Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.
I screwed up.
On Tuesday, I issued a call for BikeLA, the former LACBC, to step up and resume their rightful place as LA County’s leading bicycle advocacy organization, after recovering from serious economic turmoil.
Something I continue stand by.
But in doing so, I called on them to help Fullerton bike advocates support a planned lane reduction, which has run into predictable opposition.
In my mind, I was placing Fullerton in the tangle of cities in Southeast Los Angeles County.
It’s not.
It’s in Northern Orange County, of course, on the other side of Buena Park. Something I should have known, having written about it several times. Let alone being there more than once.
So my apologies to BikeLA for any real or implied criticism of any lack of action in Fullerton — which is like criticizing the OC Sheriff’s Department for not patrolling in Norwalk.
I fucked up, and I own it.
Photo by Steve Johnson from Pexels.
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Los Angeles bicycle and livability leaders called on Metro Wednesday to keep its damn promises.
Streetsblog’s Joe Linton writes that a group of organizations including BikeLA, Climate Resolve, MoveLA, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), and Streets For All signed a letter urging Metro to “promptly add several bike/walk facilities left out of Metro Regional Connector construction.”
Linton broke the news last month that Metro had left out several promised and/or required first-and-last-mile projects intended to improve safety and connectivity for people walking and biking near the near Regional Connector stations.
Although they somehow didn’t forget to add lanes for drivers.
According to Streetsblog,
The missing Connector first/last mile facilities fall into two categories: (more on these below)
- omitted and scaled-back facilities in a Metro (with LADOT) federal grant – by Little Tokyo Station
- facilities omitted that had been approved in the city’s Downtown Street Standards – at all three Connector stations
Streets For All founder Michael Schneider has been sounding an urgent note regarding the grant moneys, declaring that “[Metro and DOT] should implement the omitted elements now to avoid having to give the Feds their money back.”
The letter urges Metro CEO Stephanie Wiggins and Metro Board Chair Mayor Karen Bass to “to move expediently to complete these required and promised pedestrian and bicycle improvements in the next three months,” as Linton notes in his subhead.
Let’s hope they take the advice to heart.
As well as the streets of DTLA.
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This is who we share the road with.
A naked woman armed with a gun opened fire on passing cars on the busy San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge until she was taken into custody, apparently without hitting anyone.
She was probably angry that bike riders still can’t get more than halfway across the bridge.
Although she probably wasn’t the same person who took a drive-by shot at an Oakland bike rider in broad daylight early Wednesday afternoon.
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Speaking of BikeLA, they’ll be at the Bicycle Kitchen — which is celebrating it’s 20th anniversary — on Saturday, preaching bike safety and giving away free digital bike horns
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
Safety advocates predicted more bicycling deaths after the New Orleans suburb of Algiers ripped out a two-year old protected bike lane, because some people complained about the aesthetics, lack of parking, and traffic. Someone should tell them that traffic congestion isn’t caused by bike lanes; it’s the result of too few people in too many cars.
Tampa officials blame “rogue cyclists” for plans to ban bicycles from the city’s Riverwalk. But at least the mayor is calling for bike lanes parallel to the popular route.
Sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
The LAPD finally arrested a bike-riding man suspected of committing multiple assaults, including the sexual assault of a 67-year old woman outside her East LA home.
In a truly bizarre story, a 19-year old Rhode Island man was arrested when security cam video showed he was the “primary aggressor,” after someone driving a pickup stopped and took his bicycle, and threw it into the back of the truck; he then took his bike back and punched the pickup driver hard enough to possibly break his own hand. Because apparently, you’re not allowed to fight back to keep someone from stealing your bike in Rhode Island, at least not if you’re big and Black.
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Local
The Los Angeles Bureau of Engineering wants your feedback on three options for remaking the massive Sepulveda Basin, including an extension of the LA River bike path. And pickleball courts.
They get it. Pasadena city councilmembers say more has to be done to prevent bike and pedestrian deaths in the city, which has suffered between 2 and 6 active transportation fatalities per year for the past four years.
Santa Monica police will conduct another bicycle and pedestrian safety operation next Thursday and Friday, ticketing any violations that could put either at risk, regardless of who commits them. So follow the usual protocol and ride to the letter of the law until you’re safely back in LA. “Safely” being a relative term.
State
Calbike says California is falling short on Complete Streets policies, with only one California city making Smart Growth America’s list of the nation’s leading cities for forward-thinking active transportation policies. And needless to say, it wasn’t Los Angeles.
For the second day in a row, a San Diego ebike rider was seriously injured in a crash with a pickup — even if this one was unoccupied — when 32-year old man crashed into the left rear bumper of a legally parked truck in the Shelltown neighborhood. Although it’s always possible that he was forced into the truck by a driver passing too close.
Only In Your State calls the 16-mile bikeway from Ventura to Carpinteria the ultimate outdoor playground.
At least one bicyclist likes San Francisco’s new centerline protected bike lane, finding the new Valencia Street project “glorious.” Although it’s interesting that the San Francisco Chronicle dropped its draconian paywall just for this story.
San Francisco’s Vision Zero plan is failing after traffic deaths jumped during the pandemic; the city has just one more year to meet its goal of eliminating traffic deaths by 2024. Los Angeles has two more years, and still doesn’t have a chance in hell of meeting that.
A proposed bike and pedestrian bridge would connect the East Bay cities of Oakland and Alameda, replacing a dark and dirty tunnel under an estuary between the cities; however, opponents balk at the $200 million price tag.
National
The US Chamber of Commerce highlights five small businesses capitalizing on the ebike “craze,” including Orange County’s Electric Bike Company.
Truly awful story from Albuquerque, New Mexico, where a 40-year old woman was found dead in her home after someone apparently drove her there when she was the victim of a hit-and-run while riding her bike miles away. Yet another tragic reminder to always seek medical care if you’re hit by a motorist, because you’re probably hurt more than you think.
An Iowa state senator was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of refusing to abide by a law enforcement officer during this week’s RAGBRAI, insisting he didn’t have to budge when the cop ordered a group of bike riders to clear a roadway.
The Green Bay Packers maintained their annual tradition of opening training camp by riding bicycles borrowed from little kids, after the storm clouds parted to allow the event to go on.
Jalopnik apparently sees its first advisory lane at a pilot demonstration in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and comes away predicting disaster for bike riders; the roadways feature a single traffic lane shared by drivers with bike lanes on either side, requiring drivers coming from opposite directions to briefly move into the bike lanes to pass one another.
Feel free to keep parking in Michigan bike lanes, after a supposed bill banning the act turned out to be a hoax.
Connecticut is increasing funding for the state’s ebike rebate program after accepting nearly 6,400 applications. That’s not likely to happen when California exhausts the far too low $7.5 million budget for the state’s ebike rebate program, in a state with over ten times the population of Connecticut.
Hundreds of New Yorkers demanded the city do something to get dangerous ebikes and scooters off the streets at a local town hall, complaining that people on ebikes, mopeds and other motorized vehicles often run red lights and refuse to yield to pedestrians. Because evidently, only people in cars are allowed to do that.
Philadelphia bike messenger bag maker R.E.Load Bags is going out of business after 25 years, because the founders want to move on to other things.
Once again, Florida retains its title as the nation’s deadliest state for people on bicycles. California usually comes in second to Florida in terms of sheer numbers, despite having nearly twice the population.
International
In another bizarre case, a 31-year old Scottish man confessed to the drunk driving death of a 63-year old man taking part in a charity bike ride, then coming back with his twin brother the next day to bury the victim’s body and dispose of his bike and other belongings; the victim was considered missing until his body was finally found over three months later.
A UK electric safety organization calls for regulating ebike batteries, after 12 people died in suspected ebike and e-scooter fires in the country since 2020.
The pandemic bike boom is clearly over, as Shimano’s bike component sales dropped nearly 18% in the first six months of this year due to weak demand.
Competitive Cycling
Velo writes that Wednesday’s fourth stage of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, aka the women’s Tour de France, turned into a measuring test between pre-race favorites Demi Vollering and Annemiek van Vleuten, with Vollering gaining eight seconds over her chief rival.
Dutch cyclist Yara Kastelijn won a “hard-earned victory in a long, grueling stage,” according to Velo.
UCI conducted nearly 1,000 checks for motor doping during the recent men’s Tour de France, looking for any mechanical device that could give a cyclist an unfair advantage over his competitors. And thankfully came up empty.
Twenty-three-year old Polish cyclist Filip Maciejuk will miss the world championships and his home country’s stage race, after he received a 30-day ban for causing a massive pileup in April’s Tour of Flanders.
Bold move from the Northampton International Cyclocross, as the country’s oldest ‘cross race requested that it be removed from the UCI calendar in order to continue to welcome all riders, after bike racing’s governing body recently reversed course to ban trans athletes from competing in women’s events. Thanks to Megan Lynch for the tip.
Finally…
Your new cyberpunk ebike could look like a Tesla pickup — but why the hell would you want it to? Every city needs a bike path connecting local microbreweries.
And who needs a bike mechanic when you can fix it yourself in the middle of the race?
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Oh, and fuck Putin
