My apologies for yesterday’s unexcused absence.
After writing about two fallen bike riders in a single night — never mind downing two doses of migraine medication — I was done.
Maybe it goes back to when I started riding, and there weren’t that many of us.
But I feel like everyone I write about is my brother or sister, and every loss feels like a death in the family.
My heart just can’t take writing about so many, so often. Let alone asking you to read it.
And for that, I apologize as well.
Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay.
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That’s more like it.
Sort of.
Streetsblog’s Joe Linton reports that CD5 Councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky called for immediate safety improvements in the wake of the 99 Ranch Market massacre, where an elderly driver killed three people crashing into the Westwood market after hitting a bike rider.
According to Linton,
At last Friday’s council meeting [video – remarks start minute 1:26], Yaroslavsky adjourned the meeting in remembrance of the Westwood crash victims. Yaroslavsky questioned, “Why does it feel like safety improvements take forever even after we know where the risks are?” She noted the current LADOT process for Westwood, pledging to accelerate, “I am calling on LADOT to return with an accelerated timeline for Westwood Boulevard – including immediate quick-build safety measures while longer term work continues.”
“We shouldn’t be waiting years for basic interventions while Angelenos die.”
Meanwhile, CD11 Councilmember Traci Park offered a typically weak-kneed call for “reassessment” after a seven-month pregnant mother of two was killed while riding a bike in Playa del Rey with her toddler son in the seat behind her.
The Playa del Rey killing also saw some response from its City Councilmember Traci Park. Via her email newsletter, Park stated she had visited the crash site and was working with city departments “to re-assess the area for additional lighting and speed safety improvements.” Park noted that bike improvements there were installed and removed in 2017, and that “it’s time to re-open that conversation.” She listed two bike/safety projects she is working on nearby.
The entire Playa del Rey area needs a lot more than a mere “reassessment” of Pershing Drive, where the crash occurred, as well as Manchester Blvd, which has been a frequent site of traffic violence, and Vista del Mar — aka Deadly del Mar — the site of eight traffic deaths in just the last ten years.
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In a must-read from Streets Are For Everyone founder Michael Schneider, he responds to the needless traffic deaths Play del Rey and the 99 Ranch Market, calling it LA’s darkest hour.
All of this is in the context of the city being beyond broke. Part of the reason is a record number of liability payouts due to people getting hurt on city infrastructure that the city knows is dangerous but hasn’t fixed or won’t fix. Additionally, the city continues to slow walk Measure HLA implementation — the exact kind of implementation that would make streets safer.
As a safe streets advocate, it’s hard not to take it personally when someone dies while walking or biking in the city, because I often walk or bike around the city, often with my kids. Living in a city where a pedestrian is injured every 5 hours and killed every 2 days is deeply painful. To have two horrific crashes claim lives on streets that the city was supposed to make safer — but hasn’t yet, or even worse, backtracked after installing safety improvements — is beyond the pale.
Meanwhile, LA City Controller Kenneth Mejia, who is running for re-election this year, puts the deaths in their proper context.
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No surprise here.
A new Aussie study shows that safe passing laws don’t really work, because — wait for it — drivers don’t follow them.
The country requires a minimum of roughly three feet, and roughly four and a half feet on roads with speed limits over 44 mph. Which might actually keep bicyclists safe if drivers didn’t keep violating it.
Instead, researchers recommended infrastructure improvements like protected bike lanes, traffic calming and more road space, which would do a lot more to improve safety for people on two wheels.
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If you need a good laugh, the Desert Sun says a driver and an 18-year old on a bicycle “collided into each other in Cathedral City,” but only the kid on the the bicycle got hurt.
Never mind that the kid got right hooked. Or that it’s almost always the person on two wheels who gets injured, rather than the person surrounded with a couple tons of steel and glass, seat belts and air bags.
Or on second thought, maybe it’s really not that funny at all.
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Okay, so why is Caltrans refusing to make a lousy three blocks in Santa Monica safer for bike riders?
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They get it.
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First, they confiscate the bicycles.
German soldiers with rifles confiscate bicycles in front of the Royal Palace on Dam Square, Amsterdam, early April 1945(see ALT-text for more info)📷Ad Windig
— Cool Bike Art (@coolbikeart1.bsky.social) 2026-02-07T20:16:02.353Z
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
Advocates in Iowa call a proposed bill that would ban bikes on most public roadways “the most anti-biking bill in history;” the good news is that backlash from bicyclists helped drive a stake through its heart.
No bias here. The head of London’s Licensed Taxi Drivers Association launched into a tirade blaming the “white, middle-class cycling lobby” for a proposal that actually came from a representative for Lime to time traffic lights so they create a “green wave” for bicyclists.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
Although you could make the case that the kids were just “liberating” the 101 Freeway, dangerous and illegal though it may be.
Speaking of bad behavior, Strava has deleted millions of KOMs because people cheated by using ebikes and cars.
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Local
There’s a special place in hell for whoever stole an adaptive bike from a nine-year old Los Feliz kid with Down syndrome and autism; a crowdfunding campaign to replace it has surpassed the modest $7,000 goal by over $2,000.
The LA Bureau of Engineering will host a virtual meeting this evening to consider the Glendale Hyperion Bridge Improvement Project, intended to improve earthquake resilience, restore the bridge’s historical appearance, and improve circulation and safety for people driving, biking, walking and rolling.
Advocacy group Santa Monica Spoke and SaMo city staff will host a guided bike ride highlighting recent First/Last Mile safety improvements in the Bergamot Area this Sunday.
State
A coalition of San Diego transit and bicycling advocates is asking the city to improve access for people who don’t drive, rather than fighting with drivers who don’t want to pay for parking.
Palm Springs secured nearly $900,000 in increasingly rare federal funding to build a safe pathway to get people to the new CV Link bike and walking path.
Bicyclists fought to save San Mateo’s Humbolt Street bike lanes at last week’s city council meeting — which were threatened by drivers who wanted more free curbside parking — and won.
Sad news from Marin County, where a bike rider was killed when they were struck by a driver in a massive SUV. But at least the driver stuck around and tried to do CPR.
National
CyclingSavvy offers advice on how to avoid predawn crashes.
Good advice. If you find yourself in Seattle and are planning to go to the Seahawks victory parade, ride your bike. And if you’re in New England, feel free to ride your bike anyway.
A Phoenix man says he hit and killed a woman riding a bike because he fell asleep behind the wheel, then apparently fled the scene and drove home without waking up — but swears he’d trade his life for hers. The problem with that it’s always too late once someone feels that way.
A bike thief in Las Cruces, New Mexico was shot and killed after engaging in a gunfight with an off-duty cop who tried to stop him.
Hats off to the crew of Albuquerque Fire Engine 11, who not only took a bike rider who fell off his bike to the hospital, but also gave his bike a safe ride home.
My bike-friendly Colorado hometown will join cities across the country in celebrating Winter Bike to Work Day this Friday. Although a certain bike-unfriendly SoCal megalopolis we could name won’t be participating, despite having some of the country’s best winter weather.
Chicago is hosting the city’s 28th annual Bike Winter Art Show, with bicycle-themed art that that doesn’t ignore local and national issues.
A Chicago chef is back to cooking, two and a half years after a collision while riding his bike left him on the brink of death.
A Massachusetts woman has figured out a way to get drivers attention that works a hell of a lot better than hi-viz, riding her bike topless, albeit with pasties, to make the case that women should be allowed to shed their tops just like guys do. All titillation aside — pun intended — there’s no reason why they shouldn’t be able to. Period.
A kindhearted North Carolina cop gave a seven-year old boy a new bicycle after he had two bikes stolen in just months. And perhaps more importantly, gave him a lock, too.
A Florida man faces charges for hit-and-run after injuring someone on a bicycle, then abandoning his truck in a creek; he was already on probation vehicle theft, drug possession and failing to appear, and had an active warrant for skipping out on his sentencing for a DUI case. Sounds like a prince.
International
Travel + Leisure calls Mexico’s 1,700-mile Baja Divide Trail one of biking’s best kept secrets.
A British Columbia writer says his wife was seriously hurt in a collision with a driver while riding her bike, but she was one of the lucky ones.
A writer for The Independent goes bikepacking on Scotland’s “stunning” National Bike Network. And encounters a massive bicycle sculpture, complete with bike rack and U-lock.
London’s Cycling Mikey may be the city’s most hated and controversial bicyclist for using his helmet cam to keep drivers honest, and turning them into the cops when they’re not. Although video evidence generally isn’t accepted for traffic violations and misdemeanors in this country.
Bike Radar says there are still three performance bike brands being made in the UK.
Dublin will test out letting bike riders make the equivalent of right on red, in a country where drivers can’t. But only when it’s safe.
An Irish man rode over 1,860 miles from Ireland to Australia, traveling across three continents and 28 countries.
Australian bicyclists say a crucial Sydney bicycling route has become a nightmare since the city’s new Fish Market opened, forcing bike riders to compete for space with crowds spilling over from the market.
Competitive Cycling…
Meta talks with Olympian and pro cyclist Kate Courtney.
The Athletic profiles Sepp Kuss, calling him the “best American cyclist of his generation.” Although that one may be hidden behind a paywall.
Elvis star Austin Butler will play America’s favorite seven-time ex-Tour de France champ in a new biopic. ‘Cause he ain’t nothin’ but a hound dog. Lance, that is.
Three-time Tour de France champ Chris Froome was lucky to escape unharmed when an impatient hit-and-run driver totaled his bike.
Jonas Vingegaard “lost the man who mentored him to grand tour superstardom,” after his longtime cycling coach Tim Heemskerk left the Visma-Lease a Bike team “with immediate effect.”
Colombian track cyclist Martha Bayona Pineda has been banned for 18 months for failing to report her whereabouts, but hasn’t failed any actual drug tests.
A Zimbabwean mountain biker says who needs toes, anyway?
Finally…
Now you, too, can get coaching from an actual knight. Now your kid can make the Costco run with their very own cargo balance bike.
And when you’re drunk as a skunk, maybe don’t yell at a cop ticketing a driver as you ride by on your bike. Or run over a bike cop’s bicycle with your car, for that matter.
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Oh, and fuck Putin.
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