Anyone want to guess how much I want to write about bikes right now, after writing about at least the seventh person killed riding one in Southern California in the past two weeks?
Anyone?
I didn’t think so.
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In a bizarre story from Mississippi, a man awaiting trial on murder, attempted murder and hit-and-run charges for intentionally running down two bike riders dropped dead in his jail cell.
Fifty-seven-year old Shannon Thomas reportedly died of a heart attack last month, after he allegedly chased down and killed a 21-year old woman and attempted to kill the 36-year old man she was riding with in March.
To make things even stranger, Thomas was dating the mother of the woman he killed, and ran the couple down after an argument with the other man.
Which you’d have to think would adversely affect his relationship with the victim’s mom.
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Yawn.
It’s Prime Day again, the two-day national holiday devoted to buying things you don’t need, just because the marked up price has been marked down to make it seem like an irresistible bargain.
Which isn’t to say you can’t actually get some good deals, but caveat emptor.
That said, Singletracks offers their picks for the best buys for bike riders. And Velo recommends eleven bicycling deals it says are actually worth buying.
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Gravel Bike California invites you to join them for this Sunday’s Heart of Downtown CicLAvia.
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SNL star Marcello Hernández rode a bicycle to Amy Pohler’s podcast, and brags about getting there nine minutes sooner.
Thanks to Megan for the link.
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Sometimes, it’s the person on two wheels behaving badly.
Police in Stoke-on-Trent, England are looking for a hit-and-run bike rider who failed to stick around after crashing into another bicyclist, leaving the victim with serious injuries.
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Local
CD13 Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez has taken to his bike to participate in A Week Without Driving. Hopefully, he’ll get a better feel for what we all have to deal with riding in Hollywood.
The first new Los Angeles speed cams are set to begin operation on October 26th, with fines rising to $500 for drivers doing 100 mph or higher. Although if you’re doing over 100 mph on a city street, they should just impound your car and throw away the key.
State
The Coachella Valley’s newly completed CV Link pathway will be closed for two years under Ramon Road in Palm Springs for the construction of a new bridge.
A San Francisco Streetsblog op-ed asks how many deaths will it take before safety improvements are made to Arguello Blvd in the city’s Richmond District, after an 80-year old man attempting to cross the street last week became the latest victim. That’s easy. Too many.
A Sacramento man studying engineering at a Macon, Georgia university is building a destructive test rig to test the failing point for handlebars and pedals made by Sacramento components maker PNW.
National
Ebike maker Gazelle is recalling roughly 1,032 of its Urban Arrow cargo bikes because the front bolt in the seat post clamp can break and make the seat come loose. Which is an oddly specific number to follow the word “roughly.”
In more proof that nowhere is safe for bike riders, a boy in rural Wyoming was medevaced to a Colorado hospital after he was struck by a driver on a farm road out in the middle nowhere near Burns, Wyoming, population 393.
At least some people in Idaho are turning to bicycles as gas prices continue to rise.
He gets it. A Milwaukee County supervisor has put a stop to a planned 15 mph speed limit for bike trails, arguing it doesn’t make sense to impact legal trail users when the real problem is “unauthorized high-speed e-motos that should not be operating on these trails in the first place.” Maybe he could have a talk with some of our SoCal city leaders. Thanks to Megan for the heads-up.
International
A London bike rider was seriously injured when he was struck by the driver of a police cruiser on Monday. No, the other London, in Ontario, Canada.
In the most heartwarming story you’ll read today, a 96-year old great-grandfather was reunited with the bicycle he rode for decades, after his 67-year old daughter had it restored and delivered to the Cambridge, England care home where he now lives by members of his cycling club; he met his wife of 73-years when they both were riding back in 1947.
London office developers are strongly backing proposals to weaken the city’s bicycle parking requirements, after a new analysis showed that the vast majority of indoor bike spaces sit empty every day. Which I can understand, because I always insisted on taking mine into my office, rather than risking getting it stolen from an unsecured parking garage.
Damn. A 48-year old European commercial bond trader at JPMorgan’s London office declared “I’m not a cyclist” before taking part in a 500-mile fundraising ride, then proceeded to drop dead on the first day.
Eight years and 1 million crossings after Dutch engineers replaced the asphalt surface of a bike path with hollow panels made from recycled plastic, the trail has resulted in 50–70% lower carbon emissions, while rain storage reached 48% of capacity.
Finally…
You can find a lot of things while riding your bike; hopefully a badly decomposed body in a livestock feed trough won’t be one of them. Why install solar panels when you can ride one?
And if you claim a personal best after getting caught cheating in a marathon by hitching a ride on a bicycle, just say you’re really, really sorry.
But in Chinese.
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Oh, and fuck Putin.
