Tag Archive for climate emergency

LA suggests un-Healthy Streets alternative, LADOT commits climate arson, and drivers back it up on Ventura Blvd

August 28, 2023 / / 2 comments

My apologies if you received an email with just the barest outline of a post earlier.

I seem to have had a twitchy publish button finger.

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Somehow, you knew this was going to happen.

A full year after the Los Angeles City Council rejected the proposed Healthy Streets LA ordinance, the city has finally come back with their long-awaited alternative version.

And suffice it to say it leaves a lot to be desired.

The original measure, which easily qualified for next year’s ballot, requires the city to build out the already-approved Mobility Plan 2035, which subsumed the 2010 Bike Plan, any time a street in the plan gets resurfaced or resealed with slurry.

The council had the option of approving it as written, or sending it to a vote of the people.

They chose the latter, while promising to come back within weeks with an even better, new and improved version of their own.

You can guess how that turned out.

According to an analysis of the proposal from Streets For All, who wrote the original ballot measure, the city changed the requirement from covering any resurfacing over 1/8 of a mile to 1/4 of a mile, which they say would exclude 80% of the projects in the Mobility Plan’s Neighborhood Enhanced Network, as well as removing slurry seals from the plan.

Correction: I originally wrote that the change to 1/4 mile would exclude 80% of the projects, which was a misreading of the text on my part. I have corrected the paragraph above to more accurately reflect the effect of the change.

Then there’s this.

When defining “standard elements” it was interesting that the City Attorney didn’t simply say “the improvements in the Mobility Plan” but said that it’s the improvements that the Board of Public Works, Director of City Planning and General Manager designate for inclusion in a Project.” In other words, if any of those entities don’t “designate” an improvement to be included in a Project, then it’s excluded, and a bike or bus lane is ignored. This is the first “out” the City has given itself, and it’s a big one.

But wait, there’s more, as they say in the world of informercials.

This next section is a doozy. It basically says that the General Manager of LADOT and Director of City Planning — in “consultation” with LAPD, LAFD, and the City Attorney (three entities often hostile to bike and bus lanes in the first place) — can “revise” Mobility Corridors. In other words, they’re usurping City Council’s authority over the Mobility Plan and taking it for themselves. It’s a dangerous precedent to set that City departments can change the City’s General Plan without Council, and especially dangerous to put it in the hands of LAPD, LAFD, and this City Attorney (who has implied the City shouldn’t be at fault for pedestrian deaths even if the City has failed to implement its own Vision Zero or Mobility Plan 2035 plans).

Read that again.

The city’s revised version would remove the requirement to include any street or project in the already-approved Mobility Plan, and replace with the judgement of city officials likely to be hostile to any changes.

The city version goes on to include a public outreach process, which has too often been gamed by city officials to kill projects they don’t like, or are afraid to implement.

Like shovel-ready lane reductions on Lankershim, North Figueroa and Temple Street, just to name a few.

Streets For All ends their insightful analysis this way.

So what is our overall take on the City’s version? It’s full of holes, exceptions, and bureaucracy, and is not an attempt to actually implement the Mobility Plan during repaving; it’s an attempt to look like it’s doing something, while actually continuing to mostly ignore the Mobility Plan. It also does not address any of the equity additions (former Council President Nury Martinez) had promised, nor does it establish a centralized office of coordination, or provide for a multi year funding plan.

In other words, it’s not nearly good enough. We have raised more than $2,000,000 to get our ballot measure across the finish line this spring. Our polling shows an overwhelming number of Angelenos are sick of the status quo — and will support Healthy Streets LA at the ballot box. If you’re ready for change, join us! You can stay up-to-date, volunteer, donate, and get involved on our website.

See you at the ballot box.

And in the meantime, contact your councilmember to let them know the city’s proposal is dead in the water.

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LADOT appears to be committed to committing climate arson.

Streetsblog’s Joe Linton reports Los Angeles continues to widen streets throughout the city, calling out more than a dirty dozen streets that will soon have more room — and in most cases, more lanes — for motor vehicles.

In fact, Linton lists a full fifteen streets either currently being expanded or set for expansion, at a total cost of more than $218 million.

Although that’s barely a fifth of what the city is spending to give raises to the LAPD.

Some folks out there may be under the mistaken impression that Los Angeles is not really widening roads any more. Though widening roads is counterproductive in many ways, it has long been and continues to be an incessant L.A. City practice.

Streets for All founder Michael Schneider terms L.A. City road widening “the opposite of fighting climate change,” noting that “widening streets induces more driving, meaning more pollution burden locally and more greenhouse emissions further harming the climate.” Widening is expensive, and adversely impacts safety, health, climate, air, water, noise, housing, historic preservation, and more.

That money could make a sizable dent in the city’s bike plan, which could actually get some of those cars off the streets, rather than flushing more money down the toilet by funding still more induced demand.

This far into the 21st Century, it should be clear that we can’t build our way out of traffic congestion.

And that fighting climate change will require getting people out of their cars, and onto their feet or bikes, and into transit.

Widening streets is the exact opposite of what we should be doing.

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Reverse angled parking is supposed to improve safety for people on bicycles by improving sightline for drivers pulling out of spaces.

But the new configuration on western Ventura Blvd isn’t exactly winning rave reviews, as bicyclists complain about drivers using the bike lanes to back into parking spaces, as well as double parking to wait for a space to open up, forcing riders out into unforgiving traffic.

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Santa Monica is improving safety on deadly Wilshire Blvd by making several cross streets right turn only.

https://twitter.com/santamonicacity/status/1695150351966466427

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CicLAvia’s North Hollywood CicLAmini along the Lankershim Blvd corridor is less than four weeks away.

The good news is you can just step off the B (Red) Line subway at the NoHo station and you’re there.

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OC bike advocate Mike Wilkinson forwards evidence of why you should always hesitate pulling out from a red light, until you know every driver in every direction is coming to a stop.

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If you build it, they will come.

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Remember this the next time someone questions why bike riders insist on riding in the street.

Or better yet, just send it to them.

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

Maybe starting the Vuelta in the Catalonia region wasn’t the best idea, as someone tried to sabotage the complicated second stage by tossing tacks and nails on the course, flattening the tires of around 15 cyclists.

An “arrogant” road-raging driver — and possible government employee — in the Philippines assaulted a man riding a bicycle, then pulled out a gun and aimed it at the victim before cooler heads apparently prevailed.

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Local 

Beverly Hills is looking for your input on the parking-protected bike lane pilot project on Roxbury Drive, as they consider making the bike lane permanent.

Police in Long Beach are looking for a pair of robbers who fired a gun as they struggled with a man to steal his bicycle along the Los Angeles River bike path Thursday night; the thieves eventually ran off without the bike.

 

State

Video from a TikTok user shows people in San Diego standing by and watching as a man steals a woman’s bike in broad daylight, calling it an example of the Bystander Effect. Then again, the person taking the video didn’t intervene, either. 

Sad news from Sacramento, where a woman riding a bicycle was killed by a hit-and-run driver.

 

National

US colleges are beginning to ban ebikes due to a fear of fire risk as well as a risk to pedestrians. After all, it makes so much more sense to force students and faculty back into their cars, which evidently don’t pose a greater risk to anyone. Right?

The Better Business Bureau offers tips tips to help you pick the right ebike for your budget.

Bike Rumor offers their picks for Best in Show at Portland’s MADE handmade bike show; Velo offers their favorites, too.

Cycling Weekly visits MADE to examine the new Moots prototype spec’ed with 750D wheels, asking if we really need another wheel diameter standard.

A Seattle website profiles Seattle Bike Blog author Tom Fucoloro, who has a new book examining the city from behind the handlebars.

My hometown paper offers highlights from the massive turnout for the country’s last remaining Tour de Fat.

This is the cost of traffic violence. Sixty-four-year old John Kezdy, the lead singer of the ’80s punk band The Effigies, died on Saturday, three days after he was critically injured crashing his bike into an Amazon van illegally parked in a Chicago bike lane. The inevitable lawsuit will be just the cost of business for the online shopping giant.

It’s apparently open season on bike riders at Indiana University, as three students who participated in the iconic Little 500 bike race were hit by drivers in three days last week; the race was made famous in Breaking Away.

There’s a special place in hell for the hit-and-run driver who left a 12-year old Boston-area boy bleeding alone in the streets. Or any other kid, for that matter. 

A writer for The New York Times says he improved his mental and physical health by ditching his car and walking to biking to run errands, though he suggests that anyone wanting to emulate him may not want to start with a trip to Costco. Thanks to Bike Talk’s Taylor Nichols, who suggests getting writer Andrew Leonard to appear on the show, for the heads-up.

A Long Island woman faces charges for slamming into a triathlete as he rode his bike in the middle of a race, after pulling out of a parking lot at a high rate of speed and onto the race course that had been closed to traffic.

The AP offers not necessarily safe for work video from the Philadelphia World Naked Bike Ride.

This is who we share the road with. A road-raging Philadelphia driver with a concealed carry permit pulled out a gun and began firing after his car was surrounded by dirt bike riders on an apparent rideout, shooting one man before he was wounded by return fire.

 

International

Evidently, you can kill a man on a fundraising bike ride while driving drunk, bury his body a shallow grave on a remote Scottish estate for three years, and get off with just 12 years behind bars — and could get out in as little as six. And get just five years and three months for helping your brother hide the body.

BBC host and bicycling advocate Jeremy Vine causes a stir in the UK by saying drivers should pull over and let bicyclists pass in urban centers, since people on bicycles can often travel faster than people in cars — and that drivers shouldn’t be allowed to pass bicyclists at all. Finally, a campaign platform I can get behind.  

Dubai Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum is one of us, after he posted video of going on a cargo bike ride with his twins while vacationing in Yorkshire, England. From the looks of it, the bike was almost as long as his name. 

GCN shares the “most bizarre and beautiful” bikes from last week’s Paris-Brest-Paris.

A Nigerian website says bicycling is a must if the country hopes to “be rid of hydra-headed transportation gridlock that often sends road users to nightmarish spasm.”

Giant Taiwanese bikemaker Giant warns customers that a scam website posing as the bike brand may be ripping off consumers.

 

Competitive Cycling

Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel said enough is enough and intentionally slowed the peloton after a crash by Primož Roglič in Sunday’s stage 2 of the Vuelta; Italy’s Andrea Piccolo took the leader’s red jersey as Denmark’s Andreas Kron won the day on a stage shortened by flooding near rate finish.

Britain’s William Bjegfelt just won the Paracycling World Championships after he was told he’d never walk or bike again following a head-on collision with a driver in 2015.

L39ION of Los Angeles cyclists Kendall Ryan and Ty Magner wons the elite women’s and men’s races, respectively, at the IU Momentum Health Indy Crit in Indianapolis on Saturday.

Cycling Weekly takes a look at the alternative, off-road race scene in the UK.

More bad news, in what has been an unbelievably tragic year for pro and amateur cyclists, as 22-year old Belgian rider Tijl De Decke was killed when he crashed into the back of a car on a training ride.

 

Finally…

You may have to blow up your next bike helmet. That feeling when the man accused of stealing your bicycle finally gets arrested — 38 years later.

And they get it.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

Proposed ebike bill won’t require a license to ride ebikes — for now, and recent deaths offer extreme heat warning

July 18, 2023 / / Comments Off on Proposed ebike bill won’t require a license to ride ebikes — for now, and recent deaths offer extreme heat warning

Let’s start with a quick update on AB 530, the new ebike bill sponsored by Encinitas Assemblymember Tasha Boerner.

Yesterday I received clarification that the bill doesn’t currently call for ebike licenses, but rather requires that anyone over 16 carry some form of photo ID whenever they ride an ebike.

Which means that anyone without a valid driver’s license will need to have a state ID, or a student or work ID with a photo. Or maybe start carrying a passport when you ride an ebike, even if you’re not planning to cross any international borders.

However, it does call for establishing a working group with a goal of creating a license for ebike riders.

So no ebike licenses for now. But no guarantees down the road, either.

And despite my misreading of the bill, it doesn’t require a bike helmet for Class 3 ebikes capable of speeds up to 28 mph, since that’s already state law.

Image by Maxfoot from Pixabay.

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Yesterday, we learned that a 24-year old mountain biker died after apparently succumbing to extreme heat in the desert east of San Diego, shortly after helping rescue hikers who had become stranded without food or water.

That comes just a day after we mentioned that an Arizona man in his 70s had died of heat-related causes after his bike suffered a flat, and he attempted to walk to a nearby fire station to wait for his wife.

Both serve as tragic reminders of the dangers of the current extreme heat wave gripping the Southwest, which is only predicted to get worse over the coming weekend.

So if you can, try to avoid riding in the heat of the day. Schedule your rides for early in the morning before the heat of the day, or in the evening after the relentless pounding of the sun lets up.

If you do have to ride during the day, try to choose a route closer to the coast, where the air is cooler, or seek out shaded areas as much as possible.

If you have to ride in the city, remember that concrete buildings and dark road surfaces radiate heat far in excess of the already high ambient temperatures.

Wherever you ride, take more water than you think you’ll need, and take frequent breaks in shaded areas.

And remember that a simple mechanical can ruin even the most cautious plans, and keep you out in the sun far longer than intended.

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

A bike rider in Queens, New York managed to evade pursuing cops in a patrol car, as players and spectators at a local baseball game all stopped to watch.

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Local 

The NoHo Arts District asks if LA’s Mobility Plan 2035 will increase bike and pedestrian safety in Los Angeles, after the plan was approved by the city council eight years ago. Short answer — not unless it’s actually implemented, which seems pretty damn unlikely at this point.

Westside Today examines Culver City’s newly enhanced Higuera Street Bridge, which they say prioritizes bicyclists and pedestrians. If they really want to prioritize people walking and riding bikes, get rid of the damn cars.

 

State

Sheriff’s deputies in Hesperia will conduct a bike and pedestrian safety operation on Wednesday. So ride to the letter of the law until you cross the city limit line, so you’re not the one who gets ticketed.

Once again, a bike rider is a hero, as a passing bicyclist warned Fresno residents that their home was on fire, and helped one person evacuate the burning home.

A temporary bike path opening this week will restore a bicycling route between Novato and Petaluma closed by a landslide due to storm damage.

A Bay Area television station argues that the bike lane on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge remains severely underutilized as it nears the end of a four year pilot program; officials bizarrely claim the bike lane is causing pollution, instead of all those people in the big, smelly machines. Once again mistaking the solution for the problem. 

San Francisco public radio station KQED California talks with bike and transportation leaders about how the state can become safer for bicyclists.

 

National

Bicycling looks at the health benefits of riding a bicycle for older people. As usual, read it on Yahoo if the magazine blocks you. 

The family of fallen masters champ Gwen Inglis won’t oppose a request from Lakewood, Colorado officials to remove her ghost bike, after a single complaint from someone who said it made them feel uncomfortable. Because God knows, we wouldn’t want to do that. 

A St. Paul, Minnesota columnist calls the city’s new bike plan “relentlessly ambitious,” while revealing the tension between more expensive protected bike lanes and cheaper quick-build projects.

A St. Paul teenager completed an around the world bike tour, riding through 20 countries in 22 months.

Arkansas officials unveiled plans for a $278 million, 200-mile bikeway connecting four counties in the central part of the state.

More fallout from PeopleForBikes latest ranking of urban bikeability, as Chicago ranked among the nation’s most dangerous cities for people on two wheels, coming in at a pitiful 161st out of 163 big cities.

Heartbreaking news from Indiana, where a Roman Catholic priest who was killed while riding his bicycle last year was credibly accused of sexual abuse of a minor.

Sad news from New York State, where a man participating in the eight-day Erie Canal Bike Tour was found dead in his tent Sunday morning.

Friends and fellow bicyclists remember 27-year-old Dzhoy Zuckerman, after the purple-clad fixture of the DC bicycling community was murdered just blocks from his home.

 

International

Inside EVs asks if ebike digital drives could mark the end of sprockets and chains.

Spain’s upcoming national elections put bike lanes and low-emission zones in the crosshairs of rightist-run cities, with the most likely outcome a coalition government that could reverse the county’s progress on climate goals.

 

Competitive Cycling

Velo examines how Tour de France leader Jonas Vingegaard shelved the race-ruining anxiety that made him the “worst guy in the peloton to become the “silent assassin” known as the Iceman in just five years.

Five Americans remain in the Tour de France peloton as the race enters its last week, with Sepp Kuss nearing a top ten finish as Vingegaard’s right handlebar man, and Neilson Powless in position to become the first US rider to win the King of the Mountains jersey.

Cyclists participating in the Tour asked fans to behave better, after a selfie-taking spectator hit Sepp Kuss’ handlebars on Sunday, causing a massive pileup.

Road.cc examines what makes a time trial bike so fast. Nothing, if I’m riding it. 

Former pro cyclists weigh in on whether the Netflix Tour de France documentary Unchained can grow bicycling in the US.

Transgender women’s cycling champ Austin Killips accused UCI of caving to a cabal of right-wingers, after the international governing body for cycling banned transgender women who transitioned after puberty from participating in women’s races.

 

Finally…

Why rough it when you can go bike glamping by pulling your own camper behind your bike? That feeling when the annual mountain bike race gets cancelled because of snow — in July.

And you might be able to buy a Tesla ebike one day.

But then you’d have to ride it.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin.

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

More on Fountain Valley hit-and-run, Boerner pulls Stop As Yield bill — again, and this is who we share the road with

July 13, 2023 / / Comments Off on More on Fountain Valley hit-and-run, Boerner pulls Stop As Yield bill — again, and this is who we share the road with

This is the face of hit-and-run.

It’s not often that we learn what happened to a crash victim after the initial news stories.

If it even makes the news, that is.

But we’re learning a lot more about the bike-riding victim of a Fountain Valley hit-and-run driver, who barely survived the initial impact.

We gave the hit-and-run a brief mention on Monday, based on the limited information that was available at the time.

Fountain Valley police are looking for the hit-and-run driver who critically injured a 20-year old Huntington Beach man when he was rear ended while riding in a bike lane in the Orange County city on the 4th of July.

Since then, KABC-7 has added more information to the story, including identifying the victim as 20-year old Huntington Beach resident Caysen Robinson.

They place the crash at 10:30 pm on Tuesday the 4th, when Robinson was run down from behind as he was riding in the northbound bike lane on Bushard Street.

A crowdfunding campaign started by the victim’s family to help pay his medical expenses reports Robinson’s heart was ruptured when he was literally run over by the driver’s SUV, surviving only because one of the first people on the scene had medical training.

He was rushed into surgery, where doctor’s were able to repair his heart, despite suffering an injury with a less than 1% survival rate.

They add this about his ongoing injuries —

Caysen was in a medically induced coma and put on a ventilator. Drs weaned him off, and he had surgery for a compound fracture of his tibia. Caysen still needs surgery for the 4 facial fractures. Today Caysen had unidentified pain in his shoulder and wrist, and Drs are looking into additional broken or fractured bones.

According to his family, Robinson is facing a long road to recovery.

Police are looking for the driver of a possible 2014-2019 Toyota Highlander. Anyone with information is urged to call the Traffic Bureau with the Fountain Valley Police Department at 714/593-4481.

The crowdfunding campaign for Caysen Robinson has raised nearly 80% of the $50,000 goal — an amount that is likely to barely put a dent in the hospital and therapy bills illegally left on his battered shoulders by the heartless coward who left him lying broken in the street.

So if you’ve got any extra cash lying around, they could certainly use the help.

Photo from the GoFundMe page for Caysen Robinson. Thanks to Bill Sellin for the heads-up. 

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Once again, California’s proposed Stop As Yield law, aka the Safety Stop or Idaho Stop Law, has failed to become law, as Assemblymember Tasha Boerner pulled the bill from consideration for the second year in a row without explanation, after a pair of previous attempts were vetoed by Gavin Newsom.

And yes, that’s the same Tasha Boerner who pledged to introduce a bill mandating licensing for ebike riders; we should have more on that tomorrow.

Meanwhile, a number of bills were passed out of committee in the state Senate, including —

  • AB 645 creating a speed cam pilot program in six California cities, including Los Angeles, Long Beach and Glendale;
  • AB 413 mandating daylighting at intersections to improve safety;
  • AB 825 to legalize sidewalk riding anywhere in California that lacks good bike infrastructure (and no, sharrows aren’t “good” bike infrastructure);
  • AB 7 requiring transportation and highway planners to align their work with the state’s climate goals;
  • and AB 610 to create statewide a youth transit pass program.

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This is who we share the road with.

Part 1 — A 69-year old man was critically injured when he was struck by a hit-and-run driver in LA’s Pacoima neighborhood; the driver hit the victim as he was standing next to his car after drifting into the bike lane. As always, there is a standing $25,000 reward for any hit-and-run resulting in serious injuries in the City of Los Angeles.

Part 2 — A Pennsylvania driver faces charges for killing a 54-year old man during a New York road rage confrontation, accelerating into the victim after he got out of his truck to slash the Pennsylvania man’s tires; witnesses absolved the killer, saying he acted in self-defense to protect two young girls in his car.

Part 3 — A 75-year old man was killed, and a 13-year old girl was injured, when a driver fleeing a traffic stop by the Secret Service plowed through a crowded DC crosswalk; at last report, police were still looking for the driver.

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

Police on Michigan’s Mackinac Island are impounding ebikes belonging to visitors who break the strict rules on the carfree island, where only Class 1 ped-assist ebikes are allowed, and all ebikes must be licensed on the island.

A Toronto bike rider complains he was almost killed by someone driving nearly 40 mph in a bollard-protected bike lane, who couldn’t comprehend that what they were doing was wrong when he confronted them.

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

Spain’s Ecological Transition Minister was subjected to well-deserved criticism for virtue signaling for riding her bike to a climate summit, after she was seen removing it from the trunk of her car a just mile away — and escorted to the meeting by security vehicles front and rear.

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Local 

Metro, LADOT, Walk ‘N Rollers and BikeLA are hosting a community meeting tonight at the Helms Design Center in Culver City to consider first and last mile connections to the Culver City Metro Station; this comes after Culver City’s newly conservative city council voted to remove the highly successful Move Culver City protected bike lanes through the downtown area. Which is probably the most I’ve ever used Culver City in a single sentence.

Santa Monica Daily Press says the city still has a way to go to meet its Vision Zero commitment to eliminate traffic deaths by 2026. But unlike its much larger neighbor to the east, they’re actually trying to. And could.

 

State

Kids and teenagers in Temecula caught riding a bicycle with their helmet on will be rewarded with gift certificates to local restaurants, cookie shops and ice cream parlors. And Staples.

Good for them. Caltrans took Palo Alto residents by surprise with plans to install bike lanes on El Camino Real after repaving the street, which received a lukewarm response from local officials — but since it’s a state highway, they may be powerless to stop it. Now do PCH through Malibu, which is also a state highway.

Sad and infuriating news from Northern California, where an Oakland man was killed by a hit-and-run driver in a stolen car Wednesday morning. And a San Jose woman died five days after she was struck by a hit-and-run driver while riding her bike.

Sacramento’s Sactown Magazine talks with former Vancouver chief city planner Brent Toderian, who has become a star consulting planner in the years since, and is now working with the California city.

Yosemite National Park — or Yo Semite as our former president once called it — is addressing the crushing traffic congestion caused by tourists cars by introducing a free bikeshare system.

 

National

I want to be like them when I grow up. An Ohio newspaper talks with a couple in their 70s who were riding their tandem home to Iowa after visiting their son in Virginia — which is nothing compared to their 4,500-mile Washington to Maine cross-country ride.

A Seattle man settled a lawsuit with the city for $10 million, six years after he crashed into a metal bollard placed in the middle of a bike path to keep drivers from using it, breaking his neck and leaving him a quadriplegic.

Seattle’s Rad Power Bikes is following up on its withdrawal from Europe with its fifth round of layoffs in just over two years.

Dueling demonstrations took place between people for and against a planned road diet in Boston’s West Roxbury neighborhood, although only 50 people turned out to protest it. Someone should tell them that road diets and protected bike lanes have been shown to increase sales and reduce retail vacancies, while improving safety for all road users.

A Florida TV station remembers Miami’s Jack the Bike Man after the local legend passed away at 81; he led a nonprofit that gave away thousands of refurbished bikes to kids and adults in need each year.

 

International

A writer for Cycling Weekly found deals on five fully-built bikes he says are better than anything you could have found on the recent Amazon Prime Days.

Toronto’s new mayor is one of us, as she rides her bike to work on her first day.

London is making permanent a popup, bi-directional protected bike lane, despite criticism from conservative politicians and an almost even number of comments for and against it.

No surprise here, as Dutch ebike-maker VanMoof has filed for bankruptcy protection after suspending operations earlier in the week; if the company goes out of business, the bikes’ app-based connected functionality may be bricked.

An investigative journalism foundation takes a long look at why bicycling continues to claim lives on Nigerian roads.

Philippine news anchor Gretchen Ho is one of us, laughing off a “really bad” fall off her bike while riding in Switzerland; she appeared to suffer minor injuries, while, in typical bicyclist fashion, she expressed more concern for her bike and GoPro.

 

Competitive Cycling

Jasper Phillipson sprinted to victory in Wednesday’s stage of the Tour de France, giving him over a third of the eleven stages so far.

Velo examines the diverging trajectories of back-to-back U-23 world champs Quinn Simmons and Remco Evenepoel, as the Belgian star has shined on the world stage, while the American faded into the pro peloton until he won the US national road championship, just ten days after directing rescuers to fallen cyclist Gino Mäder in the Tour de Suisse.

Velo also discusses how their competitors plan to reel in Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard, as the former winners threaten to ride away with this year’s Tour de France.

Tuesday’s stage victory by Bahrain Victorious rider Pello Bilbao was hailed by His Majesty the King’s Representative for Humanitarian Work and Youth Affairs His Highness Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa of Bahrain. They probably would have given him a longer title, but couldn’t think of anything else to add.

Bicycling reports Costa Rican cyclist Andrey Amador overcame overwhelming odds to lead Wednesday’s stage 11 of the Tour, before dropping off the podium; the 36-year old rider was severely beaten, robbed and left for dead a dozen years earlier. As usual, read it on Yahoo if the magazine blocks you. 

 

Finally…

How to inflate anything without a bike pump — except bike tires, or course. That feeling when you turn your bike into a car.

And in this country, it’s script writers — and now actors — on strike; in the UK, it’s bicycling instructors.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin.

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

Newsom kills funding for CA ebike rebates beyond 1st year, and Bixby bike-ped path opens on Gateway bridge this weekend

May 17, 2023 / / Comments Off on Newsom kills funding for CA ebike rebates beyond 1st year, and Bixby bike-ped path opens on Gateway bridge this weekend

It was nice while it lasted.

California’s long-delayed ebike rebate program, which hasn’t even begun yet, is already at risk after Governor Newsom failed to extend funding for the program beyond this year in his revised budget.

Calbike reports that over 17,000 people have expressed interest in the program, which only has $7.5 million left for actual rebates after the state has blown through $2.5 million of the original $10 million budget on outreach and overhead.

Which is kind of what happens when you spend a couple years dithering about what it should look like, instead of just getting the money out to people who need it.

The remaining funds should be good for just 3,000 to 7,000 vouchers, meaning at least 10,000 people are likely to walk away empty handed and out of luck.

And most will probably keep driving, instead of switching to a far cleaner, cheaper and more efficient form of transportation.

The revised budget also includes cuts to Complete Streets and investments in disadvantaged communities. Which is exactly the opposite of what we should be doing in the midst of a climate crisis, when the state is literally burning and people are suffering.

And the opposite of Newsom’s campaign promises to confront the crisis.

Photo by Alex from Pexels.

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The long-delayed Mark Bixby Memorial Bicycle Pedestrian Path is offically opening this weekend, along with the Ocean Boulevard Connector leading to it.

The bikeway on the new Long Beach International Gateway Bridge is named for Long Beach bike advocate Mark Bixby, scion of the city’s influential Bixby family, who was killed with four other people in a private plane crash a dozen years ago.

………

San Diego will now close Fifth Avenue in the city’s Gaslamp district to cars every afternoon and evening.

Because, apparently, they don’t do mornings down there.

Thanks to Glenn Crider for the heads-up.

………

More proof you can carry pretty much anything on a bicycle — despite the constant chorus of naysayers who insist you need a massive SUV to carry anything bigger than a coffee cup.

https://twitter.com/rendermack/status/1657509136614199297

………

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

We’re constantly reminded about stop sign-running bike riders as the reason we can’t have anything nice. But when someone on a bike runs a stop sign, they usually don’t kill anyone, unlike an on-duty DEA agent who was caught on video running a stop sign just before killing a Salem, Oregon man riding a bicycle.

No bias here. A Cambridge, Massachusetts letter writer says being bike friendly is a good thing, but the city is taking this whole bike safety thing too far, because some people might be inconvenienced, and stuff. Although getting killed or maimed by a driver is pretty damn inconvenient, too.

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

Five teenage bike riders were caught on security cams illegally riding through a Boston freeway tunnel, splitting traffic lanes and popping wheelies, to the chagrin of drivers behind them.

………

Local 

Burbank is hosting a pair of pit stops today for the city’s annual “Bike and Walk to Work Day.”

They get it. Alhambra residents stood up to object to the city’s proposed widening of Fremont Ave, along with the on and off ramps to the 10 Freeway, calling it a waste of the city’s share of Metro funds for the abandoned plans to extend the 710 Freeway.

 

State

Laguna Beach will host a bike safety expo this Sunday.

A 14-year old French Valley girl was airlifted to a hospital after suffering serious injuries when she was struck by a pickup driver while riding her bike in unincorporated Murrieta.

Even Bakersfield is hosting a series of bike events to mark Bike Month. Although closing the bike path to conduct “bug maintenance” probably wasn’t on their bike bingo card.

A 31-year old Fresno man was hospitalized with cuts and a broken leg after getting hit by a truck driver while allegedly riding salmon and running a red light.

A 4th generation San Franciscan, developer evangelist and substitute tennis coach writes glowingly about her first SF Bike Party, which is like Critical Mass, but more fun.

Writing for a nonprofit architecture and design site, a San Francisco architect says it’s time to consider the benefits of a 15 mph city.

 

National

The US Bureau of Statistics confirms that the pandemic bike boom was real, as spending on bikes and accessories jumped a whopping 640% over the past three years. And suggests this could be another banner year.

The Cherokee Nation announced the six women who will participate in this year’s Remember the Removal Bike Ride, ranging in age from 18 to 40; the ride follows the route of the horrific Trail of Tears, when tribal members were forcibly removed from their ancestral homes in the south, and made to march hundred of miles to new reservations.

A craniofacial trauma surgeon considers whether it’s worth spending a little more to get a MIPS bike helmet, and ends with a resounding yes.

After he was paralyzed in a snowboarding accident, a self-described adrenaline junkie finds the cure for his depression in riding an adaptive bicycle with a Washington state bike club.

A group of Houston bike riders will hold a ride and dine in support of a historic restaurant threatened by the real estate developer next door, who is blocking access to parking long used by restaurant patrons.

Authorities in Fargo, North Dakota are looking for a man who drove through a local bike race while leading a police chase last weekend; fortunately, no one appears to have been seriously injured.

A Congressional bill named for a fallen Wisconsin bicyclist would make it easier to use federal funds to build protected bike lanes; Sarah Debbink Langenkamp’s hometown officially endorsed the bill named for her.

There’s a special place in hell for whoever murdered a 56-year old Dayton, Ohio man, just 12 hours after he was bike-jacked at gunpoint and forced to walk ten blocks to report the crime.

CBS has picked up the story of the white hospital worker who tried to wrestle and whine a New York bikeshare bike out of the hands of the Black teenager who had rented it, saying the hospital she works for is looking into the incident. Which is probably bureaucratese for she can kiss her job goodbye.

They get it, too. DC bike advocates continue to fight for safer streets, despite the city’s backpedaling on a pair of planned protected bikeways, saying there can be no compromise on making biking and walking safer.

Speaking of DC, hats off to the lone bike rider who shouted down a group of white supremacists gathered for a march to the capital.

Forget tweed rides. Roanoke, Virginia is hosting a fancy dress bike ride this weekend, encouraging participants to don their finest and fanciest attire.

Kindhearted Georgia sheriff’s deputies replaced a 12-year old boy’s BMX bike after his was stolen.

Former NFL star Jimmy Graham is one of us, as he gets back on his bike after suffering cuts and bruises when a driver smashed into him in a SMIDSY* crash. *Sorry Mate, I Didn’t See You.

 

International

Canadian Cycling Magazine considers five goofy things non-bicycling people ask bicyclists, including “doesn’t your butt hurt,” and the ever-popular “why do you shave your legs.”

After a London van driver told bike-riding BBC presenter Jeremy Vine to fuck off, Vine responded by telling nearby pedestrians “He seems like the kind of guy who might not come to my birthday party.”

Bicycling considers what the bicycling mecca can teach the world — and the writer’s hometown — about bike infrastructure, reminding us that the Netherlands wasn’t always the bike-friendly paradise we see now. As usual, read it on Yahoo if the magazine blocks you. 

Foldie maker Dahon wowed visitors to a Chinese bike show with they’re latest bikes and tech, including a new frame cable that reportedly makes single-bar folding bikes “more rigid, stronger and faster than some large-wheeled mountain bikes.”

 

Competitive Cycling

Denmark’s Magnus Cort Nielsen overcame the cold and wet weather to win Tuesday’s 10th stage of the Giro, as former Tour de France champ Geraint Thomas kept a tight grip on the pink leader’s jersey.

Movistar cyclist Will Barta managed to escape serious injury crashing on a wet descent in Tuesday’s 10th stage, but he can’t say the same for his bike, which snapped in two during a brush with a retaining wall.

Bicycling applauds 21-year old Dutch cyclist Puck Pieterse’s podium vibes, which she displays with increasing frequency competing in ‘cross, mountain biking and road racing. Read it on AOL if the magazine blocks you.

 

Finally…

Telling bike riders not to do something they wouldn’t do driving a car probably doesn’t have the intended impact, in a world where people do whatever the hell they want behind the wheel. Your next bike could have magnets instead of gears, or maybe not.

And if you get chased out the home you’re burglarizing, try not to leave your bike behind. And if you do, don’t go back for it.

……….

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

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

Bass ignores mobility plan in State of City, MOVE removal violates CEQA, and LA Engineering greenwashes LOS climate fire

April 18, 2023 / / One comment

This doesn’t bode well.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass gave her first State of the City address yesterday, with a focus on the city’s efforts to build housing and end homelessness, as well as increasing the size of the LAPD, LAFD and 911 services to improve safety.

What Bass did not mention was traffic safety, Vision Zero, the mobility plan, bikes, pedestrians, transit or alternative transportation.

We’ll see where her priorities lie when she releases her first city budget this morning, and whether any of that will be given the funding they need.

But right now, it looks like we’re going to be an afterthought.

If that.

Photo by Aayush Srivastava from Pexels.

………

Carter Rubin of the Natural Resources Defense Council, aka NRDC, makes a compelling argument in favor of the very successful MOVE Culver City Complete Streets project.

And keeping it right where it is.

The project is under fire from the newly auto-centric conservative majority on the Culver City council, which wants to rip it out so cars can once again go zoom, zoom without having to make room for anyone else.

Here’s just a part of what Rubin has to say.

A recent analysis of the corridor shows MOVE Culer City has delivered substantial benefits with few tradeoffs.

  • A 52% increase in bus ridership
  • A 32% increase in cycling activity
  • A 18% increase in pedestrian activity
  • Only a 2 minute increase in average peak period travel time for people in cars

Hard-won progress deserves defending. So this week, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) sent a letter to the City Council expressing our support for the MOVE Culver City initiative. In doing so, we joined over 20 other organizations that advocate for sustainable, safe, healthy and equitable transportation.

He also notes that removing the project could violate state environmental laws, as well as federal civil rights requirements.

In our letter, we make the case that any action by the city to increase the number of lane-miles available for mixed-flow vehicle traffic would require analysis, disclosure, and mitigation of potential environmental impacts pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The City must comply with CEQA before making any final decision on a project that changes conditions on the ground today.

Full removal of MOVE Culver City would entail adding approximately 2.6 lane miles of vehicular lanes to principal arterial highways, which is likely to significantly increase vehicle miles traveled, according to the state’s official CEQA guidance. That increase in VMT would contribute to additional greenhouse gas emissions impacts, as well as criteria air pollution, including ozone, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and PM10 and PM2.5, from tailpipe exhaust and brake, tire, and roadway wear.

Further, we note that the City is required by Title VI of the Civil Rights Act to analyze changes to transit service that might disproportionately affect people of color, immigrants and other protected communities who ride transit.

Or to put it more succinctly,

………

They still don’t get it.

The Los Angeles Bureau of Engineering is proposing widening a one-mile section of Alameda Street in Wilmington near the Port of Los Angeles, increasing the street to three lanes in each direction to boost automotive throughput and the largely discredited Level of Service.

But they’re throwing us a bone by adding a bike and pedestrian trail to greenwash their work while they set the climate on fire.

Maybe they could just give us the trail, and skip the damn climate bonfire.

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Go Human is awarding grants up to $40,000 to improve traffic safety in your own community.

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Walk Bike Long Beach invites you to for a morning of bikes and coffee this Saturday.

Celebrate Earth Day this Saturday on your bike! We’ll do the usual group ride to get some coffee — this time aiming for Belmont Heights. Then back to Pedal Movement.

For EXTRA CREDIT, keep rolling with us and climb Signal Hill for a chat with the Sierra Club about the threat of future oil drilling in our community.

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Nice to hear from our bike-riding state senator and Congressional candidate.

Now we just need to get the rest of ’em on bikes, too.

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Hard to tell just where this is, but it looks like it might be the Santa Monica Civic Center complex.

Or maybe SaMo High.

………

In case you were looking for something to hang on the wall of my office, this will do nicely, thank you.

Of course, you’d also have to buy me an office.

………

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

No bias here. Officials in a Massachusetts town are up in arms after state officials begin work to remove a traffic lane and install bike lanes on a local bridge, insisting no one told them about the plans; one city councilmember actually insists there’s not enough bike traffic on the bridge to justify a bike lane, apparently forgetting that most people don’t enjoy risking their lives in traffic with safe infrastructure.

No bias here, either. A British Columbia letter writer complains that a “boondoggle” bike lane “smacks of ‘fiscal irresponsibility’ and ‘catering to cycling interests’ over the concerns of taxpayers,” apparently forgetting that people who ride bikes pay taxes, too.

………

Local 

Streetsblog’s Joe Linton offers photos from Sunday’s Pico Union meets Mid-City CicLAvia.

South Pasadena Active Streets was honored by state Assemblymember Mike Fong for their work organizing bike buses for local elementary school students.

The Pasadena Star News looks forward to this weekend’s 626 Golden Streets through San Dimas, La Verne, Pomona and Claremont in the San Gabriel Valley. Assuming you can get past the paper’s paywall, that is.

 

State

Bakersfield’s popular Kern River Bike Trail will be closed until further notice for maintenance work.

San Francisco moves to make the city less livable with a proposal to rip out the pandemic-era parklets in front of restaurants.

Speaking of San Francisco, the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition is calling for quick action on Arguello Blvd, where masters champ and world record holder Ethan Boyes was killed recently; the organization notes the Presidio street is used by hundreds of families, commuters and competitive athletes every day.

Just like the failure of the $1 billion 405 Freeway widening project here in Los Angeles, the engineer behind the Bay Area’s $600 million project to widen the 101 Freeway admits that it accomplished nothing, as traffic congestion goes from bad to worse. Just one more argument to invest in transit, rather than flushing more money down the toilet on highway projects. Or widening streets to move more cars.

 

National

Streetsblog complains that Biden’s EV Revolution will pay Americans to drive some really dangerous pickups and SUVS that pose a risk to everyone on the road around them, particularly people walking and biking.

The Washington Post reports that men face a higher risk of dying than women at every stage of life, with the male sex accounting for 71 percent of pedestrian deaths and a whopping 87 percent of bicyclist deaths.

Road Bike Rider explains how to pack for a bike tour, while Cycling Weekly offers lessons learned from going tubeless.

Cycling News considers the best budget bike helmets. But neglects to include any of those budget prices.

A lawyer offers advice on what to do after a hit-and-run or road rage incident. Or both.

The internet is still going crazy over the square, tread track bike wheels.

A 19-year old Bend, Oregon man is building his own sustainable mountain bike company.

A Las Vegas writer takes a pleasant bike ride through the city to examine new construction in preparation of this fall’s Formula 1 race.

Great idea. North Dakota fourth and fifth graders are teaching kindergarten kids how to ride bikes.

If you build it, they will come. Bike ridership is outpacing motor vehicle use in Ann Arbor, Michigan, thanks to new protected bike lanes and banning right on red in some locations.

Maine considers a Stop as Yield law, allowing people on bicycles to roll stop signs instead of coming to a full stop, when its safe to do so.

New York’s city council is considering new regulations to combat ebike and e-scooter battery fires.

Tragic news from Virginia, where a 26-year old woman was killed while she was teaching her 6-year old daughter how to ride a bike, along with her boyfriend; they were all run down from behind by a 36-year old woman.

A New Orleans driver faces up to 15 years behind bars for the hit-and-run death of a “beloved” local butcher as he was riding his bike six years ago; no word on why it took so long to bring the man’s killer to justice.

 

International

Forbes considers the best bike computers. Even though the most enjoyable rides usually come when they’re broken.

Bikeshare is booming in Mexico City.

That’s more like it. A new British Columbia bill would require speed limiting devices on all heavy duty commercial trucks, while mandating a “safer road environment” for bike riders and pedestrians.

A new memorial bench handcrafted by a fellow bike rider honors a legendary Scottish man who wrote about bicycling for the local paper.

No surprise here, as a new report shows people in London’s poorest areas face the biggest risk of traffic injuries or death. Just like in Los Angeles, and most major cities. 

Next time you’re in the Dutch city of Nijmegen, make sure to stop at the Velorama National Bicycle Museum, the country’s only museum devoted to the invention and growth of the now-ubiquitous bicycle.

The hit-and-run epidemic has spread to Spain, where a British tourist was killed when he was run down by a heartless coward who fled the scene.

A Russian man is riding his bike around the world to promote traditional Turkish music.

 

Competitive Cycling

Russell Finsterwald and Heather Jackson claimed victory in the men’s and women’s elite categories in San Diego’s Belgian Waffle Ride, while the race retired the number 12 in honor of 2022 winner Moriah “Mo” Wilson, who was murdered in Austin, Texas last year.

It was another stage win for L39ION of Los Angeles cyclist Skylar Schneider, who won her second in a row to conclude the women’s Tour of Redlands, while Blue Ridge Twenty24’s Emily Ehrlich claimed the overall victory in the GC.

L39ion of Los Angeles founders Justin and Cory Williams announced the launch of their third co-ed, multi-racial city-based cycling team in Austin, Texas, following the launch of another team in Miami. They may be single-handedly — okay, double handedly — doing more to ensure the survival, growth and spread of cycling in this country than anyone else.

Bicycling explains the new National Cycling League and how it works, and whether it fulfills the promised fan-first professional cycling experience. Read it on AOL this time if the magazine blocks you.

 

Finally…

What good is a wearable computer if the health data thitey measures is wrong? When life gives you speeding drivers, give them your own DIY traffic sign saying “slow the f*ck down.”

And that feeling when you sprain your ankle falling off a bike just before your widely panned set at Coachella.

………

Ramadan Mubarak to all observing the Islamic holy month. 

……….

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

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

Get out and Bike the Vote today, bike groups demand action at COP27, and more on LACBC rebranding as Bike LA

November 8, 2022 / / Comments Off on Get out and Bike the Vote today, bike groups demand action at COP27, and more on LACBC rebranding as Bike LA
If you haven’t cast your ballot yet, Streets For All offers their endorsements for many of the races in Los Angeles County.

Meanwhile, the West Hollywood Bicycle Coalition posts the responses to their candidate surveys. Or at least the candidates who bothered to respond.

Which should give you a pretty good suggestion of who to vote for. And who not to.

And ActiveSGV provides their choices on many of the state and local ballot proposals; as a 501(c)3 nonprofit, they can take a stand on initiatives, but are prohibited from endorsing or opposing individual candidates.

Metro buses, trains and bikeshare are all free today, along with a number of other local transit systems, to help you get to the polls.

So get out and bike the vote, already.

I mean, you are going to vote.

Right?

Photo by cottonbro from Pexels.

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The Partnership for Active Travel and Health, aka PATH, wants organizations to sign on to their letter to the COP27 climate conference going on now in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.

Here’s just a sample.

With COP27 being hosted in Africa, it is worth noting that across the continent walking is already the primary mode of transport for the majority of people. Up to 78% walk every day – often because they have no other choice. And they put their lives at risk the moment they step out of their homes due to roads dominated by speeding cars, missing sidewalks, makeshift crossings and high-polluting vehicles. By 2050, low and middle income countries will own over two-thirds of the world’s cars. With that comes an increasing urgency for even greater investment in safe walking and cycling infrastructure.

For all of these reasons, the Partnership for Active Travel and Health, together with the undersigned organisations, strongly appeal to national and city governments to commit to prioritising and investing in walking and cycling, through Nationally Determined Contributions and integrated and coherent strategies, including plans, funding and concrete actions for:

  • Infrastructure – to make walking and cycling safe, accessible and easy to do.
  • Campaigns – to support a shift in people’s mobility habits.
  • Land use planning – to ensure proximity and quality of access to everyday services on foot and by bike.
  • Integration with public transport – to underpin sustainable mobility for longer trips.
  • Capacity building – to enable the successful delivery of effective walking and cycling strategies that have measurable impact.

Organizations including UCI, Rails-to-Trails and World Bicycle Relief have already signed on.

It’s also been endorsed by yours truly, even though this organization is just me and a corgi.

Thanks to Colin Bogart for the heads-up.

………

Streetsblog talks with Eli Akira Kaufman, Executive Director of the newly renamed Bike LA, formerly LACBC, about the bike coalition’s rebranding.

Our staff and board of directors felt that the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition (LACBC) really did not capture who we are and our mission to support more Angelenos to Bike LA. Basically, the thinking is that LACBC sounds too much like the government agencies we work with (LADOT, LAUSD, LADWP) when we’re actually a community-based nonprofit organization committed to advocating for the rights of cyclists. It had become clear that we needed a name change that made it easier for bike-minded people to find and support our advocacy work much like our sister bike nonprofits Bike East Bay, Bike New York, Bike Austin, Bike Cleveland, Bike Portland, Bike Houston to name a few.

Bike LA is both more accessible and a call to action. We thank everyone for supporting LACBC for the past quarter century and for remaining committed to Bike LA for a Better LA!

Kaufman goes on to address some of the other issues facing the organization — and the rest of us — including the lack of safe infrastructure, seven years after the city adopted the mobility plan that was supposed to transform the way we get around the city.

Although as we’ve learned the hard way, a mobility plan doesn’t do a damn bit of good unless someone actually builds it.

It’s worth investing a few minutes to read the whole thing, because this is one of the leading groups representing you in the fight for safer and more equitable streets in Los Angeles.

………

Speaking of Bike LA, we featured this one when it first appeared online last year.

But it’s worth posting again, since filmmaker Yolanda Davis-Overstreet was one of the people honored by the group at Saturday’s Bike Fest.

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This is who we share the road with.

Thanks to HowTheWestWS for the tip.

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A reminder to mark your calendar for the annual World Day of Remembrance for the victims of traffic violence later this month.

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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 writer for London’s Telegraph lists ten ways MAMILS — Middle Aged Men in Lycra — have just totally ruined bicycling vacations, like replacing lazy lunches of red wine and thick slabs of focaccia with energy gels and protein shakes. As if you can’t just enjoy your holiday and let other people enjoy theirs.

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

An Indian man stabbed his own brother to death in a bizarre dispute over bicycle parking, after the victim left his brother’s bike outside his house.

………

Local

Streetsblog’s Sahra Sulaiman took a deep dive into that racist and otherwise offensive recording of three Hispanic Los Angeles councilmembers, focusing on the “seething anti-Blackness” of CD14 Councilmember Kevin de León; while former Council President Nury Martinez has resigned, de León and CD1 Councilmember “Roadkill” Gil Cedillo still refuse to do the right thing.

South Pasadena’s bike bus was scheduled to return today with trips to two elementary schools, although today’s rain will likely throw a wrench in those plans.

 

State 

Sad news from Visalia, where a 25-year old man riding a bicycle was killed in a hit-and-run; police are looking for a 31-year old woman who fled on foot when they knocked on her door.

You can find a lot of things when you ride a bike. Like the body a bike rider discovered while riding past a Tulare County orchard; sheriff’s deputies called the death “suspicious.”

 

National

Bicycling shares a four minute short film about a blind bike mechanic; Bike Shop: Reza the Blind Bicycle Mechanic premiered at this year’s Bicycle Film Festival in New York City and Amsterdam. As usual, you can watch it on Yahoo if the magazine blocks you.

A design magazine remembers the late designer and engineer Mike Burrows as the world’s greatest bicycle designer and the godfather of modern bicycle aerodynamics.

The oldest son of Little People, Big World stars Zach and Tori Roloff is now one of us, after his grandfather gave the diminutive five-year old a special bike small enough for him to ride.

A travel writer offers tips on how to ride a bike to Jenny Lake in Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park, which offers some of North America’s most spectacular scenery.

A Cleveland bike shop owner says he’s fed up with reckless drivers and dangerous streets after surviving a hit-and-run.

Now you, too, can win the mountain bike that stars in the new feature film 8600FT, which successfully climbed all 8,600 feet of Moab, Utah’s Whole Enchilada trail. Although the rider may have had something to do with it, too.

The New Yorker takes a deep dive into the murder of gravel cyclist Moriah “Mo” Wilson in Austin, Texas, contending the killing has exposed a lot of dirt in the sport.

Nice piece from NPR telling the tale of a New Jersey man who lost his pharmaceutical marketing job during the pandemic, but saw it as an opportunity to open a bike shop that quickly became a community hub.

 

International

Trek is partnering with World Bicycle Relief to raise $2.5 million to provide much-needed bicycles for people in Africa over the holiday season.

Cyclist considers the environmental impact of metal bike frames, concluding that steel beats other materials for protecting the planet.

A new book reports Britain’s King Charles nearly didn’t live long enough to ascend to the throne after he was hit by a bus while riding his bike in the 1960s.

Tragic news from the UK, where a 53-year old man apparently took his own life in a national park, nearly a year after suffering a head injury in a solo bicycling crash that changed his personality.

A British man got tired of getting fired, so he started his own business doing odd jobs using a tandem bike.

French bikemakers are jumping into the ebike field, challenging the dominance of Asian manufacturers.

This is what you can do when streets are safe. Over 1,200 kids participate in Barcelona’s Bicibús — or bicycle bus — program, taking more than 90 routes to ride their bikes to over 70 schools.

A New Zealand couple with two preschool kids takes part in an ebike trial program, and finds living without a car is a game-changer. In a good way.

An Italian ultra-cyclist aims to be the first person to ride a bike coast to coast across Antarctica, using a fat bike to cover over 1,200 miles in 60 days.

An Indian columnist says bicycles are the future of mobility.

A scandal is growing over Victoria, Australia Premier Dan Andrews 2013 crash that left a 15-year old bike rider seriously injured as his wife was driving the car; they blame the kid for T-boning their car with his bike, though damage to the car suggests otherwise.

 

Competitive Cycling

Dutch cyclist and 2017 Giro champ Tom Dumoulin is finally relaxing after his retirement, revealing he hated cycling during a challenging 2020 season, despite a seventh place finish in the Tour de France.

Slovenia’s Matej Mohorič walks readers through his victory in this year’s Milan-San Remo, which Cycling Tips suggests may have been the biggest win of the year.

 

Finally…

Riding thousands of miles across Europe to draw a giant GPS bicycle across the continent. Presenting the transportation circle of life; thanks to Steven Hallett for the heads-up.

And we may have to deal with getting chased by angry dogs, but at least we hardly ever have to outrun a wolf.

Cyclist surprised by wolf in the Netherlands from Damnthatsinteresting

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

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

Killer Michigan drugged driver allegedly a repeat offender, and California to get $631 million for climate resilient infrastructure

August 2, 2022 / / One comment

This is why people keep dying on our streets.

The 43-year old woman who killed two men and critically injured three others participating in a 300-mile Michigan fundraising ride for the Make-A-Wish program faces her second arrest for driving under the influence of prescription drugs.

Mandy Marie Benn reportedly had been prescribed Aderall and Suboxone, and had prescription bottles for Benzodiazepine in her car at the time of the crash.

Suboxone is used to treat opioid addiction.

The prosecuting attorney in her case described her as so stoned that she “had slow and slurred speech, lack of balance and couldn’t follow instructions,” and told police the jumble of mangled bikes and bodies “almost looks real.”

She had previously been arrested on a charge of operating a vehicle while visibly impaired back five years earlier.

However, there’s no word on a conviction. Which suggests the charge was dropped or bargained away, allowing her to keep driving until she killed someone.

And she did.

Allegedly.

Just one more example of authorities keeping a dangerous driver on the road until it’s too late.

Benn is charged with two counts of operating a vehicle while intoxicated causing death, as well as a couple misdemeanors charges.

She’s being held on a million dollars bail, and faces a maximum of 31 years behind bars.

Which pales in comparison to the cost paid by the victims and their families.

Meanwhile, the victims were identified as a 57-year old man and a 48-year old man, both from Michigan.

Two of the men who were injured have been released, while the third remains hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.

And the Make-A-Wish foundation reports they’re “heartbroken” over the needless deaths and injuries.

Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay.

………

U.S. Senator Alex Padilla announced that California will receive over $631 million for “climate resilient transportation infrastructure” over the next five years through the federal infrastructure bill pass last year.

The bill includes provisions for transit, bicycling and pedestrian projects designed to combat extreme weather conditions.

Meanwhile, Calbike looks at how pandemic bike riding led to the birth of SB 932, the Plan for the Future Bill.

The bill from California Senator Anthony Portantino, and sponsored by Streets for All and Calbike, requires local governments to include provisions to make streets safer for people biking, walking, using scooters and taking public transit in the circulation elements of their general plans.

And it includes deadlines for starting and finishing construction of the new facilities, so cities have to actually build them.

………

Seriously?

A writer for City Watch says residents of Eagle Rock deserve better than a remake of Colorado Blvd to make it safer and more livable for everyone, accusing Metro of jamming plans for a bus rapid transit down down their throats.

Evidently, keeping it a deadly, traffic-inducing car sewer is somehow better for them, in some inexplicable way.

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Yes, you can do stunts on a commuter ebike.

………

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

Police in New Orleans are looking for a bike-riding man who fired a single shot at a group of people walking down the street.

………

Local

A Los Angeles couple has filed suit against Seattle ebike maker Rad Power Bikes, blaming a flawed design that makes it difficult slow down and stop while going downhill for the death of their 12-year old daughter from head trauma last year.

Streetsblog’s Joe Linton examines the newly renovated Culver Blvd bike path in Culver City, noting that the project improved pedestrian and rainwater facilities, but didn’t make major changes to the bikeway itself.

Helicopter and paramedic crews with the Los Angeles Fire Department rescued an injured mountain biker from a trail in in Shadow Hills on Saturday.

West Hollywood is now home to the next generation of Lime ebikes, with new ebikes from Bird coming later this month.

Santa Monica is planning another bike and pedestrian safety operation for today, ticketing any traffic violations that could put bike riders or pedestrians at risk, regardless of who commits them. Which means the standard protocol applies — ride to the letter of the law until you cross the city limits, so you’re not the one who gets ticketed.

 

State 

Sad news from Bakersfield, where a 40-year old man was killed by a hit-and-run driver while riding his bike through an alley Monday morning.

Sad news from Grover Beach, too, where a 29-year old man on an ebike was killed when he reportedly crossed in front of an oncoming fire truck.

A 69-year old driver crashed into a Berkeley bike rider participating in a group ride Sunday afternoon, before slamming into three parked cars and flipping over; both the driver and the 29-year old man on the bike were taken to a local hospital with injuries that didn’t appear to be life-threatening.

SFist questions whether San Francisco’s mayor is trying to kill off the city’s popular Slow Streets program.

 

National

Ebike and e-scooter provider Bolt Mobility, founded by Olympic sprinter Usain Bolt, has ceased operations in several cities virtually overnight, abandoning its vehicles on the streets.

Bike Portland talks with a disabled Portland woman and new bike rider who gained greater mobility on her adaptive bicycle. Proving once again that bikes are for everyone, not just for the healthy and strong.

A 16-year old Las Vegas boy has been missing since he left for his new job on Friday; his phone is turned off and his bike was found in a dumpster ten miles from his home.

Operators of Colorado’s Palisade Plunge mountain bike trail are urging everyone to beware of the scorching heat and bring extra water, after the heart-related death of one man.

Houston patients with pre or existing diabetes or hypertension can now get a prescription for rental bike use.

A Minnesota advocacy group offers a 45-minute recorded discussion on tips for utilitarian bicycling, complete with a print transcript in case you’d rather read it.

Bike lanes in a Boston neighborhood has become the latest battlefront in the battle over gentrification, as Black and Latino residents complain they’re neither needed or wanted by the residents in danger of being pushed out. Even though Black and Latino people ride bikes, too.

The New Yorker ponders what a 9,000 pound electric vehicle should sound like, since silent cars and trucks pose a significant danger to bike riders and pedestrians who rely on vehicle noise for their safety.

That’s a good problem to have. The Manhattan Borough president is suggesting that the city convert a traffic lane on the West Side Highway to a separated bike path to relieve bike traffic congestion on the popular Hudson River Greenway.

NPR talks with the Director of Transportation for Hoboken about how the New Jersey city has eliminated traffic deaths for the past four years through a series of incremental safety changes.

Another reminder to always carry ID when you ride a bike, as authorities in Baton Rouge, Louisiana struggle to identify a man killed by a hit-and-run driver while riding a bike.

 

International

After a British teacher flipped over his handlebars and broke his collarbone, he credited the what3words app with pinpointing his rural location for the paramedics.

Here are 18 bicycling routes throughout the island nation for your next trip to Singapore.

 

Competitive Cycling

Another day, another major crash in track cycling at the Commonwealth Games; Australia is leading a push for better safety measures.

Veteran Dutch cyclist Annemiek van Vleuten says she’s “super proud” to have won the first women’s Tour de France in 33 years, despite nearly quitting due to stomach issues early in the week.

The Astana Qazaqstan cycling team reinstated Colombian rider Miguel Ángel López after he was questioned, and apparently cleared, in the investigation into the alleged activities of a Spanish doctor suspected of drug trafficking.

 

Finally…

Celebrate a Tour de France finish on your next bike ride, complete with cheering fans. Your next ebike could have a built-in boombox to annoy everyone as you ride by.

And Aquaman is one of us.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

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

Ebike buyers screwed in new climate bill, bike riders could be screwed in Hollywood, and Woody Allen helps kill NYC bike lane

July 29, 2022 / / One comment

Before we start, there’s a report that someone was killed in a collision involving a bicyclist in Azusa yesterday.

According to multiple sources, the crash occurred around 10:15 Thursday morning, at mile marker 24.19 on San Gabriel Canyon Road.

The California Highway Patrol confirms that at least one person was killed, but doesn’t identify the victim. And bizarrely doesn’t say whether it was the person on the bike, the driver or someone else.

Although chances are, we can figure that part out ourselves.

Hopefully we’ll get more information later today.

Photo by Markus Spiske from Pexels.

………

It looks like we got screwed in the new climate and energy bill agree upon this week by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and recalcitrant West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin.

After months of going back and forth on how much of a rebate ebike buyers would receive in last year’s failed Build Back Better bill, the two raised a new proposal out of its ashes.

But left out was any kind of ebike incentives. Or anything else that would get people out of their cars and onto two wheels.

Even though it revives rebates up to $7,500 for electric car buyers.

As People For Bikes points out, a pair of bike bills have already passed in the House.

The House-backed E-BIKE Act (check out PeopleForBikes’ coverage of the act here and ​​here), would offer many Americans a low-cost, emissionless, active transportation choice and show a serious commitment from the federal government to a mode shift towards a low-carbon, multimodal future. Also already approved in the House is the bipartisan Bicycle Commuter Act, which would put money back into commuters’ pockets for choosing to bike to work. Both policies are popular, simple and effective tools our nation could leverage for emissions reductions, but were deprioritized to make more room for cars.

But if they’re not included as part of the reconciliation package along with the Inflation Reduction Act, their chances of passage in divided Senate are something less than zero.

And without significantly reducing the number of cars on the road, electric or otherwise, the chances of staving off climate disaster are pretty much the same.

………

Speaking of getting screwed, we may be about to get screwed once again courtesy of CD13 Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell.

It was just four years ago when O’Farrell cancelled shovel-ready plans for a much-needed road diet and bike lanes on Temple Street, in conjunction with former Councilmember “Roadkill” Gil Cedillo.

Now KNBC-4 reports that long-awaited work on improving Hollywood Blvd along the Hollywood Walk of Fame will begin next year.

But there’s no word on the protected bike lanes we’ve been promised.

According to the TV station, the $7.2 million project will include —

  • conversion of most of the parking lane on Hollywood Boulevard into an expanded pedestrian zone
  • street furnishing including tables and chairs
  • bus shelters, bicycle racks, and transit kiosks
  • planters and landscaping
  • bus boarding platforms
  • consolidated bus stops
  • space for activities like sidewalk vending, temporary art installations, and music and culture performances.

What it won’t include, apparently, are the bike lanes needed to tame traffic and improve safety on the dangerous corridor.

Let’s hope it’s just an oversight.

For his sake, too. Because it would be a bad move to screw LA’s bicycling community once again.

Especially in an election year.

………

Blame Woody Allen.

Yes, that Woody Allen.

According to Patch, the former comedian and film auteur was responsible for killing a planned bike lane on New York’s Upper East Side where a bike-riding woman was killed by a truck driver this week.

Allen’s objection was that the bike couldn’t be installed in a “graceful way.”

No, really. 

………

Walk ‘n Rollers is clearing out the cupboards, and holding a garage sale to raise funds and move out excess merch.

………

Gravel Bike California wants to take you riding in Big Sur.

And what could possibly be wrong with that?

………

Streets For All announced their next virtual happy hour on August 10th, feating Toks Omishakin, secretary of the California State Transportation Agency.

And that’s CalSTA, not Caltrans.

………

At last, a bike bell for people who don’t want anything that looks like a bike bell. Or anything else, for that matter.

But at least it sounds pretty.

………

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

A Portland bike rider suffered significant arm and wrist injuries when he crashed into a barely visible chain someone had strung across a designated bike route.

No bias here. A Minnesota letter writer says maybe the city should focus more on crime than bike lanes, after his catalytic converter was stolen for the second time in three months. Never mind that police have nothing to do with striping streets.

A Mississippi VFW post replaced a Black teenager’s broken bike, after a driver posted video racist attack on a group of Black teens. Although someone should tell Action News 5 not to call a fully grown Black teenager a “boy.”

Unbelievable. Police in the UK blame a bike rider for a road raging driver, saying the rider’s shout of “watch out” contributed to the driver slamming on his brakes and backing towards the bicyclist — and running over a dog in the process. Schmuck.

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

Four recent fires in Spokane, Washington are blamed on a bike-riding arsonist.

An 18-year old British man will be tried on a charge of causing bodily harm through wanton or furious driving after injuring a pedestrian last November.

………

Local

The Los Angeles City Council Public Works Committee approved a proposal to provide an additional $706,000 to remove graffiti and provide other maintenance on the new Sixth Street Viaduct; that’s in addition to the nearly $600 million already spent to build it — almost none of which went towards protecting people on bicycles or slowing speeding drivers.

LA plans a new pedestrian bridge and bike path through the Pacoima Wash connecting Pacoima with San Fernando, five years after a teenaged boy was swept to his death when he fell into the Wash during a fierce rainstorm.

 

State 

Goleta is planning to build a new bike path connecting Calle Real to the Atascadero Creek Bikeway, including a new bike and pedestrian bridge over San Jose Creek.

Sad news from Santa Maria, where a 38-year old woman was killed when she was struck by a driver while riding her bike Monday evening.

A handful of Oakland streets are in line to get protected bike lanes and a new cycle track, while another will be shut down entirely for a pedestrian plaza.

San Francisco Streetsblog editor Roger Ruddick explains his bicycling injury last week, warning others about an unmarked, wheel-grabbing grate in Golden Gate Park

 

National

CNET recommends seven great deals on ebikes available on Amazon right now, although chances are, you’ve never heard of any of them. Meanwhile, Schwinn is still hanging in there after 125 years, and making a comeback with the ebike revolution.

CleanTechica says most ebike laws, like California’s, are largely unenforceable because they’re based on how fast the bike can go, rather than how fast someone rides them.

A Wyoming mayor and his wife were run down by a juvenile driver as they rode their bikes at 6 am; the couple were both conscious and coherent immediately following the crash.

No surprise here. San Antonio, Texas police are quick to blame the victim for running a stop sign, after a man on a bicycle crashes into the surprise of a police cruiser.

Chicago remains committed to hardening the city’s protected bike lanes with concrete barriers, though construction delays have held up work.

Chicago Streetsblog says it’s time for drivers to stop killing children, as the city sees its fifth child victim of traffic violence in the last month — three of them on bicycles.

A one-car Minnesota family finally makes the dog happy by buying a bucket-front cargo bike.

Christian music icon Amy Grant is one of us; the singer was hospitalized for a couple nights in Nashville’s Vanderbilt Hospital after suffering cuts and abrasions falling off her bicycle earlier this week. And yes, if it matters, she was wearing a helmet. Although it’s hard to believe she was kept overnight — let alone two nights — just to be treated for cuts and abrasions, no matter how good her insurance is. Thanks to Megan Lynch for the heads-up. 

Calls continue for a Jersey City councilwoman to step down after video circulates of her fleeing the scene, without bothering to stop or slow down, after crashing into a bike rider.

Protesters shut down DC’s Pennsylvania Ave to demand safer streets, saying bicyclists are sick of paying with their lives.

A Georgetown website recommends a self-guided bike tour for your next trip to DC.

 

International

The Guardian questions why so many bicycles end up in a watery grave, noting that more bicycles are found during the decennial draining of Paris’ Canal Saint-Martin than anything, other than wine bottles and mobile phones.

A British man is riding 2,400 miles from Italy to the Arctic Circle to raise funds for a mental health charity.

Flanders updates its infrastructure handbook to call for wider bike paths and more space for bicyclists, as bike commuting rates jump and people ride longer distances.

 

Competitive Cycling

Sad news from France, where 25-year old Japanese triathlete and aspiring Olympian Tsudoi Miyazaki was killed in a collision when she was struck by a driver while training on her bike near Orléans; her death comes just days after she competed in Spain’s Pontevedra World Cup. Thanks to Christian for the tip.

The New York Times says there’s a long way to go for women cyclists to achieve parity with the men; not only is the Tour de France Femmes two weeks shorter than the Tour de France, with abbreviated stages, but the women will divide a little more than a tenth of the prize money enjoyed by the men.

Dutch pro Lorena Wiebes outsprinted world champion Elisa Balsamo and general classification leader Marianne Vos for the win on Thursday, while Rouleur questions whether the women really need emulate the Tour’s long, boring stages with a hectic sprint finish.

Nearly half the peloton hit the pavement in what Cycling Weekly termed an unnecessary crash on a long, straight and wide road.

Italy’s Barbara Malcotti was DQ’d for receiving mechanical assistance from her team car, apparently because she stopped at the front of her bunch, rather than dropping back to the rear.

 

Finally…

That feeling when your new ebike has enough battery power to climb Mt. Everest, although probably not the traction. Congratulations to Los Angeles on making the list of top cities for naked bike riding.

And that feeling when you don’t crash until the easy part.

@mcwigglehips

#kidfails #funnykids #funnykidsvideos #waituntiltheend

♬ original sound – Adam Elliott

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

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

More on unsafe 6th Street Viaduct bike lanes, missing South Bay bike lanes amid climate crisis, and the joy of bike riding

July 19, 2022 / / Comments Off on More on unsafe 6th Street Viaduct bike lanes, missing South Bay bike lanes amid climate crisis, and the joy of bike riding

Hats off to LAist for exploring the “now you se ’em, now you don’t” bike lanes on the nifty new $600 million 6th Street Viaduct.

Okay, just a mere $588 million.

Which surely could have bought better bike lanes than these.

As you’ll recall, the bridge, which pays homage to the classic but crumbling 1930s original, was built with a safe, barrier-protected walkway. And unsafe, Class IV semi-protected bike lanes on the other side of the barrier, protected only by easy-to-drive-over rubber curbs with big, squishy white bollards on bendy posts that wouldn’t stop anything.

Apparently, that was intentional.

LADOT was tasked with striping the pavement on the bridge and also worked with the construction contractor on the design and installation of the bike lanes, according to spokesperson Colin Sweeney. He said the decision to place the bike lanes outside the concrete walls that protect the pedestrian walkways came from Caltrans.

“Since there are no shoulders on the viaduct, Caltrans requested that the bike lanes be ‘permeable’ to act as an emergency lane,” Sweeney told LAist, saying the bike lanes offer “the highest level of protection that could be accommodated by the width of the bridge while also allowing emergency vehicles to enter if needed.”

Never mind that it’s also permeable for out-of-control truckers and distracted drivers, who will only feel a little jolt before slamming into someone on a bicycle.

And never mind the east end of the bridge, where’s there’s no protection at all — forcing riders to mix it up with usually speeding, and too often uncaring motorists.

Let alone the lack of safe connections leading to or from the bridge.

To call it a fail from a bike rider’s perspective is a massive understatement. Like maybe a $588 million understatement.

But this quote from the story sums the sad situation up as well as anything else.

………

Never mind the iffy bike lanes.

It was nice of Caltrans and the 6th Street Viaduct designers to include these nifty viewing grandstands for the inevitable burnouts and sideshows.

………

What if they threw a climate crisis and nobody came?

Or cared.

Bad Mom, Good Mom takes a deep dive into the confluence of the ambitious South Bay Bicycle Master Plan and global atmospheric CO2 levels, which were 392 ppm when the plan was adopted in 2011.

And now stand 36 ppm higher.

Yet just like LA’s bike and mobility plans, the South Bay plan has been largely forgotten by the cities it was supposed to save, and has now been downgraded even further with a Local Traffic Network replacing the promised bike lanes, as CO2 levels — and the risk to bike riders — continue to climb.

Many of them children on their way to school, as the piece points out. Kids who should have had a safe route there by now.

But now won’t. And won’t have cleaner air to breathe.

Or a livable planet to do it on.

Go ahead and read the whole piece. We’ll wait.

………

The best piece you’ll read today comes from a reporter for NPR, who manages to capture the sheer peace and joy of riding a bicycle better than I’ve ever done.

As well as the inherent contradiction of being a serious cyclist when riding is so much fun.

………

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

No bias here. Someone asks about a large group of bike riders in downtown Santa Barbara, and the online conversation quickly devolves into accusations of wealthy white recreational bike riders running stop signs. Sort of like any other online discussion of bikes.

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

The man who infamously rode his bicycle down the aisle to loot a San Francisco drug store has been arrested for shoplifting again, after serving just half of a 16 month sentence.

A 28-year old Toronto woman faces carjacking charges for allegedly riding up to a car on a bicycle, before pulling out the 70-year old woman driving and taking off with her car.

An Aussie bike rider is accused of repeatedly hitting a woman he says cut him off with her car; police say there’s nothing they can do without knowing who he is. Unfortunately, video of the incident doesn’t appear to work in this country.

………

Local

CicLAvia is teaming with Motional to host a free panel discussion titled Talking Innovation and Safe Streets at the LA Cleantech Incubator tomorrow evening.

A bicyclist was hospitalized in unknown condition after being struck by a driver in Canyon Country Monday afternoon.

 

State 

San Diego’s Rouleur Brewing Company will donate all the proceeds from the sale of their new hazy New England-style IPA to the Moriah Wilson Foundation in honor of the late cyclist.

A pair of Twentynine Palms residents suffered serious injuries when the bicycle they were sharing was struck by a hit-and-run driver Saturday night.

 

National

Livestrong recommends their picks for the best bike mirrors, which aren’t just for old guys on ‘bents anymore.

Bicycling recommend the best rear bike lights you can buy on Amazon. Although these are pretty damn good for just 13 bucks and change, too. As usual, read it on Yahoo if the magazine blocks you.

Triathlete offers advice on how to make your pedals go round more efficiently.

Evidently, city officials in Pueblo, Colorado don’t think there’s room in the planned 20-foot wide sidewalks on each side of a redesigned street to make space for the existing 5-foot wide bike lanes.

Wyoming considers charging mountain bike user fees to fund essential trail work.

A Chico, California woman was the victim of a predatory attack by a food-conditioned grizzly bear last year along the banks of Montana’s Blackfoot River, made famous by A River Runs Through It.

An Iowa man will spend up to ten years behind bars for killing a bike rider in South Dakota while driving under the influence; he claims he never saw the victim, who was riding in broad daylight wearing high-vis with a flashing red taillight.

Spectrum News 1 discovers the volunteer-driven ghost bike project in Austin, Texas to memorialize people killed riding bicycles in Central Texas.

Thirteen fraternity members from my alma mater are riding 3,400 miles across the US to raise funds for Alzheimer’s research. So far they’ve raised $96,000 of the $150,000 goal, according to the story, although their website shows just half of that.

Once again, a bicyclist on a cross-country tour has been killed. A rider with a group riding to California from Savannah, Georgia died in an apparent collision outside Norman, Oklahoma. Although the only mention of a driver was to say they weren’t at fault.

Lonely Planet recommends the seven best bike rides if you ever find yourself riding on Cape Cod.

 

International

An 80-year old Edmonton, Alberta man is riding his ebike over 8,000 miles from Alaska to Panama City, accompanied by his relatively youthful 69-year old friend.

Toronto bicyclists took over the city’s High Park, riding laps around the roadway to protest police targeting bike riders breaking the low 12 mph speed limit.

James Corden, host of The Late Late Show, was in a heated altercation with another London bike rider who cut across his path and caused Corden to come off his bike, narrowly avoiding falling in front of traffic. However, the other guy did apologize.

A London newspaper offers advice on riding in the city’s current 100° heatwave. All of which you could probably come up with yourself with a little thought.

Finishing our London trifecta, bicycling rates are up 25% in the city over pre-pandemic levels.

Students at a Kochi, India high school have formed a 150-member bicycle brigade to promote bicycling to city residents and cut traffic to the school.

 

Competitive Cycling

Belgium’s Yves Lampaert was left fuming after losing a chunk of flesh from his leg when a dog wandered in front of the peloton during Friday’s 12th stage of the Tour de France; no word on whether the dog was injured.

https://twitter.com/cyclingtips/status/1547914174411317251?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1547914174411317251%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.news.com.au%2Fsport%2Fcycling%2Frider-still-furious-after-tour-de-france-dog-crash-chaos%2Fnews-story%2F5590e5ddf90e496988adf4f9758b4f22

Welsh cyclist Owain Doull hit the pavement after riding over a stray water bottle in Sunday’s 15th stage.

Cycling News looks back on how the Tour overcame man-eating bears and walls of snow to conquer the Pyrenees.

Rapha offers a short film examining the brother and sister duos anchoring the L39ion of Los Angeles cycling team.

 

Finally…

That feeling when you’re looking for a big, heavy bike trailer with a hard to use brake. Uncool bicycling accessories due for a comeback.

And this is why the pros are in the Tour de France, and you’re not.

Although in my case, I’m just too damn old and falling apart.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

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

Create true multimodal networks for vibrant cities, Griffith Park Drive closes to cars next week, and ticketing speeding bicyclists

June 23, 2022 / / Comments Off on Create true multimodal networks for vibrant cities, Griffith Park Drive closes to cars next week, and ticketing speeding bicyclists

They get it.

The World Resources Institute says the secret to creating vibrant US cities — and meeting US climate goals — is to invest in true multimodal transportation.

The group calls for a coordinated system of various modes of transportation that work for the entire community.

Transportation emits more climate-warming greenhouse gases than any other sector in the United States, so cutting carbon from transport is also essential to achieving the ambitious goal of reducing emissions 50%-52% by 2030. Recent modeling from America Is All In, a coalition of state and local climate leaders, shows that emissions reductions in the transportation sector can contribute more than one-third of what’s needed to reach the 2030 U.S. climate goal.

The key is to go multi-modal: not just cars, buses, rail, bicycles or walking, but a coordinated system of various modes of transportation. States, tribes, cities, universities and businesses have vital roles to play in developing clean multi-modal transportation systems that work for the entire community while fostering health, safety and economic prosperity.

Photo by Blue Bird from Pexels.

………

About damn time.

Griffith Park Drive will be closed to cars between Travel Town and Mount Hollywood Drive starting next week, part of a pilot program to “reduce cut-through traffic and improve safety for pedestrians, cyclists and wildlife.”

Now do the rest of the streets in Griffith Park. Because parks are for people, not cars.

………

Bicycling questions whether bicyclists should be subject to speeding tickets in Toronto’s High Park, where police are using speed guns to enforce a 13 mph speed limit. Unfortunately, this one doesn’t seem to be available on Yahoo, so you’re on your own if the magazine blocks you.

I’ve long questioned whether speed limits, like the 8 mph limit on the boardwalk in Hermosa Beach, are enforceable for people on bicycles without cycling computers or other forms of speedometers.

After all, how can you be punished for breaking a law if you have no viable way of knowing you’re breaking it?

………

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

Even a deaf cat knows ice cream trucks don’t belong in the bike lanes on London’s Westminster Bridge.

A Scottish national time trial champ said she wanted to quit the sport after men on motorcycles leered at her and tried to knock her off her bike on two separate occasions. Seriously, guys. Give that Neanderthal crap a rest.

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

A Jamaican truck driver refused to stop after a man rolled a bicycle into his path, in what may have been a robbery attempt.

A man in Donnybrook, Ireland was the victim of a real donnybrook when he was severely beaten by a man riding on a bike path, after reflexively putting out an elbow to protect himself from the distracted rider.

………

Local

Streetsblog reports the long-promised bike lanes on the North Spring Street Bridge connecting Lincoln Heights and Chinatown should finally be striped in the coming months, after nearby street resurfacing is finished.

A woman and her dogs were killed by lightening while walking on the San Gabriel River bike trail in Pico Rivera yesterday. A tragic reminder to always seek shelter anytime you see lightening or hear thunder, and get away from your bike if it has a metal frame.

 

State 

The head of Caltrans District 7, which covers Los Angeles and Ventura counties, got a promotion to become the new leader of the state transportation agency.

Encinitas opened the newest segment of the North Coast Bike Trail, offering bike riders and pedestrians a view of the San Elijo Lagoon from a giant concrete jellyfish.

A UC Santa Barbara geography professor is crowdsourcing data for Bike Maps to identify the city’s best bike routes and worst hot spots.

The co-owners of Emeryville-based Clif Bar are now billionaires, after walking away from a $120 million buyout offer 22 years ago.

A Chico man faces seven years to life behind bars after pleading guilty to the random, senseless shooting of a man riding on a bike path two years ago, when he was just 17.

 

National

No, The Atlantic didn’t call Biden’s bike crash heroic.

Bike Hacks helps you plan what to bring on an overnight bikepacking trip. I’d add bug spray to that list. And a bike.

A Seattle man was been charged with assault and theft for stealing someone’s bicycle in a strong-arm robbery and illegally riding it onto a freeway; that came after he shattered a bus door when the driver wouldn’t let him on at an intersection.

My former home state of Colorado has the second-highest rate of bike commuters in the US, behind only Oregon, although it’s still a relatively paltry 1.1%.

Speaking of Colorado, the state held its Bike to Work Day yesterday, although most of the news stories are hidden behind paywalls; here’s one from Colorado Springs that isn’t. However, the day was marred when a bike rider was killed when he was run down by a pickup driver.

A 60-something Black stroke survivor is riding from Maine to Florida to call attention to stroke awareness, as well as her nonprofit Heels on Wheels; she’s already completed rides from Florida to California, and down the West Coast.

Local readers crowdsource the best places to ride a bike in Massachusetts.

A group of MIT students are riding across the US to conduct STEM workshops — science, technology, engineering and math — for students along the way.

A Pennsylvania driver faces DUI and drug charges for running down a woman on a bicycle while attempting to pass another car on the right.

 

International

Cycling News offers a guide to selling your old bike, while Road.cc goes deep on how to choose a bike helmet.

They get it, too. Toronto’s Globe and Mail calls for Vision Zero to end the 2,000 traffic deaths in the country each year, saying road deaths are never really accidents.

An 83-year old English man says he’s lucky to be alive after falling down a set of steps while attempting to walk his bike down a steep hill while wearing cycling cleats; the stairs were installed as an alternative for people unable, or unwilling, to ride the steep descent.

Credit British acting legend Dame Judy Dench with providing a full 10% — the equivalent of $2,334 — of the $24,333 goal for a man riding his bike across the US to raise funds to fight MS.

Life is cheap in the UK, where a driver high on ecstasy and coke got three years for killing a man riding a bicycle; he was five times over the legal limit for ecstasy and six times the limit for cocaine. Which bizarrely means there’s actually a legal amount of illegal drugs you can have in your system.

Police in Dubai have seized 400 bicycles and mopeds in a crackdown on scofflaw riders.

A Sydney, Australia paper says bike riders and pedestrians want separate trails, not shared paths.

 

Competitive Cycling

VeloNews offers a preview of today’s men’s and women’s elite time trials at the US Professional Road National Championships.

Nineteen-year old Luke Lamperti wants to prove last year’s US crit title was no fluke, setting his sights on the national road race championship to improve his chances of making the World Tour next year.

 

Finally…

That feeling when Strava reveals the location of secret military installations. Or when you get a settlement for getting busted for twerking in a bike lane.

And something tells me there’s a story here.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

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