Tag Archive for Los Angeles

Six bicyclists critically injured in attack by pick driver in Arizona bike race, and LGBTQ+ hate from Florida pickup driver

June 21, 2021 / / No comments

Once again, a driver has used a motor vehicle as a weapon, leaving broken bodies in his wake.

This time during a bike race in Show Low, Arizona Saturday morning.

The town of just 11,100 people, 175 miles northeast of Phoenix, was the starting point for the 13th Annual Bike the Bluff Championship Arizona State Road Race.

But just minutes after the men’s 55 and older masters race began, the driver of a Ford F-150 pickup traveling in the opposite direction deliberately crossed over three lanes of traffic to slam into a group of bicyclists, critically injuring six people, with a seventh rider hospitalized in stable condition.

Two other people suffered less serious injuries.

A witness describes the horrors of the crash, which came just six minutes after the start, with bodies flying in every direction. Be forewarned before you click on the link, though, because the story features disturbing photos of the victims lying on the ground after the crash, as well as their mangled bikes and helmets.

You’ll find most of those same photos here, without the graphic photos of the victims. But even then, there’s a photo of a bike wheel and busted fork stuck in the truck’s grill that will haunt me forever.

This is how a Phoenix TV station describes the aftermath.

Helmets, shoes and crumpled and broken bicycles were strewn across the street after the crash, and a tire was wedged into the grill of the truck, which had damage to its top and sides and a bullet hole in a window.

The New York Times reports the driver crashed into a utility pole and was surrounded by angry bicyclists pounding on the windows and screaming for him to get out.

Instead, he backed out and drove down the road, before making a U-turn and heading back toward the bicyclists, who feared a second attack that thankfully never came.

Police attempted to stop the 35-year old Show Low man, who has not been publicly identified, as he fled the scene. They cornered him behind a hardware store a short time later, and shot him in a confrontation, the details of which have not been released.

He remains hospitalized in critical but stable condition.

There’s no word yet on why he did it. Or what charges he’ll face, assuming he survives his wounds.

It should be at least six counts of attempted murder. And hopefully, with a sentence to be served consecutively so he’ll be locked up for a very long time.

Thanks to everyone who sent this one to me.

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This is who we share the road with.

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The team competition in the Race Across America, aka RAAM, kicked off in Oceanside, California yesterday, as teams of 2, 4, and 8 people set on on a race across the continent to the Empire State Building in New York.

Solo riders are seven days in on the race after starting on Tuesday, and allowed just another five days to complete the course.

An Oklahoma team is riding to promote mental health and suicide prevention, something that’s especially important after a year of Covid losses and lockdowns.

Endurance cyclist and semi-retired star San Diego bike lawyer Richard Duquette forwards a photo of himself sandwiched between three-time Olympian, four-time US road cycling champ and Ironman World Champ John Howard and former national crit champ Rahsaan Bahati, who’s competing in this year’s RAAM for Team Thin Energy.

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The Eastside Riders want your support to win an LA 2050 grant.

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A Kenyon rider offers a fascinating view of bicycling conditions in east central Africa, with a challenging soda-fueled, 102-mile ride to the Tanzanian border and back on torturous tuk tuk filled roads.

Thanks to Stormin’ Norman for the link.

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Pro cyclists have to move obstacles out of the way, too. Even Liège–Bastogne–Liège women’s champ Demi Vollering.

But damn, check out that scenery.

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Are two riders faster than one?

Probably not.

Thanks to Tandem Mike Wilkinson for the heads-up.

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

No bias here. Opponents of a bike path through a Florida seniors community insist that “bicycles and people do not mix.” Apparently forgetting that people ride bicycles, including many older people. And those who do are usually healthier and happier than those who don’t, regardless of age.

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

Now that’s more like it. Responding to complaints of anti-social behavior from groups of bike riders and skateboarders, London police welcome them to ride in the city center, where its relatively safe compared to other areas.

A 28-year old Welsh man could face charges of manslaughter and causing bodily harm by wanton/furious driving after killing a 79-year old woman while allegedly riding his bicycle recklessly.

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Local

Metro will vote this Thursday on whether to modernize their Highway Program to open up spending for bus lanes, bike lanes, pedestrian infrastructure and other projects that work to reduce Vehicle Mile Traveled, instead of adding lanes to already overcrowded freeway.

Unincorporated Los Angeles County has a short new protected bike lane on Workman Mill Road in Avocado Heights.

 

State

Work is set to begin this week on installing spacious seven-foot parking- and post-protected bike lanes on 30th Street in San Diego. Meanwhile, local residents and business people decry the loss of 450 parking spaces for the project.

Ride with the American Institute of Graphic Arts next Saturday, and take in the murals of La Jolla.

San Francisco police have arrested a 40-year old man on suspicion of a “prolific” string of pharmacy thefts, including the recent theft where a man on a bicycle was seen clearing pharmacy shelves into a bag before riding out of the store.

Santa Rosa police are looking for a heartless hit-and-run driver who left a bike rider lying in the roadway with severe injuries.

 

National

CNN confirms that it’s not your imagination. Drivers really have gotten worse during the pandemic.

A design site recommends bicycle accessories that run the gamut from smart to cool to…strange.

A writer for c|net recommends a pair of bone conduction headphones from Aftershokz, crediting them with saving his life by allowing him to hear a truck bearing down on him from behind as he rode his bike; they’re on sale now for Prime Day.

Keith Johnson forwards information on a one-year bicycle technician program at the Northwest Arkansas Community College.

Minneapolis bike riders vote with their feet — or their pedals — riding on bike trails more and bike lanes a lot less.

Take a 33-day ride along the entire length of the Mississippi River.

On one of the area’s first post-pandemic group rides, around 50 Michigan bike riders remember the victims of the Kalamazoo massacre, five years after a drunk and stoned driver killed five people and injured four others when he slammed into their group ride.

In yet another example of keeping dangerous drivers on the road until it’s too late, a Massachusetts man was arrested for his fifth DUI after hitting a bike rider (scroll down), following four previous convictions; he was also arrested for possession of a powdery substance believe to be coke. Let’s hope they finally take it seriously this time, and he never drives again.

An op-ed writer in the New York Post insists that the city has to reign in ebikes after the death of Gone Girl actress Lisa Banes, and the ebike hit-and-run that left her seriously injured. Except Banes was struck by a rider on an e-scooter, not an ebike. And in her case, the problem wasn’t the ebike, it was a salmon delivery bicyclist going the wrong way in a bike lane on the wrong side of the street. 

Once again, a bike rider is a hero, after a passing bicyclist teamed with a New Jersey state trooper to rescue two women who fell from their overturned kayak.

 

International

Bike Radar offers a 12-week plan to get fit this summer.

Cuban bike riders turned out to protest the ongoing US blockade of their country, which hasn’t accomplished anything 50 years.

A British Columbia man thought he was in good shape thanks to mountain biking, but his first visit to a doctor in years uncovered stage 4 thyroid cancer than had spread to his spine; he’s now planning a solo 465-mile bike ride across Minnesota in September to benefit the Thyroid Cancer Survivors’ Association.

It takes a major schmuck to knock an 11-year old Toronto boy off his bike after speeding through a stop sign, then flee as the kid stumbles to the curb. And schmuck is putting it mildly.

Big news from London, where Oxford Circus, one of the city’s busiest intersections, will be transformed into a pair of pedestrian plazas separated by a significantly smaller street, with traffic further reduced by closing nearby feeder streets. Seriously, if they can do it there — and in Paris and New York — there’s no reason we can’t do it here. Or wherever you live and ride.

An Indian immigrant learns to ride a bike again at 70 years old, nearly 50 years after giving up riding when she moved to Great Britain.

A writer for Cycling Weekly takes a ride through the UK’s equivalent of Top Gun on Northern Wales’ Mach Loop, one of just two places on earth where you can look down and see ground-hugging fighter pilots roaring beneath you.

British lawyer “Mr. Loophole,” whose job is to get celebrity drivers off the hook for traffic crimes, wants to make bicycle and e-scooter riders wear a license plate. Seriously.

Evidently, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson will keep the bespoke Bilenk bicycle given him by Joe Biden, after commissioning a matching tricycle for his one-year old son.

Several Philippine bicyclists were injured, including a 14-year old girl, when they collided with each other while passing a truck during an illegal bike.

 

Competitive Cycling

Congratulations to Lauren Stephens and Joey Rosskopf for winning the US national road cycling titles; SoCal’s Coryn Rivera finished second to capture her third silver of the nats, while retiring cyclist Brent Bookwalter finished second for the men in his final race as a pro.

LA’s vaunted L39ION of Los Angeles cycling team came up short in the men’s crit, when pre-race favorites Cory Williams and Travis McCabe of Best Buddies Racing hit the pavement on the final turn; 18-year old U-23 team member Luke Lamperti won a surprise victory, while Kendal Ryan won the women’s crit.

In a major surprise, L39ION of Los Angeles founder Justin Williams won his 12th national title — but his first representing Belize, switching his national affiliation to his father’s homeland after winning eleven US national titles.

Reuters previews the road cycling competitions at next month’s Tokyo Olympics.

Team USA introduces the 14 paracyclists who will represent the US in Tokyo.

Twenty-five-year old South Africa native Nicholas Dlamini was named to the Tour de France roster for the Qhubeka Assos team, becoming the first Black African cyclist to ride in the race.

 

Finally…

Your next ebike could have some good bones. Don’t use a riding crop on your fellow naked bike riders, even if you are a dominatrix.

And that feeling when a bicyclist and TV news host turns out to have pretty good taste in music, too.

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

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

Free Juneteenth bikeshare, unconfirmed bike death in Downey, and not-so-safe self-driving cars in your future

June 18, 2021 / / 2 comments

Never have heroes unless you can accept that they’re just as screwed up as the rest of us. 

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They didn’t waste any time observing Juneteenth this week.

Just a day after Joe Biden signed a rare bipartisan bill making the day Texas slaves belatedly learned they had been freed two years earlier a national holiday, federal government offices will close today, since the 19th falls on a Saturday.

Metro was prepared, however.

LA County’s transportation authority was ready with a map of Black-Owned Businesses within walking distance of Metro stations. Along with free half-hour Metro Bike rides to help you ride there to commemorate the holiday.

Meanwhile, Pride Month is still going strong, and you can use that free bike ride as a down payment on a self-guided ride through Silver Lake and Los Feliz to visit LGBTQ+ landmarks.

Highlights include the original home of the groundbreaking gay magazine The Advocate, and the Black Cat Tavern, home to what may have been the nation’s first gay rights protest, two years before Stonewall.

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Let’s hope this one is wrong.

A Redditor drove by a possible fatal bike crash in Downey on Wednesday. However, I haven’t been able to find confirmation of the death at this time.

I drove by on Firestone and Downey Avenue today and saw a crushed pink bicycle next to a white Jeep. Also looked like they had someone on a gurney covered in a white sheet. I’m wondering what exactly happened? I walk on Firestone often to go to the gym and it really shook me to my core. Especially the pink bike. How scary and extremely sad.

Thanks to Joe Linton for the heads-up.

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You may not want to walk your bike in the coming autonomous future.

Or bend over, for that matter.

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If you build it, they will come.

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Today’s musical interlude comes courtesy of Denver-based three-piece band The Yawpers, whose lead singer is preparing to ride cross-country from New York to Los Angeles, into the wind, to raise money for the Sweet Relief Musicians Fund.

He raised $17,000 for Sweet Relief with a 700-mile ride from Denver to Tulsa last year. And caught Covid in the process.

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We posted this Danish bike helmet PSA last week. But people keep sending it to me, and it’s more that worth sharing again.

Thanks to Tim Rutt and Martin Rose for the link.

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

It takes a major schmuck to punch a teenage English boy in the head after crashing into his bicycle, then get back in his car and just drive away.

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

A Chicago man was surrounded and attacked by a group of bikeshare riders, who pulled him off his bike and kicked him when he was down to steal his bicycle in a strong-arm robbery; police arrested one suspect, but the rest got away.

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Local

LAist wants to know how the pandemic affected your personal experience on the streets, as bicycling and walking were up 22% last year, but too many people who couldn’t work from home fell through the cracks. A 22% jump is nice, but ridership doubled in a number of cities that implemented popup bike lanes during the pandemic. And many of those were made permanent after proving their worth.

Voice of America says the pandemic inspired Kellie Hart’s passion for bicycling, which the founder of RideWitUs-LA is passing on to others.

UFC fighter Connor McGregor is one of us, boldly taking the lane in LA traffic on an underdressed ten-mile ride to the boxing gym.

 

State

Caltrans is looking for feedback from people who’ve used the bike and pedestrian path on the Bay Area’s Richmond-San Rafael Bridge.

Hats off to the Mammoth Lakes Police Department, who mostly get it right with their Rules of the Road for bicyclists, thankfully not starting with the usual recommendation to wear a helmet. The only place they miss the mark is on the many exceptions to the requirement to ride to the right, which few cops don’t seem to get. Before anyone comments, yes, I always wear a helmet when I ride. But they’re not magic hats that somehow ward off Mack trucks. Or keep you safe if they don’t. Your best protection is to avoid the need for one in the first place. 

 

National

Four people discuss what anti-Asian racism looks like in the wonderful world of bicycling. As usual, read it on Yahoo if Bicycling blocks you.

A nine-year old boy and his father are halfway through a coast-to-coast bike ride to visit the Statue of Liberty, two years after they had to abandon their first attempt when the son was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes.

A writer for Bicycling says the real problem with “wheelie kids” is that too many people see Black and Brown kids on bikes as a threat. Although to be fair, the weaving in and out of traffic, popping wheelies and playing chicken with oncoming drivers typical of Bike Life rides could have something to do with it. Once again, read it on Yahoo if Bicycling blocks you.

Bike Portland talks with the founder of the city’s annual Black Liberation Ride.

Seattle’s King County Board of Health is reconsidering the county’s mandatory bike helmet law, after statistics show that it has been primarily used to target people of color for riding their bikes without one.

Phoenix drivers can’t seem to figure out the city’s first and only two-way bike lane, resulting in several crashes of possibly impaired drivers in the first ten days.

An autistic Phoenix-area man was happy to get his stolen bike back after it was recovered, even as kindhearted community members were working to get him a new one.

The local country station considers the best bike trails in my hometown. None of which even existed when I lived there.

Colorado-based bicycle reseller The Pro’s Closet will donate bikes to The Cycle Effect, a nonprofit dedicated to giving Latinas and girls from low-income families on mountain bikes.

Gun violence continues to harm people on bikes. A Chicago man is in critical condition with bullet wounds to his head and body after getting caught in a crossfire as he was riding his bike. Just more collateral damage in America’s gun wars.

A retired Connecticut bike cop offers reasonable advice on how to stay safe riding your bike. Although the newspaper’s editor should go to journalist jail for trotting out the tired “safety is a two-way street” cliche.

Chicago ultracyclist Phil Fox is attempting to set a world record with a 920-mile ride around Lake Michigan this weekend; he hopes to finish in 72 hours or less, which works out to over 300 miles a day. Fox is riding to raise funds to fight MS, already bringing in nearly $18,000 of his $20,000 goal.

Construction starts today on a road diet on New York’s iconic Brooklyn Bridge, as the city prepares to convert a traffic lane into a two-way protected bike lane. Although the planned eight foot wide bikeway sounds pretty damn narrow for two way traffic.

 

International

Cycling Weekly takes you inside an ebike motor.

PC Magazine oddly reviews the $2,200 pc-free VanMoof X3 ebike, while bizarrely knocking the Dutch commuter bike for lacking off-road capabilities in an otherwise positive review.

No surprise here. A paper from an Alberta, Canada university suggests giving more road space to bicycles could encourage more people to leave their cars at home.

Britain’s leading bike retailer says the acute shortage of bikes and parts caused by the pandemic bike boom is likely to continue well into the future, with bike sales up over 54% and ebike sales nearly double over the previous year.

The leading bike shop chain in France is reporting a 50% increase in ebike sales last year compared to the year before.

 

Competitive Cycling

Lawson Craddock will represent the US at the Tokyo Olympics after winning the US national time trial championships; sadly, though, Tejay Van Garderen will hang up his cleats after finishing third in his final race.

Longtime American pro Brent Bookwalter is calling it a career, hanging up his cleats following this week’s USA Cycling Pro Road Championships after 16 years in the pro peloton.

Now that’s a real bicyclist. Hours after winning the Belgian national time trial title, Deceuninck – Quick-Step rider Yves Lampaert hopped on his pannier-laden townie to ride back home.

Cycling News looks at the most controversial Tour de France snubs of the last seven decades.

VeloNews looks at the “lionesses of L39ion,” after Skylar Schneider and Kendall Ryan finished 1st and 2nd in last weekend’s Tulsa Tough while riding for Cory and Justin Williams’ L39ion of Los Angeles cycling team.

The date is set for a long overdue return of women’s cycling to the Tour de France, with the Tour de France Femmes set to roll July 22nd of next year; they promise not to go easy on them.

 

Finally…

Now we have to deal with pizza robots in the bike lane. Get the shaft with this $1,800 e-foldie.

And if you want a long, successful career as a Hollywood writer and director, start by riding a bike to the library.

And everywhere else.

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

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

More talk about dogs on bikes, LADOT wins awards for pandemic response, and Ohio cops run over shooting victim

June 17, 2021 / / One comment

Let’s talk dogs on bikes.

Earlier this week, we mentioned a story with tips on how to ride a bike with your dog.

Something I hope to do with our corgi, once I find a decent e-cargo bike I can mange to ride without her killing me.

And something Adam Ginsberg is already doing with his.

Well now…..it’s just so happens I started riding with our rescued Boston Terrier, Bailey, last July. During one of our daily walks, my wife and I saw a man riding with his dog…but the dog was in a backpack!! I had a good hunch Bailey would enjoy doing the same. So, I employed my mAd Google sKiLlz, and found…..www.k9sportsack.com.

They have all manner of pooch backpack goodness so us 2 legged humans can take our 4 legged family members on adventures. Within a few days, a pack arrived, and I immediately set about training Bailey to ride. My hunch proved correct, and she fell in love with riding.

To help protect her vulnerable eyes, I added a pair of Rex-Specs, too.

Now, we go on rides 2-3 times a week, down to the beach, and thru downtown Ventura, where the city closed off Main Street to cars and opened it up to restaurants, shops, people and bikes (yay!!!).

We get so many great reactions – people from 1 to 100 love seeing us riding around town.  We regularly are asked if they can take a picture, and Bailey never says no.

I already have the backpack Ginsberg mentioned, a gift from a fellow corgi aficionado. And a pair of pink corgi-sized goggles that our last corgi never took to.

So maybe I’ll have to give it a try once my hands heal enough to get back on a bike.

Photo by Adam Ginsberg

Photo by Adam Ginsberg

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Maybe LADOT had a better year than we thought.

The Los Angeles Department of Transportation received four Outstanding Project Awards from the Metropolitan Los Angeles Branch of the American Society of Civil Engineers.

The agency was recognized for —

  • An outstanding emergency response/preparedness project award for its COVID-19 pandemic response programs, including the al fresco dining program, slow streets program, automated touchless traffic signals, and support for COVID-19 testing and vaccination sites.
  • An outstanding bikeways and trails project award for the new protected bike lanes on Fifth and Sixth streets from Spring Street to Central Avenue.
  • An outstanding applied mapping technology project award for its GIS strategic plan, which uses all available department and city data to create a network to identify priority projects for Mayor Eric Garcetti’s Green New Deal.
  • An outstanding big data project award for its pandemic travel behavior study, which analyzed travel trends during the pandemic, affirming long-standing racial inequities created by decades of policies oppressing people of color.

What’s not on the list, of course, is any mention of popup bike lanes created during the pandemic. Because there weren’t any, unlike most other major cities.

Nor was there any attempt to speed up implementation of the city’s mobility plan or traffic elements of the Green New Deal while traffic was lighter during the pandemic, squandering a once-in-a-generation opportunity.

There was also no mention of an award for implementing LA’s Vision Zero program, apparently acknowledging that nibbling around the edges with easy to implement, non-controversial projects will never make a significant dent in the city’s traffic fatality rate.

A rate that’s measured in broken human lives and shattered families.

So let’s all give LADOT a warm and well-deserved round of applause for what they accomplished last year.

While recognizing that it’s nowhere near enough. And that we’ll be paying for a generation for what wasn’t done when they had the chance.

Evidently, I’m not the only one who thinks so.

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And yes, it can be done, if we have the will to do it.

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This is who we share the road with.

After an Ohio man was shot by an assailant, he was run over by a driver as he lay bleeding in the street before paramedics could get to him.

Or rather, he was run over by the police officer responding to the call, who was too busy reading street address numbers to pay attention to the roadway ahead of her.

Never mind the actual crime scene.

And never mind that the initial police report didn’t even mention the collision, which the police chief later wrote off as just an oopsie.

No word on whether it was the oopsie or the gun actually killed the poor guy.

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LA County wants your input on how we’ll all get around in the eastern San Gabriel Valley in the years to come.

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GCN considers how to avoid bonking on your next long ride.

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

This is what it’s like to get buzzed — repeatedly — by Denver motorcycle cops in violation of Colorado’s three-foot passing law.

A Toronto bike rider exchanged more than words with a road raging driver, puncturing the pickup’s tire as the driver got back in, then attempting in vain to escape as the irate man chased him down and grabbed his bike, smashing it against a building.

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

After a man violently punched an Orthodox Jewish boy on LA’s Melrose Ave for no apparent reason, his bike-riding friend walked up and threatened to kill the boy’s entire family, as well as a bystander who was documenting the assault.

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Local

More details on yesterday’s tragic news about the fatal driveby shooting of a 22-year old man in South LA, which also wounded an eight-year old girl; the victim was Marcelis Gude, son of the man behind the Twitter account @FilmThePoliceLA, who was apparently mistaken for a gang member as he stood speaking with a woman. The girl, who is in stable condition, was just collateral damage, caught up in the gunfire as she was riding by on her bike.

 

State

Nice. San Diego’s $30 million spacious, curb-protected Rose Creek Bikeway is wide open and ready to ride.

The California Coastal Commission gave the thumbs-up to expanding Santa Barbara’s bikeshare system along the city’s waterfront, while giving a solid thumbs-down to an appeal from a self-appointed city hall watchdog who complains they’ll mar her views.

Treehugger talks with dads who use their cargo bikes to take their kids everywhere, including an English father of two who now lives in Thousand Oaks.

Thirty-one people have suffered broken bones at the hands and batons of Bakersfield cops over the last four years, including a 37-year old man who was beaten for the crime of not having a light on his bicycle, ending up with a compound fracture and charges for assaulting an officer and resisting arrest by allowing them to beat him.

 

National

Cycling Weekly considers how to safely store your ebike.

Next City says cars want the streets back now that the pandemic is — hopefully — ending, but cities would be better off without them.

Regardless of what the advertorials say, no bike lock offers “impenetrable bike security;” with the right tools and enough time, a determined bike thief can get through anything.

Support is growing for a repeal of Seattle’s counterproductive bike helmet mandate, which is blamed for unfairly targeting riders of color.

There’s a special place in hell for whoever stole the bicycle a 57-year-old Arizona man with autism and schizophrenia used as his only form of transportation, as well as therapy

Not only is RAGBAI back this year, you can leave your mask at home for the annual ride across Iowa.

Members of a Twin Cities Facebook group were honored by the Minneapolis Police Department for helping capture a wanted felon while trying to recover a stolen bike; the group has helped return more than 100 stolen bicycles to their owners over the past five years.

The Green Bay Packers annual tradition of borrowing bicycles from young fans to ride the last few yards to training camp could be in jeopardy for the second year in a row, as the NFL warns players not to interact with fans due to Covid risks.

New York graffiti artist Futura has teamed with Cinelli for a line of bikewear, recalling his days as a bicycle messenger.

A team of New York developers has come its senses, and will stop fighting the legally required 286 bike parking spaces for an 83-story mixed-use tower in Midtown.

A WaPo columnist says Republicans could actually improve Biden’s infrastructure proposal by ensuring the money is spent well, rather than merely on how much gets spent.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution profiles the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition, and their efforts to make bicycling safer and more comfortable in the Big Peach.

 

International

Cycling News says no, you can’t legally chip your ebike to overcome the manufacturer’s speed limitations. But you can make other improvements, starting with a second battery.

An Ottawa, Canada man was overjoyed to get his stolen bike back, newly repaired by a local bike shop; he had initially gone viral for wishing the thief well when it was stolen back in January, saying he hoped they treated it with respect and enjoyed the ride.

The numbers don’t lie. Montreal’s new bicycle network is a clear success, with over 6,200 riders passing a bike counter on the 2nd of this month; anything over 4,000 daily riders is considered exceptional usage.

A London writer is terrified of being run down by someone on an e-scooter, while another woman says a teenage boy riding one once crashed into her.

A British man learns the hard way that just because you’ve safely left your vintage bike outside for the last decade doesn’t mean someone won’t steal it.

That’s more like it. The UK warns local governments to be “ambitious” in bidding for funds for bike projects, suggesting that mere paint won’t make the cut.

A Chinese company wants to put a 23 tool bike multitool in your pocket for just $29 on Kickstarter.

 

Competitive Cycling

Giro champ Egan Bernal had an audience with the pope, and gave the former bike-riding Argentine bishop his winning bike and the winner’s pink jersey.

Racing is underway in the annual cross-country Trans Am Bike Race, as the competitors begin passing through Kansas.

 

Finally…

Never mind your laptop, hackers could be after your Peloton. Riding a bike shouldn’t be a pain in the butt.

And your next bike could be a Louis Vuitton for the low, low price of just $28,900.

For less than that, you could have had a $24,000 Radiohead Brompton.

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

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

Man killed in South LA shooting and bike-riding 8-year old girl shot, and Bonin faces another right wing recall effort

June 16, 2021 / / 2 comments

There’s a special place in hell for whoever fatally shot a 22-year-old man in South LA Tuesday night — and also shot an eight-year old girl as she was apparently riding past on her bicycle.

Unfortunately, we seem to be going back to the bad old days when shootings were an everyday occurrence in Los Angeles, just like traffic collisions.

And just like traffic violence, innocent people are too often collateral damage. Like an eight-year old girl, who fortunately is expected to survive.

And just like traffic violence, it’s a problem that can be solved, if we all just care enough to do something about it.

Which sadly seems like a very big if these days.

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Bike and pedestrian friendly Westside Councilmember Mike Bonin is just the latest LA official targeted by a recall petition.

And not for the first time.

https://twitter.com/DavidZahniser/status/1404858096426487814

Despite Bonin’s overwhelming popularity, winning 71% of the vote in the 11th Council District in 2017, he has been repeatedly targeted by conservatives who hate his policies, but haven’t been able to beat him at the ballot box.

Whether this latest recall attempt is a genuine effort to get him out of office, or just an attempt to harass and distract him, it seems like a remarkable waste of time and money for someone who will be up for re-election in less than a year.

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No hypocrisy here.

Speaking at yesterday’s meeting of the Los Angeles City Council’s Transportation Committee, outgoing CD5 Councilmember Paul Koretz says hardly anyone uses the bike lanes in his Westside district.

That couldn’t possibly have anything to do with Koretz repeatedly blocking bike lanes on Westwood Blvd and other major streets in his district, though.

Could it?

People might be more likely to use them if they were safer and provided more separation from the Westside’s high speed traffic, legal and otherwise.

And if they connected with other safe bike lane in an actual network that could be used to travel throughout the district, rather than a handful of disconnected bike lanes that unexpectedly end, forcing riders to fight their way through heavy traffic.

A failure of planning that can be laid directly at Koretz’s feet, who is clearly all in favor of building bike lanes.

In someone else’s district.

Correction: Call it a poor word choice on my part. The failure was not one of planning, as former LADOT Bicycle Coordinator Michelle Mowery pointed out in the comments yesterday. 

I’d like to take issue with your use of the word “planning” in respect to the lack of bikeways on the Westside. It is not “a failure of planning” that the Westside does not have a sufficient bikeway network. What the Westside does not have is enough political will. The planning was done, the funding was available for implementation, and the projects were all blocked by the NIMBYs and sitting elected officials.

She’s right.

I should have known better, because I remember those losing battles all too well. My apologies for unintentionally placing the blame where it doesn’t belong. 

………

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

A Michigan bike rider was the latest victim of a driveby paintball shooting, which is a lot less harmless than it might seem.

No bias here. An op-ed in the New York Daily News says “ebike blood” is on the hands of New York’s progressive city council for the crime of finally making it legal to ride an ebike or e-scooter in the city. Then goes on to lump both together, without noting that the injuries and deaths he cites could just as easily have happened with regular bikes or skateboards.

Speaking of which, there’s tragic news from New York, where 65-year old actress Lisa Banes died over a week after she was struck by a hit-and-run rider on an e-scooter.

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

A San Francisco man rode his bicycle into a drugstore, dumped a shelf-full of merchandise into a garbage bag, then casually rode his bike out the door.

………

Local

No news is good news, right?

 

State

San Diego’s Coast News Group visits North County’s bicycle-themed Rouleur Brewing Company.

SF Gate recommends everything you need to start commuting by bike. Except for the actual, you know, bicycle.

Once again, the bike rider gets the blame, after a 69-year old Sonoma woman suffered major injuries when she allegedly rode her bicycle into the path of a motorist. Which is hard to imagine, since she was riding west and was struck by a driver headed east on the same road; as always, a lot depends on whether there were any independent witnesses to corroborate the driver’s story.

Another tempting road bike route from Sacramento Magazine.

 

National

How to stop that dreaded tubular tire shimmy. Besides riding clinchers, that is.

Don’t ask me to explain the science. But studies confirm that wider road bike tires are faster than skinnier tires. Thanks to Austin Brown, aka Power Lama, for the link.

Cycling News offers advice on where to buy ebikes, which are in unexpectedly short supply these days.

I want to be like them when I grow up. A group of self-described old fogies, whose ages match the mid-70° Kansas weather, has been meeting for weekly rides for the last ten years, rain, snow or shine.

Twenty-year old Dutch IndyCar racer Rinus VeeKay will miss this weekend’s race in Wisconsin after breaking his clavicle crashing his bicycle on a training ride.

A Cape Cod woman says she may not have a view of the water, but she’s just as happy living next to a bike path.

Good news for Sheldon Brown fans, as the popular bicycle repair website penned by the late bike mechanic will live on, despite the closure of the Boston bike shop where he worked.

Once again, a driver is somehow unable to avoid crashing into a group of bike riders, as one person was killed and another wounded when the driver smashed into a group of four people riding bicycles in Syracuse NY. And once again, fled the scene, leaving his or her victims bleeding in the street.

A helmetless woman died after falling off her bike on a bike path in a Bronx park. Yet another tragic reminder that slow speed falls are exactly what bike helmets are designed for.

Bikes are still booming in Gotham, where ridership on bridges over the East River are still above pre-pandemic levels.

The Daily Show host Trevor Noah is one of us, riding his bike to a New York comedy club where he wasn’t planning to perform. But did anyway.

A New Orleans letter writer says he’s never seen a single bike rider obey basic traffic laws in 30 years. Which likely says a lot more about his powers of observation than it does the people on bikes.

No pun here, as a Miami paper says the city is driving to become more bicycle friendly, when it’s all that driving that made and keeps it unfriendly. But it’s interesting that they included Santa Monica, along with Amsterdam, Copenhagen and Stockholm, as their examples of bike and pedestrian friendly cities.

A grateful Florida man gets to thank the Florida paramedics who saved his life, despite suffering 47 broken bones when he was hit by a driver while riding his bike.

 

International

Your next bike helmet could warn you in advance about a pending dooring.

A tech website says the world’s obsession with e-cars is impeding the race to net zero, and that more active transportation is needed, instead. Which is pretty much what we’ve been saying all along.

An Edinburgh, Scotland man says buying an adult tricycle was the best move he made during the pandemic.

Presenting the first belt-drive ebike capable of going 28 mph, from Dutch bikemaker Gazelle. A speed that requires a helmet here in the late, great Golden State, and can’t be legally ridden on a bike path.

The shortage or bikes and parts driven by the pandemic bike boom isn’t likely to be helped by a two week closure of Shimano’s Malaysia plant due to a government shutdown.

 

Competitive Cycling

Cycling News suggests ten riders to watch in the men’s 2021 USA Cycling Pro Road Championships in Knoxville, Tennessee this weekend. Then tops that with eleven riders to watch on the women’s side.

Popular American cyclist Tejay van Garderen is calling it a career after this weekend’s nationals.

 

Finally…

Repeat after me — If you’re carrying meth and weed on your bike, put a damn light on it, already. Valet your bike at the College World Series.

And that feeling when there’s no sensible way to mount a bike rack on your supercar.

………

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

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

More anti-ebike bias from San Diego’s North County, and the new railing on the Golden Gate Bridge blows — literally

June 15, 2021 / / One comment

What the hell is going in San Diego’s North County?

A day after we discussed a Carlsbad GOP candidate opposing California’s proposed ebike rebate for all the wrong reasons, a San Diego TV station looks at the “controversy” over the rising popularity of ebikes in Encinitas.

According to NBC7, some people have complained on Nextdoor — as if everyone on Nextdoor doesn’t complain about something — and circulated a petition demanding that ebikes be banned from Moonlight Beach.

But the station widely misses the mark when they try to make the case that ebikes are somehow dangerous, by lumping them together with e-scooters and hoverboards to argue that 41 Americans were killed due to the devices over a three-year period.

Not that ebikes have anything in common with the other two, aside from having a battery.

And never mind that an average of 13.6 deaths a year pales in comparison to the 42,000 people killed in traffic collisions last year alone.

Yes, some people on ebikes may ride in a rude or unsafe manner. Just like some people do on regular bikes, on foot or in motor vehicles.

However, many of those scofflaw ebikers likely stem from their popularity with  new riders, and people who haven’t ridden in years, if not decades, and haven’t learned decent bicycle etiquette yet.

So just use a little common courtesy and common sense, however you get around.

But don’t try to ban ebikes just because you don’t get it.

And someone please tell North County residents to get their collective ebike-hating heads out from whence the sun don’t shine.

Ebike photo by Maxfoot from Pixabay.

………

The new and improve Golden Gate Bridge railing isn’t exactly working out that way for people on bicycles.

Thanks to Megan Lynch for the heads-up.

………

Now that’s more like it.

Vancouver proposes a hefty pollution tax for the privilege of parking on residential city streets. Which could free up a lot of space for other uses.

Like riding a bicycle.

………

Nothing like the feeling when a 13-year old kid can shred better than most of us.

And yes, that includes me. Even though I’d have a hard time shredding a postcard these days.

………

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

No bias here. The UK’s Mr. Loophole, who specializes in getting dangerous drivers off the hook for traffic violations, wants to force you to wear a numbered tabard — a sleeveless pullover top — every time you ride a bike so you can be properly spanked if you do something naughty.

Seriously, lay off your damn horn when you go to pass someone on a bike.

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

In a horrible crime caught on security cam, a 53-year old New York bicycle delivery rider was stabbed in the back by another bike rider for no apparent reason as he was making a delivery. His attacker rode up from behind and stabbed him after bizarrely asking “What happened?” Fortunately, the victim is expected to recover, but the suspect remains at large.

………

Local

Streetsblog’s Joe Linton rides the Expo Bike Path, and complains that Culver City abandons bike riders on a short gap in the bikeway near the Culver City Metro station, forcing people to take a poorly marked half-mile detour along city streets. And offers a long list of recommended fixes.

 

State

There’s peace in the hills around San Diego, as the local San Diego Mountain Bike Association rejoins the International Mountain Bicycling Association, aka IMBA, after a three-year split.

Speaking of the SDMBA, the group is partnering with Canyon Bikes and the founders of the popular Canyon Belgian Waffle Ride for a new fundraising campaign to support local trails, with a grand prize of $4,000 towards any Canyon bike.

Watch a crane hoist the center segment into place for a new Palo Alto bike and pedestrian bridge.

 

National

Three tips on riding a bicycle with your dog. I’m okay with riding with a dog, as long as it’s willing to ride stoker and pedal for itself.

Trek is marking Pride Month with a nationwide series of Pride Rides on the last Sunday of the month, starting out from the 145 Trek stores across the US.

After someone stole the bike an Albuquerque man bought just to use for an 80-mile fundraising ride benefitting Colorado children’s hospital that saved his daughter’s life, a kindhearted local bike shop owner gave him his own bike to use for the ride.

A tandem bike helped bring a Colorado man and his 16-year old son closer together during the pandemic, battling the wind as they passed bison and bald eagles. As usual, read it on Yahoo if Bicycling blocks you.

San Antonio, Texas NBA legend Manu Ginobilli is one of us, bragging online about finishing a 40-mile ride in 2 hours and 15 minutes.

Apparently, killer hit-and-run drivers don’t stick around in Oklahoma, either.

School kids in Indianapolis can get a new bike through a little sweat equity, as a local program guides them through building a mountain bike they can ride off on at the end of the 16-hour class.

The New York state legislature passed a bill to improve bike and pedestrian access on MTA bridges, and provide better bike parking at subway and commuter rail stations.

Madonna is one of us, too, going for a ride through the streets of New York with her 27-year old boyfriend.

 

International

A Toronto paper questions why the city of Laval has been slow to take to the city’s new bike network, despite 70 miles of new bike lanes over the past six years. Maybe the fact that there’s only 70 miles of mile lanes for a city of a half million people could have something to do with it.

He gets it. A Toronto columnist calls the city out for blocking a busy bike lane with construction pylons, forcing riders out into the traffic lane; an earlier column about another bike lane blocked with a concrete block received quick action from the mayor’s office.

London’s Express highlights the best bicycling gifts for dad.

They get it, too. A survey of Scottish children says drivers should go back to school for extra training on how to drive around people on bicycles.

A 54-year old UK man was killed when he fell off his new ebike and hit his helmetless head while riding home from the local pub, with a BAC just under three times the legal limit.

When the pandemic locked a British DJ out of the clubs where he usually performed, he bought a three-wheeled bike and outfitted it with his gear to take the party to the people.

Life is cheap in Ireland, where a young boy received the equivalent of less than $14,000 after he was injured riding hie bike into an open manhole cover when he was just six years old.

The N+1 formula has worked out to forty vintage bikes for a South African man, who has represented the country three times in the UCI World Master Track Championships.

Cycling Tips wants to introduce you to Melbourne-based handmade bikemaker Mark Hester of Prova Cycles.

 

Competitive Cycling

Cycling News looks forward to the US pro road cycling championships in Knoxville, Tennessee at the end of this month.

Retired Aussie cyclist Will Clarke went from competing on the WorldTour to shearing sheep in a single year.

 

Finally…

Face it, your bike doesn’t need you any more. Does riding your bike backwards give you a negative Strava KOM?

And stealing a bike is bad enough. But kicking a dog minutes later is inexcusable.

………

Be safe, and stay healthy. And wear a mask. 

And get vaccinated, already.

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

Carlsbad GOP candidate gets proposed ebike bill all wrong, sexist anti-bike bias, and the high cost of traffic violence

June 14, 2021 / / No comments

No bias here.

A Republican candidate for the California Assembly from Carlsbad takes aim at a proposal to provide a tax rebate for part of the purchase price on a new ebike.

The proposal, AB 117, is supported by current Assembley Member Tasha Boerner Horvath, whom she hopes to unseat.

At a price-point anywhere from $1,500 to $4,000, they are a noteworthy investment, but should the government be subsidizing these purchases without accountability? Absolutely not. Yet Assemblymember Tasha Boerner Horvath wants to spend unlimited amounts of money to do just that.

Maybe someone should tell her about the massive rebates the state already gives to people who buy electric cars.

But rudeness, rather than money, seems to be her chief objection.

Worse, many of us have witnessed near collisions between e-bikes or e-scooters and vehicles. Personally, I have been almost struck while crossing the street in a crosswalk, and many people have observed near-catastrophes on a daily basis.

So, from her point of view, we should make it harder to buy ebikes, because someone almost struck her while riding one.

Because apparently, no one on a regular bicycle — or a scooter, skateboard, roller skates or running shoes — would ever do such a dastardly deed.

And she’s evidently never experienced the way rude, aggressive and/or inattentive drivers treat people in crosswalks, either.

But the most frightening part, from her bizarre perspective, is that the bill would provide up to $10 million in state tax rebates. Never mind that California currently has an $85 billion — yes billion, with a b — tax surplus.

Which, by my English major math calculations, works out to less than 0.012% of that surplus.

Now the state government wants to fund incentives for purchasing electric bicycles — atop significant out-of-control spending already happening at the state level.

Think I’m kidding? One of Boerner Horvath’s latest bills — Assembly Bill 177 — states that the purpose of her newest taxpayer-funded program is to “fund…incentives for purchasing electric bicycles” under the guise of an “air quality improvement program.”

But wait, there’s more!

Despite Horvath’s empty virtue signaling to the environmentalists, the government should not be incentivizing us to purchase electric bicycles when they are already affordable and available. That’s the job of Lime, Bird, and other companies in the San Diego region. Plus, those companies are held accountable by the cities in which they operate — not by nameless bureaucrats in Sacramento.

Maybe $1,500 to $4,000 — or a lot more, actually — is affordable to her. But it’s a major stretch for many of the constituents she hopes to represent.

And she apparently has no idea what Lime, Bird and other e-scooter providers actually do.

Or what bikeshare is, for that matter.

Then she trots out the usual bike hater screeds.

This legislation is a disaster in the making. Beyond the notion that this isn’t the role of government, there are no safety precautions, no spending limits, and no licensing requirements. Above all, there is no accountability to determine the efficacy of the program or its reduction in air pollution.

So, she wants to license ebike riders. Or maybe all bike riders.

Never mind that California already regulates ebikes into three distinct classes, with increasing levels of safety restrictions and requirements.

And did we mention that $10 million spending limit?

As for reducing air pollution, she’s got a point. Everyone knows the paltry electricity consumed by a little ebike, and its burrito eating rider, would create far more emissions than your average massive gas-guzzling SUV.

Right?

Let’s hope that, contrary to her wishes, AB 117 does see the light of day.

And the very confused and uninformed Melanie Burkholder doesn’t.

Ebike photo by Markus Spiske from Pexels.

………

Then again, they’re blaming ebikes in New York, too.

On the other hand, Cycling Savvy discusses ebike etiquette so you won’t be one of those few ebike-riding jerks Burkholder justifiably complains about.

As opposed to the overwhelming majority who aren’t.

………

You owe it to yourself to take a few minutes to read this hard-hitting op-ed from a New Zealand environmental sociologist and bike rider.

When white men start using a bike, I often think they experience a sort of status shock. They see what marginalisation feels like: the dehumanisation, the fear, the threat of violence. If you ride a bike and you belong to another group who already lives with this threat, there is a familiarity to it all…

Being a cyclist often reminds me of being a woman. If someone hurts me it’s my fault because I didn’t wear the right thing, I didn’t defer to them and “know my place”, and I didn’t just smile and put up with their abuse. Power imbalances foster bullying.

So, avoid them if you can, the dehumanising stereotypes. All the comparisons to vermin this past fortnight on conservative radio and social media – cockroaches, rats, lice, etc –  have been way out of line. Even the fixation with lycra. It’s something male sports cyclists usually wear. The obsession with men wearing tight revealing clothing in public so often veers into an obviously homophobic place. Just don’t.

Seriously, read the whole thing.

Because it probably matters more than you think.

………

This is the cost of traffic violence.

Bystanders had to lift a pickup off an 11-year old boy, after an alleged drunk driver ran the kid down while he was riding in a crosswalk, then continued on dragging the boy underneath his truck for a “considerable distance,” leaving him with life-threatening injuries.

One of the top dog handlers missed out on this year’s Westminster Dog Show after his van was rear-ended in Laramie, Wyoming while driving ten canine competitors cross-country to the show; he ended up in the hospital, but fortunately, the dogs were uninjured. Which goes to show how much safer cars could be if everyone inside just rode in the human equivalent of a dog crate.

Speaking of Wyoming — Wyoming, Delaware in this case — a 74-year old man was killed in a collision when he was run down by a driver while mowing his lawn when a driver lost control of her SUV, pinning him underneath.  Naturally, no charges have been filed yet, because it was just an oopsie.

A Canadian woman complains that the drunken hit-and-run driver who fatally rear-ended her 27-year old son as he rode his bicycle could be out of prison in just one and a half years, despite a BAC over twice the legal limit after an admitted 13 drinks that day prior to getting behind the wheel — leaving a hole in her family that can never be filled.

In another form of violence due to motor vehicles, the grave of Robert Meacham, who rose from slavery to Florida state senator and helped establish the state’s public school system, is likely buried unmarked and unremembered under a Tampa parking lot, along with the bodies of hundreds of other Black people.

………

Sarah Silverman is one of us now.

………

GCN dives into the endless debate over roadies versus gravel bikes (gravelies?).

They also consider whether Shimano’s integrated shifters and brake levers were the greatest bike innovation of all time.

………

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

A road raging woman from an undisclosed location got out of her car to demand a young bike-riding woman give her “everything” in compensation for an invisible scratch to her apparently very expensive car.

………

Local

Streets For All wants you to call on the city council’s Transportation Committee to support walking, bicycling, and micromobility and maximizing traffic signal priority for the Expo Line, as part of the LA’s Green New Deal, which could finally be getting long overdue traction.

A year ago, LA Times readers were asked to envision life post-pandemic, but only one lonely response addressed how nice life was with fewer cars on the streets. The simple fact is, if we go back to life as normal pre-pandemic, with cars maintaining hegemony over our streets, we will have failed. And looking outside, it appears we already have.

 

State

Two armed Orange County men were busted after blocking the path of a pair of Garden Grove bike riders with their car, robbing the woman of her bike, pack and cellphone while her male companion bravely rode away; police seized six guns from their home, was well as gun parts.

Family-owned Hesperia bike shop Hi-Desert Bikes is shuttering in August after 30 years in business, sending its owner into an unplanned early retirement.

 

National

If you still long for the little red wagon of your youth, Radio Flyer is riding to the rescue with a pair of fat tire ebikes.

Streetsblog marks Pride Week by examining how the design and planning needs of LGBTQ+ can make public spaces more inclusive.

Livestrong recommends this years best bike locks, starting at just $14.99.

An Anchorage paper says bicycling is a great way to visit different Alaskan towns, while finishing your ride with a local brew.

The Las Vegas bicycling community joined family members in remembering the five bike riders killed by a meth-fueled truck driver, six months after the fatal crash.

The popular bike repair website written by the late Sheldon Brown could be in jeopardy, as the Boston bike shop where he worked, which maintains the site, is shutting down.

More on the custom handmade bicycle President Biden got on the cheap for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson from Philadelphia’s Bilenky Cycle Works at a steep presidential discount, and in record time. And no, he didn’t get a Wikipedia printout in return. Thanks to k_david for the link.

Kindhearted members of a West Virginia police community group bought a new bicycle for a young boy, after the Spider-man bike he got for Christmas was stolen off his porch.

Kindhearted New Orleans cops dug into their own pockets to buy a new bike for a nine-year old boy, after his was stolen when he was pushed off it by a group of older boys.

A Florida artist makes a statement for inclusion in bicycling with a 215-foot Ocala mural depicting bike riders of all ages, genders, nationalities and abilities.

 

International

Vancouver bike riders shed their clothes for the city’s first post-pandemic edition of the World Naked Bike Ride. And in New Orleans, too. At least, we can hope it’s post-pandemic, despite rising overseas variants and a high level of unvaxxed people in the US and Canada.

They kinda get it. An editorial in Toronto’s Globe & Mail unexpectedly emerged from behind the paper’s paywall, asking — and attempting to answer — what if cities were designed for the safety of people, instead of the convenience of cars. Although cities could go way beyond Vision Zero, and consider designing them for the convenience of people, as well. 

An Oxford, England writer complains that the way the media reports on crashes involving bike riders, including use of the word accident, just fuels the conflict between bicyclists and motorists.

A heartbroken English mother called on parents to pay more attention to their bike-riding children, after her 12-year old son was killed by a driver the first time he rode his bike on the streets, while being watched by her estranged husband.

Thanks to Megan Lynch for forwarding this survey gathering responses from disabled bike riders in the UK; if you live or ride in the UK with a disability, or care for someone who does, they want to hear from you.

Advocates in Lagos, Nigeria are calling for more robust provisions. policies and affordability for non-motorized transportation, including walking and bicycling.

Bike riders in Jakarta are calling for a bicycle revolution in Indonesia’s capital city, as the governor calls for building 310 miles of bike lanes, as well as a $56,000 monument to bicycling in the city’s main thoroughfare.

An Aussie writer says riding a bicycle is sweet freedom, even if it might kill her. And it lets her eat more of her wife’s cakes.

 

Competitive Cycling

Bike racing returned to Tulsa, Oklahoma for the first time since the pandemic reared its ugly head, only to face near total domination from our hometown L39ion of Los Angles, which took all three men’s podium spots and the top two women’s spots at the Tulsa Arts District Crit. And swept the top spot on all three individual race titles and omniums on Sunday.

Congratulations to Colorado’s Riley Amos, who became the first American man to win a U23 World Cup mountain bike race.

Cycling Weekly writes that new unions for both men’s and women’s pro cyclists could be about to change the shape of top level bike racing.

 

Finally…

Your next bikepacking campsite could be a portable treehouse trailer towed behind your bike. And probably not the best idea to ride a children’s bike along the crowded train platform you’re supposed to be guarding.

………

Be safe, and stay healthy. And wear a mask. 

And get vaccinated, already.

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

Bike rider busted for beating La Jolla driver, kids shot over bikes, and LA missed list of worst bike cities — but SD doesn’t

June 11, 2021 / / One comment

Something tells me there’s more to this story.

A San Diego bicyclist riding with a group was busted after being chased down by a police helicopter for allegedly beating a driver in La Jolla.

Members of the group reportedly beat the man unconscious, before leaving after bystanders intervened.

The helicopter pilot tracked the group to Mission Bay, where a man police identified as the main aggressor was taken into custody on charges of assault with a deadly weapon and assault likely to result in great bodily injury.

However, what’s missing from the story, as usual, is any indication of what the driver may have done to set the riders off like that, if anything.

Because it’s highly unlikely they picked some random person in a car to attack just for the hell of it.

But whatever the reason, let’s all try to remember that violence is never the answer, tempting as it may be in the moment.

Lord knows, there have been more than a few drivers I’ve wanted to punch. But thankfully, didn’t.

………

What the hell is wrong with these people?

More information today about the Michigan man who shot his six-year old neighbor, apparently for the crime of leaving a bicycle on the man’s yard.

When the boy and some young relatives came over to retrieve it, Ryan Le-Nguyen came out of his house and confronted the kid, unsuccessfully swinging a sledgehammer at the boy, who was able to avoid the blows.

Le-Nguyen then went back inside, and fired a shot through the window, hitting the boy in the arm.

Despite being charged with assault with intent to murder, Le-Nguyen is already out on a ridiculously low $10,000 bond. And presumably back home, next to a kid he tried to kill.

Let’s hope no one else leaves a bike on his lawn.

Just two days later, an 18-year old Delaware man was busted for shooting an 11-year old girl in the abdomen with a BB gun, following a dispute over her riding his bicycle.

Seriously, kids in this country face enough problems just trying to ride a bike without some asshole shooting them over it.

And yes, I use that term advisedly.

………

Our new president certainly knows how to make a friend.

Meeting with Britain’s Boris Johnson for the first time as president, Joe Biden gave the bike-riding prime minister a new American-made bicycle, custom made for BoJo by family-owned Philadelphia bikemaker Bilenky Cycle Works.

Evidently, they’re so small they don’t even have a website.

Johnson responded with a framed photo of an Edinburgh mural of Frederick Douglass.

Point, Biden.

Update: Bilenky does have a website. Thanks to k_david for the correction.

………

For once, there’s a list of bike cities Los Angeles can be glad it didn’t make, as 24/7 Tempo follows up on their clickbait list of America’s best bike cities with a  similar clickbait countdown of the 25 worst.

No real surprise that Bakersfield and San Bernardino make the list at 25 and 24, respectively.

Bizarrely, though, so does newly bike friendly San Diego at number 18, which has made huge strides in accommodating bikes and other forms of alternative transportation in recent years, while neighboring Chula Vista joins them at 12.

Winston-Salem, North Carolina came out at the bottom, as their pick for the nation’s worst bike city.

Although LA’s Sunset Boulevard did make the list of the world’s coolest streets, in the non-temperature sense.

………

More proof that free lifetime bicycle registration from Bike Index works.

Seriously, what are you waiting for?

………

Local

A writer for City Watch insists the fix is in, as Metro plows over Eagle Rock with the planned NoHo to Pasadena Bus Rapid Transit project, regardless of resident’s wishes. Or, hear me out here, maybe a lot of local residents actually support the plan, even as others continue to oppose it. Kind of like every other project ever built, planned or proposed. 

For sale: An RV big enough to hold all your bikes, and double as your next home when you get priced out of LA’s housing market.

 

State

A Sacramento man tracks down the burglar who tried to break into his home. And gets his neighbor’s bike back in the process.

 

National

For a change, the Wall Street Journal’s notorious paywall lets you see four of the six rewarding rail trail routes they recommend throughout the US, including Lassen County’s Bizz Johnson National Recreation Trail in Northeastern California.

I want to be like her when I grow up. A 70-year old lifelong bike rider from Tennessee wants you to know that riding an ebike isn’t the end of your bicycling career. As usual, read it on Yahoo if Bicycling blocks you.

A Spokane, Washington paper says bicycles were the ultimate safe recreation choice during the pandemic. And they still are.

Las Vegas bike advocates continue to call for safer streets, a day after a killer truck driver was sentenced to up to 40 years behind bars for the meth fueled crash that killed five bicyclists.

Bike-riding Tulsa OK residents were invited to try out the city’s first popup protected intersection.

New York bicyclists will ride today to demand the city disband the NYPD’s bike-riding Strategic Response Group, the so-called Goon Squad that has used bikes to batter protestors at recent demonstrations.

Streetsblog says New York state legislators are continuing to stall on legislation to keep bike riders and pedestrians safe.

Five Black bike riders followed the route of the Underground Railroad from Alabama to DC to honor the spirit of their ancestors. Once again, read it on Yahoo if Bicycling blocks you.

 

International

Shimano put Pioneer power meter users on notice that they have just one week before Shimano pulls the plug on the website supporting the Pioneer products, ruthlessly driving a stake through the still-beating heart of the product line they acquired last year.

Life is cheap in Alberta, Canada, where a woman walked with a lousy $1,000 fine for the hit-and-run death of a man riding a bicycle.

British king-in-waiting Prince Charles took a rare public bike ride to launch the 250-mile Palaces On Wheels ride to benefit the British Asian Trust. Although the prince didn’t look too steady on a bike that appeared to be set much too low for him.

Indian buyers of GoZero ebikes will now enjoy a corporate roadside assistance program.

 

Competitive Cycling

A deep US cycling team will be heading for Tokyo with ambitions of gold in next month’s Olympics, which appear to be happening as scheduled, pandemic be damned.

Ten-time world champ Chloe Dygert will compete in three events, just nine months after she was seriously injured following an apparent speed wobble in the world time trial championships; SoCal’s world-beating Coryn Rivera also made the team.

The only women’s rider representative on the UCI Safety Commission thinks the sport has been allowed to cut corners far too long, and needs to do more to protect cyclists.

 

Finally…

Get a lawyer before calling your family if you get hit while riding a bike. As if we didn’t have enough to worry about with drivers blocking bike lanes, now we have to share them with robots.

And your next bike may be able to ride itself and come when you call.

………

Be safe, and stay healthy. And wear a mask. 

And get vaccinated, already.

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

Killer meth-fueled Vegas driver gets 16-40 years, misguided recall for CD4’s Raman, and $20 million for LAC transport projects

June 10, 2021 / / No comments

That was fast.

Almost seven months to the day after five Las Vegas bicyclists were killed by a truck driver, their killer copped a plea to two counts of DUI causing death.

DUI is right.

Arizona resident Jordan Barson had nine times the amount of meth in his system required to be considered legally impaired.

He now faces anywhere from 16 to 40 years behind bars, along with a paltry $58,000 in restitution.

Once he gets out, whenever that may be, Barson will be required to have an interlock device on his car for anywhere from one to three years.

Which, it should be noted, detects alcohol, not meth.

Meanwhile, a killer truck driver in Flagstaff AZ didn’t have to play the universal Get Out Of Jail Free card after local police played it for him, claiming the sun was in his eyes when he ran a red light and slammed into a group of bicyclists.

Fifty-eight-year old California resident Normand Cloutier is accused of killing a 29-year old woman and injuring five other riders in the crash.

Of course, as several people pointed out on Twitter, the correct course of action when you can’t see what the hell is directly in front of you is to pull over to the side of the road until you can.

Photo by Cameron Casey from Pexels.

Let’s hope Barson’s cell is slightly better than this one.

………

Another day, another recall by people who can’t get over the fact that their candidate lost.

This time the intended target is CD4 Councilmember Nithya Raman, who hasn’t been in office long enough to actually do anything that would call for one.

Not that that matters in today’s political environment.

Let’s hope this one doesn’t get any further than the idiotic attempt to recall Mike Bonin a few years, driven by conservative KFI anger meisters Jon and Ken.

Who will probably be happy to get behind this one, too.

………

The new transportation bill under consideration in the US Congress includes $20 million for LA-area projects, according to Burbank Rep. Adam Schiff’s office.

In addition to traffic and pedestrian projects, the list also includes sharrows in Glendale, and pedestrian and bicycle safety improvements on Melrose in West Hollywood.

That last one could have connected with a Complete Streets makeover of Melrose in Los Angeles, if it hadn’t been summarily and singlehandedly killed by CD5 Councilmember and pseudo-environmentalist Paul Koretz.

………

The Bike League announced their latest list of Bicycle Friendly Businesses, with 33 new or renewing firms honored.

None of which are in Southern California, although the LA office of the Morrison & Foerster LLP law firm got an honorable mention.

Maybe someone should tell them that MoFo may not be the positive nickname they seem to think it is.

………

Maybe it’s just me, but it seems there are few things more sexist than women’s fashion magazines.

Especially when it comes to bicycles.

Because apparently, women just want to look cute on a bike, and would never want to put on spandex and get all sweaty or anything.

………

Don’t miss this one if you’re in the Bay Area this weekend.

………

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

Clearly, he doesn’t get it, either After a community board in New York’s Upper West Side calls for banning ebikes from protected bike lanes, the city’s outgoing mayor quickly refused — because he doesn’t think they belong in traffic lanes.

Drivers in Auckland, New Zealand, are plotting to invade the city’s bike lanes on a busy Saturday morning — this Saturday, in fact — and drive on the bike lanes when they’re likely to be full of people on bicycles. Which seems to be the point. One hundred drivers have confirmed so far, so if it’s like very other Facebook event, maybe three might actually show up.

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

A Boston bike rider got off with a warning for riding through a busy highway tunnel, after state police officers told him it was both illegal and dangerous, as evidenced by the sudden braking as drivers spotted him in the right lane.

What the hell is wrong with some people? An 18-year old Delaware man faces charges for shooting an 11-year old girl with a BB gun in a dispute over the girl riding his bicycle.

A bike-riding Singapore man got off with a $5,600 fine for punching a truck driver who had tried to run him down during a mutual road rage incident; the driver had already been sentenced to a week behind bars.

………

Local

KTLA-5’s Rich DeMuro visits Venice Beach’s Bike Attack to learn about electric bicycles, then test rides the VanMoof S3, calling it the Tesla of ebikes. Then again, that’s not necessarily a compliment.

Departing Metro CEO Phil Washington pens a letter to the community in support of the 18-mile NoHo to Pasadena bus rapid transit line, which includes the proposed Beautiful Boulevard plan through Eagle Rock.

Caltrans recommends a $3.532 million plan to fix the twin intersections of Rambla Pacifico and Las Flores Canyon at PCH in Malibu, which saw three traffic deaths and 81 injuries in just a three year period. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to include any bicycle safety measures on the deadly highway.

 

State

It takes a major league schmuck to steal a three-wheeled adaptive bike used by a special needs girl to help with her balance issues.

Bay Area bike advocacy group Bike East Bay wants your help to save the protected bike lanes on Oakland’s iconic Telegraph Avenue.

 

National

Seriously? Consumer Reports discovers the “hidden danger” of big pickup trucks, which are increasing in size with virtually every model year. Never mind that the risk to others should be pretty damn obvious to anyone who has ever walked, ridden or just stood next to one.

USA Cycling announced their new Let’s Ride program to teach bicycle safety and basic bike skills to elementary school children throughout the US.

A new ebike from Civilized Cycles is designed to carry up to two passengers and four loaded grocery bags in comfort, with an automated air ride system that adjusts to the weight the bike is carrying for a smoother ride.

In Style shows women what to wear to look cute on four types of bike rides. Because as we all know, looking cute is what really matters, and no woman would ever want to put on spandex and get all sweaty or anything. Right?

Marketplace examines why Phoenix-based fixie maker State Bicycles is struggling to meet the increased demand brought on by the pandemic-induced bike boom; co-founder Mehdi Farsi blames supply chain issues for an inability to ramp up to meet a two to three-times jump in sales.

Speaking of Phoenix, the downtown area just got its first two-way protected bike lane.

After a Davenport, Iowa man was killed by a red light-running hit-and-run driver while riding his bike back home, the victim’s wife says it never should have happened.

St. Louis is installing zebra lane delineators to separate bicycles and motor vehicles along a protected bike lane; the small bumps — often called armadillos in other cities — promise to be more effective at keeping drivers out than the usual thin plastic car ticklers. Thanks to Phillip Young for the heads-up.

A study conducted by Maine’s Bowdoin College shows that cities that adopt a Complete Streets policy also see improvements in how crashes between drivers and pedestrians are covered by the media.

Long Island’s Suffolk County is cracking down on scofflaw riders from the Bike Life movement, by creating a new crime of reckless bike riding complete with a $250 fine and possible confiscation of their bicycles.

Curbed’s Alissa Walker, who always gets it, says helmet laws are not what New York bike riders need right now.

 

International

USA Today offers a modestly covered-up view of naked bike rides — and riders — around the world.

The Barbados transportation minister says bike riders have an equal right to the road, and calls on drivers to help create a more equitable environment for everyone.

Cycling Tips features the hilarious Danish helmet PSA we linked to yesterday, while calling for more “bike-adjacent” ads to feature Vikings.

A new project from the mayor of Hyderabad, India aims to address bad air quality by giving “pre-loved” bicycles to people who will use them as an every day form of transportation.

 

Competitive Cycling

Liège-Bastogne-Liège winner Tadej Pogačar is gearing up to defend his pandemic-year Tour de France win by competing in his hometown Tour of Slovenia.

 

Finally…

Go back to the wide stripe jerseys and hairnet helmets of the 1970s. Your next bike helmet might kinda see around corners.

And who hasn’t taken on a national hillclimb champ on a series of increasingly inappropriate bicycles?

………

Be safe, and stay healthy. And wear a mask. 

And get vaccinated, already.

Category: Bike Cam Video, Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Bikes and ebikes help people with disabilities, speed kills, and don’t leave your bikes with an angry girlfriend

June 9, 2021 / / One comment

Yes, bikes are good for people with disabilities.

Even though anti-bike critics invariably claim that bike lanes, or any other bicycle infrastructure — or even just bicycles themselves — somehow pose a risk to people with disabilities.

Or that disabled, older or out-of-shape people can’t ride bikes, so bike lanes won’t do them any good.

Which was never true.

And it’s even less so in the age of ebikes.

Case in point,

Then there’s this woman who suffers from acute hepatic porphyria. And discovers that she can ride an ebike without the white knuckle pain and fatigue that makes physical activity nearly impossible.

Meanwhile, a study from a Colorado university shows that ebike users in the state tend to be older, and like being able to ride longer and farther than they could otherwise.

Which can help keep them riding years after they might otherwise have quit.

Photo by mzter from Pixabay.

………

The next time someone tries to tell you a few extra miles per hour won’t make any difference, show them this.

………

Everyone enjoys riding with a friend.

………

Presenting the best bike helmet ad in at least the last 1,200 years.

Thanks to W Corylus for the link.

………

Shoulda used Bike Index.

And maybe not done whatever it was that pissed her off so much.

Thanks to Tim Rutt for the photo.

………

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

There’s a special place in hell for the Ypsilanti, Michigan man who threatened a young boy with a sledgehammer, then went back inside and shot him through a window, for the crime of briefly leaving a bicycle on his lawn. Fortunately, the kid was only hit in the arm; the man who shot him faces an attempted murder charge, albeit with a measly $10,000 bond.

………

Local

Metro’s board will vote on modernizing the rules for highway funds later this month, potentially freeing them to be used on transit, Complete Streets, and active transportation projects.

 

State

A writer for Capitol Weekly notes that AB 550 isn’t dead yet, despite being stuck in the state assembly’s Appropriations Committee, where the bill to allow speed cam pilot programs faces a steep uphill climb.

A 61-year old New York pastor passes through Victorville on a cross-country fundraising ride, from LA’s Union Rescue Mission to the Bowery Mission in New York City.

 

National

Bike Snob’s Eben Weiss celebrates older bicycles, with their seemingly endless supply that flies in the face of shortages of new bikes caused by the bike boom.

On the other hand, Women’s Health recommends foldies, calling them “your ticket to getting pretty much anywhere local without sitting in traffic,” while storing conveniently in the hall closet when you’re done. Just try that with an SUV.

A Colorado letter writer asks if it’s legal to drive with a bike rack covering your car’s rear license plate; not surprisingly, the answer is a resounding no. It’s not legal here in California, either. And probably isn’t most places. 

NPR looks forward to the return of the Des Moines Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa, aka RAGBRAI, this summer, as the state works to bring back large events.

A Texas man who’s been on and off the streets was forced to walk over three miles to work every day after someone stole his bicycle.

It takes a major jerk to ripoff an Ohio nonprofit bike co-op. Let alone twice in two nights.

Immigrant bicycle couriers are banding together in New York to demand better working conditions, with one rider asking “If we’re essential, shouldn’t we have what’s essential to survive?”

Good advice. After an Alabama bike rider is killed trying to cross the street, a local bike shop owner advises riders to “be as visible as possible and don’t assume that someone sees you.” In fact, you’re usually better off assuming they don’t.

Um, no. Yet another clickbait bike survey, this time bizarrely claiming that Miami is the world’s second-most beautiful city for a bike ride, based on Instagram data. According to the survey, Miami only trails Chiang Mai, Thailand, and comes in ahead of Paris, Athens and Barcelona. As usual, Los Angeles doesn’t make that cut, either.

 

International

A writer in Havana says the city needs to reclaim its bike lanes, many of which were ripped out in favor of cars during the last decade, and that the communist government needs to put more bikes on the market — and maybe build them there, too.

In a socially distanced fundraiser, a record-holding, ultra-marathon riding Winnipeg, Canada grandfather will ride his bike for 24 hours to pick up checks from mailboxes to help feed orphaned kids in Kenya.

A reminder to ride carefully around other bicyclists, as a 62-year old Montreal man was critically injured when two bike riders somehow collided after he allegedly ran a red light.

A new survey from ebike maker Volt says 44% of Londoners are more likely to ride an ebike than use public transit. And in a city where transit actually works, too.

No surprise here, as Scottish bikeshares saw a huge jump in usage during the pandemic lockdowns.

A British bike rider died last year after falling through an open storm drain, leading to calls to cover them — something the US did a couple decades ago.

A European sports website ranks the top seven bikesharing apps, only one of which — Lime — you’ll find here.

Advocates in Berlin, Germany are campaigning to make the city’s popup pandemic bike lanes permanent. Which offers yet another reminder that Los Angeles can’t make them permanent, because they never installed any to begin with.

Moscow cracks down on e-scooter riders by using GPS data to impose speed controls, limiting scooters to a modest 9 mph in the city center. Thanks to Erik Griswold for this one.

A member of India’s parliament is riding a bike through the country’s dusty countryside to convince people to get vaccinated.

 

Competitive Cycling

VeloNews offers an eight-point plan to improve safety for gravel racers.

Bad news for Olympic mountain bike competitors, as Mathieu van der Poel was officially named to the Dutch mountain bike squad.

Anchorage, Alaska’s Lael Wilcox survived possums and snakes to win the women’s 338-mile Unbound Gravel XL race.

 

Finally…

Your next helmet could be custom 3D printed to fit your head. Go mountain biking from the comfort of your own Playstation.

And this is one way to make an impression. Although probably not a good one.

Thanks again to Tim Rutt.

………

Be safe, and stay healthy. And wear a mask. 

And get vaccinated, already.

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

Stripe DTLA bike lanes when fixing streets, Pomona bike rider gravely injured, and new bill ends CA’s auto-centric past

June 8, 2021 / / 3 comments

Los Angeles is finally getting around to repaving the streets of DTLA that have been torn up for five years of construction on a new subway connector line.

The problem is, they’re busy restoring them to the same failing, incomplete streets they were before.

While LADOT has made great progress building bike lanes in Downtown Los Angeles — the only neighborhood in all of LA that can claim an actual bike network — they’re still stuck in 1990s thinking, falling far short of what they could, and should, be doing.

This is what the longstanding B.I.K.A.S. — aka Bicycle Infrastructure Knowledge Activism and Safety — blog has to say on the subject.

After adding great new transit stations and new transit service – why restore streets back to the way they were in 2014? Why not upgrade them – adding first/last mile bike lanes to access the new stations?

Street restoration includes several wide streets with plenty of space for bike lanes: Flower Street, Hope Street, Alameda Street, and Temple Street. In addition, the city of L.A.’s Mobility Plan designates protected bike lanes on First Street and Second Street. Short new lanes on Third Street would connect a southbound Flower bike lane to its couplet partner northbound on Figueroa.

If Metro and the city of L.A. act now, they could implement numerous new bike lanes improving downtown’s already fairly good network of bikeways. Implementing them when post-construction streets are due for resurfacing saves the city time and money.

Make that pennies on the dollar compared to what it would cost to strip off the auto-centric painted lanes to add bike lanes at a later date.

Although no one has ever accused Los Angeles of thinking long term.

The blog calls for sending “respectful” emails to city officials, including our future ambassador to India, encouraging them to “implement a first/last mile Regional Connector bikeway network.”

Personally, I’d say demand, rather than encourage. But then, I’ve always been a pushy little son of a mother — especially when my safety and that of others who take to two wheels is concerned.

You’ll find a sample email there you can modify to make you own.

Or just use your own words.

But don’t let them get away with reverting to last century infrastructure in the only LA area where we’re actually making some real progress.

Map shows planned first/last mile bikeway network, from Metro Regional Connector street reconstruction page via B.I.K.A.S.

………

Prayers or good thoughts may be called for, whatever you’re comfortable with, after a man was struck by a driver while riding his bike in Pomona Sunday night.

The victim was reportedly in grave condition after paramedics found him unresponsive fallowing the 9:31 pm crash near Fairplex Drive and Arroyo Avenue.

No ID was provided for the victim, and no explanation given for how the crash occurred. However, the driver remained at the scene, and was not considered to be under the influence.

Anyone with information is urged to call the Pomona PD Traffic Services Bureau at 909/802-7741.

………

Now here’s a bill we should all be able to get behind.

Calbike is calling for your help to support AB 1147, from Burbank legislator Laura Friedman, which would finally move California out of its auto-centric past and present to a safer and more livable future for all of us.

Imagine a separated, limited access bikeway that gives you a frictionless ride across town or commute to work. That’s not science fiction or the fever dream of a Copenhagen urbanist. Bicycle highways and 15-minute neighborhoods, where most amenities and services are within a 15-minute bike ride, are just two of the forward-thinking concepts in AB 1147.

AB 1147 reorients transportation planning away from the car-choked past and towards a climate- and human-friendly future. It’s a visionary piece of legislation authored by Assemblymember Laura Friedman.

The bill has passed the Assembly, but it faces a tougher fight in the Senate. It needs all the help it can get. Sign the petition to show your support…

AB 1147 also envisions 15-minute neighborhoods, where shops and services are an easy bike ride from homes. Please sign now to help us pass this essential legislation.

I just signed it.

So what are your waiting for?

………

A new campaign links Paris, New York and London in a data and persuasion driven effort to get their mayors to embrace car-reduction policies.

And renounce once and for all their auto-centric ways.

Car Free Megacities’s dashboard shows the striking similarities and also the differences between London, Paris and New York — the metrics the cities can use to learn rapidly from each other and take actions that will save lives, make streets healthier, pleasanter places and deliver critical progress toward urgent climate goals.

Maybe if we begged them pretty please we could get them to include a certain Left Coast megalopolis that desperately needs to renounce the error of its ways.

………

Good Twitter thread from the estimable Peter Flax on the fallacies behind the usual calls for helmet laws and bike licenses, which once again raised their ugly head in NYC.

And coming soon to an anti-bike rant near you.

It’s worth clicking through on the tweets below to read the whole thing.

………

It’s been awhile since we’ve heard from Claremont Cyclist Michael Wagner, author of CLR Effect, who asks “When is a bike lane not one?”

Answer, “When it is transformed into a garbage collection lane. One of many similar instances we encountered during Saturday’s Ride Around Pomona.”

Sad to see that the blight of bike lane trash bins extends so far east of East LA.

And yes, it’s my fault we don’t hear from Michael more often, since he’s always got something worthwhile to say.

So check it out.

………

Don’t count on securing your own Metro bike locker anytime soon.

………

These days, we all feel like refugees on SoCal streets.

Thanks to David Drexler for the photo of a proposed Beverly Hills “refuge.”

………

Phillip Young calls our attention to a free exhibit of Italian steel at La Jolla’s The Museum Of __, which is apparently still trying to define just who and what they are.

But as long as they want to talk bikes, I’m okay with that.

3 Italian Steel Bicycles

From the Collection of Ron Miriello
June 5, 2021 through July 17, 2021

The Museum Of__ is pleased to present an exhibition of vintage steel bicycles handcrafted and built throughout Italy between 1978 and 1986 from the personal collection of Ron Miriello, a San Diego-based graphic designer, artist, and Italophile. For decades, Italian steel bicycles have been synonymous with finely detailed craftsmanship and storied histories, from their hand-painted lettering and unique details etched in steel, to headtube badges and wool jerseys celebrating the pride of their cities and villages.

Though once there was a bicycle maker in most every Italian town, streamlined manufacturing has shifted the bicycle world’s ethos and desire for more advanced technologies. A globalized industry has challenged the future of these family-run operations in favor of mass-production, but their stories of dedication to the craft continue through a community of devoted collectors of these steel wonders around the globe.

The exhibition is open from 11 am to 5 pm, Tuesday through Saturday, at 7655 Girard Ave in La Jolla.

………

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

New York police are looking for a man who repeatedly punched a man in the face as he rode a Flatbush train with his bike, after they had an argument on the train.

A road raging Pennsylvania driver beat a bike-riding man with a golf club after trying, and failing, several times to swerve into him.

A 30-year old Welsh woman justifiably told off a male driver for making sexual remarks as she was riding her bike. Which is just one of the many things that can drive women off their bikes. So stop it, already. 

………

Local

Spectrum News 1 looks at the recent rankings from PeopleForBikes, which shows Los Angeles trailing far behind other large cities when it comes to bicycling.

The cable news site also examines the LACBC’s virtual LA Rivers Challenge, which is continuing throughout this month.

LA casual bikewear brand Swrve gets a well-deserved shoutout in the New York Times, as they examine the shorts staffers will be wearing in comfort this summer.

 

State

A La Jolla cardiologist probably saved his own life by promising to tell police he was injured in a mountain biking crash, rather than suffering a severe beating at the hands of his neighbor, who pled to 19-years behind bars.

That feeling when you freak out after spotting creepy cloaked men in the middle of the desert on Google Earth, including one with a bicycle. Only to discover it’s an art exhibit in the middle of Death Valley.

In a bizarre disconnect, a study from Oakland’s Department of Transportation confirms that protected bike lanes are the safest. But they want to rip out the successful protected bike lanes on iconic Telegraph Avenue anyway.

 

National

Next City says Europe has taken great strides to reduce the dangers motor vehicles pose to bike riders and pedestrians, but automakers on this side of the Atlantic have yet to address America’s addiction to deadly SUVS, as well as their own insistence on making them bigger and deadlier with every passing model year.

The Manual recommends bicycling gifts for adventurous dads. But Road Bike Action thinks you’d rather have some colorful national park bike socks.

Survivors of the Kalamazoo Massacre reunite five years later to remember the five bike riders killed by an extremely intoxicated driver, who also injured four other bicyclists; Charles Pickett Jr. was eventually sentenced to 40-75 years bars for their deaths.

A three-year old Brooklyn nonprofit “builds, donates and rents adapted bikes to kids and adults with disabilities unable to use standard bikes.”

A New York state senator commuted to work by bike over the weekend — 164 miles from Queens to the state capitol in Albany.

 

International

Road.cc recommends 15 birthday presents for the bicyclist in your life, starting at the equivalent of $21. Even if the only bicyclist in your life is you.

For people who can never spend too much on bikewear, Britain’s Rapha introduces their first mountain bike collection.

The Dutch Grand Prix is asking motorsports fans to bike, rather than drive, to watch the F1 race amid the country’s coastal dunes.

A 68-year old Nigerian man vows to keep riding the bicycle he bought 40 years ago for the equivalent of less than six dollars, saying only death can separate him from his beloved bike.

BTS fans call the new song Bicycle by band member RM that we linked to yesterday a masterpiece, as a website offers an English translation of the first verse and bike-friendly chorus. Then again, their fans would probably think it’s a masterpiece if he read a box of corn flakes.

Two Philippine men were killed by a bomb blast as they were riding their bikes past a mine site, which was targeted by a rebel group.

 

Competitive Cycling

Jumbo-Visma cyclists Sepp Kuss and Jonas Vingegaard came up short during the recent Critérium du Dauphiné, but sport director Grisha Niermann insists they’re on the right track for next month’s Tour de France.

VeloNews offers a middle-of-the-action photo essay from this past Saturday’s Gravel Unbound race in Kansas, formerly known as the Dirty Kanza.

 

Finally…

James Joyce as a mediocre bike racer. Probably not the best idea to flee from the police on your bicycle after pointing a pretty damn realistic cap gun at a driver.

And now you know why there’s so many typos on here. She’s a hard worker, but can’t type worth a damn.

………

Be safe, and stay healthy. And wear a mask. 

And get vaccinated, already.

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