Power Assisted Bikes

From bicycle lanes to bike boulevards, chicanes to road diets — see the ins and outs of great bicycle and walking facilities and roles they're playing in creating livable communities.

Net Impact and the Caltech Y Social Activism Speaker Series present:
FELICIA WILLIAMS, Cyclists Inciting Change thru Live Exchange

"Creating Great Places to Bike!"

Wednesday, April 21 at 7:30 PM
Noyes 153 Auditorium
Bldg 72, campus map: http://sass.caltech.edu/map/72.html
Food and drinks provided!

From bicycle lanes to bike boulevards, chicanes to road diets — see the ins and outs of great bicycle and walking facilities and roles they're playing in creating livable communities. Learn what facilities can make streets safer and more convenient for bicycling (and walking.) Includes a slide show, short film clips, handouts, and question and answer session.

Getting there:

From the intersection of San Pasqual and Wilson (on the west side of the Caltech Campus) walk east (into campus) about 200 feet on the large pedestrian walkway.  On the left, you'll see a sign for "The Warren and Katharine Schlinger Laboratory for Chemistry and Chemical Engineering".  Just before that sign, there's a walkway (also on the left).  At the end of that walkway, about 100 feet away, beyond a courtyard with a sycamore tree in the middle of it, you'll see the front doors to Noyes Laboratory (and if your eyes are good, you'll see the name of the building too).  There are bike racks on the right (behind Schlinger) near Noyes.

Presenter: C.I.C.L.E. - Cyclists Inciting Change thru Live Exchange, is a non-profit organization based in Northeast Los Angeles working to promote the bicycle as a viable, healthy, and sustainable transportation choice. C.I.C.L.E. leads bicyle workshops, hosts beginner rides, presses for healthier street policies, and spearheads the annual Bike Week Pasadena. For more information about C.I.C.L.E. visit www.CICLE.org

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The Social Activism Speaker Series is a Caltech student organization that focuses attention on current social and political issues by inviting prominent activists to share their experiences and perspectives with the Caltech community and the public. This student-run series is coordinated with the help of the Caltech Y, and is made possible by contributions from the Moore Hufstedler Fund, Student Affairs, Campus Life, the Alumni Association, the Graduate Student Council, and the Caltech Y, as well as staff support from Public Events.

For more information about SASS, visit http://sass.caltech.edu or contact Greg Fletcher, Caltech Y, (626) 395-6163.

Photo credit: via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr

A concerted effort by a coalition of bike advocates, business owners and council members to install an on-street bike bike parking corral keeps pushing forward.

Published April 19, 2010 by C.I.C.L.E.
By Shay Sanchez : Photo Credit: gregraisman

A concerted effort by a coalition of bike advocates, business owners and council members to install an on-street bike parking corral keeps pushing forward. This Friday, April 23, the motion to implement a pilot Bike Corral program along York Boulevard between Avenue 50 and Avenue 56 will be heard by a full City Council.

It should be noted that while the original motion slated the proposed bike corral to be installed on York Boulevard, recommendations from LADOT Bikeways to shift the corral from York Boulevard to the red-zone along Avenue 50 have been proposed.

If you are able to attend this very important session, we encourage you to show up to voice your support for this very cool project. The agenda will be posted here at least three days in advance.

Why Bike Corrals are Sexy…

-to businesses. Bike Corrals convert one car parking space into 10 bike parking spots.  That’s makes up to 9 more potential customers parked in front of your business.

–to bicyclists. Bike Corrals provide ample visible, convenient and secure parking spots for the warm-hearted bicycle traveler. Bike Corrals also work to grow bicycling by increasing the visibility of bicycling as a valid transportation option.

–to pedestrians.They make more space for pedestrians and enhance the outdoor sidewalk environment by removing locked bicycles from the sidewalk.

–in general. They’re uber-cool and they s-c-r-e-a-m,  “this neighborhood is bike-friendly!”

Be there to demonstrate your support!

When: This Friday, April 23 at 10:00 am

Where: LA City Hall, City Council Chambers, 200 N. Spring St Room 340

Additional Resources:

Streetfilms Video: Portland Bike Parking: Corral vs Oasis 
Further discussion on LA.Streetsblog.org

The United States transportation secretary, Ray LaHood, recently caused a stir when he proclaimed that bicycling and walking should be given the same consideration as motorized transport in state and local transit projects.

Published April 5, 2010 by NY Times : Green Inc
By LEORA BROYDO VESTEL

The United States transportation secretary, Ray LaHood, recently caused a stir when he proclaimed that bicycling and walking should be given the same consideration as motorized transport in state and local transit projects.

Supporters, who continue to post notes of adulation and thanks on Mr. LaHood’s Facebook page, say the acknowledgment of biking and walking as legitimate modes of transportation is long overdue.

Critics, conversely, believe the secretary is taking the country in the wrong direction.

Mr. LaHood, formerly a Republican congressman from Illinois, spoke with Green Inc. about his reasons for introducing the new policy, the impact it will have on transportation financing, and why bike paths are a good bang for the buck.

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Bicycling and walking advocates had a very positive reaction to the policy change. But here at Green Inc., we heard mostly from critics who said it showed you were “delusional” or reflective of some sort of “Maoist” bent. What’s your response to the response?

My response is that this is what Americans want. Americans want alternatives. People are always going to drive cars. We’re always going to have highways. We’ve made a huge investment in our interstate highway system. We’ll always continue to make sure that those investments in the highways are maintained.

But, what Americans want is to get out of their cars, and get out of congestion, and have opportunities for more transit, more light rail, more buses, and some communities are going to street cars. But many communities want the opportunity on the weekends and during the week to have the chance to bike to work, to bike to the store, to spend time with their family on a bike.

So, this is not just Ray LaHood’s agenda, this is the American agenda that the American people want for alternatives to the automobile.

What’s happened around America is people are buying bikes and they’re using them for recreational purposes on the weekend and there’s no better family way for people to spend a weekend than riding their bikes on these biking trails.

This is what Americans want and we’re accommodating their needs to really find places to recreate. And what could be healthier than taking a 30-minute walk, which is recommended by every doctor in America, or hopping on your bike and riding four, five or six miles and enjoying the great outdoors?

Look, this is a win-win. This is a way for people to get out of their cars, a way for people to recreate, a way for people to get good exercise, and it’s what Americans want to do.

In announcing the new policy, you used pretty forceful language, saying it was a “sea change” and “the end of favoring motorized transportation at the expense of nonmotorized.” The actual policy, however, is more benign in tone, saying, “well-connected walking and bicycling networks is an important component for livable communities, and their design should be a part of federal-aid project developments.”

Do you stand by your initial characterization of the policy?

I think that livable and sustainable communities is a game changer. It’s a game changer because it’s what Americans want. It’s a game changer because people do want to get out of congestion, they want to get out of their cars, they want to be able to enjoy the outdoors, they want to be able to recreate with their families.

And so it’s a game changer from the point of view that it’s a major component of livable and sustainable communities that provide alternatives to automobiles. And some of it is transit, some of it is light rail, some of it is street cars, some of it is good buses. But certainly a big part of it is the opportunity to bike or walk to the grocery store, to work, to the drug store or just spending time with the family and getting some good exercise.

In terms of the way federal transportation dollars will be spent on the ground, is this a zero sum game? Does more money for biking and walking mean less money for motorways?

We’re always going to take care of our highways. As I said, we have a state-of-the-art interstate system that’s been developed over three or four decades. We’re not going to give up on our roads. We know people are always going to drive cars. They’re going to use their cars for long distances.

But as we develop our livable and sustainable communities program, biking and walking paths will be a major component of it. And they will get some significant dollars.

In response to the policy change, a member of Congress said he didn’t understand how you get a bang for the buck out of a bicycle project. Why do you think they’re a good investment?

You don’t have to get a bang for the buck in every form of transportation. Certainly, transit, it provides a good bus or light rail or other kinds of transportation services. But, they don’t make money doing it.

This is a good bang for the buck because it provides alternatives to people, and good exercise, and for people who are very health conscious and for people who want to spend time with their families.

This is a win, win, win. It incorporates a lot of different opportunities for people and it’s a good bang for good health, and a good bang for a different form of transportation, and it’s what the American people want.

Was there any particular reason you wanted to introduce the new policy now?

It has more to do with the fact that we’re rolling out our livable and sustainable communities as we travel around the country and I also was at a huge bikers’ conference in Washington,  D.C.,  and we wanted to give them the chance to really understand that all of their hard work over a long period of time has finally paid off. There’s an administration in place now that has taken to heart their request for more walking and biking paths.

Original Article:

http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/05/qa-transportation-secretary-on-biking-walking-and-what-americans-want/

Significantly fewer women ride bikes than men. It’s a subject I’ve touched on (very briefly) before, but it bears further exploration.

Published April 5, 2010 by Publicola
by Josh Cohen

Significantly fewer women ride bikes than men. It’s a subject I’ve touched on (very briefly) before, but it bears further exploration.

An article in October’s Scientific American reported that men outnumber women cyclists 2-to-1 in America—a fact the writers attribute in large part to cycling infrastructure. They argue that if there were more protected or separated bike lanes running through cities (and not just along waterways and green spaces) more women would ride.

Some local cycling advocates, however, say that infrastructure is just a small slice of the problem and that things like secure bike parking and appropriate equipment play much larger roles in keeping women from using bikes as transportation.

As I guy, I bring a pretty limited perspective as to what’s keeping women off bikes. So I posed the question to Every Day, commute specialist with the Bicycle Alliance of Washington. Day, a bike commuter for more than 20 years, teaches workshops on safe commuting, basic repairs, and proper equipment selection. She says that the conventional wisdom that a lack of bike lanes or trails poses a significant barrier is no more true for women than men. In her view, the number one reason more women don’t cycle is a lack of safe, secure bike parking.

“Imagine you’re a woman on the UW campus going to unlock your bike in a dark area of campus at night,” says Day. “Whether it’s just perception or not, women feel more vulnerable. Bikes feel more vulnerable.”

Day says she’s “by no means saying that women are afraid of bicycling.” But bicycling for transportation means riding at all hours of the day, in all weather, which often means that the beginning and end of the ride is going to involve locking up your bike on a dark street or in a dark parking lot.

To address the issue of secure bike parking (for both bicyclists and their bikes), Bike Alliance introduced the Bike Station (recently rebranded the Bike Port) in 2003. It’s an indoor bike storage facility in Pioneer Square a block north of King Street Station that can be accessed 24/7 by key card.

Instead of standing in the dark and rain, commuters can enter the locked Bike Port, change at their leisure, and use the bathroom in comfort and safety. There are bathrooms, lockers, basic tools and a work stand, and a vending machine stocked with emergency repair supplies. It costs $100 per year ($10 a month, or $2 a day) to use the facility.

The number two impediment for women, Day says, is finding equipment that fits and suits their needs. Until recently, major manufacturers put little to no effort into designing bikes for women. Because the majority of a woman’s height is typically in her legs, riding a bike designed for a man often means being stretched beyond comfort in the upper body. Riding a saddle designed for a man (women’s saddles are often wider to accommodate wider hips and have cut outs to accommodate “soft tissue”) has caused serious discomfort as well for many of the women cyclists I know.

Fortunately, bike fit is significantly less of an issue than it was even five years ago. Some of the biggest companies in the industry—like Trek, Giant, and Specialized—have introduced women-specific versions of their road, mountain, and commuter bikes.

But getting people onto the right bike is still a huge issue. A skinny-tired road bike and a backpack might work fine for commuting to the office (though there are better options out there), but it can’t rival a car for running errands around town and dropping the kids off at school (and the dozen other places parents have to chauffeur their children every week). Day says cargo and electric-assist bikes are key to the viability of bikes as transportation. Cargo bikes give you room to  pick up a week’s worth of groceries and the kids. And electric-assist bikes use a battery-powered motor to help you up hills. Day says that sore joints and muscles are major concerns for many of the older women she talks to at events.

Groups like Cascade Bicycle Club and Bicycle Alliance offer plenty of classes that are open to everyone, but there are few women-specific classes. The Bikery in the Central District occasionally offers a class called Basic Bike Maintenance for Women, Gender Queer, and Trans Folk. Their website says the class is for “people who are looking for an intentional alternative to the traditionally male dominated bike-shop environment.”

Nationally, the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals is  working on a project trying to figure out how to get more women into cycling as part of their broader effort to “change transportation culture.”

A major component of the APBP’s early effort is a survey for women and girls that they’re conducting through May 15. As such, the questions focus heavily on women’s experiences riding on streets, their interactions with cars, and their comfort on bike trails vs. bike lanes. But it also includes questions about other provisions women might want (in the office, around town) to make cycling easier. The APBP says the aim of the survey is to give engineers, city officials, and transportation planners the information needed to design improved, practical cycling infrastructure.

It’d be great to see the number of male and female cyclists equal out. If nothing else, it would basically double the number of cyclists out there, increasing visibility and acceptance. Things like the APBP survey, Bike Alliance’s Bike Port, and The Bikery’s classes for women are small steps in the right direction, but there’s clearly many more changes needed to close the gender gap.

Original story:

http://www.publicola.net/2010/04/05/why-dont-more-women-ride/

When mechanical engineer Phil Wood took up bicycle racing at San Jose's velodrome, he became frustrated by wheels that quickly became wobbly.

Published March 23, 2010 Mercury News
By Joe Rodriguez

When mechanical engineer Phil Wood took up bicycle racing at San Jose's velodrome, he became frustrated by wheels that quickly became wobbly. He had to clean and repack the ball bearings with grease after every race.

"He thought that was crazy," said his daughter, Donna Williams, of Roseville. "He asked, 'Why doesn't somebody invent a wheel hub that doesn't need maintenance?' "

That somebody turned out to be Wood, and the company he founded on April Fools' Day in 1971 still churns out the sealed hubs that revolutionized the bicycle industry by ushering in an era of high-performance, low-maintenance equipment.

Wood died earlier this month of pancreatic cancer in Roseville. He was 86.

According to Peter Enright, who bought Phil Wood & Co., in 1991, bicycle hubs and brackets had not changed much in over a century. They were basically ball bearings placed in a cup and held in line by a pressed-in cone, which loosened easily. Wood invented a grooved hub in which ball bearings could be held in precisely by a screw-on cap. Except for the cheapest bikes, most bicycles today come with sealed hubs and bottom brackets that keep in lubricants and keep out water and grime.

However, Wood did not patent his invention and never got rich.

"My dad was an inventor," Williams said, "but he was not a businessman. He didn't care about those things. He just wanted to improve his inventions even more."

Phil Wood was born in Knightstown, Ind., on July 9, 1926.

After graduating from high school, where he excelled in mathematics, he was drafted into the Navy during World War II and served as a radio operator. Wood returned to Indiana after the war, where he married his first wife, Eve Steelink, and took up motorcycle racing. He even built his own dirt bike.

The couple then moved to Southern California, where Wood enrolled at the prestigious California Institute of Technology, and promptly dropped out.

"That's because he felt he could do better on his own than how they were training him," Williams said.

Wood and his young family migrated north to San Jose, where he found a job in mechanical engineering with FMC. He helped the company design and refine the process of freeze-drying foods, a feat that changed how and what Americans eat.

He stayed at FMC for about a decade. After the death of his first wife, he remarried in 1959. He settled in Monte Sereno with the former Lavada Sowers, with whom he raised eight children.

After refining the sealed hub, Wood invented a machine that turned out stronger spokes for wheels and started producing bike pedals and other components. After selling the company, he and Lavada retired to Baxter, Iowa.

Still intellectually restless, he wrote a textbook on differential calculus and a book on the theory of Turks head knot, a continuously braided knot without end. He tutored local students for years, earning an outstanding achievement award from the local school board. After Lavada died in December, Williams moved her father to Roseville.

Contact Joe Rodriguez at 408-920-5767.

To cut pollution and traffic congestion, Mexico City is initiating bike-sharing programs, installing new bike parking, and legally requiring all government workers to ride their bicycles to work once a month.

Published March 23, 2010 by Christian Science Monitor

How to help this sprawled-out city choked with more than 4 million vehicles and rampant air pollution? Ride a bike, says Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard.

New infrastructure, road closures, and bike-sharing programs are helping to promote the two-wheel answer to congestion and poor air quality. There’s the “Muevete en Bici,” which opens 8.7 miles of major avenues to only cyclists on Sundays. The city has also promised to build new bike parking and 186 miles of bike paths by 2012. There are bike racks in the Metro stations as well as bicycle-designated subway cars. Bike-sharing programs abound, the largest being the newly launched EcoBici (EcoBike) that has 1,100 bikes for use. It is the first of its kind in Latin America.

“Just as in other cities, like Barcelona, EcoBici is a project that seeks to recover public spaces, improve people’s quality of life, and, of course, help protect the environment,” said Mayor Ebrard in February at a ceremony to unveil the program.

You’ll even see city government workers cycling to work on the first Monday of each month as they are required to by law.

But the city is still bedeviled by poor air quality, and the bikes are only the latest stab at the problem.

Mexico City has been fighting its appalling air quality since 1986, when birds were known to die mid-flight and the government finally started to establish pollution-cutting initiatives. In the 20 years since, Mexico City has phased out leaded gasoline, introduced emissions standards for cars, shut the worst coal-fired power-plants, and passed legislation to pull cars off the streets and shut factories when pollution levels spike.

Bicycle riders during the week are still scarce. The proposed new bike paths have been stalled because of “budgetary restraints.” Cycling advocates, however, remain convinced of progress.

“Despite the lack of infrastructure I can assure you that in some areas of the city, biking has increased,” says Gen. Bernardo Baranda, policy director for the Institute for Transportation and Development.

Original Article:

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2010/0323/Mexico-City-makes-way-for-bicycles

Dress in your finest duds and mingle alongside some of the most dashing characters in this Los Angeles bicycle ride that's sure to become an annual event.

Published March 24, 2009 by C.I.C.L.E.

Meet at Hollywood High at high noon for tea, scones, and an introduction to the ride and contests. This afternoon jaunt will depart at 1pm.

Dress in your finest duds and mingle alongside some of the most dashing characters in this Los Angeles bicycle ride that's sure to become an annual event.

Stops on the ride will include some of the best historic and memorable landmarks in Hollywood such as the Egyptian Theater, Cole House and Good Humor Building, which will all make for some spiffy photos.

Post ride hooch for those who are interested at the Cat and Fiddle Pub, made famous by many things including the film, Casablanca. There will be New Belgium Brewing drink specials and a snazzy cruiser bike raffle, benefiting C.I.C.L.E.

You won’t want to miss this great ride! As with all Urban Expeditions, this ride is less than 10 miles and tailored towards beginner-intermediate rider levels. Bring a snack, water, and a bicycle in good working condition.

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Contests for these categories:
· Best Tweed Dress: Male and Female
· Most Likely to be on a Fox Hunt
· Best Dressed Bike
· Best Mustache: Male and Female
· Best Hat
· Best Socks
· Best Hollywood Glamour Style- Male and Female

Meet: On the Hollywood High School lawn on the corner of Sunset and Orange.
1521 North Highland Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90028-7096

Time: High Noon

RSVP via Facebook

Jose Guzman fell in love with bicycles thanks to God.

Published March 4, 2010 by LA Times
Hector Tobar

Jose Guzman fell in love with bicycles thanks to God.

His first long bike trip was a few hundred miles through the dry mountains of Jalisco in central Mexico, in a long line with a few hundred other pedaling Catholic pilgrims. Later, he turned his passion for biking into a small delivery business, stacking 200 pounds of fresh chicken over his back wheel every day in suburban Mexico City.

In Los Angeles, Guzman pedals everywhere — from his apartment in Pico-Union to the Inland Empire, Sylmar, Harbor City and other places, often hitching a ride part of the way on a Metro bus or subway line.

Guzman is a day laborer and soccer referee for hire. He's crossed the city on borrowed bikes and on bikes he's put together himself after salvaging frames and rusted wheels from the trash.

Once he owned a rebuilt bike with a pink frame, and when a girl at MacArthur Park yelled out, "Mommy, that man is riding a girl's bike," he answered back: "Señorita, it doesn't matter what it looks like, as long as the wheels turn and it gets me where I'm going."

Now Guzman has a new set of biking friends. Every week he visits a workshop in downtown Los Angeles, picking up bike repair and riding tips from Arlen Jones and Ramon Martinez, "bicycle cooks" and volunteers with the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition.

"In L.A. we have thousands, maybe tens of thousands of people on bikes that mainstream cyclists never see," Martinez told me. He called them "invisible cyclists" but then corrected himself because really, if you pay attention, you'll almost always see them on the streets.

I've seen the cyclists in the garment district, Koreatown and Pasadena, often in the uniforms of cooks or kitchen workers. They don't wear spandex and they don't bike to lower their cholesterol or to reduce their "carbon footprint."

They don't bike because it's a cool lifestyle choice. Mostly they bike out of necessity.

"My bike is my salvation," Guzman told me. "I see it as part of me. It's my vehicle. I carry bags, backpacks, groceries on it. Everything."

At the small work space on South Main Street, Guzman and a handful of other day laborers get lessons from some young but seasoned mechanics who are also passionate biking activists.

The two groups of men fix brakes together, take apart gear assemblies and push pedals with their hands until the spinning freewheels produce their normal, soothing clicks.

Original Article:

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/mar/04/local/la-me-tobar5-2010mar05

The gifted mechanic, who honed his skills in the Navy as an aviation machinist, has come up with a machine that’s catching investors’ attention.

Published March 7, 2010 by Boston Herald
By Christine McConville

Bike builder Ted Wojcik has a problem.

The gifted mechanic, who honed his skills in the Navy as an aviation machinist, has come up with a machine that’s catching investors’ attention.

The not-yet-named device is a recumbent-style bicycle with a lawnmower attachment on the back. It’s a pollution-free way for homeowners to get some exercise and cut their lawn at the same time.

Since introducing it to the world at last month’s North American Handmade Bicycle Show in Virginia, investors have approached the Vietnam War veteran with plans of getting rich through mass producing his product.

But this proud American will only work with people who promise to make the bikes here in the United States.

“I only want to do this if it leads to American jobs,” he said from his southern New Hampshire home. “I believe that Americans can’t compete on prices anymore, but we can certainly compete on quality. “And I’d like to see this machine sold as a high-quality object that will last a while.”

Wojcik, 63, is well-known in the high-end cycling world.

For 30 years, he has been building custom bikes, for a select international clientele, and he’s proud of his position.

“There are 4.3 million bicycles sold every year, and I only want to sell 100,” he said.

About a year ago, a customer from Portsmouth, N.H., approached him about a human-powered lawnmower.

Wojcik got to work, with his engineer son Cody. Together they created what many say is the world’s greenest, quietest, least-polluting sit-down lawnmower.

“I wouldn’t use it to take care of a golf course, but it is very capable. It has been mowing lawns since August,” he said.

The bike works on its own, too.

The prototype cost about $3,500 to make, and when it first went into use this past August, Wojcik said passers-by got out of their cars to take a closer look.

Wojcik and his son are now working on a second, less-costly version of the machine.

Wojcik is a New York native who came to New England when he joined the Navy. He later worked in motorcycle and automobile shops on the North Shore.

Two bike messengers saved the day for a Los Angeles man Monday when they chased a bike thief for five blocks downtown and then knocked him to the ground, causing him to flee, police said.

Published February 22, 2010 by LATimes.com: Blogs

Two bike messengers saved the day for a Los Angeles man Monday when they chased a bike thief for five blocks downtown and then knocked him to the ground, causing him to flee, police said.

Jesus Tobar, 43, said he was working out at 24-Hour Fitness in the 500 block of Flower Street in downtown Los Angeles when he emerged to find his green Iron Horse Desperado Mountain Bike gone.

Tobar returned to the gym to ask if there was any security surveillance video. But two bike couriers had seen his $500 bike being taken and had already set off after the thief.

The couriers pedaled through downtown at high speed on a chase that traversed sidewalks and busy streets, said LAPD Cmdr. Andrew Smith. Eventually, one of the messengers was able to grab the thief's shirt and pull him to the ground.

The man then took off on foot and the couriers reclaimed the bike.

"This was a wild, high-speed bicycle chase through crowded streets of the Jewelry Mart," Smith said. "We are now looking for a 30-year-old man with a torn shirt, a possibly sprained ankle, as well as road rash."

Although this case had a happy ending, officials say bike thefts have been on the rise, increasing 29% last year and bucking an overall drop in crime. Los Angeles Police Department detectives believe the increase is in part a result of more people using bikes to get around in some neighborhoods.

A Times analysis of LAPD data found the USC campus area, Venice, parts of Hollywood and downtown L.A. to be hot spots for bike thefts.

As the thefts have increased, some people have taken matters into their own hands. Last month, bike messengers downtown caught two suspected thieves, teenage boys who attended a local Catholic high school, and stripped them down to their boxer shorts before taking their cellphones, backpacks and clothes.

– Andrew Blankstein

Original Article:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/02/bike-couriers-case-down-would-be-bike-thief-in-wild-downtown-pursuit.html