Ebike rider killed in Arleta crash, and demand a State of Emergency on Traffic Violence at LA council tomorrow

September 14, 2026 / / No comments

Okay, where were we?

I should have known I was tempting fate by going on a rant over traffic deaths. But why the hell did fate take it out on a young kid?

And you can find the t-shirt in today’s photo, and a few other ghost bike tees, by clicking on the Swag button on the upper right. I’d really like to stop posting them if drivers would just stop killing us. 

………

Speaking of ebike deaths, which I was really trying not to do, someone was killed riding an ebike in Arleta early Sunday.

According to KTLA-5, the victim, who has not been publicly identified, was stuck by the driver of a white SUV in the 13000 block of Osborne Street, as if the color of the vehicle had some sort of magical effect on the outcome.

Actually, KTLA says the victim was killed after being struck by the SUV, as if a) the victim was beaten or strangled after being stuck by the vehicle, and b) the driver of the SUV somehow had nothing to do with it.

You can do better, KTLA.

As usual, there’s no word on what kind of ebike it was, whether the victim was riding a legal ped-assist bike or an illegal e-moto or dirt bike, since neither the cops nor the press can seem to distinguish between them.

At least Hoodline managed to add that section of Osborne Street is on Los Angeles’s Vision Zero High Injury Network — suggesting that the city still cares about such things — with 20 total vehicle fatalities and 16 pedestrian or bicyclist collisions from 2010 to 2020.

And why does it take The Korea Daily to report on LA traffic deaths and injuries? The Los Angeles-based paper reports that,

According to traffic collision statistics released by the Los Angeles Police Department on Aug. 27, a total of 187 people were killed in traffic crashes in Los Angeles between Jan. 1 and Aug. 15 this year. That represents a 5% increase from 178 deaths during the same period last year.

Injury crashes also increased by about 7%, from 971 to 1,043, while bicycle-related injury crashes surged 37% to 144.

The only real surprise that bicycle-related injury crashes surged more than a third is that anyone is still tracking the number, since no one bothers to tell us anymore.

……….

A reminder that Streets Are For Everyone is urging you to show up for tomorrow’s LA City Council Meeting, where they will demand that the city declare a State of Emergency on Traffic Violence.

The time has come to demand a State of Emergency on Traffic Violence from our local leaders.

SAFE will join our coalition partners at Los Angeles City Council on September 15th to drop our open letterdemanding that the Mayor and the Los Angeles City Council immediately declare a State of Emergency on Traffic Violence and address this public health crisis.

Thank you for signing on and joining this movement. Your signature helped us reach more than 1,250 signatures on this campaign, showing our local leaders that Angelenos want streets that are safe to use.

The next step is here, and we need you with us as we deliver that message directly to City Hall.

Please join SAFE on September 15th at 9:30 am in City Hall to help us deliver our open letter and make our voices heard. We are asking everyone who has signed this letter to attend the City Council meeting and give public comment.

Our goal is to have at least 50 people give public comment, making it clear to our local leaders that traffic violence is an urgent public safety crisis that deserves their attention.

Event Details

  • Date: Tuesday, September 15th, 2026
  • Time: Meet at 9:30 a.m.
  • Council Meeting Begins at 10:00 a.m.
  • Press Conference following Public Comment
  • Location: 200 N. Spring St., Los Angeles, CA 90012 (Entrance on Main St.)

Instructions and Talking Points for Public Comment.

After public comment concludes, advocates will leave the Council Chamber and regroup outside on the steps of City Hall for a Press Conference.

Thank you again for adding your name to this campaign and standing with us. We have built the movement. Now it is time to bring it directly to our local leaders.

If you have any questions, please reach out to me via email (aaron@streetsareforeveryone.org) or by calling my cell (818.697.2621)

We hope to see you at City Hall on September 15th.

Unfortunately, I won’t be there, as much as I’d like to be.

The meds I take to keep from acting out my dreams, and possibly inadvertently killing my wife in my sleep, means I will likely be unconscious at that hour. And even if I tried to shake off the effects of the drug and show up, I’d be too sick from it to even make it there.

So please, if you can, go in my stead and be my witness before the council to demand they take urgent action to stop people from killing us.

God knows, we’ve got enough ghost bikes in this damn city.

……….

LA mayoral challenger Nithya Raman announced her plan to make LA cooler and more livable before the ’28 Olympics.

Twitter post

……….

He gets it.

A writer for The Guardian, who confesses the “humiliating” fact that he can’t ride a bike because his parents were too busy arguing or falling asleep to teach him, has this to say about the Trump administration’s attack on “DEI” bike lanes.

Rhetorically, the administration’s charge of bike lanes being some form of diversity, equity, and inclusion makes no sense. If riding a bike is so easy, then how can we classify it as unique enough to be diverse? Children ride bikes. It’s far less exotic than, say, operating a motorcycle, which takes a special license in every state. Maybe if we had a dedicated lane for a penny-farthing, I’d buy this explanation. If I were tooling around on one of those, I’d never get where I was going, because scores of beautiful women would be stopping me every few feet.

Conservative disapproval for bike lanes stems from a blinkered, irrational view of culture, and more accurately, masculinity. Trumpists have teased Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg for riding bikes. But I’ve been teased for not being able to ride a bike. Shouldn’t I be lauded for my commitment to machismo? My belief in the petrol-powered conveyance deserves commendation. My parents’ inattention to my development actually made me cooler, right?

If anything, I’m the diversity in this scenario. I can’t use a bike lane. I’ve been excluded from significant parts of the road. I can’t even walk in the bike lane. I should be furious, writing pointed, profane letters to my city councilperson, begging them to release me from my shackles. Or better yet, I should demand the city taxpayers pay for me to take bike lessons, so I can be accommodated. I’m the weirdo here. The one who has to explain my predicament, to feel excluded from the general population. Except, I’m not going to complain.

………

American cars are getting fatter, along with our citizenry.

Twitter post

Twitter post

Twitter post

………

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

No bias here. A 30-year San Diego bike rider says the sharrows on Mira Mesa may be a death trap, but the solution can’t be to make Mira Mesa more congested, suggesting bike riders should be directed to quieter streets. As I recall from nearly 40 years ago, nothing could make Mira Mesa more congested. Although the San Diego Union-Tribune evidently doesn’t want you to know about it, since it’s hidden behind its draconian paywall. 

………

Local 

Good on them. LA street safety vigilante Jonathan Hale led People’s Vision Zero in painting a new crosswalk at Sycamore and Lexington, after the city refused to so anything.

Los Angeles Mayor Bass took credit for breaking ground on the long-planned Spring-Alameda Safety and Mobility Project, which far-predated her administration.

 

State

A 12-year old Laguna Nigel boy has been appearing before Orange County city councils to call for stricter ebike rules for kids his age, arguing that too many ride too fast, ignore rules and take risks.

Speaking of the San Diego U-T’s draconian paywall, an engineering study has found the Coast Highway bridge in Encinitas is in poor condition. But they apparently don’t want you to learn about it until the bridge collapses under you. 

The deaths of Kellie Standish and William Colby Tucker on PCH in Ventura earlier this year have renewed calls for improving safety on the deadly highway.

Two major safety projects are underway to bridge coastal gaps and improve bicycle and pedestrian safety between Montecito and Summerland.

Sad news from Santa Cruz County, where a driver was arrested on suspicion of DUI after killing a bike rider near Soquel.

 

National

This is the cost of traffic violence. An associate vice president of Brigham Young University, and the director of BYU’s nationally recognized David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies was killed while riding his bike last week; Vincent Stanley Benfell III was 63.

In a bizarre case, an Ohio mom was found dead on top of a train car, 130 miles from where she disappeared while riding her bicycle.

Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Albany, New York are accelerating investments in bike lanes and safer streets, building out the networks necessary to making bicycling a practical means of transportation.

Around 30 riders in Birmingham, Alabama honored two forgotten victims of the fight for civil rights, 53 years after 13-year old Virgil Ware was shot and killed by white teens while riding on the handlebars of his brother’s bike, and 16-year old Johnny Robinson fatally shot by a cop, the same morning as the infamous bombing at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church killed four young girls. Do I really need to mention that both young men were Black? I didn’t think so. 

A 76-year old disabled US Air Force vet started a five-day ride across Florida’s 28th Congressional District, leading a group to support the campaign of retired Navy Commander and Democratic candidate Phil Ehr.

 

International

Momentum asks the burning question why do cities insist on using sharrows when they don’t make bicyclists any safer, and often leave us less safer? That’s easy — they can be installed for pennies on the dollar without removing parking or a traffic lane, so they don’t inconvenience anyone by risking our lives. 

A Canadian writer goes riding with the last remaining bicycle couriers in Vancouver, as digital copies replace the death-defying thrill of zooming papers across the city on two wheels.

Dozens of Toronto bike advocates took to the streets to protest Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s move to rip out popular bike lanes and move them to quieter, less direct streets. Although “dozens” of protesters aren’t likely to get his, or anyone else’s, attention.

A British bike nonprofit has found that ebike bikeshares encourage people to try bicycling who might not otherwise.

 

Competitive Cycling

To the surprise of no one who’s been paying attention for the past two weeks, Spain’s Enric Mas won the Vuelta for the first time, after three previous second place finishes; Mas finished two minutes and 15 seconds ahead of Primož Roglič, and another half minute over Austrian Felix Gall. 

Congratulations to American Sepp Kuss on his fifth place finish, 8:45 back and one place behind Richard Carapaz.

Bummer. Irishman Eddie Dunbar crashed out on the penultimate state of the Vuelta, breaking his collarbone one day after an emotional comeback win on Peñas Blancas.

Mexico’s Isaac del Toro overcame Frenchman Paul Seixas to win a dramatic uphill sprint to the finish of the GP de Montreal, announcing themselves heirs apparent to Tadej Pogačar for the world championships.

Slovenian Urška Žigart broke her jaw for the second time in three months, prematurely ending her season with a crash on stage 3 of the Faun Tour Femmes.

 

Finally…

No, bike lanes are not just extra pavement that can be used by drivers whenever it’s convenient — and that includes protected bike lanes along Seattle freeways.

And that feeling when you get brake checked by a delivery robot, so you throw it into the bushes.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin.

 

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

14-year old San Diego boy killed by driver while riding Class 2 ebike in Pacific Beach Saturday night

September 14, 2026 / / One comment

Every traffic death is a needless waste of a human life.

It’s even worse when it’s a kid. And maybe it doesn’t even matter if he was on a legal ebike or not, because the result is the same.

At least, that was the case Saturday night when a 14-year old boy was killed riding an ebike in Pacific Beach.

A number of sources are reporting that the boy was riding on Olney Street at Balboa Ave in the San Diego neighborhood when he allegedly went through a red light around 9:20 pm, and was struck by a 38-year old driver headed west on Balboa.

The victim, identified as Owen Harris, an 8th grade student at Pacific Beach Middle School, died after being taken to a hospital.

The driver remained at the scene following the crash, and cooperated with investigators.

And no, CBS8, he was not struck and killed by a Tesla. Whether or not the driver was at fault, the car had one. As we’ve discussed many times before, whether or not Harris ran the red light depends a lot on whether there were any independent witnesses who saw the crash, other than the driver who killed him.

Harris was also riding a legal ped-assist ebike — or at least an ebike that was sold as one. The website for the pink Zooz ebike he was riding stresses that they are sold as Class 2 ebikes with a maximum speed of 20 mph.

Although it’s not hard to find instructions online for how to easily “uncork” at least some of their ebikes to exceed the legal speed limit.

But again, whether the bike was uncorked or otherwise does not change the outcome in any way. Or the tragic loss of a young man with virtually unlimited possibilities.

This is at least the 45th bicycling fatality that I’m aware of in Southern California this year, and the 10th we know about in San Diego County — an average of more than one a month.

My deepest sympathies and prayers for Owen Harris and all his family and loved ones. 

Thanks to Phillip for the heads-up.

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

Today’s post, in which I go on a fucking rant over traffic violence and the abject failure of our basic system of transportation

September 11, 2026 / / 4 comments

I’m done.

I’m fucking done with traffic violence, and the way it rips innocent people out of our world and out of our lives, and the lives of their loved ones.

I’m done with people getting killed and maimed because they chose to ride a bicycle or walk across the street. I’m done with lives torn apart because someone made an innocent mistake, or pushed their luck a little too far.

I’m done with people dying or surviving with lifelong physical and/or emotional injuries because they unknowingly shared to road with the wrong person at the wrong time operating a multi-ton steel and glass weapon of mass destruction.

I am so done with all of it.

I just wish I could say I was done writing about it. Because there was another one last week, and another on Tuesday; a grandfather and a brother.

And there will be another one tomorrow, or next week, or the week after that.

And the bodies will keep piling up, one upon another upon another upon another, until we all yell “Enough!”

¡Basta!

Our most basic form of transportation is an abject fucking failure. Because what else cab you call a system that demands 38,000, 39,000, 40,000 or more human lives every year as tribute, just to get us all from here to there.

Enough already!

It doesn’t matter whether you do everything right, or everything wrong. Fuck up badly enough in the right place, at the right time, and you can walk away. Do everything right, follow every law, dress up like a neon clown and light up your bike and person like a Christmas tree, and you can still lose your life to a drunk, a stoner, a distracted driver texting with their thumbs while they try to grip the wheel.

Wear a helmet, or don’t. It might protect your skull if you fall off your bike. But it doesn’t do a damn thing to protect your midsection or keep your limbs attached.

Drivers seem to think it’s some sort of magic talisman to ward off injury and evil sprits, equivalent to a seat belt or an airbag, encased in a steel frame. Yet it’s only designed to protect against impacts at a whopping 12.5 mph.

But that’s more protection than pedestrians get. They get a couple of parallel white stripes drivers are supposed to stop for, but usually don’t. Or a curb that’s somehow supposed to halt a four-wheeled ballistic missile from slamming into an outdoor diner or a daycare.

Forty-fucking-thousand people every year, give or take. That’s a small city. And that’s just in the US.

Add in all the other people killed in traffic violence in all the other countries in the world, and you’re up to nearly 1.2 million lives lost. That’s like a WMD somehow wiped Dallas, Texas off the face of the earth.

Between 20 million and 50 million more people survive their injuries every years. Some recover in a few days, or a few weeks. Some never do.

Is this really the best we can do?

I’m done.

I’m done with all of it, all the deaths, all the injuries, all the shattered lives and families. All the traffic violence.

I want to scream it from the rooftops, shout it from the middle of Wilshire Blvd. I want to stop every fucking car until we fix this system of death and destruction.

I was in a jury pool several years back, and the defense lawyer asked who among the 20 or so people had been in a crash. Every hand went up. Then he asked how many people in the jury pool had lost a friend or loved one in a collision. Every hand but one stayed up.

I’ve been lucky. I’ve only lost two people close to me.

And somehow managed not to lose my own life through decades of walking, biking and driving. How, I don’t know, because I’ve come so close to disaster so many times, but always manage to walk away relatively unscathed, whether through luck or providence.

I used to say skill, but I don’t believe in that anymore. Because I read, and yes, write, about so many highly skilled people who didn’t.

I’m not done. But I’m done.

I want to keep screaming, keep yelling, keep ranting and raving enough! No more, forever!

But for one of the few times in my life, I have literally run out of words.

Which, I suppose, leads to my next subject. Because in a similar fit of anger and depression and inspiration the other day, I designed a few new t-shirts like the one above, and those below.

Buy one, or don’t.

I hope you’re as angry as I am, and want to yell it to the world. But that’s not the point.

The point is, I had to get it off — and in this case, literally on — my chest.

But more importantly, just fucking stay safe out there.

………

On a related subject, it’s time to storm City Hall on Tuesday, and join Streets Are For Everyone in demanding that the city declare a State of Emergency on Traffic Violence.

Below is an email I received from SAFE yesterday.

The time has come to demand a State of Emergency on Traffic Violence from our local leaders.

SAFE will join our coalition partners at Los Angeles City Council on September 15th to drop our open letter demanding that the Mayor and the Los Angeles City Council immediately declare a State of Emergency on Traffic Violence and address this public health crisis.

Thank you for signing on and joining this movement. Your signature helped us reach more than 1,250 signatures on this campaign, showing our local leaders that Angelenos want streets that are safe to use.

The next step is here, and we need you with us as we deliver that message directly to City Hall.

Please join SAFE on September 15th at 9:30 am in City Hall to help us deliver our open letter and make our voices heard. We are asking everyone who has signed this letter to attend the City Council meeting and give public comment.

Our goal is to have at least 50 people give public comment, making it clear to our local leaders that traffic violence is an urgent public safety crisis that deserves their attention.

Event Details

  • Date: Tuesday, September 15th, 2026
  • Time: Meet at 9:30 a.m.
  • Council Meeting Begins at 10:00 a.m.
  • Press Conference following Public Comment
  • Location: 200 N. Spring St., Los Angeles, CA 90012 (Entrance on Main St.)

Instructions and Talking Points for Public Comment.

After public comment concludes, advocates will leave the Council Chamber and regroup outside on the steps of City Hall for a Press Conference.

Thank you again for adding your name to this campaign and standing with us. We have built the movement. Now it is time to bring it directly to our local leaders.

If you have any questions, please reach out to me via email (aaron@streetsareforeveryone.org) or by calling my cell (818.697.2621)

We hope to see you at City Hall on September 15th.

There’s still time to sign the petition if you haven’t yet.

………

If you’re still with me — and I don’t know why you would be after all that — l’shanah tovah, and may we never forget the lives lost on the 25th anniversary of this day.

I’ll see you on Monday. And hopefully I’ll have my shit together by then.

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

31-year old Oceanside man killed by driver in Tuesday collision; no word on whether the driver even stayed after the crash

September 11, 2026 / / No comments

Yet another person has been killed because he decided to ride a bicycle.

The victim, identified as 31-year old Oceanside resident Christian Anthony Fa’amaligi, was killed riding his bike in Oceanside earlier this week.

Fa’amaligi was riding on Mission Ave near Ocean Point Road around 7:45 pm Tuesday when he was struck by a driver. He was taken to Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla, where he was pronounced dead early Wednesday.

Unfortunately, that’s all we know at this time. There’s no word on how the crash occurred, or who may have been responsible.

We don’t even know if the driver stuck around after the crash.

The area’s paper of record, the San Diego Union-Tribune, couldn’t be bothered to give the story more than three sentences. Or even spell the victim’s name accurately, for that matter.

Meanwhile, Fa’amaligi’s sister provided a moving remembrance on Facebook Thursday.

This is at least the 44th bicycling fatality that I’m aware of in Southern California this year, and the ninth we know about in San Diego County, which is continuing a one a month pace.

My deepest sympathy and prayers for Christian Anthony Fa’amaligi and all his family and loved ones. 

Category: Injuries and Fatalities / Tags: , , ,

Assembly candidate calls for safety on Forest Lawn Drive, whacking out over SaMo bike lanes, and Caltrans talks safety

September 9, 2026 / / One comment

Yesterday, I mentioned that my California Assembly Member, Rick Chavez Zbur, had signed a letter calling for a halt to the shovel-ready safety improvements planned for Forest Lawn Drive this past June.

He also supported, and voted for, SB 194, a last-minute bill introduced in the state legislature that will make it virtually impossible to remove a traffic lane on Forest Lawn for the foreseeable future, assuming Governor Newsom signs it.

So I reached out to Zbur’s opponent in the November election, fellow Democrat Colin Hernandez, for his comments. Surprisingly, he responded right away, sending me the following statement.

Forest Lawn Drive has a documented and deadly safety problem, and we have a responsibility to act before another person loses their life. After years of public input and technical review, LADOT developed a fully funded project designed to slow traffic and improve safety for everyone who uses the road, including drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians.

SB 194 would block a safety project that has already gone through years of public review and is ready to move forward. Assemblymember Zbur’s support for the bill puts a narrow carveout ahead of urgent safety improvements on one of Los Angeles’s most dangerous streets. I urge Governor Newsom to veto SB 194 and Mayor Bass to allow the Forest Lawn Drive Safety and Mobility Project to proceed. Public safety decisions should be based on evidence and the needs of the community—not special interests.”

So, we have an incumbent who bends to the will of an intense lobbying campaign — to the tune of $360,000 — to halt a much needed safety project, and a challenger who supports it.

I know which way my vote will be going.

I should also mention that Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass personally intervened to halt the project, which her challenger, Nithya Raman, had shepherded through years of public meetings and revisions.

So I know how that vote will go, too.

A ghost tire like those pictured above was installed on Forest Lawn Drive on Saturday to honor the four people killed there in the last 13 years, including a man killed in a single car crash last month. 

………

Nope, no bias here.

The Santa Monica city council voted to approve a nearly $2 million contract to move forward with a Complete Streets redesign of 14th Street Tuesday night.

But someone in Santa Monica threw together a hastily designed website that does everything but call Vision Zero a commie plot to drain America of its vital bodily fluids.

The site calls out the made-up dangers protected bike lanes, and their supposed risks to the elderly and first responders.

It places blame for the project squarely on Streets For All, which disavows any involvement with it. And basically calls the LA group a wholly-owned subsidiary of California YIMBYs, bought and paid for by those nefarious Silicon Valley tech bros.

This didn’t start with a traffic study. It started with a movement, and the movement is billionaire-funded.
“Vision Zero” and “protected bikeway” sound like neutral engineering terms. The advocacy infrastructure behind them is not neutral, and it’s not local.

Streets for All, the region’s leading “safe streets” advocacy group, is a fiscally-sponsored project of the California YIMBY Education Fund. California YIMBY and its affiliated funds have taken roughly $15 million from Open Philanthropy — the fund run by Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and Cari Tuna — plus six-figure checks from Stripe co-founders Patrick and John Collison and Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman. This is who is underwriting the advocacy machine pushing this design template statewide…

The bikeway funding is bundled into a state housing grant, not a resident-driven transportation request — and the political infrastructure that put this council in place traces back through Streets for All to the same tech fortunes that fund the YIMBY movement statewide. None of that makes the underlying safety goal illegitimate. It does mean residents are entitled to ask whose priorities are actually being served before a $2 million contract gets signed on a street most of them drive, not bike.

It gets worse.

This isn’t a debate about bike safety. It’s a debate about who gets to move through this city.

“Vision Zero” is marketed as a road-safety program. In practice, on corridor after corridor, it’s a template for taking travel lanes and parking away from drivers and handing that space to a small, specific mode of transportation — engineered by an advocacy and funding network built by tech investors, not by the seniors, tradespeople, and parents who actually drive these streets every day.

The whole thing sounds like it was written by someone who spent five minutes looking up words on the internet, without understanding any of them.

Or maybe just some of the safe pro-car propagandists we’ve encountered before, under different names.

And as loathe as I am to disagree with the site’s bogeymen and women, I think Claude would have done a much better job putting the whole damn thing together.

Twitter post

………

Speaking of traffic safety, Caltrans will take part in a rare webinar scheduled for when most people can actually participate, at 7 pm on Wednesday, September 23rd, hosted by Streets Are For Everyone.

As for asking the hard questions, I’d suggest asking why they’ve spent the past few decades trying to kill us.

………

Once again, multiple bike riders have been killed by a dangerous, allegedly stoned, hit-and-run driver.

This time it happened in Kent, England, on Sunday, when a 22-year old man allegedly slammed into a group of three people riding bicycles. A man in his 60s and a woman in her 50s both died at the scene.

Another woman was hospitalized with minor injuries.

The driver was charged with two counts of causing death by dangerous driving, failing to stop at the scene of a road traffic collision and possession of a class C drug.

In the UK, class C drugs include anything from anabolic steroids and nitrous oxide to prescription tranquilizers like Valium.

A 21-year old man was also arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving, while 19-year-old woman was held on suspicion of assisting an offender.

………

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

A 20-year old Florida man faces charges of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and hit-and-run involving property damage after allegedly using his car to intentionally run down bike rider in a Taco Bell parking lot, resulting in minor injuries and a fucked-up bike; the men reportedly knew each other.

………

Local 

A section of the popular Ballona Creek bike path is closed due to storm damage just north of Duquesne Ave in Culver City; no word yet on when it will reopen.

Streets For All is hosting a virtual mobility debate for Santa Monica city council candidates tomorrow evening. Providing yet another opportunity to foist their YIMBY-fueled and tech bro-funded agenda on the unsuspecting citizenry of the fair city. 

Also tomorrow, Glendora will host an open house to discuss the $21.4 million People Movement Project, with eight miles of offroad greenways, and two miles of on-street multimodal improvements.

Monrovia will host a community bike ride and audit supporting the city’s Bicycle Master Plan update on Saturday, and Carson will host an interactive open house for the city’s Bicycle Action Plan.

 

State

Escondido becomes the latest California city to ban ebikes for kids under 12.

A group with the friendly name Friends of Hopkins Street sues Berkeley over plans for protected bike lanes on the eponymous street, preferring their precious parking over human lives. Which seems not-so-friendly to me, but what do I know?

They get it. The Sacramento Bee reports that California has the third most congested traffic in the US, with Los Angeles drivers losing 83 hours a year due to traffic congestion, but adding more lanes will just make things worse.

 

National

There’s not a pit deep enough for the two men charged with stealing an adaptive bicycle from a 10-year old Santa Fe, New Mexico kid with cerebral palsy.

The victim gets the blame in a Colorado crash, when a 32-year old ebike rider was killed in a right hook, and accused of speeding up to pass a semi driver on the right side. Yes, that’s possible, but it’s more likely that the driver didn’t notice the victim on his right until it was too late.

A 31-year old El Paso, Texas man learns the hard way that it’s probably not the best idea to try to run over a bike cop during a traffic stop.

A Michigan TV station says bicycling deaths are rising in the state, and asks if anything will change after a 12-year old boy was killed by a driver while riding his bike. Nothing changed after dozens of little kids were shot to death at Sandy Hook and Robb Elementary, so what makes them think anyone will actually care about a single kid on a bicycle?

A 77-year old New York man was killed in a head-on collision with an ebike rider, who lost control of his ebike in a bi-directional protected bike lane, and crashed into the man’s bicycle. As usual, though, the story doesn’t say whether it was a legal ped-assist bike, or an illegal e-moto.

Heartbreaking story, as Florida man says he watched surveillance video of his bike-riding brother run down and killed by a hit-and-run driver in New York State from 1,200 miles away in Florida, saying the driver didn’t even try to stop.

 

International

Montreal becomes the latest Canadian city to consider going backwards on bike lanes, after building a bike network that has made it North America’s most bike-friendly big city.

A look at London’s leading bicycle cafés.

A London bike rider says he’s embarrassed to be a bicyclist after watching one bike rider after another ride through a busy crosswalk. Seriously, pedestrians are the only road users more vulnerable than we are, so just stop for them, already. 

Leading Euro bikemaker Orbea announced a recall of their 2019 and 2020 Optima urban ebikes due to a possible weak joint that could cause the frame to break while being ridden.

Sad news from Ukraine, where a Ukrainian soldier who had been photographed early in the war riding a bicycle while carrying three RPGs was killed in a Russian airstrike. War sucks. 

 

Competitive Cycling

When we last left our heroes, the Vuelta peloton was taking a well-earned rest day, as Enric Mas held tightly to his red leader’s jersey; Tuesday’s stage 16 saw 21-year old Brit rookie Matthew Brennan take his fourth stage win, with Mas 2 minutes, 6 seconds ahead of Felix Gall, as Primož Roglič stands another 4 second back in third.

Dutch sprinter Dylan Groenewegen suffered a torn rib muscle and a shattered bicycle when he was hit by a motorcyclist while on a training ride, saying “it could have been much worse.”

Tadej Pogačar may be done for the season, but he’ll be back next year, and every year through 2032.

Is anyone really surprised to learn that bra doping is a myth, and maximizing cleavage doesn’t actually do anything to make women faster? Although it would do more to draw more male fans to women’s cycling. 

Velo says pro cyclists are surprisingly bullish on the prospect of wearing airbags to prevent injuries.

 

Finally…

Honestly, who among us hasn’t ridden over 400 miles dressed as an orangutan? Ditching the subway for a $1,300 ebike.

And who needs a motorcycle when you could have a Ducati?

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin.

 

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

Woman riding ebike killed in Colton, asking Zbur rival for Forest Lawn stance, and body on Ballona bike path

September 8, 2026 / / 2 comments

Glad to see we all made it through the holiday weekend.

I’d like to say we have a lot to catch up on, but there wasn’t a lot of bike news online over the weekend. And of the first four stories I had bookmarked today, three were hidden behind paywalls, and the fourth was written in Indonesian.

So we’ll just have to make do with what we’ve got.

………

A 38-year old woman, identified as Asandria Jacobo, was killed in a collision while riding an ebike in Colton Friday night.

But as usual, there was no clarification whether she was on a Class 1, 2 or 3 ped-assist bike, or one of the more common e-motorbikes or electric dirt bikes.

Witnesses said that the Jacobo crashed into the side of an SUV after running a red light, but that has not been confirmed by the police.

………

I mentioned last week that my Assembly Member, Rick Chavez Zbur, had signed a letter urging Los Angeles officials to halt safety work on Forest Lawn Drive, and publicly supported and voted for SB 194, a last minute bill to effectively halt any lane reductions on the street for the foreseeable future.

I also said that I would reach out to Zbur’s opponent in the November election,  fellow Democrat Colin Hernandez, for his comments on the bill, and on Forest Lawn Drive.

For the sake of openness, I am sharing the email I sent to Hernandez’ campaign. I’ll let you know if I hear back.

Good morning,

I am the editor of BikinginLA.com, a leading site for bicycle news and advocacy in Southern California, and Los Angeles in particular.

As you may be aware, Forest Lawn Drive has been one of the most dangerous streets in the Los Angeles area, with four fatal crashed in the last 13 years — the last one less than one month ago. After years of public meetings and re-engineering to address community concerns, a fully funded and shovel-ready safety project was scheduled to begin this past June, before it was put on pause at the last minute by Mayor Karen Bass.

Her action came at the urging of the owners of Forest Lawn and Mt. Sinai cemeteries, who together have spent over $360,000 lobbying city and state officials to stop the project, which they believe will cause massive traffic congestion, interfering with mourners’ ability to reach the cemeteries.

Your opponent in the November election, Assembly Member Rich Chavez Zbur, was one of five Los Angeles-area legislators who signed an April letter calling for a halt to the project.

Then the state legislature passed SB 194, which was introduced at the last minute, and written halt any lane reduction projects in cities of 2 million population or more, on streets with containing two or more adjacent cemeteries — which would apply only to Forest Lawn Drive in Los Angeles, and nowhere else in the state. Assuming Governor Newsom signs it, it would effectively halt any safety projects on Forest Lawn Drive for the foreseeable future.

Assembly Member Zbur both publicly supported and voted for the bill.

I am writing to ask if you have any comment on the legislation, or the safety of automobile, bicycle and pedestrian traffic on Forest Lawn Drive, that I can share with my readers, whether you agree with Zbur and Bass in halting the project, or have a different stance on the matter.

I will be happy share any comment you care to provide in response to this email, or by calling the numbers below at your convenience any afternoon or evening this week.

Thank you in advance for your cooperation, and I’ll look forward to hearing from you or your representative.

………

The popular Ballona Creek bike path was closed Monday after a body was found in or near the water around 9 am, just north of Lincoln Boulevard.

The victim had reportedly been dead for a few days when he was discovered, and appeared to have a hole in his head.

The area had been plagued by gang violence in the past, but that seemed to have abated in recent years.

………

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

A 17-year old Irish boy was killed in what may have been an intentional hit-and-run crash; the driver’s car was found partially burned the next morning. He had texted a friend prior to the crash that he was being followed.

………

Local 

The old cliche that they always return to the scene of the crime was right this time, when a man was arrested for stealing a $5,000 bicycle from a Hollywood Hills garage, after he returned to the same neighborhood a few days later.

Secret Los Angeles looks at the not-so-secret plans to close the infamous eight-mile gap in the Los Angeles River bike path through DTLA.

I can personally attest that All About the Cinnamon in Sherman Oaks is the best Black-owned, rap-themed cinnamon roll bakery in the state, if not the nation.

 

State

Calbike Executive Director Kendra Ramsey is a fan of Waymo, seeing expansion of the autonomous cabs as a benefit for bike riders, rather than a concern. Although I’m more excited about the next item, as freed-slave turned successful businesswoman Biddy Mason finally gets her due in DTLA. 

A hit-and-run driver critically injured a 27-year man in Escondido Saturday night, failing to stop after right-hooking the victim as he was riding his bicycle on the sidewalk, leaving the victim bleeding in the street with life-threatening injuries; police are looking for a light-colored SUV with tinted windows, possible a Ford Expedition or Explorer.

Police in Salinas arrested a 32-year old hit-and-run driver who killed a man riding a bicycle last month.

A 23-year old man was killed in a collision that was a hit-and-run near Salinas involving multiple vehicles, until it wasn’t; the CHP initially said the victim was hit by at least two drivers, one of whom fled the scene, but they later corrected it to say the victim fell in the roadway and was run over by a pickup driver, who stopped after the crash. No explanation was given for the confusion.

 

National

This is the cost of traffic violence. Friends remember an 85-year old Boulder, Colorado man who was killed by a driver — not a “car,” thank you — while riding his bike; in addition to still riding his bike, he also held several martial arts black belts. The only belts I ever held kept my pants from falling off.

Hats off to 18-year old Finn Fremstad, who graduated from my Colorado alma mater this May, then hopped on his bike a month ago to ride 2,000 miles for his first day at Swarthmore College near Philadelphia. And probably learned more in those 31 days on a bike than he will in his first year of college.

Thousands of bicyclists turned out for Chicago’s 25th Bike the Drive, giving bike riders a carfree experience on 30 miles of Lake Shore Drive, showing riders what the city could be. Just like CicLAvia reveals what Los Angeles could be, but isn’t. 

The Somerville Alliance for Safe Streets explains how Somerville, Massachusetts got down to zero traffic deaths for the past four years. Of course, it’s easier to achieve Vision Zero with a population on just 81,000. But still. 

Streetsblog New York introduces a retirement-aged lawyer and convicted fraudster who keeps suing the Mamdani administration over bike lanes, to little or no success.

A Princeton, New Jersey writer explains that a new bike lane isn’t necessarily an underutilized frill, but rather, could be under used because it’s just part of a still-evolving network.

Tragic news from Connecticut, where a sixth grader was killed by a school bus driver while riding his bike — not in a collision with a school bus, thank you — when the driver apparently turned left as he was passing the bus, since he was struck by the vehicle’s left front wheel.

 

International

No surprise here, as the world’s happiest countries are the top bike-friendly ones, too.

The Onion says Google Maps is introducing crawling directions for bike riders hit by trucks. Although Google Maps also says there’s a Lake America between the US and Canada, so what the hell do they know?

A 51-year old Toronto man spent the last five-and-a-half years riding every street and trail in the city, a total of more than 4,200 miles. Which seems impressive, until you consider that Marc Pappas is nearing the finish line of riding all 7,500 miles of Los Angeles streets. Okay, it’s still pretty damn impressive. 

Road.cc takes a backwards glance at ten British mountain bike brands that have bitten the dust, starting with last week’s death of the iconic Raleigh badge.

Who knew that 20 mph speed limits were bad for drivers’ mental health?

A Bangladeshi writer asks if there’s enough room on the city’s streets for bike riders, since the bike paths are full of potholes and trash.

 

Competitive Cycling

Wout van Aert won the final stage of the Vuelta before Monday’s rest day, his second win in three days, as Enric Mas held onto the red leader’s jersey.

In the final part of a video series, ex-Tour de France winner Floyd Landis explains how and why he blew the lid off the Lance Armstrong doping scandal.

A Colorado paper covers the sixth edition of a 643-mile gravel race from my bike-friendly Colorado hometown to tiny Trinidad, Colorado. The town of just over 8,000 people was formerly known as the sex-change capital of the US, until a doctor specializing in the surgery retired or died. Now it seems to be best known for still being there.

 

Finally…

That feeling when the bike path you’re riding on could have been your juice bottle a decade earlier. Or when your new bike shelter is your old wind turbine blade.

And that feeling when Lycra is proibito, and don’t even think about clipless pedals.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin.

 

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