According to the paper, 32-year old Rosendo Ortiz and 28-year old Karina Saucedo, both from San Bernardino, became involved in a road rage incident as they headed east on Fifth near Meridian Ave.
They were still arguing as they approached Ramona, nearly two miles from where the incident started.
Hernandez was seen on security video running the red light while riding without lights, so Henderson wouldn’t have been at fault if he had simply stopped as the law and basic human decency requires.
Hernandez was riding to a friend’s house when he was killed; he was reportedly troubled after joining his family to mark his sister’s birthday, who had died of leukemia a few months earlier.
He was struck by second driver as he lay in the road after getting hit by Henderson’s tow truck; that driver was never found.
The race starts a week from today in Oceanside, California and will finish in Annapolis, Maryland roughly eight days later.
………
Local
Councilmember Mitch Englander is calling for an emergency moratorium on dockless bikeshares and greater regulation, after complaining about bikes being haphazardly strewn about. Because it’s just so darn hard to pick up a bike and move it if it’s in the way. And he couldn’t be more wrong about the “failure” of dockless bikeshare in China, where its overwhelming success has led to problems of oversupply as competing providers try to capture the market.
An Op-Ed in The Daily Pilot says more people in Costa Mesa would bike or walk if they felt safer on the streets. In other words, pretty much like everywhere else.
This is the cost of traffic violence, as a Texas family cries out for justice, and wonders how anyone could be so cruel that they could leave a bike rider dying in the street. Thanks to Stephen Katz for the link.
Two years after she was paralysed from the waist down by a distracted driver on a Bike & Build ride, and her riding companion killed, a Michigan woman is planning to use a handcycle finish the ride she never completed. The driver who hit them got just two months behind bars.
A Manhattan congressman is the definition of windshield bias as he blames bike lanes for traffic problems, and not the illegally parked SUVs. Seriously, some people just can’t see the traffic for the cars.
Tragic news from Singapore, where a 60-year old woman is on life support after a 17-year old bike rider allegedly crashed into her from behind on a shared-use path.
A Wisconsin paper profiles 33-year old ultra-cyclist Brett Stepanik, the first rider to finish the 750-mile Arizona Trail Race, the 2,732-mile Tour Divide Mountain Bike Race and the 580-mile Colorado Trail Race on a single-speed bike in a single year.
Finally…
This story seems to be saying if you’re going to ride drunk, wear a helmet. If you ride naked with a group, it’s the World Naked Bike Ride; if you ride naked by yourself, you’re just a perv.
He’s got my vote, as well, for many of the reasons listed in the article.
As well as pushing through LA County’s Measure R that increased sales taxes half a cent to fund transportation projects. Then Villaraigosa got the federal government to adopt the America Fast Forward program that has allowed Metro to expand rapidly.
Besides, Antonio Villaraigosa is the only gubernatorial candidate — or LA mayor — I’ve actually ridden and chatted with at CicLAvia.
But no matter who you support, get out there and Bike the Vote tomorrow.
I’m happy to report that my brother and his kitty litter panniers have finished the first leg of his trip, from Grand Junction CO to Denver, with a brief stop at the Continental Divide.
I haven’t had a chance to read the whole thing yet, but it doesn’t seem to include anything about the mayor actually showing up to defend any of the beleaguered projects already in place.
Apparently never having heard of induced demand, San Diego is replacing a 1950’s era four lane bridge in Mission Bay with two separate bridges with three lanes each. But at least they’re adding protected bike lanes in each direction.
After Quebec quadrupled traffic fines for bicyclists, one rider received $381 worth of tickets for bad brakes and not having front and rear reflectors, even though he had red taillight.
The London Standard recommended celebrating yesterday’s World Bicycle Day by exploring unusual parts of city. Seriously, there’s no better way to get to know any city — whether your own or anywhere else.
A writer for the Guardian says requiring ebike riders to carry insurance, like the European Union recently ordered, will slow the growth of ebiking when we should be encouraging it.
Yesterday morning, a reporter from outside of LA emailed me with a single, very simple question.
But the answer was just the opposite.
She wanted to why Los Angeles continues to be one of the nation’s deadliest cities for bicyclists.
This is how I responded.
………
That’s a complicated question.
There are a number of factors involved, but let’s start with the most obvious. Los Angeles is the second largest city in the US, so ignoring any other factors, we could be expected to have one of the highest traffic fatality rates.
We also have roughly 6,500 miles of surface streets, the most in the US. And due to the city’s mistaken obsession with LOS (Level of Service) until recent years, virtually all of those streets have been over-engineered to move as many vehicles as fast as possible, with little or no regard for safety.
That’s complicated by California’s deadly 85th Percentile Law, which allows drivers to set speed limits with their right foot. So you have streets that have been designed like highways, despite their original speed limits.
As a result, drivers naturally speed, which results in a continual raising of the speed limit until some LA streets have speed limits of 50 mph or more. And on those that don’t, drivers routinely exceed the limit by 10 to 15 mph — and complain in the rare instances that they get pulled over, because everyone else is doing it.
Add to that the smallest police force of any major city, resulting in just a few hundred officers patrolling the streets at any given time, most of whom are too busy dealing with major crimes to bother pulling anyone over for an illegal U-turn or weaving in and out of traffic. And until recently, police couldn’t enforce speed limits on most of the city’s streets, because LA failed to conduct the speed surveys required by the 85th Percentile law.
So is it any wonder that LA has what may be world’s most entitled drivers, who seem to feel they have a God-given right to do anything they want, with little or no fear of consequences?
Then there’s the lack of safe bicycling infrastructure in the city. While the city made great gains under the previous mayor, who committed to building 40 miles of bike lanes a year, that has trickled to a crawl under the current administration, resulting in less than 10 lanes miles a year. We have just a handful of parking protected bike lanes, no curb-protected lanes — the first is expected to open this summer on South Figueroa — and a few of what are questionably called protected lanes, guarded only by thin plastic flex posts, which are easy to drive over with no damage to your car.
To complicate matters, there is nothing even resembling a bikeway network in Los Angeles. With the exception of Downtown LA, it is virtually impossible to plan a safe route from one part of the city to another. Bike lanes start and stop at random, and usually don’t connect to anything, forcing riders to contend with high speed traffic and aggressive drivers.
As a result, a disproportionate number of LA riders use sidewalks instead of riding in the street, putting them at significant risk when they have to cross a side street or driveway. In addition, LA has a large immigrant population, many of whom ride bikes as their only form of transportation. And many of whom learned to ride against traffic in their home countries, and continue the practice here; in some neighborhoods, salmon cyclists make up most, if not all, of the bicycling victims according to the LAPD.
Do I even need to mention that there is no bicycle eduction in most California cities? Some of the local advocacy groups offer adult bike education, but that reaches only a handful of people each year. And usually not the ones who need it most.
Finally, Los Angeles has a weak mayor political system which gives the mayor limited authority, while placing most of the power in the hands of individual councilmembers. As a result, while the mayor has set some bike friendly policies, such as Vision Zero, actual implementation falls on each councilmember to approve or deny safety improvements in their own districts.
A fear of angry drivers — and voters — has resulted in the cancellation of shovel-ready road diets and bike lanes throughout the city, virtually halting any real progress on Vision Zero, let alone providing any alternative to driving for most people. And famously led to the reversal of several road diets installed in Playa del Rey last year when pass-through drivers, mostly from outside the city, rose up in revolt.
Los Angeles has great potential for bicycling. If the city actually builds out its Mobility Plan 2035, and the bike plan within it — which seems highly unlikely at this point — it will transform itself from the nation’s most traffic and smog-choked city into one of the safest and most livable communities anywhere.
But that’s a big if.
………
Caltrans celebrates the last day of Bike Month by discussing the role bikes can play as a legitimate form of transportation in reducing greenhouse gasses.
And enjoy free hot dogs, hamburgers and tacos while you watch some of LA’s best track cyclists, hosted by BikinginLA sponsor Thomas Forsyth.
………
The Guardian offers a video explaining why forcing bicyclists to wear helmets won’t save lives.
Just to be clear, I’m a firm believer in using helmets on American roads, and always wear a one when I ride. But they should always be seen as the last line of defense when all else fails.
We’ll save a lot more lives by taming traffic and building better bikeways than by making everyone wear a helmet for every ride.
A self-described “keen cyclist” in the London’s Waltham Forest borough says bicyclists have turned a local pedestrian plaza into a death trap. Yet he somehow fails to note that no one has actually been killed by bike riders there. Which is not to say riders shouldn’t show extra care and consideration around people on foot.
Yesterday’s press conference revealed more details about the nearly $12 million settlement from the County of Los Angeles for the death of bike-riding music executive Milt Olin, who was killed by a distracted sheriff’s deputy in December, 2013.
The DA had said there was no evidence the deputy was actually moving while he texted and used the onboard computer in his patrol car just prior to the crash.
However, new evidence shows Deputy Andrew Wood was traveling at over 40 mph on Mulholland Highway as he typed into his laptop to respond to a message from another deputy at the time of the crash. And had used his personal cell phone to text his wife just 15 seconds earlier.
Olin should have been visible to Wood for 21 seconds as the deputy drove down Mulholland — or would have been if he hadn’t been distracted. Wood initially said that Olin swerved in front of him before investigators placed the point of impact squarely in the bike lane.
A Venice-based writer for The Atlantic dons his best Raymond Chandler-esque prose to say e-scooters could ease traffic. But only if cities can avoid over-regulating them.
If Bird comes to your city, its detractors will cry foul.
They’ll lash out as if every Silicon Beach scheme to make some scratch is zero sum, call the code-enforcement coppers on anything without a business license, insist on “a comprehensive regulatory scheme” as if mere scooters require one, and remain so beholden to status-quo bias that they’ll hold Birds to standards they’ve never applied to Firebirds, Skylarks, Falcons, Cygnets, or Roadrunners.
Before throwing in with the skeptics, at least take a ride.
It’s a good read, and worth a few minutes of your day.
A Pittsburgh public radio station considers what happens when construction work closes a bike lane or bike path; city policy requires developers to provide an alternate route. Unlike Los Angeles, where bike lanes are closed for construction work or movie shoots with no detour on a regular basis.
A New York man says he hasn’t bought a bicycle since the 1990s, even though he’s ridden all over the world. Then proves it by suggesting racing bikes cost just $600 these days.
The war on bikes goes on, as a New York man was attacked for the crime of riding his bike in a bike lane that was overflowing with pedestrians forced off a narrow, overcrowded sidewalk.
Chris Froome is confident about repeating as Tour de France champ this summer, after bouncing back from his “brutal” Giro win. If he doesn’t get a belated ban for a failed drug test at last year’s Vuelta, that is.
Five and a half years after music executive Milt Olin was killed by a distracted LA County sheriff’s deputy, his family has finally received some justice.
Which is just slightly more than the $80,000 requested in their original lawsuit.
But possibly less than a jury would have given them if the case had gone to trial.
Olin was riding in a bike lane on Mulholland Highway in Calabasas when the deputy ran him down from behind while responding to a message from another officer on his onboard computer.
That came just moments after the deputy had been texting with his wife while driving. Which, remarkably, is legal for emergency personnel in California, even if the text has nothing to do with official business.
The LA County District Attorney refused to file charges in the case, or to hold the sheriff’s department accountable in any way for a policy that allowed deputies to use the onboard computer while driving, with predictable results.
That policy was changed as a result of Olin’s death.
Which, in the long run, may be worth much more than his family will receive in this case.
Every few years, Malibu sheriff’s deputies insist on harassing and ticketing bicyclists who are doing absolutely nothing wrong, based on a flawed interpretation of California law.
And after various bicyclists, bike advocates and organizations explain the law to them, they back off. Until the deputies are transferred out, and new ones come in to take their place.
Then the cycle starts all over again.
Like it did this past weekend, when members of the Major Motion Cycling Club were harassed by a sheriff’s deputy, who used his loud speaker to insist that they ride single file in a non-existent bike lane.
Bike riders can, at their own discretion, ride on the shoulder of a roadway. However, nothing to the right of the limit line is legally considered part of the road, and bicyclists can’t be required to ride there.
And just because there’s a stripe on the side of the road, that doesn’t make it a bike lane.
It’s true that CVC 21202 requires anyone using a bicycle to ride as far to the right as practicable — not as far as possible, as it’s frequently misinterpreted.
However, it contains a number of exceptions when the ride-to-the-right rule does not apply, including in a substandard traffic lane. That means any lane that is too narrow to safely share with a bicycle and a motor vehicle, while allowing for a three-foot passing distance.
Like the lane shown in the video, which is clearly too narrow for a bike and a car to safely travel side-by-side. And like most of the other right hand traffic lanes in the LA area.
There is also absolutely nothing in California law requiring bicyclists to ride single file.
The CHP and LASD have often attempted to misapply the ride-to-the-right rule in CVC 21202 to say that anyone riding abreast is not riding as far to the right as practicable. However, as we noted, that requirement does not apply on a substandard lane.
It is actually safer to ride abreast under those conditions, because it increases the visibility of the riders and allows them to control the full lane, forcing drivers to change lanes to go around them.
And it makes the riders easier to pass by bunching closer together in a small group, rather than stretching out in a long line.
Finally, it’s impossible to obstruct traffic on a roadway with two or more lanes in each direction, where drivers can simply change lanes to go around.
But don’t take my word for it.
Below is the video the LAPD prepared to train its own officers in bike law and the rights of bicyclists.
Which should be required viewing at the Malibu/Los Hills sheriff station.
Registration is open for this summer’s Tour de Laemmle, the annual 135-mile ride along with Laemmle Theaters president Greg Laemmle as he visits all of the theater chain’s nine LA area venues.
State
No surprise here. San Diego drivers are taking advantage of a new bike lane in Mission Valley for prime parking space, forcing riders out into high speed traffic; police are ticketing the cars even though No Parking signs haven’t been installed yet.
An Oregon letter writer says bicyclists should be held to the same standard as drivers. So feel free to roll stop signs, ride through intersections after the light has changed, never signal, and ride ten miles over the speed limit while texting, just like the people in cars do.
A retired Los Angeles man says he’s given up on bicycling in the city, driven off the streets by road raging drivers, and moving to Tucson to take advantage of the city’s 131-mile off-road bike and pedestrian loop. Someone should send that to every member of the city council so they can see what we have to deal with on a daily basis.
A marathon runner is suing New York for $2 million after he broke his arm in a collision with a bike rider on the George Washington Bridge, claiming there’s not enough room for people on bikes and on foot on the bridge.
Horrifying story from Ontario, Canada, where a man is fighting for his life, and a woman seriously injured, after a driver slammed head-on into four bicyclists on a charity ride; the driver was attempting to pass a slower vehicle, and reportedly never braked before hitting the riders.
In a bizarre comment, the head of London’s department of transportation apologized to drivers for the city’s hugely successful cycle superhighways, saying they were poorly thought out and rushed through under the previous mayor. Although he may have been talking about the construction delays, not the bikeways themselves.
When is a bike lane not a bike lane? When it can convert to other uses at different times of day, thanks to a new concept from a London design engineering firm.
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes continues. Someone reportedly sabotaged a UK mountain bike trail by stringing wire across it, as well as placing logs and other obstructions on the trail.
Five-time Tour de France winner Bernard Hinault doesn’t hold back, saying Team Sky star and Giro champ Chris Froome doesn’t belong with the legends of cycling, and shouldn’t be allowed to compete until his doping case is resolved.
Before we get started, I hope you’ll join me in wishing a safe and happy journey to my oldest brother, who switched from Iditarod sled dog racing to dreaming of riding RAAM. And who is setting out today for a month-long bike tour through the Colorado and Wyoming high country.
No, really.
I’m only a lot jealous.
Photo by Eric Rogers, before he left the wilds of Alaska for the slightly more civilized confines of Colorado’s West Slope.
A painful read from women’s pro Molly Weaver, who confronts the depression brought on by a series of collisions with drivers, resulting in numerous broken bones and concussions, as she decides to take her leave from the sport.
At the end of the day, the reality is that the majority of us as female cyclists are riding on passion and love for the sport alone. We don’t earn anywhere near a minimum wage, and so once the joy is lost there’s not much else to carry on for.
It’s not an easy read. But it’s worth it for a rare view into the struggles of women’s cyclists.
Multicultural Communities for Mobility and Metro’s Bicycle Education Safety Training (BEST) Program are hosting a ride this Saturday to mark Pride Month and remember the victims of the Orlando Pulse nightclub shooting this Saturday.
Also on Sunday, LA’s most popular fund raising ride rolls with the LACBC’s 18th annual River Ride along the LA River Bike Path; all the proceeds go to supporting their efforts to bring you a more bikeable LA.
Metro votes to cut prices for the Metro Bike bikeshare and expand the system into Silver Lake, Koreatown and Expo Park, as well as Culver City, Playa Vista and Marina del Rey. But again, without providing safe streets to ride them on.
Nothing to worry about here. The self-driving Uber car that killed Elaine Herzberg in Tempe, Arizona, spotted her before the crash but didn’t hit the brakes because the company disconnected the car’s automatic braking system.
A new exhibit at a Wisconsin art museum considers the art of designing Trek bicycles. Maybe they have a special section in the exhibit on the art of intimidating anyone who — correctly, as it turns out — accused Lance of doping.
Speaking of Wisconsin, if you want to get drunk and ride your bike, move there or one of the other 28 states that don’t have a BUI law on the books. One of which is not California.
New York officials knew a bike path was easily accessible to drivers before last year’s Halloween terrorist attack, but did nothing to stop it until it was too late; it’s unclear what permanent changes will be made to protect riders.
London’s walking and bicycling chief says the city’s cyclists are too white, too middle class and too male, with people who don’t match that description making up just 15% of London bike riders. On the other hand, at least they have a walking and bicycling chief, unlike some SoCal metropolises I could name.
Let’s just call it an early start to the three day weekend.
A number of problems have kept me from being able to write tonight. So rather than keep fighting it, I’m going to throw in the towel and try to get a little rest for a change.
Get out and ride your bike, and enjoy the holiday. Just ride safely.
And I’ll see you back here bright and early Tuesday morning.
Los Angeles broke ground on a Safe Routes to Schools project designed to improve safety for people biking and walking to Breed and Sheridan elementary schools, and should eventually include a road diet and bike lanes on Soto Street in Boyle Heights.
State
The Ventura County Starapplauds Giant Bicycles North American operations, which is headquartered in Newbury Park; the area’s US congresswoman recently toured the plant to promote National Bike Month.
Bicyclingconsiders the annual Remember the Removal ride, with 18 members of the Cherokee nation riding their bikes along the infamous Tail of Tears to honor their ancestors who were forced to march from Georgia to Oklahoma.
Denver uses inexpensive rubberized curbs to form traffic circles to create a neighborhood bikeway. Which is a reminder that we were promised an actual network of Bicycle Friendly Streets — which everyone interpreted as another name for bike boulevards — in both the 2010 bike plan and the subsequent Mobility Plan 2035. None of which has appeared, by any name.
In a rare example of a town pulling together to honor fallen riders, a Kansas town installs a ghost bike to honor a pair of German bike tourists who were killed while riding on the famed Route 66. The police donated the bicycle, while the local convention and visitors bureau worked with the Kansas Historic Route 66 Association to acquire the land and install the bike. Although a better way to honor them might be filing charges against the 23-year old driver who killed them.
A Nebraska bike rider credits his helmet for saving him when he hit a loose chunk of asphalt at 23 mph and went flying, landing on his head and skidding 15 feet. As we’ve said many times before, a bike helmet should always be seen as a last resort when all else fails. But I’ve been very glad I had mine when it did.
Michigan legislators vote to approve a three-foot passing distance, and require at least one hour of bike, motorcycle and vulnerable user instruction in driver education classes. However, that’s a step down from the bill’s original five-foot passing distance.
Let’s hope a Florida Patch site made a typo in the subhead, saying construction will begin construction on a project “designed to the death of cyclists” at a deadly intersection. More surprising is learning there are still Patch sites lingering around.
The sponsors of a British Columbia Bike to Work Week offer five reasons to ride your bike, including it’s social and ridiculously fun. Which may just be the best reason.
Australian bike riders push for a law that would require a high tech device in all cars that would completely block cellphone use while the car is in motion. We need that here, although there should be an exception for 911 calls.
Competitive Cycling
Cycling Tipsoffers a great photo essay from the recent Amgen Tour of California. But wasn’t there a women’s race, too?
LA Street Services has repaired 50,000 square feet of bike lanes on Forrest Lawn Drive. This is great news; more bike riders have complained to me about the condition of the Forrest Lawn bike lanes than any other street in the LA area.
Somehow, Los Angeles manages to fix steep Baxter Street for drivers and homeowners just days after a story appears in the LA Times. But can’t manage to fix the streets where people actually get killed.
The Long Beach Posttalks with a badass bike courier who’s living her best life on the streets of the city. And highlights the story with some bikie Insta posts.
Colorado’s 46-year old Iron Horse Bicycle Classic covers two high country mountain passes, and draws everyone from serious cyclists to people just out for a little fun.
Congratulations to Kansas for keeping a dangerous drunk on the roads until it was too late, as a 34-year old driver faces charges for critically injuring a woman riding her bike — including a charge for at least his fourth DUI. Seriously, drunk or stoned drivers should face a two strikes and you’re out rule. First DUI conviction and you lose your license for a year; second conviction and you lose it permanently. And every DUI should be a felony.
An allegedly road-raging Wisconsin man is going on trial for knocking two cyclists into a ditch; he claims he was totally innocent and the bike riders hogged the roadway, flipped him off, and then inexplicably swerved into his car. Sure, let’s go with that.
An English man is back on his bike, seven months after he was nearly killed while riding in Florida, just 350 miles short of finishing a ride across the US.
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes is all too real, as a Kiwi bicyclist suffered a broken hip when he was repeatedly brake-checked by an angry driver.
Two New Zealand bicyclists have been killed on the same deadly roadway just five weeks apart, as bike riders say the road should have been fixed years ago. Unfortunately, dangerous situations like this and the one in Portland usually get fixed only after it’s too late. If then.
Competitive Cycling
Former pro Tyler Hamilton says he may have been a doper, but motor doping is going too far, even if he thinks some in the pro peloton are doing it.
Speaking of motors, the Wall Street Journal’s Jason Gay looks at the coming grudge match between LA-based former pro Phil Gaimon and alleged motor doper Fabian Cancellara. Which sadly won’t be available on TV, even though I’d gladly pay to see that one.
