The next Traffic Skills 101 course taught by League-certified Cycling Instructors (LCI’s) is scheduled for February 17 and 20. You need to register in advance. The February course will meet at CSULB Pyramid Annex, (Atherton, between Bellflower and Palo Verde).
For details and to register online, click EDUCATION at the top of the longbeachcyclists.com web page.
January 31st at 6:00 pm, join us at Portfolio Coffee House on Fourth at Junipero for an additional opportunity to discuss interesting ideas found in Jeff Mapes’ book Pedaling Revolution.
The Long Beach Cyclists Reading Group, organized by Kevin Flaherty, meets monthly to discuss books and news of interest to the local cycling community.
Click EVENTS at the top of the page, and scroll to the January 31st calendar entry to view a map pointing to Portfolio.
Click on this must-read letter. It’s from Russ Roca. Russ writes to friends and to all those who look forward to Long Beach becoming an even better city than it already is.
Charles Gandy is the City of Long Beach Mobility Coordinator. Gandy is a nationally known cycling advocate who for the next year or two has made Long Beach home while contracted to assist the City of Long Beach in its efforts to make Long Beach a better, more livable city for all.
A League Certified Instructor (LCI) leads traffic skills courses for cyclists and other road users. Several members of Long Beach Cyclists are LCIs. Long Beach offers Traffic Skills 101 at CSULB Pyramid Annex. Click EDUCATION at the top of the longbeachcyclists.com web page for more details and to find out how to sign up for an upcoming course.
Russ Roca and Laura Crawford have been on a cross-country cycling adventure called Path Less Pedaled since August of 2009. They send us updates, this time from Arizona. For several years, Russ made a living here in Long Beach as the Eco-Friendly Bicycling Photographer. Daily, Russ was seen cycling here and there around Long Beach and beyond on his cargo bike—a long bike with an enormous rack to carry lots of specialized photo equipment. Many of Russ’ photographs have been featured in the District weekly and other publications. Both Russ and Laura were active participants in Long Beach Cyclists and cycling advocacy when they lived in Long Beach.
Russ and Laura, we send you a ‘hello’ from Long Beach, California! We miss you. We wish you continued safe travels and more wonderful adventures!
BikeTalk can be heard any time by scrolling through the KPFK Pacifica Radio Audio Archives of recent, previously-aired programs and clicking BikeTalk.
Tune in Tuesday evening, December 29, 11pm, for the first live broadcast of BikeTalk on KPFK, 90.7 FM. Bike culture, politics, technology, sport and friendliness. BikeTalk has been a weekly internet show for several months already, and Tuesday evening will be its first on-air broadcast.
BikeTalk celebrates bike rides, bicycle collectives, activists, artists, commuters, enthusiasts, professional cyclists, inventors and repairers, and, of course, the bicycle itself as an alternative human-powered mode of transportation. Hosted by Nick Richert and guests, including Jim C of Orange 20 Bikes, Steve Bowers, and Jim Bledsoe and Eric Potter of Bicycle Kitchen.
The first live broadcast is Tuesday evening, December 29, 11pm. You can hear BikeTalk live every Saturday, 10am-Noon, at www.killradio.org. And you can download all nineteen previously recorded shows at www.kpfk.org. Click Programs at the top of the page, then click Audio Archives, and scroll for BikeTalk. Or click List of Programs, All Programs in the left margin to find the BikeTalk general description and contact information. Click on Program Highlights this week to see the announcement and details about the December 29th broadcast.
We’re ready for your questions and concerns, please ask!
The following interesting tidbits were published recently in the Los Angeles Times:
latimes.com/features/health/la-he-biking2-2009nov02,0,2055848.story
“Forester is the father of the “vehicular cycling” movement — a philosophy that views the bicycle as a form of transportation that belongs on the streets alongside cars.
According to Forester and others in the vehicular cycling camp, efforts to push bikes into separate lanes or bike paths reinforce the notion that bicycles don’t belong on the street and relegates them to separate and not-quite-equal status. Segregating cyclists to their own paths reinforces motorist resentment toward cyclists and may encourage drivers to view cyclists on the road as scofflaws unworthy of their courtesy, Forester says.”
and…
“Mutual respect is the key to safely coexisting in traffic, Blumenthal says. His group’s new slogan, “Bikes are on your side — we’re closer than you think,” is intended to create a common identity between motorists and cyclists.
“People on bikes aren’t out to get you or slow you down,” he says. “We also drive — and, in fact, we are you.”
Comments LB Cyclists?
From BikePortland.Org:
Responding to last month’s biking momma drive-thru debacle, Burgerville has announced that they’ll welcome people on bikes to each of their 37 drive-thrus (which are from this day forward known as cycle-thrus!).
The company also announced that they have already begun adding signs to “alert drivers and bicyclists to safety precautions for bicycle access”. Burgerville’s Chief Cultural Officer Jack Graves will also be on hand to discuss their “expanded bike policy”.
In other biking-in-drive-thru news, Portlander Brad Reber says he got refused at his bank today on liability grounds (the teller told him he “might get hit”). Will banks follow Burgerville’s lead on this issue? We hope and we’ll see.
It is true that bicycles are not vehicles, but those on them ARE drivers – the law says so.
Whilst driving a bicycle, you have all the rights and are subject to all the provisions applicable to the driver of a vehicle .
Wouldn’t not serving you be vehicle discrimination? Why not. I’m calling it.
A recently received letter from a bike commuter in Long Beach:
On Sunday morning, I got on my bicycle to ride to the Farmer’s Market. I was riding down 2nd Street in Belmont Shore – in the right lane, in lane, with traffic – a right that is provided to me by California State Vehicle Code #21202 (and which also happens to be the safest place for a cyclist to travel) – when a moron of a man in a black SUV came up behind me honking, screaming and cursing me as if I was the devil incarnate and the root of all evil in the world.
Fuming over this encounter, I began to realize that the 20 or so other cyclists around me were riding on the sidewalk, in the gutter, in the wrong direction – or just about any of the other ways you could ride that would get you killed. And, it dawned on me that it’s no wonder this moron man in the SUV didn’t understand that I was riding where I was supposed to ride – because so few other people on bicycles ride in a correct and safe manner.
What’s the answer here? Let’s start with some education programs – for drivers AND cyclists. Let’s put in bicycle facilities that illustrate that cyclists belong in the street and that don’t continue to reinforce the mistaken notion that bikes be relegated to the sidewalk and beach path. Let’s stop pissing away people’s tax dollars on one-time festivals and actually do the hard work that it takes to make Long Beach the bicycle-friendly town that city representatives claim they want to create.
Do you have an opinion on cycling you’d like to get out there?
Want everyone to know about the pothole that just keeps getting bigger?
Have a piece of gear that you just love?
Have something to say to the city about bicycling?
Want to share your ride experience?
We are looking for contributor photographers (folks that want to write stuff and take pictures of things)
If you’d like to be able to add your two-cents to this blog, send us an email!
LBCyclists (at) Gmail (dot) com
