Cyclists to ride on City Hall for Bastille Day

The Midnight Ridazz (motto: "Tighten your buns, not your budget") plan a ride today to City Hall to lobby leaders for bike safety and, if you know anything about the community, just for the sheer joy of riding.

From activist Stephen Box:

We've got a Bastillion ideas on ways to make this a GREAT city but we're gonna start with the Cyclists' Bill of Rights and we're gonna call on our City Leadership to join us in making this a GREAT City with GREAT streets! (6500 miles of roadway, all of it rideable!)

See you on the streets!

The ride starts at 11 a.m. at Santa Monica Boulevard and Vermont Avenue Red Line Station

The ride comes in the wake of the highly publicized car versus bike collision in Mandeville Canyon last week, which wound up with a cyclist in the hospital and the driver of the car facing felony charges. A town hall meeting was quickly scheduled and just as quickly canceled.

--Veronique de Turenne

Comments

[Michael Del Muro]

All of LA County needs to become bike friendly. I just started riding my bike to local places and have found that it isn't hard at all to get around to get all of my daily activities done without turning on my car.

[Bob Jones]

The Mandeville canyon incident was not against bicyclists but against what I call the spandex bullies. When I leisurely ride on the busy beach bike path on weekends, they blow by you at top speed and if you get in their way, they run you off the path. I've seen them knock children off their bikes into the sand without stopping because they all think they're blooming Lance Armstrong. On Mandeville, the bicyclists have spit on and cursed at pedestrians, homeowners and anyone in their way who's going to slow down their workout. These spandex bullies don't care about anyone but themselves and are ruining it for the rest of us who just want to go for a nice bike ride.

[matt]

i rarely ever see bikers obey traffic laws but flaunt them. they are a menace to themselves and honest drivers that try hard not to have accidents. they routinely assault motorists esp woment drivers by throwing their tantrums (spitting, punching cars etc). this city hall rally is stupid - dont these people work, or are they just trouble makers?

[Susan]

If they can do it London with those tiny little streets and rainy weather, we can do it here. After two months back from London and still haven't bought a car, I'm getting around just fine between my bike and the bus. My life has changed so much for the better since ditching the oil/blood sucking parasite that is the American car. Health is better, saving money all over the place and very happy to be out and about in my neighborhood. Going out now to buy the shopping panniers for my bike.

[Patricia P.]

Yes, let's let what the bike rider is wearing define the civil discussion of transportation issues, shall we? Or point to one rider on a bike path to determine that all cyclists don't deserve the road?

Has everyone lost their minds? In the next three years, this entire city is going to have to re-evaluate their personal transportation and bicycles are going to be our number one solution. If you don't believe it, just wait. EVERYONE will be riding their bikes soon so we'd better get used to giving them the space they deserve.

[Didi Thurau]

Last week someone threatened me in West Hollywood, out of his Jeep Renegade, to roll me over next time he catches me riding my bicycle on the sidewalk. Then he blocked the way in front of me, so I had to turn around and go the other way. And he kept screaming and screaming.

[Blue]

You have missed half the story!!!!! Do you think Sandra Tsing-Loh is there for the bicyclists?

Maybe it's because the event is organized by Ron Kaye that you're not telling the other half of the story????

[keith]

There is no excuse for what happened on Mandeville Cyn, but I have encountered many bicyclists with a chip on their shoulder believing that they and they alone own the road. I believe that aggressive enforcement as to bicycle safety on public roads and other places where these enthusiasts congregate, such as beaches and board walks, so that they do not pose a hazard to the public. PCH is another fav where bicyclists behave rudely as if they have some sort of special privilege.

[Mike]

Spandex bullies? Cyclists knocking children off of their bikes? Don't believe this generalization about cyclists. Most serious riders are concerned for their own safety and the safety of others. So are most drivers. However, each side has a rotten 5% that causes all of the bad feelings. Let us stop the negative generalizations and abuse. Both drivers and cyclists have a right to the road, and they can co-exist peacefully.

Having said that, let me say this: Put Dr. Maniac back in jail.

[tloop]

Just remember: Cyclists are part of the solution, not part of the problem. SO..
cut them some slack..

Tsloop

[KateNonymous]

Bob, there are plenty of cyclists--including on Mandeville--who don't behave that way. And even if they do, that's no excuse for hitting them with a car.

[ratcity]

Bob your life doesn't define the begining and end of good behavior. I have some spandex but I ride slow and wear shorts on top because I've got a fat ass. But on the flip side there's lots of people who ride more and longer distances that you or everyday or commute who are perfectly good folks. Most of us are in between.

And for what it's worth extremes on both sides are broken. I SLOW down when there are children about. I recognize that on Sunday there are more infrequent bikers on the trail.

But frequency of biking isn't an excuse for idiocy. I see children and adults doing all sorts of inattentive things on the bike trail and they're annoying and dangerous. In combination with your "spandex bullies" they're in particular danger but they're also a danger to conscientious riders of all speeds and temperments. A trail with bikes is not a backyard. Long before spandex was invented I was a little kid and I was taught to look both ways.

And for what it's worth I've seen spandexed buillies but I've never seen one spit on someone. Based on your dislike for serious bikers I wonder if you're not the one lollygagging down the trail and surprised and scared when someone demonstrates the insolence of going faster than you and consequently has to pass you.

[Joel Manna]

Check out youtube: These bike folks are radicals -- in some cases, anarchists and terrorists -- and so I hope the surveillance of their hangouts is stepped up.

I sent something to the LAPD Website about the ubiquitous bike bullies over here in Echo Park--and guess what, the LAPD site doesn't accept emails, or at least any emails from my various accounts. Nice job; keep up the good work.

[KateNonymous]

"Check out youtube: These bike folks are radicals -- in some cases, anarchists and terrorists -- and so I hope the surveillance of their hangouts is stepped up."

Inflammatory statements + no supporting evidence = smear tactics

[Sean]

I don't understand why people can group all cyclists as law breaking jerks. I commute on my bike 30 miles a day across the middle of Los Angeles. And it's dangerous because most drivers don't look out for bikes. Few are malicious, though I get yelled at, taunted, and laughed at (yes, laughed at, some loser in a white Porche). I commute by bike because I'm sick of traffic, enjoy riding, happy to show others it's possible, and glad (not smug) to be spewing no CO2. Unfortunately, I might give it up. I've had three accidents caused by cars as I rode down Santa Monica Blvd. in the last six months: a box truck clipped my mirror and pushed me off the road and off my bike; a car door opened into my bike destroying the bike and sending me to the emergency room; and just last week a car turned right into my path with no turn signal leaving me to type this email with painfully sprained wrists. I'd guess that most accidents between bikes and cars are caused by the cars, but I'm not screaming making claims that all the motorists are trying to kill me.