Tag Archive for crowdfunding

Conservative writer says pry his truck out of his cold dead hands, and crowdfunding for new Encino Velodrome lights

January 5, 2022 / / One comment
Um, okay.

A writer for a conservative website accuses car-hating liberals of wanting to take everyone’s cars away because they hate freedom.

No, really.

If there is one thing liberals hate more than guns, it’s automobiles, and not because of the climate; our vehicles are scorned by the Left because they free the individual to go anywhere he or she chooses.

In a word, privately owned cars and trucks equal F-R-E-E-D-O-M.

That’s why, in the same spirit as Charlton Heston once warned the gun grabbers, I now notify today’s successors to what Car & Driver‘s Brock Yates famously called the Anti-Destination League that they will have to pry my cold, dead hands off the steering wheel before they get me out of my pickup.

Never mind that the ongoing burden of car payments, gas, insurance and maintenance represents the exact opposite of freedom, as far too many Americans have to work just to keep a shiny hunk of metal and glass parked in their driveways.

The purpose of encouraging alternative forms of transportation isn’t to force anyone out of their cars — let alone take them away.

It’s to provide people with viable alternatives to driving, so they have the freedom to to travel however they choose, rather than forcing them into the tyranny of car ownership as the cost of getting from here to there.

Which you’d think any real conservative would understand.

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The sadly neglected Encino Velodrome, a 50-year old open-air treasure nestled in Balboa Park, is raising funds for a much-needed upgrade to the current dilapidated lighting system.

The facility, which has seen bigger and better days — and was nearly home to the track cycling events in the ’84 LA Olympics — has raised just $1,498 of the modest $20,000 goal.

We could easily get them over the top in the next few days with a little support from the city’s bicycling community.

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That’s more like it.

California may call surfing the official state sport, and three states claim rodeo.

But only Delaware names bicycling as the state’s official sport. Which raises the inevitable question of why the hell don’t we all live there?

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Streets For All is hosting my state senator for their next virtual happy hour one week from today.

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Cincinnati’s newly elected mayor one-ups New York’s new mayor, who took a bikeshare bike to his second day at work, by riding the city’s bikeshare to his inauguration.

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Now this is art.

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Local

CicLAvia recaps last month’s South LA event, calling it a view to LA’s open streets future.

 

State

Sad news from California’s San Joaquin Valley, where a Bakersfield man was killed when a driver crashed into his bike yesterday. And a 69-year old man was killed in a Fresno hit-and-run when a truck driver swerved onto the shoulder where the man was riding, and left him there to die alone in the street.

On a happier note, a San Francisco dad is taking advantage of the city’s carfree and slow streets to form a bike bus to get kids riding to school, with pent-up demand quickly swelling it to several dozen bike-riding children.

 

National

Forbes recommends cold weather gear to help keep you riding throughout the winter. Just in case you live somewhere where the weather actually gets, you know, cold.

JBL’s new handlebar-mounted speakers are perfect for your next bike party, or when you just want to annoy everyone else around you.

I want to be like him when I grow up. An 81-year old man relates his own history with ebikes, while walking you through everything you need to know to keep up with him on one of your own.

The founder of Bike Index details his investigation that helped uncover a Colorado bike theft ring that funneled hot high-end bicycles to a bike shop in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, for resale at slightly less than their actual value. Yet another reminder to sign up for free lifetime registration with Bike Index today.

Sad news from Iowa, where a longtime mainstay of the annual RAGBRAI mass ride across the state has passed away at 94; she participated in the ride for nearly 30 years, starting when she was 65 and continuing into her 90s.

After watching it deteriorate for a couple years, a Brooklyn writer rescues a rare 1998 Litespeed softail titanium mountain bike that was in the process of slowly being stolen, one piece at a time.

North Carolina has given away over 30,000 kids bike helmets over the past five years, funded by the state’s Share the Road specialty license plates.

 

International

This is why people keep dying on the streets. A British driver has been busted for distracted driving nine times over the past four years, but was still allowed to keep driving. Just one more example of authorities going out of their way to keep a dangerous driver on the road.

Travel site Lonely Planet explains how to tour Edinburgh on two wheels, calling the city surprisingly easy to bike despite its ancient streets and undulating topography.

Life is cheap in the UK, where a van driver was fined the equivalent of less than $750 for knocking a man off his bicycle, fracturing bones throughout his body and leaving him unable to move for two months.

A new study from Zurich, Switzerland shows that shared ebikes and scooters may not be as eco-friendly as we were led to believe.

Commercial cargo bikes are changing the look of German streets.

A Cypriot woman was arrested for injuring a bike-riding woman while driving at six times the legal alcohol limit — before 9 am.

Bike riders in Hyderabad, India are calling for major safety improvements to make the city bike friendly after a man was run down by a drunk driver while riding with three companions.

A new Chinese bike cam system combines a front headlight, rear taillight with brake light, and an action cam into a single unit.

 

Competitive Cycling

Argentina’s early season Vuelta a San Juan has been cancelled for the second year in a row, courtesy of our old buddy Covid-19.

Admittedly, I’m no expert when it comes to ‘cross. But I don’t think this is supposed to happen.

https://twitter.com/cyclocross24/status/1478370522606059522?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1478370522606059522%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Froad.cc%2Fcontent%2Fnews%2Fcycling-live-blog-4-january-2022-289239

 

Finally…

Zwift’s virtual Tron Bike could soon be coming to a real world near you. Your next ebike could be powered by hydrogen. And pedals, of course.

And you’ll now have to put a headlight on your ass to ride it in the roadway after dark.

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

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

Study shows bicycling boosts jobs and economy, inspiring comeback by injured rider, and LA Arborteum gets the message

November 24, 2021 / / One comment

I hope you’ll have a great Thanksgiving tomorrow. 

Just take a few minutes to practice an attitude of gratitude, and find something to give thanks for. Even if it’s just making it through another year in these trying times. 

And if you can take a break from stuffing yourself with stuffing, find some time to get out for a bike ride. Take it from me, there are few better days to ride, as long as you make it back before all those drivers high on tryptophan start crawling back home. 

Then come back on Friday, when we’ll officially kick off the 7th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive, and I shamelessly beg for your hard-earned money to help keep this site coming your way every day. 

We’ll be back on Monday with more Morning Links to catch up on anything we missed. And of course, we’ll be here over the weekend if there’s any breaking news.

And yes, that’s the royal “we,” unless you count our intern and spokesdog up there on the left.

Now stay safe, and enjoy the ride. I want to see you back here next week.  

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More proof bicycling pays.

A new report from an academic research company shows that tripling the current level of London bicycling by 2030 would save lives and create jobs, while resulting in a $6.5 billion annual economic dividend.

And that’s on top of the usual benefits like reducing traffic congestion and improving air quality.

Investment in cycleways was one of the best ways of creating jobs through infrastructure spend, more than any other infrastructure project aside from energy efficiency in buildings, reported the TUC’s 2020 study. Thirty-three jobs are created for every $1.4 million invested in walking or cycling infrastructure over a two-year period, found the TUC.

The Bicycle Association’s 32-page report claims that increasing cycling’s modal share to 14% is “realizable” because net-zero ambitions will require a shift from private motor car use to other means, including cycling.

There’s absolutely no reason to believe the same wouldn’t hold true in Los Angeles, or most other major cities. And it should be easier to realize that kind of increase in Los Angeles, with its temperate climate and mostly flat terrain.

All that’s missing is the political will and financial investment to make it happen.

So what the hell are we waiting for?

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This is the cost of traffic violence.

If it’s true about that which does not kill you, one LA bicyclist is going to be pretty damn strong once she gets back on her feet.

Then again, it sounds like she already is.

A reader named Mitchell reached out to me yesterday to ask if I’d heard about Peta Takai, a master’s road and gravel cyclist who was critically injured in a collision while riding on PCH last September.

Apparently, she was riding near La Costa Beach in Malibu when a kid driving the family Range Rover made an illegal U-turn and slammed into her.

She’s been sharing her challenging and inspiring story on Instagram.

As she notes, she has a very long road ahead of her to get her life back, let alone get back on her bike some day.

A crowdfunding page has raised $28,100, easily topping the low $20,000 goal. But given the extent of her injuries, and the months, if not years, of rehab that will be required, that’s likely just a fraction of what she’s going to need.

So if you’ve got a few extra bucks, send them her way. And tell your friends to do the same.

And maybe remember her on Giving Tuesday next week.

Thanks to Mitchell for the heads-up, and hats off to Giant Santa Monica, which I’m told helped raise funds for her.

And you can make that crowdfunding total $28,120 now.

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Maybe we’ll see some decent bike parking at the Arboretum soon.

Fingers crossed.

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

Colorado sheriff’s deputies shared video of an idiot driver who passed a left-turning bike rider at high speed on the wrong side of the road, in what they called “the true definition of a close call.” And they were right.

Once again, a bike rider has been deliberately rammed off the road by a hit-and-run driver in London’s Richmond Park, raising questions as to why drivers are allowed in the park in the first place. Parks are for people, not cars. Period.

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

Police in Ohio are looking for a bank robber who made his getaway on a bicycle, which is rapidly becoming the getaway vehicle of choice for discerning criminals.

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Local

Once again, no news is good news. Right?

 

State

Rancho Santa Margarita’s Felt Bicycles has changed hands again after the company was offloaded to ebike and motorcycle maker Pierer Mobility, just four years after it was sold to Rossignol.

San Francisco’s iconic Golden Gate Bridge is about to get a 15 mph speed limit for bike riders, with fines ranging from $238 to $490 for anyone caught speeding. The question is whether the limit will be enforceable against riders without a cycling computer or speedometer, who would have no way of knowing they’re exceeding it — especially since there is no statutory requirement to have one on your bike. 

 

National

A new 360° ebike warning system promises to alert riders to the risk of collisions in any direction, and could eventually be upgraded to warn about potholes and other road hazards; it draws power from the ebike’s battery, which is why it can’t currently be used on other bikes.

The Consumer Post offers a roundup of the best Black Friday deals on ebikes and e-scooters. Although I’m firmly in the go outside and buy nothing on Black Friday camp.

Smaller communities are getting creative to promote ebike use, including Colorado’s Roaring Fork Valley, which uses a pair of freestanding solar-powered bikeshare docks to recharge the bikes. They also have a pretty damn good trout stream, too.

More details on the Colorado bike theft ring that stands accused of stealing over $1.5 million worth of mountain bikes from 29 bike shop break-ins, and apparently taking them over the border into Mexico to resell. Thanks to Keith Johnson for the heads-up.

Incredibly bad idea from a Kansas City councilwoman, who proposed an ordinance to give local residents greater control over bike lanes — including the power to remove lanes they don’t like.

Nice gesture from a Wisconsin town, which will feature a float honoring an 89-year old man who rode his own hand-built wooden bicycle, patterned after the first pedal bike, in local parades for over 20 years, after he was killed while riding a bike to his high school reunion.

Sentencing has been delayed for a 74-year old Wisconsin man who pled guilty to hitting a teenage bike rider with his pickup and leaving the boy to die alone in a ditch, as he considers changing his plea and rejecting the deal negotiated by his lawyer.

Boston is experimenting with a road diet on the Harvard Bridge to give more room for bike riders than the existing bike lane, on a bridge with the city’s highest ridership rate.

Strangers came to the aid of a New Orleans woman after she was right-hooked by a hit-and-run driver, and no one showed up in response to a 911 call; police say they responded within six minutes, but no one was there. Which means either someone is lying about the police response, or they went to the wrong location.

This is why you should never confront a bike thief yourself. A Florida man was stabbed after a woman confronted a thief trying to steal her bike, and called her husband for help; he brought along a co-worker who was stabbed by the thief.

 

International

A London bike rider has set a Guinness world record for the largest GPS drawing completed in 12 hours, crafting an image of a mustachioed man overlaid on the city.

Luxury fashion brand Jacquemus is teaming with Dutch ebike maker Van Moof to market their own ebike, joining a long list of fashion brands collaborating with bikemakers.

Dubai continues its crackdown on scofflaw bike riders, as police confiscate an average of nearly 1,000 bicycles a month for the last ten months.

 

Competitive Cycling

Yet another investigation has been launched into the death of 1998 Tour de France winner Marco Pantini, this time focusing on whether others were involved in his apparent drug overdose.

Veteran women’s cyclist Tayler Wiles decries the dearth of young women coming into the sport, placing the blame on the lack of a WorldTour race in the US, after a series of high-level events have fallen off the calendar, including the late, great Tour of California.

 

Finally…

Forget an Apple Car, just make the iBike, instead. Your daily ride could help prevent Alzheimers.

And that pretty well sums it up, alright.

https://twitter.com/EntitledCycling/status/1463173113835839488

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

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

Aluminum foil foils traffic light sensor fails, unconfirmed report of Newport Beach bike death, and new Downey bike lane

June 23, 2021 / / 2 comments

Phillip Young writes today with a brilliant DIY workaround for the problem of carbon wheels not being recognized by traffic signal sensors.

Would you please pass this traffic light safety tip along to your readers with carbon rim wheels?

Carbon rim bicycle wheels usually do not trigger traffic signal light sensor coils buried in the pavement and can be a safety issue. The non-conducting carbon rims do not change the magnet field around sensor coils, so the traffic light doesn’t change for you.

If the traffic signal light doesn’t trip in your travel direction and you have waited for 2 or 3 minutes, you may be inclined to run the red traffic signal light dodging traffic at your peril.

My carbon rim bicycle wheels would not trigger traffic light sensor coils buried in the pavement until aluminum foil tape was applied to the rim circumference with some foil tape overlap.

I added 3M adhesive backed aluminum foil tape cut about the width of rim tape where the normal cloth rim tape goes. The adhesive backed aluminum foil tape sticks well to the carbon rim material and weighs almost nothing. This should work on all carbon rims using inner tubes.

Push the aluminum foil tape down against the rim to get full contact and adhesion. Install the normal cloth rim tape on top of the aluminum foil tape. The foil tape also offers additional support to the rim tape over the rim spoke holes.

The rim with aluminum foil tape now reliably triggers traffic light sensor coils. The bicycle wheel rim with aluminum foil should be positioned parallel to and directly over the sensor coils buried in the pavement rewarding you with a green light.

May your travels be safe and green lights will always be with you,

Phil

PS: Aluminum rim bicycle wheels usually work triggering traffic signal lights if the wheel is positioned parallel to and directly over the pavement sensor coils.

For those looking for a more detailed explanation of why this works, Young followed up with this post from Cyclelicious.

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Nextdoor users have been reporting a possible bicycling fatality Monday morning on Dover Drive near PCH in Newport Beach.

So far, though, I’ve been unable to find any confirmation. So let’s hope that Nextdoor, which is not exactly known for its veracity, is wrong this time.

Thanks to David Huntsman and Lois for the heads-up.

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Downey has a new painted bike lane on Old River School Road.

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A crowdfunding campaign to help the victims of Saturday’s vehicular attack at a master’s bike race in Show Low, Arizona has raised nearly $60,000 of the $100,000 goal.

Which works out to just $10,000 for each of the critically injured victims.

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For anyone who needs a little something to entertain yourself on the rare moments you’re not riding your bike, how about coloring a few LA landmarks?

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This is who the anti-bike crowd are really opposing when they stand up against bike paths and protected bikeways.

https://twitter.com/tomflood1/status/1406600413026127875

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Nothing like heading out for a McDonald’s run with a tandem bike-powered car.

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

No bias here. After a California man was killed when he struck a chain blocking a Carson City, Nevada trail, the local sheriff warns against riders over-extending their confidence levels, instead of warning about dangerous chains strung across pathways that can kill unsuspecting people on bicycles.

Pennsylvania police are looking for the hit-and-run driver who sideswiped at least five bike riders with his passenger side mirror; the victims believe it was a deliberate attempt to buzz, if not injure, the riders.

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Local

Los Angeles received an $18 million grant for safety improvements to the Broadway corridor in South Los Angeles, rather than the $64 million the city asked for, on the condition that they limit the project to the safe street infrastructure component of the application for the deadly street, and guarantee completion; the street is one of LA’s most dangerous streets for bike riders and pedestrians.

LAist examines how Van Nuys’ Retro Xpress Bicycles navigated the pandemic as an essential business.

NoHo ‘bent dealer Bent Up Cycles is now the proud owner of Florida recumbent maker Bacchetta Bicycles.

 

State

San Diego drivers are complaining about a lack of parking in certain parts of town. Which is a pretty good argument to not drive if you don’t have to.

That’s more like it. A TV reporter tries out San Francisco’s Lyft bikeshare ebikes, and swears she’ll never drive again.

 

National

NBC News examines whether removing freeways built on a legacy of inequity can heal historic wounds.

VeloNews offers tips on how to avoid cyclist’s palsy, the painful numbness and tingling in your hands and arms from gripping the handlebars.

A new report shows that the jump in traffic deaths during the pandemic was more likely to affect Black people, who were killed at a rate 25% higher than white people.

Tragic news from Texas, where a man drowned in a North Texas lake when he rode his bike into the side of a bridge and fell over the guardrail.

The New Yorker takes a stab at humor by suggesting that riding a bicycle isn’t just like riding a bike, after all.

 

International

Yet another new study shows that ebike riders can complete a trip faster and with less effort than on a conventional bike, but still gain significant health benefits.

Vancouver has honored fallen mountain biker Jordie Lunn by naming a new bike park after him, two years after the famed stunt cyclist was killed trail riding with friends in Mexico.

An Ontario, Canada man begged a judge for mercy after he was convicted of the hit-and-run death of a bike-riding woman, insisting he just “panicked and made a mistake.” Never mind that the prosecutor is only asking for a “stiff sentence” of only two years behind bars. Then again, how much mercy did he show his victim, who was sentenced to death at his hands?

A British filmmaker stayed relatively close to home during the pandemic by filming a challenging 450-mile ride around Wales.

Over 85% of readers of the UK’s Courier newspaper think bike helmets should be made mandatory. Which only shows just how wrong 85% of readers can be.

Berlin is expanding the city’s bike network by making 15 miles of popup bike lanes installed during the pandemic permanent. Unlike a certain Southern California megalopolis we could name, which missed out on a once-in-a-generation opportunity by failing to install any to begin with.

 

Competitive Cycling

Defending Tour de France champ Tadej Pogačar may be one of the few people who can claim to have pedaled a path from village unicyclist to winner of the world’s greatest bike race.

Cycling News considers the unique mystique of Mont Ventoux in Tour de France history; competitors in this year’s race will have to surmount the mountain twice in a single stage.

Four-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome lowers his sights, insisting he’ll be happy just winning a stage in this year’s Tour.

Cycling Tips examines the eternal question of what team sponsors actually do on the men’s WorldTour.

Reuters looks at five women’s cyclists to watch at the Tokyo Olympics, including pink sock-wearing American speedster Chloe Dygert.

Cyclist considers the top rivalries in pro cycling, dating back to 1940s cycling legends Fausto Coppi and Gino Bartali.

 

Finally…

Not every Olympic cyclist has her very own Chipotle bowl. That feeling when your epic bike ride from Moscow to California only takes a few hours.

And probably not the best idea to growl at the bear you just startled.

Just saying.

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

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

Help children of fallen bike riding woman, call to toss out the MUTCD and start over, and bike riders are heroes — again

May 10, 2021 / / Comments Off on Help children of fallen bike riding woman, call to toss out the MUTCD and start over, and bike riders are heroes — again

Some stories are just heartbreaking.

That’s the case with the death of a woman that came to light yesterday, when word broke that 31-year old Adriana “Fishy” Rodriguez died ten days after she was struck by a driver while riding her bike in Lincoln Heights last month.

Leaving her five young kids without a mother.

Now and for the rest of their lives.

So if you have a few extra bucks lying around, take a few minutes to donate to the GoFundMe account established for Rodriguez before she died; as of this writing, it stands at just $1,375 of the $7,000 goal.

It won’t bring her back.

But it might make things just a little easier for those kids.

And yes, I gave, too.

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Advocates and organizations are calling for tossing out the proposed auto-centric update of the The Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, aka MUTCD, and starting again from scratch.

These two images pretty well sum it up what the whole debate is about.

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Once again, bike riders are heroes.

Or make that twice.

A pair of women rode to a Montreal woman’s rescue when a man stole her bike, chasing him over ten miles through three cities before he was arrested after crashing into a police cruiser; it didn’t hurt that one of the women was a recently retired cop.

Then again, there are are all kinds of heroes. Like a brigade of Toronto bike riders committed to helping others in need during the pandemic. Thanks to Megan Lynch for the heads-up.

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Los Angeles-based former pro and well-known Cookie Monster Phil Gaimon is back with his popular Worst Retirement Ever, as he takes on a KOM held by four-time Tour de France champ Chris Froome.

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Turns out San Francisco’s iconic and newly bike friendly Market Street is just returning to its post war glory.

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GCN tries to strip down and rebuild a bicycle using nothing but a multi-tool.

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

Ride your bike without lights and a bright phosphorescent jacket and helmet in Qatar, and it could be seized for a week. And you’ll have to show up with the required safety gear to get it back. That will be more reasonable when cars have to have phosphorescent paint, and drivers have to wear a helmet.

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

A runner describes being followed on a trail by a man on a bicycle who threatened to rape her, with no one around for protection; she finally escaped by running up to a lone house and calling police.

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Local

Streets For All is asking you to contact CD14 Councilmember Kevin de León, and urge him to support Eagle Rock’s Beautiful Boulevard Complete Streets Plan. Especially since opponents are resorting to outright lies.

Santa Monica-based Bird is reportedly planning to go public by piggy backing on a Texas company, with a valuation of $2.3 billion. Even though they’ve lost a total of $409 million in just the last two years.

Simon Cowell is back on his fat-tired ebike, riding along the beach in the ‘Bu with his family, nine months after breaking his back crashing an e-motorcycle.

 

State

Yes, San Diego, Black girls do bike.

San Diego bike lawyer Richard Duquette offers advice on how to avoid getting doored.

Finishing our San Diego trifecta, the city has removed its Slow Streets. But the lessons learned over the past year could boost bicycling and walking in the city.

An angry Twitter thread from Carpinteria woman complains about the lack of protected bike lanes after her 20-year old daughter is nearly run down by a pickup driver while on a Mother’s Day ride.

The family of a San Francisco woman finally has some closure after a confessed serial killer pled guilty to killing her and two other women in New Orleans; she was last seen riding her bicycle in September of 2008, before her body was found later that day.

They get it. The Monterey County Weekly devotes their latest issue to bicycling, as their editor writes that part of the beauty of riding a bicycle is the ease and accessibility.

They get it, too. The Sacramento Area Council of Governments is calling for a bicycle freeway system connecting cities and neighborhoods in the six county area, comparing it to the freeway system built in the area 50 years earlier. Which means the ball’s in your court, SCAG.

 

National

An alleged drunk driver faces charges for fleeing the scene after fatally running down a Houston man who was fixing his bike on the side of the road.

A Wisconsin man faces charges after slamming his car into a man he thought was riding his stolen bicycle, shattering the alleged thief’s ankle. But then couldn’t prove to police that he actually owned the bike he claimed was his.

This is the cost of traffic violence. Renowned German Architect Helmut Jahn was killed while biking in Chicago when he was struck by two separate drivers after witnesses say he ran a stop sign on his bicycle; the 81-year old architect designed several of the city’s buildings, as well as notable buildings in Berlin, Bangkok and Philadelphia.

That’s more like it. New York’s mayor is calling for the passage of the Crash Victim’s Rights and Safety Package in the state legislature, a series of eight bills intended to improve traffic safety, including an expansion of speed cams, a crash victim’s Bill of Rights, lower speed limits, and reducing the threshold for DUI to .05.

A Black DC man is blazing a trail for a new generation of bike-riding people of color.

 

International

The Spokesmen podcast talks with noted bicycling researchers Ralph Buehler and John Pucher about their new book, Cycling for Sustainable Cities.

Seriously? Bike-riding BBC radio host Jeremy Vine stands accused of bullying and intimidating a group opposed to Britain’s Low Traffic Neighborhoods through “libelous and defamatory” statements, after accusing them of cutting the heads off flowers and spreading them on the doorstep of an LTN supporter.

The overwhelming majority of the 42 bicyclists killed on Australian roads last year were men over 40, in part because so many took to their bikes while working from home during the pandemic. While that may not sound like a lot compared to the 846 killed in the US in 2019, it’s a heavy toll for a country of less than 26 million people.

Aussie food delivery riders are accused of causing “total chaos on the streets” after an ebike rider killed an 89-year old man while running a red light. There’s no excuse for recklessly taking a human life. Ever. But just wait until they hear about the damage done by cars and their drivers.

 

Competitive Cycling

Italy’s Filippo Ganna held on to the pink leader’s jersey he claimed by winning the time trial in Saturday’s opening stage of the Giro.

Cycling Weekly offers five key takeaways from Sunday’s second stage of the Giro.

Twenty-one-year old Belgian star Remco Evenepoel understandably broke down in tears after his seventh place finish in the time trial, nine months after breaking his pelvis crashing into a bridge and falling down a ravine in the Tour of Lombardy.

The peloton paused to remember Wouter Weylandt at the start of Sunday’s second stage, on the tenth anniversary of his death in the 2011 Giro.

France swept the first weekend of the Mountain Bike World Cup season, in advance of the upcoming Olympics.

 

Finally…

Call it one of the earliest ped-assist bikes, dating back 118 years. Nothing like knowing a three-year old could probably ride circles around you.

Or maybe just me.

And maybe your bike handling skills aren’t as good as you think.

https://twitter.com/DailyLoud/status/1391093127805550597

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Be safe, and stay healthy. And wear a mask. 

And get vaccinated, already.

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

Morning Links: Crowdfunding campaign for Cudahy bike crash victim, and why you don’t pass a school bus

July 26, 2018 / / One comment

A GoFundMe page has been launched to help pay funeral expenses for Daniel Romero, who was killed in a collision while riding in Cudahy last weekend.

It’s raised over $2,100 of the $10,000 goal in less than 20 hours. And hopefully can reach the rest of the way, as his family struggles to cope with his loss.

Maybe someone who lives or rides in Cudahy can give us some insight on what needs to be done to improve safety in the city, so this doesn’t happen again.

Because one death is one too many.

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This is why you don’t pass a school bus when its lights are flashing. Even on a bicycle.

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Local

Bicyclist offers a lesson in bike path etiquette, which mostly concerns not using the Ballona Creek bike path as your personal race track.

KPCC’s Air Talk discusses municipal regulation of e-scooters and dockless bikeshare in the wake of Beverly Hills ban on both.

Santa Clarita is painting “Heads Up!” on local bike paths in an effort to get bike riders to pay more attention to their surroundings. Which doesn’t exactly seem like the biggest threat riders face.

 

State

Calbike wants you to tell the state DMV that self-driving cars aren’t ready for the road. Then again, many of the ones with drivers don’t seem to be, either.

La Mesa is working to improve bicycle and pedestrian access to the industrial part of the city. Not to mention the wineries and breweries that have opened there.

Santa Barbara gets $15 million from the state to build a 2.6-mile bike and pedestrian path, while Santa Maria gets $300,000 for a similar project; both would be defunded if the state gas tax increase is repealed in the fall election.

Atherton busts bike riders for rolling through stop signs, issuing eight $238 tickets along with two warnings.

Sad news from Crockett, where a 42-year old bike rider was killed when he was rear-ended by a truck driver, who fled the scene.

 

National

A website for gay and bi women lists the top 25 cinematic dykes on bikes — their words — with no distinction between women on bicycles or motorcycles. Or spin classes, for that matter.

In an apparent effort to force everyone back into their cars, the next round of Trump’s China tariffs will target ebikes. Which could kill their growth just as it’s taking off.

A Washington writer says there’s no such thing as being too old or too out of shape to ride a bike.

A road raging New Mexico driver faces up to five years behind bars after being charged with intentionally backing into a group of bicyclists, seriously injuring one of the riders. He denies any responsibility, claiming the victims just ran into his car when he stopped after they flipped him off for no apparent reason.

A Minnesota paper talks with Melody L. Hoffmann, author of Bike Lanes Are White Lanes: Bicycle Advocacy and Urban Planning, about the invisible cyclists and the need for equity in advocacy.

Apparently, Detroit isn’t exactly the safest place to ride a bike after all.

Not satisfied with getting off with a slap on the wrist for killing a woman on a cross-country bike ride, an Ohio woman is asking the court to seal the record of her conviction so she can “heal from this accident.” And apparently not suffer any repercussions, unlike the victim and her family.

Like bike riders virtually everywhere, residents in Atlanta are questioning the lack of bike funding in the city budget.

A North Carolina bike rider was collateral damage in a police chase, losing his leg when the driver of a stolen car slammed into him after fleeing police at speeds up to 100 mph. Warning: This story includes a deeply disturbing bodycam video of the police tending to the victim, who is in extreme pain and in fear for his life. The newspaper showed a severe lack of judgement in posting it. 

Evidently it’s not just Los Angeles. Officials in South Carolina rip out a road diet and bike lanes after complaints from angry drivers. Which leaves the situation just as bad as it was before, if not worse.

A Tampa bike rider says bicyclists don’t ride on the sidewalk because they want to, but because it’s safer. However, studies have repeatedly shown just the opposite, demonstrating that bicyclists are safer on the street than on sidewalks, where multiple driveways and limited sight angles dramatically increase the risk.

 

International

A Vancouver video shows bike riders aren’t the only ones who roll stop signs.

A Montreal cemetery that has been open to the public for the past 166 years is now banning bike riders. Though I’m sure it would welcome any run down on the roads after losing a safe place to ride.

Despite the overwhelming success of London’s cycling superhighways, the network remains patchy after five boroughs and other authorities blocked plans for new lanes.

London’s Mirror shares eight secrets to help build your child’s confidence bicycling on the road.

An American man is calling for safety signage after his wife was killed when she crashed her bike into a trailer full of sheep after rounding a sharp turn on an Irish trail; two other American tourists were killed on the same trail recently.

Europe’s high-powered ebikes continue to take a toll, with over 100 ebike riders killed in the Netherlands since 2014.

A New York bike advocate says Millennials are the key to brokering peace between bicyclists and drivers on the streets of Perth, Australia.

Fifteen Taiwanese children from disadvantaged families are riding around the island nation to provide support and comfort to elderly people in nursing homes. Thanks to Megan Lynch for the heads-up.

 

Competitive Cycling

The South Bay’s Easy Reader News recounts last weekend’s 57th annual Manhattan Beach Grand Prix.

This is what it looks like when you finish the last 30 miles of a Tour de France stage with a broken kneecap after tumbling over a retaining wall.

Peter Sagan vowed to continue in the Tour after the world champ misjudged a corner and crashed into the forest on Wednesday; fortunately, nothing was broken.

Costa Rican pro cyclist Andrey Amador wants to make history for his country in the Tour.

A book excerpt recounts the shotgun shooting of America’s only remaining Tour de France winner, before Greg LeMond came back and won the tour two more times.

The New York Times says American flags are disappearing from the Tour, along with American cyclists.

The Undefeated website recounts the day seven years ago when Guadeloupe native Yohann Gene became the first black cyclist to compete in the Tour de France.

A writer for the Telegraph learns what it’s like to sort-of ride a grand tour.

 

Finally…

That feeling when a new protected bike lane leaves the street too narrow for cars to get through. Note to world: It’s not an annual event until there’s a second one.

And you know you’re having a bad day in the Tour de France when police mistake you for a fan and try to kick you off the course.

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

Morning Links: Crowdfunding for new bike book, ‘tis the season for bike giveaways, and a call to ban bikes

December 4, 2017 / / One comment

A new crowdfunding campaign is raising funds to publish a new book about the growth of bicycling in the US, by Jay Walljasper and Pedal Love’s Melissa Balmer.

Here’s what she had to say.

This book tells of the David & Goliath showdown between the U.S. Bike Movement and the National Highway Lobby in in 1997 + 1998 which saved and expanded federal funding not only for bicycling, but walking and public transit too, and set the stage for biking to flourish into the future.

It’s also a story about the real people heroes who’ve transformed their own lives by bike and are helping others and their communities do the same. People like Megan Ramey + BIKABOUT Monica Garrison + Black Girls Do Bike Barb Chamberlain Gandy Charlie Jonathan Maus + BikePortland.org Cynthia Rose + Santa Monica Spoke Renee Yvonne + Deb Hubsmith + Safe Routes to School National Partnership Maria Boustead + Po Campo Gail Copus Spann + League of American Bicyclists Marin Tockman + Robin Lennon Bylenga + Pedal Chic Kellie J Morris Kit Keller Deana Acklin Andy Clarke Jeff Miller Claudia WaskoSarai Snyder + CycloFemme Maria Sipin + Multicultural Communities for Mobility Walk Bike Places Anne Poarch • Poetry + Basket & Bike Tamika Butler, Dave Snyder + California Bicycle Coalition and more! To make this book happen we need your financial support too! Our perks start at just $3 and everyone who supports this campaign gets thanks in the book: https://igg.me/at/surprisingpromiseofbicycling.

………

‘Tis the season.

LA City Council President Herb Wesson’s team builds 1,000 bicycles for South LA students.

Dozens of kids in Santa Maria received new bikes thanks the local Elks Lodge, the Santa Barbara Bicycle Coalition and other nonprofits.

Thirty-three San Jose kids got new bikes from a nonprofit organization.

Marin County firefighters have collected 210 bicycles for kids affected by the recent North Bay fires.

Kindhearted Utah cops buy a new bike for an eight-year old boy after his was destroyed by vandals.

A West Virginia boy fulfills an anonymous little girl’s wish and gives her a bicycle.

A Virginia sheriff’s department has launched a crowdfunding campaign to buy a bicycle for a special needs kid.

………

A writer for a financial paper calls for banning bicycles, saying bike lanes take up more space than they free up, cause pollution and drain public finances.

All of which are easily disproved with a little research.

But evidently, he’d rather settle for what the voices in his own head tell him that look it up himself.

………

This is day eleven of the 3rd Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive.

Help keep SoCal’s best bike news coming your way with just a few clicks by using PayPal. Or by using the Zelle app that is probably already in the banking app on your smartphone; send your contribution to ted @ bikinginla dot com (remove the spaces and format as a standard email address).

Any donation, in any amount, is truly and deeply appreciated.

As an added bonus, frequent contributor Megan Lynch will provide a free download of her CD Songs the Brothers Warner Taught Me to anyone who makes a contribution during the fund drive. If you’ve already contributed and would like a copy, just email me at the address above and I’ll forward it to her.

………

Local

A letter writer in the LA Times says using infrastructure to slow drivers down would be a boon to all who use our roads without a car, while another says road diets are behind the recent increase in pedestrian fatalities — even though numerous studies shows they slow traffic and improve safety.

The LA Auto Show currently under way at the convention center features a few ebikes and e-scooters, as well.

The LA city council moves forward with plans to establish a bike traffic school in lieu of paying traffic fines, just like drivers have done for decades. So topless comedy bike schools can’t be far behind.

Bike thefts are down in Claremont, despite a spike for the holidays.

 

State

A 39-year old bike rider was critically injured in a Fullerton collision Friday evening.

A pair of Santa Barbara men have started a new ebike company, and will donate a new road bike through World Bicycle Relief for every one sold.

 

National

A LinkedIn writer says might as well face it we’re addicted to cars.

Caught on video: A father saves his son from a certain crash while teaching him to ride a bike. And the internet freaks out because the kid wasn’t wearing a helmet.

A health website offers the answers to every awkward bicycling question your relatives are likely to ask at Christmas. Or Chanukah.

People for Bikes says no town is too small for quality bikeways, as a Washington town of just 20,000 people builds a neighborhood bikeway, aka bike boulevard. Unlike, say, Los Angeles.

Tragic news from Las Vegas, where a Good Samaritan was shot and killed after attempting to chase down an armed robber on his bike.

According to a local TV station, a Milwaukee holiday bike ride either had dozens of bicycling Santas, or 2,500. Just a slight difference there.

An Indianapolis man entertains people stuck in traffic by riding his bike backwards.

A road raging Connecticut bike rider faces charges for chasing down a speeding driver and spitting in his face; the road raging driver faces charges for running him down in response.

Speaking of road diets, not a single bicyclist or pedestrian has been killed on New York’s infamous “Boulevard of Death” since a road diet was installed three years ago; 186 people had been killed on the street in the prior 24 years. Maybe someone should show that to the Times letter writer.

Here’s your chance to ride across Louisiana in the company of five-time Tour de France winner Bernard Hinault. Who still has his trophies, unlike a few American ex-Tour winners we could name.

The UPS ebikes have spread to Fort Lauderdale.

Designer Paul Frank has put his unique stamp on 200 Orlando FL bikeshare bikes.

 

International

An Ontario man gets 180 days for punching bike shop employees who refused to return the stolen bicycle he was trying to sell; he was already on probation for sex crimes.

A new report shows London’s protected cycle superhighways carry five times as many people as the roads they’re next to.

A London writer says the problem with dockless bikeshare is expecting others to learn how to share.

Don’t believe everything you read on social media. A British man is out the equivalent of $134 after ordering an ebike he saw in a Facebook ad. Seriously, if the price seems too good to be true, it probably is.

The UK’s transportation agency says bike-only lanes could save hundreds of lives in Scotland.

A Welsh man takes his first bike ride in 20 years — a 1,000-mile jaunt to Spain.

A Dublin letter writer says bicyclists are at the bottom of the traffic pecking order.

An Irish paper remembers a bike-riding dog from the 1950s.

An Indian father has ridden his bike nearly 1,000 miles looking for his disabled 11-year old son who disappeared six months ago.

An Aussie driver gets a $400 fine for buzzing a bike rider who he says abused him. Because really, it’s so easy to abuse someone who’s safely ensconced in two tons of steel and glass.

A Japanese man is riding his bike around Taiwan for the fourth time to show his thanks for the country’s support following Japan’s 2011 earthquake.

A letter writer says dockless bikeshare can help make Singapore a cycling city again.

 

Competitive Cycling

Giro d’Italia officials made Israel happy by removing a reference to West Jerusalem from its website; Palestinians, not so much. And no, Chris Froome won’t get a two million euro start fee, after all.

An ex-Marine from Ohio has reclaimed his world record by riding 415.2 miles in 24 hours on a fixie, as he gears up for next year’s RAAM.

A Portuguese man living in Wales set five new world cycling records in 24 hours, just a few months removed from living on the streets.

A cycling website interviews former pro Phil Gaimon about his new book.

If you’re going to dope, don’t break up with your supplier; US mountain biker Jenna Blandford gets a four-year ban after she was turned in by a spiteful ex-boyfriend.

 

Finally…

Your next bike shorts could be more connected than a New Jersey wiseguy. Probably not the best idea to speed past orange cones and construction workers to jump an open trench.

And if you already have an outstanding warrant, don’t ride your bike drunk.

Or get hit by a car, for that matter.

………

On a personal note, my wife finally came home from the hospital yesterday, making this officially the best Monday I’ve had in a very long time. Thanks to everyone who has sent their support during these past weeks.

 

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

Morning Links: Crowdfunding campaign for injured cyclist, and a pre-Thanksgiving bike video trifecta

November 22, 2017 / / 5 comments

Before we get started, let me offer my apologies to anyone who sent me links to the stories below.

With all that’s been going on, I’m afraid I’ve lost any record of who sent me what. So please accept my thanks in advance; I am truly grateful to everyone who forwards bike stories for this site, today or any other day.

Photo of Fred Mackey taken from his GoFundMe page; see below.

………

Sometimes I wish the people fighting traffic safety projects in Los Angeles could see the damage done by careless — and too often, cowardly — drivers.

Case in point, this crowdfunding page for yet another bike rider who was seriously injured by a hit-and-run driver while crossing La Brea Ave.

The campaign to help Fred Mackey pay the medical expenses his insurance won’t cover has raised a little over $3,000 of the $25,000 goal after four days.

I sort of met Fred while he was in the hospital; after learning about his crash, I popped in to say hi since he was on the same floor as my wife. Unfortunately, he was busy with his doctors at the time, and by the time I could make it back a few days later, his bed was occupied by an Asian woman who was wondering what the hell I was doing there.

And yes, there’s something seriously wrong with a country where people have to go online to beg for money to pay their medical bills.

………

CiclaValley offers what amounts to a painful Gravel Mob gag reel.

He follows that up with a compendium of bad drivers he encountered while riding to work.

Then again, looking for bad drivers in Los Angeles is like looking for ice in Greenland.

Except the bad drivers aren’t going anywhere.

………

A foul-mouthed excuse for a comedian seems to think running bike riders off the road is amusing, and that share the road means bike riders have to get the hell out of his way.

………

As long as we’re watching videos, let’s make the short leap from the seriously unfunny to a serious whackjob convinced LA is intentionally creating traffic jams to force drivers out of their cars and onto bikes and transit.

Unfortunately, though, he’s not the only one who believes this crap; you’ll find similar comments on almost any news story about or bike lanes or road diets.

………

Local

Maybe LA is finally getting the message that it’s cheaper to fix broken bike lanes than pay out multi-million dollar settlements to injured bike riders, since they repaved bike lanes in Lincoln Heights and Eagle Rock last week.

The Daily Breeze looks at the arrival of the LimeBike dockless bikeshares in Watts, San Pedro and Wilmington.

As we mentioned before, Pasadena is threatening to put a stop to the popular Rose Bowl Loop rides by installing a number of stop signs around the route. Something tells me they’ll also park a patrol car next to each one to enforce it, too.

Glendora and South Pasadena are establishing Bicycle Friendly Business Districts, as The Source confirms something we’ve said many times — that bikes are good for business.

Cities in the western San Gabriel Valley are developing a $1 billion wish list for projects they want to install with funding originally set aside for the cancelled 710-N freeway tunnel.

Sad news from Santa Clarita, where a coach for the SCV Mountain Bike Team was killed in a car collision Monday night.

Long Beach is beginning work on reconfiguring Bellflower Blvd to remove parking spaces and add bike lanes.

 

State

Dockless bikeshare is being held up in San Diego due to the city’s exclusive contract with the under-performing DecoBike bikeshare.

San Diego is moving forward with plans for a $140 million replacement for a Mission Bay bridge; the new bridges will include bike lanes and space for walking.

Continuing our all San Diego theme, a kindhearted stranger donated a new bike to an Imperial Beach man after the one he used as his only means of transportation was stolen.

 

National

The US is now an outlier when it comes to traffic safety, with some of the deadliest roads in the industrialized world.

Chances are, you already know making carbon bikes isn’t an environmentally friendly process, but Outside is here to remind you that your carbon mountain bike ain’t exactly green.

Bicycling offers tips on how to deal with road raging drivers. In my experience, the best move is to remove yourself from the roadway; pull up onto the sidewalk if possible, preferably in a public place. And make a public display of taking a photo of the driver and his or her license plate.

Forbes looks at the best holiday gifts for women cyclists.

Bike Snob asks if riding with headphones is really such a big deal.

This may be LA’s future, as a Seattle paper looks at some of the strange places people have left dockless bikeshare bikes in the city.

A Colorado bike shop is teaching life skills to low-income kids and people with disabilities, while providing them with low-cost or free bikes.

Seriously, who the hell would steal St. Paul MN’s egg-shaped, solar-powered literary arts ebike and trailer?

Detroit is about to get a spanking new world-class velodrome.

The parents of one of the victims of the New York bike path terrorist attack are suing the city for not installing safety barriers until after the attack. Meanwhile, prosecutors have filed 22 charges against the attacker, including eight possible death penalty charges.

The Pennsylvania bike rider who served 20 months behind bars for obstructing traffic has filed an appeal, claiming the judge in the case was biased and didn’t understand the law.

Now that’s more like it. An unlicensed Florida driver got 12 years for the hit-and-run death of a bike rider, after getting his girlfriend to claim she was behind the wheel. Note to women: If your boyfriend, husband and/or significant other wants you to take the fall for his crimes, get a new one.

 

International

A road raging Canadian bike rider is facing weapons charges after threatening a couple in a car with a knife.

There’s a special place in hell for whoever stole and vandalized a handicapped British boy’s specialized adaptive bike.

An English man gets nine and a half years for plowing into a bike rider during a Jack Daniels-fueled rampage, after telling his girlfriend he was cheating on her, followed by carjacking a woman’s car.

Life is cheap in the UK, where a truck driver walks after seriously injuring a bike rider, despite his admission that he was “avoidably distracted.”

A drunk driver who was high on coke got three and a half years for the death of a British bike rider in a head-on crash while he was speeding to get another drink. Although that’s still just a fraction of what it should have been.

American cities can’t even get Vision Zero right, yet Sweden is already Moving Beyond Vision Zero to encourage safe bicycling and walking while designing roadways to make fatal collisions impossible.

A Norwegian researcher concludes ebikes are good exercise, while a Swedish retail company predicts they will be the country’s Christmas gift of the year.

Paris vows to reimburse customers as the city’s famed Velib bikeshare system grinds to a halt due to a series of strikes.

Once again, a bike maker is determined to demonstrate just how sexist the industry is, as Italian brand Pinarello’s new ads for their forthcoming ebike fall flat. To put it mildly.

Don’t sexually harass a woman on the street while riding by on your bike like this Aussie jerk, especially if she has her camera on. Or, better yet, just don’t do it. Period.

 

Competitive Cycling

No, you didn’t win that pro cycling contract by pedaling inside; a young New Zealand cyclist won the Zwift competition to join the Team Dimension Data under 23 team.

In the best news of the day, Italian cyclist Claudi Cretti is back on her bike, just four months after she suffered major head injuries in a crash at the Giro Rosa.

 

Finally…

If you lose your cellphone while stealing a bike, probably not the best idea to walk into the police station to ask if they’d found it. Who needs headphones when you can ride with your own piano?

And sometimes a dog’s best defense is just being too fat to attack anyone.

………

On a personal note, let me offer my sincere thanks to everyone who has expressed their best wishes for my wife’s recovery from her recent surgery; it’s helped get us through a difficult few days.

And if you’re riding this weekend, remember that drivers will be far more focused on shopping and finding a finding parking space than watching out for you. So ride safely and defensively; I want to see you all back here next week.

 

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

Morning Links: Bikeshare in the news, no justice for a fallen Brooklyn rider, and crowdfunding a kids bike book

October 18, 2017 / / One comment

Once again, today’s common theme is bikeshare.

Dockless bikeshare continues to boom in Seattle, as the city’s two providers increase to 3,000 bikes apiece.

Baltimore’s bikeshare system is sort of back, with just 50 bikes at nine stations; a much larger system was shut down a few months ago due to problems with vandalism and theft.

DC could soon pass Portland as the nation’s bicycling capital, thanks in part to thriving bikeshare, though advocates question whether it has the infrastructure to support it.

Melbourne has new rules for dockless bikeshare to keep bikes from ending up in the river.

………

A New York woman concludes her hard-hitting series of articles on the death of her sister in a Brooklyn collision. And the runaround her family received from the NYPD and judicial system in trying to learn what happened and getting any sort of justice.

If you can call a 90-day license suspension justice.

Thanks to J. Patrick Lynch for heads-up.

………

You have just 13 days to help fund a new children’s book about bicycles, and the animals that ride them.

………

Bicycling says the cobblestoned 2018 Tour de France could be the best in recent history.

The LA Times says Chris Froome could face a challenge from Tom Dumoulin as he goes for a record-tying fifth win in the Tour de France. Could have sworn I once watched some guy win seven consecutive tours, but I must have been on something.

Speaking of Froome, he was awarded the Velo d’Or as the best cyclist of 2017.

A new documentary about pro cyclist Rose Osborne proves it is possible to quit happily.

………

Local

Sad news from Boyle Heights, where one bike rider was killed and another injured in a shooting early yesterday morning.

South Pasadena will consider improvements to Monterrey Road at tonight’s council meeting, including bike lanes and better sidewalks. Thanks to Bike SGV for the tip.

West Hollywood’s Community Development Department has created a plan to increase business and livability in the city’s Eastside, including bike and pedestrian improvements. Although proposals to add parking are more likely to induce traffic.

 

State

Garden Grove’s Hazard Ave will get a pop-up separated bike lane this Saturday, along with other activities for adults and kids designed to spark a conversation about how the street can be improved to make walking and biking safer and more fun.

The 450-mile Project Hero Road 2 Recovery Bike Tour stops in Salinas on its way down the coast; the ride raises awareness of PTSD and other mental illnesses faced by veterans.

Former pro Levi Leipheimer is helping send 1,000 kids bikes to Sonoma County to replace bicycles lost in the recent fires — despite losing his own home.

An Op-Ed in the Sacramento Bee says the city must become more pro-bicycle if it’s going to have any chance of landing the new Amazon headquarters. Which is why Los Angeles doesn’t have a prayer.

 

National

Bloomberg says government data is missing the mark when it comes to distracted driving, suggesting it’s the most likely cause of the recent spike in traffic fatalities involving bicyclists, pedestrians and motorcyclists.

Soon your solar powered helmet could call for help when you crash. Or if you throw your helmet at the car that just ran you off the road.

Strava is now turning into even more of a social media, allowing members to post to the site just like the pros do.

Men’s Journal lists the ten best places to ride your bike this fall. None of which are in California.

City Lab says if you drive less than 10,000 miles a year, you’re better off using Uber or Lyft than owning a car. Or you could just, you know, ride a bike, instead.

Chicago is finally completing a bike and pedestrian bridge that had been blocked by long–serving alderman, possibly for racial reasons.

 

International

British Columbia bike advocates propose higher penalties for negligent and aggressive drivers, as well as drivers who door or harass bike riders. Maybe we can copy it here in California.

The CBC profiles a Manitoba maker of custom adaptive bicycles, who changes lives by giving disabled people a chance to ride.

A kindhearted Canadian bike shop owner gives a six-year old girl a new bike and helmet after hers was destroyed in a collision that left her seriously injured.

An American man could face charges for the death of a rising young bike racer in Toronto earlier this month.

A new report says Toronto courier and delivery companies should use more cargo bikes. Thanks to Norm Bradwell for the link.

Britain’s rabid tabloid press is likely to seize on a new survey showing half of all respondents think bicyclists should have to take a proficiency test; 86% want harsher penalties for scofflaw cyclists, and 59% think bikes should have license plates.

Speaking of the British press, the media distorts the risk bike riders pose to pedestrians, while downplaying the risks riders face.

British police are looking for a road raging bicyclist who tried to stop a motorcycle and snatch the keys, then pushed the rider off his bike, breaking both his legs.

A Dutch city opens what may be the world’s first 3D printed bike bridge.

When the new BMW is set in semi-autonomous mode, it’s designed to pass bicyclists at a dangerously close distance unless drivers use their turn signals. Which LA drivers seem to be pathologically incapable of doing.

New research shows that people in Australia’s Victoria state don’t ride bikes for exactly the same reasons people just about anywhere else don’t.

Caught on video: Aussie police are looking for an idiot driver — and I use the term advisedly — who drove up on the sidewalk to pass slower traffic, nearly running down a bike rider in the process.

 

Finally…

Always carry a selfie stick to defend yourself from creepy clowns when riding your bike. Don’t ask drivers to put down their phones; just spray yourself with reflective paint until you glow like a clown, creepy or otherwise, so maybe they’ll see you anyway.

And evidently, cyclocross isn’t just a ride in the park.

 

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

Morning Links: Beating and bike theft at gunpoint in Little Tokyo, and Peloton profiles SoCal pro cyclist Coryn Rivera

August 8, 2017 / / One comment

Bike theft is nothing new in Los Angeles.

A sound beating and bike theft at the point of a gun is.

This morning I received the following email from Jane Voodikon, who wrote to warn LA bicyclists about the robbers who stole a bicycle from her friend Ulises Melgar Saturday night.

Today I’m writing to report to you an incident that happened to one of my biking friends this past weekend, hoping that you can help spread the word to the bicycling community. He was riding home Saturday night at around 11:30 p.m. coming out of the Little Tokyo area across the First Street Bridge eastbound toward Mariachi Plaza when a green four-door Chevrolet pickup cut him off and the passenger in the front seat pointed a gun at him and then tried to hit him with the gun. At this point he got off his bike, and then one of the men in the truck (there were five men total, wearing hats and sweatshirts around their faces) punched him, enabling the hijackers to take his bike, throw it in the truck bed, and drive off. 

It seemed they had planned this out because they had covered up the license plate with a trash bag. Unfortunately there was nobody else around to witness the crime, and at that location there would be no surveillance cameras. Understandably my friend didn’t react by taking a photo of the truck so there are really not many other identifying details. He reported it to the police, and they said they searched the area for a truck matching the description but found nothing.

He said the truck bed was empty save for a construction toolbox. 

His bike is a 2012 silver Cinelli Mash frame, 52cm, with two noticeable dents on each side of the top tube. Fizik saddle, riser bars, platform pedals with Wellgo straps. Photos are attached. 

This is especially tough (apart from it being a terrifying and traumatic incident) because he has been getting back on his feet after being laid off last year. Since January he has been delivering food by bike for Simply Salad, UberEats, and Caviar. A friend has lent him a bike temporarily so he can continue to work but his bike is not only his property but also his transportation and most importantly his lifeline to income. 

We’re hoping you can help at least alert the cycling public to the fact that there are people driving around hijacking bikes at gunpoint, and that is downright scary.

She also reports that a friend saw someone riding the bicycle the night after the bike theft around Olympic and Normandie. You can contact Melgar directly through Facebook if you see the bike or have any information about the theft.

Meanwhile, a crowdfunding campaign has been started in an effort to raise $800 to get him a new bike and gear so he can get rolling again and get back to work, but hadn’t received any donations as of this writing.

As causes go, you could do a lot worse. Maybe we can help him get that first donation.

Or maybe even put him over the top.

Update: Good news! Ulises Melgar’s bike was recovered after being spotted in Hollenbeck Park; all he ended up losing were the lights and a Garmin. 

As a result, donations have been disabled on the GoFundMe page, and any who gave will be contacted about their donations. 

………

Peloton profiles SoCal’s own Coryn Rivera, who became the first American to win the Tour of Flanders earlier this year.

Former Tour de France, Giro and Vuelta champ Alberto Contador announced his plans to retire after this year’s Vuelta.

Next year’s Giro d’Italia will start just a tad outside the country, in Jerusalem’s Old City.

Jillian Bearden will become the first transgendered woman to ride in a pro peloton when she takes part in Thursday’s Colorado Classic, setting a standard for trans athletes around the world; she credits bike racing with saving her life.

The last two days of the Colorado Classic will be part bike race, and part music and lifestyle festival.

……….

Local

A man riding a bicycle was the victim of a drive-by shooting in South LA early Monday; he was hospitalized in stable condition with bullet wound to one leg.

The Daily Breeze looks forward to Sunday’s CicLAvia in San Pedro and Wilmington, though not all the local businesses seem to be on board. They may get a pleasant surprise if they reach out to participants, instead of closing their shops or turning their backs on the event.

Competition kicked off in the 2017 World Police and Fire Games with a crit in Santa Clarita on Sunday, won by a 35-year old Cat 1 rider from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

 

State

Up to 1,000 people turned out for Santa Barbara’s annual unsanctioned Fiesta Cruiser Ride to Isla Vista and back. If the ride has been taking place every year since the 1970s, resulting in traffic citations and safety concerns, why not just make it official and control — if not close down — the route?

Sad news from Kern County, where a man was killed in a collision while riding his bike on Edwards Air Force Base early Monday morning.

The Hayward-based maker of Abba-Zaba, Big Hunk, Look, Rocky Road and U-No candy bars is one of us.

San Francisco installs concrete K rails to upgrade an existing protected bike lane, which was previously marked with paint and plastic bollards, but does nothing to improve safety at dangerous intersections.

Calbike released the schedule for October’s California Bike Summit in Sacramento.

 

National

A new CyclingTips podcast tackles the question of whether ebikes belong on singletrack trails.

The Department of DIY strikes in Spokane WA, as someone reinstalled a bike lane the city had moved to the opposite side of the street.

An Idaho man is training to compete in the Hawaii Iron Man triathlon, 23 years after he was paralyzed from the neck down.

A small Denver composting company is using a bicycle and trailer to collect food waste from restaurants and apartment buildings.

Thirty bicyclists take a ride through Dallas in their underwear. Next year, they should be able to do it on their choice of three dockless bikeshare providers.

Kindhearted Ohio sheriff’s deputies pitch in to buy a new bicycle for a young man, after the bike he used to ride to work couldn’t be repaired.

Caught on video: A compilation of footage from a Tennessee security cam clearly illustrates the dangers of riding across railroad tracks, even when there aren’t any trains around.

The battle over lane reductions and parking-protected bike lanes moves east, as residents and business owner in Cambridge, Massachusetts respond the same way they did here in LA.

New York removes a parking lane to provide space for a protected bike lane and a wider sidewalk. But only for one block.

Philadelphia is installing its first parking-protected bike lane, while bike cam video shows why the city’s unprotected two-way cycle track is a bad idea.

Eva Longoria is one of us, as she goes for a bike ride with her husband in Miami, dressed in casual clothes. Even if the press does freak out about her lack of a helmet.

 

International

Submitted without comment from the Toronto Globe and Mail: “Bike licensing fixes traffic problems about as well as mercury cures syphilis.”

A pair of Walmart heirs just bought British bikewear maker Rapha for the equivalent of $260 million.

No irony here. A London town council promotes a car-sharing program that allows drivers to drop off the cars anywhere, just days after impounding bikeshare bikes for doing exactly the same thing.

The world’s biggest bike parking garage just opened in the Netherlands; when finished, it will provide parking for up to 12,500 bicycles.

Let the Cycling Yogis be your guide the next time you’re riding in Madras, India.

The new government in India’s Uttar Pradesh is trying to rip out cycle tracks installed by the previous administration, blaming them for increasing traffic congestion. Although it doesn’t help that a bicycle is the ballot symbol of the outgoing political party.

 

Finally…

Maybe not the best time to go for a bike ride after you just escaped from prison a few days earlier. If you have to steal a package off a woman’s porch while walking your bicycle, try not to take the cremated ashes of her dead Yorkie.

And lots of people flip over pro cycling.

Just not literally.

 

Category: Morning Links, Stolen Bikes and Bike Crime, Violence & Crime / Tags: , , , , ,

Morning Links: Crowdsourcing the fight against distracted driving, and a new look at the murder of Ronni Chasen

November 17, 2016 / / 4 comments

This one is worth your money.

The Milt Olin Foundation, named after the music executive killed by a distracted LA County sheriff’s deputy while riding his bike on Mulholland Highway, has started a GoFundMe campaign to raise funds for the fight against distracted driving.

In just two days, it’s raised over $15,000 of the $20,000 goal for their #HandsOff movement to end Distracted Driving.

Send the link to everyone you know. And let’s see if we can push this over the top before today is over.

………

The Hollywood Reporter offers an extended follow-up on the shooting death of Hollywood publicist Ronni Chasen, alleging Beverly Hills police conducted a sloppy investigation before concluding that a bike-riding ex-con pulled the trigger, then shot himself two weeks later as police closed in.

It’s worth a read.

Because that was one case that never passed the smell test, even from the beginning.

………

No bias here. New York’s Daily News absolves the driver responsible for the death of 15-year old bike rider Saul Lopez in Pacoima Tuesday morning by saying “police believe one driver did not adhere to a traffic stop.”

Which is about as mild a way possible of saying someone killed him by running a red light.

………

Norwegian cycling officials say one of their junior riders was deliberately rammed by a Qatari policeman after winning a medal at the recent world championships, presumably because of her “inappropriate” clothing.

………

Local

Pulitzer Prize-winning transit expert Edward Humes discusses the plusses and minuses of Measure M, including support for bikeways and bikeshare among the former; highways, trains and carpool lanes in the latter.

The LACBC will host their annual open house on December 7th.

The Santa Monica Bike Center is celebrating its fifth birthday tomorrow evening.

Burbank’s formerly fixie-focused Pure Cycles is entering the road bike market.

Lake Arrowhead’s long-defunct Santa’s Village will reopen soon for the holidays, including a bicycle-themed Pedals Pub serving craft beers from area breweries. Which sounds like a good reason to stop on your next ride along the Rim of the World.

 

State

California’s proposed transportation bill would boost bike and pedestrian funding by $80 to $150 million, but doesn’t include a requirement for Complete Streets, or align with the state’s climate goals.

San Diego approves a new growth and development plan for the city’s uptown district, including a request to identify funding to complete a bike lane connecting the Hillcrest and North Park neighborhoods along University Ave.

Nice essay from a Stanford student about riding through campus, in which she concludes, “When you unlock your bike each morning you are entering into conversation with the world and those who populate it.”

 

National

Another reminder that bikes help those in need. A 19-year old Afghan refugee tells the story of her family’s long, arduous journey to the US, where her father rode his bike to work in construction every day after discovering his Russian engineering degree was useless in this country.

A Wichita KS Whole Foods puts its money where its mouth is, donating a $1,200 bike repair station to the city.

New York considers giving bicyclists a head start at red lights by allowing riders to go during the advance walk phase before the green light.

North Carolina’s governor challenges residents to hike, walk, bike, paddle or skate 100 miles. Not in a day, a week or even a month, but over the course of a full year. Seriously? If that’s a challenge, it’s no wonder most Americans are out of shape.

 

International

Sunday marks the World Day of Remembrance for Victims of Traffic Violence.

A cyclist and author offers advice on how to keep your lady parts happy when you ride. Assuming you have them, of course.

A Winnipeg city councilor calls for a Vision Zero plan for the Canadian city.

Talk about burying the lead. London’s Daily Mail reports a woman denied seriously injuring a bike rider when she rear-ended his bike. But fails to mention she’s accused of intentionally chasing and running him down in a road rage dispute that began when he complained about her cellphone use, and escalated when he kicked off her side mirror.

London’s former cycling minister suggests five things he says will determine if the city’s new mayor is serious about keeping his bike-friendly campaign promises.

We’re winning. Copenhagen now has more bike traffic than car traffic.

The Guardian looks at the opening of Africa’s first bikeshare system in Marrakech, Morocco, asking if it could be the launchpad for spreading the movement across the continent.

An Aussie paper reviews the new Ikea bicycle, and decides you could get a better value at your local bike shop. Or a cheaper bike at Kmart.

Three Zimbabwean soldiers face murder charges for beating a man to death in a dispute over a bicycle.

 

Finally…

Maybe cycling really is the new golf. Your next helmet could be an award-winning, banana-shaped piece of paper.

And note to thieves: If you drop your bike and run as soon as a police car approaches, it only calls attention to your probation violation and burglary tools.

Just a hint.

 

Category: General / Tags: , , , , ,
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