According to a CHP spokesman, the driver had veered into the the bike lane where Munoz was riding, and fled the scene after striking him.
KCBS-2 reports Anaheim police later spotted the driver, 25-year old Riverside resident Jason Roy Rocha, when they tried to pull him over for an unrelated traffic violation. Rocha fled from the police, losing the officers, until he crashed his Ford Expedition into a fence at the intersection of Seal Beach and Westminster boulevards in Seal Beach.
Munoz leaves behind a wife and three kids. A GoFundMe page has been set up to help pay his funeral expenses; so far it has raised just $85 of the $25,000 goal.
This is the ninth bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, four of which have been hit-and-runs. He is the third person killed while riding in Orange County since the first of the year.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for Encarnacion Salazar Munoz and his family.
An LA bike rider was harassed by the road raging occupants of a car, and intentionally doored by a passenger in the back seat.
Even though the door never made contact with him or his bike, this is a clear case of assault, since the passenger obviously intended to threaten, if not injure, the victim. As such, any case like this can and should be reported to the police — especially when there’s video evidence.
And yes, the cops do want to know about cases like this.
Even if the authorities aren’t able to press charges, it could establish a pattern of behavior if the driver or passengers do something like this again.
The video also provides strong evidence to make a case under LA’s cyclist anti-harassment ordinance, which entitles victims to $1000 or actual damages, whichever is higher, plus triple damages. As well as reimbursement for any legal fees.
It’s not easy to make a case under the law, since you have to have witnesses and/or corroborating evidence to prove the harassment occurred.
But with a video like this, it should do the trick.
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After blocking a three-foot passing law in the state legislature, Montana Senate Leader Scott Sales plans to introduce legislation to ban bike riders from many state highways.
Sales’ legislation would prohibit bicycles from any two lane roadway with less than a three-foot shoulder, and require riders to place reflectors on their bodies as well as their bikes. And he’d require bicyclists to pay a special tax to ride on state roadways that they already pay for with their tax dollars.
Never mind that, as Bicycling points out, his proposal would kill the state’s burgeoning bike tourism industry.
His apparent distaste for bicycles and the people who ride them stems from his observation that bike riders are “some of the rudest and most self-centered people [he’s] ever encountered.”
Evidently, he’s never looked in the mirror, since he freely admits to blaring his horn at riders who have the audacity to get in his way. Or encountered many of the motorists he shares the roadways with, for that matter.
Meanwhile, a massive new study says bike riders aren’t really rude, we’re just trying to stay alive.
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The state issued another $56 million in grants to fund 25 active transportation and Safe Routes to Schools projects in six SoCal Counties, including $15 million for bike lanes in the Arts District in DTLA, bike lane connections at Cal State Long Beach, and a bike track in Santa Ana.
A former rider for Team Sky says he broke cycling’s no needles rule to inject himself with vitamins leading up to the Vuelta. Vitamins, sure. Let’s go with that.
No one was hurt, but a bicycle was mangled when a 45 foot shipping container fell off a big rig. No word on whether someone was riding the bike and jumped off, or if it had been parked.
A writer for City Watch calls CD1 challenger Joe Bray-Ali a ray of hope, saying “If Mr. Smith rode his bike to Washington, he’d look and sound a lot like Joe Bray-Ali.” We could find out today if Bray-Ali will be in a runoff with incumbent Gil Cedillo, when the latest vote counts are released.
According to the Santa Clarita Signal, sheriff’s deputies arrested a homeless man for riding his bike at night without lights, then says he was issued a citation. Something is seriously wrong if he was actually arrested, since riding without lights is a simple traffic violation, not a misdemeanor or felony offense subject to arrest. He should have been stopped, cited and sent on his way; let’s hope that’s what really happened. And someone please tell them it’s not that homeless people refuse to disclose their occupation; they usually just don’t have one.
State
San Diego cyclists will take a two-day, 90 mile tour of the coastline this weekend in honor of a beloved local bike advocate and cycling instructor who was killed in Oregon in 2014 near the beginning of a planned ride from Canada to Mexico.
Sad news from Tulare, where a 69-year old bike rider was killed in a crash after allegedly running a red light. As always, the question is whether anyone other that the driver involved witnessed the crash and saw whether the light was red or green.
Berkeley police say it wasn’t excessive speed or impairment that was responsible for the collision that killed a 78-year old bike rider last month, blaming poor lighting, rain and a wet roadway. Yet that would suggest a violation of the state’s basic speed law, which prohibits driving too fast for current conditions. Or is that only used as an excuse the ticket bike riders these days?
Apple applies for a patent for a new way to calculate a cyclist’s performance from wind resistance and other factors, suggesting they may develop a new form of power meter.
Defense attorneys argue that second degree murder charges should be dropped against the — allegedly — stoned driver who killed five Kalamazoo MI bicyclists because prosecutors failed to show that a combination of amphetamine, meth, hydrocodone and tramadol would have affected his ability to drive. On the other hand, they certainly didn’t improve it.
A one-woman Canadian performance illustrates the role bicycles played in the emancipation of women, starting with the story of Annie Londonderry, the first woman who biked around the world.
A new study of London bicycling shows bike riders experience an average of one close call at intersections every two weeks.
This is why people continue to die on the streets. A UK van driver was given a suspended sentence for running over a doored bicyclist who fell into his path — even though he fled the scene and was three times over the legal limit for drunk driving. His lawyer claimed he only started drinking after the wreck, though he was still drunk from the previous day. Seriously, that’s an excuse?
Chinese app-based bikeshare company Ofo has decided the way to get users to take better care of their bikes is to flood the streets with even more, so they know another bike will be readily available. Um, probably not.
Today’s big news is the reopening of the LA River bike path.
According to the Army Corps of Engineers, the bike path was finally reopened following months of repair and maintenance on the stretch below Griffith Park, after it was closed to install needless flood barricades for the storms that never came last winter.
Now weekday riders can finally stop following that circuitous and bike-unfriendly detour that was put in place to get around the construction work. Or more likely, start riding the path again after finding other routes or modes of transportation for the past several months.
That could pose a significant challenge to the more traditional bikeshare programs — if you can call something that only gained significant US acceptance in this decade “traditional.”
Programs like LA’s Metro Bike, which costs nearly three times as much if you don’t have a membership while offering less flexibility, could struggle to compete against cheaper competition that will inevitably arrive within the next few years — at a significant cost to the taxpayers footing the bill.
If Metro Bike, and others like Santa Monica’s Breeze and West Hollywood’s WeHo Pedals, are to succeed, they will have to expand quickly into currently unserved areas, while somehow addressing the issue of affordability.
Because, as the taxi industry has learned the hard way, it’s a lot more convenient to just pick up your phone to find and pay for a ride.
Whether you’re on four wheels. Or soon, two.
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Local
Los Angeles Magazine offers advice on how to keep ridership surging on the Expo Line, including a call for better pedestrian access. The same could be said for bicycles, as Westside bikeways leading to and from the Expo Line aren’t just bad, they’re virtually nonexistent.
A San Francisco driver faces charges for attempting to flee the scene after hitting a bike rider; fortunately, the victim is expected to recover.
National
Bicycling, the magazine, gets it right, as contributors say bicycling, the sport/transportation/activity, is the key to a lifetime of pure, unadulterated joy. Although my personal joy has been adulterated on numerous occasions by angry drivers, bad roads and bees on the beach. Not to mention my own damn carelessness from time to time.
Instant karma strikes hard in Little Rock AR, where a wrong way truck driver fleeing a previous hit-and-run was killed in a collision with a bike rider, who also died in the crash.
Caught on video: A Minnesota driver faces charges after brake checking a bike rider, then threatening to kill him before nearly running over his foot. All for the crime of being in the driver’s way at a red light.
Life is cheap in Michigan, where a judge refuses to reconsider her original sentence of just one year in county jail for a killer drunk driver who was over twice the legal limit when he ran down a bike rider; sentencing guidelines called for a minimum of nearly two and a half years in state prison, with a max of 15 years.
Which means that if the totals stand as they are now, challenger Joe Bray-Ali will face Cedillo in the May 16th general election.
Of course, things could still change. There are more ballots to count, with the next update due on Friday.
And even if Bray-Ali does qualify for a runoff, it will be an uphill battle against the entrenched city hall establishment and massive piles of special interest money that inevitably flow in to support any LA incumbent.
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes is all too real.
A San Francisco driver punched a bike rider in the eye, knocking her off her bike and into traffic, for the crime of complaining that he was illegally stopped in a bike lane — even though there was nothing to his right and he could have easily pulled over to the curb.
A Ross CA man is charged with misdemeanor reckless driving after allegedly attempting to run a bike rider off the road, and threatening to come back with a shotgun and blow his head off. So evidently, the driver’s own words aren’t enough to prove he was threatening the rider.
A British bike rider was lucky to escape with superficial injuries when someone strung a wire at neck level across a promenade; fortunately, the police are investigating it as the assault that it is, rather than a prank.
A sports site talks with former pro cyclist Rebecca Rush, as a new movie documents her 1,200-mile journey along Ho Chi Minh Trail to find where her father’s plane crashed in the Vietnam war, when she was just three years old.
The Executive Director of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition writes to demand protected bike lanes on upper Market Street, saying a decision to delay implementing them is incompatible with Vision Zero.
Streetsblog asks when the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, the overly conservative national guide to traffic signal, signs and pavement markings, will finally catch up to the 21st Century; they just got around to approving Bike Lane Ends signs. Even though American bike lanes have been ending — without warning in most cases — for 50 years.
A man is under arrest for breaking the window of a Pittsburgh bike shop and making off with a $4,000 mountain bike; he also threatened to shoot one of the arresting officers in the head and kill his family when he gets out of jail. Hopefully, that will be a very long time off.
The Orange County coroner reports he was taken to UCI Medical Center, where he died at 11:16 pm. He has been identified only as a man in his 30s.
The driver remained at the scene and called 911. She is not suspected of being under the influence.
No details are available on how the collision may have occurred; the Register says it is unclear if he was using a crosswalk at the time of the crash.
A streetview shows two lanes in both directions on La Palma with a center divider and left turn lane in both directions, with the same on Moody. There are curbside bike lanes on both streets.
This is the eighth bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the second in Orange County; he is the first bicyclist killed in La Palma since at least 2011.
Update: The Orange County Coroner has identified the victim as 52-year old La Palma resident David Garcia. Thanks to Bill Sellin for the heads-up.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for David Garcia and his loved ones.
She had dropped something from her three-wheeled bike in the 8700 block of South Central Avenue, and was hit when she stopped to pick it up; she was taken to a nearby hospital with multiple injuries.
There was no description of the driver or suspect vehicle.
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You’ve got to be kidding.
It’s not just that the Montana Senate blocked a bill that would have required drivers to give bike riders a three-foot passing distance at speeds up to 35 mph, and five feet above that.
It’s the reason.
Consider this from unabashedly bike-hating Senate President Scott Sales, who says there are already too many cyclists in the state, and he doesn’t want anymore.
“They’re some of the rudest people I’ve ever. I hate to say it, but I’m just going to be bold — they’re some of the most self-centered people navigating on highways, or on county roads I’ve ever seen. They won’t move over. You can honk at them; they think they own the highway,” Sales said.
Never mind that they have as much right to the road as he does. And unless the law is very different up there, drivers are supposed to pass riders, rather than blare on their horns and expect them to get the hell out of their way.
So of course, the obvious solution is to keep the roads dangerous for people on bikes, because that should help reduce the number of riders on the road.
Bad news for anyone who reads the print version of Bicycle Times, which has ceased publication; fortunately, it will continue to live online. And it should include a profile of yours truly next month. Which is probably the real reason they dropped the print version.
The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation will have to pay $5.4 million after a bike rider was severely injured on a badly repaired bridge. This is the cost of carelessness, to the victim and the taxpayers. All it takes is a little more effort to do the job right, and no one would get hurt.
The driver who ran down North Carolina bike shop owner, Dirt Rag columnist and Mountain Bike Hall of Fame member Jeff Archer as he crossed the street in front of his shop has been sentenced to up to five years behind bars.
A Nebraska researcher concludes it’s like the Wild West on our streets, as the behavior of both bicyclists and motorists are governed by unspoken rules of behavior that go beyond traffic laws. But even when riders break the law, in most cases they do it to avoid being injured or killed by a driver.
A Colorado woman will face anywhere from four to twelve years in jail after pleading guilty to the drunken hit-and-run death of a bicyclist; she was on probation for a previous drunk driving conviction at the time of the crash, and had two other alcohol-related arrests.
Sad news from DC, where an editor for Kiplinger’s died after she was struck by a bicycle. Bikes don’t pose anywhere near the danger to others that cars do, but as this tragedy shows, a collision with a bicycle can result in serious injuries, or worse. Always slow down and ride carefully when pedestrians or less skilled riders are around.
Ralph Durham forwards a photo from his new home in Munich, Germany. Note the long line of people on bikes waiting in the bike lane for the traffic light.
A while ago my wife and I helped our neighbor buy a three-wheel bike. She hadn’t ridden for decades, but now she loves it!
On a whim I sent her a link to your February 24 blog that included my submission about Todd the Volunteer. She told me she was moved to tears. In fact, she was so impressed that tonight she presented me with a plaque and a pop-up bicycle card.
The Guardian says British Cycling’s reputation is in tatters after a damning report was leaked, accusing it of a culture of fear and dysfunctional leadership.
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Local
LAPD officers issue 45 tickets in just 90 minutes during a Lake Balboa crosswalk sting; police will look at ways to reduce speeds on the Valley’s four most dangerous corridors for bicyclists and pedestrians. Too bad we haven’t been able to get them to do a similar sting for safe passing violations. And not for lack of trying.
Pasadena police are looking for a man on a bike who repeatedly stabbed a homeless man after arguing with the victim’s girlfriend; the attacker is described as a Latino man between 30 and 35 years old, 6 feet tall and 170 to 180 pounds, with very short dark hair.
The Santa Monica Daily Press quotes one of the artists who helped design the gates for the Ballona Creek bike path as saying there are plans to eventually extend the bike path from Griffith Park to the ocean. Wrong bike path; that’s the plan for the LA River bike path, which will eventually extend 51 miles from the San Fernando Valley to the coast, not Ballona Creek, which doesn’t reach that far inland.
Bay Area bike riders are complaining that the Bay Bridge bike path, which was supposed to be open 24 hours a day, every day, is still only open during the day on weekends.
Chicago stats show women are more likely to be killed in bicycle crashes than men. In addition, most fatal bike wrecks in the city occur during morning rush hour, mostly in collisions with large commercial trucks, while only one rider was killed in a marked bike lane.
The lawyer for an accused New York hit-and-run driver says a plea offer of 15 years reflects political pressure on the DA’s office. Not the fact that he’s accused of fleeing the scene after running a red light, veering into a bike lane and killing a man on his bike. Which makes 15 years sound about right.
It takes a lot to forgive the person who killed someone you love. But that’s what a New York man did when the drunk driver who took his wife’s life as she rode her bike was sentenced to up to four years in jail.
A New York woman was critically injured when she stepped out from between two parked cars and into the path of a bike rider. As we touched on yesterday, bikes don’t pose anywhere near the risk to others that cars do. But a bicycle can still do a lot of damage if you’re not careful around them. Or on them.
Evidently, New Zealand is no better at keeping dangerous drivers off the roads than we are. A driver with five major traffic convictions in the last ten years was convicted of critically injuring a bike rider — and still got off with community service and a lousy 10-month suspended license.
I tried to listen, but turned it off when Beeber’s accusations of hypocritical bicyclists and false equivalency between bikes and cars went unchallenged; unlike cars, bikes don’t kill people.
And bike advocates aren’t being hypocritical when they try to stop drivers from killing us.
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Timbuk2 invites you to party with them at their Venice store tomorrow night to celebrate their new line designed in collaboration with street artist Apexer.
Here’s how they describe the evening.
On March 10, SF creatives Timbuk2 and street artist Apexer, will debut their capsule collection at the Timbuk2 Venice shop. This partnership began at a Timbuk2 party in SF last year, where Apexer held a live graffiti session for neighborhood residents and diehard fans of the city’s street art culture. The response was so positive that Timbuk2 took the artwork to most celebrated styles, creating the Timbuk2 x Apexer Capsule Collection.
Decked out in a striking kaleidoscope, textile pattern and sewn in Timbuk2’s very own Mission District Factory, these are sure to be true standouts during your ride through the city. Highlights of the collection include:
Classic Messenger Bag – Deemed as Timbuk2’s inaugural design and refined with over 25 years of expertise, this pack truly stands the test of time. Price: $119
Tuck Pack – With a spacious interior, a roll-top closure, and stealth pockets, this pack is meant to keep up with any part of your day, from working to cycling and anything in between. Price: $119
Mini Prospect Pack – A small silhouette with immense function, this compact roll-top bag won’t weigh you down. Price: $119
To celebrate this dynamic union of West Coast staples, the shop will host a night unlike any other, featuring Apexer himself. He’ll be debuting his indelible collection and offering a limited-run of signed prints of his artwork! Guests will also have a chance to interact with the store’s new installment of Factory 2, an in-store customizer that offers full reign on style, color, and fabric selection as well as a live-video feed of the Timbuk2 Mission District factory where all custom bags are sewn. Look forward to a perfected playlist of funky tunes, beer from Fort Point Beer Company, the ever-so-popular margarita bike blender, and an undeniable Cali spirit embracing let-loose-vibes! Don’t miss out on getting the exclusive first look at the limited-run of iconic bags and RSVP now.
When:
Friday, March 10, 2017
6pm-9pm
Where:
Timbuk2 Venice Shop
1410 Abbot Kinney Blvd
Venice, CA 90291
(424) 268-5550
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There were a few stories in the news about women and bicycling in honor of International Women’s Day yesterday.
Lance says he admires those riders who sacrificed their racing careers by refusing to dope. Unlike him.
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Local
Streetsblog offers a wrap-up on Tuesday’s election; as we noted yesterday, all the races have been decided other than CD1, where as many as 2,000 provisional and late absentee ballots may remain to be counted. Meanwhile, they found the Tesla-driving Cedillo supporter who stole Joe Bray-Ali’s campaign signs.
CiclaValley provides his own election wrap-up, while calling on readers to support some other HIV/AIDS organizations that don’t waste money on political campaigns unrelated to their mission. The Advocate didn’t exactly offer a ringing endorsement of AIDS Healthcare Foundation’s Michael Weinstein either, saying he flushed millions down the toilet on the failed Measure S, money that could have made a huge difference for people fighting the disease.
Los Altos residents could be getting their stolen bikes back after police bust a man stealing an $11,000 bike from a garage, leading to a storage locker filled with other hot bikes.
Houston’s city council has put off a vote on their ambitious new bike plan over concerns about how to pay for it. Or they could use the traditional Los Angeles model, and just not build anything after passing the plan.
A New York man gets a slap on the wrist for the drunken hit-and-run crash that killed a man on his bike, getting anywhere from one to four years behind bars, and losing his license for a whole 30 days.
Berlin approves plans for 13 new bike superhighways, with two beginning construction this year. Meanwhile, current plans call for exactly 13 fewer bike highways here in Los Angeles, super or otherwise.
Anti-bike incumbent Gil Cedillo appears to have eked out a victory in CD1, setting the stage at least five and a half more years of deadly streets as the city switches to holding its elections at the same time as state and national votes.
Although a runoff with Joe Bray-Ali is still possible, as Cedillo topped the minimum 50% threshold by just 198 votes; Bray-Ali issued a statement saying he isn’t conceding until all the votes are counted.
And in CD5, current councilmember Paul Koretz won a final term with nearly two-thirds of the vote over bike-friendly challenger Jesse Creed.
In the end, Creed and Bray-Ali struggled to overcome the power of LA incumbency, where office holders running for re-election almost never lose — thanks in large part to the city’s gerrymandered districts and the massive amount of out-of-district special interest money that inevitably pours in to benefit sitting councilmembers.
Not that those special interests would dream of expecting a return on their investment or anything.
The news was better in CD7, where Bike the Vote LA-endorsed Monica Rodriguez was leading, and will enter a runoff with Karo Torossian if the totals hold.
As expected, the other current officeholders steamrolled to victory over their token opposition in all the other races.
So if nothing changes, it looks like nothing changes.
A few districts with bike-friendly councilmembers such as Joe Buscaino, Jose Huizar and Mike Bonin will continue to get safer and more complete streets, while Cedillo and Koretz will continue to block much needed improvements.
And our city will suffer for it.
But at least we can end on a brighter note, as anti-growth Measure S went down to defeat, handing AIDS Healthcare Foundation’s Michael Weinstein his third loss in three tries at ballot propositions in four months; attempts to regulate drug prices and require condoms for porn shoots statewide lost last November.
And Measure H passed with the necessary two-thirds majority, as the city and county finally appear to be getting serious about working together to end the crisis of homelessness.
I wasn’t found at fault in my crash; I wasn’t speeding, distracted or impaired on the night I rounded a highway curve and a bicyclist crossed in front of my car, too close for me to avoid. But I will always see him staring wide-eyed at me as he flew into and over my windshield. I will never forget his body at roadside, utterly motionless.
If you remember nothing else I write, I hope you’ll remember this: You do not want to be me. No destination, no text, no drink, no glance away from the road is worth knowing that you have killed another human being. You don’t want to feel you’d give anything not to have been on that road at that time. You don’t want to believe that anything you accomplish in life is offset by the death of another person. You don’t want any happiness you experience to remind you of the happiness denied the person you hit, her family, his friends. You don’t want to struggle to go on living, convinced you don’t deserve to exist, wishing you hadn’t been born.
She still says the collision could have been avoided if only the victim had lights on his bike. But notes that drivers have to change their attitudes to prevent similar tragedies.
Her own friend was killed riding a bike two years ago.
The driver for the mayor of Sacramento hit a bike rider at a notoriously dangerous intersection on Tuesday evening while the mayor in the car; naturally, they blame the victim for running a stop sign. So if the intersection is so dangerous, why haven’t they fixed it already?
National
A new US study posted on an Aussie website shows bicycling can slow the effects of aging, and that older people benefit more than the young. And here I assumed all those close passes were aging me, not realizing I was getting younger, and yes, better looking, with every pass.
A Calgary driver says it’s not her fault she hit a cyclist because the sun was in her eyes. Seriously, if you can’t see what the hell is directly in front of your car, pull the damn thing over and wait until you can.
British police are asking for bike cam video to protect cyclists and enforce the law against dangerous drivers. It’s questionable whether similar video footage can be used to prosecute drivers for traffic violations in California, where current law says police must actually witness the violation, except in the case of felonies. Thanks to Cyclist’s Rights for the heads-up.
In an update on yesterday’s story, it turns out a Brit bus rider could tell it was a bicyclist fucking in the bushes because he still had his helmet on; his more traditionally attired partner was wearing a coat, at least. Or maybe it was just a couple with a weird bike helmet fetish.