BikinginLA

It’s Day 19 of the 3rd Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive.

You can help keep SoCal’s best bike news coming your way with just a few clicks by using PayPal. Or by using the Zelle app that is probably already in the banking app on your smartphone; send your contribution to ted @ bikinginla dot com (remove the spaces and format as a standard email address).

Any donation, in any amount, is truly and deeply appreciated.

As an added bonus, frequent contributor Megan Lynch will provide a free download of her CD Songs the Brothers Warner Taught Me to anyone who makes a contribution during the fund drive. If you’ve already contributed and would like a copy, just email me at the address above and I’ll forward it to her.

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Local

Would a bike lane on 5th Street through Skid Row in DTLA help the fight against drug dealing on the street, or just move it somewhere else?

The new management of the LA Weekly provides a baker’s three dozen photos from Sunday’s Wilshire Blvd CicLAvia, while Streetsblog offers an open thread to get your take on the day.

Metro will be closing a pair of bikeshare locations in DTLA through the rest of this week due to construction in the area.

Newly installed security cameras help Claremont police bust a thief for stripping parts off a $2,000 bike.

State

The woman whose body was discovered in San Francisco Bay by a bike rider on a Sunnyvale bike trail has been identified as a 23-year old Google software engineer.

The Bay Area’s low income residents remain reluctant to embrace the region’s Ford GoBike bikeshare.

Bighearted Santa Rosa middle school kids raised funds to buy bike helmets for 400 kids who lost homes in the recent fires.

Caltrans says no, you can’t ride your bike on I-5 through Sacramento, even if they are closing an alternate route for reconstruction.

Davis, Sacramento and West Sacramento are launching the largest docked ebike bikeshare system in the US.

National

Yes, General Motors really is trying to kill you.

With the holiday’s coming, you undoubtedly need tips on how to giftwrap a bicycle. Or turn it into a festive giftwrap moose.

A kindhearted Salt Lake City business owner returned a stolen adult tricycle to its owner after he bought it for $150, and refused to take anything in return.

In a story bike riders everywhere can relate to, Tennessee bicyclists complain that bike lanes are becoming obstacle courses littered with trash cans, cars and yard waste.

A Durham NC newspaper applauds plans for bike boulevards to encourage bicycling and improve safety for younger residents.

International

Ella Cycling Tips offers a primer on how — and why — to avoid sexist ad blunders when marketing bikes to women. Seriously, it ain’t that hard. Just try speaking to women like they’re actual human beings for a change.

No bias here. An Edmonton, Canada columnist disputes the city’s count of how many people are using new bike lanes, based purely on his own opinion. And somehow manages to place a price tag on the riders’ bikes and clothing by standing on the sidewalk and watching them go by.

US dockless bikeshare provider LimeBike, which just expanded to Los Angeles, is establishing a beachhead in Europe.

There’s a lot of history behind Brompton’s flagship London store, which is on the site of the bike shop where England’s first bicycle was sold in 1819. Although I would contend that a wooden hobby horse is a forerunner of the bike, not an actual bicycle.

Britain’s Sir Chris Hoy has decided he needs another year to get ready for his attempt to bike to the South Pole from the edge of Antarctica.

A British man has been told to expect a jail sentence after pleading guilty to seriously injuring a couple when he rode his bike into them at speed as they walked along an esplanade. Meanwhile, a 27-year old Bristol, England man has died after he was hit by a bike rider.

You could be the proud owner of your very own English ebike-based advertising business.

A writer in the UK correctly notes that there’s no excuse for not having lights on your bike after dark.

Actor and former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger teams with Peter Sagan and the mayor of Paris to promote bicycling and call attention to the health aspects of climate change.

A new French ebike can brake for itself, and looks like something from Buck Rogers.

A Kiwi bike rider was threatened with a hammer by a road raging driver after confronting him over a way too close pass.

Caught on video: An Australian bike rider was lucky to walk away after a driver slammed into him in a violent crash.

Competitive Cycling

Sad news from Rhode Island, where former BMX champ Kevin “K-Rob” Robinson died unexpectedly at age 45 after suffering an apparent stroke; he had set a world record as recently as last year for the longest ramp-to-ramp jump.

Aussie Richie Porte has a grudge with Tour de France and Giro champ Chris Froome over tactics that cost him a victory in the Critérium du Dauphiné.

Finally…

The next time someone questions whether bike riders are tough, ask if they could ride a bike to a party store after getting shot in the head — and tell them we make better drivers, too. Why just ride using Campagnolo when you can wear it?

And no, riding a bike does not mean you’re a liberal.

Today we’re trying something slightly different by moving news about bike racing and pro cycling into its own section at the bottom, which seems to work better for quiet news days like today.

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Local

KPCC looks at the LACBC’s annual Operation Firefly bike light distribution program, which kicked off in Van Nuys Tuesday night.

CiclaValley takes part in the annual Mike Nosco Memorial Ride.

In the two years that Santa Monica’s Breeze bikeshare has been in operation, users have taken over 628,000 trips covering more than 1.3 million miles.

Long Beach votes to move forward with a road diet and protected bike lanes on Alamitos Ave to improve bike and pedestrian safety, even though it will increase peak hour traffic times by slightly more than a minute.

The Elks club is hosting a family Bike & Car Black Jack Toy Run for Veterans Children, starting in Burbank and finishing in Santa Clarita this Saturday.

State

After a San Diego grand jury called for more bikeshare stations at the beach, the city naturally responds by removing them instead.

Murrieta has plans to build a BMX bike park. Someday.

A Moreno Valley bike rider was critically injured in a collision Wednesday afternoon, after allegedly swerving out of the bike lane into the driver’s path. Thanks to Erik Griswold for the heads-up.

Sad news from Porterville, where a bike rider was killed by a hit-and-run driver, who faces charges for DUI and fleeing the scene.

Will Ferrell is one of us, completing what a Washington news station calls an “amazing” “marathon” bike ride with four friends, going 147 miles down the California coast from Monterey to Santa Barbara over several days. Although the station can’t seem to grasp the concept that he might have done it just because he wanted to.

More on San Francisco’s new, smaller Vision Zero fire trucks designed to fit in reduced traffic lanes.

People for Bikes looks at San Francisco’s plans to use traffic diverters to create a neighborhood bikeway, noting that reducing automobile traffic on one street does not necessarily mean an increase in traffic on surrounding streets. LA’s bike plan calls for a network of similar streets, none of which have been built, or seem likely to at this point.

Volunteers are distributing hundreds of new and refurbished bicycles to kids who lost theirs in the recent fires in Sonoma County. Meanwhile, Specialized is donating 250 bikes to kids affected by the fires.

Some schmuck is leaving anti-Islamic and anti-fraternity/sorority flyers in bike baskets and on bike seats at UC Davis.

National

Las Vegas is installing 800 steel bollards to along the Las Vegas strip to protect pedestrians from terrorist attacks, as well as plain, old fashioned careless drivers. Which is exactly what Los Angeles needs to do, but doesn’t seem to have any interest in, along Hollywood Blvd.

A pair of Boise, Idaho brothers design their own plans for a protected bike lane.

A Wisconsin city moves to block a planned bike path; one official calls it a financial boondoggle, even though it’s being funded by the feds.

Chicago bike path users are more worried about reckless drivers than homicidal ones.

Pfizer employees in Michigan are building bicycles as gifts for military families.

Former Tennessee Titans linebacker Eddie Robinson is one of us too, riding roughly 200 miles a week. And dropping 25 to 30 pounds from his playing days in the process.

UPS will now make deliveries in downtown Pittsburgh by ebike.

An Atlanta cyber security expert was killed when his bike was struck by a driver fleeing from the police in a stolen car.

International

The case of the disappearing bike racks.

An Ontario, Canadia city hopes a new bike network will convert drivers to bike riders.

A fashion magazine is wowed by royal-in-law Pippa Middleton’s choice of a cardigan for a bike ride, though she seems somewhat displeased at being ambushed by the paparazzi.

A scum bucket British taxi company sues a bike rider for the equivalent of over $6,300 after one of their cabbies ran him down, apparently for getting blood on their cab.

An Irish endurance cyclist set a new record by riding 735 miles up and down the length of the county in less than 49 hours.

The mother of a fallen Australian bike rider says bicyclists just want to feel safe on the streets, while an Adelaide paper says state, federal and local governments need to work together more effectively to counter a 20% drop in bicycling rates over the last six years.

The war on bikes continues, as someone has been booby-trapping mountain bike trails in Western Australia.

Australian authorities are blocking the ports to keep a hit-and-run driver from fleeing the country after she left a 13-year old bike-riding girl to die in the street. There’s something seriously wrong with anyone who would drive off and leave another human behind to die, let alone a child.

As LA enters the world of dockless bikeshare, more Chinese cities are saying enough is enough.

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Competitive Cycling

Former LA pro cyclist Phil Gaimon accuses cycling legend Fabian Cancellara of motor doping in Gaimon’s new book.

The brother of fallen pro cyclist Michele Scarponi makes an impassioned plea for better road safety; the Italian rider was killed in a collision while training in April.

Finally…

Car makers love to dabble in bicycle design, so why not a motorcycle maker? Your next Levis jacket could be Android and iOS compatible, for a mere 350 bucks.

And once again, if you’re using your bicycle as a weapon, you’re doing it wrong.

No major bike news stories today, so let’s get right to it.

You can find updates to yesterday’s lead stories about missing bike advocate Dennis Hindman and fallen Big Orange cyclist Rob Dollar in yesterday’s post.

Update: Dennis Hindman has been found safe in a local hospital. More details when they’re available.

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Local

Road diet foes and failed city council candidates fail to file their petition to recall City Councilmember Mike Bonin when they come up one signature short of the required five.

Curbed looks at plans for the 12-mile extension of the LA River bike path connecting Parks Canoga and Griffith.

CiclaValley examines the planned increases in speed limits in Los Angeles due to the deadly 85th percentile law, most of which will be in the San Fernando Valley. Which makes sense, since the Valley has more straight, wide streets that encourage speeding.

Streetsblog offers photos from Saturday’s Beach Streets open streets event in Long Beach.

State

Riders on the Coyote Creek bike trail can now find a fix-it station located in Coyote Creek Park in Los Alamitos.

A Palm Springs TV station send its crack investigative reporting team out to look at completely non-controversial bike trails similar to the inexplicably controversial CV Link trail proposed for the Coachella Valley.

San Luis Obispo police are using bait bikes to combat bike theft. Los Angeles police aren’t, but should be.

A seriously cranky San Luis Obispo writer accuses the all-powerful bike lobby of conspiring to destroy the city’s neighborhoods. But first, he has to explain what a neighborhood is.

A 17-year old Los Osos girl will be tried as an adult and could face prison time for the August hit-and-run death of a bike-riding Cal Poly student.

A five-year old Porterville girl set up a lemonade stand to raise money to buy a bicycle, only to be told by the city that she needs a business license. Did I mention that she’s only five years old?

Watsonville police bend over backwards to blame the victim, saying a woman killed while riding her bike “came out of nowhere” into the path of a moving vehicle, even though witnesses reported the driver may have been street racing. No one, anywhere, has ever defied the laws of physics to come out of nowhere, let alone to get hit by a car.

National

Pedal Love looks at the birth of the modern bike movement.

People for Bikes goes ebike myth busting.

A new app being tested in eight US cities that aren’t Los Angeles promises to the be Waze of bicycling by helping riders find the safest routes to get around.

An experienced Spokane rider patiently explains how not to be an asshole on a bike path. My word, not his. But he’s right; the only change I would make would be to say “Passing on your left,” rather than just “On your left,” which can confuse people. Or maybe just “Excuse me,” which almost always seems to work.

Chicago police are looking for a bike-riding groper who has been assaulting women in parks and on sidewalks and bike paths.

An Ohio college student has filed a lawsuit after he was right-hooked by a fire truck.

A Pittsburgh man paralyzed from the waist down will attempt to set a new 24-hour handcycle record this Friday.

A bighearted Illinois boy won a new bicycle after he got one for his birthday, so he gave it to a classmate who didn’t have one.

A New Hampshire letter writer says his town’s appointment of a bicycle mayor is just a Trojan Horse to slap a tax on bicyclists. But at least he recognizes that bike riders already pay for the roads.

The New Yorker says the original master of the modern ghost story was one of us.

Miscreant rental bike hustlers are intercepting customers from the sole licensed bike vendor in Central Park, sometimes violently or obscenely.

A Rhode Island ballet dancer returns to the stage after recovering from a hit-and-run while riding his bicycle; doctors had told him he’d never walk again.

A Florida scumbag gets a well-deserved 20 year behind bars for running down a bicyclist, dragging his body to a ditch and covering him with palm fronds, then setting his car on fire, reporting it stolen, and blaming a relative.

International

Six professional cyclists were injured in Costa Rica when a driver plowed into them during a race; reports conflicted on whether the driver ignored police warnings or if the riders drifted onto the wrong side of the road.

The new Pashleys replacing London’s original Boris Bikes win rave reviews; Londonist offers a video preview of the bikes. Thanks to Erik Griswold for the last link.

Police in the UK are looking for a teenage hit-and-run bicyclist who did a wheelie bad job of passing another rider.

Russel Crowe goes for a bike ride with his assistant, and takes her to the pool with him. Which is more than enough for the British press to conclude they’re dating.

Apparently, life is good for Isis soldiers in Syria, where all you have to do is carry a gun, play video games and ride your bicycle. Or maybe not.

A persistent magpie with a vendetta attacks an Aussie bike rider ten times in twenty seconds.

An Australian writer argues against what he calls the “myth of equal reciprocity” on the roads, suggesting bike riders who believe they have to earn the respect of drivers are suffering from the Lycra equivalent of Stockholm syndrome.

New Zealand cyclist Karl Murray faces a significant ban from competition after failing a second doping test. But the doping era is over, right?

Ed Sheeran rescheduled most of his Asian tour, after breaking both his arms in a bike crash.

Finally…

If you’re carrying coke — small c — on your bike, probably not the best idea to ride drunk, even if it is legal where you are. Evidently, memorizing poetry while riding isn’t a much fun as you’d think.

And nine videos that demonstrate why you should leave the ebike building to the experts. And shouldn’t talk back to cops.

It’s a relatively light news day, so let’s get right to it.

And remember to bring plenty of water if you’re riding in this heat, and drink before you get thirsty.

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Local

LA 2050 says the city is a slightly better place to walk, bike and take transit today than it was in 2014. Although such slight improvement after three years, following the adoption of the city’s mobility plan, should be seen as an indication that something is seriously wrong; we should be making great strides, but aren’t.

Burbank is moving forward with a short bikeway project that could eventually provide riders with a direct route to DTLA, and possibly Long Beach.

A woman participating in the recent Long Beach bike count thought better of returning in the afternoon after hearing gunshots from a bike-by shooting a block away. But did she count the shooter?

State

Sad news from Santa Maria, where a 74-year old bike rider has died after he was the victim of a hit-and-run over the weekend.

Kern County is scheduled to get nearly 30 miles of bike lanes once the state gas tax increase kicks in next week.

The San Luis Obispo letter to the editor bike wars go on, as one person says bicycles may have a right to the road, but wonders whether it’s smart to exercise it.

An 83-year old San Ramon man has been arrested for the double Danville hit-and-runs over the weekend that injured three cyclists on the same road 40 minutes apart. Which raises the question of whether he ran down the riders on purpose, or just is one of the world’s crappiest and most cowardly drivers.

National

Bicycling offers tips on how to tell when you need to chill out. I realized I was riding too much when it stopped being fun; that was the day I stopped training and just started riding my bike for the hell of it again.

After becoming the first double-amputee to ride a normal bicycle 5,180 miles across the US, a retired Marine is attempting to run 31 marathons in 31 cities in 31 days.

A Washington man is suing after a crash with a bollard placed in the middle of a bike path left him paralyzed from the neck down.

A Minneapolis NIMBY Op-Ed says density and bike lanes are two separate issues, and should be separated; just don’t try to increase density in more expensive areas or shove bike lanes down their throats, according to the writer.

Cleveland is using paint and bollards to put bike lanes on both sides of a busy bridge for just $81,000, a fraction of the $2.2 million plan proposed in 2001 and halted by the trucking industry.

A runner offers a little sound advice, saying don’t step in front of a cyclist the day before a Chicago marathon if you want to finish in sub-4. Or finish, period. At least he recognized that the crash with the bicyclist was his fault.

Just days after mentioning here that former USC Trojan and current Pittsburg Steeler JuJu Smith-Schuster used his bicycle as his only form of transportation, someone stole it. But at least he’s not the only NFL player who rides to the games. Thanks to Jorge Dario Wüey for the heads up.

Dockless bikeshare may be banned in Boston, but good luck keeping it out.

International

Owners of cars built before 2006 will now have to pay the equivalent of $28 to enter central London, compared to a $15 congestion fee for later models. However, people riding bicycles can still enter the city for free.

London’s Daily Mail invents several non-existent traffic deaths, and blames them on one of the city’s cycle superhighways.

Over 4,000 people signed a petition to stop killing cyclists in response to the death of a young English physician.

Is it just me, or is there something off about a 200-vehicle car convoy to honor a young British boy killed in a crash while riding to school?

UK bike imports may be headed to their lowest level in 17 years, although the value of the imports is holding steady.

A British woman says she was violently kicked in the stomach by a passing bike rider in an unprovoked attack.

A woman in Dublin, Ireland was critically injured when she somehow butted heads with a bike rider as she was crossing a street.

Bike the Emerald Isle on a new six-night tour through remote County Donegal, including a trip to the setting for the upcoming Star Wars movie.

Authorities seized 20 pedicabs belonging to a ride-hailing service in Bengaluru, India, where they are prohibited.

Kathmandu streets are quiet, six months after banning the use of car horns as uncivilized. It’s probably too much to hope that we could do that here.

Life is cheap in Australia, where a driver will get off with a ticket for an illegal U-turn for an August crash that seriously injured five bicyclists. The driver said the sun was in his eyes, which as we all know, automatically absolves the driver of any responsibility for whatever happens as a result.

Someone stole a bunch of Aussie dockless bikeshare bikes, fastened them to a wall, and spray painted them to turn it into a mural.

A Chinese triathlete offers tips on riding the length of Japan he gained the hard way on a 745-mile journey from Tokyo to Sapporo.

In a new extortion twist, a Chinese man woke to find a bikeshare bike locked to his car with a cable lock, and a note demanding the equivalent of $30 for the combination; instead of giving in, he called the police to cut the lock.

Finally…

No, seriously, I don’t want to meet anyone who could ride this bike. Now you, too, can own your very own velodrome for a mere $4.7 million.

And if you’re tweeting a story about Chris Froome, make sure he’s the one in the photo. And has his clothes on.