Wednesday’s episode of Major Crimes on TNT is about someone intentionally running down bike riders on the streets of Los Angeles, including one stereotypical rider with a GoPro fastened firmly to his helmet.
Evidently, it’s a documentary.
Thanks to Gil Solomon for the heads-up.
………
As long as we’re talking TV programs, don’t worry if you missed Monday’s airing of the Ovarian Psychos documentary on the PBS series Independent Lens.
You can download it from their website, or via Roku or Apple TV.
………
If you need to put a dollar sign on bicycling, consider this from a new Minnesota study.
…the state’s bike industry produces $780 million in annual economic activity, 5,519 jobs and millions of dollars in health care savings because of reduced obesity, diabetes and heart disease.
Just imagine what a bike friendly California could do, with better weather and over seven times the population.
………
This is why you don’t trust bike parking area’s in your building’s garage, even if it seems like a great idea.
Ashley Grohosky forwards video of a bike thief casually shopping the bike racks in her Culver City building at 4 am until he gets out the bolt cutters after selecting the one he wants.
Hers.
Thought I sent full video! He's shopping… pic.twitter.com/Bw4Dlr4Rr2
— Ashley Grohoski (@ashleyviolette) March 27, 2017
………
Sad news from Germany, where a cyclist is reportedly fighting for his life after a driver strayed into the middle of bike race, in the crash we mentioned yesterday. Another rider is in critical condition, while a third competitor and a race marshal were also injured.
Good thing the doping era is over. A Brazilian cycling team faces a one year suspension after five riders have been caught cheating since July.
Fixing the cobbles for next month’s Paris – Roubaix, aka the Hell of the North.
………
Local
Santa Monica’s Montana Ave is getting new smart traffic signals that can extend a green light to give bike riders more time to cross.
Streetsblog considers Sunday’s Culver City to Venice CicLAvia; next up is a Glendale to Atwater Village route in June, along with a handful of other open streets events.
Speaking of which, if you read this early enough, you may still have time for a brief open streets tour of the Long Beach Grand Prix course from 11:30 am to 1 pm today.
The LACBC’s next Sunday Funday ride will explore Downtown LA this Sunday with The Crafty Pedal.
You may have already noticed the new ad for my favorite Bike Week event over there on the right. After all, a little divine intervention couldn’t hurt.
State
A San Diego bike rider is angry that she was given a ticket for running a stop sign. That’s the chance you take when you break the law, whatever the reason — at least until the proposed Idaho Stop law passes. And the unlikely event that Governor Brown actually signs it.
An Op-Ed in the San Jose Mercury News considers how to get more people riding bikes in Silicon Valley.
Caltrans is looking for input on where to put separated bikeways in the Bay Area, which is one way to get more people riding.
National
Realtor.com com ranks Salt Lake City as the #1 American city for Millennials, in part because of its bikeway network; Los Angeles ranks #6 despite its lack of one.
For the next four weeks, bike riders will have the roads of Yellowstone to themselves. It’s sort of like CicLAvia, but with geysers. And bears.
There’s a special place in hell for whoever stole a bicycle from a homeless man in Lubbock TX, just a week after local cops gave it to him so he could get to his two jobs, in an attempt to get him and his wife off the streets.
Streetsblog describes how a Toledo OH mom led a grassroots campaign to stop a road widening. But why is it always assumed that mom’s are somehow less capable or involved than other women? Or men, for that matter?
A newly rebuilt bridge will provide a key connection in a shared-use pathway linking New Jersey’s two largest cities.
International
The worldwide bike industry is expected to be worth over $70 billion by 2026.
Now that’s more like it. Canadian prosecutors are asking for twelve years behind bars and a 15 to 18-year driving ban for a drunk driver who killed two bicyclists, as well as the passenger in his own car.
A London writer travels all of the city’s blue cycle superhighways, concluding that some are better than others, depending on how much the local borough supports bicycling. On the other hand, London has somehow managed to squeeze seven onto the city’s crowded, narrow and curving streets, with plans for three more. Yet LA can’t manage to build one on our wide, straight streets.
Welcome to England, where assaulting a bicyclist in a fit of bus-driving road rage is only worth the equivalent of a $500 fine.
A British panel rules that a bike courier deserves holiday pay even though he is technically self-employed.
Britain’s Cyclist offers 23 “free and easy cycling hacks” to improve your rides. For a change, most of the ideas aren’t bad. Even if they aren’t actually all free.
Caught on video: A Brit man uses his own bike to smash the windshield of a driver who he blamed for cutting him off in the bike lane, even though the driver denied doing it. Seriously, just ride away; now he’s the one police are looking for.
A German cyclist offers four lessons he learned riding through every nation on earth over the past decade.
This is why people continue to die on the streets. A drunk driver walks in Malta even though the judge ruled he was mostly responsible for a wreck that killed a cyclist, because the victim was riding in the street without lights on his bike. So blame the victim, don’t punish the killer, and set him loose to do it again.
Former Tour de France stage winner David Millar is working to turn flat, sandy, 100 degree-plus Dubai into a cycling destination.
The flood of Chinese app-based bikeshare systems have claimed it’s first victim, as Singapore cancels plans for a nationwide dock-based bikeshare.
One of those Chinese bikeshare companies will now pay you to ride their bikes if you find one in an outlying area.
So far, though, Chinese bike makers have managed to handle the boom in business.
Finally…
We only have to avoid LA drivers; cyclists in the Scottish Highlands have to dodge sheep. And if you get stranded on your bamboo bike while riding your kilt, at least you can eat it.
The bike that is, not the kilt.
Okay, maybe the kilt.
