Tag Archive for Nithya Raman

Bad year for SoCal bike deaths, urban roads get deadlier, and Transportation Comm’s new vice chair is one of us

January 5, 2023 / / 2 comments

Last year was another terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year for SoCal bike riders.

But at least it was better than the year before.

Maybe.

According to our latest count, at least 82* people lost their lives while riding a bicycle in the seven county Southern California region last year, just two less than the previous year.

Although that figure is likely an undercount; I’ve heard of a half dozen or more deaths this year that I wasn’t able to officially confirm, but which undoubtedly happened.

It’s also the same number of SoCal bicycling deaths reported to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for 2019, the last year before the pandemic, when 81 SoCal riders also lost their lives.

The total for last year reflects the 26 bike riders I counted killed in Los Angeles County last year, which again is likely a dramatic undercount.

A total of 35 bike riders lost their lives in LA County in 2021, which was over twice the total of 17 that I had counted; I also counted 15 in 2020, compared to 27 reported by the NHTSA.

Which suggests that the local media is failing to report a number of bicycling deaths in the Los Angeles area, for whatever reason.

I also counted 14 bicycling deaths in the City of Los Angeles last year, which is in line with verified totals of 18 and 15 in 2021 and 2020.

Further afield, San Diego County suffered 12 deaths last year, which was a significant improvement over 17 in the previous year, though much higher than the 7 and 8 people killed riding bikes in the county in 2020 and 2019, respectively.

Meanwhile, Orange County appeared to have their worst year in recent memory, with 17 people killed* riding bikes last year, compared to just 7 in 2021, 15 in 2020, and 13 in 2019.

Although it is important to note that only the totals for 2020 and 2019 have been verified by the NHTSA; 2021 data isn’t currently available through their website.

Riverside and San Bernardino Counties also showed increases last year, with 11 bicycling deaths in Riverside County, and 10 in San Bernardino County. Ventura County suffered 4 deaths — half the previous year’s total — while Imperial County recorded none for the third year in a row.

Here’s a quick recap of bicycling deaths for each of the seven counties.

Los Angeles County

  • 2022 – 26
  • 2021 – 35
  • 2020 – 27
  • 2019 – 38

Orange County

  • 2022 – 17
  • 2021 – 7
  • 2020 – 14
  • 2019 – 13

San Diego County

  • 2022 – 12
  • 2021 – 17
  • 2020 – 7
  • 2019 – 8

Riverside County

  • 2022 – 11
  • 2021 – 9
  • 2020 – 8
  • 2019 – 5

San Bernardino County

  • 2022 – 10
  • 2021 – 7
  • 2020 – 6
  • 2019 – 7

Imperial County

  • 2022 – 0
  • 2021 – 0
  • 2020 – 0
  • 2019 – 6

Ventura County

  • 2022 – 4
  • 2021 – 8
  • 2020 – 4
  • 2019 – 4

Source: 2021-2022 BikinginLA, except 2021 LA County data from Los Angeles Times; 2019-2020 NHTSA FARS data

While compiling records of this sort is necessary to bring about desperately needed changes to our streets, it also reduces human tragedy and loss to a statistic.

So if you want to see the people behind these numbers who we’ve so needlessly lost, start here and just keep scrolling.

Photo by Ted McDonald from Pixabay.

Correction: A comment from Dawn made it clear that I had miscategorized a story about her father’s August death in Irvine. 

*After correcting the error and adding it back into the totals for OC, that made 17 people killed riding their bikes in the county last year, and 82 in Southern California, instead of 16 and 81, respectively, as I had originally written.

My apologies for the mistake. 

………

On a related subject, rural areas are becoming safer, while urban environments are growing ever deadlier.

And the photo at the bottom of this thread goes a long way towards explaining why.

https://twitter.com/WarrenJWells/status/1610779366476353538

https://twitter.com/WarrenJWells/status/1610843949924777984

………

Promising news about the new LA City Council Transportation Committee members we mentioned yesterday, at least two of whom have taken bike tours with the new BikeLA (formerly the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, or LACBC).

Meanwhile, new CD11 Councilmember and Committee Vice Chair Traci Park is one of us, as well.

Now if she just votes that way, we should be in good shape.

………

Transportation PAC Streets For All is hosting their next virtual happy hour next Wednesday, featuring my councilmember, CD4’s Nithya Raman.

………

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

A former contestant on the UK’s version of The Apprentice criticizes plans for traffic filters on Oxford streets, saying you won’t be able to drive more than 15 minutes in any direction — and somehow manages to get the whole thing wrong.

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

A British Columbia man faces charges for stealing a truck and using it to smash through a gate, then hoping on a bicycle to make his escape after the truck was disabled in the crash. Which raises a lot of questions, like whether the fact that he wasn’t charged with stealing the bike means he just happened to have it with him in case he needed to pedal away from the crime scene.

There’s a special place in hell for the Kiwi ebike rider who faces charges for repeatedly kicking a wheelchair-bound handcyclist in the head for no apparent reason, unless he was upset that she could go faster than he could on his ebike. Which is a ridiculous reason to do something so horrific.

………

Local 

Protected bike lanes are usually intended to improve safety, but Burbank residents wanted the new quarter-mile protected bike lane on Leland Way in order to halt graffiti and drag racing.

A travel magazine recommends touring West Hollywood by ebike, but apparently can’t distinguish between WeHo and nearby Beverly Hills.

 

State

No news is good news, right?

 

National

Even an automotive website questions whether the newest generation of electric SUVs are too big, too heavy and too fast. Depends on whether the goal is to get from here to there, or to send as many people as possible to the promised land.

Forbes looks at five trends this year that could impact the future of transportation. Although the modest state and local tax rebates for ebikes pale in comparison to the massive federal benefits for electric car buyers.

A writer for Adventure Journal geeks out over an 1880s ad for a Penny Farthing from Boston’s Columbia Bicycle Company. Then again, he’s not the only one geeking out, since I have a version of that ad on a t-shirt.

House Beautiful recommends the best bike storage racks for your home or apartment.

Singletracks considers the ethics of editing trails to preserve them or remove hazards.

Digital Journal addresses one of the burning questions of our time — how to take your dog with you when you ride your bike.

My friends at West Seattle Blog managed to scoop the local news media about hit-and-run and vehicular homicide charges against an alleged killer driver who fled the scene after running down a 63-year old man riding his ebike home from work.

An Arizona man has made a remarkable recovery following the crash in a Show Low, Arizona master’s race that killed one man and seriously injured several riders; 37-year old Shawn Michael Chock was quietly sentenced to 26-1/2 years behind bars for second-degree murder and felony aggravated assault.

Denver announced the return of the city’s highly popular ebike rebate program at the end of this month, although at a reduced level, with $300 vouchers for buyers or regular ebikes, and $500 for e-cargo bikes.

North Carolina’s Department of Transportation is giving away bike helmets to organizations to give away to people who need them.

St. Petersburg, Florida, is remaking a dangerous residential boulevard with barriers at four intersections, forcing motorists to turn while allowing pedestrians and bike riders to pass through, and effectively turning it into a bicycle boulevard, even if they don’t use the term.

A kindhearted Florida man spends his days refurbishing and assembling bicycles so children in need can get to school, and adults can ride to work.

 

International

Calgary bicycle advocates are calling for safer bike infrastructure, after reports of snow and ice clogging bikeways and creating a hazard for riders. Here in SoCal, our snow and ice comes in liquid form, but still creates hazards on days like this. So be careful out there. 

Bike Portland goes riding in London. Which I deeply regret I didn’t get a chance to do when my wife and I visited earlier this century.

British foldie maker Brompton will begin sourcing more parts from other countries, over fears that tensions between China and Taiwan could result in supply chain disruptions.

If you’re already wanted on an outstanding warrant for failure to appear, maybe illegally riding your bike on a pair of UK highways isn’t the best idea.

The newly crowned world darts champ credits a broken hip suffered in a bicycle crash when he was 15 year old with setting him on the path to pointed greatness.

The Guardian follows along as an Australian woman attempts to set a new record by riding 2,500 miles in 13 days.

No surprise here, as a new Aussie study shows the biggest barrier to biking is a fear of cars. Personally, I’m not afraid of cars. But the people driving them scare the shit out of me.

 

Competitive Cycling

Four time Tour de France champ Chris Froome will finally get a chance to go for five after his Israel Premier Tech team got one of two wildcard invitations to the race, with the other going to Norway’s Uno-X.

A ‘cross fan captures the chaos after Ryan Cortjens crashed at the Superprestige Diegem, and apparently forgot to get the hell out of the way.

 

Finally…

Now you, too, can build your very own DIY 6-passenger, throttle-controlled ebike. That feeling when no one wants to steal you bike, even if you want them to.

And who says you need two wheels to mountain bike?

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

 

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

Weak justice for fallen Big Orange cyclist, riding in memory of Kenyan cyclist, and more Griffith Park safety improvements

September 7, 2022 / / Comments Off on Weak justice for fallen Big Orange cyclist, riding in memory of Kenyan cyclist, and more Griffith Park safety improvements

Life is cheap in Arizona.

And justice is slow.

According to a Facebook post, Annaleah Dominguez is just now facing sentencing for the stoned-driving death of former Big Orange Cycling club member Rob Dollar outside Phoenix AZ in 2017.

Yes, it’s taken five long years for the Orange County expat to see justice. Dollar had just moved to Gilbert in the weeks prior to the crash, and was in the process of forming an Arizona chapter of the bike club.

He was riding down South Mountain south of the city on October 29th when he was run down by then-19-year old Dominguez, who was reportedly passing another rider on the uphill side as she rounded a curve, and hit Dollar head-on.

He died at the scene. He was just 36.

Police investigators found cannabis outside the car, which Dominguez and her passengers had allegedly discarded after the crash. She reportedly admitted to drinking and smoking weed prior to the Sunday morning collision.

She now faces just one year to three and a half years for negligent homicide in an apparent plea bargain, since there’s no record online of a conviction or guilty plea.

She deserves to serve the max.

Eric Arentsen
13h
ROB DOLLAR

Big Orange member, Rob Dollar, was killed almost five years ago. An impaired driver crossed a double yellow line and took Rob’s life in a head-on accident as he was riding his bike. We encourage those that knew Rob to send a note to the Probation Officer encouraging the stiffest sentence possible. The driver is facing 1 to 3 ½ years in jail for negligent homicide. We hope you will make your voices heard at the sentencing by sending a note today.

Send your email to Diane.Knuepfer@jbazmc.maricopa.gov by September 28 with your thoughts about the sentence and how Rob’s death has impacted your life. Here are some bullet points to get you thinking:

  • How has Rob’s death impacted you? Please build on what Rob meant to you and the community.
  • How has the crime (guilty of negligent homicide) affected your life? If you are a cyclist, have you changed where you ride or how you ride?
  • What are your thoughts regarding the sentence the court should impose on the defendant?

Deadline is Sept 28.

As Jon suggests below, three and a half years doesn’t begin to address the severity of the crime, or the enormity of the loss to Dollar’s friends and family.

Even if it is all she can get in this case.

Photo by Sora Shimazaki from Pexels.

………

Aussie pro Lachlan Morton is riding the 530-mile Colorado Trail in memory of his friend, Kenyan cyclist Suleiman “Sule” Kangangi.

As you’ll recall, Kangangi was killed in a tragic fall ago during Vermont Overland gravel race just ten days ago.

Morton has already raised an additional $7,000 for Kangangi’s wife and children over the $70,000 raised by the crowdfunding campaign before he started his ride Tuesday morning.

Meanwhile, Kenyan Sports Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed credits a conversation with Kangangi for her own keen interest in bicycling, and the country’s potential to develop into a cycling powerhouse.

………

Planning efforts are still ongoing to improve safety in Griffith Park, in addition to the recent closure of Griffith Park Drive.

https://twitter.com/cd4losangeles/status/1567232493417537536

………

Not only is NBA star Kevin Love one of us, he appears to be riding the ebike/sidecar combo we mentioned yesterday, with his dog safely in the passenger seat.

………

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

Virginia Beach VA is ripping out a pilot bike lane after a single year, even though it was the most popular part of the city’s popup safety project.

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

A Manchester, England bike rider is on trial for killing a 56-year old pedestrian, who died eight days after the rider allegedly ran a red light while wearing headphones.

………

Local

At last, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is giving us enough notice of a planned bike and pedestrian safety operation to make a difference, with the crackdown scheduled for September 15th in West Hollywood. The usual protocol applies — ride to the letter of the law until you cross the city limit line, so you’re not the one who gets ticketed. Or just avoid WeHo altogether that day. 

 

State 

Smart Cities Dive offers more details on California’s new $1,000 tax credit for carless low income households.

Queen Maxima of the Netherlands is visiting San Francisco to put a spotlight on bicycling, among other issues; she’ll travel to Texas later in the week.

 

National

A writer for Adventure Journal compares ebikes to snowboards, arguing that any controversy seems to stem from a fear of change, combined with a little arrogance and jealousy.

Cycling Weekly insists ebikes are the future of transportation, despite their  current status as an oddity in the land of the automobile.

Cycling News offers tips on how to increase the resale value of your bike.

A veteran bikepacker is attempting to be the first person to ride the entire 5,900-mile Eastern Divide Trail, billed as the world’s longest offroad trail. As usual, read it on Yahoo if Bicycling blocks you. 

Um, no. A Las Vegas paper bizarrely reports that “police suspect (a bike rider) was hit by a car” Tuesday morning, critically injuring the victim. Except there’s no suspicion about it. They the driver was operating the car that hit the victim — even though they fail to mention that the car even had one.

Baphomet Bicycles framebuilder Dillen Maurer lost a foot in a collision with an ATV rider while riding his bicycle near his Taos, New Mexico home over the long weekend; his left foot was somehow severed a few inches over the ankle.

A Denver columnist asks if people can live with ebikes on Colorado bike trails.

As usual, low-income neighborhoods populated by people of color get ignored by city officials, as residents of Chicago’s Far South Side complain about a lack of any bike infrastructure, let alone the protected bike lanes they want and need.

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu announced a major expansion of the city’s bike lane network, with a goal of putting half of Boston’s population within in three-minute walk of a protected bike lane in just three years — although the initial expansion calls for just 9.4 miles of new bike lanes in the next year.

A Virginia letter writer questions the need for a local bike lane, saying he just returned from Paris where he saw hundreds of bicyclists, but very few bike lanes. Evidently, he also missed the news about the major expansion of separated bike lanes in the City of Lights, with plans to make the entire city 100% rideable.

 

International

A contentious London bikeway is exceeding expectations with ridership up 37% over 2019, despite the dire predictions of an anti-bike lane counselor. Meanwhile, London will make a trio of separated, pandemic popup bike lanes permanent.

A new study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine shows that regular exercise can help keep you from getting infected with Covid, and reduce the severity if you do get it. Once again, read it on Yahoo if Bicycling blocks you.

Bicycling continues to grow more popular in Belgium’s Flanders region, though the increase in ridership is also accompanied by a jump in bicycling injuries.

A Welsh cycling club discovered the high cost of Brexit when they arrived in Spain for a 600-mile fundraising ride to battle prostate cancer, and were hit with over $8,400 in customs tariffs for their bikes.

King Oyo of Tooro is one of us. King Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV, the reigning Omukama of the Bantu kingdom of Tooro in Uganda, rode a section of the kingdom’s bike race with the peloton to start the competition.

A Kiwi longtail bike commuter complains about the abuse she faces from drivers on a daily basis.

 

Competitive Cycling

Defending Vuelta champ Primož Roglič’s bold effort to reclaim the red leader’s jersey suffered a setback when he fell hard just 300 yards from the finish, as Mads Pedersen took the win in Tuesday’s stage 16; Although Roglič somehow gained eight seconds anyway, and now trails leader Remco Evenepoel by one minute 26 seconds.

Giro winner Jai Hindley nears the end of the Vuelta in tenth place, despite never seriously contending for the red jersey.

Cycling Weekly considers five things they learned from Tuesday’s Vuelta stage, including that Roglič is down, but he may not be out. Although the first test is whether he can even make Wednesday’s start.

That feeling when Piglet, Eeyore and Pooh come out to cheer on the peloton, along with some random monkey.

https://twitter.com/lavuelta/status/1567157430898786306?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1567157430898786306%7Ctwgr%5E652e8f2f59e395df93482e8159d57e3919e9007f%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Froad.cc%2Fcontent%2Fnews%2Fcycling-live-blog-6-september-2022-295735

 

Finally…

Getting down with bike disco. That feeling when your Strava data reveals the location of top secret military bases.

And when you bust out of jail, and refuse to go back unless they let you ride a bike.

https://twitter.com/MarkRid89403375/status/1566909708195303424

Thanks to Megan Lynch for the link.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

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

Taking Metro to task for wasting funds on highways, LA tanks on best bike cities list, and big Griffith Park announcement Friday

August 17, 2022 / / One comment

Let’s start with a new op-ed taking Metro to task for continuing to flush tens of billions of dollars down the highway toilet.

Writing in the LA Times, Streets For All founder Michael Schneider argues that the county transportation agency’s highway construction plans more than negate any climate change improvements from new transit lines, while only serving to make traffic worse.

Hello, induced demand.

Climate change impact is measured in two ways: vehicle miles traveled and greenhouse gas emissions. For the billions that we will spend on new bus and rail service, as well as active transportation improvements, Metro estimates in a study it just published that by 2047 we will reduce vehicle miles traveled by 9.7 billion, resulting in a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2.7 million metric tons of CO2. These massive reductions would result in much cleaner air for us all, and go a long way toward meeting our climate goals.

However, just as Metro is spending tens of billions building rail and bus projects, it also plans to spend billions adding 363 miles of new highways and arterials. According to Metro’s own calculations based on state standards, this will increase vehicle miles traveled by up to 36.8 billion, and emit an additional 10.1 million metric tons of CO2.

Yes, you read that right — we are spending tens of billions of dollars to make climate change and traffic worse. The expansion of highways will do far more harm than the expansion of mass transit will avert.

Never mind that the money being wasted on highway expansion could be put to better use building bus and bike networks, as well as speeding the completion of the upcoming K Line (Crenshaw Line) to connect with the B Line (aka Red Line) at Hollywood & Highland.

That would create Metro’s first viable connector line, with connections to the B Line, D Line (Purple), E Line (Expo), and the C Line (Green), as well as connecting to LAX.

As Schneider says, it’s long past time Metro stopped sabotaging their climate-friendly projects, and instead spend the money we give them on projects that will reduce vehicle miles traveled and greenhouse gas emissions.

Wasting more money on highway projects is exactly what we don’t need now.

Or ever, for that matter.

………

Surprising results, as a new survey ranks Utrecht in the Netherlands the world’s best bicycling city.

That’s followed by Munster, Germany and Antwerp, Belgium, before we get to the usual suspects in Copenhagen and Amsterdam.

Meanwhile, Johannesburg, South Africa checks in as the worst city to ride a bike.

Not surprisingly, no American city made the top ten. You have to go all the way down to #39 to find San Francisco, followed by Portland at #41.

Los Angeles checks in at a deservedly low #57 out of 100 cities worldwide.

The only real question is why we ranked that high.

………

The plot thickens, as both CD4 Councilmember Nithya Raman and Finish the Ride, tease a big announcement on the future of Griffith Park this Friday.

………

Nice. USA Cycling is looking to fast track entree to track cycling for kids from marginalized communities that have traditionally been ignored by cycling.

………

The Bike League is recruiting more LCIs.

https://twitter.com/BikeLeague/status/1559276241106006017

………

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

An Oregon driver is charged with 2nd degree murder for intentionally backing his truck into a man on a bicycle following an argument between the two men, pinning the other man against a wall.

A London, Ontario bike rider is speaking out about the apparently intentional hit-and-run that left him with a broken collarbone, and injured another rider.

A London cabbie celebrates the removal of a bike lane by buzzing the unfortunate bike rider who happened to be there.

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

An equestrian in the UK blames a bike racing club for panicking her horse, which nearly spun her in front of an oncoming car. We’re only getting one side of the story here, but seriously, show some respect and courtesy to others on the road.

………

Local

The LA Times offers tips on riding an ebike, saying they offer a different ride than regular bikes.

West Hollywood looks forward to Sunday’s CicLAvia—Meet the Hollywoods, which travels down Hollywood Blvd, Highland Ave and Santa Monica Blvd, and invites attendees to stick around afterwards for a free concert with M&M The Afro-Persian Experience at Plummer Park.

Compton is embedding Botts’ Dots in an intersection in an effort to halt street takeovers.

This is how Vision Zero is supposed to work. Long Beach is planning safety improvements at an intersection where a seven-year old boy was killed by a left-turning truck driver while crossing in a crosswalk with his dad, even though the intersection was considered up to code at the time of last month’s crash.

Long Beach’s popular Beach Streets University open streets event is set to return to the area around Cal State Long Beach next month, after a two-year hiatus.

 

State 

Governor Newsom has signed a new law charging the CHP with developing statewide safety standards for ebikes. Although they couldn’t have found a less bike-friendly organization, or one with more limited training on existing bike laws.

The family of fallen bicyclist Christine Hawk Embree is calling for safer streets after the 35-year old woman was killed in a Carlsbad collision while riding her ebike with her 16-month old daughter, who somehow survived unscathed.

Former Santa Monica city manager and Los Angeles deputy mayor Rick Cole says the death of respected Ventura County Supervisor Carmen Ramirez is a wake-up call for street safety; Ramirez was killed crossing an Oxnard street last week.

The Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition is hosting their 12th Annual Bike Summit in Millbrae tomorrow.

San Francisco has put plans for congestion pricing on hold until traffic returns to pre-pandemic levels. Meanwhile, LA’s proposed congestion pricing plan is apparently being studied to death.

 

National

Road Bike Rider offers advice on how to survive the dreaded speed wobbles.

People For Bikes argues that bicycles and ebikes weren’t completely ignored in the recently signed Inflation Reduction Act, though you have to look pretty damn hard to find them.

Boston commuters are expected to take to their bikes to cope with a month-long train line shutdown.

Fire up your crocodile tears for all those New Yorkers who can’t find anywhere to park their cars, in the one American city where you’re least likely to need one.

A Virginia woman says now she needs to live for her friend after they were both run down by an 18-year old alleged drunk driver; only she survived, though she has a very long road to recovery.

 

International

Canadians are up in arms over a policy allowing ebikes in the country’s Banff National Park.

Road.cc remembers “slightly crazed” English bike designer Mike Burrows, saying we’ll “never see his like again;” Burrows died Monday at age 79.

That’s more like it. A 29-year old Scottish driver got a well-deserved five years behind bars, along with a 12 and a half year ban on driving, for killing a 16-year old boy riding his bike home from school, while he was driving at a whopping 80 mph in a 30 mph zone.

No bias here. Britain’s Transportation Secretary promises to get tough on bike riders, saying bicyclists should be insured, have license plates on their bikes, and be subject to the same speed limits as motorists.

The executive director of a UK bike advocacy organization says it’s a mistake to pitch ebikes as “enhanced bicycles,” arguing they should be considered the most energy efficient of all electric vehicles, instead.

A Toronto paper says Munich’s bicycling culture offers ideas on how to safely integrate bikes and cars, arguing that the city should prioritize safe infrastructure instead of cracking down on bike riders with ineffective policing.

She gets it. An op-ed writer for a Malta newspaper says a mandatory helmet law won’t make bicycling any safer; what’s needed is better infrastructure, safer vehicles and education.

A traffic safety organization in the Netherlands teamed with a bike advocacy group to call for a ban on ebike performance kits, which can double the allowed speed controls; a spokesperson says “If you install one on the electric bike, you are simply a racing monster.”

 

Competitive Cycling

Seven-time Grand Tour winner Chris Froome says he’s fully recovered from Covid, and ready to roll in Friday’s Vuelta a España, where he’ll co-lead the Israel-Premier Tech team with Michael Woods.

A new women and majority-minority owned cycling league is set to take off, with teams in Miami, Atlanta, Denver and Chicago.

 

Finally…

No, you can’t legally jam drivers’ cellphones, tempting though it may be. You — yes, you — can build your very own DIY ebike.

And Dustin Hoffman was one of us. On a foldie, no less.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

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

New bikeways coming to LA’s CD4, murder trial in DUI death of 12-year old boy, and civilizing British streets — or not

January 25, 2022 / / One comment

At least one LA councilmember is living up to campaign promises when it comes to safe streets.

Streetsblog’s Joe Linton is reporting that CD4 Councilmember Nithya Raman is moving forward with plans for seven new bikeways, though her efforts are hampered by short staffing at LADOT.

Linton blames the staffing shortages on the feared budget shortfalls due to the pandemic, which failed to materialize thanks to federal COVID recovery funds.

However, the department has been understaffed for years, particularly in regards to bicycling and walking infrastructure, which has severely hampered the department’s ability to make much-needed changes to our streets.

The bikeways are currently being planned or implemented in Los Feliz and the San Fernando Valley, including —

  • Replacing sharrows on Riverside Drive south of Griffith Park with a lane removal and parking protected bike lane, the first in the 4th Council District, due to be complete in the next few months.
  • Adding protected bike lanes on Riverside Drive north of Griffith Park, in cooperation with Glendale and Burbank.
  • New bike lanes on Hyperion Blvd from Griffith Park Blvd to Rowena Ave to connect current bike lanes on Rowena and Griffith Park Blvd, as well as bike lanes promised for the Glendale-Hyperion Bridge.
  • Closing an existing half-mile gap in the bike lanes on Burbank Blvd between Hazeltine Ave and Van Nuys Blvd, part of the city’s Vision Zero High Injury Network.
  • Adding protected bike lanes leading from the G Line — nee Orange Line — bike path to the North Hollywood Metro Station and the Chandler bike path.

Raman is also assuming shared responsibility for portions of projects already underway in what was formerly other council districts, which were moved into her district under the recently redistricting.

  • A new three-mile long segment of L.A. River Greenway from Vanalden Ave to Balboa Blvd, which will nearly complete the river path west of the Sepulveda Basin, shared with 3rd District Councilmember Bob Blumenfield
  • The 3-mile long Reseda Boulevard Complete Streets Project currently  under construction from Victory Boulevard to Parthenia Street, shared with Blumenfield and CD12’s John Lee.

Unfortunately, she no longer has responsibility for much of Hollywood, Mid-City and Hancock Park, so any hope for changes there will depend on who replaces Paul Koretz in CD5, and whether Mitch O’Farrell remains in office in CD13.

………

Suspected stoned driver Richard David Lavalle is set to go on trial this week for killing a 12-year old boy near a Costa Mesa park.

The 59-year old Long Beach resident faces a single murder count for running down Noel Bascon as he was riding a bike with his father near Tewinkle Park a little over a year ago.

Lavalle was driving a rented moving truck when he allegedly ran a stop sign, and slammed into the boy as he rode in a crosswalk on Arlington Drive.

He was previously convicted of DUI in San Diego County in 2013, which justifies the murder count for a second violation under California law, and was on parole at the time of the crash.

He faces up to 30 years behind bars if he’s convicted.

………

He gets it.

A columnist for The Spectator says the UK’s updated Traffic Code will civilize the streets entitled motorists have ruled for far too long.

Without digging into the details, the main point of the changes is to give greater priority to vulnerable road users. Or put another way, unlike 007, they’re taking away drivers licenses to kill.

One they apparently issued themselves.

No one set out to turn our towns, cities, villages and rural roads into dangerous hellholes. It just happened as motorists assumed the right to highways which were never designed for motor traffic. It was the exercise of raw power: drivers of motor vehicles lording it over the rest of us because they could.

It’s worth a few minutes to give it a read.

On the other hand, there are people who don’t get it at all. Take this gasoline-addled automotive troglodyte.

Please.

Under cover of Covid, they have turned our city centres into crazy golf courses, intended to frustrate freedom of movement by giving priority to Lycra-clad lunatics on racing bikes and suicide jockeys on e-scooters.

Transport policy has been captured by single-issue, anti-car fanatics, hell-bent on bankrupting businesses and causing the maximum possible inconvenience to the traveling public…

Our other major cities have suffered from pollution-spewing traffic jams created by Town Hall Guardianista polar-bear huggers in thrall to the cult of the great god cycling.

Maybe that should read ‘Cyclops’, since the pushbike lobby are terminally myopic when it comes to seeing any point of view other than their own warped ideology.

Nope.

No bias there.

………

When is a Culver City protected bike lane not a bike lane?

When it’s a parking spot.

………

Good question.

What does Rancho Palos Verdes have against kids riding bikes at the park?

https://twitter.com/cyanginpedro/status/1485207813278162945

………

It looks like San Gabriel Valley state Senator Anthony Portantino is one of us.

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

Someone is sabotaging a pilot bike lane on a Boston bridge installed to test plans for a more permanent lane, tossing orange cones marking the lane into the Charles River, not just once, but twice over the last weekend.

………

Local

LADOT will host a virtual community meeting at 7 pm today to discuss the Lincoln Fast Forward project, which includes pedestrians improvements and rush hour bus lanes, but no bike lanes; however, bike riders are allowed to use the bus lanes, as long as you don’t mind an impatient bus driver running up your ass. You can register here.

A man was shot in a driveby while riding his bike at Whites Canyon Road and Delight Street in Santa Clarita; there’s no word on his condition, or if the shooting was gang-related or a road rage attack.

 

State

Singletracks looks at the California Mountain Biking Coalition, calling it a “squeaky wheel for trail advocacy.”

The Safe Transportation Research and Education Center at UC Berkeley, aka SafeTREC, is opening applications for the next round of its Community Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Training program.

Oakland completes a previously missing bikeway gap on Telegraph Avenue, albeit with just painted bike lanes, rather than the protected lanes found on other segments.

 

National

Peloton is forced to explain once again that their indoor cycling bikes really aren’t dangerous, after a character on Billions suffers a heart-attack following a session on the bike; needless to say, the company was none too pleased.

Here’s your chance to break into the glamorous bike biz, as PinkBike lists 19 open jobs available right now.

Home improvement guy Bob Vila has a seven-point plan to change a bike tire for you.

New York’s Daily News says the city’s new mayor is right to prioritize safe streets, after mixed Vision Zero results under the previous mayor.

Miami reopens iconic Ocean Drive to cars after two years, but with a new two-way bike lane facing the beach.

 

International

Road.cc looks forward to eleven big bike launches expected to be unveiled in the coming year.

Unbelievable. A sheriff’s deputy found a British Columbia driver smoking heroin shortly after he ran down a 67-year old man riding a bike and kept going, even though he knew he hit something but was too scared to stop.

Bicycle holding company Pon.Bike announced plans to return bikemaking to Europe with a Lithuanian production facility capable of building up to 600,000 bicycles a year; they are the parent company of Gazelle, Cervélo, FOCUS, Santa Cruz and other bike brands.

Your next Japanese foldie ebike could come with just 57 low-maintenance parts.

 

Competitive Cycling

Bad news from Colombia, where former Tour de France and current Giro champ Egan Bernal was seriously injured in a collision with a parked bus while training with teammates in his hometown of Zipaquira; Bernal suffered a broken femur and kneecap, requiring surgery to reconstruct his right leg, as well as to stabilize a spinal fracture and traumatic disc herniation.

Former national and Pan-American ‘cross champ Stephen Hyde is calling it a career after ten years on the pro circuit.

 

Finally…

Crashing bicycles, houseflies and infinite series mathematics. Why waste energy pedaling when you could just power your bike with an electric drill?

And seriously, who hasn’t jumped a bike off a hovering helicopter?

………

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

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

Irish driver says bike riders are always right, crowdfund campaign for 13-year old crash victim, and help set policy in CD4

January 18, 2022 / / Comments Off on Irish driver says bike riders are always right, crowdfund campaign for 13-year old crash victim, and help set policy in CD4

She gets it.

Today’s must read comes from an Irish columnist who says bike riders are always right, even though she’s a driver.

Well, maybe not always.

She describes being chased off her bike, first by catching a tire in a Dublin rail track, then by a cab driver who leaned on his horn and called her a “stupid bitch,” for the crime of being on the road ahead of him.

And hasn’t ridden it since.

But still, there’s this —

But we are sharing the road. We don’t own the road, we drivers. Paying motor tax doesn’t entitle us to everything from kerb to kerb and baying that “cyclists don’t pay” is childish. Cycling is a sustainable, relatively inexpensive, and health-promoting mode of transport. Do we really want to tax that? What next, pedestrians paying footpath tax?

She sums it up this way.

Back in my spot on the devil’s lap, I must acknowledge that just as there are bad drivers, there are bad cyclists. The weavers, the light-breakers (even though this is often the safest option), the all-in-blacks. Of course they exist, but they can’t be a reason to scapegoat an entire community of cyclists. I guarantee if you see one “bad cyclist” on your journey, a cyclist sees 10 dangerous drivers, two of which unwittingly tried to kill them.

It’s worth a few minutes of your day to give it a read.

If only to see that there really are people who don’g ride a bike, but get what it’s like for us, anyway.

………

A crowdfunding campaign has been set up to help pay funeral expenses for Edward Vazquez Jr, the 13-year old boy killed by a driver while riding his bike in Corona last week.

As of this writing, it’s raised just $1925 of the $15,000 goal.

………

Here’s your chance to help direct policy for my councilmember.

Which is why I want someone who rides bikes to get the job.

………

If your bike was stolen stolen in the Rancho Cucamonga area recently, the local PD may have good news for you. Or not.

https://twitter.com/IrvinePolice/status/1482169425402941445

Thanks to David Huntsman for the link.

………

Why would anyone in Ontario, Canada, give a damn about distracted driving when the premier of the province clearly doesn’t?

………

A new Quebec ad campaign takes aim at jaywalkers.

Literally.

https://twitter.com/delanightmares/status/1482845798673313792?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1483026563578880002%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es3_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Froad.cc%2Fcontent%2Fnews%2Fcycling-live-blog-17-january-2022-289555

Maybe instead of wasting money telling people not to jaywalk, they could improve streets with better crossings so it’s not necessary. And safer if they do, anyway.

………

Of course there’s a bicycle superhero. Because why wouldn’t there be?

https://twitter.com/CoolBikeArt1/status/1483187849411313670

Then again, this is the real superpower.

………

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

File this one under be careful what you wish for. A bill in the Vermont legislature would require everyone on a bicycle to ride single file on any roadway without bike lanes. Which would increase the danger for people on bikes by encouraging unsafe passing, while increasing the time, distance and risk involved to pass a large group of riders.

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

An off-duty cop working as a security guard engaged in a shootout inside an Oklahoma  Walmart with a man who tried to pay for a few items while walking out without paying for a new bike.

Police in Queens, NY are looking for the rider of a throttle-controlled ebike who pulled out a gun, and shot out a speed camera.

A conservation group is accusing bike riders of damaging the UK’s New Forest national park, after a six-week study showed 550 people on bicycles riding off designated trails. Seriously, show some respect for the land.

………

Local

Streetsblog’s Joe Linton remembers longtime transit advocate and Streetsblog contributor Dana Gabbord, whose big heart gave out just shy of his 60th birthday.

The Eastsider says county workers want to know what keeps people in East LA from walking and being more active. Hint: They usually have four wheels

WeHoVille talks crime and ebikes with West Hollywood Public Safety Commissioner Danny Roman, owner of Bikes & Hikes LA.

 

State

Sonoma votes for a road diet on a major street, while still forcing bike riders to contend with drivers parking their cars.

 

National

It’s been a big couple years for women’s bicycling, as nearly 56% of women who currently ride bikes either started during the pandemic, or came back to bicycling after a layoff.

A writer for Jalopnik tries to track down the provenance of a bike someone apparently won off the side of a Hi-C drink box.

Some Portland residents responded to calls to use MLK Jr. Day as a day of service by sweeping out bike lanes, while an Idaho group used the day to distribute 50 bikes to people in need.

Seattle may not have repealed its mandatory bike helmet law yet, but the local police have decided they won’t stop riders just for not wearing one anymore, as well as downplaying a number of other minor traffic violations since they don’t have a direct connection to the safety of others.

A Vermont website remembers the bike-riding former state house leader, whose passion for bicycling was matched only by his passion for public service; Willem Jewett was just 56 years old when he died via the medical-aid-in-dying law he helped pass, after struggling for years with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

New York’s new mayor plans to cut the city’s vehicle fleet down to the bare minimum, and encourage employees to ride the subway or take buses instead. Or better yet, just improve the city’s bike network and tell ’em to ride bicycles, instead. 

NBA star Jimmy Butler is one of us, buying a new bicycle so his two-year old daughter can ride in a child’s seat on the back.

Hundreds of Florida teens turned out for the annual, unsanctioned Wheels Up, Guns Down rideout to mark Dr. Martin Luther King’s call for nonviolent protest, including one group that took over the right side of a freeway.

 

International

Vogue Business considers the fashion industry’s recent inroads into the world of bicycling.

If you build it, they will come. Despite cries that London’s new bike network is blocking traffic, it is traffic, as bike riders now outnumber motorists in some areas of the city.

An English serial bike thief will spend the next 21 months behind bars for stealing six bikes worth more than $6,000 after gaining access to three apartment buildings.

A British man tells his harrowing tale of suffering a debilitating stroke at just 39 years old, and how he fought his way back to full mobility with determination and a bicycle.

Good Samaritans kept an alleged stoned driver from fleeing the scene after running down a UK bike rider, punching him in the face and dragging him out of the car he was trying to jack after abandoning his own heavily damaged car.

A retired Irish schoolteacher has become the oldest person to ride a bike around the world, completing the challenge at the ripe old age of…56? Seriously? That’s a ridiculously young age to be the oldest to do damn near anything, let alone anything to do with riding a bicycle.

You know a city is serious about getting people out of their cars when bikeshare is free, like it is in Prague, where a pilot program allowing transit pass holders 15 minutes of free bikeshare, up to four times a day, is going to be made permanent. Especially since rental bikes are a gateway drug for bicycling.

A delivery rider for Uber Eats faces a charge of professional negligence resulting in death after running down a 78-year old man crossing a Tokyo intersection; police blame the speed required by the company for causing the crash.

A new Kiwi study shows that the benefits of walking and bicycling outweighs the costs of building better facilities and educational campaigns by a whopping ten to one, especially in terms of better health and fewer cars on the road.

 

Competitive Cycling

Irish cyclist Sam Bennett says pro cycling has gotten so scientific and technical, it doesn’t even feel like he’s riding a bike anymore.

A new self-supported bikepacking race will take riders on over 1,000 miles of new trails through Southern Colorado and Northern New Mexico.

 

Finally…

How to give your bike an extreme wooden makeover. If you’re planning to pawn a stolen bike, don’t give them all your personal information.

And we’ll know it works when it becomes the latest time trial technique.

………

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

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

Caltrans commits to Complete Streets — no, really, Raman wants your street requests, and Dierks does it again

December 23, 2021 / / Comments Off on Caltrans commits to Complete Streets — no, really, Raman wants your street requests, and Dierks does it again

It’s the penultimate day of the 7th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive! Just two more days to support SoCal’s best source for bike news and advocacy!

Thanks to Sarah S and Castell C for their generous donations to help keep all the best, brightest and freshest bike news coming to your way every day.

So don’t wait. Stop what you’re doing and give now via PayPal, or with Zelle to ted @ bikinginla.com.

Any amount, no matter how large or small, is truly and deeply appreciated, more than I could begin to say.

………

Maybe they’re finally done making excuses.

Streetsblog reports Caltrans has finally and formally embraced Complete Streets, supplanting an earlier policy that was seen as weak-kneed and too easy to weasel out of, which they usually did.

This time, it seems to have teeth.

The policy, signed by director Toks Omishakin on December 7, states that “Caltrans recognizes that streets are not only used for transportation but are also valuable community spaces. Accordingly, in locations with current and/or future pedestrian, bicycle, or transit needs, all transportation projects funded or overseen by Caltrans will provide comfortable, convenient, and connected complete streets facilities for people walking, biking, and taking transit or passenger rail unless an exception is documented and approved. When decisions are made not to include complete streets elements in capital and maintenance projects, the justification will be documented with final approval by the responsible District Director.”

It says all the right things.

We’ll see if they actually live up to it.

………

If, like me, you still live in LA’s 4th Council District, which lost 2/3 of its previous residents in redistricting, it looks like Councilmember Nithya Raman is actually asking for help identifying needed changes on the streets.

https://twitter.com/streetsforall/status/1473777941440049157

………

Country start Dierks Bentley, who was apparently born during a vowel surplus, learns a lesson about filming while fat biking in the snow. But at least he didn’t break a hip this time.

………

………

Local

No surprise here. LAist says how long it takes to make safety improvements to a street depends on who represents your neighborhood on the city council. Or as we’ve learned the hard way, whether it gets done at all.

Speaking of which, South LA’s deadly Adams Blvd is finally getting a makeover under the city’s Vision Zero program, despite not currently having a representative on the city council after Mark Ridley-Thomas stepped back in the wake of bribery charges; the street saw nine traffic deaths in just three years, including a bike rider who remains officially unnamed two years later.

US Representative Judy Chu met with Glendora officials and Active SGV Executive Director David Diaz to tour the city’s Greenway Network, and tout the benefits of the new federal bipartisan infrastructure law.

 

State

Streets For All is joining Calbike in calling on the state to commit $2 billion of the record $31 billion budget surplus to active transportation projects; the money would fund 80 shovel-ready biking and walking projects throughout the state, including 17 in Los Angeles County.

 

National

Forbes recommends seven bike storage options to help get your whips squared away.

NBA all-star Kevin Love is one of us, telling a reporter the hardest workout he’s ever done was his annual ride up Utah’s 8.250-foot Mount Timpanogos.

Denver is reducing speed limits in residential neighborhoods to 20 mph. Which would be a good idea for Los Angeles, except the current 25 mph speed limit is already universally ignored by drivers.

A Michigan man can credit a wrong turn with saving his life, after an off-duty nurse spotted him writhing in a bike lane after she turned on the the wrong street on a freezing morning; without her help, the man could have bled out or frozen to death after apparently crashing his bike — or maybe getting knocked off it.

There’s a special place in hell for the man who stole a kids bike to make his escape as he fled a collision where he had just killed a woman while driving a stolen truck.

Nice. New York’s newly appointed transportation commissioner commits to replacing half of the car-tickler plastic bendy posts that pass for protection on too many of the city’s 198 miles of protected bike lanes, with something more solid and actually protective in his first 100 days in office.

New York’s Citi Bike bikeshare was knocked offline at the height of rush hour yesterday when Amazon’s internet servers went down again.

A 21-year old Florida man faces multiple charges for the alleged drunken and stoned crash that killed a father out for his daily bike ride. But his lawyer thinks he should get credit for sticking around and trying to help the man, who wouldn’t have needed it if he hadn’t been driving.

 

International

Momentum questions whether ebikes are suited for cold North American winters, noting that they don’t perform well in temperatures below 0° Fahrenheit.

Meanwhile, Jalopnik examines the problem of lithium mines needed to fuel the world’s conversion to electric cars — a problem shared by ebikes, albeit to a lesser degree.

Speaking of a special place in hell, whoever stole a Vancouver man’s mountain bike as he lay in the hospital recovering from a ruptured spleen certainly deserves it; remarkably, police recovered the man’s bike days later after spotting it during a walkthrough of an SRO hotel.

An 85-year old Frenchman got back the bike his father built from spare parts in 1946 when he was ten years old, after it was recovered by a junk dealer in good, rideable condition.

An Aussie man got his stolen $15,000 Cervelo back after spotting an ad on Facebook selling just the wheels for $1,000; police charged a woman with possessing stolen property.

 

Competitive Cycling

Will the last bike race to leave the US please turn off the lights? The Tour of Utah became just the latest in a long list of major bike races to bite the dust, joining the Tour of California and the USA Pro Cycling Challenge, and too many others, in going out of business.

PEZ Cycling News considers history’s best comebacks in the pro peloton, including the problematic Mr. Armstrong.

 

Finally…

If you’re going to set a playground on fire, don’t leave your bike there afterwards — and don’t try to tell the police someone stole it. That feeling when the cops apparently stole a bike corral, because parking.

And celebrate the holidays with a mountain biker’s entertaining take on the season’s most interminable carol.

………

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

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

Another LA councilmember indicted for bribery, Claremont clarifies apparent bike ban, and bike riders get Gavined again

October 14, 2021 / / Comments Off on Another LA councilmember indicted for bribery, Claremont clarifies apparent bike ban, and bike riders get Gavined again

My apologies for the recent unexcused absences. 

You know I’m having a bad night when I post an explanation for why I won’t be posting something that day.

A really bad night is when I don’t manage to post anything at all. 

……..

The beat goes on at LA City Hall, where yet another councilmember has been indicted for bribery.

Longtime LA-area politician Mark Ridley-Thomas was indicted for allegedly bribing a former dean at USC to admit a family member into a graduate program while he was serving on the LA County Board of Supervisors, before getting elected to the city council after he was termed out by the county.

He is the third current or former councilmember to be indicted for bribery in recent years, although Mitch Englander was convicted of receiving bribes, and Jose Huizar charged with doing the same.

And that doesn’t include CD12 City Councilmember John Lee, who remains on the council, despite reportedly figuring prominently in the bribery charge and conviction of his predecessor.

Maybe that’s our problem.

Maybe we need to take up a collection to bribe a few councilmembers, so bikes can get their attention for a change.

Meanwhile, the New York Times looks at the redistricting controversy that could send recently elected CD4 Councilmember Nithya Raman to represent the San Fernando Valley, where no one voted for her, while disenfranchising  her current district and leaving them without the bike, pedestrian and transit-friendly representative they voted for.

………

Claremont has apparently learned the error of their ways, correcting a badly worded draft ordinance that could have been read to ban bicycles on at least one street, in violation of state law.

Credit Erik Griswold with sounding the alarm.

………

Evidently, we’ve been Gavined again.

Streetsblog reports Governor Newsom vetoed AB 1147, which would have required better data and analysis regarding greenhouse gas reductions, while calling on Caltrans to develop a pilot program of branded bicycle highways.

He apparently wielded his overactive veto pen out of spite because the bill’s author, Laura Friedman, blocked Newsom’s $7.6 billion transportation bill in a dispute over what segments of high speed rail to fund first.

And no, I don’t know what a “branded” bicycle highway is, either.

On the other hand, Newsom did sign AB 773, which will make it easier to make Slow Streets permanent, as well as partially or completely closing streets for al fresco dining.

He also signed Friedman’s AB 43, which will allow cities to lower speed limits, but not until July 1st, 2024.

And Newsom signed SB 69, which will shut down the state’s “the defunct and bankrupt North Coast Railroad Authority,” and transition it to the Great Redwood Trail Agency, which will be charged establishing a rail trail through the redwoods along California’s North Coast.

………

We’ve been following the case of the coal-rolling, 16-year old Texas driver who slammed into six bicyclists on a training ride in Waller County, and trying to read through the lines to figure out why the kid wasn’t charged on the spot.

We don’t have to wonder anymore.

Erik Griswold forwarded a powerful blog post from the Houston lawyer representing the victims from earlier this month, which has somehow gone unreported in the media.

Our 6 clients are suffering from horrible injuries including broken vertebrae, cervical and lumbar spinal injuries, broken collar bones, hands, and wrists- many of which require surgical intervention- as well as multiple traumatic brain injuries, lacerations, soft tissue damage, road rash, and extensive bruising. And those are just the physical injuries.

The driver of the black F-250 that crushed our clients’ bodies and left them and their bikes splashed and scattered across the roadway is a 16 year old Waller, Texas male. Through our own investigation, we’ve learned his name, his address, the names of his parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents, neighbors and family friends. We know the names of the businesses owned and operated by the driver’s family. We know where he was earlier in the day, prior to crashing into our clients while they were more than 70 miles into their USAT tri-club training ride. We know the identity of his passenger (a local 17 year old male from a neighboring town) and a pretty good idea about the role he may have played in causing the crash that sent ALL of our clients to the hospital; 2 by Life Flight, 2 by ambulance, 2 by personal transport…

The driver’s family’s connections in Waller are a legitimate reason for concern, but I know that Charlie and Peter are very well versed in handling the challenges that nepotism can create.

They go on to add this —

The backdrop of the Waller Bike Crash is one riddled with anti-bike bias. Charlie knows all too well as he has recent experiences with judges there, one who actually lamented to him that Waller, TX “doesn’t like [our] kind.” Charlie has formerly represented several cyclists who were targeted and ticketed by Waller police over the last couple of years…This advocacy includes exposing and fighting against those who choose to selectively enforce the law for only a select few.

Our clients are not only hostages to the truck driver’s behavior and their own broken bodies, but also to a criminal process that is supposed to help make them “whole” again in a place that “doesn’t like [their] kind.”

Which reads like a perfect example of saying something without saying it.

Without mentioning the names of the driver’s family members, or their social, financial and/or official positions, the post makes it very clear he’s part of, and protected by, a powerful family in the country.

And that achieving justice in the face of the county’s extreme anti-bike bias will be an uphill climb.

It’s definitely worth a click to read the whole thing.

………

Streetsblog reports that Norwalk is beginning work on a bicycle master plan.

Thanks to Joe Linton for the heads-up.

………

LADOT offers a quick look at last Sunday’s CicLAvia.

………

That feeling when you win the Nobel, but have no use for the prime parking spot that comes with it.

Thanks to Megan Lynch for forwarding the tweets.

………

Kermet is one of us, too.

https://twitter.com/HistoryMuppet/status/1447643719512072192

But then, we already knew that.

And yes, that’s something to sing about.

………

A UK bike advocacy group celebrates one of the country’s most celebrated bike illustrators.

………

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

No bias here. A British mayor complains he’s been abused for trying to stop “silly cyclists” from getting killed riding recklessly after dark.

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

A 41-year old man faces charges for running over a 12-year old girl with his bike as she was walking to school in Corona, then stripping naked and making lewd comments; he was arrested as he rode naked past students arriving for school.

Rome, New York police are looking for an ax-wielding, bike-riding robber who made off with a 14-year old boy’s bicycle after threatening to chop his head off.

………

Local

LA is taking another step towards creating a continuous bikeway along the LA River, with plans to close a 2.9-mile gap in the San Fernando Valley.

A letter writer takes the LA Times to task for publishing an op-ed from a homeless advocate complaining about a bike rider who loudly objected to two men blocking the LA River bike path to comfort a homeless man, comparing it to a post on Nextdoor. Ouch.

Santa Monica-based Bird announced a new, integrated smart sidewalk protection technology designed to keep users from illegally riding the company’s e-scooters on sidewalks.

While Los Angeles tries to redefine what “Complete Streets” means to include sort-of, semi-complete streets, Culver City is busy building the real thing with a Complete Streets makeover of Washington Boulevard, including dedicated bike and bus lanes connecting downtown to the city’s E Line, nee Expo, station.

LA County Sheriff’s deputies disproportionately stop, search and handcuff Black people in the Antelope Valley, apparently for the crime of walking, biking or driving while Black.

 

State

Streetsblog complains about Gavin Newsom’s “deeply disappointing” vetos of bills to legalize Stop and Yield for bike riders and decriminalize jaywalking, saying the governor relied on flawed data.

A San Mateo letter writer complains about “confiscating” parking spaces from low income, working class neighborhoods, calling it callous and punitive. Evidently, she’s unaware that poor and working class people ride bicycles, too — many as their only form of transportation.

A letter writer from Northern California’s Plumas County makes the case for bike lanes, noting that he’s 60 year old and rides a bike 60 to 70 miles a week to stave off congestive heart failure. But we all know bike lanes only benefit young, healthy adults. Right?

 

National

America Walks will offer a webinar tomorrow on how to take on harmful jaywalking laws. Just a tad too late for those of us in California, though.

Now you, too, can build your own ebike with fat, low profile wheels intended for custom cars.

KC bike and pedestrian advocates called for safety improvements after a man was killed by two separate hit-and-run drivers while leaving Sunday’s Kansas City Chiefs game.

Kindhearted cops in Jasper, Texas raised funds to buy an adaptive bicycle for a 12-year old special needs girl.

Life is cheap in San Antonio, where a 70-year old woman will serve a lousy ten days behind bars and another hundred on house arrest for the drunk driving death of a bike rider.

Evidently, things are no better in Chicago than the Antelope Valley, where bike riders in predominantly Black neighborhoods are eight times more likely to be ticketed than riders in mostly white neighborhoods.

New York Senator Chuck Schumer promises to deliver for the Deliveristas, promising federal infrastructure funds to build rest areas for New York delivery riders, as they band together to protect their own safety.

A paralyzed former Army Ranger living in Virginia has made it his mission to provide adaptive bicycles for paralyzed and disabled children and veterans.

 

International

A British Columbia drunk driver was 2.5 times over the legal alcohol limit when he killed a bike rider, after texting a woman he was arguing with that he was going to get fucked up. And did, apparently.

The theft of high-end bikes continues in London’s Richmond Park, as machete-wielding thieves on motor scooters attacked a man and made off with his nearly $8,000 bike, the fourth such theft this week. Note to self: Don’t ride in Richmond Park.

Evidently, parking in bike lanes isn’t just an American thing, as a London bike rider snapped a photo showing at least seven drivers parked in one.

An English bike rider credits his helmet with saving his life — not from a collision, but when a brick wall collapsed on him as he was riding by. So always wear your helmet 24/7, on or off your bike, just in case.

After British bike riders ridicule a ridiculously short ten-foot bike lane, county officials contend it’s not really a bike lane, but just bike markings and parallel stripes on the pavement. Which is kind of what a bike lane is.

Does anyone really need the new Van Moof ebike that can do 37 mph? That would make it a motorcycle under California law, requiring a helmet, driver’s license and license plate.

A Turkish woman has taught 72 women to ride bikes in just the last five months, in an area where it’s not considered inappropriate for a woman to ride a bike. Which implies that there are places in the country where it is.

 

Competitive Cycling

A 31-year old woman is set to face charges of causing involuntary injuries and endangering others for causing a mass crash on the opening stage of this year’s Tour de France, by holding a handwritten sign reading Allez Opi-Omi — go grandma and grandpa — in front of the peloton.

Four-time Tour de France champ Chris Froome says he still dreams of getting a record-tying fifth win. Someone who shall not be named once won seven Tour de France titles, before unwinning them by doping.

Legendary cyclist Eddy Merckx says Slovenia’s Tadej Pogačar has the potential to do even better than he did. Which is saying something, since Merckx is generally considered the greatest of all time.

American Olympic bronze medalist Emma White announced her retirement at the ripe old age of 24, just days after winning this year’s Sea Otter Classic.

 

Finally…

That feeling when your neighborhood is closed to kids, because cars. Note to paramedics — don’t leave the damn keys in the ambulance.

And, um, well…

https://twitter.com/EntitledCycling/status/1447990411675389954

………

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

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

CD4’s Raman rides through district to examine safety, and Sunset4All just $16,000 short of protected bike lane goal

July 7, 2021 / / Comments Off on CD4’s Raman rides through district to examine safety, and Sunset4All just $16,000 short of protected bike lane goal

Maybe there’s hope for my part of town yet.

CD4 Councilmember Nithya Raman rode ebikes with Streetsblog’s Joe Linton and the LACBC to learn just what bike riders face on the streets of her district.

And the overwhelming lack of safe bike infrastructure that forces them to.

Due to Raman’s council predecessors, there are not a lot of bikeways in this part of CD4; the only bike lane on the ride was on Hauser Boulevard through Park La Brea. The southern part of the district does feature many fairly well-biked areas, including 4th Street, a low-traffic sharrowed bike route long preferred by cyclists and pedestrians (during COVID, parts of 4th saw more walking and bicycling than driving.) The ride also visited neighborhood traffic-calming street closures along Fairfax Avenue, and the relatively calm 8th Street – which appeared on SBLA’s list of suggested relatively easy bikeways that Raman might consider taking on. There are currently no protected bike lanes in Raman’s district…

“My dream for this district and for the city as a whole is that we can make it safer and easier for people to be able to move around outside of their cars: have it be not just possible, but a pleasant and beautiful experience to get around this city.” “We started six months ago,” noted Raman, “but we’re at the beginning of that process now. And I am really excited to get the entire community involved in thinking about that.”

Let’s hope that she can and will finally get LADOT to actually get something done around here. And repair some of the damage cause by her less-than-bike-friendly predecessors.

………

Sunset4All is now 36% of the way to their $25,000 goal to create a private/public partnership to install protected bike lanes on Sunset and Santa Monica blvds east of Hollywood, after crossing the $9,000 barrier.

………

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

A bike-riding Houston couple open up about the 4th of July incident, when the husband shot a road raging driver who shouted they didn’t belong on the street before intentionally ramming his car into the wife; police arrested the driver after concluding they shot him in self-defense.

………

Local

No news is good news, right?

 

State

Two scientists from opposite ends of the earth converged in San Diego to help change the world. And both lost their lives riding bicycles within 24 hours of one another.

One of those deaths was caused by an alleged drunk driver, part of a disturbing increase in DUI deaths in San Diego County.

Residents of San Diego’s Hillcrest and North Park neighborhoods are taking matters into their own hands to recover their stolen bikes by pushing the apparent thieves off their bikes and demanding them back.

A San Jose man was left for dead after a hit-and-run driver fled the scene while the victim was on a group ride with 20 other people.

Tragic news from Fremont, where a 15-year old boy suffered life-threatening injuries when he was struck by a driver while riding his bike on the 4th of July; for a change, the 23-year old driver stuck around.

Big win in Oakland, where the city council voted unanimously to keep and improve the successful protected bike lanes on Telegraph Ave, rejecting a DOT plan to replace them with an unprotected buffered bike lane.

 

National

A trio of Utah advocacy groups are using a tandem bike as a two-wheeled metaphor to call for parents to support their LBGTQ+ kids to help keep them off drugs and alcohol.

The family of a popular Colorado Springs CO bike fitter has filed wrongful death suit, following his death in police custody while handcuffed and prone on his stomach after being tased multiple times; 49-year old Chad Burnett had allegedly threatened a neighbor with a knife while suffering a mental health crisis.

Here in Southern California, we have to worry about bearish drivers, but we seldom have to face the real thing, as a Montana bikepacker was killed by a grizzly that wandered into his campsite.

A Black Army vet used bicycling to recover from a devastating disease after receiving a stem cell transplant. Then she went on to found an annual bike race and a family bike fest to inspire others. As usual, read it on Yahoo if Bicycling blocks you.

A Michigan man began fixing discarded bikes as therapy for his depression. Now he’s fixed and given away nearly 400 bicycles to people in need.

A Streetsblog op-ed calls for the NYPD to combat the department’s windshield perspective by requiring officers to get out and bike their beats at least once a year. Although once a week would be much more effective for everyone.

The New York Daily News says the city’s 80,000 delivery riders are the unheralded heroes of the pandemic.

 

International

The owner of a bike touring company is refusing to pay damages for a bike-on-bike collision on an Edinburgh pathway, insisting she’s not to blame when the other rider was doing 20 mph around a blind corner.

An Irish newspaper calls bike fitting a 90-minute analysis that will change your bicycling life forever.

 

Competitive Cycling

The beat goes on, as Mark Cavendish, who wasn’t even expected to ride in this year’s Tour de France, is now just one win from tying The Cannibal’s once unreachable record of 34 Tour stage wins.

Defending Tour champ Tadej Pogačar says he doesn’t need to cheat since he’s leading this year’s race because he pushes “good watts.”

Today the Tour peloton with tackle the legendary Mount Ventoux, not once, but twice from different directions — 54 years after British cycling champ Tom Simpson collapsed and died on the slopes of the mountain.

By now, we’re all familiar with how the legendary Gino Bartali saved countless Jews by smuggling documents in his bike frame during WWII. But he also saved his own country a few years later when Italy was on the brink of anarchy, providing his countrymen with something to cheer for by gaining an incredible 30 minutes in just two stages to win the Tour, after being 21 minutes down in the general classification with just one week to go.

Dutch cyclist Lorena Wiebes took the fifth stage of the women’s Giro d’Italia Donne, while defending Olympic champ Anna van der Breggen held onto the pink leader’s jersey.

Aussie cyclist Lachlan Morton isn’t the only rider trying to beat the Tour peloton into Paris; seven-day cycling distance record holder Jack Thompson is attempting to ride the entire Tour de France route in just 12 days.

Let’s hope you’re happy with the current direction of pro and amateur cycling, because we’re going to be stuck with it for another four years.

 

Finally…

Throwing a bicycle through a business window is not one of the recommended uses for it. And when a driver blocks the bike path, just walk your bike over it.

The car, that is.

………

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

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

Killer meth-fueled Vegas driver gets 16-40 years, misguided recall for CD4’s Raman, and $20 million for LAC transport projects

June 10, 2021 / / Comments Off on Killer meth-fueled Vegas driver gets 16-40 years, misguided recall for CD4’s Raman, and $20 million for LAC transport projects

That was fast.

Almost seven months to the day after five Las Vegas bicyclists were killed by a truck driver, their killer copped a plea to two counts of DUI causing death.

DUI is right.

Arizona resident Jordan Barson had nine times the amount of meth in his system required to be considered legally impaired.

He now faces anywhere from 16 to 40 years behind bars, along with a paltry $58,000 in restitution.

Once he gets out, whenever that may be, Barson will be required to have an interlock device on his car for anywhere from one to three years.

Which, it should be noted, detects alcohol, not meth.

Meanwhile, a killer truck driver in Flagstaff AZ didn’t have to play the universal Get Out Of Jail Free card after local police played it for him, claiming the sun was in his eyes when he ran a red light and slammed into a group of bicyclists.

Fifty-eight-year old California resident Normand Cloutier is accused of killing a 29-year old woman and injuring five other riders in the crash.

Of course, as several people pointed out on Twitter, the correct course of action when you can’t see what the hell is directly in front of you is to pull over to the side of the road until you can.

Photo by Cameron Casey from Pexels.

Let’s hope Barson’s cell is slightly better than this one.

………

Another day, another recall by people who can’t get over the fact that their candidate lost.

This time the intended target is CD4 Councilmember Nithya Raman, who hasn’t been in office long enough to actually do anything that would call for one.

Not that that matters in today’s political environment.

Let’s hope this one doesn’t get any further than the idiotic attempt to recall Mike Bonin a few years, driven by conservative KFI anger meisters Jon and Ken.

Who will probably be happy to get behind this one, too.

………

The new transportation bill under consideration in the US Congress includes $20 million for LA-area projects, according to Burbank Rep. Adam Schiff’s office.

In addition to traffic and pedestrian projects, the list also includes sharrows in Glendale, and pedestrian and bicycle safety improvements on Melrose in West Hollywood.

That last one could have connected with a Complete Streets makeover of Melrose in Los Angeles, if it hadn’t been summarily and singlehandedly killed by CD5 Councilmember and pseudo-environmentalist Paul Koretz.

………

The Bike League announced their latest list of Bicycle Friendly Businesses, with 33 new or renewing firms honored.

None of which are in Southern California, although the LA office of the Morrison & Foerster LLP law firm got an honorable mention.

Maybe someone should tell them that MoFo may not be the positive nickname they seem to think it is.

………

Maybe it’s just me, but it seems there are few things more sexist than women’s fashion magazines.

Especially when it comes to bicycles.

Because apparently, women just want to look cute on a bike, and would never want to put on spandex and get all sweaty or anything.

………

Don’t miss this one if you’re in the Bay Area this weekend.

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

Clearly, he doesn’t get it, either After a community board in New York’s Upper West Side calls for banning ebikes from protected bike lanes, the city’s outgoing mayor quickly refused — because he doesn’t think they belong in traffic lanes.

Drivers in Auckland, New Zealand, are plotting to invade the city’s bike lanes on a busy Saturday morning — this Saturday, in fact — and drive on the bike lanes when they’re likely to be full of people on bicycles. Which seems to be the point. One hundred drivers have confirmed so far, so if it’s like very other Facebook event, maybe three might actually show up.

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

A Boston bike rider got off with a warning for riding through a busy highway tunnel, after state police officers told him it was both illegal and dangerous, as evidenced by the sudden braking as drivers spotted him in the right lane.

What the hell is wrong with some people? An 18-year old Delaware man faces charges for shooting an 11-year old girl with a BB gun in a dispute over the girl riding his bicycle.

A bike-riding Singapore man got off with a $5,600 fine for punching a truck driver who had tried to run him down during a mutual road rage incident; the driver had already been sentenced to a week behind bars.

………

Local

KTLA-5’s Rich DeMuro visits Venice Beach’s Bike Attack to learn about electric bicycles, then test rides the VanMoof S3, calling it the Tesla of ebikes. Then again, that’s not necessarily a compliment.

Departing Metro CEO Phil Washington pens a letter to the community in support of the 18-mile NoHo to Pasadena bus rapid transit line, which includes the proposed Beautiful Boulevard plan through Eagle Rock.

Caltrans recommends a $3.532 million plan to fix the twin intersections of Rambla Pacifico and Las Flores Canyon at PCH in Malibu, which saw three traffic deaths and 81 injuries in just a three year period. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to include any bicycle safety measures on the deadly highway.

 

State

It takes a major league schmuck to steal a three-wheeled adaptive bike used by a special needs girl to help with her balance issues.

Bay Area bike advocacy group Bike East Bay wants your help to save the protected bike lanes on Oakland’s iconic Telegraph Avenue.

 

National

Seriously? Consumer Reports discovers the “hidden danger” of big pickup trucks, which are increasing in size with virtually every model year. Never mind that the risk to others should be pretty damn obvious to anyone who has ever walked, ridden or just stood next to one.

USA Cycling announced their new Let’s Ride program to teach bicycle safety and basic bike skills to elementary school children throughout the US.

A new ebike from Civilized Cycles is designed to carry up to two passengers and four loaded grocery bags in comfort, with an automated air ride system that adjusts to the weight the bike is carrying for a smoother ride.

In Style shows women what to wear to look cute on four types of bike rides. Because as we all know, looking cute is what really matters, and no woman would ever want to put on spandex and get all sweaty or anything. Right?

Marketplace examines why Phoenix-based fixie maker State Bicycles is struggling to meet the increased demand brought on by the pandemic-induced bike boom; co-founder Mehdi Farsi blames supply chain issues for an inability to ramp up to meet a two to three-times jump in sales.

Speaking of Phoenix, the downtown area just got its first two-way protected bike lane.

After a Davenport, Iowa man was killed by a red light-running hit-and-run driver while riding his bike back home, the victim’s wife says it never should have happened.

St. Louis is installing zebra lane delineators to separate bicycles and motor vehicles along a protected bike lane; the small bumps — often called armadillos in other cities — promise to be more effective at keeping drivers out than the usual thin plastic car ticklers. Thanks to Phillip Young for the heads-up.

A study conducted by Maine’s Bowdoin College shows that cities that adopt a Complete Streets policy also see improvements in how crashes between drivers and pedestrians are covered by the media.

Long Island’s Suffolk County is cracking down on scofflaw riders from the Bike Life movement, by creating a new crime of reckless bike riding complete with a $250 fine and possible confiscation of their bicycles.

Curbed’s Alissa Walker, who always gets it, says helmet laws are not what New York bike riders need right now.

 

International

USA Today offers a modestly covered-up view of naked bike rides — and riders — around the world.

The Barbados transportation minister says bike riders have an equal right to the road, and calls on drivers to help create a more equitable environment for everyone.

Cycling Tips features the hilarious Danish helmet PSA we linked to yesterday, while calling for more “bike-adjacent” ads to feature Vikings.

A new project from the mayor of Hyderabad, India aims to address bad air quality by giving “pre-loved” bicycles to people who will use them as an every day form of transportation.

 

Competitive Cycling

Liège-Bastogne-Liège winner Tadej Pogačar is gearing up to defend his pandemic-year Tour de France win by competing in his hometown Tour of Slovenia.

 

Finally…

Go back to the wide stripe jerseys and hairnet helmets of the 1970s. Your next bike helmet might kinda see around corners.

And who hasn’t taken on a national hillclimb champ on a series of increasingly inappropriate bicycles?

………

Be safe, and stay healthy. And wear a mask. 

And get vaccinated, already.

Category: Bike Cam Video, Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

San Diego riders fight theft with Bike Index, bike-friendly Raman wins LA’s CD4, and Pendleton path closed this weekend

November 5, 2020 / / Comments Off on San Diego riders fight theft with Bike Index, bike-friendly Raman wins LA’s CD4, and Pendleton path closed this weekend

A San Diego weekly says bicycle riders are taking bike theft into their own hands by registering them with Bike Index, the world’s “most widely used and successful bicycle registration service.”

“There’s a large uptick in apartment building break-ins,” Bryan Hance of BikeIndex.org said to me. “So many new apartment buildings make residents park in their ‘secure’ bike parking areas, which aren’t that secure, and we are seeing so many instances of thieves forcing their way into these at night and then just robbing them blind. Often the bike anchors and racks in these spaces are quite weak, so once they’re inside, it’s like a bike buffet for these thieves. There’s an uptick in bike shop break-ins. With covid-19, job loss, and a pullback by law enforcement, we’ve seen enormous numbers of bike shops get robbed.”

You can get free lifetime registration for your bike right here, as well as report stolen bikes and check the nonprofit organization’s nationwide stolen bike database.

And no, I don’t get a dime for hosting them on this site.

Except for the satisfaction of giving you a fighting chance against bike thieves.

………

After opposing bike and pedestrian safety projects for most of his first term — and apparently only — term, it looks like you can now append ex-LA City Councilmember to David Ryu’s resume.

Meanwhile, Streetsblog offers a round of where the LA-area vote stands the day after.

………

Things are moving forward in Pasadena.

………

Once again, bike riders will face a temporary ban on riding through Camp Pendleton.

Please note that a portion of the bike route within the San Onofre Beach State Park (see attached photo) will be closed for military training during the night/early morning. This closure will only interrupt bicycle travel at night time or early morning (prior to 7 AM). During the time of the bike path closure, cyclists may ride on the I-5 shoulder if needed.

Closure Date and Time

Date: November 7 to November 8

Time: 7 PM from November 8 to 8 7 AM on November 8

Thanks to Robert Leone for the heads-up.

………

More proof that cars weren’t SoCal’s first love.

Thanks to Megan Lynch for the forward.

………

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

An English man faces charges for beating another man to death, then wheeling him on his bike before dumping and burning his body.

A Dublin, Ireland man used his bike as a weapon by throwing it at a man who was being attacked by several other men in a running battle between gangs.

………

Local

Urbanize looks at the new pedestrian bridge over busy La Cienega Blvd that was the final link in the 13-mile Park to Playa Trail.

Hats off to the students of Culver City Middle School, who have collectively walked and biked over 450 miles — more than the distance from Culver City to Sacramento.

Pasadena police wrote 118 tickets for traffic violations that could endanger bicyclists and pedestrians during their latest crackdown; 88 went to drivers, while only 11 bike riders were ticketed. Thanks to Tim Rutt for the link.

A writer for the Argonaut complains that the one thing missing from Santa Monica’s al fresco social distancing efforts on Main Street is the distance itself, after shrinking the size of dining parklets, as well as bike lanes.

 

State

San Marcos is beginning work on a new bike and pedestrian pathway, along with a number of other safety improvements.

Heartbreaking news from San Diego, where a three-year old boy had both legs amputated despite several attempts to save them, after developing a MRSA staff infection when he fell off his bike and scraped his knee; now doctor’s are just hoping to save his hands and arms.

Burlingame cops bust a bicycle fencing operation, recovering 18 hot bikes in the process.

Sad news from NorCal, where a Florida man was killed after riding off a steep trail near Downieville in Sierra County. Rescuers initially were unable to reach him in the rough terrain; he died before they could return by helicopter the next day. Thanks to Phillip Young for the tip.

 

National

Transportation issues won big in Tuesday’s election across the US.

Bicycling readers share their most embarrassing rookie mistakes. As usual, you can read the story on Yahoo if you’re blocked by the magazine’s paywall.

Data from Lime’s Seattle operations suggests that e-scooters can give a boost to bikeshare usage.

The husband of the Las Vegas woman killed when she was pushed off her bike decried the senseless and unnecessary tragedy that also took the life of the van passenger who pushed her.

Here’s your chance to become the executive director of the Vermont Mountain Bike Association.

A Buffalo NY judge suspended the license of a pizza driver who plowed into a bike-riding protester, then kept driving as she fled the scene before calling 911; she faces up to seven years behind bars if she’s convicted.

A bike-riding man in New York state was fatally right hooked by a school bus driver after allegedly running a stop sign in the bike lane; unfortunately, the victim isn’t around anymore to give his side of the story.

The New York Times considers the best bike gear for foul weather commuting. Something even SoCal riders have to contend with from time to time.

She gets it. The NYPD’s new street safety chief opposes licensing bike riders, saying bicycling “is the American way,” and licensing riders would make it less accessible.

Here’s another one for your bike bucket list, as a Maryland writer recommends exploring the historic Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge by bicycle, with ties to Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad. Unless maybe you’d rather go mountain biking in Iceland.

This is the cost of traffic violence. The victim in a Louisiana collision that took the life of a bike rider was the 28-year old head coach of the waterskiing team at the University of Louisiana Monroe.

A kindhearted Georgia cop gave a total stranger his own barely used bicycle after learning the man was walking to work because someone had stolen his bike.

Camilla Cabello is one of us, as is her boyfriend Shawn Mendes and their wonder dog Thunder.

Some things you’d rather not find, like the Florida bike rider who found human remains while looking for a spot to relieve himself in the woods.

 

International

The pandemic bike boom isn’t just making bikes harder to find, it’s also making them more expensive.

Road.cc recommends holiday gifts for people who bike for $65 or less.

A new Canadian study suggests that face masks don’t inhibit breathing during vigorous exercise. So stop making excuses and put your damn mask on, already.

Working with the 529 Garage bicycle registration program, police in Ottawa, Canada shut down five bike shop shops, recovering 44 bicycles in the process.

English E-scooters will be required to emit artificial noise to warn pedestrians of their approach. Sort of like putting a bell on a cat.

A writer for The Guardian says she just wants to learn how to ride a bike during the lockdown.

A British man gets a well-deserved 27 months behind bars for seriously injuring a man on a bicycle while driving distracted — then tossing his phone into some bushes and returning to the scene to blame the victim.

Bike shops in the UK are once again being allowed to stay open as essential businesses as the country enters a new lockdown.

Mumbai’s mayor calls for limiting certain roads to bicycle-only once a week in an effort to reduce the city’s crushing smog.

Life is cheap in New Zealand, where a distracted driver got a lousy six months community detention for killing a man riding a bicycle — or what Americans would call home arrest.

Bikes are booming Down Under thanks to the coronavirus lockdown, too.

 

Competitive Cycling

Another American is making a statement in this year’s Grand Tours, as 24-year old Idaho native Will Barta came within one second of winning Tuesday’s Vuelta time trial.

Good news, as Dutch cyclist Fabio Jakobsen is preparing to get back on his bike, just a month after suffering major facial injuries in a horrifying crash at the Tour de Pologne. Cycling Tips Angry Asian questions whether road racers should wear helmets with full face protection to prevent facial injuries like Jakobsen’s.

French cyclist Yoann Offredo reluctantly confronts the question of who he is if he can’t race bikes, after a lingering ankle injury forces him into retirement.

Bike Radar looks at the “humble” custom time trial bike that set a new record for a sub-three hour century.

 

Finally…

A 93-year old man rides around the world without actually going anywhere. Probably not the best idea to tell a cop to suck your dick when getting busted for biking while drunk — especially if you have two previous DUIs.

And seriously, don’t try this at home, kids.

Thanks to Keith Johnson for the heads-up.

………

Be safe, and stay healthy. And wear a mask, already. 

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