BikinginLA

Just 239 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 1,130 signatures, so keep it going! Urge everyone you know to sign the petition, until she meets with us! 

Photo by Artyom Kulakov from Pexels.

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Speaking of Vision Zero fails, Crosstown LA reports that traffic deaths are down for the first quarter of this year, compared to the same period last year. But still significantly higher than the pre-pandemic years.

According to the site, 77 people have been killed on the mean streets of Los Angeles, seven fewer than last year.

And about 77 more than we should have seen in the penultimate year before LA traffic deaths are supposed to be down to zero.

Thirty-nine of the fatalities so far this year were pedestrians, along with three people riding bicycles; another 32 bicyclists suffered serious injuries.

Hit-and-run drivers accounted for 31 of the 77 deaths this year, putting the city on track to far exceed the 108 hit-and-run deaths in 2023, the highest year on record.

And already half of the 62 fatal hit-and-runs in all of 2019.

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Oceanside police have arrested a suspect in the hit-and-run that killed an Oceanside postal worker earlier this year.

Twenty-six-year old Riverside resident Christian Howard was arrested Friday morning at his Corona job site for the March death of 52-year old Tracey Gross.

The 51-year old mother of two was found lying in the roadway badly injured, and died after being rushed to the hospital; her bike was found two mile away, apparently dragged by the killer’s car as he fled the scene.

Howard is being held on suspicion of gross vehicular manslaughter and hit-and-run resulting in death.

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All of which brings us to our next topic, as Pasadena prepares for next week’s annual Rose Bowl Ride of Silence.

Here’s a recent press release for this important event.

THE PASADENA RIDE OF SILENCE INVITES THE PUBLIC TO ATTEND THE 22ND ANNUAL RIDE HONORING CYCLISTS KILLED

Pasadena and the world participate in a silent cycling procession, during National Bike Month, to honor injured and fallen cyclists and to advocate for safer streets for everyone. 

Doves realized at the 2023 Ride of Silence

PASADENA, CA, May 1, 2024 – The cycling community of Pasadena invites the public to join in for the annual Ride of Silence on Wednesday, May 15th, at 6 p.m. This solemn event, now in its 22nd year, honors cyclists who have been injured or killed on public roadways and raises awareness about sharing the road safely.

  The Pasadena Ride of Silence will begin at the Rose Bowl in the north end of Lot K, with announcements beginning at 6 p.m. and white doves from White Dove Release will be sent off individually to honor the cyclists lost during the last year. At 7 p.m., a police escort will lead cyclists of all ages and abilities en masse on a slow and silent 9-mile route to Pasadena City Hall, where attendees will observe a moment of silence to honor friends and family lost to traffic violence. The ride will finish at the Rose Bowl with free tacos for all participants. 

 The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recently reported that 1,105 cyclists were killed by drivers of motor vehicles in 2022, the highest number ever recorded since the federal government started collecting data in 1975. Experts believe the increase in fatalities is due to several factors: inadequate street designs to include safe lanes for cycling, larger vehicles such as pickups and SUVs which are deadlier in size and shape, higher horsepower in vehicles that are more likely to speed, and distracted driving. 

As grim as the statistics are, there is hope for the future. Announced April 29, 2024, the NHTSA and the Biden Administration will require all new U.S. cars and trucks to be sold with automatic emergency braking (AEB) by September 2029. AEB are sensors that hit the brakes to avoid a collision if the driver does not. The new system will detect vehicles, cyclists, and pedestrians. 

“We ride to remember. We ride to advocate. We ride for change,” said Thomas Cassidy, Pasadena Ride of Silence organizer. “Everyone deserves to return home safely from a ride. The Ride of Silence serves as a poignant reminder of the importance of mutual respect and vigilance on our roadways.” 

Local bicycle shops, ambassadors from the cycling community, and safe street programs will be in attendance, including Dorothy Wong. Dorothy Wong is a member of Altadena Town Council, a community organizer specializing in bicycling advocacy and she was recently honored with the Woman of Distinction Award for the 41st Assembly District.

2023 Ride of Silence riders at Pasadena City Hall

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It’s now 138 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.

However, there finally seems to be some movement.

But not all for the good.

Streetsblog reports on the latest update, following the recent meeting of the California Air Resources Board ebike incentive workgroup.

On the plus side, the program administrators are considering — yes, just considering — requiring that any ebikes sold through the program be required to be UL or EN certified to reduce the risk of fires.

The proposed battery certification requirements were welcomed by many callers, and particularly those who worry about e-bike batteries catching fire while being charged. A bill currently wending through the legislature, A.B. 1271, could make the point moot anyway, as it would require all bikes sold in California to be either UL or EN certified for safety.

To make up for the higher cost of a certified ebike, the current plan is to allow up to $1,750 regardless of the type of ebike, or $2,000 for low income applicants.

On the other hand, your chances of actually getting on would seem be on the low side between slim and none.

And even if you do qualify, you may have a long wait.

The current plan is to offer rebates in a series of six windows, each of which will close after receiving just 2,500, with a two-month period in between to provide time to process the applications.

Yes, two months.

I guess hiring enough people to process the applications in a timely manner is out of the question.

The project website is supposed to have a place where applicants can get a jump start by setting up a user profile and log-in, but that doesn’t seem to be available yet. Keep checking back, because once the first launch window opens, it is very likely to close quickly – even immediately. The plan is to close it once 2,500 applications have been received, so as to avoid backlogging a waiting list until the next launch window.

Eligible applicants are California residents at least 18 years old with an annual household income at or below 300 percent of the federal poverty level. That means, for a household of one person, an applicant must make $45,180 or less; for a household of four, income must be $93,600 or less. People with incomes less than 225 percent of the federal Poverty level (so: $33,885 for one person household, $70,200 for a four-person household), or who live in a disadvantaged or low-income community as defined by law, are considered “priority applicants.” That doesn’t mean they get to jump ahead in line, though; about $5 million from the total available $31 million in the program has been set aside to make sure priority applicants get incentives. Priority applicants are also eligible for a slightly higher amount.

And never mind that the 2,500 application window means the program will only accept a maximum of 15,000 applications for the first year. That’s a total of just 15,000 for a state with 39 million people.

Which means that you’ll have a less that .04% chance of even applying for a voucher, let alone actually getting one.

And that assumes the people running the program actually get their shit together and somehow manage to stick to their painfully slow schedule.

Which seems like a very long bet at this point.

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A new crowdfunding campaign is raising money to assist LA yoga instructor Peter Anderson, who was seriously injured in a bicycling crash a couple weeks ago.

It currently stands at nearly $2,200 of the relatively modest $10,000 goal.

Thanks to Joni for the heads-up.

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Bike Long Beach is hosting a Bike to Work group ride from Long Beach to DTLA on Friday, May 17th.

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A well-done, if somewhat lengthy video, examines how Amsterdam settled on the “correct” 30 kilometer per hour speed limit, the equivalent of 18 mph.

Thanks to Norm Bradwell for the forward. 

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

Sometimes it’s not a matter of bikes versus cars, but bikes against…trees. Or at least, that’s how a Madison, Wisconsin alderman unfairly framed his decision to kill a long-planned North/South pathway through the Sauk Creek Greenway on the city’s far west side. Thanks to Megan Lynch for the link.

A Minnesota driver was caught on bike cam video intentionally swerving head-on at a bike rider, apparently just for the hell of it.

A Member of the UK Parliament is calling for bicycles to be required to have numbered plates to curb anti-social behavior by their riders, allowing the them to be identified and prosecuted. Because that’s worked so well to stop bad behavior by motorists, apparently. Never mind that for the numbers to be legible at a distance, the plates would have to be so large as to be totally impractical on a bicycle.

The UK’s Conservative government demonstrated its pro-car bias, asking if the current fines for drivers caught using bike lanes are fair to the people who aren’t supposed to be there in the first place.

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

Charges were dismissed against a London man who killed an 81-year old woman in the city’s Regents Park while riding his bike 29 mph in a 20 mph zone, after the court ruled speed limits don’t apply to bicycles.

An English woman was punched in the face by a bicyclist as she walked on a bike path, after the man got off his bike to talk to her. Something tells me there may be another side to the story. But violence is never the answer, regardless of how justified you may feel in the moment.

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Local 

A writer for LA Downtown News says there’s little danger to riding a bicycle in DTLA, if you know where and how to ride.

West Hollywood will team with the West Hollywood Bicycle Coalition to host a pop-up Bike to Work Day pit stop on Santa Monica Blvd Thursday, May 16th.

 

State

Calbike calls for support for Burbank Assemblymember and likely future Congresswoman Laura Friedman’s Quicker and Better Bikeways Bill, arguing that California can’t afford not to build better bikeways, and do it quickly.

Oceanside bike lawyer and BikinginLA sponsor Richard Duquette forwards more information on Encinitas docked bikeshare provider BCycle’s decision to pull out of the city due to low usage rates.

A La Jolla op-ed writer wants to know how San Diego is supposed to encourage more biking and walking, when it can’t even manage to maintain the infrastructure it has.

An op-ed from a Santa Barbara physician questions whether the bicycle movement is failing the city, as injuries climb despite a decrease in ridership.

Hundreds of mostly young bike riders turned out for a San Francisco Cinco de Mayo Rideout.

 

National

Bicycling offers answers to cycling’s silent epidemic, as too many women quit riding due labial swelling and pain. Unfortunately, this one doesn’t seem to be available anywhere else, so you’re on your own if the magazine blocks you.

A Colorado speech pathologist and brain injury specialist trainer says the state needs a mandatory bike helmet law to go along with its ebike voucher program. But gets it wrong when she says traditional bicycles are regulated as motor vehicles under federal law, while ebikes aren’t; actually, both are regulated under state law, but never as motor vehicles.

No bias here. A Massachusetts newspaper says the local community rallied to help three young boys after they were hit by a car while riding their bikes home from school, leaving two seriously injured and their bicycles destroyed — without ever mentioning that the car probably had a driver, who somehow managed to hit not one, not two, but all three at once.

Hundreds of bicyclists participated in the annual Blessing of the Bicycles at New York’s Cathedral of St. John the Divine Saturday morning, one day before 32,000 bike riders took advantage of 40 miles of carfree streets for the city’s 46th annual Five Boro Bike Tour.

Meanwhile, riders participating in the Five Boro ride were none too happy over reports New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority threatened to charge organizers of the ride for lost tolls from the Verrazzano Bridge, which was closed to cars for the day.

The New York Times says BMX star Nigel Sylvester has used his corporate tie-ins and social media presence to become one of the most recognizable faces in the sport, as Sylvester says he wants to be “one of the greatest to ever touch a bicycle.”

 

International

GCN considers the latest trends in bike tech.

No bias here, either. The local press says residents of Bournemouth, England are angry about a new bike path costing the equivalent of $4.1 million a mile, insisting that there aren’t enough people using it to justify the high price. Never mind that it also includes new wider paths for pedestrians, bus stops with shelters featuring electronic information boards and upgraded traffic light signals. But sure, blame all the cost on the people on two wheels. 

Cycling Weekly examines why bicycling rates have stagnated in the UK, following what was supposed to be the “golden age” for bicycling during the pandemic.

A member of the Estonian Parliament is riding more than 1,000 miles from the country’s capital of Tallinn to Kyiv, to raise funds for the Ukrainian armed forces. Thanks again to Megan Lynch.

A bike rider in India was lucky to escape being crushed by a water tanker driven by a distracted driver, jumping off his bicycle at the last second and breaking his leg in the process.

An Indian father and his adult son were arrested for allegedly beating a 55-year old neighbor to death, after the victim apparently complained about the son parking his bicycle inside the apartment building where all three lived.

 

Competitive Cycling

Now you, too, can learn how to gravel race from legendary mountain bike champ Rebecca Rusch.

Dutch cyclist Demi Vollering won the La Vuelta Femenina, aka the women’s Tour of Spain, claiming the final stage in a solo breakaway by nearly half a minute; Évita Muzic and Riejanne Markus rounded out the podium.

A columnist for Cycling Weekly says no matter how well organizers may plan — or how poorly — bike racers rarely crash where you think they will, due to their individual skills and the vagaries of the course. Then again, that’s true for the rest of us, too. 

 

Finally…

Who needs earbuds when you’ve got your very own gramophone horn on your bike? And that feeling when bike rack form completely overwhelms function.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin