Tag Archive for Metro

Is something rotten in the state of Metro, make Warner Center more bikeable, and help spend OC Measure M funds

June 5, 2025 / / No comments
Day 156 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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To paraphrase the bard, something may be rotten in the state of Metro.

LA Public Press reports that formal complaints filed by Metro Bike operator BTS, aka Bicycle Transit Systems, accuses transit agency officials of violating procurement laws and creating conflicts of interest to favor ride-hailing giant Lyft.

BTS alleges Metro was set to award Lyft a nearly $200 million contract to operate the city’s bikeshare system after illegally structuring the bid to benefit  Lyft.

On May 22, the Metro Board of Directors was set to approve Lyft’s $198 million proposal to operate Metro Bike Share, a countywide rental system of 1,800 public bikes.

But the board removed the scheduled vote from the meeting agenda after BTS alleged in a “protest” letter filed May 14 that a Lyft subcontractor wrote a section of the county’s request for proposals for the Metro Bike Share contract. BTS claims the subcontractor’s involvement could have given the ride-hailing company an unfair advantage. BTS filed a second protest letter on May 20 naming the subcontractor and alleging broader issues with Metro’s procurement process.

It’s possible this is nothing more than a last-ditch effort by BTS and Metro Bike union members to retain the contract they’ve held since 2016.

But if there’s any truth to it, we deserve to know.

And something needs to be done to ensure a level playing field, and guarantee they select the best people for the job.

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Here’s your chance to help make car-centric Warner Center more bikeable and walkable, as Los Angeles moves forward with plans to remake the current office desert.

The city is looking for feedback at the Woodland Hills Farmers Market on June 21st, a short walk or bike ride from the Sherman Way G (Orange) Line Station.

HELP SHAPE THE WARNER CENTER ACTIVE TRANSPORTATION HUB

The Warner Center Active Transportation Hub project supports the transformation of the Warner Center area into an active transportation hub for jobs and housing. Active transportation includes walking, biking, scootering or using a wheelchair – any form of human-powered mobility.

Thanks to everyone who was able to join us at the Open House! If you missed it, check out the meeting presentation online.

ANOTHER OPPORTUNITY TO CONNECT

Visit Our Booth at the Woodland Hills Farmers Market

Saturday, June 21, 2025 | 9 am – 2 pm

5650 Shoup Ave., Woodland Hills, CA 91367

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!

Drop by and tell us

  • What would make you want to walk, bike, or roll more often in Warner Center area?
  • What challenges need to be addressed?
  • Your input will shape future solutions.
CAN’T ATTEND IN PERSON?

Take our 10-minute survey!

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As long as we’re on the subject of public meetings, the Orange County Transportation Authority, aka OCTA, wants to know how you want to spend Measure M transportation funds.

Annual Measure M Hearing set for June 10 to Ensure Accountability of Taxpayer Funds for Transportation

Taxpayer Oversight Committee will hold its 34th public hearing to ensure transportation funding is being delivered as promised to Orange County voters

ORANGE – The Taxpayer Oversight Committee will hold its 34th annual public hearing to ensure that Measure M, the county’s half-cent sales tax for transportation improvements, is being delivered as promised to Orange County voters.

This year’s public hearing is scheduled for:

6 p.m. on Tuesday, June 10, at the Orange County Transportation Authority headquarters, 550 S. Main St. in Orange.

The independent, 11-member oversight committee was formed to monitor OCTA’s use of Measure M funding, approve all changes to the Measure M Transportation Investment Plan, and hold annual public hearings on the expenditure of funds generated by the half-cent sales tax. The original measure was first approved by voters in 1990 and overwhelmingly renewed in 2006.

The renewed Measure M is continuing to fund balanced and sustainable transportation improvements through 2041, estimated to invest approximately $14 billion in all. The voter-approved plan allocates 43% of funds to freeways, 32% to streets and roads, and 25% to transit, and includes two environmental programs focused on preserving natural habitats and improving water quality through stormwater capture systems.

The first Measure M helped fund more than $4 billion worth of transportation improvements. These include enhanced freeways, smoother streets, synchronized traffic signals, improved intersections, and regional Metrolink rail service – which continues to be funded by Measure M.

OCTA remains committed to relieving congestion, maintaining infrastructure, expanding travel choices for seniors and people with disabilities, and protecting the environment.

Measure M also supports projects that reduce travel times, improve safety, and coordinate traffic signal systems across cities.

Those unable to attend the public hearing can submit comments by visiting octa.net/PublicHearing.

All written comments must be submitted by noon on Monday, June 9.

Written comments may be addressed to:

Andrea West
Clerk of the Board
Orange County Transportation Authority
550 South Main Street
P.O. Box 14184
Orange, CA 92683-1584

By phone at (714) 560-5611

Or by email at clerkoffice@octa.net.

For more information about Measure M or the Taxpayer Oversight Committee, visit octa.net/TOC.

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

A San Diego letter writer says the San Diego Association of Governments, aka SANDAG’s, approval of a $27 million Complete Streets project to reconfigure University Ave “proved once again that it is run by a consortium of incompetents.” Because he recently drove to Balboa Park without seeing a single bus in the bus lane, or a bike in the bike lane, which apparently serves as conclusive proof no one ever uses them.

No bias here. An Idaho county judge jerked back the permit for a bike park, just ten days before it was due to open, after the owners had built a network of world-class mountain bike trails on their own dime.

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

A visitor to the Boston suburb of Somerville says they were nearly struck by reckless bike riders three times just trying to cross a street, requiring “evasive maneuvers that would make a Cirque du Soleil performer break a sweat.” Although commenters said having to take a step back isn’t the same as getting hit, and oddly, they’ve never had a problem there.

They’ve got a point. A British bike advocacy group urged Parliament to reconsider a plan for on-the-spot fines equivalent to $677 for bicycling violations in pedestrian zones, arguing that the considerate bike riders are easy to catch, while speedy and/or aggressive anti-social ones will get away scot-free.

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Local 

Caltrans is resurfacing a 20-mile stretch of PCH through the harbor area — likely without building the bike lanes and pedestrian improvements required under the state’s Complete Streets policy — ensuring this stretch of LA’s killer highway will remain that way.

 

State

Thousands of people came out last weekend for Irvine’s second annual CicloIrvine open streets event.

Wrightwood’s Mountain High Resorts will open a new downhill mountain bike park on June 14th.

Sad news from Merced, where a 27-year old man riding a BMX bike was killed by a hit-and-run driver, who later called police to say he had hit “something;” police blamed the victim’s black clothing and a lack of reflectors, saying the driver was unable to see him from behind on the dark street.

West Sacramento is considering a Vision Zero plan with a goal of cutting traffic deaths in half over the next decade. Which is laudable, but half ain’t zero — which is what the “zero” in Vision Zero means. 

 

National

Outside broke out the angle grinder to pick the year’s best bike locks.

A Las Vegas bike shop owner, and former Republican candidate for governor, is working to educate customers about the effects of tariffs that increase the cost of bikes and parts from China, while limiting availability.

A 16-year old Albuquerque, New Mexico boy, the oldest of the four kids charged with fatally running down a Los Alamos scientist in a stolen car as he was biking to work, will remain in custody pending trial after a judge ruled she couldn’t ensure public safety if he was released. No shit.

Ohio will invest nearly $52 million dollars in bike and pedestrian safety projects over the next four years, funding 44 projects in 33 counties.

An unsigned op-ed by “avid cyclists” says Boston’s “willy-nilly installation of bike lanes is the epitome of virtue-signaling,” and that encouraging senior citizens to use bikes as a means of transportation “is tantamount to inviting them to die or suffer serious injuries,” insisting they’re not being hyperbolic. Although it’s worth noting that Boston has an average of seven bicycling deaths per year affecting people of all ages, which makes it seem kinda hyperbolic.

A man and woman were injured when they crashed into a kite string while riding in a bike lane on bridge in Brooklyn, slicing the woman’s hand and forehead, while slitting the man’s throat; the string appeared to be coated in glass like the kind used for kite fighting in South Asian countries. A crowdfunding campaign to help pay the man’s medical bills has raised just over $4,500 of the $15,000 goal.

New York City will impose a 15 mph speed limit on ebike and scooter riders on city streets, forcing people on ebikes, including delivery riders, to go slower than someone on a decent road bike.

An upstate New York man was welcomed back to his Pennsylvania adjacent town after spending the last year riding over 13,000 miles circumnavigating the US, sponsored by the American Cancer Society.

A neighborhood group filed suit to stop Philadelphia from installing cement barriers to protect a bike lane, even though a bike-riding pediatric physician was killed there last year by a driver who drove through the current plastic bollards.

 

International

The dangerous trend of young bike riders popping wheelies and swerving into traffic has spread to the Caribbean’s Cayman Islands, according to a local website.

Irish Customs seized more than 4,000 ebikes worth more than $5.1 million alleged to have been illegally smuggled into the country to avoid European Union duty charges.

An Indian website says bicycling in the coastal state of Goa could be riskier than you think, due to reckless drivers and stray animals.

 

Competitive Cycling

Tragic news from the Tour of Iran, where 21-year old Mustafa Ayyorkun, a two-time Türkiye — formerly Turkey — junior road race champion died four days after suffering a broken neck when he collided with a teammate.

 

Finally…

When you’re carrying a dollar bill and a lottery ticket with a white powdery substance on your bike, don’t ride salmon.

And who wouldn’t want a dart board on your bike?

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

It was World Bicycle Day — but not in LA, OC Bike Coalition says no to Class IV bike lanes, and Metro rides Rail-To-Rail

June 4, 2025 / / 2 comments
Day 155 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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Happy International Corgi Day to all who celebrate.

And seriously, why wouldn’t you?

Photo from 6th Street Bridge during 2023 Heart of LA CicLAvia.

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Yesterday was World Bicycle Day.

Or as it was known here in Los Angeles, Tuesday.

Just one more example of the city not treating us as second-class citizens, because they don’t even give us a passing thought.

Case in point, last month’s Bike to Work Day, which Los Angeles officials observed by ignoring it. And us.

Meanwhile, Zag Daily says it’s a pivotal time for bicycling, which is why World Bicycle Day matters.

Think Global Health says regular bicycling is good for physical, mental and yes, planetary health, but more sustainable urban planning is needed.

An Indian writer penned an ode to the humble bicycle.

In a purely performative move, New York renamed a bicycle tunnel as the “World Bicycle Day Bike Underpass” for one whole day. But at least that was better than LA did. 

The Coachella Valley marked World Bicycle Day by reminding drivers to use caution around people on bicycles.

Then there was this —

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The Orange County Bike Coalition has come out against Class IV protected bike lanes, calling out the “known hazards (they) cause to the riders that use them.”

Like other bicyclists we’ve heard from in San Diego, the OCBC expressed concerns about riders risking injuries by colliding with the raised barriers separating them from traffic.

Although it’s hard to reconcile anecdotal reports of hazards with studies showing they dramatically increase ridership and improve safety for everyone using the roadway.

Let’s hope that’s something researchers will take a look at.

And find a way to both protect riders from drivers, and from the bike lanes themselves.

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Metro is hosting a relaxed, family friendly ride to explore the newly opened segment of the Rail to Rail Active Transportation Corridor in South LA this Sunday.

The three-mile round-trip ride even includes a scheduled snack stop at Granny’s Kitchen Southern Style Soul Food along the way.

Although maybe someone should tell KTLA-5 that it helps to mention what day the ride is in their news reports. 

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Who needs new tires when you’ve got duct tape?

Duct tape fixes everything
byu/Visible-Grass-8805 inJustridingalong

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

Streetsblog takes a look at that off-the-rails Kern County Grand Jury report that criticized spending on Bakersfield bike lanes, concluding, in effect, that it’s too hot and smoggy to ride a bicycle in the summer, so everyone should just stay in their cars.

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

When you’re carrying meth and magic mushrooms, and trying to hide an $1,100 bike behind a bush outside Cheyenne, Wyoming, make sure it’s yours — and doesn’t have an AirTag on it.

Police in Northern Ireland are investigating after a viral video captured an adult riding a bicycle with a child draped over their back, and narrowly avoiding a collision.

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Local 

Los Angeles is narrowing the sidewalk on a 500-foot stretch of Balboa Blvd to make room for more cars — specifically left turn lanes — in a process Streetsblog’s Joe Linton describes as “harmful to city budgets, pedestrians, cyclists, climate, air quality, historic preservation, etc.” After all, who needs sidewalks anyway, right?

Metro’s Adopt-A-bike program is bringing mobility to families impacted by the January firestorms by providing them with free donated bicycles.

Culver City Crossroads offers more information on the CC city council’s unanimous support for extending the Ballona Creek Bike Path.

Santa Monica continues to improve the former quick-build MANGo greenway, and plans to build another on Washington Ave.

 

State

MSN reposted the San Diego Union-Tribune article we linked to yesterday about the California Ebike Incentive Program’s apparently successful third attempt at managing the 128,000 people who attempted to apply for a voucher last week, for everyone who couldn’t see it, like me. And I was even quoted in it.

The AIDS/LifeCycle ride passes through Monterey County on its way to the Central Coast for the last time, with 2,500 people taking part in the final tour.

Palo Alto councilmembers are pushing back against the city’s new bike plan, which calls for bike lanes on major traffic corridors.

This is the cost of traffic violence. Sad news from Stanford, where the president of the campus Democrats was killed when he was struck by a driver while riding an ebike on campus — raising the question of why a university campus even allows drivers to go fast enough to kill someone.

 

National

Sorry not sorry. A writer for Bicycling makes a concerted effort to stop apologizing for the “otherwise self-assured” way she rides. But maybe they should be apologizing for reposting the same damn story that originally appeared in 2017. 

This is the cost of traffic violence, part two. An off-duty Harris County, Texas police sergeant riding a bicycle was killed by a 63-year old man driving a U-Haul truck, in an allegedly drunken hit-and-run.

A Michigan man is building prosthetic limbs from readily available bicycle parts in an effort to help the nine out of ten people worldwide who don’t have access to artificial limbs.

A new campaign ad targets Boston Mayor Michelle Wu over her support for bike lanes, even after she ripped out the protective barriers.

 

International

A European website says bicycle tourism is changing how we see and spend on the continent.

Cyclist recommends the best road bikes — as long as you have a somewhere between the equivalent of $6,700 to $17,300 to spend.

Apparently, crappy bikes aren’t allowed to have great brakes worth more than the bike itself.

A writer for Cycling Weekly says bicyclists have a right to be angry about infrastructure, but it’s not worth fueling a culture war by haranguing people online. I’ve learned through long and painful experience that it’s just not worth engaging with the haters on social media, because it’s an argument no one ever wins.

In what may be the understatement of the year, the owner of Germany’s Canyon Bikes says “it was another challenging year,” after losing the equivalent of more than $43 million last year.

 

Competitive Cycling

Cycling Weekly says Simon Yates proved he’s one of Britain’s best-ever cyclists by winning the Giro, after riding “undercover” until the final weekend.

Mexican media continues to celebrate the success of Isaac del Toro’s second place finish in the Giro, calling it the best ever performance by a cyclist from the country. And marking the 21-year old as someone to watch going forward.

British cycling legend Sir Mark Cavendish will be honored by renaming a raceway in his honor on my ancestral home, where my great-great-great-great grandfather helped bankrupt the local bank.

LA28 announced venues for an accessible 2028 Paralympic Games, with most of the events located in Downtown LA and Exposition Park. Although it’s questionable how competitors and spectators will get to the games when the city isn’t building the bus and bike lanes they promised to make them car free.

 

Finally…

Your new wheels could pay homage to Eddie Van Halen’s Frankenstrat guitar. It’s about damn time a bicycle was portrayed as an upscale, laidback status symbol on TV.

And that feeling when you have to bunnyhop a feline at the finish line.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

WHO promotes bike/walk safety for healthier communities, and gear up for Bike Week events starting today in WeHo

May 13, 2025 / / 2 comments
Day 133 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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She gets it.

Forbes talks with Etienne Krug, director of the World Health Organization (WHO) Department for the Social Determinants of Health, who says walking and bicycling help reduce the risk of the leading causes of premature death, including heart disease, diabetes and cancer, as well as curbing air pollution, reducing traffic congestion and fighting climate change.

But before communities can enjoy the obvious benefits, we’ll have to do something about the surging rate of bicycling and walking deaths. “At least one pedestrian or cyclist is killed on the world’s roads every 2 minutes,” according to Krug.

Which is why WHO is releasing a new toolkit to help make the roads safer to promote walking and bicycling.

Maybe we can find a way to get Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and California Governor Gavin Newsom to read the damn thing.

We can dream, right?

Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay.

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Metro is offering free rides on all Metro trains and buses, as well as Metro Bike and Metro Micro for Thursday’s Bike to Work Day, as well as 30-day Metro Bike memberships for a buck, and half-off one-year memberships.

Metrolink is also offering free rides Thursday for anyone boarding with a bicycle. And the same goes for LADOT’s DASH and Commuter Express buses.

Unfortunately, Metro has given up on the Bike to Work Day pitstops we used to enjoy in those heady pre-pandemic days. But you can still find them in Culver City, Pasadena and Beverly Hills (thanks to Streetsblog for those links). 

And West Hollywood is getting the jump on everyone else by marking Bike Month with a free “pit stop” from 8 to 10 this morning — yes, today — at the northeast corner of Santa Monica Blvd and Hancock Ave, featuring safety lights, refreshments and info on local bike projects.

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Arnold urges us to unite for a pollution-free future.

So that means he got rid of his massive Hummer and Yukon SUVs, right?

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

Bike riders are showing up in force to city council meetings in Hartford, Connecticut to protest a plan to roll back the city’s commitment to building bike lanes if small business owners think they will somehow negatively affect them. Even though the opposite is usually true.

A British man was sentenced to life in prison for deliberately ramming a 22-year old ebike rider not once, but twice to teach him a lesson for “showboating” and popping wheelies, then fleeing the scene and leaving the victim to die alone in the street; although in this case, life means a minimum of 22 years behind bars, which means the 21-year old driver will be at least 43 before he’s eligible to get out.

No bias here. An “irate” British bike rider complained on Reddit about being “sick to death” of finding drivers parked in bike lanes every time he goes out for a ride. Yet the tabloids somehow turned that simple complaint around to complain about “entitled” bike riders hogging the sidewalk.

I'm sick to death of cars parking on cycle lanes. This happens each and every time I ride.
byu/d49k inukbike

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Local 

Streetsblog’s Joe Linton offers photos from, and an open thread about, last weekend’s Beach Streets in Long Beach.

This Saturday, Metro is officially opening the initial phase of the long-awaited Rail-to-Rail multi-use path in South LA, a rail-to-trail conversion between the A Line Slauson Station and the Fairview Heights K Line Station; you can get more information and RSVP here.

Speaking of Metro, they will finally break ground on the long-gestating NoHo to Pasadena Bus Rapid Transit line next month, which, unlike the Vermont BRT line, will include protected bike lanes along Colorado Blvd in Eagle Rock.

 

State

Nothing like describing the California Ebike Incentive Program’s massive failure in the second round of incentives, when the site crashed as soon as it opened, as just a “glitch.”

A Bakersfield judge postponed until July the murder trial of the man accused of the alleged drunken hit-and-run that killed a 30-year old woman riding a bicycle; 27-year old Caleb Nathaniel Rodriguez is also charged with gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, hit and run causing death and driving on a license suspended for DUI.

San Francisco’s new Biking and Rolling Plan promises to connect the city’s bike lanes into a complete network putting everyone in the city within a quarter mile of a bike lane within the next 20 years. Then again, Los Angeles promised the same thing, and you know how that worked out.

 

National

Tragic news from Everett, Washington, where a 13-year old boy riding an ebike was killed when he ran into a braided cable someone had illegally strung between a fence and a post, something his parents say should have never been there in the first place.

The mayor of Spokane, Washington is inviting the public to ride with him on tomorrow’s National Bike to Work Day. Yet somehow, LA’s ostensibly bike-riding mayor isn’t inviting anyone to ride with her, and hasn’t been seen on one since she was elected in 2022. 

Over 200 bike riders have signed up for the 31st annual ride up and over Colorado’s 12,095-foot Independence Pass this Saturday, offering a whopping 2,300 feet of vertical climbing over the short ten-mile distance.

An Iowa man says he saves hundreds of dollars each month by biking to work nearly every day instead of driving. Which oddly still surprises people, even though we keep trying to tell them that.

A man was found dead after becoming separated from his riding companion on a Minnesota river trail; his body was found eight miles away from where he was last seen, and on the other side of the river.

A Minnesota man is on a mission to give 22,000 bike helmets to kids, after he suffered a brain injury when he was 18 after a friend lost control of his car and spun out after a night of partying. So wouldn’t it make more sense to give out car helmets, instead?

University professors in Michigan and Florida are researching perceptions on bicyclist comfort and safety as we “prepare for an e-bike future,” funded by a $610,000 grant from the National Science Foundation. Although they might want to check on that funding, since most bike and pedestrian projects are getting DOGE’d.

A writer for New York Streetsblog is challenging candidates for mayor to ride with him; yesterday he rode with a political novice with 30 years experience riding a bicycle, and a pro-bike, pro-business and pro-police agenda. Although his best qualification may be that he didn’t have a bribery indictment dismissed by federal prosecutors like the city’s current mayor, after — allegedly — promising to cooperate with immigration raids. 

A Florida man was collateral damage when police discovered that a man who had crashed his car into a house had been fatally shot in the chest — then discovered a man on a bicycle had died after being trapped under the car.

 

International

Bicycling examines the case of a former Toronto cop called Canada’s most infamous and prolific bicycle thief, after police raids recovered more than 3,000 bicycles. You’ll have to subscribe to the magazine if you want to read it, though, but you can find the story on Wikipedia.

That’s more like it. A driver in the Cayman Islands was warned he could be prosecuted after he was recorded dangerously passing bicyclists participating in a memorial ride for a fallen bike rider, while driving on the right shoulder of the roadway.

Dublin, Ireland is celebrating Bike Week and Climate Week by telling bike riders to dismount on part of its longest cycle route. Which is kind of a problem for handcyclists and other people who have difficulty walking.

 

Competitive Cycling

A San Diego man will attempt to set four separate world records in a single six-hour ride on the city’s velodrome to raise awareness and funds for the local Parkinson’s community; he’ll attempt to set age group records in 70-74 age group for the farthest distance in six hours, fastest 100 kilometers, fastest 100 miles, and fastest 200 kilometers. They tell me that’s where I’m probably headed in ten to fifteen years. And no, I don’t mean San Diego. Or the velodrome.

 

Finally…

That feeling when you buy a $390 ebike directly from China, and are pleasantly surprised when it doesn’t suck. Your next cargo bike could have a steering wheel over a single tire, with a detachable modular trailer.

And nothing like describing new bikepacking campers using a line from Seinfeld about boobs.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

This town ain’t big enough for anti-bike lane columnists, welcome to Bike Month, and the annual Pasadena Ride of Silence

May 1, 2025 / / No comments
Day 121 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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No bias here.

A columnist for the Los Angeles News Group says the situation on LA streets is best described as a Western, spaghetti or otherwise.

It wouldn’t be about cowboys versus Indians. It wouldn’t be about ranchers versus homesteaders. It wouldn’t be about gold miners versus general store operators.

It would be about drivers versus bicyclists.

“Mister, this road ain’t big enough for both of us” could replace “Eureka” as the official motto of California.

According to writer Susan Shelly, it would pit all those good townsfolk who drive cars, delivery vans, ambulances “and other motor vehicles relied upon for timely transportation,” against a group that “apparently is not in a hurry to get anywhere.”

And the group that is not in a hurry — aka the people on bicycles, joined by transit users — have somehow made it their mission to slow down traffic, something the people who have “to be somewhere quickly” don’t appreciate.

So guess who the bad guys are in this scenario?

Never mind that slowing down traffic improves safety and saves lives for everyone. And it’s not the people on two wheels who are out there killing people like a drunken gunslinger shooting up the town saloon.

She goes on to examine the Measure HLA lawsuit filed by Streetsblog editor Joe Linton over the lack of bike lanes in Metro’s semi-Complete Streets makeover of the Vermont Ave corridor, while misrepresenting the debate over the adoption of the city’s mobility plan in 2015.

There was resistance from some council members to adopting a plan that aimed to slow city traffic on major arteries. But advocates said it was simply “a vision statement” and “an aspirational document.” Bonin said it would “help us get active transportation funds from the state.” Council President Herb Wesson reassuringly told reluctant colleagues, “This is a concept. If you choose to vote on this today, it will not be put in place tomorrow.”

It was actually an LADOT official blindsiding advocates when she described the 2010 Bike Plan — which was subsumed into the mobility plan — as merely “aspirational,” just days after a successful fight to get it approved by the city council, who passed it with unanimous support.

And Wesson’s comment was a reference to the plan’s 20-year timeline, which meant that it would not have to be put in place right away. But that never meant it wouldn’t be put in place at all.

Shelley ends with a return to the lawsuit over the city’s failure to enforce the requirements of Measure HLA on Vermont, after describing the measure as something put on the ballot by “fuming-mad bicyclists.”

And never mentioning that it passed with overwhelming support from a broad spectrum of voters.

The city disputes that it is obligated to make these changes, but meanwhile, Metro, a countywide agency, is removing a traffic lane on Vermont Avenue to build a dedicated bus lane, enraging the bike-lane people and causing the movie to have an exciting but complicated subplot.

In the final scene, everyone realizes there’s no money for any of it, and the drivers win.

It’s not the bus lanes “enraging the bike-lane people,” as Shelley says. The “bike-lane people” I know are all in favor of a dedicated bus lane.

Instead, it’s the fact that Metro isn’t also building the bike lane that’s called for in the mobility plan, and so required by law under the terms of HLA.

It’s also not true that the money isn’t there.

In fact, the Vermont Ave project is budgeted at a whopping $425 million. And it will cost a lot less to install bike lanes now while the whole street is under construction, rather that going back and installing them after this project is finished.

But why let a couple inconvenient facts like that ruin a good metaphorical screed?

Never mind that the drivers are already winning.

But then, the cowboys in the black hats usually do win until just before the hero saves the town and rides off into the sunset, to beat her metaphor like the dead horse it is.

Photo by Ahmet Çığşar from Pexels. Think of it as a metaphorical columnist suffering from windshield bias driving ever more car traffic.

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Welcome to National Bike Month.

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Bike Month also means it’s time for the annual Pasadena Ride of Silence at the Rose Bowl on May 21st to honor fallen bicyclists.

PASADENA, CA, April 28, 2025 – The cycling community of Pasadena invites the public to join in for the annual Ride of Silence on Wednesday, May 21st, at 6 p.m. This solemn event, now in its 23rd year, honors cyclists who have been injured or killed on public roadways and raises awareness about sharing the road safely.

  The Pasadena Ride of Silence will begin at the Rose Bowl in the north end of Lot I, with registration and check-ins beginning at 6:15 p.m., announcements at 6:30 p.m., and white doves from White Dove Release will be sent off individually to honor the cyclists lost during the last year at 6:50 p.m. At 7 p.m., a police escort will lead cyclists en masse on a slow and silent 7-mile route to Pasadena City Hall, where attendees will observe a moment of silence to honor friends and family lost to traffic violence. The ride will finish at the Rose Bowl with free tacos for all registered participants. 

 The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reported that 1,105 cyclists were killed by drivers of motor vehicles in 2022, the highest number ever recorded since the federal government started collecting data in 1975. Experts believe the increase in fatalities is due to several factors: inadequate street designs to include safe lanes for cycling, larger vehicles such as pickups and SUVs, which are deadlier in size and shape, higher horsepower in vehicles, and distracted driving. 

The NHTSA has finalized a new Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard to make automatic emergency braking (AEB), including pedestrian AEB, standard on all passenger cars and light trucks by September 2029. Making this safety feature standard (previously, it was bundled with expensive tech packages) is part of the Department’s National Roadway Safety Strategy to address the crisis of deaths on the roads and hopes to make U.S. roads dramatically safer for drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists alike.

“We ride in silence to honor those we’ve lost, to raise awareness for the safety of all cyclists, and to remind the world that we belong on the road too,” said Thomas Cassidy, Pasadena Ride of Silence organizer. 

………

Yep.

That pretty well sums it up.

………

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

A town in Illinois voted to make things more dangerous by requiring anyone on any type of bicycle to ride single file, reducing visibility of bike riders and encouraging unsafe passing, in a misguided effort to reign in teens on ebikes.

………

Local 

NPR picks up the story of DTLA’s bike-riding, chainsaw-wielding tree assassin, and the effect his crimes had on the local community.

 

State

Calbike says bills creating a quick-build bike lane program and creating a bike highways are likely to end up in the Appropriations Committee’s Suspense File, which could lead to an eventual floor vote, or could just provide a way for opponents to quietly kill them.

Streetsblog argues that the California Ebike Incentive Program needed a win after endless delays and the total disaster of the first round of vouchers, and instead ended up with more egg on their face when the website crashed during yesterday’s second round of voucher applications, leading them to cancel the application window.

A new report analyzing state-by-state bike theft data shows California has the nation’s highest rate of stolen bicycles, almost double that of number two Texas.

Irvine is hosting the Orange County city’s second annual CicloIrvine open streets event this Saturday.

New stats have reignited the debate over the curb protected bike lanes on Coast Highway 101 through Cardiff, as a member of the Encinitas Mobility and Traffic Safety Commission reports the 42 crashes since 2020 represent a 400% increase compared to the 14 years prior; however, the chair of BikeWalk Encinitas says there’s no way to know how many lives may have been saved by the barriers.

Life is cheap in San Diego County, where a woman who killed a 71-year old man riding a bicycle while she was fleeing from the Border Patrol with a car full of undocumented immigrants, and driving at twice the speed limit on the wrong side of the road, was sentenced to just three years and five months behind bars — even though she had faced up to 20 years behind bars.

A new volunteer Bakersfield bike patrol trained by the National Ski Patrol will provide security and help to people in need on the Kern River Bike Path.

A Sacramento letter writer says yes, cops should ticket all those dangerous scofflaw bike riders. Never mind that people in cars, trucks and SUVs pose a much greater risk to everyone.

 

National

A new study published in the journal PLOS One demonstrated that both seniors riding ebikes and regular bikes showed improved cognitive function compared to a non-bicycling control group, while the ebike group had more confidence in completing the assigned rides.

Seattle bike riders protested a dangerous bikeway design where a protected bike lane ends suddenly and dumps riders into dangerous traffic, prompting the city to install temporary barriers to protect riders.

This is the cost of traffic violence. Residents of Pleasant Grove, Utah are remembering a nine-year old boy was killed by a hit-and-run driver as he was just trying to cross the street on his bicycle; police later took a man in his 80s in for questioning.

Women behind bars in Idaho are being trained to repair bicycles to donate to people on the outside, and will get a bicycle upon their release.

Sad news from my ostensibly bike-friendly Colorado hometown, where a longtime local bike advocate and the leader of a weekly no-drop ride was killed when he was struck head-on by a motorcyclist who made an ill-advised pass of another motorbike rider close to a curve.

Indianapolis just opened a new bridge with two-thirds of the surface devoted to bicyclists and pedestrians, and just one lane in each direction for cars.

Maine’s Acadia National Park offers 45 miles of forested scenic gravel roads that are closed to cars.

A Boston TV station examines the city’s “simmering debate” over bike lanes, after the mayor ripped out protective barriers on a number of bike lanes because angry drivers found them inconvenient.

 

International

No surprise here. A new study shows that pedestrians and bicyclists are far more likely to be killed by today’s massive, flat-grilled pickups and SUVs, with a 44% higher fatality risk overall, and 82% higher for children.

Road.cc examines the pros and cons of hiding an AirTag or other electronic trackers on your bike to help find it if it gets stolen.

A slideshow features bizarre bicycle designs the writers didn’t think were possible. Thanks to an anonymous source for the link.

Canada’s Banff National Park is extending a spring and fall ban on cars on a section of the Bow Valley Parkway through the park, after a successful three-year pilot program.

A writer for The Guardian says it’s no wonder BBC broadcaster Jeremy Vine has stopped posting bike cam videos, because the rage directed towards bike riders is off the scale — and comments from politicians deliberately stirring up anger to troll for votes don’t help.

A Scottish website recommends eight of the best bike paths in Glasgow, for your next trip to the land of Bobby Burns.

A Greek travel website recommends riding your bike around the Aegean island of Spetses.

Great idea. Our German correspondent Ralph Durham reports seeing traffic lights with the poles illuminated by LED lights on a visit to Izmir, Turkiye, turning the poles red, yellow and green to match the traffic signal.

Here’s another one for your bike bucket list, as Momentum offers everything you need to know about Japan’s Shimanami Kaidō bike route, calling it a paradise for bicyclists.

 

Competitive Cycling

America’s only remaining Tour de France winner confirmed that he’s running for president of UCI, the umbrella organization in charge of bike racing around the world.

Cyclist recounts the complete history of the Pinarello Dogma, calling it the most dominant race bike in modern cycling history.

 

Finally…

Evidently, a sidewalk-level bike lane without noticeable markings is just a sidewalk. Beating your 75-year old neighbor because of where he put his garbage is not an approved use of an ebike wheel.

And now even shopping cart drivers are out to get us.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

LADOT beats HLA deadline but claims everything is exempt, and Metro/LADOT Universal Basic Mobility months late

April 10, 2025 / / Comments Off on LADOT beats HLA deadline but claims everything is exempt, and Metro/LADOT Universal Basic Mobility months late
Day 100 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

The only surprise is they did it.

Streetsblog’s Joe Linton reports that LADOT made their Wednesday deadline to post a website listing their progress on Measure HLA, as required by the ordinance passed by the voters a year ago with two-thirds support.

But of all the resurfacing projects on all the streets in LA — which sounds like a line from Casablanca — they only managed to list seven lousy projects.

And surprise, surprise, claim they are all exempt from the measure.

Every last one.

According to Linton,

The website lists just seven projects, all of which LADOT claims do not trigger Measure HLA.

The seven projects are:

The website includes no status, no dates for these seven projects. Most are pending; it appears that just one (Roscoe) has been completed.

What’s not on the map? In late 2024, LADOT claimed that three projects had been triggered by HLA: Hollywood, plus Reseda Boulevard and Manchester Boulevard. Reseda and Manchester are absent. The ballot language states that the website shall include completed projects. It’s not clear why they have been omitted.

It seems clear from the obvious foot-dragging, obfuscation and needless delays that LADOT and city leadership have no intention of complying with Measure HLA, and are looking for any excuse they can find to avoid living up to it.

That includes Metro’s Vermont Ave project, where the official consensus seems to “So sue us, already.”

Let’s hope someone takes them up on it.

………

No surprise here, either.

After a successful Phase 1, Phase 2 of Metro and LADOT’s universal basic mobility program has been beset by seemingly endless and unexplained delays.

The second phase of the Metro Mobility Wallet was supposed to launch last year, providing 2,000 low-income residents with $1,800, divided into two equal payments.

The money is intended to be used for any transportation expenses, from paying for bus passes or rideshare, to buying a bicycle. But more than four months later, no one has been able to access a dime on the preloaded debit cards.

It’s possible that the problems lie with the card provider, who is reportedly having problems with another client, as well.

But even if that’s the case, it raises questions of why — like the California Air Resources Board and a seemingly moribund ebike voucher program — they chose a provider who is unable to service the program, raising obvious questions of judgement.

And if not, the questions becomes just who or what the problem is.

………

The defense attorney for Sean Higgins, the driver accused of killing the hockey-playing Gaudreau brothers as they rode their bikes the night before their sister’s New Jersey wedding, wants to have the charges against his client tossed.

Which is pretty much what every defense attorney everywhere wants.

However, his reasoning is that the grand jury wasn’t told the brothers had been drinking before getting on their bikes, and were legally drunk at the time of the crash.

Even though, unlike driving, biking under the influence is perfectly legal in New Jersey.

And even though their drinking had nothing to do with why Higgins was attempting to pass two other drivers on the right, while speeding and over the legal alcohol limit, with two wheels on the shoulder and two on the grass verge when he slammed into the Gaudreau’s bikes.

But other than that, sure.

………

Caltrans is looking for input on a draft plan to remake LA’s killer highway, to make it a little less, uh, murdery.

RELEASE OF PCH MASTER PLAN FEASIBILITY STUDY FOR PUBLIC COMMENT AND UPCOMING MEETINGS

Today, the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) is pleased to announce the release of the draft of the PCH Master Plan Feasibility Study for a 60-day public review period ending on June 09, 2025. The draft Study can be viewed online at bit.ly/3YhpEnP

Caltrans invites members of the public, stakeholders, and any interested individuals to review the Draft Study and leave your thoughts in the comment box provided here or via email to 07-pchmpfs@publicinput.com. When providing comments via email, please include the relevant section title, page number, figure, or table number when applicable to help us accurately locate the part of the document you’re commenting on.

The draft document will be formally unveiled for public comment at a meeting at Malibu City Hall today, Wednesday, April 9, from 5:30 – 8:00 PM. The meeting will also cover two PCH pavement rehabilitation projects in the cities of Santa Monica, Los Angeles and Malibu, which aim to extend the pavement service life and improve ride quality for motorists on PCH from Santa Monica to the Los Angeles/Ventura County line. For those who cannot attend the April 9 meeting in person, two virtual meetings are also planned to discuss the two pavement rehabilitation projects and Draft PCH Master Plan Feasibility Study. Community members are invited to participate in these workshops to learn about the latest updates and provide input.

For more information, please visit the project website or email 
07-pchmpfs@publicinput.com 

………

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

The bikelash is real. A protected bike lane appeared to be the decisive issue in the Grand Junction, Colorado city council race, with all the winning candidates campaigning against it, with the exception of one woman who ran unopposed.

Houston’s mayor backtracked on his anti-bike lane agenda in the face of withering opposition from bike riders, promising to install a dedicated, but non-protected bike lane to replace the protected lane he ripped out, rather than the previously threatened promised sharrows.

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

A 65-year old British woman faces charges for the hit-and-run crash that left a two-year old kid with a permanent scar on his head, after crashing into him as he walked with his mother, while she was illegally riding her ebike on a walking path.

………

Local 

Secret Los Angeles considers the ten most scenic bike trails and routes to explore around the city. Not all of which are all that, you know, scenic.

Streets For All urges support for extending the bus lanes on Lincoln Blvd south from the Santa Monica border to near LAX; the transportation PAC also says a proposal to extend the Ballona Creek Bike Path to the creek’s headwaters is getting closer to reality.

It looks like WeHo bike lanes could be getting a touch of Pantone 349C, aka Hollywood Green, after the city council moved a proposal to paint the city’s bike lanes to the consent calendar to likely be approved at a coming meeting.

 

State

Heartbreaking news, as authorities identified the 13-year old boy killed by a driver while riding his bike in Clovis yesterday, after leaving home without permission and without his helmet.

Mountain Bike Action considers the history and legacy of the Sea Otter Classic, calling it America’s greatest mountain bike event. Although fans of the Iron House Classic and Leadville Trail 100 might beg to differ.

Bay Area businesses, including a local bike shop, complain about the “pain and trauma” inflicted by Trump’s on-again off-again tariffs; meanwhile, a Minneapolis bike shop owner is in “panic mode” over the tariff uncertainty.

 

National

People For Bikes says they’re endorsing the Children’s Bill of Rights in Sport because every kid deserves a safe place to ride.

Portland is adding signage and infrastructure improvements to help support the city’s growing bike bus movement.

Washington State is launching a lottery for the state’s $4 million ebike rebate program, with winners getting a $300 voucher towards the purchase of an ebike, and income-eligible households receiving up to $1,200.

A Minnesota bicycle advocacy group is testing an ebike-to-work pilot program, providing five Duluth businesses with ebikes for seven months for their employees to use.

A Loyola of Chicago student recommends bicycling through the city this spring, saying it turned a 45-minute walk into a pleasant 10-minute ride.

 

International

No bias here. That feeling when a far-right British pol complains about spending for bike lanes no one is using, that everyone is using, while a former Top Gear host says he’s not worried about a dangerous roundabout because he has a car, not a child’s toy.

 

Competitive Cycling

The Redlands Bicycle Classic opened with a time trial at Lake Perris yesterday, followed by a road race today, and a circuit race tomorrow, ending with a downtown crit on Sunday.

 

Finally….

Seriously, I’ve got nothing.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Prosecutor contradicts Magnus White killer’s claim she hadn’t been drinking, and LA approves minimal HLA minimums

April 4, 2025 / / Comments Off on Prosecutor contradicts Magnus White killer’s claim she hadn’t been drinking, and LA approves minimal HLA minimums
Day 94 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

She was drinking before the fatal crash.

Or maybe she wasn’t.

Yeva Smilianska testified on the witness stand Thursday that she was busy working, and so wan’t drinking, the night before she admittedly killed 17-year old US National Team cyclist Magnus White outside Boulder, Colorado.

Her former friend and coworker, Nereida “Neddy” Cooper, testified that Smilianska actually had the night off, and was drinking at the bar they both worked at until it closed. Then they went to her home and shared an open bottle of whiskey until they both went to bed around 6:30 am.

Less than six hours later, Smilianska was standing on the side of the road where White lay dying next to his mangled bicycle.

Her lawyer claims Smilianska isn’t responsible for White’s death because she fell asleep behind the wheel before drifting onto the shoulder. Smilianska told the court she was sleepy but sober at the time of the crash, and police at the scene said she didn’t appear to be intoxicated.

She also says she was unemotional at the scene because she “completely turned off” after seeing White lying behind her.

But prosecutors introduced a pair of text messages Smilianska sent hours after the crash, which she said she didn’t remember.

I don’t think so but we have to remember I was drunk as well. To be honest, when you guys were gone I continued to drink and honestly I don’t even remember how I drove myself home. That’s fucked up.

But anyway the drinks you just told me sound like enough to get drunk…

Nah I’m fine. I’m just scared of myself cos I drove SO drunk I don’t even remember it. My whole way home. I was mad and I really fucked up…

Which kinda makes it seem like she was drinking to me, but I’m not on the jury.

………

The Los Angeles Street Standards Committee approved the proposed minimum standards for street projects impacted by Measure HLA, which requires that the city build out the previously approved mobility plan when streets are resurfaced.

Which matters because the minimum is probably all we can count on from the city these days.

Advocates questioned the use of shared bus/bike lanes where separate bus lanes and painted bike lanes are called for, as well as the city’s failure to define crosswalks for Pedestrian Enhanced Districts.

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times offers a good recap of the debate over whether Measure HLA applies to the Vermont Transit Corridor, explaining both the scope of the Metro project, and the arguments for why HLA does and doesn’t apply to Metro.

Transit advocates argue that the exclusion from the Vermont Avenue project ignores voters’ mandate to follow the mobility plan, which calls for improved bike lanes on that street; Metro and city officials have countered that the measure applied only to the city of Los Angeles — not to the countywide transit agency.

“We don’t think it’s legal,” said Michael Schneider, who heads Streets for All, the advocacy group behind the ballot measure. “HLA is a city measure, and Metro is a county agency, but Vermont is owned by the City of Los Angeles, and the city is working with Metro. They’re permitting it, they’re providing technical expertise, they’re spending staff time and money. This falls under Measure HLA, which requires a bike lane on Vermont.”

However, Metro has threatened to sue if the county agency is required to comply with the city ordinance, arguing that adding bike lanes to the project would delay it five years and require them to acquire additional properties along the route.

Move LA Executive Director Eli Lipmen summed up the whole debate as succinctly as anyone.

Lipmen said that more people will be hurt if Metro does not allow for new protected bike lanes in its plans and hopes there is still time for conversation

“Vermont needs to happen and needs to happen as soon as possible. We cannot delay this project another second,” Lipmen said.

He’s right.

On both counts.

………

A crowdfunding campaign for a Bakersfield mother killed by a pickup driver while riding her bike last month has raised a paltry $700 of the relatively modest $5,000 goal.

……….

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

No bias here. The Sausalito city council turned down a half-million dollar grant to install bike lanes on the most ridden road in Marin County, even though it’s on the city’s High Injury Network and in alignment with city policies, deeming the project “too controversial” thanks to the torches and pitchforks of the “change nothing” crowd.

No bias here, either. The governor of Idaho signed a pair of bills redefining roads as “for the primary benefit of motor vehicles,” while restricting where standalone bike and pedestrian projects can be built, and prohibiting projects that would narrow roadways.

………

Local 

Claremont conditionally approved an ordinance to allow ebikes on the city’s Claremont Hills Wilderness Park trail; it will come back up for a second, final vote on April 22nd.

 

State

San Diego County Crime Stoppers is pulling out all the stops in the hunt for the driver, and the car, who killed an ebike rider in a Clairemont hit-and-run last weekend. Which is exactly how it should be, and exactly what Los Angeles doesn’t do.

She gets it. The head of the Mineta Transportation Institute asks if the convenience of turning right on red is really worth the risk to bike riders and pedestrians.

San Francisco approved plans for a parking-protected bike lane on Oak Street leading to Golden Gate Park, but will divert riders into a park to make room for turning cars.

 

National

People For Bikes considers the effects of Trump’s tariffs on the bike industry — not to mention what you’ll pay for your next bike and parts — with import taxes as high as 46% on Asian nations, where most bicycles are made. Best advice is to buy what you can now, before prices go up and availability goes down.

 

International

Momentum lists the six most bike-friendly North American airports, none of which are LAX. Or any other California airport south of San Francisco.

London’s bicycling and walking commissioner says it would be “extremely unpleasant” to have thousands of bicyclists riding through a newly pedestrianized Oxford Street, but bike riders complain about the “weak and wiggly” alternatives provided for bikes. Although the real news is that London has a bicycling and walking commissioner, unlike a certain SoCal megalopolis we could name. 

British custom framebuilder Feather Cycles is the latest bike brand to bike the dust, as the owner says he could make more money as a food delivery rider.

Stars and Stripes recommends resources for long-distance bicycling through Europe, most of which apply to us non-service members, too.

Around 80 university students are riding nearly 800 miles to Strasbourg, France to call for European Union support for a Serbian anti-graft project to halt corruption in the Balkan nation, as it seeks membership in the 27-nation bloc.

 

Competitive Cycling

The teams competing for this year’s Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift were announced Thursday, including all 15 WorldTour teams, along with seven teams from the ProTour.

Two-time world and Olympic champ Remco Evenepoel is expected to return to racing at Switzerland’s Tour de Romandie at the end of this month, after suffering multiple fractures, dislocated collarbone and bruised lungs when he was doored by a Belgian postal van driver in December.

You know the Lotto cycling team missed the mark when their new team kit is best described as “an explosion in a paint factory.”

Velo will live stream all the races in the USA CRITS series this spring. Which may the only way you’ll see them, since most of the races are in Georgia, and all are in the South other than a single race in Nebraska.

 

Finally….

Seriously, who knows the best bikes better than Brit GQ?  You win some, you lose some, and sometimes you just take a coffee break.

And that feeling when they raised the speed limit, but you could still get ticket for going too fast.

In a bike race.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Gap closure on LA River path through Griffith Park inches closer, and why LA drivers get fatter in slow traffic

March 4, 2025 / / Comments Off on Gap closure on LA River path through Griffith Park inches closer, and why LA drivers get fatter in slow traffic
Day 63 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

Please forgive me for a belated Ramadan Mubarak!

And happy Mardi Gras to all who celebrate. 

Today’s graphic is a rendering from the LA City environmental report for the propose LA River path gap closure. 

………

We could be getting a little closer to closing another gap in the LA River bike path.

Urbanize reports Los Angeles has published an environmental report for a new segment of the bike path, closing a 4,600-foot gap through Griffith Park between Riverside Drive and the Mariposa Bridge.

The plans call for a 12-foot wide paved path, with one lane in each direction and shoulders on either side, next to a 10-foot wide equestrian trail.

But don’t plan on riding it anytime soon.

Los Angeles has punted on previous promises to complete the full LA River path in time for the 2028 Olympics, which is why this one little segment isn’t scheduled for completion until over a year later.

And God only knows when the long missing segment through DTLA and points south will finally get built, with anticipated federal funding now up in the air.

………

A study looks at the relationship between slow traffic and fast food.

The study published in the Journal of Urban Economics shows that Los Angeles drivers who are stuck in traffic are more likely to stop for unhealthy fast food than drivers with less congested commutes.

A new study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, published in the Journal of Urban Economics, examined weekday traffic data from Los Angeles County highways between 2017 and 2019 and compared it with cellphone GPS data tracking customer visits to fast food restaurants in the same county during the same years. They found that when traffic was worse due to unexpected slowdowns, visits to fast food restaurants went up. This effect was especially strong if the traffic delays occurred around evening mealtimes, when drivers were leaving work and probably starting to feel some predinner hunger pangs.

In fact, for every additional 30 seconds delayed in traffic per mile traveled, there was a 1% increase in visits to fast food restaurants.

Just more proof that driving is bad for your health. And your diet.

On the other hand, bike riders are more likely to stop for tacos, based on a nonscientific study of yours truly.

Or maybe donuts.

………

Streetsblog calls out a couple of bike-related public meetings this week.

First up is a virtual update on new bus lanes on Vermont Ave at 6 pm this Thursday; work is starting now, even though the project doesn’t include any accommodation for bicycles, as required under Measure HLA.

Metro will hold the final two community meetings of the current round to discuss the Segment B of the Rail-to-Rail/River Active Transportation Corridor Project, focusing on active transportation improvements on Randolph Street through Bell, Bell Gardens, Huntington Park and Maywood; a virtual meeting will be held Thursday at noon, and a real world meeting in Bell at 10 am Saturday.

………

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

A new British bill intended to crack down on “anti-social cycling” would allow on-the-spot fines equivalent to more than $600 for riding a bike in a pedestrian zone. Although I always thought anti-social cycling was wanting to ride your bike alone. 

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

After a 65-year old salmon cyclist got right hooked by a driver, the victim got a trip to the hospital and a traffic ticket — but oddly, for failing to obey a traffic control device, rather than riding against traffic.

………

Local  

The Palisades resident famous for attempting to escape the January firestorm on his bicycle while carrying two large original paintings, before leaving them with a news reporter, explains why he “unconsciously” grabbed the artwork on his rush out the door.

This time, the rich only got a little richer, as bike-friendly Santa Monica installed a little less than four miles of new and upgraded bike lanes last year, along with 39 new curb extensions, two new crosswalks and 222 repainted ones and new stop signs at key intersections.

 

State

The Kern County coroner identified the 68-year old man killed when a pickup driver slammed into his bicycle Friday evening.

A writer for the Cal Poly student newspaper says San Luis Obispo is doing bike safety right — if students stay there long enough to benefit from it.

More proof that bike lanes aren’t divisive after all, despite the loud angry voices screaming on talk radio and at public meetings, as a Berkeley poll shows that 73% of city residents support expanding bike infrastructure — including 57% who don’t bike and don’t want to.

A San Francisco website says why wait for speed cams, when they can just install more speed bumps?

Bike-riding volunteers are helping to keep people safe on the city’s bike paths, while they enjoy the scenery themselves.

 

National

I want to be like them when I grow up. Bicycling talks with people over 80 about how riding a bicycle helps them think and feel years younger. Although you’ll need a subscription if the magazine blocks you this time.

Nevada could become the next state to adopt a Stop As Yield Law, aka the Idaho Stop Law, to improve safety for people on bicycles. Meanwhile, the California legislature has passed it twice, only to see the bills die on Governor Newsom’s desk. 

Arizona bicyclists held a memorial ride to remember the two people killed and 16 injured in the 2023 Goodyear, Arizona, massacre, led by one of the survivors; driver Pedro Quintana Lujan faces just 12 misdemeanor charges, despite falsely claiming his steering locked up.

The owner of an Albuquerque, New Mexico bike shop received a $50,000 settlement from the city after she sued for wrongful arrest; she got a summons for battery when she attempted to block a combative customer from entering the store after he’d already been thrown out twice.

Sad news from Wisconsin, where a bike-riding couple in their late 50s were killed when they were run down by a 20-year old SUV driver on a rural road not far from their home.

Momentum chats with New York’s Cargo Bike Momma, whose kid-toting SUV has just two wheels.

 

International

A six-year old Scottish boy has successfully made the leap from a balance bike to shredding mountain bike trails better than most adults.

British environmentalists are going to the High Court — equivalent to a US Superior Court — to fight plans for a Coventry bike lane that would require chopping down 26 trees.

An Aussie advocacy group is fighting bad bollards on bike paths.

 

Competitive Cycling

The Pasadena Triathlon returns to the Rose Bowl this Saturday, with a format designed to encourage first-timers.

 

Finally….

Now you, too, can enjoy riding in the rain, just in time for the return of what passes for winter here in LA. Enjoy mountain biking above the Arctic Circle.

And jumping from the saddle to Slovak dancing stardom.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Overregulating ebikes with nonexistent regulations, and neurodivergent Glendale boy now missing after bike ride

February 18, 2025 / / Comments Off on Overregulating ebikes with nonexistent regulations, and neurodivergent Glendale boy now missing after bike ride
Day 49 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

Is the late, great Golden State going too far when it comes to ebikes?

A writer for CleanTechnica makes exactly that case, arguing that California is overregulating ebikes by prohibiting riders from using the sidewalk and banning throttles.

Instead she suggests the real solution is to improve safety by building protected bike lanes and dedicated bike highways, while improving infrastructure to keep cars, fast bikes and pedestrians apart.

In this case, banning e-bikes from sidewalks while not making safe space for riders somewhere else is the thing being pushed. Children who died because an inattentive driver ran them over aren’t going to be made more safe by banning them from having electric assist, and if anything, this punishes victims. Banning throttles doesn’t stop the practice of “ghost pedaling,” and doesn’t stop people from being able to go fast by pedaling at bit in a high assist mode. These “feel good” policies just don’t make much sense.

But, let’s assume for the sake of argument that these policies make any sense. If we want to save that one life, we have to think about all of the lives lost to emissions. If emissions could be reduced, thousands of people could be saved every year from heart disease, respiratory problems, and cancer. Saving a handful of lives that could be saved in some other more narrowly-tailored way at the cost of keeping the emissions murder machine going by discouraging e-bike ownership simply doesn’t make sense!

Where to even begin.

I’m all for better bike infrastructure and improving safety for everyone on our streets.

But there is no statewide effort to ban ebikes from sidewalks. Even if I agree that a bike that can do 20 mph or more with little or no effort shouldn’t be mixing it up with pedestrians, though stopping short of a total ban.

Instead, numerous municipalities have prohibited ebikes from being ridden on sidewalks, which is their privilege under state law, just like they have the option to ban or allow other bikes.

However, they don’t have the legal right to prohibit them from local streets or bike lanes, where they are allowed under state law.

I also haven’t seen any attempt to ban throttles, though I would like to see higher speed, throttle-controlled ebikes reclassified as something between an ebike and an electric motorcycle, akin to a mo-ped.

Cities in California also have the ability to ban ebikes for children under 12, which seems prudent, since many lack the judgement and motor skills to control something that can go up to 20 mph, or often higher.

But so far, the state has been remarkably hands-off in regulating ebikes, for the most part appearing to take a wait-and-see approach to permitting their use.

For better or worse.

Meanwhile, Dutch researchers have concluded that “The debate over the conflicts between fatbikes, mopeds, and bicycles overshadows the real problem: cars get too much space.”

Which is probably something most of us can agree on.

Photo by Max J from Pexels. 

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Police in Glendale are looking for a 12-year old boy with autism and ADHD who went missing on a bicycle ride on Sunday, after he was last seen in the 1600 block of Rock Glen Avenue, near Eagle Rock Plaza.

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Bad news from unincorporated Del Rio, north of Oxnard, California, where a young kid described as just 10 to 13-years old suffered major injuries when he was cut off by a driver while riding his bicycle at an uncontrolled three-way intersection.

He was not wearing a helmet, even though a bike helmet is required for anyone 17 or younger under California law. Which for once actually matters, since he suffered injuries to his head and eye.

………

Metro will host a virtual public meeting this Sunday to consider first mile/last mile connections to the upcoming NoHo to Pasadena Bus Rapid Transit line, or BRT.

Although you’d think they’d know enough not to schedule it during Sunday’s CicLAvia, which they also sponsor.

Here’s how Walk Bike Glendale describes it.

Metro is improving transit across LA County, and we need your help! The North Hollywood to Pasadena Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project will connect Los Angeles, Burbank, Glendale, and Pasadena, improving access to jobs, schools, and other key destinations. As part of this effort, Metro is developing a North Hollywood to Pasadena BRT First/Last Mile Plan, to help connect transit riders to the future BRT stations.

“First/Last Mile” refers to the first and last part of a rider’s journey where riders walk, bike, or roll to or from their nearest transit station or bus stop. Whether you walk, bike, or roll, we want your thoughts on improving safety and convenience around four selected stations.

Your input can shape enhancements like:

  • Street trees and landscaping
  • Sidewalk and crosswalk improvements
  • Lighting, seating, and other amenities
  • Bike lanes and bike parking

What’s Happening?

LA Metro will present draft First/Last Mile recommendations for the streets surrounding the future BRT station at Central Ave/Lexington Dr. We want to hear your feedback!

Date: Sunday, February 23rd, 2025
Time: 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM
Location: Zoom

………

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

No bias here. The New York Post says complaints over drivers blocking fire hydrants have skyrocketed — and somehow finds a way to blame bike lanes for “gobbling up” parking spaces. Rather than blaming scofflaw drivers for, you know, breaking the law. 

No bias here, either. A Welsh city has pulled the plug on plans for a “vital” segregated bike lane after residents complained the $1.8 million project would be the “biggest waste of money.” Because evidently, protecting human lives just isn’t worth what amounts to a piddling sum in most roadway budgets. 

British bike riders lashed out at the “vitriol and lies” being spread about active transportation advocates, after drivers accused the local council of forcing bicycling on communities.

………

Local  

LAist remembers iconic UCLA parking meister Donald Shoup, who died last week at 86, although the parking reforms he fostered will live on in cities and towns around the world.

 

State

This is who we share the road with. Encinitas wants to harden a traffic circle on the Coast Highway near an elementary school to keep speeding drivers off the sidewalk, after averaging over one crash a month for the last 18 months — most involving drunk drivers.

 

National

Mountain bikers in Utah’s Bears Ears National Monument could be required to stick to designated trails and off-road vehicle routes under a new proposal from the Bureau of Land Management. Although with the current federal staff reductions and budget freezes, there may be no one to stop you.

Huh? Police in McKinney, Texas ruled that there was no criminality in the hit-and-run crash that killed a 14-year old boy, after deciding that the driver did stick around, after all. So either the driver was there or wasn’t, which doesn’t seem that hard to figure out.

Bike riders in Jersey City NJ fear a state grant intended to improve bike safety will instead be watered down to favor people in the big, dangerous machines.

I want to be like him when I grow up. A 94-year old man in an Atlanta suburb has earned the name “Bicycle Man” by refurbishing and giving away bicycles for the past 13 years, while riding a bike himself up to his 92nd birthday; his father rode one into his 90s.

 

International

Momentum considers just what cities give up by surrendering to car culture by removing bike lanes.

A British website billing itself as “the ethical choice” says making pedestrians and bike riders wear beacons to alert inattentive drivers to their presence is just driving us to dystopia while threatening both.

This is who we share the road with, too. A 21-year old English man was convicted of murder for intentionally running down an ebike rider, chasing the victim after becoming enraged by his wheelie-popping showboating, just to teach him a lesson. All while appointing himself judge, juror and executioner — literally. 

The rich get richer, as newly bike-friendly Paris is installing “grands feux vélos,” aka traffic lights specifically designed for bicycles, on a major bike route through the heart of the city. It’s also worth remembering that the dramatic transformation of Paris to a 15-minute city promoting bicycling and walking began little more than a decade ago. 

Cops in Spain’s Canary Islands are trying to figure out what happened to a British tourist who was found dead on the side of the road where he had been riding his bicycle, with no evidence he’d been struck by a driver.

More sad news from Spain, where authorities appear to have found the body of American expat Matt Opperman, who disappeared while mountain biking last month; searchers found his van near Castillo de Segura de La Sierra shortly after he vanished, but no sign of Opperman until this week.

A writer for Electrek returns to China’s Bafang factory for the first time in five years, and is surprised to find a massive, modern R&D and manufacturing site that now makes the entire drivetrain for many of the world’s ebikes.

 

Competitive Cycling

Former Tour de France champ Egan Bernal’s hard-fought comeback from a near-fatal training crash is on hold for now, after breaking his collarbone in Andalusia, Spain’s Jaén Paraíso Interior Classic.

Britain’s Geraint Thomas decides to call it a career after this season; the former Tour de France winner and Olympic gold medalist has been racing for nearly two decades.

Finally…

Riding outside trumps indoor cycling, even in winter. That feeling when mountain biking down a volcano is enough to end your thrill-seeking days for good.

And a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it slap at New York ebike riders.

Thanks to Megan Lynch for forwarding the clip. 

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Parking in LA bus lanes will get driver $300 fines starting Monday, and ride to free verse and iambic pentameter Saturday

February 12, 2025 / / Comments Off on Parking in LA bus lanes will get driver $300 fines starting Monday, and ride to free verse and iambic pentameter Saturday
Day 43 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

Start spreading the news.

Streetsblog reports that drivers will now face $293 fines for parking in bus lanes when automated enforcement begins on Monday.

Metro and LADOT have been issuing warnings to drivers for violations captured by bus-mounted cameras for the past three-and-a-half months.

But the free pass is over.

Which will not only speed bus traffic during peak hours, but also improve safety for bike riders, who are allowed to share the bus lanes.

Along as you’re willing to ride with a bus running up on your ass.

………

I knew a man, his brain was so smallHe couldn’t think of nothing at allNot the same as you and meHe doesn’t dig poetryHe’s so unhip, when you say DylanHe thinks you’re talkin’ about Dylan ThomasWhoever he was…

— Paul Simon, A Simple Desultory Philippic

Get ready to ride accompanied by free verse and iambic pentameter when LA River Arts, El BiciCrófono, and Los Angeles Poet Society host a poetry-themed fundraising ride along the LA River bike path this Saturday.

Ride alongside poets from throughout Southern California to heal from the trauma of the Palisades and Eaton fires “through poetry, music, and shared space,” while raising funds for the Tongva Taraxat Paxaavxa Conservancy, whose newly acquired LandBack property was damaged in the fires.

………

Local  

Nice. Donate $20 or more to benefit victims of the devastating LA or Altadena wildfires before February 23rd, and you could win a new bicycle from Larkin Cycles.

ActiveSGV will host a bike rodeo in South El Monte this Saturday. Speaking of which, I still want to be a bike rodeo clown, when and if I ever grow up. 

 

State

The eight-day, 525-mile Arthritis Foundation California Coast Classic Bike Tour will mark the 25th year of the San Francisco to Los Angeles ride this September, while also expanding to a second ride in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

A Sunnyvale councilmember is calling for safety improvements along a deadly traffic corridor through the city, where 11 people have been killed by drivers while walking or biking since 2019.

 

National

Travel + Leisure makes their picks for the eight best ebikes, whether you’re using them for travel, or yes, leisure. And they pick the best bike helmets, most of which are currently on sale.

Streetsblog says light electric vehicles, including pedicabs and ped-assist cargo bikes, are the missing ingredient in America’s “minimobility” revolution.

A former Oregon church has become a vibrant way station for bike tourists.

A bill in the Washington legislature would allow cities to convert existing streets to shared streets that give priority to bike riders and pedestrians, while limiting drivers to just 10 mph. Although they’ll need to do more than just post speed limit signs, or drivers could push that 10 mph to 20 or more.

Police in Albuquerque, New Mexico have issued an arrest warrant for a 24-year old man accused of being the hit-and-run driver who killed a longtime local bike advocate last month.

A Colorado woman faces a well-deserved sentence of more than 10 years behind bars for striking a man riding a bicycle, then leaving him to die in the street while she took her five-year old kid to McDonalds.

You’ve got to be kidding. Charges were dropped against an alleged hit-and-run driver who was arrested at the Houston, Texas airport as she was about to board a flight out of state, due to insufficient evidence — even though video of the crash appeared to show her speeding up to hit the victim without braking.

Listen my children and you shall hear, of the non-midnight Massachusetts bike ride to honor Paul Revere on 250th anniversary of his famed ride to warn the redcoats were coming.

A 43-year old DC man will spend the next two-and-a-half years behind bars for chasing down another man and stabbing him in the back, after the victim merely touched the handlebars of the other man’s bikeshare bike; no word on charges for the woman who handed him the knife he used to stab the victim.

A Maryland man has ridden his bicycle every day for nearly 3,000 consecutive days — that’s over eight years without missing a day.

That’s more like it. Plans to replace Richmond, Virginia’s 112-year old Mayo Bridge call for reducing the four lane bridge to just one lane in each direction, with protected bike lanes and wide sidewalks on each side, as well as a 14-foot wide shared use path.

 

International

Momentum says bicycling builds better mental health five ways. Kinda like Wonder Bread, but for strong minds, instead. 

Northern Irish bicycle advocates are calling for an end to a pilot program that allows cab drivers to use bus lanes, which are also used by people on bicycles.

A new Scottish study shows women downhill mountain bikers are twice as likely to be injured as male riders, possibly due to average difference in neck strength and less bone density than men.

That’s more like it, part 2. A change to the UK’s Highway Code could result in drivers being fined the equivalent of more than $6,200 for passing bike riders too closely.

Bratislava, Slovakia is resisting pressure from the country’s transportation ministry to remove curbs from a protected bike path along the Danube River.

Melbourne, Australia bicyclists say it’s long past time for the city to open new bike bridges that were finished months ago, but remain fenced off, despite the dangers they face on the roadways.

 

Competitive Cycling

About damn time. A movie is in the works about two-time Tour de France champ Gino Bartali, who won the race ten years apart — in between, risking his own life to save the lives of countless Jews from the Nazis during WWII by smuggling documents in the frame of his bike.

Peter Sagan’s long-time domestique says Sagan was a natural leader with rockstar charisma, but tempered with a fiery temper.

Former Tour de France champ Egan Bernal capped his comeback from a near-fatal crash by winning both the road and time trial Colombian national championships, three years after he crashed into the back of a stopped bus at full speed on a training ride.

 

Finally…

No, it’s probably not the best idea to kidnap the boy you suspect of stealing your ebike and holding him for ransom.

And California bike riders could someday pledge allegiance to the state of New Denmark.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Los Angeles: Not safe, but our drivers don’t suck as much as San Bernardino; and demand HLA bike lanes on Vermont

October 8, 2024 / / Comments Off on Los Angeles: Not safe, but our drivers don’t suck as much as San Bernardino; and demand HLA bike lanes on Vermont
Just 83 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

A new WalletHub report ranks the 180 safest cities in America, based on 41 metrics, including traffic safety.

Not surprisingly, no Southern California city made the top ten, although Irvine checked in at number 11.

Yes, Irvine, followed by Chula Vista, Glendale and Santa Clarita in the top 30.

Needless to say, Los Angeles wasn’t. In fact, the City of Angels came in all the way down at — no, keep going — 162.

A whopping 18 from the very bottom, at the top of the lowly 10th percentile.

On a related note, another survey — this one from Consumer Affairs — concluded that Victorville has the second-worst drivers in the US, surpassed only by Memphis, Tennessee.

But San Bernardino wasn’t far behind, at 4th.

Neither of which should surprise anyone who’s familiar with this site, where both appear far too frequently.

Oddly, Los Angeles came in at exactly the same position as the safety study, at 162. But this time, that’s good news, because it means 161 other American cities have worse drivers than we do.

As hard as that may be to believe.

On the other hand, it also means over 130 other US cities have better drivers.

………

In an update to yesterday’s lead item, Streetsblog says three meetings will be held over the next two days to discuss Metro’s proposal to add bus lanes — but no bike lanes or better sidewalks — to the Vermont Ave corridor.

Which means it’s your chance to put your foot down, and tell them to stop ducking their commitment to Measure HLA. And put in the damn bike lanes the mobility plan calls for, as they are now legally required to do.

Tuesday 10/8 and Wednesday 10/9 – Metro is hosting another round of community input meetings on its Vermont Transit Corridor project: long overdue improvements for a top ridership bus line. Streetsblog reviewed recent developments last week. Advocates are urging significant low-cost bus, walk, and bike upgrades for the entire ~12-mile project. Metro is looking at initially adding bus lanes for about half the corridor. Show up and let Metro know what you think. Three Vermont meetings this week:

It’s also a reminder that Streetsblog is usually your best source for the latest information on active transportation and transit meetings and activities every week.

………

Which kind of leads us into this next item, as Streets For All urges you to show up for Wednesday’s LA City Council Public Works Committee meeting, where our select electeds will consider proposals to halt automatic street widening, and require better quality bollards.

But for buildings, not bicycles.

Although maybe we could talk them into protecting us humans someday, too.

There are two important items (#2 and #3) at Wednesday’s Public Works Committee meeting; Item 2 would stop automatic road dedications that make our roads more dangerous and drive up the cost of housing, and Item 3 would protect buildings with quality bollards (we want the same protection for bike lanes!) In-person public comment is the most effective:
Public Works Committee
1:30pm, Wednesday 10/9
City Hall, Room 401
200 N Spring St, Los Angeles, CA 90012

If you can’t make it in person, send in your comments prior to the meeting.

……….

The City of Los Angeles offers a reminder about this Sunday’s CicLAvia, which returns to the Heart of LA.

https://twitter.com/LACity/status/1843380939394625754

And yes, SAFE will be there.

………

Peter Flax answers the eternal question of why bicyclists don’t use the damn bike lane.

………

Had to look it up, but yes, he really said it.

………

Famed cyclist Danny MacAskill took his stunt riding skills to Adidas HQ — no, not just riding at it, riding on it.

And, uh, off.

………

It’s now 293 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And an even 40 months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

………

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

A local Indiana TV station somehow blames an 11-year old boy for running into the side of a moving car on his bicycle, without apparently considering the possibility that the driver cut off the kid or drove way too close to him.

Unbelievable. There’s a special place in hell for the hit-and-run driver who fled the scene with a bike-riding Avon, Connecticut high school student trapped on their car; the heartless driver stopped four miles away to push the badly injured teen off the roof the vehicle’s roof.

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

Police in Osaka, Japan are investigating how a drunk off-duty cop got ahold of the bicycle he threw at a moving taxi. And yes, why.

………

Local  

The sister of fallen bicyclist Danny Oerlemans is asking anyone with information about the two heartless cowards who needlessly took his life in a pair of Northridge hit-and-runs last month to come forward so he doesn’t become just another statistic; he was just riding his bike to get cat food when they ran him down and over, leaving him to die alone in the street.

SoCal Cycling considers how bicycles are revolutionizing the coffee business.

Proposed new signage for the Venice boardwalk makes it clear that no electric vehicles — ebikes, hoverboards or electric skateboards — or bicycles are allowed.

 

State

Calbike recaps the bicycling wins and loses from this year’s legislative session.

San Diego’s KPBS explains the county’s Measure G, which would add a half cent to the local sales tax to fund transportations projects, with the bulk going to public train and bus lines and operations, while flushing a quarter of the funds down the induced-demand inducing toilet. And apparently, nothing for bike lanes.

Evidently, young tourists love bicycling in the California wine country. But actually drinking the stuff, not so much.

 

National

A new grant program from State Bicycle Co. will provide cash, gear and yes, bikes to independent filmmakers to bring unique bicycling stories to life.

Bicycling looks at the best October Prime Day deals on bicycling gear. This one doesn’t seem to be available anywhere else, so you’re on your own if the magazine blocks you — but they probably won’t, because they likely get a piece of any clickthrough sales.

Arkansas has opened a new network of bikepacking trails, which can be combined to form routes up to 260 miles.

There’s not a pit in hell deep enough for whoever stole the adaptive bicycle a North Carolina teenager with autism and Down syndrome relied on to get to school.

 

International

Momentum wants to school you on how to lock up your bicycle. And how not to.

Bike Radar looks at the best cheap road bikes retailing for less than £750 — a little less than $1,000.

How to buy a cheap ebike this year, from government-backed loans to finding a good deal. Although this advice is for the UK, so California’s notoriously moribund ebike rebate program won’t hold you back.

Seriously? The investigation into the death of a Irish woman has been delayed for six months, so investigators can go to the UK because the software they need to view dashcam video belonging to the truck driver that killed her isn’t available anywhere on the Emerald Isle.

An architecture site examines what lead the Netherlands to become a bicycling Utopia. Which is a very odd way to put it.

 

Competitive Cycling

Good question. Cyclinguptodate wants to know why there are no American races on the UCI WorldTour.

Bicycling says Slovenian cycling star Tadej Pogačar isn’t the GOAT yet, but the cannibal should be watching his back. Read it on AOL this time if the magazine blocks you. 

 

Finally…

That feeling when you offer to help the gravel-grinding new cycling GOAT, and he drops you like freshman English. If your Halloween costume doesn’t revolve around a bicycle, maybe you should rethink it.

And if history had gone a little differently, you might be riding something like this today.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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