Tag Archive for Los Angeles

Bike theft season in LA, burning more money on freeway expansion, and shifting power balance with “do-nothing” council

September 13, 2022 / / One comment

Apparently, it’s bike theft season.

Crosstown LA examined the trends, and discovered bicycle thefts tend to spike in Los Angeles during September and October.

According to the site, bike theft has surged in the fall since at least 2015, peaking in October from 2015 to 2019, and September for the past two years.

Bike theft numbers are likely artificially low, as publicly available Los Angeles Police Department data only counts thefts actually reported. Many people may not call police for a missing two-wheeler, either because of time constraints, or because they do not expect doing so will help with recovery.

Still, the annual fall rise in thefts indicates that the increase may be tied to the resumption of school, in particular the return of college students. From Jan. 1, 2015–Aug. 15, 2022, a total of 2,062 bicycles were reported stolen in University Park, where the USC campus is located and where many of its students reside. That is the highest count of any neighborhood in the city of Los Angeles.

The second-highest number of thefts occurred in dense Downtown, followed by Venice, a well-known cycling hub. The fourth-most victimized community in that period was Sawtelle, where many UCLA students live.

It’s worth giving it a quick read to learn how to protect your bike.

Like this, for instance.

Sometimes, the best way to thwart a theft is prevention. Ted Rogers, the editor of the blog BikinginLA and a former board member of the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, said he takes measures to keep his bike safe.

“I’ve been known to walk my bike into stores just so I don’t have to lock it up,” he said. “Never lock your bike to a sign because signs can be unbolted and taken away. Never lock your bike to a small tree because those have been known to be pulled out of the ground.”

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A Streetsblog Twitter thread explains plans by Metro and Caltrans to widen a section of the 405 Freeway through Carson.

We’ve already seen how they might as well just flush the money down the toilet, as other expansion projects — like the $1 billion effort to install HOV lanes through the Sepulveda Pass — have only served to make traffic worse through induced demand.

The money would be far better spent to improve transit, as well as bikeways, to reduce congestion by providing people with viable alternatives to driving.

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A writer for City Watch considers how the Healthy Streets LA ballot proposal alters the balance of power for the “do-nothing” city council.

The Mobility Initiative alters the balance of power.  Now the City Council is not in complete control.  Now it must work with the Initiative’s sponsors.  The City Council and the sponsors both need to consider the voters who will have the opportunity to accept or reject the Mobility Initiative or any other alternative measure cooked up by the City Council.

One of the issues that needs to be addressed is how to pay for the Mobility Plan and the $5 billion needed to repair our streets and sidewalks.  Will this require an increase in our sales tax or a new parcel tax?

Although it should be noted that the Healthy Streets LA ballot proposal requires no additional investment, since it only requires the city to stripe infrastructure called for in the mobility plan when streets are resurfaced, when they would need to be re-striped anyway.

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Finish the Ride wants you to come celebrate Halloween with them in Santa Clarita.

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

More anti-bike sabotage, as someone built a cinderblock wall across a Portland, Oregon bike path, which someone else quickly knocked down.

A Joliet, Illinois man faces charges for a seemingly random attack on a woman riding bikes with her two children, striking her with a plastic pole and repeatedly hitting her after yelling at them to be quiet.

What could possibly go wrong? A seemingly endless line of porta-potties have been installed in an Edinburg, Scotland bike lane to serve people waiting in line to see the queen lying in state. Which puts riders at risk of an entirely different kind of dooring.

More proof that bicyclists face the same risks the world over, as bike riders in Ghana worry about hostile attitudes from drivers, which could “continue to cause fatalities among cyclists and further discourage young people.”

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

Toronto bike cops are called on the carpet for riding through stop signs, setting a bad example for the rest of us.

Police in Glasgow, Scotland are looking for an ebike rider who seriously injured a 55-year old bike rider in a collision; both stopped following the crash, but the ebike rider may have ridden off before learning how seriously the other man was injured.

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Local

A Venice bicyclist pulling a trailer was stopped by another man who insisted the bike was his in an altercation caught on security cam; the second man took the bike after appearing to whack the bike rider with a stick.

Pasadena police will conduct yet another in the seemingly endless series of bicycle and pedestrian safety operations this Friday. As usual, ride to the letter of the law until you cross the city limits so you’re not the one who gets ticketed. 

LA County is investing $15 million in a series of new bike lanes and other street improvements in South Whittier, La Mirada, and Santa Fe Springs

 

State 

A 34-year old repeat offender was arrested by Cal State Fullerton university police for the seventh time on bike theft charges, after they saw through his attempt to disguise himself as a student.

Apparently assuming they’re the only ones who need to get anywhere, residents near San Diego State University’s new Snapdragon Stadium are protesting plans to reduce traffic lanes along portions of Mission Village Drive in order to install protected bike lanes.

Streetsblog looks at the bike treatments currently taking shape in downtown San Jose.

An Oakland website looks at ten road projects underway in the city, including protected bike lanes and road diets.

 

National

Don’t think twice about that odor emanating from your body after a hard ride; NPR says it’s good for you. Thanks to Robert Leone for the link.

More evidence we’re failing the nation’s bicyclists, as The Guardian cites a number of American bike riders who say they are giving up bicycling because they just don’t feel safe on the streets.

Oregon elected officials get out and ride their bikes at Portland’s annual Bike Town Hall. Something we should definitely try to replicate here.

Bikemakers continue to offer seriously overpowered ebikes, as Colorado-based Optibike introduces a bike with the world’s highest power-to-weight ration, and a top speed of 36 mph.

Former Kansas City Chiefs assistant coach Britt Reid pled guilty to the speeding, DUI crash that left a five-year old girl with severe brain injuries, as well as injuring another child; he faces a maximum of four years behind bars.

Sounds familiar. A Kansas City public radio station says the city’s worst intersection is all of them, with too many problematic intersections to fix at once.

Cincinnati bike riders and pedestrians will get a new bridge later this month, connecting multiple trails for the first time.

A Chicago cop could face discipline for running a stop sign and plowing into a bike rider, while traveling without lights and siren.

This is the cost of traffic violence. The head basketball coach of Pennsylvania’s Delaware County Community College was killed in a collision while on a group ride, after police say he lost control of his bike and swerved in front of the driver of an oncoming pickup; he still holds the school record for assists at Coppin State University, where he played in the school’s first NCAA Tournament appearance in 1990.

 

International

Bike Radar offers advice on bicycling while pregnant. 

Bike Biz examines how bike shops can be more inclusive for disabled bike riders.

Another unexpected consequence of the queen’s death, as the introduction of ebikes to London’s bikeshare system — the former Boris Bikes — has been postponed during the mourning period.

Bike riders in Norwich, England are confused by signs closing bike racks during the mourning period, which wouldn’t seem to have anything to do with the queen’s death.

That’s more like it. The UK government has approved a traffic control device allowing Bike Bus chaperones to control traffic signals to improve safety for kids riding their bikes to and from school.

One of South Africa’s largest bicycling organizations is urging riders to wear neon colors during the day, and reflective gear at night. None of which will protect riders from the country’s notorious bike-robbing criminal gangs, however.

Premium bikes are gaining popularity with urban residents in China’s resurgent bicycle kingdom.

 

Competitive Cycling

The owner of the Israel-Premier Tech cycling team is threatening to take UCI to court as his team faces relegation, with two lower-level teams preparing to move up to the WorldTour, while six teams are in danger of moving down.

A San Francisco website looks back at the five-day Mission Crit held in the Mission District September 3rd, billed as “the last great American bike race.”

 

Finally…

In honor of the queen, everyone is expected to drive. That feeling when your gran fondo runs out of food.

And always remember to make eye contact with drivers, even though they may not be able to see you, anyway.

https://twitter.com/EntitledCycling/status/1569007142325354499?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1569007142325354499%7Ctwgr%5E5f5dcccdbd113c544ccd2366ce3f4f14b984d825%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Froad.cc%2Fcontent%2Fnews%2Fcycling-live-blog-12-september-2022-295865

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

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

Bizarrely blaming War on Cars for tax rebate, WeHo drops traffic diverters, and bikemaker accused of cutting his foot off

September 12, 2022 / / 4 comments

No bias here.

A columnist for the Orange County Register bizarrely makes the claim that giving people without cars $1,000 to help cover their transit costs is part of the mythical War on Cars.

As if the new law awaiting Gov. Newsom’s signature somehow does anything to prevent anyone from owning a car if they want one, and can afford it.

Some people might say single occupancy vehicles are a way to get to work and earn a living, enabling the government to collect taxes from paychecks, and also that they transform into quadruple occupancy vehicles that drive people to school, to doctor’s appointments and on trips to spend money at California businesses.

Portantino doesn’t acknowledge any need for a car in his argument in support of his bill. “SB 457 will incentivize mass mode shift toward sustainable transportation by allowing a credit against the ‘net tax’ in the amount of $1,000 for each household with zero registered vehicles,” he said, according to the bill analysis.

And silly me. I thought conservatives were in favor of cutting taxes.

Evidently just not for poor people. Or if it involves cars.

Never mind that the quote above is her entire argument that the tax credits have anything to do with a War on Cars.

Although she seems to think banning the sale of new gas cars by 2035 is somehow equivalent to banning all cars.

Instead, she morphs into complaints about Covid relief payments and buying votes, conveniently forgetting that California law requires rebate checks if tax payments exceed the state’s needs.

But that apparently doesn’t fit her narrative.

Photo by Jonathan Cooper on Pexels.

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It was nice while it lasted.

WeHo’s first attempt at bike-priority street failed, apparently because it was inconvenient of some ressident.

Never mind that you can’t encourage more bike riding by requiring bicyclists to stop every block or two.

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Unbelievable.

Bizarre update to last week’s story about Baphomet Bicycles framebuilder Dillen Maurer losing a foot in a collision with an ATV rider as he rode his bike near his Taos, New Mexico home.

The local sheriff has concluded it never happened, and that Maurer cut his own foot off using a chainsaw. Although that be easy to prove — or disprove — since there would be blood and bone trapped in the chainsaw blade to back up the sheriff’s contention.

If not, he owes Maurer a very public apology.

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Radio host Stephanie Miller is one of us, as is writer and contributor to her show Bob Cesca.

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Ludacris is one of us, too. Or at least can play one in the movies.

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And NASCAR great Dale Earnhardt was one, too.

But only if he could ride backwards while sitting in the handlebars.

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

No bias here. Ebike-riding teens get the blame for bad behavior by La Jolla drivers, as school officials complain about kids riding in a bike lane legally passing stalled traffic, and nearly getting hit by careless drivers who can’t figure out how to use their mirrors.

There’s no excuse for hit-and-run. And not much for being a self-entitled jerk forcing your way through a sea on oncoming bikes, even if they are on the wrong side of the road.

Police in Madison, Wisconsin say the sabotage of bike trails with electronic cords hung at neck height has finally stopped; one man was seriously injured crashing into one on his bike.

No bias here, either. A New York woman was impaled on a fence after she was struck by a driver with 168 traffic violations — yes, 168. The driver blamed bad brakes, while the victim’s daughter somehow blamed a new parking protected bike lane.

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

A bike-riding transient was arrested for allegedly attempting to sexually assault a masseuse at a Pasadena health spa.

An Arkansas man got six years behind bars for fleeing from police on a bicycle while carrying meth and a handgun he was prohibited from possessing as a convicted felon; he was stopped when he was tased by a cop.

A bike-riding South Carolina man was busted for randomly shooting a woman’s SUV with a BB gun.

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Local

A number of tiny homes for homeless veterans at West LA’s Veterans Center were destroyed in a fire evidently started by an overheated lithium ebike battery; 11 units were destroyed, and at least four others damaged.

Palmdale’s Planning Commission adopted a new 23-year update to the city’s General Plan, including plans to develop 20-minute neighborhoods, with increased walkability and bicycle safety.

 

State 

Carlsbad bike riders call on the city to amend a “well intended but misguided” ordinance that requires ebike riders to dismount anytime they come within 50 feet of a pedestrian or equestrian on a pathway less than five feet wide, which in effect forces people to walk more than they ride on some trails.

San Diego’s Park Blvd is getting much needed bus and bike lanes leading to Balboa Park, following a repaving project.

Kindhearted Turlock firefighters bought a new BMX bike for a 14-year old boy after his was trashed when he was struck by a driver.

A Forestville teenager recounts his efforts to save the life of Santa Rosa chef Rob Reyes, who died after crashing into a metal bollard on a bike path during a bike ride with his restaurant staff last month.

 

National

Maui, Hawaii considers age limits and other restrictions on commercial downhill tour operators to address complaints about safety on the island’s Haleakalā volcano.

Aussie cyclist Lachlan Morton raised over $12,000 for his friend, Kenyan pro cyclist Suleiman “Sule” Kangangi, who was killed in the Vermont Overland gravel race, while setting a provisional record for completing the 530-mile Colorado Trail in 3 days 10 hours and 15 minutes.

The chancellor of the City University of New York is one of us, too, spending his weekend mornings on his bike.

Life is cheap in New Jersey, where carelessly killing a 13-year old kid riding a bicycle is only worth a damn traffic ticket.

 

International

Electrek discusses the best ebikes at every price point, starting at just $995 and rising to $6,999.

A London bike theft victim complains the city has to do more to stop the crime, with a bike is stolen even 16 minutes, and just 2.6% of cases resulting in an arrest.

That feeling when you’re not welcome in central London riding a Penney Farthing while dressed in Viking chain mail, complete with traditional Viking weaponry. Apparently bringing up bad memories of the last time the Vikings sacked London in 842.

The manager of the English Premier League’s Manchester United side is also one of us, taking a leisurely ride around Cheshire with his wife after the weekend matches were cancelled following the queen’s death.

That’s more like it. A UK truck driver whose provisional drivers license expired 20 years ago got eight years behind bars for killing bike-riding woman while high on coke.

A British woman recalls riding her bike over an embankment after nearly running over the queen and her corgis, only to find the queen peering over the edge asking if she was alright. The corgis, on the other hand, apparently didn’t give a bark.

A writer for Road Bike Action recommends taking an Irish bike trip back in time.

If you’re going to ride 870 miles from Liège, Belgium to Nice, France in search of a croissant made with “lavender grown on a wide limestone plateau high up in the Côte d’Azur hinterland,” it better be a damn good one.

New Zealand’s Stuff website continues their Better By Bike series with a local transport engineer discussing six myths about bicycling in Christchurch. Virtually all of which you can encounter on a regular basis to disparage bicycling in Los Angeles. The only difference is instead of being told it’s too cold and wet, we’re told it’s too hot and dry. 

 

Competitive Cycling

Remco Evenepoel became the first Belgian to win the Vuelta since 1978, a victory that was all but assured after three-time defending champ Primož Roglič dropped out following a hard crash in stage 16; Evenepoel also avenged his father Patrick, who finished next-to-last in the Vuelta 29 years ago.

Apparently, Evenepoel made the right choice by switching from soccer to cycling.

Belgium celebrated Evenepoel’s victory by illuminating Brussel’s main square in the red color of the Vuelta leader’s jersey.

Meanwhile, Roglič blamed Britain’s Fred Wright for the “unacceptable” crash that forced him out of the race after touching wheels.

 

Finally…

Evidently, Bollywood stardom doesn’t keep you from having to catch a ride home on a rickshaw after getting a flat on your bike. When you’re fleeing from store security on your bike after shoplifting at J.C. Penney’s, try not to crash into a police cruiser as you make your getaway.

And that feeling when you have to turn around and go back home because the queen died.

Thanks to Teotwawki for the link.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

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

Wealthy hit-and-run socialite faces double murder trial, Metro Bikes $1 through September, and Queen was one of us

September 9, 2022 / / Comments Off on Wealthy hit-and-run socialite faces double murder trial, Metro Bikes $1 through September, and Queen was one of us

The wealthy co-founder of the Grossman Burn Center has been ordered to stand trial for murder in the alleged DUI death of two little boys.

Fifty-nine-year old socialite Rebecca Grossman was allegedly speeding at over 70 mph in a 45 mph zone, while driving at just over the legal alcohol limit, when she plowed her SUV into the two boys in a Westlake Village crosswalk two years ago.

The judge refused to drop the murder charges, which stemmed from Grossman’s presumed knowledge that ignoring the speed limit and driving recklessly could result in the death of an innocent person, based on her previous history of speeding violations.

She brutally ran down 11-year-old Mark Iskander and his brother Jacob as they were crossing the street with their family on a skateboard and scooter, respectively, while failing to brake for the children or stop afterwards, until her car shut down a third of a mile away with the air bag deployed.

Grossman is currently free on $2 million bail, and faces 34 years to life if she’s convicted on the murder counts.

Photo from Ekaterina Bolovtsova on Pexels.

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Get a Metro Bike bikeshare membership for just one buck for the rest of this month.

https://twitter.com/BikeMetro/status/1567960186786136071

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Metro is considering plans for bus-only lanes on Sepulveda Blvd north of Ventura Blvd in the San Fernando Valley, which could be used by people on bicycles, as well.

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As Tolstoy makes clear, it’s never too late to learn to ride a bike.

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Who needs carbon wheels when you can ride wood, instead?

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

Oh, please. A writer for Forbes makes the case for vehicular cycling, without using the term, arguing that protected bike lanes increase risk for people on bicycles, while using Forester as her primary support. Even though the most comprehensive study to date concludes that separated and protected bike lanes are the single biggest factors in improving safety for bike riders in urban environments. 

No bias here. A Colorado TV station writes that a Ford pickup fled the scene after killing a bike rider, only mentioning in passing in the body of the story that the truck even had a driver.

No bias here, either. A South African website makes the case for requiring license plates on bicycles, arguing that “reckless cyclists have as much potential to seriously injure or even kill pedestrians” as motorists do. Which is absurd on the face of it, since motorists kill 1.3 million people worldwide each year, while people on bicycles cause a tiny fraction of that.

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

A British man beat the crap out of a neighbor in a “frenzied attack” that began with a dispute over scuffing the walls of the apartment building’s stairwell by bringing his bike up and down, spattering the victim’s blood over the newly painted hallway.

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Local

The LACBC will host a fundraising ride and party in the the Arts District November 5th, with tickets starting at $100.

Santa Monica is making Vision Zero safety improvements on a 2.5-mile section of Wilshire Blvd, as well as at Ocean Park and Lincoln, and Olympic and 14th; however, there are no bikeways planned for Wilshire. Dammit.

 

State 

Caltrans offered an update on the agency’s progress implementing its new Complete Streets policy.

San Bernardino County Sheriff’s deputies arrested a Yucca Valley man for the July hit-and-run that left two men with major injuries when their tandem bike was rear-ended by the suspect’s car; David Alderson is currently being held on $100,000 bond.

 

National

Great idea. A nonprofit group repurposed Uber’s abandoned bikeshare ebikes by establishing ebike lending libraries in low-income neighborhoods.

More fallout from that horrible article in The Atlantic that called ebikes monstrosities, as a Streetsblog op-ed says it’s not the ebike that’s a monstrosity, it’s car culture.

An environmental writer makes the case for “right-sizing” delivery trucks by replacing them with cargo bikes, but bizarrely concludes most people shouldn’t get one for their personal use.

Ars Technica says the new Urtopia Carbon ebike is what you get when you try to combine an ebike with an iPad.

220 Triathlon examines the best bicycling trousers for a dry and comfortable ride, none of which are remotely suited for your next tri.

Salem, Oregon’s second attempt at a bikeshare system ended in failure, unable to overcome theft and vandalism problems.

Portland bike riders learn the hard way that a separated bike path is still technically a roadway, after a local raceway directed Indycar fans to drive head-on into the path of bicyclists using it.

Like much of the country, Washington State is going the wrong way, with traffic fatalities rising to a 20-year high in the state, including a 26% increase in bike and pedestrian deaths.

There’s a special place in hell for whoever stole the tandem bike an Ohio special needs boy used to ride with his grandmother.

A half dozen MIT students and recent graduates rode their bikes 3,800 miles from DC to San Francisco, teaching STEM classes to kids along the way.

A columnist for the LA Times considers whether New York’s congestion pricing proposal is fair to lower-income drivers, and proposes banning cars entirely as one option that might be fairer.

 

International

A writer for Cycling Tips rides a 17-year old Cannondale for a month to compare how it stacks up to modern technology. Even though a 17-year old isn’t exactly an antique.

Here’s one for your bike bucket list. Or maybe 20, as a European travel insurance comparison site lists the continent’s most Instagrammable bike routes, including this one in Scotland offering challenging climbs and breathtaking scenery.

London’s bikeshare system saw record use this summer, as local residents took advantage of sunny weather to avoid transit strikes and rising fares.

The British woman who got mugged outside a police station when she tried to reclaim her stolen bicycle got it back, thanks to a bighearted scooter shop owner who returned it after buying it off the thief. But her bad luck continued when she had yet another bike stolen in the meantime.

Bianchi has a new flagship road ebike, complete with a more than $5,000 price tag.

Israel is opening a new $7.3 million, 1.3 mile bike tunnel through the Jerusalem mountains, making it the world’s fifth longest.

Incoming Kenya First Lady Racheal Ruto was among the thousands of Kenyons who turned out to pay their respects to Suleiman “Sule” Kangangi, after the influential Black cyclist died in a solo crash during Vermont’s Overland Gravel race.

 

Competitive Cycling

Belgium’s Remco Evenepoel extended his lead in the Vuelta with another stage victory on Thursday, and is now leading Spain’s Enric Mas by two minutes and seven seconds; don’t waste your time looking for an American in the top 50.

However, Evenepoel raised hackles by refusing to sign a kid’s jersey following Thursday’s stage.

https://twitter.com/Eurosport_NL/status/1567532177314791426?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1567532177314791426%7Ctwgr%5E6f968735f9f28f389c7449a61a97deda65ac5f6e%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Froad.cc%2Fcontent%2Fnews%2Fcycling-live-blog-8-september-2022-295787

Italy’s Elisa Longo Borghini overcame a crash to finish second in Thursday’s stage two of the women’s Ceratizit Challenge by La Vuelta, finishing two minutes after Dutch pro Annemiek Van Vleuten.

The Tour of Britain responded to the sudden death of the UK’s Queen Elizabeth by cancelling the remainder of the race, which was set to conclude Sunday on the Isle of Wight, and declaring Spain’s Gonzalo Serrano the winner.

 

Finally…

Repeat after me — if you’re carrying meth, weed and drug paraphernalia on your bike, put a damn light on it. That feeling when there’s no place to park your cargo bike.

And in case there was any doubt, yes, Queen Elizabeth was one of us.

Thanks to Megan Lynch for the heads-up.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

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

Sierra Madre removes bike lane for parking, LA County safety meeting Friday, and 7th Street bike lanes taking shape

September 8, 2022 / / Comments Off on Sierra Madre removes bike lane for parking, LA County safety meeting Friday, and 7th Street bike lanes taking shape

Let’s start today by amplifying a message sent by our old friend John Lloyd to the Pasadena Complete Streets Coalition.

If you know anyone who lives, attends school, works, or bikes in Sierra Madre please help spread the word that the city has removed a portion of the bike lane on eastbound Sierra Madre Blvd. between Grove and Lima, so they could replace parallel parking with angled parking in front of the public library. Mind you the library has ample parking in a lot behind the building, but it’s a few more steps to the front door. They also already have handicapped parking spaces right in front along the library driveway. The city has replaced the bike lane with sharrows that now require a stressful merge into the travel lane with 35mph traffic when the bike lane abruptly ends, and creates an additional hazard from drivers backing out of the angled parking. This creates a danger for drivers and particularly for cyclists. The city has thus created a hazardous and stressful situation for people on bikes. They have traded safety for a couple of unnecessary parking spaces.

I will be giving public comment and asking the city to RESTORE THE LIBRARY BIKE LANE at next week’s city council meeting. I would love it if folks could help spread the word if you know anyone who cares about this issue. They need to know this isn’t okay. Public comments are at the beginning of the meeting and are limited to 3 min each.

  • Where: Sierra Madre City Hall 232 W. Sierra Madre Blvd.
  • When: Tuesday, Sept. 13, 5:30 PM.

By removing the bike lanes, not only has the city increased the risk for people on bicycles, but they’ve also assumed full liability for any bike rider who gets injured there, from this day forward.

Whether or not they intended to.

And I know some damn good lawyers who would be more than happy to make that painfully clear to them.

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Join Streets Are For Everyone, aka SAFE, and Los Angeles County Supervisor Holly Mitchell to discuss street safety in LA County tomorrow night.

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The long awaited 7th Street protected bike lanes are finally taking shape in DTLA.

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The National Safety Council is kicking off a series of Roadway Safety webinars next Tuesday, starting with the author of There Are No Accidents.

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Legendary Hollywood star Humphrey Bogart was one of us, as he talks with the only actor who could ever upstage him, the equally legendary Lauren Bacall.

Or at least he knew the value of posing with a bike and a beautiful woman for a good publicity photo.

https://twitter.com/bicicletasokan/status/1567603722276028416

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

A New Orleans city councilmember responds to the usual complaints from motorists about a new protected bike lane by proposing to make it more dangerous, while a representative of the firefighter’s union is apparently unaware that big, heavy firetrucks are capable of driving over flimsy plastic car-tickler bendy posts.

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

After a cobra bit an Indian man as he was working in the fields, he killed the offending snake by biting it back — then rode his bike home with the dead snake draped over his shoulders.

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Local

Two men reportedly broke into the Raleigh New Company Store in Santa Monica on Monday, stealing six bicycles and e-mountain bikes retailing for approximately $5,000 each; a day earlier, police arrested a 60-year old man for the theft of multiple ebikes locked together near the beach, including one with the AirTag that led to his capture.

South Bay letter writers argue over ebikes, infrastructure and bicycle education in response to a fallen 13-year old ebike rider, with predictable results — including the mistaken comment that ebikes are motorcycles, and require a drivers license. Only throttle-controlled bikes and ebikes capable of traveling over 28 mph require a motorcycle license and helmet.

 

State 

A Cardiff man is still looking for answers, 43 years after a bike rider found his murdered twin brother’s lifeless body on the sand at Torrey Pines State Beach, on what would have been their 15th birthday.

Streetsblog says San Jose has lost its way, retreating to victim blaming and shared responsibility in the face of rising traffic deaths, rather than expanding the bold, Dutch-style, quick-build infrastructure the city pioneered just a few years earlier.

Sad news from Northern California, where a mountain biker was found dead 200 feet below the Downieville Downhill Trail outside of Downieville; the victim’s wife had contacted the local sheriff’s department when he didn’t return home from his ride.

 

National

NACTO, aka the National Association of City Transportation, calls for reforming bike law to decriminalize urban bicycling, after finding current laws disproportionately punish people of color.

Gear Patrol considers the year’s best gravel bikes.

If you’re having trouble unloading your used Peloton bike, it could be because you’re competing with the company’s own efforts to dump their bikes.

It took less than ten minutes for Denver residents to claim the city’s latest round of ebike rebates, as data shows the program really is replacing some car trips.

A Denver couple learns the hard way that insurance companies may bizarrely conclude that ebikes aren’t bicycles, so they don’t have to pay for them.

There’s a special place in hell for whoever stole a 16-year old autistic Texas boy’s bike, but hats off to the bighearted strangers who bought him a new one.

Kansas City bicyclists feared a section of the city’s Longview Lake loop long before a popular father of ten was killed riding his bike there last month.

A retired nurse was killed by an on-duty Burbank, Illinois cop who ran down her bicycle; the officer was placed on administrative duty while the case is under review.

New York’s Central Park Raccoons gather for impromptu nighttime races on anything with two wheels, ebikes excluded.

Take your gravel bike for a run on the 185-mile long Chesapeake & Ohio Cana pathl through DC, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia.

A Mississippi man faces murder charges for shooting his cousin following a heated argument over a fight between their sons about an allegedly stolen bicycle. We’ve said it before — no bicycle is worth taking a life. or losing one.

Tampa Bay bicyclists say the local infrastructure may not be great, but it could be worse.

 

International

An Ontario, Canada First Nation man faces multiple charges in the alleged DUI death of two women as they were riding their bikes on the first nation this past June.

The World Wide Web Foundation is hosting a two-part ride from Oxford, England to CERN in Geneva to raise funds and call attention to their mission to make the internet safe, trusted and empowering for everyone, with the first three-day stage from Oxford to Paris this week; you can donate here. Thanks to Glenn Crider for the heads-up.

A Dutch expat was acquitted of killing a 56-year old pedestrian in the UK after he asked the court why bike riders couldn’t ride 30 mph if drivers are allowed to, concluding that the 23 mph he was actually riding at was an appropriate speed.

Olympic track cycling gold medalist Katie Archibald paid an emotional tribute to her partner Rob Wardell, as the 36-year old Scottish mountain bike champ was laid to rest following his fatal heart attack last month.

 

Competitive Cycling

Colombian Rigoberto Urán claimed Wednesday’s stage 17 of the Vuelta, while Remco Evenepoel was virtually assured of victory when three-time defending champ Primož Roglič withdrew following his hard crash near the finish line of Tuesday’s stage.

Italy’s Elisa Longo Borghini jumped to an early 23 second lead in the five stage Ceratizit Challenge by La Vuelta after the opening time trial, with Demi Vollering and Annemiek van Vleuten close behind.

Cycling News introduces New Zealand’s Corbin Strong, calling the neo-pro the surprise leader of the Tour of Britain.

There’s more than one way to cheat, as a 73-year old man was busted for motor doping at a French hillclimb; officials became suspicious when he finished just three minutes behind his much younger competitors.

VeloNews talks with gravel champ and freshman race director Amanda Nauman as she prepares to launch the inaugural Mammoth Tuff in California’s Eastern Sierras next weekend.

 

Finally…

Your kid’s next balance bike could be sculpted from wood, with an uncomfortable looking bench for a seat. That feeling when Stupid Bike Night isn’t, but it is intentionally weird.

And using your bicycle to break down the door of a mom and pop smoke shop is not an approved use for it.

Then again, ripping your arm open crawling inside isn’t the best idea, either.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

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

Weak justice for fallen Big Orange cyclist, riding in memory of Kenyan cyclist, and more Griffith Park safety improvements

September 7, 2022 / / Comments Off on Weak justice for fallen Big Orange cyclist, riding in memory of Kenyan cyclist, and more Griffith Park safety improvements

Life is cheap in Arizona.

And justice is slow.

According to a Facebook post, Annaleah Dominguez is just now facing sentencing for the stoned-driving death of former Big Orange Cycling club member Rob Dollar outside Phoenix AZ in 2017.

Yes, it’s taken five long years for the Orange County expat to see justice. Dollar had just moved to Gilbert in the weeks prior to the crash, and was in the process of forming an Arizona chapter of the bike club.

He was riding down South Mountain south of the city on October 29th when he was run down by then-19-year old Dominguez, who was reportedly passing another rider on the uphill side as she rounded a curve, and hit Dollar head-on.

He died at the scene. He was just 36.

Police investigators found cannabis outside the car, which Dominguez and her passengers had allegedly discarded after the crash. She reportedly admitted to drinking and smoking weed prior to the Sunday morning collision.

She now faces just one year to three and a half years for negligent homicide in an apparent plea bargain, since there’s no record online of a conviction or guilty plea.

She deserves to serve the max.

Eric Arentsen
13h
ROB DOLLAR

Big Orange member, Rob Dollar, was killed almost five years ago. An impaired driver crossed a double yellow line and took Rob’s life in a head-on accident as he was riding his bike. We encourage those that knew Rob to send a note to the Probation Officer encouraging the stiffest sentence possible. The driver is facing 1 to 3 ½ years in jail for negligent homicide. We hope you will make your voices heard at the sentencing by sending a note today.

Send your email to Diane.Knuepfer@jbazmc.maricopa.gov by September 28 with your thoughts about the sentence and how Rob’s death has impacted your life. Here are some bullet points to get you thinking:

  • How has Rob’s death impacted you? Please build on what Rob meant to you and the community.
  • How has the crime (guilty of negligent homicide) affected your life? If you are a cyclist, have you changed where you ride or how you ride?
  • What are your thoughts regarding the sentence the court should impose on the defendant?

Deadline is Sept 28.

As Jon suggests below, three and a half years doesn’t begin to address the severity of the crime, or the enormity of the loss to Dollar’s friends and family.

Even if it is all she can get in this case.

Photo by Sora Shimazaki from Pexels.

………

Aussie pro Lachlan Morton is riding the 530-mile Colorado Trail in memory of his friend, Kenyan cyclist Suleiman “Sule” Kangangi.

As you’ll recall, Kangangi was killed in a tragic fall ago during Vermont Overland gravel race just ten days ago.

Morton has already raised an additional $7,000 for Kangangi’s wife and children over the $70,000 raised by the crowdfunding campaign before he started his ride Tuesday morning.

Meanwhile, Kenyan Sports Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed credits a conversation with Kangangi for her own keen interest in bicycling, and the country’s potential to develop into a cycling powerhouse.

………

Planning efforts are still ongoing to improve safety in Griffith Park, in addition to the recent closure of Griffith Park Drive.

https://twitter.com/cd4losangeles/status/1567232493417537536

………

Not only is NBA star Kevin Love one of us, he appears to be riding the ebike/sidecar combo we mentioned yesterday, with his dog safely in the passenger seat.

………

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

Virginia Beach VA is ripping out a pilot bike lane after a single year, even though it was the most popular part of the city’s popup safety project.

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

A Manchester, England bike rider is on trial for killing a 56-year old pedestrian, who died eight days after the rider allegedly ran a red light while wearing headphones.

………

Local

At last, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is giving us enough notice of a planned bike and pedestrian safety operation to make a difference, with the crackdown scheduled for September 15th in West Hollywood. The usual protocol applies — ride to the letter of the law until you cross the city limit line, so you’re not the one who gets ticketed. Or just avoid WeHo altogether that day. 

 

State 

Smart Cities Dive offers more details on California’s new $1,000 tax credit for carless low income households.

Queen Maxima of the Netherlands is visiting San Francisco to put a spotlight on bicycling, among other issues; she’ll travel to Texas later in the week.

 

National

A writer for Adventure Journal compares ebikes to snowboards, arguing that any controversy seems to stem from a fear of change, combined with a little arrogance and jealousy.

Cycling Weekly insists ebikes are the future of transportation, despite their  current status as an oddity in the land of the automobile.

Cycling News offers tips on how to increase the resale value of your bike.

A veteran bikepacker is attempting to be the first person to ride the entire 5,900-mile Eastern Divide Trail, billed as the world’s longest offroad trail. As usual, read it on Yahoo if Bicycling blocks you. 

Um, no. A Las Vegas paper bizarrely reports that “police suspect (a bike rider) was hit by a car” Tuesday morning, critically injuring the victim. Except there’s no suspicion about it. They the driver was operating the car that hit the victim — even though they fail to mention that the car even had one.

Baphomet Bicycles framebuilder Dillen Maurer lost a foot in a collision with an ATV rider while riding his bicycle near his Taos, New Mexico home over the long weekend; his left foot was somehow severed a few inches over the ankle.

A Denver columnist asks if people can live with ebikes on Colorado bike trails.

As usual, low-income neighborhoods populated by people of color get ignored by city officials, as residents of Chicago’s Far South Side complain about a lack of any bike infrastructure, let alone the protected bike lanes they want and need.

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu announced a major expansion of the city’s bike lane network, with a goal of putting half of Boston’s population within in three-minute walk of a protected bike lane in just three years — although the initial expansion calls for just 9.4 miles of new bike lanes in the next year.

A Virginia letter writer questions the need for a local bike lane, saying he just returned from Paris where he saw hundreds of bicyclists, but very few bike lanes. Evidently, he also missed the news about the major expansion of separated bike lanes in the City of Lights, with plans to make the entire city 100% rideable.

 

International

A contentious London bikeway is exceeding expectations with ridership up 37% over 2019, despite the dire predictions of an anti-bike lane counselor. Meanwhile, London will make a trio of separated, pandemic popup bike lanes permanent.

A new study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine shows that regular exercise can help keep you from getting infected with Covid, and reduce the severity if you do get it. Once again, read it on Yahoo if Bicycling blocks you.

Bicycling continues to grow more popular in Belgium’s Flanders region, though the increase in ridership is also accompanied by a jump in bicycling injuries.

A Welsh cycling club discovered the high cost of Brexit when they arrived in Spain for a 600-mile fundraising ride to battle prostate cancer, and were hit with over $8,400 in customs tariffs for their bikes.

King Oyo of Tooro is one of us. King Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV, the reigning Omukama of the Bantu kingdom of Tooro in Uganda, rode a section of the kingdom’s bike race with the peloton to start the competition.

A Kiwi longtail bike commuter complains about the abuse she faces from drivers on a daily basis.

 

Competitive Cycling

Defending Vuelta champ Primož Roglič’s bold effort to reclaim the red leader’s jersey suffered a setback when he fell hard just 300 yards from the finish, as Mads Pedersen took the win in Tuesday’s stage 16; Although Roglič somehow gained eight seconds anyway, and now trails leader Remco Evenepoel by one minute 26 seconds.

Giro winner Jai Hindley nears the end of the Vuelta in tenth place, despite never seriously contending for the red jersey.

Cycling Weekly considers five things they learned from Tuesday’s Vuelta stage, including that Roglič is down, but he may not be out. Although the first test is whether he can even make Wednesday’s start.

That feeling when Piglet, Eeyore and Pooh come out to cheer on the peloton, along with some random monkey.

https://twitter.com/lavuelta/status/1567157430898786306?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1567157430898786306%7Ctwgr%5E652e8f2f59e395df93482e8159d57e3919e9007f%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Froad.cc%2Fcontent%2Fnews%2Fcycling-live-blog-6-september-2022-295735

 

Finally…

Getting down with bike disco. That feeling when your Strava data reveals the location of top secret military bases.

And when you bust out of jail, and refuse to go back unless they let you ride a bike.

https://twitter.com/MarkRid89403375/status/1566909708195303424

Thanks to Megan Lynch for the link.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

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

“Coming out of nowhere” to get right hooked by clueless driver, Streets For All virtual Happy Hour, and classic bike ads

September 6, 2022 / / Comments Off on “Coming out of nowhere” to get right hooked by clueless driver, Streets For All virtual Happy Hour, and classic bike ads

One quick personal note before we get started. 

You may recall an LA Times story from a couple years ago about how my wife and I took in a foster corgi for a homeless man for a few weeks after our corgi died, so he could get into a shelter and get back on his feet.

Those few weeks turned into nearly six months. But in the process, that little dog helped heal three lives. 

Sadly, the corgi — whose owner asked us to keep his name private — died on Friday, after suffering from cancer and doggie dementia. 

He was 15 years old. 

………

SoCal bike writer Peter Flax was the victim of a right hook by a driver who cut in front of him after passing, then claimed he “came out of nowhere;” turning so close Flax actually brushed his shoulder against the moving SUV.

Which serves as yet another reminder that, in the entire history of cars and bikes, no one on a bicycle has ever come out of nowhere. Though it may sometime seems that way to careless and/or distracted drivers.

Click on the tweets below to read the whole thread.

………

Streets For All will host their latest virtual Happy Hour a week from tomorrow, featuring my state assembly member.

Although probably not just because he’s my assembly member.

………

Your periodic reminder that bike advertising was so much better back in the day.

………

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

No bias here. A writer for Vice responds to last week’s anti-ebike screed in The Atlantic by saying the lack of appropriate infrastructure for ebikes is making bicycling worse, and that we have an ebike problem that more ebikes won’t solve.

A DC bike rider was hit in the face with a metal water bottle thrown by a road raging driver, who then reversed into him and tried to run him over; fortunately, he escaped with a few bruises.

Former Canadian pro cyclist Marcel Zierfuss was the victim of a road raging driver in Toronto’s contentious High Park; the man started by driving erratically and swearing about entitled cyclists, before swerving towards Zierfuss and finally brake-checking him, leaving Zierfuss with a serious concussion, nose injury and whiplash. Thanks to Megan Lynch for the heads-up. 

An English city painted over a previously existing bike lane because drivers couldn’t manage to avoid a new pedestrian island without swerving into it.

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

Houston police are looking for a man who fled by bicycle after fatally shooting another man following an altercation outside a convenience store.

A bike-riding thief punched a student walking on an Illinois university campus before making off with the victim’s cellphone.

A 20-year old British man fled from police on his bike after showing up late for a court hearing, then hurling abuse at social workers.

………

Local

Long Beach bike riders enjoyed a tour of new murals painted over the weekend as part of The Long Beach Walls and Art Renzei Festival.

 

State 

No news is good news, right?

 

National

Tour de Fat is back in my Colorado hometown after a two-year pandemic layoff.

A Colorado man got 16 years behind bars for his part in an organized bike theft ring that used stolen cars to break into 29 Boulder area bike shops, then shipping the stolen bikes to a Mexican bike shop for resale.

The Chicago Tribune offers photos from Sunday’s Bike the Drive open streets event on the city’s iconic Lake Shore Drive; a growing number of those riders were using ebikes.

Five kids from the Cleveland Boys & Girls Club hopped on new loaner bikes to help a videographer with the local paper finish the last three-tenths of a mile of his century ride — then are shocked when they get to keep the bikes, along with other gear.

They’re one of us. Or maybe four of us, as Kate Hudson and her fiancé Danny Fujikawa, and Sophie Turner and husband Joe Jonas go for separate bike rides in New York.

This is why people keep dying on our streets. After a Pennsylvania driver drifted onto the shoulder of a roadway, critically injuring a 61-year old bike rider, police gave him a pat on the wrist by writing a pair of traffic tickets. As someone noted on Twitter, that could cost the driver tens of dollars.

Hundreds of DC area bike riders turned out to honor a fallen bicyclist at her ghost bike ceremony; the veteran diplomat was killed by a driver while riding in Bethesda, Maryland last month.

 

International

A new book details the world’s largest collection of bicycle derailleurs.

Smart bike helmet maker Lumos has introduced a set of magnetic bike lights that can display red, white and yellow lights, which combine with an app to work as turn signals and brake lights; there’s still a few left at two for $65.

Wired likes Skarper’s new ebike conversion prototype, but questions why someone wouldn’t just buy an entire ebike for the $1,190 price tag. Although we’re getting closer to the Holy Grail of conversion kits, where they’re small enough to toss in a backpack and just clip on as needed.

Hats off to a four-year old Welsh girl, who has raised the equivalent of over $1,100 by riding her bicycle 93 miles over the past six weeks.

Once again, authorities managed to keep an elderly driver on the road until it’s too late, after a 70-year old English man was killed when he was run down on his bike by an 82-year old driver with failing eyesight, who couldn’t manage to read a license plate from ten yards away.

After a Bristol, England woman’s bikes were stolen, she spotted one of them when she went to the police station to file a report — and was mugged by the thief when she tried to reclaim it, even though they were right outside the doors of the cop shop.

Then there’s the Lancaster, England thief who denied stealing a bicycle when he was questioned by the police , but they saw him riding the purloined two wheeler the next day. Oops.

A UK woman says she made her two kids stop riding their bikes after it got too dangerous when officials started removing the pandemic popup bike infrastructure; a British bike advocacy group blames the removal of those bikeways for a drop in bicycling rates.

Good news, as Welsh decathlete Ben Gregory is breathing on his own and slowly coming out of a coma after suffering a fractured neck and skull, and multiple brain hemorrhages when he was struck by a driver in a near-fatal collision while riding his bicycle last month.

No bias here. Stuff says the data is inconclusive on whether Christchurch’s protected bike lanes are improving safety, with four of 13 planned major bikeways in operation — except the data is only inconclusive because it’s based on the entire city, with no specific safety information for the new bike lanes themselves. The website also asks why Christchurch lost its position as New Zealand’s bicycling city, where bikes outnumbered cars on the streets as late as the 1950s.

A drunk driver in Hunan, China could face a charge of intentional murder or injury for the hit-and-run crash where she ran down an ebike rider, then dragged the victim for more than one thousand yards after her clothes got caught on the car’s bumper. We could use a law like that here.

 

Competitive Cycling

Veteran Belgian cyclist Sep Vanmarcke won Baltimore’s inaugural Maryland Bicycle Classic, out-sprinting four other riders who survived a lengthy breakaway; more than 50,000 spectators turned out for a brief glimpse of the riders zooming by, with downhill speeds of up to 45 mph.

Things are getting more interesting in the Vuelta, where Remco Evenepoel is holding on to the red leader’s jersey by one minute 34 seconds over second place Primož Roglič, after the three-time winner shaved over a minute off Evenepoel’s lead in Sunday’s 15th stage.

Now you, too, can own your very own replica of Tadej Pogačar’s Tour de France-winning yellow Colnago V3Rs signed by the cyclist; the current bid is the equivalent of just over $550,000 — yes, over half a million bucks — with the proceeds going to a nonprofit that provides access to education for vulnerable children. Did I mention it’s a replica?

This is what a photo finish looked like in Monday’s Tour of Britain.

https://twitter.com/TourofBritain/status/1566796521865101318?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1566796521865101318%7Ctwgr%5E0a8968b61c05a60715b4656fc6a7d2e8221ac8ea%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Froad.cc%2Fcontent%2Fnews%2Fcycling-live-blog-5-september-2022-295707

 

Finally…

Oddly, advice on how to treat common bike injuries doesn’t involve wrenches, spokes of bike lube. Seriously, who doesn’t need a 153-pound ebike with a sidecar?

And that feeling when a man decides to take up bicycling after a judge bans him from driving for the next year for driving while high.

Even though he couldn’t legally drive in the first place.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

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

California tax credit for carless low-income residents, more on Venice Blvd protected bike lanes, and new Fullerton bike park

September 2, 2022 / / Comments Off on California tax credit for carless low-income residents, more on Venice Blvd protected bike lanes, and new Fullerton bike park

California wants to pay you not to own a car.

Maybe. And sort of.

SB 457 started out as a proposal to refund $2,500 to adult taxpayers who owned fewer cars than they had eligible drivers, rising to $5,000 for a carless couple.

But it was significantly pared back during negotiations in the state legislature, with the final bill giving just a $1,000 tax credit for single-filers earning up to $40,000, and joint-filers making up to $60,000, who live without personal cars.

By tying it to income, and requiring the entire household to be carfree, the legislature significantly weakened the bill, while dramatically reducing the number of eligible households.

Which was probably the point.

In effect, they changed it from a bill to encourage car owners to go carfree, to subsidizing transit use for people who already are; the $1,000 tax credit would nearly cover a full year of unlimited LA Metro passes.

And in this case, the restrictions hit close to home.

While my wife and I would qualify under the income restrictions, her car would keep us from receiving anything, even though I no longer drive.

Under the original bill, I would have qualified by not owning a car, while she wouldn’t have, netting us $2,500 that we won’t be seeing now.

Still, it’s a step in the right direction.

And maybe one day the state will actually incentivize going carfree, and encourage people to take their cars and trucks off our crowded streets, and adopting more healthful forms of transportation.

Both for the person using it, and our society as a whole.

………

Streetsblog offers more details on planned improvements to Venice Blvd on LA’s Westside.

The project will create a continuous 5.1 mile protected bike lane extending east and west from the existing protected bike lanes in Mar Vista, along with a new 2.5 mile bus lane.

Work is projected to begin this November, after public comments and final design work.

………

Orange County has received a $1.175 million grant to develop a new bike park at Craig Regional Park in Fullerton.

https://twitter.com/mikeocbike/status/1565443476342288384

………

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

You’ve got to be kidding. Family members may never know what really happed to a fallen bicyclist, after Denver police detectives didn’t bother to investigate or visit the crash site for five weeks after he was killed. Someone should be fired for that one. Although police unions are very good at keeping bad cops on the payroll these days.

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

The Hollywood Reporter questions whether a former writer/producer for Scrubs and Californication is Hollywood’s most prolific sexual predator, at times using his bicycle to stalk young women; Eric Weinberg is free on $3.25 million bail as he awaits trial on 20 charges of sexual assault, including rape. Seriously, there’s not a pit deep enough.

………

Local

Bicycling catches up with Koreatown bike mechanic Jimmy Lizama, one of the founders of LA’s modern bicycling community. As usual, read it on Yahoo if the magazine blocks you.

Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies are conducting a bike and pedestrian safety operation from 8 am to 10 pm today, cracking down on anyone who commits a violation that could endanger people on foot or two wheels, regardless of who commits it. The usual protocol applies — ride to the letter of the law until you leave the city, so you’re not the one who gets caught.

The East Side Riders continue their exemplary social service this Saturday, providing a free bike repair, helmet distribution and safety class.

 

State 

An eight-year old boy was hospitalized with serious injuries when he was run down by the driver of a pickup as he was riding his bike in Coto de Caza.

San Onofre surfer, artist and board shaper Tyler Warren is starting a petition to ban ebikes from California state parks, somehow assuming that their riders are responsible for littering, while complaining about the “recreational integrity of surfing” being “hopeless degraded” by ebike-riding “kooks and their endless gear fetishes.” Maybe he needs to wear a helmet when he surfs.

 

National

Adventure Cycling is rolling out a dozen two to five day bike routes, each starting in metro areas and with GPS as your guide, for anyone who doesn’t have the time or inclination to tackle a major cross-country ride.

A writer for Slate says carmakers are rolling out electric pickups and SUVs that are just as deadly as their gas-powered counterparts, but there’s still time to change course — presumably before we all get killed.

Tourism site Lonely Planet recommends Seattle’s ten best bike trails, for your next trip to the Emerald City.

Washington state will now have to incorporate Complete Streets principles, and consider the needs of all road users — including pedestrians, bike riders and public transportation users — in any state roadway projects. Let’s hope that works better for them than a similar requirement here in California has so far. 

A Denver magazine offers a tongue-in-cheek beginner’s guide to joining the local bike community, for all the new ebike buyers taking advantage of the city’s rebate program.

A Denver man tracked his AirTag to locate his stolen ebike, and got it back when he interrupted an apparent negotiation over its sale.

A Wyoming woman celebrates road cycling, “where all the senses come into play.”

Bighearted staffers at a Missouri high school dug into their own pockets to buy a new bicycle for a sophomore boy who only made it three days into the school year before his bike was stolen.

That’s more like it. A Cincinnati TV station tells drivers to keep out of bike lanes, and always yield to people on bicycles because of the danger their vehicles pose to more vulnerable road users. I’ll even give them a pass on not bothering to invest the ten seconds it took to find out if their state has a three-foot passing law. Hint: it does.

New York is considering a ban on ebikes and scooters in city public housing projects, in response to a rash of fires from poorly made ebike batteries; Streetsblog says the city could establish a battery swap program to keep residents from charging batteries at home overnight.

You’ve got to be kidding. A New Jersey man had his 19-year conviction overturned for stealing a bicycle from a special needs man and vandalizing it, then swinging a hammer at the victim, because he was apparently too drunk to understand his Miranda rights.

 

International

Cycling Weekly recommends five simple upgrades to get that new bike feeling from a cheap secondhand bike.

We may have entered the post-bike boom period, as English bike ridership has dropped to its lowest level since the country started tracking it seven years ago, with just 2% making all their trips by bike; meanwhile, readers of The Guardian share how safety concerns have driven them off their bikes.

 

Competitive Cycling

Spanish pro Enric Mas says Remco Evenepoel shows no sign of cracking, despite crashing on Thursday’s 12th stage of the Vuelta.

Evenepoel continues to hold a lead of 2 minutes and 41 seconds over 2nd place Primož Roglič, with Mas in 3rd, after Thursday’s 12th stage.

Baltimore is hosting the one-day Maryland Cycling Classic this Sunday, complete with several WorldTour riders and teams.

 

Finally…

That feeling when a mountain bike crash provides creative inspiration for your new commercial project. Or when a one-block bike lane is enough to force a local recall election.

And that feeling when neighborhood NIMBYs somehow feel the need to call for the removal of a temporary bike lane.

Did I mention that it’s just temporary?

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

Category: Morning Links / Tags: ,

Embarrassed to be seen on an ebike, support for Venice Blvd bike lanes, and Sierra Club backs faux-environmentalist

September 1, 2022 / / 2 comments

A quick update before we get started. 

My brother has made it to Kansas a week into his latest cross-country bike ride.

So far, things are running smoothly, despite temperatures in the high 90s. 

……….

No bias here.

A writer for The Atlantic, who clearly doesn’t get it, says ebikes are monstrosities that need to develop an identity of their own, distinct from bicycles and motorbikes.

Never mind that ebikes open up this wild and wonderful world of bicycling we so love to countless people who couldn’t ride a bike before, or would love to ride one again.

Not to mention countless more who use them as a simple and efficient way to get to work or school. Or do their shopping without having to break out the family SUV.

Or own one, even.

But writer Ian Bogost doesn’t see it that way.

But I’ve been trying to live with one, and brother, I’ve got some bad news. These things are freaks. Portraying e-bikes as a simple, obvious, and inevitable evolution of transportation (or even of bicycling) doesn’t fully explain these strange contraptions. The Venicsame was said of Segways, and then of Bird scooters, and both flamed out spectacularly…

Perhaps my e-bike ambivalence comes in part from the bike’s strange social status. An e-bike isn’t cheap—the least expensive ones are about $1,000, and they go up to $5,000 or more. But the symbolic value one receives in exchange is minimal. Spending five large on a conventional bike would get you a status symbol—you’d come off as a cyclist for sure. For that matter, spending that dough on a Vespa would infuse you with an Aperol-tinged Italianate cool. You’d want to be seen arriving on your moped. But I don’t want anybody seeing me on my e-bike. It’s just kind of embarrassing.

Seriously.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but who honestly gives a rat’s rear about the social cachet of your bicycle, unless you are in fact dropping way too much on a high-end roadie designed to make you faster than your little legs and limited skills would otherwise allow?

You know, kind of like an ebike.

But wait, as they say in informercials, there’s more!

Currently, e-bikes are trapped in the weird smear between pathetic, loser bicycles and pitiable, low-end motorbikes. Especially in America, where bike infrastructure is far less developed than in the small, flat nations of Northern Europe that cycling advocates like to exalt as a model, e-bikes have become kind of a nuisance. Walking the streets of New York City, it now feels just as likely that you might get mowed down by an e-bike as a taxicab. Elsewhere, the narrow protected lanes and greenway trails built for human-powered bikes—already littered with stroller-pushers and joggers—don’t quite scale to the new swiftness of e-bikes. The pathways and roads themselves, perhaps already unsafe at bike speed due to uneven pavement and poor maintenance, feel even more dangerous on a not-quite-motorcycle.

So, no one wants ebikes and there’s no market for them, yet they’re as ubiquitous as taxicabs on New York sidewalks.

Sure, that makes sense.

Never mind that ebikes already outsell electric cars and plug-in hybrids combined in the US.

That would seem to refute the argument that there’s no clear market for them. Let alone that anyone other than him is embarrassed to ride one.

Maybe someone could just tell Mr. Bogost that 2012 called, and wants its hot take back.

Then again, maybe he wouldn’t feel so embarrassed if he was riding Mercedes new $5,800 Formula E-inspired ebike.

………

The proposal to expand the protected bike lanes and bus lanes on Venice Blvd seemed to enjoy overwhelming support at yesterday’s virtual meeting, as well as on community surveys.

………

Leave it to our local Sierra Club to get it wrong.

As someone who grew up in Colorado, I’d long seen the Sierra Club as a protector of the native environment.

But it didn’t take long after moving to Los Angeles to realize that the LA/Orange County chapter was mired in form of environmental conservatism unbecoming of local politics. And unwilling to upset the automotive hegemony and single-family home applecart to actually advocate for the change we need to save our city.

Let alone the planet.

Which leads to their endorsement of everyone’s favorite faux-environmentalist and termed-out councilmember, who apparently never met a bike lane he liked, or a NIMBY he didn’t.

My old friend Dr. Michael Cahn seems to sum up the sad situation pretty well.

………

Hats off to the East Side Riders for working to bring an ebike lending library to the South LA area.

Even if a certain writer for The Atlantic would be embarrassed to be seen on one.

………

Beautiful cover art by the late, great French illustrator Jean-Jacques Sempé.

………

More proof you can move anything by bike. Even if it looks like the dog is doing the steering.

………

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

Yet another cord has been strung over a Madison, Wisconsin bike path where it could clothesline an unsuspecting rider; one victim has already been seriously injured crashing into one.

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

A Welsh cabbie has been sentenced to two years behind bars for deliberately running over a road raging bike rider who slapped the hood of his car and called him a fat fuck in a dispute over the man’s driving.

………

Local

What took so long? Ever since a speeding driver blew through a red light and killed five people in Windsor Hills, along with a pregnant woman’s unborn baby, I’ve wondered when they would get around to claiming she wasn’t conscious leading up to the crash.

Streetsblog’s Joe Linton expounds on yesterday’s comment about the Ventura Blvd bike lane plans, questioning why the city is touting it as a bike safety proposal instead of the parking plan it really is.

 

State 

For the second year in a row, Governor Gavin Newsom killed a bill that would have allowed bike riders to treat stop signs as yields; this time he only had to announce plans to veto the bill to get it pulled by its sponsor. Never mind that it’s safely in use in an ever-growing number of cities and states. Maybe we’ll have to call getting ticketed for rolling a stop “getting Gavined.”

Calbike is looking for a full-time executive director, as well as a part-time individual giving manager. Let me know when that last position gets filled; I know a few individuals I’d be happy to give them.

Carlsbad literally put its money where its figurative mouth is, voting to allocate $2 million to confront a bike safety emergency, after bicycle and ebike injuries doubled over the previous year, and two ebike riders were killed there just one week apart; the funding includes half a million dollars to hire four additional traffic enforcement cops. Thanks to Oceanside bike lawyer and BikinginLA sponsor Richard Duquette for the heads-up; the way things our going in San Diego and Orange counties lately, they need a good bike lawyer down there. Or maybe an army of them.

 

National

Cycling Weekly offers a guide to smooth and efficient shifting, and announces their picks for the best bike bells. Wake me when somebody makes a bike bell that sounds like an old submarine klaxon.

ZDNet suggests where to hide an AirTag on your bike so thieves won’t find it. Apparently assuming that bike thieves don’t know how to Google.

A VeloNews podcast talks with mountain bike icon Gary Fisher, who has remained a force in the bike industry through two cultural revolutions.

An Orem, Utah elementary school is raising funds to teach kindergarten kids how to ride bikes, through the All Kids Bike program.

While LA bike riders struggle to get to SoFi Stadium, Houston is building a bike path to get riders safely to and from the NFL’s NRG Stadium; the city hopes to conclude work in time for the annual rodeo and livestock show in March.

A Minnesota bike rider explores John Prine’s “jungles of East St. Paul.” And makes it look pretty damn good in the process.

This is the cost of traffic violence. A Michigan woman was killed by a hit-and-run driver, just moments after she ran out of her house to aid a bike rider who had just been killed by another motorist.

New York is considering an ebike rebate program that could slash prices 50%, up to a retail cost of $2,200.

The husband of an American diplomat killed riding her bike in Maryland has been overwhelmed by the outpouring of support; a crowdfunding campaign has raised nearly $180,000 in just two days to advocate for safer bikeways, more than tripling the original goal.

 

International

The Guardian considers how our language has been colonized by cars, while wondering whether we really want to see the world from a windshield perspective.

Seriously? The Sun questions who was in the right, after a driver plows into a rider practicing stunts on his BMX bike in the middle of a dark street. Is all of the above an option?

No need to cork intersections anymore, with a new device that will let you control the traffic signal for up to 45 seconds at a time.

Road.cc wants to know who drained the color out of road bike tires, and why.

No irony here. A mayoral candidate in Winnipeg, Manitoba had his own bicycle stolen, just 85 minutes after announcing a plan to eliminate bike theft.

There’s a special place in hell for whoever stole a British paramedic’s bike while he was busy saving lives; the victim was riding his bike to save money after the birth of his daughter.

Bike Radar offers ten “weird and wonderful mountain bike throwbacks” from this year’s Malverns Classic in the UK.

 

Competitive Cycling

Aussie Kaden Groves won his first Grand Tour stage in Wednesday’s 11th stage of the Vuelta, while Remco Evenepoel maintained his grip the red leader’s jersey.

Cycling Weekly examines Irish pro Sam Bennett’s return to his winning ways in the opening weekend of the Vuelta.

Over 1,800 riders are expected to turn out for the tenth anniversary of The Rebecca’s Private Idaho gravel race, founded by former cycling great and Idaho native Rebecca Rusch.

 

Finally…

We may have to deal with distracted LA drivers, but at least we don’t have to ride highways smothered in Alfredo sauce. That feeling when Google Maps directs you to bike lanes that don’t exist.

And with hair like that, who needs a helmet?

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

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

Venice bike lane Zoom meeting tonight, Ventura Blvd bike lane plan fails smell test, and cars “social and environmental curse”

August 31, 2022 / / One comment

We mentioned it yesterday.

But it’s worth repeating, as Kent Strumpell reminds us about tonight’s virtual meeting to discuss expanding the bus lanes and protected bike lanes on Venice Blvd in Mar Vista.

Super important!  Virtual meeting for Venice Blvd. bikeway/busway expansion.  The Venice Blvd. Safety and Mobility Project, Wednesday 6:30. Zoom registration and link: https://ladot.lacity.org/venicersvp.

The city needs to see strong support to move this project forward.  It could be transformative, creating LA’s first crosstown protected bikeway.

The plan would expand the bike lanes from National Blvd in the east, to Lincoln Blvd in the west, and provide the Westside’s first safe bike commuter route.

You can learn more from Streetsblog’s report.

Meanwhile, a writer for Patch explains the need for the project, which would serve nearly 47,000 people who live within five minutes of the deadly street.

Venice Boulevard is a part of the City of Los Angeles’s High Injury Network due to a disproportionate number of traffic collisions, according to a statement from LADOT. From 2012 to 2022 there have been 1,203 collisions and 25% of them have involved pedestrians or bicyclists, which is higher than average for Los Angeles. In that same time frame, there have been 58 people who were killed or severely injured in collisions on Venice Boulevard, according to the statement.

………

Maybe the news about bike lanes on Ventura Blvd isn’t as good as it seemed.

A couple comments from Lionel Mares and Joe Linton paint the changes in a different light, describing them parking improvements to encourage more driving, instead of safer bikeways to get people out of their cars.

Let’s hear from Mares first.

I am glad that Ventura Blvd in the San Fernando Valley is getting a ‘Bike Lane’, but the traffic road design by LADOT is awful! The bike lane should be moved closer to the curb (by the sidewalk), and NOT in-between moving cars and parked vehicles!! The LADOT rendering (design) is awful!!

Even Streets For All can agree to this!

I have advocated for and demanded city officials and to Michael Schneider that we need better representation in the San Fernando Valley! We want better and safer Bike Lanes!! I can’t take it anymore! The silence is complicit! We demand better and safer streets for all people including bicyclists!

Linton explains the situation further.

Reimagine Ventura (in CD3, Blumenfield) is a half-mile project that is about adding more car parking – it does a road diet then allocates former car travel lane space to diagonal car parking. It “includes bike lanes” but only in the sense that it just keeps existing unprotected bike lanes. It came out of a parking study that analyzed protected bike lanes, then recommended against them.

Clearly, this isn’t the kind of “improvement” we need.

………

There may be hope yet.

A writer for The Guardian says we’ve reached peak car, and that private motor vehicles — and not just the gas-fueled ones — are thankfully on their way out.

Now if someone will just tell LA’s elected leaders.

The worldwide love affair with the car, which promised consumers convenience, status and freedom, is over. The reality from Hotan to Hull and Lagos to Lahore is that the car is now a social and environmental curse, disconnecting people, eroding public space, fracturing local economies, and generating sprawl and urban decay. With UK temperatures hitting highs of 40C this summer, this reality has become impossible to ignore. Instead of the prospect of speed and cheap mobility, consumers now get soaring costs, climate breakdown and air pollution, the devastation of nature, mounting debt, personal danger and ill health, and the most serious energy crisis in 30 years…

From here on, it looks like death by 1,000 breakdowns for the private car. Just as the coach and horse were pushed out by automobiles 120 years ago, so the car is being steadily evicted from world cities by the authorities or by public revulsion. As thousands of jubilee street parties showed, car-free streets are popular, and the surest and best way to save money, improve health and make cities quieter and more livable. A recent report from the Centre for London shows how low-traffic neighbourhoods, introduced widely during the pandemic to encourage walking and cycling, reduce car use and make roads safer. Wales has slashed the default speed limit on residential roads from 30mph to 20mph.

………

Yes, there’s a smarter way to shop with a bike.

………

The last time I checked, the willful destruction of private property was a crime.

Regardless of who does it, or why.

Thanks to Megan Lynch for the link.

………

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

Vandals took a sledgehammer to bikeshare ebikes in Tulsa, Oklahoma, knocking ten percent of the bikeshare fleet out of commission.

Madison, Wisconsin bicyclists were warned someone is planting booby traps on a busy commuter bike path, after a 52-year old bike rider was clotheslined by an HDMI cable strung across the bikeway at neck height; the cord was replaced two more times after he removed it. This should be charged as attempted murder at the very least, if and when the jerk responsible is caught.

No bias here. A British driver complains about a “militant,” and “self-important” bike rider, because she did the right thing by taking to the center of the lane when she felt unsafe.

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

A 37-year old Visalia, California man was convicted of four counts of premeditated attempted murder for setting a fire at the home of his ex-girlfriend and their two children, as well as her new boyfriend; he rode his BMX bike both to and from the home to set the arson fire. 

Friends mourn the 44-year old Singapore immigrant who was killed in a collision with a hit-and-run bicyclist in New York earlier thus month.

………

Local

Los Angeles County supervisors have ordered unspecified “immediate steps” to slow speeding drivers at La Brea and Slauson, nearly a month after a red light-running driver traveling at an estimated 90 mph killed five people, as well as an infant just two weeks from full term. The supervisors also called for changes in California law to allow automated speed cams, which they could have backed before the bills died in committee during the last two legislative sessions.

Smart Cities looks at the opportunity of LA residents to vote on the Healthy Streets LA ballot proposal in 2024, after the city council declined to adopt it outright, and placed it on the ballot, instead.

A letter writer in The LA Times suggests connecting the Ballona Creek bikeway to the Los Angeles River bike path to create a network of bicycle superhighways, while another complains that cars don’t just go away when streets are closed. Actually, studies show they do, because traffic on nearby streets usually show only marginal increases when roadways or bridges are closed to cars.

 

State 

Sad news from Santa Rosa, where the 52-year old chef of a Mexican restaurant was killed when he crashed into a car-blocking bollard while on a casual bike ride with ten co-workers on a local bike path. Just one more example of a protective measure intended to keep people on bicycles safe actually putting them in greater danger.

Predictably, bicyclists in San Mateo County are complaining that recent road resurfacings using chip-seal are increasing the risk to bike riders, while making some rural roads virtually unridable.

Streetsblog calls on San Francisco voters to keep JFK Drive carfree, after city officials recently made the temporary pandemic closure permanent.

A 31-year old Fairfield man faces 15 to life after a Solano County jury found him guilty of second degree murder and hit-and-run causing injury or death for the drunken, high-speed crash that killed a 52-year-old man riding a bicycle last fall; Nadhir Muftah Ghuzi has been held without bail since his arrest.

UC Davis police are investigating the recent incidents of racist and anti-semitic banners being hung from a bike overpass on the campus.

 

National

Streetsblog considers how to design better cities for the “unseen” bicyclists.

British bike parking and infrastructure company Cyclehoop is launching in the US.

CNN likes the Rad Runner 2, calling it the e-utility bike for everyone.

A Utah thief was caught on security cam video smashing a vehicle through the front of a bike shop, and making off with 50 grand worth of ebikes.

Nice move from nonprofit group Operation Get Out, which gave a new bicycle to every elementary school kid in Uvalde, Texas; the group gave away 800 bicycles, along with helmets, locks, tubes and hundreds of stuffed animals.

Sad news from Chicago, where an unlicensed driver allegedly ran a stop sign, killing a 55-year old man riding a bicycle on Saturday. And yet people somehow complain about scofflaw bike riders, who usually don’t pose a risk to anyone but themselves.

Following the death of a State Department diplomat while riding her bike near DC last week, Fox News reports that two women who worked for the department were killed in collisions on their bikes in just over a month; both were in their 40s.

 

International

Canadian Cycling Magazine writes about the absurd heights people go to so they can drive their massively oversized trucks, which threaten the lives of everyone else on the road.

You’ve got to be kidding. The BBC has spanked radio host Jeremy Vine for breaching the network’s impartiality rules by voicing his support for London’s Low Traffic Neighborhoods, the equivalent of American Slow Streets.

 

Competitive Cycling

Belgium’s Remco Evenepoel dominated the individual time trial in Tuesday’s stage ten of the Vuelta, gaining another 48 seconds on three-time defending champ Primož Roglič, who looks like he won’t need to worry about defending again next year.

Britain’s Simon Yates was forced to abandon the race after getting infected with Covid-19, the first contender to withdraw due to the virus.

Everything you always wanted to know about the Vuelta a España’s red leader’s jersey but were afraid to ask, including that the maillot rojo was only adopted 12 years ago.

Bummer to take a wrong turn in the Vuelta time trial.

VeloNews reports on the global mourning over fallen Kenyon pro cyclist Suleiman “Sule” Kangangi, who died after a high speed fall during the Vermont Overland gravel race at just 33 years old; Kangangi was called a giant for blazing a trail for African cyclists.

Cycling Weekly looks at the newly formed National Cycling League, questioning whether the competitive crit teams represent the future of cycling, or just another gimmick. We’ll see if they actually begin racing next year, which remains questionable.

A paratriathlete relates how he took his cycling to the next level after losing a leg to cancer in college. For a change, you can read it on AOL if Bicycling blocks you. And yes, AOL is still a thing, evidently. 

 

Finally…

That feeling when your ebike is your favorite photography accessory. But who needs an ebike when you’ve got a jet-powered tricycle?

And that feeling when you tour the world on a tall bike with a rescue dog you just met along the way.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

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

Banning gas cars doesn’t solve car problem, bike lanes on Ventura Blvd, and CA bans parking minimums near transit

August 30, 2022 / / 3 comments

She gets it.

Texas A&M assistant urban planning professor and California native Tara Goddard offers her thoughts on California’s move away from gas-powered vehicles.

But even if you could wave a technological magic wand and solve those problems with EVs today, a bigger concern is whether this focus on personal electric vehicles will monopolize public resources that would be much better spent in other ways: namely, on investments in frequent, reliable public transportation between and within cities and towns, better walking and bicycling infrastructure, and land uses that remove the need to depend on vehicles – however they are powered – for every trip.

The problem with a transportation system that depends heavily on private automobiles is that, even if those automobiles no longer emit the same level of greenhouse gasses, they will continue to contribute to unsustainable and sprawling land use patterns, as well as the longer distances and travel times that are bad for us as individuals and communities.

Meanwhile, readers of The Los Angeles Times say while banning gas cars is great, electric cars are still cars, and car dependency is awful.

………

We could soon see bike lanes on one of the San Fernando Valley’s most iconic streets.

………

LA bike riders have complained about the bike lanes on Venice Blvd for years, ever since they first went in.

And the city hasn’t shown any sign of fixing them yet.

………

The California Senate passed Burbank Assemblymember Laura Friedman’s AB 2097 to eliminate parking minimums near public transit.

Now the question is whether Governor Newsom will sign it.

https://twitter.com/cafedujord/status/1564432960308203520

………

Streetsblog reports LADOT will host a meeting tomorrow to discuss a planned makeover of Venice Blvd on the Westside.

Wednesday 8/31 – From 6:30-8 p.m., LADOT will host a virtual Venice Boulevard Safety and Mobility Project Workshop. On L.A.’s westside, the city is planning new bus lanes (between Inglewood Boulevard and Culver Boulevard) and new protected bike lanes (coupled with existing protected bike lane stretches, the protection would extend from Lincoln Boulevard to La Cienega Boulevard.) Sign up for the virtual workshop at LADOT Zoom page. Also give feedback via LADOT’s online survey. Find Spanish language links also at LADOT’s project page.

………

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

Good question. A London woman asks why some people hate bike riders so much, saying she’s been spat at, abused and run off the road.

Anti-bike sabotage continues in the UK, as someone scattered thumbtacks in an already pretty minimal bike lane.

https://twitter.com/CyclingLawLDN/status/1564152130210086914

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

Green Bay, Wisconsin police are on the lookout for a knife-wielding robber who fled by bicycle after robbing a Quick Mart.

A British Columbia man calls on a hit-and-run bike rider to turn himself in, after the fat tire bicyclist caught the leash of the man’s small dog, crushing it to death and leaving his wife with facial abrasions and a broken nose. Granted, the guy was a jerk and should have stuck around. But allowing your dog run loosely alongside your bike is a recipe for disaster. 

………

Local

Black Lives Matter supporters marched in South LA to demand justice for Dijon Kizzee, who was shot by sheriff’s deputies while running away and after dropping his gun, in what began as a traffic stop for riding salmon, and quickly escalated.

LAist offers an updated guide to biking in the City of Angels. And yes, it’s okay to shed a tear for the bikeshare systems that have bitten the dust.

South Bay bike riders lit up the night with the eighth annual Glow Ride for CF, a sub-seven mile fundraiser to battle cyclist fibrosis founded by a woman who died of the disease after a double lung transplant in 2018.

 

State 

Sad news from Kern County, where a 67-year old man riding a bicycle was killed when he was struck by a truck driver in Wasco Sunday night.

San Francisco Streetsblog says cities need to make protected bike lanes and intersections the default, arguing that continuing to blow off physically protected bike lanes is tantamount to murder.

 

National

No surprise here, as not everyone is a fan of Reno, Nevada’s new popup bike lane network; motorists are driving in the bike lanes, while a business owner complains his sales are down 30% due to the loss of parking. And of course that’s the only possible reason for the decrease in sales, not inflation, higher interest rates or any of the other multitude of problem besetting consumers these days.

They get it. A Wisconsin community radio station talks with local advocates while concluding that streets are for everyone.

A Louisville, Kentucky TV station answers why bike riders don’t need a license to ride in traffic lanes. And with the help of the Bike League, gets it mostly right.

While California continues to delay plans for a fully funded and approved ebike rebate program, Vermont quietly unveiled the nation’s first ebike rebate plan, offering point-of-sale rebates up to $400 on ped-assist ebikes.

She gets it. A Cambridge, Massachusetts letter writer makes a lengthy case in support bike lanes and safe streets, arguing that they benefit everyone, including businesses.

A bicycle stolen in South Carolina was recovered over a thousand miles away in Vermont, thanks to Bike Index’s nationwide stolen bike database. One more reminder to register your bike for free today. 

The father of the US diplomat killed riding her bike in Bethesda, Maryland calls for safety improvements, saying cities need to do more than paint lines and bike symbols on the road.

 

International

A Scottish brewing CEO took a bad fall and shattered his collarbone, after assuring shareholders there was nothing intense or challenging about the mountain bike run he was taking them on, in a forrest his firm bought to preserve for the planet.

Nearly 9,000 people on bicycles took over a German autobahn to call for safer streets on Sunday.

NPR reports many Sri Lankans have turned to their bikes in the face of massive fuel shortages; one man reported his employer bought him a bike to ensure he could get to work. Maybe we need to try that here, since high gas prices didn’t make a dent in driving.

 

Competitive Cycling

Former Irish champ Imogen Cotter returned to bike racing in Belgium Sunday, seven months after she was hit head-on by a driver passing another vehicle while she was training in Italy.

Giro d’Italia winner Jai Hindley concedes that the Vuelta podium may be out of reach, after a steady flow of gradual losses in the early stages.

 

Finally…

That feeling when you think ebikes are cheating, and you like it.

And how about a little unicycle dream to send you on your way?

https://twitter.com/CoolBikeArt1/status/1564346859812012037

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

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