Day 225 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025.
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He gets it.
Writing in the LGBTQ journal Los Angeles Blade, West Hollywood City Councilmember and California State Senate candidate John Erickson says California is failing by allowing personal politics to get in the way of “implementing the simplest, most straightforward ideas — even when it means saving lives.”
He uses the example of Fountain Ave, pointing out that one of his first proposals after joining the council was to add protected bike lanes, wider sidewalks and traffic calming on the deadly corridor.
Something that the public supported, and which passed the council unanimously — yet six years later, nothing has changed.
As Erickson writes,
I believe it is because in our car-centric society, age-old ideas of public safety and interpersonal politics have gotten in the way of upholding the first responsibility of an elected official: to keep people safe. In the meantime, multiple people have been struck and killed by cars on Fountain Avenue, the most recent happening right across the street from my home. Every day we delay implementing the changes we approved years back, we are jeopardizing people’s lives, and as one public commenter said at our last city council meeting, the process is killing people.
This is not just a West Hollywood problem. This is a California problem. Across our state, commonsense projects that would make communities safer, greener, and more livable are caught in an endless tangle of redundant approvals, over-engineered reviews, and bureaucratic inertia. We’ve built a system that treats progress—even public safety—as something to be studied into submission rather than acted upon with urgency.
Amen, brother.
He proposes four simple steps to keep this from happening — “not just for Fountain Avenue, but for every community waiting on a safer crosswalk, a protected bike lane, a new housing development, or a climate-resilient infrastructure project.”
- Set clear timelines for infrastructure changes—and stick to them.
- Limit duplicative votes.
- Empower staff to act.
- Adopt “safe streets first” protocols.
I have no idea how many lives have been lost on Fountain over those long six years. But even if it was only one, it’s still one too many.
Never mind every other safety and infrastructure project throughout the state that has been needlessly delayed at the expense of human lives.
I can’t say with any assurance if Blake Ackerman, or anyone else, could have been saved if the changes to Fountain had moved forward years ago.
But I do know this would be a better world if they were all still with us.
Let’s make sure Blake Ackerman’s ghost bike is the last one Fountain Ave will ever see.
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Streets For All is hosting their next virtual happy hour next Wednesday, featuring the aforementioned John Erickson.
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Streets Are For Everyone is celebrating their 10th Anniversary on September 14th.
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BikeLA is hosting a bike ride on South LA’s new Rail to Rail Path on Saturday, August 23rd.
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Evidently, flat cats ride flat bikes. (This one’s worth clicking through if the tweet doesn’t embed properly.)
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
Apparently, it’s happened again. Police in Edmonton, Alberta are looking for witnesses after a man says he was intentionally run down by a driver while he was riding his bike, while someone in the passenger seat appeared to giggle while recording the crash; no word yet on whether it was a stolen car, but that would fit the pattern of the online challenge.
A Scottish bicyclist received a “fair settlement” after he was injured riding his bike into a rope strung between two traffic cones on an improperly marked street closure, even though no one ever took accountability.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
British tabloids are having a field day after bike cam vigilante Cycling Mikey filmed himself blocking the path of a driver who attempted to enter a closed road, then pushing his bike into the car when the driver just went around him. Then he reportedly did it again the next day.
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Local
A petition to reopen the gate providing access to the Yvonne B. Burke Park and beachfront Marvin Braude Trail has just 290 signatures as of this writing; the petition we linked to last week was actually for condo owners complaining about losing their private access.
Los Angeles Times readers offer their thoughts on how to reconfigure the city so it’s a sustainable home for everyone. Because right now, it’s just a very unsustainable home for people who drive.
When is a bike lane not a bike lane? When it’s a parking lot for a bigass construction trailer.
Santa Clarita’s new 720-acre Haskell Canyon Bike Park is expected to open by the end of this year.
State
Calbike’s next online bicycle summit session will discuss how bike highways can create a path to the future of bicycling next Wednesday.
San Diego police say a 16-year old driver violated the right-of-way of a 13-year old girl riding an ebike, who suffered a broken leg when he turned left in front of her.
Sad news from Bakersfield, where a man was killed by driver after allegedly riding his bike through a stop sign. As always, how accurate that is depends on whether there were independent witnesses to the crash, or if the cops are relying on the word of the only person involved who actually survived the crash.
Berkeley environmentalists are complaining after officials voted to move forward with a proposed 1.4-mile mountain bike trail, which would be backed by a $1 million donation from a mountain biking man and his wife.
Heartbreaking news from Burlingame, where a four-year-old boy was killed and a six-year-old girl injured when they were collateral damage in a chain-reaction crash that started with a driver hitting someone on an ebike, not the other way around.
National
The US bicycle industry is struggling to adapt to a 30% tariff on everything they import from Asia, from components to fully assembled bicycles, as Trump threatens to raise imports on Chinese products even higher.
Portland bike riders are protesting plans to remove traffic diverters on a bike-friendly street, after police complained it blocked access for their patrol cars.
Bicycle advocates say the flashing yellow lights in Albuquerque, New Mexico bike crossing only give the illusion of safety because not every driver stops for them.
An 88-year old Boulder, Colorado man died after he allegedly blew through a stop sign on his bicycle, and was struck by a pickup driver. Because 88-year old men are known for their reckless flaunting of traffic safety rules, evidently.
One-third of people who received Colorado’s modest $450 ebike rebate have replaced two to three car trips each week with bicycle trips.
An op-ed in the Kansas City Star says Missouri doesn’t have to be the nation’s second-worst state for bicycling.
A bike tourist from Kansas City was killed in a freak accident when an Iowa storm blew a shed onto the tent he was in. And that’s the correct use of the term “accident,” rather than a collision.
How to ride your bike to all 26 beaches in Chicago in a single day.
Bike riders in Illinois are complaining about a closed gate blocking access to a Mississippi bike path, forcing them to cross a busy highway and resulting in several “near-hits.”
Ouch. A Boston sports radio host had to be airlifted off Nantucket after crashing his bicycle, which left him with air pockets in his neck. Or maybe not.
The University of Massachusetts will conduct a study to determine if bike maps can boost ridership. Or, they could save the money and just ask us.
Hudson Valley bicyclists reacted with “shock, dismay and solidarity” after someone stole the bike belonging to a community advocate for safer streets and access for people recovering from TBIs.
International
Road.cc wants to know your bike commuting tips.
The new album from Toronto indie rock band Born Ruffians was inspired by a bike ride in India on a borrowed purple children’s bike.
Speaking of Toronto, the city is rolling out a new bike lane campaign with rhymes like “You’ve got wheels, they’ve got heels,” “It’s a real pain when you stop in the bike lane” and “If it takes gas, it moves too fast for the bike lane.”
A British man says he’s fallen in love with bicycling all over again after a broken ankle kept him from riding for two months.
A bike rider in the UK uses reverse psychology to protect his bike despite the flimsy lock, leaving a note reading “Hope stealing it will make you feel a lot better.”
Irish famers got out the torches and pitchforks to protest a new bike lane they claim will make a roadway too narrow for their combines come harvesting time, complaining about the “North Korean-style” project. Although to the best of my knowledge, North Korea isn’t exactly known for bike lanes.
Why waste time explaining that Amsterdam wasn’t always like this, when you can sing it, instead?
The holiday season must start early in Germany, where three postal workers are riding over 1,800 miles from St. Nikolaus, Germany to Rovaniemi, Finland to deliver letters and Christmas wish lists to the Santa Claus Village in the Finnish community.
Bicycling Australia says handmade bikes are being built in workshops across country by frame builders who you’ve probably never heard of
Competitive Cycling
Twenty-one-year old German cyclist Louis Kitzki is walking away from the Alpecin-Deceuninck U23 team after witnessing two fellow pro cyclists die in crashes during races, saying he just doesn’t feel safe competing anymore.
Danish pro Mads Pedersen won the first stage of the Tour of Denmark in a nine-man sprint following a near-race long breakaway.
The news was not good from the Tour of Poland, where 24-year old Italian cyclist Filippo Baroncini was placed in an induced coma after crashing in stage 3.
Spanish downhiller Edgar Carballo González was suspended for one year for sexually harassing a female cyclist at an international meet.
Former pro Lizzy Banks says something has to change after she lost her fight to avoid a two year ban for using a prohibited diuretic, after convincing British authorities it was the result of contamination through no fault of her own; the World Anti-Doping Agency and the Court of Arbitration for Sport disagreed.
Apparently, Pogačar’s skill is baked in.
Finally…
You must remember this, a kiss is just a kiss — even on bicycles. Why settle for earbuds when you can put an actual piano on your bike?
And if you’re going to shove a deputy after getting 86’d from a restaurant for taking a swing at another customer, try not to fall off a stolen ebike making your getaway.
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Oh, and fuck Putin.
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