June 2, 2023 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Man may have died from medical emergency riding bike in Griffith Park Friday morning, or possibly while hiking
Paramedics responding to the 2600 block of North Commonwealth attempted to revive him, providing “intensive, advanced life-saving care.” But he was already beyond medical help and died at the scene.
The victim was identified only as a man around 50 years old.
One way or the other, it’s tragic news, whether or not he was riding a bike.
The bill would ban police stops for a number of violations, such as vehicle registration or wrongly positioned license plates.
It would also prohibit stops for bicycle equipment or operations — which presumably means no more stops for failing to register a bicycle, or rolling through a stop sign or riding salmon.
While the safety effects of that can be argued, the idea is to prevent minor violations from being used as a pretext to stop motorists or bike riders to search for evidence of more serious infractions, which have unfairly targeted Black and brown bike riders in the past.
Los Angeles revoked its bike licensing law after city officials learned it was being used by the LAPD as an excuse to stop and search people of color as they rode their bikes.
And the Los Angeles Times has reported that seven out of every ten bike riders stopped by LA County Sheriff’s deputies were Latinos, who complained of police harassment that prevented some from riding their bikes.
A Scottish driver faces charges for allegedly flipping off a 60-year old man before pushing him off his bicycle, apparently for the crime of riding in the street, or maybe just being on the planet; the defense tried to claim the victim intentionally swerved his bike into the car, evidently assuming we all enjoy pain.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
Speaking of Streets For All, the transportation safety PAC urges you to tell LADOT you’re on board with extending the LA River bike path to the edge of Griffith Park, which would provide the first legal way to exit the pathway at Forrest Lawn Drive. And presumably enter it there, as well.
They get it. The Atlantic writes that President Biden is ignoring the dangers of “Mega-EVs,” adding that environmental hype is crowding out any concern for people outside the vehicle. However, you won’t be able to read more than a few paragraphs without a subscription.
Fortune cites experts warning that we’re only seeing the tip of the iceberg when it comes to ebike injuries, as riders reach speeds they wouldn’t be able to on a regular bike. Although at least some of the rise in bike injury rates can be attributed to the rapid rise in ebike use; it would be far more accurate and useful to compare ebike injury rates to injury rates on regular bikes.
A Nigerian professor writes that bicycling could be a boon for densely populated Lagos, but it’s being held back by a lack of safe infrastructure, personal fears over safety, and an attitude that rich people drive and poor people ride bikes.
Bicycling says you can stream the Critérium du Dauphiné, which they term the Mini Tour de France, by subscribing to the Peacock network for $4.99 a month, or $9.99 for ad-free service. As usual, read it on Yahoo if the magazine blocks you.
Thanks again to Matthew R for his generous monthly donation to support this site, and keep all the best bike news and advocacy coming your way every day.
June 1, 2023 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on County completes work to expand beachfront bike path to Palisades, and speed cam pilot passes state Assembly
The proposal would have allowed safe bike access to and from Malibu for beach visitors and tourists alike. Along with the added benefit of allowing bike riders to bypass the dangerously narrow section of PCH leading into Malibu.
Unfortunately, it was killed by opposition from a group of influential LA bike activists who balked at the project’s $30 million price tag, worried the optics of spending that much on a bike path would increase opposition to other bike projects.
Even though the city officials would have sought state and federal grants to pay for it, so it would cost the city little or nothing.
And even though it would take considerably more to build it today, with the price tag increasing with every passing year.
But it would have been done by now. And it would have been wonderful.
Plans for a pedestrian promenade and bikeway on San Diego’s Normal Street have been delayed for eight years in a dispute over a driveway, which has now been condemned by the city.
A Kern County man faces up to ten years behind bars after he was convicted of the drunken hit-and-run that seriously injured two people riding bikes, leaving one with a brain injury; the defense attorney had tried to blame the victims for riding on the roadway without lights or reflectors. Even though neither of them forced the driver to get drunk, or get behind the wheel afterwards.
Residents of Houston’s Third Ward are demanding greater protection from a gang of teenagers who have been terrorizing bike riders on a local trail; five bicyclists have been brutally beaten and robbed in recent weeks, and another victim was shot.
Curbed considers the pitfalls of congestion pricing and how to avoid them, which is addressed to New York’s upcoming congestion pricing program. But it should be required reading for LA Metro and Los Angeles County officials.
A ten-mile bike ride around the National Mall by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and and chief GOP negotiator Rep. Garret Graves of Louisiana played a roll in working out a deal with White House officials on raising the national debt limit.
A self-proclaimed liberal London bike rider made headlines for accusing Just Stop Oil activists, who were blocking a street in protest, of “harming the cause” and “fucking it up for all of us.”I’ve long argued that blocking streets may garner headlines, but you don’t win people over to your cause by making their commutes miserable.
On a personal note, my 75-year old adventure cycling, ex-Iditarod mushing brother is setting out today on yet another cross-country bike ride.
He’s taking a train to Oregon, then riding down the coast before turning east, and riding to Minnesota, up into Canada, and possibly on to Buffalo and New York City if conditions allow.
And yes, I want to be like him when I grow up.
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Congestion pricing could be back on the table for Los Angeles County.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Metro’s long-awaited study into the feasibility of instituting a congestion pricing scheme on local highways is expected to be released this summer, after it was allegedly delayed by Metro CEO Stephanie Wiggins because she didn’t want it to become an issue in last year’s election season.
Years in the works, the plan promises cleaner air, smoother rides and more funds to the agency’s coffersin the future. Studies show it could reduce harmful air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions by pushing more commuters to use public transit, while making roads less hellish for those who pay to use them…
The pilot program is part of a larger push among major cities to rethink how to deal with traffic that eats up commuters’ lives and pollutes communities as vehicles creep along. California has been quietly setting the stage for road pricing for years.
The good news is that Metro is restoring its pre-pandemic route schedules, which should make transit marginally more attractive to current non-transit users, though the steady drumbeat of new of crime, homelessness and drug use on county trains could have the opposite effect.
The bad news is, with a few notable exceptions like DTLA, Santa Monica and Long Beach, the LA-area bike networks necessary to get defecting motorists on two wheels don’t currently exist.
And they’re not likely to be coming in the near future without a massive and unexpected investment in our streets.
Morash is a 41-year-old lighting programmer who works in the film and TV industry in Los Angeles, where he has lived for some 16 years. When he first arrived, he used to take his car everywhere, like most Angelenos. But the city’s traffic jams soon crushed any desire to drive.
After talking to a co-worker who cycled to work, he decided to try it. He never looked back. Now he always cycles the 12 miles or so that take him to most of his jobs.
Yes, cycling can be scary, he acknowledges. Drivers cut him off, text at the wheel, exceed the speed limit, open their doors without looking and park in the bike lane. “But I can’t imagine choosing to be in a car,” he said.
It’s worth investing a few minutes of your day to get to know someone who uses his bike and social media voice to make a difference.
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on rolling.
Houston police are looking for a group of young men who have been brutally attacking and robbing bike riders on a city bike trail, with five riders viciously beaten and another shot in the past two weeks; one man was tackled from his bike, pistol whipped and robbed of his wallet and phone, while another had his bicycle stolen after getting hit with a shovel.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
The LAPD had arrested an alleged bike-riding serial arsonist for setting up to 30 cars on fire in the Sunland-Tujunga area. Demonstrating once again that bicycles are the most efficient choice for whatever crime spree you have in mind. Thanks to Steven Hallett for the heads-up.
Closing arguments began Tuesday in the hit-and-run trial of a 43-year old Bakersfield driver accused of seriously injuring two people as they rode their bikes, while driving with a blood alcohol level over three times the legal limit; the defense attorney blamed the victims for riding in the traffic lane without the required lights and reflectors.
The Idaho Stop Law is slowly spreading across the US, as nine other states and Washington DC have adopted the law, although only three have adopted the full law allowing bike riders to treat stop signs as yields, and red lights as stop signs. California is once again considering a bill to legalize the Stop as Yield portion of the law; Governor Newsom vetoed a previous version of the bill.
Medical authorities in Florida have concluded that the man accused of brutally stabbing a Daytona Beach couple as they rode their bicycles home from the city’s motorcycle Bike Week festivities has regained his mental competency, and is now fit to stand trial for the March, 2022 murders.
British budget cuts could endanger the rise of the next generation of cyclists, as the country cuts spending for its under-23 program, potentially removing young Brits from the Nations Cup, the Tour of Britain and the Tour de l’Avenir.
David Drexler reports on the city’s seemingly unending war on bike riders on the beachfront bike path by the Redondo Beach pier.
For the uninitiated, Redondo Beach has long tried to force bicyclists to dismount and walk their bikes near the pier.
Never mind that the bike path is bizarrely routed through the pier parking garage, which puts bikes into unavoidable conflict with pedestrians exiting the garage to visit the pier.
And there’s no denying that many, if not most, people rode their bikes through the dismount zone, either politely waiting for pedestrians to pass or weaving through the people walking.
Now they’ve installed a series of plastic K-rail baffles in an effort to make it difficult, if not impossible, to stay on your bike.
We’ll let Drexler take the story from there.
Back from cycling in the beach cities today Sunday and saw that Redondo Beach set up an obstacle course to make absolutely sure you walk your bike at the Pier.
Someone who works for Redondo must have (it out) for cyclists. Seems like every time I am over there is a new cycling restriction.
It’s almost like a SNL parody of someone who hates cyclists and everyday dreams up another way to snarl them.
Now I am telling you Redondo is going to end up with an injury lawsuit for this one. I was watching cyclist maneuvering through the course and some were hitting the barriers having difficulty making the turns. Someone is going to fall down–I see the problem especially when it gets hot sunny and summer busy unlike today. Someone is going to be rushed through, or another impatient cyclist and push through causing a fall.
I had my beach cruiser there today and you have go very slow and cautiously not to run into the barrier making the numerous turns one after another. This requires a certain level of coordination off the bike different than going straight.
It’s questionable whether this is actually legal, or whether liability would attach if someone is injured, as Drexler suggests. .
CVC 21211(b) prohibits any obstruction on a bike path, “which impedes or blocks the normal and reasonable movement of any bicyclist,” which these clearly do.
But it goes on to add a another clause that reads “unless the placement or parking is necessary for safe operation or is otherwise in compliance with the law.”
If anyone challenged the placement of the baffles on the bike path, Redondo Beach could argue they are necessary for the safe operation of a bicycle in that location, and comply with local regulations.
Whether that argument succeeds would be up to a judge, and probably more than one, since the case would likely be appealed regardless of who won.
If anyone has pockets deep enough to take the fight that far, that is.
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on rolling.
No bias here. Santa Barbara residents complain about a proposal for safe bike lanes on the city’s State Street, with one man claiming he’s not anti-bike, just “anti-disrespectful and bad behavior,” and troubled they’re “bending over backwards for bikes.” Never mind that safe bike lanes have been shown to improve behavior by bike riders, who don’t have to ride like their lives are at risk.
About damn time. LA’s Westwood Village will convert a portion of Broxton Ave into a pedestrian-only plaza in time for summer; whether that will be enough to revive the university-adjacent village which has been destroyed by restrictive covenants, wealthy NIMBYs and a single owner controlling most of the village’s commercial properties remains to be seen.
Streetblog’s Joe Linton offers six takeaways from the newly approved Metro budget, which sadly continues to waste billions on destroying neighborhoods for induced demand-inducing highway projects. We’ll forgive the clickbait headline this time.
A San Diego letter writer calls for bike lanes and lower speed limits on Fuerte Drive from La Mesa to El Cajon, saying drivers routinely travel up to 50 mph in the 35 mph zone on the busy roadway. Although what good does it do to lower the speed limit when drivers ignore it anyway?
A travel website ranks the ten most bike-friendly cities and towns to visit in the US. The bizarre list includes such decidedly bike-unfriendly cities as Houston, Oakland and San Jose, with the ostensible bicycling paradise of Bozeman, Montana topping the list.
Speaking of New York, the city is finally completing the last 1.2-mile section of bike lanes on Queens Blvd, informally known as the Boulevard of Death before work began on turning it into a Complete Street in 2015; the work was delayed by community boards wanting to maintain the car-centric status quo.
Police in Aberdeen, Scotland went undercover to catch drivers passing bike riders too closely, ticketing 11 motorists for violating the country’s five-foot passing distance. Despite repeated requests, the LAPD wouldn’t put plain clothes officers on bikes to catch drivers breaking California’s three-foot passing law, fearing it would be considered entrapment, while putting the officers at risk. So instead, they just let us deal with it.
A five-hour joyride cost a New Zealand man $1,500 — the equivalent of $918 US dollars — after he stole a bicycle from a bike shop, then pushed it back through the front doors when he apparently tired of it five hours later.
The suspect vehicle is described as an older model white Nissan, with likely with damage to its front end, hood and windshield from the impact with the victim.
Anyone with information is urged to call LAPD Detective Juan Campos at 213/833-3713, or email 31480@lapd.online. Or call the Central Traffic Division Watch Commander at 213/833-3746 after hours or weekends.
As always, there is a $25,000 reward for any hit-and-run resulting in serious, but not fatal, injuries in the City of Los Angeles.
There’s always another side to the story, even when everyone has already taken sides.
It’s been clear for some time that we’ve only heard one side of the story about the white New York hospital worker filmed in a viral video trying to wrest and whine a bikeshare bike out of the hands of a Black teenager.
The woman, who has become infamous as the Citi Bike Karen, has spoken through her attorney, who claims he has receipts showing she rented the bike she was trying to claim.
She’s raised over $124,000 from people who thought she was unfairly accused of racism.
Now the family of the teenager she was trying to take the bike from is finally speaking out for the first time. According to them, the 17-year old boy’s life and family have been in turmoil since the incident.
They explained that as the son of low-income, West African immigrants on public assistance, he was entitled to discounted 45-minute bikeshare rides, after which the rate increases.
The day of the incident, he and his friends rode from his home in the Bronx to visit friends in Harlem. After 45 minutes, he re-docked the bike to reset the clock, before setting out again at the reduced rate.
Which is when he claims his life went to hell.
He says the hospital worker approached the group as they briefly rested with the bikes, asking each one in turn if she could use their bike. Each boy said no, because they were about to take them back out again.
So she stepped onto the bike anyway, using her phone to scan the bike’s QR code as he held onto the handlebars, and tried to take the bike out of his hands.
It was 7:24 p.m., and that is when the boys began recording…
Michael insisted Sarah Jane Comrie knew he was planning to use the bike. He said she asked him and his friends to use theirs, and they all informed her they were using the bikes and would be leaving shortly.
He said she seemed annoyed that they wouldn’t willingly give up their bikes to her. He also said he believes she wanted that bike as opposed to the others that remained docked in the rack because he had one of the newer e-bikes.
The rest of the interaction plays out in the video. Sarah Jane Comrie, dressed in scrubs bearing the NYC Health + Hospitals logo, removed her work ID badge from her neck, placed it in her bag along with a brown paper bag she was holding and began screaming for help.
Proving once again there’s always another side to the story.
We have no way of knowing who is right, or exactly how the events played out in the minutes before the camera was turned on. But the incident offers a Rorschach Test for today’s America, as people on both sides of the political divide quickly chose sides.
A white woman received over a hundred grand, while a young Black man has his life upended. Although a crowdfunding campaign started yesterday has raised over $37,000 for his legal fees in less than 24 hours.
This difference of intent and scale is worth dwelling on because it is why the comparison is so misguided. The U.S. Department of Transportation has estimated 475,000 households containing one million people were displaced due to highway construction from 1957 to 1977. That is the equivalent of displacing the entire population of modern-day Austin, Texas. Likewise, a Los Angeles Times analysis found that an additional 200,000 people have lost their homes due to highway construction since 1990. To the best of my knowledge, there has not been a single housing unit destroyed or person displaced to build a bike or bus lane anywhere in the U.S. On these grounds alone, it is simply absurd to compare urban highway construction to bike and bus lanes. Projects of such vastly different scopes and scale deserve different approaches and mindsets.
But there is another good reason to reject this comparison, one that is equally revealing about the biases of modern transportation officials. Reynolds asked, “What makes us so confident we know best?” Another way of asking this is, what makes us so confident we know bike and bus lanes are better than masses of parking and multiple travel lanes for private cars for everyone?
The answer is: we’ve got the receipts. In this case, decades of scientific study and experiments carefully tracked and evaluated by local departments of transportation.
The sheer absurdity of Reynolds’ comments, coming from someone who should surely know better, is appalling.
It also explains why so little was done to improve LA streets while she ran the department. And why we shouldn’t hold our breath for any major innovations coming from her new position as Metro’s Chief Innovation Officer.
Unless maybe her chief innovation is even more pointless, never-ending public meetings.
He’s also one of us, regularly taking part in the annual 545-mile AIDS/LIFECYCLE ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles, which benefits the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and the Los Angeles LGBT Center.
However, Ratevosian faces stiff competition from Burbank Assembly Transportation Chair Laura Friedman, California State Senator Anthony Portantino, and former Boy Meets World star Ben Savage, among others.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on rolling.
An award-winning British TV producer, writer and comedian was fined the equivalent of more than $1,200, plus another $1,250 in court costs and victim surcharge, for flipping off a bike cam activist when he was caught using his smartphone from behind the wheel of his $173,000 Aston Martin.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
After a Seal Beach letter writer complains that it seems petty to ticket a pair of senior citizens on a tandem for rolling a stop sign, a cop explains that bicycles are treated as vehicles in California, and bike riders have to obey the law, too. Even laws that most drivers don’t. Which is one more argument to pass the Stop As Yield bill in the state legislature, and get Governor Newsom to sign the damn thing this time.
A 28-year old Kentucky man is dead after a pickup driver crashed into his bike; police excused the crash because glare from the setting sun kept him from seeing the victim. Never mind that the correct course of action would have been to pull over to the side of the road until he could see, before he killed anyone.
This is who we share the road with. A 32-year old Philadelphia woman faces murder and vehicular homicide charges for a December hit-and-run crime spree that killed on man and injured two other people; she is accused of hitting three cars and a scooter rider, then crashing into a bike rider before fatally slamming into a man walking in a crosswalk, and fleeing from all three crashes.
Bicycling says the colossal amounts of elevation gain in the last few stages of the Giro will make the final days of racing a slugfest. Unfortunately, the story doesn’t appear to be available anywhere else, so you’re on your own if the magazine blocks you.
…With traffic deaths on the rise in California, and particularly in cities, such as Los Angeles and San Jose, you’d think lawmakers would eagerly adopt a proven strategy for saving lives.
You would be wrong. In 2021 and 2022, state legislators killed bills that would override the state prohibition on automated speed enforcement and let some cities install speed cameras to catch and ticket motorists who egregiously exceed the speed limit.
It’s worth taking a few minutes to read the whole thing.
Note the emphasis on drivers, since the trucks weren’t driving themselves, regardless of what the local press bothers to mention them.
Best advice is to always give large trucks as wide a berth as you can, including moving off the roadway if necessary to stay safe.
It’s better to bail and make it home in one piece, than wish you had.
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An LA bike rider gets fed up with Google’s misleading and just plain wrong bike maps, so he makes his own more accurate version.
Thanks to Erik Griswold and Danny for the heads-up.
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Oceanside bike lawyer and BikinginLA sponsor Richard Duquette forwards a discount for next month’s Giro di San Diego.
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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 Pacific Beach website says residents expressed their displeasure over plans to build a bike boulevard on Diamond Street — even though just four people of the seven people commented at a town council meeting even mentioned it; although one resident correctly noted it would affect property values. Even though she meant they’d go down, while bikeways usually make them go up.
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Local
BikeLA, the former Los Angeles Count Bicycle Coalition, has partnered with autonomous carmaker Waymo to continue their Operation Firefly bike light distribution program this year, which has given out over 15,000 sets of lights over more than a decade. The program started back when I was still on the board of the nonprofit, not that I take any credit for it.
A legal site examines why people in Wisconsin drive recklessly, blaming a number of factors including the state’s unique laws and driving culture. Although a much shorter explanation is because they can.
Cleveland, Ohio is pushing proposals to change zoning laws and incentives for transit-oriented development with limited parking in an effort to become a 15-minute city.
May 24, 2023 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on 23-year old man killed in South Park hit-and-run last month; police looking for silver 2008-2013 Mercedes
This is what keeps me up at night.
Too often, we may not learn about the things that happen on our streets until weeks later, if at all.
That’s what happened in this case, when a man riding a bike was left to die by a heartless coward in LA’s South Park neighborhood over a month ago.
And we only learned about it today.
According to a press release from the LAPD, a 23-year old man was riding west on 43rd Street at Main Street around 10:40 pm on Thursday, April 13th, when he was run down by a driver headed south on Main.
The driver fled south on Main without stopping, leaving the victim, identified as Iomer Samuel Cruz, fatally injured in the street.
There’s no description of the suspect; police are looking for a silver 2008-2013 Mercedes Benz C230 or C330.
Anyone with information is urged to call LAPD Central Traffic Division Officer Balderas or Detective Campos at 213/833-3713; after hours or on weekends call the Central Traffic Division’s Watch Commander at 213/833-3746.
As always, there is a standing $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the driver.
You can find security cam video of the crash here. I’m not posting it because it shows the actual impact, so be sure you really want to see it before you click on the link.
This is at least the 18th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the seventh that I’m aware of in Los Angeles County; just three of those have been in the City of Los Angeles.
It’s also the seventh fatal hit-and-run involving a SoCal bike rider this year.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for Iomer Samuel Cruz and all his loved ones.
No wonder nothing ever seems to get done in Los Angeles.
As we’ve seen far too many times, even the most minor improvement can get bogged down in an endless series of public meetings, in which every resident and pass-through driver has an equal voice, no matter how misinformed.
And people who bike, walk or take transit usually don’t count.
Which brings us to former LADOT head and current LA Metro Chief Innovation Officer Seleta Reynolds, who seems to think removing a traffic lane to improve bus headways “without extensive community engagement and consent” is equivalent to bulldozing homes to build freeways.
Never mind that one destroys the residences of people living in underserved communities, while the other simply removes peak hour lanes or street parking to move more people more efficiently.
No wonder so little happened in Los Angeles under her leadership.
I wouldn’t count on a lot of innovation from the LA County transportation agency going forward, either.
While we agree outreach and community engagement is a good thing, to equate installing bike and bus lanes with bulldozing homes through mostly Brown and Black communities to build freeways is an absurdly false equivalence. @seletajewel https://t.co/Mv15wguEeS
LADOT wants your input on the Downtown Mobility Plan, where pedestrians have long been second-class citizens on car-choked streets, and the city is just now forming an actual bike network to safely get you from here to there.
Looks like work is well underway on Pasadena’s Union Street protected bike lane.
This project will provide a 1.5-mile protected bicycle lane along Union Street, from Hill Avenue to Arroyo Parkway. The anticipated completion date is July 2023. For additional project information, visit: https://t.co/rAQiYXWIXchttps://t.co/Z9yHiL56WX
A Palo Alto columnist says plans for a bike on El Camino Real connecting Redwood City, Menlo Park, Palo Alto and Mountain View are a bad idea, because the street is too dangerous for people on bicycles if it keeps parking, and too inconvenient for shoppers who might have to walk a little bit without it. Never mind that bike lanes — particularly protected bike lanes — improve safety for everyone.
National
They get it. Bicycling says the best bike is the one that brings you joy. Unfortunately, you won’t get any joy from reading it if the magazine blocks you, since this one isn’t available anywhere else.
The tool is designed to help city planners, advocates, and elected officials plan more equitable transportation investments targeting traditionally underserved communities.
Which may be a mouthful, but it’s badly needed to help correct the deadly inequities on our streets, where people in low income communities or communities of color are more likely to be killed while biking or walking.
Photo by David Drexler from Long Beach Beach Streets (see below).
The bill is intended to improve safety by allowing bike riders to roll through stop signs when there’s no conflicting traffic, and it’s safe to do so.
Assuming it can get past Governor Newsom’s veto pen this time.
AB 73 is another attempt to pass a bicycle safety stop-as-yield bill in CA. It has been shown to improve safety for people on bikes and reduce inequitable enforcement. @CalBike has a great information page https://t.co/ojgRbImp9L
“When the spirits are low, when the day appears dark, when work becomes monotonous, when hope hardly seems worth having, just mount a bicycle & go out for a spin down the road, without thought on anything but the ride you are taking.” -Arthur Conan Doyle#botd May 22, 1859 pic.twitter.com/JeIGsfNXV1
Look at the prizes prat thinking it clever to throw crap at me and my son riding down Manchester road earlier. Around 1pm wharncliffe side. pic.twitter.com/5Vg8Lvuk59
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
Two Louisiana schools were put on lockdown when a man was seen carrying a rifle on his bicycle; police gave the all-clear when they determined he was just taking it to a pawn shop.
San Diego bike riders are dealing with a problem familiar to riders in other parts of the state, as trash and debris from a homeless camp piles up on an Ocean Beach bike path leading to the beach; a homeless advocate blames downtown sweeps that push homeless people to other parts of the city. Although as inconvenient as it is for people on bikes, not having a home is probably worse.
Unlike most other major US cities, San Francisco continues to improve safety for bike riders, as bicycling deaths dropped 58% over last year, averaging just 1.4 fatal bike crashes for every million residents. That compares to approximately 3.5 bike deaths for every million residents in Los Angeles last year.
A 62-year old Chicago man was the victim of a vicious attack when he was struck with a construction sign by another man while riding along a sidewalk, then beaten with his own bicycle, all for no apparent reason; he was hospitalized in critical condition.
A writer for the American Conservative says the outrage over the hospital worker who tried to wrest a bikeshare bike from a black teenager just reflects America’s “racism shortage.”
