Tag Archive for bicycling

Calbike lists legislative agenda, ignores hit-and-run (again); and LA council committees belatedly consider HLA

February 26, 2025 / / No comments
Day 57 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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Calbike updated their legislative agenda for the coming year, calling for better and faster bike infrastructure, while reclassifying electric motorcycles and mopeds that are illegally marketed as ebikes.

Which, as we’ve repeatedly pointed out, are what are driving most of the complaints mistakenly directed towards electric bicycles.

Which they ain’t.

Other priorities include safe routes to schools, assessing the vulnerability of California cities to climate change, and removing roadblocks to bikeways and sustainable transportation projects.

Calbike also called for a halt to the recent rash of bikeway removals in the state, specifically in Culver City and San Mateo.

Although I keep hoping that someone, somewhere, will finally decide that hit-and-run drivers, who cause roughly a third of SoCal bicycling deaths, and are involved in up to half of all crashes in the City of Angels, are a problem, and actually do something about it.

Maybe someday.

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Streetsblog reports the LA Transportation and Public Works Committees will belatedly get around to considering two Measure HLA measure they put off earlier this month, ’cause they just didn’t have time to get around to them after dealing with constituents angry over another matter.

And that’s after failing to consider it in any of the previous 11 months following the measure’s overwhelming victory last March, of course.

Wednesday 2/26 – The L.A. City Council will host a joint meeting of its Transportation and Public Works Committees at 8:30 a.m. at L.A. City Hall room 401. The agenda includes two Measure HLA items postponed from earlier this month (see earlier SBLA coverage previewing HLA items and recapping the meeting when they were postponed

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Walk ‘n Rollers will host a Walk More Bike More Festival at Ivy Station in Culver City this Saturday, as Bike Culver City looks for bike valets.

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

Detroit cops demonstrate their windshield bias by ticketing bicyclists for riding in the roadway, incorrectly insisting they have to stay in the bike lane — even if it’s full of snow. And asking to see their licenses, which people who ride bikes don’t need.

You’ve got to be kidding. A so-called London “journalist” says that violent armed bikejackers “are doing society a favor” by targeting people whose only crime is riding a bicycle in the early morning hours, saying bicyclists have turned Regent’s Park into a circle of hell. Maybe he’d feel a little differently if they were mugging newspaper columnists, instead.

No bias here. Bicyclists complained about the BBC’s claim of “a war on our roads,” calling out the false equivalency of framing it as a battle when only one side suffers most of the losses.

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Local  

They get it. The Los Angeles Times also calls on Culver City not to backslide on their ambitious safe street redesign, arguing that we will “never have safe streets and quality transit if the region’s political leaders scrap or scale back projects when there is opposition to change.”

This is who we share the road with. A 33-year old social media influencer faces DUI and manslaughter charges after allegedly leaving a Malibu 4th of July party after drinking, and killing a rideshare driver in a head-on crash after jumping the center divider on PCH.

 

State

Costa Mesa will present a comprehensive bicycle safety education class, developed in consultation with Culver City nonprofit Walk ‘n Rollers.

Santa Barbara approved an amendment to the city code to provide more enforcement tools to rein in “excessive” ebike riders, even though excessive bicycling isn’t a crime, electric or otherwise. And even though it was inspired by a close call with a pocket bike, which is a mini motorbike governed by the state vehicle code, and not a bicycle subject to city regulations.

A long-delayed, one-and-a-quarter mile, $12 million bike trail connecting Morro Bay and Cayucos along the coast in San Luis Obispo County is now nearly funded and could break ground soon, providing a safer alternative to riding on PCH.

The Napa Valley Transportation Authority is looking for public input as they belatedly develop the county’s first active transportation plan.

The CHP is looking for a hit-and-run driver who left a Sacramento bike rider with major injuries earlier this month.

 

National

American bikemakers are facing yet another economic challenge thanks to Trump’s new tariffs on steel and aluminum, amid fears it will price out some customers and hurt demand.

Cycling Weekly takes an angle grinder to angle grinder-resistant bike locks to rate their resistance to, yes, angle grinders.

DoorDash says that San Francisco is the nation’s biggest market for bicycle deliveries, with 76% of the company’s deliveries done on bikes, ebikes and scooters, compared to 58% in New York and 57% in DC. Although my understanding is a lot of New York deliveries are made directly through the restaurant, without relying on a third-party service. 

My bike-friendly Colorado hometown is considering building a bike park on the site of the former college football stadium, where I used to smuggle booze for the marching band inside my tuba.

The governor of Arkansas signed a new bill allowing lift-access downhill mountain bike parks to help boost bicycle tourism, in a state where that is actually a priority. Unlike a certain populous Left Coast state I could name, although we seem to do okay attracting bike tourism, anyway.

 

International

Cyclist looks at the game-changing tech that has transformed bicycling over the past ten years.

Yanko Design recommends the top five “essential” bike gear upgrades for every bicyclist. None of which actually is. Essential, that is. 

A 33-year old beginning driver will spend the next two years behind bars for killing a 55-year old English man when he drifted onto the wrong side of the road for no apparent reason, and crashed head-on into the victim’s bicycle.

A British pro cycling site says semiconductors are even improving singlespeed bikes, despite their simplicity.

Momentum recommends four “fantastic” bike routes that showcase the best of Paris, for your next trip to the City of Lights, which is rapidly becoming the City of Bikes.

A Punjabi official insists that no government funds were expended on a Lahore, Pakistan bike lane that is already fading after less than a year, and will be repainted under warranty.

 

Finally….

That feeling when your pro cycling diet is a “hate crime against food.” Your new handlebar tape could look like a horned owl.

And for everyone who dreamed of riding a Raleigh Chopper through the Alps back in the day, someone has finally done it for you.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Teen bike riders again attack LA motorist, 3 fatal South LA hit-and-runs in 24 hours, and ATL ebike vouchers reduce driving

February 25, 2025 / / 3 comments
Day 56 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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My apologies for yesterday’s unexcused absence. 

My pancreas decided to remind me Sunday night that I’m still diabetic, and it’s still in charge. 

Good times. 

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For the second time in two months — and at least the third in six months — a Los Angeles driver has been attacked by a mob of angry young bicycle riders.

And yes, mob is the right word in this case.

According to witnesses, the kids set upon the victim after he got out of his car following an argument, and were shown on video hitting and kicking the man until he appeared to lose consciousness lying on the street.

The attack occurred around 4:30 pm Saturday at San Vicente Boulevard and McCarthy Vista.

KCAL News reports the attackers were around 16 to 18 years old, although other sources suggested they may have been younger.

It occurred just seven weeks and a few miles from where a man was attacked and his car severely vandalized after driving aggressively through a teen rideout on Olympic Blvd just seven weeks earlier.

And another driver was the victim of a similar attack in DTLA last August.

But no matter what the motorists may have done, or how justified these kids may have felt, there is never an excuse for this kind of mob violence.

Period.

Let’s hope someone recognizes the kids involved, so we can put a stop to this crap.

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Police in South LA are looking for a hit-and-run driver who killed a 16-year old boy riding a pocket bike — aka a mini-motorbike — early Sunday morning, despite some reports that mistakenly said the victim was on a bicycle.

The driver fled on foot, leaving the victim’s bike still wedged in the car’s grill.

As always, there is a $50,000 reward for any fatal hit-and-run in the City of Los Angeles. Anyone with information is urged to call the LAPD’s South Traffic Division at 323/421-2577.

The boy was just one of three people killed by hit-and-run drivers in South LA in just 24 hours.

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More proof that ebike vouchers are effective in reducing driving.

A new report shows recipients of Atlanta’s $1 million voucher program are riding more frequently and driving less, while boosting sales at local bike shops.

The recipients represent roughly two percent of the city’s population, from nearly every neighborhood, while serving mostly low and moderate income residents; one woman says she’s saving money on gas while enjoying riding through the city with her daughter on her new e-cargo bike.

Which is exactly what California’s ebike voucher program could and should be doing, if it had actual leadership, and wasn’t focused solely on providing transportation to low income residents who may not even own cars.

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Former LA-based pro cyclist Phil Gaimon, of Worst Retirement Ever fame, provides a tongue-in-cheek look at 10 facts about bicyclists that haters get wrong.

And my apologies to whoever sent this one to me after I lost track of who did it, but thank you, anyway!

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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 Encinitas city council replaced two members of the city’s Mobility & Traffic Safety Commission, as the mayor called for a “course correction” from the previous focus on bicycles and pedestrians, to “make sure vehicles and their drivers aren’t forgotten in the roadway planning process.” Because because cars and drivers must have somehow been left out in the newly 40 years of auto-centric traffic planning since the city’s founding. 

Drivers in the UK say they’re being treated like extremist groups, accusing city counselors of being “snowflakes” for cancelling a meeting to discuss bicycling infrastructure, even though police had urged the cancellation over safety concerns from angry drivers.

The BBC remembers Paul Varry, the 27-year old Parisian bike advocate and father who dreamed of a bicycling revolution in the City of Lights, until he was run over — allegedly on purpose — by an SUV driver after Varry became understandably upset when the driver ran over his foot in a designated bike lane.

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

A Jersey City writer blames bad behavior by scofflaw bicyclists for jeopardizing plans for a protected bike lane, while arguing that calling drivers selfish for being unwilling to give up an inch of roadway is just a great strategy to lose.

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Local  

No surprise here, as Trump’s funding freeze could jeopardize efforts to revitalize the Los Angeles River; meanwhile, LA released the latest update of plans for completing the LA River bike path, which stands little chance of completion unless the feds unlock funding.

Streetsblog’s Joe Linton offers his typically great photos from Sunday’s CicLAvia.

A man was arrested in Baldwin Park for vandalizing a church, resulting in $19,000 damage, following a brief bicycle chase.

The Broxton Plaza pedestrian plaza is now officially open in Westwood Village.

A Torrance driver faces charges after he was arrested for the hit-and-run crash that left an ebike rider hospitalized with serious injuries shortly after midnight Saturday; neither the driver or the victim were publicly identified.

 

State

The Voice of OC updates the current state of anti-ebike regulations in Orange County, with new ordinances in Buena Park and Laguna Hills. However, the cities continue to conflate relatively slow speed ped-assist bikes with higher speed Class 3 ebikes, and illegally modified virtual electric motorcycles.

In an opinion piece we can only hope is tongue-in-cheek, a writer for the UC San Diego student newspaper makes the case for giving bikes, scooters and skateboards undisputed right-of-way over pedestrians, even in crosswalks. Which is no different than drivers who insist they are entitled to the road, and people on bicycles should get the hell out of their way. 

Police in Contra Costa County have finally arrested a suspect for killing a man riding a bicycle over a year ago, leaving the victim lying the road next to his bicycle after midnight in December, 2023.

Sad news from Napa County, where a person riding a bicycle was killed by a hit-and-run driver Sunday afternoon, on the same highway where an Oregon couple was killed riding their bikes two years ago.

 

National

People For Bikes has launched a data-driven tool, developed with funding from REI, to help guide investment in recreational bicycling facilities.

A writer for Forbes asks if this will be the year the bike industry will bounce back, after yet another prolonged bust in 2024.

CyclingSavvy offers strategies to navigate a green light on your bicycle, which apparently isn’t as simple as it seems.

This is why people keep dying on our streets. A Las Vegas man faces charges for the allegedly drunken crash that killed 62-year old man riding an ebike — while he was already facing charges for another DUI, as well as ten previous charges for failing to appear.

The Northwestern University student newspaper profiles a 24-year old “campus enigma” known for performing stunts on his bike for hours on end, while blasting disco and funk classics through a speaker.

A 72-year old Connecticut woman walked without a day behind bars for killing a 47-year old woman as she was riding her bicycle, after the victim’s family asked the court for leniency. But at least she voluntarily gave up her driver’s license.

In a hard-hitting op-ed, a Black ex-con who has turned his life around to become a Connecticut lawyer and Harvard professor discusses how it felt to go to a bike shop, where he had been a customer six times before, to buy a bicycle, only to have the manager call cops after mistaking him for a vagrant. Yet he somehow went back a week later to buy a high-end Trek anyway.

A Tampa, Florida Catholic church gave away their 1,500th refurbished bicycle for people in need.

 

International

Momentum belatedly gets it, arguing that “sharrows used to make sense in theory, but are now mostly useless and possibly dangerous.”

A writer for Road.cc describes the tools he carries with him on his bike to fix just about anything on the road. I always made sure I had enough tools to get myself back if my bike broke down 50 miles from home in the middle of nowhere. And it did, more than once. 

Cycling Weekly considers how bicyclists can reduce their carbon footprint, when riding for recreation is far from a green activity as too few “hobby” riders use their bikes to replace car trips.

After traversing the continent by bike and train, a writer for Bike Radar lists his favorite European bicycling experiences.

London bike clubs are begging police to begin early morning patrols in the city’s Regent’s Park, where bike riders have been targeted by masked knife and hammer-wielding bikejackers. But donut shops must open later there, because the cops say it’s just too darn early for them.

A Welsh startup’s “ingenious” bicycle storage rack earned the equivalent of a $126,000 investment on the British equivalent of Shark Tank.

That’s more like it. A British man will spend the next eight years behind bars for killing a 16-year old kid riding a bicycle, while doing 70 mph in a 30 mph zone stoned on coke and weed; he initially left the scene, but came back shortly afterwards and called the cops to report the crash.

A writer from the Netherlands calls cul-de-sacs the enemy of ebikes, because they force people to ride next to high-speed traffic on overly wide boulevards.

A Dutch website considers whether the country’s roundabouts are really that safe, concluding they improve safety for bicyclists and drivers, though there’s still room for improvement.

A German company wants you to hide an AirTag in your bike bell.

How to go from selling soap from a bicycle to becoming a detergent mogul and one of the richest people in India.

The Washington Post remembers “inveterate adventurer” Shirley Duncan, who died just shy of her 100th birthday; Duncan was just 21 when she set off with a friend and a dog to ride across Australia in the days after WWII, a nearly three-year journey recounted in her 1957 book, “Two Wheels to Adventure,” now out of print.

 

Competitive Cycling

Ultra-endurance cyclist Lachlan Morton has done it again, setting yet another world record by riding 402 miles across New Zealand in just 18-and-a-half hours.

America’s only seven-time ex-Tour de France champ offers his tips for how to stay safe while riding a bicycle, including riding a gravel bike and going where cars can’t go. And waiting for self-driving cars to take over, which could take awhile.

What will likely be Chris Froome’s final year on the pro tour is on hold, after the four-time Tour de France champ broke his collarbone during the final stage of the UAE Tour.

 

Finally….

You can now be replaced by a robot. No, a bike basket is not a dumpster. Who needs a hearse when you’ve got a cargo bike?

And forget the dating apps; if you really want to find lasting love, get run over by a speeding driver while riding your bike.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: ,

Banning non-existent 39 mph ebikes from sidewalks, the year’s first CicLAvia on Sunday, and riding to remember civil rights

February 21, 2025 / / No comments
Day 52 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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No bias here.

Los Alamitos will join the list of Orange County cities enacting local restrictions on ebikes, introducing a new ordinance allowing cops to cite riders for “unsafe” conduct, while intentionally keeping the ordinance “broad.”

Although leaving it too broad could make the ordinance unenforceable if it leave it up to officers to decide on the fly what’s legal and what isn’t.

Then there’s this.

The city’s mayor pro-tem demonstrated from the dais just how little research and preparation went into the promised ordinance.

Mayor Pro-tem Tanya Doby said she read that e-bikes can travel at nearly 39 miles per hour on a sidewalk. “So my question is, what, if anything, is within the realm of possibility to limit or restrict e-bikes or just no e-bikes on the sidewalk,” she asked.

“Is there anything that can be added for that,” she wondered?

Never mind that anything capable of doing 39 mph would be considered an electric motorbike under California law, requiring a motorcycle helmet, driver’s license and license plate.

And as a police captain explained to her, Class 3 ebikes capable of exceeding 20 mph are already prohibited from being ridden on sidewalks.

Let alone 39 mph motorbikes.

But other than that, it’s nice to see a city official so well versed on the subject she’s attempting to legislate.

And yes, that’s a little sarcasm.

Okay, a lot.

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Don’t forget Sunday’s first-of-the-year CicLAvia, on a first-ever route from University Park to LA’s historic West Adams.

And if you see someone with a corgi walking or riding a pedicab, say hi. Because that just might be me.

The person, that is. Not the corgi.

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Local  

No news is good news, right?

 

State

Business owners are “concerned” about a new bikeway project on San Diego’s Imperial Ave, which will remove the center lane they use to unload trucks, even though it will provide bike access for underserved communities. And even though studies have repeatedly shown that bike lanes are good for business.

Ride through the Paso Robles wine country to raise funds for local cancer patients, survivors, and their families on April 6th.

This is the cost of traffic violence. Oakland will name a new two-way cycle track next to Lake Merritt for Maia Correia, the four-year old killed when she was doored while riding with her father on the same roadway.

The Los Angeles Post-Examiner offers a guide to the best bicycling routes in the East Bay, for your next trip to the Bay Area.

 

National

Bicycling considers common household items that could come in handy for cleaning and maintenance on your bike. And for a change, this one is available on Yahoo if the magazine blocks you. 

No surprise here. Consumer Reports tested 21 cheap bike helmets purchased online, and found eight failed to meet minimum federal standards.

The Guardian traces the history of how bike buses revived riding to school.

A Portland father describes how bicycling led him to a job in the mayor’s office.

This is why people keep dying on our streets. An Elyria, Ohio police employee hit a homeless man riding a bicycle after rolling her car through a stop sign, then just drove away, later claiming she didn’t know she’d hit anyone — and still ended up only paying a lousy $50 fine. Fortunately, Good Samaritans are stepping up to help the victim, whose bike was destroyed in the crash.

A group of 35 people rode 31 miles from Marion to Selma, Alabama to remember civil rights activist Jimmie Lee Jackson, who was shot and killed 60 years ago on Feb. 18, 1965. And a bicycle ride this Saturday will follow the 51-mile route from the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama to to the Alabama State Capitol steps Montgomery taken by civil rights marchers led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr in 1965. 

 

International

A writer for Road.cc says sometimes, souplesse is more, longing for the days when effortless pedaling and the love of bicycling mattered more than ‘watts,’ ‘aero’ and ‘epic.’

Awhile back, we mentioned a father and son in the UK who were injured when a driver plowed into the bike they were sharing; now bicyclists and community members are calling for a complete redesign of the intersection, while civic leaders agreed to reconsider the ridiculous 50 mph speed limit.

Swiss bikemaker BMC issued a voluntary recall for its Kaius 01 gravel bike, telling users to “immediately stop riding” it due to a risk of fork steerer tubes coming loose under heavy riding conditions.

A pair of Dutch men embarked on a bike ride to “the other side of the world” last year, arriving in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam 343 days later — and offered to host anyone who wants to do the same ride in reverse.

I want to be like him when I grow up. An Aussie man celebrated his 86th birthday by bicycling with his friends in the local bike club, which has a growing chapter hosting twice weekly rides for people over 80.

Ebike and e-scooter injuries have “skyrocketed” a “whopping” 300 percent in a single year at an Australian children’s hospital — although that reflects a jump from just six to 24. And in all likelihood, has more to do with the increase in ebike ridership than an increase in risk. 

 

Competitive Cycling

Levi Leipheimer’s Levi’s Gran Fondo will offer live streaming of The Growler, its professional race with both on and off-road cyclists competing for a $156,000 purse.

Yeti Cycles offered a heartfelt tribute to American expat and Yeti/Shimano EP Enduro Team Mechanic Matt Opperman, who was found dead next to his mountain bike in the mountains above Siles, Spain.

 

Finally….

Apparently, it takes a major screwup for lesser known bike races to make CNN. That feeling when calling an ebike an ebike is an insult to the ebike.

And seriously, if you’re going to Mardi Gras, just leave your car at home.

And take me with you.

Please.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

CA Ebike Incentive management firm accused of major misconduct, and “King” Trump kills New York congestion pricing

February 20, 2025 / / One comment
Day 51 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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Nope. Nothing to see here.

Pedal Ahead, the San Diego firm chosen to manage the California Ebike Incentive Program is being sued by their former manager, accusing the nonprofit of what basically sounds like fraud and embezzlement.

But I’m not a lawyer, so what the hell do I know?

According to San Diego’s CBS8, it also may have explain why it took so long to roll out the state ebike vouchers.

In a newly filed non-conformed copy of a lawsuit obtained by CBS 8, former Pedal Ahead manager Rodrigo Rodriguez says he was forced out of his position after he reported misuse of funds, discriminatory statements from the nonprofit CEO, Ed Clancy, and evidence that Clancy was using Pedal Ahead to steer business to his own e-bike ventures, thus delaying a statewide initiative to provide grants to lower-income residents to purchase e-bikes.

In December 2024, the program moved on from Pedal Ahead and finally rolled out its e-bike incentives.

According to the lawsuit, the rollout was postponed for a long time due to Pedal Ahead’s alleged misconduct. However, not before Pedal Ahead secured over $10 million in grant funding from the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and the San Diego Association of Governments.

So those of us who accused the program of mismanagement and called for a criminal investigation may have been onto something.

You’re welcome.

And apparently, Pedal Ahead is not involved with the program any more, with the state taking over management of the program, which is the first I’ve heard about it.

So we have them to thank for the intentionally botched rollout of the first and only round of vouchers.

Clancy is also accused making discriminatory comments about the low-income communities they were intended to serve, as well as neglecting required outreach to communities of color in the state, including Barrio Logan, Richmond, Hunters Point, Fresno and Native American reservations

Evidently, oversight wasn’t a high priority for the California Air Resources Board, aka CARB, which was supposed oversee the program.

Or basic competence, for that matter.

The San Diego Union-Tribune has reported that Pedal Ahead is facing three separate investigations, however, their story is currently hidden behind a paywall.

Let’s hope those investigations also look into who chose them to run the program for CARB, and why.

And maybe it’s time for a few public hearings on this whole shitshow.

Or past time, even.

Ebike photo by Markus Spiske from Pexels.

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President Trump has boldly gone where no president has gone before, reaching into local traffic management to cancel New York’s successful congestion pricing program, while crowning himself king.

Just how legal that is remains to be determined.

Trump could have a say in the matter, since the program involved highways and bridges built using federal funds, which legally gives Washington a voice, if not a veto, over how they are used.

Although whether Trump can summarily overturn the four-year process blessed by the previous administration will depend on the outcome of the inevitable lawsuits.

Meanwhile let’s all wish a happy third birthday to LA Metro’s own congestion pricing study, which still hasn’t been released, evidently out of fear of pissing off LA drivers and the elected leaders who love them.

It may be a moot point now, though, since a Los Angeles edition of congestion pricing is no more likely to be approved by the Trump administration than New York’s was.

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An automotive website lists ten bicycles with known safety flaws, along with another ten ebikes banned for safety risks.

Although it doesn’t say who banned them, so maybe take that with a grain of salt.

And maybe they should have stopped there. Because that same automotive website badly misses the mark with their next piece, highlighting ten bicycles proven to be safest in high speed crashes.

Maybe they assume bicycles come standard with airbags. Or maybe they’ve forgotten that it isn’t the hard surfaces of a bicycle that matter in a crash, but the soft, squishy parts of the person on it.

Whether you’re in a solo crash or struck by a speeding driver, even the heaviest, most shock-absorbing frame will offer little protection when your entire body is exposed to the impact.

Which raises the question what the hell they’re thinking — or maybe what they’re on.

Or maybe they just let AI write the whole damn thing, and no one bothered to read it before they put it online.

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Finish The Ride founder Damian Kevitt will join a discussion on the future of ebikes at Claremont’s Harvey Mudd College on Monday.

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

Ontario, Canada’s ongoing war on bike lanes made its way into the campaign for provincial premier, as current leader Doug Ford, brother of the late crack-smoking Toronto mayor, attacked his opponents for their belief in “bike lanes and riding bikes and planting trees…But the problem is, you won’t be able to afford the trees because the economy will go down the tubes with all three of you.” Because apparently, trees and bikes are somehow bad for the local economy. Or something. 

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Local  

The eight-year old son of singer Pink and motocross star Carey Hart is one of us, following in his famous dad’s footsteps on “an appropriately sized” BMX bike.

 

State

Calbike says support advocates, and keep calm and pedal on in the face of whiplash changes in federal funding and policies. And thanks for linking to Transportation For America’s analysis of what’s going on at the federal level, and what it means for all of us. 

San Francisco CA Senator Scott Weiner has introduced two more bills to speed up projects that reduce car dependency, with SB71 focused on shortening CEQA reviews for transit, bike and pedestrian infrastructure, and SB445 on imposing permitting process deadlines for larger transit projects.

The Santa Cruz Sentinel takes a look at the Coastal Rail Trail following the tracks of the 19th Century Santa Cruz and Monterey Bay Railroad.

San Francisco finally installed its first speed cam, as allowed under a state pilot program approved a year ago. Which makes them one up on Los Angeles, which, to the best of my knowledge, hasn’t installed any.

 

National

Electrek recommends the best ebikes available now at every price point, from below a thousand bucks to more than five grand.

Bike Magazine considers how cuts in the federal public lands workforce will affect mountain biking, saying responsible ridership will now be more important than ever.

An Oregon legislator agreed to withdraw a controversial bill that would have banned Class 3 ebikes from bike lanes, while reclassifying them with mopeds and motorcycles.

New Mexico is considering whether and how to restrict mountain biking to protect the endangered Peñasco Least Chipmunk.

Denver will host a psychedelic bike ride in April to mark the 82nd anniversary of Bicycle Day, when Swiss chemist Dr. Albert Hoffman dropped the first LSD tab and unexpectedly tripped out while riding his bike home from work.

Residents of New York’s wealthy Upper East Side say they were blindsided by the new green wave on Third Ave, with traffic lights now timed to give constant green lights to anyone traveling 15 mph. Like on a bicycle, for instance. Or a car stuck in traffic thanks to Trump’s cancelation of congestion pricing.

A Louisiana high school senior who rode his bike to school everyday received a surprise upgrade from two wheels to four, when school officials gave him the keys to a donated used car. Although some of us would consider that a downgrade, instead.

Florida nonprofit Jack the Bike Man vows to continue its mission of providing refurbished bicycles to kids in need, after a fire tore through the second floor of their West Palm Beach warehouse; there were no bicycles stored there, but the group had hoped to sell it to raise funds for their work.

 

International

Momentum recommends studded bike tires for winter riding. Although here in sunny SoCal you’re more likely to need a good sunscreen. 

Evidently, winter isn’t a problem for bike riders in Brussels, Belgium, where ridership is up 4% over last year, on top of a nearly 14% increase the year before, despite record rainfall.

Momentum also suggests the best off-the-beaten-path bicycling routes in Italy, for your next off-the-beaten-path trip to the country.

An Aussie photography magazine talks with “bicycle photographer extraordinaire” Marcus Enno, better known in the cycling world as Beardy McBeard.

 

Competitive Cycling

The opening stage of Portugal’s Volta ao Algarve was called off with no winner declared when nearly the entire peloton took a wrong turn at a roundabout less than a kilometer from the finish line, speeding through the crowded lane on the wrong side of the barriers.

Escape Collective drops their paywall to consider other alternative endings to bike races that UCI probably hasn’t considered. Unless maybe they have, of course.

 

Finally….

Your next mountain bike ride could be halted by a chipmunk. Now you, too, can ride the custom bike honoring a locally famous runaway dog in a pooch-themed Mardi Gras parade.

And your next road kit could honor famed cycling superstar SpongeBob.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Collecting bikes for Altadena fire victims, 12 years since crash inspired Finish the Ride, and NY congestion pricing works

February 19, 2025 / / No comments
Day 50 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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Hats off to my old friend and former longtime LACBC staffer and volunteer Colin Bogart, who has organized a bike donation program for victims of the Eaton Fire for Pasadena nonprofit Day One.

According to the Pasadena Complete Streets Coalition, the nonprofit is working with the Bicycle Kitchen, the Bike Oven, the Bikerowave, and the Long Beach Bicycle Co-op to collect and repair the bikes, along with local bike shops including Around the Cycle, Pasadena Cyclery, and Trek Pasadena.

The organization has received requests for over 300 bicycles.

So if you have a bike you don’t need, or can help in some other way, drop it off at Day One’s Pasadena office at 175. N. Euclid Ave from 9:30am to 5:30pm Tuesdays, Wednesdays or Thursdays, or by special arrangement 626/657.8744 or colin@godayone.org.

Photo by Olya Kobruseva from Pexels.

………

It’s been a dozen years since a hit-and-run driver crashed into Damian Kevitt on Zoo Drive, and dragged him under his van onto the nearby 5 Freeway as he fled the crash.

Remarkably, Damian channeled the trauma of the crash that cost him a leg, and nearly his life, into the creation of Finish The Ride and Streets Are For Everyone to fight for safer streets and an end to hit-and-run.

And no, the driver was never found.

………

More proof New York’s congestion pricing is working, even as Trump vows to kill it.

………

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

Police in Detroit are looking for the woman who used her car as a weapon to intentionally ran down a man riding a bicycle after an argument, along with her male passenger who got out of the car and hit the victim with a baseball bat.

Seriously? A writer for the Boston Globe investigates who has the right to public space on the streets, after a mayoral candidate calls for hitting pause on building bike lanes, and can only manage to conclude that bike lanes are the third rail of Boston politics. Even though the law is clear that bike riders have a right to the road, and well-designed bike lanes improve safety for all road users.

No bias here. Residents of Suffolk, England are up in arms because a car-shaped bike corral replaced a single parking space. Yes, one.

………

Local  

The annual LA Chinatown Firecracker run, walk and bike ride has been rescheduled for March 8th and 9th, after it was postponed due to the January firestorms.

Streets For All says the long-sought extension to the Ballona Creek bike path is moving forward, despite missing out on ATP funding, after Metro recommended it for regional funding.

Streets Are For Everyone is teaming with the Pico Union Neighborhood Council to clean up MacArthur Park on Saturday morning, including the 7th Street bike lanes.

As we noted the other day, some people are criticizing a new demonstration bike lane in Santa Clarita, complaining that the flexible plastic bollards separating it from motor vehicles are a form of visual blight, but even the president of the Santa Clarita Valley Bicycle Coalition sympathized with the outcry over the “aesthetic unattractiveness.”

 

State

Calbike is hosting a webinar this Thursday to discuss creative approaches to funding active transportation infrastructure, as the usual sources threaten to dry up.

Apparently, former baseball star Barry Bonds is killing it on Strava, saying bicycling is his second passion. Although no one tests for steroids on the bike app.

A San Francisco website says anarchy has ensued on Valencia Street, as work begins to remove the contentious centerline bike lane and move it curbside, with people riding bikes forced to choose their own route on the street.

A Yuba City bike co-op is refurbishing bicycles and donating nearly 20 a month to homeless people.

 

National

Bicycling recommends ten expert-approved road bike upgrades for under a hundred bucks apiece. But you’ll have to fork out for a subscription if the magazine blocks you, because this one is limited to members only. 

It looks like bicycles, ebikes and bike components won’t be subject to Trump’s new 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum, but will be affected by other tariff increases.

The mayor of Honolulu signed a new law requiring helmets for bike riders under 18, while limiting the power of ebikes and providing guidelines to prevent reckless riding.

A Las Vegas writer wisely observes that sometimes, the best bike ride is the one you don’t take.

A Park City, Utah website says riding a fat bike through the snow could be the cure for the winter blues.

The Illinois legislature is considering legislation that would fix a bad court ruling that said bike riders aren’t intended road users unless a street or highway is designated for bicycle use.

 

International

Momentum recommends the top six routes for solo bike tourism. And for once, the Los Angeles area is included, as part of the 800-mile California Coast ride.

Bike Radar recommends nine bikes that give you the best bang for your bucks.

A London food delivery rider says he’s been knocked off his bike by drivers eight times already, arguing that bike couriers are people too, and deserve safer streets.

A retired English man has earned the moniker “Dr. Bike” for fixing bikes for community members or to donate to people in need, while raising the equivalent of over $11,000 for local charities.

A British writer took part in an study riding around York measuring air quality with a small device on his handlebars, and found the air was even dirtier than expected — even on quiet country lanes.

Ebike makers in the UK are worried about whether they can rsurvive after the government scrapped anti-dumping tariffs on China earlier this month, with one calling it the final nail in their coffin.

 

Competitive Cycling

Former pro cyclist Jérôme Pineau called out the World Anti-Doping Agency, aka WADA, for giving top-ranked tennis pro Jannik Sinner a three-month slap on the wrist for testing positive for a banned substance twice last year, saying a cyclist would have been banned for at least a couple years.

 

Finally….

2 Chainz may be a rapper, but two chains could be coming soon to a bike near you. If the city won’t clear snow from the bike lanes, just put a plow on an ebike and do it yourself.

And what could be more humiliating than getting busted for bike theft in front of your mom?

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Overregulating ebikes with nonexistent regulations, and neurodivergent Glendale boy now missing after bike ride

February 18, 2025 / / No comments
Day 49 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

Is the late, great Golden State going too far when it comes to ebikes?

A writer for CleanTechnica makes exactly that case, arguing that California is overregulating ebikes by prohibiting riders from using the sidewalk and banning throttles.

Instead she suggests the real solution is to improve safety by building protected bike lanes and dedicated bike highways, while improving infrastructure to keep cars, fast bikes and pedestrians apart.

In this case, banning e-bikes from sidewalks while not making safe space for riders somewhere else is the thing being pushed. Children who died because an inattentive driver ran them over aren’t going to be made more safe by banning them from having electric assist, and if anything, this punishes victims. Banning throttles doesn’t stop the practice of “ghost pedaling,” and doesn’t stop people from being able to go fast by pedaling at bit in a high assist mode. These “feel good” policies just don’t make much sense.

But, let’s assume for the sake of argument that these policies make any sense. If we want to save that one life, we have to think about all of the lives lost to emissions. If emissions could be reduced, thousands of people could be saved every year from heart disease, respiratory problems, and cancer. Saving a handful of lives that could be saved in some other more narrowly-tailored way at the cost of keeping the emissions murder machine going by discouraging e-bike ownership simply doesn’t make sense!

Where to even begin.

I’m all for better bike infrastructure and improving safety for everyone on our streets.

But there is no statewide effort to ban ebikes from sidewalks. Even if I agree that a bike that can do 20 mph or more with little or no effort shouldn’t be mixing it up with pedestrians, though stopping short of a total ban.

Instead, numerous municipalities have prohibited ebikes from being ridden on sidewalks, which is their privilege under state law, just like they have the option to ban or allow other bikes.

However, they don’t have the legal right to prohibit them from local streets or bike lanes, where they are allowed under state law.

I also haven’t seen any attempt to ban throttles, though I would like to see higher speed, throttle-controlled ebikes reclassified as something between an ebike and an electric motorcycle, akin to a mo-ped.

Cities in California also have the ability to ban ebikes for children under 12, which seems prudent, since many lack the judgement and motor skills to control something that can go up to 20 mph, or often higher.

But so far, the state has been remarkably hands-off in regulating ebikes, for the most part appearing to take a wait-and-see approach to permitting their use.

For better or worse.

Meanwhile, Dutch researchers have concluded that “The debate over the conflicts between fatbikes, mopeds, and bicycles overshadows the real problem: cars get too much space.”

Which is probably something most of us can agree on.

Photo by Max J from Pexels. 

………

Police in Glendale are looking for a 12-year old boy with autism and ADHD who went missing on a bicycle ride on Sunday, after he was last seen in the 1600 block of Rock Glen Avenue, near Eagle Rock Plaza.

………

Bad news from unincorporated Del Rio, north of Oxnard, California, where a young kid described as just 10 to 13-years old suffered major injuries when he was cut off by a driver while riding his bicycle at an uncontrolled three-way intersection.

He was not wearing a helmet, even though a bike helmet is required for anyone 17 or younger under California law. Which for once actually matters, since he suffered injuries to his head and eye.

………

Metro will host a virtual public meeting this Sunday to consider first mile/last mile connections to the upcoming NoHo to Pasadena Bus Rapid Transit line, or BRT.

Although you’d think they’d know enough not to schedule it during Sunday’s CicLAvia, which they also sponsor.

Here’s how Walk Bike Glendale describes it.

Metro is improving transit across LA County, and we need your help! The North Hollywood to Pasadena Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project will connect Los Angeles, Burbank, Glendale, and Pasadena, improving access to jobs, schools, and other key destinations. As part of this effort, Metro is developing a North Hollywood to Pasadena BRT First/Last Mile Plan, to help connect transit riders to the future BRT stations.

“First/Last Mile” refers to the first and last part of a rider’s journey where riders walk, bike, or roll to or from their nearest transit station or bus stop. Whether you walk, bike, or roll, we want your thoughts on improving safety and convenience around four selected stations.

Your input can shape enhancements like:

  • Street trees and landscaping
  • Sidewalk and crosswalk improvements
  • Lighting, seating, and other amenities
  • Bike lanes and bike parking

What’s Happening?

LA Metro will present draft First/Last Mile recommendations for the streets surrounding the future BRT station at Central Ave/Lexington Dr. We want to hear your feedback!

Date: Sunday, February 23rd, 2025
Time: 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM
Location: Zoom

………

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

No bias here. The New York Post says complaints over drivers blocking fire hydrants have skyrocketed — and somehow finds a way to blame bike lanes for “gobbling up” parking spaces. Rather than blaming scofflaw drivers for, you know, breaking the law. 

No bias here, either. A Welsh city has pulled the plug on plans for a “vital” segregated bike lane after residents complained the $1.8 million project would be the “biggest waste of money.” Because evidently, protecting human lives just isn’t worth what amounts to a piddling sum in most roadway budgets. 

British bike riders lashed out at the “vitriol and lies” being spread about active transportation advocates, after drivers accused the local council of forcing bicycling on communities.

………

Local  

LAist remembers iconic UCLA parking meister Donald Shoup, who died last week at 86, although the parking reforms he fostered will live on in cities and towns around the world.

 

State

This is who we share the road with. Encinitas wants to harden a traffic circle on the Coast Highway near an elementary school to keep speeding drivers off the sidewalk, after averaging over one crash a month for the last 18 months — most involving drunk drivers.

 

National

Mountain bikers in Utah’s Bears Ears National Monument could be required to stick to designated trails and off-road vehicle routes under a new proposal from the Bureau of Land Management. Although with the current federal staff reductions and budget freezes, there may be no one to stop you.

Huh? Police in McKinney, Texas ruled that there was no criminality in the hit-and-run crash that killed a 14-year old boy, after deciding that the driver did stick around, after all. So either the driver was there or wasn’t, which doesn’t seem that hard to figure out.

Bike riders in Jersey City NJ fear a state grant intended to improve bike safety will instead be watered down to favor people in the big, dangerous machines.

I want to be like him when I grow up. A 94-year old man in an Atlanta suburb has earned the name “Bicycle Man” by refurbishing and giving away bicycles for the past 13 years, while riding a bike himself up to his 92nd birthday; his father rode one into his 90s.

 

International

Momentum considers just what cities give up by surrendering to car culture by removing bike lanes.

A British website billing itself as “the ethical choice” says making pedestrians and bike riders wear beacons to alert inattentive drivers to their presence is just driving us to dystopia while threatening both.

This is who we share the road with, too. A 21-year old English man was convicted of murder for intentionally running down an ebike rider, chasing the victim after becoming enraged by his wheelie-popping showboating, just to teach him a lesson. All while appointing himself judge, juror and executioner — literally. 

The rich get richer, as newly bike-friendly Paris is installing “grands feux vélos,” aka traffic lights specifically designed for bicycles, on a major bike route through the heart of the city. It’s also worth remembering that the dramatic transformation of Paris to a 15-minute city promoting bicycling and walking began little more than a decade ago. 

Cops in Spain’s Canary Islands are trying to figure out what happened to a British tourist who was found dead on the side of the road where he had been riding his bicycle, with no evidence he’d been struck by a driver.

More sad news from Spain, where authorities appear to have found the body of American expat Matt Opperman, who disappeared while mountain biking last month; searchers found his van near Castillo de Segura de La Sierra shortly after he vanished, but no sign of Opperman until this week.

A writer for Electrek returns to China’s Bafang factory for the first time in five years, and is surprised to find a massive, modern R&D and manufacturing site that now makes the entire drivetrain for many of the world’s ebikes.

 

Competitive Cycling

Former Tour de France champ Egan Bernal’s hard-fought comeback from a near-fatal training crash is on hold for now, after breaking his collarbone in Andalusia, Spain’s Jaén Paraíso Interior Classic.

Britain’s Geraint Thomas decides to call it a career after this season; the former Tour de France winner and Olympic gold medalist has been racing for nearly two decades.

Finally…

Riding outside trumps indoor cycling, even in winter. That feeling when mountain biking down a volcano is enough to end your thrill-seeking days for good.

And a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it slap at New York ebike riders.

Thanks to Megan Lynch for forwarding the clip. 

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

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

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

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Happy President’s Day!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

………

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

………

Local  

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

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

 

State

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

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

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

 

National

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

International

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Competitive Cycling

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

Finally…

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

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

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Highlighting the dangers of fat cars, riding a bike to fight heart disease, and Streets For All hosts Culver City’s Bubba Fish

February 14, 2025 / / One comment
Day 45 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

Happy Valentines Day!

Or as they call it back in my bike-friendly Colorado hometown, Winter Bike to Work Day.

So show a little tenderness to the one you love. And when you’re done with your bike, do the same for that special person, too.

Even if that special person is you.

………

Clean Cities introduced a new campaign highlighting the dangers of “carspreading,” as motor vehicles continue to grow wider each year, arguing that bigger cars are making our cities smaller and putting lives at risk.

Images from Clean Cities website.

………

Cycling Weekly says riding a bicycle saved the life of a Black man.

Or maybe two.

Donnie Seals Sr had suffered a heart attack and had three heart surgeries, before he was 50, including a quintuple bypass.

When he saw his son headed down the same path, they set a goal of riding 350 miles from St. Louis to Chicago along the legendary Route 66.

Then did it, when Seals was 69-year old, and his son 35

The story is particularly important since Black people face a higher rate of heart disease and stroke than their white counterparts.

Even Texas agrees, with the Texas Department of Transportation calling for more walking and biking to benefit heart health.

Which means bicycling is a great activity for Black History Month, to help keep you from becoming history yourself.

………

Streets For All posted video of Wednesdays virtual happy hour, featuring new Culver City Councilmember Bubba Fish.

………

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

London city employees faced such relentless hostility and anger from people opposed to “bulldozing” a community to build a Low Traffic Neighborhood, aka Slow Street on this side of the pond, they were given a wellbeing day off for their mental health.

………

Local  

An Altadena man thanks the Red Cross volunteer assisting him, after he barely escaped the Eaton Fire with the gear he needs to train for a 2,700-mile bike touring race from Canada to New Mexico. Which sounds like the annual Tour Divide. 

Longbeachize looks forward to the Orange Avenue Backbone Bikeway, calling it Long Beach’s largest bicycle infrastructure project.

Catalina is just the latest SoCal city where residents are calling for stricter enforcement for speeding ebike riders. Although once again, the question is whether the problem is people on ped-assist bicycles, or electric motorbikes.

 

State

They get it. A San Luis Obispo weekly says they understand that the city’s road diets and protected bike lanes infuriate some people, but studies show bike lanes improve safety, so maybe they can tolerate them.

That’s more like it. A San Jose website says Sunnyvale residents are frustrated by the lack of protected bike lanes.

A San Francisco writer calls for kicking ebikes out of the city’s bike lanes, saying most are just electric motorcycles, anyway.

 

National

The American Planning Association says Bluesky is the new “it” space for urbanists. Which could be why you’ll find me there, although you can still find me on Twitter, as well. Or whatever the hell Musk is calling it this week.

They get it, too. The Austin, Texas city council voted unanimously to ban parking in bike lanes, saying people on bicycles have been hit by cars because of it. Although those cars probably had drivers. 

This is why people keep dying on our streets. A bike rider was killed at an Indianapolis intersection, after advocates had posted a sign last year saying it already had four nonfatal crashes, along with two more afterwards. Yet the city’s Vision Zero task force just met for the first time in seven months. Yes, seven. Thanks to Ben Fulton for the heads-up. 

 

International

The Guardian rates the best bike lights to see and be seen after dark. Although good lights can help you be seen in the daylight, too. 

Tragic news from Chile, where a 36-year old Indian man was killed by a minibus driver, while trying to beat the world record for the fastest crossing of South America on a standard bicycle.

This is why people keep dying on our streets, part two. Nearly half of police forces in the UK have clocked drivers doing three times the posted 30 mph speed limit.

This is why people keep dying on our streets, part three. A British father and son were lucky to escape with minor injuries when a driver slammed into their bicycle at an intersection where a local resident had mounted a camera because it had so many crashes. And yes, the “dreadful” crash was caught on video.

Life is cheap in Ireland, where a driver was sentenced to a lousy two years for killing an eight-year old boy riding a bicycle, after speeding through a red light, while the kid’s parents justifiably complained about “undue leniency.”

If you build it, they will come. A new report from the Netherlands shows that an extra 350,000 people are bike commuting, thanks to the country’s new bike paths.

Just in time for Valentines Day, a Philippine couple say riding their bikes together makes every bike ride a date.

Residents had raised fears a full seven years earlier about the New Zealand road where an English tourist was killed when a driver plowed into the four-seat bike they were riding, with the crash leaving locals “horrifically sad.”

 

Competitive Cycling

The oldest qualifier for the Race Across America, aka RAAM, returns to California when The 508 marks its 50th anniversary this September.

An automotive website remembers José Meiffret, the first person to reach 127 mph on a bicycle paced by a motor vehicle, all the way back in 1962.

American cycling legend Bobby Julich fondly remembers the racing bikes he held onto following his groundbreaking racing career.

Netflix show Tour de France Unchained will hang up its cleats after this season.

Finally…

Wear something sparkling when you ride, like maybe a diamond or glitter. And just because California is under an atmospheric river, that doesn’t mean a dog can’t enjoy a decent bike ride.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Councilmembers decide not to decide on HLA, public opinion eventually favors bike lanes, and better bike network algorithms

February 13, 2025 / / One comment
Day 44 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

So much for that.

City councilmembers pulled the plug on considering how to implement Measure HLA at Wednesday’s joint session of the Transportation and Public Work committees, after a “fiery” discussion on another matter took up their allotted time.

But they announced proposed amendments to the draft implementation plan, including making projects subject to review and input from the fire and police departments, which is fine as long as they don’t get a veto.

Their input could be useful, as long as the process is how to make projects work, rather than how to water them down. Or kill them.

And let’s not forget that other city’s have invested in compact emergency vehicles to negate the complaint that bike lanes restrict emergency responses. Or that’s LA’s preferred plastic cat-tickler bendie-posts are very easy to drive over with cars, let along bigass firetrucks.

Two other proposed amendments could be more helpful.

First, the draft requires an appeals process for anyone who alleges the city is out of compliance with HLA, but the amendment would make that process optional.

The second would allow the city to expand the scope of grant-funded projects to comply with HLA, as long as it doesn’t jeopardize the funding.

So mark your calendar for February 26th, when the committees are scheduled for their next joint meeting. And hopefully, they’ll actually get around to discussing it this time.

Meanwhile, the city planning department will host a virtual information session on its proposed Standard Elements Table at 6 pm tonight to clarify the minimum features for the differing networks included the city’s Mobility Plan, which are now required under Measure HLA.

………

No surprise here.

A new Irish study shows that public opinion usually shifts in favor of bicycling infrastructure once the benefits become evident, despite initial skepticism and the natural bias towards maintaining the status quo.

And acceptance grows once the bikeways are in place, when people can enjoy the tangible benefits they provide.

The study stresses the importance of highlighting the benefits of active travel initiatives, such as reduced emissions, better air quality and public health, and improving safety for vulnerable road users.

However, it also warns against a paternal attitude in explaining the benefits, which risk alienating some people.

………

Another new study, this time from Switzerland, uses an algorithm to show where to place bike lanes to design an ebike-friendly city, with minimal impact on other travel modes.

The study concludes the best methods design street networks that present the best trade-off between car accessibility and bikeability, providing both lower travel times for motorists and lower perceived bicycle travel times.

………

CicLAvia offers high points along Sunday’s West Adams meets University Park open streets event, including the spcaLA Pet Adoption Center.

Which gives me an excuse to explain that donations made to the national ASPCA — you know, the one with the ostensibly heart-tugging ads showing all those suffering animals — can go anywhere in the country.

So if you want to help dogs, cats and other animals here in Los Angeles — including pets displaced by the recent Palisades, Eaton and Hughes fires — make your donation directly to the spcaLA so your money stays here.

………

Local  

Seriously? The Signal reports someone riding an ebike was injured when they were struck by a vehicle in Canyon Country. Except the article doesn’t even mention whether the vehicle even had a driver, while the headline positions it as an ebike collision, as if the rider hit another ebike, or maybe a tree, rather than getting run down by a motorist. 

 

State

More than a billion dollars in climate funds earmarked for California has been blocked, and could be imperiled by Trump’s executive orders.

A student at Point Loma Nazarene University aspires to be a pro cyclist in Europe, but lost a couple years due to PTSD after suffering a fractured pelvis when he was struck by a driver, while another student is aiming to be a professional triathlete.

Officials in the Coachella Valley are discussing how to improve safety on deadly Highway 74, aka the Ortega Highway, after a man was killed in a big rig crash, including the possibility of banning bicycles in certain areas. Which could be illegal, since California law says bikes can only be prohibited on limited access highways when there is an alternate route available — which doesn’t seem to be the case here. 

San Francisco Streetsblog takes a look at an expanded, fully separated and curb-protected two-way bike lane in Alameda.

Our old friend Megan Lynch forwards news that a local Davis bike subscription service is apparently unsubscribing from the college town, after 500 of their bikes showed up for sale on Craigslist.

 

National

The family of a bike-riding Oregon woman killed by a DEA agent, who allegedly ran a stop sign while on a surveillance operation, has filed a $2.5 million lawsuit against the agent and the DEA, after the courts ruled he couldn’t be charged because he was working for the feds. Because sometimes a lawsuit is the only hope for justice when the court system fails the victims.

This is the cost of traffic violence. A Sedona, Arizona nationally known artist and photographer was killed by a driver when he tried to pass a slow moving car on his bicycle, while allegedly riding without lights.

A suburban Chicago writer sings the praises of wintertime fat tire bicycling, describing a “magical experience” riding through the snow.

A Maryland legislator has dropped a demand for a title and registration for ebike riders, but his proposed bill still calls for licensing and insuring e-bicyclists; needless to say, the Bike League says nay.

 

International

Momentum clearly hopes you get the Seinfeld reference, saying “these bicycle campers are real and they are magnificent.”

A writer for Cycling Weekly pens a breakup letter to his dirty bike after giving up on cleaning it himself.

Cycling Weekly also rates the best and most portable bike locks, including their top choice that “literally turns angle grinder-cutting discs to dust,” while weighing just 2.8 pounds.

The British government is providing the equivalent of $364 million in new funding to build 300 miles of new bike lanes and walkways throughout England; however, Cycling Weekly says it’s not new, and it’s not enough.

An Aussie writer travels through history on a pioneering gravel ride into the depths of Cappadocia.

A Canadian writer says Taiwan may be one the world’s best places for a bicycling holiday.

A tourist visiting from the UK was killed, and three others seriously injured, when a driver in New Zealand crashed into a four-person bicycle they had rented less than an hour earlier to tour a winemaking region.

 

Competitive Cycling

Dutch cyclist Mathieu van der Poel announced plans to skip this year’s road worlds to focus on winning the mountain bike world title.

Cyclist takes a look behind the curtain at a hi-tech Spanish factory where the new kits for the WorldTour’s Ineos Grenadiers are made.

 

Finally…

Your next ebike could come with a detachable bucket. When you’re carrying meth, fentanyl and a wad of funny money on your bike, maybe just don’t.

And why pin down your clickbait slideshow, when you can just recommend riding along “rivers,” “mountain ridges” and “coastal pathways?”

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Parking in LA bus lanes will get driver $300 fines starting Monday, and ride to free verse and iambic pentameter Saturday

February 12, 2025 / / No comments
Day 43 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

Start spreading the news.

Streetsblog reports that drivers will now face $293 fines for parking in bus lanes when automated enforcement begins on Monday.

Metro and LADOT have been issuing warnings to drivers for violations captured by bus-mounted cameras for the past three-and-a-half months.

But the free pass is over.

Which will not only speed bus traffic during peak hours, but also improve safety for bike riders, who are allowed to share the bus lanes.

Along as you’re willing to ride with a bus running up on your ass.

………

I knew a man, his brain was so smallHe couldn’t think of nothing at allNot the same as you and meHe doesn’t dig poetryHe’s so unhip, when you say DylanHe thinks you’re talkin’ about Dylan ThomasWhoever he was…

— Paul Simon, A Simple Desultory Philippic

Get ready to ride accompanied by free verse and iambic pentameter when LA River Arts, El BiciCrófono, and Los Angeles Poet Society host a poetry-themed fundraising ride along the LA River bike path this Saturday.

Ride alongside poets from throughout Southern California to heal from the trauma of the Palisades and Eaton fires “through poetry, music, and shared space,” while raising funds for the Tongva Taraxat Paxaavxa Conservancy, whose newly acquired LandBack property was damaged in the fires.

………

Local  

Nice. Donate $20 or more to benefit victims of the devastating LA or Altadena wildfires before February 23rd, and you could win a new bicycle from Larkin Cycles.

ActiveSGV will host a bike rodeo in South El Monte this Saturday. Speaking of which, I still want to be a bike rodeo clown, when and if I ever grow up. 

 

State

The eight-day, 525-mile Arthritis Foundation California Coast Classic Bike Tour will mark the 25th year of the San Francisco to Los Angeles ride this September, while also expanding to a second ride in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

A Sunnyvale councilmember is calling for safety improvements along a deadly traffic corridor through the city, where 11 people have been killed by drivers while walking or biking since 2019.

 

National

Travel + Leisure makes their picks for the eight best ebikes, whether you’re using them for travel, or yes, leisure. And they pick the best bike helmets, most of which are currently on sale.

Streetsblog says light electric vehicles, including pedicabs and ped-assist cargo bikes, are the missing ingredient in America’s “minimobility” revolution.

A former Oregon church has become a vibrant way station for bike tourists.

A bill in the Washington legislature would allow cities to convert existing streets to shared streets that give priority to bike riders and pedestrians, while limiting drivers to just 10 mph. Although they’ll need to do more than just post speed limit signs, or drivers could push that 10 mph to 20 or more.

Police in Albuquerque, New Mexico have issued an arrest warrant for a 24-year old man accused of being the hit-and-run driver who killed a longtime local bike advocate last month.

A Colorado woman faces a well-deserved sentence of more than 10 years behind bars for striking a man riding a bicycle, then leaving him to die in the street while she took her five-year old kid to McDonalds.

You’ve got to be kidding. Charges were dropped against an alleged hit-and-run driver who was arrested at the Houston, Texas airport as she was about to board a flight out of state, due to insufficient evidence — even though video of the crash appeared to show her speeding up to hit the victim without braking.

Listen my children and you shall hear, of the non-midnight Massachusetts bike ride to honor Paul Revere on 250th anniversary of his famed ride to warn the redcoats were coming.

A 43-year old DC man will spend the next two-and-a-half years behind bars for chasing down another man and stabbing him in the back, after the victim merely touched the handlebars of the other man’s bikeshare bike; no word on charges for the woman who handed him the knife he used to stab the victim.

A Maryland man has ridden his bicycle every day for nearly 3,000 consecutive days — that’s over eight years without missing a day.

That’s more like it. Plans to replace Richmond, Virginia’s 112-year old Mayo Bridge call for reducing the four lane bridge to just one lane in each direction, with protected bike lanes and wide sidewalks on each side, as well as a 14-foot wide shared use path.

 

International

Momentum says bicycling builds better mental health five ways. Kinda like Wonder Bread, but for strong minds, instead. 

Northern Irish bicycle advocates are calling for an end to a pilot program that allows cab drivers to use bus lanes, which are also used by people on bicycles.

A new Scottish study shows women downhill mountain bikers are twice as likely to be injured as male riders, possibly due to average difference in neck strength and less bone density than men.

That’s more like it, part 2. A change to the UK’s Highway Code could result in drivers being fined the equivalent of more than $6,200 for passing bike riders too closely.

Bratislava, Slovakia is resisting pressure from the country’s transportation ministry to remove curbs from a protected bike path along the Danube River.

Melbourne, Australia bicyclists say it’s long past time for the city to open new bike bridges that were finished months ago, but remain fenced off, despite the dangers they face on the roadways.

 

Competitive Cycling

About damn time. A movie is in the works about two-time Tour de France champ Gino Bartali, who won the race ten years apart — in between, risking his own life to save the lives of countless Jews from the Nazis during WWII by smuggling documents in the frame of his bike.

Peter Sagan’s long-time domestique says Sagan was a natural leader with rockstar charisma, but tempered with a fiery temper.

Former Tour de France champ Egan Bernal capped his comeback from a near-fatal crash by winning both the road and time trial Colombian national championships, three years after he crashed into the back of a stopped bus at full speed on a training ride.

 

Finally…

No, it’s probably not the best idea to kidnap the boy you suspect of stealing your ebike and holding him for ransom.

And California bike riders could someday pledge allegiance to the state of New Denmark.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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