Tag Archive for Chandler bike path

Fed grant to close gap in Chandler path, UK groups issue bike manifesto, and coyotes absolved for biting Irvine boy

October 29, 2024 / / One comment
Just 63 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025. 

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Good news for San Fernando Valley bike riders.

US Representative Tony Cárdenas presented Los Angeles officials with a ceremonial check for $650,000 to help close a 2.7-mile gap between the Chandler Bike Path and Orange Line Bike Path.

The federal grant will help create a continuous 20-mile-long combination of protected, separated and offroad bikeways between Chatsworth and Burbank.

Thanks to Lionel Mares for the heads-up.

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Yes, please.

An alliance of the five largest providers in the UK’s cycle to work program has issued a manifesto to advance the country’s bicycle community.

The Manifesto for Cycle Commuting outlines a series of strategic proposals based on exclusive data commissioned through YouGov, including:

  • Enhanced safety measures: Urging the Department for Transport to include the needs of cyclists in its new Road Safety Review.
  • Improved infrastructure: Advocating for long-term funding to build safe and accessible cycling routes.
  • Expanded scheme access: Encouraging policy changes to include low-income earners and the self-employed in the Cycle to Work Scheme.
  • Support for e-bikes: Promoting the use of e-bikes as a key solution for older and long-distance commuters, while countering misconceptions about their safety.

Maybe we need to do the same thing over here.

Okay, no maybe about it.

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Last week, we mentioned a a ten-year old Irvine boy who was reportedly bitten by a coyote while riding his bicycle on the way to school.

Now comes word that no coyote DNA was found on his clothing, suggesting that he was probably bitten by your basic, garden variety stray dog.

Thanks to Don Sanders for the heads-up.

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We keep saying it. Bikes are good for business.

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So that’s where “war on cars” came from.

Figures.

Meanwhile, a Canadian news site suggests the Ontario premier’s attack on bike lanes could be a smokescreen for more highway building.

A Toronto writer accuses Premier Ford of making life more dangerous for the city’s delivery riders.

And a writer for Canada’s conservative — small C — National Post says the left is losing the battle over bike lanes, “as it should,” because traffic flow is what matters most.  Bicycling is neither liberal or conservative, but should be a viable option for anyone, regardless of political leanings.

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Evidently, killing one of us just once isn’t enough for some drivers.

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It was man against machine Saturday, as Mathieu van der Poel defeated multiple world rally champion Sébastien Loeb in a head-to-head matchup.

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It’s now 313 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And a full 40 months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

While we can’t manage to get such a simple program off the ground, the UK’s Cycle to Work Program has helped over 2 million people buy bicycles to commute to their jobs, with much more to come.

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

Talk about not taking a crime seriously. Three Portland men face charges of charges of fourth-degree assault and reckless endangering for boobytrapping a bike path by stringing a spiderweb of wires across it, injuring a woman who unknowingly rode her bike into it. Maybe someday, someone, somewhere will actually prosecute people like that on terrorism charges for deliberately attempting to harm innocent people simply because they don’t like bikes.

No bias here. A conservative — again, small C — New York councilmember instructs everyone to be civil at a public meeting to to discuss a proposed bike lane, before nearly igniting a brawl by standing on a chair and shouting that opponents of the greenway should pick up and leave because their opinions wouldn’t be counted, before storming out.

No bias here, either. A Conservative — capital C — English councilor was criticized for a “reprehensible” rant arguing that “Lycra louts” who ride in the roadway instead bike lanes, which are often blocked or somehow substandard, deserve to suffer the consequences.

It’s a well-deserved three years and eight months behind bars for “very enraged” British motorist who deliberately rammed a 67-year old man off his bicycle, resulting in “serious, severe and long-lasting” injuries; he will also be banned from driving for nine years. Let’s hope drivers take license suspensions more seriously over there than they are here.

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

A Vietnamese website asks whether the problem of people bicycling on prohibited roads can ever be solved, arguing that “people disregard the law and ride bicycles on prohibited roads is considered an act that poses a risk of serious traffic accidents.”

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Local  

This is who we share the road with. A boy riding a minibike was killed in a hit-and-run after laying down his motorbike in a Koreatown intersection and getting struck by a driver, who fled the scene.

 

State

Calbike celebrates their 30th anniversary, while acknowledging that their work for safety isn’t finished.

Sad news from Berkeley, where an unconfirmed comment reports a bike rider was killed in a solo crash. Thanks to Megan Lynch for the heads-up.

An Amazon delivery driver was allegedly involved in a hit-and-run crash that left a 14-year old Castro Valley boy with minor injuries, and “demolished” the front wheel of the boy’s bike. However, the CHP didn’t seem very interested.

San Francisco unveiled a one-block long protected bike lane directly in front of city hall, while leaving the rest of the street what Streetsblog’s Roger Ruddick calls a “shit show.” Which is pretty much the definition of putting lipstick on a pig. Unless you’re into that sort of thing, of course. 

More sad news, as a 20-year old man was killed when he was run down by the driver of a semi while riding his bicycle in a Sacramento industrial neighborhood.

Megan Lynch also points to a Davis sidewalk to demonstrate how badly some sidewalk dining areas are done, leaving almost no room to get by — let alone walk a bike.

 

National

Turning old mountain bikes into new cargo bikes.

A writer for Cycling Savvy demonstrates how to tigger a vehicle detector embedded in the roadway. Which can be pretty damn complicated sometimes.

Bicycling offers the health benefits of riding an ebike. Unfortunately, this one doesn’t seem to be available anywhere else, so you’re on your own if the magazine blocks you. 

In yet another Arizona bicycling mass casualty event, a 21-year old Tempe was busted for crashing into a group of bicyclists, sending three people to the hospital. Although the three misdemeanor counts will likely result in a slap on the wrist, if that.

A couple of Arizona universities are collaborating on creating a virtual dashcam for bicycles, replacing the handlebar plugs with a camera and sensors to detect any vehicle passing within three feet, offering an audio/visual warning for the rider, as well as recording a video to capture the license plate of the vehicle, with a time and location stamp.

Colorado Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert, the pistol-packing former bar owner kicked out of a “Beetlejuice” musical for getting too frisky with her date, is now taking aim at bicycling, inserting a provision in a GOP bill to remove the bicycling benefit for Dept. of the Interior staffers who bike to work.

A New York state judge put the brakes on a planned bike lane through an NYC industrial zone, after businesses along the route accused the city of bypassing a required environmental review.

 

International

Couldn’t have said it better myself. “If you design a city just for cars, you fail everyone, including the drivers.”

Oops. Evidently, the exact movements of world leaders — including Joe Biden, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris — can be tracked by the Strava apps of their bodyguards.

Momentum argues that bicycling delivers the freedom that cars can only promise.

Tragic news from Scotland, where a former rugby star died of a heart attack, just one day after completing a 1,000 mile fundraising ride; Ken MacAulay raised the equivalent of more than $18,000 for four different charities. He was 66.

She gets it. An Irish public health physician says we have to “wean ourselves off our love of large, fossil fuel-burning cars” if we’re going to meet climate and traffic safety goals.

Momentum says the Paris Olympics bicycle revolution offers lessons for Los Angeles, as well as other cities around the globe.

Even in the Netherlands, two out of five people are bothered by blinding bike lights. Which is why I angle mine down so they don’t shine in people’s eyes.

A star-struck Chinese man rode his bicycle over 8,000 miles from China to Saudi Arabia to meet soccer superstar Cristiano Ronaldo for all of one minute.

 

Competitive Cycling

Tragic news from British Columbia, where 41-year old two-time provincial cyclocross and national track champ Lindsay Burgess was killed in a collision with a pickup driver, who apparently strayed onto a poorly marked cycling race course.

A new documentary shows the reaction in the peloton when Mark Cavendish broke the record for most Tour de France stage wins.

Radio France questions the dominance of Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard, implying something fishy is going on, since neither was outstanding as a junior cyclist.

A writer for Cycling Weekly questions where the country’s next generation of cyclists will come from if the Tour de France is no longer broadcast on free TV. Probably the same place they do on this side of the pond.

Velo offers the “ultimate” guide to this year’s gravel racing season.

Velo also says at 6’7″, NBA Hall of Famer Reggie Miller is breaking the cycling mold, which only motivates him to try harder.

 

Finally…

If you’re going to steal a bicycle in broad daylight, always wear a bike helmet so people will think it could be yours. Now you, too, can be replaced by AI — even on your bicycle.

And no, there’s nothing new about road rage or fighting over bikeways.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

OC’s San Juan Creek bike-ped path closed for construction work, and Burbank marks 20 years of Chandler Bike Path

July 18, 2024 / / Comments Off on OC’s San Juan Creek bike-ped path closed for construction work, and Burbank marks 20 years of Chandler Bike Path
Just 166 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025. 

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A few people have already volunteered to write guest posts to help keep this site from going dark when I’m out next month following my shoulder surgery.

So if you’re interested in filling in here for a few days, or joining them in submitting a guest post or two, just email me at the address on the About page above.

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The Orange County Transportation Authority, aka OCTA, announced the closure of the San Juan Creek multi-use path starting today for construction work on a new Metrolink railroad bridge.

Here’s a press release they sent out yesterday announcing the closure. Although a little advance notice would have been nice.

San Juan Creek Bike/Pedestrian Trail to Temporarily Close as Part of Railroad Bridge Construction

The San Juan Creek Trail is scheduled to close Thursday, July 18 to Friday, Aug. 2, with intermittent closures through August; detour maps will be posted

ORANGE – The Orange County Transportation Authority, in coordination with Metrolink, continues progress in constructing a new railroad bridge over San Juan Creek in San Juan Capistrano. As part of the ongoing construction, the adjacent San Juan Creek Trail is expected to close for approximately two weeks beginning on Thursday, July 18.

Cyclists and pedestrians who use the trail are being asked to plan for the closure, follow the designated detour route or avoid the area during the closure, if possible.

During the closure, trail users will be detoured to Camino Capistrano, Del Obispo Street and the Trabuco Creek Trail. Detour signs will be in place. (See the map below for more details.)

The detour is necessary so that construction crews can remove pavement and conduct pile driving to construct the new bridge that will go over the trail. The trail is expected to reopen on Friday, Aug. 2.

However, after the scheduled closure, contractors are expected to continue working in the area, prompting intermittent trail closures through August. During that time, workers will be present to hold back trail traffic for their safety as construction equipment  is moved through the area.

OCTA appreciates the patience of trail users during this construction.

The work is being completed in partnership with Metrolink as part of a $65.6 million project to replace the existing San Juan Creek bridge, which was constructed in 1917, enhancing safety and reducing maintenance costs.

The project is being funded by Measure M, the county’s half-cent sales tax for transportation improvements, and a mix of state and federal funds.

For more information, visit octa.net/SJCBridge.

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Burbank will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the popular Chandler Bike Path next month with a free, drop-in event near the intersection of Pass and Chandler from 6 to 8 pm on August 14th.

But what do you mean they didn’t name it after Chandler Bing from Friends, which was filmed at nearby Warner Brothers Studios?

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Caltrans is hosting a pair of virtual meetings today to discuss how to improve safety on the killer highway that passes for Malibu’s main street. So if you ride, walk or drive on PCH, you owe it to yourself to join in to protect your own safety.

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People for Mobility Justice is leading a ride on Saturday to check out the coming the Slauson Ave bike/ped path.

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Police in the UK have forwarded a case for prosecution after a driver’s “ridiculously close pass” of a bicyclist that was caught on video; unlike most, if not all, of the US, video recordings are acceptable evidence for traffic violations and misdemeanors there.

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Maybe it was just a brief PR stunt, but nice to see Deadpool & Wolverine stars Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman and Emma Corrin arrive on bikes for a Berlin media event.

Thanks to Megan Lynch for the heads-up.

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It’s now 210 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And 37 full months 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.

Someone sabotaged a Spokane, Washington mountain bike trail by spreading grease on a rock feature, causing at least one rider to slip and fall, while posting a sign alluding to buried spikes hidden along the trail and threatening to return to pour concrete over it — all because the city is expanding trails located inside a local bike park.

An Irish representative to the European Parliament says she is “totally empathic to cyclists,” while insisting that “authoritarian” bike lanes have turned Dublin “into a spaghetti junction of cycle lanes that have divided the city like East and West Berlin.” Um, sure. 

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Local 

If you need a little good news — and who doesn’t these days — Streetblog’s Joe Linton reports the new bike lanes on the east end of Hollywood Blvd are now open and rideable through the Thai Town neighborhood.

Streetsblog also says the three-mile long Vincent Community Bikeway is coming together after over a year of construction work in the unincorporated Vincent area adjacent to Covina and Irwindale.

 

State

San Diego city officials show they have a keen grasp on the issues that really matter, voting unanimously to ban loud music on pedicabs.

A Santa Barbara driver was busted for DUI Wednesday after a collision that left a bike rider with minor lacerations.

Sad news from San Joaquin County, where a man was killed riding his bike north of Riverbank when he was run down from behind by a pickup driver Wednesday morning.

Family members are asking for safety improvements to a Sacramento intersection where an 84-year old grandfather was killed riding in an unprotected bike lane last month.

Trail users are raising concerns over allowing ebikes on a new 22-mile singletrack section of multi-use trail in the Tahoe National Forest after the Forest Service concluded they would have no significant impact; the new unpaved path is part of an eventual 72-mile trail system.

 

National

Forbes says the latest active travel trend is bicycling escapes at top luxury resorts — including the Fairmont Miramar Hotel & Bungalows right here in Santa Monica.

Helmet use appears to be declining in Utah, despite an increase in bike riders getting hit by drivers; only 1.45% of bicyclists involved in crashes in the state last year were wearing helmets, down from 11.31% just five years ago.

Police in Boulder, Colorado are investigating a suspicious death after a homeless woman was found wrapped in several layers inside an “unusual” bike trailer, although they’re not saying what she was wrapped in or what was unusual about the trailer.

A lowrider bike club in Olathe, Kansas now has nine chapters across the US, including the first located inside a juvenile detention center.

Bicyclists and hikers can finally cross Vermont on a new 93-mile rail trail across the northern part of the state, after the official opening was delayed by epic flooding last year.

A woman was arrested for a killing a Florida man riding a bicycle in a hit-and-run last year, when surveillance cameras caught her driving on a Western Kentucky highway on Tuesday.

Makes sense. A Florida man plans to incorporate the 51-year old Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa, aka RAGBRAI, as part of his fundraising ride on a Penny Farthing across the US to combat autism.

Port St. Lucie, Florida is just the latest East Coast city cracking down on juvenile rideouts, taking a zero-tolerance approach to the kids weaving through — and sometimes against — traffic

 

International

Road.cc says yes, bike commuting can lower your risk of early death by 47% — but only if you don’t get hit by a driver, since it also doubles your risk of serious injury.

They get it. Tijuana is repairing a pedestrian bridge used by over 10,000 people a month in the Zona Río, while adapting it for use by bicycles, as well.

“A team of four passionate cyclists” is banding together to save iconic, 80-year old British bespoke bikemaker Mercian Cycles, saying they didn’t want to see it disappear despit entering voluntary liquidation proceedings earlier this year.

A man in the UK was sentenced to life behind bars for murdering a woman by pushing her down a flight of stairs in a fight over a kid’s bike. Yet another reminder that no bicycle is worth a human life. Or life behind bars.

The European Commission may take a look at the importation of America’s massive pickups after a number of advocacy organizations raised concerns that they may be exploiting loopholes to skirt safety and environmental protection regulations.

 

Competitive Cycling

Slovenia’s Tadej Pogačar is closing in on his third Tour de France title, as he maintained a more than three-minute lead over fellow two-time winner Jonas Vingegaard.

Maybe we need a new jersey color, after Road.cc staffers announced Belgian Remco Evenepoel is the best at doing “keepie uppies.”

 

Finally..

Never led a sad separation from your husband prevent a celebrity bicycling photo opp. And that feeling when a new law banning devices to boost ebike speeds is already having a positive effect before anyone even knows about it.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

Why US traffic safety is behind the rest of the world, LA closes Chandler Bike Bath gap, and getting Inglewood kids on bikes

November 4, 2022 / / 4 comments

Before we get started, a quick reminder that Daylight Savings ends this weekend, and it’s time to set your clocks back on Sunday. 

Which means it will get dark earlier, and you could find yourself riding in it more.

So pack lights with you, even if you don’t plan to be out that light; I’ve found myself riding in the dark more than once because of a flat or some other mechanical. 

And don’t forget that even an extra hour of sleep is enough to throw drivers off their already negligible game. So ride defensively and use extra care for the next week or so.

I don’t want to write about you because some fool couldn’t manage to concentrate behind the wheel.

Photo from Pixabay. 

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Writing for CityLab, Harvard visiting fellow David Zipper recounts that US Transportation Secretary Pete recently formed a new traffic safety program “to help countries around the world learn from our best practices in planning and modernizing transportation.”

As if we actually have any.

As Zipper points out,

The US underperformance in road safety is especially dramatical: 11.4 Americans per 100,000 died in crashes in 2020, a number that dwarfs countries including Spain (2.9), Israel (3.3) and New Zealand (6.3). And unlike most developed nations, US roadways have grown more deadly during the last two decades (including during the pandemic), especially for those outside of cars. Last year saw the most pedestrians killed in the US in 40 years, and deaths among those biking rose 44% from 2010 to 2020…

The closer you look, the clearer it becomes that the US traffic safety crisis is not a reflection of geography or culture. It is the result of policy decisions that elevated fast car travel and automaker profits over roadway safety. Other countries made different choices, and they’ve saved lives as a result.

He goes on to add that the US has fallen behind other countries to the point that we hit a 16-year high for traffic fatalities last year, at the same time Japan and Norway posted their lowest fatality rates since the 1940s, when both countries were recovering from the devastation of WWII.

Not surprisingly, there are some pretty obvious reasons for that.

Europe, for example, has created many more car-free and car-light urban neighborhoods than the US. Since motor vehicles play a role in virtually all roadway deaths, their removal from the urban core is a big boost for safety. Meanwhile, countries like Canada and France have embraced automatic traffic cameras — devices that are banned in many US states — to deter speeding and running red lights. Likewise, safe infrastructure enhancements like roundabouts and road diets have been adopted more enthusiastically in other countries.

A widening gap is also visible in car regulations, which have grown relatively stricter abroad. A case in point: The European Union added pedestrian safety tests to NCAP crash ratings over two decades ago, and Japan, China and Australia now conduct them as well. The US still does not.

He also notes that when famed urban planner Jan Gehl first proposed that Copenhagen remake its streets in favor of bicycles to reduce reliance on motor vehicles, he was told they were Danes, not Italians.

Sort of like we’re constantly told this isn’t Copenhagen. Or Amsterdam. Or any other bike-centric city local NIMBYs have vaguely heard of.

It’s worth a few minutes of your day to read the whole thing.

But if you’re short on time today, just commit every word of this to memory —

For the US, this may be the most important road safety lesson from abroad: Many of the best solutions are quite simple. Build slower streets. Penalize reckless drivers quickly and reliably. Use regulations and taxes — on vehicle weight as well as fuel — to nudge the car industry toward smaller, safer models.

Seriously.

Thanks to Molly Timmons for the heads-up.

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We missed this one somehow.

Probably because we weren’t invited, which is apparently what happens when you’re critical of city leaders.

But still.

Los Angeles officials celebrated the completion of the long-planned Chandler Bicycle Connection yesterday, providing a low-stress, protected bikeway connecting the Orange Line Bike Path with Burbank’s popular Chandler Bike Path.

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Former pro Elliot Jackson offers a progress report on the Grow Cycling Foundation, a two-year old program to “provide opportunities for underserved communities to experience all that the bike has to offer” — starting with offering bike training at Inglewood elementary schools and building an Inglewood pump track.

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The LACBC is hosting a pair of Bicycling 101 classes covering Principles of Traffic Law and Riding With Traffic, as well as a short ride exploring landmarks in Downtown Los Angeles.

And don’t forget their Bike Fest fundraiser in DTLA tomorrow.

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Gravel Bike California explores the unpaved side of the Inland Empire.

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Of course Julia Roberts is one of us.

Which explains where she gets that famous smile.

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Take a few minutes for a morning mountain bike break.

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

A Michigan TV station catches scofflaw motorists driving salmon on the westbound portion of a roadway, which is only supposed to be open to people on bicycles.

An Irish cabbie threatened to run over a bike rider if he ever touches his cab again, after the bicyclist tapped it to ask him not to park in the bike lane.

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

Sarah Jessica Parker jumped back to avoid a bike rider as she was filming the second season of And Just Like That… on the streets of New York, though it was unclear if the scofflaw rider was part of the show.

Tokyo police are continuing their crackdown on scofflaw bicyclists who get caught blow through traffic lights, ride salmon or ride too fast on sidewalks.

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Local

The New York Times says Los Angeles pedestrians are looking forward to California’s new law decriminalizing jaywalking. Even though most Angelenos have probably never even heard of it yet.

Props to Walk ‘N Rollers founder Jim Shanman, who was named a Culver City Hero by the local edition of Patch. And deservedly so.

Streetsblog offers more on the overwhelming success of the Move Culver City project.

 

State 

Wealthy San Diego homeowners are suing the city over its plans to spend development mitigation funds equitably throughout the city, arguing that they should be spent right where the structures are built.

Ramona High School’s mountain bike team could see one of its former members on the US Olympic Team in 2024.

Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine is one of us, taking his young daughters for a family bike ride in Montecito.

 

National

In a surprising study apparently beamed back to us from the future, the January edition of Accident Analysis & Prevention reports a bicycle simulator lab at Oregon State University revealed bike boxes are the safest form of intersection treatment for bike riders, compared to mixing zones and bicycle signals.

Electrek says all the signs point to a new low-cost bike coming from Rad Power Bikes.

Portland officials respond to the death of a bike rider by routing truck traffic away from a dangerous intersection, after she was right hooked by a truck driver recently. Which is exactly how Vision Zero is supposed to work, unlike in a certain SoCal megalopolis we could name.

They get it. Community leaders in Albuquerque, New Mexico fight for equity and investment on one of the city’s most dangerous corridors, arguing that streets are for people, too.

Members of a bicycling group in Grand Rapids, Michigan, can’t understand who would shoot and kill an 18-year old man as he rode on a local bike path. Or why.

Streetsblog reports drivers crash into buildings an average of 100 times a day in the US, examining the case of a Richmond VA woman who has suffered over $100,000 in damages to her home as a result of five crashes in 15 years.

A second man has been arrested in the bludgeoning death of a 49-year old Florida man, who was beaten more than ten times with a tire iron as he rode his bike; the random attack was part of a crime spree using the same weapon on a number of cars and windows, as well as in the of beating an elderly man.

A suspected serial killer faces charges in the death of a 43-year old Florida woman, who disappeared 31 years ago while riding her cruiser bike.

 

International

Momentum examines the efforts of Montreal to make North America’s best bike city even better for people on two wheels.

Meet a 15-year old stunt biker from Kashmir. Although it would be nice if they’d included video of him in action.

That’s more like it. An Aussie driver gets a minimum of five years behind bars for the “despicable and cowardly” hit-and-run death of a 60-year old man riding a bike. Then again, every hit-and-run fits that description.

An Australian man is challenging the settlement he received in 2013, when he was struck while riding his bike when he was just 15 by the man who would become the premier of Australia’s Victoria state a year later; he claims he was ordered to stay quiet and never got a copy of the settlement.

 

Competitive Cycling

VeloNews looks at pro cycling’s annual game of musical chairs, otherwise known as the men’s WorldTour transfer market.

Cycling Tips discovers there is no cycling route so iconic that Google reviewers won’t trash it.

Bianchi got spanked by UCI, cycling’s governing body, who told them their new Oltre RC bike is okay but the Air Deflector wings designed to channel airflow around the head tube aren’t.

 

Finally…

Nothing like stopping by your favorite LBS for a few tubes and a couple skeins of yarn. Or your bike basket beagle biting your breakfast.

And that feeling when you design a 14 passenger bike, but don’t know if it has peddles or pedals.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

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

Metro picks cars over bikes in NoHo, Flax says bicyclists really are entitled, and bus/bike lanes proposed for SaMo Blvd

February 11, 2022 / / Comments Off on Metro picks cars over bikes in NoHo, Flax says bicyclists really are entitled, and bus/bike lanes proposed for SaMo Blvd

Happy International Winter Bike to Work Day!

Even if it goes completely unnoticed here in Southern California, where we don’t have to worry about chipping the ice and snow off our bikes. 

Let alone ourselves at the end of a sunny winter’s ride. 

Photo by photorama from Pixabay.

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Maybe it’s time to sound the alarm.

Last week, we mentioned that Metro’s renderings for a planned transit-oriented development at the North Hollywood station didn’t show the existing bikeways currently serving the area.

Apparently, there’s a reason for that.

Streetsblog’s Joe Linton writes that a new presentation of the project — which would replace a huge surface parking lot with over 1,500 new housing units, as well as retail and office space — does show plans for bike lanes.

Just not as good as what’s there right now.

The massive project, which sits right next to the connecting point for the Burbank-Chandler and Orange Line multi-use paths, will erase a popular bike path connecting to the pathways. And replace it with a convoluted series of bike lanes that will encourage bicyclists to dangerously break the law by riding against traffic.

Here’s what Linton has to say.

Currently cyclists – including me and my daughter – heading from NoHo Station toward Burbank utilize the existing bus plaza sidewalk (which is going away) to get to Metro’s bike path (which is going away) that runs along the north side of Chandler Boulevard between Fair Avenue and Vineland Avenue.

LADOT expects eastbound bicyclists to go out of their way to cross four to five lanes of traffic on Chandler, then to make an uncomfortable left turn onto Vineland (where lots of drivers are turning right) to get to the Burbank-Chandler path. Cyclists will likely choose to salmon-ride against traffic in the westbound bike lane (or on the sidewalk), because that will be more direct and faster. (Similarly ridiculous circulation is shown on Chandler west of Lankershim. LADOT somehow expects cyclists to cross to the north side of Chandler at the station, then cross Chandler again in 500 feet to go to a median bikeway on the south side of Chandler.)

To make matters worse, the bike path is due to be replaced by, you guessed it, a parking garage.

And not just any parking garage, but a concrete behemoth with spaces for 3,300 drivers and their vehicles. Which would suggest that Metro has given up on getting Angelenos out of their cars, even as the world is literally burning.

It also suggests that Metro believes bike riders have a place on the road, but only if we don’t inconvenience all those important people in cars in any way.

Here’s Linton again.

Why wasn’t this path, a big active transportation priority, part of Metro’s site requirements? It sure looks like bike circulation was a non-priority – an afterthought – something to be half-assedly shoehorned in after cars took up lots of space.

(And, frankly, this is how Metro treats stations, bikeways, and transit-oriented development. With no public notice or input, Metro yanked an approved bikeway from its Rosa Parks Station revamp, while allowing drivers to speed through the middle of the station complex. The Expo Line bike path has an awful, dangerous gap at Culver City Station where cyclists are dumped out to onto busy streets just before they reach the station. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy: “Nobody bikes to these stations anyway” because Metro makes them inhospitable to bicycling.)…

The project really should be re-worked to include a continuous bike path from Vineland to at least Tujunga Avenue. Ideally the path would bridge over Lankershim and Vineland. That continuous path was shown in renderings circulated in 2016. If Metro and (Councilmember Paul) Krekorian are serious about passing a habitable climate along to the next generation, this feature should be put back in.

We’ll look forward to future public meetings when we’ll have the chance to offer some very negative feedback.

In the meantime, maybe it’s time to tell Krekorian, who singlehandedly canceled shovel-ready plans for a lane reduction and bike lanes on Lankershim Blvd, he needs to do better.

A lot better.

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Surprisingly, longtime bike scribe Peter Flax agrees with all those people who say cyclists are entitled.

Except he says our primary entitlement is the right to get home alive.

And he’s got the t-shirt to prove it.

Here’s how it gets deployed. Someone sees a rider pedaling in the street and perhaps even gets delayed 15 seconds, and so cyclists are entitled. Or maybe 17 parking spaces were reapportioned to make room for a bike lane, and so cyclists are entitled. Or someone makes the quite novel observation that bike riders don’t pay registration fees or taxes on the gasoline they don’t use. Or somebody sees a rider roll through a stop sign or maybe filter past gridlocked traffic with a smile on their face. You all know the chorus: Cyclists are entitled.

Of course this is total rubbish. The people who do all this moaning about cyclists are drivers who are oblivious to all the obscene entitlements that they enjoy. We are talking about trillions of dollars and decades of subsidies. We are talking about hundreds of millions of free parking spaces. We are talking about the most lurid fantasies of the petroleum and automotive industries being transmogrified into policy. Motorists have been lavished with VIP privileges for so long that they don’t even perceive them.

In order to reclaim that misused term, Flax says we need a bill of rights, including,

  • Cyclists are entitled to get home alive
  • Cyclists are entitled to safe places to ride
  • Cyclists are entitled to travel to work, schools, and local businesses just like everyone else
  • Cyclists are entitled to legal protections
  • Cyclists are entitles to have lawmakers, police departments, and the judicial system acknowledge and protect people who ride bikes
  • Cyclists are entitled to ride on the road

Like anything Flax writes, it’s a good piece. And more than worth a few minutes of your time.

And reminiscent of this Cyclists’ Bill of Rights we mentioned earlier this week, which nearly became law in Los Angeles, before it didn’t.

Oh, and about that t-shirt.

https://twitter.com/EntitledCycling/status/1491896038478675994

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This would be a huge improvement for the deadly, heavily congested corridor, where fallen bicyclist Frank Guzman was killed in 2018.

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Say goodbye to the Higuera Street Bridge over Ballona Creek, with a bigger, better replacement coming by the end of the year — complete with buffered bike lanes and a new ramp leading to the bike path.

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Former American pro Ted King says he’s a fan of fixing his own bike, despite the increasing complexity of modern bicycles.

https://twitter.com/iamtedking/status/1491587873128292353?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1491587873128292353%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Froad.cc%2Fcontent%2Fnews%2Fcycling-live-blog-10-february-2022-290211

Although as usual, it’s Phil Gaimon for the win.

………

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

Brits are getting out the torches and pitchforks over a new bike lane, which narrowed the road so much in some places that drivers aren’t able to pass slower traffic. Which is kind of the point, yes.

………

Local

KCRW examines whether banning outdoor bike sales and repair will help stop LA’s bike theft epidemic, where 96% of bike thefts go unsolved. And those are only the ones that get reported to the police.

A Claremont student relates his tale of riding 240 miles from Torrance to Morro Bay on a whim while on winter break.

 

State

Fresno finally announced plans to improve safety for bike riders and pedestrians trying to access a local park, after a bike rider was killed riding next to it last month.

A San Francisco judge says yes, the city did have the right to close the Great Highway to motor vehicles during the pandemic, quashing an effort to force them to reopen it right away.

 

National

A series of events and bike rides will take place across the US this summer to mark the 125th anniversary of the legendary Buffalo Soldiers great bicycle experiment, which culminated in a 1,900-mile expedition that proved the value of bikes as a military tool, before they were rudely shoved aside by motor vehicles.

Forbes offers their take on the best bike locks to help make sure your bike is still there when you come back for it.

The death of a Houston man who was killed when he was right hooked by a pickup driver may be the first case prosecuted under a new Texas law that requires drivers to stop and yield for someone in a crosswalk. Which was kind of the whole rationale for crosswalks to begin with.

A Florida lawyer with a keen sense of the obvious says the recent drawbridge accident that killed a 79-year old woman walking her bike across the span should never have happened.

 

International

Start saving your spare change. A bike tourism company is offering a 36-day, 2,300 mile tour from Paris to Tallinn, Estonia, which follows the route Napoleon took across Europe in the 1800s, for the low, low price of $17,208. Or you can do just eight days for a touch over four grand.

Bloomberg CityLab looks at the rise of bike buses from San Francisco to Barcelona, allowing kids to rule the roads on their way to and from school.

A British professional triathlete was crushed to find her $13,500 tri bike had been crushed on an EasyJet flight.

Happy birthday to legendary Italian framebuilder Ernesto Colnago, who turns 90 this week.

 

Competitive Cycling

Great news, as two-time Grand Tour winner Egan Bernal is back on his feet — literally — after suffering critical injuries when he slammed into a poorly parked bus while training in his native Colombia.

 

Finally…

Bike theft at the Beijing Olympics. Nothing like a company naming their new ebike for the sole purpose of getting free publicity on social media.

And that feeling when traffic engineers respond to complaints about a badly designed bikeway.

By adding a sign.

https://twitter.com/Andy_likes2bike/status/1438284665219997697?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1438284665219997697%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fsf.streetsblog.org%2F2022%2F02%2F10%2Feditorial-bicycle-safety-and-the-time-of-leeching%2F

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

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

California traffic deaths jump 17% last year, Metro proposes erasing NoHo bike lane, and register your bike already

February 2, 2022 / / One comment

No, you’re not just being paranoid.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released their latest count of US traffic deaths for the first nine months of last year, showing an estimated 31,720 people died in motor vehicle crashes through the end of September.

That’s a 12% increase over the previous year, and the most traffic deaths in 15 years.

Not to mention the biggest one-year jump since they’ve been keeping score.

Things are even worse here in California, which saw a 17.2% increase in traffic deaths for the first nine months of 2021.

Unfortunately, they don’t break out figures for bicycling and pedestrian deaths, so we’ll have to wait to learn just how bad it’s been for those of us who aren’t wrapped in a couple tons of steel and glass, and protected by seat belts and air bags instead of a little plastic hat.

But if you thought it was getting worse out there, you’re right.

Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay.

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Unbelievable.

The world may be burning, but Metro is busy erasing bike lanes.

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Yet another reminder to register your bike.

Now.

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I couldn’t have said it better myself.

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

Life is cheap in South Africa, where a prominent triathlete was killed and another injured by an alleged drunken hit-and-run driver, who was released on bail due to “lack of evidence;” the driver couldn’t get away because his Porsche was too damaged to drive. Which sounds like pretty solid evidence to me, but what the hell do I know?

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

Police in London’s Hackney district busted 18 people on bicycles for jumping red lights in just 90 minutes, fining them the equivalent of around $68.

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Local

Los Angeles is hosting tire recycling events in Baldwin Park at the end of this month, East LA next month and the Antelope Valley in April. And yes, they’ll take bike tires and tubes.

Once again, an Apple Watch has called for help to rescue an injured bike rider, this time when a man somehow came off his ebike while riding in Hermosa Beach.

 

State

A man known as the scraper bike king of East Oakland is working with kids to carry on the tradition of colorful, highly customized bikes, hoping it will help keep them out of trouble like it did him.

 

National

A new study from the Urban Institute shows that pressuring city officials to build bikeways works.

This is who we’ll soon have to share the road with. Even an automotive site calls for banning the new 840 horsepower Dodge Demon from public roads, calling it a nominally street-legal dragster.

Dockless e-scooter provider Superpedestrian is rolling out a new safety system designed to detect and correct unsafe rider behavior in real time, preventing things like riding on the sidewalk or riding salmon.

Triathlete credits a bike safety campaign featuring triathletes for the White House’s shift to prioritizing bicycle safety.

220 Triathlon considers whether you’d be better off with a women’s bike.

Reno bike riders get a new nearly half-mile multi-use path near the airport. Although it looks like whoever striped it needs to cut back on the weed.

A Denver bike advocate laments the death of what would have been a perfect bike lane, thanks to a whole 17 complaints during the public comment period.

An Ohio letter writer complains about the angry drivers who feel the need to ruin a good bike ride because they don’t understand the law. Or just having a bad day.

The Boston Globe marks Black History Month by remembering Kittie Knox, who integrated the League of American Wheelmen — now the League of American Bicyclists, aka Bike League — in 1893, a year before the organization banned Black members to keep her out.

A writer for Jalopnik totals up what it cost, in dollars and swearing, to rebuild a titanium Litespeed bike abandoned for two years on a Brooklyn street.

A New York photographer documents Gotham bike messengers of the 1990s.

 

International

More proof bike riders face the same problems everywhere, as bicyclists in Antigua and Barbuda renewed calls for greater consideration on the roads after a 16-year old boy was while killed riding his bike.

Something tells me there will be no shortage of volunteers to become the UK’s first bike lane inspector.

America’s Got Talent star Simon Cowell is still one of us, despite suffering a broken arm and suspected concussion when he pulled an endo hitting a wet patch while riding his ebike in London; he fractured his back in 2020 crashing an electric motorcycle.

That’s more like it. A drunk hit-and-run driver got seven years behind bars for killing a British man riding a bicycle; he was captured when police spotted him from a helicopter trying to sleep it off in a field.

A Scottish transport and health professor explains the changes to Britain’s Highway Code, while stressing that it’s probably not enough to change anyone’s behavior. Meanwhile, a British bike rider says forget the Highway Code, he just wants to get home in one piece.

A Santa Fe man offers advice on what to consider before exploring Germany by bicycle. Pro tip: Stop the page from loading before the paywall pops up.

As if careless drivers weren’t enough to worry about, a Spanish bike rider was seriously injured when he was shot by a hunter, who apparently mistook him for some sort of game animal riding a bicycle.

A European travel site explores Dubai’s 52-mile Al Qudra cycle track, which connects to other bikeways to form a 124-mile route.

Fifty people had to be evacuated from a Singapore housing block when a ped-assist ebike battery caught fire; authorities advised not using third-party batteries or charging them overnight to avoid fires.

 

Competitive Cycling

Egan Bernal remains in serious but stable condition, as his doctors shift to a focus on pain management to deal with his multiple injuries; Bernal suffered a fractured femur, kneecap, vertebrae and ribs, as well as a punctured lung and chest trauma when he slammed into a poorly parked bus while training in Colombia.

 

Finally…

When you’re trying to escape the cops with an outstanding warrant, try not to ride head-on into a patrol car. Why ride on dry, dusty mountain bike trails when you could have your very own dust Zamboni — which is exactly what it sounds like?

And shades of the Super Bowl Shuffle.

https://twitter.com/AstanaQazTeam/status/1488479125589442561?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1488479125589442561%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cyclingweekly.com%2Fnews%2Fastana-release-new-rap-video-starring-vincenzo-nibali-and-alexander-vinokourov

………

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

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

Killer drunk driver walks free after 23 days, racist bike-hater gets probation, and 1/2 mile extension for Chandler Bikeway

March 2, 2020 / / Comments Off on Killer drunk driver walks free after 23 days, racist bike-hater gets probation, and 1/2 mile extension for Chandler Bikeway

My thanks to everyone who sent me links over the weekend.

Because of today’s overstuffed post, and the need to sleep sometime tonight, I’ll try to catch up on the rest tomorrow. 

………

This is why people keep dying on our streets.

A Long Beach man got a gentle caress on the wrist — not even a slap — for killing a man in a wheelchair while driving drunk, escaping with just a one-year sentence for taking the life of another human being.

Then was let out of jail after just 23 days, thanks to overcrowding at the LA County Jail.

Yes, 23 days.

Less than one lousy month. Barely over three weeks, in fact.

Which sends a strong message to anyone else thinking of getting behind the wheel after drinking.

Just go ahead and do it, because no one will hold you accountable.

Even if you kill someone.

Photo by EVG photos from Pexels.

………

Seriously, what the hell is wrong with some people?

A racist Oregon scumbag walked with just probation — and well-deserved anger management — for threatening to blow a 14-year old boy’s head off.

Why?

Because he rode his bike in front of the man’s house.

………

Good news from Burbank, where officials plan to extend the popular Chandler Bikeway half a mile to connect the downtown Burbank Metrolink station with the Burbank Channel Bikeway, which is currently being built.

The bad news is, it could be over four years before anyone can ride the finished extension.

………

Looks like Los Angeles may be inching closer to closing the Northvale Gap in the Expo Line Bike Path.

Which wouldn’t exist if Metro and the city hadn’t caved to a handful of NIMBY homeowners who were afraid thieves would ride bikes up to their homes to steal their flatscreen TVs.

No, really.

Because apparently, criminals don’t drive. And couldn’t accomplish the same thing by just driving up to their front doors.

………

Why is it that bike safety goes out the window whenever someone wants to make a movie in Los Angeles?

https://twitter.com/iivansanz/status/1233448609158352897

………

KNBC-4 says CicLAvia revealed the map for next month’s Mid City Meets Venice event.

Yet somehow, they failed to include said map in their story.

We won’t make the same mistake.

That will be followed by a return to Glendale in June, as we mentioned a few weeks ago.

………

LA’s own Phil Gaimon is the topic of the latest video from GCN video, as he joins the team in an effort to win a Dixie Canyon KOM.

………

This is who we share the bike lane with.

https://twitter.com/colinridesabike/status/1232516410099798019?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1232516410099798019&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Froad.cc%2Fcontent%2Fnews%2F271577-video-rentacop-armed-nyc-security-guard-wrestles-cyclist-ground-paris-brest

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At least he used the crosswalk.

Even though it took forever for anyone to actually stop for it.

………

This one made my day, for obvious reasons.

https://twitter.com/humorandanimals/status/1233402238741209088

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

A Texas man was busted for riding his bicycle through the halls of an Amarillo high school while making terroristic thefts.

A Tennessee man got 44 years without parole for murdering two teenagers by shooting them after a brief argument behind a Memphis business, then riding away on his bicycle.

Pittsburgh police are looking for a man who tried to rob a woman, then chased her on his bike as she tried to run away.

A British driver complains that a mountain biker plowed into his car as he was stopped at a red light, then brutally attacked him when he got out to see if the bike rider was okay, while a young boy begged the attacker to stop. Although something tells me there might be another side to the story in which the driver is not wholly innocent.

………

Local

The Los Feliz Ledger looks at the Sunset4All campaign to add a two-way protected bike lane on Sunset Blvd; the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council voted unanimously to support the project, despite the possible loss of some parking.

A Highland Park man says switching to an ebike for his LA to Long Beach commute freed him from the tyranny of traffic, if not unpleasant odors.

Los Angeles-based Wheels is the latest dockless micromobility provider to lay off staff, as the industry struggles for profitability.

Food trucks are so last decade. A new eco-friendly chickpea bowl food bike will start making the rounds of the Westside, mounted on an ebike that recharges with pedaling. 

If you build it, they will come. Nothing like a new 1,500 space parking garage on the Cal State Northridge campus to encourage students and faculty to drive to the school. But at least it includes bicycle and scooter storage.

Santa Clarita is looking for input on the city’s new Non-Motorized Transportation Plan.

The replacement for the Desmond Thomas Bridge will open later next year, along with the first bike lane across the harbor; now the bridge just needs a name. How about naming it for Mark Bixby, the Long Beach community leader and bike advocate who fought for that bike lane on the bridge before he was killed in a 2011 plane crash?

 

State

Finally, a sentence even I think might be a tad excessive. A San Clemente woman got the maximum sentence, as a judge gave her 51 years to life for a collision that killed three teenagers in another car while she was driving at three times the legal limit.

San Diego will install leading pedestrian intervals at 300 intersections to improve safety. Now they just need to allow bikes to go the same time as pedestrians to improve safety for everyone. 

Cute photo of a Santa Cruz ebike rider taking his two collies for a ride along the beach.

A San Jose driver copped a plea in the death of a 62-year old bike rider last July in exchange for a four-year sentence.

More proof that permanent street closures often don’t affect traffic flows, as a new study shows that banning cars from San Francisco’s Market Street resulted in virtually no spillover traffic on nearby streets, while improving travel times for bikes and buses, which are still allowed.

City Lab questions why a San Francisco bike shop owner would protest plans for a protected bike lane in front of his shop; just wait until he learns about a proposal to shut the street down entirely.

 

National

Curbed explains how to fix America’s broken intersections.

About time. Ford has developed a warning system to alert drivers to approaching bike riders to prevent doorings. Now let’s make it mandatory for every new car and truck.

A writer for Wired explains why, after years of loving cars, he decided he just didn’t want to drive anymore, and now rides a bike everywhere.

Jeep’s new fat tire, all-terrain ebike is now on sale, if you happen to have nearly six grand lying around.

A Vancouver WA paper says bike lanes and safety are great, but they’d rather have the 400 parking spaces that would have to be removed for them; needless to say, they’re not the only ones who prefer car storage over the safety of their fellow human beings.

An off-duty Border Patrol agent is credited with saving the life of an Arizona bike rider who was hit by a driver, using his training as a certified paramedic.

They get it. A Denver magazine says focusing on whether a bike rider was wearing a helmet following a crash is a form of victim blaming, and has to stop.

Some people just don’t get it. A St. Paul letter writer says no one can commute or carry groceries on a bike, and people will stop riding when they get older. All of which is refuted by people who do it every day.

Rochester, Minnesota is giving away 100 bicycles left over from a failed bikeshare service to people in need.

It only took New York drivers 24 hours to obliterate the newly installed bollards intended to keep them out of a protected bike lane.

No surprise here. Bicycling examined crash data from New York, and discovered when drivers make mistakes, people on bicycles too often pay the price.

DC considers a proposal that would require transportation equity by forcing employers who subsidize parking to offer an equal benefit or cash payout to people who don’t drive.

A Georgia grand jury will hear evidence in a fatal hit-and-run that took the life of a man riding his bike, after the driver called a state legislator and the local police chief instead of calling 911, and no one reported the crash or looked for the victim until it was too late.

 

International

A new study confirms what most of us already know. The more expensive a car is, the less likely the driver is to stop for pedestrians. Or anyone else. Or put another way, the more likely they are to drive like self-entitled jerks.

A new report from the International Transport Forum concludes that 80% of bicycling and e-scooters fatalities involve motor vehicles and the people who drive them. And traffic safety will improve if car, truck and motorcycle trips are replaced by scooters and bikes.

Fallen mountain biker Jordie Lunn will have a Vancouver Island bike park named in his honor. Meanwhile, a new report says the city must build safer bike lanes to get more people riding. Even though it’s already head-and-shoulders beyond cities like Los Angeles.

In a story that could have come from virtually anywhere in North America, a Winnipeg student newspaper says the city is all talk and no action when it comes to preventing bike thefts.

London is dropping speed limits to 20 mph in areas of the city used most by pedestrians, bicyclists and motorcyclists. Which compares to speeds of 45 mph or more on some LA streets.

When British Olympic hopeful Ashton Lambie came up short, he took a bikepacking trip across the UK in search of the soul of bicycling. Which might be better, anyway.

No surprise here. A new report says two out of three bicycling crashes involving Belgian teenagers occur on roadways with no bicycling infrastructure.

Always double check your mailing addresses. A Catalan doping ring was busted when someone shipped a package to the wrong address; police seized 1.65 million doses of performance enhancing drugs worth the equivalent of nearly $1.3 million.

After police in a village outside of Hyderabad, India sent a serial rapist to prison with a death sentence, they gave new bicycles to 15 school girls for their safety.

Life is cheap in Zimbabwe, where an unlicensed driver walked with a lousy $900 fine for killing a bike rider after losing control of his vehicle — and two-thirds of that was for the license violation, not killing another human being.

Talk about a special place in hell. Heartless Aussie scam artists set up a fake crowdfunding page claiming to raise funds for a woman who died after being thrown from her bike.

 

Competitive Cycling

Congratulations to the US Women’s Pursuit Team on winning the world championships in Berlin last week, making them the favorites for the Tokyo Olympics.

Call her the fastest woman on two wheels. America’s Chloe Dygert broke her own record in the individual pursuit. Then broke it again to take the gold.

Cycling’s governing body announced an investigation into sexual abuse allegations against the Doltcini-Van Eyck Sport women’s cycling team.

The COVID-19 coronavirus hit the cycling world hard on Thursday when the UAE Tour was halted with two stages still to go after two Italians tested positive for the virus; race leader Adam Yates was declared the winner. British Tour de France winners Chris Froome and Mark Cavendish are among those being tested before being allowed to leave the country.

The Wall Street Journal considers the forthcoming effects of the new coronavirus on pro cycling, if you can get past their paywall.

Temper, temper. Italian cyclist Gianni Moscon got the boot from Sunday’s Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne race after throwing a temper tantrum — and a competitors bike — following a mass crash. He followed that by ripping up his number when he was DQ’d. And it was far from his first time.

 

Finally…

Who needs a dog sled when you’ve got two fat tires? When you’re riding your bike with four outstanding warrants, maybe try riding with traffic next time.

And maybe there are better hobbies than collecting 5,800 stolen bike seats.

Just saying.

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

Describe Your Ride: A very fast ride home through the San Fernando Valley

December 17, 2015 / / 2 comments

We recently started a new feature in which bike riders tell us about the everyday experience of riding a bike, wherever and however they ride.

Or in this case, show us. 

kdbhiker with a very fast paced video condensing an 18-mile roundtrip ride from Burbank to Lake Balboa via the Chandler/Orange Line bike paths to just 35 seconds. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJ5EddxpU44

If you’d like to share your ride with us, just send it to the email address on the About BikinginLA page. It can be a rant, rave or anything in between, from a few sentences to a detailed description. Or any other format you think tells the story best, wherever you ride.

Let’s keep the conversation going.

 

Category: My Ride / Tags: , , , , ,
 
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