Archive for General

Highlights from Sunday’s Melrose CorgLAvia

The good news is, we enjoyed a great CicLAvia on Sunday.

The bad news is, yet another of the many joys of diabetes is that I just don’t bounce back afterwards anymore. Or maybe I’m just getting old.

One way or another, I’m way too wiped out to work.

So enjoy a few pictures from our Sunday CicLAvia experience, highlighting lowriders both wheeled and otherwise, Melrose murals, pedicab rides, and Queen’s Best Stumpy Dog Rescue.

So in our case, maybe it was more of a CorgLAvia.

We’ll be back tomorrow to catch up with everything we missed, after I get a little sleep.

Okay, a lot of sleep.

Move along, nothing to see here — migraine edition

I’m down for the count with a killer migraine. We’ll be back tomorrow, if my head doesn’t explode.

LA Times endorses Healthy Streets LA initiative in March vote, and SCAG to study turning highways into boulevards

Stop what you’re doing and sign this petition demanding a public meeting with LA Mayor Karen Bass to hear the dangers we face just walking and biking on the mean streets of Los Angeles.

Then share it — and keep sharing it — with everyone you know, on every platform you can.

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Big news for the coming March election, as the Los Angeles Times has joined a broad range of community groups to endorse the Healthy Streets LA initiative.

Frustrated by the lack of political will and bureaucracy, street safety advocates collected enough signatures to put Healthy Streets LA, or Measure HLA, on the March ballot. The initiative would force the city to carry out the improvements in the Mobility Plan. Any time city departments repave at least one-eighth of a mile of street, they would have to add the improvements outlined in the plan, whether bike lanes, bus lanes, pedestrian enhancements or fixes to ease vehicle traffic.

This makes sense. When city crews have to repaint the lines when repaving a street, why not restripe the roads according to the Mobility Plan at the same time? Yet in a city as large as Los Angeles, making this a smooth process is not always easy. The multiple departments responsible for street paving, engineering and transportation safety struggle to coordinate and have missed opportunities to install Mobility Plan projects. The mandate of Measure HLA would, ideally, prompt City Hall to better organize street work programs and make Mobility Plan improvements a part of routine road maintenance.

The paper concludes their editorial this way.

Measure HLA has broad support among neighborhood councils, environmental, labor and business groups. Their members understand that Los Angeles needs to evolve into a city that is safer for pedestrians, bicyclists, transit users and, yes, even motorists. The plan recognizes that Angelenos will still drive — it includes 80 miles of streets that are prioritized for vehicle travel and projects that help drivers maintain safe, consistent speeds and reliable travel times.

The rising number of traffic deaths is a preventable tragedy. Voters have the power to make Los Angeles’ streets safer. Vote yes on Measure HLA.

I couldn’t agree more.

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The Southern California Association of Governments, aka SCAG, has received a federal grant to study the possibility of removing some SoCal highways, and possibly converting them to boulevards.

They could start with the proposal to remove the purposeless 90 Freeway stub, and converting it to housing and a Marina Central Park.

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29 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And 30 months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law, and counting.

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

San Diego police arrested 32-year old Alvaro Jovani Lopez for torching the Mission Valley memorial for fallen bicyclist and father Matt Keenan, destroying a banner and Keenan’s ghost bike; they found Lopez already behind bars for a parole violation. No reason was given for his dastardly deed.

Life is cheap in Wisconsin, where a Madison man who strung wire across a bike bridge, nearly decapitating a bike rider, walked with a gentle caress on the wrist when the judge sentenced him to a lousy four years probation.

No bias here. Underground hip-hop artist Gorilla Nems, aka Travis Doyle, took out his anger on New York’s Complete Street transformation over the past decade or so, telling a podcast host “Fuck bike lanes…this ain’t Copenhagen,” while instructing his followers to ignore walk signals and just cross the street anytime they want, after looking both ways.

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

A 59-year old New York woman has emerged from a months-long coma after she was struck by a bikeshare rider as she was crossing the street; a 62-year old man was ticketed for riding salmon and running a red light.

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Local 

The Metro board delayed a vote to award Metro Bike management to Lyft, after ride hail drivers and delivery riders teamed with bikeshare workers to protest the proposed contract. But you’ll have to subscribe the Daily News or find a way around the paper’s draconian paywall if you want to read about it.

Glendale residents complained they were left out of the decision making process for the city’s new bike plan, even though they say they’ll be directly affected by a proposed bike path.

 

State

Police in Huntington Beach are using bait bikes to bust bike thieves. Something the LAPD still won’t do over fears they’ll be accused of entrapment.

They get it, sort of. A Simi Valley paper says safety is a two-way street, but drivers shoulder most of the responsibility to look out for vulnerable bike riders. Although they should go to cliche jail for trotting out the tired two-way street metaphor.

Oakland got a clear message to fix their crumbling roads, when the city agreed to a $6.5 million settlement with a woman who was paralyzed when her bike hit a pothole.

Six Santa Rosa teenagers were arrested for stabbing a 41-year old man to steal his bicycle last week.

 

National

The 18-year old Las Vegas man accused of deliberately killing former Bell police chief Andreas Probst in a hit-and-run last year is now facing an attempted murder charge in a separate case for the gang stabbing of a Las Vegas man.

Life is cheap in Indiana, where a woman faces just a year behind bars after confessing to a hit-and-run that left a bike-riding man with multiple broken bones.

That’s more like it. Instead of fighting bike infrastructure, residents of Brooklyn’s Prospect Park neighborhood are actually calling on the mayor to finish a new bike boulevard.

An “avid” New York bicyclist tells tourists the best routes for exploring the city by bicycle.

They get it, sort of, too. New York officials unveiled a new campaign encouraging bike riders to be more courteous and look out for pedestrians, while admitting that drivers pose the real danger to people walking.

Bike advocates say New York has a new “Boulevard of Death,” marking the failure of the city’s Vision Zero program after ten years.

A former Maryland Director of Planning and Zoning was indicted for the alleged drunken hit-and-run that killed a bike-riding man.

A North Carolina paper examines how bike riders and pedestrians are coping with the added danger as more drivers take to local roads.

 

International

Road.cc asks bike experts if the switch to internal cables has been worth it. Meanwhile, Cycling Weekly takes up the burning topic of whether bike bells really have a useful reason to exist.

The violin belonging to a British musician was somehow reconstructed, despite being broken into over 100 pieces when he was hit by a bus while riding a bicycle; unfortunately, he wasn’t as lucky, losing a leg as a result of the crash.

A new Danish study examines how the country encouraged greater bike helmet usage without mandating them.

A new United Arab Emirates bike ride took bicyclists through all seven emirates in seven days.

Adding insult to literal injury, an American tourist was fined for illegally stepping into the path of an ebike rider — while he was in a coma as a result of the collision; the ticket was withdrawn after he hired a lawyer to fight it.

 

Competitive Cycling

The future of the Tour of Britain, the Women’s Tour and other British races could be in doubt because the organizer of the races entered liquidation proceedings, after losing their license to conduct the races over an unpaid fee totaling the equivalent of over $884,000.

Australian pro Luke Plapp was left with a shredded kit and some truly ugly road rash after a nasty fall on a descent in the Tour Down Under.

Aussie sprinter Sam Welsford celebrated his 28th birthday by winning his third stage at the Tour Down Under on Friday. Today’s race was conducted yesterday, because they live in the future down there. 

 

Finally…

It’s hard to use a bike lane that’s blocked by a shitload of sugar beets. Stealing bikeshare bikes back from the thieves who stole them. A micro musette for mademoiselle et monsieur

And we may have to deal with rubbernecking drivers, but at least we don’t have to worry about nuzzling giraffes.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

Move along, nothing to see here — shot in the eye edition

My apologies.

I was hoping to have a new post today.

But I haven’t responded well after getting another shot in my eye to control diabetic bleeding in the retina yesterday. And after trying to write, it’s just too much strain on my eye.

So I’m going to get some sleep, and hopefully I’ll be doing better by the time you read this.

It’s another reminder that diabetes sucks, and you really don’t want this shit. So watch out for the warning signs, and get yourself tested if you’re at risk.

Because this really isn’t fun.

We’ll be back tomorrow to catch up on whatever we’ve missed the past couple days.

Move along, nothing to see here

Due to another commitment, I won’t be posting a new Morning Links for Tuesday.

But barring any unexpected developments, we’ll be back bright and early Wednesday to catch up on anything we missed.

Like what may or may not have been Southern California’s first bicycling death of the year, because the victim may or may not have been riding a bike.

Either way, SoCal’s killer highway has claimed yet another life.

Or three.

Thank You, and Happy New Year!

No charges for killing 2 AZ bike riders and injuring 19, more on charges in Boyes killing; and DUI murder in Solano County

It’s the First Day of the Last Month of the 9th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive!

We’re already way ahead of last year at this time, both in the number of donations and the amount of donations!

So please join me in thanking D-J H and Stephen H, who gave yesterday.

And each of the other 35 people who’ve so kindly opened their hearts and wallets to help keep Southern California’s best source for bike news and advocacy coming your way every day. 

So what are you waiting for? Give now!

………

Rght after begging for your hard-earned money may not be the best time to mention that I’ll be tied up with a family matter over the weekend, so there won’t be a new BikinginLA post on Monday.

But we’ll be back bright and early on Tuesday to catch up on anything we missed over the weekend.

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You’ve got to be kidding.

Life is cheap in Arizona, where a Phoenix DA has declined to file felony charges against the driver who slammed into an entire group of bicyclists, killing two people and injuring 19 others.

Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell refused to file charges against 26-year old Pedro Quintana-Lujan, saying there was no evidence he was speeding, distracted or under the influence of alcohol, though he did still have cannabis in his system from the night before.

Because evidently, that’s the only way someone can be responsible for killing two innocent people, and mowing down a group of people on bicycles like an overgrown lawn.

Quintana-Lujan told investigators his steering locked up and he was unable to control his pickup, which was pulling a trailer at the time of the crash. Although you’d think a forensic examination of the truck would be able to determine whether that was true.

Mitchell tried to position her lack of action as a refusal to let the case go by referring it to the city prosecutor in Goodyear AZ, where the crash occurred.

However, that means Quintana-Lujan could be charged with just a misdemeanor, at best, making the whole damn thing just another fatal “oopsie.”

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More on the 81-year old driver charged with DUI and involuntary manslaughter for killing US Masters track champ and national record holder Ethan Boyes earlier this year.

San Francisco resident Arnold Kinman Low faces federal charges because Boyes was riding on Arguello Blvd in Presidio National Park when Low lost control of his car, and hit Boyes head-on as he rode in an unprotected bike lane.

In addition to the recently installed guard rails separating the bike lane from traffic lanes in the park where Boyes was killed, San Francisco has secured $1.2 million in funding to install protected bike lanes connecting Golden Gate Park and The Presidio.

Normally I say that once again raises the question of how old is too old to drive safely, but the allegation that Low was under the influence probably had more to do with his deadly driving skills than his advanced age, although there’s no word yet on just how drunk he was.

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A 47-year old Solano County driver faces a murder charge for the alleged drunken hit-and-run that killed a bike rider in Fairfield last year.

Witnesses testified at a preliminary hearing this week that Sean Richard Miron crashed into another vehicle as he fled the scene of the original crash, leaving Suisun City resident Christopher Blake Sudat lying in the roadway next to his shattered bicycle.

Miron was detained, along with his passenger, at the second crash, where officers said he appeared to be under the influence. Police also recovered a semi-automatic pistol with an illegal threaded barrel from Miron’s pickup, even though he was barred from having a weapon as a convicted felon.

He faces the murder count due to three prior DUI convictions, suggesting he likely signed a Watson advisement indicating he could be charged with murder if he killed someone while driving under the influence.

However, even without that, his prior convictions indicate he was well aware of the dangers of driving while intoxicated before he sat down behind the wheel that night.

Miron faces charges of murder, hit-and-run causing death, hit-and-run driving resulting in property damage, being a felon in possession of a firearm, and possession of an assault weapon.

Then again, if Miron had been charged in Southern California, he could probably plead out on a misdemeanor and walk with time served.

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

A driver in Boston’s South End parked in the bike lane, leaving a note tucked under his windshield wiper reading, “I don’t care that I’m parked in a bike lane. Just go around me!!” To which bike-riding commenters to the local website responded both emphatically and poetically.

A “mean spirited” saboteur continues to put bike riders outside a London subway station at deliberate risk by tossing thumb tacks in a protected bike lane — and has somehow managed to go uncaught for the past two years. Although we can probably surmise that police indifference could be the likely cause for why they’ve gotten away with it so long.  

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

A Florida city manager is asking for the public’s understanding after he wrecked his bike following a night of drinking. Although I’d much rather see a drunk on a bicycle than behind the wheel of a multi-ton vehicle.

Scofflaw bike riders in Salisbury, England are accused of “endangering the public and traffic” by riding salmon on a one-way street, which local police called “incredibly dangerous.” Although how traffic can be endangered is beyond me. 

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Local 

Um, okay. The Journal of the Congress for the New Urbanism examines the successful Move Culver City project, calling the 1.3-mile bus lane and bike lane installation the first quick build Tactical Urbanism project in the Los Angeles area — without mentioning that the newly conservative city council voted to rip it out, or that the city is being sued to keep that from happening.

The San Gabriel Valley Tribune says freeway cams counted 45,000 people taking part in the all-too-brief Arroyo Fest that shut the Pasadena Freeway down to cars, and opened it up to people on foot, skates and bikes.

Pasadena police will mark today’s first day of December with a bicycle and pedestrian safety operation, ticketing anyone who commits a traffic violation that could endanger either group — even if it’s the bike rider or pedestrian who commits it. So as usual, ride to the letter of the law until you leave the city, or you could be the one who gets a ticket.

 

State

The California Coastal Commission is standing in the way of traffic safety in San Diego, stalling the installation of bike lanes on a deadly Point Loma roadway.

An emergency inter-agency operation was mounted to save the life of a mountain biker who suffered life-threatening injuries in the remote mountains of Boulevard, California last Friday, requiring the services of the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office, US Border Patrol, a San Diego Air and Marine Operations helicopter, and CalFire to bring the victim out to safety. So remote, in fact, that I’ve never hear of Boulevard before. 

A San Francisco bar owner blames the installation of the centerline Valencia Street protected bike lane for the demise of his 150-year old subterranean establishment, suggesting the loss of parking and reduced foot traffic resulted in an 80% drop in revenue. And not, a business model resulting in a bar that no one wants to go to if it means being slightly inconvenienced.

 

National

Bicycling reports that Portland’s MADE Bike Show will be back next year, promising to be even larger than this year’s 200 exhibitors and 5,000 attendees. As usual, read it on Yahoo if the magazine blocks you. 

An Arizona man reminisces about his life on two wheels, and dreams of coming back in the next life to live and ride in Amsterdam. But it’s the archival photo of young boys riding for Western Union that’s worth the click.

In a big win for injured bike riders, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled that pedestrians and bicyclists must be covered by the uninsured motorist provision in their auto insurance if they’re stuck by an uninsured driver while walking or biking.

Call it the new normal. New York City landlords are banning ebikes from their properties to prevent fires, even though only certain lithium-ion batteries, or batteries with mismatched chargers, are at risk.

 

International

Momentum explains what daylighting intersections means, and how it enhances the safety of bicyclists. Governor Newsom signed a daylighting bill passed in the last legislative session, which will require open spaces on the curbs near intersections to improve visibility.

A 23-year old Florida woman thanked first responders in the Bahamas for saving her life after she rode her bike off an embankment in Walker’s Cay earlier this year, saying the moon and the stars aligned to enable her to survive.

A pair of London teenagers have been convicted of murdering an 18-year old man as he rode his bike to see his girlfriend; a then 14-year old boy, who can’t be named because of his age under British law, killed the victim with a machete in an apparent attempt to steal his bicycle.

While US traffic deaths continue to climb, Great Britain saw a significant decline in bicycling fatalities, with deaths dropping nearly 25% over the past year. Which is more evidence that the dangers on American roads are due to official indifference, as other nations show that reducing deaths is possible when they’re willing to make the necessary changes.

A new Dutch AI tool can demonstrate how any street or neighborhood can be made more livable and bike-friendly.

Professors at a Zurich, Switzerland university are investigating what changes would be required to the city’s streets to encourage more ebike riding than driving.

 

Competitive Cycling

GCN asks if the high cost of entry to cycling is killing the sport. Maybe at the highest levels, but you can spend as much or as little as you want and still compete, if you’re willing to build your own bike and do your own wrenching. 

Cycling Weekly talks with newly retired time trial specialist Alex Dowsett about the moment he realized cycling was his sport when he was just 14.

A top amateur cyclist says British Cycling’s recent ban on transgender athletes competing in women’s bike racing events makes the sport is less inclusive and welcoming than ever by denying the identity of trans women as women; 31-year old Josh Jones is believed to be the only openly gay rider to hold a world ranking in any cycling discipline

 

Finally…

It’s time for Santas and elves on bikes. Why wait to run down a bicycle when you can kill it and the entire bike corral it’s locked to?

And forget bike skills, they’re probably better with a basketball than you are, too.

Or me, anyway.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

Forget Black Friday — It’s Day One of the 9th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive!

Welcome to the 9th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive!

The one time of year when we beg, plead and cajole to get you to give just a small part of your hard-earned cash to help keep all the best bike news and advocacy coming your way every day.

Sort of like the membership drive for your local public radio station, but just once a year, and we don’t interrupt the whole reason you come here just to harangue you for money.

Well, not much, anyway.

And you get cute corgi pictures, real and otherwise. So that’s a plus.

The money you give helps cover the costs of running this site throughout the year, and tide us over until our sponsors start to renew in the spring.

Not to mention keep that corgi down there in kibble.

It couldn’t be easier to donate with just a few clicks via PayPal. Or by using the Zelle app that is probably already in the banking app on your smartphone; just send your contribution to ted@bikinginla.com.

Every donation is very needed and deeply appreciated, no matter how large or small; I know just how hard it can be to give on a limited budget.

So don’t wait. Give now, whatever you can.

And thank you.

 

 

Move along, nothing to see here — Update: two bad eyes edition

“It’s always darkest before it turns absolutely pitch black.”

— Paul Newman

Actually, things are finally looking up with my scratched cornea. It’s slowly healing, and improving a little more every day.

The problem is, I have two eyes.

And the other one is recovering now after getting an injection in the eye to address a bleeding retina caused by diabetes.

Yes, I said in the eye.

So now I’m dealing with two balky, blurry eyes that can read the headlines, but can’t make out much of anything underneath.

As a result, I’m going to take the rest of the week off to rest my eyes and try to get my eyesight back to normal. Or whatever passes for normal these days.

We’ll be back bright and early Monday morning to catch up on all the weekend news.

Move along, nothing to see here — scratched cornea edition

If it ain’t one damn thing, it’s another.

I managed to survive my birthday, but woke up Saturday with corgi hair in my eye. By the time they finally got it out at urgent care, my cornea was scratched so badly I can’t a thing.

This included, so if I screw something up, please forgive me.

Hopefully, my sight will clear up and we’ll be back tomorrow. If not, we’ll be back once I can see again.

In the meantime, take advantage of this great weather and get out for a ride.