A very tongue-in-cheek San Jose letter writer complains that thoughtless bike riders add as much as 20 seconds to his daily commute. And keep reading for a typical windshield perspective comment from a county deputy.
Bicycling offers advice on how to deal with aggressive dogs. In my experience, the best approach is to give them an order to sit or go home in a loud, firm voice. Dogs are trained to respond to commands, so they’ll usually obey at least long enough to make your getaway.
And if you’re planning to make your getaway by bike, wear glasses so a bystander can’t spray something into your eyes and you won’t ride into a police cruiser.
News is just coming in that a bike rider has been killed in a collision in Pearblossom, near Lancaster in north LA County.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the victim, identified only as a woman, was struck by a vehicle at 7:42 pm Saturday at the intersection of Longview and Le Page Ranch Roads. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
No other details are available at this time.
A street view shows a narrow, two-lane highway with dirt shoulders intersected on one side by a dirt road.
This is the 70th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the 26th in Los Angeles County. That compares to 69 in SoCal this time last year, and 29 in LA County.
Update: My News LA places the collision site one-half mile from the Devil’s Punchbowl in the Angeles National Forest.
Update 2: The Antelope Valley Times identifies the victim as Karla A. Thiel, a transient living in Littlerock.
According to the paper, Thiel was positioned two feet inside the white line. However, she was wearing dark clothes and riding without lights or reflectors; the driver reportedly never saw her before hitting her from behind at 45 mph.
Although someone should tell the CHP spokesman that in a collision at that speed, whether or not she was wearing a helmet is pretty irrelevant.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for Karla Thiel and her loved ones.
Here in LA, this video would be all the evidence needed to file — and win — a suit against the driver under the city’s cyclist anti-harassment ordinance.
Instead, the Kentucky cyclist, Cherokee Schill, was charged and convicted for the crime of riding a bike in the traffic lane. And the police look the other way when she’s threatened and harassed by angry motorists.
Which is a polite way of saying they don’t give a damn because they don’t think she belongs there to begin with.
Fortunately, she’s less than $200 away from the $10,000 needed to appeal her illegal conviction.
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Caught on video: Before Governor Brown signed the current three-foot passing law, he vetoed a much better version that would have allowed drivers to briefly cross the center line to pass cyclists when it was safe to do so, fearing endless carnage and lawsuits.
Even though the state is largely immune from being sued. But still.
Caught on video: An irate woman berates a Chicago cyclist for riding on the sidewalk, nearly getting herself arrested in the process. And being unclear on the concept, tells him to ride in the street before wishing he gets hit by a car, which is probably why he was on the sidewalk to begin with.
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Caught on video: I missed this one earlier this year, as three cyclists experience a viscous goathead attack on the San Gabriel River trail. Thanks to David Wolfberg for the link.
Great idea. UCLA is hosting Bike (Re)cycling Day on Sunday the 19th; the university’s police and transportation departments will give out free abandoned bikes and parts to UCLA students, staff and faculty members.
Okay, so it’s not bike related. But in an apparent case of induced demand, travel times on the 405 freeway have increased a full minute following the $1 billion —that’s billion with a b — project to add an HOV lane through the Sepulveda pass.
Turns out there will be three workshops to discuss the Las Virgenes Malibu Regional Bike Master Plan, in Malibu on the 21st, Westlake Village on the 22nd and Calabasas on the 23rd of this month.
The Pasadena Star-News calls out one of the San Gabriel Valley’s most bike unfriendly cities while endorsing Eric Sunada for Alhambra city council. Thanks to Wesley Reutimann for the tip.
A San Diego writer says the new three-foot law will increase tensions with drivers, but gets it right in calling for more protected bike lanes. Another writer on the same site calls cyclists “scourges of the road,” while decrying that bikes aren’t required to stay three feet from drivers; seriously, I could spend all day just pointing out the fallacies in this piece of bikelash drivel.
Caltrans did the right thing for a change, building a pedestrian bridge and off-road bike path connecting Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties as part of a six-mile carpool lane project; I’m told it has dramatically improved safety for riders along the coast highway. Thanks to Alan for the heads-up.
Too typical. Santa Cruz creates up a sandwich sign to warn drivers to give cyclists three feet. Then puts it in the bike lane.
In the latest attempt to thin the herd by enabling more distracted drivers, a new app promises to let drivers use all their apps behind the wheel.
Despite that, it looks like the Feds are finally taking bike safety seriously, as the Department of Transportation releases new guidelines to make the streets safer for you and me. Maybe they could ban the use of onboard computer systems by drivers next.
Yet another caught on video, but one that can’t be embedded: A cyclist accuses a Penn university cop of using excessive force in a confrontation partially caught on camera.
After a New York driver runs down a cyclist from behind — and is found at fault by her own insurance company — she sues the victim for damaging her car. No, really.
The Daily Mail freaks out when Kerri Russell rides a bike sans helmet and talking on a cell phone.
A former British soldier recalls liberating a Dutch town in World War II by bicycle 70 years ago.
Sad to see Andy Schleck retire from pro racing at 29, after a career that started with such promise.
Okay, so maybe bicycling isn’t really the fastest form of transportation in Perth. Then again, the results might be a little different coming from a less biased source, no?
Finally…
Probably not a good idea to ask your Twitter followers to shoot another bike journalist, even if you’re not serious. Or especially if you are. If you profess to be a psychic, don’t channel a recently fallen rider, all the details of which could probably be found by picking up the local paper.
You’ll find them listed under the LADOT heading, where you can opt to receive BAC agendas and minutes, as well as other LADOT groups including the Pedestrian Advisory Committee.
And just below, you’ll find reports from the police and fire commissions. Both of which have a lot to say about your ability to ride legally and safely.
Thanks to BAC members David Wolfberg and Glenn Bailey for the heads-up.
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The LAPD cracks down on salmon cyclists at USC, calling it a last resort in response to a rising number of bike collisions on and around the campus.
Actually, the last resort appears to be campus officials acknowledging the high level of bike commuting students, and working with city officials to accommodate bike riders so they don’t feel a need to break the law.
Flying Pigeon’s Richard Risemberg attends a glum Bicycle Plan Implementation meeting, which brightens considerably when he discovers new LADOT head Seleta Reynolds had been listening patiently for the whole meeting. Turns out she stopped by Tuesday’s BAC meeting, too.
Cyclists are invited to participate in a public workshop on October 22nd to develop a joint bike plan for Agoura Hills, Calabasas, Hidden Hills, Malibu and Westlake Village.
Inland riders are gearing up for Sunday’s Temecula Valley Century, with five rides ranging from 6.4 to 101.5 miles. None of which is a bike race, regardless of what the Press Enterprise might say.
The SF Gate talks with the Sonoma County Gran Fondo cyclist felled by a squirrel through the spokes; he was lucky to get away with a concussion and minor facial fracture. And you don’t want to miss that amazing photo of the squirrel jammed in his wheel; then again, maybe you do. Thanks to Kent D for the second link.
Now that’s more like it. A Texas driver gets 18 years — yes, years — in jail for killing a cyclist while under the influence. He was caught attempting to hide the victim’s body after driving away with his headlights off when the bike rider tumbled into the bed of his truck following the collision.
There’s a special place in hell for someone who’d shoot a seven-year old Detroit girl out riding her bike; she was collateral damage in a car-to-car shootout.
A Brit police and crime commissioner says cyclists should be forced to wear numbered plates big enough to be read at a distance so they can be identified and prosecuted when they break the law. After all, that’s worked so well to curb law-breaking by motorists, right?
Despite what the local authorities say, the jerks who stretched a cord across a British roadway at neck height aren’t morons, they’re terrorists attempting to injure or intimidate bicyclists and motorcyclists.
This is not the news any of us wanted to wake up to.
Multiple sources report a 57-year old bike rider was killed when he was trying to cross Camino del Rio West at Hancock Street in San Diego around 11:15 pm last night. The victim, who has not been publicly identified, was headed west on Hancock when he was struck and killed by a Jeep SUV traveling south on Camino del Rio.
According to San Diego’s ABC 10 News, a witness reportedly saw the west-bound victim run the red light before he was hit by the Jeep that had just exited the freeway. Police say the driver does not appear to have broken any laws.
“He was crossing the street while the light was green,” witness Kevon Smith said. “It wasn’t his light, it was the opposite light. And he just went on his bike, didn’t stop… A Jeep, it was already coming off the freeway, it tried to slow down, (and) hit him.”
Advocacy group Bike SD describes Camino del Rio West as a virtual freeway with six lanes of traffic where speeds frequently exceed 50 mph. And notes that cyclists often have a hard time triggering the traffic light on Hancock, which could explain why the rider went through it; it’s not clear whether he stopped before proceeding or just kept going without stopping.
This is the 69th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the 9th in San Diego County; surprisingly, it’s the first bike-related death in the city of San Diego since the first of this year.
Update: The San Diego Union-Tribune identifies the victim as 57-year old San Diego resident Edmund Nicholas Davis. According to the paper, Davis was riding in the crosswalk, against the light, when he was hit.
The paper also says he was a registered sex offender who had been convicted of child molestation, as well as rape.
My sympathy and prayers for Edmund Nicholas Davis and his loved ones, as well as his victims.
Automakers are rushing to keep drivers connected behind the wheel, from providing the turn-by-turn directions we’ve come to expect, to reading and dictating emails and text messages.
Never mind that, as the study above makes clear — and common sense suggests should been have readily apparent — the more distractions drivers face, the less aware they are of what is happening on the road around them. To the detriment of everyone with whom they share the road.
It’s bad enough we have to dodge texting drivers, without getting run down by a driver surfing for Chinese restaurants on the heads-up display.
The feds need to step in to prevent automakers from designing deadly distractions into the dashboards and center consoles of their cars.
Because vehicle manufacturers are clearly unable to resist the temptation themselves.
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Local
Streetsblog looks at plans for a new bike and pedestrian friendly Sixth Street Viaduct.
Caught on video: CD15 City Councilmember Joe Buscaino goes to work by bike, bus and train to discover what it’s like to be carless in LA. He’s turned out to be one of the most open-minded and supportive councilmembers when it comes to transportation alternatives, two-wheeled and otherwise.
An article reposted on City Watch examines new LADOT head Seleta Reynolds, who says LA is moving beyond auto-centrism. And that bikes are a big part of the solution.
State
Once again, a writer who just doesn’t get it calls for licensing cyclists and their bikes, and requiring riders to carry liability insurance. Never mind that most adult cyclists already have a drivers license and carry insurance through their auto policies, and that a license plate large enough to be easily read at a distance would be too large to fit on a bike.
Is it still hit-and-run if a drunk driver takes his victim with him? A San Francisco driver hits a pedestrian in a crosswalk and flees with his victim hanging out of the car’s sunroof, then attempts to cover up his drunken state by tossing booze out of the vehicle.
A woman is suing Sacramento for $3.5 million for allowing sidewalk riding after she’s hit by a cyclist while walking; thanks to George Wolfberg for the heads-up.
National
A bike advocate says we should refocus on recreation, rather than biking to work, to get more people on bikes. How about if we just focus on making bike riding safer and more convenient for everyone, then let people decide for themselves how and where to ride?
The brother of fallen cyclocross champ Amy Dombroski is channeling his grief into creating more equity for female cyclists and empowering young women through cycling.
A Chicago writer says bicyclists have rights too, even if some break the law. And no one notices the ones who don’t.
An Examiner writer says the unwarranted prosecution of Kentucky cyclist Cherokee Schill for riding — legally — in the traffic lane is bringing unwanted attention to a state with a backward reputation.
Caught on video: The page may be in Spanish, but the message is clear, as a cyclist confronts a motorist for driving in the bike lane.
A Brit cyclist videos distracted drivers and turns them into the police. Meanwhile, a writer for the Telegraph says cycling vigilantes aren’t doing themselves any favors by capturing such videos of dangerous drivers, insisting that we’re more likely to break the law than motorists are.
Meanwhile, Streetsblog questions the relative lack of news stories about Sunday’s 10th CicLAvia since the first one rolled through Downtown on 10/10/10.
But maybe that’s a good thing.
CicLAvia may be huge in our world, but it’s not new anymore. It’s proven itself to be a huge success, and now has the funding and support to continue and grow beyond the confining limits of Los Angeles itself.
In a way, the lack of the breathless news stories we’ve seen in the past is a tacit acknowledgement that the event has become part of the fabric of the city.
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A Manhattan Beach bike rider suffered serious injuries when she was hit head-on by another cyclist where the Marvin Braude and Ballona Creek bike paths meet in Marina del Rey. To make matters worse, Ana Beatriz Cholo had no insurance since she was just starting a new job, so a fund has been created to help her pay her five-figure medical bills.
Let this be a reminder to never pass slower riders unless it’s safe to do so.
Which means never, ever passing if there’s a rider coming in the opposite direction. I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve had to swerve suddenly — if not bail off the bike path entirely — to avoid someone who seemed to think he had a supreme right to the pathway.
Or maybe just lacked sufficient common sense to realize that the same safety rules that govern passing slower vehicles when driving apply on the bikeway, as well.
And if you’re ever involved in a collision with another cyclist, always give your name and contact information. Your car insurance should cover liability on your bike, as well.
It’s no less hit-and-run when a bike rider or pedestrian leaves the scene without identifying themselves after causing a collision than it is when a driver does it.
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A new study reconfirms the benefits of protected bike lanes. According to the study, ridership increased anywhere from 21% to 171% after protected lanes were installed, with 24% of the increase coming from other routes and a full 10% actually switching from other modes of transportation.
Bike riders are urged to attend tonight’s meeting of the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council Transportation Committee to help elect new bike friendly members.
Milestone Rides’ Johnny Lam explains why he volunteers with bike organizations, and why you should, too.
A San Luis Obispo woman charged in the hit-and-run death of a cyclist had three prior convictions for driving under the influence. Somehow, though, she was still allowed to remain on the road until she finally killed someone; too bad the judges and other authorities who helped keep her behind the wheel can’t be forced to serve some of her sentence with her.
A Chicago writer calls for banning bikes for a single day to give pedestrians a break. Not an entirely bad idea; maybe it would help the relatively few overly aggressive cyclists realize the risk they pose to others. But probably not.
A New Zealand editorial writer says a visit to DC shows separating bikes and cars is the best way to go, while an email writer says the Kiwi equivalent of a three-foot passing law is ridiculous because cyclists do bad things.
Finally…
Caught on video: A first-person bike cam view of an Aussie cyclist attacked by a magpie. A daredevil squirrel tries to pass through the spokes of a Sonoma County Gran Fondo rider; not surprisingly, the rider doesn’t fare well, though the squirrel fares worse.
And after a six-year old bumps his head at CicLAvia, a big-hearted cop buys helmets for him and his three brothers. Let’s hope he gets a commendation for that.
Unlike the recent Gran Fondo held in the Biking Black Hole of Beverly Hills, the upcoming El Grande Fondo de Los Angeles Crest is co-sponsored by the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition and the National Forest Foundation. And rolls through some of the area’s most scenic and challenging countryside.
It’s a better ride, for a better cause.
So what are you waiting for? Register, already.
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Nice insightful piece in the Guardian — co-written by our own Herbie Huff — explains why fewer women bike in the US than in the Netherlands. And it’s probably not what you think.
Meanwhile the paper cites a study conducted by a Washington State University criminology professor — and former LA County sheriff’s deputy — that shows cops are apparently no better at distracted driving than anyone else.
The sister of fallen Newport Beach cyclist Debra Deem says justice was not done in the failed case against the driver who killed her.
After spending most of his column ridiculing the new three-foot passing law, a columnist for the Orange County Register concludes that three feet isn’t enough, and we should all ride and drive safely.
National
The rich get richer, as bike-friendly Boulder CO tweaks city codes to allow protected bike lanes, as well as shared streets where drivers have to yield to cyclists and pedestrians.
New Jersey’s acting governor broke her wrist and elbow when she fell off her bike trying to avoid a vehicle; she’s filling in while Governor Chris Christie campaigns in other states.
The NYPD is famous for concluding “no criminality involved” when bike riders are victims of collisions, so maybe it’s only fair they reached the same conclusion when a cyclist hit a cop.
Caught on video: A kamikaze Chilean cyclist captures a first-person view of weaving dangerously through traffic before predictably crashing into a pedestrian.
Three years and nine months in jail for a speeding, tailgating and texting Brit driver who careened off the road and killed a cyclist riding on a separated bike path; doesn’t seem like nearly enough to me.
Someone sabotaged a Welsh sportive route by spreading drawing pins across the roadway; over 70 bikes suffered flats but thankfully, no one was injured.
It’s not every day a bike thief is caught in the act.
On camera, anyway.
Allison writes to report that her classic mixte bike was stolen sometime around 3 am on Thursday, October 2nd from an apartment building on the 4200 block of Artesia Blvd in Torrance.
The bike is described as having a rusty blue ladies steel frame with front and rear fenders; the rear fender is attached with a zip tie at the bottom bracket.
The 3-speed Sturmey Archer AW hub is dated 1965, while the tires are brand new Schwalbs. Front brakes are original with orange Kool Stop pads; back brakes are Tektro with black pads.
Cables are threaded through a metal headlight attachment on the front tube. The front brake cable is original white; rear brake and shifter cables are black. The rear brake cable is installed upside down for this model, and loops between the down-tube and seat post as shown.
The serial number is 2339655, and can be found on back of seat post. A Zefal HPx1 frame pump was attached to the bike and is also missing.
The thief was caught by security camera; a still from the video shows a dark haired man with a long ponytail.
Anyone having information on the identity of this man or whereabouts of the bicycle is urged to contact the Torrance Police department at 310/328-3456, reference Case ID 1400-60347. Then call Allison at 818/850-2710.
She reports that two other bikes were stolen from her apartment complex in just the last few weeks.
Let’s hope someone can identify this guy and help put a bike thief behind bars where he belongs. And let’s get Allison her bike back.
Which just happened to be the corner where Kunsman was riding.
Bizarrely, he was ticketed for careless driving on the assumption that his familiarity with the roadway and its popularity with cyclists meant he should have been more careful.
He was also ticketed for driving on a suspended license. There is something seriously wrong when a driver can kill someone without any real consequences despite having no legal right to be behind the wheel.
The story also notes that Kunsman was riding near the shoulder when he was hit.
Unfortunately, while most experts would recommend riding further into the traffic lane to increase visibility, there’s no way of knowing if driver would have seen him either way under the circumstances.
The LA Post-Examiner takes a quick look at highlights of the route. And as always, the Militant Angeleno checks in with the definitive epic guide, and promises they’re all legit after punking us with his April Fools guide for the last one.
KPCC interviews former New York DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan about what LA can learn from New York; first lesson is have a great DOT leader. Which it sounds like we finally have.
Folsom unveils a new ped and bike bridge as part of the perfectly named Johnny Cash Trail; from which one could reasonably expect to hear a train a’ coming round the bend.
Providence RI will convert a freeway causeway into a car-free bridge.
As for that NYPD bike crackdown to improve safety for cyclists, data says not so much. Meanwhile, injuries to pedestrians caused by collisions with cyclists are going down, despite the increase in ridership.
A county official in New York state was drunk when he hit a cyclist and fled the scene; fortunately, the victim was not seriously injured.
A Brit driver seems to think 10 years for killing two cyclists while driving drunk at over twice the legal limit is a tad harsh; I’m sure most bike riders would agree he got off easy.
