Ebike crash critically injures Brea students, Bike League advocacy workshop still on, and fewer cars means cleaner air

Day 17 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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Awful news from Brea, where two high school students were critically injured when they crashed a shared ebike into a brick wall.

The teens were riding single-person ebike when they clipped a tree with their handlebars while traveling at a high rate of speed. The ebike rider reportedly suffered significant, life-threatening injuries, while the passenger suffered major injuries.

Neither was wearing a bike helmet, which is legally required for any bike rider under 18 in California, or anyone riding a Class 3 ebike.

There’s no word on their identities at this time, or whether what they were riding was an electric bicycle, mo-ped or electric motorcycle.

Click this link for an easier to read graph of California’s bicycle and ebike regulations, courtesy of the Orange County Bicycle Coalition

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Thanks to Anna Tang for forwarding news that the Bike League’s March Bike Advocacy Workshop will go on as planned, despite last week’s wildfires, which hopefully will be out by then.

You can register by clicking here, since I can’t embed her BlueSky post with the link, and had to settle for a screenshot.

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Another lesson from Paris that seems lost on Los Angeles.

As Paris has worked to build a 15-minute city and provide effective alternatives to driving, it has seen a corresponding improvement in air quality.

And yes, I have the same problem embedding this BlueSky post, too.

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

Aussie bicyclists are understandably angry after an 18-year old man was arrested for sabotaging two bike trails by stringing fence wire strung at waist level, injuring two people and severely damaging four high-end bikes, in an attack that could have literally killed someone. He’s being held without bail on four counts of endangering life, which carries a sentence of up to 20 years for each count, not 25 as we said yesterday, as prosecutors suggest he may have thought it was just a prank.

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Local  

No news is good news, right?

 

State

Sacramento BMX riders are fighting to keep a DIY bike park they built by hand over a decade ago, despite city plans to level it to restore the natural habitat.

Sad news from Sacramento, where a woman in her 50’s was killed when she was right-hooked by the driver of a semi-truck — although though the CHP immediately blamed the victim for attempting to pass the truck as it was turning. And judging from the article, the truck was apparently was operating on its own while the driver just sat there. 

Finishing our Sacramento trifecta, the Sacramento Bee apparently lowered their paywall to profile each of the 32 lives lost to traffic violence on the city’s streets, each killed despite the city’s impending Vision Zero commitment to end traffic deaths in the next two years.

 

National

Consumer Reports suggests that buying a bike helmet online could be dangerous, due to a proliferation of third-party sellers of helmets that don’t meet federal safety standards. One more reason you’re better off buying from your favorite local bike shop.

BMX star Nigel Sylvester just dropped his latest collaboration with Nike’s Jordan Brand by introducing his new Air Jordan 4 “Brick by Brick” shoe.

Bicycling’s senior test editors offer their solutions to some of the most vexing bicycling problems. But you’ll have to subscribe if you want to get the answers.

A Portland, Oregon woman spent the past year posting signs at the site of all 69 fatal traffic collisions in the city. Doing that in Los Angeles would be a full-time job posting nearly one sign a day.

Las Vegas suggests using the city’s bikeshare system, rideshare or a double-decker bus on your next trip to flush your money down the craps table.

Albuquerque, New Mexico is building buffered bike lanes and multi-use trails to protect riders in one of America’s most dangerous cities for bicyclists, though disparities remain between wealthier and low-income neighborhoods.

Great idea. Fayetteville, Arkansas’ trash department is teaming with a local nonprofit to set up a drop-off location where people can donate their old bicycles to be repaired and donated to people in need.

A Vermont city is being sued after a hit-and-run cop allegedly killed a bicycle-riding man who was waiting at a bus stop at 3 am, then continued without stopping before his conscience apparently got the better of him, and he came back to the scene.

 

International

How do you love ditching your car for a bike commute? Let Momentum count the ways.

A Toronto op-ed dispels some of the myths used to dismiss the value of bicycle infrastructure by examining just who is actually using it.

A new kind of bike shop has opened in Manchester, England, offering service for delivery riders reminiscent of a Formula 1 pit crew.

A Paris suburb has launched a pilot program to light up bike lanes at dangerous intersections, which automatically light up when someone on a bicycle enters the intersection.

In 1923, six men from India set out to ride their bikes around the world to prove that Indians were capable of greatness, in contrast to the colonial image of them as subjugated and incapable; three completed the journey four-and-a-half year later, traveling more than 40,000 miles across 27 countries, while meeting Pope Pius XI and Benito Mussolini along the way.

A group of Indian men set off this week on a 2,500-mile bike rally from Kashmir to Kanyakumari to promote a pollution-free India. Although judging from the photos, the “rally” consists of just five men.

Bike brands from around the world are trying to cash in on China’s latest bike boom.

 

Competitive Cycling

The 2025 Santos Women’s Tour Down Under kicks off the first of three stages today, which is actually yesterday in Australia. Or today is tomorrow. Or something like that.

Canadians Sarah van Dam, Adele Normand and Mara Roldan hope to make their mark at the Tour Down Under, as they debut with their new teams.

Bicycling considers whether the sport has a drinking problem, as some recent studies suggest there’s no safe amount of alcohol. Although Yahoo says they posted the same story, word-for-word, two years earlier. And no, cycling doesn’t have a drinking problem, but some cyclists do. There’s a difference.

 

Finally…

Your next ebike could be ready for the apocalypse. And the late, great David Lynch was one of us.

Then again, so was Bob Uecker, for those of us old enough to remember.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

New York revises police chase rules, but LA cities don’t; and SaMo shop supports LA bicyclists affected by the wildfires

We’re now 16 days into LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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The NYPD is changing its policy for high speed police chases.

The department is no restricting them to only the most serious and violent crimes, rather than traffic infractions, violations and nonviolent misdemeanors.

This comes after more than a quarter of the 2,200 police chases in New York City last year resulted in crashes, property damage or physical injuries. Or worse — including the October death of a woman riding a bicycle.

This announcement came the same day a Las Vegas driver killed someone riding a bicycle, while fleeing from a traffic stop just half a mile away. Another person was hospitalized when the driver, who was taken into custody, crashed into another car.

Now someone just needs to send LA area cops the memo, where crashes like that happen far too often.

Today’s image by Alexas_Fotos from Pixabay.

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Hats off to Santa Monica’s Pedal Mafia bike shop, which is supporting the area’s tight knit bicycling community by distributing new bikewear to people who lost theirs in last week’s fires.

Although something tells me they’re not the only members of the bicycling community helping victims of the wildfires.

So if you know any groups, shops or individuals who deserve a shoutout for helping people affected by the fires, let me know.

And if you know someone in our extended bicycling family who needs help, let me know that, too.

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Lost in last week’s calamity was the announcement of the year’s first CicLAvia, West Adams meets University Park, on Sunday, February 23rd.

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Streets For All moved the date for their latest virtual Happy Hour to next Wednesday, featuring newly-elected LA City Councilmember Ysabel Jurado.

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Damian Kevitt, founder of Streets Are For Everyone, aka SAFE, invites you to join various Los Angeles groups to help clean up LA.

We’ve teamed up with local groups to organize 100% volunteer fueled clean-ups that tackle the mess left behind from recent windstorms and help restore neighborhoods we all love.

We invite you to join an existing clean-up or rally your own group.

Here’s what’s currently scheduled:

More are being added. If you can’t join one of these clean-ups, you can organize your own – even with just a few people. We can list it at LetsCleanLA.org to encourage others to join you!

Take photos and share your grime-fighting activities with #LetsCleanLA and #LAStrong to encourage other Angelenos all over the county to get out and do the same.

Let’s turn this challenge into an opportunity to show what LA is made of—resilience, community, and a whole lot of heart.

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No surprise here, as the annual Los Angeles Firecracker run, walk and bike ride has been indefinitely postponed due to last week’s wildfires, with a new date to be announced.

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Like the images that followed the atomic blast at Hiroshima, this is what it looks like when a kid’s bike was simply vaporized by the intense firestorm in the Palisades

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

The recently anti-bike London Times blames the new Parisian bike lanes for driving passengers from the city’s buses, arguing that narrowed streets have slowed bus trips, yet no one ever seems to blame congestion on the people in cars who actually cause it; it’s a far cry from the paper’s award-winning campaign supporting safe bicycling infrastructure just 12 years earlier.

Australian authorities have arrested an 18-year old man for stringing fence wire across a pair of bike paths near Adelaide, injuring two riders and severely damaging four bikes; he has been charged with four counts of endangering life, which carries a sentence of up to 25 years per count. Which means he could leave prison as a dapper 118-year old ex-con.

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

Welsh police are urging a hit-and-run bike rider to come forward because a woman who had been walking her dog with her husband died five weeks after she was struck by a man riding a bicycle, whose identity was hidden by a face covering.

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Local  

Momentum says Paris’ Olympic bicycle revolution offers lessons for Los Angeles and other global cities, ranging from prioritizing safety to committing to a long-term vision. Although whether Los Angeles will actually learn anything from Paris — let alone do anything — is highly debatable.

Los Angeles has just four years to rebuild planned Olympic venues destroyed by last week’s fires; fortunately, the velodrome in Carson was unaffected, though road races may need to be rerouted.

A Los Angeles man rode an ebike more than 20 miles to discover the Pacific Palisades townhouse he shares with his family was still standing, but the home he grew up in that his mother had just moved out of, not so much.

Another man rode a Metro Bike to try to rescue the dogs left behind when the Palisades Fire erupted as he was working in DTLA; when he couldn’t get through the barricades, a firefighter knocked down his door to save the pets.

 

State

Streetsblog California editor Melanie Curry is stepping away from the nonprofit transportation news site, which will be a big loss for all of us who have long admired her dogged determination to dig out the facts; former Streetsblog Los Angeles editor Damian Newton will now step into the role.

San Clemente considers barring kids under 16 and requiring a driver’s license to carry a passenger on an ebike, as well as requiring a passenger seat attached to the bike. Although whether they actually have that authority under state law is debatable.

Plans for a protected bike lane along a deadly section of University Ave in eastern San Diego suffered a setback when inflation pushed all the contractor bids above $23.4 million expected price tag. At least we’ll blame inflation, because simple greed couldn’t have anything to do with it, right?

The San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission is holding a public workshop today to consider the proposal to remove the multiuse path from the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge on a trial basis, giving the space back to motor vehicles on weekdays, and only allowing bikes and pedestrians on weekends; a shuttle bus would transport bike riders when the path is closed. The Marin County Bicycle Coalition is calling for people to speak out at the 1 pm meeting.

 

National

The National Bicycle Network now extends over 2,300 miles across the US with the addition of four newly expanded routes.

An Oregon bill would ban high-speed ped-assist ebikes from bike lanes and sidewalks. Although a better option would be to simply reclassify them as mo-peds, rather than ebikes, which are already required to use the street. 

Another new Oregon bill would limit the state’s $1,200 ebike vouchers to people on government assistance. Which is great if your goal is to provide efficient transportation to those most in need, but not so much if the goal is to get people out of their cars. 

Washington will launch its first ebike rebate program in April with a budget of $5 million. Which is twice the amount available in California’s first round, even though California has five times the population of the Evergreen State.

Montana legislators wisely pulled a bill that would have required all bicyclists to ride against traffic, unless they are led and followed by a flagged vehicle, and regardless of whether they’re riding on the shoulder or in a traffic lane. Apparently, just another attempt to thin the herd.

Now you, too, can own your very own bikeshare system, as Austin, Texas puts their whole damn thing on the auction block. Thanks to Megan Lynch for the link. 

This is why people keep dying on our streets. A longtime Grand Rapids, Michigan stage hand was killed by an alleged drunk driver who reportedly “flew” off a highway exit ramp and blew through a red light, striking the man as he rode his bike to work because he couldn’t afford parking on a stage hand’s wages; it was the driver’s second DUI arrest in just over a year. That’s what happens when judges and prosecutors bargain away felony DUIs because they don’t want to inconvenience first time offenders. Or second. Or third.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul proposed reclassifying the fastest and heaviest ebikes as mo-peds, requiring a license and registration. Although Streetsblog says very few ebikes actually exceed the governor’s 100-pound limit.

New Jersey became the first state to write into law an administrative body tasked with steering the state to zero traffic deaths, although they couldn’t bring themselves to call it Vision Zero, terming it Target Zero, instead.

A Florida bike rider says the rumble strips in the bike lanes on A1A, the state’s coastal highway, are going to kill someone, after he ended up with a broken collarbone when he inadvertently rode over them.

 

International

Cyclist recommends the year’s best bicycling documentaries.

Momentum suggests seven “stunning” national bike routes around the globe, including the Great American Rail-Trail in this country.

Cycling Weekly examines why men outnumber women riders on the road, but women cyclists vastly outnumber men in the gym.

He gets it. A British Columbia writer says when we discuss crashes, we need to emphasize the people involved, not just cars — and not “cyclists,” which automatically “others” the person on the bicycle.

Buried in a Guardian story about the “conflict” between bikeshare ebike riders and regular bicyclists is the fact that accident data shows no difference in the rate of crashes between ebike and non-electrified bicycle riders, suggesting that the common perception that ebike riders are more aggressive is a myth.

An English man is marking the fifth anniversary of his mother’s death from cancer by riding 300 miles in her memory; a crowdfunding campaign has already raised the equivalent of nearly $1,000 for cancer research charity.

A British writer says he’s tired of being blinded by bicycle strobe lights, calling flashing bike lights a menace on the roads and sidewalks. You’ll my flashers when you pry them out of my cold, dead hands, because they do far too much to improve safety when you ride. But I angle them down so they don’t shine in people’s eyes. 

Czech carmaker Škoda’s We Love Cycling website shares inspiring stories from women riders.

A new Spanish law requires drivers to slow down by the equivalent of 12.5 mph below the posted speed limit before passing people on bicycles, while still requiring motorists to give a 4.5-foot passing distance.

 

Competitive Cycling

The Giro goes to Albania, as the classic Italian stage race announced its 2025 route.

Spain’s Costa Blanca coast is becoming overpopulated with pro cycling teams taking advantage of the region’s ideal weather for winter training camps, as well as their fans, resulting in the inevitable traffic jams of the two and four wheeled variety.

British pro Tom Pidcock says he’s happy to step off cycling’s biggest stage, passing on the Tour de France to compete in the Giro and Vuelta for his new team.

Former two-time US national champ, three-time Tour of California and one-time Tour de Suisse champ Levi Leipheimer says he wants to reinvigorate US road racing by offering $156,000 in prize money for his annual Sonoma County gran fondo, billing it as the country’s richest and toughest road race.

The annual Tour de Big Bear will be bigger and uh, bear-ier than ever, with road, gravel and mountain bike races, as well as a festival, bike demos and beer, if not bears.

 

Finally…

That feeling when you ride a bikeshare bike to the British premier of your acclaimed Bob Dylan biopic, only to get a ticket for improper parking. Or when you decide to ride across Europe, and your mom invites herself along.

And that feeling when you go on a 3,700-mile ride across New Zealand, Australia and French Polynesia, and can’t get a sitter for your kids.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

Booting bike advocates for advocating for bikes, and mental health eval for driver in 2022 Palm Springs vehicular rampage

We’re now 14 days into LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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No bias here.

A pair of Danville “councilmembers run amok” are trying to kick a pair of bicycle advocates off the city’s Bicycle Advisory Commission, after failing to disband the commission a year earlier.

Apparently for the crime of “annoying” city staffers by trying to advise them on bicycling policy.

Which would seem to be the whole purpose of a bicycle advisory commission, but maybe that’s just me.

According to a columnist for the Mercury-News, Councilmembers Newell Arnerich and Robert Storer are attempting to remove original members Al Kalin and Bruce Bilodeau from the commission, all because they insist on a data-driven approach to bicycle safety,

As opposed to just throwing darts at a map, evidently. Or maybe the esteemed council folk don’t want to know about anything that might adversely the ability of drivers to continue thinning the city’s bicycling herd.

To wit, as columnist Daniel Barenstein puts it,

Kalin and Bilodeau led efforts to identify collision hotspots in Danville and document the very real dangers of posts installed too close together just before street crossings along the Iron Horse Regional Trail, which runs through the town.

It was exactly what the commission was charged with doing when it was directed to, among other things, “assess the conditions, operations, and safety of existing bicycle facilities and non-motorized transportation…”

There’s been a troubling lack of specifics about what Kalin and Bilodeau have done wrong. In a verbal lambasting at a council study session last month, Storer did provide one example, criticizing the study of the poles, also called bollards:

“I don’t care about the sizing of the bollards on the Iron Horse trail,” Storer said. “I care about the (street) crossings on the Iron Horse trail. That’s what we should be looking at.”

Maybe because bollards only protect bicyclists and pedestrians, while a focus on street crossing protects every motorist’s God-given right to go “zoom, zoom” to their hearts content, without having to use that little stoppie pedal thing on the floorboard.

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Well, no shit, Sherlock.

A sentencing hearing for 30-year old Palm Springs resident Juaquin Mercer Moraga was suspended when his attorney requested a mental health evaluation.

Moraga was convicted last March on three counts of felony assault with a deadly weapon, two counts each of misdemeanor assault and misdemeanor vandalism, and one count each of felony vandalism and misdemeanor battery for a bizarre hours-long series of physical and vehicular attacks on multiple motorists and a man riding a bicycle in 2022.

He attempted to run down the latter head-on, gunning his car from the opposite side of the road and jumping the median at an estimated 60 mph, forcing the man to jump off his bike to avoid getting hit.

All accompanied by shouted non-sequiturs demanding people stop following him or challenging them to fight, telling one driver “you’re not man enough to use a gun.”

According to the trial brief filed by the defense, Moraga was in the throes of paranoid delusions due to major depressive disorder and cannabis use disorder, while suffering from post-traumatic stress.

The evaluation will determine whether Moraga is eligible for a post-conviction diversion to Mental Health Court, as opposed to a pre-trial mental health provision.

It sounds like he should be a shoe-in, under the circumstances.

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

A British letter writer pleads for someone to consider the poor, forgotten children instead of wasting money on bike lanes that could be used by those same poor, forgotten children riding their bikes.

Once again, someone has boobytrapped bike paths in a deliberate attempt to injure people riding bicycles, after someone used fence wire to string across multiple pathways near Adelaide, Australia, injuring at least three people and causing extensive damage to their bicycles.

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

Police in Lakewood, Colorado are on the lookout for a bike-born butt slapper, who glides up behind women on an ebike and smacks them on the ass, making him subject to sexual assault charges once they find him.

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Local  

An Australian man evacuated from last week’s Palisades wildfire on his bicycle along with his 18-month old daughter, stopping on his way out to knock on neighbors doors to warn them about the flames.

 

State

A UC Santa Cruz sociology professor says she found people working to solve problems while riding her bike along the backroads of Kansas.

 

National

A new Congressional bill would require automakers to install automatic emergency braking systems on new vehicles designed to obey speed limits, detect vulnerable road users, and recognize different skin tones and complexions, as well as clothing and protective gear.

New York bicyclists are grumbling about a price hike for the city’s Citi Bike bikeshare service, but most say they’ll continue to use it anyway.

 

International

Bosch wants to deter thieves by enabling you to lock your ebike battery using a smartphone app.

Forty-two people have now been charged with riot-related offenses following the deaths of two Welsh teenagers who crashed the ebike they were riding as they were being followed by the cops, although police insist they weren’t actually pursuing them and didn’t crash into them.

A British PhD candidate examines the role women bicyclists played in the “uphill climb to equality.” Then again, you seldom hear about anyone climbing downhill or across level ground.

A Malaysian website says biking to work in the country isn’t for the faint-hearted, yet a “small but determined group of bike commuters” brave the hazards to embrace the freedom and sustainability of bicycling.

 

Competitive Cycling

Czech carmaker Škoda’s We Love Cycling website highlights the women’s cyclists to watch this year in multiple disciplines, from road cycling to BMX. Although it does seem to be a little light on women from this country.

NBA star Lebron James isn’t the only dad who wants to compete alongside his son, as 42-year old Venezuelan climbing specialist José Rujano came out of retirement to ride the eight-day Vuelta al Táchira stage race next to his son Jeison.

 

Finally…

That feeling when you waste your roadie upgrade funds on pointless weight weenie exotica. And use our chain lube or you, too, could die of cancer.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

Trying to reason with firestorm season, bikes better for evacuations, and alleged Mammone killer competent to stand trial

We’re now 13 days into LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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Okay, I’m back.

It’s been a challenging few days, as my wife and I are still coughing from all the smoke we sucked in evacuating from the Sunset Fire.

But we’re safe, and in our home, unlike so many others affected by last week’s firestorms.

All of which feeds into the complicated mix of emotions I’ve confronted for the past few days.

Starting with the gratitude I feel for still having somewhere to come home to, and the firefighters who made a heroic stand to save our entire neighborhood.

However, that’s often overshadowed by the overwhelming sadness that so much of the city I love now stands in ruins, iconic neighborhoods and favored riding routes forever changed. Combined with that is survivors guilt, because we’re safe, while so many others have lost everything.

Never mind that the worst we went through was having to spend a night in an overpriced Hollywood hotel.

I feel much as I did after 9/11 or Hurricane Katrina. Except this time it’s right here, affecting the people and places I know and love.

And I find myself worrying about the people who have supported this site for so long.

I sincerely hope you and your loved ones are safe as I write this. But if you’ve been affected by the wildfires, let me know. Tell me if you have a crowdfunding page, or if there’s anything we can do to help.

We probably can’t find you a new home or car, but someone here might have an extra room or a spare bicycle if you need one.

Today’s photo shows the glow from the Sunset Fire just moment after ignition; within a few minutes, that same street would be completely gridlocked. 

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While we’re on the subject, let’s talk about last week’s panicked mass evacuation through the gridlocked streets of Hollywood.

The narrow streets of our neighborhood were jammed with people trying to get out, cars, trucks and SUVs crammed bumper to bumper, and instantly converted to one-way streets with no room left to go upstream to spawn.

If a wind-driven fire had flashed through the neighborhood, like it did in Pacific Palisades and Altadena just one day earlier, there would have been no escape.

And unlike the 2018 Paradise Fire, there wasn’t a single road diet or bike lane anyone could blame it on.

Just too many people in too many cars, with streets filled far beyond capacity.

Yet someone on a bicycle could have easily made their escape in just minutes, gliding to safety past endless lines of motor vehicles. Then again, you could have walked your bike out faster than anyone managed to drive.

And if everyone had been riding bicycles, there would have been no backup at all.

But if you try it nest time, just wear a mask. Because that smoke is murder.

Then again, using a bike seems to work the other way, too.

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Caltrans offers an update on the latest road closures due to the fires.

https://twitter.com/CaltransDist7/status/1878623771093066025

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Our old friend Richard Masoner, aka Cyclelicious, forwards news of a bicycle-adjacent opportunity to buy a meal for a firefighter from Los Angeles farm-to-table restaurant Le Great Outdoor.

You can also donate to Chef Andre’s World Central Kitchen to help feed people affected by the wildfires in Southern California. Why he hasn’t already won the Nobel Peace Prize, I will never understand.

Meanwhile, The Bike Shop Santa Monica is offering half-priced ebikes to evacuees.

And Masoner forwards the news below that Helen’s Cycles is loaning ebikes to people affected by the fires so they can go check on their homes.

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Lost in all the fire news was word that Vanroy Evan Smith was found competent to stand trial last month, two years after he allegedly murdered a Providence Mission Hospital ER physician.

Dr. Michael Mammone was riding in the bike lane on northbound PCH in Dana Point when Smith is accused of intentionally running him down with his car in a random attack, then getting out and repeatedly stabbing the beloved doctor.

Smith, who had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, allegedly told police he had intended to kill someone that day.

And he succeeded.

Smith was ordered held without bail on one count of murder, along with sentencing enhancements for the alleged use a deadly weapon and lying in wait for his victim.

The hearing was held to determine his competency after two years of treatment and evaluation by mental health experts.

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While we were gone, NACTO — aka the National Association of City Transportation Officials — released their updated Bicycle Design Guide, newly revised for the first time in a decade.

Here’s how they describe the new document.

Developed for cities, by cities, the Urban Bikeway Design Guide is a blueprint for changing decades-old practices on city streets. Endorsed by the U.S. Department of Transportation and recognized in federal law, the Urban Bikeway Design Guide is used by hundreds of municipalities, state DOTs, and regional agencies across the U.S. and Canada to design streets that are safe and accessible for people biking. Because of the Urban Bikeway Design Guide, treatments such as protected bike lanes are now commonplace across the U.S. and Canada…

The new edition includes detailed policy, planning, and project development guidance to ensure connected bikeable streets become standard practice. It also shows how to center equity and access in every step of planning and implementing a bike network–addressing inequities caused by the transportation system and building collaborative partnerships with historically marginalized groups of residents.

With more detailed technical guidance than previous editions, the Guide points the way for cities to plan and implement bike networks that account for the many different types of people who may be using the street. The third edition also reflects the increasing use of new types of vehicles using bike infrastructure and features best practices to integrate more types of bikeway users–including those riding e-bikes, scooters, and cargo bikes–into the design process. More detailed intersection design practices focus on improving safety for everyone–walking, biking, scooting, and driving.

It will be available in hardcover and ebook editions starting tomorrow.

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

A 72-year old Florida man will have to attend anger management classes for attacking an 82-year old man riding a bicycle, after the two men argued when the younger man told the bike rider to “get a horn” as he tried to pass him and his dogs.

Good for them. The UK’s Bicycle Association filed a formal complaint against the BBC for a commentator’s alleged hatchet job attacking the “safety and social issues” surrounding ebikes, while conflating “illegal e-motorbikes” with road-legal ebikes.

The Swiss Roads Office is considering taxing bicyclists to help fund a 15-year program to build bike lanes, even though bicycles are enshrined in the country’s constitution.

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Local  

Letter writers in the Los Angeles Times respond to a rare positive look at ebikes by complaining about rude, sidewalk riding, helmet-less and smartphone distracted bicyclists who don’t use all the new bike lanes. But at least one enlightened writer points out that bikes can’t block traffic when they are traffic.

Velo says the Los Angeles bicycling community is rallying around beloved members who lost homes in the wildfires, including links to their crowdfunding pages. I’m personally heartbroken to hear the news about my friend and former Altadena councilmember Dorothy “Dot” Wong.

While the owner of Altadena’s Steve’s Bike Shop was using a garden house to help save the homes of his friends and neighbors, his own bike shop burned to the ground.

A photographer for the Pasadena Star-News shares his horrific images of his Altadena hometown on fire, saying all the streets and avenues rode on his bike and skateboard growing up are unrecognizable now.

 

State

Calbike reports that new studies show there are no downsides to the Bicycle Safety Stop, aka Stop As Yield, aka Idaho Stop Law. Which makes it even harder to understand why Gavin Newsom has vetoed the bill twice.

Calbike also argues that California’s transportation budget must prioritize green transportation, after two years of Newsom’s steep budget cuts to the state’s Active Transportation Program.

Electrek says “the heyday of fast and questionably (or clearly) illegal” ebike brand SUPER73 seems to be coming to an end thanks to California’s new ebike restrictions.

A series of bike lanes and sidewalks will be closed in Carlsbad and Encinitas for about eight weeks starting later this month to build ADA-compliant ramps.

A 51-year-old San Diego man appears to have been the victim of bad road design, after he suffered multiple fractures when he was struck by a pickup driver while riding in the bike lane on the the 5100 block of Fairmount Ave; he was rear-ended when he evidently veered across the northbound transition ramp from Montezuma Road to reach the disjointed bike lane on the other side.

Life is cheap in Riverside County, where a judge overruled the DA’s objection, and sentenced Riverside County sheriff’s deputy Christian J. Lopez to a misdemeanor diversion program for killing 33-year old bike rider Christopher Thomas while driving a marked patrol car back in 2023; we still don’t know why Lopez was charged, or why charges weren’t filed until last month.

 

National

An upcoming video game allows you to experience a world build around bicycles. Just like every world should be. 

Bicycling rates the 20 best-ever bike documentaries, movies and TV series. You can read it on Yahoo if the magazine blocks you. And if you somehow haven’t seen The Triplets of Belleville, stop reading this and go watch it, already. 

Justin Timberlake is one of us, responding to a viral video urging him to join a couple hundred kids and their parents for the weekly Portland Bike Bus when he was in town for a performance — and he did.

A Seattle bike rider is suing the city, claiming that a new parking-protected bike lane obscured sight lines and caused a collision that left him with a life-threatening traumatic brain injury. I’m seeing anecdotal reports of bike riders injured by bollards or curbs separating bike lanes, but every study I’ve seen indicates that protected bike lanes improve safety; if that ever changes, I’ll let you know. 

A Reno, Nevada website says the political climate has changed, and it’s time for the city’s bike advocates to resume their efforts now that there’s more public support.

What could possibly go wrong? Montana legislators introduced legislation requiring all bicyclists to ride against traffic, unless accompanied by a flagged motor vehicle escort, in an apparent attempt to thin the herd by increasing the risk bicyclists face.

An Iowa law professor takes issue with prioritizing street design to reduce traffic deaths under Vision Zero, calling for increased traffic enforcement instead of — or at least, in addition to — traffic calming measures. Even though more than a century of an emphasis on traffic enforcement hasn’t managed to reduce deaths on the streets and highways.

 

International

Introducing folding tires for folding bikes, and baby onesie bodysuits for your future Tour de France champ.

Cyclist ranks last year’s best bike books. Evidently they haven’t managed to find a copy of Peter Flax’s excellent Live to Ride: Finding Joy and Meaning on a Bicycle over there in the UK.

A British bike rider calls a security guard “an absolute hero” for successfully fighting off a bike thief using an angle grinder to steal his bike, even as the guard got badly cut up in the process.

A multiple UK national cycling champ says it just feels wrong that riding a bicycle is more dangerous than stepping off a cliff with wings strapped to your back.

Brompton can’t launch their new ebike line because the controllers they need are busy being used for Ukrainian military drones.

The Cycling Embassy of Denmark is inviting urban planners, decision-makers and bike activists to Copenhagen for May’s Bikeable City Masterclass to learn how to incorporate Danish cycling solutions into their own cities.

One of India’s most successful stars was one of us, though she may not have remembered it for awhile, after she suffered shirt-term memory loss falling from her bicycle while filming a classic Bollywood film.

An Australian university lecturer says a pair of Dutch and Chinese studies show ebikes pose a higher risk of death than other bicycles, when controlling the data for usage rates and mileage. Which probably shouldn’t surprise anyone, especially when throttle-controlled virtual electric motorcycles are lumped in with comparatively slower ped-assist ebikes.

 

Competitive Cycling

Recently retired Dutch pro Michael Mørkøv says the idea that cycling’s top performers are doping is inconceivable. Although it’s sadly quite conceivable for those of us who lived through doping’s golden era.

Speaking of dopers, Lance might want to come out of retirement, now that the new Enhanced Games will offer a doping-friendly alternative to the Olympics where it’s not only accepted, but encouraged.

Former Slovakian superstar Peter Sagan is exchanging his cycling shoes for dancing slippers to compete in the country’s equivalent of Dancing With the Stars.

 

Finally…

Where the hell do bike model names come from, anyway? Now you, too, can turn your favorite bicycle into a front-loading bucket bike.

And nothing like riding the equivalent of climbing Mt. Everest every 2.85 days for a hundred straight days.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

38-year old man riding bicycle killed in Ontario DUI crash on Christmas Eve; driver identified as rookie LAPD officer

Once again, someone riding a bicycle was killed by a drunken hit-and-run driver in Southern California, and we didn’t learn about until weeks later.

Except this time there was a cop involved.

Allegedly.

According to the Los Angeles Times — the only source currently reporting the story — 38-year old Chino resident Fabio Cebreros was riding his bike on Bon View Ave in Ontario on Christmas Eve, when he was struck by an off-duty cop around 7:37 pm.

The driver was identified as 39-year old Aaron Kleibacker, a rookie officer with the Los Angeles Police Department’s Rampart Division.

Cebreros was taken to a hospital, where he died from his injuries,

Kleibacker initially fled the scene before returning, although it isn’t clear if he turned himself in, or if he was recognized by a witness or identified some other way.

He reportedly cooperated with investigators, but failed a sobriety test, testing at over twice the legal limit.

Kleibacker was booked on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter, and released the next day. Charges are pending.

The Times reports Kleibacker appears to have joined the LAPD after serving with the Marines. An LAPD spokesperson confirmed that he still works for the department, although probationary officers can be fired outright for alleged misconduct.

There’s no word on how the crash occurred, or where it happened on Bon View; there’s also no information on how long Cebreros was hospitalized before he died.

We also don’t know how long it took Kleibacker to return following the crash, which could have an impact on whether he faces hit-and-run charges, in addition to vehicular manslaughter and — presumably — DUI counts.

This was at least the 56th bicycling fatality in Southern California last year, and the sixth that I’m aware of in San Bernardino County.

Twenty of those deaths last year involved hit-and-run drivers.

My deepest sympathy and prayers for Fabio Cebreros and his loved ones.

Move along, nothing to see here — panicked evacuation edition

Shit, meet fan.

Like most Angelenos, I’ve been watching news of the fires with increasing horror all week. And like too many of us, too many of my friends have lost everything in a literal puff of smoke.

But when concerned friends and relatives would ask, I would confidently tell them we were in a safe area far from the danger; the only thing we had to worry about was someone starting a fire in the Hollywood Hills above us.

Guess what happened next.

In a matter of minutes, we went from praying for others to grabbing everything we could before joining a long line of fellow evacuees on the gridlocked streets of Hollywood as ash fell around us from the growing glow just blocks away.

It took us two-and-a-half hours to get to an overpriced hotel three miles away. Something I could done it in 20 minutes on a bike.

And would have if I didn’t have a wife and dog to worry about.

But we were safe, and watched on the news as firefighters made a heroic stand that literally saved our entire neighborhood.

By yesterday morning we were back in our home, nervously watching the winds as we unpacked everything we took in haste the night before.

Then came the false alarm evacuation alert ordering us to leave once again, only to be cancelled 20 minutes later with an “oopsie” alert explaining we got it in error for a fire far away.

Which oddly did not seem to lower my blood pressure or pulse rate one iota.

Now I’m completely exhausted, physically and emotionally, and worried sick about the friends we’ve yet to hear from.

And just this side of tears if my wife looks at me the wrong way. Or the dog, for that matter.

So I hope you’ll forgive me if I miss yet another post today. I just don’t have it in me to write about bikes right now.

I’ll be back on Monday, as usual, to catch up on anything we’ve missed, barring any further disasters, natural or otherwise.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to crawl into bed and pull the covers over my head.

And hope this is all over when I finally wake up, whenever that may be.

If you’re thinking about riding in these winds, don’t. Seriously.

My internet service has been going in and out all night, which is what happens when the cable company insists on stringing overhead wires in wind prone areas.

And the power’s not looking much better at the moment, so let’s make this quick.

If you’re in the LA area, and thinking about riding your bike in these winds, don’t.

The National Weather Service has described these winds as life-threatening, and they’re not kidding.

We’re seeing hurricane force winds throughout the LA area, particularly near mountains and canyons, which can easily blow large objects through the air, and knock down branches and power lines.

I’ve also had sudden gusts of winds knock me off my bike, and blow me across multiple lanes of traffic.

And trust me, that ain’t fun.

Then there’s the multiple fires spreading across the area, which can erupt suddenly and spread a lot faster than you can ride away.

In addition, the smoke from these fires is highly toxic, and poses a significantly greater risk if you’re exercising and breathing deeply. So if you can smell smoke, don’t ride.

Period.

There’s also the problem of multiple road closures, including PCH and the hills in Pacific Palisades, as well as around Eaton Canyon and Sun Valley. Which means that even if you do decide to chance it, you may find your usual route shut down.

Not to mention your escape route, if you need one.

On the other hand, if you have to evacuate, your bike makes a much better choice in an emergency than a motor vehicle, as hundreds of drivers trying to escape the Palisades fire learned the hard way yesterday.

Particularly after authorities had to use a bulldozer to clear a path for emergency vehicles through all the cars abandoned by drivers who couldn’t get out. (Thanks to Larry Kawalec for the link.)

The good news it, this is predicted to let up by Wednesday night, and be over by Thursday night.

So stay home, stay safe, and I’ll see you tomorrow to catch up on anything we missed.

Photo by Cole Keister from Pexels.

Car trashed after driver zooms through teens on bikes, and CA man gets 12 years for killing bike rider while fleeing cops

Day 7 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

……..

The LAPD is looking into a viral incident that occurred over the weekend.

An impatient road-raging driver in a Mercedes Benz forced his way through a group of teenage bike riders on Olympic Blvd.

The kids appeared to be taking part in a rideout, taking up every lane on one side of the roadway.

While the law allows them to take the full right lane, they can’t legally occupy the entire roadway unless they’re riding at the normal speed of traffic.

Something the cops seemed to be more concerned with than the driver who dangerously and illegally swerved in and through them, sometimes running red lights and driving on the wrong side of the road, all while blaring his horn.

Or at least that’s how the single quote cited by the Los Angeles Times makes it appear.

The LAPD responded to a call for service at Olympic Boulevard and Highland Avenue around 1:30 p.m. Saturday, but when officers arrived the caller wasn’t there , according to LAPD Officer Rosario Cervantes.

“We’re aware of the video, but detectives are investigating exactly what occurred,” Cervantes said. “There shouldn’t be that many bicycles on the road blocking traffic, so that would be unsafe, but I don’t know exactly what transpired.”

Never mind that the driver could have easily killed someone with his dangerous antics.

On the other hand, video appears to show a violent mob attacking the same car in a parking garage a few minutes later, repeatedly stomping and kicking the Mercedes, and shattering the windshield as a man appears to flee while covering his head.

Which is another way of saying no one appears to be entirely innocent here.

Thanks to Dr. Grace Peng and Steven Hansen for the heads-up.

………

That’s more like it.

A Lancaster, California man will spend the next 12 years behind bars after killing a man riding in a Camarillo bike lane last July, as he was fleeing from police at speeds up to 100 mph.

Or make that six years, since California inmates seldom serve more than half their sentences.

Makare Darnell Toliver was being pursued by Ventura County Sheriff’s deputies on July 27th, suspected of robbing a man at gunpoint in a hotel parking lot, when he slammed into Ventura resident Robert Pierret while swerving into the bike lane on Central Ave to pass a slower car.

Pierret died after being taken to a local hospital.

Toliver continued to flee after hitting Pierret’s bicycle. He and his passenger were finally taken into custody after crashing into another car.

Ventura’s KEYT-TV reports Toliver pled guilty to a host of charges and sentencing enhancements, including 2nd degree robbery and assault with a semi-automatic weapon, as well as hit-and-run and evading police, both while causing a death.

Although the plea bargain makes it seem like armed robbery and fleeing from the cops were a bigger deal than the death of an innocent human being.

Hopefully Toliver will turn his life around behind bars. Because needlessly throwing away one life is enough.

………

Apparently, the Coachella Valley is no safer for people in golf carts than those on bicycles, after a 78-year old man was killed when the golf cart he was operating was struck by a driver as he crossed an intersection.

Although the local NBC station bizarrely considers that a vehicle versus pedestrian crash.

Just like the two men who were killed while riding bicycles in the area last week, who also weren’t pedestrians.

………

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

An Arizona candidate for Father of the Year faces charges for beating up two ebike-riding kids and stealing their cellphones, after evidently becoming enraged watching them swerve between vehicles — all while his own son watched from the car. Something tells me that kid is really proud of his dad right now. Or maybe not.

No bias here. The host of a new BBC report questions whether “ebikes are a new menace in need of tighter regulation,” after previously penning a column complaining that e-cargo bike prices are just too darn high.

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

A Florida sheriff’s deputy used his patrol car as a weapon to take down a fleeing suspect on a bicycle after the man flashed a gun at him while riding. Although someone should tell the Miami Herald it was the deputy, not the patrol car, who actually decided to ram him.

………

Local  

The Sierra Club celebrates the 40 people who joined them, Active SGV and Amigos de los Rios for a “16-mile community bike ride for all ages and skill levels.”

 

State

Chula Vista has closed a two-mile segment of the popular and scenic Sweetwater Bicycle Path & Promenade due to construction of a new convention center.

 

National

A new book from a 9/11 fire captain relates his journey by bicycle across the US to raise money for Ukraine, after recovering from knee replacement surgery on both legs.

The Wall Street Journal says the problem with building bicycles in the US is a reliance on parts made in China, which could be subject to Trump’s threats of even higher tariffs.

The head of a Hawaiian bike advocacy group hopes new laws will help improve safety for people on bicycles — even though all the proposals focus on the potential victims, rather than the people in the big, dangerous machines.

Seattle police detectives discover no one can surveil and take down an armed drug trafficker like the city’s bike cops.

Police in Vail, Colorado recovered nearly 20 high-end bicycles stolen from across the state, all because one theft victim had AirTags secreted on his bikes.

Cleveland is building the city’s first protected bike lane in the downtown area, part of their efforts to build a more comprehensive bike network.

A new Tennessee survey — from a conservative group, no less — finds fully half of the state’s voters support bike lanes on the streets, with only 24% opposed.

 

International

That’s more like it. Officials in an English town rejected complaints by drivers by offering a spirited defense of a new curb-protected bike lane, while some local suggested that anyone complaining should get driving lessons.

A writer for TechRadar tries the new ebike converter kit from the UK’s Skarper, and finds he’s the one converted.

This is why people keep dying on the streets. A 56-year old British driver walked without a day behind bars for the hit-and-run crash that left a 17-year old boy with life-changing injuries — despite having 128 previous traffic convictions and lying to the cops about selling his car — after the judge concludes he’s too old for the current state of the country’s prisons.

The massive investment Paris has made in reshaping the streets to make them more welcoming to bike riders and pedestrians has resulted in a doubling of bicycling rates in just a single year, and the curve is still rising.

 

Competitive Cycling

Good news from Moneywise, which reports that LA-based former pro Phil Gaimon, creator of the popular Worst Retirement Ever videos, thinks he’s finally beaten the outrageous $250,000 in medical bills he received after a 2020 track racing crash that resulted in multiple, potentially life-threatening fractures — something that’s now prohibited by a federal bill protecting consumers from unexpected out-of-network medical bills.

Olympic cycling gold medalist Kristen Faulkner offers her advice for success in business and bike racing, saying to face your fears and focus on what you can control.

Seriously? Pro cyclist Puck Moonen preaches body acceptance, diet and mental health on her Instagram page, but a celeb website reporting on it seems more concerned with her “amazing body.”

 

Finally…

Your next bike could have massive, oversized wheels, with a name like a dinosaur. If you’re going to insult someone, put the damn apostrophe in the right place.

And that feeling when you pop your own dislocated shoulder back in using your bike seat.

More than once.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

CV Link won’t fix Coachella Valley’s deadly streets, an alternative to ghost bikes, and congestion pricing hits NYC – but not LA

Welcome to Day 6 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

……..

No, the CV Link alone will not keep bike riders safe in the Coachella Valley.

A pair of reports from the Palm Springs NBC station asks that question about the planned 40-mile dual pathway that will form a loop connecting Palm Springs, Palm Desert, Cathedral City and other cities throughout the valley.

But as last week’s twin bicycling deaths just five miles apart in Rancho Mirage and Palm Desert make clear, the area’s streets remain dangerous for anyone on two wheels.

Too many streets are too wide, with speed limits too high, and offer too little protection for people riding bicycles. Or on foot.

Then again, they aren’t all that safe for people cars, either.

While the CV Link could provide a safer route for recreational riders, it won’t do anything to protect people traveling to and from the pathway, or for bike commuters who have to travel to and through areas unserved by the route.

Meanwhile, faster riders will undoubtedly face complaints from others on the path, and likely spur speed restrictions before long — if it doesn’t already have them — spurring many road riders to return to the streets.

So while the CV Link may offer a pleasant off-road alternative for some riders, it will do nothing to improve safety and reduce traffic violence on the valley’s deadly streets.

And people who walk, run or ride a bike will continue to pay the price.

Graphics taken CV Link website

………

Anyone have a suggestion for this commenter?

Actually, the best option would be to finally fix our streets and motor vehicles so they’re not needed anymore.

But until that ever happens, it’s a discussion worth having.

………

Congestion pricing finally began in New York yesterday.

After years of lawsuits and dithering by public officials, the city instituted a $9 charge for people driving into the heart of Manhattan, which will gradually rise in future years.

Despite complaints from motorists, the idea is not to punish drivers, but to reduce traffic congestion while raising millions of dollars for public transportation.

It’s something that has already proven successful in London and throughout Europe, which will inevitably give rise to the usual complaints of this is not (insert city here).

But it’s definitely worth trying.

And Day One reportedly went off without a hitch.

Yet while other major cities move forward with congestion pricing, Los Angeles is slow-walking its own Metro proposal, doing what our leaders do best — studying the idea, in hopes it will just go away.

Even that isn’t scheduled to begin until 2028, though, when a study focusing on central Los Angeles, the San Fernando Valley and the westside will finally launch.

Although they could probably save time by launching a study right now to see if they can find any elected officials willing to stand up to complaints from angry drivers.

………

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

It’s official. The negligent homicide charge has been dropped against a DEA agent who blew through a stop sign, and killed a Salem, Oregon woman riding a bicycle, after a judge ruled he was entitled to federal immunity because he was on the job. Almost as if he was elected president or something. 

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

Probably not the best idea to ride a bike wearing a sex toy on your helmet, while shouting profanities near a church. But you do you.

………

Local  

A new electric mobility device from a Venice, California company claims to be a cross between a BMX and a skateboard.

Ben Affleck may not be one of us, but his 12-year old son is.

 

State

A San Diego writer says forget the state’s new daylighting law, and enforce existing laws against overnight parking in residential neighborhoods, instead. Because who cares if someone dies because a driver couldn’t see them because of someone illegally parking near an intersection, right?

San Diego has finally begun work on the long-planned Normal Street Promenade in the city’s Hillcrest neighborhood, which will include an eight-foot bike path as part of the $30 million project.

 

National

Put yourself through college with a side hustle riding a bike or a scooter.

Ultracyclist Lael Wilcox may have set a world record for riding around the world, but what inspires her are the women she’s met during the Komoot women’s rallies, like last year’s in Arizona.

Half of the people who received a Minnesota voucher for up to $1,500 off the price of a new ebike had incomes over $80,000, while 40% earned over $100k; only 37% went to low-income earners.

A Nashville news channel talks with a local bike courier about how he stays warm in the winter cold, although he says black ice and texting drivers scare him more.

Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the New Orleans terrorist who plowed through the New Year’s Eve crowd on Bourbon Street in a rented truck, killing 15 people, scouted his attack by riding a bicycle through the city wearing Meta Glasses to record video of the streets.

 

International

A Scottish nonprofit is collecting bicycles to donate to refugees, in order to make them feel more connected to their new community.

A British writer says ebikes can be a good thing, but illegal ebikes, and bikes illegally modified to exceed speed limitations, are too easy to get through the government’s bike-to-work program, even though they’re prohibited.

A beginning bike rider agrees to a point-to-point ride through France, then is shocked to learn she has to ride 112 miles in three day — but finds an ebike makes it easier.

Eighteen “underprivileged and brilliant” Nepalese schoolgirls have received new bicycles to help them continue their education.

A young Vietnamese boy proves pedals actually don’t have to alternate when you ride.

 

Competitive Cycling

Newly released information suggests that the crash that killed 25-year old Norwegian pro cyclist André Drege during the Tour of Austria was caused when his rear tire burst after striking a curb.

America’s last remaining Tour de France winner says the rise of doping in the ’90s was what led to his early retirement — and even that wasn’t as bad as what Lance and crew were up to.

Reigning road, gravel, and six-time cyclocross world champ Mathieu van der Poel says he hasn’t really succeeded until he adds the world mountain bike title to his resume, as well.

 

Finally…

That feeling when your next car is an ebike, and that ebike is a car. Now you, too, can ride your very own venomous snake bike.

And nothing clears the street like an assist from a bike-riding dog in a backpack.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

72-year-old Patrick Petre dies following Palm Desert crash — just 5 miles from another fatal bike crash a day earlier

It only took three days into the new year for the second person to be killed riding a bicycle in Southern California.

And both in the Coachella Valley.

New Channel 3 in Palm Springs reports that 72-year-old Patrick Petre died on Friday, one day after he was struck by a driver in Palm Desert.

The crash occurred around 6:30 am Thursday at Fred Waring Drive and San Pablo Ave, just five miles from where another man was killed riding a bike in Rancho Mirage a little more than 20 hours earlier.

That victim has not yet been publicly identified.

In both cases the driver remained at the scene. And just like the earlier case, there’s no word on how the crash that killed Petre occurred, or who was at fault.

Hopefully we’ll learn more soon.

Petre is the second bicyclist killed in Southern California this year, and the second in Riverside County.

My deepest sympathy and prayers for Patrick Petre and his loved ones. 

Thanks to Jeff Rusk for the heads-up.