Day 43 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025.
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Start spreading the news.
Streetsblog reports that drivers will now face $293 fines for parking in bus lanes when automated enforcement begins on Monday.
Metro and LADOT have been issuing warnings to drivers for violations captured by bus-mounted cameras for the past three-and-a-half months.
But the free pass is over.
Which will not only speed bus traffic during peak hours, but also improve safety for bike riders, who are allowed to share the bus lanes.
Along as you’re willing to ride with a bus running up on your ass.
Spread the word: Starting next Monday – Feb 17 – you could get an automatic $300 ticket if you park in a bus lane! @metrolosangeles & @LADOTofficial have installed cameras on buses to ticket drivers parked in bus lanes or bus stops. https://t.co/tZNYz6xS45
— StreetsblogLA (@StreetsblogLA) February 12, 2025
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I knew a man, his brain was so smallHe couldn’t think of nothing at allNot the same as you and meHe doesn’t dig poetryHe’s so unhip, when you say DylanHe thinks you’re talkin’ about Dylan ThomasWhoever he was…
— Paul Simon, A Simple Desultory Philippic
Get ready to ride accompanied by free verse and iambic pentameter when LA River Arts, El BiciCrófono, and Los Angeles Poet Society host a poetry-themed fundraising ride along the LA River bike path this Saturday.
Ride alongside poets from throughout Southern California to heal from the trauma of the Palisades and Eaton fires “through poetry, music, and shared space,” while raising funds for the Tongva Taraxat Paxaavxa Conservancy, whose newly acquired LandBack property was damaged in the fires.
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Local
Nice. Donate $20 or more to benefit victims of the devastating LA or Altadena wildfires before February 23rd, and you could win a new bicycle from Larkin Cycles.
ActiveSGV will host a bike rodeo in South El Monte this Saturday. Speaking of which, I still want to be a bike rodeo clown, when and if I ever grow up.
State
The eight-day, 525-mile Arthritis Foundation California Coast Classic Bike Tour will mark the 25th year of the San Francisco to Los Angeles ride this September, while also expanding to a second ride in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
A Sunnyvale councilmember is calling for safety improvements along a deadly traffic corridor through the city, where 11 people have been killed by drivers while walking or biking since 2019.
National
Travel + Leisure makes their picks for the eight best ebikes, whether you’re using them for travel, or yes, leisure. And they pick the best bike helmets, most of which are currently on sale.
Streetsblog says light electric vehicles, including pedicabs and ped-assist cargo bikes, are the missing ingredient in America’s “minimobility” revolution.
A former Oregon church has become a vibrant way station for bike tourists.
A bill in the Washington legislature would allow cities to convert existing streets to shared streets that give priority to bike riders and pedestrians, while limiting drivers to just 10 mph. Although they’ll need to do more than just post speed limit signs, or drivers could push that 10 mph to 20 or more.
Police in Albuquerque, New Mexico have issued an arrest warrant for a 24-year old man accused of being the hit-and-run driver who killed a longtime local bike advocate last month.
A Colorado woman faces a well-deserved sentence of more than 10 years behind bars for striking a man riding a bicycle, then leaving him to die in the street while she took her five-year old kid to McDonalds.
You’ve got to be kidding. Charges were dropped against an alleged hit-and-run driver who was arrested at the Houston, Texas airport as she was about to board a flight out of state, due to insufficient evidence — even though video of the crash appeared to show her speeding up to hit the victim without braking.
Listen my children and you shall hear, of the non-midnight Massachusetts bike ride to honor Paul Revere on 250th anniversary of his famed ride to warn the redcoats were coming.
A 43-year old DC man will spend the next two-and-a-half years behind bars for chasing down another man and stabbing him in the back, after the victim merely touched the handlebars of the other man’s bikeshare bike; no word on charges for the woman who handed him the knife he used to stab the victim.
A Maryland man has ridden his bicycle every day for nearly 3,000 consecutive days — that’s over eight years without missing a day.
That’s more like it. Plans to replace Richmond, Virginia’s 112-year old Mayo Bridge call for reducing the four lane bridge to just one lane in each direction, with protected bike lanes and wide sidewalks on each side, as well as a 14-foot wide shared use path.
International
Momentum says bicycling builds better mental health five ways. Kinda like Wonder Bread, but for strong minds, instead.
Northern Irish bicycle advocates are calling for an end to a pilot program that allows cab drivers to use bus lanes, which are also used by people on bicycles.
A new Scottish study shows women downhill mountain bikers are twice as likely to be injured as male riders, possibly due to average difference in neck strength and less bone density than men.
That’s more like it, part 2. A change to the UK’s Highway Code could result in drivers being fined the equivalent of more than $6,200 for passing bike riders too closely.
Bratislava, Slovakia is resisting pressure from the country’s transportation ministry to remove curbs from a protected bike path along the Danube River.
Melbourne, Australia bicyclists say it’s long past time for the city to open new bike bridges that were finished months ago, but remain fenced off, despite the dangers they face on the roadways.
Competitive Cycling
About damn time. A movie is in the works about two-time Tour de France champ Gino Bartali, who won the race ten years apart — in between, risking his own life to save the lives of countless Jews from the Nazis during WWII by smuggling documents in the frame of his bike.
Peter Sagan’s long-time domestique says Sagan was a natural leader with rockstar charisma, but tempered with a fiery temper.
Former Tour de France champ Egan Bernal capped his comeback from a near-fatal crash by winning both the road and time trial Colombian national championships, three years after he crashed into the back of a stopped bus at full speed on a training ride.
Finally…
No, it’s probably not the best idea to kidnap the boy you suspect of stealing your ebike and holding him for ransom.
And California bike riders could someday pledge allegiance to the state of New Denmark.
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Oh, and fuck Putin.
