Even the threat of rain couldn’t keep a handful of Angelenos from biking to the Oscars on Sunday.
Actor Ed Begley, Jr. lived up to his promise to bike into the Academy Awards over the Cahuenga pass, donning rain gear on the ride before switching to his tux for the ceremony.
Laemmle Theater president and LACBC board member Greg Laemmle also rode in, wearing his tux on his folding bike despite the threatening weather.
And even the LAPD biked the Oscars as part of the massive security presence protecting the event.
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Somehow I missed this one earlier this month.
The Examined Spoke examined that highly flawed stat behind SB 192, Glendale state Senator Carol Liu’s proposal to require bike helmets for all riders, as well as reflective hi-viz after dark.
Liu cites a statistic from the National Conference of State Legislatures that says 91% of bicyclists killed in 2009 weren’t wearing helmets. Never mind that it fails to addresse how many bike riders actually suffered head injuries, or whether their injuries would have been survivable with one.
ES looks at it another way, revealing that the 91% figure may questionable, since it appears the authors may have combined the figures for victims who weren’t wearing a helmet with those where it’s unknown whether or not a helmet was used.
As he points out, that’s a big no-no, statistically speaking.
And it’s definitely not true in California.
Separating out the unknowns from the cases where it’s known if the victim was wearing a helmet, the figure drops to just 63% of bike riders killed in California in 2009 were without helmets.
And it drops even further in recent years, as just 53% — barely over half — of cyclists killed in the state in 2012 weren’t wearing one.
Hardly the overwhelming statistic that would justify forcing every rider to wear a helmet under every circumstance.
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Local
Built it and they will come. Afternoon rush hour biking in Santa Monica is up 67% between 2011 and 2013, while overall bike commuting rose from 2.3% to 3.7% from 2010 to 2013. That corresponds with the city’s efforts to improve conditions for cyclists, with 45 miles of new bike lanes and sharrows since 2011.
Writing for HuPo, Joel Epstein reports on a panel discussion questioning whether LA has embarked on a bicycling revolution that will bring about post-car dominated city embracing transit, biking and walking. We can only hope.
Bicyclists get new bike racks in Echo Park. Which should come in handy since bikes are forbidden from the pathways around it.
Two UCLA alums will ride from San Francisco to New York to promote science education, especially for girls.
Don’t miss tonight’s Town Hall Meeting of the Westwood Village Improvement Association to discuss the Remove Nothing Plan for much-needed bike lanes on Westwood Blvd.
CICLE’s Tweed, Moxie and Mustaches Ride rolls on Sunday.
State
The editor of the Stockton paper says yes, helmets are important, but mandating them is the wrong answer. The Woodland newspaper disagrees, though they could do without the tasteless and highly offensive cartoon that accompanies the editorial — which also appeared down here in the Daily Breeze, though they don’t seem to have posted it online.
The Times looks at the route for this year’s Tour of California.
A San Diego woman suffers major head injuries despite wearing a helmet after touching wheels with her husband’s bike.
Signs warning drivers about the state’s new three-foot passing law go up outside of Napa.
National
Salon looks at why it’s so hard to punish killer drivers.
A Seattle rider travels all of the city’s protected bike lanes in a single day. That would be a lot easier here in LA.
A Wyoming paper calls for a statewide bike path, calling it a visionary proposal. Depending on the route, it could pas through some breathtaking scenery and be a huge draw for bike tourism, as well as long-distance recreational riding.
When life gives you snow, build a 40-foot long bike tunnel to get through it like they did in Boston. Thanks to Megan Lynch for the link.
International
A Dutch bike team has to go home after thieves steal all their bikes and equipment from the team truck.
Rising American rider Teejay van Garderen misses a chance to win the Tour of Oman after the fifth stage was cancelled due to sandstorms and extreme temperatures.
Another attempt to ride around the world has ended in tragedy in Thailand, as a Chilean cyclist attempting to set a record by riding 155,350 miles across five continents in five years is killed in a collision, less than two years after a British couple on a similar quest lost their lives in the country. Tragically, the wreck happened right in front of the victim’s wife, who was riding separately with their two-year old son.
Finally…
San Francisco police recover a stolen bike, but release the suspect because the bike hadn’t been reported stolen yet, except it had. Let’s get one thing straight: It’s not a bicycle if it has more than two wheels, electric or not. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
And Bicycling says if you want to lose weight and improve your performance, put butter in your coffee. No, seriously.
You first.
