Tag Archive for Redondo Beach

New LA-area bike lanes including Hollywood Blvd, and bill banning sharrows on higher-speed roads loses support

July 2, 2024 / / Comments Off on New LA-area bike lanes including Hollywood Blvd, and bill banning sharrows on higher-speed roads loses support
Just 182 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025. 

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Streetsblog’s Joe Linton offers updates on three LA-area bike lane projects.

  • The new separated bike lanes on the east end of Hollywood are partially in place on the eastbound side, and already rideable.
  • Bike lanes have been installed on the newly resurfaced Foothill Blvd in Lake View Terrace, demonstrating what’s possible with Measure HLA, which mandates building out the city’s mobility plan whenever streets are resurfaced — if city leaders would stop actively blocking it.
  • Redondo Beach extended and upgraded the bike lanes on a resurfaced section of Torrance Blvd, adding green paint in the conflict zones. Because as we all know, a dab of colored paint stops distracted, aggressive and/or intoxicated drivers every time.

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This is how the sausage is unmade.

 

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All you have to do is ask nice, right?

https://twitter.com/BikeLanesLA/status/1807498106285830367

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Riding a bicycle in the right lane of a multilane highway is legal.

Using a handheld cellphone to record them isn’t.

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It’s now 194 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And 37 full months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

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

No bias here. The New York Times reports on a “bizarre culture war” against bike lanes in Queens, where nearly every home in the neighborhood sports a “No Bike Lanes” lawn sign, as residents prefer the convenience of parking directly in front of their homes to the safety of kids riding their bikes. Although as others have pointed out, nearly every news story about a similar conflict somehow identifies bike lane supporters as “cyclists,” while opponents are always “residents. Because evidently, people who use bike lanes never, ever live there.

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

An Iowa man was shot and killed by police offers after he shot two cops who had responded to reports of a bicyclist with a gun, in an incident in which the shooter’s form of transportation seems incidental, despite being treated by news outlets like the most important detail.

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Local 

Here’s your chance to tell Caltrans to improve safety on the deadly 22 miles of PCH that runs through Malibu, as the agency calls for comments on the PCH Master Plan Feasibility Study; a virtual workshop will take place from 1 to 4 pm on Thursday, July 18th. Unfortunately though, the link to register for the workshop is broken.

 

State

A bill banning tuning kits that can allow an ebike to exceed factory speed limitations sits on the governor’s desk after passing both houses of the legislature.

The CEO of a San Diego micro ebike company calls for giving ebike buyers the tax credits they deserve, while fixing the outdated regulations that hold them back.

Five years after a 12-year old girl was nearly killed by 17-year old driver while riding her bike in a Sacramento crosswalk at an intersection on the city’s High Injury Network, her parents complain the city hasn’t done anything to fix it. Before you click on the link, though, be forewarned this one is really hard to read.

 

National

Time Magazine selects the best “cheap” ebikes for different types of riders, with most retailing for under a grand.

Cycling Weekly examines how a former Portland high school principal became one of the most in-demand custom bicycle painters, with a client list ranging from Andy Schleck to Ayesha McGowan.

A 31-year old photographer is recreating her great-great-grandfather’s cross-country bicycle trip from 128 years earlier, following his route from Seattle to Boston while taking pictures with the same model of early portable camera he used.

A Houston public radio station considers whether the city will get a new bikeshare, now that the current one has shuttered due to financial problems after a dozen years.

Hundreds of a naked and nearly naked bike riders turned out for Chicago’s nocturnal edition of the World Naked Bike Ride, as bystanders cheered them on.

Vermont now has a four-foot passing law, with a $200 fine for breaking it. But as we’ve seen, a passing law is only as good as the local cops commitment to enforcing it.

A DC train line was stopped for several hours after a man repeatedly stabbed another man on the platform, before throwing a bicycle onto the tracks.

The leader of a North Carolina search and rescue unit was killed when a squirrel caused him to crash after darting out in front of his bicycle, resulting in cardiac arrest and irreversible spinal damage.

A 23-year old Florida woman faces charges for killing a 67-year old Florida journalist and pastor in a drunken, high speed hit-and-run; she was traveling around 90 mph at the time of the crash, with a blood alcohol level more than two-and-a-half times the legal limit, while dragging the victim’s bicycle under her car nearly all the way back to her home.

 

International

Your next bike helmet could inflate before you wear it.

This is the cost of traffic violence. Residents of the 800-year old town of Huntingdon, England held a vigil to honor a “much loved” bike shop owner and bike safety advocate, killed by a careless driver while riding his bike.

Once again raising the question of how old is too old to drive, an 83-year old British man walked without a single day behind bars for killing a 54-year old man riding a bicycle; he was still driving despite suffering from degenerate eyesight and failing a roadside vision test.

Momentum highlights the year’s top 15 European bicycling routes.

Cycling Weekly highlights their favorite bespoke bikes from the recent MADE Australia handmade bike show.

 

Competitive Cycling

About damn time. Eritrean cyclist Biniam Girmay became the first black African cyclist to win a stage in the Tour de France, capturing stage three in a mad sprint to the finish; meanwhile, former Giro champ Richard Carapaz slid into the yellow jersey, while matching the time of Tadej Pogačar.

USA Today highlights the three remaining Americans in this year’s Tour de France after Sepp Kuss withdrew due to Covid, including Tour rookie, US road champ and LA native Sean Quinn.

NBC explains the rules for Olympic road cycling, mountain biking, and BMX competitions.

 

Finally…

That feeling when your new bike shoes honor a tennis legend. You can find a lot of things riding a bike, including your new kitty.

And riding the Tour while unleashing your inner Batman.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

Nearly killed by careless driver, fighting to keep MOVE Culver City, and $500 fine for failing to dismount in Redondo Beach

April 20, 2023 / / 2 comments

I came within inches of getting run down by a driver last night.

I was walking the dog across the street, at a red light, in a crosswalk, with the crossing light, and had waited until all the cars were stopped before walking into the street.

Then just as we stepped into the turn lane, an overly aggressive driver sped through the red light to make a left turn, barely missing us.

Seriously, I don’t know we’re supposed to keep people safe on our streets if none of that works to keep drivers from killing people.

On the other hand, at least he wasn’t driving like this.

Today’s image is the cover of the recent MOVE Culver City project, featuring a photo of op-ed author Yotala Oszkay Febres-Cordero, below.

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She gets it.

In an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times, an economic and political sociologist, researcher and mom argues against a proposal to rip out the MOVE Culver City Complete Streets project.

The project is endangered by the newly conservative and seemingly auto-centric majority on the city council, despite being an overwhelming success.

As a Culver City resident, mom, cyclist and enthusiastic supporter of public transit in my private and professional life, my position on the mobility project is not detached. I’m one of the many people enjoying the benefits highlighted in Move Culver City’s mid-pilot report (literally — that’s me on the cover, the mom on the cargo bike with my daughter, her friend and their stuffed animal friend Marley).

Drivers complain that the bus and bike lanes slow down traffic on the street. But the lanes don’t do so by much: According to the report, during peak afternoon traffic, travel time in a car has increased by a maximum of two minutes compared with a 2019 baseline. Meanwhile, overall traffic on the corridor has diversified and increased, with marked gains in bus ridership, cycling and pedestrian activity. Also important, the bus and bike lanes protect bikers, pedestrians and even other drivers from traffic violence that occurs with increased speeds.

She goes on to argue that the project’s perceived flaws aren’t reasons to remove it, but make it better, instead.

A common argument coming from some council members and opponents of the project is that because bus service is currently inadequate, prioritizing buses over cars with a dedicated lane does not maximize use of the road. They argue the infrastructure lacks support and utilization because of our car-centric culture and low ridership.

Those are not reasons to remove bus and bike infrastructure — those are reasons to double down. Council members are the decision makers. If bus service is not up to par to maximize the protected lane, then it is on them to make it better. If the project lacks support, then they need to invest in the service frequency, reliability and connectivity to strengthen the ridership and thus the buy-in.

Take a few minutes to read the full thing.

Then do something about it. Because if they can remove this, no street improvements will ever be safe from reactionary motorheads.

https://twitter.com/BikeCulverCity/status/1648361017196548100?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1648361017196548100%7Ctwgr%5Edf6b72bdb698acb88e950199c25eeb15bcd9ea59%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fbikinginla.com%2F2023%2F04%2F19%2Ffighting-bike-dismount-law-at-redondo-pier-active-transportation-lost-in-la-budget-and-free-earth-day-metro-bikes%2F

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Seamus Garrity tweeted that ticket is actually nearly $500 — about what it costs if a driver gets caught running a red light, which poses far more risk for everyone else around them.

Having ridden that path hundreds of times myself, I can attest that riding through there poses virtually no risk to anyone crossing from the parking lot to the pier, as long as you slow down and show a little basic courtesy to others.

I could possibly see a $50 fine, though I’d still object to getting one. But $485 is far out of proportion for the risk posed by such a minor violation.

https://twitter.com/seamusgarrity/status/1648748178584530944

 

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

The author of URBAN CYCLING: How to Get to Work, Save Money, and Use Your Bike for City Living was the victim of a drive-by shooting, for no other reason than she was riding her bike.

No bias here. An Aussie city councilor gleefully confesses to wanting to run over school kids, rather than protecting them.

https://twitter.com/BicycleNSW/status/1648211351108730880

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

Singaporean bicyclists cite a need for speed and lack of etiquette for crashes with other riders and pedestrians, after an ebike rider was seriously injured in a collision with a hit-and-run group ride.

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Local 

Sad news today as former Los Angeles Mayor Richard J. Riordan died last night at 92-years old; the bike-riding owner of The Pantry in DTLA was the city’s last Republican mayor. And probably will be for the foreseeable future.

Santa Monica Lookout offers more information on the upcoming Vision Zero improvements to Wilshire Blvd in the city. Although if 89 percent of severe injuries to bicyclists and pedestrians happen at unsignalized intersections, and approximately one out of five collisions at those intersections occurs when drivers make a left turn or continue straight, that means 80% of crashes come from cross traffic or drivers turning right. So shouldn’t they be working on that?

 

State

Nearly 800 Oakland residents signed a petition calling for the city to take $20 million from the police budget to build safer streets.

A writer for the Cal Davis student newspaper argues for removing the rusting bones of abandoned bikes littering the campus. Especially since they can be fixed up and given to students and staff members who can’t afford one.

 

National

We already know SUVs are more dangerous to people on bicycles — and pedestrians; Axios examines why.

Government Technology examines whether bike registration programs really work, particularly in partnership with police departments. The LAPD is partnering with Bike Index for free lifetime bike registration.

Doug Gordon, co-founder of the popular War On Cars podcast, argues that parents should drive less to protect kids.

The Las Vegas Raiders are set to announce new bike paths and expanded bike parking at their nearly two-billion dollar new stadium.

Low-income residents of my bike-friendly Colorado hometown can apply to receive their choice of a free ebike or a three-year bikeshare pass. Hint: Take the ebike.

Michigan residents celebrate the local parks commission’s rejection of plans for a gravel bike path in a nature park, arguing that allowing people on bicycles would somehow destroy its integrity.

Minnesota lawmakers added ebike tax credits up to $1,500 to the proposed state budget, modeling the plan after Denver’s highly successful program.

The Brooklyn Academy of Music may have “whimsical” bike racks designed by famed former Talking Heads lead singer and folding bike rider David Byrne, but it’s still fighting plans for a nearby protected bike lane, citing vague concerns over safety. Apparently deciding it’s safer to leave the people who already use the busy bike lane unprotected, because something.

Residents of an Erie PA neighborhood are fighting plans for a bike path, preferring their God-given right to park their cars in front of their homes so they can have a chili cook off and fix their driveways. No, really.

DC has paused plans to install a protected bike lane on a major six-lane boulevard after pushback from local businesses and residents, who somehow prefer a car sewer and storage to quiet, non-polluting people on bikes who might actually stop at those businesses instead of just driving by.

A New Orleans bike advocacy group is challenging the city’s residents to get out of their cars and onto their bikes this month.

 

International

Police in an English city ticketed several motorists for passing too close to a cop riding a bicycle, in violation the country’s safe-passing law. Something the LAPD has never done, over extremely misguided fears of entrapment. 

A machete-wielding teenaged robber will spend the next six months behind bars, and another six months on probation for a series of violent bikejackings, including using a moped to knock British pro Alexandar Richardson off his bike and drag him the length of a football field before making off with his bike.

A devastating tree-killing disease forced the closure of a world-famous UK mountain bike park.

Fast Company talks with VanMoof e-bike developer Marjolein Deun about fighting climate change through his efforts with the Dutch e-bikemaker.

A science website celebrates the 80th anniversary of Bicycle Day, which marks the date Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann sampled the new drug he had developed before setting off for home on his bike — and experiencing the world’s first psychedelic LSD trip on the way.

 

Competitive Cycling

A new documentary about Greg LeMond’s comeback from a near fatal shotgun shooting to win the Tour de France will open in theaters this June. LeMond remains the only American to win the race, if you ignore the other two people who won it a combined eight times. 

Bicycling looks at the pro cyclists they’re most excited about watching this year, including Neilson Powless, Sepp Kuss and Garden Grove’s own Coryn Labecki. As usual, you can read it on Yahoo if the magazine blocks you.

Slovenian pro Tadej Pogačar continues his domination of the early spring classics; he’s won half of the races he’s started, from Amstel Gold and La Flèche Wallonne to Paris-Nice and the Tour of Flanders.

 

Finally…

Your next bike helmet could have a built-in two-way electronic communications. Why bicycle groupo names doesn’t make any sense.

And maybe this was you 50 years ago.

https://twitter.com/CoolBikeArt1/status/1648772867025149960

Here’s the full 12-minute video.

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Eid Mubarak!

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

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

Fighting bike dismount law at Redondo Pier, active transportation lost in LA budget, and free Earth Day Metro Bikes

April 19, 2023 / / 5 comments

Happy Bicycle Day!

Which may not be exactly what you think. Or maybe it is.

Photo shows a bike dismount sign in Manhattan Beach, because I don’t have one from Redondo.

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I’ll let someone else start things off today.

Daryll Strauss writes that the Redondo Beach City Council was hearing a recommendation from city staffers last night about the long-standing requirement to walk your bike on the beachfront bike path as it passes the city pier.

Not to mention the ridiculous 5 mph speed limit as the bike path snakes through the pier parking garage, which makes it a challenge to keep your bike upright while getting anywhere close to it.

Redondo Beach Pier has a bike path that travels through the pier parking garage. The RBPD has begun a maximum enforcement ($300 ticket) policy requiring bicyclists to walk their bike through the garage through the south end of the pier. A distance of about 300 yards.

The laws in the city allow police to enforce a walk your bike requirement anywhere signs are posted, and signs can be posted anywhere city staff wants. There are signs and flashing lights that say walk your bike when flashing, but they flash all the time.

The South Bay Bicycle Coalition and the Redondo Beach Harbor Commission have recommended loosening the restrictions, but the recommendations from city staff is to keep the status quo.

This topic is on the agenda for the Redondo Beach City Council meeting tonight.

The staff recommendations are ludicrous. They don’t provide any data to justify their recommendations and make specious arguments. It basically comes down to the fact the police can’t legally enforce a speed limit so they’ll make it “walk your bike”. Their safety concerns for bicycles riding through turns, at an arbitrary 5mpg, are outright ludicrous and can be mitigated with textured pavement. It’s also ironic that they just installed a skate park on the pier which would have much larger safety issues.

I ride this route regularly. I completely understand walking my bike where the bike path crosses the main entrance of the pier when there is significant pedestrian traffic, but the majority of the restrictions are ridiculous.

This is the beginning of the process, so there may be an opportunity to change these rules if the city council doesn’t rubber stamp the staff recommendation tonight.

I always thought the requirement was absurd when I used to ride through there on a semi-regular basis.

Unfortunately, I received this too late to get the word out for last night’s meeting. But hopefully we’ll let you know if they reconsider it at a future meeting.

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As expected, Los Angeles Mayor Bass released her first budget yesterday.

It will take someone with more financial acuity than I possess to dig into it and see what she’s budgeted for alternative transportation, bikes and Vision Zero, and how it compares to previous years.

But a cursory examination didn’t reveal any mention of it in the budget, or in LAist’s detailed look at the budget. Which doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence.

But maybe I’m not looking in the right place.

This is what she had to say on the subject when she was campaigning for mayor. We’ll see how much actually made it into the budget.

8. Prevent Traffic Fatalities and Champion Walking and Biking

Los Angeles has one of the highest rates of traffic fatalities in the nation 11 – and those deaths disproportionately impact communities of color and low-income neighborhoods. 1213 That is unacceptable. Traffic safety is a public health issue.

Meanwhile, survey after survey shows that Angelenos don’t feel safe getting around their neighborhood on foot and by bike – even though they want to. 1415 Angelenos shouldn’t have to worry about being struck by a car when they’re trying to bike to work or walk their children to school. Bass will stand up for safe streets, and prioritize accessibility for the most vulnerable members of our community.

As Mayor, Bass will:

  • Treat street safety as the public health crisis it is, and leverage all available city resources to address unsafe speeds and save lives.
  • Prioritize first and last-mile access to transit so that all Angelenos can use the region’s growing rail and bus network.
  • Invest in street safety infrastructure that saves lives.
  • Create family-friendly bicycle and pedestrian routes to connect neighborhood destinations and transit stops.
  • Support and expand monthly open streets events across L.A. like CicLAvia that bring communities together.

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Metro Bike is offering free rides for Earth Day this Saturday.

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BikeLA, the former Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, supports a more equitable distribution of street space on Eagle Rock Blvd.

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The fight to preserve the MOVE Culver City streetscape — and keep it from reverting to the car sewer it used to be — comes to a head on Monday.

https://twitter.com/BikeCulverCity/status/1648361017196548100

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ActiveSGV is hosting a bike ride through Covina on May 6th.

https://twitter.com/ActiveSGV/status/1648453853682061312

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Berkeley bike riders demonstrate the right way to do a die-in, starting with having enough bodies to actually get some attention.

https://twitter.com/WarrenJWells/status/1648519850753671170

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

No bias here. San Jose’s Mr. Roadshow agrees with motorists who demand that bike riders should pay their fair share for the roads we ride on, neglecting to consider that we already pay more than our share for the negligible damage we do to the streets — unlike the massive SUVs that threaten our safety while destroying our streets, and our world. Unfortunately, you’ll have to sacrifice your email address if you want to read it, however.

A New York man faces charges after intentionally driving his car up onto a sidewalk in an effort to run down a kid riding a bicycle, claiming the boy had attempted to steal his property. Which is not an excuse for attempting to use deadly force, as he’s about to learn the hard way.

Police in Surrey, England are looking for a man who stepped out of the darkness to attack a man riding a bicycle with some sort of weapon; the attack was captured on security cam, but the attacker’s face was hidden by a balaclava.

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

An Illinois man faces up to 30 years behind bars for riding his bicycle over a homeless man sleeping in a parking garage, then attacking the victim with both ends of an axe; the horrific assault only ended when the victim was able to reach an emergency phone.

A Singapore man was hospitalized with a brain bleed after he was struck by a “peloton of crazy cyclists” while riding his bike, none of whom stopped after the crash.

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Local 

Metro is hosting a virtual community meeting this afternoon to discuss the Rail to Rail Active Transportation Corridor Project, which will create a walking and biking pathway through Inglewood and South LA.

Santa Monica is planning safety improvements to deadly Wilshire Blvd, including “special markings at four intersections (to) create dedicated space for cyclists to safely cross Wilshire Boulevard.”

 

State

Bills to authorize speed cams and camera enforcement of bike lanes passed their first committee hearings in the state legislature; unfortunately, a bill that would rip out the bike lanes on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge and replace them with another lane for motor vehicles did, too.

San Francisco bike advocates rallied to demand protected bike lanes on Arguello Blvd, where masters cycling champ and world record holder Ethan Boyes was killed earlier this month.

 

National

Distracted driving kills ten people a day in the US.

Fast Company says it’s time to undo bikeshare’s original sin, and subsidize it like the public asset it is.

In a surprising move, outdoor co-op REI is pulling out of ostensibly bike-friendly Portland.

A North Carolina paracyclist made a remarkable recovery to complete Monday’s Boston Marathon riding a recumbent handcycle, after he was severely injured in a collision with a pickup driver last July while training for the Para-Cycling Road World Championship.

Heartbreaking news from Florida, where an 83-year old man was murdered by a heartless hit-and-run driver, after he was struck by a motorcyclist while trying to ride his bike across the street; the motorcycle rider was critically injured, as well. Seriously, anyone who can still ride a bike at that age deserves a hell of a lot better. Then again, so does anyone else.

More bad Florida news, as Dartmouth College football coach Buddy Teevens had his leg amputated, as well as suffering spinal injuries, as a result of last month’s collision while he was riding his bike home from a restaurant; police naturally blamed him for the crash, and never bothered to test the uninsured driver for drug or alcohol use.

 

International

GCN demonstrates how to wrap handlebar tape on drop bars.

Winnipeg, Manitoba is holding an online auction of unclaimed bikes. The only problem is you’ll have to go there to pick it up if you win. 

England and Wales are on the verge of banning bicycle tires and inner tubes from being dumped in landfills, requiring them to be recycled, instead.

The parents of a young Scottish woman complain that “society has accepted death as a cost of getting from A to B,” after she was killed while riding her bike earlier this year.

Britain’s self-governing island of Jersey is the latest jurisdiction offering ebike rebates, with the equivalent of $372 for a standard ebike, or twice that for a cargo-ebike.

Remarkable news from France, where the 50-year old man who received the first double arm and shoulder transplant two years ago was able to ride a bicycle for the first time after losing both arms when he was electrocuted by power lines 25 years earlier.

The world’s longest purpose-built bike and pedestrian tunnel has opened in Norway, running 1.8 miles under a mountain.

Traffic deaths are up in the Netherlands, as the country suffers the highest bicycling death toll in nearly three decades — especially for riders over 75.

Switzerland is encouraging its citizens to bike to work this spring.

A Spanish man rode his bike 378 miles in just 20 hours to raise awareness and respect for people on bicycles. He certainly earned my respect.

An Indian man has developed a DIY ultrasonic dog repellent to stay safe riding his bike. Although maybe he could make it just a tad smaller before it hits the market.

Your next Taiwanese smart ebike could have a frame made of interlocking carbon triangles crammed with all the latest tech.

In yet another example of keeping a dangerous driver on the streets until it’s too late, Australian officials gave the visually-impaired driver who killed a 66-year old man riding a bike an unconditional driver’s license, despite failing the minimum vision test requirements and almost hitting parked cars during his driving test.

 

Competitive Cycling

The governing body for time trials in England, Scotland and Wales is introducing a standard road bike category to encourage more people to take part; no word on why Northern Ireland bike riders weren’t invited to play.

Indiana University’s student newspaper looks forward to the school’s iconic Little 500 bike race this weekend; the race was made famous by the equally iconic Breaking Away. Which is the movie that inspired me to buy a bike and start riding as an adult.

 

Finally…

That feeling when a loose plastic bag makes its home in your spokes while you ride. Now you can carry your bike across your back like a backpack; just be careful walking through crowds or going through doors.

And forget the diamond, and buy your beloved an engagement bike, instead.

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Ramadan Mubarak to all observing the Islamic holy month. 

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

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

Lack of art and infrastructure in Redondo Beach, driver injures 3 Temecula bike riders, and screening Biking While Black

January 30, 2023 / / 2 comments

If you’re planning to ride today, remember drivers won’t expect to see you out in the rain.

Or even afterwards if the day turns out to be cold but dry after the overnight rains.

Despite the evidence of their own eyes, too many drivers assume no one would ever ride a bicycle in less than ideal conditions.

So light yourself up. Ride defensively. And even more than most days, assume you’re invisible. Because chances are, you might as well be.

Today’s photo: Bike themed food court seating in Culver City.

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Dr. Grace Peng offers a thread on Redondo Beach’s lack of safe and secure bike infrastructure.

And art.

Click on the tweets to read the full thread. 

https://twitter.com/gspeng/status/1619808057395134464

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Seriously, jus how crappy a driver do you have to be to take out three Temecula bike riders at once?

Fortunately, no one was killed this time.

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UCLA’s Lewis Center will host a screening of Yolanda Davis-Overstreet’s documentary Biking While Black a week from tomorrow.

https://twitter.com/lacivilrights/status/1618640923251933185

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The Community Social Planning Council is hosting a free virtual panel discussion tomorrow to discuss ways to reduce minimum parking requirements

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The Bike League is offering a reduced rate to attend their annual Bike Summit in Washington DC this March through the end of this month.

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

No bias here. A Toronto columnist complains about plans to make protected bike lanes on a commercial corridor permanent, saying the city needs to put safety concerns over ideology. But safety for whom? Why should the theoretical slowing of a theoretical fire truck outweigh the very real safety needs of daily bike riders?

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Local 

Urbanize looks at a plan for the proposed Arts District Metro station, which could include a connection to the LA River bike path once it’s extended through DTLA.

A Claremont letter writer says he opposes the re-installation of red light cams, even though he counts the red light-running drivers on his daily bicycle commute.

 

State

An exploding ebike battery apparently set off a fire that torched a Huntington Beach apartment; a local fire marshal recommended avoiding overcharging ebike batteries, while noting that ebikes are not inherently dangerous.

Oceanside is regaining its sanity, announcing plans for a lane reduction on the Coast Highway 101 from four to two lanes for a one-mile section, as well as installing bike lanes, pedestrian crossing and roundabouts.

Carlsbad’s city council voted to extend the city’s bicycle, ebike and mobility device state of emergency through March 25th.

Bakersfield opened a 2.5-mile, $1.1 million multi-use path and bridge connecting West Bakersfield with the Kern River Bike Path.

San Francisco is reaching out to underserved communities as the city develops its Active Communities Plan, which comes after it already remade its streets by making many of the temporary pandemic-era bike lanes and Slow Streets permanent.

 

National

They get it. A government technology website says ebikes are great for replacing car trips, but they’re only as good as the infrastructure they travel, which is often lacking from low-income neighborhoods.

Maui, Hawaii is now limiting commercial bicycle tours, after the popular rides evidently became too popular, particularly descents of the Haleakalā volcano.

While Orange County is panicking over teenage ebike riders, Hawaii has proposed giving high school students ebike rebates up to $2,000 to help keep more cars off the roads at school times.

A wishy washy Oregon editorial questions whether Oregon should establish an ebike rebate program, without voicing an opinion one way or another — except to say it could result in wealthier Oregonians getting some of the money.

A Las Vegas man without a permanent home gives back to the community through near-daily bikeshare rides to deliver homemade sandwiches to the city’s homeless people.

The official route has been announced for this year’s RAGBRAI ride across Iowa, the 50th anniversary of the ride.

Two women in Wisconsin offer advice on riding through the state’s frigid winters. Meanwhile, we’re often told at public meetings that no one would want to ride in a chilly LA winter, where it sometimes gets all the way down to 50°. Brrrrrr.

An Illinois columnist complains about stepping into a linguistic minefield when he referred to the “cross-through” bike his daughter wanted as a girl’s bike, apparently conflating a cross bike with a step-through.

Nashville advocates held a memorial on one of the city’s deadliest streets for the 48 pedestrians and two bike riders killed on Music City streets last year.

A Maine op-ed credits the state’s DOT with providing bike riders and pedestrians with a glimmer of hope by creating the state’s first-ever active transportation plan.

A new Massachusetts law starting April 1st will require drivers to stay four feet from bike riders and other vulnerable road users.

A Jersey City man has filed a $1 million claim against the city, saying he was the victim of a hit-and-run when he was struck by a councilwoman who didn’t bother to stop, after allegedly riding his bike through a red light; she has already been fined $5,000 and lost her license for a year as a result.

 

International

A new backpack takes the Hövding inflatable bike helmet a step further, deploying into an airbag designed to protect your head, shoulders and chest, while automatically dialing 911 in the event of an impact. No word on cost or how much it weighs. 

Londoners are now being offered free e-scooter rides to scrap their older gas-guzzling cars.

A British writer credits a bikeshare tour of the duchy of Cornwall with rekindling his love of bicycling.

The prize for Britain’s shortest bike lane goes to the city of Birmingham, which installed a seven-foot bike lane purportedly to improve safety.

Former MMA champ and all-around human train wreck Conor McGregor is one of us, as he insists he could have been killed when a driver hit his bike while riding in Ireland.

A travel site lists nine reasons bicyclists will fall in love with Ireland, from Galway to Guinness. I cold sum it up in one — it’s Ireland. 

A local bike club donated 70 bicycles to 12 schools in Ghana to help students get to class without being too tired to study, though the Chief of Boko — ie, head of education — warned the students not to use the bikes to road aimlessly. Because the last thing you’d want to do is ride a bike just because it’s fun, right?

Concerns are rising about the effect of Japan’s new helmet mandate on the country’s bikeshare systems; Yokohama’s BayBike system will experiment with loaning out bike helmets, with just three helmets available for its 178,000 registered users. Yes, 3.

A bill in the Philippine Senate would create a nationwide bike lane network.

A pair of Aussie university professors ask the difficult question of “what do cyclists wan,” and mostly get it right, from safe infrastructure to bicycling as the new normal. Although they somehow leave out donuts, coffee and beer.

 

Competitive Cycling

There may be hope for American pro cycling yet, as Neilson Powless claimed his third pro victory and first of the year with a solo breakaway in Sunday’s Grand Prix Cycliste de Marseille.

Colombian cyclist Egan Bernal talks about last year’s near-fatal crash, as the 2019 Tour de France champ says people thought he was dead after riding his bike into the back of a parked truck during a training ride.

American pro Ayesha McGowan says she’s finally ready to race after uterine fibroids derailed her first year on the WorldTour.

 

Finally…

That feeling when you pedal the entire length of the East Coast on one wheel, instead of two. Dear Abby says no, you don’t have to touch a sweaty bike rider.

And nothing like mistakenly crediting your ancestor with inventing the bicycle, as if merely inventing the treadle bike wasn’t good enough.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

 

Category: Advocacy & Politics, Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , ,

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

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

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

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

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

It’s okay. We’ll wait.

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Interesting idea.

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

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

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

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

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Wait, you can do that?

Has anyone told officials here in LA?

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

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

No bias here. A far right DC publication complains about the US being  eliminated from the World Cup by a “second-rate bicycle country,” describing it as a “meaningless soccer tournament,” while terming the sport “a fundamentally evil and anti-American enterprise.” Well, okay then.

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

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

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

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

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Local 

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

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

 

State 

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

National

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

International

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Finally…

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

And when regular bikes just aren’t weird enough.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

 

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

South Pasadena plans car-centric remake of Fair Oaks Ave, and anti-growth email scandal in car-centric Redondo Beach

November 15, 2022 / / Comments Off on South Pasadena plans car-centric remake of Fair Oaks Ave, and anti-growth email scandal in car-centric Redondo Beach

It looks like South Pasadena is going the wrong way.

The town of just 26,000 people sandwiched between Los Angeles and Pasadena is proposing a plan to remove bulb-outs on Fair Oaks Ave, optimizing the street for motor vehicles while making it less safe for everyone else — particularly bike riders and pedestrians.

Here’s what Streets For All had to say.

THIS TUESDAY (today), the City of South Pasadena’s Mobility and Transportation Infrastructure Commission has an item on its agenda(item #3 – staff report here) to consider how to implement over $11M in federal funds for road safety improvements. Unbelievably, city staff seem to think that removing pedestrian bulb outs are a safety improvement (for whom!?). Additionally, the vast majority goes to car infrastructure – new signals, new lanes, and new cameras to monitor congestion.

It’s 2022 and we know the cost of traffic violence all too well in the Los Angeles area. There is no room for 1990s thinking using 2022 dollars. Make your voice heard.

BEST: MAKE PUBLIC COMMENT LIVE 11.15 at 6:30PM

EMAIL PUBLIC COMMENT BEFORE NOON ON 11.15

Meanwhile, Dr. Grace Peng offered her thoughts, including sharing her open letter to the South Pasadena city council.

Dear South Pasadena Mobility and Transportation Infrastructure Commission –

I oppose your staff’s recommendation to use federal dollars to make Fair Oaks Ave less safe.

Fair Oaks is a very wide and busy street. Crossing it within the allotted pedestrian signal time is already difficult for the mobility-impaired. Bulb outs reduce the distance, and make vulnerable road users safer.

The proof is right in front of us. I looked up South Pasadena in the Transportation Injury Mapping System.

The bulb outs were installed around 2010. Between 2011 and 2021, Fair Oaks Ave has seen fewer pedestrian and cyclist injuries and deaths than the narrower Mission St. This is a good indication that traffic calming elements on Fair Oaks are working. Stay the course.

Since Covid, there has been an increase in injuries on Fair Oaks, and in the whole region.  Do not allow cars to pick up speed while making right turns. This only increases the severity of injury and the risk of death to pedestrians. 

I live in Redondo Beach, where the death of a 13 year old girl at an unsafe intersection cost our city $33 Million in a wrongful death lawsuit. No amount of money will make that family whole again. And our city coffers suffer as well due to sharply increased insurance premiums. As a mother and daughter (to a mobility-impaired senior), I am begging you to improve, not remove pedestrian safety infrastructure. 

The $11 M in Caltrans funding could pay for pedestrian scramble signal timing changes. This would temporally separate vulnerable road users and cars/trucks in the intersections.  This would facilitate vehicle turns and improve safety.  Do this instead.

Grace Peng, PhD

PS I concur with the Streets For All recommendations below:

The ~$11M is coming from the canceled 710 North project; instead, the funds should be used to improve transportation for all modes in South Pasadena.

The vast majority of funds are proposed to be spent on cars – new signals, new turn lanes, new traffic monitoring cameras – none of these expensive items will help the residents of South Pasadena get out of cars, which are the single biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions in California!

Most egregiously, staff is proposing to REMOVE pedestrian bulb outs on Fair Oaks Ave – pedestrian bulb outs are a proven safety element that help save lives by enabling pedestrians to spend less time in the street when crossing. Removing them is contrary to every possible best safety practice.

I ask that you throw out these staff recommendations and start over. Build a true multi modal street. Add protected bike lanes (implement your own bike plan!) and more pedestrian improvements. Consider bus-only lanes in the city. With an average trip of only 3 miles, if you build safe alternatives to the car, many residents will use them, improving traffic, air quality, safety, and helping fight climate change.

Couldn’t have said it better myself.

Photo by Aayush Srivastava from Pexels.

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At least it’s not as bad as the recently released recording of racist and otherwise offensive comments by three LA city councilmembers, two of whom still refuse to do the right thing and resign.

But emails between the mayor of Redondo Beach and various councilmembers and supporters sure as hell ain’t pretty.

The emails center on the majority-white city’s efforts to block housing projects, particularly those offering housing for low-income residents, as well as offensive racial “banter” in private conversations.

The emails were released as part of a freedom of information request filed by attorneys for a developer looking to redevelop the city’s pier, which was blocked by a public vote.

Redondo resident Dr. Peng says officials purposely undermine transit and active transportation projects to create anti-housing furor.

It’s also worth noting that local officials are insisting that ebike riders obey the law; drivers, not so much.

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Streets For All continues a strong run in this election cycle, as two more candidates endorsed by the transportation PAC claimed victory, including new LA County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath; a click on the lower right panel reveals 15 candidates and propositions who’ve won with their endorsements, with no losses — yet.

https://twitter.com/streetsforall/status/1592339958219837440

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

Ann Arbor, Michigan goes back to the drawing board after local residents insist on keeping their on-street parking instead of a new bike lane, even though the homes appear to have fully functional driveways. And bizarrely argue that street parking improves safety, while bike lanes don’t — exactly the opposite of the actual effects.

An English bike rider suffered a broken leg after he was knocked off his bike by a road raging pedestrian following an argument between the two men.

It was evidently a bad weekend for people on bikes in the UK, as a second bike rider was hospitalized with serious head injuries when he was viciously attacked by a road raging driver.

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

Police in the UK are looking for a pair of hooded teenagers who rode up on bikes before demanding money and belongings from two 17-year old boys, but ended up riding off empty handed.

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Local

No surprise here. The Los Angeles Daily News reports Metro’s proposal to “simplify” it’s fare structure, which masks a dramatic fare increase, came in for overwhelming criticism during yesterday’s problem-plagued virtual meeting.

Santa Monica collected over $5 million in Development Impact Fees in 2022, adding to a pot of $11.4 million set aside for transportation projects, including $3.4 million for bikeways in 2024; the city spent nearly $1 million of the fund for active transportation projects this year.

 

State 

Petaluma announced plans for a bicycle boulevard on the city’s west side.

San Francisco safe streets advocates celebrate after last week’s election resulted in a victory to keep JFK Promenade in Golden Gate Park permanently carfree.

A Tulare County woman faces up to four years behind bars for the hit-and-run that killed a man walking his bicycle earlier this month; Shay Dejonge is being held without bail after entering a not guilty plea.

 

National

The Bike League is now offering an online Bicycle Friendly Drive Training course. Which most drivers will undoubtedly rush to take.

No surprise here, either. A new study from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health shows that bike lanes may be the most cost-effective way to improve public health.

Bicycling reports on the Bike League’s latest list of Bicycle Friendly Universities; congratulations to SoCal’s Santa Monica College, UC San Diego and the University of San Diego. As usual, read it on Yahoo if the magazine blocks you.

Wired reports that the pandemic bike boom is still going strong in cities that invested in bike infrastructure, but faltering in those that didn’t — like Los Angeles, for instance. Meanwhile, the magazine also recommends the best ebikes for elderly riders, only one of which is an adult tricycle.

Cycling Weekly says it’s been a rough year for Seattle’s Rad Power Bikes, after the company has faced lawsuits, layoffs and a recent recall.

A 67-year old Washington woman has set a Guinness world record as the oldest woman to ride across the US from coast-to-coast.

Three men face charges for recklessly riding their bikes in Salem, New Hampshire, after they were stopped as part of a rideout group weaving in and out of traffic.

The Guardian reports “everyone is scared” after ebike batteries are alleged to have caused 200 fires in New York, resulting in six deaths. Although other reports suggest that the problem stems from delivery riders using low-cost refurbished lithium ion batteries with mismatched chargers. 

New York could get another large pedestrian plaza before Los Angeles gets its first, as the city starts the process of removing cars from Brooklyn’s Grand Army Plaza, after previously making Times Square carfree.

You can now ride your bike between Hoboken and Jersey City on a new curb and plastic bendy post-protected two-way bike lane.

 

International

A Vancouver writer calls on the city to keep the bike lanes through the city’s Stanley Park, which the city council recently voted to remove.

Tesla insists a crash that killed a Chinese motorcyclist and a high school student on a bicycle wasn’t its fault, despite data taken from the vehicle that failed to show the Model Y SUV applied its brakes before the crash.

Melbourne, Australia officials were urged to rip out a series of popup bike lanes, after an independent review found they either offered limited benefit, or actually increased the risk to bike riders.

 

Competitive Cycling

Hats off to American Hannah Roberts, as the 21-year old Olympic silver medalist won her third consecutive BMX Freestyle world title.

A 31-year old former pro cyclist from the Isle of Man will spend four years behind bars after he was busted for dealing coke; Christopher Whorrall blamed his downfall on hitting rock-bottom after an injury ended his career.

 

Finally…

Apparently, its against the law to fix an illegally obscured license plate. When you’re already the most wanted man in town, put some damn lights on your bike.

And when is a bike lane not a bike lane? When horn-honking drivers use it to bypass traffic, while insisting people on bikes get the hell out of their way.

Thanks to Tim Rutt for the heads-up.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

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

Arrest made in Redondo Beach hit-and-run, and Venice Blvd protected bike lane extension approved — and delayed

October 6, 2022 / / 2 comments

Maybe it’s a secret.

LA County Sheriff’s deputies made an arrest in the hit-and-run that left a 15-year old Redondo Beach boy with severe road rash, after the driver dragged the teen and his bike under his truck last month.

But they’re not telling us who the suspect is, or giving any details about him.

The driver was arrested after the deputies spotted the truck in Rolling Hills Estates on Tuesday.

Unfortunately, he’s likely to face just two years behind bars due to California’s overly lenient hit-and-run laws.

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LADOT told the Mar Vista Community Council that the new extension of the Venice Blvd protected bike lanes and bus lanes will be moving forward.

Sort of.

Mar Vista Voice offers a detailed thread capturing the highlights — or lowlights — of the meeting, including the power of local NIMBYs to delay, if not halt, vital safety projects.

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The world reached a tragic milestone this week — and one to which the US contributes more than its share.

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Meet LA’s cute little bike lane mini sweeper.

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

Four men have been arrested in the stabbing death of a 21-year old man in a London suburb; the men ran the victim down with their car and knocked him off his bike when he rode off after colliding with them.

A London bus driver lost his appeal to keep his job after he was fired for dangerously swerving onto the wrong side of the road to pass a bicyclist he thought was delaying him, then brake checked the bike rider, forcing him to ride up on the curb to avoid plowing into the bus.

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Local

You can look forward to bike lockers and bike racks at many stations when Metro’s K Line, aka Crenshaw Line, opens this Friday.

Streetsblog gives a rave review to GoSGV, the new monthly ebike rental program from ActiveSGV and the San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments.

More on the groundbreaking for Baldwin Park’s first urban bike and pedestrian path; the $1.15-million commuter bikeway will take you to Kaiser Permanente and the In-N-Out HQ.

 

State 

The Huntington Beach City Council voted unanimously to approve construction of a half-million dollar bicycle boulevard on Utica Ave.

Goleta approved the $28.3 million San Jose Creek bike and pedestrian path connecting the downtown area with the beach and bike path on the other side of the 101 Freeway; the plan moves forward after languishing on the books for over 30 years.

Berkeley will reconsider previously approved protected bike lanes on Hopkins Street in North Berkeley, after learning it will require the removal of twice as many parking spaces as previously estimated. Because as we all know, places to store cars when they aren’t being used are far more important than protecting human lives — let alone giving an economic boost to local businesses. 

Unbelievable. A San Mateo County woman is dead after a truck driver slammed into her bicycle while driving on the wrong side of the road last month, because he was working on just two hours sleep and driving with a puppy on his lap; he veered onto the wrong side of the road when the puppy fell off and he bent over to pick it up. He faces a well-deserved charge of felony vehicular manslaughter.

 

National

A car site tries out Audi’s Cellular Vehicle-To-Everything (C-V2X) safety system to alert drivers to the presence of bicycles, and the other way around. Although it only works if both the bike rider and the driver have it installed.

A writer for Forbes says Rad Power’s RadRunner Plus electric utility bike is the best ebike for college students. Never mind that he admits he hasn’t tried the other bikes, owns two Rad Power bikes already, and his son rides one on his California campus. So, totally objective, then.

Speaking of Rad Power, the ebike maker faces another lawsuit after one of their bikes allegedly “malfunctioned and failed catastrophically,” causing a fire that damaged a Pennsylvania man’s home and car.

They get it. A New York website says we need ebike incentives, not bans.

 

International

After spending four years riding around the world, a man discovers that travel isn’t about the destination.

Good question. A Toronto paper wants to know why there are still thousands of ring-style bike racks on the streets, even though the city has known for more than a decade that they’re subject to theft; after the current rate, they’ll finally replace the last one sometime between 2041 and 2050. Canadian law may vary, however, knowing about the problem and failing to fix it could means the city can be held liable if a bike is stolen from one.

A European site questions why bicycles have remained largely unchanged for 150 years, despite the a number of “demonstrably superior” designs.

A Scottish teenager set a new record by riding to 76 of the country’s castles, covering 480 miles in six days.

Britain’s active transportation nonprofit Sustrans calls on the country’s new government to make protected bike lanes on school routes an urgent priority.

Go truffle hunting by bicycle on Tuscany’s fabled Strade Bianchi gravel roads, while staying at an 800-year old wine estate.

We Love Cycling, the bike-focused website from Czech carmaker Škoda, takes a look at some of the lesser known bike-related world records. Maybe we should all take a crack at the world’s highest bunny hop; I’m pretty sure I can clear at least an inch. Maybe two.

Israeli medics treated 2,741 people for bicycling injuries over Yom Kippur, when people traditionally take advantage of the empty streets to ride their bikes.

A comprehensive review of existing literature by an Australian university on the reasons why people don’t ride bikes points the finger at “fear of motorist aggression” and poor quality and badly maintained bike lanes. Other reasons include a lack of bike education, mandatory helmet laws, and overly hilly bikeways.

 

Competitive Cycling

The high-tech National Cycling League will offer a $1 million dollar purse, in addition to prize money for individual crits in Miami, Atlanta, Denver and DC.

Here’s your chance to become a fully supported endurance cyclist. Three people will be selected for the Ultra Distance Scholarship, each of whom will receive a custom Stayer Cycles bike, full Albion bike kit and nine months of training support from Velogi Cycle Coaching in preparation to compete in next year’s Pan Celtic Race.

This is the crap women’s cyclists have to deal with. After Dutch pro Lorena Wiebes rode to victory in Belgium’s Binche-Chimay-Binche, she had to contend with an overly handsy and persistent race official, despite making it clear she was uncomfortable having his hands on her body.

 

Finally…

Where else can you go for a bike-friendly drag brunch in DTLA? Your next aluminum-frame ebike could be assembled at home using an ancient Chinese woodworking technique.

And that feeling when a 90-year old man chases a thief down and beats the crap out of him for stealing his wallet, after the man got in by claiming he fell off his bike.

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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.

………

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

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

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

$32.1 million award in Metro crash, LA Times calls for bike lanes and sheriff’s oversight, and Mar Vista bike chop shops

November 15, 2021 / / 2 comments

Thank you all for your support and kind words last week.

I’m not even close to a hundred percent yet, but at least I can write again without tossing my cookies. Not that I should be having cookies, anyway.

Now buckle in, ’cause we have a lot to catch up on. 

And please forgive me for not crediting people who sent me links this time; it was just too hard to keep up with while I was under the weather.

But thank you from the bottom of my heart to all who did. 

………

A jury awarded $21.6 million to the parents of Ciara Smith, the 13-year old girl killed by a Metro bus operated by a subcontractor four years ago when she rode her bike off a Redondo Beach sidewalk.

Combined with earlier settlements from Caltrans and Redondo Beach, they’ve now been awarded a total of $32.1 million, though the latest judgement will undoubtedly be appealed.

………

The Los Angeles Times responds to their recent investigative report that uncovered bias in traffic stops of Latino bike riders by sheriff deputies in LA County, by calling for legalizing sidewalk riding and building desperately needed infrastructure.

Instead of finding support for their carbon-free travel, cyclists in some communities face unsafe and unjust conditions. In East Los Angeles, only 1% of streets have bike lanes, meaning cyclists are expected to navigate crowded and often poorly maintained streets. Of course people are going to ride on the sidewalk, even if it’s prohibited, because it’s safer.

Yet that rational decision makes cyclists a target for law enforcement. Nearly a quarter of bike stops in East L.A. were for sidewalk violations, The Times reported. In Lynwood, where there are no bike lanes at all, sidewalk violations account for 16% of stops. In West Hollywood, which is predominantly white, more streets have bike lanes and the city allows bicyclists to ride on the sidewalk in areas with no bike lanes. Less than 1% of bike stops were initiated because of sidewalk violations.

The paper also said the biased traffic stops and searches of bike riders call for stronger oversight of the sheriff’s department, which so far has attempted to avoid virtually any oversight.

Meanwhile, Streets For All urges your support for a motion at tomorrow’s Board of Supervisor’s meeting to legalize sidewalk riding in unincorporated Los Angeles County.

………

As long as we’re talking about the Times, opinion columnist Robin Abcarian joins a Mar Vista man searching local homeless camps and outdoor bicycle chop shops for his stolen bicycles.

And somehow managed, against all odds, to get them all back.

Never mind that the LAPD told her they don’t bother to look for stolen bikes.

Or the Catch-22 clownshow below when he tried to report the theft to the cops.

Weitz had tried to file a police report online. Because his garage was broken into, he was told, he would have to file in person. But his local LAPD outpost in West Los Angeles is not allowing walk-ins because of COVID-19. So he went to the Pacific Division station on Culver Boulevard but was told he had to file it in West L.A.

“My local lead officer said he would get in touch after I file my police report,” said Weitz, “but I can’t file my police report, so he can’t call.”

………

The teenaged pickup driver who mowed down a half dozen Texas bike riders while attempting to roll coal has been identified in court papers.

The well-connected son of prominent local sheep and goat breeders faces six counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, after initially being allowed to walk free when mommy and daddy reportedly showed up at the crash site.

Meanwhile, the Santa Rosa woman injured in the other recent Texas crash, where a pickup driver ran down three people on a cross-country bike tour and killed a Massachusetts man, is still waiting to fly home.

Doctors says she’s too fragile to leave the Houston hospital where she’s being treated for a collapsed lung, facial fracture, broken back, five broken ribs and a broken arm.

………

Streets For All will talk mobility with the candidates for CD13 this Wednesday, presumably including incumbent Mitch O’Farrell.

The street safety PAC also calls for supporting a 5.9-mile peak hour bus lane on La Brea Blvd from Sunset to Coliseum at or before tomorrow’s public meeting.

………

Metro announced the top-scoring picks for open streets events throughout the county over the next two years, including likely funding for CicLAvia and 626 Golden Streets.

https://twitter.com/ActiveSGV/status/1459484455362457605

………

One more reason to love the East Side Riders, as they continue to support, and feed, the Compton community.

And to contribute if you can, financially or otherwise.

………

If you’re reading this early enough, you may still have time to join a Twitter town hall calling for zero traffic deaths, in advance of this Sunday’s World Day of Remembrance.

Meanwhile, Finish the Ride will host a march for safer roads on Saturday, in an early observance of the World Day of Remembrance.

………

More proof that bike lanes are more efficient than regular traffic lanes. Regardless of drivers who claim no one ever uses them.

………

Taking a tiny approach to urban density in Denver.

And yes, there’s an itty bitty bike involved.

………

It’s a pity everyone seemed to forget the hard-earned lessons learned in the first major gas crisis back in the ’70s.

………

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

Late is better than never, apparently, as Bicycling belatedly catches up with the story of the white Texas man who severely beat a Black man who paused while riding a bicycle through the neighborhood they both share last month. As usual, you can read it on Yahoo if Bicycling blocks you. 

DC drivers are using a new buffered bike lane for free parking.

An Orlando, Florida bike shop owner sounds the alarm on drivers using the bike path in front of his shop as a traffic bypass.

A London man suffered a broken collarbone when a driver deliberately ran him off his bike in the city’s Richmond Park — then fled the scene afterwards, of course.

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

Police in San Antonio, Texas released video of the fatal shooting of a man who fled when officers tried to stop him on his bike; he allegedly tried to pull a gun out of his waistband after one of the cops doored him and wrestled with him on the ground.

A British Columbia man faces charges for whacking a 65-year old woman with his bicycle, causing her to hit her head on the pavement, after she apparently confronted him for riding his bike on the sidewalk.

The award for the world’s biggest jerk — okay, one of many — goes to the Belgium bike rider who crashed into a five-year old girl last Christmas, and is suing the girl’s father for posting the viral video of it.

………

Local

A man was shot in the chest earlier this month while riding on a Culver City bike path, then was kicked in the face and punched by two or more men, for no apparent reason. Or at least, no reason the police have mentioned.

There’s still time to take a survey on how to transform deadly Western Ave between MLK to Century Blvd in South LA. Hint: fewer traffic lanes and more protected bike lanes.

A San Fernando group has called for the removal of CD12 Councilmember John Lee from the Los Angeles City Council Planning Committee; Lee was implicated in the Mitch Englander bribery scandal.

Streetsblog looks at the new raised, protected bike lanes on Burbank’s Hollywood Way.

A Claremont nonprofit is looking donations of usable bicycles in good condition, as well as “helmets, padding and locks” to help recent Afghan refugees. And no, I have no idea what padding means, either.

AARP hosts a virtual chat with CicLAvia this Thursday, including 65-year old longboarder and CicLAvia icon Swee (Ool) Woo.

 

State

Santa Ana will host a meeting tonight to discuss a proposed protected bike lane and bicycle boulevard on McFadden Avenue.

Orange County hikers complained about “hard-charging” mountain bikers at last week’s meeting of the Coastal Greenbelt Authority.

The San Diego Union-Tribune says the city needs to focus on the action part of its climate action plan, rather than patting itself on the back based on outdated statistics.

Streetsblog credits the San Diego Association of Governments, aka SANDAG, with having a lot to like in their draft 2021 transportation plan, despite questionable funding plans.

Santa Barbara County is loaning local residents free ebikes for up to five days to experience an alternative to driving.

It takes a major schmuck to steal a bike from a ten-year old Santa Cruz girl in a strong-arm robbery.

 

National

Do we really need to be told yet again that more highways mean more cars, more congestion and more environment and climate harming emissions?

One more reason to do your riding outside, as a 23-year old woman nearly lost her leg after developing a potentially fatal breakdown of muscle tissue following a high-intensity spin class.

Seriously? What kind of cash flow does this Oregon bike shop have when the theft of $100,000 worth of bicycles isn’t a major setback?

The Nevada state stoppers who investigated the crash that killed five bike riders outside Las Vegas eleven months ago never suspected semi-truck driver Jordan Alexander Barson was under the influence, even though he tested positive for meth hours later — an oversight that led to a plea bargain on reduced charges.

Congratulations to Austin, Texas, on being named home to the worst bike lane in the world.

Sad news from Iowa, where John Karras, the former newspaper man who co-founded RAGBRAI with another reporter, passed away last week at 91; the popular ride across Iowa was founded by the Des Moines Register nearly 50 years ago.

Hats off to a six-year old Ohio boy, who set a new record as the youngest rider to complete a backflip during a California BMX competition.

Once again, the death of a bike rider is no big deal, as a US postal worker faces just a misdemeanor charge and a traffic ticket for killing a 71-year old New York man riding a bike.

Curbed offers a detailed primer on perfecting New York streets, while embracing public spaces. All of which would apply here in Los Angeles, too.

A fallen bicyclist’s mother will finish the last 1,900 miles of his planned New Hampshire to San Diego bike tour, three years after he was run down by a driver shortly after leaving Hattiesburg, Mississippi; a crowdfunding page has raised just $330 of the $10,000 he was trying to collect for a children’s hospital.

A 22-year old Florida man has been charged with manslaughter after he failed to swerve his e-scooter out of the way of a woman riding a bicycle; the victim died of her injuries several days later.

 

International

No surprise here, as climate experts say electric cars won’t save the planet. But more active transportation will help.

Virgin founder Richard Branson showed off his injuries after his bike’s brakes failed and he crashed into another bicyclist while riding in the Virgin Islands; he credits his helmet with saving his life from the “colossal” crash. Seriously, I’ve had worse.

Glasgow, Scotland is joining the international trend of banning cars from urban centers.

The Smithsonian talks with the teenage girl who rode her bike 570 miles from her English home to Glasgow, Scotland for the COP26 climate conference.

London’s iconic Westminster Bridge is getting bollard-protected cycle tracks, which might have helped prevent the 2017 vehicular terrorism attack.

Life is cheap in the UK, where a 61-year old business exec walked with a suspended sentence for killing two men on bikes when he plowed his car into both as they rode together last year; adding insult to injury, he was fined a whole £475 — the equivalent of just $637 — in court costs.

A 21-year old British man was sentenced to life behind bars for strangling his 17-year old “friend” and leaving him to drown in a dispute over a bicycle. Seriously, if someone bullies you for months, let alone tries to kill you, maybe he’s not really your friend.

A new sensor developed by a Dutch company allows you to monitor the air quality as you rides. But do you really want to know what kind of crap you’re sucking into your lungs?

Cycling Tips alleges bullying and blackmail in the convoy that carried members of the Afghan cycling team to freedom.

Heartbreaking story from India, where an Indian soldier was one of seven people gunned down by ethnic rebels, just two days after promising his eight-year old daughter he’d bring her a bicycle as a belated birthday gift when he came home in February.

 

Competitive Cycling

Tragic news from Eritrea, where rising 21-year old cyclist Desiet Kidane was killed by a driver while training in the country; she was part of UCI’s World Cycling Center training program.

Apparently, even winning the Tour de France isn’t enough to protect against bike thieves, as Geraint Thomas learned the hard way when he popped into a coffee shop while training on the French Riviera.

A new book claims to be the first written by a Black bike racer about Black bike racers in one hundred years.

The EF Education-Nippo cycling team fired Columbian cyclist Sergio Higuita for riding a Specialized bike instead of team sponsor Cannondale, but quickly took him back after he apologized. His American teammate Lawson Craddock got fired and quickly unfired, for the same reason.

It takes some serious bike skills to get back in your shoe while it’s still clipped in the pedal.

https://twitter.com/VelonCC/status/1458483340537962496?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1458483340537962496%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.essentiallysports.com%2Fwatch-french-cyclist-pulls-off-insane-bike-adjustment-while-cycling-to-prevent-crash-us-sports-news-cycling%2F

 

Finally…

The top 10 reasons drivers don’t like us. Now they aren’t even waiting until the bikes leave the shop to run them over.

And SNL has good news and bad news on the ebike front.

 

………

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

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

Bikes play a role in racial justice protests, bicycles and Covid-19, and Redondo police seek owner of recovered bikes

June 15, 2020 / / Comments Off on Bikes play a role in racial justice protests, bicycles and Covid-19, and Redondo police seek owner of recovered bikes

Life has been upended by Covid-19 and demands for racial justice in recent weeks.

And not too surprisingly, bicycles are playing a significant role in both.

So let’s start with the latter. Like The LA Metro Bikes at Sunday’s massive All Black Lives Matter protest march in Hollywood there on the left.

Then there’s Bike Snob’s Eben Weiss, who points out that bicycles have been agents of change for 200 years, saying they should be used for revolution, not police violence.

The Verge takes a similar theme, saying bicycles can be a tool of protest, as well as police brutality.

Not all the protest rides are past tense; Black bike riders in Richmond CA are holding the 2nd Annual Bike 4 Justice this Friday, aka Juneteenth.

Reno, Nevada saw one hundred bike riders take over the streets of downtown to bring awareness of racism in the bicycle community.

Denverites rode their bikes to the state capital to support Black Lives Matter.

Two hundred people in New Haven CT took to their bikes to protest police brutality.

A Cambridge, Massachusetts paper offers a photo essay of that city’s Cycle for Change protest ride intended to bring awareness to young people.

Over one thousand bike riders turned out for a Gotham bike protest (scroll down).

The NYPD is accused of illegally seizing bicycles from protesters and reporters.

Philadelphia songwriter Orion Sun says she was brutalized by police after using her bicycle as a barricade to prevent riot cops from getting to other protesters. Then went home and wrote a song inspired by the experience.

The owner of a Philly bike shop is taking getting looted in stride, saying there are far more serious things to be mad about.

Apparently unable to pick just one form of transportation, the Big Easy took a break for a gay pride and Black Lives Matters bike ride. And a motorcycle rally. And a motorcade.

Miami protesters took to “two wheels for one reason,” calling for an end to lives lost due to racial injustice.

And Slate says drivers ramming into protesters fits into a long tradition of motorized attacks celebrated by extremists. Although some drivers just seem to be impatient, entitled jerks.

………

Meanwhile, the world is still responding to the coronavirus crisis, as well as the resulting bike boom.

Returning to Bike Snob’s Eben Weiss, he says let’s not blow the bike boom by being critical of new riders.

Forgetting that the whole idea behind Slow Streets is that they’re temporary, a Napa letter writer says there’s no need for them in the city because they won’t be necessary when people go back to work.

The founder of Seattle-based Rad Power Bikes says the pandemic has proven bikes are essential.

A New Jersey bikemaker for Walmart says their company has never been busier, and it’s now taking minimum of three weeks to resupply stores.

British bike retailer Ribble has seen an across-the-board 300% increase in sales, from inexpensive hybrids to cutting edge time trial bikes.

Britain’s Chris Boardman says pop-up bike lanes are a form of social justice.

An Indian website questions why a bikemaker would shut down entirely in the face of booming bike ridership.

Even Bahrain is experiencing the coronavirus-inspired bike boom, as Hamad Town responds by approving plans for striped and separated bikeways across the city.

Around 30 Nigerian bicyclists rode through the streets of Lagos while observing social distancing to call attention to Covid-19 on World Bicycle Day.

As Covid-19 cases continue to climb in Indonesia, commuters are turning to their bicycles to avoid the virus.

Sydney, Australia is installing six pop-up bike lanes leading to the central business district, with bicycling up 50% and increasing numbers of people saying they’ll keep riding when they go back to work. That compares to Los Angeles, which so far has installed exactly none.

………

Police in Redondo Beach are looking for the owners of what they describe as a pair of high-end bikes they suspect were stolen after detaining the suspected thief.

Which is just one more reminder to register your bicycle today. And always report the theft to the police if your bike is stolen, because those are the best ways to ensure you’ll get it back if they recover it.

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GCN offers a crash course in bunny hopping.

………

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

A group of bike-riding teenage boys pushed a 26-year old woman on a bicycle into a canal, apparently simply because they could.

………

Local

Gerrard Butler is one of us, driving to the beach to ride the bike path through Santa Monica.

 

State

An Encinitas newspaper considers complaints that the new protected bike lanes along the Coast Highway in Cardiff are making things worse. We looked at the same problem here early last month.

A 22-year old Riverside woman has been arrested for the Corona hit-and-run that took the life of a 21-year old man who was out riding his bike with a couple friends Thursday night.

A Sacramento Korean War veteran and survivor of the Japanese American internment camps marked his 92nd birthday with a bicycle parade; he rode a bike into his 80s until he had to give it up for walking, instead.

Sad news from Redding, where a man was killed in a solo fall after apparently hitting a curb.

 

National

He almost gets it. A writer for a business site calls for better infrastructure and laws to promote bicycling — but also for mandatory helmet laws and reflectorized vests.

After a ten-year old Utah girl’s adaptive tricycle was stolen, a kindhearted Good Samaritan stepped up to buy her a new one.

A writer for Forbes thinks people aren’t smart enough to figure out how to drive on streets with words painted on them, and says they’ll confuse self-driving cars, too. If that’s the case, it neither one should be on the streets. And I don’t mean the painting. 

Not everyone in Austin, Texas is on board with the city’s new Healthy Streets, which is just another — and much better — name for Slow Streets. Although the same could be said about any street change, anywhere.

Community members in an Ohio town are raising funds for a nine-year old boy who suffered a serious brain injury when he was struck by a motorcyclist while riding his bike last month.

Detroit-based ebike and Vespa-style e-scooter maker GenZe is going belly up, after its parent company decided to shut down operation within the next six months.

Seriously? There weren’t even any charges when an off-duty Rochester NY police lieutenant was killed when he was rear-ended by a 70-year old driver while riding his bike.

A ebike rider suffered life-threatening injuries after colliding with a pedestrian in Queens NY; the other victim, a man in his 60’s, was in stable condition. A tragic reminder that crashes between bicycles and pedestrians are just as dangerous for everyone involved.

Streetsblog says the NYPD is a lousy partner on Vision Zero.

A Hoboken councilmember calls for allowing people to lock their bikes up in municipal parking garages. Better yet, just kick out the cars and make the whole thing bike parking.

Philadelphia police are no longer welcome to participate in the city’s Vision Zero.

 

International

A writer for Rouleur learns the hard way what it’s like to come off your bike and break a collarbone. And how long it takes to recover.

Ottawa bike riders were ignored when they warned that painting super sharrows on a busy street would be too dangerous; now a young woman paid the price when she was seriously injured by a pickup driver.

A Montreal district ignores pleas to install more bike racks, then seizes bikes locked to trees because there wasn’t any.

A London man is nearing the finish line on his personal goal of riding 100 km — slightly more than 62 miles — a day for 100 days, and planning to ride a virtual Race Across America once he’s done.

When a man in the UK found his stolen bike for sale online, the cops told him to handle it himself. And were immediately contradicted by other cops.

An elderly British driver wrecked his $300,000 Ferrari. So naturally, a bike rider got the blame.

Just wait until they hear about Los Angeles. A European policy site says there are too many cars in Azerbaijan, where one in seven people own one, and it’s essential to switch to bicycles instead.

A developer in New Zealand is offering to build new bike path along a major highway at no cost to the city, in exchange for the rights to install digital billboards.

Melbourne is planning to remove hundreds of parking spaces to make way for 26 miles of bike lanes over the next two years.

 

Competitive Cycling

Cycling News wants to know why Black bike riders are so underrepresented in the pro peloton, calling it a case of everyday racism.

Speaking of which, Specialized Bikes founder Mike Sinyard will donate ten million dollars to the company’s Outride Foundation to fight racism and promote diversity in cycling.

 

Finally…

Remember to always carry a spare bicycle in your trunk, just in case. No bike is complete without a Chinese-style Lucky Cat bike bell waving a paw on your handlebars.

And hang on Rigoberto Urán’s wheel  at 27 mph while earring a backpack and work boots, and he could give you a new bike (scroll down).

………

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

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