Morning Links: Bike to Work Day, Rick Risemberg lets Cedillo have it with both barrels, and a new Sweet Ride

May 14, 2014 / / 3 comments

Happy Bike to Work Day.

Or as I call it, trick or treating for bike riders.

And don’t forget the Bike from Work Handlebar Happy Hours in Echo Park, Santa Monica and throughout the area.

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Richard Risemberg doesn’t pull any punches when it comes to the North Figueroa fiasco.

Writing for Flying Pigeon, he accuses CD1 Councilmember Gil Cedillo of bait and switch in supporting bike lanes when he was running for office, and seemingly opposing them now that he’s in office.

North Figueroa has been shown to be overdesigned for the level of traffic that it sees, resulting in scofflaw drivers speeding down the wide lanes, killing and maiming residents and visitors alike and creating a bleak and harrowing ambience that diminishes the curb appeal of local businesses. The road diet and its accompanying bike lanes would restrain the speed demons, and the bike lanes themselves would allow neighbors the option to get about without cars, which so many of them do not own anyway. This would improve job access and bring more customers to local stores…

Yet Cedillo, who in the video above enthusiastically speaks of the city’s need to install “real bike lanes” such as he studied in Denmark, now is sitting on the project, and in fact giving the appearance of orchestrating the new community meetings he’s set up to make the opposition looks bigger than it is. Of course the video was taken when he was fishing for the votes of the cycling community prior to the last election….

And he cites the Councilmember’s actions as a perfect example of how to subvert the democratic process in a piece for Orange 20.

Yes, in the name of the spurious concept of “balance” employed by Faux News, the number of people speaking for the road diet was held down to match the number speaking against—a principle that, if applied to elections, would result in a tie every time.

In other words, democracy be damned.

They’re both good reads.

And if it doesn’t piss you off than an elected official is blatantly ignoring both the will of the people and the safety of cyclists and pedestrians, for reasons known only to him, maybe it should.

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Sweet Ride USA releases their fourth episode, which features a public ride to a Highland Park donut shop.

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Local

Streetsblog’s Joe Linton offers up three things he likes about Bike Week and two he doesn’t, while Damien Newton says we need to get more young people involved in planning.

Are e-bikes the missing link in LA transportation plans?

LA cyclist Kurt Broadhag will ride this year’s RAAM to support the non-profit Innovation: Africa.

LACBC local chapter SCV Bicycle Coalition works for safer cycling in the Santa Clarita Valley.

The second annual Jewel City Fun & Fitness Ride rolls through Glendale this weekend, while El Monte hosts a Bike Fest the following weekend.

It may take awhile, by Cal Poly Pomona is committed to becoming friendlier to cyclists and pedestrians; too bad it took the death of bike riding student Ivan Aguilar to make it happen

PCH will get a pedestrian-friendly makeover in Hermosa Beach, which could include bike lanes. Key word being “could.”

 

State

San Diego is looking for funding for a long-planned separated bike path through Mission Valley, while biking group the Awarewolfs — not wolves, for some reason — hosts a monthly full moon ride through the city.

Congratulations to Rancho Cucamonga and Chula Vista on making the Bike League’s new Bicycle Friendly Communities list.

The LA Times says San Francisco’s failure to prosecute a truck driver caught on video right hooking the bike rider he killed is a reminder we still have a long way to go. Meanwhile, SF Streetsblog says the legal system failed Amelie. No shit.

Bike to School Day flops in Calistoga, as only 28 students in two schools participate.

 

National

Speeding Seattle cyclist kills a leashed dog being walked in a crosswalk. Seriously people, if you can’t stop for pedestrians and dogs in a legally marked crossing, you’re the problem.

A hit-and-run driver who left a bike rider to die near my hometown gets off with less than a slap on the wrist; the local paper says the system failed her victim, too. Again, no shit.

New York’s new mayor looks to Sweden for inspiration for the city’s Vision Zero plan. Here in LA, no one in city government seems to have even heard of Vision Zero. Or Sweden, for that matter.

Under the heading of they really should know better, the EPA is closing its bike room, which means a number of employees may stop riding to work. And that can’t be good for the environment.

Now that sounds like fun. A New Orleans bike group is hosting a second line bike ride, with cyclists following a jazz band on a flatbed truck.

 

International

Five tips for a successful Calgary tweed ride.

Toronto considers building separated bike lanes through the downtown core.

Looks like stunt cyclist Danny MacAskill is up to his old tricks. Or maybe new ones.

A Sydney columnist looks at the culture war on the roads Down Under, and calls for more to be done to make cycling safer without pushing riders off the roads.

Aussie brothers use fake charity as an excuse to bike door to door and beg for booze. Works for me.

 

Finally…

If you’re a convicted felon and known gang member illegally carrying two concealed weapons, don’t ride salmon, already. Fellow salmon cyclist Alec Baldwin says cross his heart, he wasn’t asking for special treatment, while Japanese animators have their own unique take on his arrest.

And Joe Linton catches me getting blessed at the Blessing of the Bicycles on Tuesday, albeit from an unflattering angle. Then again, I don’t think my boney ass has a flattering angle these days.

Photo by Joe Linton; shamelessly stolen from LA Streetsblog.

Photo by Joe Linton; shamelessly stolen from LA Streetsblog.

Category: Advocacy & Politics, Morning Links, Streets and Infrastructure / Tags: , , , , ,

62-year old bike rider killed in Oxnard collision Monday morning

May 14, 2014 / / 3 comments

This is not the news anyone wanted for a week celebrating bicycles.

According to the Ventura County Star, 62-year old Oxnard resident Jose Ricardo Marin was hit by an SUV driven by a 75-year old woman around 10:30 Monday morning, at the intersection of A Street and Deodar Ave in Oxnard. He was declared dead at the scene.

The SUV was headed west on Deodar when it struck Marin’s bike; no word on where he was positioned on the roadway or what direction he was riding. The driver, identified only as a Newbury Park resident, remained at the scene and cooperated with investigators.

Sad that something like that must be noted in this age when so many drivers flee following a wreck.

A satellite view shows a quiet residential street which serves as a westbound exit route for a PCH offramp, suggesting the driver may have been exiting the freeway.

The paper also notes that Marin was not wearing a helmet, even though the cause of death has not yet been established, and there is no suggestion that he suffered a head injury.

For anyone unclear on the subject, a helmet can provide valuable protection against head injuries, but does absolutely nothing to prevent injury to any other part of the body, and is not designed to offer protection against impacts over 12.5 mph. If it could not have prevented the fatal injuries, whether or not a cyclist is wearing one is no more relevant that if he was wearing boxers or briefs.

This is the 38th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, compared to 25 this time last year, and the second in Ventura County. Marin is also at least the 6th person to lose his life while riding in Oxnard in just the past five years.

My deepest sympathy and prayers for Jose Ricardo Marin and all his loved ones.

Thanks to Danny Gamboa for the heads-up.

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

Morning Links: LA bike riders get blessed, an idiotic Irish selfie, and a salmon-riding Baldwin meltdown

May 13, 2014 / / One comment

Golden-Spoke-AwardThanks to Good Samaritan Hospital, LA Metro, Incycle Bicycles and the LACBC for another great Blessing of the Bicycles on Tuesday.

A few hundred riders turned out the annual event offering free food and drinks, t-shirts and a non-sectarian blessing; after all, it never hurts to have a little divine support on your side as you navigate the mean streets of Southern California.

The event honored Ghost Bikes LA for their work in memorializing fallen riders and calling attention to the need for everyone to ride and drive safely.

Because the primary goal in placing ghost bikes is to eliminate the need for them.

Ghost Bikes LA

On a personal note, I set just one goal when I was diagnosed with diabetes five weeks ago. And that was to get back on my bike in time for the Blessing of the Bicycles.

Twenty-three round trip miles later, mission accomplished.

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Volunteers are still needed for next month’s AIDS Lifecycle Ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles.

AIDS Lifecycle Volunteers

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Marcel Kittel goes from Giro favorite to withdrawing due to a fever, while an Irish fan apologizes for being an idiot taking a selfie with the collapsed rider after his victory in Stage 3.

Meanwhile, Santa Monica’s Helen’s Cycles invites riders for a bike ride and viewing party for Sunday’s 8th Stage of the Amgen Tour of California.

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Courtesy of the Witch on a Bicycle comes two stories of the harm careless bike riders can do to one another.

A Seattle cyclist is being sought for hit-and-run after injuring another rider in a bike-on-bike collision, while a Vancouver rider loses his life after being clipped or passed too close by another cyclist.

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Local

The Daily News looks at LA Bike Week, while Long Beach Transit and LA Metro will offer free rides to bicyclists on Thursday’s Bike to Work Day.

Incentives in the new parking requirement ordinance passed in LA last year means some buildings are being built with more bike than car parking.

Over 3,000 cyclists raise $2,000 for pediatric cancer research in the Tour of Long Beach.

 

State

A Newport Beach councilmember says removing cars from the Back Bay Trail is a non-starter. After all, why would you want to improve safety for everyone else if it means inconveniencing people in the big, dangerous machines?

Remarkably, San Francisco prosecutors decline to charge the truck driver who killed a cyclist, even though video footage found by the city’s bike coalition after the police failed to investigate the case shows him right-hooking her.

A Fresno TV crew catches a bike thief in action.

 

National

The Bike League gives the proposed Senate transportation bill a solid B+.

The Atlantic Cities asks if there’s a masculine way to ride a bike, and quotes LA’s own Flying Pigeon.

Riding in a suit isn’t awkward if you do it right.

Someone booby-trapped a Colorado bike and hiking trail with an improvised spike strip; when they catch the schmuck, he/she should face domestic terrorism charges.

The Washington Post offers a guide to the language of bike riding in the city.

 

International

The Toronto Star says the actions of a few scofflaw cyclists shouldn’t stop the city from building bike lanes.

Toyko’s Asahi Shimbun newspaper calls on the city to become more bike-friendly and reduce the real estate given over to cars in advance of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

 

Finally…

Police arrest Alec Baldwin for riding salmon on 5th Avenue, then going ballistic after officers ask for his ID. But is it really news when he has yet another meltdown, on a bike or otherwise? Then again, the Times says he has a point.

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A special thank you to the anonymous woman who brought a donation to support this blog to the Blessing of the Bicycles. It was very generous, and very appreciated. And the card that accompanied it thanking me for my work here touched my heart and brought a tear to my eye.

 

Category: Bicycle Safety, Bike Events, Morning Links / Tags: , , ,

Morning Links: Wiggo wins, but it’s two and done for women at the ToC; even the Mayor bikes to work this week

May 12, 2014 / / 2 comments

While we celebrate Bike Week, the rest of the world seems to be racing.

Case in point, while the Giro takes the day off, Wiggo wins the Stage 2 time trial in the Amgen Tour of California; Aussie Rohan Dennis is second and Taylor Phinney third.

UnitedHealthcare’s Allison Powers takes the women’s time trial, with Brianna Walle second and Taylor Wiles third. The bad news is, while the men’s ToC goes on, the women are done until next year.

Now that’s scary. Dublin police found and disarmed a fertilizer bomb just hours before the finish of Sunday’s third stage of the Giro d’Italia. Speculation is the bomb was planted by defiant Northern Irish terrorists republicans.

Brit cyclist Emma Trott retires at age 24 after the death of two friends changes her priorities.

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Local

Downtown News looks at Bike Week, while Streetsblog covers Monday’s kickoff event.

The new Los Angeles Register asks if it’s possible to make LA friendlier to bikes, and notes that the MyFigueroa project is in the final stretch before construction.

LA’s favorite traffic maven offers advice on how to load your bike on a Metro Bus.

Even Mayor Garcetti bikes to work this week.

 

State

BikeNewportBeach calls for extending the beach boardwalk to the Wedge.

FOX-11 reports a bike rider was shot and killed in San Bernardino early Monday morning, just one in a string of three shootings minutes apart. Even if the sex of the victim changed twice in a single paragraph.

Redlands riders will get 16 miles of new bike lanes.

 

National

Gizmodo offers advice on how to keep your bike from getting stolen and how to get it back if it is.

AAA is now offering bike roadside assistance in Colorado, Washington State, Minneapolis and Southern New England. No word on when or if they’ll offer it here; I’d be happy if they’d just stop using members’ dues to lobby against bike safety legislation, which is why I cancelled my membership.

Dallas gets closer to repealing their ill-advised helmet law in advance of a planned bike share program.

Writing about San Antonio, Strongtown says if you need a reminder that bikes can use the full lane, it’s a clear sign biking and walking are just an afterthought.

An elderly Texas man gets five years probation for killing a cyclist. The penalty doesn’t even begin to fit the crime; on the other hand, what’s the benefit to society in sending an 87-year old man to prison?

Reviewing a Cycling Savvy course, a St. Louis blogger says we don’t need bike lanes, we need drivers and cyclists to learn how to interact better with one another. Thanks to Karen Karabell for the heads-up.

Turn out that Massachusetts hit-and-run driver who was caught after speeding through an apartment complex with a bike still stuck under his car stopped to throw it into a river — the bike, not the car — before threatening a witness, yet only faces $15,000 bail. Just what does a maniac driver have to do to get the courts to take traffic crimes seriously?

The Police Unity Tour reaches Washington DC to honor fallen officers.

 

International

A Montreal writer says urban cycling is worth whatever risk there might be.

Not a good weekend for notable bike riders, as the Liverpool record executive behind the Coral and the Zutons, as well as number of other bands, died after suffering serious head injuries while riding his bike, and an Australian wine maker was killed in a cycling collision, both on Sunday.

An Irish woman goes online to replace her father’s stolen bike. And finds his missing bike, instead.

 

Finally…

A road-raging DC-area driver Jerry Browns a cyclist in an attempt to force him off the road, then causes a collision by brake checking the rider. So naturally, the police ticket the cyclist for following to closely.

 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , ,

LACBC releases latest bike count figures in time for Bike Week

May 12, 2014 / / One comment

2013-LA-Bike-Count-CoverJust in time for Bike Week, the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition has released the results of the city’s latest bike count.

Not that the city itself conducts the count, of course. Even though they should.

Working in conjunction with LA Walks and other groups, more than 400 volunteers conducted the count over a total of six hours at 120 locations throughout the city last September. And the results are intriguing, as the Coalition points out in their press release (pdf), starting with a 7.5% increase in ridership since 2013, driven largely by the addition of 200 miles of new bikeways in the city.

The report also found that:

  • The busiest time for bicycling is the evening commute period, suggesting that most people are riding for transportation.
  • People strongly prefer riding on dedicated facilities like bike paths and bike lanes over streets with no bicycle facilities.
  • Fewer than 1 in 5 bicyclists is female, and female ridership is highest on bike paths and bike lanes, suggesting that the lack of safe and comfortable facilities is causing a gender disparity among bicyclists.
  • Bike lanes improve bicyclist behavior, cutting sidewalk riding in half compared to streets without and reducing wrong-way riding as well.

Interestingly, even though they force riders to share lanes with often unwelcoming drivers, streets where sharrows were installed after earlier counts showed a 132% increase in ridership, though only a 22% increase in ridership compared to similar streets without sharrows.

Meanwhile, bike lanes resulted in an 86% increase in ridership compared to comparable streets. And off-road bike paths showed nearly four times the usage compared to streets with no bike facilities; in fact, a full 25% of the riders counted were on bike paths, despite representing just 8% of the count locations.

Not surprisingly, bicycling was also highest near universities and in low-income communities, which suggests many people may be riding for economic reasons.

Clearly, though, there’s still a lot of work to do.

As Executive Director Jen Klausner puts it in the foreword to the study,

Since the 2010 Bicycle Plan, Los Angeles has expanded its bicycle network at an unprecedented rate, at one point exceeding 100 lane miles in one year. However, most of these miles have consisted of bike lanes “where they fit” and sharrows where bike lanes don’t. The result has been a somewhat fragmented bicycle network primarily designed to avoid impacts to motor vehicle delay rather than designed to meet the needs of people who want to ride a bike. This report makes it clear that where bicycle improvements are made, ridership is up, but that citywide growth is limited by the lack of a connected network of safe bikeways accessible to all Angelenos. 

The report ends with a number of recommendations:

  1. Design streets for people of all ages and abilities
  2. Build a network of protected bikeways, such as the one planned for South Figueroa
  3. Build safe routes to everywhere along Active Streets
  4. Engage communities directly in the design of their streets
  5. Increase age-appropriate opportunities for bicycle safety education
  6. Increase funding for walking, biking and safe routes to schools
  7. Measure results

As noted above, it should be the city’s role to collect the data necessary for effective bicycle planning — not a volunteer effort conducted by a non-profit organization. City planners have been driving blind for far too long; the mayor’s commitment to data-driven accountability must extend to our streets, as well.

Still, the organization should be applauded for taking the responsibility onto their own shoulders. And providing the most detailed look yet at how, where, when and why Angelenos ride their bikes.

You can download the full report here.

 

 

Category: Advocacy & Politics, Streets and Infrastructure / Tags: , , , ,

Morning Links: The dawn of a new LA Bike Week, men’s & women’s racing news, and bike riders under fire

May 11, 2014 / / 2 comments

Blessing of the Bicycles 2014It’s finally Bike Week in LA!

You can find links to dozens of local events throughout the LA area in this week’s Calendar.

And don’t miss tomorrow’s decidedly non-sectarian Blessing of the Bicycles honoring Ghost Bikes LA at Good Samaritan Hospital.

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Mark Cavendish ekes out a victory in the first stage of the Amgen tour of California, while Carmen Small wins the women’s circuit race.

Marcel Kittel wins the third stage of the Giro d’Italia on his 26th birthday, edging out Ben Swift at the last second; Dublin comes out to show its support despite the rough roads local cyclists have to ride.

Marianne Vos captures the inaugural Tour of Britain, while a man in a mobility scooter just avoids colliding with the peloton.

Meanwhile, Capital Public Radio says the appeal of bike racing is the interaction of between the riders and the fans; on the other hand, KCET says it’s because it’s exhilarating. I vote for the latter, myself.

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Local

Councilmember Gil Cedillo is now suggesting sharrows on North Figueroa in place of the previously approved road diet and bike lanes, despite being captured on video saying just the opposite when he needed our votes.

A 25-year old man was shot in the back while riding in Pasadena early Saturday morning; thanks to Complete Streets Pas for the heads-up.

San Marino Rides looks at the draft San Marino bike and pedestrian plan; there will be a meeting of the San Marino Traffic Advisory Commission to discuss the plan on Monday, May 19th at 7 pm at the San Marino Center, 1890 Huntington Drive.

Bicycle advocacy group Pedal Movement offers free bike valet and tune-ups at the Long Beach farmer’s market.

 

State

A man in his 40s was found shot to death next to a bicycle in a Huntington Beach alley, though police aren’t sure if the bike was his.

Why would a Bay Area bike thief steal 26 bikes, only to leave them behind when he moved?

A new book profiles the artistry of 88 bike makers from around the world, including seven from Northern California.

When Mountain View balks on building a bike undercrossing, Google offers to over take the project. I wonder if they’d be willing to take over the North Figueroa road diet from Gil Cedillo?

 

National

Bicycling offers up the 10 best guided bike tours in the US, including the LA Taco Tour.

Nice Bike to Work video from Denver’s Regional Council of Governments.

In a nice gesture, a Texas college awards a posthumous degree to a bike rider killed by a drunk driver just shy of his graduation.

This is why you don’t chase after the guy who just stole your bike, as a New Orleans teenager is robbed at gunpoint by the thief.

Continuing a disturbing weekend trend, an eight-year old bike rider was accidently shot in the leg when a Pennsylvania man fires his gun off his deck.

Once again, a study shows women resist riding out of safety concerns; this time in New York, as over 76% of Citi Bike riders are men.

 

International

Most Alberta, Canada residents support separated bike lanes. As long as they don’t have to pay for them.

There seems to be an epidemic of road raging Brit cyclists these days.

London Cyclist explains why many bike riders wear jerseys.

Bike riding is cool again, even in India.

Riding a bike in rural Nigeria is a part of life; in urban Lagos, it can mean risking yours.

 

Finally…

If you’re going to flee the scene of a Massachusetts hit-and-run with your teenage victim’s bike still trapped under your car, don’t speed through an apartment complex parking lot.

And Russell Brand — yes, that Russell Brand — gets out of his car to hug an angry cyclist after the rider is clipped by a passing van.

 

Category: Bike Events, Morning Links / Tags: , , ,
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