Bikeside LA

"Bikeside LA" is the blog I've chosen, and the subject of the post I read is of the Mayor of LA's desire to enforce the wearing of a bike helmet on all ages in order to lower the number of head injuries in cycling crashes. The author of the post, Rach Stevenson, is a member of an organization called "Blood in" that has demonstrated for the rights of bikers in Los Angeles. Her qualification for blogging the post is that she is also an active cyclist in the city, which is enough, in my mind, to qualify her as enough of an expert. It was in fact her first entry in the blog, which is set up for different writers to post articles about different current issues concerning cycling in LA. In Technorati, it is ranked 41153rd, and on the right, it says that it is "Auth: 120." Two articles I found very interesting include one of a protest held on by bikers for bike safety (http://www.bikesidela.org/hit-and-run-hits-everyone/) and the other one is basically about proving the mayor of Los Angeles wrong. (http://www.bikesidela.org/mayor-villaraigosa-declares-helmet-war-on-california/).

The focus of the latter post argues that issuing a mandatory helmet law for all ages does not necessarily result in a reduction of traumatic brain injuries. While using research studies and a chart to support her argument, Rach is more bothered by the fact that at the summit in which the mayor had spoken, he had ignored the cyclists' suggestions of safer road conditions. Her references to numerous studies is certainly very academic and professional, and thus, this post is very rich and very detailed, along with the rest of the blog.

For the audience, which is primarily cyclists seeking more safety on Los Angeles streets, the authors understand the difficulty cyclists have to face and to show that actions are being taken. Specifically to the post by Rach, she continually claims that the mayor has immediately jumped to the last resort and does not want to spend more money to fix what cyclists are in actuality complaining about. Overall, I would say that the blog will feed a good portion of my work as it is the most well-known blog on my issue of cycling in Los Angeles. Although my viewpoint would differ in that I will discuss my immediate experiences of the week of my bike rides, I will use this blog as a guide for what is being to help me have a safer ride.