Let’s get the bad news out of the way first.
According to KTLA-5, a 65-year old Trader Joe’s worker is on life support after he was run down by a motorist Thursday morning.
George Pareta was riding his bike on his way to work at the Reseda Trader Joe’s when the driver made a sudden turn in front of him, sending him flying through the air.
There’s no word on whether it was a right hook or left cross crash, however.
Pareta was rushed to a local hospital once paramedics were able to revive him, after his heart had been stopped for nearly half an hour following the crash.
Compounding the tragedy, Pareto’s son came upon the crash scene as he rode his bike along the same route to visit his father at work, recognizing his dad’s bike even though he had already been taken away.
His family is now faced with a heartrending choice “…between keeping him the way he is in an unresponsive state or taking him off life support,” while still hoping for a miracle.
A crowdfunding campaign for the beloved father, avid cyclist and spin instructor has already raised over $40,000 of the $50,000 goal to help pay his medical expenses.
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Urbanize reports on long-delayed plans to convert Westwood’s Broxton Street to a pedestrian plaza next month.
Although maybe not quite as long as they suggest, which, judging by the second date, would have been over 1,700 years before Westwood Village was even imagined.
Planning for the Broxton Street plaza dates to 2015, when the Westwood Village Improvement Association began circulating a petition seeking support for the project – which then called for the plaza to be built one block to the north between Weyburn and Le Conte Avenue. While the project was approved in 208 by the L.A. city Council, pandemic-induced staffing shortages and other setbacks within LADOT delayed implementation until now.
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Gravel Bike California’s Zachary Rynew finds himself riding in the famed tire tracks of Pee Wee Herman, if not with the same panache.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on rolling.
The former head of New York advocacy group Transportation Alternatives writes that new signs on New Jersey’s riverfront roadway requiring bicyclists to ride single file feel like a desecration — although it’s better than the total ban on bikes that existed before he negotiated a right to ride the roadway, albeit to the right only.
A Toronto website corrects the myths regarding the city’s bike lanes in the face of calls to rip up existing protected bike lanes, as well as anti-bike arguments that create a bikelash putting bicyclists in further jeopardy from angry motorists.
Missing the point entirely, an English mayoral candidate calls for banning the annual World Naked Bike Ride, calling for a return to common decency and self-respect. The point of riding naked is calling attention to driver inattention, as in “can you see me now?”
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
A 36-year old Indianapolis woman will spend a year behind bars, and another year on probation, for riding her bike across town with her two unrestrained babies in a milk crate attached to the bike with just a bungee cord.
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Local
Metro, BikeLA — formerly the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition — and Metro Bike operator Bicycle Transit Systems have received a grant to conduct bikeshare training classes, complete with safety education and a firsthand demonstration on how to use bikeshare, along with a meal from a local business, a bike helmet, a 30-Day Metro Bike Share pass, and a group ride.
State
The Santa Barbara bike shop owner who gave a new kid’s Specialized bike as a birthday gift for four-year old British Prince Archie says she picked it for the bike’s gender neutral design, so he can pass it down to his sister.
National
A Streetsblog op-ed calls for dropping the term micromobility, arguing that SUVs, pickups and passenger cars should not be the benchmark for measuring other forms of transit, large or small.
Gear Junkie reports on the best women’s mountain bikewear from three passion-driven brands you’ve never heard of, while Outside site Velo discusses the best unreleased and new-to-this-country ebikes they saw at the e(Revolution) 2023 ebike trade show.
Tragic news from Colorado, where a missing 16-year old boy who disappeared after setting out on his mountain bike over a month ago has been found dead in a secluded canyon.
This is who we share the road with. Longtime Broadway and Hollywood actor Treat Williams was killed in Connecticut yesterday when a driver left-crossed his motorcycle.
Grieving mother Amy Cohen has gone on a hunger strike, along with three other supporters, over the refusal of the New York State Assembly Speaker to bring Sammy’s Law to a floor vote; the common sense bill named for her son would allow New York City to set its own speed limits, rather than having them set by the state. She’ll discuss the bill with Bike Talk, in a new episode that drops tomorrow.
The star of a one-man Off-Broadway play about former President Dwight Eisenhower is one of us; John Rubinstein rides a bikeshare bike roughly 40 blocks to the theater every night, as he waits for his own bike to arrive from Los Angeles.
NPR rides with Atlanta’s oddly plural Ampersand Bikes Club, discussing how bicycles can provide strength, joy, and a way to create a protected space for Asian bike riders, even if protecting that space isn’t always easy.
A new Roanoke, Virginia traffic safety campaign urges drivers to change lanes to pass someone on a bicycle.
An LA website — no, the other LA — says riding a bike seems even smarter, now that you can buy a bicycle for the cost of a few tanks of gas.
International
Momentum Magazine writes that it should never be too late to start riding a bike.
Bike Radar offers a guide to the best titanium gravel bikes you can buy this year.
Life is cheap in Ontario, where the driver who killed a Hamilton bike rider walked without a single day behind bars, after he was sentenced to a lousy $12,500 fine and two years probation. And he can keep driving “for work purposes,” freeing him to kill again.
Apparently, Toronto’s anti-bike lane mayoral candidate is also opposed to paying for stock photos, after someone spotted the telltale signs of AI created images on his website, like streets and parks that don’t actually exist, and a women with three arms; the election is in two weeks. Thanks to Megan Lynch for the heads-up.
A new UK study shows that bikeshare really does convert non-bicyclists into more regular riders, as 60% of bikeshare users began riding after at least a year of non-riding, while 66% reported riding more often than they did before joining a bikeshare program. Read it on AOL if Bicycling blocks you.
The clock is running out on Britain’s proposed “death by dangerous cycling” law, which will struggle to get passed before the county’s next parliamentary election.
The Spectator makes up for yesterday’s criticism of Italy’s proposal to require bike helmets, licensing and registration, and liability for bike riders with an op-ed calling the country’s crackdown on bicyclists long overdue.
An Indian college student completed a 1,250-mile bike ride that touched on three international borders, to call for saying no to drugs.
Competitive Cycling
Bicycling looks at the stars of Netflix new colon-heavy show Tour de France: Unchained: Season 1, while noting that Tadej Pogačar, Primož Roglič and Geraint Thomas will be skipping the tour this year; Wout van Aert calls the show disturbing, saying it’s focused on commotion. Once again, read it on AOL if the magazine blocks you.
A writer for Defector says he got his ass kicked participating in last week’s 200-mile Unbound Gravel, calling it America’s dirtiest bike race.
New Zealand cyclist George Bennet may struggle to continue in this week’s Tour of Switzerland after finishing at the back of the peloton following a crash in stage two.
The second place finisher in the North Carolina Belgian Waffle Ride calls for a separate category for trans athletes after the women’s race was won by a trans woman, while defending the right of everyone to compete, regardless of how they identify. Meanwhile, Fox News reports tennis legend Martina Navratilova was not a fan of the result.
Finally…
Why settle for off the rack when you can configure your own ebike design? Your next flat bike pedals could be made of foam.
And a fat-tired ebike foldie for people into weird
looking bikes.
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Oh, and fuck Putin, too.
