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

Motonormativity

April 26, 2024

A wheelbuilding chat.

An interview from the California Bike Summit with Kendra Ramsey, California Bicycle Coalition Executive Director.
1:59

Vehicular Cyclist and League Certified Instructor Jim Baross on learning to ride like a vehicle when safe infrastructure doesn’t exist.
7:03

Emma Mellonee of the Active Transportation Research Center on what they’re doing for bikes in California.
13:37

Laura’s Colnago.
15:15

A discussion of the harrassment of cyclists by drivers and “motonormativity” research sparked by a social media helmet cam video. With Madeleine Bonsma-Fisher, University of Toronto Data Sciences Institute postdoc and Bike Ottawa board member.
16:26

A London Cycling Campaign survey asks, “why don’t more women cycle?” Kate Bartlett of the London Cycling Campaign, which did the survey, talks with Taylor Nichols and Cathy Tuttle, Bike Loud PDX activist and author of Women Really Need to Talk About Taking Back Our Streets in Portland and Beyond in Momentum Magazine.
31:51

Frequent Bike Talk contributor and President of Motown TrailBlazerz bike club in Detroit Reo Ramsey joins Todd Scott, Executive Director of the Detroit Greenways Coalition, to talk about the rides they’re planning for Bike Month.
49:36

Stacey’s Bike Thought
53:10

bikelanes, bikemonth, greenways, harassment, motonormativity, photogallery, vehicularcycling, wheels, women
Trailblaze

April 19, 2024

Reimagining streets on Willoughby in West Hollywood California and W. 72nd on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, with PhD Transportation Researcher Miriam Pinski and Carl Mahaney, Director of StreetopiaUWS.
0:52

Listener Email: Dan Murphy on hi-viz clothing: a low cost safety measure, or victim blaming?
14:57

The Great American Rail Trail, the nation’s first cross-country multiuse trail, will stretch more than 3,700 miles between Washington, D.C., and Washington State. Powell County, Montana Planning Director Amanda Cooley and Kevin Belle, Project Manager at Rails to Trails Conservancy, tell Taylor Nichols all about it.
20:05

Re:ciclos is a program which aims to create wider access to cargo bicycle technology and empowerment of youth in black and brown communities by exposure to fabrication, mechanics, advocacy, outreach, and community. Re:ciclos founder Jimmy Lizama talks with Ava Maria.
38:56

Stacey’s Bike Thought
55:23

bikelane, cargobike, community, hiviz, photogallery, railtotrail, reciclos, reimagine, safestreet, victimblame
Bikes Mean Business

April 12, 2024

Legal Moment: Can companies be held liable when employees crash while phone-multitasking? With attorney Jim Pocrass.
2:29

Skaters Who Bike in Phoenix are expanding to other cities and towns. With Tim Ward.
8:54

A comprehensive look at years of research about the effect of bike lanes on businesses with journalist Adam Rogers, writer of Bike Lanes Are Good for Business.
15:10

Journalist Alison Griswold and Anne Marie Drolet talk on Lyft’s thwarted attempt to take over Metro Los Angeles’ bike share system, and Why Lyft is Running From Bicycles.
37:37

Bike Thought by Stacey.
54:12

bikelanes, bikelash, bikeshare, distracteddriving, liability, lyft, photogallery, retail, roaddiet, skateboarding, unions
Leading the Way

April 4, 2024

Listener email: an endorsement for Charles Marohn’s “empathy for the driver,” D.C. bike infrastructure, and an inquiry about our theme song, “Bike.”
2:41

The entire state of California and the individual cities of Oakland, Berkeley, and Los Angeles have proposed or passed measures which implement bike plans when repaving roads. With Bike East Bay Advocacy Director Robert Printz.
7:19

California isn’t the only leader in bike friendly legislation; heads of bike and safe streets organizations in New York City, Minneapolis, Detroit, Massachusetts, and Paris share their success stories.
17:20

ValleyBike, Massachusetts’ 2nd largest bikeshare, went bankrupt. Carolyn Misch, Sustainability Director of the city of Northampton, MA., talks about the lesson therein, and how bikeshare can be sustainable.
28:26

Union-busting, bikeshare-dropping Lyft’s bid to replace the current Los Angeles bikeshare vendor, Bicycle Transit Systems, failed. Anne Marie Drolet, Chief Shop Steward of LA Metro Bikeshare, gives some context.
47:52

Listener email: can companies be sued for letting employees do virtual meetings or read work docs while driving?
49:52

Traffic by Don.
50:52

Bike Thought by Stacey.
52:01

bicycletransit, bikeshare, california, lyft, oakland, photogallery, podcasting, radio, repaving, safestreets, unions
Live to Ride

March 29, 2024

The Access to Hollywood program will add protected bike and bus lanes and cause “traffic evaporation” on LA’s Hollywood Boulevard. Taylor Nichols with LA City Council District 4 Field Deputy Mehmet Berker.
2:01

Personal injury lawyer Jim Pocrass explains the legal grounds for taking the lane.
8:35

Live To Ride: Finding Joy and Meaning on a Bicycle, the book. With author and journalist Peter Flax.
23:00

Northern Virginia Opens New “66-Parallel” Bike And Walking Trail. With Fairfax Alliance for Better Biking founder Bruce Wright.
40:58

Bike thought by Stacey.
54:37

access, bicycling, biketrail, hollywood, pedestrian, photogallery, progress, ride, takethelane
Bikes, the Universe, and Everything

March 22, 2024

Listener Email: Jonathan Weiss on how much harder it is to get a driver’s license in Europe than in the U.S., and why that endangers all of us.
1:06

The Rockbros Smart Turn Signal review by Reo Ramsey of Motown Trailblazers in Detroit.
2:52

Listener Email: Jonathan Levin on how shaming drivers causes intransigence.
6:20

Recovering Engineer and Strong Towns founder Charles Marohn on gaining local control over streets to make them safer for everybody, and, to that end, refraining from shaming drivers as in this tweet.
With Stacey Randecker.
9:53

2 new anthologies of Feminist Bicycle Science Fiction from Bikenomics author Elly Blue and Microcosm Publishing: Bikes, the Universe, and Everything and The Bicyclists’ Guide to the Galaxy
30:20

A Bike Life Rideout in Springfield, Massachusetts.
50:06

Bike Thought by Stacey.
54:40

bikelights, cars, empathy, feminism, humanerror, photogallery, scifi, traffic
Empathy for the Driver

March 15, 2024

Winter Riding in Utah
0:23
the Healthy Streets LA ballot measure was approved by voters last week. If it does what is intended, LA will finally be forced to implement its own mobility plan, bike lanes and all. Michael Schneider, founder of Streets For All, reports on the success of his organization’s measure.
2:31
Listener email from Børge A. Roum in Norway.
9:11
Charles Marohn, author of “Confessions of a Recovering Engineer” and founder of Strong Towns, reflects on why we shouldn’t ridicule people in oversized cars, but rather “draw a larger circle of empathy” to include drivers in a tweet and here.
13:30
Transportation Alternatives NYC and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology created Spatial Equity NYC, a tool for comparing the distribution of resources across districts in New York City. With TransAlt Communications Director Alexa Sledge.
44:45
Bike Thought by Stacey
53:30

drivers, empathy, hla, nyc, oversizedcars, photogallery, spatialequity, steetsforall, strongtowns, transalt, winterbike
Stop Victim Blaming

March 8, 2024

Eddie Vargas, Grub Hub bike delivery worker, loads up groceries in Los Angeles.
1:51
Bike Traffic report with Don Ward.
4:57
A new study in the Journal for Transport and Land Use shows blaming individuals for traffic violence prevents systemic changes to US roadways.
5:50
“There Are No Accidents” author Jessie Singer on the evolution of the accident, and how the auto industry has convinced the public that car crashes are due to “jaywalkers,” “nutty drivers,” and human error- when they are built into our roads and cars.
10:45
Author Caroline Paul on her article “My Mother got on a bike. It changed her life” and the book from which it sprung, New York Times bestseller “The Gutsy Girl, Escapades for Your Life of Epic Adventure.”
32:26
One girl’s first time getting hit by a car.
51:22
Bike Thought by Stacey.
53:43

accidents, bikelanes, bikelash, bikes, crash, deliveristas, grubhub, hla, humanerror, pedestrians, photogallery
Priorities

March 1, 2024

Voices of CicLAvia.
1:54
The law of riding in inclement weather, with Jim Pocrass.
4:32
Heads of Active Transportation Organizations on their legislative Priorities: Kendra Ramsey, Executive Director of CalBike.
11:42
José Antonio Zayas Cabán, Executive Director of Our Streets Minneapolis.
21:30
Todd Scott, Executive Director of the Detroit Greenways Coalition.
29:00
LA Times Letter Editor Paul Thornton on Biking in Los Angeles.
www.latimes.com/opinion/newslette…et-safety-opinion
37:30
Bike Thought.
55:30

calbike, cars, ciclavia, Detroit, greenways, legislation, Ourstreetsmpls, photogallery, priorities, safety
The Art of Advocacy

February 22, 2024

Guest host: Caro Vilain @mobilityforwhom

Listener Email: Robert Prinz, Advocacy Director, Bike East Bay
0:54

Bike Lane myths
2:15

Healthy Streets Los Angeles, on the ballot March 5, could transform car-centric streets. Michael Schneider, founder of the measure, on why it’s needed.
3:57

California Professional Firefighters Union President Brian Rice is mad about a lot of things, all embodied by Healthy Streets Los Angeles and symbolized by the bicycle.
14:28

Biking While Black documentary maker Yolanda Davis-Overstreet with Damon Turner, founder of Los Angeles Biking Academy and a subject of the film, on bike advocacy in their community.
18:23

“V” on Chicagoans who Bike, a photo project about the wide variety of Chicagoans who bike.
40:25

Bike Thought
56:08

animalsattack, bikingwhileblack, carcrazy, carviolence, chicago, labikeacademy, photogallery, photography