Bike Talk

News: It's Bike Month! Also- an Ontario, Canada court may save Toronto bike lanes, Waymo says its AVs are 25x safer than human drivers for cyclists and pedestrians on the road, Trump's tariffs will devastate the bike industry, and Americans are losing interest in buying cars (1:47). The QUIMBY movement = Quality In My Back Yard, and it means high quality codes/laws/permitting/planning high quality...

Our Lawyer, Jim Pocrass, assesses the lawsuit brought by Streetsblog Los Angeles editor Joe Linton. LA Metro has argued that because it's not the city, it doesn't have to make bike infrastructure when repaving city streets, as called for in ballot measure HLA. The agency claims it would have to destroy homes and buildings to both preserve parking and make space for bikes (3:40). The standoff betwe...

Amy, gravel rider (1:05). News: Street safety advocates call for protected bike lanes on California’s deadly Pacific Coast Highway. https://mailchi.mp/streetsforall/pch-master-plan-042025?e=efb877b7f5 The City of Sacramento will be the first in the Nation to use cameras on buses that detect cars parked in bike lanes. https://fox40.com/news/local-news/sacramento/automated-bike-lane-enforcement-laun...

News: Healthy Streets LA, the ballot measure which requires Los Angeles to implement bike infrastructure every time city streets are repaved, is being ignored by the county's transportation agency, LA Metro. Taylor talks with the founder of Streets For All, Michael Schneider, who led the HLA campaign, and the Editor of Streetsblog LA, Joe Linton, who's now suing the city (1:33). It’s been 100 year...

April is National Distracted Driving Awareness Month, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's "Put the Phone Away or Pay" campaign emphasizes education and enforcement but not engineering. Our Lawyer, Jim Pocrass, shares his practice of suing distracted drivers as a deterrent (0:26). A driver was found guilty of Reckless Vehicular Homicide in the killing of 17 year old rising US c...

Listener Email: John Gibilisco on the Sisyphean undertaking of Omaha bike advocacy (1:40). #Teslatakedown (2:45). The MAGAS are cutting all federal funding for bike infrastructure but also reneging on grants to projects like Reconnecting Communities, which would address the harms of highways. With Yonah Freemark, a principal research associate in the Housing and Communities Division at the Urban I...

Tesla’s polluting plants, Musk’s racist genealogy and the #Teslatakedown (1:53). Our new regime is anti-active transportation, so we check in with Strong Towns founder Charles Marohn for what we can do locally to make towns more bikeable and livable (7:17). Rochester University Campus Times writers Teddy Almond and Maya Brosnick debate NYC's congestion pricing (30:28). Robert Zaichkowski’s Bike Th...

Ontario's reactionary re-elected Premier, Doug Ford, aims to rip out Toronto's bike lanes despite his own experts' testimony that they work. Our correspondent Madeleine Bonsma-Fisher on the view from Toronto (2:31). The US DOT halts all active transportation funding that might reduce emissions or improve accessibility. James Pocrass, Los Angeles Bike Lawyer, gives his view (9:31). News: "Congestio...

Taylor's day of service fixing bikes and teaching kids how to ride safely with Brett Atencio-Thomas, Active Costa Mesa, California's Transportation Coordinator. Brett tells about the Three Pronged approach to making a 21st century city (0:38). On February 25th, a group of cyclists in Boyle Heights were handing out "Know Your Rights" cards with information on what to do if approached by ICE. They w...

LA Locals Taylor & Don saw the city like tourists on an Ebike Tour of Hollywood (0:22). Bike Director Kevin Wong on Chinatown's March 8-9 Firecracker Ride, the largest Lunar New Year Run, Walk, Cycling, and Dog Walk event in the US (4:59). Bike Indianapolis Advocacy Committee Chair Jakob Morales on the recent vigil and ghost bike placement for Dillan Lee Rogers (10:41). Jacquie Phelan, veteran mou...

Taylor’s science-backed brush with car-induced unhappiness (0:22) New York City congestion pricing will resist Trump’s attempts to kill it, predicts NYC Transportation Alternatives Communications Director, Alexa Sledge (3:25). Maybe the NYC toll program would fare better if we labelled them “Congestion tariffs,” suggests Listener Rick Bosacker (10:35). Congestion Pricing, climate change, and the d...

On vacation in Fraser, CO, "the ice box of America," self-proclaimed "single track capital of the world," Taylor talks track with Ben Quinn, owner of Ice Box Mountain Sports (2:08). Our friend, Los Angeles bike advocate, cyclocross racer, and survivor of the Eaton fire, Dorothy Wong, on rebuilding Los Angeles (5:23). A California court's ruling that recreational cyclists can't sue the city when in...

Donald Shoup, author of "The High Cost of Free Parking," has died. Tony Jordan, President of the Parking Reform Network, talks about Shoup's decades of teaching, writing, and speaking on reversing subsidized free car storage (1:16). Find our interviews with the Professor of Parking by searching "Shoup" at biketalk.org. CalBike Joins Amicus Brief in Safe Streets Accountability Case after lower cour...

Taylor almost gets killed, and Stacey does get hit (1:14). Taylor fixes up bikes for fire victims in Los Angeles with Jim Shanman and Walk n Rollers (5:10). News, powered by Ted Rogers' Bikinginla.com (9:41): Waymo reports AVs are safer than human drivers. Bike theft increased 15% last year The League of American Bicyclists is out with their latest list of the country’s most Bicycle Friendly Commu...

Bike Lawyer James Pocrass on what it's like to bike in Los Angeles with the fires still burning, avoiding scams, and wearing masks (0:47). With fewer cars and fewer injuries, the congestion pricing zone in NYC is like Sunday all week, according to StreetsblogNYC Editor Gersh Kuntzman (6:39). News: bike crashes are reduced at intersections with Stop-as-yield laws, the National Highway Traffic Safet...

Cohosts Taylor, Nick, Lindsay and Stacey ponder possible effects of the new administration on bikes, cars, and infrastructure (0:57). Listener Email: Reese Bastion writes about motonormativity, the acceptance of public hazards from cars where similar hazards like smoking wouldn't be tolerated. This sparks a discussion about how the framework that led to smoking in public being banned could apply t...

Altadena Town Councilmember, Bike Educator/activist, cyclocross champion and race organizer Dorothy Wong lost her house in the fires, along with all her bikes. She reflects with Culver City Councilmember Bubba Fish-also a bike activist (1:39). The Bike Oven of Highland Park, long a community hub for DIY bike repair, has become an emergency aid distribution center. Volunteer Joe Borfo talks to us a...

In honor of the New Year, Nick shares his mission statement for Bike Talk, and compares his acting career with Taylor's (0:35). Taylor interviews a Costa Rican mountain biker on his recent trip to Costa Rica (4:15)... and shares his mission statement for Bike Talk (8:30). News: On Day 1 of Congestion Pricing in NYC, Transportation Alternatives Communications Director Alexa Sledge shares her observ...

Midnight Rida/Bike Oven volunteer Joe Borfo lends Bike Talk his tandem for a new logo(0:26). News: Bill 212 passes, allowing Ontario Premier Doug Ford to proceed with removing Toronto's popular bike lanes despite data that shows they're successful. Congestion pricing starts in NYC (4:57). A Winnipeg rider, Patty Wiens, responds to Taylor’s LA-centric comments about winter riding “on a trainer in t...

National Bike News: car related crime, TAP funding, and the EXPLORE act passage. Studies: E-bikes and scooters displace 4x as much demand for oil as all of the EVs in the world, and vehicles with higher, more vertical front ends pose greater risk to pedestrians (6:23). What to do in a bike crash, with LA Personal Injury Attorney Jim Pocrass (9:32). Livable Communities: bikes, transit, and housing....

An email from avid listener Rick Bosacker, who gets the joke about "avid cyclists." He's on a 13 month world tour with his family, who are differently avid. Taylor gets route help from Canadian cyclists Dan and Lynette Markham in bike-unfriendly Laguna Beach, California (2:12) Bike Friendly States' ranking highlights by the League of American Bicyclists' Policy Director Ken Macleod (5:19) Intro 60...

The Ebike Getaway of Luigi Mangioni (1:28) An overview of the Washington Area Bicycle Coalition, WABA, by Elizabeth Kiker, Executive Director (5:29) The Evanston, IL Bike Lane Debate as told by Streetsblog Chicago Editor John Greenfield (7:46) People who bike were betrayed by the Denver Department of Transportation and Infrastructure’s watering down of a protected bike lane, say Denver Bike Lobbyi...

Taylor talks with Hugh Fuller and Joe Borfo at Bike Oven’s iconic Highland Park “Spoke ’n Art Ride.” 0:20 Why fat bikes are "the quiver killer," a pitch from Physical Education teacher and mountain bike club coach Salem Derby. 4:03 News: “Loser Lane,” a fatalistic web based game about riding without a protected lane in Toronto. With Bill 212, Toronto Premier Doug Ford seeks immunity for injuries a...

News: San Francisco's controversial center-running bike lane to be replaced by curb protected lanes. Luke Bornheimer, SF advocate for the curb protected lanes, explains. 4:09 NYC gets congestion pricing, finally. It's $9 instead of $15, but will increase. Dave Colon, StreetsblogNYC reporter, fills in the details. 9:01 As Ontario Premier Doug Ford pushes to remove Toronto's bike lanes, University o...

Voices from World Day of Remembrance for Traffic Victims in Los Angeles. 1:48 Transportation under Trump according to Yonah Freemark, principal research associate in the Metropolitan Housing and Communities Policy Center at the Urban Institute. 8:25 Los Angeles Bike Fest with BikeLA Director Eli Kaufman. 13:37 Strong Towns Northampton checks its tone over a bike lane closure. With Danielle McKhan,...