Tag Archive for Los Angeles

CA ebike voucher program’s failure to launch, what it takes to make LA bike-friendly, and Hyperloop bites the dust

December 22, 2023 / / One comment

It’s the final weekend of the 9th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive!

Just three short days to open your heart and wallet, and show your support for SoCal’s best source for bike news and advocacy.

So thanks to Kurt G and Michael M for their generous donations to keep all the best bike news coming your way every day. 

Now it’s up to you.

We’ve got a long way to go to catch up to last year’s record-setting fund drive — let alone once again top the previous year’s total for the 9th year in a row. 

It’ll be a stretch, but we can do it with your help.

So don’t wait.

Seriously, stop what you’re doing, and donate now!

Because the time to give is rapidly running out.

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As always, we’ll be taking the coming week between the holidays off, so I can have my annual pre-scheduled emotional collapse after making it through another year.

Okay, I’m joking. Sort of.

So please accept my best wishes for warm and wonderful holidays, whatever and however you celebrate. And a heathy, happy and prosperous year to come.

Just be careful riding over the next ten days, when the number of drunks on the road will increase exponentially, and frenzied shoppers and celebrants will be looking for anyone but you.

I want to see you back here bright and early January 2nd.

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If you haven’t already, sign the petition demanding a public meeting with LA Mayor Karen Bass to listen to the dangers we all face just walking and biking on the streets of LA, and city’s ongoing failure to actually do anything about it.

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

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Days left to launch the California ebike incentive program this fall as promised: -1

As expected, the California Air Resources Board once again missed their own self-appointed deadline begin operations this fall — in fact, all their self-appointed deadlines for two years running.

Talk about a failure to launch.

Instead, thousands of low-income Californians have continued to burn fossil fuels and clog our roads, when they could have switched to cleaner, more efficient ebikes instead — defeating the entire purpose of the program, which was the first in the nation when it passed the state legislature.

And now could end up being one of the last to launch before they finally get it going.

Or maybe if.

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Writing for City Watch, former Los Angeles city planner Dick Platkin considers what it will take to create a bike-friendly LA.

From his perspective, the problem stems from —

Reason 1:  Despite bike plans adopted by Metro, LA County and LA City, Los Angeles has consistently underfunded the construction of a robust bicycle lane network

Reason 2:  There is little effort to follow the official plans, no constant funding to build bicycle lanes, and too much bicycle infrastructure is built to serve new commercial projects, rather than meet actual need

Reason 3:  City proposals to construct new, buffered bicycle lanes on wide boulevards often meet organized resistance by people who don’t want to lose parking or traffic lanes

Reason 4:  Too many proposals for new bikes lanes come from local boosters to build stand-alone bicycle lanes so nearby real estate projects can reduce costly parking requirements

I’d say the problem is more a lack of political will among elected leaders, who listen only to the loudest voices, combined with flushing too much money down the induced-demand toilet that could go to reducing the demand for cars.

But it’s worth taking his thoughts into consideration when we consider how to fight for safer, more complete and livable streets

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Engage schadenfreude now.

Elon Musk’s Hyperloop project bites the dust, after failing to reinvent transit.

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A new book intends to empower women of color to get on their bikes.

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Gravel Bike California returns to Maverick Cycles to go deeper into the dirt around the hills of Whittier.

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‘Tis the season.

An Ohio bike nonprofit donated 137 bike and helmets for local kids in need, and has given away over 1,000 bicycles over the last eight years.

Also in Ohio, an automotive software company continued their six-year tradition of building bicycles to donate to children, many of whose parents are military members.

Forty-four Indiana preschoolers got new bicycles in a holiday raffle, courtesy of the Northern Indiana Hispanic Health Coalition.

A Virginia bike group cooperated with the local Jewish Family Services and a community tool bank to distribute new bikes to families in need.

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

A US judge declared open season on bike riders by federal agents, concluding that the case against an Oregon DEA agent could be dropped because he was performing his official duties when he ran a stop sign and killed an Oregon bike rider.

Bike riders in Queensland, Australia could be subjected to random breathalyzer tests to ferret out people biking under the influence, under a new proposal from the state government.

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

Um, okay. A Greeley, Colorado man got drunk and followed another man on his bike, while somehow swinging a 25-pound propane tank. Something tell me there’s more to this story. And chances are, we’ll never find out what it is, dammit. 

A man in New York’s Tribeca neighborhood had to seek medical attention after he was struck in the eye with a hard boiled egg hurled by a member of a bike “gang.” Although the story never actually uses the word bicycle, so the perp could have been a motorbike rider. 

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Local 

Streets Are For Everyone, aka SAFE, will conduct another die-in on the steps of Los Angeles City Hall on January 27th.

Santa Monica-based Bird has gone belly-up, as the once high-flying micromobility company filed for dissolution in bankruptcy court; the filing comes just days after West Hollywood extended its contract with the company.

An unusually succinct Westlake Village letter writer says bike lanes are a start, but bike riders need protection, not paint.

 

State

Caltrans continues to flush our hard-earned money down the induced-demand toilet, with a $15.7 billion shopping list of highway projects.

Sad news from San Jose, where a bike-riding man was killed when he was right hooked by a van driver turning into a parking lot; he was the 48th victim of traffic violence in the city this year.

 

National

Ebike sales have quadrupled in the US over the past five years. No thanks to California’s moribund voucher program. 

Slate considers how American motor vehicles grew into massive killers on steroids.

Offroad.cc lists the best offroad podcasts that you must follow in 2024. No, judging by the headline, it appears to be mandatory.

Pink Bike uses AI to makes big bike tech predictions, which promptly proceeds to get much of it wrong. But at least they didn’t let the AI write it.

So much for street art. Spokane, Washington removed a guerilla sculpture depicting a woman riding a bicycle up a massive bridge support column.

More on the moron who fled the scene after running down two bicyclists riding on Colorado’s Lookout Mountain while running another rider off the road, leaving one man in the ICU with major injuries; the story makes it sound like two Mustang drivers may have been racing, without actually saying that. A crowdfunding campaign for the most seriously injured victim has raised over $41,000 of the $50,000 goal. You know, in case you have any extra money left over after donating to this site.

A Texas advocacy group speaks out about the pickup driver charged with running down and killing a couple riding their bikes earlier this year, saying “under no circumstances should anyone drive distracted.”

Illinois bicyclists are pondering their next move, after the state Supreme Court made them all second-class citizens by absurdly ruling that bikes are merely “permitted” on the streets without bike infrastructure, but not the intended users.

Streets.mn recommends being safer and more stylish on your bike at night with Reflauro, a new reflective technology devoted by 3M, and made in America by a women-owned company.

Momentum says New York needs more bike lanes like the extra-wide bike lanes on 10th Ave. Don’t we all.

Conflicting data out of New York, where bicycling deaths reached a record high, while pedestrian fatalities are reaching a historic low.

 

International

An 81-year old Brazilian man and his 19-year old son were both killed in a freak crash when the father went looking for his son on his bicycle, and crashed head-on into the son riding home on his motorbike.

The brother of a missing British man fears he may have ingested a poisonous mushroom while foraging in France, while on a long-distance bike tour from Scotland to India.

Maybe there really is a war on cars, as The Guardian says European cities are turning on the car by adopting varied approaches to reducing traffic congestion and pollution; Paris has joined London in having more bicycles than cars during rush hour.

Speaking of once high-flying companies, Swedish inflatable bike helmet maker Hövding has gone belly-up, after a Swedish consumer agency ruled the helmets are unsafe.

Japan’s National Police Agency is proposing fining scofflaw bicyclists up to 12,000 yen for violations such as running red lights or distracted bicycling. Which sounds scary, until you realize that converts to a tad over $84.

 

Competitive Cycling

Hats off to Australia’s Amanda Reid, who became the first paracyclist and indigenous person to be named the country’s cyclist of the year.

YouTube will premier the second season of the Call of a Life Time series next month, “chronicling the highs and lows experienced by key riders in the past year’s Life Time Grand Prix circuit.”

Cycling Weekly considers the silliest cycling rules UCI should do away with. Like a ban on puppy paws, for instance.

 

Finally…

That feeling when no one uses the new bike lanes but Santa. Or when you want an ebike trailer inspired by the hideous Tesla Cybertruck.

And that feeling when you need a lowrider bike inspired by a regional cult-favorite hamburger chain.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , ,

Caltrans meager PCH safety efforts, a peloton ticketed for following too close, and a call for a life-saving super power

December 21, 2023 / / 2 comments

It’s the last four days of the 9th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive!

Last year, it took a real Chrismukah miracle to top the previous year, with more than 25 donations in the last five days.

We’ll need at least that many this time around just to catch up — let alone set a new record for the 9th year in a row. 

So thanks to Steven H and Joshua H (no relation) for their generous support for SoCal’s best source bike news and advocacy.

But time is rapidly running out for this year’s fund drive. 

So don’t wait.

Stop what you’re doing, and give now!

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Days left to launch the California ebike incentive program this fall as promised: 0

Seriously, is anyone really surprised that the California Air Resources Board missed their latest self-imposed deadline once again?

Anyone?

Bueller? Bueller?

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If you haven’t already, sign the petition demanding a public meeting with LA Mayor Karen Bass to listen to the dangers we face just walking and biking on the streets of LA, and city’s ongoing failure to build the safer, more livable transportation system they promised.
Then share it with everyone you know, on every platform you can.

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Even reporters for the Los Angeles Times question whether Caltrans meager safety “improvements” on PCH will be enough to make a difference.

Writing about Monday’s performative press conference to announce a lousy $4.2 million in safety work for the 21 miles of PCH that snakes along the Pacific Coast — which works out to just $200,000 a mile — they almost immediately called the announcement into question.

While there is a process each project will have to undergo, “this is not a ‘business as usual’ approach,” Omishakin said as cars whizzed past.

After several deadly pedestrian crashes that roiled Malibu and sparked calls for change, business as usual won’t be enough, transportation activists said. Damian Kevitt, founder of Streets Are for Everyone, told The Times the “design of PCH through Malibu is simply and clearly deadly.”

“It needs to be a transformed from a highway where people can do 60 to 80 to even 100 mph through residential [areas] and businesses, with families and cyclists, unprotected, just a couple feet away,” Kevitt said.

Hopefully, Caltrans can demonstrate a little more urgency than the $34.6 million project currently underway to sync red lights along the highway, presumably to make speeding drivers stop for red while the typically non-existent non-speeding drivers on the highway will see greens.

The project was approved seven years ago, but because the highway is under California Department of Transportation jurisdiction, it had to be reviewed by the state.

“The Caltrans review process, while undoubtedly necessary for ensuring regulatory compliance and safety standards, proved to be more cumbersome than anticipated,” said Matt Myerhoff, Malibu’s public information officer.

Gee, you think?

Although red lights are typically synced to smooth traffic flow, rather than control speeds.

Meanwhile, Caltrans pledged to study PCH to determine if it can be designated as a safety corridor, in which fines for speeding can be doubled.

But f the mounting death toll on the highway isn’t prima facie proof of the problem, I don’t know what yet another study will accomplish. Then again, you could quadruple the fines, and it won’t matter if the drivers don’t get caught.

Which points to the sheer stupidity of California’s speed cam pilot program only being allowed in Los Angeles, Glendale and Long Beach, along with three NorCal cities, while completely ignoring the state’s deadliest corridors.

But still.

Members of Seetoo’s Fix PCH Action Team, including Kevitt, say the seven years it took Caltrans to allow Malibu to begin the signal synchronization project “doesn’t indicate that Caltrans is prioritizing safety at all.”

Collecting and studying the data could mean “years and years more delay before they even decide if they can slow down this highway that is known to be deadly,” Kevitt said.

Chris Wizner, another action team member, told The Times he wondered how many more deaths it would take for Caltrans to slow down PCH.

That’s easy.

The formula has always been N+1.

It will take one more death than we’ve already suffered, no matter how many there have already been.

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A Santa Barbara cop takes a turn at demonstrating he knows nothing about riding in a peloton, without saying it, as a group of Santa Barbara bicyclists got delayed tickets in the mail for following one another too closely, after one rider went down and took several other riders down with him.

Here’s the full text of the tweet.

Insult to injury rant: Group ride Santa Barbara to Ventura & back Nov. 21, a cyclist in the peloton front crashed & took down several of us. EMTs came & took me for a brain scan. I’m fine. Cop pretended to help me as he asked my name etc.

I just got a ticket for “following too close”. In a peloton. Seriously. $235 or contest it in court.

I’m tempted on principle. Would love to confront this cop & ask why he didn’t give me the ticket then & there (others also got tickets in the mail). He probably knows we would have pitched a fit.

Disgraceful. I’m lying there on the ground in paid, bloody & nauseous & this MF cop is writing me up for a traffic violation. No wonder people don’t trust the police. “Protect & Serve”. Bullshit.

Thanks to Tim Rutt for the heads-up.

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Somehow this one slipped under the radar, as Robert Leone forwards the results of the Universal Postal Union’s 2023 letter writing competition.

Okay, maybe I know why this one slipped under the radar.

Regardless, the UPU asked children to write on the following topic:

“Imagine you are a super hero and your mission is to make all roads around the world safer for children. Write a letter to someone explaining which super powers you would need to achieve your mission.”

The winner, a 13-year old girl from Kenya, requests a simple super power — the ability to write posters that will make drivers slow down, because children are the most helpless road users.

Amen.

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Thanks to Megan Lynch for forwarding the following video, which includes these key points:

  • Soul-crushing car traffic makes the Yosemite experience very frustrating
  • That frustration gets unloaded on retail workers there
  • You should definitely ride a bike in Yosemite
  • But don’t leave anything on your bike because even in Yosemite thieves will strip it to the frame

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‘Tis the season.

A San Diego group is continuing a five decade tradition of giving, by working to build 150 bikes to give to kids on Christmas Day.

A Cedar Rapids, Iowa bike shop turned into Santa’s workshop as volunteers joined staffers to refurbish 50 bikes for kids in need.

An Alabama Baptist church collected more than 300 bikes to give to area kids for Christmas.

The work of Florida’s legendary Jack the Bike Man lives on, as the charity he founded gave 100 bicycles to people in need, despite his death earlier this year.

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

Eureka scrapped plans for a buffered bike lane on Myrtle Street, caving to angry residents who prefer convenient parking to protecting human lives, as long as those lives get around on two wheels instead of four.

No surprise here, as compromises forced on a Brooklyn protected bike lane by people loathe to sacrifice parking or traffic lanes resulted in a project that virtually no one is happy with.

No bias here. A New York councilmember calls for mandatory licensing and registration of ebikes, rhetorically asking “How many actual ebikes do you see stopping at a red light or observing traffic laws?” Just wait until someone tells him about cars and their drivers, which are already registered and licensed, and regularly break traffic laws anyway.

Evidently, verbally abusing and repeatedly swerving a car into a woman riding a bike isn’t illegal anymore, after police in the UK “mistakenly” close the books on a road raging driver.

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Local 

Streetsblog’s Joe Linton applauds yesterday’s deep dive on dooring in the Los Angeles Times.

Metro will offer free bus and train rides on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, along with free Metro Bike Share for the first half hour from Christmas Eve to New Year’s Day.

 

State

A man was arrested in Santa Ana Saturday after walking out of an Irvine Walmart with a new beach cruiser. Seriously, if you’re going to steal a bike, at least steal a better one.

Streetsblog zeros in on San Diego’s new Complete Streets policy, examining how advocates pushed for and won a better approach to street design.

A local San Francisco website says sales data doesn’t back up claims from merchants along Valencia Street that the new centerline bike lane has killed their business, showing just a 6% drop in retail sales during construction of the bike lanes. Although to be fair, a 6% drop can mean the difference between profit and loss for some businesses, but it’s a far cry from what they claimed.

At the same time, San Francisco website Underscore_SF says the controversial centerline bike lane was never going to work, and San Francisco should move the bike lanes to a more traditional curbside configuration.

 

National

GCN offers six top tips for descending on a road bike.

REI’s second-gen e-cargo bike is on sale for its lowest price ever; CNN called it the year’s best ebike, cargo or otherwise. At less than $1140, you could easily buy one with California’s ebike voucher program, and have change left over — if the voucher program ever actually launches.

More churn in the ebike world, as Harley-Davidson sold its Serial 1 ebike division to Florida ebike maker LEV Manufacturing.

Not surprisingly, bike riders in Ashland, Oregon support plans to install more bike parking in the public right-of-way.

A pair of alleged bike burglars face charges for breaking into Lance Armstrong’s storage unit — yes, that Lance Armstrong — and stealing four complete bicycles and a couple frames valued at $105,000; it’s not clear if any of the bikes were recovered.

A Texas man will face two counts of criminally negligent homicide for killing a married couple as they rode their bikes this past June; he was allegedly texting when he hit their bikes, which explains why he says he never saw them.

More on the bizarre ruling from the Illinois Supreme Court that says cities aren’t liable for injuries to bike riders due to bad pavement because streets without bike lanes aren’t intended for bicycles.

Inmates in a New Hampshire county jail are learning to repair bicycles, working towards their master bike technician certification while serving their time. Which should provide a nice incentive to commit another crime if they get released before earning their certification.

A Long Island woman faces a host of charges, including 2nd degree assault and disabling an Interlock device, for speeding through a parking lot where a triathlon was being held and slamming into a competitor riding his bike, leaving the victim with a traumatic brain injury and cervical spine fracture.

 

International

Toronto’s paramedic’s union said a controversial protected bike lane cost an ambulance crew 30 seconds getting through an intersection because drivers couldn’t get out of their way. Maybe someone should tell them those little car-tickler plastic posts are designed to bend, so you can drive right over them. 

Sad news from the UK, where popular industry pro Nils Amelinckx died after a lengthy battle with stage four bowel cancer; Amelinckx founded the nonprofit Rider Resilience to promote the use of bicycles as medicine, as well as the bicycling wing of gear maker Lyon Equipment. He was just 36.

Grieving British parents called for mandatory speed limiters on all motor vehicles, after a speeding driver climbed the curbed and killed their 14-year old daughter as she rode in a separated bike lane.

Bankrupt Dutch ebike maker VanMoof intends to rise Phoenix-like from the ashes with plans for a new e-scooter.

The BBC examines how the Finnish coastal city of Oulu became the winter bicycling capital of the world, despite its location just 60 miles south of the Arctic Circle.

 

Competitive Cycling

The Vuelta released its course for next year, starting and ending with time trials, and “savage” climbing in between.

https://twitter.com/ammattipyoraily/status/1737208276511588374?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1737208276511588374%7Ctwgr%5Efd11a704aa7aaf06f14e2637bcad18fa3438063b%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Froad.cc%2Fcontent%2Fnews%2Fcycling-live-blog-20-december-2023-305753

 

Finally…

Aquaman is one of us. This is what it would look like if Tony the Tiger sponsored a cycling team.

And your next e-cargo bike could haul a baby grand piano.

Or a grown-up one, even.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

CNN looks at Malibu’s killer highway, Illinois makes bikes 2nd class citizens, and LA tops 300 murders and traffic deaths

December 19, 2023 / / One comment

Just 6 days left in the 9th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive!

Sadly, no one donated yesterday to keep SoCal’s best source for bike news and advocacy coming your way every day. 

So don’t let that happen again! Take just a moment and give now!

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Days left to launch the California ebike incentive program this fall as promised: 2

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If you haven’t already, sign and share the petition demanding a public meeting with LA Mayor Karen Bass to listen to the dangers we face just walking and biking on the streets of LA, and city’s ongoing failure to build the safer, more livable transportation system they promised.

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We made the national news, for all the wrong reasons.

CNN reported on LA County’s killer highway, the four Pepperdine students killed by a speeding driver earlier this year, and the 58 people killed along PCH in Malibu in just the last 13 years.

“I should have been there and I usually would be there,” (Pepperdine senior Bridget) Thompson said. “I can just picture them in the car on the way there. I know they were listening to music and I know they were singing along.”

The girls parked and were walking along the Pacific Coast Highway when prosecutors say a BMW going 104 miles per hour slammed into several parked cars before hitting and killing Niamh Rolston, Peyton Stewart, Asha Weir and Deslyn Williams – all Pepperdine seniors…

Thompson is now among those demanding safety changes along the iconic Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu. She helped dedicate a memorial on the scenic highway, which stretches the California coastline, featuring 58 white tires — one for each of the lives lost on the road in Malibu since 2010.

It’s a heartbreaking story, but a necessary one.

Maybe a little national humiliation is what we need to finally get some long-needed changes made.

Thanks to Mike Wilkinson for the heads-up.

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The Illinois Supreme Court reaffirmed a horrific ruling that officially makes bike riders 2nd class citizens on the streets.

The court ruled that cities aren’t responsible for injuries to bike riders from poorly maintained roads that don’t have bicycle infrastructure, reasoning that bicycles are allowed to use such roadways, but aren’t the intended users.

Apparently, drivers are.

Not only does the ruling absolve cities of responsibility to maintain safe streets, it also provides a disincentive to build the infrastructure that would make them liable.

And makes it clear that we’re nothing more than guests anywhere else.

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More information on the Colorado hit-and-run crash we mentioned yesterday.

The driver of one Ford Mustang was passing another on a sweeping mountain curve, and slammed headfirst into three bicyclists traveling in the opposite direction.

The driver fled the scene, then he and his passenger abandoned the car a short distance later with the airbags deployed. The driver of the other car attempted to give chase after checking on the victims, but crashed into a guardrail.

It seems almost miraculous that only one of the victims was seriously injured. A second rider suffered major road rash after flying over the car, while the third rode into a ditch to avoid the crash.

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

Portland finished ripping out a bike lane that had allegedly been installed by mistake, after the initial work to remove it had been halted by protestors blocking the trucks.

They get it. Velo says ebike licenses won’t make the streets any safer, and rider regulation won’t stop the 7,500 pedestrians killed by cars each year.

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Local 

Yay, us. Los Angeles has topped both 300 murders and 300 deaths from traffic violence for the second year in a row.

No word yet on whether West Hollywood adopted its Vision Zero plan last night.

Santa Monica is considering a ballot measure for next November to tax parking garages to pay for transportation projects, including Vision Zero.

Redondo Beach has completed work on its portion of the new Diamond Street Bike and Pedestrian Path, after Torrance bailed on building its part of the pathway connecting the two cities.

 

State

Sad news from San Jose, where the Bay Area’s Mr. Roadshow died Sunday after a long battle with a degenerative muscle and nerve disease; prior to the paper’s draconian paywall, I often linked to his stories when he got it right, or to criticize when he missed the mark. Gary Richards was 72.

A Streetsblog op-ed says the contentious centerline protected bike lane on San Francisco’s Valencia Street could lead to a more pedestrianized, safer street that allows commerce to flourish — if cooler heads prevail, which seems unlikely.

 

National

Electrek lists their most popular ebike news stories of 2023.

Police in Goodyear, Arizona recommended that the driver who plowed into a group bike ride, injuring 19 people and killing two, face just eight misdemeanor charges after the local DA had rejected the case.

A Michigan man faces a murder charge for fatally stabbing another man in a fight that began over a bicycle. We’ve said it before — no bike is worth a human life. Just walk away. 

He’s a Harvard administrator and amateur bike mechanic.

A man in the Bronx is still waiting for the ebike he ordered from Amazon, which was never delivered over a month later.

A kindhearted former Trek staffer is collecting and refurbishing bicycles to donate to people in Ghana and New Jersey, as well as homeless people in California.

An Alabama district court judge gave her former bailiff, now a college president, the new ebike she won in a raffle, to replace the bike that was stolen on his first day working for her.

 

International

‘Tis the season. Momentum offers a “Bikemas” guide to the best-selling bicycling gifts this holiday season.

A Canadian bike lawyer provides a guide to avoid getting doored, and what to do if you do.

Britain’s Bike Project is changing lives by donating refurbished bicycles to refugees.

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo is planning to charge owners of massive SUVs triple the normal parking fee in the central city, and double in other parts of the city in an effort to tax them off the streets.

Sad news from Swaziland, where award-winning travel photographer Steve Walton died after breaking his back in a fall off a narrow footbridge while riding his bike during an October safari; he was 69.

Here’s another one for your bike bucket list — a “magical ride” island hopping over bridges in the Indonesian city of Batam.

 

Competitive Cycling

Top triathletes are renting bikes to compete in the world championships, after the financial failure of a shipping company left many riders rides in limbo.

Orange Factory Racing is pulling out of mountain biking after 30 years.

Pez Cycling News considers what the shutdown of GCN+ and the shift of bike racing coverage to Max — formerly HBO — will mean for US cycling fans.

 

Finally…

When you’re riding your bike despite several outstanding warrants, put a damn light on it, already. Your next tandem ebike could have three wheels — all in a straight line.

And your next bike trailer could be amphibious.

Even if your bike isn’t.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

WeHo votes on Vision Zero Monday, not guilty plea in Magnus White death, and popular comic dies in solo ebike crash

December 15, 2023 / / Comments Off on WeHo votes on Vision Zero Monday, not guilty plea in Magnus White death, and popular comic dies in solo ebike crash

Just nine days left in 9th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive!

We’re running neck-and-neck with last year’s record-breaking total — which means we could easily set a new record for the ninth time in a row. Or fail for the first time ever. 

Which way it goes is entirely up to you.

Thanks to Nina N for her generous donation to support SoCal’s best source for bike news and advocacy, and keep it coming your way every day. 

So don’t wait.

Drop what you’re doing, and give now!

And if you have any money left, toss a few bucks to LA Streetsblog for their fundraising campaign. 

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Days left to launch the California ebike incentive program as promised this fall: 6

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If you live, work or ride in West Hollywood, clear your schedule for Monday night.

Because the WeHo City Council is scheduled to consider the city’s first Vision Zero Action Plan at Monday’s council meeting.

The meeting is set to begin at 6 pm in the council chambers at the new West Hollywood City Hall, at 625 N. San Vicente Boulevard. It’s Item 5C on Monday’s Council agenda.

As we’ve learned the hard way — hello, Los Angeles — a Vision Zero plan is only as good as the political will of city leaders to fund and implement it.

But so far, West Hollywood’s leadership seems committed to carrying out their decisions — including the recent decision to only build protected bike lanes.

So this one is worth showing up and fighting for.

Thanks to David for the heads-up.

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More on the arrest of the driver who killed 17-year old US Cycling Team member Magnus White in Boulder, Colorado earlier this year.

The 23-year old driver appeared in court Wednesday, and entered a plea of not guilty to a charge of vehicular homicide, a class 4 felony with a maximum of 6 years in prison, along with a potential fine ranging anywhere from two thousand to half a million dollars.

Yeva Smiliansk described herself as a Ukrainian refugee, with no criminal history there or here in the US.

According to Smiliansk, she ran down White as he rode on the side of the roadway because her steering failed, while prosecutors allege she chose to drive while sleep deprived, and fell asleep at the wheel.

White was training for the junior mountain bike world championships in Scotland, where he was scheduled to compete just weeks later.

Meanwhile, his parents discussed their grief over the loss of their son, who would have carried a 4.2 GPA into his senior year of high school, despite competing at an international level.

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In another followup, we’re learning more about the tragic death of popular standup comic Kenny DeForest, who died surrounded by family and friends in a Brooklyn hospital on Wednesday, nearly a week after crashing his ebike.

Despite initial reports that he was struck by a driver — and the subsequent anger of his fellow comedians — Deadline reports he was injured in a solo crash while riding near Brooklyn’s Prospect Park.

However, police were not called to the scene, and there’s no word on what may have caused the crash.

The 37-year old comedian appeared on MTV Decoded, The Late Late Show with James Corden, Late Night With Seth Meyers, the Just For Laughs TV series Straight Up, Stand Up, HBO’s Crashing, and Comedy Central’s Tales From The Trip.

The Springfield, Missouri native had also recently released a standup special on YouTube.

A crowdfunding campaign to help pay his medical expenses has raised more than $178,000, easily topping the $150,000 goal.

I’m told that DeForest’s death hit close to home for LA writers, who got to know him during the recent writer’s strike, when he participated in several of the Bike the Strike rides.

Thanks to Mike Burk and Nina Moskol for the tip.

………

‘Tis the season.

First responders in California’s Alameda County answered a little girl’s letter to Santa, giving her the bicycle she asked for, along with some milk for her baby brother.

Volunteers in Vancouver, Washington built 800 bikes to be handed out to children during the holidays.

The nonprofit Boise Bike Project will give away 500 bicycles to kids in need this year, despite a local driver’s best efforts to kill their building.

Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Jayden Daniels will team with the founder of the Raising Cane’s restaurant chain to give away over 1,000 bikes to kids in cities across the US.

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Local 

Santa Monica cops will conduct another bike and pedestrian safety operation today, ticketing anyone who commits a violation that could endanger someone walking or riding a bike. So ride to the letter of the law until you cross the city limits, so you’re not the one who gets ticketed. 

REI is closing their very busy Santa Monica location, while a new ebike dealer opens its doors in the city.

Police in Redondo Beach asked parents to control their ebike-riding kids so they don’t have to.

The Acorn has more on the half-million dollar grant to build 11.5 miles of bike lanes in Agoura Hills.

 

State

A Bakersfield bicyclist was collateral damage when a driver ran a red light and slammed into a truck, which was pushed into the crosswalk where the victim was riding; he was taken to the hospital with critical injuries.

A Santa Barbara writer says the city needs to learn from the Netherlands by slowing traffic and building safe bike infrastructure to encourage higher bicycling rates.

 

National

The Biden administration has instructed federal employees to use sustainable transportation and zero-emission vehicles, including bikeshare, whenever possible.

Bike riders from across the US share what keeps them coming back to their favorite local bike shops.

Hawaii has seen a nearly 20% drop in traffic deaths this year, although bicycling fatalities reached their highest level yet, with nine riders killed this year.

Maine could soon follow California’s lead in limiting the number of gas-powered vehicles sold in the state.

Automated speed cams passed the Pennsylvania legislature, with the support of local advocacy groups.

 

International

Road.cc rates the best reflective bikewear and gear for the coming year.

 

Competitive Cycling

A writer for Men’s Journal says he dove into the deep end of ultra-distance bike racing so you don’t have to, encouraging others to learn from his mistakes in the 800-mile Bohemian Border Bash.

 

Finally…

Wear a lighted bike helmet without looking like a geek. And what it’s like to actually live with one of us.

………

………

Chag sameach!

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

Sleeping driver charged in death of 17-year old Team USA cyclist, and proportion of bike traffic deaths rising worldwide

December 14, 2023 / / Comments Off on Sleeping driver charged in death of 17-year old Team USA cyclist, and proportion of bike traffic deaths rising worldwide

We’re nearing the end of the 9th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive — just ten days left to support SoCal’s best source for bike news and advocacy!

Thanks to Kiersten S, Phaedrus L, Rob K, Ian D and James B for their generous donations to keep all the best bike news coming your way every day. And help keep the corgi in kibble.

So don’t wait.

Drop what you’re doing, and give now!

………

Days left to launch the California ebike incentive program as promised this fall: 7

………

If you haven’t already, take just a moment to sign the petion demanding a public forum with LA Mayor Karen Bass to listen to the dangers we face just walking or riding a bike in the City of Angels.

Then spread it to everyone you know, and ask them to sign, too. Because it’s long past time to take traffic violence seriously, and stop the needless carnage on our streets.

And if you’re one of the 139 people who’ve already signed it, thank you!

………

Maybe Magnus White will see justice, after all.

The 23-year old driver who killed 17-year old US National Team cyclist Magnus White has been charged with vehicular homicide, six months after the Boulder, Colorado crash.

White was on a training ride, just weeks before he was scheduled to compete in the junior mountain bike worlds in Scotland, when Yeva Smilianska allegedly fell asleep before slamming her car into his bike.

According to Denver’s 9News,

Investigators came to this conclusion after interviewing Smilianska and people she knew, and by reviewing cell phone data, according to the affidavit. They also interviewed several people who had witnessed the crash or the aftermath, including another bicyclist who was riding behind White. That bicyclist also talked to the suspect on the scene, the affidavit says.

Police found a text Smilianska sent about 20 minutes before the crash. It read, “I’m falling asleep. So I’m going home.”

There was no indication that Smilianska was intoxicated, according to the affidavit.

Smilianska reportedly told investigators her steering malfunctioned, but admitted she hadn’t seen White, or another cyclist riding with him, prior to the crash.

And yes, you are legally required to be awake and alert when you operate a motor vehicle. Not to mention actually pay attention to others on the road with you.

She was released on $10,000 bond.

………

The World Health Organization appealed to countries to improve safety for bicyclists, saying the proportion of bicyclists killed on the roads is rising, even as worldwide traffic deaths decline.

According to the WHO, despite a 16% decline in overall traffic fatalities per 1,000 people over the last decade, the proportion of bike riders among road deaths worldwide rose slightly, from 5% to 6%.

………

The long and twisted tale of an Oregon DEA agent who killed a 53-year old woman in a collision as she rode her bike home from work gets another chapter, after a judge moved the trial to federal court.

That could allow the agent to claim immunity, arguing that he was performing his duties as an agent at the time of the crash.

The case was revived in August, after the Salem, Oregon paper accused the local police of a coverup in the case, apparently failing to conduct an investigation of the crash as a professional courtesy to the agent.

………

‘Tis the season.

A Texas men’s group will give away over 500 bikes and electric scooters this weekend, in an event open to all kids.

Members of a South Florida Boys and Girls Club got the gift of freedom through a bike giveaway sponsored by a local car dealer.

Road.cc offers a gift guide for the pernickety pedaler in your life, while they insist the Raleigh Chopper remains the best holiday gift for kids everywhere. Today I learned that pernickety really is a word, while meaning the same thing as persnickety.

………

Gabriel Wibmer presents five minutes and 41 seconds of singletrack gravel mania.

To mention some confused cows.

………

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

In what the Times of India calls “another example of rampant hooliganism,” a man was knocked off his bicycle by an idiot hanging all the way out of a motorized rickshaw.

No bias here. A New Zealand website says bike riders are causing problems on a new $17 million shared coastal pathway — then cites a pedestrian who says she was almost struck by someone on a bicycle, who she didn’t see riding towards her. So she wasn’t paying attention, yet it’s somehow the bike rider’s fault. Got it. 

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Local 

Streetsblog’s Joe Linton visits Pasadena’s one and a half-mile long Cordova Street Complete Streets project.

 

State

Calbike highlights ebike training resources currently available online.

The rich get richer, as San Diego received a $2.25 million federal grant to improve safety for bike riders and pedestrians with a pair of projects.

Palo Alto wants to preserve parking and traffic lanes on University Ave, while adding bike lanes and wider sidewalks, and transforming the thoroughfare to make it more vibrant. They also want to preserve the cake they just ate.

San Francisco’s transportation agency raised the possibility of installing protected bike lanes in place of the highly unpopular centerline bike lane on Valencia Street, which appears to be almost universally hated by people on every side of the debate.

A San Francisco writer says zero traffic deaths was an unrealistic goal for the city, and now they should focus on what actually works. Which is a fundamental misunderstanding of Vision Zero, which is the process of implementing safety measures to move towards zero traffic deaths, not the goal itself. 

 

National

A new US House report could result in higher prices for bicycles and bike parts, recommending restricting or banning some Chinese-made goods from the US.

Popular Science offers advice on how to fly with your bike.

An Oregon judge ruled a lawsuit against Portland can move forward, charging the city failed to comply with a 1971 law requiring a minimum investment in bicycling and walking infrastructure in tandem with major road projects.

Around a dozen people took to their bikes to call for expanding Medicaid in Kansas. Then again, given the population of Kansas, that’s a big turnout.

A popular New Hampshire bike shop was born when the owner was fired from his restaurant job 15 years ago.

Tragic news from Brooklyn, where stand-up comedian Kenny DeForest died Wednesday, five days after he was struck by a driver while riding his bicycle; the Missouri native has appeared on Comedy Central, Late Night with Seth Meyers, and The Late Late Show with James Corden, as well as HBO’s “Crashing,” and released his second comedy special in August.

New York unveiled a new 10-foot wide protected bike lane on 10th Ave, which a deputy mayor said would make life easier for people on bicycle, especially delivery workers. The city also announced plans for an 11-foot wide bike lane on 11th Ave, and 12-foot wide one on 12th Ave. And just wait until they get to 104th Street. 

Philadelphia got a $16 million federal grant to improve safety on the city’s High Injury Network.

An 80-year old former Florida councilmember got a lousy traffic ticket for killing a woman riding a bicycle, after claiming he somehow couldn’t see the woman riding across the street directly in front of him. And once again raising the question of how old is too old to drive. 

Police in Florida are looking for the driver who fled on foot after driving past traffic cops working security, and crashing into a competitor riding in an Ironman triathlon.

 

International

Life is cheap in British Columbia, where a truck driver walked without a day behind bars for killing a 28-year old man riding a bicycle; he got a lousy $1,150 fine for fatally right hooking the victim while turning from the center lane, rather than the right turn lane.

Quebec City, Quebec announced plans for the city’s first vélocité corridor, or bicycle superhighway.

A university in Nairobi, Kenya offers a “life-changing” bicycle leasing program just inside its front gates, giving students greater mobility in the traffic-choked city.

Police in Japan are resorting to yelling at bike riders who are wearing earbuds, as they struggle to differentiate between ear pieces that block outside noises and those that allow them to filter through.

 

Competitive Cycling

America’s most famous ex-Tour de France winner refuses to go away, explaining how he beat drug tests for so many years.

 

Finally…

That’s probably not Bill Gates riding that chopper bike. Your next e-cargo bike could be a scooter.

And a pizza delivery bike to boldly go where no pizza bike has gone before.

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Chag sameach!

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

New petition demands public traffic safety meeting with LA Mayor Bass, and new Calbike ED takes Caltrans to task

December 13, 2023 / / Comments Off on New petition demands public traffic safety meeting with LA Mayor Bass, and new Calbike ED takes Caltrans to task

Just 11 days left to support the 9th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive!

Thanks to Beverly F, Ken F, Michael W and Todd T for their generous support to keep SoCal’s best source for bike news and advocacy coming your way every day.

And a special thanks to Donna S for her attempt to donate, which was thwarted by international banking hiccups. 

Take a moment right now to join them to keep up the fight, and bring all the latest bike news coming to your favorite screen each morning. 

So don’t wait. Give now!

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Days left to launch the California ebike incentive program as promised this fall: 8

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I did a thing.

Like you, I’m fed up with the traffic violence on our streets, and mad as hell about how little is being done to to improve safety for those of us who aren’t safely ensconced behind a couple tons of glass and steel.

Let alone building a climate-friendly transportation system that’s not firmly routed in the last century.

So I created a petition demanding a public audience with Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, similar to the bike summit held by former Mayor Villaraigosa over a dozen years ago.

I hope you’ll sign it.

And help support it, spreading the link far and wide — because if it relies on me alone, it will fail.

Thirteen years ago, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa held a public forum to listen to complaints from bike riders and pedestrians about the dangers we face on city streets. He heard us, and took action.

But since then, we’ve been ignored. Mayor Eric Garcetti introduced a number of traffic safety initiatives, but failed to follow through on any of them, and failed to listen to us or meet with us a single time. Now new Mayor Karen Bass has continued to ignore the dangers on our streets.

We’ve given her a full year to focus on homelessness, and housing unhoused Angelenos. Now it’s time to walk and chew gum at the same time, and refocus at least some of her attention on the ongoing carnage on our streets, as bike and pedestrian deaths climb to near record levels.

We demand another public forum with the mayor in attendance, to listen to our complaints about the dangers on our streets, and the urgent need to re-imagine how we all get around in Los Angeles.

Go ahead and sign it now. We’ll wait.

………

She gets it.

Kendra Ramsey, the new Executive Director of the California Bicycle Coalition calls on Caltrans to change its ways, because California will never be the climate leader it professes to be until the state stops building freeways.

And yes, that includes highway widening and building new interchanges, too.

While Caltrans spends billions each year repairing and mitigating the damage done by extreme weather caused by climate change, it continues to create the conditions for more harmful emissions. A planned freeway expansion in Yolo County, between Sacramento and Davis, may involve improper environmental review and misuse of state roadway repair funds. The controversy led to the firing of Caltrans deputy director for planning and modal programs Jeanie Ward-Waller, who planned to blow the whistle on the alleged malfeasance…

Caltrans should be inducing demand for active transportation by building protected bikeways with protected intersections that connect to robust local and regional networks of safe bike routes. It should be adding bus-only lanes and bus boarding islands, widening sidewalks, and improving conditions for people who walk or take transit…

It’s a quick and easy read.

And more than worth the click to read the whole thing.

………

That’s more like it.

The stoned driver convicted of killing two Michigan men participating in a multi-day Make-A-Wish fundraising bike ride will likely spend the rest of her life behind bars, after she was sentenced to two consecutive terms of 35 to 60 years in prison.

Which means she’ll serve at least 70 years, with a maximum sentence of 120 years.

So if she does the max, she’ll be 164 when she finally gets out.

………

And on a lighter note…

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‘Tis the season.

San Diego’s Mike’s Bikes, founded by a retired city employee, gives away about 300 bikes, scooters and skateboards each holiday season.

The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office gave away over 500 refurbished bicycles to local kids for the holidays. Although to be fair, the inmates at the county Honor Farm did most of the work.

A Baptist church hosted a bike exchange on the Navajo Nation, donating refurbished bicycles to kids who pledged to do good deeds or community service.

A Michigan nonprofit says they take bike-shaped rubble and refurbish it into rideable bicycles, donating 500 bikes to people in need this year.

And enough with the gift guides for bicyclists. Road.cc offers a guide for what not to buy for the bike rider in your life to avoid a festive faux pas.

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

No bias here. After San Diego adopted a new Complete Streets policy, the San Diego Reader said “bike lane totalitarians” objected to the numerous exemptions.

No bias here, either. After a British bike rider was mugged, hit in the head with a hammer and had his bicycle stolen while riding on a canal path, the cops just told him to maybe ride somewhere else in the future.

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

You’ve got to be kidding. After a Mississippi drunk driver was arrested for killing a man riding a bicycle, the local cops still blamed the victim for riding on a dark highway without lights, while praising the driver for doing the right thing by stopping and calling for help.

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Local 

Streetsblog’s Joe Linton visits nearly-finished bike infrastructure in Little Tokyo, El Monte and Vincent, including the long-promised Alameda Esplanade.

 

State

No news is good news, right?

 

National

Turns out ebikes offer less range in cold weather.

Bicycling lists a number of bicycles and ebike discounted on pre-holiday sales, including the REI cargo bike CNN rated as the best overall ebike. This one doesn’t appear to be hidden behind the magazine’s paywall, so click away.

Mountain bikemaker Kona is having a BOGO sale on one of its bikes, too.

Major League Baseball recommends taking a leisurely bike ride or walk to visit minor league ballparks across the US.

The rich get richer. My Platinum-Level Bicycle Friendly Colorado hometown is getting a nearly $1 million federal grant to “find ways to maximize safety and comfort for local cyclists.” We could all use that.

 

International

Momentum recommends the best hybrid bikes for all-season bike commuting.

Canadian Cycling Magazine recommends five new tech tools to help keep your bike safe, including a power meter that incorporates Apple’s Find My technology.

The Ethical Choice asks if Brits should be paid to bike to work. Short answer, yes. Longer answer, yes, and over here in the US, too. 

Novel AI tools developed by a Zurich firm are helping to develop safer bike helmets and better shoe soles by bypassing “the time-consuming and intuition-based design process of metamaterials.” Let’s just hope they work better than most AI chatbots.

You can now get bicycles made by the world’s largest bikemaker, India’s Hero Cycles, at your friendly neighborhood Walmart.

 

Competitive Cycling

The former head of the Movistar cycling team explains why he gave Colombian pro Nairo Quintana a second chance, saying pro cycling wasn’t fair in banning him for testing positive for the narcotic painkiller Tramadol, which won’t be banned until next year.

 

Finally…

Now you, too, can own Tadej Pogacar’s very own time trial bike — although it still won’t make you as fast as he is. That feeling when you’re an award-winning actor and a bicycle crash first responder, too.

And a British Columbia teenager made his own “feature length” bike film — if you consider a hair under 30 minutes feature length.

But still.

………

………

Chag sameach!

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

Aussie prof killed in Marina bike crash, protected bike lane mandate pays off, and CA has to walk the walk on emissions

December 12, 2023 / / 2 comments

Just 12 days left in the 9th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive!

Thanks to Erik B, Lisa G, Samer S, Erik G and Gold Leaf Films for their generous support to help keep SoCal’s best source for bike news and advocacy coming your way every day.

Don’t wait. Give now!

………

Days left to launch the California ebike incentive program as promised this fall: 9

………

I’m gutted.

Yesterday we shared a photo depicting the aftermath of a Friday bike crash in Marina del Rey, which I later learned was taken by Ian Dutton.

Then last night I came across a story from an Australian news site reporting that a beloved college teacher had been killed riding along an unidentified California beach.

And later still, I saw a comment from Libby Starling, who identified herself as the victim’s sister-in-law, reporting that the victim in the Marina crash, Manhattan Beach resident Leland Dutcher, didn’t make it.

Yet I somehow failed to initially make the connection that it was the same person.

Somehow, posting that photo makes it feel personal to me, perhaps because I inherited my dad’s extra empathy gene.

I keep telling myself that it’s not about me.

What I do is about serving the victims of these crashes, and their families, and the greater bicycling community.

But it hurts, damn it.

It hurts.

………

We’ve linked to a number of stories about the bikelash in Cambridge, Massachusetts recently, where some drivers are up in arms over the profusion of new bike lanes on city streets.

But according to Velo, a new report from city officials shows the city’s first-in-the-nation mandate to building protected bike lanes has been an overwhelming success.

According to the report, since the policy was implemented four years ago,

  • 80 percent more protected bike lanes from cars than in 2004.
  • 9 percent of Cambridge residents bike to work, and 37 percent of residents walk or bike.
  • 25 percent of people visiting the business district arrive by bicycle.
  • 34 percent more people commute by bike since 2019, while 15 percent more people commute via sidewalks since 2019.
  • The number of children on bikes, in trailers, or cargo bikes has increased by 3.5 times.
  • Up to 80 percent fewer cyclists ride on sidewalks, resulting in fewer accidents between pedestrians and cyclists.
  • Bike lanes in the area have cut accidents between bikes and cars by 50 percent since 2012.
  • The proportion of crashes that did not result in injury is three times lower now than it was from 2004 to 2012. Incapacitating injuries are down by 84 percent in the same time frame.

All of which sounds like a pretty convincing argument to keep building them there.

And here.

………

They get it.

Planetizen says California has to walk the walk when it comes to reducing transportation emissions.

Because while the state is great at setting Complete Streets and climate change policies, it continues to waste billions on traffic and emission inducing highway projects.

………

LA in a Minute examines why white plastic bollards are popping up all over Los Angeles.

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The mayor of Escondido has declared war on bike lanes, introducing an ordinance to prohibit future bike and transit improvements in the city.

https://twitter.com/TallDarknJewish/status/1734313400409415951

 

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Well, of course he was one of us.

………

Megan Lynch forwards video of George Clooney and Jimmie Kimmel discussing what kids wanted from a bike back in the day.

………

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

No bias here. Bay Area bike advocates were justifiably up in arms over a story from the San Francisco Standard we linked to yesterday, which trotted out the usual bike-hating bile, including “People hate bike lanes, at least in part, because people hate cyclists. And in fairness, many cyclists give non-cyclists more than a few things to hate.” Because we all know all drivers operate their vehicles perfectly, and never, ever do anything that would give bike riders or pedestrians something to hate.

New York’s bike-hating, rightwing councilwoman demonstrates how to say you have no idea what you’re talking about without saying you have no idea what you’re talking about, while somehow assuming we’re all a group of millionaire cultists.

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

Bakersfield police arrested 12 people riding bicycles, 11 of them juveniles, for an undisclosed incident that happened at the city’s Valley Plaza Mall; a police sergeant said the group, which was organized through social media, was “causing road hazards, and not following the rules of the road.” Except that sounds more like a traffic violation, rather than a crime subject to arrest. And full disclosure, I used to write advertising for that mall. 

A bike-riding Massachusetts man faces an animal cruelty charge for allegedly beating a dog and knocking its 69-year old owner to the ground, after using his bike to separate his two dogs from the victim’s dog when they got into a fight. Using his bike to separate them was smart; beating the other dog afterwards, not so much. Or forgivable. 

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Local 

No news is good news, right? 

 

State

Encinitas is responding to the death of a 15-year old ebike rider in June by considering a slate of bike and pedestrian safety improvements on city streets, including left turn bike boxes.

San Diego adopted a new Complete Streets policy aimed at making local streets safer and more equitable. But as we’ve seen in Los Angeles, a policy without an enforcement mechanism can be pretty useless.

A Santa Barbara writer tries to explain what’s going on with the traffic diverters on Sola Street, as the city attempts to create a crosstown bikeway without removing parking spaces to install a bike lane.

Kindhearted Clovis, California cops bought a new bike for a local teenager after someone stole his locked bike while he was at school.

A nearly $125,000 bequest from the man known as the Legend of Mt. Diablo for his daily rides up the Bay Area climb is helping to fund a campaign to build safety turnouts on his favorite ride, two years after he was killed by a driver while riding his bike.

 

National

The New York Times examines the rise in pedestrian deaths, blaming distracted drivers and a lack of safe sidewalks, while too easily discounting the deadly design of SUVs.

Bike Snob’s Eben Weiss says most bike reviews are useless, so just get out there and ride them yourself.

Clean Technica says ebikes are radically more efficient than electric cars, while a writer for Electrek relates the lessons his wife learned from her first 100 miles commuting to work by ebike.

Oregon will now allow drivers to pass bike riding “obstructions” in No Passing Zones, as long as the person on the bicycle is riding at less than half the posted speed limit.

Great idea. The Iowa Bicycle Coalition is visiting nearly 100 bike shops across the state to kick off their “support your local bike shop week.” Because if we don’t support them, they may not be there when you need them.

Kindhearted cops in Boston replaced a nine-year old boy’s bicycle after someone stole his bike from his backyard.

Sad news from Syracuse NY, where a man riding a bikeshare ebike was killed when a cop somehow turned his patrol car into him; the officer is now on administrative leave while the crash is investigated.

Tragic news from North Carolina, where a man was killed by a drunk driver while riding his bicycle, just hours after his father was killed in a collision, leaving their family to plan two funerals.

‘Tis the Season. Nearly 100 volunteer “elves” refurbished nearly 530 donated bicycles for a Georgia charity to give to local kids in need.

 

International

Momentum says the Dutch Reach is the simple solution to help stop dooring incidents. The only problem is actually getting drivers and passengers to use it. 

A British motorcyclist got three and a half years behind bars for crashing into a bike-riding woman while riding stoned, without a license or insurance, and with fake plates on his motorcycle; the victim ended up having her leg amputated.

The UK’s largest chain of bike shops is ridiculed for building bikes wrong, putting on all the right parts, “but not necessarily in the right places.”

The Jerusalem Post recommends the best helmets for your bicycle or motorbike riding dog — including a hard shell propeller beanie.

 

Competitive Cycling

Fox News continues its war on trans cyclists, quoting commentator Riley Gaines condemning a third place finisher as a “traitor to women” after she came to the defense of the trans women who finished ahead of her.

 

Finally…

Now you, too, can build your very own wireless bike brakes. Your next ebike could be a…Cervélo?

And nothing like finding a useless bike rack at the end of your ride.

………

Chag sameach!

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

Racial justice suit filed in SF police shooting, West LA ghost bike stripped, and bike rider injured in Marina del Rey crash

December 11, 2023 / / 2 comments

Just 13 days left in the 9th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive — less than two weeks to support SoCal’s best source for bike news and advocacy!

Thanks to Xochitl C, Robert K, Robert L and John H for their generous support to keep this site coming your way every day. 

We’re running way behind last year’s record pace right now. So it’s time to get your giving on, and donate today!

………

Days left to launch the California ebike incentive program as promised this fall: 10

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The San Francisco public defender’s office has filed suit over the shooting of a Latino man with mental health problems in August of last year, in what sounds like a major fuckup that began with a simple report of a stolen bicycle.

And escalated because of the replica handgun he carried to protect himself on the streets.

What ensued resulted in a street being blocked off, multiple San Francisco police units arriving — his attorney estimated nearly 80 officers– the appearance of two military-grade armored vehicles, and Corvera being shot at approximately 15 times from four different officers, including one shot that nearly missed his head, his attorney said.

Corvera was never charged with being in possession of a stolen bike.

Instead, he was charged with resisting arrest, brandishing a replica firearm and interfering with the lawful performance of a police officer. His trial began in early November, but ended in a hung jury, leading the public defender’s office to argue — not for the first time — that Corvera should never have been approached in the first place.

The public defender’s office has filed the case under California’s Racial Justice Act, which “allows defendants to raise issues of bias in their cases based on race, ethnicity or national origin.”

San Francisco should probably just back up the Brinks truck in this case.

………

That didn’t last.

My wife and I drove by the site where 46-year old Aaron Cobb was killed riding his bike on Santa Monica Blvd at the 405 Freeway yesterday, just two weeks this ghost bike was installed in his honor.

Photo by Danny Gamboa

Except it doesn’t look like that any more.

All that’s left now is a sad, lonely frame chained to the fence, after someone stripped all the parts off it.

Seriously, it takes a major schmuck to fuck with a ghost bike.

………

Streetsblog’s Joe Linton forwarded this photo by Ian Dutton, after someone riding an ebike was hospitalized after what looks like a pretty serious crash in Marina Del Rey on Friday.

Let’s hope the victim is okay, because that smashed windshield doesn’t look good.

Photo by Ian Dutton

Someone posted video of the same crash on TikTok, with a prayer for the victim’s recovery.

Amen to that.

………

‘Tis the Season.

Over two hundred kids got refurbished bikes in Stockton, California, thanks to the owner of a local motorsports dealer.

A group led by a man known as Bob the Bike Guy gave new bicycles to 150 kids in need in Springfield, Massachusetts, many immigrants from poor or war-torn countries.

One hundred children got new bicycles in a Bronx bike giveaway, as the chief development officer for a New York advocacy group notes that bikes have real staying power, unlike other gifts kids play with for awhile, then forget.

………

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

No bias here. A Cambridge, Massachusetts group calls themselves Cambridge Streets For All, but turns than name on its head by opposing bike lanes — so what they really want is to just keep the streets for drivers. And just because someone in their 70s can’t ride a bike is no reason to oppose bike lanes for others. The idea is to make it safe for people who want to bike, not require everyone to do so. 

A road raging North Carolina driver will spend a minimum of nine years behind bars for intentionally swerving into a man riding a bicycle, while his twin brother will serve time for helping him coverup his involvement in the man’s death.

No bias here, either. A British school bus driver is under investigation after making it clear he just doesn’t give a damn about human lives, telling a bike rider he’s “really not bothered” about killing someone on a bicycle, after he was challenged about an overly close pass.

A customer at a UK supermarket complained about a cargo bike blocking access to the store — even though it was locked to a bike rack and there was room to walk around it.

A hit-and-run driver in Singapore says oopsie, it wasn’t my fault and I didn’t know I hit anyone, after leaving his license plate behind when he crashed into someone riding a bicycle. Which probably explains why the bike rider was so pissed off. 

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

A couple teenagers on an ebike were busted after leading New York police on a lengthy chase, which began with a report of shots fired near an elementary school, and ended with a crash into a parked car.

Police in Philadelphia were looking for a man who attacked two people with a machete for no apparent reason while riding on a local bike path.

He’s got a point. A 70-something man in the UK says “bicycling is a good thing but not in the hands of idiots,” after he and his wife were nearly run down by someone on a bicycle who “had no regard for anyone else in a crowded situation.”

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Local 

Momentum says Santa Monica wants to be the bike capital of the world, as it unveils the new “Dutch style” protected bike lane on 17th Street.

 

State

The San Diego Association of Governments is trying to get commuters out of their cars by offering incentives to take transit, carpool or ride a bicycle.

The San Francisco Standard examines how the new Valencia Street centerline protected bike lane became a cultural flashpoint in the City by the Bay.

Sad news from Sacramento, where a man died days after he was run down by a hit-and-run driver while riding his bike. We’ve said it before, but drivers who flee the scene should face a murder charge because they’ve made a conscious decision to allow the victim to die, rather than stop and get help. 

 

National

The Verge considers how to successfully lobby for a bike lane in America, while noting that cities are finally moving away from the “dreaded” sharrows.

Business Insider offers advice on how to afford an ebike, observing that they’re more popular than electric cars.

It wasn’t that long ago that graphene was being hyped as the bike material of the future. Now GCN says it’s a new type of carbon fibre construction called fusion fibre.

Life is cheap in New Mexico, where a judge sent a clear message that killing someone while driving drunk and fleeing the scene of the crash is just no big deal, by cutting the nine-year sentence of killer, drunken Albuquerque hit-and-run driver in half, because someone else who was convicted of what may or may not have been a similar crime got off with a lighter sentence.

The owner of an Arkansas bike rental says assume drivers there can’t see you when you ride. Actually, that’s good advice everywhere, because drivers can’t see you when they’re looking at their phones, which they’re usually doing. Or not looking for you, period.

Officials in Fernandina Beach, Florida are accused of a coverup the new city manager’s drunken bike crash, less than two weeks after he took the job.

 

International

Cycling Weekly says bicycling isn’t cool anymore, and the in-crowd has moved on stand-up paddleboards, trading lycra for rubber suits.

Um, okay. A Scottish couple in their 50s just spent nearly two years riding their bikes around the world to raise funds for a children’s hospice, even though they don’t like bicycling.

An English “cycling agony aunt” offers advice on gifts for bicyclists. Hopefully none that will actually cause agony. 

Islamabad, Pakistan is planning a network of bike lanes along major routes in the city of 1.2 million people to provide an alternative to buses and cars.

A Nairobi woman says she had an epiphany to take up bicycling as she lay in the roadway with a badly broken leg after jumping off one of the local motor scooters known as a boda boda to avoid a drunk driver, and hasn’t looked back — even after a doctor recommended amputating her leg.

A new study of “bicycle accidents with respect to spatial heterogeneity” from Seoul, Korea offers results that aren’t really that surprising, concluding that more local buses on a roadway results in a reduction in bike use, and that the presence of bike lanes results in more bicycle crashes. Probably because there are more bike riders using them.

 

Competitive Cycling

Briton’s Sir Bradley Wiggins says he doesn’t remember standing on the Champs-Élysées after winning the 2012 Tour de France, and doesn’t ride a bicycle anymore because he doesn’t like who he became on it.

Belgian pro Cian Uijtdebroeks has signed to race with the Team Visma-Lease a Bike cycling team for next year. Or maybe not.

 

Finally…

Probably not the best idea to ride salmon in the traffic lane, while trying to attack cars with a broom. Now you, too, can own your very own Chinese-made, bicycle-powered roller coaster.

And maybe the real reason 700 million dollar man Shohei Ohtani left the Angels to sign with the Dodgers is because the Angels wouldn’t let him have a bike.

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Chag sameach!

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

Safety crackdown in Mission Viejo, Shimano parts may be built by slave labor, and bike book wins non-fiction award

December 8, 2023 / / Comments Off on Safety crackdown in Mission Viejo, Shimano parts may be built by slave labor, and bike book wins non-fiction award

It’s Day 15 of the 9th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive!

Which means there’s just 16 days left to support SoCal’s best source for bike news and advocacy.

Thanks to Phillip Y, Ed R and Christopher T for their generous donations to help keep this site coming your way every day. 

So please, take just a moment to give now!

Pretty please?

And while we’re at it, happy Chanukah to everyone who lit a candle last night.

Chag sameach!

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Days left to launch the California ebike incentive program as promised this fall: 13

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The Orange County Sheriff’s Department will conduct a major bicycle and pedestrian safety enforcement operation in Mission Viejo this weekend, after pedestrian deaths have jumped nearly a third in the county over the past decade.

Which means the usual protocol applies — ride to the letter of the law until you leave the area, so you’re not the one who gets ticketed.

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Shimano is investigating a report from The Telegraph that consumers are buying parts made by virtual slaves in a Malaysian factory.

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The Buddha and the Bee, a book about a 2001 bike ride from Minnesota to California along America’s forgotten highways, has won the 2023 Reader’s Favorite Award for non-fiction.

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‘Tis the Season.

One hundred kids in Victorville, California got new bicycles as part of the 20th annual Doris Davies Memorial Bicycle Giveaway, named for the late civic advocate who founded the program.

Fayetteville, Arkansas’s Bicycle Man Foundation is unexpectedly back in business, a year after the widow of its eponymous founder retired a decade after his death; now the Bicycle Madea, whose own son was a beneficiary of the program, is reviving it and distributing one hundred new bikes to kids in need.

Meanwhile, 60 kids in another Fayetteville, this one in North Carolina, got bikes courtesy of a local insurance company, which gave a new bicycle to every 3rd grader at a Fayetteville elementary school.

And if you’re looking for the perfect holiday gift, you could do a lot worse than an autographed copy of Seattle Bike Blog editor Tom Fucoloro’s new book, Biking Uphill in the Rain: The Story of Seattle from behind the Handlebars.

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Local 

Agoura Hills received a half-million dollars in state funding to complete an 11-mile bike lane through the West LA County city, which will eventually be part of a regional bike network.

 

State

Sad news from Marin County, where officials identified the victim of Saturday’s fatal bicycling crash in San Raphael as a 70-year old randonneur who was well known in the area; he was on a 124-mile club ride across the county when he apparently fell off his bike while riding over a railroad crossing, and was run over by the driver of a pickup towing a trailer.

Bad news from Sacramento, where a 50-year old man was hospitalized with a “substantial” head injury after he was struck by a hit-and-run driver while riding his bike.

 

National

Fast Company explains why 2023 was the year of the ebike and not the self-driving car.

Colorado Congresswoman and pistol-packing grandma Lauren Boebert is accused of dipping into campaign funds to cheer her boyfriend to a 774th place finish in the prestigious Leadville 100 mountain bike race, a month before they were caught fondling one another during a performance of Beetlejuice in a Denver theater; no word on whether she’s paid back the funds.

Sad news from Buffalo, New York, where friends remember the leader of a local bike club after he was killed in a fire at his home.

The rich get richer, as New York completed yet another Complete Streets project, redesigning dangerous intersections and adding nearly two miles of bike and bus lanes on Third Ave in Manhattan; Streetsblog says the wide bike lane is a good start, but the makeover still devotes too much space to cars.

 

International

Bike Radar explains why you should buy an endurance bike instead of a race bike. Having owned both over the years, I definitely preferred the ride of the former.

Former Ab Fab star Jane Horrocks is one of us, after breaking her wrist and bruising her ribs falling off her bike when she hit a patch of black ice.

Ford says the warning signals on the doors of their new European passenger van will protect bike riders by alerting passengers to their presence. After all, why build safer doors when you can just put warning signs on the deadly ones?

 

Competitive Cycling

Bicycling says it’s a good thing the planned merger of the Jumbo-Visma and Soudal-QuickStep cycling teams fell apart earlier this fall, since it could have resulted in a superteam with too much top talent concentrated in a single team. As usual, read it on Yahoo if the magazine blocks you.

Pez Cycling talks with former pro Jordan Cheyne about what comes after a cycling career, after an unplanned retirement following a crash on a training ride that left him fighting for his life.

Cycling Today remembers climbing specialist Jose-Maria Jimenez, once touted as a successor to Miguel Indurain, 20 years after he died in a Madrid detox clinic.

 

Finally…

Now you, too, can see the bicycle owned by President William McKinley, who was killed by an assassin’s bullet in 1901. That feeling when you make a big impact on your “little” bike.

And a record-setting 80-mile “Look Ma, no hands!”

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

Murder charge in Cervantes hit-and-run, Major Taylor Congressional medal, and bike rider injured in Texas mass shooting

December 7, 2023 / / Comments Off on Murder charge in Cervantes hit-and-run, Major Taylor Congressional medal, and bike rider injured in Texas mass shooting

It’s Day 14 of the 9th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive!

Sadly, there were no donations yesterday. Which means you now have just 17 days left to help keep all the best bike news and advocacy coming your way every day. 

So seriously, stop what you’re doing and give now!

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Murder.

That’s what a 16-year old boy has been charged with after allegedly intentionally running down a bike-riding man in Long Beach last summer.

The teenager, who hasn’t been publicly named due to his age, is charged with killing 29-year old Leobardo Cervantes in a high speed hit-and-run July 9th.

Cervantes was riding at at the intersection of California Ave and Harding Street in Long Beach when he was struck with the boy’s car, who reportedly used it as a weapon to attack Cervantes.

He died from his injuries two weeks later.

There’s no word on why the boy slammed his car into Cervantes bike, or what evidence led investigators to conclude the act was intentional.

However, it follows a series of similar attacks on bicyclists by teenaged drivers stretching from Huntington Beach to Las Vegas.

The driver was arrested in jail, where he was already being held on other charges.

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Days left to launch the California ebike incentive program as promised this fall: 14

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About damn time.

Major Taylor could finally get the recognition he deserved in his lifetime, 92 years after his death.

The Black cycling champ, who dominated the bike racing world at a time when he couldn’t dine or ride in the same train car with the white riders he’d just beaten, could be honored with a posthumous Congressional Gold Medal.

Illinois Congress member Jonathan L. Jackson will introduce a bill today to honor Taylor, which would make him only the second bicyclist to receive one, following America’s only remaining Tour de France winner.

Let’s hope it’s something our severely divided Congress can actually agree on.

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A person riding a bicycle was lucky to survive the country’s latest mass shooting.

Or make that the second-latest, anyway.

The bike rider was wounded as part of a day-long shooting rampage through the streets of Austin, Texas on Tuesday, which resulted in the deaths of four people, and wounded two Austin police officers, in addition to the bicyclist.

Thirty-four-year old Shane James was taken into custody following a police chase after shooting the cop.

No reason was given for the shootings.

But it’s yet another reminder that cars aren’t the only things killing people on our streets.

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Help clean up the Venice Blvd bike lanes next Saturday.

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‘Tis the season.

Men’s Journal recommends “great gift ideas” for bicyclists, including the kind who don’t go anywhere.

For the second time in four years, a kindhearted 13-year old North Carolina boy gave up his own birthday present to buy a new bicycle for a kid’s Christmas present.

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

No bias here. A group of New York demonstrators gathered to demand license plates on ebikes, because someone “almost” got hit by someone riding one. Just wait until they hear about cars, which already have plates and hit a hell of a lot more people — and do far more damage when they do.

A Toronto bike lawyer complains about city officials ignoring mounting traffic violence, while prosecuting bicyclists for speeding in a public park.

A 35-year old English driver was sentenced to life in prison for the vehicular murder of a 23-year old man, after driving up on the sidewalk to kill the victim as he sat on his bike, then responding with a laughing face to a post about the victim’s injuries; he’ll have to serve at least 20 years before he’s eligible for parole. Which will be 20 years too soon.

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

An LAPD officer was reportedly injured when someone riding with a group of bicyclists allegedly shined an “industrial strength laser” at the cop near LA Live in DTLA; no word on the condition of the officer of if any arrests have been made.

A British man has been jailed for riding his bike, after he rode to a probation meeting despite being legally prohibited from using a bicycle or e-scooter, following multiple assaults against women after riding up to them; he’ll serve 11 months behind bars for violating the ban at least twice.

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Expressionist artistic image of corgi riding a bicycle

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Local 

Families are invited to the free Youth Mountain Bike Demo Days at Santa Clarita’s new Trek Bike Park.

A Santa Monica letter writer complains about concrete curb-protected bike lanes, arguing that the white plastic car-tickler bollards are better because they don’t trap riders and debris in the bike lane. On the other hand, they don’t keep cars out, either. 

 

State

San Diego Magazine gets right to the good stuff, with recommendations on where to grab a cold brew after a hot ride. Or a cold ride, for that matter.

The Bay Area’s BART transit system will now allow people with bicycles to carry their bikes on escalators, and use most train cars starting January 1st; bikes are currently banned from all but the last three cars, and riders are forced to carry them up and down stairs.

Oakland will pay a 57-year old man $6.5 million dollars after he suffered spinal and brain injuries when he hit a seam in the pavement as he rode downhill in a new bike lane; Oakland officials were aware of the dangerous conditions after receiving numerous complaints, but chose to ignore it.

 

National

Now that you can send direct messages on Strava, Bicycling offers advice on how to safeguard your inbox. Good advice, since this could turn out to be just another way to harass female riders, as well as others. Read it on AOL this time if the magazine blocks you. 

Cycling Weekly calls Ass Savers new clip-on mudguard the best $27 bike accessory you can buy.

If you build it, the will come. Bicycling rates increased nearly 150% on weekdays and 50% on weekends in just six months after Seattle installed a new two-way semi-protected bike lane, while walking rates nearly doubled.

A new report from a public-private partnership at the University of Washington provides a road map showing how cities can plan for large-scale adoption of cargo ebikes.

Colorado-based mountain bikemaker Guerrilla Gravity has gone out of business, and is liquidating its manufacturing equipment.

A group of Houston bike advocates turned out to urge the city’s next mayor to build more bike lanes, whoever that turns out to be following a runoff election.

That’s more like it. An Ohio man was sentenced to 12 to 17.5 years behind bars for the drunken hit-and-run that killed a 60-year old man as he was riding his bike on the sidewalk. Yes, the sidewalk.

New York repealed a decade-old law that created needless legal barriers to building bike paths, resulting in unnecessary delays.

After riding mountain bikes for the past 20 years, a Blue Ridge Mountain man says he prefers gravel now that he’s getting up there.

A Florida bike shop gave a 40-year old man a new bike after his was destroyed by a hit-and-run driver.

 

International

If you build it, they will come, too. London bicycling rates are up 20% compared to pre-pandemic times, after the city went on a massive bike lane binge.

A pair of Scottish craftsmen are teaming with bikewear brand Endura to recreate the world’s first pedal bicycle.

Four years of the Black Unity Bike Ride brought Brits out to ride for racial justice.

A British website examines the anatomy of the successful Stop Killing Cyclists campaign as a model for other protests.

A new German company is on a mission to make bike cargo trailers cool again.

Bike ridership rates have nearly doubled in Estonia’s capital city over the past year, with bike riders now accounting for nearly ten percent of traffic at some city intersections.

I want to be like him when I grow up. An 89 year old New Zealand man has put over 12,000 miles on his ebike since buying it four years ago. Another reminder of the benefits ebikes can have for elderly people, who might not be able to ride regular bikes. 

 

Competitive Cycling

Former Tour de France winner, admitted doper and successful cycling team leader Bjarne Riis is finally retired from the sport, and is now living in Switzerland and selling heat pumps imported from Lithuania.

Pink Bike and Scott profile four-time National Champ and 2021 Olympic mountain biker Erin Huck, who manages to combine professional cycling with being mother to a young toddler.

 

Finally…

That feeling when you’re banned for doping from seniors tandem racing. If you’re delivering meth on your bike, stop for the damn stop sign, already.

And now we’re getting somewhere. Grand Theft Auto, the video game dedicated to glorifying vehicular violence, now has bike lanes.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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