A Los Angeles judge sentenced an emergency room doctor to 5 years in prison on Friday for assaulting a group of cyclists with his car on a winding road near his home in 2008.
It's good to see justice handed down in this case against Christopher Thompson, 60. The incident caught the attention of bicycle riders worldwide; more than 270 e-mailed or wrote the Los Angeles court in support of a stiff sentence.
In November, a jury convicted Thompson of mayhem, assault with a deadly weapon, battery with serious injury and reckless driving causing injury.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Superior Court Judge Scott T. Millington said he did not take the correspondence from bicyclists into account in making his sentence. The Times said the judge:
“…called the case a “wake-up call” to motorists and cyclists and urged local government to provide riders with more bike lanes. He said he believed that Thompson had shown a lack of remorse ….
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2010/01/08/la-road-rage-doctor-sentenced-to-5-years-for-assaulting-bicyclists/
If the winter weather is getting to you, this video should remind you that good bicycle traveling days are ahead.
This 6:18-minute video is a compilation of photos taken on the Bike the US for MS 2009 cross-country bike tour from Virginia to Oregon that raised $25,000 for the charity.
According to Adventure Cycling Association's Bike Bits newsletter, MS biker Bret Taylor attached a digital camera to his bicycle and set it to shoot an image every 5 miles. He strung the images together ….
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2010/01/07/transamerica-bike-tour-in-6-minutes-18-seconds/
It's good to have a friend in the federal government who sounds like he's looking out for bicyclists and pedestrians.
Granted, most federal transportation projects are road-building exercises that support our car culture. But DOT Secretary Ray LaHood appears to understand that bicycles are one of the solutions to the traffic congestion that's stifling our cities.
It's a refreshing change from his predecessor, Bush-appointee Mary Peters, who complained in 2007 that spending on bike paths and trails was taking away money from upgrading the nation's transportation infrastructure.
I just saw recently where LaHood came to the defense of bike paths that a couple of Republican senators attacked last month because they got funding in the economic stimulus package ….
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2010/01/07/a-us-transportation-secretary-who-gets-bike-paths/
Now closed to vehicular traffic, the bridge over the Missouri River will be used to connect bike path networks. http://www.cityofyankton.org/yankton/topics/2_bridges_web.pdf
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2010/01/07/meridian-bridge/
Jan. 9 update: Cyclists overrun anti-bicycling hate page
Jan. 8 update: Facebook page launched to counteract hate page (see below)
As a former newspaperman I take dim view of censorship, but this Facebook page has no redeeming value and espouses violence against bike riders.
This Australia-based Facebook page — “There's a perfectly good path right next to the road you stupid cyclist” — is a platform for rants and threats against people riding bicycles.
It may have started innocently enough by someone who had to slow down one day to share a narrow stretch of road with a bicyclist, but it has devolved into hate-mongering and harassment of cyclists fulfilling their rights to the road.
The statements do more damage than reflect poorly on the authors. They turn cyclists into objects who may be considered rightful targets by some drunken, drug-addled driver whose grip on sanity is looser than his grasp on the steering wheel ……
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2010/01/07/anti-bicycling-facebook-page-promotes-violence/
This Australia-based Facebook page — “There's a perfectly good path right next to the road you stupid cyclist” — is completely abhorrent and the comments are intended to threaten and harass bicycle riders. You can report it to Facebook and request it be taken down as it doesn't meet Terms and Conditions.
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2010/01/06/facebook-page/
He who hesitates is lost. That proverb is ringing true for some Cascade Bicycle Club members who discovered available spaces for the 2010 RSVP bike ride filled up quickly this week.
Members-only registration for the Seattle-based bicycle club's eight bike rides in 2010 opened at 9 a.m. Monday; Ride from Seattle to Vancouver BC and Party on Aug. 13-14 was booked before the end of the day.
Based on past experience, I'd expect Ride Around Washington, which visits the “forgotten corner” of northeast Washington for a week of bike touring from July 31 to Aug. 7, to sell out of spaces next. It was 75% sold out the first day. …..
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2010/01/06/seattle-to-vancouver-bike-ride-fills-up-fast-rsvp-2-offered/
The Tour Down Under is bringing a host of pro cycling luminaries to the roads of South Australia from Jan. 17 through 24. The Versus cable network will kick off its 2010 cycling coverage with daily tape-delayed updates from the race.
Cycling enthusiasts in the US must compute some “Back-to-the-Future”-style time zone calculations to keep track of the live action, however, as the 6-stage race takes place 15 1/2 hours ahead of East Coast time, and 18 1/2 hours ahead of West Coast time.
For instance, Stage 1 begins at 11 a.m. Tuesday in Clare, South Australia; that's 7:30 p.m. Monday in New York and 4:30 p.m. Monday in Seattle. Versus will televise a half-hour show from that stage at 6 p.m. Tuesday.
Crazy, eh Professor? You can find the current time in Adelaide and start times for all the races in the right sidebar on the Tour Down Under pages …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2010/01/05/2010-tour-down-under-bike-race-schedule-and-tv-coverage/
Washington State Patrol released this photo of stretch of Redmond-Fall City Road near Ames Lake Road where a oncoming minivan narrowly missed a group of cyclists. See the press release or story.
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2010/01/04/location-of-near-miss/
As it could have been reported in my hometown newspaper:
A Bellevue resident celebrated his 60th birthday with a 60.5-mile bike ride on Sunday.
“It shows what you can do if you ride regularly and have a strong stubborn streak,” said Gene Bisbee, who writes the Biking Bis blog.
An avid bicyclist, Gene said that he'd run into a streak of bad luck — all his own fault — with bicycling the past year and didn't know whether he would be able to achieve his goal of 60 on his 60th.
It all started with a fall in January 2009 caused by his improperly maintained bike. He stayed off the bike for several weeks and thought everything had cleared up until this autumn when he was again forced off the bike with severe knee pain. A physical therapist told him it was related to his hip injury ……
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2010/01/04/man-60-celebrates-birthday-with-60-mile-bike-ride/
Adventure Cycling Association Trail biking Rails to Trails Conservancy League of American Bicyclists
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