Tag Archive for Metro

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

April 10, 2025 / / No comments
Day 100 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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 

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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.

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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.

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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 / / No comments
Day 94 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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 / / No comments
Day 63 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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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. 

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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. 

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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. 

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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.

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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.

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

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

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

And, uh, off.

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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.

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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.

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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: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

LA and Metro ignore HLA-mandated bike lanes on Vermont, and Gov. Newsom may not understand the risks of speeding

October 7, 2024 / / Comments Off on LA and Metro ignore HLA-mandated bike lanes on Vermont, and Gov. Newsom may not understand the risks of speeding
Just 84 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025. 

Conceptual rendering of bike lane-free Vermont courtesy of Streetsblog LA.

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Sadly, no surprise here.

A large collection of Los Angeles advocacy groups, led by Streets For All and ACT-LA, are complaining that Metro’s plan for bus lanes on Vermont Ave don’t comply with the requirements of Measure HLA.

The ballot measure, initially sponsored by Streets For All, passed with overwhelming support in the March primary election, winning two-thirds of the vote in the City of Los Angeles.

It ordered the city to comply with a very simple requirement to build out the already approved Mobility Plan 2035 whenever streets in the plan get resurfaced.

Or maybe not so simple, since LA officials have apparently been busy dragging their feet and looking for loopholes ever since.

According to Streetsblog LA, Metro has been working on plans to add bus lanes to Vermont for over a decade, scaling back what had been 12 miles to just six.

And just bus lines.

Advocates see Vermont as a key opportunity. If you can’t go big, be thorough, and make transit and transit riders a top priority on one of Metro’s and the nation’s highest ridership corridors, where can you?

The Alliance for Community Transit (ACT-LA) is currently circulating a letter (sign on as an individual or organization) in support of improving Vermont for people on bus, bike, and on foot – from Sunset Boulevard to the Metro C (Green) Line Athens Station. ACT-LA and two dozen organizations are calling for following features all along the nearly 12-mile-long project:

  • uninterrupted bus lanes
  • protected bike lanes
  • pedestrian scrambles at high injury and bus transfer intersections
  • tree planting, non-hostile shelters, signage, wayfinding, trash bins, and a bus rider bill of rights at every stop
  • wait time displays and public water at all major intersections
  • electrification of buses along the corridor
  • preserving all street vending and expanding the sidewalk in areas with high vending concentrations

But Metro’s current scaled-back, penny-pinching plan includes “little for pedestrians, and nothing for cyclists.”

Metro somehow claims that’s consistent with the mobility plan, and “helps support” Measure HLA.

Streets For All disagrees. And they should know, since they wrote the damn thing.

This week, the advocacy group Streets for All, the main proponent of Measure HLA and one of the signatories of the ACT-LA letter, wrote to Mayor Karen Bass and Metro CEO Stephanie Wiggins in support of Metro’s Vermont project proceeding in full compliance with Measure HLA. The letter states:

“As designed, the BRT project brings (welcome) improvements to Vermont Avenue… Those trigger the City’s obligation to install Mobility Plan enhancements. Therefore, were the City to issue permits for the project without assuring implementation of its Mobility Plan enhancements at the same time, the City would violate its ordinance, waste public funds, and allow Vermont’s dangerous conditions to remain despite the voters’ mandate.”

Streets for All notes that the project complies with the city’s plan for transit and pedestrian facilities, but not for bikeways.

It would be bad enough if this were a one-off. But Streetsblog includes a long list of current projects that don’t appear to comply with the mobility plan or HLA.

HLA gives Angelenos the right to sue to force implementation of the measure, and that could be where we’re heading.

Los Angeles seems to be daring these organizations to take them to court, either thinking they won’t do it, or in hopes of somehow getting the measure overturned.

Which seems unlikely, since it’s now part of the city charter.

We thought we had won when HLA passed. But clearly, this battle is just getting started.

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Streets Are For Everyone, aka SAFE, notes that California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a wide range of traffic safety measures passed in the last legislative session.

These range from mandating that Caltrans follow its own Complete Streets policies, to bills extending the statute of limitations for hit-and-run if the driver flees the state.

But Newsom dropped the ball when it came to speeding drivers, vetoing a bill to increase the penalty for speeding more than 26 mph over a 55 mph limit, as well as a bill to mandate an audible warning when drivers exceed the posted speed limit by more than 10 mph.

You can read SAFE’s full article explaining both Newsom’s reasons for the vetoes, and why they think he was wrong.

But for now, let’s just say they raise serious questions over whether the governor truly grasps the dangers posed by speeding drivers to everyone around them, both on and off the roadway.

If he did, he would work with the legislature to fix the bills or to craft alternatives that he would favor, rather than just killing them with a stroke of the pen.

People both in and out of motor vehicles are injured and dying at ever increasing rates, many through no fault of their own.

And speeding is one of the leading causes of that.

If the governor doesn’t understand that, nothing will improve until he leaves office.

………

A bike ride on Saturday, October 19th will explore the new bike lanes on Hollywood Blvd, which many people noted weren’t ready for prime time during the recent Hollywoods CicLAvia.

………

It’s now 292 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.

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

Call if a false alarm this time. It turns out the dangling wire a Milwaukee bike rider was nearly decapitated by when it wrapped around his neck as he rode past a light pole was part of an Eruv that had fallen, used by a Jewish community to allow them to move about celebrate the Sabbath more freely.

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

Seriously, if videos show bike riders avoiding a newly constructed Melbourne, Australia protected bike lane, there’s probably a reason for it.

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Local  

A travel writer visits Los Angeles, and finds it surprisingly bikeable — as long as you’re on a guided bike tour, and do much of your riding on bike paths.

 

State

About damn time. Caltrans is finally getting around to adding bike lanes on San Diego’s busy Friars Road. I wasn’t comfortable riding on Friars when I live down there, and that was nearly four decades ago.

 

National

A British travel writer rode his bike 4,000 miles through the heart of conservative small town America, relating what he learned about “guns, politics and Trump.”

Your next road bike could be 3D printed — and the most aero bike ever built  — while your next racing tires could inflate themselves, automatically adjusting for differences in terrain.

An Idaho reporter talks about the interesting and crazy people he bumped into riding his bike down the left coast.

He gets it. A Boston writer says bike lanes don’t just benefit people on bicycles, they help everyone — yes, even businesses — improving safety and accessibility, traffic flow, and environmental sustainability.

Cambridge, Massachusetts is making $1.5 million in safety improvements to a local street, weeks after a father was killed when a driver lost control and drove up onto the sidewalk he was riding his bike on. As usual, only making the improvements they knew they needed after it’s too late.

A New York woman is being called a hero after she stopped her car to save the life of a man who suffered a heart attack while he was riding, giving the experienced triathlete CPR on the side of the road until paramedics arrived.

New York City is encouraging safe and fun bicycling through their Biketober initiative, with events scheduled throughout the month in all five boroughs. Just let me know when to show up for Biketoberfest.

He gets it, too. An op-ed from a South Carolina writer says the problem isn’t dangerous bicyclists, but speeding drivers — and it’s time to slow them down.

 

International

Road.cc explains everything you need to know about bike cams but were afraid to ask.

A newspaper in Edinburgh, Scotland talks with local bike riders about what makes them feel unsafe on the road, including potholes, narrow roads and dangerous drivers.

A London man got his stolen ebike back by posing as a locksmith, knowing the thief — or the schmuck he sold it to — would need a new one to make it work.

A British bicycling instructor is using his bike cam to bring bad drivers to justice. Too bad that’s illegal here. 

Cycling Weekly explores why twice as many bicyclists are killed riding on rural roads in the UK compared to busy city streets, and what can be done to bike riders safe on country roads.

A government minister in the Netherlands wants to see a quarter of all bike riders wearing helmets within the next decade, in a country where only four percent currently do.

Hong Kong’s police chief calls for mandatory bike helmets, as bicycling deaths rise in the city; six of the eight bicyclist killed this year weren’t wearing one. Yet somehow, no one seems to be calling for banning large trucks and SUVS, or any of the other multitude of factors that could be causing the jump, besides what the victims did or didn’t have on their head.

An Aussie man decided to move to China permanently after touring the country by bicycle, personally witnessing the changes in the countryside in the two decades when he lived and worked in Guangdong.

 

Competitive Cycling

Mathieu van der Poel won this year’s Men’s Gravel World Championships riding an actual gravel bike this time, instead of riding his roadie.

Pro cyclist Lachlan Morton shattered the record for riding around Australia, completing the 8,800 mile journey in just 30 days, nine hours and 59 minutes, and beating the old record by nearly seven days — despite a close call with a kangaroo.

Good news, as Belgian cycling star Wout van Aert is back on his bike for the first time since a devastating crash in the Vuelta last month.

 

Finally…

Forget a tent on your next bike tour, and tow a trailer — unless your trailer is a bike, of course. Sometimes it takes a village to get your stolen ebike back.

And we may have to deal with predatory LA drivers, but at least we don’t usually have to worry about migrating great white sharks.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

A $7 million SD safety fail, U-T sharrows fail, and taking a pass on what passes for record CA traffic safety investment

October 3, 2024 / / Comments Off on A $7 million SD safety fail, U-T sharrows fail, and taking a pass on what passes for record CA traffic safety investment
Just 88 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025. 

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L’Shana Tova to everyone celebrating the new year today!

And apropos of nothing, I’m happy to report I wrote today’s entire post wearing a T-shirt with a bear riding a bicycle, as bears are wont to do. 

Just saying.

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Call it a $7 million fail — one that ultimately cost the life of a San Diego bike rider.

That’s the amount the city paid out to the family of Marc Woolf, who died 17 months after he was struck by a pair of drivers and paralyzed from the next down, dying of sepsis 17 months later.

Woolf was on his way home from his job at the San Diego zoo in May, 2021 when a driver coming out of a blind driveway backed into him, knocking him onto the other side of the street, where he was hit again by second driver.

But instead of blaming the drivers, Woolf’s legal team accused the city of creating and maintaining poor road conditions.

According to San Diego CBS8, those conditions included —

  • Restricted site lines and distances caused by physical conditions
  • Insufficient red curb prohibiting parked cars
  • Overgrown vegetation
  • Confusing and misleading shared lane striping
  • An improperly maintained light fixture which was not functioning on the night of the incident

The station reports the city finally extended the red curb to improve sightlines along the corridor in response to the crash.

As usual, only acting after it was too late.

Now Wolff’s family is $7 million richer, and the city’s taxpayers are $7 million poorer.

But as his daughter notes, no amount of money can bring Wolff back, or ease the pain the new grandfather suffered for so many months.

Meanwhile, the Union-Tribune blamed sharrows in general for the crash.

The case highlights the potential dangers of “sharrows,” marked bike routes that require cars and bicycles to share portions of roadway instead of giving cyclists areas reserved only for them.

I’m no fan of sharrows, which studies have shown to be worse than nothing when it comes to protecting the safety of bike riders.

But that’s a discussion for another day.

The paper was clearly mistaken, at best, in blaming any and all sharrows for this particular crash, rather than the poorly designed and implemented sharrows on this one particular street.

I’ve heard that some San Diego bicyclists have called on the paper for a retraction.

And they may have a point this time.

………

California is making a record investment in traffic safety and enforcement as traffic deaths continue to rise, according to the Governor’s office.

The California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) is awarding a record $149 million in federal funding for 497 grants that expand safe biking and walking options and provide critical education and enforcement programs that will make roads safer throughout the state. This is the third consecutive year of historic funding, exceeding last year’s amount by $21 million.

Yet that record spending to “expand safe biking and walking options” includes just $13 million for bicycle and pedestrian safety programs, up a modest 12% from the previous grant cycle.

Even though bicyclists and pedestrians account for most, if not all, of the recent increase in traffic deaths.

Meanwhile, a whopping $51 million will go to law enforcement agencies to conduct what’s described as “equitable enforcement targeting the most dangerous driving behaviors such as speeding, distracted and impaired driving, as well as support education programs focused on bicycle and pedestrian safety.”

In other words, more daylong — or usually, just a few hours — enforcement actions targeting violations that could put bicyclists and pedestrians at risk, regardless of who commits them.

Which, to the best of my knowledge, hasn’t been proven to do a damn bit of good reducing deaths or serious injuries among either group.

So if that’s what passes for a record investment, I’ll pass.

………

Streets For All politely reminds Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass that Measure HLA applies to Metro projects in the City of Los Angeles, too.

Never mind that the city’s barely competent and very conservative City Attorney’s Office continues to drag its feet on crafting guidance for city departments regarding the measure, nearly seven months after it went into effect after passing overwhelmingly.

Meanwhile, Streetsblog’s Joe Linton reports that new bike lane mileage in Los Angeles fell to a five-year low for the most recent fiscal year, adding up to a massively underwhelming 22.5 lane-miles of new and improved bike facilities.

And remember, lane-miles means they count each side of the road separately, so we’re only talking a measly 11.25 miles of actual street.

Then there’s this.

While there is some year-to-year variation, and some lag time between project planning getting underway and on the ground upgrades, the first full fiscal year does not look like a promising start for Mayor Karen Bass. Bass has prioritized critical housing issues and not paid much attention to safer multimodal streets – at least not yet. FY2024 did see Mayor Karen Bass appoint Laura Rubio-Cornejo to head the city Transportation Department (LADOT). Rubio-Cornejo replaced interim GM Connie Llanos last September.

No shit.

If anyone has heard Bass even mention safer and/or multimodal streets, let me know. Because I sure as hell haven’t heard it.

Then again, the city’s freeze on resurfacing projects to avoid implementing HLA hasn’t helped.

And neither has Bass’ continued failure to meet with us.

………

Momentum wants to see your pics of bike lane fails, of which we should have more than a few.

https://twitter.com/MomentumMag/status/1841505396596342989

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Presenting the cutest BMX balance bike stunt video you’ll see all day.

………

It’s now 288 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.

Meanwhile, apparently tired of waiting, San Francisco will consider a proposal for their own yet-to-be defined ebike rebate program.

That deafening silence you hear is Los Angeles not considering one.

………

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

Apparently, elected office provides no protection from dangerous drivers, as an Ottawa, Canada city counselor captures a way-too-close punishment pass on his bike cam while riding past several parked cars.

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

Maybe something was lost in translation, as an Ottawa letter writer complains about the incivility of local bicyclists who “love listening to the music of the folk group With No Headphones,” while riding their bikes without a “ten dollar doorbell.”

………

Local  

Looks like they slipped one past us this time, as a planned two-day closure last week for repairs on the Ballona Creek Bike Path only took one day, with the path reopening before some of us (i.e. me) knew it wasn’t.

Start times for the Long Beach Marathon have been moved up due to a high heat warning, with the bike tour now scheduled to start the same time as the runners at 5:30 am.

Speaking of Streets For All, the Los Angeles-area transportation PAC is hosting a fundraiser in Franklin Hills this Sunday afternoon.

 

State

The CHP has received a $1.55 million federal grant for year-long initiative focusing on “educating the public and enforcing traffic safety laws for drivers, bicyclists and pedestrians.” Maybe they could spend some of the money on educating their patrol officers a little better on bike law and how to investigate collisions involving bicyclists. 

San Diego was dubbed the greenest city in the US for the third year in a row; needless to say, Los Angeles wasn’t, coming in 18th.

San Diego pediatrician Dr. Mike Nelson dropped by a Claremont Mesa fire station to thank the first responders who saved his life when he crashed his bicycle on the way to an appointment a couple months back.

A San Francisco neighborhood is tearing itself apart fighting over a proposal to permanently close a highway to motor vehicles, even though it’s eroding into the ocean anyway.

 

National

Momentum offers ten “amazing coastal cities” in the US for bicycling; Santa Barbara is #9 on the list, while Huntington Beach is #2 — even though three people lost their lives riding in the city in just the last 12 months.

Bicyclists in the Pacific Northwest are challenging online marketplaces like OfferUp to do more to fight the reselling of stolen bikes on their platforms.

An editorial from a local Boston paper says bicycling isn’t safe in the city. Then again, the same could be said in virtually any city in the US. Los Angeles included. 

A proposed Pennsylvania law could authorize parking-protected bicycle lanes for the first time in the state.

Washington DC’s Reagan National Airport is encouraging travelers to skip the taxi and ride their bikes to the airport. Maybe LAX should be taking notes.

More proof bikes make the best emergency vehicles, as a North Carolina family grabbed their chainsaws and hopped on their bicycles to rescue the family’s 87-year old matriarch when they couldn’t contact her after Hurricane Helene.

 

International

Bike Radar considers why mixed-terrain ultra-distance cycling events are rising in popularity.

Residents of a British Columbia city aren’t sold on plans for a new bike path if it means chopping down a tree.

London bicyclists will soon be shuttled through a new motor vehicle-only tunnel under the Thames on special double-decker buses.

The rich get richer, as London bicyclists will soon get a £4 million — $5.3 million — bike route through the heart of the city.

There won’t be any more changes to the UK’s infamous “optical illusion” bike lane, even though it’s led to more than 100 trip and fall injuries. Sounds like they need better injury attorneys over there. 

 

Competitive Cycling

That’s Sir Mark Cavendish to you, as the Manx Missile gets knighted at Windsor Castle. Unless you’d rather call him the new High Performance Ambassador for Aston Martin.

Cyclinguptodate compares UCI to the Mafia for the way they managed the recent Zurich world championships, arguing that the organization implements rules, then neither complies with or implements them.

Rouleur considers the recent rise of WorldTour mega-contracts.

 

Finally…

Maybe your new wireless shifters can be hack-proof, after all. Now you, too, can trade your ten gallon hat for a helmet and bike through LBJ’s Texas ranch.

And maybe you were a bicycling British soldier in a past life, bad teeth be damned.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

Get ready for Clean Air pontificating today, and written test waived for elderly California drivers – for better or worse

October 2, 2024 / / 6 comments
Just 89 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025. 

……..

Happy California Clean Air Day.

That joyful day when all the elected officials and bureaucrats who blocked active street and transit projects and approved highway expansions will bend over backwards to tell us all just how important clean air is.

Then again, those of us who have been biking, walking and using transit have actually been doing something about it all along.

Today you can do something about it for free on virtually any SoCal transit system, Metro included.

And yes, bicycling and walking are still free. At least for now.

https://twitter.com/metrolosangeles/status/1840891052364087321

Meanwhile, it’s also National Week Without Driving, and SoCal Transit Week.

And Metro Bike will wrap things up with a Clean Air Day Joy Ride through DTLA on Saturday, which isn’t Clean Air Day.

But close enough, I guess.

Top image from Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay.

………

Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez celebrates that California drivers over 70 will no longer have to deal with “irritating technical glitches, confusing options and maddeningly irrelevant test questions” by having to take a written test to renew their driver’s licenses.

I mean, what could possibly go wrong?

It’s not like traffic laws have changed in the 50 or 60 years since they first started to drive.

Or last year, even.

I understand the inconvenience, and the fear of losing the driver’s license someone has depended on for so many years in our car-dependent society.

But I also understand the risk posed by people who don’t have a working knowledge of current traffic laws. Like understanding that bike riders are allowed to take the lane on most right lanes in the state, for instance.

Or that some older people shouldn’t be driving at all anymore.

Myself, included.

Meanwhile, in a totally unrelated story, a British woman has become the oldest person convicted of causing death by dangerous driving in that country, at the tender age of 96.

Because we all know drivers, like fine wine, just get better as they age.

Right?

………

A new Calbike report is calling out Caltrans for its repeated failure to build Complete Streets, in violation of their own policies.

Here’s what the organization says about the report, titled Incomplete Streets: Aligning Policy with Practice at Caltrans.

The report details where Caltrans has succeeded in adding elements for people biking, walking, and taking transit when it repairs state roadways that serve as local streets. But the findings also detail, for the first time, evidence of where Caltrans falls short, using data to show pattern and practice at the agency and case studies to illustrate how district staffers downgrade and leave out infrastructure people biking and walking on Caltrans projects.

It should make for a good light read for these long autumn nights.

………

Streetsblog’s Joe Linton takes an up-close look at the new modular curbs on the Main Street protected bike lane in DTLA, expressing hope they can quickly be expanded throughout the city.

Close-up photo of the modular curbs on Main Street at Spring by Streetsblog’s Joe Linton

While they aren’t bulky enough to keep all drivers out of the bike lane, as Linton notes, they could be enough to discourage more people from parking and driving in them.

And they beat the hell out of the usual plastic car-tickler bendy-posts LADOT seems so enamored with.

Let’s hope they try them out on other bike lanes, as well.

Because they could prove to be a fast and relatively inexpensive solution to LA’s painful lack of curb-protected lanes, in a city that doesn’t seem to know the meaning of quick-build.

………

This is who we share the road with.

A Greenfield, California man will spend the next 30 years to life behind bars for intentionally killing a random pedestrian, after leading police on a chase through Monterey County in a stolen car.

Twenty-seven-year old Paulo Cesar Alcaraz Ortiz tried and failed to run down several other people on the street, in the mistaken belief that it would cause the police to stop chasing him.

That is, until he successfully ran down and ran over Guadalupe Garcia with the hot car on his second attempt, after chasing Garcia through a field.

………

A New York photographer captures what Streetsblog calls “the unexpected beauty of the Williamsburg Bridge’s less-than-perfect design.”

I just call it a damn good shot.

………

It’s now 287 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.

No bias here. A transportation policy analyst from the libertarian Reason Foundation calls out the failure of Complete Streets in California and Vision Zero Los Angeles, years after their passage, while failing to note that neither one has been adequately funded or implemented — as evidenced by a new law requiring Caltrans to implement their own damn Complete Streets policy.

Bedford, England has banned bicyclists from riding through the city centre, uh, center, in response to bike riders “flying through” and endangering pedestrians — but they’re also fining people for getting off and walking their bikes.

Two British men have been sentenced to a well-deserved 14-and-a-half years each after police arrested them for deliberately running down a pedestrian — and discovered video on one’s phone showing them intentionally running down someone on a bicycle days earlier.

………

Local  

Streetsblog visits the new bike lanes on hilly Avenue 51 and Townsend Ave in Eagle Rock and Highland Park, calling them a “worthwhile modest step toward safer, more multimodal streets.” Although they only have sharrows on the downhill side. 

Call it a win for the Department of DIY, as Los Angeles makes the guerrilla crosswalks at Council and Westmoreland in Koreatown permanent, a year after they were surreptitiously striped by Crosswalks LA.

West Hollywood is hosting a mobility expo in Plummer Park this Saturday.

Um, okay. An Indian American entrepreneur, as opposed to an American Indian entrepreneur, has launched the “revolutionary” CaliBike ebike brand in Corona, bizarrely positioning it as the perfect last-mile complement to the coming Brightline West high speed rail line between Las Vegas and Rancho Cucamonga. Because it’s just too revolutionary for regular trains, I guess.

 

State

Don’t plan on driving — or riding — all the way on California’s iconic coastline Highway 1 until next year at the earliest.

Orange County will invest $55 million in improved street lighting to improve safety for pedestrians and bicyclists.

The California State Universities Board of Trustees has signed off on a proposal for a new bridge on Fenton Ave over the San Diego River, providing car, bike and pedestrian access to Snapdragon Stadium in Mission Valley.

A Fresno man in his ’60s was hospitalized with major injuries when he was hit by a car, which apparently didn’t have a driver, after “riding his bike into traffic.” Which could mean almost anything, or absolutely nothing. 

Sacramento safety advocates are calling for armadillo traffic dividers to be installed in intersections to stop automotive sideshows.

 

National

Streetsblog says maybe it’s time to stop calling bike lanes “bike lanes,” arguing that a rebrand is in order since they “can slow dangerous car traffic, give walkers more space to move, and save lives across all modes by getting would-be drivers into the saddle instead.”

Bicycling looks forward to sales on some of their favorite bike products ahead of next week’s Amazon Prime Days. Which probably isn’t paywalled because they likely get a piece of any clickthrough sales, but you can read it on AOL, anyway. 

The NTSB finally got around to issuing its report on the Goodyear, Arizona mass casualty crash that killed two bicyclists and injured 14 others, blaming driver Pedro Quintana-Lujan’s “diminished state of alertness, likely due to fatigue;” he faces just 11 misdemeanor charges, despite having a “small amount” of THC in his system at the time of the crash.

Bighearted staffers at a Sioux Falls, South Dakota coffeeshop pitched in to give a new ebike to dishwasher at the restaurant, after the bicycle he rode to and from work every day broke down — again.

They get it. Chicago Streetsblog tells a local website that merchants claiming a new bike lane could put them out of business is not a legitimate news story worthy of investigation, any more  than the news item “Merchants say Bigfoot exists.”

Next City asks if low-cost, self-charging ebike libraries can bring newfound mobility to low-income communities in Massachusetts.

Rochester, New York’s Larry the Bike Man donated hundreds of refurbished bicycles to local kids, as the local paper says “everyday heroes don’t always wear capes.” Indeed.

The New York Times wraps up their short-lived Street Wars newsletter by noting the constant state of change on the city’s streets, observing that new battles over traffic and radical solutions mean they won’t always be like this, for better or worse.

Talk about bad luck. A North Carolina bike shop owner got hammered by Hurricane Helene, 19 years after she was chased out of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina.

 

International

Saskatoon, Saskatchewan has installed green bike boxes at an intersection where a killed in a right hook by the driver of a cement truck last year. Proving once again that commonsense safety improvements usually only come after it’s too late. 

Scottish bicyclists have proclaimed a local zig-zagging bike lane the world’s worst. We should invite them to ride with us here in SoCal sometime.

A columnist for The Guardian considers the lesson’s learned falling off a Lime Bike on the streets of London, conceding her initial impression was correct, that “they are a young hoodlum’s game, not an old hoodlum’s game.”

Men’s Health talks with Tokunbo Ajasa-Oluwa, founder of London’s Black Unity Bike Ride, who says people “hear and feel our joy coming through” before they even see them. Which pretty much sums up what bicycling is all about. 

Another UK bicycle company has gone belly-up, after the major distributor behind the Orro Bikes brand filed the equivalent of bankruptcy, and sent workers home without last month’s pay.

 

Competitive Cycling

No one seems to have seen the crash that killed 18-year-old Swiss cyclist Muriel Furrer during the junior women’s road world championships last week, and no cameras captured her riding off the rain-slicked roadway; in fact, her body wasn’t found for over an hour after she crashed, once people finally realized she never crossed the finish line.

The greatest cyclist of all time says Tadej Pogačar is the real goat, arguing that Pogačar has now topped anything Eddy Merckx did himself.

 

Finally…

Your Everesting record is now obsolete. We may have to deal with aggressive LA drivers, but at least we don’t have to worry about rampaging escaped rhinos — even if the victim was on a motorcycle, but still.

And the late, great Kris Kristofferson was one of us, too.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

Happy Bike to Work/Bike Anywhere Day, Gov. Newsom says screw the planet and keep on driving, and Bike Talk talks racing

May 16, 2024 / / One comment
Just 229 days until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025.
So stop what you’re doing and sign this petition to demand Mayor Bass hold a public meeting to listen to the dangers we all face on the mean streets of LA.

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

We made it up another notch to 1,132 signatures, so don’t stop now! Urge everyone you know to sign the petition, until she meets with us! 

………

Happy Bike to Work/Bike Anywhere Day! Or as it’s known in Los Angeles these days, Thursday.

But at least you can get free Metro and Metrolink rides with your bike today, along with free Metro Bike rides.

Meanwhile, San Diego expects to have at least 10,000 people participate in the city’s Bike Anywhere Day, while the local public radio station tells you how to make the most of it.

………

Evidently, California Governor Gavin Newsom wasn’t serious about all that climate change stuff.

Newsom, who Politico described as fully embracing the role of climate governor, had this to say in a press release in 2022.

“Cleaning the air we breathe. Protecting our communities from the harmful impacts of the oil industry. Accelerating California’s clean energy future. Each of these actions on their own are monumental steps to tackling the climate crisis – but California isn’t waiting a minute longer to get them done. We’re taking all of these major actions now in the most aggressive push on climate this state has ever seen because later is too late. Together with the Legislature’s leadership, the progress we make on the climate crisis this year will be felt for generations – and the impact will spread far beyond our borders. California will continue blazing a trail for America and the rest of the world on the swift and meaningful actions necessary for cutting carbon pollution, protecting communities and leading the clean energy future.”

But just two years later, he is proposing a whopping $600 million cut to the state’s Active Transportation Program to address the state’s massive budget shortfall — which Streetsblog’s Melanie Curry describes as “the most climate, energy, and equity efficient program in the entire transportation budget.”

All because he doesn’t want to touch the state’s massive $21 billion highway fund, as spokesperson for the governor claims that diverting highway funds could “negatively impact the key work that Caltrans does to maintain the state highway system.”

In other words, appeasing motorists by building and widening highways and fixing freeway potholes is far more important than, say, saving the planet.

The mealy-mouth hypocrisy is astounding.

Or it would be if Newsom hadn’t long ago revealed just how shallow his commitment is when it conflict with political expediency.

This is how Calbike Policy Director Jared Sanchez addressed the issue in an email to supporters.

There is no deficit in California’s transportation budget. Thanks to federal funding streams, there’s no need for transportation cuts.

Yet, Governor Gavin Newsom cut almost $600 million from the Active Transportation Program (ATP) in his draft budget. The ATP funds projects that make biking and walking safer and more appealing, advancing the infrastructure changes needed to combat climate change.

Tell the Legislature to Restore Full ATP Funding

This cut amounts to eliminating an entire ATP funding cycle, significantly reducing funding for infrastructure that will reduce soaring pedestrian deaths and enable more people to get around safely by bicycle.

The Active Transportation Program needs more funding, not less.

  • The ATP already turned away many worthy biking and walking projects because of a lack of funding, even before this cut.
  • The governor’s budget doesn’t cut funding for climate-killing highways.
  • California can afford to fund the ATP. With rising climate chaos, we can’t afford not to spend money on active transportation.
  • This drastic cut will affect communities across California, forcing local governments to delay planned bikeways — maybe one near you.

Last year, the governor tried to cut the ATP, and the legislature restored the funding. Tell your representatives we need them to protect active transportation again.

Seriously. do it already.

………

Megan Lynch offers a photo from last night’s Ride of Silence in Davis, with a promise of more to come. So check back with her later.

………

Bike Talk talks with longtime bike scribe Joe Lindsey about this year’s racing season.

………

It’s now 148 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And 35 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.

The UK’s Conservative government passed a new law to address a problem that seldom happens, criminalizing causing death or serious injury by dangerous or careless cycling, with a maximum penalty of up to 14 years behind bars — seven years more than the penalty for doing the same thing with a car — as party leader Iain Duncan Smith insisted the anti-bicycling law isn’t anti-bicycling.  Thanks to Megan Lynch for the link.

I ain’t afraid of no ebike. Police in the UK are developing a Ghostbusters-style electromagnetic pulse, aka EMP, weapon to instantly stop scofflaw ebike or e-scooter riders in their tracks. And probably fry any electronic devices in the vicinity. Thanks again to Megan Lynch. 

Bike riders in Ireland respond to “highly regrettable” new signs on Irish Rail banning bicyclists at peak times, calling it a step backwards eliminates the possibility of muti-modal commuting.

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

A woman hit by a bicyclist in London’s Regent Park earlier this month urged bike riders to slow down, as a British broadcast network clocked bicyclists riding up to 7 mph over the park’s 20 mph speed limit.

………

Local 

A writer for Condé Nast Traveler rides along with The Mixed Race, a weekly high-speed, women-led public bicycling group zipping through the streets of Los Angeles every Thursday night.

A WeHo website continues its recent anti-bike lane screeds, arguing that building protected bike lanes will take a sizable investment in staffer time and money. Even though not building them could prove substantially more expensive in the long run, as the city will be required to pay out lawsuits for any bike riders killed or injured where they would have been built.

The South Bay beach cities are considering even tighter restriction on ebikes, following a confrontation between local residents and a group of ebike-riding hooligans. Even though the type of bikes they were riding had nothing to do with the incident. And never mind that they were riding throttle-controlled fat bikes that should be reclassified as mopeds or electric motor scooters. 

 

State

Outside challenges you to three days of bicycling bliss along Southern California’s epic bike trails, starting with the El Prieto trail in the mountains above Pasadena, followed by nearby Tapia Canyon, and the Connect G-Out, Sidewinder, Dogtag and Karl’s trails in the scrubland east of Santa Clarita. And that’s just Day 1.

Bakersfield has seen a 30% jump in reports of bicycling collisions in just the last two years.

 

National

A new report ranks which states are most interested in bicycling, based on the volume of internet searches for “different bike types,” “cycling safety,” and “learning to ride,” which may not exactly be the best way to determine it; Washington, Rhode Island and Vermont top the list, with California all the way down at number eight.

A Chicago public radio station discusses what the city is doing to protect bike riders, as it suffers an average of over 1,400 bicycle collisions each year. Hint: Not enough. 

Crashes between Massachusetts bike riders and pedestrians are flagged as an emerging threat as bike lanes expand in the state. As if pedestrians don’t have a responsibility to look both ways before stepping into a bike lane, and misbehaving bicyclists would be no less dangerous without them.

DC councilmembers are pushing to restore funding for a controversial lane reduction and bike lane project, after the mayor thought he had killed it.

Bicycle advocates in Baton Rouge and New Orleans join a public radio station to discuss how to improve bike infrastructure in the Bayou State.

I want to be like him when I grow up. A Georgia man plans to ride 82 miles to celebrate his 82nd birthday, after riding his age every year since he turned 70.

 

International

An op-ed in the Evening Standard says London’s bike riders aren’t killers, and the bicycling community in the city’s Regent Park is “keen” to protect others.

London’s transportation department tells bike riders to improve their behavior around floating bus stops, even though only four people have been hit by bike riders in three years.

Good Net considers how the city’s bicycle revolution is rapidly transforming Paris, as the number of bike riders has overtaken the amount of motorists on the city’s rues.

A new Finnish study shows that people who received their bicycles through a workplace benefit program ride more than five times the miles of the average Finn.

Germany is conducting a study allowing s-pedelecs — ped-assist bikes capable of doing up to 28 mph — on a special high speed bike path to determine if they can safely share bike paths with slower riders.

A new petition in Hyderabad, India, calls on the city to do more to make it bike friendly and promote active mobility.

No surprise here, as the new 100% tariffs Joe Biden imposed on Chinese-made electric vehicles and batteries could double the price of ebike batteries.

 

Competitive Cycling

Tadej Pogačar maintained his two minute and forty second hold on the Giro’s pink leader’s jersey, as Italy’s Jonathan Milan survived a mass sprint to win the race’s 11th stage on Wednesday.

The formerly high-flying Visma-Lease a Bike cycling team is falling apart at the Giro, with the team down to just four riders with ten stages to go after both sprinter Olav Kooij and Cian Uijtdebroeks, who was fifth in the general classification, dropped out and Robert Gesink and Christophe Laporte both crashed out in the first week; team leaders Wout van Aert and Jonas Vingegaard were already out following crashes earlier this year.

World champ Mathieu van der Poel will skip mountain biking at the Paris Olympics to focus on the Olympic road race, after competing in the Tour de France..

Olympic triathlete Taylor Knibb even stunned even herself by earning a second Olympic berth by winning the women’s time trial at the U.S. road cycling championships in Charlotte, West Virginia.

 

Finally…

Now you, too, can star in an ebike commercial being shot in Orange County and Big Bear.

And if you’re going to deliver food orders, it might as well be from a Penny Farthing.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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