According to the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department, the victim was approaching the intersection of South Melrose Drive on Breeze Hill Road around 3:38 pm when he reportedly ran the red light at South Melrose, and was struck by a driver traveling north on Melrose.
The victim, identified only as a 26-year old man, died after being taken to a local hospital.
The driver, who was not identified, remained at the scene and cooperated with investigators; authorities did not suspect they were under the influence.
As always, whether the victim actually ran the red light depends on whether there were any independent witnesses or video of the crash, or if investigators relied solely on the word of the driver. And we have no way of knowing for sure that the victim was riding a legal Class 1, 2 or 3 ped-assist bike.
But it serves as a reminder to stop for red lights, no matter what kind of bike you’re riding — especially with cross traffic. And never ride beyond your ability to safely stop in an emergency.
More than one of the stories mentioned that it was not known if the victim was wearing a helmet, which one matters if the victim died of a head injury, or if his other injuries may have been survivable, with or without one. Something that neither we nor they have any way of knowing at this time.
This is at least the 41st bicycling fatality that I’m aware of in Southern California this year, and the eighth we know about in San Diego County.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for the victim and his loved ones.
The fun thing about health problems is the learning never stops.
For instance, I learned Wednesday that I can cope with low blood sugar, and I can cope with low blood pressure. What I can’t cope with is low blood sugar and low blood pressure.
My night was like an endless version of an Elvis Costello song.
And can someone please tell me if Lake America is anywhere near the Gulf of America? I get so confused.
………
They got him.
Finally.
Police made an arrest for the intentional hit-and-run crash that killed 16-year old Jonathan “Junior” Flores, after chasing him into the parking lot at BMO Stadium two years ago.
Flores was taking part in an afternoon ride with around 40 other teens when an altercation took place between the driver of a BMW and some of the kids as they rode on Figueroa Street.
When the kids tried to escape through a gap in the fencing around the parking lot, the driver of a second car, who police allege was Rodriguez, broke through the gate and chased the teens into the parking lot, slamming into Flores before backing out and fleeing the scene.
To make matters worse, Flores was an innocent victim who had nothing to do with the original altercation, in which someone allegedly broke one of the cars’ mirrors.
Flores had been wanted on $2 million bond after police tracked both cars to his home.
He was taken into custody at LAX when police negotiated his surrender after tracking him to El Salvador.
Let’s hope the negotiations that led to his surrender didn’t include reducing the charges or possible sentencing, even though that seems likely.
………
It only took five years, but we’ve finally seen justice for 16-year old Pedro Valdez.
That comes four months after a jury convicted Rocha of four counts of assault with a deadly weapon, and two counts of battery, along with the special allegation of causing great bodily injury in the commission of a felony.
Rocha ran down the kids, who were just out enjoying a bike ride, eleven minutes after he had battered a man and a woman at a laundromat, and intentionally stuck an employee with his car as he was leaving the parking lot.
Rocha remains in custody without bail, and faces 27 to life when he is sentenced on October 27th.
I just hope he gets enough time that he’s not back out on the streets in a few years, thanks to the revolving door on ur state prison system.
………
Another mass casualty crash, this time in Australia, as a “vehicle” — evidently the 40-year old driver was not in control of it — plowed into five members of a Canberra bike club, resulting a scene a senior cop described as “beyond comprehension”.
Three riders were injured; one, a 32-year old woman, died at the scene, while a 39-year old man remains in critical and unstable condition. The other victim, a 34-year old man, was treated and released.
The victims were in the left lane of a four lane divided highway — the equivalent of our right lane — when they were struck by a driver traveling in the same direction, for some unknown reason.
Yet the driver still has not been charged or cited, for reasons known only to the local police.
………
I’m including the information from this email I got yesterday.
We’re launching Bike Streets in LA County! Log every ride with Bike Streets and help us build the Low-Stress Bike Map. Ride and help us reach our first weekly goal of 20 riders. bikestreets.com/join
Here’s the web link to the map: bikestreets.com/ca/los-angeles As we add Low-Stress routes, a network of dark blue lines will start to take shape. (See Denver’s as an example.)
Nope, nothing to see here. Half of drivers in the UK say they honk at bike riders at least once a week, and half of bike riders have experienced drivers shouting or swearing at them in the last year. Which is either an indictment of the country’s crappy bicyclists, or its impatient drivers. Or both.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro weighs in on LA’s mayoral race, saying Councilmember and mayoral challenger Nithya Raman was ridiculed for celebrating a new crosswalk in her district, even as the pavement beneath it remained cracked. So Shapiro evidently thinks the councilmember somehow controls the Bureau of Street Services, which is under the mayor’s purview. And that she was the one responsible for bankrupting the city, which halted street repair work.
That about sums it up. The Los Angeles Times says Orange County DA Todd Spitzer’s buyback program for illegal e-motos and hacked ebikes means the country is treating ebikes like guns. I don’t know if that means they are taking ebikes too seriously, or not taking guns seriously enough.
A 38-year old man in was arrested and charged with two counts of first degree homicide, along with a host of other charges, for the hit-and-run death of Savannah, Georgia’s “Flag Man,” who was known for riding around the city with a giant American flag attached to his bicycle; the charges suggest police believe the driver acted intentionally when he veered off the roadway to strike the victim on the center median.
British TV hosts were left flabbergasted when a man known as Britain’s “most hated cyclist” for his helmet cam videos of lawbreaking drivers, said the new 20 mph speed limits in Birmingham don’t apply to bicyclists, arguing that speed limits are for motorized vehicles. He may be right, depending on exactly how the law is written. Or not.
Tour de France champ Tadej Pogačar continue to dominate the Vuelta, padding his lead on a day when he barely survived a near-crash on a descent. Unless disaster strikes, the race is now a question of who else will be on the podium with him, rather than who will win.
I’ve been remiss in failing to remind you to stay safe during the current heat wave.
If possible, ride early or late, avoiding the peak afternoon hours when temperatures will be flirting with or surpassing the 100° mark, depending on where you are.
If you’re riding recreationally, try to stick to the coast, where temps will be significantly cooler, or try to ride shady streets when possible.
Stay hydrated. Drink more than you think you need, and stop frequently to cool off.
And use lots of sunscreen. You don’t want to end up with a face that looks like mine right now.
………
The Los Angeles city council took bold action to halt the spread of illegal e-motos and electric dirt bikes in the city on Tuesday.
The motion from Heather Hutt, John Lee and Traci Park instructs LADOT, LAPD, city attorneys, the Bureau of Street Services, LA Metro and the Bicycle Advisory Committee to report back in 90 days with suggestions on how to best regulate electric motorbikes on a number of issues — most of which are already covered by state law, or by bills up for a final vote in the state legislature this week.
The only topics that aren’t covered by current or pending state laws would require ebike education for anyone under 18 or without a valid driver’s license, and regulate storing and charging any type of two-wheeled electric vehicle to prevent hazardous waste and battery fires.
They could have asked the city attorney to draft an ordinance covering those two issues and voted on that, but that wouldn’t have given them a performative platform act like they’re doing something without actually doing anything.
And as we’ve seen in the past, those 90 day deadlines are extremely elastic, often stretching months or years past the promised due date.
So once again, hats off to the city council for taking the kind of bold, decisive non-action we’ve come to expect from them.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
The editor of the Putney News, in the eponymous jolly olde London neighborhood, says it’s time to talk about dangerous bicyclists, as the number of pedestrians killed or injured by bicyclists last year was up 71% over 2015 — although that was a total of just 234 in a country of 65 million people, with just two people killed. Yes, two. And yes, one is one too many, but that hardly seems like reason to panic.
………
Local
One letter writer in the LA Timesdefends bike lanes on Forest Lawn Drive, while others call for speed cams, speed bumps and sarcasm instead of lane reductions.
This is how Vision Zero is supposed to work. Seattle finished work on a new bike lane, just two months after a 76-year old woman was killed riding her bike there. Although it works even better if you build it before someone gets killed.
Most of the story is hidden behind a paywall, but a Republican writer for the conservative Washington Examiner says she used to think bike lanes were DEI projects, too, until she watched her father take his last breath after getting hit by the driver of an SUV on a notoriously dangerous South Carolina road. (Correction: I originally identified the writer as a man, although you would have thought the name Chrissy would have tipped me off.)
Four men face murder charges for lynching a falsely accused bike thief in Rio’s upscale Copacabana neighborhood; two security guards and two food delivery riders allegedly beat the victim to death after accusing him of stealing the bicycle, which he actually had borrowed from his sister.
An Edinburgh, Scotland writer issues a non-declaration of war on cars, which he says have already won, but instead takes apart the “car-centric society we accept as normal, confront(s) Edinburgh’s disgrace, its poverty, and show(s) that a cycling city, where the bike is how most people make most journeys, is the healthier, fairer alternative.” Well said.
Sad news to report, as a beloved member of the Los Angeles bicycling community has died.
Paul Bacca, better known by his street name DJ Chicken Leather, was active for years as a volunteer with Midnight Ridazz and Critical Mass, as well as the Bike Kitchen and Bike Oven co-ops.
But he was best known for his ever-present handheld camera, questioning riders, cops and city officials whenever and wherever a bike event took place.
Anytime bike riders were present, he was bound to be there, too, with a ready smile and effervescent personality, despite his own struggles.
I lost track of him in recent years, as I became less active in the bicycling community due to my own health issues. I don’t know what happened to him or how he died, or even how or where he was found.
And to be honest, I don’t think it really matters.
But it was always a joy to encounter him at CicLAvia or City Hall, even if that camera made you want to hide at times.
Rest in power, friend. All your struggles are over, and your demons behind you.
The nonprofit bike safety organization was founded by the parents of 17-year old US Cycling Team member Magnus White, who was killed by a driver who had been up all night drinking and getting high.
………
One of my pet peeves is lazy headline writers, like this one, who say that a bike rider was killed after a collision.
Which literally means the victim survived the crash, only to somehow be murdered afterwards.
You can say the victim died after the crash — like this headline — was killed as because of a crash, or was killed in the crash or by the driver. But you can’t say, as far too many writers do, that someone was killed after the crash, unless the driver got out and strangled them afterwards.
And yes, I know that’s just the English major in me coming out to enforce laws of grammar that I willfully break myself.
It shows kids on illegal e-motos and dirt bikes popping wheelies and swerving between lanes; there’s not a single actual Class 1, 2 or 3 ebike visible anywhere in the group.
But it does appear to show a driver illegally using a handheld cellphone behind the wheel.
………
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bike just keeps on going.
You’ve got to be kidding. A Florida man is asking a judge to dismiss charges against him for taking a boy’s cellphone away, asserting that the state’s Stand Your Ground law allowed him to defend himself and another man from a little kid who had been filming himself popping wheelies on an ebike.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
Orange County is considering a proposal to put scannable license plates on ebikes, which would require a change in state law, and also appears to lump all ebikes together — even though the problem comes from people riding illegal e-motorbikes and dirt bikes, which probably wouldn’t be licensed because they’re…wait for it…illegal.
That’s more like it. Seattle’s mayor signed an executive order to speed up the city’s Vision Zero program, including fixing an intersection where a bike rider was killed. That compares favorably to a certain SoCal metropolis, where the mayor cancels shovel-ready safety improvements, and doesn’t seem to know the city even has a Vision Zero program.
After living with topical chemo for a few weeks, I now have a gaping, pulpy hole in my right cheek, and virtually no skin left on the top half of my left ear; we’ll learn in a few weeks if that got rid of the skin cancer, or if I will still need surgery.
Seriously, wear sunscreen when you ride. Your future face will thank you.
Needless to say, many people sided with the driver, blaming bicyclists for simply riding on the busy highway, despite having no idea what had spurred the incident.
Never mind that the driver committed assault simply by getting out of his car to confront the rider, and again by trying to punch him.
Funny how people get upset about bicyclists riding the coastal highway on weekends, but have no problem with people clogging it with their cars, taking up far more space less efficiently.
The problem, according to Dr. James H. Stein, is that an unbiased funder would look at the premise, and immediately concluded that it is unlikely to hold up to scrutiny.
At its limit of roughly 450 feet, for a vehicle driving 55 mph, the device provides about 5-6 seconds of warning (less if they are driving faster). That is enough time to register an alert, but I do not think it meaningfully changes the decisions available to a cyclist. The options remain the same as seeing a vehicle in your rear view mirror or hearing it approach: hold your line, move right (even if that means moving off the road), or signal your presence by waving your arms. Those decisions are made as the car approaches, not from that far away. Earlier detection, in this context, adds information without adding options.
A radar also tells you nothing about a driver’s trajectory, or whether it will hit you or go around you. It only notifies you of the vehicle’s presence.
The problem is that the constant notifications may lead to divided attention and notification fatigue, as the rider’s focus is repeatedly diverted from the roadway to the screen and back again.
Furthermore, most of what can hurt a cyclist is in front of them: potholes, gravel, debris, pedestrians, other cyclists, and cars either parked or entering the roadway. Even before radar, I have seen cyclists become so absorbed in their cycling computer that they rode off the road, and others have hit parked cars in front of them because they were not paying close enough attention. And I can’t count the number of times riders I know forgot to charge their light (the one with safety evidence) but did remember to charge their radar device.
Stein says looking at the marketing materials is where his research training kicks in, telling “There are no data showing that radar, or even early detection, reduces crashes or injuries,” and “Showing that an intervention changes something we can measure is not the same as showing that it improves the outcome we actually care about.”
It’s worth taking a few moments to read the whole thing, and giving it some thought. And even learning something about supplemental oxygen and treating anemia in hospitalized patients, while you’re at it.
Because he brings up a perspective that you may have never considered.
I know I hadn’t.
………
Today’s common theme follows the pattern in recent weeks of ebikes of all stripes and the people who hate them.
Two bills advancing in the state legislature would set up a pilot program allowing San Mateo county to ban ebike use of any kind for kids under 12, and give local governments more authority to set speed limits on bike trails.
Additional ebike-related news, good and bad, includes —
South Pasadena will host a pair of community meetings next week to discuss Metro-funded makeovers of the Fremont Avenue corridor from Columbia Street to Alhambra Road, and the Huntington Drive corridor from Alhambra Road to Garfield Ave.
Evidently, Sacramento legislators support drunk drivers.
Or at least one does, anyway.
The Senate Appropriations Committee, led by Sen. Sabrina Cervantes, approved a hostile amendment that gutted a bill that would have required interlock devices for drivers convicted of DUI.
The bill, which has widespread support, would simply have brought the state in line with most other states, which already require the devices.
Cervantes, you might remember, was arrested for a DUI in Sacramento last year, but prosecutors chose not to press charges after a blood test found she had “no measurable amount of drugs or alcohol in her system.” (She later sued the Sacramento Police Department, arguing the arrest was discriminatory and in retaliation for her legislation restricting police data collection.)
Her sister, Riverside City Councilmember Clarissa Cervantes, has two DUI convictions.
More fallout from the crash that killed two members of the Milligan University cycling team, and injured seven others — nine casualties out of the eleven member team.
Matthew Graham alleges that his wife’s death, along with that of his unborn daughter Ophelia, resulted from the removal of bike lanes from Pershing Drive, endangering bicyclists and ultimately leading to the deadly crash.
The 87-year old driver hasn’t been charged, supporting the argument that the crash was caused by poor road design.
I have argued since the bike lanes were installed in 2017, then ripped out months later to appease angry pass-through motorists, that the city would ultimately be responsible for any future deaths that occurred there.
Now Los Angeles taxpayers will be on the hook for yet another costly settlement — one that could easily reach into eight figures, because the city knowingly created a situation that was less safe than it had been when the bike lanes were installed.
But there’s no amount that could make these needless deaths right.
………
This has nothing to do bikes, or anything else this site normally discusses.
Incumbent Mayor Karen Bass and challenger Nithya Raman debated in Sherman Oaks on Wednesday, with questioners seemingly dedicated to protecting established businesses and homeowners, and opposing increased housing allowed under SB 79. My main takes were 1) Bass doesn’t seem to know she’s been mayor for three years, when she could have gotten a lot done, but didn’t, and 2) LAist probably didn’t need to talk over Bass and Raman with a station ID every ten minutes, as if we all had no idea who or what we were listening to.
Orange County DA Todd Spitzer is hosting what may be the country’s first ebike buyback event, providing up to $1,000 in an effort to get illegal e-motos and hacked ebikes off the road; the first 75 people will also get two Angels baseball tickets. There’s probably no truth to the rumor that the next 75 people will have to take four Angels tickets. Thanks to Edward for the tip.
San Diego is one of the largest US cities without a bikeshare system, something local bicyclists want to change, seven years after the city’s DecoBike system went down the drain. But you’ll have to get past the Union-Tribune’s draconian paywall if you want to read it.
San Diego’s Bike the Bay rolls for the 19th year on Sunday, giving local riders their only opportunity to pedal across the city’s iconic San Diego-Coronado Bay Bridge. Although to be honest, the ferry is more fun, anyway.
Tragic news from New York, where a 51-year old father called his wife to say he was just minutes from their home; moments later a hit-and-run driver doing an estimated 100 mph ran a red light and slammed into him on his bicycle, no doubt killing him instantly. Have I mentioned lately that hit-and-run drivers one the lowest forms of human scum occupying the earth? I didn’t think so. And don’t get me started on excessive speeding.
The Guardiangoes riding up Norway’s Mjølkevegen, as bicyclists are discover “the road’s breathtaking panoramas of peaks and lakes, dotted with cozy inns.” Although you shouldn’t be allowed to ride it unless you can pronounce it.
Twenty-two-year old Welsh cyclist Josh Tarling will line up for the start of the Vuelta a España for his Netcompany-Ineos team, just one week after his 19-year old brother Finlay was killed when a van driver got onto the course at the Volta a Portugal last Friday.
The same thing that happened to Tarling nearly happened to Aussie cyclist Maeve Plouffe at the women’s Tour of Britain as she was trying to catch up to the peloton after a puncture, and was almost struck head-on by a driver in a roundabout when traffic was allowed back on the course before all the riders had cleared.
We’re launching Bike Streets in LA County! Log every ride with Bike Streets and help us build the Low-Stress Bike Map. Ride and help us reach our first weekly goal of 20 riders. 
