Tag Archive for Ride the COLT

No Chatsworth COLT ride this year, a mea culpa on Friday’s SB 50 post, and Los Angeles Times goes gravel grinding

June 5, 2023 / / Comments Off on No Chatsworth COLT ride this year, a mea culpa on Friday’s SB 50 post, and Los Angeles Times goes gravel grinding

Let’s start with something that’s not happening.

For the last several years, the Chatsworth Neighborhood Council has held a community ride celebrating the Orange Line Bike Path, called Ride the COLT — aka Chatsworth Orange Line Tour.

It usually happens right around now; last year, on June 12th.

But this year, not so much.

In response to a question from J. Barrios, I reached out to the Chatsworth NC to ask about this year’s ride, and was told there was nothing planned at this time.

I was also told that could change, so there may be hope.

But I wouldn’t hold your breathe.

Photo by Michael Gaida from Pixabay.

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Sometimes I get it wrong.

That may have been the case Friday when I wrote about SB 50, which would ban police from stopping motorists and bike riders for minor offenses, in an effort to prevent pretext stops.

But a comment from someone calling themselves An Observer suggests my understanding of the bill was off base.

Your presumption that SB 50, if enacted, would prohibit “stops for failing to register a bicycle, or rolling through a stop sign or riding salmon” isn’t correct.

The former is already prohibited; Cal. Veh. Code § 39002, as amended by last year’s AB 1909, says that cities or counties “shall not prohibit the operation of an unlicensed bicycle.”

The latter two wouldn’t be affected by SB 50, in which the definition of “low-level infraction” is limited by reference to two sections of the Vehicle Code relating to bicycle equipment and helmets; it wouldn’t cover violations related to bicycle operation in general:

“(E) A violation related to bicycle equipment or operation in Sections 21201 and 21212.”

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB50

Peace officers would still be allowed to stop bicyclists for other violations, including Cal. Veh. Code § 22450 (stop signs), § 21202 (right-hand curb or edge), or for that matter, §§ 22107–22111 (hand signals for turning and stopping).

So it may offer much less protection to bike riders, particularly people of color, than I thought.

Mea culpa.

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The Los Angeles Times writes about gravel cycling, with 11 spots for grinding it out around the LA area.

And they talk with our old friend Zachary Rynew, the voice behind the Gravel Bike California videos we frequently share on here.

Zachary Rynew is a longtime Los Angeles cycling advocate who runs the website Gravel Bike California, which details numerous gravel rides in the region. He has been pedaling two-wheelers since he was in grade school and says riding on gravel roads takes him back to when he was a kid. It also makes navigating L.A. more efficient. “I was commuting from the San Fernando Valley to UCLA and cut my driving time in half by doing gravel and going through Fryman Canyon Park, then Franklin Canyon,” he said.

Southern California, Rynew believes, has a ton of off-road opportunities. “You can make your own adventure on gravel in the Santa Monica Mountains to the San Gabriels and in the hills above Redlands and Chino,” he said. “I love the versatility around here.”

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The East Side Riders are hosting a community meeting in Watts tonight.

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Turn out next Sunday to help make Ballona Creek more rideable.

 

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Caltrans is conducting a survey on road safety; Streets For All offers suggested responses to demand safer streets.

Meanwhile, the California state transportation agency has launched a new traffic safety campaign for the state, where someone is killed on our streets every two hours.

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More proof that plastic car-tickler bendie-posts don’t really protect anything.

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Bicycling says the trailer for the new Netflix docuseries about the Tour de France just dropped, “and it’s intense.” Read it on AOL if the magazine blocks you. 

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

No bias here. Slate interviews Oregon Representative Earl Blumenauer, calling him the “biggest bike dork in Congress.”

Police in Cincinnati cited a bike rider for riding salmon after he was struck by a driver, even though he was only riding in the bike lane on the wrong side of the street because the other side was blocked by a construction project.

A half dozen pro-car protestors blocked a Toronto bike lane to demand its removal, forcing riders out into rush hour traffic

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

A 29-year old man was shot by police and arrested after engaging in a running gun battle as he fled a traffic stop on his bicycle; he was booked on charges of attempted murder of a peace officer, several weapons-related charges and outstanding warrants after being released from the hospital.

A London writer complains about dockless bikeshare bikes carelessly strewn across the sidewalks by unthinking riders, calling them Lime Slime.

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Local 

Speaking of Streets For All, the transportation PAC reminds us to comment on the LA County Master Bicycle Plan.

Streetsblog says LA’s BLAST initiative to quickly build bike lanes has failed to launch. Which really shouldn’t surprise anyone, since it was started under the Garcetti administration, similar to other failed projects like Vision Zero and the mayor’s Green New Deal.

Los Angeles firefighters used a helicopter to rescue a 47-year old mountain biker who suffered a severe ankle fracture when he fell from a remote section of the Haines Canyon Motorway in the San Gabriel Mountain foothills Sunday afternoon.

 

State

A San Diego bike rider was hospitalized with a head injury after they were run down by a hit-and-run driver; fortunately, the injuries weren’t considered serious, and police located the driver shortly after the crash. No word on whether the driver was arrested, however.

CalFire used a helicopter to rescue a mountain biker who fell in a remote area while riding Chula Vista’s Sweetwater River trail.

The Fresno Dollar General worker caught on security cam video running down an alleged shoplifter as he made his getaway on a bike says she has been fired, insisting she didn’t mean to hit him with her car. Even though that’s exactly what she did. 

A Palo Alto editor says adding protected bike lanes to El Camino Real is a bad idea, questioning whether they would protect school kids from getting hit by motor vehicles, and whether removing parking spaces would hurt small businesses. Studies have repeatedly shown that protected bike lanes improve safety for everyone on the street, including pedestrians. And that bike lanes, particularly protected bike lanes, are good for businesses, large or small.

Over 2,000 bicyclists set off Sunday on the seven day, 545-mile AIDS/LifeCycle fundraising ride from San Francisco to LA; the ride will end in Los Angeles this Saturday.

A pair of Lodi men are headed across the US on a fundraising ride, three decades after one of the men, a high school geography teacher and track coach, made the same trip on a whim with two friends.

 

National

The best Apple Watch features to try on your next bike ride. Assuming you have one, that is. 

Architectural Digest says a few simple design changes — like safe bike lanes and bicycle garages — can radically cut travel emissions in the US.

Honolulu bike riders offer suggestions to improve the city’s sketchy intersections.

A Portland bike rider commends the kindness and caring he experienced from bystanders and medical personnel when he crashed his bike riding through an intersection, dislocating his shoulder.

Flagstaff, Arizona bike advocates accuse the city of slow walking bike safety improvements.

A 62-year old e-mountain biker died after being found unresponsive on a Utah golf course, where he apparently crashed while riding through a bunker.

Nice story from St. Louis, where a 14-year old boy with sickle cell anemia was given a new ebike after he walked six miles to attend his 8th grade graduation, while his grandfather, who takes care of him and his six brothers and sisters after their mother died, was given a new $40,000 minivan by a local car dealer.

A member of a Chicago-area school board was killed when she was struck by a hit-and-run driver while riding her bike in Highland Park.

She gets it. A Boston University instructor says bike-friendly cities should be designed for everyone, not just wealthy white riders.

Brompton has fittingly opened a micro-bike shop in Brooklyn, at just 70 square feet. Apparently they couldn’t figure out how to make a folding one. 

An Alabama writer complains about a recent report that ranked four cities in the state near the bottom for bikeability for the nation’s 200 biggest cities, with Mobile in the penultimate worst position, just ahead of Jackson, Mississippi.

 

International

The Guardian offers advice on how to score a good deal on a new or used bike.

Wallpaper looks at the year’s best designed ebikes, ranging in price from around $1,600 to nearly $18,000.

Vancouver bike riders held a funeral procession, complete with hearse and coffin, to mourn the recently removed bike lane through the city’s Stanley Park.

British Columbia is the latest city, state or province to introduce an ebike rebate program, with income-based rebates between $300 and $1,400; over 8,000 people signed up for the waitlist in the first 24 hours.

The Havana Times offers a sepia-toned photo essay of bicycling in the city.

A London man needed multiple surgeries after he was severely beaten by a hooded gang that bikejacked his $15,000 Specialized bicycle, leaving him with a broken jaw, collarbone and scapula, and several missing teeth.

Cycling Weekly admires a 1980s British-made Allin roadie, which is absolutely gorgeous.

A bicycle played a key role in the first 24-Hours of Le Mans when a Bentley suffered a punctured gas tank; after the driver ran three miles to the pits, his co-driver borrowed a bike from a gendarme, rode salmon back to the stalled car and plugged the hole with a wooden bung, before eventually finishing fourth.

Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo is one of us, briefly losing consciousness when he fell off his bike while riding with his son. And yes, he was wearing a helmet.

An Indian writer marks last Saturday’s World Bicycle Day with detailed advice on how to ride a bike with diabetes. You, that is, not the bike.

Don’t try this at home. An Austrian judo Olympian will attempt to scale K2 on a bicycle; she’ll be riding up the world’s second highest mountain at 28251 feet.

An Australian couple have been together for over 30 years after meeting during a long-distance bike ride.

Popular Aussie bicycling photographer David Blucher is learning to walk again, six months after a mountain biker lost control at the bottom of a run, hitting him at full speed in a crash he can’t even remember.

 

Competitive Cycling

American pro Keegan Swenson outsprinted Czech rider Petr Vakoč to win this year’s Unbound Gravel, with Lachlan Morton third; Swenson’s win made up for last year, when he was out sprinted for the win.

Carolin Schiff dropped the competition like freshman English, sweeping to a mud-soaked 60-mile solo breakaway to win the women’s Unbound Gravel by a remarkable 15-minutes over second place finisher Sofia Gomez Villafane, with Sarah Sturm in third.

France’s Arnaud Demare won the 103rd Brussels Cycling Classic in a close sprint, following a 23-man breakaway that managed to stay ahead of the remainder of the peloton.

A 70-year old man was killed when his race motorcycle collided head-on with a competitor in a German triathlon, while the bicycle rider suffered severe injuries, and a camera operator on the back of the motorcycle was treated for shock. Yet another example of why race motos should be banned from bike races.

Road.cc says pro cycling needs to ditch its obsession with “hardness.”

 

Finally…

Who needs pedals when you have solar power? Your next roadie could retail for north of fifteen grand.

And where to shop when you’re in the market for “Strappy Cycling Culottes.” Or maybe just one of the world’s most expensive bikes.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

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

Morning Links: Proposed Atwater Village road reduction, photos from Ride the COLT, and a CicLAvia chicken

June 13, 2017 / / Comments Off on Morning Links: Proposed Atwater Village road reduction, photos from Ride the COLT, and a CicLAvia chicken

Here’s your chance to help make one deadly street a little safer.

Los Angeles is considering a proposal to extend the Fletcher Drive road diet south through Atwater Village as part of the city’s Vision Zero program.

This is the area where 19-year old Ryan Coreas was killed by a hit-and-run driver as he attempted to cross Fletcher last December on his way to get a soda.

There’s something seriously wrong when someone can’t cross a damn street on a simple little errand like that without getting killed.

And in this case, it’s the street itself.

A meeting will be held tonight to discuss the options for improving what is one of the city’s most dangerous streets, included in the city’s Vision Zero High Injury Network. Which of course means the NIMBYs and cut-through drivers will be out in force doing their best to keep the street dangerous.

If you can’t make the meeting, here’s a sample email that was forwarded to me that you can send to voice your opinion. Especially if you live or work in the Atwater Village area, or reside in Council District 13.

Dear Councilmember O’Farrell-

I am a resident of [NEIGHBORHOOD] and write to express my support for LADOT’s Fletcher Drive safety improvement project ‘Alternative 1.’

I was saddened to learn of the death of Ryan Coreas at Fletcher Dr & LaClede Ave at the beginning of the year, and appreciate your office’s leadership in improving this dangerous street. If Los Angeles is going to end traffic-related deaths as the City’s ‘Vision Zero’ policy dictates, we need to make safety the first priority and work quickly to fix dangerous roads like Fletcher Drive that encourage speeding.

Alternative 1 is the only option that would improve safety for all road users, but especially for pedestrians when they are most vulnerable at night. Alternative 1 reduces crossing distances for pedestrians and unsafe speeding by incorporating curb extensions. Alternative 1 adds center turn lanes that will make accessing businesses and residences by car safer, while simultaneously improving access for emergency vehicles. Alternative 1 has an added benefit of extending existing bike lanes on Fletcher Drive, providing a safer bike connection between Northeast Los Angeles and the L.A. River Bike Path.

I know from driving on Fletcher Drive regularly that existing traffic congestion is not of a level that makes safety improvement prohibitive. The 2 Freeway also parallels this street, providing access for drivers seeking to bypass the area. Right-sizing Fletcher Drive will discourage cut through traffic while improving mobility options for those accessing local businesses in Atwater Village, Frogtown, and Glassell Park.

I urge you to support Alternative 1 to improve the safety of Fletcher Drive.

Sincerely,

[NAME]

[ADDRESS]

Thanks to Michael MacDonald for the heads-up.

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David Drexler did the double on Sunday, taking part in Chartsworth’s Ride the COLT in the morning, before rushing over to participate in the Glendale to Atwater Village CicLAvia in the afternoon.

Where he befriended a bike-riding chicken.

No, seriously.

Here are some of his photos from the COLT ride — and posing with his newfound CicLAvia buddy. You can read his take on CicLAvia here.

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Writing for City Watch, an attorney demonstrates that he didn’t bother to do a basic Google search on road diets before going off on the mayor for inflicting them on the city’s poor, suffering drivers. As well as ranting that LA is being sued for forcing poor, innocent kids to suck in toxic fumes because he — the mayor — insists on putting bike lanes on busy streets.

Because as we all know, little kids are the only ones who ever ride bicycles, especially on busy streets. And no one would ever want to use a bike lane to actually, you know, go somewhere.

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A fundraising account has been established for track cyclist John Walsh, who was seriously injured at the SoCal State championship on Sunday. As of this writing, it has raised nearly $5,000 of the $30,000 goal.

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Local

More semi-NSFW photos from LA’s cheekiest road safety protest ride.

Streetsblog’s Sahra Sulaiman examines the Vision Zero plans to improve safety in South LA.

CiclaValley celebrates the three miles of bike lanes coming to Sepulveda Blvd in the north SFV.

KFI’s John and Ken go off on the road reconfigurations currently underway in Playa del Rey, which seem none too popular with the drivers who used the deadly beachside streets as virtual commuter highways. If you can listen to more than a few minutes of this crap without throwing your device out a window, you’re a stronger person than I am.

Trial began on Monday for a Long Beach man who faces life in prison after getting beaten by police when they stopped him for the crime of riding without a light.

 

State

Wacky Coronado will talk about how bike riders can safely get from here to there; let’s hope the proposed sharrows and greenways don’t make any more residents dizzy.

A Santa Clara driver complains a bicyclist swore at him after he pulled into a bike lane when his car suffered a mechanical problem. Seriously, don’t be a jerk. On the other hand, bike riders might be more understanding of emergencies like that if so many people didn’t drive in bike lanes just because they can.

San Francisco’s bikeshare system begins its expansion throughout the Bay Area.

It takes a major piece of walking human scum to steal the wheels off a ghost bike.

The Woodland branch of a national non-profit donated ten adaptive tricycles to special needs kids.

A Eureka writer says sometimes you have to get back on your bike or stay face down in the gravel. Literally, on occasion.

 

National

Consumer Reports offers tips on the proper care and feeding of your bike helmet.

Steve Katz forwards news of a bizarre case in Austin TX, which began when a driver plowed into a group of cyclists Saturday morning, injuring four, after claiming he’d fallen asleep. And ended when a witness stopped to help, only to have a passenger in the driver’s car steal his Jeep.

A Missouri church took up a collection to buy a new adult tricycle for a special needs man after his was stolen.

Bicycling talks with the survivors of the Kalamazoo massacre one year later.

Chicago finally releases its Vision Zero action plan for the next three years.

A Michigan woman will spend at least three years and three months behind bars for fleeing the scene after seriously injuring a bike rider in a crash, with a blood alcohol level nearly four times the legal limit. So no, WTVB, she’s not headed to jail for merely hitting a bicyclist with her car.

Sad news from New York, where an investment banker was killed by a bus, becoming the first Citi Bike bikeshare rider to be killed since the program was introduced four years and over 43 million rides ago; he’s just the second person killed since bikeshare came to the US in 2010. Thanks to Alan Thompson and Jeff Vaughn for the heads-up.

A Pennsylvania mom plays detective to get her son’s stolen bike back.

A Baltimore letter writer asks if the mayor is trying to drive Millennials out of town by ripping out a protected bike lane.

Miami gets its first protected bike lane. If you can call a lane separated with nothing more than flexible plastic posts “protected.”

A kindhearted Florida deputy gives a man a new bike after his was destroyed in a hit-and-run.

 

International

Architectural Digest ranks the eleven most scenic bike rides in the world, having evidently never ridden through the Rocky Mountains. Or the American prairie, for that matter.

After a British man gets knocked off his bike by a car towing an RV, he gets even by applying the van’s handbrake, and filming the driver’s wheels spinning as he tries to move forward.

Three out of four daily bike riders in Ireland are men. Which is a stat that could be cited, give or take, for virtually any first world country outside northern Europe.

A soccer coach is bicycling the full length of Italy to fulfill a promise after his team avoided relegation.

A look at the 200th anniversary of the bicycle, from the country where it was born.

Iranian women are ignoring a fatwa from the country’s supreme leader prohibiting them from riding bicycles in public, and posting videos of themselves doing it anyway.

A Kazakh tribesman has left his families flocks behind to compete as an amateur cyclist in China.

 

Finally…

Nobody likes bike thieves, but this is going way too far. Your next bike bell could ring inside cars.

And if you think doping is crappy, you may be right.

Or maybe not.

 

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

Morning Links: Opponents call for removal of Venice Great Streets project; Ride the Colt next weekend

June 2, 2017 / / 12 comments

The paint is barely dry on the Venice Blvd Great Streets project in Mar Vista.

Yet already a petition is urging Councilmember Mike Bonin to rip it out, projecting — apparently based on nothing but their own fears — that it will exponentially increase traffic congestion, along with cut-through traffic in the surrounding neighborhood.

And that it is already causing a calamitous decrease in business, as drivers who most likely seldom, if ever, stopped to shop in the area will now avoid it entirely.

Never mind that, as we noted yesterday, the people who actually study such things, based on genuine research rather than mere NIMBY supposition, say the living hell opponents fear is unlikely to actually come to pass.

In fact, a more likely outcome is that the road diet will have little or no effect on travel times, and may actually improve traffic flow, while a more walkable and bikeable street could have a positive effect on local businesses.

But why wait and give it a chance when you can just throw a massive online temper tantrum now?

After all, who cares about little things like greater safety, improved livability, higher property values, fewer commercial vacancies and increased retail sales if it means adding a few more seconds to your commute?

As of this writing, the petition has already seen 630 signatures in six days. A counter petition in support of the project has received 157 signatures since it went online two days ago.

How sad that it’s even necessary.

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If you can’t make it to CicLAvia a week from Sunday, consider riding the COLT in Chatsworth.

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Nice piece from Cycling in the South Bay’s Seth Davidson confirming that bike riders are indeed the best people.

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Local

Los Angeles is testing a reflective street surface in Canoga Park designed to reduce the heat island effect caused by traditional blacktop. Which could mean a more comfortable ride on hot days if it’s successful.

Stay alert when you ride: A woman was attacked by a knife-wielding man while jogging on the bike path along Burbank Blvd near Lake Balboa.

A man was in critical condition after he was shot in the neck yesterday morning while riding his bike near the Lincoln Heights Recreation Center.

Streetsblog reports the Gateway Cities Council of Governments is refusing to commit to funding active transportation, despite the efforts of an environmental justice group and the vulnerability of many of their lower-income residents.

Apparently, the California Coastal Commission would rather keep PCH dangerous than eliminate 675 Malibu parking spaces to improve safety.

A Manhattan Beach city councilman is complaining that Los Angeles should have consulted with his city before trying to save lives on deadly Vista del Mar. Because really, who cares if people die in LA as long as traffic flows smoothly in the South Bay?

Hats off to the South Bay’s Beach Cities Cycling Club for organizing bike safety classes at local grade schools. Although it shouldn’t be left up to bike clubs to do what the school district should already be doing.

Long Beach is set to embark on plans to re-envision the PCH corridor as the city’s new Main Street, including a Complete Streets makeover of the deadly highway.

 

State

Imperial County border town Calexico is working on the first update to its bicycle master plan since 2003.

Ford’s new GoBike bikeshare program is set to expand and replace the existing Bay Area Bike Share, with a 10x increase from 700 to 7,000 bikes, and over 500 docks throughout the area.

San Francisco police say if you see a bike theft in progress, don’t try to intervene, but call the police instead.

Streetsblog takes an anti-bike Marin columnist to task for wrongly asserting that bikes can’t play a roll in solving the county’s transportation issues.

 

National

A new UC San Francisco study shows medical costs from bicycling injuries were over $24.4 billion in 2013, and increasing at a rate of $789 million a year. Which Treehugger says is yet another reason to invest in safe bicycling infrastructure.

Bicycling offers advice on how to get the best deal on a used bike. Presumably without buying someone else’s stolen bike off Craigslist.

Despite international complaints, Orange Theory Fitness continues their orange ghost bike rip-off ad campaign, confusing and angering people in Bend OR.

This is who we share the roads with. A 20-year old Washington father is dead, and his friend injured, after the two Native American tribe members were intentionally run down by a pickup driver in what appears to be a hate attack

You’ve got to be kidding. Life really is cheap in Ohio, where a stoned driver got just 33 days in jail for killing a man on his bike, after pleading down from vehicular homicide and DUI charges. Naturally, he claimed it wasn’t his fault because the sun was in his eyes.

Massachusetts police blame the 78-year old victim in a bike crash for not wearing a helmet. Which wouldn’t have mattered if the speeding driver hadn’t hit him.

A town in Massachusetts installs a new sculpture celebrating cyclists.

Baltimore may halt work on a protected bikeway network after opponents of one bike lane complained that it made the street too narrow for fire trucks.

Nice story about an armless man riding a specially adapted bike and pulling a quadriplegic woman in a trailer behind him as they competed in a 50-mile Florida race.

Nearly 17,000 New Orleans bicyclists signed a petition demanding better protection from the police after a bike rider was nearly paralyzed when he was shot with a pellet gun; five other riders were shot with a paint gun in two separate incidents last month.

 

International

A new study found no link between the use of headphones or talking on a mobile phone and crashes by teenage bicyclists, though it did note a drop in the perception of sounds considered crucial for safe bicycling by riders of all ages.

A Toronto columnist says maybe he should pay more attention to angry drivers when he rides his bike, whether or not they’re right.

Another unintended Brexit consequence — British cyclists may lose their easy access to European bikeways.

Two hundred English cyclists rode 96 kilometers to raise funds in honor of the 96 soccer fans killed in the 1989 Hillsborough Disaster.

A nine-year old girl in the UK raised the equivalent of over $1,500 by riding 20 miles in memory of her little sister, who was born without a windpipe. Did I mention she’s just nine years old?

You’ve got to be kidding, part 2. A British judge told a man who stole a bait bike he just needed to get a job — despite 17 previous convictions, including one for bike theft.

The Bahrain-Merida pro cycling team had ten bikes stolen from the team truck parked outside of their hotel in the Netherlands.

A New Zealand bicyclist says overly courteous drivers are killing her with kindness. Almost literally.

Oddly, when you ride your bike drunk, with no lights or reflectors, and only a cowboy hat (scroll down) in violation of Australia’s mandatory helmet law, a judge may hold you responsible for whatever happens next. Even if your lawyer says cars are “a juggernaut of death.”

 

Finally…

Beware of bike cops if you plan to burgle stripper wear in your undies. If you’re going to break into someone’s home, take a shower, drink their milk and leave a load in their toilet, try not to leave your bicycle behind.

And it’s National Donut Day, which is as good a reason as any to stop for a snack on today’s ride.

 

Category: Morning Links, Streets and Infrastructure / Tags: , , , , , ,
 
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