BikinginLA

Day 233 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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The next two days are predicted to be the peak of the current heat wave, so be careful out there. 

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It sounds like I missed a contentious meeting on Tuesday.

Writing for Beverly Press & Park La Brea News, Sam Mulick describes how the public meeting to discuss the proposed redesign of Fountain Ave, just weeks after the hit-and-run death of Blake Ackerman as he rode his bike home from work last month.

And before next month’s final vote on the project.

According to Mulick, the meeting was attended by every member of the WeHo City Council, and included a presentation by senior transportation planner Chris Corrao, project manager for the redesign.

Phase 1 includes reducing the street to one travel lane in each direction, while removing on-street parking on the north side of the street and building protected bike lanes. Phase 2 would widen sidewalks and upgrade curb ramps, to be considered later.

The goal, explained Corrao, is to transform Fountain back into “the residential street that it was in the 1960s.”

Community members expressed outrage at the proposed parking losses and claimed the redesign would significantly increase traffic on Fountain Avenue and on Santa Monica and Sunset boulevards. Others urgently called on the council to approve the plan, citing a desperate need to protect bicyclists and pedestrians.

Mike Greenfield, who has lived on Fountain Avenue for decades, said the project’s impact on traffic would be catastrophic and he will pursue legal action against the city if it is approved.

“This is the most maddening thing – I had no idea it was going to get to this,” he said to raucous applause throughout the room. “Do you have any idea what’s going to happen to Sunset Boulevard, West Hollywood and Santa Monica Boulevard? Total lunacy.”

However, both the Sheriff’s Department and the Los Angeles County Fire Department, who protect the city, said they would be able to respond to any emergency calls after the redesign.

Supporters of the project were equally passionate.

Alex Silberman, a West Hollywood resident, said the potential lives saved by implementing measures to slow drivers on Fountain Avenue outweighs the potential increase in traffic.

“We have seen cars slam into buildings. We have seen them slam into each other. We have seen them kill people, and we all share responsibility for not fixing this before Blake Ackerman was killed,” Silberman said to loud applause from attendees who support the redesign.

Although one opponent demonstrated an extreme degree of not getting it, arguing that it was a “disgrace” for people to use Ackerman’s death to justify the redesign.

Because, evidently, his death has nothing to do with safety on the deadly street. Nor did the needless deaths of anyone else on Fountain, apparently.

Which makes it all the more important to mark your calendar for next month’s WeHo City Council meeting on September 15th, at 6 pm.

And yes, I’ll do my best to be there, whether virtually or in-person, if I can manage to avoid any more family emergencies.

Top photo from vigil for Blake Ackerman on Fountain Ave; bottom image from Fountain Ave Project page. 

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Ouch.

A writer for the Voice of San Diego questions whether the city can ever end its dependence on cars.

And adds this comforting thought.

Even at the best of times, in the best of places, San Diego’s car-free transportation options are not good. It makes perfect sense to me why most people drive everywhere. Transit will almost always take longer, and it’s probably not very close to your house. Unless you have no other choice or pay “walkable neighborhood” rent prices, going out of your way to reject car culture feels borderline masochistic.

Sounds a lot like a little megalopolis a couple hours to the north, too.

San Diego has a plan for a more sustainable future, one with “mobility hubs” and express bus lanes, and progressive politicians claim to support it. Yet, history suggests their allegiance to the long-term vision is less important than cutting their short-term political losses.

This plan will require most of us to drive less, but it also delivers on things that politicians and voters say they want: better transit, increased walkability, shorter commutes, safer infrastructure. These investments are largely incompatible with transportation as we know it. It’s no coincidence that the “walkable” neighborhoods where most people want to hang out also have the least parking.

The plan is not all stick and no carrot, but San Diegans seem to want all carrot and no stick.

Seriously, she knows them so well.

And us.

It’s worth taking a few minutes to read the full piece, written by Bella Ross. Because she has a good grasp on the problems both cities face.

And you can probably add Orange County to that list, while you’re at it.

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An upcoming UC Berkeley study considers the persistent problem of getting fire departments to sign onto street safety projects designed to save lives by preventing injuries, rather than responding to them.

According to San Francisco Streetsblog’s Roger Rudick,

When cyclists and pedestrians get mashed by errant drivers, it’s fire departments and Emergency Medical Technicians who witness first-hand the horrific results of dangerous streets. So why doesn’t it follow that city fire departments are 100 percent supportive of street safety measures?

That’s the question behind “Safety vs. Safety: Understanding and Overcoming Conflicts between Street Safety and Fire and Emergency Response Description,” a soon-to-be-released study from UC Berkeley and the Center for Pedestrian and Bicyclist Safety. “How do you change department culture?” asked Zachary Lamb, Assistant Professor of City & Regional Planning at UC Berkeley, and one of the study authors, during a presentation Wednesday morning about the research.

The study authors looked at Austin, Baltimore, Nashville, and, of course, Berkeley, to figure out what works and what does with efforts to get fire departments on board with bike lanes and other street safety measures. An overarching goal is to get fire departments to shift to ‘street trauma prevention‘, the way they try to prevent building fires instead of just putting them out.

Again, it’s worth taking the time to read Rudick’s full story. Let alone reading the actual study when it comes out.

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

A Decatur, Illinois man riding a bicycle was repeatedly shot with BBs fired from a passing car, using a fully automatic BB gun capable of firing up to 1,000 rounds per minute.

The sister of a fallen English bicyclist wants to know why the city council insists the pathway where he died in a solo crash is a sidewalk, if there are signs posted saying it’s a shared pathway.

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

A 26-year old British bike rider walked without a day behind bars when he was given a suspended sentence for seriously injuring a woman walking her dog on a sidewalk, while riding “furiously.”

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Local 

Streetsblog editor Joe Linton discovered an actual protected bike lane in Los Angeles, for a change, after concrete barriers appeared on brief strip of 3rd Street in DTLA.

West Hollywood will lower speed limits by 5 mph on a number of key corridors, including deadly Fountain Ave, and Sunset and Santa Monica blvds.

State

The San Francisco Police Department is offering a whopping $200,000 reward in hopes of solving the 2008 cold case murder of a man who was shot in cold blood after he was forced to a stop by the driver of a car, then got into an altercation with the occupants, as he rode his bike home from work.

There’s something seriously wrong when city officials have to beg drivers not to kill kids on their way to and from school, like these officials in San Francisco, and virtually every other American city.

Sonoma County’s State Route 1 is about to get centerline rumble strips and bicycle pullouts. Which is not the same as pull-ups, as any toddler parent could tell you.

National

People For Bikes discusses the growth in bicycling, and why participation matters.

That’s more like it. A DUI hit-and-run driver who killed a noted Bend, Oregon chef as he rode his bicycle two years ago will spend the next ten years behind bars, and permanently lose her driver’s license.

This is who we share the road with. Apparently, a pair of Houston, Texas food bloggers should have been wearing helmets and hi-viz to avoid the driver who plowed into the restaurant, and them.

The Green Bay Packers continued their annual tradition of riding bicycles borrowed from fans, including kids bikes, and invited the Seattle Seahawks to join them.

A Milwaukee columnist writes in praise of essential nonessentials, like trading cutoff jeans, T-shirts and tennis shoes for bike shorts with a chamois, and other assorted bicycling gear.

A Wisconsin letter writer reminds everyone that bike riders belong on the road, and their presence isn’t optional or frivolous.

Illinois has officially redefined what is considered a bicycle for insurance purposes, including any ebike or scooter with a top speed under 30 mph.

Good question. A nonprofit Minnesota newspaper celebrates the 5.5-mile Minneapolis Midtown Greenway as it turns 25, and questions why there aren’t more carfree trails in the Twin Cities.

A sharp-eyed Columbus, Ohio city worker helped return a stolen bicycle to a woman who had built it from scrap with her father, and ridden it across the country.

A Vermont city wants young scofflaw ebike riders to go through a restorative justice program, rather than appear in court.

A Boston public radio station discusses why and how the city’s bike lane debate became so divisive.

Great idea. The Boston Museum of Science will host a daylong discussion and activities to promote sustainable transportation in the city.

Actor Glenn Powell is one of us, riding his bike with his stunt double as he films a new movie with J.J. Abrams in Providence, Rhode Island.

A 49-year old Rochester, New York man will spend 20 years to life behind bars for stabbing another man in the shoulder to steal his bicycle in a Dunkin’ Donuts parking lot.

A New York woman says she now thinks twice every time she gets on her bicycle after getting hit by someone on an ebike.

Key Biscayne, Florida upheld a ban on ebikes of every type in a contentious meeting.

International

Once again, the Mounties got their man — or bike, in this case, recovering a $10,000 mountain bike hours after it was stolen from a sleeping German tourist.

This is who we share the road with, part two. A British motorcyclist was busted for riding stoned on the same stretch of roadway twice in just three weeks — yet he only lost his license for a whole 16 months. So if you want to know why people keep dying on the streets, that’s a good place to start. 

A travel website recommends 17 “epic” New Zealand bike routes.

Competitive Cycling

Cyclist looks at the even dozen British and Irish cyclists preparing to take part in the Vuelta starting this weekend.

Ouch, part two. American Quinn Simmons says pro cycling isn’t much fun, and called on his fellow riders to be more honest and “behave like humans.”

American Brandon McNulty claimed the overall victory at the Tour of Poland earlier this month.

Finally…

That feeling when you get recognized by the electric motorbike-riding cellphone thieves you’re chasing. Don’t ride Cuban roads without bike lights.

And getting every bit of life out of your tires.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin.