Tag Archive for road rage

This is who we share the road with, the world’s coolest book bike, and Braves pitchers brave DC streets on bicycles

May 4, 2021 / / Comments Off on This is who we share the road with, the world’s coolest book bike, and Braves pitchers brave DC streets on bicycles

This is who we share the road with.

Inglewood faces a more than $300,000 lawsuit from the City of Los Angeles for a crash allegedly caused by the city’s mayor that left an LAPD motorcycle officer with an undisclosed permanent disability — even though LA rejected the officer’s injury claim.

More details on the Chicago man charged with attempted murder for intentionally driving his car over a median to attack a group of people enjoying a birthday picnic, after allegedly becoming enraged over “yuppies on the boulevard” and their dogs, then brandished a knife until he was disarmed by a passing grandmother. Yes, you read that right.

New York police continue to waffle on the crash that killed a delivery rider, before the driver went on to slam into a pair of parked cars and an outdoor dining area, alternating between calling it road rage and writing it off as a medical episode. Or maybe they think irrational anger behind the wheel is just a medical condition.

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Without a doubt, the coolest book bike ever.

https://twitter.com/dorfman_baruch/status/1389457725868941313

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As long as you’re in DC for the game, might as well play two-wheeled tourists.

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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes is all too real.

There’s a special place in hell for whoever kicked a British man off his bicycle from a passing moped; he was lucky to escape with cuts and scrapes, despite doing around 20 mph at the time of the assault.

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

Mad City cops are on the lookout for a bike-riding bandit who robbed a chain restaurant before fleeing with the cash.

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Local

A pair of short new bike paths have opened in Boyle Heights; they’ll eventually connect to the planned 12-acre Sixth Street PARC (Park, Arts, River and Connectivity Improvements) Project under the new Sixth Street Viaduct.

Once again, the East Side Riders Bike Club demonstrated that they’re far more than what their name implies, teaming with the LA Galaxy and TreePeople to plant shade trees in residential neighborhoods around Watts.

Pasadena Now reports on the city’s plans for four north-south bicycle boulevard corridors, days after getting scooped by Streetsblog.

Whittier is bringing bike cops back to the city’s Uptown area.

Santa Clarita sheriff’s deputies offer advice on how to bike and drive safely during Bike Month. And for a change, the cops mostly get it right.

Santa Monica takes a bold step forward, with the city council voting to close a three-block section of Main Street to motor vehicles on weekends. Let’s hope it proves successful enough to shut the street down entirely. And not just three blocks.

 

State

Streetsblog California highlights Bike Month events around the state, including International Bike to School Day. Which is oddly scheduled for tomorrow, aka Cinco de Mayo, otherwise known as International Drunk Driving Day.

San Diego’s Mayor Gloria announces plans to fix streets in underserved areas, with a $40 million proposal to calm traffic, add bike lanes and repair sidewalks. Albeit under the unfortunate name of “Sexy Streets.”

Berkeley bike cops busted an armed felony suspect who led police on a chase after allegedly ramming his car into another vehicle. Although calling the city’s bike cops the Bike Force makes them sound like Trump’s Space Force on two wheels.

Marin bike riders could see much needed safety improvements on connections to the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge bike path, if the Bay Area’s Metropolitan Transportation Commission approves a $4.3 million state grant.

A passing bike rider discovered a fatal single car crash near Clarksville, after the driver apparently went through a guardrail and into the Sacramento River; there’s no way to know how many people may have driven by without spotting the crash.

 

National

Bicycling looks at the difficulty larger riders have finding a bicycle, which they correctly note is harder than it should be. As usual, you can read it on Yahoo if Bicycling blocks you.

An association of pilots and aircraft owners suggests celebrating Bike Month by tossing your foldie in your plane and taking off. Or at least flying to an airport with bikeshare.

Rolling Stone offers their picks for the best bike locks. And won’t mind if they make a few bucks when you buy one.

Singletracks explains how carbon bike frames break.

The Cherokee Nation introduces the four young women who will take part in this year’s 950-mile Remember the Removal Ride, which roughly follows the northern route of the Trail of Tears, one of the most shameful acts in American history.

A Kentucky family is pushing for a bike helmet mandate for children 12 and under, eleven years after their then-seven-year old son suffered permanent brain damage going over his bike’s handlebars.

Ridership has surged on New York’s formerly contentious Prospect Park West bike lane, with 75,000 riders using it this past March — a jump of 25,000 over pre-pandemic levels.

He gets it, sort of. A Staten Island writer says everyone breaks the law, whether in cars, on bikes or on foot, scooters or mopeds. And says the solution is to just obey the rules and be safer out there. Although a much better solution is to design roads so breaking the rules doesn’t result in broken bodies. Which is the whole premise behind Vision Zero. 

 

International

A writer for Cycling Weekly complains that the sport’s obsession with weight is doing untold damage, and calls for a rebalancing of perspectives on fuelling, physique and performance.

Brompton is auctioning off 13 custom music-themed folding bikes to benefit Crew Nation, a global relief fund assisting live music crew workers affected by the pandemic. Once again, read it on Yahoo if Bicycling blocks you.

Havana, Cuba is taking bids from potential operators of the city’s bikeshare system.

London’s Independent picks the six best gravel bikes for under the equivalent of $1,400. Although they have a little trouble sticking to that price tag.

Here’s another one to add to your bike bucket list, with a 150-mile bike trail that loops around Britain’s Cornwall Coast opening this fall, taking you past “spectacular coastal scenery,” old industrial works and bronze age monuments. Not to mention the westernmost and southernmost points of mainland Britain, and the home turf of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance.

British bicyclists are being urged to get off their bikes and lace up their running shoes in honor of a 27-year old woman who was trying to complete her first 10k when she was killed by police officers responding to an emergency call, and make a donation to a UK diabetes charity in her name.

Moscow is taking advantage of the country’s authoritarian top-down form of government to build a modern, European-style bicycle network throughout the city, unhindered by the usual NIMBYs, who don’t get a say in what gets built or where.

Call it a nightly ciclovia, as Tunisian bike riders take to the streets of Tunis for three glorious hours, with cars banned from the streets between 7 pm and 5 am to combat the coronavirus, while people are allowed out until 10 pm.

A Singapore man has pled guilty to killing a 64-year old bike-riding woman while riding a “grossly non-compliant” e-scooter at speeds of up to 26 mph.

An Aussie writer says Melbourne’s pandemic parklets don’t have to revert back to permanent parking.

 

Competitive Cycling

Mexico’s Elizabeth Rodriguez makes the rare leap from pro cyclist to MMA fighter.

Interesting piece from Cycling Weekly on what separates the best cyclists from the great mass of merely excellent riders.

 

Finally…

Your next ebike doesn’t have to look like one — or weigh like one, either. If you’re riding your bike under the influence, while carrying a concealed pellet gun and brandishing a tomahawk, just…don’t.

And yes, you can do stunts on a gravel bike.

Okay, maybe you can’t.

But still.

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

And get vaccinated, already.

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , ,

LADOT sets priorities for state legislation, driver tries to run down Pasadena bike riders, and fallen DC cop was one of us

February 4, 2021 / / Comments Off on LADOT sets priorities for state legislation, driver tries to run down Pasadena bike riders, and fallen DC cop was one of us

Thanks to all for the kind words after yesterday’s non-post.

My pain is back down to a more normal — and more tolerable — level, so let’s get on with it. 

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Looks like they finally get it.

LADOT has released their legislative priorities for the coming year, which they’ll take to the state legislature if the Los Angeles City Council gives the okay.

1 – Reforming state law, allowing LA to lower speed limits (it’s crazy, but today LA doesn’t have control over its own speed limits, and even has to raise speed limits on already dangerous roads!)

2 – Automating speeding tickets using speed safety cameras. Speed is the #1 factor in determining if someone lives or dies when hit by a car, and speed cameras are a proven solution to reduce excessive speeding. Armed officers must be removed from traffic law enforcement, and this is a great way to do it. LADOT has a thoughtful proposal that takes into account privacy and makes sure the burden doesn’t fall disproportionately on communities that can least afford it.

3 – Increase legal protections for the most vulnerable road users(pedestrians and cyclists). This would increase civil fines and penalties in the event of crashes caused by carelessness or driver distraction (ex. texting).

4 – Get rid of handicap placard abuse by reforming the benefits they provide and increasing enforcement, so we can preserve handicap spots for those that truly need it.

Throw in new laws to target the hit-and-run epidemic crippling Los Angeles bike riders and pedestrians — too often literally — and they might be on to something.

Streets For All is asking everyone to submit a comment to the council in support of the LADOT agenda.

You can find a sample comment template here, and use this link to submit your comments.

And if you want to call on the council to add a fifth priority to address hit-and-run, I won’t complain.

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A report has been circulating on Nextdoor about a driver intentionally trying to run down and brake check a pair of Pasadena bike riders.

I’ve obscured the license plate number since I have no way of verifying the report.

But keep your eyes open if you ride in the area.

And let’s hope the victims reported it to the police, because this is a crime — end could have easily been much worse.

Thanks to Steve Messer for the heads-up.

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Zachary Rynew calls out the sexism that’s been baked into the popular Belgian Waffle Ride in years past.

And which, like podium girls, doesn’t belong in cycling, period.

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That’s easy. All of them.

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Looks like fallen Officer Brian Sicknick, who gave his life defending the US Capital from insurrectionists on January 6th, was one of us.

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One hundred-year old Captain Sir Tom Moore was one of us, too.

The bike-riding WWII vet raised the equivalent of nearly $45 million for the UK’s National Health Service by walking laps across his backyard.

Sadly, he died Tuesday after catching Covid-19.

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Thanks to BikeSD for today’s history lesson, and shining a light on a Black woman we should all be thankful for.

And someone I’d never heard of before.

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Zwift invites you to pedal along with top Black cyclists like Nelson Vails, Rahsaan Bahati and Ama Nsek of LA’s L39ION of Los Angeles team in a virtual ride through New York.

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

No bias here. British radio personality Nick Ferrari, a regular critic of bicycling, said London’s Low Traffic Neighborhoods are a form of apartheid. Never mind that he lives on one himself.

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

A British man denied selling an ebike allegedly used in a fatal shooting to cover-up for his nephews accused of the crime.

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Local

Hats off to LA’s Michael Park, who’s giving back to the community by leading a crew of bike riders in feeding the homeless in Koreatown twice a week. As usual, you can read it on Yahoo if Bicycling’s site blocks you.

Metro Bike is offering a discounted bikeshare membership to essential workers for just $75 for a full year.

Good news for the San Gabriel Valley, after Metro approved $12 million for active transportation projects in South Pasadena and Monterey Park.

A Santa Clarita bike rider was hospitalized with unknown injuries after getting struck by a driver; no word on the victim’s condition.

 

State

A new bill in the state legislature, AB 117, would create a $10 million, five-and-a-half-year ebike rebate program for California bike riders, using money from California’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. So keep your fingers crossed. Or better yet, contact your representatives in Sacramento.

San Jose police released security cam video of the crash that killed a bike rider early Sunday morning; police are looking for a black Chevrolet Silverado with a bed cover and likely front-end damage.

A San Francisco supervisor calls for kicking out Lyft’s for-profit bikeshare, and turning it into a city-owned and potentially city-operated service.

Northern California bike shop owner Dennis Uphoff died last month after he was injured in his home; he was 69.

Police in Manteca are asking for a meaningful dialog with organizers of a series of mass bike rides involving mostly tween and teen riders, after accusing the riders of being “outright rude,” “blatantly defiant to orders” and spewing profanities at officers who try to rein them in.

 

National

Staffers from the recently defunct Bike Mag are starting a new mountain bike publication, called Beta.

Good piece from Cycling Tips Angry Asian saying it’s time to cut out the cancer of criticizing other bike riders for not doing it right or arguing that one kind of bicycling is better than any other.

The Portland driver who deliberately ran down numerous bike riders and pedestrians in a wild 15-block rampage, killing one and injuring at least ten others, has been hit with a well-deserved 31-count indictment, including a second degree murder charge.

New Las Vegas billboards tell drivers to change lanes to pass people on bicycles.

A Kansas City advocacy group is calling on the city to decriminalize walking and biking by repealing laws that have been used to target Black and brown people.

New York’s Suffolk County is confronting complaints about teen bicyclists swarming the streets by banning trick riding, weaving or zig-zagging “unless necessary,” as well as requiring a horn or bell, at least one hand on the handlebars, and no more than one person per bicycle, along with a raft of other requirements.

New York’s new transportation commissioner promises to install 10,000 new bike racks across the city, leaving it only a few million short of what’s needed to accommodate the city’s bike riders.

DC’s Vision Zero program actually has some teeth, requiring that any construction work on streets “pre-identified as a candidate for a protected bike lane, bus-only lane or private-vehicle-free corridor” has to include it in the final project.

The Maryland bike rider who assaulted a group of teens and ripped up the Black Lives Matter fliers they were posting along a bike path last year has walked with probation after apologizing for his actions.

Bike riders in DC fear the security fencing installed in the wake of the attack on the US Capitol on January 6th will make their commutes more dangerous.

The coronavirus bike boom — and Democrat takeover of DC — leads to the reintroduction of two bills that died in last-term’s GOP-controlled Senate, to make bikeshare programs eligible for federal transportation funding and reinstate and improve the bicycle commuter tax benefit.

Virginia’s comprehensive bike safety bill, which includes the Idaho Stop law, passed the state house and moves on to the Senate.

 

International

Cyclist explains how to clean your bike in the time it takes to make a cup of tea. A standard of measurement that may be meaningless to most people on this side of the Atlantic.

A science website says drop your car and get on your bike if you really want to cut your greenhouse gas emissions.

A Guatemalan bike rider is fighting hunger by trading donated books for food to distribute to the needy.

North Vancouver is doubling the current $100 fine for blocking a bike lane, while banning “stopping, parking or otherwise impeding a mobility lane.”

A British man has founded a charity to give bikes to cancer patients to help them recover, crediting bicycling with helping him overcome his illness.

A pair of brothers in the UK are on trial for the alleged racist murder of a Black man to steal his bicycle.

Crashes involving bike riders more than doubled in Brussels over the past decade, with 72% involving a motor vehicle last year.

A group of female journalists and activists broke with taboos to hold northeastern Syria’s first women’s bike race to encourage women to ride bicycles and promote green transportation.

A surprising three-quarters of Aussie bike riders say they’ve been the victim of road raging drivers. The only real surprise is that the number is so low.

 

Competitive Cycling

American cyclist Quinn Simmons appears to be back in the good graces of his Trek-Segafredo team; the 19-year junior world champ will make his Paris-Roubaix and Tour of Flanders debuts after being suspended last year for an online comment in support of Donald Trump that was widely seen as racist and divisive.

Zwift has banned two more virtual cyclists for cyber doping by falsifying ride data.

 

Finally…

Probably not the best idea to steal a bike from the local police. Bike tattoos are forever — especially the truly cringeworthy kind.

And that’s one way to make sure drivers pass safely.

https://twitter.com/CyclingContessa/status/1356625738238025730

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

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

Speeding ebike riders put others at risk, Times equates chokeholds with scuffed shoes, and driver flashes gun at bicyclists

July 13, 2020 / / 5 comments

Let’s start with this note from frequent link contributor Victor Bale.

I needed a break from the heat of the Coachella Valley so I spent Thursday thru today at the Balboa Peninsula of Newport Beach. I rode the length of the boardwalk all the way to Sunset Beach and other bike trails every day and I was struck by how many ebikes I saw. They were everywhere and here’s a couple of thoughts.

I love that ebikes are bringing new blood to the sport but I was bothered by the recklessness of “some” of the cyclists.

Many were traveling at speeds totally inappropriate (the speed limit on the boardwalk is 8 MPH) to a narrow boardwalk full of families walking, cyclists on beach cruisers, very young kids cycling or on scooters and seniors out for a lesurely stroll.

I watched as a young man knocked over a woman riding a beach cruiser. No harm to her other than road rash but she was lucky. When he passed me he was using throttle only and exceeding 20 MPH. I watched as people were cut off. I watched as ebikes rode on the boardwalk paperboy style at high speeds just to show off. It was crazy. I’m surprised high profile accidents haven’t happened yet.

Nobody likes onerous regulations and enforcement but I worry about what the future will bring if something isn’t done now about regulating ebikes and ebike usage. It’s only a matter of time before an ebike rider kills a pedestrian (if it hasn’t happened already).

Take that as a warning.

Coastal cities have cracked down on bike riders exceeding the admittedly exceedingly low speed limits on the beachfront boardwalks. And will undoubtedly do it again if they think things are getting out of control.

Never mind that it takes a major jerk to zip blithely along while putting everyone else at risk.

And while I’m not aware of anyone being killed or seriously injured by an ebike rider in Southern California, it has happened in other cities.

So slow the eff down, already.

Photo by Maxfoot from Pixabay.

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There’s something seriously wrong when a movie critic for the LA Times equates an “[expletive], entitled bicyclist who scuffs Buggin’ Out’s pristine Jordans,” with cops killing Black men with chokeholds.

Maybe someone should tell him there’s a difference between being an obnoxious jerk and, you know, actually killing someone.

Or maybe the Times should just do the right thing and remove this one.

Thanks to Sean Meredith for the heads-up.

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If you can’t afford to fix your bike, Pasadena wants to help.

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The Black Lives Matter movement isn’t stopping, with at least two bike rides to honor Breonna Taylor this weekend, in Richmond VA and Grand Rapids MI.

There was a similar ride in Los Angeles over the weekend, but it doesn’t seem to be online yet.

Meanwhile, police in Ottawa, Canada apologized to a Black bike rider who stopped to rest on a bridge, only to have a white woman call 911 to demand he get off so she could pass uninhibited.

https://twitter.com/IceFresh2/status/1280214101516574725?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1280214101516574725%7Ctwgr%5E&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffingtonpost.ca%2Fentry%2Fottawa-911-police-karen-black-man_ca_5f08e5f2c5b67a80bc076ae5

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GCN says wheel weight doesn’t matter after all.

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

An ugly incident caught on video, as a couple of bicyclists confronted a Florida driver who passed too close, and told them to stay the fuck off the road — and brandished a gun as he got out of his SUV. Or maybe not; it’s possible he was just putting it in his pocket as he got out, as he claimed.

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

San Francisco authorities are looking for a bike-riding gunman who shot a 44-year old man as he was walking along the street.

Bicycles seem to have become the getaway vehicle of choice, as the FBI looks for a weaponless bike rider who robbed a Chicago area bank.

Meanwhile, Milwaukee police are looking for a knife-wielding man who rode off on a bike after stealing merchandise from a pair of stores.

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Local

The LA Galaxy is teaming with the East Side Riders for a bike ride from Watts to Dignity Health Sports Park for the Galaxy’s match with LAFC this Saturday.

El Monte officially unveiled the new San Gabriel Valley ebike bikeshare, which will eventually grow to 840 bicycles.

Caltrans and Malibu will host a Zoom meeting Wednesday evening to discuss replacing the narrow bridge over Trancas Creek on PCH, including bike lanes and shoulders in both directions, as well as a westbound right turn lane onto Trancas Canyon Road.

Gerard Butler is one of us, as is his former model and house-flipping girlfriend Morgan Brown.

 

State

The San Diego Bicycle Coalition is offering a number of bike education classes over the next ten days, starting with one tonight.

Speaking of San Diego, the city has ordered cafes to remove outdoor tables that were blocking a bike lane.

Hundreds of young Santa Barbara bike riders turned out for an officially unsanctioned Familia Rideout on Saturday, though masks and social distancing appeared to be largely forgotten.

A bike-riding woman in Contra Costa County suffered major head injuries in a collision with a driver, although the Mercury News appeared to blame her for colliding with the car.

A San Francisco man is putting his lockdown time to good use by putting discarded and unloved bicycles back on the road.

 

National

Cycling Savvy offer tips on how to stay safe riding on a bike path.

Forbes suggests the best bikewear and accessories for women, apparently based on the mistaken assumption that everyone wants to sport spandex and ride roadies. And despite what the caption says, a bicycle is all you really need to start riding. So don’t let that other crap get in your way; you can always get it later if you want.

Popular Science continues their unexpected bike theme, explaining how to carry just about anything on your bike with a rack and some bungee cords. And offers tips on how to avoid common beginner’s mistakes.

Bicycling considers how to find the best bike routes when you’re far from home.

Stranger Things star Millie Bobby Brown is one of us, though she’s definitely not in the spandex camp, with her bigass all-turquoise fat tire ebike.

Tragic news from Glendale AZ, where a man and woman were both killed when a driver slammed into their bikes as they rode together.

A Denver weekly examines the worst habits of pandemic drivers. Which would be all of them. Habits, that is. And drivers.

Tragic news from Laredo, Texas, where a 77-year old man died five weeks after he was beaten by two men who stole his bike after accusing him of breaking a window.

Great story about a Milwaukee bus driver who bought a ten-year old boy a new bicycle after he kept her company when her bus broke down.

Minnesota Public Radio talks with British bike scribe and historian Carlton Reid about the coronavirus bike boom, as officials belatedly discover that people actually prefer clean air to heavy traffic.

For the first time, an 89-year old Ohio man opted not to ride his 1936 Shelby bicycle in the local parade, riding in a trailer instead while his grandkids rode his antique bikes.

Dockless Jump ebikes are returning to the streets of DC, just weeks after the company murdered tens of thousands of the bikes.

J.Lo is still one of us, even if she switched to an ElliptiGo for a ride through Miami this weekend.

Motocross rider Mike Alessi was lucky to escape with cuts, road rash and a cranial hematoma when he was run down from behind by a hit-and-run driver while training on his road bicycle in Florida; while he’s relatively okay, his bike was trashed.

 

International

You could soon be riding on dandelions.

Once again, bike riders are heroes, nine times over, as bicyclists around the world stepped up to make a difference during the coronavirus lockdown.

In a move that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago, London is removing parking in the history City district to install bike corrals to accommodate the rising numbers of bike riders using the city’s expanding bike network. Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, it seems to still be unthinkable.

Life is cheap in the UK, where a driver stoned on the opiate painkiller dihydrocodeine, as well as coke, weed and morphine, got just over two lousy years behind bars for killing a man riding his bike.

He gets it. Former Tour de France winner Geraint Thomas tells British GQ how to get started riding a bicycle, starting by suggesting a secondhand bike, without a single mention of spandex or high end gear.

An Irish writer says bring back the bicycle, suggesting we’d all be better off if we rode our bikes instead of driving whenever possible.

Bologna, Italy introduced a new campaign to get more people out on their bikes following the Covid-19 lockdown. Although the best way to do that is to provide more popup bike lanes, exactly like Los Angeles isn’t doing.

Covid-19 has brought Karachi, Pakistan back to the bicycling city it used to be before cars and security concerns chased people off the streets.

No more handheld cellphones while you ride your bike in Singapore after this month.

A New Zealand woman tells drivers an extra minute won’t kill them, but it could kill someone else — like it did her late husband, who died five days after he was run down by a truck driver. They’d been riding together ever since they met while bicycling across Canada 23 years ago; now she doesn’t know how she can ride again without him.

 

Competitive Cycling

A British semi-pro cycling champ credits an air ambulance with saving his life after he was hit by a dump truck while rounding a blind bend on a group ride.

PBS catches up with the pretend virtual Tour de France.

Cycling Weekly tracks down the virtual cyclists who virtually beat the virtually riding pros, and begs for their secrets.

 

Finally…

Political dirty tricks have seeped down to the animal kingdom, with a chipmunk attack on a bike-riding Democratic candidate. Apparently iguanas are out to get us, too.

And you don’t have to understand Italian to get the official song of the Giro.

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

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

Oakland settles Biking While Black bust, bicycles don’t cause congestion, and woman on bike shoots road raging driver

July 2, 2020 / / One comment

My apologies for yesterday’s unexcused absence.

You know I’m having problems when I can’t even manage to post to say I won’t be posting anything. 

On another note, remember that tomorrow is a legal holiday.

It’s hard to say what it will be like in this extremely effed-up year, but three-day holidays usually mean an increase in traffic the afternoon before as people get off work early to get a jump on the weekend — often after stopping for a drink.

Or several. 

Those who still have jobs, anyway. 

So just be careful if you’re riding this afternoon. 

Use a little extra caution, ride defensively and watch out for careless drivers. Because they won’t be watching for you.

Photo by Ana Arantes from Pexels.

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Oakland officials reached a $147,500 settlement with Najari Smith, the founder of Richmond’s Rich City Rides bike co-op.

Smith was arrested, but never charged, for resisting arrest when cops accused him of playing music too loudly while on a group ride, even though witnesses reported he responded to them respectfully.

Richmond’s mayor said arrest of the respected community leader was nothing more than a case of Biking While Black.

Police also destroyed his bicycle and the bike trailer he used to tow the sound system he routinely used when leading group rides, for no apparent reason.

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No surprise here. Unless you’re a driver.

Bike riders have been urging motorists to be patient for years, insisting that the time they spend following a bike rider only amounts to a few seconds out of their day.

Turns out, we were right.

Writing for Forbes, Carlton Reid explains that a new Portland study confirms bike riders don’t cause traffic congestion, despite the common perception. And that any loss of time caused by someone on a bike is “negligible.”

“Bicycles are not likely to lead to reduced passenger car travel speed, despite their differences in performance capabilities,” says the study, conducted in Portland, Oregon, on roads without bicycle lanes.

“Bicycles do not reduce passenger car speeds by more than 1 mph,” add the study authors concluding that cyclists are not guilty of “negatively affecting travel speed or creating congestion.”

That negligible delay also means the common argument that bicycles cause increased auto emissions by delaying traffic is just so much smoke.

“A general concern of motorists [concerning] the presence of bicycles on roads without bicycle lanes is that they will impede motor vehicles because of their differing performance characteristics, which may serve to increase congestion and vehicle emissions,” explained the study, finding that a 1 mph differential in speed caused by the presence of cyclist would not cause congestion.

And by not being a cause of congestion, cyclists’ presence on roads is not a cause of increased emissions from motorists, either.

It also means that the common motorist maneuver of speeding up to pass someone on a bike, then cutting back in front of them — referred to here as MGIF, or “must get in front” — is just a needless waste of effort that increases danger for everyone on the road.

So the next time you have an impatient driver on your ass, keep your finger holstered. And tell them to just take a breath and get over it, already.

Yeah, that’ll work.

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I don’t even know what to make of this one.

A Detroit driver is dead after an apparent road rage dispute with a man and woman riding bikes.

When the driver pulled over and got out of his car, armed with a knife, the woman pulled out a gun and shot him dead. Which sounds like self-defense.

And yes, she had a permit for a concealed weapon.

Although someone should tell Detroit’s Fox-2 that it was a bike-riding woman who pulled the trigger, not merely “the cyclist’s girlfriend.”

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Looks like Calbike is finally endorsing speed cams.

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I want to be like her when I grow up.

Happy birthday to 1930’s Hollywood star Olivia de Havilland, who’s still one of us, even at the ripe old age of 104.

https://twitter.com/_AngelaLansbury/status/1278291007109464065

Thanks to Tim Rutt for the heads-up.

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A new ad for Dutch ebike maker VanMoof was banned by French advertising authorities, after apparently hitting the auto industry a little too close to home.

Although by banning it, they simply ensured that it will be seen by an exponentially greater number of people.

Speaking of VanMoof, they’ve been honored with a prestigious design award for the year’s best ebike designs.

Thanks to David Wolfberg for the tip.

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This is who we share the roads with.

https://twitter.com/GentesSinSuerte/status/1277774192801460225

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Is it bad luck to almost run over a bear with your bike, or good luck you didn’t hit him?

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

Speaking of Biking While Black, a London bike rider was stopped by a cop for “anti-social behavior,” accused of not wearing a helmet and hi-viz, or having a license on his bike. None of which are required in the UK.

………

Local

Remember, you can get free 30 minute rides on LA’s Metro Bike bikeshare this weekend, starting Saturday. Or save up to a third off monthly or yearly passes.

Britain’s Prince Harry is one of us, after he was spotted, but not photographed, riding at Surfrider Beach in the ‘Bu. Hard to believe the paparazzi actually missed a celebrity, and a formerly royal one at that. And note to Hollywood Life: Merely stopping to watch the waves does not a surfer make.

 

State

You can drive a stake through the heart of California’s auto-centric focus on Level of Service, aka LOS, as the state replaces it with the more accurate Vehicle Miles Traveled, or VMT, which takes into account all forms of travel.

A San Diego pediatrician is back riding his bike a month after he had titanium rods attached to his spine, after fracturing three vertebrae when he stepped in to protect a security guard who was being attacked by a patient at La Mesa’s Sharp Grossmont Hospital.

California’s switch from LOS to VMT may be intended to reduce traffic, but don’t expect to see sidewalks and bike lanes in San Diego County’s backcountry.

Ventura County will join Los Angeles County, and most of Orange County, in shutting down the beaches over the 4th of July holiday weekend, including  many beachfront bike paths.

A Lodi bike rider remains in critical condition after he was struck by a driver on Sunday.

 

National

A writer for Forbes offers advice for women on how to buy a road bike. Assuming you can actually find one these days. A bike, that is. Although women are getting harder to find, too. 

A bike and donut date with her son teaches a mother that every day is an opportunity for a “once in a lifetime” moment.

Livestrong is still around, apres Lance, and has suggestions on what bike bags to buy.

Arizona traffic fatalities dropped to a three-year low in 2019; however, bicycling deaths were up, despite a decline in bicycle crashes.

A Denver TV station says not only are bikes in short supply now, but getting one in time for Christmas may be a challenge.

Unbelievable. A Kansas City TV station reports a 15-year old kid was killed by an “on-duty vehicle” belonging to the US Service. But takes until the very last line of the story to mention that the vehicle had a driver.

NFL Hall of Fame running back Emmitt Smith is one of us, as he shares his interval workout with Bicycling, and discusses his Dallas-based fondo. Thanks to Jeff Vaughn for the link.

There is something seriously wrong with anyone who could run down a 13-year old kid and leave him to die on a Chicago street; the driver now faces two well-deserved felony counts for leaving the scene and failing to report the crash, as well as a pair of misdemeanors. To make matters worse, the boy was killed just after getting his first bicycle.

This is the definition of tragic irony. A woman who was critically injured in a collision with a Chicago Department of Transportation truck driver while riding her bike works as a safe streets ambassador for the department.

The Detroit News says the Covid-19 pandemic is pushing American cities to adopt a Copenhagen-style bicycle model. Someone tell that to LA’s “climate mayor.” Please.

A coalition of current and former staffers called on Bike New York, the nation’s largest bicycle education program, to do more to become actively anti-racist.

An Atlanta bike rider is a hero after loaning his bicycle to a cop in foot pursuit of a murder suspect on a local bike path; the suspect is now in custody on a murder charge.

A pair of Florida sheriff’s departments are the proud recipients of two dozen police fat tire ebikes, courtesy of country music star Brian Kelly of the group Florida Georgia Line.

 

International

A Calgary nonprofit donated 190 bicycles to local families, in part to keep kids from sitting at home stressing about the coronavirus.

Ford is updating a European campaign urging drivers to share the road, and keep bike and e-scooter riders safe in the age of Covid-19.

London drivers are dealing with popup bike lanes by driving onto sidewalks to get around barricades.

Britain’s Daily Mail offers a panicky report that e-scooters will be legal in the country as of Saturday, fearing that cities will be overrun and people may die. Never mind that the biggest risk scooter riders face comes from drivers, not scooters.

A British railway worker is being hailed as a hero after interrupting a bike thief, then sticking around after his shift to look after the bike and ensure it got back to its owner.

Bike-friendly Paris now has an e-bikeshare service. Which is more than can be said for Los Angeles these days after Jump’s retreat from the market.

Thirty-one miles of Parisian popup bike lanes are expected to be made permanent following the reelection of Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo.

A new ranking of the world’s top 90 cities for bicyclists named Utrecht the world’s best bike city, topping Munster, Antwerp, Copenhagen and Amsterdam. The top US city was San Francisco at 39, followed by Portland at 41; shockingly, Los Angeles actually made the list at 57.

The Netherlands’ famously helmet-free reputation could be due for a shakeup, after a think tank recommended that the country mandate bike helmets for children and ebike riders.

 

Competitive Cycling

No surprise here, as the US national championships have been cancelled for this year for every category except collegiate cycling, marathon mountain biking and cyclocross; the current champs get to hold onto their titles for another year.

 

Finally…

Call it virtual virtual cycling. Your next ebike could be made of wood. Except for the motor, of course. And the tires. And the chain. Probably the gears, too.

And they get it.

https://twitter.com/BritishCycling/status/1278349622688260096?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1278349622688260096%7Ctwgr%5E&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Froad.cc%2Fcontent%2Fnews%2Fcycling-live-blog-1-july-2020-275047

………

Thanks again to Matthew R for his generous monthly donation to support this site, and keep it coming your way every day. 

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

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

Garden Grove bike rider critical after alleged DUI hit-and-run, coronavirus hits bike world, and NoHo road rage on video

March 4, 2020 / / One comment

Once again, an alleged Orange County drunk driver fled the scene after slamming into someone on a bicycle.

The Monday night crash in Garden Grove left a man in critical condition with major head trauma.

And yes, the victim reportedly had the right-of-way.

Not that it mattered.

Garden Grove resident Victor Medina was arrested a quarter-mile away when police found his Chevy Suburban with major front-end damage, while Medina showed signs of intoxication.

Anyone with information is urged to call Garden Grove Traffic Investigator Paul Ashby at 714/741-5823.

Let’s hope the victim makes a full and fast recovery.

Image by 4711018 from Pixabay.

………

The COVID-19 coronavirus continues to take a toll on this year’s cycling season.

Italian spring classics Strade Bianche, Tirreno-Adratico and Milan-San Remo may be the latest victims of the virus, as reports circulate that they will be cancelled to prevent spread of the disease.

France’s Paris-Nice stage race will go on, but all teams will be tested for exposure to coronavirus.

The Tokyo Olympics could be postponed until the end of the year.

Another six people have tested positive for coronavirus following the cancellation of the UAE Tour. Three teams remain quarantined, while a fourth is in self-imposed isolation.

The annual North American Handmade Bicycle Show has been postponed until August, in hopes that COVID-19 will run its course by then.

And Monterey, California’s annual Sea Otter Classic is still on for now, though organizers are closely monitoring the situation before next month’s event.

Meanwhile, an SFist op-ed suggests working from home and walking or biking everywhere.

In other words, what some of us do every day, anyway. Virus or not.

………

A quick reminder that CicLAvia isn’t the only open streets game in town.

………

This is who we share the roads with, North Hollywood edition.

https://twitter.com/BENBALLER/status/1235013923193012224

………

Local

An “historic” former Silver Lake gas station will presumably be disassembled and moved to a new spot somewhere on the LA River to serve as a concession stand, bike repair and rental station — if an appropriate spot can be found.

Self-driving cars may not be ready for primetime, but WeHo will now allow autonomous Postmates delivery robots on the sidewalks.

Don Ward, Jesi Harris, Shane Phillips and CiclaValley’s Zachary Rynew talk housing and transportation on the latest Bike Talk podcast. 

Speaking of Rynew, he’s quickly becoming Southern California’s bard of gravel as he documents Gravel Bike California’s Verdugo Adventure.

 

State

Kindhearted Paso Robles residents dug into their pockets to buy a new adaptive bicycle for a four-year old girl with a rare genetic disorder.

A Livermore teenager got his hot bike back after police stopped a man who was pushing it while acting strangely.

A new interactive map shows the most dangerous places for bike riders in Santa Clara County. Although Robert Leone questions whether defense lawyers will use it to argue that bicyclists should have known better than to ride there. Or that their clients can’t be guilty, because officials should have fixed the problems right away. Which they should, but still.

A bike helmet handed out a year ago by a Sacramento police detective is credited with possibly saving a young girl’s life in a crash that was investigated by the same officer who gave it to her.

 

National

A writer for Streetsblog argues that right-of-way laws are where America went wrong.

Residents of a Las Vegas neighborhood want a new bike lane removed because they didn’t see a lot of bike riders riding there before it went in. Which is kind of like saying they didn’t see a lot of cars crossing the desert before the roads were built, either.

Life is cheap in Iowa, where a retired cop walked with a shameful two years probation for the hit-and-run death of a man riding a bicycle. If you ever wonder why people keep dying on our streets, the failure of our court system to hold drivers accountable for killing people — let alone fleeing the scene afterwards — is Exhibit A.

A Licensed Cycling Instructor in Missouri realizes, perhaps belatedly, that bikes are good for transportation as well as recreation.

According to a writer for Streetsblog, alleviating the “financial burden of car ownership” should be part of the Chicago mayor’s plan to end poverty in the city.

A writer in Martha’s Vineyard recalls an 1896 bicycling event that reportedly devolved into a disgraceful, disorderly riot of drunken orgies and property destruction. So in other words, nothing’s changed in the past 124 years.

A Rochester NY public radio station discusses the city’s bike culture and the need to share the road, in the wake of the pizza driver who hit a bike rider, then sued him for damage to his car.

No bias here. A Staten Island op-ed argues that speed cameras placed near schools are just a money grab, because if officials really wanted drivers to slow down, they’d say where the cameras are. That way drivers could slow down for half a block to avoid a ticket, then speed up and resume putting the lives of little kids at risk.

A DC councilmember pulls a proposal for a protected bike lane in the face of opposition from several nearby African American churches.

 

International

Cycling Weekly suggests making your own environmentally friendly degreaser. Although the greasy gunk it removes won’t be.

After a Swiss round-the-world bicyclist had his $8,000 Surly stolen in New Zealand, a Good Samaritan gave him his own nearly identical bike to finish the ride.

Credit a crash with a bike rider for helping doctors discover a benign brain tumor that had plagued an Australian woman’s health for years.

Here’s another one for your bike bucket list — riding the “roller coaster roads, dirt trails and empty beaches” of southeast Thailand.

 

Competitive Cycling

Sad news, as former pro Nicolas Portal, director sportif of the Ineos cycling team, died in his home of an apparent heart attack; he was just 40.

Orange County’s Over the Hump mountain bike race series returns on May 5th.

VeloNews looks at San Diego County’s nine-year old Belgian Waffle Ride, calling it a “brutal mix of Liége-Bastogne-Liége and Il Lombardia, only with a heavy dusting of dirt and trail,” while riders describe it as wild ride that defies definition.

 

Finally…

If you’re carrying stolen salmon filets on your bike, don’t ride that way — and put a damn light on it. If you’re going to ride a stationary bike, you might as well make margaritas while you’re at it.

And as a matter of fact, I have seen a drag queen riding in a bike lane in West Hollywood.

More than once.

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

Morning Links: Killer road-raging SoCal drivers, and parolee charged in Escondido death of fallen cyclist Kevin Lentz

January 22, 2020 / / Comments Off on Morning Links: Killer road-raging SoCal drivers, and parolee charged in Escondido death of fallen cyclist Kevin Lentz

They drive among us.

A couple of bizarre non-bike road rage incidents illustrate just who we share the roads with.

In a truly strange, tragic and confusing case in my own neighborhood, a 26-year old mother is dead after rear-ending a motorcyclist, then getting run over by her own passenger after she got out to argue with the man on the motorbike when he followed them home.

The passenger ran away after killing her friend. Literally.

And there’s a special place in hell for the road raging Corona resident who inexplicably went ballistic over the age-old Ding Dong Ditch prank, jumping into his car and ramming a car filled with six teenage boys as they tried to escape him.

Anurang Chandra could face multiple counts of murder and assault with a deadly weapon after three of the boys were killed when their car went off the road and slammed into a tree.

Seriously, people, just chill already.

Motor vehicles bring out the worst in far too many people. Myself included.

One of the many reasons I quit driving was that I may be Bruce Banner on my bike or in a bus, but you wouldn’t like me behind the wheel.

And I didn’t, either.

Photo by Wendy Corniquet from Pixabay.

………

A prison parolee will stand trial for the drunk and stoned crash that killed mountain biker Kevin Lentz in Escondido last November.

Jamison Connor faces ten charges, including vehicular manslaughter, hit-and-run and driving under the influence, as well as drug and weapons violations.

He also faces a single count of child endangerment for allowing his four-year old son to sit unrestrained in the car as he fled the scene after — allegedly — killing Lentz.

Never mind the meth and loaded semi-automatic police found in his pickup when they busted him.

………

Unlike Los Angeles under current international Climate Mayor Eric Garcetti, the former Climate Mayor is making great strides in reimagining the streets of Paris and the city as a whole.

………

Call it Peloton’s revenge for the bikelash over the now-infamous Peloton Wife commercial.

So maybe FedEx is just trying to keep up.

Thanks to Jeff Vaughn for the first link.

………

Your next DIY ebike could be solar powered. As long as you don’t mind hauling a bigass bike trailer everywhere you go.

………

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

Florida police are looking for a bike-riding robber who holds-up people parking their cars in a Tampa parking garage, then makes his getaway on his bike.

………

Local

New advocacy group Streets for All will meet this Tuesday to discuss a campaign for a Venice Blvd Complete Street.

A ghost bike will be placed in Arleta this Thursday in honor of fallen bike rider Jesus “Gallo” Urbina, who was killed while using his bike to deliver water to some homeless friends.

 

State

San Diego is still struggling to cut pedestrian deaths, despite a Vision Zero pledge to end all traffic-related deaths in the next five years. Judging by recent news, they’re not doing so good on the bike front, either.

A new poll shows San Diegans overwhelmingly oppose installing bike lanes at the expense of parking spaces, and want to keep e-scooters, but impose stricter regulations on them.

An Embarcadero restaurant is endangering San Francisco bike riders by continuing to place its valet stand directly in the bike lane, while a protected bike lane currently being built stops just short of the restaurant.

 

National

In a story that could be a ripped from the headlines look at LA’s own mayor, Fast Company says there’s a “big disconnect between what mayors want in terms of street design and what they’re actually willing to support to make it happen.” Except virtually no one in LA is writing headlines about the mayor’s failure to support his own Great Streets, Complete Streets and Vision Zero programs. Except yours truly, of course.

Terrano is offering a 25% discount on their cycling communications and bluetooth system, for hands-free communications with other riders on the road.

It takes a major schmuck to steal a Portland man’s bicycle on the one-year anniversary of his kayaking death on the Hood River. Then again, it takes a major schmuck to steal a bike, period.

A New York congressman swears he supports bike lanes, despite a racially charged King Day speech accusing them of causing gentrification. So he says bike lanes cause gentrification, and he supports bike lanes. Which would seem to suggest he supports gentrification, too.

Los Angeles Laker LeBron James announced he was teaming with Lyft to give free bikeshare memberships to kids at the Harlem YMCA; he also called for a better bike lane network in the Big Apple. Let’s hope someday he’ll address the lack of safe bike lanes in his new hometown, too.

Apparently, getting a driver’s license suspended in Florida is the end of life as we know it. While most of us can empathize with someone who can’t afford to pay a traffic fine, there are valid alternatives to driving that lots of people actually use in real life.

 

International

A 26-year old woman who campaigned to halt violence against women in Juarez, Mexico became the latest victim, when she was shot in the back of the head while riding her bike home in Downtown Juarez; nearly 180 women were murdered in the city last year.

A writer for the Daily Mail complains about the sexual harassment women like her face riding London’s Tube, and says women on bicycles don’t have it any better. Seriously guys, just knock it the fuck off, and start treating women like human beings for a change.

The bighearted English man who reunited a stolen bike with its original owner after buying it for the equivalent of around a hundred bucks has become an internet hero, earning a shoutout from rapper Stormzy.

If you’re looking for bike-friendly cities in the UK, skip Manchester and head straight to Lancaster.

Girls riding bikes isn’t news. Unless you’re in Karachi, Pakistan, where it’s discouraged, if not actually prohibited. But some brave girls are doing it anyway.

 

Competitive Cycling

Cycling Tips wants to know if gravel racing can maintain its renegade status, even as it moves to the mainstream.

Speaking of gravel, America’s Colin Strickland decides he’d rather keep racing — and winning — the Kansas Dirty Kanza than compete on the WorldTour and race Paris-Roubaix.

Next month’s Tour of Oman has been cancelled, after a year of mourning was declared following the death of Sultan Qaboos bin Said al Said.

Australian Rohan Dennis says he walked away from last year’s Tour de France to save his marriage, afraid his deteriorating mental state due to conflicts within the Bahrain-Merida (now Bahrain McLaren) team would drive his wife away.

Congratulations to Guam’s first professional cycling team.

Former pro Phil Gaimon pens an understanding letter to a lower-level pro busted for doping, suggesting he skip the post-suspension hostility and just move on with his life.

 

Finally…

Police have better things to do than deal with fake theft report from a bike rider. Dockless bikeshare — the new getaway choice of bank robbers.

And it only takes three comments to blame bicycles for a crash that didn’t involve any.

 

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

Morning Links: New California mountain bike org seeks funding, road raging drivers, and banning cars won’t fix it

January 7, 2020 / / Comments Off on Morning Links: New California mountain bike org seeks funding, road raging drivers, and banning cars won’t fix it

The new year brought California a much needed bouncing baby statewide mountain bike organization.

And they’re looking for your help get it off the ground.

CAMTB ANNOUNCES FOUNDER’S FUNDING ROUND

Become a CAMTB Founder

Santa Rosa, Calif. — The California Mountain Biking Coalition is announcing a Founding Donors round of funding. The pending 501(c)4 organization was formed to serve the needs of the mountain bike community andin Sacramento is inviting donors to help build the trail advocacy organization that Californians haveour sport has long needed.

Even though mountain biking was invented in California, until now, every statewide MTB nonprofit has been locally driven. It has become painfully clear, while local advocacy is important, it needs to be buttressed by a statewide voice!  Due to the unique challenges of mountain bike trail advocacy, direct action must be taken towards the state capitol, specifically in lobbying lawmakers, drafting legislation and endorsing candidacies.

Donations from our founders will be used to accomplish the following:

  • Increase the capacity of a statewide trail advocacy organization through strategic planning
  • Create awareness of the issues which limit trail access for local clubs across the state
  • Develop messaging that will foster a positive image of mountain biking to emphasize education, diversity, and healthy lifestyle choices
  • Support lobbying efforts in Sacramento
  • Build an effective and collaborative resource hub for trail advocacy best practices

Please give generously to help us accomplish our mission of, “More trails. Better trails.”

  • $50 or greater donation will receive a CAMTB sticker, a letter from the CAMTB Board and listing on Founders Wall at CAMTB.org
  • $100 or greater donation will receive the above and one CAMTB Founders Tshirt*
  • $500 or greater donation will receive the above and an invitation to the CAMTB inaugural Summit  (TBA, targeting FALL2020/WINTER2021)
  • $1000 or greater will receive the above and an invitation to the CAMTB MTB Legislative Strategy Session in Sacramento (late Feb, TBA)
  • $2500 or greater donation will receive the above and a personal visit by one or more of the CAMTB Board and/or Executive Director for a bike ride and private meal.
  • $5000 or greater donation will receive the above and an invitation to the CAMTB Board retreat (June 2019, Lake Tahoe).

Even though CAMTB is so new the paint isn’t dry, we are already making an impact. We were voted  “Trailforks Advocates of the Year” by PinkBike. The CAMTB Board of Directors is comprised exclusively of experienced, non-profit Mountain Bike Club Leaders from across the state with more than 60 years of combined advocacy experience and an Interim Executive Director who has 30 years of experience in the bike industry. In addition to your financial support, CAMTB is driven by trail & mountain bike volunteers from across the state. You are also invited to get involved. Visit our website to learn how.

Donations to CAMTB are not tax-deductible, t. They support our advocacy and lobbying efforts. CAMTB is a pending non-profit, tax-exempt, 501(c)(4) organization, EIN #84-3396574.

Check donations gladly accepted.

Payable to: CAMTB

PO BOX 1123

Santa Rosa, CA  95402

To donate online, go to: http://camtb.org/donate.

Photo by Markus Spiske temporausch.com from Pexels.

………

This is who we share the roads with.

A Los Angeles man remains in a coma after he was knocked out by a road raging driver and his passengers with a single punch in Van Nuys on New Year’s Day.

Meanwhile, a road raging Milwaukee driver stopped and shot two young kids for throwing snowballs at his car; fortunately, they will both be okay.

………

They get it.

The Brookings Institute says just banning cars from new developments won’t solve the problem, until we rethink cities to reduce the need for long trips.

Meanwhile, Toyota is attempting their take on it by building a prototype smart city where cars are pushed to the outskirts, unless they can drive themselves.

………

This is why people keep dying on our streets.

An Ontario, Canada man loses his car and driver’s license for a whole seven days for driving the equivalent of 135 mph in a 65 mph zone.

………

Tesla head honcho Elon Musk makes waves with two letters, apparently promising to add tech to prevent doorings in a future upgrade.

………

The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes goes on. 

When an Austin TX woman paused at a coffee shop to adjust her bike, a visibly stoned man drank her coffee, then hurled a log at her. Confirming the famous Teddy Roosevelt quote, “Speak softly and throw a large stick.”

Unbelievable. Washington man claims self-defense for running over a bicyclist with his car — after flipping the bike rider off for “staring at him” — claiming he struck the victim before the man could assault him. Which he had no intention of doing.

………

Local

Road diets work. Santa Monica reports a 71% decrease in severe injury collisions on formerly dangerous Ocean Park Blvd since implementing the improvements.

Speaking of Santa Monica, the LACBC and Santa Monica Spoke are hosting a MetroBEST beginning bike safety class in the city this weekend.

 

State

Learn more about SoCal’s WheelTales bike tours with a pair of Inland Empire meetings in the coming weeks.

Talk about burying the lede. A Sacramento TV station says police are looking for a vehicle that struck a Stockton bicyclist last week. Except he was killed, not just struck. And chances are, that vehicle probably had a driver.

 

National

Location, location, location. A new study shows that, like real estate, the success or failure of bikeshare systems depends primarily on the location of the docks; the most successful location is within four blocks of a transit station.

Now you, too, can own a rare 1903 ped-assist gas-powered bicycle, up for auction in Las Vegas later this month.

A Utah family is mourning a second loss, after someone stole the tricked out ‘bent belonging to their late father and grandfather. On the other hand, it says something that the thief broke into the garage and stole the bike, but left the car.

A Washington mountain bike maker is moving to my former Iditarod-running brother’s new western Colorado hometown. No doubt they were drawn by his expertise in sled dog racing, mountain biking and bike touring across the West. And the nearby corgi breeders, of course.

A Dallas magazine questions how the city can make its Vision Zero plan work when so many others — including Los Angeles — are failing. For one, they need to actually implement the plan, rather than resorting to wishful thinking like LA.

A Kansas City councilwoman is under fire for responding to the death of a popular bike rider by saying the city’s bicycle infrastructure plan really isn’t a priority.

Now that’s a degree you can put to use. A Minnesota state college is offering a program in bicycle design and fabrication.

As if their jobs weren’t dangerous enough, 24 New York food delivery workers have had their ebikes jacked in the last four months. That’s not counting the ones seized by police, in a city where throttle-controlled ebikes remain illegal.

Apparently, New York’s mayor doesn’t need any facts or stats to decide those ebikes are dangerous; he appears to be more than happy to settle for self-delusion common sense.

A DC app allows bike riders and pedestrians to report bad driver behavior to the proper authorities, and check to see how many infractions the driver has racked up using that car. Let’s hope that goes nationwide soon.

After Mobile, Alabama conducted a road diet on a local parkway, going from five lanes to three with bike lanes on either side, people just started driving in the bike lanes, instead.

 

International

Rouleur considers the success of collaborations between bike and car makers.

A Toronto bike lawyer could use his own services after nearly getting beaten to death by a road raging driver and his passenger last New Years, then getting hit by a driver while riding to a rehab appointment.

A UK website says riding a cargo bike is like driving an SUV, only cooler, and backs it up with a very bizarre looking Japanese entry. Unless maybe you’d rather have a $4,000, 30 mph scooter made by the owner of the LA Times.

Germany’s Canyon Bicycles was the victim of a massive cyber attack over the weekend; their North American operations were reportedly unaffected.

An Australian mountain bike maker promises to plant a tree for every bike they sell, anywhere around the world. Those trees could come in handy after the country’s devastating fires.

 

Competitive Cycling

Chris Froome denies rumors he left his team’s training camp after just two days, or that the lingering effects of the injuries he suffered at last year’s Criterium du Dauphine will keep him out of this year’s Tour de France.

The Radavist has details on this weekend’s LA Tourist Race.

 

Finally…

Who wants to be the first to trade the family SUV for a $8,800 three-wheeled, solar-powered, ped-assist e-rickshaw? If your ride isn’t on Strava, did it really happen?

And the next time you’re run down by a hit-and-run driver, maybe call the police before you walk home and take a nap.

 

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

Morning Links: Road rage driver attacks LA bike rider, WeHo mayor OKs blocked bike lanes, and protected bike lanes AOK

August 23, 2019 / / Comments Off on Morning Links: Road rage driver attacks LA bike rider, WeHo mayor OKs blocked bike lanes, and protected bike lanes AOK

Sorry about that. 

My apologies for yesterday’s unexcused absence. 

Blame it on my diabetes, after a bout of low blood sugar knocked me out for several hours. 

I’d like to say it won’t happen again.

But it probably will. 

Road rage photo by Wendy Corniquet from Pixabay.

………

Un-effing-believable.

A man riding to work on Santa Monica Blvd was repeatedly harassed, brake checked, and physically assaulted by a driver in an unmitigated display of road rage that lasted over 6 minutes.

All for the crime of riding a bike, legally and exactly where he was supposed to be.

And to top it off, she accused him of scratching her car after she blocked his bike against another car, and proceeded to door him multiple times.

Seriously, watch the whole thing — with the sound up.

According to KCBS2/KCAL9, the road rage attack took place two years ago. The poster child for road rage driver was arrested after the victim called 911, and was recently sentenced to 450 hours of community service.

Which is why he’s just releasing the bike cam video now.

Hopefully, that will be enough to get her road rage temper under control. And help her realize that bikes do, in fact, belong on the streets.

………

The LAPD is stepping up efforts to find the heartless coward who slammed into a 15-year kid riding legally in a South LA crosswalk, and left him lying crushed and bleeding in the street.

Meanwhile, advocacy nonprofit SAFE — Streets Are For Everyone — is hosting a March for Safety and Healing – In Honor of Roberto Diaz this Saturday.

Diaz is the victim of the crash, who remains hospitalized.

………

Evidently, the mayor of West Hollywood is perfectly okay with mail carriers and delivery drivers blocking the city’s few bike lanes.

Which isn’t much of a problem.

Unless you’ve ever had to go around someone blocking the bike lane in heavy traffic on Santa Monica Blvd.

Because it’s apparently just too much to ask them to remove a parking space or two to create a loading zone.

Oh wait. Maybe I wasn’t the first one to say that.

After all, it’s much easier to accuse people of “outrage culture” than to take a small step to protect human lives.

WeHo can clearly do better than that. And should.

In fact, it does, no thanks to the mayor, apparently.

………

No surprise here.

After the the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) released a study questioning the safety of some protected bike lanes, John Pucher and Ralph Buehler, two of North America’s leading bicycling academics, say it ain’t necessarily so.

According to a Forbes piece by British bicycle historian Carlton Reid, this is how Pucher responded in an email.

“Finding problematic intersection design of cycle tracks here and there in three U.S. cities does not at all negate the overwhelming evidence that protected bike lanes are both safer, in fact, than unprotected lanes or no facilities at all, and that the vast majority of cyclists and potential cyclists overwhelmingly prefer such protected facilities and feel safer on such facilities, thus leading to sharp increases in cycling rates.”

Pucher stresses:

“The IIHS study focuses on the dangerous intersections, but overall, cycle tracks are definitely safer. I agree, however, that intersection design is absolutely crucial to the safety of cycle track systems, and that special intersection, roadway markings, traffic signs, and traffic signals are necessary.”

So don’t stop fighting for protected bike lanes.

Just make sure they’re designed properly.

………

The Malibu Times reports that local pro mountain biker Marshall Mullen’s short film The Woolsey Fire Through the Eyes of Marshall Mullen will make its local debut at Casa Escobar restaurant.

The paper notes that the film been on YouTube since late May. But oddly doesn’t bother to include the link.

Fortunately, we can do better than that. Even though this version has a much shorter title.

………

They get it. No, they totally get it.

GQ recommends their picks for the best bike helmets for any kind of road riding.

But they begin their piece this way.

No, you don’t have to wear a bike helmet. If you were to, say, get hit by a garbage truck on your commute, a small piece of foam and molded plastic is not going to make much of a difference. But since this is America and not Copenhagen, where cyclists are demonized for taking a sliver of space away from precious steel boxes and commuters are regularly in fear of their lives, it’s best to hedge your bets. Wear a helmet. (But whatever you do, please don’t helmet shame those who prefer to let their locks flow.)

………

Sometimes it’s the people on bikes behaving badly. 

A San Francisco man suffered life-threatening injuries when he was hit over the head with a bicycle. The attacker fled, but it sounds like police know who the attacker is, since they know his age.

An Aussie bike rider faces charges after he rode across several lanes of traffic to spit in the face of an anti-abortion protester. Seriously, don’t do that.

………

Local

The LAPD is responding to CD5 Councilmember Paul Koretz’ recent anti-scooter campaign by establishing a special task force to ticket e-scooter users riding on the sidewalk along Beverly Blvd, Melrose Ave and 3rd Street. Apparently, he’d much rather they get their asses run over on those narrow, busy streets that don’t offer any other place to ride. Or just not ride scooters, which is what he really has in mind.

Streetsblog talks with Bird’s sustainability chief.

Montebello Blvd is getting bike lanes and new medians in a 1.4-mile improvement project. And aggravating drivers in the process.

California is sending $315 million to LA County for highway repairs funded by the recent gas tax increase, along with $5.4 million for active transportation projects.

 

State

The proposed Complete Streets bill will stay alive in the state legislature, despite a “farcical” estimate from Caltrans that appears to be an effort to kill it.

The driver who killed Costa Mesa Fire Captain Mike Kreza as he rode his bike in Mission Viejo last year had seven different drugs in his system at the time of the crash, including prescription drugs, street drugs and various metabolized drug byproducts; 25-year old Stephen Taylor Scarpa is facing a murder charge in Kreza’s death, and remains behind bars on a $2 million bond.

Beautiful piece by an investigative reporter for the LA Times about the remarkable recovery of a man who was nearly killed in an Oceanside bike crash, after lingering in a near vegetative state for months. And her efforts to convince someone he was still alive in there.

San Diego advocates are calling on the city to reconsider plans to remove parking spaces to install bike lanes on 30th Street because of the impact it could have on elderly and handicapped people. Because apparently, it’s impossible to pull over just long enough to let someone out of a car. And elderly and handicapped people never, ever ride bicycles, as everyone knows.

Sad news from Bakersfield, where a woman was killed trying to ride her bike in a crosswalk; the CHP immediately absolved the driver of blame because it was dark. Apparently, Dodge Challenger’s like the one the driver had don’t have headlights, and the CHP has never heard of the state’s basic speed law, which prohibits driving too fast for current conditions. Like when it’s too dark to see what’s in the road directly ahead of your car.

A pair of men were busted for making off with six bikes worth $30,000 from a Santa Cruz bike shop after they were observed by a witness.

A car thief received the maximum sentence for plowing into a San Francisco bike cop as he attempted to flee from the police; Willie Flanigan was convicted on charges of “assault with a deadly weapon, hit-and-run, evading and resisting an officer, fleeing the scene of an accident, receiving stolen property and being an unlicensed driver.” Yet somehow, despite all those charges, the maximum sentence was just 12 years and 8 months.

Seventy-five-year old Courtney Rudin was convicted of misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter for the head-collision that killed a woman riding in a Sonoma County charity ride when he made dangerously ill-advised passed around a slower vehicle; he faces just one year behind bars. Seriously, killing another human being should never be a misdemeanor, intentionally or not.

An 85-year old Los Osos man was critically injured after he suffered some sort of medical issue and fell off his ebike, even though he was wearing a helmet.

 

National

Bike Lawyer Bob Mionske says excusing careless drivers by blaming their victims just ensures that other drivers will keep driving that way.

No shit. Streetsblog says testing self-driving cars on the roads endangers pedestrians. And everyone else.

Forbes says bicycle-oriented development is a growing force with the larger field of transit-oriented development throughout the US, now that bicycling is the nation’s fastest-growing form of transportation.

Entry-level ebike prices continue to drop, as Rad Power Bikes introduces their new RadRunner cargo bike, which can be ridden in e-assist or full throttle mode.

A moving and hard-hitting photo essay says Portland is spending millions to stop drivers from killing people, but it’s not working.

He gets it. A Salt Lake City-area father and bike rider says aggressive driving should be treated as a crime. Preferably before they kill someone.

I want to be like him when I grow up. An 86-year old Utah man still rides 1,000 miles a year on a tandem with his son; he was riding 3,000 miles a year on his own until he was hit by a driver three years ago. Although I’d just as soon skip that whole “hit by a driver” part, thank you.

Former Bicycling editor and elite cyclist Andrew “Bernie” Bernstein speaks out from his hospital bed about the dangers of distracted, drunk and/or speeding drivers, a month after he was left to die by a hit-and-run driver outside Boulder CO.

A bike shop in my hometown is struggling to clear its name after police arrested someone selling stolen bikes on the Let Go app, and making it appear the bike shop was doing it.

A Dallas man faces a murder charge for allegedly running down a man riding a bicycle for allegedly stealing his gun, then allegedly beating him to death with a piece of wood.

Horrible news from Oklahoma City, where a professional magician suffered severe spinal damage when he was struck by a police car while riding his bike; the officer was placed on paid leave, while the victim may be permanently paralyzed and unable to speak.

The owner of three pit bulls that killed a nine-year old Detroit girl as she was riding her bicycle has been charged with second degree murder for not controlling his dogs; the dogs, one of whom was shot by a rescuer, will likely get the death penalty.

An Indianapolis teenager says he forgives the driver who fled the scene after running him down on his bike, leaving him lying in a ditch unable to move.

I want to be like him, too. Bicycling offers four tips from the 91-year old Indiana cyclist who keeps breaking age group records.

Rapper Kadeem’s new album World Sport takes on a bicycling theme, reflecting the time spent on his ‘87 Schwinn World Sport as he was recording it, as well as his time on two wheels navigating the streets of Boston, dealing drugs and delivering for DoorDash.

New York prosecutors threw the book at the 18-year old driver who ran a red light and caused the collateral damage crash that killed a Brooklyn bike rider two weeks ago, charging him with criminally negligent homicide, reckless endangerment, reckless driving, vehicular assault, disobeying a traffic device and doing 61 mph in a 25 mph zone. In other words, driving his Dodge Charger exactly the way the carmaker suggests he should. Thanks to Shaggy for the heads-up.

The New York Times examines why drivers rarely faces charges for killing bike riders; prosecutors have to show the driver’s behavior was “egregious,” and that they broke at least two traffic laws. Although it seems unlikely that the same standard would apply to killing someone with any other kind of weapon.

In the eternal battle over car storage, Philly residents are on the warpath over new bikes lanes that removed over a hundred parking spaces.

 

International

Forbes recommends six bike tours from around the world, including a self-guided tour of LA-area movie star homes, for people who are into that sort of thing.

Road.cc offers a guide to group ride hand signals. No, not that one.

Montreal will soon start ticketing drivers who violate Quebec’s equivalent of a three-foot passing law by using an ultrasound device that measures the distance between a bike and a passing car. The LAPD apparently has no interest in that, despite being told about the device multiple times as part of the department’s bike liaison program.

This is why you should always get checked out by a doctor after any bike crash. A London man died after a blood clot caused a heart attack two weeks after he fell off his bike. That’s a lesson I’ve learned the hard way.

A report from the UK Parliament says forget electric cars, get Brits on bikes. Good advice on this side of the Atlantic, too.

Evidently, placing solar panels in a French roadway was a bad idea.

Germans call for expanding bicycle infrastructure after bicycling deaths reach their highest total since 2010.

 

Competitive Cycling

VeloNews suggests four story lines to follow at the four-stage women’s Colorado Classic bike race, which kicked off yesterday in Steamboat Springs CO. You can livestream the races on the magazine’s website.

The New York Times offers an obituary for Felice Gimondi, one of just seven cyclists to win the Tour de France, Vuelta a España and Giro d’Italia.

 

Finally…

Yes, you can find bikeshare above the Arctic Circle, in case you were wondering. If you’re riding your bike with several outstanding warrants, just put a damn light on it, already.

And your next bike could be a Harley.

No, really.

 

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

Rally tomorrow demanding justice for Scott Clark; OC triathlete was collateral damage in alleged 2017 road rage case

June 21, 2019 / / 7 comments

No Morning Links today, due to the demands of this piece, as well as a few too many emergency potty runs caring for a sick Corgi.

I’ll try to catch up tomorrow with a rare Weekend Links if her belly allows; if not, we’ll be back on Monday with anything we’ve missed.

………

When does justice delayed become justice denied?

Apparently, when Orange County investigators drop the ball.

And the DA drops the case.

Bike lawyer Ed Rubinstein forwards a flyer demanding justice for a Laguna Hills father, teacher and triathlete who was killed over two years ago, the result of a road rage incident between two motorists.

Scott Clark, a fifth-grade teacher at Laguna Niguel Elementary School and four-time Ironman triathlete, was training for a race in January, 2017, when he ran into a crosswalk just as two women were arguing as they sped down the road in Laguna Nigel.

One of the women, later identified as Jamie Mulford, allegedly turned right from the left lane in front of the other car, cutting off the driver and forcing her  car into Clark as he crossed the street.

He suffered severe head injuries, and died two weeks later.

Mulford was arrested at the scene for suspicion DUI, but the charge was dropped because investigators failed to test her blood alcohol level for nearly six hours after the crash, by which time she was under the legal limit.

The DA eventually charged Mulford with vehicular homicide in the death of Scott Clark. Yet after numerous delays, the case was dismissed ths year when the DA said they could no longer prove Mulford’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

Adding insult to overwhelming injury, Mulford sued Scott Clark’s wife for defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress — choosing the two year anniversary of his death to file suit.

It took less than a month to have the case thrown out of court for lack of merit.

Which bring us to tomorrow’s rally calling for justice for Scott Clark.

Supporters of Clark — or anyone who believes in the safety of our streets — is urged to meet at Laguna Nigel City Hall at 10 am Saturday to walk to the crash site at Niguel Road and Alicia Parkway.

I don’t know if Jamie Mulford is guilty.

But I do know Scott Clark’s survivors deserve to have the case put in front of a jury.

And newly elected DA Todd Spitzer owes them that.

Thanks to Ed Rubenstein for the heads-up.

Category: Injuries and Fatalities, Legal Cases / Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Morning Links: Gaimon badly hurt in track wreck, race rears its ugly head, and bike-riding Turkman Pres takes a few shots

June 17, 2019 / / Comments Off on Morning Links: Gaimon badly hurt in track wreck, race rears its ugly head, and bike-riding Turkman Pres takes a few shots

Looks like Phil Gaimon’s Worst Retirement Ever has hit the deck hard.

And not in a good way.

Gaimon recently announced his intention to make the US Olympic team in team pursuit for the 2020 Olympics. But his first attempt on the track has ended in a serious fall, and equally serious injuries.

The LA-based former pro cyclist was competing on the track in a Pennsylvania points race when he took a spill; he’s not even sure what happened.

Gaimon was hospitalized with multiple broken bones, including a broken scapula, collarbone and five broken ribs, as well as a partially collapsed lung.

However, in a major show of character, Gaimon said he’s got medical insurance to cover his injuries, and asked people odonate the money they might have sent his way otherwise to his Chefs Cycle campaign to raise $100,000 for No Kid Hungry to end childhood hunger.

Now that’s a big heart.

Let’s all send him our best wishes for a fast and full recovery.

Photo from Phil Gaimon’s Twitter timeline. 

………

Bad enough when we have to deal with conflicts with drivers. Far worse when race rears its ugly head.

In a decidedly ugly incident, a former Newark CA city councilmember and possible mayoral candidate called a bike rider an Aryan when the bicyclist repeatedly told him to move his car out of the bike lane, as well as calling him, his father, his god, and all other “Aryans” a homophobic slur.

A DC man is on trial for beating a black driver with his U-lock in what he claims is self-defense in a road rage incident that started with a too close pass; prosecutors accuse him of racial hatred, bolstered by claims that he repeatedly used the N-word, as well as an alleged pattern of racially charged incidents.

………

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

Here in SoCal, a man brutally beat a 65-year old bike rider after an argument at a Buena Park bus stop, then rode off on the victim’s bicycle.

After a San Francisco driver used his car as a weapon to repeatedly ram an ebike rider as he was attempting to pass a slower bicyclist, the police couldn’t be bothered to deal with it because he wasn’t injured badly enough. Evidently, when the SFPD gets a report of a shooting, they ask how badly the victim was injured before deciding whether to investigate, too. Thanks to WCoast for the heads-up.

Scary thought. A Brooklyn bike rider confronted a drunken, road-raging off-duty bus driver over a close pass — who may have been on his way to work.

A New Zealand bicyclist was lucky to escape with relatively minor injuries when an impatient, road raging driver intentionally knocked him off his bike.

………

Sure, why not.

The president of Turkmenistan demonstrates his prowess with firearms and bikes for the troops in a video that couldn’t possibly be fake.

No, really.

………

Rapper A$AP Ferg officially drops his new line of BMX bikes made in conjunction with Redline.

………

Local

Three month’s into LA’s pilot scooter program, city officials say scooter companies need to step up and do better, saying none of them are currently living up to expectations.

Los Angeles has broken ground on a two-block section of South Robertson in the city’s latest Great Streets project. But can any street without bike lanes ever truly be great?

Coldplay frontman Chris Martin is one of us, rolling out on a mountain bike through the ‘Bu.

Complaints are continuing about Long Beach’s Broadway corridor, as some residents and business owners say the new road diet and protected bike lane have made the street more dangerous, and led to a drop in pedestrian traffic.

In a perfect example of windshield bias, a Whittier letter writer can’t seem to conceive of getting to a Metro station without driving.

 

State

New walking and biking trails opened over the weekend in the 1.5-mile Bosque and Upper Bee green areas of the Orange County Great Park.

Santa Rosa residents are pressing the city to do more to improve safety on one of the more dangerous roads for bike riders and pedestrians — one that’s already claimed five lives in the past year.

After working for other Bay Area bakeries, an Oakland man has struck out on his own, baking bread at home and making his deliveries by bicycle.

 

National

A writer for the Sierra Club says trust is stronger than a Kryptonite lock, asking strangers to keep an eye on his bike instead of using a lock. Um, sure. What could possibly go wrong?

She gets it. A writer for Bicycling tells bike shops to lose the attitude and stop treating customers like garbage.

What were you doing when you were seven years old? A Seattle boy and his father are biking across the US, as he attempts to set a record for the youngest cross-country bicyclist.

They get it too. Wichita Falls TX considers changing two local laws, including a “must-use” bike path ordinance, in pursuit of a Bicycle Friendly Community designation.

An Iowa man made his getaway to another state by bike after stabbing another man in the arm, hightailing it from Council Bluffs, Iowa to Omaha, Nebraska. All of 5.5 miles and a 32-minute ride, according to Google Maps.

Republicans in the Minnesota Senate are accused of open hostility to bicycles as a form of transportation, after insisting on removing nearly all references to bicycles from a transportation bill that was passed with unanimous support from all sides in the House.

A fire in a New York bodega is blamed on an exploding delivery ebike battery.

Evidently, LA Councilmember Gil Cedillo has philosophical kin in DC, as a Washington councilmember questions the need for any bike lanes in his district — despite suffering the highest number of traffic deaths in the city this year.

Over 100 bicyclists ride for peace on the streets in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

A Tallahassee FL columnist says bike riders shouldn’t feel safer riding in a big city than they do there, telling local drivers “we’re better than this.”

Horrible news from Florida, where a hit-and-run driver killed two bicyclists in a single collision; police have found the vehicle, but are still looking for the coward behind the wheel.

Mountain biking the hurricane ravaged trails of Puerto Rico.

 

International

The second Bicycle Architecture Biennale will celebrate the world’s “wow-factor” bicycling infrastructure and examine how bicycling will shape cities of the future.

A cargo bike-riding British Columbia mom says protected bike lanes are key to city transportation.

London’s cycling commissioner says someone will die after councillors from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea pulled their support for a two-way curb-protected bikeway through Notting Hill, based on complaints from a handful of people.

The father of a fallen bicyclist calls for bike riders to be banned from the English highway where he was killed; the local council agrees, saying improving safety would just encourage more people to ride there.

No bias here. Ten percent of drivers violated the 50 mph speed limit in a British village, yet they want to focus on the dangers posed by bike riders zooming by at a relatively pokey 35 mph.

No bias here, either. A Brit commuter was ordered to “get out of this fucking station now!” when he asked for a band-aid for his bleeding wrist, after falling off his bicycle on the way to the train station.

A bike rider in the UK got off with a relative slap on the wrist when he was jailed for just 16 months for fleeing the scene after crashing into a 70-year old woman as she was crossing the street, leaving her with life-threatening injuries. He pled guilty to a 150-year old law against “wanton and furious cycling,” which carries a maximum of two years behind bars.

British cycling commissioners say painted bike lanes are a waste of money, and call on the country to spend income from traffic fines on improving road safety.

An Irish political writer says he nearly became a statistic when a driver cut into the bike lane he was riding in, saying he was lucky this time, but bike riders can’t count on luck. Maybe they should start by lowering the speed limit to a more reasonable level, then try ticketing anyone who violates it, regardless of how they travel.

An Irish County is going to issue numbered license plates to bicyclists, saying it’s for their own good. No, really.

A writer for The Guardian explores the 100-mile Berliner Mauerweg bike trail tracing the route of the former Berlin Wall 30 years after its fall.

Here’s your chance to explore the countryside of lovely Transylvania by bike. But maybe replace that banana in your pocket with a few cloves of garlic just to be safe.

Bicyclists in Zagreb, Croatia will soon get a 75-mile bicycle highway.

An Indian newspaper calls ebikes the next evolution of mobility, suggesting they’re an alternative to polluting scooters and motorbikes.

A New Zealand health and parenting website talks with Julie Ann Genter, the parliament member who famously rode her bike to the hospital to give birth last year.

A Kiwi professor calls for a crackdown on ebike users on bike trails, after he suffered a serious brain injury in a head-on collision with one.

An writer in Kuala Lumpur discovers that riding on the city’s new blue bike lane loop during the evening rush hour is easier said than done.

 

Competitive Cycling

Chris Froome says he’s lucky to be alive after hitting the wall — literally — crashing into the side of a house at 37 mph when a gust of wind hit his time trial bike. Shaken friend, competitor and fellow Brit Dan Martin thought he was dead after witnessing the crash from a trailing car.

Speaking of the four-time Tour de France winner, the director of the Vuelta a España wants to hand the title for the 2011 race to first runner-up Froome if the doping violation is upheld against General Classification winner Juan José Cobo, to avoid a situation like the many vacant titles in the doping era Tour after Lance, Landis and Contador were stripped of their titles.

Danish pro Jakob Fuglsang won the eight stage Critérium du Dauphiné, finishing ahead of American Tejay van Garderen.

VeloNews attends the unveiling of a Boulder CO monument honoring the late, great Red Zinger/Coors Classic stage race, recalling why it remains a legend over 30 years after its demise. As well it should bento only providing a stage for the best riders from around the world, but also giving women racers a near-equal platform racing slightly shorter distances on the same stages.

 

Finally…

When your ride to work is great, but the ride home feels like football players have been pounding on you all day. Sometimes it’s not the drivers you have to worry about.

And who needs a marching band when you can ride bikes, instead.

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