Day 134 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025.
………
A Japanese American man was the victim of a racist attack while riding his ebike in Montebello last month.
According to the Los Angeles Times, 71-year old Aki Maehara, an Asian American history professor at East Los Angeles Community College and Vietnam vet, was run down from behind on April 29th in what appears to have been a targeted attack while riding his ebike on Merle Drive, near his Montebello home.
Before he was struck, he heard someone yell an expletive followed by a racial slur targeting people of Chinese descent, he said. He skidded across a yard and was stopped by a brick wall. Maehara said he heard a man’s voice: “Go back to…” using an expletive and a racial slur, before the car drove off.
“It sounded suspicious to me because I wear a full-face helmet … a helmet with a visor,” Maehara said. “No one can see my face. So how the hell did he know I’m Asian?”
Northwest Asian Weekly reports the driver called him a “fucking Chink!” and yelled, “Go back to Chink-land,” as Maehara lay on the ground after being struck.
He is currently confined to home after suffering serious elbow, neck, cheekbones, jaw, hips and lower back injuries as a result of the attack.
A crowdfunding campaign has raised a little more than half of the $35,000 goal to provide in-home care beyond the few hours provided by the VA each week.
No arrest has been made, though Maehara has provided police with the name of a suspect, saying he’s been targeted for harassment in the past for teaching the history of racism and racist beliefs.
Let’s hope they find this schmuck and lock ’em up for a long damn time.
Photo by Polina Tankilevitch from Pexels.
………
Life is cheap in Australia, where former pro cyclist Rohan Dennis walked without a day behind bars.
Dennis was given probation after pleading guilty to a pair of charges in the death of his wife, Olympic cyclist Melissa Hoskins, despite driving nearly the distance of a football field as she clung to the hood of his SUV, following an argument between the couple.
Hoskins was killed after attempting to open the passenger door, and slipping under the car’s wheels as he attempted to speed away.
Her benevolent parents did not push for jail time, saying it was time to move on for the good of the couple’s children.
………
Calbike will host a webinar on how slow streets can improve our communities on May 28th.
The Slow Streets movement wasn’t new when the pandemic hit in 2020. Berkeley had restricted traffic on neighborhood streets that became bike boulevards decades earlier. But the sudden demand for safe space to walk and bike when everyone was staying home fueled a surge in Slow Streets…
Many of the programs instituted by California cities at the height of the pandemic were temporary, taken down once life began to return to normal. But the experience of the freedom of Slow Streets left a lasting impression and a movement for spaces where kids can safely play in urban environments.
On Wednesday, May 28, 2025, at 10 am, CalBike will host a webinar on Slow Streets as part of our Summit Sessions 2025 series. Robin Pam, from KidSafeSF, and Shannon Hake from the San Francisco Metropolitan Transportation Agency (SFMTA) will share experiences from the advocacy and government agency sides of creating and implementing Slow Streets. And Justin Hu-Nguyen and Robert Prinz from Bike East Bay will talk about a Slow Streets pop-up that their bike coalition just did on one of the Berkeley streets that was a Slow Street during the pandemic.
………
Two examples of how to tell when safety just isn’t a priority in Los Angeles.
Crosswalk request: "Too many cars run the stop signs. I've asked my city council field deputy for help and was told it will take YEARS to get a crosswalk due to sidewalk assessments, etc. Also told that there's no money in the budget."Two crosswalks marked at Sycamore & De Longpre in Hollywood.
— Crosswalk Collective LA (@crosswalksla.bsky.social) 2025-05-12T22:11:01.876Z
………
Finish the Ride is looking for volunteers for Griffith Park’s Finish the Run and Finish the Ride at the end of the month.
………
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
Somehow, drivers in Las Vegas have to be reminded not to use a tunnel meant for bike riders and pedestrians as a shortcut or free parking. And they say bike riders are entitled.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
A popular restaurant atop an iconic climb on the Spanish island of Mallorca was forced to put up a multilingual sign informing visiting bicyclists that it was not an open air toilet, and begging them not to pee on it.
………
Local
She gets it. A Streetsblog op-ed from Alex Ramirez, Executive Director of Los Angeles Walks, says bikeshare should be treated like the public good it is, with public investment, strong labor standards, meaningful community partnerships, and deep respect for people with the fewest mobility options and the most to gain from a system that serves everyone.
Metro is expanding AI automated bus cam ticketing of drivers parked in bus lanes to buses on Olive and Grand in DTLA.
Pasadena is marking Thursday’s Bike to Work Day with a free pitstop offering coffee, snacks and surprise giveaways on the Garfield side of Pasadena City Hall. That’s Garfield as in the avenue, not the cat.
State
Former LACBC — now BikeLA — executive director and transportation social justice warrior Tamika Butler will be honored, deservedly, by the California Black Women’s Health Project this Sunday.
There’s still no sign of the 27-year old Georgia woman who disappeared on a bikepacking trip in Fresno County with her ebike and trailer, despite an intensive five-day search of the backcountry.
Sacramento public radio station CapRadio reports California faces a big decline in funding from the federal government as the Trump administration cancels infrastructure projects and attempts to claw back funding for projects approved under Biden.
National
Outside dreads a near future when all mountain bikes will come with batteries attached.
A San Diego writer and two friends took a one week, 200-mile “hut hopping” bikepacking tour through the most breathtaking part of Colorado and Utah.
I want to be like her when I grow up. An 81-year old Cape Cod woman is back on her bicycle after breaking her elbow in a fall last year.
New York’s embattled mayor is claiming credit, along with the city’s DOT commish, for doubling the amount of space available to bike riders and pedestrians by providing each with their own separate lanes on opposite sides of New York’s Queensboro Bridge.
On the other hand, New York bicyclists are none too pleased about the city taking their sweet time to finish a 30-block West Side bike lane, forcing riders to cope with dangerous detours.
Then again, they’re probably not too pleased that the city is issuing criminal summonses for minor bicycling traffic violations, either, including riding through red lights on the walk sign — which has been legal in the city for the past six years.
International
Life is cheap in the UK, where a 75-year old man got a lousy ten months behind bars for running down a 63-year old woman from behind as she rode with a friend, claiming he was blinded by the lights of an oncoming car — even though investigators determined their bike lights and safety vests would have made the victim visible from over 200 yards away.
Competitive Cycling
Five-time Olympic cycling gold medalist and 2012 Tour de France champ Bradley Wiggins says he was lucky to survive a “functioning” addiction to coke after his retirement from the sport. And no, he doesn’t mean the soft drink.
Finally…
That feeling when your new bike pump is full of weed instead of air. Or when your ad for your cycling team’s Chinese sponsor is so bad, people worry you’re being held hostage.
And yes, it’s probably better not to flip off the cop who nearly ran a stop sign and smeared you across the bike lane.
………
Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Oh, and fuck Putin.
Leave a Reply