According to the Orange County Coroner’s office, a male bike rider was killed while riding on the 5 Freeway in Santa Ana last night.
The collision took place on the southbound I-5 north of 4th Street just before 11 pm, when the rider was struck by multiple vehicles. The victim has not been publicly identified; no word on whether authorities know who he was, or if it is being withheld pending notification of next of kin.
No information is given for how the collision occurred, or whether he was riding on the shoulder or in the traffic lanes. However, there is an exit ramp at 4th; if he was attempting to continue on the freeway it would have put him in the path of exiting vehicles.
And no explanation is given for what he was doing on the freeway at that hour. Or at all.
Hopefully more information will become available later that will shed light on this troubling case.
This is the 43rd bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the ninth in Orange County; that compares to just two in the county this time last year. And he is the fifth cyclist to be killed in Santa Ana in the last 36 months.
Update: It gets even stranger.
According to the Orange County Register, 21-year old Tustin resident Jordan Ames was riding south in the center carpool lane — not the right shoulder — when he veered in front of traffic and was hit by a Honda CRV. He was then thrown into the main traffic lanes, where he was hit multiple times.
How he even got to the car pool lane on a busy freeway — let alone what he was doing there — is still to be determined. A lot of questions will have to be answered before this one makes any sense.
Meanwhile, a commenter describes coming on the scene in the immediate aftermath of the crash. But be warned, the description is very graphic; you may not want to read it.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for Jordan Ames and his loved ones.
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Weiss writes how wealthy Cheviot Hills residents successfully fought the installation of the Expo Bike Path after unsuccessfully fighting the Expo Line train, resulting in the notorious Northvale Gap that has forced bike riders and walkers to use difficult bypass routes.
And how they’ve used means both legal and otherwise to deter outsiders from besmirching their neighborhood.
But there may finally be light at the end of the tunnel, after ten long years.
As for finally closing the Northvale Gap, I am cautiously optimistic now that Katy Yaroslavsky is the Los Angeles City Councilwoman for Cheviot Hills. She is pro-active-transportation and is also on the Metro board. Already, her office has obtained additional funds from Metro to close the Northvale Gap. Her staff regularly meets with relevant departments (LADOT, Engineering, City Attorney) to solve problems. The latest (2022) fact sheet available through LADOT’s “Exposition Bike Path (Northvale Segment)” website says “Construction is anticipated to begin Spring 2024.” The Council Office expects construction to start some time in 2024.
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In an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times, Streets For All founder Michael Schneider says the city needs safe streets, not more signs warning drivers to “watch your speed.”
The official responses to proven traffic hazards are woefully inadequate — mere gestures, if even that.
In 2021, after Monique Muñoz was killed on Olympic Boulevard at Overland Avenue by a driver going more than 100 miles per hour, the city placed a “Watch your speed” sign, politely asking drivers to slow down. Unfortunately, in the over two years that have passed, the city has yet to meaningfully redesign Olympic Boulevard to prevent a crash like this from happening again.
People don’t drive based on signage. They drive based on the design of the street. In the case of Olympic Boulevard in West Los Angeles, the design screams “wide open highway,” a lot like the Pacific Coast Highway. Hazardous as this is to all people (including drivers), it is most dangerous to pedestrians and cyclists.
Take a few minutes from your busy Cyber Monday to read the whole thing, because, as Schneider concludes, “The problem is carnage in the streets, and we know the solutions.”
Indeed we do.
We just need leaders with the courage to implement them, which seems to be sadly lacking in this town.
CicLAvia looks forward to their final event of the year, as the nation’s most successful ongoing open streets festival finds its way to South LA this weekend.
Which would normally give us another opportunity to chide California for the interminable delay in launching the state’s ebike rebate program, but screw it.
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Of course Bill Nye the Science Guy is one of us.
"There's no machine known that is more efficient than a human on a bicycle. Bowl of oatmeal, 30 miles – you can't come close to that." -Bill Nye, science communicator
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
No bias here. Georgetown historian Thomas Zimmer writes on Mastodon that certain members of the far right are promoting “aggressive anti-bikeism” as part of their political agenda, even though bicycling is far less socialist than the massive public subsidies paid for cars. Unfortunately, I can’t embed his post, but you can read this thread and other Mastodon posts without having an account with the social media company; thanks again to Megan Lynch for the link.
Britain’s Daily Mail offers a panicked assessment of the “staggering 10,000 cyclists” delivering fast food across Scotland’s cities and towns, saying they pose a threat to pedestrians and even cars by flouting traffic regulations and riding on sidewalks. Never mind that an additional 10,000 people driving cars to make fast food deliveries would pose an greater risk to everyone.
West Hollywood will team with the West Hollywood Bicycle Coalition to host a WeHo Mobility Popup on Santa Monica Blvd tonight, giving away free bike lights on a first-come, first-served basis for people with bicycles, along with other complimentary giveaways for everyone.
In a rare occurrence, someone was killed in a bicycling crash, and it wasn’t the person on two wheels. A driver in San Gregorio was killed when he struck a bicyclist riding on the shoulder, then went off the road and struck a tree; compounding the tragedy, the bike rider was hospitalized with what was described as severe injuries.
Sad news from Lodi, where a 56-year old homeless man was killed riding his bike after allegedly swerving head-on in front of a 19-year old driver; investigators blamed the victim for possibly being stoned
Bloomberg’s CityLabtalks with the mayor of Hoboken, New Jersey about the steps the city has taken to improve street safety, which has resulted in no traffic deaths for the past six years. And proves that Vision Zero is achievable — if our leaders actually give a damn, and have the political will to make the tough choices.
A writer for the Catholic Herald — a publication which, unto now, I have been blissfully unaware, despite a conservative Catholic upbringing — professes to make “the Catholic argument against 15-minute cities.”
Never mind that Jesus was a pedestrian who likely lived in one.
The thesis of a 15-minute city is that everything you need for daily life should be found within a 15-minutes walk, bike or transit ride of your home.
That’s it.
And as much as I strain my memory, I can’t recall any teachings of Jesus or the disciples that so much as mention it, let alone condemn it.
But that doesn’t stop the author, who will remain unnamed here to protect the guilty.
At face value, the idea seems desirable and has much to commend it. But I can’t help smell a rat, especially following Covid lockdowns and the increasingly “nudgy” and authoritarian-lite sheen to public policies these days. I suspect the great Catholic writer Hilaire Belloc would have agreed, given what he had to say about the intractable struggle between Catholicism and socialism.
“The Catholic Church, acutely conscious as she is of the abominations of the modern industrial and capitalistic system…refuses to cure it at the expense of denying a fundamental principle of morality, the principle of private ownership, which applies quite as much to the means of production as to any other class of material objects,” Belloc wrote in his 1908 essay The Church and Socialism.
Currently the “material object” most in the crosshairs that bureaucrats and activists are obsessing over – in terms of reducing your use of it or simply taking it away altogether- is your car.
Huh?
I don’t know of any version of the 15-minute city philosophy that involves taking away anyone’s car.
Nor is there a damn thing socialistic about the concept. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
If anything, the 15-minute city is about enabling personal freedom to move about as you choose, without forcing you into a motor vehicle just to get groceries, get to work or get healthcare.
Or even get to church, temple, mosque or wherever you choose to worship, or not.
You can walk. You can bike. You can take a bus or train. Or — tres shock! — you can even drive, if you so choose.
But wait, as they say in informercials, there’s more.
The “fundamental thesis of Socialism”, as Belloc highlights, is “that man would be better and happier were the means of production in human society, that is, land and machinery and all transport [my italics], controlled by government rather than by private persons or corporations.”
I’ve experienced transport being excessively controlled by the Taliban, and I can assure you it sucks. Their IED campaign in Afghanistan’s Helmand province was so deadly effective that the British Army lost its freedom of movement. Admittedly the use of IEDs is an extreme form of traffic fines—but the principle is the same: someone else interdicting your movement. It changes everything.
Can you say, “non sequitur?”
Sure you can.
Again, socialism has nothing to do with the 15-minute city. If anything, it enables capitalism in its purest and simplest sense, since it enables you to do business with local merchants, right where you live.
But it does nothing to prevent you from doing business across town, across the country or across the globe.
And no, it has nothing to do with IEDs or any other kind of explosives.
Yet he goes on.
Of course he does.
Thanks to the vagaries of freelancing, I’ve also experienced various prolonged periods of not owning a car and I can confirm that it is tedious, limiting and exhausting, as you set off, once again, peddling like a maniac to make it on time. Not having a car is even harder if you are coordinating a family (once again, public policy seems set on disincentivising the family unit, while punishing those who have children).
Somehow, he turns that into an argument against being able to live without a car.
Go figure.
Where, pray tell, is freedom represented in forcing people to pay hundreds, if not thousands of dollars every month to own and use motor vehicles, just to access the things and services they need?
And just where is the love and forgiveness of God in his supposed Catholic essay?
Because there is absolutely nothing Catholic about his arguments. Rather, what he penned was an essay about the dangers of socialism, under the mistaken belief it has anything to do with the 15-minute city, and tried to shoehorn Catholicism in.
Not faith. Not religion. Not even Christianity, because what he writes has nothing to do with it in any shape or form.
It is ironic that his essay appeared on Palm Sunday, which marks the pre-Passover entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem on the back of a lowly donkey.
Because, as we noted earlier, there is no reason to believe that the biblical city was anything other than a 15-minute city, because even though it held over half a million people, most local residents were unlikely to walk outside of their own neighborhoods to meet most of their needs.
Because most would likely have to walk, especially the poor.
It was the Romans and the wealthy who used horses, chariots and wagons, the motor vehicles of their day, to go beyond their own communities.
Which means there’s a far greater Catholic argument for a 15-minute city than against it.
Photo of the inside of the Vatican by Photo by Luis Núñez from Pexels.
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A Chicago letter writer alleges that bike riders don’t belong in traffic, and that the city is in the throes of an overly powerful bike lobby that gets everything it wants.
Am I the only one who has noticed that building bike lanes to make cycling in city traffic safe is a lot like putting filter tips on cigarettes to make smoking tobacco safe? A cosmetic change isn’t going to change the fact that for traffic, the bicycle is a fatally flawed product from the start…
Instead of spending the taxpayers’ money to force more bike lanes down the public’s throats, perhaps the politicians could learn to ask us first if this is what we want, rather than just giving an overly powerful lobby everything they want.
Funny how only people who don’t ride bikes think there’s a powerful bicycle lobby. And those of us who ride bikes think we can’t get anyone to actually listen to us.
Never mind that the best way to get bikes out of city traffic is to build bike lanes, which most surveys tend to show are overwhelmingly popular.
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on rolling.
San Luis Obispo’s curmudgeonly anti-bike columnist blames bike lanes for destroying the livability of the city’s neighborhoods, even though most people would likely say they do just the opposite. And he objects to rising bike path construction costs, somehow forgetting that construction costs are going up virtually everywhere, for everything.
Bike and safety advocates press the case that San Diego isn’r doing enough to protect bicyclists and pedestrians, demanding increased funding for Vision Zero. Based on the 29 people killed in the county over the past two years, they’re right. Thanks to Phillip Young for the heads-up.
A writer for the Wall Street Journalmakes a very Shoup-ian case for why the US has too much parking, in a story that for some reason isn’t hidden behind their draconian paywall, at least for now. Unless you’re talking secure bike parking, of course, in which case there isn’t nearly enough.
Last week we mentioned the shameful theft of a three-year old Maine kid’s Spider-Man bicycle while he was shopping with his mom. But there’s good news this time, after an anonymous Good Samaritan — in keeping with today’s Biblical theme — gave him a new one, plus matching helmet and bike lock.
There’s a special place in hell for the man who attacked a Florida boy who was riding his bike to school, and stole his bicycle; fortunately, kindhearted Clearwater cops bought the 5th grader a new bike so he could ride home the same night.
Tragic news from Brazil, where a 43-year old man died after he swallowed a bee while riding his bike, and went into anaphylactic shock when it stung the inside of his throat. I once swallowed something winged and fuzzy, which was when I learned to ride with my mouth closed.
Thanks again to Matthew Robertson for his generous monthly donation to keep all the best bike news and advocacy coming your way every day. As always, donations are always welcome and truly appreciated, whether repeating or otherwise.
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Ramadan Mubarak to all observing the Islamic holy month.
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Another bike shop owner said a recently retired friend and customer had already undergone two surgeries to stabilize his cerebral spine, with more in his future.
No word yet on whether Quintana-Lujan was distracted or under the influence. Or why he was apparently unable to see a couple dozen people on bicycles directly ahead of his truck.
Thanks to Victor Bale and Phillip Young for the heads-up.
Even one of California’s newly elected state senators was among the people enjoying the carfree street.
A fun @CicLAvia ride down Sherman Way through #CanogaPark, #Winnetka & #Reseda! Growing up, I would ride my bike to school and the park, but it wasn’t always safe. Thank you, colleagues + organizations who are also working to increase mobility and safety on our streets in SD 20. pic.twitter.com/vJ8y7YLwQP
And for one day, at least, the San Fernando Valley looked a lot like Paris and Guadalajara.
Open Streets are for everyone.
Images of Guadalajara, could be your city, any city, all you need are streets and people. ActiveTO + OpenStreetsTO = One_TO; let's do it every Sunday, 10-4, June, July, August. We are most diverse city, let's be the most fun, a #City4Everyone. https://t.co/2lxN5YChEhpic.twitter.com/cX2bI4wJaa
Option 2 is the best option for people walking, biking, taking transit, AND driving! But if you want to push for something even better, as a reminder you can shoot us a DM (after casting your vote for Option 2)! https://t.co/XS7nIztqUa
The bizarre 15-minute city conspiracy theory continues to gain ground, as proponents argue that the benign urban planning philosophy is somehow “a plot by ‘tyrannical bureaucrats’ to take our cars and control our lives, which could lead to a real-life Hunger Games scenario.”
As we’ve discussed before, nothing in the 15-minute city concept prevents motorists from leaving their own neighborhoods, or driving through the city. It merely means that everything you need for daily life should be found within 15 minutes of your home.
According to CNN, the conspiracy theory originally gained traction among Q-Anon theorists and climate change deniers. And Fox News and other conservative media were only happy to fan the flames.
Which led to this —
In December, Canadian clinical psychologist and climate skeptic Jordan Peterson posted a tweet attacking 15-minute cities: “The idea that neighborhoods should be walkable is lovely. The idea that idiot tyrannical bureaucrats can decide by fiat where you’re ‘allowed’ to drive is perhaps the worst imaginable perversion of that idea.”
In early February, UK politician Nick Fletcher raised the conspiracy in Parliament, calling 15-minute cities an “international socialist concept” and claimed they “will cost us our personal freedom.”
And last weekend, online theories spilled into real life protests, as thousands of people, many from outside the area, took to the streets of Oxford to protest the traffic filtering and 15-minute city proposals.
Let’s hope the world regains its sanity. Because walkable, bikeable 15-minute cities are the solution.
Not the problem.
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Legendary jazz saxophonist Dexter Gordon was one of us.
Born on this day, February 27: Elizabeth Taylor, actress (1932-2011), shown here at age 12 riding her bike through Beverly Hills. Happy #BicycleBirthday, Elizabeth!#BOTDpic.twitter.com/23TwNjTA2i
A backwards Penny Farthing was apparently the BMX of its day.
The Danny MacAskills of their day: Will Robertson riding down the steps of the United States Capitol in 1885, and John Stout on similarly daunting steps. What did they have in common? The American Star bicycle, invented in 1880, with the rider mounted on the large rear wheel. pic.twitter.com/6kl5pObULA
He gets it. Paul Thornton, the Letters Editor for the Los Angeles Times, asks if LA drivers have suddenly become more okay with endangering lives, arguing that “sitting behind a steering wheel can turn a reasonable person into a borderline psychopath, willing to threaten the life of anyone in the way.” Which was one of the many reasons I quit driving, because I didn’t like who I became behind the wheel.
Costa Mesa quietly revoked its bike licensing requirement last week, after similar licensing laws were banned as part of last year’s Omnibus Bike Bill passed by the state legislature; two Costa Mesa safe streets advocates were instrumental in getting the ban included in the bill, after discovering the city’s licensing requirement had been used primarily to target the homeless and people of color.
That’s more like it. A 35-year old man was sentenced to 16 years and 4 months to life behind bars for the drunken Palm Springs motor vehicle crash that killed a 56-year old man. Although as Victor Bale suggested in forwarding this, if the victim had been on a bicycle, he probably would have gotten a slap on the wrist, too.
Berkeley is inviting low-income residents to apply for a lottery to get an ebike for long-term use as part of a city-funded program. Although they define low-income a lot differently than I do, with incomes up to $74,000 for an individual, or $106,000 for a family of four.
The president of a Colorado trucking association calls on Denver to rethink its Vision Zero program, arguing that deaths will continue to soar without an increased emphasis on enforcement of traffic laws.
Life is cheap in New York, where a US Postal Service driver faces just one month behind bars and a lousy $250 fine after being convicted of misdemeanor failure to yield for killing a 71-year old man riding a bicycle in a right hook crash; his attorney tried to blame the victim for his own death, insisting he could have braked to avoid the impact. Spoken like someone who has never been right hooked on a bike. As usual, read it on Yahoo if Bicycling blocks you.
A day after we mentioned a British woman on trial for pushing a 77-year old woman off her bike, she was convicted of manslaughter, and will be sentenced on Thursday; she claimed she was just gesturing wildly as she complained about the woman riding on the sidewalk, and may have inadvertently hit her. The jury clearly didn’t believe her, either.
Stockholm, Sweden is getting its first bicycle street, where bicycles will receive priority over other forms of traffic. Which has no known equivalent in Southern California, let alone Los Angeles.
Bicycling Australiachooses their gear of the year, noting the bicycling products that captured their attention. Many, if not most, of which should be available here in the US.
January 24, 2023 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on CicLAvia releases calendar of 8 events across LA, more from Saturday’s City Hall Die-In, and LA hip hop history bike tour
April 15: Mid-City Meets Pico Union presented by Metro
May 21: CicLAmini – Watts presented by Metro
June 18: South LA – Vermont Ave presented by Metro
August 20: Koreatown Meets Hollywood presented by Metro
September 17: CicLAmini – North Hollywood
October 15: Heart of LA presented by Metro
December 3: South LA – Leimert Park Meets Historic South Central presented by Metro
The group also announced an additional event on February 10th, when Los Angeles Ale Works will release their new seek-la-VEE-ah West Coast India Pale Ale at a CicLAvia season launch party and fundraiser at Ivy Station Complex, Culver City, during the 5-10 pm Night Market.
So now you can drink CicLAvia while you ride, walk, scoot, skate or roll it.
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As we mentioned yesterday, Saturday’s die-in at Los Angeles City Hall, hosted by a long list of advocacy groups, protested the worst year on LA streets in recent memory, with 312 people needlessly killed in the City of Angels.
Although you’d think this city would have made more than enough angels by now, since even one death from traffic violence is one too many.
Here are just a few faces and images from the day.
Organizers distributed 312 white flowers to symbolize the 312 lives needlessly lost to traffic violence.
Streets Are For Everyone (SAFE) Founder Damian Kevitt, holding the three flowers on the left, led the day’s events.
From center to right, California Assembly Member Laura Friedman, LA Councilmember Bob Blumenfield, state Senator Anthony Portantino, and Streets For All’s Michael Schneider; my new friend Max reclines at lower right
Participants lay still for 312 seconds of silence in honor of the 312 lives needlessly lost
California Assembly Member Laura Friedman, LA Councilmember Bob Blumenfield, state Senator Anthony Portantino stand above Damian Kevitt at the mic
Although apparently, you can also do the tours by car, if you insist.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
No bias here. A New York columnist says the city could make a fortune just fining bicyclists for moving and equipment violations, including riding backwards — which is physically impossible — and insists that ebikes somehow aren’t bicycles. Just wait until someone tells him about cars and the things their operators do, including driving backwards. And I suppose electric cars aren’t real cars, either.
No bias here, too. A British Columbia man who claims to be a bike rider blasts what he calls the city’s most disruptive protected bike lanes, blames “woke” politicians for them, and claims no one ever uses them. So a columnist went out in the middle of the day and counted 13 bicyclists in just ten minutes.
Axiosexamines the ever-expanding American pickup truck, which has continued to increase in size, power and capacity over the past four decades, even as buyers use it more for shopping and dropping the kids off at soccer practice, and less for hauling anything but ass. And which presents ever increasing danger to anyone outside of them.
Streetsblog reports that more children under 18 were killed on New York streets last year than any other time since Vision Zero was adopted 2015; the site also reports the NYPD is a lot better at solving hit-and-runs in white neighborhoods than in communities of color.
Police in Charlottesville, Virginia say charges against a driver in a fatal crash will depend on whether the victim was riding his bike across the street or walking it; one means the victim was operating a vehicle and had to obey the rules of the road, while the other makes him a pedestrian who the driver had to yield to. Yet either way, the victim is still dead and the driver still killed him.
Seriously? Key West, Florida has put a proposed ebike ban on hold in hopes the state will take action. Because the risks posed by ebikes are so much greater than the ones from cars, evidently.
Sad news from the UK, where the two bike riders killed by a hit-and-run driver we mentioned yesterday turned out to be a father riding with his 16-year old son; the 37-year old alleged driver was arrested after abandoning his car.
It was a split verdict in the trial of two men charged with robbing Mark Cavendish and his family at knifepoint in a brutal 2021 home invasion; one of the defendants was found not guilty, while 31-year-old Romario Henry was convicted on two robbery counts. A third man had previously pleaded guilty, while two others remain at large. As usual, read the story on Yahoo if Bicycling blocks you.
December 1, 2022 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Why LA fails the transit density test, new Metro K-Line bike lockers, and West Hollywood to give free bikes to residents
There’s never been a charge to visit this site. No subscription fees, no paywall. Anyone and everyone is welcome, at any time, for any reason.
This is the only time of year we ask you to contribute what you can to help keep it that way.
So ask yourself, what this site is worth to you? Then take a moment right now, and donate via PayPal or Zelle.
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Give today!
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A new Brookings Institute report says creating urban activity centers combining “community institutions, tourism destinations, consumption amenities, major institutions, and jobs in traded sectors” are key to green commutes.
Which helps explain why Los Angeles ranks so low in transit use, despite its high density, since those activity centers are so widely dispersed, and lack many of the key components.
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
No bias here. A New York judge pointed a finger at the city’s “problem” with ebikes and motorized bicycles, as he sentenced a man to one to three years behind bars for killing Gone Girl and Broadway actor Lisa Banes as she was crossing the street — even though the careless, red light-running rider was on an e-scooter.
Police in Rancho Cordova arrested a 42-year old homeless man in the apparent unprovoked attack with a machete on a 60-year old, recently retired ebike rider, whose injuries were described as “unsurvivable.”
That’s more like it. An Ohio man was sentenced to eight to twelve years behind bars for the drugged, head-on crash that killed a man riding a bicycle; he also lost his driver’s license for life and prohibited from buying or owning a motor vehicle.
No surprise here, as a new study shows protected bike lane networks have “significant potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, lower transport costs, prevent road fatalities, and improve the quality of life for people” around the world, concluding that bike lanes “reduce emissions as effectively as highways create them.”
NPR reports more Afghans are using bikes to get around as the economy continues to decline following the Taliban’s takeover of the country, even though women and girls are now prohibited from riding, even if they had before.
June 10, 2021 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Killer meth-fueled Vegas driver gets 16-40 years, misguided recall for CD4’s Raman, and $20 million for LAC transport projects
That was fast.
Almost seven months to the day after five Las Vegas bicyclists were killed by a truck driver, their killer copped a plea to two counts of DUI causing death.
DUI is right.
Arizona resident Jordan Barson had nine times the amount of meth in his system required to be considered legally impaired.
Fifty-eight-year old California resident Normand Cloutier is accused of killing a 29-year old woman and injuring five other riders in the crash.
Of course, as several peoplepointed outon Twitter, the correct course of action when you can’t see what the hell is directly in front of you is to pull over to the side of the road until you can.
Not that that matters in today’s political environment.
Let’s hope this one doesn’t get any further than the idiotic attempt to recall Mike Bonin a few years, driven by conservative KFI anger meisters Jon and Ken.
Who will probably be happy to get behind this one, too.
In addition to traffic and pedestrian projects, the list also includes sharrows in Glendale, and pedestrian and bicycle safety improvements on Melrose in West Hollywood.
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
Clearly, he doesn’t get it, either After a community board in New York’s Upper West Side calls for banning ebikes from protected bike lanes, the city’s outgoing mayor quickly refused — because he doesn’t think they belong in traffic lanes.
Drivers in Auckland, New Zealand, are plotting to invade the city’s bike lanes on a busy Saturday morning — this Saturday, in fact — and drive on the bike lanes when they’re likely to be full of people on bicycles. Which seems to be the point. One hundred drivers have confirmed so far, so if it’s like very other Facebook event, maybe three might actually show up.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
A bike-riding Singapore man got off with a $5,600 fine for punching a truck driver who had tried to run him down during a mutual road rage incident; the driver had already been sentenced to a week behind bars.
Departing Metro CEO Phil Washington pens a letter to the community in support of the 18-mile NoHo to Pasadena bus rapid transit line, which includes the proposed Beautiful Boulevard plan through Eagle Rock.
Seriously? Consumer Reportsdiscovers the “hidden danger” of big pickup trucks, which are increasing in size with virtually every model year. Never mind that the risk to others should be pretty damn obvious to anyone who has ever walked, ridden or just stood next to one.
In Style shows women what to wear to look cute on four types of bike rides. Because as we all know, looking cute is what really matters, and no woman would ever want to put on spandex and get all sweaty or anything. Right?
St. Louis is installing zebra lane delineators to separate bicycles and motor vehicles along a protected bike lane; the small bumps — often called armadillos in other cities — promise to be more effective at keeping drivers out than the usual thin plastic car ticklers. Thanks to Phillip Young for the heads-up.
June 16, 2020 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on LADOT drops DTLA bike lanes in favor of parking, Pomona thinks bike lanes are for kids, and LAFD on bikes
One quick note.
I renewed my annual membership in the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition last night.
With the LACBC facing financial difficulties stemming from the coronavirus crisis, as well as major financial mismanagement by the previous executive director, who shall forevermore go unnamed here, it’s more important than ever to join or renew your membership.
Or just make a donation to keep the LACBC fighting for your right to ride safely on our streets.
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I have a confession to make.
Ever since the company my wife works for — correction, worked for — shut down for the coronavirus lockdown, never to return, I haven’t been able to dig into the details on bike projects the way I’d like.
As much as I enjoy having her around, I miss those nine hours or so to myself everyday to gets things done.
Fortunately, Streetsblog’s Joe Linton is here to take up the slack.
But what I didn’t realize was that those bike lanes are only planned for just over half of the 1.3 mile project.
As Joe explains it,
Overall this is a good project. It’s a worthwhile improvement over what is out there today.
I did get a little frustrated about bike lanes on these streets. The city is adding left-side bike lanes (a one-way street best practice – like bike lanes on Spring and Main Streets) but only on about 0.7-mile of the overall 1.3-mile project – just over half the project. The issue is parking – there are two blocks of on-street parking that would need to be removed. While I personally would favor removing that parking, I understand it’s not easy politically.
I am still frustrated though that the city is basically throwing out 7 blocks of bike lanes because just 2 blocks are difficult. I wrote a letter to try to get the city to do the remaining 5 easy blocks of bike lane – which would connect Pershing Square with the downtown library.
That’s right.
LADOT, which is supposedly tasked with implementing the mobility plan, bike plan, Vision Zero, and the mayor’s Green New Deal plan to dramatically reduce driving in the city, is skipping a full seven blocks of bike lanes in favor of two lousy blocks of car parking.
In Downtown Los Angeles, no less, which UCLA parking meister Donald Shoup describes as having more parking per acre than any other city.
No, anywhere.
Which pretty much tells you where people on bicycles rate in the city’s transportation hierarchy these days.
Like several steps below cars. And maybe a step or two above road kill.
He suggests emailing city officials to politely request that they install additional bike lanes, at least on the five blocks where it doesn’t require the removal of parking spaces, and wouldn’t inconvenience anyone.
And he even provides a sample letter, while stressing that you should put it in your own words.
Email addresses:
councilmember.huizar@lacity.org
mayor.helpdesk@lacity.org
seleta.reynolds@lacity.org
and bcc Joe Linton at linton.joe@gmail.com)
Sample letter:
Honorable Councilmember Huizar, Mayor Garcetti, and General Manager Reynolds –
I write to you in support of adding bus and bike lanes to the greatest extent possible on 5th and 6th Streets downtown.
BSS is repaving these streets starting June 15th. LADOT announced that bus lanes will be added from Figueroa to Central, and left-side bike lanes will be added from Spring to Central.
Thank you all for your role in bringing much needed bus lanes, which will improve transit, air quality, equity, and quality of life for Angelenos.
Thank you all for the needed bike lanes, which will improve safety and health. I urge you though to extend the bike lanes further than the current announced length. It appears that LADOT is skipping seven blocks (Figueroa to Spring) of bike lanes to preserve two blocks (Hill to Spring) of parking.
At a minimum, the city should install a left-side bike lane for the missing five blocks – from Hill to Figueroa – where there is sufficient space and no parking removal necessary. Adding this bike lane would keep cyclists safer, as well as keeping us out of the bus lane, making the bus lane more effective.
Sincerely,
[name]
[street address]
I’ll send my email later today. And I hope you will, too.
Because there’s no reason our safety should take a backseat to a parked car.
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Apparently, bike lanes are for kids in Pomona. Or at least, they now come under the Youth Services budget.
Library funding, landscape maintenance, and park facility maintenance now being counted as part of the "youth services" budget pic.twitter.com/HK6WTIyOeo
The Sonoma bicyclist killed in a hit-and-run a couple weeks ago has been identified as a 35-year old Romanian entrepreneur, who was killed when a passing pickup driver struck him in the head with the truck’s wing mirror; the damaged truck was found a few miles away, but the driver still hasn’t been arrested.
Breaking news: KNBC-4 reports there was a fatal crash between two drivers at 82nd and Broadway in South LA’s Florence neighborhood, which appears to have involved a pair of bike riders in a collateral damage crash.
No word on who was killed, but chances are, it was one or more of the people on bicycles.
Not so simple answer: There is nothing in California law that forbids riding abreast.
Some police agencies attempt to use CVC 21202 to forbid riding abreast, which requires bicyclists to ride as far to the right as practicable, concluding that the outside rider is violating the law.
However, they fail to consider the many exceptions to CVC 21202, which make it clear that the requirement to ride to the right does not apply on lanes that are too narrow to safely share with a motor vehicle. Which is most of the right hand traffic lanes in Southern California.
In which case there is no limit to the number of people who can ride abreast — as long as you remain within a single lane.
However, you still have to pull over to the right when safe to do so if there are five or more vehicles following behind you and unable to pass. But once again, that does not apply in some circumstances.
Like if there are two or more lanes in the direction you’re traveling, in which case drivers can simply change lanes to pass.
It’s also worth noting that the law doesn’t apply if you’re riding at the speed of traffic around you.
So if you’re riding the speed limit, or drivers are slowed to your speed by congestion, you can ride wherever the hell you want.
Including riding abreast if that’s what you want.
………
This is why people continue to die on our streets.
And yes, there is video, but I wouldn’t recommend it. Some things you just can’t unsee.
At least the judge told him not to drive, though. And everyone knows meth heads do exactly what they’re told.
Right?
Thanks to Brian Kreimendahl of Bike Santa Fe for the heads-up.
………
This is what’s known as a disproportionate response.
A road raging Seattle woman tries to run people over after someone hit her car with a snowball. Then gets out of her car and physically attacks them until she was restrained.
Seriously.
Attempted murder is never an appropriate response.
Thanks to J. Patrick Lynch for the tip.
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Norm Bradwell forwards a new video that explains how Toronto increased bicycling rates a whopping 1095% on two busy roads for a paltry $1.25 million.
Or less than one million in US dollars.
………
Evidently, dockless bikeshare is pretty chill in Seattle these days.
That Portland woman who killed a bike rider while high on her dog’s Xanax got a well-deserved 15 years behind bars. Hopefully that comes with a mandatory drug treatment program for both of them.
He gets it. An op-ed in a Florida paper says the three E’s — education, enforcement and engineering — aren’t enough to lower the state’s worst in the nation bicycling death rate; it will take solid data, and real action based on that data.
Florida lawmakers consider making the same mistake California made by raising the threshold for felony theft from $300 to $1,500, although the Golden State only made it $1,000. Problem is the value of most bicycles is far less than that, making it the equivalent of a Get Out of Jail Free card for bike thieves.
A Florida woman is suing Lime for a crash that left her daughter in a persistent vegetative state over instructions that tell e-scooter users to ride in the street, even though that’s illegal in the state. In California, it’s illegal to use motorized scooters on the sidewalk. Thanks to David Drexler for the tip.
International
Another day, another smartphone app promising to alert drivers to the presence of bike riders and pedestrians. But only if the driver and the person on the bike or on foot both have it installed and turned on. Not to mention convincing drivers they don’t have to pay attention because the app will do it for them.
An Irish cycling coach says 2019 will be the worst year ever for bicycle crashes, because too many people are learning to get fast on virtual trainers before they develop the skill to ride safely on the streets.
Who needs Vision Zero when you have some of the nation’s crappiest drivers? Seriously, when you’re riding your bike with five outstanding warrants while carrying drug paraphernalia and an illegal weapon, obey the damn traffic laws, already.
And it’s probably not the best idea to text your husband to say you’re at the local tavern after just attempting to run his bike down with your car.
Councilmember Mike Bonin rebuts the call by fellow councilmember Paul Koretz to temporarily ban e-scooters in Los Angeles.
We need smart regs for dockless scooters, not a total ban. Scooters are popular, convenient, zero emission. If we are serious about combatting climate change, cutting emissions, or reducing gridlock, we need to put our mobility where our mouth is. https://t.co/PwJbOo8Zr7
Since we’ve been talking about e-scooters recently, maybe we should all catch up on the laws regarding their use in the Golden State. Much of which may come as a surprise to many people using them.
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A Metro bus nearly took out a trio of bicyclists when the driver starts drifting into an occupied bike lane in DTLA.
………
Credit Vietnam with what may be the world’s coolest pedestrian bridge.
This pedestrian bridge in Vietnam was opened to the public in June. Known as the Golden Bridge, it stands 1,400m above sea level above the Ba Na hills and is a work of art. pic.twitter.com/jveuu5kySB
Talk about not getting it. A New York expat in San Luis Obispo says people in SLO aren’t going to give up their cars to walk, bike or take mass transit. The point is to make it safe and convenient for people who want to leave their cars at home, which will make traffic a little easier for everyone — even people who insist on driving everywhere.
Houston police name the suspect in the shooting of a noted cardiac surgeon who was killed by another bicyclist while riding his bike to work; he had apparently carried a grudge against the doctor for 20 years, ever since his mother died during surgery.
Talk about not getting it. An Illinois accident reconstruction specialist says bike riders should only ride on quiet country roads, not urban bike paths. Which is fine if you only ride recreationally, but ridiculous if you actually need to go somewhere. He also doesn’t seem to know the difference between a bike path and a bike lane.
An Illinois politician says the racist comment he posted to a video online isn’t racist, just funny. If you consider a stumbling drunk white woman knocking a Hispanic woman off her bicycle, combined with a joke about Trump’s border wall, funny. Thanks to J. Patrick Lynch for the heads-up.
You’ve got to be kidding. After a speeding, distracted driver kills a bike-riding Baton Rouge city councilmember, the Louisiana parish where it occurred responds with a series of victim-blaming safety recommendations that wouldn’t have made a damn bit of difference.
A very well-deserved five years behind bars for a British man who downed a Jägermeister shot and 10 pints of beer, then got behind the wheel and sent 38 texts while driving before running down a man riding his bike. And just drove away afterwards. You really have to suck to make five years seem like a light sentence.
No bias here. A British paper writes that Aussie motorists blew up when they saw a photo of a bicyclist riding in the street, rather than in a brand new $4.7 million protected bike lane next to it. And only at the end mentions that the bike lane was still taped off because it wasn’t open yet.
