My wife and I spent a little time on Burbank’s Magnolia Blvd over the weekend.
And we were struck by what a pleasant shopping street it is.
Or more precisely, what a pleasant street it could be without the constant noise and fumes from all the cars and trucks funneling through.
Maybe someone should explain to the merchants along the route just how much they could benefit from a Complete Street that makes room for their customers, and not just the cars they came in.
And thanks to everyone who let me know this site was down Friday morning. I still don’t know what happened, but it seemed to resolve itself after an hour or so.
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Sometimes even I get tired of harping about the need to always carry some form of ID and emergency contact information with you when you ride.
And preferably something that won’t get stolen if you’re incapacitated, which sadly happens far too often.
But this comment, which is reposted with permission from Gravel Bikes California, offers a tragic reminder why it matters.
This is long, but please read to the end.
Yesterday I met my friend Adam Lopez for a ride. We met at Eroica California in 2018 and have ridden together a number of times since he got his gravel bike in 2019. We started in Summerland at 11am and did just a wonderful/casual/beautiful ride through Santa Barbara on fantastic pavement, dirt, and gravel. We stopped for a burger at 4pm and were headed back to the cars when he started slowing down on easy climbs. He said that his heart rate was fine but that the air felt cold in his lungs. We passed butterfly beach and stopped again right before the turn at Jameson. We were 2.5 miles from the cars. He decided to press on since we were mere minutes away. He was pacing me just a few yards behind. Every 15 seconds or so I would glance back and see his light. This happened for a about a mile, and then I glanced back and didn’t see him. I rode maybe 150 feet back and saw that he was collapsed over onto the chain link fence, still clipped in, unresponsive and staring. Myself and passers-by who stopped to help called 911. I started chest compressions until fire arrived just a few minutes later. They took over, shocked him twice, established an airway, and continued cpr for 15 minutes. Unfortunately he never revived. He was gone when he hit the ground. His mother died of a heart attack 9 months ago, and his brother died of a heart attack a few weeks ago.
Now for the reason why I’m telling you this: he didn’t have any emergency contact info on him. Although I’ve known him for a while I only had his cell number. The sheriff was required to follow protocol and have the law enforcement agency closest to Adam’s home do an in person notification. I was absolutely helpless. I did advise the deputy that I authorized him today to give my information to Adam’s family, and his wife made contact with me today. She was happy that at least he died doing the thing he loved. She also told me that he had been feeling tired for some time but hadn’t been checked out yet.
Had he had something like a Road ID wristband we would have much more information, and his family could have been notified much sooner.
Please, I BEG YOU, get something like a Road ID so fellow riders or first responders can help. Please look after your health and get checked. And ride with buddies whenever possible. No one should see and go through what I did. I’m deeply saddened and affected.
As I’ve mentioned before, I always wear a RoadID anytime I leave home, whether or not I’m on my bike.
It serves as both my ID and contact information, and a medic alert bracelet for my diabetes.
I’ve never needed it, and I pray I never will.
But as this story so painfully illustrates, I’d much rather have it on me and not need it, than the other way around.
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Do you really need another reminder to register your bike today?
Reunited and it feels so good!
Yesterday, West Los Angeles Detectives reunited a victim of a bike theft with his stolen bike. The victim had registered his bike on Bike Index which helped detectives to return it to its rightful owner.
Register at https://t.co/oIbhV9QwAD pic.twitter.com/k0fYWkPdQO
— LAPD – West Los Angeles (@LAPDWestLA) February 4, 2021
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Nothing like protesting traffic violence, only to be met by police violence.
Tired of police inaction in the wake of too many deaths and serious injuries, bike riders in Mexico City took to the streets to demand better safety and protection from the police.
In fact, while motor vehicle traffic has decreased as much as 50% in the city due to the pandemic, bicycling deaths doubled over the past year.
But instead of addressing their concerns, the protesters were brutally attacked and beaten by the same officers they were pleading with for help.
Even people who were trying to leave were stopped by multiple cops and brutalized.
Every week in 2021 a cyclist has been killed or brutally injured in Mexico City. Fed up with the utter lack of concern for their lives, bikers took to the streets in protest and were met with this police repression tonight. pic.twitter.com/uDXNYEebEr
— Andalalucha (@Andalalucha) February 6, 2021
A Spanish language news story Mexico City’s El Pais begins like this.
The police attacked this Friday night a group of cyclists who were demonstrating in Mexico City. The confrontation took place in the Periférico, one of the main arteries of the city, at the height of the Naples neighborhood, during a bicycle protest to demand justice for the deaths of cyclists in the capital. The head of Government, Claudia Sheinbaum, described as “unacceptable” the aggression of the agents to the demonstrators and assured that the Secretariat of Citizen Security will carry out an investigation to determine responsibilities. This Saturday, the mayor reported that “about 10” agents have already been removed from their positions.
Several protesters were injured in the head and face, according to images released on social networks, when they tried to access the second floor of the Periférico. In the recordings, it is seen how several agents surround some of the participants in the shooting and attack them with blows. The group was protesting to demand justice for the death of cyclists who died in traffic accidents in Mexico City, which in 2020 were more than 16, according to the Bicitekas association.
In the videos posted on social networks, protesters are seen with swollen faces and cuts on their faces after the confrontation. “We were protesting, we were leaving, and they ran, and they grabbed me like eight policemen,” one of the injured assured one of the reporters who was at the scene. “They cut my head open, they hurt my ribs,” said another, sitting on the sidewalk, when the protest, which had gathered around fifty people, already seemed dissolved.
The paper goes on the quote officials as saying an investigation has been launched into who ordered the attack, and the officers who carried it out. And that while some riders also attacked the police, the police had an obligation to maintain the peace, and ones responsible for their actions would be fired.
Which is exactly what should happen.
If they’re serious.
Thanks to Megan Lynch for the heads-up.
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The annual Bicycle Film Festival takes part entirely online this year; any tickets purchased this week will benefit Sacramento and Davis advocacy organizations.
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One more reason flimsy plastic bendy posts do not a protected bike lane make.
In case you’re wondering what happened to the bike lane markers on Grand St….
byu/wesweslaco injerseycity
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That feeling when visitors drop in without warning.
The dog acts as if he sees this a lothttps://t.co/ApFRx8TCOj
— Jeremy Vine (@theJeremyVine) February 5, 2021
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Bicycles hardly ever…well, you know.
So uh, a car just blew up behind me on Sunset. Everyone got out ok but oh my god. pic.twitter.com/fnA9JHOe9X
— Rabi Abonour (@rabonour) February 7, 2021
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Take a break to catch a little air at a Virginia mountain bike park.
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GCN offers a pair of videos, pitting a GPS bike computer against a rider using an old-fashioned map and compass…
….and asking if hybrids can be just as fast as roadies.
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Local
No news is good news, right?
State
San Clemente is the latest SoCal coastal town to consider restricting ebikes on trails.
A San Diego paper asks if 2020 was the year that changed bicycling in the city for good. Let’s hope so.
Coachella’s Grapefruit Blvd is set to get a Complete Streets makeover, including sidewalks, trees and bike lanes. Although it’s also set to get a couple more traffic lanes, as well.
Once again, bike riders are heroes, as a pair of off-duty cardiac care nurses hopped off their bikes to save the life of an Aptos mountain biker who had collapsed on the side of a trail.
National
Luxury site the Robb Report suggests ebikes for any kind of terrain, although most of the prices are what you’d expect for a site where money is no object. Then again, $3,200 is apparently considered entry level for an e-cargo bike these days.
Which of these is not like the others? A design website urges readers to commute in style with several outlandish-looking, planet-friendly ebikes, while a road bike and a couple foldies stand out just for not looking strange.
A Portland photographer documents a year of change as the city confronts the Covid-19 pandemic, while riding his new ebike 5,000 miles through the city.
They get it. The Las Vegas Sun reports that efforts to protect bike riders are gaining traction in the wake of the meth-fueled crash that killed five bicyclists near the city last month, while correctly noting that people on bikes pay for the road, too.
An Albuquerque NM woman got her stolen bike back just a day later after Facebook users spotted it for sale on Craigslist and OfferUp, and concerned cops posed as buyers to bust the thief.
There’s a special place in hell for the driver who ran down a Texas boy and just kept going in a crash caught on security cam; fortunately, the kid only suffered a few scrapes, even though he thinks the driver hit him on purpose.
A kindhearted Good Samaritan replaced a young Arkansas boy’s stolen bicycle, just hours after it went missing.
When a teenaged Chik-fil-A employee won a new car at the company Christmas party, she immediately gave it to a coworker who was riding a bike seven miles each way to work every day through the frigid Wisconsin winter.
Nice story from Florida, where a goodhearted stranger bought a new bicycle for an autistic man she’d just met after noticing the bike he was riding to work was worn out and had no functioning brakes. Then more strangers pitched in to replace it when the new bike was stolen the next day.
International
Specialized promised there wouldn’t be any major interruptions in retail sales after their UK headquarters went up in flames.
Internationally known London bike shop Geoffrey Butler Cycles closed its doors without warning, shuttering the shop overnight after 60 years, while the mail order business will shut down in July.
Scottish stunt cyclist Danny MacAskill could have some competition in a few years from a two-year old English stunt rider.
An independent press organization rules that Britain’s Mirror was wrong to publish a photo of identifiable bike riders apparently ignoring distancing guidelines.
Acclaimed Irish author Colum McCann learned to listen and developed his voice as a writer on a two-year bike trip across the US.
A Philippine official broke up an unsanctioned early morning bike race, even though it was taking place at 4:30 on a Saturday morning.
Competitive Cycling
Three-time world champ Peter Sagan is reportedly doing well, after he and a pair of teammates — including his brother — tested positive for the Covid bug.
The maskless Australian Road Nationals show what’s possible when a country has the coronavirus under control.
Forget gravel, and do your racing on the white stuff without a front wheel.
Finally…
If you’re going to ride a bike to rob a couple convenience stores, maybe put a mask on first — and not just for the coronavirus. Before you steal a bike, you might want to make sure it doesn’t belong to the daughter of a mixed martial arts fighter first.
And who knew Thor rides an e-fat bike?
https://twitter.com/jackblack/status/1358219871880835073
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Thanks to Robert L for his generous donation to help keep SoCal’s source for bike news and advocacy coming your way every day. Our annual holiday fund drive may be over, but donations are always welcome and appreciated.
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And wear a damn mask, already.
