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Looking for the best bike trail in SoCal? Try Ojai

From LATimes.com

BY MATT PAWLIK

On those perfect SoCal summer weekends, I often have trouble choosing the day’s activity. A relaxing beach hangout? An epic biking adventure? A beautiful mountain hike? Or even just a walk about town? I call it “paradise paralysis,” and although the condition gets little sympathy from those in less-ideal climates, the struggle is real.

Here’s my standby for those times I want to do (and see) it all: the Ojai Valley Trail.

The incredibly scenic path runs 15 miles from the Ventura shoreline to the charming town of Ojai at the base of the Los Padres National Forest.

If you’re opting to do the 30-mile round trip, I recommend starting and ending your full-day adventure at the beachside city. There are plenty of entry points to the paved bike path, but park at the pier to begin your journey along the shimmering Pacific Ocean. Head through downtown Ventura (a great spot to explore on its own), charge up on a local breakfast burrito (try Lalo’s) and find easy access to the trail at Rex and Dubbers streets.

Paralleling California 33, the bike path gradually climbs 800 feet over 15 miles on its way to its Ojai terminus, with tons of unique sightseeing along the way, including metal mile markers with inspiring quotes to energize you at the beginning of your ride. You’ll even find Ventura Spirits, a craft distillery that is right off the path and worth a stop for tasting.

Photo by little dragon on Unsplash

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How to Get Bike Lanes in Your Town

From Cal.Streetsblog.org

By Melanie Curry

Advocates and would-be advocates from around the country tuned in yesterday to a webinar about how to build political power to get safe bicycling infrastructure in their neighborhoods.

“You already have the power,” said Carter Lavin, an advocate who developed the webinar. “You may just need to know how to apply it.” Lavin’s focus was on bike lanes and networks, but his outline of steps to build political power could apply to any problem.

“Bike lanes are an amazing piece of technology,” said Lavin. “They make biking safer and enticing to more people, and they increase accessibility of biking for more kinds of riders. From a global perspective, increasing bike riding can reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and bike lanes are key to helping people go car-free.”

A main point to remember, said Lavin, is that local governments own and maintain streets and roads, and they are the ones who make decisions about them. They follow federal guidelines, but they also follow long-established habits that tell them to make sure cars don’t get jammed up and to worry less about the convenience of people walking and the safety of bike riders.

“The default is a dangerous society dominated by cars,” Lavin told Streetsblog in a conversation expanding on his ideas.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. Decision-makers can be pushed to make streets better designed and safer – but they have to see the value in it for them.

“Politicians, like anyone, want easy and smooth lives,” said Lavin. “If it’s easier to distract you, or over explain, or tell you to shut up – and it will work- they will do that. But if it’s easier to get you to be quiet by making you happy, they’ll do that.”

A common response from local officials to requests for bike lanes and similar safety improvements is “we can’t afford it.”

“Excuse my language, but this is a bullshit excuse,” said Lavin. “We can’t afford it” means “I don’t care about it.” “Either they don’t see its potential value for themselves, or they don’t feel the pain of its absence” in the way that people outside of cars do.

“Bike lanes are cheap; there is always money,” said Lavin. “We’re talking about slivers of slivers of a municipal budget. This is not about money; it’s not even about bike lanes. It’s about priorities.”

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

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This Is How To Brake On A Road Bike

Many of us take braking for granted, but there is a real skill to it, which will help you ride faster, more safely and with more confidence. Having your brakes set up correctly and knowing how to use them properly will vastly improve your riding experience. In this video, Si explains everything you need to know about how to brake on a road bike.

 

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Reseda Boulevard complete streets project takes shape

From LA.Urbanize.city

By STEVEN SHARP

In October, the City of Los Angeles broke ground on a nearly $20-million project which will transform a 2.9-mile stretch of Reseda Boulevard through the addition of new pedestrian and bicycle safety infrastructure. With nearly two years of construction in the rear-view mirror, the latest in LADOT’s periodic e-mail updates on the makeover offers a glimpse of what has been completed to date.

According to LADOT, work on the project has to date included 100,000 square feet of sidewalk repair, 12,000 square feet of gutter repair, as well as the construction of 46 new curb ramps and 11 accessible loading zones. Likewise, new bus boarding islands have been built at 11 locations along the corridor, which will allow buses to stop without pulling over, and double as a curb to separate the adjacent bicycle lane from traffic.

The project, which will stretch between Victory Boulevard in the south and Parthenia Street in the north, will eventually include:

  • high-visibility crosswalks;
  • 11 bus boarding islands at 9 intersections;
  • protected bike lanes separated from automobile traffic by vertical bollards and concrete islands;
  • new loading zones and curb ramps;
  • new left turn arrows at 8 intersections;
  • 13 bioswales;
  • new shade trees;
  • pedestrian lighting at bus stops; and
  • a crosswalk with flashing beacons at Napa Street with a median pedestrian island.

Photo by Denise Jans on Unsplash

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Why Cities Are So Bad at Counting Bicyclists — And Why it Matters

From Streetsglog.org

By Kea Wilson

U.S. cities don’t know nearly enough about how many people are biking — and until they harness the power of big data and static counters, they could remain in the dark about how to best support some of the most vulnerable users on the road, a new study argues.

In a recent paper for the National Institute for Transportation and Communities, researchers took a close look at the shockingly nascent science of bicycle counting and how cities could do a better job of measuring where its residents ride.

Countless American cities have invested in networks of car counters, whose infamous “level of service” data transportation leaders often use to justify dubious lane expansion projects on the busiest segments of their road networks. Far fewer U.S. communities, though, have invested in comprehensive physical or digital methods of counting people on two wheels, with many relying on little more than an annual paper-and-pen bike count conducted by volunteers, if they bother to count at all. That  means that dynamic changes in ridership caused by easily fixable problems can go totally unnoticed until a resident makes a report — and even basic, critical metrics, like how likely pedestrians are to be killed in a fatal crash per miles traveled, aren’t analyzed at all.

With so little data on where (and even whether) people are riding, bike-focused infrastructure can all too easily be put on the back burner, as sky-high automobile counts bump car-focused projects to the top of the priority list.

“These estimates have been available for decades on the motorized side, but they’ve only become feasible in the last decade or so on the non-motorized side,” said Sirisha Kothuri, senior research associate at Portland State University and the lead author of the paper. “But we’ve always needed these network-wide estimates of bicycle volumes because they are really important for evaluating the safety, equity, health, and climate of our road networks.”

Photo by Dovile Ramoskaite on Unsplash

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Upgrading Your First Road Bike | GCN’s Bike Makeover Ep. 1

So you’ve gotten into cycling and you’ve been riding your entry-level bike for some time, but have started to think about taking things up a level and upgrading your bike. But just how good could you get your entry-level bike? We’ve partnered up with Shimano to find out how much better a top-spec groupset is than an entry-level one!

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Tour de France Femmes Is a Women’s Sports Triumph Long in the Making

From SI.com

By

Up against the sport’s long, male-dominated history and its masculinity-driven marquee event, the women of cycling secured the first official women’s Tour de France stage race in 33 years.

Coryn Labecki credits childhood summer nights staying up late in California watching the Tour de France on television with teaching her how to race.

“I’d watch the climbers and then the sprinters, and then the windier days, and the breakaway days … and I think that’s where I actually learned a lot about what a long stage race would be like.”

Now a professional rider for Dutch team Jumbo-Visma, Labecki was like many Americans in that way. Though countless cycling road races go on each year, most receive only a fraction of the attention and recognition of the Tour de France, which is well known worldwide. But Labecki only ever saw men as part of that prestigious peloton, because for most of the last 120 years, there were only men riding the Tour de France.

But this year will be different. On July 24, Labecki and her team will be a part of the inaugural Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift—an 8-day stage competition that kicks off in Paris, marking the first time in 33 years there will be an official women’s Tour de France stage race. After years of controversy and stalling about a women’s Tour from the Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), which organizes the Tour de France, this year’s men’s race will pass a baton of sorts. The day the men’s peloton will ride to the finish line along the Champs-Élysées, the women’s peloton will begin their race on the same road. The women will ride 1,033.6 km total (about 642.2 miles) over the eight diverse stages, ending on the climb to La Planche des Belles Filles on July 31. The prize purse is the highest in all of women’s cycling (€250,000 or about $256,108), the race will be broadcast in 170 countries and Zwift, the cycling video game platform, is on board as a title sponsor.

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Dozens of bike turnouts on Mount Diablo make summit cycling safer

From CBSNews.com

The mix of cars and bicycles on the road to Mount Diablo has long been a dangerous combination but the situation is improving thanks to the innovation of some local cyclists.

Rick Edmondson knows the dangers of cycling on Mount Diablo all too well.  In December, the Danville resident rounded a corner and collided head on with an oncoming car that was completely in his lane and Rick ended up in a ditch on the side of the road.

He was in the hospital for four days and, with two metal plates in his arm, he’s dealing with the psychological impacts of the crash.

“Every time I see a car coming the other way, it’s like, ‘Oh no!’  I can’t crash like that again,” he said.

It’s been a problem for a long time.  Cars trying to pass slow-moving bikes on blind curves swerve into the opposing lane, right into the path of other cyclists.  So, some members of a group called Mount Diablo Cyclists began pushing for a fix and, in 2014, they came up with an idea.

Photo by Tessa Rampersad on Unsplash

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Why Isn’t Lightweight Bike Tech Cool Anymore?

This week Hank and Alex are back for another (slightly chaotic) GCN Tech Show, and they’re talking about why we don’t see so much lightweight tech anymore! Also we have even more tech from Eurobike, comments of the week and the all important bike vault!

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Want to Save Americans Money at the Pump? Invest in Bikes

From PeopleForBikes.org

By: Noa Banayan, PeopleForBikes’ director of federal affairs

The Biden administration and Congress could quickly lower transportation costs for Americans by investing in bike infrastructure and e-bike purchase subsidies, as well as fight inflation by relieving Section 301 tariffs on bicycle imports.

One of the few bipartisan agreements in Congress right now is that a gas tax holiday is a false, shortsighted solution to saving Americans money at the pump. Despite this one area of agreement since President Biden first called for a gas tax holiday in June, his administration is still asking Congress to deliver.

Congress can heed President Biden’s call to save Americans’ real money at the pump by focusing on bikes, not a temporary suspension of a tax on gas. By investing in solutions that make it safe and efficient for all Americans to choose transportation options other than driving, like biking, walking and public transit, we can ensure an affordable and sustainable mobility future.

We need long-term solutions to the energy and inflation crises that we can begin implementing today. If we want stability in our transportation system and energy portfolio, we need to look beyond Band-Aid solutions. We know bikes will never eclipse cars in use, but the United States can’t afford to wait a decade or more for a fully electrified road fleet.

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Photo by Denise Jans on Unsplash

 

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