Day 45 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025.
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Happy Valentines Day!
Or as they call it back in my bike-friendly Colorado hometown, Winter Bike to Work Day.
So show a little tenderness to the one you love. And when you’re done with your bike, do the same for that special person, too.
Even if that special person is you.
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Clean Cities introduced a new campaign highlighting the dangers of “carspreading,” as motor vehicles continue to grow wider each year, arguing that bigger cars are making our cities smaller and putting lives at risk.
Images from Clean Cities website.
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Cycling Weekly says riding a bicycle saved the life of a Black man.
Or maybe two.
Donnie Seals Sr had suffered a heart attack and had three heart surgeries, before he was 50, including a quintuple bypass.
When he saw his son headed down the same path, they set a goal of riding 350 miles from St. Louis to Chicago along the legendary Route 66.
Then did it, when Seals was 69-year old, and his son 35
The story is particularly important since Black people face a higher rate of heart disease and stroke than their white counterparts.
Even Texas agrees, with the Texas Department of Transportation calling for more walking and biking to benefit heart health.
Which means bicycling is a great activity for Black History Month, to help keep you from becoming history yourself.
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Streets For All posted video of Wednesdays virtual happy hour, featuring new Culver City Councilmember Bubba Fish.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
London city employees faced such relentless hostility and anger from people opposed to “bulldozing” a community to build a Low Traffic Neighborhood, aka Slow Street on this side of the pond, they were given a wellbeing day off for their mental health.
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Local
An Altadena man thanks the Red Cross volunteer assisting him, after he barely escaped the Eaton Fire with the gear he needs to train for a 2,700-mile bike touring race from Canada to New Mexico. Which sounds like the annual Tour Divide.
Longbeachize looks forward to the Orange Avenue Backbone Bikeway, calling it Long Beach’s largest bicycle infrastructure project.
Catalina is just the latest SoCal city where residents are calling for stricter enforcement for speeding ebike riders. Although once again, the question is whether the problem is people on ped-assist bicycles, or electric motorbikes.
State
They get it. A San Luis Obispo weekly says they understand that the city’s road diets and protected bike lanes infuriate some people, but studies show bike lanes improve safety, so maybe they can tolerate them.
That’s more like it. A San Jose website says Sunnyvale residents are frustrated by the lack of protected bike lanes.
A San Francisco writer calls for kicking ebikes out of the city’s bike lanes, saying most are just electric motorcycles, anyway.
National
The American Planning Association says Bluesky is the new “it” space for urbanists. Which could be why you’ll find me there, although you can still find me on Twitter, as well. Or whatever the hell Musk is calling it this week.
They get it, too. The Austin, Texas city council voted unanimously to ban parking in bike lanes, saying people on bicycles have been hit by cars because of it. Although those cars probably had drivers.
This is why people keep dying on our streets. A bike rider was killed at an Indianapolis intersection, after advocates had posted a sign last year saying it already had four nonfatal crashes, along with two more afterwards. Yet the city’s Vision Zero task force just met for the first time in seven months. Yes, seven. Thanks to Ben Fulton for the heads-up.
International
The Guardian rates the best bike lights to see and be seen after dark. Although good lights can help you be seen in the daylight, too.
Tragic news from Chile, where a 36-year old Indian man was killed by a minibus driver, while trying to beat the world record for the fastest crossing of South America on a standard bicycle.
This is why people keep dying on our streets, part two. Nearly half of police forces in the UK have clocked drivers doing three times the posted 30 mph speed limit.
This is why people keep dying on our streets, part three. A British father and son were lucky to escape with minor injuries when a driver slammed into their bicycle at an intersection where a local resident had mounted a camera because it had so many crashes. And yes, the “dreadful” crash was caught on video.
Life is cheap in Ireland, where a driver was sentenced to a lousy two years for killing an eight-year old boy riding a bicycle, after speeding through a red light, while the kid’s parents justifiably complained about “undue leniency.”
If you build it, they will come. A new report from the Netherlands shows that an extra 350,000 people are bike commuting, thanks to the country’s new bike paths.
Just in time for Valentines Day, a Philippine couple say riding their bikes together makes every bike ride a date.
Residents had raised fears a full seven years earlier about the New Zealand road where an English tourist was killed when a driver plowed into the four-seat bike they were riding, with the crash leaving locals “horrifically sad.”
Competitive Cycling
The oldest qualifier for the Race Across America, aka RAAM, returns to California when The 508 marks its 50th anniversary this September.
An automotive website remembers José Meiffret, the first person to reach 127 mph on a bicycle paced by a motor vehicle, all the way back in 1962.
American cycling legend Bobby Julich fondly remembers the racing bikes he held onto following his groundbreaking racing career.
Netflix show Tour de France Unchained will hang up its cleats after this season.
Finally…
Wear something sparkling when you ride, like maybe a diamond or glitter. And just because California is under an atmospheric river, that doesn’t mean a dog can’t enjoy a decent bike ride.
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Oh, and fuck Putin.
