The 5th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive is off to a great start!
Thanks to Michael F, Carol K, Harvey W, Robert K, Stephen T, Don E’s Store, Douglas M and Will C for their very kind and generous donations!
Your support helps keep SoCal’s best bike news and advocacy coming your way every day.
It’s the first full week of the 5th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive.
The one time of year I come right out and ask for your money.
Okay, beg.
Because operating this site is a more than full-time job, for far less than minimum wage. And while I truly appreciate each of the sponsors over there on the right, their support, as valuable as it is, doesn’t cover what I need to keep this site going.
Especially after a year like this, when the money that came in went out just as fast. Or faster, even.
But that’s where you come in.
Your support helps fill in that gaping gap, and allows me to devote all my working hours to bringing you the latest bike news on a daily basis, from around the corner or around the world.
And devote whatever time I have left in this life to helping make this a safer place for people on bicycles, and a more livable world for all of us.
Or call it the 1st Corgi Memorial Fund Drive in memory of our late, great spokesdog
It’s not an easy job. Especially when I have to bring you news that none of us want.
But it matters. Because we can’t fix problems if we don’t know they exist. And our leaders can’t hide the truths we shine a light on.
So give what you can, or give what you want.
But please, give something.
You can contribute with just a few clicks by using PayPal. Or by using the using the Zelle feature that came with the banking app that’s probably already on your smartphone; just send your contribution to ted @ bikinginla.com.
Any donation, in any amount, is truly and deeply appreciated. And will help keep all the best bike news coming your way every day.
If you can’t afford to give anything, or just prefer not to, that’s cool too. You’re more than welcome to keep coming back, and contributing to our online community.
But please give if you can, and what you can. Because we can really use the help.
This year especially.
Thank you to Felicia G and theMuirs for their generous contributions to this fund drive even before it officially began.
And as always, a special thanks to Todd Rowell, who came up with the idea for this fund drive in the first place.
One quick note before we get going.
This has been a very hard year for me.
But I have a lot to be grateful for, starting with a self-made job I truly love. And the readers who make it possible.
Because without you, all this would just be empty words in cyberspace.
So thank you, from the bottom of my heart.
Have a warm and loving Thanksgiving, whether you spend it with family, friends or on your own this year. And ride safely, because I want to see you back here when we return next week.
Although you’re more than welcome to return over the weekend, when we kick off the 5th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive.
And the last one that will feature the late, great Corgi as our official spokesdog.
Photo by Nikita Lyamkin from Pexels.
………
Let’s start with some good news today.
The LAPD announced yesterday they’ve made an arrest in the Silver Lake hit-and-run that left a homeless bike rider severely injured last month.
Fifty-two-year old Silver Lake resident Molly Jane Hoene was taken into custody at a relative’s home in Palm Springs around 8 am Tuesday.
Meanwhile, her victim remains hospitalized in stable condition after enduring multiple surgeries.
https://twitter.com/LAPDCTD24/status/1199453879571603457
No word on who, if anyone, will get the $25,000 reward.
………
Los Angeles officials celebrated the official opening of the 1.5-mile Main Street protected bike lane, a near twin of the Spring Street bike lane one block away.
#CD14 hosted a ribbon cutting today for the City's 2nd 2-way bike lane. Complimenting its sister street – Spring St – the 2 streets now form the City's 1st loop of 2-way bike lanes. The two streets together create an almost 2-mile long loop from Cesar Chavez to 9th and Spring St. pic.twitter.com/dVU0qvkrzr
— Jose Huizar (@josehuizar) November 26, 2019
The two-way lane is positioned on the left side of the roadway to avoid conflicts with bus stops and parked cars.
Although whether it will become another parking magnet for movie production trucks and delivery vans, like the lanes on Spring Street, remains to be determined.
KNX radio reporter Margaret Carrero offered a brief look at the new lane.
A look at the City of LA’s 2nd two-way protected bike lane. It runs along the left side of Main Street between 9th and Cesar Chavez. @KNX1070 pic.twitter.com/m2Tqr20YOS
— Margaret Carrero (@KNXmargaret) November 26, 2019
Although not everyone was pleased, as our anonymous correspondent makes clear.
A couple thoughts on the bike lane.
On Saturday, before the Art Crash ride, I gave the new lanes a spin, heading north.
First. The signals. The #¢&ing signals. The bike signals are short, and you will sit there, staring agog at a green pedestrian signal, while the red bike signal mocks you. The fury will be interrupted only by the terror of close left turns by motorists.
Just north of 6th Street, I paused to reflect upon my unplanned nap (and accompanying skull fracture) at the exact location that is now the buffered zone of the new bike lane.
In the northbound Main Street lane at 5th Street, as I sat at an unnecessarily long red, thinking unkind thoughts about our traffic engineers, a left-turning motorist rolled by within inches of my front wheel. Had there been a bollard there, I imagine she would’ve scraped it, and then blamed me.
Halfway to 4th Street, I parked at the curb to drag a scooter away from its repose in the northbound bike lane. The heavy, ungrateful thing beeped angrily for having its slumber disturbed.
Upon reaching 3rd Street, I whipped left, and hit the brakes, because there’s only one bike lane, and it’s contraflow! There’s no warning about this. No “NO LEFT TURN” or bike-lane specific “ONE WAY ONLY” signage. How does design this dangerous pass review?
So, once you reach 3rd, and you wish to continue westbound, you have to either share the westbound #1 lane with cars, or cross over to the #3 lane, which has a sharrow.
AAAAUUUUGHHHH. It’s like LADOT gave their interns a couple gallons of paint, a couple gallons of whiskey, and free rein.
I want an apology.
………
LA has announced a clean transportation plan designed to reduce the number of cars on the streets.
The Zero Emissions 2028 Roadmap 2.0 aims to drastically cut emissions and traffic in time for the 2028 LA Olympics, through a shift to electric cars and buses, micromobility, and yes, bicycles.
L.A. has a reputation as a car-dependent city. But the city also now has the country’s most ambitious plan for cutting emissions from transportation. In less than a decade, it wants the majority of new cars to be electric and all city buses to be electric—and it wants 20% of trips that currently happen in single-occupancy cars to shift to public transportation or active transportation like biking.
Good luck with that.
According to the plan, in just nine years, Los Angeles will have a complete fleet of electric buses, and 30% of the cars on the street will be electric.
Then there’s this.
Expanding micromobility can also help; a recent report in Santa Monica found that 49% of the trips that people were taking on electric scooters and shared bikes were replacing short trips that otherwise would have happened in cars. Some projects now are working to expand access to micromobility in neighborhoods that don’t have many options. Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator, for example, is running a pilot with a nonprofit building a solar-powered e-bike share project in the community of Huntington Park. (Other pilot projects are expanding access to electric car sharing in low-income neighborhoods; if residents use that option instead of owning cars themselves, they also may be likely to drive less.) Designing streets to make it safer to ride a bike—such as a two-way protected bike lane that was installed in downtown L.A. earlier this year—is also a key part of helping people shift away from cars.
As usual, the question is whether there will be any follow through this time.
Unlike, say, the city’s stagnant Vision Zero plan. Or the dust-ridden 2010 bike plan, or the equally ignored Mobility Plan 2035 it was subsumed into.
Or any number of other plans that were announced with great fanfare, and quickly forgotten because our elected leaders lacked the political will to actually implement them.
So we’ll see.
But considering they only have nine years to accomplish this massive transformation of the city’s streets, they’d damn well better get started.
………
The Bike League issued their biennial ranking of the nation’s most bicycle friendly states — with California coming in a surprising 4th, behind Washington, Oregon and Minnesota.
Although it’s clear from the state’s individual report card that there’s a lot of room for improvement.
Starting with convincing Gavin Newsom to sign the next Complete Streets bill that crosses his desk, after vetoing it this year.
………
Now that’s more like it.
Australia’s New South Wales state gets serious about distracted driving by installing new high-def cameras to catch cellphone using drivers in the act; violators will be subject to a $344 fine and five points against their license.
We desperately need these in California, where the view from a bike seat makes it seem like every other driver is holding their phones.
I was briefly in touch with the company behind these cameras, before losing their emails during my drug-addled post-surgical state earlier this year, who said they’re working to bring them to the state.
It was founded by a friend of James Rapley, the Australian man tragically killed by a stoned driver while riding a rented bike on Temescal Canyon just days before Christmas in 2013.
Personally, I can’t think of a better memorial to Rapley than legalizing them in the state where he died.
………
This is what a dooring looks like.
Watch the right side of the street just two seconds in.
To make matters worse, the police apparently ticketed the victim because he wasn’t riding in the bike lane, even though he was barely conscious.
And even though drivers or their passengers are usually at fault for dooring anyone, because they’re required to only open a car door when it’s safe to do so and doesn’t interfere anyone, and only leave it open as long as necessary to exit the vehicle.
Which this driver clearly failed to do.
………
Yes, handicapped people can ride bikes. Despite what angry NIMBYs insist at bike lane public meetings.
Ian Tallach has significantly restricted mobility as a result of MS.
Find out how having an e-trike through the @WheelNessInv project has helped him reclaim his freedom: https://t.co/1Z8psrLdbH pic.twitter.com/mgxyTaaJ4D
— Cycling UK (@WeAreCyclingUK) November 26, 2019
………
A Chinese bike rider was very lucky to survive when he was struck in the head by an overturning truck in an extremely cringe-inducing crash.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDmWf-dmizg
………
Every student at a St. Louis elementary school got a new bicycle and helmet, thanks to two men who had visited earlier in the year for a safety fair.
A pair of Florida Good Samaritans bought a new bicycle for the son of a Florida firefighter after the one he rode every day was stolen.
Lime announced they will match all donations made through their Lime Hero program between Thanksgiving and next week’s Giving Tuesday.
………
South Pasadena passed its $204,000 citywide bicycle parking plan.
Caltrans admits its current policies aren’t working, and commits to determining how much additional traffic new projects will generate.
Apparently, gang violence even happens in small towns, as a bike rider was the victim of a drive-by shooting in rural Sanger. And no, I didn’t know where that is, either.
Work off those Thanksgiving carbs and calories with a turkey-shaped bike route around San Francisco.
Streetsblog SF shines a light on a trench that turns into a booby trap for bike riders whenever it rains.
A Sonoma County man riding his bike with five outstanding arrest warrants learned the hard way that he can’t outrun a police dog.
He gets it. A writer for the libertarian website Reason says even though he was in a wreck while riding an e-scooter, he doesn’t want them banned, because the real danger is people in cars.
Singletracks goes behind the scenes with mountain biking Sketchy Trails artist Kristina Wayte.
A researcher says Denver kids don’t walk or bike to school because the city’s streets are so dangerous no one wants to walk or bike in them in the first place.
A self-described lifelong bicyclist in Austin TX wonders if it’s time to require licenses for bike riders. Short answer, no — for a very long list of reasons.
A bike-riding Kansas City photographer uses her Instagram account to encourage other women to take off on solo adventures.
The Second City gets New York’s seconds, as hundreds of Big Apple bikeshare ebikes were stripped of the defective electric components that caused them to randomly burst into flames, then converted to regular bikes and shipped to Chicago for their bikeshare system; both programs are operated by Lyft.
The Daily News looks at New York Mayor De Blasio’s call for bike and pedestrian mayors, otherwise known as an Office of Pedestrians and an Office of Active Transportation; Streetsblog explains why they’re necessary.
A Georgia city goes beyond state law by passing a vulnerable users ordinance that increases penalties for drivers who hit or threaten bike riders or pedestrians. Or skate boarders, motorcyclists or scooter riders, for that matter.
Mark your calendar for International Bike Shop Day on December 7th. If any SoCal bike shops are participating, drop me an email and I’ll be happy to mention it.
Bike Radar examines the best bike saddles for the coming year.
Your next handlebars could warn you when drivers are sneaking up from behind. Or barelling straight at you.
A Canadian mountain biker describes how he celebrated his 45th birthday by fighting off a grizzly bear with nothing but his bike and a tiny Buck knife.
Business is booming at Vancouver bike shops, as commuters look for alternatives in preparation for today’s transit strike.
Once again the Mounties get their man. Or men, as they bust a pair of prolific British Columbia bike thieves.
Treehugger says Toronto offers a lesson in how not to do Vision Zero. To which Los Angeles replies, hold my beer.
Business owners on a Montreal street complain about a bike lane pilot project that replaced 275 parking spaces over the summer, saying their business was down $5,000 a month, although they don’t say if that was an average of all the businesses or collectively. Instead of complaining, maybe they should do something to entice the 800 riders who pass by on the bike lanes each day to stop and come in.
British police are cleared of wrongdoing for the death of a bike rider during a high-speed pursuit after the burglar being chased backed into a 75-year old man.
The Irish Times says ebikes are still a workout and not an effortless romp.
No trademark issues here. An Aussie startup wants to get delivery workers out of their cars and onto the company’s Bolt Bikes rental ebikes. Not to be confused with Usain Bolt’s bright yellow Bolt scooters, which got here first.
Cycling News asks the burning question of whether WorldTour cyclists should use dropper seatposts to reduce the risk from high speed descents.
America’s last remaining Tour de France winner says receiving a Congressional Gold Medal is the biggest honor of his career.
Transgender cyclist Philippa York insists the idea that trans people are going to take over women’s sport is absolutely ridiculous.
Always wear your bike helmet when you rob a bank. If you never learned to ride a bike in 84 years, a stationary cycling challenge is probably for the best.
And spreading kindness and carbs with free bike-borne bread deliveries.
It’s a light news day as we lead into the actual holiday season. As opposed to the one that started shortly before Halloween.
So let’s all remember to ride safely and defensively the next few days.
And try to keep it that way.
………
Eric Solomon sends word that Los Angeles officials appear to be doing their best to make the protected bike lanes on Spring Street in DTLA a little less safe.
I noticed that some of the bollards on the Spring Street Bike lane have been removed from the edge of intersections, allowing cars turning left to cut through the bike lane rather than make their turn from the middle of the intersection.
After all, you wouldn’t want to inconvenience motorists a little just to improve safety for people who aren’t encased in a few tons of glass and steel.
Right?
Update: Solomon reports today that the bollards have been replaced.
………
Los Angeles Walks will honor leading walking advocates at their annual soirée next month, with tickets starting at $150.
How do we create safe, accessible, fun, and equitable streets? When everybody does their part! Learn more about the outstanding #SafeStreets champions we are honoring at our 2019 #SidewalkSoiree. Tix: https://t.co/HLbbiv14D0 pic.twitter.com/YkQo7gxLVV
— Los Angeles Walks (@LosAngelesWalks) November 26, 2019
………
It looks like the striking new bike and pedestrian suspension bridge over the Los Angeles River is finally open.
Yesssss. First time on my new favorite bridge. pic.twitter.com/ivYtrJBYBH
— BikeLosFeliz (@bike_los) November 26, 2019
………
That feeling when you need the entire road for your oversized vehicle.
"How much f*cking room do you need?" Says man driving full size SUV. (1/3) pic.twitter.com/PVHMj21ACj
— DesplainesBikeLane (@DesplainesBkLn) November 25, 2019
………
Oklahoma City volunteers built 1,400 bicycles for children in need.
Nashville’s Toys for Tots program ensured over one thousand kids will get a new bike for the holidays.
The generous owners of an English bike shop gave a new bike to a 13-year old autistic boy, after the one he used to strengthen his hips and legs following surgery was stolen while his family was away.
………
An Ontario, Canada driver discovers he can skip traffic by using a curb-protected bike lane that’s a perfect fit for his SUV.
Cal State San Marcos police are looking for a man who exposed himself and jerked off in front of a pair of women, before riding off on a bicycle.
Talk about instant karma in action. Police in Corpus Christi TX are looking for a man who rode his bike up to a woman and snatched her purse, then crashed into a truck as he made his getaway; he ran off, leaving his bike and gun behind.
Seriously, how big an asshole do you have to be to give another bike rider a punishment pass?
………
No news is good news, right?
Still more sad news from Northern California, where a homeless man was killed when he was struck by several drivers while riding on a freeway in Richmond; at least one of the drivers fled the scene. As with other similar cases recently, there’s no explanation for why he was riding there.
A Sonoma columnist says the $20 million it took to build a new protected pedestrian and bicycle lane on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge was money well spent to fight climate change.
Hundreds of Chico bike riders raided thrift stores or their grandparent’s closets to turn out for this year’s Tweed Ride. Even if the local paper had to explain what tweed is.
A Buddhist “Monk on a Bike” is riding westward across the US after riding across the country in the opposite direction last year, in an effort to connect with the spirit of America and call attention to Alzheimer’s disease, which recently took his father’s life.
Good news for randonneurs, as a new 10-year study shows extreme exercise — working out 35 hours a week — doesn’t create any additional heart risks.
The Seattle Times calls on Washington lawmakers to require bike helmets for everyone, saying the benefits are unquestioned. Even though numerous studies have questioned the benefits of mandating helmets. And no, bike helmets aren’t the equivalent of seat belts.
The man who killed a Mesa AZ bike rider in 2006 was finally arrested, 13 years after fleeing to Mexico.
A Tucson man has built his own interactive website to help bike riders find safe and quiet routes to ride.
A Denver bike advocate rebuts a pair of op-eds from a Koch-funded pro-driving group that say the best way to fight traffic congestion and pollution is to just keep putting more cars on the roads.
The local Buffalo NY newspaper says a battalion of lobbyists are pushing for the governor to sign a bill that would allow dockless ebikes and e-scooters in the state. Then again, so are countless average New Yorkers, who simply want to use them.
New York is getting a bike mayor — and a pedestrian mayor. Which is two more than we have in ostensibly progressive Los Angeles.
I still want to be like him when I grow up. As promised, a Florida pastor celebrated his 82nd birthday by riding his age; he’s put 30,000 miles on his bike since he bought it 14 years ago.
Evidence continues to grow refuting the belief that ebikes are cheating, as studies show they give you the same physiological benefits as regular bikes.
A tech entrepreneur says the future of the bicycle industry is using bikes, rather than owning them.
Toronto pedestrian advocates are up in arms after police gave seniors reflective armbands to keep them safe at night, instead of doing something to improve safety on the streets.
The ebike revolution is passing by Northern Ireland because the country has failed to reclassify them like the rest of the UK did; current law classifies them as mo-peds instead of bikes, requiring additional tax, insurance and a license.
This is why people keep dying on the streets. Despite calling him “intemperate and reckless,” an Irish judge let a road raging Dublin man walk with probation and a fine for deliberately running down a bike rider — even though the driver had six previous convictions.
Outside takes a deep dive into the story of Jay Austin and Lauren Geoghegan, the American bike tourists on an around the world journey who were murdered by terrorists in Tajikistan two years ago, after 369 days on the road. The pair have been posthumously, and unfairly, ridiculed in some quarters for their positive outlook and faith in humanity.
After an Australian drunk driver ran down a bike rider, instead of checking on the victim or calling the Down Under equivalent of 911, he stood next to his car and texted his sister to call a good lawyer; he apparently found one, since the judge sentenced him to just three years behind bars.
Former male pro cyclist Philippa York says transitioning to a woman after she retired taught her about transphobia and homophobia in the sport.
If you happen to be carrying a bomb in your backpack, try not to break any bike laws.
And you’re not a real bike mechanic until you can forge your own bike parts out of aluminum cans over an open fire.
I doubt I have to tell you Thanksgiving is coming.
Which means the unofficial holiday dedicated to worshiping unbridled consumerism and spending will inevitably follow, as day follows night, and doping allegations follow cyclists.
Which is why a writer for Outside clues you in on tested and approved Black Friday deals for bike riders.
But seriously, screw Black Friday.
Get out and ride your bike instead, to burn off that Thanksgiving dinner and restore some semblance of post-holiday sanity, then go spend some money at your local bike shop the next day for Small Business Saturday.
Maybe you’ll find some of these things to kick off your holiday shopping.
Speaking of which, a few years back, David Kool, owner of Santa Monica Mountains Cyclery, wrote what remains the best explanation I’ve seen for why supporting your local bike shop matters.
Because it does.
Photo by Michael Gaida from Pixabay.
………
A surprising common theme today: Ebikes and the clergy.
Starting with a Sacramento nun who combines her love of bicycling with her vocation to serve those in need, riding her ped-assist adult tricycle to perform outreach to the homeless.
Then there’s this Brooklyn priest, who’s nearly as evangelical about his ebike as he is the church.
………
Carry this one with you to your next public meeting, when someone will inevitably insist that handicapped people can’t ride bicycles.
Next time someone suggests cycling is solely for the fit and able bodied, send them one of our photos.
“The only reason we believe cycling is simply not possible for disabled people is because we have designed that kind of cycling out of our roads and streets.” – @AsEasyAsRiding pic.twitter.com/EcdshaanpW
— Melissa & Chris Bruntlett (@modacitylife) August 27, 2019
………
This one from Spain is scary as hell. And naturally, the driver flees the scene afterwards.
https://twitter.com/Bicicleto_ZGZ/status/1198664909153812489
Maybe they forgot to make eye contact.
Let’s just hope the victim is okay.
………
It’s our first ‘Tis the Season of this year’s holiday season.
And more than one.
The bighearted owners of a Santa Maria gym are raising funds for a bike rider who’s learning to walk again after losing the use of his arms and legs in a bicycling crash.
Around a thousand volunteers turned out in San Jose on Saturday to build 2,400 bikes as holiday gifts for low income kids.
Tennessee community members turned out in force to raise $2,000 to buy an adaptive tricycle for a four-year old kid suffering from an extremely rare gene disorder.
It’s not unusual for a cop to make a woman cry. Except in this case, it was a kindhearted Louisville KY cop who dug into his own pocket to buy her a new bicycle, just 20 minutes after she told him the bike she used as her only form of transportation had been stolen.
A Louisville KY radio station held its annual bike collection drive and bike build to ensure around 2,000 children will have a happy holiday season.
………
A Birmingham, England bicyclist became just the latest victim of that country’s recent anti-bike terrorist fad of pushing people off their bikes from a passing car, shattering his arm and destroying his bicycle in the process.
………
Government Technology says the recent CoMotion LA conference pushed attendees to rethink the nature of mobility in a city with fewer cars.
LAist explains how Santa Monica brought order to the city’s e-scooter chaos.
The San Diego Association of Governments, aka SANDAG, is giving you a chance to put you money where your passion is, offering $3,000 mini-grants for “local programs and organizations that encourage people to choose biking as their main form of transportation.”
San Diego could be the next landing spot for Brooklyn-based Revel’s dockless, Vespa-style mo-peds; one EPA scientist says “I hope Revel users have signed their organ donor cards.” Because that sort of extreme safety judgement is exactly what the EPA does, right?
A San Diego family estimates they’ve saved as much as $150,000 by trading their cars for bikes and transit.
The annual Eroica California vintage bike ride will return to Cambria next April — assuming it can find a new home.
San Francisco’s new transportation chief wants to create a city where cars are no longer king.
Berkeley is working on its own Vision Zero plan, with a goal of eliminating traffic deaths and injuries by 2028.
Sad news from Sacramento, where a homeless bike rider was killed by a hit-and-run driver, who may have been seen swerving all over the road.
Once again forgetting the lessons of induced demand, a Sacramento-area highway project would remove bike lanes from a causeway to widen I-80, replacing them with a separate bike/ped crossing. Thanks to Megan Lynch for the tip.
Somehow we missed this one, as The Verge ranks the transportation modes in the Wizard of Oz; surprisingly, the bicycle came in second behind the ruby slippers. Personally, I would have gone with the witch’s flying broom. And maybe toss in a few of those flying monkeys, too.
Arizona’s annual El Tour de Tucson rolled on Saturday with nearly 6,000 participants, including former congresswoman and gunshot survivor Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, former astronaut and possible future senator Mark Kelly. Another participant was riding after suffering multiple skull fractures and a collapsed lung last year while training for the ride.
The newly elected mayor of Lewiston, Maine, hit a woman walking in a crosswalk with his van two weeks before the election. So naturally, it’s people riding a bicycle and a scooter in the bike lane who get the blame.
A Manhattan bike messenger shares a bike rider’s view of the streets after getting $240 worth of tickets for riding though a yellow light.
A Long Island writer tells the tale of Mile-A-Minute Murphy, who set the first bicycling world speed record by riding 61 miles an hour while drafting — and crashing into — a train.
DCist tries to crack the city’s #2 case, talking with a repeat poop smearer to try to answer why someone has been smearing crap of unknown origin on bikeshare bikes and scooters for the last few weeks.
Los Angeles continues to fall further behind the rest of the country, as Washington, DC commits to building 20 miles of protected bike lanes over the next three years.
Chris Pratt is one of us, going for a “brisk” Atlanta bike ride with semi-famous wife Katherine Schwarzenegger.
Palm Beach FL authorities make an extremely belated arrest in a six-year old case where a driver killed a homeless vet riding a bicycle, while traveling at twice the speed limit. And tried to let the woman he was with take the blame. Be forewarned, this was a horrifying crash, and the story gives a graphic description of it.
Travel & Leisure says cities around the world are cracking down on e-scooters; CNN agrees, saying scooters could be running into serious trouble, in part because they disproportionately affect people with disabilities.
Cyclist says don’t let winter weather keep you from riding. Especially here in LA, where temperatures sometimes drop all the way into the 60s. Brrrrr.
Game of Thrones star Kit Harrington is credited with saving a woman’s bike from thieves, noticing she’d left it unlocked and carrying it into the pub where she worked.
There’s a special place in hell for anyone who would steal a ghost bike; a British Columbia writer found a stolen ghost bike that had been stripped of its wheels, not far from where the victim had been killed.
A British Columbia city councilor says forget drive-thrus, what the world really needs is a few good bike-thru restaurants because bicycles run on calories.
I come across a lot of horrible news, but this is the worst I’ve seen in years, as heartless Toronto motorists continued to drive around a hit-and-run victim as she lay dying in the street next to her bicycle.
Life is cheap on Canada’s Prince Edward Island, where a speeding driver got a whole two years behind bars for killing a bike rider — despite driving 25 mph over the speed limit, fleeing the scene and reeking of alcohol when police found him hiding under a house five hours after the crash.
File this one under you’ve got to be kidding. A Scottish police chief says close passes by motorists aren’t a problem, and it makes more sense to target people on bicycles because drivers aren’t causing any wrecks. Meanwhile, councilors in another Scottish city insist the real problem is those damned inconsiderate bicyclists who ride two abreast, just because they don’t want to get killed or anything.
A British man went to the market to buy some cat food, and left with someone else’s bicycle — then someone else stole it from him four days later.
A Cork, Ireland dealer will take your car in trade for a new ebike. Speaking of Santa Monica Mountains Cyclery, they beat that by seven years, working with the car dealer across the street to accept cars in trade for a new bicycle.
India’s Congress Party promises a job for every family in one state, along with a free bicycle for every girl whose family earns less than 10,000 rupees a month — the equivalent of $139.
Sometimes just riding a bike is cheating. A woman has received a lifetime ban from the Shanghai Marathon for using a man’s number and riding a bicycle instead of completing the race on foot.
French pro Elie Gesbert was lucky to escape without any major injuries when he became just the latest cyclist to be hit by a driver while training.
If you’re going to ride drunk, try not to get in a crash with a police car. Who doesn’t need a Vogue-designed Shinola bike?
And no, the bicycle wasn’t invented in ancient India some 1,800 years before the first European velocipedes.
Yet another SoCal bike rider has lost his life to a hit-and-run driver.
According to multiple sources, the victim was struck by a driver at 11:52 Saturday morning on the 1600 block of La Honda Drive, just below the entrance to the Daley Ranch Recreation Area.
Reports indicated he was headed south on the narrow street with a group of other riders when he was hit head-on by the driver of a dark colored Toyota sedan, who continued without stopping.
The victim, identified only as a 36-year old Vista resident, died at the scene before rescuers could arrive.
Police later found the heavily damaged car abandoned half a mile away, on the 600 block of Aster Street.
They note the victim was wearing a helmet; clearly, it was not enough to save his life.
Meanwhile, the San Diego Union-Tribune absurdly reports that police don’t know if the driver was under the influence. Which is probably true, considering they don’t even know who was behind the wheel.
Anyone with information is urged to call Officer Adan Martinez of the Escondido Police Department at 760/839-4465.
This is at least the 68th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year; remarkably, it appears to be just the third in San Diego County.
It’s also the 23rd fatal hit-and-run I’m aware of involving a bike rider since the first of this year.
Update: The victim has been identified as 36-year old Vista resident Kevin Lentz; the former mountain bike racer leaves behind his wife and one-year old son.
The driver reportedly was traveling at a high rate of speed on the wrong side of the road, after rounding a blind curve.
A crowdfunding page has raised nearly $52,000 in just one day.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for Kevin Lentz and his family and loved ones.
Thanks to Phillip Young for the heads-up.
Once again, someone got behind the wheel after having too much to drink.
And once again, an innocent person paid the price.
According to KCBS-2/KCAL-9, the victim was riding his bike west on West Adams Blvd near South Redondo Blvd in LA’s West Adams neighborhood around 3 am this morning when he was run down from behind.
KTLA-5 places the location of the crash one block west on West Adams near South Cloverdale Ave.
After hitting him, the 20-something driver continued on to smash into a parked car.
The victim, described only as a 60-year old man, died at the scene. Police note that he was not homeless, despite the early morning hour.
They also say the area is well-lighted and not considered dangerous for people on bicycles, and that the victim had lights on his bike; video from the scene clearly shows front and rear blinking lights.
Which means there was no excuse for taking the life of an innocent human being.
As if there ever is.
This is at least the 67th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the 30th that I’m aware of in Los Angeles County; half of those deaths have occurred in the City of Los Angeles.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for the victim and his loved ones.
Thanks to John Damman for the heads-up.
Evidently, conservatives are expected to be totally cool with people needlessly dying on our streets.
At least according to a writer for the National Review.
He — and of course it’s a he — takes issue with Elizabeth Warren’s tweet decrying traffic violence on last Sunday’s World Day of Remembrance for Traffic Crash Victims.
“Traffic violence” is quite a phrase. In the end, it may be all that anyone remembers of Warren’s decreasingly persuasive but increasingly eccentric campaign. In this bold new framing, cars are not the principal way Americans get around, with fatalities being an unfortunate but blessedly rare occurrence (one per 100,000,000 vehicle miles traveled, a rate that is down more than 80 percent in my lifetime). No, to Warren, cars are instruments of violence like, I don’t know, nunchucks or fuel-injected guillotines, and so she issues her clarion tweet to #EndTrafficViolence. So, right now, November 18, 2019, “it’s time” for us to zero out deaths from cars? How? On what planet?
He concludes with this brilliant observation.
Down here in America, where almost nobody has ever doubted that the benefits of motorized transportation have more than justified the various costs, even when the chance of getting killed in a car was 20 times higher than it is today, I’d say cars have a much brighter future than Elizabeth Warren’s White House bid.
Never mind that an estimated 36,750 lost their lives on American roadways last year. And that traffic deaths are going up for anyone not safely ensconced in a few tons of glass and steel, surrounded by numerous safety devices not afforded to the rest of us.
Or that countless Americans, and a number of American cities, are working to bring that death toll down to zero.
And the future of automobiles is in question, thanks to rising traffic congestion, inefficiency and climate change.
So I hope he enjoyed his laugh at Warren’s expense. And pray that no one he loves loses their life to traffic violence.
Or anyone else, for that matter.
Meanwhile, City Lab looks at the progress, or lack thereof, for several major cities who were early Vision Zero adapters.
Including Los Angeles, which continues to set the standard for lack of progress.
Photo by Netto Figueiredo from Pixabay.
………
Active SGV is going to be busy this weekend, with a ride to the first holiday event of the season.
https://twitter.com/ActiveSGV/status/1197611136914464772
That will be followed with a ride to examine proposed South Pas bike parking tomorrow.
https://twitter.com/ActiveSGV/status/1197557870847389697
………
The next Metro BEST ride will roll to CSUN two weeks from tomorrow.
Mark your calendars. Our next #MetroBEST ride will be Saturday Dec. 7, Valley Roll to CSUN! Ride will include a stop & brief presentation on the proposed NSFV BRT corridor. And a film fest at the end? How can you NOT sign up?!! https://t.co/os36AFW0ao #bikeLA pic.twitter.com/igfUmJAkAy
— BikeLA (@heybikela) November 21, 2019
………
Robert Leone forwards word that this week’s closure of San Diego’s Rose Canyon Bike Path was postponed due the Wednesday’s rain.
Due to forecasted inclement weather conditions this week, the full closure of the Rose Canyon Bike Path originally scheduled for Tuesday, November 19, has been postponed and rescheduled for December. The path will remain open this week. The rescheduled closures are anticipated as follows:
Beginning Tuesday, December 3, there will be a temporary full closure of the Rose Canyon Bike Path as crews pave the final section of the newly constructed permanent bike path. The full closure will begin at 6 a.m. on Tuesday, December 3, and will be in place for approximately four days.
More information is on the mid-coast website, click here. During the closure, and as was planned prior, Mid-Coast Trolley crews will facilitate a “bus bridge,” which will include bicycle-carrying capable vans, to transport cyclists and pedestrians around the closure area. Signage will be in place to direct cyclists. The bike path is anticipated to reopen by 6 p.m. on Friday, December 6. As always, we appreciate your patience! Thank you.
My apologies for the late notice, after I lost his email for a few days.
Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.
………
Maybe Artificial Intelligence isn’t going to replace bike racing scribes anytime soon, after all.
………
A Cleveland teenager faces charges for punching a bike rider in the head and knocking him cold, in an apparently random attack.
Tacoma WA police are looking for the bike-riding bandit who needlessly blew off a carjacking victim’s foot with a double-barelled shotgun after he had already given up his car.
………
No news is good news, right?
San Diego approves new regulations shutting down dockless bikes and scooters after midnight.
Palm Springs police have released a description of the suspect vehicle in last month’s hit-and-run that took the life of Raymundo “Ray-Ray” Jaime as he was riding his bike; police are looking for a 2008-2012 dark-colored Chevrolet Malibu with likely front-end damage. Thanks to Victor Bale for the heads-up.
Congratulations to San Luis Obispo for their new status as a gold level Bicycle Friendly Community.
Sad news from San Jose, where a bike rider was left to die alone in the street by a heartless hit-and-run driver.
Speaking of San Jose, the city shows Los Angeles how it’s done, installing ten miles of quick-build protected bike over the past year for just $1.5 million.
Not only is San Francisco’s new transportation boss one of us, he’s an advocate for increased density, opposes free parking and parking minimums, and prefers automated buses over self-driving cars.
That didn’t take long. Just weeks after the Trump administration approved a policy allowing ebikes on government trails, equestrians have filed suit to block e-mountain bikes from the Tahoe National Forest.
The Smithsonian takes a long look back, comparing the resistance to e-scooters to the backlash over the first bicycles.
Bicycling recommends the best men’s and women’s bike shoes. Personally, I’m holding out for a good pair of cleated wingtips. Or maybe cowboy boots.
Action cam maker GoPro is finally returning to its roots, after its attempts to diversity crashed faster than its failed drones.
Five bike-friendly bars for your next trip to Tucson. You’re welcome.
Utah police literally ran down a woman suspected of riding a stolen bicycle, dragging her 40 feet beneath the patrol car; remarkably, she didn’t suffer any major injuries, despite ending up pinned beneath the car with her ankle behind her ear. The cops swear it was just an oopsie, even though the officer behind the wheel is no longer with the department.
Denver’s docked bikeshare service is pulling the plug on the system in January. Or maybe not, if they can get a new vendor.
A Missouri letter writer says the law should be changed to ban bikes on highways after dark. Or you could just, bear with me here, slow and pay more attention when you drive at night. And lower the damn speed limits while you’re at it.
Wisconsin ebike riders aren’t breaking the law anymore, after the governor signed a bill legalizing them.
No bias here. After a Minneapolis bike rider was fatally right hooked by a truck driver, police say he was the one who struck the truck. Note to WCCO-4 — If police are blaming the victim for striking the truck, it’s a pretty good indication they don’t think the victim was stopped.
This is who we share the roads with. Country music star Sam Hunt was busted for driving salmon in Nashville with a BAC over twice the legal limit. And I’m not crazy about his music, either.
A Massachusetts woman goes to Germany with her family, and discovers bicycling is the go-to mode for running everyday errands.
There’s a special place in hell for the New York State condo board that ordered a four-year old boy to stop riding his tricycle in the complex. Never mind that the kid is the only Latino child in the development.
Bighearted New Jersey bike riders will ride eleven miles to donate frozen turkeys to a community food bank for people struggling with hunger.
A 1.4-mile multi-modal trail is connecting Baltimore neighborhoods for the first time since they were severed by a highway project.
Just months after Atlanta stiffened fines for drivers who park in bike lanes, they’re letting offenders get off the hook with a parking scofflaw diversion program.
A kindhearted deputy bought a new bicycle to replace a 12-year old Florida boy’s stolen bike, after noticing he’d stopped riding it to school.
A grieving letter writer calls on Florida to place protective barriers between roadways and bike lanes to prevent more needless deaths like her heartbroken daughter’s fiancé, who was killed last week by a hit-and-run driver while doing everything right.
How to live a vegan lifestyle without adversely affecting your bicycling.
Nothing like a four-wheeled, $19,000, fully enclosed, ped-assist ebike to keep out of the rain. Or you could just save around $18,900 and buy some decent rain gear, without looking quite so ridiculous.
Popular Mechanics — yes, it’s still around — explains how a Mexican engineering student turned a personal project into a handmade bamboo bike company, combining his passions for bicycling and sustainable living.
An Ontario, Canada website explains how installing safe bike lanes improves safety for everyone else on the road, too. As well as making the community healthier and more prosperous.
The founder of Britain’s Black Cyclists Network says his recent run-in with police — where he was ordered to move his bike to an unsafe spot, then stopped and searched because he allegedly “smelled like marijuana” — says a lot about how the general public views bicyclists.
Life is cheap in Australia, where the driver who killed 23-year old rising pro cyclist Jason Lowndes just moments after texting her boyfriend walked with a lousy $2,000 fine — just $1,357 US — and community service.
Seriously, every town needs a puppet bike. If you’re going to burglarize a business, don’t make the media make fun of you.
And if you never know when you’re going to need a lampshade.
Even on your wedding day.
Got married last year. Best way to get her to the altar!
byu/eivindtraedal inbicycling
For the third time in less than two years, someone on a bike has been killed on deadly Manchester Blvd.
This time in Inglewood.
According to KFI Radio, the victim was somehow struck by the driver of a stakebed truck turning right onto eastbound Manchester Blvd from northbound Hindry Ave near LAX around 7:30 yesterday morning.
He was pronounced dead at the scene.
It’s unclear which street the victim, described only as a Hispanic male, was riding on.
Based on the limited description, this could have been a right hook collision if the victim was riding on Hindry, or he may have been hit as he was riding in front of the truck on Manchester or just after the driver’s turn.
It’s also possible the driver ignored the No Right On Red sign on Hindry.
The driver remained at the scene. Police have not yet determined if he or she was under the influence.
Anyone with information is urged to call Inglewood Traffic Investigator Ryan Green at 310/412-5134.
This is at least the 66th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the 29th that I’m aware of in Los Angeles County.
His death follows the deaths of an unidentified man on Manchester at South Gramercy Place in February, and Frederick “Woon” Frazier at Manchester and Normandie in April of last year.
Which suggests a serious problem on the entire corridor, whether in Inglewood or Los Angeles, where Manchester is on the city’s High Injury Network.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for the victim and his loved ones.
I might just have to re-evaluate my opinion of my local neighborhood council.
Last night, the Hollywood Hills West Neighborhood Council cast a nearly unanimous vote to reject a proposal to weaken the Yucca Street bicycle friendly street, aka bike boulevard.
Literally the only bike boulevard in Los Angeles. And the only safe east-west route through Hollywood.
In fact, the only vote in favor of the proposal to remove a key traffic diverter came from the person who proposed it.
14-to-1 vote defeated a motion to remove these medians from Yucca / Las Palmas. @bikinginla @BicycleLACity @LADOTSafeRoutes @lacbc @bicyclekitchen pic.twitter.com/aFhQM1UBnR
— M YARBER (@6Chair) November 21, 2019
Here’s the comment that I submitted by email. Thanks to Mary Yarber for sharing it.
Artwork from the British Library’s Mechanical Curator Collection.
………
In other bikeway news, the new two-way Main Street parking protected bike lanes are nearly finished, even if the traffic signals aren’t.
The 2-way protected bike lane on Main St is looking better every day. Keep in mind the signal heads are not functioning if you're riding southbound (the lane is not officially open yet). SB riders keep an eye on those ped signals and be wary of left turning drivers. #bikeLA pic.twitter.com/1cTHOvelwh
— BikeLA (@heybikela) November 21, 2019
………
Today’s common theme is famous people on bikes.
Yes, Justin Bieber is one of us. But that’s not much of a wheelie, although it looks better in the still photo.
San Francisco’s new DOT director is one of us. And that appears to make Bay Area advocates pretty happy.
The great-grandfather of NFL star Rob Gronkowski is one of us in more ways than one, setting an indoor track cycling record in 1920 that stood for over 30 years. And he was fined $25 for punching a driver who ran him off the road. Which can be pretty damn tempting at times.
………
London police are looking for the man who attacked a bus driver with a bicycle, trying to use it to break through the driver’s protective barrier. Although if he’d just ridden it instead, there wouldn’t have been a problem to begin with.
………
Government Technology says Los Angeles is seriously looking into congestion pricing to reduce traffic congestion, and possibly fund free transit use. Then again, riding a bicycle is always free.
What does it mean when Elon Musk’s divorce lawyer moves to a WeHo scooter startup?
North Long Beach is finally getting bikeshare three years after the rest of the city.
The next time a Riverside County man steals a custom-built bicycle, maybe he’ll leave the meth at home.
This is what a Santa Barbara bike thief looks like. Meanwhile, UC Santa Cruz cops bust a bike thief and recover a pair of stolen bikes.
A San Francisco TV station intercedes after a man on a low-income bikeshare plan is fined $430 for losing a bikeshare bike after it was stolen shortly after he rented it, even though the company had already recovered it.
San Francisco approves plans to divert drivers looking for a shortcut off the city’s Page Street.
There’s a special place in hell for whoever drove off after backing out of a parking space without looking, and knocking a 12-year old Weaverville boy off his bike.
In a new study that should concern any parent or coach, researchers found that prompt treatment is the key recovering from a concussion. Yet girls wait longer than boys to seek treatment, delaying their recovery.
Outside recommends the year’s “most exciting” gear for gravel grinding.
Someone stole the gelato bike from a Tulsa OK pizza maker, who was part of a seventh-place American team in the World Pizza Championships; police didn’t waste any time busting the thief after spotting him riding the partially dismantled bike with his dog upfront.
Residents of a small Oklahoma town say trading downtown parking for bike lanes would mean the end of Halloween and visits from the grandkids. No, really.
Bike Snob visits the Arkansas hometown of Walmart, calling it the Disneyland of mountain biking. Which makes suggests you’ll have to stand in line for an hour for a five to ten minute ride.
Chicago bike advocates say the city needs safer streets and protected bike lanes now, arguing that most residents don’t have access to safe bikeways. If they think Chicago is bad, just wait until they see Los Angeles.
A Louisville KY bike shop owner wants to replace a rotting house with a four-story, 24-unit, bicycle-centric, parking-free housing development.
A New York bike rider got a quarter-million dollar settlement after a transit cop knocked him off his bike for the crime of riding it across a bridge instead of walking, suffering multiple foot fractures along with cuts and bruises.
The Philadelphia Marathon is offering a team of bike-riding psychologists to help participants get that extra boost to get across the finish line.
A carfree British Columbia woman is angry after she’s refused service at a donut shop drive-through because she was on an e-cargo bike with her kids instead of ensconced within an SUV.
Life is cheap in Nottingham, England, where a speeding driver walked with community service and a suspended sentence for killing a man riding a bike.
I want to be like him when I grow up. An 82-year old man became the first person in Britain to bike one million miles.
Sweden’s ambassador to The Netherlands says she doesn’t care what the locals do, she’s going to keep wearing her bike helmet like they do back home.
Antwerp, Belgium does its best to imitate Los Angeles, as a drunk, speeding, red light-running, hit-and-run driver crashed into two cars while fleeing the scene after running down a bike-riding woman, before slamming into two more drivers waiting at a red light. His plates were expired, too.
America’s last remaining Tour de France winner advises Egan Bernal, this year’s champ, not to work for four-time winner Chris Froome when he returns to the race next year.
Cyclist considers the best pro cyclists who are retiring this year, including American cycling scion Taylor Phinney.
If you want to rob a pharmacy, maybe a bike seat isn’t the best weapon. Once again, if you’re carrying illegal drugs on your bike, put a damn light on it — and don’t consent to a search, for crying out loud.
And now thieves can steal your bike just by borrowing your face.
