I’m going to cut things a little short today.
While my hand is doing better today, it seems to be asking a little too much of it to write this post, along with the earlier piece about a fatal bike collision in San Diego’s Balboa Park.
I’ll try to catch up on Monday if we missed anything important.
Photo by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay.
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The LAPD is looking for the driver of a big rig truck who fled the scene after running down a bike rider in Boyle Heights last month.
The driver stopped briefly after striking the man as he rode his bike on the north sidewalk of Olympic Boulevard just east of Boyle Avenue, but didn’t identify himself or stick around.
So much for the usual truck driver excuse that they didn’t know they hit anyone.
The 30-year old victim spent several days in the ICU with multiple fractures and internal injuries.
The truck is described as possibly being a white 2015 Freightliner Columbia 120, with what looks like a sleeper cab, while the driver is described only as a man in his 30’s who could be Latino.
Anyone with information is urged to call LAPD Officer Garcia at 213/833-3713 or email 39759@lapd.online.
And while the story doesn’t mention it, but should be eligible for the city’s standing $25,000 reward for any hit-and-run resulting in serious injury.
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Apparently, New Jersey’s governor takes a dim view of Perth Amboy cops giving the state a black eye by seizing bikes from teenage boys.
Let alone the optics of a half-dozen white cops taking a Black teen into custody for a lousy traffic violation.
NJ Governor Phil Murphy: "There are certain things that should be high priorities and kids with bikes, to me, other than making sure they’re safe, I’m not sure that taking the bikes and taking them off the street is what we should be doing" 👍 https://t.co/lKJ7wET445
— Central NJ Yimby 🇺🇸🚲🏙 (@YIMBY_Princeton) April 22, 2021
Meanwhile, a New Jersey paper looks at how Perth Amboy’s draconian enforcement compares with bike laws in other cities in the state.
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Along the same lines — but much worse — Orlando Police forced a pair of black men to crawl at gunpoint, after somehow concluding they matched the description of a pair of robbery suspects.
In other words, busted for Biking While Black after dark.
They were cuffed and held at gunpoint for nearly three hours, until a witness to the robbery arrived to tell the cops they had the wrong guys.
Which they could have determined hours earlier by just by checking their alibis at the 7-11 the men had just left.
@riskie_e What you think happen
The local chief of police defended his officers, insisting they acted appropriately — even though about the only way they matched the suspect description was they’re both men.
And Black.
One of the men posted another video saying he’s afraid to ride his bike now, and has cried several times since the incident, thinking about what could have happened.
There’s just no damn excuse.
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Seriously, Larry?
Here: https://t.co/4r2nCEIqKD
Listen 10-12 minutes in. @AirTalk host @LarryMantle responds to a parent whose kids want bike lanes that bike lanes are really controversial, but in 2035, all the cars will be electric, so kids can drive instead.
Happy Earth Day!
— @dannyman@sfba.social (@dannyman) April 23, 2021
Air Talk originates on Pasadena public radio station KPCC .
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The state house celebrated Earth Day by passing AB 122, the proposed Safety Stop bill that would allow bike riders to treat stop signs as yields.
Now it’s on to an uncertain fate in the state senate.
Let’s hope they show the same good sense as the assembly.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
Police in Georgia are looking for the jackass pickup driver who just slightly broke the state’s three foot passing law, coming so close his mirror brushed the rider as he sped by.
Sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
Miami police are reopening the case of a group of bike riders who severely beat a man walking with his husband last November, to see if it’s related to a similar attack in March.
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Local
This is the cost of traffic violence. College basketball player Terrence Clarke, a one-and-done freshman from the University of Kentucky, was killed in an afternoon car crash in LA’s San Fernando Valley, where he was preparing for the upcoming NBA draft; Clarke reportedly ran a red light while traveling at a high rate of speed.
Nice piece from Bicycling, as LA’s Gabriella Ortega spends the pandemic rediscovering our city on two wheels. As usual, read it on Yahoo if Bicycling blocks you.
Metro announce that Bike Month will be back this year, with a Bike Anywhere Day on Friday the 21st replacing the usual Thursday Bike to Work Day; Bike Week will take place from May 17th to the 23rd. Maybe I’ll be recovered enough by then to ride somewhere on Bike Anywhere Day.
State
The board chair of the San Diego Bike Coalition and the executive director of BikeSD team for an op-ed refuting recent criticisms of the area’s protected bike lanes, arguing that safe bikeways are needed to introduce San Diegans to bike commuting.
Bike riders often find things when they ride. A dead body in a Sunnyvale lagoon, not so much.
Berkeley residents have taken to bikeshare during the pandemic.
After losing his home and 16 bicycles in the Camp Fire, a newly retired physical therapist rebuilds his life by opening a bike shop in Oroville.
National
Evidently, REI’s commitment to the environment only goes as far as their support from — and for — the makers of gas-guzzling SUVs. Thanks to Megan Lynch for the link.
Um, no. The CEO of bicycle subscription company Buzzbike says urban private bicycle ownership will be dead within the coming decade. Meanwhile, Twitter user Steven Mandrapa responded by writing “We also predict people will no longer own their own pants and will prefer to rent pants anytime they go outside.” Touché, Steven.
A pair of New Mexico burglars end up donating their bicycle to the local community college after triggering an alarm, and leaving their bike behind as they ran away.
Life is cheap in Ohio, where a motorcyclist will spend a lousy nine months behind bars for killing a 15-year old kid riding a bicycle, despite riding with a suspended license. At least they’re suspending his license for five years, even though that didn’t seem to stop him the last time.
International
Bike Radar offers advice on how to prevent flats.
Apparently, it’s the same on both sides of the Atlantic. Opponents of London’s Low Traffic Neighborhoods — the equivalent of Slow Streets on this side of the Atlantic — claim they impede emergency vehicles, with little or no facts to support it. And yes, Low Traffic Neighborhoods is a much better name than Slow Streets.
Britain’s Prince Louis, the youngest child of future king Prince William and his wife Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, celebrated his third birthday with a balance bike ride.
An Edinburgh bike rider has to buy the frame of his new bike back from the thief who stole it for the equivalent of $55 after he spots it online, but can’t interest the local cops in reclaiming it.
Competitive Cycling
Signs suggest that former Dutch pro Tom Dumoulin may be rethinking his surprising decision to step away from the sport.
Apparently the only thing that will allow someone else to win the women’s Flèche Wallonne will be Anna van der Breggen’s impending retirement, after she won her seventh consecutive title.
World champ Julian Alaphilippe took the men’s Flèche Wallonne for the third time.
The lack of a spare team car meant American Alex Howes had to rely on a badly fitting bike from the Flèche Wallonne’s neutral service after developing a problem with his rear wheel.
Here’s your chance to win real cash for a virtual gran fondo.
Finally…
That feeling when a sleeping gator brings your trail ride to a quick halt. That feeling when putting in bike lanes is just “too problematic.”
And remember, you don’t have to outrun the bear.
Just any other riders on the trail.
Thanks to Keith Johnson for the heads-up.
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And wear a mask.
