新年快乐
新年快樂
새해 복 많이 받으세요
สวัสดีปีใหม่
CHÚC MỪNG NĂM MỚI
Selamat Tahun Baru
Manigong Bagong Taon
And lest we forget, Ramadan Kareem, too!
Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay.
………
No bias here.
A new bill from San Ramon State Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan would require owners of Class 2 and Class 3 ebikes to register their ebikes with the DMV, in addition to displaying a license plate and carrying proof of ownership.
They would not, however, have to have to take a driving test or have a driver’s license.
Bauer-Kahan says the so-called E-Bike Accountability Act is needed because there is no accountability for riders on the streets and “on our bike paths where e-bikes are going upwards of 30, 40 even sometimes 60 miles per hour.”
Except anything that can go that fast is already classified as a motorized bicycle or motor-drive cycle, since Class 3 ebikes are capped at 28 mph, and already requires a) a driver’s license, and b) registration with the DMV.
Either that, or they are illegally modified ebikes, or electric dirt bikes that are being illegally ridden on the roads.
Key word there being “illegally.”
So what the hell is the purpose of this bill, since everything it regulates is already required and/or illegal?
Never mind that the DMV can’t seem to manage their current workload just licensing drivers and motor vehicles, so this would require untold millions in additional staffing and resources, unless we want to watch the DMV slowly grind to a halt, as if it isn’t already.
Not to mention that the idea of registering bicycles has already been studied to death, and found to cost more to do than it would bring in to the state.
The practical effect of this bill would be to virtually halt all sales of Class 2 and 3 ebikes, at a time when the need to replace motor vehicles with some other more viable form of transportation is greater than ever.
This appears to be nothing more than an asinine political stunt to score points with the ebike-hating crowd.
Or looking at it in the kindest possible light, a sincere attempt by someone who is hopelessly uninformed, and has not bothered to look at the laws already on the books before submitting needless and ill-conceived legislation.
Let’s hope her peers in the legislature see through it, and give this bill the swift death it so richly deserves.
………
My hometown newspaper offers photos from my bike-friendly hometown’s apparently very chilly 19th Annual Winter Bike to Work Day.
Which is about 19 years longer than not-so-very bike-friendly Los Angeles, which doesn’t celebrate it at all, for reasons that will forever escape me.
Then again, thousands of bike commuters turned out in Denver, too.
And even frosty Anchorage, Alaska had a small but significant turnout, which exceeded LA’s zero by roughly infinity, if I’m doing my math right.
It’s funny how cities in cold-weather climates can manage to encourage people to bike to work in the middle of winter, while normally sunny Los Angeles seems to buy the dual myths that biking to work just isn’t practical here, and no one would ever ride a bike in the winter.
Then again, those chilly cities also offer decent bike infrastructure that provides those people with safer places to ride, making winter bike commuting much more practical.
Or maybe Los Angeles just doesn’t want all those people on bicycles clogging up the streets, and impeding the God-given right of motorists to use their handheld smartphones without, you know, actually killing someone.
Usually.
………
Um, okay.
Legislation passed by the US Congress last year and signed into law by President Trump gives the National Park Service three years to complete a study of turning the Los Angeles coastline into a national park.
According to the Santa Monica Daily Press,
The study, required by Public Law 117-328, examines coastline from Will Rogers State Beach to Torrance Beach, including areas around Ballona Creek, the Baldwin Hills and the San Pedro section of Los Angeles. The public comment period runs through April 6, 2026.
Which means it could soon cost you $15 to $20 a day, or $80 a year, for the privilege of riding your bicycle on the beachfront Marvin Braude bike path, which will inevitably be renamed the Donald J. Trump Bike Path.
Same with commuting along Ballona Creek, where the proposed extension will inevitably be halted once it starts requiring federal tax dollars from a bike-averse administration.
And if you think maintenance is bad now, just wait until the job is turned over to the DOGE-gutted park service.
But whether or not you agree it’s a terrible, horrible, very bad, no good idea, you now have two months to get your comments in.
According to SMDP,
The National Park Service is seeking feedback on five questions: what nationally significant cultural and natural resources should be protected, what role NPS should serve, what concerns exist, and general comments.
Comments can be submitted online at parkplanning.nps.gov/LosAngelesCoastal or mailed to National Park Service, Denver Service Center, Attn: Los Angeles Coastal SRS, One Denver Federal Center, Building 50, Denver, CO 80225.
A second virtual public meeting is scheduled for March 11 at 6 p.m. Pacific time.
………
Now you, too, can turn your bicycle into entryway art like Eva Mendes and Ryan Gosling, just by hanging it from the rafters.
Or, uh, parking it in the hallway.
………
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
There’s a special place in hell for whoever deliberately doored a Yorkshire man in his 80’s as he was filtering past stopped traffic on his ebike, leaving the victim with multiple fractures.
No bias here. A Conservative member of the British House of Lords not only says there’s too much London road space dedicated to bike lanes, but there’s no corresponding space dedicated to cars. But subtract all the bike lanes in the entire city, and it would still leave the overwhelming majority road space dominated by motor vehicles.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
Speaking of a special place in hell, police in New York are looking for a bike-riding man who put a 70-year old man in a headlock and punched him in the face following a dispute in the city’s Gramercy neighborhood.
………
Local
Kindhearted strangers came together to raise more than $9,000 for a Los Feliz family, after some schmuck stole an adaptive tricycle from their nine-year old boy with Down’s syndrome and autism.
Look for these three Croatian guys in 2028, when they plan to continue a two-decade tradition of bicycling to international Olympic sites by riding Route 66 from Oklahoma City, where some of the Los Angeles Olympic events will inexplicably be held, to the City of Angels for whatever events OKC doesn’t do.
State
Ventura opened a new multi-use path through Cabrillo Village on Friday.
National
Action star Jason Statham goes meta, starring as himself in the new big-budget action-comedy Jason Statham Stole My Bike, in which he apparently does just that. Although I’m not sure $80 million qualifies as “big budget” anymore.
Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen is one of us, going for a Valentines Day ride through Miami with her one-year old son.
International
A writer for Bike Radar questions the ever-increasing size of gravel bike tires, which are rapidly approaching bus tire territory.
Bike friendly cities around the world where you might actually be able to afford living.
Momentum highlights Canada’s best rail trails.
The wife of a late Scottish rugby star will ride 750 miles from the Scottish Borders to Dublin to raise funds for the motor neuron disease charity he founded before his death.
A 23-year old Liverpool, England man riding a ped-assist ebike was killed when he crashed into a police van during an attempted stop by the cops; police later clarified that the man fell off his bike before crashing into the van, “which was stationary at the time.” Although that doesn’t mean the cops didn’t cut him off with the van and cause him to fall.
It shouldn’t surprise anyone to learn that British women still don’t feel safe on the streets a year after launching a new safety campaign, because of everything from dark streets and distracted drivers to sexual harassment.
Bicyclists in the UK are being targeted by thieves when they try to sell their bikes online.
A new study from the Netherlands questions the effect of ebikes on the fitness of the country’s youth, as ridership for people under 24 has doubled in the past two years.
Tyler Perry is one of us, too, breaking his collarbone in two places pulling an endo while riding his bike in Elba, Italy. For anyone unversed in ancient bicycling vernacular, “endo” is short for sending your end over your handlebars.
Here’s one for your bike bucket list. A Kiwi adventure bicyclist completed a 12-day, 270-mile journey through some of Nepal’s highest mountains on the Annapurna circuit.
Sad news from Taiwan, where King Liu, the founder of the world’s largest bikemaker, died at age 91; Giant is now a $2 billion company 54 years after he founded it.
Competitive Cycling
Twenty-one-year old South Central native Alfredo Bueno takes fans of the EF Education-Aevolo pro cycling team on a tour of his Los Angeles, from the Marathon crash ride, to his favorite ride from his family home in Long Beach to the Hollywood Hills in Griffith Park.
Twenty-seven-year old Skylar Schneider is blowing off the Women’s WorldTour to return for a second stint with the L39ION of Los Angeles.
The Tucson Bicycle Classic is expanding to a four day stage race this year, kicking off with a time trial on Thursday.
The Wall Street Journal’s Jason Gay says the cycling world is wondering whether America’s Jordan Stolz, the world’s fastest man on ice skates, could “transfer his brilliance” to pro cycling, like Eric and Beth Heiden, Clara Hughes and Mia Manganello before him. But you’ll have to get past the Journal’s paywall if you want to read it.
Australia’s Kate Lee recounts her brief, two-year cycling journey from absolute beginner to national champ.
Yet another young cyclist has been killed by a driver. Eighteen-year old Francesco Mazzoleni of Italy’s GoodShop Yogurt Team was struck by a motorist while on a training ride in his home country, just three weeks short of his 19th birthday.
Finally…
Sweet! Your next tandem could have concha wheels. Sure, he can ride a tall unicorn with a Sousaphone, but can he actually play it? The next step of evolution, when even squirrels will be born with built-in bike helmets.
And that feeling when you’re just looking to hookup with bike dealers.
………
Oh, and this happened.
………
Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Oh, and fuck Putin.
