There’s a special place in hell for whoever fatally shot a 22-year-old man in South LA Tuesday night — and also shot an eight-year old girl as she was apparently riding past on her bicycle.
Unfortunately, we seem to be going back to the bad old days when shootings were an everyday occurrence in Los Angeles, just like traffic collisions.
And just like traffic violence, innocent people are too often collateral damage. Like an eight-year old girl, who fortunately is expected to survive.
And just like traffic violence, it’s a problem that can be solved, if we all just care enough to do something about it.
Which sadly seems like a very big if these days.
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Bike and pedestrian friendly Westside Councilmember Mike Bonin is just the latest LA official targeted by a recall petition.
And not for the first time.
https://twitter.com/DavidZahniser/status/1404858096426487814
Despite Bonin’s overwhelming popularity, winning 71% of the vote in the 11th Council District in 2017, he has been repeatedly targeted by conservatives who hate his policies, but haven’t been able to beat him at the ballot box.
Whether this latest recall attempt is a genuine effort to get him out of office, or just an attempt to harass and distract him, it seems like a remarkable waste of time and money for someone who will be up for re-election in less than a year.
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No hypocrisy here.
Speaking at yesterday’s meeting of the Los Angeles City Council’s Transportation Committee, outgoing CD5 Councilmember Paul Koretz says hardly anyone uses the bike lanes in his Westside district.
@PaulKoretzCD5 says that bike lanes in his district “you hardly ever see anyone using them” though calls #DTLA bike lanes “heavily used” “smashing success” a “triumph” and says they should be expanded
— StreetsblogLA (@StreetsblogLA) June 15, 2021
That couldn’t possibly have anything to do with Koretz repeatedly blocking bike lanes on Westwood Blvd and other major streets in his district, though.
Could it?
People might be more likely to use them if they were safer and provided more separation from the Westside’s high speed traffic, legal and otherwise.
And if they connected with other safe bike lane in an actual network that could be used to travel throughout the district, rather than a handful of disconnected bike lanes that unexpectedly end, forcing riders to fight their way through heavy traffic.
A failure of planning that can be laid directly at Koretz’s feet, who is clearly all in favor of building bike lanes.
In someone else’s district.
Correction: Call it a poor word choice on my part. The failure was not one of planning, as former LADOT Bicycle Coordinator Michelle Mowery pointed out in the comments yesterday.
I’d like to take issue with your use of the word “planning” in respect to the lack of bikeways on the Westside. It is not “a failure of planning” that the Westside does not have a sufficient bikeway network. What the Westside does not have is enough political will. The planning was done, the funding was available for implementation, and the projects were all blocked by the NIMBYs and sitting elected officials.
She’s right.
I should have known better, because I remember those losing battles all too well. My apologies for unintentionally placing the blame where it doesn’t belong.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
A Michigan bike rider was the latest victim of a driveby paintball shooting, which is a lot less harmless than it might seem.
No bias here. An op-ed in the New York Daily News says “ebike blood” is on the hands of New York’s progressive city council for the crime of finally making it legal to ride an ebike or e-scooter in the city. Then goes on to lump both together, without noting that the injuries and deaths he cites could just as easily have happened with regular bikes or skateboards.
Speaking of which, there’s tragic news from New York, where 65-year old actress Lisa Banes died over a week after she was struck by a hit-and-run rider on an e-scooter.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
A San Francisco man rode his bicycle into a drugstore, dumped a shelf-full of merchandise into a garbage bag, then casually rode his bike out the door.
Cell phone video taken inside a #SanFrancisco Walgreens shows a man packing a garbage bag full of items while multiple people, including security filmed from feet away. Video shows him riding right past them on his bike down the aisle and out the door. https://t.co/llBFeD1cjp pic.twitter.com/9BwSHuTVII
— ABC7 News (@abc7newsbayarea) June 15, 2021
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Local
No news is good news, right?
State
San Diego’s Coast News Group visits North County’s bicycle-themed Rouleur Brewing Company.
SF Gate recommends everything you need to start commuting by bike. Except for the actual, you know, bicycle.
Once again, the bike rider gets the blame, after a 69-year old Sonoma woman suffered major injuries when she allegedly rode her bicycle into the path of a motorist. Which is hard to imagine, since she was riding west and was struck by a driver headed east on the same road; as always, a lot depends on whether there were any independent witnesses to corroborate the driver’s story.
Another tempting road bike route from Sacramento Magazine.
National
How to stop that dreaded tubular tire shimmy. Besides riding clinchers, that is.
Don’t ask me to explain the science. But studies confirm that wider road bike tires are faster than skinnier tires. Thanks to Austin Brown, aka Power Lama, for the link.
Cycling News offers advice on where to buy ebikes, which are in unexpectedly short supply these days.
I want to be like them when I grow up. A group of self-described old fogies, whose ages match the mid-70° Kansas weather, has been meeting for weekly rides for the last ten years, rain, snow or shine.
Twenty-year old Dutch IndyCar racer Rinus VeeKay will miss this weekend’s race in Wisconsin after breaking his clavicle crashing his bicycle on a training ride.
A Cape Cod woman says she may not have a view of the water, but she’s just as happy living next to a bike path.
Good news for Sheldon Brown fans, as the popular bicycle repair website penned by the late bike mechanic will live on, despite the closure of the Boston bike shop where he worked.
Once again, a driver is somehow unable to avoid crashing into a group of bike riders, as one person was killed and another wounded when the driver smashed into a group of four people riding bicycles in Syracuse NY. And once again, fled the scene, leaving his or her victims bleeding in the street.
A helmetless woman died after falling off her bike on a bike path in a Bronx park. Yet another tragic reminder that slow speed falls are exactly what bike helmets are designed for.
Bikes are still booming in Gotham, where ridership on bridges over the East River are still above pre-pandemic levels.
The Daily Show host Trevor Noah is one of us, riding his bike to a New York comedy club where he wasn’t planning to perform. But did anyway.
A New Orleans letter writer says he’s never seen a single bike rider obey basic traffic laws in 30 years. Which likely says a lot more about his powers of observation than it does the people on bikes.
No pun here, as a Miami paper says the city is driving to become more bicycle friendly, when it’s all that driving that made and keeps it unfriendly. But it’s interesting that they included Santa Monica, along with Amsterdam, Copenhagen and Stockholm, as their examples of bike and pedestrian friendly cities.
A grateful Florida man gets to thank the Florida paramedics who saved his life, despite suffering 47 broken bones when he was hit by a driver while riding his bike.
International
Your next bike helmet could warn you in advance about a pending dooring.
A tech website says the world’s obsession with e-cars is impeding the race to net zero, and that more active transportation is needed, instead. Which is pretty much what we’ve been saying all along.
An Edinburgh, Scotland man says buying an adult tricycle was the best move he made during the pandemic.
Presenting the first belt-drive ebike capable of going 28 mph, from Dutch bikemaker Gazelle. A speed that requires a helmet here in the late, great Golden State, and can’t be legally ridden on a bike path.
The shortage or bikes and parts driven by the pandemic bike boom isn’t likely to be helped by a two week closure of Shimano’s Malaysia plant due to a government shutdown.
Competitive Cycling
Cycling News suggests ten riders to watch in the men’s 2021 USA Cycling Pro Road Championships in Knoxville, Tennessee this weekend. Then tops that with eleven riders to watch on the women’s side.
Popular American cyclist Tejay van Garderen is calling it a career after this weekend’s nationals.
Finally…
Repeat after me — If you’re carrying meth and weed on your bike, put a damn light on it, already. Valet your bike at the College World Series.
And that feeling when there’s no sensible way to mount a bike rack on your supercar.
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
I’d like to take issue with your use of the word “planning” in respect to the lack of bikeways on the Westside. It is not “a failure of planning” that the Westside does not have a sufficient bikeway network. What the Westside does not have is enough political will. The planning was done, the funding was available for implementation, and the projects were all blocked by the NIMBYs and sitting elected officials.
You’re right, of course. That was poor wording on my part. I’ve added a correction above, including your comment.