Tag Archive for People for Bikes

3.9-mile Reseda protected bike lanes saved by 2009 outcry, and LA doesn’t suck as much in new bike rankings

June 27, 2024 / / No comments
Just 187 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025. 

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Funny how things circle back around.

According to Streetsblog’s Joe Linton, completion of the Reseda Boulevard Complete Streets project means the boulevard now has the longest continuous protected bike lane in Southern California.

The newly complete bike lanes stretch nearly four miles, from Plummer Street to Victory Boulevard.

Just like you’ll see in the tweet below.

 

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.

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Congratulations.

The California Public Utilities Commission has selected you to beta test driverless cabs from Waymo, a subsidiary of Google parent company Alphabet, whether you actually want to or not.

The commissioners reaffirmed its approval for the company to operate its autonomous, or self-driving, cabs on the streets of Los Angeles. Never mind the seemingly magnetic attraction they and their competitor Cruise have seemed to have for bicyclists and pedestrians in San Francisco.

But never fear.

You should be able to protect yourself by carrying an orange cone with you when you ride.

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Feel free to ride Benedict Canyon again.

https://twitter.com/LADOTofficial/status/1805722708660863180

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Gravel Bike California celebrates its fifth anniversary by highlighting the best gravel rides in the state.

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It’s now 189 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And three full years since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

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

A Santa Rosa man suffered a badly broken leg when he was targeted and run down by a road-raging driver while riding his ebike to work early Saturday morning, after the driver yelled at him to “get the fuck off the road.

Police in Victoria, British Columbia were accused of repeatedly using their vehicles as weapons to intentionally hit people riding bikes or scooters, or on foot. That should constitute a deadly use of force, just like firing a gun to stop a fleeing suspect, since any collision or fall off a bicycle or scooter can be deadly.

This is what a punishment pass from a British camper van driver looks like.

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

A 32-year old Hasidic man who had a bag of dog shit thrown at his face by a bike-riding New York bigot predicted his attacker will receive a slap on the wrist if he’s ever arrested, and won’t spend a day behind bars. Sadly, he’s probably right.

A British bike rider was trapped in a literal shitstorm when a farmer covered him in manure after catching him with a tent on the man’s land without permission while on a bike tour.

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Local 

Congratulations to Streetsblog LA, after their SGV Connect was honored as Best Regular Podcast by the Los Angeles Press Club for their coverage of last year’s Arroyo Fest.

Los Angeles has launched the city’s Let’s Play Outside campaign, complete with a ten-point kid’s bill of rights for outdoor activities, including riding a bicycle.

Speaking of LADOT, the city transportation agency shared additional details about the Hollywood Boulevard Safety and Mobility Project, including mostly parking-protected bike lanes from Gower Street to Lyman Place, and eventually east to the six-way intersection at Sunset Blvd, Virgil Ave and Hillhurst Ave.

Culver City Walk ‘n Rollers totaled up the savings from students riding their bikes to school in the city, with students burning 65,770 calories and removing 1,452 pounds of carbon from the atmosphere by walking or biking 5061 trips.

 

State

San Marcos has a brand new bouncing baby bike park.

Kern County was scheduled to accept state and federal funding to build a north-south companion trail to go with the county’s 35-mile Kern River Parkway, which runs east-to-west. Or vice versa, if you prefer.

Sad news from Kern County, however, where a Bakersfield bike rider died after being struck by a driver while riding in a crosswalk; the county suffered six fatal collisions in just the last week.

The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition has reached a turning point after moving from outsider status to getting a seat at the table with government contracts and the ear of top officials.

When Napa’s street sweeper’s couldn’t fit in the city’s new protected bike lanes, the local bicycle coalition bought a human-powered street sweeper that’s towed behind a bike to do the job, instead.

 

National

NPR show The Indicator from Planet Money examines how Bike Index founder Bryan Hance cracked the case of high-end purloined bikes unexpectedly popping up for sale at a bike shop in Mexico. And yes, you can register your bicycle(s) with Bike Index or report them stolen for free, right here on this site.

A group of Hawaii teenagers reached a settlement with the state over climate issues, with the governor agreeing to take bold action to address climate change, including providing safer options for green transportation — like bicycling — to reduce motor vehicle traffic.

Portland, Oregon is investing $20 million over the next five years to increase access to electric bicycles for moderate- to low-income residents

It was summer Bike to Work Day in Colorado yesterday, including in my bike-friendly hometown. Although some question the lack of recognition for those who bike to work every day.

A San Antonio, Texas man faces sentencing after pleading guilty to killing a woman riding a bicycle, while driving under the influence; prosecutors argued he had at least 11 drinks before getting behind the wheel.

A Central Texas mom says she cried like a baby after a total stranger replaced her eight-year old son’s stolen bicycle upon reading her social media post about the theft.

Ghost bikes are disappearing off the streets of Austin, Texas, apparently thanks to city maintenance workers who don’t know why they’re there.

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.

Just weeks after NY Governor Kathy Hochul cancelled plans for congestion pricing in Manhattan, a new study shows New York has the world’s worst traffic congestion, costing the city $9.1 billion a year in lost productivity; Los Angeles is #7 on the list.

Actress Jennifer Lawrence is one of us, looking “loved up” as she rides a bikeshare bike with her husband on the streets of New York.

 

International

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.

A Manx bicyclist — no, not that one — just finished a five-day bike ride across the French Alps on a foldie, raising the equivalent of over $7,500 for an Isle of Man hospice along the way.

France Today shared nine of the country’s best bike routes that anyone can bike.

A team from the Netherlands set a new world’s record for the world’s longest tandem bicycle at an incredible 55.35 meters — aka 181 feet 7 inches — perfect for when you really don’t get along with your stoker.

 

Competitive Cycling

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.

Bicycling shares the North American cyclists still competing in the Tour, remembering that yes, Canada is part of North America. Read it on AOL this time if the magazine blocks you. 

 

Finally…

You can ride in just about any clothes, but maybe rethink the bell bottoms. Nothing like putting crocheted woolen boobs on your bike to fight breast cancer.

And your next car could be a three-wheeled California-made bike.

On second thought, no it can’t.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

Bicycling “disaster for traditional economy,” bike-born antisemitic attack in New York, and LA scores another pitiful bike score

June 24, 2024 / / No comments
Just 190 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025. 

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In probably the worst take ever, the CEO the Caribbean-based Euro Exim Bank called bicycling a disaster for the traditional economy.

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.

Then again, the billionaire owner of discount Euro airline Ryan Air wasn’t much better, tweeting his discontent over environmentalists and bicyclists with the hashtag #AirTravelOverBicycleRide.

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WTF is wrong with some people?

Police in New York are looking for a bike-riding middle-aged white man bigot who yelled “Fuck you, Jew,” then tossed a bag of dog poop through a driver’s open window before riding off on his bicycle.

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.

Period.

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People For Bikes is out with their seventh annual City Ratings, showing things appear to be getting better for bicycling in the US.

Los Angeles scored a pretty pitiful 25 out of a possible 100, though they cited the passage of the Measure HLA Complete Streets mandate as reason for hope. But at least that’s a little better than last year’s even more pitiful 19.

Meanwhile. Michigan’s carfree Mackinac Island was rated the country’s top city for bicycling, which is a lot easier to do when you don’t have drivers and their big, dangerous machines to contend with.

Outside the US, London leads the UK in bikeability, but the UK continues to trail the rest of Europe.

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There’s another bouncing baby bike lane on the bike-friendly UCLA campus.

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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.

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It’s now 186 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And three full years since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

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

A new study shows that despite the wailing of local businesses, San Francisco’s centerline Valencia Street bike lane didn’t actually hurt their sales.

Chicago bike advocates are questioning whether city workers really removed a ghost bike by mistake, or if it was taken down in preparation for next month’s NASCAR race in the city.

While Cambridge, Massachusetts drivers fight to halt expansion of bike lanes, a second person has been killed riding a bicycle in the Ivy League town in less than a month, just as PeopleForBikes proclaims it as a top city for bicycling. Thanks to Megan Lynch for the heads-up.

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

American professional skateboarder Tyshawn Jones was kicked off his bicycle by another bike rider while riding in Paris last week, for no apparent reason.

https://twitter.com/TMZ/status/1804186264834576843

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Local 

Good question. The LA Times asks why you should need a driver’s license for a job that doesn’t involve driving?

Police in Los Angeles are looking for a man riding a “distinctive” pink bicycle, who’s accused of fatally stabbing another man before riding off late Saturday afternoon.

 

State

A San Francisco news outlet asks candidates in a city council race if they support the proposed quick-build Frida Kahlo protected bike lane project.

Sad news from Oakland, where a bike rider was killed in a hit-and-run early Friday morning. Thanks again to Megan Lynch.

 

National

A writer for Tom’s Guide says Trek’s $200 CarBack Radar Rear Bike Light is like having eyes in the back of your head, pairing with your smartphone to give you a view of cars approaching from behind.

A columnist for Cycling Weekly bemoans his favorite-ever bike ride, as the effort to repeat it turns from a cherished memory to a nagging reminder of subsequent inadequacy.

A study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that childhood bicycling deaths have dropped significantly since 1975. Although that probably reflects a drop in childhood bicycling rates more than any safety improvements. 

The 17 Cherokee bicyclists who took part in the annual Remember the Removal bike ride returned to when it started in Oklahoma, following the nearly 1,000-mile ride that traced the route of the historic Trail of Tears.

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. 

Pittsburgh is providing adaptive bicycles through the city’s bikeshare program.

When a 12-year old Buffalo NY boy started a lemonade stand to raise money for a new bicycle after his was stolen, a generous stranger gave him a brand new BMX bike, instead.

Iconic artist Edward Hopper was one of us, as New York’s Whitney Museum scheduled a 60-mile bike ride to celebrate the “avid” bicyclist’s 142nd birthday.  But he doesn’t look a day over 131.

Electrek calls the Key Biscayne, Florida ebike ban the “Footloose for ebikes.”

 

International

Is Manchester, England really the booming European Capital of Cycling, or is it just a vague tagline on a t-shirt?

An Irish writer says after doing the math, spending the equivalent of $6,400 for an e-cargo bike didn’t seem outrageous compared to buying a second car.

She gets it. Even in the Netherlands, the same debate goes on, as a spokeswoman for a victim’s support charity says fixing the causes of bicycling crashes should be a higher priority than getting people to wear bike helmets.

The BBC celebrates the “endless dunes, romantic windmills, historic Hanseatic towns and abandoned forts” of Poland’s “glorious” Velo Baltica cycling route along the Baltic Coast.

 

Competitive Cycling

One of the greatest ever women’s cyclists is making an unexpected comeback, after the Netherlands’ Anna van der Breggen announced her return to competition three years after her last race.

Magnus Sheffield and Matteo Jorgenson will join Brandon McNulty on the US cycling team for the Paris Olympics, as the USA attempts to end a 40-year men’s medal drought; Chloe Dygert and Taylor Knibb will take the two women’s spots.

Toronto was transfixed by the city’s long-standing Dunlop Trophy Road Race back in 1894.

Twenty-three-year old Italian cyclist Andrea Piccolo was fired from the US-based EF Education-EasyPost cycling team after he was arrested for carrying human growth hormone into the country.

 

Finally…

That feeling when your ebike conversion kit bursts into flames while you’re riding it. And Sisyphus may have been condemned to push a rock up a hillside for all eternity, but some bicyclists ride up the same hill every time because they want to.

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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.

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

Bike lanes as next big US infrastructure program, why we love cars more than children, and banning GOP reps from bikes

August 16, 2023 / / 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.

I’ll get used to it eventually.

But I ain’t there yet.

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Streetsblog asks if building bike lanes could become America’s next big infrastructure project, as a new online portal positions them as “key components of a national effort to end climate change.”

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?

It’s a damn good question.

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You’ve got to be kidding.

The House majority whip told members of the Republican caucus not to take any chances so they don’t risk losing their slim majority in Congress.

Including riding a bike.

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.

“Stay off the damn bike,” Emmer said.

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ActiveSGV needs your help to slow South Pas down.

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They’ve got a point.

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Pour one out for the late rapper and community organizer Nipsey Hustle, who was one of us.

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This is what we could have in Los Angeles.

Here’s what the Mayor of Paris says the tweet below.

Our streets are changing to offer ever more space and nature to Parisians! The proof by example with the rue de la Presentation in the 11th.

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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.

https://twitter.com/KNXBaird/status/1691193282309799936

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. 

A Sacramento bike advocate can’t remember the crash that left her with four broken ribs, a fractured clavicle and a partial collapsed lung, after police arrested the alleged road raging driver accused of deliberately running her down as she rode with a small group.

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

There’s a special place in hell for the man who rode up behind a Millbrae woman on a mountain bike and groped her as she walked on a trail.

Boston transit cops are looking for a man who used his bike to smash a bus windshield, after drinking on board and spitting on the floor.

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Local 

The Los Angeles Times calls on the state to ban traffic stops for minor violations that are too often used as pretext stops to target people of color.

The new bus and bike lanes on LA Brea Avenue are officially open, but have been reduced to around two and a half miles as appointed CD10 Councilmember Heather Hutt continues to block them below Olympic Blvd.

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.

Pomona is developing a bike park for all skills levels, driven by a homegrown BMX rider and police detective.

The Santa Monica Daily Press looks at last weekend’s Open Main Street open streets event in the city; if you missed it, like I did, you’ll have two more chances in the coming months.

 

State

The president of the Bay Area’s BART transit system was fined more than five grand for lobbying local officials on behalf of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition over 200 times without registering as a lobbyist.

 

National

Bicycling debates whether the bike industry is in trouble, or if it’s poised for another comeback. As usual, read it on Yahoo if the magazine blocks you.

Bike Portland’s Jonathan Maus goes on a local podcast to offer an introduction to bike safety.

Heartbreaking news from Las Vegas, where a 64-year old man riding a bike was killed in a hit-and-run by an underage driver in a stolen car.

Tour de Fat may have abandoned the rest of us, but it’s still going strong in my Colorado hometown.

Colorado will start their statewide ebike rebate program tomorrow, less than a year after approving the program. Meanwhile, California’s program remains vaporware, despite being the first ebike rebate program approved in the US. 

A Minnesota man is in the midst of an 11,000-mile, year-long bike ride throughout the US to raise awareness and funds to fight prostate cancer and schizophrenia, despite suffering from stage four prostate cancer himself.

Boston will launch a pilot program offering cargo bike delivery services in the city’s Allston neighborhood next month.

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.

Once again, an innocent person was the victim of a police chase, as a 54-year old New York woman is in critical condition after she was struck by a driver fleeing from the cops while riding her bike.

The New Yorker talks with cover artist Kadir Nelson about his illustration depicting teenagers participating in a rideout on the Williamsburg Bridge.

 

International

A writer for Momentum shares what she calls the empowering path to bike commuting.

That’s more like it. A 24-year old English man will spend the next 13 years behind bars for the reckless, drunken hit-and-run that killed a 53-year old man riding his bike home from work.

An Edinburgh city councilor complains about “extremely light” bike racks that can be easily unscrewed to steal any bike locked to them.

A woman in the Netherlands got her bike back thanks to a hidden AirTag, after she found it locked to a light post.

Police in Dubai seized 8,786 bicycles, ebikes and e-scooters in the first six months of a new law allowing seizures for anyone over 16 riding an e-scooter or ebike without a driver’s license, or anyone under 16, period.

 

Competitive Cycling

Tragic news from Italy, where 17-year old Italian junior cyclist Jacopo Venzo died following a crash while racing on Friday.

Utah mountain bike pro Keegan Swenson took his third consecutive win at the Leadville Trail 100, shattering the men’s record in the process; Argentina’s Sofia Gomez Villafañe took the women’s race.

A Virginia paper explains how five local teenagers became Team USA for the the Quad Tandem World Championships in British Colombia, competing four to a single bike.

The former doctor for British Cycling and Team Sky was banned from all sports for four years for violating anti-doping rules. But the doping era is over, right?

Twenty-six-year old Iranian cyclist Mohammad Ganjkhanlou has disappeared after finishing 66th in the time trial at the world championships in Glasgow.

 

Finally…

Don’t bother asking a cat about bike lanes. Your next bike could look like a Transformer — and act like one, too.

And we may have to deal with jumpy LA drivers, but at least we don’t have to worry about kangaroo crashes.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

LA mired in scenic bike mediocrity, PeopleForBikes fights ebike right-to-repair, and driving SF’s new protected bike path

August 8, 2023 / / 4 comments

Apparently, we’re not that scenic, either.

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.

Not surprisingly, Seattle, San Francisco, and Miami came out on top, with North Las Vegas, and Garland and Irving, Texas all tying for the bottom.

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.

The organization, the advocacy arm of the national trade organization representing bicycle manufacturers, is lobbying officials in several states to exempt ebikes from right-to-repair bills.

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.

Maybe they should stick to ranking bikeability.

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Evidently, the many critics of San Francisco’s new Valencia Street bike path were right.

Drivers took to the ostensibly protected centerline bike path when a driverless car unexpectedly froze in the traffic lane, forcing drivers to use the bike path to go around it.

Never mind that keeping cars out is the very definition of a protected bike lane, and they should never have been able to use it as a bypass lane.

Fortunately, no one appears to actually have been using it for its intended purpose at the time.

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Um, no.

The Sacramento Bee misses the mark in answering a reader’s question about whether helmets are required to ride a motorcycle, e-scooter to bicycle in California.

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.

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This is what a catastrophic frame failure looks and sounds like during a competition, as Alex Anderson goes up a jump on a mountain bike, and lands on a pile of crumpled and broken carbon fiber.

Seriously, his painful moans were loud enough to wake the corgi from a sound sleep, and make her stare to see what the problem was.

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

No bias here. A 76-year old Montana columnist says young people shouldn’t ride ebikes if they can ride a regular bike, and that if he can ride his bike up the local pass, you should be able to, too.

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.

A Wyoming man known for giving away thousands of bicycles to children through a local bike project is facing a felony count of first-degree abuse of a minor for allegedly sexually abusing a child under the age of 13.

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Local 

Metro is looking for input on first mile/last mile active transportation connections within a half-mile of Western and Slauson.

 

State

Oops. A Westminster man was busted for carrying a large amount of narcotics and a loaded gun while already on probation, after being stopped for a traffic violation while riding a bicycle.

Carlsbad is taking a proactive approach to teenage ebike riders, teaming with the local school district to offer an ebike safety course in exchange for a free permit park their bikes on campus.

Police in Redwood City have arrested two men for the June 1st bike shop burglary that netted several high-end bikes worth a combined fifty grand.

San Francisco Streetsblog says the question shouldn’t be why are bike riders on the Bay Bridge, but why are they banned in the first place, in the wake of last weekend’s takeover of the lower span by hundreds of mostly teen bike riders.

 

National

Consumer Reports says bicycling can be a great and safe way to exercise as you get older. And for once, the safety recommendations don’t start and end with wearing a helmet.

This is the cost of traffic violence. After news broke that an Oregon bike rider was killed by a 71-year old driver in a left-cross crash, it didn’t take long to learn the victim was the popular manager of a Mt. Hood ski area.

Ten people who were injured riding their bikes on the “missing link” gap on a Seattle bike path have filed a claim against the city, demanding that Seattle act quickly to make the trail safe for riders, as well as seeking unspecified monetary damages.

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. 

A Colorado woman calculates she’s saved nearly $1,900 by commuting on her ebike for the past five years, rather than driving her 2010 Toyota, putting 11,500 miles on her bike in the process.

Indianapolis has named the cop who killed a bike rider after swerving around a car while responding to a call last week. Contrast that with the LAPD and LA County Sheriff’s Department, who go out of their way to keep officers from being named. 

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. 

A New York website tracks the cost of traffic violence in the city, both in terms of lives and financial costs.

 

International

Bike Radar considers how gravel biking is changing the way we think about road bike design as road bikes become more capable of riding more varied terrain.

A Bristol, England advocacy group calls for more protected and segregated bike paths, after 81% of local bike rider complain of aggressive motorists.

An international team of eight bicyclists is riding 2,175 miles from the British Museum to Greece’s Acropolis Museum to demand the return of the Parthenon sculptures, known in the UK as the Elgin Marbles.

A New Zealand woman says her husband was a careful, experienced cyclist who felt invisible on the road following a number of near misses, until one truck driver tragically didn’t miss.

 

Competitive Cycling

Apparently, not everyone objects to the “dizzying, dangerous and designed by a drunk person” world’s road course, as bronze medalist Tadej Pogačar said he enjoyed the fast and technical Glasgow circuit, adding he “really likes city street racing.”

Not only did Mathieu Van der Poel have to overcome a late crash on his way claiming the world road cycling title, he also had to knock on a stranger’s door to poop.

Eleventh place finisher Neilson Powless says he could have had a top five finish in the road race, if not for a crash that separated the peloton and created a gap the American couldn’t close.

The head of the pro cyclists’ union issued a scathing condemnation of the environmental protesters who halted the worlds road race for an hour, calling it the opposite of helping the environment.

Team USA star Jennifer Valente became America’s most decorated track cyclist with a third place finish in Sunday’s elimination race, adding to the 15 medals she won prior to this year’s world’s.

The BBC looks back at the maverick life and mysterious death of the late, great Marco Pantini; the Italian cycling star’s death was officially blamed on acute cocaine poisoning, though questions remain over whether the mafia somehow helped him ingest it.

Cycling Weekly profiles Spain’s remarkable para-athlete Ricardo Ten, as the one-limbed swimmer aims for his seventh Paralympics, this time as a cyclist — despite having no hands and just one leg.

 

Finally…

When you already have nine outstanding warrants, maybe riding a bicycle out in the open isn’t the best choice. Not only are bike paths not safe from DUI drivers, now they’re not even waiting until they’re finished.

And probably not the best idea to try to ride your bike atop a wrought iron fence.

At least not if you ever want to have children.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cuw_-IuRZ9s/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=embed_video_watch_again

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

Bike riders feel like #2 as PeopleForBikes ranks LA 821st in US, and Sunset For All hosts ice cream social next month

June 28, 2023 / / 6 comments

PeopleForBikes is out with its latest ranking of the bikeability of nearly 1,500 American cities.

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.

In fact, you have to scroll past 820 other American cities to find LA in a 39-way tie for 821st, with a pitiful BNA score of 19.

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.

Here in SoCal, Ventura received a BNA of 32, with San Diego 30, Riverside at 21, and San Bernardino an awful 12.

Among other cities in LA County, relatively bike-friendly Santa Monica scored a respectable 52, Burbank checked in at 29, and Pasadena was a sad 16.

Meanwhile, PeopleForBikes highlights Long Beach’s efforts to build a true 15-minute city, with protected bike lanes on every arterial street, and bikeshare docks in every neighborhood. Although the city still has a long way to go, checking in with a BNA score of 37.

But that’s nearly twice as high as its much larger neighbor to the north.

………

Sunset For All is teaming with BikeLA — the former Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition — to host an ice cream social starting at 3 pm on July 8th, with a bike ride to follow at 4 pm.

………

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.

………

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

No bias here. A San Diego TV station gets the story backwards in a report on the growing memorial to 15-year old Brodee Champlain-Kingman, who died last weekend after a collision in Encinitas; the station warns about the dangers of ebikes, but neglects to consider the risks posed by people in the big, dangerous machines.

No bias here, either. A Maine letter writer opposes plans for a rail-to-trail conversion, bizarrely arguing that “active transportation” is a vague term at best, and that a trail is likely to be too crowded on weekends.

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

Police in New York are looking for an ebike rider who punched a 72-year old Manhattan man in the face after the victim told him to get off the sidewalk.

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Local 

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.

 

State

OC Parks will host an intermediate-level bike ride exploring the newest trails in the recently opened Saddleback Wilderness on July 9th.

The Goleta city council approved plans to use eminent domain to acquire the land for a planned multiuse path, as negotiations continue with landowners to buy the necessary easements.

Montecito bike shop Mad Dogs & Englishmen raised funds to donate 75 bicycles to underprivileged kids, after the bicycle they gave to British Prince Archie sparked an unexpected backlash.

A Bay Area TV station discusses how people taking part in the recent AIDS/LifeCycle ride bonded on the 450-mile, seven-day ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles.

Streetsblog says a new physically separated bike lane on the extreme western end of Alameda Island is the first in the Bay Area to get bike lanes right, using a European model.

 

National

An ebike-maker lists ten tips to help you ride your ebike safely. All of which apply to regular bikes, as well. And most of which you probably already know.

A writer for Cycling Weekly says yes, your kid should ride an ebike, saying the right setup can bring joy to your family.

Teams of women participating in the Pedal the Pacific bike rides down the Pacific Coast have raised over $860,000 to fight human trafficking.

The family of a Texas bike rider have filed suit after he was killed by material falling from a construction project while riding in winds up to 40 mph this past March.

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.

Art-pop musician Anohni is one of us, as the 51-year old singer with an eight-octave range rode her bike to talk with a reporter from the New York Times.

Savannah, Georgia multi-disciplined visual artist, jazz vocalist and bassist, full-time professor and elite cyclist Maggie Evans is making a comeback after she was nearly killed last year when a pickup driver slammed into her on a training ride at 64 mph.

 

International

Now you, too, can have your very own solar powered mini-travel trailer designed to be pulled by an ebike, for less than seven grand.

Hundreds of naked and partially clad bike riders rode through the streets of Guadalajara, Mexico to raise awareness of bike safety in the city’s edition of the World Naked Bike Ride.

Saskatoon, Saskatchewan is practicing Vision Zero in reverse, cancelling plans to improve safety at the intersection where a bike-riding woman was killed by the driver of a cement truck nearly a decade ago.

A bike rider in the UK was lucky to escape without serious injuries when he was robbed at knife point and beaten by a passenger who got out of a passing car to attack him.

Britain’s Parliament will once again consider whether bike riders should be required to wear a helmet, after a Member of Parliament from Rugby introduced the latest attempt.

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. 

Aussie researchers will examine the prevalence and impact of structural damage in carbon fiber bicycles currently in use by the general public.

 

Competitive Cycling

Cyclist talks with James Gay-Rees, producer of the Netflix eight-episode docuseries Tour de France: Unchained.

WaPo asks the burning question of whether Tadej Pogacar can win the Tour de France after training for the race in his kitchen, a result of breaking his hand in the Liege-Bastogne-Liege race.

Five-time Tour de France winner Miguel Induráin says people who think time trials are boring should find another sport to watch.

Australian GQ considers the biggest scandals in Tour de France history, including a certain ex-seven time doper winner who seems to think trans cyclist are cheating.

 

Finally…

That feeling when your new ebike has a built-in chatbot for no discernible reason. If you can’t steal a bike from your own family, who can you steal from?

And who really needs bike wheels, anyway?

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin.

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

People For Bikes says sharrows suck, former CM Jose Huizar pleads to racketeering, and City Hall die-in tomorrow

January 20, 2023 / / One comment

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 don’t take my word for it. A 2016 study showed that sharrows are more dangerous than no bike infrastructure at all.

Now it looks like national advocacy group People For Bikes agrees.

Dave Snyder, PeopleForBikes’ senior director for infrastructure — and the former executive director of both Calbike and the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition — writes that, like many of us, he fought for sharrows when they first came out.

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.

………

After more than four years of loudly protesting his innocence, former CD14 Councilmember Jose Huizar has agreed to plead guilty to racketeering and tax evasion.

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.

The raid also caused his wife Richelle to drop out of the race to replace him once he was termed out of office in 2020.

In a sad irony, Huizar was replaced by Kevin de León, who is facing his own calls to resign after being caught participating in a racist and otherwise offensive recording.

But at least de León hasn’t been indicted.

Not yet, anyway.

………

Don’t forget tomorrow’s die-in at City Hall! We need as many people as possible to make an impact and fight for an end to traffic violence.

And maybe protest the city’s penchant for corrupt and racist leaders while we’re at it.

No promises, but I’m going to do my best to be there.

………

Nice to see the new CD13 councilmember taking traffic violence in the City of Angels seriously.

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A lousy parking permit is a small price to pay for the freedom of bike commuting.

………

Norwalk Unides and the Happy City Coalition are hosting their first community bike ride tomorrow.

And the 11 am start means you can still get there after the die-in at LA City Hall.

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Italian filmmaking great Federico Fellini was one of us.

………

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

A Michigan website reports that a man riding a bicycle was killed in a collision with a motor home, which apparently didn’t have a driver since they don’t bother to mention one.

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?

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Local 

More on West Hollywood’s proposal to extend the bike lanes on Santa Monica Blvd and make at least a portion of them protected. Which would be a huge improvement over the painted car-double parking lanes we have now.

 

State

Streetsblog offers more details from Calbike on the status of California’s long-delayed ebike rebate program. Eligibility will be limited to 300% of the federal poverty level, which is based on taxable income; however, the ebike rebates appear to be based on gross income, instead.

Your new Ti touring bike from California’s District Vision could set you back a cool 30 grand. Yes, that’s $30,000.

Road Bike Action Magazine looks at the tragedy behind the 15-year old Mike Nosco Memorial Ride through the Santa Monica Mountains.

 

National

Ebike maker Velotric used WalkScore data to identify bikeable neighborhoods in not-so-bikeable US cities, including San Diego’s Gaslight District.

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.

Cycling News offers tips to make traveling with your bike cheaper and easier. Although the cheapest and easiest way to travel with a bike is still just to ride it.

Great idea. Chicago’s RideReel encourages bicyclists to submit video of close calls and hostile infrastructure, in hopes that weekly reports to city officials will bring about real change.

Inspired by motorcycle daredevil Evel Knievel, a then 13-year Indianapolis boy managed to set a new record by jumping ten trash cans on his balloon-tired bicycle in 1976; he’d be a 60-year old man now.

New York is also hosting a die-in this morning at the site where a young woman was killed by a truck driver while riding her bike last week, on a street that should have been fixed by now.

 

International

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.

A new study from the UK shows the rising popularity of e-mountain bikes; nine out of ten people said cost was the primary barrier to participation.

Who needs pedals? A British bikemaker is introducing a road bike that you row, instead of pedal, even though the country’s Shark Tank equivalent passed on it.

An Irish website tests how long it takes for a locked-up midrange ebike to be stolen on the streets of Dublin. Short answer, about an hour.

Parisians are taking advantage of the city’s new bicycling network to bypass crippling transit strikes. Hopefully a sizable percentage will discover they like bike commuting and stick with it.

 

Competitive Cycling

Australian Michael Matthews and American Magnus Sheffield cleared the air following a “finish-line flareup” at the end of Thursday’s second stage, after jostling in the peloton caused the Aussie to drop his chain.

Australian Rohan Dennis’ brief stay as overall leader came to a quick end when his derailleur stopped working 21 miles from the end of Friday’s third stage, which ended before you got up this morning.

Australian ultracycling pro Jack Thompson set a record for riding the elevation of Mt. Everest once a week for 52 straight weeks, topping the old record of 42 successful efforts in a calendar year.

 

Finally…

Now you, too, can turn an old bicycle into a 75 mph e-motorbike. When you’re riding with a semiautomatic handgun, large quantities of meth and fentanyl, and ten grand in cash on your bike in broad daylight, maybe try obeying the damn vehicle code, already.

And oddly, this is still just as true 83 years later.

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Happy Lunar New Year, whatever language you celebrate in!

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

 

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

Free LED safety gear for low-income Culver City commuters, and reasoning with an angry climate denying driver

August 4, 2022 / / 2 comments

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.

Anyone interested in the program can click on this link to see what is available and to fill out a simple application form in English or Spanish.

However, he stresses that the application period ends on August 16, so this is a limited time opportunity.

………

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.

No, really.

………

People For Bikes urges you to contact your US senators to demand the inclusion of an ebike tax credit and bicycle commuter benefit in the final draft of the new climate bill, aka the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.

Although at last report, Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema was the last remaining holdout on the bill, looking to add back tax breaks for corporations and private equity managers.

So the question isn’t what your senator will support, but what can they get Sinema and bill co-author Joe Manchin of West Virginia to sign off on.

………

This is the cost of traffic violence.

Indiana Republican Rep. Jackie Walorski was killed in a traffic collision, along with two of her staffers, when a driver traveled onto the wrong side of the road and hit her SUV head-on.

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That feeling when a famed mountain bike park is full of bears. And no, you probably shouldn’t greet one like a lost puppy.

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If you need me, I’ll just be pretending I’m on my way to Bruges now, thank you.

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

After a Toronto bike rider was hit by a cop rolling a stop sign, he claimed the same officer had been harassing riders in a city park all day.

A 65-year old English man was injured when a road raging driver pushed him off his bike for the crime of not riding in a bike lane; he says he was hurt so badly he had to quit his job as an undertaker, and now struggles to play his trombone and bass guitar. Although probably not at the same time.

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.

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Local

Streetsblog is over halfway to their summer fundraising goal of $15,000, and just needs to raise another $7,000 to keep up their vital work reporting on Los Angeles and California transportation issues.

The Meet the Hollywoods CicLAvia route returns on August 21st, once again heading along the Hollywood Walk of Fame before dropping south to Santa Monica Blvd.

Camilla Cabello is sort of one of us, trying a kids bike on for size at a Los Angeles area Walmart.

 

State 

Carlsbad’s long-awaited 94-acre Veterans Memorial Park could soon be home to the city’s first bicycle park, complete with pump track, jumps and a slalom course.

Paul Pelosi, husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, pled not guilty to a charge of DUI stemming from a May injury collision in Napa County; the 82-year old driver had a blood alcohol level of .082% after the crash — just over the .08% limit.

 

National

A trio of Republican senators are fighting for your right to drive drunk, introducing a bill that would remove a requirement for carmakers to install passive drunk-driving detection mechanisms on all new cars by 2024.

The prestigious National Law Review considers the causes of bicycling crashes and how to avoid them.

Planetizen says accurate bicycle counts on city streets matter, because inaccurate — or non-existent — counts could lead to an underinvestment in bike infrastructure.

Streetsblog considers the multiple strange and varied vehicles that get called ebikes, and where they belong on the road, while Wired offers the latest deals on ebikes, e-scooters and accessories.

Prevention recommends the best women’s bike shorts. Only one of which is actually intended for, you know, riding a bike.

Seattle is testing a number of alternatives for building protected bike lanes this summer, from armadillos to low concrete barriers, with a goal of placing the winner throughout the city.

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.

A bighearted Odessa, Texas shop owner bought a new bike for a longtime customer after his was stolen outside the store.

Heartbreaking story from Michigan, where one of the two men killed by an alleged DUI driver shared his motivation for participating in the challenging 300-mile ride just hours before his death — a bracelet with the name of a Make-A-Wish child that he looked at whenever he needed inspiration.

A kindhearted Connecticut cop bought a new bike for a little kid who started crying after realizing he didn’t win one in a raffle on Tuesday’s National Night Out.

That’s more like it. A Manhattan community board is onboard with plans for a road diet and bike lanes, but are insisting on concrete barriers instead of just paint.

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.

 

International

Bike Radar recommends the best torque wrenches to work on your bike. And no, that’s not what you use to hammer a tight nut you can’t get off.

An 80-year old Canadian man is trying to set a new world record for the longest journey by motorized bike, riding an ebike over 8,000 miles from Alaska to Panama.

Canadian bicycling injuries jumped 25% in the first full year of the pandemic, likely due to an increase in bike ridership. 

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.

Porsche is jumping deeper into the ebike market by creating two new companies — one to make ebike components, and the other to build complete ebikes based on them.

A new German study suggests drivers pass bike riders just as close, if not closer, on streets with low speed limits as they do on faster streets.

Australia has issued an urgent recall notice for the children’s eZee Viento folding ebikes, which could suffer a broken frame while being ridden. The bikes were also sold in the US, but no word on a recall here yet.

 

Competitive Cycling

USA Cycling has announced the members of the US team for the Mountain Bike World Championships in Les Gets, France later this month.

Note to race organizers — speed bumps defeat the purpose of bike races. A half-dozen cyclists went down hard after clipping a speed bump in the last quarter mile of Spain’s Vuelta a Burgos.

 

Finally…

Is it really an ebike if it doesn’t have pedals, looks like a dirt bike and goes 38 mph? Or if the pedals are so hidden away they’re almost impossible to use?

And the story may be science fiction, but at least Amazon’s Paper Girls gets the ’80s bikes right.

And yes, you can read it on Yahoo if Bicycling blocks you.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

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

A breakup letter with 6th Street Viaduct, CalBike ED moves to People For Bikes, and CA ebike rebates fail to launch

July 20, 2022 / / One comment

He gets it.

Well, of course he does.

Michael Schneider, founder of the transformational transportation Political Action Committee Streets For All, is the latest to accuse Caltrans and LADOT failing to protect bike riders on the new $588 million 6th Street Viaduct.

Los Angeles’ Bureau of Engineering, LADOT, and Caltrans have sent a “love letter” that is actually a breakup letter to people on bikes. Whether intentional or not, it signals that the city doesn’t really care about the safety for people on bikes (or they do, unless the space is needed for cars). Spending $600M of our taxpayer dollars on a substandard multi modal bridge in 2022 isn’t acceptable. The striping should be changed ASAP to accommodate broken down cars and emergency vehicles in the center while physically protecting people on bikes with concrete and extending the lane for the full length of the bridge.

We’ve already discussed that failure several times in recent days. So take a moment to read Schneider’s Medium piece.

Then get mad.

Damn mad.

Because as much as we want to love the new bridge, city and state officials have made it clear that your life and safety is worth less to them than a broken-down car.

And it should come as no surprise to anyone that drivers on the bridge are already behaving badly.

Rendering from From 6th Street Viaduct Twitter account.

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CalBike Executive Director Dave Snyder is leaving the statewide bicycle advocacy group.

Snyder has led the California Bicycle Coalition, better known as Calbike, nearly half of its existence, joining the 26-year old organization in 2010.

According to a press release posted by Bicycle Retailer and Industry News,

Under Snyder’s leadership, CalBike’s tenacious, hardworking team has passed model e-bike legislation, pushed through Complete Streets reform at Caltrans, defeated a helmet mandate, legalized protected bike lanes, and gotten several bills passed to protect bicyclists, including the Three Feet for Safety Law requiring motorists to give bicyclists 3 feet of space when passing. They have gotten more funding for bicycling as well, securing an increase in state-level funding for biking and walking from around $100M to over $1 billion, and winning $10M for e-bike purchase incentives.

CalBike has helped to coordinate more than twenty local advocacy organizations with a combined membership of over 100,000, influencing elections for the California State Assembly and Senate and building support for ballot measures such as the successful defeat in 2018 of a proposed repeal of the gas tax.

He’s leaving to take a position as Senior Director of Local Innovation with Colorado-based People For Bikes.

He’ll be missed.

Current CalBike Operations Manager Kevin Claxton will step in as Interim Director while the group conducts a search for new leadership.

………

Streetsblog continues to stay on top of California’s continued failure to launch a promised and fully funded ebike rebate program.

Despite the overwhelming success of Denver’s ebike rebate program, California’s minimally funded $10 million program, which was supposed to launch this month, has been dead on arrival, apparently due to the state’s inability to select anyone to administer it.

Putting off a decision adds delay to an already slow-moving process, and could push the program start date out until after the end of the year. Other sources of e-bike incentives, including under the Clean Cars for All program being handled by regional air districts, have been just as slow to get going.

It almost feels as if CARB is more than reluctant to offer these incentives, even though it is increasingly clear that e-bikes can be excellent replacements for private cars. Their carbon footprints, costs, parking requirements, and the space they take up on roads is also considerably less than that of electric cars, and CARB doesn’t seem to have much trouble pushing EVs as a climate solution.

Never mind that California provides $425 million to purchasers of electric vehicles, which offer far fewer public benefits than electric bicycles.

You’d think that a cost of just 2.3% of the EV program while getting more cars off the road would be enough of an incentive for the state to get its shit together.

But apparently, you’d be wrong.

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Just 136,000 of the reasons I’m a fan of the East Side Riders.

https://twitter.com/LA2050/status/1549488034445496320

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The LA area’s biggest bike race of the year is coming to the South Bay on Sunday.

………

This is what can happen when a country’s leaders actually give a damn about ending traffic deaths.

Unlike a certain North American country we could name.

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

A Rhode Island man faces multiple charges for intentionally backing his car into a 12-year old boy’s bike, then following the kid and knocking him off his bike, all because he took offense at comments the boy made to his friends.

………

Local

You see a lot of things riding a bike.  Like a cackling arsonist starting a brush fire, and a bike rider with a bleeding head injury who insists on riding off rather than waiting for paramedics. Seriously, if someone insists you need medical help, listen to them.

 

State 

Bad news from Oxnard, where a 14-year old boy was critically injured when he was struck by a 19-year old van driver while riding his bike.

The writer of a Santa Barbara op-ed, who apparently doesn’t know the difference between a Class 1 bike path and Class 2 bike lanes, opposes the former because it could mean the loss of trees on a street that already has the latter.

Santa Rosa bike riders are complaining about the unexpected closure of a bike path due to a small homeless encampment that officials said was “impeding safe public use of the trail.”

 

National

Bicycling offers expert advice on how to lead a group ride, in an article that’s exclusive to subscribers. And apparently anyone who has access to Yahoo.

A writer for The Oregonian suggests leaving your car at home, and taking your bike on an Amtrak train if you’re headed to the World Athletics Championships in Eugene.

Sheriff’s deputies in Pocatello, Idaho are increasing bike and foot patrols to cope with high gas prices.

A kindhearted stranger stepped up to buy a nine-year old Michigan boy a new bicycle, after the bike he got for his birthday was stolen the first night he had it.

Political pranksters have added a faux historical marker denoting Brandon Falls, the coastal Delaware location where Joe Biden fell off his bike last month; the name is a play on the “Let’s go Brandon” chant that stands in for a much cruder epithet. Meanwhile, the former Mayor Pete — now Transportation Secretary Pete — says he’s just “glad to have a president who can ride a bicycle.”

 

International

A British Columbia farm region is offering a free bicycle lending program, allowing local residents, refugees and migrant workers to simply take one when they need it and return in good working order it when they’re done.

South London is being plagued by knife-armed bike thieves on motorcycles.

London’s Independent tries out the Brompton’s nee $4,400 ebike foldie for a month, and likes it.

This is who we share the road with. An English police commissioner was caught speeding five times in just three months, after vowing to crack down on heavy-footed drivers.

UK bike riders argue that slowing down due to the country’s extreme heat leads to more aggressive passing from overheated and sleep deprived drivers; it was a record-setting 104° in London yesterday.

Swedish mobility company Vässla is switching to e-cargo bikes to deliver their mopeds through crushing Parisian traffic.

Taiwan is now allowing bicyclists and scooter riders to forgo their face masks.

 

Competitive Cycling

Canada’s Hugo Houle captured the biggest win of his career yesterday, topping the podium as the Tour de France entered the Pyrenees for the final week of racing; Houle dedicated the win to his little brother, who was murdered by a hit-and-run driver ten years ago.

NBC offers a beginner’s guide to the Tour’s various leaders jerseys.

Twenty-four-year old Italian pro Marta Cavalli hopes to build on her second place finish in the Giro d’Italia Donne, as the inaugural eight-stage Tour de France Femmes prepares to rollout on Sunday.

L39ion of Los Angeles pulled its men’s and women’s teams out of Sunday’s Salt Lake Criterium after an incident of the final lap led to an exchange of blows following Saturday’s race; US pro crit champ Kendall Ryan says she’s astonished by the disrespect she gets as a member of the team.

 

Finally…

How to carry three on a tandem. Few things suck more than getting your new ebike stolen just an hour after you bought it.

And that feeling when you walk away from a promising cycling career to run the local post office.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

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

How to make bicycling more inclusive, police demand bike licenses in Lompoc, and $1000 ebike rebates in Sonoma

March 12, 2021 / / 2 comments

A new study from PeopleForBikes takes an in-depth look at how to break down the barriers to bicycling in the US, and make it more inclusive.

Bicycling Retailer reports the study concluded with five recommendations.

  • Meaningfully engage with historically marginalized communities on their turf: This is critical for facility planning, implementation, and promotion of cycling. It means going to places of work, play and residence and not expecting them to come to traditional meetings.
  • Don’t shy away from conducting focus groups in and with communities of color: A lesson learned during the study was the lack of experience many had with engaging and recruiting people of color to participate in the focus groups. It’s important to continue building rapport.
  • Expand private-sector encouragement programs: Businesses should encourage employees to commute by bike and provide incentives, from financial to amenities like shower facilities and indoor bike storage.
  • Develop tailored and culturally relevant educational materials, marketing, and outreach strategies: Bicycle safety and road sharing education needs to be provided for drivers, bicyclists, e-scooter users — and police officers, too.
  • Build and invest in bicycle infrastructure, both the big and small stuff: Regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, or age, most focus group participants said having a network of protected bike lanes was the No. 1 factor that would increase comfort and safety while bicycling. This is especially true with women and less-experienced bicyclists in high-traffic areas.

I’d add a sixth recommendation — find a way to overcome the inbuilt bias in favor of motor vehicles that permeates virtually every city, and prevents the building of safe bike infrastructure that would encourage more people of every description to ride.

Image by Sabine van Erp from Pixabay.

………

In a report that doesn’t make any sense, a group of Santa Barbara-area TV stations say Lompoc police will now require bike riders to have a bicycle license, which is illegal under California law.

Not to mention every other state.

According to the report, the goal is to curb reckless bike riding by groups of young people.

The police department said it commonly receives reports of a group of young bicyclists riding in and out of traffic dangerously, cutting off vehicles, riding throughout parking lots and blocking traffic.

“The biggest complaint that we get is on these kids riding wheelies in the middle of traffic and playing chicken with vehicles,” said Sergeant Arias. “They’ll ride a wheelie for a long distance of time and a vehicle is coming and they’ll stay with the vehicle, and right at the last second they’re swerving to miss the vehicle and the goal is to see how close you can get to a vehicle.”

The problem is that only the state is authorized to write laws governing traffic, and it strictly controls what cities are allowed to do. And operator licensing is a right reserved to the state, which only requires them to operate motor vehicles.

Not to mention that police are only allowed to enforce traffic laws, not make them.

It could simply be a matter of bad reporting, with the station confusing bike licenses with registration.

State law allows cities to decide whether to require bicycle registration to prevent theft, and impose a small fine for failing to do so.

(I can’t find the code online right now, but as memory serves, it’s somewhere around $12.)

But the purpose of the law is to aid in recovering a stolen bike, not to rein in bad bike behavior.

So either the police intend to abuse the bicycle registration requirement to enforce behavior, or they are illegally attempting to rewrite the state vehicle code.

Neither one is good.

………

A Sonoma Clean Power program is offering select ratepayers a $1,000 rebate to buy a new ebike.

Which raises the obvious question of why isn’t it available everywhere?

Or at least here in Southern California, where we “enjoy” the nation’s worst traffic and air quality, and desperately need efficient — and affordable — alternatives to driving.

………

Pink Bike wants to show you how to survive mountain biking in wet weather.

Aside from just not doing it, that is.

………

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

A North Carolina bike rider learns the hard way exactly what a brake check looks like after complaining about a too close pass.

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

No bias here. A San Clemente CA letter writer wonders why the city is concerned with banning ebikes from the boardwalk, when local residents are “literally terrorized” by bullying roadies who refuse fail to comply with any traffic laws.

………

Local

The LA Times explains how to hike the Santa Monica Mountains’ 67-mile Backbone Trail in eight easy day hikes. I know that’s not about bikes, but it’s all I found today.

 

State

San Diego residents will now be able to voice their concerns about dangerous road conditions, including bike lanes or the lack thereof, in new online forums maintained by the San Diego Association of Governments. Which could be a great idea if they actually read and act on them — without letting the motoring/NIMBY crowd dominate the conversation.

A professor emeritus at UC Berkeley says he’s back on his bike after nearly losing his life on his 19th cross-country bike tour, when the lane he was riding in suddenly ended on a steep descent.

No bias here. A Sacramento TV station warns about dangerous street rides taking over area roadways, then proceeds to report on a weekly, well-mannered family ride in Tracy, where even the police say there have been few problems.

 

National

She gets it. Curbed’s Alissa Walker says America’s standstill traffic is the only thing keeping traffic death rates from being even worse.

Recovering raptors in Bend, Oregon have a bike shop to thank for their new perches, as a local bike shop recycles its used tires by sending them to a nearby wildlife hospital.

Bike Portland profiles a “35-year-old, gay, armless, bike-loving former Russian orphan who wants to be Oregon’s next governor.”

Seattle bike shops are warning customers that the pandemic bike boom, and resulting bicycle shortage, is still going strong, and if you want a new bike this summer, you’d better order it now. Although an industry expect says a bike glut is inevitable when this is all over.

A 16-year old Las Vegas boy decides to pay it forward when strangers raise over $1,000 to replace his bicycle, which was stolen while he was at work; the boy, who has been in and out of foster care most of his life, will hold a bike drive this weekend to help others.

Missouri state troopers remind drivers that bicyclists have a right to the road, and motorists have a responsibility to drive safely around people on bicycles and motorcycles.

A New York website examines why so many automakers are now offering ebikes, concluding if may be less of a transitional step to buying an electric car than a realization that “life’s much more fun (and less expensive) on two wheels.”

A county executive on New York’s Long Island vetoed a measure to ban reckless bicycling by allowing police to “confiscate bikes and issue fines to cyclists who weave through traffic or ride with no hands, among other infractions.”

 

International

Cyclist dishes advice on how to make your bike faster, including reducing drag from flapping clothing and getting a good bike fitting. Although in my experience, the best way to get faster is to drop your own weight, if you have a few extra pounds to lose.

Sad new from Ecuador, as 59-year old former Olympian cyclist John Jarrin was killed when he was struck by the driver of a garbage truck as he rode his bike to work in the city of Cuenca.

A short film from Outside profiles the trail builders behind British Columbia’s new Kamloops Bike Ranch.

Good idea. A new sign now tells drivers when someone is riding a bicycle on a British Columbia bridge.

An 80-something London letter writer argues that he sometimes walks and sometimes rides a bike, but that doesn’t make him a cyclist or pedestrian. And that the best way to get more people to walk and bike is to reduce motor vehicle traffic on the crowded streets.

Hello contradicts former bonny prince Harry’s statement to Oprah in the recent interview that he didn’t get to ride a bike as a kid, showing photos of him riding with his royal parents.

British bike legend Chris Boardman says e-cars are now the biggest hindrance to active transportation, because they give people a reason not to change their behavior.

 

Competitive Cycling

Early season bike racing continues, as France’s Julian Alaphilippe out sprinted the peloton to win the second stage of the weeklong Tirreno-Adriatico stage race, while Belgium’s Wout van Aert holds the overall lead.

Cyclist profiles all-time women’s great Jeanie Longo as part of their series of legendary women; Longo continued winning races into her forties, despite allegations of doping.

Cycling Weekly asks if enough is being done to protect riders in the peloton from concussions. Short answer, no.

 

Finally…

Presenting a new city bike with a real twist — no, literally. And a collision between a bike rider and a truck driver is a wreck, not a battle.

Even if it does feel like a war out there some times.

………

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

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

Soda pop cargo bike art in East LA, has Covid-19 affect your bike riding, and the war on bikes just keeps on going

October 9, 2020 / / Comments Off on Soda pop cargo bike art in East LA, has Covid-19 affect your bike riding, and the war on bikes just keeps on going

Why does East LA get all the good art?

Aurelio Jose Barrera caught this soda pop delivery truck adorned with a Jariritos-selling cargo bike.

If they didn’t have so much sugar, that would be enough to get my dollars.

………

PeopleforBikes wants to know how Covid-19 has affect your bike riding.

………

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

Newly found video shows a Portland driver intentionally run over a man’s bike as he tried to cork traffic during an August protest; naturally, police just let the driver go.

A North Dakota woman pled guilty to using her car as a weapon to intentionally run over a man on a bike after they argued about money; the victim was lucky to escape with road rash and bleeding.

No bias here. A London paper gleefully reports that a popup bike lane will be removed after causing traffic congestion, leading to calls to remove others, as well. Although no one seems to consider that it’s all those cars that cause traffic congestion, not bike lanes or the people using them.

A London driver didn’t take kindly to being told to drive more carefully, telling BBC presenter Jeremy Vine to fuck off.

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

Police in Milwaukee are looking for a bike-riding, saw-toting man wanted for damaging several trees.

………

Local

Bike-riding Downey city council candidate Alexandria Contreras will be on Bike Talk this evening. However, the link in the tweet is dead, but you can find the show here.

 

State

Weight weenies rejoice! Morgan Hill’s Specialized has introduced the lightest disk brake bike yet, checking in at a svelte 13 pounds, even though they insist it’s really about the ride quality. As long as you’ve got a cool twelve and a half grand in spare cash lying around, that is.

San Francisco is moving forward with plans for a complete Slow Streets network after ruling against several CEQA appeals that were holding things up.

Next City examines how Oakland was inspired by Covid-19 to get real about equitable urban planning.

Historic Angels Camp will get new bike lanes and sidewalks to serve the town’s 3,800 residents and assorted tourists.

 

National

A new study shows it only takes 15 minutes of high-intensity bicycling to boost your memory. You can read it on Yahoo if Bicycling blocks you out.

Bicycle Times takes a trip in the wayback machine to review the 1972 Schwinn Paramount.

A new bike helmet takes a more subtle approach to lighting, and will call for help if you crash.

A pair of young Armenian and Turkish bike riders formed an unlikely friendship on a ride across the US despite centuries of hostility between the two countries, including the mass genocide of Armenians at the hands of Turks a century ago.

Shaq is one of us, even if he has to have his bikes custom built to fit his 7’1″ frame. And yes, you can read it on Yahoo, too.

One app to rule them all, one app to find them. Lime takes a step towards world domination, or at least the world of micromobility, by offering Wheels scooters through their app, along with the usual Lime e-scooters and ebikes.

The bad news is, Boston has removed its popup bike lanes. The good news is, they’re making them all permanent, instead.

When Rhode Island cops were unable to recover a boy’s stolen bike, the kindhearted officers pitched in to buy him a new one.

A new candidate to replace termed out Bill de Blasio as mayor of New York says bike lanes should be part of the city’s transportation network. But fails to mention that city law requires 50 miles of new protected bike lanes and 30 miles of bus lanes every year. Unlike Los Angeles, where city officials are legally required to build absolutely nothing. And too often don’t. 

A Pennsylvania man will face charges for running down a bike rider after running not one, but two stop signs while driving without a license.

Another unlicensed Pennsylvania driver pled guilty to charges of slamming his SUV into a bike trailer pulling an 11-month old infant; fortunately, the critically injured baby pulled through.

Maryland drivers will now be allowed to briefly cross a double yellow line to pass bike riders on narrow roads. California drivers would have the same privilege, except Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed an early version of the three-foot passing law because it contained the same provision.

She gets it. A Delaware letter writer says developers should be required to build a mile of bike lanes and sidewalks when they get project approvals.

 

International

A writer for Tech Digest shares what he’s learned by riding a bike during the coronavirus lockdown, including that cars are scary, pedestrians are not your friend, and no, you don’t look good in Lycra.

Cycling Industry News asks a panel of experts about the role of bikeshare in attracting new bike riders.

Revel Bikes is raffling off a custom painted Rascal mountain bike to benefit LoveYourBrain; tickets are just $5.

You can add Colombia to your bike bucket list, as bicycles create a sustainable path to tourism in the country.

Forget speeding drivers, Toronto cops are turning their speed guns on bicycle riders exceeding a bike path’s 12 mph speed limit.

A pair of Welsh bike thieves are pretending to have mechanical problems while riding on a bike path, then riding off with the victim’s bike when they stop to help.

An Irish mother is calling for more and safer bike lanes after a near miss with a driver as she was biking to school with her seven-year old daughter.

A trio of Rwandan firms will pitch in to provide bike helmets for bicycle taxi riders in Kigali.

Motor loving Bollywood star Ranbir Kapoor is one of us, riding his chunky $635 e-foldie through Mumbai with his mom.

Bollywood actor, professional model and former first runner-up to Mr. India Rahul Rajasekharan is one of us, too.

 

Competitive Cycling

Former Tour de France champ Geraint Thomas is out of the race with a broken pelvis. And out for the remainder of the season; VeloNews says that leaves the race wide open.

 

Finally…

Your next ebike could look pretty cool, even without a front hub. Nothing like doing a century in less than two and a half hours — while drafting, of course.

And seriously, don’t ride your bike directly at cars, no matter what you call it.

………

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

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