biking While Black.

 

National

Volunteers in Austin, Texas are refurbishing hundreds of yellow bikeshare bikes that were donated by Ofo when it pulled out of the city. Although someone might want to explain to Spectrum News that there’s a difference between bikeshare and rideshare.

A Missouri writer points out that bike tourism is a powerful economic driver. Especially when they can keep the people on bikes away from the other kind of drivers.

That didn’t take long. Just two weeks after an Indiana town installed a steel planter-protected cycle track, someone has already vandalized them with spray paint.

Bro country star Luke Bryan is one of us, doing 35 – 40 mile rides with former pro Robbie Ventura and America’s most famous ex-Tour de France winner.

A Pitt University student reminds drivers that bike lanes are for bicyclists, which should be obvious. But obviously isn’t.

A New York driver claims squatter’s rights, claiming he has the right to park in a parking-protected bike lane because he was parking there before the lane was striped.

Unbelievable. A Philadelphia driver won’t be charged with killing an 11-year old bike rider after rolling a stop because he didn’t actually hit the victim, who crashed into the side of the car after he was cut off.

Baltimore conducts a road diet to build a bike lane through a park to connect two hard-to-reach neighborhoods; one bike advocate describes it as taking away a lane of traffic and giving the space back to the neighborhood.

Speaking of Baltimore, the Maryland city may be a trendsetter, shutting down its troubled bikeshare system in favor of dockless bikeshare and scooters. It’s hard to imagine how most bikeshare systems will survive without significant sponsorship revenues when dockless options offer greater convenience at a significantly lower price.

A Mississippi city is about to get the state’s first two-way bike lane, which will pick up where an existing bike path leaves off.

A three-day Mississippi bike tour helps a group of older Florida riders discover that bicycling is the fountain of youth.

Already on trial for intentionally running down and killing a Florida father as he rode on a bike path, the driver repeatedly interrupted the judge to confess to killing another rider in a crash authorities say never happened.

Residents of a Florida town say they’d rather have wider bike lanes than sidewalks along a 50 mph coastal highway. Except state law won’t let them do that.

 

International

Wonder Woman is one of us, too.

A writer for Bicycle Times tells his tale of riding 6,500 miles across South America.

More support for the safety in numbers theory, as a London study concludes roads with the most bike riders are 13% safer.

This is the cost of traffic violence. A wealthy British woman was found dead from a heroin overdose, after she was unable to get over killing a 17-year old bike rider eight years earlier.

A 30-something working mom shares what she learned by biking 500 miles across France.

A bike advocacy group met with civic leaders in Prague for the first time, after the courts threw out a ban on bicycles in the city center.

Life is cheap in Japan, where a distracted driver gets a suspended sentence for killing a 77-year old bike rider, despite having her smartphone in one hand and a drink in the other at the time of the crash.

They get it. A Vietnamese website calls for separate roads for bicyclists and pedestrians to ease traffic in increasingly congested cities.

 

Competitive Cycling

Cycling Weekly offers our first spoiler-free report from the Vuelta, while Vincenzo Nibali says he just hasn’t got it this time after fracturing his back in the Tour de France.

An Indian cyclist describes what he went through to become the first rider from his country to finish the over 5,600 mile Red Bull Trans-Siberian Extreme ultra-stage race.

Another Continental team folds after losing its sponsor.

 

Finally…

It’s hard to be number one when you have to stop for number two. When you want to go vegan on your bike, because you’re so tired of strapping on those leather arm warmers and that bacon bike bell.

And maybe he really is the spawn of hell. At least when it comes to people on bikes.

 

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

Morning Links: Support injured bike rider with new T-shirt design, and new bill could end CA e-scooter helmet law

August 27, 2018 / / 3 comments

Here’s your chance to look good by helping out an injured rider.

Several months ago, a man who goes by the name of Hery reached out to me for help after he was injured by the driver of a car.

I gave him what advice I could; unfortunately, he’s still struggling, as the message below indicates.

Eight months ago while riding my bike to work I was hit by car. I woke up with wiring in my mouth and have been on disability ever since. Recently I was informed my Medi-Cal won’t be covering some medical expenses, and over these last 8 months I’ve also accumulated a lot of debt just trying to get by. So I’ve decided to design T-shirts to raise money for bills and other expenses.

This is what Hery’s bike looked like after he was injured in the crash

It’s a great looking design, and a good cause, helping someone get back on his feet after he was injured in a crash.

And it’s available on anything from T-shirts and hoodies, to stickers and coffee mugs.

………

A new bill passed by the state senate on Thursday would remove the ridiculous helmet requirement for dockless e-scooters — and the nearly $200 fines too many users have had to pay for breaking the law.

AB 2989 would also cap scooter speeds at their current 15 mph, while allowing cities to permit their use on more types of streets. Powered scooters are currently restricted to streets with bike lanes or speed limits of 25 mph or less.

The bill needs to return to the assembly before it goes to Governor Brown, where experience tells us it will face an uncertain fate.

………

Todd Munson does what I’ve often threatened to do, recording two minutes of scofflaw drivers running the stop sign near his home.

I could do the same thing at either of the intersections closest to our apartment, with the same results.

Yet so many drivers seem to get apoplectic they see bike and scooter riders doing the same things they do every day.

………

Los Angeles bike riders have to fight to get a bike corral. Riders in the the Netherlands get this, instead.

https://twitter.com/BrooklynSpoke/status/1033274492821401600

Thanks to Byron Smith for the heads-up.

………

There was a time when Bike the Vote was more than a slogan, as an academic journal site remembers when bike riders were a political block courted by the GOP. And helped deliver the vote to William McKinley in 1896.

………

Evidently, it’s not just Los Angeles.

Lincoln, Nebraska residents and bike riders support a lane reduction on major street, while a business association predicts a traffic apocalypse and calls it the first salvo in the war on cars.

In Jacksonville FL, the city wants to remove lanes from a street to improve safety, but local residents insist they like it just the way it is.

And an Edmonton, Canada letter writer says a lane reduction and two-way cycle tracks don’t make any sense, and he can’t understand why bike riders wouldn’t prefer a quieter, tree-lined street. The answer is they probably would, if it went the same places, with no stops and with signalized intersections at major streets, because bike riders need to get where they’re going just like drivers do.

………

Local

LA Magazine previews the My Figueroa Complete Streets project, which will be officially unveiled this Thursday.

Streetsblog’s Joe Linton writes that a wealthy neighborhood gets street repairs on dangerous Griffith Park Blvd where a rider was injured, while a less well off neighborhood gets signs and a recommendation from the city attorney to remove the bike lanes instead of fixing them.

Curb extensions are installed on Pico Blvd to improve safety at Hauser and Curson. Although it clearly could have been the first step to installing protected bike lanes, instead.

 

State

An Oceanside bike rider is lucky to be alive after surviving a crash with a commuter train that left him with minor injuries. Let that be yet another reminder to never try to go around crossing gates, even if it appears to be safe at the time.

The San Diego Union-Tribune asks if the city is ready to eliminate parking requirements for downtown housing.

Members of Rich City Rides rode to Oakland’s city hall to protest the arrest of founder Najari Smith for Biking While Black.

Sad news from Austria, where beloved Oakland triathlete Alistair Eeckman was killed in a crash with a bus while on a training ride, just one day after finishing sixth in the Powerman Austria; he was just 23. Thanks to Matt Stewart for the news.

 

National

Streetsblog says America’s car culture is literally shortening your life.

Your next Uber may not have a driver — or four wheels. The ride-hailing company’s new CEO sees a shift to ebikes and scooters for short trips.

A Colorado couple literally wrote the book on cycling the Great Divide, with all proceeds going to the Adventure Cycling Association.

Sioux City, Iowa, has made progress when it comes to bicycling, but still has a long way to go.

Tour de France laterne rouge Lawson Craddock returns home to a hero’s welcome at Houston’s Alkek Velodrome, after raising what could be as much as $400,000 to rebuild it following last year’s Hurricane Harvey. And announces it will be the site of USA Cycling’s new Olympic development program.

A Texarkana TX newspaper gets it, explaining that the city’s new sharrows don’t actually change anything, since bicyclists already have a legal right to ride in the traffic lane, but simply remind drivers of that fact.

Around a thousand people turned out for a bike ride to honor a Milwaukee bicycling icon who founded a chain of bike shops and created bike paths across the US.

I want to be like him when I grow up. A Minnesota man rides his age to celebrate his 90th birthday, breaking it up into six 15 mile rides.

A Tennessee family has developed a device to fit on the handlebar ends on kids bikes, that will hopefully prevent puncture injuries that aren’t as rare as they seem. Something like that should be required for every kid’s bike sold; every year, several children are seriously injured or killed by worn bike parts.

Streetsblog says a single double-parked truck can undermine everything the New York Department of Transportation does to keep streets safe for cyclists and pedestrians, because it all falls apart without enforcement.

A DC bike advocate says our streets don’t have to make us unhappy.

A Florida singletrack rider rescued a baby raccoon by putting him in his backpack, and riding him to safety before the coyotes could get him. It may be cute, but most experts recommend against trying to rescue seemingly abandoned animals; chances are, the mother is hiding somewhere nearby.

 

International

Ottawa bike riders are taking to social media to try to track down their stolen bicycles.

Now that’s a close call. An Ottawa bike rider decides he needs to buy some lights after a driver makes a left turn directly in front of him in the dim twilight. Which he should have had long before this ever happened.

Speaking of close calls, a British bike rider was nearly sideswiped by a trailer pulled by a van in a near-miss caught on bike cam.

Pamplona has running with the bulls; Birmingham, England has wheelie-popping teens riding with the buses.

Tour de France winner Geraint Thomas says bike helmets should be made mandatory in the UK, adding “I’ve put on a helmet more times than I’ve buckled a seatbelt.” Then tries to walk it back the next day.

A New Zealand Op-Ed says there’s no need for a war between bicyclists and motorists; just slow traffic and build some decent infrastructure.

 

Competitive Cycling

A reminder of the dangers of amateur racing, as 30 riders went down in a mass crash in a Wisconsin race, sending four people to the  hospital, and leaving a number of others with minor injuries.

Three years ago, Staci Nash was a two-time NCAA Division II track champ — the running kind, not cycling. Today, she’s a two-time national mountain biking champ.

Ritchie Porte says I beg your pardon, I never promised you I was going for the general classification in the Vuelta.

Speaking of the Vuelta, Deadspin calls it the strangest, hardest stage race of the cycling season, and predicts this year’s race will kick ass. Meanwhile, Cycling News says it’s the last chance for ten riders.

Great long read from Peter Flax, who recounts the strange happenings 70 years ago as two legendary racers faced off in the 1948 world championships, which neither one won.

 

Finally…

Sometimes riding down a freeway in rush hour traffic calls for nothing more than a g-string. Yes, you can still take a Sunday drive — as long as it’s on a bike.

And when you hear hoofbeats, stop and say hi.

 

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

Woman killed in Lancaster bike crash earlier this month

August 26, 2018 / / 2 comments

Somehow, we missed this news earlier this month.

Looking for information about yesterday’s fatal collision in Lancaster uncovered news of a woman who was killed while riding her bike in the same city on Monday, August 13th.

According to the Antelope Valley Times, the victim, identified only as a Hispanic woman in her 50s, was riding north in the bike lanes on Sierra Highway below Oldfield Street when she was struck and killed.

The paper reports that she attempted to cross the five lane Sierra Highway, unexpectedly swerving left in front of an oncoming driver traveling in the same direction.

She was taken to a local hospital, where she died of her injuries.

A statement from the sheriff’s department said it doesn’t appear that drugs or alcohol were a factor in the crash, nor was excessive speed.

As always, the question is whether there were independent witnesses to the crash. Drivers who drift to the right or fail to see a bike rider often assume the victim must have swerved in front of them, when that’s not always the case.

Anyone with information is urged to call traffic investigators at the Lancaster Sheriff’s Station at 661/ 948-8466.

This is at least the 33rd bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the 16th that I’m aware of in Los Angeles County.

My deepest sympathy and prayers for the victim and all her loved ones. 

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