Judge dismisses bid to drop PCH murder counts; and felony hit-and-run charges in crash that injured CD5 staffer, killed dog

November 12, 2025 / / No comments
Day 316 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

I somehow neglected to wish a happy Veterans Day yesterday to all those who have served this county. So thank you all, from the bottom of my heart.

Photo by Sora Shimazaki from Pexels: 

………

Let’s start with the alleged Malibu mass murderer accused of using a weapon of mass destruction.

A car, in other words.

Because the judge handling the case against 24-year old Fraser Bohm in the deaths of four Pepperdine sorority sisters on PCH two year ago denied a defense motion to have the four felony murder charges dismissed.

LA County Superior Court Judge Thomas Rubinson ruled that Bohm knew, or should have known, that driving more than 100 mph “had a high degree of probability of causing death.”

Partly because Bohm had told police investigators after the crash that two of his friends had died in high-speed crashes.

Data from his car’s airbags showed he was doing 104 mph when he lost control of his BMW on the bend known locally as Dead Man’s Curve, crashing into three parked cars and slamming them into the four young women as they walked on the shoulder of the road.

Just four more victims of SoCal’s killer highway.

Rubinson also rejected Bohm’s defense that he was fleeing from a road raging driver, saying there was no evidence of a second car chasing him. Something that would have logically shown up on at least one of the many security cams along the celebrity-studded street.

According to the story from the Los Angeles Times, the murder charges were “based on the concept of implied malice, suggesting a conscious disregard for human life.”

The ruling means there’s enough evidence to proceed to trial on all four counts of murder and vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence.

………

Next up is news that two people have been charged in the hit-and-run that nearly killed Thao Tran, a staffer for CD5 Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky, and took the life of her corgi, Kobe.

Twentynine-year old Koreatown resident Ana Larasalguero turned herself into police hours after the 8:30 am crash on Sunday, October 5th, as Tran and her dog were crossing were crossing Eight Street at Cloverdale Ave.

Larasalguero was charged with felony counts of hit and run driving resulting in injury to another person, and cruelty to an animal. As was the passenger in her car, Josue Santiago, her longtime boyfriend, who allegedly switched places with Larasalguero and fled the scene after the crash.

The Beverly Press also reports that Tran is already back at work, despite her injuries.

Tran, who serves as Yaroslavsky’s business development deputy, was taken to a hospital after the collision with multiple fractures. Yaroslavsky’s spokesman Leo Daube said on Nov. 5 Tran has returned to work.

“Thao is recovering well from her physical injuries and is expected to make a full recovery. But this accident has undoubtedly changed her life forever,” Daube said. “She’s focused on healing and moving forward, and our office is supporting her in every way we can.”

As I’ve said before, my wife and I both know Tran and consider her a friend, and we loved Kobe, as did virtually everyone who met him.

My heart and prayers go out to her, while recognizing that her bones will heal long before her heart does.

But hopefully these charges are just the first step towards justice for them both. As long as the LA DA’s office doesn’t bargain them away.

………

I want to elevate this comment from Ohio Bike Lawyer Steve Magas, co-author with Bob Mionske of the groundbreaking book on the rights of bicyclists, Bicycling & the Law: Your Rights as a Cyclist. 

Magas was responding to yesterday’s criticism of a report on US bicycling deaths, which was so incoherent that a bunch of trained monkeys could probably have done a better job.

Sheesh. As a math guy who went to law school and who has studied crash/death numbers for some decades now this really drives me crazy. This looks like a law firm trolling for “bike” cases that took some random advice from a web site development firm that said “we’ll create some clever, catchy click bait for you…”

Yes, FL is the worst- I agree 100% with that assessment.

How do you assess “risk” or “danger” though?
FL is a “big” state but… if you look at the “rate” of fatal bike crashes… the number of deaths per, say 100,000 people, you get a better gauge of “safety”

NHTSA has published this data, based on FARS data, for years.
So if you open the most recent, 2023, data here https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/Publication/813739
you see that the 50 states are listed on page 10

FL had a total of almost 3,400 TOTAL traffic deaths and 234 BIKE deaths, which was 6.9% of all the traffic deaths… that’s a HIGH figure as the national average is 2.9%, which is UP from the 2.0% or so that was norm prior to 2009.

FL’s “rate” of Fatal Bicycle Crashes is also high – 1.03 deaths per 100,000 people.
That’s the WORST in the US, by far.

Because of smaller numbers of people it is “easier” for a smaller state to have a bad number in a bad year. Maine, for example, had 0 bike deaths in 2023. IF they suddenly had 2 their rate would be significant.

FL had 234 deaths with a total population of 22+M
Compare OH, which had 22 deaths with a population of 11.7M.
So Ohio has slightly more than half the population of FL but only 10% of the number of cycling deaths!
One could argue that OH is 10x “safer” or FL is 10x more “dangerous” than OH… or you are 10x more likely to be killed in FL than if you ride in OH

So yea, FL leads the league

Also, if you look at the Big 3 – FL, CA, TX – you see that 234+145+106 =485 deaths. These 3 states have 485/1166=0.416 or 42% of ALL US Cycling deaths.
BUT
When you look at RATES
FL – 1.03 per 100K
CA – 0.37 per 100K
TX – 0.35 per 100K
US Average is 0.35 people killed on bikes per 100K population so CA and TX are pretty much “average” compared other states but FL is WAY out of whack.

Ohio is, by contrast, well below the national average with a “rate” of 0.19

Steve Magas

This wouldn’t be the first time I’ve said that if you ever need a good bike lawyer in the Midwest, tell Magas I sent you.

And it probably won’t be the last.

………

Your periodic reminder that CicLAvia will be doing Stranger Things on Melrose Ave next weekend.

………

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

A British cycling coach says he was shocked at the hatred he encountered after posting video of a near-collateral damage crash, when a driver skidded out of control following a three-car crash, missing him and another rider by mere inches — yet somehow, some people still blamed them for it.

………

Local 

Streets For All issued their monthly newsletter for November, including a job opening for their state legislative team.

Survivors of the Eaton Fire can register for free lifetime Metro rides, including Metro Bike, from 10 am to 1 pm this Thursday at Pasadena’s Robinson Park Recreation Center. But if you have to work that day, evidently you’re screwed.

Long Beach broke ground on a new greenway along the LA River, featuring bike and pedestrian paths, as well as fitness and play equipment, and native plants.

 

State

Sad news from Fullerton, where 19-year old Lauren Turner, a member of the Cal State Fullerton women’s soccer team, died six weeks after she and a teammate suffered life-threatening injuries when a truck driver struck the e-scooter they were sharing. Although maybe someone could tell the OC Register that the box truck that hit them probably had a driver.

 

National

Seattle Bike Blog examines the state of the city’s divided bike movement. LA’s may not be divided, but our movement has turned to sludge.  

Tucson, Arizona opened the world’s first aluminum-surfaced velodrome.

A Wichita, Kansas teacher is closing in on her goal of riding 5,000 miles this year to raise funds to send members of the school’s HOSA club for future health professionals to the organization’s national convention and competition; she’s also lost 50 to 60 pounds in the process.

Bike advocates in Dallas are cautiously optimistic that it can become a more bikeable city.

Cycling Weekly considers what New York’s new bikeshare-riding mayor will mean for bicycling in the city, asking whether he can be the Gotham equivalent of Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo.

 

International

Momentum marks Remembrance Day, or Veterans Day as it’s known here, by recalling the military bicycle corps employed by both sides in WWI.

An Ontario appeals court ruled that a case with profound implications for cities throughout the province must get a hearing, with the potential for a ruling that counties and townships must maintain trails they know bike riders use, even if they aren’t designated for the purpose.

Officials in Edinburgh want to reclaim the city’s busiest bike path for a new tram line, despite the 600,000 trips that are made by foot, bike and wheelchair along the route each year.

A Lancashire, England school welcomed back their beloved “lollipop lady” — which is apparently what they call a crossing guard over there — after she missed more than five weeks with a broken elbow suffered when the gears on her bicycle froze up.

A British advocacy group is calling for the country to reduce the current standard width for traffic lanes, arguing that it’s too narrow to allow the required 1.5 meter passing distance — just under five feet — and that narrowing lanes would force drivers to change lanes to pass someone on a bicycle.

The Florence suburb of Scandicci becomes the first Italian city to improve security by rolling out shared neighborhood bike lockers.

A man from Nepal is currently in Qatar on a bike ride from Mount Everest to Antarctica to spread awareness and call for action on climate change.

A decade-long Japanese study shows that bicycling can play a key role in extending health and life expectancy among older adults. Which is probably why my diabetes hasn’t killed me yet. 

 

Competitive Cycling

Cycling Weekly argues that the island roads on my ancestral home punch well above their weight when it comes to churning out pro cyclists — including the famed Manx Missile. I can proudly claim that my great-great-grandfather went to prison for his role in the biggest bank failure in the British Isles prior to the Great Depression.

Cyclist asks the burning questions on everyone’s lips leading to next year’s pro cycling season.

The Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe WorldTour cycling team is training in an underground tunnel to get faster.

 

Finally…

Learning the hard way that flats ain’t passé. Forget lithium-ion, your next ebike could have a semi-solid-state battery.

And it’s long past time to add the Kentucky Bourbon Trail to your bike bucket list.

Okay, mine then.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Report on bike deaths appears prepared by trained monkeys, and more details on road rage stabbing of Sausalito bike rider

November 11, 2025 / / One comment
Day 315 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

Maybe someone can make sense of this.

Because I sure as hell can’t.

A new report on bicycling deaths from a legal group professes to list the safest and most dangerous states for people riding bicycles.

According to the report, Florida is the most dangerous state in the US, with a whopping 234 people killed riding bicycles in 2024, up from 222 in 2023. California ranks second with 145, which would be a significant drop from 177 the year before.

Although they note that the 2024 figures are based on their own analysis, since official states aren’t yet available.

However, the report seems to misplace the Golden State, however, calling California “a close neighbor of Florida,” as if it had somehow switched places with Alabama or Cuba. It only makes sense in the context of the state’s ranking one and two, even though Florida had 89 more deaths, which doesn’t seem close at all.

The rankings are also based on sheer number of deaths, without taking population into account. On a per capita basis, California had roughly one bicycling fatality per 274,000 people, while Florida had one death per 98,000.

So which of these is not like the other?

Then there is this bizarre chart, which bears no correlation to the actual rankings, placing California 4th, and Florida 8th.

 

It also lists Washington State “1th,” Massachusetts “2th.” and Oregon “3th.” And no, that’s not a typo.

Or at least, not mine.

Apparently, that what you get when you let AI do the work for you. Or farm it out to the lowest bidder in some non-English speaking country.

Or maybe just leave all the work to a bunch of trained monkeys.

But at least that’s better than the report on that report published by The US Sun, which offered this mind-boggling set of stats.

The report also showed that cyclist fatalities have increased significantly since 2015, starting at just over 20,000 a decade ago and now amounting to roughly 28,000 in 2024.

Which is about 25 times the estimated total of 1,109 bike deaths in the US last year, and 24 times the total for 2015.

At least that appears to stem from some staffer incapable of reading a badly drawn chart from the lawyers group report that conflates total US traffic death with bicycling fatalities.

But at least The US Sun ends their story about bicycling deaths with these helpful safety tips.

No, really.

………

More details are starting to come out about the Bay Area bike rider who was stabbed by a Tesla driver near Sausalito, in the shadow of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Velo reports the incident appears to be the result of a road rage dispute that began on a narrow road with poor sight-lines, and a history of being unsafe for cyclists. The stabbing itself appears to have occurred just as the roadway widens to make room for a dedicated bike lane.

Both parties were taken into custody once police arrived, with the bike rider taken to a hospital where he is reportedly in stable condition.

There’s no word on who started the dispute, or who was the aggressor. But there’s no question who was the victim.

………

BikeLA, formerly known as the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, is hosting their happy hour fundraiser this Saturday, rain or otherwise.

Rain or shine — BikeFest 2025 is on!

We’re celebrating this Saturday, November 15, from 12–3 p.m. at Highland Park Brewery – just a hop, skip, and roll from the Chinatown Metro Station. A little light rain might join the fun, so come prepared with a jacket and your best bike spirit.

Join us for this Pedal-Powered Party and enjoy:
  • Free bike valet
  • One beer or non-alcoholic drink
  • A commemorative BikeLA bandana
  • ️ Our largest-ever bike-themed silent auction, featuring gear from Spurcycle, Patagonia, Yakima, Tern, Road Runner Bags, ABUS, Kryptonite, and more – the auction is live now, so you can start bidding today!

Come celebrate with us and help support BikeLA’s mission to make L.A. a safer, more connected place to ride.

Get Your Tickets Here

………

Streets For All is hosting a mobility debate for Los Angeles Council District 1 next month, including incumbent Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez.

………

Holiday gift guides for your favorite bike rider are starting to roll out, with new guides from Bike Rumor and Cyclist. Even if your favorite bike rider is you.

………

Local 

Damn good question. A San Francisco website examines how the planned completion of LA River bike path through DTLA ended up in bureaucratic hell.

 

State

Once again, an AirTag hidden in an ebike led to the arrest of an Orange County bike thief, after Huntington Beach cops tracked a surfer’s missing bike to Anaheim.

Sad news from Tulare County, where someone riding a bicycle was killed in a collision with the driver of a milk truck; the victim was reportedly riding on the centerline when the milk truck approached from behind, and the driver veered off the road to avoid a crash, just as the bike rider inexplicably veered right, and struck the truck. No, it doesn’t make any sense to me, either. As always, the question is whether there were any witnesses who survived the crash, other than the driver. 

Over 60 people rode their bikes across the Richmond-San Rafael bridge on Sunday to celebrate the sixth anniversary of bikes being allowed on the bridge, though the mood was darkened by the recent loss of the bike lane across the bridge on weekdays.

 

National

Bike Magazine provides a tutorial on how Trump’s tariffs are affecting mountain biking, and what it all means for bikes, frames and parts.

The New York Times examines how the Sierra Club entered a doom spiral by embracing social justice at the expense of its core environmental mission, leaving it in a weakened position to combat changes under Trump.

Once again, bike riders were heroes, as a Seattle search and rescue team rode ped-assist ebikes to save a hiker in distress on a local peak as night fell and temperatures dropped.

Popular Seattle ebike maker Rad Power Bikes is reportedly circling the drain, as the company battles “significant financial challenges,” and could shut down operations within the next two to three months.

A sightless man rode in the 43rd-annual LoToJa bike race, completing the 200 mile race from Logan to Jackson Hole, Wyoming riding a tandem.

A 46-year old Illinois man was critically injured when a nine-year old boy darted out from between two cars, and into the path of the man’s ebike; fortunately, the kid escaped with just minor injuries.

Kindhearted Ohio cops gave a new bicycle to a ten-year old boy after the one he had worked all summer to buy was stolen.

A New Jersey judge ruled that prosecutors can use a statement from Sean Higgins, the driver accused of the drunken killing of the hockey-playing Gaudreau brothers as they rode their bicycles last year, admitting that he tossed the empty beer cans he’d been drinking from into a cornfield before investigators arrived.

A kindhearted Louisiana lawyer is planning to give away 600 bicycles and helmets to kids across the state before the holidays, in his 10th annual bicycle donation program.

They get it. Fox News reports that a 15-year old Florida boy faces felony charges after leading police on a dangerous chase while riding an electric dirt bike, weaving through traffic at speeds up to 70 mph. But at least they made clear it was not a ped-assist ebike.

 

International

Momentum recommends seven cities around the world where biking is the “coolest” way to explore them. None of which are Los Angeles, of course. Or even in the US. 

Cleveland police vetoed plans for a new bike path through a field, arguing that it would exacerbate a problem with drug runners who cut through while riding off-road motorbikes. No, the one in England.

An Aussie writer explores the “five countries” of the British Isles by bicycle. Even though Northern Ireland isn’t technically a country.

An Irish newspaper remembers a doctor who dedicated his life to caring for the Tarauacan people of Brazil while riding a folding bicycle he brought with him from Ireland; he was 89.

A Spanish website says Malaga, Spain may seem like a bicyclist’s paradise to tourists biking along the sun-drenched coast, but a lack of safe bike lanes make riding impractical for many residents.

 

Competitive Cycling

A 24-year old British cyclist says it hasn’t sunk in yet that he’s a world champion, after winning the UCI Urban Cycling World Championships in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. And no, I didn’t know that was a thing, either.

Speaking of UCI, bike racing’s governing body is actively monitoring suspicious betting activity across gambling platforms in an effort to prevent corruption or race fixing, which has recently affected basketball and baseball.

 

Finally…

Your purloined bicycle could be stripped and turned into a makeshift shotgun. When you’re illegally packing a pistol on your ebike, don’t ride on the damn sidewalk (although you’ll have to find a way around the paper’s paywall to read it).

And don’t ride your electric motorbike through a Rancho Cucamonga mall.

Or any mall, for that matter.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Haralson murder trial delayed again, how to succeed in Hollywood without a car, and a Florida weapon of mass destruction

November 10, 2025 / / No comments
Day 314 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

No surprise here.

An update from Edward indicates that the trial of 37-year old LA resident Zachary Thomas Haralson for the — alleged — drug-induced murder of 72-year old bike rider Jeff Rosenthal in Laguna Hills has been postponed yet again.

The new date for the trial, which was supposed to begin last week, is February 20, 2026, nearly three-and-a-half years after he took the life of an innocent man.

So mark your calendar.

………

The Hollywood Reporter reports that it is in fact possible to succeed in the industry without a motor vehicle.

Among the carless industry insiders featured,

One of them is Bill Wolkoff, a writer and producer who recently worked on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and The Man Who Fell to Earth. Wolkoff began commuting by bike nearly two decades ago after his car broke down. At the time, he was a script coordinator — not a job known for its remuneration — and couldn’t afford to buy a new car. He could, however, buy a new bike. Nearly 20 years later, he’s still biking to work from his home in Mount Washington.

Also featured is Tom Smuts of Mad Men and Bosch fame, who we mentioned here leading his bike tours to the Emmys in years past.

Some industry workers find that going car-less can have its professional perks. Mad Men and Bosch writer-producer Tom Smuts made headlines in the mid-2010s when he led bike rides from Santa Monica to downtown for the Emmys. Today, when he has a job in the L.A. basin, he still bikes to work one to a few times a week. (He also likes to ride his motorcycle.) “I have medium ADHD, and I find it’s really hard for me to sit and work,” says Smuts. “So I often write by either hiking or biking and just recording my thoughts.”

Then there’s this from Adam Conover, of Adam Ruins Everything and The G Word With Adam Conover.

“The idea that we don’t have public transit here is a myth, and the fact that people repeat it is bad for the city because it means we don’t invest enough in transit,” he says.

Yep.

………

This is who we share the road with.

A police pursuit of an alleged street racing reckless driver wasn’t wreck-less. Or deathless.

A 22-year old Tampa, Florida driver is under arrest after losing control of his car and slamming into a crowded gay bar while fleeing from police, killing four people and injuring another 13, while leaving some with life-threatening injuries.

Just one more example of a car becoming a weapon of mass destruction in the wrong hands. And innocent people dying as a result a police chase.

My apologies to whoever sent this to me. Your email seems to have disappeared off my laptop, out of the cloud and off the surface of the earth after I clicked on the link, despite all my attempts to retrieve it. 

So please accept my anonymous thanks, and I’ll be happy to credit you if you want to email me again. 

………

Whoa.

A pair of British bicyclists, including including record-breaking time triallist George Fox, barely avoided becoming roadkill when a driver lost control on a slight bend, skidding sideways down the road at high speed and missing them by mere inches — and only because they had just moved to single file to let a van pass.

………

They get it.

A Christian organization in Tampa, Florida is closing in on their 3,000 bicycle donation as it enters the holiday season.

According to a press release release from Bikes For Christ,

A simple gift of a bicycle can be life-changing — enabling a low-income parent to travel to work, attend parenting classes, or visit a doctor. For children, it can mean a safe way to commute to school, attend tutoring sessions, or reach their first job.

That about sums it up.

And something tells me that if Jesus were to come back today, he’d be more likely to be on a bicycle than riding around in back of a bigass black limo.

……….

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

A Tesla driver stabbed a bike-riding man multiple times following some sort of confrontation in a Marin Headlands parking lot, overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge; the victim was reportedly conscious, breathing and stable, but both the victim and the alleged stabber were detained by park police.

A man in Odesa, Ukraine suffered serious injuries when he was pushed off his bicycle by one of two men who had just gotten out of a van, suffering multiple multiple broken ribs, as well as a broken shoulder blade, femur, bruised lung and pneumothorax; the attacker, who has been arrested, was reportedly a member of a military recruitment unit.

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

Former Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond argues that it’s your obligation to keep yourself safe on the streets, and not everyone else’s job to avoid crashing into you if you do careless stuff on your bicycle.

………

Local 

The latest edition of Bike Talk covers a wide range of topics, from systemic reform to a book about 1885 world bicycle circumnavigator Annie Londonderry banned from the Pentagon for violating Trump’s DEI policies, apparently for the crime of being a Jewish woman.

Streetsblog catches up on new bike lane projects on Sunset Blvd, Ohio Ave and in South Whittier.

Urbanize looks at the Ohio Ave protected bike lane project, as well as yet another effort to put protected bike lanes on Westwood Blvd.

Sunset Magazine says Malibu is “bouncing back stronger and dreamier than ever” now that PCH has reopened. Although notably, walking or riding a bicycle along PCH is not one of the activities they recommend.

 

State

Calbike calls for permanent funding for ebike vouchers, in the wake of the cancellation of California’s voucher program.

No bias here. A San Diego TV station says Encinitas residents are divided on “upgrades” to Santa Fe Drive, which most safety advocates would consider significant downgrades.

San Diego Union-Tribune subsidiary La Jolla Light continues its so-far four-part series on ebikes, this time talking with teen riders who admit some kids do “stupid stuff” — like yelling racial and sexual slurs while flipping people off. But the paper continues to conflate ped-assist ebikes with often-illegal electric motorbikes and dirt bikes. 

It only took 14 years, but the 40-mile CV Link bike trail circling most of the Coachella Valley is finally as finished as it’s going to get, with a grand opening in Palm Springs on Friday, although Rancho Mirage and Indian Wells opted out of the trail, leaving significant gaps. However, you’ll have to find a way around the Desert Sun’s paywall if you want to read the second link.

Mountain View is cancelling plans for a bike and pedestrian bridge over Highway 101, after concluding that commuting patterns and office market conditions have changed since the pandemic.

 

National

Nike is introducing a new “mind-altering” sensory shoe platform designed to “reawaken the foot, the body, and the mind,” that could result in incremental performance gains from new bike shoes.

She gets it. A Missoula, Montana woman argues that a new downtown street improvement project will improve safety for pedestrians and drivers, but it’s lacking quality bicycle infrastructure, or any at all, in some areas.

A San Antonio bike rider was hospitalized after he was sideswiped by a hit-and-run city bus driver; no word on how seriously he was injured, but at least he was able to call the cops to report it.

A podcast from a Houston public radio station discusses the evolution of bicycles and personal freedom.

This is how you make Vision Zero work. Kansas City has responded to the death of a nine-year old girl riding her bike to school by banning right turns on red lights during school hours. Although a better step would be to ban right on red, period. And someone please tell the city’s public radio station it wasn’t a car that killed the little girl, it was someone driving one. 

This is the cost of traffic violence. A doctor specializing in spinal cord injuries is in a coma after he was run down by a hit-and-run driver while on his usual bike commute from a Chicago hospital.

A bike rider was critically injured in a New Jersey collision where the combined ages of the victim and driver was 179 years; the victim was a mere youth of 80, which raises the question of what the hell was a 99-year old woman doing behind the wheel.

 

International

The Manual revives a study from last year to explore whether bicyclists can benefit from strength training, concluding exactly what you’d think it would.

Brujula Bike compares and contrasts the differences between a 3,000 euro and 10,000 euro bicycle — roughly $3,500 to $11,500.

Cycling Weekly says bicyclists aren’t considered a nuisance in Colombia, saying the country is a superb, if far flung cycling destination with plenty of big climbs.

Derby, England-based bikemaker Mercian Cycles is back from the dead after being rescued from bankruptcy by local businessmen, celebrating the company’s 80th anniversary with their first new bike model in 20 years.

A 19-year old London woman was knocked cold and suffered facial injuries and broken teeth when the Lime ebike she was riding suddenly malfunctioned and stopped without warning, throwing her over the handlebars.

Bicyclists are celebrating a new segregated bike lane linking three cities in southern England, which could eventually extend to 26 miles.

A travel website says the Netherlands is joining Germany, Japan, Argentina, and Chile in defining the future of sustainable tourism, with bicycling routes designed to get the attention of American tourists. Proving that we Yanks are still welcome somewhere. 

The war in Ukraine claimed a civilian man riding a bicycle, who was a victim of a Russian drone attack in Kostiantynivka. 

 

Competitive Cycling

Cycling News introduces the full 20-man roster of George Hincapie’s new Modern Adventure Pro Cycling team, including 12 Americans, which will debut as a UCI ProTeam, a step or two below the WorldTour.

Velo says pro cycling has never faced a transfer market this bad following the collapse and mergers of multiple teams, leaving 60 to 70 pro cyclists competing for eight to ten remaining slots; 36-year old Italian cyclist Davide Cimolai considers a life after racing, after failing to keep his contract with Movistar.

Former Tour de France champ Sir Bradley Wiggins is headed to one of America’s leading trauma rehabilitation clinics to deal with his addiction, mental health and financial problems since retiring as a pro, with seven-time ex-Tour de France champ Lance Armstrong kindly picking up the entire tab. Although British tabloids are only interested in the American influencer Wiggins is dating.

Premier Tech has pulled their support from the bike team previously known as Israel Premier Tech, citing the firm’s “untenable position” following pro-Palestinian protests at the Vuelta and other races, despite the team dropping “Israel” from its name.

 

Finally…

Get your Czechs on Route 66. After 130 years, it’s safe to say bicycles are probably here to stay.

And Google AI gets me. I mean, they really get me.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Bike lanes slowing fire trucks is an urban myth, celebrate SciFi author Octavia Butler tomorrow & give Egan his damn bike back

November 7, 2025 / / No comments
Day 311 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

It was a quiet bike news day yesterday, so let’s get right to it.

Today’s photo: If they can drive an ambulance on the old beach bike path pre-widening, they can drive a fire truck on or near a bike lane. 

……….

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

No bias here. Firefighters in San Antonio, Texas apparently haven’t gotten the memo, trotting out the persistent urban myth that a proposed road diet and two-way cycle track will slow down their trucks and response times, even though that hasn’t happened in other cities. And those bigass trucks with their massive tires could just drive over the little plastic posts they’ll probably use to separate the bike lanes from the traffic lanes, anyway.

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

A Singaporean driver was shocked and appalled to see a pair of teens drafting a semi on a bicycle and an ebike without the “proper gear,” as if a few ounces of plastic and foam would somehow offer protection if they went under a multi-ton tractor trailer. Look, we’ve all seen that scene from Breaking Away, but seriously, it’s not a good idea, with or without a helmet. 

………

Local 

Say you’re old without saying you’re old. Former LA City Councilmember Dennis Zine reminisces about “even” riding his bike on city streets delivering the Los Angeles Herald Express and Herald Examiner.

Don’t miss the Octavia’s Pasadena Bike Ride tomorrow, as the Rose City celebrates Pasadena native and noted SciFi author Octavia E. Butler.

 

State

Encinitas is getting rid of back-in parking, widening lanes and ripping out one of the separated bike lanes on Santa Fe Drive, after drivers couldn’t figure out how to manage them.

A 55-year old man was hospitalized with a compound fracture of his tibia/fibula and a fractured femur after he was struck by a driver while riding his bicycle in Pacific Beach Wednesday night; police said he continued straight at an intersection instead of making the required right turn, riding into the path of a driver on the cross street.

The people of Fallbrook have raised more than $1,000 to replace a 34-year old disabled man’s ebike, after he was the victim of a hit-and-run driver who destroyed his bike.

A Santa Cruz man learned he had multiple myeloma, a difficult to treat form of blood cancer, after suffering an apparent rib fracture on a marathon bike ride; 14-years later, he’s back to riding his bike after a being in remission for three years thanks to a cutting edge therapy.

 

National

Bike Magazine recommends their picks for the year’s best bike computers. Although the best bike computer is the one you’ve already got — after you throw it as far as you can so you can just enjoy riding without one. 

Talk about not getting it. A Newton, Massachusetts resident and self-described bike rider complains that new raised bike lanes around a sharp curve make the road more dangerous, because it narrows the roadway on a dangerous corner. Except that forces drivers to slow down, which is kinda the point. 

The kindhearted folks at a sporting goods store in a tiny town in central New York State have given away 7,000 bicycles to kids in need so far this year, just a fraction of the 23,000 bikes they’ve donated since beginning the program.

The bike bus movement has taken over Montclair, New Jersey, with hundreds of kids riding their bikes to school every day.

Drivers who block bike lanes in Montgomery County, Maryland could now be subject to a whopping $60 fine. In other words, a gentle slap in the wallet, if not on the wrist. 

 

International

You’ve got to be kidding. An English man claims he had no idea he struck and killed a man riding a bicycle as he was backing up across the roadway to make a U-turn, insisting he thought he hit a stick — even though he never bothered to stop to see what shattered his rear window before driving away. You know, like any normal person would. 

He gets it now, anyway. A UK Member of Parliament accepted a challenge from local bicyclists to ride a “terrifying” stretch of roadway, so he could understand the need for a new greenway. And he did.

Britpop singer Ed Sheeran is one of us, describing how he crashed a borrowed bicycle while riding down a steep hill, then continued riding to a pub — only to wake up in pain the next morning with a broken rib, elbow and wrist.

Life is cheap in Singapore, where a truck driver got eight months behind bars after pleading guilty to driving without due care and attention for killing a woman who was riding an ebike in a crosswalk, after blaming the victim for not looking for traffic first, before crossing. But at least he lost his driver’s license for eight years.

 

Competitive Cycling

Someone stole the yellow Pinarello bicycle Colombian cyclist Egan Bernal rode on the final stage when he won the 2019 Tour de France.

A bike shop owned by the family of Chilean mountain biking star Martín Vidaurre was also the victim of thieves, who stole bicycles worth the equivalent of $103,000.

If you want to win friends and influence people, don’t suggest privatizing Alpe d’Huez and selling tickets to watch the Tour de France.

 

Finally…

Your new ebike could look like, well, a bike. Well, who wouldn’t ride a bicycle if you’re hunting vampires?

And more proof Mathieu van der Poel is a wheelie good cyclist.

Sorry.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , ,

Malibu approves watered-down PCH plan, cougar stalks OC mountain bikers, and Calbike fights back on CA ebike incentives

November 6, 2025 / / One comment
Day 310 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

We won.

More or less, anyway.

Less than a week after we joined with other organizations in an urgent call for support — although this is only an organization if you count the corgi — the Malibu Planning Commission voted 4 – 1 to approve desperately needed safety improvements on PCH.

Although there were changes that watered down the project to get commissioners on board.

According to public media site LAist,

  • Caltrans decreased the number of new streetlights from 42 to 27.
  • City planning staff will inspect and ensure the lights are compliant with the city’s Dark Sky Ordinance.
  • Caltrans reduced the total length of new or upgraded bike lanes from 15 to 10 miles.
  • Caltrans must engage with first responders and Pepperdine University about a sidewalk it plans to build between John Tyler Road and Malibu Canyon Road to clear any concerns over emergency access to campus.

Notice that the bike lanes have been cut by a third. So apparently, the goal is now to only cull a few people on Malibu’s share of SoCal’s killer highway, instead of actually eliminating traffic deaths, or anything.

Approval of the project was needed this month, or Caltrans would have shifted funding for the $73 million project somewhere else, likely never to return.

Although LAist makes clear that some aggrieved person could still try to throw a wrench in the works. And there’s no shortage of aggrieved people in the ‘Bu.

Appeals timeline starts: According to the city, an “aggrieved person” has 10 days after approval to file an appeal of a Coastal Development Permit, like the one the commission extended to the Caltrans project. If the project is appealed, the matter will go before Malibu’s City Council.

Meanwhile, the Malibu City Council unanimously approved an additional $1.6 million for “enhanced safety measures” along PCH, including innovative speed detection technology and infrastructure for speed cams.

………

We may have to deal with feral SoCal drivers, but at least we don’t have to worry about aggressive mountain lions.

Usually.

Two Orange County mountain bikers ran into one on Sunday, which followed them down the trail as they tried to back away.

They were riding on a trail in Whiting Ranch in Lake Forest on Sunday afternoon when they recorded the big cat walking slowly down after them. Which is not a good sign, since they usually try to avoid people.

Adding to the concern, this is the same area where 35-year old Mark Reynolds was killed by a cougar back in 2004, apparently as he was fixing his bike.

The mountain bikers tried using their bikes to shield them from the big cat and yelling to frighten it off.

You can see from the video how well that worked.

Growing up in Colorado, where cougar encounters are far more common, we were taught to make yourself look as big as possible while maintaining eye contract and yelling while you slowly move away. Holding your bike or backpack up to make yourself appear larger could help.

But whatever you do, don’t run. Because that can trigger an attack response.

Experts say the young cat was probably just curious, rather than hungry. But just be careful and keep your eyes open if you’re riding in the area.

Or better yet, maybe ride somewhere else for the next few weeks.

………

It looks like Calbike is finally starting to fight back over the ill-conceived cancellation of the California Ebike Incentive Program, calling on followers to write their representatives.

Although the better time to send out this email would have been when their executive director first found out about it in mid-October, rather than weeks later.

The state’s response to a wildly popular e-bike program? Cancel it and put the money towards cars. 

CARB just pulled the plug on the E-Bike Incentive Project, folding what’s left of the funding into Clean Cars 4 All, a car trade-in program. Instead of helping people replace car trips, the state is rewarding people who already own one. It’s a telling political moment that mistakes “cleaner cars” for real progress.

This isn’t what climate leadership looks like. Over one hundred thousand Californians lined up for a modest voucher that would help them drive less, save money, and move freely. Ending that opportunity now ignores that clear demand and walks back hard-won progress.

Send a message now

Our state leaders can’t afford to shrug this off.  It’s time to create a permanent fund for e-bikes — a real mobility solution, not another subsidy for car dependence. Contact your reps now.

………

Streets For All is calling on Metro to spend just a tiny fraction of the $600 million it spends building freeways to fully fund CicLAvia.

Tell Metro to fully fund CicLAvia

Metro’s Planning and Programming Committee is currently reviewing Open Streets applications for Cycles 6 & 7 (2026 – 2028), but their own guidelines“include funding only for open and slow streets aligned with the major events 2026 and 2028,” leaving little or no support for local community Open Streets events in between.

CicLAvia is Los Angeles County’s largest recurring Open Streets program, drawing an average of 50,000 participants per event. These events transform city streets into safe, car-free spaces that promote public health, community connection, and environmental benefits:

  • Nearly 50% of first-time attendees said they would have otherwise stayed home or been sedentary.
  • A Preventive Medicine study found CicLAvia delivers measurable public-health benefits.
  • Harmful air pollution (PM 2.5) drops by almost 50% along the route on event days, and by 12% in surrounding neighborhoods.

Yet while event costs continue to rise, Metro’s Open Streets funding has not kept pace. Concentrating funds only around major international events undermines proven, community-based programs that already advance Metro’s mission of improving mobility, public health, and sustainability. Metro invests more than $600 million annually in freeway projects. We urge the agency to fully fund monthly CicLAvias, modest investments with outsized returns for public health, clean air, and community well-being.

TELL METRO TO FUND CICLAVIA [CUSTOMIZE THE BOTTOM]

………

Funny how bike lanes are always the problem when it’s the cars that are getting bigger.

Yeah, it's the bike lane that takes up too much space 🤦‍♂️

— OB Cycler (@obcycler.bsky.social) 2025-11-04T22:35:00.785Z

……….

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

Bike lane haters keep losing at the ballot box in Massachusetts, despite misleading comments that bike lanes cause traffic congestion. Hint: It’s actually too many cars.

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

Apparently, a mass World Naked Bike Ride is okay, but riding naked by yourself along a New Zealand waterfront isn’t. Although most of the story is hidden behind a damn paywall, unfortunately.

………

Local 

No news is good news, right?

 

State

Orange County cities are playing catch-up to the massive boom in ebike popularity. Although once again, most of the problems come from people on often-illegal electric motorbikes, rather than ped-assist bicycles.

With a form of Doublespeak that would make Orwell proud, Encinitas is considering removing safety features on Santa Fe Drive to improve safety.

Sad news from Bakersfield, where a 32-year old man was killed by a driver while riding his bike

Healdsburg’s BiblioBike mobile bicycle library was honored by a national group for Excellence in Book Bike Outreach Programming.

 

National

A 69-year old Las Vegas man faces charges after he told police he killed a 77-year old man riding a bicycle after using marijuana and drinking an “unknown quantity of beers” before the crash; officers described him as “belligerently impaired” after the crash, and before he was taken away in an ambulance.

Voters in my bike-friendly Colorado hometown lived up to their reputation, approving plans to replace the former college football stadium with a shiny new bike park. And yes, that was the same stadium where I used to smuggle bourbon and rum inside my Sousaphone for the marching band.

Bike lanes on a busy Jacksonville, Florida street have gotten a new coat of green paint, although at least some bicyclists say it’s not enough to keep cars out and improve safety.

 

International

Momentum says London, New York and Paris rank at the top of the newest list of the world’s best cities — in that order — and what they have is common is they all put people first.

They get it. An English town is planning to spend the equivalent of $654,000 to upgrade the city’s main separated bike lane to keep delivery drivers from bypassing the widely spaced car-tickler plastic posts to park in it.

In the US, people have protested competitions that allow trans women to compete, but in the UK, several women turned down nominations to Cycling UK’s annual 100 Women in Cycling award because it excluded trans women and non-binary people from consideration.

You can add bikepacking along the Rhine River from the Swiss Alps to the North Sea to your bike bucket list, taking you from “Swiss mountain air to German castles, French Alsace flavors and Dutch windmills.”

Hundreds of people are expected to turn out next month with their bicycles festooned in twinkling lights and creative decorations for The Hague’s fifth annual Haagse Fietslichtjesparade.

 

Competitive Cycling

Good news for LA cycling fans, because multi-time former national champ Justin Williams is getting the band back together, reforming the L39ION of Los Angeles Continental-level cycling team with his brother Cory; the team dominated elite US racing until it was disbanded a few years ago.

Belgian pro Wout van Aert says it feels “pretty weird” to have a fanbase in the US, as he visits Laguna Beach. As if American cycling fans somehow don’t appreciate greatness. 

 

Finally…

The manifold joys of drinking out of a garden hose on an ultra-endurance ride.

And a bet’s a bet.

Although it would have been nice to see Karen Bass on that bikeshare bike. Even if, as Steven put it in an email to me, Bass “would have had a prepared, pothole free, debris free, inconvenience free, (What? Stop at red lights????) route with a large security entourage.”

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Better bikeability in Whittier and Pomona, Utah puts 95% of residents near paved paths, and bike lanes reduce near-misses

November 5, 2025 / / No comments
Day 309 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

If you’re reading this, it means I managed to finish today’s post, despite spending all day dealing with a broken pipe under the bathroom sink, which dumped 50 years worth of accumulated inky goo over everything in the cabinet beneath it. 

Good times. 

It also means the icky gunk probably wasn’t toxic.

And if you’re not reading it, why the hell am I writing this?

………

It looks like things are getting better in the far reaches of Los Angeles County.

First up is a press release from County Supervisor Janice Hahn, touting the approval of an 8.4-mile, $27 million Complete Streets project in South Whittier, expected to be finished just in time for the ’28 Olympics.

Los Angeles, CA – Today, the LA County Board of Supervisors voted to approve the South Whittier Community Bikeway Access Improvements project, which will bring a total of 8.4 miles of bike lanes as well as street improvements to unincorporated South Whittier, with sections adjoining the cities of Santa Fe Springs and La Mirada. The project will bring bike lanes to within one mile of the Metrolink’s Norwalk/Santa Fe Springs Station.

“We are not only adding bike lanes—we are repairing and expanding sidewalks for pedestrians, adding trees, and improving signage to make our community safer and more accessible for everyone. This project is a major investment in a better quality of life for South Whittier and its neighbors,” said Supervisor Hahn, whose district includes the area. “I’m proud that we’re now a big step closer to making this vision a reality.”

Current view and rendering of improvements to Leffingwell Rd.

The South Whittier Community Bikeway Access Improvements project will install 4.6 miles of Class II bike lanes and 3.8 miles of Class III bike routes, without loss of travel lanes or parking. Additionally, the project will provide pavement resurfacing, installing wayfinding signage, construction of bulb-outs, reconstruction of curbs and gutters, sidewalks, and curb ramps, landscaping medians, removal and replanting of trees, replacing streetlights, and upgrading traffic signals with pedestrian push buttons with audio and vibration devices.

Work is expected to begin next July and be completed by January 2028, with an estimated total cost of $27 million. Funding sources include County road funds, Metro grants, as well as federal funds. Additionally, the City of La Mirada will contribute $67,000 and the City of Santa Fe Springs another $18,000.

Next comes this item from Streetsblog’s Joe Linton, who observes that Pomona is becoming bike friendly, “going above and beyond the basic minimums for safer streets, including bikeability, walkability, accessibility, and transit improvements.”

In the last half-dozen years, the city of Pomona has stepped up efforts toward safer, more multimodal streets. As new light rail arrives, the city is working to calm traffic, and to improve bikeability, walkability, and accessibility.

With about 150,000 residents, Pomona is the 7th most populous city among the 88 cities in L.A. County. More than two-thirds of Pomona residents are Latino; the city is also home to a longstanding Black community. Incomes vary in different neighborhoods, but a significant portion of the Pomona population is working class.

And yes, Pomona is in Los Angeles County, even if many Angelenos west of the 605 might assume otherwise.

It’s a good read, and shows what can be done when city officials actually care enough to make the necessary changes to improve safety.

It also might be worth putting your bike on the A Line and exploring the city yourself.

………

That’s how you do it.

Utah’s governor has proposed building a 3,100-mile network of paved, protected bike paths spanning the entire state.

Comparing it to an Interstate Highway system, Governor Spencer Cox said the “Utah Trail Network,” 500 miles of which already exist, would put a safe bikeway within one mile of 95% of the state’s population.

According to Singletracks,

The trail system has been in the works since legislation passed in 2023, allocating up to 5% of revenues from six different taxes to the project, not to exceed $45 million per year. In effect, the project has been funded to the tune of $45 million per year indefinitely…

“The goal is to connect the entire state of Utah with a network of paved trails. The goal is to help people have transportation options so they can choose to walk, bike, or scoot to their destinations without having to get in a car,” Stephanie Tomlin, Trails Division director at UDOT, told ABC4.

There is currently no plan for anything like this here in California.

The closest we have is the California Coastal Trail, which proposes connecting existing bike paths along the Pacific coast from Oregon to Mexico. Which is great for bike touring or casual coastal rides, but does little for bike commuters, or anyone anywhere else in the state.

But maybe there should be.

………

No surprise here.

A new London study finds that bike lanes help avoid near-misses while bicycling.

The study, published in published in the Accident Analysis & Prevention journal, used helmet-mounted bike cams to record incidents of near-misses with drivers while riding on the city’s streets.

It examined 94 bicycling near-misses recorded during 317 hours of London commuter footage, gathered by 60 people riding bicycles, while finding —

  • Close passes and conflicts at intersections were the most frequent near-miss types.
  • Near-misses were more common during morning peaks, on roads with 30 mph speed limits and without bicycling infrastructure.
  • Bicycling infrastructure had a protective role but more needs to be done to address close passing and junction conflicts.

According to Road.cc,

One of the study’s senior authors, Nicola Christie, said cycling near misses were often “overlooked” in official statistics as they sometimes go unreported. Calling them “crucial indicators of road safety,” the professor explained that the findings “show that most near misses happen on roads without cycling infrastructure, and that junctions are particularly hazardous.”

“One of the benefits of using helmet-mounted cameras and voice-activated reporting as we did in this study is that they offer an easy and effective way to gather data on cycling safety, which can be used to evaluate the impact of infrastructure changes and safety campaigns,” she explained.

“This research adds to the growing evidence that cycling infrastructure helps protect cyclists and that Transport for London’s action plan to improve cycling safety is paying off.”

Just more evidence that even painted bike lanes can improve safety.

……….

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

A self-entitled street vigilante was released from a Florida jail, following a viral incident where she got out of her Bentley to confront a bunch of ebike-riding kids for popping wheelies — probably on electric motorbikes, rather than ped-assist ebikes — even though they obeyed her demand to “get off the road” by moving to a nearby bike path, then snatched a phone out of one kid’s hand and threatened to throw it into a canal, before driving off on the bike path. Although it sounds like the judge in this case might be just a tad biased.

Speaking of bias, London’s Telegraph accuses “even bicyclists” of routinely violating a new 10 mph construction zone speed limit in the Islington neighborhood. Which might make sense if every bicycle came equipped with a speedometer, like motor vehicles. Or if bicyclists posed the same risks to others as people in cars.

Sometimes, it’s people on two wheels behaving badly.

The government council in County Cork, Ireland is considering a 14 mph speed limit for bicycles on a local greenway, accusing “speed merchants…in Lycra just whipping past” pedestrians.

………

Local 

At the same time CARB is killing the state ebike voucher program, the San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments has launched their own voucher program, offering eligible residents up to $2,000 towards the purchase of a high-quality e-cargo bike. Although you’ll have to find a way around the paper’s paywall if you want to read the story.

Still no justice in Lynwood, where the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors renewed a $20,000 reward for the hit-and-run driver who killed a motorcyclist in a left-cross crash in 2004.

 

State

Over 1,500 people turned out for Saturday’s annual Bike the Coast series of rides in San Diego County, along with a post-ride festival benefiting Bike MS.

San Diego cops plan to use engagement before enforcement in dealing with people illegally riding ebikes on the beachfront bike path in Pacific Beach.

Sad news from Salinas, where a woman riding a bicycle was killed in a right-hook collision with a semi driver, the latest in a long string of local crashes.

 

National

About damn time. Montgomery County, Maryland finally got around to banning drivers from parking, stopping or standing in bike lanes.

 

International

Cycling Weekly offers a bikepacker’s guide to “jaw-dropping” destinations around the world. As long as you don’t consider anything between Quebec and Patagonia part of the world.

Police in Cancun, Mexico arrested a woman for the hit-and-run death of a man on a bicycle, after identifying her car on security video.

A Canadian law professor advocates for the Idaho Stop Law, arguing that requiring bike riders to obey the same laws as motorists creates a false sense of equivalency. Maybe California can finally get an Idaho Stop, aka Stop as Yield, once Gavin Newsom’s veto pen leaves office next year.

Apparently, you can now add Navarra, in Northern Spain, to your bike bucket list.

This is who we share the road with. A pair of Indian men were sentenced to “rigorous” life imprisonment for the road rage murder of another man seven years ago, who shouted at them after they dented his car with their motorbike.

 

Competitive Cycling

USA Cycling has opened their fourth annual online fundraising auction, offering everything from entry to Unbound or the Leadville 100 to Tadej Pogačar’s signed World Champion jersey.

Keep your eyes open for Belgian cyclist Wout van Aert running, not riding, through the streets of Laguna Beach.

Cycling Up To Date hosts a rather pointless debate over whether Tadej Pogačar could still dominate using gear from ten years ago. Because the answer depends entirely on whether everyone else was using that same decade-old tech, too. 

 

Finally…

If you’re looking for a new career as a serial ebike snatcher, try not to take one with a hidden AirTag. Remembering when a bike crash meant With or Without You performed without him.

And the mayor of New York is now one of us.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Free Metro Bike rides today, Calbike knew ebike vouchers killed, 1st bikeshare mayor could be coming, and no Bass on a bike

November 4, 2025 / / One comment
Day 308 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

……….

Don’t forget to bike the vote on Prop. 50 today, if you haven’t already.

To make it easy, Metro Bike is offering free half-hour rides; buses and trains are free today, too.

So you’re officially out of excuses.

………

Calbike Executive Director Kendra Ramsey says she knew as early as the middle of last month that the state Ebike Incentive Program was going down the toilet.

According to San Francisco public broadcaster KQED,

But Kendra Ramsey, the executive director of the California Bicycle Coalition (CalBike), said she was told in mid-October that CARB would shift the program’s remaining funds to Clean Cars 4 All, a similar incentive program for electric vehicles.

While she said she felt the conversation was meant to be private, she expected it would be followed by a more formal announcement from the agency.

“That direct communication from CARB never came,” Ramsey told KQED.

I hate to criticize Calbike, which does a lot of good working for safer streets and the rights of California bicyclists.

But shouldn’t that have been a hair-on-fire moment for Ramsey to get word out while we still had a chance to fight this deeply misguided decision?

We don’t know what conversations have taken place behind the scenes. However, throughout the long and twisted history of this program, it has seemed like Calbike wasn’t pushing CARB hard enough to fund and operate the voucher program.

Instead, at least publicly, they have offered a mild response to CARB’s many fuckups.

There comes a time when you have to set your hair on fire to call attention to a problem, and force a response to address it. It seems like that moment never came for Calbike.

The leader of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition wasn’t thrilled with CARB killing the ebike voucher program, either.

“Such a popular program shouldn’t be ended,” said Christopher White, the executive director of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition. “It should be operated well and fully funded because it promises to transform the mobility habits of tens of thousands of Californians to be more sustainable, far safer, [and it’s] far less expensive for the individuals to operate their new vehicles.

Like many transit advocate groups, he said he only found out about the shift in program funds from CalBike.

“It definitely gives the sense that CARB knows that this is the wrong direction to be moving in, to keep it so quiet,” he said.

Unfortunately, I haven’t heard a peep from any other state or local bicycle advocacy groups, other than the Sacramento Area Bike Advocates.

I’ll let you know when, and if, I do.

………

New York could elect its first bikeshare-riding mayor today.

According to Time, which is more website than magazine these days,

In one of his TikTok videos/campaign ads, Zohran Mamdani (suit, tie, no helmet) unlocks a Citi Bike from an Upper East Side dock as someone off in the distance yells “Communist!”

Without missing a beat he replies, “It’s pronounced cyclist!”

In an electoral campaign defined by Mamdani—his youth, that he’s a Muslim, his views toward Israel, and his affiliation with the Democratic Socialists of America—many have missed that Mamdani might become the first New York City Mayor to be a real cyclist, the first Citi Bike Mayor.

Whether or not you agree with his politics, it would be nice to have someone who actually rides a bike, let alone bikeshare, leading America’s largest city.

……….

Speaking of which, it looks like we won’t get to see LA’s mayor ride a bike after all, after the Dodgers pulled out a semi-miraculous win in the World Series.

Karen Bass had bet Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow that the loser would ride a bicycle wearing the jersey of the other team, with the distance determined by the winning team’s margin of victory.

Which means Chow will have to ride five miles wearing a Dodgers jersey.

It would have almost been worth it to see the Blue Jays successfully close out the final game just to see Bass on a bike for the first time since she was elected mayor.

Almost.

………

Local 

Metro Bike is hosting a “fun, safe, and social” 8.1-mile community bike ride November 29th beginning at the Compton & Slauson Metro Station, and returning to the same spot on the A train.

Pasadena is preparing an update to the city’s bicycle laws, defining what an ebike is to conform with California law, while removing an outdated bicycle licensing requirement that is now illegal under state law.

Speaking of the Rose City, the Pasadena Complete Streets Coalition provides a guide to the city’s bicycle resources.

Streetsblog’s Joe Linton offers photos from Sunday’s Active Streets Corazón del Valle in El Monte and South El Monte.

 

State

Circulate San Diego added bike and pedestrian wayfaring signs in Imperial Beach, along with surface decals reminding bike riders to wear helmets.

No surprise here. After a 35-year old driver was charged for the October 22nd hit-and-run that seriously injured a 12-year old El Cajon boy riding a bicycle, it turned out that he had two open charges for evading the police, as well as a failure to appear on one of the charges; family member had encouraged him to turn himself in after spotting blood on his car, but he refused until police caught up with him.

A 43-year old San Luis Obispo bike shop is asking for help from the public to repair damage caused by thieves over the weekend, who attempted to break-in by backing a pickup through the front of the building but were stopped by a security gate.

 

National

No justice in Fargo, North Dakota, where a killer driver walked without a day behind bars for running over a 61-year old university nanoscience engineer as he rode a bicycle earlier this year.

New York Streetsblog says street safety advocates should be displeased that mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani’s has asked NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch to stay on, as the city’s misguided crackdown on bike riders continues.

Horrible news from LaPlace, Louisiana, where a 19-year old driver faces charges for the hit-and-run death of a 66-year old great-grandfather, who body wasn’t discovered for three days after he was killed while walking his bicycle; there’s no word on whether he could have survived if the driver had just called 911.

Florida legislators consider a bill that would make it illegal to modify ebikes to exceed manufacturer specifications, while requiring licensing and registration for electric motorbikes, similar to motorcycles.

 

International

Momentum updates their list of the world’s “coolest and most unique” innovations in bicycling infrastructure. None of which are in Los Angeles. Or in the US, for that matter. 

She gets it. A London writer says forget driverless cars, because she won’t feel comfortable until there are fewer cars on the streets, with or without someone behind the wheel. Although I’m equally impressed she used “fewer cars” instead of the more common “less.”

UK bicycle retailers are selling overpowered electric motorbikes as ebikes, without bothering to tell their customers they can’t be legally used on the streets. It wouldn’t surprise me if that was true here, too. 

British cycling legend Sir Mark Cavendish says our shared ancestral homeland is the “best place to ride a bike in the world.”

In a tragic case reminiscent of Kaitlin Armstrong’s murder of gravel champ Moriah “Mo” Wilson, former French track cycling champ Cindy Morvan was shot and killed in a murder-suicide by the current partner of her former lover; Morvan was just 39, and the mother of two small children.

In more bad news from Europe, the 78-year old uncle of Italian pop star Laura Pausini was killed by a hit-and-run driver while riding his bike on the outskirts of Bologna.

 

Competitive Cycling

Spanish champ Oier Lazkano was canned by the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe cycling team after he was suspended by UCI over “unexplained abnormalities” in his biological passport. But we’re supposed to believe the era of doping is over, right?

 

Finally…

Don’t ride your bike in Sardinia. If you want to protect your bike from thieves, park it on an inaccessible pillar in the middle of a river.

And that feeling when you test ebikes, but have no idea how to build them.

Thought @ebiketips.bsky.social would enjoy this e-bike image. Not sure what's gone on there…touchreviews.net/we-tested-th…

— Mark Annand (@markannand.bsky.social) 2025-10-30T15:17:58.334Z

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

More on CARB’s quiet murder of scandal-plagued CA Ebike Incentives, and Metro forgets HLA bike lanes on Sunset busway

November 3, 2025 / / No comments
Day 307 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

Okay, so the Dodgers won, after nearly giving me and everyone in Los Angeles a heart attack. 

I can’t speak for anyone else, but I credit a lifetime of bicycling for maintaining a steady pulse rate throughout the game. How anyone else in this city managed to survive, I have no idea.

And if you’re heading to the victory parade today, for Kershaw’s sake, take Metro.

Or better yet, ride your bike. Just be careful where you lock it up, and how, to make sure it’s still there when the parade it over. 

Meanwhile, today’s photo is a reminder of the total disaster we all endured trying to apply for ebike vouchers earlier this year.

As if any of us actually needed one.  

………

The San Diego Union-Tribune’s Jeff McDonald followed-up on the collapse of the California Ebike Incentive Program, in a story that doesn’t appear to be hidden behind the paper’s usual paywall.

After getting a typically non-responsive response from the California Air Resources Board about CARB’s co-opting of the remaining $18 million in ebike voucher funding, McDonald, who has closely followed the story from its very messy beginning to its inglorious end, wrote this.

The state air board did not respond to follow-up questions about the flawed administration of the e-bike program or two investigations into Pedal Ahead, the San Diego nonprofit selected to manage the effort whose website is now suspended…

The San Diego Union-Tribune first reported in June 2024 that the SANDAG e-bike initiative was troubled. Agency officials had begun investigating Pedal Ahead early last year for failing to comply with terms of the grant it had been awarded two years earlier.

At the same time, the Union-Tribune reported, CARB was conducting its own review into Pedal Ahead’s management, and criminal investigators at the California Department of Justice were scrutinizing the San Diego nonprofit.

Yet nothing in CARB’s statement took any responsibility for the failed administration of the program. Or for selecting a highly questionable administrator for the program.

Pedal Ahead founder Edward Clancy was deeply involved in an investigation into an alleged bribery scandal involving foreign money donated to San Diego-area politicians by agreeing to wear a wire for the FBI. However, he was not charged with any wrongdoing himself.

Then again, people who co-operate with investigations in order to land bigger fish often aren’t. Just ask Los Angeles “City Staffer B.”

Again, according to McDonald,

But in his leadership of Pedal Ahead, publicly filed tax returns and Clancy’s own comments raised questions about how the organization accounted for the millions of dollars it received from government contracts.

The nonprofit’s revenue and expenses reported on federal tax returns did not always match publicly announced contracts. Clancy told the Union-Tribune that $1 million Pedal Ahead collected was in a bank despite not being included in declared revenue.

“Funding is in a money market account, per contract requirement to yield interest that goes back into the program,” he said in a 2024 email. “To date, there is additional approximate $34,000 earned.”

Finally, writing in a very deadpan, journalistic voice, McDonald concluded,

General accepted accounting principles do not allow nonprofits to withhold revenue or spending from their public tax filings.

Which is putting it mildly.

Yet no one at CARB has ever taken responsibility for orchestrating this massive shitshow, instead sweeping it under the rug by co-opting the funding and just shutting the whole damn thing down.

Nor, to the best of my knowledge, has anyone ever asked them to.

Full disclosure, McDonald reached out to me for a comment on Friday, but I didn’t see his email until after Friday’s game, and I apparently responded too late for his deadline.

But this is what I would have said.

This is an extremely car-centric decision that defeats the entire purpose of Ebike Voucher Program, which was to provide viable alternatives to driving to reduce pollution and traffic congestion. The fact is, there is no such thing as a clean car; even an entirely electric car has to get power somewhere, and still contributes to particulate pollution from brake and tire wear. This also discriminates against older and disabled people who can no longer drive and need a viable transportation option. Simply put, there is nothing good about this extremely short-sighted decision.

In retrospect, I may have sounded a tad miffed. When I intended sound miffed as hell.

I have repeatedly called for an investigation into this program. But if anyone has actually looked into it — whether the legislature that approved it, the governor’s office, or the state attorney general — not one word has leaked to the public.

Instead, everyone seems to have simply gone along with CARB’s attempt to quietly kill the whole program, and hope no one noticed.

We have, though.

We have.

Meanwhile, a project manager with the Sacramento Area Bike Advocates politely rips into them, too.

………

Maybe one lawsuit isn’t enough for them.

Just months after Metro was sued for violating Measure HLA by not including the bike lanes called for in the Los Angeles Mobility Plan 2035 on their makeover of the Vermont Ave corridor, the county transit agency appears to be making the same mistake on Sunset Blvd.

According to a little noticed item in last week’s Metro Community Relations Newsletter, the agency is planning to build bus lanes on the busy boulevard, while once again ignoring bike lanes called for in the Mobility Plan.

Get involved and hear about the changes coming to Sunset Bl—virtually!
Metro is planning improvements to make travel along Sunset Bl faster and more reliable. The project will improve a 4.3-mile stretch from Vermont Av to Havenhurst Dr by adding bus priority lanes for Metro Line 2 on weekdays during peak hours. Each day, about 20,000 riders travel this segment, and the priority lanes will make their trips faster and more reliable. In addition, the project will benefit over 111,000 residents and nearly 60,000 jobs located within a 10-minute walk of the corridor. Join us for a virtual community meeting on Wednesday, November 12, from 6 to 7 p.m. to learn more about the Sunset Bl Bus Priority Lanes Project. You can participate online using this link (Meeting ID: 815 9457 3537) or by phone at 213.338.8477. Visit the project website to learn more: metro.net/sunsetbl.

The project runs 4.3 miles along Sunset, threading through West Hollywood, Hollywood and East Hollywood, while the Mobility Plan calls for four miles of painted, unprotected bike lanes along the corridor, in addition to bus lanes and pedestrian enhancements.

So let’s all applaud Metro for taking the long-overdue step of building bus lanes on Sunset. But maybe we could gently nudge them towards keeping the city’s bike lane promises, too.

Speaking of which, Joe Linton, who seems to be everywhere these days, reminds us about that virtual meeting to discuss the project on the 12th of this month.

Mark your calendars: Metro will host a virtual outreach meeting Wed Nov. 12 6-7 p.m. for proposed Sunset Blvd bus lanes through Hollywood & East Hollywood – Vermont to Havenhurst (just west of Fairfax)

— Joe Linton (@lintonjoe.bsky.social) 2025-10-29T19:36:11.823Z

………

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

A writer for Road.cc puts tongue firmly in cheek, and considers what would happen if the ultra-conservative Reform Party takes the reins in the UK, concluding bikes would make the obvious scapegoat after they get rid of all the foreigners.

No bias here. A Cambridge, England letter writer complained about an election mailer that said “Your vote can save lives,” arguing that bike safety isn’t the only issue facing the city, and two of the three recent bicycling deaths shouldn’t count because they happened on streets with shiny new bike lanes.

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

A 49-year old Singaporean man was lucky to get off with just two months behind bars for blowing through a red light on his bicycle, and killing a 70-year old woman.

………

Local 

The Sierra Club spends time with the river channels of Los Angeles, which is where most of our local bike paths are.

Momentum credits Santa Monica resident Caro Vilain for using her clever social media videos for the greater good “to help revolutionize the way we perceive urban cycling.”

 

State

Two Encinitas ebike retailers closed, with one owner blaming a shift to illegal electric motorbikes rather than more traditional ped-assist ebikes.

Join the club. San Diego’s 10 News reports that the city is not making progress towards its promise of zero traffic deaths.

Sad news from Bakersfield, where someone riding a bicycle was killed when they allegedly ran a red light, and was struck by an arson investigator with the Bakersfield Fire Department.

More sad news, this time from Manteca, where a 15-year old boy was killed when he was struck by a train while riding his bike on a railroad trestle across the San Joaquin River, along with a friend who escaped injury.

A 25-year old Stockton man was arrested for allegedly attacking and robbing a 70-year old “elderly” woman as she was riding a bicycle; his getaway was foiled when he tried jumping into the bed of a passing pickup, and the driver apparently wasn’t having it.

 

National

In what may be the understatement of the year, Cycling West says trees make bicycling more pleasant.

Direct-to-consumer mountain bike brand YT Industries USA is the latest bike company to go belly-up, shutting down both its San Clemente and Bentonville locations, four months after its German counterpart declared insolvency.

Someone riding a bicycle was killed by an accused drunk and reckless driver in Las Vegas on Sunday, the 132nd person killed on the streets of the city just this year.

Tragic news from Austin, Texas, where a man was killed, and his two young kids injured, when a hit-and-run driver ran a red light and slammed into the bike they were all riding.

A Maine man known locally as Bicycle Larry is still missing, more than 20 years after he disappeared without a trace while riding his bike.

 

International

Momentum ranks 30 of the world’s most beautiful bicycle routes. None of which are in California, whether by design or omission. 

Bicyclists in Mérida, Yucatán are fighting to keep protective planters on a bike lane, despite calls for their removal from local businesses, who argue they interfere with tour buses and reduce street parking. In other words, kind of like anywhere else. 

A Winnipeg, Manitoba newspaper says it’s never too cold to ride a bike, as long as you’ve got the right gear. I can attest to that, although personal experience suggests it can be too snowy, too wet or just too damn miserable. 

That’s more like it. A Member of Parliament from Oxfordshire, England demanded that funding for bicycle safety be included in the country’s upcoming budget, after a series of collisions in a local town.

British mountain bikers were warned against using unauthorized trails in Coombs Wood, where two young riders were injured at an “accident black spot.”

A 77-year old Frenchman somehow rode his bicycle off the road and fell down a 130-foot ravine, surviving for three days on red wine he had in a shopping bag. Which is a vital safety reminder to always carry some form of booze on your bike. Thanks to Megan for the heads-up. 

Hundreds of bicyclists turned out for Dubai’s annual bike ride.

A group of women in their 20s and 30s are using their bicycles to reclaim the post-apartheid streets of Johannesburg, South Africa, where bicycling is no longer seen as an elite hobby or a last resort for the poor.

Jessica Alba is one of us, exploring Australia’s Gold Coast on a Lime Bike, while wearing a black-on-black Dodger’s cap, as she films her latest movie.

 

Competitive Cycling

Sad news from France, where the oldest living Olympic gold medalist died at age 101; cyclist Charles Coste won gold in team pursuit in the 1948 London Olympics, and served as a torchbearer 76 years later at last year’s Paris Games.

UK cyclist Zoe Bäckstedt, the reigning U23 cyclocross and time trial champion, urges you to “wear a helmet, please,” claiming her’s saved her life in a training crash that resulted in a broken hand and wrist fracture.

 

Finally…

Why bother riding on two wheels when one will do? That feeling when you take the wrong turn out of the airport, and startle the locals by pushing your mud-crusted bicycle out of the forest hours later.

And nothing like letting a David Bowie lyric dictate your next 3,000-mile ride.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Urgent Malibu PCH action alert, CA among weakest US DUI states, and more on CARB’s murder of ebike incentives

October 31, 2025 / / 2 comments
Day 304 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

Happy Halloween!

If you’re still looking for a costume that will truly terrify your neighbors, consider going as a bike lane.

………

If you live, work, commute or bike on or anywhere near PCH in western Malibu, take urgent action now to keep a vital safety project moving forward, which is currently in jeopardy before the Malibu Planning Commission.

Consider this alert from Streets Are For Everyone that went out yesterday; you’ll find a ready-made email response form on that link.

Choose Life Over Delay — tell the Planning Commission to Approve the Plan

On Monday, November 3, the Malibu Planning Commission will hold its final hearing to decide whether to approve the Caltrans PCH Safety Project — a $55 million once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to rebuild and make PCH safer for everyone. Based on the last meeting, they are not likely to approve the plans unless people express strong support for the plans.

You can view that meeting here. The presentation, public comment, and debate start at 38:10 and continue for a couple of hours.

This plan would repave and reconstruct the western end of PCH from Cross Creek Rd to the Ventura County line while adding long-overdue safety improvements like:

  • 15 miles of new or upgraded bike lanes
  • 6,956 linear feet of new sidewalks in high pedestrian zones, including in front of Pepperdine University
  • 42 new dark-sky compliant light poles
  • The installation of 19 new guardrails
  • 22 new or upgraded curb ramps
  • Three new retaining walls
  • Two realigned intersections
  • A vehicle pull-out for law enforcement use
  • Median reconstruction at various locations
  • Associated roadway improvements along Pacific Coast Highway within the Public Right-of-Way between the Ventura County line and Serra Road

There are additional safety improvements that can and should be made after this. They will require additional funding and much more work to secure approval from agencies like the California Coastal Commission. The items above are changes that can be easily implemented with the funds immediately available.

If the Planning Commission fails to approve the project, the funding will vanish. The road will not be repaved, the safety upgrades will not happen, and Malibu will lose its only realistic chance to prevent more deaths on the western end of PCH for years or even decades.

This is not just another meeting — it’s a moral choice between action and inaction. Every year of delay means more preventable crashes, more empty chairs at dinner tables, and more families devastated by the same road we all depend on.

What We’re Asking You to Do:

Email the Malibu Planning Commission today and tell them to approve the Caltrans PCH Safety Plan. Ask them to prioritize lives over delays — to say YES to rebuilding PCH safely, responsibly, and collaboratively. We can continue to refine the details, but we cannot afford to lose the funding and start from zero.

Please also show up to the Planning Commission Meeting on Monday, 3 Nov, starting at 6:30 at Malibu City Hall. This is the link to the agenda.

You can also join and provide public comment on this virtually using this link.

This is Malibu’s last real chance to fix the western end of PCH.

Not mentioned is that failure to approve the plan means the money will be reallocated to other projects, somewhere else in the state. Which will set back desperately needed safety improvements on SoCal’s killer highway years, if not decades.

The Malibu Planning Commission doesn’t want to hear from me, since I haven’t set foot or wheel on PCH or in Malibu for years.

They want, and need, to hear from you.

Photo from Caltrans. 

………

In what should come as a surprise to absolutely no one, CalMatters finds that California has some of the weakest DUI laws in the country.

California’s DUI enforcement system is broken. The toll can be counted in bodies.

Alcohol-related roadway deaths in California have shot up by more than 50% in the past decade — an increase more than twice as steep as the rest of the country, federal estimates show. More than 1,300 people die each year statewide in drunken collisions. Thousands more are injured. Again and again, repeat DUI offenders cause the crashes…

We found that California has some of the weakest DUI laws in the country, allowing repeat drunk and drugged drivers to stay on the road with little punishment. Here, drivers generally can’t be charged with a felony until their fourth DUI within 10 years, unless they injure someone. In some states, a second DUI can be a felony…

California also gives repeat drunk drivers their licenses back faster than other states. Here, you typically lose your license for three years after your third DUI, compared to eight years in New Jersey, 15 years in Nebraska and a permanent revocation in Connecticut. We found drivers with as many as six DUIs who were able to get a license in California.

Many drivers stay on the road for years even when the state does take their license — racking up tickets and even additional DUIs — with few consequences until they eventually kill.

Seriously, read it now. We’ll wait for you.

Back already?

Maybe you caught the part where they said “drunk vehicular manslaughter isn’t considered a “violent felony,” but DUI causing “great bodily injury” is. So breaking someone’s leg while driving under the influence can result in more jail time than killing someone.

Go figure.

Or that some California drivers have somehow remained on the road with up to 16 DUIs, until some innocent person pays the price. Or far too often, more than one.

And that arrests have dropped in half over the past 20 years, even as loosened cannabis laws and ready access to pharmaceuticals — legal and otherwise — mean more people than ever are likely driving under the influence of something.

This isn’t just theoretical for me.

One of my best childhood friends was killed by a drunk driver our senior year of high school. He was a state tennis champ deciding between a college scholarship and going pro when a woman somehow jumped a 50-foot median with guard rails on either side, and hit his car head-on, killing him and a passenger.

She walked away without a scratch. Or any jail time.

The same with my cousin, a rodeo queen killed when her father made a sudden turn, throwing her out of the back seat, then ran over her when he went back to get her.

So yeah, it’s personal.

And don’t even get me started on all the many victims of drunk and drugged drivers I’ve had to write about here over the last two decades.

Yes, this state just approved a law extending the ability of judges to order DUI drivers to install an interlock device. But that won’t do a damn thing to stop someone from getting behind the wheel stoned out of their mind.

Take this case in point. Or this one.

It’s long past time California got serious about drunk and drugged drivers, even if that means taking their cars away and not just their licenses. Or building a new effing prison to hold them all if we have to.

I’ll be happy to chip in to help pay for it, if it means a few more people will make it back home at the end of every day.

………

More on yesterday’s story about the California Air Resources Board stabbing the bicycle community in the back by quietly stabbing the California Ebike Incentive Program in the front when no one was looking.

According to Streetsblog’s Damien Newton,

Despite demand for e-bike vouchers being so high that it crashed the website each time the state opened the lottery, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) voted at their last meeting to end the statewide program it oversaw, rolling the remaining $17 million of the original $30 million allocated by the legislature into its “Clean Cars 4 All” Program.

The concept of California E-Bike Incentive Project began had so much promise but was plagued with scandal and incompetence to such a level that one prospective applicant told Streetsblog last April, “If they were actively trying to sabotage the program, what would they do differently than this?”

Regardless of the intent, the effect is the same. The April application portal was the last time the program gave out certificates.

He adds that the most surprising thing is how quietly the program slunk out — or was tossed out — the back door, with no official announcement, no press release, and no mention on the program’s website.

There’s more. A lot more, in fact.

It’s all worth a read.

But what occurred to me yesterday is that this could leave CARB exposed to a lawsuit for age discrimination and violating the Americans With Disabilities Act.

Because by transferring the funds to a green car program, they are favoring people capable of driving over those who can no longer drive due to age and/or illness, and needed an ebike to provide greater mobility.

Could it win?

I have no idea. I’m not a lawyer, and have no expertise in ADA or age discrimination law.

But if someone needs a plaintiff, I know where they can look.

………

LADOT reminds us they’re looking for feedback to finally fix dangerous Ohio Ave west of Westwood Blvd.

………

Gravel Bike California explores the Breckenridge Mountain Loop, just a two-hour drive from Los Angeles.

Although the only Breckenridge I’ve ever ridden is just a tad further away.

………

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

No bias here. The local paper says adding a movable barrier to the bike lane on the Richmond-San Rafael bridge is a good idea, allowing the state to close the bike lane on weekdays to make more room for cars. Because evidently, the convenience of drivers outweighs the convenience and safety of everyone else. 

An English politician complains that a few feet of pavement for new bikeway is changing the character of the city by covering over historic cobbled paving stones. But the city just says hold on, we’re not done yet.

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

A British man was surprised to learn a bikeshare company has no legal liability for the ebike rider who crashed into his bicycle, leaving him “hours from death.”

………

Local 

Streets For All says the $2 billion — yes, with a B — LAX ATMP Roadway Improvement Project will only have the opposite effect, tearing up streets just before the Olympics, while making things more dangerous for pedestrians and people on bikes.

A Culver City paper offers more information on the official opening of the new Robertson Blvd Bus/Bike Lane Project.

Somehow, we missed this year’s Phil’s Cookie Fondo, hosted by former pro cyclist and Worst Retirement Ever host Phil Gaimon, to raise fund for the Angeles Chapter of the Sierra Club — but you can still donate to the fundraiser.

 

State

Around 1,600 people are expected to turn out for Saturday’s Bike the Coast in San Diego County, with distances ranging from seven miles to a century.

The annual two-day, 31-mile Wounded Warrior Project’s Soldier Ride is currently underway in San Diego.

That’s more like it. A 27-year old Bakersfield man was sentenced to 12 years behind bars for the drunken hit-and-run crash that killed a 30-year old woman riding a bicycle in 2022, despite turning himself in a few days later after sobering up. As lax as California’s DUI laws are, the state-s hit-and-run statutes are even worse, providing an incentive for drivers to flee if they’ve had a few.

Marin County bike riders were expected to turn out last night for the annual Pumpkin Head Ride, which requires participants to wear a lit pumpkin on their helmets, if not their heads.

Sacramento’s Bike Lab works to empower local people through a variety of community services, including free bike repairs for anyone who needs it.

 

National

Knog is recalling its Blinder 900 and Blinder 1300 Front Bicycle Lights because the lithium-ion batteries could catch fire, but they promise they’ll replace it for you.

No point in waiting, I guess. Bike Magazine is the first out of the gate with a holiday gift guide. For all your Halloween giving, evidently. 

Somehow, I’ve never heard anyone say they’d start riding if only ebikes had a bigger interactive touch screen.

Of all the crashes that are unsurvivable, getting run down by a cement truck driver ranks pretty high on the list.

A Utah woman got a custom postpartum bike fit to help her get back on her bike, addressing the unique physiological changes affecting women after having a baby.

This is how Vision Zero is supposed to work. Albuquerque, New Mexico is building a new HAWK signal at a bike trail crossing where a bike rider was killed three months ago. Except why do they always have to wait until it’s too late? And someone should tell that TV station that the victim probably had a name. Just saying. 

The leaders of a Kansas hospital chain got together to build 25 new bicycles to donate to children and families across the Kansas City area.

An Ohio city opened a new connector project, including a new bike and pedestrian bridge, stitching together multiple miles of bike trails.

Great idea. A Baltimore-area bike shop teamed with a bike builder and custom painter to build a tricked-out, one-of-a-kind bicycle, raising over nine grand for a local homeless outreach group.

A Florida op-ed writer argues that greater enforcement against bike riders and pedestrians is exactly what’s needed to improve traffic safety. Because we’re the real danger, apparently, not the people in the big, dangerous machines.

 

International

A Canadian writer got his custom built, carbon frame Frankenbike back, courtesy of a small town marketplace, a year-and-a-half after it was stolen from the teenager he passed it down to.

Somehow, Brompton goes electric doesn’t quite have the same feel as Dylan going electric at the Newport Folk Festival, but still.

Europe’s most influential bicycle trade show is in jeopardy, after two leading German bike groups pulled out of Eurobike.

The UK now has a “boozy bike trail” through vineyards just 90-miles from London. Because if there’s one thing dank and drizzly England is known for, it’s wine. 

That’s more like it. Lime is deploying 500 dockless ebikes with child seats installed on the back to the streets of Paris.

A travel writer takes his family on a first-of-its-kind Botswana safari to track lions and elephants by bicycle.

 

Competitive Cycling

I want to be like him when I grow up. A Grand Junction, Colorado newspaper celebrates a 77-year old local man’s second-place age-group finish on the world master’s cycling stage.

 

Finally…

That feeling when your new artistic bike rack becomes a sock library. Or when you invent the first aero bike by using balsa wood and mummy tape.

And evidently, you’re not supposed to hurl Lime bikes out the back of a van.

Who knew?

……… 

Thanks to Ted F for his very generous donation to support this site, and help me stay in the fight for a few more rounds.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Killer of OC bicyclist Jeff Rosenthal on trial for murder, CARB murders CA ebike incentive, and emulating Paris bike boom

October 30, 2025 / / 2 comments
Day 303 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

Time served isn’t enough.

The bicycling community is being urged to turn out next week, when an Orange County driver with a long criminal record goes on trial for murder.

In this case, for fatally running down a man riding a bicycle, while — allegedly — under the influence of multiple drugs, so high he reportedly didn’t even know where he was after the crash.

And after signing a Watson notice following a previous DUI conviction, acknowledging that he could be charged with murder if he ever killed someone while driving under the influence anytime in the future.

And he did. Allegedly.

Thirty-seven-year old Los Angeles resident Zachary Thomas Haralson has been behind bars since his arrest in September, 2022, accused of killing 72-year old Jeff Rosenthal in Laguna Hills.

According to the Orange County Superior Court, Haralson is charged with felony counts of murder, hit-and-run with permanent and serious injury, and driving on a suspended license. Death being the “permanent and serious injury” in this case.

He has pled not guilty to all charges.

Haralson has been arrested at least ten other times since 2014, on charges including drug possession, illegal possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, burglary, grand theft, and taking a vehicle without the owner’s consent — something most of us would call car theft.

Here’s what Bicycle Club of Irvine posted about the case.

Oct 27th update from Barbara Rosenthal (Ed: Jeff’s widow). “Just letting you all know – The trial for Jeff’s murderer, Zachary Haralson, is tentatively scheduled to begin on Nov 7th.  The court informed me that there will be 2-3 days of “housekeeping” (I.e., motions, jury selection, etc) before my family, friends and I are suggested to participate.  If you can/want to attend some of it, check with me or the following website:  OCCOURTS.org

Case # is 22HF1631.

It will be held at the Central Justice Center in Santa Ana.  You don’t need to come, but I wanted you to have the info.  Let’s give Mr. Haralson a looooong vacation and keep him off the roads!
Please spread the word to BCI members.
Anyone will be able to access the website with just the case #. It’s finally happening!!!”

The perpetrator has been incarcerated since killing Jeff and he deserves more than time served. Family and community outrage will help extend his punishment.

Another BCI post tells more about Jeff Rosenthal, how the crash happened, and the family he left behind.

So does this letter from his best friend, Orange County bike lawyer Ed Rubinstein, which was posted on this site shortly after Rosenthal’s death, before we learned his identity.

Thank you for your reporting, but I cannot let the rider who was killed remain anonymous. He was my best friend.

I do not have any information on how or why the crash happened, but I do know the wonderful human being whose life was snuffed out too soon.  His name was Jeff Rosenthal. He was 72 years old, retired, and he had just celebrated his 41st anniversary with his wife Barbara. Jeff, like me, originally was from Long Island, NY. He was an experienced cyclist who used to ride over 7000 miles per year until he reduced the frequency of his rides slightly as he recently got back into surfing.  He rode with the Bicycle Club of Irvine where we met about 10 years ago.  He was my best friend, the witness at my wedding and we rode together no less than weekly. Jeff had a quick wit and was always smiling. He was the friend you could always count on to help, but he never wanted to bother others. He was out riding Friday morning. He butt dialed me that morning. He told me he had a flat. and I offered to pick him up as it was hot outside. He said he was almost home, and would call me if he needed any help. I wish he had accepted my offer. I now suspect I was the last person with whom he talked to that day.  I am gutted and the world has lost someone precious.

My guess is this will be a relatively quick trial once they seat a jury, so make plans to attend if you can. With such an extensive criminal record, Haralson shouldn’t have been out on the streets, let alone behind the wheel.

Let’s hope he doesn’t see either one for a very long time.

Photo by Sora Shimazaki from Pexels.

………

So much for that.

It looks like the long-promised second round of California’s Ebike Incentive Program is dead on arrival.

Because the program itself is now DOA, murdered by the overly car-centric California Air Resources Board.

According to Calbike, all the remaining funding has been shifted into getting people to keep driving, in ostensibly cleaner cars.

Because no car is really clean.

CARB’s decision to absorb the remaining funding from the E-Bike Incentive Project into Clean Cars 4 All is a telling political moment—one that mistakes “cleaner cars” for genuine progress. It’s easier to imagine replacing every gas car with an electric one than to imagine a California where people can move freely without cars at all. But the latter is what true climate leadership requires. The E-Bike Incentive Project wasn’t flawless, but it represented a rare, tangible step toward that future: a policy backed by funding that helped Californians drive less, not just differently. Reversing it is a step backward for the state and a disservice to the people who believed in it…

The state is taking the wrong lessons from the turbulence of the EBIP roll out; the overwhelming demand makes clear this is a popular program that people want. Tens of thousands of Californians lined up for each round of the e-bike incentives, waiting hours online for a chance at a modest voucher. Their wants and needs are clear and simple – a new, affordable, economical way to get to work, to school, to the grocery store without being locked into the cost and burden of car ownership.

Ending that opportunity now ignores that clear demand and walks back hard-won progress toward a more livable, affordable, and sustainable California.

This is a perfect example of the sheer and utter incompetency CARB has shown in mismanaging the program since its inception.

I don’t know about you, but I plan on emailing my state representatives before this day is over; you can find yours here if you’re as mad as I am.

The only reason I’m not doing it tonight is because I can’t trust myself not to say what I really think, in the language it deserves.

………

Streetsblog USA takes a look at how Los Angeles can replicate the bike boom spurred by the 2024 Paris Olympics, focusing on the efforts of a group called Festival Trail.

And no, I never heard of them, either.

One answer is to combine community, philanthropy, and partnerships — co-aligning the once-in-a-generation investment during the 2028 Games with long-term goals of building the next LA. A project that embodies this ethos is the Festival Trail, a community-driven initiative for interconnected, non-vehicular corridors connecting the dispersed neighborhoods of Los Angeles.

The Trail route aims to connect major venues of the 2028 Games along current and planned transit connections, helping Angelenos safely move around the city car-free during the Games and for years after. Though the vision is bold, the Festival Trail is rooted in a strategic idea: closing a few key gaps in the network can open up Los Angeles in a big way…

In addition to building physical connections, the Festival Trail aims to shift the culture of bike ridership and car-free transportation more broadly in Los Angeles through public space activations. Festival Trail is partnered closely with CicLAvia on Open Streets events, citywide celebrations where Angelenos can walk and bike along streets temporarily closed to cars and reimagine what LA could feel like if it were designed for people.

It’s worth a read.

Although I might be more inspired if I hadn’t just watched the Dodgers tank their second game in a row.

But transforming this auto-centric city is, to put it mildly, an Olympian task. Especially since we have a city administration that’s already doing everything they can to tank Measure HLA.

That comes after years of city officials tanking Vision Zero, the Green New Deal, Mobility Plan 2035 and the 2010 Bike Plan. Which is exemplified by that fact that the Vision Zero website hasn’t even been updated in two-and-a-half years.

Never mind that traffic deaths are now far higher than they were when Vision Zero was adopted ten years ago. Or that the graphic on the top of this page says traffic deaths were supposed to have been ended here 303 days ago.

But maybe, just maybe, if Festival Trails cooperates with the groups that have been working on this for years, like Streets For All, Streets Are For Everyone and BikeLA, and somehow manage get Los Angeles 2028 on board, they might actually have enough leverage to get something done here.

We can hope.

………

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

New homeowners in an Ohio development are furious because they paid a premium for privacy, but failed to notice plans for a bike path in the conservancy land behind their homes, which was in motion before the homes were even built.

………

Local 

A reminder that the 4th annual Cal State Northridge Bike Festival takes place from 10 am to 2 pm this Sunday, with club rides beginning at 8 am.

 

State

Stanton became the latest Orange County city to crack down on ebike riders, approving a list of ebike violations that are already against state law, except for a 5 mph speed limit on sidewalks, and a 20 mph limit on city streets — which is blatantly illegal unless drivers are limited to the same speed.

San Marcos is also cracking down on ebikes, banning their use for riders under 12.

San Diego area triathletes just can’t win, coping with SoCal drivers in the streets, and great white sharks in the waters off La Jolla.

 

National

Seattle is painting 200 new “bike and scooter corrals” on the streets in an effort to rein in dockless bikeshare and e-scooter rentals. Maybe someone should explain to them what a bike corral really is, because this ain’t it. And they’re a great way to get more people to ride.

People in Iowa Amish communities are trading in their horses and buggies for ebikes.

A pair of liberal and conservative Minnesota legislators prove it’s possible to bridge our political divide if you ride bikes together.

No bias here. Police in Pennsylvania blamed a 16-year old boy for riding his ebike into the path of an oncoming van — after redacting an earlier statement that the driver was speeding, insisting the driver’s speed didn’t matter because the boy was at fault. Even though the kid likely based his decision to cross the street on the assumption the driver wasn’t speeding, and therefore had enough time to do it. 

This is how you do it. Arlington, Virginia officially opened a new $11 million Complete Streets project near the Pentagon that will eventually connect to an upcoming bike/ped bridge across the Potomac River, as well as another pedestrian bridge leading to Reagan National Airport.

 

International

Bike Radar offers advice on what to do if your head hits the ground, saying bicyclists are more cavalier about concussions than other athletes. Based on my experience, you regain consciousness wearing an oxygen mask, ride in an ambulance with lights and siren, and spend some quality time in the ICU. But what do I know?

Speaking of murder, a London woman is accused of using her Range Rover as a weapon to run down and kill a man riding an ebike following a high-speed chase, then hiring a man to run down her ex-boyfriend as he rode one — all because of a bad breakup.

Momentum says Antwerp, Belgium is an “effortlessly cool” city best toured by bicycle. Then again, every city is best toured by bicycle, if the city makes it safe and practical. And yes, I’m looking at you, Los Angeles.

 

Competitive Cycling

Speaking of concussions, Italian cyclist Filippo Baroncini is back on his bike, just two months after he was placed in an induced coma following a crash in the Tour of Poland.

 

Finally…

Nothing like setting a new Guinness record for hopping across ten car roofs on a single bike wheel in just one minute, when you’re still way too young to drink one.

And if Tamale, Ghana is as tasty and bike-friendly as it sounds, I’m moving there.

……… 

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
« Older Entries  
Wordpress Theme by ThemeZee