Bicycling

As cycling grows more and more popular, both in Los Angeles and across the country, the problem with bike thieves also grows.  All of a sudden, those bicycles that were safe chained to a poll with a U-Lock are easy targets for thieves instead of safe.  In response to growing theft, many cyclists end up resorting to vigilante tactics in response.  There's been a strong debate in the bicycling community on this issue, I was part of a debate on Bike Talk back in December, and it's been a hot topic on blogs and message boards for a long-time before that.

Unfortunately, it's something I've seen even the most experienced cyclist do: wipe out while crossing a set of train tracks.  As many of you know, you need to maneuver your bike's angle of approach so that you hit the rails as perpendicular as possible. But even knowing that, some demon riders don't slow enough to sashay properly, and heck: poor newbies have no idea how the road's mathematics work until it's too late!

Last Thursday, KPCC's Patt Morrison aired a piece showcasing the Backbone Bikeway Network as presented by guests Alex Thompson and Mihai Petieu. I chuckled when I saw Alex Thompson’s tweet announcing that he was appearing “opposite” guest Michelle Mowery the LADOT Sr. Bike Coordinator because I knew the exchange would get fiery and rightfully so.  Mowery has come under a lot of fire from the cycling community for not being an outright bulldog for cyclists. One gets the feeling she is afraid for her job should she get too rowdy over there at the LADOT. After eight to ten minutes of show debilitating glitches with the KPCC call in system things were finally on their way.

Since the maps for the Backbone Bikeway Network burst on to the scene last week, it seems that the discussing the maps, the Backbone, and the concepts and theories behind it is all anyone in the cycling movement wants to do.  Following up on Tuesday's story, I had the chance to speak with, or email with, many of the advocates and leaders of the bicycling movement in Los Angeles.  The near unanimous verdict?  They love it.

The Alliance for Bicycling recently set  the dates and locations for six "Winning Campaigns" trainings it plans on hosting in 2010, which include the following:

First Lady Michelle Obama took to the mikes this afternoon to kick off a national campaign to combat childhood obesity, emphasizing new initiatives to promote biking and walking alongside a strong focus on healthier food options in schools.

Last week, the LA Bike Working Group began to release parts of "L.A.'s Best Bike Plan" in the form of the Backbone Bikeway Network maps and started a new conversation about the state of bike planning in Los Angeles.  The maps, first published on three members of the steering committee's blogs, moved to LAist and then on to the mainstream media.

I was waiting to write about "L.A.'s Best Bike Plan's" Bike Backbone Network that's was slowly rolled out over the last week until all three maps were public.  In the meantime, the Los Angeles Times and KPCC have picked up on part of the story, getting some of the major details wrong.  The Bike Backbone Network was never about building a lot of new bike infrastructure, it was about declaring the streets that make up the Backbone as the main thorofares for cyclists to commute and move around town.  But much more on that tomorrow...

A new presentation on the causes and severity of bicycle crashes, available here after being hand-scanned by Enci Box, has been made available and analyzed at Westside Bikeside by Dr Alex Thompson. Amongst the results is the above chart showing that nearly one quarter of the reported bicycle crashes in the City of Los Angeles in 2008 were also "hit and runs." While this number is high, the news gets worse; these are just the ones that are reported and recorded. We've already seen that sometimes hit and run crashes involving cyclists aren't taken seriously, and other times the police report is just poorly done. However, as Thomspon notes, just getting our hands on these statistics is a step forward in the relationship between cyclists and the LAPD.