The Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition has decided to promote from within, turning to interim Executive Director Erik Jansen to replace the irreplaceable Tamika Butler as head of the coalition.
Jansen, the Deputy Executive Director of Advancement, stepped up to fill the void after Butler announced her resignation last June. And was selected to remain as head of the organization by the coalition’s board of directors, following a nationwide search.
Building upon the national reputation the LACBC enjoyed under previous ED Jennifer Klausner for its groundbreaking efforts to reach out to LA’s immigrant community, Tamika Butler led the organization in refocusing its efforts on building equity in underserved communities.
And in doing so, became a leading voice for the underprivileged and people of color within the bicycling community nationwide.
Now it will be interesting to see if Jansen continues those efforts, or moves the LACBC back to a more mainstream form of bicycle advocacy.
He comes at a time of unprecedented bikelash in the City of Angels, with bike lanes and safety projects under fire in Mar Vista and Playa del Rey. And as a lawsuit against the city, and a recall campaign to unseat Councilmember Mike Bonin, attempt to derail LA’s Vision Zero program and intimidate councilmembers to prevent any future lane reductions.
The LACBC has grown to become a mature advocacy group over the past several years. And will need strong leadership to help LA become the bikeable, livable community it must become.
You can meet Erik Jansen when the LACBC hosts a Handlebar Happy Hour at Pure Cycles in Burbank tonight, with free food and drink courtesy of BikinginLA sponsor Jim Pocrass.
Photo from LACBC.
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Delaware could become just the second state in the country to legalize the Idaho Stop.
Hopefully California won’t be too far behind.
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Male pro cyclists get a boost in the minimum wage, but women riders still don’t even have a guarantee of getting paid.
Britain governing body for cycling hopes to create a women’s cycling team patterned on the successful Team Sky.
A reminder to always cover-up or wear sunscreen when you ride, as retired Columbian racer Lucho Herrera blames cycling for his skin cancer. Something I can relate to, and more than once.
Sometimes a wicked time trial crash is the best form of advertising.
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Local
KPCC reports on the bike and pedestrian count conducted over the weekend by Los Angeles Walks and the LACBC.
The MyFigueroa project is just one of the projects changing the face of DTLA’s Figueroa corridor.
UCLA will launch an on-campus bikeshare program next week.
KNBC-4 looks at the COAST Open Streets Festival coming to Santa Monica this Sunday.
State
The San Diego Bicycle Coalition is looking for public input on plans for the pre-Halloween CicloSDias open streets event to be held next month.
I want to be like him when I grow up. An 81-year old North San Diego County man rode 4,200 miles across Canada in 56 days as part of a church group ride.
San Francisco moves forward with plans to sort of crack down on bicycle chop shops without actually making them illegal; a homeless advocate argues that they’re just an entrepreneurial way to for homeless people to make a living recycling bike parts that they happen to find. Except too often, they happen to find bikes that belong to other people.
A 63-year old Napa woman is back home after riding solo 5,000 miles across the US.
National
The Denver Post lists Colorado’s best mountain bike trails for your next trip to the Centennial State.
Police in Colorado arrested a man accused of threatening mountain bike riders with a hatchet, on the same trail where a rider was fatally shot a week earlier.
There’s a special place in hell for whoever ambushed a 13-year old Colorado boy in a park to steal his bicycle.
A 19-year old Fargo SD man was killed in a bicycle collision over the weekend, three years after he was deliberately run down in a dispute with a breakaway Mormon religious sect while riding his bike in Utah.
Bike lanes get the blame for traffic congestion in Minneapolis, even though construction projects are likely the real culprits. Never mind that the local TV station couldn’t seem to find any traffic backups to show in the report, despite taking the time to count bikes and cars during the morning and evening rush hours.
The Today Show’s Al Roker is one of us, making room on his daily bike commute for new co-star Megyn Kelly.
No bias here. When a bikeshare rider was hit by a New York Uber driver, the NYPD went out of its way to blame the victim, even though a witness said the driver was at fault.
International
Mexico City residents are using bicycles to deliver emergency supplies and help victims of last week’s earthquake.
The war on bikes continues. A Montreal man was seriously injured when he fell off his bike trying to avoid fishing line that had been strung at neck level across a bridge on a bike path.
A Toronto bike rider says the city’s car-first policies create a war on people, as a backlash results in the removal of stop signs that had gone through a community-driven public approval process.
Kindhearted Brits contribute the equivalent of $4,000 to replace the custom-made trike that allowed a man with cerebral palsy to ride, after his was stolen.
The Guardian says government efforts to criminalize reckless bicycling in the UK are ignoring the cause of 99% of the country’s fatal crashes to focus on just 0.12% of them, calling it headline grabbing hypocrisy.
Amsterdam is cracking down on unauthorized dockless bikeshare systems.
An Istanbul man fights his own depression by documenting his journeys around Turkey on his 1960s bicycle with photos and inspiring messages, earning 130,000 Instagram followers in the process.
An Israeli website takes a two-wheeled tor through bicycle history in the county.
Someone is dumping dockless bikeshare bikes into an Australian river; contractors pulled out 40 bicycles in just four hours. Thanks to Megan Lynch for the heads-up.
China’s Mobike and Ofo are battling for world domination in the dockless bikeshare market.
Finally…
Next time you sign up for a bike race, make sure it’s in the right country. Your next jean jacket could be more connected than a mafia hitman.
And now you, too, can live like America’s only remaining Tour de France winner for just $5 million.
