Brendt Barbur's Bicycle Film Festival opened strong with an enthusiastic crowd filling the sidewalk of Hollywood Boulevard as the The What Cheer Brigade, a "Luddite Hard Core Marching Band," marched down the street and proceeded to stop traffic, both motor vehicle and pedestrian. After drawing in the crowd, they pulled a Pied Piper and marched into the Vine Theatre, followed by their audience, leaving them pumped up and ready for a Shorts Program that featured......

The Bicycle Film Festival takes over the Vine Theatre on Friday and Saturday and wraps with an all day BFF Street Party at Heliotrope and Melrose (aka "The Bicycle District," aka "HelMel"). Valet parking is available (for bikes!) and the line-up includes favorites such as LA BIKE SCENE, KING OF SKITCH and ROAD TO ROUBAIX. Documentaries, Mockumentaries, Comedies, Alleycat Races, Olympic Races, Tests of Bravado and a local favorite, THE BIKE LANE, all come together......

A sign near the intersection of Riverside Dr. and Fulton Ave. in Sherman Oaks. | Photo by Zach Behrens/LAist Further investigation into reasons why a few spots around the city have signs prohibiting bicycle sidewalk riding shows that both Sherman Oaks locations were due to troubles caused by skateboarders. After pedestrians getting hit by boards, cars nearly hitting skaters falling into the street and customers being intimidated, Van Nuys Division LAPD officers requested a......

A sign at Hollywood & Vine | Photo by discarted There's a common law that most bicyclists know in Los Angeles: sidewalk riding is legal as long as you do not have "a willful or wanton disregard for the safety of persons or property." LAMC 56.15 also "disallows the riding of bicycles on Ocean Front Walk in Venice." Reading that, you would think that you can ride your bike on all the other sidewalks......

Photo by carlosfpardo via Flickr Last night, one of Los Angeles' best locally focused radio programs, Which Way, L.A.? focused in on the Mandeville Canyon "road rage" motorist vs. bicyclist incident among other bicycle issues around Los Angeles. LA City Councilman Bill Rosendahl, Patrick Brady of Felt Bicycles and the LA County Bike Coalition Planning and Policy Director, Dorothy Kieu Le joined Warren Olney to talk perspectives, laws and LA culture of cars and......

Although we nagged on Councilman Bill Rosendahl this morning, we had a candid chat with his office this morning afterwards. Things were overlooked and last night's meeting was not meant to be a secret, even if it was closed, they said. In an e-mail update on the meeting, among other things, sent out this afternoon (posted in full below), Rosendahl starts off his message with quite a nice vision: "I’d like to update you on......

Councilman Bill Rosendahl played to the cycling community last week when he announced that he was convening a Community Forum to address issues raised in the aftermath of the Mandeville Canyon "road rage" incident of July 4th. The response to the Community Forum, which was announced last Wednesday, was so significant that the event was moved to a larger venue to accommodate the anticipated crowd. Abruptly, Rosendahl's Office reversed course on Saturday, announcing that the......

Dan Guitierrez and Brian DeSousa of Dual Chase Productions spent the weekend riding Mandeville Canyon and videotaping their experiences, creating a video that demonstrates the relationship between good cycling behavior and good motoring behavior. Dan and Brian are boardmembers of the California Association of Bicycling Organizations (CABO) and are also League of American Bicyclist (LAB) Certified Instructors (LCI) and have a strong track record of performance as educators using their unique approach to video......

Cyclists from around the City were looking forward to Councilman Bill Rosendahl's Community Forum scheduled for tonight and it was that significant citywide interest that may have been responsible for causing the Forum to be canceled. It was last Wednesday that Councilman Rosendahl called for the Forum in response to the significant outcry over the Mandeville Road Rage incident of July 4th that left two cyclists badly injured, the motorist facing multiple felony charges......

Photo by Egan Snow via Flickr After quickly championing the rights of vehicles and bicycles sharing the road in the aftermath of the Mandeville Canyon "road rage" incident, Los Angeles City Councilman Bill Rosendahl has canceled this Monday's community town hall that he quickly put together last week (he even changed locations once to accommodate the expected large crowd comfortably). "At the request of the residents and of the cyclists who use Mandeville Canyon......

Photo by Chris Roberts Yesterday, the District Attorney's office filed a total of four counts of criminal charges against Dr. Christopher Thompson of Mandeville Canyon, the suspect in the Fourth of July Mandeville Canyon "Road Rage" incident in which he allegedly slammed on his brakes causing two cyclists behind him injury (see photos/background here). Thompson was charged with two counts of reckless driving (23105(a) of vehicle code) and two counts of felony battery (2403(d)......

Injured cyclist, Ron Peterson being prepped for transport to an area hospital by Los Angeles Fire Department Paramedics. Update #2: The meeting has been canceled. More information here. Update: The meeting location has changed to across the street to accommodate more people. it is not located at Felicia Mahood Multipurpose Center at 11338 Santa Monica Boulevard. After the unfortunate, yet eye-opening incident between an alleged "road rage" motorist, who was arrested, and two bicyclists......

LA Times Road Sage Steve Hymon went on a bike ride last night around the Pasadena area. He hit a red light in an unincorporated part of LA County and sat there waiting for it to turn green. He waited and waited. It never did... until a car showed up and activated the signal loop finally turning it green. "By which time my face is red." One has to ask, will County Supervisor Michael D.......

July Fouth's "road rage" incident on Mandeville Canyon was reported here on Monday morning and the story quickly gathered steam with TV stations clamoring to interview the cyclists, the Police Captain reporting that the case would proceed as a criminal assault case and then culminating with Councilman Bill Rosendahl going on TV (video above) and referring to the Cyclists' Bill of Rights (PDF version), which addresses equality and access as basic civil rights that......

Yesterday, Chuck Henry of NBC contacted LAist to gather more information regarding the Mandeville Canyon "road rage" incident that landed two cyclists in the hospital. This two minute segment aired last night during the 11:00 p.m. news. CBS/KCAL also aired their own version of the story.......

Via L.A. Now, here's the 4th documented freeway bicycle ride. This time, it was a different group of folks (you may remember these crazy photos from Crimanimalz) and they hit the 101 and 110 starting in Silver Lake.......

Regarding the incident reported this morning where a one Dr. Christopher Thompson*, a 58-year-old emergency room physician and resident of the Mandeville Canyon neighborhood, was involved in an alleged road rage incident between two bicyclists, Christian Stoehr and Ron Peterson, on Mandeville Canyon Rd. in Brentwood, there have been some updates. "Captain Eaton, the commanding officer of the West LA station, reports that LAPD believes this was indeed a 'road rage' incident, made an arrest,......

Fireworks over Los Angeles | Photo by Californian Em via Flickr With gas prices high (Los Angeles average is currently $4.597 for regular), the Auto Club is predicting less people traveling this holiday season. 3.029 million Southern Californians to be exact, which is about 1% or around 30,000 people less than previous years. The majority (80%) will travel by car the rest by air. The last time the Fourth of July holiday fell on......

Photo by delera-photos via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr Today, City Council President Eric Garcetti announced two motions he is putting forward. If you know the biking community, you know these two proposals came from Garcetti listening to the community as the problems/solutions here are often heard within the cycling community. From a Garcetti press release: Garcetti introduced a resolution to urge the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) to repeal its ban on......

Photo by HBuzacott via Flickr Taking a note from a Los Angeles bicycle law, the city of West Hollywood has made the first steps to allow bicycles to legally ride on sidewalks, reports WeHo News. Currently, West Hollywood's law is consistent with LA County law stating that “a person shall not operate any bicycle… on any sidewalk or parkway except at a permanent or temporary driveway or at specific locations thereon where the commissioner......

Metro's Chair and City of Santa Monica Councilwoman Pam O'Connor held one of her monthly online chats with residents yesterday. StreetsblogLA was there and noted that she personally thinks transit planning needs to stop just counting cars and start counting people. You know, bicycles, walkers, people on busses -- all those aspects that make up street use. The current mainstream models mainly focus on cars, cars, cars. Ever notice in Downtown LA when walking around......

Here's a sign of the times. This bike rack at the Variety/E Channel Meridian Club building on Wilshire normally has three or four bikes on it. This day, bikes (including mine) had to be locked to parking meters because the rack was full. Related: Gas is currently averaging at $4.60 a gallon for regular in Los Angeles......

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., goes for a bike ride in Chicago, Sunday, June 8, 2008.(AP Photo/Alex Brandon) Presidential candidate Barack Obama took a relaxing Sunday bicycle ride with his family to a friend's house and then on a beachside ride. It's sexy that he's sporting a helmet, too (even if some say it was an unflattering choice). Republican blogger, The Cycling Dude, plans to vote for McCain, but always is on......

Mia Birk of Alta Planning, the company that is working on the LA Bicycle Master Plan | Screen Capture from Sundance As part of Sundance Channel's green programming, tonight's episode of Big Ideas For A Small Planet features cities tackling transit with green solutions. No, Los Angeles is not featured (save for a couple stock shots of an orange Metro bus), but the ideas presented in the episode are all something the region could......

Photo by Stephen Box/LAist The Bike to Work Week celebration came to an abrupt end as Enci rode north on Western, turned left onto Hollywood Boulevard and then had a bus accelerate from behind, crossing her line and pulling to the right, forcing her to the curb as he pulled in to his last scheduled stop of the day. He then opened the door and screamed "Get the F@%& off the road!" and then......

In honor of Bike to Work Week, this video and graphic is for those newbies out there. If you still need more instruction, here is a thorough walk through.......

We're already home, are you? | Photo by Morgan Strauss, used with permission A follow up to the earlier story on freeway biking. The group of riders on Friday also put up this banner. "We hung a 20 X 6 foot banner on the 17th street overpass that read 'RIDE A BIKE: YOU'D BE HOME BY NOW,'" organizer Morgan Strauss explained. "It stayed up for over 48 hours." Tomorrow morning is the Blessing of......

Photo by Thomas Hawk via Flickr Last Friday, Crimanimal Mass took their second bicycle ride on the freeway during drive-home rush hour. Whizzing by gridlocked cars, the demonstration, albeit illegal, raises questions. Good questions. One of the group's organizers, Morgan Strauss, 29, was quoted in the Santa Monica Daily Press (.pdf) this weekend saying that he “just wanted to raise questions about the transportation infrastructure. In a city ruled by cars, why is it......

Via StreetsblogLA Bicycle riding on a road designated by Caltrans as a highway/freeway is illegal except when there is no reasonable or possible route for a cyclist to take (for example, you can ride your bike on Interstate 5 through Camp Pendelton). It's safe to say, there are plenty of alternative options in Los Angeles, but hey, why not? Organized by a bicycle writer at the blog Banned Bicycles, he and nine others took......

Via GOOD Magazine's blog, we find Andy Bower's video report for Slate.com on the "stupidest bike lane in America," which happens to be in the same neighborhood as one of the most respected schools in the nation -- UCLA. The 275 ft. class II bike lane runs on Gayley between Levering and Weyburn Avenues (interactive map below, lane marked in orange, try finding it!) If you've got a stupider bike lane, he welcomes you......