Archive for Hit-and-Run

Morning Links: BOLO alert in SaMo, 2015 bike/ped count released, and construction on Marina bike path

November 18, 2016 / / 4 comments

Santa Monica police are asking for the public’s help in finding the cowardly jerk who ran down a woman as she walked Tuesday evening and left her lying in the street with serious head injuries.

Be on the lookout for a possible 2000-2006 silver, four-door Nissan Sentra, which could have damage to the bumper, hood and windshield on the right front.

Anyone with information is urged to call investigator Jason Olson at 310/458-8954 or the SMPD at 310/458-8491.

Thanks to Damien Newton for the heads-up.

………

The LACBC, in conjunction with AARP, released the findings of last year’s annual Los Angeles Bicycle and Pedestrian Count, which for the first time show a decrease in bike ridership as the city largely stopped building new bike lanes.

The report includes a number of key findings, including:

  • The most popular streets for walking and biking are also the most unsafe: All of the top 30 count locations for people walking are located on the High Injury Network, along with 24 of the top 30 locations for people biking. These top 30 locations accounted for 65% of all people walking who were counted and 55% of all people biking who were counted. All of these locations are located in high-density neighborhoods, near major destinations, or in low-income communities of color. Almost all of the top 30 locations were in neighborhoods with median household incomes below the rest of the city.
  • As bike lane installation has slowed, new ridership has decreased: In 2015, riders continued to gravitate towards bike lanes; however the count shows an overall 9% year-by-year decline in same location ridership from 2013 to 2015. In the last two years, bike lane installation has decreased significantly from a high of 101 miles in fiscal year 2013 to only 11 miles in fiscal year 2015. Many of these new lanes have been installations where bike lanes could be included in other road resurfacing or safety projects, rather than installations along high priority corridors identified in the Bicycle Plan. Of the initial 183 miles of bike lanes prioritized in the 5-year Bicycle Plan Implementation Strategy, only 45 miles (25%) have been installed. As a result, the bike network in Los Angeles remains fragmented with large gaps in bike lanes along most riders’ trips. This lack of connectivity continues to be the greatest barrier reported by many people who bike or would like to.
  • Women want safer biking options: In Los Angeles, women make up just 16% of cyclists overall, but the gender disparity is lowest on streets with quality bikeways (bike paths at 22% and bike lanes at 17%) and highest on streets with no bicycling infrastructure. Cities with safer streets for bicycling in general tend to have smaller gender disparities in bicycling, such as Portland, Oregon (35%), and Copenhagen, Denmark (50%).
  • Bike lanes have made streets safer, but more work needs to be done: On the new bike lanes studied, bike ridership increased by 62% after installation. After accounting for increases in bike ridership, new bike lanes reduced bicycle crash risk by an average of 42%.

la-bike-ped-count-16-sheet

The full report is available for download here.

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Steve Herbert forwards news that the Marvin Braude bike path will soon be rerouted and improved where it currently twists awkwardly, and dangerously, through a parking lot around Pier 44 in Marina del Rey.

But riders will have to detour along Admiralty Way in the meantime.

Here’s what he had to say.

The Marvin Braude bike path snakes through Marina Del Rey connecting Ballona Creek & parts south to Washington Blvd. where cyclists can ride to Venice boardwalk or other parts of the region. Pier 44 is about to undergo renovation with the existing tenants, boats and trailers all cleared out. Pier 44 is at the end of Basin G of the marina which is bound by Bali Way on the north, Admiralty Way on the east and Mindanao Way on the south.

The bike path winds through this facility which is about to be closed and I asked Anthea Raymond, a Beaches and Harbors Department Commissioner I know, what plans there are to accommodate cyclists and the path while it’s under construction. Below are the answers and diagrams I got.

She didn’t provide any specific dates, but the pier is now a ghost town and I expect to see fencing and demolition equipment any day now just based on what I observe riding through the site as one of my commute routes.

And here is Ms. Raymond’s response.

Here’s what I learned about the Marina bike path, both during renovations on Pier 44 and going forward:

The Pier 44 project includes significant improvements to the bike path. Whereas the current bike bath snakes across the parcel, forcing riders to navigate around buildings and boat storage, the new bike path will have a straight alignment along the waterfront, next to the new 20’-wide pedestrian promenade.  Additionally, the project includes two public restrooms along the bike path, and bicycle racks that can accommodate 68 bikes.  This project also includes a WaterBus stop, because early on we wanted it to be a destination that people could visit by foot, by boat, by car, or by bike.  While the parcel is under construction, the bike path will temporarily be routed along the eastern portion of the parcel, adjacent to Admiralty Way.

Attached are site plans that show the existing and proposed paths.

Thanks for your concern.

Anthea

ps: While the parcel is under construction, the bike path will temporarily be routed along the eastern portion of the parcel, adjacent to Admiralty Way.

pier-44-current-conditions

pier-44-approved-plan

It looks to be a significant improvement to one of the worst sections of the popular beachfront bike path.

Let’s just hope the construction doesn’t take too long, and they provide an adequate alternative in the meantime.

………

It’s time to catch up with upcoming bike events.

BikeSGV is hosting a pet and family-friendly Pet-acular Bike Train tomorrow. But neither you or your pet are allowed to use training wheels.

Sunday marks the World Day of Remembrance to honor victims of traffic fatalities; 40 artists will participate in the event with LA Road Concerts in Downtown LA.

Malibu is hosting a community outreach meeting on November 29th to discuss the problems with parking along PCH; anyone who’s ridden the coast highway through the city knows the dangers poorly parked cars can pose.

Metro’s El Monte Bike Hub will host a Commute 101 Clinic on November 30th to help you get more comfortable riding your bike to work or school.

San Bernardino will hold 14-mile Inland Regional Center Memorial Ride on December 2nd, riding one kilometer for each of the 22 people injured in last December’s terrorist attack, which is equal to 14 miles for each person killed. A similar ride will start out from Redlands, with 22 turns to honor the wounded and 14 miles to remember those killed.

Milestone Rides is hosting their annual holiday toy ride to Camp Pendleton on December 3rd.

As noted yesterday, the LACBC will host their annual open house on December 7th.

Recently retired pro cyclist Phil Gaimon is teaming up with the LACBC for the second annual Mulholland Clean Up on December 10th.

Finish the Ride will hold their Ride, Run, Walk N’ Roll Holliday Challenge in Van Nuys on December 11th.

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Members of Team Novo Nordisk discuss how to compete while managing your diabetes; each of the 18 riders has Type 1 diabetes.

Yes, you can win a national hill-climb championship on a bike assembled from parts purchased on eBay.

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Local

Congratulations, Los Angeles. You win the prize for the most dangerous city for speed-related traffic fatalities.

The co-founder of Burbank based Pure Cycles — formerly Pure Fix — talks about what’s it’s like to found a business with his best friend.

Pasadena, Altadena and San Marino Rotary Clubs will team together to build and donate 200 bicycles for underprivileged children this holiday season. Thanks to Megan Lynch for the link.

The LA Times says bike paths along the Rio Hondo and San Gabriel Rivers offer a glimpse of what Pico Rivera looked like before LA’s eastward expansion steamrolled the area.

Santa Monica wants to know what you think about transportation options in the beach city, but only if you live or work there.

Long Beach creates a protected bike lane by installing green bollards on Studebaker Road, even though local residents call them distracting eyesores.

CiclaValley concludes his three-part Veteran’s Day journey with a family ride through Berkeley.

 

State

The afore mentioned Damien Newton discusses the effects of the recent election with Calbike’s Jeanie Ward-Waller.

UC San Diego officers remove over 700 apparently abandoned bicycles from campus; if they go unclaimed for 90 days, they’ll be donated to charity organizations.

Menlo Park considers a grade separation that would create a 1.6 mile bike boulevard along the Caltrain railroad tracks.

Alameda wants to build a 600 foot bike and pedestrian drawbridge connecting it with Oakland.

Nevada City middle school students — yes, middle school — learn frame building by building their own from scratch as part of a program that refurbishes bikes for homeless people.

 

National

Several bike-related businesses make Outside Magazine’s list of the top 100 places to work, including bike-friendly, employee owned New Belgium Brewery in my hometown. Do I really need to say that the town didn’t become bike friendly or open its first craft brewery until after I left?

Bicycling discusses the joys of riding at night.

Seattle’s failing bikeshare system gets a March 31st deadline to get its merde together.

Life is cheap in Oklahoma, where a distracted driver will serve just 10 months of a 15 year sentence for killing on cyclist riding across the country for Bike and Build, and critically injuring another; she’ll also have to speak publicly about what she did.

Apparently, not even Secret Service agents are safe on our streets. A uniformed agent was seriously injured when he was struck by a driver while riding near the White House.

In a remarkable move, a New York city is moving forward with plans to convert a parkway near Niagara Falls into a multi-use bike path.

 

International

A Toronto paper traces the 40-year fight for safety and acceptance of bicyclists through the life of a man who was photographed on the back of his father’s bike as a five-year old in 1976. Yet oddly, they don’t bother to show the photo.

British authorities arrest three teenage suspects for the murder of a recently released convict who was kicked off his bicycle by a group of young men last month.

A British town gets it, saying if close passes make people too afraid to ride a bike, it’s a police matter.

Now that’s more like it. Drivers in a North London borough could have their cars crushed if they’re caught passing bike riders too closely twice in a single year. And yes, bike cam video counts. Now if we could only get California to do that for hit-and-runs.

Like LA, advocates blame stalled bike path plans, as well as draconian fines, for a drop in the number of bicyclists in Sydney, Australia; last year the state government gave up on plans to double the rate of cycling.

 

Finally…

You can carry anything by bicycle; even lemonade, cookies and a polar bear.

And you’ll be happy to know that drinking beer is good for your cholesterol levels. So ride to your nearest bike-friendly microbrewery, and salute!

………

On a personal note, it was a pleasure to meet St. Louis-based Cycling Savvy instructor and BikinginLA contributor Karen Karabell and LA-based Cycling Savvy instructor Gary Cziko yesterday.

It’s great to talk with fellow advocates who don’t let differences in approaches to bicycle safety get in the way of finding common ground in their efforts to make bicycling safer and more enjoyable for everyone who rides.

Not to mention just spending some time with a couple of very nice people.

First rule of photography: Never stand so your shadow falls on your subjects

First rule of photography: Never stand so your shadow falls on your subjects

Category: Advocacy & Politics, Bikes & the Law, Hit-and-Run, Morning Links, Streets and Infrastructure / Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Morning Links: License captured in E. Hollywood hit-and-run, Metro may replace sheriff’s deputies with LAPD

November 15, 2016 / / One comment

If you were the victim of a hit-and-run in East Hollywood yesterday, a commenter on Reddit may be looking for you.

screen-shot-2016-11-15-at-2-57-45-am

So for once, there may be a little justice here. But only if the victim turns up to file a complaint.

Thanks to Evan G for the heads-up.

………

Metro is considering transferring responsibility for policing buses and train lines from the sheriff’s department to the LAPD in some areas.

This comes after years of complaints from bike riders about biased enforcement or unfair treatment from sheriff’s deputies involving collisions with buses, unsafe driving or harassment by drivers.

So this may end up being good for LA bicyclists. Or not.

………

We have a guess on who makes the screaming yellow bike lock that beat the thieves in yesterday’s photos from David Drexler, as both Mark B and J. Patrick Lynch suggest it’s The Club Bicycle/Motorcycle Utility Lock.

It certainly looks like it.

………

UCI finally comes to the realization that women cyclists aren’t delicate little things, and can actually handle distances up to 100 miles.

What a schmuck. Former Dutch cyclist Teo Muis received a lifetime ban for injecting his own son with steroids without his knowledge; his 18-year old son’s four year ban has been reduced to two years since he did not know about the doping.

Meanwhile, a South African track cyclist has been suspended for a year for doping.

………

Local

KPCC looks at how the new Trump administration could affect federal funding for LA transportation projects, including bikeways currently funded by TIGER grants. And no, it ain’t pretty.

Los Angeles has expanded its cycle hoop bike rack pilot program from Westwood Village to the Hollywood Walk of Fame district, installing 49 racks each capable of holding two bikes on parking meters in the area around Hollywood, Cahuenga and Sunset. However, it’s still illegal to lock your bike to a parking meter without the racks, though that’s rarely enforced. Thanks to LA Great Streets for the link.

A meeting will be held tonight to discuss the feasibility of restoring ten miles of the Arroyo Seco, which could impact the Arroyo Seco bike path.

Pasadena officials try to explain to uncomprehending motorists how bike lanes work and what all that green paint on the street means. Which should be a requirement for getting or keeping a driver’s license.

California’s only international cyclocross competition returns to the Whittier Narrows this weekend.

Santa Monica’s Breeze bikeshare celebrated its first anniversary over the weekend, logging 285,000 trips covering over 618,000 miles over the first year..

 

State

An Orange County writer discovers that riding a bicycle for the first time in 40 years is not just like riding a bike.

A new six-minute documentary from the Oxnard Fire Department tells the story of 12-year old Joey Johnson, who was killed in a collision while riding without a helmet on Father’s Day in 2013.

A new Atascadero bikeway offers a pleasant ride along the creek. Although someone should tell the local paper the difference between a bike lane and a bike path.

Long Beach wasn’t the only city to hold a ciclovía this weekend; San Franciscans enjoyed their final Sunday Streets event of the year.

Forty years later, Lake Tahoe finally completes the last segment of the West Shore Bike Trail.

 

National

Hawaiian Airlines misplaced former UCLA and NBA star Bill Walton’s extremely big bike; he tweeted last night that it had been recovered.

Houston is in the process of getting protected intersections to keep sidewalk cyclists safe along the city’s notoriously auto-centric streets.

It will cost Chicago $2.5 million in damages after a cop crashed into a commuter train while chasing a bike rider last year for the crime of riding a bike on the sidewalk; the city had argued that the law prohibiting dangerous pursuits only applied to chases involving motor vehicles. My apologies, I lost my record of who sent this one to me. But thank you, anyway.

Racist and anti-Semitic graffiti was painted on a New York area bike path.

Once again, a bad bike crash may have saved a rider’s life, as doctors discovered a stage three lung cancer when a Pennsylvania cyclist was being treated for injuries suffered in a collision.

A North Carolina city uses a Christmas tree made of bicycles to encourage people to donate a new bike for local kids.

 

International

Anti-bike terrorists strike again in the UK, where a Welsh mountain biker barely escaped serious injury when he ran into barbed wire strung at neck level over a trail. Whoever did this should face an attempted murder charge, since this could easily have killed someone.

A British driver is asking for a reduction in his nine-year sentence for killing a bike rider while texting behind the wheel, even though he had deleted his last three texts in an attempt to cover up his crime, and dispite eight previous convictions for distracted driving.

Great idea. A British report calls for giving a tax break to businesses that promote bike commuting.

It sounds like snake oil, but a Brit triathlete is standing again after suffering multiple fractures in a collision last year, thanks to an “innovative, ground-breaking treatment” that reportedly allows paraplegics to walk again by retraining the nervous system. Thanks to Opus the Poet for the tip.

The Guardian catches up with the young, Lycra-clad members of the Congo’s Goma Cycling Club.

Once again, a cyclist is a hero, as an Aussie rider drags a homeowner to safety from his burning house, then goes on a 40 mile ride despite suffering smoke inhalation.

 

Finally…

Nothing like sharing your ride with a ‘roo on the roadway. You can carry anything on a bicycle, even a body; they’re also good for disposing unwanted body parts.

And be on the lookout for a turquoise-faced, armed and dangerous, bike-riding anti-Trump vandalism suspect.

 

Category: Hit-and-Run, Law Enforcement, Morning Links / Tags: , , , ,

Morning Links: BOLO alert for Long Beach hit-and-run driver; bike-riding Tuskegee Airman passes away at 106

November 4, 2016 / / One comment

It takes a real jerk to leave a kid lying in the street.

Long Beach police are looking for the hit-and-run driver who struck a 15-year old boy Thursday morning as he was riding his bike at the intersection of Anaheim Street and Obispo Ave in the city’s Zaferia neighborhood.

Fortunately, the victim was not seriously injured.

According to the Press-Telegram, the driver, who stopped briefly before fleeing, appeared to be a blond haired, blue eyed male in his 20s. He was driving a newer model sedan, possibly a Honda, with a flat-black paint job with possible damage to the right front turn signal, as well as previous damage to its front passenger-side door.

Anyone with information is urged to call Long Beach police investigators at 562/570-7355.

Meanwhile, the CHP is searching for the heartless coward who drove away after hitting a nine-year old Murrieta boy as he was riding to school Thursday morning; fortunately the boy, the son of a Marine first sergeant stationed at Camp Pendleton, only suffered minor injuries.

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Heartbreaking news, as a genuine American hero died at the VA hospital in Westwood last month.

According to the LA Sentinel, 106-year old Redondo Beach resident Walter Crenshaw, Jr. was the oldest surviving member of the Tuskegee Airmen when he passed away on October 7th.

The paper reports he used to ride his bike to the Santa Monica pier three or four times a week when he lived in the city.

The Tuskegee Airmen were among the best pilots in the air in WWII, despite dealing with relentless discrimination in the Jim Crow South and on the battle fields of Europe; they proved that black men could fly just as well, if not better, than the white pilots they fought with and against.

Their success in the air paved the way for the integration of the armed forces, and for the civil rights battles that followed after the war.

They were heroes in every sense of the word, yet came back to an America where they were second class citizens.

………

A British website says slower races and lower power to weight ratios are a sign that pro cycling’s doping era really is over.

Chinese rider Meiyin Wang is called China’s best cyclist ever as he prepares to make his pro debut.

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Local

Streetsblog lists five reasons people who bike should vote for Measure M, including support for Complete Streets and a dedicated funding stream for active transportation projects; at least some CSUN students agree.

CiclaValley offers a preview of the 2017 Amgen Tour of California.

Culver City Walk and Roll will host a Wheels and Heels group ride this Sunday to have fun and discuss bike safety.

 

State

Simi Valley police use bait bikes to bust six bike thieves; three of the people arrested have already pled guilty to felony grand theft charges.

Santa Barbara is on the short list to receive $15.5 million in state funding for four bicycle projects, including a long crosstown bike boulevard.

The investigation continues in Santa Cruz into the death of a bicyclist who grew up in Laguna Beach; no charges have been filed yet because police have been unable to identify the driver.

Alameda advocates are calling for a bicycle drawbridge to connect with Oakland; riders currently have to use a narrow, dark and dangerous tunnel filled with exhaust and the roar of traffic.

Bay Area bike advocates are demanding changes to an East Bay freeway interchange where two riders have been killed, and two more seriously injured in the last 20 months.

A Davis cyclist has ridden across the US twice after taking up riding to recover from a car wreck that left him immobile for years; now he rides a Penny Farthing to call attention to plans for a National Bicycle Greenway across the US.

Sacramento volunteers will build 4,000 bikes this weekend to donate to deserving kids. Then again, every kid deserves a bike.

The San Jose Mercury News suggests taking an autumn bike ride around Lake Tahoe. Or using snowshoes if you wait too long.

 

National

Momentum Magazine says protected intersections are the latest trend in bicycle safety, because a bikeway is only as strong as its weakest link.

Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein may be a bad rapper, but she’s a fan of bicycles.

An auto-centric Seattle radio host calls the author of the excellent Seattle Bike Blog “a notoriously hyper-critical bike activist” for saying a proposed eight-lane waterfront roadway should put people first, instead of cars; he insists the plan does put people first because people drive cars.

Outside Magazine says Crested Butte CO is the country’s best mountain bike destination.

An Iowa driver has been found guilty in the collision that left a cross-country bicyclist paralyzed below the waist.

Protected bike lanes are spreading throughout the US, even popping up in rural Arkansas.

It takes a major scumbag to leave an Indiana hit-and-run victim to die alone in the street, and an even bigger one to come upon the scene and steal his bicycle as he lay dying.

A New York Uber bike courier has filed a proposed class action suit against the company demanding to be classified as an employee, rather than an independent contractor.

 

International

Quartz says the real reason behind the worldwide bike boom is concern over weight loss. Except in Paris, where web searchers want to know why cyclists shave their legs.

Riding the entire length of South America on a bamboo bike.

Real funny. A group of kids in the UK post video of assaulting random people with a pie in the face, including one attack that knocked a man off his bicycle, which could have resulted in serious injuries.

London Vogue editors consider whether it’s safe, if not fashionable, to ride in the city.

Caught on video: A London cyclist records a year’s worth of close calls, while the Daily News calls him a drama queen who blames everyone but himself.

London’s Telegraph wonders what the bicycles of the future will look like, as bike racing’s governing body gets ready to scrap the 3:1 rule that limits innovative frame designs.

A Polish bike rider was collateral damage when a high-powered bullet fired by hunter passed through a deer, and traveled nearly 1,000 feet before striking him in the head.

A South African grandfather was caught in the crossfire between two gangs while riding his bicycle and was killed by a stray bullet.

 

Finally…

Everyone needs a good cycling excuse every now and then. Seriously, don’t threaten other riders with a knife. Or anything else.

And a hit-and-run driver tried to bury evidence of his crime. Literally.

 

Category: Bikes & the Law, Hit-and-Run, Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , ,

Weekend Links: Santa Ana bike rider injured in street racing crash, a close pass in Stanton, and Bike Events

October 29, 2016 / / 3 comments

A Santa Ana bike rider was seriously injured Thursday night, the victim of a driver who was allegedly street racing with another car.

Both drivers fled the scene.

However, 20-year old Christopher Carrasco was arrested about two hours later, after he was encouraged to turn himself in by family members; he was being held on $50,000 bail. Authorities are still looking for the other driver.

The victim was reportedly in stable condition after undergoing surgery Friday morning.

Some news reports have suggested the victim may have been riding without lights, and might have done something that contributed to the crash.

However, no matter what he may or may not have done, street racing is a serious crime with entirely foreseeable consequences, akin to firing a gun down a crowded street. It should not be up to the rest of the world to stay the hell out of the way of dangerous drivers exceeding the speed limit and putting everyone else at risk.

Thanks to Jeff Vaughn for the heads-up.

………

Mike Wilkinson forwards video of a far too close pass in Stanton, which just happened to occur right next to the only parked car on the street.

He notes that, despite the perspective, he was riding outside the door zone. However, in the future, he plans to take the lane where the road narrows there.

………

Let’s catch up on a few upcoming events.

Metro will be hosting a guided Halloween Metro Bike bikeshare ride around DTLA on Sunday.

Also on Sunday, Finish the Ride and Serious Cycling will host a free community ride in Agoura Hills.

The first three-day Revolution Bike Fest will take place on Orange County next weekend, with a full weekend of rides, music and beer.

revolution-bike-fest

If you find yourself jonesing for another ciclovía now that CicLAvia is done for the year, Long Beach hosts the next edition of their Beach Streets open streets event on November 12th.

nov-beach-streets

And the LACBC will host a discussion of traffic laws with representatives of the LAPD, LA County Sheriff’s Department and the CHP, along with BikinginLA Sponsor Jim Pocrass, on November 14th.

………

British Cycling confirms allegations that the head of their bike racing program used inappropriate and discriminatory language in telling a female racer to go and have a baby after her contract wasn’t renewed.

Meanwhile, leaders of the program while face questions in front of Parliament over allegations of legal doping.

………

Local

Representatives of a business group call for passing Measure M because voting no would cost LA County too much. Meanwhile, a writer for UCLA’s Daily Bruin says voters have an opportunity to move the city forward by voting yes on M.

Metro officially votes to expand the Metro Bike bikeshare to Venice, San Pedro/Wilmington and Pasadena, where it will focus on the last mile connection; next up is Central LA, followed by Hollywood and West Hollywood, which already has its own system. Meanwhile, UCLA’s bikeshare system will open next spring.

Speaking of West Hollywood, the city’s bikeshare system will be on lockdown Monday during the massive Halloween celebration.

CiclaValley says every lane is a horse poop lane when you’re following the LAPD’s mounted patrol through the bike lanes of Downtown.

 

State

Streetsblog looks at the challenges in Caltrans efforts to develop a statewide active transportation plan, as they seek the public’s input.

Santa Ana goes beyond Vision Zero with a plan to end traffic collisions, not just deaths, while giving the streets back to people.

San Diego’s KPBS looks forward to Sunday’s annual CicloSDias open streets event. Meanwhile, the city’s downtown library is now hosting a monthly free bike repair co-op.

A San Diego man gets two Cervelos worth $46,000 back after they were stolen, thanks to the sharp eye of a neighbor.

After allowing a previous DIY protected bike lane to stay in place, San Francisco’s transportation department wastes little time in removing the latest guerilla installation.

A pair of bike riders are Bay Area heroes, as one retrieves a lost purse left on a bus, and the other leaps off his bike to save the life of a truck driver who’d just been stabbed.

A Vallejo cop hit a bicyclist while looking for a burglary suspect; the rider allegedly went through a red light while wearing all black with no lights on his bike.

A Folsom restaurant owner is collecting funds from the meals he sells to support the family of an Afghan refugee killed by a distracted driver while riding with his son last year.

 

National

A new report reminds us that homeowners who fight bikeways are just shooting themselves in the foot. Or rather, in the pocketbook.

Robin Williams’ bicycle collection raised $600,000 for charity.

A new study ranks the Philadelphia area as the second best place to ride a bike, behind the Minneapolis area and ahead of New York; the LA/OC region checks in at 37.

A new protected bike lane and wider sidewalks have resulted in zero fatalities on New York’s infamous Boulevard of Death, even though local residents don’t like it.

A Maine newspaper says the state’s Complete Streets policy won’t improve safety on the streets unless people in the state push for it to be fully funded and implemented.

 

International

A new British Columbia study says slow down while riding in urban areas to avoid inhaling toxic air pollution; 9.3 mph is recommended as the ideal speed to avoid sucking in too much smog.

An 83-year old Canadian grandmother is on a mission to give bicycles to underprivileged children, saying every child deserves a bike.

A homeless man gets 16 months in jail for knocking a cross-dressing Englishman off his bicycle with a shopping bag.

British tennis star Heather Watson says she was knocked over and verbally abused by someone on a bicycle.

Caught on video: A British driver makes an unsafe pass, then cuts back into his lane just in time to avoid a truck — and barely misses an eight-year old girl.

An Irish newspaper recounts the history of bicycling on the Emerald Isle.

Caught on video too: A Polish cyclist is lucky to walk away without serious injuries after being hit head-on.

Innovative approaches to bicycling and walking are leading Africa to a greener future, where four countries are among the world’s most dangerous for bicyclists and pedestrians.

Impoverished Johannesburg residents question whether bike lanes are racist and classist, after the city painted them without telling anyone who they were for or how to use them.

Life is cheap in Singapore, where the driver of a cement mixer gets a whopping ten weeks behind bars for killing a woman on a bike by failing to look at a pedestrian crossing.

It only took three years and a Freedom of Information request to learn a road raging Minneapolis bike rider and bus driver were both assholes.

Caught in video tres: A Singapore woman repeatedly slaps an elderly bike rider, while claiming she just got out of prison.

 

Finally…

The definition of bad luck: Someone steals your bike just two days after your car was stolen. If you want a free gold-plated Colnago, all you have to do is get elected pope.

And seriously, no sexting behind the wheel.

 

Category: Bicycle Safety, Bike Events, Bikes & the Law, Hit-and-Run, Injuries and Fatalities, Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , ,

Morning Links: Hit-and-run runs rampant throughout CA; video shows plans for Puente Hills Landfill park

October 26, 2016 / / One comment

If you think the hit-and-run epidemic is getting worse, you’re right.

Stats wonk Ed Ryder does a great job of mining the CHP’s SWITRS database; in the past, he’s created detailed charts to help us understand traffic collisions on PCH, as well as in LA and Orange Counties, and around the state.

So when I met with a state legislator to discuss the problem of hit-and-runs recently, I asked Ryder if he could delve into the database once again to show just how big a problem it really is.

And big is putting it mildly.

As his report shows, it’s goes way beyond bad, and it’s only getting worse. Not just here in LA, but nearly everywhere in California.

In fact, from 2004 to now, a driver fled the scene in nearly 20% of all crashes in the state.

1-overview

After dropping to a low of 17.4% of all collisions in 2011, hit-and-run has made a big comeback, climbing to 19.5% in 2015, and 20% to date in 2016.

2-total-collisions

Note: It should be noted that the more recent figures are preliminary, since there’s a significant lag time in reporting statistics to SWITRS. And these stats only include death and serious injuries; adding property damage would boost the percentages significantly.

The sheer numbers are staggering, with nearly 300 deaths due to hit-and-run collisions in recent years, and over 20,000 injuries.

4-killed-and-injured

As the following chart shows, the costs are huge, not just in terms of human suffering, but in the economic loss to society, as well.

3-hit-and-run-costs

Not surprisingly, Los Angeles County is the state’s overwhelming leader in hit-and-run deaths, with San Diego, San Bernardino and Riverside Counties fighting it out for 2nd place.

5-fatalities

Injuries paint an even more dramatic picture, with LA County accounting for over half of all hit-and-runs resulting in injuries.

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However, that is partly a function of LA’s sheer size. When you look at hit-and-run collisions as a percentage of population, a much different picture appears.

While LA still leads in injury collisions, it drops to ninth in fatalities.

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It’s possible that may be due to better access to emergency care compared to less urban counties like Kern and Tulare, where it could take significantly longer to get to a trauma center following a crash. As well as slower speeds resulting from traffic congestion and lower speed limits in urban areas.

Regardless, it’s clear that hit-and-run is a problem that affects the entire state.

And it’s not going to go away until we do something about it.

You can download Ed Ryder’s full report here.

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A new video explains the plan for the Puente Hills Landfill park, which was approved by the county supervisors yesterday.

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The route has been announced for next year’s 100th edition of the Giro d’Italia, once again with a focus on climbing.

A 46-year old British amateur cyclist has received a four year ban for using EPO, just months after being banned for using another substance. But cycling doesn’t have a cheating problem anymore. Right?

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Local

Today is the last day to weigh in on the proposed Rail-to-River bikeway connecting the Crenshaw Line to the LA River through the southeast cities.

New signs are being installed on the LA River bike path telling riders to slow down in areas where more people walk. CiclaValley prefers to look on the bright side, noting that part of the bike path closure is due to improvements, even though we may not see them for the foreseeable future.

Pasadena will discuss plans for the coming Metro Bike bikeshare system at a public meeting this Thursday.

Long Beach police receive a $400,000 grant to improve traffic safety, including DUI, distracted driving, and bike and pedestrian safety enforcement.

 

State

A San Diego cyclist is asking for help remembering what the hell happened to him; he found himself standing bloodied and confused in a Target parking lot two miles away with a cracked skull and multiple facial fractures after going for a bike ride, with no idea how he got there.

San Diego offers proposals to discourage driving without increasing density, including counting on autonomous vehicles to reduce the need for parking and room for bike lanes.

While we’re on the subject of our neighbor to the South, San Diego’s CicloSDias ciclovía is looking for volunteers for this Sunday’s 4th annual open streets event.

San Francisco will get its first parking protected, elevated bike lane in the Mission District, but only for one block.

The San Francisco Chronicle looks at the “pack of vigilantes” altering the city’s streets to improve safety for bicyclists; a new video shows how it’s done.

 

National

Streetsblog looks at how American cities can protect cyclists from deadly trucks. It shouldn’t be left to individual cities or states; the federal government should mandate new trucking standards to improve safety for everyone.

Evanston IL city leaders propose removing a new bike lane from one side of the street to improve safety for motorists. Yes, you read that right; they want to sacrifice the safety of people on bicycles to protect the ones surrounded by a few tons of glass and steel. 

A Massachusetts blogger and mountain biker offers real world advice on bike commuting.

A 28-year old New York woman writes in Vogue about learning how to ride a bike as an adult to prepare for a trip to Copenhagen. Yes, Vogue. Evidently, we’ve become stylish.

Bike ridership continues to climb in New York, though lower income communities are being left behind as most protected lanes go into more affluent areas.

A 67-year old Virginia cyclist may be the oldest woman ride solo across the US.

ABC News reports on the South Carolina teacher who is raising funds to buy a bicycle for every student at her disadvantaged school.

 

International

Relatives of people killed on Toronto streets have formed their own traffic safety group to call for an end to road violence.

An Ottawa bike rider was hit by a car while riding in a new bike lane, just hours after it was officially opened. Which is a pretty good sign that a little paint may not be sufficient.

A Canadian city is being sued over an allegedly unsafe bike lane following a collision. Not by the rider who was paralyzed in the crash, but by the driver convicted of causing it by making an unsafe turn.

A UK website goes back 40 years to explain how Edinburgh became a bike-friendly city.

The creepy clown phenomenon continues to spread around the world, as a 15-year old New Zealand boy was frightened by a clown that threatened to kill him as he rode his bike. Although maybe it’s the clowns who should be scared.

Shanghai is offering ebike users a free electronic chip to track their bicycles if they’re stolen.

 

Finally…

Who needs carbon or Ti when you can have wood? It’s one thing to steal a boy’s bicycle; another to apparently steal the boy with it.

And it’s time to make bicycling great again, as a Trump supporter with a megaphone goes on an unexpected bike safety monologue.

Thanks to Cyclelicious for the link.

Category: Bikes & the Law, Hit-and-Run, Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , ,

62-year old bike rider killed in early morning Perris hit-and-run

October 24, 2016 / / 7 comments

Yet another bike rider has been murdered by a careless and cowardly driver.

The Riverside Press-Enterprise is reporting that 62-year old Steven Marsh was killed by a hit-and-run driver at Navajo Road and Highway 74 in Perris at 3:30 Monday morning.

According to the paper, Marsh attempting to make a left turn from Navajo onto Highway 74 when a westbound car went through the red light and struck his bicycle; he died at the scene.

The driver sped off without stopping. The suspect vehicle is described only as a dark sedan with possible front-end damage to passenger side and windshield.

Navajo Road ends at Highway 74 with a double left turn lane controlled by a red light, while Highway 74 has two lanes in each direction with a painted center divider. The road has a 45 mph speed limit, but its straight-open design could encourage higher speeds, especially at that hour.

This is the 64th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the tenth in Riverside County; that compares with ten in the county for all of last year. Marsh is also the fifth bike rider to be killed in Perris in just the last three years.

My deepest sympathy and prayers for Steven Marsh and all his loved ones. 

Category: Bicycle Safety, Hit-and-Run, Injuries and Fatalities / Tags: , , , ,

Morning Links: Ten years for drunken Santa Clarita hit-and-run, and LA County approves Vision Zero Initiative

October 5, 2016 / / One comment

Still working on fixing the problem with email notifications for subscribers to this site. My sincere apologies to everyone who may be inconvenienced.

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Ten years.

That’s how long a sentence Lucas James Guidroz is expected to receive after pleading no contest in the drunken hit-and-run death of Rod Bennett in Santa Clarita earlier this year.

The popular math teacher, musician and band director was riding on Placerita Canyon Road on May 25th when Guidroz plowed his Lexus into Bennett’s bicycle from behind, then fled the scene as Bennett lay dying where he fell.

He turned himself in shortly after police found his car two days later.

The 28-year old Guidroz is expected to be sentenced on November 7th on charges of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and hit-and-run driving resulting in death.

Although the Santa Clarita Signal still can’t be bothered to get the name of the victim right.

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LA County votes to implement a Vision Zero Initiative, without apparently understanding what that means.

Despite the press release from County Supervisor Hilda Solis’ office, Vision Zero is about improving safety with a goal of eliminating traffic fatalities — not encouraging environmentally friendly alternatives to driving, as admirable as that may be.

And as always, the unanswered question is whether county leaders have to courage to make the tough choices required to save lives.

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Maybe it takes awhile for news to make it past the Orange Curtain.

A full week after the Orange County Register reported on the drunken hit-and-run that may have left a bike rider with a broken leg, and a young woman facing charges just hours after posing with her new car, the broadcast media has finally caught up with the story.

LA’s KABC-7 offered a brief report on the arrest of 22-year old Laguna Beach resident Aya Ibish, while Sacramento’s Fox-40 went into more detail.

Maybe they picked up the story from the OC Weekly, which posted it on Monday.

Then again, if they can’t be bothered to read the Register, they could have learned about it right here days earlier.

Or they could have found out about it on YouTube, after the story got the Taiwanese TomoNews animation treatment, which is always good for a laugh or two.

Thanks to David Huntsman for the last link.

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UCLA students discuss whether Westwood Blvd is safe for cyclists, in the wake of the much-needed Westwood bike lanes being removed from the LA Mobility Plan without a valid reason, other than some local homeowners and business owners apparently just didn’t want them.

Thanks to Erik Griswold for the heads-up.

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Local

Writing for City Watch, Tim Deegan says it’s time to embrace New Urbanism, and suggests the New Urbanism Film Festival, which runs tomorrow through Sunday, as the perfect place to start.

The aptly-named Alissa Walker writes about why she’s trying to raise her daughter carfree in Los Angeles.

Richard Risemberg says the Expo Line bike path could have been a contender, but was done in by inadequate street crossings.

Thankfully, the victim of Monday’s Long Beach hit-and-run escaped with just a broken leg; the driver admitted to police he was fleeing a previous crash when he ran into the rider.

 

State

The Desert Sun urges Indian Wells voters to turn down a resolution that could halt construction of the planned CV Link bikeway through the city.

The Berkeley alumni association talks with law professor Molly Shaffer Van Houweling, a five-time amateur world champ in time trials and road racing who set the women’s hour record last year at age 43.

 

National

Streetsblog writes about the four biggest sins reporters commit when covering pedestrian deaths, all of which apply to bicycling, as well.

It’s time to apply for the fourth annual QBP Women’s Bike Mechanic Scholarship Program, to prepare for a career as a wrench.

A Tucson AZ veteran made enough money selling bicycle chain art to pay for surgery for his therapy dog.

Good news, as Robert Choi, the founder of Utah-based Volagi Cycles, is showing some improvement after suffering a head injury when he was rear-ended by a driver last week; he was found unconscious in his office after initially refusing medical treatment. Always get checked out by a doctor anytime your head hits the pavement, regardless of whether you’re wearing a helmet; even a small brain injury can have serious consequences.

A volunteer bike repair center is fixing up bikes to give to the homeless in my hometown.

Once again, a visitor to this country is unable to survive America’s mean streets, as an Australian man was killed when his bike was rear-ended while riding in Kansas.

Chicago readers offer their advice on how to make bicycling safer, from licensing and ticketing cyclists to making bicyclists ride salmon.

A New York court rules the city’s bike lanes can stay, after rejecting a lawsuit claiming they caused environmental harm by creating traffic congestion.

Common sense finally comes into play in Maryland, where a 15-year old girl who was slammed into a wall and pepper sprayed for refusing medical treatment following a bicycling collision won’t face charges after apologizing to the police.

 

International

A Canadian writer, who says he’s a bike rider himself, calls plans for a national bicycling strategy an ill-conceived boondoggle. Meanwhile, a Newfoundland counselor calls for turning his city’s bike lanes into parking spots.

London’s mayor calls for completion of a new bike and pedestrian bridge over the Thames by 2020.

Selfies kill. A British woman died after hitting her head in a solo fall, just moments after taking a selfie as she rode from her mother’s birthday dinner; her husband called for a mandatory helmet law as a result, saying she’d still be alive if she’d worn one.

The BBC talks with pro cyclist Annemiek van Vleuten about the Olympic crash that horrified the world; she argues that Britain’s Lizzie Armitstead shouldn’t have been allowed to compete after missing three drug tests.

 

Finally…

Evidently, blocking bikeways is nothing new. Bikes are great for transporting anything, including the loot you just stole from a home.

And you can see a lot of things when you ride hopefully a wild panther won’t be one of them.

Category: Bikes & the Law, Hit-and-Run, Legal Cases, Morning Links, Vision Zero / Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Morning Links: New dismount gates on Expo Line bike path, and OC DUI driver hits cyclist hours after getting new car

September 29, 2016 / / 2 comments

Still no luck getting email notifications for new posts working again. But we’re working on it. Please keep coming back every day until we get it fixed.

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The Source reports that Santa Monica has installed a set of six staggered gates on the Expo Line bike path in order to slow bicyclists down before intersections.

Or maybe make them dismount entirely.

According to the press release, the locked gates are required by the California Public Utilities Commission to prevent conflicts with pedestrians at intersections at 19th, 20th and Stewart Streets.

However, while the stated purpose is to get riders to slow down, the signs on the gates clearly say “Cyclists Dismount” for no apparent reason.

Photo from City of Santa Monica

Photo from City of Santa Monica

Gates might make sense there if the purpose was to keep drivers from inadvertently turning onto the bike path, or if they were somehow intended to keep riders from straying onto the railroad tracks when trains were coming.

Instead, they almost seem designed to defeat the purpose of the path by discouraging bike riders from using it. Especially if the absurd dismount requirement is actually enforced, rather than allowing riders to slowly weave around the barriers.

There is no requirement under state law that bicyclists must walk across intersections, anymore than drivers are required to get out of their cars and push them to the other side.

So it would be interesting to know just what the justification is for telling cyclists to dismount.

And whether that comes from the CPUC, Santa Monica, or somewhere else.

Thanks to John Hanson for the heads up.

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A bike rider suffered a possible broken leg when he was struck by a driver who took off without stopping in Costa Mesa Tuesday night.

The Orange County Register reports that, based on the rider’s description, police stopped a gray Mercedes with damage consistent with the collision. After failing a roadside sobriety check, the 22-year old driver was arrested on suspicion of DUI and hit-and-run, both felonies.

It didn’t take long for Instagram users to put two and two together, and realize it was the same woman shown posing with pride next to a brand new Mercedes Benz, which has apparently been purchased just hours before the crash.

It also didn’t take long for the photo to be deleted after the negative comments started pouring in.

However, as we all know, once something appears online, it’s usually there forever.

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Thanks to Jeffrey Fylling, Brent Bigler, and David Huntsman for the tips.

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Gabourey Sidibe is one of us, as she rides an adult tricycle between sets on Empire.

Liev Schreiber is one of us, as he rides his kids to their New York school on a Dutch bike, complete with a wine crate for a basket. Maybe he’s been taking notes from LA Bike Dad. Or maybe Brooks saddles.

J.K. Simmons is one of us as well, as he tells Jimmy Kimmel about bicycling home from his LA gym in 100 degree weather. Thanks to Megan Lynch for the link.

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Local

The LA city council approves a $3 million settlement for a bike-riding rabbi who suffered permanent brain injuries when he was struck by a car on Victory Blvd, just east of the 405 Freeway. The suit alleged that the posted bike route signs implied the dilapidated street was safe to ride, something most people who know the street would likely disagree with. Maybe it would be better if LA spent its money building the bikeways called for in the 2010 bike plan, instead of paying damages to injured bicyclists forced to ride on dangerous streets.

Streetsblog’s Sahra Sulaiman pens a challenging essay asking readers to look beyond their own privilege and consider not just bikes, but the people on them.

Two men have been arrested in an Echo Park shooting believed to be gang related; at least one of the victims was on a bike.

 

State

A NorCal cyclist received minor injuries when he was hit head-on by the driver of a left-turning pickup; a CHP officer somehow sees that as a reason to remind people about the state’s three-foot passing law, which had nothing to do with it.

A writer recommends a serene 12-mile climb through spectacular scenery on your next bike vacation to Lake Tahoe.

 

National

PRI’s The World reports on the Dutch Reach — opening your car door with your right hand, instead of your left — which makes you look back for bike riders before you open the door.

The opening of a new Colorado bike path means cyclists can now ride a continuous 150 mile pathway along I-70 through the Rockies from Glenwood Springs to Denver.

The Chicago Tribune says the city’s evolution as a leading bike-friendly city is next to meaningless if it doesn’t become a bike-safe city, as well.

A Minnesota paper suggests banning cell phones from driving compartments of motor vehicles, and clarifying the definition of gross negligence after a judge acquits an accused distracted driver in the death of a cyclist.

This is why people continue to die on our streets. Just a month after a South Carolina man was arrested for killing a cyclist and fleeing the scene while under the influence, he was arrested once again for DUI. As soon as drivers are charged with drunk or stoned behind the wheel, their licenses should be suspended and their keys taken away pending trial; the right of others to be safe on the road outweighs their privilege to drive.

A New Orleans bike rider was doing everything right, yet still was the victim of a hit-and-run while riding in a bike lane.

 

International

Nice piece from the Guardian, as they look around the world to ask why people on bicycles are considered interlopers on the streets, and whether drivers will ever learn to share them with bicyclists.

An Edmonton, Canada paper recommends giving physically separated bike lanes a try, despite the city’s failed attempts at bike infrastructure; Calgary cyclists tell them they’ve been a tremendous success there.

A new European safety campaign uses Formula 1 drivers to tell kids to “Stay Bright” on their way to and from school.

A road raging British driver has been charged with chasing a bike rider and running him down, following an argument when she was reportedly driving distracted.

The mother of a fallen British bike rider is relieved that the truck driver who killed her daughter in a left hook was spared prison time, saying there are no winners when something like this happens.

A Paralympic champion had her specially adapted bike stolen just hours after she returned home to Great Britain.

Horrible story from the UK, as a road raging bicyclist is charged with manslaughter in the death of a retired man who was pushing his wife in a wheelchair; the victim somehow hit his head on the pavement as a result of the dispute. Once again, never resort to violence, no matter how justified you may feel at the time. This rider should face the same consequences we’d expect of a motorist under similar circumstances.

A DC website looks at how Barcelona gets bicycling right.

 

Finally…

Now you and your dog can both get a workout without ever leaving home. And there are no minor traffic collisions when you’re an assistant Ohio State football coach.

On the other hand, there are no major consequences, either.

 

Category: Bicycle Safety, Bikes & the Law, Car vs Bike, Hit-and-Run, Injuries and Fatalities, Morning Links, Streets and Infrastructure / Tags: , , , , , , ,

Morning Links: Witnesses wanted for PVE hit-and-run, bike video Thursday, and CICLE screams for ice cream

September 15, 2016 / / 4 comments

Someone had to have seen something.

The wife of fallen Torrance cyclist John Bacon is asking for any possible witnesses to come forward who may have seen the events leading up to the fatal May 18th crash in Palos Verdes Estates.

A security camera shows 18 other vehicles pass by in the two minutes leading up to the crash, which may have been caused by the driver of a white van shown following within a few feet of Bacon seconds before he was killed.

The driver fled the scene, but was located by bicyclists on the hunt for the vehicle, with little or no help from the local police.

Palos Verdes Estates police say they’ve spoken with the man, who is considered a suspect, but no arrest has been made.

The driver of a truck matching the description of the suspect vehicle had reportedly harassed a number of bicyclists in the same area in the weeks leading up to the crash.

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Let’s make this a bike video Thursday.

Yes, wool makes a great bike jersey, but most people would just pull on a sweater.

Now that’s a close call. A Portland area rider gets right hooked by a utility truck that missed him by mere inches.

And congratulations. You are now superfluous.

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CICLE hosts their second annual ice cream ride and walk on the 24th.

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American Denise Mueller set a new women’s world’s record for the fastest speed on a paced bicycle, but failed to break the overall world record of 167 mph.

On the other hand, 147.75 is nothing to sneeze at.

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VeloNews says single day road bike races are an endangered species in the US, as focus shifts to multi-day stage races.

Former Formula 1 race car driver Alex Zarnardi didn’t give up racing after the horrific crash that took both his legs; he just shifted to hand-cycling, once again winning gold in the Rio Paralympic Games nearly 15 years to the day after his near fatal crash.

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Local

Los Angeles announces ambitious plans to remove 100,000 vehicles from the streets within five years through rideshare, bikeshare and improved transit. However, other than bikeshare, bicycling and bikeways don’t seem to be part of the plan.

Newly elected neighborhood councilmember Richard Risemberg reports that a motion to support a desperately needed road diet on LA’s 6th Street passed on Wednesday; now it’s up to LA Councilmember David Ryu to show his support for traffic safety.

A Metro committee approved $4 million in funding for 17 open streets events in LA County over the next two years.

CiclaValley takes issues with LA Curbed’s recent assertion that driving is the fastest way to get to Dodger stadium.

Marilyn Monroe was one of us, riding her bike to work at Fox Studios as she rose to stardom.

Practice your cyclocross skills at Glendale’s Verdugo Park this afternoon.

 

State

A San Diego woman suffered severe head injuries, despite wearing a helmet, when she lost control of her bike and flipped over the handlebars.

Writers for the Chico State paper say students should be allowed to ride their bikes on campus, at least during certain hours.

 

National

The Executive Chairman for Ford calls for an urgent discussion on the ethics of robotic cars, while Planetizen takes up the same issue. Wait, wasn’t that settled a long time ago?

A Portland man gets six years and three months — with no time off for good behavior — for fleeing the scene after killing a cyclist while high on medical marijuana.

Apparently, it’s not that big a deal to kill your motorcycle-riding husband by running him off the road in Texas, as long as he was cheating on you. Thanks to J. Patrick Lynch for the heads-up.

A writer for the Boston Globe offers his rules for bike path etiquette, including banning the use of “On your left.” Sorry, but I say “on your left” for my safety, as well as yours; I’ve had far too many close calls with careless bicyclists and pedestrians.

The Village Voice says New York’s mayor brags about bike lanes while the cyclist death toll on the city’s streets continues to rise.

New York plans to rely on bicycles to move people from Manhattan to Brooklyn when a subway tunnel closes for repairs in three years. Meanwhile, the city passed three new laws guaranteeing bicycle access to residential and commercial buildings.

A Pittsburgh paper discusses the success of the homegrown Black Girls Do Bike movement, which is spreading nationwide.

A Georgia woman was allegedly high on prescription meds and using her cellphone when she crossed the center line and plowed head-on into three bike riders, killing one and seriously injuring another.

The Wall Street Journal says Halloween is the best time to visit New Orleans, citing the city’s new bike lanes as part of the attraction. And not because they’re scary.

 

International

Montreal does more than just become the latest city to adopt Vision Zero, by outlining concrete steps to reduce fatalities, including redesigning intersections and lowering the speed limit.

London’s Mirror calls for stiffer penalties for distracted drivers; things don’t seem to be any better in Australia.

A 19-year old London cyclist faces a charge of causing bodily harm by willful misconduct after killing a pedestrian in a crash; no word on how it happened.

A London writer paints a pretty ugly picture of what it’s like for a woman to ride the city’s male-dominated streets.

Cycling Weekly talks with Brit designer Paul Smith about his lifelong love of bicycling.

A British mountain biker was the victim of a bizarre strong arm robbery when a thief pushed him down a steep trail as he stood planning his descent, and made off with his custom-made bike.

A new rear facing radar system for large trucks and buses is designed to alert drivers when a bike rider is coming up from behind or beside the vehicle. However, a supercomputer it’s not, despite what the story says.

Evidently they define a tie differently in Spain, as the Barcelona coach falls off his bicycle on his way to a 7-0 victory over Celtic.

Now that’s more like it. An Australian woman is sentenced to eleven years in prison for killing a cyclist and fleeing the scene; the judge called her actions morally reprehensible.

 

Finally…

Caught on video: If you’re going to steal a bicycle, remove the lock before you try to ride off on it. New York panthers are besmirched by bikeshare.

And you can thank a pair of bicycles for Curious George.

 

Category: Hit-and-Run, Injuries and Fatalities, Morning Links / Tags: , , , ,

Morning Links: Torrance tri canceled, Riverside carnage continues, and bike advocate ponders if it’s time to quit

September 9, 2016 / / 5 comments

If you haven’t read it yet, don’t miss yesterday’s guest post Letter From St. Louis, from CyclingSavvy’s Karen Karabell.

Go ahead. We’ll wait.

Then buckle in. We’ve got a lot of ground to cover today.

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Don’t bother showing up for this weekend’s triathlon in Torrance.

Word comes from Todd Munson that the race has been called on account of apparent greed and billing irregularities from the cities involved, and not involved.

This is what the organizers had to say.

Yesterday, the city of Torrance canceled the 2016 LA Triathlon at Torrance Beach.  With much regret, we are forced to announce this cancellation to our participants and sponsors only 4 days prior to race day.  We understand that the cancellation will come with great disappointment to those of you who have worked hard and prepared for months toward this year’s triathlon.  We are disappointed by the unexpected and unprecedented circumstances and demands that have unfolded to cause this cancellation.

We have listed the key points that led to the city’s cancellation of our event in an effort to offer some immediate transparency to all participants:

  1. On August 31st, the City of Torrance sent to Pacific Sports an email demanding advanced payment, in full, to the city, prior to the event, for city services.  There was no detail of the charges, simply amounts in total and the requirement to bring two cashier’s checks by 5pm.   This is not standard practice in other municipalities and certainly not in those where all previous invoices had been paid in a timely fashion.
  2. In the same email on August  31st, we were informed that a significant separate payment was also required to be paid to the neighboring City of Palos Verdes, a city in which we have no footprint, no permit, no participants enter their city as part of our course, no liability coverage, and no relationship of any kind.  This demand is unprecedented in our 36 year history as an event production company, and to our knowledge unprecedented in the event industry in the United States.    This payment is demanded by Torrance (to be paid to Palos Verdes) although we have never been made aware of the apparent business relationship (although it has been requested) between Torrance (where we do have permits) and the city of Palos Verdes.
  3. Also in this email, it was finally revealed by the City of Torrance, after an audit requested by Pacific Sports, the city had significantly overbilled us by an amount in excess of 30% to the total in 2015 for city services.   We have strong evidence that the 2014 invoice may have been overbilled as well.   Importantly, we have no reliability that the advance payment demanded for 2016 (without detail of its calculation) is backed up by verifiable charges which will only be available after the event has occurred.
  4. Since August 31st, we have worked tirelessly with all levels of the city government including the city council and Mayor’s office in an attempt to bring resolution.  We offered a structured and fair written compromise on these issues in attempt to  insure the event went on as planned on September 11th.  Ultimately, the city offered no compromise or proposed solution and informed us they had unilaterally canceled the event.

We are upset and deeply disappointed by the cancellation, but the requirements were unreasonable and excessive.  Accepting the terms would have compromised the entire event and were untenable for us to continue at the current site for the LA Triathlon.

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Yet another teenager has been injured riding her bicycle in Riverside, where it’s apparently open season on bike-riding school kids.

A 14-year old girl is in stable condition after being hit by a pickup while riding in a crosswalk just 100 feet from her school Wednesday morning. The driver fled the scene after stopping briefly; she was taken into custody on a nearby highway about 10 minutes later.

Although despite what the story says, it’s hard to imagine the driver was “fully cooperative” with police when she tried to make a getaway before being caught.

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Lucas James Guidroz pled not guilty to in the hit-and-run death of math and music teacher, musician and cyclist Rod Bennett as he was riding on Placerita Canyon Road last May. Guidroz faces felony counts of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and hit-and-run driving resulting in death or serious injury.

Note to Santa Clarita Valley Signal: Show a little respect, and get the victim’s name right in the caption.

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In the wake of yesterday’s blog post from Surly’s Skip Bernet, in which he said he’s done riding on streets due to the dangers posed by cars, long-time LA bike advocate Examined Spoke questions whether he wants to keep riding his bike.

Is cycling in traffic safe? I can find statistical support for any answer I want: yes, no, who knows. My own experiences suggest the answer should be no, not safe. In 2009 I was rear-ended while riding on Los Feliz Boulevard; last year I was brushed (side-swiped) on Fountain Avenue. I can recount several other close passes, terrifying moments — the usual stuff that you will hear from almost any cyclist. I shrugged off these experiences when they happened, but they still haunt me. They’ve also made me into a poor advocate; I cannot argue for cycling’s essential safety, I am a personal testament to its dangers. As much as I want to believe the opposite, little by little I’ve had to admit to myself that I don’t feel safe on the road. I never feel safe out there.

It’s a very well-written and challenging piece, and one that poses some very difficult questions.

If anyone wants to respond to it, let me know. I’ll be happy to share your thoughts here.

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The bus carrying Britain’s Team Sky pro cycling team nearly made mince pie out of a cyclist on a narrow country road.

The team contacted him a few hours after the video went online to apologize.

They should give him an autographed team bike, at the very least. And a new pair of shorts, since he probably needs them after that.

Meanwhile, Lance’s doping ban has been partially lifted, so he is now free to compete in non-bike related Olympic sports, like ski jumping, pole vaulting and synchronized swimming.

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Local

Props to CD1 Councilmember Gil Cedillo for beginning work to create a pedestrian plaza, including bike racks, on the Hoover Triangle in University Park. Now if he could just do something to make it safer to bike or walk there.

More honorees at the LACBC’s upcoming Firefly Ball include Culver City Council Member Meghan Sahli-Wells and The Walt Disney Company.

CiclaValley shares video of the new Spring Street bike lane between 1st and 2nd Streets in DTLA.

Damien Newton talks with Marisa Creter of the San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments about plans for a 200 mile bike superhighway crisscrossing the entire valley.

WeHoVille examines the 18-month timeline to reconstruct Santa Monica Blvd through Beverly Hills; the street will be widened, providing enough room for the bike lanes that won’t be installed. Increased costs and the objections of residents to widening one narrow section of the street was given as the reason not to install much-needed bike lanes on the boulevard. So why won’t they commit to adding them now that the street is being widened anyway?

Cycling in the South Bay’s Seth Davidson reports on Wednesday’s meeting of the Palos Verdes Estates Traffic Safety Committee as only he can.

 

State

A Canadian man is riding over 1,500 miles to attend next month’s Desert Trip music festival in Indio on his Pedego ebike.

Pismo Beach votes to move a bike path into a busy parking lot to keep it from besmirching a coastal subdivision for wealthy homeowners.

Fresno jurors find an accused career criminal not guilty of attempted murder of a police officer in a struggle that began when the cops tried to stop him for riding without a light.

 

National

Streetsblog says the US has the worst per capita traffic fatality rate in the developed world because we drive too damn much. Not to mention too damn fast, too damn drunk and too damn distracted.

Zocolo Public Square says modern roads resulted from a coalition of early bicyclists and rural farmers banding together to demand better streets, only to see cyclists squeezed out with the advent of the automobile.

Build your own DIY ebike that looks like it would probably alert the bomb squad.

Bicycling offers advice on how to ride through your pregnancy.

Exploring Hawaii’s Lanai island by bicycle, where only 3,200 people live and there are no traffic lights.

The Tacoma teenager tackled by police as she rode her bicycle through a mall parking lot is suing the police department, as well as the officer in question, the mall and its security company.

American Denise Mueller hopes to set a new motor-paced bicycle land speed record of over 168 mph at Utah’s famed Bonneville Salt Flats this weekend.

A Chicago area writer can’t seem to figure out if he’s pro or anti bike, saying allowing bicycles in wilderness areas is a bad idea, but giving bicyclists the same rights as drivers is a good one — especially if it means more riders get tickets.

An Op-Ed writer in the Chicago Tribune complains about a parking protected bike lane, and insists that bike riders can’t be ticketed — or pay fees — because they don’t have operators licenses. Never mind that most bicyclists have driver’s licenses, like most other human beings in this country, and can be ticketed even without them.

Cleveland officials say the bike lane that was removed to provide parking for the Hilton hotel wasn’t really removed because it was never really a bike lane to begin with.

A retired Boston doctor encourages drivers to open their doors with their right hands to avoid dooring cyclists.

New York protected the security of the presidential candidates from bike riders by forcing the riders onto a busy highway at rush hour.

A Pennsylvania website says bicyclists face a life and death struggle for space on the state’s roads.

 

International

Ottawa officials say it’s okay that bike lanes on a newly opened bridge are too narrow to meet official guidelines, because they’re not really bike lanes. Evidently, they’ve been talking with the people in Cleveland.

It only took 120 years to get a bike lane on one Toronto street.

The Guardian looks at the Rails to Trails movement in the UK, where abandoned rail lines are being turned into world class biking and walking trails.

Curbed introduces Amsterdam’s first Bike Mayor, elected as an unofficial representative for the city’s bicyclists.

Apparently Belgrade, Serbia fails to make the grade when it comes to being bike friendly.

A new report says Adelaide, Australia isn’t ready for bikeshare because of its immature bikeway network, mandatory helmet law and crushing car culture. Los Angeles can cop to two out of three.

An Aussie writer calls for a network of segregated cycle routes to replace painted bike lanes, augmented by a network of shared quietways where cars don’t own the roads. Which sounds a lot like the apparently forgotten Bicycle Friendly Streets called for in LA’s Mobility Plan.

 

Finally…

Bicycling may be good for your health, but good sex may kill you. Seriously, if you’re already on probation for drug charges and carrying an “unknown white substance” on your bike, don’t ride on the damn sidewalk.

And just in time to beat the Halloween rush, a bicycle on a kickstand pedals itself, both forward and back, with no one but the camera around.

Category: Advocacy & Politics, Bicycle Safety, Car vs Bike, Hit-and-Run, Legal Cases, Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , ,
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