Archive for Morning Links

San Diego TV station almost gets why no one’s using bike lane, and man turns himself in for San Marcos hit-and-run

September 25, 2024 / / No comments
Just 96 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025. 

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Let me get this straight.

San Diego’s CBS-8 revisited the city’s new “protected” bike lanes on busy Convoy Street to see how they’re fairing, several weeks after they were opened.

What they found were white car-tickler plastic posts that were already broken and bent, commercial trucks parked in the bike lanes, and shopping carts and other debris blocking them.

Then they wondered why they only saw five people using them in the two midday, mid-week hours they happened to be watching.

Of course, they also heard the usual complaints from drivers who couldn’t figure out the new streetscape, or where they could possibly park if they can’t store their cars on the street directly in front of their destination.

Never mind that the bike lanes were built in anticipation of new apartment buildings currently under construction, which will add hundreds of housing units and the people who will live in them, and who will have to get around somehow.

Preferably not by driving.

Hence the bike lanes.

But it’s true that few people will bother to use them if they’re not safe, or safely rideable. Which is pretty much what the station saw.

Now maybe they can come back at rush hour or on the weekend, after they’re cleaned up and the trucks are gone.

Then they could do a far better story about why flimsy plastic bollards don’t protect anyone.

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A 23-year old San Marcos man was arrested after turning himself into sheriff’s deputies for last week’s hit-and-run that left a teenage boy with serious injuries.

Never mind that deputies had already found his massive 2021 GMC Sierra pickup, which matched the debris found following the crash — and showed signs he had attempted to conceal the damage.

Not to mention that the nearly one-week delay in turning himself in gave him plenty of time to sober up after hitting the boy’s ebike.

If he’d been under the influence at the time of the crash, of course.

The driver, Alan Edmundo Reyes, is being held on $80,000 bond on suspicion of felony hit-and-run and reckless driving resulting in injury.

He’s likely looking at a maximum of 30 months behind bars for the two counts, though that will probably be bargained down to a slap on the wrist if he accepts a plea.

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Unlike the foot-dragging we’ve seen from the City of Los Angeles, LA County passed a new Measure HLA-type law to speed up building the county bike plan as streets get resurfaced.

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If you think you’re being squeezed out on the streets, you’re probably right.

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Just in case you still wonder why traffic deaths for people outside of motor vehicles keep going up.

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“Chim, chimney, chim, chimney, chim, chim, cher-ee…”

https://twitter.com/CoolBikeArt1/status/1838643621609804108

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It’s now 280 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And 39 full months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

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

A Conservative member of the British Parliament proposes re-introducing legislation to let bicyclists know they’re not above the law, and let the “small minority” of dangerous bike riders know there are responsibilities they can be prosecuted for. At least he recognizes that it’s just a few people who need to be held accountable.

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Local  

The candidates for West Hollywood City Council sound off about e-scooters and protected bike lanes, particularly the proposal for a lane reduction and removing parking on Fountain to install them. And not everyone is in favor.

Santa Monica’s MANGo bikeway is now officially open.

 

State

A California Streetsblog board member pledges to go a week without driving, and tell us all about it. Just wait until she learns some people do that every day. 

We’re still waiting for Gavin Newsom to sign SB 961, which would require all passenger vehicles to give an audible warning if the drivers go more than 10 mph over the speed limit. Or not.

Calbike is celebrating its 30th birthday, and inviting you to become a dues paying member.

A 28-year old Chula Vista woman has made a miraculous recovery from a near fatal blood clot, suffered days after she got stitches when she crashed her ebike.

San Francisco unveils a plan for a new curbside bike lane on Valencia Street, replacing the current contentious centerline bike lane, although the new parking protected bike lane has to swerve around existing parklets.

The Executive Director of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition says the city’s new Biking and Rolling Plan must apply to the entire city, and not carve out Chinatown for exemptions.

 

National

A Tucson, Arizona TV station says the return of the annual El Tour De Tucson means big business for local bike shops. Then again, bike events usually mean big business for just about everyone. 

An Aspen, Colorado writer takes obvious pride in not falling for the ebike “hype,” saying there’s nothing cool about them and comparing ebikes to…wait for it…pickleball.

A Colorado woman wonders about a strange “very short” mile-long bike lane. Even if that’s a lot longer than a lot of the bike lanes here in Los Angeles, and just as disconnected.

Police in Oklahoma City busted two men for a twenty grand bike heist, and are looking for another man who’s still on the lam.

The New York Times talks with the city’s Blue Angels who found a way to game the bikeshare system to score thousands of dollars a month.

 

International

It turns out that Matt Damon, Matthew McConaughey, Hugh Jackman, Pink, Sheryl Crow, Reggie Miller, Rush drummer Neil Peart, Zac Efron, J-Lo and Arnold are all one of us, too.

The co-founder of All Bodies on Bikes and co-host of the All Bodies on Bikes podcast shares her non-racing bike heroes, including a Paralympian physical therapist and the founder of Black Girl Joy Ride.

Momentum examines Canada’s top new cities for urban bicycling, starting with the top urban cycling city on the prairie.

The CBC fact checks Ontario Premier Doug Ford recent comments opposing bike lanes, including the common myth that they slow emergency vehicles. Yes, he’s the brother of notorious crack-smoking, bike-hating former Toronto Mayor Rob Ford.

London is seizing ebikes illegally modified to exceed speed limitations, with most belonging to delivery riders who use them for their work.

Unsurprisingly, Sheffield, England’s new Dutch-style bikeways and roundabouts are drawing mixed reviews, largely depending on whether the reviewer bikes or drives.

A new study from Lyon, France shows that allowing bike riders to travel through red lights could improve traffic efficiency.

A Manilla bicycling brigade is fighting to cut the Philippine city’s endless traffic and pollution.

 

Competitive Cycling

Velo looks forward to this weekend’s men’s road world championships, framing it as Tadej Pogačar versus the world, while Cyclist looks at the favorites for the women’s road worlds.

Velo also recaps last weekend’s men’s and women’s time trial worlds.

Thrice Tour de France winner Tadej Pogačar admits he used to shit his pants after every race, the result of too many energy gels and drinks.

 

Finally…

You can’t sail a modern America’s Cup boat anymore without us. Now you, too, can bike in the glowing footsteps of Oppenheimer and Teller.

And it’s not every day you see a pedaling cow.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

CA Governor Newsom signs bills to speed coastal bike lanes, and ban requiring road widening with new construction

September 24, 2024 / / 2 comments
Just 97 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025. 

Photo of protected bike lane in Redondo Beach by Ted Faber.

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Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill that will make building bike lanes near the coast faster and easier by removing a requirement for a Coastal Commission study.

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The state also stepped in where Los Angeles tried and failed, as Newsom signed a bill banning cities from requiring automatic road widening with new building projects.

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The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition is launching a new campaign to “demand a visionary Biking and Rolling Plan from our city officials, that helps us achieve our transportation, climate, and congestion goals — and makes our streets safer and more joyful. ”

Thanks to Megan Lynch for the heads-up.

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Demi Moore is one of us — or was, anyway — riding her bike 60 miles roundtrip from her Malibu home to the Hollywood studio where she was filming Indecent Proposal back in the ’90s, to lose weight after the birth of her second child. Then again, the Boss was one of us back in the day, too.

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Add this one to the pantheon bad headlines.

Because of course it was the woman on the bicycle who hit the car, and not the other way around. And yes, there might have been a driver involved, too.

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It’s now 279 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And 39 full months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

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

An English bike rider narrowly avoided serious injury when copper thieves failed to replace a manhole cover on a narrow bike path, leaving a large, gaping hole.

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

A group of bike-riding Stockton, California teens caused a couple thousand dollars damage by throwing terracotta pots at passing cars. Although it’s questionable what their bicycles had to do with it.

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Local  

There will be a public meeting in El Monte tomorrow evening to discuss dedicated bus lanes and class IV physically separated bike lanes on Rosemead Blvd in South El Monte.

Streets For All endorsed Santa Monica’s Measure K increasing the city’s Parking Facility Tax to improve traffic safety and safe routes to schools, while rejecting Measure PSK to divert half of that new revenue to the cops and other public safety departments.

 

State

Residents of San Diego’s Pacific Beach neighborhood are just the latest to complain about teenaged kids recklessly riding ebikes, although the ones shown are better classified as low-powered electric motorcycles.

Police in Santa Barbara busted a trio of suspected knife-wielding bike thieves after tracking them with an AirTag.

Ouch. A Fresno bicyclist was rushed to surgery with multiple stab wounds after his bike was stolen by a man armed with a garden rake.

Speaking of Fresno, the local cops wrote 206 citations during the city’s latest bicycle and pedestrian safety operation on Saturday, including 41 bicyclists and pedestrians.

 

National

Bicycling offers budget-friendly upgrades to improve your bike rides. But reading the article isn’t one of them, because you’ll need a subscription to do it. 

NPR’s Code Switch podcast considers the question of whether bike lanes cause gentrification, as UCLA researcher Adonia Lugo says says that’s the kind of question you have to ask to be part of the mobility justice movement.

Now you, too, can ride you bike to the 14,115-foot summit of Colorado’s iconic Pikes Peak — home to the iconic Pikes Peak Hill Climb auto race — covering 19 miles and more than 6,500 feet of vertical gain.

Houston’s Metro transportation agency pulled the plug on the city’s $10.5 million bikeshare program.

The Illinois State University student newspaper asks if bicycling is a form of civic engagement. Short answer, yes. Longer answer is the same.

Sad news from Massachusetts, where Parlee Cycles founder Bob Parlee died at age 70 after a four-year battle with cancer; Cycling Weekly credits Parlee with “revolutionizing the handmade bicycle industry with his expertise in composite materials.”

A handful of New York bicyclists found a way to game the Citi Bike bikeshare algorithm, earning thousands of dollars a month by bike flipping — moving bikes from one station to another, then moving them back 15 minutes late. Thanks again to Megan Lynch.

BMX pro Nigel Sylvester introduced a new version of his Nike Bike Air shoes at the Sneaker Con convention in New York, but no word on whether they will be released to the public.

A Baltimore program teaches kids how to fix their own bicycles, repairing their perspectives in the process.

 

International

A strategist for a London ad agency says bicycle brands need to reduce the cost of bikes before they lose the next generation of bicyclists.

A Chinese website looks back to consider how Shanghai became the country’s city of bicycles, producing China’s first bicycle in the 19th Century, before becoming home to the Phoenix and Forever brands after the communist revolution.

 

Competitive Cycling

L39ion of Los Angeles crit specialist Skylar Schneider is making her way back to the WorldTour, rejoining the SD Worx-Protime team three years after leaving to race in the US.

The African cycling movement continues to grow, as Tanzanian cyclist Richard Laizer became the first rider from the country to compete in the worlds.

Belgian pro Thomas De Gendt called it a career after 16 years with the pro tour, including stage wins in Tour de France, Giro and Vuelta.

 

Finally…

No, your ebike isn’t supposed to go 70 mph — especially on city streets. Your new ebike could be just one letter from a real schmuck.

And it’s never too early for a skeletal pedicab driver.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

LAPD looks for killer Koreatown hit-and-run scooter rider, and Vermont Knolls hit-and-run driver who injured bike rider

September 23, 2024 / / 3 comments
Just 98 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025. 

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The LAPD is on the lookout for a killer hit-and-run driver.

But in this case, she was driving an e-scooter.

The victim was walking down a Koreatown sidewalk with his wife around 4:50 this past Thursday when the woman came barreling down the sidewalk, along with a man on a second scooter, knocking him down.

Sixty-five-year old Donny Kim fell backwards, striking his head. He refused treatment, but his condition worsened after going home; two days later, he was dead.

After stopping briefly, the woman rode off on her scooter, despite the efforts of Kim’s wife to get her to stay.

And yes, it’s illegal to ride an electric scooter on the sidewalk in Los Angeles — just like the sticker on every e-scooter in the city says.

And e-scooter riders are legally required to stick around and exchange personal information following a crash, just like bike riders, drivers or anyone else.

Thanks to Christian for the heads-up. 

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The LAPD is also on the lookout for the hit-and-run driver who left a 63-year old man lying in the street suffering from severe injuries, after crashing into his bike in LA’s Vermont Knolls neighborhood.

And speaking of the LAPD, the cops are trying to identify a group of around 50 teenagers who swarmed a West LA 7-11, looting the store within minutes.

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While we were gone, West Hollywood narrowly reaffirmed plans for a lane reduction and protected bike lanes on busy Fountain Ave, accepting an $8.2 million grant from the California Air Resources Board to remake the roadway by a 3-to-2 vote in a contentious city council meeting.

On a related note, WeHo Online recaps the recent Streets For All mobility forum for the candidates running for WeHo city council — not all of whom approve of the decision.

And the city could lower the speed limit on a number of streets, while WeHo Online whines it could make driving in the city even slower. Which someone should tell them is actually a good thing.

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North OC Bikes will host their monthly family friendly bike ride in Fullerton this Friday.

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Now you, too, can own one of the vintage Colnago road bikes belonging to Steve Tesich, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of Breaking Away, who died in 1996.

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It’s now 278 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And 39 full months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

Meanwhile, San Gabriel Valley residents will soon be eligible for vouchers for up to $3,000 off on the purchase of a ped-assist ebike or cargo bikes, courtesy of ActiveSGV and the SGV Council of Governments.

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

They’re onto us, comrades. A Washington state letter writer argues that the area’s new bike lanes are nothing more than a commie plot. “Bicycles are tools of commies and socialists. These paths and lanes are for only one thing: to usher in their left wing, ‘green energy,’ fossil fuel-hating, automobile-loathing, bird-killing wind farm, solar power loving agenda.”

No bias here. A Colorado woman confronted a pair of hungry bike riders who made the mistake of stopping for a snack while riding on a path near her home in Summit County, eventually shoving one of their bikes to the ground; she later told police she doesn’t like tourists.

Business owners in an industrial section of Queens complain that gentrification is going too far, with plans for a new bike lane that they insist will put the people who use it at risk, along with their truckers.

A Gloucestershire, England police official is deservedly under fire after arguing that a lot of people who ride bikes “don’t realize that…a close pass itself isn’t an offense,” despite reminding drivers that they’re required to give bicyclists at least a 1.5 meter passing distance, the equivalent of nearly five feet.

Authorities in Edinburg, Scotland are on the hunt for a man who was caught on security cam getting out of a car and throttling a bike rider who was arguing with the woman driving the car, throwing him to the ground.

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

A 30-year old Hoboken NJ man could face charges after he was arrested for deliberately ramming a goose with his ebike at a waterfront park; no word on the condition of the goose.

The NYPD is on the hunt for a bikeshare rider who maced a 17-year old boy for reasons known only to him after their bikes collided in Central Park.

No bias here, either. A 24-year old man in Northern Ireland walked with the equivalent of a lousy $465 fine for riding a bike at twice the legal alcohol limit, while carrying coke and failing to stop until the cops knocked him off his bike; meanwhile, his defense attorney joked that riding a bicycle or wearing Lycra while overweight should be a crime.

A woman in Singapore will spend the next four weeks behind bars for riding a bicycle she knew had faulty brakes, after killing a 63-year old woman when she crashed into her.

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Local  

NBC Los Angeles talks with the esteemed Jimmy Lizama, the founder of LA’s Bicycle Kitchen.

Streetsblog visits the new extension to Santa Monica’s MANGo bikeway, as well as bike lanes being installed on Reseda Boulevard, Mason Ave, Avenue 51 and Townsend Ave. And yes, that’s Avenue 51, not Area 51. 

Caltrans is looking for input on a proposed reconfiguration of busy Rosemead Blvd between Rosemead and Temple City.

About damn time. Caltrans also proposed plans to improve safety on PCH through Malibu include bike lanes and wider sidewalks, with 90% of commenters calling for better protecting bicyclists and pedestrians, as well as landscaping the center median, and adding more parking on the beach side of the highway so people won’t have to cross it.

Manhattan Beach approved plans to give the city’s Sand Dune Park a $3.5 million makeover, but removed a planned bike path at the urging of local residents.

Long Beach received a $25 million federal grant for protected bike lanes along Pacific Ave.

 

State

Fountain Valley followed the lead of other Orange County cities by tightening regulations for ebike riders; however, it’s questionable whether any changes that conflict with the California vehicle code will withstand judicial review.

A college student in Orange used an AirTag to get her stolen bike back, as cops  tracked down and arrested the suspected thief.

Police in San Marcos have yet to arrest the hit-and-run driver who left a teenaged boy riding an ebike in critical condition suffering from major injuries, after impounding the driver’s massive GMC pickup, which showed signs of an attempted coverup.

Sad news from Newark, where a 60-year old man was killed by a driver in a left-cross crash while riding in a painted bike lane. Another reminder that pain’t ain’t protection. 

More sad news, this time from Ukiah, where a man was killed after crashing his ebike at an “extremely high-rate of speed” on a local trail.

 

National

Portland bicyclists rode naked through the city to protest Big Oil, months after the city’s “official” World Naked Bike Ride was cancelled.

A bighearted little girl in Colorado will forward the new bicycle a cop gave her to another kid in need, after police recovered her stolen bike.

Austin Monthly questions whether the capital city of auto-centric Texas can truly become a bicycling utopia by investing millions in new infrastructure.

What do you do after shattering the old record for riding around the world? Go for a family bike ride near your Chicago home, of course.

New York bicyclists raced across the city’s Williamsburg Bridge for a $1,000 prize — on bikeshare bikes.

After a DC driver was sentenced to eight years behind bars for killing a 45-year old man riding a bicycle, his survivors complain that his sentence was just a slap on the wrist. Just wait until they learn what most drivers get for killing one of us. 

Now even the weather is out to get us. A Florida teenager was killed when he was apparently struck by lightening while riding his bike; local residents pointed to a hole in the pavement that wasn’t there before he was hit.

 

International

A Road.cc reader is on a campaign to design a new type of road cycling cleat, so bike riders no longer have to “walk like ducks.”

Momentum highlights ten “stunning and unique bike routes” around the world they say you have to see to believe — but the only one in North America is the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route through the US and Canada.

Speaking of Momentum, the magazine argues that Ontario, Canada is playing petty politics, as the provincial premier calls for banning any new bike lane that would replace a traffic lane.

No real surprise here, as a study from a London college shows that price has no bearing on bike helmet protection.

British bike advocates warn that plans for remaking an “incredibly popular” multi-use path are too narrow and will lead to safety issues, with bats — yes, bats — given twice as much space as bicycles.

A “heartless hit-and-run driver” will spend the next six years behind bars, on his return to the UK after fleeing the country for four years.

A Brussels, Belgium newspaper examines what’s holding bicycling back in the city, arguing that it isn’t productive to frame it as just bikes versus cars.

A carfree man finds himself called the “Bicycle-Karen” upon moving back to Iceland after years in more bike-friendly European cities, because of his complaints about the way bike riders are treated in the country.

 

Competitive Cycling

Belgian cycling star Wout van Aert signed sport’s first-ever lifetime contract, committing to ride for Team Visma – Lease a Bike until he quits professional cycling.

 

Finally…

Who needs a lawnmower when you have a bicycle? Your next ebike could come from the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team.

And maybe bike shops could stop shaming people with poorly maintained bikes.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

“Silent majority” claimed to oppose WeHo’s planned Fountain Ave bike lanes, and San Diego makes street safety top priority

September 17, 2024 / / One comment
Just 105 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025. 

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No bias here.

WeHo Online’s Steve Martin — no, not the comedian — continues his campaign against the planned safety improvements on Fountain Ave through West Hollywood, insisting there is a “silent majority” rising up in opposition to the plan, despite an informal online survey showing it was supported by two-thirds of respondents.

Then again, he complains that people from outside the city were allowed to respond to it, as if only people who live on Fountain Ave ever use the street.

He also takes issue with a perceive lack of outreach, even though those of us who were paying attention were aware of the plan to remove traffic lanes and street parking to widen sidewalks and add protected bike lanes at least two years ago. As were all those people who took the time to respond to that online survey he disparages.

But they don’t count, evidently.

Then there’s his complaint that Bike LA, formerly the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, will assist with outreach to prepare residents for the changes, calling them “hardly an unbiased party.” And adding that the group will work in conjunction with Streets For All, and “will be able to skewer whatever conversations take place.”

As if merely explaining a project that has already been approved by the city council requires any actual “skewering.”

The city council was scheduled to vote last night to accept a $5 million grant from the California Air Resources Board, aka CARB — and yes, he even gets that name wrong in his sputtering anger — to help pay for the life-saving changes on Fountain.

Let’s hope they had the sense to say yes. And that the approval will finally put an end to this nonsense.

But I wouldn’t count on it.

Graphic for a virtual workshop to discuss plans for Fountain Ave from October, 2022.

 

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That’s more like it.

The San Diego City Council passed a resolution making street safety the city’s highest transportation priority. Which means it will finally outweigh other considerations, such as street parking and level of service.

Or should, anyway.

Which would no doubt cause apoplexy to the afore-mentioned “silent majority” in West Hollywood. Not to mention in here Los Angeles, where the ability to go “zoom zoom” to your heart’s content is taken as a God-given right, consequences be damned.

Except for all those people who voted for Measure HLA by a similar — wait for it — two-thirds margin, suggesting that maybe, just maybe, that online survey wasn’t so wrong after all.

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Los Angeles opened a nearly five-mile segment of a bike path paralleling San Fernando Road in the east San Fernando Valley.

The new segment combines with an existing pathway to provide nearly ten miles of continuous off-street riding from the Burbank Airport to Sylmar.

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It’s now 271 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And 39 full months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

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Local  

Streetsblog offers an open thread and photos from Sunday’s Lincoln Heights CicLAmini.

Los Angeles Magazine says Venice’s “Bike Whisperer” is just one of the many Los Angeles street vendors benefitting from the city’s new rules.

 

State

Congratulations to Streetsblog California on their 10th anniversary.

A pilot project will allow bikes on seven miles of trails on Marin’s Mount Tamalpais, regarded as the birthplace of mountain biking, after being banned for four decades.

The steady drumbeat of sad news from Northern California continues, where a 53-year old Ukiah man was killed when he hit something on the trail he was riding and was thrown from his ebike, striking his head; police say he was wearing a helmet, but didn’t have it secured properly.

 

National

Good question. Velo says that good bike parking is inexpensive, easy to implement and encourages more bicycling, so why is it so hard to find?

Rivendell Bicycle Works founder and bicycle designer Grant Petersen celebrates the joys of riding slowly and leaving your spandex at home.

It’s been seven years since someone shot Colorado mountain biker Tim Watkins, leaving his body next to the trail he was riding near the town of Monument, and police still haven’t found his killer or figured out why he was shot.

Safety efforts in Chicago are paying off, as the city has seen just one bicycling death this year — which advocates correctly note is still one too many.

Vermont opened a new 39-mile adaptive trail offering 6,000 feet of vertical gain and loss, the first leg of a planned 485-mile mountain bike trail stretching from Massachusetts to the Canadian border.

New York’s Washington Bridge will get a new bus lane and two-way protected bike lane connecting Upper Manhattan to the Bronx over the Harlem River.

Miami motorcyclist Kadel Piedrahita was found guilty of shooting and killing Alex Palencia in 2019 as Palencia rode in a peloton with several other bicyclists; prosecutors argued that the shooting stemmed from a feud that had developed days earlier.

 

International

British active transportation nonprofit Sustrans called for an end to bicycling inequality, after a recent report found that 38 percent of low income or unemployed UK residents want to ride bikes, but are priced out by high costs and a lack of discount offers. Even though you can buy a decent used bike for around a hundred bucks on ether side of the Atlantic.

The London Evening Standard recommends the best pedal systems for roadies.

British bicyclists raised the equivalent of more than $264,000 with a 390-mile ride from Paris to Suffolk in honor of the 18 members of an English rugby team killed in a plane crash outside Paris 50 years ago.

 

Competitive Cycling

The 2028 Los Angeles Olympics will conflict with the final week of the Tour de France, forcing the world’s premier stage race to move from its traditional July date, or making the sport’s top riders choose between the two.

 

Finally…

If you were planning to ride London’s biggest annual charity bile ride next year, your 2025 calendar just opened up. When you’re carrying a baggie of coke on your bike, put a damn light on it, already.

And that feeling when you catch bicycle while magnet fishing.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

City Council unanimously orders report on cleaning protected bike lanes, and killer of Gaudreau brothers had .087 BAC

September 16, 2024 / / No comments
Just 106 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025. 

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I neglected to thank Erik G and Robert L last week for their generous donations to help out with my shoulder issues, and keep this site coming your way now that I’m back to work. 

Donations of any amount are always welcome, whatever the reason. 

And thank you both.

Photo by Richard Rosenthal; no word on whether the city will clear this type of debris. 

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The Los Angeles City Council did what it does best, ordering LADOT and the city administrative officer to report back on what it would take to sweep protected bike lanes on a regular basis.

Which doesn’t mean they’ll ever actually do it, of course.

The motion, which was passed unanimously, requires them to report on both the equipment and staffing required to sweep the city’s protected bike lanes every other week. The agencies were also ordered to report on the best practices to maintain protected bike lanes, and what the city does now.

Which clearly ain’t much.

In fact, the city has just two street sweepers designed for protected bike lanes, and only uses them on a quarterly basis — as anyone who rides them regularly can probably tell.

If that sounds cynical, it’s because we’ve been here before. The city has a habit of ordering reports that never come back, and never get acted on if they do.

In fact, we’re still waiting for the city’s “much better” version of Measure HLA, which was supposed to come back to the council long before HLA was overwhelmingly passed by the voters.

So it’s a positive step forward — but only if we stay on top of them and make sure the city follows through on it.

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The driver who killed the hockey playing Gaudreau brothers as they rode their bikes on a rural New Jersey highway was legally drunk after the crash. But not as drunk as he made it sound.

Despite telling cops he had five or six beers before getting behind the wheel, and had an open container in his car, 43-year old Sean M. Higgins had a blood alcohol level of .087, just above the .08 legal limit.

And even though his attorney described Higgins as an “empathetic individual” and “a loving father of two daughters” who just made a horrible decision that night, prosecutors said he had history of alleged road rage and aggressive driving.

Higgins is being held without bail, charged with two counts of death by auto, along with reckless driving, possession of an open container and consuming alcohol in a motor vehicle.

He faces up to 20 years if he’s convicted, and would have to serve at least 85% of his sentence.

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Megan Lynch forwards a crowdfunding campaign for an Australian father who’s at risk of losing his leg after he was hit by a red light-running driver while riding an ebike.

Yet the original article inexplicably ends with a section on the rising rate of ebike injuries — even though his injuries had nothing to do with the kind of bicycle he was riding.

………

It’s now 270 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And 39 full months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

Meanwhile, Pasadena is back with its second round of ebike vouchers, offering city residents up to $1,000 to buy an ebike from local dealers.

And that deafening silence you hear is Los Angeles not even considering a similar program.

………

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

A man in Rochester NY was critically injured when he was intentionally run down by a driver while riding his bike, after he argued with the driver.

A proposal in the British House of Lords would require visible license numbers for all bike riders and take points off their driver’s licenses for any moving violations, while others compared bicyclists to a plague of mosquitos, and want to chip riders — or at least their bikes — like their cats.

A British man was pushed off his bicycle while riding to work by a “yob” who leaned out of a passing van to attack him, suffering facial injuries, bruised arms and legs, and a swollen knee.

An Aussie parliamentarian wants to make wearing hi-viz mandatory for all bicyclists and scooter riders, rather than just requiring drivers to put their damn phones down and pay attention. And there’s no similar requirement to make drivers dress up like clowns

………

Local  

Streets Are Fore Everyone, aka SAFE, reports Glendale narrowly approved major traffic lane configuration and bicycle infrastructure improvements to La Crescenta Ave.

The co-captain of the WeHo East Neighborhood Watch Association is denying that a letter purporting to come from his organization, which was used to obtain more than $8 million in funding to fix sidewalks and install protected bike lanes on Fountain Ave from the California Air Resources Board, was actually written by the group and represented their wishes.

WeHo Online complains that no one who actually lives on Fountain is on the bike lane steering committee.

 

State

A 1.8-mile section of the Ventura River Trail between Ventura and Ojai got a $5 million makeover, including a spiffy new frog mural.

Sad news from Visalia, where a man riding a mountain bike was killed when he was rear-ended by a hit-and-run driver.

More sad news comes from Fresno, where a 41-year old man was killed in a collision while riding salmon on Highway 41.

And still more sad news, this time from Sacramento, where a woman riding a bicycle died in the hospital after she was found lying in the roadway; police don’t know yet if she fell or was the victim of a hit-and-run.

About damn time. Sacramento is considering declaring a road safety state of emergency to free up more resources to confront the rise in pedestrian and bike rider deaths. Meanwhile, here in Los Angeles, we had a record level of pedestrian and bicycling deaths last year, and no one in city government seems to give a damn.

 

National

That 1970’s era drop bar bicycle in John Deere green could actually be one.

Gear Patrol considers whether the new bespoke, 3D-printed titanium bike now taking orders from No. 22 Bicycle Company is the future of bicycling.

Kindhearted Colorado cops surprised a girl with a new bicycle for her seventh birthday, after officers tried and failed to fix her old one.

 

International

Momentum offers a guide to buying your first foldie, and says cargo bikes are better than minivans for the perfect family vehicle.

The leader of a London borough council is tired of abandoned dockless ebikes littering the streets and teenagers zooming along the sidewalks, and wants to have all Lime bikes crushed. Just wait until he learns about all the cars blocking sidewalks and bike lanes, and drivers zooming down the streets.

The owner of a bespoke London bike shop complained about brazen bike thieves targeting the shop with four “Mission Impossible-style” burglary attempts in just the last seven months.

The overwhelming majority of Londoners support the city’s Low Traffic Neighborhoods, but also believe it should be mandatory to use a bike lane if one is available.

Bicyclists in Scotland are complaining that the “birthplace of the bicycle” isn’t exactly bicycle friendly. Then again, there’s also some question whether it’s really their birthplace.

A Welsh woman will spend a well-deserved 45 months behind bars for fleeing the scene after running a bike-riding man down from behind, and selling her car days later to cover up the crime; the victim had to have his leg amputated due to his injuries. And yes, that sentence should have been a hell of a lot longer.

The Guardian’s Peter Walker describes the “five pedaling perils” every UK bicyclist has to watch out for. Which pretty much apply to every bike rider, almost everywhere.

A quartet of British and Dutch marines rode their bikes 360 miles from England to the Netherlands to celebrate the 360th anniversary of the Royal Marines.

More proof that bike riders deal with the same problems everywhere, as bicyclists in Baku, Azerbaijan are complaining about the “incomprehensible” design of the city’s bike lanes, arguing that they weren’t professionally installed.

In a truly heartrending story, someone stole a New Zealand man bike after he rode it the length of the country to raise money for charity; now he’s dying of cancer, and just wants to find it again so he can ride it one more time before he dies.

 

Competitive Cycling

Three-time Tour de France champ Tadej Pogačar prepared for next week’s road world championships by winning the 13th Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal with a dominant solo breakaway.

Samoa named its first-ever national cycling team, with a goal of competing in the 2027 Pacific Games in Tahiti; the country’s new riders range in age from 17 to 53. Yes, 53.

 

Finally…

We may have to deal with swerving LA drivers, but at least we don’t have to worry about dive-bombing birds. Who needs spandex to ride a tandem — or any clothes at all, for that matter?

And why just ride a moving train when you can jump your bike over it?

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

Annual AIDS/LifeCycle Ride ending next year, Burbank Mobility Debate tonight, and 17 years since bees tried to kill me

September 12, 2024 / / No comments
Just 110 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025. 

……..

Hard to believe this is the 17th anniversary of the Infamous Beachfront Bee Encounter that sent me to the ICU, and onto the path that led me here.

Because it was the months I spent confined to home afterwards, recovering from a massive hematoma caused by an even more massive bike crash, that inspired me to start writing about bicycling and advocating for bike safety. 

Maybe someday I’ll tell you the rest of the story from that day, involving one of those deeply spiritual, bright light near-death experiences only other people seem to have.

Then again, you’d probably just think I was fucking nuts. 

And I’d probably agree.

Photo by Pixabay.

………

The annual AIDS/LifeCycle Ride is coming to an end after 30 years.

The iconic seven day, 545 mile ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles will roll out for the last time next June, arriving in LA for the end of Pride Week.

Over its three decade lifespan, AIDS/LifeCycle has raised over $300 million for the Los Angeles LGBTQ Center and the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, starting when HIV/AIDS was still a death sentence for too many people in this country.

But a decline in both ridership and donations since the pandemic has meant it no longer brings in enough to justify continuing.

According to the NBC Bay Area TV station,

“Especially after the last few years, that what’s left after we pay those costs, it doesn’t rise to the level of what we believe in our industry is an ethical way to run a fundraiser,” said Tyler TerMeer, CEO of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation.

So if you’ve been thinking about doing it “someday,” next year is your last chance.

Let’s hope it goes out with the biggest and most successful ride yet.

………

Don’t forget tonight’s Burbank City Council Mobility Debate, hosted on Zoom by Streets For All.

………

It’s now 266 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And 39 full months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

………

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

No bias here. A writer for the Telegraph responds to news of AI-controlled traffic lights designed to give bike riders priority at intersections by saying “entitled cyclists are about to get even more insufferable.”

No bias here, either. After an Irish bicyclist sent video of drivers talking on their phones and parking illegally to the local cops, they responded by mailing a ticket — to him, for jumping a red light.

………

Local  

Bike Culver City and Culver City High School’s Green New Deal have been awarded a grant from the Clean Air Coalition of Greater Los Angeles to promote Clean Air Day next month with an Art Design Contest, Pledge Outreach Campaign and an educational bike ride.

 

State

About damn time. Bakersfield authorities publicly identified a 20-year old man who died over a week after he was struck by a driver while riding his bike back in June.

 

National

Momentum ranks the states with the best bicycling routes through US wine regions; needless to say, California comes out on top, with a SoCal shoutout to Paso Robles, but no mention of Temecula.

Your next bike lights could be designed by a truck driver, and look like second set of handlebars.

The Cherokee Nation is accepting applications for next year’s 950-mile Remember the Removal Bike Ride; candidates must be citizens of the Cherokee Nation citizens between 16 and 24 years old.

Now it’s murder. Police in a Seattle suburb are looking for a group of three or four juveniles who severely beat a 56-year old man riding a bicycle last month for no apparent reason, after the victim died in the hospital on Sunday.

Lyft is pulling their dockless micromobility devices out of the Denver market, removing their ebikes and e-scooters even as demand continues to rise — and despite having two years left on their contract with the city.

A Connecticut writer says 9/11 was a perfect day to ride a bike. Except for that whole terrorist thing.

 

International

A group of US and Irish firefighters raised nearly $150,000 with a three day, 225-mile bike ride through the Irish countryside to honor the victims of 9/11, visiting 17 fire stations and finishing at a memorial garden built by an Irish nurse who treated the victims from the twin towers.

Erstwhile country singer Kasey Musgraves is one of us, wrecking her knee by crashing a rented ebike while trying to record a video on a trip to Ireland to kick off her latest tour — and that wasn’t even the worst part of her trip.

In a sentiment that will sound familiar to American bike riders, the head of a Namibian road safety organization complains that a failed bike lane was designed by someone who has never ridden a bicycle.

 

Competitive Cycling

American ultra-endurance bicyclist Lael Wilcox shattered the world record for fastest woman to ride around the world, shaving nearly 16 days off the existing record of 124 days and 11 hours, set six years ago by Scottish cyclist Jenny Graham; Wilcox rode 18,125 miles in 108 days, 12 hours and 12 minutes.

Evidently, setting the record for Tour de France stage wins wasn’t enough, as 39-year old Mark Cavendish considers postponing his retirement once again to return next year.

Triathlon “Megastar” Kristian Blummenfelt has pulled the plug on a four-year plan to win the Tour de France after finishing a disappointing 12th in the recent Paris Olympics, shifting his focus to winning the triathlon in the ’28 Los Angeles Olympics to go with his gold from Tokyo.

 

Finally…

This is what a real bike theft looks like. That feeling when a rightwing riot wrecks the bike racks.

And this may be one reason why people don’t use the bike path.

Photo from Road.cc

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

Oceanside hosts Rail Trail meeting, and Streets For All says California ebike vouchers are coming (no, really)

September 11, 2024 / / No comments
Just 111 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025. 

……..

It’s a light news day, so let’s get right to it.

And yes, my shoulder is grateful for that. 

Apropos of nothing, today’s image is an AI corgi on a bicycle.

………

Oceanside is hosting a public meeting next Wednesday to discuss closing a vital gap in San Diego County’s Coastal Rail Trail.

………

It’s now 265 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And 39 full months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

Meanwhile, Streets For All insists the vouchers are coming soon, so let’s hope they know something we don’t.

………

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

No bias here. A 60-something English man was the victim of a hit-and-run while riding his bike on Monday. Yet the local press just blames the “horsebox”  — aka horse trailer on this side of the pond — for striking him, without even mentioning there was probably a driver towing it.

………

Local 

Culver City-based Walk ‘n Rollers will host their family-friendly Fall Festival bike safety event this Sunday in the Culver City Middle School Parking Lot.

Burbank is now offering free bike racks to local businesses to install in the public right-of-way.

 

State

Sad news from San Jose, where a man was killed by a driver while riding his bike near a freeway onramp.

In a story originally blockaded by the San Francisco Chronicle’s draconian paywall, Waymo alleges a bike rider made intentional contact with one of their automated robotaxis, and deliberately fell over afterwards. Or the rider could have put his hand out to avoid getting hit, and fell over as a result. Just saying. 

 

National

Electrek says yes, bike riders should roll stop signs.

Cycling News explains the many, many different flavors of road bikes.

A new study published in Nature examines the possibility of automated computer analysis of near-miss collision studies, opening the door to real-time AI data analysis.

Seattle learned the hard way to improve streetcar crossings, after paying out a total of $5.75 million to settle with two bicyclists who were injured when their tires got stuck in the tracks.

The mayor of Las Cruces, New Mexico will host a bike ride with local residents on Saturday. Something our bike-riding mayor still hasn’t done. And probably won’t.

Residents in their hometown were shocked by the deaths of the hockey playing Gaudreau brothers, killed by an alleged drunk driver — who grew up in the same New Jersey county — the night before their sister’s wedding.

 

International

The UK is testing out AI-controlled traffic lights that give priority to people on bicycles to create a green wave bike route.

Sixty people set off on a 390-mile ride from the UK to Paris to remember 18 members of an English rugby club who were killed in a 1975 plane crash near the French city, including eight children and four grandchildren of the crash victims.

Dublin, Ireland is installing new traffic signals with flashing arrows to give bike riders priority over drivers for making left turns, the equivalent of our right turns.

Momentum rides France’s La Régalante, a new 170-mile bike route weaving through the historic Marches de Bretagne from Mont-Saint-Michel to Nantes, saying it offers “a seamless blend of adventure, culture, and natural beauty.”

 

Competitive Cycling

Velo explains Sepp Kuss’ unexpected vanishing act from the Vuelta top ten.

 

Finally…

That feeling when the former cyclist in your advertorial really stretches the meaning of former. Who needs to get published in a poetry magazine when you can deliver them directly by bicycle?

And if you’re going to bet that no one is using a new protected bike lane, be ready to put your money where your mouth is.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

Sac school boosts attendance by giving students bikes, and more CA bike bills awaiting the governor’s signature

September 10, 2024 / / No comments
Just 112 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025. 

……..

That’s more like it.

A Sacramento middle school was able to reduce tardy arrivals and boost attendance by giving bicycles to students with attendance problems, so they can ride to school.

According to the local CBS NEWS station,

“Attendance is everything,” said Michael Rosales, an attendance technician at Mills Middle School. “The child cannot learn if they aren’t here. The child can’t be social if they aren’t here.”

“Traffic is horrible around here, and sometimes, if we can alleviate that where the child can ride to school, it helps the parents get the other students to their schools on time,” he said.

Now all they need is enough safe infrastructure to protect the kids on their way to class, and make their parents feel comfortable letting them ride there.

Photo by Ch Jawad for Pexels. 

………

Calbike recounts the bills passed by the legislature this year that they want to governor to sign, including:

  • Safer Vehicles Save Lives Bill, SB 961 (Wiener): The second half of Senator Wiener’s street safety package, which CalBike sponsored along with the Complete Streets Bill, will require most cars, trucks, and buses sold in California to include passive intelligent speed assist (ISA) by 2030. ISA gives drivers a signal when they exceed the speed limit by 10 miles per hour and can help prevent speed-related collisions, saving lives. It is already required in Europe and uses existing technology that is widely available.
  • Transportation Accountability Act, AB 2086 (Schiavo): An excellent complement to the Complete Streets Bill, this measure will require Caltrans to account for where California’s transportation dollars go. It will be an essential tool for advocates who want to make sure our spending matches our climate and equity goals.
  • Banning Bridge Tolls for People Walking and Biking, AB 2669 (Ting): This bill makes permanent a measure that sunsets next year. It allows toll-free crossings for people who walk or bike across toll bridges. It will have the biggest impact in the Bay Area, which has several toll bridges with bicycle and pedestrian lanes.
  • Bike Lanes in Coastal Areas, SB 689 (Blakespear): This bill limits the ability of the Coastal Commission to block the development of new bikeways on existing roads in coastal areas.
  • Limits on Class III Bikeways, SB 1216 (Blakespear): Class III bikeways are lanes shared by bike riders and car drivers. While they may be appropriate for neighborhood streets and some other contexts, they are sometimes used in place of more protective infrastructure because the cost is much lower. This bill would limit the use of state funding to create Class III bikeways on high-speed routes. It was originally in conflict with a provision of AB 2290, but since that bill died in the Senate Appropriations Committee, we’re happy to see this measure reach the governor’s desk.
  • E-Bike Battery Safety Standards, SB 1271 (Min): This bill requires all e-bikes sold in California to use batteries with safety certifications. It will help prevent most, if not all, battery fires, as those are usually caused by substandard batteries.
  • Unsafe Speed Penalties, SB 1509 (Stern): Continuing the speed theme, this bill would increase penalties for speeding more than 25 mph over the speed limit on roads with speed limits of 55 mph or less.

Not included on the list are some key bills that didn’t make it through the legislature, including bills to create a quick build bike lane pilot program at Caltrans, and once again pass a Stop As Yield bill for the governor to veto.

………

In a followup to yesterday’s lead story, Meredith Gaudreau, the wife of fallen bicyclist and NHL star Johnny Gaudreau, announced at the funeral of Johnny and his brother Matthew that she is pregnant, too, just like Matthew’s wife — which mean’s neither kid will ever know their father.

Meanwhile, Katie Gaudreau, sister of the two Gaudreau brothers, revealed she learned about her brothers deaths on  the day of her wedding, and engraved their initials into her wedding ring as a memorial to them.

………

It’s now 264 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And 39 full months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

………

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

No bias here. A New Jersey radio broadcaster says he’s going to feel really bad when he hits your kid “doing stupid stuff” on his bike.

A Miami cop got fired for driving off when witnesses to a fatal hit-and-run asked him to help the victim, who had been riding an ebike, telling them to find someone else. And he should have been, too.

No bias here. A Toronto cop got into a heated exchange with people on a memorial ride for a fallen bicyclist, insisting they needed to keep moving after they paused near the crash site for a moment of silence.

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

A London writer says progressive politicians and responsible bicyclists need to speak up against the “everyday menace of antisocial behavior by cyclists” who dump ebikes and casually break the rules, giving us all a bad name.

………

Local 

Streetsblog reminds us about this Sunday’s CicLAmini on Broadway in Lincoln Heights.

 

State

A Laguna Nigel man completed a cross-country fundraising ride from Seattle to New York last month, but is still collecting donations in an attempt to raise $25,000 for the 13 American service members who were killed in the bombing at Kabul airport in Afghanistan three years ago.

San Diego officials defended the planned Normal Street Promenade in the Hillcrest neighborhood — complete with a fully separated bikeway — despite a nearly 50% increase over previous estimates, calling it a model for park-deprived neighborhoods throughout the city.

San Francisco’s successful, but highly unpopular Valencia Street centerline protected bike lane will be moved to a more traditional curbside position, possibly as soon as January.

After a local news site asked a police use-of-force expert to review the recent pepper spraying and arrest of a couple teenagers by a Redding cop, the expert concluded that the cop never gave them the required warnings or attempted to de-escalate the situation.

 

National

She gets it. A writer for Clean Technica says we can’t let governments regulate ebikes to death.

Glamour recommends the best gifts for bicyclists — some of which you might actually want,  for a change.

The tony resort town of Vail, Colorado is offering six free ebikes to essential low-income workers employed in the town, defined there as earning less than $58,000 a year.

Here’s another reason to ride a bike. A Texas couple got married in front of 1,800 people at a Waco bike race because bicycling brought them together. No one can guarantee you’ll find true love, of course. Except you’ll probably love your bicycle. 

This is why people keep dying on our streets. A 68-year old man riding near the end of a Fort Worth, Texas group ride was killed when a woman entering from a side street drove through the group, hitting the victim with enough force to kill him instantly — but won’t be charged after she remained at the scene, and was very distraught. Although I imagine the victim’s loved ones were even more distraught. 

This is why people stop riding their bikes. A 70-year old Texas man says he’s never getting on another bike after he was the victim of a hit-and-run.

He gets it. A Mad City driver and bicyclist says yes, there are several factors causing traffic problems in the city, but the bike lanes ain’t one of ’em.

A New York father faces charges for failing to secure his guns after his 11-year old son came out carrying a shotgun, and ordered a 13-year old boy riding a bicycle to get away from their house. But it’s okay, ’cause he never pointed it at the kid or anything. 

 

International

Bike Radar offers a size guide for women’s bikes of every type.

The Department of DIY struck in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, where someone spray painted their own bike lane and bike box at an intersection where a woman was fatally right hooked by a cement truck driver last year.

Oops. Belfast, Ireland opened a new Grand Central Station for buses without a single bicycle parking space, forcing people to lock their bikes anywhere they can.

A new survey says no, New Zealanders aren’t “sick and tired” of spending tax money building bike lanes, despite what the country’s Transport Minister claims.

 

Competitive Cycling

Slovenia’s Primoz Roglic tied the record by winning his fourth Vuelta on Sunday, finishing over two and a half minutes ahead of second place Ben O’Connor, while Enric Mas finished third. Sepp Kuss was the top American finisher at 14th.

Brennan Wertz and Lauren Stephens won the men’s and women’s US Gravel National Championships this past weekend.

Thirty-five-year old former pro Serghei Tvetcov successfully transitioned to gravel racing after leaving the WorldTour when he was diagnosed two years ago with chronic myelogenous leukemia, an incurable blood cancer.

 

Finally…

Bicycling is where carmakers come to die. Who needs a car for a 24-hour Nürburgring endurance race when you’ve got a bicycle?

And that feeling when your campaign ad features your goggle-wearing dog riding in a bucket bike.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

Bike-riding NHL star and brother killed by accused drunk driver, and transportation safety bills on governor’s desk

September 9, 2024 / / 2 comments

We’re back, more or less. 

I’ve been out for over a month after surgery to replace two tendon and fix a number of tears in my right shoulder. I’m now looking at a long recovery, with six months of rehab before I’m back to normal, let alone get back on a bike.

Or whatever passes for normal at my age. 

I’ll do my best to keep this site going on a regular basis, but may face some issues going forward depending on how well rehab goes. 

Before we move on, though, let’s take a moment to consider that the new tendons holding my shoulder together came from caring people who donated their bodies after death.

We tend to think of organ donation as involving hearts and lungs, livers and kidneys. But corneas, skin, bones and yes, tendons, also stem from that same kindness. 

And I couldn’t be more grateful for them. 

So if you haven’t signed your organ donor card, what the hell are you waiting for?

Now let’s catch up on some of the bigger stories we missed over the past 34 days, before we get back to our regularly scheduled programming tomorrow.

Photo by Tembela Bohle from Pexels. 

………

Just 113 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025. 

……..

Let’s start with the biggest — and worst — news of the last month.

It was just over a week ago that 31-year old NHL star Johnny Gaudreau and his 29-year old brother Matthew were killed by an (allegedly) extremely drunk driver while they were riding their bikes in New Jersey.

The brothers were run down on a rural road in Oldmans Township on Thursday, August 30th, the night before they were supposed to be groomsmen in their sister’s wedding.

Needless to say, the wedding is off for now.

They were run down from behind after the driver, identified as 43-year old Sean Higgins, passed one car on the left, then attempted to pass an SUV on the right when it moved left to go around the Gaudreaus.

Higgins failed a field sobriety test, telling police he had five or six beers before the crash, and that his drinking probably contributed to “his impatience and reckless driving.”

He was arrested at the scene, and charged with two counts of death by auto, along with reckless driving, possession of an open container and consuming alcohol in a motor vehicle.

Higgins serves as a Major in the US National Guard, while working for a nonprofit substance abuse treatment center. Which means he should have known the risk of driving under the influence.

A crowdfunding campaign for Matthew Gaudreau’s wife, Madeline, who is pregnant with their first child, has raised nearly $645,000 — over 21 times the $30,000 goal.

Meanwhile, USA Today points out that the NHL star was just one of hundreds of bicyclists killed in the US each year — make that over 1,000 in 2022, actually — while Streetsblog says the real story is the systematic failures that led to the Gaudreau brothers deaths.

And the BBC issued a non-apology, saying they were sorry a bicyclist “did not appreciate” their headline which called the crash an “accident.”

………

Streetsblog offers an update on transportation bills on the governor’s desk after being approved by the legislature, including:

  • SB 960 requires Caltrans to follow their own Complete Streets policies
  • SB 961 is a severely watered-down version of the bill which would have forced automakers to prevent drivers from speeding more than ten miles over the speed limit; the law now just requires an audible warning
  • SB 1297 extends the states speed cam pilot program to PCH in Malibu
  • SB 1261 limits the placement of sharrows to streets with speed limits of 30 mph or less
  • SB 689 eliminates the need for a separate Coastal Commission study in order to convert a traffic lane to a bike or transit lane
  • SB 1271 requires that only ebikes with UL or EU certification can be sold in the state

………

While we were gone, the Glendale City Council narrowly approved the city’s draft transportation plan, along with safety improvements to La Crescenta Ave, after an extremely contentious debate.

Meanwhile, Glendale will consider a a proposal to build the nine-mile Arroyo Verdugo Greenway at Tuesday’s city council meeting.

In 2021 the City began a high-level study which envisioned the Wash as a nine mile green space from its confluence with the LA River up to Crescenta Valley Park. It includes bike and pedestrian trails with access to business and entertainment venues, and connects several important city centers, services and a multitude of neighborhoods that make up a large core of Glendale.

Walk Bike Glendale urges you to attend or call into the meeting, or email the individual council members in advance.

………

Streets For All is hosting a virtual Mobility Debate with the candidates for the Burbank City Council Thursday Evening.

………

Once again, the Los Angeles County Sheriff department demonstrated how little their deputies know about bike law, when former LA-based pro Phil Gaimon — star of the Worst Retirement Ever videos on YouTube — had to educate one on why the ticket he was about to get was against the law.

………

It’s now 263 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And 39 full months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

………

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

After a 14-year old boy was seriously injured by a garbage truck driver while riding to school in La Mesa, California, the city’s NBC station demonstrated how to get the story wrong, with a headline suggesting the boy collided with the truck, rather than the other way around. Nope, no bias there.

A road-raging 19-year old Zion, Utah woman chased down a bike rider and rammed him with her car as he tried to flee, after arguing and spitting at her when she ran a stop sign and nearly hit him. Evidently, she felt a crashing need to finish what she’d started. 

When a road raging driver attacked a group of Black Baltimore bicyclists with bear spray, the community responded with a love ride.

Police in Dublin, Ireland are investigating an apparent road rage attack by a driver who pushed a bicyclist up against a barrier and repeatedly hit him with his fists as bystanders tried to stop the attack.

A 59-year old German man was arrested for sabotaging mountain bike trails by stringing wire across them to fell unwary riders; for once, the charges fit the crime, booked on suspicion of attempted murder. Velo says attacks like that are not something you need to fret about, though.

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

A bike-raging New York bicyclist was busted for allegedly punching a woman jogger in the face after they argued when his handlebars made contact with her as she ran in the opposite direction on an Eastchester bike path.

A British woman says it made her ashamed to ride a bicycle when another rider crashed into her after jumping a red light, and called her a “stupid bitch.”

………

Local 

The New York Times considers whether Los Angeles can really pull off a carfree Olympics just four years from now. Short answer, no. Longer answer, hell no.

Caltrans is still conducting its Pacific Coast Highway Master Plan Feasibility Study to determine just what safety improvements people want — or rather, are willing to tolerate. So if you bike, walk or drive along PCH in Malibu, you owe it to yourself and everyone else to take part. 

Streetsblog’s Joe Linton examines the first six months since Measure HLA passed with overwhelming support, mandating the city to build out the eight-year old mobility plan whenever a street gets resurfaced. So far the news isn’t good, with work on Reseda Blvd moving forward while everything else stalled out — including the city’s workaround on Vermont Ave in South LA to avoid triggering HLA.

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge summarily denied a CEQA lawsuit from Friends and Families for MOVE Culver City to keep Culver City from removing the protected bike lanes through downtown, calling it “the weakest petition (he’s) ever seen in an environmental case;” the group vowed to appeal.

WeHo Times reports on a “tumultuous” community meeting to discuss bike lane designs on Willoughby, Vista/Gardner and Kings Street; as usual, most of the complaints centered on parking and outreach. The city also accepted an $8.2 million grant for transportation and safety improvements, including Fountain Ave, where protected bike lanes are planned.

Santa Monica is dropping speed limits on over 30 miles of streets to improve safety.

The southwest San Gabriel Valley is moving closer to a Metro-funded improvement project linking the First Street, Riggin Street and Potrero Grande Drive corridor, including 5.3 miles of bike lanes through Rosemead, South San Gabriel, Montebello and Monterey Park.

LA County received over $60 million in grants for safety improvement projects, including projects in Long Beach, Palmdale and South LA.

The LA Times picks up the story of how Bike Index’s Bryan Hance uncovered an international bike theft ring on his own when authorities didn’t give a shit show any interest.

 

State

Calbike talks with Wes Marshall, author of the new book, Killed by a Traffic Engineer.

The Voice of OC questions whether deadly Beach Blvd will ever be safe for bicyclists and pedestrians.

Family members are urging any witnesses to come forward who may have seen the hit-and-run crash that critically injured 71-year old Bob Hilborn as he rode his bike in Chula Vista last month.

San Diego is conducting a survey to get input on the forthcoming bicycle master plan.

A man riding his bike on Highway 1 suffered several injuries — and got a couple traffic tickets — after falling over 100 feet when he ignored “road closed” signs and a warning that he would probably die by attempting to ride across a rock slide that shut down the highway. And he nearly did.

 

National

A new bill in Congress would finally mandate federal standards for hood height and visibility in order to protect pedestrians, bicyclists and other people outside the vehicle, after research showed SUVs and trucks with high front ends and blunt profiles are 45% more likely to kill pedestrians in a crash than smaller cars and trucks.

A recent study from Oregon State University shows that the Idaho Stop Law, aka Stop as Yield, does not result in dangerous behavior by bicyclists or drivers; Velo says of course it’s safer for bicyclists. Gavin Newsom vetoed two bills that would have legalized it in California.

A new book from Rob Walker of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy looks at 20 Apps, Ideas, and Innovators Changing the Urban Landscape.

Apple TV+ premiered Ghost Bike, a short film about a mother who meets a stranger in a Greek diner, who may hold the key to solving her son’s untimely death — apparently on a bicycle.

A writer for BuzzFeed offers 22 very tongue-in-cheek reasons why wearing a helmet is “literally one of the absolute worst decisions a person can make.”

Your next ebike could be a Ford Bronco. Or maybe a Mustang.

Texas Senator Ted Cruz is accused of holding up a bill to improve ebike battery safety in a misguided attempt to halt regulations he thinks could lead to a ban on gas stoves.

The New York Times examines what the city could learn from the recent reimagining of the streets of Paris.

A Miami man is on trial for murder for chasing down and fatally shooting a man as he rode in a club peloton, although the defense insists it was self-defense after he was attacked by armed bicyclists with guns that were apparently secreted in their spandex kits and mysteriously disappeared afterwards; a Key Biscayne paper somehow described the incident as occurring in “the ultra-machismo world of the Miami cycling community.”

 

International

Momentum recommends the world’s most beautiful bicycle routes; just three of the 30 routes are in the US, with none in California.

Fifty-five-year old former Canadian IndyCar driver and 2003 ChampCar World Series champion Paul Tracy suffered a dislocated shoulder and three broken vertebrae when he was struck by an SUV driver while riding his bike last week.

A 29-year old British drug dealer was sentenced to a well-deserved 14-years behind bars for the hit-and-run crash that killed a bike-riding man, before driving off to make his weed deliveries.

It turns out the ever-feuding Gallagher brothers from the newly reunited British band Oasis are two of us; Road.cc lists other bicycling musical greats and songs about bikes.

Ireland’s Finance Minister justifiably complained about a new bike shed that cost the equivalent of $372,000 to hold just 18 bikes, when a competitor could have built it for $22,000.

A new German report says distracted bicycling is on the rise, blaming it for a significant, but undetermined, increase in crash risk. Never mind that many of the 10 to 17% of bicyclists who use their smartphones while riding are probably just using navigation or bike apps. 

A new Chinese study shows how ebikes are changing the landscape of transportation, including reduced reliance on motor vehicles and improved mobility for people of all ages.

 

Competitive Cycling

A Parisian website recounts all the paracycling medal winners from the Paris Para-Olympics.

Bicycling writes that America’s Kristen Faulkner was told she had just a 6% chance of winning gold in Olympic road cycling, just before she did it. Read it on AOL this time if the magazine blocks you.

Olympic bronze medalist Wout van Aert is done for the season, after a knee injury suffered in a major crash required a series of transfusions to prevent infection.

Sad news from Las Vegas, where five-time Venezuelan Olympic cyclist Daniela Larreal Chirinos was found dead in her home during a welfare check, at age 51, after not being seen for several days; she apparently died from choking on her food.

Six bicycles “beyond any monetary value” that were ridden by Peter Sagan, Mathieu van der Poel, Julian Alaphilippe and Egan Bernal were stolen from the Netherland’s Shimano Experience Center last week.

 

Finally…

We may have to dodge LA’s flighty drivers, but at least we don’t have to duck dive-bombing magpies — then again, we don’t have to worry about herds of leaping deer, either. Now they’re out to get us on beachfront bike paths, too.

And that feeling when wild horses couldn’t stop your ride. Thanks to Oceanside bike lawyer and BikinginLA sponsor Richard Duquette for that one. 

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

Bicyclists framed for bear’s murder in Central Park, and El Segundo bike rider critically injured by driver fleeing cops

August 6, 2024 / / Comments Off on Bicyclists framed for bear’s murder in Central Park, and El Segundo bike rider critically injured by driver fleeing cops

Clearly, I’m still having trouble keeping this site online.

I’m told the problem is outdated and incompatible apps bringing it down, so maybe that’s something I can work on one-handed when I’m out following my surgery. Keep your fingers crossed that I get this post up and you get to read it before it goes down again.

Because that seems to be a thing right now. 

I hope to be back again tomorrow before I go under the knife.

………

Just 147 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025. 

……..

We was framed.

Presidential candidate, vaccine denier and conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy admitted on Monday that he was the perpetrator of a prank that helped fan the flames of anti-bike hysteria a decade ago.

Apparently an aficionado of road kill, Kennedy claimed he in a video with Roseanne Barr that he had found a small bear after it had been struck by a driver, and scooped it up planning to butcher it later and eat it.

But he ran out of time before he had to catch a flight. So rather than let a good dead bear go to waste, he took it to New York’s Central Park and dumped it next to a bicycle, staging the scene to make it look like a bike rider had killed the bear and run away afterwards.

Never mind that a crash with a bicycle is highly unlikely to kill even the barest of a bear. Which, as I recall, was what I wrote at the time, as the media ran wild with the story of the heartless killer bike rider who ran away rather than face the consequences for killing a cute, cuddly walking teddy bear.

This at a time when the media was whipping up a frenzy over New York’s expanding bicycle network, which eventually proved to be a boon to businesses and property values.

As well as reports of reckless, scofflaw bike riders crashing into joggers in Central Park and pedestrians everywhere, in which the person on two wheels inevitably received the full blame for the actions of both parties.

That was the environment in which Kennedy the Younger played his joke, leading to a police investigation that went nowhere.

Evidently, forensics don’t work on bear carcasses, since the cops couldn’t seem to figure out that the fatal injuries caused by a motor vehicle couldn’t have been caused by a lightweight bicycle.

However, it’s likely that Kennedy’s belated confession wasn’t just an effort to cleanse his soul and lighten the bear burden on his conscience.

Rather, he was apparently trying to get ahead of a rumored unflattering story in the New Yorker that would have pointed the finger at the formerly feckless scion of the Kennedy clan for the bear’s demise.

Or at least why its final resting place was next to a Central Park roadway rather than out in the woods.

Thanks to Megan Lynch for the heads-up.

………

It’s happened again.

Just weeks after Raul Castañeda was killed by a driver fleeing police in Irwindale, another man was critically injured when he was struck by a driver fleeing from cops in El Segundo on Sunday.

The driver was fleeing from a traffic stop by members of the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department’s gang and narcotics team when he slammed into the man riding a bicycle at Center Street and Mariposa Ave around 3 pm.

As usual, there’s no word on the victim’s current condition.

Police found the driver’s car nearby after he escaped on foot.

………

A 71-year old man was hospitalized with major injuries after he was struck by a driver in Chula Vista, California.

Border Patrol agents attempted to revive the victim, who hasn’t been publicly identified.

The driver, a woman in her 30s from Vista, was arrested by the Border Patrol agents for charges “unrelated to the collision.”

Local police said alcohol played a role in the crash, but didn’t clarify whether the driver or the victim appeared to be under the influence.

………

Streets For All is hosting a virtual mobility debate between the candidates for the WeHo city council on August 15th.

………

It’s now 229 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And 38 full months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

………

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

Once again, a driver intentionally ran down someone on a bicycle and posted the video to Instagram, this time leaving a Detroit bike rider with two broken legs.

No bias here. A columnist for the Boston Globe swears he’s not against bike lanes, let alone bicycles, but thinks someone was just trying to prove a point by “shoehorning” a bike lane onto his favorite boulevard, which was apparently much better when it was just crammed with cars.

………

Local 

Cronkite News says Los Angeles should prepare for the 2028 Olympics by copying the bike lanes of Paris.

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s adopted son Pax was released from the hospital after nearly three weeks in the ICU with serious head injury suffered in a helmet-less ebike crash.

 

State

How do you say “bikelash” in Mandarin? San Francisco backed down on plans to install a bike lane in Chinatown after business owners got out the torches and pitchforks, arguing that the area is just too crowded.

 

National

A group of New Yorkers took the “worst bike ride ever” over the weekend — a 130-mile ride from New York City to the Montauk Point Lighthouse riding the worst bike they could get their hands on, including a heavy bikeshare bike.

A Queens, New York bike rider was killed, despite riding in a protected bike lane, when the driver of a box truck drove over the armadillos meant to force a wide turn.

 

International

A new re-wilding project in Wales is being funded by the same mountain bikers usually accused of destroying nature, not restoring it. Thanks again to Megan Lynch. 

Here’s another one for your bike bucket list. National Geographic suggests taking a multi-day bike tour of the ancient ruins, nature reserves and seaside villages along Turkey’s Aegean coast.

Hong Kong bicycling deaths tripled over the first six months of this year compared to the same period last year — and already top the six riders killed in all of 2023. Although that’s just a quarter of the 24 bike riders killed in Los Angeles last year, even though Hong Kong has twice the population.

Aussie cyclist Rohan Dennis will face trial on charges of causing death by dangerous driving and driving without due care in the death of his his wife and fellow Olympic cyclist Melissa Hoskins.

 

Competitive Cycling

American Kristen Faulkner won the Olympic road cycling race on Sunday in a surprise victory over the legendary Marianne Vos, just seven years after taking up cycling through Central Park; she was selected as an alternate when another rider dropped out.

Road.cc wants to know if the Paris Olympic road course was the most photogenic ever. And yes, even potty breaks are harder at the Games.

Cyclist offers a preview of next week’s week-long Tour de France Femmes.

Legendary five-time Tour de France champ Eddy Merckx touts Olympic road cycling champ Remco Evenepoel over Tour de France champ Tadej Pogačar at the upcoming world championship.

Sad news from North Carolina, where expert class rider Scott Huntley died Sunday after a major crash at the 2024 Gravity Mountain Bike National Championships, a tragic reminder about the risks pro mountain bikers take on a daily basis.

 

Finally…

Throwing your bike at passing cars is not among the recommended uses.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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