BikinginLA

Just 204 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025.

Stop what you’re doing and sign this petition demanding Mayor Bass hold a public meeting to listen to the dangers we all face on the city’s mean streets.

Then share it — and keep sharing it — with everyone you know, on every platform you can.

We’re up to 1,196 signatures, so don’t stop now! Let’s get just four more to get it up to 1,200 before I send it to the mayor’s office!

Photo by Sora Shimazaki from Pexels.

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That’s more like it.

Wealthy socialite Rebecca Grossman was sentenced to a well-deserved 15 to life for the vehicular murder of two little kids.

The co-founder of the famed Grossman Burn Foundation, Grossman was convicted of the high-speed deaths of 11-year old Mark Iskander, and his 8-year old brother as they crossed a Westlake Village street with their parents.

Here’s how the Los Angeles Times describes the crash.

The boys’ mother testified during trial that her older children had been walking ahead of her and her youngest son in the marked crosswalk on Triunfo Canyon Road when she heard engines roaring. Two sport utility vehicles were barreling toward them.

Iskander dived for safety, grabbing her 5-year-old son. Her next memory, she said, is of Jacob and Mark crumpled on the roadway.

Grossman was driving behind Scott Erickson, a former Dodgers player, who earlier in the day had been drinking cocktails with her at a nearby restaurant. She was driving as fast as 81 mph and traveled another half-mile after slamming into the children, according to evidence presented at trial.

However, the judge apparently took pity on her, sentencing Grossman to two concurrent terms for the murders, plus another three years for the hit-and-run to be served concurrently.

She could have been looking at 33 years before she’d be eligible for release. Instead, the 60-year old Grossman could get out when she’s a relatively young 75.

On the other hand, her victims would have been young men of 26 and 23, respectively, if the married woman hadn’t decided to race her then-boyfriend after drinking and taking valium.

Although it would be nice if Erickson had been held accountable for his not-insignificant role in the boys’ deaths, rather than given a walk by prosecutors.

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Hermosa Beach adopted an emergency ebike ordinance that mostly restates existing state law, but can’t seem to distinguish between electric bicycles and electric motorcycles.

And if it’s so effing urgent, why didn’t they include a link to the damn press release, and not bury it on their website?

Thanks to Dr. Grace Peng for the heads-up.

https://twitter.com/HermosaBchCity/status/1800198737479836037

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CicLAvia looks forward to their fourth open streets event of the year, and the 53rd overall, when they come to Western Ave in South LA on the 23rd, with a list of where to eat and shop along the route.

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It’s now 172 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And three full years 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.

No bias here. An Austin, Texas columnist complains the city is putting in all these bike lanes, when it just makes more sense to ride on side streets — which take riders out of the way and usually don’t have traffic signals. And says you should have to wear a numbered armband to ride in certain areas.

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

A Redditor rightfully complains about the “disgusting” amount of used gel packs, water bottles and other assorted detritus left behind following a mountain bike rice through the woods.

Once again, an elderly person has been killed in a collision with someone on a bicycle, this time a 70-year old woman in Dublin, Ireland. Note to Irish Cycle — putting an urgent call for more funding in the middle of a story about a woman getting killed by a bike rider probably isn’t the best look.

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Local 

Spectrum News 1 profiles Finish the Ride and Streets Are For Everyone founder — and all-around good guy — Damian Kevitt, as he dedicates his life to making the roads safe for everyone.

More on the teenaged, motorbike-riding assholes who attacked beach goers and businesses with fireworks in Hermosa Beach on Saturday, as the press continued to blame “ebike” riders, apparently incapable of distinguishing between a ped-assist bicycle and a battery-powered dirt bike.

 

State

Streetsblog’s Melanie Curry looks at the latest tranche of bike and transportation bills in the state legislature, including a bill to exempt bike lanes, bus lanes and pedestrian projects from the need for additional Coastal Commission studies.

The San Francisco Chronicle says the city is ready to throw in the towel on the deeply unpopular centerline bike lanes on Valencia Street, and replace them with some form of side lanes, even though putting the bike lanes in the middle of the street has reduced doorings. Which makes you wonder how the hell someone gets doored when they’re riding in the middle of the street.

Good news from Davis, where a member of the UC Davis cycling team finally awakened from a coma, five weeks after the freshman was struck by a driver while she was riding her bike.

 

National

Bloomberg says the goals of the 15-minute city are laudable, but questions whether it’s even possible to put retail, services and jobs that close to every resident. Hey, nobody said it was going to be easy.

Electrek considers why more American teens are choosing ebikes over driver’s licenses. Maybe they’re just a lot smarter than we give them credit for.

Velo examines whether Biden’s new Chinese tariffs will raise the cost of your next ebike, concluding it’s complicated.

Men’s Journal recommends their choices for Father’s Day gifts for bicyclists that won’t get stashed in the back of the drawer — including a liquor flask, in case you somehow feel the need to get sloshed during your next ride.

CNN Underscored once again considers the best bike locks, sticking with choices from Kryptonite and Hiplok.

A Brooklyn paper talks with the New York borough’s legendary bikeshare-riding stuntman famed for balancing various objects on his head.

Tragic news from upstate New York, where a teenaged boy was killed when he went off the top of a five story parking garage while riding an ebike with a group of friends. Although once again, what kind of ebike isn’t specified.

The annual 900-mile Remember the Removal Bike Ride bike ride is underway, as a group of bicyclists with Cherokee ancestry follow the infamous Trail of Tears their forebears walked from Georgia to Oklahoma.

 

International

Lime will bring the first bikeshare system to a First Nations community when they open an ebike system on British Columbia’s Squamish Nation.

If you build it, they will come. Just a month after critics said a new bike lane in Colchester, England was an accident waiting to happen and would cause carnage, bicycling rates are up 300% on the route while gaining positive reviews from riders.

More than half of bike riders in the UK say the roads are in terrible shape due to potholes and cracked pavement following months of rains.

British carmaker Ariel is releasing its first bicycle in 92 years; the company made the first mass-produced bicycle in 1871, but switched exclusively to cars in 1932.

UK police warn that drivers can’t see you if you’re wearing dark clothing. Even in broad daylight, apparently.

 

Competitive Cycling

Once again, a cyclist loses after celebrating too soon, this time in the women’s Tour of Britain when retiring Luxembourg champ Christine Majerus raised her arms in victory before losing at the finish line.

https://twitter.com/TourofBritain/status/1799821631201902952?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1799821631201902952%7Ctwgr%5E7a41bc1f59a4e4d89f72caec2115b760319db438%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fd-11901174861121623140.ampproject.net%2F2405231944000%2Fframe.html

 

Finally…

That feeling when you take your new tall bike to extreme lengths. Or when your band performs on a bicycle built for six.

And when you’re on felony probation and carrying illegal weed on your bike, just stop for the damn stop sign, already.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin