This is what a real punishment pass looks like.
Allyson Vought, the LA Bicycling Advisory Committee representative for Council District 15, forwarded this video to me yesterday.
It’s hard to see from the rear-facing cam, but the driver actually brushes her as he — let’s assume it’s a he — passes as closely as physically possible without actually sending her to the ER.
Or worse.
Which makes it hit-and-run. Not to mention assault with a deadly weapon.
And yes, she reported it to the police; what, if anything, they’ll do about it remains to be seen.
But one thing is clear.
In most cases like this, the driver would simply claim he didn’t see the person on the bike. That won’t work here, since he blared on the horn as he passed, indicating he not only saw her, but wanted her to get the hell out of his way.
And that makes it intentional.
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If you live, work or ride in the San Fernando Valley’s 12th Council District, cancel your plans for tomorrow and attend this transportation town hall instead.
And yes, it’s that important.
Although something tells me regressive short-term incumbent John Lee may skip this one.
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A new Chinese study confirms what we already knew. If you want to get fatter and out of shape, just get a car.
Which means the real health crisis isn’t coronavirus. It’s driving.
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We mentioned last week that Mars Volta and Marilyn Manson bassist Juan Alderete was in a coma after suffering a serious brain injury when he went over the handlebars on his bicycle.
Now a crowdfunding page has been established to help pay his medical expenses, raising over $50,000 of the $250,000 goal in just two days.
Alderete suffered a diffuse axonal injury, despite wearing a helmet; several studies have suggested that bike helmets can contribute to, rather than prevent, that kind of injury.
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Congratulations to Culver City, which voted to protect the lives of children walking or biking to school, after a years-long struggle to improve safety.
Congratulations to @CulverCityGov for approving the plans for the La Ballona Safe Routes to School infrastructure project that includes a 2-way protected bike lane. Time to build this thing already! @SafeRoutesNow @altaplanning @ccusd pic.twitter.com/JgnFQLjy24
— Jim Shanman (@wannapedal) February 4, 2020
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Sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
What an effing waste. A Fresno man is dead because a man riding a bike took offense to his support of the 49ers during Sunday’s Super Bowl, and shot him with a homemade zip gun; police found him hiding in a nearby homeless camp.
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Local
The LA Kings teamed with the Bikes for Kids Foundation to donate new bicycles and helmets to all 65 third grade students at Compton charter school.
State
No bias here. The San Francisco Chronicle highlights the suffering of Bay Area teachers, whose lives would be just dandy if it wasn’t for that darn bike lane on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge. Because apparently, there was no traffic on the bridge before they installed the bike lane as an alternative to driving. And induced demand isn’t a thing.
About damn time. San Francisco’s port authority finally decides that allowing restaurant valets to block bike lanes in the city’s Embarcadero is a bad thing. Which should have been done after a popular pedicab driver was killed two years ago.
In LA, we have to fight to get bike lanes anywhere; in San Francisco, the question is whether Valencia Street should get protected bike lanes or ban cars entirely.
Tragic news from Sacramento, where a woman riding her bike was killed by a heartless coward who fled the scene after Sunday’s crash.
A couple hundred people decided to skip the Super Bowl and ride a NorCal century instead, a Chico tradition since 1981.
National
Yes, ebikes are beginning to infiltrate gran fondos and group rides. I’ve heard of at least one popular group ride that’s been struggling with the issue of whether to allow ebikes for a couple years now.
Seriously, what does it mean when cold and snowy Denver has a Winter Bike to Work Day coming up next week — on Valentines Day, no less — and warm, sunny Los Angeles doesn’t even have one?
A Minnesota professor is trying to improve bike safety by designing a $500 smart bicycle with the sort of $80,000 LIDAR and sensors found on a self-driving car.
After gutting a bill mandating helmet use for bike-riding children, the Indiana legislature revives it to allow a state public safety fund to purchase and distribute helmets to kids. Proving that there are other ways to encourage helmet use besides fining people who ride with bare heads. Hint: The same thing works for bike lights, too.
Speaking of Indiana, an attorney from the state offers tips on what to do before and after getting hit by a car, including always riding with one or more cams on your bike. And if there’s any question why, see the video at the top of this page.
Maybe LA could take a tip from Memphis, which is conducting lane reconfigurations — aka road diets — on six streets to improve safety in the city formerly named the worst bike city in America. Meanwhile Los Angeles, which currently holds that dubious distinction, is currently planning exactly zero.
A New Orleans op-ed makes the case that the city’s docked bikeshare system is a form of public art.
Decatur, Georgia faces a bikelash after a three-year effort to improve bicycle safety and walkability in the Atlanta suburb. Kind of like every other place that’s tried to take an inch of roadway from motorists.
Miami bike advocates call for protected bike lanes instead of a painted green lane on a popular causeway where a woman was killed last year, complaining that the city has done nothing to improve safety following her death.
International
Even in bike-friendly Europe, nearly 20,000 people lost their lives riding bicycles in 28 EU countries in the nine years from 2010 to 2018.
Evidently, the best way for an ordinary Brit to get on American talk show is to buy a stolen bike and track down the owner.
A British man won’t be driving for the next year, after deliberately running a bike rider off the road for the imagined crime of not using a bike lane.
Evidently, the only thing that stinks in Limburg, Belgium is the cheese. Because anyone on a bike can ride along the city’s architectural artworks through a lake and over a forest, past sights including a 19th-century castle and an open-air museum.
According to a German expert, the top two-wheeled trends in Deutschland are ebikes, custom bikes and gravel bikes. Or if you really want to be on trend, just build a custom gravel ebike.
This is who we share the roads with. Horrible news from Australia, where an alleged drunk driver faces 20 charges after jumping the curb and killing four young children, and seriously injuring another; three of those killed were from a single family.
Competitive Cycling
The incomparable Katie “F’n” Compton looks to the future after her 4th place finish at the ‘cross world’s.
Dutch pro Jakob Fuglsang says he ain’t done nothing wrong, despite reports he’s been hanging out with Lance’s preferred doping doc, and the good doc asserts he’s never been convicted of anything. Which is not the same as never being implicated.
Cycling Tips reminisces about the chaotic 2005 Sun Tour, which marked the start of Simon Gerrans rise as a pro, but nearly marked the end of the then 53-year old stage race, which is still going strong.
Finally…
Apparently, golf cart drivers are just like any other drivers. How to create traffic jams on Google Maps with a little red wagon full of cellphones.
And if a Tesla Cyberbike doesn’t exist, just build your own. Thanks to Mike Cane for the link.
At first it looks like a blatant 3 foot violation but upon closer examination we see the cyclist moving left in the intersection in preparation to pass the cyclist we see at the end of the clip. Look where they are relative to the crosswalk stripes upon entering and exiting the intersection.
No matter how good your reason is you don’t get to change your line and move into the path of an overtaking vehicle. That’s a violation of CVC 22107. And for good reason. However, I see even experienced cyclists do this all too often; moving over without even looking back much less signaling and yielding. I think it’s subconscious. They don’t realize their effect on others when they do this.
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22107.
No person shall turn a vehicle from a direct course or move right or left upon a roadway until such movement can be made with reasonable safety and then only after the giving of an appropriate signal in the manner provided in this chapter in the event any other vehicle may be affected by the movement.
I don’t think Ms. Vought’s encounter, as depicted in the video clip above, deserves to be described as a “punishment pass” — and such wild-eyed mischaracterizations as “hit and run” and “assault with a deadly weapon” are just ridiculous. The motorist simply maintained his consistent, already-established lateral position in the wide lane. It was the _cyclist_ who made the tactical mistake (and arguably, the legal error) of a sudden significant leftward shift in position — in this case, to pass another cyclist — apparently without first checking whether she had the room to do so safely… which, in fact, she didn’t. She should’ve either negotiated a momentary position change with the pickup driver _before_ making the lateral move, or waited behind the other cyclist until she could pass safely, perhaps by negotiating a momentary lateral position shift with the driver of the _next_ following MV. This isn’t motorist “assault”, it’s an instance of boneheaded bicycle driving.
Really stupid and dangerous move for the cyclist to pass the truck, who had already passed her, on the right, and then suddenly shift left into the truck’s path.
Phone traffic jam.
We had a similar experience several years ago along a popular bike route in Portola Valley, SF bay area. I was dropping my wife off at a location before heading elsewhere. Google maps showed a traffic jam on the way we were going. Turns out that the popular ride route had many cyclists. Since it was uphill in that direction it showed a traffic back up.
So you three are saying that a driver can do what they want to endanger other road users if they don’t follow the laws exactly?