The state Assembly’s Transportation Committee has once again passed a version of the Idaho Stop Law.
San Diego Assemblymember Tasha Boerner tweets that AB 73 would allow bike riders 18 and over to treat stop signs as yields, but only when it’s safe to do so.
She also notes that “9 other states already allow policies like these because the data shows it’s safer for cyclists & other drivers.”
Whether that will be enough to get Governor Gavin Newsom to yield veto pen — after he rejected two previous drafts — remains to be seen.
Photo by ALTEREDSNAPS for Pexels.
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Things aren’t looking great in Culver City.
The city council meeting discussing a proposal to rip out the successful MOVE Culver City mobility project is still ongoing as I write this; delaying discussion of controversial issues like this is a time-tested method of waiting out the opposition in hopes they’ll leave before the proposal comes up.
However, as the following tweet suggests, opposition to the project is firmly entrenched, wrong though it may be.
Councilmember Dan O’Brein says comments tonight were overwhelmingly for keeping/expanding move. But still wants to remove the protected bike lane for more cars. He cites the survey of just Culver City residents “because that’s who votes”
— Bike Culver City (@BikeCulverCity) April 25, 2023
Bike Culver City is doing a great job of live-tweeting the debate, as comments go back and forth between members of the council.
Meanwhile, the list of elected officials coming out in favor of the project continues to grow.
Electeds who have publicly urged council to not add cars to Move:
– Asm. Isaac Bryan
– Sen. Ben Allen
– Asm. Laura Friedman
– Sup. Lindsey Horvath
– Sup. Holly Mitchell
– LA Councilmember Katy Young Yaroslavsky
– SaMo Councilmember Jesse Zwick
– WeHo Councilmember John Erickson— Bike Culver City (@BikeCulverCity) April 24, 2023
Move Culver City is a critical step towards the safe, sustainable, equitable transportation network that is urgently needed region-wide.
Culver City, don’t roll back your ambitious safe street design. https://t.co/FaNKso9jvI
— Lindsey P. Horvath (@LindseyPHorvath) April 24, 2023
Move Culver City has been a transformative project for street safety in LA county. Across the border in CD5, we’re working hard to bring similar safety interventions to Venice Blvd. I hope we can work with Culver City to create a truly connected network between our cities.
— Councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky (@CD5LosAngeles) April 24, 2023
Finally, it’s hard to tell from the photo, but it looks like a good turnout for the protest ride in favor of retaining the project.
https://twitter.com/possumlives/status/1650683058746699777?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1650683058746699777%7Ctwgr%5E24c54dac64f9ece62c388d1a78fc9becbccc449b%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fbikinginla.com%2Fwp-admin%2Fpost.php%3Fpost%3D52349action%3Dedit
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Seriously, why the hell isn’t this bigger news when a pair of teenagers get shot riding a bike in LA’s Florence neighborhood?
According to the Daily Breeze, a 16-year-old boy and 18-year-old girl apparently sharing a bicycle when they were critically injured in a drive-by shooting.
So is the problem that we just take shootings for granted now? Or just shootings “down there”?
Or do bike riders — or communities of color — just not matter anymore?
Or maybe all of the above.
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Tragic news from Newport Beach, where bike shop owner Don Feuer was struck by a driver while riding a scooter.
Feuer, owner of Victory Ebikes, was just one block from his store when he was critically injured in the crash on Saturday, April 16th.
According to a crowdfunding page set up to help pay his medical expenses and benefit his family, the crash left Feuer with a damaged spinal cord after breaking his C1 & C2 vertebrae, leaving his prognosis uncertain, at best.
The page has raised just over $8,600 of the $50,000 goal in five days, though word of his injuries is just getting out.
Given the extent of his injuries, however, even the full $50,000 is likely to be just a drop in the bucket for his future medical expenses.
Thanks to Psmith for the heads-up.
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Guerrilla DIY infrastructure group Crosswalk Collective demonstrates LA’s firm commitment to whatever is the opposite of Vision Zero, in which the death of a pedestrian results in a memorial sign and the removal of the group’s DIY crosswalks.
And shamefully, no other action in the seven years since.
Gabriela Futsi was killed crossing here in 2016.
After 7 years, LADOT took action: They installed a memorial sign. We painted two crosswalks on April 10 and within days, they removed them.
So remember: Your family members? Expendable. A bit of paint? Now that’s an emergency. https://t.co/3XcD0mSM2j pic.twitter.com/95IpRqa8eW
— Crosswalk Collective LA (@CrosswalksLA) April 24, 2023
Thanks to Tim Rutt for the tip.
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Gravel Bike California takes in the superbloom while riding the century old Ridge Route through the Angeles National Forest.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on rolling.
No bias here. A Kentucky law firm asks if bike riders can ever be liable for traffic collisions, before responding, in effect, “Let us count the ways…”
No bias here, either. A Minnesota letter writer says it’s time to stop giving carte blanche to bike path developers, accusing proponents of being divided between absolutists and “rational people.” As if developers of any bike path, anywhere, have ever been given carte blanche.
A Boston-area group opposed to bike lanes conducted their own study, and unsurprisingly concluded that some bike lanes are bad.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
Police in Durham, North Carolina are looking for a bike-riding groper who’s assaulted six women, including three in the last month.
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Local
A Los Angeles Times podcast considers whether anything can stop distracted driving. Short of a federal law requiring cellphones to shut off when cars are in motion, probably not.
As long as we’re talking podcasts, former LA Councilmember Mike Bonin’s What’s Next, Los Angeles podcast talks with Streets For All founder Michael Schneider.
Speaking of Schneider, he’s back with another op-ed in the LA Times, arguing that you’re not imagining it, Los Angeles traffic signals really do favor cars, not people.
UCLA’s Daily Bruin looks at the new Westwood Connected campaign to improve walking and biking in the area surrounding the campus.
State
You have just one week left to order Calbike’s 2023 bikewear collection.
Sad news from San Luis Obispo, where a Cal Poly student has died after being disconnected from life support, after he was struck by a driver while riding his bike last week.
Momentum Magazine examines the controversy over San Francisco’s planned center-lane pseudo-protected bike lane on Valencia Street; the city has already begun construction before more people can complain.
National
Lifewire says Velotric’s new ebike with a built-in Apple “Find My” feature is total genius.
Bicycling considers four Black bicycling clubs working to diversify the roads and trails, including All Clubs LA, which was founded by Kenneth Vinson and legendary cyclists LA cyclists Rahsaan Bahati, Justin Williams and Charon Smith. As usual, read it on Yahoo if the magazine blocks you.
Seattle builds a two-way, concrete-protected bikeway stretching a little more than half a mile in the southwest part of the city.
It wasn’t a good weekend for a bike rider in Orange, Texas, either.
A Kansas City TV station says ebikes from the city’s bikeshare system are the best way to get around during this week’s NFL draft.
An Indiana man was sentenced to up to forty years behind bars — or as little as three — for the hit-and-run crash that killed a man riding a bicycle four years ago; he also got a whole eight-day sentence for driving without a license — suspended, of course.
New York announced plans for another ten miles of hardened bike lanes, featuring the sort of concrete barriers most of us would actually consider protection, rather than the usual flimsy plastic car-tickler bendy posts.
New York bicyclists call on the city to keep those bikeway improvements coming, as bicycling deaths continue to climb.
Finishing our New York trifecta, the city considers a proposal to eliminate red tape when it comes to expanding bike lanes and create a real-time map of current bikeway conditions, while a New York councilmember accuses the NYPD of being part of the problem.
DC is reassessing plans for downtown bus and bike lanes in the wake of an organized bikelash.
International
An English county counselor was left bloodied and bruised after he was the victim of a hit-and-run driver who left the road and jumped a berm to hit him as he was riding on a fully separated bike path.
A new study from the UK says autonomous vehicles will need to understand the secret language of bicyclists to better understand their intentions, and vice versa.
The police escort for Britain’s prime minister now includes multiple bike cops, the better to force people off the roads.
A new German survey suggests the country isn’t a bicycling country yet, as a national bike club rates it “sufficient.”
That’s more like it. An Israeli driver will spend the next ten years behind bars for the drunken Yom Kippur death of a 12-year old boy riding his bike in Jerusalem two years ago, as well as being banned from driving for 20 years.
An African writer says bicycles present the solution to safe, healthy and inclusive cities on the continent, which continue to choke under air pollution, vehicular traffic and and traffic fatalities.
Competitive Cycling
Tadej Pogačar suffered a setback on his way to steamrolling the competition this spring, breaking multiple bones in his wrist; he’ll be out four to six weeks following successful surgery. The Slovenian cycling star says he’s was lucky that was all he broke, concluding “Shit happens.”
Finally…
How to pick the right seat for your tush. Your next gravel bike could be a Lamborghini — unless you’d rather have a new motorcycle-ish ebike inspired by a Land Rover.
And is it really a winning strategy to market your fat tire bike primarily to fat people?
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Oh, and fuck Putin, too.
