Tag Archive for commuting

Morning Links: Road raging New York mobster, LA transforming to city of the future, and a kindhearted bike gift

January 2, 2018 / / 8 comments

These are the people we share the roads with.

An 82-year old New York mobster skated on charges that he participated in the legendary 1978 Lufthansa heist that inspired the movie Goodfellas.

But now he’ll spend the next eight years behind bars after using a law enforcement database to track down a driver who cut him off on a freeway, and setting the man’s car on fire.

Evidently, road rage is dish best served cold.

Unless you get caught.

………

Nice KCRW interview with UCLA urban planning professor Bryan Taylor, who says LA’s traffic problems are the result of the city transforming from a “bucolic Southern California bungalow environment” to an “urban global city of the future.”

And one in which people will walk, bike and take transit in denser communities — and where the 30-mile commute is rapidly becoming a thing of the past.

I think that the idea that we should build a system that allows someone to live 30 miles from where they work is ridiculous. If you went that far in Tokyo, you’d cover an area that has most of the population for California. The expectation that someone should be able to get in their car and drive through one of the largest cities in the world unimpeded from one end of the metropolitan area to the other is an expectation that could have existed when L.A. wasn’t a global city of that scale. We now have 17 million people. It’s just not going to be possible for them to live in in Pasadena and drive to Santa Monica and feel like they can do that comfortably. Those days are over.

Which is a point I’ve been trying to make with drivers and reporters for some time, with limited success.

As in none.

………

This is by far the best news story of the day.

After an Indiana woman’s bike broke down on her way to work Christmas Eve, a kindhearted stranger stopped to help. And ended up giving her a bicycle she’d bought for her grandchild’s Christmas present.

………

Local

Metro Bike is planning to expand into the San Gabriel Valley, Culver City and around USC, while it struggles to meet ridership projections in the face of competition from dockless bikeshare.

Curbed offers 18 things to look forward to this year, including the opening of the long-delayed My Figueroa Complete Streets project on South Figueroa, and September’s Disney Hall to Hollywood Bowl CicLAvia.

You have until noon tomorrow to vote for Streetsblog’s annual Streetsie Awards for Elected Official, Civil Servant, Media/Journalism, Individual Advocacy, and Advocacy Group of the year.

The latest episode of Bike Talk interviews prolific bike writer Peter Flax, one of the journalists nominated for a Streetsie this year.

South Bay bike riders can now go to bicycle traffic school instead of paying a fine for traffic tickets. Los Angeles has been talking about doing that, but so far, it doesn’t appear to have moved beyond talk at this point.

A man on a bicycle shot a Norwalk man in the hand after talking with him briefly; police suspect it may have been gang-related.

 

State

San Diego opens the new bicycle-themed Bikeway Village along the bayfront bike path in Imperial Beach.

An Aussie BMX champ vowed to walk down the aisle to marry his fiancé on New Year’s Eve in San Diego, where he’s in rehab for a training accident that left him paralyzed for awhile.

A couple hundred Bakersfield riders get the new year started right with an early morning ride. Although that doesn’t compare to riding with a wind chill factor of 12 below.

Things are getting better for bicyclists on the Bay Area’s Mount Diablo after a number of safety improvements designed to reduce conflicts with motorists.

Sad news from San Raphael, where a bike rider died after hitting an object on a paved trail.

 

National

Motor vehicles are now the leading source of CO2 emissions in the US, as what now passes for the EPA is busy dismantling regulations intended to protect us.

Oregon’s new $15 tax on new bicycles over $200 went into effect yesterday.

A Tucson woman is looking for the beloved bike belonging to her late brother, which was stolen shortly after he died of pancreatic cancer.

Life is cheap in New Mexico, where a man convicted of careless driving in a crash that severely injured a woman riding her bike walks with just 90 days probation, and a whopping $156 court fee that the judge may have waived.

Engineering students at the University of Colorado build an adaptive bike for a girl with autism and limited motor skills.

A Denver paper says ebikes could help reduce traffic congestion, but questions whether they belong on singletrack trails.

While some Los Angeles residents are demanding that the city rip out bike lanes, residents of Amarillo TX are begging the city to put bike lanes in their neighborhood to slow speeding traffic.

A San Antonio man is finally under arrest, seven months after he fatally ran down a bike rider while struggling with a couple of passengers trying to stop his out-of-control driving.

A recovering addict from Missouri rode 3,300 miles across the US to promote recovery.

 

International

A new book tells the story of four young Canadian women who took off on a 400-mile bike ride in the middle of WWII.

I want to be like him when I grow up. An 81-year old man rode 4,300 miles across Canada. So much for all those people who say older people can’t ride bikes.

Young Toronto residents are passing on getting a driver’s license, and choosing to live in complete communities where walking, biking and transit take precedence.

Bike advocates are fighting plans to block an abandoned British rail tunnel, hoping it can be converted to the country’s longest underground bikeway instead.

No bias here. A non-scientific survey of Brit drivers shows 73% want to force cyclists to wear hi-viz, and 80% want bike riders to carry mandatory liability insurance.

A UK letter writer says bikes were here first and it’s not the fault of bicyclists that roads are getting more dangerous, while another letter writer reminds motorists that cars are dangerous machines, and says drivers who kill should be banned for life.

Finland plans to become a bicycling mecca by 2050, with most commuters riding company-supplied ebikes. But why wait another three decades?

Sweden is now offering a 25% rebate on the purchase of an ebike, as research shows electric bicycles often replace cars.

Caught on video: A Polish mountain biker completes the world’s first backflip in the Superman position.

A 19-year old Indian woman will attempt to set a new record for being the youngest and fastest woman to complete an unsupported, 18,000-mile ride around the world.

Caught on video too: An Aussie bicyclist is caught in a left hook crash, the Down Under equivalent of our right hook, as the writer says the driver was legally at fault but the victim shares the blame.

Caught on video three: A trio of Australian bike riders were lucky to stay upright when they were passed way too close and too fast by the driver of a massive truck.

After two Australian cyclists were sideswiped by the driver of a rental camper van, all the driver had to say was “Big mirror. Sorry.”

Nothing like having to dodge a car thief speeding down an Australian bike path.

Britain’s Sky News says abandoned dockless rental bikes have turned into a social menace in China. Meanwhile, CNN says Chinese dockless bikeshare has turned into a bubble.

 

Finally…

Nothing like a purple, bike-riding octopus. Go for a New Year’s swim, come up with a new bike.

And don’t steal a bike from a pack of Santas.

………

Thanks to Gil S for his generous donation to help support this site. While the annual holiday fund drive may be over, contributions are always welcome.

And on a personal note, today is the first day my wife has been back at work in nearly two months. So let me offer a heartfelt thank you to everyone who have offered so many kind words and support over the past several weeks.

 

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

Road report from the dark side

September 22, 2008 / / One comment

Forgive me father, for I have sinned.

It’s been a full week since I’ve been on my bike. Worse, I’ve been driving my car to and from work almost every day. Seven out of the last eight working days, in fact.

Yes, it’s true. I’ve gone over to the dark side.

Not that it was my idea, of course. I’d much rather still be working at home, so I can take off for a long lunch and knock off a quick 30 or so miles on the bike. Or maybe 40. Or 50. Especially when the weather is absolutely perfect, like it was last week.

And to make matters worse, the office I’m working in is just south of Ballona Creek, so I can see all the riders headed to and from the beach on the Ballona Creek Bike Path. Assuming they don’t get mugged along the way.

But in this economy, I’m just happy to have work after a very slow summer. Besides, it could be worse; I could have been a high-paid investment banker on Wall Street.

All this time in my car has given me an opportunity to observe cycling from the perspective of a driver. And surprisingly, it hasn’t been all that bad.

Sure, there was the cyclist who hadn’t learned how to ride in a straight line yet, and was swerving right and left with every corresponding pedal stroke. As a result, he’d suddenly jerk into traffic, then back out again, back and forth. And yet, every driver somehow managed to avoid him, at least as long as he was within my site.

Or there was the woman riding a single speed cruiser with a big basket on the handlebars, who made a very, very slow speed right turn off a very busy street — and still, somehow, she managed to swerve all the way to the middle of the left lane before completing her turn (that would be the lane nearest the middle of the road, for any Brits reading this).

In the time it took to finish her turn, two cars were also able to make the same right turn behind her. One went into the right lane, safely passing to her right; the other followed her into the left lane, none too pleased from the sound of it. But as near as I could tell before my light changed, she was able to safely, and by all appearances, happily, continue down the road, as far as she could ride from where she was supposed to be without crossing over into oncoming traffic.

But most of the cyclists I’ve seen on my commute have just been people dressed for work or class, riding safely and politely. And most of the drivers I’ve seen have been equally courteous, taking the time to pass each rider safely.

Now, I have no doubt that if I would have talked to one of them, they could have told me about some driver I didn’t see who came too close, or turned right in front of them with no warning; just as I could no doubt find drivers who would complain about some crazy cyclist they encountered.

By and large, though, I’ve been pleased to see just how well cars and bikes have been able to share the road. So maybe this crazy town isn’t as dysfunctional as I thought.

As for me, I’m pleased to report that, even though I’m now a driver myself, I haven’t felt any urge to run a cyclist off the road, or toss a large drink at a rider I pass — or raw vegetables, as seems to be the fashion overseas.

So evidently, it’s not contagious. Or maybe I just haven’t been exposed long enough yet.

 

Tamerlane picks up a thread that began in New York, and transforms it into a meditation on vulnerability, and discusses the ethics of biking. Will Campbell amusingly confronts another cigarette smoking asshat. The S.F. Cycling Examiner describes flipping over the handlebars, without spilling his coffee. CNN discovers Santa Barbara’s former naked cyclist, now baring it all in Oregon. Town Mouse’s novel is soon to be available in paperback, although with the current exchange rate, still out of reach for most of us Yanks. Bike Girl continues going car free, while I go reluctantly bike free.

Category: General / Tags: , , , , , , ,

Socially conscious commuters? Or law-flaunting demons from hell?

July 21, 2008 / / 11 comments

There’s an intersection in front of my building with a 4-way stop. You don’t have to stand there very long to note that most cars passing through fail to come to anything near a complete stop; many go right through without even slowing down, as if the stop sign wasn’t there. Or as if standard traffic laws don’t apply to them.

And don’t get me started on turn signals. The drivers who actually signal their intentions, at this or any other Los Angeles intersection, sometimes seem rare enough to be the exception, rather than the rule.

Based on those observations, I could assume that everyone behind the wheel in Los Angeles is a bad driver.

I know that’s not true, though. I’m a driver myself — one who actually takes the time to observe stop signs and use his turn signals. And everyday, I see other people driving courteously and carefully; they’re just not the ones who stand out.

Or any time I’m out on Santa Monica Blvd, it’s almost a given that I’ll see someone in an expensive sports car — or driving like he wishes he had one — weaving dangerously in and out of traffic at speeds far above the posted limit. That could lead me to assume that all drivers of high-performance vehicles speed and drive recklessly; yet, again, I often see Porsches, Ferraris, Vantages and other high-powered vehicles driven as placidly as a soccer mom’s minivan.

So why do so many people in this town think that all bicyclists are alike?

You see it all the time in the comments that follow virtually any online post about bicycling, such as the comments on the Times website concerning the good  doctor’s Mandeville Canyon brake test, or on bulletin boards such as  Craigslist, like this comment.  Or you could have seen it again in the Times’ Letters to the Editor on Saturday, in response to the paper’s editorial urging drivers to stop harassing cyclists. (Inexplicably, the Times has posted letters from everyday except Saturday on their site; I’m including the link on the off chance that they might rectify their oversight.)

Bicyclists are aggressive. They flaunt the law. They (gasp!) ride two or more abreast.

Take this excerpt from one of Saturday’s letters: Cyclists are insistent about their right to equal use of the road (ed: actually, the California vehicle code is insistent on that), but they couldn’t care less about following the rules of the road. Only the privileges apply to them, not the responsibilities.

Of course, nothing could be further from the truth. The biking community includes everyone from casual beach cruisers to off roaders to fixies to road racers, with a multitude of attitudes and riding styles in between. Some flaunt the law, others — I dare say, most — observe it to varying degrees.

Others carve out an exemption of one sort or another from the greater mass of evil riders, such as the next writer, who distinguishes from those “going green” and riding for transportation purposes, and other riders simply out for recreation. Of course, in her eyes, the “green” riders are the ones who observe riding etiquette, while the “pleasure riders” are the ones who “encourage road rage.” (Ed: more on that tomorrow.)

Isn’t it just possible, however, that some cyclists ride for both pleasure and transportation? Couldn’t someone commute on two wheels during the week, then don spandex before hitting the road for pleasure on the weekends?

As I’ve noted before, I try to ride safely and courteously, stopping for stop signs and red lights, and giving drivers room to pass whenever possible. And from what I’ve seen on the road, I’m not the only one. I often find myself striking up a conversation with other riders waiting patiently for the light to change — including, on occasion, members of professional racing teams in town for one reason or another.

Sure, there are rude and dangerous riders out there, just as there are rude and dangerous drivers. And they aren’t all high-speed roadies; I’ve seen as many — if not more — casual riders blow through red lights as I have those on high-end racing bikes. But my own personal experience tells me they are the exceptions, rather than the rule.

Judging from comments like these, though, there seem to be a number of people here in the City of Fallen Angels who assume we all have 666 birthmarks hidden somewhere under our spandex.

 

The Times discusses rage-less road sharing today, Westside Bikeside! recounts the comments of a clueless councilman in neighboring Santa Monica, and Streetsblog talks with an expert on remorseless, horn-blaring sociopaths.

Category: Best of, General / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
 
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