We’re still at 17 new or renewing members of the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition in the first-ever May BikinginLA LACBC Membership Drive.
Let’s get this up to one per day by getting just two more people to sign up now or renew your membership today to make it 19 on the 19th. It’s worth the low cost of membership just for the great LACBC gear you’ll get. Never mind helping to make this a more bikeable, livable and equitable city and county.
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They should be ashamed.
The Ventura County DA’s office gave an unwarranted gift to a killer driver on Tuesday, by charging a Camarillo woman with two misdemeanor counts of vehicular manslaughter in the distracted driving death of two people in Moorpark last year.
Even though the CHP had recommended felony charges.
Twenty-six-year old Rachel Hill was allegedly distracted by a “portable electronic device” when she slammed into 53-year old cyclist Maciek Malish at 55 mph, then overcorrected after killing him and smashed head-on into 43-year old motorcyclist Jesse Cushman as he rode in the opposite direction.
Thanks to the inexplicable generosity of the DA’s office — which evidently doesn’t take either traffic crime or human life seriously — Hill faces a maximum of one year in county jail for each count, rather than the six years in state prison per count the CHP and common sense suggests is warranted.
Now two men are dead and two families shattered, while a deadly driver is guaranteed of receiving nothing more than a gentle slap on the wrist.
It’s heartbreaking to realize the lives of those on two wheels are worth so little in Ventura County — even when one is an Emmy winning sound editor.
Let’s hope voters in the county remember this when the next election rolls around.
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LA County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl has a little fun riding the new Expo Line with an animated bike, surfboard and service dog.
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Happy Bike to Work Day.
If you’re reading this early enough, you’ll find pit stops all over the LA area.
If not, don’t fret; both the Santa Monica Spoke and the LACBC are hosting handlebar happy hours for your ride home.
KPCC observes Bike to Work Day while noting that local bike commuting rates are still too low; Pasadena leads LA area cities with a 2.2% share.
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Italian cyclist Diego Ulissi came out on top in a three-way sprint in Wednesday’s stage of the Giro d’Italia, as Bob Jungels keeps the leader’s pink jersey. Former leader Tom Dumoulin dropped out due to a sore butt.
The fourth stage of the Amgen Tour of California ends with a sprint finish at Laguna Seca; thousands turned out for the start at Morro Bay. Peter Sagan captured his record 15th stage victory in the race, while Julian Alaphilippe leads American Peter Stetina by 22 seconds in the general classification.
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Local
LA’s Fox-11 concludes it is in fact possible to go carfree in SoCal.
HuffPo’s Joel Epstein complains about LA’s trashy streets.
The president of the Holmby-Westwood Property Owners Association says the possible removal of Westwood Blvd from the bike plan is a victory for residents, insisting Gayley Ave is better suited for a bike lane. Because God forbid we should get in the way of their precious Mercedes, Range Rovers and Teslas.
Glassell Park will consider improvements to Verdugo Road, including a road diet and possible bike lanes.
LA Magazine says the Biking Black Hole’s new bikeshare system is encouraging people to ride bikes “on streets that are hostile, if not downright dangerous, to two wheels.” Sort of like Westwood/Holmby Hills residents.
State
The 2016 Tour de OC rolls this Saturday to help send foster kids to camp for a mentorship program.
San Diego traffic delays have doubled over the last three years, as too few people opt for transit or riding to work. Yet the city’s mayor says separated bike lanes work, and getting 22% of commuters on bikes is doable.
Bike friendly Redlands is looking for state funding to install a new bike lane connecting with the Santa Ana River Trail.
Fresno is looking to improve the health of its residents by making it safer to ride and bike in the largely Latino and African American south part of town.
A San Francisco cyclist was critically injured when he was run over by a cab driver while riding in a crosswalk.
San Francisco’s Tenderloin district is about to get its first bike lane.
The Sacramento Bee wades into the great helmet debate with a surprisingly even-handed report.
National
A police website discusses the new GPS-enabled bait bikes to bust bike thieves.
NPR joins in on a Portland house move by bicycle.
A Spokane bike shop is helping the homeless and underemployed get back on their feet and out on the road.
Caught on video: An Arizona bike rider catches a foul-mouthed road raging driver on his bike cam screaming at him to get on the sidewalk because he was using the left turn lane.
A year later, there are no leads in the apparently random shooting of a bike rider from a passing car near my hometown.
Someone has apparently set out to deliberately injure or kill Colorado mountain bikers by planting three-inch nails embedded in concrete on a new singletrack trail; it’s the second such incident in the area in the past year. Whoever did this should face an attempted murder charge when they’re caught, at the bare minimum.
A North Dakota letter writer applauds attempts to say no to those damn liberal bike lanes.
A bike-riding Massachusetts minister asks motorists to watch out for bicyclists, and not judge the majority of well-mannered riders by the actions of a few idiots. His words, not mine. But still.
Once again, New Yorkers rise up against bike lanes, this time in Brooklyn. Somehow, they seem to think older and handicapped people fair better dealing with speeding cars than bicycles.
An 11-year old bike rider never even left his driveway, yet he’s in the hospital now because a driver couldn’t be bothered to pull over before reaching into the backseat to get something. Too bad it’s not against the law to be an effing jackass.
International
A UK shire re-enacts the 97-year old unsolved murder of a young woman as she rode her bike from her uncle’s house.
Nothing like taking a beating from a road-raging 77-year old Brit driver.
A Scottish adventure cyclist has circled the world twice — once setting a world record — and ridden from Alaska to Argentina and the full length of Africa, all before his 34th birthday.
Despite the panicking headline, only eleven Belfast cyclists have been cited for biking under the influence in the past five years.
It’s urban drivers who benefit most from cycling, though that’s not always obvious to motorists, according to a Dublin letter writer.
Barcelona considers building superblocks to reclaim 60% of the city’s streets from cars.
An Aussie pro cyclist says she’s encouraged to see more riders Down Under, yet utterly afraid because of their lack of skills and bad behavior.
An Australian politician says all new road and rail projects in the country should include walking and cycle tracks. Actually, that should be the policy everywhere.
Finally…
Think of it as fly paper for bicyclists. Maybe you don’t want to wear that yellow jersey after all.
And it’s pedals, dammit, not peddles.
Seriously.
