Bike Talk - A radio show dedicated to the idea that for public and planetary health we need to prioritize public transportation by bikes

Nick and Taylor ride Joe Borfo’s Tandem in Griffith Park

Latest Episode

#2527 – Tactical Urbanism and Bike Activism in Seattle and Winnipeg + Bike Painting

July 11, 2025

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 (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. Patty also talks about her book, It Can’t Happen Here, and the exploitation of Sao Paolo bike delivery workers on her YouTube channel (22:09).

The League of Women Voters supports congestion pricing in Los Angeles (41:24).

Taliah Lempert is an artist whose works serve as a visual celebration and documentation of bicycles, cycling and her community (42:15).

bikeart, DIYbikelanes, peopleprotected
#2526 – Pushing Back on Bikelash (repeat from August of 2023)

July 6, 2025

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 (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. (35:56)

bikelash, noaccidents, ragbrai
#2525 – We love LA, Deliveristas, Zohran for Bikes NYC, and Picture Main Street

June 27, 2025

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). With Miser, who runs the subreddit MicromobilityNYC (24:30).

A San Francisco Grand Jury Report determines the city’s failure to meet Vision Zero goals is due to lack of traffic enforcement (48:09).

Bike lane opponents in Northampton, Massachusetts, held a meeting with presenters from nearby Pittsfield, hoping to show how bike lanes that failed there would fail in Northampton, too. Their plan backfired, explains Northampton City Council candidate Benjamin Spencer (49:30).

bikelash, BikeMayor, deliveristas, Ilovela, rideout, standwithlosangeles
#2524 – Bike Protests, Bike Hating Mayors, the BFF, and Tubes V Tubeless

June 19, 2025

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 response, and 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).

The Bicycle Film Festival is back, and it’s virtual. Taylor talks with Festival Director Brendt Barbur (47:53).

bff, bikephobia, bikepolitics, bikeprotest, ebikespeed, tubeless
#2523 – An LA Bike Advocate Rebuilds Her Home, NYC Reels From Anti-Bike Laws, and Northampton High Goes Bikepacking

June 13, 2025

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, have 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 Road User Bill has passed its final vote and heads to the Governor. If passed, LB530 will strengthen penalties for speeding or harming “Vulnerable Road Users,” and require drivers to change lanes to pass when possible. By John Gibilisco (54:16).

bikeadvocacy, bikepacking, criminalizingcyclists, criticalmass, lafires, lb530
#2522 – Criminalization of Bikes in NYC and Biking in The Apocalypse

June 5, 2025

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 zones 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, Ivan Illich, and teaching these days in Florida (41:38).

bikepacking, biketouring, criminalizingcyclists, cyclepunk, petroculture
#2521 – Bikepacking, AVs versus Cyclists, MAGA versus Ebike Battery Standards, and Bike Bills in California

May 30, 2025

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 (44:49).

avsafety, bikebatteries, bikebills, bikepacking, bikesurvey, biketouring, cpsc
#2520 – Learn to Ride, Bike to Work, and the 100% Positive Results of NYC’s Congestion Pricing

May 23, 2025

Nick’s daughter Penny learns 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).

avsafety, biketowork, congestionpricing, learntoride
2519 – Judicial Defense of Bike Rights in Canada and California, Commuting in Minneapolis, and Bike Share in Los Angeles

May 16, 2025

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, which runs bike share in 15 cities, merged with B-cycle and is fighting Lyft for its LA contract. Shane Quentin, Director of Operations, and Annemarie Drolet, LA Bikeshare mechanic and BTS Shop Steward, share their thoughts and hopes (36:05).

Detroit Bike Month rides with Reo Ramsey (50:50).
#2518 NIMBYs, YIMBYs, QUIMBYs and Bike Comics

May 9, 2025

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).

bikecomics, biketour, quimby, transportation