My site was down for some time Sunday night, preventing me from being able to work. Then I had to write about Saturday’s bicycling death in Jefferson Park before I could get to Monday’s post.
So now it’s after 1:30 am, which means if I started now, I wouldn’t get to bed until the sun is coming up and my wife is already up to go to work.
And I’m way too old and cranky for that crap these days.
So come back tomorrow, and we’ll catch up on anything we missed today, including Sunday’s West LA CicLAvia.
The victim, described only as a man around 48-years old, was thrown onto a parked car with enough force to cause significant damage to the rear of the car.
He died at the scene.
The driver fled following the crash. No arrest has been made, and there is currently no description of the suspect vehicle.
There is also no word on how the crash occurred, or where the victim and the driver were located in relation to the intersection.
We also don’t know at this time what kind of ebike the victim was riding; whether it was a Class 1, 2 or 3 ebike, or an e-motorbike or electric dirt bike. An earlier report describes the bike as a motorized or motorbike, but that description was removed from the later update.
The earlier report also describes the victim as 38-years old.
This the 28th bicycling fatality that I’m aware of in Southern California this year, and the tenth in Los Angeles County; it’s also the fifth we know about in the City of Los Angeles.
Eight of those deaths have involved hit-and-run drivers.
As always, there is a standing $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of any fatal hit-and-run driver in the City of Los Angeles.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for the victim and all his loved ones.
Ventura County is having its worst year in memory for bicycling deaths — and it’s only getting worse.
And this time, the victim was a kid.
According to a late night notice from the Simi Valley Police Department, the victim, identified only as a 13-year old juvenile riding an ebike, was killed in a collision with a train on Saturday.
The victim was riding on the east sidewalk of Sequoia Ave, heading south, when they “failed to stop in time” at the railroad crossing at Sequoia and Los Angeles Ave, and was struck by a passing Amtrak train.
It’s not clear if the victim died at the scene, or was taken to a local hospital.
If the description is accurate, it suggests that the victim tried and failed to stop in time, raising questions of how fast the ebike was going — and what type of ebike a victim that young was riding. As well as why the crossing gates did not provide more warning before the train arrived.
It’s also possible that the victim may not have noticed the gates were down, or could have tried to go around the gates after they had been lowered.
Either way, it’s a needless tragedy that will be felt throughout the community.
Anyone with information is urged to call Simi Valley Police Department Traffic Investigator Abel Martinez at 805/583-6224, or email AMartinez@simivalley.org. Or contact Simi Valley Police Department Traffic Supervisor Sergeant Josh McAlister at 805/583-6940, email JMcAlister@simivalley.org.
This the 27th bicycling fatality that I’m aware of in Southern California this year, and the fourth in Ventura County.
That compares to three all year last year, and two the year before.
My deepest sympathy for the victim and all their friends, family and loved ones.
The ride takes place on the last Friday of every month on the corner of Western and Wilshire across from The Wiltern. Routes change monthly, turning each ride into a moving tour of the city. Some rides head west toward Marina del Rey, others east toward Mariachi Plaza, passing through neighborhoods that rarely feel connected outside of car travel.
As the ride moves through different neighborhoods, it often brings energy — and customers — to local businesses along the route as riders stop for food, drinks and supplies throughout the evening.
By my calculations, that means it rolls tonight, making it a perfect kickoff for CicLAvia weekend.
In addition to pledging affordable housing for all and protecting Angelenos from ICE and harassing landlords, she offers an extensive section on transportation and traffic safety, including this:
Angelenos are tired of sitting in traffic, feeling unsafe on their streets, and navigating broken sidewalks. We’ve voted for real change — Measure R (2008) and Measure M (2016) committed $120B to the expansion of rail and transit across the county, and Measure HLA (2024) mandated that street safety improvements happen when streets get repaved, not decades later. We’ve been waiting for City Hall to deliver on those promises with the urgency they deserve. Los Angeles moves too slowly, spends too inefficiently, plans too haphazardly, and acts too timidly to give people the transportation network they’ve already voted for…
Since 2015, Los Angeles has had a Vision Zero policy, a commitment that no one should die on our streets from traffic violence. Instead, traffic deaths have risen by more than 50%. It has never been treated as a genuine priority. Walking, biking, and driving are all less safe than they should be.
Residential streets are overwhelmed by cut-through traffic. Bike lanes lack physical protection. Roads are too fast and crosswalks are too few. Every time the city repaves a street without fixing any of this, we miss the cheapest chance we’ll ever get to make it safer.
And enforcement is aimed at the wrong things. LAPD spends too much time on pretextual stops and equipment violations that have nothing to do with the dangerous driving that is actually killing people.
That’s a damn good start, especially after four years of Mayor Bass ignoring bike and pedestrian safety on our streets, and dragging her foot, if not her ass, on implementing Measure HLA.
But we’ve heard promises like this before, most recently from former Mayor Eric Garcetti, who was great at formulating policy, and not so much on follow through. So what matters isn’t what a candidate says, but what actually ends up in the city budget.
And we won’t know that until after she, or someone else, is elected.
Things are looking good for Raman, though, with betting on the Kalshi prediction market showing her with a good chance of winning on the first vote.
And yes, betting is the right word, since Kalshi and similar sites are just semi-legal workarounds for online betting bans in the US.
A bill sponsored by the California Medical Association (CMA) that aims to reduce the growing number of severe electric bicycle (e-bike) injuries advanced out of the Assembly Judiciary Committee on Tuesday.
Joint-authored by Assemblymembers Lori Wilson and Marc Berman, and co-sponsored by the California Orthopaedic Association, AB 2346 establishes speed limits for e-bikes (15 mph for riders under 16 years old and 10 mph on sidewalks) and would allow local jurisdictions to set speed limits on bike paths and multi-use trails. It would also require manufacturers, sellers, and distributors of e-bikes to equip e-bikes with speedometers and lights and provide safety-related disclosures to consumers at the point of sale.
It seems relatively harmless, primarily affecting kids under 16.
The question is whether ebike makers will respond to that limit by making 15 mph the standard speed for all Class 1, 2 and 3 ebikes, since the bill doesn’t seem to make any distinction between classes, or for older riders.
Agoura Hills City Engineer Charmaine Yambao also noted how complicated and confusing the states ebike classes and regulations are — which The Acorn somehow managed to explain in one simple paragraph.
This is the spot where Metro/LADOT inexplicably decided to omit the bike lane when the Regional Connector stations opened in 2023 la.streetsblog.org/2023/10/11/m…
The fastest descent was probably set by whoever the hell was on it when Mauna Kea last erupted.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes — and pedestrians — just keeps on going.
Hopefully, justice delayed won’t turn into justice denied in Wisconsin, where a man who admitted to driving onto a bike path and deliberately killing a man by repeatedly hitting him with his truck was ruled incompetent to stand trial, after he refused to appear in court, and appeared to have no understanding of the court proceedings; however, the judge said he could be competent within a year with treatment. It’s not clear from the description if the victim was actually riding a bike, though.
Streets For All has issued a new report on how bad LA streets are going to get, now that the city has halted repaving to avoid complying with Measure HLA and the Americans with Disabilities Act — not to mention the drastic budget cuts to pay for the unfunded raises cops and city workers received. Let’s just say they’re painting the city red, and not in a good way.
HR 7353, aka the Magnus White and Safe Streets for Everyone Act, has passed the US House Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trademark, and could be included in this year’s Surface Transportation Reauthorization package; the bill — named for the 17-year old USA Cycling team member killed by a drunk driver in Boulder, Colorado — would require automatic emergency braking systems capable of detecting vulnerable road users such as bicyclists, motorcyclists, and wheelchair users in all new passenger vehicles by 2029, something that is already required by the European Union.
Tragic news from Poland, where a 36-year old member of the country’s Parliament was killed when a driver veered onto the wrong side of the road, and hit him as he rode his bicycle; a member of the New Left Party, Lukasz Litewka was known for his animal rights advocacy and a billboard campaign to help shelter dogs find homes.
London officials hope hosting of the first ever women’s team time trial in the next year’s Tour de France Femmes will encourage more women to ride bikes in the British capital. Or maybe they could just, you know, build more and safer bikeways.
I hope you had a good, environmentally conscious Earth Day yesterday.
I celebrated by spending most of the day on it.
Meanwhile, today’s image is Metro’s new limited-edition Earth Day TAP card; the fully functional bamboo TAP cards are available at any Metro Customer Center until they run out.
AB 1557, which redefines an ebike as having a motor limited to maximum of 750 watts, and lowers the maximum assisted speed for Class 1 and Class 2 ebikes to 16 mph, passed out of the Assembly Transportation Committee 12-0; the purpose is to clearly distinguish ebikes from e-motos of questionable legality.
AB 2284 passed the committee with 15 votes in favor; it would require the state Attorney General to maintain a public list of electric two-wheeled devices that don’t meet the state’s legal definition of an ebike.
Now for the bad news.
AB 1942 also passed the committee, and would mandate that all Class 2 and Class 3 ebikes have to be registered with the DMV and display license plates, just like cars, trucks and SUVs. It would be one of the most effective ways to put the brakes on ebikes, limit the growth of an otherwise legal alternative to driving, and start us down the slippery slope that could lead to licensing regular bikes and their riders.
Somewhere in between good and bad, and also moving forward, are AB 1569, which requires students from kindergarten up to complete an approved electric bicycle safety training course before they could park an ebike on school grounds, and AB 2595, which creates a pilot program allowing cities in San Mateo County to ban kids under 12 from riding any form of ebike.
Mejer had been warned by deputies last year that the Surron Ultra Bee she purchased for her son was an illegal electric motorcycle capable of speeds up to 58 mph, and that her son had been riding it recklessly.
She is accused of lying to investigators about after the crash, claiming neither she nor her son owned a similar e-moto.
Meanwhile, former Marine pilot and substitute teacher Ed Ashman remains hospitalized, facing a long and costly recovery; a crowdfunding page to help pay his medical expenses has raised over $87,000 of the $90,000 goal.
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The Central Hollywood Neighborhood Council is hosting a CD13 City Council candidate forum next Thursday.
My finely honed political instincts tell me incumbent Hugo Soto-Martinez will probably cruise to re-election in the June primary. But I’m often, if not usually, wrong about such things, so take that with a bag of salt.
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The City of LA reminds us about the first West LA CicLAvia this Sunday.
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes — and pedestrians — just keeps on going.
County officials in Ireland are urging the country’s government to reconsider a plan for mandatory hi-visibility clothing at night for bicyclists and e-scooter users, even though the initial plan to require hi-viz collapsed within a day from a withering backlash; then again, they’re also calling for pedestrians to wear hi-viz when walking 24/7. Which is about the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
The Victor Valley News reports an ebike rider was hospitalized after being struck by a driver Wednesday evening — although photos of the bike make it look at lot more like a dirt bike or e-moto than anything that could be classified as an electric bicycle under current California law.
The plan to build a Complete Street and protected bike lanes on the lower section of Overland Avenue has drawn its share of detractors to a Facebook group calling to “SAVE Overland Ave in Culver CIty.”
Even though that’s exactly what proponents are trying to do. Apparently, they don’t grasp the concept that drivers and local residents, including older people, benefit from safer streets, too.
Then again, the group only has a measly 215 members right now. So maybe instead of torches and pitchforks, it’s just matches and spades this time.
Thanks to Adrian for the heads-up.
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Thanks to Andrew for forwarding news on Bluesky that West Hollywood will become the latest Southern California city to offer its own ebike incentive program, with eligible residents able to claim up to $2,000 towards one.
Meanwhile, Los Angeles joins California in continuing to offer eligible residents absolutely nothing.
Unfortunately, Bluesky seems to be having yet another of their recent service outages, so you may have to just take my word for it, unless the post below miraculously shows up, or the above link actually works. Otherwise, I’ll try again tomorrow.
The Pasadena Transportation Advisory Commission will receive an informational presentation on Pasadena Bike Month at their Thursday meeting, with events ranging from a beginner’s bagel ride to an ebike expo at the Rose Bowl. Meanwhile, that deafening silence you hear is the plans for Bike Month in Los Angeles.
That’s more like it. Sheriff’s deputies made an arrest four-and-a-half years after a 29-year old man riding a bicycle was killed by a hit-and-run driver in my bike-friendly Colorado hometown, continuing to investigate until they had enough evidence to get an arrest warrant; the suspect was booked on charges of leaving the scene of an accident involving death and insurance fraud. Seriously, when was the last time you heard of LA cops or sheriff’s deputies arresting a hit-and-run suspect after four-and-a-half months, let alone four-and-a-half years?
An op-ed from a Louisville KY bicyclist and triathlete says that bike riders in the city don’t want “more ill-conceived bike lanes,” insisting that what they really want is for drivers to share the road and pass safely, while bike riders need to obey the law and pull over to let long lines of cars pass them. Except there’s a 100-year plus track record showing too many drivers are incapable of sharing the road safely, which is exactly why we need bike lanes.
A new study from the European Transport Safety Council says too many people are still getting killed on bicycles in the European Union, but that slower streets and protected bike lanes could help lower to toll.
No bias here. An Australian ad announcing the country is now at Level Two of the ‘National Fuel Security Plan’ due to the fuel crisis fueled by the war in Iran devotes a whole 1.5 seconds to using a bicycle, and the other 28.5 seconds to using your car more wisely, instead of not using it at all.
Deputies found him down in the westbound lanes on the 1900 block of West San Marcos Boulevard, west of Rancho Santa Fe Road. Despite the efforts of paramedics, he was pronounced dead around 15 minutes later.
However, between researching and writing that story, then going back and correcting the story within minutes of posting it, I’m effectively out of time to write anything else tonight.
At least if I want to get any sleep at all.
So we’ll see you on Wednesday to catch up on whatever missed tomorrow. Which is starting to sound a lot like an old Popeye routine.
KTLA-5 reports the victim was riding on the sidewalk on the 1600 block of South San Antonio Ave, near Patterson Street, around 2:30 pm Friday, when he rode out into the street and was struck by a driver.
It’s not clear from the limited description whether he rode out into Patterson at the intersection, or went off the sidewalk and into the street on San Antonio.
A street view shows a bike lane on both sides of the street, so it’s questionable why the victim would have been on the sidewalk.
It’s also not clear whether he was riding was a legal Class 1, 2 or 3 ebike, or an illegal e-moto. Which is exactly the problem when the same word is used to describe anything with batteries and two wheels.
He was taken to a local hospital before being transferred to Children’s Hospital Orange County, where he died on Sunday.
The victim hasn’t been publicly identified, and there’s no word at this time just how old he is.
The driver remained at the scene and cooperated with investigators, although police remain unsure whether alcohol or drugs played a role in the collision.
Update: Shortly after posting this, KNBC-4 and KABC-7 reported that the victim was a student Simons Middle School, a few blocks away in Pomona.
Thirteen-year old Angel Mendoza was struck as he was riding an e-scooter to a friend’s house, and died of severe head injuries; he was not wearing a helmet.
The boy was reportedly riding recklessly when he collided with the victim as the older man was crossing the street. Deputies identified the suspect and arrested him after serving a search warrant at a nearby home in Lake Forest.
The Orange County Sheriffs Department reports he was on a Surron e-motorbike, which is not street legal and can reach speeds up to 68 mph, depending on the model.
And thanks to the OCSD for making it clear the boy on an e-moto, and not a Class 1, 2 or 3 ped-assist ebike.
Although whether the results can be replicated in other car-dependent countries, such as the US, remains to be seen.
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We could be getting bike lanes on Vermont Ave after all.
Although the motion only calls on the city to study adding bike lanes to the project. And as well all know, studying is what this city does best, rather than actually, you know, doing anything.
Video circulated throughout the Mideast showing the President of Iran casually riding a bike with the governor of Isfahan and other officials over the weekend, appearing unfazed by the American and Israeli attacks.
Once again, a bike trail has apparently been sabotaged, this time in France near the Swiss border, when someone strung a cable across the trail at eye level that knocked two kids off their bicycles while on a family outing.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
Maybe it’s the result of a bad translation. Two sets of South Korean parents were arrested and released on charges of child neglect after their middle school kids reportedly threatened people with their “Pixie” bikes, the site says is an abbreviation for “fixed-gear.” Can’t speak for you, but “pixie bike” kinda has a ring to it.
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Local
An op-ed in the new Rupert Murdoch-owned California Post looks at LA’s invention of the phrase “large asphalt repair” rather than repaving, which would trigger legal mandates increasing the costs, concluding that fewer streets will get fixed and we’ll all be worse off as long as “fixing a street means triggering a cascade of costly mandates.”
The Smithsonian, of all sources, looks at the history of yesterday’s Bicycle Day, 83 years after Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann accidentally ingested LSD before bicycling home from his lab in Basel, Switzerland, taking the first trip on two wheels.
Taiwan’s Giant bicycle is reportedly on the verge of launching the first ebike powered by a semi-solid-state battery, a step between lithium-ion and solid-state batteries, which could provide more energy for less weight, longer life and less risk of fires.
