My invitation must have gotten lost in the mail.

After a previous false start, Los Angeles officially opened the new Taylor Yard Bicycle and Pedestrian Bridge over the LA Riverin an invitation-only event.

Street blogs Joe Linton reports that the bridge has been discussed for 30 yearsbefore the final start of work in 2019.

When Metro reindustrialized the downstream end of Taylor Yard, building a Metrolink Yard there, community groups sued Metro for violating environmental law. In a 1992 settlement, Metro agreed to pay for several community benefits, including a pedestrian bridge. For decades, the promised bridge project suffered from false starts. Ultimately Metro paid $25 million for the bridgewhich was built by the LA City Department of Public Works Engineering Bureau.

Never mind that three decades of delays cost more than five times the original estimate of $5.3 million.

And no, Linton didn’t get an invite either, although he postponed on deck even longer than we did. But he ended up running her over on a bike, ignoring both the lack of an invitation and the warning to arrive by car.

Not really. The city wanted everyone to drive at the opening of a cycle bridge.

The good news is that the bridge is finally open, providing safer and more convenient access between Frogtown and Elysian Valley to the south, and Glassell Park and Cypress Park to the north.

A previous public opening was canceled at the last minute, with the city doing such a shitty job of spreading the word that potential attendees who showed up anyway wondered where everyone else was. No explanation was ever given for the cancellation.

Maybe they were afraid of people from the cycling community showing up.

Because that’s how Linton ended his article.

Cedillo and O’Farrell have a history of hostility toward cyclists. O’Farrell’s antipathy for biking has been more subtle, aside from his notoriously devious anti-biking safety tweet in 2018. Cedillo’s anti-biking stance has been more outspoken. Both have canceled approved bicycle safety projects in their districts: Cedillo on Figueroa Street North and on the North Spring Street Bridgeand the two agreed on the cancellation of a Temple Street road scheme. Both are Democratic incumbents facing election this year, with challengers to their ideological left. It’s a sad situation that it now seems they’re worried about allowing the public – including the press and those pesky cyclists – to celebrate the opening of a really great thing they’ve done for cycling in Los Angeles.

And yes, I was the one who received that sarcastic tweet from O’Farrell.

Today’s photo is the invite you didn’t get when the bridge opened, even though you – and the rest of us – paid for it.

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Obviously, living is cheap in Massachusetts.

In the conclusion of story that we have been following for two yearsa 45-year-old woman from Massachusetts walked without a single day behind bars for the distracted driving death of a father while cycling with his family.

Ryane Linehan has pleaded guilty to negligent homicide, admitting she was texting when she killed the man and seriously injured his wife and adult son.

Yet she was only given an 18-month suspended prison sentence, along with six months house arrest, three years probation and 100 hours of community service.

Maybe it’s just me, but six crummy months sitting at home watching TV and eating candy feels more like a staycation than a punishment.

The only good news is that she won’t be allowed to drive for the next 15 years. Which isn’t long enough.

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Good question.

If the streets of Los Angeles had facilities like this, how many more people would choose to cycle over drive, especially for 50% of trips under 5 miles in Los Angeles? https://t.co/46bQFr6aKT

– Streets for All (@streetsforall) March 14, 2022

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Local

Los Angeles received a $5 million grant to beautify Hollenbeck Park in Boyle Heights. Except the only thing that would really spruce it up would be to move the damn 5 Freeway, which runs right through it. Except it would probably cost a lot more.

A A woman in her 30s was found dead next to the beach bike path in Long Beach Sunday morning, with no apparent cause of death.

State

A A San Diego cyclist suffered a fractured skull when he was run over by a fleeing driver at Balboa Park Sunday night; fortunately, his injuries were not considered life threatening.

San Luis Obispo is opening of a new cycle and pedestrian bridge connecting a new section of trail through the city.

East Bay bike advocates are pushing for the first protected bike path through the San Francisco suburb of San Leandro.

Sad news from Modesto, where a A 38-year-old woman on a bicycle was killed by a suspected drunk driver on Sunday.

national

Oklahoma has approved a 400-mile section of US Bike Route 66 if the state.

It’s more like that. A 19-year-old Florida man gets 15 years behind bars for the hit-and-run death of a seven-year-old boy on a bicycle. Although someone as cruel as he could leave a small child to die alone in the street deserves so much more than that..

International

He gets it. Environmentalists said Lloyd Alter governments should subsidize e-bikes instead of gas prices — including Gavin Newsom’s proposal to refund gas taxes paid by California drivers.

No irony here. The Toronto NIMBYs are demanding the removal of a protected cycle path claiming it’s too difficult for ambulances to respond to injured cyclists because all the cars are in the way.

Prince Edward Island of Canada announced a $100 discount on bike purchases, with a $500 discount on e-bikes.

A Welsh cycling advocate explains how to take political candidates for a bike ride can help them see the local community from a new perspective. Without forgetting to give them a better understanding of the dangers we face.

Life is cheap in Wales, where a A 71-year-old man walked with probation and a 15-month driving ban for shouting racist comments at a group of cyclists and telling them to get back to England, before backing up his car and ramming them; fortunately, no one was seriously injured.

A new UK poll shows broad support for the use of e-bikes to reduce carbon emissionseven among people who are not currently thinking of buying one.

British defenders are ask the government to stop using the word “accident” in official documents, and use “collision” instead; if they get 100,000 signatures, Parliament will have to go along with it.

It took the OPEC oil embargo of 1973 to put Copenhagen on the path to a bike-friendly future.

Competitive cycling

weekly cycling offers five takeaways from last week’s Paris-Nice.

Ultimately…

Your next e-bike might look like folded paper, and be manufactured by Yamaha. Rocking Rod Stewart, pothole repairer.

And meet a four year old bike superhero.

Hush 🤫 don’t tell anyone his identity 😉@INEOSGrenadiers @Tompid @gcntweet #Amusing #cycling pic.twitter.com/yTCQ6RNoNe

— Pint_size_cyclist (@biker_tiny) March 13, 2022

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Be safe and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and damn Poutine too.