Then share it — and keep sharing it — with everyone you know, on every platform you can.
We’re slowly gaining signatures, up to 1,027 now, so keep it going! Urge everyone you know to sign the petition, until the mayor agrees to meet with us!
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It was a light bike news day yesterday. So if no news is good news, this may be one of my best pieces ever.
The better news is, that means you can get out on your bike that much sooner today.
The woman’s attorney argued that the she suffers permanent pain, and was forced to pay hundreds of thousands in medical bills tripping in the pothole, which was shaded by a parked car.
Kwan told CVN he believed the combination of Walmart’s alleged failure to comply with their own safety policies and the extended time the pothole was allowed to develop brought the jury over to his side.
“We presented evidence that Walmart never enforced their own ‘Parking Lot Safety’ policy, which states they must regularly check and fix any potholes in their parking lots,” he said. “We also showed that the pothole in question had been in bad shape since 2018, giving Walmart plenty of time to repair, which they didn’t.”
Duquette notes that the same arguments could be made by a bicyclist injured under similar circumstances.
The suspect vehicle is described as an older model white Nissan, with likely with damage to its front end, hood and windshield from the impact with the victim.
Anyone with information is urged to call LAPD Detective Juan Campos at 213/833-3713, or email 31480@lapd.online. Or call the Central Traffic Division Watch Commander at 213/833-3746 after hours or weekends.
As always, there is a $25,000 reward for any hit-and-run resulting in serious, but not fatal, injuries in the City of Los Angeles.
There’s always another side to the story, even when everyone has already taken sides.
It’s been clear for some time that we’ve only heard one side of the story about the white New York hospital worker filmed in a viral video trying to wrest and whine a bikeshare bike out of the hands of a Black teenager.
The woman, who has become infamous as the Citi Bike Karen, has spoken through her attorney, who claims he has receipts showing she rented the bike she was trying to claim.
She’s raised over $124,000 from people who thought she was unfairly accused of racism.
Now the family of the teenager she was trying to take the bike from is finally speaking out for the first time. According to them, the 17-year old boy’s life and family have been in turmoil since the incident.
They explained that as the son of low-income, West African immigrants on public assistance, he was entitled to discounted 45-minute bikeshare rides, after which the rate increases.
The day of the incident, he and his friends rode from his home in the Bronx to visit friends in Harlem. After 45 minutes, he re-docked the bike to reset the clock, before setting out again at the reduced rate.
Which is when he claims his life went to hell.
He says the hospital worker approached the group as they briefly rested with the bikes, asking each one in turn if she could use their bike. Each boy said no, because they were about to take them back out again.
So she stepped onto the bike anyway, using her phone to scan the bike’s QR code as he held onto the handlebars, and tried to take the bike out of his hands.
It was 7:24 p.m., and that is when the boys began recording…
Michael insisted Sarah Jane Comrie knew he was planning to use the bike. He said she asked him and his friends to use theirs, and they all informed her they were using the bikes and would be leaving shortly.
He said she seemed annoyed that they wouldn’t willingly give up their bikes to her. He also said he believes she wanted that bike as opposed to the others that remained docked in the rack because he had one of the newer e-bikes.
The rest of the interaction plays out in the video. Sarah Jane Comrie, dressed in scrubs bearing the NYC Health + Hospitals logo, removed her work ID badge from her neck, placed it in her bag along with a brown paper bag she was holding and began screaming for help.
Proving once again there’s always another side to the story.
We have no way of knowing who is right, or exactly how the events played out in the minutes before the camera was turned on. But the incident offers a Rorschach Test for today’s America, as people on both sides of the political divide quickly chose sides.
A white woman received over a hundred grand, while a young Black man has his life upended. Although a crowdfunding campaign started yesterday has raised over $37,000 for his legal fees in less than 24 hours.
This difference of intent and scale is worth dwelling on because it is why the comparison is so misguided. The U.S. Department of Transportation has estimated 475,000 households containing one million people were displaced due to highway construction from 1957 to 1977. That is the equivalent of displacing the entire population of modern-day Austin, Texas. Likewise, a Los Angeles Times analysis found that an additional 200,000 people have lost their homes due to highway construction since 1990. To the best of my knowledge, there has not been a single housing unit destroyed or person displaced to build a bike or bus lane anywhere in the U.S. On these grounds alone, it is simply absurd to compare urban highway construction to bike and bus lanes. Projects of such vastly different scopes and scale deserve different approaches and mindsets.
But there is another good reason to reject this comparison, one that is equally revealing about the biases of modern transportation officials. Reynolds asked, “What makes us so confident we know best?” Another way of asking this is, what makes us so confident we know bike and bus lanes are better than masses of parking and multiple travel lanes for private cars for everyone?
The answer is: we’ve got the receipts. In this case, decades of scientific study and experiments carefully tracked and evaluated by local departments of transportation.
The sheer absurdity of Reynolds’ comments, coming from someone who should surely know better, is appalling.
It also explains why so little was done to improve LA streets while she ran the department. And why we shouldn’t hold our breath for any major innovations coming from her new position as Metro’s Chief Innovation Officer.
Unless maybe her chief innovation is even more pointless, never-ending public meetings.
He’s also one of us, regularly taking part in the annual 545-mile AIDS/LIFECYCLE ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles, which benefits the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and the Los Angeles LGBT Center.
However, Ratevosian faces stiff competition from Burbank Assembly Transportation Chair Laura Friedman, California State Senator Anthony Portantino, and former Boy Meets World star Ben Savage, among others.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on rolling.
An award-winning British TV producer, writer and comedian was fined the equivalent of more than $1,200, plus another $1,250 in court costs and victim surcharge, for flipping off a bike cam activist when he was caught using his smartphone from behind the wheel of his $173,000 Aston Martin.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
After a Seal Beach letter writer complains that it seems petty to ticket a pair of senior citizens on a tandem for rolling a stop sign, a cop explains that bicycles are treated as vehicles in California, and bike riders have to obey the law, too. Even laws that most drivers don’t. Which is one more argument to pass the Stop As Yield bill in the state legislature, and get Governor Newsom to sign the damn thing this time.
A 28-year old Kentucky man is dead after a pickup driver crashed into his bike; police excused the crash because glare from the setting sun kept him from seeing the victim. Never mind that the correct course of action would have been to pull over to the side of the road until he could see, before he killed anyone.
This is who we share the road with. A 32-year old Philadelphia woman faces murder and vehicular homicide charges for a December hit-and-run crime spree that killed on man and injured two other people; she is accused of hitting three cars and a scooter rider, then crashing into a bike rider before fatally slamming into a man walking in a crosswalk, and fleeing from all three crashes.
Bicycling says the colossal amounts of elevation gain in the last few stages of the Giro will make the final days of racing a slugfest. Unfortunately, the story doesn’t appear to be available anywhere else, so you’re on your own if the magazine blocks you.
October 27, 2022 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on New CA law threatens to kill bikeshare, new protected bike lane in South LA, and little protection on 6th Street Bridge
The new law imposes a draconian requirement on providers of shared micromobility devices — like bikes, ebikes and e-scooters — to provide liability insurance covering the behavior of their users.
The requirement could force existing providers like Bird and Lyft to shut down their operations in the state. Or at the very least, raise their rates to unaffordable levels to cover the added insurance costs.
Exactly the opposite of what’s needed right now to shift people to cleaner forms of transportation in order to confront the rising climate emergency.
Let alone get people out of their cars to reduce crushing traffic congestion.
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Nice to see LADOT continuing to build new bike lanes in South LA.
Although as this photo shows, parking protected bike lanes aren’t very protected when no one is parking there.
Because those plastic posts aren’t going to stop anyone.
Check out the new parking-protected bike lane installed from Florence Ave to Gage Ave in #AvalonBlvd! This design protects cyclists and improves the area's bicycle network. #LADOT#BikeLApic.twitter.com/dKozuqlkQM
A reminder that Los Angeles officials didn’t think it was worth protecting bike riders on the new 6th Street Bridge, choosing to protect pedestrians with a concrete barrier while leaving bike riders at risk.
We’ll leave it up to you to decide whether you could have survived this crash riding in the bike lane.
Because those plastic bollards and low rubber curbs clearly didn’t prevent it.
Reminder: flimsy, flexible bollards are NOT features of actual protected bike lanes. pic.twitter.com/RsWguparwA
— Livable Communities Initiative Burbank (@LCI_Burbank) October 27, 2022
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Clear your schedule for December 3rd, when Walk ‘n Rollers will host a fundraising Donut Ride to mark my sister’s birthday.
Metro funding has been approved for a 5.3 mile on-street bikeway through Rosemead, unincorporated South San Gabriel, Montebello and Monterey Park, although at least some of it will be just a class 3 bike route. In other words, sharrows.
An Irish writer sings the praise of cargo bikes, but argues that we need to end the love affair between men and their cars if they’re going to catch on. I broke up with my car a couple years back after a nearly 20 year relationship. But like most relationships, it went on long after the love was gone.
Not one of, but THE nicest person you would ever meet. He pioneered pro cycling for GB. If the World had been represented by Brian, then all would be OK. https://t.co/EJGYti1MfT
October 20, 2022 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on De León: hell no, he won’t go; advocacy groups call for ebike libraries; and what happens when officials give a damn
De León is refusing to resign in the wake of a racist and otherwise offensive recording in which he was heard actively participating, along with outgoing CD1 Councilmember “Roadkill” Gil Cedillo, former Council President Nury Martinez and ex-LA County Federation of Labor Ron Herrera, the latter two of whom at least had the decency to resign.
Apparently thinking he can somehow survive this, de León said “I’m not going to mince words. I’m not going to deflect blame. I’m not going to defend the defenseless,” before attempting to do exactly that, adding he’ll be “spending the coming weeks and months personally asking for your forgiveness.”
Forgiveness that is not likely to be given, after failing to condemn Martinez’ open racism, while himself comparing fellow Councilmember Mike Bonin’s toddler son to the Luis Vuitton purse favored by Martinez.
Bonin is clearly in no mood for de León’s weakass mea culpa.
Kevin de León cannot be part of the healing as long as he refuses to resign. His stubborn refusal to do what everyone else knows is necessary is deepening the wound he has inflicted on Los Angeles. pic.twitter.com/42H21bgzHW
As we’ve noted before, this whole city hall soap opera matters, because we’re never going to get action on safer streets with dysfunctional city leadership, particularly with the council’s draft of the Healthy Streets LA initiative due back at the council in a few weeks.
Speaking of which, the LA Times has opened a web portal to help you find how to contact the right city agencies and officials to address various issues.
You know, in case you want to advocate for safer streets. Or complain about corrupt city officials.
The leaders of the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, ActiveSGV and People for Mobility Justice teamed to release an open letter to the Metro board, suggesting that opening ebike libraries and investing in safer infrastructure might be a better approach.
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It looks like LADOT is finally getting serious about counting bikes, at least on 7th Street.
This is what happens when city officials actually give a damn.
The agency has been ticketing illegally parked vehicles in bike lanes, but now they're going to start fining people who stand, stop or park their cars in these lanes. If you're illegally parked in a bike lane, you'll be issued a $150 ticket.
CNN recognizes the Dutch city of Utrecht for the world bicycling capital it is.
The city of Utrecht in the Netherlands has been recognized as a model of sustainability — by some estimates, more than 90% of its residents use bicycles for transportation. pic.twitter.com/hZaOe0oXNz
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
A 70-year old Fresno man insists he’s the real victim after he lay in wait and repeatedly shot and stabbed a man he accused of stealing his bicycle; Edmundo Martinez faces 50 to life if he’s convicted of killing Jose Palafox, Jr. Once again, no bike is worth a human life.
A handmade Namibian bike brand made its international debut at the recent Bespoke bike show in London; the steel-frame Onguza bikes made by Dan Craven, a two-time Olympic road cyclist and Namibia’s only professional cyclist to ride a Grand Tour, retail for four grand for a frame, and double that for a complete bike.
While we’re not against this in principle, the fact is that Metro has treated its own bike share program as the odd man out, and not like a real transportation mode.
Regardless of which model the bike share program ultimately becomes, the next phase must include:
A major expansion, based on equity, starting in our most underinvested neighborhoods
The ability to put bike share stations at Metro train and bus stations (right now, Metro’s employee union blocks this)
Treating bike share like a real transportation mode part of Metro’s bus/rail system, not an afterthought. This means real funding and integration into the rest of the system.
The problem is, they can’t even get the existing infrastructure right.
Streetsblog’s Joe Linton was the first to call out the problem, noting a number of errors in the following Twitter thread.
Here's Metro's map of existing bikeways in DTLA – how many errors can you spot? (SBLA spotted more than 10 errors in this part of Metro's map – spoilers below) pic.twitter.com/V02l7PJeGD
Metro has made it an agency practice to repeatedly incorrectly map existing bikeways. Here's January 2022 SBLA coverage of Metro's inaccurate maps used to plan Metro's 710 Freeway corridor multimodal investment strategy https://t.co/dEAglxRdXa
It raises obvious questions of how we can count on Metro to plan future bikeway and pedestrian improvements when they don’t even know what the hell we already have.
And combined with the Metro Bike changes, makes it clear active transportation continues to be an afterthought at the county transportation agency, and the lack of seriousness with which they consider it.
Let alone address it.
And by extension, the local governments that make up the Metro board, who certainly should know better by now.
Then again, why bother with a million dollar bikeway when they can keep flushing billions down the toilet with more induced demand-inducing highway projects in the midst of a climate emergency?
I’m reaching out to invite you to a fundraising house party for an organization that I believe is doing important work on an issue that doesn’t get enough attention … parking reform!
We’ll be gathering at the home of Lindsay Sturman, in Larchmont Village, LA on Thursday, October 20th. Drinks and Socializing at 7:00PM, with a short program at 7:30 PM
Car parking can be enormously expensive – often costing upwards of $40K per stall to construct – and takes up so much space – an average parking space, including aisles, is 300 square feet. Because of outdated rules that ensure we’ll continue to over-build parking whether we need it or not, these costs are baked into our cities … and we are just beginning to pay the full tab.
The Parking Reform Network is a 501(c)3 non profit organization with a mission to accelerate the adoption of critical parking reforms through research, coalition-building, and direct advocacy.
Over the last two years, PRN has released a widely cited map of US cities that eliminated parking mandates, produced a how-to guide for advocates working to create new parking benefit districts, worked with Congressman Blumenauer’s office to introduce federal legislation introducing a parking cash-out benefit (HR 8555), and built a membership of nearly 300 practitioners, activists, and academics worldwide.
This fundraiser will support:
Grants and organizational support to local reform campaigns
Developing presentations and training speakers to educate policymakers and stakeholders about parking reforms.
Creating materials to advise government agencies who are in the thick of parking reforms, and need technical and/or communication support to get their plans across the finish line.
An editorial from the Southern California News Group says nothing will change as long as Gavin Newsom is governor, citing among his many perceived flaws “diverting” funds collected for road maintenance to “perceived climate-friendlier projects such as bike lanes.”
Never mind that anyone who doesn’t recognize that bike lanes are better for the climate than highway projects probably shouldn’t be writing editorials in the first place.
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
A Denver bike rider was intentionally run down by a road raging driver, for the crime of accidentally brushing the maniac’s mirror.
Then when he pedaled ahead (safety stop) the driver sped up & rear ended him! He flew off the bike, tire is popped, & seat is messed up. Luckily he is okay & only has some scrapes. Jesus Christ. None of this was warranted! Car drivers need to understand that they are operating
San Diego and Caltrans are preparing to flush $39 million down the toilet by widening State Route 56 from four to six lanes, promising it will reduce congestion, even though both science and experience show it will just result in more induced demand. But at least the project includes a new bike bridge and extending an existing bike path.
Cycling Weekly considers the difference between gravel and road bikes. Maybe I should start my own magazine for people who ride like I do these days; we could call it Cycling Weakly.
A board motion submitted LA Councilmember Paul Krekorian, LA Mayor Eric Garcetti, County Supervisor Shiela Kuehl and Pomona Mayor Tim Sandoval proposes a number of changes to the Metro Bike system, in part to address theft of the bikes.
Currently, Metro only has 38% of the total original fleet remaining in operation. Metro Bikes have been targets of theft, and rates of fleet loss ebb and flow as new methods of theft are discovered and addressed. The Metro Bike Share team has increased efforts to recover lost and stolen bicycles but this is not sustaining the fleet and the program does not have an established fleet replenishment strategy. As a result, fewer Metro Bikes are available for use, which degrades the quality of service available to the public.
Although I’d think having nearly 40 percent of the original bikes still in operation after five years is pretty damn good.
Regardless, the five are requesting that the Metro CEO Stephanie Wiggins report back in 90 days on a number of proposed changes, most of which have nothing to do with addressing bike theft.
A. An action plan to stabilize the current fleet size including actions for how to identify, prioritize, and address new mechanisms of theft as they arise.
B. An action plan to address equitable access in the current program and in any future form of the program. This plan shall include recommendations on issues such as serving people who may be unbanked, addressing the digital divide, and keeping fare cost low.
C. A plan to provide uninterrupted service as the next iteration of the program is determined and executed.
D. A plan to convene an industry forum (as was performed for Metro Micro) to bring together academics, cities with existing bike share programs, community stakeholders, and industry experts to provide recommendations on advancing Metro Bike Share beyond the current contract in one of several forms including but not limited to
Continuing Metro Bike Share as a contracted service,
Operating the program In-house with Metro employees,
A private-sector model with financial subsidy provided by Metro.
E. Performing a market survey to identify best practices and business models among existing bike-share systems in the US, and comparable global systems (e.g., Paris, London, Barcelona, Madrid, and Mexico City), and to develop comparative data on subsidy cost per ride, total ridership, size of fleet, vehicle technology, theft and damage loss and prevention, and alternative financing sources like sponsorship and advertising.
F. Recommendations for continuing and evolving the Metro Bike Share program to meet the goals of the agency, with countywide stakeholder engagement and consideration of cost-sharing, with the goal of expanding service area and local participation to all subregions in the County. These recommendations should include eligible local, state, and federal funding sources for capital and operations budgets, as well as legislative opportunities to expand such funding eligibility.
All of these should be positives, if they’re carried out with a clear intention to maintain the bikeshare system and improve service.
Especially finding better ways to equitably serve low income communities.
As it stands right now, there doesn’t appear to be reason for concern. The question will be what form the response takes when Wiggins reports back in February.
That’s when we’ll want to give her recommendations a close look. And make sure the program is moving forward, not back.
But we haven’t even gotten to the suckiest part yet. These days sharrows are deployed as a bad-faith alternative to actually making roads safer for bike riders. In recent years, sharrows have become increasingly popular as cities try to balance calls from safety advocates to install quality bike lanes — you know, so folks feel more encouraged to ride and get killed a little less often — and grumpy motorists who don’t want to relinquish driving lanes or parking spaces for bike infrastructure. To the politicians and engineers stuck in the middle, sharrows seem like a devilishly perfect compromise — a way to placate the pro-car populists while still being able to claim you did something.
In short, they are perfect for city officials who care enough about safety to do the very least. There’s only one problem: Sharrows are make believe safety infrastructure.
By now, you probably already know my take.
That sharrows are nothing more than an attempt by transportation agencies to thin the herd, with little arrows painted on the pavement to help drivers improve their aim.
The best you can say is they offer a placemaking guide for people on bicycles, while showing riders where they should position themselves to control the lane.
If they’re placed correctly, that is.
And if riders feel comfortable in the middle of the lane in front of too often impatient and angry drivers.
Instead, you usually see people riding next to them on the right, increasing the risk of unsafe passes. If you see them at all, since many riders seem to prefer other routes that place them in less risk of getting run over.
Which is probably smart. Because as Flax notes, a 2018 study found that sharrows are actually worse than nothing when it comes to safety.
It’s worth taking a few minutes to read the whole thing.
That was followed by this tweet from McSweeney himself, justifying the piece.
For the record, we like bikes and bicyclists. We have bikes, we ride bikes, and we prefer bikes to automobiles, lawn mowers, and most hovercrafts. But like with everything else, there are outliers. And we thought this piece by Patrick French was ridiculously hilarious.
It’s a sure sign you missed the mark when you have to tell people something is funny.
Or when you have to say, no, really, we ride bikes, too.
Because it ain’t satire if it’s not funny.
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When is a protected bike lane not a bike lane?
When it’s a parking lot for government cops.
This SUVs is blocking the bike lane just about every day now in front of the federal building on Los Angeles St. Can you redesign this lane to keep these cars from parking in it all the time? Or convert a travel lane to a parking lane? @seletajewel @LADOTofficial#bikeLApic.twitter.com/GfnPwJBALL
Recently retired pro Tejay van Garderen had his own bikes stolen recently while moving to Denver.
So if you’re in the Denver area, keep an eye out for them. And it wouldn’t hurt to watch out wherever you are, because high-end bikes like these could turn up anywhere.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CWOhWQDF4Ka/
https://www.instagram.com/p/CWZGGY5F22B/
According to Jonathan Vaughters, that second bike is the one that put van Garderen in the white jersey signifying the best young rider in the 2012 Tour de France.
Denver!!! Help Tejay recover his Tour de France white jersey winning bike. This isn’t just theft of material possession. It’s stealing a once in a lifetime memory. https://t.co/O2NJxICYP8
Here’s what the tweet says, for those of us who are Español challenged.
Bicycles have remained remarkably the same for over 100 years, elegant in their efficiency and simplicity; the look of the cyclists has not changed much either.
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Another reminder of the exceptional efficiency of bike lanes.
BIKE LANES ONLY LOOK EMPTY BECAUSE THEY ARE DAMN EFFICIENT This stretch in Copenhagen conveys 8 times as many people on bikes compared to cars – still it's mostly cars we see. vid @andersprebenpic.twitter.com/Du3JqYhU1F
A 22-year old hit-and-run driver will now face a murder charge after a preliminary investigation showed he was speeding on his way to work, and high on weed, when he slammed into a six-year old Detroit boy just riding his bike across the street.
Smart move. Montreal is setting up an online reporting system just for pedestrian and bicycle crashes in the downtown area, where most such crashes occur. Something we could use here, where police too often don’t even want to take a report unless someone is seriously injured.
The new network opens with a dozen stations centered primarily around Hollywood Blvd, extending down to Sunset and Santa Monica blvds.
Franklin and Fuller avenues
Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue
Highland Avenue and Sunset Boulevard
Hawthorne Avenue and Orange Drive
McCadden Place and Hollywood Boulevard
Cherokee Avenue and Hollywood Boulevard
Whitley Avenue and Hollywood Boulevard
Ivar Avenue and Hollywood Boulevard
Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street
Fountain Avenue and Vine Street
Yucca Street and Argyle Avenue
McCadden Place and Santa Monica Boulevard
The Hollywood bikeshare system should prove popular with tourists, providing an alternative to walking the Walk of Fame, as well as connecting with other popular tourist attractions.
Unfortunately, it comes with a near total lack of bicycling infrastructure in the area, forcing people who don’t know the area to contend with heavy LA traffic.
Let’s keep our fingers crossed that goes better than I think it will.
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Meanwhile, a number of people took issue with a Saturday tweet from CD13 Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell claiming to support bike infrastructure in his Hollywood-based district.
Like this one from a challenger to O’Farrell in next year’s election.
This is simply not true. Mitch has killed planned bike lanes time after time: Temple, Fletcher, etc…
Bike lanes are essential to making our city livable & SUSTAINABLE.
We need city-wide interconnected bike lanes that keep neighbors safe & help us get to 100% renewable energy. https://t.co/WoKrKmv0VP
@BSSLosAngeles repaved W. Channel Road in Pacific Palisades between Sage Lane & Pacific Coast Highway. The repaved streets and re-striped lanes make travel safer & more efficient. @LADOTofficial also added new bike lanes between Mesa Rd & Short St. pic.twitter.com/bCo8ez0AY6
LADOT should be required to build out bike lanes when any street in the bike plan is repaved, as some other major cities have committed to doing.
Instead, it’s common practice in Los Angeles to repave streets with little or no consideration to people on two wheels, regardless of whether the street is included in the bike plan.
But then, as we were reminded by an LADOT official shortly after the 2010 bike plan was unanimously passed by the city council, it remains merely “aspirational.”
You’ve seen it before. Commercials with cars doing donuts down dense city streets. PSAs telling pedestrians it’s on them, not drivers, to avoid being hit in a crash. Car culture shows no signs of slowing down, and has a firm grip on how the safe streets movement appears in mainstream media and marketing. Join this panel to hear from experts on just how pervasive this grip is, how we begin to relinquish it, and how to successfully frame and move the needle on Vision Zero through the media and marketing.
It’s part of the virtual 2021 Vision Zero Cities conference beginning Wednesday, intended to explore “the most pressing issues on our streets today. From street design to traffic enforcement, hear from experts and advocates devoted to safe streets and livable cities.”
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Congratulations to everyone who participated in Saturday’s LAPD Back the Blue Ride. Nice to see the department encouraging officers to ride their bikes.
Today members of @lapdcycling along with community members and cyclists from other agencies, participated in the 2nd Annual Back the Blue Ride. The ride began at the LAPD Academy and was 36 miles long with 1800 feet of elevation, at an average of 15 mph. pic.twitter.com/I17Zfc9z2Q
It would be easy enough for Los Angeles to put parking enforcement officers on bikes, and charge them with enforcing illegal parking in bike lanes, like this video from Toronto.
Instead, drivers feel free to park in bike lanes throughout the city, with little risk getting a ticket — let alone towed.
And cops are often the worst offenders, especially Downtown.
Thanks to Glenn for the heads-up.
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A new British ad makes the case that bikes are best for short journeys. And that when more people bike, everyone wins.
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps going on.
The debate over whether to allow cars on San Francisco’s Great Highway has devolved into vandalism and threats, as someone keeps vandalizing sensors intended to count road users, while local residents hold signs demanding bike riders get out of their neighborhood. Thanks to Robert Leone for the tip.
This is the cost of traffic violence. Heartbreaking news from North Hills, where an 18-month old toddler was collateral damage in a hit-and-run collision when one of the cars slammed into a group of people standing by a food cart, where the boy was waiting in a stroller with his grandparents; one other woman was seriously injured. The heartless coward in the other car fled the scene after the crash. Seriously, when the hell will we finally get fed up with sacrificing our kids at the altar of the almighty motor vehicle, and demand safer streets for everyone? It’s long past time for an American Stop de Kindermoord movement.
A 14-year old Indian girl was a finalist for Prince William’s Earthshot Prize to inspire innovative idea to fight climate change, with her design for a solar-powered, bike-based mobile ironing cart to press wrinkles out of clothes, to replace the estimated 10 million ironing carts that each burn an average of about 11 pounds of charcoal per day.
Conviction or not, there should be no time limit on child pornography, if it can be established that he really possessed it. One strike and you’re out.
September 29, 2020 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Lyft e-bikeshare coming to Santa Monica, Arroyo Seco bike path finally patched, and new survey on bike helmet laws
E-bikeshare is back in Santa Monica, following the demise of Jump Bikes after their sale to Lime earlier this year.
The bikes will be docked at the existing Breeze bikeshare docks, after Santa Monica’s municipal bikeshare bites the dust this November, eventually expanding to 500 bikes.
Here’s what the company has to say.
The new ebikes allow riders to travel around Santa Monica and West Los Angeles with less effort. When the rider pedals, the ebikes use a small electric motor to boost the rider’s pedal power, making longer trips easier and more accessible. Users will be able to rent ebikes in the Lyft app for $1 to unlock and $0.34 per minute – just scan the QR code and go. Riders can lock the bikes to any one of 80 Breeze stations with the attached cable, or to any public bike rack within the service area for an extra $1. For more about pricing and service area, visit the Lyft website…
Lyft also offers a Community Pass for bikes and scooters in Santa Monica. The Lyft Community Pass is a reduced-fare membership program for qualifying residents of Santa Monica and LA. Membership costs $5/month and includes discounted ebike rides at $0.05/min. The Community Pass program is available to residents ages 18 and older who qualify for the Big Blue Bus Low Income Fare is Easy (LIFE) program, Calfresh, Medicaid, SNAP, or the SCE Energy Savings Assistance Program and to qualifying Santa Monica Community College students.
Correction: I originally wrote that Jump had been acquired by Lyft, but they were actually purchased by Lime. My apologies for the error.
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Speaking of Santa Monica, David Drexler confirms that the 5 mph speed limit signs have been removed from the newly widened beachfront Marvin Braude bike path through the city.
As we noted last week, the signs with the ridiculously low speed limit were installed temporarily as part of a construction project.
The lengthy delay in getting it fixed could stem from the mishmash of public agencies involved in the repair work, including, but possibly not limited to,
LADOT
Bureau of Engineering
Board of Public Works
LA County
Regional Water Quality Control Board
StreetsLA (nee Bureau of Street Services)
Maybe someone should form a single umbrella agency to manage the city and county river channel bikeways so it doesn’t take the local equivalent of a UN Security Council negotiation every time something goes wrong.
I’m told credit goes to LA Bicycle Advisory Committee member John Laue for getting this done.
You may remember Christopher Kidd from his days running the LADOT Bike Blog, which is about the last time the agency communicated effectively to the general public.
Since then, he’s been building a successful career as a Complete Streets planner in the Bay Area.
Which should make this an interesting talk.
Centering equity in transportation planning is long overdue, but methods and tools are rapidly developing to meet the challenge. Join me, @remix and @TransForm_Alert this Wednesday to hear about & discuss our workhttps://t.co/8KlzdOewqv
Washington bike riders will now be able to treat stop signs as yields, as the state becomes just the latest to adopt a modified form of the Idaho Stop Law. California should join Oregon and Washington in adopting the law, making it uniform throughout the West Coast.
A Nebraska bike nonprofit is looking for a new home after losing their current location; the organization rescues and restores bicycles, and allows at-risk kids to work on them to earn their first bikes.
Cycling Weekly offers advice on how to keep your bike safe at home. My best advice is to keep your bike inside your home if at all possible; if you have to use a garage, make sure it’s locked to something that’s secretly anchored.
Stardom has changed life for the better for the 15-year old Indian girl who rode a bike over 700 miles to carry her injured father home earlier this year; she now has a new home, eight bikes, two possible movie deals and an offer to train with the national cycling team when the pandemic loses its grip.
August 25, 2020 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on CA bill could effectively ban bikeshare and e-scooters, ride for Black and Indigenous mental health, and hot bikes on LetGo
The piece, written by Santa Monica Spoke director Cynthia Rose; Circulate San Diego ED Colin Parent, Finish the Ride and Streets Are For Everyone ED amian Kevitt, and Streets For All founder Michael Schneider, says that regardless of its intent, AB 1286 would “create new rules so onerous that micromobility operators may no longer be able to operate in California.”
Which doesn’t sound like the intended outcome.
Or the right one.
This bill doesn’t just impact newer micromobility like electric bikes and scooters, but extends to traditional, city-sponsored bike share programs as well, including the long running Bay Wheels system in the Bay Area and Metro Bike Share in Los Angeles. As our state grapples with so many pressing issues, including the economic and climate crisis, why is the legislature threatening our most sustainable and lowest cost transportation options?
First and foremost, this bill prohibits micromobility operators from using waivers of liability – the same waivers everyone signs when renting a car or taking a yoga class. No other industry is subject to a waiver provision such as the one proposed by this bill. By gratuitously singling out micromobility operators, the legislature is opening the door to unnecessary litigation, and operators have made clear they will likely have to leave California if they are not able use these waivers. Our cities will be harmed in the process, as waivers shield cities from frivolous lawsuits as well. California law already holds operators accountable and responsible for faulty devices to rightfully protect consumers, so there is simply no need to pursue these changes.
It’s understandable that legislators would want to improve liability laws regulating micromobility.
But this is like using a cannon to kill a mouse in your living room.
Hopefully, cooler heads will prevail, and the legislature will give itself a timeout to work with advocates and company representatives, and consider more carefully just how to improve safety without forcing users back into their cars.
The founder of Break the (Bi)Cycle, Bell-Holter will be leading a 1,500-mile ride from Bellingham, Washington to San Diego, stopping to speak with various tribes along the way.
Bell-Holter said he’d seen similar campaigns, but the topic is one he’s long held close, speaking and raising awareness of across Alaska and elsewhere. There’s a large gap in the availability and effectiveness of mental health care for Black and Indigenous men, especially in Alaska, Bell-Holter said, resulting in intergenerational trauma that can lead to some of the highest rates of death by suicide and substance misuse in the country.
“I’ve been bouncing my head off the wall about this for a few years. There’s so much violence and abuse in Alaska. What does prevention look like,” Bell-Holter said. “There’s a lot of trauma that outside people don’t understand. Non-Native and non-Indigenous people don’t understand there’s a lot of intergenerational trauma that’s not visible from the outside.”
The goal is to raise $100,000, which will be split 20 ways, resulting in just $5,000 each for the various tribes and communities.
Maybe we can all share this one, and get some support for a worthy cause.
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A bike theft victim calls attention to an online chop shop hawking hot bikes on LetGo. And the problem of stolen bikes being sold on the platform in general.
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
After an 18-year old Virginia man’s bike was hit by a pickup driver while riding with a group of other riders, he responded by breaking the driver’s mirror. And the driver responded by attacking him with a stick.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
Once again, a dangerous driver managed to stay on the road until it was too late. A Chicago man was arrested for continuing to drive with his license suspended due to DUI, after killing an 83-year old man riding a bike, claiming he just didn’t see the man riding in front of him before stomping on the gas pedal. Unfortunately, he’ll likely walk away with a slap on the wrist, while his innocent victim paid with his life.
An Edinburgh woman calls for redesigning a floating bus stop, saying she was furious after she and her son were nearly hit by a bike rider “who came out of nowhere” as she stepped across a cycle track to get to her bus. She’s got a point. But no one ever comes out of nowhere. And nearly getting hit isn’t exactly news, especially after apparently failing to look both ways.
August 8, 2019 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Morning Links: Upcoming bike events, why people stop going to public meetings, and a look at a friendly little OC bike shop
By all reports, last night’s public workshop in Eagle Rock to discuss plans for a North Hollywood to Pasadena bus rapid transit line was much better managed, without the anti-transit threats, harassment and intimidation of previous meetings.
We already know that Katy Perry is one of us, taking her bicycle with her torrid to her shows; she’s also taken her $19 million Beverly Hills mansion off the electric grid to reduce her carbon footprint.
A Chicago woman turns herself in for a hit-and-run so bad her bike-riding victim remains in critical condition over three weeks after the crash; she’s been charged with felony hit-and-run and DUI counts. She should also face charges for attempting to coverup the crime by replacing her car’s mirror and windshield the day of the crash. Although it will be interesting to see how they can make the DUI charge stick without a blood, breath or field sobriety test.
After taking up bicycling in honor of her late bike-riding husband, a Chicago woman was crushed when someone stole her bike in South Carolina. Until she got it back when the thief tried to sell it to a legitimate dealer.
Right-wing Austrian politicians are calling for a ban on bike trailers after two small children were killed when a driver slammed into the trailer their mother was pulling behind her ebike, while calmer voices say the real problem is cars and the people driving them.
Heartbreaking story from Hiroshima on the 70th anniversary of the first atomic bomb attack, where a three-year old boy was buried with his tricycle until his bones were exhumed 34 years ago and moved to the family cemetery.
