Calmeda is a two lane residential street which should provide a safe place to ride. However, it connects two major streets and could offer a convenient cut-through route to avoid rush hour traffic.
The car is described as a four door with tinted windows and paper license plates, and is likely to have front end damage. Anyone with information is urged to call Officer Richard Jensen at 562/567-9261, Officer Esteban Medina at 562/567-9259 or the Whittier police Crime Tipline at 562/567-9299.
Once she’s caught, she should face a lifetime ban on driving as well as a lengthy prison sentence. Anyone without the common decency to stop for another human being, let alone observe the law, doesn’t belong on the streets.
Let’s hope that one day lawmakers, prosecutors, judges and the DMV will finally figure out that out.
This is the fourth bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the third in Los Angeles County; it’s also the seventh fatal bike crash in Whittier in the last four years.
Update: According to a reporter for KABC-7, the victim, who was on a BMX bike, was dragged 600 to 800 feet by his killer. Let that sink in — at least the length of two football fields.
That should elevate the case from simple felony hit-and-run to second degree murder. But it won’t.
Update 2: KTLA-5 confirms the victim was dragged across two city blocks, while police report the bike rider appears to have done nothing wrong that would have caused the crash.
Update 4: KCBS-2 reports Rodriguez was killed when one driver paused to let him go by, and a driver following behind went around the stopped car, hitting him head-on.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for Agustin Rodriguez Jr. and his loved ones.
Through the end of this month, BikinginLA is supporting local bike shops and other small businesses in the bike industry by offering deep discounts on our usual advertising rates. For more information, or to find out if your business qualifies, email the address on the Support and Advertising page.
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You have just two days left to comment on Metro’s plans to make the entrance to LA’s Union Station more walkable and bikeable.
Former Spanish pro and U-23 world road champ Iván Gutiérrez says he tried to hurt himself eleven times as a result of depression. Pro teams focus a lot of attention on physical condition of their riders; maybe more needs to be paid to their mental and emotional health.
A Marin County equestrian says conflicts on trails are caused by a small percentage of aggressive cyclists, and never happened before mountain bikes were invented. Funny, I’ve been run off trails by horseback riders while hiking more than once, before and after mountain bikes came into widespread use.
If you have a Pro-Tec City Life bike helmet, send it back; they’re being recalled after failing routine tests by Consumer Reports.
Fast Coexist looks at a simple fix that could keep bike riders’ tires from getting caught in streetcar tracks.
A writer for Strong Towns says she’s not a cyclist, she’s just someone who rides a bike. While I understand the sentiment, I have to respectfully disagree; saying cyclists are only people who wear spandex and ride for sport, as opposed to others who ride casually or for transportation, just creates an us vs. them mentality, instead of standing up for the rights of everyone who rides a bicycle.
A suspect turned himself in for the hit-and-run death of a young Texas bike racer, whose mother found his body the next day when he didn’t return home from a ride; the driver turned himself in on Friday, following the collision last Monday. Which gave him plenty of time to sober up and come up with a good excuse. Thanks to Steve Katz for the heads-up.
Bike advocates and friends of a fallen Chicago bike rider express their outrage over the ten day sentence given a killer drunk driver. Streetsblog says the politically connected driver was twice charged with DUI in high school, but had the charges dismissed. This is why people continue to die on our streets; too often there are no consequences for dangerous behavior, even when someone gets hurt — or worse. Especially if they can afford a good lawyer.
The New York Times says innovations in the cycling world, including mobile bike shops and online ordering, are threatening local bike shops. Thanks to George Wolfberg for the link.
International
If you’re going to get into bicycling, the first thing you’ll need is a bicycle. Just about everything else the story mentions is optional to a greater or lesser degree; yes, you should have a spare tube and patch kit, but countless riders somehow manage to get along without a bike computer, as useful as they may be.
Seriously, how oblivious do you have to be to not even know you hit someone with your car? A British driver claims his had his music turned up so loud he didn’t even know he’d hit a bike rider until he got home and saw the damage to his car. But how is it that he didn’t even feel the impact?
A Scottish lawyer says the country has to make bicycling safer, as too many people are afraid to get out on their bikes, resulting in a public health crisis.
Through the end of this month, BikinginLA is supporting local bike shops and other small businesses in the bike industry by offering deep discounts on our usual advertising rates. For more information, or to find out if your business qualifies, email the address on the Support and Advertising page.
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It was a surprise announcement.
And both heartening, and a little disappointing.
Word broke Thursday morning that LA’s Vision Zero Alliance had finally released its long-awaited Action Plan, explaining how the plan to reduce traffic fatalities by 20% by the end of this year, and eliminate them entirely by 2025.
While the report hits all the appropriate notes, it’s a little short on specifics.
For instance, it talks about the need to reduce speeds to drive down LA’s worst in the nation traffic death rate, but doesn’t actually commit to reducing speed limits to 20 or 25 mph, as other major cities have done. And it discusses working to change laws at the state level, without stating whether they will fight to remove the deadly 85th percentile law that drives up speeds and destroys livability — not to mention survivability — on city streets.
However, there are a few specific actions we can follow to verify that the plan is on track:
Vision Zero means designing a street network that is safe for all modes. The City will:
Install live-saving improvements on the priority corridors and intersections along the High-Injury Network, such as optimizing four-hundred traffic signals and redesigning at least twelve miles of City streets every year to accommodate safe transportation for all.
Update 100 percent of the expired speed surveys on the priority corridors by the end of 2017.
Update all City street-design standards used by the Bureau of Public Works, the Department of Transportation, and the Department of City Planning to be consistent with the National Association of City
Unanswered is whether the city will address the chronic understaffing problems at LADOT so they actually have the capability to work on Vision Zero, without throwing the hard-fought Mobility Plan out the window.
Some of those bicycling deaths could be prevented simply by building out the low-stress network of Bicycle Friendly Streets called for in the plan, giving riders a safer and more comfortable alternative to riding busier streets.
Also unanswered is how they will solve the problem of recalcitrant councilmembers who attempt to block desperately needed safety improvements in their districts, as Gil Cedillo and Paul Koretz have already done.
Not to mention LA’s rampant NIMBYism, which rises up to oppose virtually any changes on our streets, especially if there’s the slightest suspicion it might slow traffic down.
The Austrian man who was busted for trying to ride naked into a hotel in eight degree weather says he was trying to impress a girl. Although getting fired from his job as a pastry chef at the hotel probably isn’t the way to do it. And someone should explain to him about shrinkage.
A Pennsylvania bike rider was apparently under the influence when he was killed by a 17-year old driver; the victim had a water bottle filled with booze, and a dope pipe in his pocket.
University of Florida students are unnerved by a man riding his bike around campus wearing a swastika. Sometimes bike riders are the bad guys. And sometimes they’re just assholes. But even assholes have a constitutional right to be one.
But not as cheap as Illinois, where a drunk driver cops a plea for killing a man who was riding his bike home from work, in exchange for a whopping ten days behind bars. Ten effing days. Thanks to J. Patrick Lynch for the heads-up.
And a three-time Brit traffic serial killer gets his suspended license back three years early because it’s an inconvenience to his family. It was probably pretty inconvenient for the families of his victims, too.
And then we wonder why nothing ever seems to stop the carnage on our streets.
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Nice to hear from Michael Wagner of CLR Effect, who offers news from LA County’s too often neglected Eastside.
Even if the news isn’t exactly what we want to hear.
Santa Monica Planning is hosting a ride with SaMo’s mayor this Sunday. LA mayor Eric Garcetti agreed to ride with bicyclists when he was running for office four years ago, but to the best of my knowledge, no one has bothered to ask him to do it. Which should be a big hint to the LACBC, the BAC, LADOT…
US Cycling membership now includes legal benefits, including a free consultation, reduced legal fees, and priority consideration for pro bono legal representation. Although virtually any bike lawyer will offer a free consultation.
An editorial in USC’s Daily Trojan calls California’s ban on headphones for bike riders a new, overbearing law. Except the law only prohibits wearing headphones in or on both ears, rather than one. And it’s not new. Wearing headphones in both ears has been illegal for years, just as it is for drivers; all that changed with the new law was to eliminate loopholes to include any form of headphones or earpieces.
Seventy-one percent of people responding to an online poll in one Canadian town think winter bicycling should be banned; one bighearted driver thinks running over a cyclist could provide extra traction on icy streets.
In a truly bizarre case, Dutch police have filed a complaint with the International Court of Justice against a UN lawyer from Jamaica who claimed she had been brutalized by cops who arrested her when she got off her bike and walked it across a busy street.
Who needs a mountain when you’ve got a parking garage? Adelaide, Australia cyclists compete in their own indoor hill climb. Thanks to Adam Ginsberg for the news.
Thanks to Todd Rowell for his generous donation to support this site. Donations are always welcome to help us bring you the best, freshest and most accurate bike news in this post-truth era of alternate facts and fake news.
Through the end of this month, BikinginLA is supporting local bike shops and other small businesses in the bike industry by offering deep discounts on our usual advertising rates. For more information, or to find out if your business qualifies, email the address on the Support and Advertising page.
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Colorado’s USA Pro Challenge is dead and buried. Now the four-stage Colorado Classic pro race, which will include a two-stage women’s race, will rise from the ashes to take its place. Although they still seem to think women are too fragile to compete on an equal basis with the men.
Former British world road champ Nicole Cook says the problem with pro cycling is the sport in run “by men, for men” and doping is being fought by “the wrong people, in the wrong way, with the wrong tools.”
Next City talks to Motivate CEO Jay Walder, head of the nation’s largest bikeshare company, who says Donald Trump should look to America’s transit revolution for guidance on how to overhaul the nation’s infrastructure through public-private partnerships.
Note to Boston Globe: A “suspicious device” made from a beer bottle half filled with gasoline with a rag sticking out of it, like the one found on a bike trail, is called a Molotov cocktail.
New York-based BMX pro Nigel Sylvester makes Forbes Magazine’s 30 Under 30, to go along with his 200,000 Instagram followers and seven million YouTube views.
James May, host of Amazon’s The Grand Tour, is one of us, but says most bike riders are a bit hopeless, awkwardly peddling badly adjusted bikes with no idea how to use their gears.
Through the end of this month, BikinginLA is supporting local bike shops and other small businesses in the bike industry by offering deep discounts on our usual advertising rates. For more information, or to find out if your business qualifies, email the address on the Support and Advertising page.
In what could be the final step in a long, drawn-out battle to keep cars off Mt. Hollywood Drive in Griffith Park, the LA City Council’s Arts, Parks and River Committee approved plans for a shuttle system to take people up to the Griffith Observatory and the Hollywood Sign; the proposal goes before the full council today for final approval.
BikinginLA sponsor Josh Cohen wrote an open letter to the council in support of the plan.
Dear Lovers of Griffith Park:
I have been a CD 4 resident and homeowner, employee and employer in one capacity or another since the late 1960’s. I have a wife and a five year-old girl. We all use Griffith Park at least once a week. I live in Franklin Hills. My parents are elderly and they live in Beachwood Canyon, right under the Hollywood Sign. They too use Griffith Park.
Many other users of Griffith Park and I have watched as the City has struggled with traffic problems and the issue of motor vehicle traffic on Mt. Hollywood Drive.
Griffith Park is and must remain a place for people, not cars. Colonel Griffith J. Griffith bestowed the Park to the people of Los Angeles as, “[…] a place of recreation and rest for the masses, a resort for the rank and file, for the plain people […] to make Los Angeles a happier, cleaner, and finer city.”
The absence of motor vehicles in the Park is a prerequisite to Colonel Griffith’s mandate. Car-free, natural and unspoiled venues in Los Angeles are rare and precious. The absence of motor vehicles makes the Park a safe haven from the hectic, break-neck pace of life in metropolitan Los Angeles. Families like mine can escape to its confines and breathe unspoiled air. Children can run free without fear of getting hit by motor vehicles.
These truths impart an inherent value that supersedes the need for vehicular access to touristic vistas. Tourists’ desires for photo opportunities cannot outweigh Angelenos’ need for an escape from the mechanized dangers of city life. Los Angeles and its amenities must first be a place for its own residents.
Many Angelenos struggle in their daily lives because they cannot afford cars. Commuting and navigating the City unfairly burden them with logistical difficulties. Merely crossing the street threatens them with becoming another of Los Angeles’ 20,000 annual hit-and-run victims. They often lack recourse because the choices that shaped our great City’s landscape failed to account for anything but cars. Pedestrian and bicyclist fatalities are implicitly considered the cost of doing business.
For these reasons and more, Griffith Park must remain car-free to the fullest extent practicable. The Griffith Observatory Circulation and Parking Enhancement Plan keeps it so. It provides unprecedented transit access to the Park for those unable to afford a car, or for those who decide that one less car in the park is a good thing. Car-free policy lifestyle benefits the environment and Angelenos, and fulfills Colonel Griffith’s vision and mandate. And frankly, the tourists enjoy car-free Griffith Park more too.
The thousands who have signed petitions and attended meetings are pleased and grateful to know that Mt. Hollywood Dr. will remain motor vehicle free.
Thank you for protecting the Park’s wild interior and for improving the lives of Angelenos.
Not content with smashing windows at a Davis mosque and draping bacon over door handles, a woman was caught on security cameras slashing tires on bikes that were parked outside it.
It’s a win for Montana bike riders, as a bill that would have banned bicycles from most two-lane roadways has been withdrawn, and will be redrafted with bicyclists’ input; the lawmaker responsible for the bill says the new version won’t contain restrictions on walking or bicycling.
Caught on video: An Aussie cyclist swerves to avoid getting hit after he’s cut off by a U-turning driver, then gets a milkshake thrown at him by way of thanks; fortunately, the driver had really bad aim.
Now that’s love. A Chinese man rode over 1,200 miles in 15 days just to see his girlfriend on her 21st birthday. Although whether he loves her or bicycling — or both — remains to be explained.
News has just come in that Los Angeles has been selected as one of ten cities to participate in the Big Jump Project.
The new initiative from PeopleForBikes is aimed at doubling or tripling bike ridership in specific neighborhoods by improving bike infrastructure.
As part of the Big Jump Project, Los Angeles will focus on improving bike infrastructure in downtown LA and University Park, the city’s business core. As a participant in the program, Los Angeles will annually receive the equivalent of $200,000 in technical support from PeopleForBikes, as well as an additional $50,000 in matching funds or financial commitments from local organizations….
Over the course of the next three years, the Big Jump Project cities will be laboratories for innovation, ultimately illustrating the ways in which U.S. cities and towns can tap into bicycles to radically improve the health and vitality of their communities.
The project is part of PeopleForBikes’ new PlacesForBikes program, a three-part plan including an easy-to-understand, data-driven system for rating bike-friendly cities; how-to resources for communities and businesses; and an annual conference for city and business leaders.
Los Angeles was selected along with New York City, Baltimore MD, Portland OR, Memphis TN, Providence RI, New Orleans LA, Austin TX, Tucson AZ and my hometown of Fort Collins, CO.
While it’s great that Los Angeles has been selected as one of the initial cities, it’s unfortunate that it is limited to the Downtown area, which has already seen a jump in ridership, and the area north of USC, which could definitely use the help.
It would have been nice to see infrastructure-starved areas like South LA, Highland Park and Hollywood included in the program, as well as other often ignored regions of the city.
However, as always, the problem in Los Angeles is political will, and the courage of local councilmembers to stand up to the inevitable NIMBY anti-bike backlash.
Or more precisely, the lack thereof.
Hopefully, when people see what can be done to make our streets safer and more inviting for everyone, they’ll demand improvements in their own neighborhoods, as well. And elect representatives who will respond to that demand.
The other concern is whether LA will finally provide adequate staffing and funding for LADOT to meet the requirements of our streets, so this doesn’t result in ignoring the urgent needs of other areas while attention is focused on just two neighborhoods.
As former NYDOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan stresses in her book Streetfight: Handbook for an Urban Revolution, cities must be able to respond quickly to needs and opportunities on the streets, rather than taking years to design — and redesign in response to local opposition and lack of leadership backbone — before even thinking about implementation.
Something Los Angeles sadly lacks, and seems unlikely to change.
Maybe this will be the kick in the ass the city so desperately needs.
Through the end of this month, BikinginLA will support local bike shops and other small businesses in the bike industry by offering deep discounts on our usual advertising rates. For more information, or to find out if your business qualifies, email the address on the Support and Advertising page.
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It looks like change is finally coming to LA area streets.
Streetsblog reports that thirteen new bike and pedestrian projects totaling $33.6 million have been funded through California’s Active Transportation Program, with another eight grants worth $28.78 million scheduled to be approved by SCAG — the Southern California Association of Governments — next month.
You can find a full listing of the projects, scattered throughout LA County, on the Streetsblog story.
But don’t hold your breath. As they note, the funding won’t actually be available for another two to three years.
The committee meets at 3 pm in room 1060 of City Hall in DTLA; if you can’t make it, he has a sample email and email addresses to send it to.
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Still more tragedy in the cycling world, as Ukrainian former U-23 world champ Dmitry Grabovskyy died of a suspected heart attack at 31. Meanwhile, tributes have flowed in for the 15-year old British cyclocross champ who died in his sleep over the weekend.
Now that’s more like it. Britain will offer equal prize money to both the men’s and women’s winners of the country’s national racing series.
Metro is holding a meeting this Thursday to discuss plans to improve access to Downtown’s Union Station, including a bike and pedestrian esplanade on Alameda Street.
An editor with the USC paper says there’s a silver lining to having her bike stolen, forcing her to slow down and notice things she used to ride past. Although you’d think a fine university like USC would teach the difference between breaks and brakes before the senior year.
San Francisco leads the state as the most dangerous place to drive a car, and ranks second in the nation for pedestrian injuries and fatalities. None of which suggests it’s exactly a great place to ride a bike, either.
The new PlacesForBikes project from PeopleForBikes — who have evidently decided to save money by removing the spaces from their names — will encourage bike-friendly cities by providing an alternative to the Bike League’s rating system.
A proposed Iowa bill would require bike riders to have a red LED taillight on their bikes, apparently even during daylight hours; the law was suggested by a blame-shifting driver who crashed into five — count ‘em, five — bicyclists with his motorcycle as the sun was setting, insisting he would have seen them if only they’d had flashing lights on their bikes. Sure, let’s go with that.
University of Michigan researchers have developed a way to make materials change from hard to soft, which would allow bike tires to automatically adjust to different surface conditions, among other applications. Yes, there’s an obvious joke there, and no, I’m not going to make it.
A group of bicyclist will follow a mostly offroad route on a ride from Seattle to Boston later this year to raise funds for a local alternative high school.
New York deployed 50 bike cops to control crowds at Saturday’s peaceful Women’s March, with one source saying a single officer on a bike can do the job of three cops.
Life is cheap in British Columbia, where an off-duty Mounty walks with just a $1,500 fine for killing a five-year old bike rider with his jacked-up pickup; he claimed he couldn’t see the boy, who was riding with the light in a marked crosswalk with his father and brother, as he turned right. If you can’t see a little boy directly in front of your truck, it doesn’t belong on the damn roads.
A Johannesburg mountain biker nearly lost an eye when he ran into an unmarked wire that had been left across the entrance to a pathway, despite verifying that the trail was open to bicycles.
As you may know, this site has long been a supporter of local bike shops.
So starting today, we’re putting a dollar figure on that support, with our first-ever sale on ad space.
Through the end of this month, BikinginLA will be offering deep discounts on our usual advertising rates just for local bike shops, or other small businesses in the bike industry. For more information, or to find out if your business qualifies, email the address on the Support and Advertising page.
Similar views can be found today on the Ballona Creek and the LA River pathways, as well as virtually any bike path along one of Southern California’s usually arid riverbeds.
Just in case you need a reminder of why local authorities sometimes seem to overreact by closing the paths whenever rain seems imminent.
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Look what came from India last week.
As the Onion once put it, “Visibility is crucial when biking. Ride with a lit highway flare in each hand.”
Since that’s not always practical, the Aster backpack from Lumos comes complete with built-in reflectors, front lights, tail lights, turn signals and brake lights.
I’m not normally a fan of the visibility arms race — any driver actually paying attention to the road should be able to see a cyclist without making us dress up like brilliantly lit dystopian clowns — it does promise to combine practicality with safety.
And while I’m more of a messenger bag guy, I’ll look forward trying this out and letting you know what I think.
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Nice piece from the Racers Who Ride Foundation, as pro racer Ozz Negri, Jr. discusses his love of bicycling and what #peaceontheroad is all about.
An Illinois family has given up their car and taken to their bikes as their primary form of transportation, and are documenting the experience to help others understand how to be less reliant on cars.
A Norfolk VA paper asks if the city council is crazy for going forward with a 10 mile, $62 million bike path. They have a point; according to a road builders association, they could build a four lane highway for the same price. However, the price tag also includes prep work for future high speed transit, even though voters recently killed plans for light rail.
Way to kill a burgeoning bike movement. Sales for pedal-assist ebikes have plummeted in Malta after the country required helmets and registration. That should serve as fair warning for those of us here in the US.
A team of self-appointed bike vigilantes hunt through the streets and alleys of Guangzhou, China for bikeshare bikes that have been appropriated for private use.
January 21, 2017 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Weekend Links: LA election debates, reforming CA Trans Commission, hi-viz skin, and better libidos through biking
Please forgive yesterday’s unexcused absence.
The sudden failure of a hard drive cable took my laptop down without warning, wiping out all the links I’d been saving, and leaving me without access to this site.
The good news it, it was a quick, easy and relatively affordable fix. So we’re back in business, and serving up a virtual smorgasbord of fresh, hot bike links.
A Long Beach city councilmember says people are free to push for changes to the number and color of the green bollards on Studebaker Road, but they were put there to slow traffic and improve safety.
State
A bill to restructure California’s Transportation Commission would require at least one of the six members to have expertise in bicycle and pedestrian safety; two would have a background in sustainable transportation, one in mass transit, and two working with disadvantaged communities.
After starting out with ambitious plans for a Complete Street makeover of San Diego’s El Cajon Blvd, the city settles on a watered-down approach with buffered bike lanes instead of protected lanes.
A Redding man is facing a murder charge for calmly riding away on his bike after setting a gas station clerk on fire; authorities still don’t know why, though.
National
Lawsuits are flying back and forth at the new company formed by America’s last remaining Tour de France winner to make low-cost carbon fiber, but not for bikes.
Caught on video: A road raging Wisconsin driver rolls a stop sign, then repeatedly attempts to cut off a bike rider before getting out of his car to confront him, and complaining that the cyclist is taking up too much of the road. Even though the sharrows indicate he’s exactly where he’s supposed to be.
When a local hotel is razed, an Indiana woman asks for, and receives, the 600 pound boulder she used to sit on to watch her late husband, a county sheriff, ride off to DC every year to honor officers killed in the line of duty.
A Michigan TV station lists three surprising benefits of bicycling, including boosting your libido. Which probably isn’t much of a surprise for those of us who do.
Life is cheap in Louisiana, where a hit-and-run driver walks after killing a cyclist; his victim wasn’t killed in the crash, but drowned in a ditch because the jerk who hit him didn’t bother to stop. Something’s seriously wrong with the prosecutors who made this deal; instead of being released on probation, he should be doing hard time on a 2nd murder conviction.
A Belfast woman is looking for the hit-and-run cyclist who killed her dog. I’ve had to dodge a number of dogs whose irresponsible owners let them wander across pathways on a loose leash. But, if you can’t avoid hitting a dog, human or any other animal, just stop already.
Caught on video too: Aussie police are looking for a sidewalk raging pedestrian who grabbed a 62-year old woman’s bike by the rear wheel and flipped her over the handlebars, tossing her face-first into the pavement.
Now they’re showing their support for others, with a fundraiser for the Milt Olin Foundation’s #HandsOff Movement to celebrate the shop’s sixth anniversary. Donations of just five or ten dollars will enter you to win prizes ranging from lights and helmets, to a new $2,500 ebike.
I can’t think of a better cause.
The Milt Olin Foundation was born from the tragic death of entertainment executive Milt Olin, who was run down by a sheriff’s deputy as he was riding on Mulholland Highway; the deputy was distracted by his cellphone and onboard computer, and never saw Olin riding in the bike lane. Remarkably, no charges were ever filed.
His family channeled their grief into forming the foundation, which unveiled the #HandsOff app and program last year, urging drivers to pledge to keep their hands off their phones while driving and encouraging others to join them.
By supporting them, you can help save lives. And maybe even get some great bike gear while you’re at it.
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Tonight marks the second LA edition of Draft: A PeopleForBikes meet-up at Pure Cycles in Burbank, 713 N. Victory Blvd.
The free event, which runs from 7 to 9 pm, will feature several luminaries of the local bicycling community, along with food and craft beer from Golden Road Brewing.
Michelle Mowery, senior project coordinator for LA RiverWorks
Don Ward, founder of Wolfpack Hustle
Dorothy Wong, director of SoCalCross PRESTIGE SERIES
Naomi Iwasaki, director of neighborhood services at the Office of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and Los Angeles Great Street Initiative
Members of the Zwift team.
The beer alone is worth the price of admission. Even though there isn’t any.
Team LACBC participates annually in Climate Ride California (June 9-13), providing LA cyclists with an opportunity to support the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition and raise awareness of sustainability, active transportation, and environmental causes. The annual group charity ride features an all-new route this year, exploring the stunning California Central Coast, departing from San Francisco on June 9 and winding up 300 miles later in San Luis Obispo on June 13.
Riders chosen as a result of the nominating process will receive $2500 toward the minimum Climate Ride fundraising requirement of $2800. In addition, they will receive:
• Free Climate Ride registration ($100 value)
• Equipment support of up to $1000 (cycling and camping gear, as needed)
• Transportation assistance to and from the Ride (as needed)
The student government at traditionally bike-unfriendly USC discusses making the campus even more unfriendly to bicyclists by banishing bike riders to the periphery of the campus. Oddly, their rivals across town at bike-friendly UCLA don’t seem to have any problem welcoming bike-riding students and faculty on campus.
Advisory groups in exclusive La Jolla continue fighting to keep bikeshare from besmirching their fair city, preferring one car parking space over a handful of bikes, and insisting the town’s “topography is not conducive to more bicycles.” Oddly, I didn’t have any problem with the topography when I lived and rode down that way.
A Davis columnist complains that killing a cyclist doesn’t seem to be against the law in California, as a woman walks when the DA decides there’s not enough evidence to get a conviction in the death of a cyclist competing in a time trial — even though she may have been on her phone at the time of the crash. And even though no one bothered to test her for drugs or alcohol.
A Greenwich Village website says bikes will save the community when New York shuts down a major subway line for a year and a half for maintenance work.
A cyclist in the UK was forced to crawl off a busy highway when he fell off his bike and broke his hip — then had to wait two hours to be flown to a hospital.
An Indian TV network asks if riding a bike is worth the risk, and concludes that the country’s bad roads and lack of protections for vulnerable road users don’t help.
