On Orange 20's blog this week, I ponder the all-too-topical question of Security and Liberty on the Ballona Creek bike path, and how you ensure the one while not compromising the other.

Meanwhile, on Flying Pigeon LA's pages, I take another look at the difficult Glendale-Hyperion bridge in A Merge Too Far, and come up with something I think would work. If we could get LADOT to consider it.

Richard Risemberg on Wed, 31 Jul 2013 08:34:31 -0800 [link]  

I enjoyed the modest pleasure of seeing tow cars pulled over by two bicycle cops today at the Corner of Beverly Boulevard and The Grove Drive. It wasn't even rush, but the traffic was heavy, and of course the motorists were very much in each others' way.

It's always that way. I've been shouted at that I was "not a car" and so didn't belong on the road—while I pedaled by a long row of cars on the way home from work while the shouter's real roadblock was, of course, other cars.

It's impossible to build enough road space to accommodate cars as transport. It just doesn't work.

Even if you razed the entire city—leaving no place to drive to—I suspect compulsive motorheads would just fill up the asphalt plain horizon to horizon—and complain just the same.

Richard Risemberg on Mon, 29 Jul 2013 18:31:20 -0800 [link]  

AT Orange 20 this week we bemoan the tactically necessary but limiting emphasis on the real financial benefits of bicycling to a city, admitting that Money talks. But Does It Listen? Because there is, after all, so much more to the good in cycling than just "bang for the buck."

Meanwhile, at Flying Pigeon LA we witness the Birth of a Network, with a single, short bike lane on Crescent Heights that we are promised has a very bright future.

Richard Risemberg on Tue, 23 Jul 2013 17:39:59 -0800 [link]  

Intersections are the most dangerous places on any road. Crashes concentrate where two roads cross, and road crossings are unavoidably the nodes that make grids work. This always afflicted cyclists harshly, but the Dutch (once again, the Dutch!) have devised a configuration that allows cyclists, pedestrians, and drivers to negotiate streetcorner confluences intuitively.

The brief video below explains it clearly in just a few minutes:



As the narrator emphasizes, the treatment explained here does not reduce intersection capacity for any mode of travel.

Thanks to Steven White of Bloomington for bringing this to our attention!

Richard Risemberg on Thu, 18 Jul 2013 21:01:51 -0800 [link]  

Here we go again, with my post on Orange 20s blog reveling in the Melrose Art Ride's success, while at Flying Pigeon LA we study The Real Econ 101, and the bicycle's place in it.

Richard Risemberg on Wed, 17 Jul 2013 09:07:00 -0800 [link]  

Here's a sweet video from David Hembrow showing how the Dutch autoluwe or "nearly car-free" streets create a quiet paradise for bicyclists, walkers, and shoppers by permitting but severely restricting motor vehicle use:



This particular video was made in Assen, which has gone to great lengths to encourage clean and convivial mobility. Looks as though they've succeeded too!

Richard Risemberg on Thu, 11 Jul 2013 08:01:45 -0800 [link]  

Flying Pigeon's entry this week covers "Neighborhood Greenways," which have been suffering a troublesome Identity Crisis in Los Angeles.

And at Orange 20, we explore bike parking progress in LA, focussing especially on the Really OK Corral—as in "bike corral."

Richard Risemberg on Wed, 10 Jul 2013 17:01:01 -0800 [link]  

Several folks who had read on this blog about the Bambina, my Bottecchia fixie which I dote upon so much, had been moderately mashed by a truck while parked on the sidewalk have asked after her, so, here is an update:

Though the downtube will carry a dent in it pretty much forever, the frame, according to Wes Oishi, is sound. We rode today with the old front wheel and a worn-out Marathon, and completed the Vélo Rétro Rose Bowl Vintage Ride—twenty-filve miles. some hills, plus some additional mileage on the way out and back—with no problems at all.

Wes will finish rebuilding the dyno hub front wheel in a week or so, and then Bambi will be back to spec. The bill will go to the owner of the truck.

As for the dent, I won't worry about it. I carry a few dents myself.

Richard Risemberg on Sun, 07 Jul 2013 19:34:39 -0800 [link]  

We have a new product online this week: an update of the classic cycling cap that we call the "Slim Cap." Sleek and close-fitting, with a carefully-refined brim, it is made of the same 100% gabardine as our famous knickers, and is available in three classic colors for now: charcoal, dark olive, or olive-brown heather.

Foldable, washable, breathable, and handsome, it fits perfectly under a helmet, or stays on no matter how brisk the breeze if you wear it on its own. And it tucks gracefully into pocket, purse, or pannier when you're at the bar or bistro, yet unfolds wrinkle-free as soon as you saddle up!

One size only, which fits Small, Medium, or Medium-large heads; sizing details on the product page:

The Bicycle Fixation Slim Cap

Richard Risemberg on Fri, 05 Jul 2013 08:34:13 -0800 [link]  

On Orange 20's blog this week I harp on Beverly hills and their first effort a bikeways—which in my view (and I was involved in the long series of meetings that led up to it), is nothing more than Half a Loaf, and Stale at That.

While on Flying Pigeon LA's blog I praise BH's Westside neighbor, Culver City, which has been Following the Way of wayfinding, and doing a pretty good job of it after a long spell of no progress at all.

Richard Risemberg on Wed, 03 Jul 2013 13:20:44 -0800 [link]  

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