They’re on to us, comrades.
With all the craziness in American politics these days, the Agenda 21 crowd had to show up to contest the growth in bike lanes and bicycling sooner or later.
Surprisingly, they popped up in West Covina, despite the highly contentious debate over bike lanes in Mar Vista and Playa del Rey.
For the uninitiated, Agenda 21 was an obscure, voluntary plan developed by the United Nations to promote sustainable development.
But in the hands of the right wing conspiracy theorists, it somehow became a secret plan to undermine American sovereignty and force us out of their cars. Making any attempt at developing bike lanes or promoting transit part of a vast conspiracy for worldwide bike domination.
Take this video.
Please.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sq0t23xq0GU
Apparently, West Covina’s current effort to develop an active transportation plan is just part of that vast conspiracy.
Which is why it’s so important to email your city councilmembers and county supervisors, and show up for meetings when you can.
Because these people are out there. And rational or not, their votes and voices count just as much as yours.
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A public meeting will be held tonight to discuss a Complete Streets project on Soto Street in East LA.
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The war on bikes goes on.
A 74-year old Kansas man is under arrest for attempting to run a bike rider off the road.
Police in the UK are looking for a passenger who got out of a car, pushed a man off his bicycle, then repeatedly punched him in the head.
And evidently, there’s a war on wheelchairs, too. A Denver man was ticketed after getting hit by a car for taking too long to wheel himself across the crosswalk.
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Clearly, cheating is nothing new in cycling. And there are a lot more ways to do it than just doping.
A transgendered cyclist has won policy concessions from Cycling Canada and UCI to open the way for more participation by trans athletes.
BMC’s Brent Bookwalter should win the Scaramucci Award for the shortest time in the yellow jersey at the Tour of Utah.
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Local
A “serious cyclist” wrote a letter in the LA Times saying he’s glad Mar Vista reversed its decision to create “separate” bike lanes, calling the parking-protected bike lane one of the most dangerous he’s seen. Just one problem — the Vista del Mar road diet in Playa del Rey is being reversed; the protected bike lanes on Venice Blvd in Mar Vista aren’t.
Sign up for a free one-month pass for the Pasadena Metro Bike bikeshare.
Expansion plans for the 710 Freeway in Long Beach pledge to improve access for bicyclists and pedestrians, though a writer for Streetsblog remains skeptical.
State
Streetsblog writes more about the state award to extend the Metro bikeshare to USC, South LA and the Expo Line.
New plans call for banning private cars from San Francisco’s Market Street in favor of taxis, buses and sidewalk-level bike lanes.
A Sacramento TV station confirms that yes, it’s illegal to ride salmon.
National
Bicycling talks with a bicycle courier who’s working to make bike touring more accessible for deaf cyclists.
Seattle’s new dockless bikeshare systems have proven popular, with both companies recording over 5,000 rides each in the first week, despite being limited to just 500 bikes each.
Distracted bicycling may be a bad idea, but it’s not illegal under a new Washington state law.
Get your resume ready. Advocacy group Bicycle Colorado is looking for a new Executive Director.
Iowa Public radio talks with the oldest female competitive BMX rider in the US.
Bike riders often spot things other people might miss. Like human remains on the side of an Austin TX bike trail, for instance.
Evidently, they take traffic crime seriously in Texas. A hit-and-run driver who killed a Corpus Christi bike rider was sentenced to 35 years — yes, years — in prison, and will have to serve at least half his sentence before being considered for parole. In California, drivers rarely get 35 months for a fatal hit-and-run.
A Chicago weekly allows bicyclists to vent their complaints about their fellow bike riders.
Residents in a Madison WI neighborhood are urging city officials to keep their hands off a popular bike path, and not turn it into a road for motor vehicles.
The Tennessee hit-and-run driver charged with intentionally running down a bike rider on the Natchez Trace Parkway has been released from federal custody on the condition that he not leave the area. Meanwhile, the cyclist who recorded the crash finally got back on his bike this past weekend.
Walking on water may be challenging, but biking across Vermont’s Lake Champlain is doable.
Thieves burglarize a New York ebike shop and steal $10,000 worth of ebikes and electric scooters, even though it’s illegal to ride them in the state.
A New York website accuses the NYPD of having a streak of sadism and doing the opposite of Vision Zero by targeting bike riders in response to crashes involving bicyclists.
Philadelphia begins construction on the city’s first one-way protected bike lane.
The 2.6 mile Laffite Greenway is becoming the heart of the burgeoning New Orleans cycling scene.
International
A writer for Bike Radar makes the case against bike bells, saying it can be more polite and helpful to actually say what you’re doing.
Canadian comic artist Kate Beaton is one of us. Thanks to Opus the Poet for the heads-up.
A Montreal mother says if you want to get women like her to ride a bike, the city needs more protected bike lanes, and sharrows just don’t cut it anymore.
A writer for The Guardian says it’s time for Britain to free itself from the chokehold cars have over the country. The same could be said for the US, as well. Or is that just more Agenda 21?
A condolence book for the Manchester bombing victims was carried to the city by bicycle from a town 45 miles away.
When a British man cycling with his wife suffered a heart attack outside a pub, he was saved with a portable defibrillator the patrons had purchased as a wedding present for the owner.
The Financial Times checks in with Mark Beaumont during the Scottish adventurer’s attempt to bike around the world in 80 days, including the dental work done by his performance manager after hitting a pothole near the Mongolian border.
Rihanna teams with Chinese bikeshare provider Ofo to donate bicycles to girls in Malawi to help them get to school. Although Ofo may have a little trademark problem back home.
Finally…
Why bother teaching your kids to ride a bike, when you can just pay someone to do it for you? Bad enough to be hit by someone on a bike; worse when it’s your bike.
And now you, too, can win a spot on a pro cycling team without actually riding anywhere.
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Thanks to John Hall for his generous contribution to help support this site.
