My News LA reports Sergio Reynaldo Gutierrez is scheduled to be arraigned on September 2nd for using his truck as a weapon to murder a bike rider last month.
As we reported over the weekend, Gutierrez allegedly made a U-turn in his massive Ford pickup and deliberately slammed into Benedicto Solanga on July 29th, in an apparent road rage attack.
Solanga died three days later, while it took nearly three weeks for authorities to conclude Gutierrez had been behind the wheel, after finding his truck hours after the crash.
Gutierrez is expected to be charged with murder, along with a sentencing enhancement for using his truck as a deadly weapon.
He remains in custody on $1 million bail.
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Chalk this one up as a win for people on two wheels or feet.
For anyone who’s wondered why one of the easiest and most convenient entrances to Ballona Creek has long been closed to everyone but maintenance workers, the Culver City Council just voted to change that last night.
And better yet, to keep it open.
a victory years in the making… by a vote of 3-2, Culver City Council just voted to open the Jackson Ave gate to Ballona Creek 24 hours a day, 7 days a week! Thank you for using your voice to fight for everyone's right to ride and scoot safely whenever they want!
— Bike Culver City (@BikeCulverCity) August 24, 2021
Culver City just voted to open the Jackson Gate as soon as possible and it will be open 24/7. Thank you @AlexFischCC @YasmineMcMorrin @danielwaynelee0 for your leadership! https://t.co/jb5gkHFxI4
— Streets For All (@streetsforall) August 24, 2021
Meanwhile, the city also voted to support extending the Ballona Creek bike path the full length of the creek from where it emerges from underground.
Culver City just voted unanimously to support the extension of the Ballona Creek bike path to Venice/Cochran. We are looking forward to working with our coalition and @CulverCityGov @HollyJMitchell @mridleythomas @metrolosangeles @CaltransDist7 @LADOTofficial to get this done! https://t.co/fVfv26tWvK pic.twitter.com/Fjhbeg1hZ1
— Streets For All (@streetsforall) August 24, 2021
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The San Diego Union-Tribune explores the ongoing debate over bike lanes in a series of op-eds, saying the city is experiencing unintended consequences in the quest to get more people on bicycles.
- A piece from the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition’s advocacy manager says 12 people in the county have already died this year due to a lack of safe bike lanes — make that 13 now — calling the deaths a policy failure, rather than an accident.
- A former member of the San Diego Planning Commission calls for more protected bike lanes, saying bicycle riding in the city should be safer.
- The chair of the SANDAG Board of Directors and mayor of Encinitas calls for more safe biking infrastructure in the county, while making the point that creating vibrant public spaces is key to the region’s prosperity.
- A longtime resident of the city and county says the city’s streets are deplorable for a myriad of reasons, and the jump in bicycling deaths points to the need to prioritize public safety for everyone.
Not everyone is in favor of the city’s move to expand bike lanes and get more people on bicycles, however.
- A retired journalist and bike commuter insists the city’s strategy is misguided and only serves to alienate motorists, because few people will ever consider commuting by bicycle.
- A retired business owner says the region’s bike lanes are too costly and little used, pitting neighbor against neighbor and government against business.
Just wait until someone tells that last guy what it costs to keep building more traffic lanes.
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CicLAvia has officially unveiled the route for October’s return to the Heart of LA, running from MacArthur Park to Chinatown, and east to Mariachi Plaza.
Thanks to Keith Johnson for the heads-up.
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The perfect bike for when you’re ready to live your dream to chuck your job and become the neighborhood fruit vendor.
https://twitter.com/may_gun/status/1430060121514676224
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Today’s mountain biking break is a first-person view of a “beyond black diamond” bike trail from Canadian mountain biker Dave Herr.
Unless maybe you’d prefer a first impression of the new Killington, Vermont Bike Park.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
Heartbreaking news from the UK, where a Black teenage taekwondo star was killed when a driver slammed into his bicycle as he was trying to escape a group of alleged drug dealers armed with large knives.
But sometimes it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
A Washington man faces charges for allegedly chucking rocks at a road crew when they asked him to move his bicycle, before he escalated to shooting arrows at them.
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Local
The New York Times takes a look at the effect of pandemic era street dining and Slow Streets in the Los Angeles area, saying it’s chipping away at Southern California’s notorious deference to cars.
Speaking of which, hundreds turned out for Santa Monica’s first carfree weekend on Main Street this year, with two more planned for September and October.
State
A homeless man has been convicted of second degree murder for fatally stabbing another homeless man outside an Escondido Burger King, because he thought the man was trying to steal his bicycle.
Fremont is using plastic pylons to buck the trend of rising bike and pedestrian deaths, with a 45% reduction in major traffic crashes involving death or severe injury in the three years since they adopted Vision Zero, and a 23% drop in major crashes involving bike riders.
National
After concluding that Amazon was a driving force behind the problem, a company in the Pacific Northwest pulled their bike parts off the platform, taking a hit in sales to directly supply bike shops affected by the pandemic-driven shortage of bikes and parts.
Reno bike riders are staying inside as smoke from the massive California wildfires forces them off the streets.
Phoenix officials shoot down longstanding plans to install bike lanes on a major street, instead telling bike riders to be happy they’ll get new sharrows on an existing bike boulevard.
A writer for Singletracks tries racing a then top-of-the-line 1990’s mountain bike, surprisingly finding that it held its own against more modern bikes. And ends up selling it to a collector who promised to give it a good home.
A Pittsburgh children’s charity is devoted to letting kids be kids, while giving them more independence by providing them with adaptive bicycles. Thanks to Megan Lynch for the tip.
International
Treehugger offers a review of the new longtail e-cargo bike from Blix, which sells for a relatively reasonable $1,999 for the twin battery version.
A Canadian man is finishing his summer-long bike tour to visit all 18 of the country’s residential schools in an effort to reconcile with Indigenous students.
Another Canadian man rode 745 miles on his recumbent bike, despite a broken collarbone, to benefit a nine-year old Alabama boy suffering from an aggressive brain tumor, four decades after beating the disease himself.
Officials in Dorset, England are defending a road makeover that narrowed traffic lanes while installing a spacious 11-foot bike lane, saying the bike lane has to accommodate wobbly riders traveling in both directions, while the traffic lanes are more than wide enough if drivers just obey the speed limit.
Forget the Hound of the Baskervilles. An English mountain biker encountered the apocryphal big cat of Cornwall.
In a bizarre tragedy, a British search and rescue team stumbled on the body of a mountain biker who had apparently crashed his bike while they were on an unrelated call to rescue a teenaged old boy suffering from hypothermia.
A UK driver got three years and four months behind bars for the speeding, hit-and-run death of a 15-year old boy riding a bicycle.
Competitive Cycling
Cycling News peers into its crystal ball, and predicts the Vuelta is Primož Roglič’s to lose.
VeloNews credit’s Jennifer Valente’s physical and intellectual gifts for her gold medal in the women’s Omnium at the Tokyo Olympics, along with a lifelong background in track cycling.
World ‘cross champ Mathieu van der Poel pulled out of this week’s mountain bike worlds due to lingering back pain stemming from a crash in the Tokyo Olympics, though he still hopes to ride in next month’s road championships.
Finally…
That feeling when proper bike lanes are too “ideological” for LEGO. Who needs gas when you can buy a cool used bike for the same price?
And when building a shed for your bike would create to much “visual clutter.”
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
