As if you needed another incentive to ride a bike.
The LA Weekly says the city’s traffic congestion costs motorists $5,700 a year, compared to an average of just $1,700 nationwide. And that’s in addition to the estimated $2,458 LA drivers lose due to bad roads.
On the other hand, traffic congestion doesn’t cost bike riders a dime. Although those bad roads can bust wheels and frames.
And bones.
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Writing for Flying Pigeon, Richard Risemberg says as if anti-Fig4All City Councilmember Gil Cedillo isn’t bad enough, CD4 Councilmember Tom LaBonge manages to insert himself into bike photo ops while blocking much needed bike safety projects.
Tom LaBonge intrudes his bulky self into every bike-related photo op anywhere in or near his district, often wearing his signature red sweater to catch the eye (and the cameras). But he has stopped the Fourth Street Neighborhood Greenway, is trying hard to stop the Lankershim Boulevard road diet, and stands stubbornly against a community-friendly Glendale/Hyperion bridge rebuild.
And now, Sixth Street in the Miracle Mile, a narrow four-lane that impatient scofflaws use as a fast alternative to Wilshire one block away, sometimes hitting speeds of 60 and 70 miles per hour…
Sixth Street was slated to receive a road diet, but—yes, you guessed right!—Tom LaBonge chose to “defer” it. His rationale? Road work on Wilshire might send more traffic onto Sixth. But his presumptions have led him into error: road diets, while they restrain top speeds, often smooth out traffic flow and result in quicker, if calmer, A to B transits of a street.
Something is seriously wrong when a single councilmember can derail already-approved road treatments designed by people actually qualified and paid to make those decisions.
If Mayor Garcetti really wants to do something about our dysfunctional city government, this would be a damn good place to start.
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In pro cycling news, the Astana cycling team risks losing its license for the pro tour after yet another rider is caught doping. Good thing the sport has cleaned itself up.
Meanwhile, VeloNews attempts to fit injured cycling scion Taylor Phinney for next year’s yellow jersey in the Tour de France, even though he’s still working on his comeback and has never ridden — let alone won — a single stage of the Tour.
Give the man a little time, already.
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Local
Metro moves forward with a mealy-mouthed, weak-ass Complete Streets policy.
Flying Pigeon hosts another of their popular Get Sum Dim Sum rides on Sunday.
The 2nd annual Long Beach AIDS Ride rolls on November 15th with rides of 40 and 70 miles, along with an eight mile family ride.
State
BikeSD reports bike and livability advocates in the Hillcrest neighborhood are subject to death threats.
San Francisco’s police investigate a series of attacks on bike riders in the city’s Panhandle.
National
A new government study confirms Millennials are driving less and biking and walking more.
A Kickstarter project promises jeans cut to accommodate the massive thighs of serious cyclists, which won’t always fit in regular jeans. A problem I once had, and sincerely hope I will again someday.
Grist gushes over the beautiful bike freeways in Minneapolis.
Three years ago, the NYPD recommended a mandatory helmet law for cyclists, but can’t be bothered to enforce traffic laws to protect them.
Nice. Atlanta’s working on a citywide network of protected bike lanes.
International
A Calgary writer explains why he rides in the road when there’s a bike path nearby.
Seriously? An Edmonton city councilor wants to discourage bike commuting by requiring licenses for anyone who rides to work.
The Guardian says bicycling is good for everyone; mass cycling could save the National Health Service £17 billion — the equivalent of $27 billion — over 20 years, and prevent 500 road deaths a year.
Britain’s Department for Transport calls for doubling cycling by 2025, but lacks the funding to do it.
Copenhagenize’s Mikael Colville-Andersen discusses how cities around the world are adapting to bike riders.
A group of cycling physicians call for more to be done to improve bike safety in Perth, but the equivalent of a three-foot law fails in West Australia.
Finally…
A Scot cyclist goes for an unplanned swim after swerving to avoid a dog. You thought LA potholes were bad — a New Zealand cyclist rides into a sinkhole and can’t get out; his dog stayed with him until help finally arrived.
And a road raging Kiwi cyclist goes off on the driver who rear–ended him following a roadside dispute; something tells me there are no innocent victims in this one.
