Driver killed on Forest Lawn after Bass killed Raman safety project, and LAPD never asked for security video after bike rider injured in hit-and-run

August 14, 2026 / / No comments

The good news is, for the first time this week, we didn’t learn about anyone killed riding a bicycle yesterday.

Unfortunately, after this long, though there’s no way I can catch up on everything we missed this week. So let’s just see how much I can get in before the sun rises today.

As for the bad news, it starts below.

And buy a new T-shirt, already. You’ll thank me later.

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Go ahead and get mad. Lord knows, I am.

Because KABC-7 is reporting that one person was killed in a fiery single-car crash on Forest Lawn Drive, near Griffith Park and the eponymous cemetery early Thursday morning.

That’s the same cemetery that called on the mayor to halt a fully funded and shovel-ready safety project sponsored by CD4 Councilmember — and mayoral candidate — Nithya Raman, including a lane reduction and improved bike lanes, that had somehow made it through the city’s endless series of public meetings.

Needless to say, our mayor couldn’t bend over fast enough.

As Streets For All put it, Karen Bass set an awful precedent by personally intervening to keep the street dangerous and deadly.

Back to Mayor Bass. In her letter she directs the departments to revise their plan to preserve all current travel lanes while protecting the bike lane – defeating nearly all the safety improvements the project was meant to bring.

And the worst part? The Mayor is setting an awful precedent here. By siding with cemeteries’ unfounded concerns and giving in to state legislators interfering with the project, she’s setting LA up for this to happen again and again. In her letter, Mayor Bass directs the departments to conduct “essential, immediate outreach to gather feedback on the new plan and achieve a resolution for all partners.” More outreach! Apparently, three years wasn’t enough. But this isn’t general public outreach – reading between the lines, this is outreach to two parties only – Forest Lawn and Mount Sinai. The Mayor is directing city departments to waste taxpayer dollars coming up with a plan that doesn’t solve the safety concerns, and is giving the cemeteries equal footing to city departments, by insisting they sign off on the plan before it moves forward.

Whoever this person was, his or her blood is on the mayor’s hands. Not to mention the cemetery managers who fought so hard to keep the street just the way it is, in an apparent attempt to drum up more business.

In that, they succeeded.

November can’t come soon enough.

………

You’ve got to be kidding.

A homeless man says he was the bike rider seriously injured by a hit-and-run driver in LA’s Pico-Union neighborhood in June, suffering a broken leg.

And he says the driver “was gunning” for him, and went out of their way to run him down.

Yet despite that, no one from the LAPD has canvassed local businesses for their security cam videos — even though the shop owner across the street says they’re welcome to it.

Evidently, intentionally running down a homeless man is just no big deal to them. Or maybe it’s just because he was on a bicycle.

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Streets Are For Everyone offers a legislative update on all the bills they are sponsoring and supporting this legislative session.

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A writer for a British Columbia website gets it right — the real danger is cars, not kids on scooters or ebikes.

All the outrage we feel about teens weaving on e-bikes and scooters would be better spent figuring out how to keep massive motorized vehicles away from all other road users.

My apologies and thanks to whoever sent this to my attention.

……….

Yesterday, I got a very nice email from the Marketing Director for B&D Law Group, APLC.

While they make the serious tactical error of not advertising over there on the right, they have created a list of California bicycling laws, including ebike regulations, updated for 2026. Along with a list of commonly asked questions, which they actually get right.

And yes, that is surprising, because I usually don’t link to pages from lawyers who don’t sponsor this site, because they usually get something wrong. Sometimes a lot of things.

So check it out if you want a refresher on what you can or can’t do on two wheels in this state.

And thanks to Alex for reading this site.

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A Redditor posted a photo of much-needed concrete barriers on Imperial Highway, which Reddit somehow considers adult content.

Maybe because half of the bikeway is in the gutter.

Reddit post

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This is what we could be doing in Los Angeles, which has a hell of a lot better weather than London.

Bluesky post

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Thanks to Megan for forwarding a video of a Chicago cargo bike rider making sure a stranger didn’t miss his bus.

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Normally, I wouldn’t offer a company free advertising like this.

But I was surprised to get the following email from Oofas, the maker of cushioned recovery slides I wear because of the neuropathy pain my feet. And yes, I recommend them, as does my podiatrist.

But not only is this about bicycling, it’s also about a cause I can get behind wholeheartedly.

Meanwhile, a writer for Sports Business Journal shares his own experienced on the ride.

If they want to thank me, I’m a size 11.

………

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

Let’s hope this is a mistake. The superintendent of the Las Virgenes Unified School District announces a ban on ebikes on campus, except for high school students with a valid California driver’s license — but also says “Elementary and middle school students, as well as high school students without a driver’s license, may not possess or ride a bike on campus.” Hopefully, he meant an ebike; otherwise, no one can ride any bicycle to school. 

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

Bakersfield cops are looking for a 13-year old hit-and-run bike rider who crashed into a pedestrian outside the city’s Valley Plaza Mall. Someday I may tell you about the award-winning ad I wrote for that mall back in the day. But today is not that day, my friend. 

A Philadelphia woman calls on her fellow bicyclists to show some decorum after witnessing a case of bike path rage, when “a woman in a Lycra onesie sped by at top speed” yelling for a bike-riding little boy’s parents to get him the hell out of her way.

………

Local 

Writing for Golden State Report, Mona Field, professor emeritus of political science of Glendale Community College, etc, shares my disappointment that the Los Angeles charter reforms on the November ballot don’t go further, by offering police reform, ethics reform, expanding the council or ranked-choice voting. My gut reaction was to vote down everything as a result, but she says maybe we should rethink that. I subscribe to Golden State, so my apologies if this is behind a paywall. 

He gets it. A Los Angeles writer says not so fast on claims that teens on ebikes are the new Hells Angels, arguing that “experts say better regulation is needed but that bad press about ‘motorized menaces’ puts the wider ebike revolution at risk.” Amen, brother.

Streetsblog checks out above grade G Line bridges, nee Orange Line, new shade structure at the NoHo Red Line station, and hard plastic curbs protecting center-running section of the Chandler Bikeway.

 

State

Irvine has a new bike and pedestrian bridge over the 5 Freeway, but the Orange County Register doesn’t think you should know about it unless you’re willing to pay them.

You only have to wait a few more days to place an order for Irvine-based Rivian’s new ebike. Although when you’ll actually get it could be another matter. 

San Diego’s crackdown on ebike riders under 12 kicked in yesterday, although cops are just giving out warnings, for now.

A 15-year old Menifee boy was killed in a hit-and-run while riding an offroad e-moto; the driver was seen leaving the scene with a bike still lodged under his car.

Police in Valdosta are pushing back against videos on social media saying a bike rider was killed in a hit-and-run, insisting the victim died of natural causes.

The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition says a 32-year old woman was killed when the e-scooter she was riding got caught in a rail track, and she was hit by a delivery truck driver illegally driving in the transit lane, who fled the scene, although he was caught a few blocks away.

Hats off to Kyle and Jessica Aster, who donated a quarter of a million dollars to build a five-mile singletrack trail near Lake Tahoe, completing an iconic 12-mile loop around the lake.

 

National

If you ride with a Ritchey Carbon Fiber Bicycle Fork, don’t; they’re being recalled due to a “risk of serious injury or death.”

A Colorado couple discovers that riding 50 centuries in 50 states on a tandem bike may soon fill a blank page in the Guinness World Records book.

Um, no. A San Antonio TV station says a man was stabbed several times “during (a) fight over a bicycle,” but the description sounds more like he was stabbed by someone trying to steal his bike.

An Illinois man was arrested two years after a 56-year old man was killed in a hit-and-run while riding his bicycle; the investigation showed the driver and his wife had gone to two bars, but they played the old “Oh, I thought we just hit a deer” card when finally caught.

A 73-year old Cornell University researcher and former sponsored cyclist has turned his garage into a word-of-mouth bike shop, and a bicycling community.

The New York city council has wisely backed off a plan to require ebike registration, after witnessing the messy rollout of New Jersey’s crackdown just across the river.

No surprise here, as DC finds building bike and bus lanes reduces crashes a lot.

Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins offers a “crash course in ebike helmets,” arguing that faster bikes means a bigger risk.

The kindhearted folks at a Tampa, Florida nonprofit will soon give away their 3,000th donated and refurbished bicycle, just three-and-a-half years after it was founded.

 

International

A new study from the University of Duh finds that bicycling infrastructure really can boost bike commuting.

Road.cc recommends six of the best British designed bicycles, starting at the equivalent of around 950 bucks. Although something actually made in the UK is another matter.

A British woman and her boyfriend completed a nearly 800-day trip from Europe through Africa — and he even had to push her about 80 miles when her bike broke down.

Irish police have conducted ten raids and arrested two teens, following a series of attacks, robberies and bike thefts by masked men on a popular bike path

That Chopper bike floating belly-up in the bathtub is a Raleigh, after Dutch parent company Accell declared bankruptcy, also sounding the death knell for the Lapierre, Batavus, Sparta, Koga, Haibike, Winora, Ghost, Babboe and XLC brands; however, there may be hope, as an Irish investment firm has expressed an interest in buying the entire lot.

New bike sales in France dropped 6% in 2025, while ebike sales fell 16%; however, sales remained 23% up from those heady pre-Covid days of 2019.

 

Competitive Cycling

LA endurance cyclist Isabel King completed the 207-mile Unbound Gravel race in 12 hours while pumping milk for her breastfeeding baby.

A writer for Men’s Journal rides a Tour de France bike through the Alps, and discovers that aero matters more than weight.

 

Finally…

That feeling when renting an e-bikeshare feels more like highway robbery. Writing the memo you wish the local DOT director would write.

And apropos of nothing, CNN ranks my bike friendly hometown #5 on their list of places to visit — and yes, it really did serve as the inspiration for Disneyland’s Main Street.

Although I don’t recall ever seeing a large pantless duck or talking mouse when I was growing up.

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And seriously, you need one of these. Like, now.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin.

 

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

Victim blamed when San Diego bike rider killed by big rig driver in Otay Mesa right hook; 3rd SoCal bicycling death this week

August 13, 2026 / / One comment

Evidently, big rig trucks don’t have wing mirrors anymore.

Because for the third time this week, someone in Southern California has been killed riding a bicycle. And it’s only Wednesday.

And this time, the victim is getting the blame.

According to San Diego’s City News Service, posted by 10 News, the victim “rode his bicycle into a big rig” after getting right hooked by the driver in the city’s Otay Mesa neighborhood Tuesday afternoon.

The victim was riding south on Otay Center Drive next to a semi-truck stopped at the red light at Siempre Viva Road around 2:17 pm. When the light turned green, the 38-year old driver turned right onto Siempre Viva, while the victim — identified only as a 59-year old man — attempted to continue straight on Otay Center.

So if the victim rode into the big rig, it’s only because the driver turned right directly in from of him, causing him to crash into the truck’s right front wheel. Which means he had to be directly next to the truck at the red light, and should have been visible to the driver.

Not “traveling behind the truck,” as FOX5 reports. If that was the case, it’s more likely he would been run over by the rear of the truck as it turned.

Not surprisingly, the victim was declared dead at the scene.

Unfortunately, there’s no bike lane or other infrastructure on the street that might have protected the victim, or at least alerted the driver to look for someone on a bike.

Most cars these days have safety systems to alert the driver to the presence of another vehicle, bicycle or pedestrian. Even my wife’s car, which does not have automatic braking or other alert systems, has a camera that’s activated whenever she uses the right turn signal, to alert her when there’s someone or something to her right before she turns.

Why one of the most dangerous vehicles on the road wouldn’t have something like that is anyone’s guess.

And yes, it’s dangerous to ride alongside any big rig, and you should never come up from behind as a truck is turning, or likely to.

But it’s hard to imagine why the victim shouldn’t have been visible in the driver’s wing mirror, or how he could have run into the truck’s front wheel if he ridden up from behind as the driver was turning.

It’s easy to imagine, though, that only one person involved in the crash was still around afterward to give their side of the story to the cops.

This is at least the 40th bicycling fatality that I’m aware of in Southern California this year, and the seventh we know about in San Diego County.

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

 

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

PeopleForBikes and Ride LA Together ride to rescue, as LA River bike path and LA28 projects rise in costs and complexity

August 12, 2026 / / One comment

Look, I don’t have a lot of time left to get anything done tonight, after writing about the second bicycling death in two days.

But I at least want to get two interrelated stories out that deserved our attention on a semi-expedited basis.

The Los Angeles Times is reporting that completing the Los Angeles River bike path is going to take a lot longer, and cost a lot more, than anyone had been expecting.

The project was originally on former Mayor Eric Garcetti’s vaunted Twenty-Eight by ’28 list of transportation projects to be completed in time for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, before it was removed in favor of easier projects completing segments in the San Fernando Valley.

According to the Times,

The longest unfinished stretch is the eight miles from Elysian Park through downtown to Maywood. For decades, advocates of the path have tried to complete those eight miles along the concretized river.

Yet a decade later, the unrideable gap remains. The ambitious project remains mired in planning and bureaucratic complications, with groundbreaking still two years off and the cost nearly tripling to more than $1 billion — almost $24,000 per foot — documents reviewed by The Times show.

That means, according to paper, that the project wouldn’t even break ground before the Olympics — if Metro somehow manages to come up with a cool $1 billion.

The problem, according to the Times, is that the original estimate and timeline was based on a simple pathway on just one side of the river, which became far more complicated after a series of public meetings.

Which is exactly what usually happens as a result of LA’s endless rounds of public meetings, in which every competing argument must be considered and accommodated, no matter how ridiculous, how much it costs, or how long it delays the project.

But by last year, the proposed designs were much wider and added seven pedestrian bridges. They also included sections where the path would be elevated above the ground, supported by beams. The changes responded to community input and comments from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and L.A. Department of Water and Power, among others. Estimated completion of the initial phase is not until 2031.

Navigating the web of nearby structures, like active rail lines and historic bridges, is part of what makes the construction so complex, Metro says. An original $75 million set aside for unforeseen expenses in 2016 swelled to $309 million last year, and the rising cost of construction also added to the high price tag.

Advocates, including Streets For All, well, advocate for a far less expensive and easier to build alternative, which would be built near river level. That means it would flood during heavier rains — just like virtually all of LA County’s other riverfront pathways.

It could also discourage women from using it, especially after dark, since they would be virtually invisible to anyone at street level.

But let me pause here for a quick aside.

This story, while well-written and informative, reflects the LA Times’ nasty habit of layoffs and buyouts, which has resulted in the loss of an incredible amount of institutional knowledge.

Beat writers familiar with project such as this, their history and the people involved, are long departed, replaced by younger and less experienced — and yes, cheaper — writers.

The former would have known that work to complete the Los Angeles River bike path has been driven by BikeLA, the former Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, for more than two decades.

But instead of contacting the former LACBC, they reached for the only numbers in their virtual rolodexes, and got comments from two people with Streets For All, including founder and chief exec Michael Schneider.

Which is great, since that organization is driving — if you’ll excuse the expression — much of the movement for safer streets in the LA area.

But BikeLA should have at least been contacted for story.

Then again, they did contact the mayor’s office, even though Karen Bass has done less for bicycling in this city than any mayor in recent memory.

Mayor Karen Bass chairs the Metro board. Despite the project’s stagnation, she continues to convey optimism.

“Angelenos voted in 2016 to make the L.A. River Path path a reality, and Mayor Bass is marshaling the resources necessary to eliminate further distraction that have threatened the project’s pace and cost,” her office said in statement.

And even though Bass has been a disaster for active transportation since assuming the chair.

But that brings us to the second part of our story, as bike industry advocacy coalition PeopleForBikes promises to ride to the rescue.

Pun intended.

To help give you the full story, I’m going to repost a press release the group sent me last week.

Ride LA Together Brings Southern California Together to Accelerate Bike Projects Before LA28

As Los Angeles prepares to host the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games, organizations from across Southern California are coming together through Ride LA Together, a regional initiative led by PeopleForBikes that brings local advocates, community organizations, businesses, and the bicycle industry together around one shared goal: creating a safer, more connected region where more people can ride bikes more often during and long after 2028.

The campaign builds on the work already being led by organizations across the region, including BikeLA, Move LA, Active San Gabriel Valley, the Los Angeles Bicycle Academy (LABA), and many others. Rather than replacing those efforts, Ride LA Together aligns partners around shared priorities, helping accelerate projects, amplify successes, and build the public support needed to move projects from planning to reality.

A recent example of what’s possible through coordinated action is the advancement of the $430 million LA River Bikeway, a voter-backed project that closes a roughly nine-mile gap between Long Beach and Griffith Park. Once complete, the bikeway will create a continuous, low-stress corridor that serves residents during the 2028 Games and for decades afterward.

“Los Angeles has a once-in-a-generation chance to change how people move, and, with the 2028 Games on the horizon, this is an opportunity we can focus on immediately,” said Jenn Dice, president and CEO of PeopleForBikes.

“LA’s bike network is fragmented and progress is happening slowly, but with real coordination and investment, we can accelerate these projects, grow ridership, and leave a legacy that serves the people who live here long after the Games are over.”

Ride LA Together was created to connect organizations already leading this work, advance priority projects, support community rides and events, and amplify local successes.

The work has already begun and will initially focus on accelerating projects moving through public planning and funding processes, including the San Gabriel Valley Regional Greenway Network, the LA River Bikeway Project, Rail to River, and Sunset Boulevard safety improvements. Together, these investments will create safer connections between venues, neighborhoods, transit, jobs, schools, parks, and destinations across the region.

“You can feel the momentum building across Los Angeles,” said Eli Akira Kaufman, Executive Director of BikeLA, “Projects that have been discussed for years are moving forward, organizations are working more closely together, and there’s a growing sense that this is the moment to build the bike network our communities deserve. Ride LA Together is a key force multiplier that is deepening the connections within the movement, hard at work to transform Los Angeles into a more bikeable and livable city for everyone.

”By 2028, Ride LA Together aims to help accelerate priority bike projects, grow ridership through community programs, strengthen regional partnerships, and demonstrate how coordinated action can create safer, more connected transportation and recreation networks.

To learn more about Ride LA Together or get involved, visit ridela.peopleforbikes.org.

See how easy it was to get a quote from BikeLA ED Eli Akira Kaufman? They probably have him on speed dial, unlike a certain newspaper I could name.

(For younger readers, back in the olden days, we would pre-program frequently called numbers into our phones, so we could call someone without having to dial the whole number. And yes, I know texting is easier and less intrusive, but that’s how we did it back then.)

This is from the email accompanying the press release.

LA’s transportation system showed its limits during the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The 2028 Olympics will bring twice the pressure. However, a coordinated effort is already underway to ensure LA is ready and it starts with bikes.

Paris solved a similar challenge in three years by making every Olympic venue accessible by bike. LA has less than two years, but six priority infrastructure projects are already in motion:

Some of those even I wasn’t familiar with, like the Festival Trail and Western Our Way. Others have been in progress, or at least under discussion, for years, if not decades.

But few, if any, promised to be complete in time for the Olympic Games, as the Metro and Los Angeles leadership — which is currently one and the same — has continued to drag their feet on projects that should have been completed by now, let alone in another two years.

So any help PeopleForBikes and the Ride LA Together coalition can provide would be a blessing for a city that has long talked about making progress, without actually doing it.

If they can manage to cut through the city’s Gordian Knot of red tape and endless series of pointless public meetings, and overcome the chronic understaffing at the chronically understaffed LADOT, which seems to have fewer engineers that most modern trains, I’m all for it.

I confess, I’m feeling something I don’t really recognize, and haven’t experienced since those heady days of the Garcetti years, when groundbreaking programs were announced with great fanfare, before being allowed to whither and die on the vine.

I think it’s called…

Hope.

Image of LA River bike path gap closure from LA Metro website. 

Category: Advocacy & Politics / Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Ebike rider killed by driver in Santa Ana Tuesday evening; 4th fatal bicycling crash in Santa Ana in 3 months

August 12, 2026 / / 2 comments

Another day, another person on an ebike struck by a driver in Santa Ana.

Monday, a man barely survived a violent hit-and-run caught on security cam. Tuesday, the victim didn’t. But at least this time, the driver stuck around.

According to KCBS-2, the victim of Tuesday’s crash was riding near the intersection of N. Santiago Street and Santa Ana Blvd when he was struck by the driver around 6 pm.

He was taken to a local hospital, where he died. At this time, he hasn’t been publicly identified.

However, KNBC-4 oddly places the time of the crash as sometime “before 7:50 pm.”

Unfortunately, there’s no additional information at this time, other than the driver remained at the scene and cooperated with investigators.

However, since the cops and the media seem incapable of telling an e-bicycle from an e-motorbike, it’s up to us to suss out what the victim was actually riding.

In this case, video from the scene appears to show a crumpled bicycle frame, rather than a heavier e-moto. Although “appears” seems to be the key word here.

This crash was less than five miles from the site of Monday’s hit-and-run, in which the victim appeared to do everything right.

This is at least the 39th bicycling fatality that I’m aware of in Southern California this year, and the sixth we know about in Orange County. It’s also the fourth fatal bicycling crash in Santa Ana in three months.

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

 

Category: Injuries and Fatalities / Tags: , , ,

Man riding bicycle killed on the 710 Freeway in East Los Angeles early Monday morning

August 11, 2026 / / No comments

Once again, someone riding a bicycle has been killed on a Southern California highway.

And once again, we have almost no information to go on. But after waiting all day Monday for more information, we’ll have to go with what we’ve got.

According to The Eastsider and My News LA, a man was killed when he was struck by a driver on the 710 Freeway in East Los Angeles.

Yes, on a busy freeway where bicycles aren’t allowed under any circumstances.

The victim was riding his bike on the southbound Long Beach Freeway, otherwise known as the 710, just north of Floral Drive, when he was run down around 3:20 am.

He died at the scene. Which is not surprising, assuming he was struck at highway speeds.

The driver remained at the scene.

Unfortunately, that’s all we know right now. There’s no word on the identity of the victim, or why he was riding on the freeway. However, in virtually every other case where someone was killed while riding a bicycle on a freeway in the middle of the night, the victim turned out to be homeless.

Which should not lessen the tragedy in any way.

This is at least the 38th bicycling fatality that I’m aware of in Southern California this year, and the 13th we know about in Los Angeles County.

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

Category: Injuries and Fatalities / Tags: , , ,

Road rage trifecta — French driver goes bowling for bicyclists, Apple Valley man weaponizes his car, and WeHo bus driver hits rider and runs over bicycle

August 10, 2026 / / No comments

Once again, a driver has used his car as a weapon to deliberately run down a group of bike riders.

The road rage attack began when the 73-year old Italian man passed a group of bicyclists, between the towns of Lanzo Torinese and Coassolo, while angrily honking his horn; when one of the riders gestured in response, he put his car in reverse and plowed into the group, throwing one rider nearly 100 feet.

Then when one of the other riders raced after him to capture his license plate, he spun around and sped into them again, striking another rider before slamming into a several riders who had stopped to help their fallen comrade.

According to Wanted In Milan,

Four cyclists were injured, two of them seriously. Two were airlifted to Turin’s CTO hospital, while the other two were taken to San Giovanni Bosco hospital. One victim, aged 60, suffered a fractured femur, a compound fracture to the left leg, and facial and chest trauma. A second, aged 68, sustained serious injuries to his shoulder and pelvis. Neither is believed to be in life-threatening condition.

The man was placed under house arrest after turning himself in, while he faces an investigation for multiple counts of assault and attempted manslaughter.

………

Meanwhile, an Apple Valley man was arrested for the same weaponization of his car against someone on a bicycle.

Sheriff’s deputies arrested 58-year old Apple Valley resident Michael Garbush on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon after he was accused of intentionally crashing his car into the victim following a verbal dispute Wednesday evening.

Garbush was arrested after leaving the scene, while the victim was taken to the hospital with minor injuries.

At last report, Garbush was being held in lieu of $40,000 bail, and was scheduled to appear in court this past Friday.

………

And yet another driver stands accused of weaponizing his vehicle to attack someone on a bicycle.

Last week, we mentioned that a bus driver had struck a bicyclist in a West Hollywood bike lane. Now WeHo Times is reporting that the driver, 39-year old Edward Mosby, has been arrested and charged assault with a deadly weapon, with great bodily injury.

According to the paper,

Cyclist Ruben Rubalcava told the WeHo Times that the incident followed a road-rage confrontation with Mosby, who was driving a Cityline shuttle. Rubalcava said he confronted Mosby after the shuttle allegedly came too close to him while he was riding his bicycle on Santa Monica Boulevard. “I told him he needed to be three feet away from me and it enraged him,” he said.

According to Rubalcava, the confrontation escalated when Mosby allegedly began yelling and cursing at him before striking him with the shuttle.

“He ran over my bike in a fit of rage,” Rubalcava said. “First he hit me from behind and I was knocked off the bike. Then he ran over the bicycle. It was two hits.”

Although despite the charge, Rubalcava didn’t suffer any serious injuries, and declined medical treatment. Mosby was being held on $30,000 bail.

All of these stories serve as reminder that every driver is in possession of a multi-ton locked and loaded weapon, and all it takes is a momentary flash of anger to use it that way.

………

Good point.

A letter writer in the Los Angeles Times complains about the framing of a recent story about triathlete Marc Papas attempting to ride every street in Los Angeles.

According to Los Angeles resident Misch Takemoto,

Kudos to Marc Papas for his project and promoting biking! And shame on the Los Angeles Times for the headline and framing of, ”Is Los Angeles the world’s best biking city?” and “L.A. is actually bikeable” (“Is Los Angeles the world’s best biking city? He’s biked 5,840-plus miles in one year to find out,” Aug. 4).

Claiming that Los Angeles is “bikeable” because a young male triathlete who is unbothered by extreme heat has the spare time and ambition to bike every street as a personal challenge is ridiculous. By the same logic, Mt. Everest is a “hikeable” hill. Yes, people do it — but it’s incredibly hard, and a lot of people die trying, so most people don’t do it.

He goes on to say that Papas’ effort is remarkable because he’s doing it despite much of the city being uncomfortable, if not hostile, to someone on a bicycle, and that Papas himself recognized the need for more bike lanes.

By framing it the way they did, the Times makes it appear that Los Angeles is just fine the way it is, when in reality, we desperately need more options for “safe, clean, affordable, non-congesting, efficient” ways to get around this city.

Which is how I should have responded to the article, but didn’t.

So kudos to Takemoto for a response that was much more on point than mine. And shame on me for missing the mark.

………

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

Boulder County Sheriff’s deputies tracked down the driver seen speeding down a Colorado bike path at up to 50 mph, posing a “significant safety risk” for anyone using the path for anything other than a traffic bypass route, and charging a 44-year-old man with reckless driving and reckless endangerment.

A 33-year old Wisconsin man was arrested for threatening to kill a neighbor’s child for riding an ebike in the street, and siccing his dog on the kid; the confrontation ended up in an armed standoff with the police when he refused to give up his weapons.

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

A 34-year old Visalia man was arrested for riding a bicycle while wearing a tactical vest, with an AR-15-style BB gun slung over his back. Until this moment, I did not know it was against the law to carry any replica gun in public, even if it only fires BBs. 

When you’re a wanted felon riding your bike carrying meth, heroin and fentanyl, seriously, don’t ride salmon.

………

Local 

Metro’s $600 payment to up to 2,000 Los Angeles households to leave a car at home for five weeks is starting to make the larger national news.

 

State

A San Francisco website says California’s ebike wars are exploding in Orange County, as ridership reaches “epidemic” levels, and the DA has had enough. Although let’s be clear, once again, the entire problem stems from the easy availability of e-motorbikes, electric dirt bikes, and ebikes that can be hacked to exceed the permitted speeds, not basic ped-assist bicycles.

San Diego is launching a public education campaign in advance of the city’s crackdown on ebikes for kids.

A man suffered life-threatening injuries when he was hit by a pickup driver while riding an ebike in Hesperia; photos from the scene showed the bike at least had pedals.

Sad news from Modesto, where an ebike rider was killed after allegedly going through a red light, and was struck by “an SUV,” which remained at the scene. Once again, however, there’s no word on whether the victim was actually on an electric bicycle, or an e-motorbike, although the police did note it had pedals, in addition to an electric motor. And once again, there’s no mention of a driver, as if the SUV somehow made the decision to stick around after the crash on its own.

Sonoma County is on the verge of building California’s first New Urbanist community, built around the idea that it should be walkable, bikeable, and affordable by design.

The UC Davis community is mourning a student who was killed while riding his bike in a bike lane last week.

 

National

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee approved the five-year BUILD America 250 Act (H.R. 8870), or Building Unrivaled Infrastructure and Long-term Development for America’s 250th Act; the bill would provide a 10% boost for Transportation Alternatives, but would allow states to move the funds to other programs. I’d be happy if they’d just stop giving bills awkward titles just to get a good acronym out of it.

A Redditor says a rear-facing radar has given him renewed confidence, six years after recovering from a bad crash; meanwhile, some Reddit users say they’re moving away from saying “on your left.” I found I could avoid any confusion in most cases by just adding “‘Passing’ on your left,” rather than simply saying “on your left,” which can be confusing for some people.

A writer for Bike Mag lays out the five best uses of AI for bicycling, which basically boils down to, don’t.

An Oregon edition of the World Naked Bike Ride rode through the parking garage of Willamette shopping mall to protest its closure in its final days. Meanwhile, the New York Times considers the split over whether a naked bike ride should be a party or a protest. However, the first two stories show full-frontal nudity from both sexes, and are definitely NSFW.

A Colorado mountain biker’s life may have been saved by a simple shade shelter after he suffered a mechanical breakdown while riding in record heat; the shelter had been built in honor of a man who had died of heat exposure and dehydration on the same trail four years earlier. Seriously, folks, look at the damn weather report, and if it’s too hot, either ride early or late, or save it for another day. 

Tragic news from Massachusetts, where a seven-year old kid was killed when they “unintentionally” entered the roadway their bike, and was struck by a motorist. Oddly, the story makes a point of mentioning the victim was wearing a helmet, as if a magic plastic hat will somehow protect a little kid from a bigass, multi-ton motor vehicle. 

A former Angeleno accepts an invitation for a free lecture on the subconscious mind, and finds himself walking his bike into a Harlem Scientology lecture — and biking back out after working his way through a phalanx of staffers trying to talk him out of leaving early.

The mother of a 12-year old boy shot and killed in the Bronx while he was riding his bike last month joined legislators to promote a new bill in his name that would increase penalties for killing a kid.

An 84-year old Tampa, Florida man was killed when his allegedly drifted out of a bike lane on his bicycle, and was struck by a driver. Although it’s just as likely that the driver drifted into the bike lane without realizing it and struck the victim. A lot depends on whether there were any independent witnesses, since it’s human nature for the driver to see their own actions in the best light. 

City leaders in Gulfport, Florida take a surprisingly rational approach to ebikes, deciding to wait for crash data to come in before making any rash decisions.

 

International

If you build it, they will come. Edmonton, Alberta drivers may hate the city’s new bike lanes, but ridership is expanding in tandem with the increasing bike network.

An Ottawa, Canada man with cerebral palsy was shocked when someone stole the $6,000 adaptive bicycle he’d used to get around and take part in road races for the past 30 years — and was probably more shocked when it was recovered after someone turned it in to a scrapyard. Thanks to Megan for the heads-up. 

A former pro basketball player in Girona, Spain discovers a whole new city after she retired and bought a bicycle; as a player, her contracts had forbidden her from riding a bike.

 

Competitive Cycling

Dutch cyclist Demi Vollering won the Tour de France Femmes for the second time by winning Sunday’s final stage by a comfortable one minute and 10 seconds, after the 2023 champ started day just 8 seconds ahead of second-place finisher Katarzyna Niewiadoma-Phinney, and 4 minutes and 29 seconds ahead of former Giro champ Elisa Longo Borghini in third.

Controversy entered the Tour when Niewiadoma-Phinney accused French champion Célia Gery of a lack of ‘fair play,’ for blocking her against the rails on the final sprint on stage 8, denying her the chance to defend the yellow jersey, which was taken by Vollering; Niewiadoma-Phinney had claimed the yellow jersey the day before with a dominating breakaway on the famed Mont Ventoux.

Five-time Tour de France champ Tadej Pogačar talks about his relationship with with four-time Vuelta a España winner Primož Roglič, before the two cross swords at this year’s Vuelta.

Someone broke into the Unibet Rose Rockets cycling team trailer in Poitiers, France, and stole the bikes they needed for a race in Spain — then they got them back because a team mechanic had thought to put an AirTag in his tool box.

At least 17 people were injured in a massive crash during a youth bike ride in Poland, with six of the victims hurt badly enough to require hospitalization, though fortunately, none of the injuries were life-threatening.

A Massachusetts cyclist was airlifted to the hospital after going over a guard rail during a race, and thrown into the woods; no word on the severity of their injuries, but they don’t use a med-assist flight for a few scrapes. Somehow, the newspaper still hid most of the story behind a paywall, even though it appears to have been based entirely on the publicly available press release we linked to.

You’re invited to take part in the eighth stage of the Chocolatería Antonella Cycling Cup this Sunday in Rosarito, Mexico, a 1.2-mile crit offering 35,000 pesos — the equivalent of $2042 US — in total prize money. Somehow, it sounds better in pesos. 

 

Finally…

Now you, too, can ride an ebike that doesn’t look like an ebike, for a mere $2,400. Or maybe you’d rather 3D print your own airless bike tires.

And you must abide by the rules to ride a real scraper bike.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin.

 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: ,
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