A Kansas paper totally misses the point, after woman followed a man in her car before trying to run him down as he jumped off just in time, then chased him across the parking lot with it. But the local paper only says she hit a bike ridden by a man. Note to Salina Journal — the past tense of ride is rode, not road.
This is why people keep dying on our streets. A Chicago woman only faces a trio of misdemeanor charges for killing a man riding a bike, despite driving with a suspended license.
Modern Family star Ariel Winter is one of us, posing with a bicycle in front of an Amsterdam canal. There’s just something about a bicycle that makes anyone look good. Although it helps if you already look good without one, too.
And how many times do we have to say it? If you’re already on probation and riding your bike carrying a concealed weapon after dark, put a damn light on it.
The bike, not the gun.
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On a personal note, we’re once more hearing the pitter patter of corgi feet around our apartment. We’re fostering a ten-year old corgi for the next few months while his owner is in rehab.
This is Bowser — that’s really his name — sleeping off the trauma of what his owner claims was his first ever bath.
November 18, 2019 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Morning Links: Motion to unprotect Yucca Street, more on the Great Helmet Debate, and Elizabeth Warren gets it
It’s hard to fight for safer streets when we have to keep fighting to protect what little we already have.
Also known as bicycle friendly street in LA bike plan parlance.
The motion would remove the diverter on Yucca Street at Las Palmas Ave that allows bicycle traffic to pass through while diverting motor vehicle traffic off the street, to create a low-stress environment for people on bicycles.
Something that’s desperately needed in high-stress Hollywood, which is virtually devoid of bicycling infrastructure.
Unless you consider sharrows more than just something to help drivers improve their aim.
And Treehugger’s Lloyd Alter says he got it wrong, and Peter Flax got it right regarding the NTSB’s call for mandatory bike helmet laws, instead fixing the problems that are really killing bike riders.
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One presidential candidate gets it, anyway.
Elizabeth Warren marks World Remembrance Day for traffic victims with a call to end traffic violence. Thanks to Ms. Fast for the link.
Traffic violence kills thousands and injures even more Americans every year. On World Day of Remembrance for Traffic Crash Victims, I'm sending my love to the families and friends of those who have lost loved ones. It's time to #EndTrafficViolence.
Meanwhile, the transportation minister for Trinidad and Tobago marked World Remembrance Day by saying bike riders will be given more space on the roads in one of the island nation’s most developed areas; that follows the deaths of two bicyclists killed on a club ride last year. Thanks to Stormin’ Norman for the tip.
That compares to Los Angeles, where city officials said nothing to mark the day.
Let alone actually do something about it.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
Police in the UK are looking for the victim of a drive-by BB gun attack after witnesses saw him knocked off his bike and into a ditch by the shooting; the jackass behind the wheel also spooked the horses being ridden by a group of kids.
Long Beach gets a $275,000 grant to improve bicycle and pedestrian safety through workshops on the importance of reflective armbands, bike lights, reflectors and helmets. If they really want to improve safety, skip the workshops and stand on any corner to pass out lights, and arm and ankle bands.
A San Jose site takes a deep dive into why the city’s quest for safer streets has failed, resulting in worsening rates for bicycling and pedestrian injuries. Thanks to Robert Leone for the heads-up.
A Seattle-area driver fled the scene of a crash at speeds of up to 60 mph after running down a man on a bicycle, dragging his bike under the car for nearly a mile, then covering the car with blankets to hide the damage; when investigators examined the car, they found it peppered with rice from the groceries the victim was carrying.
Chicago bike riders respond to recent deaths by saying the city is falling behind in protecting bicyclists by failing to build more protected lanes and requiring side guards on trucks, along with keeping people and businesses from parking in bike lanes.
A drunken hit-and-run driver talks about the emotional weight she carries after killing a 15-year old New Zealand boy riding his bike last year, and how hard she was slapped on the wrist by being confined to her home for a whole 11 months. Although it probably doesn’t compare to the emotional burden the kid’s parents will carry for the rest of their lives.
Evidently, the pros feel the same way we do. Four months after Italian cyclist Alessandro de Marchi was seriously injured when he crashed out of the Tour de France, he was livid after a dangerously close pass on a training ride nearly put him back in the emergency room; naturally, the driver told him to go to hell when he complained.
Every superhero has an origin story. British cyclist Katie Archibald relates how hanging out with the fixie crowd led to track racing in Edinburgh — and eventually an Olympic gold medal. A reminder that you never know where riding a bike could take you. Or the kids just starting out.
November 15, 2019 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Morning Links: The real reasons bike riders keep dying, $100k OCTA bike safety grant, and Oaxaca Day of the Dead race
He starts by recounting the last decade’s decline in bicycling deaths.
Then this.
The situation seemed great—until it wasn’t great. Right around 2011, things started arcing in the wrong direction. In 2010, a total of 618 cyclists were killed—hardly miraculous, but the lowest toll in at least 40 years. Then every year after that, the number of casualties has gotten progressively worse. The newly released 2018 statistics mean that the fatality rate for riders has risen 37 percent in just nine years—and NHTSA data indicate that the death rate for urban and female cyclists has soared even more.
So while the NTSB analysis focused primarily on encouraging or mandating greater helmet use, as well as things cyclists, road designers, and carmakers should do so riders are more conspicuous to motorists, those factors don’t really explain why a serious, sustained uptick of deaths began in 2011. It’s not like helmet use had a major decline, or cities ripped out quality protected bike lanes, or high-viz apparel or auto headlights got worse. These factors, especially related to road design, might have an impact on fatalities going forward, but they don’t explain why more cyclists have been dying in the past decade.
It’s a must read for anyone who wants to understand what the real problems are, and why we keep dying.
And do something about it.
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Orange County’s OCTA announces a grant to improve bicycle safety and education.
The Orange County Transportation Authority has been awarded a $100,000 grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety for a year-long community program dedicated to pedestrian and bicycle safety classes and distribution of safety equipment for people walking and biking.
The aim of the program is to increase safety and reduce traffic-related injuries and fatalities. OCTA will use the funding as part of the agency’s ongoing commitment to deliver transportation solutions, including for active transportation – biking, walking and skating.
“OCTA appreciates the strong partnership we have formed with the state’s Office of Traffic Safety to work toward enhancing safety on our streets,” said OCTA Chairman Tim Shaw, also a City Council member in La Habra. “OTS has provided grant funding for the past three years to develop programs improving conditions for walking and biking, and ongoing grant funding will help us with one of our primary goals of reinforcing safety throughout Orange County.
Activities to be funded by this year’s grant include:
Pedestrian and bicycle safety classes
Distribution of bicycle lights and helmets
Distribution of reflectors for pedestrians
The need for increased safety training is clear. Bicycle and pedestrian-related collisions have been on the rise for the past decade.
“No matter which way you get around, you play a part in roadway safety,” OTS Director Barbara Rooney said. “These grant programs are intended to educate residents on ways they can make themselves and those around them safe when they walk or bike.”
The pedestrian and bicycle safety program and distribution of safety materials will occur throughout 2020. Funding for this program was provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
For more information on bicycle programs and safety in Orange County, and to stay updated on where classes are being scheduled, visit octa.net/bike.
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The LACBC is looking for volunteers to help give out free bike lights to riders who don’t have them in Koreatown next week.
A 35-year old Fontana man was arrested for a Pasadena hit-and-run that left a juvenile bike rider hospitalized with critical injuries; he was booked on suspicion of hit-and-run and DUI resulting in serious injury or death. Let’s all say a pray or offer best wishes that the kid makes a full and fast recovery.
The future of Santa Monica’s Breeze bikeshare is in doubt as it faces stiff competition from dockless bikeshares; the city will have to fork over $225,000 in subsidies just to keep it operating for the next year. West Hollywood has already pulled the plug on its money-losing sister operation.
The long-promised bike and pedestrian lane on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge connecting Contra Costa and Marin counties will open tomorrow, despite continued efforts in some quarters to convert it to a yet another lane for motor vehicles. Because everyone knows just one more traffic lane will solve all our traffic problems forever.
When it unexpectedly turns into a roadway for lost drivers.
Josh Hamilton forwarded this photo he took Tuesday morning on the Ballona Creek Bike Path in Culver City, along with the following note.
Longtime reader and wanted to share something that happened this morning.
Turns out there is nothing preventing cars from entering the bike path at Sepulveda Blvd (and minimal signage) and 2 people in a car accidentally drove onto the Ballona Creek Bike Path. They were driving slowly when I stopped and spoke with them near the pedestrian bridge at the school next to the path.
I assume they were foreign tourists as they were in what seemed like a rental car with out of state plates and they didn’t speak English. They mistakenly had Google Maps set to bicycle directions. They were concerned and clearly meant no harm, but it’s clearly an issue if drivers can just enter the bike path on accident or on purpose.
It had been left on the sidewalk next to a passenger drop-off zone where the city had instituted a scooter “no deployment zone,” but allegedly failed to enforce it.
I’ve long supported micromobility to reduce the numbers of cars on the street and vehicle miles traveled.
Long being a relative term, since they first hit the streets just two years ago.
But inherent in that support is the need to use them responsibly. Which does not include leaving them where they block sidewalks or other places where people can trip on them.
A successful micromobility program demands safe places to ride the devices, as well as safe places to park them.
We need a complete, comprehensive network of bike lanes throughout every city in the LA area, along with secure, in-street bicycle, bikeshare and scooter parking on every block.
Whoever left that scooter there in violation of the rules, whether it was the last person to use it or someone who moved it there, is who’s really responsible for harming an elderly woman.
And they’re extremely lucky that’s all it was.
Instead, every resident of Santa Monica will be on the hook for that one person’s carelessness.
Let’s there’s at least one person on the ground for each of the 28 people on bicycles killed in LA County so far this year — half of them in the City of Los Angeles.
And those numbers will continue to grow until Vision Zero finally becomes more than just a feel-good slogan for our elected leaders.
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A woman was injured when she was left crossed by a motorist pulling into a driveway during last weekend’s Tour de Foothills in Upland.
No word yet on how serious her injuries are.
Thanks to CiclaValley’s Zachary Rynew and Erik Griswold for the video.
The Orange County Bicycle Coalition sends word that half the Seal Beach Blvd bike lanes will be closed for the next six weeks.
@bikinginla The popular bike lane on southbound Seal Beach Blvd is closed for a few hundred feet near Adolfo Lopez. Work will finish ~Dec 24. There are "Share the Road" signs in the area, or riders can turn west on Westminster to the SGRT or PCH. The northbound bike lane is open.
Speaking of which, Orange County didn’t quite turn out as promised.
Orange County, California was actually sold – but unfortunately not practically designed – as a cycling community. @OCbike@bikinginla They missed their mark, if in fact they really were aiming. @KostelecPlanpic.twitter.com/JuOZpnynyt
Bruce Willis is one of us, taking up bicycling after he sold his motorcycles and donated the profits to support active and retired soldiers. Although you can’t win with the British tabloids, who criticize people who don’t wear helmets and ridicule them if they do.
The NY Times also piles on with the victim blaming by offering tips on how to stop your distracted walking. Unlike distracted driving, no one has ever been killed by a distracted pedestrian. And there are few, if any, stats to support the idea that there has been a rash of distracted walking deaths.
A new study confirms that helmet laws drive down bicycling rates — but also finds that helmet use corresponds with a higher rate of upper body injuries. Before you throw your helmet away, bear in mind that correlation does not equal causation. And a wrecked shoulder is better than a wrecked skull.
That’s more like it. A Calgary man could face up to life in prison for the meth-fueled hit-and-run that killed a 15-year old boy and seriously injured his friend as they were riding their bikes; prosecutors waived 11 other charges against the man, who was driving a stolen vehicle without a valid driver’s license.
Meital Weiss is one of us, too. She’s a 12-year old Israeli girl paralyzed from the waist down since she was 10 months old, who will celebrate her bat mitzvah by trading her wheelchair for a handcycle and ride to raise funds for the rehab hospital that cared for her. And that makes her a celeb — and a hero — in my book.
Nithya Raman is an inspiring grassroots candidate with a long track record of advocacy and community organizing centered around equity. She’s trained as an urban planner, and it shows in her systematic approach to solving problems, and her deep understanding of the root causes behind L.A.’s transportation challenges. To Raman, transportation is not just a matter of getting around: it’s a critical aspect of environmental action, a public safety crisis that is injuring and killing too many residents, and an issue of equity that limits opportunity and access for people with disabilities and low income Angelenos.
In her detailed and inspirational response to Bike The Vote L.A., Raman articulates one of the most progressive transportation platforms ever put forward by a Southern California candidate for elected office. Raman rightly recognizes that what L.A. currently lacks is political will, and makes clear that she’s ready to turn the tide. We are impressed with her determination to improve access, efficiency, and the overall experience of bus service; a critical aspect of an equitable transportation system. In noting the ways in which the City has failed to build out a safe bike network, Raman rightly points to the need to reconsider on-street parking, too often considered a third rail by elected officials.
As the informal political organization makes clear, however, they are not rescinding their endorsement of Levy, but rather endorsing both candidates in hopes that one can defeat Ryu.
And in acknowledgement that either would be a serious upgrade in the position.
The risk is that Levy and Raman could split the urbanist, bike and pedestrian vote.
However, as Bike the Vote’s Michael MacDonald explained, the combined vote totals for both candidates could provide a better chance of keeping Ryu under the 50% threshold for an outright victory, forcing him into a runoff against one of them.
Robert Leone forward word that San Diego’s Rose Canyon Bike Path will close for construction next week.
Beginning 11/19, crews will be paving the final section of the Rose Canyon Bike Path and the bike path FULL CLOSURE will begin at 6 a.m. on Tuesday, November 19, and will be in place for approximately four days. The bike path is anticipated to reopen by 6 p.m. on Friday, November 22.
Mid-Coast Trolley crews will facilitate a “bus bridge,” which will include bicycle-carrying capable vans, to transport cyclists and pedestrians around the closure area. The bus bridge will be available from 5 a.m. to 8 p.m. each day, and signage will be in place to designate the pick-up locations.
During the closure, crews will remove the temporary ramp currently in place between Gilman Drive and State Route 52 (SR 52).
Please use caution when traveling near the area.
Construction schedules may change with very little notice.
The Virginia woman who was elected to local office after gaining International fame for flipping off Trump’s motorcade while riding her bike will be a guest on Bike Talk this Friday.
Last week's video highlighted the dangerous design of NYC bike lanes. Today a cyclist in a bike lane (yes, that's a bike lane) sandwiched between two driving lanes was rear-ended by a van. #VisionZero appropriately describes the street lighting. @StreetsblogNYC@TransAlt@NYC_DOTpic.twitter.com/L1XvWf7YY6
No bias here. An Ocean Beach, San Diego paper describes “cycling radicals” with a “sense of moral superiority” attacking the city’s driving-oriented planning boards, as part of a task force charged with reforming them. Because it’s totally implausible that people who ride bikes might be civic minded too, right?
Uh, no. A Baltimore TV station says the NTSB is calling for new laws to bring down the climbing rate of bicycle crashes, starting with mandating bike helmets. Except bike helmets do absolutely nothing to prevent crashes; safer cars and better bike infrastructure will. Bike helmets should always be seen as the last line of defense when all else fails, not the first.
A Canadian man was rescued by a bike rider after his plane went down in occupied France during WWII; he ditched his uniform and hid in plain site until he could be smuggled out of the county.
Unfortunately, the press seldom follows up once the ambulance doors close. And it may take weeks before we find out what happened afterwards.
If ever.
That’s what happened with 60-year old Santa Ana resident Virgilio Lemus Garcia, after he was left lying in the street by a hit-and-run driver early in the morning on Sunday, October 13th.
According to a witness, Garcia was riding his bike on Warner Ave when he was run down by the driver of a blue Honda, who only stopped briefly before hitting the gas.
Video from the scene shows his mangled mountain bike near the curb, and the same black cowboy hat he wore in photos lying in the street.
Police are looking for a mid-1990s dark blue Honda Civic sedan with likely front-end damage, including broken head lights and a possible shattered windshield.
Clearly, any owl that rides a bike really is wise.
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Cute video from pro stunt cyclist Cam McCaul, as he goes for a bike ride with his adorable daughters, and takes a spin around a bike park with his three-year old on his bike.
But thankfully saves the back flips for when he’s riding solo.
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When a bike gets too old to ride, you can still use it to hold your burger and beer.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes is all too real.
The owners of a Portland bikini coffee shop face charges after a road rage incident involving a group of bicyclists in front of their shop; after one of the riders didn’t take kindly to being yelled at, one the men got out of their car carrying a hammer, punched one man, then knocked a phone out of a woman’s hand before punching her out cold.
The New York Post claims that in four years, the city’s war on cars has claimed 6,100 parking spaces. On the other hand, it’s also claimed the live of 39 people riding bicycles over the same period. So which side is losing?
The former mayor of Encinitas wears her windshield bias on her sleeve, concluding that a road diet on the coast highway is a bad idea because only around 300 people in the city ride their bikes to work. So apparently, all those people who ride their bikes to school, for errands or shopping, or for recreation and exercise through the city don’t exist. Or maybe just don’t count in her book.
Bad news from San Francisco, where a woman suffered life-threatening injuries when she was collateral damage after another driver hit a car and swerved into her. Note to KRON-4 — yes, the vehicles stayed at the scene. But only because the people driving them did.
An Arkansas man is likely to go away for a very long time; in addition to a felony bike theft charge, he faces ten years for violating probation for burning down a barn, and another ten for not updating his registration as a sex offender after getting kicked out of a halfway house.
They point the finger at rising auto emissions, as car ownership climbs while transit use declines.
Transportation emissions, the state’s largest source, have steadily risen since 2013, as the improving economy put more cars on the road and planes in the sky. Emissions from waste dumped into landfills have also been ticking up since the recovery took hold. Meanwhile, highly potent greenhouse gases from the aerosols, foams, and solvents used in refrigeration and air conditioning are rising sharply…
At the same time, overall car ownership rates are rising, public-transit use is falling, and consumers are still shifting toward gas-guzzling trucks and SUVs. And the 92% of vehicles sold last year that weren’t EVs will, on average, still be on the roads more than a decade from now.
Accelerating the shift to cleaner vehicles is likely to require far stricter policies, far more generous subsidies, cheaper EVs, and a massive build-out of charging infrastructure. And even California’s efforts to boost the average fuel efficiency of cars sold in the state have been complicated by the Trump administration’s legal challenges.
And while San Francisco and San Diego have been making progress in building out bicycle networks to entice people out of their cars, it’s ground to a near halt in the state’s largest city.
Yes Los Angeles, we’re talking about you.
Maybe one day, the so-called progressives, environmentalists and other assorted climate activists at city hall will stop talking about the problem, and actually do something.
But sadly, that day is not today.
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Bike scribe Peter Flax is up to his old tricks.
If you can call insightful writing and consistently hitting the nail on the head a trick.
Writing for Bicycling, Flax examines the extremely flawed recommendations from NTBS — the National Transportation Safety Board, which usually concerns itself with plane and train crashes — to reduce the climbing rate of bicycle deaths.
Starting, and nearly ending, with bike helmets and high viz.
And yet the top-line proposals from the NTSB largely shifted responsibility to solve this deadly crisis onto cyclists themselves. Two of the three key recommendations focused on the need for riders to wear helmets and be more conspicuous. (The third was about improving road design, which is awesome because poor cycling infrastructure is an actual cause of cycling fatalities.)
He goes on to sum up exactly what the agency failed to address that’s actually killing people on bicycles, in one brilliant paragraph.
Now let’s talk about all the important stuff that the NTSB report passed over to focus on helmets and high vis and scold renegade riders. Like the problem of distracted driving—where four in 10 motorists admit using social media (and one in 10 say they watch YouTube videos) on their phone when they’re on the road. Or the nation’s pernicious problem with speed limit violations, a widely tolerated illegal behavior that is a known killer. They could urge the auto industry and tech sectors to work together to solve these entirely fixable problems. They could ask out loud how or why many states still don’t have 3-foot safe-passing laws or regulations banning handheld phone use, and how or why these laws are rarely enforced in those that do. They could demand that American trucks and passenger cars match the far superior standards set in Europe and Japan to keep vulnerable road users safe—why don’t our garbage and box trucks have side guards to protect pedestrians and cyclists from the wheels, for instance? They could address an epidemic of fatal hit-and-run crashes and the shifting complexion of impaired driving and America’s love affair with 5,000-pound SUVs. Rather than scold naughty cyclists, agency researchers could have examined the carnage caused by negligent and reckless motorists—and offered commentary on what to do about it.
This is what 15 years of #PoliticalWill looks like in #TorontoDanforth on Danforth Av. From Jones Av to Broadview Av I saw two doorings and probably dozen near misses of cyclists and pedestrians. Fix this! (Of note I did catch up with her. Banged up but ok) Cc: @PaulaFletcherTOpic.twitter.com/1CpCi4SG14
We’ve mentioned Malaysia’s basikal lajaks several times in the past two years, ever since eight riders of the modified bikes were killed when a driver plowed into them.
This response to my tweet shows exactly what the bikes are, and how they’re ridden.
Beverly Hills received a $90,000 traffic enforcement grant from the state, which will allow them to do bike and pedestrian safety crackdowns, among other things. Even if their police department doesn’t exactly have a reputation for being bike and pedestrian friendly.
An Indiana cycling club shows that yes, it is possible for a riding club to get involved in advocacy and help teach people how to drive around bicyclists. Just in case any LA-area clubs want to give it a shot. Thanks to Melissa for the link.
As we noted before, New Orleans Saints backup QB Teddy Bridgewater is one of us. Even if he has to tweet for someone to drive his broken bike to the shop, because he refuses to get to his games any other way. Thanks to BikeLosFeliz for the link.
An investigative news site takes a dive into the state of bicycling in the US, and concludes it’s stuck in first gear. Or maybe we only have one gear over here.
