Bikeside LA

As if the problem with hit and run wasn’t bad enough, the LA Times reports that LAPD officer William J. Skett was convicted of felony hit and run: A Los Angeles police officer was convicted Thursday of leaving the scene of an accident and causing great bodily injury in a June 2008 hit-and-run in which [...]

CicLAvia is Sunday.  The organizers of the event capitalized on a setback (“if you push a negative hard enough it becomes a positive” paraphrase of Saul Alinsky) and rescheduled the event for the numerically alliterative date of 10/10/10.  Apart from the obvious conclusion that they will be forced to organize events for 11/11/11, 12/12/12, 20/20/2020 [...]

When I met with my fellow Bikesiders and we talked about crawling out of our blogger caves and facing the public voices in person, I was amazed to find the hard questions of the internet discussed directly and intelligently in the open forum: Bikeside SPEAKS!

On Tuesday, April 20, eight cyclists gathered at the Venice Neighborhood Council prepared to face the walls of questions and disagreements we had previously encountered only two weeks prior at the Venice Neighborhood Committee. However, in a surprise turn of events, all Council Members unanimously approved The Cyclists’ Bill of Rights! As each cyclists arrived, [...]

On a beautiful Monday afternoon, I found myself in Santa Monica sitting in a garage lifting wights while talking to Louis Deliz, also known as Louis Bianco, aka Birdman. A fellow Midnight Rida and Westsida, Louis is a professional bike racer and in late 2009, became the victim of a drunk driving hit and run.

This Saturday, March 6th, we’ll finalize the Backbone Bikeway Network streets, and move on to discussing methods for making those streets ultra safe and ultra convenient for cyclists.  From 2pm till 5pm the fifth Bike Working Group will convene at the Hollywood Adventist Church (around the back) at 1711 N Van Ness Blvd. Everyone is [...]

As the city, state and federal government burn money that doesn’t exist, City Councilman Bill Rosendahl & Paul Koretz are pushing LA to support an extension of the beach bike path at $15 million per mile. Cyclists’ have expressed preference for on-street facilities in the city, but the two West LA councilman, who both serve on the Budget & Finance Committee, [...]

LAPD Sergeant David Krumer and Commander David Doan sorted through massive collision data for 2008, and found that in 2008, 23% of bike involved traffic collisions are Hit & Run – 3% were misdemeanor and 20% were felony.  This was just one statistic of many in a report on bike collisions in LA in 2008.  [...]

Jeremy Grant, one of the members of the Bike Working Group Steering Committee, just released the Valley Area map for the Backbone Network. I highly recommend going over there and reading his post, because he gives some good visuals of how we put the network together, and has some interesting comments on it.  Also, because [...]

There will be some new guest bloggers around the place in the coming weeks, but if some writer comes in and says “I this, I that” without stating who they are, you probably know it’s me, Alex.  For instance, they might say “I’m running for Community Director of Mar Vista Community Council.”