Tag Archive for bicycling incentives

Free LED safety gear for low-income Culver City commuters, and reasoning with an angry climate denying driver

August 4, 2022 / / 2 comments

Bike Culver City is starting a light giveaway program for bike riders and pedestrians in the city.

BCC steering committee member Art Nomura writes to say the organization has won a grant from the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) GoHuman program to purchase and distribute hi-quality LED safety equipment to low income workers in Culver City and the vicinity.

Bike Culver City will be giving away a free top-rated LED Vest or a pair of hi-vis LED lights to qualified recipients; night or early morning workers that bike or walk to work (including first and last milers) are especially encouraged to apply.

Anyone interested in the program can click on this link to see what is available and to fill out a simple application form in English or Spanish.

However, he stresses that the application period ends on August 16, so this is a limited time opportunity.

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Um, okay.

An angry Portland driver goes off on a cargo bike rider because of his sticker reading This Machine Fights Climate Change, calling climate change a hoax and a scam, and saying the rider’s Antifa buddies can go to hell.

No, really.

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People For Bikes urges you to contact your US senators to demand the inclusion of an ebike tax credit and bicycle commuter benefit in the final draft of the new climate bill, aka the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.

Although at last report, Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema was the last remaining holdout on the bill, looking to add back tax breaks for corporations and private equity managers.

So the question isn’t what your senator will support, but what can they get Sinema and bill co-author Joe Manchin of West Virginia to sign off on.

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This is the cost of traffic violence.

Indiana Republican Rep. Jackie Walorski was killed in a traffic collision, along with two of her staffers, when a driver traveled onto the wrong side of the road and hit her SUV head-on.

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That feeling when a famed mountain bike park is full of bears. And no, you probably shouldn’t greet one like a lost puppy.

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If you need me, I’ll just be pretending I’m on my way to Bruges now, thank you.

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

After a Toronto bike rider was hit by a cop rolling a stop sign, he claimed the same officer had been harassing riders in a city park all day.

A 65-year old English man was injured when a road raging driver pushed him off his bike for the crime of not riding in a bike lane; he says he was hurt so badly he had to quit his job as an undertaker, and now struggles to play his trombone and bass guitar. Although probably not at the same time.

A British driver and his passenger face murder charges for deliberately driving onto a sidewalk and killing a man who was riding a bicycle with his girlfriend on the handlebars, before fleeing the scene without stopping.

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

Police in New York are looking for a Brooklyn bike-by shooter who shot a man who was standing outside his house, leaving the victim in critical condition. Although the NY Post can’t seem to decide whether the shooter was riding an ebike or a scooter.

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Local

Streetsblog is over halfway to their summer fundraising goal of $15,000, and just needs to raise another $7,000 to keep up their vital work reporting on Los Angeles and California transportation issues.

The Meet the Hollywoods CicLAvia route returns on August 21st, once again heading along the Hollywood Walk of Fame before dropping south to Santa Monica Blvd.

Camilla Cabello is sort of one of us, trying a kids bike on for size at a Los Angeles area Walmart.

 

State 

Carlsbad’s long-awaited 94-acre Veterans Memorial Park could soon be home to the city’s first bicycle park, complete with pump track, jumps and a slalom course.

Paul Pelosi, husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, pled not guilty to a charge of DUI stemming from a May injury collision in Napa County; the 82-year old driver had a blood alcohol level of .082% after the crash — just over the .08% limit.

 

National

A trio of Republican senators are fighting for your right to drive drunk, introducing a bill that would remove a requirement for carmakers to install passive drunk-driving detection mechanisms on all new cars by 2024.

The prestigious National Law Review considers the causes of bicycling crashes and how to avoid them.

Planetizen says accurate bicycle counts on city streets matter, because inaccurate — or non-existent — counts could lead to an underinvestment in bike infrastructure.

Streetsblog considers the multiple strange and varied vehicles that get called ebikes, and where they belong on the road, while Wired offers the latest deals on ebikes, e-scooters and accessories.

Prevention recommends the best women’s bike shorts. Only one of which is actually intended for, you know, riding a bike.

Seattle is testing a number of alternatives for building protected bike lanes this summer, from armadillos to low concrete barriers, with a goal of placing the winner throughout the city.

A Durango, Colorado letter writer insists residents of the city have been duped into thinking ebikes can have a tangible reduction on greenhouse gas emissions. Although he seems to think the point is to replace regular bike trips, rather than replacing car trips with ebikes.

A bighearted Odessa, Texas shop owner bought a new bike for a longtime customer after his was stolen outside the store.

Heartbreaking story from Michigan, where one of the two men killed by an alleged DUI driver shared his motivation for participating in the challenging 300-mile ride just hours before his death — a bracelet with the name of a Make-A-Wish child that he looked at whenever he needed inspiration.

A kindhearted Connecticut cop bought a new bike for a little kid who started crying after realizing he didn’t win one in a raffle on Tuesday’s National Night Out.

That’s more like it. A Manhattan community board is onboard with plans for a road diet and bike lanes, but are insisting on concrete barriers instead of just paint.

Another tragic ebike fire in New York, where an exploding battery took the life of a five-year old girl and a 36-year old woman in a Harlem apartment, along with their three dogs; the girl’s father survived in critical condition. Although once again, the local CBS station can’t seem to decide if it was an ebike or an e-scooter.

 

International

Bike Radar recommends the best torque wrenches to work on your bike. And no, that’s not what you use to hammer a tight nut you can’t get off.

An 80-year old Canadian man is trying to set a new world record for the longest journey by motorized bike, riding an ebike over 8,000 miles from Alaska to Panama.

Canadian bicycling injuries jumped 25% in the first full year of the pandemic, likely due to an increase in bike ridership. 

More proof that opposition to bikeways melts away over time. Despite the opposition of some drivers, local residents strongly support the UK’s Low Traffic Neighborhoods, Britain’s version of Slow Streets; in one study, 44% opposed an LTN in their neighborhood before it was installed, but after five years, less than 2% wanted it removed.

Porsche is jumping deeper into the ebike market by creating two new companies — one to make ebike components, and the other to build complete ebikes based on them.

A new German study suggests drivers pass bike riders just as close, if not closer, on streets with low speed limits as they do on faster streets.

Australia has issued an urgent recall notice for the children’s eZee Viento folding ebikes, which could suffer a broken frame while being ridden. The bikes were also sold in the US, but no word on a recall here yet.

 

Competitive Cycling

USA Cycling has announced the members of the US team for the Mountain Bike World Championships in Les Gets, France later this month.

Note to race organizers — speed bumps defeat the purpose of bike races. A half-dozen cyclists went down hard after clipping a speed bump in the last quarter mile of Spain’s Vuelta a Burgos.

 

Finally…

Is it really an ebike if it doesn’t have pedals, looks like a dirt bike and goes 38 mph? Or if the pedals are so hidden away they’re almost impossible to use?

And the story may be science fiction, but at least Amazon’s Paper Girls gets the ’80s bikes right.

And yes, you can read it on Yahoo if Bicycling blocks you.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

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

Bike incentives pulled from climate bill, bikes really are good for business, and L39ion of LA gets into beer business

August 3, 2022 / / One comment

They get it.

The loss of bicycling incentives in the new climate bill didn’t escape the notice of DC’s hometown newspaper, The Washington Post.

Provisions designed to supercharge the sale and use of traditional bikes and the battery-powered variety were dropped from the climate deal reached by Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Joe Manchin III (W.Va.), the Senate’s most conservative Democrat. The absence is grinding the gears of bike manufacturers and cycling enthusiasts who pushed for months to include the pro-bike provisions in Democrats’ climate package…

Dropped from the deal is a tax credit worth up to $900 to help cyclists purchase electric bikes. Also gone is a pretax benefit for commuters to help cover the cost of biking to work. Versions of both benefits were included in the roughly $2 trillion spending package that passed the House last year.

The proposed commuter benefit for bikers, which Republicans repealed in 2017, would be similar to a perk many employees already get for taking a car or subway to work.

As it stands, the bill — officially titled The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 — is a gift to makers of electric cars, with a $7,500 tax credit for new electric vehicles, as well as a tax credit for used ones.

Yet it inexplicably excludes the hottest selling electric vehicles in both Europe and the US.

Ebikes.

Which are somehow outpacing sales of electric cars, despite being outside the price range of many potential buyers.

And which offer the greatest potential for getting drivers out of their cars, and reducing the number of cars on the street.

Which you’d think would be a reasonable goal for a climate bill.

But apparently, you’d be wrong.

Photo by Markus Spiske from Pexels.

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This is the key point to remember.

Because business owners will always oppose anything that takes parking away, without realizing they will probably be better off without it if they just give it a little time.

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Now that’s more like it.

L39ion of Los Angeles is teaming with Colorado’s New Belgium brewery to introduce the L39ION X Fat Tire Golden Ale, brewed with lemon peel and sea salt for “post ride consumption.”

Proceeds will benefit the Grow Cycling Foundation to provide education, access and opportunities that promote diverse representation and equity in cycling.

However, the hyper-limited release may be difficult to find, unless you have the brewer ship it directly to your door.

You’re welcome.

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

Life is cheap in New Zealand, where an impatient driver walks with a measly $1,200 fine and a six-month driving ban for intentionally driving into the path of a group of bike riders, and physically attacking one man who crashed into his car.

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Local

The LA Times questions whether the new $588-million 6th Street Viaduct is an architectural and cultural wonder or a symbol of so much that is wrong with Los Angeles. I vote for c) All of the above.

Los Angeles expanded a prohibition on homeless encampments near schools and daycare centers, which also prohibits blocking roadways and bike paths. Of course, the problem is getting someone to actually enforce it if a homeless camp blocks a bikeway. 

A passing bike rider in Tujunga called 911 after noticing a man in a car who appeared to be unconscious; police discovered the driver was dead from a gunshot wound to the head.

 

State 

San Francisco 49ers General Manager John Lynch is one of us, although he might skip the upcoming NFL Hall of Fame induction ceremony after falling off his bicycle and bruising his face. And no, he wasn’t wearing a helmet.

Streetsblog says leaked communications prove San Francisco’s mayor is trying to kill off the city’s popular Slow Streets program.

On Focus highlights the Bicycling Hall of Fame in Davis.

 

National

Bicycling looks at the best bike headlights available on Amazon. Which isn’t exactly the same as the best bike headlights, period. As usual, read it on Yahoo if the magazine blocks you, although this one doesn’t seem to be paywalled. 

A Dutch man with peripheral neuropathy is riding an ebike across the US to call attention to the disorder, as well as promoting ebikes for people with physical disabilities. I suffer from the same condition, albeit from a different cause. So maybe there’s hope for me yet. Once again, read it on Yahoo if Bicycling blocks you. 

A new bike taillight launching soon on Kickstarter promises to make you look more like a human and less like an object. As if there are a lot of floating red flashers out there roaming the roadways on their own.

Someone is stealing locked-up, high-end bicycles from Colorado mountain towns. Just like pretty much everywhere else.

Strange case from Texas, where a 48-year old woman remains missing four days after she set off on a bike ride, even though her bicycle mysteriously showed up outside her parents home Tuesday morning.

A Michigan bike advocacy group demands that new cars come equipped with automatic emergency braking that can detect bicyclists, along with driver alcohol detection systems.

Boston bike riders formed a human bike lane during Tuesday’s morning commute, telling the city’s new mayor it’s time to get going on building new bike lanes.

He gets it. A New York Congressional candidate responds to the recent death of a bike-riding woman by saying the feds can do a lot better when it comes to bike lanes and traffic violence.

Great story about a 13-year old neurodivergent Georgia boy who learned how to ride a bike with a little help from his friends, who told him to “stop saying you can’t.”

 

International

Americans are coming out of their Covid shell, and celebrating their newfound freedom by biking through Europe.

A Halifax, Nova Scotia group objects to plans to remove up to 125 mature trees to make room for new bike lanes. Then again, I’d probably object to that, too.

A British student’s call for mandatory bike helmets has made it to the halls of Parliament, though a government minister says they’d rather encourage helmet use than require it.

Life is cheap in the UK, where a driver walked with probation and a one-year driving ban for attempting to drive off with a bike rider still clinging to the hood of his car following a crash.

Several Iranian bikemakers have shuttered their shops in recent weeks, pummeled by high production costs and a lingering recession.

A bike rider from Myanmar is suing Singapore’s water agency after his front wheel got caught in a metal grate with grills running parallel to the roadway. Something that shouldn’t exist there, or anywhere else.

 

Competitive Cycling

Cycling Weekly offers five takeaways from the first women’s Tour de France in 33 years.

USA Cycling was accused of transphobia after trans cyclist Leia Genis was allowed to compete in the women’s individual pursuit at last week’s USA Cycling Elite Track National Championships, then stripped of her silver medal the next day.

 

Finally…

If you’re going to pop a wheelie, try not to crash into a taxi and pull an endo in the process. Now you, too, can ride your Corona while you drink one.

And feel free to accessorize with someone’s old bike tubes.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

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