Tag Archive for bike parking

New SoFi Stadium removes free bike lockers, ebikes beat carbon capture, and let’s hope Donald Shoup never changes

August 26, 2022 / / One comment

Did LA’s SoFi Stadium install bike lockers just to qualify for sustainability certification?

That’s the charge in an email I received recently, from a whistleblower who prefers to remain anonymous.

The gist of my story is basically the subject line – SoFi Stadium used to have 44 awesome free bike lockers. They are gone now, and after stirring the Reddit pot, I believe they were installed to get LEED points, and are now in the way of profitability.

Meanwhile, this was posted by Reddit user germanisette last week.

SoFi Stadium removed all their free bike lockers

First time I went to SoFi, I took my bike there. I was so excited to find that they have free bike lockers! I’ve been linking to my post every time someone asked how best to get to SoFi.

Yesterday I went again, and all the bike lockers were gone as confirmed by security. There I was, with my $3 bike lock, a helmet, a safety vest, and other stuff I didn’t want to bring inside, with no place to store them safely. The security people for the concert were about as helpful as airport TSA, and they directed me to lock my bike in the (unattended) parking lot. Thankfully George Clinton fans didn’t have enough criminal energy to steal anything.

But! I am so angry that SoFi did this. I bet they were either required to provide for alternative transportation, or maybe they collected some kind of “green energy” reward. There is no way they voluntarily installed the bike lockers in the first place since SoFi obviously wants people to pay for parking.

I contacted them to let them know that I was not happy, and I am sure they will lose a great deal of sleep over my complaint form. However, I really would like to find out if they can legally do this. If they were required to install them, or there was a financial incentive for providing sustainable transportation, I want to contact the appropriate agency so that they can look into it. Any ideas who I could contact? Any cycling advocacy organizations that have more experience with these things? I realize I’m quite possibly just wasting my time, but I feel rather passionate about bike infrastructure and climate change and I’m willing to take that risk. I just want to be as effective as possible, therefore looking for who best to contact if anyone has any insight or suggestions.

EDIT: Two people mentioned sustainability/LEED certifications, and that bike lockers could possibly be used to achieve a certain standard. SoFi Stadium was just certified gold in February 2022 and my inclination is that the bike lockers were removed afterward.

The LEED certification program is internationally recognized as the gold standard for energy efficient and sustainable buildings.

However, the SoFi Stadium website doesn’t mention LEED, instead noting that it was awarded ISO 20121:2012 Event Sustainability Management System certification earlier this year, the second NFL stadium to achieve that recognition.

A YouTube video posted by hoohoohoblin confirms that the bike lockers have been removed, instead requiring bike riders to use open-air racks that aren’t even bolted to the ground.

Not exactly secure. Let alone providing no way to secure other items you might not want, or be allowed, to take into a concert or a game.

Here’s all the stadium website has to say about bike parking.

SoFi Stadium and Hollywood Park encourage guests attending events to take alternate modes of transportation. In order to support alternate modes of transportation SoFi Stadium and Hollywood Park has bike parking locations available throughout the district. Please be sure to bring your own lock to secure your bicycle.

Unattended bicycles that impede pedestrian or vehicular circulation are subject to removal and/or relocation. SoFi Stadium and Hollywood Park and/or its agents shall not be responsible for fire, theft, damage or loss to bicycles or any other articles left in or on the same.

No mention of bike lockers.

So the question is why they were removed, let alone why were they even installed if they were going to be ripped out in less than a year.

It’s possible that the Redditors’ speculation is correct, and the lockers were removed once the stadium achieved its certification.

But my guess is far more mundane.

I suspect that SoFi’s bike lockers were subject to the same vandalism and theft that plagues bike lockers everywhere. And that they were removed because it simply wasn’t cost effective to maintain them.

But it would be good to hear from someone at the stadium to explain what happened. And what they’re going to do to provide secure bike parking.

At the very least, they could offer a free bike valet. Or work with Metro or some other provider to install a new Bike Hub.

Because those loose, free-standing racks ain’t gonna cut it.

Photo by Mitchell Luo from Pexels.

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Bad Mom Good Mom takes a deep dive into the relative carbon savings of ebikes versus Direct Air Capture.

After a lot of calculations well beyond my English major ken, she concludes that ebikes win going away. And that Denver’s modest ebike rebate program makes it the most successful existing CO2 removal program in the US.

Now that I can understand.

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Same sweater, same beard, different bike.

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Our old friend Zachary Rynew, aka Mr. Ciclavalley, calls this “Definitely one of the funnest sections of dirt in LA!”

And who doesn’t love fun dirt?

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If you’re going to test drive a massive new luxury SUV, you might as well drive it like real drivers do.

https://twitter.com/tomflood1/status/1562432741437673472

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

A Portland TV station belatedly catches up to the news that a road raging driver flashed a gun at volunteers working at an open streets event. Something we mentioned here on Monday — and we’re a thousand miles away.

Talk about not getting it. A letter writer in the conservative Washington Times says Democrats have left themselves open to attacks for “pushing bike paths for the wealthy and ignoring the real needs of the working and middle classes,” apparently having not a clue who really rides bikes.

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

A Miami father driving home from a baseball game received a beatdown in front of his eight-year old son, when they were attacked, apparently unprovoked, by a couple dozen teenagers on a rideout; he escaped with cuts and bruises, as well as $5,000 damage to his SUV.

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Local

Streets For All endorses Katy Yaroslavsky to replace termed out Paul Koretz in LA’s CD5, and Hugo Soto-Martinez over incumbent Mitch O’Farrell in CD13.

Streetsblog reports on yesterday’s rejection of the Healthy Streets LA ballot measure, as the city council voted unanimously to place it on the 2024 ballot instead of adopting it outright.

Congratulations, Virgil Ave. Time Out says you’re the world’s 13th coolest street, even if San Francisco’s Hayes Street comes in three notches higher.

The weekly Beverly Press looks back at Sunday’s Meet the Hollywoods CicLAvia.

Want to work in advocacy? The LACBC’s later newsletter includes job openings with CicLAvia, Streets Are For Everyone, and Active SGV.

 

State 

CARB, California’s statewide ebike rebate program, has finally chosen an administrator for the program that was originally supposed to begin last month, but is now expected to start next January.

Curbed’s Alissa Walker says California has banned the sale of gas cars after 2035; now it needs a plan for fewer cars.

A group of Santa Barbara community activists are planning to protest plans for a new bike path that will require the removal of up to 49 trees.

An experienced San Francisco triathlete was seriously injured when he hit a bump caused by construction work; local residents say he’s far from the first.

Closing arguments are expected Monday in the DUI murder trial of a 31-year old Fairfield man, who’s charged with killing a 52-year old man riding a bike last October; his BAC was just .04% — half the legal limit — but he was required to avoid alcohol entirely while on probation for a previous conviction.

 

National

Trek has recalled their Bontrager Aeolus RSL VR-C carbon handlebars and stems, as well as the 2022 Speed Concept SLR and MY 2021-2022 Emonda SLR bicycles using them, due to a risk of cracks.

Gear Patrol looks at the “13 best ebikes you can buy today,” starting at just $899 for a Rad Power hybrid.

A Portland lawyer says yes, it’s legal to have a bicycle funeral procession in Oregon.

A pair of Seattle bike riders are suing the city after they were seriously injured on streetcar tracks in the middle of the roadway, calling them a recipe for disaster.

Denver pedicab drivers have been banned from the city’s iconic 16th Street Mall, which is getting a much-needed makeover.

An Oklahoma man is coming back to finish the ride, three years after he was run down by a semi driver while preparing for the state’s Hotter’n Hell Hundred Ride

Chicago bike riders say new painted bike lanes on a newly resurfaced street are nice, but they don’t extend far enough.

A Minnesota town is ripping out all its bike lanes and replacing them with sharrows, after discovering their streets did not meet the state minimum for lane widths. Because God forbid they should take out the parking, instead.

South Bend, Indiana police arrested a 47-year old man for the hit-and-run death of a retired parish priest as he was riding his bike Monday night.

More Boston families are ditching the SUV and turning to cargo bikes to ferry the kids to school.

A late Buffalo NY bank president’s bicycle now hangs in the lobby of an office tower, to honor his commitment to lead by example by biking to work.

Bad news from New York, where a 67-year old man was critically injured when he was run down by a younger bike rider while standing next to his bike on a Brooklyn bike path.

A 72-year old DC area man is now devoting his retirement to fixing bikes for Afghan refugees; he’s given away nearly 300 bicycles over the years, with around 40 going to Afghan families in the past year.

 

International

Ontario, Canada bicycling deaths spiked last year, jumping to eight from just two the previous year.

A London truck driver faces charges for the crash that seriously injured the husband of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s chief of staff while he was riding his bike last year.

Cycling Tips looks at the ongoing efforts to rescue women’s cyclists a year after the fall of Afghanistan, as Shannon Galpin has led the resettlement of 126 Afghan women bicyclists. You can contribute to her work through a crowdfunding campaign, which has raised over $11,500 of the $50,000 goal.

Philippine bike riders are calling for improvements to the country’s National Capital Region, after a survey shows bicycle owners outnumber people with cars.

 

Competitive Cycling

The Vuelta’s red leader’s jersey changed hands for the third time in three days on Thursday, as Aussie Jay Vine won the rain-soaked stage, while Remco Evenepoel took the lead.

Three-time defending champ Primož Roglič moved to just one minute behind the Evenepoel, but American cyclists dropped out of the top 25, with the exception of Sepp Kuss in 14th.

VeloNews examines the custom carbon “Frankenleg” prothesis that allows paracyclist Meg Fisher to compete at the highest levels, including the 26 hour, 247-mile LeadBoat Challenge.

Sad news from Belgium, where 1960’s pro cyclist Herman Vanspringel died at 79. Vanspringel finished second in the ’68 Tour de France, losing the race on the final day, along with a second-place finish in the Giro and a third in the Vuelta; he was also a seven-time winner of the Bordeaux-Paris classic.

 

Finally…

Recharge your ebike with a couple solar panels. Why leave your printing press at work when you can mount it on your bike and take it with you.

And that feeling when you suddenly realize you can ride a bike outside, for free.

And have more fun doing it.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

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

Study shows bicycling boosts jobs and economy, inspiring comeback by injured rider, and LA Arborteum gets the message

November 24, 2021 / / One comment

I hope you’ll have a great Thanksgiving tomorrow. 

Just take a few minutes to practice an attitude of gratitude, and find something to give thanks for. Even if it’s just making it through another year in these trying times. 

And if you can take a break from stuffing yourself with stuffing, find some time to get out for a bike ride. Take it from me, there are few better days to ride, as long as you make it back before all those drivers high on tryptophan start crawling back home. 

Then come back on Friday, when we’ll officially kick off the 7th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive, and I shamelessly beg for your hard-earned money to help keep this site coming your way every day. 

We’ll be back on Monday with more Morning Links to catch up on anything we missed. And of course, we’ll be here over the weekend if there’s any breaking news.

And yes, that’s the royal “we,” unless you count our intern and spokesdog up there on the left.

Now stay safe, and enjoy the ride. I want to see you back here next week.  

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More proof bicycling pays.

A new report from an academic research company shows that tripling the current level of London bicycling by 2030 would save lives and create jobs, while resulting in a $6.5 billion annual economic dividend.

And that’s on top of the usual benefits like reducing traffic congestion and improving air quality.

Investment in cycleways was one of the best ways of creating jobs through infrastructure spend, more than any other infrastructure project aside from energy efficiency in buildings, reported the TUC’s 2020 study. Thirty-three jobs are created for every $1.4 million invested in walking or cycling infrastructure over a two-year period, found the TUC.

The Bicycle Association’s 32-page report claims that increasing cycling’s modal share to 14% is “realizable” because net-zero ambitions will require a shift from private motor car use to other means, including cycling.

There’s absolutely no reason to believe the same wouldn’t hold true in Los Angeles, or most other major cities. And it should be easier to realize that kind of increase in Los Angeles, with its temperate climate and mostly flat terrain.

All that’s missing is the political will and financial investment to make it happen.

So what the hell are we waiting for?

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This is the cost of traffic violence.

If it’s true about that which does not kill you, one LA bicyclist is going to be pretty damn strong once she gets back on her feet.

Then again, it sounds like she already is.

A reader named Mitchell reached out to me yesterday to ask if I’d heard about Peta Takai, a master’s road and gravel cyclist who was critically injured in a collision while riding on PCH last September.

Apparently, she was riding near La Costa Beach in Malibu when a kid driving the family Range Rover made an illegal U-turn and slammed into her.

She’s been sharing her challenging and inspiring story on Instagram.

As she notes, she has a very long road ahead of her to get her life back, let alone get back on her bike some day.

A crowdfunding page has raised $28,100, easily topping the low $20,000 goal. But given the extent of her injuries, and the months, if not years, of rehab that will be required, that’s likely just a fraction of what she’s going to need.

So if you’ve got a few extra bucks, send them her way. And tell your friends to do the same.

And maybe remember her on Giving Tuesday next week.

Thanks to Mitchell for the heads-up, and hats off to Giant Santa Monica, which I’m told helped raise funds for her.

And you can make that crowdfunding total $28,120 now.

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Maybe we’ll see some decent bike parking at the Arboretum soon.

Fingers crossed.

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

Colorado sheriff’s deputies shared video of an idiot driver who passed a left-turning bike rider at high speed on the wrong side of the road, in what they called “the true definition of a close call.” And they were right.

Once again, a bike rider has been deliberately rammed off the road by a hit-and-run driver in London’s Richmond Park, raising questions as to why drivers are allowed in the park in the first place. Parks are for people, not cars. Period.

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

Police in Ohio are looking for a bank robber who made his getaway on a bicycle, which is rapidly becoming the getaway vehicle of choice for discerning criminals.

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Local

Once again, no news is good news. Right?

 

State

Rancho Santa Margarita’s Felt Bicycles has changed hands again after the company was offloaded to ebike and motorcycle maker Pierer Mobility, just four years after it was sold to Rossignol.

San Francisco’s iconic Golden Gate Bridge is about to get a 15 mph speed limit for bike riders, with fines ranging from $238 to $490 for anyone caught speeding. The question is whether the limit will be enforceable against riders without a cycling computer or speedometer, who would have no way of knowing they’re exceeding it — especially since there is no statutory requirement to have one on your bike. 

 

National

A new 360° ebike warning system promises to alert riders to the risk of collisions in any direction, and could eventually be upgraded to warn about potholes and other road hazards; it draws power from the ebike’s battery, which is why it can’t currently be used on other bikes.

The Consumer Post offers a roundup of the best Black Friday deals on ebikes and e-scooters. Although I’m firmly in the go outside and buy nothing on Black Friday camp.

Smaller communities are getting creative to promote ebike use, including Colorado’s Roaring Fork Valley, which uses a pair of freestanding solar-powered bikeshare docks to recharge the bikes. They also have a pretty damn good trout stream, too.

More details on the Colorado bike theft ring that stands accused of stealing over $1.5 million worth of mountain bikes from 29 bike shop break-ins, and apparently taking them over the border into Mexico to resell. Thanks to Keith Johnson for the heads-up.

Incredibly bad idea from a Kansas City councilwoman, who proposed an ordinance to give local residents greater control over bike lanes — including the power to remove lanes they don’t like.

Nice gesture from a Wisconsin town, which will feature a float honoring an 89-year old man who rode his own hand-built wooden bicycle, patterned after the first pedal bike, in local parades for over 20 years, after he was killed while riding a bike to his high school reunion.

Sentencing has been delayed for a 74-year old Wisconsin man who pled guilty to hitting a teenage bike rider with his pickup and leaving the boy to die alone in a ditch, as he considers changing his plea and rejecting the deal negotiated by his lawyer.

Boston is experimenting with a road diet on the Harvard Bridge to give more room for bike riders than the existing bike lane, on a bridge with the city’s highest ridership rate.

Strangers came to the aid of a New Orleans woman after she was right-hooked by a hit-and-run driver, and no one showed up in response to a 911 call; police say they responded within six minutes, but no one was there. Which means either someone is lying about the police response, or they went to the wrong location.

This is why you should never confront a bike thief yourself. A Florida man was stabbed after a woman confronted a thief trying to steal her bike, and called her husband for help; he brought along a co-worker who was stabbed by the thief.

 

International

A London bike rider has set a Guinness world record for the largest GPS drawing completed in 12 hours, crafting an image of a mustachioed man overlaid on the city.

Luxury fashion brand Jacquemus is teaming with Dutch ebike maker Van Moof to market their own ebike, joining a long list of fashion brands collaborating with bikemakers.

Dubai continues its crackdown on scofflaw bike riders, as police confiscate an average of nearly 1,000 bicycles a month for the last ten months.

 

Competitive Cycling

Yet another investigation has been launched into the death of 1998 Tour de France winner Marco Pantini, this time focusing on whether others were involved in his apparent drug overdose.

Veteran women’s cyclist Tayler Wiles decries the dearth of young women coming into the sport, placing the blame on the lack of a WorldTour race in the US, after a series of high-level events have fallen off the calendar, including the late, great Tour of California.

 

Finally…

Forget an Apple Car, just make the iBike, instead. Your daily ride could help prevent Alzheimers.

And that pretty well sums it up, alright.

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

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

Anti-bike bile from Indy shock jock, study shows parking causes traffic, and DTLA transportation ideas for Kevin de León

February 11, 2021 / / One comment

No bias here.

An Indianapolis shock jock has apparently appointed himself as master of the roads, with the power to determine who should be on them — and who shouldn’t.

And according to him, they’re only for people with big effing engines.

Which means bike riders should stay the hell off.

It’s time for bicyclists to learn their place on the roads of Indianapolis.

Yes, we’re all very happy that you’re under the impression you’re saving the environment and “keeping healthy” while breathing exhaust fumes and increasing your odds of getting crushed by a Goodyear radial. Bravo! Also, we hate you.

Yes, bicyclists can gain access to roads. Yes, they can use them for travel if they so choose. So can a squirrel, and we all know how that story ends.

WIBC host Tony Katz was responding to the following tweet from new Transportation Secretary Mayor Pete.

In other words, Buttigieg gets it, while Katz clearly doesn’t.

And probably never will.

“Roads are for cars, trucks, busses, and the movement of people,” Katz continued. “Not [bicyclists] thinking they can make a left turn without signaling because ‘Look! I’m in spandex and I’m just like the people who compete in the Tour de France but without the hills and extraordinary athletic ability. But I’ve got the hat!’”

Of course, the entire point of putting people like that on the radio is to piss listeners off, because angry people listen longer and tune in more often, and drive the ratings up.

The problem is many of those people are listening while they drive. And they may just decide to take that anger out on the next person thet see riding on two wheels.

Fools like Katz just load and cock the gun. They let someone else pull the trigger.

And they don’t belong on the radio.

Or anywhere else.

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No surprise here.

A new study from a team of California academics shows that adding more parking really does encourage more driving.

Maybe we should try adding more bike parking and see if it holds true for us, too.

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Busted for cruising Thunder Road while wasted.

Funny how the news didn’t come out until after his Jeep Super Bowl ad aired, though.

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

Mounties in British Columbia are looking for a trio of men, including one on a bike, who sprayed bear spray into a building lobby. It must have worked, though, since there were no bears in the lobby afterwards.

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Local

Streetsblog’s Joe Linton offers a number of good actionable transportation suggestions for new CD14 Councilmember Kevin de León, including quick-build protected and painted bike lanes, and longer term projects like adding back the protected bike lanes that were removed from plans for the new 6th Street Viaduct.

Metro is reopening the community engagement process for the proposed Rail to River Trail, after the route selected for the rail part of the project doesn’t leave room for a multi-use pathway.

 

State

A retired cop argues against adding bike lanes to Highway 67 in Ramona, insisting that bike lanes are only used by the privileged few. Never mind that even the most expensive bike costs just a fraction of a new car. Or that many people who rely on bikes cling to the lowest economic rungs. So maybe it’s the people in cars who are really privileged. 

Sad news from Fresno, where a 45-year old man riding a bicycle was killed by a speeding driver; the 20-year old driver was also killed after hitting another car and slamming into a pole. The deaths came just two days after another bike rider was killed in the city.

 

National

About damn time. A new bill in the US House, co-sponsored by Oregon Rep. Earl Blumenauer and Rep. Jimmy Panetta of California, would authorize a 30% rebate on the purchase of an ebike, with a maximum rebate of $1,500.

They get it. CityLab says transitioning to electric cars won’t be enough to avert climate disaster; instead, we’ll need to dramatically cut motor vehicle use. Which is where those ebike rebates come in.

Outside’s Joe Lindsey explains what the lawsuit against Trek’s WaveCel bike helmet tech is all about.

Seattle is moving forward with building out an actual bike network, with a number of new protected bike lanes and neighborhood greenways. Unlike a certain megalopolis to the south.

A pilot program in Colorado is fighting climate change while helping essential workers get to their jobs, using a $560,000 grant to give out an additional 100 ebikes.

Speaking of Colorado, one hundred bucks will buy you a chance to win a hand-built Alchemy Atlas road bike, with the funds going to benefit the Bicycle Colorado advocacy group, while seven bucks will enter you to win an Electra Townie cruiser bike.

How to keep riding through a Minneapolis winter, without the inconvenience of actually, you know, going outside.

 

International

Drivers in Merida, Mexico will face fines of up to the equivalent of $34.73 for parking in the city’s new bike lanes. Which hopefully will have a bigger impact on drivers down there than it would here.

Luxembourg is extending a program to provide residents with the equivalent of up to $722 towards the purchase of bicycle or ebike.

 

Competitive Cycling

Former Giro d’Italia and Vuelta winner Nairo Quintana won’t be riding in this year’s Giro, after his Arkéa–Samsic failed to get an invitation.

Cycling in the South Bay talks with former pro Roy Knickman about what it’s like to be one.

 

Finally…

Probably not the best idea to abandon a car on a bike path when it’s full of stolen stuff and you’re already on parole. First rule of reporting — always blame the people on bikes.

And nothing like drafting a train at 60 mph.

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

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

Morning Links: 15-year old fixie rider dragged 1,000 feet by hit-and-run driver, and a flaming bagpipe unicycle ride

August 7, 2019 / / Comments Off on Morning Links: 15-year old fixie rider dragged 1,000 feet by hit-and-run driver, and a flaming bagpipe unicycle ride

Horrible news from South LA, where a 15-year old boy was critically injured by a hit-and-run driver who sped off, leaving him bleeding in the streets.

While the story identifies him as a pedestrian, he was actually riding or walking with what appears to be a fixie when he was run down by a heartless coward at Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Woodlawn Avenue around 9 pm last night — then dragged over the length of a football field under the driver’s car.

That’s around 1,000 feet.

Police described the victim as barely alive.

Officers are looking for a 2007 or 2008 dark blue or green Honda Accord with tinted windows and front-end damage.

As always, there is a standing $25,000 reward for any hit-and-run involving serious injuries in the City of Los Angeles, which will increase to $50,000 if the worst happens.

Let’s hope they catch this murderous jerk.

And pray that the boy he tried to kill by not stopping makes a fast and full recovery.

Update: The victim has been identified by his mother as Roberto Diaz, who was riding in a crosswalk after buying a soda at a nearby store when he was run down by a driver who blew through a stop sign. 

The driver stopped briefly when he or she was followed by witnesses before taking off again. 

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Apparently, parking is a common theme today.

Harbor Area planning commissioners approve plans for a new 80-room hotel in San Pedro, with 56 parking spaces for drivers, and all of five — count ’em, 5 — spaces for people with bicycles.

A massive new San Diego commercial development will feature just 90 short-term bike racks, along with 90 long-term bike lockers, to compliment nearly 1,400 parking spaces for motor vehicles. Not exactly the way to encourage people to leave their cars at home.

A bike-riding Seattle business owner says he’d rather keep the street parking in front of his cafe and put a planned bike lane somewhere else, evidently preferring his current customers to getting more business from people like him. And before someone says Seattle isn’t Amsterdam, maybe it should be. Then again, so should Los Angeles.

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Trek’s podcast talks with the founder of Black Girls Do Bike, who deserves the Medal of Freedom. Or sainthood. Or something.

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Security video captures a Kansas City-area driver plow through a crosswalk without looking, and right into a bicyclist riding in it.

Then the police ticket the driver, as well as both bike riders for not waiting for the walk signal even though they had the green light.

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Former Top Gear host James May calls on drivers to live in peace with fellow road users, and not “buy into the anti-cycling thing.”

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Local

The LA Weekly goes on a bicycle pastry tour through LA’s Fairfax District and points east. And gives a shout out to former Flying Pigeon owner Josef Bray-Ali’s popular Get Some Dim Sum rides. 

Streetsblog’s Joe Linton explains LA’s wonky and acronym-heavy shift from LOS to VMT, saying it’s “likely to have big ramifications for making L.A. healthier, more walkable, more bikeable, and transit-friendly.”

Plans to redevelop the aging South Bay Galleria include what are obliquely described as “bicycle connections,” whatever that means in real life.

No need for guilt when you attend a track cycling race at the VELO Sports Center on the complex that houses Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, which Los Angeles Magazine calls the world’s most sustainable soccer facility, right down to its fleet of cruiser bikes for workers to traverse the expansive grounds.

 

State

In today’s faux soap opera report, ebikes have infiltrated the Real Housewives of Orange County, as Kelly Dodd presents her plastic surgeon boyfriend with a William Shatner-approved Pedego. And no, I had no idea who Dodd is, or anyone else on the show for that matter. But hey, good taste in gift giving.

A man was shot in the hand by a bike-jacker just after dark on bike path in the San Pasqual area near Escondido; he was shot as he raised his hands after the armed thief jumped out from behind some rocks and demanded his bicycle.

Everyone was on their best behavior as thousands of people turn out for Santa Barbara’s long-running Fiesta Cruiser Ride, after police cracked down on previous rides.

These are difficult days for local bike shops trying to compete in today’s online shopping world, as demonstrated by two bike shops closing in San Luis Obispo in just the last week.

The Davis Enterprise offers a quartet of stories celebrating the US Bicycling Hall of Fame on its 10th birthday, calling it the most bikey thing about the bike-mad town and part of the fabric of the community, while noting that the hall may shift gears in the future.

 

National

If anyone is shocked that Uber and Lyft are making traffic congestion worse, you need to get out more. But at least they finally admit it.

Ebike price continue to drop, as Electrek and Verge like the new Swagtron EB12 city bike, which checks in at penny under $1,000; the best part is it looks like an actual bicycle. And hopefully rides that way.

Great idea. A new bike light currently crowdfunding online offers dual lights, with one forward-facing 500 lumen LED to light the road, and another back-facing LED to make the rider more visible to drivers.

C|net compares a pair of low cost GoPro alternatives to the real thing.

A pair of cancer survivors just rode 4,000 miles across the US to promote bone marrow donations and raise $24,000 for the organization that helped save their own lives.

The mountain bike front derailleur isn’t dead yet, it’s just 90% off.

Hats off to a Boise, Idaho pawnshop owner, who helped bust a serial bike thief trying to unload $40,000 worth of bicycles reportedly stolen in Washington, California, Nevada, Florida, Colorado, Virginia, and North Carolina.

After 45 years, savage serial killer Ted Bundy’s last case was finally closed, 45 years after he took the life of a young Colorado woman as she was out for a bike ride.

A Kansas man is on trial for aggravated battery for critically injuring MMA fighter Carmella James while she was riding her bicycle to work; police believe he was under the influence, but don’t appear to have tested him.

A San Antonio TX bike rider was shot in the back in a drive-by.

An Arkansas bicycle coordinator says bike helmets are great, but mandatory helmet laws aren’t.

Yes, 288-pound NFL star JJ Watt replaced a young Green Bay Packers fan’s bicycle, after breaking the boy’s bike riding it to training camp.

Broadway actor Noah Galvin is one of us, riding along Manhattan’s Riverfront Park when he’s not performing in the hit show Waitress.

It takes a humongous schmuck to steal not one, not two, but three ghost bikes dedicated to a Virginia woman’s sister, who calls them a powerful symbol of a life lost.

A North Carolina city legalizes riding on the sidewalk as a stopgap measure until they get a planned bike lane network installed, recognizing that their streets aren’t currently safe for people on bicycles. On the other hand, riding on the sidewalk usually isn’t any safer; in fact, it usually increases your risk due to limited sight lines.

They get it. In a New Orleans podcast, bike advocates say we’ll have peace on the road when everyone has a piece of the road; meanwhile, the host of the podcast says progress on the city’s bike network is “worth the inconvenience of adapting to it.” I like him already.

 

International

No bias here. European truck drivers say they’ll give bike riders a safe passing distance as long as we’re required to wear hi-vis and and use daytime lights.

The family of a fallen London bike rider call for safer streets after the pioneering physician was fatally doored last September.

WTF? A local UK council gets an injunction preventing bike riders from meeting or congregating at a new cycling café. Which raises the obvious question of what exactly is the point of a cycling café if cyclists can’t use it. And if you bump into someone there who also rides a bike, does one of you have to leave?

The former Posh Spice is one of us, as she goes for a bike ride on a romantic Italian getaway with husband David Beckham and their four kids.

Travel and Leisure says the best way to see the scenic Swiss countryside is by bicycle, even if you’re a beginning rider.

A Luxembourg website lists the most common traffic violations for the country’s bicyclists, while noting that bike riders were only held accountable for 40% of bike crashes. The question is how many drivers were ticketed for the same crashes.

News reports question whether the president of Turkmenistan is suffering from a serious illness — or worse — despite recent news clips showing him riding and participating in other activities, which could have been outtakes from previous clips.

 

Competitive Cycling

Underscoring the danger pro cyclists face on a daily basis, the director of the Tour de Pologne, aka Tour of Poland, blames the tragic death of 22-year old Belgian cyclist Bjorg Lambrecht on a single “moment of hesitation.”

Yesterday’s stage of the Tour of Poland was transformed to a solemn memorial procession with the peloton riding in Lambrecht’s honor.

A writer for Cycling Weekly recalls the pivotal role Lambrecht played in an extraordinary day of racing at a U-23 race trough the Pyrenees.

Cycling Tips questions how long on-and-off road cycling champ Mathieu van der Poel can keep up his torrid pace.

Who says women can’t compete with the men? Twenty-four-year old German cancer researcher Fiona Kolbinger became the first woman to win the European Transcontinental Race, covering 2,485 miles across the continent in just 10 days, two hours and 48 minutes to beat 265 other riders. And it was her first bike race.

Finally…

This is what you might call an epic bike lane fail. Take your pooch on a Jump bike ride.

And we’ll just end on this one without comment.

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

Morning Links: Phil Gaimon pens his own obituary, balance bike parking, and Bike the Vote endorsements

September 27, 2018 / / One comment

Take a few moments, right now, and read this hard-hitting piece from Phil Gaimon, who narrowly avoided being turned into road kill by a salmon driver speeding around a curve on the wrong side of the road.

Just like the squirrel he passed several minutes later after he composed himself.

Of course, the squirrel did dart into traffic and he’ll get no mention in the local paper, but if I’d shared his fate I expect that would be the headline for me. I’ve made peace with the fact that this probably is how I’ll die someday and I’m choosing to still do it, but I’d like to set the record straight here. When I die on my bicycle, I didn’t do anything erratic and I didn’t make a mistake. I’m an expert at bike riding, I did it for a living among the best in the world for years, and in my retirement I ride cautiously because I had enough broken bones when it was my job. When I die it’s because of some asshole not paying attention, speeding, texting, or both, on roads where there’s no infrastructure or room for error, and most likely there won’t be much of a punishment. I’m dead, so at least they can get the story right.

I’ve long thought the same thing as Phil Gaimon describes.

Odds are, when I finally meet my maker — which hopefully will be a very long time from now — it will happen on a bike.

Not because bicycling is dangerous, but because I’ve spent far more time on my bike than I have doing anything else. And plan to continue as long as I’m able to remain upright and turn a pedal.

But now that I live it Hollywood, it seems even more likely, thanks to streets filled with aggressive and distracted drivers. Along with a near total lack of bike lanes, protected or otherwise.

And no, sharrows don’t count.

Like Gaimon, I fully expect to be blamed if that ever happens.

And like Gaimon, it won’t be true.

That’s why I use a bike cam when I ride, so I’ll have proof I didn’t run a red light or stop sign, or suddenly suicide swerve out in front of traffic.

It’s cold comfort.

But to will have to do until Los Angeles finally gets serious about Vision Zero.

And finally commits to building the bike plan its already committed to.

………

On a happier note, this tweet gave me the biggest smile I’ve had in weeks.

Thanks to Keith Johnson for the heads-up.

………

Get ready to bike the vote this November, as Calbike offers its endorsements in the coming election.

Interesting to note that all but one of the legislative candidates they endorse supports using clean transportation financial incentives for bike purchases.

Which translates to giving rebate to encourage people to buy bicycles, ebikes or otherwise. And actually use them to replace car trips.

Meanwhile, Bike the Vote LA has released their own voter guide for the LA area. Nice to see my own Assembly Member made the list.

………

Local

A new study ranks the 20 most congested cities in the US; for a change, Los Angeles wasn’t at the top of the list. In fact, LA ranked seventh, behind Chicago and ahead of Seattle.

It’s a busy bike weekend in DTLA this week, with CicLAvia rolling on Sunday, and the Bike! Bike! conference Thursday through Sunday at Los Angeles State Historic Park; Bike! Bike! is intended to bring bike owners, bicycle shops and bike groups together to “workshop new ideas and methods to advocate for urban bicyclists.”

Community stakeholders conducted a “slow jam” on Temple Street, where limited safety improvements are underway after Councilmembers Gil Cedillo and Mitch O’Farrell combined to kill a desperately needed road diet on the dangerous street. Although the improvements might help people on foot, it’s not a Complete Street unless it safely accommodates people on two wheels, as well.

Streetsblog visits the new purple curb extensions on the Pico Blvd Great Streets project. But how great can it really be without bike lanes?

CiclaValley races his wife from Westwood to the San Fernando Valley, pitting bike against car. You can guess who won.

Santa Clarita City Councilmember Cameron Smyth explains why you should ride in the city, and explains how Santa Clarita’s Heads-Up traffic safety campaign applies to people on bicycles.

 

State

Unsafe routes to schools. A mother and her eight-year old son were lucky to escape with minor injuries when a turning driver struck their tandem bike while they were riding to school. Police said the driver couldn’t see because he had the sun in his eyes, which makes it okay, right?

The Ventura County Star says it’s time to stop the madness, and do what you can to clean the air by car-pooling, taking the bus, walking or riding a bike.

San Francisco’s new mayor called on the city to speed up Vision Zero safety improvements for bicyclists and pedestrians. It would be nice if LA’s mayor would say the same thing. But don’t hold your breath.

 

National

A new AAA study shows 80% of drivers overestimate the technical capabilities of their car’s safety devices, especially the ability to detect bicyclists and pedestrians. Maybe because every other car commercial shows them doing exactly that.

Uber has announced a $10 million fund to advocate for congestion pricing and charging stations for dockless ebikes near transit stations.

Bicycling offers 30 bike hacks every bicyclist should know. As long as you’re willing to put up with their annoying click-through format that only shows one item at a time.

Seattle bike commuting is down to its lowest level since 2007; just 2.8% of city residents rode to work last year, down from 3.5% the year before.

The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes goes on. An Iowa woman faces a 1st degree murder charge for stalking a man who accused her of stealing, and using her car as a weapon to intentionally run him down as he rode his bike in a parking lot, while driving under the influence.

Michigan’s new three-foot passing law goes into effect today.

A road raging Ohio lawyer lost his license to practice for a year — make that six months — after he brake checked a bike rider, and stomped the cellphone of a physician who stopped to record the incident. He also skipped out on the court hearing for the misdemeanor he ended up charged with, leading to his later arrest and conviction.

Seriously? It will now cost DC drivers who park in a bike lane three times as it does to door a bike rider under the city’s new Vision Zero laws; meanwhile, a bicyclist who hits a pedestrian crossing the street will be fined $150, but just $100 for hitting someone walking on a sidewalk.

A DC council member says the city has to do more to protect bike and scooter riders, including building protected bike lanes. Meanwhile, an advocacy site says it’s been just two days since a driver killed someone biking, walking or scooting in DC.

A Tampa FL columnist says a proposed transportation sale tax, which would reserve 12% of funds for bike and pedestrian projects, is a good start to change the city’s ranking as the nation’s most dangerous place for bike riders.

 

International

This is the cost of traffic violence. A promising young Canadian ballet student was killed in a collision on Sunday.

No bias here. A deputy mayor on Canada’s Prince Edward Island says requiring bike riders to attach a license plate to their bike or helmets would make the city friendlier to bicyclists. No, really.

A writer for London’s Evening Standard says bicycling must be made safer after decades of half-hearted attempts.

Members of an Oxford, England men’s choir will ride 100 miles to Wales to remember their roots as descendants of Welsh residents who moved to Oxford during the Great Depression.

This is who we share the roads with. A British motorcyclist records a road raging minicab driver running over his parked bike after he got off to confront the man. But the motorcycle rider was no angel, either, kicking and hitting the car after threatening to break the driver’s skull.

An American Vietnam vet with an Ivy League education gave up his life in this county to live as a hermit in Ireland, using his bicycle to get around.

 

Competitive Cycling

Cyclist examines the superstitions and rituals of the pro peloton, and concludes they might give riders a mental edge.

An 18-year old Belgian cyclist insists he’s not the next Eddy Merckx, as he prepares to make the leap from the junior ranks to the WorldTour next year.

Canada’s “starry girl cyclist” of the 1930’s is being inducted into the country’s Cycling Hall of Fame, after a riding career spent leaving fellow riders and stereotypes in her wake.

After years of misfortune, Australian time trial specialist Rohan Dennis claimed the world champ’s rainbow jersey in the event.

 

Finally…

Before you complain online about a bike riding mom and her child, make sure you’re right.

And when a cop right hooks a bike rider, it’s just a “momentary lapse in attention.”

Right.

………

Join the Militant Angeleno and BikinginLA for the first-ever Militant Angeleno’s Epic CicLAvia Tour at the Celebrate LA! LA Phil 100 CicLAvia this Sunday!

Just RSVP to MilitantAngeleno@gmail.com. We want to guarantee a relatively small group to make sure we can keep the group together, and everyone can hear.

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

Morning Links: Support injured bike rider with new T-shirt design, and new bill could end CA e-scooter helmet law

August 27, 2018 / / 3 comments

Here’s your chance to look good by helping out an injured rider.

Several months ago, a man who goes by the name of Hery reached out to me for help after he was injured by the driver of a car.

I gave him what advice I could; unfortunately, he’s still struggling, as the message below indicates.

Eight months ago while riding my bike to work I was hit by car. I woke up with wiring in my mouth and have been on disability ever since. Recently I was informed my Medi-Cal won’t be covering some medical expenses, and over these last 8 months I’ve also accumulated a lot of debt just trying to get by. So I’ve decided to design T-shirts to raise money for bills and other expenses.

This is what Hery’s bike looked like after he was injured in the crash

It’s a great looking design, and a good cause, helping someone get back on his feet after he was injured in a crash.

And it’s available on anything from T-shirts and hoodies, to stickers and coffee mugs.

………

A new bill passed by the state senate on Thursday would remove the ridiculous helmet requirement for dockless e-scooters — and the nearly $200 fines too many users have had to pay for breaking the law.

AB 2989 would also cap scooter speeds at their current 15 mph, while allowing cities to permit their use on more types of streets. Powered scooters are currently restricted to streets with bike lanes or speed limits of 25 mph or less.

The bill needs to return to the assembly before it goes to Governor Brown, where experience tells us it will face an uncertain fate.

………

Todd Munson does what I’ve often threatened to do, recording two minutes of scofflaw drivers running the stop sign near his home.

I could do the same thing at either of the intersections closest to our apartment, with the same results.

Yet so many drivers seem to get apoplectic they see bike and scooter riders doing the same things they do every day.

………

Los Angeles bike riders have to fight to get a bike corral. Riders in the the Netherlands get this, instead.

https://twitter.com/BrooklynSpoke/status/1033274492821401600

Thanks to Byron Smith for the heads-up.

………

There was a time when Bike the Vote was more than a slogan, as an academic journal site remembers when bike riders were a political block courted by the GOP. And helped deliver the vote to William McKinley in 1896.

………

Evidently, it’s not just Los Angeles.

Lincoln, Nebraska residents and bike riders support a lane reduction on major street, while a business association predicts a traffic apocalypse and calls it the first salvo in the war on cars.

In Jacksonville FL, the city wants to remove lanes from a street to improve safety, but local residents insist they like it just the way it is.

And an Edmonton, Canada letter writer says a lane reduction and two-way cycle tracks don’t make any sense, and he can’t understand why bike riders wouldn’t prefer a quieter, tree-lined street. The answer is they probably would, if it went the same places, with no stops and with signalized intersections at major streets, because bike riders need to get where they’re going just like drivers do.

………

Local

LA Magazine previews the My Figueroa Complete Streets project, which will be officially unveiled this Thursday.

Streetsblog’s Joe Linton writes that a wealthy neighborhood gets street repairs on dangerous Griffith Park Blvd where a rider was injured, while a less well off neighborhood gets signs and a recommendation from the city attorney to remove the bike lanes instead of fixing them.

Curb extensions are installed on Pico Blvd to improve safety at Hauser and Curson. Although it clearly could have been the first step to installing protected bike lanes, instead.

 

State

An Oceanside bike rider is lucky to be alive after surviving a crash with a commuter train that left him with minor injuries. Let that be yet another reminder to never try to go around crossing gates, even if it appears to be safe at the time.

The San Diego Union-Tribune asks if the city is ready to eliminate parking requirements for downtown housing.

Members of Rich City Rides rode to Oakland’s city hall to protest the arrest of founder Najari Smith for Biking While Black.

Sad news from Austria, where beloved Oakland triathlete Alistair Eeckman was killed in a crash with a bus while on a training ride, just one day after finishing sixth in the Powerman Austria; he was just 23. Thanks to Matt Stewart for the news.

 

National

Streetsblog says America’s car culture is literally shortening your life.

Your next Uber may not have a driver — or four wheels. The ride-hailing company’s new CEO sees a shift to ebikes and scooters for short trips.

A Colorado couple literally wrote the book on cycling the Great Divide, with all proceeds going to the Adventure Cycling Association.

Sioux City, Iowa, has made progress when it comes to bicycling, but still has a long way to go.

Tour de France laterne rouge Lawson Craddock returns home to a hero’s welcome at Houston’s Alkek Velodrome, after raising what could be as much as $400,000 to rebuild it following last year’s Hurricane Harvey. And announces it will be the site of USA Cycling’s new Olympic development program.

A Texarkana TX newspaper gets it, explaining that the city’s new sharrows don’t actually change anything, since bicyclists already have a legal right to ride in the traffic lane, but simply remind drivers of that fact.

Around a thousand people turned out for a bike ride to honor a Milwaukee bicycling icon who founded a chain of bike shops and created bike paths across the US.

I want to be like him when I grow up. A Minnesota man rides his age to celebrate his 90th birthday, breaking it up into six 15 mile rides.

A Tennessee family has developed a device to fit on the handlebar ends on kids bikes, that will hopefully prevent puncture injuries that aren’t as rare as they seem. Something like that should be required for every kid’s bike sold; every year, several children are seriously injured or killed by worn bike parts.

Streetsblog says a single double-parked truck can undermine everything the New York Department of Transportation does to keep streets safe for cyclists and pedestrians, because it all falls apart without enforcement.

A DC bike advocate says our streets don’t have to make us unhappy.

A Florida singletrack rider rescued a baby raccoon by putting him in his backpack, and riding him to safety before the coyotes could get him. It may be cute, but most experts recommend against trying to rescue seemingly abandoned animals; chances are, the mother is hiding somewhere nearby.

 

International

Ottawa bike riders are taking to social media to try to track down their stolen bicycles.

Now that’s a close call. An Ottawa bike rider decides he needs to buy some lights after a driver makes a left turn directly in front of him in the dim twilight. Which he should have had long before this ever happened.

Speaking of close calls, a British bike rider was nearly sideswiped by a trailer pulled by a van in a near-miss caught on bike cam.

Pamplona has running with the bulls; Birmingham, England has wheelie-popping teens riding with the buses.

Tour de France winner Geraint Thomas says bike helmets should be made mandatory in the UK, adding “I’ve put on a helmet more times than I’ve buckled a seatbelt.” Then tries to walk it back the next day.

A New Zealand Op-Ed says there’s no need for a war between bicyclists and motorists; just slow traffic and build some decent infrastructure.

 

Competitive Cycling

A reminder of the dangers of amateur racing, as 30 riders went down in a mass crash in a Wisconsin race, sending four people to the  hospital, and leaving a number of others with minor injuries.

Three years ago, Staci Nash was a two-time NCAA Division II track champ — the running kind, not cycling. Today, she’s a two-time national mountain biking champ.

Ritchie Porte says I beg your pardon, I never promised you I was going for the general classification in the Vuelta.

Speaking of the Vuelta, Deadspin calls it the strangest, hardest stage race of the cycling season, and predicts this year’s race will kick ass. Meanwhile, Cycling News says it’s the last chance for ten riders.

Great long read from Peter Flax, who recounts the strange happenings 70 years ago as two legendary racers faced off in the 1948 world championships, which neither one won.

 

Finally…

Sometimes riding down a freeway in rush hour traffic calls for nothing more than a g-string. Yes, you can still take a Sunday drive — as long as it’s on a bike.

And when you hear hoofbeats, stop and say hi.

 

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

Morning Links: Early signs of bike life in Hollywood, and protected bike lanes could be coming to Lankershim in 2017

December 6, 2016 / / 2 comments

Maybe things are finally starting to happen around here.

A walk down Sunset Boulevard over the weekend confirmed that Hollywood is the city’s second district where bicyclists are allowed to lock their bikes to specific parking meters where racks have been attached; Westwood Village was the first.

SAMSUNG

Racks are spaced one per block

Hopefully it will soon spread to other parts of the city, where it is still illegal to lock a bike to a parking meter, though the law is seldom enforced.

And work is ongoing to open the long promised Bike Hub in the W Hotel at Hollywood and Vine, just around the corner from the Red Line Metro Station. Although with just 72 secure bike parking spaces, demand could quickly outstrip supply.

SAMSUNG

Now if they could just do something about providing people with safe places to ride their bikes, as called for in the hard-fought 2010 bike plan, now part of the LA Mobility Plan 2035. Virtually none of which exist today.

screen-shot-2016-12-06-at-12-40-33-am

And which will be desperately needed when bikeshare comes to Hollywood in a few years, as promised.

Unless maybe those are just pretty lines on a map, and more of the empty promises we’ve long been used to.

……….

Meanwhile, Streetsblog’s Joe Linton reports North Hollywood’s Lankershim Blvd could finally be getting protected bike lanes next year, after they had previously been blocked by former councilmember Tom LaBonge.

He also says plans are underway for a protected bike lane on Chandler Blvd, which could result in the city’s first protected intersection where they meet.

Welcome to Day 7 of the 2nd Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive! Donate today, and help keep SoCal’s best source for bike news and advocacy coming your way every day.

Donate to the 2nd Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive today to keep Southern California’s best source for bike news and advocacy coming your way bright and early every morning.

………

Nothing suspicious here. An Italian Strava king is looking to turn pro at 38, an age at which most pros have long since retired; his father is a notorious dope doctor associated with a number of banned cyclists.

USA Cycling wants you to buy a license to participate in Gran Fondos and gravel rides. But at least they’ll come fix your flats if you do.

………

Local

The LA County Sheriff’s Department gets a $1.9 million grant to reduce traffic fatalities, including a six-year rise in bike and pedestrian fatalities in the state.

Los Cerritos News proclaims itself LA’s best investigative newspaper, but apparently can’t be bothered to investigate which streets recently received $89,900 in bikeway improvements.

CiclaValley posts his favorite video of the year, as he catches up to a father and his young daughter bombing down Nichols Canyon at 30 mph on an ebike.

Ryan Seacrest is one of us, going for a ride on the beachfront bike path through Venice Beach with his apparent past and future girlfriend.

Former Criminal Minds star Shemar Moore is one of us too, as he describes what he calls the worst day of his life, when he suffered a broken leg after he was hit by a car while riding his bike in LA seven years ago.

 

State

Orange Coast College bike groups are distributing coupons on campus for free U-locks, after raising $1,000 for 42 locks.

San Diego police are looking for a hit-and-run driver who fled after striking a bicyclist near Mission Bay Park.

Community members in San Francisco discuss whether to ban cars from Golden Gate Park.

Marin hikers and pedestrians worry that approving access for mountain bikers on a short connecting trail will make it unsafe for everyone else.

A Sacramento man loses 75 pounds after buying an $800 dollar bike.

Great idea. The Davis Bike Club fights bike theft by giving out free Tile GPS-tracking anti-theft devices.

 

National

Bicycling interviews the founder of Portland’s first transgender cycling club.

An Iowa mountain bike group is building a 2.3 mile “roller coaster” off-road trail through 20 acres of wooded hills.

A Texas driver walks after playing the universal Get Out of Jail Free card when police determine the sun was in her eyes when she killed a state cyclocross champion.

A 68-year old Wisconsin man rides 1,900 miles across the US to his winter home in Texas, raising $6,000 for a local school along the way.

A Philly website offers advice on winter riding, which oddly doesn’t include moving to Los Angeles.

A Yonkers NY bike rider receives a $625,000 settlement after he was knocked off his bike by a speed bump.

New York’s Citi Bike bikeshare system is under pressure to expand into less affluent areas.

This is why people keep dying on our streets. A Virginia driver won’t spend a day in jail, despite being convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the death of a bike-riding college student — and despite a number of previous violations, including two hit-and-run charges.

 

International

London’s mayor proposes investing £770 million — the equivalent of nearly one billion dollars — in new bicycling initiatives to make cycling a “safe and obvious choice” for residents of the city; that works out to an impressive 5.5% of transportation spending.

A British coroner blames a bike rider for causing her own death by wearing headphones; never mind the big scary truck that may have frightened her into falling off her bike, even if it didn’t hit her.

A group of Brit cyclists ride the full length of Britain, covering over 1,000 miles in just six days.

The train station in a Norwegian commuter town now has a 400 space bike hotel, allowing people to securely drop off their bikes while they’re away at work.

Iraqi women defy cultural expectations by getting out on their bicycles, flooding Bagdad streets in response to a social media campaign.

A DHL delivery truck took out five Aussie cyclists over the weekend, fortunately, just two of the riders were seriously injured

There’s a special place in hell for whoever stole a customized bicycle and a prosthetic arm attachment from an Aussie amputee.

Caught on video: An out-of-control Chinese truck smashes through traffic at a red light, mowing down everything in its path, including people on bikes, before blowing up in a burst of flames. Warning, this one may be particularly hard to watch.

A Singapore bicyclist received a $8.65 million settlement for PTSD caused when she was struck by a bundle of cables at a construction site.

 

Finally…

A little dehydration could make you a better climber. And don’t call 911 when you can’t unlock your bike — even if they do respond with sirens blaring.

………

Special thanks to Steve Herbert for his generous contribution to the BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive. Donate today to help keep SoCal’s leading source for the freshest bike news and advocacy coming your way every morning.

 

Category: Morning Links, Streets and Infrastructure / Tags: , , , , ,

Morning Links: Adventures in crappy bike parking, and a plethora of open streets events coming your way

May 3, 2016 / / 2 comments

We already have five shiny new members of the LACBC on just the first full day of the first ever BikinginLA LACBC Membership drive. Which means there’s only 95 more to go to reach our goal of 100 new or renewing members by the end of this month.

So stop what you’re doing, and click on this link to join Southern California’s leading bicycle advocacy organization, and help make LA County a better place to ride a bike for all of us.

Not to mention you’ll get some great bike swag while you’re at it.

And a special thank you to those who have already joined. Or are about to.

………

Thanks for the effort, but seriously.

Few things are more important to encouraging bike riding than finding a safe place to park your bike once you get where you’re going.

And few things are so often neglected.

As much as I’d like to, I won’t ride my bike to my doctor’s office because the only bike parking to be found in a several block radius is an old wheelbender rack hidden deep within the parking garage, where a thief would have time to pitch a tent as he leisurely sawed through my lock.

So I drive the three and a half miles, in as much time and with far more aggravation than it would take me to ride it.

I’m reminded of that because David Butler-Cole sent a photo of a series of relatively flimsy staple racks in the underground parking garage at the Target at Santa Monica and La Brea in West Hollywood. Which not only are hidden away where no one is likely to use them, but have clearly been converted to shopping cart parking.

bike parking

Then again, at least a developer a little further down La Brea had his heart in the right place.

In preparing a retail space on the trendy boutique-lined corridor for rent, they apparently considered the current boom in bicycling, as well as studies showing bike riders spend more at retail establishments over the long run than motorists do, while taking up far less space.

And so, invested in a trio of brand new staple racks before the unit is even occupied.

Unfortunately, they located them so close to the storefront that they’re virtually useless to any cyclists over the age of five.

La Brea bike racks 2

But I’m sure we all appreciate the gesture.

Right?

………

Today’s common theme is open streets.

Streetsblog’s Joe Linton recaps Sunday’s sparsely attended open streets event in Downey, calling it a great event overall.

The San Gabriel Valley Tribune examines next month’s massive 626 Golden Streets, an 18-mile ciclovía winding through seven SGV cities.

Yet another event in the San Gabriel Valley, as El Monte and South El Monte team up to host their own event on Sunday, June12th.

Of course, let’s not forget the granddaddy of them all, as CicLAvia visits LA’s Southeast Cities in less than two weeks.

And while it may not be an open streets event, Monrovia’s bike friendly music and beer-filled festival on the same day doesn’t sound bad, either.

MDMF FLYER

………

Local

TV’s Inside Edition puts a GPS device in a $2,500 bait bike borrowed from Helen’s to see how long it would take someone to steal it. Short answer: not very.

The Eastsider says the removal of flood control barriers on the LA River bike path will take several weeks. And even then, only the west side of the river along Griffith Park will be cleared. Barriers will remain on the east side of the river and only be cleared enough to allow access to an equestrian crossing and pedestrian bridge, apparently leaving the bike path closed indefinitely.

CiclaValley offers a jam-packed calendar of Bike Month events, two of which we’ve already missed. Although he somehow neglected to include the BikinginLA LACBC Membership Drive; just an oversight, I’m sure, especially since I neglected to tell him about it.

Speaking of the LACBC, they talk with Valley bike rider Erika Moreno as part of a new Bike Month series profiling people from around LA County.

The Echo Park Improvement Association will host a panel discussion this Thursday on Bicycling in LA “from the multiheaded bike god transforming civic politics in LA;” the speaker list reads like a who’s who of LA urban bike advocacy.

Santa Clarita is challenging businesses to get their employees to ride to work on Bike to Work Day on the 19th; the city is also looking for volunteers to help out at the finish of Stage 2 of the Amgen Tour of California on the 16th.

 

State

Over 400 Southern California police officers will ride in this year’s three-day, 280 mile Police Unity Tour to remember fallen law enforcement personnel. If any SoCal officers sill need to raise funds, send me a link to your fundraising page and I’ll give you a shoutout.

Writing for the Examiner, Edward Rubinstein says the Amgen Tour of California is coming, so batten down the hatches and prepare for severe weather.

The Times looks at the recent PCH safety study calling for significant improvements for the 37-mile segment of highway through Orange County. And it touches on the real problem; as long as we approach the highway from a city by city basis, rather than improving safety on the entire 37 miles, it will continue to be dangerous and dysfunctional.

Nearly 1,300 Orange County mountain bikers took part in the 50-mile offroad Ride for Rwanda to raise money to buy transportation bikes for people in Africa.

The Dana Point Times offers a look at last weekend’s Gran Prix.

Palm Desert provides a pop-up to show what San Pablo Ave could look like as a Complete Street.

Streetsblog’s Damien Newton talks Bike Month with Tony Molina of the Fresno County Bicycle Coalition. Meanwhile, a Fresno man lost 40 pounds after he took up bicycling, and reversed his Type 2 diabetes in the process.

A driver who commutes into San Francisco calls it the car-hating capital of the Bay Area, and says cyclists on busy streets are either road hazards or have a death wish. Although “very few” is not the right answer to his question of whether there are restrictions on what streets cyclists can ride; the correct answer is bikes are allowed on any public streets where motor vehicles are allowed, with the exception of limited access highways where there are alternate riding routes.

 

National

Bicycling Magazine wants to know how much you know about riding uphill.

Bike Portland looks at a new ad for Stromer ebikes, which uses the time-tested car ad model to sell a far greener form of transportation.

My hometown paper talks with local mountain biker Georgia Gould, who took bronze in the 2012 Olympics.

Forget riding to work; Providence RI will celebrate bike week with the H.P. Lovecraft-themed Tour de Tentacle. Cthulhu would undoubtedly approve.

Long Island cyclists call on the NYPD to start enforcing laws against blocking bike lanes, which motorists seem to do with impunity.

Pennsylvania cyclists will soon get a new 14-foot wide bike and pedestrian bridge over the Schuylkill River.

Once again, a bicyclist has been killed while riding on I-10, this time 1,900 miles away in New Orleans.

 

International

David Wolfberg sends word that the British Library is now posting one million copyright-free images online, including a treasure trove of classic bicycling images.

If current trends continue, bike commuters will outnumber car commuters in central London in just two more years.

A British charity ride has raised nearly $1.5 million to support over 14,000 Palestinian families.

A UK mountain biker wants to find the Good Samaritan who stayed with him and looked after his sons when he broke his neck in three places after a jump went bad.

A Glascow writer says she wants to cycle without being a cyclist. Which is sort of like saying you want to drive a car without being a driver.

Tel Aviv cyclists just got banned from the sidewalk, especially anyone on an ebike.

Singapore will now require developers to submit plans considering safety, convenience and accessibility for pedestrians and cyclists in any new development design.

 

Finally…

Evidently, the NYPD is now offering a flat repair service, not that that’s a bad thing. You may not be able to afford a titanium frame, but at least you can have a ti bike lock.

And when you’re carrying a loaded flare gun in your waistband, don’t ride on the damn sidewalk, let alone with no regard for pedestrians.

And hope like hell it doesn’t accidentally go off.

 

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

Morning Links: Hollywood bike parking becomes a homeless site; a blogger argues bike lane air is bad for LA kids

June 7, 2015 / / 5 comments

Blocked bike lanes are bad enough.

Now BAC Vice Chair Glenn Bailey sends a photo showing that even if you manage to get where you’re going, there may be nowhere to park your bike once you get there.

Even if there are bike racks in front.

Hollywood Library Bicycle Racks

Yes, everyone has to be somewhere. And I have genuine sympathy for anyone forced to live on the streets, for whatever reason.

But city officials wouldn’t permit anyone to pile up their belongings in the street if it meant no one could park there. And they shouldn’t tolerate anyone blocking all the bike parking, either.

Maybe we need a new law to prohibit anyone from blocking bike racks in such a way that bicycles can’t use them.

But then we’d have to find someone willing to enforce it.

……..

A blogger concludes that protected bike lanes don’t belong on major LA streets because it’s unsafe for children to breath the air there.

Never mind that the overwhelming majority of riders using major arteries will be adult bike commuters, or that children aren’t likely to be on them long enough to have any significant impact on their health.

The beauty of the 2010 LA bike plan, which has been subsumed into the Mobility Plan currently nearing adoption by the city, is that it was designed with bike-friendly streets on quiet neighborhood byways ideal for children and families, as well as bike lanes on major streets for bike commuters and shoppers.

Yes, all our bikeways should be safe for anyone of any age.

But arguing against bike lanes on major arteries because breathing the air is unsafe for kids is just a straw man for someone who doesn’t want bike lanes taking up space his car could be using.

And never mind that the air inside their parents’ car could be worse than the air outside it.

……..

Bradley Wiggins did it, smashing the hour record on Sunday. He beat the existing record, set just last month, by six laps, or just under a mile. And after setting the record, he still had enough strength left to lift his bike over his head in celebration.

Although I wonder if anyone inspected his bike to make sure he didn’t have a hidden motor on it.

……..

Local

Mind your Ps and Qs in SaMo this week, as the SMPD conducts another Bike & Pedestrian Safety Enforcement Operation today, as well as on Wednesday and Friday.

A bike rider was injured in an apparent collision on PCH in Malibu Saturday afternoon. Thanks to Jeffrey for the heads-up.

Long Beach successfully celebrates its first ciclovía. Although Metro, which sponsored the event, somehow decided that was the perfect day to do maintenance work on the Blue Line leading to it.

The man who supervised the design of Long Beach’s beachfront bike path has passed away at 86.

 

State

San Diego’s Hillcrest neighborhood is getting protected bike lanes over the objections of some local business owners. Except where they’re needed most, of course.

A Bay Area driver drips with sarcasm after observing a bike rider stop at a stop sign. Anyone who says they’ve never seen a cyclist stop at a stop sign isn’t paying attention.

A 23-year old San Francisco cyclist was killed in a collision with a police car; he was on his way home from a bike polo match.

Napa officials are wisely following the route bike riders and pedestrians already take, and building a pathway there under a major highway.

Firefighters rescue a bike rider after she apparently rode off a trail into a Modesto canal; she’s in critical condition after being unresponsive for 40 minutes.

Sacramento residents raise nearly $11,000 for a popular chef who was left for dead by a hit-and-run driver while riding home from his restaurant. And they’re not done.

 

National

A bike rider in my hometown is dead after a driver apparently fell asleep behind the wheel, then woke up to see a truck pulling a boat in front of him. So naturally, he swerved into the bike lane and hit the cyclist, instead.

A Wisconsin driver faces a negligent homicide charge for somehow killing two cyclists, even though they were riding on the shoulder of the roadway separated by rumble strips.

Chicago has opened an elevated rail-to-trail bike and pedestrian parkway similar to New York’s popular High Line park.

A former men’s Iron Man champ returns to competition in Missouri. But this time as a woman, two years after her sex reassignment surgery.

Due to a quirk in the law, a Kentucky driver was allowed behind the wheel despite nine — yes, nine — previous DUIs; he now faces a murder charge for killing a cyclist while allegedly driving drunk yet again. Drunk driving should have a lifetime limit of two strikes and you’re out; a third offense should land the driver behind bars. Period.

It turns out that three-foot passing laws aren’t unenforceable after all, as Chattanooga police develop an ultrasound device that measures exactly how close a car comes to a bike.

In what may be the smartest cross-country tour yet, a group of Harvard and MIT students are riding across the US to get kids interested in science.

New York’s Citi Bikes are getting a makeover, courtesy of famed bike maker Ben Serotta.

Homes near Atlanta bikeways are becoming prime real estate.

A professor at Louisiana State University was killed as she walked her bike after it broke down.

 

International

Good news for Wolfpack Hustle, as bike racing’s governing body stops punishing pro racers who participate in unsanctioned events.

A Vancouver cyclist is looking for the Good Samaritan driver who pulled her out of traffic after a solo fall knocked her out.

Turns out that London’s bicycle superhighways almost didn’t happen. So maybe there’s hope for us yet.

A Brit non-profit is getting people on bikes by selling recycled bicycles.

Bicycling is under attack Down Under, as an anti-bike government minister forces the removal of a busy protected bike lane in Sydney, apparently because it replaced on-street parking five years before.

A Kiwi cyclist survives being dragged over 60 feet and trapped under an SUV.

 

Finally…

A Brit Bedlington Terrier rides a tricycle, even if he can’t pedal. Don’t buy your next bike, just print it. And a forlorn Irish rider writes a love letter to his stolen bike.

……..

Thanks for a generous donation to help support this site from a donor who wishes to remain anonymous. 

Category: Morning Links, Streets and Infrastructure / Tags: , , , , ,

Morning Links: Bike parking loses to BBQ in Sunnyvale, bike rider shot in Carson, and more bike giveaways

December 29, 2014 / / 3 comments

Evidently, blocked bike racks aren’t just an LA problem.

Ralph Durham forwards this photo of a Sunnyvale Lowe’s store, where bike parking clearly takes a back seat to barbecue.

Sunnyvale-blocked-bike-racks

……..

‘Tis the season.

An annual memorial bike drive in Lompoc distributes 95 bikes to local children. And an Atlanta non-profit gives 20 bikes to kids despite being robbed of $5,000 worth of equipment and office supplies two days earlier.

……..

Local

In yet another waste of human life, a 27-year old man was shot to death in Carson, apparently while riding his bike.

LA riders usually don’t have to worry about dressing for cold weather, but we may want to rethink that this week.

The New York Times belatedly recognizes that it’s possible to tour LA on two feet; now if we could just get them to admit the same about two-wheeled tourists.

 

State

A 60-year old bike rider suffers life-threatening head injuries in a solo fall in San Diego’s Mira Mesa neighborhood. He reportedly wasn’t wearing a bike helmet; falls like that are exactly what helmets are designed to protect against.

Rancho Cucamonga cyclists will enjoy new bike lanes when the extension of Wilson Ave is complete in May.

Santa Cruz police are looking for the driver of a white pickup who fled the scene after killing a cyclist on Friday.

A Livermore cyclist lost his life in a horrifying wreck when he swerved to avoid a collision between two riders in a group ride, fell onto the wrong side of the road and was hit by a truck; the victim was about to take over as principal of a Napa high school.

 

National

South Dakota attempts to improve safety for motorists by making the state’s roads more dangerous for bike riders.

A Rhode Island man rides 8,000 miles through 48 states on a $100 bike. Which begs the question, what about the other two?

A Baltimore cyclist is killed in a hit-and-run on one of the city’s best bike lanes; the driver turns out to be an Episcopal bishop, who reportedly was arrested on drinking, driving and drug charges in 2010.

 

International

A UK cyclist completes a 2,000 mile fundraising journey to Spain — despite breaking his shoulder on the third day of the ride.

A British man runs home to get his bike and catches a mugger who robbed a tourist on Christmas Day.

An Amsterdam cyclist is wanted by police for assaulting a bus driver who he says threatened his girlfriend with his bus.

Russia’s crashing ruble could undermine the Tinkoff-Saxo pro cycling team.

Instead of taming dangerous traffic, Dubai police urge cyclists to stay off major roads. And sidewalks.

Abu Dhabi wants to be bike friendly by 2020.

Bangkok authorities open a new five mile bikeway as a New Years gift for the people.

 

Finally…

Dealing with LA drivers is bad enough; cyclists in the other LA are dodging bullets from illegal hunters in Baton Rouge parks. Caught on video: A drunk attempts to ride a bike suspended outside a bike shop, with predictable results.

And an arrest is finally made in the theft of a Miami mailman’s postal bike last March. Yes, they deliver mail by bike in Miami Beach.

……..

Just a quick heads-up. I’ll be moving to a new apartment at the end of this week, so my apologies in advance if I’m not able to keep up with regular posting this week. We’ll get back to a regular schedule once everything gets unpacked and things settle down.

 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , ,
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