Bike Talk

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 dependency, but are triggered by the word 'city' (30:47).

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 Model" https://themovementnewsletter.substack.com/p/bike-share-booms-despite-a-broken (9:16) The Crosswalk Collective paints crosswalks where they legally ought to be, but aren't. When Collective member Jonathan Hale painted crosswalks at a West Los Angeles park, the LA Department of Transportation made them real https://la.streetsblog.org/2025/08/12/stoner-park-crosswalk-saga-draws-attention-to-l-a-s-transportation-safety-dysfunction (26:07). The California Bicycle Coalition sponsors AB891, the Quick Build Bill, which would allow Caltrans to make fast and cheap safety improvements to streets https://www.calbi

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. California bike lawyer (and Bike Talk sponsor) Jim Pocrass says slower speeds will make cyclists safer, but enforcement may be in question because the cams won’t recognize faces due to privacy concerns https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB645 (16:57). Paint and political will are all you need, says Micromobilitynyc Reddit moderator Miser of Queens, NY. Miser talks on Ave 31, the protected bike lane he fought for and won https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2025/05/30/eyes-on-the-street-astorias-big-beautiful-31st-avenue-bike-boulevard (25:25). Queens bike lane opponents are suing

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://weekwithoutdriving.org/ (10:30). Penny, seven, interviews Zahavah, six, on techniques to relearn riding a bike (12:33). SF bike culture from the POV of bike mechanics Tai and Bruno at Columbus Cyclery https://columbuscyclery.com/ (14:47). Bikes and trains go together, and there's a map for that in Southern California put together by Jonah Kanner and the Pasadena Complete Streets Coalition https://www.pasadenacsc.org/blog/train-to-bike (17:34). The Los Angeles DOT is planning a potential bike corridor downtown at Spring and Alameda. There's a survey to give some feedback to ensure this happens. https://ladotlivables

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 networks, our bike lawyer James Pocrass argues (11:15). As cities like NYC make war on ebikes, Upway, an online and physical marketplace for refurbished e-bikes, aims to make ebikes more affordable and accessible. With Marta Anadón, Upway Head of US (17:05). Taylor talks to the Parking Reform Network CEO Tony Jordan on how to organize people against parking mandates. With Los Angeles mid city west Neighborhood Council transportation committee member David Sobel (33:00). Bike History takes a literary spin in The Case of the Missing Maid by Rob Osler, about a woman who rides her bike as a professional detective in t

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 Director Alexa Sledge shares audio of speakers at the vigil for the double car killing of Kevin Cruickshank and May Kwok on July 23 in NYC https://transalt.org/press-releases/mayor-adams-fix-canal-street-reduce-manhattan-bridge-speed-limit-after-speeding-driver-hits-and-kills-ta-member-riding-bike-and-woman-sitting-on-bench-at-canal-street-and-bowery-in-manhattan (3:09). The NY Times article “Drivers vs. Cyclists” both-sides-ism makes it seem that whether or not Toronto’s bike lanes increase traffic congestion is a matter of opinion https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/26/world/canada/bike-lanes-toronto.html (7:03).

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/2025/07/16/lets-end-hit-and-runs-once-and-for-all-mid-city-neighborhood-greenways-break-ground-and-tell-ladot-we-can-do-better/ (13:06). The Los Angeles department of transportation “redesigning our streets to prioritize human life” on high injury arterial Pico Blvd https://ladotlivablestreets.org/projects/pico. Survey for Pico users: https://ladot.lacity.gov/pico (15:00). CicLAvia’s Historic South Los Angeles Meets Watts, September 14th https://www.ciclavia.org/ciclavia_historic_south_central_meets_watts25 (16:15). The Nova Scotia Premier uses threats and debunked tropes to get already bike-unfriendly Halifax May

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, because it's not a "major" modification. StreetsblogNYC writer Sophia Lebowitz reports that some see the judge's ruling as meaning that all NYC bike lanes could as easily be made fully protected by a new Mayor https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2025/07/09/brooklyn-judge-lets-eric-adams-rip-up-bedford-avenue-protected-bike-lane (6:32). Vista, California's Mayor John Franklin says a fully installed protected bike lane is evidence of an "anti-vehicle agenda https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/vista-removing-bike-lane-barriers/3864149/." San Diego Bicycle Coalition Advocacy & Community Manager Ian Hembree sheds light (13:44).

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 https://www.seattlebikeblog.com/2025/04/30/after-hit-and-run-at-4th-pine-safety-advocates-plan-people-protected-bike-lane-at-1pm/ (2:28). Our lawyer, Jim Pocrass, advises on the risks of tactical urbanism (14:32). Winnipeg bike activists including guests Patty Wiens, Bicycle Mayor of Winnipeg, and Michael (just Michael), made their own protected lane where cyclist Rob Jenner was killed by a car. The DOT took it down right away, citing safety https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/winnipeg-wellington-crescent-diy-bike-lane-1.7558922. Patty also talks about her book, It Can't Happen Here, and the exploitation of

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 Courtney Crowder and Kelsey Kremer, and RAGBRAIder Shem Bitterman, with Taylor. ragbrai.com/documentary/ (35:56)

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 Council caught on. With Loren Hansen, Chair of the Denver MBAC (8:49). NYC Mayor Eric Adams' war on bikes is sending people who deliver food by bike into the jaws of criminal courts while food delivery app giants support anti-bike candidates. With Executive Director of the Workers' Justice Project, Ligia Guallpa (13:59). Good news in New York: a judge stopped Mayor Adams' attempt to remove the Bedford Ave bike lane, and Zohran, NYC's top Mayoral candidate, is super bike friendly (and just won the primary). Also, bike lane opponents at public meetings don't seem to care about anything (besides parking spaces).

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 the law to justify limiting the speed not of cars, but ebikes. This outraged many, but none more than Amy Cohen, the mother of the traffic violence victim Sammy Cohen Eckstein. Amy talks about her StreetsblogNYC article on the subject (20:48). Alexa Sledge, Transportation Alternatives' Communications Director, on NYC Mayor Adams' moves to regulate ebike speed and rip out bike and safe street infrastructure (26:58). HFX By Bike YouTuber Kevin Wilson on Halifax, Nova Scotia Mayor Andy Fillmore’s effort to "pause" construction of the city's protected bike lane network, claiming it caused traffic (36:13).

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 policy. Kevin Duggan, StreetsblogNYC journalist, has been doing in-depth reporting, and shares his insights with us (24:23). Streets For All, the Los Angeles advocates that brought us Healthy Streets LA, has merged with the San Francisco organization KidSafe SF, which fought for a car-free JFK Promenade and Golden Gate Park, transformed the Great Highway into Sunset Dunes Park, and made slow streets permanent. Robin Pam, Parent Organizer of KidSafe SF, tells us about becoming a chapter of Streets For All (40:17). Audio from the May 30 Critical Mass ride in Chicago, by Rick Rosales (50:32). Nebraska's Vulnerable Ro

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 James Pocrass (28:09). In other news, a NYC Critical Mass to protest overpolicing cyclists, a study showing protected bike lanes work, an Idaho Stop bill in NY, the national spread of Waymo, and a Consumer Reports petition to fix front-end blind spots in SUVs (34:25). The author of Bicycling in Paradise and Radical Cadence in the End Times, Florida Atlantic Association Professor Stacey Balkan, talks about petroculture, Cycle Punk, and teaching these days in Florida (41:38).

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 standardize e-bike battery standards - until the Trump administration began trying to take away its status as an independent agency and transfer its functions to the Department of Health and Human Services (15:21). A Survey on sustainability and ebike commuting by Christophe Roncato Tounsi (21:05). Executive Summaries of Bike Advocacy Organizations: Trilby Cox of Bike Utah, Zoe Scott of Bike Walk Tennessee, Christina Erikson of Local Motion in Vermont, and Dave Simmons of Ride Illinois (36:11). A rundown of the California quick build and bike highway bills supported by CalBike with Policy Director Jared Sanchez (4

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 pedestrians continues, with data showing AVs "generally demonstrate better safety in most scenarios," but are "not foolproof," according to a study from Nature Communications profiled in The Week.com (19:50). Data from Congestion Pricing in NYC is all positive, according to NY Times Journalist Emily Badger and her article, Here Is Everything That Has Changed Since Congestion Pricing Started in New York (24:25).

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 Lifecycle applied to the City. Last week, in Whitehead v. the City of Oakland, the California Supreme Court upheld the responsibility of cities to maintain safe street conditions for bike riders. Calbike filed an amicus brief in the case supporting cyclist Ty Whitehead’s lawsuit against Oakland. Calbike Executive Director Kendra Ramsey joins us to reflect on our win (14:35). Our lawyer, James Pocrass, unpacks the loud and clear Whitehead v. the City of Oakland decision (18:52). Minneapolis bike commuter Tracy Stewart shares her joy, from the second happiest city in America (26:59). Bicycle Transit Systems, whic

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 buildings, streets, bike lanes and buses, say Norm Van Eeden Petersman, Strong Towns' Director of Membership and Development and Lindsay Sturman, Bike Talk co-host and co-founder of Livable Communities Initiative (4:53). Artist Eleanor Davis on her comic, You and a Bike and a Road, a two-wheeled journey across the landscape of the American South (23:14). Moving From Cars to People is a comic about how the built environment in the United States came to be designed for cars, and what we can do about it. With authors and Transportation and Communities researchers Kelly Clifton and Kristina Currans (40:45).

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 between New York and the Federal government over congestion pricing, as told by Streetsblog NYC Editor Gersh Kuntzman (10:22). Bike JC's Vice President Tony Borelli, Trustees Emmanuelle Morgan and Deidre Newman, and bike maker Anke Irmscher on Jersey City's bike ecosystem and their place in it. (23:50).

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-launches-in-sacramento-first-in-the-nation/ Austin, TX is going to spend $80,000 to remove a two way bike lane after some neighbors complained that they could not park immediately in front of their house and had difficulty driving to their mailboxes. https://www.kxan.com/news/why-austin-will-spend-80k-to-remove-newly-installed-bike-lanes/. (3:04). Transpo Maps creator and safe streets activist Stephen Bratisch discusses how SF was able to continue the Slow Street movement after the Pandemic ended and car dominance returned (6:38). Crossings author Ben Goldfarb on LA's massive wildlife crossing over the 101 freewa