Weekend Links: The CHP gets it wrong again, the LA Times gets it right, and North Fig safety dogs Cedillo

May 21, 2016 / / 6 comments

We’re still at 19 new or renewing members of the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition in the first-ever May BikinginLA LACBC Membership Drive after yesterday’s unplanned absence.

So let’s get two more people to sign up or renew your membership now to make it 21 new members by the 21st.

Your fellow bike riders are depending on you to add your support to the LA area’s leading voice for bicyclists, and help make this a more bikeable, livable and equitable city.

Never mind the great LACBC gear you’ll get just for signing up.

………

Happy Bike to Shop Day.

………

Once again, the CHP gets it wrong.

Despite what a CHP officer told the OC Register’s traffic columnist, there is no law in California requiring cyclists to ride single file, on narrow roads or anywhere else.

Even though the department has been known to misapply CVC 21202, which requires bicyclists to ride as far to the right as practicable.

However, subsection 3 of the ride to right law exempts substandard lanes from that requirement, explicitly stating that the law does not apply on any lane that is too narrow for a bicycle to safely share with a motor vehicle. In most cases, that means any lane less than 14 feet wide, since bike riders are allowed to ride a safe distance from the curb, and drivers are required to give at least a three-foot passing distance.

That means, despite the officer’s assertions, that there is no legal justification for ticketing cyclists who ride abreast in a narrow lane, and no requirement under California law that they ride single file in the scene shown in the photo accompanying the column, where the lane is clearly too narrow for a cyclist to safely share with most cars, let alone a truck or SUV.

Yes, it is courteous to allow drivers to pass when safe to do so.

However, it is often safer for bicyclists to ride side-by-side on narrow roadways — not so they can chat, but to increase visibility and prevent unsafe passing.

As for whether it’s legal to cross a solid yellow line to pass a cyclist, that is allowed in most states with a three-foot or wider passing law. Unfortunately, Governor Brown vetoed an earlier version of California’s three-foot passing law that would have allowed drivers to briefly cross the center line to pass a cyclist, but only when safe to do so.

It’s not the officer’s fault he doesn’t know the law in this case.

The CHP has long failed to adequately train their officers in bike law, forcing officers to rely on cheat sheets that don’t list the many exceptions to CVC 21202, or go into detail on any of the other laws governing the rights and responsibilities of bike riders.

But providing false information like that only puts bike riders at needless risk, and encourages driveway vigilantes to take out their frustrations on bicyclists who are riding safely and within their rights.

Let alone subjecting them to tickets that aren’t legally justified, but are often too difficult to fight.

………

Great opinion piece from Paul Thornton the LA Times, who says if LA really wants to encourage more bicycling, the city needs to fix the roads so they’re safe to ride.

He also calls out former councilmember Tom LaBonge and current member Paul Koretz for dangerous decisions that defeat the purpose of the city’s Mobility Plan.

………

The Eastsider examines the North Figueroa safety issues dogging CD1 Councilmember Gil Cedillo, as he claims to be working to improve safety, despite unilaterally cancelling a road diet designed to do exactly that.

And they talk with Flying Pigeon LA bike shop owner Josef Bray-Ali, who has thrown his hat into the race to challenge Cedillo in next year’s city elections.

………

Germany’s Andre Greipel wins his third sprint of the Giro d’Italia, then promptly quits the race. Andrey Amador takes the leader’s jersey from Bob Jungels after the 13th stage, becoming the first Costa Rican to lead a Grand Tour.

Cycling Weekly examines five talking points about the Giro as the race reaches the legendary Dolomites this weekend.

This has been one of the most democratic Amgen Tour of California’s in memory, as the race had yet another stage winner in Latvian pro Toms Skujins. Aussie Rohan Dennis won Friday’s time trial to leap into second place, 16 seconds behind leader Julian Alaphillppe.

Meanwhile, American Megan Guarnier won the first stage of the women’s tour in a last minute breakaway.

The AToC heads to Santa Rosa today, on the same day the city hosts their 122nd Rose Parade. Which is different from Pasadena’s Rose Parade.

………

Local

CiclaValley reacts to Thursday’s bicycling fatality in Panorama City, which occurred just hours after he returned from Wednesday’s Ride of Silence.

LA’s Fox-11 concludes it is in fact possible to go carfree in SoCal.

The newly opened Expo Line extension adds 130 bike racks and lockers at seven new stations.

The LAPD has put out a BOLO Alert for a bike thief in the Central LA area.

South LA Councilmember Joe Buscaino rode an ebike 25 miles to work at City Hall in observance of Bike to Work Day.

KPCC is the latest media site to talk with the Eastside’s Ovarian Cycles Bicycle Brigade, who host their monthly women-identified Luna Ride tonight.

A writer for the Daily Bruin tweets that the board of directors for Westwood Village has voted to spend $44,000 for two bikeshare hubs in the village this fall. Unfortunately, the lack of bike lanes means there won’t be any safe places to ride them.

The Santa Monica Spoke invites you on a multi-modal Expo Line ride on Sunday.

The LACBC talks with Antelope Valley cyclist and soap maker Sharon Murdock.

 

State

It takes a world champion schmuck to steal an adult tricycle from a 67-year old Anaheim woman with multiple sclerosis.

A Huntington Beach man gets seven years for beating a police officer who stopped him for an alcohol violation while riding his bike; the officer’s daughter was doing a ride along and witnessed the assault. Not that the sentence isn’t warranted, but why is it that motorists seldom get a fraction of that for actually killing a cyclist or a pedestrian?

Potential San Diego bike commuters want more than just bike lanes to get them to ride, like showers and more considerate drivers. They have a much better chance of getting the showers.

A Fresno cyclist says don’t count on laws to protect you from distracted drivers.

In a seriously disgusting assault, a white Rancho Murieta driver ran a black bike rider off the road before getting out and punching him, after telling the victim to “go back to the hood.”

 

National

Members of the bicycle industry finally bind together to promote bicycling in the US. Something should have been done decades ago — and with a much higher budget.

HuffPo says we’ve been brainwashed into calling crashes accidents.

Caught on video: A Seattle truck driver jumps the curb in an apparent attempt to run down a bike rider; the action starts after the 1:50 mark. Note to cyclists: when you’re posting video of drivers behaving badly, feel free to delete the extraneous footage leading up to it.

A Salt Lake cyclist says he’ll be happy to pay for his fair share of the roads, as long as drivers pay theirs.

Agenda 21 is just so passé; evidently the new global bad guys are AARP and the World Health Organization, forcing age-friendly complete streets down the throats of those fine, upstanding Vermonters.

Apparently, traffic violations that put bike riders at risk don’t violate the rules of New York’s Taxi and Limousine Commission.

A DC bike commuter lists his pet peeves about riding to work, from cars that don’t signal to the traditional catcall to get on the sidewalk.

A bicycling Florida non-profit is redefining sharecropping, riding en masse to work organic gardens on land borrowed from homeowners; the model has already spread to Oakland and Uganda.

 

International

Brazil’s bike-riding president is running out of options to fight her ouster by impeachment.

A Toronto bike lane carries nearly as much bicycle traffic as the roadway next to it does cars.

Nothing like just now returning one of London’s Boris Bikes late after it was rented on New Years Day — in 2015.

London’s Telegraph asks if an increase in heavy truck traffic in the UK is responsible for an unexpected decrease in bike ridership. Not bloody likely, to use the vernacular.

More spending on bicycling would show Britain is serious about increasing ridership.

Two Afghan cyclists on a round the world journey stop in New York to tell UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon their country is tired of war and violence, before setting out across the US for Los Angeles.

An Aussie writer asks motorists to remember the driver who killed his 75-year old bike-riding uncle, showing rare understanding and sympathy for the inevitable impact it had on the man responsible.

 

Finally…

Forget self-driving cars; the next thing is Google’s interactive Levi bike jacket. Nothing like putting a billboard in the middle of a bike lane.

And the next time you’re in San Diego, a bronzed Bill Walton and his bike will be waiting to greet you on the shores of Mission Bay.

 

Category: Bikes & the Law, Law Enforcement, Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

No Morning Links today

May 19, 2016 / / 2 comments

Unfortunately, keeping up with yesterday’s two breaking news stories — and an attempt to correct a CHP officer’s mistaken interpretation of the ride-to-right requirement in yesterday’s Orange County Register — has taken up the time I would normally have used to write today’s Morning Links.

So please accept my apologies. And come back tomorrow, when I’ll try to catch up with an expanded Weekend Links.

Use the extra free time today to get out for a bike ride if there’s a break in the predicted drizzle. Or even if there isn’t.

And if you haven’t already, take a moment to sign up with the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition as part of our first-ever May BikinginLA LACBC Membership Drive.

We’re now up to 19 new members, so we need at least one more person to sign up now or renew your membership to keep up our one-a-day pace and make it 20 on the 20th.

And a special thanks to everyone who has joined already to help build a more bikeable community.

Category: General / Tags: , , ,

Update: Palos Verdes bike rider dies following apparent hit-and-run yesterday

May 19, 2016 / / 5 comments

More bad news for Bike to Work Day.

I’ve been informed that a member of the Palos Verdes Bicycle Club has died after an apparent hit-and-run Wednesday morning.

According to club member Jim Lyle, John Bacon had just finished relaxing with a small group of club members at Meyer’s Bakery in the Peninsula Center following a morning ride, and left to ride down the hill to his home.

Sadly, he never got there.

Lyle says Bacon’s daughter told him he was found by another cyclist lying in the street on the 1100 block of Granvia Altamira in Palos Verdes Estates around 9:45 am. He was taken a local hospital, where he passed away today.

However, the Daily Breeze reports police are looking for the driver of a white pickup who was seen on security camera following his bike, though they do not identify Bacon by name.

The driver reportedly stopped after the rider went down and attempted to flag down other people in the area, asking them to call 911, then got back in his truck and drove away.

The Breeze says police will not say whether the truck definitely hit his bike, but want to talk to any occupants to determine what happened.

The truck is described as a white, late 1990s to early 2000s Ford F-150, driven by a heavyset white man, around six feet tall and wearing a blue shirt.

According to Lyle, Bacon was a retired engineer in his late 60s; he describes him as a safe rider who always obeyed stop signs.

I’m told his family is aware of his death and has gathered with friends to mourn.

Anyone with information is urged to call Sgt. Luke Hellinga at 310-378-4211.

This is the 38th bicycling fatality in Southern California, and the 14th in Los Angeles County. It’s third bicycling fatality in the Palos Verdes area this year.

Update: Fox-11 reports Bacon was unconscious when paramedics arrived, and appeared to have suffered a head injury despite his helmet. 

Update 2: Larry Altman of the Daily Breeze offers a nice profile of John Bacon, identifying him as 68-year old John William Bacon III of Torrance. The retired father of three was described as a “very gentle soul” and an extremely safety conscious, 100-mile a week cyclist. 

Altman also reports police have located the driver in question, but haven’t made an arrest. Or even confirmed that he was struck by a vehicle. 

Update 3: According to Cycling in the South Bay’s Seth Davidson, a cyclist called the police after spotting what appeared to be the truck in question on Thursday, yet they never bothered to respond to the call; the driver finally left on his own without the police ever coming to check it out. 

He also reports that the person who turned himself into the police on Friday did not match the physical description of the driver, and may not have been be the owner of the truck. 

And that since Bacon’s death, four cyclists have come forward to report they had previously been buzzed and harassed by the driver of a truck that matched the description of the suspect vehicle.

Which raises the question of whether this may have been an intentional act that went too far. And whether the police are going to investigate it fairly. 

My deepest sympathy and prayers for John Bacon and all his family and friends.

 Thanks to Jim Lyle and Michael C Barr for the heads-up.

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

Update: Bike rider killed in Panorama City; police term it a “tragic accident”

May 19, 2016 / / 13 comments

Another bike rider has lost his life on our streets, just hours after the annual Ride of Silence honored fallen cyclists.

According to KTLA-5, a person riding a bicycle was struck by a car on Woodman Ave just north of Strathern St. in Panorama City around 5:42 am this morning.

The northbound vehicle then spun out of control and struck several parked cars before coming to rest facing in the opposite direction; the victim’s mountain bike can be seen a short distance away.

The bike rider, who has not been publicly identified in any way, was towing a shopping cart full of recyclables when he or she was struck just minutes before sunrise. There’s no word on how the collision occurred, or whether the bike had lights or reflectors.

Police say the driver was not under the influence, and termed the collision “just a tragic accident.” That’s even though the multiple impacts suggest the driver was moving a high rate of speed; a commenter on Reddit says the car struck a parked truck with enough force to obliterate the bed of the pickup.

This death is even more tragic since it comes on the Bike to Work Day, the one day of the year set aside to honor people on bicycles.

This is the 37th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the 13th in Los Angeles County; it appears to be the first in Panorama City since 2011.

Update: The Daily News reports the victim was a man in his 20s.

Update 2: Contradicting the earlier report, the Daily News says the investigation is still ongoing, and police are looking into whether speed was a factor; the street has a 35 mph speed limit.

According the story, the victim, who still hasn’t been publicly identified, was riding in the right lane while apparently holding his handlebars with one hand and pulling the shopping cart with the other. He was struck from behind by the driver traveling in the same lane, who went in to hit four other vehicles. 

While police don’t advise pulling a shopping cart — or anything else — while riding, the detective in charge of the case noted that the victim had a right to use the full lane, and drivers are required to give bicyclists a three-foot passing distance. 

A ghost bike will be placed at the scene at 9 pm Friday.

Update 3: KNBC-4 reports police are looking for a passenger in the car who fled the scene after suffering facial injuries in the collision.

Which raises the question of why someone riding shotgun would run away while the driver stuck around.

Thanks to CiclaValley for the link.

Update 4: The victim’s brother has identified him as 49-year old Peter Loretta, who lived in the area. That has been confirmed by the Daily News, which describes Loretta as being homeless.

His brother and daughter want to thank the person who comforted him as Loretta lay dying; if you know who that was, they can respond in the comments below, or contact me and I’ll forward the message to them. 

My deepest sympathy and prayers for Peter Loretta and his family.

Thanks to Joe Linton and John Morlock for the heads-up.

 

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

Morning Links: Life is cheap in Ventura County, Kuehl’s cartoon bike goes Expo, and happy Bike to Work Day

May 19, 2016 / / Comments Off on Morning Links: Life is cheap in Ventura County, Kuehl’s cartoon bike goes Expo, and happy Bike to Work Day

We’re still at 17 new or renewing members of the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition in the first-ever May BikinginLA LACBC Membership Drive.

Let’s get this up to one per day by getting just two more people to sign up now or renew your membership today to make it 19 on the 19th. It’s worth the low cost of membership just for the great LACBC gear you’ll get. Never mind helping to make this a more bikeable, livable and equitable city and county.

………

They should be ashamed.

The Ventura County DA’s office gave an unwarranted gift to a killer driver on Tuesday, by charging a Camarillo woman with two misdemeanor counts of vehicular manslaughter in the distracted driving death of two people in Moorpark last year.

Even though the CHP had recommended felony charges.

Twenty-six-year old Rachel Hill was allegedly distracted by a “portable electronic device” when she slammed into 53-year old cyclist Maciek Malish at 55 mph, then overcorrected after killing him and smashed head-on into 43-year old motorcyclist Jesse Cushman as he rode in the opposite direction.

Thanks to the inexplicable generosity of the DA’s office — which evidently doesn’t take either traffic crime or human life seriously — Hill faces a maximum of one year in county jail for each count, rather than the six years in state prison per count the CHP and common sense suggests is warranted.

Now two men are dead and two families shattered, while a deadly driver is guaranteed of receiving nothing more than a gentle slap on the wrist.

It’s heartbreaking to realize the lives of those on two wheels are worth so little in Ventura County — even when one is an Emmy winning sound editor.

Let’s hope voters in the county remember this when the next election rolls around.

………

LA County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl has a little fun riding the new Expo Line with an animated bike, surfboard and service dog.


………

Happy Bike to Work Day.

If you’re reading this early enough, you’ll find pit stops all over the LA area.

If not, don’t fret; both the Santa Monica Spoke and the LACBC are hosting handlebar happy hours for your ride home.

KPCC observes Bike to Work Day while noting that local bike commuting rates are still too low; Pasadena leads LA area cities with a 2.2% share.

………

Italian cyclist Diego Ulissi came out on top in a three-way sprint in Wednesday’s stage of the Giro d’Italia, as Bob Jungels keeps the leader’s pink jersey. Former leader Tom Dumoulin dropped out due to a sore butt.

The fourth stage of the Amgen Tour of California ends with a sprint finish at Laguna Seca; thousands turned out for the start at Morro Bay. Peter Sagan captured his record 15th stage victory in the race, while Julian Alaphilippe leads American Peter Stetina by 22 seconds in the general classification.

………

Local

LA’s Fox-11 concludes it is in fact possible to go carfree in SoCal.

HuffPo’s Joel Epstein complains about LA’s trashy streets.

The president of the Holmby-Westwood Property Owners Association says the possible removal of Westwood Blvd from the bike plan is a victory for residents, insisting Gayley Ave is better suited for a bike lane. Because God forbid we should get in the way of their precious Mercedes, Range Rovers and Teslas.

Glassell Park will consider improvements to Verdugo Road, including a road diet and possible bike lanes.

LA Magazine says the Biking Black Hole’s new bikeshare system is encouraging people to ride bikes “on streets that are hostile, if not downright dangerous, to two wheels.” Sort of like Westwood/Holmby Hills residents.

 

State

The 2016 Tour de OC rolls this Saturday to help send foster kids to camp for a mentorship program.

San Diego traffic delays have doubled over the last three years, as too few people opt for transit or riding to work. Yet the city’s mayor says separated bike lanes work, and getting 22% of commuters on bikes is doable.

Bike friendly Redlands is looking for state funding to install a new bike lane connecting with the Santa Ana River Trail.

Fresno is looking to improve the health of its residents by making it safer to ride and bike in the largely Latino and African American south part of town.

A San Francisco cyclist was critically injured when he was run over by a cab driver while riding in a crosswalk.

San Francisco’s Tenderloin district is about to get its first bike lane.

The Sacramento Bee wades into the great helmet debate with a surprisingly even-handed report.

 

National

A police website discusses the new GPS-enabled bait bikes to bust bike thieves.

NPR joins in on a Portland house move by bicycle.

A Spokane bike shop is helping the homeless and underemployed get back on their feet and out on the road.

Caught on video: An Arizona bike rider catches a foul-mouthed road raging driver on his bike cam screaming at him to get on the sidewalk because he was using the left turn lane.

A year later, there are no leads in the apparently random shooting of a bike rider from a passing car near my hometown.

Someone has apparently set out to deliberately injure or kill Colorado mountain bikers by planting three-inch nails embedded in concrete on a new singletrack trail; it’s the second such incident in the area in the past year. Whoever did this should face an attempted murder charge when they’re caught, at the bare minimum.

A North Dakota letter writer applauds attempts to say no to those damn liberal bike lanes.

A bike-riding Massachusetts minister asks motorists to watch out for bicyclists, and not judge the majority of well-mannered riders by the actions of a few idiots. His words, not mine. But still.

Once again, New Yorkers rise up against bike lanes, this time in Brooklyn. Somehow, they seem to think older and handicapped people fair better dealing with speeding cars than bicycles.

An 11-year old bike rider never even left his driveway, yet he’s in the hospital now because a driver couldn’t be bothered to pull over before reaching into the backseat to get something. Too bad it’s not against the law to be an effing jackass.

 

International

A UK shire re-enacts the 97-year old unsolved murder of a young woman as she rode her bike from her uncle’s house.

Nothing like taking a beating from a road-raging 77-year old Brit driver.

A Scottish adventure cyclist has circled the world twice — once setting a world record — and ridden from Alaska to Argentina and the full length of Africa, all before his 34th birthday.

Despite the panicking headline, only eleven Belfast cyclists have been cited for biking under the influence in the past five years.

It’s urban drivers who benefit most from cycling, though that’s not always obvious to motorists, according to a Dublin letter writer.

Barcelona considers building superblocks to reclaim 60% of the city’s streets from cars.

An Aussie pro cyclist says she’s encouraged to see more riders Down Under, yet utterly afraid because of their lack of skills and bad behavior.

An Australian politician says all new road and rail projects in the country should include walking and cycle tracks. Actually, that should be the policy everywhere.

 

Finally…

Think of it as fly paper for bicyclists. Maybe you don’t want to wear that yellow jersey after all.

And it’s pedals, dammit, not peddles.

Seriously.

 

Category: Bikes & the Law, Legal Cases, Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Morning Links: The aftermath of a bike collision, bikeshare’s really happening, and cop dogs behaving badly

May 18, 2016 / / 2 comments

Great news! We’re now up to 17 new or renewing members of the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition in the first-ever May BikinginLA LACBC Membership Drive.

So who wants to be the next to sign up now or renew your membership and get it up to 20 today? It’s worth it just for the great LACBC gear you’ll get — let alone the difference you’ll help make on our streets and in our communities.

………

Mike Wilkinson, who frequently forwards news tips — and graciously serves as my unpaid proofreader — came upon the immediate aftermath of what thankfully appears to have been a relatively minor bike collision on Monday.

Yesterday while out for my lunch time “blast” I came upon the scene of a collision just a minute after it happened. The photo shows what I saw as I arrived. Look carefully, and you may see that the car’s rear view mirror is broken, and there is a dent above the front wheel.

Collision

I’m not going to write about the details of what I saw and heard. I will say that the things I saw and heard reminded me of the importance of gathering information immediately after any kind of collision, even if the collision seems to be minor. The following items seem important to me:

  1. Get a picture of the other party’s driver’s license.
  2. Take a picture of the other party’s insurance ID.
  3. Take pictures of all vehicles involved, including the licenses plates.
  4. Get contact information from any potential witness.
  5. Don’t say anything about who may be at fault for the crash.

I’m sure that more experienced minds have more comprehensive lists. Remember also that the state of California DMV requires notification for any crash that results in injury, no matter how minor, or damage exceeding $750.

Finally, be careful!

I’ve offered my thoughts on what to do if you’re in a collision here and here, based on my personal experience. And BikinginLA sponsor Jim Pocrass provided expert advice from a bike lawyer’s perspective.

Correction: The original version of this story incorrectly said a crash must be reported to the DMV if there was property damage over $500, rather than $750, and failed to note that injuries must be reported, no matter how minor. 

………

Metro’s still unnamed bikeshare system is finally becoming a reality; thanks to Erik Griswold for the link.

Meanwhile, West Hollywood decides to name its new bikeshare WeHoPedals. Although the rejected WeHoGo name was a lot better. Or maybe even Zuzu’s Pedals.

And Global Green celebrates Bike Month with Santa Monica’s much better named Breeze bikeshare, and the coming of the Expo Line this Friday.

………

Let’s catch up on Bike Months news here in the LA area and around the US.

Commuting on Bike to Work Day is about to get a little easier as a new BikeHub opens in Covina on Thursday.

At least 20 Santa Clarita businesses will compete against one another to see which can get the most employees to ride to work.

An OpEd in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch says every month is Bike Month, and education is the key to encouraging more, and safer, bicycling.

A Minneapolis bike commuter offers practical advice on how to do it yourself.

And a Louisiana radio personality explains why he bikes to work. Anyone who names his dog named after a zydeco legend has my undying respect.

………

This time it’s a four-legged cop, and a cop’s dog, behaving badly.

An Orange County sheriff’s deputy shot a CHP officer’s pit bull after the dog bit his 12-year old son as the family was getting ready for a bike ride.

And a Mississippi police dog chewed his way out from under a fence, and bit a boy riding his bike.

………

First year pro Giulio Ciccone won the 10th stage of the Giro, while Luxembourg’s Bob Jungels moves into the leader’s jersey. The race now moves into the brutal climbs of the Dolomites, as a writer remembers falling in love with his first Giro.

Twenty-three-year old French rider Julian Alaphillipe won Stage 3 of the Amgen Tour of California on the slopes of the famed Gibraltar climb above Santa Barbara, dropping American Peter Stetina with an uphill sprint to take the leader’s jersey.

CiclaValley offers some great pictures from Monday’s Stage 2, while a Santa Barbara website posts photos of Tuesday’s Gibraltar finish.

Sacramento is looking forward to the added exposure of hosting the finish of both the men’s and women’s races in the ToC.

Cycling Tips has a preview of the four stage women’s tour, which starts Thursday in South Lake Tahoe. But good luck if you actually want to watch it if you can’t be there in person.

And you’d ride faster if there was a guy in a chicken suit chasing you, too.

………

Local

MyFigueroa offers an update on the long-delayed project which will result in what would have been DTLA’s first protected bike lane, if Los Angeles Street hadn’t jumped to the head of the line.

The Daily News looks at tonight’s Ride of Silence in the San Fernando Valley.

The LA Weekly provides a slide show from Sunday’s CicLAvia. Not bad for a publication that wrongly predicted the first one would create a traffic nightmare.

 

State

Westminster’s mayor pro tem recounts the journey to convert a rundown two-mile strip of Hoover Street into a landscaped recreation corridor for biking and walking.

The head of CABO teaches a 14-hour bike safety class tailored to San Diego’s City Heights neighborhood.

The San Francisco cyclist hit by a police car last week says the city must do more to protect bike riders, and do it faster.

A Sacramento ER doc wants you to ride your bike, but put on a helmet when you do; he also says to follow the rules of the road and ride defensively. And a physician with the Cleveland Clinic says make sure it fits correctly.

 

National

Redfin ranks the nation’s most bikeable downtowns. But forget finding LA or any other SoCal city on the list.

Bike lanes build jobs.

A new line of women’s bikewear from Scott promises to eliminate road rash, at least on the parts it covers.

Now that’s more like it. A travel company is offering a trio of bike tours leading to the some of the nation’s leading microbreweries.

Tejano music legend Emilio Navaira was one of us, as he passed away in Texas Monday, despite riding his bike every day to get back into shape.

Sinead O’Connor lashes out at her family following her disappearance on a Chicago ebike ride.

Leave the car at home and join an organized group bike ride to see the Indianapolis 500. Now if they could just get the drivers to ride to work.

A Philly cyclist makes the argument that crashes aren’t accidents and can be avoided, while the Associated Press finally agrees, more or less.

Pennsylvania releases a new interactive mapping tool that combines detailed bike routes, traffic volumes and speed limits, and as well as state parks, forests and trails.

A New York website calls Janette Sadik-Khan the prophet of bike lanes, and lists the best things about biking in the city. Meanwhile, Sadik-Khan’s heirs at NYDOT make plans to put bikeways and improved sidewalks on bridges connecting Manhattan and the Bronx.

A New Orleans bike rider barely survives a robbery attempt, after a gun misfires when a trio of men force him off his bike and rifle through his pockets.

 

International

Thirteen cities around the world where bicycling is gaining modal share. None of which are named LA. Or anywhere else in North or South America, for that matter.

A Winnipeg woman gets back on a bike for the first time in 18 years, and likes it.

A London bike rider is mugged by moped riding thieves.

Paris ups the ante in its bid to host the 2024 Olympics, including cleaning up the Seine River and building a bike path linking venues for the games. Your move, Los Angeles.

Lawyers for an Australian woman argue she shouldn’t face jail for killing a cyclist while high on meth because she has a 10-month old baby, even though her actions left the victim’s three children without a mother.

What the hell did Aussie officials think would happen when they protected pedestrians from bicyclists, instead of protecting riders from cars?

 

Finally…

Don’t throw a fit if your bike doesn’t fit in a Fit. Nothing like a bike path where bicycling is banned, unless it’s telling Danny MacAskill he’s no Danny MacAskill in a nearly undecipherable brogue.

And yes, we cyclists are just here to fuck you up.

 

Category: Bicycle Safety, Bikeshare, Morning Links / Tags: , , , , ,
« Older Entries   Recent Entries »
Wordpress Theme by ThemeZee