BOLO alert for hit-and-run driver, council committee meeting considers Healthy Streets LA, and Biden takes a fall

June 20, 2022 / / One comment

Be on the lookout for a hit-and-run driver who left a bike-riding man with serious injuries last week.

According to the LAPD, the victim was struck by the driver of a 2006 burgundy Toyota Highlander around noon Wednesday, at the at the intersection of Olympic Boulevard and Mateo Street in DTLA.

The driver was described as a Hispanic male in his early 20s.

There is a standing $25,000 reward for any hit-and-run resulting in serious injuries in the City of Los Angeles.

Anyone with information is urged to call Detective Juan Campos, Central Traffic Detectives, at 213/833-3713, or email 31480@lapd.online.

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Mark your calendar for this Wednesday, when a joint session of the Los Angeles City Council’s Public Works and Transportation Committees will consider advancing Council President Nury Martinez’s motion to adopt the principles of the Healthy Streets LA ballot proposal.

The proposal calls for building out the previously approved Mobility Plan 2035 whenever a street in the plan gets resurfaced; the city has currently built out just 3% of the plan in the seven years since it was adopted.

At that rate, they should call it Mobility Plan 2268, since that’s how long it would take the city to finish it.

If they actually did.

This proposal probably won’t have the teeth of the ballot proposal, which would require the city to carry it out.

But it’s still a big step forward, and would serve as a strong backup if the ballot measure fails at the ballot box this fall.

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President Joe Biden took a tumble off his bike Saturday when his foot got caught in a toe clip — something that’s happened to virtually anyone who has ever used them.

Fortunately, nothing but his pride was injured, although social media had a field day with it.

Surprisingly, even former President Donald Trump expressed his concern, while repeating his vow to never ride a bicycle.

Although the second part of that should surprise exactly no one.

Thanks to Megan Lynch for the heads-up.

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Robert Leone forwards word that Camp Pendleton will be doing construction work affecting the bike path through the base.

1. From 22 June to 8 July, there will be constructions on Vandegrift near the intersection of Stuart Mesa Rd/Ash St.  This construction will impact the bike path due to lane closure so cyclists need to be extra careful and maintain single file, per Base requirement.

2. From 9 July to 22 July, Vandengrift Rd west of the Stuart Mesa/Ash St intersection will be closed to inbound and outbound traffic 24/7 and that forces us to close the bike path from the Main gate to the Las Pulgas gate.

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Evidently, he did more than just play Auld Lang Syne every New Years.

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Once again, bike riders are heroes. A group of Forth Worth bicyclists paused in the middle of their weekly ride to rescue a dog who had been abandoned on a bridge support.

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This may be the best, if not strangest, 11 minutes of your day.

I mean, after all, who wouldn’t fall for someone with a flying bicycle?

Thanks to Steven Hallett for the link.

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If you’re going to use an axel grinder to steal a bicycle in broad daylight, maybe make sure it doesn’t belong to a British Member of Parliament first.

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This is who we share the schoolyard with.

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We may have to deal with aggressive SoCal drivers, but at least we don’t have to worry about leopard attacks.

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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.

No bias here. San Diego’s CBS8 continues their steady drumbeat of negative stories about the city’s new bike lanes, this time citing confusion over the reverse angled parking protecting bike lanes on Park Blvd in University Heights.

British drivers are up in arms over bicyclists with helmet and bike cams capturing their bad driving and reporting them to the police. Or maybe it’s just the British tabloids trying to stir up trouble to sell more papers.

Meanwhile, a London columnist says blame bicyclists for “stoking the flames of the road culture war” with their bike cams. Evidently, because drivers don’t like to get caught breaking the law, let alone held accountable for it.

But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.

A Fairfield, California ex-con was arrested after using bear spray on a cop who tried to stop him; police found a nail gun converted to fire .22 caliber bullets in his backpack.

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Local

An adjunct professor from Pacific Oaks College makes the case for the Arroyo Link, which would be the city’s first protected bike and pedestrian path, connecting Old Town Pasadena with the Arroyo Seco.

A West Hollywood man found healing on his first AIDS/LifeCycle ride following the death of his twin brother from the disease.

 

State 

Unbelievable. San Diego continues to destroy bicycles as part of their homeless camp cleanups. Never mind that they might need them for transportation, or that the bikes might actually belong to someone else.

A 27-year old former UCLA soccer player is riding a bike again thanks to San Diego’s Blind Stoker’s Club, after a stage 3 malignant brain melanoma left him blind, and with cognitive, memory and speech issues.

Sad news from Oakland, where a 42-year old father was killed by a hit-and-run driver while riding bikes with his two young sons, who were uninjured; the city received funding for a protected bike lane on the street six years ago, but never moved forward with it.

 

National

The National Transportation Safety Board, aka NTSB, examines how Helsinki, Finland achieved zero pedestrian deaths — along with Hoboken, New Jersey. Apparently, something that can only be achieved by cities starting with H.

Outside says plan to spend around $100 to $160 on your next mountain bike helmet.

Sad news from Illinois, where a Schuyler County judge was killed when his bike was rear-ended by a 73-year old driver in a bigass pickup.

A 32-year old Detroit man remains missing, three years after he disappeared while riding his bike.

Hundreds of Boston women are learning to ride bikes, as the city builds more protected bike lanes.

Yet another motoring mass casualty event, when a driver in Buffalo, New York plowed into a group of three women riding bicycles, killing one and seriously injuring the other two; the driver kept going until she crashed into a pair of parked cars.

Actress Julia Fox is one of us, riding an ebike in her revealing red carpet outfit to get to a friend’s screening at the Tribeca Film Festival.

A 34-year old Florida woman faces charges for killing a man riding bikes with his father outside Key West while she was high on meth.

 

International

Bike Radar offers a buyer’s guide to balance bikes for discerning toddlers.

More bad news, this time from Mexico City, where a 22-year old Mormon missionary was killed when he crashed his bike falling on a steep, slippery hill.

A new $1,200 British ebike conversion kit uses a disc brake rotor to power your bike.

Life is cheap in the UK, where a woman received just 15 months behind bars for killing a bike rider while illegally using her cellphone.

A shortage of nighttime taxis has led to a 41% increase in drunk bicycling in Seoul, Korea, as people turn to the city’s bikeshare system instead.

 

Competitive Cycling

VeloNews anoints 20-year old Brit Leo Hayter the next big thing, following his win at the Giro d’Italia Giovani Under 23, otherwise known as the Baby Giro. Raise your hand if you even knew that was a thing.

Fears rise that Covid could put this year’s Tour de France at risk after the disease tore through the peloton at the Tour de Suisse, causing around 30 riders to abandon the race.

Cycling Weekly looks at the early adopters who are carving out a career in gravel racing.

Pro cyclist Colin Strickland says he’s shellshocked to find himself in the middle of a fatal love triangle, as police allege his girlfriend, Kaitlin Armstrong, killed gravel cyclist Moriah “Mo” Wilson in a fit of jealousy.

 

Finally…

Who needs pedals when you have a drone to power your bike? Your next ebike could transform into a kick scooter, as long as you’re willing to do without pedals.

And let’s see you do this while pedaling.

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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

One comment

  1. Opus the Poet says:
    June 20, 2022 at 5:23 pm

    I caught a followup article on the driver fined thousands, and the narrative has he was fined more for ignoring the courts than for for the close pass. If he had obeyed the first summons he would have been given a telling off and allowed to go. But after the third court date was ignored the judge threw the book at him as that was more than the maximum fine for ignoring a court date.

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