NYC tops per-capital bicycling rates while LA doesn’t, Georgia driver justifies plowing into group ride; and Streets For All endorsements

October 23, 2026 / / No comments

A new report from Streetlight shows New York led the nation in per-capita bicycling rates, with slightly smaller Boise, Idaho a close second.

According to Fox News,

New York City topped the bicycle miles-per-capita rankings at 58 miles annually per resident, followed by Boise, Idaho, at 53 miles…

Meanwhile, Jersey City showed the strongest bicycle density after New York, with 7,893 bicycle miles traveled annually per square mile, nearly three times the third-ranked San Francisco’s figure.

Irvine made the top ten at number five; needless to say, Los Angeles did not.

I’d like to tell you where Los Angeles ranked in the nation’s top 100 cities, but the online application form for the report refused to work for me.

Our spokescorgi reminds you to vote early and often, and no later than November 3rd. 

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In a story hidden behind their paywall, the Atlanta Constitution Journal talks with the 73-year old driver who’s charged with intentionally plowing his car into a group of bike riders on Sugar Pike Road in Cherokee County, Georgia, injuring two of the victims.

He, of course, blames the victims, despite passing close enough to knock off his wing mirror while blaring his horn, and promises to take the case to the Supreme Court if he’s convicted.

Eight days after the incident on Sugar Pike Road, which was captured on video and viewed millions of times on the internet, Ross was released from the Cherokee County jail on $24,540 bond. He was indicted last week for aggravated battery, two counts of aggravated assault, and leaving the scene of an accident, among other charges, which means, if convicted, he could be sent to prison long enough to die there. He’s on the arraignment calendar for Nov. 4…

The incident made national headlines in April and May. It was covered by TMZ, People, and the New York Post. Ross finally told his side of the story in October, in extensive interviews with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, where he made it clear he has no intention of going to prison. He plans to spend his final years in the same house where he’s lived since 1986, up a hill on a cul-de-sac between the Woodstock city limits and the Fulton County line, with his Florida Gators doorbell and his Gators shower curtain and an easy chair where he can sit and watch Florida Gators football.

Ross insists he did nothing wrong on Sugar Pike Road that day in April. He will fight to prove that claim.

“I’ll take this to the Supreme Court,” he said.

Except the Supreme Court would undoubtedly refuse to hear it, because there’s no constitutional issue at stake, unless he can argue that it’s in the national interest to require bicyclists to ride single file, and that the state’s three-foot passing law somehow discriminates against motorists.

Even though it isn’t, and it doesn’t.

It’s worth finding a way around the paper’s paywall to read the whole story, if only to see how some people justify driving dangerously, and blame anyone but themselves. And far too many side with them in the court of public opinion, even when the victims did everything by the book.

Never mind that anyone who admits to having to pull over due to dizzy spells because of their prescription medication shouldn’t be on the road in the first place.

And I say that as someone who gave up his own keys because of the effects of my own prescription meds.

………

Streets For All offers their endorsements for the upcoming election.

I’d add to that list Colin Hernandez, who is running against incumbent Rick Zbur for California 51st State Assembly District. Zbur supported the recent bill making it nearly impossible to improve safety on Forest Lawn Drive. And I’m told he’s been working behind the scenes to halt the bike lanes planned for Fountain Ave in West Hollywood.

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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going. 

A Texas advocacy group condemned remarks from Republican congressional candidate Brandon Herrera, who publicly fantasized about running over bicyclists in an apparent failed attempt at humor.

Utterly disgusting testimony from a British court, where a man is on trial for dragging a 56-year old bike rider to his death; a passenger in the car says they could hear the victim moaning from underneath the car, and the driver kept swerving until he finally dislodged the victim, after twice trying and failing to pull him out from under his car — then spent the night afterwards laughing, drinking and joking.

No bias here. The leader of Britain’s far-right Restore Britain announced the party’s new ebike policy by declaring that the country’s sidewalks “are not racetracks for young foreign men,” while failing to make any distinction between legal and illegal ebikes. Or residents, apparently.

But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly. 

A 27-year old man was critically injured when he was struck by another bike rider in Harlem, New York on Thursday, while riding an ebike the wrong way in an eastbound bike lane; the other man was in stable condition with head and body injuries.

No bias here. An English paper says cows and ants have figured out how to travel in single file, so bike riders should be able to, too, showing a photo of bicyclists riding on both sides of a narrow country road. Never mind that it’s a narrow country road, and occupying both lanes prevents impatient drivers from passing unsafely. 

Police in Newcastle, England are looking for bike-riding man who broke the wing mirror off a car following an argument, then punched the two women inside and repeatedly slammed the car door on the driver’s leg. But other than that, he was a perfect gentleman, right?

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Local 

Biking While Black will host a book reading of the new graphic novel Major Taylor: The World’s Fastest Man, with author Frederick Noland on Sunday, November 1st at Leimert Park’s Ride On! Bike Shop.

Not only did LA Lakers star Luka Dončić pay for parking for fans attending the team’s season opener, he also partnered with Metro to arrange free Metro Bike rides throughout Los Angeles. Of course, most of us didn’t learn about it until afterwards, but still. 

Long Beach will add about 700 ped-assist ebikes to the city’s bikeshare fleet next year, with “thousands” more to come before the ’28 LA Olympics.

 

State

Encinitas plans to sue California over a recently enacted law that will prevent them from legally removing a protected bike lane from the roadway across from a high school, although they may try to move forward with it anyway. Even though next to a school is exactly where a bike lane should be protected.

Good news for California is bad news for Connecticut, where Cannondale is closing its headquarters and laying off 100 people after 50 years, and moving its offices to Santa Cruz.

Bad news from San Jose, where someone riding a bicycle suffered life-threatening injuries when they were struck by a driver Thursday night.

Wailaki tribal descendants are trying to toss a monkey wrench into the 307-mile Great Redwood Trail hiking and biking path being built along a defunct Northern California rail line, decrying people trampling on their ancestral villages and gravesites.

 

National

Seattle Bike Blog offers more details on the lawsuit filed by relatives of a 30-year old elementary school teacher who was killed in a right hook following a sudden right turn by a driver of a garbage truck. Thanks to Mike for the heads-up. 

An 88-year old man made his first court appearance after killing a man at the Tour de Fat bike parade in my bike friendly Colorado hometown; Van Lemaster faces multiple charges for crashing into a car while backing out of a parking space, then flooring his car in the opposite direction, jumping the curb and plowing into several people, killing a 33-year old man. Although at his age, anything less than the minimum on each count would likely be a life sentence.

A Houston, Texas man faces an aggravated assault charge after a teenager rode his bike near the man’s truck in a parking lot, accused of punching the kid in the face while yelling racial slurs, then crashing his truck into to boy and his bike before fleeing the scene; the man was driving despite extensive record of assault and drug-related charges over the past three decades.

Islands Magazine heralds tiny Sparta, Wisconsin as the Bicycling Capital of America since 1990 — with roughly 10% of the population of ancient Sparta — to the surprise of virtually every other bicycling town in America.

Police in Cleveland arrested the driver accused of plowing into multiple vehicles on a multi-mile hit-and-run rampage, before killing a “beloved” bicyclist.

New York Streetsblog talks with the president and public relations director of the Century Road Club Association, America’s oldest bike racing club, founded in 1898 in New York’s Central Park.

New Jersey may walk back its recently enacted draconian ebike laws by exempting Class 1 and 2 ped-assist bikes from the requirement for a license and registration.

 

International

The lawyer for a Saskatchewan driver says he was just scared and confused following a collision on a dark road, and shouldn’t be held criminally responsible for the hit-and-run death of a 21-year old BMX rider, even though prosecutors say he was drunk, speeding and looking at his phone.

If you build it, they will come. Over half of the adults in Montreal rode a bicycle last year, with 58% of adults taking to two wheels after the city built out a 685-mile bike network.

Bicyclists were banned from pedestrianized zones in Clermont-Ferrand, France, meaning the Tour de France Femmes peloton could be the only bicyclists permitted to ride in large parts of the city next year; the race will finish on the iconic Puy de Dôme, approximately six miles from town.

Time Magazine has named the Aerobag wearable airbag safety kit for bicyclists to their list of the best inventions of 2026; the eponymous Belgian company has been working on developing the device since the death of Bjorg Lambrecht at the 2019 Tour de Pologne.

 

Competitive Cycling

Good news from Tennessee, where 19-year old cyclocross star Tofik Beshir is out of the ICU and responsive after he was hit head-on by a driver while training near Lees-McRae College in North Carolina nearly two weeks ago.

You gotta respect Tennessee’s Milligan University, which achieved four top fifteen results at this year’s USA Cycling Collegiate Mountain Bike National Championships in Grand Junction, Colorado, less that two months after two team members were killed when a driver plowed into the cycling team on a training ride.

More bad news from the world of bike racing, however, where a competitor in Latvia’s amateur Vienība cycle race died after collapsing in last month’s race; the 1930s race was resumed in 1995 after the country regained its independence from the Soviet Union.

 

Finally…

As anyone who has ever seen a horror movie knows, when a strange man invites you to leave the bike path and follow him to “his spot” in the woods, don’t. A tree toppled and landed on two cars during this week’s storm across from the Taco Bell and Dave’s Hot Chicken on Western Ave, in case you want to ride by to say thanks and pay your respects.

And if you have to risk arrest for being a spy in a country where you don’t speak the language, maybe think twice about riding alone somewhere on a terrorist watchlist.

………

Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin.

 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

LA committee votes to request report on installing bike lane barriers in-house, WeHo bike lane whine, and GOP both pissed-off and missing

October 22, 2026 / / One comment

One quick note before we start. 

I’m going with a shorter format today, after running out of time to keep working as the clock leaves 4 am in the rearview mirror.  

The problem stems from my attempt to set our apartment on fire with an overheated wok last night, said attempt failing only after I remembered the $28 fire blanket I bought last year and stashed next to the stove, thinking I might need it someday. 

That someday was yesterday. 

So we’ll go with the day’s main stories for now, and catch up on the rest tomorrow. And if it seems like my heart’s not in it today, I can assure you it’s on the saddle and in the bike lane, where it always is.

My head, on the other hand, is another matter. 

Today’s photo of 3rd Street Toronto barriers shamelessly stolen respectfully borrowed courtesy of Streetsblog’s Joe Linton

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Sort of good news today, as the LA City Council Transportation Committee voted to install new concrete Toronto barriers on the city’s protected bike lanes.

Just kidding.

The committee actually voted unanimously to request a report from LADOT on what it would take to install the barriers internally, rather than rely on the Bureau of Street Services to install them.

Which should raise the question of why LA city departments continue to be siloed, with one agency tasked with planning city streets, another with engineering them, and a third with actually building them.

But this being LA, no one bothered to ask that.

Instead, assuming the motion passes the full council, the department will be tasked with compiling yet another report to report back to the council on, reporting why they should or shouldn’t install the barriers themselves, or if they even can.

So I will report on the report, if and when they actually report on it.

And people wonder why nothing reportedly gets done around here.

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Seriously, would you like some cheese with that whine?

A WeHo Online op-ed complains that West Hollywood City Councilmember Lauren Meister was treated unfairly in her attempt to undo what the council had already done in voting to approve the planned protected bike lanes on Fountain Ave.

Meister, said the mister who wrote it, “demonstrated something increasingly rare on the West Hollywood City Council: a willingness to listen, reconsider, and think beyond the confines of a predetermined political position.”

According to the op-ed,

Her proposal was neither radical nor unreasonable. It simply asked whether there might be a better way to achieve safety for ALL users of Fountain Avenue.

Which is what the council had already done, in approving a plan that considered the needs off all road users, rather than just the ones who want to keep parking on it.

Apparently, all the councilmembers who supported the plan were unreasonable, if not downright rude, in their refusal to reconsider the votes they had cast mere months before, while those who didn’t were perfectly reasonable in requesting that they do.

Then there were the several dozen written comments originating from ZIP codes well beyond West Hollywood. Everyone is entitled to an opinion, but the voices of outside advocacy networks should not be confused with those of residents who will live with the consequences of these decisions every day. Their interests deserve particular consideration, not dismissal as obstacles to someone else’s ideological vision.

Which would make perfect sense, if this was a matter that only affected residents of the city. But Fountain Ave has long been used more by people attempting to drive — or bike — through WeHo to some other destination, than as a quiet side street for those who live along the busy corridor.

If memory serves, Blake Ackerman, whose ghost bike sits at Fountain and Gardner, was riding home from work in DTLA to an apartment in Beverly Hills when he was killed by a hit-and-run driver just last year.

Countless studies show that improving safety on Fountain will benefit everyone who drives, bikes or walks along the corridor, while improving the quality of life for those who live nearby.

So it is not unreasonable for councilmembers to stick to a previous decision that was made after years of street studies and public meetings. It is, however, unreasonable to demand that it be reconsidered every few months.

………

Apparently, the Central Valley Young Republicans are opposed to a proposed sales tax measure on next month’s ballot.

No, really opposed.

According to a letter to the editor in the GV Wire,

The Fresno County Transportation Sales Tax, otherwise known as Measure S, is a scam. The measure will extend the already high sales tax throughout Fresno County. And, while its creators promise “better roads” and “safer streets,” it will not improve either.

Instead, it pads the pockets of the nonprofit CEOs who wrote it and prioritizes the fundamental transformation of our beautiful, family-friendly Central Valley into a dump, similar to what the once beautiful city of San Francisco has become today.

This measure’s main objective is to create a more urban, public transit-dependent, cluttered way of life, similar to the disasters of Los Angeles and San Francisco, with unending bike and bus lanes driving cars off the road, funded and supported by the same elites and politicians who destroyed California and now want to destroy Fresno County.

Okay, but how do they really feel?

Because, evidently, clogging local streets with more and more cars, trucks and SUVs will somehow maintain their high quality of life, while providing alternatives to driving will destroy it.

Never mind the non sequitur of nonprofits padding their pockets.

There is a valid argument to be made about resisting higher taxes, or at least considering them very carefully. There can also be a discussion as to where and when to build bus and bike lanes.

But this ain’t it.

I only wish LA had “unending bike and bus lanes driving cars off the road.” Because what’s really driving cars off the road are all those other drivers in other cars, with increasingly less space to maneuver because of all the other drivers driving them off the road.

And they wonder why Republicans are an endangered species in California.

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Finally, we’ll end on the sad saga of ICE agents crashing into, detaining and breaking the arm of an American citizen in Long Beach on Saturday.

According to My News LA, four California lawmakers — US Representatives Nanette Barragán, D-San Pedro, and Robert Garcia, D-Long Beach, as well as Senators Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla, both D-California — sent a strongly worded letter to Department of Homeland Security Inspector General Joseph V. Cuffari demanding an investigation into the ICE attack on Ricardo Gonzalez.

But what’s missing from the letter — aside from the likelihood that it will be taken seriously under current DHS leadership — is the presence of any lawmakers with an R following their names.

Maybe I’m dating myself, but I remember when government agents in black SUVs detaining — let alone attacking — an American citizen would have drawn howls of protest from the GOP, as well Democrats.

Maybe someday, our Republican leaders will find their missing integrity. But today is clearly not that day.

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Fountain bike lanes win in WeHo, ICE pinky swears they didn’t hit Long Beach ebike rider, and bike rider dead after Cleveland rampage

October 21, 2026 / / 2 comments

Safety won out over convenience after all.

According to LAist, the effort to replace plans for protected bike lanes on Fountain Ave parking failed following a tense West Hollywood City Council vote, failing by the slimmest possible margin.

The motion: Meister’s motion, which critics said came at the last minute, aimed to avoid the loss of 60% of the street’s parking as a result of the roadway changes. Meister said on Monday her motion was an attempt to weigh the approved plan against an alternative that “might accomplish the same safety objectives while preserving parking.”…

The vote: The motion failed in a 3-2 vote on Monday night. It would have directed staff to evaluate an alternative plan for the road that maintained street parking but didn’t include bike lanes. West Hollywood City Councilmembers Chelsea Byers and John Erickson and Vice Mayor Danny Hang voted to reject the motion. Mayor John Heilman and City Councilmember Lauren Meister, who introduced the motion, supported the effort.

Except, of course, it wouldn’t have accomplished the same safety goals. Studies show that protected bike lanes increase safety for all road users by as much as 90%. But forcing riders to use the traffic lane, or risk riding in the door zone, would make the street even less safe than it is now.

And right now, it’s pretty deadly.

Bluesky post

Today’s photo: Maybe we’ll have fewer ghost bikes now, like this one installed for Blake Ackerman last year on Fountain Ave. But let’s hope they move fast, because who knows what will happen after next month’s election. 

………

No surprise here, as ICE swears they didn’t ram their SUV into a Long Beach man before detaining him Saturday, breaking his arm in the process.

Yet video shows the SUV speeding the wrong way on a one-way street before swerving into the path of Ricardo Gonzalez’ ebike, apparently based on nothing but the color of his skin.

A statement from ICE says Gonzalez hit their wing mirror. Which is hard not to do when a massive SUV cuts right in front of you.

An ICE officer can be seen jumping out, gun drawn. Gonzalez was tased and wrestled to the ground before ICE agents pinned him face down in the gutter, his hands cuffed behind his back.

Never mind that Gonzalez is a native-born American citizen who works for the City of Long Beach.

According to the New York Times,

In the video footage, Mr. Gonzalez can be heard yelling. “You hit me with your car. I’m a U.S. citizen!” he says, using several expletives.

Mr. Gonzalez was later taken to a hospital for his injuries, the Long Beach police said. The police was not involved in immigration enforcement and did not make any arrests at the scene, the department added. It said its officers were called in for backup by ICE, which had reported that vehicles were being vandalized and that a person needed medical attention. The extent of Mr. Gonzalez’s injuries was not clear on Tuesday.

It gets worse.

In its statement, a spokesperson for ICE said the agency had been conducting a targeted operation to arrest a “criminal illegal alien.” The agency did not say whether it thought Mr. Gonzalez was that person. The agency also said its officers had used “the minimum amount of force.”

“ICE did NOT hit an individual on a bike. An individual was arrested after he smashed the mirror of a government vehicle,” the spokesperson wrote.

ICE described the man, whom the spokesperson did not name, as a “rioter.”

So evidently, getting hit by federal agents with their SUV, tased, cuffed and having your arm broken in an apparent case of mistaken identity is “rioting.”

Got it.

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Heartbreaking story from Cleveland, where police are looking for the driver who killed a 35-year old man riding a bicycle, after striking several other vehicles.

According to Cleveland’s WKYC, the tragic series of event began as police were directing traffic just before the end of the Brown’s football game. After officers observed the driver of a pickup truck squealing his tires, they tried to get him to stop, but he just fled on the wrong side of the road.

He struck one vehicle, then several others as he fled down the road, eventually losing a wheel. Despite that, he continued driving before striking and killing the victim.

He then abandoned the truck, fleeing the scene on foot.

Compounding the tragedy, the victim, William Mays, was riding a bicycle he was given him by the suburban Highland Hills Police Department this past July, after officers learned the bicycle he used to get to and from work had broken down.

They posted a memorial to Mays following his death, calling him a beloved member of the community, “remembered for his kindness, warm smile, and the joy he brought to our department.”

The only good news in this whole mess is that no one else was injured in this traffic violence rampage.

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Boy, does he get it.

A Scottish columnist says city councilors in Edinburgh and Glasgow need to ride the bike lanes in their cities — or try to, anyway — because the bike lanes “appalling” condition amounts to a roadway apartheid. And that bike lanes should be in better condition than the regular traffic lanes, anyway.

He says that parts of the city are beginning to feel like Amsterdam, thanks to more segregated bike lanes, or what we would call protected bike lanes.

But – and this is a big But – very few people will be able to get from A to B on segregated lanes alone. For virtually every cycle journey, however much you try to avoid busy roads without segregated lanes, it will prove impossible.

However, in my experience, it’s far worse than that, as older cycle lanes may well be all but invisible or in a decidedly poor condition, if not also litter, leaves and debris-strewn. I would go so far as to describe the worst examples as roads apartheid – smooth running for cars while cyclists have to put up with bumpy, rutted surfaces.

I believe where that has occurred, councils have got their priorities all wrong. The condition of cycle lanes should be as good as or better than that of the main carriageway – not the other way round.

Unfortunately, the story is hidden behind a paywall for the paper’s “premium” users. But it’s worth finding a way around it to read the whole thing.

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Note the lovely smoking factory in the background neatly framed by the tire.

Bluesky post

 

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Toronto protesters erected a sculpture to fallen bicyclists, composed of stacked red bicycles, along one of the bike lanes the Ontario provincial government is in the process of ripping out.

Thanks to Donna for the heads-up. 

Reddit post

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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going. 

No bias here. A clip resurfaced this week of Texas Republican congressional candidate and “gunfluencer” Brandon Herrera fantasizing about killing bicyclists for the crime of being in front of him on the road — “They want to be treated like vehicles, like cars. But they’re not, they travel at fucking arrestable speed limits of not being a fucking car. And they expect you to respect the fact that they just want to be an asshole on Sunday mornings. I had fucking fantasies of running them all over and, you know, maybe one of these days I will.” Nice guy.

No bias here, either. A writer for London’s The Independent — yes, the same paper sportswriter Trent Crimm worked for on Ted Lasso — says now that the UK’s new prime minister is fining people who play loud music without using headphones, he needs to tackle the problem of people who ride bicycles on the sidewalk. Which sounds reasonable, until you consider that no one rides on the sidewalk if the street next to it is safe.

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Local 

CD14 Councilmember Ysebel Jurado is one of us, taking part in the recent Heart of LA CicLAvia.

 

State

Congratulations, California. We’re number 2 — in more ways than one — on the list of states with the most bicycling deaths. Although with a population more than 24% larger than Texas, the next largest state, it would be surprising if we didn’t rank near the top. 

More than 50 veterans and first responders are taking part in the 400-mile Project Hero Ride down the California coast to raise funds to support recovery from PTSD and traumatic brain injuries.

The parents of a 13-year old Garden Grove boy killed when he crashed his e-motorbike into a pole at 40 mph now face charges of child endangerment and contributing to the delinquency of a child for buying their son a “faster and more powerful E-Moto,” despite multiple previous injuries.

Streetsblog reports that speed cams work where they’re installed. And right now, they’re installed and working in San Francisco. Maybe someday, LA. Maybe someday. 

 

National

Relatives of a fallen Seattle elementary teacher have filed suit against a garbage company, alleging the driver of one of their trucks abruptly right hooked him as he rode his bicycle, running over him and his bike. And there ain’t no helmet that can protect against that. 

He gets it. An op-ed from a New York bike advocate says the city needs smarter rules for Central Park, where pedestrians have access to all 51 miles of streets in the park, while bike riders are confined to a single 6.1-mile roadway shared with runners, rollers, walkers and dogs.

 

International

London, Ontario bicyclists called for safer roads during Saturday’s Critical Mass ride, which is kinda the point of Critical Mass.

Sad news from England, where one of the best known bicyclists in rural Cumbria died after a short illness; 87-year old Gerard McCarten was locally famous for his fundraising rides, as doctors listened in to his radio-transmitted heartbeat as he rode after his heart attack ten years ago.

Bike advocates in the UK are calling for action from Prime Minister Andy Burnham to provide safer bike routes for women, after a local task force found that three-quarters of the country’s bike lane users are male.

A 24-year old man from County Cork, Ireland has resumed his 7,500-mile fundraising ride from his hometown to the Mt. Everest basecamp, after returning home for three months to wait out monsoon season.

 

Competitive Cycling

Polish Olympic silver medalist Daria Pikulik was stripped of her results for a two-year period after skipping three doping tests over an 18 month period. But the doping era is over, right? Right?

 

Finally…

Your next single-speed belt-drive bike could be a Ralph Lauren. You could have been the proud owner of an antique Leo Grundle chemist delivery bike for the equivalent of a mere $1,366.

And I only wish this wasn’t true.

Twitter post

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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin.

 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Waiting on word from WeHo, lengthy prison terms for killer drivers, Florida cop patrols at 3 times legal BAC, and ebike jousting is now a thing

October 20, 2026 / / No comments

Just a quick update today, since I wasted too much time trying to learn more about Saturday’s ebike death in Huntington Beach. You’d think I’d know better by now. 

And still no word from West Hollywood about the city council vote on replacing the promised protected bike lanes on Fountain Ave with curbside parking. 

Hopefully we’ll learned more today. 

And apropos of nothing, this is my only companion as I work in the dark tonight, while my wife and corgi — no, two separate beings, thank you — sleep in the other room. 

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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going. 

A 27-year old Florida man faces felony child abuse charges for allegedly pushing a child off his bicycle following a brief altercation; he insists he didn’t push the kid, but merely knocked the boy off his bike by kicking its front tire. Which somehow doesn’t seem to make it any better.

But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.

A London man says a bike rider ran a Putney red light and crashed into him as he walked in a crosswalk, then punched and kicked him until impatient drivers honked their horns, but did nothing to intervene.

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Local 

As usual, Metro buses, trains and Metro Bikes will be free on Election Day, which should be a paid holiday, but isn’t.

Local residents are calling for an anti-camping zone for the new park scheduled to open under the 6th Street Bridge next year. Although they’ve managed to fuck up everything else with the four-year old bridge, so they might as well fuck up the park, too. 

Secret Los Angeles spills the secret on the planned Westwood bike lanes that will — finally — connect UCLA to the Westwood/Rancho Park E Line station. And eventually connect the E Line to the D (Purple) Line.

 

State

A 40-year old Rohnert Park man was lucky to escape with non-life threatening injuries when he ignored railroad crossing gates, a train’s horn and warning lights to ride his bike across railroad tracks as a SMART train was crossing. Seriously, train crashes are the easiest collisions to avoid, since they’re confined to a narrow space and usually provide ample warning that they’re coming. And they’re fucking loud. 

Three years after allowing ebikes on an East Bay trail, an unscientific survey finds 80% of trail users feel unsafe around them. Although I wonder if the survey included ebike riders, too. 

Golden State Report’s Paul Thornton says San Francisco’s Prop G is the most LA thing on the city’s ballot; the measure would rip out the popular sunset Dunes Park to restore the former Upper Great Highway. Which clearly wasn’t so great, or they never would have shut it down to create a linear park in the first place. 

 

National

Velo picks the year’s best road bikes, starting with their $2,500 “budget” bike.

PeopleForBikes says that e-mountain bikes are changing the way Forest Service land managers work. Which makes sense, since they cost less than a good horse, and are way cheaper to feed.

A couple of New York legislators who can’t seem to undo the caps lock key on their keyboard propose allowing scofflaw bicyclists to watch a video instead of paying a fine, inspired by a similar London law. If I have to watch a video, I’ll take Casablanca, please.

A bill in the New Jersey legislature would exempt Class 1 and 2 ebikes from the state’s draconian licensing and registration requirements.

A 33-year old Pennsylvania man was sentenced to 10 to 40 years behind bars for beating another man to death with his own bicycle, after pleading guilty to 3rd-degree murder while insisting he didn’t remember doing it, but admitting video evidence was likely to sway a jury. The article kept disappearing on me, but maybe you’ll have better luck. 

An Alabama woman received 25 years behind bars for killing a 13-year old middle school student as he was riding his bicycle, while she was speeding, “under the influence of multiple substances,” and ran the red light he was legally crossing.

This is who we share the road with. A Florida cop was busted for driving drunk while on duty, in his patrol car, with a BAC three times the legal limit.

Thousands of creepily clad costumers climbed on their bikes for Key West’s annual four-mile Zombie Ride.

 

International

Yucatán Magazine looks at the dangers faced by bike riders in Mérida, the Mexican state’s capital city, from disconnected and poorly maintained bike lanes to hazardous urban corridors. Sounds kinda like a certain SoCal megalopolis we could name. 

A fourth person has been arrested protesting Ontario’s moves to rip out a Toronto bike lane, as dozens of people continue their effort to block the roadwork.

A 27-year old London woman was sentenced to a relatively modest ten years and nine months behind bars for killing a music student as he rode his bike in the city’s Hackney neighborhood, while she was high on laughing gas and doing 53 mph in a 20 mph zone. Although typical of British reports, the make of car she was driving seems to be the most important detail.

A new joint German-Israeli study used a robotic bike — no, not what you think — to determined that “dynamic, trunk-related control that keeps the upper body stable while the world tilts beneath the wheels” is more important than general steadiness on two feet in keeping older bike riders balanced and stable on their bicycles.

 

Competitive Cycling

Two-time Leadville 100 champ Melisa Rollins is leaving offroad cycling behind to embark on a new road cycling career.

 

Finally…

Yes, your toddler needs a nearly $700 titanium-frame balance bike. While your kid toddles on ti, your next bike could be made from thermoplastics.

And that feeling when Lime says using their bikes for the noble sport of ebike jousting is a big no-no.

Instagram post

………

Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin.

 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , ,

62-year old woman dies after solo Huntington Beach ebike crash Saturday; city recently named CA’s most dangerous city for bicyclists

October 20, 2026 / / 3 comments

Once again, someone has been killed riding an ebike.

And once again, we have to take the police at their word that the victim was on an actual electric bicycle, rather than the e-motos and hacked bikes that too often pass for ebikes.

According to multiple reports based on a Facebook post from the Huntington Beach Police Department, a woman died after striking a curb with her bicycle in the city.

The victim, identified only as a 62-year old Westminster resident, was riding east in the bike lane on Warner Ave around 4:30 pm Saturday when she somehow struck a raised curb east of Brightwater Drive.

She was found lying unconscious in the roadway, but died after being taken to a local hospital.

The post says it’s unknown if she was impaired.

It’s also apparently unknown what kind of ebike she was riding, whether she was alone or with others, how fast she may have been going, if she struck the curb as a result of carelessness or because of some sort of obstruction or uneven pavement, or even if she was wearing a helmet. Which may matter, for a change, because she died as the result of a fall, although we don’t know if she suffered a head injury.

Anyone with information is urged to call Traffic Investigator Vishal Rattanchandani of the Huntington Beach Police Department’s Multidisciplinary Accident Investigation Team at 714/536-5231.

It’s not clear if the police or the medical examiner’s office will release more information, or if this is all we will ever learn about this crash.

This is at least the 58th bicycling fatality that I’m aware of in Southern California this year, and the eighth we know about in Orange County. It’s also at least the second this year in Huntington Beach, which was recently named the state’s most dangerous city for bicyclists.

Category: Injuries and Fatalities / Tags: , , , ,

All hands call to save Fountain Ave bike lanes, ICE attacks ebike-riding CA native in Long Beach, and bike lanes are conservative

October 19, 2026 / / No comments

Man, that was a rough week.

I can’t remember the last time a migraine knocked me out like that, or affected me so badly for so long after the pain was finally gone. 

I’m told my migraines, and the associated dizziness, stem from a traumatic brain injury suffered in the infamous beachfront bee incident that put me in the ICU for a few days 20 years ago.

The impact knocked me cold for several minutes, erasing any memory of the crash and leading to one of those life-after-death visions you read about, which, real or hallucinated, both shattered and cemented my own personal faith. 

The ER doctors at Santa Monica’s St. John’s hospital told me my helmet probably saved my life. But in those pre-MIPS days, it did nothing to prevent the concussions I suffered.

The first migraine I ever had came four years after that, and they’ve continued to grow more frequent and worse in the years since. 

I’ve often been a critic, not of bike helmets, but of the overpromises made by so many people who equate bike helmets with seat belts or air bags, as if they would somehow magically protect you from a multi-ton motor vehicle traveling at highway speeds.

They won’t. 

Even the best bike helmets are intended to protect you from relatively low speed falls off your bike, not collisions. But as I’ve learned the hard way, that limited protection can still make a huge difference in your health decades after a crash. 

Now the Canadian-made Pikio Si Oblik has been rated the safest ever by the testing institute at Virginia Tech. It’s hard to recommend a helmet that costs nearly $400, especially when you can get a decent MIPS model for so much less.

But based on my own experience, it might be worth it. 

………

As we said last week, tonight there’s an all hands on deck meeting of the West Hollywood City Council, as WeHo Councilmember Lauren Meister is once again attempting to kill the long-promised protected bike lanes on Fountain Ave.

Meister tells WeHo Online that the council didn’t receive any other options other than the bike lanes when they voted to approve the project — even though the street was subject to nearly a decade of discussion and public meetings — and she prefers a plan that would replace the bike lanes with parking spaces, calling it a “compromise.”

Although the C-words I would use are “capitulation,” and “convenience,” as in a surrender to the whims of motorists who are used to parking on the deadly street.

Never mind that protected bike lanes have been shown to improve safety up to 90% for all road users, while maintaining parking would only serve to keep the corridor deadly by forcing bike riders to use the single remaining lane or ride in the door zone.

Streets For All explains how you can help by attending tonight’s meeting, or sending an email to the councilmembers in advance of the meeting.

Parking proponents will undoubtedly be out in force at the meeting, and will need to be met with an equal and opposite demand to improve safety for everyone. The alternative will be to keep Fountain Ave unrideable and unsafe to walk along and cross, as well as to drive.

If that’s the plan, they might as well save the money to pay for ghost bikes and white tires for all the victims yet to come.

………

More evidence that ICE is out of control, after a Long Beach man was intentionally run down by ICE agents as he was riding an ebike and struck with an unmarked vehicle, then tased twice and handcuffed face down in the gutter, suffering a broken arm in the attack.

Ricardo Gonzalez was attacked by agents on Saturday, apparently because of the color of his skin, since they had no other means of determining his immigration status as he was riding his bike. Never mind that Gonzalez was born in Hanford, California, making him a US citizen by birth, despite Trump’s efforts to change that.

The agents also rifled through his wallet, and confiscated his ID and Meta glasses.

A crowdfunding campaign for Gonzalez has raised over $13,000, more than doubling the initial $6,500 goal.

Note to ICE agents: Maybe try to determine someone’s citizenship and immigration status before you run them down with an SUV — or better yet, just don’t run them down in the first place.

Thanks to Megan for the heads-up.

………

He gets it.

A Bakersfield writer says bike lanes are a conservative cause, so it’s time to stop targeting them and the leaders who advocate for them.

Here’s what these critics miss: A bike lane makes a road safer even when no one is riding in it. Wide lanes invite speeding and inattention. Narrowing them slows traffic, and the striped buffer puts extra feet between moving cars and people on the sidewalk. Federal data cited by city staff show bike lanes on arterial roads cut car-bicycle crashes roughly in half. If anything, the city should go further and add bollards or other barriers, so a drifting driver hits a barrier before a person. That would also make riders feel safe enough to use the lanes more.

Now consider the money. Many roads in northwest and southwest Bakersfield were built with two lanes each way but enough pavement for three or four, on the theory that traffic would someday need it. At the pace we grow, that day is decades away, if it comes at all, and these roads will need rebuilding long before then. Where were the fiscal watchdogs when we paved all that unnecessary asphalt? Repurposing a few feet of it for the safety of everyone is a bargain by comparison…

And when it comes to bike infrastructure itself, fiscal conservatives have been making the case for years. The Kern County Taxpayers Association, hardly a group of free spenders, has long pushed for a better network of bike and walking paths across the city, including more than 50 miles of trails along abandoned and underused rail lines. When the region’s leading fiscal watchdog says safe places to walk and bike are worth the investment, critics who call it waste should take note.

None of this is a liberal plot to take away anyone’s car. It’s about two things conservatives have always championed: freedom of choice and public safety. People should be free to choose how they get around, whether that’s driving, biking, walking or some mix, to save money on gas, to get some exercise, or to let their kids gain a little independence. But that choice only means something if every option is reasonably safe. Too often, it isn’t. A parent may hesitate to let a 12-year-old ride to school. A retiree may not be able to safely walk to the corner store. Someone who can’t afford a car, or can’t drive one, may be taking their life in their hands just crossing the street. Keeping people safe is among the most basic jobs of local government, and the right to get home alive shouldn’t depend on being encased in a car. Responsible spending, personal choice, public safety and strong families are supposed to be conservative values. Safe streets serve all four.

Maybe someone should show this to Sean Duffy, our current Secretary of Transportation, and tell him enough with the “DEI bike lane” crap.

And I say “current,” because no one seems to have job security in this administration, except for those who seem to least deserve it.

………

A San Francisco writer discusses the difference riding a bicycle has made in his life over the past ten years, improving it in ways he couldn’t have imagined.

My colleague Lily Janiak, our San Francisco Chronicle theater critic who bikes to shows and everywhere else, coaxed me along like a mother duck, warning me about the risks of tires sticking in streetcar rails, getting “doored”, and even other cyclists. Struggling to remember it all, I felt certain I was going to die.

Instead, I was reborn. 

Or at least rebranded. Riding a bicycle has become as much a part of my Chronicle job as exploring new spaces, hanging out with cool old people and breaking big Pacifica Taco Bell news. I now take my bike and public transportation to assignments as a rule.

In the process, I’ve gotten healthier, spent less money and saved time cruising past traffic jams. But the results extend beyond all that (and the smugness that often comeswhen cyclists lecture about health, money and traffic). I’ve become a better journalist and a better community member. I may not live longer — did I mention that I bike in San Francisco? — but I’m definitely doing a better job working for you.

Unfortunately, the story is hidden behind the paper’s draconian paywall. But it’s worth finding your way around it if you can to give it a read.

………

The Hollywood Reporter examines the bicycling documentary The Perfect Road, which premiered recently at the London Film Festival.

Years ago, Maximilian Schnell left his job and his life in Paris and began a nomadic lifestyle on his bicycle. The road has given him freedom and adventure. And he has set himself grueling physical and mental challenges.

Perfect Road, a documentary from Danish directors and cousins Adam and Christian Bonke, follows him on an extreme journey through some of Europe’s highest mountain passes, while also providing a meditation on modern life and character study. For one, even in an age of digital nomads, Schnell’s lifestyle pushes the envelope. And then, his relationship with his partner Nina makes him question his life priorities.

………

We’ve seen this video before, depicting a Slovakian mountain biker outrunning a bear, possibly without even knowing he was doing it.

But an animal website uses this 2017 encounter as a launching pad to consider what you should do if you run into one while riding out in the woods. Hint: Unless you can ride faster than 35 mph, you may lose the race. 

………

The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going. 

A Florida convenience store owner is facing a second-degree murder charge after intentionally driving his car into a 14-year old boy riding an ebike, because he thought the boy had attempted to burglarize his store.

In one of the most shameful episodes I’ve seen, a Quebec City family called off a planned ghost bike ceremony for their 11-year old son after receiving “hateful” messages; a member of the group Souliers et vélos fantômes Québec — Ghost Shoes and Bicycles Quebec — called the comments “wildly inappropriate.” Seriously, there’s not a pit deep enough for anyone who’d send something like that to parents whose child had just been killed, under any circumstances. 

A woman is seen on video being chased by a man with a machete for undetermined reasons as she rides her bicycle alone through Kenya.

Twitter post

………

Local 

The Los Angeles Times profiles UCLA law student Jonathan Hale, and his DIY campaign to paint the crosswalks the city won’t.

Pasadena is asking for your comments on proposed safety improvements to the St. John and Pasadena avenue corridor.

 

State

Irvine has decided to put the city’s CicloIrvine open streets program on hold while they work through their budget problems. Once again, you’ll have to navigate the OC Register’s draconian, self-defeating paywall. 

Sad news from Visalia, where a man riding a bicycle was killed by a heartless coward hit-and-run driver.

Sleepy Santa Cruz ranks as the sixth most dangerous California city for bicyclists, as Huntington Beach checks in at #1, to the surprise of no one who has been paying attention, while Bell ranks a surprising second; Palo Alto and Gardena were the two safest cities. In a case of good news/bad news, Los Angeles didn’t make either list. 

There’s a special place in hell for anyone who would crash into two six-year old kids as they’re riding their bikes in Half Moon Bay, and just drive off leaving them on the side of the road; 37-year old Robert Schumann faces multiple charges after cops used a drone to track him down as he bravely hid in the woods to avoid capture. Fortunately, the children are hospitalized in stable condition. Once again, however, you’ll have to work your war around yet another unproductive paywall.

 

National

Aussie pro cyclist Lachlan Morton succeeded in setting a new record for the old Pony Express route last week, beating the relay team that carried Abraham Lincoln’s inaugural address to California by nearly 12 hours, while covering the 1,966-mile route in 6 days, 21 hours and 15 minutes. Although Morton did have the advantage of paved roads, pneumatic tires and something slightly more aero than a horse. 

A Salt Lake City letter writer says the city’s bicycle and pedestrian improvements may be confusing for drivers, but the benefits are worth it.

My bicycle-friendly Colorado hometown held a third annual bike parade to honor a ten-year old boy killed by a distracted driver in 2023.

Dallas, Texas is looking for feedback on an interactive map of proposed bike safety improvements, as advocates push to turn research into legislation protecting bicyclists.

New Hampshire state police are investigating after a local mayor and state representative got into a brief “verbal altercation” with someone riding an ebike; the man says he only got out of his car to retrieve his wife after she got out to have words with the bike rider.

New York Streetsblog says Central Park is long overdue for the kind of perimeter bike lanes found at the city’s other parks, and complains that the half-measures implemented after New York banned cars from the park have only made things worse.

 

International

A Nobel Prize winner examines the anti-aging industry, and concludes that the humble bicycle is one of the most effective anti-aging tools out there.

Bike Radar considers how many headlamp lumens you really need to see and be seen after dark. Personally, I’ll settle for roughly 3.9 octillion, which is only slightly brighter than the sun. 

Momentum looks at seven of the longest off-road bike trails in North America.

Ottawa, Ontario identified seven bike lanes that could be impacted by a new provincial law that limits removing traffic lanes to add bike lanes during road reconstructions.

A London writer who wisely chooses to remain anonymous justifies why they’ve ridden though roughly 40,000 red lights and have no plans to stop, although kindly choosing not to ride through red lights and crosswalks when pedestrians are present.

Another London writer says the city has spent the last 15 years building for bikes, before now deciding the bikes are the problem.

Drivers in Scotland have been told to stop driving on a bike path as a shortcut around construction delays.

For the second consecutive year, the UK is holding a series of bike rides across the country to highlight the need for safer routes for women riders.

A British city counselor attends a conference on designing streets through a child’s lens first, and explains that “towns that are safe for children are safe for everyone.”

British actor Taron Egerton paid a fine and received points on his driver’s license after bicycling content creator CyclingMikey filmed him using a mobile phone while driving.

Sri Lanka’s head cricket coach takes time out for a little mountain biking in Pakistan, praising Islamabad’s natural beauty.

Two German men are retracing the route of China’s Long March by bicycle; the military maneuver by the Chinese Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army became a defining chapter in modern Chinese history, leading to the defeat of the forces of Chiang Kai-shek in the Chinese Civil War.

 

Competitive Cycling

Former cycling scion Taylor Phinney finished eighth in the men’s individual pursuit at the 2026 UCI Track World Championships, while beating his personal best by a massive 11 seconds, nearly seven years after he retired from road racing. Although his wife Katarzyna Niewiadoma-Phinney is still kicking ass on the women’s road circuit. 

 

Finally…

Now even the rocks are out to get us, as a 76-year old Florida woman was killed by a falling boulder while riding in Pennsylvania. Then again, London sewage seems to be out to get us, too.

And maybe it’s just me, but this seems like a bad thing.

Instagram post

………

Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin.

 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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