Tag Archive for Burning Man

Culver City non-explains MOVE bike lane removal, Ethan Boyes ghost bike burned at Burning Man, and NoHo CicLAmini

September 15, 2023 / / Comments Off on Culver City non-explains MOVE bike lane removal, Ethan Boyes ghost bike burned at Burning Man, and NoHo CicLAmini

Call it a non-explanatory explanation.

A statement from the Culver City Communications & Public Information Manager purports to explain the city’s move to modify the highly successful MOVE Culver City project — including the bizarre plan to exempt the move to re-add another traffic lane under California’s CEQA environmental regulations.

Except the only time CEQA is even mentioned is in the first paragraph, and then only in passing.

At its meeting on Monday, September 11th, 2023, the Culver City City Council voted 3-2 to ratify plans to modify the MOVE Culver City pilot project, including a California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) exemption. MOVE Culver City is a city-led effort that reimagines city streets as public spaces and prioritizes moving people more efficiently and safely in the design of the street.

The story goes on to add that the re-imagined project will include new bike boxes at seven locations, which wouldn’t be necessary if the city wasn’t removing the current protected bike lane, and moving to a shared bus-bike lane.

And in doublespeak Orwell would be proud of, he describes the goal of the MOVE project as improving “the infrastructure and services for mobility alternatives and to offer the community equitable, convenient, and sustainable mobility options.”

It’s hard to imagine how removing a protected bike lane, and forcing bikes and buses to share a single lane, accomplishes any of those goals.

Meanwhile, the crowdfunding campaign to fight the changes is now approaching 80% of the modest $10,000 goal.

Hopefully, it will meet that soon.

Or better yet, exceed it.

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In a surprisingly moving gesture, the ghost bike for San Francisco bicycling champ Ethan Boyes was burned in the bonfire at Burning Man,

The bike had disappeared after officials at the Presidio ordered it removed, and passed among friends until it was taken to the event to be burned.

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A reminder that the North Hollywood CicLAmini — a shorter version of CicLAvia intended to encourage walking over bicycling — rolls this Sunday.

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Joni Yung sings the praises of Pasadena’s new Union Street protected bike lane, suggesting she may have misjudged the wealthy, traditionally white and conservative city.

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Good point.

If LA schools really cared about student safety, they wouldn’t resort to part-time safety measures.

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LADOT wants to know what you think about how to improve Westside walking and biking conditions.

And no, burn it all down and start over probably isn’t a winning idea.

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Here’s your chance to weigh in on the long-overdue proposal to extend the Ballona Creek bike path to the creek’s eastern terminus.

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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 teenaged bike rider was injured when they were struck by driver while taking part in a Salinas rideout, as the group popped wheelies and wove through traffic in front of the local high school. But despite several references to getting hit by a car, the lengthy story never once mentioned that it might have had a driver.

No bias here, either. Nowhere in this six paragraph story about a Wisconsin hit-and-run that left a 39-year old woman riding a bicycle with significant injuries, does it mention that someone was driving the vehicle that hit her.

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Local 

What could possibly go wrong? The Los Angeles City Planning Commission backed a proposal to install 80 digital billboards on sites owned by Metro, which could generate up to half a billion dollars in ad revenue over a 20 year period. After all, it’s not like the flashing billboards are distracting, or anything.

Police continue the hunt for five men who burglarized Irwindale Cycles early Monday morning, including two men who got off the Metro L (Gold) Line in Pasadena with four bikes still bearing the shop’s price tags.

While we continue the endless wait for California’s ebike rebate program to finally go live, Santa Monica is planning to offer vouchers up to $2,000 to eligible low-income residents to buy ebikes and accessories.

The LA County Sheriff’s Department will conduct another in the area’s ongoing series of bicycle and pedestrian safety enforcement operations in Carson today. So ride to the letter of the law until you cross the city limit line, so you’re not the one who gets ticketed.

 

State

California Streetsblog marks the passage of California’s speed cam pilot program in the state legislature, observing that it’s now up to Gov. Newsom to sign it. Given his track record on traffic safety issues, cross your fingers but don’t hold your breath.

Encinitas considers actions to prevent additional ebike deaths, including sharrows, reduced lane widths and bike lanes, as well as lowering the speed limit on part of Coast Highway 101 and a installing rubber traffic circle roundabout on Quail Gardens Drive. But someone should tell them that sharrows are worthless, and have been shown to actually increase the risk to people on bicycles. And people on regular bikes are at risk, too. 

A Marin paper says San Raphael is keeping its promise to improve safety for bike riders. Although it’s hard to square that with the ongoing efforts to remove the bike lanes from the Richmond-San Raphael Bridge. 

A 19-year old Roseville driver faces a felony hit-and-run charge after striking a 61-year old bike rider and driving off, leaving the victim with minor injuries. Although something doesn’t add up, since California’s felony hit-and-run statute only applies in cases of major injuries or death; a crash resulting in minor injuries should be charged as a misdemeanor. 

A Gold County bicycling columnist offers safety advice while reviewing bike laws, but neglects to mention under his section about taking the lane that bicyclists can legally use the full lane on any substandard lane, which means any lane too narrow to safety share with a motor vehicle — and these days that means a large truck or SUV, not a compact sedan.

 

National

He gets it. A Colorado writer says instead of blaming the victim, it should be up to drivers to operate their vehicles safely and not hit bike riders or pedestrians. But please, can we finally drive a stake through the overly tired “safety is a two-way street” cliche once and for all?

New York-based Priority Bicycles is introducing a belt-drive foldie for just $799, which is an exceptionally low price for the category.

New York residents and industry leaders argue that allowing four-wheeled, “high-speed” — aka 20 mph — delivery cargo bikes in bike lanes will get someone killed. Just wait until someone tells them about all those high-speed drivers in the big, dangerous machines.

Maryland will provide another $25.5 million for bicycle, pedestrian and trail projects.

He gets it, too. After getting hit by a truck while riding a bicycle, a Charleston, South Carolina English professor and local Democratic Party co-chair says a local street needs a bike lane, not another ghost bike.

 

International

After being forced to close 750 campus dorm rooms due to structural defects, an English university promises to give a free bicycle to any student moved off campus.

Harry Styles and James Corden are both one of us, as they take to bikeshare bikes for a leisurely “bromance” ride through London’s Primrose Hill neighborhood.

India’s “bicycle” political party is in the midst of the country’s longest bicycling political rally at 37 days and over 1,600 miles, and counting.

 

Competitive Cycling

Bicycling reports that cycling fans took to social media to express their outrage over Jumbo-Visma’s dick moves tactics in Wednesday’s stage 17 of the Vuelta, as both Jonas Vingegaard and Primož Roglič attacked their own teammate, American race leader Sepp Kuss. As usual, read it on Yahoo if the magazine blocks you. 

Road.cc declared the end of the Jumbo-Visma civil war on Thursday, however, as Vingegaard and Roglič worked to protect Kuss’ lead, while Remco Evenpoel won the stage from the break, although longtime cycling director sportif Johan Bruyneel was not impressed with Belgian cyclist Remco Evenepoel’s tactics.

The Tour of Britain could see a return of the women’s race next year.

 

Finally…

That feeling when your friends talk you into crashing your bike into a naked pedestrian, who proceeds to beat the crap out of you. If a tank can pass a bike rider safely, a driver should be able to, too.

And it wouldn’t be funny if it wasn’t so painfully true.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

Morning Links: Study shows drivers benefit from bike lanes, NC meeting on North Figueroa, and Burning Man bikes

August 30, 2017 / / Comments Off on Morning Links: Study shows drivers benefit from bike lanes, NC meeting on North Figueroa, and Burning Man bikes

Once again, science backs up common sense.

For years, bicycle advocates have argued that bike lanes improve traffic flow by giving people on bicycles their own space away from traffic, eliminating the need for drivers to slow down or go around them.

And reducing the risk that angry drivers will take their frustrations out on the two-wheeled person directly ahead of them.

Now a new study of how bicycle facilities affect traffic from a driver’s perspective has reached that same conclusion.

Results show that on shared roadways without clearly marked bicycle facilities, drivers are more inclined to pass bicyclists, encroach on other traffic lanes or line up behind bicyclists than on roadways with clearly striped or buffered facilities…

“The solid line makes the absolute difference in bicycle facilities— something that we haven’t seen in any other study. We found that the presence of a clearly marked or buffered bicycle lane makes a large difference in the way drivers behave around bicyclists,” said John Hourdos, Director, Minnesota Traffic Observatory, University of Minnesota.

Which means the best way to sell bike lanes to a suspicious driving public is to make it clear they’re the ones who will benefit.

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The Land Use and Public Safety Committees of the Historic Highland Park Neighborhood Council will hold a joint session on Thursday to “address the future of safety and lane configuration of N. Figueroa St.”

Anyone concerned about improving safety for bicyclists and pedestrians on the deadly street, where six people have been killed in the last six years, is urged to attend.

And yes, there will be snacks.

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The Californian Report examines how bicycles abandoned at Burning Man benefit kids hundreds of miles away. Thanks to Megan Lynch for the heads-up.

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Racing resumed in the Vuelta after Monday’s rest day, with a rain-soaked 10th stage.

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Local

Good read from Mar Vista Neighborhood Council member and former Los Angeles Streetsblog editor Damian Newton, as he wonders how we arrived at the current battle over road diets, and what we can all do “as advocates for safe streets and healthy communities, to move towards a more civil debate.”

 

State

A new bill would require the California Department of General Services to provide bikeshare for state employees at offices around the state; legislators rode bikes around the capitol to show their support.

A 26-year old Mission Viejo woman rode 4,205 miles across the US to raise awareness of Type 1 diabetes.

A Coronado woman suffered a broken nose and three fractured vertebrae when a participant in Sunday’s Bike the Bay crashed into her head-on as she rode on a Coronado bike path.

A new study shows people who bike to and from transit in San Diego have twice the job opportunities as people who walk — but still 15 times less than people who drive.

Construction is scheduled to begin next week in National City on a segment of the 24-mile Bayshore Bikeway along San Diego Bay.

The driver accused of murder in the death of an off-duty, bike-riding Modesto cop had a blood alcohol content over four times the legal limit; he had a previous conviction for driving with BAC of .37 — over 4.5 times the legal limit — as well as an arrest for driving with a BAC of .26. And yet he still found a way to get behind the wheel, with or without a license.

A man riding a motorized bicycle faces DUI and hit-and-run charges after crashing into two pedestrians in a South Lake Tahoe crosswalk; no word on how serious their injuries are. It’s questionable whether DUI would actually apply in this case, depending on the maximum speed of the bicycle; below 28 mph, the statute for bicycling under the influence should apply.

 

National

The Spokane WA city council approves a road diet featuring the city’s first separated bike lanes, though construction remains several years away.

A Wisconsin man was arrested for riding a motorized bicycle while drunk, even though he was already out on bail following his seventh — yes, 7th — DUI arrest, presumably while driving.

A new Illinois law will allow bikes to legally be ridden on the shoulder of a roadway, which was previously a gray area, and permit drivers to briefly cross a solid center line to pass someone on a bike by at least three feet. That last part would have part of California’s three-foot passing law if it weren’t for Jerry Brown’s veto pen.

That’s more like it. A Tennessee driver got eight years behind bars and another eight years supervised probation for the drunken death of a bike rider in 2014 and possession of meth.

A New York HuffPo writer says white people who complain about ebikes are ruining the lives of low-income and immigrant workers.

Philadelphia opened its first one-way protected bike lane; naturally, not everyone is happy about it.

 

International

A Canadian man has his faith in humanity restored after people crowdfund a new bicycle for him after his was stolen in Winnipeg while riding across the country.

Montreal bike cops accidently bust one of the United States’ most wanted criminals.

The Guardian’s Peter Walker questions whether the UK is really menaced by reckless cyclists, noting that the conflict on our streets is just a question of differing modes of transportation, not warring tribes.

Brit bike riders respond to Sir Chris Hoy’s ill-advised comments shaming fat riders for wearing Lycra, while a writer for the Guardian justifies benefits of bikewear. Although Hoy’s larger point that people don’t have to dress like pro cyclists just to ride a bicycle seems to have gotten lost in the controversy.

An English writer says we have to ensure that bicycling can remain a social activity.

A British lecturer looks at the strain that ultra endurance sports takes on the body.

Caught on video: An Aussie bike rider goes over his handlebars when a driver inches out of a driveway in front of him; commenters are quick to blame one side or the other.

 

Finally…

Just call them the pre-teen Mont Ventoux Two. Seriously, there are better ways to present an homage to the late Tobe Hooper than chasing a bike rider with a chainsaw.

And proof that the “unenforceable” three-foot passing law actually can be.

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