Tag Archive for bike lanes

West LA CicLAvia coming next month, LA speed cams and photo bike lane ticketing, and new helmet may be safest ever

March 31, 2026 / / No comments

Happy César Ch…uh, Farmworkers Day, to all who celebrate. 

And Erev Tov!

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The next CicLAvia will roll just three miles from Westwood to West Los Angeles, along Westwood and Santa Monica Blvds on Sunday, April 26th.

The ride will offer an opportunity to consider long-gestating plans to build protected bike lanes on Westwood between Westwood Village and the E Line; an earlier proposal for painted bike lanes was killed by former CD 5 Councilmember Paul Koretz because he felt like it to satisfy wealthy homeowners.

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Los Angeles is finally getting around to installing the speed cams authorized by a 2023 law.

The legislature, in a typical compromise to avoid passing any major traffic safety legislation, approved a pilot program allowing speed cams in six cities, three in Northern California and three in Southern California.

Streetsblog reports San Francisco and Oakland already have their speed camera programs up and running, while Long Beach and Glendale have finalized locations and approved vendor contracts; San Jose is the other NorCal city included in the program.

The law was later amended to allow a handful of desperately needed speed cams on PCH in Malibu, as well.

The six-city pilot program was a compromise to get a bill that would have legalized them statewide out of committee.

According to Streetsblog, Los Angeles was the last city to move forward with its program, as usual for the notoriously risk-averse and driver-shy city. But the city finally finalized the speed cam locations last week, and will send the contract out to bid with a goal of getting them installed and working by the end of the year.

Yay, us.

In other long overdue news, Streetsblog adds that Los Angeles is trying to work out the details on a program to use cameras to ticket drivers parked in bike lanes.

Here’s a thought.

Let the people who actually use the bike lanes enforce the law by submitting their own photos and videos of drivers blocking bike lanes, and just send the owners a ticket, already.

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The new Si road bike helmet from Vancouver, BC’s PIKIO LABS has been rated as the safest bike helmet ever tested by the Virginia Tech Testing Lab.

The helmet scored a 4.61, more than two points better than the next highest rated helmet.

It’s based on the company’s proprietary OBLIK impact management system, designed to reduce both linear and rotational forces; the nearly 20-year old MIPS system only reduces rotational forces.

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

Someone may or may not have tried to sabotage an Iowa bike path, after the bomb squad destroyed a suspicious device packed with nails and explosive materials left in a backpack along the trail.

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

This is what it looks like when a hundred or so kids on bicycles and ebikes attempt to enter a San Francisco freeway the wrong way, even if the CHP can’t seem to hold the damn camera steady or even make a decent edit.

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Local 

A new pocket park and recreation center called the Slauson Connect project will rise on a narrow strip of land along the north side of Slauson Ave between Budlong and Normandie Avenues next to the new Rail to Rail shared use path.

 

State

Two separate HIV/AIDS fundraising rides will replace the late, great AIDS/Lifecycle ride, with a three-day ride from San Francisco to Guerneville and back benefitting a Bay Area nonprofit, while the three-day Center Ride Out will take bicyclists from Los Angeles to San Diego, to benefit the Los Angeles LGBT Center.

Santee is the latest California city to crackdown on ebikes, without apparently distinguishing between e-motos and non-street legal dirt bikes, and Class 1, 2 & 3 ped-assist ebikes.

A recent University of Arizona grad from Humboldt is setting off with his dad on a 9,600-mile ride to visit all 30 major league ballparks. Although if they really wanted a challenge, they should try riding to all 120 minor league parks in the US alone. 

 

National

A new bi-partisan bill in Congress would give the Consumer Product Safety Commission the authority to define and regulate ebikes and other electric micromobility devices at the national, rather than state, level. Although whether there’s anything left of the CPSC after Elon Musk’s DOGE cuts remains to be seen. 

Outside recommends the year’s best mountain bikes as chosen by the pros at Pinkbike. And they might actually be this time, for a change. 

There’s not a pit in hell deep enough for the co-founder of the Bellingham, Washington edition of the World Naked Bike Ride after he was busted on kiddie porn charges; he claimed he was doing research for a children’s book about a child who runs around naked — even though his book was published six years ago.

Alaska’s Lael Wilcox will attempt to beat her own 108-day women’s world record for riding around said planet, attempting to shave 30 days off her previous time for the 18,000 mile ride to beat the outright record of 78 days, 14 hours; she’ll set off from Chicago on June 7th.

Now drivers aren’t even waiting for bicycles to leave the shop before running them down, as a Colorado driver somehow plows in and through an Aurora bike shop.

 

International

An Oxford, England traffic cam installed to catch drivers making illegal left turns — the equivalent of a right over here — has generated the equivalent of nearly $800,000 at one of the most dangerous sites for bicyclists in the UK, which see around 12,000 daily bike trips per day when Oxford University is in session.

Bicyclists in the London borough of Havering have launched a safety campaign asking candidates for the local council to commit to building bike infrastructure where the city’s department of transportation has identified the need.

Former Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo looks back on her dozen years leading the French capital — which included a massive bike and pedestrian friendly makeover of the city streets — saying “Changing a city is complicated.” Which is probably why no one has succeeded here in the City of Angels, and few have even bothered to try. 

Authorities in The Netherlands are considering introducing a quality mark to show ebikes meet legal EU standards. Which would be a pretty good idea over here, too. 

A Delhi-based white-collar worker swaps his car for a bicycle to commute to work for four months to see if biking every day can help improve the city’s air quality crisis, and finds he can get to work on a bicycle as fast as in a car. A few years back, I spoke with a Delhi-based bike accessory maker, who was comfortable riding that city’s seemingly chaotic streets, but just couldn’t imagine how we manage riding the mean streets of Los Angeles. 

The London Times asks if Tokyo can manage to rein in its sidewalk surfing bicyclists, especially all those darn moms on their mamacharis. 

 

Competitive Cycling

Swiss prosecutors have closed their investigation into the death of 18-year old Swiss cyclist Murier Furrer without charges, concluding there was no evidence of criminal wrongdoing even though it took 85 minutes before anyone even noticed she was missing following a crash in the 2024 Road World Championships in Zurich.

Somehow we missed this one last week, as a pro-Palestinian and environmental protestor caused a major smashup in the Tour of Bruges by sitting in the middle of the road as the peloton approached; the same man disrupted the finale of the 2022 Tour of Flanders by running across the roadway, splashed paint on Vermeer’s Girl with the Pearl Earring, tied himself to a goal post during the Belgian FA Cup final, and sprayed the British Embassy in Brussels with red paint. Yet somehow, he was still allowed within 50 miles of a bike race without adult supervision. 

A 21-year old Philippine food delivery rider set a new national track cycling record riding the same bike he uses for his delivery work, with the frame and wheels worth the equivalent of less than $250.

 

Finally…

Seriously, when you’re carrying a concealed gun, meth, and illegal prescription pills on your bike, and riding with an active arrest warrant, stop for the damn stop sign. Or if you nearly hit a police car while riding your bike drunk, put a damn light on it, already (the bike, not the cop car).

And your next ebike could be the world’s skinniest car.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Arrest made in road-rage harassment of OC bicyclists, Trump halting bike lane funding, and K Line extension okayed

March 27, 2026 / / No comments

My apology to everyone who received an earlier email containing nothing but an outline.

Evidently, I hit the wrong button, and posted it instead of saving it so I could keep working.

And yes, I freely admit to being an idiot, or any other term that feels most appropriate rolling off your lips.

Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. 

Now let’s get on with it.

Photo by Kindel Media for Pexels. 

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Evidently, Newport Beach cops were paying attention.

Earlier this week, we brought you the news that cyclists Ben Byra and U-23 national crit champ Luke Fetzer were harassed and threatened by a BMW driver who tried to run them off the road while on a training ride in Newport Beach.

At last count, their videos of the attack have been seen over 10 million times by people all over the world.

One of those viewers must have been someone in the police department, because a suspect is now under arrest for the alleged road rage attack.

According to a press release from the Newport Beach Police Department reposted on Fetzer’s Instagram account, a man identified as Corona resident Samir Weiss was busted for assault with a deadly weapon, as well as a charge for obstructing traffic.

They seized the weapon used in the attack as evidence — Weiss’ blue BMW M3.

The obstruction charge was explained by the Orange County Register.

Video footage of the incident shows the blue sedan driving behind the cyclists in a bike lane, accelerating and honking. At one point, Fetzer’s friend is seen jumping onto a curb with his bike, apparently to avoid the vehicle. The footage also appears to show a passenger throwing water at Fetzer.

According to Fetzer, the situation escalated a few miles later near a Shake Shack, where the driver and several others exited their vehicles and confronted the cyclists. Fetzer said the driver and four other people blocked traffic lanes, made threats and attempted to tackle them off their bikes.

Bizarrely, Fetzer told the Register that Weiss had reached out to him. Not to apologize, as you might think, but to challenge him to fight, MMA style.

Fetzer also shared what he said was a direct message from the driver after the incident.

“Hey bro let’s both sign waivers and meetup for a consensual Full MMA sparring session,” the message reads. “Let’s settle this like men.”

However, I’ve always thought of fighting as something that happened back behind the grade school playground at recess or after class let out for the day.

Although despite the way KCBS frames it, the message didn’t rise to the level of an actual threat, legally at least, since it was framed as a challenge.

But as I learned after reporting an apparent threat I received on here to the LAPD, someone has to actually say they’re going to harm you, rather than just saying they want to.

Or challenging you to “settle it like men.”

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Transportation for America warns that not only is the Trump administration trying to rip out a popular DC bike lane to make more room for cars, they’re trying to do the same thing across the country by cutting off funding before the lanes can even be built.

Not what you’d expect from the bicycle-loving founder of the infamous Tour de Trump, though.

Right?

Meanwhile. Scripps News reports that Congress is now looking at setting nationwide ebike safety standards, which will probably be enforced by masked ICE agents.

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The Metro Board approved the northern extension of the K Line Cedars-Sinai, West Hollywood and the Hollywood Bowl, after a last-minute agreement to allow work on obtaining funding to move forward, while an additional one-year study of the effects of tunneling in the area around Lafayette Square is conducted.

According to the Los Angeles Times,

However, in the 24 hours before Thursday’s meeting, Bass met several times behind the scenes with West Hollywood Mayor John Heilman, a major backer of the K Line extension, to come up with an amended motion that allows West Hollywood and L.A. County to work on securing funding that will allow the project to accelerate while also calling for additional study of the Mid-City section and community engagement. The new amendment, Bass stressed before the board voted in favor, would not delay the project or its funding…

Explaining her push for a compromise, Bass said that Lafayette Square is one of Los Angeles’s most significant historic Black neighborhoods. She recounted the history of nearby Sugar Hill, a once thriving Black community that was “profoundly disrupted” by the construction of the 10 freeway.

The difference, of course, is that the Sugar Hill neighborhood was razed by white city leaders who saw no value in a Black community, while the train will go deep underneath the existing homes.

And to the best of my knowledge, won’t involve destroying an inch of the historic neighborhood.

But still.

No one wants to see historically Black neighborhoods harmed. So if it takes yet another study to calm fears while the project moves forward, so be it.

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Good news for our neighbor to the south, who can really use it.

They're launching a Streetsblog SD !

— OB Cycler (@obcycler.bsky.social) 2026-03-24T21:35:58.023Z

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Shifter discusses five bicycle advocacy mistakes you didn’t even know you’re making, from thinking it’s you versus the world, to making sure that political leaders who say “no” suffer consequences for their decisions.

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Local 

The LA Times recommends an eight-mile bike ride to Cudahy with climate justice nonprofit Nature for All tomorrow. (Scroll down. No, keep scrolling.)

Get ready for yet-another bicycle and pedestrian safety enforcement operation in Santa Monica tomorrow, with cops set to ticket any traffic violations that could endanger either one, regardless of who commits it or why. So once again, ride to the letter of the law until you cross back into Los Angeles or Culver City, so you’re not the one who gets written up. 

A local letter writer says Agoura is doing absolutely nothing about all those “little juvenile delinquents riding around in their (e)bikes.” Although when I was a juvenile delinquent, I always preferred to ride on my bike, not in it.

An El Segundo man was arrested for restriping crosswalks and adding his own DIY stop signs to protect children in the neighborhood, after the city decided the street didn’t have enough traffic to warrant actually doing anything about it.

 

State

Calbike is hosting a webinar April 6th on designing bike infrastructure for heat, flooding, and usability. As long as that last part includes fixing potholes and keeping cars out, I’m in.

A San Diego op-ed from a pair of local bike advocates responds to a previous argument against plans for a bike lane on Governor Drive in the University City neighborhood, saying there’s simply no other place to put it.

Speaking of juvenile delinquents, thanks to The Acorn for making it clear that the kid who was arrested after leading the cops on a wild chase was riding an “off-highway electric motorcycle,” rather than anything the state defines as an ebike.

The Great Redwood Trail Agency board approved a master plan to design and construct a 300-mile rail-to-trail project through the California wine country and ancient tall timbers, from Humboldt to San Francisco.

 

National

Washington State is rebooting their ebike rebate program, offering vouchers up to $1,200. That compares favorably to California, which no longer has an ebike program because CARB stole all the money and gave it to buyers of electric cars and trucks, forgetting that ebikes are EVs that help get other EVs and gas-burning vehicles off the roads. Schmucks. 

Texas is reminding drivers of their “Be Safe. Drive Smart” safety campaign to protect bicyclists and other vulnerable road users. Which replaces the previous slogan “Get the **** outta the way of my truck!”

Wisconsin offers safety tips for bicyclists, which mostly make sense for a change, noting that “in 2024, a bicyclist was killed or hurt about every 11 hours” in the state. Damn, that guy should be more careful.

Former Chicago Bulls basketball great and AA baseball player Michael Jordan was one of us, turning a bike ride with Chicago Bears defensive end Richard Dent into a pain-inducing 30-mile challenge.

For the 11th consecutive year, you can ride a bike to the Indianapolis 500, but only if you buy a ticket for the ride, never mind the race.

While Los Angeles has talked about getting ready for the World Cup, New York is actually doing something about it by opening a new bike lane connecting Union Square and the Brooklyn Bridge in time for this summer’s Copa Mundial.

Speaking of New York, when was the last time you saw an American mayor ride a bikeshare bike seven miles to attend an important fundraiser? I vote for never. But maybe your memory is different from mine. 

 

International

Momentum observes that the biggest bikeshare systems are transforming cities around the world, and safe bicycling networks matter.

A London man says he can’t even remember the birth of his own son after he faceplanted while riding his bike, trying to avoid someone who landed in front of him after jumping out the emergency exit on a double decker bus.

A new German study found that while ebikes can help older people ride a bike, older men without helmets face a particularly high risk of serious brain injuries. Gee, ya think?

 

Competitive Cycling

Former European ‘cross champ Eli Iserbyt was forced to call it a career, as the 28-year old Belgian cyclist announced that doctors had advised him to stop riding entirely due to years of persistent blood flow problems.

A writer for Psychology Today responds to rumors about Tadej Pogačar’s win in Milan–San Remo, arguing that while we should never forget previous doping incidents, suspicion can become a psychological defense, and “If every new level is interpreted only through the past, then the past begins to limit the future.” Yeah, what he said.

 

Finally…

Apparently, you have more in common with a horse than you might think (and not just a nasty case of foot and mouth). Now you, too, can build your very own bicycle designed to survive the next apocalypse.

And just because you can take an urban ebike off-roading doesn’t mean you should.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

New LA bike lanes sprouting with the spring, and CA DMV fights to keep killer driver on the road and record secret

March 11, 2026 / / No comments

Maybe we’re making progress after all.

Suddenly, there’s news of bike lanes sprouting all across the Los Angeles area, albeit to the apparent chagrin of some.

 

But evidently drivers are up in arms over at least some of the changes, as opposition grows from “some residents and local officials who say the plans could worsen traffic congestion, eliminate parking, and create confusing road designs.”

And even the death of a pregnant mom isn’t enough to get protected bike lanes on Pershing Drive.

After the death of a pregnant mom riding a bike with her family, Traci Park all of a sudden cares about bike lanes.But the bike lanes they’re proposing aren’t safe! They’re door zone bike lanes.Even after a tragic death, protected bike lanes aren’t being considered.

— Michael Schneider (@michaelschneider.com) 2026-03-07T19:01:26.881Z

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This is why people keep dying on our streets.

Cal Matters reports that the California DMV not only kept a driver on the road, despite at least 16 previous moving violations and four crashes, they fought to keep his driving record a secret.

Even from persecutors after he was charged with vehicular manslaughter for killing a two-year old boy.

And adding insult to grievous injury, the DMV renewed his license just a year later, while the manslaughter charge was still pending.

Surely, the DMV did some sort of review before deciding it was safe to let (Kostas) Linardos stay on the road.

Right?

The DMV spent close to a year fighting to keep the answer to that a secret, refusing to release information on Linardos without a court order and then urging a judge not to issue such a decree. The agency’s lawyer argued in a filing that prosecutors wanted records “for the improper purpose of smearing the DMV for alleged and unfounded wrongdoing.”

Prosecutors said they wanted the DMV records to help show Linardos knew the risks of driving recklessly, which is something they needed to prove to make a felony vehicular manslaughter charge stick.

When the issue finally made it to court this year, the attorney representing the agency made a shocking admission: The DMV had no records of any investigation into a longtime reckless driver who killed a 23-month-old boy. The agency didn’t even appear to have held a hearing before deciding it was fine to let Linardos stay on the road.

Un-effing-believable.

Thanks to Megan for the heads-up. 

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A new study from San Diego’s Rady Children’s Hospital shows a more than 300% increase in ebike injuries in just the last four years.

Although once again, there’s no attempt to differentiate between ped-assist ebikes and electric motorbikes.

According to the study, the hospital recorded 262 ebike-related trauma cases last year, with most of the victims 11 and 14 years old, with a noticeable spike among 13‑year‑olds.

While that likely corresponds to the increase in ebike use, the hospital also reported ebike injuries were likely to be more severe than those caused by regular bicycles.

It’s also questionable how many of those ebikes were actually street legal, or could legally be ridden by children that young, who are limited to Class 1 and 2 bikes with a maximum speed of 20 mph.

Let alone on the freeway.

https://twitter.com/Sandiegohumor/status/2030712819264737671

Thanks to Ellectrek for the link.

Meanwhile, Newport Beach is considering banning ebikes from all schools except for high school students, and 7th graders if they have written parental permission. And once again, without differentiating between ped-assist bikes and e-motos.

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San Francisco Streetsblog’s Roger Rudick doesn’t pull his punches after Caltrans ripped out a painted Oakland bike lane, replacing them with, yes, sharrows.

And as studies have shown, sharrows are worse than nothing when it comes to preventing injuries to bicyclists, and shouldn’t be used on streets with speeds above 35 mph.

Actions speak louder than words, Lucy pulls the football away again; whatever aphorism or metaphor one wants to use, Caltrans proves once again that it’s run by bad actors who betray the public in their relentless pursuit of auto-über alles policies.

Then there’s this.

With the removal of the painted bike lanes, which were woefully inadequate on a multi-lane street such as Oak Street to start with, Caltrans now expects cyclists to share a lane with traffic. Keep in mind that this is also a major route to I-880 and is plagued with non-stop speeding traffic and red-light running. The removed bike lanes are on a major bike commuter routes that connect the Oakland ferry terminal, Lake Merritt BART, and thousands of residential units…

Nobody, really, should be surprised. Caltrans, Alameda County, and the consultants who work for them have acted in bad faith throughout this project.

Never mind that Caltran’s ostensible Complete Streets policy requires the state transportation agency to “provide comfortable, convenient, and connected complete streets facilities on all projects and in all project phases, including construction and maintenance,” according to Jeanie Ward-Waller, Director of Transportation Advocacy at Fearless.

She should know, since Ward-Waller was the whistleblower who was “reassigned” from her position as Deputy Director of Planning and Multimodal Programs at Caltrans after warning that a Sacramento highway project violated that same policy.

Just one more reminder, if we needed it, that the agency’s Complete Streets requirement needs to be codified into law, since they only seem to follow it when it’s convenient for them or the public demands it.

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I had the time to rip into this piece from a rightwing Irish site, as a writer complains about the “fetishization” and “relentless promotion” of the government’s “obsession” with bicycling.

Instead, we’ll have to let Road.cc handle this one.

According to Vincent, from the “perception of the average person”, the number of cyclists in Dublin using the city’s bike lanes “is so small that it is set completely off balance with the amount of space they take up”.

“Hardly anyone uses these lanes, and yet we are forced to swallow it when an entire lane from a road is sacrificed – often with the result of creating an infuriating one-way system in the area – to make space for more bikes; the same bikes that seem never to fill the lanes they are currently provided with,” he continues, failing to grasp the point of cycling infrastructure entirely.

Never mind that those “empty” bike lanes have resulted in a 50% increase in bicycle trips.

But that inconvenient fact probably wouldn’t fit his narrative.

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

No bias here. Residents in Devon, England are getting out the torches and pitchforks over construction work for a new protected bikeway, which will force a three-mile detour that will add “minutes” to their commute.

No bias here, either. After a woman in Singapore was struck by a driver while riding her bicycle in a crosswalk connecting two sides of a bike path, commenters online wrongly assumed she was required to get off her bike and walk it across the street.

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

The LAPD is looking for a suspect in a bike-by shooting in Historic South Central Los Angeles, after a 36-year old man was shot by someone on a bicycle while sitting in his car at Washington Blvd and Santee Street.

The French bike rider who was caught on video shoving a five-year old girl out of his way on a snowy bike path says he didn’t do anything wrong, and the whole thing was blown out of proportion.

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Local 

If you left your bicycle, cellphone, blowtorch or prosthetic leg on a Metro bus or train, they may be holding it for you to reclaim. Although it makes sense that someone would leave their bike behind after losing their leg on the bus, which would make it kinda hard to pedal. 

Momentum hails Santa Monica resident Caro Vilain, aka mobilityforwho on Instagram, for her “viral videos steering a fun-fueled cycling revolution.” I would have embedded some of her videos, but Insta was being uncooperative tonight. 

 

State

Streetsblog offers a first look at transportation bills advancing in the state legislature.

Streets For All is out with their annual California Mobility Report Card grading individual legislators for their support of mobility legislation, or the lack thereof.

Evidently, complaining works. The Bay Area’s Caltrain is backing off new restrictions on taking cargo bikes, panniers or child seats onto their bike cars.

Police in Redwood City used license plate readers to snare a pair of bikewear thieves, who somehow walked out of a bike store with more than four grand worth of bicycle clothing.

That’s more like it. Palo Alto is using an app to reward people for riding a bicycle, ebike, e-scooter or electric skateboard, providing them with money that can be spent at local businesses.

A 27-year old man was found safe when he was reported missing after setting out for Big Sur from Monterey on his bicycle.

Say what? Sad news from Sacramento, where a man died in the hospital after he was struck by a driver while riding a bicycle — yet the police bizarrely said they suspected the death was a suicide, without offering any explanation.

 

National

Um, okay. Ebike imports to the US either a) set a new record last year, or b) declined significantly from 2024 levels, and c) may have exceeded the total value of regular bicycles for the first time. Or not.

On the other hand, bicycling contributed $3.67 billion to the American economy last year, an increase of 3.4% over the previous year.

Clean Technica recommends escaping the “Trump pump” on a ebike.

That’s more like it, too. The governor of New Mexico has signed a bill requiring driving students to take at least three hours of training on how to operate their vehicles around vulnerable road users, including bicyclists, pedestrians and emergency service workers.

Bicyclists in Omaha, Nebraska are calling for safety changes after a bike rider was killed by the driver of a semi-truck, following the removal of one of the city’s most-used bicycling routes for a streetcar project.

Heartbreaking news from Pennsylvania, where a 15-year old girl was killed while on a brief bike ride with her twin sister, at an intersection that had received more that 100 complaints from local residents.

A North Carolina newspaper offers an in-depth report on last month’s 950-mile Remember the Removal bike ride to help members of the Cherokee Nation reconnect with their heritage, while retracing the northern route of the horrific Trail of Tears; an estimated quarter of the 16,000 tribal members died along the way when the Cherokee people were forced to walk to Oklahoma from their Southern Appalachian homelands.

Florida lawmakers unanimously approved a draconian new ebike law that requires ebike riders to slow down to 10 mph within 50 feet of pedestrians on sidewalks or shared pathways.

 

International

What took so long? A man in the Isle of Wight faces charges seven months after he pushed a woman in her 60s off a seawall, resulting in injuries to her head, legs and face.

Custom lowrider bikes crafted by a Los Cruces, New Mexico artist made an appearance at the Paris Fashion Week.

Police in Soweto, South Africa have yet to make an arrest in an apparent hit-and-run that killed a popular security guard as he rode his bike to work in January, though they have brought in a suspect vehicle for testing.

 

Competitive Cycling

California’s Luke Lamperti claimed his first win on the season, sprinting to victory in stage 1 of Paris-Nice on Sunday.

Velo says the 2026 road cycling world championships in Montréal “will be an old-school rainbow jersey brawl.”

Twenty-two-year old Belgian pro Leander Van Hautegem was the subject of a “miracle rescue” when a passing forest ranger found him lying in a ditch with a severe concussion, collapsed lung, and broken rib after he crashed on a training ride.

Indiana University is expecting a record crowd for next month’s 75th annual running of the school’s iconic Little 500, made famous in Breaking Away. Which remains the all-time best bike movie, in my not-so-humble opinion.

A DC area public radio station reports on the annual Garage Racing National Championships, which was held last month in a multilevel Virginia parking garage.

 

Finally…

That feeling when a major consumer magazine suggests that a 14 buck ebike cover will somehow protect it from thieves. Now drivers aren’t even waiting for real bicycles to crash into.

And throwing your bicycle at the cops to make an escape is not one of the many recommended uses for it. And if they your bike, just hand over your backpack full of illegal weed.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

SF judge retires after elderly killer driver walks, most US bike lanes just paint, and LA drivers kill record number of animals

March 4, 2026 / / One comment

Good riddance.

The San Francisco judge who let an elderly driver off the hook for killing an entire family of four announced he’s riding off into the sunset.

And it can’t happen soon enough.

The Voice of San Francisco reports that 69-year old Judge Bruce Chan is retiring this year, one month after announcing he’ll let 80-year old Mary Fong Lau walk without a day behind bars, and three years before he’s set to face the voters again.

Because something tells me voters might have a long memory in this case.

It was just short of two years ago when Lau plowed her car into the bus stop where 40-year old Diego Cardoso de Oliveira and his wife, 38-year old Matilde Moncada Ramos Pinto were waiting with their two children, 1-year old Joaquim Ramos Pinto de Oliveira and 3-month-old Cauê Ramos Pinto de Oliveira, after celebrating their wedding anniversary.

Diego and Joaquim were killed instantly, while Matilde and Cauê died days later in the hospital.

Lau was driving on the wrong side of the divided roadway at 70 mph at the time of the crash. Yet Chan bizarrely ruled that there was no point in punishing her, because she’s old and really, really sorry.

Which must be why she tried to hide her assets before the inevitable lawsuit.

According to the website,

As if the family of the victims hasn’t suffered enough, last month, San Francisco Superior Court Judge Bruce Chan expressed sympathy for the now 80-year-old Lau and stated it was unlikely she would serve any jail time or even a community service mandate after pleading no contest to four felony counts of gross vehicular manslaughter…

After Lau changed her plea from not guilty to no contest, Chan said his duty “was to balance the deaths with the other factors of the case.” Those factors included Lau’s age, her lack of criminal history, and “her remorse,” as well as the fact that her own husband had died in a car accident early on in their marriage.”

Chan even injected some hearsay into the proceedings, saying that in the hospital after the crash, “Lau tearfully told medical staff she wished she could trade places with the family.”

Chan said jail time would mean Lau would probably die in prison. As opposed to her victims, who just died in the street and the local hospital.

Instead, he said he’d sentence her to a lousy two to three years probation. But at least she won’t be able to drive — legally, anyway — until her probation ends.

So we can expect Lau to get her license back when she’s 83, with the blood of four innocent lives on her record.

Seems reasonable.

But as writer Susan Dyer Reynolds notes, remorseful people don’t usually hide their assets.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, in July 2024, the surviving parents of Cardoso de Oliveira and Ramos Pinto filed a wrongful death civil suit against Lau. In May 2025, the relatives filed another civil lawsuit, this time asking a judge to void alleged financial transfers that Lau made after the first civil lawsuit was filed. The victims’ families accused Lau of transferring her ownership interest in several properties to new limited liability companies and selling properties to third parties, including her son-in-law, thereby transferring millions of dollars to avoid potential financial penalties from the civil suit. Hiding assets doesn’t sound like remorse to me…

Me, either.

So if you wonder why people keep dying on our streets, overly lenient judges like Chan are a damn good place to start.

But at least he won’t be around much longer to let any other killer drivers walk.

Photo by Sora Shimazaki from Pexels.

………

This is why people keep dying on our streets, part two.

An estimated 77% of bike lanes in the US offer nothing but paint for protection.

And a new study in the Journal of Cycling and Micromobility Research shows that nearly two-thirds of those are on high-stress roads — aka, “fast, multi-lane corridors where traffic speed and volume make riding uncomfortable for most people.”

In other words, like virtually every bike lane in Orange County and much of Los Angeles, county and otherwise.

………

Sadly, humans aren’t the only victims of traffic violence.

LA Reported says the number of animals killed by LA drivers reached a new high last year, with 33,458 deaths reported, including everything from family dogs and cats to deer, squirrels and birds.

………

The annual Marathon Crash Ride returns to the streets of Los Angeles in the wee hours of Sunday morning, following the route of the LA Marathon before all those runners take over.

………

Local 

This is who we share the road with. A 55-year old man was arrested on suspicion of felony DUI, vehicular manslaughter and misdemeanor battery after he somehow threw his car into reverse at high speed, backing over a curb and slamming into people sitting on the stoop of a Long Beach building, killing a 20-month old toddler and hospitalizing a 45-year old woman and a 12-year old girl.

 

State

A proposed San Diego ordinance would ban kids under 12 from riding Class 1 and 2 ebikes, as well as prohibiting a passenger from any ebike without a permanent passenger seat; children under 16 are already prohibited from riding Class 3 ebikes.

A 51-year old Hesperia man was hospitalized with major injuries, and his dog killed, when they were struck by a van driver while walking his bike across the street early yesterday morning. But you’ll have to get around the paper’s paywall to read the whole story. 

Alameda’s mayor writes that the city’s efforts to make roads safer for all users is paying off.

This is who we share the road with, part two. A Sacramento website reports that Black pedestrians are disproportionately more likely to be killed on the city’s streets, illustrating the story by describing a 26-year old South Sacramento man who was struck by a driver while crossing the street, then repeatedly run over by multiple drivers — all of whom fled the scene, and none were ever brought to justice.

 

National

A proposed IRS regulation could mean that bike couriers and pedicab drivers could write off their tips.

A Mesa, Arizona woman has filed a pair of $15 million claims against the city and county, after her 71-year old father was killed while riding an ebike when the lane he was riding in suddenly ended in a large pothole and a patch of gravel, with no warning in the dark because the stop sign was on the ground and there were no streetlights.

No surprise here. After the police chief of Greeley, Colorado hit a 15-year old bike rider while driving off-duty, the state police charged the kid, not the cop, for failure to yield.

An 82-year old Iowa man spends his winters repairing and refurbishing bicycles in Tucson, Arizona, before going home in the spring to work on more bikes.

That’s more like it. A Texas man was sentenced to 15 years behind bars for the hit-and-run that killed a popular 38-year old bike rider four years ago, and reporting his car stolen in an effort to cover up the crime. Does that ever work?

Indianapolis adopts Vision Zero, vowing to end traffic deaths by 2035. Let’s hope they take it more seriously than Los Angeles did. 

New York’s city council rakes the city’s new transportation commissioner over the coals for the miserable job expanding bike lanes done by the previous administration, with one councilmember arguing that meeting just 50% of the city’s goals earns it a “big, fat F;” however, the new DOT head won’t commit to doing any better.

Residents of Maplewood, New Jersey are raising funds for the leader of a local bike bus after a hit-and-run driver left him with life-threatening injuries; a crowdfunding page has raised nearly $40,000 of the $55,000 goal.

A Virginia driver says he’ll be riding a bicycle now after the war with Iran caused gas prices to spike. So there’s that, anyway.

Seriously? Police in Raleigh NC have no intention of filing charges against the driver who killed a 65-year old man riding a bicycle, even though he was in a crosswalk with the green light, apparently because a) the victim was riding against traffic, and/or b) because the driver wasn’t drunk — even though the investigation is still ongoing, for no apparent reason. Never mind that crosswalks are bidirectional, and being under the influence isn’t the only way a driver can be at fault. And be forewarned, there’s no way to opt out of the cookies if you click on the damn link. 

 

International

Road.cc takes you on a tour of the wonderful world of the year’s best bicycling shoes for beginners.

A writer for Cycling Weekly explains why his high-end bike tires cost three times as much as his crappy car tires.

A London law firm says they get contacted by an average of ten people a month who have been injured riding Lime bikes in the city, even though the company says 99.99 percent of journeys end without incident.

An Irish detective was awarded the equivalent of nearly $290,000 after he was suspended for three years for the crime of loaning a farmer an unclaimed bicycle that had sat for a long time at the police station during the pandemic.

Ireland’s transportation authority says active transportation takes up to 660,000 cars off the road every day in the country’s five largest metro areas. It could here, too, if people felt safer walking and biking.

 

Finally…

If this ebike bill passes, you’d better get used to lentils. How to make the bike of the year even better.

And now you, too, can be a super secret motor doper.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Why car-centric Los Angeles isn’t Amsterdam and doesn’t need to be, and the traffic violence epidemic really is one

February 11, 2026 / / One comment

Last night, I tried to have a rational discussion with someone on Twitter/X who disagreed with me.

And was quickly reminded why that’s a bad idea.

Admittedly, I eventually lost my cool. Well, only if you consider telling someone to “eat shit” before blocking them losing your cool.

I don’t take kindly to someone trying to tell me who and what I am, and what I believe, without knowing anything about me other than some point the disagree with.

Or maybe they just find my whole existence disagreeable.

But the gist of the conversation, with someone who described himself as an active bicyclist, was A) Los Angeles isn’t Amsterdam, B) bike lanes allegedly slow traffic and hurt business, and C) this has always been a car-centric city and always will be.

Which is fine. He’s entitled to his opinion, just as I am to mine.

And he’s right, Los Angeles isn’t Amsterdam. Neither is Paris or Copenhagen. Only Amsterdam is Amsterdam, just like only LA is LA.

But that doesn’t mean a city can’t change.

Amsterdam wasn’t always what it is today. In the 60s, it was a car choked, traffic clogged mess, until people got tired of the endless toll of traffic deaths, and began the “Stop de Kindermoord” movement.

That is, stop murdering children with motor vehicles.

That was the beginning of a total reimagining of the city that made it one of the most walkable, bikeable cities in the world today, where driving is usually the last choice when other options aren’t practical.

The same is true with Copenhagen, at roughly the same time and for the same reasons.

Yet despite the assumptions of those who so casually throw out “this isn’t Amsterdam” as if it’s a trump card, those cities are far from unique. In just the last decade, we’ve seen Paris reinvent itself to be far more walkable and bikeable, utilizing the concept of the 15 Minute City.

And in just the last few years, we’ve seen London transform to the point that bikes often outnumber cars in the city center.

Even my Colorado hometown took a similar journey.

When I was a kid, there were no bike lanes. The first bike path, along the river through town, was built while I was away.

But as the city grew from 10,000 people when I was in grade school, to 25,000 in high school, to nearly 170,000 people today, it continued to sprawl and be built around cars, with the inevitable traffic and congestion, until the people there said “enough.”

Today it is a Platinum Level Bicycle Friendly Community, according to the League of American Bicyclists.

In other words, it changed, because the people who live there wanted it to. Boulder, about 45 minutes to the south, took a similar path.

Maybe those cities are outliers. Or maybe the only reason Los Angeles, and other similar cities, aren’t like that is that the people haven’t demanded it.

Yet.

His second argument was based on a basic fallacy.

He made the case that bike lanes that were installed, then removed, in Playa del Rey because they slowed traffic, and there weren’t enough bike riders to justify them.

Which was kind of the point.

They weren’t installed for our benefit. Making the city more bikeable and a little safer was only an added bonus, brief though it may have been.

They were installed as a tool to calm traffic, intended to slow cars and reduce traffic flow because of the unacceptable level of traffic collisions and deaths in the Playa community.

And while it’s possible that they may have initially hurt local businesses, repeated studies have shown that retail sales and tax receipts usually increase within a year or two after the installation of bike lanes — and the people who initially fought the lanes often later fight to keep them.

That didn’t happen in Playa, simply because they were never given the chance.

The final argument is also based on a fallacy.

Anyone who lived here in the ’30s or ’40s wouldn’t recognize the car-centric city we have devolved into. Los Angeles once had the best transit system in the country, with every neighborhood efficiently served by the Red and Yellow Cars.

Those were the trolley systems that once ran down the middle of every major roadway. But they were removed to make way for cars, resulting in the overly wide boulevards we have today.

Before that, the city’s roads were built and paved to accommodate bicycles, prior to the mass production of motor vehicles.

And before that, it was a city of dusty roads and trails for horses and wagons.

So the city has already reinvented how it gets around multiple times. And we can do it again if a majority of Angelenos want it.

Then again, the two-third majority who voted for Measure HLA would seem to suggest they do.

But what do I know?

Someone else responded to my comments about traffic violence by posting a link to this piece, which seems well researched, with a professorial tone, refuting the idea that there’s an epidemic of traffic violence.

I won’t get into the whole thing now — or probably ever — except to say that it, too, is based on a couple of basic fallacies, which like a butterfly flapping its wings on the other side of the world, sends the whole damn thing off in the wrong direction.

The concept of traffic violence was never intended to suggest that there is anything intentional about it. Simply put, traffic violence reflects the fact that crashes are violent events, which can inflict violent trauma to its victims.

And like other forms of violence, the causes can be addressed, and the effects minimized.

As for the idea that traffic violence, or traffic deaths, are an epidemic, that isn’t meant to suggest it has suddenly become so. Violent crashes and traffic deaths have been epidemic ever since the motor vehicle was invented.

They have simply been normalized, accepted as just an unfortunate side effect of getting from here to there, largely thanks to an organized campaign by the motoring industry a century ago that shifted blame to the victims.

Traffic deaths have always been too high. Calling them an epidemic now is merely a recognition of the problem.

It’s kind of like if measles had always been around, and no one ever bothered to do anything about it. Then one day, someone pointed a finger and called the problem an epidemic that could be treated.

One last point.

The writer of this piece suggests that the solution to safer streets isn’t separating bikes and pedestrians from motor vehicles, but for everyone to focus on sharing the road safely and efficiently.

I used to believe that, too.

I have often said that if everyone obeys the law, and share the road in a safe manner, that crashes are unlikely, if not impossible.

But that fails to account for human nature.

People will inevitably make mistakes, and do whatever is most convenient for them in the moment, largely because they’ve always gotten away with it before. And will continue to get away with it, until they don’t.

Which is the whole rationale for Vision Zero, based on the idea that human beings make mistakes, and roads should be designed so those human mistakes don’t become tragedies.

If you disagree with that, that’s fine. We should be able to disagree without being disagreeable, and find a consensus that works for the majority of people, while protecting the rights of the minority.

That’s how democracy works.

So disagree, vehemently if you must.

But try to keep the insults to a minimum. And I will, too.

Photo by Joni Yung.

………

Megan forwards the Meyer’s Brothers podcast, in which Danish actor, producer and screenwriter — and the Game of Thrones Jaime Lannister — Nikolaj Coster-Waldau reveals not only that he’s one of us, but that bicycling is his favorite form of transportation.

………

Local 

Los Angeles is building new connections to the Burbank-Chandler bicycling and walking path.

Andy Dick is one of us, riding his bike through the streets and sidewalks of Los Angeles after finishing a 50-day stint in rehab following a public drug overdose.

Streetsblog offers their usual outstanding list of bicycle and livable streets meetings and events. I know, I know, I should break out the bike stuff and repost it here, but I’m exhausted. Besides, they forgot to included our spokescorgi competing at the Winter Corgi Nationals at Santa Anita on Sunday. 

The Long Beach Post says the intersection where a 54-year old woman was killed riding her bike on Saturday has been a serious safety hazard for years.

 

State

This is the cost of traffic violence. Pacific Beach, the site of a recent hit-and-run that killed a six-year old boy riding a bike with his family, is mourning another hit-and-run victim after a popular restaurant worker was killed while walking home from work early Saturday morning; before moving to San Diego, Qwente “Q” Bryant lived and worked in Long Beach for years.

A San Mateo surgeon makes the case for why the US should redefine ebikes to conform to the European definition, limiting them to kids 15 and older, while redesigning roads to prevent tragedies like the one that killed one of his patients.

The Marin County Bicycle Coalition calls on the county to reopen an abandoned railroad tunnel, and refit it as a biking and walking path.

 

National

Hawaii is joining the long list of states cracking down on ebikes, with one resident telling lawmakers it’s become a Wild West,” with little kids “zipping out around a corner on the sidewalk with some high-speed motorized vehicle.”

In a doubly tragic case of Texas symmetry, two 16-year old bicyclists were struck by drivers while each was riding with a companion; one suffered life-threatening injuries, while the other sadly didn’t make it. In the second case, both rides were struck by the driver, while in the other, the victim was hit so hard his GPS showed him flying off his bike at nearly 78 mph after the impact.

In yet another example of keeping a dangerous driver on the road until it’s too late, a 37-year old Louisiana man faces a number of charges after critically injuring a 63-year old bike rider who had stopped to fix his chain — including his 4th DUI. In any rational world, he would have been off the road after his second. If not the first.

Boston bicyclists form a shovel brigade to clear a bike path, after the city doesn’t.

New Yorkers continue to ride their bikes despite freezing their asses on in the city’s historic deep freeze.

 

International

Road.cc considers the best reflective bikewear and bicycling gear.

Momentum offers ten “enticing” V-Day activities for bike riders.

Off-Road.cc recommends the best gravel and adventure bikes for under the equivalent of $2,700, along with their picks for the best bikepacking frame bags.

A disabled Ontario man who uses his bicycle as a mobility device calls on cities to rethink their rules regarding bicycles, particularly bans on sidewalk riding with no exceptions for disabled riders.

Beloved children’s bikemaker Frog Bikes is entering the British equivalent of bankruptcy, exacerbated by Brexit.

Speaking of Road.cc, they recommend the steepest, hardest and most fearsome climbs for your bike bucket list, and travel to Mallorca to see if it’s as good for bicycling as it’s made out to be. Spoiler alert: yes, it is.

An Aussie ebike seller was busted for using fake compliance stickers to indicate that the illegally modified bikes he offered weren’t.

Finally…

Now your bicycling sunglasses can see behind you, too. If you encounter your cycling idol riding on the road, leave ’em the hell alone, already.

And when you’re riding your bike with illegal narcotics shoved into your shoes, socks and pants, put a damn light on it.

The bike, that is, not the drugs. Or the pants.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

 

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

Bike lanes could be coming to Los Feliz, CicLAvia comes off life-support, and hit-and-run driver murders Holocaust survivor

January 29, 2026 / / Comments Off on Bike lanes could be coming to Los Feliz, CicLAvia comes off life-support, and hit-and-run driver murders Holocaust survivor

Bike lanes could be coming to Los Feliz Blvd.

But only if they can figure out how to build them without a) removing a traffic lane, and b) adversely affecting Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument Number 67.

Or as most of us know them, the majestic evergreen cedars lining either side of the busy boulevard, which have been designated as a Historic-Cultural Monument since 1970.

CD4 Councilmember Nithya Raman, who somehow represents the area in a bizarrely gerrymandered district, got the city council to approve $400,000 for a feasibility and design study to install a cycle track between Fern Dell Drive and Vermont Ave.

A safe bikeway along the corridor would provide a huge benefit, as there is currently no safe way to get from Hollywood to the LA River or the zoo, without climbing extremely steep hills.

Or to Costco, for that matter.

………

It looks like CicLAvia may be off life support.

According to the San Fernando Valley Sun, Metro voted last year to approve funding for open streets events tied to the 2026 World Cup and the 2028 Olympics, putting traditional open streets events at risk.

However, after outrage from the community, Metro agreed to fund 70% of the cost for nine additional open streets applications, while requiring host cities to provide the other 30% matching funding.

Which is exactly what the Los Angeles City Council did yesterday, voting 12-2 to approve $3.2 million for open streets.

CD3 Councilmember Bob Blumenfield and CD7’s Monica Rodriguez opposed the measure because only one of the events is planned for the San Fernando Valley.

CD9 Councilmember Curren Price, Jr. was absent.

Probably because he’s just the latest in what’s becoming a long list of allegedly corrupt councilmembers, facing trial for embezzlement, perjury, and conflict of interest benefitting his wife and her consulting company.

………

This is who we share the road with.

The LAPD is looking for the hit-and-run driver who killed an 80-year old Holocaust survivor and his dog as they were walking in the bike lane on Woodman Ave in Sherman Oaks on Tuesday night.

Police located the car, a silver Maserati Quattroporte, abandoned nearby at Mammoth Ave and Milbank Street.

There were no license plates on the murder weapon.

………

My bad.

I neglected to consider yesterday that not everyone has Instagram. Which I should have, considering I only have it to share corgi photos and witticisms.

Well, I think they’re funny, even if the dog doesn’t share my sense of humor. Or my wife, for that matter.

Fortunately, Randy corrected my mistake yesterday, posting details of the West LA Unity Ride, while noting rental bikes will we available.

https://bsky.app/profile/randycoppinger.bsky.social/post/3mditgzlzts2u

https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:l3c3zg3aljdbctelkytee3wo/post/3mditnnt4cc2u

Streetsblog’s Damien Newton notes Unity Rides will be taking place throughout California this Friday and Saturday, including additional rides in the LA area:

Los Angeles: Organized by Allez L.A. Bike Shop, 5227 York Blvd. Meet This Friday at 7:30 a.m., 8 a.m. roll-out.

Los Angeles: Organized by Organized by Domestique Cycling Club, Westwood VA Medical Center parking – just off Dowlen Drive, west of Sawtelle Blvd. [Strava route map]

Although it would be more effective if all the rides could meet up somewhere for a rally that would really get attention.

You’ll find information on the Westwood ride below, assuming the Instagram post stays embedded this time.

A ride will also take place in Green Bay, Wisconsin, where Pretti grew up; Bikepacking has mapped rides ranging from the US and Europe to Australia.

Meanwhile, Salsa Cycles explained why they felt compelled to speak out, even as commenters demanded we should keep politics out of bicycling, with the company saying they’re proud to call Minnesota home.

But clearly, not everyone agrees with them.

………

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

You know your new bike lane sucks when riders are reporting broken bones and kidney damage, like this one in Brighton & Hove, England; the city is defending itself by arguing that they’re all turning in the wrong place.

A British man was convicted of assault for punching a bike rider who had stopped to relieve himself in the woods along a bike path, accusing the victim of being a “pervert,” and touching his genitals in front of him. Which is generally what one does when one stops to take a leak; a better question might be why was he looking? 

The capital of Estonia is busy moving bike riders to side streets, because apparently only drivers belong on main thoroughfares, and bike riders don’t really need to get anywhere, anyway.

………

Local 

An op-ed in the Los Angeles Times says the county has set a goal of ripping up 1,600 acres of pavement and replacing them with green space and trees, but questions if it’s too little, too late. Probably. Because we all know how “goals” tend to work out around here. 

Bike lanes on Fairfax Ave now have a new coat of Kermit, in a special shade or green specifically designed not to piss off Hollywood filmmakers. Although that’s still probably not enough to keep drivers from using them as traffic bypass lanes. 

 

State

The Laguna Beach Police Department will hold a free e-bike training course this Saturday, including certification to ride an ebike to local schools.

The attorney representing the family of 6-year old Hudson O’Loughlin is looking for deeper pockets than the woman accused of killing the boy as he rode his bike with his family in Pacific Beach; the suspect has been without a valid driver’s license for nine years, which means she probably doesn’t have insurance.

 

National

Amazon is recruiting ebike delivery riders who own their own bikes without any illegal modifications and with their own liability insurance; the company has also begun investing in their own ebike cargo vans for urban deliveries.

Seriously? A nonprofit bike park in Idaho continues to battle with county officials, who have denied it a permit to even build bathrooms, in a dispute that boils down to whether it should be classified as a ‘park’ or a ‘recreational facility.’

A 62-year old motorcycle rider faces a vehicular homicide charge for killing a 68-year old man riding a bicycle just a few miles from my Colorado hometown following a nine-month investigation; he’s accused of failing to negotiate a lefthand curve after passing another motorcycle, striking the victim on the far right shoulder, apparently head-on. Which makes it sound like the investigation should have taken about ten minutes.

Texas authorities warn parents that their kids could be riding an illegal electric motorcycle in the form of an ebike, while Gulf Shores, Alabama joined the parade of coastal cities cracking down on ebikes.

 

International

How to convert an old, unloved mountain bike to a modern gravel bike for the equivalent of less than $1,400.

A Brazilian gas company recounts the tale of a man who rode from his home in Bahia to New York in the 1920s, taking two years to travel through 11 countries, including sleeping in a tree after getting stalked by a jaguar, only to return home to find that no one really cared about his feat.

Bicyclists in Toronto appeared in Ontario’s highest provincial appeals court yesterday to defend their successful challenge of the province’s plan to rip out three of the city’s bike lanes, which ended with a ruling that bike riders had a constitutional right to have safe places to ride.

A Toronto film school graduate released his own, self-financed 15-minute romantic drama called The Bicycle Boy, which cost him just $23,000, which you can now watch for the low, low price of just $3.49. Which means he’ll break even if just 6,590 people pay to watch it. 

The British Parliament is considering a bill that would ban kits for illegal ebike conversions.

Horrible story from Ireland, where an inquest heard witnesses say they saw a 14-year old boy riding unsteadily after falling off his bicycle, only to disappear for six days before his body was found in a storm drain.

 

Finally…

That feeling when bike thefts are merely “inconveniencing,” or when it’s never too cold to ride. Who needs an ebike when you can build your very own electric jet bike?

And a reminder how it feels to ride a bicycle for the first time.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

 

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

New CA ebike bill still 3 times UK limits, Hollywood Walk of Fame officially sucks, and we pay the price for LA potholes

January 16, 2026 / / Comments Off on New CA ebike bill still 3 times UK limits, Hollywood Walk of Fame officially sucks, and we pay the price for LA potholes

Well, that puts things in perspective.

We mentioned yesterday that a new bill in the state legislature (AB 1557) would cap ebike engines at no more than 750 watts.

Anything above that would be classified as a “motor-driven cycle,” requiring a license and registration.

But in the UK, ped-assist ebikes are already restricted to a maximum continuous power output of 250 watts, with a cut-off assist speed of 15.5 mph.

In other words, a third of what legal ped-assist ebikes would be lowered to in California.

And we wonder why we have a problem.

Meanwhile, Road.cc recommends the year’s best ebikes, most of which should be available in this country. And none of which looks like an electric motorbike.

Photo by Josh Sorenson from Pexels. 

………

It’s official.

Hollywood’s Walk of Fame has once again been declared the world’s worst tourist attraction.

Which anyone who lives or works near, or has ever visited, Hollywood Boulevard can attest to, without ever going to the effort of visiting all the other tourist attractions.

Even the World’s Largest Ball of Twine probably has it beat.

Never mind that we were supposed to see a new and improved version of the boulevard by now, complete with protected bike lanes, larger sidewalks, more trees and fewer traffic lanes.

The plans are already in place, after undergoing the city’s usual endless series of public meetings, complete with compromises to placate every possible point of view.

Plans are also ready to convert the stretch of boulevard between Highland and Orange into a multi-block pedestrian plaza, which could do more than anything else to improve safety and reinvigorate the area.

I asked former LADOT Executive Director Seleta Reynolds that very question all the way back in 2018, and was told it was shovel ready as soon as a majority of Angelenos demanded it.

Who, I might add, were never asked that question.

Our leaders just assumed, as usual, that most people would oppose it, based on the city’s standard decision making process of giving in to whoever screams the loudest.

Never mind that an overwhelming two-thirds majority of city residents voted to build sidewalks, bikeways and bus lanes when they passed Measure HLA.

Hollywood doesn’t have to suck.

We just lack leaders with the guts to do anything about it.

………

It should come as no surprise to anyone that LA streets are full of potholes after the recent record rains.

Which the city is not fixing, due to massive maintenance budget cuts by a mayor and city council who put us on the brink of bankruptcy due to unfunded pay raises for city employees.

But what would be, at worst, an expensive inconvenience for motorists could lead to serious injuries, or worse, for people on bicycles.

Because your front wheel unexpectedly dropping out from under you can result in severe falls. And swerving to avoid a pothole can put you in the path of oncoming drivers and their big, dangerous machines.

So the city might save a few bucks by not fixing potholes now, and pay for it later in the form of massive legal settlements.

But we’ll be the ones who really get stuck with the bill.

………

LADOT wants your input on improving South LA’s Broadway corridor.

………

It’s the battle of the bike lane sweepers this weekend.

https://twitter.com/StreetsR4Every1/status/2011647196781748378

………

You can now ride the full length of California’s most iconic bicycling route once again.

https://twitter.com/CHP_Monterey/status/2011552241459876199

………

British ‘cross competitors demonstrate the many and varied ways you can fall off a bike.

 

………

Local 

South Central LA-based artist Lauren Halsey appears to be one of us, posing with a pink BMX bike to discuss her “immersive, architectural” artworks, as well as the limited-edition bicycling jersey she designed with Rapha and the Miami Design District to raise funds for cancer research.

The Silver Lake Track Club invites you to join them on February 7th for year two of Altadena to the Palisades: An Ultra-Marathon Relay, running or biking up to 50k — aka 31 miles — through the burns zones to raise funds for recovery efforts.

The Los Angeles Times suggests six places in Southern California to try bikepacking. I’ll take Joshua Tree for the win, thank you. 

 

State

Police busted a man wanted for probation violation and robbery after he led them on a pursuit from National City into San Diego, riding his ebike on the freeway. Although something tells me he wasn’t riding anything that would be called an ebike under the new California bill, let alone British regulations.

Life is cheap in San Mateo County, where the local DA announced they won’t be filing charges against a 19-year old woman who pulled her car out of a parking lot, striking an 11-year old kid on an ebike — who had the right of way — then jumped a curb, fatally slamming into four-year old boy and injuring his six-year old sister, before crashing into the restaurant they were leaving; prosecutors concluded they couldn’t get 12 jurors to agree she was negligent. Sure as hell sounds like she was, but what do I know?

 

National

Speaking of ebikes, Specialized is recalling all their Turbo Como SL commuter ebikes, saying you should stop riding it immediately due to a risk of cracks in the steerer tube. Which is probably a bad thing. 

Speaking of recalls, if you’re wearing an R.X.Y bicycle helmet, stop; the helmets violate minimum bike helmet standards, and pose a risk of serious injury or death. Which is definitely a bad thing.

He gets it. The publisher of a Las Vegas sports business site says the solution to the city’s deadly roads is better enforcement and education, as well as engineering better designed roads.

In a rational ruling from the New York courts, a judge has concluded that the city’s Department of Transportation has a rational basis to build bike lanes because that’s exactly what they’re supposed to do.

Kindhearted cops in Oviedo, Florida worked with a local nonprofit to give a girl a new bicycle, helmet and lock to ensure she has a safe way to get to middle school. Apparently, they haven’t heard about Florida drivers yet. 

 

International

Evidently, ice biking is nothing new. The CBC says bicycling up the frozen Yukon River dates back to the Klondike Gold Rush.

After five years and more than 3,000 hours of bicycling the streets of London, a man has developed his own bicycle safety map of the city, which is now used by more than 1.3 million people.

A London woman says that as a Black bicyclist in what is normally a white man’s sport, she’s already an icon whether she wants to be or not.

A British mother of three was sentenced to 35 years to life behind bars for a road rage-fueled feud, after running down and fatally ramming an ebike rider with her Range Rover at speeds of up to 75 mph. Once again, the victim probably wasn’t riding something that should be called an ebike. 

If you build it, they will come. One in five people in Brussels, Belgium now bike to work, as bicycling rates have jumped 40% in just five years.

 

Competitive Cycling

Next year’s Grand Depart for the Tour de France will roll through Scotland, starting in Edinburgh, rolling through the Scottish Borderlands, Dumfries and Galloway before finishing just south of the border in Carlisle, England.

 

Finally…

Your next e-cargo bike could fold like an origami crane. That feeling when your interior design career is on hold until the ’28 Olympics.

And when you need an app to know if your local bikeways are under water.

Literally.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

WeHo bike lanes going green, and new CA bill would cap ebike speeds and reclassify more powerful ebikes as motorbikes

January 15, 2026 / / One comment

West Hollywood will paint existing bike lanes on Santa Monica Blvd, Fairfax Ave and San Vicente Blvd green to increase their visibility.

It will be that particular shade known as “Hollywood Green,” allowing filmmakers to work around the color to avoid the disastrous rollout when Los Angeles first went green.

Painting the lanes is probably a good idea, given that most drivers seem to think the Fairfax bike lane is only there to bypass backed-up traffic, seemingly never occurring to them that there might be a bicycle in it.

And usually there isn’t, for exactly that reason.

Green paint isn’t likely to stop those drivers. But at least they’ll have a better idea what law they’re breaking.

………

That’s more like it.

A new bill in the state legislature would cap ebike engines at no more than 750 watts while imposing new speed restrictions.

AB 1557 would also reclassify more powerful electric motorbikes as motor-driven cycles, which would require a license to operate.

Maybe then we can finally get everyone to stop calling the damn things ebikes, and blaming all of us for the actions of a relative few teen knuckleheads.

………

Streets For All will host a mobility debate for the candidates for city controller next Thursday.

Only one of whom has corgis, which should be a key consideration.

………

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

An English borough clapped back when drivers complained about paying for the roadway as well as bike lanes, only to be rewarded with a 20 mph speed limit to protect vulnerable road users, replying that motorists don’t pay any more than anyone else and the country hasn’t had a road tax for nearly a century.

No bias here. A British news channel breathlessly announced that bicyclists now think illegally modified ebikes pose a bigger risk to their safety than motor vehicles. Except they left out the word “some,” because only 8% of the people polled believe that — and only 500 people were polled.

No bias here, either. Aussie commenters set their hair on fire when a photo showed a bicyclist riding in a bus lane, insisting that the single rider was somehow “inconveniencing hundreds” during rush hour. Must have been a damn big bus, because no one else in the photo seems to be even a little bit inconvenienced.

………

Local 

The Eastsider reminds us that Metro is looking for your comments on closing the gap in the LA River bike path through DTLA, Vernon and Maywood.

Calabasas bike-themed restaurant, bike shop and coffee bar Pedaler’s Fork is opening a second location in LA’s Frogtown, near their existing 10 Speed Coffee and close to the LA River bike path.

Santa Monica will conduct yet another bicycle and pedestrian safety operation from 2 pm to 8 pm today. So ride to the letter of the law until you cross the city limits so you don’t get ticketed. Or just avoid the city entirely this afternoon and evening if you can.

 

State

Calbike has opened registration for April’s biennial California Bicycle Summit in Sacramento.

Oceanside police are pushing for a change in the city’s ebike regulations to prohibit carrying a second rider and allow cops to temporarily seize the ebikes of scofflaw riders. Although once again, they seem to be conflating ped-assist ebikes with illegally modified electric motorbikes and dirt bikes.

A 73-year old Rancho Bernardo man is bicycling around San Diego with his son to interview random people they meet and post the videos online. The story is paywalled, but you can see their videos on their website.

 

National

A New York news site says bicyclists and ebikers continue to exceed Central Park’s 15 mph speed limit, endangering lives, while the speed limit is almost impossible to enforce. Yet the photo shows a couple kids on e-motorbikes with full face helmets, one pulling a wheelie, making it clear that regular bicycles and ped-assist ebikes aren’t the problem. And speed guns work just as well on them as they do with motor vehicles.

Streetsblog says the way to solve the problems in Central Park is to build better bike lanes around the park’s perimeter, so non-recreational riders don’t have to use it as the only safe route across town.

Proof protected bike lanes work. Ridership on a contested Brooklyn bike lane went up 60% after it was protected — even though the former mayor ripped out three blocks of the protection.

Justice denied, as a Salvadoran immigrant faced up to 12 years behind bars for killing a Long Island bike rider in a drunken crash, but was deported before he could be sentenced.

A group of Tampa, Florida mountain bikers are building their own trail, the city’s firstl.

 

International

Bike Radar explains why your ebike battery loses power when it’s cold, with a lithium ion battery having just half the power at 4 below zero Fahrenheit that it does at 77 degrees. Which is not a problem most SoCal riders are likely to have. 

The state of Mexico will invest the equivalent of $6.3 million to build four new bike lanes, as well as six protected intersections in high traffic areas.

London’s Telegraph recommends the ten European bike routes for all skill levels that you should tackle in your lifetime. Particularly if you feel an uncontrollable urge to circumnavigate Iceland. 

A London writer experiences the culture shock of moving from an air-conditioned office to a bicycle delivery service following his fourth layoff in six years, saying he hadn’t counted on get hit by cars and skinheads — let alone seeing the city in a whole new light.

Ireland’s Taoiseach, otherwise known as the country’s prime minister, condemned a judge’s comments that bike riders have made Dublin a nightmare, while the country’s Labour Party filed a formal complaint with the courts.

Cycling Weekly recommends the “unknown” climbs of the Austrian Alps, calling them harder than those of the Tour de France.

More proof protected bike lanes work. A year-old protected bike lane in the Australian state of Tasmania hasn’t had a single bicycling crash since it was installed, despite seeing 6,000 trips each month, while overall crashes on the street have dropped nearly a third.

 

Finally…

Now you, too, can turn your kid’s balance bike into an electric snow trike. That feeling when you have a need to prove you really did it.

And building your granddog his own bike seat. Or a mobile dog house.

Or something.

@louie_and_grandpaw

Spoiled little daschund ! Grandpaw built this custom snoopy inspired dog house from scratch for his grand dog Louie! #daschund #dogsoftiktok #dogtiktok #dogmom

♬ Linus And Lucy – Take 1 – Vince Guaraldi Trio

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Reforming DUI law to make it kinda less lax, Venice NC rethinks the bike plan, and throwing a bike at a hit-and-run driver

January 14, 2026 / / Comments Off on Reforming DUI law to make it kinda less lax, Venice NC rethinks the bike plan, and throwing a bike at a hit-and-run driver

Apparently, CalMatters is getting results for calling out California’s lax DUI laws.

The nonpartisan nonprofit news organization has run a series of hard-hitting stories pointing out how the state allows dangerous and deadly drivers to remain on the roads, even after taking a life.

Or repeatedly getting busted while too drunk or stoned to drive.

And how those overly lenient laws adds to the state’s ever increasing body count due to traffic violence caused by people who shouldn’t have been behind the wheel in the first place.

Now they’re reporting that a number of bills are being proposed in the state legislature to tackle the problem, including one directly addressing DUI.

(Assemblyman Nick) Schultz, a Democrat from Burbank, is the chair of the Assembly’s Public Safety Committee and a former DUI prosecutor. He unveiled a new bill last week – which he called “the tip of the spear” – that would crack down on repeat drunk drivers. The bill would:

  • Let prosecutors charge a felony for a third DUI — a “paradigm shift” for sentencing, he said, that would bring California more in line with states like Oregon, where Schultz worked. Right now, in California, a driver generally can’t be charged with a felony until their fourth DUI in 10 years.
  • Require any driver who gets a fifth DUI conviction within 10 years to have their license revoked for five years, and to install an in-car breathalyzer for four years. As we’ve reported, California has some of the weakest DUI laws in the nation, and these measures touch on two reasons why.

Look, I’m glad to finally see some action to address DUI. Any action.

But waiting for a fifth DUI in just ten years to get serious about taking away someone’s driving privileges is like giving someone his gun back because his first few shots missed.

A driver’s first DUI should result in an automatic six-month loss of license, and a requirement to use an interlock device for at least two years.

A second DUI should result in automatic jail time, or at least home vacation confinement. And a third should mean serious prison time, and a permanent loss of license.

That’s three in a lifetime, not 10 years. Or 20.

We should also impound the cars of any drivers who have their license suspended, for whatever reason. Because as we’ve seen, too many people continue to drive even after their license has been taken away.

Does that sound harsh?

So is having to arrange a funeral for a loved one.

The simple fact is, no one has a right to drive. It is a privilege granted by the state, only after passing a test demonstrating a basic knowledge of traffic laws, and the ability to drive safely.

Which means that everyone should know it’s illegal to drive after drinking or getting high. Other than speeding or distracted driving, nothing a person does behind the wheel is more likely to result in the death of another human being.

And don’t get me started on how lenient our speeding and distracted driving laws are.

Right now, we enforce DUI with a wink and a nod, accepting a driver’s promise to never, ever do it again. Until they do, when we usually just do the same thing.

And keep doing it until they kill someone.

It’s long past time we put a stop to it, once and for all. And incremental steps, however well intentioned, won’t get us there.

……….

The Venice Neighborhood Council wants to know where you think a safe Venice bike network should go.

Never mind that there’s already a Los Angeles bike plan, part of the city mobility plan, that maps that out in detail.

But whatever.

The Venice NC Parking & Transportation Committee met Monday to discuss the creation and distribution of a Bikeway Network for Venice in time for the ’28 Olympics.

According to YoVenice,

The purpose of the survey is to include community input, advice, and suggestions before the final product is distributed to the general public. Should they receive board approval, several methods of distribution will be used for maximum participation and input.

The creation of a Venice Bikeway Network would be the ultimate goal and objective.

It’s not that they shouldn’t take another look at it.

Obviously, things have changed in the decade and a half since the bike plan was unanimously approved by the city council. They should consider how it can be improved, particularly in a neighborhood where residents are five times more likely to ride a bicycle than most Angelenos.

But start with the work that’s already in place, without trying to reinvent the (bicycle) wheel.

………

Seriously?

A 31-year old Indiana man faces charges for the hit-and-run death of a 69-year old Indianapolis man riding a bicycle, after police tracked him down two months later.

He bizarrely told investigators that he knew he had been in a crash, but kept going because he thought someone had just thrown a bicycle at his truck, and had no idea there might possibly be someone riding it.

If he actually believes that, prosecutors should add a DUI charge to his indictment, because he’d have to be whacked out of his mind to have that thought even pop into his head.

He should also have been charged with murder, because it took half an hour to find the victim after he was run down, at which point it was too late to help him.

And to top things off, the driver was out on pre-trial release for a separate domestic battery case.

Nice guy.

………

This is the future we could have.

Although as someone else pointed out in the comments, we already have a few Metro Bike Hubs, but nowhere near enough. And you have to have a membership, rather than just using it on demand whenever you need it.

 

………

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

No bias here. Conservative politicians in England’s Merseyside region are attacking a “ridiculous” new bike lane network as “crackpot stuff,” even as the local government calls for people to ditch their cars for some shorter journeys, insisting it will make area “healthier and safer.”

No bias here, either. Irish bicyclists and advocacy group attacked the remarks of a judge who imposed his own views as a driver to slash an award to an injured bike rider by 80%, saying bicyclists “have become a nightmare in Dublin;” one group argued it showed “language that risks normalizing hostility towards people who choose to travel by bike.” Never mind that the judge once refused to take a breathalyzer test when he was suspected of drunk driving.

………

Local 

Just months after Pee-wee Herman’s classic red and white bicycle was donated to the Alamo, and a second went to Kourtney Kardashian as a Christmas present, another of the 14 duplicate bikes used to film Pee-wee’s Big Adventure was donated to the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures at Wilshire and Fairfax.

Apparently, a random video of bicycling through LA’s Skid Row is proof that California is “a third world hellscape,” where the “streets look like Mogadishu.” In other words, sort of like a few streets in any other major city.

LA’s killer highway nearly claimed another victim, as a man in his 50s was seriously injured when he was run down by a driver while riding an ebike in Hermosa Beach. Although photos from the scene make it clear that he was riding an electric motorbike, rather than a ped-assist ebike.

 

State

The City of La Mesa is teaming with the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition for an hour long virtual information session for new bicycle owners tomorrow evening.

A Eureka woman was arrested nearly a year after she used her SUV as a weapon by allegedly speeding up to intentionally strike a bicycle being ridden by someone she knew, while driving on the wrong side of the road, then backing up to run over the victim’s bicycle, and crashing into another car after running a red light as she tried to make her escape; fortunately, the victim didn’t appear to be seriously injured, although the driver of the car she hit was hospitalized afterwards.

 

National

There’s a special place in hell for anyone who flees the scene of a crash, leaving a little kid lying in the street — like the driver who hit a child’s bike as he was riding in a Bend, Oregon crosswalk. Fortunately, the boy wasn’t seriously injured.

Bike Portland struggles to make sense of what caused an experienced bicyclist to lose control of his bike and go over his handlebars, after a witness said initial reports that he hit a large pothole were wrong.

Oregon letter writers argue that improving bike infrastructure helps reduce oil dependence.

A 23-year old Salt Lake City man has been arrested for fatally shooting a bike thief in the back, as the alleged thief was riding off on his bicycle. We’ve said too many times already that no bicycle is worth a human life. Just let it go, and let the cops deal with it. That’s what they’re paid to do.

A tri-state planning association for the New York, New Jersey and Connecticut region calls on New Jersey to reject a legislative crackdown on ebikes that would be the most restrictive ebike law in the US.

You’ve got to be kidding. A bike-riding kid in South Carolina got the blame for crashing into the side of a passing pickup, even though it’s far more likely the driver sideswiped the kid. Never mind that even if the kid did crash into the pickup, the driver was clearly violating the state’s three-foot passing law.

 

International

Momentum recommends a dozen “hidden gem” bicycling routes for your bike bucket list, only one of which is in the US.

An English writer says a bike rider was killed by a hit-and-run driver in his town, leaving the bicycling community scared — and serving as a reminder that safer roads aren’t a ridiculous request, but a need. Trust me, I know the feeling. But I’d add heartsick to those feels, too. 

She gets it. An Irish coroner looking into the death of a 58-year old bike rider blames the lack of a comprehensive bike path network, while a bike advocacy group says the street where he was killed by a truck driver “is not safe for people walking or cycling.”

Speaking of bike bucket lists, a French website recommends the Parc naturel régional du Luberon in the heart of Provence, saying it might as well have been “designed for exploring on two wheels.”

 

Competitive Cycling

Two-time Tour de France and defending Vuelta champ Jonas Vingegaard will race the Giro this year, as he tries to claim the only Grand Tour he hasn’t won. Yet. Note to newspapers — does it really make sense to paywall an AP story that’s readily available on the internet?

Australia’s Royal Automobile Association, the country’s equivalent to AAA, is urging drivers and bicyclists to be patient and courteous, and obey the law, during the upcoming Santos Tour Down Under. Although it’s not the scofflaw bike riders whose impatience and lack of courtesy puts everyone else at risk.

 

Finally…

Turning a simple bicycle jersey into a work of art. Nothing like spending your Christmas riding laps around a Mickey D’s drive-thru.

And accusing an oil-sponsored bike race of “pedalling climate bullshit.”

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

LA approves $6.8m for crappy Chandler Bikeway extension, and NY mayor takes literal shovel to bridge bike lane bump

January 7, 2026 / / One comment

Los Angeles thinks you want to ride in the center of the roadway.

And they’re willing to bet nearly $7 million of your money they’re right.

Yesterday, the Los Angeles City Board of Public Works approved a $6.8 million contract to build an extension to the popular Chandler Bikeway, with a design that places the semi, kinda but not really protected bike lanes on the left side of the road.

Because parking.

As in, they weren’t willing to risk the wrath of LA’s angry drivers by removing parking to create space for the bike lane on the right side.

Because nothing is more LA than your God-given right to free car storage right next to the curb in front of your home. Or anyone else’s, for that matter.

But giving city leaders the benefit of the doubt, maybe they think they’re going to protect us by putting bikes over there on the left, where no one would expect it. Kinda like safety in invisibility.

And we know how well that’s worked out for us.

But there it shall be, henceforth and forever more running down the center of the road — not in the median like it is in Burbank, but over there on the left shoulder. With nothing but those chunky white bendable bollards that no one would ever think of running over to protect us.

Right next to what used to be known as the fast lane, before every lane turned into one.

Joe Linton shares his own thoughts about the coming new bike lane in a Bluesky thread that somehow seems only slightly less pessimistic than me.

So take it away, Joe.

Please.

I confess I expect this to be a crappy project. Instead of removing some parking to put protected bike lanes along the curb, cyclists will be shunted into the left lane along the median. Maybe it will work?

— Joe Linton (@lintonjoe.bsky.social) 2026-01-06T17:25:53.737Z

At ~$7M for 3 miles, it's also fairly expensive… per BPW staff report "scope includes remove concrete median islands; reconstruct street pavements, curb & gutter, & ramps; modify traffic signals; install concrete transit platforms"

— Joe Linton (@lintonjoe.bsky.social) 2026-01-06T17:33:18.121Z

Even with that concrete curb work underway, cyclists get only plastic protection: "Class IV bike lanes [protected bike lanes] with raised rubber defenders [basically 'armadillos'] and K-71 bollards [soft-hit white plastic bollards]"

— Joe Linton (@lintonjoe.bsky.social) 2026-01-06T17:36:16.893Z

Center-running bikeways work in some places (ie: some Barcelona ramblas) but have failed spectacularly closer to home – see wretched results on Valencia in SF. sf.streetsblog.org/2024/11/19/s…

— Joe Linton (@lintonjoe.bsky.social) 2026-01-06T17:40:11.824Z

I expect that this Chandler project will spend a lot of money to serve few cyclists… and many folks will still bike in the outer lane. I hope I am wrong.

— Joe Linton (@lintonjoe.bsky.social) 2026-01-06T17:41:24.525Z

………

Call it the further adventures of life in a bike-friendly city.

Unlike, say, here in Los Angeles, where our mayor says she’s one of us, while doing everything she can to avoid implementing the city mobility plan — or complying with the Americans with Disability Act — going so far as to replace street resurfacing with something called “large asphalt repair.”

Because resurfacing the street would trigger Measure HLA’s requirement to implement the mobility plan, as well as requiring ADA-compliant curb cuts.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the country, New York is using $700 million in congestion pricing tolls to improve transit, while the city’s new bikeshare-riding mayor demonstrated his administrations new bike-friendly direction by reversing cuts made to a major bike safety corridor that was tainted by a bribery scandal under the previous adminstration.

Now Mayor Zohran Mamdani is grabbing a shovel himself to repair a major obstacle blocking the bike lane on the Williamsburg Bridge, infamous among the city’s bicyclists as the “Williamsburg Bump.”

Although not everyone was happy, since the bump gave them a chance to catch a little air.

Thanks to Megan for the YouTube video. 

………

ActiveSGV & SGV Water Action invite you to join them on a ride to Santa Fe Dam on the 17th.

https://twitter.com/ActiveSGV/status/2008585641722839307

………

LABikeBoy shares what it’s like to live in LA without a car for a full year.

………

A 23-year old “lad” rode more than 15,500 miles from the UK to Australia, retracing the bikepacking tour his father took 40 years earlier, while riding the same bicycle.

………

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

Seriously? Business owners in Cathedral City, California try to make the case that new green plastic bike lane bollards are cutting into their sales by reducing visibility and accessibility, leading to a drop in foot traffic. Or maybe foot traffic is down because it’s been raining for the last two weeks. 

Leaders with the UK’s Bikeability training program expressed fears that hostile tabloid media coverage is scaring parents out of letting their kids ride bikes.

………

Local 

An ebike rider was lucky to escape without serious injuries when they were right-hooked by a driver while riding in the painted bike lane on Santa Monica Blvd in West Hollywood; witnesses described the crash as a hit-and-run, but sheriff’s deputies insisted the driver stuck around.

 

State

Police in Merced are asking for the public’s help finding an 87-year old man suffering from dementia, who was last seen riding a pink adult-sized bicycle

 

National

A man in Portland was killed when he apparently hit a pothole while riding his bike. Demonstrating once again that bad roads pose a greater risk to bike riders than they do to motorists. And a single hole in an otherwise good road surface can be even more dangerous, because bicyclists may not be expecting it. 

Detroit’s new Gordie Howe International Bridge, named for the former NHL great, is set to open early this year, allowing people to bike and walk between the Canada and the Motor City, as well as drive. Look, I’m not saying I’m old, but I remember watching Howe skate. 

New York bikeshare users are calling on the city to subsidize the Citi Bike program, after fees increased for the fifth year in a row.

Atlanta is about to break ground in the city’s largest greenspace on what they’re calling a “world-class bike park for all ages and skill levels”.

 

International

Momentum is busy recycling old news stories as new news, making it harder to tell what’s actually new and what isn’t — although it’s kind of a dead giveaway when a story about why cargo bikes are better than minivans for family vehicles begins by predicting Europe ‘will’ sell half a million cargo bikes in 2022.

Unbelievable. For the second time in just two days, a 13-year old boy was killed by dogs while riding a bicycle, this time in Nova Scotia, where a boy died three days after he was attacked by “three large-breed dogs” as he was riding past someone’s property. Seriously, just keep your damn dogs secured, already.

A London bicyclist is convinced a professional thief used Strava to track his movements and trace him back to his home before stealing three high-end bikes worth the equivalent of 40 grand.

A Scottish mountain biker relates his obsessive pursuit of summiting all 282 of the Munros, the Highland peaks topping 3,000 feet in elevation named for Sir Hugh Munro, who first mapped them in 1891.

A Dublin professor says it’s about time the city began focusing on better bike lanes and the newly pedestrianized College Green between Trinity College and the old Irish Parliament building, arguing that bikes, buses and walking are the only solutions to worsening congestion.

That didn’t take long. People on motorbikes are already encroaching on Ho Chi Minh City’s first bike lane, less than a week after it was opened in the city formerly known as Saigon, Vietnam.

 

Competitive Cycling

Cyclist ranks pro cycling kits from worst to first; needless to say, Ineos Grenadiers and their white shorts came in dead last — although Velo foresees those white shorts paired with a pink jersey, as they predict a win for the Grenadiers in the Giro.

The world’s most famous bike mechanic is riding off into the sunset, as the mustachioed Calvin Jones hangs up his Park Tool apron after 28 years.

 

Finally…

Why buy a titanium bike when you can acquire the whole brand? That feeling when you meet the love of your life at a bike race, and end up featured in People.

And always ride with a pool cue in case you find yourself unexpectedly jousting with trash.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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