Tag Archive for protected bike lanes

Culver City to bike and bus riders: drop dead — CC council votes to rip out MOVE Culver City Complete Streets project

April 26, 2023 / / 2 comments

Today’s Morning Links have been cancelled in favor of an unbridled rant regarding the sheer recalcitrant idiocy demonstrated by the Culver City Council Tuesday night. 

Or make that early Wednesday morning, since treachery usually occurs in the early morning hours, long after most people with any common sense have gone to bed.

Which leaves out three-fifths of Culver City’s elected leadership.

We’ll be back tomorrow with our regularly scheduled programming.

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It really shouldn’t surprise anyone.

As expected, the newly conservative Culver City Council voted to gut the MOVE Culver City project.

The highly successful Complete Streets project received overwhelming public support going late into the night at Tuesday’s council session.

Yet they still voted 3 to 2 to remove the protected bike lanes in favor of a shared bus and bike lane, in order to add another traffic lane so more drivers can go zoom, zoom to their hearts content.

At least that’s the theory.

In reality, it’s likely to result in more congestion, as the added lane will just encourage more drivers to clog the city’s downtown area, with the added noise, smog and safety risks they’ll bring with them.

It will also mean reduced bike traffic, as fewer riders will be willing to use the newly shared bus and bike lanes, with the risk of an inattentive or impatient bus driver running up their ass.

Then again, that appears to be purely intentional.

https://twitter.com/BikeCulverCity/status/1651055143616643076

And it means slower bus traffic, as buses will now have to follow behind people on bicycles, making it a less attractive transportation option and resulting reduced ridership.

Never mind this logical disconnect.

https://twitter.com/wiscottcurtis/status/1650779709238841347?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1650779709238841347%7Ctwgr%5E52547c9f1d257dba9e318fb7c7de7e4a9aad5b6e%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.foxla.com%2Fnews%2Fculver-city-council-votes-eliminate-protected-bike-bus-lanes

Call it a lose/lose/lose.

Because the city is giving a big FU to anyone not safely ensconced in a couple tons of dangerous, polluting glass and steel.

And you can add another lose to that, since the move to rip out the project will inevitably result in a CEQA violation unless the city manages to conduct an environmental impact study that somehow miraculously shows little or no environmental damage from the project’s removal.

Sure, that will happen.

In reality, the city will likely try to rip out the bike lanes without conducting the required study, resulting in a CEQA lawsuit, followed by a likely court judgement requiring them to put them back.

Making the entire effort a performative exercise designed to placate the angry conservative voters who elected the new reactionary councilmembers.

While everyone else who lives, works or moves through the city just gets shafted.

Pitiful.

Needless to say, the condemnation following the vote was fast and furious.

https://twitter.com/SunriseMvmtLA/status/1650909387144429568

Category: General / Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Murder victim Dr. Michael Mammone remembered as kind, adventurous; LADOT’s pretty plastic bollards criticized

February 17, 2023 / / 5 comments

More on the tragic death of Dr. Michael Mammone.

Mammone was murdered two weeks ago by a man suffering from mental illness, who first ran the emergency room physician down with his car on SoCal’s killer highway as he waited at a Dana Point traffic light on his mountain bike, then got out of his car and stabbed the injured bike rider to death.

Mammone was remembered at a memorial service at the Festival of Arts in Laguna Beach yesterday as someone who devoted his life to helping others, and always seemed calm and collected, even in the face of crisis.

His sister described him as the life of the party, calling him “intelligent, funny, adventurous, curious, easy to be with, loved card games and genuinely cared about everyone.”

Mammone leaves behind his wife and two sons; the couple was about to celebrate their 30 years of marriage with a trip to Italy.

His death was just a needless waste of a precious human life, all because his killer was allowed to fall through the cracks of America’s failed system for treating the mentally ill.

And because Vanroy Evan Smith was allowed to keep driving, despite his apparently untreated paranoid schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Photo of ghost bike for Dr. Michael Mammones by Walt Arrrrr.

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Ted Faber sends photographic proof the Jackson Street gate to the Ballona Creek Bike Path is now open.

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Streets For All is clearly not a fan of flimsy plastic bollards, even when they look chunky.

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This is the first feeder ride I’m aware of for next weekend’s San Fernando Valley CicLAvia.

https://twitter.com/CicLAvia/status/1626358787429879810

Thanks to Ravener for the heads-up.

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The Bike League will host a webinar next month on how to write a strongly worded letter to the local paper.

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

A London website comes to the defense of bike-riding British broadcast personality Jeremy Vine, saying the country’s Highway Code is on his side, after he was unfairly criticized for a near collision when he was left hooked by a driver cutting across a protected bike lane.

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

After a Washington state bike rider was the victim of a hit-and-run driver, sheriff’s deputies discovered he was struck while he was loading stolen merchandise onto his bicycle.

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Local 

They get it. LA’s new 45,000-square-foot, 1,600 seat Bellwether nightclub and concert hall will come complete with guarded rooftop bicycle parking.

A 19-year old mountain biker was helicoptered out from Mandeville Canyon, after suffering a “substantial” leg injury.

More on Liam Garner, the LA teenager who recently became the youngest person to bike from Alaska to the tip of Argentina, despite tearing off his right ear going over his handlebars along the way.

 

State

Spectrum News 1 highlights five SoCal bike paths, from Ventura’s Rincon Bike Trail to the Mount Rubidoux Trail in Riverside, and down to San Diego’s Bayshore Bikeway.

Orange County advocates are calling for greater investments in public bus operations, and pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure, despite the country transportation authority’s insistence on flushing $2 billion on an induced demand inducing project on the 405 Freeway.

Carlsbad cops teamed with city staffers to talk with elementary and middle school parents about traffic safety, as part of the state of emergency the city declared to fight a rise in bike-related injuries.

They get it, too. Santa Cruz is moving forward with a long-delayed bike lane project on Soquel Drive, calling them buffered bike lanes with flex posts. Unlike Los Angeles, which insists on calling them protected bike lanes, even though the flimsy plastic posts won’t stop anything. 

 

National

People For Bikes says local governments now have unprecedented access to billions of dollars for safe, connected bike networks and trails, thanks to a variety of federal government programs.

A new book relates the author’s journey by bike, along with two friends, following Harriet Tubman’s road to freedom on the Underground Railroad; he was inspired to take the trip because one of his ancestors was a ship’s captain in the Atlantic slave trade.

Linus has recalled their Cesta 500 ebike due to risk of a cracked front fork, posing a crash risk.

Seattle is beginning work on a new bikeway connecting Capital Hill with the iconic Pike Place Market; the work is being overseen by former LA Bureau of Streets Services head Greg Spotts, now director of the Seattle Department of Transportation.

A San Antonio, Texas bike rider used his skills as an urban planner to develop his own cohesive bike map, showing how to comfortably ride between disconnected bike lanes and paths.

Two men are dead in Garland, Texas, after a bike shop worker was murdered before the store opened, then a police SWAT team found the 58-year old suspect dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound; it turned out both victims were employees of the shop.

Grunge remembers Orville and Wilbur Wright’s younger sister Katherine, who kept their Ohio bike shop running while they were learning to fly.

Kindhearted Kentucky organizations pitched in to buy a new adaptive trike for an eight-year-old boy with a previously unheard of medical condition. The look on the kid’s face when he was given the bike is priceless.

A small Rhode Island community doesn’t want visitors to leave their dockless bikes behind, announcing plans to impound any bikeshare bikes or e-scooters that spill over the city limit from nearby Providence.

Residents of New York’s upscale Upper West Side are opposing plans for an outdoor ebike hub for food delivery workers, arguing it will increase congestion and block access to the nearby subway. Apparently confusing bicycles, which relieve congestion, with the cars that cause it.

A reminder that bike-riding women face risks that most men don’t, as a Florida woman was lucky to escape when a man attempted to force her into his van as she rode her bike.

There’s not a pit in hell deep enough for the Florida man who attacked a passing bike rider, knocking him off his bicycle while hurling antisemitic comments, apparently enraged because the victim was speaking Hebrew on his phone as he rode.

 

International

Bike Radar wants to teach you to bunny hop in five simple jumps.

Off-Road.cc explains everything you need to know to start mountain biking.

Vancouver’s Critical Mass will return at the end of the month after a three-month hiatus, to protest a decision to rip out a bike lane through the city’s Stanley Park so angry drivers can more easily use it as a cut-through route.

A Sikh woman in Ontario developed her own bike helmet so her sons could safely ride their bikes, with a special space on top to accommodate the faith’s traditional hair topknot.

Residents of Cardiff, Wales are mourning the death of a bike shop owner who ran his shop for more than 65 years — despite being told 20 years ago that he had just two weeks to live when doctors discovered cancer during an operation.

A new study from MIT concludes that most stolen bikes remain in the local area, where they are resold and remain part of the local bike fleet. At least in Amsterdam, anyway. Thanks to Tim Rutt for the link.

Japanese bicycle component maker Shimano had a record year in 2022, topping their previous best sales year by over 16% despite a slowing down of the pandemic bike boom.

Philippine bike riders and pedestrians continue to protest plans to convert a protected bike lane in Manilla to sharrows.

 

Competitive Cycling

Two-time Tour de France champ Tadej Pogacar added another double to his resume, winning the first two stages of the Vuelta a Andalucia.

The BBC remembers trailblazing women’s cyclist Eileen Sheridan, who died this week at 99-years old; she still holds five of the 21 records she set during her career.

Now you, too, can ride the famed Mont Ventoux and other French mountains with the legendary Jan Ullrich, for the low, low price of 20,000 euros — that’s $21,270 for those of us on this side of the Atlantic. As usual, you can read it on Yahoo if Bicycling blocks you. 

 

Finally…

Bad enough to return home to find someone burglarizing it, worse when they escape on your own bicycle. That feeling when you intend to set the bike world on its head by inventing the e-cargo bike, which is already a thing.

And your next bike tires could be made from your last bike tires.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

 

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

Speeding off-duty deputy faces murder charge, a bike day Sunday on Pasadena Freeway, and new LA bike lanes

February 16, 2023 / / Comments Off on Speeding off-duty deputy faces murder charge, a bike day Sunday on Pasadena Freeway, and new LA bike lanes

This is who we share the road with.

An off-duty LA County Sheriff’s deputy has been charged with murder for the high-speed crash that killed a 12-year old boy in South Gate in 2021.

Twenty-eight-year old Ricardo Castro was allegedly driving at up to 90 mph in a school zone when he T-boned the car carrying Isaiah Rodriguez and his sister.

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ActiveSGV is proposing a return to a carfree Pasadena Freeway to mark the 20th anniversary of ArroyoFest.

The proposal would open a six-mile section of the 110 Freeway to bicyclists, skaters and pedestrians for just four hours on Sunday, October 29th.

The first ArroyoFest in 2003 also closed the freeway to cars, opening it up to bicyclists and walkers for a few short hours.

The freeway follows the route of the 1899 California Cycleway. Unfortunately, however. only two miles of the elevated wooden bikeway were built before financial problems halted construction, and cars ultimately claimed the roadway.

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New protected bike lanes are appearing in LA’s Lake Balboa neighborhood, and painted bike lanes are coming to Fountain Ave in East Hollywood.

https://twitter.com/CD6LACity/status/1625923721176453121

Thanks to Ravener for the tip. 

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Entitled Cycling posts video of a typical ride, just in case you wonder why our roads aren’t safe for people on two wheels.

Or any other living things, for that matter.

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A short film looks at the volunteer heroes who maintain LA’s mountain bike trails.

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The late Raquel Welch was one of us.

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

More on the random dooring attacks on Bay Area bike riders, as East Bay bicyclists say they’re frightened by drivers literally using their cars as weapons to assault innocent people; Streetsblog says Bay Area district attorneys are complicit in the anti-bike attacks for failing to prosecute dangerous and deadly drivers.

No bias here. A New York State senator is proposing laws requiring all bicycles to be registered, plated and insured, in an apparent attempt to keep people from riding them.

Once again, someone has boobytrapped a British singletrack trail by stringing a rusty wire between two trees, injuring a mountain biker who was thrown over his handlebars after crashing into it.

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

A California bicyclist learns the hard way not to talk back to a cop, after an entire group ride is pulled over for going through a traffic signal.

A fake bike cop was busted in Florida after he bumped a woman’s car, then tried to confiscate it claiming she used the wrong turn signal; he was arrested after the woman flagged down a real sheriff’s deputy who was driving by.

An Aussie father is justifiably complaining about a hit-and-run bicyclist who slammed into his 14-year old step-son, calling the ebike rider a coward for riding off and leaving the boy with “not insignificant” injuries.

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Local 

The Los Angeles Times looks at Tuesday’s BikeLA report on the conditions and commonalities in last year’s 26 LA County bicycling deaths, including deadly corridors surrounding Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd and Figueroa Street, and a four-block stretch of Figueroa between 3rd and 7th in DTLA. You can read it on Yahoo if the paper blocks you.

No surprise here, as road rage continues to climb in the City of Angels, with nearly 870 incidents last year, nearly a third involving a gun.

The bicycling component of the 45th annual LA Chinatown Firecracker Run will roll through Pasadena this Saturday on a 40-mile route through the city and back.

Nonprofit news site Santa Monica Next makes a comeback, with an announcement that Santa Monica Spoke is hosting a Kidical Mass ride this Saturday.

Streetsblog says the El Monte Metro Bike Hub will be closed for most of this year after a driver slammed into it last September.

 

State

About damn time. A proposal in the state legislature would require Caltrans to appoint a Bicycle Czar “to serve as the department’s chief advisor on all issues related to bicycle transportation, safety, and infrastructure.”

The owner of San Diego’s Happy EBIKES argues that kids should be required to take a safety course and pass a test before they’re allowed to ride an ebike, a sentiment that was echoed by the head of the city’s nonprofit ebike loan-to-own program.

 

National

In yet another example of officials keeping dangerous drivers on the road until its too late, Streetsblog examines why states require insurance companies to cover drivers in an assigned risk pool when their driving record is so bad no company will insure them, rather than just taking their licenses away. After all, what could possibly go wrong?

Walkable Cities author Jeff Speck argues it may be time for a class action suit against transportation officials responsible for road design guidelines they know will lead to people getting killed in car crashes.

A Next City podcast examines how five US cities built 335 miles of bike lanes in just two years. Hint: Los Angeles was not one of them.

Four British “lads” bikepack Great Divide Mountain Bike Route between Jasper, Alberta, Canada, and Antelope Wells, New Mexico, completing the more than 3,000-mile trail in 29 days.

Tragic news from Las Vegas, where a bike rider died five months after allegedly turning left in front of an oncoming driver. Yet the death won’t be counted in traffic statistics because it came after the state’s 30-day reporting limit. Although you’d think after five months, they could at least identify the sex of the victim.

Jackson, Wyoming considers ebikes, buses and parking meters to alleviate congestion, after a study shows it would case billions of dollars to widen a highway, while causing environmental concerns for the local ecology and wildlife. Never mind that induced demand applies to roads in Rocky Mountain resorts, too. 

Residents of Pittsfield, Massachusetts argued against putting a proposal to remove a bike lane on the city ballot, and “revert back to a design that did not support a walkable, shoppable, or livable district.”

No surprise here, as New York courts order a psychiatric evaluation for the driver who plowed his U-Haul truck down a Queens sidewalk and bike lanes, injuring seven people, including at least three bicycle delivery riders, while killing one.

New York firefighters blame a massive Brooklyn blaze that left a woman in critical condition on a 50 ebike batteries stored inside a makeshift ebike repair shop.

A 56-year old man was charged with murder in the 1985 cold case death of a 13-year old West Virginia boy, whose body was dumped in a shallow grave after he was killed in a dispute over a stolen bicycle; the suspect was 18 at the time of the killing.

 

International

The New Statesman examines how the concept of the 15-minute city morphed into a rightwing conspiracy theory, with some people somehow convinced a walkable, bikeable city is nothing but an open-air prison dystopia in disguise.

Bike Radar offers advice on what you should and shouldn’t spend money on to begin bicycling on a budget.

A Canadian court has ordered a new trial for an alleged drunk driver who was acquitted of killing a ten-year old Halifax girl as she rode her bicycle.

No bias here. Britain’s Daily Mail naturally blames the victim after video shows British broadcast personality Jeremy Vine nearly crashing his bike getting left hooked by a driver.

No bias here, either. Britain’s Independent Press Standards Organization ruled the Mail on Sunday didn’t breach ethics rules by publishing a composite photo of bike riders running a red light outside Buckingham Palace, under the headline Red Light Rats. Even though the road was actually closed to cars, and cops waved them through the intersection.

Nearly half of all British drivers admitted speeding on country roads in a recent survey. And the rest lied.

It’s not usual for a bike rider to be called a hero, but saint is another matter. A Spanish man could be considered for sainthood for his role in attempting to stop terrorists in Britain’s London Bridge attack, when he got off his bike to defend others with his skateboard; the Pope recently changed the rules to allow sainthood for someone who lays down their life for others.

An Indian website says bicycling can help clean the air in Delhi, but bike riders are 40 times more likely than motorists to die on city streets.

 

Competitive Cycling

A new safety campaign founded by Australian pro Rachel Neylan encourages bike riders to use bright running lights day and night; the campaign has been endorsed by two-time Tour de France champion Tadej Pogačar, and former women’s world champ Elisa Balsamo. I found close calls and close passes dropped considerably when I started riding with at least two bright headlights and two to three bright taillights, day or night.

If you want to watch this year’s Tour de France — or any of the five that follow — you’ll have to subscribe to Peacock.

 

Finally…

Why buy a Pinarello when you can just buy Pinarello — and for the low, low price of just $268 million? There are countless smart ways to use a bicycle, but throwing it at a cop isn’t one of them.

And try not to let your beagle steal your bagel while you bike.

https://www.tiktok.com/@gappie_the_beagle/video/7194800318549445894?embed_source=121331973%2C71011723%2C120811592%2C120810756%3Bnull%3Bembed_blank&refer=embed&referer_url=www.newsweek.com%2Flaughter-beagle-steals-owners-bagel-mid-bike-ride-1781364&referer_video_id=7194800318549445894

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

 

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

US traffic deaths down slightly, bike deaths up; CA not worst for bike riders; curb protected lanes coming to 7th Street

January 10, 2023 / / One comment

My apologies. 

I inadvertently posted this post and emailed it to subscribers before I had a chance to finish editing it.

So if you received a mistake-filled draft, I’m sorry for the mistake.

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The Washington Post is reporting that traffic deaths fell slightly in the US in the first nine months of last year.

According to the paper, traffic fatalities were down 0.2 percent compared to the same period last year, a welcome if modest drop after record increases during the pandemic.

Statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, aka NHTSA, showed nearly 31,800 people were killed in crashes from January through September. That follows increases of 7 percent in 2020 and 10.5 percent in 2021.

However, the news isn’t as good for bike riders and pedestrians. Deaths continued to climb two percent for pedestrians and eight percent for people on bicycles in the first six months of 2022; nine month figures aren’t currently available.

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Hats off to Nebraska, which was named the nation’s safest state for people on bicycles, where just 15 people died in bicycle-related crashes over the past decade, even as the Bike League ranks it the second-least bike friendly state.

Neighboring South Dakota came in second in the NHTSA’s bike safety ranking, while placing fifth from the bottom in the Bike League’s assessment.

Not surprisingly, Florida and Louisiana ranked first and second from the bottom as the nation’s most dangerous states for bike riders.

California was apparently somewhere in the middle, since it doesn’t show up in the top ten states, or the bottom five.

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Work is proceeding on the long-promised curb protected bike lane on 7th Street between Figueroa and San Pedro streets in DTLA, which was one of the conditions for approving construction of the 62-story Wilshire Grand Center.

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LADWP is funding a half-million dollar program to rent out ebikes for up to nine months with a single $20 donation; however, the former Jump bikes used in the Pacoima program can’t be charged at home, and have to be taken to taken in to have the battery swapped.

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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 Staten Island columnist complains about efforts to expand Vision Zero and speed cams throughout the state, taking away his God-given right to a) speed, and b) kill people with his car, apparently.

No bias here, either. North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina is proposing a daytime ban on bikes at the beach this summer, with bikes prohibited from 9:30 am to 5:30 pm. Because apparently, beaches are only for people in cars.

After a German bike rider slammed into the trunk of a turning car after being right hooked, The Sun newspaper tries to stir up controversy by asking who was in the wrong.

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Local 

Let’s give a grateful thank you to Pasadena’s Lin Realty, whose staff built 150 bikes to donate to the city’s Boys and Girls Club.

The recently passed federal budget bill includes $22.6 million in earmarks for coastal cities, with $1 million of that budgeted to the Manhattan Beach Safe Cycling Project, which is intended to provide a safe bike route to the beachfront Marvin Braude Bike Trail by way of Highland and 45th Street.

 

State

The nationwide Black Girls Do Bike organization is celebrating its first ten years with a meetup in San Diego at the end of August, coinciding with the annual Bike the Bay ride. As usual, read it on Yahoo if Bicycling blocks you.

A Folsom man is suing the city over dangerous road conditions after he was struck by a turning driver while riding in a bike lane.

 

National

NPR talks with Cycling Savvy bicycle safety instructor John Schubert about how to safely ride a bike in the city.

Momentum Magazine examines three more American cities that have embraced bicycling. And no, Los Angeles is not one of them.

Bike Portland compares advisory lanes in the Oregon city with the ones in Utrecht, the Netherlands, where they originated.

Last year was a bad one for Las Vegas area bike riders and pedestrians, with 14 bicyclists and 72 pedestrians killed in Clark County.

This is what Los Angeles bike riders have to look forward to. An Austin, Texas bike rider recorded a self-driving General Motors’ Cruise robotaxi veering dangerously into a bike lane; fortunately, no one was riding in the bike lane at the time. Waymo is testing its autonomous vehicles in LA in anticipation of rolling out its robotaxi service; no word on whether they’re programed to respond to an extended middle finger. 

Tragic news from Houston, where a man riding in a bike lane with his wife was struck by a motorcyclist traveling at highway speeds on the surface street, killing both men in what a police spokesperson termed a “very avoidable’ crash.

That’s more like it. The Texas Department of Transportation announced plans to invest $250 million in bike and pedestrian projects.

The accused terrorist who killed eight people with a speeding pickup on a Manhattan bike path five years ago reportedly smiled to an FBI agent as he proudly confessed to his murderous rampage.

A Chattanooga, Tennessee woman is suing the local bikeshare provider for nearly $900,000 after she was knocked unconscious when she was thrown from what she says was a defective or poorly maintained bike.

Horrible news from Georgia, where an 11-year old boy was hospitalized after he was attacked by dogs while riding with a friend.

 

International

Good idea. Alberta mounties are using billboards in an effort to find the hit-and-run driver who killed a 45-year old woman riding a bike last July.

English actor Mark Williams is one of us, as the star of the popular Father Brown murder mystery series fell off his bike while filming; fortunately, he only hurt his pride.

Britain’s anti-bike lawyer who calls himself Mr. Loophole shocked visitors to his website by suggesting that drivers make it their New Years resolution to give bike riders more space when passing.

Dublin artists are concerned that plans for a separated bike lane could destroy a 40-year old tradition of an open-air art gallery, since the bikeway would mean they couldn’t park right next to the park fence they use to display their works. Because apparently, it’s impossible to park further away and use a dolly or some other device to transport their paintings another few feet.

An Irish court heard a 54-year old father riding a bicycle was killed by a semi truck driver who attempted to pass him just 20 inches from the victim’s handlebars — or the length of three or four soup spoons, as the prosecutor described it.

Hanoi will mark this month’s Tet lunar new year celebration by rolling out the city’s first bikeshare system.

Chinese bikeshare company Mobike’s Australian branch has gone into liquidation following a second failed attempt to crack the Aussie market, leaving over 1600 bikes worth about $1.3 million abandoned on the streets and in warehouses.

 

Competitive Cycling

The trial continues for two men accused of the masked home invasion robbery of British cycling great Mark Cavendish and his family, as Cavendish describes getting punched by a robber and having a knife held to his throat.

Forty-seven-year old Cat 3 cyclist Noslen Ruiz-Gutierrez received a four-year doping ban (scroll down) after a urine test revealed six — count ’em, 6 — banned substances; Ruiz-Gutierrez argued that his doping didn’t matter because he races for recreation, not competition. Sure, try telling that to the other racers he’s not competing against.

 

Finally…

At last, an ebike designed to move your anvils. And repeat after me — when you’re carrying meth on your bike at 2 am, put a damn light on it, already.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

 

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

Protected bike lanes around Silver Lake, feedback needed for Redondo Beach Blvd, and Gaimon switches to Sierra Club

December 6, 2022 / / Comments Off on Protected bike lanes around Silver Lake, feedback needed for Redondo Beach Blvd, and Gaimon switches to Sierra Club

It’s Day 12 of the 8th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive! 

Let’s all give a sincere thanks to Elizabeth T, Andrew F, Gold Leaf Films, Terence H, Thuan V and Steve F for their generous support to keep all the best bike news coming your way today, and every day. 

So don’t wait. Just take a moment right now to donate via PayPal or Zelle.

It’s okay. We’ll wait.

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Interesting idea.

Streets For All says we could have protected bike lanes all around Silver Lake Reservoir.

https://twitter.com/streetsforall/status/1599980036731322368

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If you live or ride in the South Bay, take a few minutes to share your thoughts on remaking this key corridor.

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We’re not the only ones raising funds during the holidays, if you have any extra cash lying around.

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Wait, you can do that?

Has anyone told officials here in LA?

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After raising over half a million dollars for Chefs Cycle/No Kid Hungry, LA-based former pro Phil Gaimon switches his attention to raising funds for the Sierra Club, even as he deals with his own crushing medical debt stemming from a semi-insured bike crash.

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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 far right DC publication complains about the US being  eliminated from the World Cup by a “second-rate bicycle country,” describing it as a “meaningless soccer tournament,” while terming the sport “a fundamentally evil and anti-American enterprise.” Well, okay then.

A British driver decides she’d rather run a red light than have an unpleasant conversation with the bike rider she nearly hit.

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

A Florida man faces a well-deserved ten years to life after riding his bike three hours to have sex with what he thought was a 14-year old girl, but was actually an undercover cop.

Tragic news from the UK, where an elderly British woman died two weeks after she struck by a bike rider while walking on a pathway in Oxford. Yet another reminder to always slow down and ride carefully around pedestrians, who can be unpredictable, and are the only people more vulnerable than we are out there. 

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Local 

Streetsblog offers photos from Sunday’s South LA CicLAvia as part of an open thread.

Metro is working with LADOT to build bus priority lanes throughout the city, which can also be used by people on bicycles.

 

State 

A pair of 12 and 13-year old boys suffered life-threatening injuries when they were struck by a driver in San Diego’s Nestor neighborhood Sunday evening; no word on their current condition.

Temecula bike riders are invited to light up their bikes to tour the holiday lights at the city’s lakefront Harveston neighborhood.

A San Francisco professor explains why the city’s Safe Streets program is a critical link in revitalizing tourism, as the city considers whether to continue it.

San Francisco-based Strava has joined the current round of tech industry layoffs, letting go of around 40 employees, or 15% of its staff.

Longtime Bike East Bay advocacy director Dave Campbell is stepping down after 24-years of fighting for safer streets.

Sacramento votes to extend a trio of protected bike lanes, while adding others to the city’s protected bike lane network.

 

National

A Utah advocacy group makes the case for why Salt Lake City needs to adopt Vision Zero.

An Arizona man is on trial for killing two women back in the ’90s, including a 22-year old woman who was found beheaded a day after leaving for a bike ride.

Colorado is looking to extend its ebike program into low-income communities, and offering organizations nearly a million dollars in grants for plans to provide ebikes to income-qualified workers.

Massachusetts Streetsblog offers advice on how to bike through a Boston winter. Which is just a tad different from our SoCal winters.

Vox tells the story of a mother who refuses to let the world forget her four-year old daughter, who was killed by a van driver as she rode her bike with her father in a DC crosswalk. And through her, the story behind the rising rate of traffic violence. Thanks to Victor Bale for the heads-up.

A Maryland county is undertaking 27 separate bike projects under its Vision Zero program, as deaths continue to rise.

A Florida bike rider was arrested hiding in a tree with a meth pipe after fleeing from a traffic stop.

 

International

Your next backpack could hide an inflatable airbag designed to protect your head, spine and chest in the event of a crash — as long as you don’t mind wearing something the size of a parachute.

Life is cheap in Toronto, where an inattentive cement truck driver walked without a day behind bars for fatally right-hooking an experienced bike rider.

A British bicyclist has introduced a fully functional water bottle that doubles as a glowing light to illuminate your legs as you pedal after dark; it’s currently available on Kickstarter for the equivalent of around $32, although it’s not clear if it will ship to the US.

After getting clipped by a trailer when a driver pulled back too soon after a passing, a Dutch writer considers what it took to overcome his anxiety and feel comfortable on a bike again.

Streetsblog says the fact that driver’s licenses are so hard to get is just one reason roads are safer in the Netherlands.

A woman in New Zealand was the victim of a strong arm robbery when a bike thief grabbed her around the neck and threw her violently to the ground before riding off on her bike, then abandoning it when the chain came off. Note to self: Loosen your bike chain to help prevent theft.

 

Finally…

Seriously, who doesn’t need a $2,000 24-karat gold-plated Campy corkscrew? That feeling when you ride your ebike on the notorious Wall of Death.

And when regular bikes just aren’t weird enough.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

 

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

LA ignores Park to approve $1.6 million Westside bike project, Streetsblog raises funds, and what LAX could be

November 30, 2022 / / Comments Off on LA ignores Park to approve $1.6 million Westside bike project, Streetsblog raises funds, and what LAX could be

It’s Day 6 of the 8th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive!

Your support allows me to keep this site going full-time, albeit at far less than full-time wages. And keeps my wife from insisting I go out and get a “real” job.

So take a moment and donate now via PayPal or Zelle to keep SoCal’s best source for bike news and advocacy coming your way every day.

And while we’re at it, let’s thank Stephen T, Lionel M and Sun Y for yesterday’s generous donations on Giving Tuesday. 

Seriously, don’t make our intern and chief fundraiser howl. Give now!

………

The Los Angeles City Council approved $5.1 million for Westside transportation projects requested by outgoing Councilmember Mike Bonin, including $1.6 million for construction of the Rose Avenue Pathway and Protected Bike Lane Project.

The council voted to fund the projects over the objections of newly elected Councilmember Traci Park, who asked them to hold off until she takes office in two weeks.

Which could be read as a collective eff you to Parks. A final pat on the back to Bonin. Or simply approving projects that had already been in the pipeline.

Or maybe all of the above.

………

Streetsblog needs your help. And your money.

The nonprofit transportation news site kicked off their annual fund drive, hoping to raise $25,000 by the end of this year.

They currently stand at just 4% of that goal.

………

So how about it, LADOT?

………

Gravel Bike California celebrates an endless gravel summer.

………

Give the bike rider in your life a little extra warmth this winter.

And yes, I’d be happy to find this under my tree, if anyone has me on their Secret Santa list.

There’s a version for transit fans, too.

………

Stunt-bike master Danny MacAskill’s latest video shows him take on the streets of San Francisco.

And win.

………

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

No bias here. Winnipeg bike riders ignored city officials who threatened to fine them for the crime of shoveling snow from bike lanes, after the city failed to do it.

A road raging London, Ontario driver intentionally attempted to run over an 18-year old bike rider when the teen tried to take a photo of the driver’s license plate, after going berserk when the kid rode around his car when he failed to move from a stop sign.

No bias here, either. A Bristol, England city counselor called bike riders the biggest threat to pedestrians, while accusing a local advocacy group of being arrogant and dismissive. Maybe someone should tell him about cars, and the entitled people who drive them.

A sadistic Irish driver recorded himself deliberately ramming a bike rider, apparently just for the hell of it; the victim was lucky to escape with non-life threatening injuries.

https://twitter.com/Curious_Eire/status/1597222384255537152

And Road.cc offers a lengthy list of stupid driver tricks and comments in today’s post.

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

An English driver was justifiably outraged at a salmon cyclist riding against traffic on a busy highway after dark, without lights or reflectors. Although if I was out after dark without lights, I suppose I might want to see the cars coming rather than trust that they’d see me. 

……..

………

Local 

Beverly Press has more on the newly approved plans for protected bike lanes on Fountain Ave through West Hollywood.

Pasadena police are planning a crackdown on traffic violations that endanger bike riders and pedestrians this Friday, along with added patrols to combat DUI driving. So once again, ride to the letter of the law until you cross the city limits, so you’re not the one who gets ticketed.

 

State 

Police in Ojai are looking for witnesses after a boy was struck by hit-and-run driver earlier this month; police somehow say the crash doesn’t appear to be intentional, even though the driver hit the victim a second time as he sped away (scroll down).

San Francisco drivers are ignoring an ostensibly protected bike lane, transforming it into free parking to support their bagel habit.

That’s more like it. San Francisco advocates plan to present a People’s Slow Streets Plan to dramatically transform 100 miles of city streets.

Oakland plans to take advantage of a new state law allowing it to reduce speed limits in major business districts to improve safety.

Tragic news from Rancho Cordova, where police are looking for a 42-year old man who brutally attacked a 60-year old ebike rider with a machete. The victim continued riding roughly 400 feet before he collapsed from his wounds, which police say are not survivable.

 

National

Bicycling marks yesterday’s Giving Tuesday by calling for donating unloved bicycles to a local bike drive for the holidays. As usual, read it on Yahoo if the magazine blocks you.

This is why people keep dying on our streets. A 70-year old Boulder, Colorado man faces a whole one year behind bars after accepting a plea deal for killing a man riding a bicycle in a left-cross crash last year.

A pair of Chicago writers take an in-depth look at life and death along the city’s most dangerous bike lane.

The Michigan driver who killed two people when she plowed into a group of bike riders participating in a Make-A-Wish fundraising ride was formally arraigned on 15 charges, including 2nd degree murder and DUI.

A Cleveland man was sentenced to a minimum of five years behind bars for the hit-and-run death of a little three-year old girl as she rode her bike last summer; he faces a max of seven and a half years. Which still doesn’t seem like enough.

They get it. A Buffalo NY newspaper says no one should face injury or death just for walking down the street or riding a bicycle.

An NYPD precinct captain defended his officers arrest of a famed New York bike lawyer for the crime of removing an illegal piece of plastic blocking a driver’s license plate from traffic cams and license readers.

Officials in New Jersey backed off promises to include protected bike lanes in a redesign of a major street, presenting a plan that preserved parking spaces instead.

A former US diplomat in Ukraine says his wife and fellow diplomat Sarah Langenkamp loved bicycling, and shouldn’t have had to pay for it with her life after returning to DC.

 

International

Vancouver plans to rip out a pandemic-era bike lane through a park, and replace the previous traffic lanes and streetside parking before Christmas. Because apparently bike riders don’t celebrate the holidays. Or ride during them, or something. 

Former Canadian national champ and current Toronto bike shop owner Eon D’Ornellas was hospitalized with a broken pelvis after he was struck by a driver in Florida.

Copenhagen is responding to citizen complaints by putting more cops on bicycles to patrol bike lanes, after a recent report showed a third of young Danes ride drunk. Although why the story is illustrated with a photo from the Tour de France defies explanation.

More Dutch families are turning to bike banks that provide refurbished bicycles to ensure their kids grow up with bikes in a country where it’s a virtual necessity.

Swedish EV maker Polestar is jumping into the ebike market, becoming just the latest carmaker to assume they can make ebikes better than bikemakers do.

An Indian startup is designing new and better ebikes in an effort to become the two-wheeled Tesla of Hyderabad.

Greenpeace calls for bike-friendly infrastructure in Delhi, in the wake of a rising rate of bicycle fatalities.

An ebike rider in the Philippines was killed when he was sucker punched by a man, who was believed to suffer from mental illness.

 

Competitive Cycling

Slovenian classics specialist Matej Mohorič plans to take on the legendary Hell of the North after winning this year’s Milan-San Remo.

 

Finally…

Forget ebikes — your next bike could be hydrogen powered. Your favorite toddler could have his or her very own e-balance bike.

And that feeling when you’re too young to ride to Guatemala to commemorate the 50th anniversary of a priest’s 3,000 mile walk, so you just ride your bike around your home a lot.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

 

Category: General / Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

WeHo approves Fountain protected bike lanes, debate over cyclist semantics, and running over bikes in bike-friendly Davis

November 23, 2022 / / Comments Off on WeHo approves Fountain protected bike lanes, debate over cyclist semantics, and running over bikes in bike-friendly Davis

Just two more days to one of the biggest, most momentous days of the year!

No, not Black Friday. It’s the official start of the 8th Annual BikinginLA holiday fund drive!

We’ll be off tomorrow, so have a great Thanksgiving, whether you spend it with loved ones or alone on your bike. And find something to be thankful for. 

Besides, you know, this site. 

Then come back on Friday to witness me beg, plead, cajole and grovel for your support.  

And stay safe out there. I want to see you back here again when the weekend is over. 

………

In a surprising decision, the West Hollywood City Council voted unanimously to install a pilot protected bike lane project on Fountain Ave, overcoming fierce opposition to the proposal.

Mayor Lauren Meister summed up her reason for voting yes, even though city staffers haven’t explained where the cars displaced from parking on the apartment-dense street are supposed to go.

“My goal is to make Fountain just safer, period — for pedestrians, making the sidewalks wider and and making it so that cars aren’t speeding through and going over the curves and actually going into people’s yards,” Meister said.

The proposal, which became a key issue in the city’s recent election campaign, would require the removal of a traffic lane in each direction, as well as reconstructing sidewalks along the street, which are not ADA compliant.

The street currently features some of the area’s most uncomfortable sharrows, which are seldom used by anyone but the most confident bicyclists in the face of frequently speeding traffic.

The unanimous approval bodes well for the pilot program withstanding efforts to overturn it when two new, more moderate, councilmembers take their seats in the coming weeks.

………

A lengthy Twitter thread revives the debate over the word cyclist.

It’s something I try not to use, as you may have noticed, preferring bike riders, bicyclists or people on bicycles.

But only because so many people read into to it far more than the word actually conveys, which is merely someone who rides a bicycle.

To some, it means bike racers; to others, it’s anyone who wears spandex. And to others still, it refers to people on fixies, or some other bike world niche.

Then there are people don’t like the word because they feel it labels them in some way, when riding a bike is just something they do, rather than something they are.

I can see all of that, and none of it.

The simple fact is we are all cyclists when we ride a bike, and not once we get off. Just as someone is a driver when they’re behind the wheel, and a pedestrian when they get out; no one calls them drivers when they’re home or in the office.

So go ahead and use the word if you’re comfortable with it, or don’t if you aren’t.

Thanks to Tim Rutt for the link.

………

Streets For All is hosting a fundraising holiday party next month.

………

A Davis motorist drove through a line of picketing teaching assistants striking for higher pay and better conditions on UC campuses, driving off with a bicycle still stuck under their car.

Cops off Campus everyone. Good Lovely people!!
byu/accountforperson inUCDavis

But to UC Davis grad student Megan Lynch, it’s yet another example of why the city isn’t the bike paradise its made out to be.

https://twitter.com/may_gun/status/1595127212180926464

………

Now you, too, can drive an even faster and more powerful high-end e-car, for the low, low price of a hundred bucks a month.

Yet somehow, your ebike remains capped by law at 20 or 28 mph, depending on class.

Thanks to How The West Was Saved for the heads-up.

………

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

Oxford, England makes an extremely wrongheaded choice to remove bike racks to make rood for a Christmas market, apparently assuming that no one would want to avoid traffic by biking there.

No bias here. Britain’s “eco-warrior” bike riders are facing threats from motorists, both online and on the streets.

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

An English woman in her 80s was seriously injured when she was struck by an apparent self-riding hit-and-run bicycle, since there’s no mention of anyone on it.

There’s a special place in hell for the bike-riding man who assaulted an elderly walker-using woman in the UK, stealing her purse containing the equivalent of nearly $1,200 in cash.

………

Local 

Politico says Councilmember Kevin de León is still standing, despite repeated demands for him to resign in the wake of a racist and otherwise offensive recording; he continues to draw his $218,000 salary despite not showing up to work since the outcry began.

SAFE, aka Streets Are For Everyone, wants to know what street safety campaigns and advocacy efforts are important to you.

About damn time. The Hollywood Reporter says it’s time to reopen the case in the 12-year old murder of Hollywood publicist Ronni Chasen, which was bizarrely pinned on a destitute, bike-riding Black man who allegedly killed himself as police attempted to take him into custody in a Hollywood flophouse; Beverly Hills police accused Harold Smith of shooting Chasen as she drove home from a premier.

South LA received a $60 million grant to fund bikeshare, and provide free Metro passes for students.

 

State 

The San Diego Association of Governments, aka SANDAG, wants to give you a ped-assist ebike in exchange for a commitment to ride a minimum of 100 miles a month. Or as I used to call that back when I could still do it, Tuesday.

A San Diego resident who “has spent a lot of time, energy and thought on transportation issues” apparently attempts to prove singer Harry Nilsson’s contention that a point in every direction is the same as no point at all, confusingly complaining about the cost and lack of use of expensive bikeway projects, while pointing out the limited safety of some and the lack of an effective network to make them viable.

Completing our San Diego trifecta, the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition and Families for Safe Streets held a vigil for traffic victims, as the city’s mayor promised to prioritize safety over speed.

San Francisco proposes making a number of the city’s Slow Streets permanent.

 

National

Streetsblog wants to know why there are so many memorials to the victims of wars, but not for the ongoing battle on our streets.

Electrek insists that switching to an ebike means getting more exercise, not less.

Portland’s ebike-based bikeshare system set a new record with over half a million users this year, topping the previous record by more than 100,000.

Heartbreaking news from Arizona, where a four-year old boy was killed by a driver while riding his bike just blocks from his home — and on a street with just a 10 mph speed limit.

This one hits a little too close to home, as an ebike rider in my bike-friendly Colorado hometown was seriously injured when he was left-crossed by the driver of an SUV — on the street that I grew up on, no less, just blocks from my childhood home.

That’s more like it. New York’s transportation commissioner says the city is moving towards a carfree future, and suggests thinking twice before getting a car.

A newspaper in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley examines why the area is a mecca for bicyclists.

DC is facing a lawsuit under the Americans With Disabilities Act, as two handicapped women allege that new protected bike lanes make it harder for them to find parking and safely exit their vehicles. Thanks to Victor Bale for the tip. 

Speaking of DC, probably not the best idea for the newly elected head of a neighborhood commission to give the finger to bike lane opponents. Even if most of us may want to at times.

It takes a major schmuck to slam into a bike-riding, 12-year old Florida boy and flee the scene without even slowing down, leaving the kid lying in the street with serious injuries. There’s video of the crash after the link, but be warned that it’s hard to watch.

 

International

Treehugger offers a beginners tutorial on Vision Zero, which oddly only works when cities actually do something about it.

Montreal bike riders respond to a driver parking in a bike lane for “just two minutes” to get his lunch, by parking their bikes in the traffic lane for the same amount of time.

Now you, too, can work in the bike industry, as CEO of British Cycling, the country’s governing body for bike racing and all things bike.

A woman in the UK explains what it’s like to get hit by a speeding SUV, and why so many drivers, like the one who ran her down, don’t stop after a crash.

Tokyo allowed participants in a charity ride to ride their bikes on the city’s iconic Rainbow Bridge for the first time since it opened 29 years ago.

 

Competitive Cycling

It’s looking like the 2024 Tour de France will kick off in Italy, home to the Giro d’Italia.

No surprise here, as the primary goal of two-time Tour de France winner Tadej Pogačar is winning it a third time, after this year’s second place finish.

 

Finally…

That feeling when your carbon frame bike is covered almost entirely in 24 karat gold. Or when beef-eating bicyclists are accused of being worse for the climate than cars.

And bemoaning blatant Belfast bike lane blocking.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

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

Bass elected LA mayor, catch and release in sheriff’s cadet crash, and WeHo considers Fountain bike lanes Monday

November 18, 2022 / / 3 comments

Congratulations to Congresswoman Karen Bass on being elected as LA’s new mayor.

The first woman to hold the post, and only the second Black Angeleno, Bass defeated billionaire mall developer Rick Caruso, despite being outspent 11 to 1 as he dropped well over $100 million on his own campaign.

The question for us is whether the new mayor’s professed focus on homelessness, crime and housing authority will preclude desperately needed efforts to transform our streets to improve safety and get Angelenos out of their cars.

Let’s hope Streets For All and BikeLA, formerly the LACBC, are already in contact with her office to set up a meeting.

Because after years of neglect under outgoing Mayor Eric Garcetti, and successful efforts by various councilmembers to block progress in their districts, we don’t have any time to waste.

Meanwhile, Streetblog’s Joe Linton calls the recent election good news for livability and transportation, with the possible exception of CD11’s Tracy Park, who instantly becomes the most conservative member of the city council.

Park has professed support for multimodal transportation, yet drew much of her supporters from Westside NIMBYs who’ve fought bus and bike improvements.

………

He was arrested for attempted murder.

Until he wasn’t.

Just one day after a wrong-way driver slammed into a phalanx of sheriff’s cadets, injuring 25 people, including five critically — and after reportedly turning the investigation over the the CHP — the LA Country Sheriff’s Department announced that Nicholas Joseph Gutierrez had been arrested on a charge of attempted murder on a peace officer.

Then turned around and announced he had been released without charges due to a lack of evidence.

No, really.

The premature arrest indicated the belief of investigators that Gutierrez had intentionally steered into the recruits, accelerating at he plowed through them, as we had surmised yesterday.

The only problem is a lack of evidence confirming intent. Outgoing Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva stressed that the release is provisional, pending collection of more evidence confirming his actions were intentional.

Why they jumped the gun and arrested Gutierrez on a presumption of guilt, rather than basing the arrest on actual evidence, is an open question at this time.

As is why they have apparently reclaimed the investigation from the CHP, after relinquishing it just one day earlier.

But with Villanueva leaving in a couple of weeks, its likely to become incoming sheriff-elect Robert Luna’s problem.

………

West Hollywood is scheduled to consider whether to add protected bike lanes on deadk=ly Fountain Ave at Monday’s council meeting, which would require a reduction to one lane in each direction as well as removing parking spaces; refer to agenda item 4.B.

The lanes would provide a safer east-west alternative to dangerous Santa Monica Blvd, after the existing painted bike lanes on Santa Monica end east of La Cienega.

However, it would also require the removal of at least 150 parking spaces; an alternative plan for painted bike lanes would require removing up to 40 spaces.

Which means opponents are likely to come out in force in an effort to block it.

Meanwhile, WeHo Mayor Lauren Meister is on track for re-election, while former Councilmember John Heilman enjoys a 246 vote lead over Chelsea Wright for the second and third spots; the top three finishers will be seated on the city council.

Former Councilmember John Duran, who made cancelling the bike lanes the centerpiece of his campaign, is currently languishing out of the running in fifth place.

However, with the exception of Meister, who is already on the council, they won’t be seated in time to effect Monday’s decision on Fountain.

………

This puts the problem of LA drivers in perspective.

………

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

Police in Youngstown, Ohio are looking for a bike rider seen on video near the site of three stolen catalytic converters.

Police now believe the fatal shooting of a 21-year old Bronx basketball player by a man riding an ebike was a case of mistaken identity. Which somehow doesn’t seem to make it any better.

………

Local

The newly rebranded BikeLA is hosting a class on the Essentials of Group Riding this evening, and a South LA Pan Dulce Ride on Sunday.

 

State 

A San Diego woman whose husband was killed by a wrong-way driver while riding his bike to the movies calls on the city’s mayor to mark Sunday’s World Day of Remembrance for victims of traffic violence by doubling the budget for the city’s quick-build protected bike lane program, and lowering speed limits on the most dangerous Vision Zero corridors. Sounds reasonable to me.

Oxnard approved a $3 million plan for sidewalks and bike lanes in the city’s El Rio neighborhood.

Berkeley considers a proposal to offer its own instant ebike rebate program, which could be paired with the state’s ebike rebates, if they ever happen.

Bike co-op Rich City Rides is hosting a bike party and ride to celebrate the third anniversary of the protected bike lane on the Richmond San Rafael Bridge.

 

National

Damn good question. An updated edition of Jeff Speck’s book Walkable City asks why we don’t take traffic violence as seriously as terrorism, when you’re 568 times more likely to die in crash than at the hands of a terrorist.

The 22nd annual Cranksgiving bicycle food drive rolls in cities across the US tomorrow, including a return to downtown Los Angeles after a pandemic pause.

Portland bike advocates are suing the city under a 1971 state law that requires improving infrastructure for bicyclists and pedestrians any time a street is constructed, reconstructed or relocated. Unfortunately, California doesn’t have a similar law, although Los Angeles could if the Healthy Streets LA ballot proposition passes in 2024. 

An abandoned railroad trestle across a Corpus Christy, Texas bay could become a unique rail-to-trail conversion.

Remember this the next time someone tells you handicapped people can’t ride bikes, as a 70-year old Iowa man is using a recumbent bike to continue riding as he recovers from a debilitating stroke.

Jake and Elwood Blues would be thrilled to know Joliet, Illinois could soon be expanding on the city’s two — yes, 2 — existing bike lanes.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot tosses her security detail under the bus, blaming them for double-parking in a bike lane to get some donuts.

Curbed says don’t blame ebikes for the recent rash of New York battery fires; blame refurbished batteries and mismatched chargers.

Pennsylvania’s governor vetoed a bill that would have allowed curb and parking protected bike lanes in the state, after the legislature tacked on an unrelated provision to strip power from Philadelphia’s district attorney.

More than 1,300 people will ride to Congress tomorrow to demand safer streets, following the route a US diplomat was taking when she was killed by a truck driver while riding in a Bethesda, Maryland bike lane in August.

Seventy-one year old former astronaut Bill McArthur is one of us, one of 700 riders who recently completed a multi-day bike tour across South Carolina.

 

International

Bike Rumor recommends the best gifts for the wrench in your life.

Speaking of handicapped bike riders, a British Paralympian paralyzed from the waist down will attempt to become the first person to ride an adaptive bike across the Antarctic Plateau.

There’s a special place in hell for whoever stole a 13-year old British boy’s bike from his mother’s car after she rushed with him to the hospital when he fell off and broke his collarbone.

A bike advocacy group is urging Amsterdam officials to set a 12 mph speed limit for ebikes on the city’s bike paths, as faster ebikes continue to gain in popularity.

 

Competitive Cycling

A 25-year old Anchorage woman has parlayed her love of bikepacking into a new role as a champion bikepacking endurance cyclist.

 

Finally…

Your next ebike could be a modern take on the classic Schwinn Stingray. Or maybe made from sustainable plywood. Everyone looks better on a lowrider bike.

And who needs a cargo bike when you can ride your bike with nine kids hanging on?

https://twitter.com/JaikyYadav16/status/1592438950991626241?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1592438950991626241%7Ctwgr%5E02995e14f0b9f724efa830ea6cea1714e7f1fc30%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.indiatimes.com%2Ftrending%2Fwtf%2Fvideo-of-man-riding-bicycle-with-9-kids-goes-viral-585052.html

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

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

New CA law threatens to kill bikeshare, new protected bike lane in South LA, and little protection on 6th Street Bridge

October 27, 2022 / / Comments Off on New CA law threatens to kill bikeshare, new protected bike lane in South LA, and little protection on 6th Street Bridge

Somehow, we missed this story.

Lost in the recent flurry of bill signings by California Governor Gavin Newsom was AB 371, known by advocates as the Kill Bikeshare Bill.

The new law imposes a draconian requirement on providers of shared micromobility devices — like bikes, ebikes and e-scooters — to provide liability insurance covering the behavior of their users.

The requirement could force existing providers like Bird and Lyft to shut down their operations in the state. Or at the very least, raise their rates to unaffordable levels to cover the added insurance costs.

Exactly the opposite of what’s needed right now to shift people to cleaner forms of transportation in order to confront the rising climate emergency.

Let alone get people out of their cars to reduce crushing traffic congestion.

………

Nice to see LADOT continuing to build new bike lanes in South LA.

Although as this photo shows, parking protected bike lanes aren’t very protected when no one is parking there.

Because those plastic posts aren’t going to stop anyone.

………

A reminder that Los Angeles officials didn’t think it was worth protecting bike riders on the new 6th Street Bridge, choosing to protect pedestrians with a concrete barrier while leaving bike riders at risk.

We’ll leave it up to you to decide whether you could have survived this crash riding in the bike lane.

Because those plastic bollards and low rubber curbs clearly didn’t prevent it.

………

Clear your schedule for December 3rd, when Walk ‘n Rollers will host a fundraising Donut Ride to mark my sister’s birthday.

What do you mean that’s not why they’re doing it?

………

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

No bias here. Ottawa, Canada’s new mayor rode to victory by opposing plans for bike lanes in the downtown area, successfully painting the popular incumbent as out of touch with the larger community because of them.

Three “thrill-seeking” children face charges for intentionally dooring a woman using a stolen car, one of at least three similar incidents targeting bike riders this week; the attacks called attention to the need for more protected bike lanes.

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

A 28-year old man was convicted of manslaughter for riding off on his bicycle after stabbing another man to death outside the Boston Medical Center following a dispute.

A 34-year old woman was critically injured when she was hit from behind by a man on a bicycle in New York’s Central Park. However, despite what the comments say, the bike rider isn’t necessarily at fault, though we all have an obligation to ride safely around pedestrians.

………

Local

The LA Times invites you to mark Día de Muertos by making a digital ofrenda to remember loved ones — or bicyclists — who have passed away.

Pasadena Now complains that the bikeways included in the city’s 2015 Bicycle Transportation Action Plan still haven’t been built. Kind of like a nearby megalopolis we could name.

Metro funding has been approved for a 5.3 mile on-street bikeway through Rosemead, unincorporated South San Gabriel, Montebello and Monterey Park, although at least some of it will be just a class 3 bike route. In other words, sharrows. 

LA Taco recommends 13 haunted hikes to cheap you out in Los Angeles and Orange counties, many of which you should be able to do on a bike.

 

State 

The green bike lane markings on Santa Barbara’s State Street Promenade have been consigned to the dustbin of history; the city now hopes bike riders and pedestrians can somehow share the street, after walkers refused to stay out of the bikeway.

The sheriff’s department in San Luis Obispo County is asking for donations of new bicycles, new helmets, or money for replacement parts for their annual bike giveaway for kids in need.

San Francisco Streetsblog’s Roger Ruddick says it’s important to remember how far the city has come in terms of bike access and street safety, as residents prepare to vote on whether to keep JFK Drive closed to motor vehicles.

The Sonoma County coroner has confirmed the cause of death for a popular chef who died from hitting a bollard in the middle of a bike path while riding with friends.

Sad news from Humboldt County, where a 51-year old man riding a bicycle was killed in a collision with a pickup driver.

 

National

The New York Times Wirecutter recommends some surprisingly affordable gear for bike commuting. Although something tells me REI sells that Chrome rolltop backpack for just a tad more than $5. Or would if it was still available, anyway.

Bicycling profiles former pro cyclist turned professional chef Jess Cerra, whose homegrown gravel ride raises money to fund scholarships to provide post-secondary education for young women in her native Whitefish, Montana. As usual, read it on Yahoo if the magazine blocks you.

New York bicyclists can now legally ride across the Cross Bay and Henry Hudson bridges, in response to a new law requiring bicycle access on all of the city’s seven bridges.

The New York Times examines California’s new Freedom to Walk act decriminalizing jaywalking, which follows the lead of similar laws in Nevada, Virginia and Kansas City.

Great idea. A New Orleans organization is hosting a “Bike N Vote” initiative, providing free bikes to help get young people of color to the polls for early voting.

 

International

Riding your bike could help protect you from the coronavirus this winter. But get your shot anyway, since a study shows regular exercise helps improve the vaccine’s effectiveness.

With shorter days and the upcoming time change, effective lighting becomes even more important. Road.cc recommends eight bike lights to fit the four most common rider requirements.

An Irish writer sings the praise of cargo bikes, but argues that we need to end the love affair between men and their cars if they’re going to catch on. I broke up with my car a couple years back after a nearly 20 year relationship. But like most relationships, it went on long after the love was gone.

Irish authorities still haven’t explained why a hit-and-run driver was behind the wheel when he killed a 23-year old bike rider 11 years ago; the man was was supposed to be behind bars serving three concurrent prison sentences, yet was never taken into custody.

Sadly, shootings, fatal and otherwise, occur on American bike paths so often I don’t even link to them in most cases; in Sweden, not so much, where a 16-year old boy died after he was shot on a bike path in the town of Sandviken. Thanks to Megan Lynch for the heads-up. 

Finnish F1 star Valtteri Bottas is one of us, racing on a gravel bike when he’s not in the cockpit of a high-powered race car.

Australian Geographic lists the top three bike rides in each of the country’s states and territories for your next trip Down Under.

 

Competitive Cycling

Current Tour de France champ Jonas Vingegaard says nothing is set in stone yet, but he’s looking forward to defending his title in 2023.

Cycling Weekly examines whether you’re better off competing on a team or on your own in gravel racing.

Like our own L39ion of Los Angeles, a Miami cycling team is out to cultivate a new generation of cyclists while calling attention to issues plaguing Black and brown communities, even though team members are more interested in getting podiums.

Sad news from the UK, where the first British cyclist to win a stage in the Tour de France has died; 91-year old Brian Robinson won stages in ’58 and ’59.

 

Finally…

When you’re a parolee carrying meth on your bike — and probably selling it — follow the damn traffic laws, already. Seriously, don’t do donuts in a graveyard on your ebike.

And that feeling when you’re accused of cheating in chess, and maybe weren’t the cycling prodigy you claim, either.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

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

No CA ebike rebates until next year, demand protected bike lanes on Fountain Ave, and Montebello bike master plan

October 24, 2022 / / One comment

Hope you weren’t counting on that California ebike rebate this year.

Calbike reports the program should launch sometime in 2023. Although we were told to expect it this year, too.

So maybe don’t hold your breath.

And the rebates, which are expected to be between $750 and $1,250 for a standard e-bike, and $1,500 or more for a cargo or adaptive bike, will be limited to Californians earning up to 400 percent of the federal poverty level.

Which is currently $18,755 for someone living alone, $25,268 for two people, and $38,295 for a family of four.

So I’m good, anyway.

………

You still have time to demand protected bike lanes on Fountain Ave, which is stirring up a lot of opposition among drivers in West Hollywood — and at least some of the city council candidates.

Okay, maybe request is a better word.

………

Montebello is presenting their new bike master plan at Wednesday’s city council meeting, which starts at 5 pm.

………

The Port of Los Angeles wants to give your group funding to help get people out of cars, presumably to offset the harm they cause to the environment.

Although it’s unclear whether it applies to organizations outside of Long Beach.

………

Santa Barbara officials will conduct a living experiment in what works, after removing green bike lanes separating bike riders from pedestrians on the city’s pedestrianized main street.

Meanwhile, a local newspaper complains about Complete Streets changes planned for the city’s streets, saying the original street grid laid out by a sea captain 170 years ago works just fine, dammit. And that no one can predict what changes will come in the coming years.

Sort of like bicycles, cars, trucks and SUVs did since 1850, which the  farsighted the captain must have planned for, evidently.

………

VanMoof meets Peter Max. Style-wise, anyway.

https://twitter.com/CoolBikeArt1/status/1583529431456358401

………

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

Mission Viejo city council candidates discuss ebike safety, with several going out of their way to demonstrate they aren’t familiar with California’s ebike regulations. Or bike law in general, for that matter.

Something is seriously wrong when a road raging Dublin, Ireland cabbie walks with a suspended sentence for deliberately brake checking, then crashing into a man on a bicycle, who wasn’t doing a damn thing wrong. As if anything could justify that, anyway.

In a brilliant display of windshield bias, a road raging Aussie tradesman gets out of his car and screams at a couple bicyclists for riding below the speed limit on a roundabout, apparently mistaking the maximum speed for cars with an imagined minimum speed for people on bicycles.

And nothing fits the category like a 37-second compilation of dooring’s greatest hits.

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

We Love Cycling lists 14 bicycling faux pas to avoid, including littering, wearing threadbare shorts, and spitting into the wind. Although the item about wearing your glasses outside over your helmet straps so they fly off in a crash is BS; unless you’re wearing cheap breakable lenses, you want them to stay on to protect your eyes.

………

Local

LACBC is hosting their annual LA Bike Fest fundraiser at The Bike Shed Moto Co. in the Arts District this Saturday afternoon. General admission starts at $100, or get in free by raising $250 in donations.

 

State 

San Diego bike advocates complain about plans for painted, door zone bike lanes through downtown La Jolla, saying it retains too much parking and little that would actually improve safety.

Maybe logic isn’t their strong suit. Three months after San Diego officials pledged to achieve carbon neutrality by 2035, they approved spending $22.5 million to widen the freeway through Carmel Valley, apparently concluding that massive highways don’t contribute to climate change.

The state has awarded the Coachella Valley Association of Governments over $36 million in active transportation funds to extend the CV Link bike and pedestrian path through the cities of La Quinta, Indio and Coachella; the completed pathway will run nearly 50 miles through the Coachella Valley.

A Modesto man was lucky to escape with a graze wound after he was shot by a man who then made off with his bicycle.

An op-ed from a pair of Santa Rosa advocates makes the case for reducing car traffic up to 25% by building protected bike lanes. Even a fraction of that would virtually eliminate congestion in Los Angeles.

UC grad student Megan Lynch has kept us informed about the lack of bike safety on the ostensibly bike-friendly UC Davis campus; she should be happy to learn the campus police with shift their focus to traffic safety after 22 crashes involving bikes or e-scooters so far this fall. Meanwhile, university police still haven’t released the results of their investigation into a 19-year old student killed in a collision by a campus employee five months ago.

 

National

The founder and CEO of EV truck maker Rivian says expects to see increasing reliance on ebikes in the years to come.

Good advice, as Cycling Savvy offers tips on how to maneuver your way out of a panic situation.

BestLife recommends the top ten US cities to visit on a bicycle, leading off with surprising choices in Spartanburg, South Carolina and Gulf Shores, Alabama. Although their #10 choice Seattle should move up soon, now that former LA Bureau of Streets Services head Greg Spotts is heading the city’s department of transportation.

Nearly 300 Arizona bicyclists turned out to honor a man who was killed by a 19-year old DUI driver as he rode down a local mountain five years ago; the woman who killed him was sentenced to three years earlier this month.

Awful news from Utah, where a five-year old boy was attacked by a husky while riding his bike to a friend’s home, requiring 2,000 to 3,000 stitches on his face and ear, as well as a skin graft; a crowdfunding page has raised over $11,000 of the $15,000 goal for his medical care.

An OKC paper says the city’s low bicycling death rate is deceptive, masking an unacceptably high rate of injuries.

After years of advocating for safer streets, a Cleveland bike shop owner was himself the victim of a hit-and-run; fortunately, he wasn’t seriously injured.

Joe Jonas is one of us, as he goes for a bikeshare ride in New York, sans his famous brothers.

New York Magazine recommends everything you need to go bikepacking, except a bike. Although that would seem to be kind of important, too.

Tragic news from Florida, where friends say they can’t understand why a kindhearted 49-year old man was murdered in a random attack with a tire iron, by a man who admitted the killing without showing any remorse.

A Florida sheriff called for prayers for a bike rider — and the deputy who killed him in what he termed an “unfortunate accident.”

 

International

A Winnipeg survey shows fewer people ride bikes compared to four years ago, but do it more often.

Maybe their moms were watching. A group of young men surrounded an English man on a bike and attempted to punch him before stealing his bicycle — then turned around and returned it ten minutes later. Because when a mom says “put that bike back,” you do. 

No good deed goes unpunished, as a British man was mugged and his bike stolen while he was helping a family of Ukrainian refugees find a new home.

The UK driver who absurdly claimed his infant son was using his phone when he killed a 42-year old man on a bike was convicted of causing death by dangerous driving, after the jury quickly rejected his argument.

A Dublin research scholar looks to realistic group conflict theory to explain why nearly everyone hates bicyclists.

Ireland is attempting to encourage families to replace cars and SUVs with cargo bikes by increasing the amount allowed under the country’s Bike to Work program to 3,000 euros, equivalent to roughly $2,950.

About time. Spain is eliminating longstanding impunity for drivers who kill; any crash resulting in death or serious injury will now be considered a criminal offense.

A cat rescued in the mountains between Bosnia and Montenegro has traveled through 18 countries, accompanying a Scottish man bicycling around the world.

Cape Town, South Africa’s bicycle mayor wants to boost bike commuting from a lowly one percent to eight percent by 2030. Los Angeles isn’t much higher, but we still don’t have a bicycle mayor — or a goal for boosting ridership.

After a second model from Hong Kong ebike maker Fiido started having problems with broken frames, the company responded with a new five-year extended warranty and a $10,000 guarantee against breakage under normal use. Although that last phrase can be bent a long damn way to avoid paying claims, if they want. 

An Aussie paper considers the push to replace second cars with ebikes.

 

Competitive Cycling

VeloNews looks at the season-end cycling team directeur sportif merry-go-round.

Maybe pro cycling isn’t so green after all. Bicycling reports the recent five-day Tour of Luxembourg resulted in greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to around 226,000 miles in a passenger car, or nine trips around the world. Now imagine what it would be for one of the much larger and longer three-week Grand Tours. As usual, read it on Yahoo if the magazine blocks you.

It’s a sad commentary when we have to turn to Wikipedia just to get the results of the Paracycling Worlds. Thanks to the aforementioned Megan Lynch for the heads-up.

https://twitter.com/TeamUSA/status/1584206678580289537

 

Finally…

Why settle for a mere tandem, when you could have a three-seater, complete with a nifty fringed canopy. Now you, too, can electrify your very own velomobile.

And chances are, this is a book we can all relate to.

Thanks to Ted Faber for the link.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

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