Tag Archive for LADOT

Explore the Venice Corridor with LADOT and CicLAvia Sunday, and East Side Riders expands to Huntington Park

July 21, 2023 / / Comments Off on Explore the Venice Corridor with LADOT and CicLAvia Sunday, and East Side Riders expands to Huntington Park

CicLAvia offers more details on Sunday’s event to celebrate and explore the new dedicated bus lanes and protected bike lane extensions on Venice Blvd.

And since I’m worn out after a too long, too hard and too busy week, I’ll let them tell you about it.

WHAT:

On Sunday, July 23, from 2-6 p.m., Venice Boulevard: Explore the Corridor presented by Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT) and powered by CicLAvia, celebrates the recent transportation safety improvements along Venice Boulevard.

This free public event will feature a series of guided group bike rides and walks along the new protected bike lanes and safety features on Venice Boulevard, between National and Sepulveda, as well as routes through the surrounding neighborhoods. Venice Boulevard will remain open to cars, and we encourage participants to explore the area safely. Bicycles, roller skates, skateboards, scooters, strollers, walkers, and runners are all welcome.

WHERE:

There will be a Hub at Venice and Bagley (9390 Venice Blvd, Culver City, CA 90232) with music, street games and other activities for all ages and abilities.

WHEN:

Sunday, July 23, 2023; 2 p.m. – 6 p.m.

Illustration shows the new Venice Blvd bus/bike corridor. 

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The Watts-based East Side Riders Bike Club made a handful of announcements, starting with news of a second location in Huntington Park serving the Southeast LA communities.

Huntington Park Community News.

We recently secured a location in the city of Huntington Park to help is serve the Southeast (SELA) communities.

We’re looking forward to launching our summer Tuesday and Thursday community bike rides, teaching bicycle safety and education and lunching our SELA E-Bike loan program in HP.

Our Friday Night Rides (FNR) and Sunday Rides will now start and finish in Huntington Park.

Friday Night Rides

Every other Friday @ 6:00 pm

Sunday Rides

Weekly at 10:00 am

6013 State Street, Huntington Park CA 90255

The group also issued a Save the Date notice for the Watts Non-Profit Day.

Save The Date!!

Join East Side Riders and you the community as we host our first Nonprofit Day in Watts.

National Nonprofit Day is commemorated on August 17 each year to recognize nonprofit organizations’ ongoing efforts to serve the local community. If you’ve ever volunteered, you’re well aware of the significance of these charitable organizations.

This is a day to bring NPO’s in Watts together along with our elected officials so we can all get to know one another and share resources with the community.

Our Nonprofit Day will be held on

Sunday August 20th, 2023

11:00 am – 4:00 pm

Located on 103rd Street between Success and Compton in Watts.

For more information or to RSVP email Monica Sanchez, monica.sanchez@esrbc.org

 

Finally, the East Side Riders announced their free, all-ages after school activities program.

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Gravel Bike California looks forward to California’s Gravel Event Calendar as the fall / winter season picks up.

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Mountain bike brand Forbidden says quit your job, and ride a bike.

Works for me.

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

The Conservative Party’s candidate for London mayor threatens to undo years of progress for active travel, in sharp contrast with other European mayors; she insists she’s not insists she’s not anti-bike, despite describing bike riders as lawless and dangerous, while calling for mandatory registration for bicyclists, and claiming bike lanes cause congestion. Makes you wonder whether she’d consider anything short of calling for the death and dismemberment of people on two wheels as being anti-bike.

Sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.

A Utah bike rider was captured on live TV lifting his bicycle over a barricade closing a bike trail, after a woman was killed when a tree fell on her during a storm (see story under National news).

There’s a special place in hell for the Pennsylvania man who stole a 15-year old boy’s bicycle, then used it to chase the boy’s teenaged sisters on their bikes, until an adult couple confronted the man.

Police in Singapore are looking for a Caucasian hit-and-run bicyclist who crashed into a woman and her toddler daughter, leaving them both banged up and shaken. Yet another reminder that you have the same obligation to remain after a crash as drivers do, even if too many of them don’t.

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Local 

LA’s experiment with placing cool paint on Pacoima streets is paying off, as the newest surface coatings are reducing ambient temperatures by three degrees throughout the ten-block test area.

 

State

Velo’s Urbanist Update argues that San Raphael state Assemblyman Damon Connolly is wrong when he cites the bike lanes on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge for causing pollution, because removing the bike lane would only move the bottleneck to the other end of the bridge. Besides, the real problem is the 80,000 drivers who insist on using it every day, not the people on bikes.

 

National

PeopleForBikes latest bikeability ratings of American cities continues to make waves, as EcoWatch looks at eight of the top-rated cities, including my Colorado hometown.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission warned people to immediately stop using SQM bicycle helmets because they don’t comply with positional stability and certification requirements, and can fail to protect riders in a crash.

Inmates at a Las Vegas correctional institution are fixing up abandoned bicycles collected from police around Nevada to donate to veterans, kids and the homeless.

For the second time this week, a bike rider had been killed by a falling tree branch, after a 68-year old Utah woman was killed when a tree fell on her as she rode on a bike trail during a thunderstorm.

Chicago Streetsblog calls PeopleForBikes’ low ranking for the city silly, but applauds the push for lower speed limits and a citywide protected bike network.

That’s more like it. A 32-year old Michigan man faces up to 15 years behind bars after he was convicted for the high-speed hit-and-run that killed a man riding a bicycle, while driving at over three times the legal alcohol limit — although prosecutors had asked for a second-degree murder conviction, with a possible life sentence.

Life is cheap in Pennsylvania, where a 39-year old woman got a whole 30 days behind bars for the hit-and-run collision that left a bike-riding man with a broken neck. But at least she’ll have to wear a monitoring anklet for another three months.

A grieving Georgia mother kicked off a traffic safety campaign after her ten-year old son was killed just trying to cross a street on his bike to get home.

 

International

Momentum Magazine offers a beginner’s guide to choosing the right ‘bent.

A writer for Condé Nast Traveler says her favorite Airbnb experience was riding an ebike on a 19-mile trail through Brazil’s Tijuca National Park, in the rainforests outside Rio de Janeiro.

Frightening video from Toronto, where dashcam captured a driver attempting to pass a bike rider on the right before running over him; fortunately, the victim pops back up after the crash. Be sure you really want to see it before you click on the clink, because you can’t unsee the image.

 

Competitive Cycling

Danish cyclist Kasper Asgreen foiled what was supposed to be a sprinter’s stage in yesterday’s stage 18 of the Tour de France, winning the stage with a lengthy four-man breakaway as multiple teams tried to chase them down at the finish.

American Sepp Kuss looks back at his role as a key lieutenant for Tour leader Jonas Vingegaard, saying the team knew what they had to do to break two-time winner Tadej Pogačar on the Col de la Loze.

Pogačar aims to finish the Tour on his terms, as his UAE Team Emirates looks towards two spots on the final podium, even if he’ll be denied a third yellow jersey.

Belgian Wout van Aert has what may be the best excuse for dropping out of the Tour, after leaving to be with his wife for the birth of their second child.

Canadian cyclists will be able to compete under their chosen gender in non-UCI sanctioned events for the rest of this year, after the governing body for bike racing banned trans athletes from competing in women’s races.

 

Finally…

Now you, too, can prevent close passes with your very own inflatable spiky bikepack. That feeling when authorities give you a shuttle bus instead of a bike lane.

And when a self-deprecating f-bomb wins you more fans for keeping it real.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin.

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Update: Boerner introduces bill to require ebike licenses, ban young riders; and bike rider severely injured in Moreno Vally crash

July 17, 2023 / / One comment

The news isn’t great on the bill to create an ebike licensing program.

Sponsored by 77th District Assemblymember Tasha Boerner, AB 530, which cannibalized an earlier bill, would —

1) Prohibit anyone under 12 from riding any class of ebike.

2) Require a photo ID for anyone over 16 who doesn’t have a valid driver’s license.

3) Existing state law requires that anyone riding a Class 3 ebike, defined as a ped-assist bike capable of speeds up to 28 mph, to wear a bike helmet that meets standards from the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) or the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).

Correction: I originally wrote that the bill would require an ebike license for anyone who doesn’t have a driver’s license.

However, that understanding came from the press release posted below, which says the bill would “Require an online written test and a state-issued photo identification for those without a valid driver’s license.”

I’m told that the bill actually requires that anyone over 16 without a driver’s license would be required to carry photo ID to ride an ebike, though I’m not sure what that would be, since not everyone has one. 

The bill would also establish a working group with a goal of creating a license for ebike riders. 

Although as we’ve repeatedly been told, there’s no way to create a bicycle license that would pencil out financially, so I’m not sure that would work out. Not to mention all the other reasons bike licensing isn’t viable. 

I don’t actually have a problem with the first requirement. Ebikes are powerful machines that young children may not be able to handle. Although I’d exclude handicapped children who may not be able to ride a standard bicycle.

I do have a problem with requiring a license for any adult to ride any kind of bicycle, electric or otherwise. There are countless reasons why someone might not have a driver’s license, which have nothing to do with their ability to ride a bicycle.

Someone who has been riding a bicycle for 20, 30 or 40 years is perfectly capable of riding an ebike without having to pass a test to get a license. And it creates a very slippery slope to the demands of some drivers that all bike riders should be licensed.

Once we require licenses for one group of bicyclists, it’s a very small step to require them for all.

Never mind that it’s exactly the wrong thing to do when California is literally on fire, overly congested traffic is grinding to halt, and our air and climate are fouled by motor vehicles.

We should be encouraging alternatives to driving, rather than throwing up still more barriers.

What would make far more sense is to create a separate class for throttle-controlled ebikes, which require no physical exertion to operate, and can easily reach speeds beyond what inexperienced riders are capable of safely controlling.

Like this one. Or this.

I’m sure Tasha Boerner’s heart is in the right place — although I’d like to know why the hell she pulled AB 73, which would have allowed bike riders to treat stop signs as yields when safe to do so, when it appeared to be on track to pass the legislature.

Especially since I’ve heard Gavin Newsom may have looked more favorably on it this time, after vetoing two earlier versions of the bill.

But this bill, AB 530, should be dead on arrival without major revisions.

Photo by Maxfoot from Pixabay.

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Sad news from Moreno Valley, where a man riding a bicycle was severely injured in a head-on collision Friday night.

The victim was riding east on Box Springs Road at Pine Cone Lane around 9 pm when he allegedly crossed onto the wrong side of the road, and was struck by the driver of a 2006 Honda Civic.

Anyone with information is urged to contact Deputy Andrew Galbreath of the Moreno Valley sheriff’s station at 951/486-6700.

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CicLAvia is teaming with LADOT to explore the newly extended protected bike lanes and safety improvements on Venice Blvd this Sunday, though the street will remain open to motor vehicles.

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Streets For All is back with their monthly virtual happy hour on Wednesday, with Caltrans District 7 Director Gloria Roberts as special guest.

Which means this is your perfect chance to ask questions about safety improvements and Complete Streets requirements on state roadways.

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A Shakespeare put it, “’tis true ’tis pity, and pity ’tis, ’tis true.”

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

Talk about not getting it. A London writer and bike rider says we don’t need any bike cam vigilantes, arguing that a road raging driver who went ballistic after being challenged for texting behind the wheel wasn’t endangering anyone because he was stuck in stationary traffic. Never mind that texting drivers often lurch forward without looking after someone honks at them for not moving when the light changes. 

A road-raging Porsche driver ran over a bike after a group of bike riders participating in a London ride-out blocked the driver’s path.

A couple in the UK were ordered to remove their DIY cargo bike parking space after the local council concluded that the planter they used for protection might hurt the poor cars.

But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.

Police in Northern Ireland have spoken to a bike rider regarding his conduct, after the “intolerant and ignorant” man shouted obscenities as he rode past a Protestant parade. More proof that The Troubles aren’t entirely in the past.

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Local 

Streetsblog’s Joe Linton visits my neighborhood to offer his thoughts on the new peak-hour bus lanes on La Brea Blvd, which he suggests could be even quicker and cheaper to build; he also notes that CD10 Councilmemember Heather Hutt is working to maintain the street’s auto-centric focus by indefinitely blocking the project south of Olympic Blvd. It’s worth noting that Hutt, who cites a lack of public consensus for blocking the project was appointed by the council to fill a vacancy, and has yet to face the voters.

 

State

Solana Beach officials discussed the city’s response to mounting ebike injuries, after neighboring Carlsbad and Encinitas declared a local state of emergency earlier this year.

The Ventura County Transportation Commission wants your input on planning the future of mobility for the county.

San Francisco Streetsblog takes a self-guided, unofficial tour of the new Gilman Street pedestrian and bicycle bridge over I-80, even though it’s not scheduled to open until October.

A Chico driver may have saved the life of a bike rider, stopping her car to intervene when she saw around eight pit bulls attacking a man riding his bike on a bike path, before the dogs turned on her; the dogs were captured at a nearby homeless encampment after both victims managed to get away

 

National

A travel website wants you to explore Mexico City by bicycle.

Streetsblog reposts a Substack article offering advice on how to talk to strangers to accomplish your bike and transit goals, saying even if you’re an introvert, you have to win others over to your cause.

Oregon officials are planning to build a 172-mile bicycle network in the scenic southwest portion of the state, though just what form it will take is still to be determined.

A new Oregon law reduces the penalties for biking under the influence, as lawmakers recognize the reduced damage an intoxicated bike rider can cause, compared to people in the big, dangerous machines.

A tragic warning about riding in extreme heat, after an Arizona man in his 70s died from apparent heat-related causes after suffering a flat, and attempting to walk his bike to a nearby fire station to wait for his wife.

This is who we share the road with. An Idaho woman is in a medically induced coma after she was run down by a 14-year old driver on the 4th of July while riding her bike; she was in treatment for a meth addiction and 120 days sober when she was injured. A crowdfunding campaign to defray her medical expenses has raised just over ten percent of the $50,000 goal.

A Nebraska bike rider became the latest person to be run down by a cop while riding a bicycle, after he was right hooked while riding on the sidewalk.

There’s a special place in hell for the adult thief who pushed a Detroit boy off his bike as the kid was riding it, then pedaled off on it; the thief turned himself into the police, while a state legislator gave the boy a new bike.

An Indiana man will spend the next 35 years behind bars after he was convicted of attempted murder for shooting a man on a bicycle in the back, while shouting that the victim had stolen his car.

A Kentucky state park worker is being praised for jumping into the water to save a ten-year old boy who accidentally rode his bike off a 15-foot cliff, then dove back in to retrieve the boy’s bicycle.

They get it, too. The leaders of a Boston-area city want the city’s police to stop ticketing bicyclists who ride through red lights without putting anyone else at risk.

Tragic news from DC, where a fixture in the local bicycling scene was fatally gunned down early Saturday; 27-year old Dzhoy Zuckerman was killed just blocks from his home by an unknown attacker. No word on whether he was riding his bike at the time, or any motive for the shooting. A crowdfunding campaign to support his partner has raised over $3,800 of the $10,000 goal in the first few hours.

 

International

Bike Biz asks if rising bicycle prices have become a barrier to sales.

A small new Canadian study suggest one factor causing crashes is that drivers just aren’t looking for people on bicycles.

A man riding his bike across Canada to raise awareness for mental health lost all of his gear when someone stole his bike outside a Winnipeg coffee shop; he says he was warned about Winnipeg.

A new Scottish study concludes that drivers are more likely to be at fault in crashes with bicyclists.

They must be doing something right, as British bicycling deaths drop 24% to their lowest level in 30 years. Exactly the opposite of what’s happening in this country, for reasons that should be self evident.

Forty people from four continents, including survivors of the 2017 New York bike path attack climbed the Grand Colombier before the Tour de France stage to honor the victims of terrorism.

Now you can carry your kids with what is in effect a three-wheeled ped-assist pedicab, thanks to a collaboration between Germany’s Cube and BMW.

A Singapore writer says it’s not easy being a casual bike rider in the island city-state. But apparently, it’s not any easier being a serious bicyclist, as 26 Singaporean roadies were fined for exceeding the limits on group rides, which specify no more than five bicyclists can ride together at any given time.

 

Competitive Cycling

This year’s Tour de France is threatening to descend into chaos, marring what is turning into an epic battle between Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogačar.

Exhibit one is the race motos that halted an attack by Pogačar on the Col de Joux Plane on Saturday’s stage 14, which may have kept him from claiming the yellow jersey.

Velo questions whether the race motos could prove decisive, as Pogačar lost out on a time bonus that could have cut Vingegaard’s lead to just four seconds, while the riders and passengers of both motos were suspended for one whole stage for their transgressions.

Exhibit two is a mass crash shortly after the start of Saturday’s stage that forced three riders to abandon, while holding up the race for half an hour to attend to the injured cyclist; two other riders were forced to abandon when they both crashed on a fast descent shortly after the restart.

Exhibit three is another mass crash on Sunday’s stage, when a spectator taking a selfie came in contact with American rider Sepp Kuss, triggering a massive chain reaction crash.

Vingegaard responded to questions about increases in speeds, as he and Pogačar have broken several climbing records in recent years, crediting it on improving bicycle tech, while acknowledging that he can understand why people would wonder if he’s on something.

American riders Neilson Powless and Lawson Craddock lit up Sunday’s “monster climbing stage” in stage 15, as Powless defended the King of the Mountain jersey he’s worn for two weeks, while Craddock just missed the podium with a career-best fourth.

UCI has reversed its policy for transgender cyclists, ruling that transgender women who transition after puberty will be barred from competing in women’s cycling events in all categories and disciplines. As usual, read it on Yahoo if Bicycling blocks you. 

Huh? A bizarre story from South Korea, where a transgender cyclist says she won a woman’s race to prove a point to “selfish” trans athletes that biological men are physically superior to biological women.

Citing a recent court decision, a Colorado landowner is now requiring liability waivers from all the competitors, support staff and spectators for the Leadville 100 mountain bike race, after allowing the race to traverse his land for the previous four years he’s owned it. Thanks to Megan Lynch for the link.

 

Finally…

Now you, too, can carry a concealed weapon on your bicycle (just give a fake birthday to get past the NRA’s intrusive age check). That feeling when your bike brand shares a name with a late rock star.

And when popping wheelies and bunny hopping makes you “the NBA of the streets.”

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

Oh, and fuck Putin.

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Pasadena ebike rebates start tomorrow, Americans know wider highways won’t fix traffic, and LADOT wants your input

June 30, 2023 / / Comments Off on Pasadena ebike rebates start tomorrow, Americans know wider highways won’t fix traffic, and LADOT wants your input

Today marks the start of a four-day holiday weekend for many people, myself included. 

Which means the drinking and driving is likely to start early today, and continue through Tuesday.

While riding a bike remains the best way to get to the fireworks and other festivities, you’ll want to watch out for distracted and drunk drivers, because chances are, they won’t be looking for you. 

So ride defensively, stay safe, and come back here bright and early on Wednesday to catch up on anything we may have missed over the weekend. I’ll be around if there’s any breaking news in the meantime, so make sure you’ve signed up for email alerts near the end of that long, long blue column on the right if you haven’t already. 

And have a great 4th of July!

As for the photo up above, it’s a sad day when even clowns aren’t safe on the streets, judging by the residue by the curb near my apartment.

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Pasadena will begin its ebike rebate program for city residents tomorrow.

Meanwhile, California’s nascent program, which was supposed to be launched by today, remains nowhere to be seen.

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A new study of registered voters across the US shows that two-thirds of Americans know widening highways doesn’t solve traffic problems.

Even if government officials and transportation agencies — like Metro — don’t seem to get it.

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Good question.

The Highland Ave survey considers the section from Franklin to Santa Monica, so it doesn’t go up to the Hollywood Bowl, or down to the subway on Wilshire.

The survey for Culver Blvd covers the street from Berryman Ave to Centinela west of the 405.

https://twitter.com/streetsforall/status/1674463066866561037

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A brief thread from Richard Masoner of Cyclicious fame effectively frame the problem of shared responsibility in a world of distracted drivers.

https://twitter.com/cyclelicious/status/1674470650331926529

https://twitter.com/cyclelicious/status/1674472139620225024

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Gravel Bike California’s latest epic takes you riding on Mendenhall Ridge in the Angeles National Forest, by way of Metrolink.

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

A New Orleans advocacy group is teaming with the local bikeshare to give away bike helmets to promote bike safety in the city with the country’s highest per capita bicycling death rate. Except that’s just more victim blaming in the guise of safety, because it doesn’t do a damn thing to get the people in the big dangerous machines to sober up or pay attention to the road and people ahead of them.

But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.

Yes, Fox News was right about naked men participating in annual Body Pride Ride as part of an all-ages Seattle Pride parade, but a photo of children walking past naked bike riders comes from the London World Naked Bike Ride in 2017, instead. But they wouldn’t want to mention that since the Naked Bike Ride is a protest about climate change, not gay pride. 

A pair of British ebike riders shot up a number of parked cars, for no apparent reason.

Awful news from Germany, where a former Olympic gold medalist cyclist was convicted of sexually abusing a child.

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Local 

BikeLA, nee Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, is looking for auction items for their upcoming LA Bike Fest, in case you or your company has anything of value you can donate. Maybe I can give them an autographed copy of this blog.

 

State

The California Transportation Commission — not Caltrans — announced the latest round of 134 active transportation projects for the Active Transportation Program’s (ATP) Cycle 6, including projects in LA’s Boyle Heights, National City and Tehachapi.

The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department will now offer bicycle safety classes in lieu of citations for scofflaw ebike riders. Once again putting the onus for safety on the potential victims, rather than the people in the big, dangerous machines.  

While the San Diego media has fanned the flames of driver anger over the new bike lanes on Park Blvd, bicyclists complain that the painted lines on one block don’t offer any protection.

A San Luis Obispo weekly looks at the effort to build a bike path along the California coast, which has been ongoing since the ’70s.

Caltrans plans to improve safety along El Camino Real in Redwood City, including adding bike lanes, by 2028. And just hope no one gets killed in the next five years, apparently.

No surprise here, as vandals and bike thieves have targeted Stockton’s nonprofit bikeshare fleet.

 

National

A new movie tells the story of a 12-year old bike thief who is none too happy when her estranged dad re-enters the picture. Although it might be pushing it to expect the bike community to have sympathy for a bicycle rustling waif.

GearJunkie offers a primer on the carbon fiber found in bike frames and other assorted parts.

Bicycling says the US Bicycle Route System is now even cooler with the addition of new routes, including its first ferry ride. Although you may be out of luck if the magazine blocks you, since it doesn’t appear to be available anywhere else. 

A 69-year old California man has spent the last two years riding back and forth across the US to raise funds for the Challenged Athletes Foundation to provide prosthetics for Paralympic athletes. And has high praise for Nebraska drivers.

Heartbreaking story from Detroit, where a man was found not guilty after his three dogs attacked and killed a nine-year old girl as she rode her bike, then began eating her leg; the law requires a person to know their dogs were dangerous before they can be held responsible. Maybe he didn’t know they were dangerous, but he may have starved them.

An artist in Lansing, Michigan has designed a series of artistic leaf-shaped bike racks. Which aren’t likely to be used, because a) they don’t look like bike racks, and b) they appear to be just bolted to the sidewalks, meaning they could be unbolted, too.

Boston plans to build a bike lane on the city’s Boylston Street, and parts of Beacon and Berkeley, to address safety concerns for bicyclists in the Back Bay, although some residents bicker about losing parking spaces. Meanwhile, Back Bay NIMBYs bizarrely warn someone is likely to die because of the protected bike lanes, even though protected lanes have been shown to improve safety for all road users. This story has been brought to you by the letter B.

Maybe there’s hope yet, as teams of architects and designers reimagine what New York streets could be without cars.

New York’s fire department is cracking down on ebike shops selling and storing unsafe lithium-ion batteries.

 

International

A new interactive game invites you to ride a ghost bike to the afterlife to save lost souls. Although in this case, the ghost bikes are magical couriers who ride between the world of the living and the world of the dead. It still sounds like it’s in very poor taste, though, given what ghost bikes represent in the real world. 

Downtown Vancouver has introduced a summer-long free bike valet. Which is a service that every city should offer. 

A British Columbia family ditched their SUV for an environmentally responsible e-cargo bike, and haven’t looked back.

Transgender comedian Suzy Eddie Izzard is one of us, taking to the streets of London wearing a miniskirt on a bikeshare bike.

British bike riders raise understandable concerns after discovering that the bike racks at a new Aldi store can simply be lifted out of the pavement.

The Connexion examines the French love of all things bicycle, dating back to the nineteenth century.

Parisian Mayor Anne Hidalgo enters the emerging conflict between ebike and e-scooter users and people on foot, not by cracking down on electric micromobility, but with what Streetsblog calls a common-sense plan that includes taking still more space from drivers.

An unlicensed Scottish driver was arrested for the hit-and-run that killed a noted local bicyclist in Ibiza, Spain; police found his abandoned Jeep three miles from the crash scene.

 

Competitive Cycling

The Wall Street Journal’s Jason Gay calls Belgium’s Wout Van Aert the Bo Jackson of the Tour de France, but the paper insists on hiding the story behind its draconian paywall. Am I the only one who is less likely to subscribe to any publication after being confronted by their paywall?

Czech carmaker Škoda’s We Love Cycling previews the competition for the Tour de France’s green sprinter’s jersey sponsored by the car brand.

Velo says riders preparing for the Tour de France are pushing for more safety measures in the wake of Gino Mãder’s death in the Tour de Suisse, arguing that “the worst-case scenario is really scary.”

 

Finally…

Who could have imagined that a wheel-less, tread-operated bicycle could be horribly inefficient? That feeling when the first ebike with built-in AI is as weird as it sounds.

And this looks like my pre-4th beer run.

Thanks to Jon for the heads-up.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin.

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , ,

BOLO alert for Westlake hit-and-run, more on NY bikeshare Karen, and Life/Cycle-riding doctor running to replace Schiff

May 26, 2023 / / 2 comments

The seemingly epidemic of heartless LA hit-and-run drivers just keeps on going.

The LAPD is looking for the driver who left a bike rider bleeding in the streets of Westlake, suffering from what is described as “severe, though not life-threatening injuries.”

The crash occurred around 8:45 pm on Saturday. May 13 at Hoover and Carondelet streets in the Westlake District.

The suspect vehicle is described as an older model white Nissan, with likely with damage to its front end, hood and windshield from the impact with the victim.

Anyone with information is urged to call LAPD Detective Juan Campos at 213/833-3713, or email 31480@lapd.online. Or call the Central Traffic Division Watch Commander at 213/833-3746 after hours or weekends.

As always, there is a $25,000 reward for any hit-and-run resulting in serious, but not fatal, injuries in the City of Los Angeles.

Photo by Artyom Kulakov from Pexels.

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There’s always another side to the story, even when everyone has already taken sides.

It’s been clear for some time that we’ve only heard one side of the story about the white New York hospital worker filmed in a viral video trying to wrest and whine a bikeshare bike out of the hands of a Black teenager.

The woman, who has become infamous as the Citi Bike Karen, has spoken through her attorney, who claims he has receipts showing she rented the bike she was trying to claim.

She’s raised over $124,000 from people who thought she was unfairly accused of racism.

Now the family of the teenager she was trying to take the bike from is finally speaking out for the first time. According to them, the 17-year old boy’s life and family have been in turmoil since the incident.

They explained that as the son of low-income, West African immigrants on public assistance, he was entitled to discounted 45-minute bikeshare rides, after which the rate increases.

The day of the incident, he and his friends rode from his home in the Bronx to visit friends in Harlem. After 45 minutes, he re-docked the bike to reset the clock, before setting out again at the reduced rate.

Which is when he claims his life went to hell.

He says the hospital worker approached the group as they briefly rested with the bikes, asking each one in turn if she could use their bike. Each boy said no, because they were about to take them back out again.

So she stepped onto the bike anyway, using her phone to scan the bike’s QR code as he held onto the handlebars, and tried to take the bike out of his hands.

According to New York’s NewsOne,

It was 7:24 p.m., and that is when the boys began recording…

Michael insisted Sarah Jane Comrie knew he was planning to use the bike. He said she asked him and his friends to use theirs, and they all informed her they were using the bikes and would be leaving shortly.

He said she seemed annoyed that they wouldn’t willingly give up their bikes to her. He also said he believes she wanted that bike as opposed to the others that remained docked in the rack because he had one of the newer e-bikes.

The rest of the interaction plays out in the video. Sarah Jane Comrie, dressed in scrubs bearing the NYC Health + Hospitals logo, removed her work ID badge from her neck, placed it in her bag along with a brown paper bag she was holding and began screaming for help.

Proving once again there’s always another side to the story.

We have no way of knowing who is right, or exactly how the events played out in the minutes before the camera was turned on. But the incident offers a Rorschach Test for today’s America, as people on both sides of the political divide quickly chose sides.

A white woman received over a hundred grand, while a young Black man has his life upended. Although a crowdfunding campaign started yesterday has raised over $37,000 for his legal fees in less than 24 hours.

Because once again, we’re all taking sides.

………

He gets it.

A reporter for Vice takes on former LADOT head Seleta Reynolds recent comments comparing building bus and bike lanes without community engagement to bulldozing houses to build freeways.

This difference of intent and scale is worth dwelling on because it is why the comparison is so misguided. The U.S. Department of Transportation has estimated 475,000 households containing one million people were displaced due to highway construction from 1957 to 1977. That is the equivalent of displacing the entire population of modern-day Austin, Texas. Likewise, a Los Angeles Times analysis found that an additional 200,000 people have lost their homes due to highway construction since 1990. To the best of my knowledge, there has not been a single housing unit destroyed or person displaced to build a bike or bus lane anywhere in the U.S. On these grounds alone, it is simply absurd to compare urban highway construction to bike and bus lanes. Projects of such vastly different scopes and scale deserve different approaches and mindsets.

But there is another good reason to reject this comparison, one that is equally revealing about the biases of modern transportation officials. Reynolds asked, “What makes us so confident we know best?” Another way of asking this is, what makes us so confident we know bike and bus lanes are better than masses of parking and multiple travel lanes for private cars for everyone?

The answer is: we’ve got the receipts. In this case, decades of scientific study and experiments carefully tracked and evaluated by local departments of transportation.

The sheer absurdity of Reynolds’ comments, coming from someone who should surely know better, is appalling.

It also explains why so little was done to improve LA streets while she ran the department. And why we shouldn’t hold our breath for any major innovations coming from her new position as Metro’s Chief Innovation Officer.

Unless maybe her chief innovation is even more pointless, never-ending public meetings.

………

Openly gay, Lebanese-Armenian global health leader Dr. Jirair Ratevosian is the latest candidate to toss his hat into the ring to replace outgoing Rep. Adam Schiff in California’s 30th Congressional District.

He’s also one of us, regularly taking part in the annual 545-mile AIDS/LIFECYCLE ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles, which benefits the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and the Los Angeles LGBT Center.

However, Ratevosian faces stiff competition from Burbank Assembly Transportation Chair Laura Friedman, California State Senator Anthony Portantino, and former Boy Meets World star Ben Savage, among others.

………

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

A Columbus, Ohio bike rider is calling for more protected bike lanes after a road raging driver brake checked him, then threw a drink at him. That came just days after another road raging driver deliberately backed into a bike rider when the man on the bike refused to get off and fight him.

No irony here. A London man goes on a rant about the city’s LTNs, or Limited Traffic Neighborhoods, while filming himself in front of a congested, non-LTN jammed with cars.

An award-winning British TV producer, writer and comedian was fined the equivalent of more than $1,200, plus another $1,250 in court costs and victim surcharge, for flipping off a bike cam activist when he was caught using his smartphone from behind the wheel of his $173,000 Aston Martin.

But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly. 

After a Seal Beach letter writer complains that it seems petty to ticket a pair of senior citizens on a tandem for rolling a stop sign, a cop explains that bicycles are treated as vehicles in California, and bike riders have to obey the law, too. Even laws that most drivers don’t. Which is one more argument to pass the Stop As Yield bill in the state legislature, and get Governor Newsom to sign the damn thing this time. 

………

Local 

For some reason, I can’t seem to embed tweets today. So click through for some great shots of bicycles over 100 years ago in LA’s historic Chinatown, forwarded by Erik Griswold.

Los Angeles Public Press examines LA’s gender-expansive group rides designed to make biking in the city more comfortable, safer and accepting.

 

State

No news is good news, right?

 

National

The CPSC, aka Consumer Product Safety Commission, is looking for public input as they consider how to update federal regulations governing bicycles to accommodate ebikes. Read it on Yahoo if Bicycling blocks you.

Bloomberg’s CityLab says American cities are failing female bicyclists by failing to invest in bike infrastructure.

A writer for the Christian Science Monitor relates riding cross county from Boston to Oregon in the ’70s with just a bike and $200, back when ATMs and cellphones didn’t exist.

After saying that dismantling yet another claim that bike and bus lanes cause pollution is uninteresting and a complete waste of his time, a Seattle writer considers the philosophical function of the automobile, instead.

A Colorado man takes to the road on an adaptive recumbent bike, eight years after he was injured hitting a pothole, which eventually cost him both legs.

A 28-year old Kentucky man is dead after a pickup driver crashed into his bike; police excused the crash because glare from the setting sun kept him from seeing the victim. Never mind that the correct course of action would have been to pull over to the side of the road until he could see, before he killed anyone.

The New York Times says the Citi Bike bikeshare has become part of New York’s street life as it marks its tenth anniversary.

Several members of the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles participated in a fundraising ride to benefit an autism nonprofit while wearing winged bike helmets to match the ones they wear on the field.

This is who we share the road with. A 32-year old Philadelphia woman faces murder and vehicular homicide charges for a December hit-and-run crime spree that killed on man and injured two other people; she is accused of hitting three cars and a scooter rider, then crashing into a bike rider before fatally slamming into a man walking in a crosswalk, and fleeing from all three crashes.

 

International

British Columbia becomes just the latest city, state or province to offer ebike rebates before California’s long-delayed program finally gets off the ground, with purchase credits ranging from $350 to a maximum of $1,400.

After a UK city announced plans to encourage bike riding by giving away 2,500 bicycles and free bicycling lessons, local advocates argued the city needs to address the “huge issue” of providing safe places to ride them.

This is what it looks like to hit a pothole while riding at speed, as a British man suffered a broken pelvis when he only managed to avoid three out of four potholes in his path.

 

Competitive Cycling

Leader Geraint Thomas held off an attack by by Primož Roglič and his Jumbo-Visma team on stage 18 of the Giro, while Italian champ Filippo Zana broke away from the pack to claim the stage win; the stage came on Thomas’ 37th birthday.

Bicycling says the colossal amounts of elevation gain in the last few stages of the Giro will make the final days of racing a slugfest. Unfortunately, the story doesn’t appear to be available anywhere else, so you’re on your own if the magazine blocks you. 

Cycling Weekly pulls nine bikes out of the Worldtour pro peloton to name one as their racing bike of the year.

The annual Tour of Nevada City Bicycle Classic as been officially cancelled this year, following years of declining attendance.

 

Finally…

As long as people hate bicycles and semi-trucks, you might as well do them both. That feeling when you take your javelina bike out for a spin; thanks to Dr. Grace Peng for the link. 

And that feeling when you can’t decide between a BMX and pogo stick. So you do both.

……….

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Reynolds equates building bus lanes to bulldozing homes to build freeways, and input wanted on DTLA Mobility Plan

May 24, 2023 / / One comment

No wonder nothing ever seems to get done in Los Angeles.

As we’ve seen far too many times, even the most minor improvement can get bogged down in an endless series of public meetings, in which every resident and pass-through driver has an equal voice, no matter how misinformed.

And people who bike, walk or take transit usually don’t count.

Which brings us to former LADOT head and current LA Metro Chief Innovation Officer Seleta Reynolds, who seems to think removing a traffic lane to improve bus headways “without extensive community engagement and consent” is equivalent to bulldozing homes to build freeways.

Never mind that one destroys the residences of people living in underserved communities, while the other simply removes peak hour lanes or street parking to move more people more efficiently.

No wonder so little happened in Los Angeles under her leadership.

I wouldn’t count on a lot of innovation from the LA County transportation agency going forward, either.

Photo by Juanita Mulder from Pixabay.

………

LADOT wants your input on the Downtown Mobility Plan, where pedestrians have long been second-class citizens on car-choked streets, and the city is just now forming an actual bike network to safely get you from here to there.

https://twitter.com/LADOTlivable/status/1661129986516963328

………

Looks like work is well underway on Pasadena’s Union Street protected bike lane.

………

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

No bias here. A Scottish driver left a polite note for a bike rider admonishing him for locking his bicycle to a railing instead of letting someone park a car there. Because evidently, bikes don’t count.

………

Local 

Metro invites you on a multimodal art tour starting with an exhibition at Union Station, followed by a bike ride to meet one of the artists at Exposition Park, and ending by taking the train back to Union Station. The only thing they left out of their description is what day it is (Hint: It’s this Saturday, according to the RSVP page).

Hermosa Beach dedicated a new bike corral on Hermosa Ave at 10th Street in honor of bicyclist and environmental activist Julian Katz, who died in 2018; the street is also the site of the Julian Katz Memorial Bikeway.

Streetsblog offers photos from Saturday’s Beach Streets open streets event in Long Beach, showing busier scenes than we saw in yesterday’s photos.

 

State

Calbike wants you to voice your support for legalizing sidewalk riding anywhere there aren’t bike lanes.

Culver City-based Walk ‘n Rollers will host a Walk & Roll Festival for kids and their families in Costa Mesa this Saturday.

Temecula invites everyone to come explore the city’s bike trails for National Trails Day on Saturday, June 3rd.

A Palo Alto columnist says plans for a bike on El Camino Real connecting Redwood City, Menlo Park, Palo Alto and Mountain View are a bad idea, because the street is too dangerous for people on bicycles if it keeps parking, and too inconvenient for shoppers who might have to walk a little bit without it. Never mind that bike lanes — particularly protected bike lanes — improve safety for everyone.

 

National

They get it. Bicycling says the best bike is the one that brings you joy. Unfortunately, you won’t get any joy from reading it if the magazine blocks you, since this one isn’t available anywhere else.

A critically injured victim of the Goodyear, Arizona crash that killed two people and injured 19 others has finally returned home more than three months after they were run down on their bikes by a driver who claimed his steering locked; he underwent five surgeries for 12 different injuries, including a shattered pelvis, punctured bladder, broken collar bone, and fractured ribs, as well as spending two weeks in a medically induced coma. Meanwhile, the driver still has not been charged.

Boulder, Colorado is about to offer their own ebike rebates, even if they’re not as generous as nearby Denver’s successful program; meanwhile, Colorado is preparing a statewide ebike rebate plan.

Minnesota has become the latest state to adopt a Stop as Yield Law, aka Idaho Stop Law. California is once again considering a similar bill, despite previous vetos by Governor Newsom.

They get it, too. Streets Minnesota says people who bike are subsidizing the streets, not shirking their responsibility to pay their share.

Finishing our Minnesota trifecta, authorities are looking for a 14-year old girl who hasn’t been seen since leaving her home on her bike Friday morning.

Rhode Island is considering a bill to reclassify ebikes as bicycles; it’s the last remaining state to still consider ebikes something other than a bicycle.

Hats off to New York City, which will give donated and refurbished bicycles to recently arrived asylum seekers and people from underserved Staten Island communities.

This is who we share the road with. A 43-year old DC woman faces three second-degree murder charges for killing a Lyft driver and his passengers while driving drunk and under the influence of weed, at speeds up to 100 mph.

 

International

She gets it, too. Britain’s most decorated Paralympian complains about speeding drivers’ sense of entitlement, calling speeding an “utterly unacceptable” act.

A British teenager suffered life-changing injuries after being clinically dead for nearly an hour when he was brutally stabbed by gang members while test-riding his mother’s new bicycle.

Czech carmaker Škoda’s We Love Cycling website explains what bike buses are and why kids love them. Then again, a lot of parents do, too.

Thirty British bicyclists raised the equivalent of nearly $160,000 by following the 350-mile route of the Prophet Mohammed from Makkah to Madinah in Saudi Arabia, enough to pay for life-saving heart surgery for 60 Tanzanian children.

 

Competitive Cycling

Thirty-six-year old Geraint Thomas reclaimed the pink leader’s jersey with a commanding performance in stage 16 of the Giro, while Portugal’s João Almeida claimed the stage win.

 

Finally…

A TV station says always check your breaks before riding — no, really. Your next ebike could be a Hyundai.

And that feeling when you lose a wad of cash on a bike ride, and someone with the same name finds it and wires it back to you.

……….

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Hit-and-run motorcyclist busted, non-bike friendly candidates set for CD6 special election, and Venice Blvd looking up

April 13, 2023 / / 2 comments

Once again, my apologies for yesterday’s unexcused absence. 

Let’s just say it’s yet another reminder than diabetes sucks. And that you don’t want this crap if there’s anything you can do to avoid it. 

Because right now, the only thing that compares to my excessively high blood sugar is just how low I feel each and every day, both physically and emotionally. 

But at least I’m well enough to write this.

………

Let’s start with a little good news.

The LAPD has made an arrest in the case of the heartless coward who ran down a Boyle Heights teenager, then got back on his motorcycle and rode off, leaving the boy bleeding in the street.

Thirteeen-year old Joshua Mora was crossing Whittier Boulevard in the crosswalk on March 30th when 29-year-old Banning resident Erwin Majano allegedly slammed into him.

Mora lost his right leg as a result of the impact.

At last report, Majano was being held on $50,000 bond; he was arrested following a tip from the public. Which means someone will likely receive the standing $25,000 reward upon conviction.

………

The June runoff election to replace disgraced former Councilmember Nury Martinez in CD6 is set.

Imelda Padilla, field deputy for Martinez, will face Marisa Alcaraz, environmental policy director and deputy chief of staff to City Councilmember Curren Price.

Martinez resigned last October when a recording surfaced capturing her making racist and otherwise offensive comments in a conversation with CD14 Councilmember Kevin De León and former CD1 Councilmember Gil Cedillo, along with a powerful union head.

Both candidates are City Hall insiders. And neither were endorsed by Streets For All, and only Padilla even bothered to respond to the group’s candidate questionnaire — and said nothing about bikes, walking or transit.

Yet one will be the district’s next councilmember — in part because a shameful 11.4% of eligible voters turned out to determine who will represent the other 88.6%.

Meanwhile, California State Assemblymember Miguel Santiago will challenge De León in next year’s election, after De León resisted loud calls for his resignation.

………

Things are looking up on Venice Blvd.

https://twitter.com/LADOTofficial/status/1646242189108756480

………

When is a bike lane not a bike lane? When it might be slightly inconvenient for a Hollywood film crew to park somewhere else.

Yes, the film industry is important to Los Angeles. But this isn’t their backlot, and we live and work here too.

Note: I removed the name from this tweet since it came from a private account.

 

………

Speaking of Streets For All, they join a busy bike weekend with Saturday’s fundraiser and community bike ride.

https://twitter.com/streetsforall/status/1645635630632779776

………

Day One is offering you the chance to try out a GoSGV ebike this weekend.

………

Pasadena Complete Streets Coalition teams with South Pasadena Active Streets for a feeder ride to 626 Golden Streets a week from Sunday. 

The open streets event will feature 6.5 miles of blissfully carfree streets through the Heart of the Foothills, in San Dimas, La Verne & Shirley, Pomona and Claremont. 

………

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

A Houston man was shot and killed while riding his bike following an apparent road rage altercation.

A Wisconsin man pled not guilty to four counts of first-degree recklessly endangering safety, even though he admitted to police that he strung cords across a bike path in the middle of the night four times, injuring at least one person. He faces up to 50 year behind bars and a fine of $100,000 if he’s convicted on all four counts — yet he was released on a paltry $1,000 bond. Indicating just how seriously the judge doesn’t take the crime.

Life is cheap in the UK, where a road raging driver got just 21 months behind bars for brake-checking a bike rider before driving away, leaving his victim sprawled in the roadway with life-changing injuries.

But sometimes it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.

An Aussie mountain biker suffered a concussion, bruises and a broken thumb when her descent was interrupted by a throttle-controlled ebike rider rapidly riding uphill, despite a ban on ebikes on the trail.

………

Local 

California’s former Governator takes things into his own hands, and fills a pothole near his home himself. Except it wasn’t a pothole, it was a gas line trench, which will now have to be dug up again.

 

State

California Walks teamed with the relatives of traffic violence victims to demand passage of a bill that would create a speed cam pilot program in San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Jose, Oakland, Glendale and Long Beach.

This is who we share the road with. Police in Santa Ana are looking for the heartless coward in an older black Cadillac DeVille who flipped an 11-year old boy through the air and kept going without stopping; fortunately, the victim wasn’t seriously injured, and his companion wasn’t struck. Thanks to How The West Was Saved for the heads-up. 

San Francisco bike riders took a slow ride through the Richmond District to remember fallen bicyclist Ethan Boyes, and demand a protected bike lane on Arguello Boulevard; they’ll hold a Ride of Silence next month to remember all the victims of traffic violence.

Golden Gate Express says bike messengers are thriving in San Francisco, despite operating in the tech capital of the world.

 

National

Popular The War On Cars podcast looks at Hollywood’s negative depictions of bicycles, where someone riding one is either depicted as a loser or about to suffer serious misfortune. Or both.

Bicycling considers whether toxic masculinity is contributing to bicyclist, pedestrian and motorist deaths from traffic violence. Short answer, yes. Longer answer, oh hell yes. Read it on AOL this time if the magazine blocks you. 

Streetsblog complains that Amtrak’s frustrating patchwork of policies deters bicyclists from using the passenger rail service, frustrating their most obvious clientele with policies that allow bikes on one line, and deny them on another.

BMX pro Nigel Sylvester has created a first-of-its-kind hardshell bike case for traveling with a BMX bike.

Sure, let’s go with that. A Las Vegas woman claims she was carjacked before the alleged drunken hit-and-run that killed a man riding a bicycle, arguing that it wasn’t her behind the wheel, despite being covered in glass shards from the shattered windshield.

A Las Vegas bike rider suffered a broken leg when they were struck by a Nevada Highway Patrol officer. No word on who was at fault, but you can guess who will get the blame.

There’s not a pit in hell deep enough for a Phoenix man who was convicted of sexually assaulting and murdering a young woman and a teenager as they rode their bikes along a canal 30 years ago.

He gets it. A Utah columnist argues that cities need to prioritize people, not cars. Which is exactly what Los Angeles will do on Sunday, and four cities in the San Gabriel Valley will do next week. Now we just need to do it every day.

This is who we share the road with, too. Horrifying story from Denver, where a man is on trial after pleading insanity in the road rage shooting of a mother and two of her three sons; he allegedly shot her in the back as she tried to protect her kids, then moved in for a failed kill shot to the head, before fatally shooting her 13-year old son and wounding the 8-year old.

Kindhearted University of Nebraska–Lincoln engineering students are helping the local Bike Kitchen meet its goal of repairing 1,000 bikes to donate to kids and adults in need.

Bighearted residents of Seabrook, Texas rallied around a hit-and-run victim who was injured when a driver smashed into her adult tricycle; less than two hours after a volunteer firefighter posted about the crash, she had up to five replacement bikes to choose from.

About damn time. Chicago has installed concrete curbs to protect a bike lane on the Northwest Side where two people were killed riding bikes in recent months.

No surprise here, as a Michigan study shows SUV drivers cause 55% more injuries to bicyclists than drivers of cars in the event of a collision.

Uber is funding a program to get ebikes with dangerous non-certified lithium-ion batteries off the streets of New York, allowing thousands of delivery riders to trade-in their bikes for newer, safer models.

A DC bike protest called on the World Bank to stop funding fossil fuels.

Baton Rouge, Louisiana will extend and add lighting to the city’s Mississippi River Levee Path, which forms a link in the 3,000-mile-long Mississippi River Bicycle Trail. I used to ride that pathway over four decades ago, when I first got the little blue Trek I rode for 25 years.

In yet another example of keeping a dangerous driver on the road until it’s too late, a Florida man has been arrested for the high-speed crash that killed a bike rider. A security cam captured him doing 90 mph in a 40 mph zone moments before he slammed into the victim, knocking him more than the length of a football field from the point of impact; he has several previous citations for excessive speed, including doing 115 mph in a 45 mp zone just a year earlier. Yet he was somehow allowed to keep driving until he killed someone.

 

International

Momentum Magazine offers “six fantastic and affordable commuter bikes” for spring riding. And for once, when a magazine says affordable, they actually mean it, with price starting at just $499.

Cycling Weekly considers how far is too far to commute to work. I once met a RAAM competitor who trained by commuting from his home in Steamboat Springs, Colorado to his job in Denver and back everyday, a distance of 156 miles — even in the winter.

Forbes says Wednesday’s Bicycle Day, which marks the anniversary of when the inventor of LSD discovered its hallucinogenic properties while riding his bike home from the lab, will soon overtake the next day’s 4-20 as the world’s most important celebration of the psychedelics community.

An environmental group warned bike riders against using toxic glue containing benzene, toluene and other hazardous substances to repair bike tires.

There’s a special place in hell for whoever stole a Mexican Paralympian’s custom adaptive handcycle from his Playa del Carmen home. Seriously, anyone could tell it’s made for someone with special needs just by looking at it.

Montreal is using snow clearing and studded bike tires to keep its bikeshare system going year-round.

A 52-year old Scottish man is on trial for stealing famed stunt cyclist Danny Macaskill’s $10,000 stunt bike, in a burglary that netted over $15,000 worth of goods from Macaskill’s home.

Life is really cheap in the UK, where a 70-year old driver was fined a lousy £153 plus £324 court costs — the equivalent of $191 and $405, respectively — for dooring a bike rider while attempting to brush the crumbs from a sausage roll off his lap, and leaving the victim with a fractured foot and torn ligaments. And they wonder why people keep dying on the streets. Thanks to Victor Bale for the link. 

Britain’s Cycling Goalkeeper topped the sports pages after making a last-minute save for Wrexham, the lower-tier soccer club saved by Hollywood owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenne.

An Irish man is riding across the US to raise funds for charity, despite suffering from terminal brain cancer. Or maybe because to if.

VeloNews has more information on the death of Ukrainian elite and masters road cyclist Kostantin Deneka, who was killed by Russian forces while fighting for his country while serving with a special forces unit of the Ukraine defense intelligence.

There’s no justice in Malaysia, where the woman who killed eight teenagers riding modified bicycles was allowed to walk free, after an appeals court voided her conviction and six-year sentence.

 

Competitive Cycling

The 37th Redlands Classic stage race kicked off with a 2.8 miles circuit race on Wednesday, with women completing 14 laps and men 20; Cycling Utah says the race has a stacked field for both sexes.

Cyclist remembers “cycling phenomenon” Beryl Burton, calling her Britain’s greatest rider and the woman who beat men.

Indiana University explains what’s new with the school’s iconic Little 500 bike race this year, including dumping Schwinn for State Bicycles; the race was made famous by Breaking Away.

 

Finally…

Once again, if you’re illegally riding a gas-powered bicycle with a suspended driver’s license, put a damn light on it. Or if your bike gets a flat tire, just hop on your trusty steed and ride to school.

And that feeling when you go from bike racing to shredding in a metal band.

………

Chag Pesach Sameach to all observing the final day of Passover. 

And Ramadan Mubarak to all observing the Islamic holy month. 

……….

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Four years for motorcyclist who killed bike rider while fleeing cops, and Carlsbad’s ebike state of emergency proves effective

March 8, 2023 / / 3 comments

Life is cheap right here in California, too.

The San Diego Union-Tribune reports that 29-year old Eric Monte Burns pled guilty to killing 68-year old Bradley “Brad” Allen Catcott as he fled from police in Carlsbad last year, agreeing to a four-year term behind bars.

Burns was attempting to evade a Carlsbad State Beach ranger while speeding along Carlsbad Blvd on his motorcycle last August, with a 22-year old woman on his bike, when he slammed into the victim’s bicycle as Catcott was merging into the turn lane from the bike lane.

Catcott died at the scene, while both people on the motorcycle suffered serious injuries.

With good behavior, Burns will be out in less than two years. Meanwhile, Catcott received the death penalty, and his loved ones have been sentenced to a lifetime without him.

A similar crime in some other states could result in a decade or more of hard time.

But California’s too lenient traffic laws too often allow killer drivers to escape with a relative slap on the wrist.

Photo by Suzy Hazelwood from Pexels.

………

In the same story, The Union-Tribune reports that ebike injuries have dropped considerably since Carlsbad declared a state of emergency last year, allowing city officials to “expedite increased attention and expenditures for enhanced enforcement efforts, new traffic safety measures and safe driving education programs.”

There were just two ebike-related injuries reported last month, compared with ten the previous February.

However, a 14-year old girl is recovering from serious injuries after she was struck by a turning driver on the first day of March.

The victim suffered a skull fracture, concussion and several broken teeth while riding her ebike on Carlsbad’s Tamarack Ave, near where Christine Embree was killed by a driver while riding an ebike with her 16-month old daughter last August.

………

LADOT installed a sign honoring Monique Muñoz, who was killed by a teenage driver in an overpowered Lamborghini SUV traveling at over 100 mph.

But as others have noted today, a far better memorial would be to fix the streets so drivers can’t travel at speeds that would be illegal on any highway in the state.

………

The LAPD released security cam video showing the car that killed 51-year old Oscar Montoya in San Pedro shortly after midnight Saturday morning, although initial reports mistakenly located the collision several miles away in Venice.

Police describe it as a possible light-colored Toyota Scion, though it looks more like a Kia Soul to me.

The driver reportedly paused briefly after the crash before hitting the gas and disappearing out of view.

Meanwhile, Guy Piddock described the terror he feels riding the less than one-third mile gap in the bike lane on Pacific Ave where Montoya was killed.

………

A video from Not Just Bikes calls for banning dangerously oversized SUVs larger than WWII tanks.

………

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

No bias here. A San Diego TV station reports that a new protected bike lane and dedicated bus lane on Park Blvd will improve safety and connectivity, while opening the street up to all road users. But all they seem to care about is the loss of hundreds of parking spaces.

No bias here, either. A Sonoma County man can’t believe the CHP didn’t even cite the reckless driver who rear-ended him on his bike; the cop mistakenly blamed him for not riding as close to the right edge as practicable, while ignoring the section of the law allowing riders to take the lane when it’s too narrow to safely share. Proving once again than no one understands bike law less than the CHP.

Or here. Seattle bike riders are getting the blame for the city’s plan to remove eight aging cherry trees near the iconic Pike Place Market, even though the project will downgrade bicycling facilities while increasing space for cars.

But sometimes, its the people on two wheels behaving badly.

A Montana man faces charges for using his bicycle as a weapon to attack a truck driver, after allegedly crashing his bike into the truck, then striking the victim several time before slamming the bike over his head. Three witnesses reported the victim, who apparently has major anger management issues, crashed his bike into the side of the passing truck, even though it’s more likely the driver passed too close.

………

Local 

Streets Are For Everyone, aka SAFE, is working with LADOT to make the Angeleno Heights neighborhood safe from fans of the Fast & Furious franchise, who try to recreate racing scenes from the original movie while putting residents at risk.

 

State

Carlsbad fire officials suspect a lithium-ion ebike battery was the cause of a recent garage fire.

A 17-year old Ocean Beach boy calls on the hit-and-run driver who left him in a wheelchair with a broken pelvis to turn themselves in, saying the driver who fled after hitting his ebike “took everything from” him.

That’s more like it. A new mixed-use housing project in Imperial Beach will give you a free ebike and reduce your rent if you don’t have a car.

San Luis Obispo is preparing to break ground on a $6 million bike lane project, although, as usual, local residents decry the loss of parking.

Streetsblog’s Roger Rudick argues that a planned $200 million bike and pedestrian bridge connecting an 800-foot gap over an estuary between Oakland’s Jack London Square and Western Alameda is just too damn complicated; the plans call for a drawbridge mechanism to make room for passing boats, but Rudick says just build a higher bridge with elevator access.

 

National

Streetsblog reports the Biden administration has caved to Republican legislators, and removed the Fix-It-First requirement for using federal infrastructure funds to improve the safety and condition of existing roads before building new ones or expanding existing roads.

Ebike maker Velotric compiled a field guide to different types of bicycling infrastructure common in the US, from sharrows to bike paths and protected bike lanes.

A Boise public radio station examines the origin of the Idaho Stop Law, which has been rapidly spreading across the country in recent years. Except in California, where our governor vetoed it. 

Life is cheap in Missouri, where a convicted hit-and-run driver walked without a single day behind bars for killing a 50-year old man riding a bicycle, after the judge gave him five years probation and a lousy $500 fine.

A Massachusetts judge has dismissed a lawsuit by opponents of a Cambridge bike lane demanding the return of parking spaces that were removed to make space for it; the dismissal also allows the city to move forward with additional bike lanes that had been in limbo because of the lawsuit.

Lawyers concluded their closing remarks in the death penalty trial of convicted Manhattan bike path terrorist Sayfullo Saipov; jurors will begin deliberating tomorrow whether he will be executed for killing eight people as he plowed down the bike lane in a rented truck, or spend the rest of his life in a high security prison.

New York is attempting to reduce ebike battery fires by banning the sale of ebikes without UL-listed batteries.

A New York op-ed argues that the city’s dangerous streets should be illegal.

Relatives of a fallen North Carolina bike rider worry that evidence against the alleged drunk driver who killed him could be thrown out of court, after the state trooper who collected the evidence was arrested for soliciting a prostitute. Although what one has to do with the other is beyond me.

Kindhearted Coral Gables cops gave a new BMX bike to a 13-year old boy from Honduras who crossed the Mexican border with his brother two years ago, before his mother was able to join them last year.

 

International

Cycling Weekly rates the best women’s road bikes, while noting that not every woman wants or needs a bike designed for feminine riders.

Cyclist explains how to select the right tire pressure for your bike.

Hundreds of people turned out to ride for safer streets for women in London, where they make up less than a third of bike riders. Meanwhile, Strava data shows British women are less likely to ride after dark. As usual, read it on Yahoo if Bicycling blocks you. 

A London bike rider is attempting to overcome windshield bias by posting his bike cam videos online with a dashboard overlaid on it to make it look like it was filmed inside a car.

A woman in the UK has filed an appeal over her three-year sentence for knocking a 77-year woman off her bike and into traffic, where she was killed, for the crime of riding her bike on the sidewalk to avoid a dangerous street. But the British press is trying to paint her as the victim, stressing the dificulty she’ll have in prison while suffering from partial blindness, cerebral palsy and a deformed right foot — even though none of that kept her from pushing the victim off her bike.

British Cycling warned the country’s bike riders that bike helmets don’t prevent concussions, and urge riders to sit out for awhile after a substantial bang on the head.

A the overwhelming majority of UK residents support the concept of 15-minute neighborhoods, despite the bizarre conspiracy theories.

Bergen, Norway is preparing to open the world’s longest purpose-built bike and pedestrian tunnel, stretching nearly two miles beneath the city’s Løvstakken mountain; it’s expected to take around ten minutes to bike through.

 

Competitive Cycling

Aussie cyclist Caleb Ewan’s Lotto Dstny team is demanding proof the sprinter lost Sunday’s GP Monseré in a photo finish, challenging the grainy image that awarded the win to Intermarché-Circus-Wanty’s Gerben Thijssen.

Ouch. Cycling great Tom Boonen says two-time Tour de France champ Tadej Pogačar is being held back by Colnago, arguing that the UAE Team Emirates’ bike sponsor hasn’t mastered the “super-hyper-aero stuff yet.”

 

Finally…

That feeling when you take your last ride in a rainbow wicker coffin on a tricycle hearse. Probably not the best idea to ride your bike up to a lawyer while swilling wine and threaten to kill the judge that sent your dad to prison.

And that feeling when St. George is a sword-wielding girl on a BMX bike, slaying the dragon holding girls back.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Murder victim Dr. Michael Mammone remembered as kind, adventurous; LADOT’s pretty plastic bollards criticized

February 17, 2023 / / 5 comments

More on the tragic death of Dr. Michael Mammone.

Mammone was murdered two weeks ago by a man suffering from mental illness, who first ran the emergency room physician down with his car on SoCal’s killer highway as he waited at a Dana Point traffic light on his mountain bike, then got out of his car and stabbed the injured bike rider to death.

Mammone was remembered at a memorial service at the Festival of Arts in Laguna Beach yesterday as someone who devoted his life to helping others, and always seemed calm and collected, even in the face of crisis.

His sister described him as the life of the party, calling him “intelligent, funny, adventurous, curious, easy to be with, loved card games and genuinely cared about everyone.”

Mammone leaves behind his wife and two sons; the couple was about to celebrate their 30 years of marriage with a trip to Italy.

His death was just a needless waste of a precious human life, all because his killer was allowed to fall through the cracks of America’s failed system for treating the mentally ill.

And because Vanroy Evan Smith was allowed to keep driving, despite his apparently untreated paranoid schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Photo of ghost bike for Dr. Michael Mammones by Walt Arrrrr.

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Ted Faber sends photographic proof the Jackson Street gate to the Ballona Creek Bike Path is now open.

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Streets For All is clearly not a fan of flimsy plastic bollards, even when they look chunky.

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This is the first feeder ride I’m aware of for next weekend’s San Fernando Valley CicLAvia.

https://twitter.com/CicLAvia/status/1626358787429879810

Thanks to Ravener for the heads-up.

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The Bike League will host a webinar next month on how to write a strongly worded letter to the local paper.

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

A London website comes to the defense of bike-riding British broadcast personality Jeremy Vine, saying the country’s Highway Code is on his side, after he was unfairly criticized for a near collision when he was left hooked by a driver cutting across a protected bike lane.

But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.

After a Washington state bike rider was the victim of a hit-and-run driver, sheriff’s deputies discovered he was struck while he was loading stolen merchandise onto his bicycle.

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Local 

They get it. LA’s new 45,000-square-foot, 1,600 seat Bellwether nightclub and concert hall will come complete with guarded rooftop bicycle parking.

A 19-year old mountain biker was helicoptered out from Mandeville Canyon, after suffering a “substantial” leg injury.

More on Liam Garner, the LA teenager who recently became the youngest person to bike from Alaska to the tip of Argentina, despite tearing off his right ear going over his handlebars along the way.

 

State

Spectrum News 1 highlights five SoCal bike paths, from Ventura’s Rincon Bike Trail to the Mount Rubidoux Trail in Riverside, and down to San Diego’s Bayshore Bikeway.

Orange County advocates are calling for greater investments in public bus operations, and pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure, despite the country transportation authority’s insistence on flushing $2 billion on an induced demand inducing project on the 405 Freeway.

Carlsbad cops teamed with city staffers to talk with elementary and middle school parents about traffic safety, as part of the state of emergency the city declared to fight a rise in bike-related injuries.

They get it, too. Santa Cruz is moving forward with a long-delayed bike lane project on Soquel Drive, calling them buffered bike lanes with flex posts. Unlike Los Angeles, which insists on calling them protected bike lanes, even though the flimsy plastic posts won’t stop anything. 

 

National

People For Bikes says local governments now have unprecedented access to billions of dollars for safe, connected bike networks and trails, thanks to a variety of federal government programs.

A new book relates the author’s journey by bike, along with two friends, following Harriet Tubman’s road to freedom on the Underground Railroad; he was inspired to take the trip because one of his ancestors was a ship’s captain in the Atlantic slave trade.

Linus has recalled their Cesta 500 ebike due to risk of a cracked front fork, posing a crash risk.

Seattle is beginning work on a new bikeway connecting Capital Hill with the iconic Pike Place Market; the work is being overseen by former LA Bureau of Streets Services head Greg Spotts, now director of the Seattle Department of Transportation.

A San Antonio, Texas bike rider used his skills as an urban planner to develop his own cohesive bike map, showing how to comfortably ride between disconnected bike lanes and paths.

Two men are dead in Garland, Texas, after a bike shop worker was murdered before the store opened, then a police SWAT team found the 58-year old suspect dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound; it turned out both victims were employees of the shop.

Grunge remembers Orville and Wilbur Wright’s younger sister Katherine, who kept their Ohio bike shop running while they were learning to fly.

Kindhearted Kentucky organizations pitched in to buy a new adaptive trike for an eight-year-old boy with a previously unheard of medical condition. The look on the kid’s face when he was given the bike is priceless.

A small Rhode Island community doesn’t want visitors to leave their dockless bikes behind, announcing plans to impound any bikeshare bikes or e-scooters that spill over the city limit from nearby Providence.

Residents of New York’s upscale Upper West Side are opposing plans for an outdoor ebike hub for food delivery workers, arguing it will increase congestion and block access to the nearby subway. Apparently confusing bicycles, which relieve congestion, with the cars that cause it.

A reminder that bike-riding women face risks that most men don’t, as a Florida woman was lucky to escape when a man attempted to force her into his van as she rode her bike.

There’s not a pit in hell deep enough for the Florida man who attacked a passing bike rider, knocking him off his bicycle while hurling antisemitic comments, apparently enraged because the victim was speaking Hebrew on his phone as he rode.

 

International

Bike Radar wants to teach you to bunny hop in five simple jumps.

Off-Road.cc explains everything you need to know to start mountain biking.

Vancouver’s Critical Mass will return at the end of the month after a three-month hiatus, to protest a decision to rip out a bike lane through the city’s Stanley Park so angry drivers can more easily use it as a cut-through route.

A Sikh woman in Ontario developed her own bike helmet so her sons could safely ride their bikes, with a special space on top to accommodate the faith’s traditional hair topknot.

Residents of Cardiff, Wales are mourning the death of a bike shop owner who ran his shop for more than 65 years — despite being told 20 years ago that he had just two weeks to live when doctors discovered cancer during an operation.

A new study from MIT concludes that most stolen bikes remain in the local area, where they are resold and remain part of the local bike fleet. At least in Amsterdam, anyway. Thanks to Tim Rutt for the link.

Japanese bicycle component maker Shimano had a record year in 2022, topping their previous best sales year by over 16% despite a slowing down of the pandemic bike boom.

Philippine bike riders and pedestrians continue to protest plans to convert a protected bike lane in Manilla to sharrows.

 

Competitive Cycling

Two-time Tour de France champ Tadej Pogacar added another double to his resume, winning the first two stages of the Vuelta a Andalucia.

The BBC remembers trailblazing women’s cyclist Eileen Sheridan, who died this week at 99-years old; she still holds five of the 21 records she set during her career.

Now you, too, can ride the famed Mont Ventoux and other French mountains with the legendary Jan Ullrich, for the low, low price of 20,000 euros — that’s $21,270 for those of us on this side of the Atlantic. As usual, you can read it on Yahoo if Bicycling blocks you. 

 

Finally…

Bad enough to return home to find someone burglarizing it, worse when they escape on your own bicycle. That feeling when you intend to set the bike world on its head by inventing the e-cargo bike, which is already a thing.

And your next bike tires could be made from your last bike tires.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

26.5 years for killer stoned driver in AZ master’s race, a damp last CicLAvia of 2022, and Orange Line bike path closure

December 5, 2022 / / Comments Off on 26.5 years for killer stoned driver in AZ master’s race, a damp last CicLAvia of 2022, and Orange Line bike path closure

It’s the second full week of the 8th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive! 

I’m often humbled by the support this site receives. And never more than I was on Sunday.

Saturday I was feeling low after we didn’t receive a single donation, leaving the fund drive hundreds of dollars behind last year’s record-setting pace.

Then on Sunday the floodgates opened. Not only did the sudden outpouring of support make up the deficit, it actually left us a little ahead of last year this morning. 

I recognized a lot of the donors, whether from giving in years past, sharing links or comments on here, or from their work on bike advocacy issues. 

Each and every one touched my heart, leaving me overwhelmed with gratitude. But none more than a donation from a loved one of a fallen bicyclist, who remembered the support I gave them in their time of need. 

All of which has me feeling incredibly humbled today.

I hope you’ll join me in offering a sincere thank you to André V, Greg M, Scott G, Penny S, Samuel M, David Matsu, John H, Anthony D, Mark M and Andre C for their very generous support. 

Because they’re the ones who gave from the heart to bring all the best bike news your way today, and every day. 

So don’t wait. Just take a moment right now to join them by donating via PayPal or Zelle.

We’ll wait.

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There’s justice in Show Low, Arizona, a year and a half after a stoned driver plowed into a master’s bike race, killing one man and seriously injuring eight other people, six critically.

Shawn Michael Chock was sentenced to 26½ years behind bars for the bizarre crime. The 36-year old man received a 16-year sentence for killing 58-year old Jeremy Barrett, and 10-1/2 years for assaulting a police officer, to be served consecutively, with no time off for good behavior for the first 16 years.

A defense attorney claimed Chock was once an accomplished bike racer himself, but suffered from mental health problems. He reportedly relapsed when he received bad family news after three years of sobriety, and blacked out after failing to take his meds and inhaling aerosol fumes, crossing over several lanes of traffic to plow into the racers.

Although that doesn’t fit with earlier reports that Chock was laughing as he steered into the victims, and made a U-turn to come back at them.

Which is kind of hard to do when you’re unconscious.

It’s also worth noting that a history of mental illness and substance abuse somehow wasn’t enough for authorities to keep Chock from getting behind the wheel until it was too late.

He was only arrested after officers shot his truck engine to disable it following a standoff with police behind a hardware store.

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Sunday marked the last CicLAvia of the year, as the streets of South LA opened to welcome bike riders, walkers, skaters, rollers, cowboys, and yes, even Dodgers, of every description, despite the cool, cloudy and sometimes wet weather.

Of course, it’s always after the event that those warm feelings give way to the typical LA challenge of just getting home in one piece.

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One of LA’s busiest bikeways shut down without warning, as Streetsblog discovered an unexpected closure on the Orange Line.

And as usual, the detour leaves something to be desired, dumping riders onto surface streets to negotiate their route with impatient drivers.

How long the repairs will take, and how long the closure will last, is anyone’s guess.

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The next time you complain about the crappy bikeways you have to use, or the lack thereof, remember this.

It could be worse.

https://twitter.com/cyclelicious/status/1599195355949563904

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A distracted driver calls out the risk posed to safe, law-abiding bike riders from distracted drivers just like him.

https://twitter.com/EntitledCycling/status/1599579717325111296

Click on the tweet if the photo of the rider is obscured.

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This is who we share the road with.

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Who needs handlebars?

Or a head tube, fork or front wheel, for that matter?

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

No bias here. A Marin paper calls for “compromises” by limiting the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge bike path to weekend use by recreational riders — even though traffic congestion is no worse than before it was installed, and removing it on weekdays would just make traffic worse in other areas. In other words, they want bike commuters and local communities to compromise by surrendering to drivers.

No bias here, either. A Portland hotel manager complains about a parking protected bike lane in front of the hotel, as careless guests nearly collide with bike riders, and a guest’s car door “got hit by a bicyclist.” No, the guest doored the person on the bike, which is against the law.

Vancouver’s parks board is preparing to cave to angry, entitled drivers for whom one lane isn’t enough by ripping out a popular bike lane through the park, and restoring a second traffic lane so drivers can use it as a cut-through route.

A 24-year old Scottish man suffered multiple injuries after he was pushed off his bicycle by a couple men on a moped, for no apparent reason.

Sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.

More proof ebikes are replacing car trips, as a British ebike rider conducted a carless driveby shooting, firing repeatedly into a car after riding up next to it, although he missed all the occupants.

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Local 

Metro is scheduled to start construction on the La Brea Ave bus lanes today, though the rain may have something to say about that.

Long Beach is considering lowering speed limits on 100 sections of city streets, including 23 that could drop to 15 to 20 mph.

Anyone interested in serving on your local Neighborhood Council should make plans to attend an information session hosted by Streets For All this Thursday. We need a lot more support for bikes on local councils to overcome the outsized NIMBY voices. 

Speaking of Streets For All, the transportation PAC is hosting a virtual happy hour with newly elected CD13 Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez on Wednesday, December 14th. Which would be a good opportunity to ask about his plans to improve bike safety and infrastructure in the Hollywood district.

 

State 

San Diego Magazine lists ten bike rides to meet the needs of every kind of rider.

‘Tis the season. Over 300 children in the Coachella Valley have new bikes this week, thanks to the Variety Children’s Charity of the Desert.

A Camarillo letter writer says he agrees with a driver that bike riders belong in the bike lane, if only the city had some.

They get it. The San Francisco Chronicle says instead of getting rid of Slow Streets, the city make them even better, arguing that it’s hard to view the Slow Streets experiment as anything but a wild success.

 

National

Bike counters recorded nearly 42,000 bike trips to Colorado’s Maroon Bells, fueled largely by the increasing popularity of ebikes.

‘Tis the season, too. A Boise, Idaho bike drive plans to give away 567 bicycles to kids in need over the holidays.

Sixty-seven-year old Joseph Kennedy reportedly confessed to the deaths of four men who disappeared after setting out on an Oklahoma bike ride, telling a friend he “killed the men and cut them up” because they stole from him.

Brooklyn firefighters rescued a semi-conscious man and two puppies after yet another fire allegedly started by an ebike battery.

A bill in the New Jersey legislature would make it the first state in the nation to mandate bike helmets for adults. Although similar laws have repeatedly been shown to be counterproductive, reducing bicycling rates and the safety in numbers effect, while disproportionately affecting low income riders and people of color. Thanks to Victor Bale for the link. 

Another seemingly sentient SUV, as a Philadelphia TV station reports a bike cop was hit by a Ford Explorer, whose driver apparently had nothing to do with it.

A 31-year old woman with Down’s Syndrome is able to ride a bike for the first time since she was a child, after a kindhearted stranger saw her competing for the title of Virginia’s Miss Amazing Senior Miss Queen, and gave her a new three-wheeled bike through a nonprofit organization.

 

International

A website for a drunk driving interlock ignition system reminds us that other countries have solved the problem of drunk driving, even if the US can’t seem to do it. Sort of like we can’t seem to solve traffic deaths, hit-and-runs, shooting deaths, poverty, universal healthcare…

A Spanish man touring the world by bicycle stops in Mexico’s Yucatán on his way to Argentina, accompanied by a dog he adopted in Spain, and another who adopted him in Mexico.

Mexico City’s Los Chilangos lowrider bike club is combating gang life by promoting a positive bicycle culture as an alternative to the world of drugs and gangs, although facial tatts are still welcome.

A Halifax, Nova Scotia bike shop says business is booming and employees are sticking around longer after they committed to paying a living wage, a full ten dollars above the area’s current minimum.

Over one thousand Londoners turned out for a 14-mile Black Unity Bike Ride across the city.

English police link stolen ebikes to the drug trade, robbery and other crimes, saying they’re being used to pursue criminal activity. Shocking that criminals would use stolen goods to do other crimes, I know.

A pair of British politicians call on their peers to practice what they preach by installing more “secure, accessible and sufficient” bike parking on the Parliament grounds.

A writer in the UK says a 3,427-mile ride around the coast of Britain saved his mental health during the pandemic.

France is marking the 80th anniversary of a successful suicide mission by British marines, who slipped behind German lines to destroy five ships; only two of the men survived the mission and escaped to safety, fleeing 100 miles by foot, bicycle and trains to Gibraltar.

An Islamabad, Pakistan paper makes the case for bringing the concept of carfree cities to the country.

Japan’s bicycle industry was reportedly built on the ironworking skills developed to build burial mounds dating back 1,600 years.

An Aussie designer says he doesn’t care about negative feedback, as he spends his days designing the world’s most outlandish concept bikes.

 

Competitive Cycling

Police have identified a 62-year-old German truck driver as a suspect in the hit-and-run death of Italian ex-pro Davide Rebellin, who died shortly after retiring from a 30-year racing career; police are still searching for the suspect.

 

Finally…

If you’re riding a bike with outstanding warrants — you, that is, not the bike — put a damn light on it already. Playing cumbias from the back a wagon pulled by a bike.

And we might have to deal with bored LA drivers, but at least we don’t have to worry about being attacked by a wild boar while riding a bike.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Support bike advocacy on Giving Tuesday, Metro rescinds disguised rate increase, and new bike lanes in CD1 at last

November 29, 2022 / / 5 comments

Happy Giving Tuesday!

It’s the day you give your hard-earned money to help one or more deserving organizations do some good in the world. 

We listed a handful of local organizations that deserve your support yesterday, like CicLAvia, Streets For All and LA’s legendary Bicycle Kitchen.

Other deserving LA and California bike groups include Calbike, Streetsblog, BikeLA (formerly the LACBC), SAFE and Walk ‘n Rollers. 

Then if there’s anything left under your sofa cushions, it’s also Day 5 of the 8th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive.

So let’s give a special thanks to Andrew G, David R, Eric L and SAFE for their generous donations yesterday to keep all the best bike news and advocacy coming your way every day. 

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Apparently, they heard us.

After transit users and advocacy groups rose up against Metro’s proposed new rate structure, which was presented as a “simplification” but would have resulted in a disguised rate increase for many riders, the LA County transit agency backed down.

Metro is now keeping the existing $1.75 fares and free transfers, while capping daily fares for multiple rides at $5, with an $18 weekly cap.

Which should work better for everyone.

While we’re on the subject, Metro is recruiting members for the agency’s Public Safety Advisory Committee.

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It looks like LADOT is getting a jump on “Roadkill” Gil Cedillo leaving office.

After nine years of blocking most, if not all, bike infrastructure in LA’s CD1, new bike lanes are beginning to appear on the streets of long-neglected Lincoln Heights now that Cedillo has lost his bid for a third and final term, with incoming Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez set to take office in two weeks.

Let’s hope it’s just the first of many, starting with deadly North Figueroa.

https://twitter.com/hippierunner/status/1597268600175284224

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Apparently, it is possible to build a bike lane that’s actually protected from motor vehicles, without relying on those little car-tickler plastic bendy posts.

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Speaking of Walk ‘n Rollers, the Culver City-based kids bike safety and education group is hosting a fundraising donut ride this Saturday.

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And speaking of CicLAvia, you can chase your donuts with America’s largest open streets event as it rolls through South LA on Sunday.

Fingers crossed that it doesn’t rain, though.

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‘Tis the season.

Seventy-five students in a Colorado elementary school were surprised with new bicycles thanks to a local nonprofit, after the kids watched a performance by a retired BMX stunt rider.

Hundreds of 3rd graders at a pair of Greenville NC elementary schools got new bikes, thanks to the Poway, California-based Bikes for Kids Foundation.

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

A Michigan judge faces a judicial ethics complaint after falsely accusing a bike shop owner of a racist assault after she demanded for a discount due to a problem with one of the bicycles; security video showed she was the one who actually assaulted the bike shop owner.

No bias here. Bike riders in Winnipeg, Manitoba were warned not to clear snow from city bike lanes or risk a fine, even if the city doesn’t do it.

A Toronto roadway vigilante asks if he was wrong to honk at a bike rider who started off from a red light during the Leading Pedestrian Interval, saying he’s tires of bicyclists making up their own rules; a columnist politely points out that there are too many traffic infractions at every intersection to enforce every one, and it ain’t his job anyway. Correction: I originally wrote that California bike riders are allowed to proceed along with the walk signal, in advance of the green light; however, Bryan J Blumberg explains that the rule won’t take effect until 2024. 

No bias here, either. London cops took a bike rider to task for swearing after they parked their unmarked car in bike lane, forcing the rider into the street — even though bicyclists are required to used the bike lane, and even though he had no idea they were cops. The Metro police later apologized, admitting the cops were wrong.

Sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.

The FBI is continuing to search for a 38-year old armed robber, despite removing him from Ten Most Wanted list 18 years after he allegedly shot a 24-year-old armored-car guard five times in the head, then fled on a mountain bike with $56,000 in cash.

Students at England’s Cambridge University have a tradition of ignoring the university’s one-way traffic regulations, according to a university fellow.

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Local 

No news is good news, right?

 

State 

Calbike offers suggestions on how young people can get started in advocacy to get more people riding bicycles.

More bad news this week, as a 71-year old man suffered critical injuries when he was struck by a driver while riding in Rancho Santa Margarita.

Oakland is moving ahead with a $295 million package of infrastructure improvements between the city’s Jack London Square and a proposed new stadium at the port, including a bike path, regardless of whether it actually gets built.

 

National

VeloNews examines whether MIPS bike helmets really prevent traumatic brain injuries, as the manufacturers claim. However, you’ll have to sign up for a free account to read the story.

Bicycling looks at the problem of ever-shrinking passing zones, as bike lanes have failed to keep up with larger private vehicles — let alone vehicle sizes that force bike riders who don’t take the full lane even further into the door zone. As usual, read it on Yahoo if the magazine blocks you. 

Bike Portland takes an early look at Oregon’s proposed ebike rebate program, which would offer up to $1,200 to purchase a standard ebike, or up to $1,700 for a cargo ebike. Although that could change as the bill moves forward.

Utah has suffered a 30 year high in bicycling fatalities; 15 people have been killed riding bikes in the state this year, with over a month to go.

Once again, authorities have managed to keep a dangerous driver on the road until it’s too late. A Utah man faces up to 20 years behind bars after pleading guilty in the drunken crash that killed a 13-year old boy riding his bike in a crosswalk; he was still on the road despite three previous DUI convictions, as well as violating court-imposed alcohol restrictions.

A sitting judge, who was the co-founder of the nonprofit Bicycle Coalition of New Mexico, was killed by her husband in murder suicide; he also shot a number of their pets before taking his own life.

A defendant in Colorado’s Operation Vicious Cycle bike theft scheme agreed to a plea deal of three years behind bars, followed by another three years of probation; seven other defendants are also accused of stealing high-end bikes from Denver-area bike shops for resale in a Mexican bike shop.

Good news, as Christian singer Amy Grant returned to a Memphis stage for the first time since she suffered a traumatic brain injury hitting a pothole on her bike in August; she was reportedly unconscious for up to 15 minutes following her fall. And yes, she was wearing a helmet.

New York’s fire department will require landlords to post a notice warning about the risk of ebike and e-scooter battery fires when charging them indoors.

Prosecutors in North Carolina have charged a driver with killing an Asheville man riding a bicycle, even though the driver played the Universal Get Out of Jail Free card by claiming he just didn’t see him; police say the area was well lighted, so the driver should have seen the victim in time to avoid the crash.

 

International

Road.cc asks its readers what’s the scariest thing that’s happened to them on a bike that didn’t involve a driver, with responses ranging from rampaging cows to exploding rims. In my case, it was probably when a log resting on a Louisiana roadway started moving when I rode closer, and snapped his alligator jaws at me as I swerved around it.

A writer for We Love Cycling makes the case for why requiring registration plates for bicycles doesn’t make sense.

A Japanese writer takes on the new rinko trend, defined as taking a folding bicycle on a train to explore your destination at the other end.

 

Competitive Cycling

A British man has been sidelined in advance of this week’s Cyclocross Masters World Championships after someone broke into his home and stole his bikes.

 

Finally…

Build your own DIY bicycle turn signals and brake light. Your next ebike could be your caddie, although it probably sucks at selecting the right club.

And presenting the answer for everyone who ever wanted to pedal through the library.

Or in it, anyway.

https://twitter.com/Michele_Bryans/status/1596218054077480960?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1596218054077480960%7Ctwgr%5Edaafdaf1036e381419e91ae9390e8aa5b3f4c859%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Froad.cc%2Fcontent%2Fnews%2Fcycling-live-blog-28-november-2022-297679

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

 

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