Tag Archive for bicycling

Morning Links: CicLAvia rolls through the Valley, Whittier bicyclist threatened, and never lock your bike to a tree

June 22, 2018 / / Comments Off on Morning Links: CicLAvia rolls through the Valley, Whittier bicyclist threatened, and never lock your bike to a tree

CicLAvia is here.

The LA Daily News looks forward to Sunday’s Valley CicLAvia, which will roll, walk skate and scoot along Van Nuys Blvd through Pacoima, Panorama City and Arleta from 9 am to 4 pm.

This is the 25th CicLAvia, which began in Downtown Los Angeles on 10-10-10.

And yes, I still have the shirt.

It’s also the second CicLAvia in the North San Fernando Valley, following the first in 2016.

CiclaValley offers part two of his CicLAvia preview; we linked to part one on Wednesday.

And the Militant Angeleno is back with his Epic CicLAvia XXV guide, with highlights including the homes of the fictional Marty McFly and the very real Ritchie Valens.

Meanwhile, Long Beach’s CicLAvia equivalent will be back with a more walkable twilight version of Beach Streets this August.

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A Whittier bike rider reports being threatened by a pickup driver in a racist attack.

https://twitter.com/_ashleykatie/status/1009546297991262208

Thanks to Felicia G for the heads up.

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This is why you never lock your bike to a tree.

Megan Lynch forwards news of a German bike rider who locked his $2,500 bike to a tree over the weekend.

When he came back, his bike was missing.

And so was the tree, which had been cut down by the determined thief.

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A new study reports that the myth of the distracted pedestrian is exactly that.

A myth.

Less than 15% of walkers using crosswalks in New York and Flagstaff AZ were walking distracted.

And distracted or not, only a relative handful committed dangerous infractions while crossing the street.

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Local

Nice piece from Los Angeles Magazine offering mostly good advice for drivers on how to share the with bicyclists. Although if you roll down the window to talk to me at a red light, you’d better be asking for directions or complimenting my bike.

An editor for the Advocate has been skipping brunch to get out on her bike, saying climbing hills keeps her grounded.

As it finally nears completion, the My Figueroa Complete Streets project looks at its own beginnings with Prop 1C funding and new housing along the South Figueroa corridor.

LAist is finally back, with a report on a nine-mile bike taco tour of Boyle Heights.

In an incredibly short-sighted decision for such a progressive city, West Hollywood has voted to ban e-scooters entirely, encouraging users of the devices which have exploded in popularity to get back in their cars and make the city’s chronic traffic and parking problems worse.

 

State

Great idea. The San Diego Bicycle Coalition is holding a three-day regional bike summit, with a goal of breaking down common barriers to get more people on bikes.

A San Diego council committee has approved a $312 million program to build out and maintain the city’s 2013 bike plan over the next 20 years. Unlike most cities, where a bike plan gets put on the shelf and forgotten as soon as it’s adopted, Los Angeles included.

A new study reveals the most dangerous spots for bicyclists in the San Diego area, most of which are exactly where you might think.

San Luis Obispo backs down on plans for a protected bike lane in the face of angry residents, after transportation officials say the post road diet layout isn’t wide enough for it. Although it is wide enough for wide buffered bike lanes, which take up more space.

Here’s your chance to ride your bike on the famed Laguna Seca Raceway.

San Francisco has approved plans for the city’s first neighborway, which are streets designed to improved pedestrian access and bike safety. Which sounds like yet another way of not offending anyone by saying bike boulevard.

 

National

Bike Snob says sports with balls are overrated, and you should encourage your kids to ride a bike instead.

If you prefer to do your bicycling inside, Peloton has expanded its app to include over 10,000 classes.

Red Bull offers seven yoga moves that will make you a better bicyclist.

The Wall Street Journal says group bike rides are the new boardroom where deals are made. And they still couldn’t manage to get through the piece without saying cycling is the new golf.

Bloomberg says new ebikes are getting to be as smart as phones. And stupid fun to ride.

Outside says Bikepacking.com is revolutionizing the sport, making it perhaps too easy to pack up, pick a route and get out the door.

Three-quarters US states now mandate a minimum passing distance, as of Hawaii becomes the 37th state to require at least a three-foot margin for motorists passing people on bicycles.

Tragic news from Kansas, where a Minnesota man has been paralyzed from the chest down after he was run down from behind while participating in the cross-country Trans-Am Bike Race; a crowdfunding page has raised over $24,000, $4,000 more than the $20,000 goal.

A Dallas magazine says if you want to make the city bike-friendly, the best way to start is to get everyone on a bicycle with an earn-a-bike program.

Unbelievable. A 26-year old Arkansas woman has been charged with intentionally running down a bike rider, then trying to hit him again with her car — even as she was already facing capital murder charges in the death of her own grandmother.

A Chicago writer recalls how two boys from Belgium became the youngest kids to bike across the US in 1935; one of them his father grew up to be his father.

A Chicago woman says she loathes wearing a bike helmet because it’s hot and ugly and messes up her hair, and takes all the joy out of riding.

A bike-riding doctor with the famed Cleveland Clinic offers advice on how to stay safe while riding at night — and for a change, does not even mention bike helmets. Although his first recommendation is just don’t do it.

No bias here. A Queens community paper blames bicycle zealots for unreasonably demanding safer streets, suggesting that it’s their own damn fault if they get doored or run over. Someone should tell them that protected bikeways improve safety for everyone, as well as encouraging better behavior from bike riders.

A Queens councilmember says she’s being harassed by bike riders who might possibly have planned to sabotage a rally in opposition to a bike lane if she had actually bothered to hold it. Never mind that the bike lane has eliminated fatalities on what was formerly known as the Boulevard of Death.

Philadelphia councilmembers get an earful from bike riders demanding the city adopt a Vision Zero plan. Or at least the handful of councilmembers who bothered to show up and listen.

A Virginia man dispenses rehabbed bicycles along with anti-smoking advocacy.

According to the local business journal, Tampa, Florida business owners want fewer bike lanes on a roadway scheduled for a road diet. Which begs the question of just how much fewer they want. A single lane in just direction? Or more likely, none at all?

 

International

The Economist says ebikes and e-scooters are “flummoxing regulators while exciting consumers and venture capitalists,” as they weave their way into urban transport. Except, apparently, in West Hollywood.

Cycling Weekly explains why you might want to ti one on.

Columbian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar reputedly was one of us, while his brother actually was.

A Florida writer takes a Backroads bike tour of the Cuban countryside. But maybe you’d rather tour Amsterdam by bike.

No surprise here, as a new study shows Edmonton’s protected bike lanes reduce stress and travel times for riders.

Caught on video: A Toronto man has pled guilty to jumping out of a car, running up to a bicyclist and pushing him off his bike; no word on what led up to the attack.

It took five police squad cars to ticket a Toronto man for riding his bicycle in the street instead of in a bike lane — something the officers later had to backtrack on, since that isn’t actually illegal. The whole nearly 14 minute incident was caught on video.

Andrew Ridgeley appeared with the UK’s Piers Morgan to promote an 1,100-mile charity ride across Europe, but all Morgan wanted to talk about was the death of Ridgeley’s former Wham! bandmate George Michael.

More on the Netherlands’ plan to pay working adults 19 cents to kilometer to bike to their jobs. Which could be one of the least costly ways to get more people out of their cars.

Belgium bike riders strip down for the latest edition of the World Naked Bike Ride. Although evidently, not everyone likes seeing naked people on bicycles.

No, it’s not a cemetery, it’s an Italian monument to cycling greats.

An Indian man flew to Dubai and bought a bicycle to ride 2,600 miles to see Messi play for Argentina in the World Cup.

Cycling Tips says distracted driving is a bigger problem than ever in Australia, which is terrifying for bike riders in the country. And pretty much everywhere else.

According to the Korea Herald, bike deaths are up 11.5% in South Korea. Remarkably, the paper blames it on elderly riders and a lack of protective gear, rather than on a dramatic increase in distracted driving, like pretty much everywhere else.

 

Competitive Cycling

Teams have been announced for the men’s four-day Colorado Classic bike race, including four WorldTour teams and five Pro Continental teams.

UCI is finally getting around to banning the opioid pain killer Tramadol, which has been widely used during races in the pro peloton.

VeloNews says BMC’s financial collapse is just the same old crisis in a financially unstable sport.

 

Finally…

Nothing like getting your stolen bike back because the thief was too drunk to ride it naked. Who wants a boring bike when you can have an e-wheel?

And when you’re a lord, bike bells apparently matter more than safe streets.

 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: ,

Morning Links: Counterfeit bike parts, new weed-based recovery powder, and a photo link to make you smile

June 20, 2018 / / 3 comments

David forwards a warning not to buy bike helmets over the internet, after a Kentucky man was convicted of selling counterfeit high-end helmets on eBay.

I would modify that to say only buy online from a company you, with a good reputation for quality.

And be careful of buying any bike parts online. Because every part than can be faked has been — including entire counterfeit bikes.

But you’re always better off buying anything from your local bike shop. And so are they.

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I usually don’t share press releases for new products, but this one seemed interesting.

Floyd’s of Leadville, the medical marijuana product maker founded by erstwhile Tour de France winner Floyd Landis, is introducing a CBD-based protein recovery powder.

Available in Chocolate and Vanilla, each bag provides 10 servings, with 25mg of CBD, 27 grams of high quality protein, essential amino acids, only 5 grams of sugar and 150 calories.

“In addition to the softgels, tincture, and transdermal cream that we offer, we’re excited to bring to market these great tasting Recovery Protein powders,” states Floyd Landis, Founder and CEO of Floyd’s of Leadville. “It mixes easily with water or milk, and really provides a smooth flow of nutrients to maximize recovery after exercise, and even to start your day off the right way with a protein drink.”

Each 500 gram bag retails for $39.95, and will be available to Retailers and on the Floyd’s website within the next few weeks.

Go to floydsofleadville.com for more information and call 970.445.3209 with any questions!

For the uninitiated — like I was before my doctors put me on the stuff — CBD is the marijuana component that has a calming and soothing effect. And won’t get you high, like THC does.

Personally, I find that CBD helps stop the muscle spasms from my neuropathy, while a combination of CBD and THC is necessary for pain relief.

But that’s just me.

Your experience may completely different.

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Great photo from Peter Flax, who dares you not to smile when you see it.

And I double dog dare you.

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Local

Bike friendly DTLA councilmember Jose Huizar has called for a vote this Friday to install bike lanes on Fifth and Sixth Streets in LA’s Skid Row, in response to a request from local community members.

Streetsblog reports that the long-delayed My Figueroa project is finally nearing completion, with fresh green paint and newly installed bicycle traffic signals.

Just like Dylan at the Newport Folk Festival, LAPD bike cops are going electric; they’ll soon be zipping down the streets on specially designed ped-assist ebikes capable of doing 28 mph.

CiclaValley unleashes part one of his CicLAvia Preview for Sunday’s San Fernando Valley open streets event.

The newly revived Long Beach Post talks with a Georgia transplant who found a home with the city’s cycling community.

 

State

Life is cheap in San Luis Obispo, where a distracted driver walks without a single day of jail time for killing a world champion triathlete when she “drifted” off the road and rear-ended the victim’s bike.

 

National

Inhabit considers how to make American cities bike friendly.

Now you can show your support for the man who believes slavery was a choice, with your own specially customized and basically useless Yeezy bicycling shoes with built-in mountain bike cleats.

Seriously? Bicycling reviews the best yoga mats for bicyclists. Which would pretty much be the same as for anyone else, since hardly anyone practices yoga while they’re riding.

The first six months of Seattle’s dockless bikeshare experiment show diverse ridership using the bikes primarily for transportation, rather than recreation. And head injuries haven’t increased, despite a low rate of helmet use in violation of the city’s mandatory helmet law.

Texas bicyclists are calling for safer roads in the oil boomtowns of the Permian Basin.

A Chicago weekly maps out the city’s lowest-stress bicycling routes.

Now that’s more like it. Buses and bikes get priority on a Minneapolis street as lanes are closed for highway construction, and drivers wait in backed-up traffic.

No, Minnesota Department of Public Safety, if the victims were riding bicycles, they weren’t pedestrians.

A Detroit writer does a great job of slicing, dicing and refuting the recent anti-bike “get off my lawn” screed from Crain’s scion Keith Crain, arguing that he’s writing for a dwindling audience of angry old businessmen. And that he wasn’t out of town when the city’s bike plan was adopted, just out of touch.

Apparently, when a man whose head is literally covered in racist tattoos crashes into an Asian bike deliveryman in New York, it’s just another accident.

 

International

A Costa Rican website looks at the time-honored tradition of bicycling in the country’s Guanacaste province.

Red Bull lists eight international cities that are “incredible” for active commuting. San Francisco made the list; needless to say, Los Angeles didn’t.

Canadian Cycling Magazine explains why bicycling leads to lifelong friendships.

Cycling Weekly explains how you, too, can have monster legs.

Road.cc offers advice on how to safely pass a horse, after a group of overly aggressive triathletes didn’t over the weekend.

Montreal motorists are rising up to complain about the mayor’s decision to block cut-through traffic over the city’s eponymous mountain to create a more livable, human park space.

A Toronto columnist says Vision Zero isn’t working, so it needs a little rebranding — like calling it Zero Vision, or a Vision 2089 commitment to have just 2,089 traffic deaths in the city in 2089.

Another Toronto columnist says the city’s streets will be safer once they are slower. Any chance we could get him to move to LA and write that for the Times?

We already know Katy Perry is one of us, so keep your eyes open for a woman on a bike shooting lasers out of her bra as she stops in the UK.

A pair of British cycling champs — and new mothers — offer advice on bicycling during pregnancy.

A British coroner has ruled that record-setting endurance cyclist Lee Fancourt took his own life after texting a friend to say goodbye. Fancourt, who set the record for the fastest crossing of Europe, was found in his own car surrounded by cocaine and drug paraphernalia this past January.

A Portuguese soccer fan biked nearly 3,200 miles in 45 days to see his team play at the World Cup.

The founder of an Indian bikeshare company explains how dockless bikeshare is reshaping the country’s urban areas.

A Chinese website says Shanghai can do a lot more to be bicycle friendly; the city will host the second annual Tour de France Shanghai this fall.

Yes, you really can buy a hi-tech ebike for around $261; you just have to move to China first.

 

Competitive Cycling

Outside says a new novel captures truths about the Tour de France, doping, and cyclists’ obsessive nature.

 

Finally…

Riding 135 mph on a 3D printed bike. No need to stop pedaling just because you run out of solid ground.

And that feeling when you want to ban bikes entirely, and blame commies on the city council for bouncing you from the bike lane committee.

No, seriously.

 

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

Morning Links: Good news on East LA bike boulevard, wasted bike racks, and a relaxing Dutch bike ride

June 19, 2018 / / 5 comments

There’s surprisingly good news about that badly worn East LA bike boulevard we mentioned last week.

As you’ll recall, Aurelio Jose Barrera submitted a photo showing the markings on the one-year old bike boulevard at Hubbard and Simmons were so badly worn that there was virtually nothing to indicate it was a bikeway of any kind.

Let alone a vital link in the Safe Routes to Schools program. Or one of the few decent pieces of bike infrastructure in a long-neglected part of the community.

But late Friday, I received the following statement from the office of County Supervisor Hilda Solis and LA County Public Works.

Wheels of progress turning in East LA 

The streets of iconic East Los Angeles are under construction with miles of roadway improvements underway, including new bike routes and traffic safety features.

At Hubbard Street and Simmons Avenue, where bikeway pavement markings had begun to show excessive wear, LA County Public Works crews have scoured the roadway to make way for a smoother road surface for motorists and cyclists. Once road reconstruction is complete, new thermoplastic street markings will be reapplied to clearly indicate East LA’s rapidly growing bike network.

“Biking is a win/win that provides tremendous physical and benefits for the rider while improving neighborhood air quality and reducing traffic congestion,” Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda L. Solis said. “I am committed to installing, expanding, and maintaining high-quality and safe bike lanes where appropriate. Currently, our neighborhood streets in East Los Angeles are under construction with roadway improvements that include maintenance and new bike routes that improve safety for all commuters. These enhancements include smoother riding surfaces and clear sustainable markings. When complete, I’m excited to see even more East LA residents take advantage of these new bike paths!”

Among the many other projects underway to promote connectivity to mass transit for pedestrians and cyclists is the Eastside Light Rail Bike Interface, which broke ground in January and will yield an additional six miles of new bikeway. The Gold Line Eastside Access Phase II project will bring another three miles of bikeway improvements along 1st Street, Ford Boulevard 4th Street and Via Corona Street. The $4.7 million project is expected to be completed in fall 2020.

It’s nice to know someone in local government is actually listening.

And more importantly, doing something about it.

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This is what it looks like when you have to install bike racks, but don’t want anyone to actually use them.

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This is what a morning bike ride to the doctor’s office looks like in the Netherlands.

Unlike the mad frenzy of American streets, just watching this is nearly as calming as watching a fish tank.

Except for the burning envy of wishing we could have streets and bikeways like that here.

Thanks to William Robinson for the heads-up.

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Local

There was an unconfirmed report of a robbery attempt on the Ballona Creek bike path yesterday. Please contact me if anyone has additional information.

Metro is sponsoring another bike safety class in the Altadena/Pasadena area on July 1st.

 

State

Snow Valley Mountain Resort has opened its ski lifts and downhill trails to mountain bikers.

A Stockton deacon has erected the city’s first ghost bike, in honor of a man killed by a hit-and-run driver last year; four bike riders have been killed in the city already this year.

Streetsblog says Sacramento is warming up to bicycles, as state legislators discover the joys of dockless ebikes.

 

National

Now you can have your very own classic 1917 Harley-Davidson, as long as you’re willing to pedal it. And pay for it.

Sad news from Chicago, where a 76-year old Elizabeth Brackett died in an apparent fall from her bike while training for a triathlon; the former PBS journalist was a world champion triathlete in her age group.

Talking in Louisville KY, former NYDOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan warns about making the same mistakes with autonomous cars that we just recovered from, with car-oriented development instead of people-oriented development. Except too many cities are still caught up in the former and hoping to make the leap directly into self-driving cars — Los Angeles included.

Worst excuse ever. A Kentucky driver says he killed one bicyclist — the golf coach at Western Kentucky University — and injured three other riders, because he rear-ended them before he could check his mirrors to go around them. Evidently, he was driving the automotive equivalent of a brakeless fixie, and had no idea how to stop his car without crashing into something. Or someone.

Even in Akron, Ohio, bike riders are complaining that drivers are getting more aggressive and careless.

For a change, the New York Times recommends five relatively affordable add-ons to make your bike commute more enjoyable.

A writer for the NY Times apparently attempts to prove it’s possible to write 1,000 words without saying anything, other than insulting lycra-clad bike riders and complaining about concrete barriers on a bike path.

A British travel writer says a bike is the best way to visit New York’s hippest borough, suggesting five of the best Brooklyn bike routes.

 

International

Now this is how you encourage bike commuting. The Great-West Life Assurance Company has built an 1,800-square foot bicycle pavilion for their Canada headquarters, complete with two-tiered parking for 162 bicycles, a tune-up station and repair tools.

Ottawa, Canada residents decide they’d rather preserve parking than give kids a safe route to school while a bike and pedestrian bridge is rebuilt; the local paper calls it the opposite of Vision Zero.

Quebec is still struggling to figure out whether to classify mobility scooters and electric wheelchairs as pedestrians or bicycles, or something else altogether.

A Toronto newspaper examines the four elements that make up a bike-friendly protected intersection, while calling for a boost in the city’s Vision Zero budget.

A competing Toronto paper complains that the fight to save lives on the city streets amounts to a war on cars, and that while any deaths are regrettable, it’s a price they seem willing to pay to avoid making any significant concessions to traffic safety.

No surprise here. A new survey of Londoners has found that bike riders are the happiest commuters.

Sixteen thousand British riders took part in a 54-mile London to Brighton charity ride to fight heart disease.

A UK automotive website looks at the best cars for bike riders, most of which aren’t available in the US. Actually, the best cars for bike riders would combine automatic braking systems with foam hoods and bumpers for when the former fails.

A new British ebike lets you mine cryptocurrency with every pedal stroke.

A 37-mile Irish singles ride gives speed dating a whole new meaning.

Good idea. Finnish speeding tickets are linked to your income, so a wealthy driver pays more than someone just scraping by.

A pair of Brits made it to Volgograd, Russia just in time for yesterday’s World Cup match between England and Tunisia, traveling 2,400 miles through six countries in just over three weeks.

Trek is promoting randonneuring in India.

 

Competitive Cycling

Rwanda claims to be taking the next step towards becoming a cycling powerhouse by waiving a 25% import tax on racing bicycles, assuming a lower cost will encourage more people to take up the sport.

Bike racing still has a drug problem, as nearly five percent of pro riders tested positive for Tramadol, which is still legal for reasons no one can seem to explain.

Twenty cyclists were injured when a mother with three kids in her car suddenly made a U-turn during a Belgian bike race, on an apparently open course; after the crash, her partner went back to their home and returned with a baseball bat to threaten the victims.

Rouleur looks at Ryan Eastman’s transition from rising pro cyclist to paramedic, after his racing career was ended by a crash with a deer  while descending at 55 mph on a training ride.

 

Finally…

If you want to get away with hit-and-run, remember to remove the bicycle from under your car. Now you can ride your bike without missing a moment of the World Cup.

And don’t ride your ‘bent on the autobahn.

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Thanks to David E for his generous contribution to help support this site, and keep SoCal’s best bike news coming your way every day.

 

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

Morning Links: Possible LA bike registry, who we share the roads with, and a powerful call for traffic safety

June 18, 2018 / / Comments Off on Morning Links: Possible LA bike registry, who we share the roads with, and a powerful call for traffic safety

The Los Angeles city council voted to reinvent the wheel on Friday.

Despite several free, nationwide bike registry programs — including Bike Index, which this site links to — the council voted to explore creating its own registry program.

Never mind that the cost of administering such a program would likely exceed the amount it would bring in.

Or that the city council cancelled LA’s existing bike registry nearly ten years ago after it was almost universally ignored, and nearly impossible to use.

And that police officers too often used it as an excuse to pull over and search bike riders of color.

Then there’s the problem that all thieves had to do to escape discovery was take stolen bikes to one of the 87 other communities in LA County, where the LA bike registry wasn’t used.

What’s really needed is voluntary, countywide — if not statewide — registry.

Until that happens, Los Angeles is a lot better off partnering with one of the existing free bike registries.

And promoting the hell out of it.

Full disclosure: Neither this site, or I personally, receive any compensation for hosting the Bike Index bike registration program here. I just effing hate bike thieves, and want every stolen bike to find its way back home.

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This is who we share the roads with.

A road raging Denver driver fatally shot a 13 year old boy, and injured three other members of the boy’s family after following them to a parking lot and briefly arguing with the boy’s mother. Then told police he has mental health issues after admitting to the shooting.

So why was he allowed to own a gun — let alone drive a car?

Meanwhile, a Toronto bicyclist was tailgated through a narrow alley by a driver who kept honking his horn, and yelling “Looks like another dead cyclist.”

And commenters fall over themselves congratulating an Indiana state trooper after he tweets about ticketing a driver for not speeding in the left lane. Thanks to Chris Klibowitz for the heads-up.

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Powerful piece from a Toronto columnist, who says we know how to make roads safer, we just have to do it.

He writes that New York eliminated fatalities on Queens Blvd, aka the notorious Boulevard of Death, where 186 people were killed between 1990 and 2014.

How did they do it? As summarized by the Times, they narrowed and removed some car traffic lanes, and decreased speed limits by five miles per hour. They increased the amount of time given to pedestrians to cross the street and increased the number of pedestrian crossings. They redesigned sidewalks at intersections to narrow the crossing in some places. They introduced bike lanes and larger medians protected by barriers to the road. They added cameras with photo radar near schools.

If you want to make roads safer, you can. How to do it is not a mystery. Slow traffic down through laws, enforcement and — especially, crucially — design improvements. Put infrastructure on the street to protect cyclists and pedestrians. Pay close attention to intersection design. Voila.

He goes on to add that Stockholm, Sweden, the birthplace of Vision Zero, has a fatality rate just one third of New York or Toronto.

Stockholm didn’t cut its fatality rate dramatically by educating people and more strictly enforcing laws. The Swedes did it by slowing urban traffic and by re-engineering their roads to reduce serious injuries and fatalities. “Most of the people in the safety community had invested in the idea that safety work is about changing human behaviour,” Matts-Ake Belin, one of the architects of the program, told CityLab in 2014. “Vision Zero says instead that people make mistakes … let’s create a system for the humans instead of trying to adjust the humans to the system.”

Lower speeds, better protections, designs that discourage collisions and encourage safety.

We know what works. We can see its success even on the so-called Boulevard of Death. The obstacle to ending our own killing streets is not knowledge. It’s caring enough to bother applying it.The

Maybe some day, Los Angeles will care enough, too.

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Organizers of a British triathlon threaten to permanently ban racers who were responsible of undertaking a woman riding a horse on a trail, crashing into the side of the horse in their rush to pass unsafely.

And yes, both the horse and its rider were wearing hi-viz.

Seriously, it takes a special kind of schmuck to pull something like this on a public right-of-way, race or not.

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Local

Metro is teaming with the Mid City West Neighborhood Council to offer a free class on how to ride safely on city streets; participants will also receive a free helmet and bike lights.

The executive director of Los Angeles Walks calls for dedicating one or two parking spaces per block for shared bikes and scooters, rather than parking them on sidewalks.

Yo! Venice reports bike theft is on the rise in the seaside community, which is already one of the city’s hotspots for bike theft. And recommends registering your bike to help get it back if it’s stolen.

 

State

A Fresno bike shop’s troubled spring took a turn for the worse when one of their customers collapsed and died on one of the store’s group rides; a fundraising page has raised over $1,700 of the $2,500 goal for his family.

A San Francisco bike rider is suing the city and county, as well as a construction company, after she broke her wrist falling on debris in a construction zone.

Caltrans will widen shoulders and install bike turnouts along Highway 1 in Marin County to improve bike safety, as well as installing “mumble” strips along the center line, which are quieter than rumble strips.

 

National

GeekWire tries out one of Uber’s Jump dockless bikeshare ebikes as they begin moving into Seattle. The bikes are already available in the Bay Area, but haven’t begun a southward migration yet.

A retired Kentucky journalist discovers that he lives just off a US bike route, and stumbles onto a cross-country Bike MS ride.

Milwaukee bike advocates have declared 100 Days of Biking to celebrate the trails, rides, events and people that make the region special.

The son of the founder of Crain’s Detroit creates a lot of pro-bike blowback after his myopic, windshield-biased screed complaining that city planners are “discriminating against cars in favor of two-wheeled transport.”

An eight-year old New York program extends the joy of bicycling to people with visual or physical disabilities by pairing them with a partner on a tandem bike.

Despite needing a number of improvements, bicycle traffic often exceeds motor vehicle traffic during rush hour on New York’s Chrystie Street, where a protected bike lane was installed two years ago.

 

International

A stuntman offers advice on how to crash your bike while keeping your body and dignity mostly intact. I offer my own hard-earned lessons on how to crash on the Survival Tactics page above.

A Vancouver TV station says ebikes are revolutionizing people’s commutes.

While Vancouver residents prepared to celebrate a pair of Car Free Day open streets events, a local TV station can only see through the prism of their own windshield bias, warning of a traffic hell for motorists.

Saying “this is why we can’t have nice things,” organizers threaten to pull the plug on a popular Windsor, Ontario bike ride because of the behavior of a handful of riders.

The Montreal Gazette examines how to coax commuters out of their cars and onto bikes.

Toronto condo owners are being warned not to trust locked bike rooms in their buildings, which are being targeted by thieves. Which is fair warning for bike riders anywhere — don’t trust bike rooms or garages without extra security of your own.

A 13-year old boy was arrested in the death of a Toronto bike rider who was intentionally run down, then kicked, beaten and stabbed by the occupants of the car.

A UK bike rider says the country’s mental health services have failed him, as he’s suffered from PTSD after finding the body of a suicide victim while biking to work two years ago.

A British reporter discovers first hand the abuse and harassment women on bikes experience on a daily basis.

A researcher calls for a mandatory helmet law in Norway, after a meta-analysis shows helmets reduce the risk of head injuries by 60%. Even though the experience in other countries shows that helmet laws reduce the injury rate by reducing the number of people riding.

A riot broke out at an Eritrean cycling festival after opponents of the country’s president barged in throwing bottles, food and beer kegs; nine people were injured, including children.

Another ride to add to your bike bucket list — experiencing the unique biology of Madagascar by bike. And as long as you have your bucket list out, here’s eight more epic cycling tours around the world.

In a major turnaround, two-thirds of Aukland, New Zealand residents now believe bike lanes are good for the city and would welcome them in their own communities. This should be a lesson for Los Angeles; the opposition to bike lanes disappeared as more were built and people began using them.

An Aussie columnist says it’s time to end the bad blood between drivers and people on two wheels. Funny how it’s only the ones who ride bikes who call for a truce on the streets; it’s almost as if most drivers don’t even know there’s a problem.

Caught on video: A Perth, Australia bicyclist was lucky to escape with a case of ‘roo road rash after becoming the latest victim of a jay-jumping kangaroo.

A Japanese newspaper says the best way to explore Okinawa is on two wheels.

Seoul, Korea was expecting 5,000 bicyclists for a 13-mile annual bike parade on Saturday.

 

Competitive Cycling

A Scottish cyclist broke the 97-year old hour British hour record — on a Penny Farthing.

 

Finally…

Now your bike can have its own little house, just like the dog. If you’re going to ride on the freeway, at least take the lane.

And I’d be pretty pissed if bike riders whizzed near me, too.

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Morning Links: Upcoming bike events, and LA tries out a cute little street sweeper for protected bike lanes

June 15, 2018 / / Comments Off on Morning Links: Upcoming bike events, and LA tries out a cute little street sweeper for protected bike lanes

Just a couple quick upcoming events.

Celebrate the Race Across America tomorrow in Oceanside with the RAAMapalooza festival to see off the team racers. Although they can probably expect a nasty letter from the lawyers for a certain copyright-conscious music festival.

Bike SGV will team with Metro’s BEST program to host a free slow roll to the drive-in for movie night on the 23rd.

Also on the 23rd, Glendora will hold ribbon cutting ceremony for the San Gabriel Valley’s newest greenway trail. See flyer on the left.

And the following day, CicLAvia returns to the northern San Fernando Valley, with a route connecting Pacoima, Arleta and Panorama City.

………

LA Street Services may be having a midlife crisis.

The city bureau is trying out a cute little Italian number to keep the city’s protected bike lanes clean.

https://twitter.com/Spottnik/status/1007311358608564224

………

Local

Former E! News personality Marc Malkin reveals he’s HIV positive after completing last week’s AIDS/LifeCycle Ride; the Malibu Times features photos from the ride as it passed through on PCH.

The Easy Reader News remembers long-time South Bay bike advocate Julian Katz, who passed away last week at age 88 after a long, full life.

 

State

A San Jose columnist agrees that too many drivers pass bike riders on blind, curvy roads when they can’t see what’s coming; a bike rider says signs saying “Do Not Pass Bicycles on Blind Corners” seems as obvious as “Do Not Hit Yourself in the Head with a Hammer.”

A Palo Alto columnist says she’s not opposed to roundabouts, as long as they’re somewhere else. Funny how so many people with no knowledge of traffic planning become experts when it’s on their street; the facts are that roundabouts actually reduce injury crashes by 75%.

Pink Bike visits Marin, where mountain biking was born and mountain bikes are banned from most trails.

 

National

You can make your next Rapha purchase at the Apple Store.

Moving piece from Bicycling, as a writer remembers her father, and how bicycling brought him back to himself as he slipped away due to Alzheimers.

Pedestrian and bicycle deaths have doubled in Washington state in just the last five years. A Seattle radio host responds by doing the math herself, concluding that you’re much safer driving a car than walking or riding a bike, and that encouraging more people to ride is just driving up death rates. She seems to be forgetting that its those people in cars who make it dangerous for everyone.

Wired says Seattle is ground zero in the bikeshare wars, as several dockless bikeshare firms have moved into the void created when the city’s traditional docked bikeshare went belly up.

A Philly magazine takes a test ride on the city’s new parking-protected bike lanes, and offers advice to drivers on how to not park in them.

Streetsblog says no, a bike lane didn’t do in a New York deli, despite what the owner says.

No bias here. A Charlotte NC TV station somehow conflates LimeBikes and e-scooters with wheelie popping kids weaving through traffic.

 

International

Bike ridership in Edmonton has doubled since the city opened a nearly five-mile grid of protected bike lanes in the urban core.

The Globe and Mail offers five changes Toronto can make to improve street safety for bicyclists and pedestrians. I particularly like the last one — change the decision makers.

An op-ed in the same paper says bicycling is not a contact sport and Toronto has to do better for bicyclists’ safety, while the paper concludes that the city’s Vision Zero is a failure.

A writer for the Guardian says Canadian cities are designed for cars, not people — and people are paying the price.

An Ontario writer says sharrows are a failed experiment and have to go.

The question is, will you answer when your new GPS-equipped handlebars calls to say your London bike is being stolen?

No bias here, either. An English letter-writer says 70% of bicyclists are just uncontrolled yobs who ride through red lights and on the sidewalk.

A UK paper discovers a “hilarious” mishap captured by Google Maps. Although I doubt many people find a little kid falling off a bike funny, let alone hilarious.

Bicycling contributes over $7 billion to the British economy each year, making it more important to the economy than the British steel industry. So you can expect Trump to impose tariffs on bikes and bike parts any day now.

A young Irish girl made the equivalent of $13 washing bicycles. And got a nearly $200 littering ticket for the hand drawn sign she made to promote it.

An Irish writer says no, really, bike riders would prefer to not share road space with trucks, buses and cars.

Survivors of the Kindertransport and their descendants will ride 600 miles across Europe to trace the route taken by 10,000 Jewish children to escape Nazi Germany 80 years ago at the dawn of WWII.

A member of Kenya’s parliament takes to her bike to encourage more people to ride in an effort to reduce Nairobi’s world-class traffic congestion.

A Botswana bikepacking club is teaching 30 young school kids life skills and how to mountain bike.

In LA, we deal with rude drivers; Aussie cyclists just deal with ‘roos.

 

Competitive Cycling

SoCal’s Coryn Rivera edged the great Marianne Vos by the width of a tire to take the second stage of the UK’s Women’s Tour; Rivera holds the leader’s jersey heading into today’s third stage. No need to worry about spoilers, since video of the race — or even the finish — doesn’t appear to exist.

Outside looks at the rapid rise of Ayesha McGowan, the first African American Cat 2 cyclist, who intends to become the first black woman on the pro tour.

You’re invited to put your money where Phil Gaimon’s mouth is, and donate to support his grudge match race against fellow former pro Fabian Cancellara on July 1st.

 

Finally…

How to do a few speed drills on your Penny Farthing. That feeling when you film your son riding his bike, and later find a ghost watching out the window.

And to everyone who dreamed of seeing Peter Sagan naked in the shower, today is your lucky day.

………

Eid Mubarak to all observing Eid al-Fitr today!

 

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

Morning Links: Progress on yesterday’s fading East LA bike blvd, and kind-hearted people give bikes for kids

June 14, 2018 / / Comments Off on Morning Links: Progress on yesterday’s fading East LA bike blvd, and kind-hearted people give bikes for kids

Just a quick update on yesterday’s photo of the badly faded barrio bike boulevard markings at Hubbard and Simmons in East LA.

According to Aurelio Jose Barrera, who took the photo, he got a response from County Supervisor Hilda Solis’ office that the report is being passed on to the LA County Department of Public Works.

Hopefully we’ll have some good news soon.

And I’m told you can report any problems on county roads yourself using LA County’s The Work’s app.

………

More there are still some bighearted people in the world.

A group of San Diego-area kids donated 23 bicycles for disadvantaged children in Haiti.

The Ashley Furniture company donated 42 bicycles, helmets and locks for kids in Wisconsin.

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Local

Way to bury the lead. DTLA bike shop pop-up Tokyobike now has a permanent location in the former American Apparel building in the Fashion District.

Santa Monica passes an e-scooter and ebike sharing pilot program, without the hard caps on the number of bikes and scooters that was originally proposed, although it retains the $20,000 annual fee and a charge of $130 per device.

Somehow we missed this one earlier in the week, as Gary Kavanagh write on Medium that e-scooters are good, and we should cap the number of cars in Santa Monica instead.

Curbed looks at the SaMo e-scooter debate, and says it’s time cities learned the value of the curb.

CiclaValley once again proves the value of a bike, as he rides through the downfall and leaves all the cars far behind.

 

State

Ventura County sheriff’s deputies busted three bike burglars who stole $30,000 worth of bicycles from a Newbury Park bike shop.

No bias here. The local paper says Palo Alto residents criticize a new roundabout and plans for a bicycle boulevard. Then mention that half the people who spoke at a meeting opposed it — which suggests that half didn’t.

Just like everywhere else, the debate over bike lanes on a Los Altos street comes down to safety versus the convenience of motorists.

San Francisco is open to closing JFK Drive in Golden Gate Park to cars. Which means opening it up to everyone else.

The City by the Bay adopts a litter of “adorable” little protected bike lane sweepers.

Former pro Levi Leipheimer has teamed with the Russian River Brewing Co to raise $400,000 to replace homes destroyed in last year’s fires.

Yosemite re-opens the fabled Mariposa Grove after a three-year ecological restoration. But don’t try to ride your bike there; bicycles are banned from the road in favor of the much more ecological, smog-spewing tour buses. Sarcasm intended.

Much respect to a pair of Nevada City kids, who responded to the racial harassment they receive while riding their bikes by organizing a Ride Against Racism this weekend.

 

National

Bike Snob’s Eben Weiss continues his transition from pundit to hard-hitting advocate, as he says bikeshare can save our cities if we let it.

Fortune looks back at how we got to peak e-scooter mania. Something tells me we’re nowhere near peak anything yet, mania or otherwise.

Bicycling suggests eight hills you have to ride before you die, one of which is in California. Which apparently means that if you only ride seven, you’ll live forever.

Your next carbon-fiber bike could be 3D printed. And cheaper.

Thanks to Ford, your next bike jacket could tell you where to go. And tell everyone else that you are.

If you have to break in and steal a couple of bikes, maybe it’s not the best idea to take them from a Hawaiian police station.

Bike riders Glenwood Springs CO are noticing a wave of driver courtesy and safe driving. Unlike, say, virtually everywhere else.

A Denver weekly maps the best bike routes through the biggest neighborhoods.

A Michigan man is leaving Friday on a 2,500-mile ride along Route 66 to raise funds to fight pediatric cancer in honor of his son, who died five years ago after battling pediatric cancer and neuroblastoma.

The war on cars is a myth, but the war on bikes goes on, as someone sabotaged a Boston bike lane with thumbtacks arranged point up. How about sentencing the perp to work with the victims of bike crashes caused by assholes like him — or her?

The NYPD is on the lookout for a bike-riding bandit who swoops in to snatch cellphones from unsuspecting New Yorkers.

 

International

An Ontario driver solves the problem of masses of bicyclists clogging the highways on group rides — just send them off in packs of ten, riding single file, ten minutes apart. Which means it would take about one and a half days just to start a typical 2,000 rider charity ride. Let alone finish.

Ottawa commuters are furious over parking tickets they got when they drove partway to work, parked all day in a local park, then biked the rest of the way.

Toronto’s former chief planner says it’s time to declare a state of emergency, as bike and pedestrian deaths continue to climb in the city, despite the two-year old Vision Zero. Advocates respond by demanding a reduction in speed limits.

Caught on video: An impatient Brit driver gets out of her car to accuse a bike rider of hogging the road after she drives over a traffic island. Although judging by the dents in her car, she’s just a crappy driver.

Sorry Pashley-riding English posties, you’ll have to show your support for The Three Lions on your own time.

Fred Davis forwards news of a German pedal-powered knitting machine that can make a knit hat while you wait.

Scotland is investing the equivalent of nearly $2 million dollars to provide interest-free loans of up to $4,000 to ebike buyers.

 

Competitive Cycling

Peter Flax relates the story of the first family of American cycling. And no, probably it’s not who you think it is.

Deadspin says the great Marco Pantini may have been the victim of a doctored blood test when he got kicked out of the ’99 Giro, and began the downward spiral that cost him his life. Even though he probably raced his entire career on EPO, like most of the peloton in those days.

Forget doping. The real scandal in pro cycling is sock length.

 

Finally…

If you don’t want a wet bike ride, maybe you shouldn’t call it the Water Carnival. Put those playing cards back in your spokes.

And no, ringing your bell doesn’t give you the right-of-way.

 

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Morning Links: East LA’s bike blvd fades away, UK women shun bikes, and LADOT boots Bird from DTLA

June 13, 2018 / / Comments Off on Morning Links: East LA’s bike blvd fades away, UK women shun bikes, and LADOT boots Bird from DTLA

So much for that.

Just a year after LA County installed the first bike boulevard in East Los Angeles to semi-great fanfare, it’s already fading away to nothingness.

Presumably the roundabouts and curb extensions as part of the bike boulevard are still in place.

But without the markings on the street, shown here at Hubbard and Simmons, the Safe Route to School isn’t.

And the ballyhooed barrio bike boulevard is just so much blacktop.

Thanks to Aurelio Jose Barrera for the photos.

………

Nearly three-quarters of women in British cities never ride a bicycle, even though over two-thirds say their city would be a better place to live and work if more people did.

At least that’s better than Belfast, Northern Ireland, where the stats are even worse.

The Telegraph responds by saying it’s time for men and women to work together to get more women on bikes.

And The Guardian says the reason women don’t ride more is that roads designed by men are killing women.

………

Local

LADOT tells Bird to get their e-scooters the hell out of DTLA. After all, you wouldn’t want anything that would prove just how unnecessary cars really are in Downtown Los Angeles.

In an unrelated matter, Venice-based Bird is now worth $2 billion. Yes, with a B.

LAPD Foothill Community Police Station invites you to join them for CicLAvia The Valley on the 24th of this month, as it wends its way through Pacoima, Arleta and Panorama City. 

Bike SGV is looking for interns and volunteers.

No bias here. KCBS-2 tweets that Santa Monica is considering a cap on those nuisance e-scooters.

Thirty members of my college fraternity will leave Long Beach this Thursday for a cross-country ride to raise funds for The Ability Experience; other teams will set out from San Francisco and Seattle.

 

State

Bike Snob visits the California L’Eroica, and takes to the road on a 102-year old bike with a single pizza-sized gear. Although he doesn’t say if that’s a large, xtra large, or individual sized pizza. Or whether it’s New York or Chicago style.

A three-time drunk driver gets off with five years behind bars for slamming his motorcycle into three bike riders while under the influence last year, after the victims called for leniency as he faced a possible 12 years in prison.

Palo Alto shifts its focus to calming residents outraged by traffic calming.

If California voters repeal the gas tax this fall, it will mean the loss of a number of Sacramento-area projects, including an improved street grid and protected bike lanes in the downtown area. Then again, that could all be moot if California ceases to exist.

 

National

A white conservative and a black liberal are following the path of the underground railroad as they ride from New Orleans to Canada, camera crew in tow.

A Reno columnist questions whether the arrival of LimeBike’s dockless bikeshare is just a PR stunt to make the city look good for Interbike.

Denver Streetsblog takes on the state’s victim-blaming traffic safety campaign, which barely feels a need to address dangerous drivers.

Now that’s planning. Kenosha WI has opened a new 1.5-mile off-road bikeway to prepare for additional bicycle traffic as new manufacturers come to town. And it’s pretty, too.

Michigan has become the latest state to adopt a three-foot passing distance, while allowing drivers to briefly cross the center line to pass a bike rider; student drivers will also be required to receive an hour of training in bike laws.

Bighearted Charlotte police arrange to get a new bicycle for a young autistic man after he crashed his old bike into a police cruiser when the brakes failed.

 

International

An advisory board has been formed with “all the major players” to develop standards for bike-to-vehicle contact, so autonomous cars don’t kill us all by accident. Except those major players seems to exclude every car maker other than Ford.

A new start-up wants to be the social media platform for the bike world.

Cycling Tips offers everything you always wanted to know about riding out of the saddle, but were afraid to ask.

Ninety-three bicyclists and pedestrians have died in Toronto in the two years since the mayor declared the city’s Vision Zero program.

You know you’ve got a problem when a rural Irish cycling club feels the need to make their club kit out of hi-viz just to stay alive.

Even in the Netherlands, authorities are trying to encourage more people to get out of their cars and onto bikes — and paying people 19 cents a mile to ride a bike instead of driving.

Former Laker Pau Gasol is one of us, as he’s briefly hospitalized following a fall from a rented bike while on vacation in Italy.

The president of Uganda bans hoodies in cars, and on motorcycles and bicycles to rid the country of the wrong element. Because clearly, bike-riding hoodie-wearers are natural born killers, and will leave the country if they have to bare their necks. 

South African triathlete Mhlengi Gwala is walking without crutches, and preparing to get back on his bike just three months after a trio of men tried to cut his leg off with a chainsaw. And planning to ride 350 miles from Johannesburg to Durbin, South Africa, in just two days this December.

Just what every bike tourist needs. A $3,500 two-person inflatable tent from an Australian company, designed to be towed by a bicycle; there’s no word on how much it weighs, however.

Melbourne, Australia chases Chinese dockless bikeshare provider oBike out of town.

Caught on video: A Singapore website says a dangerous cyclist should be off the road after a near miss. Even though it looks like he may have had the right-of-way, and the left-turning driver failed to look for him as he came off the sidewalk into the crosswalk.

 

Competitive Cycling

Who says you have to see to ride RAAM? Three blind cyclists are competing in this year’s coast-to-coast ultra-endurance race.

The organizers of the Paris-Roubaix race have named a cobbled section of the course after Michael Goolaerts, who died of a heart attack during this year’s race.

NBC Sports is offering cycling fans a chance to stream the Tour de France commercial-free, as well as the upcoming Colorado Classic and the Vuelta, the spring Monuments and the Amgen Tour of California, for $49 for the next full year. They even throw in a couple of token one-day women’s races.

The soon-to-be former BMC Racing team is on life support after their title sponsor pulls out.

UCI says leave the speed gel at home during your next time trial. But evidently, Team Sky’s skinsuits that have the same aerodynamic effect are okay, at least for now.

 

Finally…

Let’s send the police after the real criminals. If you want to be hygge for the rest of your life, put a bicycle in your life.

But don’t bother with a six and a half foot bike path.

 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: ,

Morning Links: 40 years behind bars for drug-fueled Kalamazoo massacre, and new ways to drive distracted

June 12, 2018 / / 2 comments

Forty years.

That’s the minimum sentence the driver convicted of the Kalamazoo massacre will serve, after being convicted in the drug-fueled death of five bicyclists, and injuring four others.

Charles Pickett Jr. was sentenced to 40 to 75 years behind bars, meaning he’ll be at least 92 when he gets out if he serves his full sentence.

But at least Pickett said he sorry.

“I’ll live with this the rest of my life. I would give my life for the people I murdered, killed and maimed and everything else and I just want to say I’m sorry,” he said, wiping away tears.

The judge wasn’t having any of it, though.

The judge called Pickett’s apology “woefully inadequate,” saying that until that point, he didn’t appear remorseful for his actions. The judge also pointed out Pickett had many opportunities to stop driving before he hit the cyclists, but didn’t.

At least one survivor said his tearful apology was pretty underwhelming.

Yes, alcoholism and drug addiction are diseases. But driving under the influence is a choice.

One that can have devastating consequences for innocent people on the roads.

As well as the not-so-innocent people behind the wheel.

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Just what we need. Another way for people to be distracted behind the wheel.

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Local

As usual, the LA Times gets it, saying e-scooters aren’t a scourge, they’re a solution. And says Elon Musk is going to destroy Los Angeles in a dumb attempt to save it.

LA Taco looks at the arrest of Mariah Kandise Banks in the hit-and-run death of Frederick “Woon” Frazier in South LA, and the low rent attempted coverup that followed.

CiclaValley watches the Nichols Ride again, but gets some great photos in the process. And he has a good excuse for not riding.

 

State

Laguna Beach police conducted their annual Road Safety Expo to help stop bike and pedestrian deaths; they focused on the dangers of distracted driving, as well a bicycling and walking skills.

The people behind anti-road diet group Keep LA Moving continue to export their traffic safety denial program, this time taking up shop to halt safety improvements in Tustin. Credit Peter Flax with the link.

Ocean Beach planners approve a concept for parking protected bike lanes along West Point Loma Avenue.

A San Diego girl was lucky to escape with a bruised leg after she was hit by a turning car while allegedly riding salmon.

After a successful trial, NorCal’s Caltrain is expanding a program allowing bicycle riders to board bike cars first to make boarding more efficient.

Sad news from the Tahoe area, where a man was killed when a driver veered right into his bicycle.

 

National

This is who we share the roads with. A Minnesota motorist fleeing from police plowed into a playground, critically injuring two small children, as well as injuring their brother.

Akron OH looks to Copenhagen for inspiration on how to become bike friendly.

Massachusetts police can’t figure out who’s responsible for a road rage incident, so they just charge everyone (scroll down).

New York drivers can’t seem to figure out that they don’t go when the bicycle-shaped traffic signal turns green.

 

International

A film critic offers seven anecdotes marking the 15th anniversary of the bike-themed The Triplets of Belleville. And if you haven’t seen it, what the hell are you waiting for?

Talk about not getting it. Ontario, Canada police release a bike safety video, telling bicyclists to ride a far right as possible — even when there are sharrows on the street.

After a Nova Scotia man traded his car for a bicycle, he hopes a revised vehicle code will finally treat bike riders and drivers equally. And he’s not the only one.

Mikael Colville-Andersen of Copenhagenize fame does a little bicycle myth busting in the Guardian.

According to The Atlantic, bakfiets — aka cargo bikes — are the new symbol of gentrification in the Netherlands, as upscale white mothers take to two or three wheels in place of the family minivan.

Reporting from the Netherlands, People for Bikes says the Dutch ride a lot, but don’t go far.

Uber’s Jump e-bikeshare service has made its first foray into Europe, landing in Berlin following a botched entry with their carshare service.

Australian site The Conversation discusses how traffic signals are designed to favor cars and discourage walking.

 

Competitive Cycling

Canada may be getting close to legalizing marijuana, but it remains banned for cyclists under international doping rules. Seriously, has a little weed ever enhanced a cyclist’s performance? It usually has the opposite effect. Or so I’ve heard.

VeloNews recounts competitors tales from the recent 206-mile Dirty Kanza gravel race.

Twenty-seven-year old Aussie BMX champ Caroline Buchanan will compete in Texas later this month, just six months after a serious crash nearly ended her career. And her life.

 

Finally…

At least someone’s fixing potholes. Advice for your first naked bike ride.

And she didn’t just marry into royalty, she married into cycling.

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Thanks to Mark H for his generous support of this site.

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

Morning Links: Parking on Lake Balboa bike path, safety PSAs & stupid driver tricks, and Bourdain was one of us

June 11, 2018 / / 3 comments

Before we start, be sure to read our rare Saturday post if you missed it over the weekend.

Now hold on, because we’ve got a lot of ground to cover.

………

Let’s start with this email I received from danger d.

This Sunday June 10,2018 I was riding through the Balboa Lake Park Recreation area and came across no less than 18 cars parked right in the center of the Class 1 Shared pathway (r.e. Bike Path). I stopped and spoke with one person in their vehicle just parking on the path and explained that they were on a bike path and pointed out how they had just almost doored me but the lady said she saw no path, pointed to the center yellow line and said “I’m just parking behind the other cars!”

At this point I saw a fire department crew across the street and asked them to call parking enforcement, it was 2:36pm. I then called parking enforcement myself and talked to someone who identified themselves as operator 501 and told me someone else had called (the firemen) and that it would be taken care of. So here are the photos at 5:30 pm, 3 hours later, not one citation, no towing, NOTHING!

Obviously the weak plastic pylons which are mostly already run over are of NO use at all as a deterrent and I believe that it is high time that the city put a red curb, or K walls or at the very least some NO PARKING signs up at this location to stop this once and for all as it happens EVERY WEEKEND and as many times as I have called there has been ABSOLUTELY NO ENFORCEMENT AT ALL.

I am not even going to get into the 10 or so cars that I saw WELL into the grassy areas of the park near picnic benches, parked by people who think it’s OK to just drive across the bike path into the grass and park wherever they want! I guess they are correct because our city does NOTHING about this AT ALL.

When will something be done? Where is Vision Zero? City councilmember? Mayor?

 

This is ridiculous.

Dangerous, too, since it forces riders out into the street where drivers aren’t expecting them.

The law is pretty clear on the subject. CVC 21211 explicitly states that no one is allowed to block a bike path, except under very limited circumstances.

And parking the family car isn’t one of them.

21211.  

(a) No person may stop, stand, sit, or loiter upon any class I bikeway, as defined in subdivision (a) of Section 890.4 of the Streets and Highways Code, or any other public or private bicycle path or trail, if the stopping, standing, sitting, or loitering impedes or blocks the normal and reasonable movement of any bicyclist.

………

On the other hand, they get it.

Ireland’s County Mayo celebrates Bike Week by telling people not to park or drive in bike lanes.

………

Illinois introduces a new public safety announcement, saying we all have to pay attention, especially at intersections, because traffic safety is literally a matter of life and death.

But fails to consider that only it’s only the people in the big, dangerous machines pose a significant risk to others.

………

Great video from New Orleans advocacy group Bike Easy, in so many ways.

In just over two minutes, they manage to personalize bicyclists, while showing them as part of the fabric of city.

And making it clear you don’t have own spandex or a fancy new bike — and can carry a trombone while you ride.

………

Anthony Bourdain was one of us, riding a tandem in France just the day before taking his own life.

………

A popular Instagram account draws over half a million likes for comparing bicyclists to annoying creatures.

Never mind that like ’em or not, all of the above are vital to the environment.

Thanks to BerKelly for the heads-up.

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This is who we share the roads with.

Thanks to Censorthis for the link.

Then there’s the New York garbage truck driver who refused a breathalyzer test after plowing into nine — count ’em, nine — parked cars. Not surprisingly, he was booked for DUI.

And a Boston hit-and-run driver makes it clear that killing an 80-year old man and driving away afterwards is just no big thing. And it’s not his fault he was speeding, or chose to hit the horn instead of the brakes — let alone aimed at a human being instead of a pole.

………

Nothing like a little role reversal, with the one on the bike giving the tickets for a change.

Thanks to J. Patrick Lynch for the tip.

………

Let’s spend a few moments on the Lime beat.

The company has established a beachhead in Santa Monica, going head-to-head with locally owned Bird. The new Lime-S e-scooters, developed in conjunction with Segway, will cost $1 to unlock and 15 cents per minute of riding time; you can get a $3 credit towards your first ride with the code LIMEWITHLA1.

Meanwhile, a writer for the Guardian questions what the owners of LimeBike were thinking when they programed their scooters to threaten to call the police if they’re not unlocked. Especially in neighborhoods with people of color, who may be just a tad sensitive to that.

Santa Barbara wasted no time running Lime out of town, after the company placed 100 scooters on the sidewalks in the morning, and the city impounded them in the afternoon.

And nice move from Lime, who have partnered with PayNearMe to make their bikeshare bikes available to people without bank accounts or smartphones, providing 100 pedal bike rides for just $5. No word on whether it will work with their scooters, as well.

………

It was World Naked Bike Ride weekend around the world, as people stripped down to demand safer streets in —

……….

Local

A new UCLA video explains why transit use is declining, and what to do about it. Besides putting bigger bike racks on buses.

CiclaValley re-escapes to the Old Ridge Route.

Curbed asks if preparations for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics could permanently solve LA’s traffic problems, like the ’84 Olympics did for two brief, shining weeks.

Speaking of Curbed LA, they’re looking for a freelance transportation writer.

 

State

A half-mile extension of a Napa bike path could lead riders past a winery to the Napa River, near a historic ferry landing.

 

National

Strong Towns addresses the perennial debate over parking spaces versus bike lanes, showing proof bike lanes benefit businesses, even if that means the loss of parking.

Consumer Reports considers what they’ve learned from crashes involving self-driving cars, concluding that drivers can’t rely on their cars to do all the driving, and they still have trouble recognizing humans.

A few more rides to add to your bike bucket list, as Geotab maps out America’s quietest bike routes for when you need a little sanity break from city life.

Who says bike riders aren’t tough? A Denver women is going forward with plans for a 400-mile charity ride from Mount Kilimanjaro across Tanzania to the ocean — despite being the victim of a hit-and-run on Thursday.

A Michigan town fell about 350 bikes short in their attempt to set a new world record for the longest line of moving bicycles.

Columbus OH may have slipped past Indianapolis in size, but still lags behind in bike infrastructure. Then again, so does Los Angeles.

As we’ve noted before, NBC weatherman Al Roker is one of us. Or at least he used to be, since someone stole his bike outside a New York radio station.

New York’s Daily News gets it, saying the state must renew the law allowing speed cameras, double their number and increase the penalties for repeat violators. Meanwhile, speed cameras are illegal in California, and no one is doing anything about it.

 

International

A Canadian man is riding across the country to raise funds for mental health after being diagnosed with depression, anxiety and bipolar disorder last year.

Yet another dockless bikeshare company has invaded North America, as China’s U-bicycle has come to Western Canada and the University of Victoria.

Great idea. A Winnipeg festival brings together bike riders and wheelchair users for a tour of the city.

A 17-year old Toronto man faces first degree murder charges, and two others are being sought by police, for intentionally running down a bike rider, then getting out to punch and kick him before stabbing him to death.

Nice piece from the Guardian, as a bike rider says the kindness he was shown after a fall on a bike path restored his faith in ordinary people.

The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes goes on. Someone has been leaving tacks on a UK bike path, flattening the tires of several riders, including children.

They get it, too. The Zambia Road Safety Trust says the country needs to put people first, not cars, in the country’s transport systems.

A New Zealand cyclist says there’s no need to improve streets for bike riders, because the city has lots of parks, and he doesn’t see many bike riders on the roads now. Which may be because there aren’t any bikeways yet.

Malaysian bicyclists appeal to the country’s transport minister to provide bike lanes, signage and bike traffic signals to improve safety.

Getty Images offers pretty bikescapes created by the massive oversupply of dockless bikeshare bikes in China.

 

Competitive Cycling

Our old friend CLR Effect recaps the recent Wolfpack Hustle Forsyth Cup at the Encino Velodrome, sponsored by BikinginLA sponsor Thomas Forsyth.

The BBC talks with pro cyclist Molly Weaver about the crash that led to her depression and a quest for perfection, before her recent decision to withdraw from the sport.

 

Finally…

If you’re going to ride on the left side of a busy freeway, at least take the lane. “Oh, nothing, just a pole through the groin. How was your day?”

And weird and wonderful derailleurs through history.

 

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

Morning Links: South Bay bike advocate Julian Katz died, an LA Rapha ride, and who we share the roads with

June 9, 2018 / / One comment

We have a lot of news to catch up on after missing yesterday’s Morning Links.

We’ll get to as much as we can today, and the rest Monday to make sure you don’t miss anything.

………

Sad news from the South Bay, where the Easy Reader News reports longtime bike advocate Julian Katz has died of prostate cancer at age 88.

According to the paper,

Katz was a longtime board member of the South Bay Bicycle Coalition and a former Hermosa Beach Public Works commissioner. Fellow coalition board member Jim Hannon recalled Katz as a dedicated public servant who zealously pursued his goals while maintaining a low profile and kindly demeanor. As a member of the coalition, Katz helped ensure passage of the Beach Cities Bicycle Master Plan. Hannon pointed to the installation of sharrows on Hermosa Avenue as a cause Katz pushed for that created immediate benefits.Nice

A memorial ride in Katz honor will leave from the Manhattan Beach Pier at 10 am tomorrow.

You can make a tax deductible donation in Katz honor to support bicycle safety for students at 186th Street Elementary through the South Bay Bicycle Coalition.

………

Nice LA-based ad from Rapha says riding is the answer.

Or as Adweek puts it, life is less crappy when you get off your phone and on a bike.

………

This is who we share the roads with.

A road raging Sacramento driver did what nearly every bicyclist has wanted do at one time or another, but had the sense not to.

He repeatedly rammed a parked car with his SUV, before getting out and jumping on the roof until police came to take him away.

……….

Local

LA Mayor Eric Garcetti has pledged a carbon-neutral Los Angeles by 2050. Which won’t be possible without a major increase in bicycling and walking, as well as dramatically increased density. But it sounds nice, anyway.

You may still have time to make it to the East Side Riders Annual Appreciation Picnic at Athens Park this morning.

A new bicycling themed coffee shop called Super Domestic has opened across from Sony Studios in Culver City.

Santa Monica proposes a cap of 1,500 e-scooters in the city, eventually rising to 2,250; operators would have to pay a $20,000 annual fee, as well as $130 per scooter.

 

State

Six bicyclists on the AIDS/LifeCycle Ride were treated for eye irritation after they were gassed with tear gas that drifted across the road from the federal prison in Lompoc.

Santa Maria has rejected claims filed on behalf of a woman’s husband and her three kids after she was killed by a city bus while riding in a bike lane.

 

National

A fundraiser is being held for a Reno mountain biker who was injured after crashing into a pair of LimeBikes that had been improperly parked in a bike lane.

Bicycling lists nine “totally awesome” charity rides around the US.

GQ tells you everything you need to know before buying a bike for fitness. Best advice: Give your favorite wrench a beer or two.

Men’s Journal reviews the best bike locks.

Good question. Treehugger wants to know why ebikes don’t get the same kind of government support electric cars do.

Salt Lake City has a new bicycle-themed bar for people who like bikes. Or appreciate long, twisty mustaches.

Colorado National Monument puts up signs warning drivers about bikes on the road, as part of a test to see if they’ll actually slow down. The drivers, not the bikes. Or the signs.

They get it. Business owners in Butte MT are pushing for more business from bicyclists.

Wisconsin-based Trek has settled a lawsuit with the family of Chris Farley after the bikemaker named its new fat bike “Farley.”

LA bike riders get Clif Bars for Bike to Work Day; Wisconsin riders get Bacon on the Bike Path.

Chicago police are using bicycle traffic stops to make gun and drug arrests in communities of color. Which is just one reason why City Lab asks if it’s time to reconsider traffic stops.

A memorial has been unveiled for the five victims of the Kalamzoo massacre.

A Dayton, Ohio man was killed when he rode his bike into oncoming traffic while fleeing from police, because he didn’t want to be jailed and miss the birth of his first child. Now he definitely will.

A Maine bike rider spent seven months tracking down the nurse who saved his life after he severed his jugular crashing into a parked car while riding with his head down.

Boston decides to make its bus and bike lane pilot project permanent.

A Queens community council votes to block plans for a protected bike lane where a rider was killed last year.

Unbelievable. An Atlanta bike rider struck by a truck whose driver had been shot in the head, after a man fired warning shots during an argument a block away; fortunately, both victims survived, though the driver is in critical condition.

 

International

Road.cc looks at the best mudguards to keep your backside dry.

Heartbreaking story of an Ontario bike rider on a charity ride who stopped to help a rider who’d fallen after blowing a tire, then was killed when a driver plowed into him and three other people on the side of the road.

Eight Quebec cities to add to your bicycle bucket list.

A writer for the Guardian says the London mayor’s time in office will be a failure if he can’t overcome a vote blocking a proposal to turn the city’s busy Oxford Street into a pedestrian mall.

A London bike rider lets his air horn do the talking when people walk in the bike lane. Seriously, don’t do that.

Sad news from Wales, where a mountain biker was killed crashing into a tree on a trail he designed himself.

The war cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes goes on. A Welsh rider was knocked unconscious after someone tied a string at neck height across a bike trail. And no, it’s not a sick prank; it’s a terrorist attack intended to injure or kill innocent people.

Caught on video: A British driver appears to deliberately swerve into a teenage bike bicyclist who was riding on the wrong side of the road, then threatens the woman who took the video.

Life is cheap in the UK, where a 20-year old driver gets off with community service for killing a bicyclist, despite driving on the wrong side of the road with a clear view of the victim for at least 45 seconds prior to the crash.

A Dutch city will get the world’s first bike path paved entirely with recycled plastic.

A new bill under consideration in Australia would compensate bike riders for injuries suffered in a dooring or a collision with a vehicle, whether moving or parked. Better yet, it’s retroactive to 2014.

Thai bicyclists could be fined the equivalent of $15 for riding under the influence. But only if they’re caught on a main road; evidently, riding drunk on secondary road is fine.

 

Competitive Cycling

Awareness of the dangers of concussions is spreading through the pro peloton, but Rouleur argues the testing protocol needs to be made mandatory.

Britain’s most successful women’s mountain biker says her brothers were the ones who convinced her the sport was for girls.

Fallbrook pro cyclist Roger Ainslie has been banned for three and a half years after failing a drug test at the US Track National Championships. But sure, the doping era is over, right?

The Department of Defense — yes, that Department of Defense — writes about the bicycling competition at the recent DoD Warrior Games at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs CO.

Nice profile of Lance Armstrong, post legal settlement with the federal government. If anyone still cares.

 

Finally…

So maybe a no riding zone isn’t the best place for a bikeshare dock. When the new safety signs aren’t.

And when you’re invited to a garden party at Kensington Palace, by all means, ride your bike.

………

Thanks to Mike W for his generous donation to help support this site. 

 

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