Maybe there will be justice for Javier Gonzales after all.
Police in Riverside arrested 37-year old Rosendo Morales Caldera for the hit-and-run death of the 15-year old bike rider, who was killed on the first of this month.
Gonzales was riding salmon with a group of friends when he was run down by by the driver of a large black pickup, who kept going without slowing or stopping.
Caldera is currently being held behind bars in lieu of bail.
Police impounded his black Chevy truck as evidence, which should happen in every alleged hit-and-run.
But too often doesn’t.
………
Here’s your chance to tell Metro what you need to be safer in your commute and community.
And maybe mention it’s time to stop wasting money on highway projects in the middle of a climate emergency.
https://twitter.com/MaverickMPA/status/1507238721891889153
………
SoCal’s killer highway continues to claim new victims.
I’m told the victim works at the Getty Villa, which leaves no viable option to commute by bike other than PCH, which continues to operate as a cut-through highway when it should be Malibu’s Main Street.
Just found out my coworker was hit by a car on PCH while he was riding his bike home from work the other day. He’s been in the hospital since Tuesday. Please always be aware of your surroundings when driving, and be mindful of pedestrians and cyclists. 😔
— Kendall C. Avery (@KendallCaroline) March 24, 2022
Thanks to Todd Munson for the heads-up.
………
Slow roll Adams Blvd on Sunday to check out LADOT’s safety improvements on the formerly dangerous corridor.
………
LACBC invites you to attend their first-ever Bike Salon on Thursday, which will actually be held in person, rather than virtually.
………
OC bike advocate Mike Wilkinson is parting ways with his lovingly used tandem.
https://twitter.com/mikeocbike/status/1507128123044687873
………
Apparently, even a five-year old can beat rush hour traffic on his way to school Britain. Even without decent bikeways.
Cycling into the city to school in #Leicester. A 5 year old can beat the traffic in rush hour. Such a beautiful day to ride in. It would be lovely to have a proper segregated lane then maybe more people would choose to cycle than drive @OweniteAdam @RideLeicester @SustransEMids pic.twitter.com/oBIW04irXF
— Paul Player (@paulmplayer) March 23, 2022
………
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
In a prime example of too little, if not too late, Las Vegas area cops clamped down on drivers who endanger bike riders, enforcing traffic laws and educating motorists on how to share the road — for a whole four hours. Now they just need to do something the other 8,756 hours in the year.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
Police busted a man who robbed a Kansas gas station, then made his getaway by bicycle. Maybe he was really just an anti-car freedom fighter raising funds for the rebellion. It could happen.
………
Local
No bias here. The Hancock Park Homeowners Association hosted a candidate forum for the people running to replace Paul Koretz in CD5 — but notably excluded former Mid City West Neighborhood Council chair Scott Epstein, a longtime supporter of a bike-friendly street on 4th Street opposed by the wealthy neighborhood.
State
A 58-year old Rancho Bernardo man is planning to ride 3,400 miles across the US to raise funds for diabetic research, inspired by his 25-year old daughter, who was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when she was just eight months old.
A 32-year old Fresno man was stabbed when he tried to defend himself from a group of men who demanded his bike; fortunately, he’s expected to make a full recovery.
Sad news from Eureka, where someone on a bicycle was killed when they were run down by the driver of a pickup.
National
PeopleForBikes celebrates the removal of Trump’s 25% tariffs on Chinese-made bicycles and parts.
USA Today says you need an ebike to cope with rising gas prices. Meanwhile, CleanTechnica provides a primer on the proper care and feeding of your ebike.
The Consumer Products Safety Commission issued a recall for Ninebot Children’s Bicycle Helmets for failing to meet minimum federal safety standards.
Black and brown Colorado bike riders say the state’s proposed Stop As Yield law, aka the stop sign part of the Idaho Stop Law, would keep them safer from both cars and cops, reducing the risk of Biking While Black or Brown stops that target people of color, as well as reducing potentially dangerous interactions with police. Maybe that argument that would finally get a California bill past Newsom’s veto pen.
Hurry up to Yellowstone, where you can enjoy 49 miles of blissfully carfree roads for the next three weeks, before the national park is opened to motor vehicles. Although you still need to keep an eye peeled for bears and bison, among other potentially unfriendly fauna.
Even in Iowa, people are biking to work instead of driving, while a writer for the University of Iowa student newspaper says now is the perfect time to start bicycling.
A Memphis man is turning old car and truck tires into decorative barriers to protect people on bicycles.
Boston bike advocates point out the benefits of bicycling while calling for safer conditions on the streets.
A Louisiana driver who killed a bike rider last month tested positive for narcotics following the crash, though there’s no mention of what he was allegedly on.
A Florida man was convicted — again — of killing a teenaged boy over a stolen bicycle when he was just 15 years old. The victim had purchased the boy’s stolen bicycle, not knowing it was hot, then offered to sell it back to him for just $10; he returned with a gun after riding the bike home because he felt disrespected. The original conviction had been overturned because police had questioned him after he requested a lawyer. We’ve said it before — no bike is worth taking or sacrificing a life. Period.
International
Bike Radar offers a buyers guide to bike trailers, while confessing that yes, they do change how you have to ride and the way your bike feels
Bizarre case from Wales, where a woman played doctor — literally — by treating the victim of an ebike crash, despite having no medical background. Yet she somehow walked with the equivalent of a lousy $790 fine.
Oops. Scofflaw drivers who parked in an English shared bus and bike lane will get their fines refunded, after the city discovered the authorization for the lane had expired and they hadn’t bothered to renew it.
Life is cheap in Jersey, where a 67-year old driver walked with the equivalent of a $6,500 fine for the right-cross crash — the equivalent of a left-cross in the US — that likely left a bike-riding woman with lifelong pain from a broken back, fractured rib and collapsed lung.
A new study from a UC Berkeley researcher looks at the remarkably rapid Parisian bike boom, as the city transformed itself during the Covid pandemic.
Add this one to your bike bucket list. British bike scribe and historian Carlton Reid rides the 75-mile car-free Vennbahn rail-trail through Belgium, Germany and Luxembourg, which remains a 30-foot wide swath of Belgium even as it passes through the other countries.
Competitive Cycling
Milan-San Remo winner Matej Mohorič says it wasn’t just the dropper post that delivered his victory, he also used oversized disc rotors and new, secret wheel bearings.
Finally…
Maybe God is out to get us, too. People are more likely to bike commute when slower drivers are less likely to kill them.
And that feeling when you try to break an iPhone by riding your bike off a phone booth.
………
Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Oh, and fuck Putin, too.
