After years of false starts, bikeshare finally comes to Los Angeles today.
Or Downtown, anyway.
The celebration kicks off at 11 am at Grand Park, offering “snacks, live music and good vibes.” And lots of bikes that need to be moved to other locations.
Richard Risemberg questions some of the dock placements, as well as LA’s lack of a connected bikeway network anywhere outside of DTLA, but says, in the words of famed water maven Bill Mulholland, “There it is. Take it.”
Fortunately, given the lack of infrastructure, bikeshare riders have just half the rate of injury as other bicyclists.
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Nice to see Amoeba Music getting on the bike bandwagon.
That would make a perfect place for a bikeshare dock, if and when Metro Bike ever makes it out to Hollywood.
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You can’t spell Trump without rump.
Donald Trump once threatened to sue the organizers of Aspen’s Tour de Rump for trademark infringement for his short-lived Tour de Trump bike race.
Twenty-seven years later, the Aspen race is still going strong, while even the king of comb-overs seems to have forgotten the other one.
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Cycling Weekly offers five talking points from the fifth stage of the Tour de France, while the anticipated battle between Chris Froome and Nairo Quintana still looms ahead in the mountain stages.
TdF rookie Fabio Aru takes control of the Astana team as 2014 winner Vincenzo Nibali falters on the race’s first climb. London’s Daily Mail says the Tour has spectacle, blood and emotion.
Look for more doping revelations, as the World Anti-Doping Agency and cycling’s governing body now have over 200 bags of blood saved from the Spanish Operation Puerto case.
Former Temecula resident Sarah Hammer is a favorite to medal in track cycling at the Rio Olympics.
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Local
A DTLA bicycle boutique is raising funds on Indiegogo and asking for donations of used bikes to create a bikeshare program for homeless people on Skid Row.
Monrovia unanimously approves a new bicycle master plan calling for 3.7 miles of bike paths, 4.2 miles of bike lanes and 18 miles of sharrows; an additional 7.1 miles will be studied for protected bike lanes. Boyonabike calls it an important step, but says much work still remains. Like making sure those sharrows do more than help drivers improve their aim.
A Woodland Hills couple starts their life together with a 55-mile wedding day ride through the Conejo Valley, complete with tux-print cycling jerseys.
State
Red Kite Prayer’s Padraig says if you want to get away with murder, run someone over, then toss a crumpled bicycle next to the body.
This is how Vision Zero is supposed to work. San Diego is making safety improvements to a street where a teenage skateboarder was killed by a hit-and-run driver while skating in a bike lane.
A 79-year old bike rider was injured when he was left-crossed by a Riverside County sheriff’s employee in Rancho Mirage; for once, the CHP suggests the officer may be at fault for going through a no left turn arrow and failing to yield to oncoming traffic.
An Atascadero letter writer employs selective reading to insist that state law bars riding two abreast, citing CVC 21202 as proof. But like most drivers and law enforcement officers, neglects to consider that it does not apply on non-sharable lanes.
A carload of Marin County teenagers was cited for battery and possession of alcohol after shooting a cyclist with a paintball gun.
A Davis cycling instructor says summer is the perfect time to start riding as a family.
National
Clean Technica looks at People for Bikes’ plan to create a Big Jump in bicycling rates in ten select cities in just three years, while the aforementioned national advocacy group wants your help to fix a new Federal rule that could block protected bike lanes.
Google is teaching its self-driving cars to avoid bike riders, predicting it could save scores of riders each year.
Outside says the proliferation of bike and helmet cams is demonstrating the dangers bicyclists face on the streets, though it may not make a difference in the courtroom.
Consumer Reports describes the anatomy of a bike crash, while somehow feeling the need to point out that your brain will probably slosh around inside your skull once you hit the pavement.
Bike racer Neil Bezdek describes the experience of going carless from a roadie’s perspective. Decent story, right up until the last sentence.
A 72-year old Iowa man is about to start a 4,000 mile bike tour across the US, after riding over 18,000 miles over the last four years.
An Iowa paper calls for a ban on texting while driving, after a distracted driver walks with just tickets and a license suspension for killing a cyclist. Of course, even if it is illegal, that doesn’t mean prosecutors will actually do anything about it.
A local paper looks at the Columbus OH jerk idiot driver who apparently thought threatening to kill bike riders was a form of satire.
A Nashville music executive was killed in an apparent solo fall; he was found lying in the roadway next to his undamaged bicycle after somehow losing control during a brief descent.
Caught on video: A New York cyclist records what it’s like to be an UberRush bike messenger for a day.
After years of complaints, the NYPD finally gets serious about cracking down on drivers parking in bike lanes, issuing 1,757 tickets for blocking bike lanes over a five day period, as well as 810 summons for failing to yield to bicyclists and pedestrians.
DC considers capping a rail yard to create space for a park or bikeways.
International
Toronto drivers take a toll on vulnerable road users, as 20 cyclists and pedestrians were hit by cars in less than 24 hours, including a 71-year old cyclist killed when he crashed into a parked van while dodging a left cross; a Toronto cop apologizes for initially blaming the victim.
A Brit bike thief explains how to keep you bike safe from someone like him.
British Cycling gets behind a campaign to open the UK’s trails to offroad riders.
Paris opens the first half mile of what will eventually be a 28-mile network of bike highways crossing the city.
London’s Telegraph asks if Majorca, Spain is the world’s greatest cycling destination. Actually, the best cycling destination is wherever you’re going. Especially if you’re not going anywhere.
Over 150 people rode from the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp to the Jewish Community Center in Krakow, Poland to remember the Holocaust.
Finally…
Music to ride a bike to. If you’re going to steal a bike from an apartment building, don’t stop to have a smoke in front of the entrance afterwards.
And the dope you ordered from your bike messenger may not be the dope you get.
