Day 65 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025.
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Seriously?
A writer asks why people who are “extremely passionate about improving public transit and making the city more bike-friendly,” don’t just leave Los Angeles, when it’s too often the exact opposite.
And especially when it seems like things will never change, thanks to our risk-averse and overly car-friendly leadership.
So I’m genuinely curious—why do people who are really passionate about transit and biking stay in LA instead of moving somewhere that already supports that lifestyle? Cities like NYC, SF, Portland, or even international places like Amsterdam or Tokyo offer great transit and biking infrastructure without needing massive overhauls.
Is it optimism that LA will change? Other factors like work, family, or weather? What makes the fight worth it?
Um, maybe because we live here?
I get that it’s frustrating.
I feel like Don Quixote tilting at windmills most of the time. And Sisyphus the rest.
But Los Angeles can change. This used to be the most transit-rich city in the country, thanks to the Red and Yellow Lines. And it can be again.
The overwhelming support for Measure HLA a year ago shows the demand for safer streets that serve us all, with two-thirds of voters supporting the ballot measure.
So the problem isn’t with the city, or the people who live here.
It’s with the people in charge who refuse to listen, and only hear the angriest voices who fight progress, rather than the ones demanding it.
We don’t need to move. We just need to do something to move them.
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If you see something, say something.
An Arizona man faces charges for threatening to run over bicyclists participating in the three-day El Tour de Zona, after a city worker saw his comment on the city’s Facebook page.
Clearly, they’re taking it seriously in the wake of the Show Low massacre, when a pickup driver intentionally slammed into people participating in a master’s race — then made a U-turn and threatened to do it again, before police shot him and took him into custody.
And taking it seriously exactly what they should do.
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Mark your calendar for this November, when the cities of El Monte and South El Monte will host the five-mile Corazon Del Valle active streets event, courtesy of ActiveSGV, Metro and the San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
Boston’s mayor is engaged in an active policy of revanchism, reviewing — and possibly ripping out — bike lanes and protective barriers installed during her more bike-friendly first term, as drivers demand their right to reclaim the few feet of street space they may have lost.
Momentum looks at the Toronto business owners who are shooting themselves in the foot by suing to rip out one of the city’s most popular bike lanes, assuming that most of their customers arrive by car. Never mind that bike lanes have been repeatedly shown to create the kind of bike and pedestrian friendly neighborhoods that benefit local businesses.
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Local
Streets For All offers their Neighborhood Council endorsements for Region 11, including North Westwood, Mar Vista and Venice.
Streetsblog’s Sahra Sulaiman considers the legacy of redlining, saying the late Nipsey Hussle “understood cities better than you, so why didn’t you know who he was?” Personally, I knew of him as a community activist and business owner for some time before his murder, but had never actually heard his music.
A Culver City writer says they’re obsessed with bike commuting, and the five-to-six mile ride is the perfect way to end a working day. Except the city has already ripped out some of the bike lanes that makes it so enjoyable.
State
Congratulations to Caltrans on averaging more than one home or business demolition per mile of new freeways over a five-year period. Because really, who needs a home or a job if it stands in the way of the God-given right to sit idly in induced demand-induced congestion?
Santa Paula is using a $1.5 million county grant to build two-and-a-half mile of bike and pedestrian paths.
Calbike catches up with the ongoing fight to save the bike/ped lane on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge. Which is under threat by those poor, put-upon drivers who only want 100% of it.
San Francisco’s transportation agency unanimously approved a new bike plan designed to connect all the city’s bike lanes and put everyone in the city within a quarter mile of one. Then again, that’s what LA’s unbuilt bike plan was supposed to do after it was also unanimously approved by the city council.
Napa is reducing lanes on one of the city’s major east-west corridors to make space for buffered bike lanes and better pedestrian safety.
Sacramento’s bicycle-friendly side streets help bike riders navigate through the city.
National
Streetsblog questions why there’s so little research on the “unspoken” travel needs of the women and caregivers when it comes to mobility hubs.
Seattle ripped out a highway that blocked views of, and access to, Puget Sound, and replaced with a new fully separated bike path along the waterfront, which officially opens this weekend.
Even the state college in my bike-friendly Colorado hometown is bike-friendly, as Colorado State University is honored as one of the nation’s first Accredited Transportation Demand Management Organizations, in recognition of their “commitment to innovation, efficiency and providing advanced mobility solutions.”
Houston advocates complain that no one told them a two-way bike lane was going to be completely closed for construction. Evidently, it was on a need to know basis, and someone clearly concluded they didn’t.
Cincinnati has a new interactive bike map that shows all of the city’s bicycle infrastructure, completed and planned, including bike lanes, shared-use bike paths and protected bike lanes. Which is exactly what LA bike riders were promised years ago. And never got.
A new documentary from the Ann Arbor, Michigan public library captures the semi-official, semi-bandit mountain bike trails that make up the city’s Loop of Pain. Yes, the public library.
An Indiana newspaper solves the mystery of a missing ghost bike, which was apparently mangled by a snow plow and taken to a recycling center. On the other hand, it’s nice that people cared enough to want to know what happened to it.
Good Samaritans came to the rescue of a four-year old boy who was found riding his bike unsupervised in near-freezing temperatures, providing him with a juice box and a fur coat until police arrived. Because every kid should be wrapped in mink for a winter bike ride, right?
A 73-year old Memphis woman faces charges for a drunken hit-and-run, after she allegedly crashed into a firefighter who was just riding a bike around the firehouse.
The rich get richer, as New York defies Trump’s demand to rip out the city’s bike lanes, and widens five of them, instead — including one on 6th Avenue.
International
Oxford, England is extending a program to provide local businesses with next-day deliveries by electric cargo bike.
British bike riders complain about a new $20 million bike/ped “bridge to nowhere,” which leads to a dangerous road on one side, and a muddy quagmire on the other.
An Italian website mourns the passing of an 87-year old “giant of journalism” famous for riding his bicycle everywhere — including the time he revived a driver who doored him, then fainted after he realized who he whacked.
An Aussie writer falls in love with biking in Japan.
More young people are biking to work in Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City. Young evidently being a relative term, since the story features mostly 30-something bike commuters.
Competitive Cycling
Cyclist previews next week’s very nice Paris-Nice stage race.
Finally….
The feeling when you’re hooked on Strava, and don’t care who knows it. Did Kevin Bacon and Lawrence Fishburne really star in the worst bicycle movie of all time?
And this is who we share the road with.
A trained and licensed SUV owner attempts to carry out a basic driving manoeuvre but it goes horrifically wrong pic.twitter.com/fOL1jkSrXo
— Yeah But Cyclists (@but_cyclists) March 4, 2025
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Oh, and fuck Putin.
