The abject failure of Vision Zero in America, the dangers of conflating ebikes and e-motos, and Calbike’s 2026 agenda

December 5, 2025 / / No comments
Day 339 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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It’s Day 8 of the 11th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive!

Thanks to Phaedrus and Michael for their generous support to keep SoCal’s best source for bike news and advocacy coming your way every day, and ensure the corgi will find a little kibble in her stocking this year.

So don’t wait. It only takes a few clicks to donate via PayPal, Zelle or Venmo. 

And no, she won’t stop staring until you give her something. So start clicking. 

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They get it.

The Washington Post takes a hard-hitting, and heartbreaking, deep dive into the abject failure of Vision Zero in the United States, with a focus on Los Angeles.

And deadly Vista del Mar, aka Deadly del Mar, in particular.

And I do mean heartbreaking.

LOS ANGELES — As the sun set over the Pacific Ocean one Sunday this past spring, Cecilia Milbourne returned from a walk on the beach with her dog, Gucci. To reach her parked Tesla, she had to cross a road that city officials have known for years poses a danger to people on foot.

Eight years ago, as part of a national initiative to stem traffic deaths called Vision Zero, the city shrank the number of lanes on the road, Vista Del Mar, and several connecting streets in the shoreside community just south of Venice. But they restored it to four lanes after an uproar by drivers — among them Octavio Girbau, who railed against a city official in a 2017 Facebook post stating he was stuck on one of those intersecting roads “in the traffic hell you created.”

On March 16, Girbau was driving south on Vista Del Mar as Milbourne was about to cross in a spot with no crosswalk and no sidewalk — just a concrete curb separating her from the moving cars. Girbau bumped another car, lost control and struck Milbourne on the side of the road, sending her flying as his Mercedes flipped onto the beach, according to a police report. Milbourne, 29, a hairdresser and actor who had moved to Los Angeles from Atlanta, was pronounced dead at the scene. Her dog died with her.

Deadly del Mar, to refresh your memory, is where then-Councilmember Mike Bonin ordered a road diet after the city settled with the family of a 16-year old girl killed crossing the roadway from Dockweiler Beach for a whopping $9.5 million.

Just one of the eight people killed on the little four-mile street since 2015.

Then gutless former Mayor Eric Garcetti pulled the rug out from under Bonin by ordering the roadwork ripped out, and restored to its dangerously high-speed previous state, in the face of outraged pass-through commuters, mostly from wealthy Manhattan Beach.

Which effectively marked the death of Vision Zero in Los Angeles.

In addition to pushback from outraged, or even slightly peeved, motorists, WaPo cites too little funding for the death of Vision Zero.

Like the $80 million called for initially in Los Angeles to even put a dent in traffic deaths, which never materialized.

And that has led to endless delays in making the safety improvements the city already knows we needed. Like in Koreatown, for instance.

In some cases, Angelenos have died as planned safety upgrades stalled.

It has been over a decade since the city decided to put a roundabout at the corner of 4th Street and New Hampshire Avenue in Koreatown, a neighborhood where 34 people have been hit by cars and trucks and killed between 2015 and 2023. But there was a dispute between the city and the state over funding, and some objected to the plan to include bike lanes. The roundabout was delayed.

On July 31, Nadir Gavarrete, a 9-year-old, was killed at the intersection while crossing the street on his scooter by a driver in a motor home.

LA guerrilla activists responded by painting their own DIY crosswalk at the intersection days later, working in broad daylight.

Which the city promptly painted over.

Meanwhile, Mayor Karen Bass is busy cutting ribbons at coffee shops, instead of addressing solutions to traffic deaths, which her office says she’s “working on.”

After all, she’s only had three years to come up with something.

Anything.

But back to Deadly del Mar, which Los Angeles is considering for one of the speed cams authorized by a state pilot program passed and signed two years ago.

None of which have yet been installed in the City of Angels, as city leaders continue their usual dithering and obfuscation.

One of the first locations being considered is the spot where Milbourne was killed on Vista Del Mar. This fall, Kevitt and some of his colleagues did their own radar testing on the road. They found that about half of drivers are going above the speed limit during rush hour. In the morning, more than a quarter of cars are going over 50 miles per hour.

Milbourne died near two sets of stairs that lead from the wide expanse of Dockweiler Beach to Vista Del Mar. At the top, there is barely space to stand between the sandy bluff and the road. Cars whip by fast enough to be heard over the sound of planes taking off at Los Angeles International Airport, which sits just east of the beach.

Inevitably, the first response to complaints about speeding drivers is to call for greater enforcement. Except, of course, from the speeding drivers themselves, who fear getting ticketed because they’re unwilling to actually slow down.

But there aren’t enough cops in California, let alone Los Angeles, to patrol every street in LA 24/7. Or even enough to make a difference.

The equation is simple. Lane reductions, aka road diets, slow drivers, sometimes by causing greater congestion at peak hours. But drivers don’t want to slow down, and definitely don’t want to get stuck behind other drivers, blissfully unaware that they themselves are the cause of that congestion.

Not road diets. Not bike lanes.

Not even other drivers.

Even on Deadly del Mar.

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They get it, too.

Velo argues that the reason ebike injuries are up 1800% has little to do with ped-assist bicycles, and everything to do with e-motorbikes.

When a teenager crashes an “e-bike” at dangerous speeds, communities call for sweeping bans. When batteries ignite and cause a fire in apartment buildings, local governments restrict where electric bikes can be charged. And when pedestrians are struck by riders on sidewalks, cities work swiftly to cut riding speeds or discuss implementing licenses.

The problem? Many of these e-bike injuries and incidents can be avoided if only we defined what makes an electric bicycle.

Several of these incidents involve what cycling advocacy group PeopleForBikes calls an ‘e-moto’: electric motorcycles and mopeds sold as “street legal” e-bikes that don’t need a license or registration.

Many – but not all – of these e-motos sell new following standard e-bike Class 1,2, or 3 speed classifications. But with some modifications, they can reach speeds of 30, 40, or even 50 miles per hour, and are causing growing problems nationwide.

The solution, they say — as does People For Bikes — is federal legislation classifying anything with a built-in capability exceeding ebike specifications to “be classified as a motor vehicle, period.”

That’s just the first step.

They also call for requiring more truthful advertising as to what is actually “street legal,” as well as standardizing state laws regulating ebikes, just like bicycling regulations are virtually identical from one state to another.

It’s worth taking a few minutes to read.

Because as long as anything with an electric motor is considered an ebike, regardless of power or speed capabilities, we risk ill-informed crackdowns on, and condemnation of, all of us.

Like this hit piece in the anti-bike New York Post, which says a plan to create a separate lane for ebikes and e-scooters in Central Park is “plain crazy,” once again conflating dangerous e-motos with standard ped-assist ebikes.

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Calbike posted their recent webinar to unveil their new legislative agenda for the coming year, and answered some of the questions they didn’t have time for.

Although a recap would have been nice, for those of us who struggle to find time to sit through an hour-long video this time of year.

So let me know if there’s anything in there about hit-and-runs.

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‘Tis the season.

Raising Cane’s founder Todd Graves donated 500 new bikes to the Boys & Girls Club of Harlem, with Batchelor and Batchelor in Paradise contestant, and season 16 Bachelorette ,Tayshia Adams on hand to help hand them out.

Sixty-two 3rd graders in Fayetteville NC got new bicycles, after telling the assembled that four kids earned one of the new bikes by winning in an essay contest, then announcing that everyone else would take one home, too.

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

No bias here. Chicago residents complain about new bike lanes causing traffic to overflow onto surrounding streets and alleys — except what’s causing the backup is the construction work to build the bike lanes, not the bike lanes themselves. And a former daily bike commuter says he doesn’t think bike lanes are even necessary, apparently not grasping that bike lanes are for the people who don’t feel comfortable mixing it up with motor vehicles, rather than those who do.

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Local 

The Snake is once again raising it’s seductive, if ultimately ugly, head, reopening six years after the dangerous 2.4-mile winding stretch of Mulholland Highway was closed due to the Woolsey Fire and subsequent mudslides; the road offers one of the area’s most popular bicycling climbs, while also attracting speeding motorcyclists and supercar drivers.

A CicLAvia-style open streets event is coming to East LA next weekend, when about 1.6 miles of City Terrace Drive and Hazard Ave will go carfree for the benefit of pedestrians, bicyclists, joggers and runners. As well as just plain, you know, people.

 

State

Longstanding Fountain Valley-based ebike maker Pedego has changed hands, and countries, after they were purchased by Chinese intelligent-ebike brand Urtopia.

 

National

Shockingly, the CEO of People For Bikes considers what the world’s happiest countries all have in common, and discovers the answer is — bikes.

Honda wants to move deliveries out of the traffic lane and into bike lanes, as it unveiled its new e-cargo bike storage locker on wheels; meanwhile, foldie maker Tern’s electric cargo bikes have covered more than one million miles of commercial delivery work in New York City. After all, most drivers would tell you no one is using the bike lanes now, anyway.

If your kid is wearing an Outdoor Master bike helmet purchased from Walmart or Amazon in the past year, get ’em a new one, because the feds have issued a recall notice saying they pose a “risk of serious injury or death.”

You know awareness of traffic safety is growing when lane reductions reach even Sparks, Nevada.

Life is ludicrously cheap in Montana, where a driver walked with a gentle caress on the wrist for killing a seven-year old boy riding his bicycle in a crosswalk, after prosecutors reduced a negligent homicide charge down to misdemeanor careless driving, and he was sentenced to a lousy $1000 fine — which the judge deferred for a year, meaning it could be dropped entirely if he keeps his nose clean.

In news that is equal parts heartwarming and heartbreaking, the family of a 13-year old Huntsville, Alabama boy who was killed by a driver while riding his bicycle have installed a Christmas tree at the roadside memorial marking where he was killed, and asked the public to come place an ornament on it.

 

International

Road.cc argues that the bicycle industry is not sustainable by design, and they could do their part to save the environment by returning to steel frames instead of carbon fiber, without sacrificing performance.

Toronto is moving to get around the provincial government’s prohibition on removing traffic lanes to build bike lanes by narrowing 12 miles of traffic lanes to make room for them.

A “passionate cyclist” from the UK is suing Lime over a crash that snapped his leg in four places, claiming the rear wheel unexpectedly skidded out when he braked to avoid pedestrians, leaving him with life-changing injuries.

That’s more like it. A British distracted hit-and-run driver got nine years behind bars for killing a bike rider, after swearing he didn’t know he hit anyone and just thought his van’s engine had blown up; he’d avoided a previous driving ban for distracted driving by claiming he needed to drive for his job. Yet another example of keeping a dangerous driver on the road until it’s too late.

More on the new Irish study showing that protected bike lanes don’t slow emergency vehicles.

Bicycles provided by World Bicycle Relief are giving Kenyan farmers a route out of poverty by providing a safe alternative to paying for dangerous motorbike trips to get their produce to market.

 

Competitive Cycling

Norwegian pro Johannes Staune-Mittet learned the hard way that riding with earbuds isn’t allowed in Spain, even for WorldTour cyclists, when he was fined the equivalent of $116 after cops caught him using them on a training ride.

 

Finally…

We may stress about LA drivers drifting into bike lanes, but at least we don’t have to worry about who’s going to plow the drifts already in them. Now you, too, could own Tadej Pogačar’s Tour de France bike for the low, low price of 70 grand.

And nothing like getting an admitted doper and multi-time ex-Tour de France champ to narrate a doc about an iconic 130-year old bike brand.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Reporting on LA’s crumbling infrastructure, weaseling out of HLA, and comparing street users to bloody gang warfare

December 4, 2025 / / No comments
Day 338 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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It’s Day 7 of the 11th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive!

Thanks to Bernard, Michael, another Michael, Catherine and Patrick for their generous support to help keep SoCal’s best source for bike news and advocacy coming your way every day. Along with one donation specifically earmarked for corgi treats. 

So what are you waiting for? It only takes a few moments to donate via PayPal, Zelle or Venmo. 

Our Fund Drive spokesdog is standing by. 

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Don’t count on it.

My News LA reports the Los Angeles City Council unanimously approved a proposal requiring city departments to report back on what they need to fix the city’s crumbling infrastructure.

The measure gives the departments 60 days to return with a “comprehensive analysis of funding, staffing and resources needed to address deteriorating public infrastructure and bring the city up to industry standards,” including “repair, replacement, maintenance and timely inspection of bike lanes, curb cuts, sidewalks, street trees, storm drains and street lights.”

Like the street lights on my street, which were stripped by thieves for copper wire. And the city says they’ll get around to fixing in six months, at best.

You mean, like that.

But if past is prologue, that 60 day deadline will likely slip by weeks, if not months. If they actually respond at all.

Experience tells us that no one is likely hold them to that commitment. And whatever reports are returned are unlikely to move the needle much.

Because one thing Los Angeles does best is study problems. But never actually, you know, do anything about them.

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Good on them.

Streets For All takes Mayor Bass, LADOT and the Board of Public Works to task for trying to weasel out of their obligations under Measure HLA, as we reported yesterday.

Let’s hope someone actually listens this time.

Meanwhile, Streetsblog’s Damien Newton has more on the city’s ongoing efforts to not comply with the simple requirements of the street safety measure passed overwhelmingly by Los Angeles voters.

Not that that seems to matter to city officials.

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The police chief of Gulf Shores, Alabama says the simple competition between various groups for space on the streets is nothing but a “good old-fashioned turf war.”

Not having stuck his far enough into his mouth, he continued,

“Not your traditional turf war. We could call the e-bikers the Crips, the pedestrians the Bloods, the bicyclists the Gangster Disciples and the motorists Mammoth-13. Name your gang.”

First of all, there is no street gang called Mammoth-13. I can only guess he meant MS-13, short for Mara Salvatrucha. Which tells you how much experience he has with actual gangs.

And while there are inevitable conflicts between various street streets users, particularly in a small beach town with limited road space, I’m not aware of much intentional bloodshed on the roadways.

According to Wikipedia, an estimated 20,000 people have been killed in gang warfare between the Bloods and Crips since their founding in the 1970s, the overwhelming majority of those deaths purely intended.

And that’s just as of 2014.

I have no idea how many people have been killed in that supposed “gang warfare” between pedestrians, bicyclists, ebikers and drivers in Gulf Shores. But I suspect the number may be just a tad lower.

Which is not to minimize the dangers of traffic violence, let alone the incidents of violent road rage.

But comparing people competing for road space to actual gang warfare just doesn’t play in a city like Los Angeles, where far too young lives have been snuffed out over the past five decades just because someone was wearing the wrong colors, or crossed into the wrong neighborhood.

Never mind that the overwhelming majority of killing on our streets — and presumably, his — is done by just one of those so-called “gangs” he’s so worried about.

The one in cars.

And that’s the one gang he doesn’t suggest doing anything about. Unlike bikes, ebikes, scooters and pretty much any other kind of non-motor vehicle conveyance, including feet.

So maybe he needs to just deal with the situation by calling for more bike lanes and crosswalks, and leave metaphors to people who actually know what they’re talking about.

Which is a polite way of saying get your fucking head out of your ass already, chief.

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You’d think all those drivers stuck in traffic would catch on after a while.

But nope.

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UCLA’s bruins4bettertransit teams with LADOT to conduct their own race to determine whether bikes, buses or cars provide the fastest means to get from campus to the E Line station.

My money’s on the bike.

Even without the long-debated bike lanes that would make it even easier, and safer.

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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 Silicon Valley news site reports that bicycle advocates in Sunnyvale scored a victory over disgruntled neighbors, after the city council voted to eliminate parking on one street to make room for buffered bike lanes, framing the issue as “us versus them,” rather than a matter of improving safety for everyone.

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

A Massachusetts woman suffered a shattered left ankle and torn right knee when she was thrown from her horse when a bike rider cut across her path and spooked the eight-year old horse, which then had to be put down.

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Local 

Caltrans is improving sidewalks and resurfacing a stretch of Alvarado Street in Echo Park, which already has shared bus/bike lanes, and building 1.7 miles of new bus/bike lanes on Santa Monica Blvd in Hollywood.

Torched enjoys the recent Stranger Things Melrose CicLAvia, while pondering the upside down need for corporate sponsorships for all things LA, including open streets.

We’re not the only ones holding an end-of-the-year fundraiser. Streetsblog is holding a fund drive through the end of this month, so toss ’em a few extra bucks, too.

Volunteers from the Pasadena Complete Streets Coalition delivered turkeys and other Thanksgiving fixin’s to the Friends in Deed nonprofit to feed people experiencing homelessness or vulnerability.

 

State

Irvine and Newport Beach joined the parade of Orange County cities cracking down on ebikes, following similar action in Stanton, Huntington Beach, Yorba Linda, Orange and Buena Park.

Carlsbad became the latest San Diego County beachfront city to crack down on ebikes, banning riders under 12, and asking the state to prohibit anyone under 16 from carrying passengers on the back. Although like the Orange County cities, they don’t seem to distinguish between ped-assist bikes and electric motorbikes and dirt bikes. 

‘Tis the season. For the 22nd year, elementary school children in Victorville received new bicycles courtesy of a local nonprofit program.

This is who we share the road with. A heartless hit-and-run driver slammed into a group of families crossing a San Bernardino street, dragging a baby stroller down the block and severely injuring two little kids. Yes, a baby stroller.

 

National

Kindhearted Oregon cops dipped into their own pockets, combined with a steep discount from a local bike shop, to replace a bike for a middle school boy after his was stolen.

More proof bikes are good for business, as People For Bikes examines how the annual El Tour de Tucson boosts participation, community, and the local economy.

A Monroe, North Carolina car dealer is living on the roof of his business until he collects 1,017 bikes to donate to kids in need for Christmas; as of Wednesday evening, he had about 670 bikes to go.

No surprise that Florida ranks second, behind only South Carolina, for people searching online for legal help after a bicycling crash. The only real surprise is that California doesn’t even rank in the top ten — maybe because we know to call the BikinginLA sponsors over there on the right first.

 

International

How is bicycling better than any dating app? Let Momentum count the ways.

Strava data shows Colombia’s Alto de Patios climb on the outskirts of Bogotá is the world’s most popular bicycling road, followed by a riverside road in São Paulo, Brazil, and a bridge in southwestern London.

A 69-year old Canadian man raised $50,000 riding around the world for cancer research.

Tragic news from Wales, where a 37-year old French fashion designer was killed when she was run down from behind by a driver while on a bicycling vacation.

Cycling Weekly goes looking for the roads, people and culture that make France’s Britany region a “dream cycling destination.”

If you have an Agree C:62 road bike made by German bikemaker Cube in either of the last two years, you’re asked to stop riding it immediately due to a risk of the front fork delaminating and cracking.

Czech carmaker Škoda’s We Love Cycling site offers their holiday gift guide for bicyclists — and for a change, they’re focused on “thoughtful picks” for women who ride bikes.

A South African woman says she feels energized after she was invited to represent women bike riders a breakfast meeting at Johannesburg business school, after taking up riding to cope with grief following the death of her mother.

 

Finally…

Cervelo, the choice fleeing felons everywhere. You may not be a deviate, but your bike still can be.

And your next recumbent could really fly.

No, literally.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Round 2 of HLA appeals this Friday, teen e-moto gang in Hermosa Beach attack, and Westwood bike lane battle back on

December 3, 2025 / / No comments
Day 337 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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It’s Day 6 of the 11th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive! Not that you probably have any money left to give after Giving Tuesday.

But if you do, we’ll take it.

And by we, I mean me and the corgi.

So thanks to Ben for his generous support yesterday. And thank you in advance for giving what you can, when you can, to help keep SoCal’s best source for bike news and advocacy coming your way every day. 

It only takes a few moments to donate via PayPal, Zelle or Venmo. 

Your support is what keeps this site going through the lean months, and helps ensure the corgi finds a few kibbles in her stocking this holiday season.

Because you don’t want to see a sad corgi on Christmas morning. 

Trust me. 

In today’s photo, the corgi offers her editorial opinion of both the city’s convoluted rejection of HLA compliance, and the prospect of a kibble-less Christmas.

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It’s round 2 of the battle to implement Measure HLA, as the Los Angeles Board of Public Works will consider a second batch of appeals over projects that should have complied with the measure, but didn’t.

All of which were filed by Joe Linton in his personal, rather than professional, capacity.

As with the first round, we can expect the board to routinely reject each of these, regardless of merit, as the city insists on taking the bizarre position that any project involving the application of paint on pavement is merely “restriping,” no matter how much additional work was involved.

That includes a project on Melrose near L.A. City College, where the city removed a peak-hour lane and added more parking for cars — yet left out the protected bike lanes called for in the Mobility Plan 2035.

The whole point of Measure HLA was to require the city to build out the mobility plan whenever they did significant roadwork.

And I’d call that significant.

The only thing likely to force the Board of Public Works to actually reconsider these projects is if supporters of bike, pedestrian and traffic safety turn out in force, and in person, to make them listen.

The meeting is scheduled for 10 am this Friday, in the Edward R. Roybal BPW Session Room, Room 350, of LA City Hall at 200 N. Spring Street.

You can read Linton’s brief summary of the appeals here.

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We keep learning more about the vicious attack on a 57-year old man carrying a pizza in Hermosa Beach, allegedly committed by an ebike-riding gang of kids in their early teens.

Although in this case, ebike appears to mean electric motorbikes and non-street legal dirt bikes.

But as for gang, that’s literal.

According to the Los Angeles Times,

The bold and seemingly unprompted attack has outraged the coastal community and stoked simmering frustrations around alleged teen e-bike gangs organizing under names such as the Goons and the Redondo Beach Killers.

Now it appears that some of the alleged attackers came from the neighboring city of Manhattan Beach. In a Sunday email to parents, Manhattan Beach Middle School Principal Matthew Horvath said that students at the school were involved in the incident, the Manhattan Beach News reported. Representatives for the district did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In this case, however, the Goons and RB Killers may not be what you normally think of when you see the term “gang.”

I’m told by someone who lives in the area that the gangs accused of “assaulting and terrorizing” beachside residents are the products of privileged homes and indulgent parents, who too often stand in the way of accountability for their kids until it’s too late.

And now it is.

Although it’s apparently not too late for angry residents to vent their frustration at city officials.

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Los Angeles wants to know what you think about the long — and I do mean long — gestating Westwood Boulevard Safety and Mobility Project.

The project, which has been batted around in one form or another since for at least the past two decades, is intended to improve safety for bike riders and pedestrians along the dangerous corridor between Westwood Village and the Metro E (nee Expo) Line.

According to the Westside Current,

The department says the project is being developed in line with Healthy Streets LA and Mobility Plan 2035, which identify Westwood Boulevard as a priority for transit, bicycle and pedestrian upgrades. LADOT is gathering feedback on “transportation safety concerns, access challenges and ideas for how the street could function better for everyone,” and says staff will review all comments before drafting recommended infrastructure changes.

It’s nice to see the city actually working with Measure HLA, rather than fighting it, as they’ve done with virtually every other project up to this point.

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Richard Fox, author of the enCYCLEpedia guidebook to Southern California’s scenic bikeways, forwards his rave review of the newly mostly completed CV Link in the Coachella Valley. 

Mostly, because the wealthy enclaves of Rancho Mirage and Indian Wells wanted nothing to do with it, and it was too expensive to build around them.

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Canada’s CTV network offers a review of fat biking in honor of Fat Bike Day.

Which sounds sort of like Fat Bear Week, but isn’t.

Thanks to Megan for the video.

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If you want to know why bike riding is booming in London, here’s a pretty good explanation.

Since 2016, we've expanded London's Cycle Network by over 475% – and there is much more to come!

— Will Norman (@willnorman.co.uk) 2025-12-02T10:47:14.594Z

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A bike-riding British influencer is teaching her dad how to be a bicyclist on his second-hand road bike.

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

A British Colombia letter writer almost gets it, asking if bicyclists should be treated more like pedestrians than motorists. But then goes on to say we’d be better off sharing sidewalks with pedestrians like “many places in Europe,” and wouldn’t mind wearing “highly visible license plates” if it finally allows us to get off the streets. Um, that’s a hard no.

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

Bicyclists in the UK even get criticized for not riding in a bike lane when it doesn’t even exist yet.

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Local 

Streetsblog reports work on expanding Baldwin Park’s Barnes Park is “trooping along,” and a new connection from Walnut Creek Nature Park to the greenway walk/bike path is nearly finished.

Los Angeles is getting what appears to be its first pump track in Arroyo Seco Park, near the border with South Pasadena (scroll down).

LA-based social justice apparel brand For Your Viewing Pleasure is releasing a four-piece collaboration with Palestinian paracycling team the Gaza Sunbirds, with 100% of the profits going to benefit the Gaza team.

 

State

‘Tis the season. The San Diego Padres surprised students at a local elementary school with 100 team-branded bicycles.

An ebike rider in San Luis Obispo got the blame for crashing “into the side of a car,” even though the driver cut him off by making a “left cross” turn across his path; the victim suffered “undisclosed” injuries.

After a more than 30-year career in advertising, I can assure Morgan Hill-based Specialized that if nearly everyone doesn’t get their ad, they screwed up, not everyone else who didn’t get the joke. Although they beg to differ.

San Francisco is planing to rip out a neck down installed to slow traffic, because drivers don’t like it. And really, isn’t their happiness all that really matters?

 

National

Cycling Weekly recommends 15 Christmas present ideas for bicyclists, picked by “people who ride thousands of miles a year.” Or maybe 12 Chanukah gifts, plus an extra three for birthdays, anniversaries and such.

We touched on this yesterday, but it’s worth mentioning in more detail that Seattle is testing out the nation’s first protected bike lane barriers made of recycled car and truck tires, which not only offer a lower price, but are easier to repair and cause less damaged to cars that hit them. Thanks to Mike for the heads-up. 

A Las Vegas writer says riding a fat tired bike through Death Valley on a roadway closed to cars, but not bikes, is nirvana on two wheels.

Go ahead and enjoy riding in Arizona, just don’t cross any intersections — the state ranks third in the US for the deadliest intersections, behind only Florida and Delaware. Meanwhile, California ranks all the way down at, uh, seventh.

A church in Joliet, Illinois held a fundraiser to pay funeral expenses for a 25-year old man who was killed in a hit-and-run while riding his bike to work.

In a story that will sound familiar to many bicyclists, an Ohio city is reviewing a 2008 ordinance that actually required bike lanes on certain streets, many of which were never built.

A Brooklyn man says he was iced out of a contract to install 500 bicycle parking pods across New York, after nearly a decade of fighting for them.

A volunteer organization in Memphis is using bicycles to deliver food to the homeless.

America’s oldest bikemaker is still making bicycles the old-fashioned way despite moving to South Carolina after more than a century in New York.

 

International

‘Tis the season, part two. An Ontario, Canada organization donated 90 bicycles to children in need.

 

Competitive Cycling

The American Criterium Cup returns for a fifth year, with a series of six races starting with June’s Tulsa Tough, although the $140,000 purse is up for grabs as last year’s men’s champ Maurice Ballerstedt returns to racing in Europe.

Thirty-one-year old American pro Veronica Ewers says she needs to step away from the sport for awhile to let her body recover, addressing the severe toll cycling takes by admitting medical tests show her bones are weak, and she hasn’t even had a period since 2014.

Now you, too, can own four “ultra rare” Colnagos, including the bike Sothebys says Tadej Pogačar rode in Toulouse, when he was actually busy riding up Mont Ventoux.

 

Finally…

Throwing your bicycle at a cop during a burglary is not one of its many approved uses. Your next bicycle could be a Ducati.

And turning your old bike wheel into a new musical instrument.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Mostly bike suggestions for Giving Tuesday, Streets For All SF Q&A, and Streets For All LA Holiday Bash

December 2, 2025 / / No comments
Day 336 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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It’s Giving Tuesday.

I personally recommend donating to Calbike, Streets For All, Streets Are For Everyone, BikeLA, Streetsblog Los Angeles and/or Streetsblog Cal, depending on how deep your pockets are and how generous you’re feeling today.

Aside from the bike world, people are still recovering from the Eaton Fire who could use your help. Not to mention your local public radio station after Trump’s budget rescission.

Or consider donating to the SPCALA, which helps animals right here in the LA area, or Queen’s Best Stumpy Dog Rescue to help SoCal corgis in need of retraining or special care.

If you give to the latter, make the donation in honor of my fallen four-legged friend Kobe, who was murdered by a hit-and-run driver.

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If you’ve got anything left after all that, it’s Day 5 of the 11th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive.

Thanks to James, Steven, Richard and Mark for their generous donations yesterday to help keep all the best bike news and advocacy coming your way every morning.

It only takes a few moments and a few bucks to help out.

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San Francisco Streets For All is hosting a lunchtime Q&A session with the director of the San Francisco transit agency.

Although I’m sure they won’t mind if you join in, whether or not you live in the Bay Area.

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles branch sent out a reminder about their holiday party on the 13th.

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

Life is cheap in the UK, where an English driver walked without a day behind bars for injuring a bike rider, getting off with traffic school after charges were reduced to the equivalent of a close pass.

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

Tampa, Florida bicyclists may have to forego speeding, wheelies, stunts and tricks on local multimodal trails. Geez, take all the fun out of it, why don’t you?

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Local 

The principal of a Manhattan Beach middle school confirmed that the two ebike-riding teens charged in the brutal attack on a man carrying a pizza in Hermosa Beach are students at the school.

 

State

A California Redditor asked for help choosing an ebike, after being stunned to receive a voucher apparently coming from the late, great California state program. Let’s hope they enjoy it, since the rest of us are screwed after the California Air Resources Board, aka CARB, decided it’s more important to keep electric cars on the road, rather than helping to take more cars off them.

This is the cost of traffic violence. Escondido residents are calling for safety changes, after an 11-year-old boy was murdered by a hit-and-run driver last week as he was chasing a soccer ball into the street, on a roadway known for speeding drivers and failing to yield to pedestrians.

Morgan Hill-based Specialized learns the hard way what wheel the cassette goes on, after getting roundly mocked for an apparent AI ad error.

 

National

Bicycle imports from China bounced back in July and August in anticipation of a jump in tariff rates last month.

A 42-year old California man was identified as the bike rider who was killed in a collision outside of Reno, Nevada last week.

An Arkansas city is adding advisory bike lanes, which combine two bike lanes with a single shared lane for motor vehicles, requiring drivers to merge into the bike lanes to pass cars traveling the opposite direction. Let’s just hope they last longer than they did in San Diego. 

Maine is on pace to have its deadliest year for bicyclists and pedestrians since the state began keeping records 22 years ago.

New York is tackling the problem of bicycle storage head on, with plans to launch 500 new secure bicycle parking hubs.

 

International

Road.cc’s EBiketips examines why ebikes are so much heavier than traditional bicycles. Hint: Batteries, engines and transmissions all add weight, as do heavier frames to hold them and wheels to carry them.

Vancouver, British Columbia is fighting the anti-bike lane trend of the rest of the country, as the city’s new budget failed to fund a proposal to rip out a bike lane to make more room for cars.

A Toronto college student got her stolen bike back after finding it for sale online, and riding off with it after meeting with the seller/thief. Even though things ended well this time, we’ve seen far too many stories where it didn’t. Better to register your bike to identify it, and let the police handle it — even though they too often don’t. Thanks to Donna for the heads-up. 

If you build it, they will come. Despite efforts by the provincial government to rip out Toronto’s bike lanes, new stats show the city’s residents are biking at a greater pace than ever before, even in the middle of winter; one bike counter showed a 90% increase in ridership in January of this year over just three years earlier, despite average temperatures of -8 degrees Celsius, equivalent to 17 degrees Fahrenheit.

Despite alarming headlines about increasing London bicycling injuries and deaths, particularly in East London, there doesn’t seem to be any real story there, since the jump in casualties was accompanied by a nearly 50% increase in ridership since 2019, and 12.7% more bicycling trips than last year. The real question is whether the rise in injury rates is outpacing the jump in ridership.

An Irish writer makes the case for why 1.5 meters — roughly 5 feet — isn’t wide enough for a cycle track. Even though it’s more spacious that many American bike lanes. 

An 88-year old Catholic priest marked his 50th year of bicycling through Bangladesh to offer healthcare and faith to the poor and disabled in the Muslim-majority nation.

Australia’s New South Wales state is considering cutting the maximum power and speed of ebikes to 250 watts and 18 mph, after a man riding a Lime Bike was killed in a collision with a garbage truck driver; meanwhile, police urge parents to only buy legal ebikes, rather than faster and more powerful illegal ebikes still found on the market. Although even the strictest restrictions won’t work if legal ebikes can be readily converted to exceed legal limits, or bikes exceeding them can be legally sold.

 

Competitive Cycling

Next year’s Giro will kick off in Bulgaria, of all places, for reasons known only to them.

 

Finally…

When you’re riding a bicycle with an outstanding warrant and over 12 grams of suspected meth, put a damn light on it, already. Let’s hope Santa doesn’t bring you a bike with square wheels.

And your car’s old tires could protect your next bike lane.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: ,

Ebike & e-moto injuries rise 2.5 times faster than sales, and two teens busted for leading vicious Hermosa Beach attack

December 1, 2025 / / No comments
Day 335 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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It’s Day 4 of the 11th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive. And we’re already off to a rip-roaring start!

So let’s all join in a round of applause for Rob, Robs, Ross, Stephen, Joshua, Eric, Johannes, David and Andrew for their generous support to help keep all the best bike news and advocacy coming your way every day. 

So don’t wait! Take a moment to consider what this site is worth to you, how much you can afford to give, and donate now!

After all, what other bike sites offer all the best news and a cute little corgi spokesdog?

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At last, we get a little context for the rise in ebike injuries — although, as usual, there’s no distinction between injury rates for ped-assist ebikes and e-motorbikes.

According to the New York Times, Marin County worked to get California law changed after a 15-year old girl barely survived a fall while riding on the back of a friend’s ebike, prompting a local surgeon to look into rising injury rates.

As the pandemic continued, the number of e-bike accidents increased. “You would expect that,” Alfrey says, “because sales were skyrocketing.” Indeed, in 2022, over a million e-bikes were sold in the United States, up from 287,000 in 2019, according to the Light Electric Vehicle Association. But what really struck Alfrey and Maa was that e-bike injuries were far more serious than those sustained on conventional bikes. Maa says they were more like what’s seen in motorcycle crashes. A pelvic fracture, for example, was uncommon on a pedal bicycle — only about 6 percent of conventional cycling injuries. For e-bike crashes, though, it was 25 percent.

The most alarming difference was the fatality rate. “On a pedal bike, the chance of dying from an injury is about three-tenths of 1 percent,” Alfrey says. On an e-bike, the data indicated, it was 11 percent.

These findings signaled what was unfolding around the country. During the same four-year period when nationwide sales quadrupled, e-bike injuries increased by a factor of 10, to 23,493 from 2,215, according to the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System. A study by the University of California, San Francisco, found that from 2017 to 2022, head injuries from e-bike accidents increased 49-fold.

Which means ebike injuries rose 2.5 times faster than ebike sales.

Now we finally know.

The paper goes on to note that Class 2 throttle-controlled ebikes have claimed the overwhelming majority of the market.

By “throttle devices,” he is referring to Class 2 machines, which have captured an estimated two-thirds of the e-bike market. According to PeopleForBikes, the rationale in 2015 for creating a class for bikes with throttles — which can eliminate even the modest exercise benefits of pedal assistance — was that many e-bikes already had them, and the trade organization didn’t want to exclude those products and companies.

But to Mittelstaedt and others, it’s inappropriate to consider these vehicles to be “bikes” at all. “The essence of bicycling is pedaling,” Mittelstaedt says. “A machine propelled by a motorcycle throttle just shouldn’t be considered a bicycle. It can go from zero to 20 faster than a regular bike without any exertion at all.”

As we’ve repeatedly stressed, anything that can travel faster than 28 mph isn’t legally an ebike. And anything without pedals isn’t a bicycle.

Some manufacturers — but not governments — have taken it upon themselves to call such machines “Class 4” e-bikes. Others refer to them as “out-of-class electric vehicles”; bicycle-advocacy groups, which want to avoid being associated with these machines, prefer “e-motos.” In any case, they aren’t bicycles, nor are they street legal without registration and a license, yet they still show up regularly on roads and bike paths. One online influencer called Sur Ronster, who also has a retail business called Ronster Rides, posts videos of bands of teenagers, dozens strong, outdoing one another’s daredevil feats at breakneck speed on city streets and highways.

Like this dual-engine Chinese ebike with a top speed of 46 mph, which would classify it as a motorbike in virtually every American state — yet is somehow still sold as a ped-assist bike.

It’s worth taking the time to read the whole Times story. Because it’s long past time we started making those differences clear.

But if you’re in a hurry, you can catch the Cliff Notes version in a brief interview with the writer.

Wait, is Cliff Notes even a thing anymore?

Meanwhile, Harley Davidson is teaming with the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition to host a course on ebike safety, while the San Diego police issued warnings about riders on illegal e-motos capable of 80 mph zooming through traffic and crowded areas.

And Electrek warns parents about the dangers of Sur Ron and other high-powered electric motos. Thanks Ellectrek for the link.

And no, I don’t think they don’t mean ped-assist bikes.

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Police in Hermosa Beach arrested two ebike — actually e-moto — riding teens for leading the vicious gang beatdown given to a man carrying his takeout pizza.

The boys were part of a group of five kids aged 13-15 identified by police as the attackers, who only broke off the assault when one of the boys mistakenly yelled that the victim, who has not been publicly identified, was dead.

Another man came forward after news of the attack surfaced, saying he, too, had been attacked by a gang of ebike-riding teens.

Initial police reports sparked angry comments for implying that the victim had somehow done something to instigate the assault, which the police later retracted.

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Bike deals are continuing post-Black Friday with today’s Cyber Monday deals, with the best specials highlighted by Cycling News and Cycling Weekly.

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A podcast host talks with two millennials who quit their jobs to bike around the world, and wrote a book about it.

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A Freemont CA rancher has installed a gate across a formerly open roadway, blocking a path used by bicyclists and hikers for years.

Thanks to Megan for forwarding the video.

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A YouTube video considers how Victoria, British Columbia, population 92,000, tripled its bicycling rate in just 11 years.

Thanks to Norm for the video. 

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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 Sunnyvale website says residents feel their voice is being “drowned out by a vocal cyclist lobby,” because they value their God-given right to park their cars on the curbs over the safety of people on two wheels. There’s that mythical bike lobby raising its ugly head again, and Hulk-smashing all who don’t bow down before it. 

A man and woman face charges in Lafayette, Louisiana after allegedly yelling at another woman, beating her and threatening her with a gun before yet another beatdown in front of her kid, all because her husband committed the crime of yelling at the woman to slow her car down while he was riding bikes with the couple’s young son.

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

A 60-year old Gainesville, Florida man faces 11 separate charges, including possession of meth, resisting arrest and, yes, littering, after he ran away on foot when police tried to stop him for riding salmon and without lights on his bike.

A British reporter launches a “bold social experiment” to see if he can get his phone stolen by ebike-riding — actually, e-motorbike — thieves, then track it to reveal their location. Thanks again to Megan for the video.

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Local 

The Malibu City Council approved a comprehensive, $50 million safety improvement plan for Pacific Coast Highway, including new and improved sidewalks and 9.7 miles of new bike lanes, with just a single dissenting vote.

 

State

Calbike will reveal its legislative agenda for the coming year in a webinar this Wednesday; sign up here for the 10 am video conference.

Police in Anaheim have arrested the alleged hit-and-run driver accused of hitting a 12-year old boy riding an ebike last week, leaving the kid with a concussion, broken leg and multiple bruises; 29-year old Fullerton resident Jonathan Diaz reportedly took off on foot after crashing his car a few blocks after he struck the boy’s bike, leaving behind evidence he was under the influence.

 

National

Bike Magazine is back in print for the first time since the heady pre-pandemic days of 2020.

Cycling Savvy explains how to navigate diverging traffic lanes on your bicycle.

Velo makes the case for why you should skip the crappy bikes, and buy your kid a decent bicycle to learn how to ride this Christmas.

A writer for Strongtowns makes the case that Complete Streets has run its course, leaving cities with “expensive, over-engineered corridors that win awards but fail the people they claim to serve.” Although I’d question whether the study the story is based on cherry-picked cities where Complet Streets failed, rather than where they have succeeded. 

Seattle has launched a commercial e-cargo bike program to encourage businesses to adopt cleaner alternatives to standard delivery trucks.

A pair of Seattle bike advocacy groups have purchased their own ebike-towed bike lane sweeper to clear out the wet, soggy leaves that pile up next to the curb.

 

International

Sometimes the best use of a bicycle isn’t riding it. A nine-year old Peruvian boy raffled off his beloved bicycle to fund a trip to Canada for the World Mathematics Championship, and came back home with a gold medal.

Despite rumors of budget cuts and caps on bike prices, Britain’s Bike to Work program that pays for bike commuters’ bicycles will be largely unchanged in the county’s new budget.

A study from Limerick, Ireland showed that the city’s new bike lanes “maintained or improved” access for ambulances, which could use the bike lanes to get through traffic when needed. So much for the myth that bike lanes keep emergency vehicles from getting through.

British bike writer and historian Carlton Reid talks with American Eric Hassett, who moved from Colorado to Malmö, Sweden to help design Thule’s sleek new pannier system.

This is why people keep dying on the streets. Colombian Tour de France sprinter Fernando Gaviria was given a suspended sentence for drunk driving in Monaco — despite being more than five times over the legal limit. Seriously, there’s no excuse for driving under the influence, no matter who you are.

That’s more like it. Croatia’s Silba Island has replaced engine noise with the sound of bike wheels, after banning cars from the island five decades ago.

Young workers in North Korea’s Wonsan Kalma Coastal Tourist Area are only turning up to state jobs on paper, instead ferrying goods and tourists on bicycles and motorbikes, rather than working without salaries or rations.

After biking nearly 400 miles across South Korea, a Malaysian writer wonders if a cross-country bikeway could unlock that country’s tourism potential, as well.

 

Competitive Cycling

Former Dutch pro Stef Clement is calling for cyclists to pass a proficiency test and “crash course” before they can ride in the peloton, while his countryman Tom Dumoulin says protective clothing should be normalized for pro cyclists.

The bicycle the legendary Eddy Merckx rode when he broke the hour record in Mexico City in 1972, cycling 49.4 kilometers, or 30.69 miles, in one hour stands on display in the Brussels metro station named after him.

Twenty-one-year old cycling rookie Isaac del Toro was named Mexico’s sportsman of the year with the country’s highest sports honor, the 2025 National Sports Award, after winning winning 16 pro races, nearly winning the Giro and climbing to third in the world rankings in just his first year on the WorldTour.

Thirty-five-year old Colombian cyclist Esteban Chaves called it a career after 16 years in the pro peloton, including five Grand Tour victories, podium finishes in both the Giro and the Vuelta, and winning Il Lombardia; he called it quits after he didn’t receive an offer for the upcoming season.

 

Finally…

Now you, too, can turn your garage into a virtual fortress to protect your two-wheeled pride and joy. Go back to the future of bicycling.

And who needs a nightclub when you can DJ from the seat of your bicycle?

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Man killed riding bicycle killed by driver in Florence-Graham neighborhood; crash investigated by Sheriff’s homicide dept.

November 30, 2025 / / 2 comments

This is not the news any of us wanted to end the holiday weekend with.

Just as I was writing for tomorrow’s post that we could be thankful that no one was killed while riding a bicycle over the long Thanksgiving weekend, news broke that it wasn’t true.

Because a man described only as an “adult male” was killed Sunday evening in the Florence-Graham neighborhood of South LA in unincorporated Los Angeles County.

According to a tersely worded Nixle notification from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department,

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Homicide detectives are responding to a death investigation involving a bicyclist and vehicle. The incident was reported on Sunday, November 30, 2025, at approximately 5:55 P.M. at the intersection of E. 71st St & Holmes Ave. in unincorporated Los Angeles.

The victim was transported to a local area hospital where he was pronounced deceased.

There is no additional information available at this time.

Anyone with information about this incident is encouraged to contact the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Homicide Bureau at (323) 890-5500.

You can also offer tips anonymously through Crime Stoppers at 800/222-TIPS (8477), or at lacrimestoppers.org.

It seems telling that the crash is being handled by the homicide unit, rather than traffic investigators, though we don’t know enough right now to speculate what that may actually mean.

Never mind that, even for a case being investigated by homicide detectives, they still say that victim was killed by a “vehicle,” rather than someone driving one.

Or as Andrew put it in forwarding the notice to me,

“Death investigation involving a bicyclist and a vehicle,” not “a driver ran down another person in cold blood and didn’t even stop.”

Hopefully, we’ll learn more soon.

This is at least the 53rd bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the 12th that I’m aware of in Los Angeles County.

My deepest sympathy and prayers for the victim and his loved ones. 

Thanks to Andrew for the heads-up. 

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

It’s the 11th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive!

November 28, 2025 / / No comments

This is where I’m supposed to plead with you to part with a little of your hard-earned money to support this site.

Okay, beg.

But frankly, I’m just not in the mood.

Not that I can’t use the help. As grateful as I am for the support of our sponsors, we’ve always been one or two short of breaking even.

And it’s the money we raise right now, during this fund drive, that tides us over for the next few months.

Hopefully, anyway.

But honestly, it’s been a very long and hard year. And if you’re like me, you’ve already given more than you can afford to one cause or another.

So let’s do this.

Think about what this site is worth to you, from our near-daily bike news and advocacy to whatever entertainment value we offer to (hopefully) brighten your day. Then decide what you can afford, however much or little that is.

It only takes a few clicks to give using PayPal, or with Venmo @bikinginla. Or donate to ted@bikinginla.com through Zelle with the banking app on your phone.

That’s it.

Any amount, however large or small, is truly and deeply appreciated, far more than you’ll ever know. But either way, thank you for reading.

And may you and your loved ones enjoy true peace, love and joy this holiday season.

 

 

Category: Holiday Fund Drive / Tags: , ,

LA Board of Public Works rejects Linton’s HLA appeals, and Rad Power rejects CPSC’s not-so-rad ebike battery recall

November 26, 2025 / / One comment
Day 330 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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Just a quick note before we get started. 

As usual, this will be our last regular post for the holiday week. I’ll be taking tomorrow and Friday off to spend with family, so we’ll see you back here bright and early on Monday. 

Although if you’re not too busy hitting the Black Friday sales — or better yet, getting out on your bike and avoiding the hell out of the whole mess — come back Friday for the kick off of our 11th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive. 

I’ll do my best to put the fun back in fund drive, while simultaneously begging you to part with a small portion of your own hard-earned funds to help keep this whole thing going for another year. 

Today’s photo depicts yours truly signing the original petition in support of Measure HLA, corgi in tow, with Streets For All founder Michael Schneider. 

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Okay, one more quick note. 

Because I’m thankful this year for a lifetime on two wheels, which has led me to so many of my best experiences and memories. 

And I’m even more thankful for you, and everyone else who reads this site. Because I couldn’t do what I do without you. 

So in all sincerity and with deepest humility, thank you. 

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To the surprise of absolutely no one, LA’s Board of Public Works rejected the overwhelming majority of Measure HLA appeals heard on Monday.

According to LAist,

First round of appeals: The Board of Public Works partially sided with the appellant in one appeal and rejected the other six. Joe Linton, in his capacity as a resident and not as editor of Streetsblog L.A., filed all the appeals heard on Monday. “It’s the very first time, so we’re kind of throwing a lot of spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks,” Linton told LAist. “Not a lot stuck.”

One appeal approved: Linton partially won his appeal claiming the city did not adequately install pedestrian improvements along a nearly half-mile portion of Hollywood Boulevard that it resurfaced last year. The city said it will publish an “appeals resolution plan” to fix sidewalks there within the next six months. “It was really obvious to me that the city’s justification … was not true, so I was glad that that was acknowledged,” Linton said.

Streetsblog’s Damien Newton explains further.

Per the text of the Measure HLA ballot measure, the city does not have to implement its mobility plan if the city is only completing “restriping without other improvements.” This exemption is listed alongside pothole repairs, utility cuts, and emergency repairs. In the six appeals that the board voted to reject, the city did not “restripe” the existing configuration, but installed new lane striping to change traffic patterns, added parking, bike lanes, turn lanes, etc.

The appeals argued that these changes go beyond “restriping without other improvements.”

The city disagrees.

The city’s position appears to be more or less along the lines of: if a street reconfiguration project included installed pretty much any kind of lane striping, then it’s exempt from HLA because it’s considered “restriping without other improvements.”

In other words, the city is basically daring Linton to sue them, after he already filed one lawsuit over Metro’s failure to include the required bike lanes in the redesign of the Vermont Ave corridor — again, in his own capacity, and not as a representative of Streetsblog.

Four more appeals filed by Linton will be heard by the commission on Monday.

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Seattle ebike maker Rad Power Bikes says thanks, but no thanks, to the ebike battery recall ordered by the feds, arguing that such a massive recall would put them out of business.

Not that their prospects look too good right now, with or without it.

Meanwhile, a writer for a surf site puts tongue firmly in cheek to discuss the “grom immolation terror” brought on by the recall, while questioning why the Consumer Product Safety Commission is even still around following the Trump budget cuts. “Grom” being slang for a young or inexperienced surfer, and by extension, any inexperienced and/or overly enthusiastic teen — the opposite of what waits for me in the mirror every morning. And you’re welcome. 

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Thanks to the generosity of a fallen bicyclist’s family, all donations to Streets Are For Everyone will be matched dollar-for-dollar through the end of the year.

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

Cycling Weekly considers what it will take to turn down the hatred, opprobrium and vilification that bicyclists are subjected to on a near daily basis.

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Local 

Calbike examines how Metro’s Nina Kin, Tech Lead on LA Metro’s Digital Experience Team, is building more reliable data and trust for transit riders on bicycles, as Metro begins to recognize that transit and bikes are two “halves of the same promise.” And no, that’s not an exceptionally awkward and unwieldy job title at all.

Joe Linton, acting this time in his capacity as Streetsblog editor, offers an open thread and photos from Sunday’s Stranger Things 5 CicLAvia on Melrose Ave, where a good time was reportedly had by all, human and demogorgon alike.

Pasadena approved a contract of up to $4.8 million to move forward with a new design for the Pasadena Ave and St. John Ave Roadway Network Project, including a safer and more accessible bicycle and pedestrian network — without removing existing traffic lanes, of course.

Santa Monica announced plans for a Holiday Sweater Community Ride on Saturday, December 6th, offering guided bike tours of the Bergamot Area First/Last Mile Improvements, departing from the 17th Street/SMC Metro Station from 10 am to noon.

 

State

Evidently, those public radio budget cuts have hit hard, as San Diego public radio station KBPS is just now catching up with CARB’s heartless shiv through the heart of the California Ebike Incentive Program, while adding little or nothing to the story.

The Riverside County District Attorney’s Office urges parents to think twice before buying ebikes for their kids, warning that they can be held criminally liable for whatever mischief the little miscreants get up to with them. And once again, conflating electric dirt bikes and motorbikes with regular ped-assist ebikes, to the benefit of no one. 

The Kern County coroner identified the victim killed by a driver while riding his bike last week as an 81-year old man, who deserved better. Then again, so does anyone else who’s still riding at that age. 

Caltrans pushed bike lanes planned for a Tiburon street makeover back to 2029, after advocacy groups questioned limitations imposed by a school bus operator.

 

National

Vice examines hacks to safely store a bicycle in your apartment, and says ditch the backpack and try panniers, instead.

American voters approved nearly $2 billion in bicycling improvements sponsored by People For Bikes in the recent elections.

A pair of Congressional members introduced the bipartisan Bicycle Instruction, Knowledge, and Education (BIKE) Act, which would make bike safety education a standard part of youth learning nationwide.

A UK citizen married to a US resident was nabbed by immigration authorities while riding his bicycle in Montana, despite having a pending green card application.

 

International

A new study from the Journal of the Obesity Society suggests that evening is the best time for moderate-to-vigorous physical activity — like bicycling — to help improve and control your blood sugar. Note to Bicycling: If you intend to hide the story behind a paywall for subscribing members only, don’t leave a link to the story just above the blockage notice. And if the study is readily available, the story ain’t that exclusive.

The London Times examines how bicycles have changed lives for indigenous Colombian students and adults.

If you build it, they will come. Daily bicycling journeys in London are up 12.7 percent over last year, and 43 percent above pre-Covid levels.

A member of the British Parliament proposes legislation banning the annual World Naked Bike Ride, arguing that the country’s police can’t ignore “flashers on bikes.” Just wait until someone tells him about Lady Godiva.

A writer for Cycling Weekly imagines what the UK’s future could look like if the country could actually learn from the Netherlands. At this point, there just ain’t enough weed in the world to conjure up visions of an Amsterdam’ed Los Angeles. 

The New York Times talks with Dutch-Canadian author and advocate Melissa Bruntlett, co-writer with her husband Chris of the recently published Women Changing Cities: Global Stories of Urban Transformation.

The New York Times also talks with French ultracyclist Sofiane Sehili, who spent 50 days in a Russian hoosegow after trying to cross the border despite Russian border guards refusal to acknowledge his previously approved visa, while attempting to set a new record for the fastest crossing of Eurasia.

 

Competitive Cycling

A sports website catches up with America’s other ex-Tour de France winner, turned whistleblower, turned weed entrepreneur, Floyd Landis.

 

Finally…

That feeling when you get busted for illegally modifying a DIY ped-assist ebike to do nearly 40 mph. Now you, too, can buy grandma her very own $40,000 one-off bespoke bike.

And your next indoor exercise bike could be a giant, horned, spinning marble disk.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Metro board members propose rescue for open streets funding, and ebikes blamed in Hermosa Beach teen gang attack

November 25, 2025 / / No comments
Day 329 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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They get it.

While I was out of commission last week, Metro considered a bizarre plan that would have virtually eliminated open streets events for the next three years, other than events tied directly to the World Cup, and Olympic and Paralympic Games, and held within a narrow two-month window each year.

Even though each of the 51 CicLAvias held since October 10, 2010 have averaged more than 100,000 people experiencing the streets of Los Angeles County in a new way, many for the first time.

Not to mention the many Active Streets events hosted by Active SGV in the San Gabriel Valley, and others funded by Metro.

It’s a plan that would mean an end, at least temporarily, to most CicLAvia and  Active Streets events outside of that narrow window, with no guarantee that they would resume afterwards.

According to Steve Scauzillo of the Southern California News Group, writing in the Los Angeles Daily News,

At issue is a dramatic change in the way Metro intends to fund “open streets” events in the next three years. A true “open street” event is as it sounds: Allowing people on bicycles, scooters, skates, skateboards and pedestrians to ride or walk the asphalt streets free of cars for exercise, while stopping at booths for food and games within various neighborhoods of Los Angeles County…

This round of funding includes 29 events at a two-year cost of $10 million, according to Metro.

As of last week, LA Metro staff proposed funding “open street” and “slow street” events (limiting car access) squeezed into two months during the next three years: 2026, 2027 and 2028. The 29 events OK’d for funding coincide with the FIFA World Cup soccer tournament in July 2026 and the LA Olympic and Paralympic Games in July 2028. All others were either rejected or ineligible for funding because they weren’t within that narrow time frame.

But riding to the rescue is a proposal supported by six of the 13 Metro board members, which would commit at least $1 million to fund other events that were rejected by Metro staff for falling outside that Copa Mundial and Olympic window.

And better yet, make that funding permanent.

The group includes LA County supervisors Lindsey Horvath, Janice Hahn and Hilda Solis, as well as CD5 Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky, Whittier Councilmember and Metro Chair Fernando Dutra, and Pomona Mayor Tim Sandoval.

By my math that leaves them just one vote short for the motion to carry. Bearing in mind that I was an English major, so my calculations may leave something to be desired.

Let’s hope they find it.

Because open streets events may be a relatively recent tradition here in Los Angeles. But they have quickly grown to be the largest in the US, and are far too valuable to sacrifice.

Even temporarily.

No guarantee the Daily News link won’t be blocked by their paywall, however. It was hidden the first time I tried to read the story, but not the second. So your luck may vary. 

………

Once again, ebikes are in the news.

And not in a good way.

As usual, though, the press manages to conflate non-street legal electric dirt bikes and motorbikes with the far slower and tamer ped-assist ebikes.

In this case, it takes the form of a seemingly random violent attack by a gang of South Bay teens riding the former, which left a man in his 50s lying incapacitated in the street.

@bikinginla.bsky.social @streetsblogla.bsky.social This will end badly. The Beach Cities does have youth gangs who use e-bikes. But passerby may not be able to tell the difference between them and the vast majority of teens going about their business.

— Dr Grace Peng (@gspeng.bsky.social) 2025-11-25T02:52:29.978Z

This is a more nuanced story. Local eBike dealer pointed out that this gang rides illegal dirt bikes, not ebikes. These kids are known to school and local police. Parents that bought their boys illegal bikes seem not inclined to check their boys' behavior. @bikinginla.bsky.social

— Dr Grace Peng (@gspeng.bsky.social) 2025-11-25T03:14:13.842Z

The problem here is not ebikes, but gangs of teens engaged in random street violence.

But by painting ebikes with such a broad brush, these stories risk the general public confusing illegal electric motorbikes with the legal ped-assist bikes being rapidly adopted by countless bike commuters and recreational riders.

And risks a crackdown on all two-wheeled electric bikes, legal and otherwise — like this ordinance unanimously approved to clamp down on ebikes in Newport Beach, just the latest to be passed by a SoCal beach community (thanks to Ed for the heads-up).

So for the uninitiated — and that includes the overwhelming majority of news outlets out there — if they don’t have functional pedals, or travel faster that 28 mph, they’re mo-peds, motor scooters, motorbikes, motorcycles or dirt bikes, regardless of how they’re powered.

Or they just ain’t legal.

Period.

………

Case in point, news broke yesterday that a 12-year old boy was injured in a hit-and-run while riding an ebike in Anaheim Sunday night.

Although video of the bike after the crash looks a lot more like an electric motorbike than an electric bicycle.

KNBC-4 reports the victim was hospitalized with “a broken leg and concussions.” Which suggests that he may have more than one head, since a single head can only suffer a single concussion in a single event.

The driver fled on foot after crashing his car about a block away. Police suspect he was under the influence based on undisclosed evidence found in the car.

………

Our old friend Zachary Rynew shares his take on Sunday’s Stranger Things CicLAvia.

Which, had it occurred next year, wouldn’t have been funded under Metro’s proposed new restrictions, since it would have fallen outside of the World Cup schedule, and had no connection to the soccer/football tournament.

………

Now that’s what I call a close call.

A man in India’s Uttar Pradesh province barely avoided becoming road kill when an out-of-control speeding bus slammed into the wall where he was parking his bicycle.

The crash injured 30 people; only his good reflexes saved him from being one of them.

………

Evidently, you can transport a wheelbarrow by bicycle.

Saw this lad on my way to work
byu/jakobolobo incarryshitolympics

………

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

A writer for the Cornell University student paper highlights a problem experienced by bike riders almost everywhere, after bicycles are banned from the local Commons, forcing riders to choose between a busy highway and a “bike boulevard” consisting of a couple speed bumps and no protection.

A New Zealand politician complains about the “cruel” abuse she received online after posting about breaking her leg in a bicycling crash, asking “how can a human being write that to another person?” Welcome to our world, counselor. 

………

Local 

As we mentioned last week, West Hollywood will host a mobility popup on Santa Monica Blvd from 5 pm to 7 pm tonight, including distributing free bike lights as part of BikeLA’s Operation Firefly.

 

State

Riverside County firefighters conducted an air rescue of an injured mountain biker, who crashed while riding off designated trails near Lake Elsinore.

 

National

Cycling News considers whether expensive bike lights are really worth that much more than the budget variety.

Velo selects the best Black Friday road and gravel bicycling deals. Which reminds me it’s time for my annual “fuck Black Friday” campaign. Seriously, just get out and ride your bike, and let everyone else fight the crowds, virtual or otherwise.

Formerly high-flying Seattle ebike maker Rad Power Bikes can’t catch a break as it continues to circle the drain, the latest blow coming in the form of a recall of the company’s ebike batteries, which the Consumer Product Safety Commission says pose a serious fire hazard.

Seatle’s annual Cranksgiving ride set a new record, with bicyclists collecting 6,540 pounds of donations for local food banks. Let’s hope the SoCal Cranksgiving editions were at least as successful, since some Thanksgiving Grinch stole 500 turkeys intended for a giveaway from a Lake Elsinore nonprofit. Thanks to Megan for the link. 

‘Tis the season. The Toys For Tots program in Bowling Green, Kentucky got a welcome surprise when they received a donation of 400 kids bikes, while expecting just a quarter of that.

That’s more like it. A 46-year old Florida man was sentenced to 12 years behind bars for the drunken crash that killed a 66-year old man riding a bicycle; he was also ordered to pay $750 for the victim’s funeral expenses.

 

International

A travel website highlights “the most grueling and unforgettable” bicycling routes on the planet, only one of which is even partially in the US.

No real surprise here, as no city in the UK or US is on the latest Copenhagenize list of the world’s top bicycling cities. Even if Minneapolis celebrates being ranked #44 in the world, and #2 in the US (insert scatological pun here).

A bike-touring Aussie writer discovers that South Korea is an undiscovered bicycling gem.

 

Competitive Cycling

Slovenian cycling star Tadej Pogačar denied rumors of an early retirement, saying his contract extends through 2030 and he intends to honor it.

Thirty-five-year old former Il Lombardia winner Esteban Chaves called it a career, saying he’s “very happy to close this chapter” of his life.

No real surprise here, as former cyclist and current team sprint coach Marcel Kittel says pro cycling is “absolutely not” clean. But the doping era is over, right?

Thirty-six-year old former Paris-Roubaix champ and current Canadian national road champ Alison Jackson has moved to a new team, saying she still has big ambitions and isn’t ready to leave the sport.

A petition calling for removing the Col de Sarenne from its inaugural appearance in the Tour de France has garnered more than 6,000 signatures, highlighting concerns that the mountain’s ecosystem is to fragile to host the final climbing stage of this year’s race.

 

Finally…

Who needs to be a car enthusiast when you’ve got a bicycle? Your next high-performance bike could be whittled from wood. That feeling when you steal a bike, and end up with someone’s grandma’s ashes.

And you, too, could have won Kraftwerk’s bicycle from the band’s 1984 Tour de France video for a mere $57,601.

If only you’d known about it.

Right?

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

16 years for killer Santa Ana DUI driver; Burbank approves $3.3 million Chandler Bikeway extension “with trepidation”

November 24, 2025 / / No comments
Day 328 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

It’s kind of a quiet news day, as the holiday week doldrums hit the bike world. Or at least the press that usually covers it. So let’s just dive right in, for those of us who are still around this week. 

……..

That’s more like it.

A Santa Ana man was sentenced to 16 years and four months behind bars for killing a five-year old boy, and critically injuring his father and 6-year-old sister as they all rode their bikes in Garden Grove.

Thirty-year old Ceferino Ascencion Ramos was convicted of driving at nearly three times the legal alcohol limit when he ran down the entire family of five last summer.

According to KTLA-5,

The incident took place on Sunday, July 7, 2024, shortly after 7 p.m. Angel Ramirez and Angela Hernandez-Mejia were riding e-bikes with their three young children near Haster Street and Twintree Lane. Angela led with the couple’s 7-month-old daughter in a bike trailer, while Angel followed with a trailer carrying their 5-year-old son, Jacob, and 6-year-old daughter.

A witness told police that the family was riding on the right side of the road when Ramos struck all five members and drove away. The witness followed Ramos until authorities could stop him. His blood alcohol level was later measured at .22, nearly three times the legal limit of .08.

Jacob died at the scene.

The family’s bones and abrasions may have healed by now.

But the family itself never will.

………

Burbank officials approved a $3.3 million plan to extend the popular Chandler Bikeway “with some trepidation,” despite a near total lack of public opposition.

And even though it’s only been in the works for a mere 20 years.

After all, what’s the safety, convenience — and yes, enjoyment — of thousands of bike-riding families when there’s a whole 53 parking spaces at risk?

………

Streets For All is hosting their Holiday Bash and Mobility Champion Awards on the 13th of next month.

Meanwhile, Streets Are For Everyone is looking for people to help clean up the Reseda, Blvd bike lanes the same day.

………

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

Chicago ripped out part of an already installed protected bike lane because the local alderwoman didn’t like it. Proof that there are, in fact, other cities with leadership as crappy as ours. Or maybe even worse, if that’s possible. 

Police in Cambridge, Massachusetts continued their search for the thumbtack-wielding anti-bike terrorist who tossed the tiny tacks across a bike lane, resulting in flat tires for several riders. While it may sound like a relatively petty form of protest, it can be expensive and inconvenient to replace a tire, and potentially dangerous — or worse — if a tire pops at speed.

………

Local 

LA-based professional mountain bikers Eliot Jackson and Katie Holden are on a mission to grow bicycling by tearing “down the barriers to entry in cycling for marginalized communities.”

 

State

A San Francisco med student makes the case for AB 981, which would create a test program requiring Intelligent Speed Assist systems for serious or repeat speed violators — in other words, using software to cap speeds for drivers who can’t keep their damn foot off the gas; the bill was left hanging in the Appropriations Committee when the last legislative session ended, and will need public support to move forward.

Sad news from Petaluma, where a hit-and-run driver left a man to die alone in the street, after his body was found hours after he was struck while riding his bike. Cases like this should be investigated as second-degree murder, because the driver made a conscious decision to drive off and let the victim die, rather than calling for help. 

 

National

A writer for a military website says yes, it’s okay if you replace running with bicycling for fitness training sometimes. Or maybe all the time. 

It seems like formerly American-based Felt has changed hands more than a Las Vegas card table, now on its fourth owner in less than ten years.

An 18-year old Texas man faces a felony hit-and-run charge for killing a 77-year man riding a bicycle in Galveston, after turning himself in five days later. Which gave him plenty of time to get whatever he might have been on at the time of the crash out of his system.

An off-duty Texas cop was struck by a driver while riding a bicycle on Sunday. And yes, the driver stuck around.

Newton, Massachusetts spent half a million bucks building a new elevated bike lane, then ripped part of it out after residents who initially supported it complained it was poorly executed, with one calling it a “clusterfuck.”

An Atlanta driver was allegedly doing 91 mph in a 35 mph zone when he hit and killed a 61-year old man riding a bicycle.

 

International

Cycling Weekly examines when and why bicycling suddenly became part of the mental health conversation, and vice versa, beyond just making us happy. I’ve long talked about how biking has gotten me through the toughest and darkest times of my life. The experts are just catching on now. 

Meanwhile, Cycling Weekly readers take the seemingly wacky stance that it’s possible to just enjoy riding your bike, without the slavish focus on heart rate, cadence, et al.

Life is cheap in Hamilton, Ontario, where a bicyclist says “the laws are not there to protect you,” after prosecutors allow the driver who fractured his hip off on a lessor charge; the bike rider complained he was struck during an aggressive pass, while the driver insists he never actually made contact with the victim. Which shouldn’t matter, since a close pass can do as much damage as an actual collision.

Life is even cheaper in the UK, where the mayor of an English town walked with a fine of 3,000 pounds — the equivalent of $3,900 — for the drunken hit-and-run that knocked a man off his bike; the mayor denied hitting the victim until police found the passenger mirror from his car at the scene of the crash.

Britain’s iconic Brompton foldie is now officially middle-aged, just like the Hollywood stars and “condescending hipsters” who love them.

While Los Angeles continues to dither on installing speed cams, Jersey unveiled the British self-governing island’s first mobile speed cam. Funny how an island famous for cows is moving forward faster than a city known for its deadly drivers. 

A travel writer insists that touring the tiny islands off the coast of Ireland by bicycle makes no sense at all, yet it’s utterly tranquil and addictive.

A Milan bike lane represents the dividing line in Italy’s politics, with the right promising to rip it out, and the city’s center-left mayor calling the conservative head of the country’s senate a NIMBY. In other words, kind of like the left-right divide in much of the world, and especially right here in the good ol’ USA. 

A 26-year old driver in Cyprus faces charges for killing a 20-year old Syrian immigrant riding a bicycle, while allegedly speeding and both drunk and stoned.

Tragic news from Malaysia, where a driver managed to kill not one, but two young boys sharing a bicycle.

 

Competitive Cycling

Once again, a pro cyclist has been struck by a driver, as 28-year old Frenchman Thibault Guernalec suffered multiple fractures, as well as a concussion, when he was run down while on a training ride this this week, only days after Dutch cyclist Lorena Wiebes was also struck by a hit-and-run driver.

Twenty-nine-year old Danish pro Jonas Gregaard joins the ranks of relatively young cyclists who have recently walked away from the sport, contending the risks and toll it takes just isn’t worth it.

Life is cheap in Colorado, where fallen cyclist Magnus White could see less than half-justice, after corrections officials moved the killer of the 17-year old USA Cycling Team member to a halfway house, just six months into her four-year sentence.

Cycling Weekly explains why Africa’s Gravel Burn is the world’s toughest offroad stage race, and talks to the people behind ultra-endurance cycling dot-watching.

 

Finally…

Your next bike computer could light the road and pump your tires. That feeling when your spouse harbors newfound midlife dreams of BMX glory.

And that feeling when a pro motorcyclist has his $23,000 bike stolen, and it’s not even the one with a motor.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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