Once again, an alleged Orange County drunk driver fled the scene after slamming into someone on a bicycle.
The Monday night crash in Garden Grove left a man in critical condition with major head trauma.
And yes, the victim reportedly had the right-of-way.
Not that it mattered.
Garden Grove resident Victor Medina was arrested a quarter-mile away when police found his Chevy Suburban with major front-end damage, while Medina showed signs of intoxication.
Anyone with information is urged to call Garden Grove Traffic Investigator Paul Ashby at 714/741-5823.
Let’s hope the victim makes a full and fast recovery.
Image by 4711018 from Pixabay.
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The COVID-19 coronavirus continues to take a toll on this year’s cycling season.
Italian spring classics Strade Bianche, Tirreno-Adratico and Milan-San Remo may be the latest victims of the virus, as reports circulate that they will be cancelled to prevent spread of the disease.
France’s Paris-Nice stage race will go on, but all teams will be tested for exposure to coronavirus.
The Tokyo Olympics could be postponed until the end of the year.
Another six people have tested positive for coronavirus following the cancellation of the UAE Tour. Three teams remain quarantined, while a fourth is in self-imposed isolation.
The annual North American Handmade Bicycle Show has been postponed until August, in hopes that COVID-19 will run its course by then.
And Monterey, California’s annual Sea Otter Classic is still on for now, though organizers are closely monitoring the situation before next month’s event.
Meanwhile, an SFist op-ed suggests working from home and walking or biking everywhere.
In other words, what some of us do every day, anyway. Virus or not.
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A quick reminder that CicLAvia isn’t the only open streets game in town.
March Madness is upon us! Come on down to Beach Streets University where we have entertainment for the entire family. From the trackless train, art installations, rock climbing, live music, BMX demo, and FREE youth skate lessons. March 21st is just around the corner. pic.twitter.com/DkLNE7FsgJ
— Beach Streets (@beachstreetslb) March 2, 2020
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This is who we share the roads with, North Hollywood edition.
https://twitter.com/BENBALLER/status/1235013923193012224
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Local
An “historic” former Silver Lake gas station will presumably be disassembled and moved to a new spot somewhere on the LA River to serve as a concession stand, bike repair and rental station — if an appropriate spot can be found.
Self-driving cars may not be ready for primetime, but WeHo will now allow autonomous Postmates delivery robots on the sidewalks.
Don Ward, Jesi Harris, Shane Phillips and CiclaValley’s Zachary Rynew talk housing and transportation on the latest Bike Talk podcast.
Speaking of Rynew, he’s quickly becoming Southern California’s bard of gravel as he documents Gravel Bike California’s Verdugo Adventure.
State
Kindhearted Paso Robles residents dug into their pockets to buy a new adaptive bicycle for a four-year old girl with a rare genetic disorder.
A Livermore teenager got his hot bike back after police stopped a man who was pushing it while acting strangely.
A new interactive map shows the most dangerous places for bike riders in Santa Clara County. Although Robert Leone questions whether defense lawyers will use it to argue that bicyclists should have known better than to ride there. Or that their clients can’t be guilty, because officials should have fixed the problems right away. Which they should, but still.
A bike helmet handed out a year ago by a Sacramento police detective is credited with possibly saving a young girl’s life in a crash that was investigated by the same officer who gave it to her.
National
A writer for Streetsblog argues that right-of-way laws are where America went wrong.
Residents of a Las Vegas neighborhood want a new bike lane removed because they didn’t see a lot of bike riders riding there before it went in. Which is kind of like saying they didn’t see a lot of cars crossing the desert before the roads were built, either.
Life is cheap in Iowa, where a retired cop walked with a shameful two years probation for the hit-and-run death of a man riding a bicycle. If you ever wonder why people keep dying on our streets, the failure of our court system to hold drivers accountable for killing people — let alone fleeing the scene afterwards — is Exhibit A.
A Licensed Cycling Instructor in Missouri realizes, perhaps belatedly, that bikes are good for transportation as well as recreation.
According to a writer for Streetsblog, alleviating the “financial burden of car ownership” should be part of the Chicago mayor’s plan to end poverty in the city.
A writer in Martha’s Vineyard recalls an 1896 bicycling event that reportedly devolved into a disgraceful, disorderly riot of drunken orgies and property destruction. So in other words, nothing’s changed in the past 124 years.
A Rochester NY public radio station discusses the city’s bike culture and the need to share the road, in the wake of the pizza driver who hit a bike rider, then sued him for damage to his car.
No bias here. A Staten Island op-ed argues that speed cameras placed near schools are just a money grab, because if officials really wanted drivers to slow down, they’d say where the cameras are. That way drivers could slow down for half a block to avoid a ticket, then speed up and resume putting the lives of little kids at risk.
A DC councilmember pulls a proposal for a protected bike lane in the face of opposition from several nearby African American churches.
International
Cycling Weekly suggests making your own environmentally friendly degreaser. Although the greasy gunk it removes won’t be.
After a Swiss round-the-world bicyclist had his $8,000 Surly stolen in New Zealand, a Good Samaritan gave him his own nearly identical bike to finish the ride.
Credit a crash with a bike rider for helping doctors discover a benign brain tumor that had plagued an Australian woman’s health for years.
Here’s another one for your bike bucket list — riding the “roller coaster roads, dirt trails and empty beaches” of southeast Thailand.
Competitive Cycling
Sad news, as former pro Nicolas Portal, director sportif of the Ineos cycling team, died in his home of an apparent heart attack; he was just 40.
Orange County’s Over the Hump mountain bike race series returns on May 5th.
VeloNews looks at San Diego County’s nine-year old Belgian Waffle Ride, calling it a “brutal mix of Liége-Bastogne-Liége and Il Lombardia, only with a heavy dusting of dirt and trail,” while riders describe it as wild ride that defies definition.
Finally…
If you’re carrying stolen salmon filets on your bike, don’t ride that way — and put a damn light on it. If you’re going to ride a stationary bike, you might as well make margaritas while you’re at it.
And as a matter of fact, I have seen a drag queen riding in a bike lane in West Hollywood.
More than once.
The story on the bumper car crash was that the truck hit the BMW before the video, then tried to flee the scene when the BMW driver tried to exchange info. The BMW driver then tried to prevent the pickup driver from fleeing.