For a few short hours, we seemed to have a real scoop.
This morning, Steve S forwarded a photo showing hundreds of LimeBike dockless bikeshare bikes massed on the Cal State Northridge campus, apparently being readied for distribution.
While we speculated on just what they were doing there, I scrambled to figure out what council district they were in, assuming one of the San Fernando Valley’s councilmembers had made a deal with LimeBike for a pilot bikeshare program, like Joe Buscaino had in the Southside’s 15th District.
But before I could get a response, it turned out the bikes were on the CSUN campus because that was their destination.
According to an article in the school’s CSUN Today, the university is rolling out 400 of the app-based bikes to be spread out across the campus, and available to check out from any existing bike rack.
The bikes’ GPS system will also be used to track where they are used to determine the best routes for new bike lanes on the campus.
But unlike shopping carts, the wheels don’t lock when they reach the edge of the university. So it will be interesting to see where the bikes actually end up.
Maybe they’ll go far enough off campus to spur approval of dockless bikeshare throughout the Valley.
And maybe even encourage more and better bikeways for students, and the rest of us, as well.
Thanks to Steve for the photo and his help with the developing story.
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Big bikeshare news in West Hollywood, too, where the city’s WeHo Pedals will soon be interoperable with other Westside bikeshares — and could one day be free.
Meanwhile, the bikeshare program has been losing money in its first year of operation, bringing in only 19% of projections.
Which begs the question of how they intend to pay for the possible free usage for city residents.
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And as long as we’re on the subject,
The majority of low-income bikeshare users in the Bay Area are in San Francisco.
Social Bicycles has changed its name to Jump Bikes, and raised $10 million dollars to bring dockless pedal-assist e-bikeshare to San Francisco.
China’s Ofo dockless bikeshare comes to Prague; however, British police say the company can pick up their own damn dumped and vandalized bikes.
A Japanese bikeshare company hopes to bring tourists back to the country’s Fukushima prefecture, which was devastated by a massive earthquake and subsequent tsunami and nuclear meltdown.
Chinese dockless bikeshare companies are teaming with Japanese tech firms to solve the problem of abandoned and vandalized bikes.
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Local
Streetsblog reports on Saturday’s groundbreaking for the Alhambra Blvd street improvements in El Sereno, including a road diet and bike lanes to tame the dangerous street. Nice to see that at least one councilmember isn’t afraid of angry LA drivers demanding a halt to road diets.
A bike rider reportedly suffered “significant” injuries in a hit-and-run crash in Azusa Monday evening. But instead of asking for the public’s help, the police withheld any details of the suspect vehicle to avoid compromising the investigation. Thanks to Erik Griswold for the heads-up.
Actress and author Jenifer Lewis is one of us, too.
The LACBC is hosting their first Team LACBC training ride for this year’s Climate Ride on Sunday.
Also on Sunday, the League of Women Voters is holding a discussion on the Future of Transportation in Los Angeles with Move LA’s Denny Zane. As opposed to Keep LA Moving, which seems to want the opposite.
State
Berkeley considers changing the law to make it easier to install stop signs.
No bias here. A Marin County supervisor is calling for the removal of a protected bike and pedestrian lane on the San Raphael Bridge, and converting it to a third lane for motor vehicles — before it’s even built.
Speaking of Marin, mountain bikers will be blocked from ten of the county’s open space trails during owl breeding season for the next five years.
There’s something hypnotic about watching a fatbike rider with studded tires on frozen Caples Lake in Kirkwood.
National
Pittsburgh streets may be clear, but the bike lanes remain covered in snow and ice.
New York plans to add raised bike lanes along the center divider on a street crossing the border between Brooklyn and Queens, while banning left turns to eliminate dangerous conflict points inherent in a center bikeway.
NBC News looks at New York’s ludicrous ban on ebikes, which harms the city’s low-income food delivery workers. It also hurts disabled people, as well as others for whom a pedal-assist bike could provide an invaluable mobility tool.
A Florida letter writer says no, it wasn’t the sun’s glare that resulted in a bike-riding politician’s death, it was someone who decided to keep driving when he couldn’t see where he was going.
International
Caught on video: Pro-Brexit protesters outside London’s No. 10 Downing Street rip a European Union flag out of the hands of a bike rider.
A British driver gets a well-deserved six years for the high-speed hit-and-run crash that killed a bike rider.
A writer for Bike Radar says anti-bike stories in London are poisoning the streets for riders in the rest of the UK.
A British man says bicyclists should be banned from riding on pavements — aka sidewalks — even though it’s already illegal.
You’ve got to be kidding. A Kiwi driver won’t face charges for intentionally ramming a bike rider after first rear-ending him, then becoming impatient when it took too long to dislodge the bike’s wheel from under the car’s bumper. Even though police called the driver’s actions “completely unacceptable.”
After frightening readers with horror stories about the abuse bike riders face on the roads in Auckland, New Zealand, a local news site says the real problems are the condition of the streets themselves.
A Singapore delivery cyclist is facing charges for killing a 73-year old pedestrian after running a red light; while the paper says he was riding a bike with a faulty coaster brake, it sounds more like he was riding a brakeless fixie.
Competitive Cycling
Next year’s Tour de France will start in Brussels in honor of the 50th anniversary of The Cannibal’s first Tour win.
America’s only remaining Tour de France winner says Chris Froome’s failed drug test will be the end of Team Sky.
Jeremy Powers and Stephen Hyde discuss their epic battle in this year’s US men’s cyclocross national championships.
USA Cycling named the national team for next month’s World Cyclocross Championships in the Netherlands, including 14-time defending US champ Katie Compton.
Belgian pro Philippe Gilbert says the legendary Paris-Roubaix really ain’t that hard.
Finally…
Forget pedaling, your next bike could be hydrogen powered. Who knew bicycling is a guy-rich environment in which to meet Mr. Right?
And apparently, the way to get rich in haute couture is to rip the chamois out of bike shorts, and sell them for $400 a pair.
