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Los Angeles thinks you want to ride in the center of the roadway.<\/p>\n
And they\u2019re willing to bet nearly $7 million of your money they\u2019re right.<\/p>\n
Yesterday, the Los Angeles City Board of Public Works approved a $6.8 million contract<\/a> to build an extension to the popular Chandler Bikeway, with a design that places the semi, kinda but not really protected bike lanes on the left side of the road.<\/p>\n Because parking.<\/p>\n As in, they weren\u2019t willing to risk the wrath of LA\u2019s angry drivers by removing parking to create space for the bike lane on the right side.<\/p>\n Because nothing is more LA than your God-given right to free car storage right next to the curb in front of your home. Or anyone else\u2019s, for that matter.<\/p>\n But giving city leaders the benefit of the doubt, maybe they think they\u2019re going to protect us by putting bikes over there on the left, where no one would expect it. Kinda like safety in invisibility.<\/p>\n And we know how well that\u2019s worked out for us.<\/p>\n But there it shall be, henceforth and forever more running down the center of the road \u2014 not in the median like it is in Burbank, but over there on the left shoulder. With nothing but those chunky white bendable bollards that no one would ever think of running over to protect us.<\/p>\n Right next to what used to be known as the fast lane, before every lane turned into one.<\/p>\n Joe Linton shares his own thoughts about the coming new bike lane in a Bluesky thread that somehow seems only slightly less pessimistic than me.<\/p>\n So take it away, Joe.<\/p>\n Please.<\/p>\n I confess I expect this to be a crappy project. Instead of removing some parking to put protected bike lanes along the curb, cyclists will be shunted into the left lane along the median. Maybe it will work?<\/p>\n \u2014 Joe Linton (@lintonjoe.bsky.social)<\/a> 2026-01-06T17:25:53.737Z<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n At ~$7M for 3 miles, it’s also fairly expensive\u2026 per BPW staff report “scope includes remove concrete median islands; reconstruct street pavements, curb & gutter, & ramps; modify traffic signals; install concrete transit platforms”<\/p>\n \u2014 Joe Linton (@lintonjoe.bsky.social)<\/a> 2026-01-06T17:33:18.121Z<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Even with that concrete curb work underway, cyclists get only plastic protection: “Class IV bike lanes [protected bike lanes] with raised rubber defenders [basically ‘armadillos’] and K-71 bollards [soft-hit white plastic bollards]”<\/p>\n \u2014 Joe Linton (@lintonjoe.bsky.social)<\/a> 2026-01-06T17:36:16.893Z<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Center-running bikeways work in some places (ie: some Barcelona ramblas) but have failed spectacularly closer to home \u2013 see wretched results on Valencia in SF. sf.streetsblog.org\/2024\/11\/19\/s\u2026<\/p>\n \u2014 Joe Linton (@lintonjoe.bsky.social)<\/a> 2026-01-06T17:40:11.824Z<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n I expect that this Chandler project will spend a lot of money to serve few cyclists\u2026 and many folks will still bike in the outer lane. I hope I am wrong.<\/p>\n \u2014 Joe Linton (@lintonjoe.bsky.social)<\/a> 2026-01-06T17:41:24.525Z<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \u2026\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n Call it the further adventures of life in a bike-friendly city.<\/p>\n Unlike, say, here in Los Angeles, where our mayor says she\u2019s one of us, while doing everything she can to avoid implementing the city mobility plan \u2014 or complying with the Americans with Disability Act \u2014 going so far as to replace street resurfacing with something called \u201clarge asphalt repair.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n Because resurfacing the street would trigger Measure HLA\u2019s requirement to implement the mobility plan, as well as requiring ADA-compliant curb cuts.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, on the other side of the country, New York is using $700 million in congestion pricing tolls to improve transit<\/a>, while the city\u2019s new bikeshare-riding mayor demonstrated his administrations new bike-friendly direction by reversing cuts made to a major bike safety corridor<\/a> that was tainted by a bribery scandal under the previous adminstration<\/a>.<\/p>\n Now Mayor Zohran Mamdani is grabbing a shovel himself<\/a> to repair a major obstacle blocking the bike lane on the Williamsburg Bridge, infamous among the city\u2019s bicyclists as the \u201cWilliamsburg Bump.\u201d<\/p>\n Although not everyone was happy, since the bump gave them a chance to catch a little air.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n Thanks to Megan for the YouTube video.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2026\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n ActiveSGV & SGV Water Action invite you to join them on a ride to Santa Fe Dam on the 17th<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2026\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n LABikeBoy shares what it\u2019s like to live in LA without a car for a full year.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u2026\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n A 23-year old \u201clad\u201d rode more than 15,500 miles from the UK to Australia<\/a>, retracing the bikepacking tour his father took 40 years earlier, while riding the same bicycle.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u2026\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.<\/p>\n Seriously? Business owners in Cathedral City, California try to make the case that new green plastic bike lane bollards are cutting into their sales<\/a> by reducing visibility and accessibility, leading to a drop in foot traffic. Or maybe foot traffic is down because it\u2019s been raining for the last two weeks.\u00a0<\/p>\n Leaders with the UK\u2019s Bikeability training program expressed fears that hostile tabloid media coverage is scaring parents out of letting their kids ride bikes<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2026\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n Local\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n An ebike rider was lucky to escape without serious injuries<\/a> when they were right-hooked by a driver while riding in the painted bike lane on Santa Monica Blvd in West Hollywood; witnesses described the crash as a hit-and-run, but sheriff\u2019s deputies insisted the driver stuck around.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n State<\/strong><\/p>\n Police in Merced are asking for the public\u2019s help finding an 87-year old man suffering from dementia<\/a>, who was last seen riding a pink adult-sized bicycle<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n National<\/strong><\/p>\n A man in Portland was killed when he apparently hit a pothole while riding his bike<\/a>. Demonstrating once again that bad roads pose a greater risk to bike riders than they do to motorists. And a single hole in an otherwise good road surface can be even more dangerous, because bicyclists may not be expecting it.\u00a0<\/p>\n Detroit\u2019s new Gordie Howe International Bridge, named for the former NHL great<\/a>, is set to open early this year, allowing people to bike and walk between the Canada and the Motor City<\/a>, as well as drive. Look, I\u2019m not saying I\u2019m old, but I remember watching Howe skate.\u00a0<\/p>\n New York bikeshare users are calling on the city to subsidize the Citi Bike program<\/a>, after fees increased for the fifth year in a row.<\/p>\n Atlanta is about to break ground in the city\u2019s largest greenspace on what they\u2019re calling a \u201cworld-class bike park for all ages and skill levels\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n International<\/strong><\/p>\n Momentum is busy recycling old news stories as new news, making it harder to tell what\u2019s actually new and what isn\u2019t \u2014 although it\u2019s kind of a dead giveaway when a story about why cargo bikes are better than minivans for family vehicles<\/a> begins by predicting Europe \u2018will\u2019 sell half a million cargo bikes in 2022.<\/p>\n Unbelievable. For the second time in just two days<\/a>, a 13-year old boy was killed by dogs while riding a bicycle, this time in Nova Scotia, where a boy died three days after he was attacked by \u201cthree large-breed dogs\u201d<\/a> as he was riding past someone\u2019s property. Seriously, just keep your damn dogs secured, already.<\/p>\n A London bicyclist is convinced a professional thief used Strava to track his movements and trace him back to his home before stealing three high-end bikes worth the equivalent of 40 grand<\/a>.<\/p>\n A Scottish mountain biker relates his obsessive pursuit of summiting all 282 of the Munros<\/a>, the Highland peaks topping 3,000 feet in elevation named for Sir Hugh Munro, who first mapped them in 1891.<\/p>\n A Dublin professor says it\u2019s about time the city began focusing on better bike lanes<\/a> and the newly pedestrianized College Green between Trinity College and the old Irish Parliament building, arguing that bikes, buses and walking are the only solutions to worsening congestion.<\/p>\n That didn\u2019t take long. People on motorbikes are already encroaching on Ho Chi Minh City\u2019s first bike lane<\/a>, less than a week after it was opened in the city formerly known as Saigon, Vietnam.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Competitive Cycling<\/strong><\/p>\n Cyclist ranks pro cycling kits from worst to first<\/a>; needless to say, Ineos Grenadiers and their white shorts came in dead last \u2014 although Velo foresees those white shorts paired with a pink jersey, as they predict a win for the Grenadiers in the Giro<\/a>.<\/p>\n The world\u2019s most famous bike mechanic is riding off into the sunset, as the mustachioed Calvin Jones hangs up his Park Tool apron after 28 years<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Finally\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n Why buy a titanium bike when you can acquire the whole brand<\/a>? That feeling when you meet the love of your life at a bike race, and end up featured in People<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n
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