Tag Archive for Los Angeles

Morning Links: Union Station Bike Hub opens today, and LA wastes millions earmarked to fix crumbling streets

November 15, 2017 / / 10 comments

I hope you’ll forgive my unexcused absences for the past few days.

The good news is, my wife is doing well, and should be back home from the hospital before the week is over.

And my beleaguered laptop is up and running again, leaving me somewhat poorer, but back on the job. Let’s hope it stays that way.

We’ll just assume that nothing important happened while we were gone.

Right?

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LA’s biggest Bike Hub is opening today at Union Station. The new Metro site will offer secure parking for up to 200 bikes for $5 a week, or $60 a year.

Photo by Metro’s Julia Salinas, taken from The Source website.

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KCET examines the crumbling state of LA’s streets, and the risks it poses to people on two wheels.

Not to mention the needless expense to the city, as the Bureau of Street Services has returned tens of millions of dollars to the city, rather than making desperately needed street repairs, even as the city pays out millions in legal settlements to injured riders.

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It’s been a heartbreaking few days for elderly bike riders.

A 76-year old man was killed in a collision while riding his bike in Bakersfield; John Rous was a well-known and longtime member of the local riding community.

An 80-year old British bike rider was killed in a collision with Tesla, which may or may not have been driving itself.

An 83-year old man in the UK was killed when his bike apparently hit a pothole; new rules could mean that more British potholes won’t get fixed.

An 86-year old Indian man was killed in a collision with a truck as he was riding his bike to an outdoor gym.

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Rest easy, folks. Ed Sheeran is playing guitar again, and promises he’ll keep riding his bicycle, despite injuring both arm in a recent crash.

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Let’s catch up with a couple of stories we missed from last week.

Manhattan Beach voted to install sharrows and bike route signs throughout the city. Even though one councilmember is afraid they’ll just embolden cyclists to ride exactly where they’re supposed to.

UCLA students plan to form their own neighborhood council, and split with the “NIMBY and obstructionist” Westwood Neighborhood Council. While the story is about housing, the Westwood NC has also been active in blocking much needed bike lanes in the area.

Mobility advocates gathered in Leimert Park for Untokening California to discuss creating greater equity in transportation.

Next year’s CicLAvias will include a seven-and-a-half-mile route from Disney Hall to the Hollywood Bowl on September 30th, with performances by the LA Philharmonic orchestra along the way. And ending with a free performance by the orchestra at the Bowl.

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Local

A writer in the UCLA paper calls for an awareness campaign to get students to walk and bike more safely.

Bike SGV names Doug Strange their Community Advocate of the Year; the founder of the reborn La Verne Bicycle Coalition will be honored at their 2017 “Noche de las Luminarias” awards dinner next month.

Pasadena-area Rotarians will meet this weekend to assemble 300 bicycles for underprivileged children.

Santa Monica is moving forward with plans for a “radical” transformation of traffic-choked Lincoln Blvd into a more human-scale Complete Street.

 

State

Newport Beach police are looking for man riding a red cruiser bike who was seen following a San Bernardino County prosecutor before she was severely beaten while jogging in a park this past August.

A Riverside bike rider was shot in the leg as the result of an attempted robbery.

In a bizarre story, a Bakersfield man died in police custody shortly after using a fake gun to threaten a woman riding her horse on a bike path.

Sad news from the Sacramento area, where a 19-year old North Highlands man was killed in a hit-and-run while riding his bike.

Sacramento State University is now a silver-level BFU. And no, that does not stand for Big Effing University.

A Marysville woman has been arrested in last week’s hit-and-run that left a bike rider seriously injured; she was taken into custody after calling the police to claim her car was stolen before the crash. An excuse that never seems to work in real life.

 

National

The GOP Senate wants to take away your measly $20 monthly benefit for riding your bike to work; the Bike League has more information on what you may be about to lose.

Architectural Digest examines how the threat of vehicular terrorism will change our cities in the wake of the New York bike path attack.

Bicycling offers tips on how to wash your bike.

A Seattle grandfather is suing after being left a paraplegic when he crashed into an unmarked bollard on a bike trail, which probably shouldn’t have been there in the first place.

An Iowa bicyclist says no, really, it’s much safer if she doesn’t give you any warning as she glides past on the sidewalk. That is what is technically known as a load of crap.

Evidently, flipping off the president pays. A Virginia woman who was fired from her job after her employers learned she was the bike rider who was photographed flipping off the presidential motorcade will receive at least $77,000 from a crowdfunding campaign. She says she did it because he wouldn’t have heard her through the glass.

 

International

A new crowdfunding campaign promises to turn your bike into an ebike for just $299, with an extra eight pounds of weight.

The Cuban record holder for the world’s tallest tall bike is working in tandem with the previous record holder, LA’s Richie Trimble, on a 20-foot tall tandem.

A Montreal website offers tips on how to stay safe and warm on your bike this winter. Which is especially good advice here in Los Angeles, where it sometimes gets down to a frigid 60 degrees.

Actor Robert Pattinson is one of us, as a gossip site freaks out when he’s spotted riding his bike in London without a helmet. Which is perfectly legal there, just as it is here.

A new UK survey shows 78% of people support protected bike lanes, even if the politicians don’t.

Three people were injured when a French driver with “psychiatric problems” deliberately plowed his car into a group of students.

Lithuanian students illustrate how much space cars take up, and how little bikes need.

A Mumbai website says everyone has a right to be safe when they ride a bike, from milkmen to champion cyclists.

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Competitive Cycling

VeloNews reminisces about the great Bernard Hinault on his birthday.

Cyclist magazine explores why Chris Froome isn’t considered a legend.

Phil Gaimon released a statement about repeating the rumor that Fabian Cancellara was a known motor doper in his new book, after the Swiss rider’s lawyers demand the removal of the book.

 

Finally…

It’s a sad day when a dog has better form on an upright bike than I do — even if he does need training wheels. No matter how threatened you feel by drivers, riding with an AR-15 is probably not the answer; neither is claiming you just found it in the street and were taking it to the police station.

And if you’re going to ride your bike with a stolen Glock in your pants, put a damn light on it.

The bike, that is, not the gun.

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Thanks to John P. Lynch for his generous contribution to support this site, as well as his kind wishes for my wife and laptop.

 

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

Morning Links: 1.3 million mile Breeze, Will Ferrell is one of us, and Gaimon accuses Cancellara of motor doping

November 9, 2017 / / 2 comments

Today we’re trying something slightly different by moving news about bike racing and pro cycling into its own section at the bottom, which seems to work better for quiet news days like today.

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Local

KPCC looks at the LACBC’s annual Operation Firefly bike light distribution program, which kicked off in Van Nuys Tuesday night.

CiclaValley takes part in the annual Mike Nosco Memorial Ride.

In the two years that Santa Monica’s Breeze bikeshare has been in operation, users have taken over 628,000 trips covering more than 1.3 million miles.

Long Beach votes to move forward with a road diet and protected bike lanes on Alamitos Ave to improve bike and pedestrian safety, even though it will increase peak hour traffic times by slightly more than a minute.

The Elks club is hosting a family Bike & Car Black Jack Toy Run for Veterans Children, starting in Burbank and finishing in Santa Clarita this Saturday.

 

State

After a San Diego grand jury called for more bikeshare stations at the beach, the city naturally responds by removing them instead.

Murrieta has plans to build a BMX bike park. Someday.

A Moreno Valley bike rider was critically injured in a collision Wednesday afternoon, after allegedly swerving out of the bike lane into the driver’s path. Thanks to Erik Griswold for the heads-up.

Sad news from Porterville, where a bike rider was killed by a hit-and-run driver, who faces charges for DUI and fleeing the scene.

Will Ferrell is one of us, completing what a Washington news station calls an “amazing” “marathon” bike ride with four friends, going 147 miles down the California coast from Monterey to Santa Barbara over several days. Although the station can’t seem to grasp the concept that he might have done it just because he wanted to.

More on San Francisco’s new, smaller Vision Zero fire trucks designed to fit in reduced traffic lanes.

People for Bikes looks at San Francisco’s plans to use traffic diverters to create a neighborhood bikeway, noting that reducing automobile traffic on one street does not necessarily mean an increase in traffic on surrounding streets. LA’s bike plan calls for a network of similar streets, none of which have been built, or seem likely to at this point.

Volunteers are distributing hundreds of new and refurbished bicycles to kids who lost theirs in the recent fires in Sonoma County. Meanwhile, Specialized is donating 250 bikes to kids affected by the fires.

Some schmuck is leaving anti-Islamic and anti-fraternity/sorority flyers in bike baskets and on bike seats at UC Davis.

 

National

Las Vegas is installing 800 steel bollards to along the Las Vegas strip to protect pedestrians from terrorist attacks, as well as plain, old fashioned careless drivers. Which is exactly what Los Angeles needs to do, but doesn’t seem to have any interest in, along Hollywood Blvd.

A pair of Boise, Idaho brothers design their own plans for a protected bike lane.

A Wisconsin city moves to block a planned bike path; one official calls it a financial boondoggle, even though it’s being funded by the feds.

Chicago bike path users are more worried about reckless drivers than homicidal ones.

Pfizer employees in Michigan are building bicycles as gifts for military families.

Former Tennessee Titans linebacker Eddie Robinson is one of us too, riding roughly 200 miles a week. And dropping 25 to 30 pounds from his playing days in the process.

UPS will now make deliveries in downtown Pittsburgh by ebike.

An Atlanta cyber security expert was killed when his bike was struck by a driver fleeing from the police in a stolen car.

 

International

The case of the disappearing bike racks.

An Ontario, Canadia city hopes a new bike network will convert drivers to bike riders.

A fashion magazine is wowed by royal-in-law Pippa Middleton’s choice of a cardigan for a bike ride, though she seems somewhat displeased at being ambushed by the paparazzi.

A scum bucket British taxi company sues a bike rider for the equivalent of over $6,300 after one of their cabbies ran him down, apparently for getting blood on their cab.

An Irish endurance cyclist set a new record by riding 735 miles up and down the length of the county in less than 49 hours.

The mother of a fallen Australian bike rider says bicyclists just want to feel safe on the streets, while an Adelaide paper says state, federal and local governments need to work together more effectively to counter a 20% drop in bicycling rates over the last six years.

The war on bikes continues, as someone has been booby-trapping mountain bike trails in Western Australia.

Australian authorities are blocking the ports to keep a hit-and-run driver from fleeing the country after she left a 13-year old bike-riding girl to die in the street. There’s something seriously wrong with anyone who would drive off and leave another human behind to die, let alone a child.

As LA enters the world of dockless bikeshare, more Chinese cities are saying enough is enough.

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Competitive Cycling

Former LA pro cyclist Phil Gaimon accuses cycling legend Fabian Cancellara of motor doping in Gaimon’s new book.

The brother of fallen pro cyclist Michele Scarponi makes an impassioned plea for better road safety; the Italian rider was killed in a collision while training in April.

 

Finally…

Car makers love to dabble in bicycle design, so why not a motorcycle maker? Your next Levis jacket could be Android and iOS compatible, for a mere 350 bucks.

And once again, if you’re using your bicycle as a weapon, you’re doing it wrong.

 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , ,

Morning Links: Specialized ebike recovered in Hollywood, and dangerous left cross caught on cam

November 8, 2017 / / 2 comments

The LAPD Hollywood Division is looking for the owner of a black Specialized Turbo X ebike.

Another reminder to register your bike now. And if it’s ever stolen, report it to the police right away, then list it with Bike Index’s free stolen bike database.

The police can’t press charges if they can’t prove it’s stolen.

And they can’t return it t the owner if they don’t know who it belongs to.

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Something that’s familiar to way too many bike riders, as CiclaValley caught a close call on his bike cam, courtesy of a left crossing driver.

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The 168-mile road cycling course for 2020 Tokyo Olympics will pass by the base of iconic Mt. Fuji.

A British website talks post-retirement life with Fabian Cancellara.

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Local

KNBC-4 reports on the new ofo bikeshare available in Griffith Park for one dollar an hour. The question is whether the bikes will remain in the park as intended, which seems pretty unlikely.

The Santa Monica Mirror looks back at the city’s Halloween-themed Kidical Mass.

The Taste of South Pasadena bike ride rolls on Thursday.

Heal the Bay is hosting an Explore Ballona! bike ride along the Ballona Creek bike path this Saturday.

Also this Saturday, CICLE is sponsoring their BEST Ride: The Flowing Power Ride, while giving participants a chance to win a free Sole bike.

 

State

A San Joaquin Valley public radio station talks with a Kern County Vision Zero group about their efforts to reduce traffic fatalities in Bakersfield.

Two teenage gang members face charges for shooting a 67-year old Lenmoore man when he tried to ride his bicycle around them. And no, I’ve never heard of Lenmoore before, either.

A Templeton man is due to be sentenced at the end of this month for the death of a bicyclist while making an unsafe pass, after pleading no contest to vehicular manslaughter.

San Francisco advocates pen an open letter to the mayor calling for improvements to the city’s Vision Zero program, including making immediate improvements at the site of any death.

A San Francisco supervisor tells Uber and Lyft to stay out of bike lanes.

 

National

A CNN Op-Ed says Juli Briskman shouldn’t have gotten fired for flipping off the president while riding her bike, which was unrelated to her work.

Bicycling offers drivers advice on how to safely pass bike riders, and tips for bike riders on how to ride clipless.

A Bernie Sanders — and soon Trump — biographer says last week’s New York terrorist attack is another reason why bicyclists and pedestrians must be protected from motor vehicles.

Once again, New York shows LA how it’s done, unveiling plans that would create protected bike lanes and improved intersections stretching eight miles across the city.

 

International

The parents of a fallen Canadian bicyclist are outraged that the driver won’t face serious charges, even though he hit a group of six riders head-on.

The Toronto city council votes to make a controversial protected bike lane on a major street permanent. Meanwhile, a pair of Toronto doctors write that protected bike lanes have a positive impact on public health by providing safe, healthy and accessible travel for people of all ages and abilities.

London’s former bike czar calls a proposal from the mayor to ban bikes on busy Oxford Street, which currently sees 5,000 riders a day, an unqualified disaster.

A pair of British bicyclists set a new record by riding through 14 countries in seven days.

Glasgow, Scotland is planning its first protected intersection. Which will be one more than you’ll find in Los Angeles.

Sixteen South African cyclists, including a 16-year old girl, rode 373 miles in 72 hours to raise awareness of diabetes.

 

Finally…

A cycling to English dictionary. And say it ain’t so, JuJu.

 

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

Morning Links: LimeBikes dockless bikeshare lands in LA, and work underway on Arroyo Seco bike path

November 7, 2017 / / 11 comments

They’re here.

Just one day after the unexpected announcement that ofo had introduced dockless bikeshare to Griffith Park, came the equally unexpected announcement that LimeBike had established a beachfront in Councilmember Joe Buscaino’s 15th District.

According to a press release, LimeBike has partnered with Buscaino for a three-month pilot program, calling it the first time a dockless bikeshare company has operated in any of America’s five biggest markets.

Or maybe the second, since it comes a day after ofo’s landing in the City of Angels.

The bikes cost $1 for 30 minutes, or 50 cents for students; entering the code LIMELA after downloading the iOS or Android app will get you 25 free rides until November 20th. The bikes can be picked up anywhere one is available, and left anywhere once you’re finished.

Low income residents can pay just $5 a month for up to 100 rides, with an option for cash rather than credit card.

Meanwhile, CiclaValley searches for, and finds, the ofo outposts in Griffith Park — and nearby, on someone’s lawn.

And the Guardian looks at the epic battle being pitched behind the scenes between Silicon Valley-backed bikeshares like LimeBike, and their Chinese competitors, including ofo.

Let’s hope Angelenos take better care of the bikes than people have in other cities; bikes abandoned in creeks and trees could mean the end of what promises to be a very useful program that could benefit a lot of people.

And help make bicycling more accessible to everyone.

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Bike SGV posts proof that the South Pasadena extension of the Arroyo Seco bike and pedestrian path is on its way.

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Over 500 Phoenix-area cyclists turned out to honor former SoCal resident and Big Orange cyclist Rob Dollar, who was killed by a drunk and stoned teenage driver last week.

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Sad news, as promising 20-year old Belgian cyclist Bjarne Vanacker was found dead after apparently passing away in his sleep from unknown causes.

Alberto Contador looks at the changes in pro cycling over his career as he prepares to retire, including climbing 30% grades and the advent of motor doping.

Bicycling talks with SoCal’s own Coryn Rivera, saying she has the potential to become America’s best ever bike racer. Which would mean surpassing a certain Texan, who once was great but officially isn’t anymore.

Cycling News talks with former great American hope Andrew Talansky as he transitions to tri.

And probably not the best idea to attack the members of another cycling team, even if you do blame their team car for your crash.

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Local

Paranoid much? A dermatologist and Mar Vista Community Council member says the Venice Blvd Great Streets project is just a secret attempt to turn Mar Vista into another Wilshire Blvd.

A Medium post says the effort to recall Councilmember Mike Bonin is really an Alt-Right campaign in disguise, and calls recall leader Alexis Edelstein a flesh and blood version of a Russian Facebook bot.

The LACBC’s Operation Firefly light distribution campaign kicks off tonight in Van Nuys.

Claremont police are investigating a break-in at the Jax Bicycle Shop last week.

Long Beach will consider a road diet and parking protected bike lanes on a half-mile stretch of Alamitos Ave. Unlike Los Angeles, where road diets are in danger of becoming an endangered species.

 

State

The Voice of San Diego looks at how that city screwed up bikesharing.

San Francisco will vote on a proposal to remove parking spaces on 17th Street to install one-way protected bike lanes.

Sacramento State University campus police busted a pair of suspected serial bike thieves.

The FBI is offering a $10,000 reward for the arrest of a Davis-area woman who apparently fled to Mexico after being convicted of vehicular manslaughter for a 2014 hit-and-run that killed a bike rider.

 

National

Streetsblog says distracted walking is a distraction from the real problem of distracted driving.

A crowdfunding campaign is offering a chance to buy a new $2,000 electric foldie for just $499. Unless you’d rather travel to Europe to buy a new BMW ebike for over six times as much.

A Portland letter writer complains about a red light-running, dog pulling bike rider who managed to flip him off anyway.

A Dallas writer says riding on carfree streets was great, unless you were in one.

A kindhearted Wisconsin woman gave her own three-wheeled adult bike to an 80-year old woman after hers was stolen in a burglary.

A Brooklyn writer says ebikes could be the future of transportation, but no one wants to let them on the road.

A HuffPo writer calls protected bike lane networks, like the one in Brooklyn, a breakthrough to make bicycling easy for almost everyone. Meanwhile, CityLab says European cities like Paris, Madrid and Lisbon have figured out how to live with ebikes, so why can’t New York?

A New Yorker movingly remembers a friend killed in last week’s bike path terrorist attack.

No surprise here, as Juli Briskman was fired from her job with a Virginia government contractor after they learned she was the bike rider who flipped off the president last week. Which doesn’t make it right. Thanks to David Drexler for the heads-up.

A Philadelphia writer learns how to ride a bike as an adult.

Buy a special North Carolina license plate, and help give a kid a new bike helmet. Although giving the kid a safer place to ride his bike would probably help a lot more.

Atlanta is attempting to become a top ten bicycling city, which would mean jumping 33 spots in Bicycling’s latest rankings.

Miami police are looking for a cape-wearing, bike-riding armed robber who shot his victim in the face.

A Florida paper examines the benefits of bike paths in terms of health, financial investment and crime, noting that rails-to-trails conversions generally have lower crime rates than the abandoned railways they replaced.

 

International

An Argentine city is mourning the deaths of five residents killed in the New York bike path terrorist attack, while the president of Argentina placed flowers at the site of the attack.

Toronto’s bike-riding parking cop is still off the job, and off Twitter, giving drivers a chance to park in the bike lanes again.

Montreal elects a new bike-friendly mayor, the first woman to lead the city.

A British dog walker uses his cam to record what he considers dangerous, speeding cyclists riding illegally through a park. Although they appear to be riding safely, slowly and considerately, even if they’re not supposed to be there.

An Australian website asks if Adelaide’s future as a bike-friendly city is already in its past.

 

Finally…

A cycling kit for bike-riding Beyoncé fans. Riding backwards while pedaling forwards.

And it might surprise many women to learn that riding a bicycle 75 miles is harder than childbirth.

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On a personal note, my wife will be having major surgery this week to correct a condition that has the potential to be life-threatening.

I’ll do my best to keep up with this site every day, but please accept my apologies in advance if I miss a day or two, or have to settle for a shortened post.

And if anyone would like to submit a guest post, now would be a great time to do it.

 

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

Morning Links: Dockless bikeshare comes to Griffith Park, the death of Vision Zero, and hope for Beverly Hills

November 6, 2017 / / 3 comments

Just days after a false alarm that the LimeBike dockless bikeshare had come to LA, Chinese dockless bikeshare provider ofo has apparently invaded our city.

Despite the fact that a proposed ordinance that would permit dockless bikeshare hasn’t yet made it to a single city council committee hearing.

Ofo tweeted Sunday morning, then deleted, that they were now live in Griffith Park.

They followed that up with a tweet saying they were partnering with the LA Department of Recreation and Parks to provide an easier way to ride through the park.

Brian Nelson confirmed that his wife saw four of the ofo bikes parked near the Greek Theater.

How that conforms to Councilmember David Ryu’s motion to permit privately owned dockless bikeshare in the city remains to be seen.

Especially since other providers, including LimeBike, are waiting patiently for their opportunity to come into the city.

It’s inevitable that dockless bikeshare will come to Los Angeles. The question is how — or if — it will be managed to avoid the problems that have plagued other cities.

Thanks to Erik Griswold and Zachary Rynew for the tips.

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The LA Weekly asks if LA’s ambitious Vision Zero plan to end traffic fatalities is already dead. And accurately quotes the very pissed off author of this site.

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I happened to run into Beverly Hills Mayor Lili Bosse at the city’s Woofstock dog fest on Sunday, and was encouraged to hear her say that the coming bike lanes on Santa Monica Blvd are just the start.

As she tweeted later, she’s looking forward to more bike lanes and better mobility throughout the city.

Maybe there’s hope for the former Biking Black Hole yet.

At least as long as she’s in office.

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More on last week’s New York bike path terrorist attack.

A mass was held at New York’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral to honor the victims of the attack.

Bicyclists say the new K-rail protective barriers make the bike path less safe.

A writer for Time says the terrorist’s fearmongering has failed, while Cycling Tips captures the fear and emotion brought on by the attack.

Actor Jason Biggs lets the terrorist know what he really thinks.

And radical right scumbag firebrand Milo Yiannopoulos said “he was glad the only people hit were cyclists and ‘not actual human beings.’” Thanks to F. Lehnerz for the link.

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In Alberto Contador’s case, the N + 1 formula for how many bikes you need equals 42 or 43.

Nobody said working through the details for the Giro’s 2018 Jerusalem start would be easy.

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Local

If you ride the Rose Bowl loop, you owe it to yourself to attend tomorrow night’s meeting of the Pasadena City Council Parks and Recreation Committee, where the future of the popular riding route will be up for discussion. Thanks to Wesley Reutimann for the heads-up. Correction: This originally said it was a City Council meeting; thanks to Bike SGV for the correction.

With the help of a Metro grant, Bike SGV has formed what could be SoCal’s first bicycle traffic school in El Monte.

Manhattan Beach officials and the Manhattan Beach-based leader of Keep LA Moving —no irony there — are unhappy with the way the reversal of the Playa del Rey road diets is going, even though they won the battle. Apparently, they won’t be satisfied until the streets are deadly again.

The Long Beach Police Department has received a grant for traffic safety enforcement over the next year, including a focus on bike and pedestrian safety.

 

State

The Orange County Register correctly notes that the end of daylight savings time increases the dangers to drivers and pedestrians. Wrecks go up after the time change, so make sure you use lights after dark, and ride as if everyone else on the road is driving distracted and half asleep. Which they probably are.

A Chino Hills man rides to collect recyclables, tossing them into a trailer behind his bike, while yelling out to passing people to drive safely.

Los Angeles isn’t the only city being sued by bike riders for injuries caused by bad streets; San Diego is currently facing a trio of lawsuits.

A woman in San Diego’s Mira Mesa neighborhood was seriously injured when a tow truck driver rammed her bike as he left a parking lot.

The great bike debate goes on in the pages of the San Luis Obispo newspaper, as a letter writer says encouraging bicycling provides a great value for bicyclists, as well as the drivers we share the roads with.

A San Francisco street near Golden Gate Park is being converted into a “neighborway,” diverting and calming motor vehicle traffic to improve bike and pedestrian safety. Which sounds a lot like a bike boulevard by any other name.

Instead of the usual complaints that fire engines can’t get through narrow streets with bulb outs and protected bike lanes, San Francisco buys a more compact fire truck that can.

 

National

A BuzzFeed writer calls for banning cars from big cities; a conservative website seems to think it’s a leftist plot.

The Felt behind Felt evidently felt it was time to leave Felt.

Funk-meister Bootsy Collins quit drugs after being told he’d never play bass again when he flipped his road bike several times while riding high in the woods. And no, that’s not a reference to altitude.

Kindhearted Washington residents pitch in to buy new Air Jordans for a teenage Canadian tourist after his were stolen by a BMX-riding man armed with bear spray.

I want to be like him when I grow up. An Iowa man rode his bike 90 miles to celebrate his upcoming 90th birthday.

Police in Stillwater, Oklahoma are repairing abandoned bicycles to be used by residents of a local mission to run errands or look for work.

Nope, nothing odd about Kentucky Senator Rand Paul being attacked in his home by his bike-riding, rice vest-inventing next door neighbor; Paul suffered five broken ribs and bruised lungs.

Grist says Pittsburgh got the bike advocate it never knew it needed in former Trojan JuJu Smith-Schuster

Life is cheap in Florida, where a driver got five years probation for a fatal hit-and-run that killed a bicyclist. Naturally, he claimed he had no idea he’d hit anyone.

 

International

British Columbia considers raising their paltry $81 fine for dooring a bicyclist.

Montreal’s mayor denies he used his influence to muzzle a Toronto parking officer’s popular Twitter account, which he uses to call out scofflaw drivers; the officer vows he won’t be silenced after officials suspend his account. Thanks to Norm Bradwell for the link.

The co-founder of the aforementioned ofo says London will one day reach Amsterdam-like bicycling levels. You’ll note he did not say the same thing about Los Angeles. Or anywhere else in Southern California.

A new British study says bike commuting can lower your risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease, as well as overall mortality. As much as I’ve ridden over the years, I should live forever.

A driver in Britain complains about a bike rider’s misaligned, too-bright headlamp. Evidently, no one in the country has ever been blinded by a driver’s headlights.

Evidently, they don’t take using a car as a weapon seriously in the UK, either. But they do take DUIs seriously, sentencing a drunk driver who killed a cyclist to eight years.

Bicycling helped a British teenager control his epilepsy.

The rich get richer. Bike-friendly Copenhagen asks bike riders to identify where they feel uncomfortable riding to determine where infrastructure needs to be improved.

Now you, too, can take an eight-day cooking and bicycling tour of Sicily led by celebrity chefs Traci Des Jardins and Mary Sue Milliken for a mere $4,595.

An Australian website asks if bicyclists and pedestrians should be banned from using headphones. Never mind that drivers in today’s hermetically sealed motor vehicles have a hard time hearing a siren right next to them, even with the sound system turned down.

An Aussie paper traces the anatomy of a fatal hit-and-run, and how the police tracked down the unlicensed driver who killed a bicyclist.

A rider from Down Under learns the hard way not to accept fruit juice from his friends without asking if they’d spiked it.

 

Finally…

Probably not the best idea to stare at a woman’s chest when there’s a Google Maps camera car driving by. You know you’ve made it when you get mentioned in the GOP tax bill.

And don’t ride your bike down an escalator without a helmet.

 

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

Morning Links: Dockless bikeshare isn’t here yet, more on NYC bike path attack, and goodbye LAist

November 3, 2017 / / 2 comments

For a moment, it looked like dockless bikeshare had arrived in LA.

Even if it’s not entirely legal yet.

Marc, aka @mcas_LA, tweeted a pair of photos showing a fleet of LimeBikes in the Jewelry District in DTLA, even though the proposed ordinance to legalize dockless bikeshare hadn’t made it through the city council yet.

Alas, it was not to be.

Not yet, anyway.

LimeBike was quick to respond that the bikes were being test-ridden by their employees at a private event, and that they would never launch Uber-style without waiting for the proper permits.

So you’ll just have to wait awhile longer.

………

New York is responding to Tuesday’s terrorist attack by installing K-rail barriers at 57 intersections, including the one that Sayfullo Saipov used to drive onto the bike path.

A bill in the US Senate would provide $50 million a year to install bollards, planters and other barriers along bikeways to protect cyclists. Get back to me when they get serious; $50 million works out to a token gesture of just $1 million per state.

A student injured when Saipov’s rented truck crashed into a school attended class on Wednesday to keep his record for perfect attendance.

A writer for Opposing Views considers what the attack says about bike safety.

In an Op-Ed in the Washington Post, Eben Weiss, aka Bike Snob, writes that a terrorist attack isn’t going to scare bicyclists off their bikes because we already have to deal with motorists.

And it hasn’t stopped them, as New Yorkers flocked to the pathway when it reopened yesterday.

………

You can kiss LAist goodbye. The billionaire publisher of the “ist” and DNAinfo sites pulled the plug on the entire network yesterday, taking down all the archives at the same time.

The site had regularly written about bike issues, and been a supporter of safer streets in Los Angeles, and other cities around the world.

I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that the closure came after employees had voted to unionize.

………

Local

Streeetsblog’s Joe Linton and Damien Newton correct the pernicious lie that Mike Bonin somehow stole money from the Measure M transportation tax to fund Vision Zero.

The LACBC’s Operation Firefly kicks off in Van Nuys next week, providing lights to bike riders who don’t have them.

The Pasadena Star-News asks if new trains, busways and bike lanes can end SoCal gridlock. Short answer, no. With more people bringing more cars here every year, our street will continue to be clogged. The only solution is to provide alternatives to driving, so the people who choose to leave their cars at home won’t be stuck in that mess.

Authorities are looking for funding to build a roundabout at the intersection of Highway 39 and the Old San Gabriel Canyon Road above Azusa to slow traffic and provide a safe extension to the San Gabriel River Trail, which currently dead ends at the roadway.

Helen’s Cycles is holding a trio of rides this weekend, while Santa Monica’s Breeze bikeshare celebrates its second anniversary on Saturday. And CicLAvia hosts their 2nd Annual pLAy Day in LA fundraiser on Sunday.

 

State

Nice piece in the LA Daily News about the recently completed, 450-mile Challenge Ride from San Francisco for wounded vets, including a former four-star Army Chief of Staff helping an injured ex-private up a hill.

The owner of a Coronado bike rental company opposes a proposal to allow LimeBike to operate on the island.

Bakersfield has received $200,000 in funding from Kern County for a number of bike-related projects, including bike parking in the downtown area, and the Build-A-Bike program that allows kids to earn a bicycle while learning about bike maintenance and repair.

San Luis Obispo is moving forward with plans for 50 new bicycling facilities, including buffered bike lanes and a bike boulevard, to fundamentally change the way people in the community get around.

Kindhearted Visalia residents pitched in to buy a new ebike for a legally blind teenager after the one he got for his 16th birthday was stolen.

A San Jose columnist says a planned bike and pedestrian bridge is a key link to improve safety, even if a letter writer considers it a waste of money.

A San Francisco man was critically injured when a bike rider opened fire on the victim following an argument; the suspect was arrested nearby.

San Francisco protesters create a people-protected bike lane on the Embarcadero to call attention to the need for greater safety.

 

National

People for Bikes offers four reasons why businesses should embrace ebikes.

A Seattle magazine says it’s good that dockless bikeshare bikes are being abandoned in trees, because it removes the moral superiority of bicycling, and makes it seem like it an everyday activity. Which it already is.

Over 8,000 people are expected to attend Denver’s one-day VeloSwap bike swap meet and expo this weekend.

A Dallas columnist says relax, and give dockless bikeshare time to work itself out.

Former cyclist Sinead Miller is now working with Nashville’s Vanderbilt University to put an end to sepsis, after ending her pro career when she suffered a traumatic brain injury in a collision.

A driver tried to run over a group of Miami police officers on a weekly community ride, and apparently got away.

 

International

An Op-Ed in Canadian Cyclist Magazine calls out the special status of drivers, and says laws that make a cyclist’s life cheap have to be changed.

Glasgow’s Philippa York says she would have gladly given up the fame that came with her cycling career as the former Robert Millar in order to transition to a woman when she was younger.

 

Finally…

Oprah is one of us, even if one of her favorite things looks suspiciously like a ghost bike. And evidently, the painkiller Tramadol will make you faster.

Even if it has the opposite effect on me.

 

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

Morning Links: 2nd edition of popular SoCal bicycling guide, and more details on NYC bike path terrorist attack

November 2, 2017 / / 3 comments

Let’s start with an updated version of a popular SoCal bicycling guidebook.

This is how the publisher describes it.

Good news for SoCal cyclists who prefer riding on bike trails and low-traffic bike routes: Richard Fox has published a thoroughly updated 2nd Edition of his popular colorful 400-page guidebook, “enCYCLEpedia Southern California – The Best Easy Scenic Bike Rides.”  It showcases over 200 fun ride options from Cambria to San Diego to Palm Springs.  Ride descriptions have detailed turn by turn instructions accompanied by stylized scaled maps depicting paved vs dirt bike trails and on-road bike routes.  A typical ride is 10-20 miles long with beautiful scenery, few hills, little or no auto traffic, and lots of interesting things to see or places to eat en route. Options to extend or combine rides are described. Now available from available from Amazon or direct from the author for $21.95.

A sample page from the book

………

More on Tuesday’s terrorist attack on a New York City bike path.

An Argentine school honored five of the victims, who graduated in the same class of 1987; another of their schoolmates, now working as a scientist in Boston, was injured in the attack. Video shows them happy and smiling as they rode through New York before the attack.

Several of the victims appeared to be riding rental bikes from the New York branch of a San Francisco company.

The New York Times looks at the people caught in the driver’s path, while the Washington Post profiles one of the two Americans and a Belgian mother of two who were killed.

A New York cop is called a hero for stopping the attack by shooting the suspect, who now faces terrorism charges.

Not all the victims were on the bike path; one of the two kids in the school bus the driver crashed into remains in critical condition.

The New York Times says the attack exposed the vulnerable street crossings on the bike path; bike advocates have called for better protection for the bike path for more than a decade.

Fast Company says safe streets that shield bicyclists and pedestrians from motor vehicles are the best protection against future attacks. The attack prompted calls for improved safety for bike paths in Chattanooga, Boston and Santa Maria.

But it didn’t stop New Yorkers from returning to the path the next day. And the head of a New York bike advocacy group says we’ll never stop biking.

………

Peter Flax complains about the recent Shanghai Skoda Criterium, saying fake bike races don’t belong in professional cycling.

The Bicycling Hall of Fame announces four new members.

………

Local

LA’s Vision Zero plan is expected to bring protected bike lanes and safer street crossings to the area around USC, where 21 people were killed in crashes between 2014 and 2016. Unless any drivers object to it, of course.

Starchitect Frank Gehry says the long-promised transformation of the LA River will never happen. Which is odd, since he’s the one the mayor put in charge of designing it.

More Selena Gomez bike photos, as she goes riding in LA with the Bieb.

CiclaValley revisits the site of the La Tuna fire.

Cost estimates have nearly doubled for a 2.8-mile extension of the Whittier Greenway Trail due to required improvements at railway crossings; the project is still moving forward despite the $15.7 million price tag.

 

State

The California legislature will consider a bill that could legalize part of the Idaho Stop law next year; AB1103 would allow bike riders to treat stop signs as yields, but maintain the requirement to wait for red lights.

A transient man in San Diego stabbed another man who tried to steal his bicycle.

San Diego plans a Day of Service to honor fallen bike rider Maruta Gardner, who was killed by a drunk driver as she was painting over graffiti in Mission Beach last year.

A Marin cyclist was locked up and had his bike confiscated for skitching behind a big rig on the 101 Highway.

 

National

NACTO has developed guidelines for when a protected bike lane should be installed. Which pretty much mandates one for most of Los Angeles.

A Portland musician and bike messenger was found dead in a park after apparently falling off his bike and hitting his head.

The man who recovered JujJu Smith-Schuster’s stolen bike wants the Pittsburgh Steelers tickets that were promised as a reward.

Residents of a Massachusetts town demand the city respond to complaints about “bicycle bullies.”

A day after the New York terrorist attack, a New York woman was shot in the stomach as she was docking her bikeshare bike; her attacker apparently shot himself afterwards.

A DC advocacy site suggests five street signs that point to a failed street design.

A Georgia woman has been convicted of two vehicular homicide counts, as well as seven counts of inflicting serious injury with a vehicle, DUI and endangering a child after swerving onto the wrong side of the road and hitting a group of bike riders head-on; she had meth and several other drugs in her system and was reaching for her cellphone at the time of the crash.

 

International

Someone hung a banner over a Montreal overpass accusing the city of too much talk and not enough action, while urging viewers to Bike the Vote en français.

Writing in The BMJ — formerly the British Medical Journal — a Scottish physician says restricting bicycling in response to the death of a single pedestrian would cause needless harm to public health. Case in point, a new Danish study shows bicycling to work is as good for losing weight as working out at a gym five days a week.

Caught on video: A Scottish bike rider and a driver engage in an expletive-filled spat after the former complains about the latter talking on his phone while he drives.

There’s a special place in hell for the British men who crashed their van into a pair of boys who were sharing a bicycle, then jumped out and stole it.

Amsterdam has banned beer bikes after complaints about rowdy drunken tourists.

Dutch bicyclists complain that they can’t find a place to park their bikes at busy train stations.

Tel Aviv, Israel begins enforcement of a partial sidewalk bike ban.

A road raging Russian bike rider faces 15 years behind bars for the murder of a careless driver who nearly ran him down. Another example of what can happen if you let your anger get the better of you. Just shake it off and ride away.

 

Finally…

The best way to win a bake off is to train by winning a few track cycling championships. Your next bike could be a 13 pound Aston Martin.

And who doesn’t need a bike built to survive a fall of a cliff.

Even if you don’t.

 

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

Morning Links: Dennis Hindman found safe, terrorist attacks bike riders in New York, and Bruins joins Bonin’s staff

November 1, 2017 / / 5 comments

Let’s start with the good news.

According to his sister, longtime LA bike advocate Dennis Hindman has been found safe in a San Gabriel hospital after being missing for two months.

Apparently, the Toluca Lake resident has been in the hospital for the entire time he’s been missing.

No word on Hindman’s condition yet, or why his relatives were never notified.

However, a hospital stay of that duration is never a good sign; let’s keep him in our thoughts and prayers until we have more information.

………

This time, it was us.

At least eight people were killed when a terrorist claiming an allegiance with ISIS drove 20 blocks down a New York bike path, leaving crumpled bikes and bodies in his path.

At least eleven others were injured.

Five of those killed were Argentine tourists who were visiting the city to celebrate their 30th high school reunion. One of the dead, and three of the people injured, were from Belgium.

The killer was shot by police after crashing his rental truck and exiting waving pellet and paintball guns; at last report he was hospitalized in grave condition after undergoing surgery.

The 29-year old native of Uzbekistan has been a legal resident of the US since 2010; he would have been unaffected by the recent travel bans.

The Associated Press lists other attacks where vehicles have been used as weapons.

Thanks to John Dammann for the heads-up.

………

Congratulations to former LACBC Planning and Policy Director Eric Bruins, who is joining CD11 Councilmember Mike Bonin’s staff as Transportation Policy Director, replacing longtime aide Paul Backstrom.

Or maybe we should offer our congratulations to Bonin for landing him. And to the people of CD11 for the exceptional hard work and dedication they’re about to receive.

Let’s hope they have the good sense to appreciate it.

………

Nothing like rounding a corner in San Clemente, and nearly getting hit head-on by a driver on the wrong side of the road.

Although that little honk from the scofflaw motorist was a nice touch.

Credit Eric Fleetwood for the video, and thanks to David Drexler for forwarding it.

………

There may be a lot of cyclists looking for work soon, as UCI’s new president calls for reducing the size of pro cycling teams to just six riders, after next year’s reduction to eight.

And former LA pro Phil Gaimon offers the latest in his Worst Retirement Ever series, as he tackles Colorado’s legendary Mt. Evans Hillclimb, the highest paved road in North America.

………

Local

It’s been awhile since we’ve heard from Susanna Schick, who writes about Move LA’s efforts to keep the city moving, while noting that every time she’s tried to push back against traffic, the cars push back harder.

Selena Gomez is one of us, as she stops to talk with fans while riding her bike in Studio City.

Santa Monica’s Breeze bikeshare celebrates its second birthday with a day of free rides this Saturday.

Cycling in the South Bay’s Seth Davidson writes movingly about his friend Rob Dollar, who was killed by an allegedly drunk and stoned teenage driver while riding outside of Phoenix on Sunday.

Long Beach’s Beach Streets wants to know what you thought about this past weekend’s open streets event in the city.

 

State

California’s new twelve cent gas tax increase will kick in today.

San Juan Capistrano will widen Del Obispo Street to remove a bottleneck, adding a lane in each direction, along with bike lanes on either side.

Orange County will begin restricting access to the Santa Ana River Trail in order to control the homeless camps that have sprung up along the trail; starting today the path will be closed from 6 pm to 7 am through the end of February, then 9 pm to 7 am until next October 31st.

San Diego’s city council makes the tough choice to remove parking to make room for bike lanes on University Avenue as part of the city’s Vision Zero program, reducing a gap in the city’s bike network. Meanwhile, the city approved a new connector road that will split existing neighborhoods, which would help complete a regional bike network, even though they’ve failed to track whether they’re meeting ambitious bicycling and transit goals to reduce greenhouse gasses.

An Arroyo Grande man says bike riders aren’t paying the “overinflated vehicle registration fees” car owners do, and suggests an annual $75 fee to ride a bike on the road. Never mind that bikes cause virtually no wear and tear on the road. Or that most bike riders already pay those same vehicle registration fees for one or more motor vehicles.

A middle-aged man was shot in the face while riding his bike near a San Jose light rail station. Thanks to Lynn Ingram for the link.

San Francisco police are looking for a pair of brutal bike-riding San Francisco hat thieves.

 

National

A TV website lists ten things you probably didn’t know about American Flyers.

NACTO says a future of autonomous cars calls for a transportation blueprint that puts people first.

Forbes asks if private dockless bikeshare will become a fixture on college campuses.

Lil Kim is sort of one of us, too, as she teaches her three-year old daughter how to ride a bike.

The FBI is offering a $10,000 reward for Colorado’s bike-riding bank robber, the Sneaky Cyclist Bandit. No word on what makes him so sneaky, though.

No bias here. A Denver TV station says the city’s efforts to become more bike-friendly may have hit a snag, because drivers don’t like a new sidewalk, calling it twice as wide as it needs to be.

A Dallas writer says the city can’t handle dockless bikeshare, where abandoned bikes are littering the sidewalks.

Chicago cab drivers are no longer required to drop passengers off at the curb, reducing their liability if someone doors a bicyclist.

Minneapolis has a bicycle-riding, unicorn-costumed candidate for mayor. Maybe Garcetti should consider that approach if he runs for president in 2020.

A Detroit bike co-op gave a new bike to a man with undisclosed medical problems, after the bike he used as his only form of transportation was stolen when he stopped to rest for a few minutes.

A Louisville KY bicyclist declares victory after authorities dropped charges of running a red light and obstructing traffic for not riding in a bike lane; he had claimed there was debris in the bike lane that could have given him a flat.

A New York bus driver was charged with a misdemeanor for the death of a bike rider last year, the first bikeshare rider killed in the city. But at least the driver honked before running him over.

 

International

You can now own your very own $815,000 cycling watch, which comes complete with a limited edition Colnago bike. For that price, it should also come with your own private bikeway to ride it on.

A bike-raging Toronto bike rider gets 18 months probation for an incident caught on video last August, in which a taxi driver intentionally turned into him after he had repeatedly slapped the cab and reached inside for the keys.

A road-raging London driver gets two years for intentionally running over a bike rider, breaking his back — then getting out of his car and telling the injured rider he’d run over him again if he had to.

Apparently they take repeated DUIs seriously in the UK, at least if you kill someone. A woman with three previous drunk driving arrests got eight years for the death of 17-year BMX rider after downing three pints of beer.

Caught on video: A British bicyclist confronts a motorist for driving on the sidewalk to get around a traffic diversion, who was none too happy about it.

 

Finally…

Seriously, don’t shoot your gun in the air while riding stoned, especially with a previous felony conviction. Your next ebike could run on hydrogen.

And you can now ride your bike through Graceland.

No, not that Graceland.

……..

Thank you to Alice Strong for her very generous donation to help support this site; you can make a donation anytime to help keep SoCal’s best bike news coming your way every day using the PayPal link.

 

Category: Health, Morning Links, Violence & Crime / Tags: , , , , , , ,

Morning Links: Bonin recall filing fails, 12-mile LA River bike path extension, and how not to be a bike path a-hole

October 31, 2017 / / 2 comments

No major bike news stories today, so let’s get right to it.

You can find updates to yesterday’s lead stories about missing bike advocate Dennis Hindman and fallen Big Orange cyclist Rob Dollar in yesterday’s post.

Update: Dennis Hindman has been found safe in a local hospital. More details when they’re available.

………

Local

Road diet foes and failed city council candidates fail to file their petition to recall City Councilmember Mike Bonin when they come up one signature short of the required five.

Curbed looks at plans for the 12-mile extension of the LA River bike path connecting Parks Canoga and Griffith.

CiclaValley examines the planned increases in speed limits in Los Angeles due to the deadly 85th percentile law, most of which will be in the San Fernando Valley. Which makes sense, since the Valley has more straight, wide streets that encourage speeding.

Streetsblog offers photos from Saturday’s Beach Streets open streets event in Long Beach.

 

State

Riders on the Coyote Creek bike trail can now find a fix-it station located in Coyote Creek Park in Los Alamitos.

A Palm Springs TV station send its crack investigative reporting team out to look at completely non-controversial bike trails similar to the inexplicably controversial CV Link trail proposed for the Coachella Valley.

San Luis Obispo police are using bait bikes to combat bike theft. Los Angeles police aren’t, but should be.

A seriously cranky San Luis Obispo writer accuses the all-powerful bike lobby of conspiring to destroy the city’s neighborhoods. But first, he has to explain what a neighborhood is.

A 17-year old Los Osos girl will be tried as an adult and could face prison time for the August hit-and-run death of a bike-riding Cal Poly student.

A five-year old Porterville girl set up a lemonade stand to raise money to buy a bicycle, only to be told by the city that she needs a business license. Did I mention that she’s only five years old?

Watsonville police bend over backwards to blame the victim, saying a woman killed while riding her bike “came out of nowhere” into the path of a moving vehicle, even though witnesses reported the driver may have been street racing. No one, anywhere, has ever defied the laws of physics to come out of nowhere, let alone to get hit by a car.

 

National

Pedal Love looks at the birth of the modern bike movement.

People for Bikes goes ebike myth busting.

A new app being tested in eight US cities that aren’t Los Angeles promises to the be Waze of bicycling by helping riders find the safest routes to get around.

An experienced Spokane rider patiently explains how not to be an asshole on a bike path. My word, not his. But he’s right; the only change I would make would be to say “Passing on your left,” rather than just “On your left,” which can confuse people. Or maybe just “Excuse me,” which almost always seems to work.

Chicago police are looking for a bike-riding groper who has been assaulting women in parks and on sidewalks and bike paths.

An Ohio college student has filed a lawsuit after he was right-hooked by a fire truck.

A Pittsburgh man paralyzed from the waist down will attempt to set a new 24-hour handcycle record this Friday.

A bighearted Illinois boy won a new bicycle after he got one for his birthday, so he gave it to a classmate who didn’t have one.

A New Hampshire letter writer says his town’s appointment of a bicycle mayor is just a Trojan Horse to slap a tax on bicyclists. But at least he recognizes that bike riders already pay for the roads.

The New Yorker says the original master of the modern ghost story was one of us.

Miscreant rental bike hustlers are intercepting customers from the sole licensed bike vendor in Central Park, sometimes violently or obscenely.

A Rhode Island ballet dancer returns to the stage after recovering from a hit-and-run while riding his bicycle; doctors had told him he’d never walk again.

A Florida scumbag gets a well-deserved 20 year behind bars for running down a bicyclist, dragging his body to a ditch and covering him with palm fronds, then setting his car on fire, reporting it stolen, and blaming a relative.

 

International

Six professional cyclists were injured in Costa Rica when a driver plowed into them during a race; reports conflicted on whether the driver ignored police warnings or if the riders drifted onto the wrong side of the road.

The new Pashleys replacing London’s original Boris Bikes win rave reviews; Londonist offers a video preview of the bikes. Thanks to Erik Griswold for the last link.

Police in the UK are looking for a teenage hit-and-run bicyclist who did a wheelie bad job of passing another rider.

Russel Crowe goes for a bike ride with his assistant, and takes her to the pool with him. Which is more than enough for the British press to conclude they’re dating.

Apparently, life is good for Isis soldiers in Syria, where all you have to do is carry a gun, play video games and ride your bicycle. Or maybe not.

A persistent magpie with a vendetta attacks an Aussie bike rider ten times in twenty seconds.

An Australian writer argues against what he calls the “myth of equal reciprocity” on the roads, suggesting bike riders who believe they have to earn the respect of drivers are suffering from the Lycra equivalent of Stockholm syndrome.

New Zealand cyclist Karl Murray faces a significant ban from competition after failing a second doping test. But the doping era is over, right?

Ed Sheeran rescheduled most of his Asian tour, after breaking both his arms in a bike crash.

 

Finally…

If you’re carrying coke — small c — on your bike, probably not the best idea to ride drunk, even if it is legal where you are. Evidently, memorizing poetry while riding isn’t a much fun as you’d think.

And nine videos that demonstrate why you should leave the ebike building to the experts. And shouldn’t talk back to cops.

 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , ,

Morning Links: LA bike advocate Dennis Hindman is missing, and former a SoCal cyclist killed in Arizona

October 30, 2017 / / 2 comments

Unfortunately, we have to start the week with bad news.

Longtime Los Angeles bike advocate Dennis Hindman has been reported missing by his family, according to a message I received from his niece.

It’s unclear how long it’s been since anyone has seen or heard from the Toluca Lake resident; CiclaValley reports he has been missing for over two months, though a convenience store clerk said she’d seen him just two to three days ago.

Hindman is one of the city’s best bike safety and policy wonks, capable of digging into the smallest details of a project to highlight a specific issue, or uncover hidden problems or unexpected benefits.

He has been a supporter of the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition for nearly a decade, if not longer. During my time on the board he was an active participant in virtually every committee I was involved in, and never failed to volunteer for the bike count or attend any LACBC event.

He’s also a semi-regular contributor to this site, as well as others. And a frequent commenter on LA Streetsblog dating back nearly to its founding, offering detailed statistics to back up his opinions.

And he’s someone I consider a friend.

Let’s hope this is just a big misunderstanding, and he turns up safe and sound, with a good explanation for why he’s been gone.

If you have any information on his disappearance or where he might be, please contact me and I’ll forward it to the right people.

Update: I’ve received more information from Hindman’s niece.

His family is concerned that he may have had a diabetic episode; apparently he was hospitalized at the end of August for extremely high blood sugar.

His rent was last paid in mid-September, and has not been paid for this month; a police officer visited his apartment and discovered the milk in his refrigerator had expired in August and his bicycle was missing. 

Where he was been for the last two months remains a mystery.  

Update 2: Dennis Hindman has been found safe in a local hospital. More details when they’re available.

………

More bad news, as a member of the Big Orange Cycling club was killed in a collision while riding outside Phoenix AZ yesterday.

The victim has been identified on Facebook as 36-year old Rob Dollar.

No details on how the crash occurred are currently available; however, Cycling in the South Bay’s Seth Davidson suggests that a teenage driver may have drifted into his lane.

I’m told Dollar had recently moved to Gilbert, Arizona, where he was in the process of forming an Arizona chapter of the SoCal riding club.

He’s described as fantastic guy with a big heart, and “a total badass on a bike.”

This comes exactly one week after Big Orange member Dan Martin was severely injured in a crash while riding home last Sunday, leaving him in the ICU with a broken neck. A crowdfunding campaign to help defray his medical bills has raised over $18,000 in four days.

Update: A Phoenix TV station reports that 19-year old Annaleah Dominguez has been charged with manslaughter and drug charges in Dollar’s death. 

She was reportedly driving stoned when she crossed onto the wrong side of the road to avoid another cyclist, and hit Dollar head-on. 

Police recovered what’s described as “a quantity” of marijuana that had been tossed outside her car by Dominguez or her passengers.

Dollar had been descending from the top of South Mountain when he was struck by the car around 9:40 am; he died at the scene.

Thanks to Jon for the heads-up.

………

Sad news of a different sort, as Bike SD founder and Executive Director Sam Ollinger is leaving the organization, which has helped turn San Diego into what is rapidly becoming one of the most bicycle friendly cities in Southern California.

I first encountered Sam when she emailed me asking what one person could be do to help make what was then a very challenging and bike-unfriendly city a little safer for people on two wheels.

I have no idea what I told her.

But I’ve watched as she’s become one of California’s leading bike advocates, helping pave the way for women to rise to the highest ranks of advocacy.

There’s no doubt that she will do well at whatever she chooses to do next.

But San Diego bicyclists owe her a huge debt. And the city will be much poorer without Sam’s voice.

………

As we’ve noted before, the war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes is all too real.

A Kentucky woman was injured by fishing line strung at neck level in an Elizabethtown park; police found several other booby traps hidden nearby.

A road raging Toronto driver brushes a bicyclist with his mirror, then tries to run him off the road.

A tailgating British driver get 17 months, along with a 21-month ban on driving, for attacking a bike rider who asked if he’d just robbed a bank.

And an Aussie rider was hit in the face with a cup of ice thrown from a passing car, breaking his glasses and cracking his helmet.

………

On the other hand, bike riders aren’t always the good guys. Or the victims.

Tragic irony, as a 91-year old New Hampshire woman who had travelled the world by bicycle with her husband was killed in a collision with a bike rider as she walking along a roadway.

A 73-year old British man selling memorial poppies was seriously injured when he was stuck by a bike rider.

And a Singaporean bicyclist is facing charges for killing a 73-year old pedestrian in a crash.

However, let’s not forget that, regardless of how the media portrays it, the person on the bike is not always at fault.

You should always use extreme care around pedestrians, grant them the right-of-way, and slow down to pass them with the same sort of margin you’d expect from a driver.

But people can be unpredictable under the best circumstances. I’m sure most of us have had someone step into the roadway to cross without looking, or make an unexpected turn into your path.

Just as drivers have an obligation to avoid us, we have an obligation to avoid crashing into people on foot if it’s at all possible.

But if it isn’t, it’s not always the person on two wheels who should get the blame.

………

After all that, we could all use a little good news.

A Colorado bicyclist is back on his bike after keeling over from a heart attack in the middle of a ride; he can credit a pair of Good Samaritans with saving his life until paramedics could arrive.

When a British man had to stop mountain biking after ten years due to illness, his friends pitched in to buy him an ebike. Thanks to Megan Lynch for the link.

After a road raging Brit driver posted video of a small group of cyclists riding in the lane ahead of him instead of a bike lane, the police respond by saying they had every right to be there.

No, really.

………

Local

Don’t plan on riding the curb-protected bike lanes on South Figueroa anytime soon. Urbanize.LA reports the MyFigueroa project now won’t be finished until next spring.

The LAPD blames the victim — and the press parrots it — after a pedestrian was killed in a Venice crosswalk when a driver stopped for him in the right lane, and a speeding driver whipped around him on his left. Yet somehow, the police say the victim stepped out into traffic, even though he was in a crosswalk with the right-of-way. Take this as a warning to never cross a street, on your bike or on foot, until every driver stops.

This is the callousness some drivers — and some prosecutors — have. After a pickup driver slammed into two women walking in a crosswalk near the 101 Freeway in Calabasas, killing one and injuring her daughter, the driver got out and dragged the dead woman to the side of the road, then backed up, parked her truck and pretended to be a witness to the crash. And the LA County DA’s office refused to file the serious charges recommended by the CHP, opting for just a single misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter count with a max of one year in jail.

A UCLA podcast talks bikeshare on campus.

 

State

Shockingly, the Bike League ranks California third among bike-friendly states; Nebraska comes in dead last. The question is whether California was really that good, or everyone else just sucked that bad.

Around ten thousand people turned out for Sunday’s CicloSDias in San Diego. Or maybe it was only hundreds.

If you build it, they will try to destroy it. A transit-oriented San Diego community is fighting plans to put a freeway onramp in the middle of their neighborhood, after a local non-profit whose mission is to get people out of their cars inexplicably endorses it.

San Francisco bike advocates get a crash course on the ins and outs of building bike parking.

 

National

Two new studies suggest self-driving cars could lead to even greater congestion, while forcing bike riders off the road. Although at this point, you can probably find a study suggesting autonomous vehicles will lead to everything from a bicycling Nirvana to an automotive apocalypse.

A Las Vegas cyclist talks about the dangers riders face on the roads.

A Colorado man has developed a new bike racing board game based on the Little 500 made famous in Breaking Away.

A bridge over Cleveland’s Cuyahoga River gets a road diet to make room for a bike lane crossing it.

Detroit is naming a new bikeway after legendary boxer Joe Louis.

New York police shut down a bicycle jousting tournament, but can’t manage to kill it.

A New York writer says banning ebikes won’t solve the problem of scofflaw cyclists. Never mind that the people he’s complaining about are just trying to earn a living at the bottom of the food chain.

No disconnect here. A New York writer says nine bicyclists has been killed in the city so far this year, then goes on to say “bicyclists are the most dangerous group on NYC roads.” If getting killed makes you dangerous, then baby harp seals must be the most vicious animals on earth.

An Op-Ed in the Washington Post says there’s still some kinks to work out, but dockless bikeshare could be a success.

No disconnect here. A Virginia letter writer says cyclists should use common sense and stay off a road where drivers can’t seem to stay of the gas pedal.

Oh, nothing. Just a South Carolina man riding his bike with a deer slung over his shoulder.

 

International

A Vancouver man calls bike lanes the bane of his existence, suggesting any new bike lanes should have to be approved by referendum.

An Ottawa woman heads a group that rescues injured birds, setting out by bike early every morning to look for birds that have crashed into windows.

Montreal bike riders call for better safety, saying “If you do nothing, we will continue to die.”

An anonymous writer pens a heartbreaking letter to the speeding driver who killed his or her teenage sister as she rode her bike; decades later, the family is still waiting for an apology.

If you build it, they will come. A protected bike lane in Manchester, England is recording over 5,000 trips a day, comparable to London’s cycle superhighways.

A British bicyclist learns that a travel insurance policy offering “comprehensive cover while cycling” doesn’t exactly mean comprehensive. Or cover what you go cycling on.

Steve Katz forwards video of police in the UK going undercover to catch drivers making illegal close passes.

Pope Francis has been invited to launch the Giro d’Italia when it kicks off in Jerusalem next year.

Drivers in West Australia will now face a $400 fine and four points against their license for passing a bike rider closer than the equivalent of roughly three feet at up to 37 mph, or four and a half feet over that speed. In California, it’s just a $35 fine for passing closer than three feet at any speed. And even that is optional if the driver slows down to pass closer at a closer distance.

File this one under you’ve got to be kidding. An Australian writer says bikeshare is a terrorist’s best friend, because a bomb could be hidden in one. After all, it’s just so hard to find a cheap bicycle, or steal one, for that matter. Or some other object that could conceal an explosive device, like a car, backpack or baby carriage.

 

Finally…

Cyclists take part in a five day, week long ride through Israel; evidently, the weeks are shorter over there. If an underage kid gives you money to buy him beer, don’t just pocket it and ride away.

And if you missed it, a bicyclist twice saluted President Trump as his motorcade left his Virginia golf club on Saturday.

With one finger.

Thanks to Al Williams for the heads-up.

 

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