One quick question before we start.
Does it count as Viking Biking in Los Angeles when there’s water falling from the sky?
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Evidently, 20 really is plenty.
Overall traffic injuries in Edinburgh, Scotland have dropped 24% since the city instituted a 20 mph speed limit. And fatalities and serious injuries dropped nearly a third.
More evidence that if Los Angeles is serious about Vision Zero — something that remains to be seen — it will have to get serious about lowing speed limits.
Which will be difficult to do under current state law.
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That effort could be aided a little by a new bill in the state legislature that would allow cities to lower speed limits on streets with a high crash rate.
The bill, AB 2363, sponsored by Glendale’s Laura Friedman, is a long way from repealing the state’s deadly 85th percentile law, which allows speeding drivers to set dangerously high speed limits.
But at least it’s a step in the right direction.
And one Los Angeles should support if we hope to make a dent in the city’s far-too-high fatality rate.
Then again, one death is one too many.
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Local
Ewan McGregor is one of us, as the paparazzi catch him going for a bike ride with his daughter in LA.
State
A woman was seriously injured in San Diego County’s Imperial Beach when she was struck by a left-turning driver as she rode with two other people in a bike lane. Needless to say, the driver claims he never saw her — and somehow concludes, based on that total lack of knowledge, that she never saw him, either. Thanks to Frank Lehnerz for the heads-up.
People for Bikes offers lessons learned from San Francisco’s “lightening-fast, dirt-cheap” protected bike lanes.
National
In news that should surprise absolutely no one, studies show that Uber and Lyft are adding to the congestion on our streets, rather than reducing it.
Hawaii bike riders complain that drivers give cyclists less space on the road than they’d give a dog.
A Wisconsin city is making efforts to become more bike-friendly, nearly two centuries after bicycles first came to town. Even if one of the two bike-friendly businesses is the local tackle shop.
Dozens of Illinois cyclists took a 40-mile winter bike ride to promote year-round bicycling, and raise funds to buy a new bicycle for the local police department.
A Detroit newspaper looks at calls to boycott the maker of Giro, Bell, Camelbak and Copilot bike gear, because their parent company also make guns and ammunition, and supports the NRA.
A 77-year old Pennsylvania woman has donated the funds needed to finish a $1 million bike and pedestrian bridge over a highway, which will be named after her surgeon husband, who passed away last year.
Bike riders in Atlanta are complaining about cars blocking bike lanes. In other words, just like drivers do virtually everywhere else.
International
Nice story, as a mother worries, and does the research, when her 5-year old daughter asks if she can ride to school by herself.
A Toronto newspaper sings the praises of bicycling in Mexico City, while noting it’s still far from a bike paradise.
An Ottawa, Canada newspaper complains that bikes were an afterthought in plans for a new train line, after commissioners reject plans to ban bikes from the trains at rush hour.
Ebike sales are surging in Europe, as they give older and disabled people the opportunity to ride, while others look to reduce their carbon footprint.
The war on bikes continues, as a road raging English driver tries to run a bike rider off the road, before getting out and pushing him off his bike.
An automotive website looks at the problem of introducing dockless bikeshare to Amsterdam, where most residents already own one or more bikes, and don’t welcome the new bikes cluttering their sidewalks.
A Spanish man tells the tale of how he spent 28 days in a coma after being struck by lightening, then recovered enough to win a bronze medal at last year’s paracycling world championships. Oddly, he was struck just days after getting a lightening bolt tattoo.
New Zealand bicyclists complain that moving a bike lane to the opposite side of the street to avoid conflicts with bus stops has actually made it more dangerous.
Auckland, New Zealand turns to polka dot streets in an effort to get drivers to slow down and protect bike riders and pedestrians.
Caught on video: A lane-splitting Aussie bike rider slams into an 80-year old man who was crossing mid-block between stalled cars.
Competitive Cycling
Locals fear Philadelphia’s 33-year old professional bike race is over for good, after being canceled for the second straight year.
VeloNews offers photo essays from the winter Omloop and Muur cycling classics.
Finally…
When you feel the need for a hard ride, but don’t actually want to go anywhere. That feeling when the hit-and-run driver who ran you over is a Nintendo character in a go-kart.
And why bother building more bikeways when you can just declare your city bike-friendly?
