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.
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Oh, and fuck Putin
