BikinginLA

Day 161 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

No surprise here.

Calbike complains that California’s transportation budget once again prioritizes highways at the expense of active transportation.

CalBike and other advocates had a modest ask from California’s nearly $20 billion 2025 transportation budget: give back $400 million stripped from the Active Transportation Program (ATP) in 2024, as the legislature promised to do in last year’s budget. Yet the legislature’s version, released today, includes no additional funding for the ATP.

Last year’s cutbacks limited the program to funding just 13 projects for safe biking and walking infrastructure across the state. The missing funds could immediately jumpstart 30 local infrastructure projects that applied for funding and are ready to break ground.

That $400 million works out to just two percent of the massive transportation budget.

Two. percent.

Also known as a rounding error in the whopping $321.9 billion state budget. But the state would rather go against its own climate goals to keep funding highways, at a time when the state is literally burning.

So if you don’t feel comfortable on California streets, you can rest easy knowing that drivers will still be able to go zoom zoom, thanks to the money that didn’t go to improve your safety.

At least until induced demand catches up with them.

Photo by Vitaly Kushnir from Pexels. 

………

Speaking of Calbike, the California bike advocacy group celebrated the passage of AB 954, aka the Bike Highways Bill, in the state Assembly.

As examples of what something like that would look like, they singled out LA County’s 35-mile San Gabriel River Trail, and the partially completed 110-mile Santa Ana River Trail, as prime examples.

The group also issued design guidance on Class IV bike lanes, defined as on-street bikeways separated from car traffic by some type of physical barrier.

Although you can probably guess how many Class IV bike lanes Caltrans built between 2018 and 2023, after the legislature approved them in 2015.

Yep. Just this side of zero.

………

Streets For All asks you to support three bike-related issues at Wednesday’s joint meeting of the Los Angeles City Council Transportation and Public Works committees, in person or by commenting in advance.

Item #5 looks at using cameras to better enforce bike lanes, item #14 would assign the maintenance of bike paths and lanes to Public Works, and item 15 is the long awaited HLA implementation ordinance.

………

Here’s one that’s also worth supporting.

The Long Beach City Council will vote on a $51.3 million contract to build the Studebaker Road Complete Streets Project — which looks to be a transformational redesign — at today’s 5 pm council meeting.

The Studebaker Road Complete Streets Project brings corridor-wide infrastructure improvements to Studebaker Road, spanning nearly five miles from 2nd Street to Carson Avenue. This initiative aims to enhance mobility, safety, and efficiency for residents and visitors who travel along the corridor.

By building a safer, more accessible active transportation network, the project will transform an area currently dominated by car travel. The corridor connects key destinations, including Long Beach City College, CSULB, McBride High School, Sato Academy, Tincher Prep, El Dorado Park and Library, Alamitos Bay, and the 2nd and PCH retail center. These improvements will benefit pedestrians, bicyclists, and drivers alike, fostering a safer, healthier, and more inclusive Long Beach.

This project is part of the Elevate ’28 Infrastructure Investment Plan, a historic initiative dedicated to enhancing Long Beach parks, community facilities, mobility access, and streets. Learn more at lbelevate28.com.

Thanks to Joe for the heads-up. 

………

Culver City’s annual Pride Ride returns at the end of this month.

………

Senior bike racing returns to Pasadena’s El Dorado Park next week.

………

This may just be the photo of the year, capturing the chaos that erupted on LA streets over the weekend.

Los Angeles, 2025📸 afpphoto

— Bicicleteiros (@bicicleteiros.bsky.social) 2025-06-09T17:58:55.987Z

………

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

Apparently, thinking traffic safety advice that only stresses bike helmets and hi-viz kinda misses the point — “like telling women to wear long skirts for their safety” — is somehow “woke” in the minds of people who don’t seem to have any idea what “woke” means.

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

An Austin, Texas woman is looking for the hit-and-run ebike rider who crashed into her bicycle, leaving her with seven broken bones in her wrist and foot.

A British parody account reminds us that it’s always the bike rider’s fault.

………

Local 

A new UCLA study based on data from cities around the world shows that increasing density and making streets safer and more comfortable for active transportation are the best predictors of high walking and biking rates, while simultaneously reducing traffic deaths, air pollution and stress for road users.

 

State

A 55-year old Santa Rosa woman is in life-threatening condition after a pickup driver somehow couldn’t manage to avoid someone he admitted to police he saw riding her bicycle in a crosswalk.

 

National

Marketplace says the bike industry is finally adjusting to the disruptions that began with the Covid bike boom, followed by the post-Covid bike bust.

GQ recommends the best bike helmets. Because who would know better how to protect your skull than <checks notes> a fashion magazine?

Here’s another one for your bike bucket list — a 700-mile bikepacking route crossing the entire state of Washington.

Great idea. An Oklahoma City bike club is changing lives by taking elementary and middle school students on afterschool bicycling field trips around the city.

People For Bikes looks at the Arkansas Global Cycling Accelerator, a Bentonville startup accelerator focusing on helping bicycle businesses succeed and grow.

Chicago could get a new rail trail, after local residents halted a freeway on the site.

A Minnesota broadcaster somehow feels the need to remind scofflaw bike riders that they, too, are subject to traffic laws — but only for their own safety! — as if only people required to take a driving test would know that.

After two-and-a-half years of work, a Detroit man and his son finished their own DIY “Captain America” ebike, patterned after the chopper ridden by Peter Fonda in Easy Rider.

An innocent person once again paid the price for a police chase, after a 68-year old Philadelphia man was injured when a cop chasing a driver crashed into his bicycle, as well as the suspect vehicle, after following the driver into a bike lane; fortunately, the victim was hospitalized in stable condition.

A Florida man learned the hard way that it’s probably not the best idea to steal a bicycle from a police detective’s son.

 

International

Women in West Yorkshire, England don’t feel safe riding their bikes, due to “verbal abuse, sexual comments and motorists passing too close.” In other words, like women nearly everywhere else.

A British bus driver will spend the next four years behind bars for killing a nine-year old girl riding her bike on the sidewalk — yes, the sidewalk — after falling asleep behind the wheel while high on drugs.

A driver in the UK demonstrates that there are all kinds of distracted driving.

America’s hit-and-run epidemic has spread to India, where two college students were both killed by a hit-and-run driver while riding their bicycles to campus in Uttar Pradesh.

 

Competitive Cycling

It was a good weekend for Belizean cyclists, as one rider from the country won the elite Tulsa Tough crit, while another made the podium with a 3rd place finish in the masters Punta Cana Grand Prix in the Dominican Republic.

Evidently, it doesn’t take a magician to make a cyclist disappear.

 

Finally…

When life gives you bike lanes, use ’em to prop up the bike boosting your business. That feeling when a six-year old ad featuring a dated bike hero pops up with no context or explanation.

And if you can’t even drive a shopping cart, always blame the bike for getting in your way.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin.