Tag Archive for group rides

The problem with group rides, a solo “intergalactic” charity ride, and closed isn’t closed on SaMo beachfront bike path

April 8, 2020 / / 2 comments

An image created by San Diego’s Serge Issakov makes the problem of group rides in the age of coronavirus pretty damn clear.

Right now, we’re all better off staying home.

But if you have to ride, ride alone or with members of your own household. Also stick close to home, and save the epic and group rides for when this is finally over, whenever that may be.

And wear a damn mask, already.

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Basketball great Bill Walton is hosting an “intergalactic” Bike for Humanity event on April 25th, with net proceeds benefiting coronavirus victims and the healthcare professionals fighting it.

Individuals are encouraged to get out and ride their bikes for up to two hours in an area where they can practice social distancing at a minimum of 6-feet 11-inches in honor of Walton’s true height (at least the last time he was measured). Current CDC guidelines recommend a minimum of six feet of social distancing in an effort to stem the pandemic.

It is critical to note that Bike for Humanity is not a group ride and riding clusters are prohibited due to the coronavirus. Interested participants can ride anywhere in the galaxy as long as they are in a location where they can practice social distancing.

Hopefully the current restrictions encouraging people to remain in or near their homes will be lifted by then.

Otherwise, this may be all about maintaining social distancing while riding with Zwift.

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No surprise here.

Beach bike paths are officially closed in LA County as part of the social distancing restrictions due to the coronavirus shutdown.

But David Drexler reports that closed appears to be a relative thing where bike paths are concerned.

In front of Casa del Mar on Saturday. The path was still closed, but you would hardly know.

Looking north from Casa del Mar toward the pier. Path is closed but you would not know it.

Santa Monica spent a lot of money fencing now closed Palisades Park. Almost looked like they were getting ready for the finish of some sort of race on Ocean Avenue. Top photo is section next to California Incline.
However, they left open the protected bike lane on the California Incline that leads down to the new widened path section on the beach. New this weekend were dozens of signs indicating temporary closure placed in the middle of the beach path.

Looking south towards the Venice Boardwalk from the Venice – Santa Monica border. A lineup of homeless encampments as far as the eye could see where you usually see tables of people selling things. No closure signs here.

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A new webinar explains how to train in the age of coronavirus this evening.

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Local

The LA Times looks at what’s open and closed in Southern California this week, even though LA city and county officials are encouraging everyone to just stay home. And as we noted above, closed doesn’t always mean closed.

A Pasadena resident calls for a fresh look at our streets as public space, flipping the priority from a focus on cars to providing people with space to get outdoors while maintaining social distancing.

This is who we share the road with. A Lancaster man faces a well-deserved murder charge for the DUI hit-and-run that killed a pedestrian two years ago.

 

State

VeloNews talks with mountain biking Calabasas resident Reggie Miller, who also used to play a little basketball.

No surprise here, as velodromes in San Jose and San Diego are closed for the foreseeable future. Thanks to Robert Leone for the heads-up.

Sad news from Tulare County, where a 76-year old man was killed in a collision while riding his bike, although the CHP was quick to absolve the driver of any responsibility by blaming the victim for wearing dark clothes on a dark bike in poor lighting conditions. However, no mention is made of whether the victim had the legally required lights and reflectors on his bike. Or if the driver had any lights at all on his car, which would theoretically allow him to see a bike rider directly ahead of him, unless he was violating the Basic Speed Law by driving too fast for conditions.

 

National

Good piece from Outside, as Joe Lindsey says studies show hi-viz works — but only if a driver is paying attention.

Bicycling says it’s never too late to learn how to ride a bike.

How to ship your bike without risking a trip to the airport. Thanks again to Robert Leone.

Bike Portland’s Jonathan Maus considers the new rules for riding in the age of coronavirus, including masks, leaving more room, and etiquette for passing.

A Tacoma, Washington man has turned shouting messages to strangers from his bicycle into a thriving very small business.

Business is booming at Phoenix bike shops.

A kindhearted Missouri man built a handmade adaptive bicycle with a sidecar so a mother could ride with her disabled young daughter.

Chicago Streetsblog recaps a webinar on Closing Streets to Create Space for Walking and Biking During COVID-19 featuring officials from Duluth, San Francisco, Philadelphia and Bogotá.

Teenage bike riders emerge from “hibernation” in Schenectady NY, angering drivers by swarming streets and breaking social distancing rules.

New York’s mayor decides to pay for the city’s coronavirus response by cutting funds from Vision Zero and bicycle safety improvements, as well as bus lanes and the Staten Island ferry. But God forbid he should touch funds to subsidize motor vehicle travel.

Kindhearted strangers pitched in to get a new bicycle, helmet, lock, lights and safety vest for a DC nurse who was walking four and a half miles to and from work each day to avoid unknowingly infecting people on public transportation with coronavirus.

 

International

Road.cc explain how “proper” bicycling clothing can improve your rides.

Kindhearted Brits donated the equivalent of nearly $700 to a midwife with the National Health Service after her bicycle was stolen while she was working.

British researchers call for a switch to bicycling to help keep other people safe.

No surprise here, as a UK study shows male drivers are twice as dangerous as female drivers, and male bike riders pose twice the risk to others as female riders.

Bicycling is considered an essential form of transportation in at least one Philippine city.

Paris has imposed a daytime curfew on all outdoor sports from 10 am to 7 pm. Although it’s not clear whether that only includes recreational riding, or bicycling for transportation, too.

Police in Australia’s Victoria state rescind a $1,652 fine a man received for violating the coronavirus lockdown by driving 35 minutes to ride on a mountain bike trail.

 

Competitive Cycling

The Tour of Utah becomes the latest bike racing domino to fall, while Indiana’s famed Little 500 bike race bites the dust for this year, too.

Cyclist looks at the hellish history of the famed Hell of the North, after the legendary Paris-Roubaix race was scrapped for this year.

Reigning Paralympic road champ Jamie Whitmore thanks the Challenged Athletes Foundation for its support in helping her transition to cycling. after a misdiagnosed cancerous tumor ended her career as champion triathlete.

A British woman rides her first road race — and first road bike — at what she calls the world’s toughest amateur bike race in Oman.

The BBC examines how Fiona Kolbinger became the first woman to ride to victory in the ultra-endurance, self-supported and self-navigated Transcontinental Race across Europe last July.

 

Finally…

Country star and American Idol judge Luke Bryan scared the crap out of his wife as she rode her bike by blasting his truck horn in a “hilarious” stunt.

Which any bike rider would recognize as the seriously dangerous and unfunny actions of an obnoxious jerk.

 

We can only hope it doesn’t inspire other similarly antisocial drivers to follow his lead, with riders they aren’t related to.

But it probably will.

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Be safe, and stay healthy.

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , ,

Weekend Links: Avid cyclist gets bike safety wrong in the ‘Bu, and a highly biased 3-foot report from the Bay

June 7, 2014 / / One comment

A self-described “avid” cyclist offers advice for cyclists in the canyons above Malibu.

And gets most of it wrong.

Despite what he says, bike riders aren’t expected to ride on the shoulder, or even hug the white line at the right of the road. In fact, nothing to the right of the limit line is even considered part of the roadway under California law.

And despite a common misperception, cyclists are not required to ride as close to the right as possible. Rather, bike riders — like any other slow moving vehicles — are expected to ride as close to the right as practicable.

Which means far enough into the roadway to avoid the broken glass, rocks and potholes that too often accumulate on the right.

Then there’s the question of the narrow traffic lanes usually found on canyon roads. The requirement to ride to the right does not apply to any lane too narrow for a bike and a car to safely share with at least three feet between them. Which includes most of the right lanes in Southern California.

There’s also nothing in California law prohibiting cyclists from riding two or more abreast, as long as they stay within a single unsharable lane. In fact, it’s often safer to ride abreast in order to increase visibility and maintain control of the lane.

While it may seem safer and more polite, riding single file along the limit line encourages drivers to pass cyclists in a dangerous manner, rather than change lanes to safely go around them. And it increases the likelihood that passing motorists will try to cut back in between the riders to avoid oncoming traffic, greatly raising the risk of a collision.

Never mind that it’s actually easier to pass a more compact group of cyclists riding abreast than it is a long, strung out line of single file riders.

Yes, bicyclists should always obey the law, and show courtesy to others on the road whenever it’s safe to do so.

And as he notes, we will inevitably come out on the losing end in any conflict with a motor vehicle.

That is why cyclists can and should ride in the manner they consider safest, and motorists should drive carefully around them. Even if drivers — or other “avid” cyclists — may not understand why we ride the way we do.

It only takes a modicum of courtesy and patience on everyone’s part to make sure we all get home safely.

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In a highly biased report, a Bay Area TV station takes a remarkably one-sided look at California’s new three-foot passing law.

San Francisco’s KGO-7 concludes that it is virtually impossible for drivers on the city’s crowded streets to give a bike rider three-feet of passing distance while remaining in the same lane.

Evidently, San Francisco drivers somehow lack the ability to change lanes or wait until it’s safe to pass. And never mind that the law allows drivers to pass at less than three feet after slowing to a reasonable speed, whatever that may be.

They also inexplicably note that bike riders aren’t subject to a fine for coming within three feet of a motor vehicle, evidently failing to realize that the purpose of the law is to protect the lives and safety of cyclists, rather than keep motor vehicles from getting scratched.

The law may be far from perfect, thanks to Governor Jerry Brown’s veto of a better version of the law in 2011, as well as weaker version in 2012.

But it’s a hell of a lot better than their amateur reporting would make it seem.

And misguided reports like this only add to the animosity on our streets, putting cyclists at even greater risk.

Jerks.

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A bike rider was shot and killed by sheriff’s deputies in Compton last month after a traffic stop for illegally riding while wearing headphones.

The official version is he tried to flee, then grabbed the officer’s gun in a struggle to get away; a deputy wounded in the incident was shot with his partner’s gun.

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Local

Bicycle Retailer notes the ascension of ex-Helen’s employee Chris Klibowitz to editor of Road Magazine. Seriously, couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.

Updated plans for a remade Union Station include two bike and pedestrian bridges over the busy rail yard.

The Bike League makes a mini-grant to the LACBC and Multicultural Communities for Mobility to promote women as community leaders.

There will be a commemorative ride for fallen Pasadena cyclist Phillip O’Neill in the city’s Grant Park next Sunday.

Long Beach’s new mayor calls for more bike cops, and making the bike-friendly city safer for everyone.

The Santa Clarita Century Ride and Expo rolls next weekend.

 

State

The five-day I Can Bike camp teaches disabled children to ride.

OC’s cdmCyclist confesses to Dirty Old Man On A Bike Syndrome. For the sake of full disclosure, I have to confess to riding into the back of a park car while gazing upon an attractive woman in my younger days. She thought it was funny; the owner of the car, not so much.

A bicycling victim of the Isla Vista tragedy hopes to walk in his graduation ceremony; the rider ho was run down in the vicious rampage is the last victim still hospitalized.

San Jose attempts to discourage, but not ban, sidewalk riding.

 

National

A new book tells the story of early bike racing legend Major Taylor, who broke the color barrier over a century ago.

An Oregon man alleges police beat him for riding while black.

A bamboo bike-riding Utah charity fundraiser is convicted of using the money to fund a Ponzi scheme.

Non-cycling Chicago residents are afraid of the city’s new bike lanes, but bike riders aren’t.

Fortunately, the reports of an upstate New York rider’s death were greatly exaggerated. Oops, say the local police.

The public could soon be banned from parking their bikes at the US Capitol.

Some people just don’t belong on the road. A Virginia driver who killed a cyclist had received two tickets in the last year — both after a crash that killed her daughter and niece last spring.

 

International

CNN offers the world’s most incredible bike routes.

Women’s cycling is starting to take its rightful place next to men’s. But women riders offer a voice to be listened to, not a problem to be solved.

Five UK residents rescue a cyclist who was trapped under a car.

It’s not only cars that crash into buildings, as a UK cyclist crashes through a local storefront.

Keep your eyes on Craigslist. Brazen thieves steal 200 bikes worth over $1.1 million from Scott’s Swiss factory, including 2015 models not even on the market yet.

An Aussie cyclist competing in a race swaps his water bottle for a beer. For the second time.

 

Finally…

In an amazing story, 25-year old cyclist Jonny Bellis will be riding in the Tour of Britain — five years after nearly dying and being told he would never walk again, let alone ride.

And maybe we should cut drivers some slack, because parking really does make them crazy.

 

Category: Bicycle Safety, Bikes & the Law, Car vs Bike, Morning Links, Roadway Courtesy / Tags: , , , , , , ,
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