Tag Archive for Los Angeles

New CA ebike bill still 3 times UK limits, Hollywood Walk of Fame officially sucks, and we pay the price for LA potholes

January 16, 2026 / / No comments

Well, that puts things in perspective.

We mentioned yesterday that a new bill in the state legislature (AB 1557) would cap ebike engines at no more than 750 watts.

Anything above that would be classified as a “motor-driven cycle,” requiring a license and registration.

But in the UK, ped-assist ebikes are already restricted to a maximum continuous power output of 250 watts, with a cut-off assist speed of 15.5 mph.

In other words, a third of what legal ped-assist ebikes would be lowered to in California.

And we wonder why we have a problem.

Meanwhile, Road.cc recommends the year’s best ebikes, most of which should be available in this country. And none of which looks like an electric motorbike.

Photo by Josh Sorenson from Pexels. 

………

It’s official.

Hollywood’s Walk of Fame has once again been declared the world’s worst tourist attraction.

Which anyone who lives or works near, or has ever visited, Hollywood Boulevard can attest to, without ever going to the effort of visiting all the other tourist attractions.

Even the World’s Largest Ball of Twine probably has it beat.

Never mind that we were supposed to see a new and improved version of the boulevard by now, complete with protected bike lanes, larger sidewalks, more trees and fewer traffic lanes.

The plans are already in place, after undergoing the city’s usual endless series of public meetings, complete with compromises to placate every possible point of view.

Plans are also ready to convert the stretch of boulevard between Highland and Orange into a multi-block pedestrian plaza, which could do more than anything else to improve safety and reinvigorate the area.

I asked former LADOT Executive Director Seleta Reynolds that very question all the way back in 2018, and was told it was shovel ready as soon as a majority of Angelenos demanded it.

Who, I might add, were never asked that question.

Our leaders just assumed, as usual, that most people would oppose it, based on the city’s standard decision making process of giving in to whoever screams the loudest.

Never mind that an overwhelming two-thirds majority of city residents voted to build sidewalks, bikeways and bus lanes when they passed Measure HLA.

Hollywood doesn’t have to suck.

We just lack leaders with the guts to do anything about it.

………

It should come as no surprise to anyone that LA streets are full of potholes after the recent record rains.

Which the city is not fixing, due to massive maintenance budget cuts by a mayor and city council who put us on the brink of bankruptcy due to unfunded pay raises for city employees.

But what would be, at worst, an expensive inconvenience for motorists could lead to serious injuries, or worse, for people on bicycles.

Because your front wheel unexpectedly dropping out from under you can result in severe falls. And swerving to avoid a pothole can put you in the path of oncoming drivers and their big, dangerous machines.

So the city might save a few bucks by not fixing potholes now, and pay for it later in the form of massive legal settlements.

But we’ll be the ones who really get stuck with the bill.

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LADOT wants your input on improving South LA’s Broadway corridor.

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It’s the battle of the bike lane sweepers this weekend.

https://twitter.com/StreetsR4Every1/status/2011647196781748378

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You can now ride the full length of California’s most iconic bicycling route once again.

https://twitter.com/CHP_Monterey/status/2011552241459876199

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British ‘cross competitors demonstrate the many and varied ways you can fall off a bike.

 

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Local 

South Central LA-based artist Lauren Halsey appears to be one of us, posing with a pink BMX bike to discuss her “immersive, architectural” artworks, as well as the limited-edition bicycling jersey she designed with Rapha and the Miami Design District to raise funds for cancer research.

The Silver Lake Track Club invites you to join them on February 7th for year two of Altadena to the Palisades: An Ultra-Marathon Relay, running or biking up to 50k — aka 31 miles — through the burns zones to raise funds for recovery efforts.

The Los Angeles Times suggests six places in Southern California to try bikepacking. I’ll take Joshua Tree for the win, thank you. 

 

State

Police busted a man wanted for probation violation and robbery after he led them on a pursuit from National City into San Diego, riding his ebike on the freeway. Although something tells me he wasn’t riding anything that would be called an ebike under the new California bill, let alone British regulations.

Life is cheap in San Mateo County, where the local DA announced they won’t be filing charges against a 19-year old woman who pulled her car out of a parking lot, striking an 11-year old kid on an ebike — who had the right of way — then jumped a curb, fatally slamming into four-year old boy and injuring his six-year old sister, before crashing into the restaurant they were leaving; prosecutors concluded they couldn’t get 12 jurors to agree she was negligent. Sure as hell sounds like she was, but what do I know?

 

National

Speaking of ebikes, Specialized is recalling all their Turbo Como SL commuter ebikes, saying you should stop riding it immediately due to a risk of cracks in the steerer tube. Which is probably a bad thing. 

Speaking of recalls, if you’re wearing an R.X.Y bicycle helmet, stop; the helmets violate minimum bike helmet standards, and pose a risk of serious injury or death. Which is definitely a bad thing.

He gets it. The publisher of a Las Vegas sports business site says the solution to the city’s deadly roads is better enforcement and education, as well as engineering better designed roads.

In a rational ruling from the New York courts, a judge has concluded that the city’s Department of Transportation has a rational basis to build bike lanes because that’s exactly what they’re supposed to do.

Kindhearted cops in Oviedo, Florida worked with a local nonprofit to give a girl a new bicycle, helmet and lock to ensure she has a safe way to get to middle school. Apparently, they haven’t heard about Florida drivers yet. 

 

International

Evidently, ice biking is nothing new. The CBC says bicycling up the frozen Yukon River dates back to the Klondike Gold Rush.

After five years and more than 3,000 hours of bicycling the streets of London, a man has developed his own bicycle safety map of the city, which is now used by more than 1.3 million people.

A London woman says that as a Black bicyclist in what is normally a white man’s sport, she’s already an icon whether she wants to be or not.

A British mother of three was sentenced to 35 years to life behind bars for a road rage-fueled feud, after running down and fatally ramming an ebike rider with her Range Rover at speeds of up to 75 mph. Once again, the victim probably wasn’t riding something that should be called an ebike. 

If you build it, they will come. One in five people in Brussels, Belgium now bike to work, as bicycling rates have jumped 40% in just five years.

 

Competitive Cycling

Next year’s Grand Depart for the Tour de France will roll through Scotland, starting in Edinburgh, rolling through the Scottish Borderlands, Dumfries and Galloway before finishing just south of the border in Carlisle, England.

 

Finally…

Your next e-cargo bike could fold like an origami crane. That feeling when your interior design career is on hold until the ’28 Olympics.

And when you need an app to know if your local bikeways are under water.

Literally.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

WeHo bike lanes going green, and new CA bill would cap ebike speeds and reclassify more powerful ebikes as motorbikes

January 15, 2026 / / One comment

West Hollywood will paint existing bike lanes on Santa Monica Blvd, Fairfax Ave and San Vicente Blvd green to increase their visibility.

It will be that particular shade known as “Hollywood Green,” allowing filmmakers to work around the color to avoid the disastrous rollout when Los Angeles first went green.

Painting the lanes is probably a good idea, given that most drivers seem to think the Fairfax bike lane is only there to bypass backed-up traffic, seemingly never occurring to them that there might be a bicycle in it.

And usually there isn’t, for exactly that reason.

Green paint isn’t likely to stop those drivers. But at least they’ll have a better idea what law they’re breaking.

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That’s more like it.

A new bill in the state legislature would cap ebike engines at no more than 750 watts while imposing new speed restrictions.

AB 1557 would also reclassify more powerful electric motorbikes as motor-driven cycles, which would require a license to operate.

Maybe then we can finally get everyone to stop calling the damn things ebikes, and blaming all of us for the actions of a relative few teen knuckleheads.

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Streets For All will host a mobility debate for the candidates for city controller next Thursday.

Only one of whom has corgis, which should be a key consideration.

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

An English borough clapped back when drivers complained about paying for the roadway as well as bike lanes, only to be rewarded with a 20 mph speed limit to protect vulnerable road users, replying that motorists don’t pay any more than anyone else and the country hasn’t had a road tax for nearly a century.

No bias here. A British news channel breathlessly announced that bicyclists now think illegally modified ebikes pose a bigger risk to their safety than motor vehicles. Except they left out the word “some,” because only 8% of the people polled believe that — and only 500 people were polled.

No bias here, either. Aussie commenters set their hair on fire when a photo showed a bicyclist riding in a bus lane, insisting that the single rider was somehow “inconveniencing hundreds” during rush hour. Must have been a damn big bus, because no one else in the photo seems to be even a little bit inconvenienced.

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Local 

The Eastsider reminds us that Metro is looking for your comments on closing the gap in the LA River bike path through DTLA, Vernon and Maywood.

Calabasas bike-themed restaurant, bike shop and coffee bar Pedaler’s Fork is opening a second location in LA’s Frogtown, near their existing 10 Speed Coffee and close to the LA River bike path.

Santa Monica will conduct yet another bicycle and pedestrian safety operation from 2 pm to 8 pm today. So ride to the letter of the law until you cross the city limits so you don’t get ticketed. Or just avoid the city entirely this afternoon and evening if you can.

 

State

Calbike has opened registration for April’s biennial California Bicycle Summit in Sacramento.

Oceanside police are pushing for a change in the city’s ebike regulations to prohibit carrying a second rider and allow cops to temporarily seize the ebikes of scofflaw riders. Although once again, they seem to be conflating ped-assist ebikes with illegally modified electric motorbikes and dirt bikes.

A 73-year old Rancho Bernardo man is bicycling around San Diego with his son to interview random people they meet and post the videos online. The story is paywalled, but you can see their videos on their website.

 

National

A New York news site says bicyclists and ebikers continue to exceed Central Park’s 15 mph speed limit, endangering lives, while the speed limit is almost impossible to enforce. Yet the photo shows a couple kids on e-motorbikes with full face helmets, one pulling a wheelie, making it clear that regular bicycles and ped-assist ebikes aren’t the problem. And speed guns work just as well on them as they do with motor vehicles.

Streetsblog says the way to solve the problems in Central Park is to build better bike lanes around the park’s perimeter, so non-recreational riders don’t have to use it as the only safe route across town.

Proof protected bike lanes work. Ridership on a contested Brooklyn bike lane went up 60% after it was protected — even though the former mayor ripped out three blocks of the protection.

Justice denied, as a Salvadoran immigrant faced up to 12 years behind bars for killing a Long Island bike rider in a drunken crash, but was deported before he could be sentenced.

A group of Tampa, Florida mountain bikers are building their own trail, the city’s firstl.

 

International

Bike Radar explains why your ebike battery loses power when it’s cold, with a lithium ion battery having just half the power at 4 below zero Fahrenheit that it does at 77 degrees. Which is not a problem most SoCal riders are likely to have. 

The state of Mexico will invest the equivalent of $6.3 million to build four new bike lanes, as well as six protected intersections in high traffic areas.

London’s Telegraph recommends the ten European bike routes for all skill levels that you should tackle in your lifetime. Particularly if you feel an uncontrollable urge to circumnavigate Iceland. 

A London writer experiences the culture shock of moving from an air-conditioned office to a bicycle delivery service following his fourth layoff in six years, saying he hadn’t counted on get hit by cars and skinheads — let alone seeing the city in a whole new light.

Ireland’s Taoiseach, otherwise known as the country’s prime minister, condemned a judge’s comments that bike riders have made Dublin a nightmare, while the country’s Labour Party filed a formal complaint with the courts.

Cycling Weekly recommends the “unknown” climbs of the Austrian Alps, calling them harder than those of the Tour de France.

More proof protected bike lanes work. A year-old protected bike lane in the Australian state of Tasmania hasn’t had a single bicycling crash since it was installed, despite seeing 6,000 trips each month, while overall crashes on the street have dropped nearly a third.

 

Finally…

Now you, too, can turn your kid’s balance bike into an electric snow trike. That feeling when you have a need to prove you really did it.

And building your granddog his own bike seat. Or a mobile dog house.

Or something.

@louie_and_grandpaw

Spoiled little daschund ! Grandpaw built this custom snoopy inspired dog house from scratch for his grand dog Louie! #daschund #dogsoftiktok #dogtiktok #dogmom

♬ Linus And Lucy – Take 1 – Vince Guaraldi Trio

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Reforming DUI law to make it kinda less lax, Venice NC rethinks the bike plan, and throwing a bike at a hit-and-run driver

January 14, 2026 / / No comments

Apparently, CalMatters is getting results for calling out California’s lax DUI laws.

The nonpartisan nonprofit news organization has run a series of hard-hitting stories pointing out how the state allows dangerous and deadly drivers to remain on the roads, even after taking a life.

Or repeatedly getting busted while too drunk or stoned to drive.

And how those overly lenient laws adds to the state’s ever increasing body count due to traffic violence caused by people who shouldn’t have been behind the wheel in the first place.

Now they’re reporting that a number of bills are being proposed in the state legislature to tackle the problem, including one directly addressing DUI.

(Assemblyman Nick) Schultz, a Democrat from Burbank, is the chair of the Assembly’s Public Safety Committee and a former DUI prosecutor. He unveiled a new bill last week – which he called “the tip of the spear” – that would crack down on repeat drunk drivers. The bill would:

  • Let prosecutors charge a felony for a third DUI — a “paradigm shift” for sentencing, he said, that would bring California more in line with states like Oregon, where Schultz worked. Right now, in California, a driver generally can’t be charged with a felony until their fourth DUI in 10 years.
  • Require any driver who gets a fifth DUI conviction within 10 years to have their license revoked for five years, and to install an in-car breathalyzer for four years. As we’ve reported, California has some of the weakest DUI laws in the nation, and these measures touch on two reasons why.

Look, I’m glad to finally see some action to address DUI. Any action.

But waiting for a fifth DUI in just ten years to get serious about taking away someone’s driving privileges is like giving someone his gun back because his first few shots missed.

A driver’s first DUI should result in an automatic six-month loss of license, and a requirement to use an interlock device for at least two years.

A second DUI should result in automatic jail time, or at least home vacation confinement. And a third should mean serious prison time, and a permanent loss of license.

That’s three in a lifetime, not 10 years. Or 20.

We should also impound the cars of any drivers who have their license suspended, for whatever reason. Because as we’ve seen, too many people continue to drive even after their license has been taken away.

Does that sound harsh?

So is having to arrange a funeral for a loved one.

The simple fact is, no one has a right to drive. It is a privilege granted by the state, only after passing a test demonstrating a basic knowledge of traffic laws, and the ability to drive safely.

Which means that everyone should know it’s illegal to drive after drinking or getting high. Other than speeding or distracted driving, nothing a person does behind the wheel is more likely to result in the death of another human being.

And don’t get me started on how lenient our speeding and distracted driving laws are.

Right now, we enforce DUI with a wink and a nod, accepting a driver’s promise to never, ever do it again. Until they do, when we usually just do the same thing.

And keep doing it until they kill someone.

It’s long past time we put a stop to it, once and for all. And incremental steps, however well intentioned, won’t get us there.

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The Venice Neighborhood Council wants to know where you think a safe Venice bike network should go.

Never mind that there’s already a Los Angeles bike plan, part of the city mobility plan, that maps that out in detail.

But whatever.

The Venice NC Parking & Transportation Committee met Monday to discuss the creation and distribution of a Bikeway Network for Venice in time for the ’28 Olympics.

According to YoVenice,

The purpose of the survey is to include community input, advice, and suggestions before the final product is distributed to the general public. Should they receive board approval, several methods of distribution will be used for maximum participation and input.

The creation of a Venice Bikeway Network would be the ultimate goal and objective.

It’s not that they shouldn’t take another look at it.

Obviously, things have changed in the decade and a half since the bike plan was unanimously approved by the city council. They should consider how it can be improved, particularly in a neighborhood where residents are five times more likely to ride a bicycle than most Angelenos.

But start with the work that’s already in place, without trying to reinvent the (bicycle) wheel.

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Seriously?

A 31-year old Indiana man faces charges for the hit-and-run death of a 69-year old Indianapolis man riding a bicycle, after police tracked him down two months later.

He bizarrely told investigators that he knew he had been in a crash, but kept going because he thought someone had just thrown a bicycle at his truck, and had no idea there might possibly be someone riding it.

If he actually believes that, prosecutors should add a DUI charge to his indictment, because he’d have to be whacked out of his mind to have that thought even pop into his head.

He should also have been charged with murder, because it took half an hour to find the victim after he was run down, at which point it was too late to help him.

And to top things off, the driver was out on pre-trial release for a separate domestic battery case.

Nice guy.

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This is the future we could have.

Although as someone else pointed out in the comments, we already have a few Metro Bike Hubs, but nowhere near enough. And you have to have a membership, rather than just using it on demand whenever you need it.

 

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

No bias here. Conservative politicians in England’s Merseyside region are attacking a “ridiculous” new bike lane network as “crackpot stuff,” even as the local government calls for people to ditch their cars for some shorter journeys, insisting it will make area “healthier and safer.”

No bias here, either. Irish bicyclists and advocacy group attacked the remarks of a judge who imposed his own views as a driver to slash an award to an injured bike rider by 80%, saying bicyclists “have become a nightmare in Dublin;” one group argued it showed “language that risks normalizing hostility towards people who choose to travel by bike.” Never mind that the judge once refused to take a breathalyzer test when he was suspected of drunk driving.

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Local 

Just months after Pee-wee Herman’s classic red and white bicycle was donated to the Alamo, and a second went to Kourtney Kardashian as a Christmas present, another of the 14 duplicate bikes used to film Pee-wee’s Big Adventure was donated to the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures at Wilshire and Fairfax.

Apparently, a random video of bicycling through LA’s Skid Row is proof that California is “a third world hellscape,” where the “streets look like Mogadishu.” In other words, sort of like a few streets in any other major city.

LA’s killer highway nearly claimed another victim, as a man in his 50s was seriously injured when he was run down by a driver while riding an ebike in Hermosa Beach. Although photos from the scene make it clear that he was riding an electric motorbike, rather than a ped-assist ebike.

 

State

The City of La Mesa is teaming with the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition for an hour long virtual information session for new bicycle owners tomorrow evening.

A Eureka woman was arrested nearly a year after she used her SUV as a weapon by allegedly speeding up to intentionally strike a bicycle being ridden by someone she knew, while driving on the wrong side of the road, then backing up to run over the victim’s bicycle, and crashing into another car after running a red light as she tried to make her escape; fortunately, the victim didn’t appear to be seriously injured, although the driver of the car she hit was hospitalized afterwards.

 

National

There’s a special place in hell for anyone who flees the scene of a crash, leaving a little kid lying in the street — like the driver who hit a child’s bike as he was riding in a Bend, Oregon crosswalk. Fortunately, the boy wasn’t seriously injured.

Bike Portland struggles to make sense of what caused an experienced bicyclist to lose control of his bike and go over his handlebars, after a witness said initial reports that he hit a large pothole were wrong.

Oregon letter writers argue that improving bike infrastructure helps reduce oil dependence.

A 23-year old Salt Lake City man has been arrested for fatally shooting a bike thief in the back, as the alleged thief was riding off on his bicycle. We’ve said too many times already that no bicycle is worth a human life. Just let it go, and let the cops deal with it. That’s what they’re paid to do.

A tri-state planning association for the New York, New Jersey and Connecticut region calls on New Jersey to reject a legislative crackdown on ebikes that would be the most restrictive ebike law in the US.

You’ve got to be kidding. A bike-riding kid in South Carolina got the blame for crashing into the side of a passing pickup, even though it’s far more likely the driver sideswiped the kid. Never mind that even if the kid did crash into the pickup, the driver was clearly violating the state’s three-foot passing law.

 

International

Momentum recommends a dozen “hidden gem” bicycling routes for your bike bucket list, only one of which is in the US.

An English writer says a bike rider was killed by a hit-and-run driver in his town, leaving the bicycling community scared — and serving as a reminder that safer roads aren’t a ridiculous request, but a need. Trust me, I know the feeling. But I’d add heartsick to those feels, too. 

She gets it. An Irish coroner looking into the death of a 58-year old bike rider blames the lack of a comprehensive bike path network, while a bike advocacy group says the street where he was killed by a truck driver “is not safe for people walking or cycling.”

Speaking of bike bucket lists, a French website recommends the Parc naturel régional du Luberon in the heart of Provence, saying it might as well have been “designed for exploring on two wheels.”

 

Competitive Cycling

Two-time Tour de France and defending Vuelta champ Jonas Vingegaard will race the Giro this year, as he tries to claim the only Grand Tour he hasn’t won. Yet. Note to newspapers — does it really make sense to paywall an AP story that’s readily available on the internet?

Australia’s Royal Automobile Association, the country’s equivalent to AAA, is urging drivers and bicyclists to be patient and courteous, and obey the law, during the upcoming Santos Tour Down Under. Although it’s not the scofflaw bike riders whose impatience and lack of courtesy puts everyone else at risk.

 

Finally…

Turning a simple bicycle jersey into a work of art. Nothing like spending your Christmas riding laps around a Mickey D’s drive-thru.

And accusing an oil-sponsored bike race of “pedalling climate bullshit.”

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Slauson shared use path named one of US best, and suit alleges LAPD cop murdered another cop in bike training exercise

January 13, 2026 / / No comments

LA Metro comes in for a lot of criticism.

Justifiably, in most cases.

But they deserve credit for the long-awaited, if awkwardly named, Slauson Rail-to-Rail Active Transportation Corridor, as People For Bikes names it one of the best new bike lanes in the US.

As part of the long-planned Rail-to-River project, Los Angeles turned a neglected right-of-way into a shared-use path lined with hundreds of new trees, bioswales, pedestrian-scale lighting, and bike share stations. The completed Slauson segment of the Rail-to-River project (known as Segment A) stretches 5.5 miles from 67th Street and 11th Avenue to Slauson Station on the Metro A Line. The path links schools, transit, parks, and businesses, providing a safe, accessible route for both recreation and commuting in South Central Los Angeles.

As local advocates celebrate the project’s success, they continue to push for completion of Segment B before the 2028 Olympics, which would extend farther east to the LA River and create a vital link in a regional network that will ultimately connect South LA to Long Beach and beyond.

Now let’s convince Metro finish the rest of this one before 2028.

And stop fighting HLA compliance on the Vermont corridor.

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A lawsuit is going to trial this week alleging that an LAPD cop was murdered by another officer during a bicycle training exercise.

The parents of Los Angeles Police Officer Houston Tipping are suing the city and LAPD Officer David Cuellar, claiming that Cuellar intentionally injured their son when they were participating in a bicycle patrol training class at the department’s Elysian Park Academy in 2022.

According to the lawsuit, Tipping had launched an investigation after taking a report from a woman claiming she had been sexually assaulted, allegedly by Cuellar. And that Cuellar retaliated by purposely injured him during a training exercise.

Tipping suffered a spinal cord injury, dying three days later.

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Barry Morphew has pled not guilty to a charge of murder in a Colorado court for the death of his wife Suzanne in 2020.

Morphew had reported his wife missing, saying she had disappeared after leaving alone for a Mother’s Day bike ride. However, police later concluded he had drugged her with an animal tranquilizer, and tossed her bicycle and helmet down a ravine to make it look like she had crashed.

Volunteers kept searching for her, but it was not until 2023 that her skeletal remains were found.

Morphew was arrested on a charge of first-degree murder. He was allegedly the only person, other than wildlife officials, to have a prescription for that particular drug combination in the area.

This is the second time he has been charged in her death. He was first arrested in 2021, before her body was found. But charges were dismissed after alleged prosecutorial misconduct.

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

A Florida man faces charges for deliberately shoving a 74-year old man off his bicycle for no apparent reason, leaving the victim with a cracked helmet and minor injuries. Although the man told police “informants coming after him,” so there’s that.

Toronto has spent $270,000 to hire outside attorneys in the fight to retain key bike lanes that Ontario officials want to rip out; the executive director of a Toronto bike advocacy group said the money could have been better spent on transit or other projects to reduce congestion, if the province hadn’t been so obsessed with removing the bike lanes.

No bias here. A Dublin, Ireland judge reduced by 80% the damages awarded to a bicyclist who suffered a brain injury, claiming that bicyclists have become a nightmare in the city, and as a driver, he was entitled to take judicial notice of his own experiences. Just wait until someone tells him about the nightmare drivers have become. And not just in Dublin. 

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

London is installing three new signalized crossings in the city’s Regent’s Park to slow bike riders after too many collisions and near misses with pedestrians, as many riders exceed the park’s 20 mph speed limit.

A Scottish letter writer complains that bicyclists need to show more care around pedestrians on shared paths, with too many riders coming up from behind with little or no warning. Seriously, pedestrians are the only ones who are more vulnerable on the streets or pathways than we are. So slow down, give them a warning and pass them like you wish drivers would pass you. 

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Local 

Streets For All reminds us about two critical votes at the LA Metro Planning and Programming Committee meeting this Wednesday, to select a preferred option for a rail line through the Sepulveda Pass, and give final approval to extend the C, aka Green, Line to Torrance.

A Caltech scientist refutes the notion that he doesn’t exist, after a woman stood up in a Pasadena city council meeting to suggest that no one rides bikes in the city.

 

State

A man reportedly suffered major injuries when his bicycle was rear-ended by the driver of a Dodge Charger near Indio Monday morning. Although there’s no explanation for why the driver apparently didn’t see a grown man on a bicycle riding directly in front of his car. 

Sad news from Santa Rosa, where a man riding a bicycle was killed in a collision with a SMART commuter train. Train collisions are the easiest wrecks to avoid, because the trains are confined to their tracks, and crossing gates warn you when they’re coming — as long as you don’t go around them.

It may be justice delayed, or even denied, for a Sacramento woman who was nearly killed by a hit-and-run driver while riding her bike in 2023, leaving her with four broken ribs, a broken collar bone, a concussion, a collapsed lung and a lingering bruise on her thigh, after the driver arrested a year later filed for a mental health diversion rather than facing trial — something the victim calls his Get Out of Jail Free card.

Folsom is busy rebuilding the city’s bike park under a new public-private partnership.

 

National

Bicycling says some of the “Amazon’s Choice” bicycling gear is surprisingly good, despite being cheap. Although that endorsement might mean a little more if they didn’t get a kickback on any click-through sales.

The lone survivor of an Asheville NC crash that killed two bicyclists and seriously injured a third, is now the co-founder of the The White Line North Carolina chapter, and fighting for passage of the Magnus White Cyclist Safety Act (H.R. 3649) mandating automatic emergency braking systems for motor vehicles to detect cyclists and other road users.

A Massachusetts town is finally ready to approve the city’s draft bicycle and pedestrian mobility plan, 32 years after they started work on it. Yes, 32 years. And I thought the fight over the Los Angeles bike plan took forever.

 

International

Urban Bike News recaps the current outlook for, well, urban bikes.

Momentum recommends the top ten bikepacking routes to tackle this year, including California’s own Pacific Coast Route from Canada to Mexico. Although whether this is actually a new story or another recycled piece from years past is TBD. 

A British Columbia columnist urges bicyclists to follow his example and tilt their headlights down, so they don’t blind oncoming riders. Which is exactly what I’ve done for years, which offers the added advantage of providing a better view of the road surface. 

London’s department of transportation equivalent is asking people to nominate women who ride bikes, planning to pick ten women to name bikeshare bikes for them in honor of International Women’s Day, as well as increase female ridership. Because nothing will inspire women to ride more than naming a bicycle named after one of them. Right?

A British university is complaining that a new painted bike lane near campus is too slippery, resulting in slips and near misses, but the local council insists there’s nothing wrong with it and people just have to be more careful.

 

Competitive Cycling

Interesting piece from Cycling Weekly, arguing that the WorldTour pro cycling model is broken, as the complexity and cost of bicycles continues to climb, putting high-end bikes out of the reach of most consumers — and that the solution is to ban current pro bikes from being sold to consumers, just like F1 cars may promote the brand, but you can’t buy one and drive it on the street.

Surprisingly, Wout van Aert is already on his bike and back to training, just ten days after he had surgery on his broken ankle.

 

Finally…

Forget Everesting — try riding the elevation of Olympus Mons, the highest known mountain in our solar system. That feeling when your $12,000 ebike was designed by an F1 team.

And if you’re riding your bike with an outstanding arrest warrant while illegally carrying a loaded gun, put a damn light on it.

The bike that is, not the gun.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Protected bike lanes boost biking rates, induced demand works for bikes too, and ebike gaslighting as a government skill

January 12, 2026 / / No comments

If you build it, they will come.

A new ten-year study from several Canadian universities show that bike lanes can reduce injuries and increase bicycling rates.

But only if they’re protected.

According to the study, painted bike lanes showed an actual increase in bicycling injuries, as well as either only slight increases in bicycling rates. Or even a decrease in one city.

Protected bike lanes are another matter. They showed either no effect, or a drop in bike-rated injuries, while resulting in significantly higher riding rates — up to 700% in one city.

Results for converting painted lanes to protected bike lanes were inconclusive, simply because there weren’t enough examples to draw a conclusion.

Another interesting tidbit was that researchers had to verify both the type of bike lanes and their installation dates, because municipal records were often either inaccurate, or misidentified what was installed.

Which makes you wonder if they were referring to what Los Angeles too often calls a protected bike lane, while offering little more than a little car-tickler bendie-post to keep errant drivers out, rather than any form of actual protection.

Photo of the late, great MOVE Culver City protected bike lane by Mitchell Guzik.

………

Another study, this time from the UK, shows that induced demand is real.

In more ways than one.

The process of widening highways to cure congestion has been compared to losing weight by loosening your belt or buying bigger pants, because traffic will soon increase to meet, or exceed, the additional capacity.

Hence, inducing demand.

Like the widening of the 405 Freeway over the Sepulveda Pass, which cost $1 billion and resulted in increased congestion in less than a year.

We would have gotten more for our money if they had just burned that billion bucks and used it to power the city.

But now a study from England’s iconic Cambridge University shows that the same thing works with bike lanes and transit lanes, as well.

Build or expand a new bike lane, and the number of bicyclists using it will go up; improve train or bus service, and the same holds true — the added capacity encourages more people to use it.

Although as that Canadian study shows, the quality of the infrastructure matters, too.

Build a bike lane that people feel safe using, and they will. Build a bike lane they don’t feel safe using, and they won’t.

Which means we need to demand the kind of infrastructure that will induce demand.

………

Calbike responded to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposed budget by calling for an additional $200 million for the state Active Transportation Program, and $15 million for ebike incentives, arguing it’s “one of the most cost-effective, scalable, and immediately transformative investments California can make.”

The ATP remains California’s only dedicated statewide funding source for walking and bicycling infrastructure. It is also one of the state’s most effective climate tools. Yet, despite delivering measurable reductions in vehicle miles traveled and greenhouse gas emissions, ATP funding continues to lag far behind demand. In recent funding cycles, the California Transportation Commission has been forced to turn away the vast majority of high-quality, shovel-ready projects. At the same time, the transportation budget preserves billions in highway and freight investments that continue to induce driving, increase pollution, and undermine the state’s climate goals. These backward-facing investments lock Californians into decades of higher emissions and greater exposure to climate disasters, even as the state acknowledges the scale of the climate crisis.

Governor Newsom has been clear: “This January budget is not the final word. It is a beginning—a statement of purpose.” CalBike urges the Legislature to use that opening to correct the imbalance in transportation spending. That begins with significantly increasing funding for the Active Transportation Program and making a clear commitment to a transportation system that prioritizes people, safety, and climate outcomes over vehicle throughput alone.

Let’s hope someone is listening this time.

………

Meanwhile, Brooks forwards a LinkedIn profile for one of the people who helped lead the disastrous California Ebike Incentive Program, who seems to frame it as an enviable success.

Because as we all know, gaslighting is an invaluable career skill if you’re going to work in government.

………

In news that should surprise absolutely no one, a former cop is alleging that no one properly investigated a 13-year old crash involving the wife of the premier, or governor, of Australia’s Victoria state, and a 15-year old boy on a bicycle.

One that cost the kid his spleen.

According to the premier, his wife had came to a full stop, and was just starting to turn when the boy came flying out of the woods on a bike path, and slammed into the side of her SUV with enough force to bash in her windshield and fly over her car.

That’s what she says, anyway.

Because after that, things get a little funny. The officer initially assigned to the case — the same one making the allegations — says he was rushing to the scene when he was told, in effect, to never mind.

Mr Hanley, who was initially instructed to attend the crash scene before being ordered to stand down, alleges police committed at least 35 procedural failures.

He claims officers failed to interview Mr Meuleman (the victim) or key witnesses, did not properly examine the vehicle involved, and allowed the investigation to die a natural death.

Mr Hanley has also alleged Mr Andrews delayed calling triple-0 (or 911 in this country) for more than six minutes and that the damaged SUV was moved from the scene, claims the former premier has previously rejected.

It’s not like a sitting premier could have pulled strings to get the investigation dropped or anything, directly or indirectly.

Right?

It’s taken the boy’s family 13 years to get justice in this case. And nothing says they’re going to get it now.

But maybe now they’ve got a shot.

………

Streets For All is hosting a mobility debate on January 22nd with the candidates running for LA City Controller.

………

LADOT wants to know what you think as they prepare the city’s first Mobility Action Plan, which will guide how LA invests in streets, sidewalks, transit, biking, and walking for the next 5–20 years.

And no, I don’t know how that’s any different from the city’s mobility plan, which purports to do virtually the same thing.

Unless the MAP is how the city plans to implement the mobility plan, which they have so far been doing everything they can to avoid implementing.

………

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

A writer for Canada’s conservative National Post says a judge’s ruling that a right to bike lanes is guaranteed by the country’s charter — equivalent to our constitution — makes a mockery of it, and should be overturned on appeal.

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

A local newspaper is calling for safety improvements on a South Carolina bridge after a bicyclist killed a pedestrian when the man wandered out in front of him on the shared pathway across the bridge, while riding at around 20 mph.

………

Local 

The popular Larchmont Village bike corral is now in its second decade of service; it was originally installed by LADOT in 2014 at the request of former CD4 Councilmember Tom LaBonge, in cooperation with local businesses and the erstwhile Flying Pigeon LA bike shop.

 

State

No news is good news, right?

 

National

CityLab makes the case for why we still don’t know if robotaxis are any safer than human drivers.

Police in Iowa are looking for a pair of motorcyclists who tore up a golf course, then fled on a bike path when police arrived, nearly hitting a pair of bystanders.

Damn. Chicago authorities are offering a $10,000 reward for information on whoever beat a 62-year old man to death on the Loop in 2023, first using a construction sign, then the victim’s own bicycle.

A 72-year old Tennessee writer confesses that he now own an e-mountain bike, of the ped-assist variety.

You’ve got to be kidding. Life is really cheap in Massachusetts, where a driver walked with a suspended sentence for killing a woman walking her bike in a crosswalk, while he was driving distracted and without a license.

Gothamist says a key test of New York Mayor Mamdani’s commitment to bicycling will be what he does with a three-block stretch of bike lanes on Bedford Ave, where the former parking-protected lane was abruptly removed by former Mayor Eric Adams in a effort to appease, and get the votes of, the Orthodox Jewish community.

Jury selection has begun in the trial of a “homeless drifter” accused of killing a 14-year old boy in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida more than four years ago, when the boy was attacked and stabbed for no apparent reason as he was riding his bike, leading to a multi-day search when the boy didn’t return home; the suspect changed his plea from an insanity plea to not guilty, which will void any future attempt at an insanity defense.

 

International

Bike Radar answers the burning question of whether a tubeless tire is more likely to blow out than a clincher with a tube.

Five cities where owning a bicycle can save you thousands of dollars, or the local equivalent, per year. Only one of which is in the US. And none of which is Los Angeles. 

Rapha is addressing its financial problems by closing five stores in the US and UK, following eight successive years of financial losses; the closures leave 20 Rapha Clubhouse shops around the world.

The best five minutes of your day may be this piece from Canadian Cycling Magazine, recapping the best bicycling cameos in scripted television, from Monty Python and Benny Hill to the Simpsons and Family Guy. We’ll ignore for now that most unscripted television is, in fact, scripted. Just a little less so.

Life is cheap in England, where a road-raging driver was sentenced to a lousy 150 hours of community service for blaring on his horn and brake-checking a group of bicyclists. But at least the judge warned him to give people on bikes space and respect on the road.

Everything you always wanted to know about getting around Paris by bicycle, but were afraid to ask.

Dutch electronics chain Coolblue will now sell bike helmets, as well as require helmets for their bicycle couriers, after the company’s CEO fell off his bike and broke his front teeth. Even though bike helmets provide little to no mouth protection. 

A Vietnamese website questions whether the new 3.6-mile bike lane in Ho Chi Minh City will spark greater interest in urban bicycling, and help make bikes the country’s new transportation solution.

 

Competitive Cycling

World champion and four-time Tour de France champ Tadej Pogačar joined hundreds of other bicyclists on a memorial ride for Samuele Privitera, the 19-year old Italian cyclist killed during last year’s Giro della Valle d’Aosta.

American cyclist Chloé Dygert has launched a crowdfunding campaign for former tracking cycling teammate Sarah Hammer-Kroening, one of US cycling’s most decorated athletes with four silver Olympic medals and 12 world titles, after Hammer-Kroening underwent seven operations for a severe medical condition; the page has raised nearly $89,000, far exceeding the previous $55,000 goal.

British mountain bikers competed in a 24-hour, snow-covered challenge over the weekend, completing as many laps of the 7.5-mile course as they can in that time period, in temperatures down to 0 degrees. Although that’s Celsius, which translates to a relatively balmy 32° Fahrenheit on this side of the Atlantic. 

 

Finally…

Your next ebike doesn’t have to look like one, as long as you don’t need an actual water bottle in the water bottle holder. That feeling when you finally recreate the iconic movie scene of a bike flying in front of the moon with ET in the basket — without the actual flying, of course.

And tackling a 43.5-mile roundtrip over the highest mountain pass in Great Britain, aided by a rickety old bike and a “wee dram” of whiskey.

Or maybe a lot of “wee drams.”

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

NY shows what LA bike riders could have — but don’t, ride your bikeshare to the battleship, and ebike vouchers work

January 9, 2026 / / No comments

Curbed says the first week of new NY Mayor Zohran Mamdani was very good for bicyclists.

You know, just in case you need a reminder what a bike-friendly mayor could actually do, since it’s been so long since we’ve had one here in Los Angeles.

Then again, it’s been a few years since New York had one, too.

When Eric Adams took office, he too made a show of being a bike lover, riding a Citi Bike to meetings on his second day in office and promising to build 300 miles of protected bike lanes by the end of his term. But then he and top aide Ingrid Lewis-Martin spent four years ripping up protected bike lanes and sabotaging planned road diets — perhaps most infamously the McGuinness Boulevard bike lane, with Lewis-Martin charged for allegedly accepting a bribe (and a film cameo) to stop it. In the end, Adams fell 210 miles short of his promise.

Mamdani spent his first week in office undoing much of what Adams had wrought. On his third day, he and new DOT commissioner Mike Flynn announced they would be installing the original McGuinness road diet, reversing Adams’s reversal. The administration also announced it is working to finish Astoria’s 31st Street bike lane, a project that a judge halted in part because Adams hadn’t gotten the required certification from the FDNY and other agencies. “We are beginning the mandatory consultations and will issue the notices needed to restart the project, while also filing a notice of appeal of the court’s decision,” Flynn said in a statement. Over the weekend, Mamdani also said he would direct the DOT to “daylight” city streets, a commonsense safety measure that would keep intersections clear of visual obstructions like parked cars (a promise the Adams administration made but then backtracked on).

At least you can’t say that LA Mayor Bass has fallen short on her promises to the city’s bicycling community.

But only because she hasn’t made any.

You have to go back to the last years of former mayor and current gubernatorial candidate Antonio Villaraigosa’s administration, after his famous road to Damascus moment, to recall anything like Mamdani’s first week in office.

And if it sounds like I’m envious of New Yorkers this week, it’s only because I am. Even if the NYPD doesn’t seem to have gotten the memo yet.

This is what we could have here. But only if we’re willing to fight for it.

………

New plans call for a 50,000-foot park next to the Battleship USS Iowa Museum at the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro, including a new bikeshare station.

Which assumes that Metro will finally get management of the Metro Bike program worked out, something is far from guaranteed at this point.

………

More proof that ebike voucher programs work, as over 2,700 people bought new ebikes in just six months using vouchers worth up to $1,500 from Ava Community Energy in partnership with the Alameda County Transportation Commission.

Meanwhile, California’s ebike voucher funds are still being spent to keep more cars on the road.

And LADWP’s ebike voucher program doesn’t exist.

………

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

Police in Denton, Texas arrested a hammer-wielding man who ran out of the woods and began chasing a bike rider, claiming the bicycle was his and demanding the rider give it to him, and continued to threaten the bicyclist even after police intervened.

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

A Gilroy man was busted by the CHP for riding his bike in the slow lane of the freeway while under the influence of…something.

………

Local 

You have a little more than three weeks left to get your comments in on plans to extend the LA River bike path through DTLA and points south to provide a continuous route from Long Beach through the San Fernando Valley. Which was supposed to be completed before the ’28 Olympics, but won’t be.

Streetsblog’s Joe Linton continues his seemingly ubiquitous looks at new LA-area bike and/or walkways, this time visiting the first and last mile construction around Santa Monica’s Bergamot Station.

The South Bay’s Easy Reader takes a look back at the past year in Hermosa Beach, including how a violent assault made the city “part of a multilayered national conversation on the impact of reckless e-bike riding in neighborhoods.”

 

State

Residents of Laguna Beach are urged to attend a public meeting on Monday to discuss plans for a new bicycle pump track in the city.

No bias here. Voice of OC says Encinitas residents continue to blame former mayor and current state senator Catherine Blakespear for the city’s perceived problems, including controversy over the Coastal Rail Trail, which she was for, before she was against it, before she was for it again, even though it’s now widely used and popular among residents.

 

National

Escape Collective mostly drops their paywall for a tutorial on how to photograph bicycles and bike riding. But you might want to make a quick pdf for reference, because once you hit the paywall at the bottom, it’s gone.

Security video captures the moment a 73-year old New Jersey man was killed when he was riding salmon on an ebike, and crashed into the side of a police car as the driver was turning right onto the street the man was riding on. Yet another reminder to never ride against traffic, because drivers won’t be looking for you coming from the wrong direction, even though drivers should have looked both ways before turning. Even cops.

This is the cost of traffic violence. A 75-year old North Carolina man was killed when he was rear-ended by a semi-truck driver while riding his bike, after spending a full third of his life accompanying music students at Wake Forest.

 

International

A writer for The Guardian describes how he went from being afraid to change a tire after taking up bicycling during the pandemic, to building his own bikes by learning bike mechanics from YouTube videos.

Canadian Cycling Magazine makes the case for why bicycling will make you a better driver, which has been born out by a number of studies.

Another writer for The Guardian questions whether people in the Netherlands have forgotten how to ride their bikes in the snow, as the city “descends into chaos” during an increasingly rare cold snap, with climate change reducing snow days in Utrecht to an average of just three a year.

A man in Zimbabwe uses his Buffalo Bike provided through international charity World Bicycle Relief to chase away lions and other wild beasts from crops and farm animals surrounding his village, saying lions have no idea what kind of animal he is when he rides up trumpeting on his vuvuzela. Then again, most SoCal drivers might not either, even without the plastic horn.  

Chinese authorities shut down two manufacturers and seized $2.4 million worth of counterfeit Specialized frames, handlebars and Roval wheels, as well as fake Pinarello, Cannondale, Cervélo and Trek products.

Taiwan-based Giant is recalling their Giant Animator and Liv Adore children’s bicycles due to faulty brakes.

A New Zealand paper celebrates Christchurch’s ranking as the most bike-friendly city in the Asia-Oceania region, though they’re only 38th internationally in the global Copenhagenize Index.

 

Competitive Cycling

Yet another pro cyclist is unexpectedly calling it a career, as 28-year old Belgian pro Eli Iserbyt announcing that doctors advised him to quit due to decreased blood flow in his femoral artery.

A new bike tour promises to give you VIP access to this year’s Tour de France and Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, while enabling you to ride the routes before the pros do.

Twenty-seven year old former Pan-American road champion Skylar Schneider is rejoining her sister on the LA-based L39ION of Los Angeles cycling team, saying she has some unfinished business on her mind as she returns to domestic racing.

 

Finally…

Okay, so maybe throttle-controlled ebikes do come in handy sometimes, like riding your bike across a frozen river. Maybe your bike wouldn’t handle so badly if it all faced the right way.

And that feeling when bike riders get blamed for wanting to lower drunk driving limits.

Which they should do.

But still.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Speeding Long Beach driver kills 2 — after killing bike rider 3 months earlier, and Mandani loses a just little bike street cred

January 8, 2026 / / One comment

Un-effing-believable.

A 24-year old woman was formally charged with felony manslaughter for the October death of a bike rider in Long Beach.

Just one day after she was arrested for killing two other people in a Long Beach hit-and-run on Sunday.

According to the Long Beach Post, Ahkeyajahniq Owens was arraigned on a single count of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence for running down 35-year old Long Beach resident Raul Augustin Gallopa on October 6th.

Owens was allegedly driving her BMW around 100 mph when she slammed into Gallopa while he was attempting to turn left off of Fourth Street near Bonita Ave.

Remarkably, given Owen’s speed, he survived for two weeks in the hospital before dying of his injuries.

The deputy district attorney mentioned the additional killings almost in passing as she asked that Owens to be held without bail, arguing that she is “a huge risk to the community.”

Well, no shit.

Like the earlier crash, she’s accused of running red lights at over 100 mph before slamming into two cars at Sixth Street and Atlantic Avenue in Sunday’s crash, killing two people and injuring three others.

Which makes you wonder how the hell she manages to survive those high-speed crashes.

It also makes you wonder why her license wasn’t immediately pulled after killing one innocent person, let alone three.

It’s also stupendously idiotic that Owens wasn’t taken into custody after the first crash; instead, she was let loose on society after getting booked on suspicion of misdemeanor reckless driving.

Because apparently, inflicting life-threatening injuries at 100 mph on someone riding a bicycle is merely “reckless.”

In a functioning society that actually gives a damn about human lives, that would have been enough to suspend her license at least until a decision was made whether to file formal charges.

But we don’t seem to live in that society.

Instead, we just give dangerous drivers a pat on the back, and send them back out to get their cars fixed, and do it again three months later.

To say I’m disgusted and sickened would be a huge understatement.

To cap it all off, California’s lax traffic laws mean she faces a maximum of six years behind bars if she’s convicted for Gallopa’s death.

Too bad the judge can’t add a year for each 10 mph over the speed limit.

The only good news, if you can all it that, is that she should face a similar sentence for each of the two people she is alleged to have killed on Sunday. Although the DA should upgrade it to 2nd degree murder by arguing that she should have known the danger of speeding after the earlier crash.

We can hope, anyway.

At the end of Monday’s hearing, Owens was ordered held on $200,000 bail.

No word on whether the judge also took away her license until the trial is completed.

Thanks to Chris for the heads-up. 

Photo by Kindel Media from Pexels. 

………

We finally got to see the first crack in the New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani thus far flawless bike-friendly veneer.

According to Streetsblog, Mamdani agreed that scofflaw bike riders shouldn’t be getting criminal summons in the Big Apple, rather than regular traffic tickets.

But he stopped short of saying he would direct NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch to end the policy she implemented last year, instead just saying they’re still having “conversations.”

“These are part of the conversations that we’re having,” Mamdani said. “In addition to the question of what kind of a summons, we also have to make it easier to be a cyclist in compliance with the law, because I will tell you that you will find a cyclist biking on a pavement, and sometimes when you ask them why they’re doing so, they’ll point to the car that’s driving in the bike lane.

“We have created infrastructure issues for cyclists that we are then ticketing them for, where it is easier to be out of compliance with the law than in compliance with the law,” the mayor added.

Although if wants to maintain the bicycle street cred he’s built up in the first two weeks of his administration, he needs to stop conversing and start stopping things.

………

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

The Canadian Constitutional Foundation is entering the battle over Toronto bike lanes, joining the appeal of a judge’s ruling blocking the province’s effort to rip them out, by contesting the constitutional basis for it.

Road.cc claps back about why “certain MAMILS” ride in the roadway rather than in a bike lane, in response to an anonymous Facebook poster complaining about four people riding perfectly legally two-abreast next to the kerb, uh, curb.

………

Local 

Streetsblog’s Joe Linton takes a look at the work by Caltrans contractors to prepare for new lanes on Santa Monica Blvd in the Sawtelle neighborhood, which can also be used by bicyclists once it’s finished.

 

State

A Wasco man will likely spend the rest of his life behind bars after being sentenced to 86-years to life for fatally shooting a 51-year old man in a dispute over a stolen bicycle — which is convenient since there’s already a state prison right there. Seriously, no bike is worth a human life. Just let it go, and let the cops handle it. 

 

National

Bike Magazine hosts three expert framebuilders discussing the challenges of building bicycles in the US, and the tradeoffs involved in making bikes overseas.

CyclingSavvy offers a lesson on the safe use of separated bikeways.

Forbes writes that ebike regulations are being tightened across the US in the wake of irresponsible drivers. But by “drivers,” they mean the people operating ebikes, not the ones in the big, dangerous machines.

Like Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire, a Massachusetts man says he depended on the kindness of strangers on his recent three-and-a-half year, 46,000-mile bike journey around the world.

New York will appeal a judge’s ruling that blocked an Astoria bike lane, while also addressing the concerns she cited.

A December demonstration project showed the practicality of delivering fresh seafood to a New York market via freight ferry and heavy-duty cargo bikes.

A Wilmington, North Carolina public radio station examines ghost bikes through the lens of a man who would have been 38 yesterday, if he hadn’t been killed by a driver while riding his bike over seven years earlier.

A recent South Carolina college graduate considers the people he met and the lessons learned riding his bike across the US, while raising $2,500 for charity.

 

International

Momentum ranks the bicycle festivals worth traveling to this year, starting with Monterey’s Sea Otter Classic in April.

Quartz highlights ten of the world’s best bike cities. None of which is Los Angeles, of course. Or even in the US. 

An Irish writer considers why bicycles are a favored symbol of the country’s rural life, despite the damp and dreary weather.

A group of Indian soldiers are riding a thousand miles across the subcontinent, retracing the march of Peshwa Bajirao to victory in the 1737 battle of Delhi.

A kindhearted South African woman worked with a local bike shop to repair and refurbish her gardener’s broken bicycle at no cost, which is his main mode of transport.

A Chinese province used a recent mass bike ride to propagandize against “xie jiao,“ or “illicit religions, ranging from Falun Gong to perfectly orthodox Christian churches.

Chinese President Xi Jinping welcomed South Korean President Lee Jae Myung to Beijing with a new ebike, along with Chinese ceramics, a coffee cup set, apples and dried persimmons, and a traditional Korean painting symbolizing peace and prosperity. Seriously, he had me at ebike.

 

Competitive Cycling

In a surprise announcement, 33-year old British pro Simon Yates decided to quit at the top, calling it a career after after winning last year’s Giro, seven years after his first grand tour win in the 2018 Vuelta and 13 years after debuting alongside his twin brother Adam.

 

Finally…

Now you, too, can cosplay being a real Tour de France cyclist. Nothing like a bunch of rapping skinny ass white kids in spandex to get you in the mood for racing season.

And post this one under “problems SoCal bike riders seldom have.”

I had to give up..
byu/manspih inbikecommuting

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

LA approves $6.8m for crappy Chandler Bikeway extension, and NY mayor takes literal shovel to bridge bike lane bump

January 7, 2026 / / One comment

Los Angeles thinks you want to ride in the center of the roadway.

And they’re willing to bet nearly $7 million of your money they’re right.

Yesterday, the Los Angeles City Board of Public Works approved a $6.8 million contract to build an extension to the popular Chandler Bikeway, with a design that places the semi, kinda but not really protected bike lanes on the left side of the road.

Because parking.

As in, they weren’t willing to risk the wrath of LA’s angry drivers by removing parking to create space for the bike lane on the right side.

Because nothing is more LA than your God-given right to free car storage right next to the curb in front of your home. Or anyone else’s, for that matter.

But giving city leaders the benefit of the doubt, maybe they think they’re going to protect us by putting bikes over there on the left, where no one would expect it. Kinda like safety in invisibility.

And we know how well that’s worked out for us.

But there it shall be, henceforth and forever more running down the center of the road — not in the median like it is in Burbank, but over there on the left shoulder. With nothing but those chunky white bendable bollards that no one would ever think of running over to protect us.

Right next to what used to be known as the fast lane, before every lane turned into one.

Joe Linton shares his own thoughts about the coming new bike lane in a Bluesky thread that somehow seems only slightly less pessimistic than me.

So take it away, Joe.

Please.

I confess I expect this to be a crappy project. Instead of removing some parking to put protected bike lanes along the curb, cyclists will be shunted into the left lane along the median. Maybe it will work?

— Joe Linton (@lintonjoe.bsky.social) 2026-01-06T17:25:53.737Z

At ~$7M for 3 miles, it's also fairly expensive… per BPW staff report "scope includes remove concrete median islands; reconstruct street pavements, curb & gutter, & ramps; modify traffic signals; install concrete transit platforms"

— Joe Linton (@lintonjoe.bsky.social) 2026-01-06T17:33:18.121Z

Even with that concrete curb work underway, cyclists get only plastic protection: "Class IV bike lanes [protected bike lanes] with raised rubber defenders [basically 'armadillos'] and K-71 bollards [soft-hit white plastic bollards]"

— Joe Linton (@lintonjoe.bsky.social) 2026-01-06T17:36:16.893Z

Center-running bikeways work in some places (ie: some Barcelona ramblas) but have failed spectacularly closer to home – see wretched results on Valencia in SF. sf.streetsblog.org/2024/11/19/s…

— Joe Linton (@lintonjoe.bsky.social) 2026-01-06T17:40:11.824Z

I expect that this Chandler project will spend a lot of money to serve few cyclists… and many folks will still bike in the outer lane. I hope I am wrong.

— Joe Linton (@lintonjoe.bsky.social) 2026-01-06T17:41:24.525Z

………

Call it the further adventures of life in a bike-friendly city.

Unlike, say, here in Los Angeles, where our mayor says she’s one of us, while doing everything she can to avoid implementing the city mobility plan — or complying with the Americans with Disability Act — going so far as to replace street resurfacing with something called “large asphalt repair.”

Because resurfacing the street would trigger Measure HLA’s requirement to implement the mobility plan, as well as requiring ADA-compliant curb cuts.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the country, New York is using $700 million in congestion pricing tolls to improve transit, while the city’s new bikeshare-riding mayor demonstrated his administrations new bike-friendly direction by reversing cuts made to a major bike safety corridor that was tainted by a bribery scandal under the previous adminstration.

Now Mayor Zohran Mamdani is grabbing a shovel himself to repair a major obstacle blocking the bike lane on the Williamsburg Bridge, infamous among the city’s bicyclists as the “Williamsburg Bump.”

Although not everyone was happy, since the bump gave them a chance to catch a little air.

Thanks to Megan for the YouTube video. 

………

ActiveSGV & SGV Water Action invite you to join them on a ride to Santa Fe Dam on the 17th.

https://twitter.com/ActiveSGV/status/2008585641722839307

………

LABikeBoy shares what it’s like to live in LA without a car for a full year.

………

A 23-year old “lad” rode more than 15,500 miles from the UK to Australia, retracing the bikepacking tour his father took 40 years earlier, while riding the same bicycle.

………

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

Seriously? Business owners in Cathedral City, California try to make the case that new green plastic bike lane bollards are cutting into their sales by reducing visibility and accessibility, leading to a drop in foot traffic. Or maybe foot traffic is down because it’s been raining for the last two weeks. 

Leaders with the UK’s Bikeability training program expressed fears that hostile tabloid media coverage is scaring parents out of letting their kids ride bikes.

………

Local 

An ebike rider was lucky to escape without serious injuries when they were right-hooked by a driver while riding in the painted bike lane on Santa Monica Blvd in West Hollywood; witnesses described the crash as a hit-and-run, but sheriff’s deputies insisted the driver stuck around.

 

State

Police in Merced are asking for the public’s help finding an 87-year old man suffering from dementia, who was last seen riding a pink adult-sized bicycle

 

National

A man in Portland was killed when he apparently hit a pothole while riding his bike. Demonstrating once again that bad roads pose a greater risk to bike riders than they do to motorists. And a single hole in an otherwise good road surface can be even more dangerous, because bicyclists may not be expecting it. 

Detroit’s new Gordie Howe International Bridge, named for the former NHL great, is set to open early this year, allowing people to bike and walk between the Canada and the Motor City, as well as drive. Look, I’m not saying I’m old, but I remember watching Howe skate. 

New York bikeshare users are calling on the city to subsidize the Citi Bike program, after fees increased for the fifth year in a row.

Atlanta is about to break ground in the city’s largest greenspace on what they’re calling a “world-class bike park for all ages and skill levels”.

 

International

Momentum is busy recycling old news stories as new news, making it harder to tell what’s actually new and what isn’t — although it’s kind of a dead giveaway when a story about why cargo bikes are better than minivans for family vehicles begins by predicting Europe ‘will’ sell half a million cargo bikes in 2022.

Unbelievable. For the second time in just two days, a 13-year old boy was killed by dogs while riding a bicycle, this time in Nova Scotia, where a boy died three days after he was attacked by “three large-breed dogs” as he was riding past someone’s property. Seriously, just keep your damn dogs secured, already.

A London bicyclist is convinced a professional thief used Strava to track his movements and trace him back to his home before stealing three high-end bikes worth the equivalent of 40 grand.

A Scottish mountain biker relates his obsessive pursuit of summiting all 282 of the Munros, the Highland peaks topping 3,000 feet in elevation named for Sir Hugh Munro, who first mapped them in 1891.

A Dublin professor says it’s about time the city began focusing on better bike lanes and the newly pedestrianized College Green between Trinity College and the old Irish Parliament building, arguing that bikes, buses and walking are the only solutions to worsening congestion.

That didn’t take long. People on motorbikes are already encroaching on Ho Chi Minh City’s first bike lane, less than a week after it was opened in the city formerly known as Saigon, Vietnam.

 

Competitive Cycling

Cyclist ranks pro cycling kits from worst to first; needless to say, Ineos Grenadiers and their white shorts came in dead last — although Velo foresees those white shorts paired with a pink jersey, as they predict a win for the Grenadiers in the Giro.

The world’s most famous bike mechanic is riding off into the sunset, as the mustachioed Calvin Jones hangs up his Park Tool apron after 28 years.

 

Finally…

Why buy a titanium bike when you can acquire the whole brand? That feeling when you meet the love of your life at a bike race, and end up featured in People.

And always ride with a pool cue in case you find yourself unexpectedly jousting with trash.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

NY congestion pricing works while LA keeps studying…and studying, and making a moral commitment to human life

January 6, 2026 / / No comments

Congestion pricing works.

Despite predictions that it would make Manhattan a ghost town, after a full year in place, New York’s congestion pricing is working according to plan.

The program, which charges $9 a car for each trip into the city’s Central Business District, has raised $700 million in tolls in its first year. The money has gone to support transit, including upgrades to subway lines and station, as well as Metro bus lines.

At the same time, vehicle entries into the district have dropped, although the void was quickly filled by ride-hailing vehicles. Foot traffic is up. Pollution levels have dropped across all five boroughs, bus speeds have increased slightly, and both collisions and traffic injuries dropped.

As Charles Komanoff put it in Vital City,

Before the first-in-the-nation plan went into effect on Jan. 5, 2025, proponents promised that the policy would bring entrenched Manhattan gridlock to heel, while foes predicted far-reaching economic and environmental harm. Gov. Kathy Hochul, fearing electoral consequences, delayed its implementation. The then-incoming Trump administration promised to kill the program in the crib…

But, contra the sky-will-fall predictions, congestion pricing is producing no noticeable social injury. Manhattan businesses haven’t fled. The city’s economy hasn’t contracted. Putative spillover areas like the South Bronx aren’t seeing more trucks and dirtier air. Mirabile dictu: the birth of a major public policy initiative has been attended by little if any disruption.

Those same benefits could accrue right here in Los Angeles, including the possibility of free transit, if Metro hadn’t backed down on this city’s congestion pricing proposal.

Instead, we did what LA does best, conducting yet another study instead of actually doing anything.

That was five years ago.

It will be another two years before we can expect it to be completed. If ever.

Maybe someone can explain why it takes seven full years to conduct one damn study.

But even then, if and when they actually complete the study, does anyone really believe the spineless Metro board will somehow find the courage to stand up to LA’s infamous angry drivers.

And if you thought the whole Playa del Rey road diet fiasco pissed local drivers off, just wait until they have to pay a toll to enter certain parts of the city or use specific roadways.

Thanks to Megan for the video. 

Photo by Kaboompics from Pexels. 

………

He gets it.

The VP of the Napa County Bicycle Coalition Board of Directors considers Vision Zero, and choosing safety over speed and convenience.

Some may dismiss Vision Zero as being uniquely achievable in Europe given different cultures. But here in the U.S., Hoboken, New Jersey — a city of almost 60,000 with a Vision Zero approach — has recently had a seven-year streak with literally zero traffic fatalities.

And Hoboken is no outlier; many U.S. jurisdictions have adopted Vision Zero policies. Napa County happens to be one of them. But as noted in a recent Washington Post investigation, Vision Zero policies are meaningless without moral commitment to making human life paramount and without commensurate political and economic investment in proven life-saving infrastructure and systems.

Which is exactly why it failed so miserably here in Los Angeles, where traffic deaths are higher now than they ten eleven years ago when it became official city policy.

Never mind that traffic deaths were finally supposed to be a thing of the past over a year ago. Or that the most recent Vision Zero news on the city’s website is nearly three years old.

There was no moral commitment from our elected leaders, let alone the political and economic investment necessary to make it work.

Or the courage to actually implement it

So we continue to sacrifice innocent lives to the almighty motor vehicle god.

And will, for the foreseeable future.

………

A horrific story from Kansas, where a 47-year old man faces charges in two separate states after leading police to the body of a 13-year old boy last month.

The boy was found dumped at the bottom of a steep Missouri ravine, a day after he had disappeared while riding his bike to a neighbor’s home half an hour away in Kansas.

An autopsy showed he had died of dog bites.

The suspect faces a charge of abandoning a corpse in Missouri, and interfering with law enforcement, criminal desecration, and allowing a vicious dog to run at large in Kansas.

Sadly, it’s not hard to read between the lines.

Especially if you’ve ever been chased by an angry dog.

Let alone caught by one.

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Rush hour looks a little different in the Netherlands.

And not just because of the snow.

The Utrecht morning rush hour in the snow did not disappoint!

— BicycleDutch (@bicycledutch.bsky.social) 2026-01-05T07:26:33.292Z

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This is why you don’t park in bike lanes.

I just wish they’d do that here.

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

A writer for Road.cc says it may be a new year, but Britain’s Daily Mail is still trotting out the same old “anti-cycling ragebait,” accusing riders of routinely breaking a pathway’s 12 mph speed limit. Although it beats being accused of being repulsive to women because of your bikewear.

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

Yesterday, we mentioned that London bike riders caught running red lights will have the option of paying the equivalent of a $67 fine or watching a video of a bike rider getting hit by a bus after jumping one; today we learned that the video is of a woman who voluntarily agreed to share it as a warning to others.

………

Local 

In an apparent example of legal redundancy, Manhattan Beach now requires any ebikes ridden in the city to have a rear reflector or flashing red light, something that is already required under state law. Never mind that only the state has the legal authority to regulate vehicle equipment, including for bicycles, motorbikes — and yes, ebikes.

 

State

Sad news from Bakersfield, where a 44-year old woman was killed by a driver while riding her bicycle on a highway offramp; police excused the driver by blaming poor lighting and the position of the victim on the roadway.

More bad news, this time from San Jose, where a man died more than two weeks after he was struck by a driver while riding an ebike.

Still more sad news comes from Vallejo, where a man was killed when he somehow lost control and crashed his bicycle; police said there didn’t appear to be any other vehicles involved. Although there’s all kinds of things that can make someone lose control of a bike, from potholes and loose gravel to a too-close pass from a distracted driver. 

 

National

Cycling Weekly marks the passing of Cannondale founder Joe Montgomery, crediting him with changing the bicycle industry by introducing aluminum tubing — along with bankrupting the company with an ill-advised entry into motocross. Although I want to know more about that mid-’90s rollerblade bike.

 

International

A writer for Bike Radar lists ten things he wished he know when he started riding, so you can avoid making the same mistakes. Although in retrospect, I wish I’d skipped the carbon bike and stuck with steel if I couldn’t afford Ti.

Bike theft is virtually legal at UK rail stations, where just 0.5% of bike thefts ever resulted in charges.

Former pro cyclist Marius du Preez plans a 4,300-mile solo bike trip across Africa to raise funds for vulnerable children, camping under the stars amid “lions, leopards, hyenas and elephants.”

A Vietnamese architect says the country should follow the example of bike-friendly Singapore, and not settle for a single bike lane in Ho Chi Minh City.

A 27-year old Aussie man is suing the former premier of Victoria province for defamation, as well as ongoing injuries, a dozen years after he was struck by the ex-premier’s wife while riding a bike; she claimed he crashed into her car after she came to a complete stop, which seems kinda unbelievable given the extent of his injuries and the damage to her windshield.

 

Competitive Cycling

It seems like the pro cycling season just ended last week, yet the WorldTour is already ready to kick off the 2026 season with the Tour Down Under on January 20th through the 25th.

 

Finally…

That feeling when your local bikeway turns into a “raised snake of tarmac goo.” How to scam bikemakers out of $50,000 worth of bikes by pretending to be a YouTube influencer.

And maybe it can be a real crosswalk after it graduates.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Why this isn’t e-BikinginLA, New York’s new mayor puts his money where his bike is, and new San Diego Fondo this June

January 5, 2026 / / 7 comments
Welcome back!
And thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who donated to the 11th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive!

I can’t begin to tell you how grateful I am to all those who gave this year to support this humble site.

So thanks to John, Norwood, Mary, Robert, Jim and Glenn for their generous donations in the final days of the fund drive to help keep all the best bike news and advocacy coming your way every day.

In the end, more than 60 people opened their hearts and wallets to donate this year, falling just just a few hundred short of breaking that elusive $5,000 barrier for the first time — far more than I expected after what was such a difficult year for so many of us.

Now the holidays are finally over, and I’m tanned, rested — or maybe rusted after all this rain — and ready to get back to work.

And hey, happy new year! Let’s hope it’s a better one for all of us. 

………

Let’s start with a recent email exchange with someone who seemed to think I write too much about ebikes, suggesting I should change the name of the site to e-BikinginLA.

He warned that things would look a lot different to if I was a parent riding a “real bicycle” with child passenger, and then someone zoomed by in the curb lane or on the sidewalk at 28 mph.

This was my response, which I’m sharing to clarify where I stand on the great ebike debate.

I write about ebikes because that’s what’s in the news these days, just like I’ve written about any number of things that have been in the news over the years.

I’m not a fan of high-speed, throttle-controlled ebikes, which I believe should be recategorized as motorbikes and require a license to operate. I do like ped-assist ebikes with a max speed of 20 mph, simply because they expand the potential for bicycling from the proverbial “young and healthy” we always hear about, to virtually everyone. And provide the potential to trade a car for a bicycle for countless people who might not otherwise even consider it.

I also believe every bicycle should be ridden within the limits of the law whenever practical, which would generally prohibit passing on the inside or riding on the sidewalk at an excessive speed. Everyone should ride in a safe and sane manner, regardless of how their bike may be powered. And no one should ever have a sense of entitlement on the streets, whether walking, biking or driving.

Personally, I’d like to have an e-cargo bike just so I can bike to Costco or the hardware store, and take my service dog with me wherever I go, which doesn’t exactly work on my 18-speed racing bike. However, I’ve never actually ridden one yet, after being a lifelong roadie, and don’t know if I’d really like it or not.

Meanwhile, on a related subject, The New York Daily News says the city could end its “vicious cycle” with high-speed ebikes by requiring them to be licensed and insured as mo-peds, like they do in the Netherlands.

But apparently, they don’t want you to read it, because the editorial is locked behind a paywall for subscribers only.

And a Bay Area woman says she’s all for ebikes, and the problems everyone seems to be complaining about are caused by people on electric motorbikes, not Class 2 ebikes like hers.

………

It didn’t take long for New York’s new mayor to demonstrate his transportation bona fides.

Just days after Mayor Zohran Mamdani took the oath of office, he announced a Complete Streets makeover of McGuinness Boulevard, including parking-protected bike lanes the full length of the corridor, considered a key bicycling route connecting Brooklyn and Queens.

The project was killed by the previous administration following a corruption scandal, when a top aide to former Mayor Eric Adams accepted “a relatively small sum of money” and the promise of a speaking role on a TV series to kill the project.

Thanks to Megan for the heads-up.

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Oceanside bike lawyer and BikinginLA sponsor Richard Duquette is sponsoring the Giro di San Diego Gran Fondo this June, complete with cash prizes and KOM kits.

………

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

A Cathedral City man can be grateful a local driver is a bad shot, after a Palm Springs man is accused of deliberately hitting a man on a bicycle with his car following an argument between the two men, then making a U-turn to fire off a gunshot at the 40-year old victim before fleeing; 47-year old John Nicholas Duran was arrested later in Cathedral City, and faces charges of attempted homicide and assault with a deadly weapon.

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

A Florida man was knocked off his bicycle by the cops while carrying a sackful of stolen mail, after a year of posing as a mail carrier to break into people’s mailboxes. Although riding his route on a bicycle should have been a dead giveaway wasn’t a real mail carrier.

Bicyclists in London will now have the option of paying a fine equivalent to $67 if they’re caught running a red light, or watching video of a red-light running bike rider who was in a coma after he was hit by a bus driver. Personally, I’d rather just pay the fine.

Police in the UK are looking for a 20-something road-raging ebike rider accused of threatening and racially abusing a van driver, after being told he was riding too close to the van with no lights on his bike.

………

Local 

Streetsblog’s Joe Linton offers his predictions for the coming year, including a 50% drop in new bike lanes in Los Angeles, as the city puts on the brakes to avoid complying with Measure HLA and ADA-compliant curb cuts.

Burbank has closed a section of the Channel Bike Path between Verdugo and Providencia avenues for an undetermined period to conduct repairs.

San Pedro’s Bike Palace is now boarded up after more than 50 years as a local mainstay, while the owners deal with the aftermath of a devastating pre-Christmas fire; a crowdfunding page has raised more than $62,000 to help the rebuilding efforts. Unfortunately, the Daily Breeze story in the first link may be hidden behind a paywall, so you’re on your own if they block you.

I want to be like him when I grow up. A 79-year old Long Beach man rode his bike every day for more than 18 years, through an appendectomy and the death of his wife, going so far as to pay a man 20 bucks to borrow a kid’s bike after attending the Kentucky Derby.

 

State

Sad news from Fremont, where someone riding a bicycle was killed when a semi driver turned into a driveway in front of the victim. Although someone should tell NBC Bay Area that they might want to at least mention the driver, because the damn truck didn’t do it on its own.

The bikelash is real. San Francisco’s transportation pendulum appears to be swinging back in favor of motorists, as the people on four wheels claw back their political power.

 

National

A Las Vegas writer says the city could be safer for biking and walking if it just invested the same effort into building paved trails as it does for stadiums.

An 18-year old Utah man rode his bicycle 14,000 miles from Morocco to Singapore in five months. At that age, I was happy just to drive across the state line to buy booze. 

Colorado’s state ebike tax credit will be cut in half this year, dropping from $450 to just $225, as bike shop owners understandably question whether that will result in a drop in sales.

For the second time in just two weeks, a Texas driver ran down two people riding their bikes, this time in Houston, killing one person and critically injuring the other. But at least the driver stuck around this time.

A 73-year old man was charged with aggravated vehicular homicide for killing a 44-year old Toledo, Ohio man as he was waiting on his bicycle at a red light, running him down from behind before fleeing the scene. The next time someone asks you why so many bike riders run red lights, remind them about cases like this. 

Tennessee drivers will now be expected to know bicycle hand signals as part of the driver’s test. Although they probably already understand the most common one. 

New York’s street safety efforts seem to be paying off, after 2024 was the safest year on city streets since they began keeping stats 116 years ago.

A 40-year old man from El Cajon, California has been charged in the hit-and-run death of a 49-year old man riding an ebike in Mount Laurel, New Jersey, after spending three days on the run.

New Orleans is the latest city to offer a rebate up to $1,200 to buy a new ebike. Which compares favorably to the $0 offered by Los Angeles.

A 20-year old hit-and-run driver in Louisiana also faces a vehicular homicide count, among other charges, after the 64-year old bike-riding man he ran down while allegedly driving drunk died in the hospital a day later.

Once again, an advocate for safer streets was killed while riding his bike, this time when a Macon, Georgia man was run down from behind by a 73-year old woman, who claims she didn’t see him before the crash — yet police still blamed the victim for simply riding in the roadway, instead of on the shoulder, and not yielding to traffic.

Sad news from Florida, where Joe Montgomery died of apparent heart trouble, 55-year after he founded Cannondale above a Connecticut pickle factory, naming the bikemaker after a nearby train station; he was 86.

 

International

Momentum offers their resolutions for a “very bicycle new year,” including embarking on more aimless, social bike rides, and always make bicycling the first choice.

British Columbia bike riders say winter weather doesn’t stop them, but “snow-packed bike lanes and impatient drivers” can.

Bicycling has hit an all-time high in Flanders, with an increase of 40,000 bicycle trips per day since 2022 in the Dutch-speaking region of northern Belgium.

Take a bicycle tour of Transylvania. But maybe wear a garlic necklace just to be safe. 

Over 1,000 people turned out in Vadodara, India on Sunday for the 55th annual Fit India Sundays on Cycle, just one of the 5,000 bike events held across the country yesterday.

A Zambian woman says the gift of a Buffalo bike from World Bicycle Relief has allowed her to double the profits from her small shop, and help her children dream of a better future.

Bicycling has become a hugely popular form of recreation in China, accounting for a whopping $42.9 billion in bike sales in 2024.

Next time you find yourself in Osaka, Japan, make plans to visit the Shimano Bicycle Museum, where you’ll find a century of exclusive bicycling history from the earliest Safety Bikes, to a rain-proof electric trike and a five-seat racing bike.

 

Competitive Cycling

British Olympic cyclist Sir Chris Hoy made his first appearance just weeks after suffering a severe leg injury in a mountain biking crash, hobbling out on crutches to present a trophy to the winner of the World Darts Championship.

Double Olympic medalist Wout van Aert had surgery to repair a fracture and a sprained ankle after crashing on a snowy ‘cross course.

A Rwandan website considers the role a mother played in the rise of her daughter in junior cycling.

 

Finally…

Who needs an ebike when you’ve got an exoskeleton? Or a camper van when you’ve got a postal ebike?

And doing the Stranger Things bike thing, without that whole downer Upside Down thing.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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