Day 56 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025.
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My apologies for yesterday’s unexcused absence.
My pancreas decided to remind me Sunday night that I’m still diabetic, and it’s still in charge.
Good times.
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For the second time in two months — and at least the third in six months — a Los Angeles driver has been attacked by a mob of angry young bicycle riders.
And yes, mob is the right word in this case.
According to witnesses, the kids set upon the victim after he got out of his car following an argument, and were shown on video hitting and kicking the man until he appeared to lose consciousness lying on the street.
The attack occurred around 4:30 pm Saturday at San Vicente Boulevard and McCarthy Vista.
KCAL News reports the attackers were around 16 to 18 years old, although other sources suggested they may have been younger.
It occurred just seven weeks and a few miles from where a man was attacked and his car severely vandalized after driving aggressively through a teen rideout on Olympic Blvd just seven weeks earlier.
And another driver was the victim of a similar attack in DTLA last August.
But no matter what the motorists may have done, or how justified these kids may have felt, there is never an excuse for this kind of mob violence.
Period.
Let’s hope someone recognizes the kids involved, so we can put a stop to this crap.
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Police in South LA are looking for a hit-and-run driver who killed a 16-year old boy riding a pocket bike — aka a mini-motorbike — early Sunday morning, despite some reports that mistakenly said the victim was on a bicycle.
The driver fled on foot, leaving the victim’s bike still wedged in the car’s grill.
As always, there is a $50,000 reward for any fatal hit-and-run in the City of Los Angeles. Anyone with information is urged to call the LAPD’s South Traffic Division at 323/421-2577.
The boy was just one of three people killed by hit-and-run drivers in South LA in just 24 hours.
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More proof that ebike vouchers are effective in reducing driving.
A new report shows recipients of Atlanta’s $1 million voucher program are riding more frequently and driving less, while boosting sales at local bike shops.
The recipients represent roughly two percent of the city’s population, from nearly every neighborhood, while serving mostly low and moderate income residents; one woman says she’s saving money on gas while enjoying riding through the city with her daughter on her new e-cargo bike.
Which is exactly what California’s ebike voucher program could and should be doing, if it had actual leadership, and wasn’t focused solely on providing transportation to low income residents who may not even own cars.
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Former LA-based pro cyclist Phil Gaimon, of Worst Retirement Ever fame, provides a tongue-in-cheek look at 10 facts about bicyclists that haters get wrong.
And my apologies to whoever sent this one to me after I lost track of who did it, but thank you, anyway!
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
No bias here. The Encinitas city council replaced two members of the city’s Mobility & Traffic Safety Commission, as the mayor called for a “course correction” from the previous focus on bicycles and pedestrians, to “make sure vehicles and their drivers aren’t forgotten in the roadway planning process.” Because because cars and drivers must have somehow been left out in the newly 40 years of auto-centric traffic planning since the city’s founding.
Drivers in the UK say they’re being treated like extremist groups, accusing city counselors of being “snowflakes” for cancelling a meeting to discuss bicycling infrastructure, even though police had urged the cancellation over safety concerns from angry drivers.
The BBC remembers Paul Varry, the 27-year old Parisian bike advocate and father who dreamed of a bicycling revolution in the City of Lights, until he was run over — allegedly on purpose — by an SUV driver after Varry became understandably upset when the driver ran over his foot in a designated bike lane.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
A Jersey City writer blames bad behavior by scofflaw bicyclists for jeopardizing plans for a protected bike lane, while arguing that calling drivers selfish for being unwilling to give up an inch of roadway is just a great strategy to lose.
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Local
No surprise here, as Trump’s funding freeze could jeopardize efforts to revitalize the Los Angeles River; meanwhile, LA released the latest update of plans for completing the LA River bike path, which stands little chance of completion unless the feds unlock funding.
Streetsblog’s Joe Linton offers his typically great photos from Sunday’s CicLAvia.
A man was arrested in Baldwin Park for vandalizing a church, resulting in $19,000 damage, following a brief bicycle chase.
The Broxton Plaza pedestrian plaza is now officially open in Westwood Village.
A Torrance driver faces charges after he was arrested for the hit-and-run crash that left an ebike rider hospitalized with serious injuries shortly after midnight Saturday; neither the driver or the victim were publicly identified.
State
The Voice of OC updates the current state of anti-ebike regulations in Orange County, with new ordinances in Buena Park and Laguna Hills. However, the cities continue to conflate relatively slow speed ped-assist bikes with higher speed Class 3 ebikes, and illegally modified virtual electric motorcycles.
In an opinion piece we can only hope is tongue-in-cheek, a writer for the UC San Diego student newspaper makes the case for giving bikes, scooters and skateboards undisputed right-of-way over pedestrians, even in crosswalks. Which is no different than drivers who insist they are entitled to the road, and people on bicycles should get the hell out of their way.
Police in Contra Costa County have finally arrested a suspect for killing a man riding a bicycle over a year ago, leaving the victim lying the road next to his bicycle after midnight in December, 2023.
Sad news from Napa County, where a person riding a bicycle was killed by a hit-and-run driver Sunday afternoon, on the same highway where an Oregon couple was killed riding their bikes two years ago.
National
People For Bikes has launched a data-driven tool, developed with funding from REI, to help guide investment in recreational bicycling facilities.
A writer for Forbes asks if this will be the year the bike industry will bounce back, after yet another prolonged bust in 2024.
CyclingSavvy offers strategies to navigate a green light on your bicycle, which apparently isn’t as simple as it seems.
This is why people keep dying on our streets. A Las Vegas man faces charges for the allegedly drunken crash that killed 62-year old man riding an ebike — while he was already facing charges for another DUI, as well as ten previous charges for failing to appear.
The Northwestern University student newspaper profiles a 24-year old “campus enigma” known for performing stunts on his bike for hours on end, while blasting disco and funk classics through a speaker.
A 72-year old Connecticut woman walked without a day behind bars for killing a 47-year old woman as she was riding her bicycle, after the victim’s family asked the court for leniency. But at least she voluntarily gave up her driver’s license.
In a hard-hitting op-ed, a Black ex-con who has turned his life around to become a Connecticut lawyer and Harvard professor discusses how it felt to go to a bike shop, where he had been a customer six times before, to buy a bicycle, only to have the manager call cops after mistaking him for a vagrant. Yet he somehow went back a week later to buy a high-end Trek anyway.
A Tampa, Florida Catholic church gave away their 1,500th refurbished bicycle for people in need.
International
Momentum belatedly gets it, arguing that “sharrows used to make sense in theory, but are now mostly useless and possibly dangerous.”
A writer for Road.cc describes the tools he carries with him on his bike to fix just about anything on the road. I always made sure I had enough tools to get myself back if my bike broke down 50 miles from home in the middle of nowhere. And it did, more than once.
Cycling Weekly considers how bicyclists can reduce their carbon footprint, when riding for recreation is far from a green activity as too few “hobby” riders use their bikes to replace car trips.
After traversing the continent by bike and train, a writer for Bike Radar lists his favorite European bicycling experiences.
London bike clubs are begging police to begin early morning patrols in the city’s Regent’s Park, where bike riders have been targeted by masked knife and hammer-wielding bikejackers. But donut shops must open later there, because the cops say it’s just too darn early for them.
A Welsh startup’s “ingenious” bicycle storage rack earned the equivalent of a $126,000 investment on the British equivalent of Shark Tank.
That’s more like it. A British man will spend the next eight years behind bars for killing a 16-year old kid riding a bicycle, while doing 70 mph in a 30 mph zone stoned on coke and weed; he initially left the scene, but came back shortly afterwards and called the cops to report the crash.
A writer from the Netherlands calls cul-de-sacs the enemy of ebikes, because they force people to ride next to high-speed traffic on overly wide boulevards.
A Dutch website considers whether the country’s roundabouts are really that safe, concluding they improve safety for bicyclists and drivers, though there’s still room for improvement.
A German company wants you to hide an AirTag in your bike bell.
How to go from selling soap from a bicycle to becoming a detergent mogul and one of the richest people in India.
The Washington Post remembers “inveterate adventurer” Shirley Duncan, who died just shy of her 100th birthday; Duncan was just 21 when she set off with a friend and a dog to ride across Australia in the days after WWII, a nearly three-year journey recounted in her 1957 book, “Two Wheels to Adventure,” now out of print.
Competitive Cycling
Ultra-endurance cyclist Lachlan Morton has done it again, setting yet another world record by riding 402 miles across New Zealand in just 18-and-a-half hours.
America’s only seven-time ex-Tour de France champ offers his tips for how to stay safe while riding a bicycle, including riding a gravel bike and going where cars can’t go. And waiting for self-driving cars to take over, which could take awhile.
What will likely be Chris Froome’s final year on the pro tour is on hold, after the four-time Tour de France champ broke his collarbone during the final stage of the UAE Tour.
Finally….
You can now be replaced by a robot. No, a bike basket is not a dumpster. Who needs a hearse when you’ve got a cargo bike?
And forget the dating apps; if you really want to find lasting love, get run over by a speeding driver while riding your bike.
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Oh, and fuck Putin.
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