A Los Angeles bike shop manager says the ’28 Olympics provide a perfect opportunity to build out an effective, connected bike network.
Writing for Planetizen, Alexander Golden argues that the city could emulate Paris in the buildup to the 2024 Olympics.
With less than 650 days to go and no concrete plan for moving the 3-5 million expected visitors around the city, Los Angeles should be looking to take as much strain off its Metro system during LA28 as possible. Given that the city is more than ready to embrace cycling, one answer could be to look to Paris’ “first bikeable olympics.” Two years before the opening ceremony Paris had no Olympic bike plan at all. By the time the Games rolled around, Paris had created a robust bike network that not only served Olympic spectators, but continues to move Parisians around the city to this day. If L.A. starts now, it could see the same lasting success.
However, Los Angeles has thus far gone the other way, despite years of clearly stated demands of local residents.
Similar to Paris, L.A. residents have spent the last decade begging officials for more bike infrastructure — with limited success. LA’s Mobility Plan 2035, adopted in 2016, maps roughly 260 miles of protected bike lanes and 660 miles of unprotected lanes. Execution has been the problem. By the city’s own count, only 22 miles of the protected network had been built by late 2023, along with 285 of unprotected lanes.
In 2024 voters tried to force the issue by passing Measure HLA, which won 65.5% of the vote. HLA requires the city to add the plans for bike, bus and pedestrian upgrades whenever it rebuilds a street. The City Administrative Officers report on the measurecalled it an unfunded mandate, and the ballot analysis put its cost at $2.5 billion over 10 years. Facing a roughly $1 billion deficit, the city cut the budgets of LADOT and StreetsLA, the two departments that build street safety projects.
It’s worth reading the whole thing. Because, if the current trends hold, Los Angeles is on the verge of electing a progressive mayor, like Paris’ Anne Hidalgo in the years leading up to the ’24 Paris Olympics.
I’m tempted to say we can only hope that a Nithya Raman administration would follow through on her stated support for bicycling and other forms of alternative transportation leading up to the games, and beyond.
But we can do more.
We can demand it. And we should.
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Speaking of which, I received the following email from Streets Are For Everyone yesterday.
A critical project to close a gap in the LA River Bike Path near Griffith Park is at risk of further delays, and we need your help!
Public comment at Thursday’s Recreation and Parks Task Force meeting will be accepted in person only, so we need as many advocates as possible to show up in support of this important connection.
Please join us tomorrow morning at 10:30 AM to speak in support of this critical project. Your presence and public comment can help demonstrate the community’s strong support for closing this gap.
Recreation and Parks Task Force Meeting Details
Thursday, November 5, 2026
10:30 AM
Valley Plaza Recreation Center
12240 Archwood Street, North Hollywood, CA 91606Again, public comment will be accepted in person only.
Context
The approximately one-mile section between Riverside Drive and Forest Lawn Drive, known as “LARiverway – LA River Bike Path Phase 4,” is facing major opposition from some in the local equestrian community.
The project has already cleared environmental review and received City Council approval; however, the Recreation and Parks Department still needs to grant the rights necessary to establish the right-of-way and move forward. An earlier agenda item to approve the Grant of Rights was deferred following significant pushback, again, from some members of the local equestrian community.
This Thursday, the Recreation and Parks Task Force will hear from both equestrian and cycling advocates. We need cyclists and community members to attend in person and show strong support for completing this important connection.
I have written suggested talking points which you can access here: Talking Points – LA River Bike Path Phase 4.
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SAFE also invites you to attend their observance of the World Day of Remembrance for the the victims of traffic violence, which will be held just off the Pasadena CicLAvia route, below, a week from Sunday.
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The last CicLAvia of the year takes place on Sunday, November 15th when the open streets event returns to Pasadena for just the second time; CicLAvia offers highlights you can expect along the route.
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In news that really shouldn’t surprise anyone, a new study of collapsable, aka foldable, bike helmets has found that on average, they provide less protection than other bike helmets, although there is nothing inherent in their design that would prevent them from being improved to match the risks protection of other bike helmets.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
London’s Westminster Council says it just doesn’t know where bicyclists should go after the recent pedestrianization of Oxford Street, even though the council had previously published plans for alternative bike routes. In other word, when asked where bike riders should now go, they politely said go to hell.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
Boston cops are looking for a bike rider who “went berserk” when a man told him to stop riding on the sidewalk, arguing with the victim before chasing him down and punching him in the face, then returning to take pictures of the man lying on the ground. While that’s major asshole behavior, it does seem to lower the bar a tad for berserking.
A Long Island man faces charges after throwing an object at a Tesla, then spitting on the car and pulling a pocket knife on the driver after the driver rolled down his window to ask him why; the driver then struck the man when he was attempting to get away. At least that’s his story, and he’s sticking to it, although it seems likely that he may have done something to provoke that response, but still.
Life is cheap in the UK, where a 38-year old London man was sentenced to less that four years behind bars for punching a man nearly twice his age to death, because the older man had told a kid riding a Lime bike on the sidewalk to slow down.
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Local
LA officials are encouraging feedback on the second phase of remaking Westwood Blvd to install dedicated bus and bike lanes, and are willing to bribe you with the somewhat slight possibility of winning a $50 gift card.
State
A San Francisco woman tells the local public radio and TV station how much she loves riding her ebike 12 miles to work every day, and how much she’ll miss it when she switches back to driving for the winter. Which raises the obvious question of why switch, then.
San Franciscans have reaffirmed their vote to remove cars from the former Great Highway, which has been converted to the Sunset Dunes linear park, by a nearly two-thirds margin.
If you think you’ve seen women’s cyclist Lotte Kopecky or her husband, Axel Merckx, riding around the Bay Area, you’re probably right.
National
The Pedaling Relief Project established by Seattle’s Cascade Bicycle Club reached a dramatic milestone by rescuing two million pounds of food and essential goods by bicycle and delivering them to local food banks.
A 64-year old construction flagger faces a charge of criminally negligent homicide for the death of a school teacher walking her bike through a construction zone in my ostensibly bike-friendly Colorado hometown, after allegedly flagging her into the path of a semi-truck four months ago; the charge carries a maximum penalty of one to three years, plus two years of mandatory probation. Although you’ll have to get around my hometown paper’s paywall if you want to read it.
A woman in her 30’s describes being terrified of her own body for most of her life after living with spinal scoliosis, until she moved to Colorado and accepted an invitation for a bike ride, and what she thought would be an easy ride around town turned into a 20-mile ride into the countryside.
The family of 34-year old Boston transportation planner begged city counselors to turn their words into action, and improve safety on the street where she was killed riding to work; they also announced plans to distribute the $100,000 raised after her death to ten local advocacy groups.
Tuesday’s blue tsunami extended to ballot measures pushed by New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, which all passed, including measures supporting outdoor dining and speeding the construction of bus and bike lanes.
A Philadelphia bike ride protesting against Jewish-owned businesses has been roundly and rightfully condemned by Pennsylvania’s two US Senators, the state attorney general and local organizations. Just to be clear, protesting against the government of Israel is no more antisemitic than protesting Italy is anti-Catholic, but extending that protest to individual Jews is.
International
Life is cheap in British Columbia, where prosecutors are asking for a lousy two years probation for a 63-year old man who ran a red light a full six seconds after it had changed from green, killing a 68-year old woman riding a bicycle — but it’s no biggie, because he was thinking about his poor mother in the hospital instead of watching the road in an effort not to send anyone else there.
The four people arrested in Toronto for protesting the forced removal of bike lanes over the objections of local officials are contesting their arrests by arguing that police are trying to stifle dissent.
A fan of the 141-year old Luton Town football club had his effort to ride to every one of the team’s away games this year prematurely ended when someone stole his bike after he stopped at Starbucks to use the loo, but says he’s been blown away by the support he’s received from the team and its supporters.
Riding without lights in Oxford, England could cost you the equivalent of $94.
In yet another example of keeping a dangerous driver on the road until it’s too late, the killer hit-and-run driver who dragged a British bike rider under his car for nearly five minutes, while repeatedly swerving to dislodge the victim, has been sentenced to 25 to life behind bars, along with a lifetime ban on driving, after he was convicted of murder; he had 28 previous convictions, including multiple driving offenses, DUIs and fleeing from police.
Competitive Cycling
Classic Italian cycling component maker Bianchi has learned the hard way that you can’t mass produce handmade quality, entering the European equivalent of bankruptcy with over $112 million in debt.
Zwift’s new hi-def video world may be a little too realistic, after a user spotted a digitized Tom Doumalin taking a dump on the side of the road.
Finally…
Now you, too, can wear Brandon McNulty’s rainbow jersey while you ride Tadej Pogačar’s Colnago. Your old ebike batteries could have a new life as someone else’s industrial energy storage system.
And nothing like going out to ride your bike, and finding a six-foot python curled up under the frame.
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Oh, and fuck Putin.
