Today’s common theme is dockless bikeshare around the world.
Chicago develops what they consider best practices for dealing with dockless bikes, including the right to move them and make the providers pay for it. Although to the best of my knowledge, Los Angeles hasn’t approved any official policies for dealing with dockless bikeshare yet, despite what the story says.
Meanwhile, German cities are wary of the potential posed for sidewalk clutter posed by dockless bikes, and fighting back against badly parked bicycles. Now maybe they know how we feel about all those badly parked cars blocking bike lanes.
Speaking of dockless transportation, the Corgi investigates her first LimeBike scooter in West Hollywood. And no, she wasn’t supposed to be in the picture.
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Another common theme is banning means of transportation from urban centers.
Edinburgh, Scotland joins other cities around the world in planning to restrict driving in the city center to make more room for people traveling by bikes or on foot.
On the other hand, in a truly bizarre decision, Prague bans bicycles from the historic city center to protect pedestrians. But evidently, drivers are free to keep running people over.
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Local
LA Planning is hosting a series of workshops around town to teach the basics of urban planning. And in what may come as a shock to many LA residents, there’s more to planning than just saying no to everything.
State
San Diego urges residents to ditch their cars and walk, bike or take transit with the city’s first #TransitTuesday.
A Victorville bicyclist is injured when he’s unable to stop in time, and t-bones a passing car. And somehow, the first, and so far only, comment blames new bike lanes.
Sunnyvale become the latest California city to adopt Vision Zero, even if the San Jose paper can’t seem to get the name straight.
National
Yamaha introduces its first self-branded bikes for the American market.
Curbed questions whether human beings should be guinea pigs for testing self-driving cars in cities.
A Chicago bike advocate is working to bring bike libraries to underserved parts of the city.
The local paper in Bowling Green KY wholeheartedly approves of plans to designate nearby rural roads as part of the US Bicycle Route system. Especially since it only involves posting a few signs.
Boston-area bike riders are understandably outraged at a decision absolving a truck driver of blame in the death of a bicyclist because the victim was hidden by the truck’s blindspot. As we noted yesterday, if the driver can’t see a human being almost directly in front of him, the damn truck shouldn’t be allowed on the road. Period.
New York plans to finally drop its ridiculous ebike ban, paving the way for ped-assist bikes, but throttles back plans for throttled bikes.
The widow of a fallen South Carolina cyclist advises drivers to pass bike riders like you love them. Which is exactly how we should pass pedestrians.
A Georgia deputy offers a single line of advice to help keep bike riders safe on the road, and gets it exactly wrong. Bike riders are supposed to stay as far right as practicable, not as far as possible. And are often safest when riding in the middle of the lane, rather than hugging the gutter and encouraging drivers to squeeze past.
A Florida man buys a single speed bike and goes carfree for a year. And liked it.
International
Heartbreaking story from the UK, where bicyclists hold a ride to help raise funds to send an 18-year old student’s body back to Egypt, after she was beaten to death on a bus by six other women.
A former Brit bike thief recommends securing your ride with double D-locks.
A new study from the UK shows that bike helmets help prevent facial injuries. Something I learned the hard way when mine helped keep my face intact as I did a faceplant during the incredible beachfront bee incident.
An Irish man bounces back from a massive heart attack and triple bypass surgery to ride 1,000 miles in an upcoming charity ride.
It only took the Cyprus legislature seven years to pass a law that basically says bike riders have to obey traffic laws. And isn’t likely to change anything.
South Africa will now certify businesses as bike friendly.
Sixty-eight percent of Kiwi bicyclists say New Zealand drivers aren’t prepared the share the road.
An Aussie CEO talks bikes, and how riding helps him come up with creative solutions.
Finally…
The best bikes for before you’re ready for pedals. Racing your balls off to fight testicular cancer — assuming you have some, of course.
And a University of Nebraska student complains about taking a whole 15 minutes to drive across town, saying it wouldn’t take that long to go five miles in any reputable city.
No, seriously.
Thanks to Todd Munson for that last link.
