BikinginLA

LA Metro comes in for a lot of criticism.

Justifiably, in most cases.

But they deserve credit for the long-awaited, if awkwardly named, Slauson Rail-to-Rail Active Transportation Corridor, as People For Bikes names it one of the best new bike lanes in the US.

As part of the long-planned Rail-to-River project, Los Angeles turned a neglected right-of-way into a shared-use path lined with hundreds of new trees, bioswales, pedestrian-scale lighting, and bike share stations. The completed Slauson segment of the Rail-to-River project (known as Segment A) stretches 5.5 miles from 67th Street and 11th Avenue to Slauson Station on the Metro A Line. The path links schools, transit, parks, and businesses, providing a safe, accessible route for both recreation and commuting in South Central Los Angeles.

As local advocates celebrate the project’s success, they continue to push for completion of Segment B before the 2028 Olympics, which would extend farther east to the LA River and create a vital link in a regional network that will ultimately connect South LA to Long Beach and beyond.

Now let’s convince Metro finish the rest of this one before 2028.

And stop fighting HLA compliance on the Vermont corridor.

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A lawsuit is going to trial this week alleging that an LAPD cop was murdered by another officer during a bicycle training exercise.

The parents of Los Angeles Police Officer Houston Tipping are suing the city and LAPD Officer David Cuellar, claiming that Cuellar intentionally injured their son when they were participating in a bicycle patrol training class at the department’s Elysian Park Academy in 2022.

According to the lawsuit, Tipping had launched an investigation after taking a report from a woman claiming she had been sexually assaulted, allegedly by Cuellar. And that Cuellar retaliated by purposely injured him during a training exercise.

Tipping suffered a spinal cord injury, dying three days later.

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Barry Morphew has pled not guilty to a charge of murder in a Colorado court for the death of his wife Suzanne in 2020.

Morphew had reported his wife missing, saying she had disappeared after leaving alone for a Mother’s Day bike ride. However, police later concluded he had drugged her with an animal tranquilizer, and tossed her bicycle and helmet down a ravine to make it look like she had crashed.

Volunteers kept searching for her, but it was not until 2023 that her skeletal remains were found.

Morphew was arrested on a charge of first-degree murder. He was allegedly the only person, other than wildlife officials, to have a prescription for that particular drug combination in the area.

This is the second time he has been charged in her death. He was first arrested in 2021, before her body was found. But charges were dismissed after alleged prosecutorial misconduct.

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

A Florida man faces charges for deliberately shoving a 74-year old man off his bicycle for no apparent reason, leaving the victim with a cracked helmet and minor injuries. Although the man told police “informants coming after him,” so there’s that.

Toronto has spent $270,000 to hire outside attorneys in the fight to retain key bike lanes that Ontario officials want to rip out; the executive director of a Toronto bike advocacy group said the money could have been better spent on transit or other projects to reduce congestion, if the province hadn’t been so obsessed with removing the bike lanes.

No bias here. A Dublin, Ireland judge reduced by 80% the damages awarded to a bicyclist who suffered a brain injury, claiming that bicyclists have become a nightmare in the city, and as a driver, he was entitled to take judicial notice of his own experiences. Just wait until someone tells him about the nightmare drivers have become. And not just in Dublin. 

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

London is installing three new signalized crossings in the city’s Regent’s Park to slow bike riders after too many collisions and near misses with pedestrians, as many riders exceed the park’s 20 mph speed limit.

A Scottish letter writer complains that bicyclists need to show more care around pedestrians on shared paths, with too many riders coming up from behind with little or no warning. Seriously, pedestrians are the only ones who are more vulnerable on the streets or pathways than we are. So slow down, give them a warning and pass them like you wish drivers would pass you. 

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Local 

Streets For All reminds us about two critical votes at the LA Metro Planning and Programming Committee meeting this Wednesday, to select a preferred option for a rail line through the Sepulveda Pass, and give final approval to extend the C, aka Green, Line to Torrance.

A Caltech scientist refutes the notion that he doesn’t exist, after a woman stood up in a Pasadena city council meeting to suggest that no one rides bikes in the city.

 

State

A man reportedly suffered major injuries when his bicycle was rear-ended by the driver of a Dodge Charger near Indio Monday morning. Although there’s no explanation for why the driver apparently didn’t see a grown man on a bicycle riding directly in front of his car. 

Sad news from Santa Rosa, where a man riding a bicycle was killed in a collision with a SMART commuter train. Train collisions are the easiest wrecks to avoid, because the trains are confined to their tracks, and crossing gates warn you when they’re coming — as long as you don’t go around them.

It may be justice delayed, or even denied, for a Sacramento woman who was nearly killed by a hit-and-run driver while riding her bike in 2023, leaving her with four broken ribs, a broken collar bone, a concussion, a collapsed lung and a lingering bruise on her thigh, after the driver arrested a year later filed for a mental health diversion rather than facing trial — something the victim calls his Get Out of Jail Free card.

Folsom is busy rebuilding the city’s bike park under a new public-private partnership.

 

National

Bicycling says some of the “Amazon’s Choice” bicycling gear is surprisingly good, despite being cheap. Although that endorsement might mean a little more if they didn’t get a kickback on any click-through sales.

The lone survivor of an Asheville NC crash that killed two bicyclists and seriously injured a third, is now the co-founder of the The White Line North Carolina chapter, and fighting for passage of the Magnus White Cyclist Safety Act (H.R. 3649) mandating automatic emergency braking systems for motor vehicles to detect cyclists and other road users.

A Massachusetts town is finally ready to approve the city’s draft bicycle and pedestrian mobility plan, 32 years after they started work on it. Yes, 32 years. And I thought the fight over the Los Angeles bike plan took forever.

 

International

Urban Bike News recaps the current outlook for, well, urban bikes.

Momentum recommends the top ten bikepacking routes to tackle this year, including California’s own Pacific Coast Route from Canada to Mexico. Although whether this is actually a new story or another recycled piece from years past is TBD. 

A British Columbia columnist urges bicyclists to follow his example and tilt their headlights down, so they don’t blind oncoming riders. Which is exactly what I’ve done for years, which offers the added advantage of providing a better view of the road surface. 

London’s department of transportation equivalent is asking people to nominate women who ride bikes, planning to pick ten women to name bikeshare bikes for them in honor of International Women’s Day, as well as increase female ridership. Because nothing will inspire women to ride more than naming a bicycle named after one of them. Right?

A British university is complaining that a new painted bike lane near campus is too slippery, resulting in slips and near misses, but the local council insists there’s nothing wrong with it and people just have to be more careful.

 

Competitive Cycling

Interesting piece from Cycling Weekly, arguing that the WorldTour pro cycling model is broken, as the complexity and cost of bicycles continues to climb, putting high-end bikes out of the reach of most consumers — and that the solution is to ban current pro bikes from being sold to consumers, just like F1 cars may promote the brand, but you can’t buy one and drive it on the street.

Surprisingly, Wout van Aert is already on his bike and back to training, just ten days after he had surgery on his broken ankle.

 

Finally…

Forget Everesting — try riding the elevation of Olympus Mons, the highest known mountain in our solar system. That feeling when your $12,000 ebike was designed by an F1 team.

And if you’re riding your bike with an outstanding arrest warrant while illegally carrying a loaded gun, put a damn light on it.

The bike that is, not the gun.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin.