Day 337 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025.
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It’s Day 6 of the 11th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive! Not that you probably have any money left to give after Giving Tuesday.
But if you do, we’ll take it.
And by we, I mean me and the corgi.
So thanks to Ben for his generous support yesterday. And thank you in advance for giving what you can, when you can, to help keep SoCal’s best source for bike news and advocacy coming your way every day.
It only takes a few moments to donate via PayPal, Zelle or Venmo.
Your support is what keeps this site going through the lean months, and helps ensure the corgi finds a few kibbles in her stocking this holiday season.
Because you don’t want to see a sad corgi on Christmas morning.
Trust me.
In today’s photo, the corgi offers her editorial opinion of both the city’s convoluted rejection of HLA compliance, and the prospect of a kibble-less Christmas.
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It’s round 2 of the battle to implement Measure HLA, as the Los Angeles Board of Public Works will consider a second batch of appeals over projects that should have complied with the measure, but didn’t.
All of which were filed by Joe Linton in his personal, rather than professional, capacity.
As with the first round, we can expect the board to routinely reject each of these, regardless of merit, as the city insists on taking the bizarre position that any project involving the application of paint on pavement is merely “restriping,” no matter how much additional work was involved.
That includes a project on Melrose near L.A. City College, where the city removed a peak-hour lane and added more parking for cars — yet left out the protected bike lanes called for in the Mobility Plan 2035.
The whole point of Measure HLA was to require the city to build out the mobility plan whenever they did significant roadwork.
And I’d call that significant.
The only thing likely to force the Board of Public Works to actually reconsider these projects is if supporters of bike, pedestrian and traffic safety turn out in force, and in person, to make them listen.
The meeting is scheduled for 10 am this Friday, in the Edward R. Roybal BPW Session Room, Room 350, of LA City Hall at 200 N. Spring Street.
You can read Linton’s brief summary of the appeals here.
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We keep learning more about the vicious attack on a 57-year old man carrying a pizza in Hermosa Beach, allegedly committed by an ebike-riding gang of kids in their early teens.
Although in this case, ebike appears to mean electric motorbikes and non-street legal dirt bikes.
But as for gang, that’s literal.
According to the Los Angeles Times,
The bold and seemingly unprompted attack has outraged the coastal community and stoked simmering frustrations around alleged teen e-bike gangs organizing under names such as the Goons and the Redondo Beach Killers.
Now it appears that some of the alleged attackers came from the neighboring city of Manhattan Beach. In a Sunday email to parents, Manhattan Beach Middle School Principal Matthew Horvath said that students at the school were involved in the incident, the Manhattan Beach News reported. Representatives for the district did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In this case, however, the Goons and RB Killers may not be what you normally think of when you see the term “gang.”
I’m told by someone who lives in the area that the gangs accused of “assaulting and terrorizing” beachside residents are the products of privileged homes and indulgent parents, who too often stand in the way of accountability for their kids until it’s too late.
And now it is.
Although it’s apparently not too late for angry residents to vent their frustration at city officials.
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Los Angeles wants to know what you think about the long — and I do mean long — gestating Westwood Boulevard Safety and Mobility Project.
The project, which has been batted around in one form or another since for at least the past two decades, is intended to improve safety for bike riders and pedestrians along the dangerous corridor between Westwood Village and the Metro E (nee Expo) Line.
According to the Westside Current,
The department says the project is being developed in line with Healthy Streets LA and Mobility Plan 2035, which identify Westwood Boulevard as a priority for transit, bicycle and pedestrian upgrades. LADOT is gathering feedback on “transportation safety concerns, access challenges and ideas for how the street could function better for everyone,” and says staff will review all comments before drafting recommended infrastructure changes.
It’s nice to see the city actually working with Measure HLA, rather than fighting it, as they’ve done with virtually every other project up to this point.
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Richard Fox, author of the enCYCLEpedia guidebook to Southern California’s scenic bikeways, forwards his rave review of the newly mostly completed CV Link in the Coachella Valley.
Mostly, because the wealthy enclaves of Rancho Mirage and Indian Wells wanted nothing to do with it, and it was too expensive to build around them.
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Canada’s CTV network offers a review of fat biking in honor of Fat Bike Day.
Which sounds sort of like Fat Bear Week, but isn’t.
Thanks to Megan for the video.
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If you want to know why bike riding is booming in London, here’s a pretty good explanation.
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A bike-riding British influencer is teaching her dad how to be a bicyclist on his second-hand road bike.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
A British Colombia letter writer almost gets it, asking if bicyclists should be treated more like pedestrians than motorists. But then goes on to say we’d be better off sharing sidewalks with pedestrians like “many places in Europe,” and wouldn’t mind wearing “highly visible license plates” if it finally allows us to get off the streets. Um, that’s a hard no.
But sometimes it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
Bicyclists in the UK even get criticized for not riding in a bike lane when it doesn’t even exist yet.
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Local
Streetsblog reports work on expanding Baldwin Park’s Barnes Park is “trooping along,” and a new connection from Walnut Creek Nature Park to the greenway walk/bike path is nearly finished.
Los Angeles is getting what appears to be its first pump track in Arroyo Seco Park, near the border with South Pasadena (scroll down).
LA-based social justice apparel brand For Your Viewing Pleasure is releasing a four-piece collaboration with Palestinian paracycling team the Gaza Sunbirds, with 100% of the profits going to benefit the Gaza team.
State
‘Tis the season. The San Diego Padres surprised students at a local elementary school with 100 team-branded bicycles.
An ebike rider in San Luis Obispo got the blame for crashing “into the side of a car,” even though the driver cut him off by making a “left cross” turn across his path; the victim suffered “undisclosed” injuries.
After a more than 30-year career in advertising, I can assure Morgan Hill-based Specialized that if nearly everyone doesn’t get their ad, they screwed up, not everyone else who didn’t get the joke. Although they beg to differ.
San Francisco is planing to rip out a neck down installed to slow traffic, because drivers don’t like it. And really, isn’t their happiness all that really matters?
National
Cycling Weekly recommends 15 Christmas present ideas for bicyclists, picked by “people who ride thousands of miles a year.” Or maybe 12 Chanukah gifts, plus an extra three for birthdays, anniversaries and such.
We touched on this yesterday, but it’s worth mentioning in more detail that Seattle is testing out the nation’s first protected bike lane barriers made of recycled car and truck tires, which not only offer a lower price, but are easier to repair and cause less damaged to cars that hit them. Thanks to Mike for the heads-up.
A Las Vegas writer says riding a fat tired bike through Death Valley on a roadway closed to cars, but not bikes, is nirvana on two wheels.
Go ahead and enjoy riding in Arizona, just don’t cross any intersections — the state ranks third in the US for the deadliest intersections, behind only Florida and Delaware. Meanwhile, California ranks all the way down at, uh, seventh.
A church in Joliet, Illinois held a fundraiser to pay funeral expenses for a 25-year old man who was killed in a hit-and-run while riding his bike to work.
In a story that will sound familiar to many bicyclists, an Ohio city is reviewing a 2008 ordinance that actually required bike lanes on certain streets, many of which were never built.
A Brooklyn man says he was iced out of a contract to install 500 bicycle parking pods across New York, after nearly a decade of fighting for them.
A volunteer organization in Memphis is using bicycles to deliver food to the homeless.
America’s oldest bikemaker is still making bicycles the old-fashioned way despite moving to South Carolina after more than a century in New York.
International
‘Tis the season, part two. An Ontario, Canada organization donated 90 bicycles to children in need.
Competitive Cycling
The American Criterium Cup returns for a fifth year, with a series of six races starting with June’s Tulsa Tough, although the $140,000 purse is up for grabs as last year’s men’s champ Maurice Ballerstedt returns to racing in Europe.
Thirty-one-year old American pro Veronica Ewers says she needs to step away from the sport for awhile to let her body recover, addressing the severe toll cycling takes by admitting medical tests show her bones are weak, and she hasn’t even had a period since 2014.
Now you, too, can own four “ultra rare” Colnagos, including the bike Sothebys says Tadej Pogačar rode in Toulouse, when he was actually busy riding up Mont Ventoux.
Finally…
Throwing your bicycle at a cop during a burglary is not one of its many approved uses. Your next bicycle could be a Ducati.
And turning your old bike wheel into a new musical instrument.
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Oh, and fuck Putin.
