Tag Archive for Live To Ride

Live to Ride book signing in SaMo this Sunday, Balboa Park bike lane cleanup, and a Bill Nighy thanks for stopping

April 18, 2024 / / No comments
Just 258 days until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025.
So stop what you’re doing and sign this petition to demand Mayor Bass hold a public meeting to listen to the dangers we all face on the mean streets of LA.

Then share it — and keep sharing it — with everyone you know, on every platform you can. 

We’re now up to 1,117 signatures, so let’s keep it going! Urge everyone you know to sign the petition, until the mayor agrees to meet with us! 

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My apologies for yesterday’s unexcused absence.

Suddenly becoming a full-time caregiver for my unexpectedly incapacitated wife and her broken shoulder, while simultaneously attempting to maintain this site and care for my own torn rotator cuff, is totally kicking my diabetic ass. 

I honestly don’t know how I’m going to make it through the next few months before we both get back on our feet. But we’ll get there somehow. 

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Take a break from Sunday’s Venice CicLAvia for a book signing with Peter Flax, author of Live to Ride: Finding Joy and Meaning on a Bicycle at the Rapha Clubhouse in Santa Monica. 

Or better yet, make that the first stop of the day for coffee and a social ride with the author, the former editor-in-chief of Bicycling Magazine, and one of the most talented, insightful and beautiful voices in the bicycling community.

And if you haven’t bought your copy yet, what the hell are you waiting for?

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Streets Are For Everyone, aka SAFE, is marking Earth Day with a much-needed cleanup of the bike lane in Balboa Park.

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That feeling when Bill Nighy thanks you for stopping at a red light.

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It’s now 119 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And 34 months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

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

The LAPD is on the lookout for bike-riding teenaged flash mobs who swarm retail stores to steal merchandise, before disappearing on their bicycles.

A Singapore lawyer suggests a road-raging bicyclist may not have been responsible for her actions because she was diagnosed with a brain tumor, shortly after she stopped her bicycle in front of a driver’s car to confront him, opened the door to his car and clung to his hood.

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Local 

The LA Times examines South LA’s new 250-bike ebike lending library.

CicLAvia recommends highlights from this Sunday’s open streets event on Venice Blvd.

Alyssa Walker’s new blog examines the abject failure of LA’s 28 by 28 plan to develop 28 major transit, pedestrian and bike projects in time for the 2028 Olympics.

Montebello’s City Council unanimously approved the Citywide Bicycle Master Plan, as well as the 2040 Citywide General Plan and the city’s Downtown Specific Plan. Although as we’ve learned the hard way, it’s one thing to pass a bike plan, and another to actually implement it.

Santa Clarita is preparing for its 20th annual Bike to Work Challenge as part of next month’s Bike Week, with a city pit stop on May 16. Although no one seems to give a damn about it down here in Los Angeles anymore. 

The Santa Monica-based developers of a noseless and bumpless bike seat that’s “changing the lives of cyclists” walked away from Shark Tank with a $200,000 deal, in exchange for a quarter of the company.

Today is the deadline to apply for Long Beach’s new ebike lending library.

 

State

Pinkbike says you should give a shit about this weekend’s Sea Otter Classic in Monterey, and other bike festivals. Actually, they coyly said “give a sh!t,” but whatever.

Officials announced that a new 72-mile trail from Truckee and Nevada City in the Tahoe National Forest will be open to ebikes.

 

National

Discerning Cyclist recalls the day in 1899 when “Mile-a-Minute Murphy” outraced a train on his bicycle.

Bike shop owners recommend their picks for the best affordable bikes for casual riders, from a $249 beach cruiser to an ebike for two grand.

Fox News ungrammatically suggests “20 bikes for every type of bike rider,” from daily riders to competitive cyclists. Assuming you’re willing to get laughed off the starting line by showing up at your next race on a $379.00 Walmart bike.

Bicycling talks with Matthew Modine about what he learned about bicycling while making the new movie Hard Miles, about a cycling team at a medium-security correctional school. Unfortunately, this one doesn’t seem to be available anywhere else, so you’re on your own if the magazine blocks you. 

Women shopping at a New Mexico bike shop were victimized by a 21-year old store employee who secretly recorded them in the changing room.

Three Oklahoma men finished a 600-mile bike tour to visit each of the 13 remaining Black towns founded by former slaves after the Civil War.

Life is cheap in Minnesota, where a 28-year old man with an extensive record of driving without a license got a lousy five months behind bars, after pleading guilty to criminal vehicular homicide for killing a 73-year old Catholic priest who was riding a bicycle on the shoulder of a roadway.

That’s more like it. A Kentucky man faces a murder charge, along with wanton endangerment and DUI charges, for fleeing the scene after killing a 39-year old woman riding a bicycle, but apparently escape hit-and-run charges by calling the cops to turn himself in shortly later.

A New York man credits his Apple Watch with saving his life by automatically dialing 911 after his bike hit a rain-filled pothole.

 

International

Road.cc suggests low-cost alternatives to expensive bicycling gear.

Momentum offers ten “amazing” examples of bicycling solutions from cities around the world, from a glowing bike path to a bikeway soaring through the trees. None of which are in Los Angeles. Or North America, even.

The rich get richer, as Toronto is set to get a veritable shipload of new bike lanes in the coming months. I learned very early in my advertising career that “shipload” doesn’t work in a radio ad, because everyone will inevitably hear it as something similar, but more offensive. 

Bike theft was down 15% in the UK last year, despite a doubling of ebike thefts.

Despite a lane reduction on one of Brussels, Belgium’s busiest streets, it continues to give little space to anyone outside of a car.

Sleek new Swiss-made bike elevators in Bonn, Germany are designed to securely store bicycles near train stations with a minimal footprint.

 

Competitive Cycling

British cyclist Stephen Williams became the first Flèche Wallonne winner from the UK on Wednesday, battling snow for a first-place finish atop the Mur de Huy.

Double Tour de France champ Jonas Vingegaard has been released from hospital, 12 days after he suffered a broken collarbone, multiple broken ribs, a pulmonary contusion and pneumothorax in a mass crash during the Tour de Suisse.

Former Tour de France champ Geraint Thomas says WorldTour cyclists are exasperated by UCI’s lack of safety improvements, saying nothing has changed since Swiss cyclist Gino Mäder was killed during last year’s Tour de Suisse.

Seventy-eight-year old cycling legend Eddy Merckx is recovering at home after emergency surgery to have a bowel obstruction removed.

Belt-drive maker Gates is offering 100,000 euros — the equivalent of nearly $107,000 — to the first person who wins a Wold Cup downhill race using a belt-drive bike.

 

Finally…

Why sleep on the ground on your next bike tour when you can tow your very own bike camper trailer? When you’re riding with an outstanding arrest warrant and illicit drugs, don’t ride salmon through a red light — and don’t try to outrun the Mounties, either.

And seriously, who doesn’t enjoy riding through puddles?

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

New Flax bike book out now, Hollywood Complete Street plan announced, and Senate bill promises local bike/ped funding

March 22, 2024 / / No comments
Just 284 days until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025.
So stop what you’re doing and sign this petition to demand Mayor Bass hold a public meeting to listen to the dangers we face walking and biking on the mean streets of LA.

Then share it — and keep sharing it — with everyone you know, on every platform you can.

We’re up to 1,022 signatures, so keep it going! Urge everyone you know to sign the petition, until the mayor agrees to meet with us! 

And that’s my copy of Flax’s new book up there. 

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It’s now 93 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And 33 months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

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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 group of merchants in the UK claim a new bike lane has killed their businesses, even though the project actually added 80 parking spaces.

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Local 

Over 80 kids and adults took part in South Pas Active Streets’ Park-to-Park family bike ride in South Pasadena last Saturday, sponsored by seven local groups.

 

State

Police in Orange busted a bike thief who stole a bicycle from a 14-year old boy while he was playing with friends.

Sad news from Watsonville, where a 58-year old bike rider died in the hospital, a week after being injured in a collision; police investigators said the victim was following the law when he or she was struck by the 31-year old driver.

A Berkeley father calls for safe streets after he and his son survived a collision when a driver hit the cargo bike they were riding.

A Gold Country cycling columnist says don’t let bad behavior define bicyclists, and it’s never appropriate to flip off a driver. No matter how much they might deserve it. 

 

National

Marketplace says cargo bikes offer a solution to package delivery trucks clogging city streets.

Forbes offers a “complete and comprehensive” guide to the year’s best bike brands.

A 24-year old Colorado woman was arrested for a fatal hit-and-run, two months after she knocked a 43-year old man off his bicycle and left him to die on an embankment on the side of the road; the victim wasn’t found for more than two days after the crash. Drivers like that should face a murder charge for making the conscious decision to let their victims die rather than stop and call for help. 

Kindhearted Idaho cops gave new bikes to a pair of cousins, after the five and four-year old boys survived getting hit by an intoxicated driver.

They get it. A Kentucky radio station says motorists need to watch out for bicyclists. True, in every sense.

Hoboken, New Jersey will now require ebike delivery riders to be tested, licensed, and wear a high-vis vest with a registration number; the city has gone seven years without a single traffic death.

DC shows how to launch an ebike rebate program similar to the highly successful Denver ebike voucher plan, just six months after it was unanimously approved by the city council. Not three years or more, like bumbling and incompetent California’s moribund plan. 

 

International

A 32-year old Austin, Texas man became the first openly gay man to ride a bike around the world, traveling 27,461 miles across 37 different countries in 280 days, and raising nearly $19,000 for for LGBTQ+ suicide prevention nonprofit The Trevor Project.

Momentum takes a look at the bike bus movement, and why kids love it so much. Short answer, because it’s fun. Longer answer, because it’s a lot of fun.

Thanks to the Church of Scotland, bike riders will have a new 1.6-mile path between two small villages, after the church donated a parcel of land for the project.

Life is cheap in Scotland, where 69 year old man walked without a day behind bars for killing a 22-year old French-American bike rider while driving with an obscured windshield, and dragging her more than half the length of a football field; the lawyer representing her family writes that drivers hold the key to keeping bicyclists safe, and mere sentencing won’t cut it.

The Daily Mail joins “London’s patron saint of cycling” on a ride through the city’s streets to see if it really is a death trap, while a former British news host calls out the aforementioned saint, BBC host Jeremy Vine, after he was nearly hit by bicyclists blowing through a red light. Because as we all know, every bike rider is responsible for the actions of every other misbehaving bicyclist.

Czech carmaker Škoda’s We Love Cycling website recommends the five best bicycling festivals to visit this year.

 

Competitive Cycling

Sad news from Australia, where a 62-year old man was killed while competing in the Indian Pacific Wheel Race, seven years after popular ultra-endurance rider Mike Hall was killed in the first edition of the race; another competitor was injured in a separate incident.

Arkansas’ Joe Martin Stage Race has been cancelled for this year; one of just four remaining UCI sanctioned races in the US, and the longest-held stage race in America — assuming it returns next year, as promised.

The popular Belgian Waffle Ride, aka BWR, will return to North City in San Marcos on April 27-28.

 

Finally…

That feeling when you can’t find a place to do handstands and splits on your handlebars. And hell hath no fury like a bicyclist with a GoPro.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

New Flax bike book, Metro cuts open streets funding, and nation’s deadliest city for pedestrians rates 8th for walkability

January 29, 2024 / / Comments Off on New Flax bike book, Metro cuts open streets funding, and nation’s deadliest city for pedestrians rates 8th for walkability
Stop what you’re doing and sign this petition demanding a public meeting with LA Mayor Karen Bass to hear the dangers we face just walking and biking on the mean streets of Los Angeles.

Then share it — and keep sharing it — with everyone you know, on every platform you can.

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LA bike advocate and former Bicycling Editor in Chief Peter Flax has a new book coming out on March 19th titled Live To Ride, which is available for preorder now.

Meanwhile, Bicycling’s Gabe’s Bike Shop talks with Flax about his book, and digs through his Twitter/X account to get into his head.

As usual, read and/or listen to it on Yahoo if the magazine blocks you.

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Metro inexplicably followed through on a staff recommendation to cut open streets funding last week.

The LA County transportation agency reduced spending on already-approved projects up to 20%, sending organizers scrambling to secure more funding, and putting events like CicLAvia, 626 Golden Streets and Beach Streets in jeopardy.

The agency also refused funding for projects planned for this December for Ventura Blvd, as well as Northridge, Wilmington, Long Beach, Hawthorne, Lincoln Heights and MacArthur Park.

The decision makes no sense at a time when reducing automobile traffic and getting people out of their cars is vital for the health of our transportation network, and our world.

And even though the $5.5 million approved for open streets funding over the next two years amounts to a lousy rounding error on Metro’s massive $9 billion annual budget.

They could have easily fully funded all the proposed events just by trimming one needless and environmentally harmful highway project.

Update: I received the following statement from Metro’s Jennifer Butler, disputing that funding had been cut, but rather, an increase in funding had been spread further, resulting in a reduction in funding for existing events.

On Jan. 25, 2024, the Metro Board approved the Open and Slow Streets Grant Program, which reflected an increase in annual funding from $4 to $5 million and included unspent funds from last year for a total of $5.5 million in fiscal year 2024. Metro has funded $20 million for Open Streets events since the program began, and with the recent Board action, this figure rises to just over $25 million cumulatively through 2025. 

The approved increased in annual funding, together with staff’s recommendation to partially fund (at 80%) the longstanding events that had received open streets funding for five or more events prior to this Cycle, allowed Metro to fund 16 Open Streets activities vs 13 previously.  

The mature events have access to (Part 3 such as TDA Article 3, bicycle and pedestrian funds) to complete the funding of their events, and new applicants now have the opportunity to hold their first event, giving more people in LA County a chance to experience safe walking, biking and rolling. This fulfills the program’s objective to provide seed funding for open streets events and enables more people to experience active transportation and public transportation for the first time. 

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Condé Nast Traveler caused an uproar after rating Los Angeles the eighth most walkable city in the US — despite also being the nation’s deadliest city for pedestrians.

Which one would think would kind of have an impact on walkability.

But apparently not.

Meanwhil, Redfin rates the ten most bikeable cities in California, none of which are Los Angeles.

Although Santa Monica ranks sixth.

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NBA star Klay Thompson is one of us, as the Golden State Warriors guard showed up on an ebike for a recent game with the Los Angeles Lakers.

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It’s now 39 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And 30 months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law, and counting.

………

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

A 47-year old Oregon man faces a host charges after allegedly intentionally ramming a bike rider with his car, then fleeing the scene; no word on the extent of the victim’s injuries.

No bias here. A populist Irish politician who frequently complains about the “nanny state” apparently has no problem acting like one if it means requiring hi-viz for people on bicycles.

The wife of an Australian man intentionally run down by the occupants of a stolen car says he should be able to walk again, but his spine will never be the same — and the jerks who did it were laughing as they drove away.

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

A Florida man was busted for biking under the influence for trying to ride his bike home while both high and drunk, as well as having no idea what time it was. And should be grateful the cop didn’t get him for littering, too.

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Local 

A Los Angeles bike rider was treated by paramedics after being struck by a driver fleeing from the LAPD.

ActiveSGV calls on LA County to fund the 5-city, 8-mile Eaton Wash Greenway running from Pasadena to El Monte.

 

State

Southern California will get a share of $1.2 billion in new funding from the California Transportation Commission, including over $53 million to improve safety on CA-2, better known as Santa Monica Blvd.

A new ghost bike was installed in San Diego’s Mission Valley to remember husband and father Matt Keenan, after his ghost bike was set on fire earlier this month; one man is in custody for the arson attack.

No bias here, either. The CHP was quick to absolve a semi driver of responsibility for driving off after hitting a Bakersfield bike rider, who suffered major injuries, saying “the truck driver most likely did not feel they hit someone.”

Sad news from San Jose, where a man riding a bicycle was killed when a driver somehow “made contact with him.” Which makes it sound like just a little bump, instead of a life-threatening crash.

Ten teens have now been charged with stabbing a 41-year old Santa Rosa man  multiple times to steal his bicycle earlier this month.

 

National

Outside says there’s no good reason to buy a carbon bike, because the only people who really need one get them for free.

The Tucson, Arizona driver who killed a woman participating in the city’s Bike Party, and caused life-changing injuries to two other people, will spend the next 17 years behind bars — even though the victim worked to reduce prison populations and sentences.

US Marshals smoked out alleged killer and former fugitive Kaitlin Armstrong from her Costa Rica hideout when she responded to an ad they posted looking for a yoga instructor; Armstrong is charged with murdering gravel champ Moriah “Mo” Wilson in Austin, Texas over a perceived love triangle with pro cyclist Colin Strickland. As rumored, she used plastic surgery to change her appearance.

Eight of New York’s 77 police precincts recorded zero traffic deaths last year, even as the city suffered its second-worst year on record for bicycling fatalities.

New York magazine rates the best bike helmets, saying there’s one for every head.

That’s more like it. A Florida man was sentenced to a dozen years behind bars, followed by eleven years probation, for killing a bike-riding man while driving drunk and doing 109 mph in a 35 mph zone.

 

International

How to build your very own aluminum framed superbike.

A 70-year old English minister is sacrificing his free time to fix “unsolvable” bike repair problems.

A new British study shows cargo bikes are faster in urban areas than delivery trucks or vans, without the harmful climate effects of motor vehicles.

One of the UK’s most wanted criminals will spend the next 19 years behind bars after he was busted by Spanish police trying to make his escape by ebike after two years on the run.

Indian film star Bobby Deal killed four years by running and riding his bike while waiting for his movie debut to finally be released.

A Karachi, Pakistan bikeathon was held to reclaim public spaces for women on bicycles, who are subject to “evil” street harassment.

A group of British Muslims are biking nearly 350 miles between Makkah and Madinah, following the route of the Prophet Muhammad, to protest the war in Gaza.

Hats off to Rwandan ebike-startup Ampersand for securing nearly $20 million in debt and equity funding to get off the ground.

Celebrity Philippine beauty doctor Vicki Bello is one of us, after her equally celeb physician husband gave her a new Fendi ebike for her 68th birthday.

 

Competitive Cycling

Makes sense to me. Cycling Weekly says the greatest rider of all time is always the one who inspired you in your youth. Which explains why I always nominate The Cannibal; however, anyone who grew up idolizing a certain one-balled Texan may be screwed.

A 27-year old British Columbia cyclist was permanently banned from participating as a coach, athlete, volunteer or spectator at any Canadian cycling event after violating Cycling Canada’s code of conduct in some undisclosed way.

French pro Rudy Molard has been unable to fly home after suffering a concussion hitting the pavement in the third stage of the Tour Down Under, leaving him with no memory of the crash. I can relate; I still have no idea what happened in the infamous beachfront bee incident more than 16 years later.

 

Finally…

If you think today’s ebike designs are strange, consider from whence they sprang. We may have to deal with piggish LA drivers, but at least we don’t have to worry about actual wild hogs roaming our bike paths.

And that feeling when you go swimming with your bicycle in an icy lake while streaming live on Twitch.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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