Tag Archive for bicycling deaths

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

December 12, 2024 / / One comment

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

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

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

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

So what are you waiting for?

Stop what you’re doing and give now! 

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Now they’re getting serious.

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

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

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

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

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Yes, please.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Local  

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

 

State

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

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

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

 

National

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

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

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

 

International

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

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

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

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

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

 

Competitive Cycling

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

 

Finally…

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

And Colin Jost is one of us, too.

Thanks to Megan Lynch for the heads-up. 

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

LA does squat on speed cams, bike lanes boost property values, and judge in DEA case rules running stop sign “reasonable”

December 6, 2024 / / One comment
Just 25 short days until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025. 
But not one LA city leader seems to give a damn about it.
Or if they do, they’re not saying anything. 

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It’s Day 8 of the 10th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive!

Thanks to Ken S, Bonnie W, Mark J, Kent S and Mari L for their generous donations to keep SoCal’s best source for bike news and advocacy your way every day.

So don’t wait. Take just a moment, and donate now! 

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According to Streetsblog, not one of the six California cities allowed to use speed cams as part of a pilot program to reduce speeding — or seven, counting late addition Malibu — have actually installed any nearly a full year later.

San Jose, San Francisco, Glendale, and Oakland have publicly announced which locations they are considering for the cameras, while the ‘Bu has begun developing a policy and impact report, as required by law.

But is anyone really surprised that Los Angeles doesn’t appear to have done a damn thing so far?

And stop smirking, Long Beach, because you’re in the same sinking boat with us.

Making matters worse, the proposal for the program originated right here in LA as part of our Vision Zero program. You know, back when we actually had a Vision Zero program.

Maybe someday, our current elected leaders with actually give a damn about protecting human lives, at least as much as our previous leaders.

You know, the ones who were great at announcing new programs, without ever actually implementing them.

At least they’ve that last part down.

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No surprise here, as a new English study has confirmed that bike lanes improve property values, with home prices in Manchester increasing up to 8% after its bikeways went in.

And the closer homes were to a bike lane, the greater the increase, as people were willing to pay more to live close to a bicycle network.

Which could be the best argument yet to overcome the built-in resistance of homeowners to any changes to the local streets in their neighborhood — or to the loss of trees or parking spaces.

As in, “Yes, ma’am, you may have to start using your driveway for its intended purpose, but your home will probably be worth more.”

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An Oregon man expressed his displeasure after a judge dismissed charges against the DEA agent who killed his wife of 27 years as she rode her bicycle — while wearing a hi-viz vest, and with multiple flashers on her bike — accusing the agent of “playing Russian roulette with his vehicle pointed at the public.”

His comments came in response to the judge’s bizarre conclusion that the agent “reasonably” believed he could safely run a stop sign while pursuing a suspect at 12 mph over the posted speed limit, without lights and siren.

After all, what could possibly go wrong?

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‘Tis the season.

Cycling Weekly offers this year’s Cycling Christmas Gift Guide for the bike rider in your life. And yes, it’s perfectly acceptable to give yourself the perfect gift this year.

Czech carmaker Škoda’s We Love Cycling website offers “reasonable” Christmas gifts for bicyclists, because unreasonable gifts are just so passé.

One hundred and twelve Raleigh, North Carolina 3rd graders were surprised with new bicycles and helmets for the holidays, after being told they were just going to an assembly.

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It’s now 351 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And a full 42 months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

Meanwhile, no bias here, as the New Santa Ana website calls the vouchers bad news for public safety, suggesting they’ll be used by “crazy and sometimes criminal juveniles on e-bikes” to further terrorize California residents.

Just wait until they learn about rebates for all those electric cars and Tesla trucks.

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

After posting letters in support of a recent badly misguided and misleading opinion piece attacking DC bike lanes, the Washington Post kept their promise to post letters supporting bike lanes and our basic right to survive on the streets. Although they seem to have ignored my suggestion to just link to my piece dismantling the writer’s arguments.

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Local  

Start the New Year right, or at least the Lunar New Year, with the 47th Annual L.A. Chinatown Firecracker, offering a wide range of runs, bike rides and other assorted activities to ring in the Year of the Snake.

 

State

The popular Cathedral Oaks Road bike path in western Goleta now has a shiny new surface, complete with smoother pavement and clearer markings for bicyclists and pedestrians alike.

Streetsblog takes The San Francisco Standard to task for suggesting that Vision Zero is some sort of unachievable utopian fantasy, arguing that other places have reduced traffic deaths to zero, even if San Francisco hasn’t done enough to get there. Actually, Vision Zero is a utopian fantasy as long as cities adopt it without implementing it, somehow expecting traffic deaths to magically go down. And yes, I’m looking at you, Los Angeles.

 

National

Bicycling explains how the wrong bike fit setup could be what’s making your hands go numb when you ride. Unfortunately, this one doesn’t appear to be available anywhere else, so you’re on your own if the magazine blocks you.

Sheriff’s deputies in Houston, Texas arrested a 22-year old hit-and-run suspect as she was trying to board a plane to leave the state, just hours after she allegedly killed a man riding a bicycle, then abandoned her car a mile away.

Streetsblog Chicago offers a virtual ride down the city’s new protected bike lane, which was build in a converted parking lane.

 

International

Cycling Weekly explains the differences between the various flavors of gravel riders, even if the lines differentiating them are a little blurry.

Eleven inspirational stories of people who took transformative journeys on their bike. Or maybe twelve, counting the author, who sold her belongings and took a year-long global bike tour.

Momentum introduces the Toronto artist who developed a virtually unwinnable bicycling video game to demonstrate the need for safe bike lanes. And yes, spellcheck, unwinnable is a word, so stop changing the damn thing.

Recently retired Italian cycling champ Domenico Pozzovivo was fined the equivalent of slightly less than 20 bucks for riding side-by-side with another rider while training at Lake Como, which is against the law in the country — but said that after getting hit several times by drivers, “As long as I ride a bike, I will always ride in double file. I prefer to pay a fine than risk my life.”

 

Competitive Cycling

Snopes tracks down the truth about an apocryphal story of a 66-year old Swedish man who earned the nickname “Grandpa Steel” when he won an 1,100-mile bike race, despite being denied entry because he missed 40-year old age limit by a mere 26 years. And finds that yes, an elderly man actually was given the nickname “Stålfarfar,” — or “Steel Grandfather” in English — after finishing first in the 1951 Sverigeloppet race, despite being told he couldn’t compete because of his age. But he was 65, not 66, and wasn’t actually the winner, because you can’t win a race you haven’t entered.

Cycling Up To Date questions whether anything can be done to prevent collisions on training rides, after Remco Evenepoel joined the rapidly growing club of pro cyclists who’ve suffered nasty crashes. I mean, aside from building safer streets, requiring automotive warning and active braking systems, and getting drivers to put down their phones and pay attention to the road in front of them, that is. 

 

Finally…

Avoid the festive faux pas of giving the wrong bike stuff this holiday season. Now you, too, can build your own e-cargo bike using a discarded bike frame.

And seriously, anyone can cross a bridge the easy way.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

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

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

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

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The carnage continues.

And it’s getting worse.

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

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

The group goes on to add this.

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

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

Let that last one sink in.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Let alone remember the victims.

But thanks to SAFE for keeping us informed, anyway.

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

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

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

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

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No surprise here.

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

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

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

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

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

Allegedly.

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

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They’re all one of us.

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

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

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

Then there’s this.

And this.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Local  

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

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

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

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

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

 

State

Calbike urges you to Bike the Vote this November.

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

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

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

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

 

National

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

International

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Competitive Cycling

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

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

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

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

 

Finally…

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

And now you know what happened to your stolen bike.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

Road diet for Griffith Park’s Crystal Springs Drive, and San Diego opens separated bikeway on deadly Pershing Drive

July 29, 2024 / / 2 comments
Just 155 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025. 

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I’m still looking for more volunteers to write guest posts or fill in for me for a few days while I’m out next month following shoulder surgery. We’ve already had a few people volunteer, but we could use more; just email me at the address on the About BikinginLA page, which I really need to update. 

And if I haven’t gotten back to you yet, don’t worry, I will.

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About damn time.

A 1.5-mile section of Crystal Springs Drive through LA’s Griffith Park is getting a lane reduction, from two in each direction to just one each way, along with buffered bike and pedestrian paths.

The road will also get speed bumps and new traffic signs to slow endemic speeding. Although key to the success of the $1.4 million project is whether there will be anything to prevent drivers from using the buffer — or worse, the bike path — to simply go around them.

This is the same section of road where Andrew Jelmert was killed while the beloved 77-year old was participating in a training ride for the annual AIDS/LifeCycle Ride.

Thirty-seven-year old Jairo Martinez was allegedly speeding and under the influence when he slammed into Jelmert while passing another car, with enough force to scatter bits of his shattered bicycle across the nearby hillside.

Martinez was arrested by sheriff’s deputies who scoured the scrub along the roadway after he fled the crash on foot.

There’s no word on the outcome of his case; the last news was when Martinez pled not guilty to the charges against him a little more than two years ago.

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San Diego celebrated the official opening of the long-awaited 2.3-mile Pershing Bikeway through Balboa Park on Saturday, which includes a fully separated two-way bike lane and pedestrian path, along with a new 75-foot bridge over Florida Canyon creek

Noted San Diego architect Laura Shinn was killed by a meth-addled driver while riding her bike to work there three years ago, while 34-year-old Johnathan Sepulveda was killed by a teenaged driver while riding a scooter a few months later.

Both died while waiting for the long-delayed bikeway that might have saved them.

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A new GCN video says we’ve all be brainwashed by a 100-year old “carspiracy,” suggesting we’ll never see the world the same way again after watching it.

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It’s now 221 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And 37 full months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

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

No bias here. An op-ed in the often anti-bike New York Post calls a citywide trade-in program to ensure delivery riders are on safer bikes with non-flammable batteries the mayor’s ebike boondoggle. Although she does have a point that the companies they work for should be on the hook for paying for it.

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

No surprise here, as a new French study shows that men, younger riders and bikeshare users were more likely to engage in risky bike behavior — which was defined as not wearing a helmet, running red lights, and crossing an intersection in front of oncoming traffic — than older riders, women and people riding their own bikes.

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Local 

No news is good news, right?

 

State

Sad news from Merced, where a 15-year old boy was killed in a collision with a “vehicle” while riding his bicycle, in a story that doesn’t even bother to mention if there was a driver involved.

More sad news from San Jose, where a woman was killed while riding her bike in a crosswalk Thursday evening, when a van driver swerved to avoid the man she was riding with, and slammed into her.

Still more sad news, this time from Antioch, where a woman was killed by a suspected drunk driver while riding her bike early Saturday morning; the 38-year old driver was arrested on a charge of DUI causing serious bodily injury or death.

 

National

He gets it. A writer for Utah’s Cycling West calls cars America’s biggest death cult. Which is hard to argue with when drivers kill around 40,000 Americans every year.

The battle over curbside parking is once again rearing its ugly head in Denver, as business owners fret over the loss of 200 parking spaces to install a protected bike lane in the Sloane’s Lake neighborhood. Even though studies have repeatedly shown similar projects have often resulted in increase in business activity, or at least no net loss. 

Nice gesture from a group of kindhearted Michigan State Police officers, who replaced a young boy’s bicycle that was stolen by a man who went on to kill a cop a few blocks away — and also brought three more bikes for the boy’s younger brothers.

Hundreds of people rode their bikes through the streets of Philadelphia to the steps of City Hall to demand safer streets, following the recent deaths of a bike rider and a pedestrian.

Heartbreaking news from Florida, where a three-year old boy was killed while riding a bike with his mother and siblings in a condo complex parking lot, when the SUV driver hit the boy after turning a corner.

 

International

Momentum recommends ten must-try summer North American bicycling routes, ranging from Canada’s Icefield’s Parkway to the Great Divide Trail.

They get it. The Toronto Star calls for improving safety in the ostensibly bike-friendly Canadian city, where five bike riders have died already this year, with another ten seriously injured.

London could soon ban “free-floating” bikeshare and e-scooter parking on sidewalks, requiring that they be left in designated bays, which providers say could kill micromobility in the city. Although it hasn’t seemed to hurt it anywhere else. 

The Bamboo Society of India is promoting bicycle frames made with locally grown bamboo as a more ecological solution to the countless bicycles that end up in landfills.

 

Competitive Cycling

French mountain biker Pauline Ferrand-Prevot won gold for her home country in the women’s cross-country race, while American Haley Batten overcame a broken rear wheel to take silver, with Sweden’s Jenny Rissveds capturing bronze.

Batten was fined the equivalent of $565 dollars after the race for “failure to respect the instructions of the race organization or commissaires” when she rode through a lane dedicated for taking on food and drink or stopping for a mechanical; fortunately, the violation was not considered serious enough to merit disqualification from the first Olympic mountain biking gold or silver won by a US cyclist.

France’s Loana Lecompte was lucky to escape without serious injuries when she went over her handlebars and landed headfirst on rocks on the side of the trial during a technical part of the course, briefly losing consciousness as the medics rushed in and cameras cut away.

Australian Grace Brown won the gold medal in the women’s time trial, while British cyclist Anna Henderson won silver, and American Chloe Dygert overcame a fall on the rain-soaked course to capture bronze, after watching the gold medal slip through her hands; US cyclist Taylor Knibb skidded off her bike four times before mercifully finishing.

Belgium’s Remco Evenepoel took gold in the men’s Olympic time trial in a pouring rain, finishing just ahead of Italy’s Filippo Ganna, with fellow Belgian Wout van Aert winning the bronze medal.

Australian cyclist Lucas Plapp underwent emergency abdominal surgery after he went under a barrier fence when his bike slid out from under him on the rain-slicked roadway during the time trial.

 

Finally…

Your next bike saddle could cost the equivalent of $1,400.

And bikes come in handy for a lot of things — like whacking an angry mama bear on the snout to make your getaway.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

Measure HLA leads in early voting, NY Vision Zero goes wrong, and possible driver shenanigans on Reseda Blvd

March 6, 2024 / / 2 comments
Just 300 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.

As of this writing, we’re up to 1,007 signatures, so let’s keep it going! Urge everyone you know to sign the petition, until the mayor agrees to meet with us!

………

It’s very early, and returns are still coming in. But so far, things are looking good for safer streets in the City of Angels.

https://twitter.com/schneider/status/1765265605329064090

Then again, why bother counting the ballots, when you can just follow KNBC-4’s lead and declare the winner when the first votes come in?

………

New York’s Vision Zero is clearly going the wrong way.

According to figures released by the city, bicycling deaths in New York reached a record high last year, with 30 people killed riding bikes in 2023. Another 395 bike riders suffered severe injuries.

Over three-quarters of those killed were riding ebikes, while 80% of people suffering severe injuries were on traditional pedal bikes.

Which seems significant, but probably isn’t.

Then again, at least New York released their Vision Zero figures, unlike a certain SoCal megalopolis we could name.

………

LADOT and CicLAvia will officially unveil the new Reseda Blvd Complete Streets corridor on Sunday, March 17th — aka St. Patrick’s Day — from 1 pm to 5 pm.

However, unlike most CicLAvia events, this will not be an open streets event, so you may still have to deal with some driver shenanigans.

………

It’s now 77 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 British man was fined the equivalent of $635 just for riding his bicycle through a town center in violation of a bicycling ban, which is more than many killer drivers a fined; an 82-year old man told city leaders to “stick it up your arse” after being fined the equivalent of $127 for the same offense in 2022.

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

Scofflaw Japanese bicyclists will now be able to pay traffic fines up to the equivalent of $80, rather than face criminal prosecution for most traffic violations, although “malicious violations” including drunk biking and obstructing traffic will still be subject to criminal punishment.

………

Local 

Authorities have identified a 44-year old homeless woman who was found dead on a Long Beach bike path near El Dorado Park Friday morning, saying her death is being investigated as a possible homicide.

 

State

San Diego Magazine recommends the best backcountry mountain bike route to the “surging watefalls (sic) and bubbling creeks” of Mildred Falls.

If you’re missing a bicycle, look north to Santa Cruz County, where sheriff’s deputies recovered dozens of apparently stolen bicycles while serving a warrant in Watsonville.

Petaluma residents broke out the torches and pitchforks over a proposal for a quick-build bike lane to replace a worn and aging one, over concerns about losing — you guessed it — parking spaces, albeit on just one side of the street. Because as we all know, a free place to store your car is far more important than human lives.

 

National

A US engineer living in the Netherlands argues that the root problem with American DOTs lies with the education and licensing of engineers, who are taught to build deadly infrastructure.

A writer for CNET offers his favorite bicycling gadgets, accessories, apparel and services for the coming year, while NBC News recommends the top rated bike helmets of 2024.

A Portland man was allegedly run down by a rampaging driver while standing with his bicycle, after the driver became enraged because he couldn’t score any fentanyl from a homeless encampment.

The widow of a Seattle bike rider is urging prosecutors to reconsider a decision to let the 53-year old driver who killed him with a slap on the wrist, despite striking him in a left cross crash while driving with a suspended license; police also failed to test the driver for drug or alcohol use.

A Denver private school chef won’t be cooking for the kids anytime soon, after fracturing his hand, ribs and sternum when he was struck by a driver while biking to work; a crowdfunding campaign to help pay his medical expenses has nearly met the modest $2,500 goal.

There’s a special place in hell for whoever stole an adaptive tricycle custom-made for a disabled little boy in Mad City, Wisconsin.

If you build it, they will come. A new protected bike lane in Philadelphia has resulted in a 181% increase in ridership rates, while also leading to an 81% jump in drivers parking on the sidewalk.

Five years after the New Orleans mass casualty crash that killed two people and injured seven others riding their bikes near a Mardi Gras parade, a survivor of the crash is calling on the city to do more to protect bike riders, following a recent report that it has the highest rate of fatal bicyclist crashes per capita among major U.S. metro areas.

A bill that would have given Florida cities more power to restrict ebikes and e-scooters has failed in the state legislature, though the sponsor says it will be reintroduced next year.

 

International

Women make up just 23% of the bicyclists in the English city of Milton Keynes, although a greater concern might be that they counted just 163 people riding bicycles on the city’s shared mobility lanes over a ten-day period in January.

You have less than two months to dig out your finest Scottish woolens and vintage bicycle for London’s annual Tweed Ride next month.

You’re welcome. People walking and biking account for over 680,00 fewer cars and trucks on the streets of Ireland’s five largest cities.

As if dangerous drivers weren’t enough to worry about, a 60-year old Singapore man died of organ failure after he was repeatedly stung by a swarm of angry hornets as he rode his bike.

Former two-time world time trial champ Rohan Dennis will face a judge next week over charges he drove in a “culpably negligent manner” causing the death of his wife, Australian Olympic cyclist Melissa Hoskins, who reportedly fell from the hood of his SUV while attempting to open the passenger door. Maybe after the hearing we’ll finally learn why she was on the hood to begin with.

 

Competitive Cycling

The Visma-Lease a Bike cycling team is defending their use of their new Giro Aerohead II helmets that make the riders look like weir yellow mushrooms, despite a belief that UCI will ban their use in the near future; GCN says they should just hurry up and do it, already.

Good question. Pez Cycling News examines what can be done to promote better mental health among pro cyclists.

More than 400 cyclists competed in Costa Mesa’s Taylor Elizabeth Clifford Memorial Grand Prix, named in honor of a Huntington Beach teenager who died from an overdose in 2005.

 

Finally…

That feeling when you have to wait for the end of a belated Mardi Gras parade to start building a bikeway. Who says you need a front wheel to bike to Kashmir, anyway?

And evidently, they’re called Waymo because they’re way mo’ dangerous than non-autonomous vehicles.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

Killer Make-A-Wish driver convicted, and Orange driver pleads guilty to intentionally running over bike-riding boyfriend

October 9, 2023 / / Comments Off on Killer Make-A-Wish driver convicted, and Orange driver pleads guilty to intentionally running over bike-riding boyfriend

That didn’t take long.

Mandy Benn, the Michigan driver accused of killed two men participating in a three-day Make-A-Wish fundraising ride while stoned on prescription meds, was found guilty on all 15 counts by the jury, including second-degree murder, after just three hours of deliberation.

Which works out to about 12 minutes a charge.

Benn was attempting to pass a UPS truck when she went onto the wrong side of the road and slammed head-on into a group of riders, injuring three others in addition to the two men who died at the scene.

A detective investigating the crash said she appeared disoriented, and “like she was on a different planet.”

Benn had two painkillers and an anti-anxiety drug in her system at the time of the crash, as well as bottles of prescription meds in her car. The defense tried to blame her disorientation on a concussion suffered in the collision — an excuse the jury clearly rejected.

She could now spend the rest of her life behind bars once she’s sentenced on the murder charges.

Photo by Sora Shimazaki from Pexels: 

………

Maybe she should change her relationship status to “It’s complicated.”

A 29-year old Orange woman will be sentenced later this month after pleading guilty to intentionally running over her then-boyfriend as he rode his bicycle away from her home in December, 2020.

Diana Rodriguez pled guilty to felony counts of assault with a deadly weapon and corporal injury on a spouse or cohabitant, with sentencing enhancements for causing great bodily injury in a domestic violence incident.

Prosecutors dropped a felony count of mayhem, as well as three misdemeanor counts of possession of a controlled substance, as part of her plea deal.

The victim was scorched a hot vehicle part after being pinned under her car, but survived when a neighbor used a jack to lift the car off him.

………

The family of Joshua Cervantes Drayer called for justice and closure more than a year after the 40-year old Dana Point man was killed in a hit-and-run while riding his ebike.

………

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

The head of Brompton’s bikeshare program criticized UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s new “proudly pro-car” policies, describing Sunak’s attempt to halt the mythical “war on motorists’ as “wedge politics” and an “artificial construct” which will “hopefully blow over given time.”

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

A sidewalk-raging English delivery rider went over his handlebars attempting to get at a delivery driver who had called him a dick, among other less-than-friendly terms, for complaining about on the sidewalk, after pointing out that he wasn’t supposed to ride there, either. Meanwhile, the Daily Mail, apparently believing two wrongs do, in fact make a right, clearly sided with the foul-mouthed driver.

………

Local 

A letter writer in the Los Angeles Times pleads with government officials not to take away the cherished right-turn-on-red that so many SoCal drivers seem to assume is their God-given right, arguing that if drivers and pedestrians both obey the law, it’s perfectly safe. Which is about like saying guns are perfectly safe if owners use them properly, and people don’t step in front of the bullets.

The Beverly Hills Courier considers the city’s plan to add bike lanes to a third-mile section of Beverly Blvd.

 

State

San Diego’s commitment to building an actual bike lane network is paying off, after our neighbor to the south was recognized as America’s “greenest” city.

I want to be like him when I grow up. Holocaust survivor and age-group world cycling champ Leon Malmed celebrated his 86th birthday with a South Lake Tahoe bike ride.

 

National

A 53-year old woman was charged with careless driving for killing a ten-year old boy riding a bicycle in a small town near my Colorado hometown; police concluded she was driving distracted, after initially blaming the victim.

Hundreds of Houston bicyclists turned out for a memorial ride through streets lined with green ribbons to honor a 14-year old boy who was killed by a driver while riding his bike to school last week.

Bloomington, Indiana hamstrung an award-winning bikeway by installing new stop signs, slowing bike riders as well as the intended drivers.

A Cambridge, Massachusetts letter writer calls attention to a recent USDOT report that says bike lanes protected with car-ticker plastic pendy-posts reduced crashes by 50 percent when compared to bike lanes without them.

Police in New York are looking for a man who beat a 66-year old woman with a collapsable baton, knocking her off her bicycle, after the two nearly collided in Central Park.

Echoing a statement we’ve all heard too many times, North Carolina bicyclists say a 61-year old man was doing everything right when he was run down from behind and killed by a driver while attempting to make a left turn.

 

International

Insider Monkey — no, that’s not a typo — lists the world’s 20 most bike-friendly countries, and somehow includes the United States, where bikes and all other forms of transportation take a back seat to cars, at number 13, ahead of Japan, England, Spain and Italy; the Netherlands and Denmark naturally lead the rankings, with Australia — which is even more bike-unfriendly than the US — coming in third.

A Toronto college student got his stolen ebike back after launching his own investigation, and finding it for sale at a “really sketchy bike shop with no name.”

Life is cheap in Jersey, where a 51-year old driver walked without a day behind bars, as if a lousy six-month driving ban and community service is sufficient punishment for seriously injuring a bike rider in a “momentary lapse of concentration.

A stoned truck driver in Edinburgh, Scotland will have to find a new line of work after he was sentenced to two years behind bars and banned from driving for eight more, for killing an intensive care nurse who was biking to work during the pandemic.

An 85-year old Scottish woman rode her bicycle to cope with her grief over the deaths of her adult children, riding 1,000 miles around the country while raising the equivalent of nearly $88,000 for charity in the process. I have no idea how many hundreds of miles I rode to cope with my father’s death.

The leader of the Cyprus Green Party calls for an end to the country’s mandatory bike helmet law.

A writer for Taiwan News wants you to put the island on your bike bucket list.

Speaking of Australia, The Guardian says more Australian families are ditching cars for ebikes, in part because they pay for themselves. To which Californians who have waited more than two years for the state’s long-delayed ebike rebate program, respond “We wouldn’t know.”

 

Competitive Cycling

Slovenia’s Tadej Pogačar became just the third cyclist to win three consecutive editions of Italy’s Il Lombardia, after Alfredo Binda won three in 1925-1927, and the great Fausto Coppi won four in a row from 1946 to 1949.

Fellow Slovenian Matej Mohorič won his first senior world title at Sunday’s Gravel World Championships, apparently while riding an as-yet unreleased Merida gravel bike.

Australian cyclist Nathan Haas was forced to ride a bike quickly pulled from Colnago’s in-house museum at Sunday’s gravel world championships after his bike was lost by the airline.

New Zealand’s 34-year old “Flying Mullet” Shane Archbold calls it a career after a decade in the pro peloton.

Mountain bikers from 19 states and three countries set off from downtown Hot Springs, Arkansas Saturday for the 1,000-mile Arkansas High Country race.

 

Finally…

Your next bike could come wrapped in 24 karat gold and cost more than a Rolls-Royce. Nothing like riding your bike to Hell and back. No, literally.

And that’s a very good question.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

Masters champ Ethan Boyes killed by SF driver, complications of comparing traffic death stats, and Justice for Josh tomorrow

April 7, 2023 / / Comments Off on Masters champ Ethan Boyes killed by SF driver, complications of comparing traffic death stats, and Justice for Josh tomorrow

Heartbreaking news from San Francisco, where Masters champ and US record holder Ethan Boyes was killed by a speeding driver Tuesday afternoon.

Boyes was riding at a “treacherous” intersection in the city’s Presidio when a witness says the driver careened onto the wrong side of the road, hitting Boyes’ bike head-on.

Advocates have long called for protected bike lanes on Arguello Blvd where he was killed; it’s unclear whether that might have saved Boyes, depending on the type of protection used.

For a change, the driver was also injured, though his injuries weren’t considered life-threatening.

Photos show the San Francisco resident at the VELO Sports Center in Carson last September, and again in November.

https://twitter.com/VELOSportsCtr/status/1573736328767758336

Track cycling advocate and former US team member David Huntsman describes Boyes as “a friend to everybody.”

………

Bicycling says comparing bicycling traffic death for American cities, and one year to another, is complicated.

The magazine considered the report we discussed yesterday, which showed Los Angeles was the second worst city in the US by one measure, and 16th by another.

Neither of which is anything to be proud of.

The magazine suggests that year-to-year comparisons can be misleading, since it takes nearly a decade to get an accurate sense of whether things are trending up or down.

Still, it’s troubling when data backs up the feeling many cyclists have, of hostility from drivers—the seeming inability to share roads and look out for more vulnerable users. Business Insider reported that in 2020, 938 people riding bicycles and other two-wheeled non motorized vehicles powered by pedals or riding tricycles and unicycles (referred to by the NHTSA as pedalcyclists) were killed in motor-vehicle crashes—9 percent higher than the 2019 figure, NHTSA reported. Several hundred other cyclists were killed in non-traffic accidents, according to the National Safety Council.

It’s easy to sense when a place feels kind or aggressive toward people on bikes. Even when nothing technically goes wrong, cyclists can tell when they’re around drivers who wished they didn’t have to share the road…

Of course, it’s not a simple story. To show a complete picture we would have to look at things like weather, unemployment, infrastructure, and other population statistics. But when so many people on bikes are killed by drivers in specific areas, it’s alarming to say the least.

Alarming, indeed.

Let’s hope LA city officials are paying attention. Because homelessness and housing unaffordability, while important, aren’t the only major issues this city faces.

As usual, read it on Yahoo if the magazine blocks you.

………

SAFE, aka Streets Are For Everyone, forwards a reminder about tomorrow’s protest to demand justice for Josh Mora.

The teenager lost his right leg when he was struck by a hit-and-run motorcyclist while crossing Whittier Blvd.

 

………

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

No bias here. Key Biscayne, Florida approved escalating fines for repeat offenders who break the rules riding an ebike or e-scooter, while one councilmember said “As far as I’m concerned, I’d love to take them out all together.”

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

A Memphis man was responsible for a one man crime spree, as he used his bicycle to rob six people, including carjacking a pickup, then used the truck to rob a seventh person, all in 30 minutes; he bizarrely stole money and cellphones from two men as they ate lunch, then returned their cellphones, before coming back and taking them again.

A seven-year old British girl was left with multiple fractures when she was run down by a hit-and-run, bike-riding woman on a narrow pathway that bicyclists aren’t even supposed to use.

An English bike rider suffered a broken ankle when a man grabbed her handlebars and pulled her off her bike, in an apparent random attack.

Now we know why the UK woman below wasn’t using the spacious red bike lane, as Road.cc readers describe it as a “rollercoaster,” “littered with stones” and potholes that guarantee a flat, and filled with stops and starts.”

https://twitter.com/NathanielJHall/status/1643880941926903809?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1643880941926903809%7Ctwgr%5E3ecb8a413784429906bc0470e89578dcd7f87e6f%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Froad.cc%2Fcontent%2Fnews%2Fmailonline-accuses-cyclists-not-using-bike-lane-300449

………

Local 

Los Angeles traffic safety PAC Streets For All is getting into bed with bikewear maker Cleverhood, offering a 15% discount on the brand’s rain gear with a Streets For All crest, with the PAC getting 20% of the purchase price.

 

State

San Diego Magazine offers a beginner’s guide to urban bicycling.

Writing for a San Jose website, the executive director of the Mineta Transportation Institute calls for transition to a holistic, Safe System approach to stop the carnage on American roadways.

Sad news from Turlock, where a man in his 50s was killed when he was hit by a train while riding across the tracks, apparently going around the lowered crossing gates.

Kindhearted Sacramento cops arrange for a new bike for a 74-year old man after the bicycle he uses as his only form of transportation was stolen while he was in a market.

Plans for a new bike bridge over a busy highway will connect the north and south segments of West Sacramento.

 

National

Curbed reports problems at Lyft could “spell trouble for its near monopoly on the country’s bike-share market.” LA’s Metro Bike system is operated by Bicycle Transit Systems, so it shouldn’t be a problem here.

Gear Patrol considers how to pick the right class of ebike to meet your needs, while ABC News offers everything you need to know about ebikes, from battery safety to pedaling.

Mountain bike legend Gary Fisher is getting into the ebike business, with plans to offer a subscription service for around $100 a month.

A Portland bike shop owner is calling for change after his store was burglarized for the fourth time in less than a year.

Washington state officials are considering proposals to fund $2 million for ebike lending libraries, and another $5 million for an ebike rebate program.

A Houston TV station examines the case of a female Army vet who went for a bike ride four years ago, and was never seen again.

He gets it. A Chicago letter writer says instead of arguing about bike lanes, motorists should all just slow down and drive safely.

Life is cheap in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where a 72-year old man got a lousy 30 days behind bars for veering his pickup off the road, and killing a 15-year old kid riding his bike just a block from his home, after prosecutors dropped two felony counts in a plea bargain.

An Indianapolis paper rides along with the city’s Black Girls Do Bike cohort.

A Connecticut transportation advocate calls on the legislature to approve the recommendations of the state’s Vision Zero committee, including legalizing speed and red light cams.

New York installs the city’s first double-lane bike lane, with enough room to comfortably pass another bike rider or hold a conversation while you ride side by side.

 

International

Cyclist says Trek’s new top-tier MIPS helmets are faster and airier, as the company ditches the Bontrager name.

Men’s Journal suggests seven “wild new mountain bike trails and destinations” in the US, France and Mexico.

A London writer calls for banning “horrid” e-scooters, saying the only good thing about them is that drivers probably “hate their riders more than us cyclists.”

Life is cheap in Wales, where a delivery driver was sentenced to just ten months behind bars for killing a rising cycling star, even as the judge said that video of the crash showed poor judgement and a lack of attention from the driver.

A bighearted Dublin, Ireland bike shop owner repaired nearly 1,900 used bikes and donated them to Ukrainian refugees.

French bike sales were up 50% last year over 2019 figures.

National Geographic recommends an ebike tour of Italy’s “spectacular” Sella Ronda region, allowing your bike to take the strain out of the uphill climbs.

Australian bicyclists continue to be at risk, nearly a decade after a coroner’s inquest into the death of bike rider called for sensors to eliminate blind spots on large trucks.

 

Competitive Cycling

Cyclist looks at the Roubaix velodrome, the final point where the iconic Paris-Roubaix race could be decided after 161 miles of cobble hell.

The Dutch Jumbo-Visma cycling team will ride Paris-Roubaix with images of brains on their heads to promote helmet use.

VeloNews looks at the American pioneers at Paris-Roubaix, including George Hincapie’s second place finish in 2005, and Leah Thomas’ 12th two years ago on the women’s side. Once again, read it on Yahoo if the magazine blocks you.

Bicycling says you can stream the women’s Paris-Roubaix on Peacock tomorrow, assuming you’re willing to get up at 6 am Los Angeles time. Read it on AOL this time if the magazine blocks you. 

Cycling Tips says L39ion of Los Angeles pro Lance Haidet’s story is the story of modern American bike racing, as the 25-year old cyclist competes in road, gravel, ‘cross, and cross-country.

 

Finally…

We may have to deal with banks of LA drivers, but as least we don’t have to worry about riding into snowbanks. Now you, too, can own a vintage NFL bicycle hubcap — assuming your bike has hubs, that is.

And why wait until the bikes leave the shop before running them down with a bus?

………

Happy Easter!

Chag Pesach Sameach to all observing Passover. 

And Ramadan Mubarak to all observing the Islamic holy month. 

……….

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

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

Biking in America’s most dangerous city, LA bike and pedestrian deaths down, and longtime bike advocate dies

January 6, 2021 / / 3 comments

Congratulations, Angelenos.

You now officially live and ride in the most dangerous place in the United States.

And that’s not even counting Covid cases.

Let alone LA drivers.

Photo by Danne from Pexels.

………

Oddly enough, though, LA County streets were a little less dangerous last year.

Crosstown says while LA Mayor Eric Garcetti’s efforts have failed, the Covid-19 pandemic has led to a steep drop in pedestrian deaths, succeeding where he couldn’t.

We’ve seen a similar drop in bicycling fatalities, with just 16 deaths in all of LA County last year, compared to 34 in 2019.

Never mind the mind-blowing decline in bicycle collisions we mentioned last month, dropping 90% in September compared to the year before, and 70% for the year as a whole.

The question remains why, since motor vehicle traffic has returned to pre-pandemic levels, while bicycle ridership is up.

Maybe it’s safety in numbers. Or maybe there’s something else going on.

………

More sad news.

………

Mitt Romney is one of us. Or was, anyway.

https://twitter.com/FrenchHist/status/1346713706776825856

………

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

Once again, someone has sabotaged a British bike trail, planting upright nails in the dirt to puncture the tires of unsuspecting riders, with the potential for serious injuries.

………

Local

It looks like Adams Blvd could get a new bike lane on a two-mile stretch between Fairfax and Crenshaw. As always though, what if anything ends up on the streets depends on how loudly the drivers and NIMBYs complain.

A Santa Clarita radio station picks up tips on how to ride in the snow, which apparently first appeared on a Virginia website. Even if most SoCal bicyclists are unlikely to encounter snow unless they go looking for it.

 

State

San Diego is opening a new $135 million bridge over Mission Bay to replace an aging span that will be demolished and recycled; a 12-foot wide bike and pedestrian lane should be finished sometime next year.

 

National

Now we’re starting to get somewhere. A new clip-on, throttle controlled motor promises to convert your bicycle to an ebike in just minutes, for around four hundred bucks.

Self picks their favorite bike helmets for women.

New above-the-ear earbuds from Bose promise to keep you safe on the road by allowing you to hear the sounds around you; these headphones from AfterShokz make the same promise. But just try explaining that to the cop who’s writing you up for having one in each ear.

The owner of Phoenix, Arizona’s Bicycle Nomad Cafe completed his second 2,200 mile bike journey to retrace the route of escaped slaves along the Underground Railroad, riding with a reluctant partner from New Orleans to Niagara Falls.

Los Angeles didn’t get a single bike lane on PeopleForBike’s ranking of the top ten bikeways in the US; Austin Texas — with just a quarter of the population — got two.

A Milwaukee man went from fixing bikes for his neighbors to opening a new bike shop, thanks to the increased demand from the pandemic-induced bike boom.

A new study shows New York has consistently failed to follow through on plans to install bike parking, resulting in just one space for every 116 bicycles; that compares with 1.5 spaces for every registered motor vehicle. Then again, drivers aren’t exactly happy with the situation, either.

Horrible news from Jacksonville, Florida, where a pair of bike crashes just ten minutes apart left one woman dead, and another man fighting for his life.

Florida residents have rallied round a new local bike shop, after a Good Samaritan stopped a burglar from breaking in and held him for the police.

 

International

British bike shops have been given the okay to remain open, despite the country’s slide into its third pandemic lockdown.

A former mountain biker who competed for the UK says ebikes helped him get his life back, despite a serious heart condition that means never raising his heart rate above sedentary levels.

Named “low carbon heroes” by the Welsh Government, a British couple are helping get more people on bikes during the lockdown by refurbishing old bicycles and converting them to ebikes.

Dutch bike cops will now have flashing blue lights on their bikes to identify themselves as the police. No word on whether they will also make siren noises with their mouths.

I like it. South Africa’s Stay Wider of the Rider campaign reminds drivers to give bike riders more space on the roads.

A pair of Malaysian cities plan to improve safety for bike riders by converting under-used motorcycle lanes into bike lanes.

 

Competitive Cycling

Cycling Tips talks with American cycling legend Connie Carpenter-Phinney, road cycling Gold Medal winner in the ’84 Olympics and one of the era’s top women’s pros; she’s also the wife of fellow Olympic cyclist David Phinney, and the mother of recently retired pro Taylor Phinney.

Apparently, British women’s cycling great Beryl Burton doesn’t get any respect these days.

 

Finally…

Maybe you should put bicycling under job skills on your resume. Bribing firefighters with a bike to take their Covid-19 vaccine.

And that feeling when you go out for potatoes and come home with a new bicycle.

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Be safe, and stay healthy. And wear a damn mask, already. 

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

Hard-hitting look at race in cycling, South LA teen killed in drive-by while riding bike, and a deep dive into SoCal bike deaths

November 23, 2020 / / Comments Off on Hard-hitting look at race in cycling, South LA teen killed in drive-by while riding bike, and a deep dive into SoCal bike deaths

Let’s start with a very hard-hitting essay from self-described Afro-Latino pro cyclist Ama Nsek, newly signed to the Los Angeles-based L39ION of LA cycling team.

It starts out rough, and doesn’t get any easier.

Note: I’m not censoring his language, even though it includes a word I would never use. 

I’ve had several people – even a “teammate” – call me nigger. I’ve had racists shout it from their cars as they pass me on my bike. I sat there as a white man criticized my Mom, who looks white, but is Hispanic, for being with a monkey, my father – a Black man. I had a woman tell me at the Redlands Classic she would never even think about dating a black man because “they’re too much trouble.” A girl I was dating told me she had racist grandparents. This came up only as they were potentially going to be joining us on a trip, a problem I’m sure many Black folks have run into.

After quoting LA’s former national crit champ Rahsaan Bahati saying he feels like a raisin in a bowl of milk in the overwhelmingly white world of pro cycling, he finishes this way.

If you’ve gotten to the end of the article and you haven’t clicked any of the links, shared this message, or taken it upon yourself to educate yourself more, then the problem is lack of self-education in society and dismissal of stories like this. It’s the continued silence and lack of discussion from common people that supports racism and still propagates the idea that silence is safe.

Well, safe for whom? Clearly, not for people like me. If this struck a chord, please share this and begin the talks. It starts at the table with friends and family.

Seriously, take a few minutes and read it.

And if it makes you uncomfortable, that’s the point.

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Tragedy strikes again in South LA, where a 15-year old boy was killed in a drive-by shooting, for no apparent reason.

Carl Jackson, Jr. was an honor student, with no gang affiliations, who was just riding his bike back home.

The shooting helped push Los Angeles over 300 murders this year, a tragic figure the city hasn’t seen since 2009.

Meanwhile, a crowdfunding account to pay for Carl Jackson Jr’s funeral expenses has raised over $3,500 of the $8,000 goal.

More proof that cars aren’t the only reason the streets aren’t safe for everyone.

And equity remains a pipe dream for many people of color.

Excuse my language, but there’s no fucking justification for this crap. Ever.

Period.

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The Southern California News Group’s Steve Scauzillo takes a deep dive into SoCal bicycling deaths during the pandemic, and why lighter traffic has made the roads even more dangerous.

And yes, he has the excellent taste to quote c’est moi, as well as several leading SoCal advocates.

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Good question.

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This pretty much says it all, doesn’t it?

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A pair of researchers at San Jose State University are want your help with a survey to gauge attitudes towards mandatory bike helmet laws, and how they affect rider behavior.

Thanks to Mike Wilkinson for the heads-up.

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Santa Monica has replaced the painted bike lanes on Ocean Ave with new parking protected bike lanes.

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This classic comic pretty much nails it.

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Yes, there was a time not the long ago when kids in Los Angeles actually rode bikes.

Even if it feels like ancient history now.

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This is what governments do when they’re actually concerned about safety.

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Yes, please. We should have this on every residential street.

Or maybe just every street.

https://twitter.com/Rainmaker1973/status/1330156589672779776

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The latest video from GCN explains the difference between ‘cross and gravel bikes.

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

Oxford, England bike riders recount their complaints about motorists, including one rider who was knocked off their bike by a driver who then demanded money for the damage to his car.

This is why people keep dying on the streets. A Spanish woman faces a maximum of just four years behind bars — and could walk free — despite killing three bike riders and maiming two others while driving high on coke and at four times the legal alcohol limit in a 2017 crash.

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

Police in New York are looking for a bike-riding gunman who robbed and groped a woman outside her Bronx apartment.

It takes a real schmuck to mug a woman while she’s holding a baby, like this English bike rider and his walking partner.

Mountain bikers are blamed for causing irreparable damage to an ancient woodland in the UK. Seriously, don’t do that.

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Local

LA’s Slow Streets program is criticized for serving mostly wealthy communities on the Westside, where residents have the luxury of working from home.

Long Beach is moving forward with a Complete Streets remake of dangerous, car-choked Artesia Blvd, including bike paths, better sidewalks and improved traffic signals.

Usually when a bike rider is involved in a collision with a motor vehicle, it’s the person on the bicycle who bears the brunt of the crash; this time, it was a Danville motorcyclist who was tragically killed when a bike rider somehow fell into the traffic lane and the victim crashed into the bicycle lying in the roadway.

 

State

This is who we share the road with. Police in Anaheim are looking for the driver who used his car as a weapon by intentionally backing into a pair of people outside the Anaheim Lodge hotel, seriously injuring them as well as a clerk working on the other side of the wall.

The Orange County Bicycle Coalition warns that road work has reduced lanes on already dangerous Santiago Canyon Road, greatly increasing the risk on the popular riding route — as fallen bicyclist Hanna Tran apparently learned the hard way last week. Thanks to Bill Sellin and Victor Bale for the heads-up.

An Encinitas man has published a new book recounting his 5,000-mile cross-country bike ride back in the ’70s, when it was a much rarer achievement.

Santa Barbara officials aren’t happy to learn their newly approved e-bikeshare system will come with three nine-foot tall solar-powered enrollment kiosks that nobody bothered to mention before.

A judge rules a Goleta driver will stand trial for the alleged drunken hit-and-run that took the lives of a married couple as they were walking on an offroad bike path.

A San Francisco writer tries taking an ebike up the city’s steepest hill, and fails. Twice.

 

National

No, wearing a mask does not impair oxygen intake during workouts such as riding a bike.

Bike Snob’s Eben Weiss concludes that 20 miles is the ideal length for a bike ride. That used to be when I felt like I was just warming up; these days, I’d be happy just to get that far.

A new study concludes gravel riding makes you feel more tired and hungry because it takes more effort to ride rough surfaces. Which explains why LA bike riders feel worn out and starving after riding the city’s broken streets; as usual, read it on Yahoo if Bicycling blocks you out.

A Maui motorcyclist discovers what it’s like when the hit-and-run driver who wrecked his Harley turns out to be the chief of police.

There’s a special place in hell for whoever stole a trailer from a Minneapolis nonprofit containing 30 bicycles they used to teach children how to ride a bike.

Bighearted coworkers bought a new bike for an Indianapolis man after the bicycle he rode to work to support his three kids was stolen; kindhearted security guards at the courthouse where he works replaced it the first time.

Boston offers a network of new protected bike lanes in the downtown area.

Streetsblog calls on New York to begin building bike boulevards. We were promised those in Los Angeles in the 2010 bike plan. Promises made, promises broken.

‘Tis the season. Florida volunteers pitch in to build bikes to ensure every kid in need can have one.

 

International

For people on a budget, Road.cc lists the best bikes for less than the equivalent of $665 — and starting for just half that.

A Road.cc reader recounts his journey from a self-professed petrolhead to a committed bicyclist.

A writer for Toronto’s Globe and Mail considers how the pandemic is propelling an urban biking and walking revolution, including the shift to a 15-minute city.

Speaking of Toronto, a family of five ditches their SUV and goes carfree, taking to their bikes even in the cold Canadian winter. And wishes they’d known about cargo bikes years ago.

We’re not quite ready to leave Canada’s largest city, where bike riders are demanding that flimsy new Toronto bike racks be removed because they’re too easy to unscrew from the sidewalk, rendering them useless.

Bike thieves will take anything. Even a broken-down bike that was part of Banksy’s latest artwork.

A London woman makes the unusual transition from stage manager to bicycle mechanic to survive the pandemic.

They get it. A leading Scottish newspaper calls bicycling “a life-saving form of transport we must invest in.”

A British study shows that most people support bike lanes, but the public usually overestimates opposition to them. Just LA’s mayor and councilmembers.

The UK’s Sun newspaper recommends gear you need if you want to use your bike to avoid public transit. None of which you actually need.

Former Game of Thrones star Kit Harrington is one of us, as he rides the streets of Dublin on his way to work on the second season of Amazon Prime’s Modern Love.

Who needs an ebike? An Irish company has developed a ped-assist wheel that’s powered mechanically by your own weight. Evidently, the Design Boom website doesn’t think sentences need capital letters, either.

Bikeshare is booming in Zagreb, Croatia, as the system more than triples in size.

A Philippine broadcaster celebrated her 50th birthday by donating 50 bicycles to a program to help people who need a bike to get to work to keep their jobs during the pandemic.

 

Competitive Cycling

USA Cycling introduces the new Olympic Development Academy to help young cyclists develop Gold Medal skills. Thanks to David Huntsman for the tip, who calls it a sea change in their approach to Junior/U23 racer development.

Now you can own the bike Italian great Marco Pantani rode to victory on Mont Ventoux in 2000, beating the previously referenced ex-winner of that year’s Tour de France in the process.

The local newspaper remembers famed cycling coach and longtime Ramona resident Edward “Eddie B” Borysewicz, the man behind the top American cyclists in recent decades. Including one who won the most Tour de France titles ever, until he didn’t.

 

Finally…

This year, Santa rides a bike. You may never be a pro cyclist, but you can pretend with…Monopoly.

And that feeling when a wild boar eats your lunch.

No, literally.

 

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Be safe, and stay healthy. And wear a mask, already. 

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

LA bike crashes plummet during pandemic while deaths don’t, and fight for safe streets on your neighborhood council

August 5, 2020 / / Comments Off on LA bike crashes plummet during pandemic while deaths don’t, and fight for safe streets on your neighborhood council

Yes, collisions involving bike riders really are down in Los Angeles.

According to a Crosstown analysis of LAPD crash data, the lighter traffic resulting from the coronavirus lockdown led to a nearly 71% drop during the 11-week period starting March 15th.

That’s just four days before the shutdown orders in Los Angeles and California.

Surprisingly, despite the return of motor vehicle traffic and the recent jump in SoCal bicycling fatalities, bicycle crashes remained significantly below last year as of the middle of last month.

More surprising is that LADOT is actually moving forward with bike projects outside the Downtown area.

It seems LADOT is paying attention. Despite facing a shortfall of nearly $31 million due to the coronavirus pandemic, the department has expedited multiple bike lanes and safety projects since the “Safer at Home” order was issued on March 19. According to Colin Sweeney, LADOT’s public information director, there have been nearly 28 miles of bike lanes installed or upgraded, and an additional 5.5 lane miles are under construction in the city…

In addition to Downtown, Sweeney said LADOT also implemented more than 12 miles of new bike lanes to Avalon Boulevard in South Los Angeles since May.

“In South Los Angeles, the Manchester-Broadway, Our Way project has just begun construction and will add new parking-protected bike lanes from Manchester to Century on Broadway,” he said.

So maybe there’s hope, after all.

At least if you live or ride in those areas, because there are large swaths of LA where the city doesn’t appear to be doing anything.

Thanks to Ethan Ward for the heads-up.

Illustration by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay.

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On a related subject, the dramatic drop in SoCal bicycling deaths in March, April and May during the coronavirus shutdown, followed by a big jump in June and July as people started back to work, is a reminder that bikes aren’t dangerous.

Cars — and the people in them — are.

And streets are safer with fewer cars on them.

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Maybe the most effective way to counter LA’s legendary NIMBYs and fight for safer streets is on the neighborhood level.

And the best way to do that is by serving on your local neighborhood council, with openings available right now throughout the LA area.

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Maybe with more bike riders on LA’s neighborhood councils, we might see less of this crap.

https://twitter.com/EntitledCycling/status/1290348082681401344

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Ted Faber says Culver City’s efforts to provide social distancing for diners is good for people on bicycles, too.

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GCN examines whether you’re better off riding solo or as part of a group.

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Most mountain bikers have enough sense to stay the hell away from forest fires.

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

Police in Orange, California are looking for a man riding a bike who sexually assaulted three women on the Santiago Creek bike path.

British authorities are looking for a mountain bike-riding man who attempted to solicit a sex act from a woman, before performing a lewd act in front of her.

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Local

Pasadena police will conduct a bicycle and pedestrian safety enforcement operation this Friday. The usual protocol applies — be sure to ride to the letter of the law until you cross the city limits. Or just avoid riding in the Rose City until Saturday.

Sierra Madre and Arcadia are moving forward with bike lanes as part of an actual bicycle network in the San Gabriel Valley.

 

State

Costs Mesa is asking local residents, bike riders and pedestrians to reimagine what busy 19th Street can be. Although the latter two are often residents, too.

I want to be like him when I grow up. A 96-year old Santa Maria man is rapidly approaching 100,000 lifetime miles on his bike, despite not taking up riding until he a relative spring chicken of 67.

A new study confirms the effectiveness of Oakland’s low-cost, quick-build protected intersections.

 

National

Streetsblog says the Covid-19 pandemic could take 14 million cars off American roads, and keep them off — but only if we move quickly to provide valid alternatives to driving.

The founding president of the American Planning Association says planners must actively confront structural racism embedded in the design of our cities.

Bike Portland asks what the city plans to do with a thousand high-mileage analog bikes from the city’s bikeshare program, which is replacing them with ebikes.

Waterloo, Wisconsin-based Trek is gearing up to meet the booming demand for bicycles, after initially preparing for the bike industry to implode as a result of Covid-19. Although one of the best ways to bankrupt any business is by chasing boom and bust cycles.

A new Chicago group is getting more Black people out on bikes while supporting Black-owned businesses.

An Indiana hit-and-run driver was sentenced to a whopping 48 years behind bars for killing a local a local coach and teacher who was riding his bike; the sentence included an additional 20 years for being an habitual offender. Even I think that might be just a tad extreme; the judge could have ordered the sentences to run concurrently, rather than consecutively.

Heartbreaking news from Massachusetts, where a 94-year old man faces a homicide charge for running down a 67-year old bike rider. Yet another example of allowing an older driver to remain behind the wheel until it’s too late.

There’s a special place in hell for the woman who drove off after running down a couple nine and twelve year old boys riding their bikes on a Long Island service road; the 31-year old driver was busted ten hours later, which could have given her plenty of time to sober up if she was under the influence.

Good point. A New York writer wants to know why the mayor is cracking down on Revel after the Vespa-style scooter-share service suffered two deaths, but not motor vehicles, which cause far more.

 

International

Road.cc gets it, recommending the best road bikes under the equivalent of $650. And yes, there are good bikes in that range these days. Although whether you’ll be able to find any at your local bike shop after the coronavirus bike boom is another matter.

Speaking of Road.cc, the bike site Investigates an “innovative new risk-management philosophy” that says it’s time to drop the “us vs them” attitude, and build a road system that accommodates people’s errors.

Cycling Weekly explains what you should look for in a commuting bike.

Treehugger offers tips on what you’ll need to bike with small kids, while The Guardian covers the same topic.

North American bike riders need more than just white lines on the street to stay safe.

A pair of British Columbia bicyclists are lucky to be alive after they were struck by a load of lumber a truck driver carelessly left overhanging his pickup bed.

One in five British residents say they’d consider riding a bike as part of their commute, but fears of bike theft and dangerous streets hold them back; meanwhile, only ten percent of Brits think the country takes road safety seriously.

An English ambulance driver, who should know better, tells a bicyclist to get off the road and ride on a parallel cycle track, even though the rider is traveling at up to 30 mph. Maybe he’s just trying to boost his business if there are any slow bike riders or pedestrians on the path.

An English blues musician was killed when he crashed his bike into a bollard that was placed on a bike and pedestrian bridge after an elderly couple drove onto it by mistake — and even though another bike rider had already been injured in the same spot.

Nice story from the UK, where an 83-year old man is looking for the racing cyclist who crashed into him, ripping off his lip, which had to be reattached — not to hold him responsible, but to thank him for staying with him and holding his hand all the way to the hospital.

A British woman says the country’s new bike-focused anti-obesity campaign will fail because it ignores the complex causes of obesity, insisting she’s neither lazy or lacking self-discipline.

German grocery chain Aldi is selling a full-featured folding bike for the equivalent of just under $400; no word on whether this offer is only available in the UK, or if they’ll ship to the US, though. Although if I had an extra four hundred bucks lying around, I’d find out.

 

Competitive Cycling

The next pro cycling star may be Remco Evenepoel, as defending Tour de France champ Egan Bernal says he’s astounded by the 20-year old Belgian rider’s “massive” talent.

After winning the Strade Bianche, Belgian cyclist Wout van Aert held onto his jersey and the winning bike for a planned museum after he retires.

USA Cycling pulled the plug on this year’s Collegiate Mountain Bike National Championships due to the coronavirus pandemic.

 

Finally…

Who needs a washing machine when you can ride a bike? We may have to deal with distracted LA drivers, but at least we don’t have to worry about careless sheep violating the right-of-way.

And don’t hang your face mask from your car mirror.

Or anything else, for that matter.

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Be safe, and stay healthy. And wear a mask, already. 

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