Okay, I screwed up this time.
In the words that follow, I called in BikeLA, the former Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, to step up and help this writer for the Fullerton Observer, and other bicyclists in the area, with their campaign in support of plans for a lane reduction on Associated Road.
In my mind, I mistakenly placed Fullerton in the tangle of cities in Southeast Los Angeles County.
It’s not, of course.
Fullerton is in Northern Orange County, on the other side of Buena Park. Which I should know, having written about the city several times — let alone being there more than once.
I stand by my call for BikeLA to step up and resume its role as LA County’s leading bicycle advocacy organization. But any criticism, real or implied, for not taking a direct role in Fullerton is off base, and I apologize.
He gets it.
A writer for the Fullerton Observer calls for improving safety on Associated Road by removing two traffic lanes between Bastanchury and Imperial, allowing for wider bike lanes and several feet of painted buffering.
But warns it’s not likely to happen without wide support, particularly from the city’s bicycling community.
Only property owners on Associated Road received notice of the meetings on this issue. Almost all were opposed to the project, primarily to the parking and the fear that it would result in homeless and student parking. Two Councilmembers supported the opponents, while Councilmember Charles opposed the parking but supported the lane removal. Mayor Jung did not speak directly to the issue, but at a later meeting, in response to some comments that decisions seemed to have been made behind closed doors, he stated that it would come back for a vote.
That is yet to happen. Thus the issue remains open. In the meantime, staff has stopped working on this proposal. Since it involves only paint and the road re-construction is going forward from now until November 20, time remains to determine the ultimate lane configuration.
He goes on to call for people to sign a petition supporting the lane reduction, which doesn’t even have 40 supporters as of this writing.
And ends with this.
The Council majority would prefer to see this go away, even though there is no shortage of bicycle riders in Fullerton. Over 1000 turned out for a July 4 ride on Wilshire. Not so many readily turn out for Council meetings, contact their members, or sign petitions. Nor is there an active bicycle or road safety advocacy group in Fullerton at the moment.
If you wish to weigh in on this proposal (pro or con), you can contact the Council at Councilmembers@cityoffullerton.com, Or you can show up for public comments at Council meetings on the 1st and 3rd Tuesday of each month at 5:30.
It has long been a problem, not just in Fullerton, but throughout LA County to get the bicycling community involved with their local government, and to stand up en masse to demand safer streets.
For nearly two decades, the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, now rebranded as BikeLA, led the fight, often working behind the scenes with government leaders, but able to marshal a significant turnout at council meetings when needed.
But now they’re needed — desperately — in Fullerton, and elsewhere throughout LA County.
As a former board member of the organization, I’ve withheld any criticism for some time now — especially knowing the dire straights the previous Executive Director left them in when he left the group at the brink of financial disaster after leaving the country.
I know the current board and leadership of BikeLA have worked hard to bring the organization back to health, financially and otherwise.
But it’s time they got back into the fight.
They have long since been supplanted as the county’s primary voice for bicycle advocacy by groups like Active SGV, SAFE and Streets For All.
Yes, some chapters of BikeLA have continued to be active in their local communities over the past few years.
But those chapters, and individual members, need to light a fire under the the current leadership, and urge them to once again step forward to lead the fight for bicycle access and safer streets.
And become, once again, the advocacy organization we all need them to be.
Because Fullerton is literally crying out for help.
And the rest of us aren’t far behind.
Photo from Pexels.
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This is what California could have, if it ever rolls out its long-delayed, vastly underfunded ebike rebate program.
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Arleigh Greenwald, better known as Bike Shop Girl, offers a Twitter thread with tips on buying your first cargo bike.
Although you’ll have to click through to read it, and may not be able to if you don’t have a Twitter account, since Elon keep changing the damn site rules every five minutes, along with the name.
Cargo bikes are a great investment to help replace car trips with bike trips.
Not sure where to start with your first #CargoBike?
Here are some of my key tips after being in the cargo bike industry for over 15 years 👇🏼 pic.twitter.com/53WWMuOEav
— Arleigh Greenwald (@bikeshopgirlcom) July 25, 2023
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
The US Army Corps of Engineers is closing a popular lakefront roadway near Fort Worth, Texas to bike riders and pedestrians, citing “hundreds” of safety incidents over the past three months. Because evidently, people are much safer with cars zooming by than people walking or riding bikes.
No bias here. A Cambridge, Massachusetts city council candidate says she won’t sign a pledge to keep building bike lanes, because some people can’t ride a bike, and even people who ride bikes sometimes drive cars.
Police in England are looking for the person who pushed a man off his bike and into a river; the victim was okay, but his bike was lost in the water.
Sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
A Virginia man faces charges after he allegedly crashed his bike into a car, then fired a shot at the driver. Seriously, violence — especially gun violence — is never the answer, though I suspect there may be some dispute over just who hit who.
A Singapore bike rider is looking for the man who somehow took offense to being passed on his bike, catching up to him outside a store and repeatedly kicking his bike and wheels while swearing at him, until police broke up the confrontation — but evidently let the attacker go.
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Local
Apparently, Metro finally figured out they can waste all the money they want on widening the 605, without having to tear down people’s homes in Latino working class neighborhoods in Downey and Santa Fe Springs after all.
A Streetsblog op-ed from Streets for All’s Michael Schneider and Eli Lipmen of Move LA says it’s time to go bold, and finally make bikeshare a core Metro mobility service instead of an afterthought.
Bizarre attack in Pasadena, where a man pushing a bicycle walked up to another man at a bus stop, pushed the tip of a machete against his abdomen, then slashed a four-inch gash in the man’s leg, before gathering his bike and walking off, all without a single word.
State
Police in Huntington Beach are jumping on the ebike crackdown bandwagon, warning, ticketing and/or arresting those who “mis-use” ebikes, while warning that riding over-powered ebikes under the influence could lead to a DUI. Thanks to Oceanside bike lawyer and BikinginLA sponsor Richard Duquette for the heads-up.
A man in his 60s was lucky to apparently escape with minor injuries when he was the victim of a hit-and-run driver while riding his bike in Chula Vista late Monday morning.
San Diego’s SDNews says ebikes are popular and convenient, but also pose dangers, citing battery fires and speeds up to 28 mph — but fails to mention that you can achieve that relatively easily on a good road bike, too. And without the risk it will burst into flames.
A lithium-ion ebike battery is blamed for setting an apartment on fire in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district.
National
A group of 15 Portland bike riders are suing the city for failing to comply with a 52-year old state law requiring cities to build cycling and pedestrian infrastructure whenever a road is reconstructed. Too bad we don’t have something like that on the books here in California. Because there are a lot of cities that need to have the hell sued out of them, starting with a certain SoCal megalopolis I could name.
This is who we share the road with. A New Mexico woman faces vehicular homicide, DUI, hit-and-run and child abuse charges for fleeing the scene after driving against traffic, hitting a parked car and killing a 70-year old man riding a bicycle, all with her three-year old son in the car.
A Houston TV station reports on a local group using mountain bikes to help teens and their families dealing with addiction and other self-destructive behaviors.
Police in Minneapolis are warning about new bike theft tactics, as thieves are using super glue to jam bike locks so they can’t be opened, then coming back later and cutting the locks. I’ve been told by LAPD officers that’s being used here, too.
A Kentucky man will spend the next ten years behind bars after copping a plea to the hit-and-run death of a bike-riding mother, claiming he somehow didn’t see her despite the flashing lights on her bike, and the man’s she was riding with.
The shameful scourge of sharrows continues to spread, despite studies showing they increase the risk for bike riders, now leaving their dangerous road markings on the streets of Plattsburgh in upstate New York.
Lyft is considering selling off New York’s highly successful Citi Bike bikeshare due to mounting financial problems at the company. Meanwhile, Curbed questions why Citi Bike’s ebikes are always broken, concluding the problem is likely the bikes themselves. Or maybe a financially strapped company is just cutting corners.
The rich get richer, as NYC’s public realm officer, aka “czar of public spaces,” is building on the city’s recent biking and pedestrian successes by ramping up projects to benefit both.
A 45-year old Pennsylvania man was sentenced to a well-deserved five to ten years behind bars after pleading guilty to the drunken, stoned crash that killed a bike-riding bank manager exactly 1,392 days earlier.
A West Virginia man faces charges of attempted murder, malicious wounding, wanton endangerment, and presentation of a firearm in the commission of a felony for jumping down off his trunk and shooting a passing bike rider in the arm, after screaming at him for some unknown reason.
Unbelievable. A North Carolina woman faces charges for fleeing the scene after running down two bike riders from behind, leaving one man with serious injuries — then trying to coverup her crime by telling investigators she thought she’d hit a deer, and going so far as to place hair from her dog on her windshield to support her story.
International
Electrek says the bike industry should refocus on building simple, attractive, and serviceable ebikes following the “shocking” VanMoof bankruptcy.
Canadian Cycling Magazine suggests a half dozen outdated rules for city bicycling that should be modernized.
London officials admitted that a bike lane is causing congestion when buses stop to pick up passengers. In other words, it’s the narrow traffic lanes and lack of bus stops, not the bike lanes, that are the problem.
A pair of Scottish brothers are about to stand trial for murdering a man taking part in a 104-mile charity bike ride, then hiding his body for months afterwards; they allegedly abandoned the victim after hitting him with their car while driving under the influence, then came back the next day to move his bike and body.
Competitive Cycling
Germany’s Liane Lippert captured her first stage win since 2020 on Monday’s stage of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, aka the Women’s Tour de France.
Velo offers 21 quick hits in summing up this year’s Tour de France, from a “super” Sepp Kuss to pulling for Cav to make a comeback next year.
Lost in the news from the Tour de France was that upstart American Neilson Powless lost the polka dot King of the Mountain jersey to Italian Giulio Ciccone over the final stages, after pushing the action for much of the race.
Bicycling reports that Netflix’s popular cycling docuseries Unchained will be back for a second season, this time focusing on Tadej Pogačar and the UAE Team Emirates team. As usual, read it on Yahoo if the magazine blocks you.
Finally…
Evidently, winning a Tour de France stage is like getting drunk — especially the next day. The video game-ish future of mountain biking.
And victory is not always to the swiftest, but to those who manage to remain upright.
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Oh, and fuck Putin
