BikinginLA

Day 150 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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Oops.

I got tied up with other things, and missed last night’s application window for the California Ebike Incentive Program.

Okay, I just forgot about it until it was too late. Which kinda tells you just how concerned I am about it after all the damn delays and fails.

But I’m told the program had announced they had accepted 1,000 applications less than half an hour after the window closed at 6 pm, so it must have gone okay for a change.

Even if they’re still throttling the application process, for no other reason than they can’t seem to process any more.

At this rate, it’ll only take four more years to give out all the available funds.

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No surprise here.

The new 2025 Happy City Index was released yesterday, revealing that many of the world’s happiest cities are also among the most bike-friendly.

Needless to say, Los Angeles isn’t among them, on either count.

In fact, the City of Angeles tied for a relatively sad number 70 — 36 places and 72 points below San Diego, which came in just one point ahead of Bruges and Amsterdam.

Yes, Amsterdam.

We’re also behind such remarkable garden spots as Columbus OH, Washington DC, and Beijing, China. Because everyone knows humid, swampy and politically riven DC is just this side of the happiest place on earth.

But at least we can take comfort in knowing we’re ahead of San Jose, Moscow and last place Pula, Croatia.

So take that, Pula.

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Life is cheap in Alhambra.

Not-so-Red Hot Chili Pepper Josh Klinghoffer walked without a day behind bars for killing a 47-year old man who was walking to an Alhambra grocery store, while Klinghoffer was “likely” driving distracted.

The guitarist, who toured with Pearl Jam recently after leaving the Chili Peppers in 2019, was sentenced to a year of unsupervised probation and 60 days community service after pleading no contest to misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter without gross negligence.

Klinghoffer could have faced up to six years in prison for felony manslaughter without the plea deal.

More proof that it helps to be famous. And able to afford a good criminal lawyer.

Thanks to Nuance Enjoyer for the heads-up.

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The popular Finish the Run/Finish the Ride runs and rolls through Griffith Park this weekend.

The event raises funds and awareness for safer streets across California.

Tomorrow is reserved for the runners and walkers, with distances of 5K, 10K and a half-marathon, aka 13.1 miles, while Sunday is dedicated to riders and rollers, with rides of 12 miles, 20 miles, 35 miles and 62 miles.

Finish the Ride began with the crash that founder Damian Kevitt barely survived when he was struck by a hit-and-run driver while riding on Zoo Drive, and dragged onto the the nearby 5 Freeway before he could free himself, as told to the LA Times in the video below.

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

A British man whose wife was killed by someone on a bicycle says he’s all in favor of giving life sentences to bike riders who kill pedestrians. Even though drivers who recklessly kill bike riders and pedestrians usually walk with a slap on the wrist. See Kinghoffer, above.

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

A Dublin, Ireland columnist writes that the biggest risk she faces on the roads comes from other bicyclists — especially men who get upset when they find themselves behind a slower woman, and pass her without a sound. But if they pass without a sound, how does she know they’re upset and not just assholes? And why does she just assume that other bike riders — not her, of course — have sense of superiority towards people in cars?

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Local 

People for Mobility Justice is marking the end of Bike Month by hosting a community bike ride through the Florence-Firestone neighborhood on Saturday.

A bike corral operated by Hermosa Cyclery at last weekend’s Fiesta Hermosa in Hermosa Beach was filled with over 1,000 bicycles each day of the three-day festival, over half of them ebikes.

Credit the grassroots Car-Lite Long Beach with keeping the city’s bike lanes clear through their bi-monthly volunteer cleanup efforts.

 

State

Calbike argues that quick-build infrastructure projects improve safety and urges you to contact your assemblymember today to support AB 891, which would create a quick-build pilot at Caltrans.

A June 16th public meeting could decide the fate of mountain biking in San Bernardino County’s 855-acre Wildwood Canyon Park Property, as California State Parks gathers input on how the property should be classified and what it should be named.

Sacramento opened a new bike and pedestrian bridge over a highway gash that has long divided it in two, allowing riders to safely cross between the north and south sides of the city.

Streets For All is expanding outside of Los Angeles for the first time, as the transportation PAC merges with San Francisco’s KidSafe SF to extend the reach of both groups; the new entity will be known as Streets For All San Francisco; follow them on Twitter/X and Bluesky.

It’s the beginning of the end for the AIDS/LifeCycle Ride, which sets out from San Francisco for the last time this Sunday; the ride will arrive in Los Angeles on Saturday.

 

National

Escape considers kits to fit a dad body.

A law enforcement website stresses the importance of better bike training, especially as more police agencies adopt ebikes.

Dallas approved its first new bike plan in 14 years, even as some councilmembers warned it’s not enough to keep up with other major cities. On the other hand, if they actually build it, they’ll be way ahead of Los Angeles.

A Chicago woman will be sentenced today after pleading guilty to killing a bike-riding university professor; she was driving in the bike lane at more than twice the legal alcohol limit when she ran him down from behind.

Police in Chicago blamed distraction and a failure to slow down for the city’s first bicycling death this year, along with the deadly front-end design, extreme weight and poor sight lines of the driver’s EV Hummer, even though the 18-year old victim was alleged to have run a red light.

Ebike advocates dodged a bullet when a committee in the New York legislature killed a bill requiring registration of ebikes — but Streetsblog warns it was just the first shot in an expected fusillade.

New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch argues that her cops have to give criminal summonses to scofflaw bike riders because they don’t have licenses that can be suspend — but many drivers continue to drive after their licenses are taken away.

While we’re on the subject of Commish Tisch, she defended her crackdown on ebike riders before city councilmember who fear it could hurt immigrants — even though ebike crashes and pedestrian injuries were both down by double digits in the four months before the policy went into effect.

A Florida sheriff’s department warns everyone to lock their bicycles securely, so they don’t end up a pile of parts, like this.

 

International

A new report from adventure travel company Explore Worldwide ranks the iconic Blue Ridge Parkway through North Carolina and Virginia as the world’s most beautiful bike route, with Montana’s Going-to-the-Sun Road close behind; Oregon’s Crater Lake route and Missouri’s Katy Trail are the only other US routes to make the list.

Life is cheap in the UK, where a speeding 75-year old driver was sentenced to a lousy ten months behind bars for killing a 63-year old woman as she was riding with a friend; he claimed he couldn’t see them because of the lights of an oncoming car, despite their hi-viz and bike lights. Once again raising the question of how old is too old to drive. 

British bicycling deaths were down two percent last year — and a whopping 25% in the past ten years. Which shows what happens when the government actually gives a damn, unlike a certain North American superpower I could name.

Tennis star Novak Djokovic is one of us, after he took advantage of a break in the French Open to ride a bike around the Arc de Triomphe — something he doesn’t plan on doing again.

A new position paper from a German bicycle industry association seeks to put ebikes on an equal footing with regular bicycles by limiting ebikes to 750 watts and a support ratio of 1:4, although some industry leaders warn it could kill off the ebike business; ebike engine maker Bosch stands accused of protectionism for participating in the report.

 

Competitive Cycling

Hola! says hello to Mexican cycling star Isaac del Torro, taking a look at just who the history-making rider is.

Germany’s Nico Denz crossed the finish line nearly one full minute ahead of the pursing riders to win the Giro’s stage 18, while del Torro retained his 41-second lead over second place Richard Carapaz.

A Catholic website says new Pope Leo XIV will greet the Giro peloton when it makes a detour through Vatican City on Sunday.

Sad news from Belgium, where former pro Ludo Dierckxsens collapsed and died on the 600-mile Stand Up for Cancer ride; the former Tour de France stage winner was 60 years old.

 

Finally…

You’re not a gravel pro until you pee in your bibs. That feeling when someone actually questions whether bicycling is a good form of exercise.

And what makes newspaper columnists somehow assume they’re all experts on bicycling?

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

Oh, and fuck Putin.