Tag Archive for SCAG

LA Times endorses Healthy Streets LA initiative in March vote, and SCAG to study turning highways into boulevards

January 19, 2024 / / Comments Off on LA Times endorses Healthy Streets LA initiative in March vote, and SCAG to study turning highways into boulevards
Stop what you’re doing and sign this petition demanding a public meeting with LA Mayor Karen Bass to hear the dangers we face just walking and biking on the mean streets of Los Angeles.

Then share it — and keep sharing it — with everyone you know, on every platform you can.

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Big news for the coming March election, as the Los Angeles Times has joined a broad range of community groups to endorse the Healthy Streets LA initiative.

Frustrated by the lack of political will and bureaucracy, street safety advocates collected enough signatures to put Healthy Streets LA, or Measure HLA, on the March ballot. The initiative would force the city to carry out the improvements in the Mobility Plan. Any time city departments repave at least one-eighth of a mile of street, they would have to add the improvements outlined in the plan, whether bike lanes, bus lanes, pedestrian enhancements or fixes to ease vehicle traffic.

This makes sense. When city crews have to repaint the lines when repaving a street, why not restripe the roads according to the Mobility Plan at the same time? Yet in a city as large as Los Angeles, making this a smooth process is not always easy. The multiple departments responsible for street paving, engineering and transportation safety struggle to coordinate and have missed opportunities to install Mobility Plan projects. The mandate of Measure HLA would, ideally, prompt City Hall to better organize street work programs and make Mobility Plan improvements a part of routine road maintenance.

The paper concludes their editorial this way.

Measure HLA has broad support among neighborhood councils, environmental, labor and business groups. Their members understand that Los Angeles needs to evolve into a city that is safer for pedestrians, bicyclists, transit users and, yes, even motorists. The plan recognizes that Angelenos will still drive — it includes 80 miles of streets that are prioritized for vehicle travel and projects that help drivers maintain safe, consistent speeds and reliable travel times.

The rising number of traffic deaths is a preventable tragedy. Voters have the power to make Los Angeles’ streets safer. Vote yes on Measure HLA.

I couldn’t agree more.

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The Southern California Association of Governments, aka SCAG, has received a federal grant to study the possibility of removing some SoCal highways, and possibly converting them to boulevards.

They could start with the proposal to remove the purposeless 90 Freeway stub, and converting it to housing and a Marina Central Park.

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29 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And 30 months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law, and counting.

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

San Diego police arrested 32-year old Alvaro Jovani Lopez for torching the Mission Valley memorial for fallen bicyclist and father Matt Keenan, destroying a banner and Keenan’s ghost bike; they found Lopez already behind bars for a parole violation. No reason was given for his dastardly deed.

Life is cheap in Wisconsin, where a Madison man who strung wire across a bike bridge, nearly decapitating a bike rider, walked with a gentle caress on the wrist when the judge sentenced him to a lousy four years probation.

No bias here. Underground hip-hop artist Gorilla Nems, aka Travis Doyle, took out his anger on New York’s Complete Street transformation over the past decade or so, telling a podcast host “Fuck bike lanes…this ain’t Copenhagen,” while instructing his followers to ignore walk signals and just cross the street anytime they want, after looking both ways.

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

A 59-year old New York woman has emerged from a months-long coma after she was struck by a bikeshare rider as she was crossing the street; a 62-year old man was ticketed for riding salmon and running a red light.

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Local 

The Metro board delayed a vote to award Metro Bike management to Lyft, after ride hail drivers and delivery riders teamed with bikeshare workers to protest the proposed contract. But you’ll have to subscribe the Daily News or find a way around the paper’s draconian paywall if you want to read about it.

Glendale residents complained they were left out of the decision making process for the city’s new bike plan, even though they say they’ll be directly affected by a proposed bike path.

 

State

Police in Huntington Beach are using bait bikes to bust bike thieves. Something the LAPD still won’t do over fears they’ll be accused of entrapment.

They get it, sort of. A Simi Valley paper says safety is a two-way street, but drivers shoulder most of the responsibility to look out for vulnerable bike riders. Although they should go to cliche jail for trotting out the tired two-way street metaphor.

Oakland got a clear message to fix their crumbling roads, when the city agreed to a $6.5 million settlement with a woman who was paralyzed when her bike hit a pothole.

Six Santa Rosa teenagers were arrested for stabbing a 41-year old man to steal his bicycle last week.

 

National

The 18-year old Las Vegas man accused of deliberately killing former Bell police chief Andreas Probst in a hit-and-run last year is now facing an attempted murder charge in a separate case for the gang stabbing of a Las Vegas man.

Life is cheap in Indiana, where a woman faces just a year behind bars after confessing to a hit-and-run that left a bike-riding man with multiple broken bones.

That’s more like it. Instead of fighting bike infrastructure, residents of Brooklyn’s Prospect Park neighborhood are actually calling on the mayor to finish a new bike boulevard.

An “avid” New York bicyclist tells tourists the best routes for exploring the city by bicycle.

They get it, sort of, too. New York officials unveiled a new campaign encouraging bike riders to be more courteous and look out for pedestrians, while admitting that drivers pose the real danger to people walking.

Bike advocates say New York has a new “Boulevard of Death,” marking the failure of the city’s Vision Zero program after ten years.

A former Maryland Director of Planning and Zoning was indicted for the alleged drunken hit-and-run that killed a bike-riding man.

A North Carolina paper examines how bike riders and pedestrians are coping with the added danger as more drivers take to local roads.

 

International

Road.cc asks bike experts if the switch to internal cables has been worth it. Meanwhile, Cycling Weekly takes up the burning topic of whether bike bells really have a useful reason to exist.

The violin belonging to a British musician was somehow reconstructed, despite being broken into over 100 pieces when he was hit by a bus while riding a bicycle; unfortunately, he wasn’t as lucky, losing a leg as a result of the crash.

A new Danish study examines how the country encouraged greater bike helmet usage without mandating them.

A new United Arab Emirates bike ride took bicyclists through all seven emirates in seven days.

Adding insult to literal injury, an American tourist was fined for illegally stepping into the path of an ebike rider — while he was in a coma as a result of the collision; the ticket was withdrawn after he hired a lawyer to fight it.

 

Competitive Cycling

The future of the Tour of Britain, the Women’s Tour and other British races could be in doubt because the organizer of the races entered liquidation proceedings, after losing their license to conduct the races over an unpaid fee totaling the equivalent of over $884,000.

Australian pro Luke Plapp was left with a shredded kit and some truly ugly road rash after a nasty fall on a descent in the Tour Down Under.

Aussie sprinter Sam Welsford celebrated his 28th birthday by winning his third stage at the Tour Down Under on Friday. Today’s race was conducted yesterday, because they live in the future down there. 

 

Finally…

It’s hard to use a bike lane that’s blocked by a shitload of sugar beets. Stealing bikeshare bikes back from the thieves who stole them. A micro musette for mademoiselle et monsieur. 

And we may have to deal with rubbernecking drivers, but at least we don’t have to worry about nuzzling giraffes.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

Newsom plugs budget hole with Active Transportation funds, and Los Angeles traffic deaths jump once again in 2023

January 11, 2024 / / 4 comments

My eye is finally better, so let’s catch up on what we’ve missed the past couple days. 

We’ve got a lot of ground to cover, so please accept my apologies in advance if I don’t acknowledge you for something you sent me.

I’ll try to make up for it next time. 

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If you haven’t already, stop what you’re doing and sign this petition demanding a public meeting with LA Mayor Karen Bass to listen to the dangers we face just walking and biking on the streets of LA.

Then share it — and keep sharing it — with everyone you know, on every platform you can.

………

No surprise here, as Governor Gavin Newsom proposed filling an unexpected $38 billion budget shortfall in part by taking $200 million from the state’s already underfunded Active Transportation Program.

The governor’s new budget leaves just $850 million in the ATP, but borrows $200 million from future funding to avoid cutting currently budgeted projects.

Calbike says there’s no budget shortfall in the state’s transportation budget, which is stuffed with more money than ever before.

Meanwhile, the Southern California Association of Governments, aka SCAG, proposes spending a whopping $750 billion on traffic projects over the next 20 years.

Their project list included a whole 4,000 miles of bike lanes — which works out to just 200 miles a year, spread out among the seven-county SoCal region.

The rest of the funding will go overwhelmingly towards highway projects to encourage more driving.

Which is exactly what we don’t need to meet the state’s climate goals.

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So much for Vision Zero.

KNBC-4 reports that LAPD figures show traffic deaths outpaced murders in the City of Angels last year.

The city saw 330 traffic deaths in 2023, a significant increase over 2022’s near-record numbers, “particularly fatal hit and runs and fatal pedestrian and bicycle collisions.”

At the same time, violent crime dropped 3.2%, with a total of “just” 327 murders.

The rise in traffic deaths comes as the city’s underfunded and under-implemented Vision Zero program was supposed to end traffic deaths by next year.

Instead, we’re further than ever from that goal, as people continue to die on our streets while our elected leaders do little or nothing about it.

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A series of bike rides in cities around the world this Sunday will mark 100 days since the vicious Hamas attack on Israeli settlements, and the abduction of hundreds of people as hostages.

Rides are said ti be scheduled for Barcelona, Paris, London, Melbourne, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Czech Republic, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, among others, though I can find no record of a Los Angeles ride.

Bicyclists are encouraged to tie yellow ribbons to your bike on Sunday, even it you’re not participating in one of the organized rides.

https://twitter.com/Israel/status/1743945135602163795

Ed Rubinstein forwards plans for a solidarity ride in Dana Point.

Unfortunately, the link he sent to the Thousand Oaks ride has expired, and I can’t find any details for that one, either.

This Sunday, January 14, will mark 100 days since the October 7 attacks, and the kidnapping of hundreds.  As you may have heard the Israeli Premier Tech pro cycling team and the Israeli Cycling Federation has joined with Bring Them Home Now to organize bike rides in many cities worldwide calling for the release of the 129 remaining hostages. There is a ride planned in Thousand Oaks, but I am not aware of one in Orange County. So, my wife Leti and I decided to create a local alternative.

If you are not going to the big ride in Thousand Oaks, please join us this Sunday at 9:00 AM in Dana Point Harbor in the parking lot at the corner of Golden Lantern and Dana Point Harbor Drive to show your concern for the hostages.  We will provide yellow ribbons to tie on your bikes as a display of solidarity with the hostages.  Then we will take group photos that I will post on social media with the hashtag: #RideToBringThemHomeNow.  After the photos, there are multiple options for unsupported rides ranging from short 5-mile flat rides within the Harbor, a longer flat ride to San Juan Capistrano to a rolly 35+ mile ride to the north end of Camp Pendleton.

This is a digital word-of-mouth effort. You too are encouraged to let your friends know.  I have no idea about how large of a response I will get, so if you can let me know if you plan to attend.

Meanwhile, untold numbers of bike riders took part in a worldwide rally in support of Palestine last weekend.

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More than a dozen wannabe bike burglars attempted to use a U-Haul truck to knock down the wall of a DTLA bike shop Saturday morning.

The thieves used the truck in an attempt to repeatedly batter their way into Just Ride L.A., near the corner of South Hill Street and Venice Blvd in the South Park neighborhood.

But despite their efforts, the wall held, saving the store from a loss that likely would have amounted to tens of thousands of dollars.

As it is, they’re looking at a $40,000 loss to replace the gate and repair the damage cause by the truck.

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Long Beach may have seen Southern California’s first bicycling death of the year, after 43-year old Alecia McCullough was struck by a driver as she was crossing PCH Sunday night — the third death on SoCal’s killer highway in Long Beach this year.

One witness said she appeared to be riding a bicycle. However, there’s no confirmation of that, and no mention of a bike by the police.

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Metro appears to have chosen Lyft to operate the Metro Bike bikeshare program.

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21 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And 30 months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law, and counting.

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

The same bone-headed Florida website that somehow condemned “bike herds” in response to an elderly woman hitting a group of bicyclists while driving on the wrong side of the road, is now calling on readers to submit photos of bike riders behaving badly. Meanwhile, the editor goes out of his way to blame the victims of the mass crash, despite conceding that the driver was on the wrong side of the road, and the victims were obeying the law by riding two abreast. Notice also how effectively “bike herds” dehumanizes the victims. 

No bias here. Despite the recent panic over London’s floating bus stops, and reports that 60% of bike riders fail to stop for pedestrians moving to and from them, new leaked government documents show a low risk of bike riders actually hitting someone.

After a cabbie scared the crap out of an English bike rider by passing him just inches away, the local authorities apparently responded to the video by sending the driver a sternly worded letter. On the other hand, that’s more than they’d do here, where video isn’t accepted by the cops for anything less than a felony. 

Someone ripped out nearly all the reflective plastic bollards marking a cycle track in Mysore — or Mysuru — India, for no apparent reason.

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

British TV presenter Alex Phillip blamed “a little shit on a bike” for the attempted mugging that made her drop her phone.

A pair of Swiss tourists were fined $400 and had their bikes confiscated by authorities after mountain biking through one of New Zealand’s most famous heritage trails, where any kind of vehicle is banned, including bicycles.

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Local 

Streetsblog’s Joe Linton makes the case that “it shouldn’t take sustained advocacy pressure (and injury lawsuits) from cyclists to get the city to keep its walk/bike paths in a state of good repair,” as the city belatedly begins repairs on a decrepit section of the LA River bike path.

Linton also visits a new parking-protected bike lane on Variel in Woodland Hills.

The Larchmont Buzz looks forward to next month’s CicLAvia on iconic Melrose Ave, calling CicLAvia “one of the coolest community events ever.” When they’re right, they’re right. 

Pasadena announced the completion of the Cordova Street Complete Streets project, including 1.5 mile buffered bike lanes.

Santa Monica cops will be conducting yet another bicycle and pedestrian safety operation today, ticketing anyone who commits a traffic violation that could put either at risk — even if it’s someone walking or riding a bike who does it. So once again, ride to the letter of the law until you cross the city limit line, so you’re not the one who gets written up.

Speaking of Santa Monica, the NBA’s Toronto Raptors took to their bikes for a team building ride along the beach, as the team was in town for games against the Lakers and Clippers; new team member Immanuel Quickley said it was his first time riding a bike.

Long Beach received a $326,000 state grant to promote bike and pedestrian safety projects.

 

State

A bill in the state Senate Transportation Committee would eliminate the need for repetitive and costly traffic studies for bike lanes that have already been studied and approved along the California coast, reducing red tape and speeding construction, at least in theory.

Velo explains how California’s new law allowing bikes to proceed on the walk signal, instead of waiting for a green light, makes biking safer.

There’s a special place in hell for whoever burned down the ghost bike and memorial for Matt Keenan, who was killed by a driver in a head-on collision in San Diego’s Mission Valley in 2021; Keenan’s wife has started a crowdfunding campaign to raise money to replace it.

A San Diego doctor, ultra marathoner and triathlete says if ebikes are going to be allowed on the county’s trails, the trails will have to be improved and maintained so others don’t have to jump out of the way.

To the surprise of no one, stolen bikes were offered for sale on OfferUp and Facebook in San Diego, as Bike Index listed 331 bikes stolen in the city last year. Professional thieves often move hot bikes from one city to another, so it’s always possible that a bike stolen in LA could be sold in San Diego. Or Riverside, or anywhere else in Southern California.

Sad news from Carpinteria, where an 80-year old man riding a bike was killed by a driver; naturally, sheriff’s deputies blamed the victim for making an unsafe lane change. Oddly, though, it was the car’s rear windshield that was shattered in the crash.

San Francisco public TV station KQED says the bike lane on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge has an amazing view, and an uncertain future, after the expiration of the pathway’s four-year pilot program, and calls to return the lane to motor vehicles. Because we all know that cars are more important than people. 

Bike Talk’s Nick Richert talks with San Francisco Streetsblog about the city’s failed Vision Zero program.

The Bay Area’s BART commuter train system finally figured out that people who ride bikes sometimes need to ride trains, too, allowing people to take bikes on most escalators and trains.

 

National

Life is cheap in Colorado, where the driver who killed a 65-year old Minnesota man a third of the way through his lifetime goal of riding the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route got just nine months of work release, and was ordered to pay for a memorial for the victim.

Police in Kansas ask for the public’s help in identifying the victim injured in a collision while riding his bike. Yet another reminder to always carry ID with you when you ride — and preferably something that won’t get stolen if you’re incapacitated. 

A bike-riding Brooklyn man was busted on hate crime charges for throwing a rock at a Jewish man and yelling “Free Palestine!” Seriously, don’t do that. Passions are high enough without making thins worse.

A Baltimore woman brought an ice cream bike, and turned it into a $20,000 a month side hustle.

The Maryland legislature is considering a new bill that would increase the penalty for hitting someone riding in a bike lane to up to two months in jail and a fine of up to $2,000. Drivers should automatically be at fault for any crash with someone riding legally in a bike lane.

Atlanta announced a new program to give residents up to $2,000 to buy an ebike, depending on income level and type of bike. And chances are, they’ll run out of funding before California’s moribund program ever launches.

A retired Florida cop finished a 147-day, 5,000-mile bike ride from Vancouver to San Diego, then across the US to raise funds for children’s cancer research.

 

International

Momentum lists the top 10 reasons to buy an ebike this year. Unless you’re counting on California’s moribund ebike incentive program, in which case you’re probably screwed. 

A Canadian legal site asks if allowing bike riders to run stop signs would make the roads safer. Except by definition, it’s not running the stop sign if it’s legal to treat it as as a yield, as in the Idaho Stop Law.

Newly released records show Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer — the equivalent of our Treasury Secretary — slashed funding for active transportation after buying into crackpot conspiracy theories about the 15-minute city.

Ireland announced plans to build a nearly 2,200-mile bike network over the next 16 years, which will connect more than 200 cities, towns and villages with over 5,000 residents. That’s the second-best reason, after the whiskey, for a little reverse migration if things continue to devolve here.

Shimano has applied for a patent to use trainable AI to automatically control mountain bike suspensions and dropper seat posts.

 

Competitive Cycling

Ranchers near the mountain town of Steamboat Springs, Colorado, say they weren’t informed about the annual SBT GRVL race, and want the number of participants capped — even though race organizers held a series of public forums, and already cap the number of riders who can take part. Apparently, they don’t understand the meaning of “annual,” either. 

Pro-Palestinian protestors delayed the start of the Australian road cycling championships in an effort to target Israel–Premier Tech cyclist Simon Clarke.

 

Finally…

Blue legs and bike shorts on a cold winter’s day. Who needs an ebike when you can have your very own e-snowboard.

And you could have been the proud owner of Pee-wee Herman’s 1953 Schwinn DX Cruiser, not for “a hundred million, trillion, billion dollars,” but for the low, low price of $140,001.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

WeHo gets ebike rules wrong, SCAG wants your opinion on walkable cities, and La Brea gets bus (and bike) lanes

September 15, 2021 / / 3 comments

Sometimes, I don’t even know where to start.

West Hollywood announced that sheriff’s deputies will conduct a bicycle and pedestrian safety operation throughout the month of September.

They will ticket anyone who commits a violation that could endanger someone walking or riding, regardless of who commits it.

So ride to the letter of the law until you cross the city limits, so you’re not the one who gets ticketed.

Nothing unusual there.

But then the city added this highly problematic paragraph.

In addition, users of dockless mobility devices are reminded that only one person is allowed on a device at a time and e-scooters and e-bikes must be ridden on the road, never on the sidewalk – riding dockless mobility devices on the sidewalk is subject to citation. Users of e-scooters and e-bikes must have a valid driver license or instructional permit and must wear a helmet while riding. Users are advised to ride as far to the right side of traffic lane or in designated and marked bike lanes whenever possible and users must always ride in the direction of traffic. Dockless mobility devices should never be parked in a way that blocks pedestrian activity and access. Concerns about dockless mobility devices may be submitted to the City through its website or through the West Hollywood Official City App, which is available as a free download for iPhone users on the App Store and for Android users on Google Play. Feedback may be submitted by email, as well, at parkingconcerns@weho.org or by phone at (213) 247-7720.

Yes, dockless e-scooter users are required to have a driver’s license or learner’s permit, since the state somehow equates riding a tiny scooter with operating a deadly multi-ton machine.

But there is no license requirement for ebikes, dockless or otherwise, unless they are throttle controlled and capable of going up to 30 mph. And there is no helmet requirement for anyone over 18 years old.

In addition, people on bicycles are only required to ride as far to the right as practicable.

Which means you’re allowed to ride outside the door zone, and take the full lane on any street where the right lane is too narrow to safely share with a motor vehicle, while providing at least a three-foot passing distance.

It’s more than a little frightening when the people responsible for the laws don’t seem to know them.

Ebike photo by Markus Spiske from Pexels.

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SCAG wants to know what you think about walkable communities.

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Don’t hold your breath waiting for bike lanes on La Brea Ave in Los Angeles.

But newly announced plans call for a nearly 6-mile, part-time bus lane on the busy corridor from Sunset Blvd to Coliseum Street, which bike riders are free to use during the limited times they’re in operation, as long as you don’t mind a bus running up your ass.

Maybe someday Los Angeles will get serious about getting people out of their cars, and make bus lanes 24 hours a day, seven days a week, just like a real city.

Or not.

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

You’ve got to be kidding. Police in Yorkshire, England evidently have better things to do than deal with a teenage driver who hit a woman on a bicycle, then stole her phone to keep her from taking pictures after the crash; the cops said she should have just swapped information with him and left them out of it. And let him keep her phone, evidently.

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

Police are looking for a pair of men who rode their ebikes onto the UC San Diego campus, and shot someone multiple times with a BB gun.

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Local

South Pasadena has just over three months to institute a Slow Streets program, or lose a $420,000 Metro open streets grant that has to be spent by the end of the year.

 

State

California may be many things, but apparently, polite ain’t one of them.

More proof that bike riders are tougher than most people think, as a Goleta man rode his bicycle to the hospital after he was stabbed by another man; his would-be killer was arrested a few hours later for attempted murder.

A plan to improve safety and add bus lanes and bike lanes to a pair of Mountain View streets has hit a roadblock, after it was revealed that the project would require removing 120 trees, including 27 irreplaceable heritage trees. Maybe they should consider removing parking spaces or traffic lanes before they start chopping down trees.

 

National

New Apple watches will be able to tell when you start a bike ride, and call for help if you fall off.

Cycling News recommends their picks for the best gravel bike helmets to protect you on and off the road.

Great idea. An advocacy group in my Colorado hometown is asking the public to contribute a new bike and helmet worth $150 in an effort to give a bicycle to every second grader in the city’s six public elementary schools.

The co-founder of Better Streets Chicago describes being part of a people-protected bike lane to call attention to the need for safer streets.

Cambridge, Massachusetts is installing new flexpost-protected bike lanes on one main street, in response to a new requirement to build out the city’s bike network within five years. That compares to Los Angeles, which gave itself 25 years to build a bike network, while considering the whole thing just “aspirational.”

New York Streetsblog examines the many failures that allowed a dangerous driver to remain on the road until it was too late, despite dozens of traffic violations and a suspended driver’s license; he kept driving anyway, and killed a three-month old baby while driving the wrong way.

New bike lanes have officially opened on New York’s iconic Brooklyn Bridge, after the city removed a traffic lane to give bike riders their own space apart from pedestrians. Meanwhile, a writer for Streetsblog wants to know why existing concrete barriers lining the city’s Addabbo Bridge can’t be moved a few feet to the left to create a protected bike lane.

Wired takes a deep dive into America’s only remaining Tour de France winner, the Tennessee company he founded to make low-cost carbon fiber, and his new ultralight carbon frame ebike.

 

International

Treehugger’s Lloyd Alter offers an excerpt from his new book, Living the 1.5 Degree Lifestyle, arguing all that’s needed for an ebike revolution is “good affordable bikes, a safe place to ride, and a secure place to park.”

Boy, does he get it. A Toronto writer says there’s not much hope for the city’s Vision Zero program when the city council’s “collective head is so far up the tailpipe of motorists.” Couldn’t have said it better myself, except here in Los Angeles, too.

An Irish walker and sometimes bicyclist says put a bell on your bike, already. I’m not a fan of bike bells, since all they tell you is a bike rider is nearby, and an angel just got its wings. Use your voice instead, and politely tell pedestrians what side you’re passing on, or ask them to move one way or the other.

An Indian man has ridden his bicycle nearly 5,000 miles across the country in what began as a tribute to his late father, but took on a life of its own, delivering him new friends and experiences while gaining 69,000 followers on YouTube — and 82,000 on Instagram.

An Aussie website offers tips on how to pick the right bicycle for beginning riders. Although the right bike when you’re starting out may not be a few months later.

 

Competitive Cycling

Seven-time Grand Tour winner Alberto Contador set off on a 1,000-mile ride from Madrid to Milan to celebrate his pro team’s first stage victory in the Giro, in their first year on the WorldTour; Contador is co-owner of the Spanish-based team, along with former cycling great Ivan Basso.

 

Finally…

Park your bike with the fishes without getting wet. Who needs water when you can carry hot coffee on your bike?

And the pandemic bike boom has officially reached Mongolia.

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

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

Clotheslining riders on new DTLA bike lane, public safety and Go Human town halls, and drawing Pacman by bike

August 26, 2020 / / Comments Off on Clotheslining riders on new DTLA bike lane, public safety and Go Human town halls, and drawing Pacman by bike

There seems to be something wrong with this photo of the new separated bike lane on Grand Ave in DTLA.

But I just can’t put my finger on it…

Photo by Redditor u/TezzDonut

Thanks to Evan Burbridge for the heads-up.

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Councilmember Bob Blumenfield is hosting a virtual town hall on Thursday to discuss how to reform policing in Los Angeles, which could have a major effect on traffic enforcement and criminal investigations affecting people on bicycles.

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Talk with the Southern California Association of Governments, aka SCAG, about their newly revived Go Human campaign tomorrow.

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Nothing like penning a 380-mile Pacman by bike.

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Salsa Cycles presents a moving video as a Canadian woman attempts to ride all ten bikepacking routes pioneered by her late husband in a single year.

Thanks to Victor Bale, who suggests watching this one full screen, for forwarding the link. 

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Former professional cyclist James Lowsley-Williams offers tips on how to avoid saddle sores when you ride.

Including don’t wear underwear with your bike shorts, which you already knew, right?

Or you could just plop your ass on this padded wedge currently raising funds online.

But I’ll let you try it first, thank you.

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

Police in Albuquerque NM are looking for whoever shot and killed a man as he was walking his bicycle last week. Although someone should tell the Albuquerque Journal that the truck they were using probably isn’t a suspect in the shooting.

A Baltimore bike rider is accusing a driver of deliberately slamming his truck into four people riding their bikes as part of a large group ride. Chances are, the pickup didn’t deliberately hit anyone. The asshole driving it did, despite what the headline says.

Some people can’t see the traffic for the cars. A writer for London’s Daily Mail blames the city’s bike lanes for causing traffic congestion, while failing to recognize that it’s really just too many people like him in cars.

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

A San Diego man pled not guilty to fatally stabbing a man in an apparent random attack in a Pacific Beach public restroom, before attempting to flee on a bicycle.

A bikeshare-riding Brooklyn mugger was caught on video ripping a gold chain off a young mother’s neck.

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Local

Metro is putting out a call for bikeshare providers to replace Bicycle Transit Systems, the current Metro Bike operator, when their contract expires in two years. And hopefully find someone more willing to expand system throughout LA.

The Pasadena Police Department will be conducting yet another of their bike and pedestrian safety crackdowns this Friday; their last one resulted in 119 tickets, 28 of which went to people on bicycles. So ride to the letter of the law until you leave cross the city limits.

Brigitte Nielson and her dog nearly got cameos in Bradley Cooper’s latest film, as they rode through the LA set for the new movie by director Paul Thomas Anderson.

 

State

A Sacramento man was busted for an alleged sexual assault on a Davis bike path earlier this month. Which is yet another reminder that women face risks riding that men don’t, especially when out of public view on offroad paths.

 

National

Vice examines Traffic Demand Modeling, or TDM, the antiquated formula that predicts the need for road projects — and too often misses the mark.

NPR looks to Trek to examine what bikes can tell us about Trump’s trade wars and the changing global economy.

No surprise here, as a new study pending publication shows riding a bike can help keep you young, figuratively if not literally.

A public radio reporter has set out on a 900-mile bike ride across four Rocky Mountain states, crisscrossing the Continental Divide to listen to Americans in advance of the 2020 election. Yes, they’re actually paying him to take a bikepacking trip.

A Colorado district attorney has concluded there was no wrongdoing by five Colorado Springs cops after a popular bike fitter and former bike shop employee died when they tried to take him into custody during an apparent psychotic episode.

The mayor of Jefferson City, Missouri bought a new bike to take part in a community ride, and discovered a bicycle allows you to be social while social distancing.

When his son wanted to ride a bike with his sisters despite his cerebral palsy, a Chicago bike shop owner established a foundation to help provide others with adaptive bicycles, too.

Kindhearted community members teamed with the local Walmart to buy a new bicycle for a popular Illinois man known for riding everywhere, after his bike was stolen from a truck stop.

An Illinois columnist suggests saving money by riding a bike instead of driving.

A Massachusetts man is taking traffic violence into his own hands, protesting every day for the past two weeks to call for safer streets.

 

International

Thanks to the pandemic, ridership rates are way up on a once-controversial Toronto protected bike lane.

A new European study show the popup bikeways that sprang up across Europe in the wake of the pandemic lockdown delivered $3 billion in health benefits across the continent.

Road.cc’s ebike sister site picks eight of their favorite ebikes, starting at the equivalent of $2,759.

A group of bighearted bicyclists bought a new bike for a Filipino sapatero — shoe repairman — after someone noticed him riding a homemade bike put together from scrap metal.

 

Competitive Cycling

NBC posts a TV and streaming schedule for this year’s pandemic-delayed Tour de France, which kicks off this Saturday. Or you could try to be one of the lucky few to see it in person.

Bicycling celebrates the long overdue demise of podium girls in the Tour de France, but says it’s also time for a real women’s Tour. Here’s the Yahoo link if you’ve been banished by the magazine’s paywall.

Cycling’s governing body pinky swears they’re really going to improve safety after too many high-profile crashes during this year’s races.

Former US crit champ Travis McCabe is finally getting his chance to race with the top level WorldTour, after his rookie season was nearly derailed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

UCI considers putting pro mountain bikers in a bubble to resume the racing season.

 

Finally…

If you’re going to ride your bike three sheets to the wind — or three times the legal limit — don’t toss your empties into the bushes. Go mountain biking with stunt cyclist Danny MacAskill without ever leaving the bike shop.

And who says cleats and Crocs don’t mix?

……

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

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

Morning Links: Vision Zero protest at City Hall today, SCAG is hiring, and Chinese TV network discovers CicLAvia

October 18, 2019 / / Comments Off on Morning Links: Vision Zero protest at City Hall today, SCAG is hiring, and Chinese TV network discovers CicLAvia

Someone’s finally taking the fight to City Hall.

A trio of “concerned citizens” are fed up with LA’s continuing failure to implement Vision Zero, and the rising death toll that has resulted.

And calling for a protest on the steps of the building this morning.

Unfortunately, I didn’t receive notice until yesterday afternoon. So it may be over by the time you read this.

But here’s what they have to say.

What Happened to Vision Zero?

A protest in front of City Hall

LOS ANGELES, OCTOBER 17, 2019–On Friday, October 18th, at 8am, safe streets advocates, parents, community leaders and concerned Angelinos will gather on the steps of City Hall to send a strong message to Mayor Garcetti, the City Council, and the Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT): Enough is enough! 

We estimate over a hundred people have died walking or biking in our city since 2019 at the hands of motorists. On Wednesday, Alexa, a 4-year old girl, was killed in the crosswalk while walking to preschool with her mother.

Graphic by tomexploresla

 

In 2015, Mayor Eric Garcetti committed to the popular Vision Zero initiative, aimed at ending all traffic deaths by increasing safe and equitable mobility for all. The ultimate goal is to reduce traffic related deaths to zero by 2025. Yet rather than decline, fatal traffic collisions have risen by more than 32% in Los Angeles (LATIMES) despite reported measures taken by LADOT and the Mayor’s office.  

The sad reality is that in Los Angeles County, the leading cause of death for children ages 5-14, is traffic collisions – with poor neighborhoods being disproportionately affected. Nationwide vulnerable road users die every 90 minutes. (LATIMES) Therefore, we ask Mayor Garcetti, City Council, and other responsible parties for safe streets now.

This protest is a grassroots event organized by Andres Quinche, Bob Frederick and Tom Carroll and is not sponsored by any specific entity, we are just three concerned citizens who are tired of standing by. 

Let’s move our public discourse out of the binary debates between more or less freedom and start humanizing our streets.

PROTEST DETAILS

WHEN: Friday October 18, at 8 AM-9 AM

WHERE: LA City Hall Steps (Spring St side)

 

Hopefully, more than just the three of them will turn out on such short notice.

But it’s heartening to see that people are finally getting fed up. And willing to take to the streets to do something about it.

Protest graphics by Victor Hugo Cuevas.

………

If anyone with solid communication and community engagement skills needs a new job, the Southern California Association of Governments is looking for you.

………

A Chinese TV network discover’s CicLAvia, and says the open streets event promotes greener, healthier policies.

………

Nothing like going for a morning drive. On a bike path.

………

Local

A Metro committee has approved plans for two new bike and pedestrian bridges connecting with the L.A. River Glendale Narrows bike/walk path in Glendale.

Santa Clarita’s mayor pro tem led a group of people attending Calbike’s three-day California Bicycle Summit on a tour of the city’s bike paths.

Brian Addison of the Long Beach Post looks back to the days when the greater LA area was the urban rail capital of the world. Imagine how safe bicycling would be today if we still had a world-class rail system running on every major boulevard.

Speaking of which, Metro’s erstwhile Blue Line will reopen next month as the newly renamed A Line. And not, unfortunately, the A Train.

 

State

Congratulations to UC Santa Barbara for achieving the elite platinum-level Bicycle Friendly University designation.

Police in Morro Bay are looking for a heartless coward who left a critically injured 55-year old man bleeding in a bike lane after slamming into him as he was riding his bike home from work.

School kids in the tiny coastal town of Oceano turned out to welcome dozens of veterans participating in the annual Project Hero California Challenge ride from Santa Cruz to Santa Barbara.

A new glowing map shows San Francisco’s most popular streets for bicycling, as shown by the people riding them. It would be nice to see the same map for Los Angeles, although it would probably look very different.

The FBI is offering a $10,000 reward for the woman charged with fleeing the scene after killing a 71-year old man riding his bike; she reportedly hit him head-on while driving on the wrong side of the road. The FBI became involved after she fled the state, possibly to Mexico.

 

National

Jalopnik considers how the bicycle changed the world for women.

Life is cheap in Hawaii, where a drift-racing driver got just one year behind bars for slamming into a triathlete participating in a group ride, leaving her with serious injuries that have already required a number of operations, with more on the way.

St. George, Utah will host a pop-up protected bike lane next week, to demonstrate what residents could enjoy, paid for by Spin.

Hundreds of kindhearted Texans dug into their own pockets to help an Army vet who suffers from seizures get a new, and better, bicycle just one day after his was stolen.

The Chicago Tribune considers bicycle seats, and says go with the classic and get a Brooks saddle, while a writer for the same paper tries to assemble a Thule bike rack, and makes call a friend her final answer.

An Indiana website talks with Dennis Christopher, the star of Breaking Away. And yes, that movie was why I started bicycling again, after selling my 10-speed to attend college.

A Pittsburgh advocacy group counted 123 drivers stopped in just four city bike lanes during the morning, noon and evening rush hours.

After initially blaming the victim, as usual, the NYPD quietly changed a police report to reflect that a fallen cyclist was not at fault in the crash that killed him, after all.

A Philadelphia bicycle delivery rider was acquitted of most charges for fatally stabbing a road-raging driver who attacked him after he tried to intervene in the man’s dispute with another driver; the white victim, a former Penn State quarterback, had threatened to “beat the black off” the delivery rider.

This is why you should let the police handle it. An Atlanta-area father and his ten-year old son were both shot in a bikejacking when they interrupted a burglar going through their garage.

 

International

Cycling Tips looks back at the more than 130-year history of anti-bike bias.

A podcast featuring a global panel discusses future of road bikes, asking how new tech can make cycling better. Meanwhile, Road.cc looks back at ten retro tech inventions that changed bicycling for the better.

Promising to keep you safer on the streets, a new app has launched that will turn your smartphone into a crash detector and call for help if you don’t tell it you’re okay.

Castelli’s relatively new clothing line promises to keep you cool on hot days, yet be virtually waterproof in the rain.

A writer for a UK style magazine says she’s tired of being verbally abused when she rides London streets.

The ancient city of Hue, Vietnam, is launching a bicycle tourism service that sounds a lot like bikeshare by another name.

Life is cheap in Singapore, where a cab driver got a whole week behind bars for crashing into a woman on a bicycle, leaving her with serious injuries, including lingering damage to one eye. On the other hand, the driver did get a two-year driving ban, which will force her to find another line of work when she gets out.

 

Competitive Cycling

More heartbreaking news from the world of pro cycling, as 19-year old Dutch cyclist Edo Maas has been told he will likely never walk again. The promising Sunweb rider was descending at around 44 mph when he crashed into a car that had somehow gotten on a race course earlier this month. In a tragic irony, the crash that left him a paraplegic occurred on Italy’s Madonna del Ghisallo hill, named after the patron saint of bicycling.

More on the retirement of former cycling scion Taylor Phinney, who leaves professional cycling to pursue art. Best take so far, is that Phinney never let one horrible crash define him. And Phinney offers a powerful comment that there’s power in recognizing you no longer have passion for what you do.

A 27-year old San Diego man became the first person with both legs amputated above the knee to complete in the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii, using a kneeling handcycle for the 112-mile bicycling leg and running blades for the marathon-length running portion.

Katusha-Alpecin bites the dust, as the Israel Cycling Academy takes over their WorldTour team, leaving many Katusha riders wondering if they’ll have jobs next year.

Twenty-two-year old American world time trial champ Chloé Dygert says she plans on competing in the next six Olympics, which would make her 45 when she finally retires.

 

Finally…

Build your next bike by dumpster diving. Bike-riding dogs in the rain.

And your BMX bike is now the most sought after retro toy.

Except it isn’t. A toy, that is.

 

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

Morning Links: Bikemakers burned out in Camp Fire, Brit shrink calls bike riders narcissists, and Lake Wobegon drivers

November 20, 2018 / / 3 comments

It’s hard to find bigger hearts and more caring people than you’ll find in bicycling.

Like the two framebuilders who lost their homes and workshops in Northern California’s deadly and devastating Camp Fire.

Yet insist on helping others instead of themselves.

Custom bikemaker Alistair Spence moved to Paradise from Seattle earlier this year, and had just finished setting up his workshop a few months ago.

But even though he and his wife have lost everything, he’s only accepting $7,000 from the crowdfunding campaign to help him get back on his feet, and donating the rest to help other victims.

Meanwhile, former Portland resident Mitch Pryor also lost his home in the Camp Fire that has killed over 70 people. And like Spence, he’s only accepting $10,000 of the money raised for him on his GoFundMe page, and giving the rest to fire relief causes.

Between them, that’s over $6,000 that will go to victims of the Camp Fire thanks to their kindness and generosity.

Maybe we can do something to help push that total up a little.

Thanks to James Biffin for the heads-up. Photos of Mitch Pryor (top) and Alistair Spence from their respective GoFundMe pages.

………

No bias here.

A British psychotherapist, who probably shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near actual patients, has somehow diagnosed all bicyclists as narcissists.

I wonder what she’d say about medical professionals who diagnose people they’ve never met from the comfort of their studio chairs?

Let alone allow their own windshield bias dictate how they respond.

………

Call it the Lake Wobegon effect.

Like Garrison Keillor’s fictional town, where all the children were above average, British motorists seem to think they’re better than average, as well.

In fact, in a recent study, 91% of UK residents consider themselves good drivers — even though most also admit to speeding to get through yellow lights.

But not a hint of narcissism there.

Right?

The same study also shows that 77% of Brits would support an automatic driving ban for people convicted of causing death or serious injury.

And it suggests that bicyclists are 46 times more likely to be killed on UK roads than motorists on a per-mile basis.

Although the problem with that last stat is that bike trips tend to be far shorter than car trips; bike riders spend more time covering shorter distances.

So a more accurate measure would be comparing actual time spent on the road.

………

Here’s your chance to bid on a one-of-a-kind Specialized Allez Sprint custom painted by Spanish artist Felipe Pantone, valued at $45,000, to benefit World Bicycle Relief.

………

Best wishes to longtime SCAG Senior Transportation Planner Alan Thompson, who left his position with the Southern California Association of Governments last week to head up the Oregon Department of Transportation’s Bikeway’s Division.

While he’s somehow managed to stay out of the spotlight over the years, Thompson has been a forceful advocate for bicycling in Southern California, and will be very missed.

Oregon bicyclists will be lucky to have him.

………

Local

Hats off to Santa Monica College, which was upgraded to a silver level bike friendly rating by the League of American Bicyclists, and remains the only community college in California to be named a Bicycle Friendly University.

Streetsblog takes a look at the Wilshire bus-only lane leading to the 405 in Westwood, which drivers have illegally co-opted for another traffic lane.

 

State

Uber has deployed 300 JUMP dockless ebikes on the streets of San Diego, as a writer questions how long they’ll last after other bikeshare providers have pulled out of the city.

Apple is planning to take a hike to improve iOS Maps directions for bicyclists and pedestrians, after a successful test in San Francisco.

Someone please tell San Francisco’s KPIX-TV that there’s a slight difference between a $3 million price tag to complete the bike and pedestrian path along the Bay Bridge, and the actual estimate of $300 million. But really, what’s $297 million between friends?

It’s environmentalists 1, mountain bikes 0, after Marin County agrees to a two-year delay before opening any more trails to bicycles.

 

National

A local news site posted photos of Saturday’s Tour de Tucson, where an estimated 7,000 riders took part.

It takes a major scumbag to steal or tamper with a memorial to a victim of traffic violence. Yet thefts and vandalism of ghost bikes are on the rise in Albuquerque NM.

An Austin TX man was injured after pushing his wife to safety when he was hit head-on by someone driving in the bike lane they were running in.

Chicago marked the annual World Day of Remembrance by placing 132 pairs of white-painted shoes around the Federal Plaza to represent the victims of traffic violence in the city over the past year.

A cyclist pens a love letter to a Minnesota velodrome, soon to be sacrificed for a parking lot.

Grand Rapids MI is succeeding at their Vision Zero efforts, with bicycling crashes dropping to the lowest level since 2008.

NIMBY New York residents rally to demand their unsafe street back; the oddly misnamed Queens Streets for All wants to take the street back from all users, and turn it back over a cars.

Ignoring studies showing that bikeable, walkable streets are good for business, New York business owners complain about a lane reduction and newly widened bike lane that took away 150 parking spaces; a DOT spokesperson says the real problem isn’t the bike lanes, it’s drivers double parking in the only remaining traffic lane.

Now that’s more like it. DC now has a dedicated work crew to clear snow and ice from bike lanes, as well as clearing curb cuts for wheelchair users.

 

International

Once again, a British bike rider has had to withdraw a claim that injuries he suffered from hitting a pothole left him too badly injured to ride, after social media posts showed him competing in the “best obstacle-packed course on the planet.”

A man died after falling off a Belfast bar bike; the 15 passenger rolling pedal-powered pubs are popular with tourists.

A hard-hitting column from a Pakistani writer points out the harassment women face in the country just for riding a bicycle — unless they happen to be Westerners, and white.

Bengaluru, India bike riders are embracing bikeshare, even if the government is struggling to keep up.

A Kenyon paster wowed the country after riding his bike 190 miles to look for work as a driver in Nairobi.

A Wellington, New Zealand writer says the city is on the right track thanks to the city council’s bicycling plans.

An Aussie architect asks when Sydney will finally take bicycling seriously.

Shanghai bikeshare users who break the rules or leave their bikes in the wrong places will now be placed on a blacklist.

Schadenfreude is also a dish best served cold. Nissan Chairman Carlos Ghosn has been arrested on fraud charges in Japan for under-reporting his salary; Ghosn had told CNBC in 2016 that bicyclists usually “don’t respect any rules.”

 

Competitive Cycling

Prince Harry’s friend Dean Stott has denied allegations of cheating in his record-breaking ride along the full length of South and North America, blaming disgruntled support staff for the accusations. He broke the existing record by 17 days in order to get home in time for the prince’s wedding.

Belgian cyclist Stig Broeckx is back on a bike, two years after suffering a severe brain injury in a crash with a race moto in the 2016 Tour of Belgium.

Relive Lance’s victory over Marco Pantani on Mount Ventoux in the 2000 Tour from the comfort of your theater seat.

 

Finally…

Maybe marathon isn’t the right word when  your country’s first-ever bike marathon only travels two miles. Ride your bike in the annual Macy’s parade; no, not that one.

And forget carbon, your next lightweight bike could be made of Super Magnesium.

Let’s just hope they’ve overcome that whole explosive/flammable magnesium thing.

 

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

Morning Links: Person behind fake advocacy group outed, and SCAG takes a deep dive into traffic safety data

October 13, 2017 / / One comment

Once again, Peter Flax has written a great piece, as he investigates the fake, Twitter-based advocacy group LA Westside Walkers.

And outs the person behind it as a Playa del Rey music video and documentary director Justin Purser, who lives steps from the initial Vista del Mar road diet.

Purser admits to being the person who started the account, although he bizarrely contends that he handed it off to a group of people he refuses to name after it was mentioned on this site, following his equally bizarre claim to have co-founded BikinginLA.

You can probably count the number of people who actually believe that on a closed fist, however.

Flax digs into the account, which continues its misleading, false-flag form of fake advocacy.

All the while, the barrage of strange tweets from the Westside Walkers account continues, a maddening mélange of dubious facts and falsely earnest advocacy, leveraging a completely faked identity to convince unsuspecting readers that measures meant to save lives are not working. It’s a total cesspool of bullshit distracting people from an actual life-and-death issue.

Meanwhile, someone from Playa del Rey forwarded screenshots in the upper left corner and below, showing comment by Purser from around the time the Westside Walkers account was started.

His point seems to be that the real goal of people who supported the road diets was to make the streets more dangerous, not less.

If that’s supposed to be a joke, it’s in very poor taste.

And says a lot more about the person who made it than it does anyone else.

Let’s hope his attitude really has changed, as Flax’s article suggests.

………

The Southern California Association of Governments, or SCAG, has prepared an in-depth look at traffic safety conditions for the six-county region, as well as each of the individual counties.

Needless to say, it’s not a pretty picture.

A few graphic highlights —

 

………

As we mentioned yesterday, Bike SGV is hosting their BEST Ride: Bike Art Night Pasadena tonight. Thanks to Tim Rutt for the heads-up.

Meetings will be held tonight and tomorrow in La Puente and Montebello, respectively, to provide input on the SGV Regional Pedestrian and Bicycle Master Plan (scroll down).

The October Slow Ride: Revive Gateway Park! will be held tomorrow, hosted by the Elysian Valley Slow Ride.

AIDS/LifeCycle is holding a pair of Kickoff AIDS/LifeCycle 2018 rides beginning at Balboa Park this Saturday to start training for next year’s 545-mile ride down the California Coast.

The South Bay Cycling Awards will be held in Torrance tomorrow; you can see a list of nominees here.

Bike SGV will hold a memorial ride on Sunday to honor staff member Brian Velez, who recently passed away unexpectedly.

Helen’s Cycles will hold a number of rides this weekend, as well as a women’s bike maintenance clinic this coming Thursday.

Also on Thursday, the LACBC will host a City Cycling Class to develop urban riding skills.

Helen’s Cycles in Arcadia is sponsoring a No Drop Group Ride next Saturday, October 21st.

Also on the 21st, CD4 Councilmember David Ryu is hosting an open house to discuss much needed safety improvements to 6th Street between Fairfax and La Brea.

West Hollywood will be holding a WeHo Pedals Bike Share Basics workshop on October 26th.

Santa Monica’s Breeze Bike Share is celebrating its second birthday with a ride with the mayor on November 4th.

CicLAvia will hold their 2nd annual Play Day in LA fundraiser om November 5th.

The very busy Bike SGV will hold their annual “Noche de las Luminarias” awards ceremony on December 2nd.

And CicLAvia returns to iconic Wilshire Blvd on December 10th.

………

Local

Long Beach bike advocates met with former LADOT Bicycle Coordinator Michele Mowery, now the city’s new mobility and healthy living programs officer.

The seven-day Pablove Across American fundraising ride will end in Malibu tomorrow; the ride raises money for pediatric cancer research.

Calabasas unveils a new and improved Las Virgenes Road, complete with two lanes in each direction, bike lanes and continuous sidewalks.

 

State

The bike lanes on El Toro Road will be closed for construction work Monday between Laguna Canyon Road and the 73 tollway.

Joshua Tree residents complain that new bike lanes installed by Caltrans in the downtown area don’t go anywhere.

Half Moon Bay drops plans for a bike bridge and pathways after giving up on funding from Caltrans.

After getting caught in a traffic jam caused by people escaping the Sonoma County wildfires, a Santa Rosa woman went back home and got her bicycle, carrying her 70-pound dog to safety in a duffel bag.

A drunk hit-and-run driver has been sentenced to five years for killing a Suisun City cyclist; he fled the scene on foot, abandoning his car after he crashed again while fleeing the scene.

 

National

Bicycling offers five GoPro hacks to make your videos worth watching. Most important: Install some editing software and learn how to use it. No one wants sit through five minutes of video to get to the 30 seconds where something actually happens.

Caught on video: A Seattle bicyclist was the victim of a punishment pass for having the audacity to ride outside the bike lane to pass another rider; the city’s former mayor calls it assault, even if the police don’t.

A writer for a Colorado company asks if employers should pay workers to leave their cars at home. California has a parking cash-out program designed to compensate employees who give up their parking spaces to bike, walk or take transit to work, but the program is so narrowly drawn it only applies to three percent of the state’s workers.

A Colorado writer says he’s never seen a bicyclist display animosity towards a motorist that wasn’t in response to the driver’s actions. And that drivers need to check their “vehicular privilege” at the door to their vehicle.

A New York man says getting run over by a dump truck while riding his bike was the last straw, and he’s officially done with the city. Getting run over by anything can have that effect on you.

Lobbyists descend on DC to convince lawmakers that bikeshare is bipartisan.

Baltimore’s bikeshare returns with a reduced fleet of bikes, now equipped with GPS, after it was shut down due to excessive thefts and maintenance backups.

 

International

A 72-year old writer says what cyclists over 60 really want is protected bike parking. Oddly, that’s exactly what cyclists under 60 want, too.

Caught on video too: A British driver has been fined the equivalent of $932 and lost his license for six months for forcing a bike rider off the road.

Caught on video three: A Scottish newspaper sees an out-of-control, brakeless bike rider barrel into a toddler; others may see a toddler suddenly dart in front of the bicyclist.

A Scottish writer wonders what can be done to get more women on bicycles, and concludes that better safety matters more than sweaty clothes or helmet hair.

Paris moves to ban all gas and diesel-powered cars and trucks by 2030.

A new Swiss conversion kit promises to turn any bicycle into an ebike.

A Cape Town, South African cyclist was robbed of his bicycle, just days after armed thieves stole three bikes from a group of riders on the same roadway.

A 77-year old Australian man needed over a dozen stiches after he was the victim of a random attack by a man who stepped out from behind a tree, and beat the vicim’s face with a bottle as he was riding with his wife.

 

Finally…

Your next bike could run on strings. Nothing like getting your stolen bike back, and getting it stolen again on the way home.

And apparently, Metro really doesn’t want your bike blocking the aisles.

Although I’m still waiting to see a superhero zap the people blocking the bike area so you don’t have to block the aisle with your bike.

 

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

Weekend Links: Great Streets Challenge winners announced, SCAG active trans projects approved

February 4, 2017 / / Comments Off on Weekend Links: Great Streets Challenge winners announced, SCAG active trans projects approved

Los Angeles announced the winners of the latest Great Streets Challenge, providing up to $13,000 to help show what our streets can be.

Besides a steady conduit for speeding drivers, that is.

The seven winning proposals include four temporary pop-up projects, and three permanent installations, offering a mix of pedestrian and bicycling improvements, as well as attempts at transformative community space building.

………

The Southern California Association of Governments, aka SCAG, approved funding for 26 active transportation and sustainability projects throughout LA County on Thursday.

The projects, which total $4.6 million, range from an Open Streets event in South El Monte, to support for Vision Zero community outreach and media development in Los Angeles, as well as developing a Vision Zero action plan for the county.

………

Finally, someone is taking the most important issue of our time seriously, as Bike Radar examines the best bikes for the coming zombie apocalypse.

………

Local

Streetsblog’s Joe Linton calls the new Riverside Drive Bridge “wider straighter faster deadlier,” and inappropriate for the spot where the City of Los Angeles was born, although he says the two-way bike path was a small victory in a losing battle.

Los Angeles Magazine recommends biking as one option for Expo Line commuters to get to the Culver City station, now that the parking garage is being replaced with a mixed-use development. Although I’m told those bike lockers they mention have a wait list.

 

State

Irvine-based bikemaker Felt Racing has been purchased by French ski-maker Rossignol.

The Orange County Register recommends the 28.5-mile Santa Ana River Trail to ride from the hills of Yorba Linda to the beach.

The wife of San Diego Bicycle Coalition Executive Director Andy Hanshaw is opening a bicycle-themed coffee shop in the city’s Point Loma district.

In an absolutely horrifying attack, a Riverside driver is under arrest on suspicion of murder and assault with a deadly weapon for deliberately running down a homeless man he’d never met, for no apparent reason, as the victim stood near the edge of a parking lot.

This is what those subway-style bike maps look like in a city with an actual bike network, like San Francisco.

 

National

A self-described green car website crunches the numbers, and concluded that driving a Nissan Leaf is cleaner than riding a bicycle — if the rider only eats beef. And only if the power for the car comes from non-coal fired plants. In other words, not really.

Gizmodo reviews a belt-drive bike that replaces the derailleur with a continuously variable transmission, which they claim offers an infinite spectrum of gears.

A St. Louis driver gets seven years for killing a bike rider while fleeing from police.

An Op-Ed from Kentucky’s capital calls on the state to adopt a safe-passing law for bicycles; two bills under consideration would require drivers to change lanes to pass bikes, or give at least three feet passing distance if that’s not possible. It would also allow drivers to briefly cross a yellow line to pass bike riders if there’s no traffic, something Jerry Brown vetoed as part of an earlier version of California’s three-foot passing law.

Atlanta Falcons General Manager Thomas Dimitroff is one of us.

 

International

Business Insider looks at 12 major cities around the world that are starting to go carfree. And no, Los Angeles is not one of them.

The owner of a Vancouver driving school says we all have to get along on the roads, so drivers need to watch for bike riders and bike riders need to obey traffic laws. Meanwhile, Vancouver drivers are peeved that bike lanes were plowed following a recent snow.

“Persnickety” residents of a Toronto neighborhood complain about bikeshare besmirching their park; a writer for the Toronto Star calls their petty objections “a rejection of what it means to live in a shared city.”

A British man is riding around the world dressed as Superman, and fixes his bike’s broken fork with chopsticks.

Caught on video: This is what it looks like to hit a bike rider at 25 mph, from the driver’s perspective; fortunately, the victim wasn’t injured. Warning, use discretion in deciding whether to click the link, because this one is really hard to watch. I wish I hadn’t.

Dutch smart bike maker VanMoof chases down their stolen bikes across Europe to return them to their owners.

Outside looks at what we can learn from 105-year old French cyclist Robert Marchard, as scientists conclude there is no upper age limit for training.

You can charge your phone or laptop for free at Brisbane’s International Airport, as long as you’re willing to pedal for it.

 

Finally…

Walking on water may be a miracle, pedaling on it not so much. Your next bike could have a 3D-printed honeycomb steel frame.

And if you cause a traffic pileup, just keep walking.

………

As you’re no doubt aware, the Super Bowl takes place this Sunday. Time your ride for after kickoff if you want to enjoy rare peaceful, empty streets. But try to get home before the game’s over, when you can reasonably assume any driver you see will be drunk.

And if you plan on watching the game, leave your car at home if you’re going to be drinking.

 

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

Morning Links: Active Trans grants approved for LA County, and fight goes on for carfree Mt. Hollywood Drive

January 24, 2017 / / 2 comments

Through the end of this month, BikinginLA will support local bike shops and other small businesses in the bike industry by offering deep discounts on our usual advertising rates. For more information, or to find out if your business qualifies, email the address on the Support and Advertising page.

………

It looks like change is finally coming to LA area streets.

Streetsblog reports that thirteen new bike and pedestrian projects totaling $33.6 million have been funded through California’s Active Transportation Program, with another eight grants worth $28.78 million scheduled to be approved by SCAG — the Southern California Association of Governments — next month.

You can find a full listing of the projects, scattered throughout LA County, on the Streetsblog story.

But don’t hold your breath. As they note, the funding won’t actually be available for another two to three years.

………

CiclaValley asks you to turn out for today’s special meeting of the LA City Council’s Arts, Parks, and River Committee to demand that Mount Hollywood Drive in Griffith Park be kept carfree.

The committee meets at 3 pm in room 1060 of City Hall in DTLA; if you can’t make it, he has a sample email and email addresses to send it to.

………

Still more tragedy in the cycling world, as Ukrainian former U-23 world champ Dmitry Grabovskyy died of a suspected heart attack at 31. Meanwhile, tributes have flowed in for the 15-year old British cyclocross champ who died in his sleep over the weekend.

Now that’s more like it. Britain will offer equal prize money to both the men’s and women’s winners of the country’s national racing series.

………

Local

As we noted yesterday, it wasn’t just Coyote Creek that was flooded by the recent rains; the LA River wasn’t exactly the safest place to ride, either.

Metro is holding a meeting this Thursday to discuss plans to improve access to Downtown’s Union Station, including a bike and pedestrian esplanade on Alameda Street.

The LACBC’s Ask An Officer panel discussion has been rescheduled for this coming Monday.

An editor with the USC paper says there’s a silver lining to having her bike stolen, forcing her to slow down and notice things she used to ride past. Although you’d think a fine university like USC would teach the difference between breaks and brakes before the senior year.

 

State

A Stanford physician and casual cyclist raised $10,000 to fight breast cancer by surviving the 2016 Death Ride, a 129-mile timed endurance ride with 15,000 feet of climbing over five mountain passes.

Speaking of Stanford, a professor there is looking for more participants for a study of bike saddles; currently over 1,000 cyclists are enrolled, but they’d like to have 10,000.

Streetsblog tries out the new dockless, app-based bikeshare bikes from Bluegogo; the company is making a soft launch with a few hundred bikes in San Francisco by locating them on private parking spaces to get around city regulations and objecting officials. Thanks to Eric Weinstein for the heads-up.

San Francisco leads the state as the most dangerous place to drive a car, and ranks second in the nation for pedestrian injuries and fatalities. None of which suggests it’s exactly a great place to ride a bike, either.

A mudslide caused by Sunday’s storm in Northern California has blocked, if not destroyed, a popular bike trail at Lake Natoma.

 

National

The new PlacesForBikes project from PeopleForBikes — who have evidently decided to save money by removing the spaces from their names — will encourage bike-friendly cities by providing an alternative to the Bike League’s rating system.

The last remaining founder of Adventure Cycling will turn 71 on Sunday and retire from the organization; Greg Siple also helped inspire the 1976 Bikecentennial cross-country ride.

A bill that would ban bike riders from most of Montana’s two-lane highways is being rewritten in committee following an outcry from advocates, but no word on exactly what changes are being made.

A proposed Iowa bill would require bike riders to have a red LED taillight on their bikes, apparently even during daylight hours; the law was suggested by a blame-shifting driver who crashed into five — count ‘em, five — bicyclists with his motorcycle as the sun was setting, insisting he would have seen them if only they’d had flashing lights on their bikes. Sure, let’s go with that.

A new study shows Minnesota residents took 96 million bike trips totaling 139 million miles last year, and generated nearly $800 million throughout the state.

University of Michigan researchers have developed a way to make materials change from hard to soft, which would allow bike tires to automatically adjust to different surface conditions, among other applications. Yes, there’s an obvious joke there, and no, I’m not going to make it.

A group of bicyclist will follow a mostly offroad route on a ride from Seattle to Boston later this year to raise funds for a local alternative high school.

New York deployed 50 bike cops to control crowds at Saturday’s peaceful Women’s March, with one source saying a single officer on a bike can do the job of three cops.

 

International

Bike-powered machines made from discarded parts are changing lives in Guatemala.

Bike Biz talks with the CEO of Zwift about whether virtual reality is the future of indoor cycling. A Scottish man used a similar system to virtually bike the length of Britain.

Life is cheap in British Columbia, where an off-duty Mounty walks with just a $1,500 fine for killing a five-year old bike rider with his jacked-up pickup; he claimed he couldn’t see the boy, who was riding with the light in a marked crosswalk with his father and brother, as he turned right. If you can’t see a little boy directly in front of your truck, it doesn’t belong on the damn roads.

Caught on video: A British newspaper seems to take great glee in watching a bike rider flip over a curb after flipping off a motorist.

A bike advocate on the Isle of Man calls for reforming traffic laws, claiming drivers cause 90% of all collisions with bicyclists.

A former assistant professor is riding over 6,200 miles across India to raise awareness of climate change and encourage people and organizations to take responsibility for reducing their carbon footprint.

A Johannesburg mountain biker nearly lost an eye when he ran into an unmarked wire that had been left across the entrance to a pathway, despite verifying that the trail was open to bicycles.

China has completed construction on a 4.7 mile elevated bikeway in the city of Xiamen, a first for the country.

 

Finally…

No, a Holocaust memorial is not the place to hop about on your bike. It wasn’t easy going onstage after a bike-riding Robin Williams.

And you don’t want to risk offending the tweeter-in-chief.

 

Category: Advocacy & Politics, Morning Links, Streets and Infrastructure / Tags: , , , , , , ,

Morning Links: Unannounced Orange Line bike path closure, Go Human in the wild, and still more legal cases

October 12, 2015 / / 5 comments

Grab some java and get comfortable. We’ve got a lot to catch up on today.

………

Your tax dollars at work.

Frequent contributor danger d sends word that the Orange Line bike path has been closed with no advance warning. And at one of the most inconvenient, if not dangerous, points.

Here’s the complaint he filed with the county, which seems to be responsible for the unannounced closure, since Metro denied having anything to do with it.

The bike path on Victory Blvd. From Woodley Ave to the 405 is fenced off. There was no notice of closure and traffic is rerouted to the street. Very Unsafe. NOT VISION ZERO. THIS IS THE ONLY WAY UNDER THE 405 FREEWAY THAT IS OFF STREET.

When will this reopen? Why is this path closed?

He hasn’t gotten a response yet; we’ll let you know if he does. And there’s no mention of it on the county map of bike path closures as of Sunday night.

Then again, there’s no mention of any of the other closures shown on their map, either.

………

We mentioned recently that SCAG, aka the Southern California Association of Governments, has developed a new ad campaign urging people to Go Human.

Now Spencer forwards a first look at one of the ads in the wild, with a message we can hope drivers take to heart.

Go Human Bus End

………

Seems like we just can’t get away from court cases.

Twenty-four-year old Neil Storm Stephany will go on trial for murder Tuesday in the hit-and-run death of Shaun Eagleson last October.

According to the Orange County Register, the self-described drug counselor was high on heroin when he plowed his truck into Eagleson as he rode in a Newport Beach bike lane. Stephany hit a guard rail as attempted to flee the scene, before being arrested later that day.

Following a previous DUI in 2011, Stephany had signed a legal advisement stating that he understood he could face a murder charge if he killed someone while driving under the influence any time in the future.

Which, sadly, is exactly what happened just three years later.

He also amassed an extensive criminal record in his 24 years, including convictions for felony assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury, unlawful possession of a controlled substance, and possession with intent to sell. In addition, he is also facing a separate domestic violence charge.

Stephany faces 15 years to life if he’s convicted.

A source in Orange County tells me he has grown his hair just long enough to cover the “fuck the police” tattoo on his forehead and the swastika tattooed on the back of his head, most likely on the advice of his lawyer.

I’m also told Eagleson was a regular reader of this site.

Let’s hope his family gets the justice they deserve. And that we can get a dangerous driver off the road for a very long time.

………

In an exceptionally generous offer, the judge in the case of fallen OC cyclist John Colvin offered hit-and-run driver Dylan Thomas Randluby a reduced one-year sentence in county jail; remarkably, his attorney wants to think it over.

If the case goes to trial, he faces four years in state prison.

………

Evidently, life is cheap in the Bay Area.

Even though he had already been convicted and sentenced for felony hit-and-run, an Alameda County judge retroactively reduced all the charges against the driver who killed a bike-riding Chinese tourist to misdemeanors, and sentenced him to just 30 days in jail, calling it an unfortunate accident.

Since when is driving drunk and fleeing the scene of a fatal collision an accident? Judges who refuse to take traffic crimes seriously are why people continue to die on our streets. Let’s hope voters remember this case when he’s up for re-election.

………

Two-time Olympic gold medalist Craig Buck is fighting for his life at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center after suffering severe head trauma in a Santa Barbara bicycling collision.

CHP investigators blame him for riding on the wrong side of the road, even though the truck that hit him has allegedly been used in a prior road rage incident involving cyclists.

A Facebook page has been established to give him a thumbs-up.

………

Here’s an interesting new Kickstarter project.

The TurnCycle gesture-controlled wireless bike light promises to follow your hand gestures, and convert them to LED signals to indicate turns or stops; MSN picked it as one of the best Kickstarter inventions of the month.

It has a long way to go in the next 16 days for funding, however.

Thanks to John Jancsek for the heads-up.

………

Several of the top women’s cyclists have teamed together to launch Strongher, The Stage for Women Who Ride, a website and app to connect women riders with one another.

And when a pro team director went to pick up an injured cyclist at an Abu Dhabi hospital, they sent him to a psychiatrist. Although the story’s really about the kindness shown the rider by those who helped him get back to his team.

………

Local

Sign up for a free 30-minute tour of the LA Times’ historic Globe Lobby during Sunday’s CicLAvia.

There is a special place in hell for someone who would punch a Pasadena nine-year old in the face to rob him as he rode his bike to school. Thanks to Megan Lynch for the link.

Huh? A Hermosa Beach resident opposes a bike lane on Monterey Blvd because he’s sick of fiestas and volleyball tournaments, as well as bars and their patrons. And besides, most of the people who ride bikes in the city don’t live there, in his estimation. Which is kind of like saying don’t build a freeway because people who’ll drive on it are just passing through.

 

State

Santa Ana continues to become one of Orange County’s most bike and pedestrian friendly cities; all three of the active transportation projects approved for state funding in the county were in the city, out of 55 applications. Thanks to Nick Gerda for the heads-up.

The Examiner finally notices that former Corona del Mar bike advocate Frank Peters has moved to Portland, and meets with him to discuss his reasons for moving. They could have found out six months earlier by reading this site.

Firefighters rescued a mountain biker suffering from unspecified injuries from OC’s Barton Canyon on Sunday afternoon.

The San Diego Association of Governments has approved a $200 billion transportation plan that promises to continue the region’s reliance on cars.

San Diego will host Calbike’s annual California Bike Summit at the end of this month.

A woman rode 100 miles on Saturday as part of Oceanside’s sixth annual Bike the Coast just two years after having a heart transplant.

The Desert Sun endorses an environmental review of multiple routes for the Coachella Valley’s proposed 50-mile CV Link bike and pedestrian pathway. And says if Rancho Mirage still isn’t on board when the path is ready to build, then build it right up to the city’s borders on either side. I like the way they think.

Palo Alto is installing cameras to get an accurate count of how many kids are biking and walking to school.

More senseless tragedy, as a Richmond bicyclist was killed in a collision with a train after slipping through the crossing arms. And a San Francisco cyclist died after somehow getting caught between two Muni buses.

 

National

A new instagraphic from People for Bikes rebuts seven top myths about people who ride bikes. Memorize this one. It’ll come in handy when the bike haters bust out the torches and pitchforks at the next public meeting.

One sign bikes are gaining greater acceptance: There are now over 1,050 bike-friendly businesses in the US.

Bicycling offers advice on what to do when you crash your bike.

GQ provides suggestions on how to dial in your bike fit and ride the right way, as well as tips on how to get a six pack by riding your bike. Actually, that one’s easy. Step one, get on our bike. Step two, ride to the market. Step three, buy a six pack. Step four, ride home and drink it.

Seattle radio hosts say it’s pointless for the city to take over the nonprofit bikeshare system because the city is hilly. And it rains.

A Denver columnist says the city’s plan to make bicycling safer is vehicle-hostile, while laying sole claim to the streets for those on four wheels.

Chicago reaches 100 miles of protected bike lanes — or maybe not. Meanwhile, advocates call for more and better bike lanes in the city.

Memphis’ bicycle and pedestrian program manager will be honored by the White House as part of the Champions of Change program; crashes are down and ridership is up with 200 miles of bikeways in the city, and another 130 miles of bike paths on the way.

Maine cyclists call for greater enforcement of traffic laws, including ticketing other cyclists. Because it’s always other cyclists who break the law, right?

Vermont police continue to blame the victim in the death of bicycling physician, saying he was under the influence of three different antidepressants — even though police claim the driver, who was drunk and on Xanax, was passing the cyclist safely on the wrong side of the road when he suddenly made a U-turn directly in front of her. Sure, that sounds credible.

A Connecticut cyclist takes on the hills. And a green Lamborghini.

Hoboken NJ becomes the latest city to get bikeshare before Los Angeles. Yes, Hoboken.

There’s something wrong when even a Charlotte NC ghost bike isn’t safe from a reckless driver.

Nice story, as a Florida cyclist tracks down the pregnant army reservist who saved his life after a hit-and-run.

 

International

Bike Radar offers five reasons to bike to work.

A Canadian columnist is appalled by the loss of 48 rarely used parking spaces to make way for bike lanes.

Vancouver votes to move forward with what may be North America’s first bike lift. Meanwhile, more evidence there’s two sides to every story, as a Vancouver cyclist accused of a road rage assault on a pregnant woman says he was just trying to talk to her.

Caught on video: A Calgary driver honks at the cyclist ahead of him for a full 40 seconds, just for the crime of waiting for the light to change. People get pissed off when cyclists don’t stop at red lights, and more pissed off when we do.

A profile of London’s bike riding, very conservative and self-effacing mayor, who may be angling to be the next prime minister.

About 150 Amnesty International supporters rode around Brussels to protest the death penalty, visiting the embassies of the handful of countries that still allow it, including the USA.

A Helsinki driver gets four and a half years for intentionally brake-checking a cyclist in front of multiple witnesses; the rider was killed when he flew over his handlebars after hitting the back of the car, landing head-first on the pavement.

You know the bike boom is a worldwide phenomenon when the prime minister of Swaziland is calling for more bike lanes.

A South African farmer is under arrest for shooting a man on a bicycle following an argument over a first aid kit, a pillow, cap and shoe allegedly stolen from his home. Yes, he killed a man over a shoe and a pillow.

A South Korean cyclist won a 1 million won judgment against a woman after he was injured falling off his bike to avoid her dog in a bike lane. Which sounds impressive until you realize that’s the equivalent of $871.

 

Finally…

Caught on video, partly: Don’t slap a pedestrian standing in the street as you pass by on your bike, or he may get in his car and run you down. Bad enough Florida cyclists have to deal with drunk drivers, worse when the driver’s dog can’t manage to keep the car on the road.

And now you, too, can make your bike sound like a trotting horse.

But why stop there?

 

Category: Bicycle Safety, Bikes & the Law, Legal Cases, Morning Links, Streets and Infrastructure / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
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