Day 87 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025.
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So let’s get this straight.
The Metro Board unanimously approved plans for the Vermont Transit Corridor bus rapid transit project — but without the bike lanes required by law under voter-approved Measure HLA.
Founder and CEO of Streets for All, Michael Schneider, told LAist in a statement that Metro ignored “the law and will of the voters” by voting to move forward with the design of the project without bike lanes…
The disagreement here isn’t about the bus lanes themselves — Schneider and other transportation advocates in L.A. agree that improvements to transit on the corridor are needed.
But the question is whether Metro, a countywide transportation agency, is required to comply with Measure HLA, a city-level initiative.
Metro doesn’t think so, and it has threatened legal action if it is forced to comply.
To repeat, it’s not a question of whether the bike lanes called that are called for in the city mobility plan are required under HLA, which applies to all but the most minor street resurfacing projects on Los Angeles city streets.
But rather, whether the city ordinance applies to a county agency.
Proponents of HLA — myself included — say it does.
Metro takes the contrarian stand, however, arguing that it only applies to work actually done by the city, rather than projects done by outside agencies on the city’s behalf.
Although a better question might be why Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and CD6 Councilmember Imelda Padilla voted against a city ordinance that they are legally required to implement.
And whether by doing so, they violated their obligations as officials elected to represent the City of Los Angeles, which is why they are on the board in the first place.
Because the people who put them there are the same ones who voted overwhelmingly to approve the measure.
And the same ones they will face when they run for re-election.
Correction: I’m told Karen Bass did not vote against HLA, if only because she missed the meeting. Blame Padilla, CD5 Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky, and LA representative Jacquelyn Dupont-Walker.
Rendering of Vermont BRT project, sans HLA mandated bike lanes.
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LA 50 wants your input on who should get the latest round of LA 50 Challenge Grants.
Although they don’t apparently trust us to vote directly on the recipients anymore, but rather just express opinions that will apparently influence their choices.
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The Bike Oven co-op is hosting an art ride on North Figueroa tomorrow night.
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Local
Pasadena police with conduct a bicycle and pedestrian safety operation today, focusing on driver behaviors that endanger bicyclists and pedestrians — although they are legally required to enforce the law equally, whether it’s someone on four wheels, two wheels or two feet who commits the violation. As usual, ride to the letter of the law until you cross the city limit lines, so you’re not the one who gets written up.
State
Streetsblog’s Damien Newton says the San Francisco Giants and San Diego Padres may be behind the Dodgers in the standings, but are miles ahead of LA in providing bike and transit access to their home stadiums. Okay, so maybe I was the one who threw in a little shade about the standings.
Laguna Beach becomes the latest Orange County city to succumb to the spreading ebike panic, adopting an ordinance restricting the speed and use of ebikes in the city. Although once again apparently failing to distinguish between ped-assist bicycles and throttle-controlled electric motorbikes.
Sausalito debates whether to accept a grant for a “controversial” safety project that would require bike lanes in each direction on a dangerous stretch with no crosswalks, where bicycles and cars are forced to share a single lane in each direction, and drivers use the center turn lane for free parking.
Sad news from Woodland, where a man in his 50s was killed when he was run down by a man driving a tractor, while riding in a bike lane on a rural road outside the Sacramento suburb. Although thee’s no word on why the driver was in the bike lane, and why he somehow failed to see the victim despite operating a slow-moving vehicle. And no, tractors aren’t allowed in bike lanes, any more than any other motor vehicle.
National
Blogger Craig Medred takes a deep dive into how the law protects dangerous drivers, when most fatal crashes are just written off as “oopsies.”
Grist considers who will be hurt most by Trump’s freeze on funding for bike lanes and other pedestrian safety projects. That’s easy — everyone. Because as the story says, “infrastructure that prioritizes safety over speed…are proven solutions that protect everyone.”
Nice change in Portland, where the Downtown Neighborhood Association wants fewer traffic lanes, instead of demanding more.
Residents of Chicago’s predominantly Latino Southwest Side debate whether protected bike lanes will improve safety, or lead to gentrification. Even though the bike lanes would protect low-income workers and immigrants who may not own a car, and rely on a bike to get to work, school or other destinations.
In New York City bike-related violence, a food delivery worker was stabbed in the back with a screwdriver when he attempted to defend his bike from thieves trying to take it, and pair of “crazed” men used their own bicycles to beat another man senseless on New York’s Upper East Side.
International
British parliamentarians called for urgent reform of the country’s Cycle to Work program by opening the bike voucher system to low-income workers, freelancers and retirees. Because salaried white collar workers aren’t the only ones who could benefit from biking rather than driving.
Momentum says stop bending over, and ride upright on one of these Dutch-style bikes, instead. Personally, I’ll take the Pashley, Guv’nor.
An Indigenous man riding an ebike in a Sydney, Australia suburb was killed when a police sergeant somehow ran him down with his patrol car while attempting to make a traffic stop; he was found to have $10,000 in cash and three ounces of meth on him after he was killed. Which does not justify the cop using lethal force to make the stop unless the victim somehow threatened him — even if the cop knew or suspected he was dealing drugs.
Competitive Cycling
Former Dutch pro Laurens ten Dam says he slept under the stars surrounded by cows and grizzly bears with pepper spray tucked under his pillow last year during the 3,000-mile Tour Divide race from Canada to Mexico.
Finally….
Take a stand on apartment bike storage, or turn your bike into an objet d’art. Seriously, you haven’t lived until you’ve ridden a fat bike across the Gobi Desert in the middle of winter.
And forget those flammable lithium-ion batteries, and fuel your bike with the stuff that blew up the Hindenburg instead.
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Oh, and fuck Putin.
Will the Vermont Bus lanes be a “BUS ONLY bikes ok” situation then? Remember when LA failed to build the planned bicycle boulevards in the 2010s and failed to make any street parallel to Vermont safe for bicycle riding for the general population. All we got were some sharrows on Heliotrope.