West Hollywood has been making big moves for better biking in recent years. In April 2025, the city council unanimously committed to building only protected bike infrastructure on future street projects — the first city in the Los Angeles area to do so — and followed it up by painting all existing bike lanes green on Fairfax Avenue, San Vicente Boulevard, and Santa Monica Boulevard for improved visibility. With the 2028 LA Olympics on the horizon, West Hollywood’s premier location in LA positions it as a key corridor for the broader active transportation push underway across Los Angeles ahead of the Games.
On the other hand, WeHo compared very favorably to LA’s subpar rating of 32 compared to the national average of 36, ranking us 1350th in the US, and barely in the top 200 California cities at 195.
And no, Los Angeles is not a city to watch. Even if we have climbed from the nadir of 2023, when we scored a whopping 19.
However, they still haven’t been publicly identified by any official source, so I won’t name them here. But reading what others had to say about them, it sounds like we lost some very exceptional people.
Then again, we’re all exceptional in some way, to someone.
There’s also no word yet on the name of the accused driver, who should have appeared in court by now, which raises the question of why they’re holding back his identification.
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Finally, someone in France must have a hell of a sense of humor.
There was no hot mic moment to detect the reaction of Trump, who is not known to bike and has joked about doing minimal exercise beyond regular golf outings.
Despite being called — or calling himself — the fittest, healthiest president in recent history, Trump has said he will never, ever ride a bicycle, and has mocked Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg and John Kerry for their two wheeled exploits.
The victims were riding in the bike lane on SoCal’s killer highway, just north of Ventura, when they were run down from behind.
There’s also no word on why investigators concluded the unnamed 24-year old Oxnard man was under the influence. Or why he was arrested on suspicion of murder.
It seems odd that we haven’t learned anymore by now, particularly since he was scheduled for an initial court appearance yesterday.
Although they also blame people on ebikes and e-scooters for blowing through red lights, and illegally using sidewalks. And, of course, they warn pedestrians to stay alert, rather than telling scooter riders to stay the hell off the sidewalk.
KABC-7 reports the the most dangerous intersections this year have been:
Figueroa Street and 7th Street in downtown Los Angeles – 11 crashes so far in 2026
Highland Avenue and Pat Moore Way, near the Hollywood Bowl – 6 crashes so far in 2026
Century Boulevard and Main Street in South L.A. – 5 crashes so far in 2026
Sherman Way at the 170 Freeway entrance in the San Fernando Valley – 5 crashes so far in 2026
No word on where the most dangerous sidewalks are.
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In a hard-hitting report, a San Diego grand jury says the city is not meeting its own ambitious climate goals.
Shocking, I know.
According to Streetsblog,
The new report, Shifting Gears, arrives at a moment when San Diego is trying to reconcile two competing realities. On one hand, the city has adopted ambitious goals. The Climate Action Plan calls for 10% of all daily trips to be made by bicycle by 2035. Vision Zero commits San Diego to eliminating traffic deaths and severe injuries. The Bicycle Master Plan Update is meant to create a safer and more connected network. On the other hand, San Diego remains a city where the automobile remains king. While the report itself is not binding nor enforceable, it validates San Diegans’ concerns and recommends a path forward.
Safety and connectivity remain the two biggest barriers preventing more people from choosing to bike. A recent city survey of more than 2,000 riders found that “traffic safety concerns” and “gaps in the bike network” were the first and second most frequently cited barriers to bicycling.
The report cites a disconnect bike network, where bike lanes suddenly start and stop, leaving bicyclists to confront freeway on and off-ramps on their own.
Something I can attest to from my time there four decades ago. Apparently, some things never change.
They also cite a lack of maintenance, particularly on the city’s protected bike lanes.
In fact, the only advice he has for drivers is to look before you open the door to avoid dooring bike riders. But it’s still the bike rider’s fault, even when the driver is at fault.
Motorists can prevent this by looking over their shoulder as they open the car door. But Faber believes that cyclists also share the responsibility to avoid this type of accident.
“Of course, if there’s a collision, the driver is actually to blame,” he said. “But to prevent it from happening in the first place, the cyclist must remain alert at all times and allow for the possibility that other road users might make mistakes,” he said. In practical terms, this means reducing speed and increasing their distance from parked cars passing parked cars.
And of course, he tells bicyclists to wear hi-viz and a helmet. Drivers, just look over your shoulder when you open the door to make sure there’s not someone wearing a helmet and dressed like a reflective clown riding too close to your door.
Because you don’t want to hurt someone, even if it’s their fault.
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French TV talks with American activist Shannon Galpin, who played a key role in exfiltrating the Afghan women’s cycling team following the return of the Taliban.
Which, translated from politese, means she had to get the women, and some men, out herself after UCI stopped helping with the mission, which has been ongoing since 2021.
Thanks to Megan for the heads-up.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps going on.
A New Jersey woman is recovering from a concussion, cuts and bruises, and a man is facing criminal charges, after she told the man and his girlfriend to slow their ebikes down, and he responded by getting off his bike and punching her in the head. Even though the bikes look like electric motorbikes, it looks like his bike has pedals, so they may actually be ebikes. Or not.
Yeah, maybe it’s time. Bicyclists in Duluth, Minnesota are invited to “Bike for Science” to gather real-world riding data to update the Minnesota Department of Transportation’s bicycle facilities design guide, which is based on data collected in the 1980s. Which, for anyone unclear on the concept, is, like, a really long time ago, okay?
Four young men who have overcome problems like substance abuse, legal troubles and emotional struggles are planning to ride 500 miles across Georgia to honor the founder of their youth home, who road 1,200 miles from Vidalia, Georgia to Omaha, Nebraska, in 1961 to help raise awareness and support for the newly established youth home.
London Penny Farthing riders set four Guinness World Records, including for the largest and smallest rideable big wheelers. Although I initially left out the “h” in “Farthing,” which would have made for a much more interesting set of records.
Seriously, don’t flee from the cops when they try to pull your bike over for multiple vehicle code violations — and don’t try to punch them out when they finally stop you. Whacking a cop with a bike pump is not one of the recommended uses for it, even if you are 86-years old.
Vicious cycles or transport revolution? The ebike battle raging in Queensland
The paper argues,
Aggrieved pedestrians and push-bike riders are pitted against those who see e-mobility as a ‘once in a generation’ chance to change the way we travel around cities
Somehow, we have to choose one side or the other, as if it’s not possible to have a “once in a generation” opportunity to change urban transportation, while acknowledging that the lack of effective regulation has allowed things to get out of hand.
Or the recent case here in Orange County, where a 14-year old boy killed an 81-year old Vietnam vet while doing wheelies on an illegal e-motorbike, leading to charges against the boy’s mother, who had ignored previous warnings from police.
On the other hand, at least he knows enough to stick around after a crash.
The result has been laws like New Jersey’s “crazy” crackdown on ebikes by requiring a license and registration for all ebikes, with no distinction between Class 1 ped-assist ebikes and illegal electric motorbikes.
Lumping all ebikes together in the public mind inevitably leads to a crackdown on every type of ebike, when the problem is only caused by a subset of riders on ebikes that have been illegally modified to exceed permitted speeds, or on electric motorbikes and dirt bikes that aren’t legally allowed on the roads as it it, at least without a driver’s license and/or motorcycle license.
The obvious solution is to crack down on the electric mo-peds, motorbikes and dirt bikes — and riders — who are actually causing the problems, without killing the “once in a generation” opportunity we have to make a real change.
The responsibility lies with the various legislatures to create a clear distinction between the two, lightly regulating the one while restricting the other.
If they can do that, we have an opportunity to make a significant dent in driving rates, with consequential benefits to traffic, road wear and tear, pollution and public health.
If not, we’ll butcher the golden goose and fry its eggs for breakfast.
I got the following press release yesterday about Saturday’s first-ever Bike the Coast Ventura. And since I’m getting lazy in my old age, I’m simply reposting it for you here.
Bike the Coast Ventura Welcomes Nearly 600 Riders at Inaugural Event
Riders of all ages and experience levels rode through the scenic coastal city, ending at the finish festival featuring local vendors and musicians
VENTURA, Calif. – The inaugural Bike the Coast Ventura hosted nearly 600 riders on June 13, welcoming participants of all ages and experience levels to ride through the scenic City of Ventura. The event partnered with local businesses and organizations to ensure that the Ventura community charm was truly highlighted throughout the event. The field of riders included Ventura locals, loyal participants of Bike the Coast San Diego, the event’s sister ride that takes place in the fall, and cyclists who traveled from Northern California, Las Vegas, and Arizona.
This year’s sponsors and partners included Visit Ventura, Downtown Ventura Association, Ventura Coast Brewing Company and Ventura Coast Cycling. The event also partnered with local charity organizations, including The Los Angeles Chapter of National MS and the Downtown Ventura Foundation. The 2026 event contributed over $6000 for their charity partners.
“When we chose Ventura as the host city for Bike the Coast, it wasn’t only because of the incredible views and scenic routes; it was also because of the incredible community,” said Mike Bone, president and CEO of Spectrum Sports Management, producer of Bike the Coast Ventura. “The Ventura locals really showed up for us throughout the planning stages and all the way up to race day. We look forward to future years of hosting this event and showcasing this amazing community.”
Participants took part in one of the three course options: the Metric Century 65-mile ride, the 40-mile ride or the rider’s favorite 20-mile family ride. Participants of the Metric Century 65-Mile ride were taken on a tour of the coastline with some hills in neighboring cities. The 40-mile and 20-mile riders were also treated with constant ocean views along their rules of the road routes. All participants wrapped up at the finish line in Promenade Park, which featured the Finish Festival that has coined the slogan, “Come for the Ride – Stay for the Party”. The free Finish Festival hosted the Ventura-based band The GAMBLE, and featured various local vendors offering food, drink and cycling-focused products and services.
San Francisco’s Bicycle Advisory Committee held its last meeting this past week, shutting down after 35 years because the city decided it was redundant because the MTA now has a Sustainable Streets Division, “with teams focused on active transportation, employs full-time bike planners and engineers, and integrates biking into multimodal planning.” Which all sounds good, but doesn’t take the place of informed advice from a citizens committee representing the voice of the public.
National
A website called Straight Arrow News looks at the America Bikes Act, saying it’s gaining traction but critics are trying to pump the brakes — but only the only critic they cite is a Missouri bicycle retailer who says ebike voucher programs have created complications for retailers, domestic bike manufacturing isn’t economically viable, and replicating European bicycle networks nationwide would be difficult. Oh, well if it’s going to be hard, let’s just give up now.
Um, okay. After man in Shelter Island NY was nearly run off the the road by a driver while riding his bike, he was relieved to discover than not only was there already a three-foot passing law, but there were already signs in place informing drivers of the fact. Which apparently did nothing to prevent that driver from buzzing him at close range.
Toronto held not one, but two separate editions of the World Naked Bike Ride, encouraging “freedom and body resistance for queer, trans, and feminist folks in the city.” Apparently, the usual idea of calling attention to bicycle safety and fossil fuels isn’t a factor there.
Oops. Former Aussie pro cyclist Rohan Dennis was stopped for driving, with his kids in the car, despite a five-year driving ban imposed as part of his extremely lenient sentencing for the death of his wife, former Olympian Melissa Hoskins.
A Paris Olympian is back on the track again, after trapped spinal fluid nearly ended her cycling days a year ago, preventing her from even completing simple tasks like tying her shoes.
Before we get started, after a couple of decades, I’ve finally gotten around to designing some t-shirts for this site.
The site is still rough, while I figure out how to do stuff on there. And I only have a few designs up at the moment.
But if you want to check it out, I’d appreciate any feedback on the shirts. And if you see anything you like, I’m offering a 20% discount until it officially launches at the end of this month.
So let me know what you think. Or better yet, send me a selfie wearing one.
The project, which also includes “15 new or relocated bus stops, 10 upgraded crosswalks with flashing beacons and five fully protected intersections,” is expected to be competed in two years.
The city is also raising the speed limits on 24 arterial streets to dangerously high levels, thanks to the state’s deadly 85th Percentile Law.
A representative of the City of Long Beach reached out on Wednesday to say the LB Post had misinterpreted the story, and the city wasn’t raising speed limits on the 24 arterial streets, but merely keeping them the same.
While the teen miscreants are still unidentified — which is surprising, given the clear look we get at one of their tender young faces — the media is responding in predictable fashion, blaming the problem on ebikes.
Tragic news from my bike-friendly Colorado hometown, where a man riding an ebike was killed by a driver in a T-bone collision, just days after his father died of Stage IV kidney disease. Note to 9News — when someone is killed by a driver, it’s a collision, not an ebike crash. And it really doesn’t matter what kind of bike he was on.
“Nearly” every one of the candidates running to replace Rep. Jerry Nadler in Manhattan’s 12th Congressional District supports a two-way bike lane bisecting the island on 72nd Street. I say find the one woman who doesn’t, and let her try to bike across the city without it.
A 51-year old government librarian has spent every day for the last week and a half riding his bicycle to the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC to take a selfie showing Trump still hasn’t taken his name off it, despite today’s deadline to remove it.
Not only did those three men from Argentina make it to Kansas City on time to see their country’s team play in the World Cup after an 11,000-mile bike ride, they even got free tickets to the team’s first game.
He gets it. A British Columbia man says all bikes are good bikes, and if “you are out pedaling and smiling, then it doesn’t matter what you ride.” Which is kinda like all dogs are good dogs, but with wheels.
Seriously? If you have a Canadian-made Carbo folding ebike, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission is urging you to stop riding it and dispose of it immediately because…they were shipped without rear reflectors, and some models don’t have chain guards. Apparently, it’s impossible to add those things yourself.
Zwift, Canyon Bicycles and Pedal Mafia launched a new North American U19 development team, with a goal of putting an American atop the podium at the Tour de France or Tour de France Femmes within a decade.
Finally…
After the Tour, there’s really nothing left but riding across the Mediterranean. If you’re a thrice convicted felon riding a bicycle while carrying illegal drugs and stolen credit cards, put a damn rear light on it, already — and don’t threaten a cop with your slingshot.
Let’s start with a bit of heartbreaking news, after someone stole the ghost bike recently installed for a pregnant mother in Playa del Rey.
According to Streets Are For Everyone Executive Director Damian Kevitt, the bike placed in memory of 35-year old Regan Cole-Graham, a mother of two who was seven months pregnant with her daughter Ophelia, was taken shortly after the ghost bike for Blake Ackerman in West Hollywood was stolen, then recovered a few days later.
Which raises the question of whether someone is purposely removing ghost bikes, or if this is just a strange coincidence.
Only the ghost bike installed for her unborn daughter remains where they were placed.
Cole-Graham and her daughter were killed by an elderly driver on Pershing Drive, where a road diet installed in 2017 was removed months later after backlash from angry motorists, mostly pass-through commuters from Manhattan Beach.
And yes, there’s not a pit in hell deep enough for any lowlife scumbucket who would intentionally steal a ghost bike, as if that’s somehow different than desecrating any other memorial.
A woman inside was just washing her clothes when the SUV came flying in through the door of the business around 6 pm, fatally pinning her against one of the machines.
A witness reported the driver appeared to be an elderly woman, who tried explaining her actions by telling police her foot got caught on the pedal. If true, it adds even more fuel to the burning argument over how old is too old to drive a car.
Either way, it’s more proof that motor vehicles pose a deadly risk to everyone, on or off the roadway.
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California State Senator Catherine Blakespear will host a 90-minute webinar this evening to discuss solutions to ebike safety, in conjunction with CalBike, PeopleForBikes, Streets For All and Streets Are For Everyone.
Blakespear is the sponsor of SB 1167, a much-needed bill that would clarify the definition of ebikes, and crack down on illegal electric motorbikes being misrepresented as legal ebikes.
Someone let me know how it goes, because I’ll be on a much-needed mental health break today, going to my happy place where cars don’t exist, and the deer and the antelope play.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
You’ve got to be kidding. Orange County Sheriff’s deputies were called when two teenagers decided to terrorize shoppers in a Foothill Ranch Walmart by riding their ebikes — actually electric motorbikes — up and down the aisles. One more reason why California needs to clarify the definition of ebikes to distinguish them from e-motos and dirt bikes.
A group of Singapore bicyclists were termed “too arrogant to use the lane provided for them,” despite politely riding single file and hugging the fog line — never mind that the bike lane, just the shoulder of the damn roadway — was likely littered with debris, or that there were a series of warning signs next to the bike lane just down the road. Because arrogance is the only possible explanation when people on bicycles do things that drivers don’t understand.
This is how you get change. Hundreds of Chicago bicyclists took part in a “life-affirming” bike ride and die-in in memory of a city Complete Streets planner who was killed in a dooring while riding in a painted bike lane. I’ve never seen that many LA bike riders turn out for any protest or memorial except Critical Mass.
He gets it. An editor for Cycling Weekly says he is very aware of his vulnerability when he rides a bicycle, like virtually every other bike rider, and doesn’t need to be pulled over by the cops for a reminder, when it’s the people in the big, dangerous machines who should be told how vulnerable we are.
A British father and son completed a 400-day, 18,000-mile bike trip around the world, setting Guinness World Records in the process for the fastest bicycle circumnavigation of the world by a father and son, the longest bicycle journey by a father and son, and the most countries visited in a continuous bicycle journey by a father and son.
From time to time, someone will reach out to me about a bicycling crash, sometimes asking for advice, sometimes just to share what happened.
If I think they should talk to a lawyer, I’ll usually recommend those guys over there on the right side of this page.
Just to be clear, I don’t get any kind of referral fee for that. I recommend them simply because I know and trust each one, and know they all ride bikes themselves, as well as understanding the intricacies of bike law and bicycle crashes.
And I would trust any one of them with my own case if I needed one.
I know there are a lot of other good lawyers out there — as well as the other kind — but I don’t recommend them simply because I don’t know them or their qualifications.
But I would offer one piece of advice.
Okay, two.
One, make sure the person whose name is on the door will be involved in your case. Trust me, it makes a difference.
Second, make sure they understand bike law, how your particular crash happened and why you have a case.
If you’re not comfortable after talking with them, don’t sign anything. Just walk out or hang up the phone, and talk to someone else. It’s your case, and your future, that’s on the line.
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Oops.
Yesterday I linked to a story about an ebike crackdown in Long Beach. I removed the item after Andrew pointed out that the story was about Long Beach, New York, not the one here. So thanks to him for the correction.
It’s not the first time that has happened, either.
I strongly suggest that one city or the other change its name ASAP to end the confusion.
The project, which also includes “15 new or relocated bus stops, 10 upgraded crosswalks with flashing beacons and five fully protected intersections,” is expected to be competed in two years.
On the other hand, the city is also raising the speed limits on 24 arterial streets to dangerously high levels, thanks to the state’s deadly 85th Percentile Law. Correction: The city informs me that this is incorrect. Those 24 arterials aren’t seeing an increase, but are just remaining at the same speed limit they’re at currently.
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If you build it, they will come.
A new study from the NYU Tandon School of Engineering examining 72 million New York bikeshare trips found that “protected bike lanes increased ridership after accounting for confounding factors, while painted lanes and sharrows showed no detectable causal effect.”
In other words, more people chose the safety of protected bike lanes, while rejecting paint and sharrows.
Then again, as we’ve said before, the arrows on sharrows are only there to help drivers improve their aim, while painted bike lanes may give us our own space on the roads, but offer no protection from errant drivers.
Then again, those little plastic bendy posts that too often pass for protection in Los Angeles won’t keep anyone out, either.
Crews also will restore historic balustrades, pylons, towers and light poles, with a goal of keeping the bridge’s look consistent while bringing it up to modern safety standards…
A consultant, Psomas, said the redesign will realign ramps and the LA River bike path, while building new bicycle and pedestrian facilities and upgrading drainage systems to protect river water quality. Those changes are designed to improve the connection between Atwater Village, Silver Lake and Los Feliz and the expanding LA River greenway, according to hoodline.com.
The project also aims to improve safety complaints from cyclists who squeeze into narrow shoulders on the bridge.
Although it’s a little disquieting that they chose to rely on Hoodline, rather than a more authoritative source like the City of LA, or even The Eastsider.
The California Air Resources Board appears to be doing Trump’s work for him, approving sweeping changes to the state’s cap-and-trade program that slashes funding for the state’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, just as the president is stepping on the gas to keep dirty fuels in demand. That comes after CARB killed the state’s ebike incentive program, because cars needed the money more than we do.
Good news from Ohio, where the man accused of punching out one man riding a bicycle, then purposefully driving into another before engaging in a lengthy standoff with police, will be held without bail pending trial.
Members of the Vermont/New Hampshire Upper Valley Cycling Club penned a powerful piece about “the unnamed person in North Haverhill,” a bike rider whose death at the hands of a motorist went unmentioned in the local press, as if it wasn’t even a person who died. Which is why I try to cover every bicycling death, because every person who loses their life deserves to be remembered. And every death is a reminder that one is one too many.
New York Streetsblog says a horrific crash on a street where a bike lane was removed at the insistence of local leaders “underscores anew how dangerous the roadway has become.”Too often we forget that bike lanes aren’t just for people on bicycles, but also serve as vital traffic calming measures that improve safety for everyone.
International
A Dutch town is putting up 20 kmph speed limit signs — 12.4 mph — on a local bike path, but won’t enforce it. So instead of a speed limit, it’s just a suggestion. Like pretty much all the speed limits here in California.
Huh? A Kuwait appeals court acquitted a Kuwaiti man who killed an “Asian” man riding a bicycle, because the victim had not followed “required safety and security procedures,” negating the negligence required for criminal liability. So, the driver was negligent, but not responsible. Got it.
The 75-year old man now rides a bike with the names of all the victims on the crossbar of his bike. Those who survived, and those who didn’t.
The other survivors plan to join him for a ceremony on Wednesday’s 10th anniversary to remember the five riders who lost their lives, then join him to finish the ride, or meet them afterwards.
The driver, Charles Pickett Jr., was sentenced to a well-deserved 40 to 75 years in prison.
Pickett was convicted on all counts, including operating while intoxicated causing death, operating while intoxicated causing serious injury and second-degree murder.
He’ll be at least 90 years old before he’s eligible for release, which still seems like too soon.
The survivors turned to advocacy following the crash, successfully pushing Kalamazoo and other local town into passing a five-foot passing law, as well as convincing the state legislature to pass a hands-free law.
They’re working now to get the state to expand the definition of a vulnerable road user, which currently doesn’t include bicyclists or horse-drawn buggies.
The crash cost him his leg, and nearly his life, before he was able to free himself.
But it’s a concept I’m very familiar with.
The first ride I took when I was finally allowed back on my bike following the infamous beachfront bee incident was to go right back to the spot where I had crashed, and finish the ride I had planned to take.
The victim was riding a scooter on a bike path in the Point Loma neighborhood when Savannah Monique Taylor crashed into her, dragging the girl with her car until crashing into a steel bench.
Police found an almost empty bottle of booze inside her car.
According to the Peninsula Beacon, the victim’s father brought the girl, Olive Tomasevic, into the courtroom in a stroller so the judge could see her.
“She came close to dying several times because of the defendant’s actions,” said Alex Tomasevic. “This is what life is like for her today. She can’t walk. She can’t use the toilet. She uses diapers. She cannot eat on her own. She has a feeding tube. She can’t bathe herself. She can’t attend regular school. She can’t talk. She can’t crawl into bed…”
“I see a tenacious little girl,” said (Olive’s mother) Leeann Tomasevic. “She gets hours and hours of physical therapy. I watched the toughest of nurses cry when she was not looking.”
Taylor was ironically residing in a sober living facility at the time of the crash.
There’s no word on what she was doing driving on the bike path.
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My dad landed on Normandy Beach 82 year ago today, beginning an odyssey that would take him through France, into Belgium, skirting the Battle of Bulge and helping liberate a concentration camp, before ending the war Germany with Patton’s troops.
Then they sent him to Okinawa to prepare for D-Day Japan. He would have been one of the first to land, and was told his unit could expect 100% casualties. If the war hadn’t ended, I probably wouldn’t be here.
Although the only time he ever rode a bike in Europe, he borrowed it after getting separated from his unit.
And no, I don’t know if he ever returned it.
Bluesky post
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Giving a whole new definition to mountain biking.
Bluesky post
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Always pull over to the side of the road if you’re falling asleep behind the wheel.
Twitter post
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
London’s not-exactly bike-friendly Telegraphblames a new bike lane for a 500% — actually 600% — increase in serious bicycling crashes after a the two-way protected lane was installed, even though that represents a jump from just five to 30 over a five-year period. And even that is meaningless without putting it in context of the increase in ridership from the beginning of the first period to the end of the last.
No bias here. The Santa Clarita Signal reports a man was hospitalized following an ebike crash — but fails to mention in the headline that there was a car involved, or say anywhere that the car presumably had a driver.
American Lael Wilcox is attempting to break her own record as the fastest woman to ride around the world, and set a new record as the fast human to do it by completing the ride in less than 80 days.
A Texas driver turned himself in for a hit-and-run crash, a day after the victim was found in a ditch after going for a bike ride the night before. Giving the driver plenty of time to sober up if he was under the influence, or come up with an excuse if he wasn’t.
Trump’s plans to redevelop a popular Washington DC public golf course into an upscale “championship-level” course also threatens the city’s iconic Noon Ride, a daily bike ride that brings “wealthy riders perched on $15,000 bikes riding alongside restaurant workers just getting into the sport,” as well as federal workers, law enforcement officers, political operatives and several fitness professionals; L39ION of Los Angeles founder Justin Williams joins in when he’s in town.
She gets it. A British Columbia woman writes that bike lanes are not a luxury, as a previous op-ed writer suggested, but a necessity for her family, who rely on bicycles for all the destinations of their daily life, from work and daycare to school, shopping and all their other activities.
Sad news from New Hampshire, where American road racing and mountain bike pioneer Andy Bishop died after battling stomach cancer; Bishop competed in four editions of the Tour de France in the late ’80s and early ’90s, including for the old 7-Eleven team. He was just 61.
That was the jaw-dropping amount awarded to a Westlake Village family, when a jury found socialite Rebecca Grossman and her former boyfriend, ex-Dodger Scott Erickson, liable for killing eleven-year old Mark Iskander and his eight-year old brother Jacob six years ago.
The Iskander family was crossing a Westlake Village street in the crosswalk when the boys were run down by Grossman as she was allegedly street racing with Erickson after downing margaritas in a nearby bar.
The boy’s mother was able to pull the couple’s youngest son to safety, but could only watch in horror as Grossman plowed into the boys at 73 mph, sending one flying nearly the length of a football field.
Erickson had gone through the intersection moments earlier, just missing the family, and later admitted hiding under some bushes to avoid detection while he watched the investigation into the deaths unfold.
Grossman is currently serving 15 to life after she was convicted of two felony counts of murder, two felony counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence, and one felony count of hit-and-run driving resulting in death.
According to the LA Times, the jury awarded the boy’s parents, Nancy and Karim Iskander, a combined $59 million for the loss of Mark, and another $48 million for Jacob’s death. Nancy Iskander was also awarded another $35 million for serious emotional distress, while the youngest son, Zachary, received $34 million for the loss of his brothers.
That may be only the beginning, however.
The jury concluded that Grossman acted with malice and oppression, and Erickson acted with malice, oppression, or fraud. That opens them up to the possibility of millions more in punitive damages, which will be determined in a second phase of the trial.
Whether Grossman and Erickson have that kind of money, or the Iskanders will ever seen any of it, remains to be determined.
The driver, 42-year old Michael Leppelmeier, first stopped his SUV, got out and assaulted a 68-year old man, before tossing the victim’s bicycle into a nearby pond.
Leppelmeier then crossed the double yellow line with SUV and rammed a 72-year old bike rider head-on while driving on the wrong side of the road.
Both victims were hospitalized with serious, but non-life-threatening injuries.
When cops arrived at his home, Leppelmeier came out and threatened them with a knife, but retreated into his house after being tased. He was finally apprehended by SWAT officers after a standoff involving breached windows, teargas and a drone.
Leppelmeier has a criminal record going back more than 20 years, including attempted vandalism, a previous vehicular assault charge, and at least two OVIs — the equivalent of a DUI. He is currently on probation for a two-year old public indecency charge.
A neighbor accused Leppelmeier of calling him a slur, driving by while yelling insults out the window of his SUV, and harassing kids riding their bikes.
Seems like a real nice guy.
Meanwhile, another Ohio man faces charges after an apparently intoxicated episode in which he allegedly shouted racial slurs at a group of kids described as 11, 12, and 17 years old, then got in his truck and drove up on the sidewalk in an effort to run over one who tried to leave on a bicycle.
He then threatened to do the same to the other kids if they didn’t believe in God.
Which is a very strange way to make converts.
Finally, he grabbed another child on a different street before walking away.
No word on whether he was attempting to ascertain if that kid was a believer, too.
He is currently on paid administrative leave. Which means he gets to draw his full paycheck while sitting at home watching Wheel of Fortune in his underwear, courtesy of Escondido taxpayers.
Unfortunately, there’s no word on what kind of ebike Illian was riding.
The bill limits “high speed” ebikes to riding in the traffic lane, rather than in bike lanes or bike paths, and requires owners to have a valid driver’s license, title, registration and insurance
Meanwhile, riders of electric skateboards, e-unicycles and high-speed electric scooters would have to be at least 16 years old, with a ridiculous 28 mph speed limit on sidewalks, up to 35 mph on bike lanes, bike paths, and roads with speed limits of up to 35 mph. They are only allowed on roads with speed limits above 35 mph if they have a bike lane.
Which creates a dangerous situation putting pedestrians at risk on sidewalks, and risking the comfort and safety of bicyclists using bike lanes.
Since late votes tend to run Democratic, he could still make the runoff.
Bluesky post
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LADOT reminds us about this month’s CicLAvia connecting Leimert and Expo parks.
Twitter post
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
A Colorado bike shop promises free ebikes, using a state tax credit, but you may have to wait a year or more. And might not get a bike that actually qualifies for the credit. Then again, you might.
More on the bicyclist tackled by Toronto cops for the crime of running a stop sign, as the case is now being looked into by Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit; the rider’s lawyer says the victim has a concussion after he was violently taken down by multiple cops. Thanks to Megan for the video.
Streetsblog’s Damien Newton says the good news is the good ebike bills are moving forward in the state legislature, and the bad bills are dead for this session. SB 1167 is a much-needed bill redefining and drawing a clear distinction between ebikes and e-motos; also moving forward is AB 1569, to require ebike education in schools before ebikes are allowed on school grounds.
Once again, the mother of a teenaged ebike rider has been arrested, this time in Arizona, for knowingly allowing her 14-year old son to ride the bike without a license — which suggests it was actually an e-motorbike, rather than an electric bicycle. It also raises the question of where the hell these kid’s fathers are, since it’s only mother of teenagers who have been charged so far.
Horrible story from Texas, where a Houston-area man was found dead in a ditch, more than a dozen hours after he set out on a night bike ride; police believe he was killed by a hit-and-run driver sometime during the night. As we’ve said before, drivers should be charged with murder in cases like this, because they made a conscious decision to leave the victim on the side of the road, rather than getting help. And there’s no way of knowing if he might have survived if the driver had at least called 911.
This is why people keep dying on our streets. A Massachusetts man faces charges for killing a man riding a bicycle, after crossing the roadway and hitting the victim head-on — just seven weeks after he was given a summons for fleeing another crash on foot. Which is why drivers should immediately lose their license following any hit-and-run, even if the cop just puts it in their pocket after making the arrest.
Streetsblog credits the thousands of bike riders who turned out for DC’s Ride For Your Life with helping get several key provisions of the bipartisan bicycling Sarah Debbink Langenkamp Safety Act rolled into the latest national transportation bill, the BUILD America 250 Act.
This is who we share the road with. An Aussie cop walked with a two year “intensive corrections order” — like a highly supervised probation — and 500 hours of community service for using his car as a road block to stop an aboriginal teen riding a dirt bike in a bike lane; the kid was killed when he hit an obstruction, and flew into the windshield of the cop’s unmarked car.
Competitive Cycling
The Trans Am Bike Nonstop Race begins Sunday, with about 50 ultra cyclists setting out on what is, in effect, an unsupported time trial along the historic, 4,200-mile TransAmerica Bike Trail from Astoria, Oregon to Yorktown, Virginia. So no, it has nothing to do with Burt Reynolds outfoxing the cops in a Pontiac Trans Am.
It’s also the day after Election Day. And if past is prologue, it could be a week or more before we know who actually won and lost, despite last night’s breathless news reports.
So take a breath, go for a bike ride, and pretend the past several weeks never happened for a few hours.
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Blake Ackerman’s ghost bike is back.
The memorial to Ackerman, who was killed by a hit-and-run driver while riding home from work at a downtown law firm last July, bizarrely disappeared without a trace from its location at Fountain and Gardner over the weekend.
It’s possible that it was removed by someone who wanted to get rid of it. But it’s equally possible that it was taken in a misguided attempt to protect it, or by someone who didn’t understand its significance.
As opposed to Los Angeles, which only feels like it these days.
According to a new study from Holland Bikes, the beachfront city is the tenth most bike-friendly city in the US, and the second in California, behind only San Francisco.
The City by the Bay also ranked number one nationally, followed by Minneapolis, Seattle, Washington DC, New York City, Portland, Denver, Philadelphia, Boston and Long Beach.
As nice as the recognition is, however, and deserved though it may be, it’s important to remember that we see rankings like this at least every other month, and they all come up with different results.
Meanwhile, my platinum-level bike-friendly Colorado hometown is nowhere to be seen, along with a number of other notably bike-friendly cities, like Boulder, Colorado and Davis, California.
A League of American Bicyclists-certified cycling instructor, Aponte has spent more than a decade teaching riders how to safely navigate city streets. According to her, LA has embraced the conversation around bike infrastructure while overlooking the equally critical need for public education.
She points to Los Angeles’s Vision Zero initiative, launched in 2015 with a goal of eliminating traffic fatalities. Yet, she cites recent city data that shows roadway deaths continue to rise. With that context in mind, Aponte believes the conversation has become too heavily centered on physical infrastructure without enough attention placed on the human element of transportation safety.
She’s got a point.
Not that we shouldn’t focus on safer streets, but that we should also focus on surviving the streets we have. And too many people riding bikes today have no real concept of how to do that, simply because no one has taught them.
Although it can’t stop there.
Because every day, I read about experienced, if not expert, bicyclists who became the victims of people who apparently didn’t know how to share the road with them.
Or, perhaps, care.
Aponte also believes the responsibility for coexistence cannot rest entirely on cyclists themselves. “We need to start teaching drivers those same things,” she explains. “Sharing the road with micromobility users should be a much bigger part of driver education.” At the same time, she notes that pedestrians, wheelchair users, scooter riders, and anyone outside a vehicle occupy a vulnerable position within LA traffic systems. Keeping that in mind, Aponte argues that a safer transportation culture depends on recognizing those road users as active participants instead of hindrances.
“We are traffic, in fact, an active part of the traffic. A delay for a driver is an annoyance that can be simply fixed with a lane change, but for the cyclist, that can be a matter of survival,” she states, noting that this perspective often gets lost in public discourse surrounding cyclists. She believes misconceptions around riders tend to shape hostile attitudes on the road.
Aponte explains, “People think cyclists don’t belong there, but we absolutely do, based on the vehicle code. Many of us own cars too, we’re paying our taxes, we’re still contributing to the system, and we have our rights in it.”
It’s relatively easy to educate beginning drivers, since they’re required to take a test on their knowledge of traffic laws.
The problem is educating the great mass of motorists who took their tests long ago, and promptly forgot much of what they learned. And many whom learned the rules of the road when bikes were expected to stick to the gutter, if not the sidewalk.
The greater problem is how to educate bike riders, whose only barrier to using the streets is having a bike, and knowing how to pedal it without falling off.
We assume they know the rules of the road because they also learned to drive. Except roughly a third of Angelenos don’t drive, for whatever reason. And those that do may fall into the same problem we just discussed above.
I don’t have an easy answer to the problem. Or even a hard one, for that matter.
We’ve relied on educating bicyclists, in place of building safe bike infrastructure, since Forester wrote Effective Cycling back in the ’70s. And even before that, for those of us who remember the simplistic children’s bike safety books of the ’50s and ’60s.
All that got us was a small core of highly educated cyclists, and an ever-rising casualty rate.
Paris has shown us what can be done, virtually overnight, to turn a city from a series of traffic-choked car sewers to a bikeable, walkable 15-minute city.
But unless and until that happens here — which seems highly unlikely in the current environment — we’ve got to find another answer.
The site explains that America’s first highways were built by The Good Roads Movement, a group of wealthy bicyclists on Penny-Farthings who were tired of riding in the mud.
And points back to our old friend Carlton Reid, who reminds us that the freedom promised by car ads was originally delivered by bicycles long before cars existed.
The first vehicle to deliver that sense of freedom was the bicycle, says Carlton Reid, a cycling journalist and historian whose book Roads Were Not Built for Cars traces the overlooked origins of America’s highway system. Before cars, before timetables-be-damned road trips, the bicycle was the first machine that let ordinary people go where they wanted, when they wanted, under their own power. No rail schedule, no horse to feed. Just themselves and the road. The winged logo of the League of American Wheelmen, the cycling organization that helped reshape American infrastructure in the 19th century, wasn’t decorative. It meant exactly what it looked like: flight.
When automobiles eventually promised this same unencumbered movement, much of the infrastructure they required already existed. Between 1880 and 1900, the Good Roads Movement, led by an unlikely coalition of urban cyclists and rural postal workers, overhauled the country’s abysmal dirt paths into a coordinated network of paved streets. By the time motorists claimed the movement as their own, cyclists had already established the Office of Road Inquiry and laid important legislative groundwork for the National Highway System we use today.
But as Reid notes, those highways carried the seeds of their own gridlock: “Cars are only useful when there’s a few of them. When there are millions and millions of them, their utility shrinks.” The open road, it turns out, was never meant for everyone.
Yet somehow, all those drivers never wrote to thank us for the roads they use every day.
Although as anyone who has ever ridden their bike past a long line of cars can tell you, that sense of freedom still exists. But only for those of us on two wheels.
No wonder they hate us.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
Cycling Weeklyoffers more information about the America Bikes Act, a bipartisan effort to expand bicycling in the US, while improving safety and re-shoring bicycle manufacturing. Although its chances in the current political climate compare somewhat unfavorably to a snowball in hell.
Colorado opened a new $1 million bike park between the towns of frostbitten Fraser, which is often the coldest spot in the continental US, and the Winter Park ski area, where I learned to ski, badly.
Drivers and their cars kill a lot of people in this city. You’d think someone running to unseat an incumbent would mention this: L.A.’s streets have never been more dangerous for cyclists and pedestrians than under Mayor Karen Bass.
Because for the third straight year, traffic deaths outnumbered murders in the City of Angels, the latter which have continue to fall, despite perceptions fueled by the news media.
And the former are far worse now than when the city adopted, and promptly ignored, Vision Zero a decade ago.
This public safety discordance played out conspicuously at the most high-profile candidate forums. The May 6 NBC debate opened with a jarring montage set to scary music that showed (no joke!) hooded marauders, shotgun-wielding cops and people saying things like “I don’t sleep well at night at all.” The ensuing exchange between Bass and her main challengers, Spencer Pratt and City Councilmember Nithya Raman, featured memorable utterances on trash, “super meth” (which may or may not exist) and the “thousands” of moms who’ve talked to Pratt about not feeling safe.
But not one of the candidates mentioned the hazard that Angelenos have good reason to worry about: Getting killed by a speeding vehicle while driving to work, walking to the park or out for a relaxing bike ride.
Streets Are For Everyone and People’s Vision Zero have been pressing city officials to declare a traffic violence state of emergency in Los Angeles, and are preparing to send a letter to that effect when they get it up to 1,000 signatures.
But even with that, and the failure of Vision Zero and former Mayor Eric Garcetti’s Green New Deal — let alone the coming World Cup and ’28 LA Olympics — no one is even talking about the lack of action improving city streets.
Or paving them.
That’s what led to the passage of Measure HLA two years ago, when two-thirds of city voters mandated that the city build out the already-approved Mobility Plan.
And you know how that went.
Instead of complying with the law by following the Mobility Plan when a significant amount of work is done on any city street, they simply stopped almost all street work.
Then the city invented the term “large asphalt repair” to get around complying with the law, as well as the requirements of the Americans With Disabilities Act.
Yet Angelenos wait for the progress they overwhelmingly demanded in 2024.
Apparently, we’ll continue to wait.
Unless we all demand that whoever makes it to the November runoff addresses the issue.
The first step is signing that letter.
The next is attending candidate forums, debates and open houses, and not letting them leave until they tell you exactly what they intend to do to bring traffic deaths and serious injuries down, too.
A new bipartisan omnibus bike bill sponsored by the co-chairs of the Congressional Bike Caucus, California Democrat Mike Thompson and Florida Republican Vern Buchanan, hopes to improve and expand bicycling in the US.
Improves cyclist safety by expanding access to federal funding for local governments to improve roadway safety for bicyclists and pedestrians. It would help local, regional, and tribal governments to fund safety action plans and infrastructure projects aimed at preventing roadway fatalities and serious injuries. It makes bike safety education a standard part of youth learning nationwide and expands access to funding for on-bicycle education to elementary and secondary school students.
Encourages more people to bike by improving access to programs that help kids safely bike and walk to school. It expands biking and walking infrastructure on federal lands. It reauthorizes federal funding for communities to plan, design and build walking and biking infrastructure. It expands incentives so more Americans switch to bicycle commuting. It creates a grant program to connect biking and transit stations, including supporting bike parking at transit stations and expansion of bikeshare programs.
Brings bike manufacturing back to our shores by creating incentives to manufacture bikes in the United States.
Good luck with that last one.
But it’s worth keeping an eye on.
Although I don’t have a lot of faith in anything getting out of this Congress. Or an administration that has already doubled down on highway funding.
As long as tens of thousands of foreign visitors, who may or may not even know English, don’t mind mixing it up with LA’s famously patient drivers, who never, ever touch their horns or force someone off the road if they impede their progress for even a millisecond.
Because we’re still waiting on all those bus and bike lanes we were promised to get ready for those foreign visitors.
So have fun, sportsball fans.
Rent a bike, and just ride to the venue, restaurant or bar of your choice.
After all, getting there is half the fun, right?
And surviving it is the other half.
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Megan forwards news that Sacramento is facing the same problems with ebikes and e-motos you’re seeing just about everywhere else.
Even though it’s only the later that’s really the problem.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
No bias here. Canada’s CTV News offers everything you need to know for a safe bicycling season, from an ABC check to the 2V1 helmet fitting method. Although there’s no mention of bike lanes, lane sharing or how to ride around inattentive drivers, or anything else that would actually help you, you know, stay safe.
