The good news is, my wife had her surgery yesterday; everything went well, and she’s resting more or less comfortably.
Hopefully, this will resolve the serious health problems she’s faced for the last several years.
However, the long day has left me physically and emotionally exhausted. Especially after coming home to find this.
So please forgive me for not updating this site today. We should be back on Monday, and I’ll do my best to catch you up on any important news we may have missed.
And thanks for all the kind words and wishes; I may not have a lot of use for Facebook, but it brings a lot of comfort on days like this.
It’s tragic enough when anyone is needlessly killed in a crash.
Worse when it’s a child. Especially one who doesn’t appear to have done anything wrong.
The Long Beach Post reports that a boy in his early teens was killed while riding his bike in the city Thursday afternoon.
According to the paper, the boy was riding with a preteen girl, headed east in the crosswalk on Conant Street at Woodruff Ave at 3:55 pm, when they were both struck by a driver turning left off westbound Conant onto Woodruff Ave.
They were taken to a local hospital, where the boy passed away. The girl remains hospitalized in stable condition with non-life threatening injuries.
Neither victim has been publicly identified.
The driver stayed at the scene.
This is the 57th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the 25th in Los Angeles County.
It’s also the third bicycling death in Long Beach this year, and at least the 13th since 2011.
Update: According to the Long Beach Report, the two victims were waiting on the sidewalk to cross Woodruff on their bikes, and didn’t enter the crosswalk until the light turned green. The driver turned into them as they were riding across the street.
Anyone with information is urged to call LBPD Collision Investigation Detail Detective Brian Watt at 562/570-7355.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for the victim and his loved ones.
Today we’re trying something slightly different by moving news about bike racing and pro cycling into its own section at the bottom, which seems to work better for quiet news days like today.
A Moreno Valley bike rider was critically injured in a collision Wednesday afternoon, after allegedly swerving out of the bike lane into the driver’s path. Thanks to Erik Griswold for the heads-up.
Will Ferrell is one of us, completing what a Washington news station calls an “amazing” “marathon” bike ride with four friends, going 147 miles down the California coast from Monterey to Santa Barbara over several days. Although the station can’t seem to grasp the concept that he might have done it just because he wanted to.
People for Bikes looks at San Francisco’s plans to use traffic diverters to create a neighborhood bikeway, noting that reducing automobile traffic on one street does not necessarily mean an increase in traffic on surrounding streets. LA’s bike plan calls for a network of similar streets, none of which have been built, or seem likely to at this point.
Las Vegas is installing 800 steel bollards to along the Las Vegas strip to protect pedestrians from terrorist attacks, as well as plain, old fashioned careless drivers. Which is exactly what Los Angeles needs to do, but doesn’t seem to have any interest in, along Hollywood Blvd.
Australian authorities are blocking the ports to keep a hit-and-run driver from fleeing the country after she left a 13-year old bike-riding girl to die in the street. There’s something seriously wrong with anyone who would drive off and leave another human behind to die, let alone a child.
San Francisco advocates pen an open letter to the mayor calling for improvements to the city’s Vision Zero program, including making immediate improvements at the site of any death.
London’s former bike czar calls a proposal from the mayor to ban bikes on busy Oxford Street, which currently sees 5,000 riders a day, an unqualified disaster.
Just one day after the unexpected announcement that ofo had introduced dockless bikeshare to Griffith Park, came the equally unexpected announcement that LimeBike had established a beachfront in Councilmember Joe Buscaino’s 15th District.
According to a press release, LimeBike has partnered with Buscaino for a three-month pilot program, calling it the first time a dockless bikeshare company has operated in any of America’s five biggest markets.
Or maybe the second, since it comes a day after ofo’s landing in the City of Angels.
The bikes cost $1 for 30 minutes, or 50 cents for students; entering the code LIMELA after downloading the iOS or Android app will get you 25 free rides until November 20th. The bikes can be picked up anywhere one is available, and left anywhere once you’re finished.
Low income residents can pay just $5 a month for up to 100 rides, with an option for cash rather than credit card.
Let’s hope Angelenos take better care of the bikes than people have in other cities; bikes abandoned in creeks and trees could mean the end of what promises to be a very useful program that could benefit a lot of people.
And help make bicycling more accessible to everyone.
Bicyclingtalks with SoCal’s own Coryn Rivera, saying she has the potential to become America’s best ever bike racer. Which would mean surpassing a certain Texan, who once was great but officially isn’t anymore.
A Medium post says the effort to recall Councilmember Mike Bonin is really an Alt-Right campaign in disguise, and calls recall leader Alexis Edelstein a flesh and blood version of a Russian Facebook bot.
Buy a special North Carolina license plate, and help give a kid a new bike helmet. Although giving the kid a safer place to ride his bike would probably help a lot more.
A Florida paper examines the benefits of bike paths in terms of health, financial investment and crime, noting that rails-to-trails conversions generally have lower crime rates than the abandoned railways they replaced.
And it might surprise many women to learn that riding a bicycle 75 miles is harder than childbirth.
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On a personal note, my wife will be having major surgery this week to correct a condition that has the potential to be life-threatening.
I’ll do my best to keep up with this site every day, but please accept my apologies in advance if I miss a day or two, or have to settle for a shortened post.
And if anyone would like to submit a guest post, now would be a great time to do it.
Ofo tweeted Sunday morning, then deleted, that they were now live in Griffith Park.
They followed that up with a tweet saying they were partnering with the LA Department of Recreation and Parks to provide an easier way to ride through the park.
Especially since other providers, including LimeBike, are waiting patiently for their opportunity to come into the city.
It’s inevitable that dockless bikeshare will come to Los Angeles. The question is how — or if — it will be managed to avoid the problems that have plagued other cities.
Thanks to Erik Griswold and Zachary Rynew for the tips.
I happened to run into Beverly Hills Mayor Lili Bosse at the city’s Woofstock dog fest on Sunday, and was encouraged to hear her say that the coming bike lanes on Santa Monica Blvd are just the start.
As she tweeted later, she’s looking forward to more bike lanes and better mobility throughout the city.
Maybe there’s hope for the former Biking Black Hole yet.
At least as long as she’s in office.
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More on last week’s New York bike path terrorist attack.
If you ride the Rose Bowl loop, you owe it to yourself to attend tomorrow night’s meeting of the Pasadena City Council Parks and Recreation Committee, where the future of the popular riding route will be up for discussion. Thanks to Wesley Reutimann for the heads-up. Correction: This originally said it was a City Council meeting; thanks to Bike SGV for the correction.
A woman in San Diego’s Mira Mesa neighborhood was seriously injured when a tow truck driver rammed her bike as he left a parking lot.
The great bike debate goes on in the pages of the San Luis Obispo newspaper, as a letter writer says encouraging bicycling provides a great value for bicyclists, as well as the drivers we share the roads with.
Instead of the usual complaints that fire engines can’t get through narrow streets with bulb outs and protected bike lanes, San Francisco buys a more compact fire truck that can.
A bill in the US Senate would provide $50 million a year to install bollards, planters and other barriers along bikeways to protect cyclists. Get back to me when they get serious; $50 million works out to a token gesture of just $1 million per state.
A student injured when Saipov’s rented truck crashed into a school attended class on Wednesday to keep his record for perfect attendance.
Streeetsblog’s Joe Linton and Damien Newton correct the pernicious lie that Mike Bonin somehow stole money from the Measure M transportation tax to fund Vision Zero.
The Pasadena Star-News asks if new trains, busways and bike lanes can end SoCal gridlock. Short answer, no. With more people bringing more cars here every year, our street will continue to be clogged. The only solution is to provide alternatives to driving, so the people who choose to leave their cars at home won’t be stuck in that mess.
Authorities are looking for funding to build a roundabout at the intersection of Highway 39 and the Old San Gabriel Canyon Road above Azusa to slow traffic and provide a safe extension to the San Gabriel River Trail, which currently dead ends at the roadway.
Bakersfield has received $200,000 in funding from Kern County for a number of bike-related projects, including bike parking in the downtown area, and the Build-A-Bike program that allows kids to earn a bicycle while learning about bike maintenance and repair.
Let’s start with an updated version of a popular SoCal bicycling guidebook.
This is how the publisher describes it.
Good news for SoCal cyclists who prefer riding on bike trails and low-traffic bike routes: Richard Fox has published a thoroughly updated 2nd Edition of his popular colorful 400-page guidebook, “enCYCLEpedia Southern California – The Best Easy Scenic Bike Rides.” It showcases over 200 fun ride options from Cambria to San Diego to Palm Springs. Ride descriptions have detailed turn by turn instructions accompanied by stylized scaled maps depicting paved vs dirt bike trails and on-road bike routes. A typical ride is 10-20 miles long with beautiful scenery, few hills, little or no auto traffic, and lots of interesting things to see or places to eat en route. Options to extend or combine rides are described. Now available from available from Amazon or direct from the author for $21.95.
A sample page from the book
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More on Tuesday’s terrorist attack on a New York City bike path.
A day after the New York terrorist attack, a New York woman was shot in the stomach as she was docking her bikeshare bike; her attacker apparently shot himself afterwards.
Someone hung a banner over a Montreal overpass accusing the city of too much talk and not enough action, while urging viewers to Bike the Vote en français.
There’s a special place in hell for the British men who crashed their van into a pair of boys who were sharing a bicycle, then jumped out and stole it.
According to the Daily Bulletin, 61-year old Rancho Cucamonga resident Tyron Paul Dade was killed last Wednesday near the intersection of Foothill Boulevard and Hellman Avenue in Rancho Cucamonga.
Dade was attempting to cross Foothill near the Foothill Village Shopping Center when he was struck by a westbound driver around 6:25 pm.
He was taken to a hospital in Upland where he died half an hour later.
The driver, who was not publicly identified, remained at the scene.
A street view shows Foothill is a four lane divided roadway with center left turn lanes and bike lanes in both directions.
The question is whether Dade was crossing at the intersection or mid-block, and whether he was crossing with the light. Whether or not he had lights and reflectors on his bike could also have been a factor, since the crash occurred 20 minutes after sunset.
This is the 56th bicycling fatality in Southern California, and the 11th in San Bernardino County. It’s also at least the fifth in Rancho Cucamonga since 2011.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for Tyron Paul Dade and all his loved ones.
Five of those killed were Argentine tourists who were visiting the city to celebrate their 30th high school reunion. One of the dead, and three of the people injured, were from Belgium.
The killer was shot by police after crashing his rental truck and exiting waving pellet and paintball guns; at last report he was hospitalized in grave condition after undergoing surgery.
Congratulations to former LACBC Planning and Policy Director Eric Bruins, who is joining CD11 Councilmember Mike Bonin’s staff as Transportation Policy Director, replacing longtime aide Paul Backstrom.
Or maybe we should offer our congratulations to Bonin for landing him. And to the people of CD11 for the exceptional hard work and dedication they’re about to receive.
Let’s hope they have the good sense to appreciate it.
And former LA pro Phil Gaimon offers the latest in his Worst Retirement Ever series, as he tackles Colorado’s legendary Mt. Evans Hillclimb, the highest paved road in North America.
Cycling in the South Bay’s Seth Davidson writes movingly about his friend Rob Dollar, who was killed by an allegedly drunk and stoned teenage driver while riding outside of Phoenix on Sunday.
Orange County will begin restricting access to the Santa Ana River Trail in order to control the homeless camps that have sprung up along the trail; starting today the path will be closed from 6 pm to 7 am through the end of February, then 9 pm to 7 am until next October 31st.
An Arroyo Grande man says bike riders aren’t paying the “overinflated vehicle registration fees” car owners do, and suggests an annual $75 fee to ride a bike on the road. Never mind that bikes cause virtually no wear and tear on the road. Or that most bike riders already pay those same vehicle registration fees for one or more motor vehicles.
A Louisville KY bicyclist declares victory after authorities dropped charges of running a red light and obstructing traffic for not riding in a bike lane; he had claimed there was debris in the bike lane that could have given him a flat.
You can now own your very own $815,000 cycling watch, which comes complete with a limited edition Colnago bike. For that price, it should also come with your own private bikeway to ride it on.
A road-raging London driver gets two years for intentionally running over a bike rider, breaking his back — then getting out of his car and telling the injured rider he’d run over him again if he had to.
Apparently they take repeated DUIs seriously in the UK, at least if you kill someone. A woman with three previous drunk driving arrests got eight years for the death of 17-year BMX rider after downing three pints of beer.
