The company’s cars have completed 56.7 million miles in operation, resulting in a total of 96 crashes with just four serious injuries.
That compares with an average of roughly 78 serious injury crashes over the same distance for human drivers.
I took my first ride in a Waymo yesterday, and while appreciated the way it braked when necessary due to cars pulling out in front of it, I ended up getting carsick due to the frequent turns to avoid major streets.
Lime is planning to add 2,000 dockless ebikes across the Los Angeles area, adding to the company’s thousands of e-scooters, calling it the start of a new green era in preparation for the 2028 Olympics. Although the way things are going in Los Angeles, it may be the about only green transportation for the Olympics.
Pasadena police will conduct a bicycle safety operation on Friday, May 16th, focusing on behaviors and violations by drivers that put people on bicycles at risk — although once again, it’s illegal to target any one particular group, rather than all road users.
State
The owner of specialty fire-glass manufacturer SAFTI FIRST donated 50 new mountain bikes to UC Merced, which will be distributed to several campus organizations including the bike club and the campus bicycle loaner program.
Oregon Republicans want to eliminate funding for all transit, rail and bicycle programs, requiring the state transportation department to focus on its “core mission” to support car and truck drivers. Thanks to Erik Griswold for the heads-up.
Cyclist talks with Spanish ultra-endurance cyclist and runner Juan Dual, who has competed in some of the world’s toughest races, despite having his large intestine, rectum, stomach and gall bladder removed due to a genetic condition causing cancer of the digestive system.
December 18, 2024 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Los Angeles ranks 15th in new Urban Mobility Readiness Index, and making sense of New York ebike registration
Just 13 days until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025, a decade of failure in which deaths have continued to climb.
Yet no city official has mentioned the impending deadline, or the city’s failure to meet it.
As long as you’re willing to view a brief ad, that is.
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UC Berkeley and the Oliver Wyman Forum have released this year’s Urban Mobility Readiness Index, which ranks 70 cities worldwide on the basis of how well they’re preparing for the future of transportation.
Momentumreports has Paris moved up six spots to second in the index, behind only San Francisco, thanks to a “generational” investment in bicycling infrastructure and public transportation, while de-emphasizing motor vehicles as it moves to create the 15-minute city.
San Francisco retained first place for the second year in a row due to its heavy investment in autonomous vehicles and electric vehicle charging facilities.
Although an autonomous car is still a car, and still takes up the same amount of space on the roadway, while using the rest of us as beta testing subjects. Willingly or otherwise.
As for Los Angeles, we check in at a surprising 15th, despite a mediocre score for sustainable mobility and a deservedly dismal rating for public transit. What saves us is a second-place score for technology adaptation.
Yet without breaking down how the crashed occurred, or who was at fault.
Here’s what PeopleForBikes has to say about it.
Over that same roughly five-year period, the number of people who lost their lives in New York City in a crash involving only an e-mobility device climbed from zero a few years earlier to 11 in 2023. That same year, eight cyclists and two pedestrians lost their lives in crashes that did not involve an e-mobility device or motor vehicle. As one might expect, crashes involving motor vehicles were the deadliest, taking the lives of another 22 cyclists, nine e-mobility users, 101 pedestrians, and 112 vehicle occupants. Despite the grim data clearly showing the dangers posed by motor vehicles to all road users, there has unfortunately been an increased focus on e-mobility devices (collectively and often incorrectly referred to as “e-bikes” in the public discourse) as particularly threatening. As the data clearly shows, New York City streets do present a real and present danger for operating an e-bike or e-scooter.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) both issued reports showing that the growth in popularity of e-mobility devices over the last five years has led to a significant increase in crashes and fatalities nationwide. Appendix B to the NTSB report reveals exactly where these fatalities occurred. Of the 53 reported e-bike fatalities nationwide from 2017 to 2022, 25 occurred in one of the five boroughs of New York City and two more occurred in neighboring cities in New Jersey. New York City had 47% of nationwide e-bike fatalities even though its residents only account for about 2.5% of the U.S. population. So just why is that?…
What is it about New York City in particular that led it to have both 72% of the fire deaths and 47% of the e-bike related deaths from traffic violence? This may be an instance where we should blame the e-bikes, because New York City has a type of e-bike that exists nowhere else on the planet.
According to group, the problem is that Gotham officials made a major boo-boo when they approved ebikes just five years ago, creating Class 3 for throttle-controlled ebikes offering a top speed of 25 mph, which is significantly faster than allowed in other states.
What happened in New York City was that no major e-bike manufacturer was willing to make an e-bike that (1) wasn’t legal to sell or operate anywhere else and (2) was likely subject to federal motor vehicle safety regulations.
The result should have been foreseeable in 2020 but has now become painfully clear in hindsight. Thousands of cheap e-bikes with unsafe speed capability and low quality batteries were made by a few foreign companies and sold to a vulnerable population. The names of these companies are well known to authorities. These companies do not have to bother with quality control, safety compliance, or product liability insurance because they are largely beyond the reach of government regulators and our judicial system. These low-quality e-bikes and batteries were sold not through traditional bike shops, but through e-bike stores that popped up all over the city to cash in on the growing demand for food delivery.
However, New York’s heavy-handed approach requires regulation of all ebikes, including ped-assist bicycles and otherwise safely-made bikes that meet restrictions from other states.
PeopleForBikes offers a few broad suggestions, starting with eliminating the city’s uniquely dangerous Class 3 classification, and modifying federal rules that allow inexpensive ebikes shipped directly to consumers to bypass federal restrictions and inspections.
But whatever the answer is, requiring registration and license plates for slower, ped-assist and safely-made ebikes isn’t it.
Visitors who come to city centres by bike or on foot visit more frequently and spend less per visit compared to those who arrive by car. Over a longer period, however, cyclists and pedestrians contribute significantly more to city centre spending than commonly thought. In short, they represent an underestimated group for the economic vitality of city centres.
This is a key finding from a national Dutch study conducted by the Platform for City Centre Management, BRO, and Movares on the relationship between spending and visitors’ choice of transportation. The study, conducted in collaboration with 18 Dutch city centres, took place in September 2023. Currently, in 2024, the study is repeated with 20 other Dutch and Flemish city centres.
That finding has held firm whether the study involves downtown areas or the effects of suburban bike lanes.
So you’d think business owners would fight to get bike lanes and pedestrian amenities, rather than fighting them.
But you would be wrong.
Whether in Los Angeles, San Diego, Chicago or virtually any and every other city, they consistently shoot themselves in the tootsies by opposing the very bike and pedestrian projects that would benefit their bottom lines.
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Clearly, not everyone is a fan of the new South Bay bike lanes. Take a look yourself, and let them know what you think.
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Let’s take a trip to the not too distant past, and take a look at bicycles in the USSR.
It’s now just two days short of a full year since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failureto launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And a full 42 months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.
The US Department of Transportation has introduced an updated equity tool, allowing “state and local governments to prioritize transportation investments that benefit disadvantaged communities.” Although equity is not expected to be a priority for the next administration. Or transportation, for that matter.
Bristol, England will finally install closed-circuit TV cams on a popular bike trail to combat a rampant rate of bikejackings, which has led many riders to abandon it and take their chances on the roads. Which raises the obvious question of how can it be so popular if no one uses it anymore?
British Cycling is setting its sights on the ’28 Los Angeles Olympics, with a record breaking £38.95 million pound investment — the equivalent of over $49 million — in its cycling and paracycling teams.
According to Caltrans rep Ryan Snyder, California’s new law mandating Complete Streets on Caltrans projects requires bike lanes on the full stretch of highway through the ‘Bu.
“SB 960 mandates that we create bike lanes for the entire length of PCH in Malibu.” He said. “In what is often referredto as the 8 to 80 principle, we must adhere to the concept that bike lanes should be safe for any users between the ages of 8 and 80. We propose that we build buffered/colored and/or protected bike lanes on Las Flores on the mountain side as well as between Las Flores Road and the Malibu Pier area and between the Pier area and the western city limits.”
Respondents preferred a landscaped median to other alternatives, while lane reductions and traffic circles are also under consideration to make space and slow traffic.
Photo shows Los Angeles demonstration demanding protected bike lanes.
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Evidently, getting cut from the football team following rape accusations wasn’t enough for a former University of Washington football player.
He had to follow it up with a road rage attack on a bicyclist.
In a case we’ve been following since March, the victim was riding his bike home after just learning about the death of his college roommate, when Tylin “Tybo” Rogers and his teammate, Diesel Gordon, began following him in their car, honking and yelling at him for the crime of simply being in front of them on the roadway.
The victim responded, as I probably would have, by flipping them off.
Rogers, who was already facing charges for the rape accusations, and Gordon then tried to hit him with their car, before getting out and chasing the victim down a stairwell.
That portion of the attack was captured on security cam video, which was released by investigators on Friday.
Gordon can be heard calling the victim a homophobic slur, then spits on him several times before Rogers shoves the victim to the ground. Rogers then hits him in the face with enough force to send his glasses flying, which he then stomps on.
Both players have pled guilty to misdemeanor assault — which is a gift under the circumstances.
They each face a maximum of just under a year in county jail, and a lousy $5,000 fine.
However, Pasadena’s Union Street two-way protected bike lane comes in at a very respectable #6, which the magazine praises as a “cyclist-friendly corridor (that) connects key destinations and aligns with Pasadena’s commitment to sustainable transportation.”
The new 17th Street complex in Santa Monica was ranked 16th.
Maybe someday, a Los Angeles bike lane will once again make the exclusive list. But today is not that day, my friends
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
Seriously? Residents of Queens are fighting a planned 16-mile bike path along the waterfront over fears it will turn the suburban area “into another bustling urban district” and attract scooter-riding bandits, amid the usual cries of “where are we going to put our cars?” I could make a suggestion.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
A British tabloid is appalled by the “shocking” moment a man on a Lime bike crashed into a small boy as he ran across a bike lane to get to a floating bike stop — before acknowledging the bicyclist did try to stop before hitting the kid, who darted out in front of of him.
Sad news from San Jose, where a man has died 11 years after he was struck by a motorist while riding a bicycle in the city, and placed into long-term care; the victim was not publicly identified, and there’s no word on whether the driver ever faced charges.
Bike Radar asks mountain bike brands why so many are getting into the gravel bike business. Short answer, because that’s where the money is. Longer answer, it’s the fastest growing category in the bicycle industry.
The Guardian’s Peter Walker says yes, speeding ebike riders are a menace, but the solution isn’t to kick bicycles into the roadway, as Birmingham, England considers banning all bicycles from the city’s pedestrianized streets — especially when the real problem is illegally souped-up ebikes belonging to food couriers.
A Czech driver faces up to five years behind bars for allegedly fleeing the scene after running down a 42-year old man riding a bicycle, before returning to collect evidence of the crash, including the victim’s mangled bike wheel.
June 27, 2024 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on 3.9-mile Reseda protected bike lanes saved by 2009 outcry, and LA doesn’t suck as much in new bike rankings
Just 187 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025.
But it was just 15 years ago that we nearly lost them forever.
That’s when the news broke — courtesy of this site — that LADOT’s bike planning engineers had been told not to bother working on the bike lanes, because the West Department of Transportation was going to install Peak Hour Lanes on the boulevard instead, which would have turned the street into a virtually un-bikeable car sewer.
Similar lanes had gone in throughout the San Fernando Valley in the 1990s and 2000s, back in the bad old days when the highest priority of traffic engineers was maximizing vehicular throughput and level of service.
Fortunately, there was a huge reaction to the story, with countless people calling LADOT, councilmembers and other city officials to complain — resulting in the agency canceling plans for the peak hour lane less than 24 hours later.
And claiming, implausibly, that it was never actually their plan to install the peak hour lanes.
Yeah, right.
Linton called for an apology from the agency for deliberately misleading him, then-Streetsblog LA Editor Damien Newton, former Bicycle Advisory Committee Chair Glenn Bailey and myself. But also said he’d be willing to accept an apology in the form of actually building the bike lanes.
Which is what finally happened.
So thanks to everyone else who raised hell over it. If you were one of them, pat yourself on the back.
And thank you for your service.
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The rest of the world is catching up with the new City Rankings released by People For Bikes that we mentioned on Monday.
Streetsblog says a whopping 183 US cities scored 50 or higher, an indication that the local bike culture has firmly taken root. Once again, Los Angeles was not among them.
Heartbreaking news from Michigan, where an 83-year old Florida man was killed while riding his bicycle, just after reaching a lifetime goal of riding 200,000 miles; he was leaving his son’s house to visit his daughter when a driver ran him down.
Once again, life is cheap in the UK, where a teenaged driver who killed a bike rider, just weeks after passing his driving test, walked without a single day behind bars after he was sentenced to community service and a lousy £240 fine — the equivalent of just $303.
This year’s Tour de France hasn’t even started yet, and it’s clear last year’s Vuelta winner, American Sepp Kuss, won’t make the podium in Paris next month, after withdrawing due to Covid.
June 24, 2024 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Bicycling “disaster for traditional economy,” bike-born antisemitic attack in New York, and LA scores another pitiful bike score
Just 190 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025.
That’s because bicyclists don’t buy cars, make loan payments, or pay for car repairs. And never mind the reduced healthcare costs because people who ride bikes tend to be healthier than people who drive.
Even though reduced healthcare costs and a healthier population are a net benefit to society, and people who ride bicycles still buy stuff — and have more money left over to do it with.
And if bicycling is such a threat to the traditional economy, maybe it’s the traditional economy that needs to change.
Which raises the obvious question of who the hell rides a bike carrying a bag of dog poop?
Never mind that it remains unclear whether or not his intended victim actually was Jewish.
It’s also unclear whether this had anything to do with the current tensions over Gaza, or if it was just some asshole taking advantage of the current tensions.
But regardless of any possible political motives, there’s just no excuse for antisemitism or bigotry of any kind, no matter how you get around. Ever.
There’s another bouncing baby bike lane on the bike-friendly UCLA campus.
Thank you to @UCLACommute for adding this new bike lane on Westholme Avenue, between Hilgard Avenue and Charles E. Young Drive, in response to our Council's request for bicycle improvements here. This will improve safety on a major bicycle route as it enters campus. @UCLAadvocacypic.twitter.com/8cNPUeksPp
— North Westwood Neighborhood Council (@OfficialNWWNC) June 20, 2024
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Mark your calendar for a friendly Orange County bike ride at the end of the week. Thanks to Mike Wilkinson for the tip.
Wisconsin conservatives continued to freak out over the Madison edition of the World Naked Bike Ride, after last year’s complaints, with one official insisting they need to protect the children from seeing naked and nearly naked adult bodies on bicycles, and that the participants “desperately need Jesus.” Then again, the need to protect children from the effects of climate change is exactly the point the bike riders were trying to make.
Thanks to David Erickson for his unexpected donation to help support this site, and keep bringing you all the best bike news everyday, from around the world and around the corner. Donations of any amount, for any reason, are always welcome and appreciated.
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
August 16, 2023 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Bike lanes as next big US infrastructure program, why we love cars more than children, and banning GOP reps from bikes
My apologies for yesterday’s unexcused absence.
As of this week, I’m now on insulin four times a day, and riding a wild blood sugar rollercoaster as I adjust to the new regimen.
Nonprofit PeopleForBikes’ recently launched the Great Bike Infrastructure Project, a new advocacy portal which aims to map all the “protected bike lanes, off-street trails, pump tracks, bike parks, and more” that U.S. communities are poised to build — particularly following the passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which multiplied the amount of federal funding for cycling by roughly six.
Rather than treating those efforts as disconnected, though, the group says advocates need to start thinking of their hyper-local bike projects as part of one massive, national effort to combat climate change, cure traffic violence, and end universal car dependence — and do the urgent work of bringing transportation decision-makers together in a unified front.
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In a hard-hitting Streetsblog op-ed, Pasadena Complete Streets Coalition volunteer Liz Schiller considers the recent $8.9 million makeover of Pasadena’s Huntington Drive.
And asks why we love our cars more than our children.
Huntington is a wide, wide road. Eight lanes widening to eleven at intersections, plus on-street parking, and a landscaped median. An average of 15,000 cars travel on it every day. Drivers on Huntington routinely exceed the posted speed limit of 45 mph. On that brand new piece of bicycle infrastructure, only paint separates a person on a bicycle from exactly the type of hazard that killed the Encinitas teen. A pedestrian or cyclist interacting with a motor vehicle at a speed of 40 mph or above is very likely to be killed.
What if we had given up a lane to create a place for bicycles that is physically separated from all those speeding cars?
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) told Republicans on a caucus conference call, “Please take care of yourselves. We do not need to lose anybody else.”
He went on to explain that he saw Rep. James Comer (R-KY) biking over the weekend.
Pour one out for the late rapper and community organizer Nipsey Hustle, who was one of us.
Born on this day, August 15: Nipsey Hussle, rapper (1985-2019), here cruising through his neighborhood and sampling some barbecue for his "Failure?" vlog. Happy #bicyclebirthday, Nipsey!#BOTDpic.twitter.com/KCph3tGpEh
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
No bias here. A multi-ton pickup rolls a stop sign, but all a reporters sees are ebike riders observing the letter of the law, with one rider even putting their foot down at the stop.
No bias here, either. A San Diego TV station reports that residents of the East County neighborhood of Jamacha are worried about their safety after a parking-protected bike lane was installed. It’s not as if that’s the first parking protected bike installed anywhere; the station could have pointed out that they have improved safety for people throughout the US, including in Los Angeles. But they didn’t.
8/13 7PM Medford St in Arlington a male allegedly caused a disturbance onboard an #MBTA bus-spitting on floor/drinking alcohol. Upon exiting he used his bicycle to smash the bus front window. Recognize this person of interest ? Contact our CIU at 617-222-1050 w/any info. TY pic.twitter.com/WUoCbCyivn
LA County is offering rewards in four cold case homicides, including the murder of 70-year old Luis Sandoval, who died three months after he was shot while riding a bike on on Olympic Boulevard in East Los Angeles in 2007.
New York is allowing wider cargo bikes following a pilot program, while a local advocacy group calls for wider bike lanes to accommodate them; a local TV station accuses their drivers of speeding down sidewalks, running red lights and going the wrong way against traffic.
Ebikes.org ranked the nation’s 100 most scenic cities to see by bicycle, by combining Instagram hashtags and bike-related Google search volume with bikeability ratings, the number of road biking trails, and average yearly sunshine.
And Los Angeles came in at a remarkably mediocre 52. Then again, even our weather barely made the top 25, as far as they’re concerned.
So start tagging those Instagram posts from the City of Angels. Because it may not improve the weather, LA’s scenic beauty or make this city any more bikeable.
But at least we can boost our Insta rank.
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Maybe PeopleForBikes isn’t completely on our side, after all.
In other words, they want to keep forcing you to send your ebike back to the manufacturer — or at least your local dealer — rather than allowing you to fix it yourself.
The group says it’s a matter of safety, and recommends recycling ebike batteries instead.
Never mind that it would be a simple matter to require bike owners to recycle spent batteries, and that batteries aren’t the only thing on an ebike that might need fixing.
The paper implies — whether mistakenly or through inartful editing — that bike helmets are required to ride on sidewalks, trails, parks and bike paths. And fails to mention that helmets are required for all Class 3 ebikes and mopeds.
No bias here, either. After a Bath NY man became just the latest bike rider run down by police, the local sheriff reminds bicyclists they have to use lights and reflectors after dark, rather than consider the deputy who rear-ended the victim might be at fault.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
Colorado Public Radio answers a listener’s question about the proper etiquette for driving behind a bicyclist on narrow, twisting mountain roads. Short answer, be patient, follow at a safe distance, and only pass when it’s safe to do so, giving a minimum three-foot passing distance. Besides, there’s a good chance the person on the bike can navigate curves better than someone in a car, anyway.
An Ohio boxer is riding his bike across the state to raise funds to keep his gym open and fund scholarships for low-income participants, in memory of his nephew killed by gun violence. Which is a very passive way of saying someone was shot to death.
And needless to say, Southern California has a long, long way to go.
The national bike advocacy group rates cities according to the quality of each city’s bike network, assigning a Bicycle Network Analysis score, or BNA, on a scale of 0 to 100.
The good news, if you can call it that, is that no US city scored lower than a 2.
Provincetown, Massachusetts and Crested Butte, Colorado ranked #1 and #2 overall, respectively, with BNA scores of 88 and 87.
Although I’m sure many LA residents think riding here is #2. And sadly, PeopleForBikes seems to agree.
Which puts us in a class with such bicycling nirvanas as Santa Ana, Las Vegas, Laguna Niguel, Raleigh NC, and Krugerville, Texas.
Which probably wasn’t named after Freddy, even if it should be.
Bike-friendly Sacramento suburb Davis ranked #1 among medium-sized cities with a BNA score of 77, while Minneapolis, Minnesota ranked atop the large city listings with a score of 68.
Outside+ is on sale for $1.99 a month for the next year, including the Outside digital network and the new Velo site. No guarantee what happens to your rate after that, however.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on rolling.
New stories from Urbanize and Streetsblog examine Monday’s opening of the Venice Blvd Safety and Mobility Project, which upgrades 2.5 miles of existing bike lanes and adds 2.1 miles of dedicated busways, while leaving a few notable gaps. Correction: Originally I had written that the project added four miles of protected bike lanes, and 2.5 miles of bus lanes, which was a misstatement. Thanks to Joe Linton for the correction.
Bicycling examines plans to build an advisory lane in Kalamazoo, Michigan, referring to it as an edge lane, which creates a single traffic lane in the center of the street while allowing drivers to move into the bike lanes on either side to pass another vehicle. Read it on AOL if the magazine blocks you.
New York has cleared the final federal hurdle preventing congestion pricing; the city is now expected to begin charging drivers to enter midtown Manhattan sometime next year. Which should clear the way for Los Angeles to institute its much discussed congestion pricing plan, as well.
A new Australian report lists 50 distinct contributory factors leading to bike riders being struck by drivers, along with another 50 leading to near misses; the leading factors are drivers pulling out in front of bicyclists, driver non-compliance with road rules, and drivers failing to give way. Note the key word with all of those is “drivers,” not bicyclists.
If you’ve been reading this site for awhile, you probably know I’m not a fan of sharrows.
I’ve described them in the past as an attempt by city officials to thin the bicyclist herd, with the arrows there simply to help drivers improve their aim.
The only benefits I can ascribe to the damn things are a) they show bike riders where to position themselves to control the lane — if they’re positioned correctly — and b) as a wayfinding device to help guide people on bicycles to a given location.
But in terms of safety and protecting bicyclists’ right to the road, they’re less than worthless.
But he became disillusioned when he saw how they worked — or rather, didn’t work — in practice.
I was wrong.
It turns out that motorists really don’t like to wait behind someone on a bike, regardless of the paint on the street. Even Oakland’s experiment with the so-called “super sharrow,” where the bicycle path of travel is painted solid green, isn’t enough to get people on bikes to comfortably “take the lane.” Sharrow or no sharrow, most people on bikes dangerously hug the edge of the roadway, squeezing themselves into the door zone to avoid blocking car traffic.
Simply put, sharrows don’t do what we hoped they would. Studies back up that claim.
It’s worth taking a few minutes to read the while thing.
Because maybe now we can finally drive a stake through the bike infrastructure from hell.
The LA Times reports Huizar is admitting to extorting at least $1.5 million in bribes from developers. He has agreed to a sentence of between nine and 13 years behind bars.
Huizar was a driving force behind many of the bike and safety improvements in Downtown Los Angeles, and was a favorite of the bicycling community before his downfall after his offices were raided by FBI agents in 2018.
Nice to see the new CD13 councilmember taking traffic violence in the City of Angels seriously.
That's why last month, our team introduced a motion to:
1⃣Identify the top 10 most dangerous locations for pedestrians in CD13 2⃣Order a list of bike projects that can be completed within 18 months 3⃣Find new ways to improve our bus network and sheltershttps://t.co/WQ2aXuk8yL
Italian filmmaking great Federico Fellini was one of us.
Born on this day, January 20: Federico Fellini (1920-1993), considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, shown here riding on the set of Amarcord (1973). Happy #bicyclebirthday, Federico!#BOTDpic.twitter.com/gFfjGhMNJs
Life is cheap in New Zealand, where an off-duty cop who killed a man riding a bike in a drunken crash was sentenced to a nine-month vacation at home home detention. Although the website seems to think her real punishment will be a lifetime of shame and humiliation. Uh, sure. Let’s go with that.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
Hermosa Beach plans barricades to force bike riders to walk near the pier, as speed data shows that people ignore the ridiculously low 8 mph speed limit on The Strand, riding at an average speed of 11 mph. I can attest that it’s difficult to ride that slowly through there on a road bike. And how do they expect people to obey the law if they don’t have speedometers on their bikes?
Bicycling asks if certified pre-owned bikes are worth the extra cost. Unfortunately, this one doesn’t appear to be available on Yahoo if the magazine blocks you. Which it probably will unless you’re a subscriber.
Road.cc takes a look at the iconic yet bizarre Flying Gate bike frame, with its upright stay post and severed seat post; the British-made steel frame has been in continuous production for nearly 90 years.
Bike Culver City is starting a light giveaway program for bike riders and pedestrians in the city.
BCC steering committee member Art Nomura writes to say the organization has won a grant from the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) GoHuman program to purchase and distribute hi-quality LED safety equipment to low income workers in Culver City and the vicinity.
Bike Culver City will be giving away a free top-rated LED Vest or a pair of hi-vis LED lights to qualified recipients; night or early morning workers that bike or walk to work (including first and last milers) are especially encouraged to apply.
However, he stresses that the application period ends on August 16, so this is a limited time opportunity.
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Um, okay.
An angry Portland driver goes off on a cargo bike rider because of his sticker reading This Machine Fights Climate Change, calling climate change a hoax and a scam, and saying the rider’s Antifa buddies can go to hell.
A British driver and his passenger face murder charges for deliberately driving onto a sidewalk and killing a man who was riding a bicycle with his girlfriend on the handlebars, before fleeing the scene without stopping.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
Police in New York are looking for a Brooklyn bike-by shooter who shot a man who was standing outside his house, leaving the victim in critical condition. Although the NY Post can’t seem to decide whether the shooter was riding an ebike or a scooter.
A Durango, Colorado letter writer insists residents of the city have been duped into thinking ebikes can have a tangible reduction on greenhouse gas emissions. Although he seems to think the point is to replace regular bike trips, rather than replacing car trips with ebikes.
Another tragic ebike fire in New York, where an exploding battery took the life of a five-year old girl and a 36-year old woman in a Harlem apartment, along with their three dogs; the girl’s father survived in critical condition. Although once again, the local CBS station can’t seem to decide if it was an ebike or an e-scooter.
More proof that opposition to bikeways melts away over time. Despite the opposition of some drivers, local residents strongly support the UK’s Low Traffic Neighborhoods, Britain’s version of Slow Streets; in one study, 44% opposed an LTN in their neighborhood before it was installed, but after five years, less than 2% wanted it removed.
