DIY Eagle Rock plan move forward with support from Solis, bike lanes blocked by trash bins, and bikes take over SF street

February 22, 2021 / / Comments Off on DIY Eagle Rock plan move forward with support from Solis, bike lanes blocked by trash bins, and bikes take over SF street

Sometimes you have to take matters into your own hands.

After Metro unveiled three auto-centric alternatives for bus rapid transit in Eagle Rock, local residents responded by creating their own Beautiful Boulevard plan.

The DIY plan is designed to accommodate all users while retaining — and improving — the bike lanes Metro planned to eliminate, and boosting the business environment in the downtown area.

It’s already won the support of County Supervisor Hilda Solis, who represents the area on the Metro Board.

Streetsblog’s Joe Linton provides a good in-depth examination of the plan, which should be a model for neighborhoods throughout the LA area.

Update: You can voice your support for this project by contacting your elected officials. Eagle Rock Forward has a sign-up form and sample email here. 

Before imageAfter image

Rendering of Beautiful Boulevard plan from Eagle Rock Forward. An earlier version of this story mistakenly used a rendering from a different project.

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Over the years, we’ve repeatedly taken complaints about bike lanes blocked by trash bins to the LAPD, LADOT and various councilmembers.

But no matter how much we fight or who we talk to, nothing ever seems to change.

Reddit post

Technically, every damn one of these trash cans can be ticketed, just like a vehicle double parked or blocking a bike lane.

The problem, I’m told, is establishing who they belong to and who put them there, since there’s no license or registration number, and it’s possible that someone other than the homeowner could have moved them there.

Although pretty damned unlikely.

So nothing gets done about it. And the problem will just keep going on until someone gets hurt

Or worse.

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Bike riders took over San Francisco’s iconic Market Street on Sunday.

Including one who uses his seat as foot rest.

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Don’t just read about women’s history next month.

Go ahead and color it in.

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Here’s a call for bicycling researchers.

https://twitter.com/Sidsel_Hjuler/status/1362752639516172289

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Who says bikes can’t fly?

Or how about a little fat biking in the snow?

And the expression is jump ship, not jump shit.

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

A British driver complains about children riding their bikes on the sidewalk, even though he’s breaking the law himself by using a handheld cellphone while driving. And speeding.

https://twitter.com/Virtual_Vincent/status/1361663020880035843?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1361663020880035843%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Froad.cc%2Fcontent%2Fnews%2Fcycling-live-blog-19-february-2021-281037

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

A Rosemead CA man lost part of a finger when the Asian American teacher’s aide was the victim of a vicious unprovoked attack by a man on a bicycle; a crowdfunding campaign has raised nearly double the $35,000 goal.

There’s a special place in hell for the bike-riding man who nearly collided with a 76-year old woman as she jogged on a Toronto sidewalk, then turned around to knock her down from behind and kick her in the head before riding off.

A British man got six years behind bars for riding his bike up to mug a 77-year old woman, who managed to fight him off with her crutch.

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Local

Little Women star Florence Pugh is one of us. Or would be, if her bigass 73-pound fat-tired ebike hadn’t run out of juice.

 

State

This is who we share the road with. After a BMW driver intentionally drove into a group of Black Lives Matter protesters blocking a San Luis Obispo highway last summer, police portrayed the driver as the victim — and sat on drone video showing the incident for six months.

A petition calls for letting a Livermore man keep fixing bikes in his garage after the city shut his business down when a neighbor complained.

Police in San Raphael used a bait bike to take down a pair of bike thieves. Something the LAPD still can’t — or won’t — do for fear of entrapment allegations, thanks to bad advice from the city attorney’s office.

 

National

Go ahead and ride a little more. A new study suggests the more you exercise, the better it is for your heart.

If someone visits your bike shop claiming to be from bike frame protection company invisiFRAME, it’s a scam.

Bike riding rates are up in Maui, even if bike tourism is nearly nonexistent.

Washington moves forward with a bill to eliminate state sales taxes on ebikes and accessories.

After the employees of a Colorado bike shop asked a man using a walker to leave because he refused to wear a mask, they discovered he’d shoplifted a thousand bucks worth of bike computers, speed sensors and bikewear.

A Colorado county will teach every kindergartener how to ride a bike this year. Which is exactly what should be done everywhere.

Apparently, just driving away after killing another person while driving distracted is no big deal in South Dakota — if you’re the state’s attorney general.

Schwinn is partnering with Brooklyn’s Good Company Bike Club to promote diversity in bicycling.

A pair of Philadelphia twins are pedaling their way to success, after founding the first Black-owned food delivery service exclusively serving Black-owned restaurants.

Delaware bike riders may have to start stopping for stop signs again, after a 60-month test of the Idaho Stop Law expires later this year; data from the state police shows intersection crashes involving bicyclists dropped 20% during that period.

Sad news from Georgia, where Jerry Colley, a co-founder of the Bicycle Ride Across Georgia, the Georgia BikeFest and Bike Florida died of leukemia at the age of 76.

 

International

Even in Yucatan, business owners say they support bike lanes, as long as the city puts them somewhere else.

A new study shows that after Toronto installed 15 miles of popup bike lanes during the pandemic, it increased access to 100,000 jobs, while boosting low stress routes to work and shopping by up to 20%. Which is yet another example of what Los Angeles has missed out on by not providing a single popup lane anywhere in the city.

Evidently, it’s not just bike racers doping. A traffic marshal at the 2019 Road Worlds in Britain got two years for dealing coke and ketamine to spectators.

A UK man explains how bike riding helped him get over the loss of his beloved dog, after riding with his dog had helped him get through the pandemic.

After a Scottish cycling champ lost his battle with pancreatic cancer, the local community got together to give him one last ride to the funeral parlor, as hundreds of townspeople lined the route.

The island of Jersey considers joining most of the European Union in adopting presumed liability, which automatically assigns fault for a collision to the operator of the less vulnerable vehicle by assuming they have a greater responsibility to avoid a crash, unless they can prove the other party was at fault. Something we desperately need here, where the blame usually falls on the most vulnerable party, rather than the least.

The president of Zambia responds to a request for bicycles from village leaders with a gift of hundreds of bikes bearing his picture — and warns he’ll take them right back if they’re used to support the opposition.

If a Samoan startup has its way, you’ll be riding on foam instead of air, and flats will be a bad memory.

Somehow, a pair of Singapore bike riders got the blame when a pack of feral dogs knocked them off their bikes, with one rider injured falling into a drain.

A Philippine city paints a picture of equality for women on bikes by making a few feminine adjustments to the standard bike lane symbol.

 

Competitive Cycling

Don’t hold your breath. Belgian cycling prodigy Remco Evenepoel is asking for an apology from UCI president David Lappartient, after an investigation cleared him of accusations his team director tried to hide something when Evenepoel crashed over a bridge during last summer’s Il Lombardia.

After suffering years of criticism for his earlier defense of Lance Armstrong, cycling announcer Phil Liggett now says he’s glad officials got him on doping charges.

A pair of cyclists get into it following a crash in London Olympic road race. The 1948 London Olympics.

Twitter post

 

Finally…

That time an Aussie football team tried bicycling for training, and discovered why forming a peloton might be a problem. Nothing like having your bicycling spill off a sidewalk captured for posterity on Google’s street view.

And a look at bikes of the past, from the past.

https://twitter.com/BBCArchive/status/1363422711511273478

Thanks to Megan Lynch for the link.

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Be safe, and stay healthy. And wear a damn mask, already. 

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

London paper holds ugly mirror to LA bicycling; bike rider brutally attacked with baseball bat; and chef has bike, will cook

February 19, 2021 / / Comments Off on London paper holds ugly mirror to LA bicycling; bike rider brutally attacked with baseball bat; and chef has bike, will cook

London’s Guardian takes a look at bicycling in the City of Angels.

And it ain’t pretty.

With year-round perfect riding weather and a topography that allows both bike commuters to enjoy pedaling without too much strain and experienced riders to explore the nearby mountains and hills, Los Angeles in many ways is a cyclists’ paradise.

But the city’s cycling reputation is tempered by the fact that it is one of the most vexing, difficult and downright dangerous cities in the United States to ride a bike in.

The story goes on to describe LA’s crappy roads, lack of safe bikeways, and drivers who can’t seem to take their foot off the gas or put their phones down — despite city officials nearly dislocating their shoulders patting themselves on the back.

In 2018, Bicycling Magazine gave LA the ignominious title of “worst bike city in America” because of the hazards posed to cyclists by distracted drivers, the terrible shape of most streets, and the seeming willingness of local officials to pay out millions of dollars in lawsuits rather than address the infrastructure needs that could make LA a safer place to bike…

The poor shape of streets in Los Angeles has forced the city to dole out millions of dollars in the last decade to cyclists severely injured by the shoddy road conditions.

In 2017, the city paid $7.5m to a man left quadriplegic after he crashed on a stretch of road where the pavement had buckled because of tree roots. That same year it gave $6.5m to a cyclist who suffered a traumatic brain injury after hitting a massive pothole on his bike, and another $4.5m to the family of a rider killed after he hit a 2in ridge in the pavement.

Phil Gaimon, former pro, author and YouTube star Phil Gaimon sums it all up.

“The weather here is so perfect that you really don’t need a car to shelter like you do in other parts of the country,” said Phil Gaimon, a former professional cyclist turned author and YouTube star. “But LA is also the shittiest city in the most beautiful part of the world.”

It’s not how we want to see ourselves, or how we want others to see us.

But it’s too often true, in far too many ways.

It doesn’t have to be.

But until we can help our elected leaders find the political courage to stand up to LA’s driver industrial complex — or replace them with officials who will — we will continue to put up ghost bikes.

And dream about what might have been.

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Horrifying attack in New York, where a bike-riding man was beaten senseless by a man with a baseball bat, who struck him repeatedly until the victim fell to the sidewalk unconscious and bleeding, then kept striking him as bystanders attempted to intervene.

Police arrested the 46-year old attacker after witnesses pointed him out standing in the crowd.

At last report, the victim still hadn’t regained consciousness, and no reason was given for the vicious attack.

The video depicts a brutal assault on a helpless victim, so make sure that’s something you really want to see before you click Play.

https://twitter.com/NY_Scoop/status/1362409612318760964?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1362409612318760964%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nydailynews.com%2Fnew-york%2Fnyc-crime%2Fny-nyc-baseball-bat-attack-bicyclist-video-20210218-kjlhhpehnbfszgfrjd66asvzd4-story.html

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Who needs a food truck when you’ve got your own bicycle kitchen?

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

A British delivery rider says he’s been struck by drivers over 20 times during the pandemic, and physically attacked four times.

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

Boise police are looking for a mountain bike-riding bank robbery suspect who rode off with an unspecified amount of cash after telling the teller he had a gun. No word on whether he made an Idaho Stop as he made his getaway.

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Local

LA bike diversity expert Tamika Butler turns up in an unexpected place, writing for Red Bull about elite mountain bikers Eliot Jackson and Katie Holden and their new Grow Cycling Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to inclusive community building and career development, and tearing down the barriers to entry for marginalized communities.

 

State

San Diego bicyclists can now get turn-by-turn bike directions on your iPhone.

Congratulations to UC Riverside on being designated as a Bicycle Friendly University.

Santa Barbara is offering a free demo of various kinds of ebikes in an effort to encourage more people to get out of their cars.

Bay Area residents now have the option of trading their older, smog belching cars for a new ebike. Last I checked, the ebike option was still unavailable in the LA area.

The rich get richer. UC Davis has completed a new and much improved bike path leading to the bike-friendly campus. Thanks to Megan Lynch for the heads-up.

Good idea. The Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition is offering weekly in-person bicycling lessons for just $5 a session.

San Mateo police urge drivers, bicyclists and pedestrians to kill ’em with kindness. Instead of just, you know, killing ’em.

 

National

Forbes examines how one of the top low-end bike makers is struggling to keep up with booming demand at Walmart, Target and other mass-market retailers.

Heartbreaking news from Arizona, where a careless driver ran down a couple in their 70s as they rode in a bike lane, killing the woman and injuring her companion. Thanks to Phillip Young for the link.

Kings County, Washington, home to Seattle, will re-examine its mandatory bike helmet law, after reports indicated that the seldom-enforced law was used disproportionately to target homeless people who can’t afford to buy one.

After a year of riding her bike to campus, a Texas nursing student got the free use of a new Nissan for one year. Although that may not necessarily be an improvement.

A Chicago bike advocate was critically injured when she was right hooked by a driver illegally turning from far left lane; the fleeing vehicle was caught on security cam, but turned out to have been carjacked just days before.

A Pennsylvania man faces up to 12 years behind bars after he admitted to running a pair of stop signs before fatally slamming into a bike rider, while driving without a license.

NASCAR champ Bobby LaBonte is one of us, as he moves his annual fundraising ride to North Carolina, with a Roubaix-style finish circling the race track.

The executive director of a New Orleans advocacy group predicts this will be a breakout year for bicycling in the Big Easy, where 80% of residents support quickly building a “completely connected network of safe, dedicated bike lanes and trails throughout the city,” while 73% support protected bike lanes.

 

International

No, the best way to stay safe on a bike isn’t to wear a helmet; it’s to ride safely and defensively so you don’t need one.

We can hope. The chairman of Giant Bicycle’s Spanish and Portuguese subsidiary predicts cars will disappear in the coming years, while bicycles will keep being pedaled around the world.

Punjabi police busted a hit-and-run driver who slammed into a bike rider from behind, then drove over six miles with the man’s body on the roof of his car, only getting out to dump it when the man’s arm fell across the car’s window.

A lack of safe infrastructure could derail Mumbai’s plans to promote bicycling as a commuter option, and become India’s bicycling capital.

Bikes are booming in Nairobi despite a near-total lack of bike infrastructure, where a nine-mile ride to work is described as “harrowing.”

Maybe there’s justice after all. A Malaysian court has overruled a local magistrate, reinstating the case against a 26-year old woman who rammed 30 teenage bike riders with her car, killing eight and injuring eight more; the ruling came four years to the day after the horrific crash.

A New Zealand study concludes that e-scooters aren’t as safe as bicycles, and their users are much more likely to end up in hospital emergency rooms with a high level of alcohol in their blood.

 

Competitive Cycling

Cycling News reminisces about five late and lamented North American bike races that bit the dust in the last decade, at least temporarily, including our own dearly departed Tour of California.

Bicycling looks forward to eleven “can’t miss” bike races in the coming year, starting with Belgium’s Omloop Het Nieuwsblad later this month. And yes, you can read it on Yahoo if Bicycling blocks you.

LA’s pioneering, diversity-based L39ION of Los Angeles cycling team will field a women’s Continental team for the upcoming racing season, in addition to the previously announced men’s squad.

Hats off to British Giro winner Tao Geoghegan Hart, who took a knee in support of racial equity — and put his money where his heart is by sponsoring an under-23 rider with his former Hagens Berman Axeons team to promote racial diversity in professional cycling.

Instagram post

 

Finally…

Turn your old bike wheel into an otherworldly pan flute. Your next ebike could be a sub-19 pound roadie with the battery hidden in a faux water bottle, for the low, low price of just $14,449.

And the award for best use of a cargo bike goes to…

Twitter post

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Be safe, and stay healthy. And wear a damn mask, already. 

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

Car chases end on LA-area bike paths, couple kidnaps and tortures prospective bike buyer, and weigh in on Glendora Ave

February 18, 2021 / / 2 comments

My apologies for yesterday’s unexcused absence, once again. 

The assorted health issues stemming from my diabetes, and the many and varied meds to treat them, conspired to knock me on my ass all Tuesday night and most of the following day.

One more reminder that diabetes sucks.

Virtually all my health problems are the result of doctors who insisted I’d never get diabetes, despite a family history on both sides, allowing it to go undetected for as much as 20 years. 

So if you’re at risk, get checked. And don’t believe anyone who insists your bicycling, lean build and/or healthy diet means you won’t get it. 

Then do whatever you have to do to avoid it.

Because trust me, you don’t want this shit.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay.

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Los Angeles TV viewers watched live Tuesday evening as a car theft suspect led police on a high speed chase before briefly driving on the Westside’s Ballona Creek bike path.

He then abandoned the allegedly stolen van to run across the 90 Freeway during rush hour traffic, and apparently made a failed attempt to buy, beg or steal a man’s bicycle back on the path.

All in vain, as it turned out, as the bike rider refused, and police tackled the man in a grassy field shortly later.

It appeared to be a common theme for the day.

Two other suspects appeared to escape capture earlier Tuesday after an extended high speed chase that ended in Long Beach.

They, too, abandoned the car — apparently their own, this time — and beat an escape by walking along the LA River bike path.

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Buyer beware, indeed.

A New Mexico couple faces a raft of charges after allegedly kidnapping a man who came to their house to buy a bicycle.

 
Albuquerque Police said Crane allegedly shot the man in the foot, heated a metal pipe and threatened to burn him in the face, and shoved an object up his nose, KRQE reports. Crane allegedly spray-painted a cross on the man’s chest and threatened to shoot him.

They reportedly were looking for someone they said owed them money. But they’re likely to get long prison terms, instead.

And yes, this is why you should always meet prospective bike buyers or sellers in a public place.

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Here’s your chance to weigh in on a safer Glendora Ave.

https://twitter.com/ActiveSGV/status/1361767303843471360

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Learn how to fight for, and implement, effective Vision Zero programs.

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Hint: Find politicians with more commitment and courage than LA’s weak kneed mayor and city council.

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Ever get the feeling they’re just trying to thin the herd?

https://twitter.com/just_barely/status/1361626101559271424?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1361626101559271424%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Froad.cc%2Fcontent%2Fnews%2Fcycling-live-blog-17-february-2021-280977

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Here’s today’s mountain biking break, courtesy of the “insanely long” trails of Idaho’s Silver Mountain bike park.

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

An Aussie bike rider voiced his obvious displeasure after a driver passed far too close and too fast.

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Local

It’s getting closer. The new Taylor Yard bike and pedestrian bridge connecting Elysian Valley and Cypress Park is about three-quarters done. Let’s just hope it’s worth the $18 million price tag, which is more than two to three times the original estimate.

KCET highlights 12 bikeable spots to explore in WeHo’s Rainbow District, aka Boystown, viewable along the bike lane on Santa Monica Blvd. Some I didn’t even know about, like the Door’s offices and rehearsal space, where Jim Morrison laid tracks for L.A. Woman.

Sofi Tucker is one, uh, two of us, as the EDM DJ duo partnered with Venice Beach’s Solé Bicycles for a limited-edition white and purple single-speed bike called The Purple Cheetah, in honor of its paint job and cheetah-print seat.

 

State

Congrats to carfree bike rider Jacob Madel on his appointment as the new advocacy manager for the San Diego Bike Coalition.

A coalition of San Diego advocacy groups reaffirms its support for protected bike lanes on 30th Street through the North Park neighborhood.

San Diego letter writers debate the virtues of protected bike lanes, with frequent BikinginLA contributor Phillip Young taking the contrary view.

Completing our San Diego foursome, 51-year old Leovardo Salceda may finally face very belated justice, 32 years after he allegedly fatally shot bike rider Oliver Harrison with a stray bullet.

Maybe San Francisco construction crews are starting to get it, apparently thinking more about bike riders and other vulnerable road users when setting up their work zones.

Sad news from Riverbank, where a teenaged boy was killed in a collision while riding his bike at 2:30 am.

 

National

Bicycling says Vanmoof’s team of bike hunters could make stolen bicycles a thing of the past. As usual, you can read it on Yahoo if Bicycling’s site blocks you.

Esquire rates the seven best bikes to choose from if you want to ride in style this year, ranging in price from around $300 to $1,200.

A Seattle nonprofit uses bakfiets cargo bikes to deliver food and supplies for food banks; 450 volunteers have transported over 88 tons of food since the pandemic started last spring.

The Killers’ Brandon Flowers is one of us, as the lead singer of the Las Vegas-based band will have shoulder surgery for a mountain biking injury.

Nevada’s Clark County, home to Las Vegas, belatedly gives bike riders the right to take the lane.

They get it. The latest draft of Missoula, Montana’s long-range transportation plan is heavy on bike lanes, greenways, shared-use paths and Complete Streets, while dropping a proposed freeway interchange. Now if Los Angeles could just somehow make that leap.

Meet a Missouri man who’s lived carfree for the last 14 years, riding his bike more than an hour to work every day, regardless of the weather.

An Ohio bike shop got a stolen BMX bike back when the owner’s mother called the mother of one of the suspected thieves, asking for her son do the right thing. Which in this case, meant buying it back from the person he sold it to before he could return it.

You can now rent an ebike in New York for $99 a month.

The American spy who killed a 19-year old British man when she slammed into his motorcycle, then fled the scene — and the country, claiming diplomatic immunity — offered to go into mediation when a Virginia court refused to dismiss the civil suit against her. Sadly, the Trump administration refused to send her back to the UK to face charges, and Biden appears to be following suit.

The Virginia Senate approved measures requiring drivers to change lanes to pass bike riders when they can’t give a three-foot passing distance and allow bicyclists to ride two abreast, but punted on adopting the Idaho Stop Law.

 

International

Your next bike helmet could come with built-in lights, complete with your choice of light(er) weight and air vents, or self-charging solar panels.

Banksy’s recent English bike mural is literally off the wall, after it was sold, bricks and all, to an art gallery for an undisclosed six-figure price, despite claims that it really belonged to the people of Nottingham, rather than the building owner who sold it.

A British man will have to find a new home for the hundreds of broken bikes he fixes to give away on Facebook or raffle to raise funds for nonprofits, after his homeowner’s group gave them the boot from his own driveway.

An Irish researcher says a helmet and hi-viz are less effective than segregated infrastructure to improve bicycle safety.

Cyclist touts Les Trois Cols as possibly the greatest bicycling loop in the French Alps, traversing three mountain passes while offering challenging climbs and spectacular views.

F1 driver Fernando Alonso is back in the saddle training for the upcoming motorsports season in Switzerland, just days after surgery to repair his jaw and teeth damaged in a bicycling collision.

An Indian paper asks if the pandemic-induced bike boom is safe and there to stay.

This is why people keep dying on the streets. A New Zealand man who killed a bike rider is asking to get his driver’s license back, less than a year after the distracted driving crash; the judge disqualified himself because he has feared for his own safety while biking on the same road.

The Australian edition of Gizmodo examines how the bicycle changed the world for women.

 

Competitive Cycling

About damn time. Thirty-three year old former bike messenger Ayesha McGowan has joined Liv Racing, achieving her high-profile goal of becoming the first Black American woman to compete on the World Tour, just six years after first taking up the sport. Once again, read it on Yahoo if Bicycling blocks you.

The US men’s road cycling team for this year’s Tokyo Olympics could fit in a bobsled. No, a two man bobsled.

 

Finally…

VeloNews meets Vogue. When you’re riding a bike, with an outstanding warrant for car theft hanging over your head, just put a damn light on it, already.

And this pretty much sums it all up.

Twitter post

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Be safe, and stay healthy. And wear a damn mask, already. 

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

When is a bike lane not a bike lane, stumbling on the Venice Lights Parade bike ride, and Kevin Hart is one of us

February 16, 2021 / / 2 comments

Happy Fat Tuesday to everyone freezing their ass off down south today.

Not to rub it in, but our weather here in SoCal is sunny and warm, if a tad windy today.

So toss some beads and bunting on your bike, put some Mardi Gras music on your earbuds — okay earbud, since California law only allows one when you ride.

And shout out a few heartfelt “Iko Ikos” for our biking brethren left bereft by the pandemic and Mother Nature.

Photo by Michael Gravois from Pixabay.

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When is a bike lane not a bike lane?

When it’s completely overgrown and no one wants to do anything about it.

Twitter post

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Meet the candidates for the Hollywood Hills West neighborhood council tomorrow evening. And make sure we get a council that backs much needed bike and pedestrian improvements in the Hollywood area.

And yes, Mary Yarber is one of us.

Twitter post

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A bike rider stumbles on the weekly Venice Lights Parade, which is still going on despite the pandemic.

https://twitter.com/transitpassla/status/1361402045761167360

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Evidently, Kevin Hart is one of us, too.

Twitter post

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

No bias here. A Massachusetts TV station calls for motorists to be careful driving in bike lanes, but proceeds to remind bike riders they have to obey traffic laws.

Talk about a close pass. A British bike rider captures a 360° view of a needless punishment pass. As if it’s ever necessary.

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

A British man was busted for carrying up to 50 packs of heroin after his attempt to escape by throwing his bike at the cops failed.

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Local

Yes, please. Streets For All is calling for the completion of the Ballona Creek bike path, which was originally supposed to end at Cochran Ave and Venice Blvd.

Sad news, as the 12-year old daughter of a lawyer handling the estate of Michael Jackson has died, after suffering what her mother described only as a “terrible accident” while riding her bicycle in Los Angeles; the story of her fight for survival had gone viral, touching hearts around the world.

UCLA’s transportation department marked Valentines Day with a neurologist, a digital humanities specialist and two graduate students explaining why they love riding their bikes.

Pasadena police will conduct another bicycle and pedestrian safety enforcement campaign on Friday. The usual protocol applies. Ride to the letter of the law until you cross the city limits, so you’re not the one who gets ticketed.

World traveling Long Beach expats The Path Less Pedaled are selling some of their beautiful bicycle watercolors for less than $300 apiece. Any of which would look perfect gracing your walls. Or mine, for that matter.

 

State

Yes, please. A Streetsblog SF op-ed calls for getting rid of the flimsy plastic bendy posts that pass for bike lane protection, and replacing them with steel and plastic barriers to force drivers to obey the law.

Police concluded a San Francisco bike rider suffered a medical emergency after he was found unresponsive in the street near Golden Gate Park on Saturday, despite social media reports that he’d been struck by a hit-and-run driver. Although it’s also important to remember that drivers don’t have to actually hit someone to cause a life-threatening fall.

There’s a special place in hell for whoever stole the bicycle a mentally disabled Vacaville man used to get to work

 

National

Riding a bicycle improves your health in 12 ways. Kind of like Wonder Bread.

Seattle bike groups are hoping to get the county health department to reconsider the city’s mandatory bike helmet requirement, calling the law arbitrary and troubling, while arguing that it disproportionately affects people of color.

A Nevada nonprofit bought a billboard to remind drivers that state law requires them to change lanes to pass someone on a bicycle. Which beats the hell out of California’s seldom enforced three-foot passing law.

A New Jersey man is planning to bike across the US to raise funds for an animal rescue, after dropping 100 pounds when he started riding a bike last spring.

There’s not a pit deep enough for whoever beat a 12-year old New York boy on the subway and stole his bicycle.

A bighearted bikemaker from Pennsylvania surprised a pair of young sisters suffering from a rare neurodegenerative disease by giving them new motorized tricycles; Jason Kraft gave away ten similar bikes to children suffering from the disease last year, and hopes to donate 20 this year.

 

International

New reflective wheel stickers promise to improve safety by making you visible to drivers up to 500 feet away.

An 80-year old English paperboy decides not to pack it in after all, after a local bike shop gave him a free ebike to ease his 2.5-mile daily route.

A Dublin bike rider puts his money where his mouth is, donating five euros to an anti-bike lane campaign just so he can tell them off.

A kindhearted Irish bike mechanic gave a 81-year old man a refurbished bicycle, after the bike he used to get to the shops broke down.

Lessons from the Netherlands suggest we need better traffic lights, and fewer of them.

Thousands of bike and scooter riders turned out in Malaga, Spain to protest a new law that would ban them from sidewalks and pedestrian plazas.

A new bill in the Philippine legislature would establish a national network of safe bike lanes and pathways connecting to essential destinations like work, school, medical facilities and markets.

 

Competitive Cycling

Chris Froome said goodbye to Los Angeles by posting his final SoCal training ride on Strava; the seven-time Grand Tour winner is joining his new team, Israel Start-Up Nation, after rehabbing here from his gruesome crash two years ago.

Peloton talks with rising American cycling star Sepp Kuss.

 

Finally…

At least no one has to worry about getting cancer from that new bicycle smell. Just what every bike rider needs for the occasional time trial around the block.

And your next bike may not even need you.

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Be safe, and stay healthy. And wear a damn mask, already. 

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

65-years of love and bikes fill LA couple’s lives, LA cop buys girls new bikes, and 1890’s LA bike and camera club

February 15, 2021 / / Comments Off on 65-years of love and bikes fill LA couple’s lives, LA cop buys girls new bikes, and 1890’s LA bike and camera club

Anyone who’s been active in bike advocacy in Los Angeles, or done bicycle volunteer work, has probably met — and liked — Aubrey Provost and his wife Melba.

Myself included.

The Bicycle Advisory Committee member represents the Eighth Council District on behalf of Councilman Marqueece Harris-Dawson, and both have volunteered with CicLAvia and the LACBC. And taken part in virtually every major bike ride and event the city has to offer.

The LA Times marked Valentine’s Day by talking with the octogenarian couple about their 65-year love affair that only gets stronger by biking together nearly every day.

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A bighearted LAPD cop dug into his own pocket to buy new bikes for a couple of young girls after their bicycles were stolen from their mom’s car.

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Bikes and cameras just naturally go together.

And apparently, always have.

Twitter post

Check out those bigass pneumatic tires, too.

Thanks to Megan Lynch for the link.

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This is what happens when drivers turn onto the wrong side of the road in the UK.

Twitter post

For what it’s worth, the West Midlands police responded on Twitter to say the driver appears to be in the wrong.

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Take a two and a half minute Monday mountain bike daydream.

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

A driver in the UK blared his horn at a bike rider before knocking the man off his bike, then got out of his van to scream at him. Although from the story, it’s not clear if he left the scene, or if police are just looking for witnesses.

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

WTF? It takes a real jerk to perform bike stunts on a fragile, 1,750-year old ruins of a Roman wall in the UK. Seriously, don’t do that.

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Local

LAist reporter Sharon McNary walked and biked the newly completed 13-mile Park to Playa trail, which stretches from the Crenshaw District to Playa del Rey.

Three-time Olympic gold medalist snowboarder Shaun White is one of us, as he rides through LA with his girlfriend. Although someone should buy the man a shirt.

WeHo is considering a plan to shut down Robertson Blvd from Santa Monica Blvd south to Melrose to everyone but pedestrians — but only on Saturday nights and Sundays, at least for now. You have until 4 pm Tuesday to get comments in, or you can ask to speak at the 6 pm council meeting.

Pasadena police busted a bike thief who stole a couple’s bicycles at hammer-point after they discovered him and another man attempting to smash their bike locks; police are still looking for the other man.

 

State

Montecito’s newly rebuilt San Ysidro Bridge opened to bike riders and pedestrians after a three-year closure, providing renewed access to recreational trails.

Thieves stole $70,000 worth of high-end bicycles from a Fresno bike shop in a pair of break-ins just three weeks apart.

A new effort is underway to get a bike lane across the entire Bay Bridge between Oakland and San Francisco; the current bikeway bizarrely stops halfway across, forcing riders to turn around. Or swim.

 

National

Who says you have to choose between an ebike and gravel?

The Nevada truck driver charged with the alleged meth-fueled death of five bike riders last December had his bail set at three-quarters of a million dollars; no word on whether he’ll be able to raise it.

A Michigan appeals court tossed out a killer driver’s overly lenient one-year sentence for fleeing the scene after killing a bike rider two years ago.

This is the cost of traffic violence. The abusive father of rapper Nicki Minaj was killed by a hit-and-run driver as he walked along a Long Island roadway.

Armed robbers beat a New York delivery man to steal his ebike in an attack caught on video.

Once again, New Yorkers voice their support for bike lanes as long as they’re on someone else’s street.

Streetsblog wants to know why Gotham’s bike lanes still haven’t been cleared, nearly two weeks after a massive storm dumped snow on the city.

No surprise here, as traffic deaths increased in the DC area, despite a drop in vehicular traffic. Which tracks with what cities and states around the US have been reporting.

A Charleston, South Carolina newspaper applauds the state DOT’s embrace of Complete Streets.

 

International

Meet the designer of some of the most iconic bikes of the past 20 years.

Shimano’s head of training explains how to keep your ebike running like new.

An 18-year old Mexican man suffered life-threatening injuries when a man known only as El Bananas broke into his home as he was sleeping and shot him, accusing him of stealing the man’s bike.

A Toronto paper remembers a longtime bike advocate who died of cancer after decades of working tirelessly to “improve street safety and the labor conditions of bike couriers.”

Studies from the UK show that exercise can help prevent cancer. Like bicycling, for instance.

Seriously? A British woman who just wanted to let her four-year old daughter ride a bike was ticketed the equivalent of $103 for parking without paying in a pub parking lot, even though it had been closed by the pandemic.

After watching a man get stabbed by his friend in a ferocious attack, an English junkie got on the victim’s bicycle and rode off, telling the court he was just frightened and trying to get away; he somehow walked with a year’s probation, despite 17 prior convictions.

A British man suffering from terminal cancer plans to ride the length of Great Britain to raise funds to fight Ewing’s Sarcoma, despite not taking up bicycling until after his diagnosis; he’s already raised the equivalent of nearly $28,000, almost $7,000 more than the initial goal.

The rate of bicycles stolen from homes more than doubled in the UK last year.

Next City examines how New York and Paris got more women on bikes; even lowly Los Angeles saw a more than 80% increase in women riders last year, according to Strava.

Two-time Formula One world champ Fernando Alonso had surgery to repair a broken jaw following a collision while riding his bike in Switzerland.

An Indian columnist says a kid’s bicycle is a metaphor for freedom. Or maybe just freedom, period.

A Korean ebike concept looks to be the future of commuting bikes.

 

Competitive Cycling

Banning the extreme aero tuck position could cost bike racers as much as 3 mph in lost speed on descents.

Former Tour de France winner Chris Froome says he’s finally back to 100%, two years after a frightening solo crash training for the Critérium du Dauphiné; Froome spent the off-season rehabbing in Los Angeles.

A rainy finish line crash in the Tour de Provence raised more questions about rider safety on the pro tour after a spectator moved onto the course causing American Matteo Jorgenson to lose a shot at his first win; Jorgenson responded saying it sucks to miss his first real chance at victory like that.

 

Finally…

About damn time someone designed a futuristic autonomous car with a built-in bicycle carrier in the back. Why let a little ice stop you when you can just swap your wheels for saw blades?

And that feeling when Paul McCartney borrows your bike to escape from fans while disguised as a cop.

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Be safe, and stay healthy. And wear a damn mask, already. 

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

Man killed in collision attempting to ride bike across Anaheim freeway onramp, CHP blames victim’s clothing

February 13, 2021 / / Comments Off on Man killed in collision attempting to ride bike across Anaheim freeway onramp, CHP blames victim’s clothing

Freeway ramps are among the deadliest places to ride a bike.

That was driven home once again early Friday morning, when a man was killed trying to ride across an Anaheim onramp.

According to the Orange County Register, the victim, who has not been publicly identified, was riding south on Lakeview Ave at the onramp to the westbound 91 Freeway around 4:50 am Friday.

Before he could reach the pedestrian crossing, he was struck by a car attempting to enter the freeway, driven by a 67-year old Anaheim woman.

No word on whether he died at the scene, or passed away after being taken for treatment.

The driver remained at the scene and cooperated with investigators.

A CHP spokesman was quick to absolve the driver of responsibility, instead blaming the victim’s dark clothing, and poor visibility due to rainy conditions and the early morning darkness.

However, no mention is made of whether the victim had lights or reflectors on his bike, or whether the onramp itself was lighted.

There’s also no mention of how the design of the onramp may have contributed to the crash. Dual slip lanes that begin at the intersection with East Riverdale Ave could enable drivers to accelerate to highway speeds before ever entering the freeway, especially at that hour.

But it’s much easier to blame the victim’s clothing than to confront road conditions that not only made a collision more likely, but less survivable.

It’s also yet another tragic reminder to avoid freeway ramps whenever possible, which are seldom designed for the safety of anyone not encased in a couple tons of glass and steel.

This is at least the tenth bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the first that I’m aware of in Orange County.

My deepest sympathy and prayers for the victim and his loved ones.

Category: Injuries and Fatalities / Tags: , , ,
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