Feds scrub bike lanes and speed cams from best practices, and Boston mayor joins vigil for bike advocate killed by her funding cuts

July 17, 2026 / / No comments

Just a quick note before we get started that I have another new T-shirt design behind that SWAG button over there on the right — this time in multiple type and fabric colors to suit anyone’s taste.

Maybe even yours.

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Apparently, the Trump administration meant it when they threatened to go after “DEI bike lanes.”

Because not only did US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy transfer nearly $2 billion in transportation grants from bike lanes to roads and bridges, now they’ve removed any reference to bike lanes and speed cams from the list of Proven Safety Countermeasures on the department’s website.

According to NPR, which broke the story yesterday,

The FHWA says the changes to its website, which have not been previously reported, are part of a broader review of safety countermeasures to ensure they align with current DOT policies and the administration’s priorities. But critics say the Trump administration is undermining safety strategies that have already been proven to work.

“We should be making decisions about safety based on evidence,” Stephanie Pollack, the former acting administrator of the FHWA under President Joe Biden, told NPR. “It’s hard for me to understand how you could say you’re putting safety first, and then make arbitrary decisions about what does and doesn’t improve safety.”

No shit.

So instead of reducing traffic deaths, the plan seems to be to see just how high they can drive them.

Pun intended.

Then again, maybe that’s why they defunded public media, in an effort to keep them from reporting on this administration’s Dr. Evil-ish machinations.

If you question that wording, consider this statement from a USDOT spokesperson.

“Drivers paying taxes and vehicle fees expect their dollars to be reinvested into our roads, not social initiatives that burden their commutes,” the statement said. “Under Secretary Duffy, the Department is getting back to basics and putting safety first.”

So, they’re putting safety first by taking actions that put safety last.

Got it.

Twitter post

Again, according to NPR,

“It’s not just changing the web page, but it’s really going to put lifesaving projects at risk,” said Josh Naramore, a policy expert at NACTO, the National Association of City Transportation Officials.

“That list of approved safety countermeasures and all the research really helped change the game for local agencies and even for states to have conversations with the federal government, with state departments of transportation, and even with regional planning agencies,” Naramore told NPR. “So you’re essentially taking tools out of the toolkit that would be available for them.”

For instance, among the measures no longer considered best practices, speed cams have been shown to reduce crashes on urban arterial roads by as much as half, while adding bike lanes on a two-lane road cut crashes by as much as 30%, jumping to 49% on four-lane road, according to a 2021 brochure published by the Federal Highway Administration.

Then again, those figures were backed up by scientific studies. And we’re not supposed to believe in science anymore.

So drivers, start your engines. Speeding is legal once again, and bicycles are just speed bumps on your road to freedom.

And let’s get those traffic death back up to those heady days of the pandemic.

Thanks to Andy for that first link — and sorry it took so long — your email got caught up in spam folder hell.

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Boston is still in an uproar over the recent bicycling death of a city transportation planner.

As we discussed yesterday, 36-year old bike advocate and Boston transportation planner Louisa Gag was killed by a truck driver while riding her bike to work last Thursday.

To make matters worse, she was killed at an intersection where safety improvements had been promised for years, only to be put on terminal hold by the very mayor she worked for.

Today, an open letter to Boston Mayor Michelle Wu signed by 4,000 people — 2,300 Boston residents — was delivered to Wu’s office.

“For years, we have told you, in public and to your face, that continued delay on street safety would cost lives,” the letter reads. “Last week it cost the life of Louisa Gag — a transportation planner in your own administration, a person who devoted her career to making our streets safe…”

“For at least eighteen months, your administration has stalled and re-studied safety projects that were designed and funded,” the letter continues. “You have told us these projects need more process, more consensus, more perfection. But consensus never arrives for the dead, and a study protects no one.”

Four hundred people rode their bikes to Boston City Hall to personally deliver that letter.

Yet somehow, we can’t even get 1,000 people to sign an open letter calling on Los Angeles officials to declare a Traffic Violence State of Emergency, no matter how many people get killed.

Or who, for that matter.

And when was the last time you saw hundreds of people turn out on bikes for anything but CicLAvia or Critical Mass? Let alone demand that someone, anyone, in city office actually give a damn about the safety of people biking or walking?

Or the city’s mayor joining the vigil, for that matter.

Mayor Michelle Wu gave an emotional speech to those remembering Gag.

“I can’t stop thinking about Louisa, but especially the Boston that she wanted to live in,” she said. “A Vision Zero city. A city where everyone could access every opportunity.”

“I really struggled with whether I should come here tonight or not,” Wu said through tears. “Whether it would help the healing that is so needed for a community in such grief in pain, and whether I would be able to get any words out at all.”

If it’s happened here, I don’t know about it. But then again, I’ve only been doing this advocacy thing for about 20 years now.

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So when was the last time you had a deadly poisonous snake stuck in your bike chain?

A woman in Australia was bitten by an eastern brown snake — the second most venomous land snake in a country known for deadly critters — when she accidentally rode over the bigass snake on her bike, and it somehow got caught up by her bike.

Fortunately, it turned out the bite was dry — aka, no venom — after she was rushed to a hospital.

Then again, so was the snake.

An expert snake catcher rushed to the scene, and held the viper’s head as cops dismantled parts of the bike to free it. And yes, they rushed the injured reptile to the nearest wildlife hospital, where it had to be euthanized due to the extent of its injuries.

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

Schumck. A Florida man faces charges, including aggravated assault and child abuse, for intentionally running a stop sign and driving into an 11-year old kid riding an ebike, then getting out of his car to slap the boy and smash his cellphone, because he said the neighborhood kids were harassing him.

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

Police in San Antonio, Texas shot and killed a man riding a bicycle after he refused a traffic stop, then led them on a brief pursuit before he allegedly pointed a gun at them. No word on what they were originally attempting to stop him for, and whether it was worth killing him over. 

A 43-year old woman remains in a coma after a 26-year old man riding an ebike hit her from behind in New York’s Central Park ten days ago, while the rider was allegedly speeding and riding the wrong way in the running lane; there’s no word on what kind of ebike he was on, though witnesses said he appeared to be a delivery rider. But if he was going the wrong way, how could he hit her from behind, unless she was going the wrong way, too?

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Local 

The Los Angeles Times belatedly picks up the story about merchants on Pico Blvd fearing the effects of planned protected bike lanes, just like merchants everywhere else, while failing to mention that studies show sales usually go up after protected bike lanes go in, and most people will later fight to keep them.

KNBC-4 reminds us about the Meet the Hollywoods CicLAvia and World Cup final watching party, as well as Santa Monica’s COAST26 open streets event and World Cup watching party, leaving out only the Beach Streets open streets and World Cup watching party in Long Beach, all on Sunday.

A pair of 15-year old boys have been identified and detained by Santa Clarita sheriff’s deputies after one allegedly threw a rock at a man riding a bicycle on a Valencia bike trail, while they passed in the opposite direction illegally riding an electric motorcycle on the bike path; fortunately the victim captured their images on his bike cam.

 

State

The Bicycle Film Festival comes to San Diego next weekend.

Damn. A 50-year old Palo Alto woman remains on a ventilator two weeks after she was struck by the driver of a bus, and dragged underneath until a riding companion caught up to it and pounded on the side to get the driver to stop; according to friends, she suffered multiple fractures, including a broken femur and tibia, a fractured pelvis and a collapsed lung, and has already gone through seven surgeries.

San Francisco is closing another street to cars and converting it to a pair of parallel pathways; the former Twin Peaks Blvd is planned as part of a 550-mile trail tracing the city’s ridge lines.

 

National

PeopleForBikes goes back to their City Ratings to look at which US cities are investing in youth bicycling. None of which are Los Angeles. 

That’s more like it. An 18-year old Nevada driver was sentenced to a whopping 25 years behind bars for killing a 62-year old woman and significantly injuring her husband in a head-on crash as the couple was riding their bikes, after the driver admitted to smoking weed prior to the crash; however, he’ll be eligible for parole after just nine years.

The family of 17-year old fallen cyclist Magnus White settled their lawsuit against Yeva Smilianska, the allegedly intoxicated Colorado driver who killed the US National Cycling Team member in 2023, for just a measly $25,000, saying they just wanted to get her out of their lives. Then again, the Ukrainian refugee likely didn’t have any assets, and that’s probably all her insurance would cover — which is why you need to max out the uninsured motorist section on your car insurance, which will cover you when you ride your bike. 

Hie thee to my bike-friendly Colorado hometown for a beer-infused fondo this weekend. But is it really a “tradition” if it only goes back a decade?

Hats off to Laramie County, Wyoming for their new stagecoach-inspired, e-cargo bike powered bookmobile. And no, it’s not the least bit confusing that Cheyenne, Wyoming is in Laramie County, but Laramie is in Albany County, and Albany, Wyoming is in Albany County, too. 

A Houston suburb is surrounding 330 homes priced up to $1 million with 2,100 acres of trails and bike lanes. No word on whether they will follow the new FHWA best practices, and pave over all those trails with eight-lane highways.

The new documentary Cycles of Resilience follows the Black History Bike Ride, an Austin nonprofit founded by cyclist Talib Abdullah to teach people through bike treks to historical sites; according to the MovieMaker site, “learning shouldn’t have to be an act of resistance. But it is, given the efforts of many states and the Trump Administration to erase Black history.”

A Minnesota man took distracted driving to a new level, watching animated porn on his phone as he ran down and seriously injured a man riding a bicycle, leaving the victim with a fractured pelvis, multiple rib fractures, fractured lumbar requiring spinal surgery, a closed head injury, an acute kidney injury and acute anemia. But other than that, he was just peachy.

The Canadian wildfires are casting a pall over the 400-mile Cycle the Erie Canal bicycle ride, with more than 600 cyclists from 37 states and Canada riding from Buffalo NY to Albany along the Erie Canalway Trail.

As predicted, New Jersey’s new law requiring a license and registration for every ebike, regardless of whether it’s a ped-assist cargo bike or an e-motorbike, is turning out to be a total shitshow that no one’s happy with.

The Washington Post explains how people get trapped by obscenely high car payments, as $1,000 monthly payments become more common. Never mind that you can buy a decent used bicycle for a hundred bucks. 

 

International

Cycling Weekly says modern bikes are becoming more like F1 cars, but we’re still sending them to the equivalent of a quick oil change shop for repairs. I, for one, like the idea of an F1-style pit lane, where you can get your tires changed, your bike lubed and your glasses cleaned, and be back out on the road in under ten seconds.

 

Competitive Cycling

Ouch. Australian cyclist Chris Harper says he’s now “ten grams lighter” after losing part of his thumb in a horrific crash on stage 10 of the Tour de France.

Multiple riders went down like dominoes in a high-speed sprint at the end of Thursday’s stage 12 of the Tour de France; Belgium’s Tim Merlier outsprinted what was left of the field for his third stage win in this year’s Tour.

Forget doping. Cyclists at the Tour are now loading up on Urolithin A, a naturally occurring substance derived from pomegranates. Then again, psilocybin and hemlock are derived from naturally occurring substances too, but that doesn’t necessarily make them decent bicycling supplements. 

Outside asks the burning question, if Tadej Pogačar is so great, why isn’t he a global superstar?

Bike Radar offers 24 “remarkable” photos from the Tour de France, from hosing off riders with a firehose in the ’40s, to that gut wrenching shot of Johnny Hoogerland caught up in a barbed wire fence after crashing in 2011.

 

Finally…

Rasta Rolling on a Penny Farthing through the streets of London. Now you, too, can buy the long-awaited Tesla bike, though you may enjoy if more if you’re still a toddler.

And at last, someone has designed coat hangers, not for your coats, but for your bicycling kit.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin.

 

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

Boston bike advocate & transportation planner killed while biking to work, and virtual meeting tonight for bike/ped bridge over PCH

July 16, 2026 / / One comment

Once again, a city transportation planner has been killed while riding a bicycle. This time, in Boston.

Unfortunately, most of the news and reactions have been hidden behind paywalls, like this piece in the Boston Globe. Or this one, for that matter.

Or even this one.

However, the basic facts at that 36-year old bike advocate and Boston transportation planner Louisa Gag was killed by a truck driver while riding her bike to work last Thursday, sparking calls to improve safety on the city’s streets.

Not to mention vague “oopsies” and promises to do better from the mayor’s office.

Fortunately, this piece from Boston public radio station WGBH tells the story in heartbreaking detail.

In it, Tori Bedford, a guest host for the station, speaks with Galen Mook, the executive director of statewide bicycling coalition MassBike, who had worked with Gag at a local advocacy group before she went to work for the city.

Bedford: In her first administration (Boston Mayor Michelle Wu), back in 2023, Boston launched the Mission Hill Transportation Planning Project. I think they dedicated $300,000 to that initiative. They held meetings and at those meetings, city officials identified the intersection, a number of intersections, but the intersection where Louisa Gag was killed as one of the most hazardous areas in the project study area. StreetsblogMASS reported that the plan was to move forward with plans to improve visibility, build curb extensions, reduce pedestrian crossing distances. They were going to put in a crosswalk. That was all supposed to be put together by 2024, but at the end of that year, that hadn’t happened. The city had used less than half of its budget for the project. Then in 2025, Mayor Michelle Wu initiated a review of the city’s transit and safety improvement projects, and after that review, the city ripped out protective bollards on bike lanes. They halted work on dozens of transit and safety plans around the city, including that Mission Hill safety project. And then in the city’s 2027 fiscal budget, that Mission Hill project was removed entirely.

Take a minute to digest that.

A woman who spent her life working to improve safety for others was killed at an intersection where the city not only didn’t make the safety improvements they had promised, but actually removed the ones they did.

Then there’s this.

Bedford: Yeah, she did so much. We found this clip of her talking about Go Boston 2030, which is a transportation plan to improve safety and access in Boston. This is from a meeting filmed by The Forum Network in 2019:

“The system is not working for people. People’s buses and subways are not showing up on time. They feel unsafe while they’re walking and biking and it’s really hard to get around. And their frustration was really clear and something that we heard a lot. And these issues absolutely echo the priorities that are featured in Go Boston 2030.”

It’s worth reading the full story, because it paints a picture, not just of the city’s failures, but of Gag as real person, not just a victim.

Her death came just over a month after Chicago Complete Streets planner Riley O’Neil was killed in a dooring while riding his bike in a painted bike lane. He was just a year younger than Gag.

It’s only sheer luck we haven’t seen something like that here.

I know a number of bicycle advocates who’ve had some very close calls, myself included. In fact, I used to think the odds were stacked against me, if only because I spent more time on my bike than I did anywhere else except bed.

And as anyone who’s followed the fight over Measure HLA, Vision Zero and Garcetti’s Green New Deal can tell you, Los Angeles has repeatedly failed to follow through on its commitments to improve safety — not just for bike riders, but for pedestrians, drivers, transit users, and anyone else who ventures out on our streets.

We’ve also had some truly lovely people lose their lives on our streets, too often through no fault of their own. People who became victims and statistics the moment they hit the pavement, and are soon forgotten outside a small circle family and loved ones.

That’s if we even learned anything about them in the first place, other than the barest facts of what happened. If that.

As the late, great — and yes, largely forgotten — Phil Ochs sang,

And I’m sure it wouldn’t interest anybodyOutside of a small circle of friends.

It’s up to us to make sure it matters. And that doesn’t happen to anyone else.

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A virtual meeting will be held tonight to discuss plans for the Potrero Canyon Pedestrian/Bicycle Bridge Project, something my friend George Wolfberg had been working on for some time before he died.

The project will provide a bridge over PCH to connect Will Rogers State Beach to George Wolfberg Park in Pacific Palisades. Although I’m told some local residents have already got the torches and pitchforks out to halt the project, or at least get bicycles kicked off it.

I know it’s late notice; I’ve already got another commitment tonight. But try to attend if you can, because every voice will matter to move this forward into reality.

Thanks to Joe for the heads-up.

¡Bienvenidos! Para ver esta información en español, HAGA CLIC AQUÍ.

You’re invited!

The City of Los Angeles Bureau of Engineering (Engineering) and Councilwoman Traci Park (Council District 11) are excited to announce the upcoming online community meeting for the Potrero Canyon Pedestrian / Bicycle Bridge Project.

Learn how the Bureau of Engineering Team proposes to:

  • Improve safety when crossing Pacific Coast Highway
  • Enhance pedestrian and bicycle access to and from the beach
  • Support a more connected park and open space environment that contributes to overall community health and well-being

Community members are invited to attend, ask questions, and share feedback as the project moves forward.

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Register Today

Meet the team, learn about the benefits, explore proposed improvements, and share your feedback.

Join Online

Be sure to share with a friend and save the date for our upcoming Zoom webinar. Click the button below to register and learn more.

Thursday, July 16, 2026

5:30 – 7:00 PM

Register HERE!

Be sure to tell a friend!

Zoom Registration: https://bit.ly/potrerobridgewebinar

Webinar ID: 883 8804 6930

English call-in (audio only): (213) 338-8477

Spanish call-in (audio only): (571) 317-3122

Access code: 287-406-717

Simultaneous Spanish interpretation will be provided for those who need language assistance.

We look forward to connecting with you soon.

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Do you need to catch up?

Whether you are new to the project or just need a refresher, watch the last Community Meeting Video to get caught up.

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Project Overview

Located on the coast near the Pacific Palisades community, the Potrero Canyon Pedestrian / Bicycle Bridge Project is led by Engineering, in collaboration with Council District 11. The City of Los Angeles recognizes that the Pacific Palisades and many north Los Angeles communities have endured significant hardship due to wildfires, including the loss of family and friends, homes, businesses, and cherished community spaces.

With deep respect for these experiences, this project is being advanced thoughtfully and in close coordination with the local community. Engineering seeks to work in close collaboration with area residents and stakeholders to develop a pedestrian and bicycle bridge to cross the Pacific Coast Highway, providing a safer connection between the City’s George Wolfberg Park and Will Rogers State Beach. The intent is to improve crossing safety, restore access and connectivity to open spaces that are integral to the neighborhood’s identity and well-being and which serve all Angelenos, as well as support long-term community recovery and a return to a sense of place.

This project is part of the City’s broader efforts to enhance connectivity and accessibility to recreational areas while prioritizing safety, resilience, and environmental stewardship. The bridge will be designed with sensitivity to its surroundings, contributing to the responsible revitalization of the area and supporting the community’s path forward as it heals and rebuilds.

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Stay Connected

There will be multiple public meetings over the next couple of years, and we want to keep you up to date as the project moves forward. Sign up to receive updates and meeting invitations at PotreroCanyonPedBridgeContact.org and let us know the best way to stay in touch, be it by email, text and/or postal mail. To share a commentor contact the project team, please email: Eng.PotreroCanyonPedBridge@LACity.org

Visit the project website (PotreroCanyonPedBridge.org) to learn more.

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This is who we share the road with.

The governor of Nevada makes an itty bitty faux pas while driving, and gets pulled over by a Las Vegas cop for failing to stop when making a right on a red light.

Oops.

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

No bias here. A new London lawsuit claims a proposed Holland Park roundabout and bike lanes will dangerously and “disproportionately benefit the most privileged commuters at the expense of the most vulnerable,” like the elderly. Because as we all know, people who ride bicycles are all extremely privileged, and not the least bit vulnerable. And never, ever elderly. 

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Local 

Hats off to the Major Taylor Los Angeles bicycling club, which is is hosting its inaugural Golf tournament in Manhattan Beach August 30th to benefit the Los Angeles Mission and LA Regional Food Bank, as well as introducing Wheels to Wellness as the new outreach department of the organization.

Santa Monica Next observes that the new curb-protected bike lanes being installed as part of the Broadway Safety Project have now reached the eastern terminus at 26th Street.

If you don’t have any plans for 2028, LA28, the organization sponsoring the ’28 Olympic and Paralympic Games, is looking for 60,000 volunteers to staff the events. So feel free to invite a few friends, give or take 60k.

 

State

This is who we share the road with. A 21-year old trucker from Yuba City was sentenced to four years and eight months for causing an eight-vehicle crash that killed 3 people in Ontario last October, after he was convicted of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence and reckless driving; he entered the country illegally from India four years ago, but was able to obtain a commercial driver’s license under state and federal policies in place at the time.

A new $3 million federal grant will help complete the final 2.85-mile missing link in a five-mile bicycle and pedestrian pathway connecting Highland and Redlands, bypassing a deadly street corridor.

San José will showcase more than 300 bicycles, including antique and custom-made bikes, at the annual Sunny Side Up bike and classic car show this Sunday.

A 30-year old man was arrested for last month’s Stockton hit-and-run that killed a man riding a bike and two dogs he was pulling behind him in a shopping cart; the suspect has been booked on suspicion of felony hit-and-run and vehicular manslaughter; let’s hope they tack on a couple of animal abuse charges for the dogs.

 

National

You can now ride your ebike in RAGBRAI, aka the Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa, but you’ll have to behave yourself.

A Kansas City, Missouri cop recovered an ebike that was stolen from a woman with stage 4 breast cancer on Mother’s Day, who then suffered a stroke two days after watching someone ride off on her bike; the officer made the arrest and recovery after spotting someone riding her repainted bike.

They get it. A couple of bicyclist and educators — one a high school teacher and the other a university professor — argue that the word “driver” too often gets left out of headlines and news stories about a crash between a bike rider and a vehicle. That’s exactly the point I’ve been trying to make, thank you. 

No, a Waymo didn’t strike and injure a bike rider in Miami on Tuesday, it took a U-turning human driver to do that; the Waymo just happened to be stopped nearby.

 

International

In truly horrible news, an 89-year old year old man was somehow crushed by a 22-ton asphalt roller while walking his bicycle just 656 feet — just over two football fields — from the safety his home in San Rafael, Argentina.

The Gordie Howe International Bridge connecting Detroit, Michigan with Windsor, Ontario will open to motor vehicles on July 27th, despite President Trump’s threats to keep it closed — but won’t open to bike riders and pedestrians until a week later.

A 20-year old Welsh man was sentenced to seven years behind bars for killing a 72-year old man riding a bicycle; the driver had been up the night before using booze and coke, and had failed a driver’s test weeks earlier; the judge also banned him from driving for nine years and eight months. Hopefully, that stats after he gets out, not concurrently.

You still have time to get to the UK for Bristol, England’s edition of the World Naked Bike Ride next month.

Ted Lasso star and Emmy winner Hannah Waddingham has been added to the cast of Jason Statham Stole My Bike, starring the eponymous actor as some version of himself, which is shooting now in the UK and Malta. Speaking of which, if the US Men’s National Team wanted to finally make it past the round of 16, why not get a proven coach like Lasso instead of that Pochettino guy?

Tragic news from Italy, where German bicyclist and influencer Laura Viktoria Härtig died three weeks after she was stuck head-on while riding her bike, by a motorcycle ridden by former Italian Olympic skier Peter Runggaldier; the 30-year old Härtig was on her honeymoon at the time of the crash.

Aussie archaeologist and cyclist Sam Wood is following the route of Odysseus’ journey outlined in Homer’s epic — no, not that Homer — on two wheels, though the effort is complicated by some debate as to where Odysseus and his merry band actually travelled, as well as the lack of Sirens and Cyclops in the modern world. Although you will have to sign into The Guardian to read the story now.

Bike riders in Delhi, India are complaining that bike paths are meant for bicycles, not motor scooters and motorcycles; a harrowing photo shows a small girl riding on a pathway with training wheels on her bicycle as a motor scooter bears down on her.

Thanks to Robert for forwarding a mini documentary about a retro bike parking garage from Japanese broadcaster NHK.

 

Competitive Cycling

Belgian pro Jasper Philipsen was relegated, then un-relegated, following a chaotic bunch sprint on stage 11 of the Tour de France won by everyone’s favorite, Norway’s Søren Wærenskjold, with Olav Kooij second and Philipsen third, then not, then third again.

Cyclists in the Tour peloton have to overcome the intense heat before they can even think about overcoming Pogačar and Vingegaard.

Now you, too, can experience all the thrills of the peloton, when L’Étape Romania by Tour de France presented by Decathlon stages a one-day faux stage in the middle of Bucharest. Because when I think Tour de France, I think Bucharest, I think. 

The ever-popular Tour de Big Bear returns to Big Bear Mountain Resort the weekend of July 31st through August 2nd, for the 16th consecutive year, with “bigger races, bigger prizes and more family fun than ever.”

Cycling News follows a WorldTour team into a wind tunnel to discover what it takes to kit them out in the latest high tech fabrics and designs. Unlike the good ol’ days when Bartali and Coppi would show up in whatever woolen jersey they had lying around. 

 

Finally…

It turns out that designing a bicycle is hard; I mean, who knew? Your next light set could generate its own power from a tiny frictionless dynamo, but only if you have aluminum wheels.

And expect to shell out twenty grand if you want Pogačar’s bike.

Well, not his. But one just like it, more or less.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin.

 

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

LA media claims opposition is growing to planned Overland Ave bike lanes, and 3 LA area open streets events compete on Sunday

July 15, 2026 / / One comment

No bias here.

According to Fox-11, opposition is growing to bike lanes on Overland Ave in Culver City, as some residents claim to represent all, or at least most residents, in opposing the Better Overland plan.

And as usual, they brought out the standard list of objections, claiming we’re taking space away from cars, and that protected bike lanes — which have repeatedly been proven to improve traffic safety for all road users — would somehow make the street more dangerous.

Never mind that it’s already dangerous, with speeding drivers zooming past a couple schools, two cemeteries and a library.

Naturally, they complain, like locals everywhere who haven’t been paying attention, that the city hasn’t done enough outreach. Because apparently, more than two years of outreach just isn’t enough.

One man even claimed that he drove both directions on Overland and didn’t see a single bike rider at the exact time and locations he happened to be passing by. And bringing to mind the old saying that just because you don’t see anyone swimming across the river, that doesn’t mean you don’t need a bridge.

Honestly, it would be funny if it wasn’t just so damn sad. Because you can hear exactly the same comments at any public meeting for any traffic safety project, in every neighborhood of every city.

And I have.

Wash, rinse and repeat.

I used to think the loudest voices, voicing the most complaints, represented the majority of people. Until Measure HLA passed by an overwhelming two-thirds majority. Which told anyone paying attention that most people — or at least, most people who bother to vote — want safer, more livable streets.

Unfortunately, that message seems to have somehow bypassed LA’s mayor and city council.

Let’s hope Culver City’s leaders get the message, anyway.

………

It’s going to be a very busy weekend.

Because not one, not two, but three open streets events will take place on the same day this Sunday.

The list starts with the very popular Meet the Hollywoods CicLAvia connecting Hollywood with West Hollywood along Hollywood Blvd, Highland Ave and Santa Monica Blvd, from 9 am to 4 pm.

Then there’s Beach Streets in Downtown Long Beach, offering four hubs along Cherry, Broadway and Pine from 11 am to 4 pm, with the added bonus of the World Cup finale on a 16-foot LED TV, featuring Spain and a team to be determined at the North Pine hub.

Finally, there’s the COAST 2026 open streets festival in Santa Monica from 10 am to 6 pm, extending more than a mile in downtown on Ocean, Colorado, and Arizona aves, Third Street Promenade, and the Santa Monica Pier; they will also have a World Cup watch party, along with music and entertainment on four stages.

Which means if you plan it right, you could theoretically ride CicLAvia from WeHo to Hollywood in the morning, catch a train to Long Beach to watch the World Cup, then hurry your ass up to Santa Monica before they roll up the streets at 6.

I said it’s possible, not plausible.

Unfortunately, I’m going to miss all three, as well as the World Cup finale, because I have been told that celebrating my wife’s birthday with my in-laws trumps any and all other plans.

I just wish they were at least soccer fans.

………

Apparently, scientists still can’t figure out why a bicycle works.

………

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

As if it wasn’t bad enough competing for space on the streets, San Jose bicyclists had to cope with three people illegally riding their motorcycles on a local bike path; one person who was arrested, and had his motorcycle impounded, had covered his license plate in an attempt to avoid getting caught.

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

A Sacramento CBS station is stoking the flames of panic after a large bicycle group accused of swarming cars and appearing to strike them announced plans for another ride in the area. Although it’s not clear if they meant a large group of bicyclists, or a group that rides large bicycles.

Um, okay. A bike-riding Dublin, Ireland city councilor says it was “really lovely” to see a city-sponsored campaign depicting bicyclists riding through red lights, because no one else is documenting how ofter bike riders do it. Other than virtually every TV station and newspaper, anyway.

……….

Local 

Next time you ride the LA River bike path, keep your eyes and ears peeled for musicians, including renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma.

Streetsblog says LADOT is making progress on a $7 million, 3-mile extension of the popular Chandler bikeway.

Culver City Walk ‘n Rollers is hosting a family friendly Sweet Streets Ride this Saturday to sample some of the tastiest treats the city has to offer.

 

State

Three people were hospitalized when someone on an ebike allegedly crashed into the side of an SUV in Fullerton late Monday night, although there’s no word on how badly anyone was injured, only that the ebike rider and two people in the SUV suffered “injuries of varying severity.” There’s also no word on what type of ebike it was, since the cops seem to lump anything with a battery together as ebikes, whether legal or otherwise. 

In yet another story hidden behind their draconian paywall, the San Diego Union Tribune explains what it means when federal authorities, aka ICE, say a car is weaponized. Something that virtually every bike rider is clear on, even if the feds aren’t.

Sad news from San Mateo County, where a 34-year old bike rider was killed in a head-on collision when the driver of a Porsche crossed onto the wrong side of the road; the CHP said speed was definitely a factor.

More sad news from San Francisco, where a man who appeared to be in his 50s was killed when he was struck by a driver while riding his bike early Tuesday.

San Francisco is considering a nearly $2 million settlement with the family of a 70-year old man who died 12 days after he was doored by a city worker while riding his bike.

A San Francisco writer says “It’s a short path from winning on bike lanes to becoming social-justice scolds,” arguing that the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition now considers it a racist act to report a bike theft.

A 71-year old man will face multiple charges, including murder, gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and hit-and-run causing death, for killing two 17-year old girls riding their bicycles in West Sacramento last year; the defense claims he wasn’t really drunk, just bipolar.

 

National

A slide show curated by AI highlights 13 US cities that excel at carfree living. Because really, who knows more about living carfree than some lifeless, legless artificial intelligence program? 

Velo recommends the year’s best road bikes, which actually might be, for a change.

Cycling West offers a beautiful bicycle watercolor by artist Moh’d Bilbeisi.

No bias here. A Bend, Oregon paper examines whether the city should ban right turns on red lights, making an effective case for the increased risk they pose — then concludes that the city’s current policy of making a case-by-case determination works just fine, thank you.

Good news from Kansas City, Kansas, after an eight-year old boy who disappeared while riding his bicycle was found safe, and apparently unharmed.

We can add Somerville, Massachusetts to the very short list of towns that have made Vision Zero work; the town credits “tried-and-true best practices for traffic safety” for why they’ve now gone three years without a traffic death. Although having a population under 85,000 doesn’t hurt.

New York Streetsblog says 16,000 fewer daily car trip on the Queensboro Bridge means it’s time to convert a traffic lane into a bikeway to accommodate the increasing number of bike riders.

While we’re on the subject of New York, the Department of Transportation is phasing out the traditional “Mushroom Head” stencil of a helmeted, stick-figure riding a bicycle in favor of a plain bicycle stencil.

A Philadelphia driver was charged with attempted murder for nearly killing a man riding a bicycle, in what reportedly began as a dispute over a stolen BMX bike.

Atlanta residents are calling for changes to a protected bike lane, after discovering the city’s drivers apparently lack the necessary skill to avoid crashing into the barrier protecting the bike lane. Although it’s better to crash into the barrier than the people riding on the other side.

 

International

Road.cc rounds up 14 of the best bike-related TED talks from around the interwebs. Every time I open my mouth is a Ted talk.

I want to be like him when I grow up. An 83-year old man just set a new record for riding the full length of Great Britain, covering over 1,000 miles in under 11 days.

Good idea. The UK’s largest bicycle trade group is launching a campaign to tag actual ebikes so customers can distinguish road legal ebikes and from illegal electric motorbikes.

Momentum says US cities should pay attention to Paris, which grew bicycling rates by 240% in just five years. To which every American city responded, “But we’re not Paris!”

Instead of just dropping a couple new ebikes into the marketplace, Volkswagen developed an entire automotive-inspired ecosystem around the bikes, “which riders can call upon to ride safer, faster, and more connected.”

The New Indian Express says ultracycling is “the new vogue” in Bengaluru, formerly known as Bangalore, drawing bicyclists who see it as a test of endurance.

China Daily says Chinese bicyclists are making a beeline to Shenzhen in Guangdong province for new bicycling facilities, including a 125-mile bike trail connecting “more than 10 of the city’s major peaks, 17 nature parks, eight large reservoirs, over a dozen historical and cultural sites and nine key urban development areas,” as well as a coastal bikeway linking parks, fishing harbors, docks and ancient villages.

 

Competitive Cycling

Four-time Tour de France champ Tadej Pogačar feasted on the tears of his enemies with another crushing victory in yesterday’s hilly 10th stage, for his third stage win in this year’s Tour, and a lead of more than three-and-a-half minutes after just a week and a half of racing.

Fans have taken to booing Pogačar, apparently because of his dominance in the race, although maybe it was just because he shamed the French riders on Bastille Day.

Cyclist takes a look at the books to see who and what the WorldTour team sponsors really are, while Bike Radar considers how much Tour de France bikes have changed in 124 years.

Thirty-three-year old South African cyclist Willie Smit was booted from the China’s Tour of Magnificent Qinghai after just one stage for recording the race on his AI-enabled Oakley Meta Vanguard glasses; UCI rules only allow cameras to be mounted directly on a bicycle, not the rider.

Philadelphia Magazine profiles the hairstylist and bicyclist responsible for reviving the Philadelphia Cycling Classic after a ten-year absence.

Keep your eye on nine-year old Nino O’Connell, who found out this weekend’s single-speed race for his age group had been dropped, so he’ll be lining up against the grownups, with every intention of winning.

 

Finally…

Like they say, a friend will help you move, but a real friend will help you move a body on a bicycle in the heavy rain. No, the bike rack on the front of a Metro bus is not intended for temporary seating.

And that feeling when the damn rules get in the way of the really cool stuff.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin.

 

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

Fatal bike and ped hit-and-run rates rise, 45 years in random fatal beating of Florida bike rider, and a look at SoCal’s killer highway

July 14, 2026 / / One comment

Happy Bastille Day to all who celebrate! Although how happy will be determined by today’s le Mondial, mais non?

We’re going to do something a little different today. Too many important stories have involved too much work on my part, leaving no time for the links that usually follow. At least not if I want to get any sleep at all tonight. 

So we’ll discuss the big stuff today, and circle back to the more extraneous links tomorrow, if that works for you. 

Besides, my internet connection is starting to feel like molasses, so I want to get this up before it goes down. 

………

It’s not your imagination. Or mine, in this case.

According to a press release from a bicycle legal group, bicyclists and pedestrians are far more likely than drivers to be the victims of a hit-and-run.

Cyclists are increasingly being struck by drivers who flee the scene, according to a 2026 analysis of federal crash data released today by Bicycle Accident Lawyers Group (BALG). In 2023, 1 in 5 U.S. cyclists injured in traffic was hit by a driver who left the scene, and more than 70% of everyone killed in a hit-and-run that year was a pedestrian or cyclist. Hit-and-runs reached an all-time high that year, and many injured cyclists have no identified at-fault driver to hold liable, according to the firm’s review of AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data.

The trend is moving against cyclists even as U.S. roads overall grow safer. Fatal bicycle hit-and-runs rose 63% between 2017 and 2023, from 168 to 274 deaths, outpacing the 45% increase in overall cycling fatalities, the BALG analysis found. After 2020, total traffic deaths began to fall while bicyclist hit-and-run deaths kept climbing, a sign that safety gains reached drivers inside vehicles first.

The scale is significant. More than 919,000 hit-and-run crashes were reported in 2023, about 15% of all collisions. Cyclists are among the most exposed: nearly 1 in 4 cyclists killed in traffic that year died in a hit-and-run, up from 1 in 5 in 2017.

That corresponds with what I’ve found writing about bicycling deaths, consistently finding that somewhere between a quarter and a third of all fatal bicycling crashes each year involve a hit-and-run driver.

It’s clear that drivers are far more likely to flee in a collision after hitting something soft, like a human being, than they are after hitting something hard, like another motor vehicle. If only because their car or truck is more likely to be disabled after striking another motor vehicle.

Which could explain why there is so little urgency around the issue, and why so little is being done about it. Because if it’s not a problem affecting the great mass of people in their big, dangerous machines, then it’s not really a problem at all.

At least not for the people who could do something about it.

Then there’s this little bit of information.

Accountability remains rare even in fatal cases. A large share of hit-and-run drivers are never identified, and in New York City police solved just 324 of 6,652 nonfatal hit-and-run cases in 2020, about 1 in 20, according to NYPD figures.

That’s some damned impressive detective work, at least compared to Los Angeles, where the rate of drivers identified and convicted of nonfatal hit-and-run crimes is reportedly somewhere south of 1%.

………

Talk about gut-wrenching.

A 21-year old Florida man was sentenced to a well-deserved 45-years behind bars for a random crime spree that included beating a bike rider to death with a tire iron when he was just 17-years old.

Savonne Morrison was convicted of manslaughter, rather than first-degree murder, for driving the getaway car in a 2022 crime spree that started when his nextdoor neighbor recruited his help to beat up the new boyfriend of the neighbor’s ex-girlfriend.

But she wasn’t home, so his neighbor, Jermaine Bennett, started drinking and using coke, then set off on a vandalism spree by smashing random cars with a tire iron.

That continued until they spotted an 82-year old man walking alone in front of a St. Petersburg carpet store. Bennett got out of the car on a pretext of asking the man for directions, then repeatedly hit him with the tire iron, knocking him out with the first blow. Fortunately, he survived the attack.

That can’t be said for their next victim. Forty-nine-year old Jeffrey Chapman was riding his bike when Bennett again jumped out of the car and knocked Chapman on his bike with the tire iron. They then took turns beating Chapman to death, before driving off with his wallet.

Bennett eventually pled guilty to murder, and was sentenced to life in prison.

For whatever reason, the jury didn’t convict Morrison on a 1st degree murder charge, instead convicting him of manslaughter.

However, Morrison was on probation at the time of the attack for a violent carjacking when he was just 15 years old, when he and a group of friend used a girl they were both dating to lure another boy to come meet her. But when he arrived, Morrison and the others pistol-whipped the boy, forcing him out of the car, then driving over him as they took off in his car.

As a result, the judge gave Morrison the maximum of 15 years for manslaughter, and another 30 for violating his parole on the carjacking charge, to be served consecutively.

Florida law requires serving a minimum of 85% of a prison sentence in most cases, meaning Morrison will be at least 59-years old when he gets out.

Somehow, that doesn’t seem like enough.

………

She gets it.

Los Angeles Times columnist Robin Abcarian took a look at the Malibu section of Southern California’s killer highway on Sunday.

The stretch of Pacific Coast Highway that spans the length of Malibu is one of the most storied roads in the world and also, tragically, one of the bloodiest. As someone who frequently drives PCH between Santa Monica and Trancas, I often hold my breath for fear that some spacey tourist or distracted teenager will wander off the beach and into my path. Or that a car will back out of a driveway right into me. Or that a driver ahead of me will spot an open space on the shoulder and slam on the brakes to back into the spot. I am in awe of the brave cyclists willing to risk their lives for the sake of a beautiful ride.

Me too, sadly.

She goes on to discuss the 2023 documentary 21 Miles in Malibu made by Hollywood producer Michael Shane, whose 13-year old daughter Emily was killed in 2010 “by a reckless, suicidal motorist” as she walked to meet him after a sleepover.

Three years ago, Shane, a film producer best known for “Catch Me if You Can” and “I, Robot” made “21 Miles”  to shine a light on the extraordinary dangers of having a five-lane state highway running through what is essentially a residential neighborhood. The hour-long documentary, which won several film festival awards, aired Thursday on PBS SoCal and will be available on the PBS app and website.

“Being on this roadway,” says Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Det. David Huelsen in the film, “is probably the single most dangerous thing you’re gonna do on your vacation.”

Or any other time, for that matter.

After years — okay, decades — of work by safety advocates of all stripes, Caltrans is finally making improvements to the deadly highway, retiming traffic lights and adding roundabouts to deter speeding. And ten automated speed cams will come online this fall, part of a pilot program authorizing them in Malibu, Long Beach, Los Angeles and Glendale, as well as three cities in Northern California.

But as Abcarian points out, the fines are way too low.

Shane thinks the fines are ludicrously low, and I agree.

“If you got a $1,500 ticket instead of a $200 ticket, you might think twice about going fast, because it’s going to cost you,” he said.

………

As long as we’re discussing the LA Times, I saw one opinion piece that went the news equivalent of viral, as former Times opinion editor Paul Thornton’s smartly thought-out column from the Golden State newsletter was picked up by news sites across the country, including CalMatters.

Thornton argues that making ebikes safer is smart. But smothering them isn’t.

Electric bikes are powering an urban transportation revolution. They flatten hills, haul cargo and people, and offer an alternative to driving that doesn’t involve breaking much of a sweat or waiting for a bus.

I’ve experienced these wonders firsthand. For the last three years, I have used an e-bike — an electric-motor assisted bicycle — to do everything from commuting 23 miles across Los Angeles for work to meeting up with friends at places where finding a parking spot takes longer than the drive over. In a city choked by traffic and pollution, calling these machines liberating isn’t an overstatement…

Lawmakers in Sacramento have introduced at least eight bills this year targeting e-bike safety. One would have added licensing and registration requirements for most e-bikes; anotherwould have rewritten the state’s classification system, making most e-bikes already rolling on California streets illegal.

Thankfully, those bills died, and with them a level of regulation that could throttle an efficient, clean and fun transportation option in California, and hamper a technology that is already driving the majority of revenue growth in the bicycle industry.

He goes on to make the case that Sen. Catherine Blakespear’s Senate Bill 1167 hits the the right notes, with the right restrictions to improve safety without killing the golden e-goose.

Done intelligently, safety regulations do not have to curtail e-bike adoption and all the upsides these joyous devices bring to cities clogged by traffic. Policies crafted using data instead of panic might actually lure more people out of their cars and onto two wheels.

It’s more than worth taking the time to read it. Because he’s right.

………

They get it.

In an extensive letter to the editor that’s really more of an op-ed, a pair of Edmonton, Alberta physicians make the case for maintaining a connected bike network, in the face of rumored provincial legislation that would restrict current and future urban bike lanes.

They argue that bike lanes make the city healthier for everyone, not just the people who choose to ride.

I won’t get into all their arguments here, though it is worth a few minutes to read the entire letter.

But they close with this.

As with public policy in any area, the devil is in the details of implementation: Any change could have negative impacts for some citizens. This reality underscores the critical importance of local involvement in decision-making that balances the pros and cons of any specific policy proposal, in order to arrive at the best possible solution for the people who are most impacted. Neighbourhood and municipal policies imposed by higher levels of government do not make sense.

As physicians, we advocate strongly for the development and maintenance of infrastructure to support and encourage active transport by bicycle, including a connected network of protected bike lanes. We support the right of Edmontonians to make the decisions that best meet our needs.

………

I learned a long time ago not to trust social media. So does anyone know how accurate this video is?

Twitter post

According to the Daily Dot website, commenters go on to criticize California for having the nation’s highest tax rate, which is true. Although the overall tax burden places it lower, somewhere in the top ten states.

One even calls the pathway a death trap. But as unsightly as it is, graffiti does not a death trap make. For that, you usually need motor vehicles

Which are absent from this video, anyway.

………

Calbike says a Lathrop woman made a simple request for the city to hold a free community bike and traffic safety education event at City Hall during National Bicycle Safety Month. It was her attempt to be proactive before something bad happened, after her family had too many close calls while riding their bikes.

Which then became a reality when the driver of a city vehicle cut off her seven-year old daughter as she was riding her bike in a crosswalk, forcing her to crash into the side of the vehicle.

Camryn was not seriously hurt, which is fortunate. But that does not mean the incident should be brushed aside. A child should not have to be badly injured before a city takes repeated warnings seriously. For Cortez, the crash was terrifying and enraging because it felt like the very scenario she had been trying to prevent. For months, she had been telling officials that children biking and walking in Lathrop were at risk.

What followed, Cortez says, has been its own kind of burden. She wants to know what happened. She wants records preserved. She wants clarity about whether the driver was working at the time. But more than anything, she wants the city to stop treating a preventable safety failure like an isolated incident.

“I can sue them all I want,” she told CalBike, “but then I would just be a rich person in an unsafe neighborhood.”

………

Speaking of Calbike, the statewide bicycle advocacy group made a statement yesterday opposing Proposition 45 on the November ballot, even though at first blush it would seem to benefit bikes.

The measure would accelerate review for a broad category of projects, including transportation. It would impose stricter deadlines, limit the alternatives agencies must consider, and restrict judicial review. But the same reduced friction available to a bikeway or transit project would also be available to a highway expansion, and in a state that often seems more eager to widen a doomed highway than expand transit, it is not hard to imagine this will result in more sprawling freeways than verdant bikeways. That is why CalBike opposes Proposition 45…

The initiative’s central mistake is treating transportation as a single public good. A bus lane, a protected bikeway, and a freeway widening can all be described as infrastructure, but they do not produce the same future. Yet, Proposition 45 would place both in the same expedited category, blind to induced demand or driving alternatives. Reduced friction does not operate in a vacuum. California’s highway-building institutions already have money, plans, political allies, and decades of momentum. Open the gates equally and the results will not be as lopsided as they have always been.

As much as we need new bikeways, and would benefit from a faster review process, the last thing we need is more and bigger highways.

And as Calbike points out, it’s the people who build highways who have all the money and lobbyists.

………

I was halfway through a story from a Michigan public radio station about a Los Angeles actor who rode his bike 3,500 miles to his hometown of Lansing, Michigan, to deliver a letter from his daughter to his 101-year old father, before I realized I knew him.

“I was looking for a way to kind of connect my family,” Nichols said. “My two daughters, I was such a part of their upbringing, and with my dad…he was so involved with my upbringing, and I sort of wanted to connect them.”

Nichols started his journey on May 15, where he rode across the Golden Gate Bridge through a path that took him through Oregon. His weeks have been spent travelling bike trails through Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.

On Monday, he arrived in Michigan through the SS Badger, where he will be biking from Ludington to the finish line, East Lansing. He said he plans to be back to his dad on Monday.

The original plan was to go through the Upper Peninsula and over the Mackinac Bridge, but his trip was interrupted.

“I did have to take a short break in the middle to go home to Los Angeles to shoot a movie, and then I flew right back and got back on the bike, and kept going,” Nichols said.

I admit, I didn’t pay any attention to the guy’s name until I got further down, and read this.

Nichols settled in Los Angeles years later after starting his acting career in New York.

But outside of his acting career, Nichols cohosts BikeTalk, a radio show advocating for safer spaces for people to travel on bikes. Nichols has documented his entire journey through the show.

“Our audience is following Taylor’s journey after maybe having listened to Taylor as a co-host on Bike Talk for several years, now he’s up and moving around the country,” Nick Richert, BikeTalk co-host, said. “He’s embodying everything that we’ve been talking about on the show.”

It was only then that I realized they were talking about our own BikeTalk’s Taylor Nichols, someone I’ve traded emails with for years about various bike stories. And I’ve spoken with Taylor and Nick on BikeTalk many times over the years, until my health problems and the assorted meds I take for them made me stop doing live interviews.

Because I can control and edit what I say on here, so I don’t usually make too much of a fool out of myself. But live, I’m prone to memory losses and misspeaking, making TV and radio too much of a minefield for me.

I also confess it’s been awhile since I’ve listened to the program, even though I remain a fan, and host a free public service ad for them over there on the right.

So I wasn’t aware of Taylor’s journey. And confess to being gobsmacked when I realized who they were talking about. Which is a word I don’t use often.

Or ever, even.

But I’ll let Taylor have today’s last words.

“I decided that I would just do it as a way of showing that the bicycle is not just a toy, but is an actual tool of transportation,” he said. “And that if we can create safe places for people to bike, we can break our dependency on oil and automobiles and things like that.”

Amen to that.

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

Traffic deaths dropped last year — except for bikes, Trump declares war on “DEI” bike lanes, and Pico businesses fret loss of parking

July 13, 2026 / / No comments

Well, at least it wasn’t my fault this time. 

It turns out Friday’s downtime was the result of a recent WordPress upgrade that left my site vulnerable to an attack by a swarm of 19,000 feed-crawlers. 

And no, I never heard of a feed-crawler before Friday. Let alone 19,000 of the little bastards. 

Anyway, they’ve all been gathered up and shoved back in their little feed-crawler cages, so we should be good now. 

Today’s photo is a new T-shirt design that’s probably my favorite so far. But if you’re more in the mood for corgi designs, check out my other T-shirt site. 

………

In news that shouldn’t surprise anyone, overall traffic deaths continued to decline last year.

Except, of course, for those of us on two wheels.

According to the latest statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, full-year traffic fatalities dropped last year to their lowest level since 2019, while the annual death rate of 1.10 per 100 million vehicle miles traveled was the second-lowest ever recorded.

That trend continues into the first quarter of 2026.

According to Carscoops.com,

According to new preliminary estimates from the NHTSA, approximately 7,770 people died in traffic crashes during the first quarter of 2026, down 4.3 percent from the same period a year earlier. The fatality rate also dropped to 0.99 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, the lowest first-quarter figure since 2014 and just shy of the all-time quarterly record of 0.98…

Despite the positive overall trend, one category continues to move in the opposite direction. Bicyclist fatalities rose 4 percent in 2025 to 1,148 deaths, remaining near the highest levels seen in more than four decades…

According to the NHTSA, the first quarter of this year represents the 16th consecutive quarterly decline in overall traffic deaths.

If only the news was as good for people riding bicycles.

In fact, traffic deaths decreased in every category last year, compared to 2024, with the single exception of people on bicycles.

  • Total estimated driver fatalities decreased 5 percent.
  • Total estimated passenger fatalities decreased 12 percent.
  • Total estimated PV occupant fatalities decreased 10 percent.
  • Total estimated motorcyclist fatalities decreased 8 percent.
  • Total estimated pedestrian fatalities decreased 8 percent.
  • Total estimated pedalcyclist fatalities increased 4 percent.
  • Total estimated fatalities in crashes involving at least one large truck decreased 7 percent.
  • Total estimated nonoccupant fatalities decreased 5 percent.

However, unlike 2024, when bicycling deaths increased every month compared to the previous year, bicycling fatalities decreased in five months in 2025, while increasing in seven.

So that’s something, anyway.

What’s not clear, however, is the effect that ebikes have had on these stats, since the NHTSA stopped listing motorized bicycles as motor vehicles in 2022, and now includes them as pedalcyclists, aka bicycles, if the rider is killed in a collision with the driver of a motor vehicle — and not at all if it involves a single vehicle crash.

There’s no explanation, however, of whether than only applies to ped-assist bicycles, or if it also includes electric and gas-powered motorbikes that fall into the gray area between ebikes and motorcycles.

So at least part of the rise could be due to the increase in electric bikes, legal and/or otherwise.

Hopefully someone, somewhere, will eventually break out those numbers so we can actually know what’s going on out there.

………

No bias here.

In a paywalled story, The Times of London says the Trump administration has declared war on bike lanes.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy made the move after decrying the “DEI” focus on bicycling over cars as he shifts $1.7 billion in funding to roads and bridges, jeopardizing safety projects around the country.

And raising the obvious question of what the hell is a DEI bike lane.

Then again, if Trump handles his war on bikes as well as he has the war with Iran, we’ll probably end up with more and better bike lanes than we would have otherwise.

Or maybe he’ll just give us control over the roadways after declaring they’re open.

………

LAist reports that small business owners on Pico Blvd recognize the street has a speeding problem and can be dangerous for pedestrians, but worry about the loss of 228 parking spaces after LADOT gives the street a Complete Streets makeover.

According to the website,

LADOT will overhaul 3.5 miles of Pico Boulevard between Crenshaw Boulevard and Figueroa Street to reduce speeding and unsafe turns and lane changes. The agency said the project is intended to improve safety by adding a center turn lane for left turns and emergency vehicles, protected bike lanes and new TOUCAN traffic signals at Manhattan Place and New Hampshire Avenue. LADOT will also repair sidewalks and curb ramps.

To make room, the city will remove parking on the north side of the street and reduce travel lanes from two to one in each direction. Construction is set to begin by the end of the year.

In other words, just like business owners everywhere else where protected bike lanes have gone in.

And just like business owners everywhere else, chances are they’ll see increased foot and bike traffic that will more than make up for the loss of parking spaces — and likely more sales, as studies have repeatedly shown that sales and tax receipts usually go up after a project like this goes in.

Something you’d think LAist could have mentioned somewhere in their story.

Never mind that over a ten-year period ending in 2023, there were 75 crashes resulting in severe injury or death on that stretch of Pico, with nearly three-quarters involving people walking or riding bicycles, and all 11 of the people killed on the corridor were pedestrians.

Which is especially important to consider in the largely Jewish neighborhood, where large numbers of people walk to temple every Saturday.

………

According to the WeHo Times, a small group of West Hollywood community members met at Blake Ackerman’s ghost bike on Thursday evening to remember the 27-year old man killed by a hit-and-run driver a year ago while riding his bike home from work.

West Hollywood Councilmember and State Senate candidate John Erickson, who lives nearby on Fountain Avenue, called on WeHo Mayor John Heilman and Council Member Lauren Meister to support plans to remake the corridor to improve safety.

“It’s been a year since the community lost Blake,” Erickson said. “If we just updated a street for street safety for pedestrians, bikers and cars, it would make the most sense. And that is what we are doing.”

Erickson said his own parked vehicle was nearly struck about a week and a half ago, calling it another example of dangerous driving along the corridor.

“I can’t replace my life, and clearly we can’t replace other people’s lives,” he said.

I stopped by the ghost bike the next day, and was please to see several people had left flowers on the bike, in a sign that he has not been forgotten. And hopefully, Ackerman’s will be the last ghost bike we’ll need on the deadly corridor.

Meanwhile, the case against accused 73-year old driver Douglas Morton Adams remains pending, with no trial date currently set.

………

Thanks to Megan for forwarding a story about a hero teenager who rescued an Arizona woman with dementia who was wandering the streets in triple-digit heat, even if he was likely riding an illegal e-moto instead of a bicycle.

………

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

Grand Junction, Colorado goes the wrong way with a proposal to reduce the amount and type of bicycle parking required in the city, allowing developers to make their own decisions on whether to invest in them — even though bike parking is just a fraction of the cost of a single motor vehicle parking space.

No bias here. Bicyclists in a Liverpool, England neighborhood are complaining about a plan to “temporally” decommission a less than two-year old road diet and protected bike lanes, to make more room for cars when they start work on repairing a nearby bridge.

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

Thanks again to Megan for forwarding news about to two Vermont men fined $35,000 for cutting down over 300 trees to build an illegal mountain bike trail.

………

Local 

BikeLA, the organization formerly known as the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, led a bike ride to MacArthur Park for a World Cup watching party on Saturday. Although as far as I could tell, both matches won by VAR.

Santa Monica will host its State of the City 2026 as a free, open street celebration on Main Street from 4 to 7 pm on Thursday, July 23, between Hollister Ave and Ocean Park Blvd; Santa Monica Spoke will host a bike valet on Norman Place.

Internet tabloids had a meltdown over the weekend after the paparazzi caught sight of bike-riding, 83-year old Harrison Ford’s physique when he stripped down to his bib shorts after an LA ride.

 

State

Authorities are looking for 32-year old David Creech, who was last seen riding his bike away from his home in the Spring Valley Lake area of San Bernardino County just before 9 am on Wednesday, July 1st.

More on Santa Barbara’s call for residents to provide feedback on an AI-generated map to create a low-stress bike network.

 

National

PeopleForBikes says bicycling to school matters more than you think, “creating opportunities for independence, physical activity, and lifelong riding habits. In many ways, it is investing in the future of bicycling itself.”

Around 6,000 people took part in the annual two-day, Seattle to Portland STP Bicycle Classic over the weekend.

A Kansas columnist says even as he closes in on 70, it’s never too late to start bicycling again.

A Minneapolis-St. Paul website had a good idea, asking a road cycling grandfather to test a high-end e-cargo bike by transporting his own grandkids, which he described as feeling like “you’re balancing a tray of kettlebells as you walk through a cosplay convention.”

More than 125 Penny Farthing riders converged on Dayton, Ohio to celebrate the Wright Brothers roots as bicycle mechanics before the brothers went on to invent some sort of flying contraption.

This is the cost of traffic violence. A 36-year old Boston woman was killed when her bicycle was struck by a truck driver; Louisa Gag was a city transportation planner and prominent bicycle safety advocate who worked to make Boston’s streets safer for everyone.

DC bicyclists won the fight to preserve a three-quarter-mile bikeway known as America’s Bike Lane from a last-minute effort by the Trump administration to have it ripped out to make room for an an exclusive, high-end golf course.

A new Virginia Historical Marker recognizes Botetourt County’s place on the legendary TransAmerica Bicycle Trail, on the 50th anniversary of the Bikecentennial ’76 cross-country bike ride.

This is who we share the road with. A road-raging Florida driver rammed a 15-year old boy riding an “ebike” off the road, then slapped the kid, when a group of teens had tried to get the driver to stop after swerving at them; naturally, the police responded by impounding several of the teens’ bikes for not being street legal, rather than busting the driver.

 

International

Momentum calls out 30 bike lanes around the world that should have never been built, from blocked bike lanes to lanes that start and stop in the middle of high-traffic areas. I particularly like the ones that go over traffic islands, because cutting through them would have been just too much work, apparently.

Momentum also offers a guide to Quebec’s 3,100 mile bicycle network.

Residents of a Montreal neighborhood have a reasonable complaint after the city removed parking spaces on one side of the street, including disability spaces, for a protected bike lane, arguing that the city wouldn’t even install a crosswalk so one older woman could reach the spaces across the street.

A British Member of Parliament had her new e-cargo bike stolen the first time she tried riding it to town in Oxford.

Residents of a north London neighborhood take a different approach to installing a ghost bike, first towing it on a bike trailer through an intersection where too many people biking and walking have been killed, then putting it on display the local museum’s “50 Years of Cycle Islington” exhibition.

London’s department of transportation failed to install a single mile of bike lane in the city last year, relying on local council’s to do all the building. There’s probably no truth to the rumor that the head of Transport for London has been hired to run LADOT on that basis. 

Irish towns as small as 5,000 to 10,000 people see up to a 50% increase in a ridership when bike lanes go in, according to the country’s transportation minister, despite the fears of local councilors.

Congratulations to Świdnica, Poland, which won a competition to be named the country’s bicycling capital by riding the most miles.

 

Competitive Cycling

Two Tour de France riders, including Eritrea’s Biniam Girmay, were warned by jurors after apparently turning the race into a contact sport during the final sprint on Saturday.

Mathieu van der Poel won the third Tour de France stage of his career on Sunday in a stage reminiscent of the one-day classics he thrives on; race leader Tadej Pogačar finished safely six seconds back.

Former race leader Torstein Træen’s surprising turn in the yellow jersey didn’t last long, crashing out of the race by clipping a teammate’s wheel two days after he gained a remarkable seven-minute advantage on the race favorites.

The rise of the Hincapie brothers’ Modern Adventure Pro Cycling Team saved the cycling career of 30-year old Whitefish, Montana resident Sam Boardman, who signed with the team “just before he hung up his helmet and dove into a ‘real job.’”

The Manhattan Beach Grand Prix returned to the beach city on Sunday for its 63rd running; no results have been posted yet.

 

Finally…

With all the hi-tech innovations in bicycling, no one has yet invented a mosquito-proof face mask. And that feeling when your new bicycle is part folding bike, part Erector Set.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin.

 

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

Livability versus yelling at kids on your lawn, Calbike urges SB 1167 support, and one year since Ackerman killed in WeHo hit-and-run

July 9, 2026 / / No comments

Okay, so let me start with a (relatively) brief rant. And don’t worry, I’ll get to the point eventually.

Because I now find myself at that golden age when I metaphorically yell at kids to get off my lawn.

I did that this afternoon, when I spotted — and heard — someone setting off extremely large and extremely illegal fireworks from the roof of the building next door.

And yelled loudly off the balcony regarding where they could put their explosives, assuming they were the same jerks who set off two literal bombs at 4 am Wednesday night, shaking our windows, waking my wife and terrifying the corgi, who ran off to hide in the closet for the rest of the night.

Bombs so loud, my phone lit up with people on Citizen and Ring Chat complaining about the noise half up to a mile away. Although some people assumed it was gunshots, because Los Angeles.

But that’s the problem. Because the past few years, we’ve been dealing with noise from illegal fireworks any and every time of the day and night, virtually every day of the fricking year.

While I didn’t agree with Spencer Pratt about much during his brief run as a national political celebrity, he was right about the quality of life here in Los Angeles being in the toilet.

Streetlights are out all over town. Trash piles up everywhere, and God forbid you should try to find a trashcan to throw something away. Storefronts sit empty on every block. Our streets are so rutted and potholed, many are virtually impassible.

Seriously, take North Fairfax. Please.

I could go on…and on. But you undoubtedly have your own complaints. And yet no one seems to be doing anything about it.

In fact, our elected leaders seem dedicated to doing exactly nothing.

Like quashing police reform and proposals for ranked choice voting and expanding the city council, despite overwhelming public demand. And actively blocking Measure HLA, which passed by a two-thirds majority.

See, I said I’d get to the point.

The things that could improve the safety, vitality and livability of this city are the very things no one in our elected city leadership seems to give a damn about.

We’re now down to two candidates for Mayor of Los Angeles, and 16 people running for city council.

I’m not going to tell you who to vote for. But when you mark your ballot this November, don’t just bike the vote. It should be a given by now to vote for someone who will support your right to ride a bicycle comfortably, and return home safely.

But more than that, vote for someone with a commitment to make this city more livable — and tells you exactly how they plan to do it.

Because I’m done with promises. We’ve had over 20 years of promises, and things haven’t gotten any better. It’s long past time when our leaders acted in our interest, and not theirs. And I’d really like to see Los Angeles make this damn list while I’m still around to enjoy it.

And I don’t want to be that guy shaking my fist and yelling at the kids to get off my lawn.

Okay, rant over.

Today’s photo of the rockets red glare doesn’t begin to capture the sound of bombs bursting midair at 4 am. 

………

Speaking of livability, the ready availability of electric motorbikes sold under the guise of ebikes, and the underaged hooligans on them, seem to be at or near the top of everyone’s list these days.

Encinitas State Senator Catherine Blakespear’s SB 1167 is designed to address that problem without throwing the ped-assist ebike baby out with the bathwater.

Here’s is what Calbike had to say about it in an email I received yesterday

This year, California lawmakers considered a wave of proposals responding to concerns about electric devices. The most burdensome approaches, including new license plates and registration systems for legal e-bikes, have fallen away.

There is a reason why SB 1167, the Truth in Biking Bill is still moving, and passing every benchmark in decisive fashion. Because it takes the simpler approach: make companies tell people the truth about what they are buying, because an honest, fair marketplace is better for all involved.

Ask Speaker Rivas & Chair Wicks to Advance SB 1167

SB 1167 does not ask the DMV to build a new registration system. It does not impose new licenses, plates, or fees on people who ride legal e-bikes. Instead, it relies on definitions California already has. Devices that are too powerful or fast to qualify as legal e-bikes must be accurately marketed, labeled, and disclosed to buyers. That is easier for the state to maintain, easier for responsible businesses to follow, and easier for families to understand.

This practical approach has earned unanimous support at every major vote, including a 15–0 vote in the Assembly Transportation Committee. SB 1167 is now before the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

Please ask Speaker of the Assembly Robert Rivas, and Chair Buffy Wicks to advance SB 1167 to the Assembly floor.

Send your message

California does not need to build an expensive new system around legal e-bikes. It needs clear rules and honest information at the point of sale.

Thank you for your support,

Kendra Ramsey

Executive Director

………

Tomorrow is the one-year anniversary of the hit-and-run that took the life of Blake Ackerman as he rode his bike home from work on Fountain Avenue in West Hollywood.

Maybe it hit me harder than most because it was so close to my apartment. Someplace I’ve walked, biked and driven by countless times since moving to Hollywood a decade ago.

Or maybe it’s because we’ve fought so long to improve safety on Fountain, and finally seemed to be getting somewhere.

Or maybe just because it was all such a fucking needless waste of a young man’s life.

Or maybe just all of the above.

I’ve placed flowers on his ghost bike several times over the past year to let his loved ones know we still remember, and care.

I plan to walk over tomorrow and place artificial tropical flowers on his ghost bike — tropical because he loved Hawaii, and artificial because they last longer. And say a prayer to tell him how just how very, very sorry I am.

Nothing would make me happier than to walk over and find his bike already covered with flowers, real, fake or otherwise.

But I’ll still do it, even if I’m the only one.

………

A European ski instructor and bicycling fan ranks the top five mountain passes in the Alps, for your next two-wheeled journey for fame and glory.

………

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

No bias here. An op-ed in the Tennessee Conservative — already a bad sign — argues that the best way to piss off bike riders is to criticize them, then goes on to do exactly that, taking riders to task for legally exercising their right to ride on the roadway. Which means he’s undoubtedly right by pissing off bicyclists for criticizing them when he’s undoubtedly wrong.

Bike riders in the Scottish Highlands are complaining about a “daft and dangerous” decision to remove an important stretch of bike lane near the city center, arguing that it will hit disabled bicyclists the hardest. Even if American drivers don’t believe disabled bike riders even exist. 

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

Two Vermont men were fined $35,000 and ordered to remove any remaining trace of an illegal bike trail they built in a state forest over a five-year period, chopping down 350 trees and drilling into rocks to make the trails. Let’s hope that includes replanting the trees, and at least giving the rocks a nice apology.

Police in Western Australia are looking for a 53-year old hit-and-run bike rider who plowed into a 64-year old woman while riding on the wrong side of the road, leaving her with a “difficult journey ahead” after she was taken off life support; the bike rider stopped to assist the victim, but left before police and paramedics arrived.

………

Local 

Streetsblog’s Joe Linton calls on bicyclists to provide input in an online survey about Carson’s ambitious Bicycle Action Plan. Although if it’s actually ambitious, I like it already. 

 

State

San Diego avoided disastrous cuts to transportation in the city budget, with a modest half-million dollars to fix the city’s 15 most dangerous intersections, while avoiding the mayor’s plan to cut the Department of Transportation’s entire Multi-Modal Team.

San Diego’s new ebike restrictions will go into effect next month, banning anyone under the age of 12 from riding an ebike, and reinforcing helmet requirements and prohibiting a second rider without a seat built to accommodate two people. Which strikes me as decidedly underwhelming, but what the hell do I know?

The Santa Barbara County Association of Governments, aka SBCAG, is asking bike riders to review an AI-generated bike map. Apparently, they want to confirm it doesn’t have any extraneous legs or fingers, or any other added AI generated errors or hallucinations. 

A Bakersfield woman was driving at three times the legal alcohol limit and with a driver’s license that expired two-and-a-half years ago when she hit and killed a 66-year old man riding a bicycle last month.

A new study from a San Francisco professor shows that only protected bike lanes actually cause an increase in bike ridership, unlike sharrows or painted bike lanes.

Sacramento police issued 31 traffic citations during a four-hour bike and pedestrian safety operation, apparently all to drivers.

Bike co-op Sacramento Bike Kitchen will mark their 20th anniversary this weekend with free music, bike polo and beer. And no, the beer isn’t free, or I’d be on my way already. 

 

National

Oregon is considering a proposal to link an existing 20-mile bike path to the famed Rogue Valley wine country.

A Eugene, Oregon middle school teacher rode his bike 1,650 miles down the Left Coast from Canada to Mexico in just seven days, but missed in his effort to set a new world record by a day and a half.

Denver bike riders are fundraising to collect $4,500 to buy a bike-towed street sweeper to clean debris from the city’s bike lanes.

There’s some good news from Detroit today, as the five-year old boy shot by a stray bullet while riding his bike with his father is recovering from his injuries.

An Ohio writer says yes, it matters to see Black riders on the state’s trails.

The NYPD marked the 4th of July by diverting pedestrians from a walkway onto a bike path, with no explanation for where people on bicycles were expected to go; Streetsblog complains it’s another example of the city treating cars like transportation but bicycles like toys.

Streetsblog says it only took New York the deaths of two bike riders to update the pavement markings on the Queensboro Bridge bike lane to reflect a new a pedestrian-only path on the opposite side of the bridge, calling the move “too little, too late.”

Leonardo DiCaprio and his girlfriend, Italian model Vittoria Ceretti, are both one of us, riding bikeshare bikes together through the streets of New York, where they bumped into convicted musical plagiarist Robin Thicke. But hopefully not literally. 

Heartbreaking news from Tennessee, where an 86-year old man was booked for last month’s fatal hit-and-run that left a bike-riding woman lying badly injured in a ditch. Once again raising the question of how old is too old to drive, and who should make that decision in a society built around the need to drive. 

A DC writer issues a “coward’s guide” to bicycling around the city.

 

International

If you build it, they will come. A new study in the Journal of Transport & Health shows that building a bike lane or park within about 550 yards of residents’ homes in São Paulo, Brazil was a key factor in keeping them active and encouraging cycling. To which LA drivers shout in unison, “But Los Angeles isn’t São Paulo!”

Cycling Electric says a new cargo bike may be the most advanced one yet. Then again, it should be with a $9,300 price tag.

Road.cc joins the fight over media descriptions of illegal electric motorcycles as ebikes, after police seize “ebikes” that can reach 72 mph.

A writer for Streetsblog says if you want safer roads, all you have to do is take a European vacation.

Three Indian men face charges for stabbing a 30-year old man to death in a petty dispute over whether he had hidden one of the men’s bicycle. As we’ve said before, no bike is worth a human life. Just walk away, for god’s sake.

A Norwegian artist and adventurer is nearing the end of her 300-day epic bike tour through the African continent.

Japanese soccer star Kaoru Mitoma injured a woman riding a bicycle, after both he and the victim allegedly went through a four-way red light on the walk signal.

 

Competitive Cycling

No charge among the favorites for this year’s Tour de France, as a late bike change allowed Jonas Vingegaard to finish with the same time as Tadej Pogačar, thanks to the Tour’s three-second rule, which oddly has nothing to do with eating something that fell to the tarmac within three seconds; Norway’s Torstein Træen continued his unlikely stint in the yellow jersey with an eight-minute lead over Vingegaard and Pogačar.

British Paralympic cycling star Dame Sarah Storey is calling it a career at age 48, as her 74 world and Paralympic medals make her the most successful British athlete, disabled or otherwise.

 

Finally…

Blocking an unofficial bike trail with a bolder Boulder boulder. That feeling when bike lanes are “DEI.”

But at least we aren’t tied for dead last in the new City Ratings.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin.

 

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