Tag Archive for active transportation

81-year old man clings to life after Orange County e-moto hit-and-run, and 3-time world paracycling champ killed in Texas

April 20, 2026 / / One comment

This is who we share the road with.

An 81-year old Orange County man was left fighting for his life when he was run down by a 14-year old kid riding a electric motorcycle, who fled the scene afterwards.

The boy was reportedly riding recklessly when he collided with the victim as the older man was crossing the street. Deputies identified the suspect and arrested him after serving a search warrant at a nearby home in Lake Forest.

The Orange County Sheriffs Department reports he was on a Surron e-motorbike, which is not street legal and can reach speeds up to 68 mph, depending on the model.

And thanks to the OCSD for making it clear the boy on an e-moto, and not a Class 1, 2 or 3 ped-assist ebike.

Although not every media outlet was careful to make that distinction.

Meanwhile, Jalopnik correctly observes that confusing electric motorcycles with ebikes is more than just semantics.

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Tragic news from Texas, where a three-time paracycling world champ and seven-time Paralympic medalist was killed by a driver on Thursday morning.

Fifty-four-year old Dory Sellinger lost his right leg and suffered a TBI in 1993 when a driver suffering a psychotic break intentionally plowed into a group of riders in Alamo, California, after hearing voices telling her to “Get the demons!” Another rider named Vladimir Quinn was killed in that crash.

A crowdfunding campaign to benefit Sellinger’s family has raised nearly $21,000 of the $25,000 goal.

And yeah, I gave to that one.

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A new Chinese study shows that younger urban adults are more car-dependent than previous generations, but could be quicker to with to active transportation if they get better infrastructure.

Although whether the results can be replicated in other car-dependent countries, such as the US, remains to be seen.

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We could be getting bike lanes on Vermont Ave after all.

Although the motion only calls on the city to study adding bike lanes to the project. And as well all know, studying is what this city does best, rather than actually, you know, doing anything.

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Someone please get me this painting for my birthday. Or Cinco de Mayo or Memorial Day, or something.

https://bsky.app/profile/coolbikeart1.bsky.social/post/3mjpo7cbrus2s

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Video circulated throughout the Mideast showing the President of Iran casually riding a bike with the governor of Isfahan and other officials over the weekend, appearing unfazed by the American and Israeli attacks.

But it was actually video from October of last year.

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

No bias here. London police are proudly going after the relatively few bicyclists caught running red lights, but only made arrests in 2% bike thefts, and none of the 106 hit-and-runs involving bicyclists last year; the meager 4% of hit-and-run cases resulting in a conviction were the result of drivers turning themselves in.

Once again, a bike trail has apparently been sabotaged, this time in France near the Swiss border, when someone strung a cable across the trail at eye level that knocked two kids off their bicycles while on a family outing.

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

Maybe it’s the result of a bad translation. Two sets of South Korean parents were arrested and released on charges of child neglect after their middle school kids reportedly threatened people with their “Pixie” bikes, the site says is an abbreviation for “fixed-gear.” Can’t speak for you, but “pixie bike” kinda has a ring to it.  

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Local 

An op-ed in the new Rupert Murdoch-owned California Post looks at LA’s invention of the phrase “large asphalt repair” rather than repaving, which would trigger legal mandates increasing the costs, concluding that fewer streets will get fixed and we’ll all be worse off as long as “fixing a street means triggering a cascade of costly mandates.”

The ROW DTLA shopping and housing complex is hosting the bike-centered Pedal for the Planet with Playdate this Saturday, with families encouraged to bike between various hands-on sustainability projects.

 

State

Calbike says AB 2168 currently before the state legislature ensures that we’re getting the most out of California’s Active Transportation Program. Particularly since Governor Newsom keeps insisting on cutting it. 

Advocate groups are pushing for a second attempt at a docked bikeshare system in San Diego County, after a previous attempt at both docked and docked bikeshare, as well as e-scooters, failed due to theft, vandalism and improperly parked vehicles.

San Diego’s budget problems are leading to criticism of the city’s daylighting enforcement, since it can’t afford crews to paint curbs leading to intersections.

A writer for Bike Rumor calls this year’s Sea Otter Classic “weird, wacky, unique and a little bit funky,” while admiring the “pretty, unique, and eye-catching custom painted bikes” on display.

Sad news from Sacramento, where a man riding a bicycle was killed by a driver in the North Natomas neighborhood on Friday.

 

National

The Smithsonian, of all sources, looks at the history of yesterday’s Bicycle Day, 83 years after Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann accidentally ingested LSD before bicycling home from his lab in Basel, Switzerland, taking the first trip on two wheels.

A new study of 28 cities and more than 14,000 neighborhoods tells you what we all already knew, that a connected bike network is key to growing bike ridership.

A Reno, Nevada bike rider shares what he’s found on the side of the road, from gold and diamonds, organic avocados and bullets, to fear of death from passing motorists.

The Colorado legislature passed a new bill that not only bans blocking bike lanes, but also replaces the word “accident” with “crash” in state statutes.

A kindhearted Texas police sergeant was honored for fixing a student’s broken bicycle on the spot.

Rhode Island doubled down on highway building when the Trump administration pulled $25 million in funding that had been set aside to build a bike path; to save the funding, the state diverted it into making mile-long highway a little more pleasant.

 

International

A Toronto supercar driver murdered a row of bicycles, plowing his orange McLaren through a bike rack and scattering bike parts across the area, before ending up pointed skyward against a wall.

An Edinburgh, Scotland man says he doesn’t feel safe riding his bike in the city anymore, after a group yobs lobbed logs and a bicycle at him as he rode on the bike path.

Dozens of bicyclists descended on Dursley, England over the weekend to honor Danish-born Mikael Pedersen, inventor of the unique Pedersen bicycle, made in the town through 1914.

Off.road.cc offers a list of British bike brands actually made in the UK, for all you bicycle Anglophiles out there.

Italian tennis star Jannik Sinner is one of us, and so is his girlfriend, influencer Laila Hasanovic, as they were spotted on a relaxing bike ride in Monaco.

Taiwan’s Giant bicycle is reportedly on the verge of launching the first ebike powered by a semi-solid-state battery, a step between lithium-ion and solid-state batteries, which could provide more energy for less weight, longer life and less risk of fires.

An Australian Communications professor offers advice on how to get back on your bike after months or years of not riding, including giving up any ideas of what a “cyclist” is supposed to be, and that you’re more likely to ride your bike if you keep it near the door.

Aussie bike shops are being threatened with fines of up to $1.1 million for selling fixies that don’t comply with the country’s consumer safety standards, including having both front and rear brakes.

 

Competitive Cycling

American pro Matteo Jorgenson won’t be leading the Visma–Lease a Bike into the Ardennes Classics after crashing out of Amstel Gold Race when he broke his collarbone colliding with a competitor on a damp, downhill corner, and going down hard.

Twenty-four-year old Megan Jastrab’s 5th place was the best American finish in Paris-Roubaix in 25 years, since George Hincapie’s 2001 4th place; Greg LeMond also finished fourth in 1985. Hincapie actually finished 2nd in 2005, but his podium finish was voided because of his involvement in the USADA doping scandal.

 

Finally…

Probably not the best idea to headbutt a cop after swerving a bicycle at multiple women. Your next ebike could be a woodie.

And that feeling when the pickup driver blocking a bike lane isn’t blocking a bike lane because the bike lane isn’t a bike lane, despite the distinct bike lane markings not marking the bike lane.

Got that?

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Hoboken goes 9 years without a traffic death while LA gives up; and Streetsblog tracks transportation bills in CA legislature

April 8, 2026 / / 2 comments

Hoboken proves once again that Vision Zero works.

But only if a city actually commits to it.

The New Jersey city, famous as the home of Frank Sinatra, has now gone nine full years without a traffic death.

Not one bicycling death. Not one pedestrian.

Not even someone driving or riding in the big, dangerous machines.

According to The Good Men Project,

Sixteen years in, about two-thirds of Hoboken’s intersections are now furnished with physical deterrents, and the city has hundreds of high-visibility crosswalks and dozens of curb extensions.

After especially extensive road upgrades in 2022, Hoboken saw 18% fewer injury crashes and a 62% reduction in serious injuries from 2022 to 2023.

The key, according to outgoing Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla, who oversaw the project for the past eight years,

Bhalla successfully rallied support from within and outside of government, launching Hoboken’s Vision Zero Task Force in 2019. Public engagement, Francese says, was and is core to this. Community surveys and meetings allowed leaders to hear from multiple voices, “not just the loudest,” he says, and piloting changes at one or two intersections first allowed people time to test and assess new infrastructure before commitments were made on a larger scale…

Not only did community members come to better understand the reasons for certain changes, but many also got on board once they saw the changes in action. Community members now play a role themselves, flagging when infrastructure needs fixing and asking for specific upgrades at intersections that don’t have them. Public reporting of “near-miss” data also supplements close calls caught by city cameras that are being piloted around the city.

No one said it’s easy, or cheap.

Vision Zero failed in Los Angeles because the city failed to adequately fund it. And the first time there was significant pushback, city officials ran scared, cancelling fully funded and shovel ready projects in multiple council districts, including dangerous and deadly streets like North Figueroa and Temple Street.

Now there’s a campaign urging Mayor Bass and the City Council to declare a state of emergency regarding traffic violence — although that may fall to her successor, whoever that may be, after June’s election.

You’ll find my name on the petition calling for it.

If you haven’t already, add yours. Do it right now; it only takes a few moments.

Then demand that our city leaders follow suit now, during the campaign, when they need our votes.

And let’s hold them to it this time.

Photo from Streetsblog LA shows former Mayor Eric Garcetti signing Vision Zero proclamation at his big, beautiful desk.

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Streetsblog offers a detailed update on transportation-related bills in the state legislature, including bills to increase the penalty for DUI and limit the power of ebikes to the same cap as in European nations, while another bans passengers on ebikes not designed for two people.

It’s worth taking a few minutes to read the entire list — and making a few calls to your representatives to make sure they pass.

Well, most of them, anyway.

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Now you, too, can build your own DIY bike frame. But whether you should is another question.

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Nothing like crash-landing on the roof of a car.

Relatively on purpose, for a change.

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

No bias here. A San Diego writer says recent news that ridership on the city’s 30th Street bike lanes has risen to record levels is absurd, because she and her friends hardly ever see someone using it from their comfy seats at a local cafe, bike counters be damned. And the bike lanes aren’t accepted by the local community, and never will be. So there.

San Francisco police staged a ticket crackdown blitz on bicyclists and other micromobility users at the intersection of Powell and Market, following the release of the city’s latest High Injury Network map. Never mind that the real danger comes from motorists, it’s also illegal selective enforcement to focus on one group of road users at the exclusion of another. So unless they also ticketed drivers during that enforcement operation, all of those tickets can and should be dismissed.

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Local 

A Los Angeles woman tallies up the cost of giving up her previous carfree lifestyle nine months ago. But you’ll have to find a way around Business Insider’s paywall, or sign up for a free trial that will automatically renew at 13 bucks a month unless you cancel it. 

Hats off to the Pasadena City Council for declaring five key “sacrosanct” budget priorities protected from budget cuts, including improving roadways and implementing pedestrian and bike safety strategies. Maybe they could have a little chat with LA’s city leaders. 

 

State

Apropos of our earlier discussion, San Francisco officials caved to angry drivers by removing a neck-down that had been shown to improve safety, making their ostensible commitment to Vision Zero “meaningless.”

Sad news from Mono County, where a 34-year old man was killed by a driver as he walked his bicycle along a highway after dark.

 

National

Dwell looks at the world of online urban planning influencers.

The bicycle industry has been protected from the latest round of Trump’s tariffs, after industry leaders came together to oppose a proposal by a kid’s bikemaker and an aluminum trade group to include bicycles in the 50% tariff on imported aluminum and steel.

Honolulu’s bikeshare system is given only a 50/50 chance of survival after a series of setbacks left it with just half the number of bikes it needs to operate sustainably. Funny how many cities refuse to adequately subsidize bikeshare, active transportation and transit, but have no problem pumping hundreds of millions into subsiding the motor vehicle network.

Seriously, it takes a special kind of asshole to steal an adaptive ebike from a Las Vegas Make-A-Wish kid with cystic fibrosis.

Speaking of which, ebike sales are surging at one Las Vegas bike shop, as gas prices top $5 a gallon. Never mind what gas costs here in LA.

A Salt Lake City bicycle collective refurbishes 5,000 bicycles a year to help Utah families, while a Rockford, Illinois “bike surgeon” fixes up old, unwanted bicycles to donate to families in need.

A Brooklyn man was caught on video jumping off his bicycle, just before it was completely run over by a wrong-way driver.

A Pennsylvania man is biking 6,000 miles across the US to visit every Ronald McDonald House to raise awareness and funds for families in need.

DC letter writers complain about the Trump administration’s efforts to rip out a popular bike lane in the city, which they say improves safety for everyone.

 

International

Your next set of bike fenders could set you back a thousand bucks.

Hundreds of Cayman Island bicyclists are expected to turn out next month to finish the ride of a father and triathlete who was killed by a driver last Easter.

Canadian MTB profiles airbrush artist Dylan Forbes, who they say is responsible for some of the “sickest” mountain bikes and helmets out there.

Ignorance is apparently bliss for a large subset of British motorists who somehow think signs reading “no motor vehicles” actually means “cars and motorcycles only”.

A new study from the Netherlands’ National Institute for Public Health and the Environment has found that ebikes offer clear benefits for older people and those with health conditions, but could reduce overall fitness among younger users.

A man from the Netherlands has spent the last 400 days bicycling along and across some of the world’s most challenging borders, questioning why he can pass so easily when so many others can’t.

Czech carmaker Škoda has developed a bike bell designed to penetrate even active noise cancellation headphones. Although the real question is whether it can pierce hermetically sealed motor vehicles with the windows up and the sound system turned to 11. 

A couple students from a Parisian political science institute learn the hard way that just because Manilla, Philippines is considered an “emerging cycling city” that doesn’t mean it’s going to be a smooth ride.

 

Competitive Cycling

People picks up the tragic story of Masters cyclist Colin “Creepy” Wilson, whose wife Tricia Jeffers was watching live online when he swerved to avoid a fallen cyclist during a race in Trinidad and Tobago, and severed his neck on the fence circling the course; his final words as he left for the race were “Tricia I going, I going to put us on the map.” Which he did, though not in the way either expected. 

Bike Radar answers the rocky question of why Paris-Roubaix is raced on cobbled roads never meant for bicycles. Kinda answers itself, doesn’t it?

Cyclist offers photos from the just completed Tour of Flanders. Insert gag about Bart and Homer’s neighbor here.

 

Finally…

Why climb to Everest Base Camp when you can ride there on a vintage foldie? That feeling when a press release for the 13th Annual Amgen Tour of California somehow pops up in the daily news — even though the race was cancelled six years ago.

And who really needs the whole front half of your bike, anyway?

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Trump cuts make America more car-centric again, new book on changing urban landscape, and bike Eastside toxic sites

September 24, 2025 / / Comments Off on Trump cuts make America more car-centric again, new book on changing urban landscape, and bike Eastside toxic sites
Day 267 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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More on the president’s move to make American more car-centric again.

The Trump administration has cut grants for biking and walking safety programs all over the country, after they were somehow deemed “hostile” to motor vehicles and the people in them.

According to Governing,

A San Diego County road improvement project including bike lanes “appears to reduce lane capacity and a road diet that is hostile to motor vehicles,” a US Department of Transportation official wrote, rescinding a $1.2 million grant it awarded nearly a year ago.

In Fairfield, Ala., converting street lanes to trail space on Vinesville Road was also deemed “hostile” to cars, and “counter to DOT’s priority of preserving or increasing roadway capacity for motor vehicles.”

Officials in Boston got a similar explanation, as the Trump administration pulled back a previously awarded grant to improve walking, biking and transit in the city’s Mattapan Square neighborhood in a way that would change the “current auto-centric configuration.” Another grant to improve safety at intersections in the city was terminated, the DOT said, because it could “impede vehicle capacity and speed.”

In other words, anything that might slightly inconvenience anyone in the big, dangerous machines, or somehow inhibit their ability to go “zoom, zoom” to their heart’s content is now on the chopping block, regardless of how much it might reduce congestion or how many lives it could save.

Never mind that some of Trump’s own supporters ride bicycle, and demand for better bike and pedestrian safety and active transportation networks is rising in both red and blue states.

And despite the desire of government officials to return to a more petroleum-driven past, canceling projects like this will do nothing to reduce congestion or improve safety, while likely having the opposite effects.

Photo by Aayush Srivastava from Pexels.

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The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy’s new book City Tech: 20 Apps, Ideas, and Innovators Changing the Urban Landscape is now available in both paperback and e-reader formats.

According to the publisher,

The world is rapidly urbanizing, and experts predict that up to 80 percent of the population will live in cities by 2050. To accommodate that growth while ensuring quality of life for all residents, cities are increasingly turning to technology. From apps that make it easier for citizens to pitch in on civic improvement projects to comprehensive plans for smarter streets and neighborhoods, new tools and approaches are taking root across the United States and around the world. In this thoughtful, inquisitive collection of City Tech columns—originally published in Land Lines magazine and updated with new reflections and resources for the book—Rob Walker investigates the technologies that have emerged over the past few years and their implications for planners, policy makers, residents, and the virtual and literal landscapes of the cities we call home.

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People For Mobility Justice is co-hosting a bike tour of Eastside toxic sites next weekend.

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

No bias here. A British reporter confronted London bike riders about whether they were going to stop and/or for red lights — including at least one who stopped and waited through the full red light cycle — while ignoring whatever the hell the people in the big dangerous machines were doing, and admitting that he jumps red lights when he rides a bike, too.

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Local 

Long Beach is starting construction on a five-mile, $65 million Complete Streets makeover of Studebaker Road, which cuts through several of the city’s easternmost neighborhoods.

 

State

Chula Vista Mayor John McCann sat down with a San Diego TV station to discuss the city’s new ebike restrictions. Although what’s still missing is a clear distinction between electric dirt bikes and electric motorbikes, and ped-assist ebikes.

The local newspaper goes behind the scenes of the Santa Rosa Cycling Club’s warehouse, complete with everything needed to stage a large bike fundraiser or bicycling event.

Fresno cops apparently took their recent bicycle and pedestrian safety operation seriously, citing 132 drivers for violations such as failing to yield, speeding, distracted driving and running red lights, along with 54 tickets for bicyclists and pedestrians.

Berkeley residents can now apply for a monthly lottery for an ebike voucher to get up to $1,500 off the price of a new ebike.

 

National

Colorado’s fiscal problems will result in reducing the state’s ebike tax rebate in half next year, cutting the popular program from $450 to $225.

This is who we share the road with. A 20-year old Ohio man faces a trio of charges for the drunken hit-and-run crash that killed a 51-year old woman riding a bicycle, while driving a mere 55 mph over the speed limit.

The less than bike-friendly New York Post insists that the recent makeover of a “notoriously dangerous Central Park thoroughfare” has made it even more treacherous for pedestrians and joggers, while clearly suggesting the people on two wheels are to blame for the increased risk.

 

International

Canada’s new Vancouver Crossing Loop offers a 314-mile gravel route that begins and ends in Victoria, British Columbia; the trail is designed for ebikes and beginners, as well as seasoned bicyclists. However, what they’re seasoned with remains to be determined, although they are known to be somewhat salty. 

A Scottish van driver was sentenced to six years behind bars for killing a 32-year old father who was riding his bike to work, while he was busy reading paperwork instead of watching the road — and he was somehow still working as a commercial driver, despite nine previous traffic violations and a history of illegal drug use.

English police are investigating after thieves broke into four houses on the same street in a single night to steal high-end bicycles.

Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City will start construction next month on its first dedicated bikeway, a nearly four-mile fully separated corridor along a major roadway.

 

Competitive Cycling

Cycling Weekly says the fans turning out to watch the World Road Cycling Championships in Rwanda don’t look like the typical cycling fans, and that’s a good thing.

Cycling Weekly also introduces the world to 17-year old American Ashlin Barry, who took silver in the junior world time trial championships this week, missing out on the rainbow jersey by a mere seven seconds.

The Israeli national cycling team will compete in next month’s European Championships, despite recent race disruptions by pro-Palestinian protesters.

 

Finally…

Why wait for bikes to hit the streets to run them down, when you can just hit the bike shop with a rock? And if you want a careless driving ticket dismissed, just give your bike riding victim a lift to the hospital.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

CTC approves $5 billion for transportation but pittance for bikes & peds, and we’re not even safe at open streets events

June 30, 2025 / / Comments Off on CTC approves $5 billion for transportation but pittance for bikes & peds, and we’re not even safe at open streets events
Day 181 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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When is $5 billion not $5 billion?

When it comes from the California Transportation Commission.

The CTC announced this past week that they are investing that amount to improve road safety, reduce traffic congestion and promote cleaner transportation.

Although that amount drops a lot before they get to the “cleaner transportation” part. And even more before they get to the active kind of clean.

Nearly half of that 5 billion bucks is allocated for crumbling roadways, with another $1.45 billion to improve low-emission freight networks, while nearly $810 million goes to streamline freight movement to reduce truck idling and cut pollution.

You have to get all the way down to the bottom before bikes and pedestrians get a mention. Even then, it’s in the context of $483 million for passenger rail extensions, bike lanes and rapid transit bus systems, along with another $202 million for local rail, transit and pedestrian upgrades.

Which includes things $63 million to add a bridge and wildlife crossing for Riverside County’s Ramona Expressway — along with some bike lanes to help greenwash the project — as well $49 million for EV charging, and $28 million for ultra-fast vehicle chargers.

Oh, and there’s also a relatively minuscule $18 million to improve traffic safety near five Los Angeles schools, most of which will undoubtedly be spent to undo the damage caused by cars, rather than proactively improving biking and walking.

Even though that’s what kids do.

At least the ones who don’t get dropped off in big honking SUVs, pun intended.

Meanwhile, California Streetsblog says the CTC didn’t do anything to dispel the charge it just rubber stamps highway widening, after unanimously approving every highway project before it.

They may have a point.

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We’re not even safe at open streets events.

Two Pittsburgh PA bike riders were lucky to escape with minor injuries when a woman blew through a barricade blocking streets for the event in her car, striking the first rider with her mirror.

She made a U-turn as bystanders yelled at her, before running down a second woman who heroically tried to use her bike to stop her.

Sheriff’s deputies working safety at the event finally brought the rampage to a halt, but had to bust out the car window to drag her out as she struggled and “became verbally abusive,” yelling racist statements at the cops.

No reason was given for the incident, and there’s no word on whether it was intentional.

But it sure as hell sounds like it.

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

A brand new bike path in a Welsh city remains blocked by a gate, which may not swing open for at least another two months.

A British railway operator scrapped plans to scrap bike parking over fears it could be used for a car bomb. Or maybe a bike bomb, in this case.

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

If you’re going to carry an illegal ghost gun with an extended magazine and laser attachment on your bike, try not to crash into a park car like this Connecticut teen.

Nothing like another mountain biker tossing your bike off a wet Whistler, Canada bridge just because you stopped to enjoy the view.

Speaking of videos, an Edinburgh bike rider posted video of a run-in with a pedestrian that begins with the bicyclist running a red light, and ends with him repeatedly telling the other man to fuck off — then is surprised when commenters criticize him instead of the other guy.

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Local 

Malibu is extending its local emergency declaration addressing traffic violence on PCH, where 23 people have died in 22 crashes between 2018 and 2022, and 170 deaths and serious injuries between 2011 and 2023.

 

State

A 73-year old California man is walking or bicycling 50 kilometers — aka 31 miles — in each of the 50 states in just 50 days to inspire seniors to be more active.

Sad news from Fresno, where a woman was killed when she was run down from behind by a hit-and-run pickup driver, who clearly had to know they hit someone after dragging the woman’s bicycle 120 feet down the roadway.

 

National

If you bought a Bell bike helmet from Target or Walmart, you may have to take it back after a number of models are recalled.

A Utah man is filled with gratitude after finding he could do an entire ride to a downtown meeting on bike paths and bike lanes, 30 years after giving up his regular bike commute due to the risk.

That’s more like it. It’s now illegal for Utah motorists to block or drive in a bike lane, and they must yield to bicyclists riding in one.

Authorities in Montana are on the hunt for a killer grizzly bear who fatally mauled a 38-year old mountain biker on a trail trail just outside Glacier National Park after startling the bear, while his riding companion went for help.

Chicago Streetsblog complains that the city is not one of the nation’s worst cities for bicycling, despite what People For Bikes says, while admitting there’s room for improvement. Meanwhile, Los Angeles has even more room to improve.

NY Streetsblog offers “affidavits” from people who use a threatened Queens bike lane safely and legally, before an expected Tuesday court ruling in a lawsuit to save it, while making it clear the judge is an active contributor to the politician who wants to rip it out.

Lyft magnanimously agreed to stop blaming New York’s Pride celebrations for capping bikeshare ebike speeds at 15 mph, when it actually came in response to a directive from the mayor’s office.

A pair of New York women were both sentenced to six years behind bars for killing a 22-year old man riding a bicycle in New Jersey, even though only one woman actually hit him; both were driving separate cars up to 90 mph in a 50 mph zone, while passing other drivers on the shoulder of the roadway leading up to the crash.

This is how Vision Zero should work. Philadelphia is implementing safety improvements at an intersection where a 50-year old man was killed while riding his bike last month, as local residents say the changes can’t come quickly enough. Wait until someone tells them changes like that take years here in Los Angeles, if ever.

I really want to be like him when I grow up. An 84-year old Pennsylvania man completed the New Wilmington area’s annual Tour de Donut for at least the sixth time, riding ten miles while eating a dozen donuts.

 

International

Nat Geo has advice on where to go for your first gravel-biking adventure in Scotland.

A British writer rides over 400 miles of gravel on a mountain bike, and says he wouldn’t change a thing, despite “going arse over tits.”

Almost as impressive as the 84-year old donut eating man, an 87-year old man completed the UK’s Land’s End to John o’ Groats challenge, riding the entire length of the country in 14 days, while finishing the ride with two broken ribs and six stitches after crashing two days from the finish.

A new survey shows half of Dutch bike riders have ridden after drinking, while half of those admit to riding drunk. Which may pose its own risks, but I still say it’s better than driving under the influence of anything. 

 

Competitive Cycling

American Sepp Kuss will ride this year’s Tour de France, after missing last year’s race with Covid. Let’s hope he got his shot this year.

Twenty-seven-year old French cyclist Eddy Finé was forced to give up the sport after the Cofidis team revealed he has an “abnormality in the iliac artery, a problem that is incompatible with top-level sport,” and had struggled to return despite three operations in six years with the team.

It was national championship weekend in Europe —

 

Finally…

That feeling when you ride your bike from England to Australia without getting wet. Or when Lance just refuses to go away.

And what self-respecting bird wouldn’t rather go by bike?

@randomspotofglitter

Bike rides are her favorite. #getacockatooitwillbefun #moluccancockatoo #cockatoosoftiktok #peachesthemoluccancockatoo #fleetwoodmac #fyp #parrotsoftiktok #birdsoftiktok #lectricebikes #leathersforfeathers #lectricxptrike

♬ Dreams – Fleetwood Mac

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Nearly a death a year on Vista del Mar, no statute of limitations for CA hit-and-runs, and fight fed cuts to active transportation

March 24, 2025 / / 2 comments
Day 83 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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It’s even worse than we realized.

Last week, I mentioned that at least five people have been killed on Vista del Mar since former Mayor Eric Garcetti ripped out the road diet that was installed in 2017, after Los Angeles shelled out nearly $10 million to settle a lawsuit over the death of a 16-year old girl crossing over to the beach.

Now it turns out, according to LADOT, another 14 people were killed along Vista del Mar from 2003 to 2016.

That’s 19 lives needlessly lost in less than 23 years on the short, four-mile roadway, thanks a wide four-lane design that makes the seemingly bucolic beachfront street a virtual speedway for anyone with a heavy foot.

Yes, an average of nearly one death a year.

So maybe the three-county PCH isn’t SoCal’s killer highway after all, at least on a per-mile basis.

………

About damn time.

Somehow, we missed the news last year that the California legislature passed Carson Assemblymember Mike Gibson’s bill to eliminate the statute of limitations for hit-and-run.

AB 2984, named for the three-year old son of Gibson’s wife, who was killed by a hit-and-run driver 36 years ago, was signed by Gov. Gaven Newsom and is now law.

Which means the driver, who was never caught, could now be prosecuted if they ever find them.

Along with all the other heartless cowards who think they’ve gotten away with it, in a state where the overwhelming majority of hit-and-run drivers are never caught, let alone tried.

Gipson also sponsoring a bill in the current session that would require that drivers convicted of reckless driving install intelligent speed limitation systems in their cars, similar to how a breathalyzer can be required for drunk drivers.

Which is also about damn time.

………

This is exactly what I’ve been warning about.

Whatever your politics, cuts to funding for active transportation puts your safety, and everyone else’s, at risk.

So fight back.

Meanwhile, several states have banded together under the Clean Rides Network to find ways to fund projects the feds have abandoned.

And yes, California is one of them.

………

Streets For All is hosting a virtual lunch tomorrow with Dr. Ian Walker, who they describe as “an Environmental Psychologist who studies motonormativity – the shared bias that prevents us from judging motorized transportation rationally.”

………

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

Once again, someone appears to be deliberately sabotaging a bike trail, as a volunteer group warns about shards of barbed wire intentionally placed on Sacramento’s American River Parkway; so far, the only damage is flat tires, but someone could easily be seriously injured as a result of a blown tire.

A woman in Houston, Texas says a road-raging driver tried to intentionally ram her as she road her ebike, then yelled obscenities and attempted to provoke a confrontation when she tried to take a photo of the driver’s license plate; police say they are investigating.

No bias here. A writer for The Telegraph accuses “rich, Lycra-clad cyclists” of tearing through red lights while riding “hugely expensive” bikes paid for by taxpayers as part of Britain’s Cycle to Work rebate program, as if getting well-off people out of cars and onto bikes somehow doesn’t benefit everyone. Let alone all the not-so-well off people who have also benefitted.

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

A Miami cop has been disciplined for sitting on her ass while a dispute between a bicyclist and a motorist devolved into a full-on assault on the driver by bike riders taking part in an apparent rideout, remaining in her patrol car while the riders “kicked, punched, stomped, smashed a window and even hurled a bike” at the victim’s car.

………

Local  

City Watch looks forward to April 6th’s Koreatown Meets Hollywood CicLAvia.

Streetsblog’s Joe Linton reviews the documents, and says it will probably be up to a judge to determine whether Measure HLA, which requires that the city build out the mobility plan whenever streets get resurfaced, applies to Metro.

The former South Bay Bicycle Coalition, now known as SBBC+, offers a community proposal to reconfigure Redondo Beach’s Prospect Ave as a Complete Street.

A new play in Long Beach looks at life through the eyes of a child riding a red bicycle.

The LA County Sheriff’s Department is offering a $30,000 reward for the men who shot and killed Jose Manuel Rangel, following a confrontation on the Clara Street Bridge in Cudahy two years ago as he rode his bike home after visiting his mother.

 

State

Calbike has come out in opposition to AB 612, which would give fire departments more power to veto street safety projects, despite their obvious lack of traffic engineering training; as we’ve seen, fire fighters often oppose projects designed to save lives, citing unspecified delays in response times that are seldom born out in real life.

No bias here. The San Diego Union-Tribune questions whether it makes sense to pursue the city’s “preposterous” climate goals, arguing that its commitment to building transit and bike lanes is an “embrace of what feels like costly and empty virtue signaling.”

San Francisco becomes the first California city to install speed cams under a pilot program allowing a limited number in three Northern California and three South California cities, as well as on PCH in Malibu. Meanwhile, Los Angeles continues to sit on its ass and do nothing, as usual, as speed-related deaths continue to mount. 

 

National

A writer for The Atlantic sings the praises of ebikes, saying they may be slower than a car, but make your family life so much richer; meanwhile, another writer says they’re great, but not for everyone.

Bloomberg sings the praises of the late, great autodidact and polymath Lewis Mumford, who called out the dangers of overly car-centric cities over 70 years ago.

Take your dog or cat with you everywhere with a new $300 combination pet stroller/bike trailer that converts to a backpack. Hopefully without the animal in it.

Houston lawmakers decide to reinvent the wheel, sponsoring a bill to study whether bike lanes improve safety, as if all the other studies showing they do somehow don’t apply in Texas.

Maine’s highest court has sided with a 62-year old man who was ticketed for not riding single file as he was out with a friend, ruling that the state’s requirement to ride as far to the right as practicable is so vague it’s unenforceable, since only the person riding can decide how far to the right is safe to ride.

Seriously? A Boston cafe owner worries about the survival of her business after a new road diet and bike lanes were installed, as if being located on one of the city’s most dangerous streets for pedestrians is somehow good for her business.

 

International

No surprise here, as the world’s happiest countries are also places with the highest bicycling rates.

A writer for Momentum shares the most important things she learned on her first bike tour.

Bike Magazine shares the world’s ten most popular mountain biking destinations for your offroad bike bucket list.

Hundreds of Londoners turned out for the return of a drum and bass bicycle rave, led by a bicycling DJ and his cat.

More proof that bikes are good for business, as a rural Scottish cafe catering to bicyclists says if they didn’t they wouldn’t even be in business anymore.

A rising British comedian warns about the dangers of drunken bicycling after crashing his bikeshare bike while riding under the influence.

Life is cheap in Ireland, where a 29-year old mother of three will spend just four years behind bars for the hit-and-run death a 68-year old man riding a bicycle, while driving at not one, not two, not even three times the legal alcohol limit, but a full nine times over the line — yes, nine — after downing a dozen martinis before getting behind the wheel.

Famed painter Henri Matisse’s brother-in-law was one of us, as the struggling artist tried to borrow 150 francs to buy a Van Gogh in 1899, only to learn the other man had blown 500 francs on a new bicycle.

A 66-year-old Chinese grandmother has already biked solo through 12 countries across three continents, on a monthly pension of just $414 a month, despite taking up bicycling just a dozen years ago.

Bike riders in Sydney, Australia may soon have fewer stair to climb, with a $39 million ramp longer than two football fields replacing the stairs they’re currently forced to climb if they want to bike across the harbor.

 

Competitive Cycling

Dutch pro Mathieu van der Poel won Milan-San Remo after an early attack by Tadej Pogačar failed, leading to a three-way sprint to the finish joined by Filippo Ganna.

A British company plans to bring the world’s best cyclists back to the US next year for the first time since 2019, the five-stage Tour of Colorado will launch in September, assuming they can get all the necessary permits and clearances, and get it on the pro calendar.

 

Finally….

Your next bike seat could play grab-ass while you ride. Your next bicycle could be a knitting machine; thanks to Steven Hallett for the heads-up.

And build a custom bike for the tallest man in America, and make a friend for life.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Freezing federal bike lane funding to Make America Drive Again, and bipartisan active transportation safety bill introduced

March 13, 2025 / / Comments Off on Freezing federal bike lane funding to Make America Drive Again, and bipartisan active transportation safety bill introduced
Day 72 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

The good news is, it turns out I don’t have the same virus I had before, after all.

The bad news is, I’ve got Covid instead, after carefully avoiding it for the first five years of the pandemic.

Good times.

So let’s see if I can get through this tonight. 

………

No surprise here.

As expected, a leaked memo shows the Trump administration will freeze all future bike lane and green infrastructure grants, so they can review them.

And yes, probably cancel anything issued during the Biden administration if the money hasn’t already been spent.

But don’t put it past them to attempt to claw some funding back, as they have already threatened to do with California’s high speed rail.

According to Streetsblog,

The memo cited as its authority five executive orders issued by the Trump administration that take aim at the diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility goals of the Biden administration, as well as the previous president’s efforts to reduce the carbon footprint of the nation’s transportation system, which Trump and Duffy have characterized as a so-called “Green New Deal.”

Those efforts were a centerpiece of previous DOT secretary Buttigieg’s strategy to implement the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, from which he allocated billions of dollars in discretionary grants to sustainable and equitable modes — but now that Duffy and Trump are holding the reins, they’ve signaled that they’ll use the same programs to vastly expand America’s consumption of fossil fuels instead.

Because really, what could be the downside to Making America Drive Again?

I mean, aside from more traffic deaths and serious injuries, more congestion, worse smog, and the utter destruction of our planet.

………

Meanwhile, a bipartisan, bicameral active transportation bill was introduced in both houses of Congress this week.

The Sarah Debbink Langenkamp Active Transportation Safety Act would expand federal funding for local governments to improve safety for bicyclists and pedestrians.

This legislation is named in honor of Sarah Debbink Langenkamp, the American diplomat and mother who was killed while riding her bicycle in Maryland, just two weeks after being evacuated from Ukraine following the Russian invasion.

But as much as I appreciate the gesture, the bill’s chances in the current political climate make a snowball in hell look pretty good.

………

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

Oh, okay then. Boston’s mayor says she removed the plastic posts “protecting” some of the city’s bike lanes because they kept getting run over by drivers and looked awful. And yes, drivers seemed to take that as an open invitation to drive in the bike lanes.

No surprise here. Internal Ontario engineering documents show ripping out Toronto bike lanes won’t reduce congestion, but could make streets significantly more dangerous for everyone.

No bias here. The UK’s Traffic Watch says London traffic is grinding to a halt as road restrictions “squeeze the lifeblood” out of the city, while bike riders say the real problem is just too damn many cars.

Bike Radar responds to Sir Julian Lewis’ call in the British Parliament for mandatory bike bells, saying “cycling doesn’t need more bad ideas from unserious politicians.”

………

Local  

Metro is fast at work at the new LAX Transit Center, with the new bike path and people mover readily visible.

Pasadena residents are calling for safety improvements to protect bicyclists and pedestrians on North Fair Oaks Avenue, while reminding city leaders that we’re people, too.

 

State

A Moorpark man suffered serious head injuries when he was left hooked by a driver who was apparently more concerned about turning left into the driving range than looking for someone on a bicycle.

That’s more like it. An Oregon woman now faces a murder charge in the death of a 87-year old man riding a bicycle, after fleeing the scene when she crashed into him and another man he was riding with; that’s in addition to the previous vehicular manslaughter, DUI and hit-and-run charges.

 

National

This is why people keep dying on our streets. An Oregon pickup driver walked without a single day behind bars for killing a woman riding a bike with her son; he originally faced 10 years and a fine of up to $250,000, but an overly lenient DA and judge gave him a Get Out of Jail Free card, despite his long history of speeding.

“Dozens” of New Yorkers, led by a state Assembly member, demonstrated in support of a law that would require ebikes to carry license plates and be registered with the DMV. Although you’d think a legislator could get more people to turn out if they actually cared about it. And unless there were more people than you can see in the photo, that ain’t dozens.

This is the cost of traffic violence. A “beloved” Virginia elementary school principal suffered life-threatening injuries and faces a long road to recovery after he was struck by a driver while riding his bike home from school.

 

International

Momentum lists ten “hidden gem” bike routes to add to your bike bucket list, none of which are in California, of course. Although the only hidden thing about the Great Divide route is it can be hard to find in places. Or so I’m told.

A writer for Cycling Weekly fondly remembers his first road bike, despite it being “taken prematurely” from him.

A bike commuter for more than 20 years explains 13 mistakes beginning riders make.

Life is cheap in England, where a distracted food delivery rider walked without a single day behind bars for killing a man on a bicycle, despite riding an illegally modified ebike.

The pandemic bike boom is definitely over, as bike sales in the UK dropped to the lowest level in 50 years. Or maybe they’ve just reached the saturation point, and everyone who wants a bike has already got one, or four. It could happen. 

It will now cost you five US dollars every year to register your bicycle in the Zimbabwean city of Marondera.

 

Competitive Cycling

Belgian Tour de France stage winner Victor Campenaerts says he’s “not the next Remco [Evenepoel] or Jonas [Vingegaard] or Tadej [Pogačar],” instead, he’s “just a good cyclist.”

This year’s Redlands Bicycle Classic will take place April 9th through 13th.

 

Finally….

What’s biking through a little flood waters between friends? Drivers aren’t even waiting for bikes to leave the shop to run them down anymore. It’s not just a bike lane, it’s a parking space for your mobile workshop.

And protect your bike with the stench of death for the low, low price of just 280 bucks.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

Category: General / Tags: , , , , , , ,

New Flax bike book out now, Hollywood Complete Street plan announced, and Senate bill promises local bike/ped funding

March 22, 2024 / / Comments Off on New Flax bike book out now, Hollywood Complete Street plan announced, and Senate bill promises local bike/ped funding
Just 284 days until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025.
So stop what you’re doing and sign this petition to demand Mayor Bass hold a public meeting to listen to the dangers we face walking and biking on the mean streets of LA.

Then share it — and keep sharing it — with everyone you know, on every platform you can.

We’re up to 1,022 signatures, so keep it going! Urge everyone you know to sign the petition, until the mayor agrees to meet with us! 

And that’s my copy of Flax’s new book up there. 

………

It’s now 93 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And 33 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.

No bias here. A group of merchants in the UK claim a new bike lane has killed their businesses, even though the project actually added 80 parking spaces.

………

Local 

Over 80 kids and adults took part in South Pas Active Streets’ Park-to-Park family bike ride in South Pasadena last Saturday, sponsored by seven local groups.

 

State

Police in Orange busted a bike thief who stole a bicycle from a 14-year old boy while he was playing with friends.

Sad news from Watsonville, where a 58-year old bike rider died in the hospital, a week after being injured in a collision; police investigators said the victim was following the law when he or she was struck by the 31-year old driver.

A Berkeley father calls for safe streets after he and his son survived a collision when a driver hit the cargo bike they were riding.

A Gold Country cycling columnist says don’t let bad behavior define bicyclists, and it’s never appropriate to flip off a driver. No matter how much they might deserve it. 

 

National

Marketplace says cargo bikes offer a solution to package delivery trucks clogging city streets.

Forbes offers a “complete and comprehensive” guide to the year’s best bike brands.

A 24-year old Colorado woman was arrested for a fatal hit-and-run, two months after she knocked a 43-year old man off his bicycle and left him to die on an embankment on the side of the road; the victim wasn’t found for more than two days after the crash. Drivers like that should face a murder charge for making the conscious decision to let their victims die rather than stop and call for help. 

Kindhearted Idaho cops gave new bikes to a pair of cousins, after the five and four-year old boys survived getting hit by an intoxicated driver.

They get it. A Kentucky radio station says motorists need to watch out for bicyclists. True, in every sense.

Hoboken, New Jersey will now require ebike delivery riders to be tested, licensed, and wear a high-vis vest with a registration number; the city has gone seven years without a single traffic death.

DC shows how to launch an ebike rebate program similar to the highly successful Denver ebike voucher plan, just six months after it was unanimously approved by the city council. Not three years or more, like bumbling and incompetent California’s moribund plan. 

 

International

A 32-year old Austin, Texas man became the first openly gay man to ride a bike around the world, traveling 27,461 miles across 37 different countries in 280 days, and raising nearly $19,000 for for LGBTQ+ suicide prevention nonprofit The Trevor Project.

Momentum takes a look at the bike bus movement, and why kids love it so much. Short answer, because it’s fun. Longer answer, because it’s a lot of fun.

Thanks to the Church of Scotland, bike riders will have a new 1.6-mile path between two small villages, after the church donated a parcel of land for the project.

Life is cheap in Scotland, where 69 year old man walked without a day behind bars for killing a 22-year old French-American bike rider while driving with an obscured windshield, and dragging her more than half the length of a football field; the lawyer representing her family writes that drivers hold the key to keeping bicyclists safe, and mere sentencing won’t cut it.

The Daily Mail joins “London’s patron saint of cycling” on a ride through the city’s streets to see if it really is a death trap, while a former British news host calls out the aforementioned saint, BBC host Jeremy Vine, after he was nearly hit by bicyclists blowing through a red light. Because as we all know, every bike rider is responsible for the actions of every other misbehaving bicyclist.

Czech carmaker Škoda’s We Love Cycling website recommends the five best bicycling festivals to visit this year.

 

Competitive Cycling

Sad news from Australia, where a 62-year old man was killed while competing in the Indian Pacific Wheel Race, seven years after popular ultra-endurance rider Mike Hall was killed in the first edition of the race; another competitor was injured in a separate incident.

Arkansas’ Joe Martin Stage Race has been cancelled for this year; one of just four remaining UCI sanctioned races in the US, and the longest-held stage race in America — assuming it returns next year, as promised.

The popular Belgian Waffle Ride, aka BWR, will return to North City in San Marcos on April 27-28.

 

Finally…

That feeling when you can’t find a place to do handstands and splits on your handlebars. And hell hath no fury like a bicyclist with a GoPro.

……... 

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

Why Vision Zero is failing in Los Angeles and San Francisco, and why you can’t get there from here in Playa Vista

September 5, 2023 / / Comments Off on Why Vision Zero is failing in Los Angeles and San Francisco, and why you can’t get there from here in Playa Vista

Vision Zero is now nine years old in California, yet people keep dying on our streets.

The Los Angeles Times looks at why, examining the failure of Vision Zero in San Francisco and Los Angeles, the latter just two years away from the deadline by which it’s supposed to end traffic fatalities once and for all.

Not that anyone in city leadership seems to notice.

Or care.

But San Francisco, like Los Angeles, has spent the better part of a decade making such changes as part of an ambitious pledge to reduce traffic-related deaths to zero. Neither city is close to achieving that goal…

“It’s been an abject failure,” said John Yi, the executive director of Los Angeles Walks, a nonprofit that works with immigrants and communities of color to build safer pedestrian infrastructure in their neighborhoods.

Last year, 312 people were killed in car crashes and 1,517 were seriously injured, according to the Los Angeles Department of Transportation. Bicyclists and pedestrians represented 57% of deaths and 41% of severe injuries, though most people in Los Angeles travel by car.

The paper correctly points the finger at deadly speeds, noting efforts at the state level to lower speed limits and legalize speed cams.

But lowering speed limits will only do so much good in a state where they are universally ignored, and drivers routinely travel 10 to 15 miles above whatever limit in nominally posted.

And get angry if they’re stopped for doing so, apparently believing it’s their God-given right as Californians to travel above the speed limit.

Graphic by tomexploresla

Meanwhile, so much has been given away to appease the windshield-addled crowd that California’s proposed bill to legalize speed cams will be limited to a limited effect, in a limited number of cities.

Including a built-in 10 mph cushion above the limit, as state lawmakers seem willing to sacrifice human lives rather than force drivers to take their damn feet off the gas.

The simple fact is, our traffic engineers and planners know what it will take to end traffic deaths, but city and state officials are simply unwilling to do it.

Let alone fund it.

They lack the political will to make the wholesale changes necessary to channel and slow motor vehicles, and the heavy-footed, mistake prone people in them.

Let alone reimagine our transportation system for the 21st Century, abandoning the failed model that’s driven deaths, congestion and climate change for the past century, and moving towards a cleaner, healthier and more efficient model focused on transit and active transportation.

Which is not to say private motor vehicles must go away. But they must be deprioritized, no longer the first choice to transport individuals and goods, but the last.

So instead, we’ve found ourselves nibbling at the edges, adding crosswalks and beacons that work until they don’t. And counting on drivers to pay attention and obey the law, rather than reimagining roadways to force them to.

In the end, the problem causing Vision Zero to fail isn’t speed.

It’s money. And political leadership, or the lack thereof.

Neither of which our elected officials have been willing to invest.

………

Evidently, you can’t get there from here.

Joni Yung comes up with a complicated workaround to get to and through Playa Vista.

………

Call it a ciclovía with spectacular views.

A portion of Coast Road, aka Old Coast Road, through Big Sur in Monterey County is being closed to cars for repairs through the end of this year, but will remain open to bikes, hikers and equestrians.

The soils in the area of the slip out are not stable and adding to the danger, there is a redwood tree along the cutslope (hill) that is encroaching in the travel lane. From the edge of the tree to the edge of the erosion, there is approx. 8-ft, 10-inches of road width remaining. The downhill side is an approximately 12-ft drop into a creek. This is very narrow for any vehicle, car or truck. This reduced width could potentially be a concern for a motorist unfamiliar with the area.

However, despite the name, this isn’t Highway 1 along the coast, but a smaller inland roadway.

Thanks to Megan Lynch for the heads-up. 

………

This is who we share the road with.

Twenty-three people were injured, some seriously, when an SUV driver plowed into a Denny’s restaurant in Rosenberg, Texas, southwest of Houston; fortunately, none of the injuries were expected to be life-threatening.

Police blamed a combination of speed and a wet roadway. Yet amazingly, the driver was not arrested or even ticketed at the scene.

………

Apparently, you can add bicyclist to director, producer, writer, actor, blogger and political commentator, because Bob Cesca is one us.

https://twitter.com/bobcesca_go/status/1697747529419333917

Thanks to Erik Griswold for the tip.

………

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

No bias here. After a bike rider was seriously inured when he was left-crossed by a driver who violated his right-of-way, a Kansas City TV station was quick to blame the victim for hitting the back of the driver’s car. Even though they’d be unlikely to blame a driver who hit another car in the same situation.

Um, okay. A road raging West Virginia driver threatened to kill a bike rider with a pickax and poison the victim’s food if he ever ordered from the pizza place where the man works, apparently just for riding his bike on the street. Or maybe merely existing on the planet.

A London bus driver has been metaphorically rapped across the knuckles by his employer for tailgating a bike rider, then getting out of his bus and swearing at the victim, before attempting to call the police because the guy on the bike “got on his nerves.”

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

Pioneering Chicago drill rapper Lil Reese bought a local hip hop DJ a new bicycle to make up for stealing the man’s bike when they were both kids.

A Michigan man faces charges for threatening cops with a large metal rod after he was stopped for riding his bike on a freeway; police found two concealed butcher knives and a vial of pepper spray after managing to de-escalate the situation.

A group of bicyclists in the UK were stopped by police for riding 40 mph in a 30 mph zone, but allowed to leave with “appropriate words of advice,” since there’s no speed limit for bicyclists.

………

Local 

Hermosa Beach will now require students to complete an ebike safety course before they can ride theirs to school.

 

State

There’s a special place in hell for the hit-and-run driver who left a bike-riding 14-year old Corona boy lying seriously injured in the street.

Bakersfield motorists are slowly adjusting to green bike lanes on the streets famously trod by the late, great Buck Owens.

A pair of Bakersfield contractors were credited as heroes after they chased down a thief who stole a bike from the house they were working on, and returned it to its owner.

 

National

Federal funding for bicycle safety projects is at risk in the upcoming budget battle, after House Republicans zeroed out funding for RAISE grants, while a Senate budget bill continues them.

A writer for Electrek lists his favorite biking gear so far this year, whether for electric or conventional bikes.

Scottsdale, Arizona is fighting the battle over semantics, attempting to reach the Bike League’s Platinum Level without using the term “road diet.”

A Utah woman was arrested for drunk driving after killing a teenage boy riding a bicycle, telling police she consciously choosie to hit the soft, fragile person ahead of her rather than the hard car coming in the opposite direction.

An Albuquerque, New Mexico man was found guilty of murder for shooting a man he accused of riding his stolen bicycle. One more reminder that no bike is worth a human life. 

Life is cheap in Kansas, where a driver was sentenced to just 41 months for killing a woman walking a bicycle, after prosecutors pled down from 2nd degree murder to involuntary manslaughter.

A repeat DUI driver in Iowa was resentenced to a mere 40 years behind bars for the drunken hit-and-run that killed a bike rider, after an appellate court ruled his original 55-year sentence was out of line.

Thousand of bicyclists took to Chicago’s famed DuSable Lake Shore Drive on Sunday to participate in the carfree Bike the Drive, although the the registration-only fundraising ride was the opposite of an open streets event.

After someone posted a video to X, nee Twitter, of bike riders flowing through a plaza supposedly in the Netherlands, while complaining about being unable to build something like that in the US, commenters were quick to point out that the video was several years old, and showed a public plaza in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Few New York delivery riders are taking advantage of a program to trade-in older, fire-prone ebikes for safer new ones, citing complicated logistics and the cost of a trade. Meanwhile, fire investigators are on the lookout for fake UL stickers affixed to older, unapproved batteries.

Life is cheap in Louisville, Kentucky, where a woman failed to stop after killing a 61-year old man riding a bicycle, but apparently that wasn’t enough to merit a traffic ticket, let alone an arrest.

A Louisiana Catholic priest will have his commitment to forgiveness sorely tested after a thief was caught on video stealing his bicycle in broad daylight.

 

International

Momentum says research confirms that physical activity can improve brain power in children and youth, so if you want your kids to do well in school, get them to bike there.

An English driver was charged with the equivalent of reckless driving and DUI for the head-on crash that seriously injured a bike rider, after he apparently got tired of waiting at a red light, and went around another car onto the wrong side of the road. The crash was caught on video, but be warned it’s hard to watch.

A “rampaging” British driver is being held on a psych evaluation on suspicion of murder for deliberately running down and killing a pedestrian and a bike-riding man, before crashing into a building and attempting to run away.

A 44-year old woman reached the end of a 3,000-mile bike ride around the circumference of mainland Britain on a bamboo bicycle to raise awareness of the climate crisis.

The pope now has his own personalized bike jersey to go with the bikes he no longer owns or rides.

A vigilante bike patrol in a Finish city has now reclaimed nearly 1,300 stolen bicycles after “cracking the code” to figure out where bikes end up after they’re stolen.

The Philippines is considering amending the law to allow the state to charge road raging drivers on the victim’s behalf, after a bike rider failed to come forward in a road rage case caught on video.

 

Competitive Cycling

Colorado’s Sepp Kuss took the leaders jersey in the Vuelta on Friday and retained it through the weekend, becoming the first American to lead a Grand Tour in a decade. However, Remco Evenepoel called him an outsider, downplaying Kuss’ chances and saying he “kicked a hornet’s nest full of majestic eagles!” Um, okay. 

A reminder to keep your friends close and your pets closer, as a small dog causes chaos when he ran out into the Tour of Britain peloton, causing at least one rider to go over his handlebars.

A Kiwi triathlete was caught on video being taken out by her own teammate as they rode side-by-side in the bicycling portion of a French triathlon; fortunately, she wasn’t seriously injured in the “brutal” “horror” crash.

Twenty-two-year old Danish cyclist Mattias Skjelmose won the second annual Maryland Cycling Classic on Sunday afternoon in a more than two minute breakaway.

 

Finally…

How to get your kids to school by bike. Walking your bike through the mud of Burning Man.

And anyone can let their dog hang out of the the car window, why not let your pet bull hang out of the sunroof?

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

Trial starts for alleged Riverside road rage murder, ghost tire memorial in South LA, and new Metro Active Transportation Plan

September 1, 2023 / / Comments Off on Trial starts for alleged Riverside road rage murder, ghost tire memorial in South LA, and new Metro Active Transportation Plan

Welcome to your last pre-Thanksgiving three-day weekend — not to mention the opening weekend for college football. 

Which means you can count on a higher than usual percentage of drunks and otherwise intoxicated people on the roads. 

So the usual protocol applies. 

Ride defensively. And if you’re riding anytime after noon today, assume every driver you see has had a few. 

Chances are, you won’t be far off. 

I expect to see you back here bright and early Tuesday morning. And I don’t want to have to write about you, unless maybe you pull a pack of puppies out of a burning building or something. 

Photo by Sora Shimazaki from Pexels.

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A 33-year old Riverside man is going on trial for murder with a deadly weapon enhancement, for the alleged road rage killing of a man riding a bicycle.

Sergio Reynaldo Gutierrez reportedly made a U-turn to reverse direction and run down 46-year old Benedicto Solanga from behind following an apparent traffic-related dispute between the two men.

Gutierrez was arrested three weeks after the July, 2021 vehicular assault, and continues to be held on $1 million bond.

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This is who we share the road with.

LA’s second ghost tire memorial was installed yesterday to honor the three Uber passengers killed in a high speed crash in South Los Angeles.

The victims, including two sisters, were riding in the back seat of the Uber when 31-year old Gregory Black slammed into them while racing through red lights at up to 100 mph.

Black, described as a known gang member with an extensive rap sheet, was charged with three counts of vehicular manslaughter, and held on $4 million bond.

So much for the myth that bail is based strictly on the suspect’s ability to pay. And not a reflection of how seriously prosecutors take the crime.

Black was already serving a five-year probation following his release from prison for attempted murder.

Meanwhile, a 17-year old Las Vegas boy faces a murder charge for intentionally killing a bike-riding man, after video posted online indicated the fatal hit-and-run two weeks ago wasn’t an accident.

The teen was allegedly driving a stolen car and already fleeing an earlier hit-and-run.

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Metro unveiled the LA County transit agency’s new Active Transportation Strategic Plan on Tuesday.

According to Southern California Newsgroup’s Steve Scauzillo, the plan will “create a chain of paths, regional bikeways and pedestrian crossings to connect passengers who are walking, rolling or bicycling to and from the transit agency’s train lines, bus stops and depots.”

Metro, during a virtual public meeting Tuesday afternoon, Aug. 29, outlined three areas for improvement, identifying 602 “first and last mile” areas located near transit, 81 pedestrian districts and 1,433 miles of regional bikeways.

Just completing the list of regional bikeways, which would connect to existing ones, would cost about $36 billion, which is four times the entire LA Metro annual budget.

The plan has a focus on equity, improving service and safety first in areas where fewer people own cars, including including mostly Black and Latino neighborhoods.

But as we’ve seen with the City of Los Angeles, it’s one thing to make a plan, and another to implement it, as ActiveSGV’s special programs director Wesley Reutimann pointed out.

He said Metro should redirect budget dollars from highways toward completing bikeways and walkways. But getting the OK from cities and landowners can gum up the works. Metro is also asking cities to help fund the projects or apply for grant dollars. This can delay or nix projects altogether, he said.

“Long story short: Metro did a plan (in 2016) and most of it was never implemented. It just feels like this plan update is window dressing,” Reutimann said.

Even a fraction of what the agency wastes on highway engorgements could go a long way towards actually implementing this plan.

Let’s hope someone over there figures out how to do that.

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This will be great if it actually happens.

And that’s a big if.

A pair of Los Angeles City Council motions call for streamlining operations between LADOT, LA Street Services, the Bureau of Engineering, and the Bureau of Street Lighting, as well as developing a five-year infrastructure spending plan for the city.

Correction, they both call for a pair of studies on how to do it.

Which is what the Los Angeles city government does best — study problems, rather than actually solve them.

And as we saw with the city council alternative to the Healthy Streets LA initiative, those 60 day deadlines can easily slip to a full year, if ever.

So this will be great if it actually happens. But we’ve been here too many times before.

Let’s hope someone holds the city’s feet to the fire and makes it happen this time.

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A Denver TV station provides more information on the crash that severely injured professional ultra endurance bicyclist Jay Petervary as he was attempting to set a new record for the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route.

Investigators concluded Petervary was riding on a mountain highway in central Colorado when he was rear-ended by a 16-year old driver, who may have been speeding, while attempting to pass on a “straight on a wide, open road with no trees or obstructions.”

Petervary says he landed about 20 yards from his bike, skidding face first on the roadway.

He is now focusing on his recovery while his wife organizes his transport back home to Idaho, his future care and the legal repercussions. Donations are still being accepted for the Be Good Foundation. As of Thursday morning, he had raised about $9,500 of the $20,000 goal.

Petervary has a lengthy history with long-distance racing. The sponsored athlete has competed for 25 years, exploring new routes and races. But he also loves providing experiences and opportunities for others, he wrote on his website. He has adopted the mantra “Ride Forward” in not only his athletic endeavors, but in his business, relationships, friendships and more.

“It also meant to not have regrets or get bogged down in the past but also reflect and learn to move forward more fluidly,” he wrote online.

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While we’re catching up on crashes, an Arizona TV station talks with the Flagstaff bicyclist who was sideswiped by the driver of a passing RV, taking out around a dozen riders on a group ride like so many bowling pins.

Saturday, Wallace was biking on Lake Mary Road with a local cycling group, “Team Pay and Take” when he was hit in the head by an RV’s side mirror. His helmet came off, and he then crashed into multiple cyclists behind him, causing a pileup. “I mean, these people are like family,” Wallace said. “You know you ride with them every week. My partner was on the ride as well and she crashed right behind me. So your first thought is just like is everyone OK?”

Wallace said the person driving the RV stopped and cooperated with police, but this is an important reminder to share the road as it’s state law to give cyclists at least 3 feet of space. “I think it’s just a sad point that when we get behind the wheel of a car, we don’t see our fellow humans out there as someone who has someone to go home to after the ride,” Wallace said.

No word yet on whether the driver will faces charges; at last report, he was only ticketed for an unsafe pass.

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Good question.

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There’s a special place in hell for whoever stole a handcycle from a disabled paracyclist.

https://twitter.com/SiebeforORD1/status/1697281499496886388

Some schmuck did the same thing in St. Louis, too.

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Canada’s prime minister is one of us. And so are his kids.

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No surprise here, as a new Belgian study shows you’re twice as likely to be killed in a collision with a bigass pickup or SUV than with a typical passenger car.

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What’s the point of bike skills, if you can’t use them to clear a little litter off the road?

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Why settle for a hoverboard when you can turn it into a LEGO-like DIY Franken-ebike?

With sideways wheels, no less.

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

No bias here. The editor of WeHoVille continues his campaign against bike lanes in the city, citing the removal of the MOVE Culver City project as a warning for West Hollywood, while mischaracterizing the highly successful project that was removed by Culver City’s newly conservative council.

No bias here, either. Residents of León, Guanajuato, Mexico protested plans for a new bike lane, arguing that “about 8 cyclists pass the whole morning,” while official stats say over 65 times that many people ride it every day. Never mind that many more would probably ride there if they felt safer. 

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Local 

Far from abandoning bike lanes, Culver City is proposing mostly 2.5-mile protected bike lanes for lower Overland Ave below Venice Blvd.

Pasadena will hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony a week from tomorrow for a new 1.5-mile-long, two-way protected bike lane on Union Street between Arroyo Parkway and Hill Ave; the project, which includes a 1/3-mile bicycle boulevard, is the first of its kind in the city.

Claremont residents debate whether to protect kids on their way to and from school with safety improvements including a curb-protected bike lane, but what’s the life of a little kid when it might inconvenience older bike riders or someone ordering pizza? Thanks to Erik Griswold for the link.

Shaq is one of us, riding a custom-made 36″ mountain bike nicknamed The Thompson Beast.

 

State

The CHP has introduced a free, learn-at-your-own-pace online ebike safety class, as required by a new bill signed into law by Governor Newsom last year; the bill was authored by Encinitas Assemblymember Tasha Boerner, who is behind the current effort to require licenses to ride ebikes — and who snatched the state’s latest effort to pass a Stop As Yield law from the jaws of victory.

San Francisco Streetsblog’s Roger Ruddick calls on the city’s transportation agency to tow drivers who park in bike lanes, after talking the staff at a bagel shop into refusing to serve a driver who parked in a protected bike lane in front of the shop. Note to traffic engineers and planners — if someone can park in it, it’s not protected.

Oakland residents are calling for more protected bike lanes, after the tragic death of a four-year old girl who was doored while riding on the back of her father’s bike. And yes, she was wearing a helmet and strapped into her seat.

 

National

A new study provides some of the data we’ve been missing on pediatric ebike usage, showing that while riders of regular bikes under the age of 18 were more likely to suffer injuries, ebike riders were 2.4 times more likely to suffer severe injuries requiring hospitalization.

A writer for Electrek takes the contrarian view to the current ebike panic, arguing that we need more teenagers on ebikes, not fewer.

Retired Olympic figure skater Adam Rippon accurately called Lance Armstrong a cheater when the ex-Tour de France winner argued trans athletes should compete in their own division, when both were competing on the Fox show Stars on Mars.

Outside says you should spend at least $250 on bike bibs, arguing that high-end bibs will literally save your ass. I’ll reserve comment, since I’ve never spent more than a fraction of that, and my ass is still firmly attached.

Washington state is set to begin a $1,200 ebike rebate program next year, as well as establishing a series of ebike lending libraries across the state.

Boulder, Colorado threatens to beat California to the ebike rebate punch with the city’s second round of ebike vouchers, before California gets around to issuing its first.

An 83-year old Iowa man was killed by a 77-year old driver, which once again raises the question of how old is too old to drive. Anyone who can still ride at that age deserves better. Then again, so do the rest of us.

A 30-year old Milwaukee man has been arrested for the hit-and-run, street racing crash that killed an 11-year old boy, even though police were quick to blame the victim for veering into traffic and not wearing a helmet.

A Vermont armed robbery suspect made his getaway from the cops by car, on foot, on a stolen bicycle and a purloined sailboat; at last report, he was still on the lam.

Streetsblog explains a new, “very controversial bill from a noted opponent” of increased bicycling that would require ebike registration in New York City.

Madonna is still one of us, riding around New York with friends and her personal trainer, just weeks after surviving a life-threatening infection.

That’s more like it. A Louisiana semi-truck driver is facing a negligent homicide charge for killing a man riding a bicycle by sideswiping the victim while attempting to pass his bike on a curve; the charge is an upgrade from an initial ticket for violating the state’s three-foot passing law.

New Orleans workers organize the first e-bikeshare employees union. Which is actually the second, because Metro Bike employees beat them to it, unless you want to split hairs since LA’s system includes both ebikes and regular bikes

A Florida transit bus driver has been busted for hit-and-run after allegedly crashing into a bike rider, then just continuing on his route rather than stopping; fortunately, the victim did not suffer life-threatening injuries.

 

International

Cannondale is the latest bikemaker to jump on the e-cargo bike bandwagon, with the bikes premiering in Europe this fall for the equivalent of $4,300.

Momentum offers ten reasons why cargo bikes top mini vans as the perfect family vehicle.

An English town swears their new ban on bikes in the city center won’t target disabled or “old and slow” bicyclists, after police ticked an 82-year old man for violating the ban.

A Welsh cop who was tailing two ebike-riding teenagers just before the crash that killed both of them now faces a criminal probe for dangerous driving; the deaths sparked riots when the cops denied following the boys.

Dockless scooters have been scoured from the streets of Paris, on the eve of a ban overwhelmingly approved by voters.

Dutch ebike-maker VanMoof will live on, after the company was purchased out of bankruptcy by Britain’s Lavoie, which makes high-end scooters based on McLaren’s Formula 1 tech; current VanMoof owners appeared to welcome the purchase.

Germany’s Buycycle is bringing its online marketplace for used and refurbished bicycles to the US. Let’s hope they have some mechanism in place to weed out stolen bikes. 

An Italian city counselor warns bicyclists not to ride in Milan because it’s too dangerous; the city is attempting to improve safety by requiring sensors on heavy vehicles to detect bike riders and pedestrians.

An Indian woman is calling for a fresh approach to urban planning, saying the country needs a greater emphasis on bicycling to boost the enrollment of girls in both urban and rural schools, increase productivity for individuals, and reduce dependence on fossil fuels.

Philippine bicyclists and motorcyclists reject a proposal for a shared lane along a busy roadway. Seriously, just because they’re both called bikes and have two wheels doesn’t make them compatible.

 

Competitive Cycling

American super-domestique Sepp Kuss soloed to victory in the sixth stage of the Vuelta, high-fiving fans the final 50 yards; meanwhile, Remco Evenepoel lost time to key rivals Primož Roglič and Jonas Vingegaard, as he handed the leader’s jersey to France’s Lenny Martinez.

The annual Tour of Britain kicks on in Manchester tomorrow; Cycling Weekly offers a complete guide to the race.

 

Finally…

When life gives you a No Cycling sign, just turn it into a heart. That feeling when it takes longer to certify a record for riding around the world than it did to set it.

And why pedal through Burning Man when your butt can do the work?

@spotlightrose

Wierd people doing weird shit! #burningman

♬ original sound – Annie Bond

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

OCTA touts active transportation, El Monte Complete Streets meeting tonight, and Rosarito-to-Ensenada Bike Ride cancelled

July 12, 2023 / / 2 comments

Bike Month may be over, but the Orange County Transportation Authority, aka OCTA, apparently didn’t get the memo.

Or maybe they just want to extend the joy a little longer.

The agency announced several recent successful active transportation projects, including “strong” progress on The OC Loop, which will eventually offer 66 miles of continuous trails, and is now approximately 88% complete.

They’ve also competed Safe Travels Education Program, aka STEP, safe walking and biking safety campaigns in at least 25 public elementary schools, and worked with a social media influencer to develop an ebike safety tutorial that’s received over 1 million views on Instagram.

Photo by Maria Orlova from Pexels.

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El Monte is hosting a public meeting tonight to discuss a Complete Streets project at Valley Boulevard and Main Street.

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The popular annual Rosarito-to-Ensenada Bike Ride has been cancelled, with organizers saying the ride had been halted due to “reasons beyond their control.”

Although given the level of cartel violence in Mexico these days, it’s not hard to hazard a guess why, especially since it would be hard to insure.

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People Powered Media says say hello to my little friend.

And give it a name.

Click on the screenshot to go to the original tweet

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Seriously, who didn’t have this on their San Francisco Valencia Street centerline protected bike lane bingo card?

Click on the screenshot to go to the original tweet

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

A Toronto driver was captured on video driving across a wide bicycle bridge, forcing bicyclists to cringe as they walk their bikes along the wall.

A British man was hospitalized with two broken ribs, a broken collarbone, and a collapsed lung, and coughing up blood after crashing his bicycle into garden waste “maliciously” strewn across a bike path.

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

More on the bike-riding burglar who broke into Bibi’s Boutique on Pico Blvd in LA’s Pico-Robertson neighborhood, before pedaling off with over $3,000 in cash and merchandise.

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Local 

Streetsblog’s Joe Linton takes a look at the new Higuera Street Bridge replacement project over Ballona Creek in Culver City, including new protected bike lanes on the bridge, and a new — not improved, as I wrote earlier — ramp to the bike path below.

Glendale officials rallied in support of AB 645, which would create a speed cam pilot program in three SoCal cities — Glendale, Long Beach and Los Angeles — along with three cities in Northern California.

 

State

Police in Irvine busted a pair of alleged bike thieves who’d were arrested while ghost riding four stolen bicycles; the also had outstanding warrants, and were carrying burglary tools and drug paraphernalia.

A travel site describes what it’s like to bike across the the Golden Gate Bridge from Sausalito to San Francisco.

 

National

Red Bull calls Just Ride “the most entertaining podcast in cycling.”

Gear Patrol says it just might be worth it for ebike riders to invest in a bike helmet that exceeds minimum standards. Then again, it might be worthwhile for any bike rider. 

ET phones home with the best Prime Day deals on ebikes to cruise in comfort this summer; while Men’s Journal offers their own take on the same subject.

A 30-year old Aberdeen, Washington man was arrested for randomly attacking a man riding a bicycle for no apparent reason, while under the influence of a “stupendous” amount of alcohol; he also kicked a cop in the face and head-butted a hole through the window of the patrol car he was locked in.

A 27-year old Utah man turned himself in for Sunday’s fatal hit-and-run that took the life of a 59-year old man riding a bicycle. Although that would have given him plenty of time to sober up if he was under the influence at the time of the crash. 

Police in New Mexico charged a 29-year old man with murder for fatally shooting a man riding a bicycle on a local trail, for no apparent reason; the man had previous run-ins with several other people in the community, including firing a shot at the local high school cross-country team.

Good question. Students at Montana State University want to know why a man was handcuffed by campus police for riding his bike through a stop sign.

Security cam video shows the head of Fargo, North Dakota’s marathon fall off his bicycle before being run over and killed by a pickup driver, explaining why the driver wasn’t charged.

Heartbreaking news from Massachusetts, where a seven-year old little girl who had disappeared while riding her bike was found dead under nine feet of water a local river.

New York bicyclists are marking next week’s 141st birthday of legendary artist Edward Hopper with a bike ride from The Whitney Museum of American Art in Manhattan to his birthplace of Nyack NY and back — entirely which is appropriate since he was one of us.

A new multi-use trail will connect 17 commutes in South New Jersey’s Camden County; it will become part of a network offering 850 miles of interconnected trails.

DC could become the latest city to offer ebike rebates, with up to $2,000 off the price of an e-cargo bike, and $300 to replace crappy, fire-prone lithium-ion batteries. Meanwhile, Los Angeles responds with <crickets>. 

This is who we share the road with. After an Alabama police chase ended in a crash, officers discovered the armed suspect who allegedly stole the car was just eight-years old. Yes, 8.

Sad news from Miami, where the city’s beloved Jack the Bike Man died after suffering a heart attack last week at 81-years old; his annual holiday bike giveaway donated thousands of refurbished bicycles to children and adults in need for more than 20 years.

 

International

Momentum Magazine offers advice on how to deal with the inevitable bikelash, including advice to stay calm and respectful in confrontations. Which can seem almost impossible in the heat of the moment.

Lumos is now offering a stripped-down version of their original Ultra lighted bike helmet, with a removable rear light to reduce weight.

A British coroner concluded that all it might have taken to save the life of a 52-year old woman who died in a solo fall off her bike was a sign warning about the badly degraded roadway. Or maybe they could have just fixed the damn road in the first place. 

An 18-year old Idaho man is back home following his third place finish in the weeklong, 688-mile Ascend Armenia bikepacking race, which featured a whopping 83,000 feet of elevation gain.

Bike riders in Hyderabad, India say they’re satisfied with the progress on a new 14-mile, three-lane separated and covered cycle track.

 

Competitive Cycling

Veteran Basque cyclist Pello Bilbao jumped six spots in the Tour de France general classification, from 11th to 5th, in a bold six man breakaway, while dedicating his win to fallen Bahrain-Victorious teammate Gino Mäder, who died after riding off the road in last month’s Tour de Suisse.

Velo examines five times fans and dogs caused race-changing mayhem at theTour de France.

Bicycling is wowed by artist James Arnold’s animations of the upcoming Tour de France Femmes. As usual, read it on Yahoo if the magazine blocks you.

 

Finally…

When you’re busted for riding your lightlessbike carrying a metal straw full of coke — and not the kind you drink. Or when carrying weed and meth on your bike leads to a Picayune arrest.

And that feeling when your new foraging bike was designed by a celebrity chef and environmentalist.

Because everyone needs a dedicated bike for foraging.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin.

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