Bicycling

After Streetsblog reported on a cyclist being attacked on the Ballona Creek Bicycle Trail, trail users contacted me asking, "what can we do?"  In response, a Livable Streets Discussion Forum was formed and we decided the best way to make the trail safer was to increase the number of people who use it.  Thus, the first of what will hopefully be a series of "Tour de Ballona" rides was scheduled for October 25 at 11:00 A.M.  The start point is at the Culver Drive/Sawtelle Boulevard Entrance and the end point will be at the bridge that crosses into Playa del Rey.

Remember Oregon Congressman Earl Blumenauer's long-sought $20 per month tax credit for bike commuters, intended to extend a benefit to cyclists that motorists have received for decades? The measure ridiculed by North Carolina Rep. Patrick "Give Me Fossil Fuels or Give Me Death" McHenry? It didn't make it into law last year, but it seems the bike commuting credit has found its way into the latest version of the financial bailout package.

Via TreeHugger, this YouTube clip features Oakland's Trunk Boiz boasting about their scraper bikes, which sport custom-painted frames and rims to match (more photos here). The video has become an online sensation, drawing more than two million views. Tyrone Stevenson, one of the creators of the scraper bike style, is ready to capitalize, reports NPR:

An alert and obviously well-informed reader got a copy of the police report from Tuesday's fatal bike crash in Lancaster.  Some readers felt that I assumed the car driver to be at fault without knowing the facts.  The point of that article, and this one, isn't to place blame on anyone but show how the media, in it's efforts to not place any sort of blame, often makes it sound like cyclists are at fault in these sorts of collisions.

If You Were Traveling with Motororized Power, You Were Pushed to the Outer Loop

(editor's note: This story has been updated with the text of the police report here.)

Flyer from LAPD Central District Station Streetsblog can now confirm the report by Streetsblog commenter “furbat” will issue a citation to unlicensed bicycles under Los Angeles Municipal Code 26.01. While I was downtown registering both my wife’s and my own road bikes I grabbed a picture of the above flyer.  I was also able to … Continued

If all the parking spaces in downtown Los Angeles were spread across one lot, more than 80 percent of downtown would be reserved for cars. And yet, two-thirds of the county's children don't have a park within walking distance of their home.