Archive for bikinginla

Bicyclist dies two days after rural Hemet collision; 10th SoCal bike rider killed in past 30 days

Things clearly aren’t getting any better out there.

For the 10th time in the past 30 days, someone riding a bicycle in Southern California has been killed by a driver, this time in Hemet.

According to the Hemet Police Department, the victim died two days after suffering what initially appeared to be moderate injuries in a collision Friday evening.

The victim, who has not been publicly identified, was riding east on Hemet’s Lincoln Avenue when he was struck by a motorist traveling north on Soboba Street around 6:08 pm.

The victim was taken to a local hospital, where they died on Sunday.

The driver remained at the scene and cooperated with investigators. Police don’t suspect they were under the influence.

The crash occurred at a rural intersection controlled with four-way stop signs, with no form of bicycle infrastructure in any direction.

Anyone with information is urged to call Hemet Police Corporal Christian Coley at 951/765-2400, reference file #2025-05320.

This is at least the 34th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the fifth that I’m aware of in Riverside County.

My deepest sympathy and prayers for the victim and their loved ones. 

Still nothing to see here — my aching head edition

My apologies. I’ve been dealing with a killer sick migraine since noon Sunday, which has so far failed to respond to medication. Hopefully, we’ll be back tomorrow if my head doesn’t explode.

Move along, nothing to see here — throwing in the towel edition

I’m officially giving up on this terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week.

One that started with my wife nearly coding on the way to the hospital, and ended with the fourth fallen bicyclist this week, and the 8th in just 16 days.

Although the good news is she finally came home yesterday, and is doing well.

But after all that, I’ve just got nothing left. And at nearly 1 am, it’s too damn late to starting writing now.

So I’m throwing in the towel tonight. Let all just come back bright and early on Monday and pretend this week never happened.

Photo by (El Caminante) from Pixabay.

 

Man walking bicycle killed crossing Long Beach street Wednesday evening; 8th SoCal bike rider killed in last 16 days

I just can’t.

For the eighth time in the last 16 days, someone riding a bicycle has been killed in Southern California, an average of one every other day.

Or in this case, just walking a bicycle across a Long Beach street.

Multiple sources are reporting that a man was walking east across Pacific Place near Wardlow Road with his bike, when he was struck by a northbound driver around 6:07 pm Wednesday.

He was taken to a local hospital, where he died from his injuries.

The driver remained at the scene and cooperated with investigators. Police don’t believe speed, impaired driving or distracted driving contributed to the crash.

The victim, who has not been publicly identified, was reportedly walking outside of a crosswalk at the time of the crash. That’s legal under California law as long as it’s safe to cross; it could have looked that way to the victim before he started across the four lane street.

There’s also no word on which side of Wardlow he was on, or where he was in relation to the intersection. However, there is an A Line train station and bus stops north of Wardlow; it’s possible he was walking his bike to the station when he was struck.

Unfortunately, with the limited information we have at this time, there’s no way to know what really happened, or why. Hopefully, we’ll learn more soon.

The Long Beach Post reports that Pacific is one of the city’s most dangerous streets.

Pacific Avenue, which becomes Pacific Place at Wardlow, has been among the city’s deadliest streets in recent years, recording nine deaths in vehicular collisions since 2020, most of them being pedestrians.

City officials are redesigning the street to slow traffic and enlarge spaces for bikers and walkers.

Maybe they should hurry.

Anyone who witnessed the crash is urged to call Detective Efrain Pineda of the Long Beach Police Department’s Collision Investigation Detail at 562/570-7355.

This is at least the 33rd bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the 12th that I’m aware of in Los Angeles County.

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

$4.2 million project to fix beach bike path, wall blocks bike path access in Marina del Rey, and Hyundai sued in Probst death

Day 219 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

They’re finally going to fix it.

LA County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath announced a $4.2 million project to repair the beachfront Marvin Braude Bike Trail, which was washed out at the Santa Monica Canyon Channel outlet along Will Rogers Beach during heavy rains in February of last year.

The work will be paid for using FEMA funds, according to the Santa Monica Daily Press.

The project qualifies for Federal Emergency Management Agency funding due to the federal disaster declaration. LA County Public Works will oversee the restoration work aimed at making the trail “stronger, safer, and more resilient,” according to Horvath’s office.

The paper reports the separate bike and pedestrian paths will remain open during the six-month construction project, though some beach access points may close temporarily.

………

Meanwhile, a few miles further south, a new wall is blocking a popular short cut to the Marvin Braude Trail in Marina del Rey.

According the Westside Current, the wall replaced a door-sized gap in a fence between Yvonne Burke Park and a Ralph’s supermarket parking lot late last month, angering local residents, bike riders and pedestrians accustomed to using it to get to the bike path.

Instead, bike riders now have to use dangerous Lincoln Blvd, where drivers routinely ignore the 35 mph speed limit, to reach the trail at Admiralty and Bali Way.

A petition calling for restoring the access currently stands at over 760 signatures. Correction: That petition is actually for local condo residents angry over losing their exclusive private access to the park, and has nothing to do with the wall blocking access to the bike path. Here’s a link to the actual petition calling to reopen the gate

………

The family of retired Bell, California Police Chief Andreas “Andy” Probst have filed suit against the company that made the stolen car used to intentionally run him down in Las Vegas two years ago.

Allegedly.

According to the lawsuit, the Hyundai was sold without anti-theft protection, allowing the two teenage suspects to steal the car using the “TikTok method” shared on social media.

The two suspects are not scheduled to face trial for Probst’s murder until next year. No word yet on when the civil suit will be heard.

………

No bias here.

Readers of the London Daily Mail respond with hate after a video went viral of a dog walker pushing a woman on a bicycle into a Manchester, England canal, saying it’s a pity she didn’t drown.

A bicycle advocate argues that this didn’t happen in a vacuum, and was a direct result of the anti-bike rhetoric spewed by the paper.

………

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

New York bike riders are feeling dangerously squeezed between parked and moving cars after the mayor fulfilled his promise to rip out a protected bike lane.

Halifax, Nova Scotia residents were overwhelmingly in favor of a plan to convert a street to one way to make room for bike lanes, even though the bike lane-hating provincial premier wants to reverse the decision.

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

An 83-year old New York man was sucker punched directly in the face by a man on a bikeshare bike, for no apparent reason.

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Local 

The West Hollywood City Council will consider design options for deadly Fountain Ave at the September 15th council meeting, after the City Manager recommended interim improvements; that will follow the August 19th Fountain Avenue Streetscape Project public meeting at the Plummer Park Community Center.

 

State

San Diego’s public television station wants to know if you or your kid, or anyone you know, has been involved in an ebike crash.

Tragic news from Oregon, where Cypress, California resident Justin Jay Little was killed by a driver while reportedly riding his bicycle in the fast lane on Interstate 5 near Sutherlin.

Caltrans released a new bike plan for state roadways in the Bay Area, including expanding the bike lanes on the Bay Bridge that currently come to an ignominious end halfway across.

More tragic news, this time from Sacramento, where two families are in mourning because a pair of 17-year old girls were killed by a hit-and-run driver while riding their bikes home after visiting the uncle of one of the girls; police arrested a 71-year old Fair Oaks man, accusing him of being drunk and driving a stolen car at the time of the crash.

 

National

Your next cargo bike could come from Target and sell for less than $500. Or maybe a lot less.

People For Bikes considers the role local bike shops play in creating great places to ride.

Note to Hays, Kansas Post — If a shooting victim collapses and dies after riding his bike away from the scene of the crime, “escaped” may not be the appropriate word.

Surveillance video shows the moments leading up to a crash where a Florida sheriff’s deputy killed a 79-year old bicyclist, but fortunately, not the crash itself.

 

International

Seriously? A prolific bike thief in the UK walked without a day behind bars, despite hitting a man with a wheel after he tracked his stolen bike to the thief’s bicycle chop shop, and “inflicting grievous bodily harm without intent.” Although whacking someone with a bike wheel would seem to suggest intent, but what the hell do I know?

That’s more like it. A British appeals court increased the sentence for a South London bus driver who killed an eight-year old girl riding a bicycle on the sidewalk, while driving with three-times the legal limit for weed in his system; the man was resentenced to six years and eight months behind bars after the prosecutor argued the original four-year sentence was too lenient. And yes, they can do that there. 

No surprise here. The Italian Cycling Federation blamed a jump in bicycling deaths on impatient drivers who can’t stand to slow down for bicyclists.

The Financial Times examines how Italy’s Colnago became the Ferrari of bicycling.

A South African newspaper says road cycling is dying, and roadies as endangered as the rhino.

A Kiwi coroner concluded that a 19-year old woman on a bicycle was killed because authorities put cars first during road repair work.

 

Competitive Cycling

Once again, a cyclist crashed and burned while celebrating his victory before crossing the finish line, this time a junior rider at the Iraqi Clubs Cycling Championship; needless to say, he didn’t win.

 

Finally…

Buzzards and badgers and bats, oh my! Sorry I ran over your arm, mate.

And that feeling when your ultra cycling event is unexpectedly cut short by 100 mph winds.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

Man on bicycle killed by driver while riding on I-5 in National City; 7th SoCal bike rider killed in last 15 days

For God’s sake, make it stop, already.

For the seventh time in just over two weeks, someone riding a bicycle has been killed on the mean streets of Southern California.

Or a freeway, in this case.

According to multiple sources, a man on a bicycle was killed when he was struck by a driver while riding on southbound Interstate 5 in National City around 1 am Wednesday.

The Times of San Diego places the location near the mouth of the Sweetwater River, while other sources locate it near the Mile of Cars.

The victim, who has not been publicly identified, died at the scene.

The driver remained following the crash, and cooperated with investigators. Police do not believe that person was under the influence, while a toxicology report for the victim is pending.

There’s no word at this time whether the victim was riding in the traffic lanes or on the shoulder of the freeway. There’s also no information on why he was on the freeway, or whether it is legal in that area; generally, bicycles are prohibited from limited access highways in California if there is an alternate route, which would seem to be the case here.

Anyone with information is urged to call the CHP San Diego Area at 858/293-6000.

This is at least the 32nd bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the seventh that I’m aware of in San Diego County.

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

Update: 20-year old surfer Kolby Aipa dies three days after Huntington Beach ebike crash; grandson of legendary “surf royalty”

As if the news hasn’t been bad enough lately, now we’re learning that the grandson of a surf legend has died following an ebike crash.

According to the Daily Pilot, the victim, identified as 20-year old Huntington Beach resident Kolby Aipa, died three days after he was struck by a car that had been towing him on PCH.

The crash occurred around 10:08 p.m. Saturday night, near Seapoint Street and Pacific Coast Highway in Huntington Beach.

Aipa was taken to UCI Medical Center suffering from critical injuries, where he was placed on life support. His family’s business posted online that he died Tuesday afternoon.

Surfer writes that Aipa was heir to “surf royalty,” the grandson of legendary surfer, board shaper and surfing coach Ben Aipa, a member of both the Surfing Walk of Fame and Surfers’ Hall of Fame. He was the inventor of the groundbreaking Sting surfboard design.

According to the magazine,

Following in his strong surfing lineage, Kolby was an up-and-coming surfer himself. He was sponsored by the clothing brand AVVA, Dakine, Cobian footwear, and others. He was a member of the Huntington Beach Board Riders club…

A memorial paddle-out for Kolby is being planned; stay tuned for more information.

There’s no word on why Aipa was being towed by a car, which was driven by people he knew. However, it’s possible that his ebike battery had died, and he was being towed rather than pedaling a heavy bike.

Or it could have just been an ill-advised stunt.

According to a crowdfunding campaign in his honor,

Kolby always had a way with touching the lives of whoever he met. His acts of kindness and caring was his gift of Aloha to friends and strangers alike. To everyone that reads this…pass his Aloha on. So, how Kolby treated you, treat others in that same way…

In this you are continuing his legacy of Aloha.

As of this writing, the campaign has raised nearly $69,000 of the $75,000 goal.

This is at least the 31st bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the just the third that I’m aware of in Orange County.

Update: According to My News LA, Aipa was holding onto a Toyota Tacoma pickup being driven south on PCH — a practice known as skitching — when the driver somehow lost control of the truck, leading to their collision.

There should be no need to point out how dangerous that can be. 

My deepest sympathy and prayers for Kolby Aipa and his loved ones.

Move along, nothing to see here — critical care edition

My apologies.

My wife suffered a medical emergency Monday morning. Fortunately, she made it to the hospital on time, and her doctors say she’s going to be okay.

However, I’m exhausted after spending all day at the hospital, and writing about Monday’s bicycling death in Chula Vista after I got home.

So no update for Tuesday. I’ll try to catch up on anything we missed tomorrow.

Ebike rider killed by San Diego MTS Blue Line trolley in Chula Vista early Monday afternoon

The deadly toll affecting bike riders on Southern California streets continued in Chula Vista Monday afternoon.

Although this time, the killer wasn’t in a mobile vehicle.

It was a San Diego trolley.

According to multiple sources, the victim was riding an ebike across the Blue Line tracks near Moss Street and Industrial Blvd, when they were struck by the operator of a northbound trolley operated by the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System, or MTS, around 12:44 pm.

According to a witness, the victim was thrown “at least” seven or eight feet into the air by the impact of the crash. Afterwards, investigators focused on what appeared to be a backpack worn by the victim, as well as the shattered pieces of the bike.

There’s no word at this time about the identity of the victim, or whether the crossing gates were working at the time of the crash.

As the witness, Caleb Reyes, told San Diego’s NBC7, always look both ways before crossing any kind of street, pathway or railroad track.

And never, ever ignore railroad warning signals or ride around lowered crossing gates, regardless of whether you think the train has stopped or the danger has passed.

Because there’s a good chance you might be wrong.

This is at least the 30th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the sixth that I’m aware of in San Diego County.

My deepest sympathy and prayers for the victim and their loved ones.

Conservative writer says there’s no such thing as a bike community, and LADOT wants your input on Spring & Alameda

Day 216 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

It’s always the ones who claim to ride a bike.

Or in this case, an adult tricycle, when his knees got too bad for a ‘bent.

A writer for the conservative American Thinker takes issue with a recent Cycling Weekly story, in which a self-identified fat Black woman said “You can’t call yourself a cycling community without fat Black women.”

But he not only takes issue with including fat Black women in the bicycling community, but with the very idea of a bicycling community, period.

By Mike McDaniel’s perspective, unless you’re actively engaged in some form of competition, we’re all just a bunch of individuals riding bikes for our own personal reasons.

Just when you think this kind of manufactured nonsense is on its deathbed, Cycling Weekly resurrects it. We’ve been told “silence is violence,” and so is pretty much everything else. Now we learn unless the cycling “community” “centers” fat black women, that community is “participating in exclusion.” Do we need to buy bikes and other cycling gear for fat black women too? How about old white guys riding old recumbents? And fine, I’ll tell a story: I read about a fat black woman who started riding bikes. Good for her. The end.

That’s a leftist view of reality, where it’s all about one’s identity, which must not only be noticed, but praised. In real reality, one doesn’t join a bicycling “community” by riding a bike. There are people with shared biking interests, largely defined by their machines, abilities and participation in types of competition. Beyond that, no one much cares about anyone not in those particular, narrowly defined interest groups.

Then again, he also has something to say about breasts, which he claims to know something about — and Sydney Sweeney’s in particular.

Oh, and he’s not a Nazi.

Good to know.

Iresha Picot’s point isn’t wasn’t identity politics, though, or some sort of DEI for the bicycling community.

It wasn’t even about fat Black women. Or whether or not there really is some sort of bike community.

It’s that our streets — and our preferred form of recreation and transportation — has to be safe and welcoming for everyone, including those on the margins, who you don’t normally see descending at 30 mph on the club rides.

And if you’re not intentionally including everyone, you are by default excluding some, whether they’re fat and Black, poor and Latino, handicapped, old or just puttering along on an old cruiser bike.

It’s a fair point.

I’ve learned over the years that the biking community includes people of every shape, color and description.

Some who charge up and down hills on carbon racing bikes, and some who ride, well, trikes.

It’s not about politics, identity or otherwise.

And it sure as hell isn’t about Sydney Sweeney. Or her breasts.

Photo: Bikes belonging to the non-existent bike community line the street.

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BikeLA, formerly the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, reminds us that LADOT wants your input on bike safety upgrades on Spring and Alameda streets in DTLA.

https://twitter.com/heybikela/status/1951325962316161423

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Bike Talk talks about the provincial and old-fashioned views that block progress on streets where people are dying from cars.

Suburban, provincial, old fashioned views often block progress on streets where people are dying from cars. soundcloud.com/biketalk/253… #bikesky @transalt.org@cycletoronto.bsky.social@mlongfield.bsky.social@lintonjoe.bsky.social@bikinginla.bsky.social@streetopia.bsky.social@openplans.org

Bike Talk (@biketalk.bsky.social) 2025-08-02T22:07:47.532Z

………

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

It’s been a long time since we’ve heard from bike writer esteemed Elly Blue, who rebuts the pervasive, and completely untrue, myth that bike riders don’t pay for the roads.

No bias here. A motorist in Killarney, Ireland was “irked” to actually have to slow down for a few moments because a bicyclist was riding in the traffic lane, right next to a new raised bike lane that had been built “at enormous expense.” Even though a photo clearly shows several bike riders were already using it, and the only way to get around them was to take to the street — never mind that he was hugging the curb, and would have been easy to pass.

………

Local 

Streetsblog editor Joe Linton says the new Metro Bike bikeshare contract remains up in the air and operating on a month-to-month basis, following a “twice-botched process.”

 

State

Laguna Beach is looking for a location to build a proposed pump track.

A New York website remembers the 28-year old former Central New York man and current San Francisco bike mechanic who gave his life to protect a group of women and children from an attacker at a transit station.

 

National

Cycling West says the Trump administration’s efforts to slash environmental rules could make it easier and faster to build bike lanes, but could wreak havoc on the natural world, all while GOP budget cuts are hurting bicycling.

This is the cost of traffic violence. A 19-year old Albuquerque, New Mexico woman became the third employee of the city’s bicycle safety center to be killed by drivers in the last two years — two years to the day after a 64-year old man was killed riding his bike home from working at the center.

Now you, too, can star in a commercial for an ebike brand. But you have to live in Idaho.

Speaking of Cycling West, a writer for the website travels to Austin, Texas to find out how the 900-member Breakfast Club became the world’s largest weekly group ride.

The St. Louis edition of the World Naked Bike Ride brought “bikes, butts and body positivity” to the protest against car culture.

You know they’re doing something right when a Maine neighborhood bike parade and ice cream social returns for the 25th straight year.

A New Hampshire writer says riders of a certain age may be too old for the Tour de France, but can still take part in the “Tour de Pharmacy” to manage their aches and pains. Then again, there are those who say the Tour de France was, and possibly still is, a Tour de Pharmacy.

More than 6,000 people took part in two-day Massachusetts fundraising ride benefitting the Dana-Faber Cancer Institute; despite raising $53 million, the fund drive was still $23 million short of the $76 million goal.

 

International

Writing for Cycling Weekly, a male bicyclist says he was praised for “looking like a real athlete” when he was actually suffering from anorexia.

The Royal Canadian Mounties are looking for a 66-year old Manitoba man who disappeared on Friday while riding his bike.

Canada’s CTV looks at where things stand, and what comes next, in the seemingly endless battle over Toronto’s protected bike lanes, which city officials want to keep, and Ontario provincial officials want to rip out.

A Toronto couple who run a custom bicycle painting shop not only got their stolen bikes back after setting up a sting for the thief, but got a “heartfelt apology,” too.

An English man was planning to ride nearly a thousand miles on a fundraising bike ride, just two years after he was nearly killed when he was stuck by a hearse driver.

Life is cheap in Ireland, where an 82-year old woman got off with fine and lost her license for killing a 78-year old man riding a bicycle, once again raising the question of how old is too old to safely drive a car. And no, I don’t want to see an octogenarian go to the gaol, either. But still. 

A Vietnamese resort will pedal a bike to your suite and make the country’s celebrated coffee for you in person.

 

Competitive Cycling

Pauline Ferrand-Prevot cemented her domination of French cycling, as the Paris Olympic champ demolished her competition in the Alps to win the first Tour de France Femmes for the country, as well.

 

Finally…

Beyonce’s husband is one of us. That feeling when you get tackled by a cop mid-wheelie.

And when you’re carrying over an ounce-and-a-half of meth on your bike, maybe try riding on the right side of the road.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin.