Tag Archive for protected bike lanes

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.

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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.

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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.

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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?

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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

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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.

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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.

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VanMoof meets Peter Max. Style-wise, anyway.

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

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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.

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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.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

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

Sunset4All, protected bike lanes at Transportation Committee; free Metro and Metro Bike for Sunday’s CicLAvia

October 5, 2022 / / Comments Off on Sunset4All, protected bike lanes at Transportation Committee; free Metro and Metro Bike for Sunday’s CicLAvia

Let’s start with some quick reminders.

The LA City Council Transportation Committee will meet at City Hall at noon tomorrow.

On the agenda are motions regarding implementing the multimodal Sunset4All Complete Streets plan, as well as installing protected bike lanes on Riverside Drive east of Fletcher Drive, and continuing onto Stadium Way in Elysian Park.

The meeting will also consider the city’s Slow Streets Program, as well as a proposal to put cameras on Metro buses to catch driver’s who illegally park in bus lanes.

Sunset4All urges you to call in to make a public comment in support of the plan, or email your support to CD13 Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell’s office.

And don’t forget the return of CicLAvia to the Heart of LA this Sunday; forecasts call for perfect LA weather.

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Metro’s new K Line — not to be confused with Detroit Tigers great Al Kaline — better known as the long-awaited Crenshaw Line, opens on Friday. The LA County transportation agency will celebrate with free bus, train and bikeshare rides all weekend, from Friday through Sunday.

Which will come in very handy for getting to and from Sunday’s CicLAvia, as well as for anyone who wants to use Metro Bike to explore the route.

Metro is also free today to mark California Clean Air Day.

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Take a three minute mountain bike break with French downhill pro Flo Payet.

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

A British man is using a megaphone to warn other bicyclists about sharp blocks next to a bike lane under a dark bridge, where he was injured in a recent fall; the local government responded that there’s no reason for anyone to ride a bike there — despite the bike lane.

Unbelievable. Violent assault, with and without a deadly weapon, is apparently no big deal in the UK. Because the victim was just, you know, a bicyclist.

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Local

After getting four bills they sponsored signed into law this year, Streets For All is looking for volunteers, as well as ideas for transportation and safety legislation that can be introduced in the next legislative session.

The LA County Sheriff’s Department is encouraging students and parents to take part in Walk and Roll to School Day next Wednesday.

The daughter of late TV star Michael Landon is demanding answers, after she says her 24-year old son was killed by a hit-and-run Metro bus driver while walking in a Rancho Palos Verdes bike lane nearly two months ago; the driver has escaped charges after claiming he didn’t know he’d hit anyone.

 

State 

Huntington Beach considered a half million dollar plan to build a bicycle boulevard on Utica Ave at last night’s council meeting; no word yet on how the vote went.

Encinitas says it will probably follow Carlsbad’s lead in cracking down on young ebike riders.

An Oakland bike rider was lucky to escape serious injury when he was sideswiped by a driver who managed to evade police in an hours-long high speed pursuit.

 

National

This is the cost of traffic violence. A bike-riding woman killed in a collision with the driver of a semi-truck in front of a Portland, Oregon high school was identified as a well-known, award-winning local chef.

So many kindhearted people responded to an Arizona mother’s Facebook post about her daughter’s stolen bicycle that it turned into a DIY bike drive, with over 100 bicycles donated so far.

Arizona’s State Bicycle Company is sponsoring three Arizona State University basketball players with new bicycles, under the NCAA’s new name, image and likeness, aka NIL, rules.

In news that shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone, dashcam video shows speeding Minneapolis drivers using a curb-protected bike lane to pass slower traffic. If the design allows drivers to get into a bike lane, they will. Whether they’re in Minneapolis, Los Angeles, or anywhere else.

Just heartbreaking. A Minneapolis man was driving distracted and high on meth when he ran a stop sign and killed an eight-year old girl riding her bike to the market, as her mother watched from her car.

They get it. A Schenectady NY paper says the decade-long delay in passing Complete Streets legislation in the state can be measured in thousands of needless deaths.

A New York jury awarded a man $1.6 million after he was allowed to test ride a bike in a Walmart Garden Center, and was injured when the brakes failed.

The fading coal-mining town of Confluence PA saved itself from near-certain death by embracing bike tourism, while reinventing and reviving itself as a haven for bike riders.

Police in Pennsylvania are looking for a couple who stole a $13,000 Cannondale Super Six by distracting the staff at a local bike shop, and rolling it out the front door.

The DC city council approved a proposal to allow bike riders to treat stop signs as yields, while also banning right turns on red; the law will take effect in two years if it’s signed.

Police in Fort Lauderdale, Florida are looking for whoever approached a woman from behind as she rode her bicycle, and stabbed her in the back for no apparent reason.

 

International

Cycling News debates whether you really need a bike computer.

Somehow, a Chicago bikeshare bike ended up in Santa Ana Maya, Mexico, over 2,000 miles from where it should be docked.

Blame bad training. A London cop orders a bicyclist not to ride in the middle of the lane, despite the country’s new Highway Code saying that’s exactly where he should be.

Bicycling says there are more bikes than ever in Afghanistan, but women are forbidden from riding them. As usual, read it on Yahoo if the magazine blocks you.

A Kiwi university lecturer looks to Copenhagen to explain the difference a committed mayor can make in transforming a formerly car-centric city.

Tragic news from New Zealand, as a 70-year old man died of a heart attack while attempting to ride his bike the length of the country to raise funds for an endangered native falcon.

A Chinese bike brand found a way to skirt US and European restrictions on ebike speeds with an over-the-air software update that instantly increased speeds more than 50%.

 

Competitive Cycling

Cyclist examines why Remco Evenepoel quit soccer to focus on cycling, despite serving as captain of Belgium’s under-16 team; the 22-year old clearly made the right choice, after winning both the Vuelta and the Worlds this year.

 

Finally…

Meet the bike all the fast cool kids are riding. That feeling when you use Strava to spell out the name of Iranian martyr Mahsa Amini — in Persian.

And evidently, being a former mayK-Lor and current city councilor doesn’t mean a thing to a ebike thief.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

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

Redondo Beach teen dragged by hit-and-run driver, callous Mar Vista council member, and 3rd ST protected bike lanes

September 28, 2022 / / 2 comments

Whatever the hell illness I’ve been dealing with appears to have broken finally, so let’s ease back into things by catching up on a few stories we’ve missed, along with today’s news. 

And please forgive me for not keeping track of who sent me links this time. Under the circumstances, I was happy just to keep track of my meals.

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While we were gone, Redondo Beach police were searching for the hit-and-run driver who ran over a 15-year old boy riding an ebike, dragging the boy and his bike underneath for half a block.

When the kid somehow managed to free himself from under the truck, he demanded that the driver stop his truck and get out.

Instead the jerk — which is the mildest term we can use here — backed up his pickup, freeing the boy’s bicycle, before zooming off.

Thankfully, the victim wasn’t seriously injured, though he did suffer severe road rash.

Let’s hope the driver is feeling his pain.

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This is why people keep dying on our streets.

An elected member of the Mar Vista Community Council explains why she opposes extending the Venice Blvd protected bike lanes and bus lanes.

And no, she doesn’t just sound callous.

Meanwhile, Streetsblog discovers newly protected bike lanes on Venice Blvd in the opposite direction, in front of the Helms Bakery complex.

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The new half-mile long 3rd Street protected bike lane through DTLA is a thing now.

https://twitter.com/multimodalLA/status/1574949966824452096

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The East Side Riders Bike Club continues to give back by feeding the community on a weekly basis.

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The Los Angeles Times offers a guide for the bike-curious, starting with what they describe as eight breezy bike trails that will teach you about LA as you ride.

As long as you take a very expansive view of what’s LA, that is.

Not so forgivable is their framing of a story on “nine bike clubs to cruise LA with” for people who are afraid to ride alone. Not all of which are actually clubs.

And none of which require joining out of fear; you can also participate if you want to give back to the community, or just enjoy riding with like-minded people.

Seriously, they should know better.

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The governor finally signed Assemblymember Laura Friedman’s parking reform bill, no thanks to our “climate mayor.”

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The US men’s soccer team is one of us.

Or 28 of us, anyway.

https://twitter.com/USMNT/status/1573961105554145281

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

Infuriating story from Redlands, where doctor and semi-pro cyclist Kyle Cooper was seriously injured in an apparent hit-and-run. Yet the local cops refused to believe him, somehow convinced it was just an “oopsie.”

A 28-year old Michigan woman faces charges for attacking a 19-year old man with a machete for no apparent reason as he rode his bike to work; fortunately, the victim survived his wounds.

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

Police in San Diego are looking for gunman who escaped by bicycle after shooting a 35-year old man in an aqueduct near westbound state Route 94; the victim was expected to survive, despite multiple gunshot wounds.

An English e-scooter rider faces charges for allegedly threatening a van driver with a meat cleaver for passing too closely.

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Local

Talk about throwing your life away. Twenty-three-year old Long Beach driver Carlo Navarro was sentenced to a very well-deserved 25 to life for wiping out an entire family; Navarro was convicted on three counts of murder for killing a mother, father and young child in a drunken, high-speed crash as they walked home from Trick-or-Treating on Halloween three years earlier.

Streets For All is hosting a meet-and-greet in Venice tomorrow night with Eric Darling, who is running to replace Mike Bonin in CD11.

Metro is hosting a virtual meeting tomorrow evening to discuss extending the LA River Bike Path through DTLA, as well as a virtual and in-person meeting on Saturday.

Pasadena approved 19 projects to replace the now-cancelled $230 million Gold Line grade separation, including a number of active transportation projects.

 

State 

Governor Newsom has signed a bill giving pedestrians priority at traffic lights by requiring leading pedestrian intervals; the recently signed Bicycle Omnibus Bill extends them to bicyclists, as well.

A 22-year old man got a well-deserved nine years behind bars for the drunken hit-and-run crash that killed 75-year old Allen Hunter II in Solano Beach last year; Lucas Beau Morgans had a BAC over twice the legal limit when he was arrested an hour and a half after the fatal crash.

Sad news from Sunnyvale, where a man riding a bicycle was killed in a collision Monday evening.

Oakland announced plans for a 16-mile protected greenway, providing the first walkable, bikeable path from Oakland’s Lake Merritt to the South Hayward BART station.

 

National

A new book examines how suburban vigilantes and NIMBYs took over in the latter part of the last century. Hint: It’s not just suburban NIMBYs and vigilantes.

Something is seriously wrong when an award-winning children’s book about a homemade bicycle assembled from scraps is banned thanks to thin-skinned cops.

A mother argues that rather than being dangerous, riding a bike on the road is one of the best things she does with her kids.

Pink Bike offers a guide to your dream job in the bike industry, with 17 high-level bike jobs that are open right now.

Seattle-based Rad Power Bikes is asking owners to park their RadWagon 4 bikes over fears the tires could pop while you’re riding. Which is probably a bad thing.

Ruth Orkin, the then 29-year old daughter of silent film star Mary Ruby, took the first unposed, color photograph to appear on a magazine cover — after riding her bicycle to New York when she was just 17.

A 71-year old New York man is using his megaphone — literally — to demand “Tour de France guys” in Central Park slow down. Never mind that he’s been convicted of election fraud.

Bicycling examines the nation’s most dangerous road for bicyclists, running eastward from Queens in New York State. As usual, read it on Yahoo if the magazine blocks you.

I want to be like him when I grow up. A Boston money manager still rides his bike to work at 95-years old.

 

International

Cycling Weekly talks with a sports psychologist about how to overcome the six most common bicycling fears. Yet somehow, they don’t even mention my biggest fear — getting run down by a distracted driver.

Bike riders in London, Ontario call for safer streets after a student was killed in a hit-and-run, saying it feels like life or death on the roads.

A British driver faces charges for the alleged stoned-driving death of a popular club cyclist participating in a time trial.

Thirty-year old Scottish twin brothers will stand trial for murdering a 63-year old man taking part in a fundraising ride; the men allegedly beat the victim to death after crashing into him while driving drunk.

Runners may have the bulls, but bike riders in Pamplona, Spain had to overcome the hills.

Taking a cue from Bob Dylan at the Newport Folk Festival, Italy’s Bianchi goes electric. And yes, you have to be pretty damn old to get that reference.

 

Competitive Cycling

UCI announced a second Super Worlds, with all cycling events — including road, track, BMX, mountain bike and paracycling — taking place in the same week in Haute-Savoie, France, four years after next year’s Super Worlds in Glasgow.

This year’s Worlds were marked with drama when race favorite Mathieu van der Poel abandoned during the race, later revealing that he’d been arrested after confronting teenagers who repeatedly knocked on his door the night before the race, keeping him up all night. He was fined the equivalent of nearly $1,000 after being convicted on common assault.

 

Finally…

What if cities had driving and non-driving sections? Sure, you may be champion of the world, but your socks are too damn long.

And that feeling when you can buy a state-of-the-art hubless ebike for less than a concert ticket.

With free shipping, too.

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A belated l’shanah tovah to everyone celebrating this week!

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

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

O’Farrell moves forward with Sunset4All, Los Alamitos Councilmember dies riding bike, and bike lanes coming to 3rd Street

September 16, 2022 / / 2 comments

That sudden chill you feel is hell freezing over.

Surprisingly, CD13 Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell has taken up support for the Sunset4All Complete Streets makeover of Sunset Boulevard through Echo Park, Silver Lake and East Hollywood.

According to Urbanize Los Angeles,

In a motion introduced on September 14, 13th District Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell requests a report back from the Department of Transportation, the Bureau of Engineering, the Bureau of Street Services, and the City Administrative Officer on recommendations for implementing the scope of improvements proposed in the Sunset4All plan, including a budget, funding opportunities, and a timeline for delivery.

The proposed concept, according to O’Farrell’s motion, would serve an area that is home to more than 100,000 residents, and impact corridors which have been recognized as part of the City’s High Injury Network. The overall project area includes the stretch of Sunset between Fountain Avenue and Dodger Stadium, as well as Santa Monica Boulevard between the Vermont/Santa Monica subway station and Sunset Junction. The Sunset4All plan proposes to restripe the existing right-of-way, adding up to:

  • 3.2 miles of protected bike lanes;
  • enhanced crosswalks and bus stops;
  • new safe routes to schools; and
  • several pocket parks.

Although the strength of O’Farrell’s support is up for debate.

It’s possible that his sudden support stems from his uphill battle for re-election against challenger Hugo Soto-Martinez, who had a nine point lead over O’Farrell in the primary election.

Let’s hope he’s had a late career Damascus moment, and now realizes the error of his ways after cancelling the shovel-ready Temple Street road diet five years ago, as well as other bike projects in the district.

And that his support will last past the November election.

Assuming he wins, of course, which is questionable at this point.

Today’s image is a rendering of the Sunset4All project through the Sunset Junction district.

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Longtime Los Alamitos City Council member Ronald R. “Ron” Bates died unexpectedly of an apparent medical emergency on September 6th while on a bike ride with friends.

Bates was 76-years old, and survived by his wife, two daughters and two grandchildren.

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A half mile of parking protected bike lanes are coming to 3rd Street in DTLA.

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Before we go any further, let’s pause for a moment to thank Oceanside bike attorney Richard Duquette for renewing his sponsorship of this site for another year.

His support, and that of our other sponsors over there on the right, help keep this site going.

But more importantly, I can personally vouch for Duquette, and our other sponsors, if you ever need someone to fight for you after a crash or some other incident.

I would trust any one of them to handle my own case if someone ran me down on the streets. Which is the best reference I can give.

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Speaking of Duquette, he’s offering a sponsorship for next year for people and nonprofits engaged in bicycling and triathlons.

Here’s what he had to say.

Only a few more days to apply 2023 sponsorship. My law firm will sponsor the best partners, and the best people who come together to support and encourage bicycling & triathlon around the U.S.

If you are considering racing in 2023, like fun in these sports, then we encourage you to apply. Applications close on October 1st 2022. Tell us how YOU or your NON PROFIT 501(C)(3)(4) genuinely plan to improve the world (ESPECIALLY SAN DIEGO & SO CAL) by or through the sports of Bicycling & Triathlon. Send us your contact information!

If you are a nonprofit in good standing we want to help you! Below is a link to one of 3 links (with podcasts) that discuss “Corporate culture: Law & Ethics of Non Profits” in CA.(Subjects include conflicts of interest, self dealing, fiduciary duties of directors/officers and more.)

https://www.911law.com/blog/2017/may/corporate-culture-and-bicyclists-part-2-of-3-non/

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CNBC examines the seemingly endless size creep in motor vehicles, as they continue to get more dangerous to anyone unfortunate enough to be outside one.

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

New Orleans City Council voted unanimously to rip out protected bike lanes in the underserved Algiers neighborhood, after residents complained about the removal of traffic lanes and parking spaces. Once again choosing convenience over human lives and equity. And making the city fully liable for anyone who gets hurt there afterwards. 

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

Horrifying story from the UK, where a 29-year old man was sentenced to 16 months behind bars for physically attacking a disabled driver, who had the temerity to honk at him as he rode his bicycle; he ripped out the driver’s tracheotomy tube after the driver got out of his car, then knocked off his glasses and hearing aid, kicking the latter down the road. He also jumped on the car’s hood and stomped the windshield when the driver got back in his car and drove at him. Yes, the driver was in the wrong, too. But seriously, there’s no excuse for physical violence, especially against someone with an obvious disability. 

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Local

Streets For All founder Michael Schneider says switching to electric cars isn’t enough; it’s time to think bigger by encouraging more ebike use.

LA Laker’s legend Kobe Bryant was one of us, taking Team USA on early morning 40-mile bike rides through the desert to motivate them, before returning to the gym to practice at 7:30 am.

The LAPD is hosting the 2nd Annual Val Martinez Memorial Bike Ride on September 24th; the 25-mile ride will raise funds for the Martinez’ twin sons, who were born after he died of Covid.

Pasadena adopted a Roadside Memorial Sign Program to honor the victims of traffic violence.

Palmdale introduced four street projects, including pedestrian and bicycle improvements intended to revitalize the downtown civic center area.

 

State 

Only In Your State recommends riding or walking the Old Sea World Drive Bay Trail in San Diego to get from the bay to the beach and back.

San Diego is jumpstarting the ebike revolution with a $10 million loan-to-own ebike program for people making below $49,000 a year.

 

National

A traffic tech site makes the case for why jaywalking laws should be abolished. Someone send the article to Governor Newsom, who has a nasty habit of vetoing traffic reforms that make sense, like this one.

Proponents are still fighting for an ebike rebate in the halls of Congress, after a proposed rebate ended up on the cutting room floor when the Inflation Reduction Act was passed.

CNN talks with bicycling activist Marley Blonsky, the Seattle-based co-founder of All Bodies on Bikes and a trailblazer of the body-size inclusion movement.

New Mexico sheriff’s officials consider bringing fraud charges against framebuilder Dillen Maurer, who raised $18,000 through a crowdfunding page after saying he lost a foot in a collision with an ATV rider while riding his bike near his Taos home; investigators claim he cut his own foot off in a chainsaw accident.

No excuse. A Denver man was seriously injured when he was run down by a hit-and-run driver while riding his bike, just one month and a few miles away from where his friend was killed by another driver, who also fled the scene.

A Kansas City woman practices radical forgiveness for the alleged stoned and distracted hit-and-run driver who killed her husband, a teacher and father of ten children, as he rode his bike.

Once again, transportation officials wait until someone dies to make needed safety improvements, as Kentucky officials approve plans for protected bike lanes on the oddly named Licking Valley Girl Scout Bridge, where a woman was killed in a collision while riding her bike earlier this month.

Country singer Vince Gill says his wife, Christian singer Amy Grant, is doing great, despite being confined to their Tennessee home after falling off her bike in July.

 

International

In news that shouldn’t surprise anyone, ebike riders tend to go further, and rid more often, than other bike riders.

Interesting Engineering picks the seven-best ebike conversion kits, while Cycling Weekly reviews the new and improved Swytch ebike conversion.

This Saturday is World Cleanup Day, which is a perfect opportunity to do some good on your bike.

The annual Fancy Women Bike Ride rolls this Sunday; the women-only ride was born in Turkey in 2013, and quickly spread around the world. Surprisingly, however, there don’t appear to be any fancy women planning rides anywhere in Southern California.

New Zealand’s Stuff website examines what’s stopping Christchurch residents from riding their bikes. Which is the same problems we face in Los Angeles, and just about everywhere else.

 

Competitive Cycling

Julian Alaphilippe is back from the injuries he suffered during April’s Liege-Bastogne-Liege, as well as a bout of Covid, and ready to defend his two-time World Championship in Australia.

British pro Alex Dowsett is staring down retirement in his last few months as a pro cyclist

 

Finally…

To be honest, we’ve all been there. Now you, too, can have a 3D-printed bike helmet custom tailored to the contours of your own head.

And forget helicabs. Now you can have your very own flying hoverbike, for the low, low price of just $777,000.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

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

Sierra Madre removes bike lane for parking, LA County safety meeting Friday, and 7th Street bike lanes taking shape

September 8, 2022 / / Comments Off on Sierra Madre removes bike lane for parking, LA County safety meeting Friday, and 7th Street bike lanes taking shape

Let’s start today by amplifying a message sent by our old friend John Lloyd to the Pasadena Complete Streets Coalition.

If you know anyone who lives, attends school, works, or bikes in Sierra Madre please help spread the word that the city has removed a portion of the bike lane on eastbound Sierra Madre Blvd. between Grove and Lima, so they could replace parallel parking with angled parking in front of the public library. Mind you the library has ample parking in a lot behind the building, but it’s a few more steps to the front door. They also already have handicapped parking spaces right in front along the library driveway. The city has replaced the bike lane with sharrows that now require a stressful merge into the travel lane with 35mph traffic when the bike lane abruptly ends, and creates an additional hazard from drivers backing out of the angled parking. This creates a danger for drivers and particularly for cyclists. The city has thus created a hazardous and stressful situation for people on bikes. They have traded safety for a couple of unnecessary parking spaces.

I will be giving public comment and asking the city to RESTORE THE LIBRARY BIKE LANE at next week’s city council meeting. I would love it if folks could help spread the word if you know anyone who cares about this issue. They need to know this isn’t okay. Public comments are at the beginning of the meeting and are limited to 3 min each.

  • Where: Sierra Madre City Hall 232 W. Sierra Madre Blvd.
  • When: Tuesday, Sept. 13, 5:30 PM.

By removing the bike lanes, not only has the city increased the risk for people on bicycles, but they’ve also assumed full liability for any bike rider who gets injured there, from this day forward.

Whether or not they intended to.

And I know some damn good lawyers who would be more than happy to make that painfully clear to them.

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Join Streets Are For Everyone, aka SAFE, and Los Angeles County Supervisor Holly Mitchell to discuss street safety in LA County tomorrow night.

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The long awaited 7th Street protected bike lanes are finally taking shape in DTLA.

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The National Safety Council is kicking off a series of Roadway Safety webinars next Tuesday, starting with the author of There Are No Accidents.

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Legendary Hollywood star Humphrey Bogart was one of us, as he talks with the only actor who could ever upstage him, the equally legendary Lauren Bacall.

Or at least he knew the value of posing with a bike and a beautiful woman for a good publicity photo.

https://twitter.com/bicicletasokan/status/1567603722276028416

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

A New Orleans city councilmember responds to the usual complaints from motorists about a new protected bike lane by proposing to make it more dangerous, while a representative of the firefighter’s union is apparently unaware that big, heavy firetrucks are capable of driving over flimsy plastic car-tickler bendy posts.

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

After a cobra bit an Indian man as he was working in the fields, he killed the offending snake by biting it back — then rode his bike home with the dead snake draped over his shoulders.

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Local

Two men reportedly broke into the Raleigh New Company Store in Santa Monica on Monday, stealing six bicycles and e-mountain bikes retailing for approximately $5,000 each; a day earlier, police arrested a 60-year old man for the theft of multiple ebikes locked together near the beach, including one with the AirTag that led to his capture.

South Bay letter writers argue over ebikes, infrastructure and bicycle education in response to a fallen 13-year old ebike rider, with predictable results — including the mistaken comment that ebikes are motorcycles, and require a drivers license. Only throttle-controlled bikes and ebikes capable of traveling over 28 mph require a motorcycle license and helmet.

 

State 

A Cardiff man is still looking for answers, 43 years after a bike rider found his murdered twin brother’s lifeless body on the sand at Torrey Pines State Beach, on what would have been their 15th birthday.

Streetsblog says San Jose has lost its way, retreating to victim blaming and shared responsibility in the face of rising traffic deaths, rather than expanding the bold, Dutch-style, quick-build infrastructure the city pioneered just a few years earlier.

Sad news from Northern California, where a mountain biker was found dead 200 feet below the Downieville Downhill Trail outside of Downieville; the victim’s wife had contacted the local sheriff’s department when he didn’t return home from his ride.

 

National

NACTO, aka the National Association of City Transportation, calls for reforming bike law to decriminalize urban bicycling, after finding current laws disproportionately punish people of color.

Gear Patrol considers the year’s best gravel bikes.

If you’re having trouble unloading your used Peloton bike, it could be because you’re competing with the company’s own efforts to dump their bikes.

It took less than ten minutes for Denver residents to claim the city’s latest round of ebike rebates, as data shows the program really is replacing some car trips.

A Denver couple learns the hard way that insurance companies may bizarrely conclude that ebikes aren’t bicycles, so they don’t have to pay for them.

There’s a special place in hell for whoever stole a 16-year old autistic Texas boy’s bike, but hats off to the bighearted strangers who bought him a new one.

Kansas City bicyclists feared a section of the city’s Longview Lake loop long before a popular father of ten was killed riding his bike there last month.

A retired nurse was killed by an on-duty Burbank, Illinois cop who ran down her bicycle; the officer was placed on administrative duty while the case is under review.

New York’s Central Park Raccoons gather for impromptu nighttime races on anything with two wheels, ebikes excluded.

Take your gravel bike for a run on the 185-mile long Chesapeake & Ohio Cana pathl through DC, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia.

A Mississippi man faces murder charges for shooting his cousin following a heated argument over a fight between their sons about an allegedly stolen bicycle. We’ve said it before — no bicycle is worth taking a life. or losing one.

Tampa Bay bicyclists say the local infrastructure may not be great, but it could be worse.

 

International

An Ontario, Canada First Nation man faces multiple charges in the alleged DUI death of two women as they were riding their bikes on the first nation this past June.

The World Wide Web Foundation is hosting a two-part ride from Oxford, England to CERN in Geneva to raise funds and call attention to their mission to make the internet safe, trusted and empowering for everyone, with the first three-day stage from Oxford to Paris this week; you can donate here. Thanks to Glenn Crider for the heads-up.

A Dutch expat was acquitted of killing a 56-year old pedestrian in the UK after he asked the court why bike riders couldn’t ride 30 mph if drivers are allowed to, concluding that the 23 mph he was actually riding at was an appropriate speed.

Olympic track cycling gold medalist Katie Archibald paid an emotional tribute to her partner Rob Wardell, as the 36-year old Scottish mountain bike champ was laid to rest following his fatal heart attack last month.

 

Competitive Cycling

Colombian Rigoberto Urán claimed Wednesday’s stage 17 of the Vuelta, while Remco Evenepoel was virtually assured of victory when three-time defending champ Primož Roglič withdrew following his hard crash near the finish line of Tuesday’s stage.

Italy’s Elisa Longo Borghini jumped to an early 23 second lead in the five stage Ceratizit Challenge by La Vuelta after the opening time trial, with Demi Vollering and Annemiek van Vleuten close behind.

Cycling News introduces New Zealand’s Corbin Strong, calling the neo-pro the surprise leader of the Tour of Britain.

There’s more than one way to cheat, as a 73-year old man was busted for motor doping at a French hillclimb; officials became suspicious when he finished just three minutes behind his much younger competitors.

VeloNews talks with gravel champ and freshman race director Amanda Nauman as she prepares to launch the inaugural Mammoth Tuff in California’s Eastern Sierras next weekend.

 

Finally…

Your kid’s next balance bike could be sculpted from wood, with an uncomfortable looking bench for a seat. That feeling when Stupid Bike Night isn’t, but it is intentionally weird.

And using your bicycle to break down the door of a mom and pop smoke shop is not an approved use for it.

Then again, ripping your arm open crawling inside isn’t the best idea, either.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

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

Embarrassed to be seen on an ebike, support for Venice Blvd bike lanes, and Sierra Club backs faux-environmentalist

September 1, 2022 / / 2 comments

A quick update before we get started. 

My brother has made it to Kansas a week into his latest cross-country bike ride.

So far, things are running smoothly, despite temperatures in the high 90s. 

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No bias here.

A writer for The Atlantic, who clearly doesn’t get it, says ebikes are monstrosities that need to develop an identity of their own, distinct from bicycles and motorbikes.

Never mind that ebikes open up this wild and wonderful world of bicycling we so love to countless people who couldn’t ride a bike before, or would love to ride one again.

Not to mention countless more who use them as a simple and efficient way to get to work or school. Or do their shopping without having to break out the family SUV.

Or own one, even.

But writer Ian Bogost doesn’t see it that way.

But I’ve been trying to live with one, and brother, I’ve got some bad news. These things are freaks. Portraying e-bikes as a simple, obvious, and inevitable evolution of transportation (or even of bicycling) doesn’t fully explain these strange contraptions. The Venicsame was said of Segways, and then of Bird scooters, and both flamed out spectacularly…

Perhaps my e-bike ambivalence comes in part from the bike’s strange social status. An e-bike isn’t cheap—the least expensive ones are about $1,000, and they go up to $5,000 or more. But the symbolic value one receives in exchange is minimal. Spending five large on a conventional bike would get you a status symbol—you’d come off as a cyclist for sure. For that matter, spending that dough on a Vespa would infuse you with an Aperol-tinged Italianate cool. You’d want to be seen arriving on your moped. But I don’t want anybody seeing me on my e-bike. It’s just kind of embarrassing.

Seriously.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but who honestly gives a rat’s rear about the social cachet of your bicycle, unless you are in fact dropping way too much on a high-end roadie designed to make you faster than your little legs and limited skills would otherwise allow?

You know, kind of like an ebike.

But wait, as they say in informercials, there’s more!

Currently, e-bikes are trapped in the weird smear between pathetic, loser bicycles and pitiable, low-end motorbikes. Especially in America, where bike infrastructure is far less developed than in the small, flat nations of Northern Europe that cycling advocates like to exalt as a model, e-bikes have become kind of a nuisance. Walking the streets of New York City, it now feels just as likely that you might get mowed down by an e-bike as a taxicab. Elsewhere, the narrow protected lanes and greenway trails built for human-powered bikes—already littered with stroller-pushers and joggers—don’t quite scale to the new swiftness of e-bikes. The pathways and roads themselves, perhaps already unsafe at bike speed due to uneven pavement and poor maintenance, feel even more dangerous on a not-quite-motorcycle.

So, no one wants ebikes and there’s no market for them, yet they’re as ubiquitous as taxicabs on New York sidewalks.

Sure, that makes sense.

Never mind that ebikes already outsell electric cars and plug-in hybrids combined in the US.

That would seem to refute the argument that there’s no clear market for them. Let alone that anyone other than him is embarrassed to ride one.

Maybe someone could just tell Mr. Bogost that 2012 called, and wants its hot take back.

Then again, maybe he wouldn’t feel so embarrassed if he was riding Mercedes new $5,800 Formula E-inspired ebike.

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The proposal to expand the protected bike lanes and bus lanes on Venice Blvd seemed to enjoy overwhelming support at yesterday’s virtual meeting, as well as on community surveys.

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Leave it to our local Sierra Club to get it wrong.

As someone who grew up in Colorado, I’d long seen the Sierra Club as a protector of the native environment.

But it didn’t take long after moving to Los Angeles to realize that the LA/Orange County chapter was mired in form of environmental conservatism unbecoming of local politics. And unwilling to upset the automotive hegemony and single-family home applecart to actually advocate for the change we need to save our city.

Let alone the planet.

Which leads to their endorsement of everyone’s favorite faux-environmentalist and termed-out councilmember, who apparently never met a bike lane he liked, or a NIMBY he didn’t.

My old friend Dr. Michael Cahn seems to sum up the sad situation pretty well.

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Hats off to the East Side Riders for working to bring an ebike lending library to the South LA area.

Even if a certain writer for The Atlantic would be embarrassed to be seen on one.

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Beautiful cover art by the late, great French illustrator Jean-Jacques Sempé.

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More proof you can move anything by bike. Even if it looks like the dog is doing the steering.

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

Yet another cord has been strung over a Madison, Wisconsin bike path where it could clothesline an unsuspecting rider; one victim has already been seriously injured crashing into one.

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

A Welsh cabbie has been sentenced to two years behind bars for deliberately running over a road raging bike rider who slapped the hood of his car and called him a fat fuck in a dispute over the man’s driving.

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Local

What took so long? Ever since a speeding driver blew through a red light and killed five people in Windsor Hills, along with a pregnant woman’s unborn baby, I’ve wondered when they would get around to claiming she wasn’t conscious leading up to the crash.

Streetsblog’s Joe Linton expounds on yesterday’s comment about the Ventura Blvd bike lane plans, questioning why the city is touting it as a bike safety proposal instead of the parking plan it really is.

 

State 

For the second year in a row, Governor Gavin Newsom killed a bill that would have allowed bike riders to treat stop signs as yields; this time he only had to announce plans to veto the bill to get it pulled by its sponsor. Never mind that it’s safely in use in an ever-growing number of cities and states. Maybe we’ll have to call getting ticketed for rolling a stop “getting Gavined.”

Calbike is looking for a full-time executive director, as well as a part-time individual giving manager. Let me know when that last position gets filled; I know a few individuals I’d be happy to give them.

Carlsbad literally put its money where its figurative mouth is, voting to allocate $2 million to confront a bike safety emergency, after bicycle and ebike injuries doubled over the previous year, and two ebike riders were killed there just one week apart; the funding includes half a million dollars to hire four additional traffic enforcement cops. Thanks to Oceanside bike lawyer and BikinginLA sponsor Richard Duquette for the heads-up; the way things our going in San Diego and Orange counties lately, they need a good bike lawyer down there. Or maybe an army of them.

 

National

Cycling Weekly offers a guide to smooth and efficient shifting, and announces their picks for the best bike bells. Wake me when somebody makes a bike bell that sounds like an old submarine klaxon.

ZDNet suggests where to hide an AirTag on your bike so thieves won’t find it. Apparently assuming that bike thieves don’t know how to Google.

A VeloNews podcast talks with mountain bike icon Gary Fisher, who has remained a force in the bike industry through two cultural revolutions.

An Orem, Utah elementary school is raising funds to teach kindergarten kids how to ride bikes, through the All Kids Bike program.

While LA bike riders struggle to get to SoFi Stadium, Houston is building a bike path to get riders safely to and from the NFL’s NRG Stadium; the city hopes to conclude work in time for the annual rodeo and livestock show in March.

A Minnesota bike rider explores John Prine’s “jungles of East St. Paul.” And makes it look pretty damn good in the process.

This is the cost of traffic violence. A Michigan woman was killed by a hit-and-run driver, just moments after she ran out of her house to aid a bike rider who had just been killed by another motorist.

New York is considering an ebike rebate program that could slash prices 50%, up to a retail cost of $2,200.

The husband of an American diplomat killed riding her bike in Maryland has been overwhelmed by the outpouring of support; a crowdfunding campaign has raised nearly $180,000 in just two days to advocate for safer bikeways, more than tripling the original goal.

 

International

The Guardian considers how our language has been colonized by cars, while wondering whether we really want to see the world from a windshield perspective.

Seriously? The Sun questions who was in the right, after a driver plows into a rider practicing stunts on his BMX bike in the middle of a dark street. Is all of the above an option?

No need to cork intersections anymore, with a new device that will let you control the traffic signal for up to 45 seconds at a time.

Road.cc wants to know who drained the color out of road bike tires, and why.

No irony here. A mayoral candidate in Winnipeg, Manitoba had his own bicycle stolen, just 85 minutes after announcing a plan to eliminate bike theft.

There’s a special place in hell for whoever stole a British paramedic’s bike while he was busy saving lives; the victim was riding his bike to save money after the birth of his daughter.

Bike Radar offers ten “weird and wonderful mountain bike throwbacks” from this year’s Malverns Classic in the UK.

 

Competitive Cycling

Aussie Kaden Groves won his first Grand Tour stage in Wednesday’s 11th stage of the Vuelta, while Remco Evenepoel maintained his grip the red leader’s jersey.

Cycling Weekly examines Irish pro Sam Bennett’s return to his winning ways in the opening weekend of the Vuelta.

Over 1,800 riders are expected to turn out for the tenth anniversary of The Rebecca’s Private Idaho gravel race, founded by former cycling great and Idaho native Rebecca Rusch.

 

Finally…

We may have to deal with distracted LA drivers, but at least we don’t have to ride highways smothered in Alfredo sauce. That feeling when Google Maps directs you to bike lanes that don’t exist.

And with hair like that, who needs a helmet?

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

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

LA Council considers Healthy Streets tomorrow, carfree living in LA ain’t so pretty, and Venice bike lane extension

August 23, 2022 / / 2 comments

As we mentioned yesterday, the Los Angeles City Council is scheduled to consider the Healthy Streets LA ballot proposition at Wednesday’s meeting.

After the proposition qualified for the ballot, it opened a 20 day window for the council to adopt it as written, or place it on the 2024 ballot for a vote by the city.

Aside from the usual opposition that comes with any proposed changes to LA streets, some advocates have come out against the measure because it doesn’t include a focus on equity or schedule for how the plan will be rolled out.

But that’s not the purpose of the proposal. It’s really a very simple measure — all it does is require Los Angeles to build out the city mobility plan, which they’ve already approved, whenever a street included in the plan is resurfaced.

That’s it.

It’s up to the city to determine when streets get resurfaced, and how to bring equity into the process.

So the best option is for the council to adopt the Healthy Streets LA proposition as written, then adopt a separate plan to fairly and equitably roll it out, especially in lower income communities that are too often ignored.

Unfortunately, I probably won’t be able to make it. I’m still having major health problems that keep me close to home, especially at night in the mornings until my meds kick in.

But I’m begging you, if you can clear your schedule Wednesday morning, go make your voice heard to demand that the city keep its word, and give us the safe, livable streets they promised.

And if you can’t, then email your council member today, before the day is over. That’s what I’ll be doing.

Here is what Streets For All said about it in a recent email.

IT ALL COMES DOWN TO THIS WEDNESDAY AND WE NEED YOU TO COME IN PERSON!

After a year and a half, it all comes down to THIS WEDNESDAY. The City Council has item #20 on its agenda to consider adopting Healthy Streets LA now, or send it to the 2024 ballot.

The City Council no longer takes remote comments, and we need you to show up in person Wednesday at 10am at LA City Hall (200 N. Spring St. Room 340) and make public comment asking them to take Option #1, and adopt Healthy Streets LA. Here are some talking points you can use. We suggest timing yourself to make sure you can say everything you want to say in 1 minute.

We’re almost there, and we need all hands on deck. See you there!

HOW YOU CAN HELP:

RSVP AND TELL US YOU’LL BE THERE

VIEW TALKING POINTS

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It’s not always pleasant to see yourself through someone else’s eyes.

Especially the view isn’t always pretty.

An Indian writer working with the LA Times on a journalism fellowship discovers just how difficult it is to survive in Los Angeles without a car, where the taxis are expensive and transit unreliable, and bike lanes start and stop with no coherent reason.

And you can’t even go through a Del Taco drive through without one, even when the walkup window is closed.

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This is the cost of traffic violence.

A Florida driver killed five people in their late teens and early twenties when he drove the wrong way on a freeway at 4:30 am.

The 30-year old driver, who was the only one who survived the crash, hasn’t had a valid driver’s license since his was revoked after getting caught doing 109 mph.

Yet he continued to drive anyway, racking up traffic violations that include speeding, running red lights and failing to yield at an intersection, despite being described by a former girlfriend as psychotic and obsessive.

Just one more example of authorities allowing a dangerous driver to stay on the roads until he killed someone.

Or five someones.

Thanks to Victor Bale for the heads-up. 

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Streetsblog says work is underway to extend the parking protected bike lane on Venice Blvd.

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Buena Park has started work on what will be the longest bike lanes in the city when they’re finished.

https://twitter.com/mikeocbike/status/1561836685813358593

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I’m not sure I’d call this a rickshaw. It seems more like a side-by-side tandem to me.

Although I did have to read the tweet to figure out that wasn’t Peter Pan sitting next to Peter Fonda.

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A YouTuber converted his old mountain bike to an ebike, in order to tow his solar-powered camper trailer complete with rechargeable battery.

………

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

A road raging pickup driver disrupted a Portland open streets event by driving onto the route, screaming obscenities at volunteers and participants, and even flashing a gun at one point. Police say they are investigating.

Once again, cops bend over backwards to exonerate one of their own, after a Lincoln, Nebraska cop right hooked a 15-year old kid crossing the street on his bike with the walk signal; the police insist the kid somehow crashed into the side of the police cruiser as the officer was turning. Something smells like bullshit here, which isn’t hard to find in Nebraska.

British lawyer “Mr. Loophole” wants bike riders who kill pedestrians to face life imprisonment, even though drivers usually get off with a slap on the wrist, if that. And even though it hardly ever happens, while drivers kill people every day.

Cycling Weekly has more information about the Spanish driver who plowed into a group of eight bicyclists, killing a couple of 67 and 72-year old men and seriously injuring three others; the driver was captured ten hours after fleeing the crash. He’s under investigation for murder, after witnesses say he suddenly changed lanes and sped up before hitting the bike riders.

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

A Phoenix man faces charges for shooting and killing another man in a dispute over a stolen bicycle; he confessed to the killing when police arrested him, but swore he actually stole the bike from someone else.

………

Local

This is who we share the road with. The LA Times takes a deep dive into deadly street takeovers and side shows, which authorities describe as a scene of lawlessness “bordering on a riot;” six people have already been killed in street takeovers this year.

The WeHo Times provides photos from Sunday’s Meet the Hollywoods CicLAvia, while My News LA offers a brief wrap-up.

The sheriff’s department will conduct a traffic safety operation in Santa Clarita from 2 pm to 8 pm today, focusing on violations that put bike riders and pedestrians at risk, regardless of who commits them. You know the drill. Ride to the letter of the law until you leave the area, so you’re not the one who gets ticketed.

 

State 

California is still trying to get its shit together regarding the fully funded ebike rebate program that was supposed to be up and running by now; the California Air Resources team will hold a virtual public workshop tomorrow to discuss issues like participant income eligibility, what types of ebikes should be covered by the program, and what kinds of retailers should participate.

San Diego’s popular Bike the Bay rolls this Sunday, providing your annual opportunity to ride the city’s iconic Coronado Bridge. Thanks to Robert Leone for the heads-up.

KTLA-5 offers an update on the 14-year old boy who was run down by a 68-year old driver while riding bikes with a friend in the parking lot of the Camarillo Premium Outlets; his mother reports he suffered an extensive brain injury, as well as a collapsed lung, cracked sternum, fractured vertebrae and serious road rash. A crowdfunding campaign has raised over $20,000 of the $50,000 goal.

Thanks again to Robert Leone for catching us up on a couple stories we missed recently:

Richmond is planning to revive its moribund e-bikeshare system a month after Bolt bolted, and left hundreds of abandoned ebikes on the streets.

 

National

Runner’s World recommends the best bike helmets for “comfortable, breezy protection.”

Highway-choked Houston is slowly inching away from its auto-centric reputation with a series of multimodal infrastructure projects. Maybe they could show LA officials how to do it.

There’s a special place in hell for whoever stole a “priceless” bike that belonged to a Minnesota man who recently died of a brain tumor; before his death he passed the bike onto his son because he wanted the boy to enjoy riding like he did.

This, too, is the cost of traffic violence. Pioneering heart researcher Jeffrey Robbins, PhD was killed when a teenage driver attempted to pass him as he was making a left turn on his bike to enter an Ohio bike trail. But it’s okay, because the cops say it was just an “oopsie.”

Unbelievable. Indianapolis has removed concrete bollards along a protected bike lane, and replaced them with flimsy car-tickler plastic bendy posts, because it was just to hard to maintain the concrete barriers after drivers hit them. So better to let drivers crash into the soft people on bicycles instead, apparently.

Ebikes are getting more Maine residents out of their cars, and could help the state meet its climate goals. Which is a pretty good indication that their climate goals aren’t ambitious enough.

Boston residents are working together to cope with a month-long shutdown of a pair of commuter rail lines, including mapping bike routes and organizing bike buses for beginning riders.

DC installed a new traffic signal to address years of complaints about a dangerous intersection, nine days too late to save the life of a woman riding a bike who was right hooked by a garbage truck driver.

This is the cost of traffic violence, too. An 11-year old Florida boy was killed when a pickup driver towing a boat swerved up on the sidewalk to avoid a crash, where the boy was riding his bike.

Sad commentary from a Florida website, which says ghost bikes are becoming all-too-familiar roadside memorials on Miami’s Rickebacker Causeway.

 

International

Yes, cars really are out to get us, one way or another. Vancouver bike riders are demanding a safe route after a bike path was closed when the roof of a parking lot collapsed, blocking the bikeway.

Calgary residents complain about new bike lanes intended to slow speeding drivers, as some worry they won’t be safe because…wait for it…scofflaw drivers will break the law.

Life is cheap in the UK, where a hit-and-run driver walked without a single day behind bars for leaving a bike rider with a broken pelvis.

A British bike rider completed the grueling, 2,500-mile Transcontinental race across Europe riding a Brompton foldie.

That’s more like it. France will pay you up to the equivalent of nearly four grand to swap your smelly, polluting car for a clean running ebike, or $400 to buy an ebike without a car trade, and Paris will give up up to $500 to buy an ebike or foldie.

This is who we share the road with. A 20-year old American service member is under house arrest inside the Aviano Air Base in northern Italy after killing a 15-year old boy while driving at four times the legal alcohol limit.

Cycling Tips considers why Australian roads became proportionately more dangerous during the pandemic.

 

Competitive Cycling

The real Vuelta starts today, when the peloton returns to Spain with a harrowing uphill finish.

Semi-retired LA pro cyclist Phil Gaimon now owns the course record for Maine’s prestigious Mt. Washington Auto Road Bicycle Hillclimb, while notching his fourth win in the event; San Jose’s Courtney Nelson also set a course record while winning the women’s event.

 

Finally…

Once again, if you’re carrying meth on your bike, put a damn light on it, already. Congratulations, your kid is now some Tesla driver’s crash test dummy.

And this is how you avoid close passes.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

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

CicLAvia returns to the Hollywoods, Puente Hills bike skills course, and possible WeHo protected bike lanes

August 19, 2022 / / 2 comments

The big news this weekend is Sunday’s return of the Meet the Hollywoods CicLAvia.

The nation’s most popular open streets festival returns to Hollywood and West Hollywood with a 6.6 mile route that will run along the Hollywood Walk of Fame, before dropping down on Highland and connecting with Santa Monica Blvd.

Metro suggests taking the B Line, formerly known as the Red Line, to get there. Which is exactly what I would recommend, if you don’t ride there.

Meanwhile, WeHo invites you to stick around afterwards for a free concert with the Afro-Persian Experience in Plummer Park starting at 5 pm.

https://twitter.com/CicLAvia/status/1560462813050687488

………

Forget rails-to-trails.

The newest trend is dump to park, as Los Angeles County plans to turn the nation’s largest landfill into the first regional park the county has built in three decades.

The 142 acre, $28.25 million Puente Hills Regional Park will include an intermediate bike skills course in the first phase of construction.

Thanks to Mike Burk for the heads-up.

………

Bette Davis once responded to a question about the best way for a young woman to get to Hollywood, with the advice “Take Fountain.”

Sort of like the LA version of how to get to Carnegie Hall.

West Hollywood must have been paying attention, though, because the city’s Transportation Commission just voted to support building protected bike lanes on Fountain Ave, which is currently home to some of the most uncomfortable sharrows in the LA area.

Assuming they get built, the new protected bikes could provide the first safe and efficient bike route into and out of Hollywood, while finally taming the streets’ deadly speeding drivers.

https://twitter.com/danwentzel/status/1560106809980960768

………

More proof of Metro’s disastrous freeway expansion policies, which cause more harm to the climate than all of their more beneficial policies help.

………

Anyone can fly or drive to next month’s Mammoth Gran Fondo.

Better you should ride your bike the 300 miles up there from Los Angeles, which would only make you more fond of the fondo.

………

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

Life is cheap in Hawaii, where a pickup driver walked without a day behind bars for killing a bike-riding man on Christmas Eve three years ago, depriving a family of their husband and father just before the holidays; the 58-year old driver was sentenced to a lousy one year of probation.

They get it. Britain’s Green Party says the ruling Conservative Party’s anti-bicycling rhetoric is putting people on bicycles in danger; the Tories are calling for mandatory liability insurance and license plates for bike riders.

The Chief Scientist for the UK’s Transport Research Laboratory apparently agrees, saying “demonizing cyclists is pointless.”

A caller to a British radio program accuses “arrogant” bike riders of getting out of hand and thinking they rule the road. You mean we don’t?

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

Police in New York are looking for an ebike-riding man who has sexually assaulted at least three Manhattan women since May. There’s not a pit in hell deep enough.

………

Local

The LA Daily News concurs with yesterday’s story from The Eastsider, which reported the pilot closure of Griffith Park Drive through Griffith Park will be made permanent. KNBC-4 says you won’t be able to drive on it after today, apparently forgetting that it’s already been closed for weeks.

Hermosa Beach police cracked down on ebike riders using ped-assist bikes to exceed the city’s ridiculous 8 mph speed limit on The Strand, where ped-assist bikes are banned. I haven’t even been able to ride that slow on my acoustic roadie, which goes faster that 8 mph even in the lowest gears. And how are people on bikes without speedometers supposed to know how fast they’re going, anyway?

A seventeen-year old kid was critically injured in a collision in Manhattan Beach last Friday, when he allegedly ran a stop sign and clipped a van, then was thrown into the path of an oncoming car. Unfortunately, the story is paywalled, so you may only be able to read the first few paragraphs.

 

State 

The San Diego Bicycle Coalition is calling for people to co-sign a letter to the SANDAG board of directors and city officials demanding safety improvements in the wake of four bike riders killed in the county just last week. Make that five, after a bike rider was killed by a motorcyclist fleeing a state park cop on Monday.

 

National

The Spotify podcast How to Save a Planet considers how to make bicycling cool again. As if it ever wasn’t.

A longtime bike shop owner explains how bike shops can weather the pressures of inflation.

Chicago bike riders are calling for change after a driver was allowed to park in a bike lane for days, receiving numerous tickets, while the failure to tow his car forced riders out into traffic.

An Illinois county will build a new bike trail to honor a fallen bicyclist and county judge, to keep his legacy alive after he was killed by a driver on Father’s Day.

An off-duty Chicago cop faces a pair of felony charges for attacking a 14-year old boy he accused of stealing his son’s bike; he picked out the one kid of Puerto Rican descent to blame, rather than all the white kids he was standing with.

A New York delivery firm has switched to ebikes to make deliveries for retailers like Whole Foods.

Gothamist asks if someone as politically connected as Jersey City’s hit-and-run driving councilwoman can really be held accountable for her crime. It’s not looking good at the moment, as she refuses to relinquish her seat.

A 75-year old Florida driver was arrested for the hit-and-run that left a bike rider with critical injuries; she was driving with a suspended or revoked license.

 

International

Cycling News examines the difference between cheap bike helmets and more expensive models. Other than the obvious impact on your wallet, of course.

A British Columbia website examine’s Vancouver’s secret underground bike economy run by homeless people.

Once again a child has been punctured by his bike handlebars, as an 11-year old boy in the UK had to wait nearly two hours for an ambulance after falling at a skate park, and having one of his handlebars puncture his groin.

She gets it, too. A writer for a Manchester, England paper says giving bike riders a speed limit just takes attention away from the real dangers on our streets.

A new study shows that if everyone bikes like the Danes, it would save an amount of emissions equal to the entire output of the UK.

A writer for Men’s Journal revisits the first three stages of this year’s Tour de France through the Netherlands, a month after the crowds and racers have gone home.

It took a 4,500-mile bike ride for a couple using Strava to draw a 600-mile long bicycle across the face of Europe, accompanied by their dog.

Life is cheap in Singapore, where a 46-year old man got just 12 days for killing a 73-year old man when he crashed his bicycle into him.

 

Competitive Cycling

No surprise here, as a new report shows the air around the Vuelta isn’t always as pristine as they might like.

Nairo Quintana has pulled out of the Vuelta, after allegations of using the banned painkiller tramadol.

Three-time world Madison champ Amy Pieters has been moved to a rehab facility in her native Netherlands; she spent four months in a coma after suffering a massive brain injury in a training crash.

 

Finally…

That feeling when the cops have your stolen bike, but they won’t give it back. Your next e-foldie could be made from flax, or maybe your next bike could be just plain weird.

And Formula 1’s Dutch Grand Prix wants to be more sustainable, and ban cars whenever possible.

Which kind of defeats the whole purpose of a car race.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

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

Investing in Place fires at Healthy Streets LA, protected and crappy new bikeways, and more 6th Street Bridge misery

July 21, 2022 / / 2 comments

Call it friendly fire.

The well-respected advocacy group Investing in Place fired off the since-deleted tweet on the left, coming out against the Healthy Streets LA  ballot initiative.

While the organization praises the efforts of the proposal’s sponsors, they take issue with the initiative itself, which would require the city to build out the Mobility Plan 2035 any time a street included in it gets resurfaced.

As they note, it could result in a haphazard streetscape, given the city’s seemingly random resurfacing program, while taking decades to complete.

Which is still better than the mere 3% that has been built in the seven years since the plan was adopted by the city council.

Here’s how Investing in Place explains their opposition in a blog post.

But here is where we disagree, painting random disconnected blocks of bike lanes while our sidewalks remain cracked, our neighborhoods flood in the rain and wilt in the heat, and bus riders continue to lack seating and shelter will not get us the city that we are working toward.

If the City Council adopts the Healthy Streets L.A. Ballot Measure as written, it would be tying its mandate to the City’s resurfacing program – which is structurally flawed, unpredictable, and inequitable – meaning the ballot measure is unlikely to produce projects with the durable community and political support needed.

It also could pull attention and resources away from efforts to implement truly complete streets with shade, accessible sidewalks, bus shelters and benches, and lighting, none of which are delivered by resurfacing and restriping. We wrote about this last month, as well as a separate but related motion the LA City Council is currently working on. It’s on the latter that the city should be putting its time and effort.

Surprisingly, that appears to represent a fundamental misunderstanding of what the mobility plan entails.

It’s not just bike lanes, even though it subsumed the 2010 bike plan, including its innovative three-level bike network.

It also includes busways and pedestrian improvements, along with a new focus on Complete Streets. Or as the plan itself puts it, it represents a fundamental change in how future generations of Angelenos will interact with their streets.

If it ever gets built.

But while the Healthy Streets LA initiative only requires Los Angeles to implement the plan when streets are resurfaced, that is the minimal requirement.

There is nothing stopping the city from building out an entire bike lane or busway when the new law forces them to stripe a few blocks of it. Nor is there anything preventing local groups and residents from demanding that the city go beyond the mere requirements of the law to include things like trees, benches and human spaces.

Investing in Place also strangely raises the issue of equity.

Any policy developed must include the voices of those most impacted, especially when it comes to public access to public assets. And the best policy outcomes we’ve seen also include the perspective and insight of those working on implementing and doing this work for the public agencies. These are the very real issues that are addressed by the motion put forward by Council President Martinez and discussed at length at the Public Works and Transportation Committees, but left to chance by the ballot measure. As a result, we have deep reservations about the ballot measure…

Until impacted communities living with the historical disinvestment in streets and sidewalks in their neigborhoods are given seats at the table, it is critical to stay the course with the Council President’s motion. Included in the Council President’s motion, and absent from the Ballot measure, is the plan to address the long-standing need for a Capital Infrastructure Plan that coordinates and prioritizes public works and transportation projects with equity baked in from the start.

I say strangely, because the voices of those impacted by the mobility plan were baked in during its drafting, through years of public meetings throughout the Los Angeles area and a lengthy public comment period.

It also came before the Planning Commission, neighborhood councils, city council committees and finally, the full city council itself.

At every point, there was a focus on equity and serving those too often ignored.

Then there’s the extensive support received by the Healthy Streets LA plan, with a lengthy list of sponsors, many of whom share a focus on equity, as shown on the plan’s website.

Our coalition includes a broad range of climate, transportation, business and labor organizations: Streets For All, LACBC, Climate Resolve, Streets Are For Everyone, MoveLA, CalBike, LAANE, Los Angeles Walks, The Eagle Rock Association, National Health Foundation, Neighborhood Council Sustainability Alliance, UNITE HERE Local 11, People For Mobility Justice, T.R.U.S.T. South LA, East Side Riders, East Valley Indivisibles, Pacoima Beautiful, BizFed, Coalition for Clean Air, FastLinkDTLA, LA Business Council, Sierra Club.

It also enjoys a long list of endorsements from neighborhood councils in virtually every region of the city.

The following Neighborhood Councils have passed letters of support: Arts District Little Tokyo, Atwater Village, Boyle Heights, CANNDU, Canoga Park, Central Hollywood, Coastal San Pedro, Cypress Park, Eagle Rock, East Hollywood, Echo Park, Elysian Valley Riverside, Glassell Park, Granada Hills South, Harbor Gateway North, Harbor Gateway South, Hollywood Hills West, LA32, Los Feliz, MacArthur Park, Mid City, Mid City West, NoHo, NoHo West, North Area Development, North Hills West, North Westwood, Northridge East, Northwest San Pedro, Panorama City, Porter Ranch, Rampart Village, Reseda, Silver Lake, Sun Valley, United Neighborhoods, Van Nuys, Voices, West Adams, West LA/Sawtelle.

That broad-based level of support is exemplified by this map showing the distribution of petition signers, reaching every corner of Los Angeles.

Here’s what Streets For All founder Michael Schneider had to say when I asked him to comment.

We respectfully disagree with Investing in Place’s take on Healthy Streets LA, a citizen-led ballot measure that has been supported by over 100,000 Angelenos across the entire city, 40 neighborhood councils, and a coalition of labor, business, climate, and safe streets advocacy organizations.

But here’s the real problem.

Once the signatures for the ballot initiative are verified and counted, it will be approved for a vote of the people. That should happen by the end of this month.

That will start a 20 day clock that will give the city council the option of approving the Healthy Streets LA proposal as written, or place it on the November ballot.

Investing in Place argues for another alternative, which would involve negotiations between backers of the proposal, city agencies, and other interested parties.

However, only the first approach would carry the force of law, which can only be changed by a vote of the people.

In other words, the concept of improving city streets and expanding who they serve would finally be carved in stone, forcing city leaders to build a more livable city for everyone.

The approach Investing in Place recommends, though, would have the city council adopt a modified version of the proposal that could be changed at anytime, for any reason, by a simple vote of the council.

So if a less favorable council is elected at some point in the future, the improvements to our streets could be halted overnight. Or some councilmember could decide they don’t want a certain project included in the mobility plan, and get the council to override it.

The first approach would force the city to do what it has already committed to.

The other would too, unless someone, somewhere disagrees. Which is guaranteed in a city where drivers have enjoyed unquestioned privilege and hegemony over our streets since the demise of the Red Cars.

And the rest of us have been forced to live with their scraps.

Here, again, is Streets For All’s Michael Schneider.

There is no conflict between city council adopting Healthy Streets LA as an ordinance when it reaches council (which would enshrine it into law versus be at the whim of a future city council vote), and us all working together under the great initiative by Council President Martinez to make sure the mobility plan is implemented with an equitable lens, the mobility plan is expanded beyond paint and bollards, departments are coordinated, and all of the other things in her motion, which we support.

It’s an approach that’s been proven successful in other cities that have tried it.

And which should prove just as successful here.

As long as our fellow advocates don’t sink us with friendly fire.

………

We have new protected bikeways in the local news today.

And real ones, this time. Unlike the the ones on the 6th Street Viaduct.

First up, Streetsblog’s Joe Linton reports the long-promised curb-protected bike lanes on 7th Street in DTLA are finally under construction.

The $18.7 million streetscape project stretches one mile, from San Pedro Street in the east to Figueroa Street in the west. The first few blocks leading to and from Figueroa were funded by the developers as a permitting condition for building the Wilshire Grand Center at 7th and Fig.

Linton reports the project will include “expanded sidewalks, pedestrian/cyclist-scale lighting, bus islands, and new trees,” in addition to LA’s first significant curb-protected bikeway

Next up is a new separated bike path along El Segundo Blvd, which I’m just learning about.

However, it seems like for every decent bikeway, we have to accept a crappy one.

Like this one in Echo Park, where slow moving riders crawling uphill have to mix it up with impatient drivers, while downhill riders who could likely keep up with cars get a regular bike lane.

Exactly the opposite of what common sense would dictate. Although anyone who expects to find common sense on LA streets is likely to have a long damn wait.

………

Continuing our seemingly endless discussion of the new 6th Street Viaduct, Curbed’s Alissa Walker describes its ostensibly protected bike lanes as “a bike lane built for a car crash.”

Meanwhile, KPCC’s Air Talk discusses bike safety and entirely predictable street takeovers on the viaduct.

And with everything else going on with the bridge, why the hell not?

………

Old Pasadena is hosting a ride this weekend.

And no, that’s not a reference to the city’s residents.

https://twitter.com/oldpasadena/status/1549881235077357568

Meanwhile, the LACBC is doing a craft beer ride to the South Bay with Sierra Nevada this Saturday.

………

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

No bias here. A San Diego letter writer says just paint a line on the sidewalk and make people on bicycles ride there, so his car can keep going zoom zoom on the streets.

This is why people keep dying on the roads. A Seattle area woman made just a brief stop behind bars before being released, after running down a bike-riding woman while driving at nearly three times the legal alcohol limit — at ten in the morning.

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

There’s a special place in a hell for the schmuck who harassed a 22-year old Welsh college student as he followed her on his bike for ten minutes making inappropriate comments. Seriously, don’t do that. Ever. Period.

………

Local

KTLA talks to an expert about what to look for in an ebike.

 

State 

There’s not a pit deep enough for the Adalanto man who attacked a 17-year old boy with a tire iron for no apparent reason as the kid was riding with his mom, leaving him unconscious and bleeding in the street.

Hats off to San Ramon’s Monte Vista High School mountain biking team, who’ve assigned themselves to remove invasive plants from Mt. Diablo.

Sad news from San Rafael, where a 67-year old man was killed in a fall when he rode his ebike off a steep ridgeline.

Bikeshare and e-scooters could be coming back to Davis.

 

National

How to clean your bike helmet.

The Bike League is asking for donations to their Drive Less, Bike More Matching Challenge; the organization is 33% of the way towards their $50,000 goal.

Road Bike Rider offers a plan for beginners to ride 100 miles a week.

Accused killer Kaitlin Armstrong will face trial in October after pleading not guilty to the murder of gravel cyclist Mariah “Mo” Wilson in Austin, Texas.

Some Chicago officials want to legalize speeding, with a proposal to toss out speed cam tickets for anyone going less than ten miles over the speed limit.

Bicycling and walking rates are up in Detroit, as residents cope with high gas prices.

This is who we share the road with. A Jersey City NJ councilwoman was cited for hit-and-run and failing to report a traffic collision, for driving off after hitting a bike rider, and leaving the victim with minor injuries; she claims she struck her head in the crash and reported it once she realized what happened. Sure, let’s go with that.

It’s a sad comment when a man can climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, but can’t survive riding a bike on DC streets.

 

International

A writer for Wired discovers that you can, indeed, do a 70-mile London dirt ride on a Brompton foldie, although the bike fared better than he did.

A British op-ed says teaching bicycling in schools will help foster equity.

An off-duty paramedic in the UK will spend five years and four months behind bars for killing a man riding a bicycle, when he tried driving to a party after downing ten pints of Guinness.

An English writer learns firsthand what it’s like to ride France’s legendary Alpe d’Huez.

Bike riders in Düzce, Turkey lay down in the street to stop traffic and finally get noticed by drivers.

 

Competitive Cycling

Tadej Pogačar outsprinted Tour de France leader Jonas Vingegaard to win Wednesday’s stage 17, but was unable to make a dent in Vingegaard’s more than two minute lead; Pogačar has one last mountain stage left to try to take the yellow jersey.

Former Tour de French champ Geraint Thomas is languishing in third place, over four minutes behind and unable to challenge the leaders.

Dutch sprinter Fabio Jakobsen fared just a tad worse, giving everything he had just to make the time cut on Wednesday’s mountaintop finish.

Cycling Weekly says American cycling needs another Lemond — or God forbid, another Lance. But, you know, without the dope and stuff in the latter’s case. Or the shotgun pellets in the former.

 

Finally…

Your next bike can tell you when the air is too bad to breathe. And yes, there’s an online community for you when you just want to say “fuck cars.”

Because of course there is.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

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