Anyone want to guess how much I want to write about bikes right now, after writing about at least the seventh person killed riding one in Southern California in the past two weeks?
Anyone?
I didn’t think so.
……….
In a bizarre story from Mississippi, a man awaiting trial on murder, attempted murder and hit-and-run charges for intentionally running down two bike riders dropped dead in his jail cell.
Fifty-seven-year old Shannon Thomas reportedly died of a heart attack last month, after he allegedly chased down and killed a 21-year old woman and attempted to kill the 36-year old man she was riding with in March.
To make things even stranger, Thomas was dating the mother of the woman he killed, and ran the couple down after an argument with the other man.
Which you’d have to think would adversely affect his relationship with the victim’s mom.
………
Yawn.
It’s Prime Day again, the two-day national holiday devoted to buying things you don’t need, just because the marked up price has been marked down to make it seem like an irresistible bargain.
Which isn’t to say you can’t actually get some good deals, but caveat emptor.
Ebike maker Gazelle is recalling roughly 1,032 of its Urban Arrow cargo bikes because the front bolt in the seat post clamp can break and make the seat come loose. Which is an oddly specific number to follow the word “roughly.”
He gets it. A Milwaukee County supervisor has put a stop to a planned 15 mph speed limit for bike trails, arguing it doesn’t make sense to impact legal trail users when the real problem is “unauthorized high-speed e-motos that should not be operating on these trails in the first place.” Maybe he could have a talk with some of our SoCal city leaders. Thanks to Megan for the heads-up.
In the most heartwarming story you’ll read today, a 96-year old great-grandfather was reunited with the bicycle he rode for decades, after his 67-year old daughter had it restored and delivered to the Cambridge, England care home where he now lives by members of his cycling club; he met his wife of 73-years when they both were riding back in 1947.
London office developers are strongly backing proposals to weaken the city’s bicycle parking requirements, after a new analysis showed that the vast majority of indoor bike spaces sit empty every day. Which I can understand, because I always insisted on taking mine into my office, rather than risking getting it stolen from an unsecured parking garage.
Damn. A 48-year old European commercial bond trader at JPMorgan’s London office declared “I’m not a cyclist” before taking part in a 500-mile fundraising ride, then proceeded to drop dead on the first day.
Eight years and 1 million crossings after Dutch engineers replaced the asphalt surface of a bike path with hollow panels made from recycled plastic, the trail has resulted in 50–70% lower carbon emissions, while rain storage reached 48% of capacity.
December 24, 2025 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on The last day of our Holiday Fund Drive, think twice about riding in this rain, and using your FSA/HSA for bikes & gear
Day 358 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025.
If you’ve been waiting to donate, it’s now or never. Well, maybe not never, but still.
So thanks to Todd, Arthur and Penny for their generous donations to support SoCal’s best source for bike news and advocacy!
But time is up, already. So what the hell are you waiting for?
Just stop what you’re doing, and donate right now with just a few clicks through PayPal or Venmo, or via Zelle to ted@bikinginla.com using the banking app on your smartphone.
Don’t wait, give now!!!
………
Speaking of the last day, this is also our final post for this year. I’ll be taking the next nine days off for my annual pre-scheduled mental and physical collapse, after somehow making through the year from hell past year.
I expect to see you back here bright and early on January 4th, when we’ll kick off the new year with a recap of the top stories from the coming week.
And as always, we’ll be around if there’s any breaking news you need to know about.
If you’re celebrating Christmas tomorrow, I wish you all the warmth and joy of the holiday. If not, I hope you’ll find something to celebrate that will bring you joy.
Either way, please accept my wishes for a very happy New Year. And shake off the dust of this year to have a very healthy, happy and prosperous year to come.
One with bikes. Lots of bikes.
………
Be extra careful if you’re riding for the next few days.
Even under the best circumstances, that could lead to flooded intersections and puddles that can be larger and deeper than they appear, and hiding dangerous items and potholes out of view.
It also means that drivers will have limited visibility, and won’t expect to find anyone on a bicycle out in that weather. Which means they won’t be looking for you, even if you’re lit up like a Christmas tree.
So unless you have to, maybe wait a few days until après le déluge for your next ride.
………
Okay, I learned something yesterday.
Marvin forwarded an email from e-bikemaker Priority Bikes that suggested you could use your Health Savings Account or Flexible Spending Account — assuming you have one, of course — to buy a new bicycle or ebike.
Which was a new one to me.
But it only took a few minutes of Googling to confirm it.
You’ll need to talk to your doctor to get a Letter of Medical Necessity stating that you have a condition that could be improved by riding a bicycle, such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease or even Parkinson’s.
Megan reminds us about Metro’s public meetings next month to discuss the draft Environmental Impact Report for extending the LA River bike path.
State
He gets it. Writing for Streetsblog California, a retired lawyer says “if illegal e-motorcycles are the downfall of legitimate e-bikes, manufacturers and retailers should look themselves in the eye, not blame it on their customers.
Tragic and bizarre news from Linn County, Kansas, where a 13-year old boy was found dead after last being seen riding his bicycle; a 47-year old man was charged with felony abandonment of a corpse after he told police he took the boy’s body from Kansas to Missouri, and left him in a remote creek bed. How he happened to come into possession of the dead boy’s body, or why he felt the need to move and abandon it was not explained.
Taisha was riding on the sidewalk. There are no bike lanes along Vermont north of Gage Avenue. I asked her why she liked riding a bicycle around Los Angeles.
“You know, it’s quicker, it’s easy to get around,” she said. “It gives me peace of mind.”
“You ever been hit by a car?” I asked, keeping an eye on the evening mayhem in my periphery.
“Absolutely!” she exclaimed, laughing. “Yeah, everybody gets hit by cars. It’s always a victim of someone looking left and turning right. Always.”
Hale continues by pointing out that Metro is building bus rapid transit lanes on the corridor, without considering the need of people like her and others he spoke with.
And LA doesn’t seem to care.
The city of Los Angeles, meanwhile, has looked the other way, refusing to collaborate with Metro to build a truly multimodal transit corridor – even though the city is legally required to fund the project under Measure HLA. That’s why local activist Joe Linton has sued the city, alleging that Los Angeles has shirked its legal responsibility to make roadway improvements in accordance with its Mobility Plan 2035.
It’s more than worth a few minutes of your day to read the whole thing.
Meanwhile, Dr. Grace Peng points out that it’s personal for her, too.
About damn time someone, anywhere, took a booby trap like that seriously, treating it the dangerous, potentially deadly assault it is, instead of just a harmless prank.
Thanks to Megan for the heads-up.
………
Gravel Bike California celebrates its 6th anniversary by delving even deeper into the darkest dens of the Angeles Forest.
………
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
An 18-year old man with dual French and German citizenship disappeared while riding his bike through Iran on a 400-day bicycling trip across Europe and Asia; he went missing on the third day of the recent Israeli bombardment, and could be one of the estimated 20 foreigners being held by Iran on suspicion of spying.
This is the cost of traffic violence. An Australian race car driver described as a “extraordinary figure” in Australian motorsports, and who recently competed in the 24 Hours of La Mans, as well as backing the careers of several young racers, was killed by a bus driver while he was riding a bike with his wife near the local zoo.
The final day of the German Track Cycling Championships was cancelled when two cyclists crashed over the track barriers on final bend of the men’s keirin semi-finals, injuring seven spectators, two seriously enough to be airlifted to local hospitals; the two racers escaped with minor injuries.
January 24, 2025 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on New book examines past, present and future of Black bicycling; and bike to clean up Angeles National Forest trail tomorrow
Day 24 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025.
According to the Los Angeles Sentinel, New Black Cyclones: Racism, Representation and Revolutions of Power in Cycling by Marlon Lee Moncrieffe examines “several cycling communities throughout America and several countries in Africa, highlighting their perspectives on racial issues and general experiences.”
“I’m using the past to understand the present,” (Moncrieffe) said. “And taking the voices of current Black cyclists to understand what might be the future of our representation in the sport.”
The book will be available from all the usual source — yes, including that one — next month.
2. Bike to trail clean-up in Angeles National Forest
The Mt. Wilson Bicycling Association will host a bike-in trail cleanup from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday on the Valley Forge Trail. Volunteers will park at Redbox Picnic Area and are responsible for getting themselves to Valley Forge Trail Camp by bike. The group will meet at 8 a.m. for a safety briefing before riding to the trail. The organization will provide lunch to volunteers. Participants should bring water and snacks and wear long sleeves and pants to protect themselves from poodle-dog bush and other irritants in the area. Register at eventbrite.com.
………
Gravel Bike California takes one fond look back to their favorite rides of the past year.
………
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
At least 54 hiking trails were burned in Eaton and Palisades fires, let alone what may have gone up in this week’s Hughes Fire above Castaic. Which raises the troubling question of whether your favorite mountain biking or gravel trails will still be around when all the flames are extinguished.
A group of 61 local, state and national advocacy groups signed onto a letter to Caltrans and the California Transportation Commission urging them to speed up action to meet the state’s transportation-related climate goals, as they continue to build dirty freeways instead of bikeways.
The new Arkansas Global Cycling Accelerator is taking applications from bicycling-related startups and innovators hoping to jumpstart their business, as Bentonville strives to become a hub for the mountain biking industry, as well as a world-class mountain biking destination.
In today’s most touching story, councilmembers in Schenectady, New York joined a caravan of police, fire and public works vehicles to honor a local man famed for simply riding his bike throug the city while bringing warmth and cheer to everyone he met, after 56-year old Ronnie “Rondon” Cridelle lost his battle with cancer. Although when my time comes, I’ll be lucky if I get someone pulling a corgi in a wagon around the block.
Despite the recommendations of an independent investigation office, a Canadian Mountie in British Columbia won’t face charges for using his police cruiser as a weapon to knock a 15-year-old robbery suspect off his bicycle; prosecutors say there isn’t enough evidence to support the recommended charges of aggravated assault, dangerous driving and dangerous driving causing bodily harm. All of which seems pretty self-evident, given the circumstances.
A writer for Streetsblog sends a postcard from Shanghai, saying “the Chinese mega-city provides an example of great urban mobility, albeit with a side of authoritarianism.” Because as we all know, a side of authoritarianism goes great with Peking duck and stinky tofu.
Twenty-two-year old Savaughn JoJuan Colon Barnes pled guilty to a single count of hit-and-run resulting in death in the killing of Margarito Castro as he waited at a red light in December of 2022, after prosecutors agreed to drop charges of gross vehicular manslaughter and fleeing the scene of a crime.
According to My News LA,
According to sheriff’s Sgt. Dawn Blair, about 8 p.m. on Dec. 4, Castro was in the center median, waiting to cross State Street at Dillon Avenue, when Barnes approached, going southbound on State “at a high rate of speed” in his Hyundai sedan.
“The driver of the Hyundai entered the center median … and struck the victim,” Blair said.
Unfortunately, under California’s overly lenient hit-and-run statutes, he now faces a maximum sentence of just four years behind bars.
And will likely be out in less than half that time.
………
Jim Lyle forwards news of a hit-and-run in Torrance yesterday that left a bike rider with road rash and broken ribs.
There’s no description of the suspect vehicle or the heartless coward behind the wheel yet, but hopefully that will change.
A Redwood City website says Formula 1 is following the lead of Caltrans, and adding bike lanes to the F1 race tracks. Which could lead to some very interesting races if cyclists and race car drivers competed at the same time.
But Pedal Ahead, the San Diego nonprofit charged with administering the virtually moribund ebike voucher program, hints that it may finally be showing signs of life.
Even if it does fund non-UL-certified ebikes that could suddenly and unexpectedly burst into flames.
Meanwhile, Colorado’s new ebike rebate program may be smaller than California’s, which starts at $750. But unlike California, it’s available to anyone.
However, the state’s governor seems a tad out of touch arguing that it’s still worthwhile for bike shops to participate, even though they may have to wait as long as a year to get reimbursed — in effect requiring small shop owners to finance the state program.
Twitter post
………
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
No bias here. The editor of Palo Alto paper complains about proposed bike lanes on El Camino Real, arguing that it would be unsafe for kids and kill local businesses. Even though it’s been repeatedly shown that bike lanes are good for business, and little kids aren’t the only ones who might want to ride their bikes on the local main street just like people in cars.
The “biggest party on two wheels” is returning to Winston-Salem, North Carolina this September, with the multi-day Gears and Guitars music and bicycle festival. The only question is, how the hell am I going to get there, and who’s going with me?
June 5, 2023 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on No Chatsworth COLT ride this year, a mea culpa on Friday’s SB 50 post, and Los Angeles Times goes gravel grinding
Let’s start with something that’s not happening.
For the last several years, the Chatsworth Neighborhood Council has held a community ride celebrating the Orange Line Bike Path, called Ride the COLT — aka Chatsworth Orange Line Tour.
It usually happens right around now; last year, on June 12th.
But this year, not so much.
In response to a question from J. Barrios, I reached out to the Chatsworth NC to ask about this year’s ride, and was told there was nothing planned at this time.
I was also told that could change, so there may be hope.
That may have been the case Friday when I wrote about SB 50, which would ban police from stopping motorists and bike riders for minor offenses, in an effort to prevent pretext stops.
Your presumption that SB 50, if enacted, would prohibit “stops for failing to register a bicycle, or rolling through a stop sign or riding salmon” isn’t correct.
The former is already prohibited; Cal. Veh. Code § 39002, as amended by last year’s AB 1909, says that cities or counties “shall not prohibit the operation of an unlicensed bicycle.”
The latter two wouldn’t be affected by SB 50, in which the definition of “low-level infraction” is limited by reference to two sections of the Vehicle Code relating to bicycle equipment and helmets; it wouldn’t cover violations related to bicycle operation in general:
“(E) A violation related to bicycle equipment or operation in Sections 21201 and 21212.”
Peace officers would still be allowed to stop bicyclists for other violations, including Cal. Veh. Code § 22450 (stop signs), § 21202 (right-hand curb or edge), or for that matter, §§ 22107–22111 (hand signals for turning and stopping).
So it may offer much less protection to bike riders, particularly people of color, than I thought.
And they talk with our old friend Zachary Rynew, the voice behind the Gravel Bike California videos we frequently share on here.
Zachary Rynew is a longtime Los Angeles cycling advocate who runs the website Gravel Bike California, which details numerous gravel rides in the region. He has been pedaling two-wheelers since he was in grade school and says riding on gravel roads takes him back to when he was a kid. It also makes navigating L.A. more efficient. “I was commuting from the San Fernando Valley to UCLA and cut my driving time in half by doing gravel and going through Fryman Canyon Park, then Franklin Canyon,” he said.
Southern California, Rynew believes, has a ton of off-road opportunities. “You can make your own adventure on gravel in the Santa Monica Mountains to the San Gabriels and in the hills above Redlands and Chino,” he said. “I love the versatility around here.”
………
The East Side Riders are hosting a community meeting in Watts tonight.
A San Diego bike rider was hospitalized with a head injury after they were run down by a hit-and-run driver; fortunately, the injuries weren’t considered serious, and police located the driver shortly after the crash. No word on whether the driver was arrested, however.
A Palo Alto editor says adding protected bike lanes to El Camino Real is a bad idea, questioning whether they would protect school kids from getting hit by motor vehicles, and whether removing parking spaces would hurt small businesses. Studies have repeatedly shown that protected bike lanes improve safety for everyone on the street, including pedestrians. And that bike lanes, particularly protected bike lanes, are good for businesses, large or small.
Nice story from St. Louis, where a 14-year old boy with sickle cell anemia was given a new ebike after he walked six miles to attend his 8th grade graduation, while his grandfather, who takes care of him and his six brothers and sisters after their mother died, was given a new $40,000 minivan by a local car dealer.
Vancouver bike riders held a funeral procession, complete with hearse and coffin, to mourn the recently removed bike lane through the city’s Stanley Park.
A bicycle played a key role in the first 24-Hours of Le Mans when a Bentley suffered a punctured gas tank; after the driver ran three miles to the pits, his co-driver borrowed a bike from a gendarme, rode salmon back to the stalled car and plugged the hole with a wooden bung, before eventually finishing fourth.
December 20, 2022 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Screens impair drivers more than alcohol or drugs, famed LA cougar victim of traffic violence, and snow gravel biking above LA
Last week, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released what seems, at first, to be a shocking statistic: a sample of more than 7,000 road users who were killed or injured in car crashes across America, 56 percent of them tested positive for impairing substances when they arrived at the hospital…
To be abundantly clear: none of this is to say that impaired driving, and especially drunk driving, isn’t extraordinarily dangerous. A motorist’s odds of getting into a car crash double at a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.05, which is the legal limit only in Utah, and they roughly triple at 0.08, the limit in most other states. The universe of potential effects from the universe of impairing substances a U.S. driver might consume include decreased muscle coordination, distorted perceptions, increased risk taking, and so much more. The correct number of drinks, or pills, or other delivery mechanisms for impairing substances that a driver should take before she gets behind the wheel is always zero.
A lot of those deadly effects, though, are also present in people who are sleep-deprived, or stressed, or fiddling with a NHTSA-approved “infotainment” screen embedded in the dashboard of their car — and in some cases, those effects can be as bad or worse than knocking back a couple of beers. One UK study found that using Apple’s CarPlay system slowed drivers’ reaction times nearly five times as much as driving with a blood-alcohol level of 0.08 — but CarPlay is legal on U.S. vehicles, even as U.S. regulators spend millions on anti-distracted driving campaigns to politely request drivers not use it.
It’s definitely worth taking a few minutes to read the whole story. And maybe change your mind on who and what poses the biggest risks on the roads.
A Scottish judge allowed a road raging hit-and-run driver to walk without a single day behind bars for intentionally swerving into a bike rider, leaving the bike riding man seriously injured with multiple fractures, and sentencing the driver to an overnight curfew, instead. Just one more example of authorities keeping a dangerous driver on the streets.
………
………
Local
Metro continues to flush money down the induced demand toilet by approving a zombie project to widen the 57 and 60 freeway interchange at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars, despite the damage it will do the the climate; the project was originally conceived to serve a proposed football stadium that was never built.
Bike shops across the country are coping with a post-pandemic glut of bikes, parts and accessories that were ordered during the bike boom, but delivered long after sales have tapered off. Which means it might be a great time to get great deal at your favorite local bike shop, who would undoubtedly appreciate the business. Thanks to Victor Bale for the link.
Road Bike Riderexplains the term “hold your line,” which you’re likely to hear on any group ride or road race. Someone once wanted to fight me because I failed to hold my line on a corner when I was a) riding alone, and b) riding despite a broken arm; the dispute only ended when I used my good arm to threaten to put an air pump through his spokes.
The Washington Postexamines Denver’s ebike rebate program, suggesting it could be a national model to cut emissions and traffic congestion. Then again, it could have been California serving as a national model, if the state’s fully funded $10 million ebike rebate hadn’t suffered a years-long failure to launch.
Philadelphia is closing in 30 miles of protected bike lanes. No mention of whether those are centerline miles or lane miles; the latter counts bike lanes on both sides of the road separately, effectively doubling the actual miles of protected roadway.
February 25, 2022 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on CHP gets bike law wrong after 13-year old right hooked, Phil Gaimon gets it, and gravel bull buffoonery in Bakersfield
Once again, the CHP gets basic bike law completely wrong.
As any pedestrian can tell you, sidewalks are bidirectional, with no requirement to walk one way or the other.
The same holds true for riding a bike — assuming sidewalk riding is legal there. The requirement to ride with traffic only applies if you’re riding in the street.
If the CHP can’t manage to teach their officers that, maybe they shouldn’t be investigating bike crashes.
………
Phil Gaimon gets it.
His latest video calls for everyone who rides a bike in LA to sign the Healthy Streets LA ballot petition, which would require the city to build out the mobility plan whenever a street on it is repaved.
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
A Florida driver will apparently get away with killing a man riding his bike on the shoulder of a highway, despite veering all the way off the roadway to strike the victim, who police say did nothing wrong. And despite the driver’s long record of traffic violations and license suspensions. Just one more example of authorities keeping a dangerous driver on the road until they kill someone.
A Metro board motion once again reaffirms that funding for the now cancelled 710 Freeway extension will go for multi-modal and safety enhancement projects, rather than the auto-centric projects the head of Metro’s Highways Program keeps insisting on.
A Portland website tells the tale of the city’s 1890s bike factory, which was originally opened to build an ether-powered bicycle, which was dropped when they couldn’t keep up with demand for pedal-powered bikes.
Despite drawing over 300,000 spectators, hosting the Grand Depart of the 2014 Tour de France in Yorkshire, England has shown no lasting financial benefit.
December 14, 2021 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Times op-ed says LA can’t keep pushing bikes and buses aside, and 330-mile NorCal rail trail threatened by coal plans
Or worse, actively block implementation of safe bus and bike lanes.
Paul Koretz kills a bike lane on Melrose and fights a bus lane on Wilshire. Gil Cedillo and Mitch O’Farrell work together to kill a bike lane on Temple. Paul Krekorian kills a bike lane on Lankershim. David Ryu kills a bike lane on 6th Street. John Lee fought a bus lane on Nordhoff. All of these real events over the last few years have something in common: members of the Los Angeles City Council actively ignoring the city’s Mobility Plan 2035, part of the general plan passed by the council in 2016.
He goes on to explain that there’s no way to get drivers out of their cars without more efficient transit and bikeways.
And that there is no way to prioritize alternative modes of transport without sacrificing some driver convenience and space on the street.
Then there’s this.
Another issue in Los Angeles is that we tend to build bike lanes in small segments based on the city’s repaving schedule. The problem here is that just like car lanes, bike (and bus) lanes really work well only as a network. Imagine if the 101 almost connected to the 405, and the 405 almost connected to the 10, and in the gaps, drivers faced a dirt road with potholes. How many cars would drive on those roads? Yet we ask the same of people on bikes today. Unless someone can get to where they need to go and feel safe for the entire journey, many won’t bother. That requires a network of protected bike lanes that connect to other protected bike lanes, criss-crossing the city.
Not surprisingly, he hits the nail on the head when it comes to the solutions.
We need all candidates running for mayor and City Council in 2022 to be leaders on this issue. The mayor especially must lead by action, not just talk, as it is today. Individual council members should not be allowed to block road changes prescribed in the Mobility Plan. We need citywide implementation, across district lines; the average Angeleno has no idea where one district ends and one begins, and those boundaries should not determine where a bike or bus lane mysteriously stops or starts.
We have elected far too many hypocrites and spineless “leaders” with their finger to the wind, bending whichever way people scream the loudest.
That needs to change.
Now.
We have to elect genuine leaders committed to their principles, who know what needs to be done and have the political courage to do it.
Not only would the plan be like setting a torch to the growing climate emergency, it would expose everyone living along the rail line to the dangers of highly carcinogenic coal dust.
And it would mean the death of plans to convert the defunct North Coast rail line into the Great Redwood Trail, taking riders through ancient redwood forests and along roaring rivers.
This is who we share the road with, part two. Once again, an elderly driver has been kept on the road until it’s too late, as an 87-year old Desert Hot Springs man faces vehicular manslaughter and hit-and-run charges for crashing his Caddy into the back of a school bus, then plowing into a group of kids as he tried to flee, killing a nine-year old girl and injuring three other children. Whoever kept renewing his license should face charges, too.
Bike lawyer Bob Mionske writes about the need for bright lights on your bike, both to stay safe and and limit liability in a collision. I suggest going even further by riding with multiple bright lights day or night to increase your visibility. And note to Mionske: Isn’t time to stop using that outdated and inaccurate term “accident?” A crash isn’t an oopsie.
Baton Rouge, Louisiana is finally recognized as a Bicycle Friendly Community. And only 40 years too late for me, after risking my life to ride there. And don’t get me started on beer-chucking LSU frat boys.
It only took four hours to fully crowdfund new bike lights from Northern Ireland’s See.Sense, promising 575 lumens from the front light, and 350 in the rear, which brightens as you slow down. And if you hurry, a set will set you back as little as $118.
May 7, 2021 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Tres shock! LA misses safest bike city list, famed ped superhero at UCLA, and San Diego builds bike lane laps around LA
But while Los Angeles continues to rest on its non-laurels as America’s worst bike city, Glendale is installing a new curb protected lane on Los Feliz.
The LACBC is offering a discount for their virtual bike challenge taking place this month.
Here’s what they have to say.
Inviting you to join us in June at LACBC’s new virtual LA Rivers Challenge: Ride, Walk or Run LA’s Historic Waterways! A flexible and fun way to ride, walk or run our beautiful L.A. County waterways, at your own pace on days, routes and mileage of your choice. Suggested routes will be posted on the LARiversChallenge.com website.
Please use this special Friends & Family code “FRIEND5” to register at LARiversChallenge.com and receive a cool neck gaiter/mask, coaching/encouragement emails, routes and information about the historic L.A. County waterways. Bonus Fun: An optional personalized fundraising webpage can be set up where riders can share progress on their ride(s) online and also raise money to support LACBC’s year-round advocacy on behalf of active transportation in L.A. County. Rewards and prizes can be earned for meeting fundraising goals too!
Thank you.
The 2021 LA River Challenge – Good for You and Good for LA! For more information and to register for the L.A. Rivers Challenge, visit LARiversChallenge.com.
Twitter: Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition (@LACBC)
Instagram: @lacbc
………
Bicycling author Richard Fox is back with the latest update to his comprehensive guide to SoCal bike routes.
I’m happy to announce the release of the 3rd Edition of my guidebook “enCYCLEpedia Southern California – The Best Easy Scenic Bike Rides.” It contains 200+ scenic ride options at SoCal’s beaches, deserts, mountains, wine country, harbors, & historic city centers from San Diego to Cambria to Palm Springs, perfect for casual cyclists who enjoy beautiful scenery while avoiding car traffic and major hill climbs. The pandemic bike boom created many new casual cyclists who bought up 2017’s 2nd Edition a year earlier than anticipated. I revisited many of the rides with a Class I ebike, and added notes on how they impact rides, and where to rent or buy them near the rides. The book’s info was updated, more detail was added to many of the maps, and several new rides were added, including an option for a La La Land Griffith Park adventure on closed roads that was too hilly without an ebike for the casual cyclist before. Other new fabulous rides were added for all in Irvine and Lake Perris, and options in other areas with new infrastructure like Santa Barbara and San Diego. The Coachella Valley, where I spent much of the pandemic lockdown cycling and working on the book update, ended up with a ton of new info and routes, including incorporation of the new CV Link regional path, now in various stages of construction. enCYCLEpedia.net contains additional rides, downloadable maps, features and updates for book owners. The price of this edition is going up because of higher production costs in the USA vs Asia, but has started on Amazon at a lower price, available here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1638485380.
………
The Oklahoma legislature has sent a bill legalizing the Idaho Stop to the governor for his signature.
And for a change, it’s the full version, allowing bike riders to treat red lights like stop signs, and treat stop signs as yields.
Twitter post
………
This.
Twitter post
………
Somehow we missed this one last month, as Bike Snob’s Eben Weiss offers a tutorial on how to politely shred on your fixie.
A bike-riding man suffered serious, but non-life-threatening injuries when he was hit by two drivers in San Diego’s Old Town neighborhood in the midst of Wednesday’s Cinco de Mayo celebrations; he was left crossed by a driver trying to make a three-point turn, then hit by another when he was knocked off his bicycle.
Nice gesture from the Chowchilla bicycling community, which turned out in force to accompany the body of a 45-year old man killed in a hit-and-run; the driver faces a murder charge after telling police he wanted to kill someone. Sadly, the disabled man, who rode a bike as his only form of transportation, had the misfortune of crossing the alleged killer’s path.
Now that’s more like it. A Michigan man could spend up to 80 years behind bars for the reckless, hit-and-run deaths of two women riding their bikes; he’ll have to serve a minimum of 18 years before he’s eligible for parole, and pay $250,000 restitution. None of which will bring either of the victims back, though.
The former model who starred in David Bowie’s China Girl video is now a Kiwi restaurant manager who’s fighting a new protected bike lane, arguing that it will block her deliveries and no one will use it, anyway. Never mind that the first photo in the story shows a delivery driver unloading his truck next to the bike lane directly behind her.
Once again, a bike rider is a hero. Grateful Aussie parents are looking for the man who jumped off his bike and leapt into a chilly lake without hesitation to rescue a three-year old boy, who accidentally rode his scooter into a Canberra lake; he then slipped away quietly after saving the boy’s life. No truth to the rumor that he left a silver bullet behind. Thanks to Megan Lynch for the heads-up.
