Archive for bikinginla

Driver arrested in grisly Willowbrook hit-and-run, and PCH killer of 4 Pepperdine students allegedly driving 104 mph

October 27, 2023 / / Comments Off on Driver arrested in grisly Willowbrook hit-and-run, and PCH killer of 4 Pepperdine students allegedly driving 104 mph

My apologies for yesterday’s unexcused absence. 

I suffered a bad blood sugar crash Wednesday night, dropping down to a dangerous level and unable to get it back up; I was minutes from waking my wife to take me to the ER when it finally started rising again. 

Good times. 

Photo by Kindel Media from Pexels.

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Police arrested a driver for the gruesome hit-and-run that killed a Willowbrook bike rider Tuesday morning.

Sixty-six-year old Compton resident Felipe Avalos was arrested later Tuesday after witnesses provided LAPD investigators with the license number of the van he was allegedly driving when he ran over 65-year old Francisco Gonzalez.

Avalos is accused of dragging Gonzalez’ body nearly a mile under the van as he twisted and turned to make his escape.

Witnesses reported that Avalos appeared to intentionally run down Gonzalez on his bike, but police investigators have been unable to corroborate that.

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Twenty-two-year old Fraser Michael Bohm, the driver who killed four Pepperdine sorority sisters in a collateral damage crash as they stood next to PCH last week, was allegedly traveling 104 mph in a 45 mph zone at the time of the crash.

Bohm is charged with four counts of each of felony malice murder and felony gross vehicular manslaughter, and remains behind bars on $4 million bond.

His attorney claims, apparently with a straight face, that Bohm was speeding in an attempt to get away from road-raging driver, and wasn’t doing more than 70 mph as he tried to escape.

Although you’d think he might have mentioned something like that to the cops after the crash.

Or maybe they just didn’t believe him.

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The 72-year old bike rider who survived the vehicular violence rampage that killed former Bell CA police chief Andreas “Andy” Probst labeled the two teenagers accused of intentionally running him down as “human garbage.”

Meanwhile, the two teens were disgustingly observed laughing, and flipping the bird at Probst’s family during Wednesday’s court hearing.

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Gravel Bike California visits Maverick Cycles.

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Jimmy Fallon is one of us.

Although maybe he should invest in a good bike cam, instead of flipping his bike trying to ride one-handed to record his daughter’s bike riding.

Note: This is not Jimmy Fallon.

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GCN suggests using your cellphone as your bike computer.

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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.

A 34-year old Madison, Wisconsin man pled guilty to two lousy charges of second-degree recklessly endangering safety for repeatedly stringing wires over a local bike path, catching at least one bike rider by the neck; police showed how seriously they weren’t taking the case when DNA pointed to the subject, and they waited five months to go back when no one answered the door at his home.

An anti-semetic DC driver used his SUV to block a Jewish mother taking her child to school in a cargo bike, calling them “the devil” and yelling “I don’t give a fuck about your safety. Your life is not my concern.” There’s no place for racism or anti-semitism in this world. Or any other form of hatred.

But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.

A Santa Rosa street vendor was busted for riding his tricycle around the city selling ice cream, chicharrónes, snacks and other items, including cocaine and meth.

A British woman suffered “potentially life-threatening” injuries when she was struck by someone riding a bicycle. But at least the bike rider stuck around and aided investigators this time.

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Local 

TV station NBC Los Angeles and KCRW’s Greater LA offer more information on Sunday’s ArroyoFest, which will let you bike or walk on the 110 Freeway for the first time in 20 years.

A Culver City group has filed a crowdfunded lawsuit challenging the legality of the newly conservative city council’s decision to rip out the MOVE Culver City pilot project without conducting an environmental review.

Pasadena received $12 million from the state for the design and construction of proposed north-south greenways.

Long Beach has approved over a half million dollars to begin work on the proposed Orange Avenue Backbone Bikeway from Signal Hill to East Ocean Blvd, although that’s just a drop in the bucket compared to the total $13 million cost.

 

State

Autonomous vehicle provider Cruise had their California permit yanked by the DMV, which discovered the company had omitted video of one of its cars dragging a pedestrian after a crash.

Garden Grove is working on becoming bike-friendly, with work starting on five new bike lanes in the coming months.

Emeryville, home to bike-friendly mayor John Bauters, installed a short, quick-build curb-protected bikeway, part of the mayor’s plan to connect the Bay Trail across the city.

A new Oakland bike co-op will give young people a chance to build or repair bikes they can take home for free, while hiring formerly incarcerated people to give them a second chance at life, too.

They get it. Santa Rosa’s Press-Democrat says bring on the bike valet.

 

National

Bicycling says be quiet, trolls; we’re trying to start the body-positive bicycling revolution. As usual, read it on Yahoo if the magazine blocks you.

A writer for Bike Magazine offers a justification for procrastination, listing ten things she’d rather do than clean her bike.

Men’s Health offers advice on how to lose weight by bicycling. I had to add weight training before the extra pounds came off, but maybe that’s just me. You can read it on AOL if the magazine blocks you. 

An Arizona man just completed a seven-month, 13,000-mile ride around the US.

Police in Las Vegas finally arrested the driver who killed BMX star Nathan “Nate” Miller as he rode a bike last month, a week after a local TV station aired video showing the 32-year old driver speeding and quickly changing lanes before crashing into Miller.

Normally tight-fisted Texas has approved nearly $345 million for bicycle and pedestrian projects across the state. Then again, it is a big state.

Some Amish communities in Pennsylvania and Ohio are abandoning their traditional horses and wagons in favor of ebikes.

Fatherly says the Erie Canal trail offers a 360-mile epic family bike ride through 200 years of American history.

Electrek describes the new Semi-Trike cargo bike from Brooklyn-based Civilized Cycles as a cross between a five-wheeled semi-truck and an ebike.

A New Jersey driver faces multiple charges for killing a 12-year old girl riding a bicycle last month, and critically injuring a 14-year old girl riding with her.

A DC bike rider wonders what the hell that thing in the bike lane is, apparently upon seeing their first bus island.

A couple dozen federal workers in DC turned out to call for more bike friendly routes for the more than 160,000 federal workers in the city, as government employees are being called back to the office.

Evidently, the hit-and-run epidemic involving bike riders has spread to Florida’s Tampa Bay.

 

International

Sales for bike helmet tech company MIPS are down a third, more evidence of a post-pandemic slump in bicycling.

Police in a pair of UK cities are recommending that bicyclists vary their routes home, because thieves could follow them, and come back later to steal things.

English bike brand Islabikes is the latest bikemaker to go belly-up, as it moves to cease production and sales once remaining stocks are sold.

An English man completed a 3,000-mile 41-day ride from Gloucester to Istanbul to raise funds to buy a pair of adaptive bikes for charity.

Iconic British bikemaker Pashley is starting a crowdfunding campaign to help it explore the ebike market.  I’ll be the first to sign up for an e-Guv’nor, thank you.

Momentum examines how Utrecht’s Vredenburg become one of the busiest cycling routes in the world.

Life is cheap in Singapore, where a 70-year old man got a lousy 12-weeks behind bars for killing a man riding a bike after blowing through a crosswalk while driving without a license. But at least he got a nine-year ban on driving, although that didn’t seem to stop him this time.

Austrian company Tubolito is building a “nanogenerator” into its trademark orange bicycle inner tubes that acts like a mini-dynamo to power a wireless tire pressure sensor.

 

Competitive Cycling

Heartbreaking news from Hong Kong, where rising Dutch cycling star Mark Groeneveld died of a suspected heart attack, collapsing moments after finishing a track event; he was just 20 years old.

The route for next year’s Tour de France was released, with no Paris finish for the first time in more than a century due to the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Gravel cyclist Anne-Marije Rook discovers that carbon frames can be repaired, after Unbound Gravel destroyed her bike, and a repair shop gave it a second life.

A Maryland high school student intends to be the first Black woman to represent the US cycling team, taking aim at the 2028 LA Olympics.

 

Finally…

If you’re going to flee from police on your bike, try to find a better hiding place. If you’re going to steal four bikes from a university campus, remember to take your backpack with you when you leave.

And Loki and Mobius are two of us, if you look hard enough.

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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

4 murder counts in PCH deaths of Pepperdine students, trial set for LV teens, and Bass flip flops on 90 Freeway removal

October 25, 2023 / / Comments Off on 4 murder counts in PCH deaths of Pepperdine students, trial set for LV teens, and Bass flip flops on 90 Freeway removal

I’m writing this after getting the second in a series of shots directly into my right eye to control retinal bleeding caused by diabetes. 

So please forgive me if I miss a few mistakes today, because I can’t read shit right now. 

Just one more reason diabetes sucks. 

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This is who we share the road with.

Sheriff’s deputies re-arrested Fraser Michael Bohm on Tuesday, the 22-year old driver accused of killing four Pepperdine University sorority sisters last week.

Bohm was allegedly speeding on PCH in the BMW he got for his 18th birthday when he slammed into three parked cars, which then crashed into the victims. He stands charged with four counts of murder, and being held on $8 million bond.

Yes, million.

The question is what evidence deputies have developed to justify a murder charge, let alone four. Under California law, elevating vehicular manslaughter to murder would require evidence that Bohm knew his actions were likely to result in death.

Meanwhile, enraged community members stored Monday’s Malibu city council session to demand action to improve safety on SoCal’s killer highway.

That included calls for speed cams, which are currently only allowed in Los Angeles, Glendale and Long Beach, along with three NorCal cities, under a recently passed pilot program.

But what’s really needed is a redesign of the highway with protected bike lanes, walkways and traffic calming measures to make speeding difficult, if not impossible. And turn LA County’s deadliest highway into the Malibu Main Street it always should have been.

A petition from a grieving father calls for much-needed immediate and long-term action to improve safety on the highway.

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A trial date has been set for next year for the two Las Vegas high school students charged with the intentional hit-and-run killing of former Bell CA police chief Andreas “Andy” Probst.

Jesus Ayala and Jzamir Keys — who were 17 and 16, respectively, at the time of the crash — are scheduled to be tried as adults beginning September 16th, 2024.

Meanwhile, new video has emerged of the teens running down the second victim in a stolen car that day, laughing as they injured a 72-year old man less than an hour before killing Probst.

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Why am I not surprised?

LA Mayor Karen Bass was for removing the 90 Freeway stub and turning it into a linear park and housing before she was against it.

And people wonder why I don’t trust city officials.

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Yet another community introduces an ebike rebate before California’s long-delayed program finally launches.

If it ever does.

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Nothing like getting run down head-on by a driver because he couldn’t see what was directly in front of his car.

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That’s gonna leave a mark.

This is what it looks like to hit another mountain biker head-on.

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Thousands of bike riders turned out for Key West’s annual Zombie Bike Ride.

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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.

A Hollister bike rider suffered head injuries when he was intentionally run down by a pickup driver after getting into an altercation with the driver and his passenger at a gas station

New York officials abruptly shut down a vital Queens bike path without any public input, notification or explanation, though a city council member was happy to take credit, blaming it on an “influx of ebikes and cars.”

Huh? A London writer says it’s time to regulate ebikes modified to exceed speed restrictions — which means that they’re already illegal.

No bias here. A writer in the UK says we all need to wear hi-viz vests in order to reduce traffic deaths. Might as well just call for clown makeup to complete the outfit while he’s at it.

But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.

An Illinois man faces drug and resisting arrest charges after fleeing from cops who tried to stop him for riding without a light; he evaded officers by riding through alleys and people’s backyards, before they tased him as he tried to enter his home.

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Local 

Streetsblog looks at new bus-bike lanes on Sepulveda and Ventura blvds.

Bike Walk Glendale is calling on you to make your voice heard on the city’s Bicycle Transportation Plan, with a pair of public meetings next month.

Streetsblog’s SGV Connect podcast celebrates the first anniversary of the GoSGV bike lending program, while rising local writer Carribean Fragoza reads a nonfiction piece about a scary bike crash while riding alone and underprepared on industrial Rush Street.

Pasadena Now looks forward to Sunday’s first carfree Arroyo Fest on the 100 Freeway in 20 years.

 

State

Calbike talks with board member Yolanda Davis-Overstreet, a mobility justice strategist who directed and co-produced a pair of films on Biking While Black, as well as a guide to the movies.

Huntington Beach opened the city’s first bike boulevard on Utica Ave.

A San Diego man suffered memory loss after an e-scooter crash, unable to even remember getting married or having a kid.

A Hemet middle school student was lucky to escape without injuries when he was struck by a hit-and-run driver, after reportedly riding his bike into traffic without looking while biking to school.

Visalia will soon be the first city in California’s Central Valley to have protected intersections.

 

National

PopSugar presents the best balance bikes for toddlers.

An Oregon legislator wants to legalize ped-assist ebikes for kids under 16, while maintaining the current ban on throttle-controlled ebikes.

Boulder, Colorado is the first city to bring concrete tall curbs to the United States to separate bike lanes and vehicle travel lanes. Even though it looks like standard K-rail. 

Bike Portland’s Jonathan Maus offers a photo essay of New Yorkers on bikes.

New York considers a pair of bills to regulate ebike delivery riders, including requiring an ebike safety course and making providers cover the cost for safety equipment and safe ebike batteries.

A Maryland TV station says your next car could be an ebike.

Tragic news from North Carolina, where a man died after he was struck by a driver while riding 67 miles to celebrate his 67th birthday.

That’s more like it. Atlanta is introducing an app showing the location of bike racks throughout the city.

 

International

A group of 19 leading companies in the automotive, bicycling & tech sectors have banded together to develop a smart V2X communication system to help improve the ‘digital visibility’ of bicyclists and other vulnerable road users. As long as you’e willing to wear some sort of digital sensor that matches the one only some drivers are using, anyway.

A writer for Cycling Weekly gets explosive results when she experiments with bicarb supplements — but thankfully, not in terms of gastrointestinal issues.

A Canadian bike rider was lucky to avoid becoming collateral damage when two drivers collided right in front of him.

Police in Birmingham, England used lights and sirens to pull over a woman and her eight-year old granddaughter as they rode their bikes — not for any traffic violation, but just a little friendly safety advice about wearing helmets.

No bias here, either. British tabloids are accusing London’s cycling czar with “cherry picking” stats to show bike ridership has tripled in a busy part of London in order to justify more spending on bike lanes; critics accuse him of counting bicycle delivery riders, who are, in fact, riding bicycles, and would all be using cars if they weren’t.

While Paris becomes increasingly welcoming to bike riders, France’s fifth-largest city is banning bikes, scooters and skateboards from the city center

 

Competitive Cycling

Slovenian cycling star Primož Roglič says he planned to jump to the Bora-Hansgrohe team before the recent drama at the Vuelta, when it became clear that Jonas Vingegaard would be team leader, and super domestique Sepp Kuss won the race. As usual, read it on Yahoo if Bicycling blocks you.

Meanwhile, Kuss says he thinks it’s better for everyone if Roglič is on another team. Ditto. 

Video captures “absolute carnage” during the men’s elimination race at Saturday’s UCI Track Champions League, as a mid race crash takes competitors down like bowling pins.

 

Finally…

Presenting an ebike for people who don’t want anyone to know you’re riding an ebike. Your next bike could have an airbag — or you could, anyway.

And you can now get a new ped-assist ebike foldie for less than $900. But you could have had a 121-year old Steffey ped-assist, gas-powered motor-bike instead.

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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Update: 65-year old man riding bike killed in Willowbrook hit-and-run; victim dragged a mile under van in possible murder

October 24, 2023 / / Comments Off on Update: 65-year old man riding bike killed in Willowbrook hit-and-run; victim dragged a mile under van in possible murder

For the 11th time in the last 18 days, someone has been killed riding a bicycle in Southern California.

And once again, it may be murder.

Multiple sources are reporting that a man was struck by a hit-and-run driver in Willowbrook this morning, and dragged nearly a mile under the killer’s van.

As if that was gruesome enough, witnesses report the crash appeared to be intentional, as well.

The victim was riding on Broadway at 117th around 9:15 Tuesday morning when he was struck by the driver of an older van; security cam video shows the driver continuing south on Broadway without slowing down.

According to KABC-7, the driver turned right on 120th, followed by a left on Athens Way. That was followed by another left at 124th, and a right on Broadway — all the while dragging the victim under the van.

His body was finally deposited at El Segundo Blvd and Broadway, in the LA’s Athens neighborhood.

KABC reports the victim’s mangled bicycle was found at the scene, and his shoes were strewn about on the street outside of Bo’s Mini Market at the initial point of impact.

Police are looking for a Hispanic man with long gray or salt-and-pepper hair, driving an older model white Chevy van with distinctive stripes on the side.

A police spokesperson would not confirm that this is being treated as a murder investigation, saying only that they need to speak to the suspect first. Because of course he’ll just admit to doing it intentionally.

Anyone with information is urged to call the LAPD at 877-LAPD-247. As always, there is a standing $50,000 reward for any fatal hit-and-run in the City of Los Angeles.

This is at least the 46th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, the 12th that I’m aware of in Los Angeles County, and the seventh in the City of Los Angeles. It’s also the 16th time someone riding a bicycle has been killed in a hit-and-run since the first of the year.

And it’s the third time a person in SoCal has apparently been run down intentionally while riding a bicycle, after bike riders were murdered in Dana Point and Huntington Beach earlier this year.

Update: Police have arrested 66-year old Compton resident Felipe Avalos for the grisly hit-and-run, after a witness provided the license plate number of the van. He was taken into custody as he was getting into the van, which matched the images provided by security cam.

Avalos has been booked on a charge of gross vehicular manslaughter — which carried a maximum penalty of six years — rather than murder, despite witnesses saying the crash appeared to be intentional. 

Update 2: The victim has been identified as 65-year old Francisco Gonzalez, as police have been unable to confirm whether the crash was intentional.

My deepest sympathy and prayers for Francisco Gonzalez and his loved ones. 

Category: Injuries and Fatalities / Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Man riding bike killed due to LADOT’s preference for parking over people; 511-mile extreme triathlon up California coast

October 23, 2023 / / 4 comments

A man riding a bicycle is dead, and LADOT’s decision to value parking over human lives is at least partly to blame.

In case you missed it over the weekend, news broke Saturday that 51-year old Hollywood producer Bob George was the person rumored to have been killed Tuesday while riding at Fountain and Edgemont.

George, who reportedly rode his bike everywhere, was riding in the westbound bike lane on Fountain when he was doored, and knocked into the traffic lane in front of an oncoming car.

He was killed just a block from where a pedestrian was killed seven years earlier, which LADOT commemorated with a memorial sign a few months ago in an effort to encourage people to drive more safely on the street.

Good luck with that.

Streetsblog LA reported last March that the city had striped a single bike lane going west on Fountain, with sharrows in the opposite direction. And as you can see from the photo above from the Streetsblog piece, that bike lane places bike riders directly in the door zone.

The city could, and should, have removed parking from one side to at least make room for wider bike lanes in both directions. Or better yet, a parking protected bike lane on one side, and a curbside bike lane on the other.

They didn’t, because here in the City of Angels, our leaders clearly prefer making yet another angel over taking away people’s God-given right to park steps from their door.

Now a man is dead because of it, and those responsible for this decision have his blood on their hands.

Ans if that doesn’t make you mad, maybe it should.

Photo by Joe Linton for Streetsblog.

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A 48-year old Flagstaff, Arizona man took triathlon to the extreme, swimming, biking and running 511.9 miles from Catalina Island to San Francisco.

Anesthesiologist Jim Janik swam the 21.5 miles from Catalina to Los Angeles, biked 358 miles up Highway 1 to Monterey, then ran and walked 132 miles to the tip of San Francisco, completing the trip in four days, 21 hours and 29 minutes.

He has applied for a trademark for what he termed the Ultra Pacifica Triathlon route in hopes of encouraging other people to try it.

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Bentonville, Arkansas has a paved, glow-in-the-dark mountain bike track.

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A tisket, a tasket, a beagle in a bike basket. All while looking adorably at his owner, no less.

@harpo_beagle

u’re my best view

♬ Everywhere (2017 Remaster) – Fleetwood Mac

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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.

No bias here. A writer for a Staten Island website complains about drivers being tarred as homicidal menaces, when scofflaw bike riders and pedestrians are sometimes at fault, too. Except bike riders and pedestrians hardly ever kill anyone, while careless and law-breaking drivers put everyone at risk.

No bias here, either. A British Columbia letter writer applauds a decision by Penticton city council members to ban to halt the design, construction and funding of any new bike lanes for the duration of the current council term, which expires in 2026.

A road-raging Malaysian cabbie brake-checked a group of bicyclists, leading to a heated argument in the middle of the street. Although the website blamed the bike riders for not staying in the curb lane.

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Local 

Colorado Boulevard reminds us of Sunday’s four-hour Arroyo Fest, allowing people to bike, walk, scoot or roll along a section of the 110 Freeway for the first time in 20 years.

A bike rider was hospitalized after he was struck by a driver in Santa Clarita Saturday morning, though there’s no word on his condition.

 

State

This is who we share the road with. A Huntington Beach driver faces six counts of attempted murder for deliberately plowing into a group of pedestrians in front of a Kohl’s department store while under the influence of an undisclosed drug.

A woman in Orange was sentenced to six months behind bars for intentionally running down her boyfriend as he rode his bike away from her home; a neighbor had to use a jack to get him out from under the car, leaving him scorched from a hot vehicle part. Maybe he should find a new girlfriend. Just saying.  

A 27-year old San Diego man suffered a fractured arm when he collided with a pedestrian, who had stepped off the curb into the bike lane the victim was riding in.

San Francisco held a block party to celebrate the popular Wiggle bike path through the city’s Duboce Triangle neighborhood.

Residents of a Diablo country club have installed a gate to block a pathway used by equestrians, walkers and bike riders since 1910, after a judge ruled the city never registered the easement for the trail with the state.

The Marin Independent Journal applauds a proposal to restrict ebikes in Novato, including a 10 mph speed limit on local trails.

 

National

You’d have to ride your bike 563 miles to offset the carbon emissions from a single short plane flight, such as traveling from Los Angeles to San Francisco. Works for me.

The Atlantic says the real reason you should get an ebike is it will cut your emissions, and make you happier.

They get it. The Navajo Nation is tackling rising rates of youth diabetes by sponsoring a School Health Bicycling Program for the current fall term for students from its New Mexico reservation; a recent study also showed school bicycling programs result in better student mental health.

Bike riders in Chicago celebrated video of a car being towed from a bike lane, with some saying they’d never seen it happen before.

Speaking of Chicago, over 150 people took to their bicycles to demand a safer bike network.

A 68-year old Indiana man has logged 100,000 miles on his bicycle, traveling to 48 states, Mexico and Canada in a series of bicycling journeys up to three months.

There’s a special place in hell for the heartless coward who drove off and left a bike-riding 77-year old Toledo, Ohio man bleeding in the street.

An Ohio man set a new Guinness world record for the largest Strava art, drawing a 983-mile Latin cross across three states.

Over 1,200 women turned out dressed as witches for a Ligonier PA bike ride to raise funds for homeless animals.

A Baltimore letter writer says don’t bother building bikeways, just let bike riders use the city’s alleys, instead. Great idea, if you want to see more people on bicycles killed by delivery drivers, and run down by motorists as they try to cross busy streets without traffic signals.

 

International

A new study from the UK shows that ebikes can help prevent and treat type 2 diabetes by encouraging moderate physical activity.

An Israeli man is credited with killing six men in defense of his kibbutz during the recent Hamas attack on Israel, with just six shots from his pistol before he was killed, all while riding his bicycle.

Billionaire Indian businessman Anand Mahindra took to Instagram to promote a new foldie developed by alumni of a Bombay technical college, calling it the world’s first diamond-framed folding bike with full-size wheels.

A Bangladeshi man claims he was beaten by police with cricket bats and given electric shocks after they seized cash and gold from his jewelry shop, but the cops claim he was injured falling from his bicycle. Sure, let’s go with that.

A Kiwi website explains why bicycles will be your go-to transportation when the zombie apocalypse comes, or whenever the shit hits the fan.

 

Competitive Cycling

It was a big day for L39ion of Los Angeles Saturday, as the team won the men’s, women’s and team titles in the inaugural CRIT Championship in St. Petersburgh, Florida; Tulsa Tough omnium winner Samantha Schneider led a team sweep of the elite women’s race, while three-time US Pro criterium champion Luke Lamperti took the men’s title while racing as a guest of the team.

Bicycling says Sepp Kuss got a hero’s welcome when he returned to his hometown of Durango, Colorado to celebrate his victory in the Vuelta. As usual, read it on Yahoo if the magazine blocks you. 

 

Finally…

When you’re a convicted felon illegally carrying a gun on your bike, stop for the damn stop sign, already — and don’t flee from the cops when they try to stop you. As if drivers aren’t bad enough, now the coyotes are after us.

And that feeling when an ex-seven-time Tour de France winner pops in to fix your bike.

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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin

Category: Morning Links / Tags: ,

Hollywood producer Bob George killed by dooring in East Hollywood/Silver Lake Tuesday; 10th SoCal bike death in 13 days

October 21, 2023 / / 6 comments

At least now we know.

A Hollywood producer is dead, apparently because Los Angeles refused to remove parking to build a damn bike lane.

For three days, we’ve been searching for confirmation of a bicycling fatality in East Hollywood, since word first surfaced late Tuesday. Friday it came, not from the traditional media, but from the Hollywood trade publications.

Multiple sources are reporting that 51-year old movie producer Bob George was killed Tuesday when he was doored while riding his bike. They place the location as Silver Lake, though it appears to be the same crash.

According to the stories, the story broke when writer-director Ben York Jones posted news of George’s death on Instagram.

Jones told The Hollywood Reporter that George, who reportedly rode his bike everywhere, was doored by the driver of a parked car as he rode in a bike lane. then immediately struck by the driver of an oncoming car.

The reports I received indicated the fatal crash occurred Tuesday at Fountain Ave and North Edgemont Street, next to the Church of Scientology complex on Sunset Blvd. That appears to be in East Hollywood, but it could be considered Silver Lake.

A bike lane was added to westbound Fountain between Vermont Ave and Kingsley Drive earlier this year, crossed in-between by Edgemont. Eastbound Fountain has sharrows instead of a bike lane, in order to preserve curbside parking on both sides of the street.

If the city had removed the parking from either side, they could have installed protected bike lanes in both directions, instead of a single door zone bike lane.

That decision apparently cost Bob George his life.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Peoria, Illinois native began his career as production accountant on big-budget films, including Armageddon, Pearl Harbor, The Sum of All Fears, The Lone Ranger and three Pirates of the Caribbean movies, before moving up to producing.

He was a production consultant on Divergent (2014) before producing his first feature, Scott Free’s Newness (2017). Starring Nicholas Hoult and Laia Costa and written by Jones, it premiered at Sundance and was acquired by Netflix.

He reunited with Doremus on the Ewan McGregor and Léa Seydoux-starring Zoe (2018), which bowed at Tribeca and was picked up by Amazon, and Endings, Beginnings (2019), a Toronto title that starred Shailene Woodley, Jamie Dornan and Sebastian Stan and was acquired by Samuel Goldwyn Films.

George was currently working with Jones on Aurora, another Doremus film, as well as serving as a production consultant on the upcoming Brad Furman action thriller Tin Soldier, starring Jamie Foxx and Robert De Niro.

He is survived by his wife, artist Yasmine Nasser Diaz, as well as his sister.

This is at least the 45th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, the 11th that I’m aware of in Los Angeles County, and the sixth in the City of Los Angeles, although there are probably more we haven’t learned about.

George was also the tenth SoCal bike rider killed in just the last two weeks.

My deepest sympathy and prayers for Bob George and all his loved ones. 

Thanks to Damian Kevitt and Sean Meredith for the heads-up. 

Category: Injuries and Fatalities / Tags: , , , , , , ,

Hollywood hit-and-run injures bike rider, LA bus lane boom benefits bike riders, and regs needed for throttle-controlled ebikes

October 20, 2023 / / 3 comments

A heartless hit-and-run driver left a man riding a bicycle lying in the roadway on North Cahuenga Blvd just north of the Hollywood Bowl early yesterday.

The victim was reportedly hospitalized in serious but stable condition after he was spotted in the street by a Metro bus driver.

Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay.

……..

The Los Angeles Times applauds the recent boom in LA bus lane building, but neglects to mention that bike riders can legally use them, too.

Drivers, not so much. But they do, anyway.

……..

Bicycling reports the Consumer Product Safety Commission may soon jump in to regulate lithium-ion ebike batteries to prevent fires.

Meanwhile, bike industry officials question whether regulations are needed distinguishing between ped-assist and throttle-controlled ebikes.

Which is exactly what I’ve been calling for lately, as the rising ebike panic fails to distinguish between ped-assist bikes that give the rider a boost, and high speed throttle-controlled ebikes that are virtual mini-motorcycles, too often in the hands of kids too young to safely ride them.

As usual, read it on Yahoo if the magazine blocks you.

……..

Nope. Nothing to see here.

……..

Mountain biker Andreu Lacondeguy decided to skip the Red Bull Rampage this year, in favor of taking his act to Chile and finding the best freeride spots from the Atacama desert to the Araucaria forests in Patagonia

……..

The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.

No bias here. A New York ambulance driver argues that bicyclists are responsible for their own safety, complaining about “two-wheeled demons…running red lights and stop signs, going the wrong way, riding at night with no lights or reflective equipment…” She might have a better argument if she seemed to care a little more about those “demons.”

You’ve got to be kidding. A road-raging Charlottesville, Virginia driver walked without a day behind bars for running an a bicyclist off the road and damaging his ebike, after agreeing to a restorative justice program so super secret program officials couldn’t even tell the judge about it.

But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.

Life is cheap in New York, where the e-bikeshare rider who killed a beloved 69-year old preschool teacher as she crossed the street last month walked without a day behind bars, escaping with a lousy ticket for running a red light.

………

Local 

Long Beach officials plan to spend over half a million dollars to improve safety on Orange Ave with the Orange Avenue Backbone Bikeway and Complete Street project connecting North Long Beach with downtown.

 

State

The Portland husband and wide killed when shifting lumber on a passing truck struck them as they rode their bikes in Napa County were described as “Humble, generous, thoughtful, loving and hardworking,” and “the most inspirational couple we knew;” the couple both worked for Nike, and had been married 20 years.

 

National

Speaking of Bicycling, senior test editor Matt Phillips picks his favorite road, gravel and maintain bike gear of the year. Unfortunately, this one doesn’t seem to be available from other sources, so you’re on your own if the magazine blocks you. 

Seattle is finishing work on a pair of bike lanes leading to and from the famed Pike Place Fish Market.

Bike Portland’s Jonathan Maus explores Manhattan by bicycle, and likes it.

A New York man faces charges after crashing a stolen moped into a bike rider. leaving the victim with head injuries, then dumping a gun as he fled from the scene.

A former US Capitol Police officer faces up to ten years behind bars after pleading guilty to attempting to cover up his involvement in a reckless, unauthorized pursuit of two people riding motorized bicycles, along with the crash that left one of the riders with minor injuries — and a $5 million lawsuit.

A Louisiana man built his own DIY dog carrier on the front of his bicycle, using bungie cords and a kid’s toy truck.

Mobile, Alabama is finally moving forward with a 6.5-mile bike path along Three Mile Creek from West Mobile to downtown that has been in the works for 35 years.

Police in Alabama are looking for the “vehicle” that fled the scene after hitting and killing a bike rider, as if the person behind the wheel didn’t have anything to do with it.

 

International

Financial site Barrons recommends a handful of ebikes, including one that’s a relative bargain at just under a grand.

British Columbia officials demolished an unsanctioned, DIY mountain bike park after the group that built the rogue park violated an agreement not to expand it and to secure liability insurance.

Over one hundred people turned out for a protest ride to demand safer streets in the London borough of Hackney, where three people have been killed riding bicycles in the past six weeks.

London’s Metropolitan Police admitted knocking a 13-year old boy off his bicycle, surrounding him with submachine guns and handcuffing the boy, after somehow being unable to distinguish his blue water pistol from a real gun.

Evidently, people who ride bikes are good for the community. A new German study shows that bicycling, rather than driving, was the only “significant positive predictor for all facets of orientation towards the common good.” Thanks to Todd Munson for the heads-up.

 

Competitive Cycling

USA Cycling has seriously complicated the question of trans cyclists competing in women’s races, requiring trans women competing in non-UCI sanctioned events in the Elite, Cat 1 and Cat 2 levels to complete an “elite athlete fairness evaluation application” proving they’ve maintained low testosterone levels, while both trans men and women competing in the Cat 3, 4, 5 and novice levels must have a self-identity verification request reviewed by the USA Cycling Technical Director. Got that? I didn’t think so.

 

Finally…

Now you, too, can have your very own reversible Rapha/L39ION of Los Angeles jersey, with one side for racing and one for training. Traveling from Germany to ride down the left coast from Seattle to Argentina is one thing, trying a Taco Bell burrito for the first time is another.

And that feeling when the pedestrian who apparently wasn’t involved in the crash is more seriously injured than the bike rider who was.

………

Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin

Category: Morning Links / Tags: ,

73-year old man killed by driver while riding bike in Orange crosswalk; 9th SoCal bike rider killed in less than 2 weeks

October 20, 2023 / / Comments Off on 73-year old man killed by driver while riding bike in Orange crosswalk; 9th SoCal bike rider killed in less than 2 weeks

This has got to stop.

For at least the ninth time in the past 13 days, someone has been killed riding a bicycle on the mean streets of Southern California.

According to New Santa Ana, the victim this time was a 73-year old man from Orange, killed while just trying to ride his bike across the street.

The victim, who has not been publicly named, was riding north on Skylark, attempting to cross Canyon View in Orange, when he was struck by the eastbound driver as he rode in the crosswalk around 9:08 am.

He died at the scene.

The driver, a woman from Orange, remained at the scene — which should be a given, but isn’t. Police don’t believe she was under the influence.

There’s no word on who had the right of way at the signalized intersection.

Canyon View has a 40 mph speed limit; a pedestrian struck at that speed has just a 15% survival rate. And that’s assuming she wasn’t traveling above the speed limit, like most drivers in Southern California.

Anyone with information is urged to call Orange Police Department Traffic Unit Detective A. Rocha at 714/744-7342.

This is at least the 44th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the seventh that I’m aware of in Orange County.

And hopefully, the last one we’ll see in this tragic streak.

My deepest sympathy and prayers for the victim and all his loved ones.

Thanks to Arthur William Bauer for the heads-up. 

Category: Injuries and Fatalities / Tags: , ,

Four Pepperdine students dead thanks to official inaction on deadly PCH, and more context-free San Diego ebike panic

October 19, 2023 / / 5 comments

This is who we share the road with.

Tuesday night, four young Pepperdine University students were killed by an alleged speeding driver on Southern California’s killer highway.

The four 20-year old college seniors were standing on the side of the road in an area locals call Dead Man’s Curve when the 22-year old driver slammed into three parked cars, knocking them into the women.

And making them all collateral damage on a roadway designed and build to accommodate, if not encourage, high speeds.

The driver, Fraser Michael Bohm, was booked on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence, which will likely be upgraded to four counts once he’s arraigned.

It’s only a pity that the people who have gone out of their way to keep this killer highway dangerous and deadly won’t face charges with him.

It was nearly a decade ago that I began representing the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, now BikeLA, on the PCH Task Force.

The task force was created by the state legislators who then represented the Malibu, Pacific Palisades, Santa Monica and Ventura County areas to address safety and other concerns on the highway, with input from the various stakeholders.

The LACBC took an interest because PCH is such a popular route for bicyclists of all kinds. And claimed so many as victims.

In fact, it is the single most deadly roadway for bike riders in Los Angeles and Orange counties.

The LACBC joined with other representatives to demand safety improvements to the highway, ranging from road diets and protected bike lanes, to eliminating roadside parking and reducing speed limits.

In almost every case, we were told what we were asking for was impossible. We were told the road, Malibu’s 22-mile long main street, was necessary to funnel commuters from Ventura County and the San Fernando Valley in and out of the LA area.

The overly wide traffic lanes, high speed limits that were nearly universally exceeded, slip lane right turns and roadside parking were all necessary to prevent excessive traffic congestion, or so we were told.

Never mind they also encouraged speeding drivers weaving in and out of slower traffic 22 hours a day. And put bike riders at needless risk of right hooks and dooring.

Caltrans, which has responsibility for the roadway, could have taken steps to dramatically improve safety years ago.

They didn’t.

Malibu, Los Angeles and Santa Monica could have demanded changes that would have saved lives.

They didn’t.

Sure, minor changes were made. A painted bike lane here, widening the shoulder there. But the killer highway remained, and remains, a deadly speedway for most of the day and night.

Now four young women, who did nothing to put their lives in danger, are dead — victims of an alleged speeding driver, and the officials, engineers and bureaucrats who enabled him.

The young man behind the wheel is likely to be middle-aged before he gets out of prison, unless an overly lenient judge takes pity on him.

It’s just a pity that the others who have worked so hard to keep PCH so deadly won’t be there with him.

What a fucking waste.

A 2013 publication highlights the joys of biking sans helmets on SoCal’s deadliest highway.

……..

San Diego media sources were whipped into a tizzy by “startling new statistics” from the city’s Rady Children’s Hospital, which shows increasing rates of ebike and e-scooter injuries, especially among children.

Yet once again, they fail to put any of it in context.

Injuries can be expected to rise with increasing rates of any activity. If more people started playing Frisbee golf, we’d see rising rates of arm and impact injuries as a result.

What matters is whether those injuries are rising faster than the increase in ridership, or becoming more serious than a baseline of bicycling injuries.

Unless and until we have that context, reports like this are nothing more than a concerning, but anecdotal, data point.

……..

Frequent contributor Megan Lynch forwards news that UC Davis journalism students, not the professional press, are digging into what’s been done since a student was killed by a university employee while riding her bike.

I was lucky enough to be logged on to Mastodon at the time the MuckRock bot sent this through. Otherwise I’d never have known someone was finally making a CPRA request on this. Sadly, it was not made by UC Davis student journalists, but students in a journalism class at University of Nevada, Reno.

You may remember that (19-year old sophomore) Tris Yasay was killed by a yet-unnamed UC Davis employee driving a UC Davis sanitation truck on May 25, 2022. First responders were all UC Davis employees as well (UCDPD and UCDFD). Local press didn’t ask many questions and the few that the Davis Enterprise followed up on was because I got after the reporter about it. It still wasn’t what was needed.  UC Davis was successful in burying the questions.

Months later, its PR flacks linked the “accident” and the grant they applied for re “cyclist and pedestrian safety” that simply targets pedestrians and cyclists for re-education, not its own drivers.

So far as I know, UC Davis has not done any campaign to re-train its own drivers or at least it has not publicized one. I vaguely recall reading somewhere that the claim was that the driver could not see the cyclist in the side view mirror. In which case, the position and efficacy of these mirrors needs to be examined. Because cyclists are a regular feature of the UC Davis campus and if the side view does not accurately reflect what’s going on, drivers should be trained to crane their heads around and look for themselves BEFORE turning. “Blind” spots should be minimized on the vehicle.

But haven’t read about any of that happening.

I’m interested to see what the student journalist finds and if the MuckRock interface will let everyone see it when UC Davis responds. They also requested the City of Davis Bicycle Action Plan.

……..

Our Deutschland correspondent Ralph Durham forwards a newsletter from the ADFC, aka General German Bicycle Club, on the subject of licensing bicycles, and why that’s a bad idea.

Here is a link to the ADFC newsletter on the subject of bike license plates. And their list of reasons not to have them. A huge one is the cost because of bureaucracy. Something Germans know a little about.

However, you’ll either need to read German, or dump the story into a translation service like Google Translate.

……..

I used to ride this same route almost daily to get to Lake Hollywood when I first moved to Los Angeles about a hundred years ago.

It didn’t feel safe then, and it feels a lot less safe now.

………

Bike Talk posts their latest episode, starting with questioning the effectiveness of Vision Zero on both coasts.

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LA County wants your input on proposed bike paths in the county.

https://twitter.com/streetsforall/status/1714684080581955821

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Local 

West Hollywood’s city council voted to end the city’s e-scooter trial phase and extend their contracts with Lime and Bird, although by a narrow 3 to 2 margin; the increasingly conservative WeHoVille site predictably did not approve.

 

State

Calbike claims a number of “big” legislative victories that survived the governor’s desk, along with concerns about bills creating an ebike safety study and a Caltrans bike czar.

The Kern County coroner’s office has finally identified the 39-year-old woman killed by a driver while riding her bike in Bakersfield last month; the CHP continues to blame her for crossing in front of the driver’s car.

The two people killed by shifting lumber form a passing Freightliner truck while riding their bikes on Napa County’s Silverado Trail were identified as a married couple from Portland, Oregon; no word on why they were riding in Napa. It’s questionable whether the driver gave them the required three-foot passing distance, which might have spared them from the impact. 

No one seems to like San Francisco’s new Valencia Street centerline protected bike lane, as advocates call it dangerous and counterintuitive, while merchants along the street say it’s killing their business.

The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition is looking for a new executive director once again, as current ED Jannelle Wong is stepping down after just 18 months on the job.

 

National

NPR reports on the recent study that shows regular bike riding can improve mental health for middle school students. Which is one more reason for Safe Routes to Schools. 

Bicycling offers a requiem and post-mortem for the popular Surly Cross Check, which has been discontinued by the bikemaker. This one doesn’t seem to be available from other sources, so you’re on your own if the magazine blocks you. 

Friends of 32-year old BMX champ Nathan “Nate” Miller want to know why the Las Vegas driver who killed him hasn’t been charged for the September crash, after security cam video surfaced showing the speeding driver jerking between lanes before crashing into Miller’s bike, then crashing into a fence and a parked vehicle.

The wife and daughter of fallen former Bell, California police chief Andreas “Andy” Probst first realized he was injured when they got an alert of a fall from his Apple Watch, then heard police sirens and helicopters just blocks from their Las Vegas home; two teens face murder charges for intentionally running down Probst in a stolen car, apparently just for the hell of it.

A 62-year old Florida woman has been identified as the hit-and-run driver captured in a viral video crashing into an 11-year-old girl riding her bike in a school parking lot, and pushing her at least 60 feet with the car; instead of helping the girl, she just got out of her car, asked if the victim was okay, and told her to just go home and take a shower.

Once again, a cop has killed someone riding a bicycle, this time in Marion County, Florida, where a 22-year old sheriff’s deputy ran down a 63-year old man early Wednesday; investigators quickly blamed the victim for riding on a dark roadway without a helmet or reflective clothing, or using lights on his bike. Because apparently, patrol cars in Florida don’t have headlights that could have illuminated someone riding a bike.

 

International

Momentum offers 13 helpful tips for a worry-free first-time bike commuting experience.

Inside EVs says the new European Declaration on Cycling offers 36 principles aimed at advancing bicycling in the European Union, laying the groundwork for future legislation to unlock the full potential of bicycles.

An Australian woman has been seriously injured riding her bike, less than a week after warning a Victoria state parliamentary inquiry into road safety about the extreme risks bicyclists face on the country’s roads.

 

Competitive Cycling

Sad news from Arizona, where longtime bike racer John Timbers, a previous winner of the Iron Horse Classic and the Manhattan Beach Grand Prix, and founder of Arizona’s Vuelta de Bisbee stage race nearly five decades ago, was killed by a hit-and-run driver while riding his bike in Tucson early Tuesday morning; he was 78.

 

Finally…

That feeling when a trio of random tweets tells a story about traffic violence and automotive hegemony. Nothing like suffering a daily aerial assault on your bike commute.

And who says you can’t do stunts on a heavy-ass bikeshare bike?

………

Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Disappointing new LA bike lane totals, Angelenos suffer from car blindness, and Long Beach needs bike count volunteers

October 18, 2023 / / Comments Off on Disappointing new LA bike lane totals, Angelenos suffer from car blindness, and Long Beach needs bike count volunteers

It just keeps getting worse. 

I’m told someone was killed riding a bike yesterday on Fountain Ave in East Hollywood.

If it’s confirmed — and it comes from an unimpeachable source — this will be the ninth SoCal bike rider killed in just 12 days.

Hopefully, we’ll learn more soon. 

Today’s photo, in contrast with too much of the day’s news, is a very happy corgi enjoying a pedicab ride over the new 6th Street Bridge during Sunday’s CicLAvia. 

……..

Streetsblog’s Joe Linton takes his semi-annual deep dive into bike lane building, or the lack thereof, in the City of Angels.

And finds the current results underwhelming, with far too many disappointments including truncated mileage, downgraded facilities, long delayed timelines and false claims, just to name a few.

Or as we call that here in Los Angeles, Wednesday.

As noted in past posts (FY21-22, FY20-21, FY19-20), not all bikeway miles are equal. Quality protected bike lanes and bike paths serve riders aged 8 to 80, while sharrows serve almost nobody. New bikeway mileage expands the network; upgrades to existing bikeways do not. Among upgrades, some are significant (protecting unprotected lanes) and others are nearly meaningless (adding a buffer stripe to an existing lane).

In recent years, around a quarter of the city’s output consists of these less than newsworthy facilities. Among the city’s FY23 totals are about 6 miles of new sharrows and 5 miles of buffer stripes added to existing bike lanes.

The city’s FY22-23 total of 45.2 miles breaks down into 27.7 miles of newbikeways and 17.5 miles of upgrades to existing bikeways. This represents a slight improvement over last year, which saw 26.6 new bikeway miles and 12.5 upgraded miles.

That’s a far cry from the city’s commitment to build 50 miles of bike lanes a year when the current bike plan was approved. Which was quickly cut in half when the city switched to measuring by lane miles, which counts bike lanes on each side of the road separately.

Then reduced further, when they decided sharrows count, too.

Adding disappointment, on disappointment, on disappointment.

……..

Streets For All founder Michael Schneider writes that we suffer from car blindness in Los Angeles.

We are car blind in Los Angeles; as a City, we seem to have accepted cars as essential for society to function, and we overlook their downsides and harms they cause on our society.

Cars are the single biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions in California, and car crashes are a leading cause of death for children in Los Angeles. Our streets are so dangerous that a pedestrian is killed about once every three days — a rate that is four times the national average.

I’ve often said this city’s problem is we can’t see the cars for the traffic.

So it’s worth taking a few minutes to read the whole thing, because he’s absolutely right.

……..

Long Beach is still looking for volunteers for this week’s bike and pedestrian count.

https://twitter.com/GoActiveLB/status/1714350821574656418

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Metro is hosting a series of meetings beginning in Westwood next Tuesday to discuss the Traffic Reduction Study, Sepulveda Transit Corridor, and I-405 Sepulveda Pass ExpressLanes projects

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ActiveSGV will host a discussion with Strong Towns founder Chuck Marohn and current Pasadena Planning Commissioner Rick Cole at Throop Church in Pasadena tonight.

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Sounds like fun.

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SAFE offers a reminder that bike riders aren’t the only vulnerable victims of traffic violence.

………

Nailed it.

https://twitter.com/fietsprofessor/status/1714276421991018981

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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.

No bias here. A San Francisco restaurant owner says the Valencia Street business corridor will die if the controversial center-line bike lane on the street isn’t removed.

A Flushing, New York letter writer with a bad case of windshield bias says riding a bicycle in traffic is a horrible idea, whether or not it’s in a bike lane, and everyone but drivers deserve tickets for breaking the law.

But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.

A San Mateo bike rider was arrested for brandishing a weapon after a woman tried to pass a large group of bicyclists in the downtown area; he raised his shirt to show the weapon in his waistband when a group of riders surrounded her car and started beating on it.

………

Local 

Streetsblog’s Joe Linton offers photos from Sunday’s Heart of LA CicLAvia.

A South Pasadena site looks forward to the first Arroyo Fest in 20 years, as the 110 Freeway prepares to close to motor vehicle traffic for a few hours on October 29th to welcome thousand of people walking, biking, running, scooting and rolling.

Garden Grove has received a $441,000 Caltrans grant to improve the city’s Medal of Honor Bike Trail.

 

State

The LA Times says the recent legislative session was mixed bag when it comes to fighting climate change, noting that Governor Newsom signed bills supporting electric cars and hydrogen fuels, but vetoed bills to improve bicycle safety.

A UC San Diego student asks if roads around the campus will ever be safe, years after a protected bike lane was approved for Gilman Drive, but never built.

San Bernardino’s Skypark Bike Park announced the opening of a new Black Diamond mountain bike trail.

A 34-year-old Victorville man faces narcotics and gun charges after a bike theft victim tracked his stolen bike to a city bus, where the man had taken it.

A series of new traffic diverters and islands on Santa Barbara’s Sola Street are aimed at creating a safe bicycling link between the Westside and downtown.

The San Francisco Standard examines why the city so rarely enforces illegal parking in bike lanes. You could ask the same question in Los Angeles and Santa Monica, too. 

Tragic news from Napa County, where a pair of bicyclists were killed when the load shifted on a passing lumber truck, striking the victims as they rode on the side of the roadway; the victims were identified only as a man in his 50s and a woman in her 40s.

 

National

The Guardian considers whether it’s time to ban right turns on red lights, as pedestrian deaths soar. Short answer, yes. Longer answer, oh hell yes.

Good question. Adventure Rider asks why mountain bikes cost as much as motorcycles these days.

Sports Illustrated recommends the best bike shorts for women who actually ride bikes. As opposed to the trendy bike short-style shorts for women who don’t. 

The new Portland Bicycle School is offering riders the bicycle equivalent of Driver’s Ed.

A Las Vegas high school student says he was forced to withdraw from school after he was threatened by the sister of one of the two teens charged in the vehicular murder of former Bell, California police chief Andy Probst, after she apparently suspected he was the source who turned video of the crash over to police; meanwhile, the 72-year old bike rider who was injured in the hit-and-run crime spree describe the crash that left him with road rash and knee pain.

Heartbreaking news from the Denver area, where residents of Littleton demanded safety improvements after a boy was killed in a collision while riding his bike to middle school.

Accused killer Kaitlin Armstrong’s recent failed escape attempt was apparently premeditated, as a Texas site notes that she exercised vigorously for months and wore civilian clothes in advance of a doctor’s appointment; Armstrong is accused of fatally shooting gravel cycling star Moriah “Mo” Wilson over an imagined love triangle.

A new Brooklyn book bike is fighting book bans by serving the gay and nonbinary community, bringing free LGBTQIA+ books for all ages and languages directly to them.

New York officials blamed the increase in bicycling deaths on ebikes, with 62.2% of bicyclists killed in the city this year riding one, compared to 57.9% two years ago and 47.4% last year — but failed to provide any stats putting it in context, such as the proportion of ebike riders, or who was at fault in the crashes; meanwhile, 94% of this year’s deaths occurred on streets without protected bike lanes, calling into question the mayor’s failure to fulfill his campaign promise to build more.

New York bike riders say they’re fighting over inches on the city’s crowded bridges, where narrow bikeways contribute to bike-on-bike crashes.

A New Jersey man faces a manslaughter charge for allegedly pushing a 70-year old man off his bike, for no apparent reason; the victim died after hitting his head on the pavement and initially refusing treatment. A tragic reminder to always get checked out after hitting your head, because life-threatening injuries may not show up until hours later. 

The Washington Post says forget buying another car, and get an ebike instead.

 

International

Streetsblog admires the quick build bike lanes of Lima, Peru, which enabled residents to keep active during the pandemic, and to keep riding now.

Bicycling tells the tale of a Canadian man who set off on a bikepacking tour around the world with his six-year old border collie, who was just three months old when they set off. As usual, read it on Yahoo if the magazine blocks you. 

Another Canadian man is riding his bike around the world to share lessons in physics with teachers and students.

Oxford, England will install speed cams at a dangerous roundabout where a bike-riding university researcher was killed by a coked-up dump truck driver last year, although a city counselor says a license plate reader will be required to catch scofflaw drivers, too.

A woman in the UK says she and her husband tried swapping their car for an e-cargo bike, but unwelcoming drivers forced them off the road and onto smaller hybrid bikes.

A British man will spend the next four years behind bars for killing another man with a single punch, after an argument over the sale of a bike, as he claimed the victim’s friend still owed him money for it. Yet another reminder than no bicycle is worth a human life. 

Hyderabad, India is installing solar panels over 13 miles of bike paths, fighting climate change through solar power, while providing riders with shade to combat the city’s frequent heat waves.

An Arab Israeli bike shop owner has received the equivalent of almost $168,000 in donations after his shop was torched because he donated 50 bicycles to Jewish kids forced to evacuate following the recent Hamas attack.

A new e-cargo bike premiering at the Taipei Cycle Show claims to be the first designed by women for women, with a smaller frame designed to accommodate shorter riders.

More heartbreaking news, this time from Down Under, where a 72-year old man was killed by a driver while participating in a club ride, seven years after he survived a crash that killed one man, and injured both him and another rider.

 

Competitive Cycling

Another WorldTour cyclist is walking away due to a health conditions, as Dutch pro Wesley Kreder retired at age 32 after suffering a heart attack.

Velo considers 32-year old Ethiopian pro cyclist Tsgabu Grmay and his efforts to help more of his countrymen and women enter the sport.

 

Finally…

Never trust a sat-nav device that doesn’t know you’re not a car. Maybe flipping a modern day Penny Farthing isn’t the best idea.

And how not to promote a gravel race.

………

My most humble apologies for neglecting to thank Megan L for her generous donation to support this site when my eyes were out of commission last month. As always, donations are welcome and very appreciated anytime, for any reason, even if I’m too blind to properly show my gratitude.

………

Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

67-year old Eugene Arayata killed riding bike in rear-end Hesperia collision; 8th SoCal bike rider killed in 10 days

October 17, 2023 / / Comments Off on 67-year old Eugene Arayata killed riding bike in rear-end Hesperia collision; 8th SoCal bike rider killed in 10 days

There seems to be no end to the recent carnage on the mean streets of Southern California.

For the eighth time in just ten days, someone was killed by a driver while riding a bike, this time in Hesperia Thursday evening.

According to the Victor Valley News Group, a man identified as 67-year old Hesperia resident Eugenio R. “Eugene” Arayata was riding his bike just three blocks from his home when he was run down from behind on Cedar Street at Long View Avenue.

The newspaper places the time of the crash at around 5:30 pm on Thursday, October 12th.

Arayata was riding next to the curb when the westbound driver apparently drifted over to the right to strike him, throwing Arayata several feet through the air.

He was taken to a local hospital in critical condition, where he died sometime later.

The driver, who was not publicly identified, remained at the scene, the windshield of his Lexus shattered.

An earlier story shows the remains of Arayata’s bicycle crumpled in the gutter, a green shopping bag dangling to the street, as a police investigator photographs it.

A nearby resident complained about speeding on Cedar, noting the lack of painted lane markers on the narrow residential street contribute to drivers traveling all over the roadway. However, there is nothing to indicate at this time that the driver was speeding at the time of the crash.

According to family members, Arayata had retired just three months earlier, but continued working to pay property taxes on his home of 20 years, and loved riding his bike around the town.

It’s unclear if he was riding home from work when he was killed.

This is at least the 43rd bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the ninth that I’m aware of in San Bernardino County.

Just ten days ago, that total stood at just 35 for the seven county region, exceptionally low for this late in the year.

But SoCal drivers seem to be making up for lost time.

My deepest sympathy and prayers for Eugenio R. “Eugene” Arayata and his loved ones.

Category: Injuries and Fatalities / Tags: , , , ,
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