This is the cost of traffic violence.
Yesterday’s rains drove even more people than usual living on the streets to a San Diego underpass Sunday night, because they had nowhere else to go to seek shelter from the storm.
They paid for it with their lives the following morning when an allegedly impaired driver plowed onto the sidewalk, killing three people and injuring six others, two critically.
Seventy-one-year old Craig Voss arrested for three counts of vehicular manslaughter, as well as five counts of causing great bodily injury while committing a felony, and one count of felony DUI for driving under the influence of drugs.
Police believe Voss was the subject of a call to 911 shortly before the crash reporting a possibly intoxicated driver.
But at least he remained at the scene and attempted to aid the victims.
Beyond the sheer tragedy of three more innocent victims sacrificed on the alter to motor vehicles, it’s heartbreaking that so many people who’ve already lost everything and have to live without a roof over their heads — for whatever reason — aren’t safe along the streets they’re forced to live on.
………
One more sign of the damage done by motor vehicles.
Air quality improved in 84% of country’s worldwide when pandemic lockdowns forced many people to stop driving.
An improvement that will undoubtedly be reversed once businesses open back up and people go back to work.
Especially in places like Los Angeles, where so little was done during the closures to encourage more bike riding, walking and other forms of alternative transportation.
That compares to cities throughout Europe, which are doubling down on their successful efforts to encourage bicycling as a safe form of socially distanced transportation, with 600 miles of “cycle lanes, traffic-calming measures and car-free streets” installed over the last year.
………
Parade Magazine, of all sources, dishes up 50 bicycling quotes to inspire you to get out and ride, including these —
“Everyone in their life has his own particular way of expressing life’s purpose – the lawyer his eloquence, the painter his palette, and the man of letters his pen from which the quick words of his story flow. I have my bicycle.” – Gino Bartali
“Cyclists see considerably more of this beautiful world than any other class of citizens. A good bicycle, well applied, will cure most ills this flesh is heir to” – Dr. K.K. Doty
“When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments.” — Elizabeth West
………
The good news is the city continues to improve safety for bicyclists in DTLA.
The bad is it seems to come at the expense of the rest of the city.
Newly protected bike lane on Figueroa Street in #DTLA – from Wilshire to 2nd – just above MyFig. Includes several new bike signal heads. Thanks @LADOTofficial & @kdeleon! pic.twitter.com/2Zw9bNmZGE
— StreetsblogLA (@StreetsblogLA) March 14, 2021
………
Invest a short 20 seconds of your life to understand the freedom a bike can give someone with a disability.
And how easy it is to take it away.
https://twitter.com/tricyclemayor/status/1371206178944995328
………
I want to be like him when I grow up.
A 77-year old Arizona man turned down his daughter’s offer to take him by car, and rode his bike nearly 50 miles roundtrip to get his Covid vaccine shot.
Although that might be trumped by a much shorter ride from a much older Dutch woman.
This week, 89-year-old Mrs. Wester cycled from her home in Zoetermeer to ADO Stadium for her second COVID-19 vaccination.
The 8-kilometre, 30-minute journey was definitely worth it: "Soon I will be allowed to go to The Hague again. That was so long ago!"https://t.co/OzJza47p4X pic.twitter.com/vVLyVuULhO
— Dutch Cycling Embassy (@Cycling_Embassy) March 12, 2021
………
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
You’ve got to be kidding. Life is cheap in the UK, where a driver with a history of violence walked without a single lousy day behind bars when a judge gave him a suspended sentence for assaulting a young couple who had stopped to fix a flat, first punching the man before knocking the woman down and stomping on her head. Seriously, what the hell are jails for, then?
………
Local
The Los Angeles Bicycle Advisory Committee will hold a virtual joint meeting of the Planning and Bikeways Engineering Subcommittees starting at 1 pm this afternoon.
Spectrum News 1 looks at what’s driving pedaling the ebike boom.
State
Cooler heads prevail in Santa Barbara, where police reject calls to arrest young bike riders — primarily people of color — for riding bikes and performing stunts on the newly installed bike lane on the city’s State Street pedestrian plaza, with police saying they don’t want to “criminalize children for riding bikes.”
The good guys finally won one for a change, as police busted a pair of burglars who broke into a Larkspur bike shop and temporarily made off with seven bikes worth $29,000, after the owner spotted them inside his store on a live security cam.
Napa’s proposed new general plan envisions making the city’s main streets more walkable and bikeable.
National
Planetizen says ending traffic fatalities once and for all isn’t as farfetched as it seems.
That’s more like it. A Nogales AZ man will spend the next seven and a half years behind bars for the hit-and-run death of a bike rider, while he was stoned on meth.
In an unusual move, dozens of volunteers teamed with Houston planning and public works officials to paint a new high-comfort popup bike lane. Maybe that could be a model for Los Angeles to finally end the auto-centric stasis on our streets.
Nine of the 21 candidates for a Queens city council seat took part in a bike ride through the district to examine problems and policies before the upcoming election. For years, the LACBC’s candidate surveys asked people running for city offices if they’d be willing to meet or ride with bicyclists if they were elected; even though most agreed, no one ever asked them to.
If you find yourself riding a bike in New Jersey, keep your hands on the handlebars and your feet on the pedals. And put a damn bell on it.
Biking is booming in the City of Brotherly Love, too.
A Virginia op-ed calls for lowering speed limits to 15 mph to save lives. Although here in Southern California, a 15 mph speed limit means most drivers would still do 25 to 30 mph. But at least that would be an improvement for most drivers, who currently do 35 to 45 in a 25 mph residential zone.
That’s more like it. A North Carolina man got 33 to 49 months behind bars for the November hit-and-run death of a bike rider.
Nice move from bikemaker Subrosa, which gave a new bike to a 15-year old Florida boy whose bicycle was destroyed in a hit-and-run crash; the company teamed with Adventure Cycling to give him the first bike from next year’s line, ensuring it will be a one-of-a-kind bike for the next several months.
Bike riders often spot things drivers don’t. Like a body lying near a Florida bike path, for instance.
International
Cyclist celebrates world bicycle speed record holder Denise Mueller-Korenek as Monday’s inspirational woman.
Gates Carbon Drive promotes a half-dozen new bikes using the company’s belt-drive products.
A neurodivergent Saskatoon, Saskatchewan kid will get a $3,500 adaptive bike back, after a bike thief was busted when he listed the unique bike for sale online.
A Mexico City woman is forging her own way in the traditionally male-dominated custom bicycle scene as the owner of the city’s only woman-run bike shop.
Damn straight. An English op-ed calls for trusting the experts when it comes to bicycling and traffic planning.
Germany’s Rose Bikes joined ranks with Commencal, Propain, Santa Cruz and other bike brands in announcing price increases due to rising costs caused by the pandemic.
Apparently, things are pretty much the same everywhere, as drivers continue to park in Philippine bike lanes, with most of the scofflaw vehicles belong to the government.
Remarkably, an Aussie bike rider was able to bounce back up when a dash cam video catches him in a frightening crash while trying to ride across a street.
Competitive Cycling
Writing for Red Bull, bike scribe Peter Flax profiles multi-time national champ and L39ion of Los Angeles (pronounced “legion”) founder Justin Williams, and his drive to drag cycling into the age of diversity, kicking and screaming if he has to.
Tour de France champion Tadej Pogačar continues to hold the lead after the penultimate stage of the Tirreno-Adriatico race, with Danish cyclist Mads Würtz Schmidt claiming his first WorldTour stage win.
British barrister and time trial specialist Jonathan Parker claims to have shattered the world record for 100 miles, checking in a slant two seconds under two hours and fifty minutes, beating the existing record by eight minutes.
UCI pulled the plug on the season opening Mountain Bike World Cup downhill race after Slovenian health officials urged them to reschedule due to the ongoing pandemic.
A 16-year old Georgia boy’s only goal was to finish the 350-mile Iditarod Trail Invitational fat bike race; instead, he somehow managed to finish third.
Finally…
Turn your body into a mini-electric generator when you ride. Another reminder why your bike should sleep indoors, especially during a massive winter storm.
And maybe this will get drivers to give you a little space.
https://twitter.com/svblxyz/status/1371401312177377280
………
Apropos of that aforementioned winter storm, I love this image from my home state, where the snow is nearly one corgi deep.
How it started How it's going pic.twitter.com/0q9o8pqbjw
— Kyle Clark (@KyleClark) March 14, 2021
Thanks to Dr. Grace Peng for the laugh.
………
Be safe, and stay healthy. And wear a damn mask, already.
