Tag Archive for who we share the roads with

Racism poses challenge for Black bike riders, Long Beach gets grant to fight racism, and who we share the road with ppl

September 4, 2020 / / One comment

A Boston public radio station says racism is often the first obstacle for Black bicyclists.

And talks with former LACBC Executive Director Tamika Butler, who has become a national leader on the subject of racism and equity.

The lack of bike lanes, bike shops, and even bike racks is noticeable in communities of color across the country. Tamika Butler, former head of the LA county Bicycling Coalition, says there is a misperception that Black and brown people don’t ride as much as white people. But a 2012 report from the League of American Bicyclists found bicycling was increasing more in communities of color than it is in white communities. The report found that between 2001 and 2009 there was a 100% increase in African-Americans biking, and a 50% increase in Hispanics as compared to a 22% increase for whites.

“So, this idea that Black and brown folk aren’t biking and that’s why there’s not infrastructure there because they’re not using it, just isn’t factually true,” Butler said in a recent panel discussion GBH hosted on racism in cycling. “It’s because they’re there, and they’re Black and brown that resources aren’t being invested there.”

It’s worth taking a few minutes to read.

Because this is the issue confronting the entire country right now. As well as our own two-wheeled part of it.

Then there’s this.

Photo by Life Matters from Pexels.

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Speaking of Tamika Butler, she will help mentor ten cities which received a $25,000 grant from NACTO — the National Association of City Transportation Officials — to use open streets to fight systemic racism, as well as Covid-19.

One of those grants will be given to Long Beach to “help non-white and low-income business owners thrive through outdoor dining, shopping or commerce.”

The other grants will go to Denver, Philadelphia, Portland, Detroit, Alexandria VA, New York City, Atlanta and Minneapolis.

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This is who we share the road with.

A New York driver dangerously plowed through Black Lives Matter protesters in Times Square; NYPD officials denied it was a police vehicle, despite speculation by protesters.

Thanks to Megan Lynch for the heads-up, who notes auto-centric New York Bill DeBlasio can’t even manage to condemn the act.

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A 12-year old Boulder, Colorado boy was allegedly attacked by a mo-ped riding woman, who struck him several times in an effort to snatch the Trump yard sign he had attached to his bike.

Seriously, I don’t care what your politics are, some things are just wrong.

Especially when it comes to kids.

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Now this is how you ride a mountain bike.

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

Residents of a British town are up in arms over temporary orange bollards marking a new protected bike lane, calling them “eyesores” amid fears they’ll become permanent. Because obviously, esthetics matter more than the lives of people on bicycles.

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Local

Bike the Vote offers advice on how to make sure your vote is counted this November.

Santa Clarita residents, who already enjoy one of the area’s best bike trail networks, like it enough that their top priority for the streets is more multi-use trails and safer routes.

Speaking of Santa Clarita, sheriff’s deputies wrote 40 tickets for traffic violations that endanger bicyclists and pedestrians during a crackdown on Wednesday, but didn’t break down just who those tickets went to.

LAist looks at the soon-to-open replacement for the Gerald Desmond Bridge, including the first bike and walking paths across the Port of Long Beach.

 

State

Authorities in San Diego are looking for the driver of a white Honda CRV who fled the scene after running down a bike rider, who suffered undisclosed back and am injuries.

Ventura police use bait bikes to bust a homeless man who is accused of stealing over 45 bicycles; not surprisingly, he had a number of outstanding warrants for petty crimes.

San Jose is introducing a “Better Bike Plan” focusing on safety and equity, and representing a significant upgrade over the current plan.

Robert Leone forwards news that Fremont plans to spend $750,000 to upgrade ten miles of bike lanes — prompting his parents to ask, “what are bollards?”

The US Bicycle Route System continues to grow, including a new 233-mile route linking Lake Tahoe to the Bay Area.

 

National

No surprise here, as a new study confirms that angled parking reduces available road space while increasing danger, particularly for people on bicycles.

Jeep’s new all-terrain ebike is finally ready to hit the streets, eight months after Bill Murray briefly introduced it during this year’s Super Bowl.

The rich get richer. Bike Portland goes for a ride on the city’s new neighborhood greenways.

Surprisingly, Reno NV is confronting many of the same problems as Los Angeles, as a local columnist lists ten things he’d do to improve the city, including improving bike lanes.

At the same time LA-area cities are shutting down their bikeshare programs, Fort Worth’s bikeshare is booming, with a 50% increase over this time last year.

We so need this here. A Chicago man has introduced a safe cycling app to help people find non-threatening routes to ride across the busy city.

A Chicago alderman continues to recover bicycles confiscated by police, seven weeks after they were seized during a July Black Lives Matter protest.

New York City’s controller apparently hopes to ride bikes to the mayor’s office by proposing 75 miles of protected bike lanes around 50 high schools.

An influential New York community board is calling for a crosstown protected bike lane on a busy Manhattan boulevard.

A Florida man faces charge for assaulting a bike cop escorting Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul in DC last week, following the conclusion of the Republican National Convention.

Some good news, anyway. The dog that was seriously injured in a South Carolina collision that killed his owner is recovering; she suffered serious head trauma, brain swelling, lacerations and a broken jaw when they were struck while riding from New York to Florida.

No irony here. A drunk Florida driver crashed his car into a sign reading “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over.” Thanks again to Robert Leone for the link.

 

International

Cycling Weekly attempts to answer the eternal question of balance bikes versus training wheels.

Nice move by the London Times, which is launching an online tool to help bike commuters find the safest routes. Maybe we can talk the LA Times into joining them. 

No surprise here. A new Norwegian study shows that ebike owners progressively use their car less.

The Turkish province of Konya has introduced a tram exclusively for bicyclists in an effort to encourage bicycle riding.

 

Competitive Cycling

Thursday’s Tour de France stage didn’t significantly shake up the standings, with the win going to a relative unknown and an American just missing the podium; Cycling Weekly offers five talking points about the stage.

Appropriately, an Irishman is wearing the green Points jersey, for the first time in 31 years.

Bicycling examines whether Tour de France cyclists are really healthy. As usual, you can read it on Yahoo if the Bicycling site blocks you.

GCN considers which cycling teams went cheap on their bikes for the Tour.

 

Finally…

That feeling when your Strava busts you for violating the curfew during the protests — but got away with it because you’re the mayor. Your next bike shorts could have patented 3D pouch technology.

And why let a little thing like a missing wheel stop you?

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

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

Driver charged in fatal El Cajon hit-and-run, who we share the roads with, and get the damn location right, already

January 30, 2020 / / Comments Off on Driver charged in fatal El Cajon hit-and-run, who we share the roads with, and get the damn location right, already

Accused killer driver Craig Wendell Nelson has been charged with the hit-and-run death of bike rider Kevin Wilson east of El Cajon last week.

Nelson faces a well-deserved four years and eight months behind bars if he’s convicted.

Police found him hiding in the bushes after abandoning his car, possibly to avoid being taken into custody for a number of probation violations for previous convictions.

Didn’t work.

But that’s just one more example of the penalty for hit-and-run not even coming close to matching the severity of the crime in this state.

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This is who we share the roads with.

A jury awarded a Calabasas woman $18 million for the hit-and-run crash that killed her mother and critically injured her as they walked in a crosswalk.

The jury also ruled there was malice in the case, considering that after running over the two women, the driver pulled the mother’s body out of the road, then backed up her pickup and parked it on a side street, pretending to police she wasn’t involved.

Note to world — whatever else you may or may not think of them, cops aren’t stupid.

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This is who we share the roads with, part 2.

A Los Angeles fire captain is under investigation for the apparent high-speed hit-and-run crash that totaled a woman’s parked car, knocking it 160 feet down the street and into a neighbor’s driveway.

He then went home and refused to respond to sheriff’s deputies, later denying he’d been drinking, despite being found passed out in the bathtub the next morning.

Instead, he told the victim the next day that he’d had to rush home after the crash because he was suffering from vomiting and diarrhea.

Sure. Let’s go with that.

Deputies couldn’t enter his home to arrest him because a hit-and-run that results in property damage is just a misdemeanor.

Even if it destroys an entire car, and gives the driver plenty of time to sober up from his, uh, diarrhea.

Just another example of how California’s lenient hit-and-run laws don’t fit the crime.

Thanks to Ted Faber for the link.

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If you’re going to use a tragic Huntington Beach bike death to promote your law firm, maybe figure out where the hell the city is, first.

Hint: It’s not in San Bernardino County.

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San Diego kicks off the second Regional Bike Summit next Thursday featuring beer, pizza, group rides and advocacy discussions; the three-day event is sponsored by the San Diego Bicycling Coalition.

The SDBC is still looking for volunteers to help out. Contact the coalition for more information.

Thanks to Robert Leone for the tip.

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The World Economic Forum offers a quick look at the world’s most exciting bicycle infrastructure projects, none of which are in Los Angeles.

https://twitter.com/wef/status/1222096980610093057

Thanks to Thomas Riebs for the heads-up.

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Local

A Hollywood Hills-based private chef describes how he and his riding partner heard the helicopter carrying Kobe Bryant and eight other people crash, and were among the first people on the scene afterwards.

Streetsblog’s Joe Linton suggests 13 fun and family-friendly bike rides you can get to using Metro transit lines. I’m going to bookmark this one myself. No, wait, I just did.

 

State

An Escondido transient with major facial tattoos is behind bars for fatally stabbing another man in a Burger King parking lot, in a dispute that allegedly was over a bicycle.

Santa Ana police are looking for a bike-riding man who shot and killed another man in a Santa Ana restaurant parking lot.

Authorities in Santa Cruz are looking for an unidentified bike rider as a person of interest in the unsolved murder of a tech millionaire last October.

Now you, too, can own a 120-year old San Francisco bike shop.

San Francisco’s iconic Market Street is now officially free from cars; the fight for a carfree Market Street dates back to 1896. Los Angeles, the ball’s in your court. 

 

National

Your next ‘bent could be a shaft-driven foldie.

Like it or not, e-scooters and other micromobility devices are here to stay.

Kindhearted police buy a new bike for a nine-year old Utah boy after learning his stolen bike was his family’s only form of transportation.

No overreaction here. Police in San Angelo, Texas shut down an entire neighborhood because a man on a bicycle refused to pull over when they tried to stop him for the crime of…wait for it…riding salmon. After finally tracking him down, police searched him and found an empty baggie with drug residue and a pipe. Which any good lawyer should be able to get tossed as an illegal search and lack of probable cause.

A pair of teenaged Detroit brothers founded a $100,000 handmade soap company in order to pay their father back for a new bike, after the older brother’s bike was stolen when he failed to lock it.

Michigan authorities recovered an $8,000 bicycle stolen from a motel room prior to last summer’s inaugural Traverse City Ironman Triathlon; a brother and sister were busted for the theft.

Call this Michigan event whatever you want, it’s not a real bike race unless the bikes actually move.

Demonstrating true zero vision, as opposed to Vision Zero, New York police continue to ticket more bicyclists than truck drivers, despite the significant difference in their respective risk to others.

A bike-riding thief burgled a Pennsylvania American Legion post.

Now that’s more like it. A New Orleans program takes cops through the city’s crowded rush hour streets on bicycles to give the officers a bicyclist’s eye view of what bike riders are up against.

Talk about not getting it. The same day Coral Gables, Florida declared a climate emergency, they shot down a proposed bike lane. Evidently, they’ve been mentored by the LA City Council.

 

International

The US isn’t the only country where bicycle and pedestrian deaths remain high, despite an overall decline in traffic fatalities. Pedestrian deaths are on the rise in the UK, as well, while bicycling fatalities have shown a modest decline even as bicycling rates have remained stagnant.

Curbed examines how European countries are offering a roadmap to a world with fewer cars.

The Dutch province of Utrecht is moving forward with the installation of a 82-foot long solar bike path; a second one will be nearly a quarter-mile long.

A new study from New Zealand says biking to work could lower your mortality risk up to 13%.

 

Competitive Cycling

Thai police are investigating the death of a promising teenage South Korean cycling champ, who was killed in a collision while training in the country on Tuesday.

Call him the two-wheeled Kobe Bryant. Peter Sagan says the only reason he’s on a bike is a desire to win.

 

Finally…

Some people can’t seem to see the bike lane for the parked cars. If you’re carrying non-legal weed and an illegal gun, don’t ride salmon, already.

And fighting for your right to keep using rim brakes since, um, now.

 

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

Morning Links: New California mountain bike org seeks funding, road raging drivers, and banning cars won’t fix it

January 7, 2020 / / Comments Off on Morning Links: New California mountain bike org seeks funding, road raging drivers, and banning cars won’t fix it

The new year brought California a much needed bouncing baby statewide mountain bike organization.

And they’re looking for your help get it off the ground.

CAMTB ANNOUNCES FOUNDER’S FUNDING ROUND

Become a CAMTB Founder

Santa Rosa, Calif. — The California Mountain Biking Coalition is announcing a Founding Donors round of funding. The pending 501(c)4 organization was formed to serve the needs of the mountain bike community andin Sacramento is inviting donors to help build the trail advocacy organization that Californians haveour sport has long needed.

Even though mountain biking was invented in California, until now, every statewide MTB nonprofit has been locally driven. It has become painfully clear, while local advocacy is important, it needs to be buttressed by a statewide voice!  Due to the unique challenges of mountain bike trail advocacy, direct action must be taken towards the state capitol, specifically in lobbying lawmakers, drafting legislation and endorsing candidacies.

Donations from our founders will be used to accomplish the following:

  • Increase the capacity of a statewide trail advocacy organization through strategic planning
  • Create awareness of the issues which limit trail access for local clubs across the state
  • Develop messaging that will foster a positive image of mountain biking to emphasize education, diversity, and healthy lifestyle choices
  • Support lobbying efforts in Sacramento
  • Build an effective and collaborative resource hub for trail advocacy best practices

Please give generously to help us accomplish our mission of, “More trails. Better trails.”

  • $50 or greater donation will receive a CAMTB sticker, a letter from the CAMTB Board and listing on Founders Wall at CAMTB.org
  • $100 or greater donation will receive the above and one CAMTB Founders Tshirt*
  • $500 or greater donation will receive the above and an invitation to the CAMTB inaugural Summit  (TBA, targeting FALL2020/WINTER2021)
  • $1000 or greater will receive the above and an invitation to the CAMTB MTB Legislative Strategy Session in Sacramento (late Feb, TBA)
  • $2500 or greater donation will receive the above and a personal visit by one or more of the CAMTB Board and/or Executive Director for a bike ride and private meal.
  • $5000 or greater donation will receive the above and an invitation to the CAMTB Board retreat (June 2019, Lake Tahoe).

Even though CAMTB is so new the paint isn’t dry, we are already making an impact. We were voted  “Trailforks Advocates of the Year” by PinkBike. The CAMTB Board of Directors is comprised exclusively of experienced, non-profit Mountain Bike Club Leaders from across the state with more than 60 years of combined advocacy experience and an Interim Executive Director who has 30 years of experience in the bike industry. In addition to your financial support, CAMTB is driven by trail & mountain bike volunteers from across the state. You are also invited to get involved. Visit our website to learn how.

Donations to CAMTB are not tax-deductible, t. They support our advocacy and lobbying efforts. CAMTB is a pending non-profit, tax-exempt, 501(c)(4) organization, EIN #84-3396574.

Check donations gladly accepted.

Payable to: CAMTB

PO BOX 1123

Santa Rosa, CA  95402

To donate online, go to: http://camtb.org/donate.

Photo by Markus Spiske temporausch.com from Pexels.

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This is who we share the roads with.

A Los Angeles man remains in a coma after he was knocked out by a road raging driver and his passengers with a single punch in Van Nuys on New Year’s Day.

Meanwhile, a road raging Milwaukee driver stopped and shot two young kids for throwing snowballs at his car; fortunately, they will both be okay.

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They get it.

The Brookings Institute says just banning cars from new developments won’t solve the problem, until we rethink cities to reduce the need for long trips.

Meanwhile, Toyota is attempting their take on it by building a prototype smart city where cars are pushed to the outskirts, unless they can drive themselves.

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This is why people keep dying on our streets.

An Ontario, Canada man loses his car and driver’s license for a whole seven days for driving the equivalent of 135 mph in a 65 mph zone.

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Tesla head honcho Elon Musk makes waves with two letters, apparently promising to add tech to prevent doorings in a future upgrade.

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

When an Austin TX woman paused at a coffee shop to adjust her bike, a visibly stoned man drank her coffee, then hurled a log at her. Confirming the famous Teddy Roosevelt quote, “Speak softly and throw a large stick.”

Unbelievable. Washington man claims self-defense for running over a bicyclist with his car — after flipping the bike rider off for “staring at him” — claiming he struck the victim before the man could assault him. Which he had no intention of doing.

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Local

Road diets work. Santa Monica reports a 71% decrease in severe injury collisions on formerly dangerous Ocean Park Blvd since implementing the improvements.

Speaking of Santa Monica, the LACBC and Santa Monica Spoke are hosting a MetroBEST beginning bike safety class in the city this weekend.

 

State

Learn more about SoCal’s WheelTales bike tours with a pair of Inland Empire meetings in the coming weeks.

Talk about burying the lede. A Sacramento TV station says police are looking for a vehicle that struck a Stockton bicyclist last week. Except he was killed, not just struck. And chances are, that vehicle probably had a driver.

 

National

Location, location, location. A new study shows that, like real estate, the success or failure of bikeshare systems depends primarily on the location of the docks; the most successful location is within four blocks of a transit station.

Now you, too, can own a rare 1903 ped-assist gas-powered bicycle, up for auction in Las Vegas later this month.

A Utah family is mourning a second loss, after someone stole the tricked out ‘bent belonging to their late father and grandfather. On the other hand, it says something that the thief broke into the garage and stole the bike, but left the car.

A Washington mountain bike maker is moving to my former Iditarod-running brother’s new western Colorado hometown. No doubt they were drawn by his expertise in sled dog racing, mountain biking and bike touring across the West. And the nearby corgi breeders, of course.

A Dallas magazine questions how the city can make its Vision Zero plan work when so many others — including Los Angeles — are failing. For one, they need to actually implement the plan, rather than resorting to wishful thinking like LA.

A Kansas City councilwoman is under fire for responding to the death of a popular bike rider by saying the city’s bicycle infrastructure plan really isn’t a priority.

Now that’s a degree you can put to use. A Minnesota state college is offering a program in bicycle design and fabrication.

As if their jobs weren’t dangerous enough, 24 New York food delivery workers have had their ebikes jacked in the last four months. That’s not counting the ones seized by police, in a city where throttle-controlled ebikes remain illegal.

Apparently, New York’s mayor doesn’t need any facts or stats to decide those ebikes are dangerous; he appears to be more than happy to settle for self-delusion common sense.

A DC app allows bike riders and pedestrians to report bad driver behavior to the proper authorities, and check to see how many infractions the driver has racked up using that car. Let’s hope that goes nationwide soon.

After Mobile, Alabama conducted a road diet on a local parkway, going from five lanes to three with bike lanes on either side, people just started driving in the bike lanes, instead.

 

International

Rouleur considers the success of collaborations between bike and car makers.

A Toronto bike lawyer could use his own services after nearly getting beaten to death by a road raging driver and his passenger last New Years, then getting hit by a driver while riding to a rehab appointment.

A UK website says riding a cargo bike is like driving an SUV, only cooler, and backs it up with a very bizarre looking Japanese entry. Unless maybe you’d rather have a $4,000, 30 mph scooter made by the owner of the LA Times.

Germany’s Canyon Bicycles was the victim of a massive cyber attack over the weekend; their North American operations were reportedly unaffected.

An Australian mountain bike maker promises to plant a tree for every bike they sell, anywhere around the world. Those trees could come in handy after the country’s devastating fires.

 

Competitive Cycling

Chris Froome denies rumors he left his team’s training camp after just two days, or that the lingering effects of the injuries he suffered at last year’s Criterium du Dauphine will keep him out of this year’s Tour de France.

The Radavist has details on this weekend’s LA Tourist Race.

 

Finally…

Who wants to be the first to trade the family SUV for a $8,800 three-wheeled, solar-powered, ped-assist e-rickshaw? If your ride isn’t on Strava, did it really happen?

And the next time you’re run down by a hit-and-run driver, maybe call the police before you walk home and take a nap.

 

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

Morning Links: Bike rider watches plane fall from sky, trade your car for an ebike, and this is who we share the roads with

January 6, 2020 / / Comments Off on Morning Links: Bike rider watches plane fall from sky, trade your car for an ebike, and this is who we share the roads with

We have a lot to catch up on today. So grab some coffee, make yourself comfortable, and lets get started. 

Image by Alexas_Fotos from Pixabay. It will make more sense when you scroll down a little.

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Lots of bike riders see car crashes.

Not many see a plane fall out of the sky right in front of them, like this Santa Clarita bike rider did Saturday.

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Californians can now trade in their old polluting cars for a new ebike or bikeshare membership.

Although something tells me my 26-year old Toyota will still be too new for them.

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This is who we share the roads with, part 1.

Six people were killed and four injured when a suspected drunk driver plowed into a group of German tourists at an Italian ski resort; the driver was allegedly nearly four times the legal alcohol limit.

The good news is it wasn’t another automotive terrorist attack. The bad news is, it will keep happening as long as there are drunks on the roads.

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This is who we share the roads with, part 2.

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What do you call a brand new $2.3 million bike lane if you can’t even use it?

I’d call it pretty useless. And a safety hazard for everyone who has to ride around it.

https://twitter.com/erik_griswold/status/1214051423538704385

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CiclaValley offers a video look at new bike lanes on Griffith Park Blvd north of Los Feliz Blvd, connecting to existing lanes south of Los Feliz.

This long-planned extension includes the stretch where popular bicyclist Jeff Jones was killed last year. Although it’s unlikely they would have made a difference in his case.

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It’s a great looking bike. But probably not the best idea to ride it, since it’s made entirely of LEGOs.

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

Palo Alto police are looking for a bike-riding strong arm robbery suspect who dragged a woman several feet as she struggled to hold onto her purse.

A 31-year old Chico man was busted for resisting arrest and multiple other charges after fleeing a cop on his bike when he tried to make a traffic stop, repeatedly punching the officer in the head, grabbing his gun and trying to swallow an entire bag of meth. But other than that, it was a pretty routine stop, right officer?

New York police are looking for the racist bike-riding asshole who yelled “Kill Jews! Fuck Jews! Murder Jews!” at a 61-year old Jewish man in Flatbush.

A 18-year old bike-riding New Jersey man is under arrest for allegedly stabbing a Deli owner to death in a confrontation over a stolen tip jar.

The FBI is looking for a bike-riding New Orleans bank robber, who should probably learn to wear a mask when he works.

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Local

Life is cheap in San Marino, where the LA District Attorney’s office once again bargained away serious charges, allowing a pair of street racing teenage drivers to walk without a single day behind bars for killing a Pasadena professor and his dog last summer. And got a lousy three month’s probation between them.

Good piece from LAist’s Ryan Fonseca on the shift away from calling car crashes accidents and using the term traffic violence instead, along with advice on how to objectively read any article about one.

Someone should turn LA Curbed’s map of the Los Angeles-area’s best surviving Victorian mansions into a guided bike ride. Or maybe two or three, since they cover a pretty wide area.

A Hermosa Beach man decided it was too stressful to sit facing the Strand bike path after watching an elderly bike rider get injured in a crash with another rider. So now he sits under the Pier Plaza clock every afternoon.

 

State

A state-ordered analysis of traffic stops shows that Driving While Black is a real phenomenon, with black drivers accounting for to 15% of all traffic stops in California, despite making up just 6% of the state’s population. I haven’t heard many similar complaints about people of color stopped for biking while black or brown; if you believe you’ve been a victim of a traffic stop because of your race, I’d like to hear from you.

A San Diego bike shop got back two of the four bikes stolen in a recent smash and grab burglary when police busted a 38-year old woman for the theft; the recovered bikes are worth over six grand.

San Diego County opened a new bike park in Bonita, the first of its kind in the county.

Ventura police busted a man who blocked a bike path and attempted to rob a grandmother riding with her three grandkids; fortunately, they were able to turn around and ride away.

A 25-year old man will face vehicular manslaughter and hit-and-run charges in the death of a Fremont man who was riding his bike to work at Facebook last August. Thanks to Ralph Durham for the heads-up; nice to see he’s still coming here, even though he does his riding in Germany these days.

A San Francisco bike rider suffered life-threatening injuries in a collision Thursday in the city’s Richmond neighborhood.

Cars can kiss San Francisco’s iconic Market Street goodbye at the end of this month, as the city converts it to a bike and pedestrian plaza on the 29th. Now maybe Los Angeles can take the hint and do something with Hollywood Blvd.

A 70-year old Petaluma man suffered “major but not life-threatening” injuries when he was rear-ended by a hit-and-run driver.

 

National

Shockingly, a writer for Jalopnik concludes that you can love cars, and still want alternatives to driving.

How to get back on a bike in your 60s or 70s.

Jeff Goldblum is one of us. At least on his new TV show.

Bike Snob wants you to try building your own wheels. I built the steel-rimmed wheels on my previous bike, and rode them for 25 years. Unlike the composite Bontrager wheels on my current LeMond, which have been replaced four times in the 15 years I’ve had it. And should be again when I get the extra money.

Proof that even sick, twisted serial killers aren’t all bad, as Ted Bundy’s step-daughter describes how he taught her to ride a bike.

A Maui letter writer says drivers are too distracted these days, so bike riders should wear cheap orange safety vests so those distracted drivers don’t kill them.

After a Texas girl’s bike was stolen, a pair of bighearted Texas cops found one that needed some work and fixed it up for her.

Homeless tents have returned to Chicago underpasses, despite a new protected bike lane that was probably intended to displace them.

New York food delivery workers used to get robbed for their cash; now bandits want their ebikes instead.

Robert Downey Jr. used to be one of us, roaming the roads of Rochester NY on a $107 Panasonic 10-speed while performing at a local theater when he was just 17.

Philadelphia will invest $18 million to build a four-mile long bike path, which will connect to two others to create an 89-mile continuous pathway.

A Baltimore bicyclist was the victim of a bizarre bike theft when he got into a dispute over paying for having his car’s windshield cleaned by a teenager with a squeegee, and another boy ran up and stole the high-end bike off his car’s rack. Another reminder to always lock your bike to the rack whenever you transport it. And register it, already. 

Heartbreaking story from Atlanta, where a very forgiving man is praying for the hit-and-run driver who ran him down as he rode his bike home after delivering gifts two days before Christmas; now he missed Christmas, his bike is totaled and he doesn’t know when he’ll be able to walk again.

As you probably know by now, popular New Orleans Saints backup quarterback Teddy Bridgewater is one of us, riding his bike to yesterday’s playoff game against the Minnesota Vikings. He should have plenty of time to ride his bike after yesterday’s game. 

Miami police are investigating the murder of a bicyclist as he waited in his car outside a local bike shop for the other riders to show up for a popular weekly ride.

 

International

Cyclist recommends five relatively affordable last-minute European bike getaways. Take a friend, and you could be the two-wheeled gentlemen of Verona. Or gentlewomen.

A London website offers what was intended as tongue-in-cheek suggestions for how not to be a dick when bicycling around the city. Needless to say, it was not taken in the same spirit.

He gets it. An English city councilor says elected leaders have to make unpopular decisions to get people out of their cars and onto bicycles. There will always be opposition to any changes to the streets, no matter how beneficial they are; elected leaders need to be willing to take the heat for doing the right things until they prove popular in the long run. Unlike, say, LA’s city leaders.

Extremely forgiving Scottish round-the world bicyclist Josh Quigley says he’s glad a Texas driver won’t face any charges after the crash that left him with a punctured lung and ten broken ribs, as well as a factored skull, pelvis and ankle.

Life is cheap in the UK, where a woman walked with the equivalent of a $302 fine — and not a single day behind bars — despite leaving an 81-year old bike rider with a life-changing brain injury.

Irish bike thieves snatched an average of 6,000 bicycles a year over the last three years, with only 11% recovered. Or as we call that in Los Angeles, Monday. Or any other day.

In Copenhagen, your last bike ride doesn’t have to be your last bike ride.

Curbed’s Alissa Walker takes a look behind to numbers to explain how Oslo, Norway got down to zero bike and pedestrian fatalities last year, and just one other traffic death.

The BBC examines Barcelona’s first carfree superblocks, where human-scaled spaces replace crowded streets streets where cars once reigned.

 

Competitive Cycling

Danish cyclist Troels Vinther calls it a career after 13 years on the pro tour due to the lingering effects of a serious concussion he suffered nine months earlier.

Australian pro cyclists are pledging their support for the nation as it battles devastating bush fires. You can do more than just offer thoughts and prayers. 

 

Finally…

Seriously, if you’re riding your bike with two outstanding warrants, put some damn lights on it. You may not be able to walk on water, but you may be able to bike on it soon.

And don’t forget to give your car its Prozac; the ongoing War on Cars seems to be taking an emotional toll on them.

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Morning Links: A little good news, new NoHo Metro Bikes but no Lankershim bike lanes, and anti-bike Redondo official

August 6, 2019 / / Comments Off on Morning Links: A little good news, new NoHo Metro Bikes but no Lankershim bike lanes, and anti-bike Redondo official

After recent events, I think we could all use a little good news to start the day.

After an Indiana woman’s bicycle, which was her only form of transportation, was stolen, a pair of kindhearted Indiana bike cops gave her an extra bicycle one of them had at home.

A Maine bike co-op allows new immigrants and low-income residents to earn a bicycle by learning how to refurbish and repair it.

Thanks to a Virginia nonprofit founded by a US Army vet, 21 special needs kids now have new adaptive bicycles to ride.

And hats off to a couple Georgia cops who spotted a 71-year old man riding his bike on a busy highway without any lights or reflectors to get something to eat. So they put his bike in a patrol car, drove him to the restaurant, then went to Walmart to buy safety gear for his bike.

Photo of bike-riding family by Brett Sayles from Pexels.

………

On the local front, the good news is Metro Bike has made its first appearance in North Hollywood.

The bad news is, we could have had a safe place to ride them if CD2 Councilmember Paul Krekorian hadn’t blocked plans for a lane reduction and parking-protected bike lanes on Lankershim Blvd.

Krekorian killed the fully funded and shovel ready plan two years ago, bizarrely claiming that the project needed more public outreach.

As if five years of meetings, workshops and pop-up bike lanes isn’t enough.

And someone should tell him we’re still waiting on the additional public outreach and those alternative Lankershim options he promised us.

Or maybe Krekorian is just waiting until he’s termed out of office and it becomes someone else’s problem.

………

Nothing like a Redondo Beach official finding a little humor in running your ass over for no apparent reason.

Except maybe people commuting, exercising, recreating or having fun just annoys the crap out of her.

That would be this Recreation & Parks Commission, in case you were wondering.

………

This is who we share the roads with.

Thanks to Erik Griswold for the heads-up.

………

The Green Bay Packers take their traditional bike ride to training camp, borrowing bicycles from little kids, who carry their helmets for them.

Unfortunately for one kid’s bike, the Houston Texans joined them.

………

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

Someone is shoving people off their bicycles on Portland OR bike paths.

………

Local

The LA Bicycle Advisory Committee will meet in Hollywood tonight; unfortunately, the posted agenda here is from December — 2018.

LA City Planning announces that LOS, which measures how many cars can move through a given point, is out, and VMT, or Vehicle Miles Traveled, is in; the latter counts people on bikes and buses, too.

Adam Conover, host of TruTV’s Adam Ruins Everything talks about living carfree in the City of Angels, and how it’s cars that actually ruin everything.

A Frogtown artist bought a small slice of the LA River to give himself a bigger voice in plans to restore it.

The last candidate forum for next week’s special election in LA’s 12th Council District will be held in Chatsworth Wednesday night. You owe it to yourself to be there if you live in CD12. Unless you’ve already decided to vote for Bike the Vote LA and LA Times-approved Loraine Lundquist, in which case you have my permission to stay home tomorrow night.

Los Angeles County puts forth a sustainability plan for a carbon-free county by 2050. Which could be about 30 years too late. Then again, the way things are going on the international front, the long-sought solution to global warming may turn out to be a nuclear winter.

 

State

Camarillo is starting work on a road widening project to add bike lanes on Pleasant Valley Road.

San Diego bike riders turn out to support plans for protected bike lanes on 30th Street; however, some in the area evidently prefer parking spaces to more customers and saving lives.

A San Jose driver complains that she right hooked a bike rider and was actually held responsible for it. And columnist Mr. Roadshow says that’s because she was. Thanks to Robert Leone for the link.

A San Francisco newspaper watches a bike lane for 30 minutes just before rush hour, and observes drivers blocking it an average of once per minute.

No bias here. A bike-riding Sausalito marketing flack says all the people in his neighborhood “resent the awful attitudes, rude demeanor and reckless actions” of roving packs of scofflaw cyclists who terrorize the city at speeds of up to 50 mph.

A popular Sacramento riverfront bike path will be shut down for a month to realign the path and repair a damaged embankment. Someone might want to point that out to officials in Los Angeles, where repairs to the LA River bike path are usually measured in years.

 

National

Bicycling recommends a more comfortable bike seat for women, who have to sit on often-painful parts men don’t.

A Washington columnist says yes, it’s legal to ride a bike on a freeway in the state, which doesn’t mean it’s a good idea.

For the second week in a row, a triathlete has been killed during a competition, this time a 68-year old man who crashed his bike in an Illinois race.

Sad news from Minnesota, where an off-duty cop was killed when he was rear-ended by a driver while riding his bicycle.

There’s a special place in hell for the hit-and-run driver who killed a nine-year old Gary, Indiana boy as he was riding his bike, then burned the car to hide the evidence.

Police and the press in upstate New York freak out over a group of around 60 kids on bicycles riding in the roadway. And by all reports, taking the lane just like they should.

A New York op-ed says the way to stop the recent rash of bicycling deaths is to do what it takes to cut the number of cars on the streets.

Bike Snob says New York Mayor and presidential candidate Bill di Blasio’s “audacious” plan to prevent bicycling deaths just isn’t enough.

The University of Virginia offers suggestions on how to stay safe while you’re riding your bike. And for a change, most of them make sense.

The bike rider killed in a collision with a pickup truck driver during a Mississippi charity ride was a respected structural engineer for the U.S. Army Engineer and Research Development Center.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution presents six of the city’s best bike trails for your next journey to the Peach State.

Surprisingly, it’s pretty easy riding in the Big Easy these days, as the city ranks  fifth in the US in bike commuting per capita, with 3% of people riding to work. Needless to say, Los Angeles didn’t the list.

 

International

Forbes‘ Carlton Reid offers advice on the easy way to teach your kid to ride a bike.

Here’s another one to add to your bike bucket list — a 400-mile network of dramatic British Columbia rail-to-trail conversions, including 18 former railroad trestles in just one 12-mile stretch.

It takes a massive asshole — and I use the term advisedly — to sell an apparently purloined UK ghost bike online. Or anywhere else, for that matter.

A British author says narrow bike lane traffic islands turn bike riders into human traffic calming islands.

 

Competitive Cycling

In a heartbreaking reminder that cycling is a dangerous sport, 22-year old Belgian pro Bjorg Lambrecht, a member of the Lotto-Soudal team, was killed yesterday while competing in the Tour of Poland.

Lambrecht reportedly fell into a concrete culvert 60 miles from the finish of Monday’s stage, and died during surgery after being resuscitated at the scene.

Race organizers cancelled the traditional post-race podiums and festive atmosphere when the news about Lambrecht broke; today’s stage remains in question.

Thanks to John McBrearty for the tip.

Finally…

Bikeshare today, furniture tomorrow. And don’t park in a bike lane, bro — especially if you’re armed and drinking.

 

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Morning Links: No, road rage is not your fault, braving sexual violence to ride a bike, and filming Tesla porn on autopilot

May 10, 2019 / / One comment

Evidently, road rage is your fault.

A British triathlete living in Mallorca, Spain, has put together a “guide to safe (and courteous) riding” to avoid pissing off drivers.

Despite being the victim of road rage herself — and holding herself blameless for the driver’s actions — she believes the rudeness of her fellow riders results in the anger too often directed our way.

Which is, to put it politely, bullshit.

Yes, we all have an obligation to safely share the road. As well as to show courtesy to our fellow human beings whenever practical, regardless of how they — or we — travel.

But to blame the victims of road rage for stirring up anger in motorists is no different than telling victims of domestic violence that they had it coming.

Nothing a woman — or a man, for that matter — does justifies violence from their romantic partner.

Period.

It’s up to each of us to control our anger, and never strike another human being, let alone those we profess to love.

If you can’t manage that, the problem is yours, and yours alone.

The same goes for road rage.

Yes, drivers may become angry because of the actions of those of us on two wheels. Justifiably or not.

But failing to control that anger, and taking it out on someone else, isn’t the fault of those it’s directed at any more than the black eye sported by a domestic violence victim is their fault.

So ride safely, and show a little courtesy.

But it’s up to all of us to keep our fucking tempers under control.

Especially the people in the big, dangerous machines that can too easily be turned into weapons.

………

Beautiful piece from a Mexican woman, who braves sexual violence and harassment to ride her bike through the Sonoran desert and learn from the indigenous peoples.

And at the same time, learn about herself.

In Mexico it’s hard, as a woman, to travel by bike; it’s a country engaged in constant violence against women. It’s hard for us not to imagine being one of the women for which the rest of us claim justice. It’s hard for us not to imagine being the one who’s photograph is next to a Ni Una Menos (Not One [Woman] Less) banner. And this feeling is reinforced by how people ask, “Are you traveling alone?” “Aren’t you afraid?” “How do you dare to do it?” and by the expressions “What a relief to know you have company!” “How brave you are!”

What we want is not to be brave — but to be free. We know these comments and questions are not directed at men who travel by bike. Men in Mexico have liberties and privileges that the patriarchal system has granted to them.

Even so, Mexican women have dared to travel by bike and use it as a tool of autonomy.

 

She ends the piece with this thought. But it’s what’s in between that makes it worth reading.

And learning from.

So, when asked constantly whether I’m afraid of traveling by bike, the answer is yes, but the things you learn, the natural and cultural history, the social relationships that result because of it; the self-discovery of the body and mind of the resisting women, make it worth it. Traveling by bike is a political act and of resistance in Mexico and the world.

Meanwhile, the Orange County Register’s David Whiting rides along with the fabled 50-mile Rosarito-Ensenada ride on it’s 40th anniversary edition.

And credits the “friendship ride” with breaking down border barriers as families from both sides find common values.

We could all use a little of that these days.

………

This is who we share the roads with.

A porn star shot her latest film while riding in a Tesla on autopilot with no one holding the wheel.

Or evidently, paying attention to anything outside it.

………

Local

Riding Metro trains and buses will be free on Bike to Work Day for anyone with a bicycle or helmet this Thursday.

Speaking of Bike to Work Day, there will be a discussion and walkthrough of the photo exhibit Los Angeles Bike Rebels: The Sequel at the Caltrans museum in DTLA on Thursday. Thanks to Velocipedus for the tip.

Apparently, it’s bad luck to try to steal a bike from a Skid Row loading dock when the workers are watching. Thanks to Keith Johnson for the heads-up.

This is who we share the roads with too. Pasadena police wrote 639 tickets for distracted driving last month, with over half of those for texting behind the wheel. If they’d just crack down like that the other 11 months of the year, our streets might actually get a little safer.

LAist looks forward to the return of 626 Golden Streets: Mission to Mission open streets event on Sunday the 19th.

Santa Monica will celebrate Bike Week with a pair of bicycle and pedestrian safety enforcement days on Monday and Thursday. Meanwhile, Santa Barbara will have one tomorrow. In both cases, police will ticket traffic infractions that put bicyclists or pedestrians at risk, regardless of who commits them. So standard 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.

A columnist for the Santa Monica Mirror accuses officials in California of having an anti-car agenda, and says drivers won’t willingly give up on their cars. Never mind that many of us already have. Or that he takes pride in promoting an unproven, snake oil cancer “cure” while accusing the government of trying to squelch it.

Long Beach gets the okay to move some palm trees lining Marina Drive to make way for a Complete Streets makeover.

 

State

A 72-year old Huntington Beach woman accuses the DMV of discrimination against older people for making drivers over 70 take a written test and eye exam every five years, saying that should be required of anyone who has a crash or gets a ticket. Sounds like a plan to me. But let’s keep testing older drivers, too.

A survey from Lime shows that San Diego residents are taking scooters instead of driving.

San Jose’s mayor shows he’s fully recovered from the injuries he suffered in a New Year’s Day bike crash by riding to work on Thursday.

The rich get richer. San Francisco’s mayor used that city’s Bike to Work Day to announce plans to add 20 miles of protected bike lanes, and start ticketing drivers who park in bike lanes. Anyone think LA’s mayor will make a similar announcement at our Bike to Work Day next week? Me neither.

They get it. A San Francisco TV station says traffic congestion is worse than ever, in part because of double-parked ride hailing-drivers, and because the city’s dangerous streets are chasing bike riders off them.

A new study shows that Uber and Lyft are responsible for two-thirds of of the increase in San Francisco traffic over the last two years. So now maybe drivers can stop blaming bike lanes, already.

A group of Google employees bike 40 miles to work on a regular basis, riding from San Francisco to Google’s office in Mountain View. Then again, you almost have to work for Google or another tech company just to afford to live in the City by the Bay.

Good question. A writer for the San Francisco Chronicle wants to know why “a man who’s minding his own business, riding his bicycle, end(s) up dead at the hands of a police officer” who says he wanted to educate him about bike safety.

A new obelisk sculpture was installed in bike-friendly Davis; naturally, it’s made of bicycle parts and children’s bikes.

Sacramento wants to copy Los Angeles, and get their paramedics on bicycles to improve response times during large events.

 

National

By the time you read this, you’ll have to pay 25% more for your bike parts. And maybe your next bike, as well.

Streetsblog says the coast-to-coat Great American Rail-Trail is really happening, providing a 3,700 mile bike route from Washington coast to Washington DC.

The Guardian’s Peter Walker visits Seattle for the first time, and calls out glaring gaps in the city’s bike network. And says if you really want to get people out of their cars, you need to make it difficult to drive.

Nice move from the family behind Walmart, as the Walton clan decides to open up their private Colorado ranch to mountain bikers.

El Paso, Texas bike riders are complaining that a bike lane is too narrow. Which isn’t too surprising since it’s half in the gutter, and so narrow the bike lane symbol barely fits without going up on the sidewalk.

A writer for Popular Mechanics was called a cheater for riding New York’s iconic Five Boro Bike Tour on an ebike.

Once again, Atlanta Complete Streets advocates will risk road rage and the enmity of everyone else on the road by slow rolling a dangerous street during the morning rush hour.

Yes, hit-and-runs have reached epidemic proportions. But somehow, shooting a Georgia driver in the stomach to keep him from fleeing seems like a bit of an overreach.

A Florida dentist says he’s always loved his bicycle.

 

International

Fast Company says ebikes are helping to keep older people young, while alleviating Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s symptoms.

Great idea. For the seventh year, Canada will host a nationwide series of Ride Don’t Hide bike rides next month to raise funds and promote mental health.

Speaking of The Guardian’s Peter Walker, he explores whether bike riders think we’re above the law — and whether it even matters. Hopefully you can get the video to play, because I couldn’t despite repeated attempts.

A British school has found the ultimate solution to bike theft on campus — just ban bikes.

 

Competitive Cycling

Sad news from Ireland, where a man was killed during a bike race when he ran into a motorcycle parked along the course.

Cycling News offers a preview of next week’s Amgen Tour of California.

The Bay Area woman who fought for, and won, equal prize money for women surfers is now alleging a civil rights violation against the Tour of California for giving women just three stages and 177 miles of racing routes, compared to seven stages and 777 miles for the men.

In a surprise move, German pro Marcel Kittel walked away from the Katusha-Alpecin team after he was left off the roster for the Tour of California, following a dispute with team officials last month.

 

Finally…

Forget avocado toast; stick one on your bike instead. One day you’re a 10-year old in elementary school, the next you’re on tour as a BMX champ.

And your next tire pump could stick to your bike like magic.

Unless your bike is aluminum.

Or carbon fiber.

Or titanium.

 

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Morning Links: LA club rider suffers life-threatening injuries, distracted driving addicts, and LACBC Bike Month calendar

May 1, 2019 / / One comment

Once again, we seem to be the bearer of bad news.

Very bad, in this case.

I’m told a Los Angeles-area man is on life support after a solo crash while on a club ride last weekend.

I was forwarded this Facebook post from his ex-wife. However, I’m withholding his name for now out of respect for his family.

As many of you know, my ex-husband was in a horrible bike accident on Saturday morning. He had ridden from the Rose Bowl to Duarte with his bike group, and while the group was riding in a parking lot at the Santa Fe Dam, he hit a parking curb at low speed and went over the bike’s handlebars. He hit the ground face first, so his helmet offered no protection. He fractured his skull, broke his neck and spine, and suffered many other injuries. Yesterday the neurologist said that he couldn’t detect any brain activity, and that there is about a 1% chance of the best case scenario at this point, persistent vegetation. The Don we knew is gone.

My heart aches for our children…Don loves them dearly and is very proud of them, as we all are. I am also sad for his loving family and friends who will miss him dearly. And I am so, so sad for Don, his suffering, and the lost opportunities and experiences he will never have…

I’m heading back to County USC with the kids this morning. Don is on a ventilator in an induced coma, and the hospital is still running diagnostic tests on him. Please send up a prayer or good thoughts for him and his loved ones. Show your family and friends how much you love them, savor the blessings you have and pay them forward. You never know what life will deal you.

 

As she says, prayers or good thoughts are in order, whatever you’re comfortable with.

And tell your loved ones how much you care now, before your next ride.

Because bicycling is usually a safe activity. But as this case reminds us, bad things can happen unexpectedly.

I’ll follow up if I learn more.

………

This is who we share the roads with.

According to the LA Times, insurance companies are tracking distracted driving and smartphone usage by drivers. And the news isn’t good.

Although that shouldn’t surprise anyone who spends much time on the streets.

The report says one out of every 12 drivers is considered to be addicted to their phones, which they define as looking at a smartphone at least a third of the time while driving. A number that’s predicted to rise to 20% of all drivers within the next three years.

Yet remarkably, one-third of the worst distracted driving offenders consider themselves extremely safe drivers.

Right up to the point they run someone else down. And then probably blame the other person.

The story says apps that remind drivers to put their phones down or track how much they use their phones while driving can cut usage by 35% to 40%.

But the only real solution will be requiring smartphone makers and carriers to block everything but navigation apps and 911 calls on the driver’s phone while the car is in motion.

And yes, that includes the text readers and in-dash internet systems car makers inexplicably insist on building into their vehicles to satisfy their phone-addicted customers — and make them more dangerous for everyone else.

………

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti’s proposal for an LA Green New Deal was criticized for it’s auto-centric focus and waiting until it’s already too late to address climate change.

Not to mention halving the commitment to build 40 miles of bike lanes a year that we were promised in the 2010 bike plan.

And since LADOT shifted to measuring distances in lane miles after the plan was adopted — in effect counting each side of the roadway as separate bike lanes — that actually works out to just 10 miles of new bike lanes per deal.

Not exactly a solid commitment to a greener, bike-friendlier future.

………

It’s May.

Which means Bike Month in Los Angeles, and most of the US.

The Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition has kindly provided a calendar of Bike Month events in the City of Angels.

Metro has a more complete Bike Month calendar here.

Sadly, the annual Bike Month wrap-up at Union Station isn’t on it, which mens it’s probably not happening this year.

………

Congressional leaders met with Donald Trump yesterday morning, and left with an agreement for a two trillion dollar infrastructure bill.

Sort of.

After the meeting, the White House waffled on the price tag, and both sides agreed to meet in three weeks to discuss how to pay for it.

And only then will discussions begin on what, exactly, the government will buy with that money — if, and only if, they actually agree on funding, which seems pretty unlikely at this point.

The good news is, along with highway and bridge repairs, airports, mass transit and high speed internet, there could be a few dollars left over for bikeways.

We hope.

………

Local

CiclaValley catches three bad drivers in the space of just two minutes.

Los Angeles has agreed to share data with Waze and other similar apps in exchange for excluding some streets from their rat run, cut through driving route recommendations.

LAist considers LA’s first two-way bike lane in context of the bikelash we’ve seen in other areas.

The mayor of Inglewood appeared to be responsible for a collision near USC that left an injured LAPD motorcycle cop as collateral damage.

Pasadena is in the final design process for its first two-way protected bike lane on Union Street. The city will hold a public meeting tomorrow evening to discuss the project.

Santa Monica will conduct a bike and pedestrian safety enforcement operation on Monday. As usual, ride to the letter of the law until you cross the city limits, so you’re not the one who gets ticketed.

Despite widespread handwringing over e-scooter injuries, statistics from Santa Monica’s pilot program shows just 89 scooter related injuries last year; 49 of those involved a collision with a motor vehicle.

 

State

San Diego’s iCan Bike camp has been helping kids with disabilities learn to ride a bike for a full decade.

About damn time. A street in San Diego’s North Park and South Park neighborhoods will lose up to 420 parking spaces to make room for bike lanes. That was my neighborhood when I lived in San Diego. So once again, somewhere I used to live finally becomes bike friendly long after I’m gone. Which means I may have to leave Los Angeles before it finally becomes the bicycling paradise it’s meant to be.

Finishing our San Diego trifecta, a World Cup mountain biker shows of the trails of his hometown.

A teenaged Vacaville robber was busted by a cop on a borrowed bike, when someone loaned the officer a bicycle to pursue the suspect through a rugged park.

Someone has been tossing nails on an Orangevale street for the past six months. And for a change, they’ve been nailing more than bike tires.

Railroad fans have filed suit against Sacramento to halt plans to remove unused rails to make room for a bike path, in hopes that they could be used for a vaporware excursion train someday.

 

National

Outside recommends the best cycling gear from their recent bike tests. I’ll take the Bontrager lights and Fizik road shoes, thank you.

Treehugger explains how to build a solar powered shed to recharge your ebike.

More proof that sidewalks aren’t the safest place to ride. A 16-year old Washington bike rider was injured when a driver decided to use a parking lot as his own personal cut-through lane to avoid stopping for a red light. But sure, tell me again how bicyclists never stop for traffic signals.

Montana police busted a pair of apparent bike thieves when they stopped a suspicious vehicle, and found a “high-value” bicycle in the back that had been reported stolen a few days earlier.

There may be a dispute over just how effective bike helmets are on the streets. But a North Dakota climate expert says put one on for tornado protection.

Tragic news from Tulsa OK, where a woman fled to Mexico before she could face charges for the death of her five-year old son, who was hit by a car after he fell off an e-scooter she was allegedly riding in a reckless manner; she didn’t even stick around for her own son’s funeral.

A Chicago boy received a new bike built for him by members of a girls soccer team, part of a program for high school students to give 100 bicycles to children of military service members.

A Minneapolis health company’s new office is designed around a bicycling theme, including bike seats and handlebars, to go along with the cycling team they sponsor.

That’s more like it. An Indiana city considers fining drivers $1,000 for dooring a bike rider.

Tragic news from Cincinnati, where a man pled guilty to accidentally shooting his own 13-year old cousin, who was caught in the crossfire of a gang dispute as he rode his bike home after helping clean a community center after school.

Pennsylvania considers allowing parking protected bike lanes on state roads; they’re already legal on city-owned streets.

We so need this in Los Angeles. A beta app allows DC road users to report dangerous drivers and look up their license plates for citations and outstanding tickets.

The Washington Post offers nine things to consider before you decide to go carfree. Including whether you live in sprawling Los Angeles.

Baltimore’s drunken, hit-and-run Episcopal bishop will be released from prison this month after serving just half of her seven-year sentence for killing a bike rider; Heather Cook was defrocked after her conviction, but her victim’s children will spend a lifetime without their father.

As long as you’re going to break into a Florida bike shop and walk out with a $3,500 mountain bike, you might as well take the change from the cash register with you.

 

International

A new self-charging, belt drive, single speed ebike promises you may never have to charge it.

Yes, it may have pedals. But that doesn’t make it a bicycle.

Victoria, British Columbia, has appointed Canada’s first bicycle mayor.

Instead of expanding the Saskatoon bike network, city leaders vote to roll it back by removing a bike lane and slowing down further implementation.

A Toronto website lists the city’s best neighborhoods for people who ride bikes.

A European website says a new bike registration system in Brussels can guarantee you’ll never have your bike stolen again. Actually, it only means your bike could be recovered if it’s stolen and someone finds it.

Clearly, beauty is no protection from dangerous drivers. The runner-up to 2017’s Miss France was killed in a collision while riding her bike with a friend, when she swerved to avoid a driver and was struck by a tractor driver pulling a load of logs.

Exploring Bern, Switzerland’s hidden gems by bike.

An elite Australian cyclist is dead, and a 21-year old woman will face charges for killing him, because she couldn’t resist texting her boyfriend seconds before running him down.

 

Competitive Cycling

Yet another bike racer has been killed in a traffic collision. Thirty-year old Australian amateur Damion Drapac was killed in a head-on collision while riding to a bike race. If the name sounds familiar, his father is the owner of the Drapac-Cannondale development team.

 

Finally…

That feeling when a dog holds more world records for riding a bike than you do. Coworking in a parking space for a pocketful of quarters.

And who needs a tent when you can tow your home behind your bike?

 

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Morning Links: Garcetti unveils LA Green New Deal, sharing the road with texting drivers, and Woon fund nears $10,000

April 30, 2019 / / Comments Off on Morning Links: Garcetti unveils LA Green New Deal, sharing the road with texting drivers, and Woon fund nears $10,000

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti unveiled his proposal for an LA Green New Deal, calling for a net zero carbon footprint for the city in just 31 years.

Sort of like that 20% drop in traffic fatalities we were promised by 2017.

So how’s that working out for you, anyway?

In addition to other proposals to fight climate change, Garcetti is calling for a zero-emission transportation network by 2050, driven — if you’ll excuse the phrase — by a major shift to buses and trains, resulting in a 45% drop in miles driven.

And yes, he does include bikes and scooters in that LA Green New Deal. Though just how much emphasis they’ll receive remains to be seen.

Which means safe riding routes will be necessary if the city is going to come anywhere near that 45% goal. Let along allow more Angelenos to go carless altogether.

As always, however, the question is whether Garcetti and LA’s other elected leaders have the political courage to make the hard choices necessary to get nearly half the city’s cars off the streets. Or to maintain those goals when new leaders come in to take their place.

Because so far, at least, saving lives hasn’t been enough to do it.

But maybe the city’s climate-conscious councilmembers, such as self-proclaimed environmentalist Paul Koretz, will finally support bike lanes if it means saving the planet.

We can dream, can’t we?

Photo by Markus Spiske from Pexels.

………

This is who we share the roads with.

Pasadena police wrote 366 tickets in just four days for texting while driving during April’s Distracted Driver Awareness Month, along with another 273 tickets for other violations.

Which means that if you think you’re surrounded by distracted drivers every time you get on your bike, you’re probably right.

………

It’s been a few days since I checked in on the crowdfunding campaign to give the impoverished infant son of fallen bicyclist Frederick “Woon” Frazier a better start in life.

So I was surprised to learn it’s now just $614 short of the $10,000 goal.

Credit Peter Flax for the jump in donations, whose story for Bicycling called attention to the tragedy of Woon’s death, and the heartbreaking impact his loss has had on those who loved him.

And led to over $8,000 in donations in less than a month.

………

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

A Tulsa, Oklahoma bike rider was shot in the leg three times by someone in a passing car.

A Peoria, Illinois truck driver threw a water bottle at a bike rider, followed by threatening him with a gun, after yelling at the bicyclist to get out of the road. Must be a rough town; a jaywalking pedestrian was threatened with a gun by another driver two days earlier.

Horrifying news from Michigan, where a hit-and-run driver dragged a bike rider under his car for more than a mile before he shook loose; the victim was hospitalized in critical condition. Seriously, what kind of walking human scum could be so cruel, uncaring and violent towards a complete stranger?

A British man drove 65 miles to deliberately slam his car into a bike rider he blamed for ruining his life — then got out of his car to hit, kick and strangle the victim as he lay in the street with gaping wounds and multiple fractures to both legs.

………

Local

More on the opening of LA’s first two-way protected bike lane on Spring Street in Downtown Los Angeles. Meanwhile, the LACBC says they’re already talking with LADOT on how to improve the new lanes.

A Los Feliz newspaper recognizes a number of local streets on LA’s Vision Zero High Injury Network; the city says it’s working to make safety improvements to some. Without, you know, actually inconveniencing drivers or anything.

 

State

A new Riverside bike commuter wonders why everyone yells at him when he rides on the sidewalk. Maybe it’s because sidewalk riding is illegal in Riverside. Or maybe just because bike riders are actually safer riding in the street under most circumstances.

Outside follows a San Francisco bike commuter on his two-hour, 35-mile mountain bike ride to and from work along some seriously technical singletrack trails.

There’s a special place in hell for the coward who drove off and left a Sacramento bike rider unconscious and bleeding in the street.

You never know when the owner of your favorite Berkeley coffee shop could turn out to be a former BMX star.

A 15-year old Carmichael boy was critically injured when a red-light running driver crashed into him as he as riding in a crosswalk with the green light. Yet somehow, the police still manage to blame him for failing to wear a helmet or reflective clothing.

A knife wielding Chico man was severely beaten by another man using an unspecified bike part. Which makes me wonder just what part he was using, and whether the rest of us could use it for self-defense against road raging drivers.

 

National

Speaking of Outside, the magazine is conducting its mountain bike testing in my brother’s new hometown.

A writer for Singletracks says all bikes are gravel bikes if that’s where you ride them.

More proof bike thieves are among the lowest forms of human life. After a Portland man was busted while burglarizing a bike shop, police discovered  he was responsible for the hit-and-run death of an 85-year old woman who was run down on her daily morning walk.

A bighearted Washington cop dipped into his own wallet to buy a boy a new bike after his was stolen and the police couldn’t recover it.

Nice story, as a Utah community gathers to celebrate the 70th birthday of a man known to everyone as Bicycle Brent, who makes a point of honking his bike’s horn and waving to the people he passes.

A San Antonio TX newspaper asks if the city can convince — or force — scooter riders to wear helmets. Short answer, no. Longer answer, no one is going to carry a helmet with them all day on the off chance that they might ride a scooter; they’ll either skip the helmet, or skip the scooter and drive instead.

An Ohio bike advocate is urging the police to take a report on all collisions involving a bicycle whether or not anyone says they’re hurt, because bike riders often don’t know they’ve been injured until the adrenaline wears off. That’s a common complaint, which is why I always advise telling police you were injured, whether or not you feel any pain.

I like it. When a Pennsylvania bike rider got tired of being harassed and run off the road, she responded by strapping a BMUFL sign on her back.

After a Texas paper’s DC bureau chief sent a tone deaf tweet calling bike and scooter riders who run red lights “adult assholes” — on the same day bike riders rallied for safer streets following the death of leading advocate Dave Salovesh — a writer responds by comparing the actual stats on how many people are injured or killed by bike riders to those injured or killed by motor vehicles. And no, there’s no comparison.

The NYPD is being sued for fining delivery riders using banned ebikes, instead of following department policy and fining the restaurant owners.

Former NY Rangers hockey star Sean Avery is one of us, calling it therapeutic to confront drivers who illegally park in bike lanes.

Baltimore bicyclists rally to keep a parking protected bike lane from getting ripped out because drivers can’t figure out how to park in it.

Horrifying news from Georgia, where a teenager fatally shot a 60-year old man just to steal his bicycle.

Four Florida bike riders were seriously injured when the wheelchair lift gate on a medical lab truck fell open, and the driver kept going without realizing he was mowing people down.

 

International

An op-ed in a Saskatoon, Saskatchewan newspaper says the bikelash to the city’s efforts to improve safety for bike riders is unwarranted and short-sighted. Pretty much like the opposition to safer and Complete Streets anywhere else.

The Beeb — as opposed to the Bieb — recounts the history of the bicycle, and explains why the future of bikes is so bright it has to wear shades.

An English soccer legend was seconds away from getting hit head-on by a red light-running driver, as he set out on a long-haul triathlon across the country.

A pregnant, cocaine-binging British mom was busted for driving on a suspended license, after she was released from a year behind bars for slamming into a bike rider while high as a dragon in Westeros.

A man in the UK has put together a Twitter thread to demonstrate just how differently bike riders and drivers are treated after killing someone. Which is an exceptionally rare thing for bicyclists; for drivers, not so much.

Brussels, Belgium is planning a protected bike lane on the auto-centric street in front of the European Union Parliament building.

Now that’s more like it. An estimated 10,000 bike riders turned out in the rain to demand safer streets in Budapest.

 

Competitive Cycling

USA Cycling has named the riders who will compete for the national team at next month’s Amgen Tour of California, which rolls in less than two weeks.

 

Finally…

When you have meth at home and your carrying drug paraphernalia on your bike, maybe riding salmon in the left lane isn’t the best idea. Nothing like installing the bollards in the wrong place on a two-way, now unprotected, bike lane.

And there could be an Android smartphone hidden inside your bike computer.

 

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

Morning Links: A bike path in the rain, Major Taylor rides again, the war on bikes, and who we share the roads with

February 4, 2019 / / 2 comments

Greetings from Los Angeles, America’s second-place city™.

The Super Bowl is over, but the rain isn’t.

So be careful out there. Light yourself up even during day rides, and ride defensively, because drivers assume no one in their right mind would ride a bike in weather like this.

And they may be right.

But when has that ever stopped us?

And let’s hope none of those drivers were inspired watching yesterday’s game, and decide to drive like the people in car ads.

My apologies to anyone who sent me links over the weekend. While I truly appreciate it, I’m afraid I lost track of some of the people who sent them. So please accept my apologies, as well as my thanks.

………

In case you wondered, this is why they close the bike path on the LA River, and other water-adjacent bike paths, when it rains.

………

Even a separated bike path isn’t safe when it rains, as this driver ended up upside down on the San Gabriel River bike path.

Thanks to Bike SGV for the heads-up.

………

The New York Times gives the legendary Major Taylor the obituary he deserved, but never got, when he died penniless in the 1930s.

Known as the Black Cyclone, he was the first African American cycling world champ, and just the second in any sport.

And like those who integrated other sports, he had to overcome hatred and prejudice, as well his opponents on the track.

He also made a brief splash in yesterday’s Super Bowl.

Unlike a certain LA team we could name.

………

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

After a New York bike rider raps on a man’s car to chastise him for parking in a bike lane, the driver gets out and threatens to shoot her in the head if she does it again.

Which is a nice, psychopathic response to a totally non-threatening gesture.

In a bizarre case, an 8-year old South Carolina boy claims a car full of men stopped next to him as he rode his bike, and the driver pulled a gun on him for no apparent reason.

A Florida man says a pickup driver forced his bicycle off the road, then attacked him with a metal pipe.

………

This is who we share the roads with.

………

Local

Streetsblog reports on meetings being held to discuss options to close the 8-mile gap in the LA River bike path through DTLA; one last meeting will be held in Cypress Park on Thursday.

Urbanize Los Angeles offers a better look at the streetscape improvements coming to Broadway and Manchester in South LA.

A Nigerian journalist offers a tourist’s eye view of the City of Angeles, including a bike tour of Venice, after an Ethiopian airline begins direct flights from Togo. Although he seems to confused Los Angeles with San Diego, size-wise.

A Long Beach police detective is in deep trouble after a pair of allegedly drunken and/or stoned crashes, including fleeing the scene after rear-ending a bike rider in Marina del Rey, followed by crashing into another driver on the 405; she was released on $100,000 bond. Thanks to John McBrearty for the heads-up.

This is why people keep dying on our streets. Police in Gardena pulled over a suspected drunk driver who was weaving across the street, with a BAC over four times the legal limit — a level so high it’s usually fatal. He was already on probation for a previous DUI, and had an interlock device on his ignition, which he somehow managed to defeat.

State

Costa Mesa officials discuss plans for a buffered bike lane and multi-use path on Merrimac Way.

San Diego lifeguards rescued a half dozen dockless bikes that had been tossed off a cliff into the ocean, spotting and retrieving them while on a training mission.

San Diego’s Planning Commission voted to eliminate parking requirements within a half mile of major transit stops.

Bakersfield police are looking for a hit-and-run driver who left a bike-riding woman with major injuries.

A San Jose columnist credits bike lanes with a drop in bike and pedestrian deaths last year, equalling the number of homicides in the city, which is not necessarily a good thing. In the same piece, a former prosecutor and defense attorney tries to excuse DUIs, saying everyone does it and drunk drivers should get off with just a diversion class. I’m not saying he’s completely full of shit, but if someone gave him an enema, he probably disappear entirely.  

The San Jose Mercury News says Complete Streets are spreading across the state. Except in Los Angeles, of course, where too many councilmembers lack the courage to stand up to NIMBYs and traffic safety deniers.

Bicycling and transit use have both dropped in San Francisco in recent years, as the overwhelming majority of people still prefer cars.

Is anyone really surprised that a pair of scooter providers have failed to live up to the promises they made to get permits to operate in San Francisco?

A man on a bike is accused of attacking and choking a Novato hiker after she tried to stop him from kicking her dog.

Horrible news from Napa, where a grandfather was beaten to death while riding on a local bike path. Meanwhile, in nearby Santa Rosa, a homeless man was beaten to death by two men who accused him of stealing a bicycle. Seriously, no bike is worth that.

Nice gesture from the Butte County Sheriff’s Office, which gave away 600 bicycles to children affected by the devastating Camp Fire.

National

No, a Peloton bike probably won’t get you the body of your dreams.

Lime is pulling their dockless bikes from St. Louis, replacing them with e-scooters.

Stephen Katz forwards a rare story of forgiveness, as the family of a bike rider killed by a dangerous bus driver on the campus of the University of Texas decides to turn the other cheek.

Oh, hell no. A proposed update to Rhode Island’s transportation budget would gut bicycle funding by shifting over $31 million into highway projects.

A New York teacher is planning to bike across the US to raise money for cancer patients, just two years after she had open-heart surgery.

International

Mazatlan, Mexico now has a docked bikeshare system, which will eventually grow to 350 bikes and 50 stations.

A self-described avid cyclist in Windsor, Ontario says there’s got to be a better way to improve bicycling without removing parking or traffic lanes for bike lanes. If he knows one, maybe he could actually make a suggestion or two.

London considers establishing an app-based bikeshare system; no, not that London. Meanwhile, a writer in the other London is looking forward to getting e-scooters on the streets trod by Nelson, Churchill and Dickens. And Jack the Ripper.

Tour de France winner Geraint Thomas offers UK readers advice on buying a bike, from ebikes and single speeds to gravel bikes and roadies. No offense, but is a pro cyslist who probably hasn’t bought his own bike in years really the best person to offer advice to casual and transportation riders?

I love a story with a happy ending. Carlton Reid tells the tale of a Brit CEO who traded his Mercedes supercar for an e-cargo bike. And lived healthier and happier ever after.

In today’s edition of two countries divided by a common language, English authorities warn people not to ride croggy. And yes, I had to click the link to learn what the hell that meant. Just like you will.

After police caught up with a British hit-and-run driver, she claimed she didn’t stop because she didn’t do anything wrong, and that the bike rider she ran down was trying to get hit. No, really, Because we all enjoy pain, especially when it’s delivered at the end of a bumper.

Great Britain’s future heir and two spares enjoy daily bike rides and dog walks, as Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis — third, fourth and fifth in line for the British crown once their father and granddad kick the bucket — enjoy a relatively normal upbringing with their self-defense and evasive driving-trained nanny.

Horrifying story from Scotland, where a driver hit an Edinburgh bicyclist with his van, talked him into getting inside to take him somewhere to get help — then dumped him in the street a few blocks away, dragging him out by his leg.

NPR considers how women are breaking the taboo against bicycling in Karachi, Pakistan.

A woman in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia is leading the way to get more women on bikes in the conservative country, with 7,000 followers on her social media account dedicated to bicycling.

A Kenyan state governor shocks everyone by riding a bicycle to work sans security detail.

Social media users are calling a South African high school student a hero for swooping in on his bicycle to rescue a schoolmate who was being attacked, and losing his phone in the process.

A Kiwi columnist says don’t waste time arguing over e-scooters, when the real danger is quad bikes. Which aren’t really bikes at all, since they have four wheels.

One of Australia’s most wanted men is taking that feeling of being invisible on a bike seriously, hiding out from the authorities on a bicycle.

Competitive Cycling

Belgium’s Sanne Cant clearly can, winning her third consecutive cyclocross world title. Although it kind of sucks when your own father costs you the title, as second-place Lucinda Brand learned the hard way.

Speaking of which, the ‘cross worlds will come to Walmart’s neck of the woods in three years, as Fayetteville, Arkansas is awarded the 2022 meet.

When a pair of Pro Continental riders found themselves unemployed after their Aqua Blue Sport team folded, they got their cycling mojo back by bikepacking across the alps.

Fat bike racing in the recent Minnesota polar vortex.

When the cycling team from India’s Rajasthan state showed up for the country’s national championships, they were forced to sleep on the floor under the velodrome.

Finally…

Repeat after me — when you’re carrying coke, weed and prescription drugs on your bike at 4:30 am, put a light on it. When you’re riding your bike with an outstanding warrant and weed in your pockets, put a damn light on it, already. Chances are you make a lousy travel companion.

And feel free to do this on the mayor’s desk if I ever get killed in a crash.

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

Morning Links: Who we share the roads with, Spring Street filming, and parking in the not-so-protected bike lane

January 31, 2019 / / 2 comments

This is who we share the roads with, part 1.

A hit-and-run driver plowed into a line of parked cars at 6th and Daisy in Long Beach, resulting in a daisy chain of crashed cars.

Or as the Long Beach Post called it, a car conga line.

But sure, tell us again about those entitled bicyclists.

Or maybe scooters.

………

This is who we share the roads with, part 2.

A Texas woman had this to say about the driver of the bus she was on after the driver fatally rear-ended a bicyclist on the University of Texas campus.

“She was drunk or she was crazy or something. She was not normal. I could feel it the whole time I was on the bus,” Mitchell said. “She was all over the place. One second she’d be 34 miles per hour, then 17 miles per hour, then 21 miles per hour. There was nothing steadfast about it.”

Not exactly the most comfortable way to get from here to there. And as usual, it was the guy on the bike who paid the price.

Thanks to Stephen Katz for the heads-up.

………

This is who we share the roads with, part 3.

A drunken Honolulu driver killed three people when he somehow drove his truck across three lanes, jumped a traffic island and hit six people, followed by crashing into a pole, then into another truck.

Three other people remain in critical condition, including the driver of the other truck.

Initial reports indicate one of the people killed was on a bicycle.

………

CiclaValley points out that the new Spring Street sort-of-but-not-really protected bike lanes don’t seem to have hurt filming, unlike the Hollywood rebellion over the previous green lanes.

Then again, it also seems to double as a parking lane.

But wait, there’s more.

Then again, I’m told that parking in the bike lane is a daily occurrence.

And so is the filming.

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BikinginLA sponsors Cohen Law Partners offer advice on how long you have to file a lawsuit after a crash — two years in most cases.

Unless the driver holds you captive.

No, really.

………

Freemont, California approved plans for a 17-mile, $1 million bike lane network to make up for their existing patchwork of disconnected lanes.

And yes, the plans include Complete Streets and lane reductions.

Although Robert Leone suggests that maybe it’s just a ploy to keep more motorists off the main streets and on the highways.

………

Local

A Los Angeles architect says little vehicles like e-scooters and bicycles can help heal car-centric cities.

Long Beach has seen an average of over one person killed in traffic collisions every week this year, including two pedestrians and two bike riders.

The LA County Sheriff’s Department received a nearly $2 million grant from the state to conduct traffic safety operations over the coming year, including DUI checkpoints and bicycle and pedestrian safety education.

State

San Diego officials suggest defunding proposed bike lanes and sidewalks in a low income urban neighborhood, and moving the money to another project — even though it scored much lower on the city’s Visio Zero network.

The two-day, 30-mile Wounded Warrior Project’s Soldier Ride across San Diego County is intended to “help military veterans wounded on battlefield begin a new path towards healing.”

A mountain biker was airlifted to a hospital after suffering serious injuries while trail riding at the Vail Lake Village Resort east of Temecula.

The faux Dutch village of Solvang put a bike lane project on hold, after discovering it was cheaper to remove parking on both sides of the street than just on one.

A San Francisco woman got her $4,000 foldie e-cargo bike back after it was stolen, thanks to Bike Index and an alert cop. One more reminder to register your bike for free before something like this happens to you.

Not bias here. A Marin newspaper says six months is plenty of time to judge if a pilot bikeway program on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge is a success. Let’s see if they say the same thing about the area’s next highway project.

Petaluma police busted a pedal-pushing burglar peeping into parked cars with drug paraphernalia and break-in tools in his pack.

Chico got a $12 million cash infusion from the state’s Active Transportation Program to build a bike bridge over a major roadway.

National

Good news. A new study shows “extreme” exercise like bicycling or running doesn’t put any extra strain on your middle-aged heart.

A writer for Bicycling wants to know if Google Sheets is trolling her with the image of four bicyclists on its homepage.

A new study of 22 cities shows that transit use drops an average of 1.27% annually when ride-hailing services enter a city; the only one not to see a drop was Seattle. It would be interesting to see if it has a corresponding effect on bicycling.

A Washington driver was sentenced to four and a half years behind bars for the hit-and-run death of a woman out for a 30-minute bike ride; her 81-year old husband found her body in a ditch when she didn’t come home.

In yet another example of our legal system keeping a dangerous driver on the road until it’s too late, a Las Vegas hit-and-run driver with a previous DUI conviction downed three-quarters of a gallon of beer before he ran down a bike rider. Then downed another three-quarters afterward because he said he was going to jail anyway.

A Montana writer says it’s dangerous to tailgate bike riders, so don’t do it. Especially in the snow. Which is not a problem LA riders are likely to face anytime soon, though rain is another matter.

Pensacola FL embraces Complete Streets after a previous effort was torpedoed by city leaders.

West Palm Beach, Florida officials credit the city’s Vision Zero program for a more than 20% drop in crashes involving bike riders and pedestrians over the past year. Even though they didn’t adopt it until the last five months of the year.

A hate crime lawsuit was filed against the white Miami driver who threatened a group of black teenage bike riders with a gun while yelling racist epithets. Couldn’t happen to a more deserving guy.

International

Toronto votes to make a set of separated bike lanes permanent after they reduced crashes involving bicyclists by a whopping 73% during the pilot period. More proof that bike lanes work, despite what the traffic safety deniers claim.

There’s a lot of good people out there. A British woman wants to thank the strangers who rushed to her aid after she skidded on some oil and flew off her bike.

Not surprisingly, a UK used car magazine’s campaign to give free reflective wear to vulnerable road users got a lot of blowback on social media, even though the company says they had a great response from the bicycling community.

Twenty more bicyclists have come forward claiming they had “inexplicable” crashes at a single intersection on an English roadway, bringing the total to 28 people who say they were injured falling off their bikes at the same location.

No size shaming here. An Irish rugby player says when he sees someone who weighs 280 pounds riding a bicycle, he wonders “What’s the point?” The point is a) they’re improving their health, b) they may be going somewhere, and c) they’re enjoying themselves. So get over it, already.

A Norwegian startup has developed a rechargeable, bendable GPS tracker that can be wrapped under your handlebar tape to help fight bike theft.

A one-armed Indian bicyclist rode nearly 1,000 miles from Delhi to Mumbai in just 15 days. No word on whether anyone lent him a hand.

An Aussie newspaper says motorists are wrong when they criticize bike riders for breaking the rules — like the man who drove on a bike path to swear at two bicyclist who were riding in the road, not doing a damn thing wrong.

A bicyclist says the barriers blocking an Australian bike path are just a load of bollards.

Hurry, and you might be able to score one of two remaining handmade ti bikes inspired by the ancient Chinese imperial court in the Forbidden City, for just under $6,000; the other seven have already been given to foreign dignitaries as national gifts. Or you could just ask your favorite dignitary to give you theirs.

Finally…

Evidently, the fifth time is not the charm. If you’re trying to ride away from an angry owner after stealing his bike, watch out for cross traffic.

And now you can ride My Boo.

As long as you’re willing to move to the UK first.

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