Just 82 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025.
………
I have a medical test that will keep me from writing tonight, so there won’t be a new post tomorrow. But I expect to be back as usual on Friday to catch up on anything we missed.
And if you have any extra prayers or good thoughts lying around that you don’t need right now, send ’em my way. Because this one scares me.
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.
………
We’ve been talking about this one way too long.
If you’re under 23, you’ve never ridden a bike from Westwood to nearby Brentwood using the safe and convenient short cut through the Los Angeles National Cemetery.
Not even in a child’s seat on your parent’s bike.
Yet that’s exactly what UCLA students and faculty did on a daily basis for decades prior to 9/11. But after that terrorist attack on New York’s Twin Towers and the Pentagon building in Washington DC, the gates were closed, and have never reopened.
In fact, you can’t even ride your bike into the cemetery to pay your respects to the many Americans who served their country with honor — and too often sacrificed their lives for it.
Apparently, they’re afraid of someone hijacking a bicycle and crashing it into the gravestones, sacrificing honored veterans who have been dead for years.
And if that makes sense to you, congratulations.
Because I’ve been writing about it since at least 2010, and it still doesn’t make a damn bit of sense to me.
Now you once again have a chance to do something about it.
The Veteran Administration’s Advisory Committee on Cemeteries and Memorials will hold a pair of meetings later this month to discuss, yes, the administration of national cemeteries. Which gives you a chance to weigh in with your comments calling for reopening this vital route that was used for years without causing any significant problems.
You can get up to speed on the debate with the link above to this site, and this 2016 post from the UCLA Bicycle Academy and Healthy Wheels VA.
Because your opinion matters. And given that we’re taking about the VA, it matters even more if you’re a veteran.
In that case, reach out to me and I can put you in touch with others who’ve been fighting this battle for over 20 years now, and can definitely use your help.
………
It’s the final day of Amazon Prime Days.
Cyclingnews has an updated list of all the best deals, while Bike Magazine highlights the best mountain bike deals.
Cyclist has the best deals you can buy using your British pounds.
And this Cyclingnews recommended bike taillight is on sale right now on either side of the Atlantic.
……….
Electrek offers advice on how to prep your ebike for a hurricane.
Which could be important if you happen to be in Florida right now.
………
That feeling when you need a little help to consume enough carbs on your bike.
………
It’s now 294 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And an even 40 months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.
………
Sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
Sistine Stallone, the 26-year old daughter of Sylvester Stallone, recounted a terrifying encounter with a “deranged” bike-riding man who screamed profanities at her, then chased her on his bike even after she ran into a Sephora store for protection.
Six young Singaporean bicyclists will be prosecuted for allegedly “flouting multiple road cycling rules…in a manner that endangered both their own safety and that of other road users.”
………
Local
Los Angeles has approved the use of automated on-bus cameras to enforce parking bans in bus lanes. Which means someday soon, the only vehicle you could have to worry about when you ride in a bus lane is the bus running up your ass.
A lawyer says yes, you’ve got to have a light on your bike, and yes, you’re subject to the same laws as drivers are, including stopping at stop signs. Although there’s a good argument for changing that last part.
State
Sonoma County approved two miles of new on-road bike lanes in Sonoma Valley. Although it sounds like you may have to share them with pedestrians.
National
No, riding a bike will not give you prostate cancer.
US News and World Report — yes, it’s still a thing — has seven bike brands recommended by the proverbial “avid cyclist.”
No surprise here. A public defender has requested a mental competency test for Jesus Ayala, the 19-year old Las Vegas driver accused of intentionally running down retired Bell, California police chief Andy Probst just for the hell of it.
No surprise here, either, as a Tucson, Arizona bike boulevard is annoying some people, who fear it will increase risk on the roadway. But this time, bike riders are doing some of the complaining.
Moab, Utah may open its world-class mountain bike trails to ebikes.
He gets it. An Evanston, Illinois writer says it may seem like it’s pedestrians versus bikes after a woman was injured by someone riding on the sidewalk, but the real problem is cars.
A Black neighborhood in Durham, North Carolina is still haunted by the death of a six-year old boy who was riding his bike when he was run down by a driver in a pickup; 35 years later, the area still has no sidewalks, damaged walkways, and roads with the high speed limits typical of too many Black neighborhoods.
International
Momentum shares a half-dozen bike-friendly airports around the world where you can virtually ride your bike to the front door.
The rich get richer. London now has 250 miles of bike lanes. Many of which look a lot better than most of the bike lanes over here.
This is why people keep dying on the streets. A stoned English driver walked without a single day behind bars, despite knocking a bike rider 20 feet in the air while driving at twice the legal limit for cannabis, on the wrong side of the road, leaving the victim with serious injuries.
A British man has been sentenced to a minimum of 21 years behind bars for intentionally running down a man riding a bicycle and leaving him on the side of the road, because he mistakenly thought the victim had ratted him out for employing illegal immigrants; another man got four years for helping him.
Riding a bicycle helped save a man in the UK suffering from homelessness, alcoholism, depression and a nervous breakdown.
An Irish public health physician says building better infrastructure is the best way to improve safety for bicyclists, but we need to better educate drivers until that happens.
Your next ebike could be powered by a universal, repairable ebike battery developed by a French company that can be swapped from one bike to another.
A Croation website discusses the rise of high-speed ebikes that can speed through city centers at up to 40 mph.
Competitive Cycling
Italy’s single-day Tre Valli Varesine race was called off with 62 miles to go after a heavy downpour left the course flooded, with water rising to riders’ disk brakes and lifting manhole covers; world champ Tadej Pogačar said it was the right call, because no one could see where they were going.
Sad news from Colombia, where 1994 youth world cycling champ Marlon Alirio Pérez was killed when he was stabbed several times during an armed robbery; the 48-year old was a three-time national champion, 2011 Pan American time trial champ, and 2017 world paracycling tandem champ as a guide for blind cyclist Javier Serna.
Finally…
Now you, too, can share your rides with people who do theirs indoors. Who needs a sports drink when you can have coffee with benefits?
And you thought you had bike skills.
@tetonjuggler Had to pray to the powers on high for the first one. Second one has taken 6 years. #foryou #mtb #skills
………
Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Oh, and fuck Putin
