Seriously.
How sad is it that the Fodor’s Travel site feels the need to warn tourist against LA’s slow buses, distracted drivers and virtually nonexistent bike lanes?
While we’re on the subject of size, let’s talk about how to get around. You have a lot of options, so choose wisely. You can rent a car, ride a bus, take the metro, hail a taxi, use a ride-sharing app, or scoot (ugh). Lesson 1. Never ride the bus. It takes too long to get anywhere. Lesson 2. The metro doesn’t go everywhere, so pick your routes carefully. Lesson 3. Ride-sharing apps are infinitely cheaper than taxis (download Uber and/or Lyft). Lesson 4. If you must, scoot. The newest transport kids on the block are Lime and Byrd, electric scooters that make it easy to get around individual neighborhoods. Just be careful because bike lanes are scarce and L.A. drivers don’t look (read: they’re on their phones).
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Sounds like fun.
You’re invited to take a slow roll from Leimert Park to Pasadena on Novenber 16th to see the actual bike ridden by turn of the century African-American cycling legend Major Taylor, recently purchased by the owner of Velo Pasadena for his own bicycling museum.
That’s the turn of the previous century, not the last one.
As in the 1890s.
Which makes Taylor just the second black world champion in any sport. Even if he was riding on wooden rims.
Thanks to David Huntsman for the heads-up.
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Or maybe you’d rather come out this Saturday to celebrate Eagle Rock’s bike lanes, and plan for more Complete Streets to come.
Thanks to Felicia G for the tip.
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Who needs a mountain to mountain bike?
Unless you speak German, feel free to skip the first 1:30 or so.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes is all too real.
A road raging British driver was fined the equivalent of $5,800 for grabbing a teenage bike rider by the collar and twice spitting in his face, after the boy flipped him off when the driver honked at him.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels who are the problem.
Sacramento police are looking for the bike-riding jerk who slapped a woman on the ass, then came back several minutes later and did it again.
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Local
Bike Talk talks Metro Culture, and the death of a four-year old girl crossing the street with her mother in Koreatown last week.
Congratulations to UCLA on being named a gold-level Bicycle Friendly University, the first school in LA County to achieve that status.
Actor Christian Bale is one of us, as he rides his cruiser bike to Venice with his five-year old son in tow.
Long Beach is mourning the death of artist and graphic designer Katie Phillips, who was also one of the founders of the city’s Kidical Mass; described as a “beautiful soul,” she passed away over the weekend.
State
You can now pre-order the recently adopted California Bicycle Special License Plate for your car or truck; the state is required to get 7,500 pre-orders before it can go into production. Or you could skip the license, sell your car and get a new bike or ebike instead. Just saying.
Tickets for distracted driving have dropped in San Diego. Which is less likely to be the result of drivers putting their phone away than police giving up in the face of overwhelming numbers.
Watsonville bike riders are getting shiny new green bike lanes today.
A reminder that Los Angeles police still don’t have a bait bike program despite rampant bike thefts, as police in Danville bust a man who cut the lock and tried to ride off on their GPS-equipped bike.
National
Dockless mopeds are soon headed to a street near you.
Your next ebike could be a Harley Rude Boy.
NPR examines the struggle by the National Parks Service to develop policies on whether or not to allow ebikes in each individual park, and how.
Oregon state police have released the full 38-minute body cam video of the arrest of a young black woman for the crime of riding salmon on the campus of Oregon State University, which has been criticized for excessive force.
Denver’s mayor agrees to study lowering default speed limits to 20 mph, but cuts funding for the study nearly in half.
Heartbreaking story from Texas, where a man sacrificed his own life to save his fiancé, pushing her off her bike as they were riding together just before he was struck by a motorist.
Queens bicyclists protest the 500 days since they were promised a protected bike lane along the city’s “Boulevard of Death,” which hasn’t even been started yet.
The author of a history of bicycling in NYC says things are better than they used to be, but bikes will probably always be “somewhat marginalized.”
A Streetsblog op-ed says New York public meetings are getting meaner and less truthful in the Trump era. A phenomenon we’ve unfortunately seen here in SoCal, too.
This is why people keep dying on the streets, as authorities manage to keep yet another dangerous driver on the road until it’s too late. A Pennsylvania man with a history of blackouts and seizures behind the wheel faces a vehicular homicide charge for blowing a stop sign and plowing into a man on a bike; he’s had at least three other seizure related crashes.
Bicycling deaths are up nearly 30% over last year in South Carolina.
Atlanta installed a temporary pop-up bike lane connecting two other bike lanes for the next week to give everyone a chance to see how it works before they complain.
The admittedly drunk driver who plowed through a group of bike riders during a New Orleans Mardi Gras parade pled guilty to 14 counts, but will still go trial next week on two remaining counts of vehicular homicide; how much time be spends behind bars will be determined by whether a judge rules his BAC was above .20 at the time of the crash.
There’s a special place in hell for the Florida couple that held a 12-year old boy at knife point and took his bicycle, locking it inside their home.
International
Forget carbon. Your next ebike could be made from injection-molded thermoplastic.
A London man is on trial for killing a pedestrian while he was riding an ebike, which was allegedly traveling faster than the law allows.
An English security cam video shows just how fast a bike thief can make off with an unlocked bike. Hint: How long does it take to hop on one and pedal away?
A British town is offering an amnesty to get people to return stolen bikeshare bikes.
The UK will reconsider the rules governing diplomatic immunity, after admitting government officials knew the wife of an American diplomat responsible for the hit-and-run death of a young motorcycle rider was going to flee the country to avoid prosecution.
An Indian regional leader multi-modaled his way to the voting booth, traveling by train and pedicab, and finishing the journey by bicycle.
Finally…
Undying for a good time. What good is a new bike path if it’s under water most of the year?
And why run for president when you can go by bike?
Oh and @AndrewYang rolled up on a bike to our @NPR interview. He said it’s much faster to get around nyc by bike. Fact check: true. pic.twitter.com/9IvLkUl8w8
— Eric Marrapodi (@EricMarrapodi) October 20, 2019
