BikinginLA

Day 30 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

……..

I neglected to wish everyone a Happy Lunar New Year/Spring Festival in yesterday’s post.

So 新年快乐, 恭喜发财, 설날, Chúc Mừng Năm Mới, 旧正月おめでとう, Tahun Baru Cina, and Tahun Baru Imlek!

And my apologies if I didn’t get all that right, since my mostly monolingual mind means I have to rely on translation apps. 

………

The 47th Annual Chinatown Firecracker run, walk, bike, dog walk and festival has been rescheduled for March 8th and 9th in Los Angeles Chinatown Plaza.

Usually timed to coincide with Lunar New Year, the popular event was postponed in the wake of the devastating wildfires earlier this month.

WHAT:  L.A. Chinatown Firecracker 5K Fun & Timed Run, 10K Timed Run, 1K Kiddie Run, 2K PAW’er Dog Walk & 17^th Annual 20/50-Mile Bike Rides — Celebrating 47 years, the L.A. Chinatown Firecracker is one of the largest and oldest running races in the U.S. with its upcoming Lunar New Year run, walk, cycling and dog walk events takes place over the weekend of March 8-9, 2025, at the historic Los Angeles Chinatown Plaza.

March 8-9 are the new dates for the 2025 Firecracker L.A. Year of the Snake Chinatown events with a choice to participate in-person or virtually. Each registered participant receives a commemorative 2025 Firecracker race bib, exclusive collectible finisher’s medal, limited edition t-shirt (even for registered kids and dogs), goody bag, and much more. In addition, participants and their guests will enjoy the Lunar New Year Celebration in the heart of historic Chinatown with an opening ceremony filled with lion dancers and the traditional lighting of 100,000 firecrackers. The Firecracker post events festival is a two-day expo including exhibitors, beer garden, vendors, activities for children, plenty of live entertainment, and free to the public. The 47^th Annual Firecracker runs are approved 2025 USATF Sanctioned Events.

The 47^th Annual L.A. Chinatown Firecracker is produced by the nonprofit L.A. Chinatown Firecracker Run Committee (LACFRC), a group of volunteers who donate their time and energy to organize and stage events and programs promoting healthy lifestyles, fitness, cultural awareness, supports education and encourages community participation. LACFRC continues to give back with proceeds reinvested in the community providing service and programs benefiting elementary schools and local nonprofit organizations.

WHEN: March 8-9, 2025

• Sat, March 8: 50-mile Bike Ride; 8:00 a.m. – via Chinatown, LA River Bike Trail, Griffith Park, Glendale, Eagle Rock, El Sereno and Lincoln Heights
• Sat, March 8: 20-mile Bike Ride; 8:20 a.m. – via Chinatown, LA River Bike Trail, Griffith Park
• Sat, March 8: 2K PAW’er Dog Walk; 9:00 a.m.
• Sun, March 9: 5K Run/Walk; 8:00 a.m. Run / 8:20 a.m. Walk
• Sun, March 9: 10K Run/Walk; 8:20 a.m. Run / 8:40 a.m. Walk
• Sun, March 9: 1K Kiddie Run: 9:00 a.m.; includes Kiddie Fun Zone
• (Carnival Games, Face Painting, Petting Zoo, Arts & Crafts activities, Puppet Shows, and much more…)

WHERE: Los Angeles Chinatown Central Plaza, 943 N Broadway, Downtown Los Angeles 90012

REGISTRATION: $28 – $65

………

No surprise here.

Bike Index reports its numbers show bike theft in the US jumped 15% in the US last year, while a recent survey shows thieves snatch an average of 2.4 million bikes each year, with a value of $1.4 billion.

Yes, with a b.

Bikes are also two-and-a-half times more likely to be stolen than a car, while 59% of bike thefts occur in residential areas.

Which is why your bike shouldn’t sleep outside at night. Or even in the relative protection of a garage, which is far easier to break into and get out undetected than your home.

And while you can report a stolen bike to Bike Index after it’s taken — right here on this website, in fact — it should be registered before anything happens to it, which offers your best hope of actually getting it back.

Which is something else you can do right here, right now, with their free, transferable lifetime bike registration service.

Full disclosure, there’s no need for any disclosure, full or otherwise, because I don’t get anything out of hosting their registration service, other than the satisfaction of helping protect your bike and maybe stick it to a few bicycle rustlers.

Because the law won’t let us string ’em up anymore, dammit.

………

A North Carolina TV station talks with Michael White, co-founder of bike & pedestrian safety organization The White Line Foundation.

White is the father of 17-year old US National Team Cyclist Magnus White, who was killed by a driver while training outside of Boulder, Colorado.

A 24-year old Ukrainian immigrant isn charged with his death. Her trial on a single count of felony vehicular homicide after allegedly falling asleep at the wheel has been delayed until March.

………

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

No surprise here. San Francisco Streetsblog reports a new neck-down, or traffic pinch point, on Kirkham Street in San Francisco is slowing traffic speeds exactly as it was designed to do, even as the local press insists it’s is “causing confusion,” “driving motorists crazy” and even making “the street more dangerous.”

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

Santa Barbara will continue their pedestrian friendly makeover of iconic State Street, despite concerns over reckless, speeding ebike riders.

The Mayor of Honolulu is considering the merits of a recently passed bill aimed at reigning in reckless ebike riders hellbent on scoring wheelie-popping TikTok likes; the measure would require helmets for all ebike riders under 18, while requiring that both wheels must remain on the ground at all times.

………

Local  

This is how you do it. Less than two months after losing most of their bikes and gear when some asshole someone stole their equipment trailer, Culver City’s Walk ‘n Rollers is donating newly refurbished bikes, helmets, locks and lights to families affected by the recent fires.

State

A 16-year old boy was lucky to escape with a fractured leg when he was left crossed by a driver while riding his ebike in University City Wednesday evening; a 16-year old girl riding with him was treated for multiple abrasions.

A Fresno columnist says there’s a way to stop that rash of post-pandemic traffic deaths, but it will require the public to buy into the Vision Zero program. Unlike Los Angeles, where even the slightest opposition is enough to kill any and all traffic safety projects.

San Francisco Supervisors made a final decision on the much-maligned Valencia Street bike lanes, voting to move the protected lanes from the center to the right curb in each direction.

The Urban Cycling Institute calls Davis a “pioneering cycling town” and the Amsterdam of America. Although something tells me that Davis bike safety critic and frequent BikinginLA contributor Megan Lynch might have something to say about that. 

National

Your next new car could be an e-velomobile.

National Parks Traveler considers what’s in the recently passed EXPLORE Act for adventure bicyclists and mountain bikers, like ten new federally funded long-distance bike routes; the bill was signed by Biden before he left office, which presumably compels the new Trump administration to build it out.

The rich get richer, as Colorado Spring, Colorado is building 75 miles of new and newly-legal mountain bike trails, and may construct a lift-served mountain bike park in an abandoned quarry.

Colorado is defying national trends, as overall traffic deaths have dropped in both of the last two years after peaking in 2022, although the news isn’t so good for people on motorcycles.

Dallas bike advocates say the city needs to giddyup in building out its bike plan, as it lags behind other Texas cities when it comes building bikeways. Something their peers in Los Angeles can more than relate to. You know, other than that “giddyup” part. 

A suburban Chicago writer compares the state’s unofficial bicycling death stats with the national trends.

International

Momentum highlights a dozen “amazing” cities to explore by bike this year, from the birthplace of Hans Christian Andersen to Taiwan’s oldest city; only one American city made the cut. Needless to say, it isn’t Los Angeles.

Tragic story from Glasgow, Scotland, where a 22-year old architecture student told her parents there was just one “tricky bit” on her otherwise safe bike commuting route — the same place where she was killed in a collision a few months later.

Garmin users in the UK now have expensive paperweights attached to their bikes and wrists, as the devises are caught in an endless rebooting loop resulting in the dreaded “triangle of death;” no word on whether the problem is effecting users in this country.

A British bike tourist learns the real value of the Warmshowers website when a virtual stranger took him in and nursed him until he could fly home, after he was struck by a driver while riding in Turkey, with no insurance or other local contacts to call upon his release from the hospital, once again demonstrating the kindness of strangers in the bicycling community.

How to legally ride your bike in Kyiv, for your next trip to Ukraine. Dodging Russian missiles optional.

Competitive Cycling

Bad news for cycling and tri fans in the UK, as Warner Bros. Discovery shuts down the cable channel carrying the races, telling sports fans they’ll now need to pay 343% more to subscribe to another Warner channel; a British cycling official says it’s the beginning of the end of pro cycling in the country.

Finally…

If you’re going to carry meth, crack, coke and hydrocodone on your bike, put a damn light on it. No, you probably won’t have to scrape the rainbow bands off your bike.

And if you’re going to ride your bike falling down drunk, and without lights, don’t.

Seriously, just order an Uber, already.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin.