Just a brief — or not so brief, as it turns out — update from the world of bicycling.
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La Opinion examines LA’s ghost bikes — or bicicletas fantasmas — and quotes yours truly on this year’s very scary stats.
Evidently, I am now un activista.
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Get ready to get run over. The LAPD has decided it’s no longer a crime to drive without a license. Violators can still be ticketed, but will no longer be arrested or face felony or misdemeanor charges if they don’t have a license for the vehicle they’re driving.
Yeah, let’s not do anything to hold unlicensed drivers accountable or get them off the streets.
It’s not like they can suspend the licenses of dangerous drivers who don’t have one.
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Yet another bike rider has been injured on the Marina’s Fiji Way, which, anecdotally at least, seems to be one of the area’s more dangerous places to ride a bike, even with the new semi-buffered bike lanes.
And even if the description of the collision doesn’t make any sense.
According to Marina del Rey Patch, an 85-year old woman pulled out of her parking stall at 13737 Fiji Way, which places her in the parking lot at Marina Village (photo pre-bike lane). After waiting for another car, she pulled out of the lot and into a bike/walk path, hitting a cyclist.
Except there is no bike/walk path there.
There’s a sidewalk for pedestrians, and an on-road bike lane for bike riders — which is, presumably, where the victim was riding.
Unless he was on the sidewalk. Or riding through the parking lot, which would explain what the hell pulling out of a parking stall in a parking lot has to do with hitting someone on a bike.
Let alone what waiting for another car to move has to do with anything.
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After a San Jose priest is killed just short of his goal of biking 100,000 miles, parishioners ride in his honor to complete the goal for him. Thanks to Cyclelicious for the heartwarming story.
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KNBC-4 tackles bike theft and busts a ring of thieves; thanks to Sam Winkler for the heads-up.
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Scotland’s new Nice Way Code tells drivers to treat you like a horse — evidently Scots are more familiar with horses than those strange two-wheeled conveyances — and that if any bike riders runs a red, it makes us all look bad.
Right.
And when any motorist runs a red, it reflects badly on everyone behind the wheel, and justifies whatever hostility you want to spew on those law-abiding drivers who haven’t done anything wrong.
Nice way, my ass.
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Speaking of the nice way, Elly Blue says if you ever feel like yelling at a cyclist — even just a friendly warning — don’t. Just don’t.
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Tomorrow’s scheduled meeting of the Los Angeles Bicycle Advisory Committee has been moved up to tonight at 7 pm to avoid a scheduling conflict.
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In the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing, bike race volunteers now must be anti-terrorism experts, as well.
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And speaking of terrorism, a father tries to teach is seven-year old daughter to ride a bike on a quiet side street. And both get hit by a drunk driver. At noon, no less.
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In one of the most bizarre accidents I’m aware of, a 10-year old boy in Nepal is killed when the brake on his bike breaks, sending a fragment through his eye and piercing his brain.
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This is why dooring can be deadly.
A Chinese woman barely avoids being thrown under a passing truck when the driver of an SUV unexpectedly throws open the door. In the video, she appears to hit her head on the truck’s rear wheel, sending her helmet — or is it a hat? — tumbling.
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One quick thought on Saturday’s horrific assault on the Venice boardwalk, in which a homicidal driver killed an Italian tourist on her honeymoon and injured 11 others — apparently intentionally.
We screen gun buyers in this country — even if there are a lot of gaps in the system. But we let anyone who can pass a simple test get a drivers license and own or operate a motor vehicle.
Maybe that needs to change.
We have to recognize that a motor vehicle can be a deadly weapon in the wrong hands. And some people simply shouldn’t be allowed to drive, for any number of reasons.
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Finally, congratulations to Velo Club La Grange for pulling off another great Brentwood Gran Prix. Nice to spend a perfect LA day watching high-quality bike racing on the Westside.
Midway through the men’s Cat 3 race
