Just 242 days until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025.
So stop what you’re doing and sign this petition to demand Mayor Bass hold a public meeting to listen to the dangers we all face on the mean streets of LA.
Then share it — and keep sharing it — with everyone you know, on every platform you can.
We’re up to 1,129 signatures, so keep it going! Urge everyone you know to sign the petition, until she meets with us!
Image by Wendy Corniquet from Pixabay.
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No surprise here.
Satisfaction with the quality of life in Los Angeles is at a record low. Although that record only goes back for nine years, reflecting the length of time the survey has been taken.
LA residents blamed the high cost of living for their dissatisfaction, primarily excessive costs for housing and goods, as well as the quality of the city’s schools.
Residents also aren’t thrilled with transportation and traffic, which continues to deteriorate in the face of inaction by the city to provide any viable alternatives to driving.
With rare exceptions, Metro train lines don’t connect anywhere but downtown. Buses seldom run on time, and many people don’t feel safe using transit after recent high profile crimes.
And long-promised biking and walking improvements remain just that.
Promises.
Advocates are understandably jaded after a long line of broken promises by city leaders in recent years, from the unbuilt and largely ignored 2010 bike plan, through the unfunded and unfulfilled Vision Zero plan, and Eric Garcetti’s completely forgotten Green New Deal.
The recent passage of Measure HLA shows the overwhelming hunger of Angelenos for safer and more livable streets. But that will take decades to build out as streets slowly get resurfaced.
And that’s if city leaders don’t find a way to weasel out yet again.
Paris has shown how quickly a major city can transform itself, given a genuine commitment by the people in charge.
We need to see that same sort of commitment here. Key word being “genuine.”
Because we’ve seen far too much of the other kind.
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More on Bike Month events throughout the LA area.
Metro will host an East Hollywood Art Ride tomorrow.
Santa Clarita’s city manager invites you to hit the trails and enjoy the city’s natural beauty as part of the Santa Clarita Bike Challenge.
Beverly Hills will mark National Bike Safe Month with yet another bicycle and pedestrian safety operation on May 21st.
Pasadena will mark Bike Month next weekend with a pair of rides examining significant landmarks of local African American History, as well as honoring the contributions of women to the city’s history and culture.
Yo! Venice lists Santa Monica’s Bike Month activities.
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Bad news for anyone who rides the Orange Line bike path, which will be closed for construction work until 2027.
Ran into @metrolosangeles outreach table on the G/Orange Line bikeway near Sepulveda. They led off with “did you know that this path is going to be closed for 3 years starting this summer?” Surface streets detour planned from near Sepulveda Station to near Van Nuys Station. pic.twitter.com/tAM1YBmMfu
— StreetsblogLA (@StreetsblogLA) May 2, 2024
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GCN recommends installing a tracking device to keep your bike from getting stolen. Although that’s actually more useful for getting it back after it’s stolen than keeping thieves from making off with it.
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It’s now 135 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And 35 months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
Life is cheap in Washington state, where two University of Washington football players just face misdemeanor assault charges for attempting to run down a man riding a bicycle with their car, after yelling at him to get on the sidewalk, then getting out and beating the crap out of him when the victim responded by flipping the bird.
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Local
The San Fernando Valley’s Roscoe Blvd will get a ten-mile peak-hour bus lane, which means it will also be open to people on bicycles.
Inglewood is home to the LA area’s first pump track, which the LA Times describes as looking like a “modern sculpture emerging out of a grassy field.” Meanwhile, Mission Viejo has opened a temporary pump track in Orange County.
State
Streets For All, aka SAFE, lists their agenda for this year’s state legislative session.
Trek-owned BCycle is pulling out of Encinitas after two years as the city’s docked bikeshare provider, citing low usage rates.
This is who we share the road with. Three people were hospitalized when a distracted driver slammed into a previous collision scene in Hesperia, as police investigated after a pickup driver struck a bike rider, who was hospitalized with serious injuries.
The annual Tour de Big Bear is set for the first week in August.
National
Momentum considers what could be the worst bike lanes in the US. And yes, we’re talking to you, San Diego. And Irvine, too.
Tragic news from Oregon, where an eight-year old boy died after contracting a flesh-eating bacteria falling off his bicycle.
Anchorage, Alaska will get its first protected bike lane this summer.
The US Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs CO held its first-ever Bike to Work Day on Wednesday.
Kansas reminds both drivers and bicyclists that traffic safety is a shared responsibility. Because evidently, you have the same responsibility not to get killed as drivers have not to kill you with their big, dangerous machines.
Michigan state police are warning about an alarming increase in bicycling fatalities, which jumped 64% over the previous three-year period.
No tragic irony here. A 62-year old Massachusetts driver faces a vehicular homicide charge after hitting a pair of bike riders head on, killing a 76-year old man and critically injuring his 72-year old riding partner — while knocking down a sign warning drivers to watch out for bicycles.
International
The sister of an English teenager who died after he was struck by a driver and hit his head on a curb is calling for a mandatory bike helmet law in the country, saying she wants to make people who don’t wear one look like the stupid ones. Although a far better solution is designing safer streets so people don’t get hit by cars in the first place.
Competitive Cycling
Two-time Tour de France champ Tadej Pogačar is the overwhelming favorite for his first attempt at the Giro.
Finally…
Probably not the best idea to call the cops for help with a flat bike tire after you just killed someone. Why sit in traffic with all the other drivers when there’s a perfectly good bike lane just sitting there?
And that feeling when you turn a bikeshare bike into a gas-guzzling vehicle capable of up to 30 mph, for no apparent reason.
And pretty much defeating the whole purpose of the damn thing.
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Oh, and fuck Putin
