BikinginLA

Once again, someone has been killed riding an ebike.

And once again, we have no idea what kind of ebike they’re talking about.

Multiple sources are reporting that a 21-year old man, identified as Westminster resident Jeffrey James Marlow, died five days after losing control of his ebike and crashing into a curb at Warner Avenue and Plaza Lane in Huntington Beach, around 12:30 pm last Tuesday.

But nothing in any of the articles clarifies whether Marlow was on a Class 1, 2 or 3 electric bicycle, or an illegal e-moto or electric motorcycle.

I honestly have no idea how to handle stories like this. Do I write about it like any other fallen bicycle rider? Or do I assume he was on an electric motorbike, which seems likely, and just mention it in passing, like I did here.

Any thoughts?

………

No bias here.

A candidate for San Diego city council trots out the usual arguments against bike lanes, saying he absolutely supports recreational bicycling, but the city was built around and for cars, and San Diegan won’t just switch to bikes for transportation.

Families juggle work, school, sports, shopping and appointments that often require driving across several neighborhoods in a single day. That reality is unlikely to change simply because more bike lanes are painted on our streets.

At the same time, San Diego’s population is aging. Seniors are one of the fastest-growing segments of our community, and many depend on convenient vehicle access and nearby parking. Local businesses also depend on customers who can easily park and walk into their stores. When parking is removed to make room for bike lanes that see limited use, businesses and residents understandably question whether the tradeoff makes sense.

Maybe someone should tell him that older people make up the fastest growing segment of American bicyclists. And providing a safer bicycling network is the best way to encourage more of those people to ride, offering significant health benefits to an aging population.

Or that about half of all urban trips are under three miles, which most people can do without much difficulty, particularly in the age of ebikes.

Then there’s this.

One practical compromise would be to allow on-street parking in designated bike lanes after 5 p.m. on commercial corridors such as Convoy Street, where approximately 300 parking spaces were removed to install a barely used bike lane. Bike lane usage is almost completely not existent during evening hours or at night.

So apparently, no one who commutes by bicycle gets off work at five or later, like people who have the good sense to drive. And anyone foolish enough to try is on their own, as far as he’s concerned.

And if no one rides at night, then why do most traffic deaths occur after dark? Are drivers actively seeking out the few people foolish enough to risk it?

I don’t know how many people ride bikes on Convoy Street, before or after 5 pm. But something tells me he doesn’t, either.

He finishes like this.

The goal should be to give San Diegans safe, practical and realistic transportation options while protecting neighborhood quality of life and supporting our local businesses. That’s not anti-bike. It’s simply common sense.

So maybe he can explain how removing bike lanes gives San Diegans “safe, practical and realistic transportation options,” when they can already drive anywhere they want, anytime of the day or night.

Don’t people who want the option to ride a bike deserve that, too?

Apparently not. At least if he gets elected.

………

Nope.

No inappropriate campaigning here, as a city department states it’s installing new crosswalks at the insistence of Mayor Karen Bass, who is running for re-election against CD4 Councilmember Nithya Raman.

So are we to assume she didn’t offer that direction in the first three-and-a-half years she was in office? Or they just didn’t think it was worth mentioning until she was campaigning for re-election?

If she’s responsible for getting those crosswalks painted, does that mean Mayor Bass gets the blame for removing 5.6 lane-miles of partially protected bike lanes on Van Nuys Blvd, and replacing it with just 4.8 lane-miles of unprotected bike lanes on Terra Bella Street, roughly eight blocks away?

After all, no one who rides a bike needs to go anywhere on or near Van Nuys, right?

………

Despite threats from Donald Trump to keep the completed bridge closed, the new Gordie Howe International Bridge is now open between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, including a bike path allowing people to ride their bikes from the US to Canada.

Whether you can claim refugee status on the other side remains to be determined.

………

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

Even in Louisiana, you’re not allowed to ride a bicycle while waiving a machete and shouting threats at people. Who knew?

………

Local 

Despite the common claims that no one rides public transit in Los Angeles — besides me, I mean — high gas prices appear to be behind record ridership surges across LA Metro, Metrolink and Metro Bike Share.

Upcoming phases to improve safety in Griffith Park include a road diet on Crystal Springs Drive, narrowing lanes and adding bike lanes on Griffith Park Blvd, and giving one half of Western Heritage Way and Zoo Drive over to bike riders, pedestrians and equestrians; Zoo Drive is where Finish the Ride and Streets Are For Everyone founder Damian Kevitt was struck by a hit-and-run driver in 2013.

If you had hoped that plans to “Reimagine Ventura Blvd” would somehow involve bike lanes, don’t hold your breath.

A self-identified cyclist and resident of South Pasadena’s Fremont Street says she strongly opposes plans for a bike lane on the street, arguing that the street is too narrow and the loss of parking is more important than the lives of people like her.

My New LA reports a “pickup truck collided with a bicycle” in the San Gabriel Valley Sunday afternoon, because apparently no humans were involved with either vehicle.

A bike rider suffered a major leg injury when they were struck by the driver of an SUV in Rowland Heights Sunday night.

If you missed last night’s public meeting to discuss Pasadena neighborhood greenways project, the city will host another one on Wednesday.

Monrovia and ActiveSGV will host a community bike ride and movie in the park this Saturday.

 

State

Seriously? Riverside County sheriff’s deputies are looking for a hit-and-run driver who left a Coachella bike rider with minor injuries, and urging bicyclists struck by hit-and-run drivers to get as much information as possible about the fleeing driver. Which is real easy to do when a driver is assisting you in doing a faceplant on the pavement. 

Bakersfield bike riders discuss how to stay safe, as Kern County ranks among the top ten California County’s for bicycling deaths.

Unlike a certain megalopolis to the south, Oakland continues to expand its bikeway network, nearing completion on a new curb-protected bike lane on Franklin Street.

 

National

Trek recognizes the risks of the ebike power race, and voluntarily limits the speed of its e-mountain bikes, while calling on other bikemakers to do the same. But why limit it to mountain bikes?

Electrek says schools banning ebikes highlights the debate over safety versus freedom. Because kids deserve the freedom to ride illegal e-motos posing as ebikes to school every day, evidently.

Inc. looks at the implosion of Seattle-based Rad Power Bikes, which was once the dominant American ebike maker, with a $1.65 billion market cap.

A bike rider was found lying dead on the side of the road in Aurora, Colorado yesterday morning, the victim of an apparent hit-and-run; however, there was no word on how long they may have been lying there before being discovered, or wether they might have survived their injuries if the driver had stopped and called for help.

The FBI seized over half a million dollars worth of property, including a $250,000 Lamborghini Huracan, as well as $115,000 in cash, from an ebike dealer who was accused of scamming Colorado ebike voucher recipients, taking their vouchers and deposits, but never delivering the promised bikes.

A popular influencer family documenting their mountain bike trip between Canada and Mexico only made it as far as Montana before a driver clipped one of their eight kids, causing a multi-bike crash that took down the entire family; fortunately, no one was seriously injured.

The family of a Wisconsin woman can’t understand why the driver who killed their 27-year old daughter hasn’t been charged, two months after the 61-year old man ran a stop sign and slammed into her as she rode a borrowed bicycle for the first time in over a decade; a crowdfunding campaign calling for justice has raised nearly $9,000 of the $11,000 goal.

Nashville is installing concrete Toronto barriers to protect several bike lanes in the downtown area, while Los Angeles is busy removing them.

A tragic reminder that crashes with pedestrians are as dangerous for people on bikes as they are for the people they hit, after a Kentucky ebike rider was killed when he collided with someone walking.

A Boston man rode his bike 2,600 miles from Key West to Maine, raising $50,000 to fight colorectal cancer, in honor of a friend who died from the disease.

US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy wants to eliminate funding for green projects, including bike lanes, eliminate New York’s congestion pricing system and keep any other city from tolling anything but specific roadways.

The always sensationalist New York Post quotes the mother who gave a bicycle to the 12-year old boy killed by a stay bullet fired by a “possible” gang member as he was riding his bike ripping New York Mayor Mamdani for not clearing up the “gang-infested” neighborhood in the six months he’s been in office.

Tragic news from Alabama, where a 30-year-old Slovakian man was killed while attempting to bicycle from San Diego to Savannah, Georgia; he was struck by the driver of a delivery van around 4 am yesterday. There’s something very wrong with this country when people fly over here to ride their bikes, and we send them back home in a box.

A North Carolina man was pepper sprayed and stabbed repeatedly when he confronted a man he had loaned a bicycle to, but which was never returned; fortunately, he was expected to survive. Yet another reminder to let the cops handle it, because no bicycle is worth your life.

 

International

Bicyclists in Halifax, Nova Scotia, say a recent dooring death points to the need for safer road systems and upgraded infrastructure to prevent fatal collisions.

Two men riding across Canada to raise funds for a men’s mental health campaign are resuming their ride after their bikes were stolen in Winnipeg last week, thanks to a fundraising campaign by the local community.

The coach of the third-place England team in the World Cup is one of us, taking advantage of a Lime bike for a morning coffee run. And I’m sure the choking gesture captured by the paparazzi had nothing to do with his team’s collapsed against Argentina in the semis.

Evidently, Ireland is seeing the same confusion over legal and illegal ebikes as we are over here, as local officials call on the police to make a clear distinction between “lawful pedal-assisted bicycles and illegal motorized vehicles.”

 

Competitive Cycling

Velo offers a recap of the just-finished Tour de France, as Tadej Pogačar confirmed his dominance over the World Tour peloton.

Every member of Pogačar’s UAE Team Emirates-XRG team will get a special commemorative yellow Colnago Y1R to mark his win, except for Isaac del Toro, who will get a white one to celebrate his white jersey as the best young rider.

Tour de France race director Christian Prudhomme offers his thoughts on what was his 20th Tour, arguing that cheaters exist everywhere, not just in pro cycling, and American Quinn Simmons is “magnificent.”

Finally…

That feeling when you discover that the bear does indeed shit in the woods. Or when Lycra is enough to end a political career.

And when the cops pony up almost nine grand for an ebike “oopsie.”

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin.