Continuing this week’s theme, the sentencing of another killer OC driver has been delayed.
According to My News LA, Junior Rigoberto Lopez was scheduled to be sentenced after pleading guilty in the hit-and-run death of Daniella Palacios in Anaheim last November.
Palacios had copped a plea after a promise from the judge that he would be sentenced to no more three years in prison; under California law, he faced a max of just four years for leaving the bike riding mother of eight to die in the street, anyway.
Yet another example of people continuing to die because our state doesn’t take traffic crime seriously.
Then again, even if we gave every deadly driver the punishment they deserve, we wouldn’t have any place to put them.
Our anonymous OC reporter was in the courtroom hoping for a conclusion to this sad case. Instead, she writes,
First off, Lopez has the same type of extremely savvy criminal defense team as Hasti Fakhrai-Bayrooti. They only very recently received the probation department’s report & its 13-page addendum, and haven’t bothered to read them yet. Hell, I’ve read them! They’ve been available since Wednesday of last week! At any rate, the judge is unwilling to give any cause for appeal, so naturally he’ll allow the defense time to review. Sentencing is set for next month.
Second, I fucked up by taking way less Kleenex than I needed, going in with no idea I’d be hearing an 11-year-old’s victim impact statement. (Oh, and there were eight statements altogether.)
The My News LA story above has more details on the impact statements.
Maybe the judge could make those three years seem a lot longer by making Lopez read those statements again every day he’s behind bars.
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CiclaValley looks forward to bike share in DTLA, and offers up video evidence of just how crowded the Hyperion Bridge is during the morning rush hour.
Yeah, I can see why the city council so wisely determined that keeping an extra lane for cars was more important than providing safe access for people on foot.
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Long-time bike racer Steve Tilford says Dr. Christopher Thompson, who went to prison for brake checking two bike riders in Mandeville Canyon, doesn’t belong in jail.
He feels a better punishment would be sentencing the good doctor to community service in an under-served community, like LA’s low-income Chesterfield Square. Although he’s not the first one to suggest that; I’ve though the same thing myself more than once.
He’s a little off on his timeline, though.
The incident happened seven years ago; Thompson was found guilty in 2009 and sentenced to five years in prison the following year. He’s already served his time and been out of prison for over a year; in fact, he should be off parole by now.
And one more problem with Tilford’s suggestion.
Doctor Thompson isn’t one anymore.
He lost his license to practice medicine following his conviction in this case. So he couldn’t have served as a physician anywhere, no matter how desperately needed.
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Nice profile of injured painter and pro cyclist Taylor Phinney, along with his parents, former pro and Olympians Davis Phinney and Connie Carpenter. From Lululemon, of all places.
Wait. There’s never been a black women’s pro cyclist? New York music teacher Ayesha McGowan hopes to be the first.
And top ranked women’s cyclocross racer Sanne Cant can’t following a solo fall after she was cut off by a tractor while training.
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With all the bad news about college fraternities these days, it’s nice to see members of my old frat riding from Long Beach to DC to raise awareness for disabled people.
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My apologies for the late notice, but you may still have time to catch the Women’s History Ride, departing from Grand Park in DTLA at 10 am sharp. As the ride leader put it,
There are so many more amazing bike-riding chicks than I thought: lawyers, librarians, doctors, and the original Midnight Ridazz. I’m panicking about forgetting any of these amazing ladies!
Redondo Beach opens their Harbor Gateway bikeway at 10 am today.
The LACBC’s Tamika Butler will be one of the featured speakers in the new Coffee For Climate Art & Speaking Series at the Highland Café on York Blvd tonight.
Long Beach hosts the Beach Babe Bicycling Classic this Sunday.
The Eastside Bike Club is hosting a Taco Night Ride next Saturday, the 18th of June.
The Orange County Bicycle Coalition is offering a Cycling Savvy course on June 19th and 20th, emphasizing legal cycling in traffic, bike handling skills, and concluding with riding in traffic on a tour of Irvine. You can register here.
Santa Monica is hosting a 4th of July themed Kidical Mass on the 27th.
Better keep the kids away from DTLA and Echo Park though, as the LA edition of the World Naked Bike Ride rolls on the 27th, as well. Just don’t get too excited.
BikeSGV hosts the Beautiful Uptown Whittier Ride the next day, June 28th.
The Beverly Hills city council will discuss bike lanes on Santa Monica Blvd on the 30th. Or more likely, the permanent lack thereof.
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Local
LADOT GM Seleta Reynolds says public and private partnerships are the key to eliminating traffic deaths and developing a realistic transportation package, and everyone must be invited to the table.
KPCC provides a good look at the debate over providing sidewalks on both sides of the Glendale-Hyperion Bridge, noting that the public was engaged — and ignored. They also report on LA’s bizarre policy of only fixing streets that don’t really need it; way too many bike riders are taken down by hidden bumps and holes in roads that should have been fixed years ago.
Evidently, Long Beach has caught ciclovía fever, as plans are already in the works for another Beach Streets Open Streets event.
Evidently, local cities do a crappy job of explaining the benefits of a road diet, as Temple City residents are the latest to freak out about a proposal to remove a traffic lane and add bike lanes.
State
BikeSD says human lives should not be the cost of doing business.
The new captain of San Francisco’s Park Station vows a crackdown on scofflaw cyclists, apparently believing people on two wheels are a greater risk to the public than scofflaws on four.
A San Francisco cyclist is the victim of a double road rage assault, in cartoon form.
Sausalito continues its efforts to discourage bicycling tourists, instituting a $2 to $3 charge to park a bike in the city — after removing all the bike racks from downtown. Evidently, they’d prefer that all those tourists clog the streets with cars, not bikes. Or just spend their money somewhere else, which is what I’ll be doing.
Seriously? A former San Diego bike rider says you don’t have a right to put his family at risk by riding a bike on the winding roads of California’s Reno-adjacent Nevada County. Or he could, you know, just slow down and drive safely.
An anonymous Good Samaritan replaces a Chico ghost bike after it was stolen on Wednesday.
National
Vision Zero is becoming a public health issue, as cities across the county commit to eliminating traffic deaths. Of course, goals are meaningless without action, as certain LA councilmembers have made abundantly clear.
Bike lawyer Bob Mionske says despite what bike haters insist, it’s the motorists who are getting a free ride, not bicyclists. Nice to see Bob back with VeloNews where his column originally started.
Writing for Strong Towns, a traffic engineer says members of his profession show a conscious indifference to pedestrians and cyclists, which he aptly calls the very definition of gross negligence.
A Portland bike rider who suffered a broken back in a collision with a pickup files a $21 million suit against the city, alleging a too-narrow bike lane contributed to the death of one rider and injuries to nine others.
Looks like Wisconsin won’t slap a tax on bicycles after all.
Kentucky proposes toughening the penalties for drunk driving, making a fourth lifetime conviction worth five years in prison; previously, prior convictions were forgotten, if not forgiven, after five years.
Caught on video: Pennsylvania cyclists argue with a cop who hit a cyclist while attempting, and failing, to pass a small group of riders; oddly, a woman feels the need to jump in and defend the scofflaw cop against the big bad bike riders.
New York residents lash out against proposed “deadly” bike share stations, even though there hasn’t been a single fatality in roughly 18 million rides.
Once again, the NYPD does its best to discourage people from riding their bikes.
The New York press blames the bike rider when a woman is seriously injured after apparently stepping in front of a cyclist riding in a bike lane. On the other hand, the jerk should have stopped, just like any driver would be required to under similar circumstances.
Good idea from Delaware, as proposed legislation would encourage transit-friendly, walkable and bikeable economic development.
North Carolina’s legislature goes the wrong way, voting to increase pollution while making it harder to conduct road diets and install bike lanes.
International
Cycling Weekly lists the top 10 road bike innovations. Although you’d think paved roads would be pretty high on that list, too.
A new Calgary bike lane is exceeding expectations.
A new British study shows women cyclists are twice as likely to be subject to harassment and dangerous driving than their male counterparts. Yet another answer to the eternal question of why more women don’t ride.
Fast Company offers yet another look at how Copenhagen became a cycling paradise, noting bikes usually win when the city calculates all the social costs involved with investing in roads or bike lanes. Maybe LA should give that a try some time.
Refugees ride through Macedonia on their way to a better life in the European Union. Thanks to Megan Lynch for the heads-up.
Five lessons from the world’s biggest bicycling conference Down Under, including global cities are about people, not transport. Something LA clearly still needs to learn.
It takes a real jerk to steal the bike a 91-year old Aussie man has ridden for the last 68 years.
Finally…
If you’re going to use a bike as a getaway vehicle, don’t lose half the loot as you ride away. Caught on video: In case you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to ride a BMX bike through an abandoned NFL stadium.
And He Who Must Not Be Named plans a possibly unwelcome return to France, as the celluloid Lance makes his way to the silver screen.
