Archive for Morning Links

Arrest in South LA hit-and-run of 15-year old bike rider, and bike-riding teens swarm market and assault gay couple in car

April 24, 2025 / / No comments
Day 114 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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They got one, for once.

The CHP announced an arrest in the hit-and-run crash that injured a 15-year old boy as he rode his bicycle on a South LA sidewalk.

The driver, identified only as Krunal Jigneshbhai Dhanani, faces felony hit-and-run charges for driving up on the sidewalk and hitting the kid, in what appeared to be an intentional act.

But police evidently didn’t think so, because it wasn’t charged that way.

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It’s happened again.

A mob of around 30 bike-riding teens swarmed a grocery store near USC, before assaulting a gay couple and hurling homophobic slurs.

The teenaged boys, who looked to be middle school-aged, rode up to the Ralphs market on South Vermont Ave around 4:30 Saturday afternoon, running out with bottled cocktails, Gatorade and other items.

At least one of the boys was pepper sprayed by a security guard, after the kids threw things at store employees.

They then swarmed the gay couple as they tried to enter their car and drive off, honking their horn to clear the way, as the kids shouted slurs.

After one of the boys slammed himself on the side of their car, the couple got out holding pepper spray and a stun gun, chasing the group off before they approached once again, hitting the car window with a rock as they drove off.

This follows numerous other similar robberies where kids would ride up to a store on their bikes before swarming the aisles, overwhelming the staff and emptying shelves.

There have also been at least three instances of teen bike riders swarming cars and attacking the vehicles and their drivers.

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The LAPD has identified the suspect accused of riding his bicycle through DTLA while chopping down trees with an electric chainsaw.

According to the Los Angeles Times, 45-year old Samuel Patrick Groft was taken into custody about 90 minutes after police released a flyer with pictures of the then-unknown suspect.

Groft stands accused of felony vandalism for chopping down at least 13 trees in less than ten days in downtown Los Angeles, as well Glassell Park and Westlake.

Eight of the those trees were estimated to be worth $347,000.

Groft has an extensive record, including DUI, assault with a deadly weapon, vandalism and a hit-and-run. He has been living on a streets for several years, and was found with the chainsaw in his possession.

In California, felony vandalism carries a penalty of up three years behind bars and a fine of up to $50,000 if the damage exceeds $10,000.

Which means if the DA charges each tree as a separate crime, Groft could be looking at more than three decades behind bars, and $650,000 in fines.

Good luck collecting that.

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Hats off to the The San Fernando Sun, which appears to be the only Los Angeles news source that bothered to report on the Griffith Park protest marking the third anniversary of the fatal, high-speed hit-and-run that killed 77-year-old cyclist Andrew Jelmert

The paper also noted the protesters’ complaints over red tape needlessly holding up the fully funded and shovel-ready safety improvements promised for the park.

Which are two more reasons — the lack of progress and news coverage — explaining why people continue to die on our streets.

And the latter has a lot to do with the former.

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Streets Are For Everyone, which held that Griffith Park protest, celebrates ten years of fighting for safer streets on July 12th.

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

It’s happened again, part two. A British ebike rider lost consciousness and suffered serious facial and eye injuries when he struck a rope that was deliberately strung across the trail he was riding on; police blamed a “group of youths” for the “deliberate and highly dangerous act” that could have led to “even more catastrophic” injuries.

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

A British man has been banned from bicycling for ten years and sentenced to 19 months behind bars, after failing to convince the court that riding his bike up behind women and grabbing their butts was a harmless prank, as opposed to serious sexual assault. Schmuck.

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Local 

Streetsblog explores a half-mile of new parking protected bike lanes on San Vicente in the Mid-City area.

Burbank invites you on a walking or biking tour to gather input for the Burbank Rancho Neighborhood Specific Plan on May 10th. Although it sounds like you’d be welcomed on horseback, too.

 

State

The Los Angeles Times examines the new process to apply for a California ebike incentive voucher this Tuesday.

Bingo. San Diego’s KGTV-10 says the city’s spending patterns shows its mobility priorities, spending three times more on repaving streets than it does on making them safer.

This is who we share the road with. A Fresno judge dismissed all the charges against a hit-and-run driver who ran down and killed a homeless woman, and dragged her body eight miles under his car — then ended up with permanent brain damage after jumping out of a top floor window trying to escape the police, leading the judge to rule he would never be competent to stand trial.

Alameda residents turned out to explore a pair of greenway popups slated for completion next year.

 

National

Um, sure, let’s go with that. Police arrested a Colorado man for attempting, and failing, to kidnap a 12-year old girl as she was bicycling with a friend, telling police he tried to stop the girl’s bike from falling, and she just happened to fall into his arms.

A Minnesota magazine considers the best biking apps and online communities, although the later has a distinctly Minnesota focus.

Streets Minnesota recommends this year’s “must-do” bike rides for the state.

If you’re missing a vintage bicycle from your childhood, you’ll have one last chance to buy it before a man who’s been restoring and selling them for the last 30 years holds his final bike auction. But you’ll have to go to, yes, Minnesota to buy one. 

Tennessee is putting old tires to use as armadillos marking a protected bike lane.

One of my pet peeves remains lazy headline writers, like the one who says a North Carolina man rode his bicycle 4,000 miles coast-to-coast “for” breast cancer, rather than to fight the disease. And yes, I acknowledge that peeves make lousy pets. 

 

International

Momentum recommends the best upright commuter bikes to sit up and enjoy the ride this spring, most of which clock in at under $600.

Bike Radar says no, gravel bikes will not replace endurance bikes.

A writer for the CNU Journal looks at the power of bicycles, especially ebikes, to transform 21st Century cities.

Velo takes you on a tour of Belgium’s bike-friendly culture, “exploring pathways, cafés, beer halls, and cycling museums” by city bike.

Clean Technica says a new “virtually bulletproof” ebike has the power to transform transportation in Africa.

Bicycling Australia marks Anzac Day, — an Aussie holiday commemorating the tragic WWI battle of Gallipoli — by considering the role of the “humble” bicycle in the war to end all wars, which didn’t.

 

Competitive Cycling

Say it ain’t so, Joe. Colombian cycling great and 1987 Spanish Vuelta champ Luis Alberto “Lucho” Herrera denied allegations that he was involved in the 2002 killing of four farmers who lived near him, allegedly hiring two ex-paramilitary men to kill the farmers because they wouldn’t sell their land to him.

No surprise here, as Slovenian cycling star Tadej Pogačar captured his second Flèche Wallonne by attacking on a steep climb, finishing 10 seconds ahead of France’s Kévin Vauquelin, with British rider Tom Pidcock in third; Dutch cyclist Puck Pieterse won the women’s Flèche, beating countrywoman Demi Vollering by two seconds, while Italy’s Elisa Longo Borghini came in third.

Cyclist looks forward to Sunday’s men’s and women’s Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

Motherhood is no longer a barrier to a successful cycling career.

 

Finally…

Forget bike lanes, now people are driving in underground bicycle parking garages. That feeling when you get a punishment pass from a fellow bicyclist in an empty bike lane

And your next bike could have big red balls instead of wheels, and go in any direction.

But if it’s a bicycle, why doesn’t it have any pedals?

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Earth Day bust for bike-riding DTLA tree-chopper, Culver City named eco-friendly city, & how to apply for CA ebike voucher

April 23, 2025 / / No comments
Day 113 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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They got him.

Just in time to celebrate Earth Day, the LAPD busted the bike-riding creep who allegedly used an electric chainsaw to fell at least five trees lining the streets of Downtown Los Angeles.

The suspect, who has not been publicly identified, was taken into custody sometime before 6:30 pm yesterday.

Hopefully we’ll learn more today.

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Congratulations to Culver City, which came in at number 14 on a list of the nation’s top eco-friendly cities for car-free travel.

Although I’m guessing that measure was taken before the city ripped out the protected bike lanes in the MOVE Culver City project.

The survey from Realtor.com and LocalLogic listed Hoboken, New Jersey number one; that city has now gone seven consecutive years without a traffic death, proving that Vision Zero can actually succeed with buy-in and funding from city officials.

Bay Area cities Berkeley, San Francisco and Emeryville also made the list.

Los Angeles didn’t, for obvious reasons.

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The California Ebike Incentive Project explained the rules for the second round of deliberately throttled ebike incentives planned for next week, including what documentation you’ll need and how to get it.

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A pair of bills sponsored by Streets For All moved forward in the state legislature, including one requiring speed limiters for repeat speeding drivers, and another streamlining the permit process for transit projects.

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A hard-hitting Bluesky thread from Dr. Grace Peng demonstrates why her South Bay commute is only for the brave; click through for the rest of the posts.

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

That feeling when the mere sight of the dotted white lines indicating a coming British bikeshare station replacing a handful of parking spaces is enough to send the local residents into apoplexy with shouts of the “war oscars.”

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Local 

A 14-year old boy was hospitalized after he was stuck by the driver of a minivan while riding a bicycle in Canyon Country Tuesday night.

Long Beach’s popular Beach Streets open streets event will shut down large parts of Willow Street and Santa Fe Ave to cars on Saturday, May 10th.

 

State

San Diego approved a sweeping master mobility plan designed to improve traffic safety and make the city less dependent on private cars and SUVs; according to one councilmember, the goal isn’t to mandate people out of their cars, but “incentivize it and plan for it through smart land-use decisions.”

The Palm Springs Historical Society wants to take you on a bike tour of the area’s Midcentury Modern neighborhoods, with four opportunities this week, for the low, low price of just $95 to (gulp) $950.

Speaking of Berkeley, the Bike East Bay advocacy group set up $6,000 worth of temporary pop-up bike lanes and other traffic calming measures to show how much nicer the city’s 9th Street could be without cut-through car traffic.

Sad news from the Bay Area, where a 44-year old East Oakland security guard was killed by a hit-and-run driver while riding his bicycle home from work, after getting off a BART train.

A teenage girl from Concord has been chosen to take part in the 1,000-mile Remember the Removal bicycle ride for members of the Cherokee nation, following that path of the horrific and shameful Trail of Tears.

More sad news, this time from Sacramento County, where a 63-year old man was killed in a collision while riding his bicycle.

 

National

Smithsonian considers what can be done to make ride hailing, bikeshare and other transportation options accessible to everyone.

Prospects are dimming for a long-promised bikeway connecting Albany and Corvallis, Oregon, with key sections of the 10-mile long bike path still unplanned and unfunded, eleven years after the project was first introduced.

Trump’s tariffs aren’t the only thing hurting the bike industry these days; bike burglars and hijackers are also leaving their mark, like whoever stole an entire truckload of bikes from Ari Bicycles on their way from Los Angeles to the company’s Utah warehouse.

A Colorado bikepacking bag maker still had to lay off workers because of Trump’s tariffs, despite sourcing almost all their materials from the US, because their suppliers had to get their materials from overseas.

I want to be like him when I grow up. A 92-year old South Dakota man started ebiking two years ago, and has clocked more than 2,000 miles.

Chicago bike and pedestrian advocates took advantage of a street construction project to turn the blocked street into a pedestrian plaza.

 

International

Momentum lists the top seven environmental benefits of bicycling for every day, including Earth Day.

An Ontario, Canada judge says “not so fast” to Premier Doug Ford’s plan to rip out some key Toronto bike lanes, ordering a temporary pause while he considers the evidence in the case.

London’s 138-year old cast iron Hammersmith Bridge is now open to bicycles and pedestrians following a near $4 million refurbishment project, though when or if the bridge will ever be open to cars again remains to be determined. Let’s hope not.

Good question. A physician in Cork, Ireland asks when will we take our heads out of the sand and realize that bicycles are the future of urban mobility.

A man from Spain’s Basque Country was killed, and his 14-year old son suffered a broken leg, when an allegedly stoned driver plowed a group ride near Calpe in southeastern Spain on Easter Sunday.

In another mass casualty crash, a Taiwanese driver plowed into a group of bicycling students, injuring seven bike riders, one seriously, while driving on the wrong side of the road.

Christchurch, New Zealand is cracking down on bike theft by focusing on the city’s most prolific bike thieves, including one man accused of stealing seven bikes in four days.

 

Competitive Cycling

Only one American man had as many Giro pink jerseys as the Pope did, and only two American men had as many rainbow jerseys; then again, along with his Catholic dogmas, he also had more Pinarello Dogmas than most of us, too.

If you read this early enough, you may still be able to catch the men’s La Flèche Wallonne on the Peacock streaming service starting at 3:45 am PDT, or the women’s race at 7:55 am.

It takes a major schmuck to steal a $150 bike intended for Indiana University’s  Little 500 from a student just days before the iconic race.

 

Finally…

Oh, nothing. Just a fine English chap riding a Penny Farthing through the South to honor another fine English chap on a Penny Farthing. That feeling when your heart goes pitter patter while trying to dock a bikeshare bike.

And hats off to the Irish triathlete busted for speeding on a bicycle in a 31 mph zone.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Bass risks bike safety with massive layoffs, Trump admin puts science-free brakes on road diets, and tariffs threaten bike world

April 22, 2025 / / One comment
Day 112 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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LA Mayor Karen Bass plans to fill the city’s massive budget hole with layoff notices.

She proposed kicking 1,647 city workers to the curb in her budget for the coming fiscal year, including nearly 100 cops, dropping the department to its lowest level in years.

However, the fire department will be spared in the wake of the massive Palisades fire with a 12.7% budget increase, including 277 new positions, as well as more paramedics, mechanics and fast response vehicles.

There are also plans to combine a handful of city departments, though not the needlessly siloed transportation and street services departments, which should work together to improve our streets, but usually don’t.

The shortfall was largely caused by years of ever-growing legal settlements, which shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who’s been paying attention to local news.

The budget originally called for twice as many layoffs, but the number was reduced in part by delaying capital improvement projects. Which could lead to even more of those legal settlements, depending on just what they decide to cut.

It’s also likely that at least some of those cuts will come from LADOT and Streets Services, which are already underfunded and understaffed — resulting in years-long delays in safety improvements that risk more lives, and even more of those legal settlements.

And which helped lead to the passage of Measure HLA last year, which aims to force the city to implement the safety improvements in the city’s mobility plan when streets are resurfaced.

Which will now need to be done over a longer period, with less money and fewer people.

Photo of Mayor Karen Bass from website for Mayor of Los Angeles.

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You’ve got to be kidding.

After years of research-backed recommendations that road diets improve traffic safety, the Trump administration is putting a heavy foot on the gas, somehow claiming they make the streets more dangerous, instead of safer.

But as usual, they offer no science to back it up.

According to the Associated Press,

Federal transportation officials once heralded road diets for cutting crashes by 19% to 47%, but criteria for an upcoming round of road safety grants say projects aimed at “reducing lane capacity” should be considered “less favorably,” the administration said.

Forcing travelers into more constrained spaces “can lead to crashes, erratic maneuvers, and a false sense of security that puts everyone at risk,” the U.S. Department of Transportation said in an email statement to The Associated Press. “The update reflects the Department’s concerns about the safety hazards associated with congestion.”

Again — and I can’t stress this enough — there is no research offered to back up that claim.

The AP goes on to add this.

Numerous other cities have credited road diets with improving safety.

Philadelphia cited a 19% drop in injury crashes. Portland, Oregon, saw a more than 70% decline in vehicles traveling at least 10 mph (16 kph) over the speed limit. The average speed in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, fell by 5 mph (8 kph) on some roads within months.

So rather than Making America Great Again, the administration’s plan appears to be more about keeping our streets dangerous, and dangerously auto-centric.

Meanwhile, taking a cue from Idaho, which just passed and signed a similar bill, a proposed Texas law would ban narrowing roadways to install bike and pedestrian infrastructure.

Or as one Idaho website so aptly put it, “New Idaho law treats cyclists and pedestrians like pests.”

All so drivers can continue to go zoom, zoom on every inch of road they currently enjoy.

Safety be damned.

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Still more tariff news.

Trek, State and Specialized responded to Trump’s tariffs by raising bike prices, while other brands are limiting US releases.

Colorado’s small outdoor manufacturers are “wilting” in the face of Trump’s trade wars, closing shop and laying off long-time workers.

An Aussie website says the entire bicycle industry is being “chilled” by Trump’s tariffs.

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Streetsblog spotted new bike lanes in the Arts District in DTLA.

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The first pedestrian-oriented CicLAmini of the year comes to Pico Blvd in Pico-Union on the 18th of next month.

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

In yet another case of anti-bike terrorism, someone deliberately placed large logs behind blind corners on Eugene, Oregon’s sole mountain bike-only trail, which appears to be an intentional attempt to injure trail riders. Or worse.

Once again, bike riders get the blame, as police in Boynton Beach, Florida offer safety advice for the people on two wheels in the face of a more than 50% increase in collisions involving bicyclists, while just giving drivers vague advice to “be more responsible.”

It’s anarchy in the UK, as a road-raging driver walked without a day behind bars for getting out of his van and punching a man on a bicycle in the face for the crime of riding in the roadway, as he shouted “There’s a fucking bike path over there;” he was sentenced to the equivalent of community service, and about about 180 bucks restitution for damage to the victim’s bike.

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Local 

Bike tour company Another Side of Los Angeles Tours has now suffered two break-ins in just the last month, with thieves using a brick to break a window and walk out with three ebikes worth up to a grand apiece.

Saturday is the last day to offer input on the SGV Greenway Network, which would place bike/walk paths on the upper shoulders of flood control channels in the San Gabriel Valley.

 

State

California drivers will now face stricter penalties for driving without insurance or under-insured, including fines topping $500, loss of driver’s license and impounding the vehicle. The last one is likely to have more impact, because $500 is a fraction of the annual cost of car insurance, and people drive without a license every day. But no one drives without a car.

Fresno is starting work on improving bike safety on three key corridors.

The wife of an 81-year old Palo Alto man has filed suit against the city, claiming he died after falling off his bicycle when he hit an unmarked open construction ditch on a roadway that was supposed to have been closed.

 

National

Now you can turn your old bike into a new ebike for as little as a hundred bucks.

A group of Washington bicyclists is riding ebikes from Seattle to the state capitol in Olympia to protest a new 10% surcharge on all ebike sales.

Bittersweet news from Las Vegas, where a 71-year old man who has dedicated more than a decade of his life to giving refurbished bikes to hundred of kids in need held one last giveaway, before closing up shop as he battles stage 4 prostate cancer.

No surprise here, as bicyclists in Tallahassee, Florida say they increasingly feel left behind and vulnerable. In other words, like bike riders in nearly every other American cities. Especially here in LA.

 

International

Cycling Weekly considers who, or what, wins the battle of the best do-it-all all-surface bikes.

About damn time. London has finally banned trucks that don’t offer clear sightlines to vulnerable road users. Now if only all the world’s other cities would follow suit — starting with this one.

Here’s another one for your bike bucket list, as a British writer recommends a multi-day gravel ride through Cornwall on the extreme southwestern tip of England, with its “sublime coastal gravel tracks, old mine ruins perched on the clifftops, gorgeous villages and ancient history,” all easily accessible from Penzance. No pirates, however. Unfortunately.

The parents of a fallen Dutch bicyclist are calling for stricter enforcement of the country’s bike paths, after their 12-year old daughter was killed by the driver of a Birò microcar while riding to dance class with two friends. Which is how I learned they even are a thing.  

Everything you always wanted to know about riding a bike in Luxembourg, but were afraid to ask.

About damn time, part two. Subaru is introducing the world’s first external airbags designed to protect bike riders in a crash; it works to keep bicyclists from smashing into the windshield by modifying a pedestrian-safety airbag that’s been available in the country since 2016, but oddly hasn’t even been offered an option in this country. Although it wouldn’t do a lot of good on American trucks and SUVs, with their grills too high to provide any protection.

 

Competitive Cycling

The Tour of the Alps paused for a moment of silence, along with all other Italian sporting events, to mark the death of Pope Francis, the first pope I’m aware of who rode a bicycle.

Pro cyclists have been shocked! shocked! by how quickly Remco Evenepoel has returned to form following major injuries from a December dooring, nearly winning Sunday’s Amstel Gold, before settling for third.

An Indiana website offers everything you need to know about Indiana University’s iconic Little 500 bike race.

 

Finally…

Now you, too, can turn your non-biking friends into your new riding companions. Why ride with one mirror on your helmet, when you can have two?

And when you’re carrying meth, coke, brass knuckles and a switchblade on your bike at night, put a damn taillight on it, already.

The bike, that is. Not the meth. Or the switchblade.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Man riding bicycle fatally stabbed in Canoga Park, and road-raging driver deliberately hits Utah bike rider

April 21, 2025 / / No comments
Day 111 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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Tragic news from Canoga Park, where a man was fatally stabbed while riding a bike Thursday night.

According to KNBC-4, the victim, publicly identified only as a man in his 30s, was riding near on International Ave near Canoga Ave when he was stabbed by an unknown assailant around 9:30 pm, while riding with a backpack and carrying food.

He collapsed against a car, where he died, despite the efforts of local residents and paramedics.

There was no known motive for the attack, and it’s not clear at this time whether the victim was targeted because he was riding a bicycle, or for some other reason.

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It’s happened again.

A 43-year old Utah man faces a raft of charges for — allegedly — intentionally crashing his truck into a man riding a bicycle in Heber City before driving away.

Security cam video shows Loren Russell failing to stop for the victim, who was riding his bike on the sidewalk. The bike rider responded by slapping Russell’s truck before riding away.

Russell responded by accelerating and turning his truck into the the victim’s bike, leaving the victim with a broken ankle.

After the police found his truck, Russell tried to claim the bike rider hit his truck, which made him feel so threatened that he sped away, unaware he hit anyone.

Fortunately, the cops didn’t buy it, busting Russell on charges including felony aggravated assault resulting in serious bodily injury, failing to remain at the scene of an accident, and failure to yield the right of way.

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The California E-bike Incentive Project offers more details on how to apply for a voucher for the next highly limited round of incentives, as they continue to deliberately throttle overwhelming demand.

Or rather, how to apply for the lottery which will determine whether you even get to apply for one of the roughly 1,000 vouchers.

That’s because they are only releasing $2 million for this 2nd round of incentives, despite sitting on around $29 million in remaining funding, which could fund nearly 15,000 ebike vouchers.

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The San Diego Association of Governments, aka SANDAG, announced the location of planned pit stops for the city’s annual Bike Anywhere Day on Thursday, May 15.

Meanwhile, Los Angeles will mark Bike Week from May 12-18, with Bike Day also on May 15th, as part of their observation of Bike Month throughout May, but there’s no word yet on how they plan to observe it.

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Somehow we missed this one back in December, as someone who prefers to be anonymous forwarded this listing of the ten weirdest bicycles you never knew existed.

And for the most part, they’re right.

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

Austin, Texas will spend $80,000 to rip out bike lanes that were installed just six month ago, choosing the convenience and complaints of motorists over the safety of the little kids who used it to bike to school.

No bias here. Streetsblog discovers that New York cops write 15% of red light tickets to people on bicycles, despite bicyclists making up just two percent of street traffic, observing “the NYPD is intent on writing red-light tickets to the lightest, slowest-moving vehicles instead of doubling-down on enforcement against 3,000-pound-plus killing machines.”

Someone is sabotaging Florida bikeways, tossing tire spikes on the bike path that have punctured two tires so far, while posing the risk of far more serious injuries. Which is probably the point.

It’s happened again, again. A road-raging British driver jumped out of his van and punched a man riding a bicycle in the face, for the crime of riding his bicycle in the roadway rather than using a nearby bike path, shocking the victim who struggled to comprehend the bizarre degree of the driver’s hatred for bicyclists.

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

Police in Los Angeles are looking for a chainsaw-wielding bike rider who chopped down at least five trees at different locations throughout DTLA for reasons known only to him; no word on whether he got off his bike to chopped them down, or felled the trees as he rode by.

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Local 

You could have been the owner of the iconic bicycle from Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure for the low, low price of around $146 grand.

A Claremont writer and ebike rider considers whether ebikes should be allowed in the city’s Wilderness Park.

 

State

A Santa Barbara website maps out the city’s five most dangerous intersections for bicyclists.

Sad news from Tulare County, where a 58-year old man was killed by a driver while riding a bicycle; the driver stuck around after the crash and cooperated with investigators.

More sad news, this time from Oakland, where a 44-year old man riding a bicycle was killed by a hit-and-run driver; no description was given for the driver or the suspect vehicle.

 

National

About damn time. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, aka NHTSA, has issued new regulations requiring states to include “strategic core performance measures” to reduce the “number of bicyclist and other cyclist fatalities” in their three-year highway safety plans.

A Christian website considers the burning question of whether Amish people can ride bicycles.

He gets it. A Colorado bike lawyer says it’s time the state got serious about traffic violence. Something that could have been written about any of the 49 other states, too. 

A survivalist describes four ways a 39-year old college professor could have disappeared without a trace while mountain biking in Wyoming last July. He went missing in areas I used to know like the back of my hand growing up nearby in Colorado. 

A pair of Kalamazoo, Michigan state legislators have reintroduced a bill to increase the penalty for injuring vulnerable road users.

Hats off to the kindhearted folks at one Brooklyn bike shop, who have repaired and given away around $42,000 worth of refurbished bicycles and parts to migrants and low-income people.

A New York man was killed when he reportedly rode his bike into the side of a fire truck on an emergency call and fell under its wheels, despite the truck’s lights and sirens — although it sounds like the driver of the firetruck may have turned across the victim’s path.

Apparently desperate for clicks, the New York Post reposted a viral video of a stuntman riding with a refrigerator balanced on his head, claiming the video surfaced this week despite originally running it nearly two years ago.

Sad news from Savannah, Georgia, where a local man affectionately known as the “Flag Man” for the large American flag he carried on his bicycle was killed by a hit-and-run driver; police have images of the driver’s truck, but apparently haven’t identified a suspect yet.

Three men are behind bars in Miami, Florida because they stole a bike from the wrong woman, who fought to get it back.

A Florida cop had to be hospitalized after she was assaulted and dragged by a handcuffed bike theft suspect.

 

International

Getty Images offers a slideshow capturing bicycling culture around the world.

Road.cc looks at which brands give you the best bikes for your money.

That’s more like it. City leaders in Bedfordshire, England are demanding more, not fewer, bike lanes, insisting that the city’s bicycle network should connect the town center with new housing developments.

Someone apparently forgot to tell a Lycra-clad roadie from the UK that riding his ebike isn’t cheating.

The boss of iconic British bike brand Brompton suggests the wheels are coming off Trump’s trade war, saying his aggressive attempt to boost production in the US is “naive.”

An Italian writer says she’s frightened by the sun-drenched Amalfi Coast’s terrifying traffic, but escaped it all by traveling by bicycle.

Thousands of people throughout India turned out on Sunday to ride their bikes as part of the nationwide FIT India Sundays on Cycle movement; Bollywood actor Rahul Bose joined over 600 other people working out and biking in New Delhi.

A Vietnamese man treasures his more than one-hundred-year old brass bicycle, which he still rides into the city to see friends; nearly every part is carved from brass, other than the saddle, tires and a headlamp powered by carbide gas.

 

Competitive Cycling

Twenty-four-year old former European champ Mischa Bredewold made the biggest move of her career, as the Dutch cyclist dropped the other four riders in breakaway with a little under five miles to go to win the women’s Amstel Gold.

Another 24-year old won the men’s Amstel, as Danish rider Mattias Skjelmose won a sprint to the finish, beating Tadej Pogačar by less than half a wheel’s length.

The great Marianne Vos will be tied to the Visma-Lease a Bike WorldTour team for the rest of her career, or maybe the rest of her life, after signing the team’s second lifetime contract following a similar deal with Wout van Aert.

Evidently, the nut doesn’t fall far from the cycling tree, as 16-year old Enzo Hincapie — yes, the son of George — picked up his bike and ran to the finish line when his bicycle broke just over a mile from the finish of the Paris-Roubaix Juniors, his first race as a member of the US team.

Cycling News makes the case for why Eddy Merckx, aka The Cannibal, was the greatest cyclist of all time.

Cycling Weekly examines whether it’s possible to make a living as a part-time professional American domestic road racer.

Sad news from the UK, where British cycling legend Barry Hoban has died at 85 years old; Hoban won eight stages in the Tour De France and once topped The Cannibal at Gent-Wevelgem during his 19 years as a pro cyclist.

 

Finally…

Tune in, turn on and ride your bike. Now you, too, can have your very own heads-up display, and pretend your bike is an F/A-18 Super Hornet from Top Gun Maverick.

And your next ebike could look like something designed by Elon Musk.

Which ain’t necessarily a good thing.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

13-year old gets max for thrill-killing bike riding man, and brokering peace between fire departments and safety advocates

April 18, 2025 / / No comments
Day 108 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

A 13-year old Albuquerque boy will spend the next eight years behind bars, after he was sentenced to the maximum penalty for second-degree murder.

The boy pled guilty yesterday for the thrill-kill death of a 63-year old engineer at Sandia National Laboratories last May as the victim was riding his bike to work.

Johnathan Overbay admitted he was driving a stolen car with two other boys, ages 11 and 16, when they intentionally crashed it into the victim while recording it on video, apparently just for the hell of it.

As a minor, the most he could be sentenced to was being imprisoned until he turns 21.

But since he was tried as an adult, his record is unlikely to be sealed, and will follow him for the rest of his life.

He was just 12 at the time of the killing.

Photo from Ekaterina Bolovtsova on Pexels.

………

Calbike writes that there’s no reason for firefighters and street safety advocates to be at odds, since we both want the same thing.

There is a growing body of evidence showing how bike lanes and other street design changes can save the lives of cyclists and pedestrians, but there isn’t a lot of data on the impact of bikeways on emergency response times; what little there is appears to show not much difference before and after. (Former Berkeley firefighter, paramedic and EMT Mike) Wilson sees a long-term upside to safer infrastructure for people biking and walking: “If you build the infrastructure in ways that are safer for bicyclists and pedestrians, that infrastructure will get used.” He cited a survey of Berkeley residents that found 27% regularly bike or walk for daily needs, and another 27% would bike or walk if it were safer. To feel safer, 86% of respondents reported wanting concrete-protected bike lanes, and 74% wanted parking-protected bike lanes.

That mode shift would reduce vehicle congestion, which is the biggest access issue for fire and EMS response. “The problem of cars blocking access by fire and EMS equipment, that’s the big impediment when it comes to getting your equipment through,” Wilson said.

Wilson thinks he can get firefighters to talk with, and presumably cooperate with, Calbike and other active transportation advocates about AB 612, which would give fire departments veto power over traffic safety improvements.

………

Sacramento claims to be the first US city to use AI-powered cameras on buses to enforce illegal parking in bike lanes .

Which is technically true, since LA’s bus-mounted AI cams, which came first, enforce illegally parked cars in bus lanes, rather than bike lanes. Even though bike riders are allowed to use them.

………

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

No bias here. A San Diego letter writer says the city can balance its books by charging bike owners for a bicycle license. Although with $258 million in red ink,  those licenses would have to be pretty damned expensive.

………

Local 

Don’t forget tomorrow’s Streets Are For Everyone bike ride and protest to mark the 3rd anniversary of Andrew Jelmert’s death at the hands of a speeding hit-and-run driver on Griffith Park’s dangerous Crystal Springs Drive — and demand the safety improvements Los Angeles has promised, but failed to deliver.

 

State

Mountain bike legend Gary Fisher’s new startup is ready to introduce a new ultra-lightweight bicycle that can recharge in just 15-minutes using a standard electrical outlet. Although ultra-lightweight in the world of ebikes means it still weighs 30 pounds.

A ten-year old San Bernardino girl is set to graduate from Crafton Hills College in Yucaipa with two associate degrees, saying that for her, learning is “almost as fun as playing outside or riding a bike or whatever.”

Former New York transportation commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan wrote that people typically fight improvements, then fight to keep them. That seems to be what’s happening in San Francisco, where people who fought plans to make the city’s Great Highway its newest car-free park are among its most frequent users.

A 55-year old woman suffered major injuries in Tuolumne County, in what police initially thought was a hit-and-run, but it turned out she lost control on a curve while riding with a group of competitive cyclists.

 

National

Good for her. A 34-year old mom learned to ride a bike for the first time so she could ride with her six-year old daughter.

Utah’s Zion National Park has a 15 mph radar unenforced speed limit, and you have to pull to the side and stop completely to allow shuttle buses to pass.

Carbondale, Colorado-based Revel Bikes is the latest bikemaker to go belly up, notifying dealers they are shutting down operations, as financial pressures force them to relinquish ownership to their bank despite just launching three new models. It happens, unfortunately. I wrote advertising for Alesis, which was forced into bankruptcy just days after successfully launching nine new models at the music industry’s NAMM trade show, when their bank cut off funding.

Missouri State University proves it can be done, reducing bike thefts to just five last semester thanks to a new security system. Of course, they only has 13 bikes stolen the previous semester, but still. 

Apparently, it’s perfectly legal for a cop to slash bicycle and trailer tires if they belong to homeless people, after a San Antonio, Texas police officer walked with a lousy 30-day suspension for doing exactly that, despite the dastardly deed being captured on his body-worn camera.

Still more tariff news, as Wisconsin-based Trek has informed retailers they will be raising their prices immediately due to the increase in import taxes.

A new photo essay reveals what it’s like to ride a bicycle in Minneapolis.

A Bronx website recommends the New York borough’s most beautiful bike lanes, for your next trip to the Big Apple.

Sad news from Florida, where Arnold “Arni” Nashbar, the founder of mail-order bicycle parts retailer Bike Nashbar, died at his Florida home earlier this week; he was 83.

 

International

Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s vision to “unleash a nation of cyclists” seems to have hit a plateau, with bicycling rates failing to match those heady pre-pandemic days, despite the country’s investment in bikeways.

Here’s one for your bike bucket list, as Czech carmaker Škoda’s We Love Cycling website recommends riding the Wild Atlantic Way along Ireland’s west coast, from the rugged cliffs of Donegal to the pristine beaches of Kerry. Seriously, you had me at “Ireland.”

Here’s one more for your bike bucket list, as Italy has just finished a short rail trail from Monte Mario to the shadow of Rome’s Vatican Dome — or maybe between Circus Maximus and the Colosseum, if you prefer.

The New York Times examines the new campaign to get people in the Netherlands to wear bike helmets, saying the Dutch love their bicycles, but helmets, not so much.

Speaking of the Netherlands, the country’s traffic safety efforts seem to be working, with traffic deaths down 42% since 2000.

Bollywood star Salmon Khan walked a group of children into a sporting goods store, and bought new bicycles for them as someone recorded it on video, allowing the kids to pick out the bikes they wanted.

 

Competitive Cycling

Tragic news from the UK, where a 55-year old man was killed competing in an East London velodrome when he collided with another cyclist, and went over his handlebars.

Olympic road race champ Kristen Faulkner gets her gold, courtesy of Cannondale.

 

Finally…

Why run down bike riders with a car when you can just electrocute them? Your next bike lock could work like a bear trap, but hopefully less painful.

And your next bike kit could represent your favorite football, uh, soccer team.

As long as your favorite side is Liverpool.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Caltrans posts surprising PCH draft master plan, LA County raises penalty for street takeovers, and a long list of bike events

April 17, 2025 / / No comments
Day 107 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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SoCal’s killer highway could finally see some much-needed changes.

If we can wait that long.

Admittedly, I didn’t have high hopes for the state transportation agency’s Pacific Coast Highway Master Plan Feasibility Study, given their long auto-centric history focusing more on what can’t be done to improve safety than on what can.

But the draft document seems to offer significant safety changes on the 22-mile long stretch through Malibu, though with one key caveat.

As Streetsblog’s Damien Newton puts it, the draft master plan “covers twenty years of projects that could be completed, should funding become available.”

Okay, make that two caveats, given a lack of funding and the extensive timeline.

The plan calls for protected bike lanes for nearly the full length, other than a nearly three-mile stretch where the roadway is considered too narrow, with too many driveways to provide safe protection.

It also includes numerous pedestrian improvements, as well as calling for narrowing traffic lanes to 10′-6” wide, the minimum standard for Complete Streets, according to Caltrans.

Other possible traffic calming improvements — key word “possible” — include, according to Newton, “gateway signage, speed tables at high-traffic crossings, trees, and angled parking,” as well as potential traffic circles and roundabouts, including at the entrance to El Matador State Beach.

But as noted above, the problem — other than coming up with the funding, which could be difficult given the current environment — is the extensive timeline.

As a list of short-term projects makes clear, most of the proposed changes will come 10 t0 20 years from now, if they happen at all.

A major problem given what Newton terms the “staggering” 1,245 deaths and serious injuries from traffic violence in just a five year period, from 2018 to 2023.

Which means the improvements will likely come too late for many bike riders who have taken their chances riding the coast highway for all those years, myself included.

But it could leave a much safer and more livable highway for those who follow.

Photo from Caltrans press release.

………

LA County supervisors passed a motion doubling the penalty for participating in a street takeover.

Which is nice, and needed. But it probably won’t actually stop anyone.

Thanks to Damian Kevitt for the heads-up.

………

The most impressive thing about this one is watching the guy recover from a death wobble after descending a flight of stairs, more than once.

………

We’ve got a long list of Twitter/X posts to catch up on, so my apologies in advance if Elon’s meddling on the site prevents them from embedding properly.

The San Diego Bike Coalition wants to pump up your tires and offer light refreshments this morning.

https://twitter.com/sdbikecoalition/status/1912538639462199489

Streets Are For Everyone reminds us about the bike ride and protest to mark the 3rd anniversary of Andrew Jelmert’s death at the hands of a speeding hit-and-run driver on Griffith Park’s Crystal Springs Drive this Saturday, as promised safety improvements continue to be caught in LA’s typical red tape.

https://twitter.com/StreetsR4Every1/status/1912234183696781562

BikeLA, aka the former Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, is joining Metro for a belated Earth Day Community Climate Action Day on Saturday, April 26th.

BikeLA is also inviting advocates to join them for a Handlebar Happy Hour at Santa Monica Brew Works on Monday, which is the actual Earth Day.

Mark your calendar for the next CicLAvia on Sunday, June 22nd, as Historic South Central meets Watts.

https://twitter.com/CicLAvia/status/1912627142824706228

The Militant Angeleno reminds us that ActiveSGV is hosting a five-mile open streets event following CicLAvia the same day, running from South Pasadena to San Gabriel from 3 pm to 8 pm.

………

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

Toronto bicyclists are challenging Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s new law allowing the province to rip out bike lanes in the city, arguing that the law violates the country’s national charter; Bloomberg says the controversy demonstrates why the best bike lanes always get the blame.

A London bike rider complains about gates on the the city’s bike network that are intended to keep out motorbikes and quad bikes, but instead deter elderly and disabled people from riding a bike, arguing the “anti-bike” gates turn Low Traffic Neighborhoods into low bicycling ones.

The owner of a Scottish pizzeria demands that the city rip out new bike lanes in front of his shop, even though it’s part of an $8 million project to increase pedestrian traffic and boost the city’s “café culture and night-time economy,” which should benefit him, too.

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

A New Zealand dog nearly lost his leg when he was struck by an ebike rider, which completely severed a tendon in the pup’s leg, after the dog’s owner says two men “came flying around the corner” doing at least 18 mph on their ebikes, and only said “get your fucking dog under control” before riding off; however, the 73-year old ebike rider says he was only doing 10 mph, and never saw the dog.

………

Local 

South Pasadena warns about bike thieves, noting that most of the city’s stolen bikes were secured with flimsy cable locks that are easily cut; they also suggest noting your bike’s make, model, color, cost and serial number, as well as attaching an AirTag to your bike. Which gives us another opportunity to recommend free lifetime registration with Bike Index, which securely records all that information, along with photos of your bike — before anything happens to it. 

 

State

An engineering grad student at UC San Diego, and a handful of other bicycle enthusiasts, spend their Sunday’s bringing bicycles back to life with Bikes del Pueblo in San Diego’s City Heights neighborhood, working on a sliding scale that allows people to pay what they can afford.

Bicycling says the new Levo 4 e-mountain bike from Morgan Hill-based Specialized predestines a future where ebike features that are now included in the cost of the bike will cost you extra. But they hid the story behind their paywall for members only, so you’re on your on if the magazine blocks you.

 

National

A Texas man was killed when he allegedly went through a red light on his ebike, and crashed into the side of an ambulance.

New York is installing new, smaller traffic signals mounted on the side of the road at eye level for people riding bicycles to make streets safer for bike riders and other street users, while politely not saying they’re hoping bicyclists will actually obey them.

At least one city is funding Vision Zero, with the new budget proposed by Philadelphia’s mayor for the coming year containing $5 million earmarked for Vision Zero, along with another $5 million for a protected bike lane.

 

International

A British writer says electric road bikes are as dead as wool jerseys and leather helmets. Or maybe not.

The European Union could change the definition of ebikes, with a new proposal limiting them to having “bicycle-like characteristics,” with a maximum 1:6 power boost ratio, and a top speed of just 10 mph.

The bike-centric Netherlands is pushing a new campaign to get people to wear bike helmets, in a country where almost no one does; the campaign notes an average of two hundred bike riders a day end up in emergency rooms with head injuries.

Melbourne, Australia is about to open a new, eye-catching green bicycle bridge as part of the city’s bicycle superhighway; one bicyclist described it as like “riding through a disco.”

A police interview with Australian Olympic champ Rohan Dennis just hours after the death of his wife, fellow Olympian Melissa Hoskins, reveals it began with a typical argument over kitchen renovations, before she fell under his SUV trying to hold onto the door handle as he sped away.

 

Competitive Cycling

Mountain biking events at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics are now set to be held in the San Gabriel Mountains at Frank G. Bonelli Regional Park in San Dimas.

 

Finally…

If you’re going to intentionally swerve your car at a bike rider, maybe don’t stream it live on Twitch. Your new retro-style camper could be made from recycled milk cartons, complete with a built-in set of pro mountain bike tools.

And get ready for waxed chains and new kits that are easier to poop in.

Okay, maybe not actually poop in.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

New report spells out LA’s Vision Zero fail, and bike riders injured by drivers in South LA and Huntington Beach hit-and-runs

April 16, 2025 / / 2 comments
Day 106 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

No surprise here.

In a report that really shouldn’t surprise anyone, a new city audit has shown that LA’s Vision Zero program has failed miserably in ending traffic deaths by this year.

A detailed report conducted by consulting company KPMG, along with a separate LADOT analysis from Fehr & Peers, concludes that “the level of enthusiasm at City Hall” for Vision Zero has decreased since the program was launched, according to public radio station and website LAist.

In fact, half of the program’s 56 “actions and strategies” that were supposed to have been completed five years were still unfinished at the start of last year.

And probably still are.

According to LAist,

“Some of the reasons cited include the pandemic, conflicts of personality, lack of total buy-in for implementation, disagreements over how the program should be administered and scaling issues,” the audit said.

Never mind the city council’s failure to adequately fund the program, as well as efforts by councilmembers to block needed projects in their own districts.

Without political support and lack of communication from council members about the program, Vision Zero becomes less effective, the audit said…

The audit also pointed out that the city overly focused on infrastructure and engineering, to the detriment of public education and regular monitoring of the program’s progress.

To put it mildly.

In fact, traffic fatalities jumped 26% in 2024 compared to when then-Mayor Eric Garcetti signed the program sitting outdoors behind his bigass desk.

According to UC Berkeley transportation safety researcher Matthew Raifman, traffic fatalities in Los Angeles have gone up faster than the national average, with more bike and pedestrian deaths than the other four most populated US cities.

And yes, that includes New York, which has over twice the population.

All of which is exactly what we warned about since the inception of Vision Zero in Los Angeles, when the city conducted an extensive round of public meetings to gather input — and proceeded to ignore the findings, coming up with a plan that left nearly all of it out.

Then addressed the program with the previously mentioned lack of funding and a failure of political will, compounded by a lack of buy-in from, and coordination between, the city’s many siloed departments and agencies.

The report calls for a recommitment to Vision Zero in Los Angeles, while offering a long, long list of recommendations to halt injuries and deaths from traffic violence.

But recommitment isn’t necessary. What is necessary is actually committing to it for the first time, because city leaders never did.

The LADOT report from Fehr & Peers includes an updated listing of the city’s High Injury Network, which is now called Priority Intersections and Corridors, for some unknown reason.

At least we know this report was sent directly to Mayor Karen Bass.

Although whether she’ll actually read it and act on it — or whether it will get buried under countless other priorities, from rebuilding after the Palisades Fire to the city’s massive budget shortfall — remains to be determined.

I wouldn’t hold your breath.

But as they say, hope springs eternal.

………

The LAPD is looking for a hit-and-run driver who crashed into a 15-year old boy as he rode his bike to school on a South LA sidewalk last week, in a collision caught on video.

Sebastian Carrillo was riding along Nadeau Street near Croesus Ave when the driver made a right turn directly into him, either turning short into a driveway or intentionally hitting him, as his father says it looks like attempted murder to him.

Carrillo was lucky to escape with a concussion, as well as cuts, bumps and bruises that required stitches. And no, he doesn’t appear to have been wearing a helmet, even though that’s required for anyone under 18.

The suspect vehicle is described as a newer black BMW, possibly a 2025, with front end damage from the crash.

The City of Los Angeles offers a standing $5,000 reward for any hit-and-run resulting injuries.

………

Huntington Beach police are looking for their own felony hit-and-run driver, after a man in a minivan left someone riding a bicycle lying in the roadway with “significant” injuries last month.

The victim was reportedly struck by a Hispanic man between 20 and 30 years old, while riding near Arnett Drive and Irby Lane around 11 pm on Saturday, March 29th.

The suspect vehicle is described as a possible Toyota Sienna or Honda Odyssey, metallic gray, silver or blue, with likely damage to the bumper, hood and windshield.

The license plate may have the characters 7, T, A and E, though not necessarily in that order.

Anyone was information was urged to call Huntington Beach Traffic Investigator V. Rattanchandani at 714/536-5231, or anonymously to OC Crime Stoppers at 1-855-TIP-OCCS.

But unlike Los Angeles, Huntington Beach doesn’t offer a standing reward for hit-and-run drivers.

………

Today marks the 3rd Anniversary of the hit and run that killed Andrew Jelmert in Griffith Park as he trained for the AIDS/LifeCycle Ride.

Yet three years later, Los Angeles has still not started a series of fully funded and shovel-ready safety improvements in the park, including a massive traffic calming project on Crystal Springs Drive where Jelmert was killed by a speeding driver, even though that construction was supposed to start last summer.

Streets Are For Everyone will be hosting a remembrance event, advocacy ride and protest this Saturday to call attention to the dangers on the road, as well as the needless red tape holding up the desperately needed work.

As we’ve said before, cars don’t belong in parks. And we certainly don’t need a roadway used by drivers traveling at highway speeds to bypass traffic on the nearby freeway.

………

Good for him.

A New Jersey judge tossed out a defense argument that the blood alcohol content of the hockey-playing Gaudreau brothers contributed to their own deaths.

The judge agreed the issue was moot under New Jersey criminal law, and upheld all of the charges against “allegedly drunken and enraged driver” Sean Higgins, including two counts each of manslaughter and vehicular homicide.

Witnesses to the crash told police that the brothers were riding their bikes single file on the side of the road when Higgins allegedly passed two other vehicles on the right, with two wheels on the grass verge, and slammed into their bikes from behind, killing them both.

Higgins faces a up to 70 years behind bars if he’s convicted on all counts; his lawyers have already rejected a plea of 35 years.

………

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

Authorities in Windsor, Ontario threw the book at a road-raging bike rider, filing a ten-count indictment against the 41-year old man for allegedly following a car full of people after an argument, damaging three vehicles belonging to them, then threatening them with a weapon when they confronted him.

………

Local 

Streetsblog’s Joe Linton spots a new bike lane on Bonnie Brae Street in Westlake, as well as partially-protected bike lanes being installed on Mission Road in Boyle Heights.

 

State

Encinitas bicyclists may be breathing a sigh of relief, after the city’s traffic commissioner proposed replacing the concrete barriers protecting a bike lane on the Coast Highway with a wider, painted bike lane, after 19 recorded bicycle crashes from running into the barriers, including one death.

Police in San Diego are asking for the public’s help in identifying the drivers of two cars who struck a man riding an ebike, and left him in the street to die; they’re looking for a white car, possibly a 2015 to 2023 Dodge Charger with black-and-yellow license plates, and another car that could have been a Mercedes-Benz E-Class sedan with a black or tinted glass-topped roof.

Forty Ontario kids got new bikes and helmets courtesy of Los Angeles Kings affiliate hockey team The Ontario Reign, as well as other local businesses and organizations.

Riverside County has jumped on the anti-ebike bandwagon, giving preliminary approval to an ordinance restricting where they can be ridden.

Velo looks at all the new and unreleased gravel bikes from last week’s Sea Otter Classic.

San Raphael is beginning the process of developing a new bike and pedestrian plan to cover the next five to ten years. Let’s just hope they don’t have to go to the voters to force the city to implement it, like a certain SoCal megalopolis we could name. 

 

National

Police in Oregon arrested a third suspect in the death of a Hood River man who was run down trying to stop the suspects from stealing his bicycle.

Life is cheap in Idaho, where a gravel truck driver was sentenced to just 150 days behind bars after pleading guilty to vehicular manslaughter, for killing a 14-year old boy as he was standing next to his bicycle on the shoulder of the roadway.

A Wisconsin man is riding his bike from Los Angeles to Denver to promote organ donations, as well as meet the two-and-a-half year old girl who received part of his own liver.

The driver who killed a Philadelphia pediatrician as she rode her bike to work at a children’s hospital pled guilty to vehicular homicide, DUI and involuntary manslaughter, among other charges; he swerved into the bike lane she was riding in while driving at twice the legal alcohol limit.

A Georgia state legislator pled guilty to reduced charges after prosecutors dropped multiple DUI charges for hitting a person riding in a bike lane;  he was originally charged with driving under the influence of both alcohol and multiple drugs.

 

International

Momentum explains what a road diet is, and why cities should embrace it — starting with improving safety for all road users.

Life is cheap in the UK, where a careless driver walked without a day behind bars for breaking a woman’s leg in two places as she rode her bike, after the judge sentenced him to community service and took away his license for a whole year.

Students at a Serbian university formed a bicycle inside a heart using their own bodies to show support for Serbian students who rode their bikes to Strasbourg, France to plead for support from European Union leaders for greater freedom in their country,

 

Competitive Cycling

Double Olympic champ Remco Evenepoel is returning to racing this Friday at Belgium’s Brabantse Pijl, after he suffered serious injuries when he was doored by a postal worker while on a December training ride.

Cyclist considers which men’s WorldTour teams are in danger of relegation when the current UCI points cycle comes to a close in a few months.

The spectator who hit Mathieu van der Poel with a water bottle during last week’s Paris-Roubaix said he had too much to drink, he’s really sorry and ashamed, and will take full legal responsibility.

 

Finally…

There may be hope for people who hate presta valves. If at first you do succeed in stealing an ebike from a department store, don’t try, try again.

And if your ex has a new boyfriend, don’t ride your bike over to shoot him. Or maybe don’t shoot him at all, regardless of how you get there.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Support protected bike lanes on PCH, bikemakers spinning from Trump’s tariffs, and two men murdered over stolen bikes

April 15, 2025 / / No comments
Day 105 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

Streets For All is urging you to voice your support for protected bike lanes on Pacific Coast Highway at tonight’s virtual community workshop. Or at least email your support.

Tell Caltrans:
We Need Protected Bike Lanes On PCH!

Caltrans is releasing a draft of the PCH Master Plan Feasibility Studyfor a 60-day public review period. They are hosting two virtual community workshops and will be taking comment via email.

While the current plan includes some protected bike lanes, there will be a gap between Rambla Pacifico Street and Carbon Canyon Road. Tell Caltrans that ALL bike lanes on PCH need to be protected, for the safety of drivers, bikers, and pedestrians.

Virtual Community Work Shops

Wednesday, April 16, from 6 – 8 PM Join here

Monday, May 12, from 1 – 3 PM Join here

Can’t make it to either meeting? Use the button below to send an email comment to Caltrans!

EMAIL PUBLIC COMMENT HERE [BE SURE TO EDIT THE BOTTOM!]

Photo from Caltrans press release.

………

Once again, Trump’s tariffs on bicycles, and the industry’s response to them, are the common theme in today’s news.

The Liberty Justice Center, described as a libertarian public-interest firm, has filed the first suit over Trump’s tariffs, arguing he overstepped his authority as president in imposing them.

Indiana’s Guardian Bikes is responding to the new tariffs with $39 million in new financing to re-shore their manufacturing by building the country’s first large-scale framebuilding operation. Although they could be in trouble if our mercurial president cancels them.

Britain’s Starling Cycles is offering a worldwide 5% discount on their handmade steel mountain bikes to partially offset Trump’s 10% tariff on British imports.

Taiwanese bikemaking giant Giant Manufacturing suffered a decline in sales last month after a massive 31% boost in February, as the market appeared to be responding to the threat of tariffs.

………

It’s happened again. And again.

Disputes over stolen bikes sadly turned deadly, taking the lives of two men on opposite sides of the country.

Two Portland men are in custody on murder and theft charges, and police are looking for another person of interest, after a man was killed confronting the suspects as they allegedly tried to steal a bicycle from his car; the victim was described as one of the town’s “sweetest souls.”

And a New York man was fatally stabbed in the stomach, the allegedly stolen bike left lying in the street as he died; a suspect was taken into custody afterwards, however, there’s no word on whether he was the thief or the victim of the theft.

As we’ve said too many times before, no bicycle is worth your life. We all love our bikes, but seriously, just let it go and live to ride another day.

………

This one bears repeating if you missed it yesterday.

Air quality in Paris, France improved dramatically as the city shifted from car-choked streets to a bicycle and pedestrian friendly 15-minute city, with nitrogen dioxide and fine particulate matter dropping by 50% and 55%, respectively, over just the last 20 years.

Which is exactly what can and should happen in Los Angeles, if our elected leaders would stop fighting efforts to improve safety and shift to greener streets.

Unfortunately, that seems to be a very big if.

………

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

No surprise here. Bicyclists taking part in Sunday’s 18th annual Tour de Houston soundly booed the city’s mayor, after he ordered protected bike lanes ripped out and replaced by sharrows.

No bias here. Cornwall, England city leaders reversed course and decided bike riders are welcome at the city’s recycling centers, after one man was told he couldn’t ride his bike up to one, and needed to arrive in a car or truck if he wanted to recycle his trash instead of sending it to the dump.

A Dublin, Ireland city counselor elevated the “I’m a cyclist, but…” cliche to a whole new level, continuing his efforts to block a planned new bike lane after an appeals court overturned a previous ruling blocking it — despite claiming that he rides his bike to work every day, and supports bike lanes “where appropriate in the right areas.” Here’s a clue for him: Bike lanes are appropriate anywhere and everywhere cars are allowed on the streets, if only because they’re not needed anywhere else. 

………

Local 

Speaking of PCH, you may be able to resume riding on the highway this summer, as Governor Newsom promises it will reopen by the end of May, after closing in January due to the Palisades Fire.

 

State

About damn time. A bill in the California legislature would create a new class of electric bikes, reclassifying throttle-controlled bikes without pedals as “eMotos,” while clarifying they are intended as offroad vehicles, rather than bicycles.

Gear Junkie offers highlights from last week’s Sea Otter Classic, including a new 3D-printed honeycomb bike helmet.

 

National

Authorities are looking for a missing 16-year old Kansas girl with mental health issues who disappeared after going out for a bike ride.

Massachusetts is ready to launch their ebike rebate program, offering 3,000 vouchers for up to $1,200 off the purchase of an ebike. That’s three times as many vouchers as California will release at the end of this month, in a state with less than one-fifth the population. 

 

International

Momentum recommend’s 30 of the world’s most beautiful bicycle routes, including a handful right here in the good ol’ USA.

An American woman who grew up in the Netherlands is working on her Ph.D by riding her bike 1,200 miles across England to talk to female farmers about the future of food production.

Germany’s Avnson is introducing a folding stretch e-cargo bike, which seems to fold into a very awkward shape reminiscent of Picasso’s cubist period.

Bike tourism is booming on the island of Mallorca off the coast of Spain, up 30% compared to this time last year.

The three young Black men known as the Gauta BMX completed their thousand-mile bike ride from Limpopo to Cape Town, South Africa, on a mission to inspire young people across the country while raising awareness about gender-based violence

The family of late Olympic cyclist Melissa Hoskins complained that her husband, former Olympic and world champ Rohan Dennis, has shown no remorse for her death, and sees himself as the victim despite accidentally killing her when she fell off his SUV, although Hoskins’ mother said she didn’t think Dennis would intentionally harm her.

 

Competitive Cycling

The great Alberto Contador says he was forced to ride a prettier, but slower bicycle in the Tour de France one year, despite complaining it wasn’t as fast as the previous year’s model.

The Cycling Federation of Belize is attempting to recruit more women cyclists, with only ten female bike racers currently registered in the entire country.

 

Finally…

Your dog — living or stuffed, apparently — can now ride your bike like ET. And forget the bike cam, just get a new drone to follow everywhere you ride.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Ex-cop cops a plea to killing 3 at 150 mph, a consideration of car brain, and 2nd round of CA ebike vouchers if anyone still cares

April 14, 2025 / / No comments
Day 104 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

This is who we share the road with.

A former LAPD cop pled guilty to three counts of murder on Friday for a drunken freeway crash that killed three people.

At 150 mph.

Yes, you read that right.

Thirty-four-year old ex-cop Edgar Verduzco copped a plea to killing three people while driving his Chevy Camaro at a whopping 150 miles per hour on the 605 Freeway in Whittier, causing a horrific crash that killed a 19-year old college student and his parents.

He continued on after rear-ending the victims’ car, crashing into a second car and injuring a mother and her infant child.

And yes, he was still an active duty cop at the time of the crash, losing his job sometime after the crash, although personnel regulations prevent the department from explaining why he was fired.

Although we could probably guess.

Verduzco also pled to charges driving under the influence of alcohol causing injury and driving with a 0.08% blood-alcohol content causing injury for the crash, which came just hours after he posted a video with the hashtag #dontdrinkanddrive.

He faces three well-deserved terms of 15 years to life behind bars, along with a separate term of three years; however all four terms will be served concurrently.

Which means he could walk out after just 15 years for taking three innocent lives while driving drunk at 150 mph.

That doesn’t exactly sound like justice to me.

But what the hell do I know?

Photo by Sora Shimazaki from Pexels.

………

Just call it Car Brain.

Dr. Grace Peng took a deep dive into the concept of Motonormativity, aka Car Brain, for the LA Voter Newsletter, the concept that cars are so accepted as the norm that the unconscious bias towards them, and the problems they cause, become invisible to most people.

…Indirectly, through air pollution and involuntary inactivity by making active transportation (walking, cycling) dangerous, cars may be the top killer of people in the developed world of all ages. 

Transportation, mainly private automobile use, is the largest contributor of CO2 emissions in Los Angeles County and the largest source of PM2.5 pollution (except in the occasional years when particulates from wildfire smoke affects populated areas of LACO.)

Yet, all this is invisible to most people and especially law and policy makers. In California, it is legal to kill with a car as long as you were not intoxicated, were not speeding, and stayed at the scene of the death. This applies even if a driver kills a cyclist in a crosswalk. 

Peng goes on to note that riding the subway is 30 times safer than driving, while taking the bus is 66 times safer. Transit is so safe, in fact, that a 1% increase in transit use would result in a 2.75% reduction in road deaths.

Yet cars remain the unchallenged default mode of our elected leaders, as well the general public, as anyone who has ever tried to criticize car use on social media can tell you.

It’s worth taking a few minutes to read the whole thing. Because this is mentality driving our entire society these days.

Pun intended.

………

It’s time for another round of California’s deliberately throttled ebike incentive applications.

The California E-Bike Incentive Project in releasing funding for approximately 1,000 vouchers, which represents roughly one percent of the people who tried to apply for the first round of vouchers — most of whom never even got the chance.

And just 0.01% of Californian’s who are financially qualified to apply for the program.

Anyone see the problem there?

Evidently, the California Air Resources Board, which is running things themselves now after shitcanning San Diego nonprofit Pedal Ahead, does. Because now they’re promising that everyone who queues up will get a chance to be entered into a lottery to apply.

Yes, you’ll have to queue up once agin, this time just to have a chance to win a chance to apply for a voucher.

Anyway, it’s all scheduled for April 29th, if anyone who still has the patience to deal with this mess.

Lord knows, I don’t, as much as I could use one.

………

Streets Are For Everyone makes the case for SB 720, a proposal in the state Senate that would authorize automated red light cameras.

The law change red light tickets from a traffic violation to a civil violation, similar to a parking ticket, while also decreasing fines to just $100, with no impact to a driver’s record or insurance rates.

In addition, the bill would eliminate the requirement to clearly identify the operator of the vehicle, instead sending the ticket directly to the registered owner.

Let’s just hope these tickets aren’t as easy to ignore as parking tickets.

Personally, I’m not sold on the idea that the tickets wouldn’t affect a driver’s record, which only enables bad drivers to stay on the roads.

But if it gets more cities to install red light cams, and more drivers to actually obey red lights, it might be worth it.

On the other hand, I’d like to see more being done to keep people from using plexiglass covers over their car’s license plates, which is nothing more than a blatant attempt to avoid responsibility for tolls and traffic violations.

………

Speaking of SAFE, they’re asking you to vote for walkable, bikeable streets in the latest round of the LA2050 Grants Challenge.

https://twitter.com/StreetsR4Every1/status/1911197388049682585

………

A new petition calls for installing protected bike lanes on Prospect Ave in Redondo Beach.

……….

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

A Salina, Kansas man faces multiple charges for allegedly using his pickup as a weapon, crossing the centerline to swerve at a bike rider traveling in the opposite direction. Although one of the charges is for violation a restraining order, so he may have known and targeted the victim.

Seriously? A Redditor “sparked outrage” by posting a picture of a driver parked in an ostensibly protected Chicago bike lane. Which is a photo you could replicate in virtually any city in this country with protected bike lanes.

There may be hope for Toronto’s threatened bike lanes after all, after the provincial government says it may be open to compromise in the face of a massive backlash from angry bike riders.

No bias here. A road-raging British driver honked at a man riding his bike with his child on the back, as her passenger yelled at him to “get out of the way and move your fucking bike,” insisting they were rushing to the hospital because the passenger was “bleeding to death” — even though the hospital was less than a mile back in the opposite direction.

Oops. A French driver deliberately slammed his car into what he thought was a bike thief riding his bicycle, only to learn the man on the bike was actually the cop who had just busted the thief, and was riding it back to the owner.

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

Tragic news from Long Island, where a 68-year old Long Beach man died hours after he was struck by a man riding an ebike as he was crossing the street; the rider remained at the scene after the crash.

British tabloids are suitably appalled after Britpop star Harry Styles was spotted momentarily looking down at his phone while riding an ebike sans helmet. Because apparently, everyone should carry a bike helmet everywhere just in case they happen to spontaneously decided to use a dockless bike.

………

Local 

UCLA Transportation announced new bike lanes and speed cushions on Westholme Blvd, as they continue to make the bike-friendly campus safer for everyone.

 

State

Encinitas pulled the plug on a proposed uphill bike lane on Birmingham Drive in the face of opposition from local residents, who claimed the street is too dangerous for bikes. Which is oddly the best argument for building it.

Cycling Weekly offers a first look at the latest tech from the Sea Otter Classic.

 

National

People For Bikes reports more people rode bicycles in the US last year than ever before, as 112 million Americans — 35% of the population over the age of three — rode a bike at least once in 2024; juvenile bicycling rates also rose from 49% to 56%.

Anywhere from 500 to 2,000 people were expected to turn out for an eight-year old Portland bike race featuring a 500-lap relay ride around a local traffic circle, with no one keeping track of laps or time, let alone who’s winning; for the first time, organizers got permits to block off neighboring streets.

Singletracks highlights the five best mountain bike trail in Utah, ranging from dry, rocky deserts to high alpine ridges.

A pair of bills in the Texas legislature would allow cities to lower speed limits to 20 mph without conducting expensive traffic studies, and require a three-foot distance to pass someone on a bicycle, or six feet if they’re driving a commercial vehicle.

A Texas bikemaker complains to Fox News that Trump’s tariffs are affecting his ability to source needed parts from China and keep production moving.

The New York Times takes a look at how little Bentonville, Arkansas, with a population just a shade over 41,600, became an epicenter for bicycling, with an assist from the family behind Walmart.

A Michigan man turns his own lifelong passion for bicycling into a campus-wide  movement at Michigan State University.

Travel + Leisure says come to Ohio’s Cuyahoga Valley National Park for the waterfalls, and stay for the local wine — and the 87-mile Towpath Trail bikeway along the former Ohio and Erie Canal.

AutoEvolution suggests the people who got screwed out of their purchase of the world’s first hubless ebike may have been the lucky ones; the website says the roughly 150 people who received the $3,349 Reevo ebike from Delaware — or maybe Seattle — based Beno Technologies got “a deathtrap at worst and the worst e-bike in the world at best.”

 

International

Momentum considers ways ebikes can boost your mental and physical health.

European bicyclists made their annual pilgrimage to Dursley, England, home of 19th Century bikemaker Mikael Pedersen, inventor of the unique diamond-frame Pedersen Bike.

A retiring British toy shop owner takes a ride down memory lane with a 97-year old bike catalog, featuring one of the country’s first drop bar racing bikes.

Paris is transforming more than just the streets, as the changes the city has made to encourage walking, transit and bicycling over the past two decades has cut air pollution levels in half.

Three young Black men are nearing the end of their nearly 1,000-mile journey by bike from Limpopo to Cape Town, South Africa, which has inspired the country while calling attention to gender-based violence.

Taiwan safety authorities called for mandatory bike helmet laws to reduce the number of fatal head injuries. Even though studies have shown that any reduction in head injuries from helmet laws likely results more from a reduction in ridership. 

An Aussie researcher discovers that most bike lanes in inner Melbourne have less than 40% tree cover, and getting worse. Although that’s probably better than here in sunny Los Angeles.

Speaking of motonormativity, Brisbane, Australia offers a prime example, after a bridge pathway relied on by bike commuters was shut down without notice, forcing people either into a long detour or back into their cars.

 

Competitive Cycling

French star Pauline Ferrand-Prévot won the Paris-Roubaix Femmes in a solo breakaway on Saturday, while 37-year old Dutch legend Marianne Vos countered world champion Lotte Kopecky to take third.

Mathieu van der Poel won his third consecutive Paris-Roubaix after rival Tadej Pogačar crashed with about 28 miles to go during their dual breakaway.

Despite the victory, van der Poel was furious after he was struck in the face by a water bottle that appeared to have been deliberately thrown from the crowd of spectators about 20 miles from the finish.

Eritrean cyclist Biniam Girmay survived the cobbles on his first Paris-Roubaix with a strong ride to finish 15th.

British reigning world champ Evie Richards is now the most decorated female short-track cross-country rider in history after back-to-back wins in Brazil.

 

Finally…

Your next tires could inflate themselves. Your next road bike could have a double top tube and cantilevered seat post.

And we may have to deal with feral LA drivers, but we hardly ever get stalked by wild cougars when we ride.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

First shot fired in Vermont Ave HLA battle, NYT argues for sprawl, and lack of interest in LA Neighborhood Council elections

April 11, 2025 / / No comments
Day 101 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

And so it begins.

After speculating yesterday that officials were virtually daring someone to file suit alleging Metro’s Vermont Avenue bus rapid transit project is violating Measure HLA, someone did.

Longtime bike advocate and Streetsblog Los Angeles editor Joe Linton filed a lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles alleging that the city failed to implement the safety improvements included in the mobility plan, as required by the Healthy Streets LA ordinance passed overwhelmingly by voters last year.

According to a statement Linton provided to Streetsblog,

I live very close to Vermont Avenue, where my family and I walk, bike, and/or take transit nearly every day. Since 2014, I have attended meetings focused on Vermont transit improvements, where I and many other advocates have pressed for complete streets, including bike lanes that have long been part of the city’s plans for Vermont. I was, and still am, excited that L.A. City voters approved Measure HLA, which requires the city to gradually implement its plan for a more transit-friendly, more walkable, and more bikeable Vermont.

In researching my Streetsblog coverage of Measure HLA and the Vermont Transit Corridor project, I became frustrated encountering repeated instances where the city continues to ignore its own plans for a safe and truly multimodal Vermont.

Linton goes on to say he’s not looking for any personal gain, other than recouping his attorney fees.

Rather, he hopes the lawsuit will result in a settlement that will deliver long-delayed safety improvements that will “save lives, foster public health, stem climate-harming emissions, and improve the quality of life for Vermont Avenue’s pedestrians, bus riders, and bicyclists.”

Linton is represented by a pair of attorneys who should be well-known in the Los Angeles area, former state Assemblymember Mike Gatto and longtime Bicycle Advisory Committee member Jonathan Weiss.

Which suggest LA City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto will have her hands full trying to defend Los Angeles in this matter.

Lord knows I wouldn’t want to go up against either one of them. Let alone both.

You can read the full text of the lawsuit here.

Something tells me it won’t be the last.

Photo by Sora Shimazaki from Pexels.

………

A writer for the New York Times Magazine makes the case for more sprawl as the answer to America’s crippling housing shortage.

No, seriously.

According to Conor Dougherty, author of Golden Gates: The Housing Crisis and a Reckoning for the American Dream,

The solution is to build more. That’s not controversial — housing is one of the few remaining areas of bipartisan agreement. The rub, as always, is where and how to get it done. Over the past decade, dozens of cities and states have tried to spur construction by passing laws that aim to make neighborhoods denser: removing single-family zoning rules, reducing permitting times and exempting housing in established neighborhoods from environmental rules.

That shift is important, especially in cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles that have little chance of lowering housing costs or reducing their homeless populations without building up. But cities are difficult and expensive places to build because they lack open land. Adding density to already-bustling places is crucial for keeping up with demand and preventing the housing crisis from getting worse. It will not, however, add the millions of new units America needs. The only way to do that is to move out — in other words, to sprawl.

He goes on to examine what has limited growth over the last several decades, from anti-sprawl legislation and stringent zoning requirements, to the pervasive effects of NIMBYism.

Even if all the regulatory restraints were removed tomorrow, developers couldn’t find enough land to satisfy America’s housing needs inside established areas. Consequently, much of the nation’s housing growth has moved to states in the South and Southwest, where a surplus of open land and willingness to sprawl has turned the Sun Belt into a kind of national sponge that sops up housing demand from higher-cost cities. The largest metro areas there have about 20 percent of the nation’s population, but over the past five years they have built 42 percent of the nation’s new single-family homes, according to a recent report by Cullum Clark, an economist at the George W. Bush Institute, a research center in Dallas.

Admittedly, Dougherty makes a strong case.

But what he fails to consider is the concomitant problems of endless sprawl, as we in SoCal know so well, from crushing traffic congestion and smog to declining inner cities and the ever-rising casualties from traffic violence.

Not to mention living, not miles, but hours from the services you rely on, such as healthcare and courts, and continuing to mandate car dependency while killing walkability and bikeability.

Yes, we desperately need more housing. A lot more.

But we need to build it in places and ways that don’t exacerbate all the other problems that destroy our quality of life at the same time.

………

No surprise here.

According to LAist, elections for LA’s Neighborhood Councils are seeing their lowest voter turnout in years.

Part of the problem, aside from the difficulty of casting a ballot, is an almost total lack of local news coverage in today’s Los Angeles, resulting in a large segment of the population who have no idea what Neighborhood Council district they’re in, or that they even exist in the first place.

The other problem is that for every NC like Mid-City West or North Westwood council that’s responsive to and representative of the local community, you have too many overly dominated by one or two strong personalities, or NIMBYs who just say no to everything.

They should be a place we can go to address city problems on a micro, rather than macro, level, and trust those concerns will be heard and acted on. Especially in a city with far too few council districts, where every councilmember represents more than a quarter million people.

Mayor Bass is reportedly considering ways to reform, reinvigorate or replace the Neighborhood Council system.

But while change is needed, I’m not sure she’s earned the trust to lead this process anymore.

………

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

No bias here. A London tabloid says “fuming Brits” have initiated a petition demanding numbered license plates and liability insurance for all bike riders. Even though the last petition demanding the same thing died for lack of interest.

………

Local 

West Hollywood approved a proposal to study the feasibility of installing Class IV protected bike lanes on Beverly Blvd, although without any changes to the current lane design, which would seemingly hamstring the project.

 

State

Calbike examines the 14 ebike bills currently under consideration in the state legislature, including efforts to redefine some ebikes to clean up the blurred lines between electric bicycles and e-motorbikes, which we’ve been calling for here.

The California Coastal Commission approved plans for a bike path connecting Cayucos and Morro Bay along Highway 1 in San Luis Obispo County, filling a gap in the 1,200-mile California Coastal Trail.

Yesterday marked the first day of the four-day Sea Otter Classic, as more than a thousand bike industry brands showed off their wares at the Laguna Seca racetrack

Palo Alto is in the process of updating its 2012 bike plan, including opening up more of the city’s major roadways by installing protected bike lanes.

The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition is understandably protesting plans to allow driverless Waymo autonomous cars on the city’s currently carfree and pedestrianized Market Street. After all, what could possibly go wrong?

 

National

Forbes offers advice on how to stay safe on your next ebiking vacation.

A Grand Junction, Colorado writer examines the push for better bike and pedestrian infrastructure, after voters elected a full slate of city council candidates opposed to a new protected bike lane.

Is nothing sacred? Someone stole a $450 bicycle from a Kroger Coca-Cola display promoting Indiana University’s iconic Little 500.

Madonna is one of us, bundling up for a cold-weather ride through New York’s Central Park.

South Carolina bicyclists protested plans for a new luxury hotel in an area they say is “just a heaven for cycling,” fearing it could harm their safety on the road.

Urbanize questions whether Atlanta is worthy of the new Atlamsterdam moniker, saying it’s not as bike-friendly as the city in the Netherlands, but getting closer. On the other hand, as a nickname, it kinda sucks.

 

International

Momentum offers ten ways bicycles deliver the freedom cars only promise. Although I would swear we’ve seen this one before.

A writer for Cycling Weekly says he’s already lost over four pounds and his head feels clearer just a month into exploring sober curiosity. I’m a week into involuntary sobriety myself, thanks to a new medication that’s incompatible with my occasional beer. 

The Surfrider Foundation is protesting plans to build a two-mile paved bike path along the Puerto Rican coast, arguing it’s being built too close to the shore and fails to adopt a nature-based approach, fearing it could both destroy and be destroyed by the waves.

An English rugby player is biking 220 miles from his home stadium in Batley to London to raise funds to upgrade the stadium’s floodlights, after he was banned for eight matches for his role in a mass brawl. But isn’t mass brawling the whole point of rugby? 

Yet another study, this time from Finland, shows that bike commuting is still the smartest and healthiest way to get to work.

Three young men captured the attention of South Africans by riding their bikes the 1,100 miles from Limpopo to Cape Town.

A new Australian study warns of the dangers of hidden bike flaws that can lead to catastrophic failure of frames or key parts, suggesting changes need to be made at an industry-wide level.

 

Competitive Cycling

Look, I like American cyclist Sepp Kuss as much as anyone outside his own circle of family and friends, but is taking part in an early Basque Country breakaway that ultimately fizzled out really something to celebrate?

On the other hand, Portuguese cyclist João Almeida’s solo breakaway win in the same race is something to celebrate.

 

Finally….

The next time you ride your bike across the border, maybe leave the half-pound of meth and fentanyl hidden in the frame at home. Your next bike could double as a sex toy.

And your next golden raincoat could be made four of waterproof copper.

Yes, there’s a golden opportunity for a sex joke there. And no, I’m not going to make it.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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