Support BikinginLA Donate to the Annual Holiday Fund Drive →

Court rules in favor of bike lanes on Fountain Ave, and victims of LA County traffic violence to be honored on World Day of Remembrance

November 3, 2026 / / No comments

This time, the law was on our side.

A Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge ruled that the bike lanes planned for Fountain Ave can go forward, after concluding that they don’t violate CEQA or

According to WeHo Times,

In a ruling issued Monday, Nov. 2, 2026, Judge Richard L. Fruin denied a petition for writ of mandate filed by Michael J. Kilroy against the City of West Hollywood and other defendants. The court granted judgment in favor of the city, rejecting the claims raised in Kilroy’s verified petition and complaint.

The case, filed Oct. 29, 2025, challenged the city’s decision to move forward with Phase 1 of the Fountain Avenue Streetscape Project without conducting a full environmental review. Kilroy, who owns an eight-unit apartment building at 1308 N. Flores St., near the intersection of Flores Street and Fountain Avenue, argued that the city’s reliance on CEQA exemptions was improper…

The project is being implemented in two phases. Phase 1 consists of the initial roadway reconfiguration and safety improvements, while Phase 2 is expected to involve a more extensive reconstruction, including wider sidewalks where feasible, upgraded Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant curb ramps, landscaping, street lighting, traffic signal improvements and utility relocation.

However, as a commenter on the site pointed out, whether the project actually moves forward will depend entirely on the outcome of today’s election. A shift of just one vote coming from a slate of more conservative candidates running in WeHo could be enough to doom it.

So call it a win for now. Whether it stays that way is yet to be determined.

My selfie skills may suck, but today’s photo is a reminder that there’s more than one way to Bike the Vote. 

……….

Streets Are For Everyone invites you to join them to commemorate the local victims of traffic violence on the World Say of Remembrance November 15th, this time at Pasadena City Hall.

Streets Are For Everyone (SAFE) invites you to join us and hundreds of communities worldwide for World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims on Sunday, November 15.

In 2025 alone, 705 people were struck and killed on LA County roads, and 56,893 were injured, over 6,000 of them severely. World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims is a UN-recognized day, the third Sunday in November, when communities across the world remember those lost, support those impacted by traffic violence, and take action to prevent these tragedies from ever happening.

As part of this year’s theme – Remember,  Support,  Act – SAFE is honored to partner with CicLAvia in presenting a large-scale public art installation featuring 705 empty chairs set up in Pasadena’s Memorial Park, each adorned with a single yellow rose, representing a person lost to traffic violence in Los Angeles County last year.

Friends and family of those who have lost a loved one at any point, anywhere (not just in LA County), are also invited to contribute to the public art installation by decorating chairs and adding them to the Field of Remembrance, or by drawing chalk-art pictures on the paths winding through this field.

Our Remembrance Ceremony includes a press event, dove release, and songs – bringing together traffic violence survivors, victims’ families, elected officials, community organizations, and advocates around these three calls to action: Remember, Support, Act. Through personal stories and remarks, the ceremony will honor those affected by preventable violence and carry forward our collective effort to put an end to traffic violence.

Event Details

Date: Sunday, November 15, 2026
Location: Pasadena Memorial Park
85 E Holly St, Pasadena, CA 91101
Field of Remembrance: 10:00 AM – 3:00 PM
Press Conference and Remembrance Ceremony: 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM

……….

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

No bias here. Anaheim city leaders are grappling with “life or death” ebike policies, even though the people causing the problems aren’t riding ebikes, but illegal e-motorbikes and non-street legal dirt bikes.

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

An Irish newspaper says “mobs of yobs” on bicycles and e-scooters armed with fireworks terrorized people walking on the newly pedestrianized Oxford Street — yet illustrated the story with long lines of cars no longer allowed there.

………

Local 

As usual, Metro and most other LA County transit systems will offer free rides today for Election Day. Which should be a paid legal holiday, but isn’t. 

Speaking of Metro, Streetsblog has a list of Metro scoping meetings for the Sepulveda Transit Corridor beginning tomorrow night.

Also tomorrow, Pasadena will host the city’s second virtual community meeting for the 1.8-mile Pasadena and St. John avenues corridor tomorrow, as they continue to accept comments online.

South Pasadena will hold a community meeting on Thursday, Nov. 12, from 6 to 7:30 pm in the South Pasadena Middle School auditorium on the Huntington Drive-Fremont Avenue Corridor Improvements Project.

 

State

An Atwater intersection will now carry the name and memory of 10-year-old fourth grader who was struck and killed while riding his bike near his home and school in April.

Sad news from south Sacramento, where a man riding a bicycle was killed in a right hook by a pickup driver.

 

National

Eighty-four-year old Harrison Ford relies on tennis and riding his bike to stay in shape in his 80s.

A law firm says that 68% of bicyclists killed between 2015 and 2024 were not wearing helmets, but only 19% of bicycling injuries in 2024 involved head injuries. Make of that what you will, because sure as hell don’t know what it means for us. 

Seattle Bike Blog calls for breaking all the city’s records for biking during the dark, rainy months.

Heartbreaking story from Oklahoma, where the family of a 16-year old boy are taking comfort in his decision to be an organ donor, just two weeks before suffering a catastrophic brain injury when he was struck by a driver while riding his bike home from a new job.

Sad news from Wisconsin, where Harry Spehar, Trek’s first product manager, died after suffering a stroke; the Vallejo, California native was 80.

 

International

PeopleForBikes rates the best international cities for bicycling, with the large city category led by the usual suspects, although a few German cities managed to break into the top ten; the medium-sized cities are all in Belgium and the Netherlands, while Canada fares well in the small cities camp.

Despite being in Ontario, bike lanes are not being removed in Montreal, unlike Toronto, but that didn’t keep an 18-year old man riding a bicycle from being killed by a driver in a suspected stolen car who was fleeing from police; hundreds of bicyclists staged a die-in to protest the death.

Also in Montreal, the family of an 89-year old man killed killed by a driver while trying to get into the passenger door of his car honored him with a pair of white ghost shoes suspended from a lamppost.

They get it. An Ethiopian website says “the measure of a city’s greatness is not found in the height of its buildings alone, but in the freedom of a child to walk safely, the ease with which a commuter can cycle to work, the pleasure of a family strolling beside a restored river, and the dignity of people reclaiming public spaces as their own.” Couldn’t have said it better myself. 

A 29-year old Singaporean man was sentenced to five years and nine months behind bars for the 2024 death of a bike rider in Australia; he was originally charged with murder before pleading to manslaughter in August.

 

Competitive Cycling

If you’re going to hold a gravel race, might as well do it in the Great Karoo region of South Africa, if only so Cycling News can show off their knowledge of what multiples of giraffes and zebras are called.

Velo says Chinese bikes are in and Bianchi is out as major changes come to WorldTour sponsorships next year.

 

Finally…

Peddling pies by pedaling. That feeling when the insurance company says blame your marriage, not the bike crash.

And the new British version of Saturday Night Live celebrates Brits joyfully risking their lives on Lime bikes.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin.

 

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

Protesting bike lane removal in Halloween costumes, last minute LA mayoral advice, and flying your bike in the light of the moon

November 2, 2026 / / 2 comments

Well, that was a fun meta moment. 

I asked Claude AI for an accurate count of bicycling fatalities in the City and/or County of Los Angeles, hoping it might be able to ferret out more information than I’ve been able to find. 

It responded by citing an advocacy blog called BikinginLA, giving the latest county figures I’ve been able to dredge up. So while it may be artificial, it at least knows about this site, so it’s clearly intelligent. 

One other semi-quick note. 

Last week, I wrote the following in regards to the double murder counts filed against Valentin Alberto Rodriguez for the two DUI deaths on the Montclair Halloween ride: 

It also means that he could face multiple life sentences — which from what I’ve been told about the crash and the damage he inflicted, doesn’t began to seem harsh enough.

A comment from Charles asked what “harsher than life imprisonment” I would find satisfactory. 

My comment above was based on information that hasn’t been reported in the press — which I’m not sure if I will even share here, given that friends and family members frequently find this site — and the anger and revulsion I felt, and continue to feel, over the violence and cruelty inflicted on the victims. 

It was also based on the knowledge that life imprisonment in California seldom means imprisonment until death. Unless a prison sentence specifies “without parole,” or the guilty party is sentenced to consecutive sentences, rather than concurrent, someone could easily be back out in 15 to 20 years. 

So while I may feel that a given punishment is not harsh enough to fit the crime, that does not mean I actually want to inflict something harsher. I do not support the death penalty, nor do I support torture or dismemberment, as Charles suggested. 

I means that I am mad as hell, and my heart cries out for vengeance, knowing that there is no possible penalty that could ever make something like this right. 

In truth, I can envision no greater punishment than waking up every day with the full knowledge of the harm you inflicted on someone else, and the guilt and shame of living with that every day. 

And I hope you’ll tolerate a little AI slop as our corgis, living and dead, wish you ¡Feliz Día de Muertos!

……….

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

Dozens of Toronto residents spent their Halloween protesting the removal of a popular bike path by provincial authorities, over the objection on city leaders, riding bikes and carrying signs, both in an out of costume, as some handed out candy to passersby.

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

A 75-year old British woman riding a bicycle suffered serious injuries when she was hit head-on by another bicyclist, but at least the other rider apparently stopped.

………

Local 

The Los Angeles Times offers a last-minute guide to the LA Mayor’s race, comparing incumbent Karen Bass with challenger Nithya Raman on issues including housing, policing and homelessness, without touching on streets or traffic safety. But if you still haven’t decided, here’s a simple way to make a choice: If you like what you see when you look around this city, vote for Bass; if not, don’t. 

Politico profiles Raman, calling her an accidental politician drawn into office by concern over homelessness, and an “Evil Elmo.”

Metro will close a portion of Pasadena’s Arroyo Parkway between Holly and Union streets today and tomorrow to stripe new bike and travel lanes.

 

State

A 52-year old Ocean Beach woman suffered serious facial fractures when she was hit by a DUI driver while riding an ebike, when the driver decided to make a U-turn even though she was in the way.

SF Gate tells the story of how one of the most iconic and indelible scenes in modern movie history was shot on a rainy night on a ranch just outside Crescent City, when Elliott escaped authorities on his flying bicycle ride silhouetted against the glow of the moon with E.T. in his basket.

Thousands of people turned out for the 8th annual zombie bike parade in Davis, to raise funds for adaptive bicycles for children with disabilities.

A letter writer strongly urges city officials to the Davis Bicycle Hall of Fame as a temporary shelter this winter, because the building is underutilized. And who really cares about a bunch of old bikes and the people who rode them, anyway?

 

National

Velo considers why flying with your bicycle is always a gamble, and how to improve your odds. Personally, I prefer flying with an airplane and a licensed pilot, but as E.T. showed us, flying with a bike is doable with a little help.

The California Post highlights five destinations from National Geographic’s ‘Best of the World’ travel list, including our own PCH and Catalina Island, though failing to mention that the southern end is one of the deadliest roadways in California.

Nope, no bias here. A Boise, Idaho mom wants to know why the motorcyclist who killed her 15-year old son as he rode an ebike isn’t facing charges, in what the local paper describes as an ebike crash, rather than a collision caused by someone riding a motorcycle 80 mph in a 25 mph zone.

Horrible news from Ohio, where a 26-year old man fleeing from police crashed his pickup into several vehicles, losing a wheel, then proceeded on three wheels before slamming into a 35-year old man riding a bicycle, and dragging him half a mile to his death in the missing wheel well; he faces murder and involuntary manslaughter charges, as well as 31 other counts including multiple charges of felonious assault, tampering with evidence and hit-and-run.

Tragic news from New York, where four people have now died following a fire in the Bronx caused by an ebike battery that blocked escaped from the apartment in a public housing complex.

Relatives marked the ninth anniversary of the 2017 New York terrorist attack in which a man in a rented truck sped down the city’s Hudson River Bike Path, killing eight people and injuring 14 others.

Brooklyn’s best Halloween party was held on a dead-end street by costumed revelers on bicycles, whose only rule was “don’t be an asshole.”

A 24-year old New Jersey man was arrested six days after a hit-and-run crash that killed a 71-year old dishwasher riding a bicycle, and charged with tampering with evidence as well as the fatal hit-and-run; another driver remains to be identified after also leaving the scene.

A Pennsylvania bike co-op is operated by a 32-year old nonprofit group with perhaps the best name in advocacy, the Coalition for Appropriate Transportation.

 

International

The Guardian looks at London’s “Sin Bin” for lawbreaking bicyclists who are forced to watch a roadside safety video in lieu of getting a ticket and paying a fairly minimal fine. Kinda like a hockey player getting five for fighting, or a toddler forced to take a timeout for throwing a temper tantrum.

Meanwhile, calls are growing for cops to enforce a ban on bicycling on the newly pedestrianized Oxford Street in London before someone gets hurt, while bicyclists call for alternate routes, instead. When I visited London 25 years ago on a delayed honeymoon, Oxford was a car sewer of the highest degree, and people got hurt by cars on a regular basis. And a lot worse than with a bicycle. 

Speaking of perceived bad behavior, bicyclists in the English town of Kenilworth were reportedly abused by fellow residents for riding their bikes through a park — which they had to do to get to the bicycle parking on the other side.

Even bicycle advocates call scofflaw sidewalk cyclists in the London borough of Putney “the elephant in the room.”

An English radio host is preparing to ride a bicycle 400 miles to visit all four countries in Great Britain in five days, despite not being a “sporty person” or “a cyclist in any way, shape or form.” In parts of this country, it’s difficult to visit four states in 400 miles, let alone four countries.

A British hit-and-run driver faces life in prison for hitting a man riding a bicycle, and knowingly driving another mile dragging the victim under his car.

The rich get richer, as Paris commits the equivalent of $224 million to improve bicycling, while building 87 miles of new bike lanes in six years.

 

Competitive Cycling

Tadej Pogačar was hurt worse than officials let on, revealing that he broke three vertebra when he crashed at the Vuelta, and the outcome may not be as good if he crashes again. There is something to be said for walking away while you still can. 

Twenty-four-year old American Amanda Coker set a new Guinness World Record by riding a remarkable 86,573.2 miles in 12 months, beating the old record by more than 10,000 miles, and now plans to set another by riding 100,000 miles in the shortest amount of time to break a record set 86 years ago.

 

Finally…

That feeling when you get swept away by flood waters, but recover your missing bicycle after someone fishes it out of a storm drain, fixes it up and posts about it online. Or when a major news service can’t decide whether to call a homeless bike rider he or they, so they use both at once.

And GQ answers the difficult question of what to wear to an ebike jousting tournament.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin.

 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , ,

Double murder charge in alleged DUI Montclair Halloween ride hit-and-run, and San Diego fails to check if Streets For All is already in use

October 30, 2026 / / 2 comments

I honestly don’t get it. 

A couple of trains crashed in Spain, killing 68 people — a horrible tragedy that made headlines around the world. 

Yet every year in the United States, we lose the population of a small city to traffic violence, and almost no one even notices. And ever fewer care

Somebody make it make sense. 

Photo by Kindel Media for Pexels. 

……….

At least it’s murder now.

The San Bernardino County District Attorney’s office filed multiple charges, including two counts of murder, for last Saturday’s fatal hit-and-run that killed two people taking part in a joyful Halloween ride last Saturday.

According to the DA’s office,

“Multiple lives lost in one tragic, senseless, but entirely avoidable DUI. An October celebration turned into carnage because of one person’s decision to drive while intoxicated. There were numerous alternatives available to get home safely, yet he chose to get behind the wheel. That decision has now cost two people their lives,” said District Attorney Jason Anderson.

Filed Charges:

  • Counts 1–2: PC 187(a) – Murder
  • Counts 3–4: PC 191.5(a) – Gross Vehicular Manslaughter While Intoxicated
  • Counts 5–6: VC 23153 – Driving Under the Influence Causing Injury
  • Additional Charge: VC 20001 – Felony Hit-and-Run

Additionally, our Office filed special allegations for Personal Infliction of Great Bodily Injury or Death and Fleeing after Committing Vehicular Manslaughter. Arraignment date and location is pending.

The murder charges likely indicate that this was not Montclair resident Valentin Alberto Rodriguez’s first DUI charge, and that he had received a Watson Advisement indicating that he could face a murder charge if he killed someone while driving under the influence going forward.

It also means that he could face multiple life sentences — which from what I’ve been told about the crash and the damage he inflicted, doesn’t began to seem harsh enough.

I struggle with cases like this, because I recognize that alcoholism is a disease which should be treated, not punished.

But as the DA indicated, no one forced Rodriguez to get behind the wheel after — allegedly — getting shitfaced. And no one forced him to keep driving after the crash, dragging one of the victims with him, or to foot bail after finally coming to a stop.

All he had to do was call an Uber, or take a fucking bus, and Robert Garcia Umanzor and single mother Rumor Ortiz could have finished their ride in peace, and gone home to their families instead of dying in the street.

So if there’s any justice left in this world, Rodriguez will sober up behind bars, and have decades to reflect on the cost of his actions.

………

San Diego has launched a new guide for safer streets. Although they might have picked a name that wasn’t already in use just over a hundred miles away.

The City of San Diego has launched Streets for All, a new resource designed to guide communities that are interested in transforming their neighborhood streets into safer, more welcoming spaces, finding solutions to calm traffic or creating more spaces for neighbors to gather.

Streets for All is community-driven, meaning residents and businesses work together to develop and fund near-term “quick build” projects in their neighborhoods to calm traffic or create more gathering spaces. Communities can use the manual to help identify potential solutions to fit their location and existing conditions.

Whether they can get away with using the same name as the Los Angeles and San Francisco street safety PAC depends on the generosity of, and lawyers for, the Los Angeles-based group.

But you’d think San Diego would have done a basic web search before choosing the name — unless their purpose was to cause confusion with the previously existing group, in which case, carry on.

………

Streets for All — the real one — calls for a no vote on prop 43.

Twitter post

Meanwhile, Calbike concurs on 43 and adds a no on 45.

No on Prop 43: Protect Local Funding for Safer Streets

CalBike urges Californians to vote NO on Proposition 43. The measure would make it harder for communities to approve citizen-led taxes for safer streets, reliable transit, and other essential local services. CalBike’s vision for California is a place where a bicycle can carry more of your daily life: the ride to school, the trip to the grocery store, the connection to a bus or train.

We have worked tirelessly to help California as a whole be knit together by Complete Streets, with signature legislation like SB 960. In this future, safe bikeways and reliable transit work together, putting more destinations within reach. Making a walking-friendly street into a biking-friendly neighborhood and less car-dependent regions or. Read more, or watch on our social media channels.

California voters will have a chance to push back against the Trump Administration’s rollbacks of the laws that protect our public health, air, land, and water this November by voting No on Proposition 45. Prop 45 is backed by PACs representing oil companies, for-profit utilities, and industrial developers, and would make it easier to build data centers, warehouses, and other polluting projects.

Prop 45 harms air, water quality, and public health by severely limiting critical public oversight of a long list of harmful projects. The independent and non-partisan Legislative Analyst’s Office estimates implementing Prop 45 could cost taxpayers $100 million or more annually.

Every voter needs to know:

  • Prop 45 weakens protections in California for clean air, clean water, and public health.
  • Prop 45 doesn’t reduce costs – it shifts them to taxpayers and includes no guarantees to bring costs down for everyday Californians.
  • Big corporations are spending tens of millions of dollars so they can build polluting projects – including data centers – with less public oversight.

Check out the No on Prop 45 website to learn more.

………

Bike Long Beach is hosting a post-Halloween ride on Sunday, although the forecast is somewhat soggy for Sunday.

Bikes and Coffee 11/1/26: Post-Halloween ride

Join us on Sunday, November 1st for a post-halloween Bikes and Coffee ride! This is actually our October ride, which we had to push a week due to schedule conflicts. Starting at SteelCraft, we’ll loop up to Rancho Los Cerritos and other houses before heading down mainly through Wrigley via Daisy/Magnolia, checking out the Bembridge house before making our way down Broadway for a stop at Coffinated Coffee – they’re having their soft opening this weekend.

We’ll meet at SteelCraft at 9 a.m. and roll out at 9:30. This is a casual pace ride of about 14 miles on bike paths and quiet streets. Everyone is welcome, on any kind of bike. Come meet and hang out with fellow bike people. Bring a bike in good condition, helmet and a lock. See you there!

Please sign our ride waiver if you’re planning on attending.

Start and end location: SteelCraft, 3768 Long Beach Blvd
Meet time: 9 a.m.. We’ll roll around 9:30 a.m.
Distance: 14 miles
Route: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/57708403

………

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

Nope, no bias here. An English police force blames “dark clothing” for crashes involving bicyclists and pedestrians, but can’t seem to find the words blame drivers for speeding or looking at their phones.

A British cafe replaced its billboard with an ad on the side of a car, which was thoughtfully parked blocking a bike lane.

………

Local 

Streetsblog offers five amazing simple hacks to avoid getting a ticket from the new Los Angeles speed cams, including only driving 10 mph over the speed limit.

Los Angeles General Medical Center gave away pamphlets on ebike safety and 100 bike helmets in an effort to reduce ebike injuries.

 

State

Um, okay. The Cal State Fullerton Daily Titan says the Anaheim Police Department outlined a three-pronged approach to ebike safety focusing on enforcement, education and engineering, while categorizing ebikes into three classes — which coincidentally just happen to be the same three classes spelled out under state law.

San Diego will host the 13th Annual Jim Krause Memorial Charity Cycling Ride the Point on November 7th to raise funds for pancreatic cancer research, with rides ranging from five miles to a metric century.

Horrible story from Stockton, where a 23-year old Navy vet was found dead two months after his bicycle was found half a mile from the In-N-Out Burger where he was last seen on July 19th; investigators don’t seem to have any idea what happened to him, or why it took so long to find his body. A crowdfunding campaign to help pay his funeral expenses has raised just $340 so far.

 

National

Life is cheap in Utah, where an 81-year old truck driver was sentenced to just 75 days behind bars, with credit for time served, along with three years probation, for the hit-and-run death of a nine-year old boy riding his bike in a crosswalk, because the victim’s family asked for forgiveness and mercy; he said afterwards that he knew he hit a bicycle, but didn’t think anyone was on it. Because apparently, people in Utah just randomly leave bicycles standing in crosswalks. 

Nothing like learning just how cheap life is near your own hometown, where a distracted driver who killed a ten-year old boy three years ago while he was riding his bike in a crosswalk, just 10 miles from where I grew up — then deleted the incriminating text message to hide the evidence — got a whopping one year behind bars, with work release so she could continue teaching other little kids while doing her time. However, the story is hidden behind a paywall, so you’ll have to find a way around it if you want to see for yourself just how little a little kid’s life is worth. 

It’s been four years since an 18-year old Michigan man was shot and killed by a driver while riding his bike, and police have nothing more than a sketch of a long-haired, bearded man and a light-colored sedan to go on.

An Indianapolis, Indiana man faces a felony hit-and-run count for killing a 56-year old woman riding a bicycle and just driving off, leaving her on the side of road where she was found 15 minutes later. But at least that carries a penalty up to three times what a fatal hit-and run would carry in California.

A 41-year old New York State man faces five to ten behind bars after pleading guilty to second-degree manslaughter for the hit-and-run death of a 50-year old woman riding an ebike.

 

International

An Indian man has spent the past 20 years riding over 124,000 miles through 191 countries to spread awareness of HIV/AIDS.

 

Competitive Cycling

Twenty-year old rising French cycling star Paul Seixas, who just happens to share my birthday, calls for better safety standards following the death of 19-year old British cyclist Finlay Tarling at this year’s Volta a Portugal.

Cycling Up To Date says the late, great Tour of California could make a comeback, seven years after Tadej Pogačar won the final edition. Personally, I’d like to see a two-to-three week race that starts in Colorado and continues by stages to the West Coast.

A Dutch amateur cyclist was lucky to escape with relatively minor injuries when he was hit head-on by a driver while on a training ride, leaving him with bruised ribs and one majorly fucked up bike, below.

Instagram post

 

Finally…

Nothing like keeping humans out of the loop by having your AI chatbot answer calls from a customer’s AI chatbot. Or imitating the Wizard of Oz by being lifted up by a tornado while riding your bike.

And nothing like recording a motorist merrily following behind you on a separated bike path.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin.

 

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

A new mayor may not fix what ails Los Angeles, a bike street can improve the whole neighborhood, and Caltrans schedules PCH workshop

October 29, 2026 / / 2 comments

Somehow, I managed to get through today’s post, after spending all day yesterday flat on my back with my eyes closed to keep the world from spinning around me. 

Good times. 

As for today’s photo, scroll down lower to see what I missed out on over the weekend, dammit. 

……….

It’s not just you.

Crosstown says Los Angeles is spending more and getting less, in a town that’s “not designed to work.” And getting a new mayor won’t fix things.

From street sweeping to tree trimming, Los Angeles residents are seeing less of the basic services they rely on.

With the mayoral race heating up, candidates are promising to fix the problem. But Los Angeles is spending more and getting less — and whoever wins will inherit a system that limits how much they can actually change.

In five years, Los Angeles’s budget grew 34%. The number of sidewalks it repaired fell 33%.

Residents are feeling the effects in their neighborhoods. In 2021, Los Angeles cut street sweeping from weekly to every other week. In Westlake, a group of volunteers responded by picking up trash the Bureau of Sanitation left behind, said Elaine Alaniz, president of the Westlake North Neighborhood Council.

Never mind that the city went eight full months without repaving a single stretch of roadway last year.

Then there’s this.

Rick Cole, an advisor to Nithya Raman’s mayoral campaign, has spent 40 years working in city governments across Southern California. For Cole, the decline in services is the symptom of a deeper problem. In June, during a farewell speech at City Hall as he stepped down from his role as deputy controller, he told the crowd, “LA is not designed to work.” Decades of ignoring “mind-numbing bureaucracy” have made the city ungovernable, he said. “Beneath the broken sidewalks is a broken system.”

On the other hand, Karen Bass has had nearly four years to fix things, and hasn’t shown up for anything but homelessness and rebuilding after the Palisades fire until she was faced with a fight for reelection. And hasn’t made a lot of progress on the former, and complaints from literally burned-out residents on the latter.

So if you like the job she’s done, and the city we have today, vote for her.

If not, don’t.

………

A new German study has found that transforming even a busy street into an “advanced bicycle street” can change the character of the entire neighborhood.

Momentum did a good job of translating the dense study results into something a little easier to understand.

Researchers examined Oeder Weg, a 1.4-kilometre (0.87 mile) street in central Frankfurt transformed into what they call an advanced bicycle street. The project went beyond adding signs. It combined traffic restrictions with physical changes intended to make the street safer, more comfortable and more useful to the surrounding neighbourhood.

Before the changes, Oeder Weg carried as many as 9,183 motor vehicles a day, well above the recommended volume for a bicycle street under German guidelines.

The city began by designating it a bicycle street in August 2021. The following April, it introduced bollards, planters and barriers to restrict car access at key entrances and discourage through-traffic. Other changes included red-painted intersections, marked dooring zones, additional bicycle parking and the removal of some on-street parking. Those spaces were repurposed for restaurant patios, greenery, street furniture and delivery zones.

While cars were still allowed on the street, diverters prevented drivers from using it as a shortcut, cutting daily traffic rates nearly in half while increasing bicycle traffic by 25%.

And contrary to common fears, traffic did not increase on the surrounding streets, but actually decreased throughout the entire neighborhood. In addition, traffic collisions fell by nearly half, while bicycling collisions dropped 27%, despite the increase in bicycling rates.

………

Caltrans is hosting a virtual public meeting next month to discuss safety improvements on LA’s killer highway.

Caltrans District 7 invites you to the second virtual public workshop for the PCH Segment A Safety Improvement Project – Project Initiation.

Whether you attended a previous workshop or are joining us for the first time, we welcome your participation. This second virtual workshop provides another opportunity to learn about the project, ask questions, and share your input.

Workshop Details

Date: Wednesday, November 18, 2026
Time: 6:00–7:00 p.m.
Platform: Microsoft Teams
Register here: PCH Segment A (meeting link will be sent upon registration)

The project is in the early Project Initiation Document (PID) phase. The workshop will cover the proposed safety improvements and alternatives being considered. Your feedback will help inform the evaluation and refinement of these concepts.

Please share this invitation with others who may be interested. For additional information, visit the PCH Segment A Safety Improvement Project webpage.

………

A new movie screening at Laemmle theaters next month is described as “not just a ‘bike film,’ but a film where the bike is the philosophy.

According to a publicity email I received yesterday, A Simple Machine was inspired by a novel from Evan P. Schneider.

Shot in luminous black and white in Portland, it follows Nick Allander (Richard Blackmon) as a recent grad drowning in debt who chooses radical frugality. His bicycle becomes his tool for economic independence: mobility without debt, technology that enhances human agency, instead of extracting from it. In a city where cycling is cultural currency, Hoffman reframes the simple machine as a deliberate choice toward simplicity, dignity, and embodied presence.

This moving film will be in LA on Nov 16 at Laemmle NoHo 7, and on Nov 17 at Laemmle Monica Film Center. Q&As with director Mark Alan Hoffman and star Richard Blackmon will follow both screenings, and Santa Monica Spoke is doing a “ride to show” event on the 17th.

Meanwhile, a new documentary tells the story of a 51-year old Army vet who rode her bike across the US and became a Paralympian after losing her eyesight while working as an EMT.

………

Last weekend I was invited to take part in something I would have jumped at under other circumstances — a ride to San Diego on the Pacific Surfliner, followed by a Brompton ride through the city.

Unfortunately, I had to turn it down, despite the combination of two of my favorites, Bromptons and trains.

I’m tempted to say that sometimes dealing with diabetes and the various associated medical conditions suck.

But it sucks all the time.

75 Riders, One Train, Two Cities: Brompton and Pacific Surfliner Celebrate Partnership With LA-to-San Diego Ride

California, October 27, 2026 – Brompton, the London-based folding bike brand, celebrated its new partnership with the Amtrak Pacific Surfliner by bringing 75 riders and their Bromptons aboard the Surfliner from Los Angeles to San Diego. The ride showed how rail and a folding bike together can replace the car for both the daily commute and the weekend adventure.

A bike turns a train trip into a door-to-door journey, and the Pacific Surfliner makes it easy to bring one, with free bike reservations on every train. A folded Brompton goes one step further, riding as carry-on luggage with no reservation necessary. That flexibility is what lets a group this big travel together on a single train.

On Saturday, October 24, riders boarded the Pacific Surfliner at Los Angeles Union Station, with more joining along the way. In San Diego they unfolded their bikes and explored Balboa Park, Little Italy, the Gaslamp Quarter and the Embarcadero, then took the ferry to Coronado Island to watch the sunset at the Hotel del Coronado. Train, bike, ferry and back: a full car-less day out.

The partnership brings together two leading names in urban mobility: the iconic folding bike brand and the busiest state-supported intercity rail route in the country. Together, Brompton and the Surfliner aim to show how multimodal travel can fit into daily life, and they’re doing it as more Californians choose the train. Preliminary July 2026 figures put the Pacific Surfliner on pace for the highest monthly ridership in its history, with more than 300,000 passengers.

“Southern California is our fastest-growing market in the US, and it’s easy to see why,” said Alex Balansay, Brand Manager at Brompton North America. “The climate, the coastline and a growing rail network make it one of the best places in the country to travel without a car. Saturday showed what that looks like: 75 people, one train, and a whole city to explore at the other end.”

“A great rail journey doesn’t begin or end at the train station,” said Jason Jewell, Managing Director of the LOSSAN Rail Corridor Agency, which manages the Amtrak Pacific Surfliner service. “Making it easier for passengers to connect to their final destinations is an important part of improving the overall travel experience. This event highlights how folding bikes and passenger rail can work together to give travelers more flexibility, convenience and freedom to explore Southern California without relying on a car. We’re excited to showcase how simple first- and last-mile connections can open up new possibilities for our riders.”

Riders can plan the same trip themselves. On the Pacific Surfliner, folding bikes under 34 x 15 x 48 inches ride free as carry-on luggage with no reservation. Full-size bikes need a free bike reservation when booking.

Schedules and tickets are at pacificsurfliner.com, and Brompton models and dealers are at brompton.com.

………

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

Boston is ripping out a newly installed protected bike lane in front of a senior home, after residents complained they weren’t consulted first, it prevents them from crossing the street, and kept an ambulance from pulling up right in front; meanwhile, the head of a local advocacy group offered a perfectly reasonable response promising to work with residents to come up with a solution that works for everyone.

………

Local 

That’s more like it. Long Beach has secured the funding for a $73 million project to move a spectrum of Shoreline Drive out of César Chávez Park, and convert it to a miles-long network of open space. Because cars don’t belong in parks, period. 

LA Times readers take the paper to task for a recent article that basically said “boys will be boys” while using illegal e-motorbikes, not unlike I did yesterday.

Congratulations, Los Angeles, your official slogan for the ’28 Olympics is “Stars Align.” Which could pretty much refer to anything, and therefore means absolutely nothing.

 

State

Calbike says California could soon have its best chance in years to pass the Bicycle Safety Stop, aka Idaho Stop, aka Stop as Yield, because Governor Gavin Newsom will soon be out of office, after vetoing two separate versions of the bill.

USA Today takes up the sentencing of 33-year old Samuel Matthew Rocha to 27 to life for intentionally killing 16-year old Pedro Valdez as he rode his bike in Port Hueneme, in a traffic crime rampage that began with a confrontation with another man in a case of mistaken identity.

A Bakersfield bike rider suffered major injuries when they were struck by the driver of a white vehicle. Because evidently, the color of the car has a big impact on how bad the crash is, pun intended.

Sad news from Visalia, where a 63-year old woman was killed when she tried to make a left turn on her bicycle, and was struck by an oncoming driver.

San Francisco Streetsblog says a new 0.2-mile quick-build protected bike lane wasn’t quick, it’s not really protected, and it’s not continuous, with gaps for handicapped parking and a bus stop.

 

National

A woman in an undetermined city posted video of a driver getting stuck in a protected bike lane, as she walked ahead of him — never mind that as a pedestrian, she didn’t belong in the bike lane, either.

The New York Daily News calls for rejecting a ballot measure that would speed approval of street safety projects, including bike lanes, because of “lawless” ebike riders, most of whom are riding e-motorbikes that aren’t legally allowed in bike lanes, anyway. But then they hide the editorial behind a paywall, which kind of defeats the whole purpose of voicing their opinion in the first place.

The NYPD called off a “hastily planned” raid on an ebike parking lot used by hundreds of delivery workers, because a) it’s not illegal for bikes to be parked in spaces which would otherwise be used by motor vehicles, and b) the workers politely moved to the other side of the street. Although a local radio station says the raid was called off after cops spotted reporters waiting for them.

Oddly, New York continues to function as a world-class city, as Mayor Mandami announced plans to redesign a 2.1-mile stretch of one of Brooklyn’s most dangerous streets. Something Los Angeles somehow seems unable to do.

A Florida police captain will ride his bicycle around a four-mile park route for 24 hours to raise funds for a Spanish-language religious mission.

 

International

Life is cheap in the UK, where a 39-year old road-raging driver walked without a day behind bars for grabbing a bike rider by the neck and throwing him to the ground and causing a serious brain injury, for the crime of being in his way.

 

Competitive Cycling

The chief of USA Cycling says the one thing missing after Brandon McNulty won the world road championship is an American WorldTour race.

Nineteen-year old ‘cross cyclist Tofik Beshir has a long way to go in his recovery after he was struck by a driver while on a training ride three weeks ago, as his teammates rally around him; a crowdfunding page has raised has raised over $142,000 of a $200,000 goal.

Instagram post

 

Finally…

You know you’re good when you set a new Strava KOM during a photoshoot. And apparently, bicyclists legally using the roadway are road hogs.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin.

 

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

Port Hueneme man gets 27 years for intentionally killing bike-riding teen, and South LA has two of state’s deadliest intersections

October 28, 2026 / / No comments

A Port Hueneme man will spend at least the next 27 years behind bars after he was sentenced for intentionally plowing his car into a group of seven bike-riding teens, killing one and injuring four others, before speeding away.

Thirty-three-year old Samuel Rocha was sentenced to 15 years to life for the second-degree murder of 16-year old Pedro Valdez in April, 2021, and 12 years total for five counts of assault with a deadly weapon and two counts of battery.

The incident began when Rocha spotted a man he mistakenly thought he knew from his past, punching the man in a laundromat parking lot, then intentionally driving into another man who tried to take a picture of his license plate.

Rocha’s public defenders had argued that he never saw the bicyclists, and even if he did, he wasn’t mentally stable and sober after a “long and documented history of mental illness, including delusions and hallucinations,” and wouldn’t have had time to stop, anyway.

Clearly, the judged didn’t buy it, imposing the maximum sentence on each count.

One bit of good news, as the Ventura County Star reports the Oxnard Fixie Crew, the bike club Valdez started before his murder, is still active.

………

Congratulations, South Los Angeles.

You’re home to not one, but two of the deadliest intersections in California, at Obama and La Cienega boulevards in Baldwin Hills and Central Aveand 89th Street, with both seeing three traffic deaths over a six-year period.

But before the rest of Southern California rests easy, the remainder of the top five are also in SoCal, with Hesperia, Costa Mesa and Compton showing two deaths each.

The study, compiled by a personal injury law firm, also showed that Los Angeles was by far the state’s deadliest county for pedestrians, with exactly four times as many people killed while using crosswalks as the number two county, with 80 deaths in Orange County, compared to 356 in LA Countyover the same period.

San Diego, Santa Clara and Alameda counties rounded out that top five.

Which means that Los Angeles, city and county, are number one in both categories. Which should make us all feel like number two.

………

Talk about missing the point.

In an article that appeared online over the weekend, a writer for the LA Times wonders if maybe we’re overreacting about young teens on high-powered ebikes.

According to staff writer Jack Dolan,

If you live in any California city, surely you’ve seen them: groups of boys at that painfully awkward and insecure stage of early adolescence riding around on e-bikes trying — and almost always failing — to look cool.

Especially memorable are the ones who cover their faces like Stormtroopers or ICE agents, hoping to seem more intimidating than their not-yet-filled-out frames would otherwise allow.

The whole thing would be just another cringeworthy display of teenage rebellion if the potential consequences weren’t so serious; many of those bikes are equipped with powerful electric motors and can go up to 60 mph.

After discussing the a) problem and b) reaction to the problem, including the Orange County DA’s recent ebike buyback program, as well as charging the parents of teen ebike riders, Dolan talks about how he felt safer on his motorcycle during his 20-mile commutes, despite the reactions of motorists.

For more than a decade, I made the 20-mile commute to work at the Los Angeles Times on a motorcycle. Given what sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic does to my blood pressure, the motorcycle seemed like the safer option. And, yes, I remember the startled, sometimes angry, expressions on drivers’ faces as I cruised by at twice their speed…

Maybe that’s why, when I look at those kids on their e-bikes, I don’t see Public Enemy No. 1. I know they’re trying to look tough — maybe even trying to scare me — but all I can see is how vulnerable they are. I hope we don’t start treating them all like criminals.

But here’s the problem. Or rather, problems.

Clearly, the kids aren’t Public Enemy No. 1. But they’re kids. They don’t have the training, skills or fully developed cerebellums to handle anything that fast or powerful. And yes, their parents — not the kids — should be held accountable for buying them in the first place.

Which brings up the second problem.

These aren’t ebikes. Ebikes are clearly defined by the state — and even more clearly, after the passage of recent legislation — as having a maximum speed of 28 mph. And even that requires that the riders be over 16 years old.

The kids Dolan talks about are actually riding e-motorcycles, aka e-motos, electric dirt bikes that can’t legally be ridden on the streets, with or without a license, or ebikes that have been — wink wink, nudge nudge — illegally hacked to increase their power and speed beyond what is legal under state law.

So while kids will be kids, parents should act like parents, and keep their children off illegal, overpowered e-motos, because that’s what they are — on both counts.

Children, and illegal. Not to mention dangerous.

It’s better to have your kid mad at you because you won’t buy them one, than to bury them because you did.

………

Sky News reports on two women who escaped occupied Ukraine by bicycle, riding over 1,200 miles through Russia and Belarus while “braving mines, Russian soldiers and a drone attack.”

Thanks to Megan for the heads-up. 

………

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

No bias here. The press is attacking a new protected bike lane in Salt Lake City, while the Utah legislature passed a bill banning new bike lanes in the city without approval from the state department of transportation. Because no one understands the safety needs on local streets better than a bunch of state bureaucrats. 

No bias here, either. The conservative Times of London complains that “bad cycling has been decriminalized” as the number of tickets issued to bicyclists dropped to its lowest level in five years — even though more people in the UK are killed by cows every year than by bicyclists. Although the cops seldom ticket scofflaw cows, either.

Or here. The east London borough of Havering scrapped fully funded plans for a new bikeway, despite the recents deaths of two bike riders, prompting complaints that the Reform Party has “decided there’s not enough dead people.”

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

The New Haven, Connecticut academic community is morning a local professor who was killed in a hit-and-run collision with someone on an ebike.

The British tabloids are claiming that bicyclists are riding “willy-nilly” through the newly pedestrianized Oxford Street, without fear of penalty or retribution. 

………

Local 

Vanity Fair says LA mayoral candidate Nithya Raman is too moderate for the radicals, and too radical for the moderates. But at least she’s wearing a CicLAvia P-22 tee shirt in the accompanying photo. 

Los Angeles now finally has speed cams in 25 locations throughout the city, although it will be another three months before they actually begin issuing tickets. Meanwhile, San Jose has their network up and running, too.

As expected, the LA City Council voted unanimously to ask LADOT to report back on what resources would be required to replace the city’s infamous plastic car-tickler bollards with Toronto barriers. Which is the city’s usual method of appearing to take action without actually doing anything.

Redondo Beach now has bike lanes along the entire, albeit brief, length of Palos Verdes Blvd through the city, including nearly half a mile of “top-notch curb-protection.”

 

State

When you’re riding in Vista while carrying meth and brass knuckles, put a damn light on your bike and stop for the red lights.

San Diego’s annual Bike the Coast ride saw more than 1,300 participants raise over $10,000 for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

 

National

A writer on Substack argues that the bicycle industry is drowning in its own red ink as it fights over the same pot of customers, while ignoring an ocean of potential new bicyclists. Thanks to Ken for the link. 

An 18-year old New Jersey man is facing a murder charge for the hit-and-run death of two girls sharing an ebike, while he was allegedly doing 70 mph in a 25 mph zone.

Schmucks. A 71-year old New Jersey man was found lying dead in the street after he was struck by two separate drivers while riding his bicycle, both of whom fled the scene.

A 26-year old road-raging Virginia man faces up to 23 years behind bars after pleading guilty to shooting — yes, shooting — a 26-year old man riding a bicycle, after cutting the bike rider off with his car; he also agreed to a lifetime protective order prohibiting him from contact with the victim as part of the plea deal.

 

International

Momentum offers a mostly recycled list of bicycle-themed costume ideas.

Um, sure. The attorney for a hit-and-run driver accused of murder for dragging a 56-year old British bike rider over a mile to his death told the jury his client was selfish and thinking only of himself, but certainly wasn’t a murderer.

A district in Seoul, South Korea, recently wrapped up a bicycling festival designed to “ease social isolation among single-person households and encourage healthy leisure activities.”

Japan could consider revising a ban on child bicycle seats for kids after they enter elementary school.

The family of an Australian girl who disappeared while riding her bike to school in 1972, when she was just 14, are now offering a $1 million reward for the arrest and conviction on her killer, 52 years after a piece of her skull was found. Although the chances of finding a living person to convict get slimmer with every year. 

 

Finally…

That feeling when the morning TV news hosts somehow falsely claim — not once, not twice, not thrice, but four times (frice? fource?) — that Dutch bicyclists are required to have license plates and insurance. Just a suggestion, but maybe don’t hold a gravel race during hunting season.

And seriously, when there’s literally jellyfish floating in the street, don’t ride your bike there.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin.

 

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

Today’s post called on account of migraine and vet visit

October 27, 2026 / / No comments

I’m dealing with another migraine tonight, and have an early vet appointment in the morning — no, not for me — so I’m going to give up once again, and I’ll see you bright and early on Wednesday.

One more thing — they’ve identified the victims in Saturday’s Montclair bike crash. And if my head wasn’t already turning my stomach, thinking about that needless effing tragedy would.

Category: General /
« Older Entries  
Wordpress Theme by ThemeZee