Search results for bikes have rights

LADOT beats HLA deadline but claims everything is exempt, and Metro/LADOT Universal Basic Mobility months late

April 10, 2025 / / Comments Off on LADOT beats HLA deadline but claims everything is exempt, and Metro/LADOT Universal Basic Mobility months late
Day 100 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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The only surprise is they did it.

Streetsblog’s Joe Linton reports that LADOT made their Wednesday deadline to post a website listing their progress on Measure HLA, as required by the ordinance passed by the voters a year ago with two-thirds support.

But of all the resurfacing projects on all the streets in LA — which sounds like a line from Casablanca — they only managed to list seven lousy projects.

And surprise, surprise, claim they are all exempt from the measure.

Every last one.

According to Linton,

The website lists just seven projects, all of which LADOT claims do not trigger Measure HLA.

The seven projects are:

The website includes no status, no dates for these seven projects. Most are pending; it appears that just one (Roscoe) has been completed.

What’s not on the map? In late 2024, LADOT claimed that three projects had been triggered by HLA: Hollywood, plus Reseda Boulevard and Manchester Boulevard. Reseda and Manchester are absent. The ballot language states that the website shall include completed projects. It’s not clear why they have been omitted.

It seems clear from the obvious foot-dragging, obfuscation and needless delays that LADOT and city leadership have no intention of complying with Measure HLA, and are looking for any excuse they can find to avoid living up to it.

That includes Metro’s Vermont Ave project, where the official consensus seems to “So sue us, already.”

Let’s hope someone takes them up on it.

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No surprise here, either.

After a successful Phase 1, Phase 2 of Metro and LADOT’s universal basic mobility program has been beset by seemingly endless and unexplained delays.

The second phase of the Metro Mobility Wallet was supposed to launch last year, providing 2,000 low-income residents with $1,800, divided into two equal payments.

The money is intended to be used for any transportation expenses, from paying for bus passes or rideshare, to buying a bicycle. But more than four months later, no one has been able to access a dime on the preloaded debit cards.

It’s possible that the problems lie with the card provider, who is reportedly having problems with another client, as well.

But even if that’s the case, it raises questions of why — like the California Air Resources Board and a seemingly moribund ebike voucher program — they chose a provider who is unable to service the program, raising obvious questions of judgement.

And if not, the questions becomes just who or what the problem is.

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The defense attorney for Sean Higgins, the driver accused of killing the hockey-playing Gaudreau brothers as they rode their bikes the night before their sister’s New Jersey wedding, wants to have the charges against his client tossed.

Which is pretty much what every defense attorney everywhere wants.

However, his reasoning is that the grand jury wasn’t told the brothers had been drinking before getting on their bikes, and were legally drunk at the time of the crash.

Even though, unlike driving, biking under the influence is perfectly legal in New Jersey.

And even though their drinking had nothing to do with why Higgins was attempting to pass two other drivers on the right, while speeding and over the legal alcohol limit, with two wheels on the shoulder and two on the grass verge when he slammed into the Gaudreau’s bikes.

But other than that, sure.

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Caltrans is looking for input on a draft plan to remake LA’s killer highway, to make it a little less, uh, murdery.

RELEASE OF PCH MASTER PLAN FEASIBILITY STUDY FOR PUBLIC COMMENT AND UPCOMING MEETINGS

Today, the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) is pleased to announce the release of the draft of the PCH Master Plan Feasibility Study for a 60-day public review period ending on June 09, 2025. The draft Study can be viewed online at bit.ly/3YhpEnP

Caltrans invites members of the public, stakeholders, and any interested individuals to review the Draft Study and leave your thoughts in the comment box provided here or via email to 07-pchmpfs@publicinput.com. When providing comments via email, please include the relevant section title, page number, figure, or table number when applicable to help us accurately locate the part of the document you’re commenting on.

The draft document will be formally unveiled for public comment at a meeting at Malibu City Hall today, Wednesday, April 9, from 5:30 – 8:00 PM. The meeting will also cover two PCH pavement rehabilitation projects in the cities of Santa Monica, Los Angeles and Malibu, which aim to extend the pavement service life and improve ride quality for motorists on PCH from Santa Monica to the Los Angeles/Ventura County line. For those who cannot attend the April 9 meeting in person, two virtual meetings are also planned to discuss the two pavement rehabilitation projects and Draft PCH Master Plan Feasibility Study. Community members are invited to participate in these workshops to learn about the latest updates and provide input.

For more information, please visit the project website or email 
07-pchmpfs@publicinput.com 

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

The bikelash is real. A protected bike lane appeared to be the decisive issue in the Grand Junction, Colorado city council race, with all the winning candidates campaigning against it, with the exception of one woman who ran unopposed.

Houston’s mayor backtracked on his anti-bike lane agenda in the face of withering opposition from bike riders, promising to install a dedicated, but non-protected bike lane to replace the protected lane he ripped out, rather than the previously threatened promised sharrows.

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

A 65-year old British woman faces charges for the hit-and-run crash that left a two-year old kid with a permanent scar on his head, after crashing into him as he walked with his mother, while she was illegally riding her ebike on a walking path.

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Local 

Secret Los Angeles considers the ten most scenic bike trails and routes to explore around the city. Not all of which are all that, you know, scenic.

Streets For All urges support for extending the bus lanes on Lincoln Blvd south from the Santa Monica border to near LAX; the transportation PAC also says a proposal to extend the Ballona Creek Bike Path to the creek’s headwaters is getting closer to reality.

It looks like WeHo bike lanes could be getting a touch of Pantone 349C, aka Hollywood Green, after the city council moved a proposal to paint the city’s bike lanes to the consent calendar to likely be approved at a coming meeting.

 

State

Heartbreaking news, as authorities identified the 13-year old boy killed by a driver while riding his bike in Clovis yesterday, after leaving home without permission and without his helmet.

Mountain Bike Action considers the history and legacy of the Sea Otter Classic, calling it America’s greatest mountain bike event. Although fans of the Iron House Classic and Leadville Trail 100 might beg to differ.

Bay Area businesses, including a local bike shop, complain about the “pain and trauma” inflicted by Trump’s on-again off-again tariffs; meanwhile, a Minneapolis bike shop owner is in “panic mode” over the tariff uncertainty.

 

National

People For Bikes says they’re endorsing the Children’s Bill of Rights in Sport because every kid deserves a safe place to ride.

Portland is adding signage and infrastructure improvements to help support the city’s growing bike bus movement.

Washington State is launching a lottery for the state’s $4 million ebike rebate program, with winners getting a $300 voucher towards the purchase of an ebike, and income-eligible households receiving up to $1,200.

A Minnesota bicycle advocacy group is testing an ebike-to-work pilot program, providing five Duluth businesses with ebikes for seven months for their employees to use.

A Loyola of Chicago student recommends bicycling through the city this spring, saying it turned a 45-minute walk into a pleasant 10-minute ride.

 

International

No bias here. That feeling when a far-right British pol complains about spending for bike lanes no one is using, that everyone is using, while a former Top Gear host says he’s not worried about a dangerous roundabout because he has a car, not a child’s toy.

 

Competitive Cycling

The Redlands Bicycle Classic opened with a time trial at Lake Perris yesterday, followed by a road race today, and a circuit race tomorrow, ending with a downtown crit on Sunday.

 

Finally….

Seriously, I’ve got nothing.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

April Fools-free edition — sadness and schadenfreude on Highland Ave, and let’s impound the cars of repeat scofflaw drivers

April 1, 2025 / / One comment
Day 91 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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Well, this is not fun anymore. 

I found myself struggling to breathe Sunday afternoon, accompanied by a spike in blood pressure and a drop in blood oxygen.

Fortunately, the situation resolved before it got serious, but left me feeling like I’d been hit by a truck for the rest of the night. 

So my apologies for yesterday’s absence. 

I’m starting to realize why my doctors all warned that combining Covid and diabetes probably wasn’t the best idea.

Anyway, let’s get on with today’s April Fools-free update.  

Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay.

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This is who we share the road with.

And why.

Over a decade ago, there was a movement to build LA’s first bicycle boulevard on 4th Street through Hancock Park.

But it didn’t take long for local residents to get out their torches and pitchforks in opposition to it, despite our best efforts to explain how it would benefit them, from eliminating cut-through traffic to increasing property values.

The greatest conflict, however, was over finding a safe way to get bike riders across busy Highland Ave.

Each proposal was soundly booed, whether a traffic circle, stop light or on-demand crosswalk. Even though it would have made Highland much safer for everyone, on foot, a bike or in a car — or just living in the general area.

It didn’t take long for then Councilmember Tom LaBonge to fold, promising not to make any changes to the dangerous intersection, and dooming the entire proposal to the scrapheap of history.

Although someone later saw the light, and belatedly installed a push-button on-demand traffic light. Which helps people cross the street, but does little or nothing to slow speeding drivers.

So it was with a combination of sadness and schadenfreude that I heard local residents complain about speeding drivers using the wide, straight divided roadway as a race track, after the driver of a Lamborghini ran away from a fatal hit-and-run on the street.

No, literally.

On foot, leaving the smashed supercar behind.

All just blocks from where that proposed traffic circle would have forced drivers to slow down, improving safety along the entire corridor.

It’s common for people everywhere to oppose change. But in an effectively run city, the final decision would be made with an eye to safety, after listening to objections and incorporating any reasonable suggestions, knowing that most people will come around to support it once they get used to it.

But in Los Angeles, the only voices usually heard are the loudest — and too often, wealthiest.

So Highland will continue to be a racetrack, just like Sunset and Hollywood boulevards.

And innocent people will continue to die.

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This is who we share the road with, too.

And why people keep dying on our streets.

A 35-year old mother was killed, along with her two young daughters, when a speeding driver slammed into another car, and careened into them as they walked in a New York crosswalk; at last report, her four-year old son was still clinging to life in critical condition.

Yet the 32-year old woman behind the wheel was still driving despite a suspended license, suspended registration and expired insurance, as well as 15 school zone speeding and red-light tickets in just the last 12 months.

Yes, 15.

New York Mayor Eric Adams described as a “tragic accident of a Shakespearean proportion.”

But in reality, it was the entirely predictable result of allowing a woman who has shown a clear disregard for traffic laws and the courts to keep a car she could no longer legally drive.

Virginia just passed a law allowing judges to require repeat excessive speed drivers to install speed limiting technology, making it impossible to exceed the posted speed limit; New York State is considering a similar law.

Now we need to take the next step of impounding the cars of people with suspended driver’s licenses until they regain the right to drive legally.

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Bollywood star Shahid Kapoor is one of us — or at least his son is now — using a towel as a sling to help the kid learn how to ride a bike.

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

Houston is ripping out a vital protected bike lane in the city’s Mid-City neighborhood, replacing it with sharrows and putting bike riders at needless risk, because drivers found it a little inconvenient.

A Tennessee man faces charges of reckless endangerment, aggravated assault and criminal littering for threatening a group of bicyclists on a rural road, driving his car at them and throwing beer bottles out the window, leaving two of the victims with visible bruises; he then made a U-turn and came back to run over one man’s bicycle, after the rider managed to jump out of the way.

Boston is joining Houston in ripping out protective curbs and bollards on a trio of newly installed bike lanes, after the mayor initiated a review of all the city’s safety and bus infrastructure projects, bowing to impatient drivers as she prepares to run for re-election, as it they are the only voters.

An English city was forced to install bollards on a new bike lane outside a hospital, after drivers immediately turned it into a parking lane.

No surprise here. British women continue to be frightened off their bikes by threatening and intimidating drivers, compounded by a lack of safe infrastructure.

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

A former English cop complains that he’s being taunted by ebike-riding “yobs” after he was fired for ramming his patrol car into a couple of teens with long criminal records, when they “taunted” him by riding past his car on their bikes.

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Local  

Metro is hosting a series of meetings this week to discuss the Sepulveda Transit corridor, with in-person meeting on Thursday and Saturday, and a virtual meeting on Friday; Streets For All urges you to voice support for heavy rail under the Sepulveda Pass, rather than the inefficient monorail preferred by wealthy Bel-Air homeowners who don’t want to be disturbed by underground construction.

The Pasadena Complete Streets Coalition with host their monthly virtual meeting on Monday, highlighted by presentations on the San Gabriel Valley Greenway Network and a local carbon-free electricity campaign; they’ll also host a family-friendly ride on April 12th showcasing homes with native California landscaping.

The South Pasadena Public Library will host a Repair Café on April 19th offering free repairs on a number of items, including bicycles.

 

State

French startup Upway opened their first SoCal location in Redondo Beach over the weekend, buying and selling refurbished e-bikes, similar to Carvana or CarMax for motor vehicles.

About two dozen Fontana kindergarteners got new bicycles, courtesy of All Kids Bike.

A Simi Valley letter writer complains about a recent ebike editorial, asking if there are “excellent bike lanes” traversing the city, where are they?

Your next ebike could charge in just 15 minutes, thanks to a new bike mountain biking legend Gary Fisher plans to introduce this month at Monterey’s Sea Otter Classic.

The threatened protected bike lane on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge is safe for now, after Caltrans withdrew a proposal to turn it back into a motor vehicle lane on weekdays.

 

National

A tech website asks why buy your bike accessories when you can just 3D print them?

Momentum teams with People For Bikes to dispel the most common myths about bike riders, ranging from not many people ride bicycles to we’re all rich, lawbreaking and fearless.

Juiced Bikes is rising from the dead after the ebike maker shut down operations last year, amid efforts from the founders of Lectric EBikes to revive the brand.

America’s seven-time ex-Tour de France champ says if you want to feel safe on a bike, ride a gravel bike so you can go onto any surface, and avoid long straight stretches of roadways to reduce the risk of distracted drivers.

Here’s another one for your bike bucket list, with the Great Plains Gravel Route that stretches 3,800 miles through Texas, Kansas and five other Midwestern states.

Life is cheap in Idaho, where the driver of a gravel truck got a whole 90 days behind bars for the hit-and-run death of a 14-year old kid standing on the side of the road next to his bicycle, but at least he’ll have to spend every holiday behind bars for the next two years, along with both his and his victim’s birthday.

The 24-year old woman accused of killing 17-year old Magnus White went on trial yesterday, nearly two years after running down the rising US National Team cyclist in Boulder, Colorado; prosecutors say she fell asleep at the wheel after staying up all night partying.

San Antonio, Texas becomes the latest city to offer ebike vouchers, providing 244 $1,000 vouchers for low-income residents. Meanwhile, California’s deliberately throttled voucher program remains just this side of moribund.

A 64-year old Galveston, Texas man was sentenced to 35 years behind bars for using his truck to murder one man and injure another as they tried to get away on their bicycles, all over over a paltry five buck debt, as well as another 25 years for assaulting a third man. Which means he’d be 124 if he survives to serve his full terms, which seems just a little unlikely. 

The Illinois legislature is considering over a dozen bike-related bills, from including tricycles in the legal definition of a bicycle to plainly stating that bicyclists are intended users on every roadway.

A kindhearted Ohio man gave away dozens of refurbished bicycles to anyone who needed one, just because he could.

People For Bikes flew a group of bicycle industry leaders to DC to advocate for tariff relief and trade fairness.

 

International

Severance star Britt Lower is one of us too, riding a bicycle through the streets of Toronto to get a better understanding of the character she plays in the upcoming film Darkest Miriam.

Welsh advocates warn that budget cuts are threatening to put the government’s efforts to promote bicycling at risk.

Momentum offers 20 reasons why the Netherlands is a bike rider’s paradise.

Stars and Stripes celebrates the joys of biking in Deutschland.

Nice work if you can get it. A 28-year old British woman says her 9-to-5 job is riding her bicycle from her English hometown to Singapore to raise funds for a mental health charity; meanwhile, a 31-year old British man is one year into his ride around the world to raise money for a children’s hospital.

A pair of 15-year old Japanese junior high students spent 13 days riding over 600 miles around Taiwan. At that age, my parents barely let me ride around my own hometown. 

 

Competitive Cycling

Tour de Big Bear is adding a 50K cross-country mountain bike race to their August lineup, promising a “a thrilling 36 miles, starting with a 4-mile neutral rollout before immersing riders into demanding single-track and double-track trails.”

Dutch sprinter Olav Kooij crashed just as he attempted to respond to an attack by eventual winner Mads Pedersen at Gent Wevelgem, suffering a broken collarbone.

Slovenian Primož Roglič won an “explosive” final stage of the Volta a Catalunya ahead of Laurens De Plus and Lennert Van Eetvelt, vaulting into first place in the overall standings, points and mountains classifications.

 

Finally….

Fight off bike thieves with a U-lock that smells like something died. Your next NFL draft baseball cap could have a bike on it, but only if you’re a Packers fan.

And always remember to bungie your corgi before you ride.

@tedrogerla.bsky.social Grabbed this from a Kiwi Corgi FB group. The owner takes "Spud" everywhere on the bike. She says Spud is harnessed in and loves it.

— (@nzdebs.bsky.social) 2025-03-31T23:26:17.058Z

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Hit-and-run driver plows through Boyle Heights bike riders aiding immigrants, and new bill would launch CA bike highways

March 7, 2025 / / Comments Off on Hit-and-run driver plows through Boyle Heights bike riders aiding immigrants, and new bill would launch CA bike highways
Day 66 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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A hit-and-run driver may have used her car as a weapon in Boyle Heights last month.

Or maybe she was just a seriously distracted driver.

According to KTLA-5, a group of about 15 people were riding their bikes near Mariachi Plaza shortly before 8 pm on Tuesday, February 25th, to hand out “red cards” informing immigrants of their legal rights.

The victims report they were were riding safely, obeying traffic laws, some even wearing orange vests, when a woman in a blue Kia plowed through the group from behind, while appearing to look at her phone.

And yes, the whole thing was caught on a security cam.

At least four of the riders were struck with the woman’s car, with one victim tossed onto the windshield of the car.

The woman continued driving through the group, even as people threw their bicycles at her car to get her to stop. One victim was hospitalized with head trauma, while others suffered injuries to their legs and arms.

The driver was described only as a white woman with a bald head, while the car is described as a 2016 four-door Kia sedan with the license plate number 8GAN606.

And yes, a photo shows a bike rack on the back.

Naturally.

Although it’s unclear why the police have been unable to find the driver when they have her license plate.

It’s also unclear whether this was a hate crime because the victims were helping immigrants, a road-raging driver attacking bike riders, or just a distracted driver too busy staring at her phone to look up.

Or maybe something else entirely.

Anyone with information is urged to call the LAPD at 1-877/527-3247, or anonymously at 1-800/222-8477 or online at lacrimestoppers.org.

Let’s just hope they catch this one.

My apologies if the above tweet doesn’t show up properly. Embedding Twitter/X posts has been very buggy on here since Elon has been busy screwing the site up. 

Top image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay.

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A new bill would launch a bike highway pilot program in California.

Introduced by Ventura Assemblymember Steve Bennett, and sponsored by Calbike, AB 954 instructs Caltrans to develop a bike highway program, defined as accommodating “high volumes of people traveling longer distance on bicycles (more than 3 miles) by connecting users to major destinations, employment centers, and transit hubs,” while providing full separation from motor vehicles.

According to Calbike,

Bike highways offer an important alternative to residents seeking relief from rising gas prices, and those working to lower their carbon footprint. In June 2022, Caltrans released a Bay Area Bike Highway Study that identifies feasible opportunities to add these corridors and incorporates best practices most suitable for the region. With the U.S. importing an estimated 2.4 million e-bikes between 2020-2023, commuting longer distances by bike is becoming more feasible for the average consumer. California prioritizes bicycling as a key part of its larger decarbonization goals, and is among 19 states offering assistance to purchase an e-bike with the launch of the California E-Bike Incentive Program in late 2024. The State of California was recognized as the 4th most Bicycle Friendly State in the Country by the League of American Bicyclists in December 2024.

Although the question is where these would go, when and if the bill passes and gets signed by the governor.

Which is anything but guaranteed with our current leader.

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This should be a good one.

Streets For All’s next virtual happy hour will feature my new representative, the very bike and street safety-friendly Congresswoman Laura Friedman on March 19th.

Click here to RSVP.

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

Yet another British bike path has been repeatedly sabotaged by anti-bike terrorists who placed tree branches across a popular cycle track on the Isle of Wight in an apparent attempt to injure bicyclists, then immediately replaced them after bike riders moved them off. As well as hooded, cider-quaffing men who shouted insults and threats at passing riders. Although how do they know it was cider, and not just an English ale?

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

No bias here. A website for New York’s wealthy Upper East Side says bicyclists are happy with the area’s new bike lanes, but many riders ignore the rules of the road and run red lights, questioning whether their behavior will now get worse. But have they even seen the city’s drivers?

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Local  

Chinatown’s Firecracker Lunar New Year runs, dog walk and bike rides roll this weekend, after they were rescheduled due to the January firestorms.

To the surprise of absolutely no one, thefts of electric scooters are skyrocketing in Los Angeles, as thieves find the locks easy picking. Literally.

Work is starting on the La Crescenta Rehabilitation Project on Glendale’s Montrose and La Crescenta avenues; the project includes lane reductions in both directions and buffered and protected bike lanes, as well other improvements.

 

State

Calbike offers an update on their priorities for the current legislative session.

He gets it. A writer for the nonprofit Voice of OC says ebikes aren’t the problem, unsafe riders are. Although to be honest, a lot of ebikes out there are vastly overpowered for the age of the people on them.

A San Francisco woman shares her favorite bike ride through the city’s Golden Gate Park.

A Nevada County event proves that bike riders and equestrians really can get along. A lesson the LA horse and bike communities have clearly yet to learn.

 

National

Momentum highlights the country’s best rail trails, none of which is found in California.

Detroit is retraining its police officers, after a cop was filmed ticketing a man for riding his bicycle legally in the street, as he had every right to do.

Houston reopened a key two-way bike lane after it was “prematurely closed” by construction workers with no notice.

About time. New York is finally dealing with the inevitable conflicts and collisions in Central Park by redesigning the roadway through the park, providing separate lanes for runners, walkers, slow bike riders and faster bicyclists and ebike riders. Which should reduce the risk of collisions, as long as everyone stays in their lane.

New York State won’t charge the Syracuse cop who killed a man riding an ebike in an on-duty crash, concluding there was no evidence the cop was speeding, driving recklessly, or under the influence at the time of the crash, even though no one bothered to test him for drugs or alcohol use. Although someone should tell whoever wrote the headline that it was a person who was killed in the fatal crash, not an ebike.

Philadelphia approved a series of new bike lanes through the center city area.

Los Angeles isn’t the only major city where traffic deaths rise to the level of homicides, as a new Atlanta report shows 2023 bicyclist and pedestrian deaths were nearly equal to murders in the three-county metropolitan area. Although in LA, overall traffic deaths have exceeded murders for two years in a row.

The Southern political magazine Scalawag recounts last month’s 51-mile-long route from Selma to Montgomery bike ride, commemorating the 60th anniversary of the historic civil rights march.

A bighearted Florida girl showed kindness instead of anger when someone stole the new bike she got for Christmas, then returned it the next day; assuming the thief was homeless, she “put food, a drink, and a snack” in the basket, along with a note saying “Please don’t steal my bike again” — which someone promptly did.

 

International

Road.cc weighs the pros and cons of using a gravel bike as your only bicycle.

Seriously? Homeowners in Dorset, England are “furious” over two-foot tall car-tickler bendy-posts protecting a new bike lane, which they say keep them from parking in their own driveways — despite the obvious gaps permitting access — while emergency vehicles are somehow forced to park in the traffic lane, because they can’t manage to drive their bigass trucks over those flexible little plastic posts.

The New York Times talks with Jill Warren, who walked away from a 20-year legal career to head the Brussels, Belgium-based European Cyclists’ Federation, an NGO dedicated to promoting bicycling to help lower carbon emissions.

The BBC continues our recent Japanese travelogue, with a “spectacular” bike ride through six of the country’s remote islands.

 

Competitive Cycling

Last year’s Tour de France, Giro and world champ Tadej Pogačar is one of five nominees for the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year award, after what’s being called the most remarkable year in the history of cycling; Olympic and world champion mountain biker Tom Pidcock is nominated for Sportsman of the Year.

Meanwhile, Pogačar says he prefers to think of himself as a classics rider who wins Grand Tours, rather than the other way around. Or maybe he’s just someone who wins everything.

 

Finally….

Who among us hasn’t dreamed of riding a bicycle from San Francisco to Los Angeles, living on nothing but Chipotle burritos?

And this video is no less cringy for knowing the guy walked away from it.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: ,

LA’s repeated Winter Bike to Work fail, Specialized donates to fire relief, and Handlebar Happy Hour in Culver City

February 17, 2025 / / 2 comments
Day 48 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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Happy President’s Day!

Or as most non-government workers call it, Monday. 

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Colorado marked Winter Bike to Work Day on Friday, including in my frosty, bike-friendly hometown.

Yet for some unexplained reason, we can’t manage to encourage people to commute by bicycle here in Southern California in any month with more than three letters. Even though our weather is a helluva lot more conducive to it.

Then again, we barely manage to mark May’s Bike to Work Day any more. Or Bike Anywhere Day, or whatever the hell you want to call it.

Maybe because getting more non-regular riders out on bikes only calls attention to our appalling lack of safe, connected bikeways, aside from a handful of cities like Long Beach and Santa Monica.

Which, by coincidence, just happen to be among the few cities that still make more than a token effort at marking the May Bike to Work Day.

So maybe I should stop complaining about not doing it twice a year, and just hope someone will get back to putting a little effort into just doing it once.

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Buy a new bike directly from California-based Specialized this week, and they’ll donate $100 to fire relief efforts in the LA area.

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Bike Culver City hosts a Handlebar Happy Hour this Thursday. Which isn’t exactly a Winter Bike to Work Day, but it’s a start.

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

Velo considers why cities are ripping out bike lanes, and what you can do about. Besides moving to another city with leadership that doesn’t have its collective head up its collective…well, you get it. Read it on MSN if the magazine blocks you. 

No surprise here. A new survey shows most British drivers falsely believe bicyclists are required to ride single file, next to the curb — and a third think they shouldn’t have equal rights on the road.

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

A blind London man complains, justifiably, about bicyclists and ebike riders who zoom past on the streets and sidewalks with no warning. Seriously, if you see a cane or service dog, slow the eff down already. 

A 22-year old Irish man walked without a day behind bars for an “appalling” road rage attack on a motorist, after he picked up his bicycle and threw it at the other man as they argued over who had the right-of-way; the judge gave him a three-month suspended sentence. And no, he’s no relation, as far as I know. Although that Irish temper sounds familiar. 

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Local  

UCLA campus cops busted a man riding a bicycle in an early morning traffic stop several blocks off campus, arresting him as a felon in possession of pepper spray, as well as meth, Xanax and drug paraphernalia.

A Valencia letter writer who apparently has an exceptionally low car says the city’s new bike lane “paddles” — an apparent reference to plastic bollards — impairs sightlines at the intersection, making it difficult to see other cars. Even though most cars are big and kinda hard to miss, and bollards are usually small and far below eye level from the driver’s seat.

 

State

Sunnyvale’s plan to build protected bike lanes has stalled because the city can’t figure out how to keep them clean or pay for a street cleaner to do the job.

A new safety feature on Tesla’s Model Y and 3 vehicles — which are still built in Palo Alto, despite the HQ’s move to Texas — prevents anyone from opening a door if something is too close, like someone on a bicycle, for instance. Thanks to Bernard Bogard for the heads-up. 

Megan Lynch forwards news that a mudslide has shut down the Solano Bikeway above eastbound Interstate 80 outside of Vallejo.

 

National

Singletracks wants to know if you’ve ever bought counterfeit bicycle components.

An Oregon man got his “one-of-a-kind” bicycle back because he had installed an AirTag on it, after police traced it to a home where they could see it and another bike through the front window, arresting two men illegally squatting inside.

In a bizarre case, a Washington state man died from sepsis in jail on New Years Eve, after suffering an abdominal injury in a bicycle crash two days before his arrest.

The husband of a bike-riding Washington woman killed by a DEA agent who ran a stop sign, with no emergency or exigent circumstances, says that’s like playing Russian roulette with the public’s safety.

New Mexico lawmakers are working to improve safety for bike riders by advancing a bill allowing them to treat stop signs as yields; Nevada is considering a similar bill, too. Something our current governor has vetoed twice. 

Speaking of New Mexico, a reformed road cyclist considers the local state of bicycling, and suggests that everyone should get an ebike.

That’s more like it. An Illinois man was sentenced to 17 years behind bars for killing a man riding a bicycle while stoned on drugs. All of which could have been avoided by just not getting behind the wheel after taking controlled substances. 

Bicycling relates a bikepacking trip along America’s longest multiuse trail network, New York’s Empire State Trail. But you’ll have to subscribe to read this one if you don’t have any freebies left.

 

International

Bike Radar says if you really want the best bike for your money, build it yourself.

Fun. The same high-vis you wear to make yourself more visible to human drivers can make you invisible to their car’s automatic braking systems.

Momentum marked Valentines Day by highlighting the five most romantic bicycling cities. None of which is Los Angeles, needless to say.

Tragic news from Mexico, where a 27-year old bicycling influencer fell to his death while trying to mountain bike down a volcano, after hitting his head and losing consciousness at over 16,000 feet.

A British Columbia police watchdog concluded that a Canadian Mountie did nothing wrong when a man riding a bicycle was killed when he fled from a traffic stop and was struck by a semi-driver moments later.

That’s more like it. A bikeshare firm in Waterloo, Ontario will be adding on-demand handcycles and adult tricycles to their offerings this year. Thanks again to Megan Lynch. 

India’s sports minister urges everyone, but especially young people, to commute by bicycle by listing six ways it improves health.

A new Chinese study examines “the spatial heterogeneity effects of street environmental factors on the preference for sports and leisure cycling paths across different street types,” as the abstract offers a similar word salad to conclude that the factors that influence where bicyclists ride are exactly what you would have guessed. `

Legislators in Australia’s New South Wales are considering allowing ebikes and e-scooters on sidewalks, but limiting speeds to 18 mph.

 

Competitive Cycling

Evidently, birds of a feather really do stick together, as fellow former dopers Lance Armstrong and Jan Ullrich will ride together in Germany at Ullrich’s May bicycling festival.

Finally…

That feeling when you’re mistaken for being homeless while riding your $5,000 bicycle not far from your multi-million dollar home. Or when a real Hollywood star inspires an iconic fictional bike ride.

And no, you shouldn’t just wrap your broken carbon frame in duct tape and ride it anyway.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

American expat with TX & CO ties missing after mountain biking in Spain, and focus on drivers to improve elderly bike safety

February 11, 2025 / / Comments Off on American expat with TX & CO ties missing after mountain biking in Spain, and focus on drivers to improve elderly bike safety
Day 42 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

We mentioned last week that a man from the UK had gone missing while mountain biking in Spain, prompting an all-out search.

Now it turns out that the victim is 50-year old US expat Matt Opperman, who has lived in Spain off-and-and on for several years, after serving as head mechanic for the Australian mountain bike team at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Police concluded that Opperman, who worked for Yeti Cycles, set out on his electric mountain bike two weeks ago yesterday, after finding his black van parked in Segura de la Sierra, west of Alicante, Spain.

Family members say the father of two had planned to stay at a cabin and explore local trails, but hasn’t been seen since.

Opperman is a former resident of both Houston, Texas and Longmont, Colorado.

Photo by Markus Spiske from Pexels.

………

The Riverside County Sheriff’s Office held a bike safety seminar for older riders at a Palm Desert senior center, after two men in their 70s were killed while riding their bikes to start the year.

World-renowned golf photographer John Henebry, Jr., 76, was killed by a driver in Rancho Mirage on New Years Day, while 72-year old Patrick Petre died after he was fatally struck by a motorist in Palm Desert just one day later.

Which suggests that if the sheriff’s department really wants to improve safety for older bike riders, maybe they should start with a seminar on how to drive safely around people on bicycles, older or otherwise.

Because it’s not the people riding bikes who are killing people.

………

Streets For All’s latest virtual happy hour will take place tomorrow, featuring newly-elected Culver City Councilmember Bubba Fish.

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NACTO says there’s a lot of new and revised rules in the latest edition of the organization’s Urban Bikeway Design Guide (click to make graphic mo’ bigger).

You know, in case you need a little light reading.

………

Local  

Transportation For America says the opening of the LAX/Metro Transit Center Station will be a key step in preparing Los Angeles to host a carfree 2028 Olympic Games, along with a planned 28-mile-long — or maybe 22-mile — zero-emissions, non-vehicular “Festive Trail” linking the major venues currently proposed for the 2028 Games.

 

State

Escondido cops wrote 68 traffic tickets in that city’s latest crackdown on violations that can endanger bicyclists and pedestrians, but didn’t break down how many of those tickets went to bike riders, walkers or motorists.

 

National

A writer for conservative The Federalist says New Urbanism is just a left-wing assault on property rights and personal mobility, and the future of America isn’t a “high-density…nightmare,” but “spacious, family-friendly suburbs where liberty thrives.” Sure, let’s go with that.

In a scenario many Los Angeles bike riders can relate to, a Honolulu bike path has “bumps (that) make bike rides feel more like bull rides” due to ridges and cracks in the pavement caused by tree roots.

Seattle is adding a protected bike lane and pedestrian improvements to a short, two-block street segment connecting a pair of waterfront parks, although stopping short of fully pedestrianizing the street.

Even 5th graders get it. An elementary student in the tiny mountain town of Eagle, Colorado — not far from the famed Vail ski resort — calls for a bike path to replace a popular, but dangerous riding route on a local roadway to improve safety and reduce injuries.

Anti-urbanist President Trump is reportedly in talks with New York’s governor to not only get rid of New York City’s successful congestion pricing program, but also rip out the city’s bike lanes, which have improved safety for everyone. Although it’s questionable what authority he has to force their removal on state and local roadways, but that doesn’t seem to stop anyone these days. 

New York takes another dramatic step to slow traffic by installing a “green wave” on a 36-block stretch of Third Ave, where traffic signals that had been timed for vehicles traveling 25 mph have been reset for a 15 mph, allowing bicyclists — not drivers — to travel without stopping.

Even motor-centric Daytona Beach, Florida is getting buffered bike lanes on the state’s coastal highway, as part of a $10 million resurfacing project.

A writer for the University of South Florida takes a look at the bike scene in St. Petersburg.

 

International

Momentum offers a Valentines Day list of “10 enticing ideas to ignite your passion for both cycling and romance.”

Life is cheap in Ireland, where a 62-year old man, who had faced up to ten years behind bars for running a red light and killing an eight-year old boy riding a bicycle, was sentenced to just three years in jail, with one suspended, after the judge considered mitigating factors; the boy’s father says he will never get over the “violence of the impact.”

A new Dutch study shows that promoting bicycling can help create more compact cities, while eliminating bicycle infrastructure increases commuting times and distances and exacerbates traffic congestion, while resulting in a significant reduction in worker welfare.

India’s Supreme Court ruled that cities can’t be required to build protected bike lanes, when the government has trouble providing even basic amenities like housing and hospitals.

 

Competitive Cycling

World road champ Tadej Pogačar may be ready to take on the famed cobbles of the Hell of the North, after he was filmed on a Paris-Roubaix-themed training ride.

 

Finally…

Even bank branches are victims of hit-and-run drivers. Lead a tank into battle on a bicycle, and somehow you’re a laughing stock instead of a hero.

And your next bike could have self-charging shifting and solar-powered brakes.

Okay, maybe not the next one. Or the one after that, even.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Man critically injured in Thousand Oaks crash, CA 4th most Bike Friendly State, and new AASHTO Bike Guide released

December 13, 2024 / / 2 comments
Just 18 days until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025, a decade of failure in which deaths have continued to climb. 
Yet not one city official has mentioned the impending deadline, or the city’s failure to meet it. 

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It’s Day 15 of the 10th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive!

Thanks to Douglas M, Nina M and Carter R for their generous donations to keep bringing SoCal’s best source for bike news and advocacy to your favorite screen every morning.

Now it’s your turn. So stop what you’re doing and give now! 

Because I have it on good authority that any donations made today will probably counteract any bad Friday the 13th luck today. 

Unless it doesn’t, of course.

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A 37-year old man suffered life-threatening injuries when he was struck by a driver while riding his bicycle near West Hillcrest Drive and Citation Way in Thousand Oaks Wednesday night, although the local paper makes it sound more like he hit the car.

The victim remained hospitalized in critical condition yesterday.

………

The Bike League released their latest rankings of the country’s most bike-friendly states, with Washington moving up to the top spot, followed by Massachusetts, and Oregon slipping to third.

Next up comes California in a surprising fourth place on the list of Bicycle Friendly States for 2024.

Although how that’s possible without excluding Los Angeles, and probably San Francisco, from consideration is kinda questionable.

Meanwhile, the group warns that even the best states aren’t doing enough to protect people riding bicycles, let alone the rest of them.

………

AASHTO, aka the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, has released the 5th edition of the industry-standard AASHTO Bike Guide.

The guide provides comprehensive standards for “the planning, design, and operation of bikeways along streets, roads, and highways, as well as on off-street paths in urban, suburban, and rural settings.”

According the organization,

The guide encourages a flexible approach to design bikeways and emphasizes the role of the planner, designer, and engineer in determining appropriate bikeway types and design dimensions based on project-specific conditions and existing and future performance.

It provides information to assist in choosing the appropriate combination of features, design values, and materials to create the design, while considering the context of the project area and surrounding environment, AASHTO said…

Revised chapters include those on bicyclist operation and safety; bicycle planning; design of shared use paths; design of shared lanes and bike lanes; maintenance and operations; and bicycle parking, bike share site location, and end-of-trip facilities.

………

Nina Moscol forwards word that The Squeaky Wheel Bike Shop in Palmdale was violently broken into last week when someone smashed a vehicle into the front of the store.

She notes that owners Bob & Shilo Vigil provide support for the local community biking programs in the greater Palmdale area, and the shop is a registered vendor for California’s new ebike incentive program, as well as sponsoring and coaching the local inter-mural youth MTB team.

So if you find yourself in the area, stop in and buy something before the holidays, because they could use the business right now.

And keep your eyes peeled for people selling bikes with prices that seem too good to be true. Because they probably are.

………

‘Tis the season.

Longtime Watts philanthropist “Sweet” Alice Harris hosted a Christmas bike giveaway for community kids.

The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Department hosted a bike giveaway for the 35th consecutive year, donating 200 bicycles refurbished by inmates at the local Honor Farm. So the inmates do all the work, but the sheriff gets the credit? Seems fair. 

Restaurant chain Raising Cane’s donated a total of 400 bikes to the Boys & Girls Club of Harlem, and will host a bike riding clinic for any kids who don’t know how to ride one.

A Savannah, Georgia group gave 170 bikes to kids at eleven of the city’s public schools.

………

It’s now 358 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And a full 42 months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

The program is finally scheduled to launch December 18th, so get your application in; Calbike with host a webinar on Monday to go over the application process.

………

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

Good question. A Boston op-ed says bike lanes save lives, so why are people still complaining?

Electrek considers the “strange logic” backing the push to require license plate on New York City ebikes; immigrant rights groups are teaming with a hospitality industry nonprofit to fight the bill.

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

A London woman wants to know why the city is suddenly full of bicyclists charging at pedestrians, after she was knocked down by a bike rider as she was crossing the street; a bike-riding witness told the guilty rider “You’re the kind of prick who gives the rest of us a bad name.”

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Local  

The story doesn’t appear to be posted online yet, but KNBC-4 reports that Walk ‘n Rollers stolen trailer has been recovered, but without the 15 grand worth of bikes and gear they used to teach little kids bike safety; the trailer full of gear was snatched by thieves last month.

Streets Are For Everyone says any donation to the group will be matched dollar-for-dollar right now.

 

State

The State of California claims it invested nearly $13 billion in just the last year to enhance transportation safety, and increase accessibility for people who walk and bike. Although you’d think with that kind of money, the results might be a little more noticeable.

A coalition of over 30 bicycle and active transportation advocacy groups are calling on the state to better regulate illegally operated electric motorcycles, which are often mistakenly called ebikes. Now if they’d just push to reclassify throttle-controlled bikes as electric motorcycles.

A new road diet and parking-protected bike lanes on San Diego’s Rancho Mission Road is raising safety concerns among residents, who claim crashes have increased dramatically since they were installed. However, it’s not unusual for collisions to increase after any change to road designs; what matters is what happens over the long term after drivers adjust to the changes.

Speaking of San Diego, board members for SANDAG, aka San Diego Association of Governments, will discuss whether to increase the budget for a 3.3-mile bike plan at today’s meeting, after estimates came in least 20% higher than expected.

San Luis Obispo finally gets around to rolling out its Vision Zero program, more than eight years after it was approved by the city council, with a goal of eliminating serious collisions by 2030.

Bike riders and local residents in San Carlos are calling for safety changes after a 31-year old Palo Alto woman was killed on a highway overpass, where plans call for a pedestrian bridge that might have spared her life.

The California Coastal Commission signed off the plan to permanently close a section of San Francisco’s Great Highway to motor vehicle traffic

 

National

Bicycling says your stiff neck could be causing the numbness in your hands when you ride. Although the story is locked behind their paywall, so you’re out of luck if the magazine blocks you. 

A writer for Velo lists “five totally random bike events” she wants to do next year, including the “fringey” Speed Project Los Angeles to Las Vegas ultra-endurance race.

An Oklahoma City off-road tri national champ responded to a serious crash that laid her up for a couple years by forming a bike club for the city’s elementary and middle school students.

 

International

People in the South London borough of Merton say you have to be brave to ride a bicycle there, where bike infrastructure lags behind other areas of the city.

They get it. Bicycle Scotland says “Nobody should be allowed near a driving license until they’ve undertaken a comprehensive cycling course” to gain “first-hand awareness of at-risk road users” and how to drive safely around people on bicycles.

An English Parliament member warns of “devastating consequences” if the country doesn’t do more to improve bike infrastructure in rural areas, where riders face added dangers on country roads.

France modified its traffic laws to allow bicyclists to legally ride side-by-side, as well as have additional lights on their bikes, as long as they’re not flashing.

Once again, a driver has somehow managed to plow into a group of bicyclists, this time in Western Australia, where two riders were seriously injured when the driver apparently failed to see the group riding in the same direction.

 

Competitive Cycling

Three-time Tour de France champ Tadej Pogačar rejects calls to slow pro cyclists to improve safety by arguing that “Tech always gets faster – it’s on riders to not do stupid things,” and that “modern bikes break every time you crash.” The problem is that sometimes, so do the people riding them.

Our old buddy Lance offered to give Jake Paul an “ass whooping” when the sometime MMA fighter and former Disney star sort-of but not really challenged the seven-time ex-Tour de France winner to a bike race.

 

Finally…

Who needs a a bike horn when you have a Vietnamese painted frog? When the bike parking is covered, who cares if it stinks?

And when in doubt — or in Toronto — blame it on the bike.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Increased charges in Gaudreau brothers deaths, Calbike gets 2025 agenda right, and Glendale boots Brand bike lanes

December 12, 2024 / / One comment

My apologies for last night, when I suffered from an embarrassing case of premature publication, mistakenly hitting the Publish button long before today’s post was ready.

……….

Just 19 days until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025, a decade of failure in which deaths have continued to climb. 
Yet not one city official has mentioned the impending deadline, or the city’s failure to meet it. 

………

It’s Day 14 of the 10th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive!

Thanks to Daniel M, James Z and Herb S for their generous donations to keep SoCal’s best source for bike news and advocacy coming your way every day.

So what are you waiting for?

Stop what you’re doing and give now! 

………

Now they’re getting serious.

The charges against Sean Higgins, the driver accused in the allegedly drunken crash that killed NHL star Johnny Gaudreau and his hockey playing brother, have been upgraded from vehicular homicide to first-degree aggravated manslaughter.

According to The Columbus Dispatch, aggravated manslaughter is defined in the New Jersey’s criminal code as “when a person ‘recklessly causes death under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to human life.'”

The brothers were in New Jersey for their sister’s wedding, and were riding their bikes on the night of August 29th, when Higgins allegedly tried to pass another car on the right and slammed into the two men on the shoulder of the highway.

Higgins could be sentenced to 10 to 30 behind bars years for each manslaughter count; he also faces additional charges for DUI, hit-and-run, tampering with physical evidence, and reckless driving.

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Yes, please.

Calbike announced its agenda for the coming year. And this time, it looks to be right on the money.

  • Bicycle Highways — Creating a pilot program to establish numbered highways for bicycles in two major metro areas, allowing for speeds up to 25 mph
  • Shared Streets — Develop a new roadway classification where vulnerable road users would have the right of way at all locations
  • Quick-Build Pilot Program — A program to expedite development and implementation of safe, protected bikeways on the state highway system
  • Bike Omnibus Bill — Including clarifying that bike riders wouldn’t need to signal if they need both hands to control their bicycle
  • Bicycle Safety Stop — Otherwise known as an Idaho Stop, allowing bicyclists to treat stop signs as yields
  • New Bikeway Classification — Create a new Class 5 category for bicycle boulevards
  • Clarifying Ebike Policies — Including making it clear that illegal electric motorcycles aren’t ebikes

Now if they’d just try to do something about the state’s unacceptably high rate of hit-and-run drivers.

………

The Glendale City Council followed Culver City’s lead by overruling staff recommendations, and voting to remove the city’s only protected bike lane — an ill-advised action likely to make them liable for any bicyclist who gets injured on the street after it’s removed.

………

It’s now 357 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And a full 42 months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

The program is finally scheduled to launch December 18th, so get your application in; Calbike with host a webinar on Monday to go over the application process.

Although to be honest, I’ve kind of lost interest in the whole damn thing.

………

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

A Utah man faces charges for allegedly ramming into a bike rider during a road rage confrontation; the driver swears he was just trying to politely tell the victim to stay in the bike lane when the rider became enraged and broke his side mirror, and he didn’t mean to hit him — even though witnesses say it appeared to be intentional.

No bias here. A New York councilmember called for mandatory ebike registration to combat “The scourge of e-bikes in our streets, on our sidewalks, and even inside our buildings (that) continues to wreak chaos, injure and maim people, and, tragically, take lives,” resulting in 47 deaths in five years; even the Department of Transportation says it’s a bad idea. And even though most victims were killed in battery fires or by drivers while riding ebikes, rather than caused by them. And they continue to lump ped-assist ebikes together with mo-peds and high-speed, throttle-controlled virtual motorcycles.

Brussels, Belgium is banning bicycles and scooters from the city center, known as the Anspachlaan; a bike advocacy group says all bicyclists are being punished for the anti-social behavior of a very few. Which is exactly how it usually works.

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Local  

Metro is finally moving forward with plans to improve transportation for the upcoming LA Olympics, including 14 miles of bus priority lanes, 23 miles of bus corridor enhancements and 60 new Metro Bike Share stations, as well as a number of new first mile/last mile improvements, including new protected bike lanes. Although three and a half years isn’t exactly a lot of lead time to make a number of major changes to the streets.

 

State

An 18-year old San Diego man suffered a broken leg when he was stuck by a hit-and-run driver, while riding his ebike in a bike lane in the North City neighborhood.

Sad news from Bakersfield, where a man was killed when he fell off his bicycle, and oncoming “vehicle…failed to avoid colliding with” him. Hats off to the Bakersfield Californian for somehow managing to absolve the driver of any agency and responsibility for killing him. 

Speaking of Bakersfield, a cop with a strong case of windshield bias responded to a traffic calming project by blaming the victims, arguing that even though it succeeded in slowing traffic, that doesn’t necessarily mean fewer crashes because it doesn’t account for pedestrians who step out ten feet in front of drivers, leaving “literally no time for the driver to do anything,” or bike riders “with no lights, wearing black clothing, riding the wrong direction in the bicycle lane.”

 

National

Streetsblog has more on the new handlebar-mounted “dashcam” for bikes being developed by a pair of Arizona universities, which are designed to automatically capture images, location data, and other critical evidence when a vehicle passes dangerously to someone on a bicycle.

A pair of Oklahoma men face charges of 1st-degree murder for shooting a man in the back, after accusing him of stealing a bicycle belonging to one of the men’s 10-year old daughter; witnesses never bothered to call 911 because they didn’t think it was a big deal and didn’t want to get involved. As we’ve said many times before, no bicycle is worth a human life. Just let it go, for God’s sake.

Good question. A Massachusetts TV station wants to know why there are utility poles and orange construction barrels in the middle of a new $22 million raised bike lane. Which looks a lot more like a patchwork sidewalk repair job, to be honest.

 

International

Cycling Weekly talks with American adventurer Neal Bayly, cofounder of the Wellspring International Outreach, who recounts memorable rides through Ukraine and Peru, as well as Bhutan’s Tour of the Dragon, described as the world’s toughest single-day mountain bike race; Bayly says he bikes so much his motorcycle buddies are getting pissed off.

Speaking of Cycling Weekly, the magazine says those bigass bike computers are just getting silly.

A Toronto bike advocacy group has filed suit over the new Ontario law that gives the provincial government the final say on local bike lanes, allowing them to remove a number of popular Toronto bike lanes over the objection of local leaders; the group alleges the new law deprives bicyclists of their legal rights to life and security.

Meanwhile, a Toronto bike advocate suffered a broken leg when he was doored while riding in a painted bike lane. Which makes a far better case for improving the city’s bike lanes than removing them.

A Melbourne, Australia radio station considers the eternal question of what if bicycles had to be registered, as the head of a driver’s organization says all road users should pay for the road — even though bike riders already pay for more than our fair share of the roadway, and studies have shown bike registration costs more to operate than it would bring in.

 

Competitive Cycling

Remco Evenepoel is joining with the Belgian Post Office to raise awareness for the dangers of dooring, after suffering multiple fractures and other injuries when he was doored while training in Belgium; the 2022 Vuelta champ aims to get back on his bike in February, and hopes to compete two months later.

 

Finally…

No, bike racks don’t belong in the middle of the sidewalk. Who needs a bike cam when there’s one built into your helmet?

And Colin Jost is one of us, too.

Thanks to Megan Lynch for the heads-up. 

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Cover your ass with uninsured motorist coverage, new Baldwin Park bike lanes, and dead bear bike framer to head HHS

November 18, 2024 / / 4 comments
Just 42 days until LA fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

Good advice from Oceanside bike injury attorney and BikinginLA sponsor Richard Duquette not to skimp on the uninsured motorist coverage on your auto insurance policy, which could protect you financially, if not physically, if you’re struck by a driver.

It’s a topic we’ve covered before.

Maybe someday insurance companies will figure out that maybe we’d like to be able to buy our own insurance policies, even if you don’t own a car.

Jackass photo from Pixabay, reminding you to, well, you get it. 

………

Yes, please.

Although I’m told this is actually in Baldwin Park, not Baldwin Hills. Just too many Baldwins out there.

And Streetsblog visits LA County’s new Vincent Community Bikeway, with includes stretches of “new creekside bike/walk paths, connected by on-street protected bike lanes.” If you consider car-tickler plastic bendy posts protection, that is. 

………

Bay Area bicyclists rode to protest a proposal to make the bike lane on the Richmond-San Raphael Bridge just part-time during non-rush hours. Because evidently, only drivers need to commute at regular work times. 

Thanks to Megan Lynch for the heads-up. 

………

It’s now 334 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And a full 41 months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

………

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

The families of Ontario traffic victims rallied to criticize provincial Premier Doug Ford’s anti-bike lane bill; it could adversely affect handicapped people, as well.

Hamilton city counselors reject the “war on cars” label, and tell Ford to butt out of the city’s business.

A new survey shows Canadians are all in favor of bicycling infrastructure — as long as it’s not in the roadway.

No bias here. Welsh drivers claim that narrowing a roadway to make room for a bike path is an “attack on your right to drive a car.” Because evidently, they’re entitled to every inch of the road. Or think they are, anyway. 

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

A writer for the Virginia Tech student newspaper correctly points out that both bicyclists and non-riders need to show better etiquette on the roads. But only the bad etiquette from drivers is likely to get someone killed. 

No bias here, either. The London Times calls out “rogue cyclists” who’ve knocked down children and the elderly in the city’s parks. Never mind that sometimes people step into the path of a bicycle without looking, or the overwhelming majority of people who ride safely. And just wait until they hear about all those “rogue” drivers out there.

A British mom criticizes a bike rider for “uttering the worst excuse” after crashing into her disabled son while riding on the sidewalk, saying he couldn’t stop in time. It may be valid to criticize the rider for riding too fast, or even being on the sidewalk in the first place. But somehow expecting him to know her kid had a blood disorder, or being able to stop instantly under any circumstance, is asking too much. 

………

Local  

The LAPD is looking for the suspect who fled on a bicycle after shooting and killing a man on Pacific Ave in San Pedro.

Streets For All is calling for anyone who lives, works or shops — or rides, for that matter — in Burbank to turn out tomorrow to support dedicated lines for the NoHo to Pasadena Bus Rapid Transit project through the city.

 

State

San Diego residents called for safer streets on the World Day of Remembrance for the victims of traffic violence.

An op-ed from a Petaluma small business owner and safe streets advocate says the city needs to build a bike-friendly future.

They get it, sort of. The Sacramento Bee writes that the city needs funding for safer streets fast, because they’re killing people at alarming rates. But then they hid their editorial behind a paywall, as if no one really needs to see it.

 

National

A coalition of organizations working to end car crash deaths and serious injuries in America penned an open letter calling on the incoming administration and Congress to unite to solve the country’s roadway crisis. I only wish I still had hope that might happen. 

Bicycling says Trump’s proposed tariffs could make your next bike much more expensive. Read it on AOL this time if the magazine blocks you. 

Life is cheap in Ohio, where a woman got a whole 60 days behind bars — or 59 with time served — for killing a 12-year old boy who was riding his bicycle, after her attorney got a blood alcohol test tossed showing she was over three times the legal limit. But at least her license was suspended for five years. Because as we all know, no one would ever consider driving on a suspended license, right?

Massachusetts bicyclists rallied at the state capital to demand an end to traffic violence.

The night after Trump won the White House and Republicans took Congress, a DC church erupted in anger — over proposed bike lanes, not the election.

This is why people keep dying on our streets. A Florida jury acquitted a 77-year old woman on hit-and-run charges after a bike-riding man was killed when she cut him off in a crosswalk, because her lawyer managed to convince them she didn’t know she’d hit anyone. Seriously, if you don’t know when you’ve even been in a crash, you shouldn’t be driving. And if you shouldn’t be driving in the first place, you should be held accountable for whatever happens if you do.

 

International

Cycling Weekly wades into the debate over whether or not you should ride your bike after dark. Because evidently, only people who drive need to go out at night. Or home, for that matter. 

They get it. Momentum says governments should start paying people to bike to work to confront traffic congestion, pollution and sedentary lifestyles, like some cities in Europe are doing.

A British radio host completed a 300-mile ride from Wales to Scotland on a Raleigh Chopper bike, raising the equivalent of over $9.4 million for children in need.

LeMonde says anti-bicyclist anger is rising in France. But you’ll have to subscribe if you want to read the whole thing. 

Life is cheap in Singapore, where a former actor was fined the equivalent of a whopping $2,230 for injuring a man riding a bicycle. But at least he was banned from driving for five years. And in Singapore, that might actually mean something. 

An Aussie driver considers why some bicyclists have a capacity to inflame drivers’ emotions — which is putting it mildly — when even riders who don’t move into single file aren’t that hard to pass.

 

Competitive Cycling

Somebody give that boy a sandwich, already.

 

Finally…

You can see a lot from your bike — like a rabbit-like rodent on the wrong damn continent. Even the safest streets aren’t safe when drivers aren’t.

And the guy nominated to head up the US Health Department is the same anti-bike lane schmuck who dumped a dead bear on a Central Park bike path to frame bike riders for its killing.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

LA on track for record-setting traffic deaths — including 5 previously unreported bicycling deaths, and injuries continue

October 14, 2024 / / Comments Off on LA on track for record-setting traffic deaths — including 5 previously unreported bicycling deaths, and injuries continue
Just 77 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025. 

The graph on the left is from Streets Are For Everyone; you can find a larger version on the link below. 

………

The carnage continues.

And it’s getting worse.

Streets Are For Everyone, aka SAFE, reports that Los Angeles is on track for its deadliest year on record, as we gear up for next month’s World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims

For those commemorating this solemn occasion in Los Angeles, World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims stings a little more this year. In 2024, LA is once again besieged by traffic violence: 210 people have been killed so far this year on LA’s streets — more traffic deaths than this time last year, which was already the deadliest year for traffic fatalities since 2003, the first year that data’s readily available.

The group goes on to add this.

Crossing the street has never been more dangerous in Los Angeles: motorists killed 112 pedestrians in the first 209 days of this year, or a pedestrian was struck and killed by a motorist every other day — a 1% increase from last year, which was itself a record-setting year for vehicular violence against walkers.

Hit-and-runs also remain frighteningly high: of the 210 fatal car crashes so far this year, 74 of the drivers have left their victims to die in the street, a 10% increase from 2023.

Let that last one sink in.

In over one third of all fatal collisions in Los Angeles — 35.24% — heartless, cowardly drivers left their victims to die alone on the streets.

Unfortunately, the story’s not any better for bicyclists.

According to LAPD statistics, as of the end of August, 15 people have been killed riding their bikes in the City of Angels, a 15% increase over last year.

Most of those fatalities — 73% — have been in the department’s South Bureau.

And just as we expected, we haven’t heard about a number of those crashes. I showed just ten bicycling deaths in Los Angeles at the end of August. Which means either the police failed to publicly report a full third of all bicycling deaths, or the local press failed to report them.

Neither prospect is very comforting. Because if we don’t know what’s happening, we can’t do anything to fix it.

Let alone remember the victims.

But thanks to SAFE for keeping us informed, anyway.

………

Which takes us to the latest bad news on our streets.

A 66-year-old Pasadena man was critically injured when he has struck by an unlicensed driver in a pickup truck while riding his bike in the city Thursday morning; at last report, he remained in critical condition with injuries including a fractured skull.

A teenaged La Mesa boy finally came from the hospital following three pelvic surgeries after he was run over by the driver of a trash truck last month; Caleb Carvalho insists he will walk again, but it could be a couple years before he’s back to normal. A crowdfunding campaign has raised nearly $73,000 for his medical care.

Tragic news from Laguna Niguel, where longtime Laguna Beach High School golf coach Sean Quigley is paralyzed from the waist down, after suffering severe spinal injuries when he was struck by a driver while riding his bike, leaving him with just a 5% chance of regaining function in his legs; a crowdfunding campaign has raised over $75,000 of the $200,000 goal.

………

No surprise here.

A Las Vegas court placed the case against 19-year old Jesus Ayala on hold after he was ruled unfit to stand trial.

Ayala was charged along with another teen for intentionally running down and killing former Bell, California police chief Andreas Probst as he rode his bike on a Vegas street.

The judge ordered the move out of an “abundance of caution” after evidence was presented that Ayala had suffered “significant” brain damage; he was sent to a maximum security psychiatric facility in Sparks, Nevada.

Meanwhile, another case was filed against Ayala accusing him of robbery with the use of a deadly weapon, conspiracy to commit robbery and grand larceny auto. He’s also facing an attempted murder charge for a separate “extremely violent” group attack where another man was stabbed multiple times

So evidently, he’s not so brain damaged he can’t keep committing crimes.

Allegedly.

His 17-year old accused accomplice is scheduled to go on trial next month.

………

They’re all one of us.

Gerard Butler took a stylish bike ride with a friend through the streets of New York.

Leonardo DiCaprio took a virtually incognito ride through the Big Apple with his girlfriend, model Vittoria Ceretti, and his niece.

Formula 1 star Valtteri Bottas rode a bike with his girlfriend while vacationing in Baja California during a break in the racing schedule.

Then there’s this.

And this.

………

It’s now 299 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And an even 40 months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

………

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

Momentum says riding a bike in the city is turning into a culture war.

A road raging Tennessee driver faces charges for repeatedly trying to run down a man riding in a bike lane, before getting out of his car and throwing the victim’s bike at him — all because the victim tapped the car’s hood because he thought the driver was going to bump him.

Once again, a British bike rider has been the victim of an unprovoked attack, with the man suffering a broken arm when he was pushed off his bicycle by a passenger in a passing car, just for giggles.

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

A road raging 73-year old Utah man went off on a calm driver in his 20s, who recorded the whole incident, claiming the driver almost hit him and demanding that the police come and arrest him, at one point screaming “I have more rights than you.” Which isn’t true, of course. And sadly, almost hitting someone isn’t illegal — but disorderly conduct is. 

Police in Des Plaines, Illinois are on the lookout for a road raging bike rider who stabbed a motorist multiple times, after they got in an argument because the man on the bike was riding salmon.

A Montreal columnist says the city’s roads are still nerve-racking places plagued by reckless cowboys in cars, because their behavior is all better now — it’s the people on ebikes, e-scooters and other “e-contraptions” plaguing the streets now.

An Aussie bicyclist got into a fist fight with a postal worker, after punching the side mirror and the side of the van, complaining that the driver had cut him off and threw something at him. Seriously, violence is always the wrong answer. And even you’re in the right, you’ll get the blame as soon as you throw the first punch. 

………

Local  

Streetsblog USA considers how to defeat car culture in the country’s deadliest city for pedestrians,                                                                                                                                                                                                            but other sources say we’re not even in the top ten per capita.

If you’ve ever wondered why you can’t ride your bike through the gated streets of Country Club Park in Mid-City, a writer for Afro LA does a deep dive into the cause. And the effects on the people who live nearby.

Streets For All offers their endorsements on two ballot measures, urging a yes vote on Measure A and Proposition 5, while Streets for All founder Michael Schneider explains why bike lanes often seem “empty” in LA.

Speaking of SAFE, the group is teaming the Los Feliz Neighborhood Council and Council District 13 to clean up debris and litter in the new Hollywood Blvd bike lanes this Saturday.

Yesterday’s Heart of LA CicLAvia leaves just two major open streets events remaining in the LA area this year.

 

State

Calbike urges you to Bike the Vote this November.

Streets For All offers their final update on the safe streets bills in this year’s state legislative session, for better or worse.

San Diego-based Juiced Bikes appears to be just the last ebike manufacturer to go belly up, with all products out of stock, and ghosting concerned customers.

Sad news from Alamo, in the East Bay, where a woman was killed when a driver pulled out from the side of the road, striking her bike.

Sad news from Sacramento, where a man riding a bicycle was killed by a suspected DUI driver.

 

National

Bike Magazine highlights the ten most scenic bike trails in the US, including one in Death Valley.

Velo offers a buyers guide to almost all the best bike lights.

This is the cost of traffic violence. A popular Bend, Oregon chef was killed in a hit-and-run while riding his ebike in nearby Medford; police arrested the driver shortly later for DUI.

Another Arizona mass casualty crash, when an SUV driver plowed into six members of the Major Taylor Phoenix Riders from behind as they road in a bike lane, sending three people to the hospital the hospital with serious injuries; no word on why the driver couldn’t see six people on bikes riding in an effing bike lane — or why the driver wasn’t charged.

Missouri bike thief busted while naked, stoned and armed with a chainsaw. Seriously, what could possibly go wrong?

Czech carmaker Škoda’s We Love Cycling website takes their bike love to the city that never sleeps.

 

International

A Cycling Weekly columnist blocks out the trauma of paying for his last bike, arguing that high prices put dream bikes in fantasy land for most of us.

Road.cc considers the problem inherent with calling a cyclists “cyclists.” Which is why I don’t. 

Momentum suggests eight of the best “affordable” commuter ebikes. Although affordable is a relative term. 

Momentum readers forward their picks for the world’s crappiest bike lanes, including two in San Diego.

An op-ed from Ontario, Canada’s minister of transportation says the province needs to rethink policies that leave drivers stuck in traffic, and should only place bike lanes “where they make sense.” In other words, not where they’ll get in the way of all those hard-working people in cars. 

Now you, too, can rent a home on the English street made famous in Ridley Scott’s 1973 Hovis ad.

A writer for Bike Radar takes a “near-perfect” two-week Scottish bikepacking with his partner, on “incredible island roads” marred by a mere 30 minutes of rain.

A British startup says their “perfect” handlebars will be a greatest aero advancement of the coming year.

An Irish writer explores why greenways are love by bike riders, but loathed by landowners.

Mumbai’s bicycling community continues to grow despite the city’s urban chaos, including a near-total lack of bike infrastructure.

A writer for AFAR spends five days riding through Rwanda, and explains why it’s the best way to see the country.

 

Competitive Cycling

Tragic news from the European Gravel Championships, where Italian masters cyclist Silvano Jane died of a sudden heart attack during the race; he was 69.

This one goes under the heading of bicyclists behaving badly, as former European ‘cross champ Eli Iserbyt stomped on a rival’s bike after a crash during an altercation in the first race of the season. Which does not bode well for the rest of the year.

No surprise here, as this year’s GOAT won Italy’s Il Lombardia classic, with Tadej Pogačar topping Olympic Champion Remco Evenepoel and Giulio Ciccone in a long solo breakaway.

Pogacar responds to the rumbling that he must be on something, saying people don’t have trust in cyclists these days. And for very good reason.

 

Finally…

Pedal your way out of your next hospital stay. Your next bike helmet could inflate like an accordion.

And now you know what happened to your stolen bike.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

LA and Metro ignore HLA-mandated bike lanes on Vermont, and Gov. Newsom may not understand the risks of speeding

October 7, 2024 / / Comments Off on LA and Metro ignore HLA-mandated bike lanes on Vermont, and Gov. Newsom may not understand the risks of speeding
Just 84 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025. 

Conceptual rendering of bike lane-free Vermont courtesy of Streetsblog LA.

………

Sadly, no surprise here.

A large collection of Los Angeles advocacy groups, led by Streets For All and ACT-LA, are complaining that Metro’s plan for bus lanes on Vermont Ave don’t comply with the requirements of Measure HLA.

The ballot measure, initially sponsored by Streets For All, passed with overwhelming support in the March primary election, winning two-thirds of the vote in the City of Los Angeles.

It ordered the city to comply with a very simple requirement to build out the already approved Mobility Plan 2035 whenever streets in the plan get resurfaced.

Or maybe not so simple, since LA officials have apparently been busy dragging their feet and looking for loopholes ever since.

According to Streetsblog LA, Metro has been working on plans to add bus lanes to Vermont for over a decade, scaling back what had been 12 miles to just six.

And just bus lines.

Advocates see Vermont as a key opportunity. If you can’t go big, be thorough, and make transit and transit riders a top priority on one of Metro’s and the nation’s highest ridership corridors, where can you?

The Alliance for Community Transit (ACT-LA) is currently circulating a letter (sign on as an individual or organization) in support of improving Vermont for people on bus, bike, and on foot – from Sunset Boulevard to the Metro C (Green) Line Athens Station. ACT-LA and two dozen organizations are calling for following features all along the nearly 12-mile-long project:

  • uninterrupted bus lanes
  • protected bike lanes
  • pedestrian scrambles at high injury and bus transfer intersections
  • tree planting, non-hostile shelters, signage, wayfinding, trash bins, and a bus rider bill of rights at every stop
  • wait time displays and public water at all major intersections
  • electrification of buses along the corridor
  • preserving all street vending and expanding the sidewalk in areas with high vending concentrations

But Metro’s current scaled-back, penny-pinching plan includes “little for pedestrians, and nothing for cyclists.”

Metro somehow claims that’s consistent with the mobility plan, and “helps support” Measure HLA.

Streets For All disagrees. And they should know, since they wrote the damn thing.

This week, the advocacy group Streets for All, the main proponent of Measure HLA and one of the signatories of the ACT-LA letter, wrote to Mayor Karen Bass and Metro CEO Stephanie Wiggins in support of Metro’s Vermont project proceeding in full compliance with Measure HLA. The letter states:

“As designed, the BRT project brings (welcome) improvements to Vermont Avenue… Those trigger the City’s obligation to install Mobility Plan enhancements. Therefore, were the City to issue permits for the project without assuring implementation of its Mobility Plan enhancements at the same time, the City would violate its ordinance, waste public funds, and allow Vermont’s dangerous conditions to remain despite the voters’ mandate.”

Streets for All notes that the project complies with the city’s plan for transit and pedestrian facilities, but not for bikeways.

It would be bad enough if this were a one-off. But Streetsblog includes a long list of current projects that don’t appear to comply with the mobility plan or HLA.

HLA gives Angelenos the right to sue to force implementation of the measure, and that could be where we’re heading.

Los Angeles seems to be daring these organizations to take them to court, either thinking they won’t do it, or in hopes of somehow getting the measure overturned.

Which seems unlikely, since it’s now part of the city charter.

We thought we had won when HLA passed. But clearly, this battle is just getting started.

………

Streets Are For Everyone, aka SAFE, notes that California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a wide range of traffic safety measures passed in the last legislative session.

These range from mandating that Caltrans follow its own Complete Streets policies, to bills extending the statute of limitations for hit-and-run if the driver flees the state.

But Newsom dropped the ball when it came to speeding drivers, vetoing a bill to increase the penalty for speeding more than 26 mph over a 55 mph limit, as well as a bill to mandate an audible warning when drivers exceed the posted speed limit by more than 10 mph.

You can read SAFE’s full article explaining both Newsom’s reasons for the vetoes, and why they think he was wrong.

But for now, let’s just say they raise serious questions over whether the governor truly grasps the dangers posed by speeding drivers to everyone around them, both on and off the roadway.

If he did, he would work with the legislature to fix the bills or to craft alternatives that he would favor, rather than just killing them with a stroke of the pen.

People both in and out of motor vehicles are injured and dying at ever increasing rates, many through no fault of their own.

And speeding is one of the leading causes of that.

If the governor doesn’t understand that, nothing will improve until he leaves office.

………

A bike ride on Saturday, October 19th will explore the new bike lanes on Hollywood Blvd, which many people noted weren’t ready for prime time during the recent Hollywoods CicLAvia.

………

It’s now 292 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And an even 40 months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

………

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

Call if a false alarm this time. It turns out the dangling wire a Milwaukee bike rider was nearly decapitated by when it wrapped around his neck as he rode past a light pole was part of an Eruv that had fallen, used by a Jewish community to allow them to move about celebrate the Sabbath more freely.

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

Seriously, if videos show bike riders avoiding a newly constructed Melbourne, Australia protected bike lane, there’s probably a reason for it.

………

Local  

A travel writer visits Los Angeles, and finds it surprisingly bikeable — as long as you’re on a guided bike tour, and do much of your riding on bike paths.

 

State

About damn time. Caltrans is finally getting around to adding bike lanes on San Diego’s busy Friars Road. I wasn’t comfortable riding on Friars when I live down there, and that was nearly four decades ago.

 

National

A British travel writer rode his bike 4,000 miles through the heart of conservative small town America, relating what he learned about “guns, politics and Trump.”

Your next road bike could be 3D printed — and the most aero bike ever built  — while your next racing tires could inflate themselves, automatically adjusting for differences in terrain.

An Idaho reporter talks about the interesting and crazy people he bumped into riding his bike down the left coast.

He gets it. A Boston writer says bike lanes don’t just benefit people on bicycles, they help everyone — yes, even businesses — improving safety and accessibility, traffic flow, and environmental sustainability.

Cambridge, Massachusetts is making $1.5 million in safety improvements to a local street, weeks after a father was killed when a driver lost control and drove up onto the sidewalk he was riding his bike on. As usual, only making the improvements they knew they needed after it’s too late.

A New York woman is being called a hero after she stopped her car to save the life of a man who suffered a heart attack while he was riding, giving the experienced triathlete CPR on the side of the road until paramedics arrived.

New York City is encouraging safe and fun bicycling through their Biketober initiative, with events scheduled throughout the month in all five boroughs. Just let me know when to show up for Biketoberfest.

He gets it, too. An op-ed from a South Carolina writer says the problem isn’t dangerous bicyclists, but speeding drivers — and it’s time to slow them down.

 

International

Road.cc explains everything you need to know about bike cams but were afraid to ask.

A newspaper in Edinburgh, Scotland talks with local bike riders about what makes them feel unsafe on the road, including potholes, narrow roads and dangerous drivers.

A London man got his stolen ebike back by posing as a locksmith, knowing the thief — or the schmuck he sold it to — would need a new one to make it work.

A British bicycling instructor is using his bike cam to bring bad drivers to justice. Too bad that’s illegal here. 

Cycling Weekly explores why twice as many bicyclists are killed riding on rural roads in the UK compared to busy city streets, and what can be done to bike riders safe on country roads.

A government minister in the Netherlands wants to see a quarter of all bike riders wearing helmets within the next decade, in a country where only four percent currently do.

Hong Kong’s police chief calls for mandatory bike helmets, as bicycling deaths rise in the city; six of the eight bicyclist killed this year weren’t wearing one. Yet somehow, no one seems to be calling for banning large trucks and SUVS, or any of the other multitude of factors that could be causing the jump, besides what the victims did or didn’t have on their head.

An Aussie man decided to move to China permanently after touring the country by bicycle, personally witnessing the changes in the countryside in the two decades when he lived and worked in Guangdong.

 

Competitive Cycling

Mathieu van der Poel won this year’s Men’s Gravel World Championships riding an actual gravel bike this time, instead of riding his roadie.

Pro cyclist Lachlan Morton shattered the record for riding around Australia, completing the 8,800 mile journey in just 30 days, nine hours and 59 minutes, and beating the old record by nearly seven days — despite a close call with a kangaroo.

Good news, as Belgian cycling star Wout van Aert is back on his bike for the first time since a devastating crash in the Vuelta last month.

 

Finally…

Forget a tent on your next bike tour, and tow a trailer — unless your trailer is a bike, of course. Sometimes it takes a village to get your stolen ebike back.

And we may have to deal with predatory LA drivers, but at least we don’t usually have to worry about migrating great white sharks.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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