Hit-and-run motorcyclist busted, non-bike friendly candidates set for CD6 special election, and Venice Blvd looking up

April 13, 2023 / / 2 comments

Once again, my apologies for yesterday’s unexcused absence. 

Let’s just say it’s yet another reminder than diabetes sucks. And that you don’t want this crap if there’s anything you can do to avoid it. 

Because right now, the only thing that compares to my excessively high blood sugar is just how low I feel each and every day, both physically and emotionally. 

But at least I’m well enough to write this.

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Let’s start with a little good news.

The LAPD has made an arrest in the case of the heartless coward who ran down a Boyle Heights teenager, then got back on his motorcycle and rode off, leaving the boy bleeding in the street.

Thirteeen-year old Joshua Mora was crossing Whittier Boulevard in the crosswalk on March 30th when 29-year-old Banning resident Erwin Majano allegedly slammed into him.

Mora lost his right leg as a result of the impact.

At last report, Majano was being held on $50,000 bond; he was arrested following a tip from the public. Which means someone will likely receive the standing $25,000 reward upon conviction.

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The June runoff election to replace disgraced former Councilmember Nury Martinez in CD6 is set.

Imelda Padilla, field deputy for Martinez, will face Marisa Alcaraz, environmental policy director and deputy chief of staff to City Councilmember Curren Price.

Martinez resigned last October when a recording surfaced capturing her making racist and otherwise offensive comments in a conversation with CD14 Councilmember Kevin De León and former CD1 Councilmember Gil Cedillo, along with a powerful union head.

Both candidates are City Hall insiders. And neither were endorsed by Streets For All, and only Padilla even bothered to respond to the group’s candidate questionnaire — and said nothing about bikes, walking or transit.

Yet one will be the district’s next councilmember — in part because a shameful 11.4% of eligible voters turned out to determine who will represent the other 88.6%.

Meanwhile, California State Assemblymember Miguel Santiago will challenge De León in next year’s election, after De León resisted loud calls for his resignation.

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Things are looking up on Venice Blvd.

https://twitter.com/LADOTofficial/status/1646242189108756480

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When is a bike lane not a bike lane? When it might be slightly inconvenient for a Hollywood film crew to park somewhere else.

Yes, the film industry is important to Los Angeles. But this isn’t their backlot, and we live and work here too.

Note: I removed the name from this tweet since it came from a private account.

 

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Speaking of Streets For All, they join a busy bike weekend with Saturday’s fundraiser and community bike ride.

https://twitter.com/streetsforall/status/1645635630632779776

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Day One is offering you the chance to try out a GoSGV ebike this weekend.

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Pasadena Complete Streets Coalition teams with South Pasadena Active Streets for a feeder ride to 626 Golden Streets a week from Sunday. 

The open streets event will feature 6.5 miles of blissfully carfree streets through the Heart of the Foothills, in San Dimas, La Verne & Shirley, Pomona and Claremont. 

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

A Houston man was shot and killed while riding his bike following an apparent road rage altercation.

A Wisconsin man pled not guilty to four counts of first-degree recklessly endangering safety, even though he admitted to police that he strung cords across a bike path in the middle of the night four times, injuring at least one person. He faces up to 50 year behind bars and a fine of $100,000 if he’s convicted on all four counts — yet he was released on a paltry $1,000 bond. Indicating just how seriously the judge doesn’t take the crime.

Life is cheap in the UK, where a road raging driver got just 21 months behind bars for brake-checking a bike rider before driving away, leaving his victim sprawled in the roadway with life-changing injuries.

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

An Aussie mountain biker suffered a concussion, bruises and a broken thumb when her descent was interrupted by a throttle-controlled ebike rider rapidly riding uphill, despite a ban on ebikes on the trail.

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Local 

California’s former Governator takes things into his own hands, and fills a pothole near his home himself. Except it wasn’t a pothole, it was a gas line trench, which will now have to be dug up again.

 

State

California Walks teamed with the relatives of traffic violence victims to demand passage of a bill that would create a speed cam pilot program in San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Jose, Oakland, Glendale and Long Beach.

This is who we share the road with. Police in Santa Ana are looking for the heartless coward in an older black Cadillac DeVille who flipped an 11-year old boy through the air and kept going without stopping; fortunately, the victim wasn’t seriously injured, and his companion wasn’t struck. Thanks to How The West Was Saved for the heads-up. 

San Francisco bike riders took a slow ride through the Richmond District to remember fallen bicyclist Ethan Boyes, and demand a protected bike lane on Arguello Boulevard; they’ll hold a Ride of Silence next month to remember all the victims of traffic violence.

Golden Gate Express says bike messengers are thriving in San Francisco, despite operating in the tech capital of the world.

 

National

Popular The War On Cars podcast looks at Hollywood’s negative depictions of bicycles, where someone riding one is either depicted as a loser or about to suffer serious misfortune. Or both.

Bicycling considers whether toxic masculinity is contributing to bicyclist, pedestrian and motorist deaths from traffic violence. Short answer, yes. Longer answer, oh hell yes. Read it on AOL this time if the magazine blocks you. 

Streetsblog complains that Amtrak’s frustrating patchwork of policies deters bicyclists from using the passenger rail service, frustrating their most obvious clientele with policies that allow bikes on one line, and deny them on another.

BMX pro Nigel Sylvester has created a first-of-its-kind hardshell bike case for traveling with a BMX bike.

Sure, let’s go with that. A Las Vegas woman claims she was carjacked before the alleged drunken hit-and-run that killed a man riding a bicycle, arguing that it wasn’t her behind the wheel, despite being covered in glass shards from the shattered windshield.

A Las Vegas bike rider suffered a broken leg when they were struck by a Nevada Highway Patrol officer. No word on who was at fault, but you can guess who will get the blame.

There’s not a pit in hell deep enough for a Phoenix man who was convicted of sexually assaulting and murdering a young woman and a teenager as they rode their bikes along a canal 30 years ago.

He gets it. A Utah columnist argues that cities need to prioritize people, not cars. Which is exactly what Los Angeles will do on Sunday, and four cities in the San Gabriel Valley will do next week. Now we just need to do it every day.

This is who we share the road with, too. Horrifying story from Denver, where a man is on trial after pleading insanity in the road rage shooting of a mother and two of her three sons; he allegedly shot her in the back as she tried to protect her kids, then moved in for a failed kill shot to the head, before fatally shooting her 13-year old son and wounding the 8-year old.

Kindhearted University of Nebraska–Lincoln engineering students are helping the local Bike Kitchen meet its goal of repairing 1,000 bikes to donate to kids and adults in need.

Bighearted residents of Seabrook, Texas rallied around a hit-and-run victim who was injured when a driver smashed into her adult tricycle; less than two hours after a volunteer firefighter posted about the crash, she had up to five replacement bikes to choose from.

About damn time. Chicago has installed concrete curbs to protect a bike lane on the Northwest Side where two people were killed riding bikes in recent months.

No surprise here, as a Michigan study shows SUV drivers cause 55% more injuries to bicyclists than drivers of cars in the event of a collision.

Uber is funding a program to get ebikes with dangerous non-certified lithium-ion batteries off the streets of New York, allowing thousands of delivery riders to trade-in their bikes for newer, safer models.

A DC bike protest called on the World Bank to stop funding fossil fuels.

Baton Rouge, Louisiana will extend and add lighting to the city’s Mississippi River Levee Path, which forms a link in the 3,000-mile-long Mississippi River Bicycle Trail. I used to ride that pathway over four decades ago, when I first got the little blue Trek I rode for 25 years.

In yet another example of keeping a dangerous driver on the road until it’s too late, a Florida man has been arrested for the high-speed crash that killed a bike rider. A security cam captured him doing 90 mph in a 40 mph zone moments before he slammed into the victim, knocking him more than the length of a football field from the point of impact; he has several previous citations for excessive speed, including doing 115 mph in a 45 mp zone just a year earlier. Yet he was somehow allowed to keep driving until he killed someone.

 

International

Momentum Magazine offers “six fantastic and affordable commuter bikes” for spring riding. And for once, when a magazine says affordable, they actually mean it, with price starting at just $499.

Cycling Weekly considers how far is too far to commute to work. I once met a RAAM competitor who trained by commuting from his home in Steamboat Springs, Colorado to his job in Denver and back everyday, a distance of 156 miles — even in the winter.

Forbes says Wednesday’s Bicycle Day, which marks the anniversary of when the inventor of LSD discovered its hallucinogenic properties while riding his bike home from the lab, will soon overtake the next day’s 4-20 as the world’s most important celebration of the psychedelics community.

An environmental group warned bike riders against using toxic glue containing benzene, toluene and other hazardous substances to repair bike tires.

There’s a special place in hell for whoever stole a Mexican Paralympian’s custom adaptive handcycle from his Playa del Carmen home. Seriously, anyone could tell it’s made for someone with special needs just by looking at it.

Montreal is using snow clearing and studded bike tires to keep its bikeshare system going year-round.

A 52-year old Scottish man is on trial for stealing famed stunt cyclist Danny Macaskill’s $10,000 stunt bike, in a burglary that netted over $15,000 worth of goods from Macaskill’s home.

Life is really cheap in the UK, where a 70-year old driver was fined a lousy £153 plus £324 court costs — the equivalent of $191 and $405, respectively — for dooring a bike rider while attempting to brush the crumbs from a sausage roll off his lap, and leaving the victim with a fractured foot and torn ligaments. And they wonder why people keep dying on the streets. Thanks to Victor Bale for the link. 

Britain’s Cycling Goalkeeper topped the sports pages after making a last-minute save for Wrexham, the lower-tier soccer club saved by Hollywood owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenne.

An Irish man is riding across the US to raise funds for charity, despite suffering from terminal brain cancer. Or maybe because to if.

VeloNews has more information on the death of Ukrainian elite and masters road cyclist Kostantin Deneka, who was killed by Russian forces while fighting for his country while serving with a special forces unit of the Ukraine defense intelligence.

There’s no justice in Malaysia, where the woman who killed eight teenagers riding modified bicycles was allowed to walk free, after an appeals court voided her conviction and six-year sentence.

 

Competitive Cycling

The 37th Redlands Classic stage race kicked off with a 2.8 miles circuit race on Wednesday, with women completing 14 laps and men 20; Cycling Utah says the race has a stacked field for both sexes.

Cyclist remembers “cycling phenomenon” Beryl Burton, calling her Britain’s greatest rider and the woman who beat men.

Indiana University explains what’s new with the school’s iconic Little 500 bike race this year, including dumping Schwinn for State Bicycles; the race was made famous by Breaking Away.

 

Finally…

Once again, if you’re illegally riding a gas-powered bicycle with a suspended driver’s license, put a damn light on it. Or if your bike gets a flat tire, just hop on your trusty steed and ride to school.

And that feeling when you go from bike racing to shredding in a metal band.

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Chag Pesach Sameach to all observing the final day of Passover. 

And Ramadan Mubarak to all observing the Islamic holy month. 

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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

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

Busy bike weekend coming up, fight to preserve Move Culver City, and Chubby Checker resurrected to stop doorings

April 11, 2023 / / Comments Off on Busy bike weekend coming up, fight to preserve Move Culver City, and Chubby Checker resurrected to stop doorings

Before we start, let’s take a moment to thank Cohen Law Partners for renewing their sponsorship of this site for another year. 

It’s thanks to them, and our other sponsors, that I can to do this full-time, and keep bringing you all the best bike news and advocacy every day. 

Hopefully, you never need a good bike lawyer. But I’d trust any one of the people over there on the right if it was my life and rights on the line. 

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BikeLA invites you to kick off your CicLAvia weekend festivities with their Earth Month edition of the Cruise & Connect ride series this Saturday.

The advocacy nonprofit, formerly knows as the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, aka LACBC, promises a 15-mile “relaxed and fun-filled ride along the scenic LA River Bike Path.”

That’s followed the next day by the Mid-City meets Pico Union CicLAvia, the second of eight planned open streets events presented by CicLAvia and Metro this year, including two new CicLAminis.

Best of all, California’s seemingly endless series of atmospheric rivers resulted in a disaster declaration for most of the state, including Los Angeles County.

Which means you have an extra six months to do your taxes. So you can enjoy a bike-filled weekend without worrying about getting them done.

Thanks to Atticuz for the heads-up. 

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Speaking of BikeLA, the advocacy group is helping bicycle researchers at Portland State University conduct a survey for ebike owners.

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Former Culver City Councilmember Alex Fisch continues to fight for the Complete Streets makeover of downtown Culver City, despite the conservative NIMBY takeover of the council that ousted him.

https://twitter.com/AlexFischCC/status/1645634068363759616

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New York resurrects early rock and roll legend Chubby Checker to rebrand the Dutch Reach as the New York Twist in an effort to prevent doorings.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEEqUud8YaI

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

A Las Vegas writer explores a “spectacular” 34-mile trail through the foothills of Boulder City. But has to dodge a lost motorist blissfully traveling along the paved pathway.

No bias here. NIMBYs in New York’s wealthy Upper West Side are getting out the torches and pitchforks to fight a plan to convert an abandoned newsstand into an ebike charging stand and rest space for low income delivery workers, calling it a “horrendously inappropriate location” and a “very, very dangerous thing to do.”

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

A San Antonio bike rider apparently faked a crash to rob a Good Samaritan who stopped to help. Although the story is hidden behind a paywall, so it’s hard to say for sure.

A Chinese man learns the hard way that when you’re smuggling 6,000 microSD cards hidden inside your bicycle, try not to look so guilty when you go through customs.

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Local 

Streetsblog offers more information about the new Westwood Connected campaign announced by Streets For All last week to improve safety and connectivity for people who choose to travel the car-choked Westwood streets by some other means.

Metro is offering free Earth Day rides on Saturday, April 22 in recognition of “transit’s role in improving our environment and public health…and fighting climate change.” And yes, that includes the full Metro Bike system.

 

State

Bad news from San Jose, where police are investigating a hit-and-run that left a woman riding a bicycle with life-threatening injuries.

A Sacramento school is investing $6,000 in bicycles and helmets to teach every kindergarten student how to ride a bike.

 

National

Momentum Magazine says bicycling in a dress or skirt is not as difficult as you might think. Unless you live in Tennessee, where you may be subjected to a physical inspection to verify you have the right to wear one.

Lebanese-American author Nassim Taleb is one of us, returning to bicycling after discovering that weightlifting alone isn’t good for your heart.

A handful of Portland riders ignored the rain, and donned their finest wool garments for the city’s annual Tweed Ride. Which is actually the kind of weather tweed is made for, anyway. 

They get it. A university student newspaper says Tacoma, Washington needs a Vision Zero program to make traffic fatalities a completely avoidable tragedy. Although with a few notable exceptions — hello Hoboken — American Vision Zero programs have had decidedly mixed results. And that’s if they actually get funded, unlike a certain SoCal megalopolis we could name.

A Denver website profiles bike shop owner Scott Baker, saying he turns bicycles into an art form.

Upscale Colorado resort town Vail is joining Denver and nearby Avon in offering an ebike rebate program, with residents who buy one from a local bike shop eligible for rebates up to $500.

New York is on pace to have its deadliest year ever for bicyclists, with ten people killed riding bikes already this year, despite the city’s rapid expansion of protected bike lanes. As usual, read the second link on Yahoo if Bicycling blocks you. 

More tragic news from New York, where two children became the latest victims of defective ebike batteries; their father and three other children were able to jump out of a window to escape the fast-moving flames, but they were unable to escape.

A Philadelphia woman is launching the free Black Girl Joy Bike Rides to promote joy, self-care and a sense of community for Black women.

 

International

Forbes goes beyond the usual suspects to “vet” the seven best gravel bikes, three of which are actually retail for less than four grand.

The UK’s rapid prime minister churn has resulted in the latest Conservative government’s scrapping of the Zero Emission Transport City project, putting plans for 1,000 bike hangers and 250 electric buses in Bristol at risk.

A European website explains why you should consider Türkiye, the country formerly known as Turkey, for your next bicycle tourism trip.

 

Competitive Cycling

Steamboat, Colorado gravel race SBT GRVL is teaming with nonprofit organization Ride for Racial Justice to increase equity in gravel racing.

A participant in a Belize cross-country race says he’s “еmоtіоnаllу brоkеn іntо а thоuѕаnd ріесеѕ lіkе а рuzzlе” after crashing into a traffic control cop while trying to gain time at a roundabout.

 

Finally…

Vienna considers requiring bike parking in multi-family housing — no, the other Vienna. Put your money into bike helmet stocks.

And who needs tires when you can have square treads, instead?

………

Chag Pesach Sameach to all observing Passover. 

And Ramadan Mubarak to all observing the Islamic holy month. 

……….

Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

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

Protest calls for safer streets, more on death of masters track cycling champ, and not guilty plea in San Pedro hit-and-run

April 10, 2023 / / Comments Off on Protest calls for safer streets, more on death of masters track cycling champ, and not guilty plea in San Pedro hit-and-run

Dozens of people turned out on Saturday to demand safer streets and justice for Josh Mora, who lost his right knee when he was run down by a motorcyclist as he was walking in a Boyle Heights crosswalk March 30th.

According to KCBS-2,

Mora’s injury is far from the first to happen on the one-mile stretch of Whittier Boulevard between South Boyle Avenue and South Lorena Street. According to the Transportation Injury Mapping System, between 2013 and 2022 there were 225 crashes resulting in injury or death.

“Enough is enough,” said Damian Kevitt, the founder of the non-profit organization Streets are for Everyone. “People need to slow down.”

Kevitt went on to add that local residents have been pleading for safety improvements at the crosswalk for years, including safety cameras and other security devices.

Meanwhile, San Francisco’s KRON-4 reports there were calls to pass AB-645, which would legalize speed cams around schools and dangerous streets.

Like in Boyle Heights, where the traffic fatality rate is 53 percent higher than the overall city, with more traffic deaths than any other L.A. neighborhood over the past five years.

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More on the needless killing of masters cycling champ and world record holder Ethan Boyes in San Francisco. Boyes was hit head-on by a speeding driver who swerved onto the wrong side of the road in the Presidio National Park last week.

CNN reports Boyes was a 10-time national champion and held the world record in the 1,000-meter time trial for the men’s 35-39 age group at the time of his death.

San Francisco police are working with federal prosecutors on the investigation, since Boyes was killed in a national park.

A San Jose velodrome said Boyes would be remembered as a wonderfully kind human being on and off the bike, who always had a smile on his face and never failed to make people laugh. We could all do worse than to be remembered that way.

The New York Times considers Boyes death in the context of the city’s failing Vision Zero program, saying the crash occurred on a narrow and curvy stretch along a heavily used bicycling route that has been a safety concern for years.

Local bike advocates demand safety improvements in the wake of Boyes death, as one man says he shouldn’t have to feel like he’s risking his life just riding to school with his three-year old son.

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Twenty-seven-year old Anisha Lockhart pled not guilty to the hit-and-run death of Oscar Montoya as he rode his bike in San Pedro early last month.

The 51-year old Montoya had just picked up a meal from a food when he was allegedly run down by Lockhart’s speeding car. Police arrested Montoya five days after the crash, based on tips from the public.

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In case you ever wondered why those plastic car-tickler bendy posts aren’t protection.

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A new video refutes the myth that no one uses New York’s bike lanes, with 321 people on bikes passing through a single intersection in a single half hour during rush hour, compared to a little more than 500 motor vehicles.

And it notes that no one rode salmon, despite the city’s reputation for wrong-way bicyclists.

Thanks to Victor Bale for the heads-up.

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North Carolina Public Television offers a feature on Charlotte CyclingSavvy Instructor Pamela Murray, calling her a local bike hero.

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

No bias here. A London website reports that bicycling trip segments have tripled in the city over the past 20 years — but then goes on to question whether concerns about road safety, “though perfectly right and proper,” have taken undue precedence, and been overly influenced by campaigners and “misplaced public opinion.”

No bias here, either. London’s Daily Mail tries to stir up controversy by sharing photos of 19 bike riders rolling through a floating bus stop as passengers are getting on or off. Buried in the story is the fact it took place over five hours at multiple locations, along with the fact that the bus stops are new and it will take everyone time to adjust to them.

An Edinburgh, Scotland bike rider is justifiably angry after police refuse to do anything about a dangerously close pass by a bus driver, because “everyone was in their own lanes.”

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

When a Zimbabwe man applies for a job as a postman, the only requirement is knowing how to ride a bicycle, which he’s never done. So he says he does anyway; needless to say, it does not go well.

A Sydney, Australia bicyclist “went berserk” and repeatedly smashed the window of a packed bus, leaving it shattered, as one person commented the city is becoming totally lawless “like San Francisco.” No word on what set him off like that, but we can all probably guess. But nothing justifies violence, no matter how deserved it may seem in the moment.

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Local 

A new coalition of Westwood Village and UCLA groups unveiled the new Westwood Connected campaign, which calls for a rail stop on the UCLA campus, pedestrian improvements, and protected bike lanes on Galey and Wilshire, as well as the long fought for bike lanes on Westwood Blvd. And it actually has a chance now that anti-bike lane former Councilmember Paul Koretz is gone.

Prolific character actor Michael Lerner passed away over the weekend at 81; the Oscar-nominated performer appeared in films ranging from Barton Fink, Elf and The Candidate, to Harlem Nights and Eight Men Out. Although the highlight of his career was undoubtedly playing a bicycle salesman in The Brady Bunch.

 

State

Two people were killed, and a pedestrian and a man riding a bicycle were injured, in an apparent street racing crash involving a motorcyclist and the driver of an Audi, who crashed into a minivan in Fullerton.

Ojai votes to move forward with a $6.2 million makeover of the city’s Maricopa Highway, including two-way sidewalk level bike lanes in front of the high school.

The CHP reports a man riding a bicycle in Oakhurst made a suicide swerve Saturday afternoon, striking the side of a large pickup as he allegedly began to make a U-turn. Which is probably bullshit; most alleged suicide swerves are likely the result of overly close passes, rather than careless bicyclists.

A kindhearted Stockton school supervisor bought a new bike for one of his middle school students, after the boy’s bike was stolen from the school’s campus.

This is who we share the road with. A 13-year old boy took the family car out for a joyride, causing a three-car crash near Sacramento that killed one woman and injured nine other people.

Bad news from Northern California, where a hit-and-run driver was arrested for killing the 59-year old finance director and treasurer for the town of Loomis as he was riding his bike to train for an ultramarathon.

 

National

Salon says yes, it’s possible to transition humanity to a carfree — or at least, car-lite, future, without compromising quality of life.

USA Today offers tips on how to resurrect your bike for spring riding if it’s been sitting in your garage all year.

Fortune talks with Forward health systems CEO Adrian Aoun, who rides his bike for mental clarity, calling it his meditation. I’ve long considered bicycling to be a moving meditation, allowing you to get out of your head and become one with the world around you. 

Washington state’s Complete Streets law is starting to show results, with any state highway project over $500,000 now required to evaluate whether fix any gaps in existing bicycle and pedestrian networks. California could have had a similar requirement, if it wasn’t for Gavin Newsom’s veto pen. 

Two University of Alaska Fairbanks researchers teamed with the owner of the Anchorage Trek bike shop to ride the Iditarod Trail on fat tire bikes, pedaling 1,000 miles across the frozen tundra to finish in 18 days and four hours.

There’s a special place in hell for whoever stole a custom adaptive wheelchair bike from an athlete in my ostensibly bike-friendly hometown.

The workers at a Little Rock, Arkansas Trek bike shop were lucky to survive after they were forced to take shelter underneath a moveable metal staircase when a tornado tore the roof off the building last week.

Bighearted Flint, Michigan women’s light middleweight boxing champ Claressa Shields hosted an Easter egg hunt and bike giveaway on Saturday.

Jalopnik reports on the NYPD’s ongoing failure to ticket drivers who park in bike lanes, with less than 2% of complaints resulting in citations. Thanks again to Victor Bale.

A Malaysian newspaper recommends touring New York by bike, saying it’s safer than you think. And offers safety advice that goes beyond the usual admonitions to wear a helmet.

The head of the New York Civil Liberties Union is one of us, as the civil rights advocate rides her bike to the farmer’s market on Sundays while her husband walks alongside.

She gets it. A North Carolina letter writer complains about impatient drivers who “have little time to pay much attention to that pesky cyclist who is in their way.”

 

International

Bike Radar considers the lifestyle changes you can make to keep riding into your 70s.

If Shimano has their way, you may soon ride with cleats that move automatically to adapt to riding conditions.

Four international cities are showing how to rethink mobility and put people first.

A former British Columbia city council candidate blamed a curb-protected bike lane after his car got high centered on it, while local bike riders blamed the man behind the wheel.

Owen Wilson is one of us, going for a London ride on a Brompton foldie.

Sad news from Ukraine, where 28-year old cyclist Kostya Deneka was killed in a Russian bombing while fighting for his country near Bakhmut.

A Kenyan writer considers why a bike’s drivetrain is always on the right.

Now that bike helmets are required for all bike riders in Japan, people are having trouble finding them.

The Philippines commemorated the 81st anniversary of the infamous Bataan Death March with a fundraising bike ride for the upkeep of Bataan Death March markers and other World War 2 historic sites.

 

Competitive Cycling

Dutch pro Mathieu van der Poel swept to victory at Paris-Roubaix, claiming three of the five Monuments so far this spring, with Liège–Bastogne–Liège and Giro di Lombardia still to come.

Belgium’s Wout van Aert made the podium at Paris-Roubaix, but had to settle for second after a late puncture forced him to watch Mathieu van der Poel ride past on the way to victory.

What was likely Peter Sagan’s final Paris-Roubaix came to an early end when he was caught up in a crash with several other cyclists with around 100 miles still to go.

Canada’s Alison Jackson won the women’s Paris-Roubaix on Saturday with a sprint through the Velodrome, following a major crash that left most of the favorites behind.

Cycling News considers the concussion protocol for pro cycling.

 

Finally…

That feeling when you’re planning to ride through 11 countries on a $125 tandem. Or when you really, really want to look stylish and glam on your bike.

And when you’re carrying meth and fentanyl and weed on your bike, put a damn light on it already.

The bike, that is, not the drugs.

………

Chag Pesach Sameach to all observing Passover. 

And Ramadan Mubarak to all observing the Islamic holy month. 

……….

Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

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

Masters champ Ethan Boyes killed by SF driver, complications of comparing traffic death stats, and Justice for Josh tomorrow

April 7, 2023 / / Comments Off on Masters champ Ethan Boyes killed by SF driver, complications of comparing traffic death stats, and Justice for Josh tomorrow

Heartbreaking news from San Francisco, where Masters champ and US record holder Ethan Boyes was killed by a speeding driver Tuesday afternoon.

Boyes was riding at a “treacherous” intersection in the city’s Presidio when a witness says the driver careened onto the wrong side of the road, hitting Boyes’ bike head-on.

Advocates have long called for protected bike lanes on Arguello Blvd where he was killed; it’s unclear whether that might have saved Boyes, depending on the type of protection used.

For a change, the driver was also injured, though his injuries weren’t considered life-threatening.

Photos show the San Francisco resident at the VELO Sports Center in Carson last September, and again in November.

https://twitter.com/VELOSportsCtr/status/1573736328767758336

Track cycling advocate and former US team member David Huntsman describes Boyes as “a friend to everybody.”

………

Bicycling says comparing bicycling traffic death for American cities, and one year to another, is complicated.

The magazine considered the report we discussed yesterday, which showed Los Angeles was the second worst city in the US by one measure, and 16th by another.

Neither of which is anything to be proud of.

The magazine suggests that year-to-year comparisons can be misleading, since it takes nearly a decade to get an accurate sense of whether things are trending up or down.

Still, it’s troubling when data backs up the feeling many cyclists have, of hostility from drivers—the seeming inability to share roads and look out for more vulnerable users. Business Insider reported that in 2020, 938 people riding bicycles and other two-wheeled non motorized vehicles powered by pedals or riding tricycles and unicycles (referred to by the NHTSA as pedalcyclists) were killed in motor-vehicle crashes—9 percent higher than the 2019 figure, NHTSA reported. Several hundred other cyclists were killed in non-traffic accidents, according to the National Safety Council.

It’s easy to sense when a place feels kind or aggressive toward people on bikes. Even when nothing technically goes wrong, cyclists can tell when they’re around drivers who wished they didn’t have to share the road…

Of course, it’s not a simple story. To show a complete picture we would have to look at things like weather, unemployment, infrastructure, and other population statistics. But when so many people on bikes are killed by drivers in specific areas, it’s alarming to say the least.

Alarming, indeed.

Let’s hope LA city officials are paying attention. Because homelessness and housing unaffordability, while important, aren’t the only major issues this city faces.

As usual, read it on Yahoo if the magazine blocks you.

………

SAFE, aka Streets Are For Everyone, forwards a reminder about tomorrow’s protest to demand justice for Josh Mora.

The teenager lost his right leg when he was struck by a hit-and-run motorcyclist while crossing Whittier Blvd.

 

………

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

No bias here. Key Biscayne, Florida approved escalating fines for repeat offenders who break the rules riding an ebike or e-scooter, while one councilmember said “As far as I’m concerned, I’d love to take them out all together.”

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

A Memphis man was responsible for a one man crime spree, as he used his bicycle to rob six people, including carjacking a pickup, then used the truck to rob a seventh person, all in 30 minutes; he bizarrely stole money and cellphones from two men as they ate lunch, then returned their cellphones, before coming back and taking them again.

A seven-year old British girl was left with multiple fractures when she was run down by a hit-and-run, bike-riding woman on a narrow pathway that bicyclists aren’t even supposed to use.

An English bike rider suffered a broken ankle when a man grabbed her handlebars and pulled her off her bike, in an apparent random attack.

Now we know why the UK woman below wasn’t using the spacious red bike lane, as Road.cc readers describe it as a “rollercoaster,” “littered with stones” and potholes that guarantee a flat, and filled with stops and starts.”

https://twitter.com/NathanielJHall/status/1643880941926903809?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1643880941926903809%7Ctwgr%5E3ecb8a413784429906bc0470e89578dcd7f87e6f%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Froad.cc%2Fcontent%2Fnews%2Fmailonline-accuses-cyclists-not-using-bike-lane-300449

………

Local 

Los Angeles traffic safety PAC Streets For All is getting into bed with bikewear maker Cleverhood, offering a 15% discount on the brand’s rain gear with a Streets For All crest, with the PAC getting 20% of the purchase price.

 

State

San Diego Magazine offers a beginner’s guide to urban bicycling.

Writing for a San Jose website, the executive director of the Mineta Transportation Institute calls for transition to a holistic, Safe System approach to stop the carnage on American roadways.

Sad news from Turlock, where a man in his 50s was killed when he was hit by a train while riding across the tracks, apparently going around the lowered crossing gates.

Kindhearted Sacramento cops arrange for a new bike for a 74-year old man after the bicycle he uses as his only form of transportation was stolen while he was in a market.

Plans for a new bike bridge over a busy highway will connect the north and south segments of West Sacramento.

 

National

Curbed reports problems at Lyft could “spell trouble for its near monopoly on the country’s bike-share market.” LA’s Metro Bike system is operated by Bicycle Transit Systems, so it shouldn’t be a problem here.

Gear Patrol considers how to pick the right class of ebike to meet your needs, while ABC News offers everything you need to know about ebikes, from battery safety to pedaling.

Mountain bike legend Gary Fisher is getting into the ebike business, with plans to offer a subscription service for around $100 a month.

A Portland bike shop owner is calling for change after his store was burglarized for the fourth time in less than a year.

Washington state officials are considering proposals to fund $2 million for ebike lending libraries, and another $5 million for an ebike rebate program.

A Houston TV station examines the case of a female Army vet who went for a bike ride four years ago, and was never seen again.

He gets it. A Chicago letter writer says instead of arguing about bike lanes, motorists should all just slow down and drive safely.

Life is cheap in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where a 72-year old man got a lousy 30 days behind bars for veering his pickup off the road, and killing a 15-year old kid riding his bike just a block from his home, after prosecutors dropped two felony counts in a plea bargain.

An Indianapolis paper rides along with the city’s Black Girls Do Bike cohort.

A Connecticut transportation advocate calls on the legislature to approve the recommendations of the state’s Vision Zero committee, including legalizing speed and red light cams.

New York installs the city’s first double-lane bike lane, with enough room to comfortably pass another bike rider or hold a conversation while you ride side by side.

 

International

Cyclist says Trek’s new top-tier MIPS helmets are faster and airier, as the company ditches the Bontrager name.

Men’s Journal suggests seven “wild new mountain bike trails and destinations” in the US, France and Mexico.

A London writer calls for banning “horrid” e-scooters, saying the only good thing about them is that drivers probably “hate their riders more than us cyclists.”

Life is cheap in Wales, where a delivery driver was sentenced to just ten months behind bars for killing a rising cycling star, even as the judge said that video of the crash showed poor judgement and a lack of attention from the driver.

A bighearted Dublin, Ireland bike shop owner repaired nearly 1,900 used bikes and donated them to Ukrainian refugees.

French bike sales were up 50% last year over 2019 figures.

National Geographic recommends an ebike tour of Italy’s “spectacular” Sella Ronda region, allowing your bike to take the strain out of the uphill climbs.

Australian bicyclists continue to be at risk, nearly a decade after a coroner’s inquest into the death of bike rider called for sensors to eliminate blind spots on large trucks.

 

Competitive Cycling

Cyclist looks at the Roubaix velodrome, the final point where the iconic Paris-Roubaix race could be decided after 161 miles of cobble hell.

The Dutch Jumbo-Visma cycling team will ride Paris-Roubaix with images of brains on their heads to promote helmet use.

VeloNews looks at the American pioneers at Paris-Roubaix, including George Hincapie’s second place finish in 2005, and Leah Thomas’ 12th two years ago on the women’s side. Once again, read it on Yahoo if the magazine blocks you.

Bicycling says you can stream the women’s Paris-Roubaix on Peacock tomorrow, assuming you’re willing to get up at 6 am Los Angeles time. Read it on AOL this time if the magazine blocks you. 

Cycling Tips says L39ion of Los Angeles pro Lance Haidet’s story is the story of modern American bike racing, as the 25-year old cyclist competes in road, gravel, ‘cross, and cross-country.

 

Finally…

We may have to deal with banks of LA drivers, but as least we don’t have to worry about riding into snowbanks. Now you, too, can own a vintage NFL bicycle hubcap — assuming your bike has hubs, that is.

And why wait until the bikes leave the shop before running them down with a bus?

………

Happy Easter!

Chag Pesach Sameach to all observing Passover. 

And Ramadan Mubarak to all observing the Islamic holy month. 

……….

Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

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

LA among deadliest cities for bike riders — or not, and $25,000 reward for hit-and-run motorcyclist who cost boy his leg

April 6, 2023 / / One comment

Nothing like passing out from high blood sugar, then picking up your laptop and starting work at 1 am. 

So if I screw up or miss anything, my apologies in advance. 

Then again, that’s no different from most nights these days.

Photo by Artyom Kulakov from Pexels.

………

Los Angeles is one of the nation’s deadliest large city for people on bicycles.

Or maybe not even in the top 15, depending on how you measure it

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, aka NHTSA, reports LA saw 12 people killed while riding bicycles in 2020, the latest year for which detailed traffic safety stats are available.

That comes in behind only New York’s 17. And tops Houston, Texas and Jacksonville, Florida with ten each, followed by Chicago and Detroit with eight.

But on a per capita basis, we’re not even close.

Tucson, Arizona led the nation with 1.26 deaths per 100,000 residents, followed closely by Detroit with 1.2 per 100,000 people.

Los Angeles was all the way down at number 16, with a relatively paltry 0.30 per 100,000 residents. Or we could be 20th, since we were tied with Oklahoma City, Las Vegas, Chicago and San Jose.

Despite leading the US in sheer number of bike riders killed, New York didn’t even make the top 20 on a per capita basis.

But however you look at it, it’s still too damn many.

Then again, even one traffic death is one too many.

………

The LAPD is continuing the hunt for the hit-and-run motorcyclist who slammed into a 13-year old boy in a Boyle Heights crosswalk.

Joshua Mora was crossing Whittier Blvd at Osme Ave when he was struck by the speeding motorbike rider, who left him sprawled and bleeding in the street as he angrily got back on his bike and sped away.

The crash cost Mora his right leg.

There’s a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person responsible — thanks to the city’s standing hit-and-run reward program — while a crowdfunding campaign for the victim has raised slightly more than the $30,000 goal.

Meanwhile, a protest will be held at the site this Saturday to demand justice and safer streets.

………

Streets For All will host their next virtual happy hour on Wednesday, with new CD5 Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky.

………

The National Association of City Transportation Officials, aka NACTO, is looking for a new director of engagement.

Which sounds like a position better suited to The Batchelor, but it pays up to 150 grand.

………

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

No bias here. London’s Daily Mail gets its knickers in a twist over a bike-riding woman ignoring the country’s widest bike lane. Never mind that there are any number of reasons why she might not have used it.

………

Local 

The LAPD’s Olympic Station held a BBQ fundraiser on Wednesday to help send four of their fellow officers to the annual New Jersey to DC Police Unity Tour to honor fallen police officers.

A writer for the Los Angeles Times walks all 25 miles of Sunset Blvd in a single day. That’s long been one of my favorite LA bike rides, taking you through a microcosm of virtually every type of LA neighborhood from DTLA to the coast. Although it’s a lot more fun if you do it when it’s not choked with cars and drivers.

 

State

A father in Aliso Viejo credits an Apple AirTag with recovering his daughter’s stolen ebike, reclaiming it from the thief himself when sheriff’s deputies were unable to find it. Although you should be cautious about that doing yourself, since you never know if the thief might be armed.

San Diego’s ArtReach will auction off Electra bicycles designed by local artists, to benefit young people who wouldn’t otherwise have access to art programs.

Berkeley is indefinitely postponing a bike and pedestrian friendly redesign of Hopkins Street, citing pervasive staffing shortages, as well as unresolved safety issues and regulatory concerns.

Streetsblog reports San Francisco’s approval of an unpopular two-way, centerline bike lane on Valencia Street makes more sense when you consider it was the only option presented to the city’s transportation board.

 

National

LiveStrong rates the best bicycling shoes. I can’t comment since I’ve never worn anything but Sidi. 

Bicycling makes their picks for the year’s 12 best ebikes, topped by the $2,700 Specialized Globe Haul ST cargo bike. As usual, read it on Yahoo if the magazine blocks you. 

Good question. Transportation for America says in theory, streets are for people, so why aren’t they in practice?

Bike Portland’s Jonathan Maus offers his thoughts on the city’s continuing decline in bicycling rates, which began a decade ago.

Consider it the world’s wildest Ciclovía, as Yellowstone National Park opens its gates to bike riders tomorrow, before opening to motorists later this month.

Kindhearted Tennessee cops dug into their own pockets to buy a new bike for a 10-year old boy, after spotting him running next to his bike-riding friends because he didn’t have one.

We recently mentioned a three-year old boy in Maine whose Spider-Man bike was stolen when he went into a store with his mom; now a bighearted woman who can’t even afford shelter for herself used what little money she had to buy him a new one.

The NYPD tickets less than 2% of drivers in blocked bike lane complaints. Which makes sense, since they’re often the ones blocking them.

A Pennsylvania man wants out of prison for vehicular homicide in the death of a 15-year-old boy killed while the kid was riding his bike with friends; he says he’s a good person who always tries to do the right thing, but the local paper says the only thing missing from his parole petition is remorse.

DC is pushing back plans for a 2.7-mile redesign of Connecticut Ave that would reduce speeds and remove parking, and could include spacious seven-foot wide bike lanes.

Six months after they were installed, new bike and pedestrian lanes on a Maryland roadway have eliminated crashes for people walking and biking, while increasing travel times just 30 seconds for morning motor vehicle commuters.

A Virginia bike shop worker blames distracted drivers for most crashes. And he should know, since his last job was more than two decades as a cop.

 

International

Bike Radar explains everything you always wanted to know about fat tire bikes, but were afraid to ask.

Women working in the bike industry say it still has a long way to go to achieve equity and equality.

A British Columbia driver blames poorly designed bike lanes for why he high-centered his car on a concrete lane divider, while bike riders say it’s his own damn fault.

Video captures a violent brawl as a gang tries to steal a London delivery rider’s bicycle.

Flemish officials have set a goal of having over 30% of all trips in Flanders taken by bicycle by the end of this decade.

99 Percent Invisible relates how the Netherlands reclaimed their country from motor vehicles, forever cementing it in the minds of everyone who opposes bike lanes by insisting “This isn’t Amsterdam!”

BMW is jumping on the ebike bandwagon with plans to introduce Mini electric bikes by the end of the year. That’s Mini branded bikes, not tiny bicycles.

 

Competitive Cycling

The bike racing season is gaining speed, as Belgium’s Jasper Philipsen took the victory in the Netherland’s Scheldeprijs, while a resurgent Mark Cavendish finished third in his best result of the year.

GearJunkie considers why the punishing cobbles of Paris-Robaix are the toughest one-day bike race on the pro calendar.

Muscle and Fitness explains everything you need to know about the nascent National Cycling League.

 

Finally…

That feeling when you challenge a three-time Olympic track cycling champ to an ebike race. It only took the indictment of a former president to empty New York’s bike lanes.

And if you’re going to protest Trump’s indictment dressed as the Q-Anon Shaman, try to stay on your bike.

https://twitter.com/thomas__barker/status/1643396957837352960?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1643396957837352960%7Ctwgr%5E03b9ab090824d0df7da1b1e9de6e7df818c1efcb%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newsweek.com%2Ftrump-supporter-crashing-bike-new-york-viral-video-1792671

………

Chag Pesach Sameach to all observing Passover tonight. 

………

Ramadan Mubarak to all observing the Islamic holy month. 

……….

Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

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

Newport Beach bike rider recovering from crash, and LA Times approves of taxing oversize SUVs and legalizing speed cams

April 5, 2023 / / One comment

Let’s start with some good news for a change.

I reached out to the lawyer representing the family of the Newport Beach bicyclist who was severely injured riding at Newport Coast Drive just south of San Joaquin Hills Rd on Sunday, March 26th.

I’m told that he is now conscious and sitting up, and his injuries are not considered life-threatening. However, he does have a number of injuries, and faces a long road to recovery.

There does not appear to be a crowdfunding campaign to help pay his medical expenses at this time. But I’ll let you know if that changes.

The news is good, though. And far better than we could have expected, given the circumstances.

………

It was a good day for traffic safety in the editorial pages of the LA Times.

The paper’s editorial board took on the problem of ever-expanding trucks and SUVs, and the danger their hulking profiles pose to pedestrians.

And yes, to people on bicycles, too.

The heavier, taller vehicles now make up 80% of car sales in the U.S., and a growing body of research shows they are more deadly when drivers hit pedestrians and cyclists. The mass of SUVs and trucks means they take longer to stop and strike with more force.

They also have larger blind spots than smaller cars. With reduced visibility, drivers turning at an intersection are more likely to hit pedestrians, according to one study. Drivers are also less likely to see small children directly in front of the vehicle. With a higher profile, when a SUV or truck crashes into a person, the front hits the chest and head for more traumatic injuries.

Unfortunately, federal regulators are doing absolutely nothing to rein in automakers to demand smaller and safer vehicles for people outside of their armored and padded passenger compartments.

Which leaves it up to states to step into the breach.

That’s why California legislators are looking into emulating Washington DC by tying registration fees to vehicle weight, as the paper suggests it shouldn’t be a controversial bill.

As EV technology improves, the battery packs are expected to become smaller. But that advancement will be of little help if automakers and consumers continue to buy vehicles with little regard to their danger to people in front of the windshield. Federal regulators should push automakers to design vehicles that are safer not just for the driver but for the pedestrians and bicyclists. Until that happens, California lawmakers can pass AB 251 to help create momentum for change.

The same day that editorial appeared online, Streets For All founder Michael Schneider argued in the Times that California needs to stop dragging its feet on life-saving speed cameras.

Speed is the single biggest factor in determining the severity of a car crash, and yet California has resisted the most obvious tool to slow down traffic: speed-enforcement cameras. Still, the state has learned a few lessons over the years from experiments with red-light cameras, and there’s now a bill in Sacramento that could deploy similar technology to lifesaving effect.

Without speed cameras, cities face an untenable choice: Let drivers flout traffic laws and allow vulnerable road users like pedestrians and cyclists to die, or increase enforcement by police — which fuels conflict and casualties. If anything, California is moving toward reducing traffic stops, which can be a pretext for harassing Black and Latino drivers.

A new bill in the state legislature sponsored by Assembly Transportation Committee Chair Laura Friedman (D-Burbank), would address that by establishing a speed cam pilot program in Los Angeles, San Jose, Oakland, Glendale, Long Beach and San Francisco.

Which is a good first step.

But it also means if you live or ride in Orange County or San Diego, you’re screwed. Or anywhere else in the late, great Golden State, for that matter.

Schneider writes that Assembly Bill 645 addresses concerns that killed two previous attempts to pass a speed cam bill by ticketing the owner of the vehicle, rather than attempting to determine who is driving.

Although arguably, opposition by CHP and police unwilling to give up the job security posed by the state’s ever-present and eternal problem of speeding drivers had as much, if not more, to do with the failure of two previous bills.

Never mind the reluctance of California drivers to take their foot off the gas pedal, or face consequences for failing to do so.

If Sacramento allows these pilot programs, we should see an almost immediate safety improvement. Indeed, if drivers know that they’re likely to be caught by an automated speed camera, they’ll be less inclined to speed in the first place. Slowing down will save lives…

Yet every arterial in Los Angeles has at least a 35-mph posted speed limit, with drivers routinely reaching 45 mph or faster. Even a recent state action that allowed Los Angeles to lower speed limits didn’t make much of a dent; the main result was the limit returning to 35 mph on some streets where it had crept higher.

It’s no wonder, then, that traffic fatalities soared to a two-decade high in Los Angeles in 2022, especially in light of massively large trucks and SUVs currently popular on our streets. No one should have to fear for their life while crossing a street or riding a bike in Los Angeles — a city where a pedestrian is killed once every three days.

No one, indeed.

California’s addiction to speed, and the state’s failure to take substantive action to rein it in, has resulted in a state of quasi-legal mayhem on our streets.

Taxing oversized vehicles out of existence and legalizing speed cams could be valuable first steps in actually doing something to save human lives on our streets.

Besides the usual thoughts and prayers, that is.

………

Bike to the Culver City council meeting on Monday to fight to keep the successful Move Culver City bus and bike lanes, which are in danger of being ripped out by the council’s new conservative majority.

………

If you feel the need for speed, USA Cycling is looking for you at next weekend’s Mid-City Meets Pico Union CicLAvia.

Just remember to cool your jets when you leave the booth and rejoin the throngs of CicLAvia celebrants.

https://twitter.com/CicLAvia/status/1642980122797182977

………

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

Police used DNA evidence to arrest a man for allegedly stringing wires at neck level on paths used by Madison, Wisconsin bike commuters. Although they undercharged him with first-degree recklessly endangering safety, since it was clearly a deliberate attempt to injure or maim innocent people; it should be charged as felony assault with a deadly weapon, at the very least.

British residents call a new separated bike lane junction “confusing,” “a bit of a pain” and “a total waste of taxpayers’ money,” even though it looks pretty self-explanatory in the photo.

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

Mark your calendar for two weeks from today, when the annual Bicycle Day celebrates the discovery of LSD by a Swiss chemist who dropped a tab before attempting to ride his bike home.

………

Local 

More than 80 people turned out for the inaugural Bike Ride for Alan at Dockweiler State Beach on Sunday to honor community leader Alan Nishio, as he enters hospice care after battling a rare cancer for the past 17 years.

 

State

The brother of 68-year old fallen bicyclist Bradley Catcott has filed a lawsuit blaming the Carlsbad State Beach park ranger who engaged in a chase with the drunken motorcyclist who killed him while riding at speeds of up to 100 mph. Although this could just be a case of going after the state’s deep pockets, instead of the motorcyclist’s limited liability coverage.

San Diego has opened the new $148 million replacement for the aging Mission Bay Bridge, complete with bike and pedestrian pathways.

Doubly sad news from Bakersfield, where a man riding a bicycle was killed in a hit-and-run Monday night, less than 24 hours after a pedestrian was killed in another hit-and-run.

The festival guide for Monterey’s Sea Otter Classic is now available online, just over two weeks before it takes place.

San Francisco approved plans for two-way, centerline bike lanes on Valencia Streets, despite the opposition of almost everyone.

 

National

Jalopnik reports the average car payment is now $730 a month, while the percentage of Americans paying more than $1,000 a month in car payments has nearly tripled in just two years, jumping from 6.2% to 16.8%. But tell me again that bikes are expensive, and bicycling is just for the wealthy.

Business Insider makes the case for improving bike and pedestrian safety by requiring sideguards for buses and large trucks, which advocates have demanded for years with no response.

A science blogger details the physics underlying your bike ride in easy to digest, non-scientific terms.

Streetsblog argues that Chicago bike lane haters aren’t completely wrong, noting that the city’s disconnected network can be improved, and that bikes shouldn’t be sharing streets with fast traffic — which they say is a better argument for lowering speed limits than banning bike lanes.

Massachusetts now requires a four-foot distance to pass any vulnerable road user, including anyone walking, biking, scooting, skating or rolling. Thanks to Victor Bale for the heads-up.

He gets it now. A New York driver changes his mind about opposing bike lanes after hearing the heartbreaking testimonies of bike riders who feared for their safety at a community meeting.

A Louisiana bike rider is dead because a semi-truck driver somehow couldn’t wait to pass until they both cleared a curve in the road. But apparently it’s okay because the driver was sober.

Tampa, Florida is just the latest city to offer ebike rebates, good for up to two grand, before California finally gets its long-delayed ebike rebate program off the ground.

 

International

Momentum Magazine explains how to give your bike a spring tune-up and cleaning, while We Love Cycling addresses how to make your own DIY bikepacking bags.

Toronto could address police harassment of speeding bicyclists in the city’s High Park by turning the park over to fast riders for morning rides.

Life is cheap in the UK, where the father of a fallen bicyclist calls the nine-month suspended sentence that allowed the driver who killed him walk without a day behind bars a farce; the 74-year old driver failed to brake or swerve, despite being able to see the victim for at least seven seconds before the fatal crash.

France is creating a new generation of bike riders with a national “universal bicycling” program for middle school students.

A Japanese newspaper calls the country’s new bike helmet law an opportunity to ensure safety. Even though studies have shown helmet laws depress bicycling rates, reducing the safety in numbers effect that has been shown to improve bike safety.

 

Competitive Cycling

Rouleur explores the effects of the “brutal pavé of Paris-Roubaix” on the human body. Which is the best rhyme I’ve heard in ages.

French women’s champ Audrey Cordon-Ragot walked away from her Zaaf Cycling Team, claiming she hasn’t been paid or reimbursed for expenses for the last three months.

You can cross the annual Tour of Walla Walla off your bike racing calendar, after the Washington race was permanently cancelled after nearly 25 years.

 

Finally…

Nothing like a bright green snake wrapped around your bike frame to convince you your next ride can wait. Always ask if you can smoke the weed in your pocket if you get caught with a stolen bike, because they probably won’t let you do it in jail.

And nothing like a darn good slogan to improve traffic safety.

And yes, that was sarcasm.

………

Chag Pesach Sameach to all observing Passover tonight. 

………

Ramadan Mubarak to all observing the Islamic holy month. 

……….

Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

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

Mitt Romney calls bike lanes “height of stupidity,” it’s Election Day in CD6, and BikeLA is hiring HR and finance manager

April 4, 2023 / / Comments Off on Mitt Romney calls bike lanes “height of stupidity,” it’s Election Day in CD6, and BikeLA is hiring HR and finance manager

No bias here.

Business Insider looks at the prospects for ebike tax credits and bike safety measures on Capitol Hill, and says, in effect, don’t hold your breath.

According to the magazine, Congressional Republicans are a long way from being convinced to do anything for bikes, especially in the GOP-controlled House.

Consider this from Susan Collins, often considered the party’s relatively moderate voice of reason.

“We’re over-subsidizing electric vehicles as it is now,” Sen. Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, told Insider in the Capitol this week. “I don’t want to add to the unfairness of the current system where electric cars are free riders and don’t pay to help maintain our roads and bridges through a gas tax or any kind of surcharge.”

Then there’s the very wealthy Utah Senator Mitt Romney, who pans a new bill to increase bike and pedestrian safety and doesn’t want to subsidize rich people like him.

And thinks bike lanes only cause congestion.

“I’m not going to spend money on buying e-bikes for people like me who have bought them — they’re expensive,” he said. “Removing automobile lanes to put in bike lanes is, in my opinion, the height of stupidity, it means more cars backing up, creating more emissions.”

Never mind that he could afford to buy an electric jet without subsidies, let alone an ebike. And yes, that is a thing.

The problem is, too many of the rest of us can’t.

And never mind that the myth of bike lanes causing traffic congestion and emissions has been a favorite talking point on the right, when studies show bike lanes actually reduce greenhouse gas emissions as efficiently as highways create them.

The real problem, however, has little or nothing to do with bikes, or giving them a safe piece of the roadway.

According to The Insider,

The opposition to pro-bicycle policy has to be understood in the larger context of the culture war and conservative fears of Democrats’ climate-friendly agenda, said Tim Carney, a senior fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute.

“There is a widespread suspicion on the right today that liberals want to take away their way of life,” Carney told Insider. “This idea that the left knows there’s only one right way to live, it’s the way that we want to live and we’re going to force it on you. That is in the background of the mind of every conservative, and so when they hear more bike lanes, they think, ‘Okay, what is that code for?'”

Which makes the bizarre conspiracy theories surrounding the concept of 15-minute cities make more sense. Or at least as much sense as a completely whackadoodle conspiracy can, anyway.

But there may be some slight glimmer of hope, as Carney says to frame the story in terms of building safer and more interconnected communities for children and families.

“What parents need now is the ability to set their kids free and have them be safe,” Carney said. “Better bike safety, and better bike trails and lanes make life easier and more fun for your average suburban parents and for the kids. It also builds resilience and independence among kids, and makes us have fewer snowflake kids when they get to college.”

We can only hope.

You can read the story on MSN if the magazine blocks you. 

Photo of US Capitol at night by Trev Adams for Pexels. 

………

Today is Election Day in LA’s 6th Council District, in the special election to replace disgraced Councilmember Nury Martinez.

The LA Times has endorsed Marco Santana, while Streets For All split their endorsement between Santana and Antoinette Scully.

So if you live in the district, get out and vote like your life depends on it.

Because it just might.

………

BikeLA, the bike advocacy organization formerly known as the LACBC, is looking for a full-time finance and HR manager.

And no, that doesn’t stand for Home Runs, even if it is baseball season.

………

No, they’re not there to help improve your aim.

https://twitter.com/viggyswam/status/1642950283490738177

Thanks to Marcello Calicchio for the heads-up. 

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Seriously, this is effing gorgeous.

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Call him the drum and bass Pied Piper.

A DJ with a bike-mounted sound system led hundreds of English bicyclists on a “mind blowing” ride through the streets of Bristol.

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

No bias here, either. A “flash mob” of angry anti-bike lane protesters blocked a new British bike lane by parking their cars on it.

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

A Visalia, California man wanted for several violent felonies led police on a bicycle chase as he tried to escape arrest, which only ended when he was struck by a driver while attempting to ride on a highway.

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Local 

Bike bag brand Fierce Hazel designs their True Grit line of bags and pouches using sustainable repurposed fabric right here in LA, although they’re actually made in Vietnam.

Long Beach bike riders will have to cope with the closure of the bike lane on north side of E. Third Street between Linden and Atlantic avenues for a movie shoot tomorrow.

 

State

Caltrans released a five-year progress report on the state transportation agency’s first-ever statewide bicycle and pedestrian plan, including developing active transportation plans for each of the agency’s 12 districts. Although I can write that report in just two words — not enough. 

This is who we share the road with. Heartbreaking news from Orange County, where an allegedly stoned driver jumped the curb in Los Flores and drove up o the sidewalk, killing an infant boy in his stroller while seriously injuring his parents. Thanks to Larry Kawalec for the link.

Encinitas is beginning work on a two-way cycle track on the west side of Coast Highway 101, along with traditional bike lanes on either side of the road for higher-speed bicyclists, with work expected to be completed by June.

San Jose’s mayor and police chief got on their bikes to promote public safety and refocusing on basic city services, including housing everyone on the streets. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass rides a bike, as does LAPD Chief Michael Moore, so maybe we could get them both on bikes sometime.

San Francisco is scheduled to approve plans for a highly contentious two-way, center-running cycle track on Valencia Street today, which has been very unpopular with bicyclists.

Streetsblog explores the new curb-protected bike lanes currently taking shape on Oakland’s Telegraph Avenue, which barely survived efforts to kill them last year.

Bicycle co-op and community advocacy organization Rich City Rides has started a $6 million capital campaign to raise funds to buy its Richmond location and three other buildings; the owner has given them until the end of June to raise the money. So if you have an extra million or two lying around, they can use the help.

 

National

Forbes makes their picks for the best bike locks. And wouldn’t mind if you bought one, so they could make a few bucks.

A writer for political site Outside the Beltway badly misses the point as he considers yesterday’s very Shoupista piece in The Wall Street Journal arguing that America has too much parking, concluding that it’s too pro-developer, and that Americans need their parking spaces. Never mind that everyone who doesn’t drive subsidizes free parking for those who do, in the form of higher rents and home prices, and inflated retail prices to cover the cost of building and maintaining massive parking lots.

Portland is hiring a polling company in an effort to learn why bicycling rates have dropped significantly in what is largely regarded as one of the country’s most bike-friendly cities.

That feeling when a bike rider is struck by a semi-truck driver by surprise, in Surprise.

Congratulations. Oregon says it’s legal to briefly cross the centerline in a no passing zone to get around an obstruction on the right side of the roadway. And yes, you’re the obstruction.

A Chicago driver finally faces charges for aggravated driving under the influence in last June’s death of an 83-year old man who was killed while riding his bike around a nearby forest reserve, like he did almost every day.

New York is marking Earth Day by banning cars, at least temporarily, and opening the streets to people, with seven signature and 23 community-organized Open Streets locations throughout the city.

Virginia authorities are offering a $15,000 reward in the hit-and-run death of a 70-year old former Commonwealth’s Attorney — the equivalent of a district attorney — who was run down by a driver while riding his bike.

Even nature is out to get us. An unsuspecting Virginia bike rider was lucky to escape without serious injuries when a large tree branch broke off and fell on him, as a door cam captured the crash.

Tragic story from Mississippi, where an Air Force Wing commander’s 30-year career didn’t prepare her for the trauma she experienced when she and two friends were run down by a driver on the last day of a bike and kayak race across Florida that injured her, and killed one of her teammates.

 

International

There’s a special place in hell for the Scottish bike thief who stole a bicycle from an 11-year old boy at a playground, then flashed a gun at a Good Samaritan who tried to get it back.

A Philippine fundraising ride will mark the 81st anniversary of the brutal WWII Bataan Death March, following the route traveled by American and Filipino soldiers captured by the Japanese.

A new Aussie study confirms that women face many barriers to bicycling that keep them from riding, not the least of which is access to safe infrastructure.

Life is cheap in Australia, where a sleeping driver got a whole two years behind bars for fleeing the scene after dozing off and slamming into a man taking part in a group training ride — but could get out after just nine months.

 

Competitive Cycling

Cycling Weekly offers five things they learned from Sunday’s Tour of Flanders, including that 23-year old Brit Fred Wright can ride with the big dogs.

British cyclist Ethan Hayter took the opening stage of the Tour of the Basque Country in an uphill sprint to the finish.

Russian Petr Rikunov won the first stage of the “prestigious” Ho Chi Minh City Television Cup Vietnamese stage rage.

Here’s video of the Tour of Flanders crash caused by Polish cyclist Filip Maciejuk we mentioned yesterday. Oops.

 

Finally…

Now you, too, can take a bike tour of Taiwan without leaving Indiana. Who needs puncture-resistant bike tires when you’ve got tennis balls?

And never buy a bike helmet at a garage sale. Or morph a story about bike helmets into a completely different topic without warning, for that matter.

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Ramadan Mubarak to all observing the Islamic holy month. 

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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

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

Wrapping an anti-15-minute city rant in Catholic BS, and an “overly powerful bike lobby” gets everything it wants — or not

April 3, 2023 / / One comment

I guess I missed that day in catechism class.

A writer for the Catholic Herald — a publication which, unto now, I have been blissfully unaware, despite a conservative Catholic upbringing — professes to make “the Catholic argument against 15-minute cities.”

Never mind that Jesus was a pedestrian who likely lived in one.

The thesis of a 15-minute city is that everything you need for daily life should be found within a 15-minutes walk, bike or transit ride of your home.

That’s it.

And as much as I strain my memory, I can’t recall any teachings of Jesus or the disciples that so much as mention it, let alone condemn it.

But that doesn’t stop the author, who will remain unnamed here to protect the guilty.

At face value, the idea seems desirable and has much to commend it. But I can’t help smell a rat, especially following Covid lockdowns and the increasingly “nudgy” and authoritarian-lite sheen to public policies these days. I suspect the great Catholic writer Hilaire Belloc would have agreed, given what he had to say about the intractable struggle between Catholicism and socialism.

“The Catholic Church, acutely conscious as she is of the abominations of the modern industrial and capitalistic system…refuses to cure it at the expense of denying a fundamental principle of morality, the principle of private ownership, which applies quite as much to the means of production as to any other class of material objects,” Belloc wrote in his 1908 essay The Church and Socialism. 

Currently the “material object” most in the crosshairs that bureaucrats and activists are obsessing over – in terms of reducing your use of it or simply taking it away altogether- is your car.

Huh?

I don’t know of any version of the 15-minute city philosophy that involves taking away anyone’s car.

Nor is there a damn thing socialistic about the concept. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Unless maybe you don’t approve of Medicare and social security. And don’t get me started on the inherent socialism in this country’s subsidizing of motor vehicle usage.

If anything, the 15-minute city is about enabling personal freedom to move about as you choose, without forcing you into a motor vehicle just to get groceries, get to work or get healthcare.

Or even get to church, temple, mosque or wherever you choose to worship, or not.

You can walk. You can bike. You can take a bus or train. Or — tres shock! — you can even drive, if you so choose.

But wait, as they say in informercials, there’s more.

The “fundamental thesis of Socialism”, as Belloc highlights, is “that man would be better and happier were the means of production in human society, that is, land and machinery and all transport [my italics], controlled by government rather than by private persons or corporations.”

I’ve experienced transport being excessively controlled by the Taliban, and I can assure you it sucks. Their IED campaign in Afghanistan’s Helmand province was so deadly effective that the British Army lost its freedom of movement. Admittedly the use of IEDs is an extreme form of traffic fines—but the principle is the same: someone else interdicting your movement. It changes everything.

Can you say, “non sequitur?”

Sure you can.

Again, socialism has nothing to do with the 15-minute city. If anything, it enables capitalism in its purest and simplest sense, since it enables you to do business with local merchants, right where you live.

But it does nothing to prevent you from doing business across town, across the country or across the globe.

And no, it has nothing to do with IEDs or any other kind of explosives.

Yet he goes on.

Of course he does.

Thanks to the vagaries of freelancing, I’ve also experienced various prolonged periods of not owning a car and I can confirm that it is tedious, limiting and exhausting, as you set off, once again, peddling like a maniac to make it on time. Not having a car is even harder if you are coordinating a family (once again, public policy seems set on disincentivising the family unit, while punishing those who have children).

Somehow, he turns that into an argument against being able to live without a car.

Go figure.

Where, pray tell, is freedom represented in forcing people to pay hundreds, if not thousands of dollars every month to own and use motor vehicles, just to access the things and services they need?

And just where is the love and forgiveness of God in his supposed Catholic essay?

Because there is absolutely nothing Catholic about his arguments. Rather, what he penned was an essay about the dangers of socialism, under the mistaken belief it has anything to do with the 15-minute city, and tried to shoehorn Catholicism in.

Not faith. Not religion. Not even Christianity, because what he writes has nothing to do with it in any shape or form.

It is ironic that his essay appeared on Palm Sunday, which marks the pre-Passover entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem on the back of a lowly donkey.

Because, as we noted earlier, there is no reason to believe that the biblical city was anything other than a 15-minute city, because even though it held over half a million people, most local residents were unlikely to walk outside of their own neighborhoods to meet most of their needs.

Because most would likely have to walk, especially the poor.

It was the Romans and the wealthy who used horses, chariots and wagons, the motor vehicles of their day, to go beyond their own communities.

Which means there’s a far greater Catholic argument for a 15-minute city than against it.

Photo of the inside of the Vatican by Photo by Luis Núñez from Pexels.

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A Chicago letter writer alleges that bike riders don’t belong in traffic, and that the city is in the throes of an overly powerful bike lobby that gets everything it wants.

Am I the only one who has noticed that building bike lanes to make cycling in city traffic safe is a lot like putting filter tips on cigarettes to make smoking tobacco safe? A cosmetic change isn’t going to change the fact that for traffic, the bicycle is a fatally flawed product from the start…

Instead of spending the taxpayers’ money to force more bike lanes down the public’s throats, perhaps the politicians could learn to ask us first if this is what we want, rather than just giving an overly powerful lobby everything they want.

Funny how only people who don’t ride bikes think there’s a powerful bicycle lobby. And those of us who ride bikes think we can’t get anyone to actually listen to us.

Never mind that the best way to get bikes out of city traffic is to build bike lanes, which most surveys tend to show are overwhelmingly popular.

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Pink Bike says two young Chilean kids probably ride better than you do.

Or better than I do, anyway.

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

San Luis Obispo’s curmudgeonly anti-bike columnist blames bike lanes for destroying the livability of the city’s neighborhoods, even though most people would likely say they do just the opposite. And he objects to rising bike path construction costs, somehow forgetting that construction costs are going up virtually everywhere, for everything.

An English man had to play dead to stop an attack by four muggers who violently assaulted him and stole his £3,500 e-mountain bike, the equivalent of over $4,300.

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

Pennsylvania state police are on the lookout for a 61-year old scofflaw cyclist who gave them a fake ID, then fled into the woods on his bike after they discovered he was wanted in two states.

An English bike rider allegedly got off his bicycle and punched a man in his 70s in the face, after startling the older man by riding past him on the sidewalk.

Police in the UK are looking for a hit-and-run bike rider who seriously injured a 77-year-old woman in Leeds by crashing into her while riding on the sidewalk.

Police in Milan, Italy are looking for the bike-riding man who stabbed a pair of Egyptian brothers when they got out of their car to check on him after a wrong-way crash.

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Local 

Urbanize looks forward to the Mid-City to Pico Union CicLAvia in less than two weeks.

Avril Lavigne is one of us, and so is rapper Tyga, as the couple share an ebike on a ride on the beaches of the ‘Bu.

 

State

Bike and safety advocates press the case that San Diego isn’r doing enough to protect bicyclists and pedestrians, demanding increased funding for Vision Zero. Based on the 29 people killed in the county over the past two years, they’re right. Thanks to Phillip Young for the heads-up. 

The plague of ebike battery fires hit close to home after one exploded when a man poured water on a battery fire as it was being recharged in a couple’s living room in San Diego’s Barrio Logan; he was burned on his arms and legs, while their apartment was destroyed in the fire.

Completing our San Diego trifecta, a local TV station says business owners are up in arms over the loss of 300 parking spots in the Convoy District to build a pair of separated bike lanes, even though that’s at least partially offset by 171 new angled parking spaces.

The Vista city council approved $1.7 million to build a series of separated bike lanes. Even if they are just using plastic bollards. And hopefully the nice, thicks ones, rather than the flimsy car-tickler bendy posts. 

Bakersfield officials officially opened a new bike path providing a continuous loop around Lake Ming, completing a 30-mile lake-to-lake bike path. Thanks to Geri for the heads-up. 

Sad news from Redwood City, where someone riding a bicycle was killed by a hit-and-run driver Friday night.

An Oakland TV station says the 100-member San Ramon Valley Mountain Bike Club, composed of middle and high school students, has doubled the membership of young woman over the past year, when the team apparently had five and a half girls.

 

National

A writer for the Wall Street Journal makes a very Shoup-ian case for why the US has too much parking, in a story that for some reason isn’t hidden behind their draconian paywall, at least for now. Unless you’re talking secure bike parking, of course, in which case there isn’t nearly enough.

AutoEvolution says bikemakers are getting very close to replacing the car with the latest bicycle cargo haulers.

Denver officials are hoping the ebike craze continues, in an effort to replace vehicle miles with cleaner bike traffic.

Tragic news from Houston, where bicyclists are calling for more visible trail closure signs after a bike rider died last week when his bike apparently got tangled up in orange construction netting while riding at night.

Texas pedestrian and bicyclist traffic crash deaths increased a whopping 34% and 58%, respectively over a five-year period.

He gets it. A Portland letter writer says safe and secure bike parking does as much as good infrastructure to create more riders.

Last week we mentioned the shameful theft of a three-year old Maine kid’s Spider-Man bicycle while he was shopping with his mom. But there’s good news this time, after an anonymous Good Samaritan — in keeping with today’s Biblical theme — gave him a new one, plus matching helmet and bike lock.

Bicyclists from all over the US descended on DC over the weekend to demand ebike tax credits and road safety funding, as traffic deaths continue to rise.

Take an ebike tour of eight iconic DC monuments, memorials and museums.

Bad news from Durham, North Carolina, where the city’s budget director was killed in a collision with a speeding driver while riding his bicycle; he was also the bestselling author of Wish You Were Here: A Murdered Girl, A Brother’s Quest and the Hunt for a Canadian Serial Killer.

There’s a special place in hell for the man who attacked a Florida boy who was riding his bike to school, and stole his bicycle; fortunately, kindhearted Clearwater cops bought the 5th grader a new bike so he could ride home the same night.

 

International

Cyclist says when you’re buying a new bike, listen to your heart, not your head.

Cycling Weekly answers the burning question of whether you’re better off with a cycling computer or a smartphone app.

Tragic news from Brazil, where a 43-year old man died after he swallowed a bee while riding his bike, and went into anaphylactic shock when it stung the inside of his throat. I once swallowed something winged and fuzzy, which was when I learned to ride with my mouth closed. 

British Columbia’s Pique Newsmagazine says the pandemic bike boom is over, which means there’s never been a better time to buy a bicycle.

A blind English man was lucky to get his $2,400 adaptive tandem bike back after police recovered the stolen bike in a drug raid.

The New York Post reviews Scottish endurance bicyclist Jenny Graham’s memoir of her record-breaking ride around the world through 16 countries and four continents, covering 18,000 miles in just 124 days.

Business owners in the UK opposed to a Cornwall bikeway warn that people using it could be jeopardized by truck mirrors overhanging the bike path. Which is a better argument for keeping trucks the hell away from it.

A pair of British men plan to pedal in the footsteps of Lawrence of Arabia, riding 125 miles through the Jordanian desert to historic sites visited by the legendary TE Lawrence during WWI.

Turkmenistan’s annual World Health Day celebrations culminated with thousands of people in matching track suits pedaling green bicycles matching the national flag attached to each one.

Indian bikemakers say mandatory minimum standards and upgrading technology are just two of the five keys to turning around the country’s bicycle industry.

All Japanese bicyclists are now required to wear a helmet at all times, though compliance is in question, since there are no penalties for not complying.

 

Competitive Cycling

Tadej Pogačar took Sunday’s Tour of Flanders, as Mathieu van der Poel settled for second, acknowledging that he just didn’t have enough to overtake the Slovenian two-time Tour de France champ.

American Matteo Jorgenson was happy to finish in the top ten at Flanders, taking ninth place, although fellow American Neilson Powless had him beat with a fifth place finish in just his second cobblestone classic.

Poland’s Filip Maciejuk was DQ’d for causing a huge crash in the Tour of Flanders after losing control of his bike by swerving into deep grass, then cutting back onto the road and into the peloton, but at least he says he’s sorry.

Meanwhile, Belgian Lotte Kopecky won her second consecutive victory in the women’s Tour of Flanders, in a breakaway victory over Demi Vollering.

 

Finally…

Presenting a weight weenie’s worst nightmare, with the world’s heaviest rideable bicycle — or tricycle, anyway. When you’re on parole for killing a bike rider, with a revoked driver’s license, maybe try sticking to the speed limit. Or not driving to begin with.

And to paraphrase the immortal words of Richard Nixon, Paris won’t have e-scooters to kick around anymore.

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Thanks again to Matthew Robertson for his generous monthly donation to keep all the best bike news and advocacy coming your way every day. As always, donations are always welcome and truly appreciated, whether repeating or otherwise.

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Ramadan Mubarak to all observing the Islamic holy month. 

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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

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

The idiocy of Move Culver City removal, deputies seek bike-raging Cervelo rider, and NACTO says no plastic bendy posts

March 31, 2023 / / 6 comments

Seriously, this is getting old.

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

Let’s just say the transition to daily insulin has not gone as well as I would have hoped. 

Today’s photo comes from a report on the successful Move Culver City project, which some conservative Culver City counselors want to remove. 

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In response to Wednesday’s post, which featured the American College of Surgeons call for a kinder, gentler bike helmet mandate, Barry Tantlinger reminds us of Calbike’s stance on the matter.

And not surprisingly, they say no.

Or maybe, hell no.

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A new short video accurately captures the sheer idiocy of Culver City’s newly conservative city council attempting to rip out the Move Culver City bus and bike lanes that have made the downtown area more livable.

Or maybe we should just say livable, period.

Because it wasn’t that great when it was a car sewer, even for people in cars.

The council will vote on the proposal on April 24th.

Which gives you a little over three weeks to let them know you’re happy with things the way they are now, thank you.

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Click to enlarge

LA County Sheriff’s deputies are looking for a bike-raging man riding a high-end red and black Cervelo road bike, who allegedly shattered the windshield of a car in Westlake Village with a metal water bottle after yelling at the driver through the closed passenger window.

Anyone with information is urged to call LA Crime Stoppers at 800/222-TIPS (8477).

This is yet another reminder that violence is never the right answer, and only serves to make you the aggressor, no matter what the driver may have done, or how tempting it may be in the moment.

And yes, we’ve all been there.

Although something tells me there’s another side to this story. Besides, I don’t see any metal bottles in that photo, just a pair of plastic bidons.

Thanks to Geri for the heads-up.

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They get it.

NACTO, aka the National Association of City Transportation Officials, says bike lanes on streets with speed limits over 30 mph need protection.

And LADOT’s favorite flimsy plastic car ticklers don’t count.

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The drumbeat of public corruption in the City of Angels goes on, with the conviction of former County Supervisor and current recused LA City Councilmember Mark Ridley-Thomas.

His conviction on bribery charges meant to benefit his son at USC means he will be forced to resign from the city council, requiring a special election or the permanent appointment of his replacement.

Ridley-Thomas’ 10th Council District is currently being represented by former staffer Heather Hutt.

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Looks like you’re going to have to find another route up to Angeles Crest from Glendora this weekend.

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Gravel Bike California grinds it out above Orange County, with DTLA in the distance.

Thanks to Zachary Rynew for the link. 

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We may have featured this animation a few years ago, but it’s definitely worth revisiting.

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

A North Carolina man faces a murder charge for intentionally running down a 27-year old man riding a bicycle, who died a week later; police don’t have a motive for the killing, and say there was no apparent connection between the two men.

Seriously? A hit-and-run Port St. Lucie, Florida cop walked with a lousy warning citation after he “bumped” a 14-year old boy who was riding his bike across a street with the walk signal; the cop lied about even being involved in the crash, but got off with a gentle caress on the wrist anyway.

Belgian cycling star Wout van Aert was nearly roadkill following a punishment pass from the road-raging, horn-blaring driver of a cement truck, according to retired pro and training partner Jan Bakelants.

Someone is sabotaging a bike trail in Australia’s New South Wales with “an alarming number of tacks, screws and nails,” which have resulted in injures to bike riders, and forced some to walk miles with flat tires.

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

Philadelphia police busted the city’s “Bicycle Burglars,” following a six week crime spree.

A man accuses bodyguards for Floyd Mayweather Jr. of giving him a beatdown after he asked the bike-riding boxing legend for an autograph in Miami Beach.

An English mother is calling for reckless bike riders to be subject to penalties similar to reckless drivers, after the bicyclist responsible for the crash that killed her motorcycle-riding son walked with the equivalent of a lousy $1,200 fine.

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Local 

Alhambra considers early plan concepts to reconfigure the stub end of the 710 Freeway, which unceremoniously dumps drivers off in the city; options include plans for a separated bike path to reduce motor vehicle traffic.

 

State

Streetsblog offers suggestions on how to improve California’s public right-of-ways.

A Calbike press release from two months in the future call for an end to racial profiling and pretextual stops, arguing that bicycling is not a crime, regardless of the neighborhood or color of the rider.

While the LAPD partners with Bike Index to register bicycles to combat bike theft, the Costa Mesa Police Department has joined other Orange County jurisdictions by signing up with Project 529 for the same purpose.

San Francisco’s misguided and deeply unpopular plan to build a two-way center lane bike lane in the middle of Valencia Street is on track for approval next week.

 

National

Business Insider argues that America’s lack of safe bicycling infrastructure is keeping people off their bikes.

Jalopnik points out what should be obvious to anyone who has observed emergency vehicles trying to navigate their way through a sea of drivers ensconced in their hermetically sealed cars and SUVs lately, that modern motor vehicles are so good at blocking out exterior noise that drivers can’t even hear a fire truck bearing down on them with sirens blaring.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission says if you bought a bike helmet on Amazon from JBM International Electric, you might want to get your money back; the CPSC also says if you own a Campagnolo Ekar-equipped OPEN Cycle gravel or road bike, you shouldn’t ride it until you get the brake hose replaced.

A new Congressional bill to close gaps in urban protected bike networks would honor decorated American diplomat and fallen bicyclist Sarah Debbink Langenkamp, who was killed riding her bike after returning to DC from her last posting in war-torn Ukraine.

A plus-size writer for Well + Good says riding an ebike is a reminder that exercise doesn’t have to make you suffer. Just don’t tell that to the avid roadies, for whom suffering is a way of life.

Apple is working on an Apple Watch ebike detector that would calculate your energy expenditure when you ride.

School Library Journal recommends 16 kid’s books about learning to ride a bicycle. No word on which ones have been banned in Florida because they might possibly offend someone who is easily offended.

Portland’s chief bike planner says he’s stumped about why the rate of bicycling has declined in the ostensibly bike-friendly city.

A Eugene, Oregon letter writer says technology can be a bitter pill to swallow, as he warns against anti-ebike men in their 60s and early 70s on a local bike path who will curse you and the electric horse you ride.

An Apple AirTag led to the recovery of an Utah man’s ebike two years after it was stolen.

State Bicycle Company announced they will supply the bikes for Indiana University’s iconic Little 500, made famous by the equally iconic Breaking Away.

Still no motive for the shooting that took the life of a Pittsburgh-area man, who was murdered as he rode his bike to play baseball with his friends.

A Pennsylvania cop faces charges for last month’s distracted driving death of a 75-year old man riding a bicycle; he lost control of his patrol car while looking at his onboard computer as he responded to a call about an erratic driver. Which is the same irresponsible behavior that killed music executive Milt Olin on Mulholland Drive a decade ago. Except no one was ever charged for that crime.

There’s a special place in hell for whoever stole a three-year old Maine kid’s Spider-Man bicycle while he was in a store with his mom. Schmuck.

No bias here. A New York site does the math, and concludes there’s just not enough room for protected bike lanes on the city’s side streets. And besides, they’d make life too difficult for the garbage collectors.

A New Jersey man is on trial for murder in the stabbing death of his 51-year old neighbor, who confronted him for forcing the victim’s 17-year old son off the road as the boy rode his bike hours earlier.

A Florida crash report alleges that Dartmouth College football coach Buddy Teevens was at fault for failing to yield, and didn’t have lights on his bike, in the crash that left him with serious injuries as he rode home from a nearby restaurant

 

International

Bored Panda ranks the world’s 50 best examples of urban planning.

A new small study confirms what you already knew — bicycling fights aging in middle age, helping retain more muscle mass and composition than non-bicyclists. But you have to average at least 83 miles a week for 15 years or so to benefit. If those benefits last after you stop riding that much, I’ll live forever; if not, I’m screwed.

Auto Evolution looks at five car and motorcycle makers jumping on the ebike bandwagon; meanwhile, Jalopnik lists all the carmakers around the world who are branching out into ebikes.

She gets it. A Toronto writer describes SUVS as dinosaurs headed for extinction, arguing that huge cars don’t suit human life in cities, and their time is over.

Bicycling belatedly catches up to the news that bike riders now outnumber motorists in central London. Something Forbes reported on the first day of March, and we mentioned here a day later; as usual, read it on Yahoo if the magazine blocks you.

London’s mayor says protests against the city’s Ultra Low Emission Zones have been hijacked by far right groups, including Nazis, anti-vaxxers and Covid deniers.

Slate considers how Paris kicked out the cars, transforming itself into an “unlikely utopia” for bike riders and pedestrians.

One third of the drivers in fatal Finnish crashes were under the influence, with 283 drunk drivers causing the deaths of 308 people between 2017 and 2021, including six people on bicycles and three pedestrians.

A Ghanan website says the country’s plan to use bamboo bikes to solve its transportation problems may be farfetched, since most of the country’s roads lack safe bicycle infrastructure.

Ouch. An Australian man discovered the dangers of homemade ebike batteries the hard way when the battery on his bike exploded as he was riding it.

 

Competitive Cycling

Rouleur looks forward to Sunday’s Tour of Flanders, the most important date on the Belgian cycling calendar, which has been held every year since 1919.

Cycling Weekly spends a week with 20-year old WorldTour rookie Oscar Onley, as the Scottish cyclist has a difficult introduction to the big leagues.

The San Manuel Band of Mission Indians explains why they supported the annual Redlands Classic with a total of $140,000 that enabled the race to expand to five days.

 

Finally…

Specialized says seriously, who needs seat post, anyway? When you’re riding with drug paraphernalia on your bike and meth in your bra, put a damn light and reflectors on it — the bike that is, not the bra.

And anything that manages to combine corgis and metal bollards will always get my undivided attention.

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Ramadan Mubarak to all observing the Islamic holy month. 

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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

Category: Morning Links / Tags: ,

Surgeons call for kinder, gentler mandatory helmet laws; and new OC wilderness park opens this weekend

March 29, 2023 / / One comment

The American College of Surgeons has once again called for the adoption of mandatory bike helmet laws for both children and adults.

However, the group also recognized the need for equitable and fair enforcement, after numerous reports of bike laws unfairly targeting people of color; Seattle dropped one of the nation’s few adult helmet laws last year due to enforcement targeting homeless and Black bicyclists.

According to the group,

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 1,000 people die and 350,000 people are treated in emergency departments each year due to bicycle injuries in the US. Bicycle crashes accounted for $5.4 billion in medical costs in 2020 and an additional $7.7 billion in lost lives, work, and productivity.

Helmet use has been shown to significantly decrease the risk of fatal and nonfatal head injuries. Estimates indicate that helmets reduce the risk of head injury by 48%, traumatic brain injury by 53%, facial injury by 23%, and fatal injury by 34%.1

However, they fail to mention that bike helmets are designed to protect against relatively slow speed falls, not the collisions implied in the first paragraph.

Or that a far better solution is to redesign motor vehicles to reduce injuries to people walking and biking, and reimagine streets to prevent collisions in the first place. Not to mention slowing cars to reduce their lethality.

But somehow, they don’t call for that.

Yes, bike helmets can significantly reduce injury and death. But they should always be seen as the last resort when all else fails, not the first line of defense for bike safety.

And they should never be required by law, which would only reduce ridership at a time when we need to get more people on bikes in the face of a climate emergency.

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The new Saddleback Wilderness park is opening this Saturday, offering 3.3 miles of hiking, biking and equestrian trails in the OC Parks’ Irvine Ranch Open Space near Silverado.

The wilderness park used to be the site of the country’s first off-road motorsports park, but nature was allowed to reclaim it after the park closed in 1984.

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

San Luis Obispo’s car-forward columnist is back with another screed complaining about the city’s “illogical transportation agenda,” which includes new protected bike lanes and bike boulevards, as well as promotion of ebikes, which he somehow considers motor vehicles.

No bias here. London’s Daily Mail seemingly applauds vigilante “freedom fighters” who torched planters blocking motor vehicles from “deeply unpopular” Low Traffic Neighborhoods — even though LTN supporters outnumber opponents three to one. Along with a driver who confronts “eco-zealots” trying to block her from illegally driving through an LTN in violation of a No Cars sign.

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

A bicycle-riding purse snatcher knocked a 74-year old Florida woman to the ground after riding up from behind, then grabbing her purse and riding away — but all he got was a water bottle and her keys.

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Local 

A West Hollywood man complains that riding a scooter on the sidewalk resulted in a $37 ticket he can’t afford, but he’ll keep doing it because he doesn’t want to die riding in the street.

Your next ride along the San Gabriel River should be a little more pleasant, after the Army Corps of Engineers removed 144 tons — yes, tons — of trash from it.

Avril Lavigne is one of us, riding her throttle-controlled ped-assist ebike along the beach in a one-legged Superman pose.

 

State

An environmental website recommends seven “incredible” bike trails in the mountains and along the coast in San Diego.

San Diego State University received a $10 million grant to study how to make streets safer, more livable and more equitable for people biking and walking.

San Jose police arrested a 27-year old woman for killing a mother and a dog in a hit-and-run, as the victim was out walking the dog with her young daughter.

San Francisco Streetsblog calls on readers to join the fight for a Dutch-style protected bike lane on Valencia Street, rather than the center-lane bike lane the city has chosen.

Sad news from Stockton, where a 52-year old man riding a bicycle was killed when he was struck by the driver of a big rig truck.

 

National

A new federal study shows building protected bike lanes result in a gradual reduction in bicycling crashes. It also shows fewer bicycling crashes on streets with no parking in at least one direction.

Esquire says the author of Carmeggedon makes “an oddly compelling case to ditch your car.”

A writer for left-leaning magazine The Nation calls for “mass action and solidarity (to) force those in power to change our streets for the better,” arguing that people on bicycles deserve the right to free movement.

Streetsblog examines laws that restrict walking and biking, arguing that they are used to unfairly restrict the mobility of Black people.

Fed up with drivers parking in bike lanes, and the city’s inaction in dealing with the problem, a Seattle bike rider printed and posted his own No Parking signs; days later, one was missing and the other had been run over.

Illinois prosecutors have filed first degree murder and reckless homicide charges against an alleged DUI driver who killed a bike rider while driving under the influence of drugs.

Tragic news from Pittsburgh, where a transportation planner and former city intern was fatally shot in the head as he was riding his bike to baseball practice; police arrested a suspect but didn’t have a motive for the shooting.

Pennsylvania school bus drivers are selling 150 donated bicycles to help people in need. Then again, they could probably help them more by giving the bikes to people in need to provide cheap and efficient transportation.

A Chattanooga, Tennessee letter writer says bike safety is horrendous in the city, and city officials don’t care.

Dashcam video captured a Florida hit-and-run, as a driver went through a red light and clipped the front wheel of a 65-year old woman as she rode her bike in the crosswalk; she ended up with numerous cuts and scrapes, and may lose vision in one eye.

 

International

A Scottish physician and “keen cyclist” calls for something to be done about poorly paid and poorly trained workers delivering often unhealthy junk food on ebikes in an unsafe way to people sitting on their sofas.

A new documentary tells the story of a French man with no legs who used a handcycle to finish the Race Across America, aka RAAM, in just 12 days.

An Aussie council considers banning ebikes from an oceanfront pathway along the sea wall, where all bikes were banned until 1995.

 

Competitive Cycling

Cycling Weekly says Belgian cycling star Wout van Aert allowed top lieutenant Christophe Laporte to win at Gent-Wevelgem, ensuring his support for Sunday’s Tour of Flanders. Then again, that should have been a given from his teammate, anyway.

SoCal Cycling reports on the Victorville Stage Race, written by the winner of the U23 jersey.

Belgian ultra endurance cyclist Matthieu Bonne set a new Guinness world record for total distance ridden in a single week, riding over 2,248 miles in and around the Phoenix area.

A new Montana study used isotope tracers to examine calorie usage and physiology in a 24-hour mountain bike race.

 

Finally…

Kitsbow may be going out of business, but you can still buy their clothing if you don’t mind used bikewear. That feeling when the dance club is a bike.

And a look at the science behind why you don’t fall over on your bike.

Unless maybe you do, of course.

………

Ramadan Mubarak to all observing the Islamic holy month. 

……….

Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

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