BikinginLA

Excuse the vernacular, but what the fuck?

One woman was assaulted, three teenaged bicyclists were injured, and a dog was murdered by pantless New Zealand man “known to police for mental health illness.”

According to reports, the series of incidents began when the 49-year old man, who was not publicly identified, attacked a woman on a public street around 7 am with no warning, causing bruising to her face, head and upper body.

And yes, without pants, apparently naked from the waist down.

When a passing Good Samaritan stopped his car and ran out to help, the pantless man jumped in and sped off.

After striking a number of cars, he veered his car into a cycling club on a training ride, striking five teenage victims from behind, and injuring three, one critically. Although it’s not clear if he intentionally struck the bicyclists, or if they just happened to be in his way.

After crashing into the bike club, he approached a woman walking two dogs, grabbed one and strangled it.

He then apparently got back in the heavily damaged car, and drove to a gas station, where he crashed into one of the pumps, and tried to jack another car, but couldn’t start it because the driver had taken the key.

He was finally tased by police and arrested, and booked on 14 separate charges.

The only good news is that no one was killed, and it was not a premeditated attack.

But seriously.

What. The. Fuck.

Image by Joel Fazhari from Pixabay. 

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Los Angeles is apparently preparing to join the parade of cities cracking down on ebikes.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the motion, introduced by Heather Hutt and unindicted City Staffer B, two of the more conservative members of the city council, passed the council’s Rules Committee yesterday.

It asks LADOT to come up with ways to regulate ebikes, because the bills currently under discussion at the state level apparently aren’t good enough. Or maybe they just want to appear to be doing something about the problem before facing voters in two years.

Which would seem to give them enough time to see what the state legislature does this year, but still.

According to the Times,

The motion outlines a number of possible measures including banning the sale of e-bikes, e-motorcyles and electric mopeds that don’t meet legal standards out of the box, banning modifications that can make e-bikes faster and requiring education for riders under 18 or who don’t have a driver’s license. The motion, authored by Councilmembers Heather Hutt and John Lee, also suggested implementing rules for storage and charging to prevent battery fires.

“Banning the conversion of e-bikes to an e-moto will be an important step to preventing injuries,” Hutt’s office said in a statement. “Most importantly we need to ensure children are riding the appropriate vehicle for their age,” including kids staying off e-motos until they are 16 years old.

Although it’s not clear if they can legally go beyond state law by requiring education for riders under 18, while the other measures are already covered by state law, though perhaps not yet explicitly.

The proposal now moves on to the Public Safety Committee, then the full City Council.

Meanwhile, New York City is considering a crackdown on illegal ebikes, too, although the city council’s speaker wants the state to copy New Jersey’s fatally flawed crackdown on anything with a battery.

And Calbike offers a detailed report on why ebikes belong.

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The Los Angeles Times profiles mechanical engineer Marc Papas, who is on a mission to ride every one of the streets in Los Angeles, and is about 80% complete in his goal of covering 7,500-plus miles of public streets.

The bike rides were connecting him to his city in ways he never expected. “I’m not necessarily saying that everybody needs to go out and ride their bikes,” said Papas, though he’d certainly love it if more Angelenos did. Instead, he hopes his biking project is showing people what’s possible — in the most extreme way. Yes, you can bike in Los Angeles, as many Angelenos often do out of necessity. It’s even enjoyable. And yes, you can do it across every single mile of the city, even if the cycling infrastructure isn’t perfect yet. “I think to me, success would be if people just go out and explore their own neighborhood,” he said. He views cycling as a form of civic engagement and a way to see things otherwise invisible when speeding by in a car. For beginners, Papas recommends sticking to bike paths and joining cycling groups. More experienced riders should venture out into new areas, said Papas. “Biking is like a superpower to gain familiarity with your neighborhood, but it just needs to be unleashed.”

It’s worth taking a few minutes to read the whole thing, because maybe it will inspire you to take that turn you always ride past, and discover what’s waiting for you.

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Somehow I missed this earlier, but Streetsblog California is trying to raise ten grand to help close a $125,000 gap left by reduced foundation funding.

They’re among the good guys in the battle for safer streets, so help ’em out by clicking the banner above if you’ve got some extra cash stuffed in the sofa.

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No surprise here, as a new international study finds that cities that continued to bike lanes saw continued growth in bicycling even after the pandemic bike boom.

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Gravel Bike California explains randonneuring, and takes a 200 km — 124 miles — test ride.

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

A Pasadena lawyer says he just doesn’t get the federal government’s war on bicycles, with one DOT spokesperson defending his boss’ defenseless battle against bikes by saying it makes sense “despite the Left’s belief that everyone should ride a bike to their shoebox-sized apartment to eat crickets to achieve a phony climate agenda.” He says he takes offense because he loves his bike, and doesn’t eat crickets. Same here, on both counts.

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

Young ebike riders have caused thousands of dollars in damage to an Oklahoma City golf course, tearing up fairways and greens, as well as breaking things and vandalizing restrooms. Although something tells me those ‘ebikes’ are all e-motos and dirt bikes, maybe with a few illegally hacked formerly legal ebikes.

Organizers of a bike race on Canada’s Prince Edward Island were forced to apologize after some participants blew past fire trucks forming a barricade, and nearly collided with the annual Oyster Festival Parade.

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Local 

Metro is expanding the One Car Challenge countywide for up to 2,000 participants, so you could get paid if you agree to leave one car parked for six weeks to explore other ways of getting around. And yes, one car households are eligible this time around.

Streets For All explains why they bought full page ads in early Democratic primary states South Carolina and Nevada calling out Governor Gavin Newsom for cutting $2 billion from programs supporting public transit, affordable housing, and clean air and water in the new state budget. I understand their anger, but that’s a lot of money that could have been used right here at home.

 

State

San Diego is lowering speed limits on some streets, and could lower limits on 20% of the city’s streets by this time next year.

 

National

Cycling industry advocacy group PeopleForBikes says they’re committed to proving bikes are good for you, mentally and physically.

Bike advocates in Austin, Texas are calling on the University of Texas to reconsider banning bicycles, scooters and other micromobility devices from a large area of the central campus.

A Concord, Massachusetts newspaper digs into the numbers, and finds that crashes involving bicyclists and pedestrians were evenly divided over the last seven-and-a-half years with 38 each, as the city prepares to adopt a new transportation plan.

A Boston public radio station examines what the mayor has learned about bike lanes since one of the city’s transportation planners was killed while riding her bike.

A new protected bike lane connecting New York’s Inwood neighborhood to the Hudson River requires bike riders to cross a busy highway on-ramp and carry their bikes up and down a flight of stairs to preserve 40 precious parking spaces, which the local community seems to value more than the safety of bicyclists. I think we can all look forward to bicyclists slipping down icy steps this winter, if not rain-slicked steps before then. 

A 46-year old Sanford, Florida city employee faces hit-and-run charges after right-hooking a bike rider while driving a park and recreation garbage truck — like a regular a garbage truck, but smaller — killing the victim, then just continuing on her merry way; she was taken into custody after being located by police with the help of a witness.

 

International

Cyclist looks at the year’s best titanium bikes.

A 31-year old Windsor, Ontario man is camping out for 24 hours to become the first person to bike from the Canadian side of the new Gordie Howe International Bridge connecting Windsor to Detroit, Michigan. Although it only seems right that riders should be required to explain who Gordie Howe was as kind of a toll or password before being allowed to use the crossing.

Seriously? Life is cheap in the UK, where a 35-year old van driver walked without a day behind bars for killing a 54-year man riding a bicycle, because he was really, really sorry and had no idea why he hadn’t seen the victim, who was lit up like a Christmas tree in the predawn darkness, describing the crash like he wasn’t responsible for, or even aware of, what happened.

Ireland is adopting the UK’s 21-year old National Standard for Cycle Training and its popular ‘Bikeability’ program for adults, as well as children. We could do a lot worse than offering a similar program here on a volunteer basis.

 

Competitive Cycling

The yellow jersey moved to the third rider in three days, as Swiss cyclist Marlen Reusser powered to victory in Tuesday’s stage 4 time trial at the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, giving her a 14 second lead over Demi Vollering. For anyone who’s not a fan of women’s cycling, when was the last time you saw lead changes like that in the men’s Tour?

Male volunteers are undoubtedly lining up to perform bra checks at the Tour de France Femmes, after bra padding became the latest form of illegal doping by improving aerodynamics in a tuck position.

Cycling News looks at all the yellow cards, fines and other penalties issued to riders in the Femmes Tour, including penalties for illegally tossed bidens and riding on the sidewalk. Although there’s no mention of fines for illegally enhanced bust lines.

Velo looks at how Belgian pro Sandrine Tas transitioned from speed skater to WorldTour cyclist in just six months. Tas follows in the footsteps — or maybe tire tracks — pioneered by siblings Eric and Beth Heiden, who both won Olympic speed skating medals before becoming top pro cyclists back in the 80s. 

Velo also looks at the Tour’s hottest day, as 102° Fahrenheit temps wreak havoc on the peloton.

Finally…

Yes, you can legally bike in your underwear, as long as the naughty bits are covered. And who needs a war over parking spaces, when bike trails could interfere with mule deer crossings?

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

Oh, and fuck Putin.