>> Cyclists are planning for a weekly takeover of major L.A. streets. Forget just taking over parking spaces — How about taking back the whole road from cars? Plans for CicLAvia — when a major L.A. road (or few) would close to cars and become bike and ped-friendly expanses — are underway. I actually went to the first interactive meeting for this back in July, but haven’t been involved since (meetings are too far away).

L.A. Times reports that Mayor Villaraigosa’s behind the plan, that California Foundation’s “conditionally agreed to provide $20,000 to fund a ciclovia in Boyle Heights,” and that “plans are being negotiated for a test run in the spring of 2010,” route TBD.

>> Intentionally injuring cyclists will get you in big trouble. The doctor with road rage who intentionally braked in front of cyclists — severely injuring them — on Mandeville Canyon Road battery has been convicted with mayhem, assault with a deadly weapon, serious injury and reckless driving causing injury. According to the L.A. Times, “he faces up to 10 years in prison when he is sentenced Dec. 3.”

>> Especially ironic’s the fact that this road-raged cyclist-hater is a doctor, who’s supposed to want to save lives and heal people. “Why Does Driving Bring Out the Worst in People?” asks Stephen J. Dubner in Freakonomics: “The same person who might flip you off while ensconced in his or her car would almost certainly never do the same while passing you on a sidewalk.”

Image via CicLAvia

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