Bike Talk

Charlie’s News: NYC sets a 15mph limit on ebikes, a new Seattle bike lane also works for trucks, ultralight emergency response cargo bikes, and the impact of tariffs on the bike industry https://www.peopleforbikes.org/news/pfb-responds-to-tariff-announcement (3:00). No Drive Halloween campaign (4:26). Ontario, Canada Premier Doug Ford is trying to ban speed cameras and bike lanes in an all out war...

Bike Talk Listener Survey (0:23) People on bikes are “Nature’s Most Efficient Traveler,” reveals Scientific American https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-human-on-a-bicycle-is-among-the-most-efficient-forms-of-travel-in-the/ (1:42) Charlie’s News: League of American Bicyclists’ Advocacy Toolkit, Calbike’s Independent Electric Mobility Council, and Portland’s emergency World Naked Bike Ride...

Bike tech: Dynamo lights and pocket compressors (0:19). Charlie’s News (4:21). Two authors on what we’ve lost by making kids car dependent: author of A Love Letter to Suburbia Diane Alisa interviews co-author of Curbing Traffic Melissa Bruntlett on her chapter, Child-Friendly City https://bookshop.org/a/99134/9781642831658 (6:51). The delights of a Slovenian bike tour with Hour Away guide Nejc Pet...

Ride For Your Life is a Washington, D.C. memorial ride in honor of Sarah Langenkamp, whose husband, Dan, worked to pass a law protecting cyclists in her name after she was killed riding in a bike lane. Taylor talks to Dan Langenkamp https://waba.org/event/ride-for-your-life-2025/ (2:04). After Bike Talk thinker Stacey Randecker was hit while riding, we asked why personal injury lawsuits take so lo...

Bay Wheels bikeshare in the East Bay lends ebikes for $20/month to qualified residents and $120 for everyone else, reports Bike East Bay co-Executive Director Justin Hu-Nguyen (1:05). Former San Francisco Supervisor Joel Engardio on being recalled by drive-happy voters over his support for converting a portion of the Great Highway into the new Sunset Dunes Park (7:08). Biking, BARTing, and e-scoot...

A JAMA study finds biking is associated with lower dementia incidence: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2835115 (23:00) Should we tell people they ought to bike to COSTCO? A Bluesky user responds to episode #2535 (2:49). Bike East Bay Advocacy Director Robert Prinz explains why federal bike infrastructure doesn’t have to be “stupid,” in response to Charles Marohn’s comm...

Listener emails in response to last episode's bike lane hater from Eric Brightwell, host of the Nobody Drives in LA podcast https://ericbrightwell.com/nobody-drives-in-la/ and Ross, a West Hollywood vehicular cyclist who uses the street on which Bike Lane Hater does not want a lane (0:21). What are the legal implications for organizing a community bike ride, bike bus, or other non-sponsored event?...

Bike tours of Portland, Oregon by Cycle Portland, an interview of Charlotte by listener contributor Jonathan Weiss (1:26). A Love Letter to Suburbia is a new book on how car dependency, corporate control, and disintegrating community values have eroded the sense of connection and purpose that once defined American neighborhoods, and how to fix that with pedestrian first "villages." Author/Instagra...

Why, being flat and on Manhattan's "doorstep," is Long Island so resistant to all bike infrastructure? asks listener Sean Cirillo (0:53). West Hollywood bike lane opponent Kyle Brazil debates Taylor about installing a bike lane on Fountain Avenue (6:13). The author of A Love Letter to Suburbia, Diane Alisa, has empathy for conservatives and suburban people who might want to ease away from car depe...

Zohran Mamdami’s New York City transit scavenger hunt with participant Wilson Nichols, Taylor's nephew (2:38). San Francisco bike share user Kalise shares with Taylor what drives her to ride in SF (but not Los Angeles) (7:19). The high price of bike share, and what could be a better model: free, at first. With Dave Snyder, author of the Substack article, "Bike Share Booms Despite a Broken Business...

Vancouver bike activist Lucy Maloney won a seat on the anti- bike city council she fought for years. She gave Taylor a tour of the city and talks about her journey https://vancouver.ca/your-government/lucy-maloney.aspx (2:24). Speed cameras will go up this year in Los Angeles, San Jose, Oakland, Glendale, Long Beach, and the City and County of San Francisco, courtesy of California’s AB 645. Califo...

Listener feedback: Rebecca Reilly wants Nick to pronounce "Ontario" correctly, and Rick Bosacker says we should talk more about biking's mental and physical health benefits (0:50). Paris' bike revolution from the POV of Bike Talk intern Charlie Leightheiser - bike lanes, bike share, and bikelash (4:27). It's never too early to start planning for the week without driving, 9/29 - 10/5 https://weekwi...

Bike Lawyer Andrew Lewis on defending Cycle Toronto and saving Toronto's most popular bike lanes from the populist, tricky, anti-bike lane administration of Ontario Premier Doug Ford (0:29). Cities like Los Angeles lose hundreds of millions in lawsuits due to traffic injuries and fatalities on their streets. They could save lives and money by using their streets budgets to build protected bike net...

Taylor’s ride through the burned-down Pacific Palisades neighborhood, and architect Neale Payton's insight into rebuilding the area as a Transit Oriented Development in the April 2025 Bike Talk episode https://biketalk.org/2025/04/2513-state-of-the-union-rebuilding-a-bike-oriented-la-and-bike-storage/ (0:28). Two vigils, four car victims, one day for NYC: Transportation Alternatives Communications...

A West Hollywood memorial and ghost bike placing for cyclist Blake Ackerman, killed by hit-and-run. Streets Are For Everyone Director of LA County Advocacy, Brett Slaughenhaupt https://www.gofundme.com/f/remembering-blake-ackerman (3:00). Hit and runs from a Legal POV: James Pocrass (6:01). A simple four point plan to stop hit and runs. BikinginLA.com blogger Ted Rogers https://bikinginla.com/2025...

Taylor made it to Michigan, and having ridden to LAX in 56 minutes, he's never going back...to driving (1:13). Taylor talked to Tal Babcock, employee of a cafe in a former railroad depot where his grandfather was the Station Master, on the Michigan North Central bike route (2:41). A NY judge rules NYC Mayor Adams can remove protections on the Bedford Ave bike lane, undoing years of advocacy, becau...

Taylor's riding his bike to LAX, then biking to car-free Mackinac island, MI (0:56). Bike activist and Cascade Bike Club volunteer Merlin Rainwater was brushed by a bus after being let out in a dangerous place by a Seattle bike lane. After a hit and run on a cyclist in the same spot, Merlin and others formed a people protected bike lane. Seattle DOT put in real barriers for protection THE SAME DAY...

Magnus White’s not-accidental car killing and the language of car "accidents," with No More Ghost Rides and Trash Panda Cycling’s LA bike calendar organizer Raphael Hernandez. (2:31) Fight Back: Talking Back To Bikelash with CalBike’s Kevin Claxton. www.calbike.org/talking-back-to-bikelash/ (13:20) RAGBRAI: The Great Iowa Fall Ride with “Shift” documentarians/Des Moines Register journalists Courtn...

At the virtual Bicycle Film Festival, Taylor sees a woman set a new record of riding a bike at 183 mph (0:22). Nick visits Los Angeles, runs into a Hollywood ride out, and meets bike dancer Denis (4:42). Taylor will use any pretext for a bike errand, reveals his wife Marga (7:05). Money for protected bike lanes in Denver was about to be spent on removing them, until the Mayor's Bike Advisory Counc...

Taylor bikes to a No Kings protest, and meets a friend of the show (3:30). Our lawyer, James Pocrass, on what to do if the authorities take your bike at a protest-and how to avoid it (6:04). Original cohost and bike mechanic Jim Cadenhead on the plusses and minuses of tubeless tires (12:30). Sammy's Law was meant to allow New York City to reduce car speeds to 20mph. NYC Mayor Adams cynically used...

LA Bike Advocate and Altadena Town Councilmember Dorothy Wong on rebuilding her home and her town after the LA fires destroyed both (2:17). The "Born To Be Wild" bikepackers of Northampton High School reflect on their annual 4-day tour of Western Massachusetts (13:29). New York City is dragging cyclists to criminal court for minor and sometimes made up traffic infractions under a new anti-bike pol...

Listener email: the difference between bike packing and bike touring, and what handlebar bags and panniers to get (1:11). New York City has begun a policy of criminalizing minor traffic violations for cyclists. We talk to Carl Mahaney of Streetopia Upper West side and Open Plans, and Josh Wood of the New York City Bicycle Messenger Association (7:08). The legality of criminalizing cyclists, with J...

Janice Walrafen loves Bike Talk on WGDR in Vermont - a listener email (1:09). Summer bikepacking! Nick's Berkshires tour and Taylor's cross country plans (3:05). Are Waymo robotaxis safer than humans? And when AVs hit cyclists or pedestrians, who's liable? Our lawyer, Jim Pocrass, advises (6:49). The Consumer Protection Safety Commission regulates bikes and bike parts, and was working to standardi...

Nick's daughter Penny learned to ride on two wheels using the towel technique (1:50). Bike To Work Week with Mayor Chelsea Lee Byers in West Hollywood, Ca (7:33). Bike To Work Week in Northampton, Ma with Mayor Gina Louise Sciarra, Representative Lindsay Sabadosa, and All Bodies on Bikes organizer Jacob Sheppard-Saidel (11:44). The debate over Autonomous Vehicles' safety record versus cyclists and...

Ontario Premier Doug Ford tried to remove Toronto's bike lanes, but Toronto bike advocacy organization Cycle Toronto and allies won a court injunction pausing the removal. Executive Director Michael Longfield discusses what it means (2:42). The City of Oakland denied liability for a cyclist's serious injuries due to bad pavement, arguing that the liability waiver the cyclist had signed with AIDS L...