Bike Talk

California Assembly Bill AB371 would require $1 million insurance for city bike shares, bike stores, and co-ops that rent bikes, and kill them all; with Dave Snyder, Calbike Executive Director. https://www.calbike.org/ Capitalism doesn't like bikes, and people on Twitter jump on this topic; with Chris Jones, author of a viral tweet at: https://twitter.com/PickledEntropy/status/1403018235277201408 Bicycle Transit Systems, which runs Los Angeles Metro bike share, began implementing weekly mandatory anti-union meetings to stop its members from organizing; Angelo Cucuzza, Transport Workers Union Organizing Director, on where we go from here. https://twitter.com/acuzz11228

Wesley Reutimann dives into the details of Los Angeles Metro Active Transportation funding with Katie Lemmon, Manager of Transportation Planning at Metro. Wesley is the Special Programs Director at Active San Gabriel Valley (ActiveSGV), and a special host of Bike Talk. Edited by Kevin Burton

The Eagle Rock community has pleaded for years to get a complete street option along Metro's Bus Rapid Transit line in Eagle Rock. Just as they look victorious, their brand new Los Angeles CD 14 Councilmember, Kevin De Leon (former "climate champion" with aspiration to be Mayor), has written an open letter asking for more meetings. It seems the pro-short commute crowd of Eagle Rock have his ear now that Metro's leaning to the "Beautiful Boulevard" option, which features a bike lane and slower traffic. Felicia Garcia, community organizer; Joe Linton, Streetsblog LA journalist/editor; and Seamus Garrity, not in his official role as a Field Representative for California Assemblymember Laura Friedman, analyze. Don Ward, safe streets organizer, presides. Edited by Kevin Burton. https://la.streetsblog.org/2021/05/14/kevin-de-leon-asks-metro-to-delay-eagle-rock-bus-project-wants-more-meetings/ https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2021-05-19/eagle-rock-bus-project-kevin-de-leon

Don gives Nithya Raman a couple of suggestions for "politically easy" moves to make streets in her district safe, after the Los Angeles District 4 Councilmember updates Don on her battle to address homelessness in a humane way.

Andrea Learned interviews Zip Car co-founder Robin Chase on car independence. Robin Chase is co-founder of Veniam, a network company that moves terabytes of data between vehicles and the cloud. Her recent book is Peers Inc: How People and Platforms are Inventing the Collaborative Economy and Reinventing Capitalism. She is working with cities to maximize the transformation possible with the introduction of self driving cars.

The state of bicycles in London, Ontario with its (bike) Mayor Shelley Carr. https://bycs.org/shelley-carr/

Oakland, California's DOT may rip out the city's first protected bike lane, Bike East Bay Advocacy Director Dave Campbell calmly explains. Sunset4All must crowdfund a protected bike lane design for Los Angeles' vital Sunset Blvd-- the heart of at least two neighborhoods on the High Injury Network, Terence Heuston exhorts. 'Bicycle drivers' oppose protected bike lanes due to various factors, Marven Norman reasons. Don Ward, Nick Richert, and Lindasy Sturman host. Edited by Kevin Burton. https://sf.streetsblog.org/2021/06/03/oakdot-wants-to-rip-out-protected-bike-lanes-on-telegraph/#:~:text=A%202017%20before%2Dafter%20study,installation%20of%20protected%20bike%20lanes.&text=Streetsblog%20could%20add%20many%20more,lanes%20and%20driving%20in%20them. https://www.la-bike.org/sunset4all

Marcel Steeman got enough votes for his bike-friendly city set to move on to the next stage at Lego Ideas. Will Denmark-based Lego take the idea and bike with it? Interviewed by Chris Bruntlett, Marketing and Communication Manager with the Dutch Cycling Embassy, author of "Building the Cycling City" and "Curbing Traffic."

Don Ward talks to Lynn Ingram, Jim Shanman, Krista Carlson, Brian Russel, and Karen Kanady, who had nothing to do.

Andrea Learned talks with Chelsea Sexton, who is well known for her EV background, but understands how eBike and EV owners can be bridged for the good of the climate action cause. This conversation is about messaging--how "once you try" either of these electric transportation options, you'll love them (and so be open to seeing bikes as part of your own mix). Chelsea Sexton writes articles and blog posts about electric cars and her views on obtaining mass adoption of the technology by the car industry and drivers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelsea_Sexton Sexton was also interviewed in the documentary 'Who Killed the Electric Car?' Sexton entered the automotive industry at the age of 17 after buying her first Saturn. She wanted to put herself through college by working at Saturn, but she ended up finding that she loved the cars more than what she was studying, so when General Motors announced the EV1 electric vehicle program three years later, she jumped on it.[1] Focusing on building a market for al

Los Angeles bike advocate Don Ward compares notes on an LA Metro board meeting at which he gave comment with Jessica Meaney and Aziz Fellague Ariouat of transportation policy advocacy group Investing in Place. At the momentous meeting the board voted to stop the 710 expansion project while moving forward with fareless transit and the 'Beautiful Boulevard' option for the bus rapid transit in Eagle Rock. https://twitter.com/InvestinPlace https://twitter.com/ZizaPlanning https://www.eaglerockforward.org/ https://www.destructionfornada.com/

Andrea Learned talks with Toronto-based writer Lloyd Alter about city living and the beauty of eBikes, particularly when striving to live a 1.5 degree lifestyle. https://www.treehugger.com/bikes-arent-just-transportation-they-are-climate-action-4854132 Alter has been writing for TreeHugger since 2005 on topics ranging from architecture to design, transportation, and planning. He has contributed to The Guardian, Corporate Knights Magazine, Azure Magazine, Architectural Record, and Greensource. https://twitter.com/lloydalter

Steven Mateer, Transportation Manager of Glendora, California, tells Bike Talk Cohost Lindsay Sturman how his small city embraced parklets and temporary bike lanes because of Covid, and all their businesses stayed open.

Traffic savant, cartoonist, and author Andy Singer (https://www.andysinger.com/) explains the MUTCD, 'The Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices for Streets and Highways (which) defines the standards used by road managers nationwide to install and maintain traffic control devices on all public streets, highways, bikeways, and private roads open to public travel(https://mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov/) .’ The ‘bible’ for traffic engineers, the Manual is dangerously auto-centric, and undergoing a process of revision which only happens every 10-15 years. Andy also talks about his work with the St. Paul bicycle coalition which he founded, his cartoon career, hopes for the current administration, and thoughts about the future. Then: an interview by Andrea Learned, climate action leadership strategist, with David Miller, former Mayor of Toronto, Director of International Diplomacy for C40 Cities, and author of Solved: How the World’s Great Cities Are Fixing the Climate Crisis.

Lindsay Sturman interviews Lucas Snaje, Content and Communications Manager of BYCS, on his Amsterdam-based organization's work to transform cities and the world through bikes. https://bycs.org/

Don Ward and Nick Richert talk to cohost Lindsay Sturman about the connection between bikes and everything else. https://twitter.com/LindsayJS https://twitter.com/WolfpackHustle

This is the audio of the last 12 callers in the public comment period at which the Metro Planning Committee decides whether to advance the "Beautiful Boulevard" option for Metro's Bus Rapid Transit from NOHO to Pasadena. https://www.metro.net/projects/noho-pasadena-corridor/ The Beautiful Boulevard has won the endorsement of political leaders, Eagle Rock businesses, and transit users: https://www.eaglerockforward.org/coalition In contrast to the unsatisfactory options Metro originally brought to its community outreach, the community-generated "Beautiful Boulevard" includes:

America Walks E.D. Mike McGinn and League of American Bicyclists E.D. Bill Nesper on 'a once in a decade or more opportunity--' the revising of the Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices. The MUTCD is at once an 'obscure' document and 'bible' for engineers, controlling bikeways, crosswalks, speed limits, and other road design features. The new administration and USDOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg give active transportation advocates reason to hope that the Manual will be rewritten with pedestrians and bicyclists in mind. League's MUTCD action alert - https://p2a.co/nG8UFZU Background blog on the MUTCD and the League's proposition: https://bikeleague.org/content/mutcd-reframe-safety-rewrite-future Bike-side Chat with Sec Pete - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VSBTNGDpb Mike McGinn and America Walks links: https://americawalks.org/urgent-action-alert-demand-a-better-recipe-book-for-safer-streets/ https://americawalks.org/how-the-mutcd-creates-unsafe-conditions-for-people-trying-to-access-food/ https:/

Deborah Murphy, Urban Design + Planning Principal Active Transportation Planner/Designer and Grant Coordinator, Los Angeles Walks Founder and Hilary Norton, chair of the California Transportation Commission and Executive Director of FASTLinkDTLA, a Transportation Management Organization (TMO) for Downtown Los Angeles, and veteran rida Don Ward talk about Deborah's amazing success with getting over $278 million in grant funds for active transportation, new parks/open space and sustainable cities projects in the past 13 years. Deborah and Hilary focus in particular on the record breaking $31 million ATP grant for “Connecting Canoga Park” which Deborah worked on and the CTC approved. It was the largest monetary award in the ATP’s history. https://cal.streetsblog.org/2021/02/09/active-transportation-program-cycle-5-staff-recommendations-released/ Hilary and Deborah also talk about the CTC's request for $2 billion in Active Transportation funds for bike highways. https://catc.ca.gov/-/media/ctc-media/documents

Because defending the most vulnerable road users makes everyone safer, we talk to LA Walks Executive Director John Yi and Jared Sanchez, CalBike Senior Policy Advocate, about AB 1238, the Freedom to Walk Act. If made law, this would legalize mid-block crossings and crossing against traffic lights in California. THEN, Josh Cohen, a personal injury lawyer specializing in bikes, discusses the legal options for forcing DOTs and carmakers to make transportation safer.