I’ve spent the last hour trying to write today’s post, and all I’ve done is type and delete, type and delete, with no idea what to say or how to say it.
To be honest, I’m just numb tonight, torn between the gut wrenching heartbreak of a pregnant mother and her unborn baby losing their lives for the crime of riding a bicycle with their family on the mean streets of Los Angeles. And white hot rage knowing it happened on the same street where bike lanes were installed, then unceremoniously ripped out, because a couple of rightwing radio jerks jocks didn’t like not being able to go zoom, zoom on the street anymore.
Jon and Ken, this blood is on you.
Assholes.
As you can see, I’m just not in control right now. And it’s taking all my self control not to throw this damn laptop across the room.
So we’ll be back tomorrow to catch up on what I couldn’t bring myself to write about tonight.
According to a crowdfunding campaign, 36-year old Regan Cole-Graham died after being struck by a driver while riding a bicycle with her husband and two kids this past Saturday.
She was seven months pregnant.
Her unborn daughter survived another day before dying in the NICU at UCLA Children’s Hospital on Sunday.
It’s impossible to know whether this tragedy could have been prevented if the bike lanes were still there. But their removal will almost certainly mean Los Angeles will be liable for her death.
The GoFundMe describes Cole-Graham as “…a loving & devoted wife, a fierce & joyful mother, a hilarious & loyal sister, and a beautiful, fiery daughter.”
As of this writing, the site has raised more than $134,000 to pay for funeral expenses and help her husband and kids with their future, while the goal has been raised to $210,000.
These are the eighth and ninth bicycling fatalities that I’m aware of in Southern California this year, the fourth and fifth in Los Angeles County, and the second and third reported in the City of Los Angeles.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for Regan Cole-Graham, her unborn baby, and all their family and loves ones.
Thanks to Joe, Richard, Oren and Madeline for their help in piecing this together.
CBS LA offered a brief report one of the Los Angeles rides, taking with Finish the Ride founder Damian Kevitt across from the VA grounds about how Alex Pretti was one of us, as Pretti’s parents said he would have loved the rides.
The LA Timesalso covered the same ride, one of several held in the Los Angeles area, listing the turnout at several hundred. And like CBS LA, also quoted Kevitt.
Damian Kevitt spent Saturday afternoon on a 10-mile bike ride with hundreds of other cyclists, a sticker displaying Alex Pretti’s photo stuck to his jersey
“These are just cyclists, clubs, bike shops and individuals who have come together and said, ‘Hey, Alex was one of us,’ ” said Kevitt, while riding on Broadway in Santa Monica. “He was an ICU nurse, he loved the outdoors, he loved cyclists and he loved cycling.”
However, the paper included their brief coverage of the peaceful Unity Rides in the same story with on a rally to protest ICE in DTLA that was peaceful until it wasn’t, after police declared an unlawful assembly when a relative few protesters refused to leave at the end of the day.
Unsurprisingly, a crowd estimated in the thousands turned out for the Minneapolis ride, riding past memorials for Pretti and Renee Macklin Good, and the VA hospital where Pretti worked, with may participants wearing yellow vests that read “Peaceful observer, don’t shoot.”
Several other rides also made the news, with turnouts ranging from a few dozen riders in small Iowa and Wisconsin towns, to over a thousand in my Colorado hometown.
Galloppa was allegedly struck by 24-year old Ahkeyajahnique Owens as she was driving at an extreme rate of speed on city streets. She’s also accused of running a red light while driving around 100 mph just three months later, killing two more people.
Galloppa’s kin, who live 5,000 miles from Long Beach, allege they were denied all but the most basic information about the two crashes.
They’re asking a judge to order the police to release the information.
………
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
Reporters from Le Monde rode their bikes across Cuba, witnessing the resourcefulness of residents as the country bounces from one crisis to another, all while under the watchful eye of state security. But you’ll have to subscribe or find a way around their paywall if you want to read the damn thing.
That’s more like it. A 19-year old New Orleans man was sentenced to nine years behind bars for the drunken, coke-fueled hit-and-run that killed a 36-year old Bourbon Street bartender as he rode his bike home; he was just below the legal alcohol limit a full 12 hours after the crash.
More bad BMX news, this time from Australia, where a 27-year old man died two days after he crashed at a bike park, on his first time riding a BMX; he bled out from internal injuries after refusing to go the the hospital. A tragic reminder to always get yourself checked out after a crash; if the paramedics hadn’t ignored my refusal to go to the ER after the infamous beachfront bee encounter, I might not still be here to write this.
Former Polish cyclist Stanisław Szozda died following a serious illness; he retired at 28 after winning two Olympic silver medals and two World golds, as well as multiple stage wins. The 62-year old Szozda was described as one of the greatest Polish cyclists of all time.
Nineteen-year old Azerbaijani junior cyclist Artyom Proskuryakov was banned for three years for testing positive for meth, following “intelligence-led testing” during September’s UCI junior road world championships in Rwanda. Because any meth head could tell you it does wonders for their performance, right?
Here is a press release from Streets Are For Everyone and Domestique Cycling Club, providing details on DCC’s Saturday Unity Ride, which promises to be one of the largest in the LA area.
ALEX PRETTI UNITY RIDE IN SOLIDARITY
WITH MEMORIAL RIDES ACROSS THE US
LOS ANGELES, CA — Alex Pretti was a nurse and a cyclist who loved the outdoors. This Saturday, cyclists from across Los Angeles will join cyclists from across the U.S. and around the world for memorial rides honoring Alex Pretti, in unity with the Minnesota cycling community and in solidarity with @angrycatfish, the cafe and bike shop Alex frequented.
From @angrycatfish:
“Alex was one of us. He rode bikes, he believed in community, and he believed in justice. Whether you’re 5 or 80, you remember the first time you rode a bike—because bikes are magic, and joy itself is an act of resistance. Today, with tens of thousands of cyclists expected nationally, we are showing not just grief, but unity. We are stronger together.”
The Unity Rides are taking place simultaneously across time zones, with riders gathering and rolling together to demonstrate collective grief, unity, and resolve within the cycling community.
Domestique Cycling Club is organizing a slow 10-mile ride leaving from the parking lot of the Veterans Administration in collaboration with dozens of cycling clubs and advocacy groups across Southern California.
Additionally, several smaller rides are independently organized by local cycling groups and bike shops as part of a national and international effort led by community organizers.
📍 VA Med Center Parking Lot 6
304 Dowlen Dr, Los Angeles, CA 90025
Hundreds of cyclists are expected (between 150 and 500). This will be an easy, calm, no-drop ride focused on unity, respect, and showing up together as a cycling community.
OTHER LOS ANGELES–AREA RIDES
Friday
• Allez LA Bike Shop & CA Chicken, 7:30 AM — Boyle Heights
Saturday
• West LA Bicycle, 1:00 PM — Bike Path & Main Street
• Trash Panda Cycling, El Mariachi Plaza
Sunday
• Mom Ridaz BC, Downtown Los Angeles
To be honest, I don’t care what your politics are, or where you stand on immigration.
This is about the violation of the right to assemble, protest and report what’s happening guaranteed by the 1st Amendment, as well as Pretti’s right to legally bear arms, as guaranteed under the 2nd.
And the needless killing of our fellow Americans under the color of authority.
Evidently, San Diego has the same fights over increased density that we do.
Except their city leaders are fighting for it, rather than opposing greater density in most of the city, like their neighbor to the north, while retaining single-family zoning and fighting SB 79, which overrides local zoning to allow dense, multi-family housing near major transit stops.
Lawrence Herzog, a writer and lecturer on urban studies and planning at San Diego State University makes the case for the mixed-use Midway Rising project, a medium density development that would replace the current sports arena and warehouses with housing and an entertainment district that opens onto the bay.
The project includes bike and walking paths connecting the various villages that make up the development, as well as connecting to a transit station less than a mile away.
The difference is that San Diego has been fighting a CEQA lawsuit filed by an anti-density group, which recently won its appeal over a failure to conduct an adequate environmental review of the height of some of the buildings.
Never mind that the city had placed the project before the voters, who narrowly approved it.
Meanwhile, Los Angeles continues to fight for an exemption to SB 79, despite a severe housing shortage in the city, affordable and otherwise, leaving us no choice but to increase density, despite what our city leaders seem to think.
Even though that increased density would effectively shrink the city, allowing it to become more walkable and bikeable, and reducing the need to drive everywhere.
And maybe even freeing up road space for better transit and safer bikeways.
Maybe someday our city leaders will stop kowtowing to residents desires to seal Los Angeles in amber and preserve it as it is today, and begin fighting for the healthy growth we so desperately need for the people who are already here. Let alone those who will inevitably come.
It’s a good read, even as Schneider patiently explains that you really can ride a bike to LAX.
But what really stands out is this section —
Disrupting the existing automotive order can mean more traffic and less parking, of course. So Schneider has angered some people over the years.
In 2022, he was on a neighborhood council championing a proposal for a dedicated bus lane along La Brea Avenue. The proposal passed, but in the run up, he says, one guy got pretty mad about it: “He put up a mugshot of me along La Brea at different establishments saying, ‘This guy’s about to ruin your neighborhood,’” Schneider recalls. When his mother-in-law saw the flyers, she “thought her grandkids were in danger.”
Matthew Tallmer says he did post — though not create — those flyers. “Obviously, the businesses were very concerned that they were going to lose business because there’d be no parking,” says Tallmer, now a member of the Mid City West Neighborhood Council, though at the time he was just a guy going door-to-door opposing a bus lane.
Tallmer’s larger objection is that Schneider’s unique lifestyle just may not work for everybody: “The whole idea that people are going to bike all over the place is an elitist fantasy, to be honest.”
So someone who sits on the Mid City West Neighborhood Council posts wanted posters with a photo of Schneider’s face, for the crime of daring to contest the automotive hegemony on La Brea.
And yet he somehow calls Schneider elitist for riding a bicycle, and thinking other people might want to do that, too?
Um, sure.
And I thought the Mid City West NC was one of the good ones.
The Argonaut looks at the weekly Venice Electric Light Parade and founder Marcus Gladney, who leads bicycle riders on a musical tour of the city that draws participants from around the world — including the Australian group RÜFÜS DU SOL, who hosted the listening party their fourth album on the parade.
State
The National Law Reviewexamines California’s new regulations regarding ebikes, including a ban on converting new ebikes to exceed legal limits, as well as the regulatory gaps in the law that should be corrected. Like defining an ebike as at least partially human powered, and anything that’s not as an electric motorbike.
Newsweekexamines why bicycling feels easier than walking and remains the world’s most energy‑efficient mode of human transport, more than five decades after Scientific American first reported it. Which is truly shocking. Not that bicycling is so efficient, but that Newsweek is still a thing.
Escape Collective says Trek is in deep doo doo as it marks its 50th anniversary, with layoffs, overstock, retail decline and debt making this its most challenging year yet. I bought my first adult bike from the company when they were just five years old. And I still have it, even if it’s not in rideable condition these days. Then again, neither am I.
That’s more like it. A 22-year old Texas man faces up to 20 years behind bars after being convicted of manslaughter for killing a high school student as he rode his bike in a crosswalk; investigators said he never touched his brakes before slamming into the boy’s bike. Although in California, he would only face a maximum of six years for vehicular manslaughter.
There’s no other information on how the crash occurred, including which street the victim was crossing. Given the circumstances, unless police find a witness or security cam video, that may be all we ever know.
There’s also no information about the driver or suspect vehicle at this time.
A street view shows the intersection is controlled by a traffic signal with crosswalks in each direction, though there doesn’t appear to be any bike infrastructure on either street.
There’s a posted 25 mph speed limit on 7th, while Google AI reports a 35 mph speed limit on Boyle. Although at that hour, it’s likely the driver was exceeding whatever the posted limit is.
This is the seventh bicycling fatality that I’m aware in of Southern California already this year, and the third in Los Angeles County; it’s also the first reported in the City of Los Angeles.
Hit-and-run drivers have been responsible for two of those SoCal deaths this year. Nineteen of the of the 55 reported bicycling deaths last year involved hit-and-run drivers.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for the victim and his loved ones.
Or as most of us know them, the majestic evergreen cedars lining either side of the busy boulevard, which have been designated as a Historic-Cultural Monument since 1970.
CD4 Councilmember Nithya Raman, who somehow represents the area in a bizarrely gerrymandered district, got the city council to approve $400,000 for a feasibility and design study to install a cycle track between Fern Dell Drive and Vermont Ave.
A safe bikeway along the corridor would provide a huge benefit, as there is currently no safe way to get from Hollywood to the LA River or the zoo, without climbing extremely steep hills.
Or to Costco, for that matter.
………
It looks like CicLAvia may be off life support.
According to the San Fernando Valley Sun, Metro voted last year to approve funding for open streets events tied to the 2026 World Cup and the 2028 Olympics, putting traditional open streets events at risk.
However, after outrage from the community, Metro agreed to fund 70% of the cost for nine additional open streets applications, while requiring host cities to provide the other 30% matching funding.
Which is exactly what the Los Angeles City Council did yesterday, voting 12-2 to approve $3.2 million for open streets.
CD3 Councilmember Bob Blumenfield and CD7’s Monica Rodriguez opposed the measure because only one of the events is planned for the San Fernando Valley.
I neglected to consider yesterday that not everyone has Instagram. Which I should have, considering I only have it to share corgi photos and witticisms.
Well, I think they’re funny, even if the dog doesn’t share my sense of humor. Or my wife, for that matter.
Fortunately, Randy corrected my mistake yesterday, posting details of the West LA Unity Ride, while noting rental bikes will we available.
Meets at West LA Bicycle at 1:00pm, rolls around 1:30pm. 114 Washington BlvdMarina Del Rey, CA 90292Route: beach path to the art walls for a photo. Then to the Santa Monica Pier, Courthouse, Police Dept, and down Main Street to make a little bit of noise and get some visibility. #Bike #SoCal
If anybody needs a bike, West LA Bicycle still has some rental bikes available for that day! They want as many people out as they can and it seems like they have over 100 so far. The shop emailed me: "Much love, thanks for being involved, we look forward to meeting you and riding with you."
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
You know your new bike lane sucks when riders are reporting broken bones and kidney damage, like this one in Brighton & Hove, England; the city is defending itself by arguing that they’re all turning in the wrong place.
A British man was convicted of assault for punching a bike rider who had stopped to relieve himself in the woods along a bike path, accusing the victim of being a “pervert,” and touching his genitals in front of him. Which is generally what one does when one stops to take a leak; a better question might be why was he looking?
An op-ed in the Los Angeles Times says the county has set a goal of ripping up 1,600 acres of pavement and replacing them with green space and trees, but questions if it’s too little, too late. Probably. Because we all know how “goals” tend to work out around here.
Bike lanes on Fairfax Ave now have a new coat of Kermit, in a special shade or green specifically designed not to piss off Hollywood filmmakers. Although that’s still probably not enough to keep drivers from using them as traffic bypass lanes.
The attorney representing the family of 6-year old Hudson O’Loughlin is looking for deeper pockets than the woman accused of killing the boy as he rode his bike with his family in Pacific Beach; the suspect has been without a valid driver’s license for nine years, which means she probably doesn’t have insurance.
National
Amazon is recruiting ebike delivery riders who own their own bikes without any illegal modifications and with their own liability insurance; the company has also begun investing in their own ebike cargo vans for urban deliveries.
Seriously? A nonprofit bike park in Idaho continues to battle with county officials, who have denied it a permit to even build bathrooms, in a dispute that boils down to whether it should be classified as a ‘park’ or a ‘recreational facility.’
A 62-year old motorcycle rider faces a vehicular homicide charge for killing a 68-year old man riding a bicycle just a few miles from my Colorado hometown following a nine-month investigation; he’s accused of failing to negotiate a lefthand curve after passing another motorcycle, striking the victim on the far right shoulder, apparently head-on. Which makes it sound like the investigation should have taken about ten minutes.
The 37-year old Minneapolis VA nurse, who was fatally shot — okay, murdered — by ICE agents on Saturday was a lover of the outdoors, and an active mountain bike rider.
The Radavist is calling for the entire bicycling community to come together for healing and to honor Pretti, who he says could have been any of us. Although I’m not sure how many of us would have stepped up to help a stranger at the risk of our own lives.
Meanwhile, Minnesota-based Salsa Cycles is urging bike riders to contact their legislator and join in a Unity Ride to protest the recent fatal shootings by ICE agents in Minneapolis.
“Our neighbors are being unlawfully detained, harassed and murdered at the hands of the federal immigration enforcement agents,” Salsa Cycles wrote in its statement. “Now is the time to speak up and stand up…”
“Community is important in times like this,” Salsa Cycles states. “Alex Pretti was a member of our local cycling community…We encourage you to come ride with us, host a ride in your community, or simply go ride in solidarity on Saturday.”
The former carries a maximum of six years, while the latter has a max of just four years, thanks to California’s lax hit-and-run laws.
And that’s only if she is convicted on both charges, and gets the maximum penalties, to run concurrently.
Anyone want to give odds on that?
Sanchez is accused of knocking Hudson off his bike as she turned right into an alley, stopping briefly, then fleeing the scene and driving over the boy as he lay helpless on the ground.
“The defendant did not stop, she did not render aid, she did not assess the situation or try to help out, she didn’t, she did not call 911,” said Cassidy McWilliams, deputy district attorney.
Never mind that she hasn’t had a valid driver’s license for nine years, and shouldn’t have been on the road in the first place.
She was ordered into custody on $150,000 bond, and will be required to wear an ankle monitor and forbidden from driving if she manages to post it.
This analysis includes people walking, biking, using wheelchairs or riding personal conveyances such as rollerblades or skateboards. In total, nearly 6,500 people were killed while walking or biking across California during this five-year period, a toll that includes about 800 cyclists.
Fatalities climbed steadily for nearly a decade across the state, reaching a peak of 1,429 deaths in 2022, before receding to 1,208 in 2024. In comparison, the Bay Area has remained relatively stable. The number of fatalities has ranged between 150-180 deaths per year.
The map pinpoints the location of both pedestrian and bicycling deaths, while blocking out high-fatality hotspots.
The latter of which makes Los Angeles look like the hot mess it is.
………
Active SGV is hosting a free Learn to Bike class in El Monte on Sunday.
🚲 Build your confidence on two wheels at our FREE Learn to Bike class in El Monte.
📅 Sunday, Feb 1 | 9:30 AM 📍 Jeff Seymour Family Center Bikes & helmets available to borrow!
The group is also hosting an easy ride to Whittier Narrows next weekend.
Join ActiveSGV for an E-asy Access Ride to Whittier Narrows! Ride with us as we head to Whittier Narrows and learn how our region is building a more sustainable water future. RSVP: https://t.co/FPFa7X7Alupic.twitter.com/9wbgz5IiAX
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
A New Jersey legislator is “backpedaling” on his own proposal to require a $50 annual bicycle registration fee to make bike riders contribute to the cost of their own infrastructure, with public comments running 61% against. Because apparently, people who ride bikes don’t pay taxes like normal folks, and the proven societal and health effects of bicycling are worth nothing. And no, drivers don’t pay their own way; the overwhelming cost of building and maintaining roadways comes from general tax funds.
Once again, a bike thief has been busted in Orange County, after stealing a bait bike worth over $2,000 in Huntington Beach, which makes it a felony. Meanwhile, the LAPD still won’t employ bait bikes because a former city attorney feared it could be construed as entrapment, even though similar charges have held up in other cities that do.
Bike-friendly Davis has released a new citywide bike map. Granted, it’s easier to build a connected bike network in a small city, but at least Davis has one. Los Angeles doesn’t.
Winter bicycling rates are skyrocketing in Cambridge, Massachusetts, increasing over 400% in the past ten years, thanks in part to the city plowing snow from bike lanes.
I’m feeling just this side of awful tonight. With any luck, it’s just a passing bout of old and diabetic, and I’ll be young, healthy and beautiful after a good night’s sleep.
Hopefully, we’ll be back on Wednesday to catch up on anything we missed.
“We’re out here today because the city of Los Angeles signed Vision Zero as a directive in August 2015 to prioritize saving lives on our roads — to achieve zero traffic fatalities by 2025,” said SAFE founder and executive director Damian Kevitt, who lost his right leg in a violent traffic incident in 2013. “Not manage or reduce [them] but eliminate traffic fatalities. We are a decade later and we are at 290 traffic fatalities. … It’s a 26% increase in traffic fatalities since the start of Vision Zero…”
“The city has tools, it’s just not using them,” Kevitt told The Times. “In 2024, voters approved measure HLA by a two-thirds margin. It requires the city must follow its own mobility plan … to make roads safer for cyclists, for pedestrians, for better transit.” He also cited state measure AB 645, which in 2023 authorized a pilot program for speed cameras in a handful of California cities including Los Angeles, as “a tool the city could be implementing — it’s speed safety systems.”
In a perfect illustration of just how unserious the city is about ending traffic deaths, CD 13 Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez was the only member of the city government who bothered to show up.
But hey, Mayor Karen Bass issued a statement.
No, wait. Her office did.
Apparently Mayor Bass had better things to do.
Mayor Karen Bass’ office said in a statement that Bass, who took office in December 2022, “has made street safety a priority by accelerating the implementation of hundreds of new speed humps, signage and intersection treatments which help ensure drivers are traveling slowly and with control near schools. Vision Zero started in 2015 and requires intensive coordination across departments.”
The office pointed to Bass’ October 2024 executive directive to facilitate street repairs, clean parks and infrastructure and city services enhancements ahead of the 2026 World Cup and 2028 Summer Olympic Games in L.A.
So, evidently, we need a World Cup or Olympic Games to justify saving human lives.
Oh, and clean parks.
Got it.
Kevitt had one parting comment for The Times: “Don’t use the word traffic ‘accident’ when writing about this,” he said.
“In the road safety arena, it’s ‘crash’ or ‘collision,’” he said. “ ‘Accident’ implies non-responsibility. It’s just an ‘oops.’ But when you’re driving drunk or distracted, that’s a choice. If you hit and kill or severely injure someone, it’s not an ‘oops.’ We’re trying to say: This is preventable.”
There’s a lot more to the article, and it’s worth a few minutes to read the other comments from people who have lost loved ones. Or fear exactly that.
Particularly since the Times appears to be the only media source that even bothered to cover it.
Evidently, our deadly streets are no more important to the people who report on them than they are to the people we elect to fix them.
Looks like the joke’s on us.
Because nothing will ever change until city leaders care enough to do something about it.
And the media, and the people, care enough to hold them to it.
Just got this photo from a friend of mine: #Seahawks legend Marshawn Lynch casually riding a bike en route to Lumen Field for today’s NFC Championship Game.
Then again, my beloved Broncos finished a broken ankle and a snow storm short of the Super Bowl, too.
………
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
No bias here. A Scottish city lived up — or maybe down — to its reputation as “hostile to anyone outside of a car” by scrapping plans for a bike lane through the town center because it would put the “economic vitality” of the town “at serious risk” due to the loss of six whole parking spaces. Yes, six. Never mind that studies have repeatedly shown sales go up when protected bike lanes go down.
LAistexamines Long Beach’s Vision Zero failure, as traffic deaths in the beachside city climb to their highest level in a decade. Although the public radio website may require your email address to read it.
What a long, strange trip it wasn’t. A local leader of San Francisco’s World Naked Bike Ride was arrested when he and several other people showed up naked for a tribute to the Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir, in the mistaken assumption their bare bodies would be seen as a tribute to the band.
I want to be like him when I grow up. A 94-year New Zealand man who survived the Holocaust in Nazi-occupied Holland will attempt to set a new age-group hour record, after already exceeding the record time on his own.
The victim suffered major injuries when she was hit around 9:40 am, at Krameria Ave and Reiner Circle, and died after being taken to a hospital.
There’s no word at this time how or why the crash occurred, or who may have been at fault.
A street view shows a three-way, uncontrolled intersection at the base of hill in each direction. So it’s possible both the victim and the driver could have been traveling at speed.
According to the My News LA, it’s not clear whether the driver remained at the scene. In fact, there’s no information of any kind about the person behind the wheel.
This is the sixth bicycling fatality that I’m aware in of Southern California this year, and the first in Riverside County.
Update: The victim has been identified as 61-year old Riverside resident Gina Thomas.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for Gina Thomas and her loved ones.
