Huntington Beach ebike rider dies in solo crash, 5 lousy years for doubly fatal 124 mph crash, and Bass demands Forest Lawn Drive keep sucking

August 19, 2026 / / No comments

My apologies for yesterday’s unexcused absence. 

I’m using a form of topical chemo to treat a couple minor skin cancers on my face, which doesn’t seem to play well with my other meds. I tried to work through it Monday, but just kept feeling worse and worse as the night wore on. 

So seriously, use sunscreen, already. 

Photo by Tucă Bianca from Pexels. 

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The Huntington Beach Police Department reports that a man 21-year old man died after a single vehicle ebike crash.

After giving it a lot of thought, I’ve decided to only write about ebike deaths when the story actually refers to a bicycle, since we often can’t be sure whether the victim was on a ped-assist bike, or an illegal e-motrbike.

While the Huntington Beach cops do call the victim of this crash a bicyclist, it sounds more like an e-moto crash than an electric bicycle.

I could be wrong, though. Here’s the full HBPD press release.

On Tuesday, July 21, 2026, at approximately 12:30 p.m., the Huntington Beach Police Department (HBPD) responded to a traffic collision at the intersection of Warner Avenue and Plaza Lane regarding a single-vehicle collision involving an e-bike.

Upon arrival, officers located the e-bike rider, a 21-year-old man from Westminster, unconscious on the sidewalk next to the roadway. Paramedics were called to the scene and the bicyclist was transported to a local hospital for medical treatment. On July 26, 2026, he succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced deceased. It is unknown if impairment was a factor with the rider of the e-bike.

Based on the preliminary investigation, it appears the e-bike was westbound on Warner Avenue west of Plaza Lane when the rider lost control and went down.

The collision investigation is ongoing and is being handled by the HBPD Multidisciplinary Accident Investigation Team (MAIT). Anyone who may have witnessed the collision or events leading up to it is encouraged to contact HBPD Traffic Investigator Vishal Rattanchandani at (714) 536-5231.

Thanks to Bill for the heads-up. 

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This is who we share the road with.

A 21-year old Pico Rivera man has been sentenced to a lousy five years and four month behind bars for killing two passengers in his car two years ago.

Leonardo Rodriguez was allegedly doing 124 mph on the Ventura Freeway in Ventura County, when he tried to pass a slower vehicle on the right shoulder of the roadway, and slammed into the back of a stopped semi.

His girlfriend and another man were both thrown from the car, and died at the scene.

Rodriguez pleaded guilty to two felony counts of gross vehicular manslaughter in June, and was sentenced on Friday.

There’s something seriously wrong with California’s overly lenient traffic laws when recklessly taking two lives amounts to just 32 months apiece. And a lot less than that given California’s prison overcrowding and early release programs.

In some states, he would have faced a pair of life sentences. And even a plea deal would have resulted in at least a couple decades in jail.

I’m not a fan of today’s prison industrial system, which simply warehouses inmates instead of offering them any form of rehabilitation. We desperately need a better system.

But sentences like this, for a crime like that, shows just how un-serious this state is about traffic violence.

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Streets Are For Everyone issued a new report covering the fiasco on deadly Forest Lawn Drive, calling Mayor Bass’ halting of the safety project a “poster child” for why LA streets are so dangerous.

I’m including their full press release below.

And yeah, I’m pretty effing pissed off about it, too.

New Report Questions Why Los Angeles Paused a Fully Funded Safety Project on One of Its Dangerous Roads
SAFE’s report examines Forest Lawn Drive, how dangerous it is, and how a 1-mile road safety project has become the poster child for why roads across LA City are so dangerous.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Streets Are For Everyone today released a new report examining why a fully funded safety improvement project on Forest Lawn Drive was halted despite years of public planning, extensive community outreach, and documented safety concerns.

Titled “Forest Lawn Drive: Why a Fully Funded Road Safety Project Was Delayed,” the report explores how a road known for speeding, serious crashes, and a lack of pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure became the focus of a political intervention that stopped construction just weeks before work was scheduled to begin. It also examines the broader question of whether Los Angeles is prioritizing road safety at a time when traffic violence continues to claim more lives than homicides for the third year in a row.

“Forest Lawn Drive is about much more than one road,” said Damian Kevitt, Executive Director of Streets Are For Everyone. “It is a case study in how difficult it has become to build proven safety improvements, even after years of planning, community engagement, environmental review, and secured funding. When projects like this can be stopped at the last minute, it sends a troubling message about how unimportant the safety of those using LA roads is.”

Forest Lawn Drive serves as an important connection for bicycle commuters between Griffith Park, Glendale, Hollywood, and the San Fernando Valley. Yet approximately one mile of the corridor has no sidewalk, no bicycle lane, a badly damaged shoulder, and a posted speed limit of 45 mph. According to the Los Angeles Department of Transportation, 95 reported collisions occurred along this section between 2013 and 2023, including crashes that seriously injured or killed three people. Just a few days ago, on August 13th, another person died in a fiery crash on Forest Lawn Drive.

To better understand current conditions, SAFE volunteers conducted more than 14 hours of independent speed surveys during the summer of 2026. The organization found that 53 percent of drivers exceeded the posted speed limit, with one in five traveling between 51 and 75 mph while passing just inches away from people walking, running, and bicycling.

The City’s proposed Forest Lawn Drive Safety and Mobility Project would have reconfigured the roadway to calm traffic, reduce dangerous passing and lane changes, add separated bicycle facilities, and improve conditions for everyone using the corridor. According to LA DOT, the redesign would have had little impact on travel times for most drivers while significantly improving safety.

Construction was scheduled to begin in 2026 but was halted after Mayor Karen Bass directed LA DOT to review alternatives that would maintain all existing traffic lanes. The report notes that this decision followed lobbying efforts by Forest Lawn Cemetery and Mount Sinai Memorial Park, which opposed the planned lane reductions.

Beyond the Forest Lawn Drive project itself, the report also examines the City’s broader investment priorities. It notes that while Los Angeles has substantially increased spending on policing and homelessness programs in recent years, funding specifically dedicated to the Vision Zero Program has been cut by 59%.

SAFE is encouraging residents, transportation professionals, policymakers, and community leaders to read the report and participate in an informed public discussion about how Los Angeles prioritizes road safety and delivers life-saving infrastructure projects.

The full report is available at: www.streetsareforeveryone.org/blog/forest-lawn-drive

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As long as we’re doing press releases and turning this into an epic post, here’s another one announcing a city hall demonstration next week about the city’s backsliding on a legal settlement to fix the crumbling sidewalks.

10 Years After $1.37 Billion Sidewalk Settlement, Advocates Ask: Is LA Moving Forward or Backward?
The Willits SLIDE brings disability advocates to City Hall for a civic performance marking a decade of the landmark accessibility settlement

LOS ANGELES — Ten years after a landmark settlement committed Los Angeles to spending $1.37 billion over 30 years to make its sidewalks and curb ramps accessible, disability and mobility advocates will gather at City Hall on Tuesday, August 25, at 9:00 AM to ask a simple question: Is Los Angeles actually moving forward?

Their answer will take the form of The Willits SLIDE, a civic performance in which participants move forward and backward together, physically representing a decade of progress and setbacks since the Willits v. City of Los Angeles settlement.

The City has spent more than $333 million during the settlement’s first 10 years. Yet broken pavement, missing curb ramps and inaccessible paths continue to create barriers for Angelenos who use wheelchairs, white canes, walkers and other mobility devices.

Advocates are also highlighting a costly contradiction: while approximately over $30 million annually is allocated toward Willits improvements, the City has spent roughly $40 million more annually settling sidewalk-related injury claims.

“The Willits settlement was a landmark victory for disability rights, but spending the money isn’t the same as delivering accessible streets,” said Alex Ramirez with Los Angeles Walks.

“Ten years later, we’re asking what it will take to stop moving backward and fix our sidewalks for good,” said Reanne Estrada, Artist and Creative Director of Public Matters, which developed the civic performance. 

The performance is the latest action from the Boo-Boo Bandage Brigade, a Downtown LA coalition using art, humor and civic action to advocate for lasting solutions to broken street infrastructure.

“Disability advocates have challenged us to make Downtown a blueprint for accessibility across Los Angeles,” said Hilary Norton of FastLink DTLA, who leads the coalition-building effort. “That means working together to build a system that works for everyone.”

Alongside stronger implementation of the Willits settlement, advocates are calling on the City to fast-track its Capital Infrastructure Program to better coordinate how Los Angeles plans, funds, repairs and maintains sidewalks and other public infrastructure.

MEDIA OPPORTUNITIES

  • The Willits SLIDE: A visual civic performance in front of Los Angeles City Hall
  • Disability advocates sharing their experiences navigating LA’s sidewalks
  • Boo-Boo Bandage Brigade props and visual installations
  • Interviews with advocates about the Willits settlement, sidewalk liability costs and long-term infrastructure solutions

ABOUT THE WILLITS SLIDE

The Willits SLIDE is a civic performance marking the 10-year anniversary of the Willits v. City of Los Angeles settlement. Through a collective movement forward and backward, participants will make visible both the progress and unfinished work of making Los Angeles’ sidewalks accessible to everyone.

The action is part of the ongoing work of the Boo-Boo Bandage Brigade, which uses art, humor, disability justice and civic engagement to draw attention to failing street infrastructure while advocating for lasting solutions.

Coalition partners include: Public Matters, FASTLinkDTLA, DTLA Mobility for All, Los Angeles Walks, CALIF, disability justice advocates and community partners.

Somehow, we can host a World Cup and the Olympic and Paralympic Games, but we can’t house the homeless, pick up the trash, fix the potholes or do anything about the damn sidewalks.

Chop wood, carry water.

Do the basics first.

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Thanks to David for sharing his own extensive views of the new bike and pedestrian bridge over the 5 Freeway in Irvine, as well as the surrounding park.

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Very few people ever looked this good on a bike. Even if he was probably just posing for a promotional photo.

Bluesky post

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

An apparent road-raging driver plowed his truck down the flimsy plastic bollards “protecting” Santa Monica’s 23rd Street Bike Lane. More proof that plastic won’t protect anyone.

No bias here. Hoodline says Berkeley is ripping out 145 parking spaces to build protected bike lanes on one of the city’s most contested streets. Never mind that the project is intended to save lives on a deadly street; the way they frame it makes the loss of parking the most important detail. 

In a truly sickening story, a Pennsylvania man pled guilty to 3rd degree murder for knocking a 40-year old man off his bicycle, then beating the victim to death with his own bike, even though he says he doesn’t remember it, after prosecutors dropped a 1st degree murder charge as part of a plea deal; the vicious attack came just half an hour after the suspect was released from Central Booking, where he had been held for some unknown reason.

If local leaders even oppose a lighted bike path through a Bath, England park, why are they called the Green Party?

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

A driving website calls out a “goofball” bicyclist who ran a red light, directly in front of a Burbank pedestrian with the right-of-way. And while they’ve got a point, just wait until they see the crazy things drivers do.

Reddit post

London’s Daily Mail gets its knickers in a wad over a report that 60% of bike riders don’t stop for pedestrians at floating bus stops, accusing scofflaw riders of “dicing with death.” Yes, you should always stop for pedestrians. But maybe someone should tell them that exactly zero pedestrians have been killed by bicyclists at London’s floating bus stops, and only six pedestrians were injured by bike riders at the city’s floating bus stops in 2024, compared with 11,400 pedestrians injured by motorists in London over the same period.

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Local 

Letter writers to the Southern California News Group discuss ebikes, though you may need a shower after reading them, even if the last two seem to get it.  Although that’s the first time in years I’ve clicked on a story in the Los Angeles Daily News without crashing into their paywall. 

The Times of India, of all sources, writes that the owners of Redondo Cyclery refused to sell in the 1980s, so Redondo Beach built the Redondo Shores shopping center around it. Although their ChatGPT image of a small, family-owned bike shop surrounded by a larger development is probably the funniest thing you’ll see all day. 

 

State

California Streetsblog updates the legislative agenda, highlighting the more important transportation bills still alive as the legislature moves to floor votes; among the bills is one that would increase the penalties for DUI, and another redefining the differences between electric bicycles and electric motorbikes. Maybe if it passes the cops and media will stop calling any damn thing with two wheels and a battery a damn ebike, already. 

Meanwhile, CalMatters calls out the legislature’s inability to pass California transportation bills that matter.

Sad news from Monterey County, where a 58-year old man was killed by a semi driver in a right hook while riding his bicycle.

San Francisco bicyclists demand a safer Market Street, after the city’s previous mayor cancelled plans for protected bike lanes. Which sounds oddly familiar, somehow.

 

National

A new study shows just six 30 second sprints on a bicycle does far more to lower your risk of diabetes and obesity than 90 minutes of moderate bicycling.

Despite all the handwringing and pearl clutching, 55% of ebike-related deaths over an eight-year period involved a motor vehicle, and only 6% involved pedestrians. And yes, that appears to include anything with two wheels and a battery.

World Atlas looks at the steepest roads in the US, including our very own Eldridge and Baxter streets.

Escape Collective writes about Joe Bell, calling him the Godfather of bicycle painting. Although as usual, you’ll run into their paywall after a few paragraphs.

This one hits a little close to home for me, after a 15-year old kid who was passionate about bicycling was killed by a driver while riding his bicycle on the sidewalk, in the small, rural Alaska town my brother called home for several decades; the boy’s parents understandably call it “every parent’s worst nightmare.” A crowdfunding page has raised nearly $81,000 of the $90,000 goal.

Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park has gone against the recent anti-bike lane DEI insanity coming out of Washington, and approved plans for a fully separated paved bike path along one of the key roadways in the park. If you ever get a chance to bike through the Tetons, take it. 

A Bozeman, Montana mountain biker says sometimes the smartest thing he does on a bike is get off it. Wiser words were never said.

He’s got my vote. An Oklahoma Democrat running for Congress is campaigning by bicycle, riding through all 14 counties in his district to meet with the voters. Not to mention it helps take some of the suck out of campaigning.

Great idea. A Wheaton, Illinois United Methodist Church is hosting “Bike to Church Sunday” on August 30th, but invites churchgoers to ride to services any other Sunday, too.

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani finally acceded to the demands of his constituents — or the tabloids, anyway — and wore a little plastic hat that will magically make him impervious to motor vehicles. Look, I’m a firm believer in bike helmets, but they’re made to protect you from falling off your bike at relatively slow speeds, not protect from a driver doing 20 miles over the speed limit. They may help, but they’re not magic. 

A New Jersey website says ebike sales are off anywhere from 20 percent to 90 percent since the state passed a requirement for licensing and registration for any type of ebike, regardless of speed.

A kindhearted Pennsylvania police sergeant paused his patrols to help a boy fix his bike, popping the chain back in place while the kids peppered him with questions about being a cop.

Those boots may have been made for walking, but Nancy Sinatra apparently took them on tandem bike rides with Elvis Presley during the filming of Speedway at North Carolina’s Charlotte Motor Speedway. No word on whether he wore his blue suede shoes. 

 

International

Cycling News looks at the Wild West world of buying used kits. Sorry, but I draw the line at putting my parts where someone else’s pits and bits have been. 

A British Columbia road biker more or less bunny hopped a dying deer, riding over it after it was thrown directly into his path when a driver in an SUV crashed into it.

A Calgary writer says it’s time to accommodate all modes of transportation on Canada’s roads, even if an Ontario high court ruling that the province can rip out Toronto bike lanes over the objection of city leaders is likely to embolden Alberta to do the same. Although the conservative National Post is all in on the ruling.

Cambridge, England became the first city in the UK to institute a speed limit for bicycles, restricting bikes to 15 mph on a busy 16-mile bike lane running through the city. Call me crazy, but 15 mph seems reasonable under the circumstance. 

An English farmer says no, maniacal ebike riders did not chase his horses, claiming news reports had been blown out of proportion. And even if they had chased those ponies, it’s unlikely they would have been riding the kind of ped-assist bike used to illustrate the story. 

A British bicyclist starts a conversation about the condition of the roads by taking a photo of his bike wheels securely wedged in a deep crevasse in a local highway.

Road.cc examines just how good Mallorca, Spain really is for bicycling.

 

Competitive Cycling

A new report says bystanders waved the van driver onto the course where 19-year old Welsh cyclist Finlay Tarling was killed during the 8th stage of the Volta a Portugal on Friday. The photo of his shattered race bike is just heartbreaking. 

The race resumed Saturday with Alexis Guérin wearing a black jersey instead of the usual yellow leader’s jersey, and the peloton wearing black armbands, following a moment of silence before the race; Guérin was the eventual winner after Sunday’s final stage.

A crowdfunding campaign launched by Tarling’s manager has raised the equivalent of over $84,000 to help other young riders realize their cycling dreams.

An Aussie cyclist explains why road racing can never be entirely safe. But allowing a driver onto a narrow road course before the entire peloton has passed is a major fuckup that can, and should, be avoided. 

An ill-timed appendectomy cost former USPro crit champ Lucas Bourgoyne a shot at winning the American Criterium Cup. Then again, is there ever a good time for an appendectomy?

 

Finally…

That feeling when you try, but ultimately fail, to catch a runaway pig with your ebike. Your next ped-assist ebike could be a Harley-Davidson — though not, sadly, a hog.

And remembering those heady days of the ’60s and ’70s, when kids dreamed of muscle cars and rode muscle bikes.

Although my hand-me-down bike looked more like the one on the right, if you added red and white streamers to the handgrips.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin.

 

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

Today’s post called on account of blech

August 18, 2026 / / No comments

My apologies. I’ve been trying to work through it, but just not feeling well tonight. I’ll see you on Wednesday.

Category: General /

CicLAvia returns to Pasadena, 19-year old Welsh cyclist killed in Portugal race when driver enters the course, and why Trump hates bike lanes

August 17, 2026 / / One comment

The Little Old Lady from Pasadena can leave her bright red Super Stock Dodge in the garage this November.

CicLAvia made the surprise announcement last week that the popular open streets event is returning to Pasadena for the first time since 2015.

It will run down a section of Colorado Boulevard on Sunday, Nov. 15, with the exact route and hours to be announced.

The event appears to be so last minute that it’s not even on the CicLAvia website yet.

Photo of the iconic, 113-year old Colorado Street Bridge by mcbruin from Pixabay; Photo of the memorial to Jackie and Mack Robinson by Mike from Pixabay.

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Tragic news from Portugal, where 19-year old Welsh cyclist Finlay Tarling was killed during Friday’s 8th stage of the Volta a Portugal; a rider with the NSN Development Team, Tarling was reportedly struck head-on by a van driver who prematurely entered the course after the majority of the peloton had passed.

The stage was neutralized after Darling’s death, and the NSN Development Team pulled its five remaining riders out of the race.

According to IDL Pro Cycling,

At the time of the accident, Finlay Tarling was riding alone, at the back of the pack as a chaser. On a descent, he was going so fast that a GNR support car couldn’t keep up with him. At that moment, there was one other support car—the last car in the race indicating that the peloton had passed (the broom wagon)—and two motorcycles following behind the race.

In principle, all three riders—who had fallen behind at that point—could have had a lead bike, but Tarling was going too fast on a descent. As he took the inside line in a fast left-hand turn, the car suddenly appeared there, driving in its own lane—but of course, it should never have been on the course at that moment.

The driver reportedly had waited for the racers to pass, and when he didn’t see anyone else coming, he asked if the race was over and it was okay to enter the course. After waiting a little, he pulled onto the course, with tragic results.

The driver tested negative for drugs or alcohol, and isn’t expected to face charges.

Cycling News reports Finlay was the brother of Josh Tarling, a cyclist on the Netcompany-Ineos team, and expected develop a successful career.

Needless to say, the Cyclistes Professionnels Associés (CPA), the union for pro cyclists, was angry over what was described as a “catastrophic” lack of security. 

We are speechless and filled with anger after the news of Finlay Tarling’s death at the Tour of Portugal,” the CPA posted. “It is not right that a young athlete’s life should end this way, and we are furious that even today it is still not possible to prevent such serious accidents.”

The president of NSN Cycling called for better helmets in the wake of Tarling’s death.

“One thing we have to look at is helmets. They need a major upgrade. Bike helmets only need to meet standard testing like all helmets, EU standard CE EN 1078 is only rated for 19.5km/h (12.11 mph) and I do not believe this is enough for road racing.”

(Actually, that’s not enough for anything other than falling off a beach cruiser after too many fruity cocktails; I’ve long complained about the lack of protection offered by bicycle helmets.)

Darling’s parents released a statement, asking you to think of him the next time you clip into your pedals.

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The Skepchick podcast considers why Donald Trump hates bike lanes.

My guess is he just didn’t get enough fawning admiration from cyclists when he briefly ran the Tour de Trump.

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A Denver news report says a raging Colorado wildfire threatens the population Leadville Trail 100 mountain bike race, and all the financial benefits it brings to the struggling mountain town.

Thanks to Megan for the heads-up.

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

A 71-year old Upstate New York man faces charges for a road rage attack on a bike rider, swerving his car at the bicyclist and cutting the rider off, then pepper-spraying and kicking the victim in the face; he faces counts for assault in the third degree, reckless endangerment in the second degree, and criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford won the lawsuit attempting to stop him from ripping out Toronto’s bike lanes, as the Ontario Court of Appeal, the province’s highest court, ruled in his favor, but a Toronto website reminds readers its an election year there, too, and they can voice their displeasure at the ballot box.

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Local 

Courthouse News considers the struggle to close the eight-mile gap in the Los Angeles River bike path through DTLA, Vernon and Maywood. Maybe because the process has been such a trial up to this point. 

Streetsblog’s Joe Linton checks out the new concrete curb-protected bike lane on Clark Ave in Long Beach.

 

State

Police in Irvine used a “specialized K9 officer and cutting-edge drone technology” to recover a high school student’s stolen ebike from an ex-con in a homeless encampment. That’s one very specialized dog if it knows how to pilot a drone. 

LAist celebrates the newfound freedom to bike, skate or walk over the 5 Freeway in Irvine, thanks to a new bike/ped bridge over the busy highway.

Cops in Huntington Beach busted two men for using a fraudulent credit card to order five ebikes valued at more than $8,000 from the Jax Bicycle Center; employees became suspicious due to the size of the purchase.

Writing for the Voice of OC, a 12-year old Laguna Niguel middle school student says Orange County needs ebike safety reform immediately. Although they could have done better than illustrating it with a kid jumping a non-electrified mountain bike. 

The California Coastal Commission finally approved a long-gestating plan to transform much of the northeastern corner of San Diego’s Mission Bay into marshland and recreation space — but not so much for bicycles, after ruling that a planned bike and pedestrian path has to be moved so it doesn’t pass through any wetlands. Although you’ll have to find a way around the Union-Tribune’s paywall if you want to read about it. 

Tragic news from Sacramento, where two ebike riding teens were killed when then were both hit by a truck driver.

 

National

A new national survey shows strong support for sustainable transportation, local energy policies, and green infrastructure investments, though responses varied between urban and rural areas.

He gets it, the hard way. A Nevada bike rider questions why a hit-and-run driver left him lying bleeding in the roadway, saying “I can think of a lot of reasons why someone would hit me, but I can’t think of one good reason why someone would just leave the scene and leave me there.”

A 20-year old Arizona woman was lucky to survive when she was washed off a flooded bridge while trying to cross on her bicycle, then sucked through a flood tunnel; a woman who jumped in to rescue her had to be pulled out, too.

Utah endurance bicyclist Matthew Lefthand set a new world record for averaging 30 mph over 200 miles on a standard upright bicycle.

A Colorado woman says not only did becoming a one-car household reduce her family’s carbon footprint, it also made her life better.

Police in Chicago are looking for a reckless hit-and-run dirt bike rider who left a 45-year old woman riding a bicycle along the lakefront pathway with “catastrophic injuries.”

Tragic news from Indiana, where a 31-year old man drowned after apparently riding his bicycle around warning barricades, and falling into a gap where the road had been washed out.

A Boston suburb proves that Vision Zero works, as Somerville, Massachusetts — population 85,000 — goes four years without a traffic death.

A 63-year old New Jersey man raised $8,836 for a Newark homeless charity by competing in the 3,300-mile cross-country Trans Am Bike Nonstop Race.

A Biloxi, Mississippi couple celebrated their 50th anniversary with a 50-mile bike ride. My wife and I used to celebrate our anniversaries with a bike ride, too — I’d take the bike ride, and she’d celebrate when I made it back in one piece. 

Horrible story from Birmingham, Alabama, where a 39-year old man was killed after he was struck by multiple drivers over an eight-minute period while riding his bike shortly before 4 am, including a sheriff’s deputy in a patrol car.

 

International

Forbes examines the more than 70 World Naked Bike Rides from around the globe, calling it a protest against “indecent exposure to cars.”

Cyclist’s Undercover Mechanic blames a “feast of information but a famine of knowledge” for why bicyclists are so bad at buying bicycles.

A writer for Road.cc says the collapse of Raleigh bikes is a British cultural tragedy, which feels personal to him and other riders of his generation.

An Irish woman rode 374 miles across the island alone to support two friends who had developed lymphoma, raising the equivalent of nearly $9,500 to fight the disease.

Multiple bicyclists have been arrested for violating the Isle of Man’s annual ban on riding the Mountain Road during the summer motorcycle racing season, even if it is the home of Sir Mark Cavendish. Then again, it’s also my ancestral home, which seems to count for nothing. 

The Kazakh Embassy organized a Brussels bike ride to mark the 34th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Kazakhstan and Belgium.

A 66-year old Israeli man on a solo cycling trip in Finland has been found dead by the side of a road a week after his family lost contact with him; police believe he was the victim of a hit-and-run driver.

Momentum talks with a woman in St. Petersburg, Russia about her bike life, who describes her riding style as agile, unpredictable and fast, even if she rides a heavy retro bike people have called a “circus bike.”

Former South Korean Culture, Sports and Tourism Minister Yoo In-chon is on a seven-day, six-night pilgrimage to bike to 15 Catholic shrines in the country to mark the first anniversary of his younger brother Bishop Timothy Yoo Kyung-chon’s death.

Great idea. A Sydney, Australia bike scavenger hunt is designed to help riders discover the city, sending them to 15 locations where they have to find a stamp to mark their passport, with locations divided into Parks, Cycleways and Destinations.

 

Competitive Cycling

Wout van Aert demonstrates that he’s not invincible on gravel, as his training parter beats him to the finish at the Belgian Gravel Championships.

Former Argentine one-day classics specialist Juan Antonio Flecha may have retired from the sport, but he hasn’t given up bicycling, telling a writer “a cyclist is someone who lives life with a bicycle, not just someone who does sports,” as he drops his two daughters off at school on his bike.

A writer for Cycling Weekly says the recent Tour de France Femmes has has a major influence on women, who have taken up everyday bicycling as a result of the race.

 

Finally…

Riding naked with a group of other nude and partially clad bicyclists, good; riding pantless by yourself, not so much. Now you, too, can build your very own tandem unicycle.

And this is what you call a major phone fail. Thanks to Steven for the photo.

 

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

Oh, and fuck Putin.

 

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

Driver killed on Forest Lawn after Bass killed Raman safety project, and LAPD never asked for security video after bike rider injured in hit-and-run

August 14, 2026 / / No comments

The good news is, for the first time this week, we didn’t learn about anyone killed riding a bicycle yesterday.

Unfortunately, after this long, though there’s no way I can catch up on everything we missed this week. So let’s just see how much I can get in before the sun rises today.

As for the bad news, it starts below.

And buy a new T-shirt, already. You’ll thank me later.

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Go ahead and get mad. Lord knows, I am.

Because KABC-7 is reporting that one person was killed in a fiery single-car crash on Forest Lawn Drive, near Griffith Park and the eponymous cemetery early Thursday morning.

That’s the same cemetery that called on the mayor to halt a fully funded and shovel-ready safety project sponsored by CD4 Councilmember — and mayoral candidate — Nithya Raman, including a lane reduction and improved bike lanes, that had somehow made it through the city’s endless series of public meetings.

Needless to say, our mayor couldn’t bend over fast enough.

As Streets For All put it, Karen Bass set an awful precedent by personally intervening to keep the street dangerous and deadly.

Back to Mayor Bass. In her letter she directs the departments to revise their plan to preserve all current travel lanes while protecting the bike lane – defeating nearly all the safety improvements the project was meant to bring.

And the worst part? The Mayor is setting an awful precedent here. By siding with cemeteries’ unfounded concerns and giving in to state legislators interfering with the project, she’s setting LA up for this to happen again and again. In her letter, Mayor Bass directs the departments to conduct “essential, immediate outreach to gather feedback on the new plan and achieve a resolution for all partners.” More outreach! Apparently, three years wasn’t enough. But this isn’t general public outreach – reading between the lines, this is outreach to two parties only – Forest Lawn and Mount Sinai. The Mayor is directing city departments to waste taxpayer dollars coming up with a plan that doesn’t solve the safety concerns, and is giving the cemeteries equal footing to city departments, by insisting they sign off on the plan before it moves forward.

Whoever this person was, his or her blood is on the mayor’s hands. Not to mention the cemetery managers who fought so hard to keep the street just the way it is, in an apparent attempt to drum up more business.

In that, they succeeded.

November can’t come soon enough.

………

You’ve got to be kidding.

A homeless man says he was the bike rider seriously injured by a hit-and-run driver in LA’s Pico-Union neighborhood in June, suffering a broken leg.

And he says the driver “was gunning” for him, and went out of their way to run him down.

Yet despite that, no one from the LAPD has canvassed local businesses for their security cam videos — even though the shop owner across the street says they’re welcome to it.

Evidently, intentionally running down a homeless man is just no big deal to them. Or maybe it’s just because he was on a bicycle.

………

Streets Are For Everyone offers a legislative update on all the bills they are sponsoring and supporting this legislative session.

……….

A writer for a British Columbia website gets it right — the real danger is cars, not kids on scooters or ebikes.

All the outrage we feel about teens weaving on e-bikes and scooters would be better spent figuring out how to keep massive motorized vehicles away from all other road users.

My apologies and thanks to whoever sent this to my attention.

……….

Yesterday, I got a very nice email from the Marketing Director for B&D Law Group, APLC.

While they make the serious tactical error of not advertising over there on the right, they have created a list of California bicycling laws, including ebike regulations, updated for 2026. Along with a list of commonly asked questions, which they actually get right.

And yes, that is surprising, because I usually don’t link to pages from lawyers who don’t sponsor this site, because they usually get something wrong. Sometimes a lot of things.

So check it out if you want a refresher on what you can or can’t do on two wheels in this state.

And thanks to Alex for reading this site.

………

A Redditor posted a photo of much-needed concrete barriers on Imperial Highway, which Reddit somehow considers adult content.

Maybe because half of the bikeway is in the gutter.

Reddit post

………

This is what we could be doing in Los Angeles, which has a hell of a lot better weather than London.

Bluesky post

………

Thanks to Megan for forwarding a video of a Chicago cargo bike rider making sure a stranger didn’t miss his bus.

………

Normally, I wouldn’t offer a company free advertising like this.

But I was surprised to get the following email from Oofas, the maker of cushioned recovery slides I wear because of the neuropathy pain my feet. And yes, I recommend them, as does my podiatrist.

But not only is this about bicycling, it’s also about a cause I can get behind wholeheartedly.

Meanwhile, a writer for Sports Business Journal shares his own experienced on the ride.

If they want to thank me, I’m a size 11.

………

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

Let’s hope this is a mistake. The superintendent of the Las Virgenes Unified School District announces a ban on ebikes on campus, except for high school students with a valid California driver’s license — but also says “Elementary and middle school students, as well as high school students without a driver’s license, may not possess or ride a bike on campus.” Hopefully, he meant an ebike; otherwise, no one can ride any bicycle to school. 

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

Bakersfield cops are looking for a 13-year old hit-and-run bike rider who crashed into a pedestrian outside the city’s Valley Plaza Mall. Someday I may tell you about the award-winning ad I wrote for that mall back in the day. But today is not that day, my friend. 

A Philadelphia woman calls on her fellow bicyclists to show some decorum after witnessing a case of bike path rage, when “a woman in a Lycra onesie sped by at top speed” yelling for a bike-riding little boy’s parents to get him the hell out of her way.

………

Local 

Writing for Golden State Report, Mona Field, professor emeritus of political science of Glendale Community College, etc, shares my disappointment that the Los Angeles charter reforms on the November ballot don’t go further, by offering police reform, ethics reform, expanding the council or ranked-choice voting. My gut reaction was to vote down everything as a result, but she says maybe we should rethink that. I subscribe to Golden State, so my apologies if this is behind a paywall. 

He gets it. A Los Angeles writer says not so fast on claims that teens on ebikes are the new Hells Angels, arguing that “experts say better regulation is needed but that bad press about ‘motorized menaces’ puts the wider ebike revolution at risk.” Amen, brother.

Streetsblog checks out above grade G Line bridges, nee Orange Line, new shade structure at the NoHo Red Line station, and hard plastic curbs protecting center-running section of the Chandler Bikeway.

 

State

Irvine has a new bike and pedestrian bridge over the 5 Freeway, but the Orange County Register doesn’t think you should know about it unless you’re willing to pay them.

You only have to wait a few more days to place an order for Irvine-based Rivian’s new ebike. Although when you’ll actually get it could be another matter. 

San Diego’s crackdown on ebike riders under 12 kicked in yesterday, although cops are just giving out warnings, for now.

A 15-year old Menifee boy was killed in a hit-and-run while riding an offroad e-moto; the driver was seen leaving the scene with a bike still lodged under his car.

Police in Valdosta are pushing back against videos on social media saying a bike rider was killed in a hit-and-run, insisting the victim died of natural causes.

The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition says a 32-year old woman was killed when the e-scooter she was riding got caught in a rail track, and she was hit by a delivery truck driver illegally driving in the transit lane, who fled the scene, although he was caught a few blocks away.

Hats off to Kyle and Jessica Aster, who donated a quarter of a million dollars to build a five-mile singletrack trail near Lake Tahoe, completing an iconic 12-mile loop around the lake.

 

National

If you ride with a Ritchey Carbon Fiber Bicycle Fork, don’t; they’re being recalled due to a “risk of serious injury or death.”

A Colorado couple discovers that riding 50 centuries in 50 states on a tandem bike may soon fill a blank page in the Guinness World Records book.

Um, no. A San Antonio TV station says a man was stabbed several times “during (a) fight over a bicycle,” but the description sounds more like he was stabbed by someone trying to steal his bike.

An Illinois man was arrested two years after a 56-year old man was killed in a hit-and-run while riding his bicycle; the investigation showed the driver and his wife had gone to two bars, but they played the old “Oh, I thought we just hit a deer” card when finally caught.

A 73-year old Cornell University researcher and former sponsored cyclist has turned his garage into a word-of-mouth bike shop, and a bicycling community.

The New York city council has wisely backed off a plan to require ebike registration, after witnessing the messy rollout of New Jersey’s crackdown just across the river.

No surprise here, as DC finds building bike and bus lanes reduces crashes a lot.

Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins offers a “crash course in ebike helmets,” arguing that faster bikes means a bigger risk.

The kindhearted folks at a Tampa, Florida nonprofit will soon give away their 3,000th donated and refurbished bicycle, just three-and-a-half years after it was founded.

 

International

A new study from the University of Duh finds that bicycling infrastructure really can boost bike commuting.

Road.cc recommends six of the best British designed bicycles, starting at the equivalent of around 950 bucks. Although something actually made in the UK is another matter.

A British woman and her boyfriend completed a nearly 800-day trip from Europe through Africa — and he even had to push her about 80 miles when her bike broke down.

Irish police have conducted ten raids and arrested two teens, following a series of attacks, robberies and bike thefts by masked men on a popular bike path

That Chopper bike floating belly-up in the bathtub is a Raleigh, after Dutch parent company Accell declared bankruptcy, also sounding the death knell for the Lapierre, Batavus, Sparta, Koga, Haibike, Winora, Ghost, Babboe and XLC brands; however, there may be hope, as an Irish investment firm has expressed an interest in buying the entire lot.

New bike sales in France dropped 6% in 2025, while ebike sales fell 16%; however, sales remained 23% up from those heady pre-Covid days of 2019.

 

Competitive Cycling

LA endurance cyclist Isabel King completed the 207-mile Unbound Gravel race in 12 hours while pumping milk for her breastfeeding baby.

A writer for Men’s Journal rides a Tour de France bike through the Alps, and discovers that aero matters more than weight.

 

Finally…

That feeling when renting an e-bikeshare feels more like highway robbery. Writing the memo you wish the local DOT director would write.

And apropos of nothing, CNN ranks my bike friendly hometown #5 on their list of places to visit — and yes, it really did serve as the inspiration for Disneyland’s Main Street.

Although I don’t recall ever seeing a large pantless duck or talking mouse when I was growing up.

………

And seriously, you need one of these. Like, now.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin.

 

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

Victim blamed when San Diego bike rider killed by big rig driver in Otay Mesa right hook; 3rd SoCal bicycling death this week

August 13, 2026 / / One comment

Evidently, big rig trucks don’t have wing mirrors anymore.

Because for the third time this week, someone in Southern California has been killed riding a bicycle. And it’s only Wednesday.

And this time, the victim is getting the blame.

According to San Diego’s City News Service, posted by 10 News, the victim “rode his bicycle into a big rig” after getting right hooked by the driver in the city’s Otay Mesa neighborhood Tuesday afternoon.

The victim was riding south on Otay Center Drive next to a semi-truck stopped at the red light at Siempre Viva Road around 2:17 pm. When the light turned green, the 38-year old driver turned right onto Siempre Viva, while the victim — identified only as a 59-year old man — attempted to continue straight on Otay Center.

So if the victim rode into the big rig, it’s only because the driver turned right directly in from of him, causing him to crash into the truck’s right front wheel. Which means he had to be directly next to the truck at the red light, and should have been visible to the driver.

Not “traveling behind the truck,” as FOX5 reports. If that was the case, it’s more likely he would been run over by the rear of the truck as it turned.

Not surprisingly, the victim was declared dead at the scene.

Unfortunately, there’s no bike lane or other infrastructure on the street that might have protected the victim, or at least alerted the driver to look for someone on a bike.

Most cars these days have safety systems to alert the driver to the presence of another vehicle, bicycle or pedestrian. Even my wife’s car, which does not have automatic braking or other alert systems, has a camera that’s activated whenever she uses the right turn signal, to alert her when there’s someone or something to her right before she turns.

Why one of the most dangerous vehicles on the road wouldn’t have something like that is anyone’s guess.

And yes, it’s dangerous to ride alongside any big rig, and you should never come up from behind as a truck is turning, or likely to.

But it’s hard to imagine why the victim shouldn’t have been visible in the driver’s wing mirror, or how he could have run into the truck’s front wheel if he ridden up from behind as the driver was turning.

It’s easy to imagine, though, that only one person involved in the crash was still around afterward to give their side of the story to the cops.

This is at least the 40th bicycling fatality that I’m aware of in Southern California this year, and the seventh we know about in San Diego County.

My deepest sympathy and prayers for the victim and his loved ones. 

 

Category: Injuries and Fatalities / Tags: , , , , ,

PeopleForBikes and Ride LA Together ride to rescue, as LA River bike path and LA28 projects rise in costs and complexity

August 12, 2026 / / One comment

Look, I don’t have a lot of time left to get anything done tonight, after writing about the second bicycling death in two days.

But I at least want to get two interrelated stories out that deserved our attention on a semi-expedited basis.

The Los Angeles Times is reporting that completing the Los Angeles River bike path is going to take a lot longer, and cost a lot more, than anyone had been expecting.

The project was originally on former Mayor Eric Garcetti’s vaunted Twenty-Eight by ’28 list of transportation projects to be completed in time for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, before it was removed in favor of easier projects completing segments in the San Fernando Valley.

According to the Times,

The longest unfinished stretch is the eight miles from Elysian Park through downtown to Maywood. For decades, advocates of the path have tried to complete those eight miles along the concretized river.

Yet a decade later, the unrideable gap remains. The ambitious project remains mired in planning and bureaucratic complications, with groundbreaking still two years off and the cost nearly tripling to more than $1 billion — almost $24,000 per foot — documents reviewed by The Times show.

That means, according to paper, that the project wouldn’t even break ground before the Olympics — if Metro somehow manages to come up with a cool $1 billion.

The problem, according to the Times, is that the original estimate and timeline was based on a simple pathway on just one side of the river, which became far more complicated after a series of public meetings.

Which is exactly what usually happens as a result of LA’s endless rounds of public meetings, in which every competing argument must be considered and accommodated, no matter how ridiculous, how much it costs, or how long it delays the project.

But by last year, the proposed designs were much wider and added seven pedestrian bridges. They also included sections where the path would be elevated above the ground, supported by beams. The changes responded to community input and comments from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and L.A. Department of Water and Power, among others. Estimated completion of the initial phase is not until 2031.

Navigating the web of nearby structures, like active rail lines and historic bridges, is part of what makes the construction so complex, Metro says. An original $75 million set aside for unforeseen expenses in 2016 swelled to $309 million last year, and the rising cost of construction also added to the high price tag.

Advocates, including Streets For All, well, advocate for a far less expensive and easier to build alternative, which would be built near river level. That means it would flood during heavier rains — just like virtually all of LA County’s other riverfront pathways.

It could also discourage women from using it, especially after dark, since they would be virtually invisible to anyone at street level.

But let me pause here for a quick aside.

This story, while well-written and informative, reflects the LA Times’ nasty habit of layoffs and buyouts, which has resulted in the loss of an incredible amount of institutional knowledge.

Beat writers familiar with project such as this, their history and the people involved, are long departed, replaced by younger and less experienced — and yes, cheaper — writers.

The former would have known that work to complete the Los Angeles River bike path has been driven by BikeLA, the former Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, for more than two decades.

But instead of contacting the former LACBC, they reached for the only numbers in their virtual rolodexes, and got comments from two people with Streets For All, including founder and chief exec Michael Schneider.

Which is great, since that organization is driving — if you’ll excuse the expression — much of the movement for safer streets in the LA area.

But BikeLA should have at least been contacted for story.

Then again, they did contact the mayor’s office, even though Karen Bass has done less for bicycling in this city than any mayor in recent memory.

Mayor Karen Bass chairs the Metro board. Despite the project’s stagnation, she continues to convey optimism.

“Angelenos voted in 2016 to make the L.A. River Path path a reality, and Mayor Bass is marshaling the resources necessary to eliminate further distraction that have threatened the project’s pace and cost,” her office said in statement.

And even though Bass has been a disaster for active transportation since assuming the chair.

But that brings us to the second part of our story, as bike industry advocacy coalition PeopleForBikes promises to ride to the rescue.

Pun intended.

To help give you the full story, I’m going to repost a press release the group sent me last week.

Ride LA Together Brings Southern California Together to Accelerate Bike Projects Before LA28

As Los Angeles prepares to host the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games, organizations from across Southern California are coming together through Ride LA Together, a regional initiative led by PeopleForBikes that brings local advocates, community organizations, businesses, and the bicycle industry together around one shared goal: creating a safer, more connected region where more people can ride bikes more often during and long after 2028.

The campaign builds on the work already being led by organizations across the region, including BikeLA, Move LA, Active San Gabriel Valley, the Los Angeles Bicycle Academy (LABA), and many others. Rather than replacing those efforts, Ride LA Together aligns partners around shared priorities, helping accelerate projects, amplify successes, and build the public support needed to move projects from planning to reality.

A recent example of what’s possible through coordinated action is the advancement of the $430 million LA River Bikeway, a voter-backed project that closes a roughly nine-mile gap between Long Beach and Griffith Park. Once complete, the bikeway will create a continuous, low-stress corridor that serves residents during the 2028 Games and for decades afterward.

“Los Angeles has a once-in-a-generation chance to change how people move, and, with the 2028 Games on the horizon, this is an opportunity we can focus on immediately,” said Jenn Dice, president and CEO of PeopleForBikes.

“LA’s bike network is fragmented and progress is happening slowly, but with real coordination and investment, we can accelerate these projects, grow ridership, and leave a legacy that serves the people who live here long after the Games are over.”

Ride LA Together was created to connect organizations already leading this work, advance priority projects, support community rides and events, and amplify local successes.

The work has already begun and will initially focus on accelerating projects moving through public planning and funding processes, including the San Gabriel Valley Regional Greenway Network, the LA River Bikeway Project, Rail to River, and Sunset Boulevard safety improvements. Together, these investments will create safer connections between venues, neighborhoods, transit, jobs, schools, parks, and destinations across the region.

“You can feel the momentum building across Los Angeles,” said Eli Akira Kaufman, Executive Director of BikeLA, “Projects that have been discussed for years are moving forward, organizations are working more closely together, and there’s a growing sense that this is the moment to build the bike network our communities deserve. Ride LA Together is a key force multiplier that is deepening the connections within the movement, hard at work to transform Los Angeles into a more bikeable and livable city for everyone.

”By 2028, Ride LA Together aims to help accelerate priority bike projects, grow ridership through community programs, strengthen regional partnerships, and demonstrate how coordinated action can create safer, more connected transportation and recreation networks.

To learn more about Ride LA Together or get involved, visit ridela.peopleforbikes.org.

See how easy it was to get a quote from BikeLA ED Eli Akira Kaufman? They probably have him on speed dial, unlike a certain newspaper I could name.

(For younger readers, back in the olden days, we would pre-program frequently called numbers into our phones, so we could call someone without having to dial the whole number. And yes, I know texting is easier and less intrusive, but that’s how we did it back then.)

This is from the email accompanying the press release.

LA’s transportation system showed its limits during the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The 2028 Olympics will bring twice the pressure. However, a coordinated effort is already underway to ensure LA is ready and it starts with bikes.

Paris solved a similar challenge in three years by making every Olympic venue accessible by bike. LA has less than two years, but six priority infrastructure projects are already in motion:

Some of those even I wasn’t familiar with, like the Festival Trail and Western Our Way. Others have been in progress, or at least under discussion, for years, if not decades.

But few, if any, promised to be complete in time for the Olympic Games, as the Metro and Los Angeles leadership — which is currently one and the same — has continued to drag their feet on projects that should have been completed by now, let alone in another two years.

So any help PeopleForBikes and the Ride LA Together coalition can provide would be a blessing for a city that has long talked about making progress, without actually doing it.

If they can manage to cut through the city’s Gordian Knot of red tape and endless series of pointless public meetings, and overcome the chronic understaffing at the chronically understaffed LADOT, which seems to have fewer engineers that most modern trains, I’m all for it.

I confess, I’m feeling something I don’t really recognize, and haven’t experienced since those heady days of the Garcetti years, when groundbreaking programs were announced with great fanfare, before being allowed to whither and die on the vine.

I think it’s called…

Hope.

Image of LA River bike path gap closure from LA Metro website. 

Category: Advocacy & Politics / Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
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