Tag Archive for Heart of LA

Heart of LA CicLAvia Sunday, followed by Streets For All CicLAvia afterparty, and help clean up Venice Blvd Saturday

October 13, 2023 / / 2 comments

It should be an extra spooky Friday the 13th on the mean streets of LA today, coming just over two weeks before Halloween. 

While a little triskaidekaphobia never hurt anyone, it couldn’t hurt to use a little extra caution today, so your ride doesn’t turn into someone else’s bad luck.

And if you see someone in a hockey mask coming your way, maybe ride the other direction just to be safe.  

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CicLAvia returns to its DTLA roots this weekend, nearly 13 years to the day after the first one.

However, Sunday’s Heart of LA CicLAvia follows only portions of the original route, traveling 7.8 miles through downtown with stops in Chinatown and Little Tokyo, while adding extensions to South Park, and Boyle Heights and Mariachi Plaza across the new 6th Street bridge.

That will be followed by the year’s final CicLAvia, in South LA on December 3rd, offering a route stretching from Historic South Central to Leimert Park, primarily along Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

I can’t speak for anyone else, but I see a side trip to Harold and Belle’s in my future.

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Streets For All will follow Sunday’s CicLAvia with an afterparty at a super secret location in DTLA.

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Get in the mood for Sunday’s CicLAvia by helping clean up the neglected Venice Blvd bike lanes.

Which could definitely use it.

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If CicLAvia isn’t your thing, the Burbank Kiwanis club is hosting a bike rodeo on Sunday.

My favorite events are the roadie roping and ebike buck riding.

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

Police in Parma, Ohio are looking for a hit-and-run driver who used his SUV as a weapon to intentionally run down someone on a bicycle; no word on the condition of the victim or any reason for the attack.

No bias here. An Ottawa, Canada writer places tongue firmly in cheek, and announces that the country’s bike riders were mortified to learn they’re not “actually allowed to run every red light and stop sign they come across.” Just wait until someone tells him about all those entitled drivers who pick and choose what traffic laws they want to obey.

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Local 

Streetsblog’s Joe Linton lists eight things you probably don’t know about the first Arroyo Fest in 20 years, which walks and rolls on Sunday, October 29th on the 110 Freeway — and takes place early, starting at 7 am and ending a 11 am.

El Monte-based Addmotor is introducing a $2,700, dual battery longtail e-cargo bike with an exceptional 210 mile range.

Hermosa Beach moves forward with an effort to usurp the state’s authority over traffic laws by copying other SoCal cities attempts to write their own laws regulating ebikes, such as Manhattan Beach’s illegal ban on anyone — on an ebike or otherwise — riding two abreast, which is legal under state law.

 

State

Governor Gavin Newsom signed two bike bills authored by Burbank state senator and US House candidate Anthony Portantino to require landlords to allow tenants to store and charge ebikes and e-scooters in their apartments, and require Caltrans to appoint an active transportation safety czar. Although it doesn’t require the state transportation agency to actually, you know, listen to them.

A new study from San Bernardino County’s Loma Linda University shows that middle school bicycling programs can boost students’ mental health. Which should come as a surprise to no one.

 

National

The Strategist offers suggestions for the best gifts for bicyclists. And for a change, they actually suggest some decent stuff. 

Axios maps out where bicycling is growing in the US, including San Diego and Los Angeles, based on a recent report from mobility data firm StreetLight Data.

CleanTechnica says a new calculator can help cities quantify the “environmental and economic benefits of replacing short-distance vehicle trips with ebike trips.” Maybe someone should tell those ebike-averse beach cities about it. 

A proposed class action lawsuit has been filed against Shimano, Specialized and Trek following the massive Hollowtech crankset recall, alleging that by failing to recall all Hollowtech cranksets, the companies are attempting to limit costs at the expense of consumers. Or maybe the ones they recalled were just the only ones that were defective. 

The Stranger talks with Seattle Bike Blog author Tom Fucoloro about his new book exploring the history of bicycling in the city, Biking Uphill in the Rain: The Story of Seattle from Behind the Handlebars.

An Idaho law professor explains the state’s bike-friendly traffic laws, saying it’s hard not to feel embattled riding a bicycle when confronted by drivers who don’t know the law.

Security cam video shows a bike thief riding off with a woman’s bicycle at a Denver rail station, before a Good Samaritan steps up to stop him and get her bike back.

Colorado continues its efforts to get more residents riding ebikes, offering local communities part of a $2.5 million pot of cash to provide their own ebike rebates, in addition to the state’s rebate program. Meanwhile, California’s ebike rebate program remains in limbo after more than two years, so far just a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. 

Milwaukee officials hope adding more protected bike lanes will make the city safer for bicyclists, after seven people were killed in the county last year; it may be helping, because they’ve only suffered two deaths this year. Although two is still two too many.

Brooklyn drivers complain that a new parking-protected bike lane makes it impossible to pull out of their driveways, echoing the same complaint of every driver faced with every parking-protected bike lane everywhere. And everyone else seems to get used to it, so they probably will, too.

New York announced plans for another 40 miles of protected bike lanes, with two new bikeways in Queens and one each in Brooklyn and the Bronx, as well as a 10-mile protected bike lane on Staten Island between Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge and the Goethals Bridge.

That’s more like it. A 29-year old Alabama woman was sentenced to six years behind bars for the criminally negligent, hit-and-run crash that killed a “beloved” retired veterinarian as he was riding his bicycle in 2021; the driver claimed she had hit a deer. Although there’s something wrong when negligently killing someone is just a misdemeanor, while driving away from it is a felony. 

 

International

The European Union Court of Justice has officially ruled that ebikes are bicycles, not motorcycles, because they are not exclusively motor driven and don’t require insurance to cover damages. Although that would seem to leave throttle-driven ebikes in question.

He gets it. Scotland’s new roadworks commissioner says bicyclists and pedestrians should be given priority at roadway projects, even if it delays motorist and takes up space. If he ever runs for office, I’m voting for him. Even if I have to move. 

Disturbing story from the UK, where officials knew about a deep roadway crack for months before it killed an 84-year old man whose bike tire got stuck in it, but the highway workers sent to examine it were only focused on potholes that could damage cars, not cracks that could kill bike riders.

 

Competitive Cycling

Bicycling offers all the details on L39ion of Los Angeles founder Justin Williams’ new one-day Circuit Racing International Tour, aka CRIT, championship in St. Petersburg, Florida next weekend. As usual, read it on Yahoo if the magazine blocks you. 

 

Finally…

Now you, too, can ding! ding! your little heart away as you drop hapless foes in your next crit or club beer race.

And that feeling when you try to run away from your jailers, even though you just don’t look good in stripes.

Or maybe because you don’t look good in stripes.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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