"They just keep going. They don’t care about anyone.... They’re all French. The French mentality is that even if something is banned, you still do it and it doesn’t matter."

Said Chantal, 73, from the French city Nancy, quoted in "Why Parisians have declared war on reckless cyclists/Efforts to turn the French capital into a two-wheeled paradise are running into opposition from those who think riders are a 'symbol of aggression'" (London Times).

Closer to home, the London Times also has this, about bikes in Britain: "My day on the super e-bikes fuelling the phone-snatching epidemic/Small, speedy and silent, electric off-roaders are the criminals’ vehicle of choice and helping power an urban crime wave."

At the Ice Bike Café...

... you can talk all night.

You have to look closely to see the 2 cyclists out on the lake ice. This isn't a sunrise picture. It was a bit too cold for us again. This is Lake Mendota at 2 in the afternoon.

"[Bike lanes] are often installed not to satisfy the barely measurable trickle of residents who pedal to work..."

"... but mainly to make car traffic worse enough that people will be discouraged from driving.... The city has built about 20 miles of bike lanes in the past five years, but despite that, the portion of D.C. residents who bike to work peaked in 2017 and has decreased each year since, falling from 5 percent to 3 percent.... Rodney Foxworth, a longtime civic activist who now leads an anti-bike lane group, says the city 'has a bias in favor of bike lanes no matter whether residents or businesses want them, and a lot of these lanes are being installed in Black, low-income communities. There is a nexus between bike lanes and gentrification.'... Adding bike lanes 'is meeting a relatively small demand' from cyclists in an older, largely African American area, [VJ Kapur, an advisory neighborhood commissioner,] concedes, 'but we are working to make the roadway safer. We are not scheming to induce developers to displace folks from the neighborhood. Change is occurring. Bike lanes potentially yield a visceral reaction because they are alien, visible implements going into a neighborhood that has looked very much the same for a long time.'"

From "The truth about bike lanes: They’re not about the bikes/D.C. is building miles of bike lanes, though fewer people are biking to work" (WaPo). That's an opinion column by Marc Fisher. 

Can I get an opinion from Pete Buttigieg? I remember this from back in 2022: "Pete Buttigieg launches $1B pilot to build racial equity in America's roads." He was inviting us to lean toward the interpretation that there is systemic racism in the design of road projects, so shouldn't we presume Rodney Foxworth is right about the motivation behind the installation of bike lanes?

"Sorry UCI for having damaged the image of sport. But I am willing to pay 200 (francs) every day and relive this moment."

Said Julien Bernard, quoted in "Tour de France cyclist fined for kissing wife and son, says penalty was worthwhile for 'dream moment'" (The Athletic).

For stopping his ride to kiss his family, Bernard was slapped with a fine of 200 Swiss francs ($223) by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) for what the governing body deemed “unseemly or inappropriate behavior during the race and damage to the image of sport.”

Rules are rules. 

Amazing scenes for Julien Bernard with incredible fan support and stopping with his family during the time trial.#TDF2024 📺: Peacock pic.twitter.com/FjIhSOWtjx

— NBC Sports Cycling (@NBCSCycling) July 5, 2024

"Cycling when it's raining and cold doesn't always make you want to cycle, so I said to myself why not put a roof on the bike and, as we thought about it, we arrived at this concept."

Says the inventor of the Karbike, quoted in "Meet the Karbike: not just an e-bike, but not quite a car/And the French see a role for it in the mobility landscape" (autoblog). 

Does this belong in the bike lane? It's what you want in the bike lane if you're driving a car and in the car lane if you're riding a bike.

I like the video because the music is so inappropriate.

Too much of a bad thing.

I'm reading "Headwind Cycling Race Called Off Over Too Much Wind Storm/Ciarán, which has battered Western Europe this week, proved too much for a quirky Dutch cycling competition" (NYT).

Even in a country where cycling is one of the most popular modes of transportation, many might wonder why anyone would submit themselves to cycling through such treacherous weather conditions. “I wonder that myself sometimes,” Mr. Stoekenbroek said. “There’s a group of people that likes to suffer.”

The country is the Netherlands. 

"What I have found is that, as a woman, if you stand in front of your bike and look clueless, a man will come and fix it for you."

"On one hand, I feel bad that I’m playing into sexist tropes, but on the other hand, if you want to change my flat tire for me, I’m going to let you."

Says Jennifer Weiner, quoted in "For Jennifer Weiner, biking is a coping mechanism — and a plot point/On a Saturday in D.C., Weiner shows how committed she is to one of her favorite pastimes while talking about her new book, ‘The Breakaway’" (WaPo).

That might — must? — be intended to represent a greater generality. I'll put some effort into creating the generality, and I'm intentionally intersecting with the recent debate about what it means to "be" a woman/man or to "feel" like a woman/man. 

Men are the people who see when someone needs help and stop and help/Women are the people who trust that when they need help, help will arrive.

Or maybe: Men are the people who donate work to women who don't even ask for help and may not really need it/Women are the people who trust in their power to capture the labor of men.

"In its marketing materials, Sur-ron describes one model, the Light Bee Electric Bike, as 'easy to maneuver like a bicycle, with the torque and power of an off-road motorcycle.'"

"Its operating manual cautions the owner to 'please follow the traffic rules and with the safe speed (the top speed for this electric vehicle is 20 km/h).' But the speed restraint — equivalent to about 12 m.p.h. — can be removed by simply clipping a wire, a procedure that is widely shared in online videos, and which law enforcement officials said appeared to be there by design. 'There are all kinds of videos on how to jailbreak your Sur-ron,' said Capt. Christopher McDonald of the Sheriff’s Department in Orange County, Calif., where e-bike accidents and injuries are rising. With the speed wire clipped, the vehicle can approach 70 miles per hour, he said."

From "‘A Dangerous Combination’: Teenagers’ Accidents Expose E-Bike Risks/The e-bike iniadustry is booming, but many vehicles are not legal for teenagers, and accidents are on the rise" (NYT).

This article — which focuses on the harm to the teenagers who ride e-bikes — has no comments section and no mention of the danger to pedestrians.

"Ann! I saw video of naked bike riders down by the State Capitol bldg. True?"

Writes Dave Begley in last night's open thread. Of course, it's true. And thanks for asking. You caused me to go back into my archive to find the time I was at the Capitol, wandering around something called the "Silent Majority Walk" when the Naked Bike Ride suddenly whizzed by. That was in 2011, the year of the Wisconsin protests.

It's a long video, so I provided time stamps. Excerpt:

4:38 — "That's brand new. I'm shocked as shit," says a black man, laughing. I ask him some questions about why he's shocked [by the Silent Majority Walk] and try to find out if he might perhaps actually be a Walker supporter himself. 

5:54 — We hear a hubbub and I realize "These are the naked bike riders!" They ride by chanting "Less gas, more ass." I continue my discussion with the shocked-as-shit guy, who declares "That's America! That's America! That's the freedom!"

 

What a great memory! I like that I spontaneously brought up the questions people are still asking about the Naked Bike ride today: 1. What if children saw nakedness? 2. Do these people have a special privilege to be naked because they're in an organized, expressive demonstration? and 3. Is it a white thing?

If you manage to stay tuned to 8:18, you'll hear me ask the man at the Madison Objectivists table how Ayn Rand would react to the Naked Bike Ride. He thought she'd disapprove and that she was "old school" about "sexuality." Oh, yeah? That's not what I heard. Anyway, I don't think nudity is sexuality. 

"In New York, lithium battery fires have killed 13 people so far this year, including four people in a blaze that started in an e-bike store in Chinatown on Tuesday."

"A total of 23 people have died in battery fires since 2021. This year, there have been 108 fires so far, compared with 98 fires for the same period last year.... [O]nce a lithium battery overheats or malfunctions, all bets are off; the speed and impact of lithium battery fires make them particularly perilous, especially when people live close together.... Fire officials... revised the city fire code... But the fire code does not cover the individual use of e-bikes, and fire inspectors do not enter private dwellings to check for safety violations without a warrant...."

From "How E-Bike Battery Fires Became a Deadly Crisis in New York City/City leaders are racing to regulate battery-powered mobility devices, which have been the source of over 100 fires so far this year" (NYT).

Can kids bike to school on urban streets if they form a "slow-moving peloton" that achieves "kidical mass"?

That's the idea, described in "Make Way for the Bike Bus/For the school commute, families are taking to the streets with two wheels. Some have termed the movement 'kidical mass'" (NYT).

Bike bus participants hope that its growing popularity will convince local leaders to do more on issues like speeding and congestion. “We want to show people that you can’t have safe streets for kids unless you literally have people guiding the way,” said Chris Roberti, a father who helps organize the ride to P.S. 110.

Ice-cycle.

 

This morning, at dawn.

"I know this may sound radical, but we all agree that theft is not OK...People are trying to connect our work to a pro-cop or anti-cop agenda... Most of us just want to get people’s bikes back."

Said Bryce Turner, 27, a member of a Facebook group that tracks down stolen bikes in Burlington, Vermont, where the police force was reduced by 30% after a ballot measure influenced by the George Floyd incident.

Turner is quoted in "The Bike Thieves of Burlington, Vermont/A hunt for stolen goods has put citizens and business owners in the center of a debate about policing and a growing, sometimes violent, problem with crime" (NYT).

"[T]he incident once again highlighted the increasing man-animal conflict in India."

Economic Times reports on this viral video:

On Dehradun-Rishikesh Highway....
Both are lucky ☺️☺️ pic.twitter.com/NNyE4ssP19

— Susanta Nanda IFS (@susantananda3) September 21, 2022

For Saturday, take a journey through 12 TikToks, arranged meaningfully... or so some people think.

1. Maybe you'll say "I remember the old pole."

2. London women who don't like American women are not too likable themselves.

3. How you would love it if your candidate were this loved.

4. A vertiginous ride.

5. A vertiginous walk.

6. The workhouse museum.

7. The meaning of life in eating your toast.

8. The butter board?!

9. Oh, Wisconsin!

10. When Anne Bancroft met Mel Brooks.

11. Saving a seal.

12. A dog carps about the stuck traffic.

"A Dane County cyclist is warning others to be alert after finding booby traps set on a popular commuter path on Madison’s Southwest Side."

"Gregg Goldstein of Verona was crossing the bridge shortly before 5 a.m. Friday when he was clotheslined. He remembers seeing his headlight reflect off something a split second before he hit the ground at about 15 mph. 'It’s pitch black,' he said. 'You see something and a millisecond later you’re picking yourself up off the pavement... I feel lucky that’s all it was. My head is still attached.'"

Wisconsin State Journal reports.

"I like this about as much as I like electric mountain bikes. Which is to say not at all. Some spectacular things should be earned."

"These metal abominations scar beautiful places in the natural world. Go to an amusement park or IMAX theater for your manufactured thrills."

Says the top-rated comment on "Coming Soon to an American Cliff Near You: ‘Via Ferrata’ Routes/Long popular in Europe, the beginner-friendly climbing routes are being installed on peaks and in gorges across the United States. Here are six to try now" (NYT). 

Another commenter responded: "I'm not a fan of electric mountain bikes, scraping undeveloped nature for human activity or a tram that could whisk you the bottom of Grand Canyon. I don't object to a via ferrata at a responsibly-developed, sustainability-focused resort like Taos Ski Valley, which was already a year-round destination popular with climbers, mountain bikers and hikers."

I found this video of the longest via ferrata in Switzerland: 

What is a "trail"?

There's a proposal to build permanent 2-way bike paths in the Youghiogheny River canyon in Maryland, WaPo reports.

There's a 1968 state law declaring the Youghiogheny a wild and scenic river and state "regulations require that its 'primitive' natural state remain intact and 'inaccessible except by trail.'"

What is a "trail" within the meaning of law about a "wild and scenic" river? 

Take a break from the political drama and watch these 9 TikToks I've curated for you. Let me know what you like.

1. A baby reacts to thunder.

2. What the long-distance runner eats in a day.

3. What to name cats and dogs in the Middle Ages.

4. How to cut your hair in North Korea.

5. Advice from the dandy.

6. A conversation about the afterlife.

7. Why can't you people of a certain age and income level understand what's so good about working at home?

8. Rufus Wainwright at home, playing piano.

9. Mountain biking in Marquette, Michigan.

"Now, during my voyage down this strip of pavement that’s about as wide as a paper towel roll and surrounded by large vehicles driven by people who hate me for no reason..."

"... I will face many perils. I will face the towering metal rear ends of illegally parked postal trucks. I will face hundreds—nay—thousands of glass shards from shattered Miller Lite bottles. I will face potholes deep enough to turn me and my bike into something out of Picasso’s Guernica. And you will witness me conquer them all in a glorious spectacle of labored breathing and back sweat!... Cheer in rapture as I zigzag between wasp-infested construction cones, mysterious piles of sand, and joggers who think this is a special bicycle-themed running track....Yes, I may be smacked into oblivion by the side mirrors of an F1-50 that’s passing too closely...."

Writes Joe Wellman, in "For My Next Death-Defying Stunt, I Will Ride My Bike in This Bike Lane" (McSweeney's).

Hey, McSweeney's people, that's really funny, but it's F-150, not F1-50, as a hell of a lot of Americans know. I wouldn't have known it either, but these days, I actually own one — co-own, co-own something that I'd never have selected for myself and would only drive in some hair-raising emergency that, if I worked hard enough at envisioning, could be the topic of a McSweeney's humor piece.