I’m going to be off the rest of the week after surgery on my arm and hand.
I was scheduled for carpal tunnel surgery in December, which was cancelled at the last minute when Covid-19 overwhelmed the hospitals, and elective surgeries were put on hold.
But a last minute opening to have the surgery came up unexpectedly yesterday. Unfortunately, though, my condition continued to deteriorate in the meantime; what was a simple wrist operation will now include surgery on my elbow and hand, as well.
As a result, I’m not sure how long it will take to get the use of my arm and hand back, which means I’m not sure how long it will be before I can get back to bringing you the latest bike news. I’m planning to be back on Monday, but it could be longer.
And yes, all that damage was caused by diabetes. Which is one more reason to do whatever you can to avoid it.
So have good weekend, ride safe, and hopefully I’ll see you next week.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
Sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
A Milwaukee man is charged with murdering a prominent immigration lawyer in a road rage incident that began when the lawyer yelled at the other man for riding his bike on the wrong side of the road, nearly causing a collision; the man in the bike shot the victim as he was getting out of his wife’s car to confront the bicyclist.
The Eastsideroffers a recap of Eagle Rock’s Beautiful Boulevard plan, noting that it’s designed to maintain the community’s small town feel, while making room for the NoHo-to-Pasadena bus rapid transit line on Colorado Blvd.
Months after Los Angeles announced a partnership with Bike Index to register bicycles, Hermosa Beach announces they’re teaming with Project 529 to do the same thing there. Which will inevitably complicate bike theft reporting and recovery, since police will now have to check both sites.
Saturday 4/10 – On this date in 2018, 22-year-old Frederick “Woon” Frazier was killed in a horrific hit-and-run at Manchester and Normandie. Though the driver was ultimately apprehended, the case is still making its way through the court system. In the meanwhile, little has changed in the way of safety in that area; cars seem to be driving faster than ever along both busy corridors. To continue to push for both justice and safer streets, friends and family ask you to join them on a bike/walk for justice in honor of his memory. Meet up at 51st and Harvard at 11 a.m.
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Sarcasm is a powerful tool.
Although there’s always a few tools who don’t get it.
Sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
Tallahassee police are looking for a would-be thief who rode his bike up to a bank patron using an ATM, then shot him in a botched robbery attempt; the victim was hospitalized in serious condition.
Sad news from San Jose, where a man was killed when he was run down by a motorist while riding his bike across the street; police stress that he was “outside of a marked crosswalk” when he was killed. Never mind that bike riders are neither required nor expected to use a crosswalk — and often blamed when they do.
A Pennsylvania man got a well-deserved one to nine years behind bars for a hit-and-run crash while driving with a suspended license, which critically injured a toddler being pulled behind her mother’s bicycle; the judge wisely added a request not to release him after serving the minimum sentence.
Native Frenchman and former French road cycling champion Nacer Bouhanni hits back against racist online comments since he was DQ’d for bodychecking British cyclist Jake Stewart in last week’s Cholet-Pays de Loire. Seriously, he may ride like a jerk, but there’s no excuse for that crap. Ever.
If you are the cyclist who was hit by a white BMW today at Abbot Kinney and Westminster, I have a photo of the plate.
You had just fallen off your bike when I approached the intersection so I didn’t see the incident, but based on the way you and a couple of other folks gestured towards the car, it seemed like that driver may have hit you and run.
The car turned in front of me from Westminster onto Abbot Kinney and I snapped a photo once we came to a stop down the road.
I can send it to you if you like.
Update: Thanks for the advice, I called it in to LAPD. They didn’t have an incident report for the time/location but they will share the information with the traffic cops in that area in case anything comes up with that vehicle description.
If you were the victim, or know someone who was, click on the link about and reply to the original post, since they didn’t leave contact information.
And always report a hit-and-run to the police, even if you aren’t seriously injured.
You never know who else they might do it to next time.
Thanks to Bean and David Wolfberg for the heads-up.
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Keith Johnson forwards news of what could be yet another contentious public meeting in Hancock Park, as local residents continue to fight changes that would improve safety for bike riders on 4th Street.
Even though the improvements would benefit their neighborhood, as well. Whether or not they ride a bike.
Neighborhood Traffic Changes! Hancock Park and Windsor Sq. will host a Transportation Town Hall on April 14, at 6:00 PM. We expect the LA Department of Transportation to explain their reasoning behind their recently posted survey regarding Bike Lights and Restricted Turns on 4th Street at Highland and Rossmore. Make your voice heard! AGAIN!Join the meeting at this Zoom link. https://zoom.us/j/96677001434
Local residents have a long history of fighting what was once called the 4th Street Bike Boulevard, over mistaken fears of increased traffic and difficulty of emergency vehicles getting through.
The reality is that the changes would eliminate cut-through traffic, while allowing continued emergency access.
And likely increase property values, too.
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Pasadena is looking for input on safety improvements for the segment of North Lake Ave directly above the 210 Freeway, which can certainly use it.
.@PasadenaDOT is conducting a pedestrian and traffic safety enhancement study for North Lake Avenue between Mountain and Maple Streets. Community members are invited to review the next round of design plans and submit feedback by April 18: https://t.co/fE4jHC9LlTpic.twitter.com/urMqpwRjHt
Leimert Park talks electric mobility, including ebikes, on Thursday.
Our friends at @weloveleimert are hosting a Zoom event: The Leimert Park Electric Mobility Forum, this Thursday (April 8th) from 7-8 PM, to talk circuit service, e-bike rentals, and more. Register for free and join! https://t.co/Fr73jtytPq
Nice to see some overdue attention to a long marginalized segment of the bicycling community.
I’ve heard far too many tales of people size shamed at their local bike shop or by other riders.
Biking For Big People Webinar!!
Maybe you saw All Bodies on Bikes and now you want to get back on your bike after some time away or start riding a bike for the first time. Or maybe you’ve been riding all along but can’t find the right clothes or type of bike for you. pic.twitter.com/zNmFU1fnC8
The aforementioned Megan Lynch forwards a photo of Burbank cops teaching bike safety from 1957.
@bikinginla "Burbank Police Officer Dick Kunkle, right, checks skill of Frank Mattews, 8, in making proper left turn on simulated street at Horace Mann School. Watching bicycle safety demonstration are Officer Don Sanders and Barbara Merrill, also student at school." https://t.co/2i8zpQEirV
Sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
Las Gatos police are looking for the racist bike rider who shoved a 40-year-old Filipina medical worker to the ground without warning as she walked along a sidewalk, then shouted “Go back to (expletive) China.” Seriously, there’s no excuse for that. Ever. And not just mistaking someone from the Philippines for a person from China.
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Local
The Los Angeles City Council will consider resolutions in support of state legislation allowing bicyclists to treat stops as yields, and state and federal bills to provide up to $1,500 in ebike tax credits at Tuesday’s virtual council meeting.
This is who we share the road with. A Portland man faces a hate crime charge, as well as attempted assault, reckless driving and unlawful use of a weapon charges, for attempting to run down another driver after yelling a racist slur, in what may or may not have started as a road rage incident.
In Florida, drivers don’t even have to be alive to hurt a bike rider. A speeding driver was killed after losing control and smashing into a tree; the car then careened on to hit someone riding a bike, who had to be flown for emergency care.
French pro Nacer Bouhanni insists he’s not a thug after slamming Britain’s Jake Stewart into the barriers during a mad sprint to the finish at the one-day Cholet-Pays de la Loire last week, even though he faces a potential ban for dangerous sprinting. Is it just me, or does his “I’m not a thug!” sound a little too reminiscent of Nixon’s “I am not a crook!”?
The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority is looking for public input on a proposal that would divert funding currently earmarked for highways to support active transportation and Complete Streets projects.
In June 2020, Metro’s Board of Directors directed staff to explore ways to modernize the agency’s Highway Program to better align it with policy goals of reducing vehicle miles traveled while exploring the expansion of eligible projects to include active transportation and “complete streets” improvements that focus on all forms of mobility rather than just vehicles.
The changes, if implemented, would open certain Measure R and Measure M funding that is now reserved only for traditional highway or roadway projects to new types of improvements. Those improvements include bikeways, sidewalk and pedestrian safety improvements, bus prioritization and explicitly using reductions in vehicle miles traveled as a criterion for planning and designing projects.
The plan, which has already received input from local governments, has been split into two sections, here and here.
Now an email from Los Angeles Walks is calling on them to reverse a bad decision.
Last week, the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) announced their intention to permanently remove and not replace a pedestrian bridge connecting communities divided by the 101 Freeway.
While Caltrans suggested other alternatives for pedestrians, such as traffic signals and crosswalks, the removal of this bridge significantly limits the mobility of those walking or rolling. Currently, the Encino Ave. Pedestrian Bridge is located in at the intersection of Encino Ave. and Killion St (see arrow).
If removed, this reduces the number of options for residents in the area to cross the 101 freeway and places at risk a similar bridge on Amestoy Ave. about half a mile to the east. With both bridges gone local Angenelos would need to walk up to 2 miles to cross the 101 at White Oak Ave. or Balboa Blvd. Or they’ll have to walk up Louise Ave., a four lane road with scant pedestrian signage and infrastructure.
This bridge provides easy and safe access for those walking or rolling to go between the neighborhood and Burbank Ave., where you’ll find grocery stores, a pre-school, businesses, and other important community assets.
In 2019 alone, these local roads (displayed on the map) saw nearly 50 collisions. That same year the community experienced a horrific street racing crash along Burbank Blvd. that killed a 19 and 25 year old. If LA City is dedicated to its #VisionZero commitment (to reach 0 traffic deaths by 2025), tearing down a community-connecting pedestrian bridge over one of City’s largest and busiest freeways is the wrong way to go.
Our call to Action! 🚨
Let Caltrans know that the community, our seniors, our students need their pedestrian bridge. And we’ve made it easy for you!
Dense cities where public transit was already popular generally saw the largest increases. In cities with lower density, more cars per capita and higher traffic speeds, the increase in cycling was more modest. Paris, which implemented its bike lane program early and had the largest pop-up bike lane program of any of the cities in the study, had one of the largest increases in riders.
“It almost seems like a natural law that the more infrastructure you have, the more cycling you will have,” said Sebastian Kraus, the study’s lead author.
The increases held up even after taking weather and changes in public transit supply and demand into account.
Then there was this.
Bicycles, unlike cars, do not emit greenhouse gases. Matthew Raifman, a doctoral student in environmental health at the Boston University School of Public Health, found in a separate study that investments in infrastructure for cycling and walking more than paid for themselves once the health benefits were taken into account.
“They increase our physical activity and reduce levels of greenhouse gas emissions and improve air quality, which all have impacts on health,” Mr. Raifman said.
Which is about as good an argument for transferring Metro highway funds to healthier and more efficient uses as you could make.
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The former Mayor Pete could have ridden in a chauffeured limo to his first cabinet meeting as US Transportation Secretary.
If he chose to ride a bike, it was to send a message.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg biked to the White House for today's Cabinet Meeting, it would appear. pic.twitter.com/XfYRB3COqm
Sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
This one fits in both categories, as a Hermosa Beach letter writer calls on the city to remove the “silly” sharrows on Hermosa Ave, after someone on a bicycle hit his son while he was crossing the street. Seriously, slow the hell down and ride carefully around pedestrians, especially kids. But just wait until someone tells this guy about cars. And don’t get me started on sharrows, which exist primarily to help drivers improve their aim.
A ghost bike for the five Las Vegas bicyclists killed by a meth-using truck driver was moved to a public school in downtown Summerlin; the plan is to rotate the memorial to different locations in the city raise awareness.
Colorado’s Tourism Office explains how to build a route through the high country wilderness by threading together by a series of scenic and historic byways. All of which are even better by bicycle. And say hi to my old stomping grounds on the Cache la Poudre River while you’re at it.
VeloNews examines the technical aspects of how Irish cyclist Ronan McLaughlin became the latest in a long line of recent Everesting record holders, with a time of 6 hours, 40 minutes and 54 seconds, in part by focusing on shaving time on the descents; the solo attempt involves making multiple uphill climbs equivalent to the height of Mt. Everest.
Protect cyclists and pedestrians: Bikes, too, would get a share of the billions. The package includes $20 billion for safety – including funds to ‘reduce crashes and fatalities, especially for cyclists and pedestrians.’
That’s in addition to funding for transit to cut traffic congestion and reduce the number of cars on the road.
Let’s hope the bike funding — and the bill itself — survives what promises to be a brutal congressional process.
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Tonight is the last scheduled virtual public meeting to weigh in on the Beautiful Blvd plan for Colorado Blvd in Eagle Rock.
If you live for the fight, Zoom in tomorrow night. The opposition to Eagle Rock's Beautiful Boulevard is gonna be in full force. When: Thursday, April 1, 5-7pm Zoom Link: https://t.co/G2Stbhy4FO Beautiful Boulevard Talking Points: https://t.co/S8ePKlXErt
Here’s your chance to work in advocacy on the east side of the Bay Area.
Here's another #BikeJobs opportunity with @BikeEastBay in Oakland, CA. Join the team full-time as Operations Director, to help us build efficient operations, equitable internal structures, and caring workplaces. Full descriptions & details here:https://t.co/lOVDh4ZL9Opic.twitter.com/ELj7kv6Jho
Our friend Leo Rodgers landed a spot on national television Monday morning on the CW's All American Stories series. You can watch this 7-minute mini-documentary short over at the CW Seed for free.https://t.co/wmvvzs5hXNpic.twitter.com/dYeB9NbeCR
Rotterdam’s main boulevard—the Coolsingel—has been reimagined as a city lounge; with 10,000 fewer cars per day, a 30 km/h design speed, dedicated tramway, and abundant space for walking, cycling, and sitting.
— Melissa & Chris Bruntlett (@modacitylife) March 31, 2021
This is what we could be doing in Los Angeles.
And what we’ll have to do if we want to reduce the city’s crippling addiction to motor vehicles, let alone make a dent in our massive contribution to climate change.
But we’re not.
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Sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
A Michigan man faces up to ten years behind bars after pleading guilty to beating a Black teenager with a chain bicycle lock, just because of his race. Seriously, there’s not a pit deep enough for someone like that. And no, there’s no guarantee that he rides a bike; he could have just used the chain lock for something else. But still.
Road.ccrecommends their favorite bicycle wheels of 2021, with prices starting at the equivalent of a surprisingly low $344. Although prices are given British pounds, so cost and availability may vary.
An op-ed in an Irish paper says transportation is too often considered gender neutral, but active transportation plans must take differing needs of “women, children, the elderly, those with a disability and different ethnic minorities” into account.
Surprisingly, a British man got his bike back two years after it was stolen in an Australian town, when he was 102 days into a record-setting attempt to be the youngest person to ride solo across the world; he was literally left with just the clothes on his back after everything else was taken. A 46-year old man faces charges after being caught riding the stolen bike.
It probably won’t come as any surprise that my diabetes once again got the better of me.
After struggling for weeks with high blood sugar after a new doctor — and new insurance — switched one of my medications, it took a sudden and unexpected nose dive Monday night, knocking me out for the rest of the night.
And as you can see, when I finally came back to life, there was a dog sleeping on my head.
The film follows two women, who self-identify as fat, on a “two-day bikepacking trip along the Corvallis to Coast Trail, a 65-mile route through the gorgeous Oregon Coast Range.”
And demonstrates that the sheer joy of riding a bicycle has nothing to do with the size of your body.
Seriously, watch it.
Then the next time you’re tempted to indulge in a little fat shaming, on or off a bike, just…
Our self-guided bicycle route for April is out now! FatTire Presents: Zooming in on the Microscopic celebrates National Beer Day & Earth Day by taking a closer look at some local microbes. pic.twitter.com/JBdO7Jc6Un
— Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition (@lacbc) March 31, 2021
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If this doesn’t make you want to ride a bike in Trinidad & Tobago, nothing will.
Or better yet, to Trinidad & Tobago. Although you might want to catch a lift for that last wet stage.
Thanks to Stormin’ Norman for forwarding the video.
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Not only is London’s equivalent of Slow Streets not slowing down emergency responses, they may actually be improving them.
Ahem. New @LondonFire report out today. Says: "we haven’t yet noticed any impact on attendance times due to low traffic neighbourhood schemes established in 2020…" and implies LTNS are actually HELPING attendance times in inner London "quicker than those in outer London" pic.twitter.com/HK1nHkbnT8
It shouldn’t surprise anyone that a British police department’s campaign to prevent close passing of bicyclists is met with a barrage of anti-bike comments online. Then again, even the most innocuous pro-bike statements can bring the haters out.
It’s not your imagination. Passenger vehicle traffic is up to pre-pandemic levels in Los Angeles, and other cities around the US. Which is exactly what we’ve been warning would happen if the city didn’t invest in safe, efficient spaces for other forms of transportation during the pandemic down time.
Metro still doesn’t get it. The LA County transit agency continues to propose a watered-down alternative to the community-driven Beautiful Blvd plan for a Bus Rapid Transit line along Colorado Blvd in Eagle Rock, omitting the expanded sidewalks, sidewalk-level protected bike lanes and more sidewalk trees residents have called for.
After getting their Covid shots, a pair of San Francisco men decide to take Krispy Kreme up on its offer for free donuts by hitting up every Bay Area location in a single day. And would have succeeded if their ebike batteries hadn’t died.
National
Bloomberg rightly blames laws that lock in dangerous street designs and allow vehicles known to increase the risk to non-motorists for the shocking rise in US traffic fatalities during the pandemic.
The meth-fueled crash that killed five Las Vegas bike riders sped up a survivor’s plan to open his own bike shop. Which was just the second biggest decision he made as a result, after proposing to his girlfriend.
Family members speak out after a South Florida pastor was run down by a hit-and-run driver on a Miami causeway, leaving him in a coma. If the driver wanted to get away with it, maybe she shouldn’t have used valet parking right afterwards.
Still more from the country’s most dangerous state for bike riders and pedestrians, as a 75-year old Florida man training for a 500-mile bike ride was killed by a 79-year old woman, who drove into him for “unknown reasons.” Maybe the reason was she shouldn’t have been driving in the first place.
A book excerpt takes a fascinating look at the role bikes, and the female arsonists who rode them, played in winning the vote for British women. And casually mentions Audrey Hepburn used her bicycle to deliver resistance leaflets in her Dutch hometown, and feminist icon Simone de Beauvoir rode a stolen bicycle with Jean-Paul Sartre in Nazi-occupied France.
Sometimes the needless death of an innocent person doesn’t merit even a few inches in the local paper.
Let alone a passing comment on the nightly news.
On Monday, I started hearing reports of someone killed in a collision while riding a bicycle in Costa Mesa, based on posts from the notoriously unreliable Nextdoor app.
By Tuesday morning, the location had shifted to nearby Newport Beach, along with comments suggesting the driver had been arrested. But still no confirmation from the coroner’s office or any of the local news outlets.
The coroner reported that 80-year old Ernest Adams died at a Santa Ana medical center early Monday morning, following a collision somewhere in Newport Beach Sunday afternoon.
According to the site, multiple witnesses reported seeing the suspect blow through a stop sign before slamming into Adam’s bike; a street view shows a residential street controlled by a four-way stop, with bike lanes in three directions, next to Newport Harbor High School.
Twenty-year old Norwalk resident Alexis Garcialopez was reportedly arrested for DUI causing serious injury after failing a roadside sobriety test.
Hopefully, that will be upgraded to vehicular homicide in the wake of Adams’ death. Because after 80 years on this earth, he definitely deserved a better ending.
This is at least the 17th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the second that I’m aware of in Orange County.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for Ernest Adams and all his family and loved ones.
Chan had to be extradited from Australia to face charges after originally fleeing to Hong Kong, and having her badly damaged car repaired and stored in Idaho in an attempted coverup.
Rodriguez died at the scene after he was dragged 600 feet — the length of two city blocks — underneath Chan’s car.
Seven years isn’t anywhere near enough for a cruel and heartless crime like that. Especially since she’ll likely do less than half of that before being released.
But it’s the max she could get under California’s weak hit-and-run laws.
Marco Martinez was being held in Ventura County jail on suspicion of felony hit and run, and DUI, as well as possessing drugs and drug paraphernalia.
Although the unnamed victim may have been more seriously injured than the story suggests, since minor injuries would only merit a misdemeanor hit-and-run charge under California’s weak hit-and-run laws.
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If you’ve never had the chance to meet, or at least listen to, CicLAvia’s Tafarai Bayne, you’re missing out on one of Southern California’s leading voices for bicycle and social equity.
So don’t miss this one.
@bikinginla CicLAvia's Tafarai Bayne will participate in a special – and free! – Spotlight Session with other SVPLA leaders. It's on 3/31 1 PM https://t.co/pOfgazM0nw
Sometimes it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
One of America’s most wanted men is one of us. US Marshals believe Lester Eubanks, aka Victor Young, may still be living in Los Angeles nearly 50 years after the convicted child killer escaped from an Ohio penitentiary; his ex-boss says he rode his bike to work every day when he worked at a Gardena waterbed factory.
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Local
Pez Cycling Newstalks with LA’s Phil Gaimon, whose cycling career has flourished after he retired from the pro tour. Which is usually not the way it works.
Life is really cheap in Milwaukee, where a killer driver walked with two years probation for taking the life of a man riding his bike — while driving with a suspended license, no less. What the hell is wrong with the judge and prosecutor when they can’t even manage a slap on the wrist for someone who wasn’t even supposed to be on the damn road in the first place?
More on the Montauk NY woman who faces up to 25 years behind bars after pleading guilty to running down a man riding his bike home from work, while she was drunk and speeding at nearly twice the legal limit, with coke in her system.
A Florida TV station showed an incredible lack of basic human decency by posting security cam video of a bike rider getting run over a driver, which left the victim severely injured. I’m only linking to this to condemn the station for showing the full video without editing or blurring out the crash. I can’t recommend watching the video because you can’t unsee it; I wish I hadn’t. And I can only imagine the pain it will cause friends and family members of the victim.
Two-thirds of the Bora-Hansgrohe team was quarantined when British cyclist Matt Walls was diagnosed with Covid-19, meaning the team will miss out on both the Ghent-Wevelgem and Dwars door Vlaanderen one-day classics; needless to say, the team manager was not pleased.
Cycling Tipsremembers Belgian pro Antoine Demoitié five years after he was killed in a collision with a motorbike rider, just six months after he married a woman he’d known since they were both 14.
The driver, identified only as man, remained after the crash and cooperated with investigators.
Unfortunately, no other information is available at this time; even the police spokesman had to speculate that the crash occurred in the middle of the road, because police shut down in both directions.
And yes, this serves as yet another reminder to always carry ID with you when you ride.
This is at least the 16th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the fifth that I’m aware of in Riverside County; he’s also the second person killed riding a bike in Indio in just the last two months.
