Tag Archive for Bikeability

3.9-mile Reseda protected bike lanes saved by 2009 outcry, and LA doesn’t suck as much in new bike rankings

June 27, 2024 / / Comments Off on 3.9-mile Reseda protected bike lanes saved by 2009 outcry, and LA doesn’t suck as much in new bike rankings
Just 187 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025. 

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Funny how things circle back around.

According to Streetsblog’s Joe Linton, completion of the Reseda Boulevard Complete Streets project means the boulevard now has the longest continuous protected bike lane in Southern California.

The newly complete bike lanes stretch nearly four miles, from Plummer Street to Victory Boulevard.

Just like you’ll see in the tweet below.

 

But it was just 15 years ago that we nearly lost them forever.

That’s when the news broke — courtesy of this site — that LADOT’s bike planning engineers had been told not to bother working on the bike lanes, because the West Department of Transportation was going to install Peak Hour Lanes on the boulevard instead, which would have turned the street into a virtually un-bikeable car sewer.

Similar lanes had gone in throughout the San Fernando Valley in the 1990s and 2000s, back in the bad old days when the highest priority of traffic engineers was maximizing vehicular throughput and level of service.

Fortunately, there was a huge reaction to the story, with countless people calling LADOT, councilmembers and other city officials to complain — resulting in the agency canceling plans for the peak hour lane less than 24 hours later.

And claiming, implausibly, that it was never actually their plan to install the peak hour lanes.

Yeah, right.

Linton called for an apology from the agency for deliberately misleading him, then-Streetsblog LA Editor Damien Newton, former Bicycle Advisory Committee Chair Glenn Bailey and myself. But also said he’d be willing to accept an apology in the form of actually building the bike lanes.

Which is what finally happened.

So thanks to everyone else who raised hell over it. If you were one of them, pat yourself on the back.

And thank you for your service.

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The rest of the world is catching up with the new City Rankings released by People For Bikes that we mentioned on Monday.

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Congratulations.

The California Public Utilities Commission has selected you to beta test driverless cabs from Waymo, a subsidiary of Google parent company Alphabet, whether you actually want to or not.

The commissioners reaffirmed its approval for the company to operate its autonomous, or self-driving, cabs on the streets of Los Angeles. Never mind the seemingly magnetic attraction they and their competitor Cruise have seemed to have for bicyclists and pedestrians in San Francisco.

But never fear.

You should be able to protect yourself by carrying an orange cone with you when you ride.

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Feel free to ride Benedict Canyon again.

https://twitter.com/LADOTofficial/status/1805722708660863180

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Gravel Bike California celebrates its fifth anniversary by highlighting the best gravel rides in the state.

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It’s now 189 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And three full years since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

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

A Santa Rosa man suffered a badly broken leg when he was targeted and run down by a road-raging driver while riding his ebike to work early Saturday morning, after the driver yelled at him to “get the fuck off the road.

Police in Victoria, British Columbia were accused of repeatedly using their vehicles as weapons to intentionally hit people riding bikes or scooters, or on foot. That should constitute a deadly use of force, just like firing a gun to stop a fleeing suspect, since any collision or fall off a bicycle or scooter can be deadly.

This is what a punishment pass from a British camper van driver looks like.

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

A 32-year old Hasidic man who had a bag of dog shit thrown at his face by a bike-riding New York bigot predicted his attacker will receive a slap on the wrist if he’s ever arrested, and won’t spend a day behind bars. Sadly, he’s probably right.

A British bike rider was trapped in a literal shitstorm when a farmer covered him in manure after catching him with a tent on the man’s land without permission while on a bike tour.

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Local 

Congratulations to Streetsblog LA, after their SGV Connect was honored as Best Regular Podcast by the Los Angeles Press Club for their coverage of last year’s Arroyo Fest.

Los Angeles has launched the city’s Let’s Play Outside campaign, complete with a ten-point kid’s bill of rights for outdoor activities, including riding a bicycle.

Speaking of LADOT, the city transportation agency shared additional details about the Hollywood Boulevard Safety and Mobility Project, including mostly parking-protected bike lanes from Gower Street to Lyman Place, and eventually east to the six-way intersection at Sunset Blvd, Virgil Ave and Hillhurst Ave.

Culver City Walk ‘n Rollers totaled up the savings from students riding their bikes to school in the city, with students burning 65,770 calories and removing 1,452 pounds of carbon from the atmosphere by walking or biking 5061 trips.

 

State

San Marcos has a brand new bouncing baby bike park.

Kern County was scheduled to accept state and federal funding to build a north-south companion trail to go with the county’s 35-mile Kern River Parkway, which runs east-to-west. Or vice versa, if you prefer.

Sad news from Kern County, however, where a Bakersfield bike rider died after being struck by a driver while riding in a crosswalk; the county suffered six fatal collisions in just the last week.

The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition has reached a turning point after moving from outsider status to getting a seat at the table with government contracts and the ear of top officials.

When Napa’s street sweeper’s couldn’t fit in the city’s new protected bike lanes, the local bicycle coalition bought a human-powered street sweeper that’s towed behind a bike to do the job, instead.

 

National

NPR show The Indicator from Planet Money examines how Bike Index founder Bryan Hance cracked the case of high-end purloined bikes unexpectedly popping up for sale at a bike shop in Mexico. And yes, you can register your bicycle(s) with Bike Index or report them stolen for free, right here on this site.

A group of Hawaii teenagers reached a settlement with the state over climate issues, with the governor agreeing to take bold action to address climate change, including providing safer options for green transportation — like bicycling — to reduce motor vehicle traffic.

Portland, Oregon is investing $20 million over the next five years to increase access to electric bicycles for moderate- to low-income residents

It was summer Bike to Work Day in Colorado yesterday, including in my bike-friendly hometown. Although some question the lack of recognition for those who bike to work every day.

A San Antonio, Texas man faces sentencing after pleading guilty to killing a woman riding a bicycle, while driving under the influence; prosecutors argued he had at least 11 drinks before getting behind the wheel.

A Central Texas mom says she cried like a baby after a total stranger replaced her eight-year old son’s stolen bicycle upon reading her social media post about the theft.

Ghost bikes are disappearing off the streets of Austin, Texas, apparently thanks to city maintenance workers who don’t know why they’re there.

Heartbreaking news from Michigan, where an 83-year old Florida man was killed while riding his bicycle, just after reaching a lifetime goal of riding 200,000 miles; he was leaving his son’s house to visit his daughter when a driver ran him down.

Just weeks after NY Governor Kathy Hochul cancelled plans for congestion pricing in Manhattan, a new study shows New York has the world’s worst traffic congestion, costing the city $9.1 billion a year in lost productivity; Los Angeles is #7 on the list.

Actress Jennifer Lawrence is one of us, looking “loved up” as she rides a bikeshare bike with her husband on the streets of New York.

 

International

Once again, life is cheap in the UK, where a teenaged driver who killed a bike rider, just weeks after passing his driving test, walked without a single day behind bars after he was sentenced to community service and a lousy £240 fine — the equivalent of just $303.

A Manx bicyclist — no, not that one — just finished a five-day bike ride across the French Alps on a foldie, raising the equivalent of over $7,500 for an Isle of Man hospice along the way.

France Today shared nine of the country’s best bike routes that anyone can bike.

A team from the Netherlands set a new world’s record for the world’s longest tandem bicycle at an incredible 55.35 meters — aka 181 feet 7 inches — perfect for when you really don’t get along with your stoker.

 

Competitive Cycling

This year’s Tour de France hasn’t even started yet, and it’s clear last year’s Vuelta winner, American Sepp Kuss, won’t make the podium in Paris next month, after withdrawing due to Covid.

Bicycling shares the North American cyclists still competing in the Tour, remembering that yes, Canada is part of North America. Read it on AOL this time if the magazine blocks you. 

 

Finally…

You can ride in just about any clothes, but maybe rethink the bell bottoms. Nothing like putting crocheted woolen boobs on your bike to fight breast cancer.

And your next car could be a three-wheeled California-made bike.

On second thought, no it can’t.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

LA mired in scenic bike mediocrity, PeopleForBikes fights ebike right-to-repair, and driving SF’s new protected bike path

August 8, 2023 / / 4 comments

Apparently, we’re not that scenic, either.

Ebikes.org ranked the nation’s 100 most scenic cities to see by bicycle, by combining Instagram hashtags and bike-related Google search volume with bikeability ratings, the number of road biking trails, and average yearly sunshine.

And Los Angeles came in at a remarkably mediocre 52. Then again, even our weather barely made the top 25, as far as they’re concerned.

Not surprisingly, Seattle, San Francisco, and Miami came out on top, with North Las Vegas, and Garland and Irving, Texas all tying for the bottom.

So start tagging those Instagram posts from the City of Angels. Because it may not improve the weather, LA’s scenic beauty or make this city any more bikeable.

But at least we can boost our Insta rank.

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Maybe PeopleForBikes isn’t completely on our side, after all.

The organization, the advocacy arm of the national trade organization representing bicycle manufacturers, is lobbying officials in several states to exempt ebikes from right-to-repair bills.

In other words, they want to keep forcing you to send your ebike back to the manufacturer — or at least your local dealer — rather than allowing you to fix it yourself.

The group says it’s a matter of safety, and recommends recycling ebike batteries instead.

Never mind that it would be a simple matter to require bike owners to recycle spent batteries, and that batteries aren’t the only thing on an ebike that might need fixing.

Maybe they should stick to ranking bikeability.

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Evidently, the many critics of San Francisco’s new Valencia Street bike path were right.

Drivers took to the ostensibly protected centerline bike path when a driverless car unexpectedly froze in the traffic lane, forcing drivers to use the bike path to go around it.

Never mind that keeping cars out is the very definition of a protected bike lane, and they should never have been able to use it as a bypass lane.

Fortunately, no one appears to actually have been using it for its intended purpose at the time.

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Um, no.

The Sacramento Bee misses the mark in answering a reader’s question about whether helmets are required to ride a motorcycle, e-scooter to bicycle in California.

The paper implies — whether mistakenly or through inartful editing — that bike helmets are required to ride on sidewalks, trails, parks and bike paths. And fails to mention that helmets are required for all Class 3 ebikes and mopeds.

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This is what a catastrophic frame failure looks and sounds like during a competition, as Alex Anderson goes up a jump on a mountain bike, and lands on a pile of crumpled and broken carbon fiber.

Seriously, his painful moans were loud enough to wake the corgi from a sound sleep, and make her stare to see what the problem was.

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

No bias here. A 76-year old Montana columnist says young people shouldn’t ride ebikes if they can ride a regular bike, and that if he can ride his bike up the local pass, you should be able to, too.

No bias here, either. After a Bath NY man became just the latest bike rider run down by police, the local sheriff reminds bicyclists they have to use lights and reflectors after dark, rather than consider the deputy who rear-ended the victim might be at fault.

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

A Wyoming man known for giving away thousands of bicycles to children through a local bike project is facing a felony count of first-degree abuse of a minor for allegedly sexually abusing a child under the age of 13.

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Local 

Metro is looking for input on first mile/last mile active transportation connections within a half-mile of Western and Slauson.

 

State

Oops. A Westminster man was busted for carrying a large amount of narcotics and a loaded gun while already on probation, after being stopped for a traffic violation while riding a bicycle.

Carlsbad is taking a proactive approach to teenage ebike riders, teaming with the local school district to offer an ebike safety course in exchange for a free permit park their bikes on campus.

Police in Redwood City have arrested two men for the June 1st bike shop burglary that netted several high-end bikes worth a combined fifty grand.

San Francisco Streetsblog says the question shouldn’t be why are bike riders on the Bay Bridge, but why are they banned in the first place, in the wake of last weekend’s takeover of the lower span by hundreds of mostly teen bike riders.

 

National

Consumer Reports says bicycling can be a great and safe way to exercise as you get older. And for once, the safety recommendations don’t start and end with wearing a helmet.

This is the cost of traffic violence. After news broke that an Oregon bike rider was killed by a 71-year old driver in a left-cross crash, it didn’t take long to learn the victim was the popular manager of a Mt. Hood ski area.

Ten people who were injured riding their bikes on the “missing link” gap on a Seattle bike path have filed a claim against the city, demanding that Seattle act quickly to make the trail safe for riders, as well as seeking unspecified monetary damages.

Colorado Public Radio answers a listener’s question about the proper etiquette for driving behind a bicyclist on narrow, twisting mountain roads. Short answer, be patient, follow at a safe distance, and only pass when it’s safe to do so, giving a minimum three-foot passing distance. Besides, there’s a good chance the person on the bike can navigate curves better than someone in a car, anyway. 

A Colorado woman calculates she’s saved nearly $1,900 by commuting on her ebike for the past five years, rather than driving her 2010 Toyota, putting 11,500 miles on her bike in the process.

Indianapolis has named the cop who killed a bike rider after swerving around a car while responding to a call last week. Contrast that with the LAPD and LA County Sheriff’s Department, who go out of their way to keep officers from being named. 

An Ohio boxer is riding his bike across the state to raise funds to keep his gym open and fund scholarships for low-income participants, in memory of his nephew killed by gun violence. Which is a very passive way of saying someone was shot to death. 

A New York website tracks the cost of traffic violence in the city, both in terms of lives and financial costs.

 

International

Bike Radar considers how gravel biking is changing the way we think about road bike design as road bikes become more capable of riding more varied terrain.

A Bristol, England advocacy group calls for more protected and segregated bike paths, after 81% of local bike rider complain of aggressive motorists.

An international team of eight bicyclists is riding 2,175 miles from the British Museum to Greece’s Acropolis Museum to demand the return of the Parthenon sculptures, known in the UK as the Elgin Marbles.

A New Zealand woman says her husband was a careful, experienced cyclist who felt invisible on the road following a number of near misses, until one truck driver tragically didn’t miss.

 

Competitive Cycling

Apparently, not everyone objects to the “dizzying, dangerous and designed by a drunk person” world’s road course, as bronze medalist Tadej Pogačar said he enjoyed the fast and technical Glasgow circuit, adding he “really likes city street racing.”

Not only did Mathieu Van der Poel have to overcome a late crash on his way claiming the world road cycling title, he also had to knock on a stranger’s door to poop.

Eleventh place finisher Neilson Powless says he could have had a top five finish in the road race, if not for a crash that separated the peloton and created a gap the American couldn’t close.

The head of the pro cyclists’ union issued a scathing condemnation of the environmental protesters who halted the worlds road race for an hour, calling it the opposite of helping the environment.

Team USA star Jennifer Valente became America’s most decorated track cyclist with a third place finish in Sunday’s elimination race, adding to the 15 medals she won prior to this year’s world’s.

The BBC looks back at the maverick life and mysterious death of the late, great Marco Pantini; the Italian cycling star’s death was officially blamed on acute cocaine poisoning, though questions remain over whether the mafia somehow helped him ingest it.

Cycling Weekly profiles Spain’s remarkable para-athlete Ricardo Ten, as the one-limbed swimmer aims for his seventh Paralympics, this time as a cyclist — despite having no hands and just one leg.

 

Finally…

When you already have nine outstanding warrants, maybe riding a bicycle out in the open isn’t the best choice. Not only are bike paths not safe from DUI drivers, now they’re not even waiting until they’re finished.

And probably not the best idea to try to ride your bike atop a wrought iron fence.

At least not if you ever want to have children.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cuw_-IuRZ9s/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=embed_video_watch_again

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

Weekend Links: Two new Kickstarters, surprisingly bike friendly SoCal cities, and the Amgen ToC comes to LA

May 16, 2015 / / One comment
The squirrel is optional.

The squirrel is optional.

I’m a firm believer in supporting local bike businesses.

That’s why I was pleased to learn about NoHo-based Stashers, designed to safely secure your belongings, on or off your bike.

The company, founded by Julie Pusateri, currently has a Kickstarter campaign for a stackable, waterproof bike tube cooler and storage system capable of keeping up to four cans hot or cold, as well as stashing other items while you ride.

Unfortunately, the project still has a way to go, currently over $4,000 short of the $5,000 goal with just under a week left.

Then again, that’s not too much to make up in a short period of time.

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Another Kickstarter campaign promises to replace ankle straps to keep your pants legs and shoe laces from getting caught in your chain, while increasing visibility at night.

The waterproof Commuter Gaiter offers 77” of durable, dual-sided reflective material that wraps around your ankle when you ride.

That project has a little more time left, but still needs over $3,000 of the $4,000 goal.

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The latest ranking of the nation’s most bikeable cities places Long Beach number three among cities with over 300,000 population.

Surprisingly, though, the Bike Score ranking from Redfin, the online real estate company behind the popular Walk Score, places Santa Monica sixth among cities of any size — a full 30 spots ahead of Long Beach.

Even Pasadena — yes, Pasadena — checks in at number 20.

Meanwhile, San Diego, which USA Today listed as one of the nation’s 10 most bike friendly cities, comes in at an embarrassingly low 115. Far below moderately bike friendly LA, which ranked 72nd.

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In the Amgen Tour of California, Cavendish took his third win in five stages on Thursday, riding from Santa Barbara to Santa Clarita in the rain.

Late season snow in Big Bear forced the race to relocate the time trial to Magic Mountain; the short course helps Sagan take the overall lead. Saturday’s stage runs from Ontario to Mt. Baldy, while Sunday’s finale starts at LA Live and ends in Pasadena.

The first African team competing in the race is in it to get more bikes for people who need them. And the Inland Empire Biking Alliance will multi-modal it from points east to see Sunday’s race.

Update: The great Evelyn Stevens won the women’s time trial.

Over in Italy, the Guardian offers a great look at the Giro d’Italia in pictures over the years, while Contador slipped back into the pink on Wednesday. He may be tougher than we thought, keeping the leader’s jersey a day after dislocating his shoulder; the question is whether he can survive the mountain stages.

And he swears he doesn’t have any little motors hidden on his bike.

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Local

The LA Public Works Commission votes for cars over people, refusing to even consider anything but Option 1 for rebuilding the Glendale-Hyperion Bridge. While the plan includes bike lanes, placing a sidewalk on just one side just guarantees that pedestrians will walk in the bike lane on the other.

In a Q&A with the Times, USDOT Secretary Anthony Foxx says LA needs to be creative about bike and pedestrian facilities in light of the city’s constrained road network. Evidently, the Public Works Commission failed to read the interview before voting.

A coalition of over 30 organizations calls for 10% of any funds raised through the proposed R2 transportation sales tax extension be set aside for biking and walking.

Good piece from Streetsblog’s Sahra Sulaiman, who says we shouldn’t forget those who bike out of necessity in our Bike Week celebrations.

Just in time for Bike Week, the first .1 mile of bike lanes for the Expo Line bikeway appears. Meanwhile, El Monte gets its first bike lane, period.

DT News reports on Tuesday’s Blessing of the Bicycles. And hey, thanks for the shout out.

The Westwood Neighborhood Council decides to put bike lanes on side streets to avoid conflicts with buses. But fails to address which of those streets, if any, are wide enough, with signalized crossing points, to support them.

Santa Monica Next revisits the history of bicycling in the city; evidently, it’s been illegal to ride on the sidewalk there for 123 years.

CiclaValley rides the Whittier Greenway Trail.

Flying Pigeon and the Living Museum host a bike ride Sunday afternoon to raise funds to restore a prized Eastside mural.

Long Beach’s annual Bike Fest returns on the 30th; meanwhile, the city is looking for volunteers for next month’s ciclovía.

 

State

Santa Ana offers OC’s first secure, covered bike parking — for a fee.

San Diego’s Bike to Work Day was rescheduled for the 29th due to Friday’s rain.

Santa Barbara becomes the latest California city to adopt Vision Zero. The question is whether any of the cities have the courage to make the hard choices necessary to improve safety. Especially Los Angeles (see Glendale-Hyperion Bridge above).

A San Francisco public health consultant calls for cyclists to be licensed and registered. Evidently, he doesn’t have a clue how discouraging bicycling would affect public health.

Sausalito continues to look for ways to reign in bike riding in the town. Evidently, 1,000 rental bikes visiting the city each day is a problem, but an unlimited number of cars is just fine.

 

National

CNN reports on cyclists using cameras to document reckless and threatening drivers; bike cam video leads to charges for a Georgia driver. Thanks to sponsor Michael Rubinstein for the links.

Red Kite Prayer looks at pro downhill racer and Pinkbike contributor Amanda Batty’s announcement that she would no longer be writing for the site. Seriously, we should be long past the days when a woman gets chased off a website for speaking her mind.

A Presbyterian pastor lists five spiritual lessons gained from breaking his collarbone and nine ribs after colliding with other riders during a century ride. Although it must have been divine intervention that prevented a concussion, because bike helmets don’t protect against that.

City Lab is the latest to debunk the myth that drivers pay for the roads.

Bike riders can get roadside assistance from AAA in more places. And no, California is not one of them.

A Portland bike rider plans to get back on his bike by August after losing his leg in a collision on Sunday.

A writer lists the six scariest things about riding in Las Vegas. Which, coincidentally, are pretty much the same as anywhere else.

A writer with the Boston Globe explains what it’s like to get hit by a car and walk away with minor injuries. Meanwhile, a Massachusetts minister says most collisions — not accidents, please — could be avoided if we’d just be civil to one another.

A New Jersey website takes a detailed look at what — or who — stands in the way of improving safety for the state’s bike riders.

 

International

In what reads like cleverly disguised unbridled sarcasm, a 50-year veteran of Toronto’s streets recommends breaking all the rules.

according to the Globe and Mail, London’s cycling cafes are a sign the city has reached peak hipster; Sir Wiggo tells riders in the city to wear their helmets, which may be safer but certainly isn’t hip.

A rider moves back to The Netherlands after getting hit by a car in London.

A US lawyer rides the length of Africa to support gay and lesbian rights, on a continent where homosexuality can result in the death penalty.

A New Zealand cop teams with construction workers to rescue a cyclist who fell into floodwaters, riding in the bucket of a digging machine to pull the rider and his bike to safety.

Kiwi riders say build roads for bikes, not just cars.

Roadways in Thailand are being littered with tacks in the latest attack on bike riders.

 

Finally…

A Chinese cyclist plans to ride the Olympic rings around the country. After a several cyclists have been killed by drunk and hit-and-run drivers on Thai roads in weeks, the country naturally responds with a proposal to license… bike riders

And an Aussie Facebook page attacking the “Cockhead Cyclists of Perth” gains 3,000 likes in two week. No, seriously, what do they really think of us?

 

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