I’ve been remiss in failing to remind you to stay safe during the current heat wave.
If possible, ride early or late, avoiding the peak afternoon hours when temperatures will be flirting with or surpassing the 100° mark, depending on where you are.
If you’re riding recreationally, try to stick to the coast, where temps will be significantly cooler, or try to ride shady streets when possible.
Stay hydrated. Drink more than you think you need, and stop frequently to cool off.
And use lots of sunscreen. You don’t want to end up with a face that looks like mine right now.
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The Los Angeles city council took bold action to halt the spread of illegal e-motos and electric dirt bikes in the city on Tuesday.
Oh, who am I kidding.
The council did what they do best, voting unanimously to study the issue.
The motion from Heather Hutt, John Lee and Traci Park instructs LADOT, LAPD, city attorneys, the Bureau of Street Services, LA Metro and the Bicycle Advisory Committee to report back in 90 days with suggestions on how to best regulate electric motorbikes on a number of issues — most of which are already covered by state law, or by bills up for a final vote in the state legislature this week.
The only topics that aren’t covered by current or pending state laws would require ebike education for anyone under 18 or without a valid driver’s license, and regulate storing and charging any type of two-wheeled electric vehicle to prevent hazardous waste and battery fires.
They could have asked the city attorney to draft an ordinance covering those two issues and voted on that, but that wouldn’t have given them a performative platform act like they’re doing something without actually doing anything.
And as we’ve seen in the past, those 90 day deadlines are extremely elastic, often stretching months or years past the promised due date.
So once again, hats off to the city council for taking the kind of bold, decisive non-action we’ve come to expect from them.
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Speaking of bills in the state legislature, Streetsblog’s Damien Newton provides the links you need to respond to action alerts to help save public transit, strengthen the state’s Active Transportation Program, and pass the best of the surviving ebike safety bills, which would clearly differentiate between ebikes and e-motos.
This is the final week of the legislative session, so bills either pass now or die for this year.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bike just keeps on going.
The Florida driver accused of a road rage attack on a trio of bicyclists faces charges after turning himself in to police on Monday, three days after he honked at them, then swerved his SUV to strike one and force the other off the road, before finally popping off a shot before driving away.
No bias here. You don’t even have to navigate the Telegraph’s paywall to get the drift of this drivel, as a columnist’s screed denounces ebikes as “the most complete expression of the bullying arrogance of cyclists,” and “dangerous vehicles” that are “an aesthetic blight on London.” By which he means the relatively tame Lime bikes, which about as dangerous as an ill-tempered Chihuahua.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
The editor of the Putney News, in the eponymous jolly olde London neighborhood, says it’s time to talk about dangerous bicyclists, as the number of pedestrians killed or injured by bicyclists last year was up 71% over 2015 — although that was a total of just 234 in a country of 65 million people, with just two people killed. Yes, two. And yes, one is one too many, but that hardly seems like reason to panic.
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Local
One letter writer in the LA Times defends bike lanes on Forest Lawn Drive, while others call for speed cams, speed bumps and sarcasm instead of lane reductions.
KCRW talks with Streetsblog editor Joe Linton about whether Metro is up to the task of handling visitors for the 2028 Olympics.
Glendale will host a ribbon cutting ceremony on September 3rd to celebrate completion of the La Crescenta Avenue Rehabilitation Project, which includes a lane reduction and bike lanes.
State
The Orange County DA continues his aggressive prosecution of parents of illegal e-moto riders, charging a father for the apparent electric dirt bike crash that injured his 12-year old son earlier this year.
Irvine-based Rivian ebike spinoff Also has raised $150 million in capital to pursue driverless — and presumably riderless — delivery vehicles.
National
Outside recommends the year’s best and most affordable bike gear. Even if they seem to use “affordability” in the most Trumpian sense.
This is how Vision Zero is supposed to work. Seattle finished work on a new bike lane, just two months after a 76-year old woman was killed riding her bike there. Although it works even better if you build it before someone gets killed.
The US edition of Britain’s Daily Express breaks the shocking news that a woman on a multi-day bike tour was mauled to death by a 400-pound grizzly bear after stopping to camp in Montana — five years ago.
An Elizabethton, Tennessee bike rider was hospitalized after being struck by a cop in an apparent left cross collision; needless to say, the officer was not charged or cited for the crash. Because somehow, they just never seem to be a fault when cops investigate cops.
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani says he disagrees with the city council speaker over whether the city’s Citi Bike bikeshare should require age verification over privacy concerns and whether the technology actually works.
A bipartisan bill in Pennsylvania state senate would approve the full Idaho Stop law in the state, allowing bike riders to treat red lights like stop signs, and stop signs as yields, when it is safe to do so; the Philadelphia bike coalition approves.
Most of the story is hidden behind a paywall, but a Republican writer for the conservative Washington Examiner says he used to think bike lanes were DEI projects, too, until he watched his father take his last breath after getting hit by the driver of an SUV on a notoriously dangerous South Carolina road.
Maryland cops threw the book at a 13-year old kid for riding an illegal e-moto — which the local website oddly capitalized — and evading a bike cop, then attempting to steal the cop’s police mountain bike when they swooped in for the bust in Mickey D’s parking lot.
International
Inside Hook talks with 2016 champ Nico Rosberg about trading an F1 cockpit for a mountain bike.
Four men face murder charges for lynching a falsely accused bike thief in Rio’s upscale Copacabana neighborhood; two security guards and two food delivery riders allegedly beat the victim to death after accusing him of stealing the bicycle, which he actually had borrowed from his sister.
An Edinburgh, Scotland writer issues a non-declaration of war on cars, which he says have already won, but instead takes apart the “car-centric society we accept as normal, confront(s) Edinburgh’s disgrace, its poverty, and show(s) that a cycling city, where the bike is how most people make most journeys, is the healthier, fairer alternative.” Well said.
Competitive Cycling
The Vuelta a España is looking increasingly over after just four stages, as Tadej Pogačar soloed to victory by over two-and-a-half minutes, increasing his overall lead to 3:21 over Primož Roglič.
A Spanish hotel got rave four star reviews for sheltering the entire Vuelta peloton from a sudden hailstorm on Monday, even if most of the reviews were muy irónico.
The Scottish Sun displays a keen grasp of the obvious, saying it will be hard for the country to develop the next Chris Hoy if kids can’t even safely ride their bikes amid angry, impatient drivers.
Finally…
We may have to deal with feral LA drivers, but bike riders here hardly ever get attacked by wild boars. A bike helmet won’t magically ward off errant drivers, even if you’re mayor of New York.
And taking the goat by the horns.
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Oh, and fuck Putin.
