A comment to the post says the victim was a boy; she also says the driver had the right-of-way, but may have been speeding. However, there’s no way to verify the comment.
This is the 11th bicycling fatality in Southern California, and the third in Los Angeles County. That compares with just two in SoCal this time last year.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for the victim and all his family.
According to KCBS-2, a Torrance man was found dead in the Angeles National Forrest around 10:30 Saturday morning, after going missing while riding on Friday.
The victim, whose name has been withheld pending notification of next of kin, was pronounced dead after his body was discovered on the Brown Mountain Truck Trail.
There were no apparent signs of trauma, which suggests he may have died of natural causes, or perhaps succumbed to exposure from being lost on the mountainside overnight.
This is the 10th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the second in Los Angeles County.
Update: The Pasadena Star News reports that, contrary to the earlier report, the victim did show trauma consistent with a fall. His body was discovered a short distance from his bike, which had been spotted by a hiker around 10 am about three miles up the trail.
He had gone for a ride Friday morning; a search was initiated at 9 pm Friday when his cellphone was traced to an SUV parked at the trailhead.
Update 2: SFV Media identifies the victim as 49-year old Torrance resident Evan Bruce Sisson. The site reports he was discovered partway down a cliff, with his bike at the base.
Update 3: The LA County Coroner confirmed that Sission died from ischemic heart disease and atherosclerotic coronary artery disease, rather than a fall.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for Evan Bruce Sisson and his loved ones.
It takes a major piece of walking — or in this case, driving — human scum to run down a nine-year old boy riding his bike in Huntington Beach, stop just long enough to look at him, then drive off, leaving the kid lying in the street.
Fortunately, the boy is okay.
The driver, on the other hand, isn’t. There’s something seriously wrong with anyone who could do that to a little kid.
Thanks to Lois for the link.
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It’s long past time we caught up on coming events, with a number rolling this weekend. Hopefully before the rain starts.
Pizza seems to be the theme of the day on Sunday, as LA Bike Trains is hosting the first of their monthly Biking ‘til Snack Time rides, with stops at a number of local pizza spots along the way.
Bike SGV is going pizza-free for Sunday’s ride celebrating the fourth anniversary of their monthly bike train. They note the ride will go on with light rain; heavy rain will mean a switch to a Bike Commuting Class, presumably indoors.
The Temple City council will hold a final vote on the proposed complete street redesign of Las Tunas Drive on February 11th.
Also on the 11th, the LA Planning Commission will consider amendments to the city’s recently passed Mobility Plan, including the possible removal of some bike lanes from the plan. Glad to see city staff has recommended keeping the proposed Westwood Blvd bike lanes in the plan over the objection of Councilmember Koretz and some homeowner’s groups.
The Van Nuys Neighborhood Council invites you to explore the area with the LACBC-led Tour de Van Nuys on February 20th, and stay after to help reimagine Van Nuys Blvd as a bike-friendly, green complete street.
Mark you calendar for the annual Malibu Gran Fondo March 6th and 7th.
Looking further ahead, this year’s Ride of Silence will roll on May 18th to honor fallen cyclists.
And the Eastside Bike Club is holding a Riff Raff Ride into Monrovia on June 26th as an unofficial adjunct to the 626 Golden Streets Ride through seven communities in the San Gabriel Valley. Most of which are more welcoming to riders than Monrovia seems to be.
Been seeing lots of complaints from cyclists the past several days over this commercial for the new Audi plug-in hybrid, in which the owner of said car wins the admiring gaze of a bike-riding woman for driving like a total jackass.
Pro cyclist Chad Haga describes what it’s like to fight an SUV with his face; Haga was the most seriously injured member of his Giant-Alpecin teammates, who were hit head-on by a wrong way driver while training in Spain. And voices his commitment to keep riding so she doesn’t get the final say on his racing career.
And in the cycling conspiracy theory that won’t die, Italy will hold yet another hearing looking into allegations that the great Marco Pantini was murdered rather than overdosing on coke.
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Local
An OpEd in the Times says Metro’s bikeshare is set up to fail. Although I’d question the assumption that low-income residents are the most likely users of bikeshare, which hasn’t been the case in any other city I’m aware of. And while systems are planned for Long Beach and UCLA, they are not currently in place.
The Hollywood Reporter says allegations of preferential treatment for a former American Gladiators star accused of spousal rape is just the latest scandal involving the Malibu/Lost Hills sheriff’s station, including the death of cyclist Milt Olin, who was killed by a distracted deputy using his patrol car’s onboard computer.
Speaking of CiclaValley, he say’s Glendale will be stepping up enforcement of traffic laws laws involving motorists, pedestrians and bicyclists today. Like the similar enforcement efforts in Santa Monica, make a point to obey all the laws today so whoever they ticket, it won’t be you.
State
Streetsblog’s Damien Newton responds to an OpEd from a Brown administration official, saying that doing better than Schwarzenegger when it comes to funding active transportation is not exactly the bar we set for the current governor.
Streetsblog also looks at the Death to Cyclists and Pedestrians Bill, which would slash fines for drivers who run red lights when making right turns. Okay, so maybe that’s not the official title of the bill. And the authors have the good taste to quote me in the story.
San Diego cyclists have to dodge motorists driving in the bike lane to avoid the crappy road conditions in Tecolote Canyon. One of the rare cases where road conditions are better in the bike lane than in the rest of the roadway.
A Boulder CO writer says drivers will get used to safety improvements if you give them enough time, rather than pulling out prematurely in response to complaints.
Brilliant police work in San Antonio, as police somehow conclude that a man riding a bicycle with two purses may have stolen them. Although riding with one purse might be a different matter.
Evidently, there are wiser heads in South Dakota, where a bill that would have required bike riders to pull over and stop so cars and trucks could pass has justifiably died in committee; it was opposed by the state transportation, public safety and tourism agencies, as well as cyclists. And anyone else with a modicum of sense.
A writer for the Wisconsin Bike Fed says slow down and save lives. And compares drivers to the Simpson’s Montgomery Burns careening towards people in a crosswalk, shouting, “Out of my way, I’m a motorist!”
An Ohio man faces up to eight years in prison for shooting a 72-year old man in the eye with a paintball gun from a passing car; the rider lost all the vision in his right eye as a result. One more reason to always ride with shatterproof glasses.
London is the latest city where a marketing campaign from Orangetheory Fitness attempted to rip off ghost bikes by locking orange-painted bikes around town. But unlike other cities, complaints in London forced the bikes’ removal.
Caught on video: A London cyclist gets caught in a right hook squeeze play. As the story notes, the rider should have either pulled up to where the driver could see him, or held back behind the Porsche rather than riding next to it.
Due to health problems after attending an event last night, there won’t be a Morning Links today. I’ll try to pull it together and get the Weekend Links for you tomorrow.
However, one important item came through my inbox Thursday.
This is the one where opponents to the plan will try to remove key streets, such as Westwood Blvd and North Figueroa — as well as most of Councilmember Gil Cedillo’s CD1 — from the Mobility Plan.
Which means it’s an all-hands on deck meeting for anyone who cares about bicycling and safe streets in the City of Angels. Let alone Vision Zero.
Which should be just about everyone who reads this in LA.
January 28, 2016 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Morning Links: New app for navigating LA, advice on running for your local NC, and pointing the finger in Westwood
Figuring out how to get around the City of Angels just got a little easier.
And could help improve the way you get around in the future.
And not just in terms of distance, but also time, cost, carbon footprint, health benefits and calories burned. Which means walking and biking will usually win on the last four counts.
The app also sends anonymous trip data back to LADOT to provide feedback on how people actually get around the city to provide data for future planning.
Maybe that app will make it easier to use Metro, as the LA Times says ridership on public transportation is in a decade-long decline.
The paper cites other transportation alternatives, such as bicycling and ridesharing, as just two in a long list of factors leading to the drop. Although a more likely culprit is increased fares combined with cuts in service.
Charging more for worse service is rarely a good business model.
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The LACBC offers details on the upcoming Neighborhood Council elections, and urges you to not only vote, but consider running for election to your local council.
As they point out, local councils are usually the first stops for any discussion for or against bike projects in the local community, and their opinions often carry a lot of weight with the area councilmember.
So your involvement really does matter. But you need to hurry, because the deadline to register as a candidate is approaching quickly in some areas.
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Speaking of neighborhood councils, a writer for UCLA’s Daily Bruin says the Westwood Neighborhood Council gets the blame for blocking improvements to Westwood Village, including putting up roadblocks to the Westwood Blvd Great Streets project. Homeowners in the area are among the city’s most notorious NIMBYs, and should be held accountable for the decline in the once vibrant Village, where even dancing is banned at their insistence.
Meanwhile, the same writer says Councilmember Paul Koretz has been making opposing promises to both sides about the planned Westwood Blvd bike lanes, promising the neighborhood council and homeowner groups he’d kill the bike lanes, while telling the Sierra Club he supported moving forward with engineering studies. Thanks to Michael Cahn for the heads up.
Richard Risemberg accuses the city of malign neglect in its approach to 6th Street in the Mid-City area, where a planned road diet and bike lanes have been blocked as injuries and deaths mount.
CiclaValley looks at the numbers behind the proposed Griffith Park shuttle service, and says they don’t add up. Or even come close.
A Santa Monica advocacy group says the city talks a good game when it comes to promoting alternative transportation, but is hardly discouraging its own employees from driving when they receive free parking.
Duarte develops a new Citywide Bicycle Master Plan and Safe Routes to Transit Master Plan to encourage more riding and promote bike and pedestrian safety. Evidently, the smaller the city, the more grandiose the title for their bike plan.
State
The head of the California State Transportation Agency — no, not Caltrans — says au contraire, the state is actually leading the nation in investments for bicycle and pedestrian facilities. Of course, as the nation’s most populous state, we should lead by default; the question is how do we stack up for spending as a percentage of population.
Some Cardiff residents are up in arms over a proposed bike and pedestrian trail that would run along a railroad track, claiming it would somehow cause irreparable harm to their community and the environment. Because evidently, bikes are so much more harmful than trains.
Seventy percent of American mayors support more bike lanes at the expense of traffic lanes or parking. The problem is getting their auto-centric constituents to agree.
A Portland cyclist wins a nearly half-million dollar judgment against a car wash after he slipped on the wet, soapy pavement, fracturing his hip, when a car wash customer pulled out and blocked the bike lane he was riding in.
An Idaho bike lawyer makes the case for the Idaho stop law that allows bicyclists to treat stop signs as yields and red lights like stop signs, arguing that it has helped the state maintain one of the nation’s lowest bicycling fatality rates as a percentage of population.
Good news from Argentina, as Italian rider Adriano Malori has awakened from a medically induced coma after hitting a pothole at nearly 40 mph in the Tour de San Luis.
It’s a daily double for the Guardian, as the paper test rides the sub-$700 dream bike of the British Labour Party leader, and looks at how bicycling unexpectedly became cool in Tel Aviv.
Caught on video: A British driver gets two and a half years for deliberately swerving head-on at a cyclist from the other side of the road in a successful attempt to frighten him. Thanks to Jeffrey for the link.
Los Angeles has been selected as one of ten Focus Cities to lead the effort to eliminate traffic fatalities.
According to the Vision Zero Network,
Cities across the nation face similar challenges in ensuring safe mobility for all. The new Vision Zero Focus Cities program creates a collaborative network of early-adopter Vision Zero cities to build a common vision, and to develop and share winning strategies toward eliminating traffic fatalities and severe injuries.
Recognizing the importance of a stepped-up, multi-departmental, collaborative approach to advance Vision Zero, participants in the Focus Cities program will include representatives of each city’s Mayor’s Office, Transportation Department, Police Department, and Public Health Department. In addition, a concurrent track for collaboration will bring together Vision Zero community advocates from each of the Focus Cities.
Let’s hope this means a real commitment to Vision Zero here in Los Angeles, rather than allowing councilmembers to put riders at risk by arbitrarily carving streets out of the Mobility plan.
If Vision Zero is to work, it has to be the policy for all of LA, in every neighborhood and on every street.
Why that didn’t merit the arrest of both the boy and his mother is beyond me.
Glendale police clearly need to do something to tame their streets before someone gets hurt. Or worse.
Meanwhile, LAist says the video shows that neither of the two Glendale cyclists who were assaulted by that brake-checking driver were remotely close to hitting the car. And they urge everyone to drive safely.
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Maybe you’ve noticed.
The past few months, my curiosity has been piqued by a new bicycle from Fortified Bicycle, which promises to be virtually theft proof and indestructible, and built to survive the rough roads of an urban environment.
I’ve even linked to their Kickstarter a few times, both here and on my Twitter account.
Evidently, they noticed, because they contacted me yesterday with a special offer for the readers of BikinginLA.
I’ll let them explain.
THE ULTIMATE URBAN BIKE
Invincible is a sleek, bulletproof urban bike that is literally guaranteed against theft. Plus, Fortified Bicycle (the creators behind this project) have offered a special deal.
What makes Invincible a truly compelling urban bike? For one, every single component was selected for standing up to a rough urban environment. Parts that are commonly vulnerable to theft—lights, wheels, seat, handlebars—are secured with bolts that feature a proprietary drive geometry that opportunistic bike thieves will not be able to operate. But the biggest innovation here is their new cycle registration and theft protection service, Fortified Protect. Not only will Fortified send you a new bike if yours is stolen, they’ll also try and hunt down your stolen bike on third party seller marketplaces like eBay and Craigslist. That’s just cray.
The folks from Fortified are cutting Everyday Messenger backers a special deal. If you pre-order Invincible on their current Kickstarter project, they’ll add a free Invincible Rear Bike Rack ($45 value) to your rewards.
Send a direct message on Kickstarter to Fortified Bicycle (the Invincible creators). Include the code “BIKINGINLALOVE” in that message. They’ll take care of things from there.
Sounds like a good offer to me. But hurry if you’re interested, because there’s just six days to go before their Kickstarter ends.
And no, just to be clear, I don’t have any relationship with the makers of this bike, financial or otherwise.
The LA Times says the plan to relieve traffic congestion in Griffith Park is a good idea, but doesn’t go far enough; the paper calls for improved transit and protected bike lanes leading to the park.
Dallas Mavericks teammates JaVale McGee and J.A. Barea are one, make that two of us, as they take a tandem ride along the beachfront bike path near the Santa Monica pier.
LA’s own Phil Gaimon says barring small Pro Continental cycling teams from WorldTour races might reduce injuries, but it would unfairly limit opportunities for riders.
A 77-year old Dallas truck driver is charged with driving under the influence after hitting a nine-year old child riding his bike around a mobile home park; fortunately, the boy is now in stable condition.
A bike riding Missouri bank robber gets nearly five years after stealing $14,000 to support his heroin addiction. He was caught trying to walk away after ditching the bike; if he’d kept riding, he might still be a free man, albeit with a monkey on his back.
A fascinating set of graphs paint a picture of usage for New York’s Citi Bike bikeshare system. Including the deeper the snow depth, the less bikes are rented.
Once again authorities choose safety for motorists over safety for cyclists on a popular riding route by installing rumble strips, this time in Florida.
International
A Montreal memorial uses white shoes as the equivalent of a ghost bike for a fallen pedestrian.
Mother Jones says the jury is still out on that British study saying wearing a bike helmet makes you take more chances.
Scot authorities vow to get tough on illegal dumping, aka fly tipping, after a dog is maimed by a rusting bike left along a busy pathway. The more I do this, the more I learn English, as in the in the county, as opposed to what passes for it here.
For the fourth time in the last four days, bike rider has been killed in a SoCal collision, this time in Ventura County.
According to the Ventura County Star, a man was hit by a box truck while riding his bike in the Meiners Oaks area of the Ojai Valley just before 1:30 pm Tuesday, as the driver was leaving a private parking lot on East El Roblar Drive east of Felix Drive.
The victim was taken to the Ventura County Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. His identification has been withheld pending notification of next of kin.
The driver remained at the scene.
There’s no word on where the victim was on the road or which direction he was riding, or which direction the driver was turning. A street view shows a two lane roadway with a parking lane on either side and a 25 mph speed limit, though that would not seem to be a factor in this case.
Anyone with information is urged to call 477-4100.
This is the ninth bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the second in Ventura County.
January 26, 2016 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Update: Bicyclist killed in Santa Ana collision Monday evening
More bad news, as a bike rider was killed crossing a street in Santa Ana.
According to the Orange County Register, the victim, who has not been publicly identified, was struck around 6:07 pm at the intersection of 17th and La Bonita Streets. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
The New Santa Ana website reports he was north on La Bonita when he was hit by a pick-up; no word on which direction the truck was going.
The driver remained at the scene, and cited darkness as the reason he did not see the victim until it was too late. He was not suspected of being under the influence.
However, according to Google Maps, that address doesn’t exist, although it appears to be the intersection of La Bonita and Westminster Ave, which becomes 17th east of the Santa Ana River.
Assuming that is the correct location, a satellite view shows an uncontrolled six lane street on Westminster, with a 45 mph speed limit and the sort of wide lanes that too often encourage speeding. There is a stop sign on La Bonita at Westminster.
There’s no word on whether the victim had lights or reflectors on his bike. But there are street lights at the intersection, so the rider should have been visible if they were working. So the question becomes why the driver didn’t see the victim before it was too late.
Anyone with information is urged to call Investigator Bao of the Santa Ana Police Department at 714/245-8214.
This is the eight bicycling collision in Southern California already this year, and second in Orange County. It’s also the fifth in Santa Ana in just the last two years.
Update: The Register has identified the victim as 77-year old Huntington Beach resident Thuc Van Nguyen.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for Thuc Van Nguyen and his loved ones.
In case you haven’t seen it already, the big story of the day was a driver assaulting two cyclists riding in Glendale.
CiclaValley broke the story, reporting that the incident happened sometime last week as friends of his were riding on Chevy Chase Drive.
In the video, you can clearly hear an impatient driver honking from behind as the cyclists ride just outside the door zone, even though the bike computer visible at the bottom of the screen appears to show they’re traveling at 27 mph.
The driver then buzzes them at an unsafe distance, in clear violation of the three-foot passing law, before slamming on his brakes and brake-checking the riders, nearly forcing one off the road while the other has to swerve dangerously out into traffic to avoid rear-ending the car.
Yet even though this is an obvious case of assault with a deadly weapon — in fact, Dr. Christopher Thompson got five years for a similar incident — CiclaValley implies the Glendale police have been slow to act, at best.
Using a car in a violent manner should be no different under the law than if the driver had taken out a gun and shot at the riders. And should be taken just as seriously, especially since there’s video evidence of the assault.
The one problem with using video like this to press charges, according to officers at the last meeting of the LAPD bike liaisons, is that it’s difficult to prove who was behind the wheel.
Yet even that is not a factor here, since KNBC-4 tracked down the driver, who freely admits he was the driver in the video.
According to his version of events, he honked as he passed — for reasons he failed to explain, just as he failed to explain the apparent punishment pass — then slammed on his brakes after he heard something hit his car, suggesting that one of the riders hit it as he passed.
Yet the video clearly shows that never happened.
There’s no sound of a smack against a car, which should have been clearly audible. And there’s no wobble of the bike, which would have been inevitable if the rider had reached out and hit a hard object as it zoomed by.
The unidentified man, who says he’s a former cyclist himself, portrays himself as the victim in this incident, and says he was just trying to get away from those scary men who were attacking him.
Even though he was the one who honked for no apparent reason. And he was the one who passed dangerously close, even though he was legally required to be well out of their reach. And he was the one who slammed on his brakes directly in front of the two bike riders.
KNBC is no doubt patting themselves on the back for tracking the driver down and getting an exclusive interview with him. But they should be hanging their heads in shame for failing to confront him about the obvious holes in his story, accepting at face value an excuse that is both implausible and demonstratively false.
As should the Glendale police for failing to take action to protect people who are using the streets in a safe and legal manner.
They will most likely claim this is a case of he said/she said, and try to wash their hands of the matter.
But the evidence is right there on the video. All they have to do is look at it.
This just in: CiclaValley breaks down the driver’s statement in great detail, and doesn’t find a lot of truth to it. Or any, for that matter.
Thanks to Lois for the heads-up.
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After the authorities refused to press charges, Philadelphia bicyclist posted video of a confrontation with a road raging hearse driver who hit him with the van’s mirror, and threatened him for the crime of kicking over a traffic cone.
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Most legal settlements involving cyclists include a payment to the victim to help recover his or her loses.
It’s not often one tries to keep it from happening again.
According to the settlement, Caltrans will pay $450,000, while Newport Beach will kick in another $225,000. But more importantly, both agreed to help fix the deadly intersection where it happened.
Deem had been riding north on PCH in Newport Beach around 4:30 pm on August 27th when she approached the intersection at Newport Coast Drive, where a freeway-style exit lane allows drivers to turn right without slowing down, and forces riders to cross high-speed traffic in order to go straight.
She was hit from behind by an 84-year old driver exiting PCH, and died the next day.
According to the lawsuit, Newport Beach was well aware of the dangers to cyclists at that intersection; in fact, a 2009 Bike Safety Task Force identified it as the intersection most in need of safety improvements.
Now that may finally happen.
The settlement negotiated by attorney Bruce Brusavich requires the city to cooperate with traffic safety experts selected by him and Deem’s husband, Cycle Werks owner Paul Deem, to design improvements to the intersection. And Caltrans will be legally required to consider those improvements in good faith.
Though evidently, not required to implement them.
It’s too late to help Debra Deem. But maybe this settlement can keep it from happening to someone else.
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More bad news from the world of bike racing, as Claudio Clarindo, the world’s 12th ranked ultra-distance cyclist, was killed in a collision while training in Brazil, and his riding partner severely injured. Clarindo was a five-time finisher in the Race Across America, aka RAAM.
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Local
Continuing the theme of angry drivers, a Santa Monica cyclist encounters a driver who apparently wasn’t pleased with where he was riding. Maybe the fumes from that Porter Ranch gas leak is making drivers crazy; twice in the last week I’ve had drivers get out of their cars to physically threaten me while I’ve been walking.
A new $5 million development in San Diego’s Imperial Beach will cater to bike riders and pedestrians with cafes, a bike shop and water station.
Police in El Centro say they don’t have enough evidence to get a warrant to look for a bike tourist’s stolen bike, even though they tracked the bike’s GPS to a house; when no one answered the door, they apparently gave up. Seriously, you’d think a GPS reading saying the bike was inside would be enough for a search warrant, but what the hell do I know.
National
The City Metric website asks if road diets are the next big thing for American cities, then suggests car culture may be too deeply entrenched for that to happen.
A New York study shows that split-phase traffic signals that allow cyclists and pedestrians to cross an intersection before motor vehicles are twice as effective in reducing injuries as the more common mixing zones that send everyone through at once.
International
C is for Coffee, D is for Drafting, as Cycling Weekly offers the A to Z of bike riding.
A British letter writer complains about bicyclists blocking the sidewalk by chaining their bikes to posts and railings. If bike riders are locking their bikes up wherever they can, maybe it’s a sign that there’s not enough safe bike parking in the area.
Drivers usually get a slap on the wrist for killing a bicyclist; a UK German Shepard just won a three-year battle to overturn his death sentence for biting one.
The police say the victim, who has been identified only as a man, was headed north on Meadowbrook when he “steered” into the intersection around 7:40 pm, and was struck by the eastbound pickup, whose driver was reportedly unable to stop in time.
The question is what does that mean? The implication is the victim was turning onto Jurupa; however, he also may have been attempting to cross and swerved to avoid the truck at the last minute.
The other question is why wasn’t the driver able to stop in time?
The police press release implies that the cyclist may have run the stop sign on Meadowbrook and ridden out into the path of the truck on the uncontrolled street, where the driver would have the right-of-way. However, that would depend on whether there were independent witnesses other than the driver who saw the victim ride out in front of the truck.
It’s also possible that he may have come to a stop, and simply misjudged the speed of the truck before riding onto the five lane, 45 mph street, or that the driver was speeding, giving the illusion that he had time to turn or cross the street. Or maybe the driver just wasn’t paying attention, and didn’t see the cyclist until it was too late.
Anyone with information is urged to call Traffic Detective Ken Madsen at 951/826-8723.
Hopefully their investigation will go a lot deeper than what’s contained in their press release.
This is the 7th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year,* and the first in Riverside County. It’s also the eight bicycling fatality in Riverside in just the last two years.
Update: Raw video from the scene shows the truck stopped in the center turn lane just beyond the intersection, with the bike stuck underneath, suggesting that the victim was crossing the street when he was struck. It also shows an open bottle of vodka standing upright next to his covered body, implying that he may have been drinking. But be forewarned, the video is very difficult to watch.
