Tag Archive for Streets For All

Ped superhero Peatónito studies LA Vision Zero fail; Slow Streets win at LA Council, and bike rider busted for Metro murder

October 20, 2020 / / Comments Off on Ped superhero Peatónito studies LA Vision Zero fail; Slow Streets win at LA Council, and bike rider busted for Metro murder

I’ve never been one for the whole superhero genre, preferring to find heroes in real life.

But I make an exception for Mexico City’s caped protector of pedestrians, the legendary Peatónito.

So I was pleased when he popped up in my inbox today, courtesy of an email from pedestrian advocacy group Los Angeles Walks.

Nowadays it feels like we can all use a hero or shero. So we’re happy to introduce Peatónito! He comes to us from Mexico City, where he began his masked work saving lives and slowing traffic. And Peatónito has traveled beyond, from NYC to Los Angeles, fighting against the crime of poorly designed streets & sidewalks and reckless driving through creative public demonstrations and street theater.

This summer, Los Angeles Walks partnered with the crime fighter as we trained future generations of peatónitos and organized for safe street changes. He finished his training at UCLA’s Institute of Transportaiton Studies, where he penned a pedestrian manifesto (or his graduate capstone paper) titled The Pedestrian Battle of Los Angeles: How to Empower Communities to Plan and Implement Pedestrian Road Safety Infrastructure.

And what a manifesto it is.

Even a brief summary nails the city’s gaping equity gap, as well as the experience most of us have had in fighting for a safer city, for people on two feet or two wheels.

• Walking in a non-white census tract increases the probability of being killed or severely injured by a motor vehicle in Los Angeles (Figure 1). Black people are only 8% of the population, but 20% of all pedestrian fatalities. Meanwhile, median income, vulnerable age (children and older adults), and the number of cars in a household do not have a statistically significant relationship with pedestrian road safety.

• City council members are responsive to residents’ demands and threats opposing pedestrian-focused traffic safety. Even when other city agencies and LADOT support these improvements, the city council has more power over deciding the outcome of road safety infrastructure plans. Consequently, there is a need to balance this power dynamic.

• Affluent, car-oriented residents tend to have stronger influence over council members, who prioritize their concerns over those of underserved people. This power dynamic in LA permits small groups of noisy stakeholders to hijack a conversation; they manipulate the narrative to make it seem convenient for everyone. It is vital to give more power to the people that fight for safe streets, whose voices

“The pedestrian is nobody in this city, he has been forgotten by authorities and our own citizenry. The curious and paradoxical thing is that we are all pedestrians at some moment. As such, we have forgotten ourselves.” – Peatónito

 

Here’s how Los Angeles Walks succinctly sums up Peatónito’s recommendations.

• The City must recommit and strengthen the Vision Zero program, a city-wide initiative to reduce traffic fatalities to ZERO by 2025.

• The City budget should adequately fund and staff all of Vision Zero’s goals, including the Dignity Infused Community Engagement (DICE) project.

• The state should get rid of the 85th percentile rule, a state rule that requires speed to be set at the average of ongoing traffic, which has led to what many call “speed creep.”

Couldn’t have said it better myself.

Let’s hope he sticks around. LA pedestrians — and bike riders — could really use our own superhero.

Photos and quotes courtesy of Los AngelesWalks. 

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Speaking of which, it looks like people won out over cars in the City of Angels for a change.

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They got her.

Twenty-five-year old Los Angeles resident Irma Monroy was busted for the murder of a Metro employee at DTLA’s 7th Street train station, after she allegedly stabbed the victim in the chest following a heated dispute.

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There’s truly a special place in hell for the Arkansas driver who — allegedly — rammed a woman jogging on the side of the road with his pickup, then carried her off and sexually assaulted her before burying her beside a rural road.

Let’s hope he ends up in a very deep, dark pit for a very long time. Thanks to Robert Leone for the heads-up.

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The bike swap meet scheduled for this weekend by the Mid City West Community Council has been postposed until the following weekend.

Which could come in handy now that the bike boom has cleaned out many bike shops.

MCW Neighborhood Bike Swap
Sat. Oct. 31st, 2020 Halloween!!
7765 Melrose Ave, (Sportie LA parking lot across from Fairfax High)
9 am  to 1 pm. 

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This is why you need to register your bike.

Now.

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Here’s your biennial reminder to get out and bike the vote.

https://twitter.com/starryflo/status/1317571256456159234

And yes, I want to be like him when I grow up.

Meanwhile, it’s nice to see a community organization pressing the candidates for LA’s 10th Council District about their stands on active transportation.

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Looks like The New Yorker is catching up on the city’s coronavirus bike boom.

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

Business owners in Bristol, England are calling for the removal of a new bike lane, claiming it’s killing their business. Because evidently, ripping it out makes far more sense than trying to entice the passing bike riders into their shops.

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

A bike-riding San Bernardino County man has been busted for a series of peeping, burglary and indecent exposure incidents.

Heartbreaking news, as a dog died five days after a bike rider allegedly kicked it in the head for no apparent reason as his owners were running with him on a Minnesota trail. Although something tells me there may be more to the story; bicyclists usually don’t kick at a dog unless it’s attacking them.

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Local

Another paper from UCLA’s Luskin Center documents a century of failed efforts to reign in LA traffic.

 

State

Sad news from San Diego, where a man apparently died of natural causes while mountain biking on a canyon trail near the Miramar National Cemetery.

Santa Barbara considers installing a docked ebike bikeshare system on the city’s main street.

More sad news, this time from Porterville, after a hit-and-run driver was arrested for killing a 15-year old boy as he rode his bike Friday night.

Cities Today asks if San Jose’s new bike plan can boost bicycling rates. Only if they actually build it, as LA bike riders can attest.

The family of an fallen teenage bike rider in Elk Grove calls for changes at the dangerous intersection where he was killed; the speed limit there was recently boosted from 35 mph to 45 mph — no doubt thanks to the deadly 85th Percentile Law.

An Oakland construction site is the safest block in the city for bike riders, after workers installed a Jersey barrier on the left side of the bike lane for a change.

 

National

Actually, that new soft, squishy bike helmet looks pretty damn cool. If it actually works, that is.

Bicycling staff and readers share their spookiest bike rides ever, just in time for Halloween. For a change, there’s no Yahoo mirror site for this one, but try opening it in a private window if the site blocks you out.

A new crowdfunded grant program is designed to help BIPOC filmmakers — Black, Indigenous and People of Color — tell their stories.

C|net offers their picks for the best ebikes.

They get it. A Texas magazine says Houston’s Vision Zero program won’t succeed if it’s done one intersection at a time, and that it calls for a “reckoning that the car-heavy city does not appear ready to make.” They could write the same story about Los Angeles.

New York has completed work on a road diet and two-way cycle track on 5th Avenue through Harlem.

Another pedestrian has been injured in a crash involving New York’s Citi Bike. Except this time, a 72-year old woman was hit by a van driver servicing the bikeshare system.

Actress Famke Janssen is one of us, as she rides her bike with a massive plastic bin on the front through New York to pick up some trash bags. And looks pretty damn stylish doing it.

 

International

Cycling News recommends the best saddles for when your ride hits the rocks.

A Toronto letter writer complains that few of the city’s bike riders wear helmets, despite a mandatory helmet law. Although the headline writer deserves to get their knuckles rapped for saying “Bike lanes are only good if cyclists wear a helmet,” which is factually incorrect, and has nothing to do with what the writer wrote.

Belfast, Northern Ireland has been named the most dangerous city in the UK for people on bicycles, with a whopping 71% of people surveyed saying they’d been involved in some sort of crash in the city.

The EuroNews website wonders why Europe’s largest bike-producing country has been so slow to ride them.

This one is going on my bike bucket list. Italy is opening an 86-mile paved bike trail around the country’s largest lake. Or maybe you’d prefer a 260-mile bike path from Paris to the Normandy coast.

How Spain’s fourth largest city became a leading bike city in just 15 years by building out an entire connected bike network all at once. As LA bicyclists have learned the hard way, we’ll never get there with a disconnected, piecemeal approach. 

Now that’s scary. A Singapore driver records himself swerving at the last moment after coming up way too fast on a bike rider taking the lane.

 

Competitive Cycling

The race moto rider Julian Alaphilippe crashed into in the Tour of Flanders says he can’t help feeling guilty about the crash. Although the people who really deserve the blame are the ones who allow motorcycles near cyclists in the peloton to begin with.

Meanwhile, Alaphilippe had surgery on his hand to repair two bones that were broken in the crash.

Cycling Weekly explains what to look for in the final week of the Giro.

VeloNews looks forward to the Vuelta, with five ways this year’s race will be unlike any other. Race organizers hope to emulate the Tour de France, which went off without a single Covid-19 infection, as opposed to the Giro, which didn’t.

 

Finally…

That feeling when you take social distancing just a little too far. And maybe naming your saddle after the #1 enema maker isn’t the best idea.

Or is it #2?

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

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

New Streets for All endorsements, taking on NIMBY group Fix the City, and Calbike rolls out quick-build bike lane guide

October 14, 2020 / / One comment

It’s a relatively light news day in the world of bicycling, so let’s get right to it.

Photo by Florencia Potter from Pexels.

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Streets for All offers their voter’s guide for next month’s general election, including endorsements for Holly Mitchell for county supervisor, and David Kim in California’s 34th Congressional District.

The active transportation PAC also pulls back the curtain on self-appointed NIMBY watchdog group Fix the City, and their connections to CD4 councilmember David Ryu.

https://twitter.com/streetsforall/status/1316032298077360129

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Bike Talk reprises last week’s conversation with bike-friendly Downey city council candidate Alexandria Contreras.

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Calbike wants to make it faster and easier for your city to build out bike lanes.

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Great idea. Colorado is now providing ebikes to help essential workers get there without driving.

https://twitter.com/COEnergyOffice/status/1316069041501396993

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

A small group of Washington bicyclists were attacked by a man when they stopped at a diner while on a 400-mile ride, when their attacker evidently confused their cycling tights for pantyhose.

A British bike advocacy group says the study we linked to yesterday saying most bike riders don’t know the law is “the sort of nonsense which can create a toxic road environment.”

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

Horrible story from Milwaukee, where a road raging salmon cyclist faces a first degree murder charge for fatally shooting a driver who complained, with his windows down, about being forced to swerve around him.

Police in Belfast, Northern Ireland are looking for a man on a mountain bike who’s accused of attacking five women in a single night, stabbing three of them.

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Local

The founder of Bird calls on Santa Monica to amend the city’s Bike Action Plan to increase the number of protected bike lanes.

Speaking of SaMo, the city wants your input on plans to improve safety and speed bus traffic on deadly Lincoln Blvd, although they don’t include bike lanes — yet.

 

State

Sad news from San Jose, where a 76-year old man died a month after he was hit by a driver who swerved into the bike lane he was riding in to get around another vehicle, apparently while passing illegally on the right. Remarkably, no charges have been filed for what was clearly an unsafe pass.

More bad news from the Bay Area, where a 57-year old Antioch woman was killed in a collision while riding her bike.

The curb-protected bike lane on San Francisco’s Embarcadero is slowly starting to take shape.

There’s a special place in hell for whoever has been shooting people and cars in Davis with paintball guns in a series of drive-bys over the past several days, starting with a pair of 14-year old twin boys who were riding bikes with their father.

 

National

New grants supported by major players in the bike industry are now available for to reduce the barriers to bicycle adventures for BIPOC individuals — Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. Better yet, the recipients get to define just what “adventure” means to them.

Portland officials hope to follow in the path of New York and the UK, and allow doctors to prescribe bikeshare use to Black residents who are pre-diabetic, diabetic or have hypertension.

A Portland bike shop lost nine bikes worth twenty grand when someone smashed the front window with a rock before making off with several bikes, while a delayed police response allowed other people to walk out with additional bicycles.

The coronavirus-inspired bike shortage has manifested in a record year for Denver bike thefts.

For the past 20 years, a Kansas man has been restoring bikes in his garage and giving them to the homeless.

A San Antonio, Texas bicyclist offers five tips on how to become a cyclist. Or you could just get a bike and start riding.

A Milwaukee woman rode her bike 70 miles for a checkup with her doctors, 20 years after she received a heat transplant.

Bicycling deaths are rising and city streets are becoming gridlocked as New York emerges from the coronavirus lockdown, while Mayor Bill de Blasio ignores his own transportation experts.

 

International

Road.cc offers a beginner’s guide to ‘cross.

Bicycling profiles Toronto’s new ManDem Cycling Club, devoted to increasing inclusion and diversity on two wheels. You can read it on Yahoo if the magazine blocks you out.

A new study shows London is the UK’s worst major city for bicyclists; 54% of bike riders say they don’t feel safe on London streets due to the city’s aggressive drivers.

Unbelievable. Gutless English officials ripped out a newly installed multi-bike rack after just 24 hours when entitled drivers complained about it taking up an entire parking space. Never mind that it provided parking for five bikes in the same amount of space as a single car.

That’s more like it. Traffic signals will be reconfigured in three major British cities to give people on bicycles priority over motor vehicles.

City Lab looks at the fight over popup bike lanes on Berlin streets.

The City Fix examines how Oslo reduced bike and pedestrian deaths down to zero, and how other cities can apply what they learned.

 

Competitive Cycling

The NBA put all their teams in a bubble, while the Giro forced cyclists to share a hotel buffet with tourists in the middle of a pandemic.

But seriously, what could possibly go wrong? Other than the entire race possibly collapsing when two entire teams and several top riders were forced to drop out after testing positive for Covid-19.

 

Finally…

Your new bike frame could reinflate your next flat. And yet another reminder that past need not be prologue.

Thanks to Hap Dougherty for the link.

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

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

Strava data shows LA bike rate double last year’s; and gun charges yes, but nothing for driving through Pasadena protesters

September 24, 2020 / / Comments Off on Strava data shows LA bike rate double last year’s; and gun charges yes, but nothing for driving through Pasadena protesters

One quick note. 

Santa Monica Spoke founder Cynthia Rose informs me that the 5 mph speed limit signs on the beachfront bike path we mentioned on Monday was installed temporarily for a construction project, and have been removed. 

So that’s one bit of good news to start your day. 

Photo by Ekrulila from Pexels.

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Apparently, LA’s bike boom wasn’t an illusion.

According to Strava data, bicycle use in bike-unfriendly Los Angeles nearly doubled in May, jumping 93% over this time last year.

Among the six U.S. cities for which Strava provided data, Houston and Los Angeles, two sprawling metropolises where just .5% and 1% of the respective populations biked to work in pre-pandemic times, stand out. In Houston, the total volume of cycling trips in Houston was 138% higher in May 2020 than in May 2019. In Los Angeles, the jump was 93%. Unlike their peers, these two places also saw cycling increases in April, the first full month of widespread stay-at-home order and economic shutdowns.

Never mind that Strava is still used by a subset of bike riders, meaning the actual numbers could be even higher, as the LACBC’s Eli Akira Kaufman points out.

Eli Akira Kaufman, the executive director of the L.A. County Bicycle Coalition, said the data also likely leaves out many of the essential workers he’s observed hopping on bikes instead of the bus, which could mean that the numbers are even higher than what the Strava data shows. Now his thoughts are towards the future. Cities like Houston and L.A., with their thousands of miles of car-oriented streets, have their work cut out building protected bike lanes and other infrastructure to encourage cycling even after the pandemic ends

“How do we keep the riding coming?” he said. “That’s the question now.”

The obvious answer to that is to provide a safe, convenient and connected network of bikeways that allows riders to traverse the city, and their own neighborhoods.

Which is exactly what LA’s three-tiered 2010 bike plan, now part of the city’s Mobility Plan 2035, calls for.

And exactly what Los Angeles isn’t doing.

Meanwhile, bikes are still booming, as SoCal bike shops report double and triple their normal sales.

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This is who we share the roads with, protest edition.

A San Marino man who drove through a group of peaceful Pasadena protestors last month has been charged with conspiracy to transport firearms across state lines, as well as making a false statement to police.

During a search of Hung’s truck, police found a loaded semiautomatic handgun, multiple high-capacity magazines loaded with ammunition, an 18-inch machete, $3,200 in cash, a long metal pipe and a megaphone, according to the affidavit.

Evidently, endangering innocent people with a motor vehicle is just dandy, though.

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This is who we share the roads with, hit-and-run edition.

The LAPD is looking for a hit-and-run driver who ran down a 70-year old woman in Chinatown as she walked in a crosswalk with the right-of-way, leaving her with a brain bleed and a broken neck.

Security video shows the heartless coward get out of his Mercedes to look at the victim, then get back in and simply drive away.

As usual, there is a $25,000 standing reward for any hit-and-run that results in serious injuries in the City of Los Angeles.

Thanks to Jeff Vaughn for the heads-up.

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Streets for All has released their endorsements and Voter Guide for the November election, in both English y Español.

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They get it.

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LADOT has begun work on a curb-protected Complete Streets project on Reseda Blvd in Reseda and Northridge.

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Then there’s this.

https://twitter.com/may_gun/status/1308948399929143303

Secure bike parking is a good thing. But maybe we can do a better job of considering the needs of disabled riders next time.

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Germans know how to promote World Car Free Day.

https://twitter.com/BirgitHebein/status/1308390818756079618

That tweet translates to,

Take public transport, walk or cycle and thus set an example for more space in the city.

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It’s not everyday a hospital ad is worth sharing.

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Bike stunts, without the bike.

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

A London bike rider suffered a broken shoulder when a road raging bus driver allegedly swerved into him, knocking him off his bike; passengers on the bus reportedly begged the hit-and-run driver to stop.

An Aussie man faces charges for pushing a friend in a shopping cart into a group of bicyclists traveling at over 25 mph, taking out a number of riders. The man, who had been drinking for a dozen hours, claims his actions weren’t deliberate and he just lost control of the cart, despite how it looks on security cam video.

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

In a tragic story from Milwaukee, a 54-year old man was fatally gunned down by a bike rider in a dispute over a traffic “mishap.” There is no excuse for violence, especially at the risk of someone’s life. Just suck it up and ride away, already.

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Local

Los Angeles joined with New York, London, Berlin and eight other cities in Europe and North America in pledging to divest from fossil fuel companies to fight climate change.

LADOT wants your help in identifying low-stress travel corridors in Central Los Angeles.

A new self-guided audio bike tour through DTLA leads you through the hidden histories of Latino Los Angeles, while the slower pace on a bike allows you to take it all in.

Metro is pulling the plug on its smart bike bikeshare program on LA’s Westside, replacing them with “classic” bikeshare bikes in Venice, Palms, Playa Vista and Santa Monica, while adding nine more docks.

REI is offering adult classes on how to ride bike in Redondo Beach next month, as well as one-on-one adult instruction in Redondo Beach and Santa Monica; the outdoor co-op is also offering kid’s classes in Santa Monica.

 

State

California Governor Gavin Newsom issued an executive order banning the sale of gasoline-powered vehicles in the state by 2035. Unfortunately, he didn’t take any action to encourage bike riding, walking or transit use to make those vehicles unnecessary.

Hold your pony in check. Newport Beach adopts an ordinance aimed at ebike users on the city’s boardwalk, stating that no one may exceed the posted 8 mph speed limit, regardless of what they’re riding.

Orange County sheriff’s deputies will crack down on traffic safety violations that endanger bicyclists and pedestrians in Dana Point today, regardless of who commits them. The usual protocol applies — ride to the letter of the law until you cross the city limit lines, so you’re not the one who gets ticketed.

San Diego’s new Mid-City Bikeway project is nearly half-finished, as the city unveiled eight new traffic circles installed to improve safety at intersections.

Condolences to San Diego bike riders, who will soon be stuck with the city’s first sharrows on a three block section of Hancock Street. As we’ve said before, sharrows only serve to help drivers improve their aim in an effort to thin the bike riding herd.

Our friend Michael Wagner of CLR Effect visited Santa Barbara’s newly closed State Street, saying restaurants and businesses are benefitting from the carfree foot and bike traffic, and comparing it to a 24/7 CicLAvia. Which sounds like a damn good idea to me.

I’ve found lots of things while riding a bike. Fortunately, a human skull on a Tahoe bike trail ain’t one of them.

 

National

Good news for my fellow diabetics, as a new study shows bike riding reduces cardiovascular mortality in diabetes, as well as mortality risk from all causes. If the coronavirus doesn’t get us first, that is.

The Verge visits the makers of Rain-Bow bike fenders.

C|net reviews Garmin’s new rearview bike radar systems and rides away impressed.

Mashable says Ridepanda is your one-stop shop for all things ebike and e-scooter.

Specialized gets spanked by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, which has rejected the company’s trademark application for its latest bike, ruling it’s too similar to a tire brand.

Singer-songwriter Laura Veirs is one of us, riding her bike “all over Portland” to cope with her divorce after 20 years of marriage.

A manager with the Washington Traffic Safety Commission patiently explains why allowing bike riders to treat stops signs as yields is better for everyone.

Add this one to your bike bucket list, with an easy bike tour around Aspen and Snowmass, Colorado.

A new Indianapolis mural will honor Black cycling legend Major Taylor — even if it means removing another mural that has been there for 45 years.

Kindhearted Connecticut cops pitched in to buy a little boy a new bike after his was stolen.

A New York State assembly member says the state must subsidize ebike purchases. The same goes for California, except more so.

Nearly 130 people rode their bikes 300 miles from New York to DC last month to protest police brutality and racial injustice as part of the March on Washington. As usual, you can read the story on Yahoo if you’re blocked by Bicycling’s draconian paywall.

DC adopts a Vision Zero bill intended to eliminate traffic deaths within the next four years, including plans for red light and stop sign cams, as well as bus lane cameras. Let’s hope they have better luck with it than we did, since LA’s Vision Zero has devolved into a nearly forgotten footnote in city history.

I want to be like him when I grow up, too. A Georgia man on the cusp of 90 has been buying and refurbishing bicycles for the past decade, giving away the finished bikes to children, schools and charities.

They get it, too. Miami is planning to permanently ban cars from the city’s beachfront Ocean Drive, while prioritizing pedestrians first in the city’s entertainment district, followed by bicyclists and transit, with personal vehicles last.

 

International

Medical staff with Britain’s National Health Service continue to be targeted by bike thieves, as one man has now had two bikes stolen in just the past three months.

Electric cars won’t solve the UK’s pollution problem. Or California’s, for that matter.

Blue-tired, Netherlands-based Swapfiets is reportedly taking Europe by storm with its long-term bike rental business model, and a promise to fix your flats for you.

Cyprus intends to invest half a million euros to encourage more people to walk and bike. However, that only equates to $585,000, which won’t go very far.

Los Angeles could soon get lapped by Tehran, as Dutch officials offer recommendations to get the city on the right track for bicycling, while noting that several Iranian cities have the potential to be bike friendly.

Talk about not getting it. A Philippine city is considering a proposal to mandate helmets and reflectorized vests for bike riders, as well as limiting riders to carrying minimal loads, since “bicycles are not designed to carry much cargo.” Which would come as a hell of a surprise to many bike commuters and cargo bike owners.

 

Competitive Cycling

Rouleur profiles Trinidadian cycling star Teniel Campbell, saying she’s on the brink of breaking big in women’s cycling.

Red Bull shares the playlists that get mountain bike, ‘cross and cross-country pros ready to ride.

Former Vuelta and Giro winner Nairo Quintana has denied any wrongdoing in a doping investigation targeting members of his entourage. Then again, that’s what Lance said. And Landis. And Contador. And…

 

Finally…

If you’re going to propose on the Brooklyn Bridge, tell your photographer to stay out of the bike lane. If you didn’t drive on a narrow bike trail, your Jeep wouldn’t need to be rescued in the first place; thanks to David Drexler for the heads-up.

And you be you.

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

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

Alleged San Diego hit-and-run driver pleads not guilty, and more on NIMBY Koretz killing Melrose project

September 15, 2020 / / 5 comments

Twentynine-year old Mauricio Flores pled not guilty to felony hit-and-run in San Diego on Monday.

Flores is the minivan driver who allegedly slammed into a 66-year old bike rider near the city’s airport last month, leaving the victim with a life-threatening head injury.

In actions captured on video, he allegedly got out of his van, along with a passenger identified as 50-year old Jessica Bailey, examined the victim lying in the roadway, then calmly removed his bike from under their van and drove away.

They were captured in Kern County less than two weeks later.

There’s no word on whether Bailey is in custody, or if she will face any charges.

And no word on the identity or condition of the victim.

There are several stories from other news outlets, like this one, but they’re all virtually identical. Thanks to Phillip Young for the heads-up.

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Streets For All founder Michael Schneider lays out in painful, step-by-step detail just what went wrong with the Uplift Melrose plan to improve the iconic, if deadly, LA street.

And how the environmentally friendly project was killed by a single LA councilmember, acting on behalf of a notorious NIMBY group.

Just after the Mid City West meeting, the NIMBYs sprang into action. They viewed Uplift Melrose as a threat to the sacred space of vehicles in this city, and were outraged that a project would even be considered that would rellocate space from cars for a bike lane. Those bike lane thieves, trying to take away sacred car space! And while the project was so much more than a bike lane — it was wider sidewalks, new trees, raised crosswalks, new lighting… all they could see was the bike lane.

Jim O’Sullivan, co-founder of Fix The City — a litigious organization that sues over nearly every bike lane and high density housing project using money from questionable funding sources — started sending threatening emails to Councilmember Koretz and eventually to the entire city council. They also posted misinformation on Next Door. When NIMBYs can’t win on the merits of something, then they simply resort to the tired and true “there wasn’t enough outreach” argument.

It’s worth taking a few minutes — okay, nine, according to the article — to read the whole thing.

Because this is what we’re up against.

And what we will continue to confront — and too often, lose — as long as we continue to elect regressive leaders in environmentalist sheep’s clothing.

Speaking of which, Bike the Vote LA is encouraging you to phonebank for CD4 candidate Nithya Raman this Sunday to support an actual environmentalist.

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Something is seriously wrong when the person charged with enforcing a state’s laws doesn’t obey them himself.

South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg killed a man riding his bike Saturday night, then continued driving home without bothering to stop, later claiming he thought he’d hit a deer.

An excuse used by countless other hit-and-run drivers, in a usually failed attempt to avoid responsibility for their crimes.

It remains to be seen whether Ravnsborg, who has a long record of speeding and other traffic violations, will be held accountable. Or if his position will shield him from blame.

Although it doesn’t bode well that the state’s Department of Public Safety is withholding key details of the investigation.

Ravnsborg was reportedly driving home from a Republican fundraising dinner, where he swears he didn’t drink.

Even though any rational and sober person would stop to see what they hit after an impact like that.

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Still more proof you can literally carry anything on a bicycle.

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

An American marine biologist in the Philippines with a bad case of windshield bias questions why road space is being given to bike riders when motor vehicles bring in much more “revinue” for the government. He may be many things, but an environmentalist clearly ain’t one of them, regardless of what the headline says.

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Local

Bruce Willis is one of us, riding his Trek ebike through the streets of LA, even if the story somehow comes by way of Islamabad. Yippie-ki-yay, indeed.

Olympic boarder Shaun White and Vampire Diaries actress Nina Dobrev are two of us. Or make that three, as they went for a bike ride through the ‘Bu with her dog in his arms.

 

State

A recovering Newport Beach stroke victim reached his goal of swimming 100 miles Labor Day weekend, then walked a couple miles to where he’d left his bicycle to ride back home.

A San Diego letter writer questions the city’s 42 percent increase in bike ridership, saying it’s meaningless without knowing how many riders there were before. Hate to say it, but he’s got a point.

 

National

Washington state is adopting the Idaho Stop Law next month, allowing bike riders to treat stops as yields — but not treat red lights like stop signs, as is legal in Idaho.

This is how it works in other places. Austin, Texas is going to make permanent a popup bike lane installed during the coronavirus crisis after it proved successful. Unfortunately, unlike countless other cities around the world, auto-centric Los Angeles never bothered to install any temporary bike lanes during the lockdown period to begin with.

Dozens of Louisville KY residents rode to apartment where Breonna Taylor was fatally shot by police, who were looking for her former boyfriend, to see where it happened and demand justice for her.

Chicago is responding to the increase in bike riders by installing a curb and post protected bike lane on a busy street, removing 100 parking spaces to make room.

Boston is raising Austin’s ante by making an entire Downtown popup bike network permanent. Although Boston’s bike boom has also been reflected in a corresponding jump in bike thefts.

Now that’s how to campaign. A New York state assemblyman is riding his bike 116 miles across the state’s 116th Assembly District to raise funds for his campaign.

A 73-year old Franciscan friar in Pennsylvania is riding nearly 400 miles along the Erie Canal to raise funds for an outreach center serving people struggling with rural poverty; it’s the stage-4 colon cancer survivor’s tenth annual ride.

Billy Connolly is one of us, too. The Scottish comic, who suffers from Parkinsons, suffered an eye injury falling off his ebike near his home in Key West.

Unbelievable. Authorities dropped aggravated assault charges against a Florida driver who aggressively drove into a crowd of protesters, then pulled a gun on them when they surrounded his car.

Police in Florida have arrested four men for the January, 2019 shooting death of a man riding his bike, who was apparently collateral damage in a shootout between the occupants of two cars.

 

International

The World Resources Institute says 80 percent of urban freight begins or ends in cities, and it’s time to take it seriously — including using e-cargo bikes to make deliveries.

A bike rider goes skitching, hanging on to a semi-truck trailer on a Toronto highway. Although someone should tell Narcity that there’s no need to pedal when you’re being pulled by a truck.

A Canadian woman explains how Covid-19 finally encouraged her to learn how to ride a bike at the ripe old age of 33.

Financial Times profiles famed British bike rider and designer Paul Smith, calling him the most loved man in fashion.

He gets it. An English cycling instructor says a new protected bike lane isn’t intended to make it easier to drive, but to improve safety for people on bicycles and in cars.

France ie encouraging more people to ride bikes by paying them the equivalent of nearly $60 to get their bikes repaired.

 

Competitive Cycling

Defending Tour de France champ Egan Bernal dropped out after Sunday’s 15th stage, complaining that he just didn’t have any power.

Cyclist looks at Slovenian cyclist Tadej Pogačar, calling him cycling’s newest sensation.

An excerpt from a new book examines the troubled legacy of cycling great Marco Pantani; the 1998 Tour de France winner died of a coke overdose just six years later.

Women’s cycling is still going strong, despite the media’s best efforts to ignore it, including the longest ever stage of the Giro Rosa.

 

Finally…

That feeling when the disabled parking is in the middle of the street. Your next bike could be a folding mountain ebike for just 600 bucks.

And what does it say when the streets aren’t safe enough for police to conduct a bike safety sting?

………

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

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

Streets For All talks with CD4 challenger Nithya Raman; and bike riding celebs — possibly including the next president

August 10, 2020 / / Comments Off on Streets For All talks with CD4 challenger Nithya Raman; and bike riding celebs — possibly including the next president

Streets For All is hosting an online conversation with CD4 candidate Nithya Raman, who’s challenging first term incumbent David Ryu in November.

While the coronavirus has taken a lot of the energy out of this year’s election, it remains one of the most important elections in memory.

And this race is no different.

Ryu spent most of his first term blocking progress on street safety projects, before becoming a fair weather convert to urbanism in the past year, as he faced a pair of urbanists and homeless advocates in the primary election.

One of those was Raman, who forced him into a runoff this November. And whose election could be a game changer for the City of Angels

And yes, she’s got my vote as soon as my ballot arrives.

 

………

Today’s common theme is bike-riding celebs. And one that maybe won’t be for awhile.

America’s Got Talent and former American Idol judge Simon Cowell fractured his back in several places after crashing his new ebike in front of family members in the courtyard of his massive Malibu mansion; he should make a full recovery after a six-hour surgery to install a metal rod to stabilize his spine. Although someone should tell People that a broken back does not a “minor accident” make.

The new Batchelor is one of us, taking a ride in Florida as he waits for the show to resume filming.

Bohemian Rhapsody and Mr. Robot star Ramy Malik is one of us, as he goes for a casually dressed ride in London.

Former Oasis frontman Noel Gallagher is one of us, saying he goes offroad riding four times a week. Even if he’s not a fan of wearing his “fucking helmet.”

And presidential frontrunner Joe Biden is one of us, too.

………

Anyone see the problem here?

https://twitter.com/EntitledCycling/status/1292652497538936832

………

Keep your eyes peeled for a purloined cargo bike.

https://twitter.com/jessicabasic2/status/1291810474942554112

………

Bikes are the means of protest in Belarus, as citizens took to the streets to demand an end to the country’s corrupt government in advance of Sunday’s election.

Although someone should tell the cops there that it’s kind of hard to catch bike riders when you’re on foot.

Or better yet, don’t tell them.

Not that it did any good; experts say it was rigged from the start.

Thanks to Megan Lynch for the heads-up.

………

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

No bias here. An editorial in the conservative Santa Barbara News Press calls for licensing and taxing bike riders, while complaining about traffic lanes being taken from those poor, suffering drivers and given to people in bicycles, as well as a long, long list of other grievances.

Residents of Bristol, England, are accused of moving construction barricades and posting signs to keep bike riders out of their neighborhood.

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

Life is cheap in Britain, where a wrong-way bicyclist got just six months for slamming into a pair of pedestrians while riding drunk and without working front brakes; one of the victims, an 81-year old woman, died from her injuries five months later.

……..

Local

Yes, the beachfront Marvin Braude Bike Trail is open for its full length, from Pacific Palisades to the Palos Verdes Peninsula. But the Ballona Creek Bike Path will be closed for maintenance work during the day all next week.

LA Taco offers the gut-wrenching story of the aftermath of a hit-and-run that seriously injured a homeless man in LA’s Historic Filipinotown. And the inaction of police as investigators don’t have the time or staffing to follow up, even after getting the license number of the driver’s car.

The Mid City West Community Council will consider a much needed $50 million makeover of moribund and traffic-choked Melrose Avenue, including the city’s first Dutch-style curb level protected bike lanes. Fortunately, the MCWCC is one of city’s most progressive neighborhood councils; the online meeting will take place tomorrow starting at 6:30 pm.

 

State

San Diego’s $177 billion, 30-year anti-LA style transportation makeover is in jeopardy thanks to the coronavirus pandemic.

Hundreds of mostly maskless people defied health officials and turned out for Santa Barbara’s annual Fiesta Cruiser Run informal bike ride. So if Santa Barbara Covid-19 cases spike in a couple of weeks, you’ll know why.

 

National

Bike Snob isn’t exactly onboard with bicycle shops and bikemakers boycotting police bikes.

We mentioned this one before, but it’s worth a reminder. A Portland study shows that even slow bike riders in the traffic lane don’t delay drivers more than a few seconds. So tell ’em to chill, already.

Um, no. A resident of a Washington island called police to say someone on a bicycle was trying to crash into cars.

He gets it. A Utah bike rider says bicyclists only act entitled because we are — pointing out that bikes have a right to the road under state law. That’s true in every other state, as well.

Kindhearted Arkansas cops teamed with a local motorcycle club to buy a special needs boy a bicycle trailer so he can ride with his mom.

A 22-year old man from Minneapolis is riding 84.6 miles a day for ten days to honor Black people killed by police.

 

International

The owner of a British Columbia driving school says some of his best friends may be bike riders, but he hates a trial project that restricts two-way automotive traffic to a single shared lane, while providing bike lanes in each direction.

A bighearted Calgary neighborhood organization gave out 280 refurbished kids bikes.

This is why you should register your bike. Police in Ottawa, Canada are looking for the owners of 30 bicycles recovered from bike chop shops following a month-long investigation, but only one was registered. Which means the other 29 owners may be out of luck.

Nearly one thousand people turned out for a Black Unity Bike Ride through the streets of London, in what’s planned to be an annual event.

Business is booming in a UK town after the city closed off a roadway, blocking motor vehicle access through the business district while opening the street to diners, bike riders and pedestrians.

That’s more like it. A British truck driver got a well-deserved eight years behind bars for killing two people while playing video games behind the wheel.

New protected bike lanes are popping up on Dublin’s coast.

Lots of kids ride bikes. Not many discover what may be an actual miracle while doing it.

After a young mountaineer was killed in a hit-and-run, an Indian newspaper says separated bike lanes are urgently needed, and those responsible for her death must receive appropriate punishment for the crime.

Officials in Bengaluru, India, are asking bicyclists to crowdsource the routes where they want bike lanes by using tools like Strava and Google Maps, as bicycling picks up steam in the city during the coronavirus crisis.

He gets it, too. A Bangladeshi architect challenges the callous carelessness of the country’s drivers, and a system that lets them get away with it with a wink and a smile.

Add South Central Vietnam to your bike bucket list.

The worldwide coronavirus bike boom has even reached the Pacific island nation of Guam.

A New Zealand man pled guilty to multiple DUI charges for killing a father riding bikes with his daughter last April; tests showed he was high on meth and Valium, and had tossed a handgun and ammunition out of his car following the crash.

 

Competitive Cycling

Remco Evenepoel won the Tour of Poland; the 20-year old Belgian cyclist has won all four of the stage races he’s started this year.

Evenepoel’s fellow Belgian Wout van Aert out sprinted Julian Alaphilippe to win the rescheduled one-day Milan-San Remo spring classic.

Doctors believe Dutch cyclist Fabio Jakobsen will be able to return to racing despite suffering a crushed palate and windpipe, as well as other major facial injuries, after he was hip-checked into the road barriers by another rider as he sprinted for what would have been a likely victory in the first stage of the Tour of Poland. Meanwhile, the cyclists union is repeating their call for standard barriers at all races so this doesn’t happen again

 

Finally…

No, a red Camaro didn’t flee the scene after hitting a six-year old boy riding his bike, the unlicensed heartless coward behind the wheel did. Your next foldie could have full-size folding wheels.

And if you’re going to ride off on your bike after stealing a bottle of booze, wear a damn mask.

And some clothes, maybe.

………

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

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

The case of the purloined pedal car, a call for safe & equitable streets for all, and you really can carry anything on a bike

July 14, 2020 / / 2 comments

Maybe he was just joyriding.

Or maybe the thief figured out something things are just too hard to sell.

Either way, this sort-of bike theft turned out to be very short-lived, and the purloined pedal car was swiftly recovered.

And will soon be back with owner, if it isn’t already.

No word on who took it, though.

Thanks to Lynn Ingram, Ted Faber and The Mailer Demon for the heads-up.

………

Los Angeles may finally be fixing its streets.

But it’s leaving anyone who’s not in a car behind in the process.

Seriously.

Do it, already.

………

Remember this the next time someone says you can’t carry anything on a bike.

Thanks to W. Corylus for the heads-up.

………

Today’s common theme is improving your DIY bike repair and transport skills.

Bicycling wants to teach you how to use tire levers. They just happen to have the same ones I do, too.

Gear Junkie offers instructions on how to swap out your bike pedals in five easy steps.

An Orlando FL TV station wants to teach you how to properly carry a bike on your car. Although blocking the car’s rear license plate, like they show, is illegal in California.

………

North America’s “premier conference for walking, bicycling and placemaker professionals” is going virtual this August, along with everything else.

……..

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

A Glasgow bar owner threatened to smash a bike rider’s “fucking head in” when the bicyclist stopped to film his car blocking a bike lane, along with several other scofflaw vehicles.

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

A bike-riding Los Angeles man faces assault charges after spitting on a woman at a South Pasadena Black Lives Matter protest, then throwing a rock at her when she recognized him two days later.

………

Local

Bebe Rexha is one of us, as she goes for a ride in an LA canyon. Although the British press seems more obsessed with her behind than anything else.

 

State

A San Francisco man suffered life-threatening injuries when he was struck by a driver while riding his bike.

 

National

Treehugger says bike touring may be the perfect way to get around in the summer of Covid-19.

Mountain biking is benefitting from the coronavirus bike boom, with trail use up anywhere from 100% to 500% throughout the US.

Forbes recommends the best bicycling gear and accessories for women.

That tragic Glendale, Arizona crash that took the life of two people got even more tragic on Monday, when it was revealed that the victims were a father and his daughter, who was riding home on her dad’s handlebars.

Now that’s a bike ride. Three Colorado men rode 203 miles and climbed two 14,000 foot mountains — with a total elevation of 23,000 feet — in a single day to call attention to ending the stigma of depression and mental illness.

This is the cost of traffic violence. A Houston woman was known for carrying extra food on her bike for stray dogs; they may go hungry now, after a driver stoned on PCP ran her down as she was riding.

Kindhearted residents in a Minnesota neighborhood pitched in to buy a new bike for a young boy after his was stolen, and another bike left in its place.

Kindhearted Punxsutawney PA police officers used raffle proceeds from a bike rodeo to buy new bicycles for six kids.

 

International

Road.cc recommends the best cheap cycling computers. “Cheap” being the operative term, with prices starting at the equivalent of just $10.

Finally, someone’s taking a page from LA’s book for a change, as Montreal decides to allow bicyclists to ride in at least some of the city’s bus only lanes.

Once again, an elderly London pedestrian has been killed by a hit-and-run bike rider. A reminder that you have just as much responsibility to stop after a crash as a driver does, no matter where you ride.

The bike boom isn’t enough to offset the driving bust for Britain’s biggest bike dealer, which has the misfortune of selling auto parts and repairs, as well as bicycles.

An Edinburg writer says the city can cut bicycle and pedestrian deaths to zero if ordinary people counter misinformation with facts, and say “Enough!”

There’s a special place in hell for whoever stole the ebike a Scottish doctor used to visit sick and vulnerable patients at their homes.

A Scottish letter writer says the increase in bike riders demands the adoption of presumed liability, which assumes that the driver of the larger and more dangerous vehicle is responsible for any collision, because they have a greater duty to avoid it.

When Europe shut down due to the coronavirus, a Scottish college student couldn’t get a flight back to Greece. So he bought a bike, and spent the next 48 days riding 2,175 back home.

A new Spanish conversion kit promises to change your bike into an ebike in a matter of minutes, for just $510; a crowdfunding campaign has raised 165% of the $113,471 goal with 12 days to go.

Bike ridership in Paris has doubled over the past year. And the City of Lights is just getting started reshaping the streets.

Bike riders face the same problems all over the world, as inadequate bike paths and irresponsible drivers put Turkish bicyclists at risk. Something most of us can relate to.

Sadly, it took the death of a bike-riding man for the Kuwaiti parliament to approve a plan for bike lanes.

 

Competitive Cycling

Two-time Tour de France runner-up Nairo Quintana is back on his bike just a week after he was struck by a driver on a training ride.

The Wall Street Journal’s Jason Gay says July just isn’t the same without the Tour de France. If you can get past the Journal’s paywall, that is.

CyclingNews looks back at the most memorable bike races of the past 25 years.

 

Finally…

No, seriously, who needs a seatpost anyway? Presenting the Bay Area’s first parking protected dining lanes.

And every green building needs a cycle track on the roof.

Thanks to Robert Leone for that last link.

………

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

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

New Broadway protected bike lane could be final Santa Monica bike project; DTLA 7th ST protected bike lane moves forward

May 4, 2020 / / One comment

A special thanks to Los Angeles Bicycle Attorneys Josh and Paul Cohen of Cohen Law Partners for renewing their sponsorship for the coming year. 

They join title sponsors Pocrass & De Los Reyes in renewing their support, despite these troubling economic times. 

It’s their sponsorship that allows me to do what I do, and bring you the latest and best bike news on a daily basis. 

Without their support — and yes, yours — this site would not be possible, at least in its present form. 

Now saddle up, because we’ve got a lot of ground to cover.

……..

Let’s start in Santa Monica, where good things are happening.

And not so good.

On the plus side, David Drexler sends word that the city has taken advantage of the slow traffic during the coronavirus shutdown to install parking protected bike lanes on a short section of Broadway.

Look at this, a gift to cyclists from Santa Monica. They took advantage of the low corona traffic to redo Broadway thus far from 20th Street west a few blocks. They moved the parking away from the curb and replaced it with a very protected bike lane on both sides. These photos were a taken at 19th and Broadway. Not sure how far they will extend it. It goes from 20th to the Santa Monica food coop right now, then the old green lane picks up there.

The picture of the G on the ground is probably where they will pain green.

It makes cycling much safer in those lanes than the ones next to traffic, I feel. Hope they do more.

On the other side of the ledger, Santa Monica is planning to make drastic cuts to city funding in response to the loss of sales tax revenue due to the lockdown.

Advocacy group Santa Monica Spoke joins with other organizations to warn that excessive cuts to the transportation department could imperil the safety of vulnerable road users, as well as any post-pandemic economic recovery.

Santa Monica’s economy depends on a functioning transportation network that safely moves people, goods and services. Current proposed budget cuts will be destructive to transportation work, will disable basic functions, and slow our safe recovery from this pandemic. Transportation staff, infrastructure and services are classified as essential government functions* and perform vital functions that literally keep our community running safely. These cuts will damage safety and the very fabric of services and programs that we depend on living in Santa Monica…

These essential life saving functions are under threat with extreme plans to cut over half of the City Transportation and Mobility Division compared to 20-40% across other departments. While we can only imagine the stress and burden of decisions weighing on City Council, this level of cuts would severely impact basic public safety and infrastructure operation functions, wounding our city’s ability to rebound fiscally from the COVID-19 crisis. It is imperative to be strategic. We must consider the holistic dynamic relationships, dependencies and functions that contribute to safety, economic stability and regrowth. While the City suffers catastrophic shortfalls, we should not use a sledgehammer where a scalpel is needed to balance new budgets. Council needs to take time to cut costs strategically, while maintaining essential staff that would facilitate a safe and secure path to economic recovery and resilience.

As part of the cutbacks, Santa Monica plans to cut all bike, pedestrian and Vision Zero funding for the next year.

Which means those Broadway protected bike lanes may be the last we’ll see for awhile.

https://twitter.com/StevenMWhite/status/1257148020769951745

The Santa Monica City Council will hold a virtual council meeting tomorrow to discuss the proposed budget cuts.

Santa Monica Spoke urges you to contact the councilmembers to demand continued funding of the Transportation Department, and ongoing support for bicycle, pedestrian and Vision Zero projects.

Because lives depend on it.

And the proposed cuts are more than just a scratch.

………

Evidently, Vision Zero isn’t completely dead in the City of Angels.

Just badly wounded.

The program is rising from a premature grave, as LADOT invites you to attend a free public workshop to discuss plans to fix 7th Street in DTLA.

And about damn time, since the existing bike lane is largely unrideable much of the time, and usually serves as nothing more than free parking in front of the Bloc shopping mall.

And the only rule governing traffic on 7th seems to be to aim for the soft, squishy people instead of the cold, hard cars.

You can learn more about the project here.

Thanks to Kent Strumpell for the heads-up.

………

Meanwhile, Streets For All offers a glimpse of what could be if LA actually remembers it has an already-approved Mobility Plan.

https://twitter.com/streetsforall/status/1256351201462870017

You can see a larger, interactive version of the above map here.

And here’s the link to the petition, since the link in the tweet is broken.

………

Bike Angeles examines some unexpected improvements along a two-mile stretch of Vineland Ave in North Hollywood.

………

This is why we can’t have nice things.

https://twitter.com/BikeLAredditors/status/1256654454557835265

………

When a bike rider hits a pedestrian, it usually end badly for both parties.

Which is exactly what happened in Berkeley on Saturday, where a 55-year old man on a bike crashed into a 60-year old woman, leaving both victims in critical condition.

Although it’s not clear how it happened, since police say he was riding in the street and she was standing on the sidewalk; a witness says the man on the bike must have had “mental issues.”

The same thing happened in Minneapolis, where a pedestrian is in critical condition and a bicyclist seriously injured following a crash.

Anyone who’s ridden for awhile can tell you it’s not always the bike rider’s fault in a situation like that; people are unpredictable, and can step out into the street without looking for someone on a bicycle.

But it’s always our obligation to ride carefully around pedestrians, because they’re the only ones more vulnerable than we are. And be prepared to stop or swerve to avoid crashing into someone.

Especially if you’re riding on a sidewalk.

………

This working from home thing might just catch on after all.

https://twitter.com/cycling_woman/status/1255909638907846659

Thanks to W Corylus for the link.

………

Maybe it’s not the best idea to draft a dump truck in heavy traffic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SjdFUcGPRo

………

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

Nashville police are looking for a goateed, bike-riding miscreant who smashed a jewelry store window with a cinderblock and made off with over 200 rings. Although as someone who spent a decade in the jewelry business, I’d question why the window wasn’t shatterproof glass, and the rings in a safe after hours.

A Scottish thief made off on his bike after taking over 100 wedding rings worth more that $124,000 in a grab and run.

………

Local

Streetsblog examines the massive failure of LA city officials in cancelling a Slow Streets social distancing program in the Del Rey neighborhood, just hours after it was announced.

The LA Times says city officials think closing streets for social distancing just too risky, even though other cities throughout North America are doing exactly that. Evidently, they think we’re calling for CicLAvia-style street closures that would draw people from across the city, rather than closing a few streets in every neighborhood to allow people to get outside without risking their health and safety.

Dylan McDermott is one of us, as the Hollywood star went for a bike ride through Pacific Palisades with his family.

Santa Monica residents join the chorus of voices demanding safe space on the streets for social distancing.

 

State

A Chula Vista bike rider suffered a leg injury when he or she was was right hooked while riding in a crosswalk by a truck driver, who never bothered to look the direction he was turning.

Britney Spears is one of us, posting a photo showing her riding her bike with her boyfriend near her Thousand Oaks home in happier, pre-pandemic days.

A Santa Barbara bike rider is in critical condition after he was run down by what must have been a self-driving car, since the story does’t even mention a driver.

Bay Area bike shops can’t keep up with the demand as business booms during the coronavirus pandemic.

It takes a major schmuck to steal bikes and tools from a nonprofit San Jose bike co-op as they were preparing to reopen next week.

This is why you shouldn’t try to reclaim a stolen bike by yourself. A Santa Rosa man is recovering from stab wounds to his hand after he approached a man who was riding his stolen bike.

Sacramento will block or limit motor vehicle traffic on some streets to make more room for social distancing. On the other hand, San Jose says don’t hold your breath.

 

National

Yes, May is Bike Month, even if everything has been cancelled and too many cities won’t give an inch on the streets during the coronavirus pandemic. Including Los Angeles.

Zwift wants you to ride or walk in place to raise funds for Doctors Without Borders.

Bike Snob says road cycling isn’t dead after all, even if gravel is all the rage.

An eight-year old Honolulu boy got his stolen bike back after conservation officers spotted it outside a state park.

You don’t mess with an angry dog — or a grandfather. Reality TV star Dog the Bounty Hunter is offering a $1,000 reward for the “scum” who stole his granddaughter’s bike from the family garage in Hawaii.

A New York nurse continues to bike to work, even after she was hit by a driver.

We already know NFL quarterback Teddy Bridgewater is one of us. But apparently supporters of his new team are just figuring it out, as fans are shocked by his “absurd” 74-mile Florida ride.

 

International

People around the world are being encouraged to see bikes as a post coronavirus commuting option — when they’re not getting stopped by the cops for doing exactly that.

Bike historian Carlton Reid offers a warning from history despite the boom in bicycling during the Covid-19 lockdown. Thanks to Robert Leone for the heads-up.

Bike Radar explains what muscles are used to ride a bike, and offers advice on what to wear when you ride one. Never mind that you can ride in anything from T-shirt and shorts to a three-piece suit. But the right clothes can make it a hell of a lot more comfortable.

Road.cc says you’re not a pro, so you don’t have to ride like one.

A nine-year old Ontario boy has set out on a 621-mile bike ride to raise funds for a local health foundation, riding roughly six miles a day.

When a Nova Scotia nursing home worker went to pick up her bike after having it repaired, the shop surprised her with a new bicycle to thank her for her work on the frontlines of the Covid-19 battle.

Speaking of rising from a near grave, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson returns from his extended absence due to Covid-19, and calls on the country’s mayors to take action to encourage bicycling and walking, and keep cars out of city centers.

Noel Gallagher is one of us, as the former Oasis singer and guitarist rode his bike near his English home, despite the country’s lockdown.

British band Glass Animals talks about the 2018 bicycling crash that nearly took the life of the band’s drummer and left him unable to walk, talk, eat, read or write for a time.

Members of a Scottish cycling club honored one of their own, lining the street with their bikes and club kits to show respect for a member who died of Covid-19.

A Catholic priest in the UK had to deliver his daily podcast and evening prayers as he walked home, after going out for a bike ride and suffering successive flats.

Just call it Strassenverkehrsordnungnovelle. Germany announced a raft of changes to traffic laws, including banning parking in bike lanes, allowing people to ride two abreast, and prohibiting drivers from passing bike riders or motorcycles in narrow areas.

Over 3,500 Slovenians rode their bikes in defiance of the lockdown to protest a ban on bike riding, as well as government interference in procuring protective gear and ventilators.

Tragic news from India, where a couple were killed in a collision along with two other people, after a kindhearted truck driver offered them a lift after riding 250 miles because they couldn’t find any other form of transportation.

An Indian op-ed calls for more space on the roads for people walking or biking, arguing that the biggest hurdle in making making it more popular in the country is a lack of necessary infrastructure.

Tokyo commuters are taking to their bikes to avoid the risk of infection on the city’s packed trains.

 

Competitive Cycling

A UK paper looks back at what they call the toughest bike race ever ridden, a snowy seven-stage, 1,300-mile race through the battlefields of the just-ended Great War, as well as in the middle of the Spanish Flu pandemic.

Apparently assuming Covid-19 will blow over by then, officials tell pro cyclists to be ready for an August 29th start for the Tour de France.

Four-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome says the race can work without spectators, but isn’t sure organizers can keep them away.

June’s mountain bike worlds was just the latest race to fall victim to the coronavirus, while September’s European road championships were put off until next year.

A British man raised the equivalent of $16,000 by riding the length of the Tour de France without ever leaving his apartment.

 

Finally…

Your next bike could be a seatless Penny Farthing. Or long enough to let you maintain social distance from your tandem partner.

And when you’re drunk, riding salmon, and carrying an open container, at least put some damn lights on your bike.

And don’t fight with the cops that try to stop you.

………

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

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

Vehicular cycling founder John Forester has died, toxic car culture, fighting for street space, and courteous CA drivers

April 23, 2020 / / One comment

Sad news from San Diego.

CABO President Jim Baross writes that John Forester, author of Effective Cycling and the father of America’s vehicular cycling movement, passed away last week.

Reported to me today by his son Jeff Forester

John died April 14, 2020 at 90 years of age

He was Born Oct. 1929

I have known John primarily related to bicycling and CABO. Some things I know about him off the cuff:

Author of Effective Cycling now in a 7th edition, former League of American Bicyclists Board member (was he board chair at one time?), instrumental in the formation of CABO, certainly the Father of the concepts and trainings of vehicular cycling, an early outspoken advocate for the rights of people to use bicycles on public roads, etc. etc.

Whatever your opinion of vehicular cycling, Forester was hugely influential in the ’70s and ’80s, and throughout the past 50 years. Both in affirming the place of bicyclists on our streets, and blocking the growth of separated bikeways.

He fought for what he believed right up to the end, long after most modern advocates and planners had left his philosophies behind.

But in his day, his work was a revelation, creating the framework most road cyclists employed through the last decades of the past century.

Myself included.

Thanks to Richard Masoner for the heads-up.

Cover image from MIT Press. 

………

Let’s talk about a great opinion piece from today’s LA Times.

Senior digital editor Matthew Fleischer writes that the coronavirus shutdowns are making it clear just how toxic car culture really is.

The coronavirus is making it abundantly clear that cars are their own kind of plague. And, in many ways, our lives are better when we don’t have to use them.

Some city leaders have come to this realization and are refusing to allow their automotive status quos to return after the lockdowns end. In Milan, Italy — one of the hardest-hit cities in the world by coronavirus — planners have already begun preparations to permanently transform 22 miles of streets for non-automobile use after witnessing reductions in air pollution of up to 70% during lockdowns.

Then there’s this.

Frankly, the idea that we can transport ourselves sustainably en masse in toxic 4,000-pound battering rams is just as delusional, entitled and self-destructive as the “liberate” protestors who are demanding a premature end to coronavirus-related stay-at-home orders…

There is no herd immunity from the damage caused by millions of personal automobiles roaming the streets at all hours.

Seriously, this will probably be the most insightful thing you read today. If not, it’s still a damn good way to spend the next few minutes.

Let’s hope Mayor Garcetti reads it.

Because he can let coronavirus derail his ambitious plans to reimagine our streets as part of an LA Green New Deal.

Or he can use this as a rare opportunity to actually make it happen.

………

Closing or narrowing streets for cars in response to Covid-19 continues to make news here in LA, across the US and around the world.

Los Angeles political advocacy group Streets For All has forged a powerful coalition of LA-area groups to lead the call to keep Angelenos physically and mentally healthy during the COVID-19 crisis.

And expressed that call in a strongly worded letter to leaders of the City of Angels.

The road space in Los Angeles is now dramatically overbuilt for the current vehicle traffic volume, causing vehicles to travel at dangerous speeds – average speeds are up 30% on our wide open roads according to LADOT. At the same time, the average width of our sidewalks is 4.4’, too narrow to allow people to pass each other while maintaining 6’ of distance. As a result, people are forced to be in close proximity with each other, risking proliferating the virus or walking, running, scooting, or biking in the street next to speeding cars. This isn’t just a street safety issue, but a public health issue as well…

While the top priority is limiting COVID-19 spread and saving lives and livelihoods, there must be a long term plan to sustain the mental and physical well being of Angelenos. Isolation and inactivity can lead to increases in chronic health conditions like heart disease and obesity and pose other mental and physical health risks that we may pay for as a society for years to come.

Therefore, for the critical reasons of equity, mental health, safety, and the physical well-being of Angelenos, we ask you to authorize the creation of an emergency people street network – using cones or other temporary infrastructure – to create additional sidewalk and open space for people to walk, run, scoot, and bike in, while maintaining 6’ of distancing. ​On neighborhood streets, this could be as simple as a few cones and a “slow down” sign taking up some of the street, calming traffic but still allowing local and emergency vehicle access. On major arteries, this could be redistributing a parking lane and/or single vehicle traffic lane on each side of the street, while taking care not to interfere with bus stops​. These treatments may also advance the Mayor’s goals under L.A.’s Green New Deal to “Activate Streets” and “Prioritize Land Use and the Right-of-Way” in ​Executive Directive 25​. All of this can be accomplished inexpensively and without the need of distracting our police or fire departments with enforcement during this critical time.

It’s worth taking the time to read the full letter. And voice your own support.

Meanwhile, KCRW’s Steve Chiotakis talks with Curbed’s Alissa Walker about closing some roads to cars so people have more space to walk, run or bike.

Salt Lake City joins the growing movement to convert streets to bike and pedestrian use.

Berlin is the latest world capital to carve out more space on the streets for active transportation in the wake of the coronavirus shutdown.

And Paris trumps everyone by readying the equivalent of 400 miles of permanent and temporary bikeways for use when the city reawakens.

………

No surprise here.

The Governors Highway Safety Association says speeding is up around the country on streets emptied by the coronavirus crisis, which means crashes are more serious, too.

Case in point, the CHP reports that tickets for speeding in excess of 100 mph have jumped 87% over the past month.

Which can either mean that more drivers are speeding. Or that more are just getting caught.

Or maybe both.

………

New York City’s mayor demonstrates that he’s never been to California by bizarrely insisting that California drivers are so courteous, they stop on every block — even when they don’t have to.

https://twitter.com/laura_nelson/status/1252979892846645248?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1252979892846645248&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fnyc.streetsblog.org%2F2020%2F04%2F22%2Fstill-defiant-now-mayor-de-blasio-wrongly-claims-california-can-have-open-space-because-its-drivers-are-better%2F

………

The LACBC and Sunset For All are teaming up tomorrow to show that bikes mean business.

………

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

A “furious” English man demands that bike riders be banned from a multi-use path along the coast for the alleged crime of failing to maintain social distancing.

………

Local

Khloé Kardashian’s two-year old daughter is one of us.

 

State

A San Diego columnist questions whether it’s time to reopen parts of the city, arguing that the fitness of residents helped it avoid the worst of the coronavirus.

I want to be like them when I grow up. A group of San Diego men up to 80 years old are still taking long rides along the SoCal coast. And the coast of Normandy.

After losing his job in a San Francisco restaurant, a Venezuelan chef turns to his native cuisine, and starts a new business delivering homemade arepas by bike. Which is literally what he named it.

Once again, a Bay Area bicyclist posts a nearly one-hour video of a ride through Oakland and San Leandro. And once again, an Oakland News blogger freaks out over his scofflaw behavior.

They get it. A pair of Sacramento mayors agree this is no time to back down on climate change, coronavirus or not.

 

National

PeopleForBikes aims to support bike shops by encouraging responsible riding during the Covid-19 crisis, along with virtual cycling.

How to turn your kid into a mini mountain bike shredder.

A pair of Idaho bike commuters are credited with helping the environment by trading gas pedals for bike pedals; one was inspired to get on her bike by attending CicLAvia when she was a student at USC.

Evidently, Texas trail users don’t like being told which way to go.

Wisconsin wrenches are raising old bikes from the dead at a record pace.

Security cam video shows a St. Louis hit-and-run driver plowing into a bike rider, hurling him into the air before flooring it and fleeing the scene; despite the head-on crash, the victim only suffered minor injuries. This video is just as disturbing as it sounds, so be sure you really want to see it before you click on the link.

Three friends from Maine end up driving 2,000 miles home when their fundraising cross-country bike trip ground to a halt in Texas after the coronavirus shut down much of the country.

After an MIT researcher blamed New York’s transit system for spreading Covid-19, a researcher from George Mason University reminds him that correlation isn’t causation, noting that restaurants and bikeshare showed the same curve — and points the finger for spreading the disease at motor vehicle use, instead.

Streetsblog says the empty streets have turned New York’s Third Ave into a dangerous speedway.

A writer for Rolling Stone takes a desolate and desultory ride through the city, feeling anger towards people flaunting social distancing rules and mourning places that may not return.

A Philly radio station says bicycle couriers have had to change their strategies to avoid spreading Covid-19. Or getting exposed to it.

 

International

She gets it. A writer for Forbes says our planet needs cities to prioritize people over cars, and this is the perfect time to do it.

The Pinkbike Podcast discusses why every new bike now seems to be a trail bike.

Cycling News says you can save time and money by learning to fit your own bike chain. Meanwhile, Bike Radar offers a beginner’s guide to road bike shifting.

Bike-riding British Columbia mounties stop a man for riding without a helmet, which is against the law there. And end up busting him for stealing the bike he was riding.

Dutch model Lilly Becker is one of us, too, going for a socially distant ride through London’s Wimbledon neighborhood.

Tragic news from the Netherlands, where an 18-year old man was stabbed to death in an apparent random attack while riding his bike; police arrested a “known troublemaker” immigrant with mental health problems.

 

Competitive Cycling

VeloNews talks with five-time Tour de France winner Bernard Hinault about his 50-mile solo breakaway through a brutal snowstorm to win the 1980 Liège-Bastogne-Liège

 

Finally…

Who needs a BMX track when you’ve got a Tribeca apartment with an awesome view of the waterfront? Why move over when you’ve got a six-foot social distancing stick?

And no, bikes aren’t “the new toilet paper.”

You can actually get a bicycle.

………

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

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

Improve mobility and open space access during Covid-19 shutdown, CA crashes down by half, and bike shops are essential

April 2, 2020 / / One comment

Los Angeles leaders are focused on fighting the coronavirus.

But that doesn’t mean they can’t provide safer transportation and exercise options for LA residents during the shutdown.

That’s the case nonprofit group Streets for All has been making with city councilmembers and the mayor’s office in recent days.

Here’s what they have to say.

COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on Los Angeles; tens of thousands are out of work, hundreds of thousands are working from home, and millions have been ordered to only leave their homes if absolutely necessary.

Because of these changes, our road space far exceeds the required amount for vehicle traffic. At the same time, for their own physical and mental health, many Angelenos need to get to/from work if they are an essential employee, need to go to the market or a doctor’s office, or perhaps just need to go for a run, bike ride, or go play with their kids. It isn’t possible to do this and maintain 6’ of space on our current transit, sidewalk, and bike lane infrastructure.

Proposals to enhance mobility and open space access in Los Angeles during COVID-19:

  1. Pilot a temporary emergency safe streets network to slow down speeding cars and give residents a safe 6’ distanced option for active transportation while reinforcing connections to grocery stores, hospitals, LAUSD food centers, delivery services, parks, and other essential resources. View our potential network.

  2. Create an accelerated path for street closure requests to increase local access to open space, especially in neighborhoods with limited park access. Potentially using the framework studied with Play Streets. These could be hard closures block by block, or maintaining local access for parking.

    Specifically we suggest:

    • Waiving fees and insurance requirements

    • Giving Neighborhood Councils the same request exception as council offices

    • Increasing application turnaround to 10 days

    • Allowing option for LADOT to install barricades

There’s more, as they make a solid case for why it should be done. And done now.

Check it out, and get involved.

………

No surprise here, as California traffic collisions — not accidents, please — have been cut in half as the entire state shuts down for the coronavirus, thanks to a 60% drop in traffic volume.

However, there’s no word on the severity of those crashes, as the lighter traffic has meant higher average speeds on the roadways.

………

New Mexico finally came to its senses and joined most other states in allowing bike shops to reopen as essential businesses, in response to outrage from the local bicycling community.

But only under extremely limited circumstances.

Under the new orders, customers can’t enter the bicycle shops, retail sales are banned, payments are to be made by credit card or debit card remotely; customers must leave and pick up bicycles outside the store; and the bikes have to be disinfected before being brought inside. Staff must also wear protective equipment and the stores have to be routinely disinfected.

But despite the restrictions, it’s not the strictest regulations in the country, according to Bicycle Retailer.

In Michigan retailers are allowed to service bikes only if the bikes are used by workers to get to a job that is considered essential.

Meanwhile, bike shops got the nod as an essential business in Nebraska. And in Louisiana, too.

Hopefully with less draconian restrictions.

And advocacy groups from the US to Russia and Japan call for bike shops to be recognized as essential businesses during the Covid-19 lockdowns.

Thanks to Bike Santa Fe’s Brian Kreimendahl for the New Mexico heads-up.

………

Bike Index reports they’ve helped recover over 7,000 stolen bikes worth nearly $10 million.

Which seems like a pretty good reminder to register your bike for free right now, before you need it.

Thanks to Brandi D’Amore for the tip.

………

Here’s your chance to work in SoCal transportation social justice.

………

This should get your heart going if you can’t get out for a ride.

………

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

An apparent road raging driver faces an attempted second-degree murder charge for getting out of his car and shooting several times at a group of bike riders; fortunately, he seems to be a bad shot.

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

Texas police bust a man who rode away on his bicycle after a fatal stabbing.

………

Local

SoCal Cycling mourns the death of cyclist Randy Houston, who died peacefully on March 17th; no cause of death was given.

A cargo bike-riding street vendor in South LA was attacked in a shameful strong arm robbery; the attack was caught on low-res video.

It looks like the popular Rose Bowl Loop is only sort of closed right now.

A Santa Clarita man was busted for assault with a deadly bicycle rim after he was allegedly caught burglarizing a garage.

Reese Witherspoon is one of us, and so is her seven-year old son.

 

State

The Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition says right now, while we’re all sheltering in place, is the perfect time to convince non-riding friends to give bicycling a try. Thanks to Robert Leone for the link.

San Francisco’s MTA head it’s time to build cities for buses, bikes and feet, not cars.

Yes, you can still walk or ride your bike in the Bay Area even after coronavirus restrictions are tightened, though you’re asked to consider if your trip is really essential.

A Roseville man describes touring the state by bike, including four trips to Yosemite and an epic Sonora Pass bonk that ended in the ER.

 

National

In case you missed it last month, Jeff Vaughn reminds us that bicycling is the best way to get around during the pandemic.

An automotive website says now is the time to take advantage of the empty streets to get into bicycling.

NPR says double your distance from others to protect yourself from coronavirus while safely exercising outside.

VeloNews picks the year’s best mountain bike gear, and offers a look at some of the best bikes from their virtual North American Handmade Bicycle Show.

Streetsblog points out that no one forced scooter companies to pull them off the streets because of Covid-19.

After getting laid-off from his job as a sous chef, a Tacoma WA man channels his anger into a new business riding his bike around town and shouting messages to people sheltering inside their homes.

A Washington man builds a Victorian era safety bike for a new period drama airing on HBO. Which is as good a reason as any to tune in once the show airs.

A very sad Aspen CO girl writes a letter to the local paper asking for her stolen bicycle back.

A local magazine recommends six bike paths to try out on your next trip to Austin, Texas.

The president of an Illinois advocacy group says it’s time to get back on your bike and shift the perception of bicycling from a sport to transportation.

A Minnesota man gets his bike back six years after it was stolen, after a bike shop owner with a long memory finds it in a pawn shop when it was advertised on Craigslist.

Inspired by Stephen Colbert fixing a flat on his bike, a Cleveland columnist gets his bike tuned and starts riding again to save what’s left of his sanity.

New York state eliminates an entire criminal class by finally getting around to legalizing ebikes.

Great idea. A new DC program matches people who have an extra bicycle or two lying around with essential workers who need one for safe transportation.

Fox Racing’s enduro/ebike helmet scored the highest in the latest bike helmet ratings from Virginia Tech.

 

International

Road.cc readers explain how their bicycling habits have changed due to the pandemic.

British Columbia’s Whistler ski area is still on track to open a bike park this May despite the coronavirus crisis, though the situation remains fluid.

Where to get the best online bike deals if you live in the UK. Hint: Email or call your favorite local bike shop before you buy anything online. They need the business, and will appreciate it more.

A British triathlete defends his nine hour, 201-mile bike ride in violation of the country’s coronavirus lockdown.

A 78-year old former Irish amateur cycling champ calls himself an unrepentant sinner for defying the country’s restrictions and getting out on his bike, insisting he never touches anyone when he’s riding.

 

Competitive Cycling

Bicycling says Covid-19 will deal a serious blow to pro cycling, as teams fold and the sport may never be the same. Pro cycling never recovered from the doping scandals, and many teams have for been circling the drain for years now; this will only speed the process.

 

Finally…

Surprisingly, it turns out a $550 stolen bike is worth around…$550. Which means that a $50 Craigslist Gary Fisher bike is worth…more, evidently.

And get out the crayons to pass the time until we can all ride again.

………

Thanks to Matthew R for his very generous donation to help keep SoCal’s best bike news coming your way every day. Contributions of any amount are always appreciated, especially in times like this.

………

Be safe, and stay healthy.

 

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

Calls for John Lee to resign in corruption probe, Covid-19 wreaks havoc on bike world, and SaMo protected bike lanes

March 11, 2020 / / One comment

As we discussed yesterday, CD12 Councilmember John Lee is facing calls to resign after he was identified as the city staff member who took a corrupt Vegas joyride.

Lee’s alleged involvement was spelled out in an indictment against his predecessor and former boss Mitch Englander.

Oddly, Lee won’t confirm that he was the unidentified City Staffer B who accompanied Englander on his — allegedly — bribe and escort-filled Las Vegas fling, which was paid for by an LA businessman. Even though he admitted as much on Monday.

Lee continues to lead challenger Loraine Lundquist as the vote count in last week’s city election crawls on. Although the situation would likely be very different if the news had broken just a week earlier before Election Day.

Meanwhile, political advocacy group Streets For All joins the chorus demanding Lee’s resignation.

You can add your voice to the call by signing the petition demanding that Lee to quit immediately.

And in a related note, Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Fuerer, whose office was raided in the same FBI probe of city officials, tossed his tainted hat into the race to replace termed-out Eric Garcetti as the city’s mayor.

Which could turn out to be the tip of an iceberg that could make the one that sank the Titanic look small in comparison.

And possibly bring down much of the LA political establishment.

Photo by Suzy Hazelwood from Pexels.

………

The Covid-19 coronavirus continues to take a toll on the bicycle community.

The annual Bentonville, Arkansas Bike Fest has been postponed until August in hopes the virus will run its course.

Streetsblog says it doesn’t help that New York’s mayor told people to ride their bikes to avoid the coronavirus, but didn’t add any capacity to the streets to make it easier for them to do it. Like opening bridges owned by the transit authority to bicycles.

In a surprising development, the Bike League has cancelled the annual National Bike Summit scheduled to begin this Sunday in Washington DC.

Things aren’t looking good for this year’s Giro d’Italia after the entire county went into a coronavirus lockdown.

The 2020 Tokyo Olympics scheduled to begin in July could face a two-year delay until 2022.

And Monterey’s annual Sea Otter Classic has been rescheduled for this fall.

Thanks to John Huntsman for link to the Sea Otter tweet.

………

Santa Monica’s Broadway bike lanes will get the protected treatment.

Once again showing SaMo continues to run rings around Los Angeles when it comes to safety and livability.

https://twitter.com/santamonicacity/status/1237075769182076928

………

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

An Akron, Ohio woman was sitting in her car when she was shot in the leg by a man in black as he rode by on a bicycle, in an apparent unprovoked attack.

A Brooklyn bike rider gets the blame for stealing a woman’s wallet from her car while she was on the other side pumping gas.

………

Local

Echo Park residents are demanding action after a string of fatal hit-and-run crashes, mostly on deadly Sunset Blvd. The Sunset4All plan would be a good place to start.

CiclaValley beats the clock by biking to Newhall and taking the train back home.

 

State

No surprise here, as San Diego is failing to cut greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks thanks to its ongoing addiction to gas guzzling motor vehicles.

Two Victorville teenagers were busted on robbery charges after stealing a bike from a 13-year old girl, and trying to steal another, as she was walking to meet her brother with a pair of bikes.

Tragic news from Bakersfield, where a bike rider was killed when a driver fell asleep at the wheel, and woke up just in time to slam into the victim.

Watsonville has approved a Complete Streets to Schools Plan to improve safety for bicyclists and pedestrians around 15 schools.

No surprise here, as bike and scooter rides rise on San Francisco’s Market Street in the two months since cars were kicked off.

Authorities have made an arrest in the cold case murder of a Rohnert Park teenager who was last seen riding his bike in 2016.

 

National

Gear Patrol recommends what they call the best commuter bikes for every kind of road and rider. Not sure they accomplished that, but there are some interesting choices here.

That’s more like it. Bellingham, Washington is trading traffic lanes for a network of wide, buffered bike lanes.

Conspiracy meister Alex Jones of Info Wars infamy was busted for DUI after a fight with his wife in a Texas restaurant, even though his BAC was just under the legal limit. Thanks to Mike Cane for the heads-up.

A “deplorable” Wisconsin driver got a well-deserved five years for killing a father riding bikes with his son, claiming he was distracted because he was looking down at his car’s radio. And didn’t bother to stop because thought he hit a mailbox.

Chicago has closed sections of the popular Lakefront Trail bike and pedestrian paths due to “recent historic high lake levels and severe storms.” But neglected to tell anyone they were closed, or why the concrete barriers suddenly appeared on the paths.

Minneapolis sets an ambitious goal of having 60% of all trips by bike, transit or walking in just ten years.

When is a protected bike lane not a protected bike lane? When the city of New York says it doesn’t exist, despite all evidence to the contrary.

Gerrard Butler is one of us, as he runs, bikes and walks throughout his day in New York. And gets stalked by paparazzi no matter how he travels.

Despite the NYPD’s nasty habit of repeatedly blaming the victims, an analysis by the New York Times shows errors by bike riders and pedestrians were blamed in just five percent of fatal crashes last year. You can probably guess who was responsible for the other 95%.

A North Carolina city bizarrely concludes that four-way stops at a pair of intersections wouldn’t do any good, because there is “no clear evidence that pedestrian or bicycle traffic is high at either of these intersections.” Except maybe that’s because it’s too dangerous to walk or bike there now without them.

Baton Rouge LA is starting the approval process on the city’s pedestrian and bicycle master plan. When I lived down there, the only master plan they had was for bike riders and pedestrians to stay the hell out of the way of drivers.

A Miami man told police he just wanted a better bike, after he was busted for violently attacking a couple to steal theirs. If you’re going to steal a bicycle, that’s about as good a reason as any.

 

International

She gets it. A writer for Bike Biz says a love of bicycling is the greatest gift of all.

Outside visits what they call the hiking and mountain biking Mexico of your dreams in Baja’s Rancho Cacachilas.

Canadian Cycling Magazine looks at the pretty damn funny collection of egregious bike user-errors and bad luck damage on the JustRidingAlong subreddit. Including the one we below that we’ll end with today.

A Toronto columnist calls for banning right turns on red lights, even if they do save gas and time.

The founder of a Swedish e-cargo bike maker and a bicycle delivery firm walks — or in this case, pedals — the walk, spending Fridays on a bike delivering packages alongside his employees.

British bike scribe and historian Carlton Reid says just riding a bicycle is an intensely political act in occupied Palestine, where he says the Israeli government imposes 705 obstacles to the free movement of the people.

A Moroccan man is traveling the world by bike to promote peace. Clearly, he has a long way to go — in every sense.

An Aussie study shows bike riders are more confident in their abilities than drivers. Which isn’t too surprising considering our lives depend on our bike skills.

 

Competitive Cycling

Road Bike Action Magazine reports on the third stage of the eight stage Paris-Nice bike race, where the finish was determined by a late crash.

Pink Bike talks with BMX and mountain bike crossover champ Anthony Napolitan.

VeloNews looks behind the scenes with the US team at the 2020 world track cycling championships.

 

Finally

If you’re tired of angry, aggressive and/or distracted drivers, you’re in luck.

And how to keep someone from stealing your bike seat.

Mmmmmm that saddle
by inJustridingalong

 

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