BikinginLA

Day 62 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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Look, I don’t want say today’s news is earthshaking, but we did have a 3.9 while I was writing this.

Just saying.

Today’s picture is the window over 98,000 Californians saw when they tried to claim one of the measly 1,500 ebike vouchers in the state’s deliberately botched rollout. 

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Streetsblog’s Damien Newton says yes, there are real people who got one of the 1,500 magic ebike vouchers from the state, out of the more than 100,000 people who tried.

And even some of those didn’t have an easy time of it.

Streetsblog did hear from two people that navigated the gauntlet and received their vouchers from CARB and have purchased their e-bikes.

After successfully managing to create an account and submit information, something that many prospective applicants were unable to do, the pair still ran into issues right off the bat…

CARB, the California Air Resources Board, intentionally throttled the first round of funding, releasing just 10% of the 15,000 available vouchers, or just $3 million of the $31 million approved by the state.

Making the chances of actually getting a voucher — let alone an ebike — akin to finding one of Willy Wonka’s golden tickets.

That’s after the state selected San Diego nonprofit Pedal Ahead to mismanage the program, then booted them after both the company and its founder came under multiple investigations, criminal and otherwise.

Let’s just hope CARB can somehow manage to get their shit together, and right this sinking ship before it goes under completely.

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This is who we share the road with.

An Irvine mom is accused of using her car as a weapon to intentionally run down a group of teenagers, including two girls riding tandem on an ebike, after her daughter was allegedly beaten up.

And with her daughter, who had to be hospitalized following the fight, in the car when she did it.

The unnamed woman faces four counts of felony assault with a deadly weapon, four counts of felony child abuse and endangerment, and a single felony count of hit-and-run.

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Calbike posted slides from their recent webinar on alternative sources for active transportation funding, in response to anticipated cutbacks in state and federal funds.

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

No bias here. Calling it a “cycle of insanity,” the bike-hating New York Post blames “car-hating bureaucrats” for a plan to eliminate a traffic lane on 6th Avenue to make more room for one of the city’s most popular bike lane, arguing that it will make traffic worse. Apparently forgetting that people on bicycles are traffic, too. And every person on a bicycle is one person who’s not causing congestion. 

Canadian researchers make the case for why bike lanes should remain on the streets of Toronto, despite Ontario Premier Doug ford’s plan to tip them out, citing research that bike lanes improve safety for all road users, while making the streets more inclusive and benefitting local businesses.

Meanwhile, a Toronto physician rides one of the bike lanes Ford plans to rip out, quoting a food delivery rider to say the future of bicycling in the city is “Not good, not good, very bad!”

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

A British writer says despite testing ebikes for more than a decade, he’s had it with “vaping, portable speaker wielding” beginning e-mountain bikers who are tearing up the trails.

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Local  

Streets Are For Everyone is looking for a new director of advocacy for Los Angeles County.

A short self-guided bike ride explores the women’s history of DowntownLos Angeles to mark International Women’s Day; another ride with leave from the Incycle Pasadena bike shop on Saturday for a 25-mile, conversationally paced, no-drop ride through Elysian Park.

State

Doctors at Children’s Hospital of Orange County say ebike injuries are no longer just a coastal problem, saying they are now seeing kids hurt from inland cities, too.

Bizarre story from Bueno Park, where a man riding a bicycle somehow managed to jump into a fire paramedic unit and lock the doors; three firefighters suffered minor injuries struggling to get him out, including one with a bite mark.

A cop in Huntington Beach sent an ebike rider to the hospital after crashing into him at Beach Blvd and Heil Ave Wednesday night; no other details are available.

Sad news from Bakersfield, where someone riding a bicycle was killed in a collision Friday evening.

Forbes talks with Mike Sinyard, the founder and former CEO of Morgan Hill-based Specialized, as he marks 50 years of building bikes.

Santa Rosa is finally moving forward with a long-planned bike and pedestrian bridge that’s been in the works since the ’90s.

Seriously? A 30-year old San Pablo man faces up to four years behind bars after admitting to stealing a series of ebikes — exactly the same amount of time he’d face for killing someone in a hit-and-run.

National

American fashion designer and TV personality Rachel Zoe says it should be a “hard no” for any parent whose kid begs for an ebike, after her 13-year old son suffered a badly lacerated kidney crashing his.

A Nevada court found the 19-year old driver accused of murder for killing a bike-riding former cop competent to stand trial; Jesus Ayala was just 17 when he and another boy recorded themselves intentionally run down retired Bell, California police chief Andreas “Andy” Probst.

The late, great Gene Hackman was one of us, riding his ebike around his Santa Fe, New Mexico home.

An op-ed from a Boulder, Colorado bicyclist calls on the city to stop building bikeways, because two deaths occurred on bikeways last year, and just one on a roadway outside of the city, arguing that traffic laws don’t apply to the city’s 300 miles of multi-use paths, bike lanes and bike routes. Even though both of those bikeway crashes could have happened anywhere, and traffic laws apply to all bike lanes and bike routes, and should apply on pathways, as well. 

University of Texas researchers want you to use an AI app to measure real world road conditions that make for stressful riding.

An Ohio bike shop is out of business for the foreseeable future after the historic 132-year old building burned to the ground.

New York transit officials say the city’s modest $9 congestion pricing charge is working, despite Trump’s vow to get rid of it, providing a near billion dollar boost to the city’s economy in just the first month.

Jersey City NJ could lose out on a $670,000 state grant for a protected bike lane, falling one vote short after sitting on the money for the past two years.

Momentum offers a biking guide to the Big Easy, just in time for tomorrow’s Mardi Gras. And yes, I do know what it means to miss New Orleans.

A kindhearted Mississippi cop got a new bike for a young man whose bike was destroyed in a collision, after learning he needed it to get to and from work.

This is the cost of traffic violence. Sixty-three-year old hip-hop and R&B star Angie Stone was killed when her car overturned on a freeway near Montgomery Alabama, after performing at a Mardi Gras ball; members of her band who were also in the car were injured, but no details were available.

International

The Danish ambassador to Colombia says his country will soon have to look to Bogotá as an example of sustainable mobility, rather than the other way around.

Cuba’s government held an “anti-imperialist bike ride” for young people to show support for the Revolution on Saturday, possibly to distract from criticism of their economic crisis.

A short video shows a Canadian woman’s recovery from devastating injuries when she was hit by a truck driver while riding her bike home from work, to her remarkable return to Hungarian folk dancing.

The parish council of an English church will discuss local traffic safety, after a 60-something man riding a bicycle was killed in a hit-and-run. Which is exactly the problem, because these conversations always seem to come only after it’s too late. 

A former star of the British version of The Apprentice is defending herself after she was shown on video commandeering a man’s “fucking…little bike” outside her $9 million mansion, accusing him of shoving her and invading her privacy with his drone.

Thanks to Mike Burk for sharing a Threads post depicting the amazing bicycle infrastructure in Utrecht, Denmark.

I want to be like him when I grow up. A 77-year old Kiwi man is preparing for a nearly 1,000-mile gravel ride through New Zealand’s rugged South Islands, climbing the equivalent of one-and-a-half Everests. Although there’s a big difference between planning a ride and actually doing it. 

Bicycling Australia highlights some of the best bike scenes from the silver screen, from Kermit and Miss Piggy to a curly-haired, redheaded Nicole Kidman making her film debut. Although they left out bothPee Wee Herman and Mary Poppins riding on two wheels. 

An Aussie writer says maybe we’re being too hard on kids riding legal, low-speed ebikes and scooters, and while illicit high-speed ebikes can be a problem, we were all young once and maybe it’s time to cut the kids a little slack.

Competitive Cycling

Twenty-seven-year old Canadian cyclist Derek Gee won Spain’s O Gran Camino stage race, after his victory in Sunday’s individual time trial.

It’s happened once again, as the leaders of the French Faun-Ardèche Classic took a wrong turn near the finish yesterday, mistakenly following a race moto as it left the course.

Belgian duathlete, nurse and reality star Lotte Claes won the women’s Omloop, aka Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, in a race-long breakaway, edging Poland’s Aurela Nerlo in a sprint to the finish, while finishing nearly three-and-a-half minutes ahead of the peloton.

Velo examines how pro cyclists manage to bounce back from a broken collarbone so much faster than most of us. And not just because they have better drugs. 

Finally….

Knit your own socks by riding a bike without going anywhere. If you get stopped for not having lights on your bike, try not to accidentally show the cop the baggie full of illegal narcotics in your pocket.

And nothing like putting a bike safety sign right in the bike lane, right where everyone will see it, and everyone on bike go around it.

What the fuck is this!?
byu/itsTyrion inmildlyinfuriating

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

Day 56 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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My apologies for yesterday’s unexcused absence. 

My pancreas decided to remind me Sunday night that I’m still diabetic, and it’s still in charge. 

Good times. 

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For the second time in two months — and at least the third in six months — a Los Angeles driver has been attacked by a mob of angry young bicycle riders.

And yes, mob is the right word in this case.

According to witnesses, the kids set upon the victim after he got out of his car following an argument, and were shown on video hitting and kicking the man until he appeared to lose consciousness lying on the street.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Dimitri Rafael Kermani (@dkermani)

The attack occurred around 4:30 pm Saturday at San Vicente Boulevard and McCarthy Vista.

KCAL News reports the attackers were around 16 to 18 years old, although other sources suggested they may have been younger.

It occurred just seven weeks and a few miles from where a man was attacked and his car severely vandalized after driving aggressively through a teen rideout on Olympic Blvd just seven weeks earlier.

And another driver was the victim of a similar attack in DTLA last August.

But no matter what the motorists may have done, or how justified these kids may have felt, there is never an excuse for this kind of mob violence.

Period.

Let’s hope someone recognizes the kids involved, so we can put a stop to this crap.

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Police in South LA are looking for a hit-and-run driver who killed a 16-year old boy riding a pocket bike — aka a mini-motorbike — early Sunday morning, despite some reports that mistakenly said the victim was on a bicycle.

The driver fled on foot, leaving the victim’s bike still wedged in the car’s grill.

As always, there is a $50,000 reward for any fatal hit-and-run in the City of Los Angeles. Anyone with information is urged to call the LAPD’s South Traffic Division at 323/421-2577.

The boy was just one of three people killed by hit-and-run drivers in South LA in just 24 hours.

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More proof that ebike vouchers are effective in reducing driving.

A new report shows recipients of Atlanta’s $1 million voucher program are riding more frequently and driving less, while boosting sales at local bike shops.

The recipients represent roughly two percent of the city’s population, from nearly every neighborhood, while serving mostly low and moderate income residents; one woman says she’s saving money on gas while enjoying riding through the city with her daughter on her new e-cargo bike.

Which is exactly what California’s ebike voucher program could and should be doing, if it had actual leadership, and wasn’t focused solely on providing transportation to low income residents who may not even own cars.

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Former LA-based pro cyclist Phil Gaimon, of Worst Retirement Ever fame, provides a tongue-in-cheek look at 10 facts about bicyclists that haters get wrong.

And my apologies to whoever sent this one to me after I lost track of who did it, but thank you, anyway!

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

No bias here. The Encinitas city council replaced two members of the city’s Mobility & Traffic Safety Commission, as the mayor called for a “course correction” from the previous focus on bicycles and pedestrians, to “make sure vehicles and their drivers aren’t forgotten in the roadway planning process.” Because because cars and drivers must have somehow been left out in the newly 40 years of auto-centric traffic planning since the city’s founding. 

Drivers in the UK say they’re being treated like extremist groups, accusing city counselors of being “snowflakes” for cancelling a meeting to discuss bicycling infrastructure, even though police had urged the cancellation over safety concerns from angry drivers.

The BBC remembers Paul Varry, the 27-year old Parisian bike advocate and father who dreamed of a bicycling revolution in the City of Lights, until he was run over — allegedly on purpose — by an SUV driver after Varry became understandably upset when the driver ran over his foot in a designated bike lane.

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

A Jersey City writer blames bad behavior by scofflaw bicyclists for jeopardizing plans for a protected bike lane, while arguing that calling drivers selfish for being unwilling to give up an inch of roadway is just a great strategy to lose.

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Local  

No surprise here, as Trump’s funding freeze could jeopardize efforts to revitalize the Los Angeles River; meanwhile, LA released the latest update of plans for completing the LA River bike path, which stands little chance of completion unless the feds unlock funding.

Streetsblog’s Joe Linton offers his typically great photos from Sunday’s CicLAvia.

A man was arrested in Baldwin Park for vandalizing a church, resulting in $19,000 damage, following a brief bicycle chase.

The Broxton Plaza pedestrian plaza is now officially open in Westwood Village.

A Torrance driver faces charges after he was arrested for the hit-and-run crash that left an ebike rider hospitalized with serious injuries shortly after midnight Saturday; neither the driver or the victim were publicly identified.

State

The Voice of OC updates the current state of anti-ebike regulations in Orange County, with new ordinances in Buena Park and Laguna Hills. However, the cities continue to conflate relatively slow speed ped-assist bikes with higher speed Class 3 ebikes, and illegally modified virtual electric motorcycles.

In an opinion piece we can only hope is tongue-in-cheek, a writer for the UC San Diego student newspaper makes the case for giving bikes, scooters and skateboards undisputed right-of-way over pedestrians, even in crosswalks. Which is no different than drivers who insist they are entitled to the road, and people on bicycles should get the hell out of their way. 

Police in Contra Costa County have finally arrested a suspect for killing a man riding a bicycle over a year ago, leaving the victim lying the road next to his bicycle after midnight in December, 2023.

Sad news from Napa County, where a person riding a bicycle was killed by a hit-and-run driver Sunday afternoon, on the same highway where an Oregon couple was killed riding their bikes two years ago.

National

People For Bikes has launched a data-driven tool, developed with funding from REI, to help guide investment in recreational bicycling facilities.

A writer for Forbes asks if this will be the year the bike industry will bounce back, after yet another prolonged bust in 2024.

CyclingSavvy offers strategies to navigate a green light on your bicycle, which apparently isn’t as simple as it seems.

This is why people keep dying on our streets. A Las Vegas man faces charges for the allegedly drunken crash that killed 62-year old man riding an ebike — while he was already facing charges for another DUI, as well as ten previous charges for failing to appear.

The Northwestern University student newspaper profiles a 24-year old “campus enigma” known for performing stunts on his bike for hours on end, while blasting disco and funk classics through a speaker.

A 72-year old Connecticut woman walked without a day behind bars for killing a 47-year old woman as she was riding her bicycle, after the victim’s family asked the court for leniency. But at least she voluntarily gave up her driver’s license.

In a hard-hitting op-ed, a Black ex-con who has turned his life around to become a Connecticut lawyer and Harvard professor discusses how it felt to go to a bike shop, where he had been a customer six times before, to buy a bicycle, only to have the manager call cops after mistaking him for a vagrant. Yet he somehow went back a week later to buy a high-end Trek anyway.

A Tampa, Florida Catholic church gave away their 1,500th refurbished bicycle for people in need.

International

Momentum belatedly gets it, arguing that “sharrows used to make sense in theory, but are now mostly useless and possibly dangerous.”

A writer for Road.cc describes the tools he carries with him on his bike to fix just about anything on the road. I always made sure I had enough tools to get myself back if my bike broke down 50 miles from home in the middle of nowhere. And it did, more than once. 

Cycling Weekly considers how bicyclists can reduce their carbon footprint, when riding for recreation is far from a green activity as too few “hobby” riders use their bikes to replace car trips.

After traversing the continent by bike and train, a writer for Bike Radar lists his favorite European bicycling experiences.

London bike clubs are begging police to begin early morning patrols in the city’s Regent’s Park, where bike riders have been targeted by masked knife and hammer-wielding bikejackers. But donut shops must open later there, because the cops say it’s just too darn early for them.

A Welsh startup’s “ingenious” bicycle storage rack earned the equivalent of a $126,000 investment on the British equivalent of Shark Tank.

That’s more like it. A British man will spend the next eight years behind bars for killing a 16-year old kid riding a bicycle, while doing 70 mph in a 30 mph zone stoned on coke and weed; he initially left the scene, but came back shortly afterwards and called the cops to report the crash.

A writer from the Netherlands calls cul-de-sacs the enemy of ebikes, because they force people to ride next to high-speed traffic on overly wide boulevards.

A Dutch website considers whether the country’s roundabouts are really that safe, concluding they improve safety for bicyclists and drivers, though there’s still room for improvement.

A German company wants you to hide an AirTag in your bike bell.

How to go from selling soap from a bicycle to becoming a detergent mogul and one of the richest people in India.

The Washington Post remembers “inveterate adventurer” Shirley Duncan, who died just shy of her 100th birthday; Duncan was just 21 when she set off with a friend and a dog to ride across Australia in the days after WWII, a nearly three-year journey recounted in her 1957 book, “Two Wheels to Adventure,” now out of print.

Competitive Cycling

Ultra-endurance cyclist Lachlan Morton has done it again, setting yet another world record by riding 402 miles across New Zealand in just 18-and-a-half hours.

America’s only seven-time ex-Tour de France champ offers his tips for how to stay safe while riding a bicycle, including riding a gravel bike and going where cars can’t go. And waiting for self-driving cars to take over, which could take awhile.

What will likely be Chris Froome’s final year on the pro tour is on hold, after the four-time Tour de France champ broke his collarbone during the final stage of the UAE Tour.

Finally….

You can now be replaced by a robot. No, a bike basket is not a dumpster. Who needs a hearse when you’ve got a cargo bike?

And forget the dating apps; if you really want to find lasting love, get run over by a speeding driver while riding your bike.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin.