Archive for Morning Links

Arrest made in road-rage harassment of OC bicyclists, Trump halting bike lane funding, and K Line extension okayed

March 27, 2026 / / One comment

My apology to everyone who received an earlier email containing nothing but an outline.

Evidently, I hit the wrong button, and posted it instead of saving it so I could keep working.

And yes, I freely admit to being an idiot, or any other term that feels most appropriate rolling off your lips.

Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. 

Now let’s get on with it.

Photo by Kindel Media for Pexels. 

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Evidently, Newport Beach cops were paying attention.

Earlier this week, we brought you the news that cyclists Ben Byra and U-23 national crit champ Luke Fetzer were harassed and threatened by a BMW driver who tried to run them off the road while on a training ride in Newport Beach.

At last count, their videos of the attack have been seen over 10 million times by people all over the world.

One of those viewers must have been someone in the police department, because a suspect is now under arrest for the alleged road rage attack.

According to a press release from the Newport Beach Police Department reposted on Fetzer’s Instagram account, a man identified as Corona resident Samir Weiss was busted for assault with a deadly weapon, as well as a charge for obstructing traffic.

They seized the weapon used in the attack as evidence — Weiss’ blue BMW M3.

The obstruction charge was explained by the Orange County Register.

Video footage of the incident shows the blue sedan driving behind the cyclists in a bike lane, accelerating and honking. At one point, Fetzer’s friend is seen jumping onto a curb with his bike, apparently to avoid the vehicle. The footage also appears to show a passenger throwing water at Fetzer.

According to Fetzer, the situation escalated a few miles later near a Shake Shack, where the driver and several others exited their vehicles and confronted the cyclists. Fetzer said the driver and four other people blocked traffic lanes, made threats and attempted to tackle them off their bikes.

Bizarrely, Fetzer told the Register that Weiss had reached out to him. Not to apologize, as you might think, but to challenge him to fight, MMA style.

Fetzer also shared what he said was a direct message from the driver after the incident.

“Hey bro let’s both sign waivers and meetup for a consensual Full MMA sparring session,” the message reads. “Let’s settle this like men.”

However, I’ve always thought of fighting as something that happened back behind the grade school playground at recess or after class let out for the day.

Although despite the way KCBS frames it, the message didn’t rise to the level of an actual threat, legally at least, since it was framed as a challenge.

But as I learned after reporting an apparent threat I received on here to the LAPD, someone has to actually say they’re going to harm you, rather than just saying they want to.

Or challenging you to “settle it like men.”

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Transportation for America warns that not only is the Trump administration trying to rip out a popular DC bike lane to make more room for cars, they’re trying to do the same thing across the country by cutting off funding before the lanes can even be built.

Not what you’d expect from the bicycle-loving founder of the infamous Tour de Trump, though.

Right?

Meanwhile. Scripps News reports that Congress is now looking at setting nationwide ebike safety standards, which will probably be enforced by masked ICE agents.

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The Metro Board approved the northern extension of the K Line Cedars-Sinai, West Hollywood and the Hollywood Bowl, after a last-minute agreement to allow work on obtaining funding to move forward, while an additional one-year study of the effects of tunneling in the area around Lafayette Square is conducted.

According to the Los Angeles Times,

However, in the 24 hours before Thursday’s meeting, Bass met several times behind the scenes with West Hollywood Mayor John Heilman, a major backer of the K Line extension, to come up with an amended motion that allows West Hollywood and L.A. County to work on securing funding that will allow the project to accelerate while also calling for additional study of the Mid-City section and community engagement. The new amendment, Bass stressed before the board voted in favor, would not delay the project or its funding…

Explaining her push for a compromise, Bass said that Lafayette Square is one of Los Angeles’s most significant historic Black neighborhoods. She recounted the history of nearby Sugar Hill, a once thriving Black community that was “profoundly disrupted” by the construction of the 10 freeway.

The difference, of course, is that the Sugar Hill neighborhood was razed by white city leaders who saw no value in a Black community, while the train will go deep underneath the existing homes.

And to the best of my knowledge, won’t involve destroying an inch of the historic neighborhood.

But still.

No one wants to see historically Black neighborhoods harmed. So if it takes yet another study to calm fears while the project moves forward, so be it.

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Good news for our neighbor to the south, who can really use it.

They're launching a Streetsblog SD !

— OB Cycler (@obcycler.bsky.social) 2026-03-24T21:35:58.023Z

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Shifter discusses five bicycle advocacy mistakes you didn’t even know you’re making, from thinking it’s you versus the world, to making sure that political leaders who say “no” suffer consequences for their decisions.

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Local 

The LA Times recommends an eight-mile bike ride to Cudahy with climate justice nonprofit Nature for All tomorrow. (Scroll down. No, keep scrolling.)

Get ready for yet-another bicycle and pedestrian safety enforcement operation in Santa Monica tomorrow, with cops set to ticket any traffic violations that could endanger either one, regardless of who commits it or why. So once again, ride to the letter of the law until you cross back into Los Angeles or Culver City, so you’re not the one who gets written up. 

A local letter writer says Agoura is doing absolutely nothing about all those “little juvenile delinquents riding around in their (e)bikes.” Although when I was a juvenile delinquent, I always preferred to ride on my bike, not in it.

An El Segundo man was arrested for restriping crosswalks and adding his own DIY stop signs to protect children in the neighborhood, after the city decided the street didn’t have enough traffic to warrant actually doing anything about it.

 

State

Calbike is hosting a webinar April 6th on designing bike infrastructure for heat, flooding, and usability. As long as that last part includes fixing potholes and keeping cars out, I’m in.

A San Diego op-ed from a pair of local bike advocates responds to a previous argument against plans for a bike lane on Governor Drive in the University City neighborhood, saying there’s simply no other place to put it.

Speaking of juvenile delinquents, thanks to The Acorn for making it clear that the kid who was arrested after leading the cops on a wild chase was riding an “off-highway electric motorcycle,” rather than anything the state defines as an ebike.

The Great Redwood Trail Agency board approved a master plan to design and construct a 300-mile rail-to-trail project through the California wine country and ancient tall timbers, from Humboldt to San Francisco.

 

National

Washington State is rebooting their ebike rebate program, offering vouchers up to $1,200. That compares favorably to California, which no longer has an ebike program because CARB stole all the money and gave it to buyers of electric cars and trucks, forgetting that ebikes are EVs that help get other EVs and gas-burning vehicles off the roads. Schmucks. 

Texas is reminding drivers of their “Be Safe. Drive Smart” safety campaign to protect bicyclists and other vulnerable road users. Which replaces the previous slogan “Get the **** outta the way of my truck!”

Wisconsin offers safety tips for bicyclists, which mostly make sense for a change, noting that “in 2024, a bicyclist was killed or hurt about every 11 hours” in the state. Damn, that guy should be more careful.

Former Chicago Bulls basketball great and AA baseball player Michael Jordan was one of us, turning a bike ride with Chicago Bears defensive end Richard Dent into a pain-inducing 30-mile challenge.

For the 11th consecutive year, you can ride a bike to the Indianapolis 500, but only if you buy a ticket for the ride, never mind the race.

While Los Angeles has talked about getting ready for the World Cup, New York is actually doing something about it by opening a new bike lane connecting Union Square and the Brooklyn Bridge in time for this summer’s Copa Mundial.

Speaking of New York, when was the last time you saw an American mayor ride a bikeshare bike seven miles to attend an important fundraiser? I vote for never. But maybe your memory is different from mine. 

 

International

Momentum observes that the biggest bikeshare systems are transforming cities around the world, and safe bicycling networks matter.

A London man says he can’t even remember the birth of his own son after he faceplanted while riding his bike, trying to avoid someone who landed in front of him after jumping out the emergency exit on a double decker bus.

A new German study found that while ebikes can help older people ride a bike, older men without helmets face a particularly high risk of serious brain injuries. Gee, ya think?

 

Competitive Cycling

Former European ‘cross champ Eli Iserbyt was forced to call it a career, as the 28-year old Belgian cyclist announced that doctors had advised him to stop riding entirely due to years of persistent blood flow problems.

A writer for Psychology Today responds to rumors about Tadej Pogačar’s win in Milan–San Remo, arguing that while we should never forget previous doping incidents, suspicion can become a psychological defense, and “If every new level is interpreted only through the past, then the past begins to limit the future.” Yeah, what he said.

 

Finally…

Apparently, you have more in common with a horse than you might think (and not just a nasty case of foot and mouth). Now you, too, can build your very own bicycle designed to survive the next apocalypse.

And just because you can take an urban ebike off-roading doesn’t mean you should.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

LA mayoral race starts with Mayor Bass missing in action, and taking both sides of the K Line Northern Extension debate

March 25, 2026 / / No comments

That sound you heard Monday was the official start of the Los Angeles mayoral race.

Normally, any contest with a standing incumbent in Los Angeles makes paint drying seem absolutely thrilling.

Particularly since this year’s race starts with LA Mayor Karen Bass enjoying an eight point lead over her closest opponent.

Except CD4 Councilmember Nithya Raman currently has the support of just 17% of eligible voters. Which means that Bass’ seemingly insurmountable lead after four years in office is based on only has 25% support.

And over half of the electorate has a negative opinion of her, making the race anyone’s to claim at this point.

The kickoff for the campaign was Monday’s first debate, sponsored by Streets for All and Housing Action Coalition. Although Bass and reality TV star Spencer Pratt, in third place with 14%, apparently couldn’t be bothered to attend.

Or maybe she was just off on another diplomatic mission, like she was when a large section of the city burned to the ground last year.

According to LAist, the candidates who could be bothered to show up were —

  • Adam Miller, founder of a homelessness nonprofit and self-described lifelong Democrat, said the city is “broken,” physically and figuratively.
  • Nithya Raman, an L.A. city councilwoman, said the city is “challenged.”
  • Rae Huang, a Presbyterian minister, community organizer and member of the Democratic Socialists of America, said L.A. needs “new and fresh leadership.”

Apparently, the other 35 candidates qualified for the June primary were also otherwise occupied. Or maybe they just weren’t invited, since their combined support could be listed on the back of a postage stamp.

You know, those sticky things you used to put on snail mail to make it go places.

LA Public Press offers five takeaways from the debate, including a reminder that Nithya Raman has a masters in urban planning from MIT, adding to her urbanist bona fides.

You can watch the full debate below.

Please enjoy that photo of a bass by Gio Spigo from Pexels up there on the left, since Mayor Bass didn’t bother to show up for the debate.  

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Meanwhile, Mayor Bass’ insisted that her stance on the Northern Extension of the K Line is being misrepresented, and she’s really a big ol’ supporter of extending the line.

Except, as Streets For All points out, her support is actually a delaying tactic, calling for extending the line while offering an amendment to approve it without selecting a final alignment, even though it has already been studied to death.

And even though that will just lead to more delays, and a loss of funding.

Apparently, she learned a lot during her time in Washington. Like how to take both sides of an issue.

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Metro Bike is hosting a virtual meeting at noon today to discuss expanding the  city’s bikeshare system.

Meanwhile, Czech carmaker Škoda’s We Love Cycling website takes a look at Prague, Czech Republic’s successful bikeshare system to see what it takes to make one work — starting with broad availability.

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CicLAvia hosted a recent discussion on the state of open streets in the Los Angeles area, as Metro wants to tie all upcoming events to this summer’s World Cup and the ’28 LA Olympics.

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Active SGV is hosting a ride on April 4th to check out the new Whittier Narrows BMX pump track.

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

The video of Ben Byra and U-23 national crit champ Luke Fetzer being harassed by a road-raging BMW driver in Newport Beach has now been viewed more than eight million times.

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Local 

The deadline for input on the Monrovia Draft Bike Master Plan is this Friday, aka the day after tomorrow. So get it in, already.

 

State

The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department is warning parents after a group of kids rode electric motorbikes through a Santee neighborhood performing “dangerous pranks” that they described as “doorbell ditching,” or what we called “ding-dong ditch” back in the Dark Ages. Although granted, no one was riding an overpowered virtual motorcycle or likely to get shot by a frightened homeowner back in the day.

Caltrans intends to install a crosswalk with flashing beacons on PCH near the Neptune’s Net restaurant, just across the Los Angeles County line, where the speed limit is 55 mph. Because of course drivers will screech to a stop from highway speeds for a few beacons flashing in the roadway.

A 46-year old woman died after she was bitten by a rattlesnake in Thousand Oaks’ Wildwood Regional Park, about a week before a teenaged girl was bitten when she fell off her mountain bike in the same area; a Costa Mesa man died after lingering in a coma for weeks when he was bitten while mountain biking in Irvine February 1st.

San Francisco is completely reimagining the city’s Folsom Street with a Complete Street project designed to prioritize non-motorized traffic. Which compares favorably with virtually every street in Los Angeles, where only motorized traffic gets prioritized. 

Parking mania raised its ugly head in Santa Rosa, where city officials approved replacing a dying mall’s pedestrian plaza with parking spaces. Raising the eternal question of why a dying mall needs even more parking. 

 

National

A writer for Electrek makes the case for why small, seated scooter-type bikes should be classified as ebikes, even if they don’t have pedals. Call them any damn thing you want, as far as I’m concerned, just not ebikes.

Portland, Oregon is launching a $20 million ebike rebate program offering up to $1,600 for standard ebikes and $2,350 for cargo ebikes. Which compares favorably to Los Angeles, where a nonexistent ebike voucher program provides eligible recipients absolutely nothing.

The Bureau of Land Management is considering opening 220 miles of Colorado offroad trails to ebikes, after opening hundreds of miles around Moab, Utah.

The founder of Strider Bikes recalls how the urge to get his two-year old toddler riding the trails around his Rapid City, South Dakota hometown as soon as possible led to the development of the pedal-less bike that forever changed bicycle training for the training pants crowd.

A New York councilmember wants a bike lane on a major roadway crossing Central Park, arguing that more people would ride if they could get from one end of Manhattan to the other.

A 56-year old Florida driver was arrested following a midnight crash that seriously injured a man riding a bicycle, after police discovered he’d been living under a fake name for 30 years to dodge a 1997 arrest and extradition warrant.

 

International

Road.cc recommends a dozen of the best pretend bicycling apps, for when you and your bike are both stuck inside.

The head of e-bikeshare firm Bolt says cities need more bike lanes to reduce traffic congestion and pressure on public transportation.

Momentum recommends the best places in North America to see cherry blossoms from your bike, from BC to DC. Or you can just ride your bike anywhere in Los Angeles and see just about everything, flowering or otherwise.

Um, okay. A Vancouver, British Columbia family known for tall bikes has developed a stacked, double-decker tandem that allows riders to switch positions mid-ride, without stopping, and are now working on a four-passenger version.

Must be nice. The Edinburgh, Scotland city council is fighting back against accusations of covering up figures suggesting a decline in bicycling rates, arguing that the bike network is pulling its weight, and the city needs more bikeways, not fewer.

Cycling Weekly considers the recent British study that shows bicycling saves the country’s National Health Service the equivalent of nearly $100 million, aside from any other activities, arguing that everyone benefits when more people ride.

Ghost bikes are becoming a point of contention between bicyclists and the city government of Melbourne, Australia, which says they don’t come under the city’s “plaques and memorials” policy.

 

Competitive Cycling

Italian cyclist Debora Silvestri is still hospitalized on breathing support after suffering multiple crack ribs going over the guard rail in a high speed mass crash in the women’s Milan-San Remo.

Former Olympic and world time trial champ Grace Brown says she’s glad she got out of the sport alive, arguing that UCI’s “extreme” focus on safety regulations hasn’t kept the peloton from getting more dangerous, as the high speed women’s Milan-Sanremo crash demonstrated.

If you needed any more proof that all-everything champ Tadej Pogačar is riding at the next level these days, he won Milan-San Remo with a mad descent on a cracked frame with a rubbing disc brake, following a bad crash earlier in the race.

Road.cc considers whether modern road bikes are really that much faster, more aero and comfortable compared to bikes from the ’90s.

 

Finally…

Where would Winnie-the-Pooh, Piglet and Eeyore mountain bike? That feeling when you scale a bridge with a bicycle on your back, then leave it flapping from the giant American flag at the top.

And why did the chicken use a pelican, puffin, toucan or tiger to cross the road — but not a pegasus, unless it was on a pony?

The chicken, that is.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

U-23 crit champ victim in SoCal road rage, motorcyclist killed on San Gabriel River Trail, and 80-year old family killer walks

March 24, 2026 / / No comments

This is who we share the road with.

US National U-23 crit champ Luke Fetzer posted video of road-raging, tailgating and trash tossing motorists right here in sunny Southern California.

Including one genius who tried tailgating him in a painted bike lane, apparently annoyed that anyone would have the temerity to ride a bicycle in what’s clearly intended as a traffic bypass lane for impatient motorists.

One more reminder to stay safe out there, because there are always angry, dangerous idiots behind some, if not most, of those steering wheels.

And bonus points for having the exceptional good taste to post his video to the Dropkick Murphys.

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This is who we share the bike path with.

A speeding, helmetless and lightless motorcyclist was killed when he collided head-on with a bicycle rider on the San Gabriel River Trail around 8 pm Friday night.

He died after both men were hospitalized in critical condition.

Needless to say, he shouldn’t have been there on the bike path to begin with. But I would guess most of us have encountered people on dirt bikes and/or motorbikes illegally using SoCal bike paths and bike lanes at one time or another.

No word on the bike rider’s current condition.

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Apparently, life is very cheap in the Bay Area.

As expected, an 80-year old San Francisco woman walked without a day behind bars for killing an entire family while speeding up to 70 mph on the wrong side of a city street.

Mary Fong Lau was sentenced to probation and 200 hours of community service, with no jail time or home vacation confinement, for the deaths of 40-year old Diego Cardoso de Oliveira and his wife, 38-year old Matilde Moncada Ramos Pinto, their one-year-old son Joaquim Ramos Pinto de Oliveira, and three-month-old Cauê Ramos Pinto de Oliveira as they waited at a bus stop.

San Francisco superior court judge Bruce Chan let Lau walk despite a petition with over 8,000 signatures urging him to impose “meaningful consequences proportionate to the gravity of this crime.”

Chan has already announced his retirement, rather than face angry voters at the polls.

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Apparently, parking spaces — not human lives — are what’s precious in WeHo.

Sigh. People’s lives are precious too ya know. @wehocity.bsky.social

— Andrew Solomon (@solomonweho.bsky.social) 2026-03-23T16:16:41.745Z

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Clearly, if we want a train line that serves everyone, we’re going to have to fight for it at Metro’s meeting Thursday.

 

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When it’s time to have “the talk” with your kid’s, tell ’em this is where road signs come from.

Although I’d say Bikes OK is a major understatement.

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About damn time.

LA’s favorite bike ride is staging a comeback worthy of a Hollywood sequel.

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Active SGV is hosting a Baldwin Park walk audit this Saturday.

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This is what a mayor who supports bicycling looks like.

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This is who we share the road with, too.

And notice that the corgi is herding them all to the side of the road.

https://bsky.app/profile/gypsyheart1.bsky.social/post/3mhqz4677l22x

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

A Wisconsin man stands accused of using his pickup as a weapon by driving off the roadway onto a separated bike path to intentionally ram and kill someone riding a bicycle; he was detained after also ramming a couple patrol cars at the local police station, before officers even knew about the fatal hit-and-run.

A Trump administration plan to rip out a DC bike lane was put on hold after bicyclists sued to halt them, following a weekend protest ride on streets of Washington DC over the administrations plan to rip out the popular protected bike lanes to make more room for cars — even though they’ve led to a nearly 70% drop in bike crashes, and almost 50% reduction in all collisions, since they were installed 14 years ago.

The case against a road-raging Spanish driver accused of attempted murder for ramming former world champ Alejandro Valverde and another bicyclist during a 2022 training ride will go to trial, after prosecutors were unable to reach a plea agreement last week.

A man riding a bicycle in the Philippines suffered severe injuries when he got into an argument with a road-raging motorcyclist who kept honking at him, then deliberately sideswiped him when the victim took out his phone to take a picture of the motorbike rider; he was then struck by a tricycle coming from the opposite direction.

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

Putting on a wig and trying to make his escape by bicycle didn’t work for an Illinois man, who was arrested for attempted murder stemming from a domestic violence incident.

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Local 

Streets For All says LA County can fund local California High Speed Rail projects without raising taxes. Even if I don’t pretend to understand any of it. 

New protected bike lanes are planned connecting Pico Blvd, Broadway Place and Martin Luther King Blvd in Historic South Central Los Angeles.

Former Laker Andrew Bynum is one of us, after he was recorded riding his bicycle in the streets of Los Angeles, eight years after injuries ended his NBA career.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department conducted a crackdown on illegal ebike usage in Agoura Hills, Calabasas and Westlake Village, citing 23 riders for illegal activity, towing seven illegal or illegally ridden ebikes, and arresting one ebike rider for fleeing a traffic stop. Which makes it seem like they weren’t even trying; I could have done more than that without leaving the steps of my Hollywood apartment building. 

Long Beach will host a public meeting on April 2nd — a week from Thursday — to discuss the proposed Pacific Avenue Transformation Project, a Complete Streets makeover of the current overly wide corridor.

 

State

The Southern California News Group looks at the law governing ebikes and how it’s struggling to catch up to their rapid expansion.

San Diego’s city council voted to reduce speed limits on roughly 20% of the city’s streets. Which isn’t likely to accomplish much when most drivers ignore the posted limit anyway.

Simi Valley approved a new bike plan, which “identifies proposed bike paths, bike lanes and bike routes, along with intersection improvements and a prioritized list of projects based on safety, feasibility and funding potential.” Which, as any veteran of the Los Angeles bike plan wars can tell you, is bureaucrat speak for most of them will probably never, ever be built.

For the second time in six weeks, a Southern California mountain biker has been bitten by a rattlesnake. Firefighters in Ventura County responded when a teenaged girl fell off her bike at a Thousand Oaks trailhead, and was bitten by the snake; the girl was listed in stable condition with minor injuries. Hopefully, she’ll fare better than Orange County’s Julien Hernandez, who lingered in a coma for a month before dying from his injuries.

Seriously? A Central Valley website reports a woman was “majorly” injured when the right-front of a pickup crashed into her as she rode her bicycle.

The on-again, off-again bike lane on the Bay Area’s Richmond-San Raphael Bridge will continue to be studied and discussed, as 840 bicycle trips were counted in this past Sunday’s unseasonably warm weather, on a pathway we’re supposed to believe no one ever uses.

 

National

Bike helmets and aluminum-framed bicycle trailers will be exempted from Trump’s China tariffs for another year, for reasons known only to him.

A beloved Nebraska man was honored with a bicycle sculpture outside the food co-op where he worked, featuring a wheel made of classic album covers, two years after he was killed.

Rochester NY spent a total of half a million dollars to install separate bike and pedestrian pathways next to a local roadway, then rip them up and reinstall a shared path, for no apparent reason.

New York State had a 2,000-mile network of bikeways over 125 years ago, not much of which remains after they were ripped out or overtaken by motor vehicles.

No bias here. The California/New York Post cites “alarming” ebike stats as proof of the that “chaos” New York Mayor Mamdani is unleashing on the city’s hapless citizenry, after four people were killed and less than 100 injured by ebikes in the city last year, while 16 ebike riders were killed. Just wait until someone tells them about cars. 

 

International

Momentum deservedly busts ten myth about bicycling, from only rich white guys ride bikes, to the perennial classic that bike riders don’t pay for the roads they ride.

Bikes are booming again in Cuba, as local residents cope with fuel shortages resulting from the Trump administration’s blockage of oil shipments to the island, revealing the resilience of the local population.

By royal decree, ebikes in Great Britain will hereby be considered cheating.

A writer for Bike Radar says riding was a dream in the UK following the 2012 London Olympics, but the dark days of angry road-hogging drivers are back. Which suggests maybe we could have a few good years after the ’28 LA Olympics. But I wouldn’t count on it. 

Good news from Islamabad, Pakistan, as the city will get new bike lanes and pedestrian paths, as well as a crackdown on illegal encroachment on them by drivers.

Bike Radar talks with a British expat Joe Whittingham of the Panda Podium website about the meteoric rise of Chinese bicycles.

 

Competitive Cycling

No surprise here, as Tadej Pogačar overcame a fall to edge Tom Pidcock in the Milano-Sanremo one-day classic, a victory that left the usually talkative Eddy Merckx speechless; Belgian Lotte Kopecky won on the women’s side.

Spanish cyclist Javier Romo grabbed American pro Matteo Jorgenson by the neck and verbally threatened him outside the Visma-Lease a Bike bus on Saturday after Jorgenson made an off-camera move to improve his third place position Italy’s Tirreno-Adriatico.

The great Colombian climber, and Giro and Vuelta champ, Nairo Quintana announced he’s calling it a career at the end of this season, after 16 years on the WorldTour.

Tadej Pogačar vows to stop training on the roads of the Italian Riviera, blasting the “criminal” actions of the area’s motorists.

I want to be like him when I grow up. Seventy-seven-year old Gilles Quevauvilliers completed the 40th edition of the Cape Town Cycle Tour, as his son flew in from Australia to ride along with him; his grandson also races Down Under.

Twenty-seven-year old Italian cyclist Debora Silvestri suffered five broken ribs and a micro fracture in her shoulder after a horrific crash at Saturday’s Milan-San Remo when she went over a guard rail following a collision with several other riders; Polish cyclist Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney, the first rider down, appeared to take the crash in stride, while, Cycling Weekly called the reaction to her crash an overreaction.

 

Finally…

That feeling when a carton of eggs and a secondhand vase don’t survive the local roads. That feeling when your tiny spotter has his own handlebars — you know, just in case you don’t answer him in time.

And probably not the best idea to modify your ebike from one horsepower to a single dog.

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

California is #8 in bike/ped deaths and #1 in lawyer bikewashing, and pedestrian killed in intentional South LA hit-and-run

March 20, 2026 / / No comments

We’re #8!

A new study from a law group shows that California recorded an average of 1,164 pedestrian and 153 bicyclist deaths per year over a five-year period between 2019 and 2023.

That ranks us eighth in the US on a per capita basis, behind perennial champion Florida.

Although yet another study from yet another law practice ranks Louisiana as the state where bicyclists face the greatest risk of getting killed on a bike and from bad roads.

By that standard, California ranks seventh.

None of which really proves anything, other than a) too many people die from traffic violence on California streets, b) we need more and better bike and pedestrian infrastructure, and c) law firm marketers think bikewashing is the best way to improve their search rankings.

And they’re probably right.

Which is why I linked to stories about their studies, rather than the actual studies. You can click through if you really want to.

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This is who we share the road with.

The LAPD is looking for a hit-and-run driver accused of using his car as a weapon to run down a 54-year old man walking in South LA, intentionally driving up on the sidewalk and striking the victim twice.

The man died after being taken to the hospital.

There’s no description of the driver or the suspect vehicle at this time. Although as always, there’s a standing $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the driver.

Even when it’s on purpose.

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

Adding insult to literal injury, a Louisiana bicyclist was ticketed for being at fault after the bike rider was struck by a state trooper in an unmarked car. Because somehow, cops never seem to be at fault when they hit someone on a bicycle, especially when they’re doing the investigating.

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

No bias here. Some New Yorkers are up in arms over Mayor Mamdani’s decision to stop criminally charging bicycle and ebike riders for traffic offenses — including the widow of a Gone Girl actress killed by an ebike rider — instead of giving them traffic tickets like people in what obviously must be much safer motor vehicles. Never mind that they continue to confuse ped-assist ebikes with electric motorbikes and dirt bikes.

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Local 

Congratulations to Bike LA Executive Director Eli Kaufman on his speaking gig at next week’s National Bike Summit in Washington DC.

 

State

Someone please tell the Seal Beach Police Department that a Surron is not an electric bicycle, as the local weekly says there’s been some online debate over whether the kid who hit an elderly pedestrian was riding “an electric bike or an electric motorcycle.” Gee, ya think?

He gets it. An op-ed writer for the Voice of OC says investing in bike infrastructure pays dividends for all, noting he can get from Anaheim to Irvine faster on a bike than by car.

That’s more like it. About 30% of San Diego Door Dash deliveries are made by bicycle, ebikes or scooters, enabling workers to spend an average of around 15% less time from offer acceptance to pickup, while earning over 10% more per hour.

San Bernardino County’s latest extension of the Santa Ana River Trail was named the 2025 Inland Empire Branch Project of the Year, as well as the Southern California Chapter’s BEST (Building Excellence Shaping Tomorrow) project from the American Public Works Association.

A San Francisco website gets candidates for the city’s Board of Supervisors District 4 on the record for their stands on bicycling.

 

National

No bias here, either. A Seattle news radio program blames a new bike lane for costing $156 million and removing curbside parking, conveniently forgetting that most of the money is being used to build bus lanes.

Minnesota Governor and erstwhile vice presidential candidate Tim Walz made a visit to Angry Catfish Bicycle in Minneapolis, which sponsored the nationwide Unity Rides honoring fallen mountain biker and VA nurse Alex Pretti, murdered by ICE agents in January.

Residents of Downtown Miami are reportedly fed up with people parking in bike lanes, as well they should be, arguing that it’s a public safety hazard and enforcement is rare.

 

International

An Irishman was killed falling off his 30-year old bicycle, offering a tragic reminder not to ride when you’re three — no, make that four — sheets to the wind.

Speaking of biking under the influence, Japan suspended the driver’s licenses of 1,507 people for bicycling while legally drunk last year, up from just 23 the year before.

 

Finally…

Look, if you’re going to shoot someone over ten bucks, maybe try riding off on a plain colored bicycle. What self-respecting male reality TV star wouldn’t ride a tandem in lingerie and suspenders?

And that feeling when your bike seat falls off with 14 miles of cobbles left to go.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Murder grills designed to kill, Koreatown hit-and-run victim identified, and Monrovia releases daft, uh Draft, Safety Plan

March 19, 2026 / / 2 comments

I noticed that truck over there on the left while walking the dog yesterday.

And was struck by the truck’s murder grill — not literally, thankfully — which seems designed to inflict maximum damage on anyone or anything unfortunate enough to come into contact with it.

Any person struck by it, whether walking or bicycling, would likely be thrown forward as if struck by a giant hammer, then run over by the multi-ton truck if the driver was unable to stop in time.

Yet people wonder why traffic deaths continue to climb in the US, and not in other countries with more rational safety policies.

Never mind that there’s no license plate on the front of the damn thing.

………

The victim in last week’s fatal Koreatown hit-and-run has been identified as a 73-year old woman.

Although depending on what source you go by, the driver was either arrested after abandoning their car, or not.

Which means there’s either a standing $50,000 reward for the fatal hit-and-run, or there isn’t.

………

Monrovia is seeking comments on their new Draft Safety Action Plan and Bicycle Master Plan.

I don’t know the city well enough to offer any informed thoughts, but it looks to be heavy on Class 3 bike routes, aka sharrows, which are usually worthless for anything other than wayfinding, if not actually dangerous.

………

Oceanside bike lawyer and BikinginLA sponsor Richard Duquette offers a short Facebook reminder to max out the Uninsured Driver coverage on your auto insurance policy, which will cover you on your bike if you crash, or get hit by a driver with no insurance or inadequate coverage.

The family of fallen Australian bicyclist James Rapley learned that the hard way, after the stoned driver who ran him down on Temescal Canyon in 2013 had no insurance or financial resources, leaving their lawyer unable to collect a dime, despite his efforts.

The opposite happened when I was struck by a road raging driver who refused to accept liability, and my own auto insurance covered every penny of my medical bills.

It was a painful lesson well learned.

Thanks to Phillip for the heads-up. 

………

A new short film from Shimano traces the rise of the inclusive All Bodies On Bikes group, with over 4,000 views in the first day.

………

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

An accused road-raging driver is set to go on trial in Spain for attempted murder after running over former world champ Alejandro Valverde and another rider during a 2022 training ride, following an argument over a close pass.

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

There’s a special place in hell for the 61-year old Florida man who was arrested for animal cruelty after allegedly beating and kicking a puppy, simply because it couldn’t keep up as he dragged it behind his bike, despite telling police he was “training” the dog. Maybe someone should tie him behind a bicycle and train him, instead. 

………

Local 

A Redittor raves about the San Gabriel River bike path after riding over 30 miles from Santa Fe Dam to Seal Beach, then back again, as commenters tell him hush before everyone finds out.

Riding the sharrows on Fountain Ave in West Hollywood could be even dicier than usual, as the city takes traffic signals offline to upgrade traffic signal controller cabinets, “to modernize traffic infrastructure and improve safety and reliability for motorists, pedestrians, and bicyclists.”

Speaking of WeHo, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department will conduct yet another of the LA area’s bicycle and pedestrian safety operations on Monday, so ride to the letter of the law until you cross the city limit line. Although people don’t seem to end up driving any better, no matter how many of those things they hold, or how often.

 

State

Apple Valley will install a roundabout, center turn lane and new Class 1 separated bike lanes to improve safety at a dangerous intersection.

They get it. A Streetsblog San Francisco op-ed says California has to stop expanding freeways, because “While transit, bike, and safety projects struggle for funding, the state keeps writing blank checks for freeway widening boondoggles. It’s time to tell our lawmakers: enough!” It’s long past time to stop flushing money down the induced demand-inducing toilet.

Sacramento is working on getting an action plan to reduce traffic deaths ready by the end of the year, in the city with the state’s highest per capita rate of traffic deaths.

 

National

A tiny new sensor raising funds on Kickstarter can now tell you the air pressure on your bike tires within ±2%.

Seattle is ripping out the curbs protecting a new bike lane after a “surveying error” left the traffic lane too narrow for trucks to navigate. Although that sounds like a good thing to me. 

Albuquerque, New Mexico will now require drivers to stop at crosswalks for bicyclists and pedestrians, and student drivers in the state will have to take a three-hour course on driving around vulnerable road users, after a mother turned her grief over the death of her bike-riding daughter into a campaign to improve safety for all of us.

Burlington, Vermont is now home to what may be the world’s first fully adaptive mountain bike trail network, allowing handicapped riders to take to the trails without fear of insurmountable obstacles.

New York Mayor Mamdani is calling a halt to the previous administration’s policy of giving criminal summons to scofflaw bike riders, rather than traffic tickets, for even minor violations; the policy was considered unfair to delivery riders who need their bikes to earn a living. Although it was also unfair to anyone on two wheels, who were treated more harshly than motorists, despite posing less risk to those around them. 

The Delaware-based Lycra Company, makers of Lycra, Coolmax, THERMOLITE, Supplex, and Tactel, is the latest bikewear-related firm to go belly-up, after the company couldn’t stretch to cover up to a half billion dollars in debts.

A 72-year old North Carolina woman had her bicycle restored by the same shop where her parents bought it 60 years earlier for a whopping $39.95, plus tax.

 

International

London’s epidemic of Lime Bike Leg could be ending, after the company redesigned their bikeshare ebikes to remove a heavy center bar that could trap a user’s leg under the bike if it fell over.

An Israeli nonprofit is using bicycling as a “therapeutic and educational tool to enrich disadvantaged and behaviorally challenged youth,” while exploring the country on two wheels in small groups up to just 15 people.

 

Competitive Cycling

A 60-year old San Diego man known as “The Slasher” has 11 national championships under his belt, and is the reigning age-group mountain bike and gravel national champ, as well as the founder of the city’s Quick-n-Dirty racing series.

 

Finally…

Probably not the best idea to describe your car as “an absolute weapon” while still on probation for killing your wife with one. Your next extremely overly expensive bicycle could be a Bugatti.

And that feeling when you need a sudden change in footwear.

https://twitter.com/cyclingontnt/status/2034296832566657081?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2034296832566657081%7Ctwgr%5Ebe3ac7f76316f799f4a564f3fb3df6977479cbc8%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Froad.cc%2Fnews%2Fcycling-live-blog-18-march-2026

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Use caution in threatening heat, killer Long Beach driver waited 23 hours to turn himself in, and Grossman appeal rejected

March 18, 2026 / / 3 comments

My apologies for another unexcused absence. 

I was knocked on my ass by yet another migraine, which I’m told probably results from the TBI I got a couple decades ago in the Infamous Beachfront Bee Incident. 

And yes, I was wearing a helmet, and no, it didn’t seem to make much of a difference. 

Then again, that’s probably the cause of my REM sleep disorder and potential pending Parkinson’s, too. 

Good times. 

And of course, I came back to yet another person killed riding a bicycle in Southern California. Which means we’re now averaging another bike death every 3.3 days this year. 

Image by Shafin Al Asad Protic from Pixabay. 

………

A week of life-threatening dry air and epic March heat could threaten your safety for the next several days.

Wear light, quick-drying clothing, bring — and drink — plenty of extra fluids, and stick to cooler, shady routes if you can.

And if possible, do your riding in the cooler morning or evening hours, when you’re less likely to suffer from heat-related problems.

I say that as someone who used to love riding on the hottest days when I was only likely to encounter mad dogs and Englishmen on the roads.

Depending on where you are, temperatures could range anywhere from the high 80s to the low 100s, at a time of year when your body isn’t adjusted to the heat.

So just be careful out there.

………

The driver who hit and killed 54-year-old Lori Ann Carreon last month called police to turn himself in the day after the crash.

But only after waiting seven hours following a call to Avis Car Rental to report he’d been in a crash in one of their cars. And even then, taking another three days to turn himself in at Long Beach police headquarters.

The beloved Long Beach occupational therapist was riding her bike just one block from her home when 40-year old Christopher Bryant allegedly blew through the stop sign at high speed, killing her on the spot.

Detectives seized his cell phone and filed search warrants to obtain phone records and GPS data, which could reveal not only where he went after the crash, but whether he was driving distracted at the time of the impact.

It would not show whether he had been under the influence when he killed Carreon, then drove home to his apartment in DTLA, however.

Bryant released on $50,000 bond after being booked on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence.

No charges have been filed yet.

………

No surprise here.

A California appeals court upheld the conviction of socialite Rebecca Grossman, co-founder with her ex-husband of the famed Grossman Burn Center, in the speeding hit-and-run deaths of two young brothers in Westlake six years ago.

………

It’s got nothing to do with bicycling — or only tangentially, anyway — but Streets For All asks you to support the staff-approved route for the K Line Northern Extension at today’s 11 am meeting of the Metro Planning and Programming Committee meeting.

As they put it,

Once built, this would be the busiest light rail line in the country, and connect the region to key destinations like The Grove, Farmers Market, the Beverly Center, Cedars Sinai, nearly all of West Hollywood, and the Hollywood Bowl!

But it’s not a done deal, and Metro needs to hear overwhelming support for the project.

Although without a big boost in funding, it’s not likely to happen in my lifetime.

………

Megan forwards news that New York will be lowering speed limits to 15 mph in school zones.

Although you can lower speeds as much as you want, but without the right infrastructure, many drivers will just ignore it.

………

A Cartagena, Colombia-based mountain biker hangs on for dear life after taking a spill near the edge of a cliff before pulling herself to safety.

@sol_y_bici

♬ sonido original – Sol ☀️

………

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

They’re onto us, comrades. An op-ed in the San Diego Union-Tribune suggests the city’s new bike lanes are part of a secret plot to enhance transit-oriented developments around the city, which would trigger SB 79 to allow greater housing density near transit stops, and foist it upon unsuspecting single-family neighborhoods. Although you’ll have to find your own way around the paper’s draconian paywall. 

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

Seal Beach police report an elderly woman was hospitalized with serious injuries when she was struck by a “juvenile riding a Surron electric bicycle.” Except a Surron does not look, ride or perform anything like a bicycle, and should be classified as an electric motorbike; at least KCBS gets it right. 

………

Local 

The Los Angeles Times recommends riding a bicycle as one of the best things you can do for under twenty bucks in Los Angeles — and at least three times.

No surprise here either, as Streetsblog’s Joe Linton reports drivers are destroying the new quick-build traffic circle at a deadly Koreatown intersection.

Linton also reports on quick-build bus lanes on the Westside, and a new protected bike lane Long Beach’s Pacific Ave.

Venice and Washington boulevards could get some of LA’s first automated speed cams.

A consortium of Altadena bike advocacy groups got a $2,000 Bike League grant to develop a concept for a continuous trail loop connecting West Altadena neighborhoods affected by the Eaton Fire.

Culver City finally dumps the muted green bike lanes forced upon us all by Hollywood filmmakers too cheap to digitally remove the brighter lanes.

About damn time. Santa Monica is on a path to become the first jurisdiction in California to implement automated bike lane enforcement.

 

State

Two SoCal teens are rewriting the narrative around ebikes by promoting responsibility, community and positive culture among young riders. Although the press is still conflating ped-assist ebikes with electric motorbikes and dirt bikes. 

A Victorville BMX rider was hospitalized with undisclosed injuries after being struck by a driver headed for a freeway onramp, while riding in a crosswalk.

Sad news from Salinas, where a woman in her 60s was killed when she was struck by not one, not two, but three drivers while riding her bike; naturally, the CHP blamed her dark clothing.

The Bay Area’s Caltrain commuter train is reconsidering plans to ban cargo bikes, panniers and bike child seats in the face of major blowback from bike commuters.

Sad news from San Jose, where a man riding a bicycle was killed by an alleged DUI Tesla driver, who inexplicably returned to his car after abandoning it following the crash.

 

National

Hack your own DIY illuminated bicycle pedals, while turning your small, lightweight clip-in pedals into bigass platforms.

A new study from Bicycle Colorado calls for automated enforcement after identifying 7,900 violations among just over 49,000 vehicles during 30-minute observations at 196 intersections across 25 Colorado cities and counties.

Um, okay. A website for a Chicago suburb remembers the final resting place of six-day bike race champ Albert Schock, “currently listed as the 31st greatest American rider of all time (behind Lance Armstrong and Greg Lemond.)” And no, I’m not merely mocking it because the period is in the wrong place. But that doesn’t help any.

An 83-year old Ohio man says repairing and donating bicycles is his “bicycle ministry,” giving away over 400 bicycles a month to kids and people in need. Which is an astounding number if accurate, since most organizations can’t even manage that, let alone elderly individuals. 

A local magazine says Richmond, Virginia’s mountain biking community has helped create the city’s outdoorsy culture.

 

International

He gets it. A writer for Cyclist says bikes have never mattered more because they give you a little sanity break while the world is burning. My bike got me through the death of my father, 9/11, and (insert your least favorite president here).

New bike lanes are helping to trigger “remarkable reductions” in air pollution in 19 cities around the world.

A London school kid says “safety is Paramount when you are cycling on the road.” True though it may be, the odd capitalization made me think safety matters only because it’s buying Warner Brothers. 

A British broadcaster unexpectedly finds himself riding with the country’s next king.

The head of Britain’s Asphalt Industry Alliance says it would take 12 years and the equivalent of nearly $25 billion to bring the roads of Wales and England up to standard conditions. Or as we call that here in Los Angeles, a down payment. 

A new report says bicycling saves the UK’s National Health Service the equivalent of $96 million a year in health costs. Meanwhile, it helps American insurance companies enjoy more of their record profits. 

No bias here. A British paper says the residents of Plymouth, England are up in arms for a decision to spend the equivalent of over $5 million to build a bike lane a little more than the length of two football fields, even though that involves boring through an abandoned railroad tunnel to connect two bikeways. Never mind that it should say “some” residents, and no one would likely complain if it was a car tunnel. 

The smallest bike lane in Killarney, Ireland — and possibly the entire country — measures just six inches at its narrowest point. Which even makes LA’s bike lanes seem absolutely capacious. 

The recent bicycle-friendly conversion of Paris, France may continue, as a former deputy of Mayor Anne Hidalgo is leading in early election results, after Hidalgo chose not to pursue a third six-year term.

India held the 65th edition of the nationwide Fit India Sundays on Cycle, which is a series of organized bike rides in 5,000 cities large and small.

A 40-year old Swiss bicyclist’s 10,500-mile journey from one end of Africa to the other was delayed for two weeks when military authorities in Cameroon detained him for filming a bridge in a restricted area. Because as we all know, international spies always prefer traveling by bicycle instead of high-powered sports cars.

That’s more like it. The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority in the Philippines has opened a Bike-to-Work End-of-Trip shower facility to allow riders to clean up and change clothes after riding to work in the humid city.

Aussie university researchers consider the burning question of whether ebike riders should be required to have a driver’s license, aptly noting the pedelecs, or ped-assist bikes in this country, don’t pose a greater risk than regular bicycles.

 

Competitive Cycling

Mexico’s Isaac del Toro claimed the second CG victory of his career by winning Tirreno-Adriatico on Sunday.

A British Continental team was the victim of an armed robbery when moped-riding thieves pulled bikes off the roof of a team car.

Jonas Vingegaard crushed the GC at Paris-Nice, sending a warning to the competition.

A Philadelphia writer looks back at Robin Morton, the first woman to own and manage a men’s professional cycling team back in the ’80s. That’s the 1980s, not the 1880s. 

 

Finally…

You could get stuck in your Waymo when restless residents rebel against our new robotic overlords. Who says bikes can’t climb trees (thanks to Steven for the heads-up)?

And only Michael Caine could look that posh on a foldie with a flat.

Michael Caine seems a bit deflated hereCheer up, Michael, it's your #BicycleBirthday!Born March 14, 1933

— Cool Bike Art (@coolbikeart1.bsky.social) 2026-03-14T08:15:35.994Z

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Racism rears ugly head in bike community, road-raging man uses bike as weapon, and killer driver on trial for murder

March 13, 2026 / / No comments

Nothing is uglier than racism.

Unless it’s racist kids.

A Black student at UC Irvine was surrounded, harassed, spat at and struck by a small group of ebike-riding teens.

Not to mention subjected to ugly racial slurs.

The fourth-year student headed back to his dorm from the Black Student Union when he was approached by four teenaged boys and a girl on their ebikes.

After he asked to be left alone and tried to walk away, they started to chase him.

According to KNBC-4,

“They were close enough that they were spitting on me, trying to grab at me, trying to do all sorts of heinous things,” he said. “I’m being called ‘monkey,’ ‘blackie,’ completely out of my name. Obviously, this is stuff I never expected to hear.”

During the attack, the victim said he was also called the N-word and was struck on the back of his ankle by an assailant who accelerated their e-bike toward him.

“It was the worst pain I had felt in a very long time,” the victim said.

The campus police offered a description of just two of the five kids.

According to UC Irvine police, one of the assailants was described as a 16 to 17-year-old boy who was about 5-feet-8-inches tall and weighed about 160 to 170 pounds. He had a white T-shirt, black pants, a black helmet and was traveling on a black e-bike at the time of the attack.

A second attacker was described as a 14-year-old boy who was 5-feet-5-inches tall and about 190 pounds. He wore a black shirt, denim gray pants, white Air Force 1 Nike shoes, a black helmet, a blue backpack and was also traveling on a black e-bike, police said.

We can assume the kids are white, but that’s not guaranteed. Because for some bizarre reason, there’s no mention of the teens’ race in their descriptions, which just might help identify them.

There’s also no word on what kind of ebikes the kids were on. But we can probably guess.

Anyone with information is urged to call UC Irvine Police at 949/824-5223.

Photo by Johan Bos from Pexels.

………

As if that wasn’t bad enough, something eerily similar happened to an 11-year old girl in Carlsbad.

Except this time, it was the victim who was on a bike.

A viral video shows a young Black girl was surrounded by students from Aviara Oaks Middle School, both boys and girls, while she was riding at Poinsettia Park on February 26th.

According to People magazine,

Racial slurs can be heard in the video, and at one point a boy says it feels “racist” and, “We’re all ganging up on a Black girl.”

The girl tried to back up on her bike and leave, but was prevented from doing so and then slapped, at which point she fought back and the video ended.

NBC San Diego quotes the girl’s mother, April Amor, saying she’s proud of how her daughter handled the situation.

“I just want to go home,” her daughter says in the video while kids yell racial slurs and other expletives. After about two-and-a-half minutes of tension, she rolled her bike backwards, away from the group. A young boy pulled her bike back in and then 30 seconds later, someone slapped the girl in the face before she got off the bike and fought back.

“She stood her ground,” Amor said. “I told my daughter, you don’t start fights, but you better finish them. And I’m proud. I’m proud of how she conducted herself.”

Amor said she was removing her daughter from the school district, and will be homeschooling her now.

Probably a good choice. Especially if the kids get the discipline they deserve.

Or if they don’t.

………

Police in Santa Ana are looking for a man who was caught on dashcam throwing his bicycle at a car when several driver honked at him for standing in the middle of 1st Street and blocking traffic, for no apparent reason.

The incident happened on February 27th.

Anyone with information is urged to contact Santa Ana Police Investigative Specialist V. Hernandez at 714/245-8372, or VHernandez@santa-ana.org.

………

Apparently, justice delayed isn’t justice denied this time.

According to the VC Star, 33-year old Port Hueneme resident Samuel Rocha has finally gone on trial for murder in the death of 16-year-old bike rider Pedro Valdez five years ago.

Rocha also faces four counts of attempted murder, five counts of assault with a deadly weapon and two counts of battery for a series of assaults, including intentionally plowing his car into a group of seven fixie riders.

Allegedly.

Rocha was reportedly still angry following a series of altercations a few minutes earlier when he encountered the group that included Valdez.

Just 10 minutes before the crash, Rocha is seen on camera at Queen Wash in Oxnard, confronting and then hitting a man and his wife in the laundromat. When another man follows Rocha outside to take a photo of his license plate, Rocha is seen driving his car into the man and knocking him over.

To make matters worse, he seemed proud of it.

Later in the evening, in a video from the back of a police car, Rocha rants about how he didn’t have a house to sleep in, while rich kids pretended to be poor. He said he didn’t care if he went to prison.

“I’m happy I ran over those fools today, dawg,” Rocha said, prompting tears from Pedro’s parents in the audience.

In a recorded police interview, an officer asks him if he took his anger from the laundromat fight out on the bicyclists and intentionally hit them, and Rocha replies, “Yeah.” He said he accelerated toward the bikes and didn’t stop after the impact.

The trial was delayed after Rocha was declared mentally incompetent to stand trial, which seems to be his defense.

Because according to his lawyer, Rocha didn’t mean to slam his Lexus into the kids riding bikes; he just didn’t see them because he was so deeply psychotic and intoxicated.

The paper reports he’s being held without bail while the trial continues, which is expected to take four weeks.

………

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

The National Park Service may be secretly planning to rip out a DC bike lane that’s under their control, without any public comment or written announcement, according to an anonymous whistleblower.

Apparently lacking anything new to stir up outrage against bicyclists, British tabloids dig up an old survey that they twist to suggest half of bike riders “think they’re ‘too cool’ to wear a helmet.” Even though 31% actually said it’s not practical or needed because they’re only riding a short distance, and 13% don’t want to mess up their hair — which still only adds up to 44%. And while I wasn’t a math major, that seems like less than half. But what do I know?

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

A 50-year old British ebiker walked without a single day behind bars, after he was given a 15-month suspended sentence for killing a 91-year old man while illegally riding on the sidewalk; the tabloids celebrated the country’s first manslaughter conviction for riding a bicycle on the sidewalk (or “pavement,” in Brit-speak).

………

Local 

Streetsblog’s Joe Linton explains how to read the signs showing where a bike lane or crosswalk was ripped out by the city, putting lives at risk for the convenience of motorists.

Culver City is hosting a public workshop on the Sepulveda Connects Complete Streets project on Wednesday, along with a virtual workshop a week from Saturday.

 

State

The family of fallen San Diego bicyclist Andres Gallardo want answers, after the 43-year old man was killed by a hit-and-run driver while riding in the city’s Clairemont neighborhood March 1st; a crowdfunding campaign to defray funeral expenses and send his ashes to his parents has raised the equivalent of just $144. And no, it doesn’t look like I knew about this one yet; I’ll try to get to it later today.

San Diego is on the verge of becoming the largest California city to crack down on ebikes, including a ban on kids under 12. Although like virtually every other attempt to rein in ebike riders, they continue to conflate ped-assist ebikes with higher speed and more powerful electric motorbikes and dirt bikes.

The San Diego Association of Governments, aka SANDAG, finally broke ground on long-awaited bike lanes on San Diego’s University Ave, which has been in the works since 2012.

Santa Clara has adopted a Vision Zero plan, after 51 people were killed in traffic collisions over a five-year period in the city of just 120,000.

The parents of a four-year old boy are suing the city of Burlingame, as well as 19-year-old driver, her parents, and the parents of an 11-year old boy riding an ebike, after the four-year old was killed as his family exited a restaurant, collateral damage following a collision between the 19-year old driver and the boy on the ebike.

 

National

Toddler-sized Pro Rider bike helmets are being recalled because they may pose a “serious risk of injury or death due to head injury.”

Projects across the country are at risk as President Trump targets hundreds of millions of dollars in federal grants for biking and pedestrian projects.

Uh, probably not. After a teenaged Utah girl miraculously survived a traumatic brain injury, her mother said “it would have made the hugest difference” and “she would have had such less trauma” is she had only worn a bike helmet when she crashed her ebike into a retaining wall at 40 mph, then landed head-first after falling 25 feet off a cliff. Even though bike helmets are only designed to protect against impacts up to 12.5 mph. And don’t even get me started on her grammar. 

A Netflix doc about the life and murder of gravel champ Moriah “Mo” Wilson premiered at the SXSW Film & TV Festival in Austin, Texas on Thursday, the city where she was fatally shot by a jealous Kaitlin Armstrong, who thought she was involved with her erstwhile boyfriend, pro cyclist Colin Strickland, in 2022.

Huh? A Minnesota legislator wants to amend the state’s Idaho Stop Law to make bicyclists stop at yellow lights, but only if they’re riding in bikeways. And no, I honestly have no idea why going through a yellow light in a bike lane is perceived as more dangerous than doing it without one. 

I want to be like him when I grow up. An 81-year old Michigan man shares the story of how he rode his bike 2,600 miles from the coast of Alabama to the coast of Marquette, Michigan — just two years after becoming the oldest person to ride cross the US.

Good question. An Ohio letter writer wants to know why a cop asked his group of bicyclists to ride single file, when state law explicitly allows people to ride side-by-side.

The Indiana Pacers are inviting fans to join them on a police-escorted bike ride to the team’s final home game.

If you build it, they will come. Cambridge, Massachusetts has recorded a 250% jump in bicycling rates since 2004 after “investing in high-comfort bikeways.”

That’s more like it. A Rhode Island bill would require stop signs for motorists at all bike path crossings.

A North Carolina bike shop offers job training and experience for neurodiverse workers.

Hats off to a 13-year old Alabama boy, who used his bicycle to subdue his 32-year old stepfather who was physically attacking the boy’s mom, leaving the older man banged up and bloodied.

 

International

Once again, a London bobby borrowed a bystander’s bicycle to chase down a thief, who stole baggage from the boot of a black cab. Not bad alliteration by someone who’s barely literate, if I do say so myself. 

British bike sales are up for the first time in five years, after a modest 5% increase last year.

 

Competitive Cycling

Mathieu van der Poel has already won two of the four completed stages of Tirreno-Adriatico, as Mexico’s Isaac del Toro holds the leader’s, points and young rider’s jerseys.

Jonas Vingegaard was roundly ridiculed for a sartorial faux pas when he finished a stage at Paris-Nice wearing his bibs on the outside, explaining the racing was too intense to remove them.

 

Finally…

You can ride your bike to the world’s best movie theater right here in Hollywood, though there’s just a good chance it won’t be there when you get out. Evidently, you can be replaced by a robot — and so can your bike.

And that feeling when bike shops are prime comedy fodder.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

New LA bike lanes sprouting with the spring, and CA DMV fights to keep killer driver on the road and record secret

March 11, 2026 / / No comments

Maybe we’re making progress after all.

Suddenly, there’s news of bike lanes sprouting all across the Los Angeles area, albeit to the apparent chagrin of some.

 

But evidently drivers are up in arms over at least some of the changes, as opposition grows from “some residents and local officials who say the plans could worsen traffic congestion, eliminate parking, and create confusing road designs.”

And even the death of a pregnant mom isn’t enough to get protected bike lanes on Pershing Drive.

After the death of a pregnant mom riding a bike with her family, Traci Park all of a sudden cares about bike lanes.But the bike lanes they’re proposing aren’t safe! They’re door zone bike lanes.Even after a tragic death, protected bike lanes aren’t being considered.

— Michael Schneider (@michaelschneider.com) 2026-03-07T19:01:26.881Z

………

This is why people keep dying on our streets.

Cal Matters reports that the California DMV not only kept a driver on the road, despite at least 16 previous moving violations and four crashes, they fought to keep his driving record a secret.

Even from persecutors after he was charged with vehicular manslaughter for killing a two-year old boy.

And adding insult to grievous injury, the DMV renewed his license just a year later, while the manslaughter charge was still pending.

Surely, the DMV did some sort of review before deciding it was safe to let (Kostas) Linardos stay on the road.

Right?

The DMV spent close to a year fighting to keep the answer to that a secret, refusing to release information on Linardos without a court order and then urging a judge not to issue such a decree. The agency’s lawyer argued in a filing that prosecutors wanted records “for the improper purpose of smearing the DMV for alleged and unfounded wrongdoing.”

Prosecutors said they wanted the DMV records to help show Linardos knew the risks of driving recklessly, which is something they needed to prove to make a felony vehicular manslaughter charge stick.

When the issue finally made it to court this year, the attorney representing the agency made a shocking admission: The DMV had no records of any investigation into a longtime reckless driver who killed a 23-month-old boy. The agency didn’t even appear to have held a hearing before deciding it was fine to let Linardos stay on the road.

Un-effing-believable.

Thanks to Megan for the heads-up. 

………

A new study from San Diego’s Rady Children’s Hospital shows a more than 300% increase in ebike injuries in just the last four years.

Although once again, there’s no attempt to differentiate between ped-assist ebikes and electric motorbikes.

According to the study, the hospital recorded 262 ebike-related trauma cases last year, with most of the victims 11 and 14 years old, with a noticeable spike among 13‑year‑olds.

While that likely corresponds to the increase in ebike use, the hospital also reported ebike injuries were likely to be more severe than those caused by regular bicycles.

It’s also questionable how many of those ebikes were actually street legal, or could legally be ridden by children that young, who are limited to Class 1 and 2 bikes with a maximum speed of 20 mph.

Let alone on the freeway.

https://twitter.com/Sandiegohumor/status/2030712819264737671

Thanks to Ellectrek for the link.

Meanwhile, Newport Beach is considering banning ebikes from all schools except for high school students, and 7th graders if they have written parental permission. And once again, without differentiating between ped-assist bikes and e-motos.

………

San Francisco Streetsblog’s Roger Rudick doesn’t pull his punches after Caltrans ripped out a painted Oakland bike lane, replacing them with, yes, sharrows.

And as studies have shown, sharrows are worse than nothing when it comes to preventing injuries to bicyclists, and shouldn’t be used on streets with speeds above 35 mph.

Actions speak louder than words, Lucy pulls the football away again; whatever aphorism or metaphor one wants to use, Caltrans proves once again that it’s run by bad actors who betray the public in their relentless pursuit of auto-über alles policies.

Then there’s this.

With the removal of the painted bike lanes, which were woefully inadequate on a multi-lane street such as Oak Street to start with, Caltrans now expects cyclists to share a lane with traffic. Keep in mind that this is also a major route to I-880 and is plagued with non-stop speeding traffic and red-light running. The removed bike lanes are on a major bike commuter routes that connect the Oakland ferry terminal, Lake Merritt BART, and thousands of residential units…

Nobody, really, should be surprised. Caltrans, Alameda County, and the consultants who work for them have acted in bad faith throughout this project.

Never mind that Caltran’s ostensible Complete Streets policy requires the state transportation agency to “provide comfortable, convenient, and connected complete streets facilities on all projects and in all project phases, including construction and maintenance,” according to Jeanie Ward-Waller, Director of Transportation Advocacy at Fearless.

She should know, since Ward-Waller was the whistleblower who was “reassigned” from her position as Deputy Director of Planning and Multimodal Programs at Caltrans after warning that a Sacramento highway project violated that same policy.

Just one more reminder, if we needed it, that the agency’s Complete Streets requirement needs to be codified into law, since they only seem to follow it when it’s convenient for them or the public demands it.

………

I had the time to rip into this piece from a rightwing Irish site, as a writer complains about the “fetishization” and “relentless promotion” of the government’s “obsession” with bicycling.

Instead, we’ll have to let Road.cc handle this one.

According to Vincent, from the “perception of the average person”, the number of cyclists in Dublin using the city’s bike lanes “is so small that it is set completely off balance with the amount of space they take up”.

“Hardly anyone uses these lanes, and yet we are forced to swallow it when an entire lane from a road is sacrificed – often with the result of creating an infuriating one-way system in the area – to make space for more bikes; the same bikes that seem never to fill the lanes they are currently provided with,” he continues, failing to grasp the point of cycling infrastructure entirely.

Never mind that those “empty” bike lanes have resulted in a 50% increase in bicycle trips.

But that inconvenient fact probably wouldn’t fit his narrative.

………

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

No bias here. Residents in Devon, England are getting out the torches and pitchforks over construction work for a new protected bikeway, which will force a three-mile detour that will add “minutes” to their commute.

No bias here, either. After a woman in Singapore was struck by a driver while riding her bicycle in a crosswalk connecting two sides of a bike path, commenters online wrongly assumed she was required to get off her bike and walk it across the street.

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

The LAPD is looking for a suspect in a bike-by shooting in Historic South Central Los Angeles, after a 36-year old man was shot by someone on a bicycle while sitting in his car at Washington Blvd and Santee Street.

The French bike rider who was caught on video shoving a five-year old girl out of his way on a snowy bike path says he didn’t do anything wrong, and the whole thing was blown out of proportion.

………

Local 

If you left your bicycle, cellphone, blowtorch or prosthetic leg on a Metro bus or train, they may be holding it for you to reclaim. Although it makes sense that someone would leave their bike behind after losing their leg on the bus, which would make it kinda hard to pedal. 

Momentum hails Santa Monica resident Caro Vilain, aka mobilityforwho on Instagram, for her “viral videos steering a fun-fueled cycling revolution.” I would have embedded some of her videos, but Insta was being uncooperative tonight. 

 

State

Streetsblog offers a first look at transportation bills advancing in the state legislature.

Streets For All is out with their annual California Mobility Report Card grading individual legislators for their support of mobility legislation, or the lack thereof.

Evidently, complaining works. The Bay Area’s Caltrain is backing off new restrictions on taking cargo bikes, panniers or child seats onto their bike cars.

Police in Redwood City used license plate readers to snare a pair of bikewear thieves, who somehow walked out of a bike store with more than four grand worth of bicycle clothing.

That’s more like it. Palo Alto is using an app to reward people for riding a bicycle, ebike, e-scooter or electric skateboard, providing them with money that can be spent at local businesses.

A 27-year old man was found safe when he was reported missing after setting out for Big Sur from Monterey on his bicycle.

Say what? Sad news from Sacramento, where a man died in the hospital after he was struck by a driver while riding a bicycle — yet the police bizarrely said they suspected the death was a suicide, without offering any explanation.

 

National

Um, okay. Ebike imports to the US either a) set a new record last year, or b) declined significantly from 2024 levels, and c) may have exceeded the total value of regular bicycles for the first time. Or not.

On the other hand, bicycling contributed $3.67 billion to the American economy last year, an increase of 3.4% over the previous year.

Clean Technica recommends escaping the “Trump pump” on a ebike.

That’s more like it, too. The governor of New Mexico has signed a bill requiring driving students to take at least three hours of training on how to operate their vehicles around vulnerable road users, including bicyclists, pedestrians and emergency service workers.

Bicyclists in Omaha, Nebraska are calling for safety changes after a bike rider was killed by the driver of a semi-truck, following the removal of one of the city’s most-used bicycling routes for a streetcar project.

Heartbreaking news from Pennsylvania, where a 15-year old girl was killed while on a brief bike ride with her twin sister, at an intersection that had received more that 100 complaints from local residents.

A North Carolina newspaper offers an in-depth report on last month’s 950-mile Remember the Removal bike ride to help members of the Cherokee Nation reconnect with their heritage, while retracing the northern route of the horrific Trail of Tears; an estimated quarter of the 16,000 tribal members died along the way when the Cherokee people were forced to walk to Oklahoma from their Southern Appalachian homelands.

Florida lawmakers unanimously approved a draconian new ebike law that requires ebike riders to slow down to 10 mph within 50 feet of pedestrians on sidewalks or shared pathways.

 

International

What took so long? A man in the Isle of Wight faces charges seven months after he pushed a woman in her 60s off a seawall, resulting in injuries to her head, legs and face.

Custom lowrider bikes crafted by a Los Cruces, New Mexico artist made an appearance at the Paris Fashion Week.

Police in Soweto, South Africa have yet to make an arrest in an apparent hit-and-run that killed a popular security guard as he rode his bike to work in January, though they have brought in a suspect vehicle for testing.

 

Competitive Cycling

California’s Luke Lamperti claimed his first win on the season, sprinting to victory in stage 1 of Paris-Nice on Sunday.

Velo says the 2026 road cycling world championships in Montréal “will be an old-school rainbow jersey brawl.”

Twenty-two-year old Belgian pro Leander Van Hautegem was the subject of a “miracle rescue” when a passing forest ranger found him lying in a ditch with a severe concussion, collapsed lung, and broken rib after he crashed on a training ride.

Indiana University is expecting a record crowd for next month’s 75th annual running of the school’s iconic Little 500, made famous in Breaking Away. Which remains the all-time best bike movie, in my not-so-humble opinion.

A DC area public radio station reports on the annual Garage Racing National Championships, which was held last month in a multilevel Virginia parking garage.

 

Finally…

That feeling when a major consumer magazine suggests that a 14 buck ebike cover will somehow protect it from thieves. Now drivers aren’t even waiting for real bicycles to crash into.

And throwing your bicycle at the cops to make an escape is not one of the many recommended uses for it. And if they your bike, just hand over your backpack full of illegal weed.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Marathon crash ride early this Sunday, LA blocks the will of 2/3 of voters, and US Bicycle Leadership Conference

March 6, 2026 / / No comments

We mentioned it the other day.

However, David wants me to remind you about Sunday’s Marathon Crash Ride, which follows the traffic-free route of the LA Marathon in the wee hours before all those runners and walkers take it over.

And he’s not the only one who thinks it’s one of the year’s best bike rides in LA every year.

Photo by Laurence Hamdy from Pexels.

………

Los Angeles has replaced the heady scent of asphalt with the pungent smell of bullshit.

Streetsblog’s Joe Linton looks at the sad two-year history of Measure HLA, and the city’s so-far successful efforts to block any progress in implementing the measure.

HLA has a very simple premise. The measure, championed by Streets For All and passed with a two-thirds margin by Los Angeles voters, requires that the city implement its already approved mobility plan anytime a significant portion of a street in it gets resurfaced.

But instead of following the clear will of the voters, the city has implemented a lousy 300 feet — the length of a football field, sans end zones — since the measure was passed.

City officials have gone so far as to invent the entirely fictional descriptive “large asphalt repair” instead of resurfacing streets, leaving just a small strip of unpaved asphalt to avoid triggering the requirements of HLA, as well as the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Consider this one section from Linton’s article.

June 2024 – City departments started announcing that they had an HLA plan. LADOT and StreetsLA stated that they were working together on “a joint work plan” for the coming fiscal year starting July 2024. As of June 4, DOT and StreetsLA claimed that their HLA work plan “is currently being finalized and will be made publicly available in coming weeks.” In late June LADOT General Manager Laura Rubio-Cornejo stated that DOT had submitted its list of project-ready Mobility Plan corridors to StreetsLA.

For several months Streetsblog requested that the city share the HLA work plan. In September, StreetsLA claimed that the “StreetsLA/LADOT work plan for FY 24-25 is in the final stages of assessment, and we expect it to be finalized this month. This work plan will serve as this fiscal year’s blueprint for bicycle facilities that require resurfacing or other paving treatments in order to be implemented.”

No plan, draft or final, was ever released.

HLA gives the public the option of suing the city if they fail to implement the measure when a street is resurfaced. But there’s no legal recourse when Los Angeles officials simply refuse to resurface anything.

At this point, the only apparent option is to remember that this is an election year, with a primary in June and the general election in November, as Mayor Karen “Do Nothing” Bass is up for re-election, along with half of the city council.

Which makes this the best possible time to pressure candidates to commit to implementing Measure HLA. Or simply pull the lever for someone else in the voting booth.

I’ve spoken to a number of people in recent weeks, of all political stripes. And I’ve yet to find anyone who plans to vote for Karen Bass.

Myself included.

………

People For Bikes is bringing their Bicycle Leadership Conference to Dana Point for three days, starting on St. Patrick’s Day.

Which is appropriate, because it’ll cost you a lot of green to get in.

Here’s a (very long) press release for the event.

Bicycle Leadership Conference Convenes Industry’s Most Senior Leaders at a Defining Moment for the Bike Business

PeopleForBikes will host the 2026 Bicycle Leadership Conference (BLC) March 17–19 at the Laguna Cliffs Marriott Resort and Spa in Dana Point, California, bringing together the most senior concentration of bicycle industry leadership in the event’s history.

The gathering comes at a pivotal moment for the bike business as leaders across the industry navigate continued trade volatility, waning consumer confidence, margin compression, evolving e-bike regulations, participation shifts, and increasing pressure to define and protect the bicycle category.

Headlining the conference are three of the most influential figures in modern bicycling:

  • John Burke, President of Trek Bicycle
  • Phoebe Liu, CEO of Giant Group
  • Mike Sinyard, Founder of Specialized Bicycle Components

Together, their presence reflects a rare alignment of executive leadership, global manufacturing scale, and multigenerational industry stewardship.

Burke will present the U.S. Congressman James L. Oberstar Awards for Outstanding Advocacy Leadership. Liu will deliver a keynote focused on ESG integration and long-term supply chain strategy. Sinyard will outline his vision for expanding youth cycling participation through Outride as a foundation for sustained industry growth.

The 2026 conference also features California State Senator Catherine S. Blakespear, who will join a session focused on the growing e-moto problem at a time when states are reconsidering electric bicycle definitions. Her participation underscores the industry’s active engagement in protecting the three-class e-bike framework and ensuring high-powered electric motorbikes are not misrepresented as e-bikes. This distinction is critical to safety, access, and protecting the e-bike category nationwide.

A Leadership Agenda for a Complex Market

The BLC program is structured around four themes: leadership and vision, market forces and public policy, innovation and technology, and data and intelligence.

Sessions will address federal trade and tariff strategy, e-bike classification and category protection, youth cycling participation, artificial intelligence, operational efficiency, cross-category profitability, and the launch of the PeopleForBikes Data Suite.

“We are not spectators in this moment,” said Jenn Dice, president and CEO of PeopleForBikes. “When trade policy is debated, this industry has a voice and must lean in. When category confusion threatens our future, this industry has a coordinated response. The leaders in this room are not just reacting to change, they are directly shaping what comes next.”

Over the past year, PeopleForBikes led senior-level engagement across federal agencies, Capitol Hill, and state legislatures while organizing industry comments, model legislation, and rapid-response communications on trade and category issues. The 2026 BLC builds on that coordination, bringing CEOs into direct alignment around shared priorities rather than isolated advocacy.

“This is where collaboration becomes leverage,” said José Maldonado, chief marketing officer and BLC director at PeopleForBikes. “Trade strategy, e-bike category protection, infrastructure investment, and participation growth are not separate conversations. They require senior alignment and collaboration. The concentration of executive leadership at this year’s BLC reflects that understanding.”

Alignment Beyond the Stage

The BLC week opens with a reception featuring remarks from Burke and recognition of Oberstar Award honorees Daniel Langenkamp and Jill and Michael White, families who became national advocates for safer streets in response to personal tragedies.

Morning group rides — including guided road rides, mountain bike rides led by Hans Rey and Richie Schley, and a townie e-bike ride, provide small-group environments for extended discussion among executives.

PeopleForBikes will also present its Bicycle Leadership Honors, recognizing industry members whose lifetime achievement, rising leadership, outstanding service, catalytic change, and philanthropic guidance are shaping the future of bicycling and the bike business.

Early registration data reflects presidents, founders, CEOs, general managers, board members, and international trade leaders representing major global brands, retailers, suppliers, and advocacy organizations.

Registration remains open, but limited spots are available.

See the full 2026 BLC agenda and register today.

………

Calbike wants you to demand a more complete state highway bill.

Demand a Better 2026 SHOPP

Every two years, California approves a massive spending plan for the state’s highways. It’s called the State Highway Operations and Protection Program (SHOPP) and at several billion dollars per cycle, it’s the single largest pot of money Caltrans controls. It funds repaving, bridge repairs, safety upgrades, and more across thousands of miles of state roads.

It also, by law, must fund safe infrastructure for people who walk, bike, and take transit. That law is the Complete Streets Bill, sponsored by CalBike, SB 960, passed in 2024. It requires that each SHOPP make measurable progress toward 10-year targets for bike lanes, sidewalks, and crosswalks on the state highway system. It was a hard-won victory, an acknowledgment that California’s highways aren’t just for cars, and that Caltrans has a legal obligation to build streets that work for everyone.

The California Transportation Commission has the authority to approve or reject the SHOPP, and to recommend that Caltrans fix it before they do. Send them a message now and tell them to stand up for Complete Streets.

Click through for an email response form and sample message.

………

It’s looks like the long hope-for extension of the Ballona Creek bike path is really becoming a reality.

………

It also looks like the long-gestating Mid-City Greenways are finally taking shape.

Spot some sidewalk work done/underway on Mid-City Greenways project – on Formosa and on Rosewood

— Joe Linton (@lintonjoe.bsky.social) 2026-03-06T04:56:33.059Z

………

ActiveSGV wants to know what you want the San Gabriel Valley to be, on behalf of the San Gabriel Valley Collaborative.

https://twitter.com/ActiveSGV/status/2029600251372335140

………

Metro Bike is hosting a virtual bikeshare workshop on Thursday. Although just to be clear, it’s the workshop that’s virtual, not the bikeshare.

You’ll also get a free 30 day pass for participating.

………

Our old friends Walk ‘n Rollers is hosting a Westwood ride on March 21st.

Speaking of which, their Walk ‘n Roll Festival will take place in Exposition Park from 11 am to 3 pm March 14th, complete with free bike skills courses, helmets and tuneups.

………

Clearly, Black Girls Do Bike. And have for a very long time.

US, late 1800s, Kittie Knox was among a small group of African American women cyclists in Boston. Kittie broke taboos by wearing knickerbockers,which she designed herself #WomensHistoryMonth

— (@womensartbluesky.bsky.social) 2026-03-06T05:00:21.467Z

………

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

No bias here. British bike riders were in disbelief after a traffic safety group tells bicyclists to give parked cars a one meter — roughly three feet — passing distance to avoid getting doored, but fails to offer any advice on how motorists can avoid dooring someone.

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

A Singapore bike rider got hit with a hefty five grand fine for blocking a traffic lane for half an hour when he mistakenly thought a driver had “inched out” while he was riding in a crosswalk.

Spanish motorcycle racer Aleix Espargaró was criticized after a driver posted video of him passing cars on the left while descending on a training ride on his bicycle, pretty much riding like he would on a motorbike.

………

Local 

Cafecita Coffee will host a group bike ride this Sunday for International Women’s Day, beginning and ending with coffee at Cafecita. Although with a route that includes Mulholland Drive, the ride promises to be scenic, but not exactly family friendly. 

If you’re not busy Tuesday night, Metro Bike wants your input on where the bikeshare system should expand.

 

State

The inaugural Bike the Coast Ventura come back to Ventura coast for the first time this June, offering rides of 17, 35 and 65 miles.

 

National

If you’re one of the 40,000 people who bought a Concord 360 Degree Rechargeable Light-Up bike helmet from Walmart, the Consumer Products Commission says to stop using it immediately because it poses a risk of death in the event of a crash or fall. Which is probably a bad thing.

An Ashland, Oregon school has offered the nation’s only standalone certified training program for bike mechanics for more than 40 years.

Rad Power Bikes is apparently rising from the dead, after South Florida-based Life EV bought what’s left of the moribund Seattle e-bikemaker in bankruptcy court.

A 57-year old Brooklyn man riding a bicycle was repeatedly stabbed by a woman who approached him at 3 am, and attacked him with a sharp object for no apparent reason.

A professor of environmental management and the principal of Urban Cycling Solutions joins the parade condemning New Jersey’s draconian and wrong-headed crackdown on ebikes.

Bicyclists in Columbia, South Carolina say the state’s capital is on its way to becoming a bicycling city.

Georgia Public Radio observes a ghost bike ceremony for a fallen bicyclist, killed by a motorist outside of Macon last year.

 

International

The father of a five-year-old girl who was knocked down by a bicyclist on a Belgium pathway on Christmas Day 2020 has won his appeal of a lawsuit filed by the guy on the bike, who claimed he was defamed by a viral video of the incident; not only was the case dismissed, but the bike rider was ordered to pay the equivalent of nearly $2,400 in costs after the judge concluded the video was a matter of freedom of expression.

The Irish Times says there’s a reason there’s only one bicycle parked outside a Dublin school, as the lack of a bike lane means it’s not safe for people walking, let alone riding a bicycle.

A writer for Cycling Weekly takes extreme riding to the limits with a snowy nine-hour ride through Norway in the middle of winter.

 

Competitive Cycling

Three-time winner Tadej Pogačar now has a dirt section of the Strade Bianche course named for him, just days before the Saturday race.

Aussie pro Michael Matthews is out of action for the foreseeable future after breaking both his wrists in a training crash.

And this is what a real cyclist looks like.

Belgian racer Georges Ronsse enjoys a snack during 1932 Tour de France, in which he won Stage 4.Happy #BicycleBirthday, Georges!March 4 (1906-1969)

— Cool Bike Art (@coolbikeart1.bsky.social) 2026-03-04T17:09:37.318Z

 

Finally…

Yes, bicycle gymnastics really is a thing. Your bike helmet has an expiration date.

And what’s so funny about someone riding a Penny Farthing?

Or peace, love and understanding, for that matter.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Op-ed argues ebike laws are “tyranny on wheels,” dad modifies ebike to do 60 mph, and Palm Spring bike rider critically injured

March 5, 2026 / / 2 comments

He gets it.

In a Washington Post op-ed, a Virginia bicyclist and writer builds an effective case that new laws cracking down on ebikes are going too far, “making a basic form of transportation and a familiar element of childhood less accessible.”

In fact, he calls said laws “tyranny on wheels.”

Kevin R. Parker explains that ebikes make the bicycles that gave him a sense of freedom as a child more accessible for people who might not want, or be able, to ride.

But laws like New Jersey’s draconian new restrictions that treat every form of ebike the same destroys that newfound accessibility.

The justification for New Jersey’s legislation is safety. A 13-year-old boy was killed on an e-bike when he collided with a landscaping truck in September, and there are real safety concerns for riders and pedestrians when it comes to faster and more powerful e-bikes. E-bikes that hit high speeds can be a problem. But the law doesn’t distinguish between different kinds of e-bikes when it comes to licenses, registration and age limits. A 70-year-old on a pedal-assist bike riding to the grocery store is treated identically to a teenager on a powerful e-bike doing 40 mph. The proposed regulations are a blunt instrument that restricts transportation options and increases cost for people,

New Jersey isn’t alone. Cities across the country are debating new regulations, and not just for e-bikes. After Murphy signed the bill into law, New Hampshire introduced a bill requiring a $50 annual registration fee on all bicycles that operate on paths, roads or trails funded by state or local government, including children’s bikes. In California, progressive Bay Area communities have moved to ban or restrict e-bikes on paths and in public parks — the same communities that spent years and millions promoting alternatives to cars, now cracking down on the most effective alternative.

We’ve seen similar moves up and down the Southern California coast, as cities crack down on ebikes of every kind, repeatedly conflating electric motorcycles and non-street legal dirt bikes with far slower and less powerful ped-assist bikes.

The answer, Parker says, isn’t found in the usual progressive arguments. Instead, he offers a case that should appeal just as well to conservatives, if not better.

Freedom.

Activists fighting e-bike restrictions frame it as climate policy or transportation equity. The political language focuses on progressive political priorities. There’s a stronger argument to be made based on personal liberty: State governments are restricting personal mobility and imposing licensing and registration on bike riders across the board. There are reckless e-bike riders who break the rules of the road and put themselves and other citizens at risk. If they violate the speed limit, ignore traffic lights or blow through stop signs, local law enforcement should hold them responsible. But by pursuing aggressive blanket regulation, policymakers are making a basic form of transportation and a familiar element of childhood less accessible.

Works for me.

Hopefully, it will work for members of the California state legislature when they consider SB 1167, which would redefine electric bicycles, mopeds and motorbikes to create a clear distinction between them.

This is how I explained it last month.

The bill would require that an electric bicycle must have fully operational pedals and an electric motor capable of no more than 750 watts; anything else could not be legally called, marketed or sold as a bicycle or ebike.

What is currently termed a motorized bicycle would be redefined as a moped, with clearer definitions of vehicle design, power output, and a top speed of 30 mph on level ground.

The term motor-driven cycles would include electric motorcycles offering less than 3,750 watts and 5 brake horsepower.

Both categories would require that manufacturers and marketers clearly specify that they are not electric bicycles.

The bill represents a rare case of successfully splitting the baby, allowing restrictions on high-power electric motos while maintaining the freedom offered by lower-speed ped-assist ebikes.

Let’s hope it passes intact.

And not the other one.

………

Apropos of the above discussion, an Orange County candidate for Father of the Year faces charges after his son was seriously injured running a red light and crashing into a car on a modified ebike.

it seems dear old dad helped his son convert the bike to an electric motorcycle by replacing the pedals with motorbike pegs, removing the 20 mph speed governor, and rewiring the engine to do up to 60 mph.

Let’s hope he at least bought the kid a helmet.

………

Bad news from Palm Springs, where a bicyclist was critically injured in a collision yesterday morning, after allegedly riding into the path of an oncoming vehicle, and being struck by the driver.

That driver’s car was then rear-ended by another driver, because of course it was.

However, only person on the bike was injured.

………

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

You’ve got to be kidding. A Pennsylvania driver is accused of intentionally hitting a boy on a bicycle in a road-rage incident that lasted multiple blocks; the man claimed he didn’t hit the kid on purpose, even though security video shows him blaring on his horn before attempting to cut the boy’s bike off, then ramming him from behind at a red light even though he had plenty of room to stop. He also claimed “he would have never struck the kid if the kid had stayed in his lane,” and bizarrely blamed the boy for purposely trying to upset him. Somehow, I’m guess that the only thing the kid did to purposely upset him was riding his bike in front of the guy’s car. 

………

Local 

No news is good news, right?

 

State

Streetsblog’s StreetSmart podcast offers a comprehensive compendium of what transportation bills are moving forward in the California legislature, and what isn’t.

A 61-year old heart transplant recipient set out from Ocean Beach on a 3,000-mile bike ride to St. Augustine, Florida to raise awareness about the need for organ donors. Meanwhile, Southern California drivers do their part to create more every day. 

A Hesperia family is hoping to win an adaptive bicycle for their 13-year old special needs son who suffered more than a dozen strokes after getting a virus two years ago, leaving him with permanent brain damage.

An Oakland man received a $400,000 settlement after he suffered a fractured skull, concussion, multiple spinal fractures, broken nose, ligament tears, and lacerations to his face, neck and shoulders when his bike hit a pothole that was obscured by shadows and a bend in the road.

The Bay Area’s Caltrain commuter line does exactly the wrong thing to address overcrowded bike cars by banning oversized bikes, such as cargo bikes, as well as bikes with panniers, both commonly used by bike commuters, instead of merely adding more space. Because that would just be crazy, right?

No bias here. An editorial from The Marin Independent Journal argues that a $52.6 million plan to re-open the 142-year old abandoned railroad Alto Tunnel for use by bicyclists and pedestrians is just too costly to consider. Never mind that it’s a fraction of the estimated $270 million cost to build a new highway bridge, which they didn’t seem to have a problem with. 

A Davis petition calls on the city to recognize and improve the nation’s first bike lane, built nearly 60 years ago.

 

National

Swedish pop star Zara Larsson is one of us, joining Portland’s weekly elementary student bike bus before her concert in the city.

A Florida couple finds sea lions and romance on a stormy bike-and-surf odyssey along the Oregon coast.

A handful of Chicago drivers staged a protest at the site of a half-finished protected bike lane, saying it didn’t help bike and e-scooter riders who were struck by drivers there. Um, maybe because it’s not finished yet, and there’s nothing to keep cars out of it yet.

Sometimes, I don’t even know what to say. An Ohio ebike rider was killed, and a driver injured, when the ebiker tried to turn left into a church parking lot and struck the side of the other man’s SUV — then they were both stuck by the driver of a second car when the first driver got out to check on the original victim.

New York Mayor Mamdani is requesting $25 million build 500 long-promised bike lockers across the city.

 

International

A website for “the world’s urban leaders” examines how cities are making the European Declaration on Cycling a reality, which recognized bicycling as a fully-fledged mode of transport for the first time.

That’s more like it. After bicyclists packed a Winnipeg, Manitoba city council committee meeting to demand temporary protected bike lanes, the committee voted to make them permanent, instead. Although they’d have to be pretty damn strong barriers to keep out the speeding driver who killed a bike rider in 2024, doing up to 100 mph.

London’s bikeshare system marks International Women’s Day by naming a whole ten bikes after notable women bicyclists. Although something tells me most women would just prefer a safer place to ride them.

Speaking of ebikes, a writer for the London Telegraph calls them the future of bicycling holidays for mid-lifers. Which is evidently a kinder, gentler term for middle-aged. Or maybe it’s just shorter.

An Aussie writer explores the dark side of the bicycle marketplace by deciding to buy and return a hot bike to its rightful owner, and ends up going for a ride with a self-described “licensed gun outlaw.”

 

Competitive Cycling

A new documentary tries to answer what separates world-class cyclists from elite ones.

Former Tour de France Femmes champ Demi Vollering says “it’s very important to keep speaking up” about periods, nutrition and health affecting women’s cyclists.

Cyclist explains “everything you need to know” about this Saturday’s Strade Bianche Classic, which marks its 20th year.

 

Finally…

That feeling when a mountain of “gross stuff” threatens to melt into a bike lane graveyard. Don’t they say, dirty bicycle drive train, dirty mind?

And okay, even I think that’s funny.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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