Archive for Morning Links

WeHo Council to hear Fountain Ave Monday (oops), HLA lawsuit in court today, and Amestoy Ave bridge zoom Monday

September 12, 2025 / / No comments
Day 255 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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Today is the anniversary of 2007’s Infamous Beachfront Bee Encounter.

That was when a massive swarm of bees on the beachfront Marvin Braude Bike Trail tried to kill me, sending me to intensive care and four months of medical home confinement. 

And set me on a path to 18 years of bike advocacy, and whatever the hell it is I do now. 

All without a single sting. Go figure. 

It’s worth a read if you don’t know my own origin story. 

Photo of Fountain Ave opponents protesting proposed safety changes by Joe Linton/Streetsblog.

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Okay, I fucked up.

I wrote yesterday that the West Hollywood City Council would consider the makeover of deadly Fountain Ave at their meeting on Tuesday.

Except the meeting is actually on Monday.

I don’t know where I got the wrong date. But I take full responsibility for the massive fuckup, and for not checking the city’s website to verify the date.

So the good news is you have Tuesday night free, but you’ll have to clear your schedule for Monday. Because opponents of the makeover will undoubtedly come out in force, and we need all the support we can get.

But be prepared for a long night, because Fountain Ave is way down on the agenda at item E.1.

If you can’t attend the meeting in person, you can watch live on WeHoTV via Spectrum Channel 10 if you live in West Hollywood, or on YouTube

Public comments can submitted online through September 15th.

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The Measure HLA lawsuit over the city’s failure to include the promised bike lanes in the bus lane makeover of the Vermont Ave corridor will be in court today, as Metro tries to shoehorn in.

The lawsuit, by longtime LA bike advocate Joe Linton, was filed against the city for failing to build the bike lanes as required by HLA, since they’re included in the mobility plan already approved by the city.

Although it’s important to note that Linton is acting on his own behalf, and not as a representative of Streetsblog, where he serves, admirably, as Los Angeles editor.

Metro is arguing that they should be included in the lawsuit, since they are funding the project, even though the work is being done on a city street. Their hope is that they can get the case thrown out if they’re named a party to the lawsuit, since Metro is a county agency, and HLA is a city ordinance.

Let’s hope the judge rules against them. But either way, there could still be a settlement that includes more bike and pedestrian elements as part of the makeover.

You can read the actual lawsuit file here.

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Monday will be a busy day.

In addition to the WeHo Council meeting, the Encino Neighborhood Council’s Traffic and Transportation Committee will host a virtual meeting to consider the fate of the threatened Amestoy Ave pedestrian bridge over the 101 Freeway in Encino.

Caltrans already removed another pedestrian bridge at Encino Ave in 2022, forcing bike riders and pedestrians onto busy thoroughfares and highway underpasses to get from one side of the freeway to the other, which slices across the Valley like an ugly scar.

Removing the Amestoy Ave bridge would make a difficult crossing that much worse for everyone.

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Speaking of Linton, as we were above, he’s compiling an archive of Measure HLA appeals that have been filed with the Los Angeles Board of Public Works on his personal website, B.I.K.A.S., which stands for Bicycle Infrastructure Knowledge Activism and Safety.

According to Linton, there have been 22 separate HLA appeals that he is aware of, which he has posted here, here and here. Most involve relatively minor issues like missing crosswalks and curb ramps that should have been completed when the streets were resurfaced.

However, Linton himself has filed a four-page appeal over elements that were left out when Los Angeles reconfigured a section of Victory Blvd in the east San Fernando Valley.

The city removed an existing peak-hour travel lane to restore car parking during rush hour. But they skipped the bike lanes included in the mobility plan, even though there’s enough space to add basic painted lanes.

And credit Joe with being enough of a bike-riding man about town that he’s familiar with projects like this in far-flung quadrants all over the city.

If you’re interested in filing your own HLA appeal, Linton also offers complete step-by-step instructions on his website.

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The Los Angeles Times The Wild newsletter recommends a pair of bike events this weekend, from Saturday’s World Naked Bike Ride to Sunday’s Historic South Central meets Watts CicLAvia.

Which should pretty much fill your weekend dance card.

1. Bike through Historic South–Central and Watts
Nonprofit CicLAvia will host a free open streets festival from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday where participants can traverse a 6.25-mile route through Historic South-Central and Watts. Visitors can walk and bike the route or choose any other people-powered means of transport. The route will include music, local food vendors and more. Learn more at ciclavia.org.

2. Bare it all on bikes in L.A.
L.A.’s World Naked Bike Ride will start at 10 a.m. Saturday downtown. Riders can choose from a more challenging ride at 10 a.m. or an easier 9-mile ride at 2 p.m. Participants can skate, scoot, jog or bike in their birthday suits along the ride. Body paint optional! Learn more at the group’s Instagram page.

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I’m told there are still a few tickets left for Streets Are For Everyone’s 10th Anniversary celebration at The Morrison in Los Feliz, with CD4 Councilmember Nytha Raman as the closing keynote speaker.

However, the deadline to purchase tickets is midnight tonight, so get a move on. Although you’re welcome, along with everyone else, to drop in for the free pre-reception hour from 3 pm to 4 pm, no tickets necessary.

And yes, you’ll see me there along with my wife. Just look for the couple with the corgi (she’s a service dog, so she gets a pass — the corgi, that is, not my wife).

Meanwhile, you just have four days left to get early bird pricing for next month’s Santa Clarita Finish the Ride and Finish the Run, put on by the fundraising arm of SAFE.

The events commemorate founder Damian Kevitt’s inspiring return to finish the ride he had started before a hit-and-run driver nearly took his life.

And no, that driver was never caught.

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

No bias here. In a story that reads like it was written by AI, Newsweek says an Idaho altercation began when a bicyclist yelled “Fuck Charlie Kirk,” at a vigil for the murdered conservative activist. Except the person in question was on a scooter, rather than a bicycle, and the video starts with people surrounding and punching him, and doesn’t show the alleged shout.

A London paper lists the city’s worst intersections for bike riders jumping red lights, with the busy Oxford Circus shopping district reaching 50%. Although they don’t bother to offer any reason why, which could have at least something to do with people not feeling safe stopping at the dangerous intersection. 

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Local 

No news is good news, right?

 

State

A bike thief was busted by Huntington Beach cops when he was spotted two miles away, after police were alerted by quick-acting witness.

 

National

Bicycling examines the surprising causes of hand numbness among bike riders, and what you can do to avoid it. But evidently, they want you to keep those numb fumble fingers, because the story is only available to subscribers. Although what worked for me was moving my hands to different positions on the handlebars, holding the bars less tightly, and putting less weight from my shoulders on them. 

Trek launched new “pro-tested” 3D-printed saddles, promising to eliminate saddle sores, as well as sit bone and soft tissue pain. In other words, no more numb nuts.

A 67-year old Philadelphia man described as a “cyclist’s kind of cyclist,” who built his own bikes, rode safely and carefully, and advocated for safer streets was killed while riding his bike Tuesday when he was struck by one of two drivers traveling at high speeds, on what should have been a quiet street.

A Pennsylvania man was sentenced to 15 to 40 years behind bars after pleading guilty but mentally ill to the random shooting of a man riding a bicycle, who he had never met; he reportedly was turned away by both the police and a local hospital when he tried to get help for paranoia caused by issues with mental health and drug addiction, before killing the victim.

Bicyclists in Charlotte, NC are calling for a shift in mindset to make drivers more aware of bike riders on the roads. You know, kinda like people who ride bikes everywhere else.

 

International

A hit-and-run driver in Canada’s Yukon Territory was sentenced to six-and-a-half years behind bars for killing a man riding a bicycle, along with a ten-year driving ban; with credit for time served, he still has five years left on his sentence.

An 80-year old Calgary, Alberta man suffered life-threatening injuries when he tried to stop a man trying to steal his bicycle; the alleged thief pushed him backwards and he fell, striking his head. Seriously, hide a tracking device in your bike, and just let the cops deal with it. Because no bike is worth your life.

A 36-year old soccer player for Mansfield Town in the third-tier English Football League One was named to the roster for the coming year — but only after striker Lucas Atkins is released from prison for killing a 33-year old man riding a bicycle with his $271,000 Mercedes.

British surgeons say ebike injuries are placing a massive burden on the country’s health system. Although once again, they don’t seem to differentiate between ped-assist ebikes and electric motorbikes.

Bike Rumor visits the Zefal plant on the banks of France’s famous Loire River to tour one of the oldest and most affordable accessory manufacturers in the bicycling industry. Speaking of oldest, I remember when nearly everyone had a Zefal pump attached to their steel frame.

Czech carmaker Škoda’s We Love Cycling website asks why can’t bicyclists do vacation photos like normal people, and stop doing things like leaning your bike up against a landmark, lifting it in the air in front of some tourist attraction, or recording yourself unboxing it at the airport.

 

Competitive Cycling

Once again, a race moto sent multiple cyclists to the hospital when a cop on a motorcycle cut from one side of the road to the other with no warning, knocking riders off their bikes as they sprinted to the finish in stage 3 of the Vuelta a Venezuela, while sending at least one competitor flying over the retaining wall.

Cycling Weekly considers what data-driven road cycling can learn from rough-around-the-edges downhill mountain biking, which they call “cycling’s coolest discipline.”

Velo says a new bike racing format called Stadiobike maybe the answer to the cycling’s perennial problems, by staging bike races in front of fans in grandstands on automotive tracks.

 

Finally…

Your next handmade bespoke steel bike could come from Namibia — with “only” a 15% tariff for now. Nothing like buying your own bike back for just 700 bucks, 25 years after building it for a legendary Olympian.

And who needs a helmet when you’ve got a bird house on your head?

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

WeHo Council considers Fountain Ave on Monday, 19-year old man critically injured in Orange, and swrve rises from the dead

September 11, 2025 / / One comment
Day 254 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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WeHo Times offers a reminder that plans to remake Fountain Ave will come before the West Hollywood City Council at 6 pm Monday.

Correction: I originally said the meeting was on Tuesday, rather than Monday. I’m not sure where I got the wrong date, but I take full ownership of the fuckup, and not checking the meeting agenda to get it right.

The project is designed to slow traffic on the deadly corridor by removing one lane in each direction, widening sidewalks and installing curb-protected bike lanes.

Although it comes too late for Blake Ackerman, who was killed by a hit-and-run driver at Fountain and Gardner while riding his bike home from work, and far too many others.

Local residents and pass-through drivers have been fighting this project, and will undoubtedly turn out in force to object to it because it will remove curbside parking on the street, and eliminate what for decades has been a faster alternative to busier boulevards nearby.

Which means we have to respond in kind to demand better safety and a more livable street for everyone.

The paper reports residents who can’t attend the meeting in person can watch live on WeHoTV via Spectrum Channel 10 or YouTube; although I’m not sure if that works for non-residents, as well.

However, public comments can submitted online from September 10th to the 15th.

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Bad news from Orange, where a 19-year old man suffered life-threatening injuries when he was struck by a driver while riding an ebike on Tuesday morning.

The crash occurred at Lewis Street and El Prado Ave; the driver remained at the scene, and police don’t suspect they were under the influence.

The story notes that the victim wasn’t wearing a helmet, which is not required for anyone over 18, and only matters if he suffered a serious head injury, which isn’t mentioned in the article.

Let’s just hope and pray he makes a full and fast recovery.

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Just in time for Halloween, iconic Los Angeles-based bikewear brand swrve is rising from the dead, reopening under new ownership nearly a year after the company, which invented the first bicycling-specific jeans, shut down operations.

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Santa Monica Spoke reports more curb protected bike lanes are going in on Stewart Street.

And doing it quickly, unlike a certain nearby megalopolis we could mention.

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Oceanside bike lawyer and BikinginLA sponsor Richard Duquette forwards an article about the difficulty of demonstrating brain injuries, and how he worked with legal graphics firm Focus Graphcs to work up illustrations that helped result in a six-figure settlement for a triathlete on the eve of trial.

They’d sure as hell convince me. And evidently, had the same effect on the driver’s insurance company.

Illustrations by Focus Graphics

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We’ve often mentioned that the East Side Riders are far more than just a bike club.

The nonprofit group operates a Watts bicycle co-op, host weekly bike rides, provide a safe, gang-free hangout for local kids, and works as community organizers to help strengthen the community and feed and clothe those in need.

Now they’ve made it even easier for you to throw a few bucks their way. Money that will do more good than most things you could do with it.

So what are you waiting for?

“The happiest people are not those getting more, but those giving more.” – H. Jackson Brown Jr.

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

You’ve got to be kidding. A Bend, Oregon driver is somehow considering claiming self-defense after getting out of his work truck, and walking back to assault a 16-year old kid — a boy with a cumulative 4.326 grade point average, no less — for the crime of riding two abreast with a friend, which is legal in the state, leaving the kid with $11,000 in medical bills and over $3,700 in damage to his bike; the attack ended after the driver’s young daughter yelled from the truck “Daddy, stop. Don’t do it.” LAPD officers have told me that in California, drivers are considered to have committed assault the moment they get out of their cars to confront someone. 

No bias here. A London magazine says the bicyclist may be a “kindly spirit in the countryside,” but in in the city, “this peaceable phantom has become a bloodthirsty wraith, terrorizing unsuspecting pedestrians, and refusing to follow the laws of man or motorcar.” Just wait until someone tells him about cars, and the careless and aggressively bloodthirsty people who drive them.

An Aussie hit-and-run driver denied deliberately injuring a bike rider, even though dashcam video from a trailing car showed her braking until the victim passed her, then turning her car to crash into him — something her lawyer said was somehow proof she tried to avoid him; meanwhile, she’s awaiting sentencing for intentionally injuring someone else.

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

Sad news from Massachusetts, where a 64-year old man died over a month after he was struck by a rider on a ped-assist ebike in Boston’s Copley Square.

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Local 

Streets For All reminds you to take LADOT’s survey about the new concrete “Toronto barriers” installed on a trial basis on 3rd Street in DTLA.

The LA County Sheriff’s Department is conducting another bicycle and pedestrian safety operation from 5 am to 3 pm on Friday; a press release says they’re focusing on dangerous driver behavior, however, they are legally obligated to enforce the law equally whether you’re on foot, on a bike or in a car. So once again, ride to the letter of the law until you cross the city limits. Thanks to David for the heads-up. 

Police in Hermosa Beach used a drone to find a bike theft suspect accused of stealing a bicycle outside a cafe. Thanks to Jim for the link.

 

State

State Senator Scot Wiener’s SB 71 passed both houses of the legislature with just one no vote and moves on to the governor’s desk for his signature; the bill extends provisions of a 2020 bill to streamline the CEQA permitting process for public transit, and bike and pedestrian infrastructure projects to 2040.

Calbike talks with a representative of Upway about what the California Ebike Incentive program got right, and what it got wrong. Although they could have spoken with at least a couple local bike shops participating in the program. Or even a few who didn’t, and ask them what it got wrong. Thanks to Ellectrek for the article. 

Over 200 people are riding 525 miles down the coast of California from San Francisco to Los Angeles for the 25th Arthritis Foundation’s California Coast Classic Bike Tour.

A writer for San Diego’s KPBS considers whether ebikes can make kids more mobile and still keep them safe, and whether the streets are ready for them. Although a lot depends on whether they’re using ped-assist bicycles, or non-street legal electric dirt bikes. 

For once, justice delayed is not justice denied, as a 28-year old San Francisco man was sentenced to 15 years to life for the hit-and-run death of a woman riding a bicycle, with nine years — yes, 9 years — credited for time served as he awaited trial for the 2016 crash; he reportedly brought both sides of the courtroom to tears by taking responsibility for taking the victim’s life.

San Francisco looks at what comes next after the city’s failed Vision Zero program.

 

National

Bicycling lists 12 mistakes to avoid when shopping for a used bike. But you’ll have to subscribe to read it, since it’s only available to people who pay, and it doesn’t seem to be available anywhere else. 

Good Morning America recommends the “best” bikes for every member of the family. None of which actually are, of course, even if some aren’t bad. 

For the thousandth time, no, bicycling does not affect fertility for most men.

Oops. Hawaii’s governor vetoed a bill intended to rein in high-speed electric bikes, after concluding that its prohibition against “high-speed electric devices” could apply to electric motor vehicles, as well.

As many as 2,000 people who participated in, or attended, an Utah high school bike race may have been exposed to measles, and at least four have contracted the disease. Which seems like a good time to mention that vaccination offers near full protection from the disease, which was nearly eradicated until the anti-vax movement took hold. 

A Denver TV station examines why local bike shops won’t service bicycles purchased online, with shops citing safety, parts and liability.

Chicago bike riders are making like Paul Revere to warn the public about ICE agents and inform immigrants of their legal rights.

Boston bicyclists say new speed bumps installed in a local state park are increasing danger on the roadway, rather than lessening it, as unsuspecting bike riders risk getting knocked cold. Apparently, Massachusetts has never heard of cutting channels into speed bumps to give people on bicycles a safe path to ride through, while still slowing motor vehicles.

Where to stay when you’re in need of dog, beer and bike friendly lodgings in Delaware.

A Philadelphia public radio station examines whether the city is still safe for traditional bicyclists and pedestrians, and what can be done to make it safer.

 

International

Life is cheap in London, where a distracted truck driver walked without a day behind bars for killing a woman on a bicycle, after the judge ruled that the victim had contributed to her own death by attempting to pass the truck on the inside — even though the driver forgot to check his mirror because he was distracted by his truck’s center console and was on a hands-free call.

London bikeshare use is spiking as commuters turn to rental ebikes to cope with a subway strike, although the weather isn’t exactly cooperating and some riders say it’s turning bike lanes into mosh pits on wheels.

A writer for The Spectator takes the contrary view to the common complaints against bikeshare ebikes, calling them “unquestionably, the best thing that has happened to London in my lifetime;” and adding that if you think they’re dangerous, cars are worse.

Here’s a warning from an English nurse and father of three, who thought his persistent back pain was due to bicycling, until he finally saw a doctor and discovered he was suffering from stage 4 prostate cancer.

Two 26-year old men rode their bikes over 4,500 miles from their home in Ireland to Singapore, to help one of them cope with the death of his father from a brain tumor; not only were they inexperienced, but one of the men didn’t even own a bike before they set off.

 

Competitive Cycling

Once again, Tuesday’s stage 16 of the Vuelta was shortened when pro-Palestinian protesters disrupted the race with 3 km, or 1.8 miles, to go; Spain will take “extraordinary measures” to prevent further protest disruptions on the final two stages in the Madrid region.

Wednesday’s stage 17 went off without disruptions, as Jonas Vingegaard maintained a 50-second lead over second place João Almeida.

Dutch cyclist Puck Pieterse says bike racing may be serious business, but you can still have fun, as Cycling Weekly calls her the sport’s “most exciting multi-discipline talent.”

 

Finally…

Your next non-folding e-foldie could fold anyway. The Mounties always get their man — even if he’s just riding without a helmet.

And nothing like riding the length of the UK on a homemade wooden bike as a protest “against a world made of plastic and steel.”

And yes, that includes DIY wooden wheels.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Support pedestrianized 6th Street & wider bike lanes tomorrow, and building SaMo’s “Great Wall of Shitty Rental Bikes”

September 9, 2025 / / No comments
Day 252 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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Streets For All is calling for action to support a trio of programs at tomorrow’s meeting of the Los Angeles City Council Transportation Committee.

Take action this Wednesday:

The Transportation Committee is hearing three items this Wednesday. One would support wider bike lanes, another would create a pilot program pedestrianizing 6th St in Koreatown, and a third is an update on implementing speed cameras.

HOW YOU CAN HELP:

Make public comment in person:
Wednesday, September 10, 2025 at 8:30 AM
Room 401, City Hall
200 North Spring Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012

If you can’t attend, please comment publicly on the council file, provided in our toolkit here.

MAKE PUBLIC COMMENT

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A Santa Monica man is called a hero for removing rental ebikes — actually scooters with seats — from the beachfront Marvin Braude Bike Trail, building “the great wall of shitty rental bikes.”

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Seriously?

A Baltimore, Maryland man is facing $2,000 in fines and hundreds more to get his bike back, after a couple misguided cops who apparently have never heard of an ebike slapped him with ten traffic tickets and impounded his bike, insisting it was an unregistered motor vehicle.

Because it has an electric motor.

One that makes it a Class 2 ebike under Maryland law.

And yes, he was literally laughed out of the DMV when he went to register it.

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If you missed this weekend’s Maryland Cycling Classic — and who didn’t? —  Velo offers video of the full race broadcast, although you have have to click through to see it.

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

An English county councilor was left fuming after the council leaders dropped bicycling safety improvements from plans to remake a dangerous intersection because of “rising costs and limited funding” — apparently without consulting her or the rest of the council.

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Local 

Spectrum News 1 talks with the general manager of Bikes and Hikes LA about calls for better bike safety in West Hollywood, while a Sheriff’s spokesman says bicyclists and pedestrians have the same rights as drivers, but far fewer protections. To which virtually anyone who has ever ridden a bicycle would respond, “Tell me about it.”

 

State

Patch says cops in Laguna Beach issued “60+ citations” during a recent multi-agency crackdown on speeding, loud and modified exhausted systems, and ebike violations — which is technically true, since 184 is more than 60. A lot more.

Police in San Diego are starting to get it, warning about a dramatic rise in ebike injuries among kids, while noting that many of the bikes aren’t true ebikes but off-road motorbikes that aren’t street legal.

 

National

The Try Hard podcast talks with Defector writer Diana Moskovitz about learning to ride a bike as an adult, after her over-protective parents forbade her from riding as a child. You can read a full transcript here, if you’d rather read it than listen to it. 

Portland, Oregon has hosted an official City Bike Bus each month since June, concluding next month. If I held up one finger, that would be one more time than Los Angeles has hosted one. And you can probably guess which finger I’d hold up. 

A Salem, Oregon bike shop became the latest victim of the contraction in the bicycle market, citing competition from big box stores and online marketplaces.

A man in Oregon’s Rogue Valley became an unlikely hero in 2020 by livestreaming damage caused by the Alameda Fire from the seat of his bicycle.

There’s a special place in hell for the Fort Worth, Texas hit-and-run driver who left an eight-year old bike-riding kid lying in the street, after stopping briefly to get out of his car and look at the kid covered in his own blood. Or any other coward who drives off after hitting a kid, for that matter.

That’s more like it. Bipartisan legislation moving forward in the Michigan legislature would allow judges to sentence drivers to up to 15 years behind bars if they kill a pedestrian or bicyclist after violating a traffic law, as biking booms in the Motor City.

Riverside Drive in Downtown Memphis reopened after a major redesign with nifty new protected bike lanes.

 

International

Momentum recommends 16 “incredible” fall destinations around the world that are best experienced by bicycle, including California’s Sonoma Valley.

Bike Radar examines five tech trends that will define road and gravel bikes over the near future.

Puerto Vallarta, Mexico is in planning for a free bikeshare system, along with an improved bike lane network that would make it safer to use.

Nearly 100 Montreal bike riders held a die-in on Monday to call for safer streets after a second person was killed on the city’s busy Parc Ave in less than a year, while eight bicyclists and pedestrians have been killed on the corridor since 2013; meanwhile, the city renamed a bike path for a late bike activist who was pivotal in making it “the bike-friendly city it is today.”

Montreal YouTubers examine initiatives intended to lower the barriers to using cargo bikes, including Canada’s first cargo bikeshare system, run by a local nonprofit.

British Olympic bike hero Sir Chris Hoy’s inaugural fundraising ride raised more than £2 million — the equivalent of over $2.7 million — for cancer charities, as he said it’s possible to “live well and lead a happy life” with the disease, despite his devastating diagnosis with stage four prostate cancer.

Former Wimbledon champ Andy Murray may be one of us, but he doesn’t seem too damn happy about it.

As London prepares for yet another Tube — aka subway — workers strike, a London website wonders if the effects will be muted by bikeshare; meanwhile, Cycling Weekly responded to the strike threat by recommending foldies and commuter bikes.

 

Competitive Cycling

Tragic news from France, where yet another U-23 cyclist has died, this time a 16-year old kid who suffered a heart attack during a race.

A human rights group has asked Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante to ban the Israel-Premier Tech cycling team from Sunday’s Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal because of the war in Gaza, after the team’s owner referred to team members as ambassadors for Israel.

Seriously? Not only did a 2012 Sonoma Press Democrat article about fan activities for the late, great Amgen Tour of California inexplicably pop up on a Google search for today’s bike news, most of the story was hidden by the paper’s paywall. Because evidently, they still want you to pay to read 13-year old stories.

 

Finally…

That feeling when drivers park in the bike lane so often, you carry crude pre-printed crude stickers. Why postpone having beers until after Critical Mass, when you can find a bike with a keg of home-brew riding next to you?

And this is what happens when a confirmed roadie experiences his first black diamond downhill ride.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Stockton sucks more than LA for bike riders but so does Long Beach, and victim’s dog rescued after South LA crash

September 5, 2025 / / No comments
Day 248 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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Drumroll, please.

A new report list the top five most dangerous cities in the US for bike riders as,

  1. Stockton, California
  2. New Orleans, Louisiana
  3. Tampa, Florida
  4. Sacramento, California
  5. Tucson, Arizona

Surprisingly, the report from Consumer Affairs ranked Los Angeles all the way down as the 64th most dangerous American city for bicyclists, although we fared a lot worse for people on foot, coming in at 31st.

Long Beach was 38th and 41st, respectively.

Maybe Los Angeles ranks so low because we’ve already scared most people off their bikes, unlike the other cities.

Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay.

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There’s always more to the story.

When I write about a fallen bike rider, I can only write what I know at the time. Which is usually what’s been reported in the media that day, or the next.

We seldom learn much about the victim, and little or nothing about what the deaths leave in their wake.

That was the case with a homeless man killed in an early morning crash in South LA last month while riding his bike with his dog, and pulling a trailer to collect recyclables.

We still don’t know his name.

But we now know what happened to the dog that refused to leave his side for hours after his death, thanks to a heartwarming report from KNBC-4.

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This is who we share the road with.

The Los Angeles Times is reporting that following a crash in Reseda, an ambulance was struck by another driver while transporting a victim of the first crash.

Then when a battalion chief arrived to investigate that crash, the truck was struck by yet another driver at the same intersection as the ambulance.

That makes three separate crashes stemming from the same incident.

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Speaking of the Times, the paper’s outdoor newsletter The Wild includes Saturday’s Emerald Necklace Ride among their 3 things to do.

2. Bike along rivers in the San Gabriel Valley
ActiveSGV and Amigos de los Rios will co-host a 12-mile bike ride from 8 a.m. to noon Saturday starting at the Jeff Seymour Family Center (10900 Mulhall St., El Monte). The ride will take city streets and bike paths as cyclists explore the Rio Hondo and San Gabriel River. Register at eventbrite.com.

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

No bias here. London tabloids are up in arms over a new study showing one-fifth of all ebike riders, e-scooter riders and bicyclists in the city routinely jump red lights. Which, by my extensive calculations, means that an overwhelming 80% don’t. And how do they know people “routinely” jump red lights, which would require a) following individual riders to identify their behavior at multiple red lights, or b) identifying individual riders to witness their behavior at the same red light over multiple days.

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Local 

Los Angeles is looking for comments about a new study on the sad state of LA Parks. Tell them parks are for people, not cars, and cars don’t belong in parks. Any parks. Period. And yes, I’m looking at you, Griffith Park. 

The American Bicycle Association’s ABA Ethos subsidiary will oversee the design, construction and event coordination for the mountain bike course for the ’28 Los Angeles Olympic Games, to be held in international mountain bike mecca the City of Industry.

Streetsblog says Monterey Park is looking for your input on a full redesign of Garvey Ave, with plans for “new bike lanes, safer intersections, upgraded sidewalks, improved transit service/bus stops, and better lighting.” And speaking of Streetsblog, if you’ve got a little extra cash lying around — or stocks, apparently — toss a little their way to support their invaluable work keeping us informed about the latest transportation and transit news.

Santa Monica cops are conducting another bicycle and pedestrian safety operation from 5 am to 8 pm today, so ride to the letter of the law until you cross the city limits.

 

State

Chula Vista is the latest city to crackdown on ebike riders, but will focus on education and warnings for the next three months before issuing citations. Once again, the real problem is with people riding dirt bikes and high-speed throttle-controlled electric motorbikes, rather than people on ped-assist ebikes. 

Oops. Vallejo police jumped the gun in announcing a man had died after being hit by driver while riding his bicycle Sunday morning; the victim is still fighting for his life, although it doesn’t look good.

 

National

Here’s your chance to ride your bike in and around Oregon’s Crater Lake National Park.

Life is cheap in Arizona, where the truck driver who plowed into a group bike ride in Goodyear, Arizona, killing two people and injuring nearly two dozen more, was sentenced to one lousy year behind bars and will lose his license for a whole 180 days, after the district attorney refused to file felony charges. If you wonder why people keep dying on our streets, lenient sentences like this are a good place to start. 

Three men rode their bikes 200 miles across Iowa to honor a friend lost to suicide, offering hugs and someone to talk with to strangers along the way.

Life is cheap in Vermont, where a cop walked without a day behind bars for killing a man walking a bicycle, despite speeding and allegedly watching a YouTube video on his onboard computer at the time of the crash.

A new trio of 20 minute plays tell the story of pioneering Black bicyclist Kittie Knox, performed by actors riding bikes along the streets of Cambridge, Massachusetts, her home town.

A former Massachusetts bike shop owner pled guilty to larceny charges for defrauding several customers by taking their money and failing to deliver the bikes and parts they ordered.

Police in New York are looking for the arsonist who torched a Manhattan bikeshare dock.

New Orleans advocates are calling for bike safety improvements on St. Claude Ave, following two bicycling deaths on the dangerous corridor in a single month.

 

International

Edinburgh, Scotland finally protected a number of bike lanes around the city following months of delays and deferrals, making the lanes permanent, after they had been installed on a temporary basis and scheduled for removal next month.

This is why people keep dying on the streets. An Irish judge threw out the charges against a driver accused of careless driving for nearly hitting a group of bike riding cops — even though he had already pled guilty.

India is the new manufacturing source for mass-market US bike brands in the face of Trump’s tariffs on China — or it would have been, if Trump hadn’t jacked up tariffs on that country, too.

Lonely Planet offers advice on how to plan a New Zealand bicycling vacation. Get used to riding on the wrong side of the road, to start, because the left side is the right side down there.

 

Competitive Cycling

Two-time Olympic mountain biking gold medalist Tom Pidcock moved up to third in the Vuelta General Classification, confirming his decision to bypass this year’s mountain bike worlds, as Spain’s Juan Ayuso won Thursday’s stage in a sprint.

Cycling Weekly offers a preview of tomorrow’s Maryland Cycling Classic.

 

Finally…

If it’s made by Kawasaki, it’s an electric motorcycle, not an electric bike — even if a country star crashes it. That feeling when your new Canyon bike turns out to be a Canyo.

And probably not the best idea to threaten to kill a cop and his family if you get busted for stealing a bike from the local high school.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Fight to save another endangered Encino pedestrian bridge, and Beverly Hills attorney killed in Aspen ebike crash

September 4, 2025 / / One comment
Day 247 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

Maybe we should put Encino pedestrian bridges on the endangered species list.

Less than three years after Encino residents lost the fight to save the Encino Ave pedestrian bridge over the 101 Freeway, another nearby pedestrian bridge is on the chopping block, this time on Amestoy Ave.

That battle started so long ago, I had forgotten all about it until someone reached out to alert me to an upcoming virtual meeting of the Encino Neighborhood Council’s Traffic and Transportation Committee on September 15th to consider the matter.

An online petition describes the problem, and the solution, better than I could. And yes, you’ll find my signature on it; I was just the third person to sign, so let’s make sure I’m not the last.

The Issue

Encino residents, the Amestoy Avenue pedestrian bridge is facing potential demolition. This bridge serves not only as a safe passage for pedestrians but also as a symbol of unity and convenience connecting Encino residents, North and South of the 101 freeway.

The Amestoy Avenue pedestrian bridge is structurally sound and provides a car-free route to/from Ventura Blvd, Balboa Park, and Encino Charter Elementary School for countless residents, including children, seniors, and cyclists.  It’s the only pedestrian-only bridge left in Encino.   The bridge is a significant pathway that encourages walking and reduces vehicular traffic, not to mention demolitionalone would cost taxpayers over $6.1M.

CalTrans agrees that the Amestoy Avenue pedestrian bridge should be saved and renovated and is seeking resident feedback.  The proposal would cost $7.8M to renovate the Amestoy Avenue pedestrian bridge and the Louise Avenue car bridge.

BUT, there is a vocal group who would like to see the Amestoy Avenue pedestrian bridge demolished.  According to Caltrans the cost to demolish the Amestory Avenue pedestrian bridge and renovate the Louise Avenue bridge would be $8.4M.   That’s right, demolishing the bridge will cost more than renovation!

To ensure that our voices are heard, we must act now!

  • Sign the petition
  • Contact local officials from CD4 and Encino Neighborhood Council to express your support for preserving the bridge.
  • Participate in the Caltrans survey below

Caltrans Survey

Your involvement is crucial. By speaking up, we can demonstrate to decision-makers our commitment to maintaining this essential piece of infrastructure. Let’s preserve our community’s character and quality of life by standing together in solidarity. Sign the petition now and make an impactful change for the better.

Now that you’ve signed the petition and completed the survey — you have, haven’t you? — just click on the links below to email the Encino Neighborhood Council and CD5 City Councilmember Nithya Raman to share your concerns.

I’m including a sample letter that was forwarded to me below. Feel free to put it in your own words, or write your own message.

But send it before the September 15 meeting. And mark your calendar to participate.

Traffic & Transportation Committee
  • 4:45 pm September 15th
  • The zoom link and meeting agenda should be posted soon.

ATTENTION ENCINO RESIDENTS: 

The Amestoy Avenue pedestrian bridge is in jeopardy of demolition!!!!!!  If you want to preserve and renovate the structurally sound bridge and not spend $6.1M ++ to demolish it…. 

  • Please reach out to the following officials, using the letter template below if you support keeping the bridge
  • Attend the Traffic & Transportation Committee Zoom on 9/15 @ 4:45PM
  • Don’t forget to take the Caltrans survey 
  • Every email counts, make sure your voice is heard! 
Subject: Please Do Not Demolish the Amestoy Avenue Pedestrian Bridge in Encino

Dear [Elected Official/Agency Representative],

I am writing to urge you not to support demolishing the Amestoy Avenue Pedestrian Bridge (Ann Stewart Pedestrian Bridge) in Encino.

This bridge, built in 1954, remains an essential pedestrian connection for Encino. It provides a safe route for residents north of the 101 freeway to access Ventura Boulevard without driving, and it allows families south of the freeway to reach Balboa park and other neighborhood resources including the Metro Bus Line. It also sits within the same district as Encino Charter Elementary School—without the bridge, many families would be forced to drive, increasing congestion and traffic in our community.

Currently the Amestoy Pedestrian Bridge is the only passageway for “pedestrians only” within the Encino community. This is a safer option in general for pedestrians. 

The bridge is not obsolete. It is used regularly by me and many others, and even more people could benefit from it if properly rehabilitated and publicized. Destroying it would be a step backward for walkability, safety, and climate-conscious infrastructure in Los Angeles.

Cost & Scope Considerations
  • Demolishing the Encino Ave bridge cost $6.1 million.
  • The current proposal estimates:
    • $8.4 million to rehabilitate the Louise Ave bridge and demolish the Amestoy Ave bridge.
    • $7.8 million to rehabilitate both the Louise Ave and Amestoy Ave bridges.
  • Rehabilitation of Amestoy Ave alone would save taxpayer dollars while preserving critical infrastructure.

Importantly, the bridge inspection reports confirm the Amestoy structure is structurally sufficient. Rehabilitation—including replacing the railings, improving security, and enhancing the surroundings—would maximize the benefit of infrastructure spending.

Additional Considerations
  • Traffic safety: In California, the maximum legal vehicle height is 14 feet. The Amestoy bridge already provides adequate clearance at 15’-3” northbound and 15’-0” southbound.
  • Repairs: While Caltrans has repaired the chain link fencing twice in the past year, this hardly qualifies as “constant.” In fact, there were far more graffiti removal work orders than fence repairs, suggesting maintenance is manageable.
  • Use of funds: When the Encino Ave bridge was demolished, unused funds were not redirected toward local pedestrian or bike improvements; they simply reverted back to the state program. We should not repeat this mistake,
Conclusion

The Amestoy Avenue Pedestrian Bridge is a vital community link that should be rehabilitated, not demolished. Rehabilitating the bridge is both the fiscally responsible and environmentally responsible option along with offering a much safer option for pedestrians walking in Encino. Please prioritize keeping this bridge intact for the sake of students, families, and the entire Encino community.

Thank you for your time and attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

[Your Name]

[Your Address or Neighborhood]

………

Tragic news from Aspen, Colorado, where Beverly Hills attorney Michelle Mulrooney Jackoway was killed Monday when she lost control of her ebike and crashed into an embankment.

She was 64.

Law firm Wilkie Farr & Gallagher identifies her as a partner and founding member of their Los Angeles office, specializing in estate planning for high-net-worth individuals.

According to the firm,

Aside from her many impressive legal accomplishments, Michele was deeply committed to giving back to others, including through her work as a mentor and advocate for women. Early in her career, she worked part-time because she had young children. When she went back to full-time and eventually became a partner, she ensured that her firm kept women active in law by giving them the opportunity to work a reduced schedule to balance family and career without sacrificing one for the other. Michele also had a strong passion for philanthropy and derived great satisfaction from helping her clients realize their philanthropic goals and giving back to institutions that were meaningful to her, including those supporting education, women’s rights and equal opportunity for all.

She was an active leader in the LA legal community. Through her role as a Board Member of the USC Gould School of Law, her alma mater, and her longstanding support of other community initiatives, Michele was deeply respected for her integrity, compassion and generous spirit. She also served as Co-chair of the Building Committee for Gould, and as a member of the UCLA Health System Board.

………

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

Saskatoon, Saskatchewan ripped out a ten-year old bike lane that was unpopular with motorists, even though it was favored by downtown bike riders after a nearby bike lane was removed a year ago.

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

Sad news from San Jose, where a woman has died a little over a week after she was struck by struck by an allegedly stoned bike rider while jogging on a local trail; the rider was arrested on suspicion of DUI on a bicycle causing injury and being under the influence of a controlled substance.

The schmuck who dragged a dog to its death behind his ebike on a South Korean bike path, reportedly because it was overweight, was released pending trial, after police had requested that he be jailed. With any luck, that will be the last taste of freedom he has for a long time.

………

Local 

The Eastsider profiles Gloria Hwang and Thousand, the Boyle Height bike helmet company she founded a decade ago, featuring helmets designed to “look like if you found an old motorcycle helmet in your grandparents’ basement.”

 

State

Fixed-gear street racing league Formula Fixed is bringing “three days of racing, parties, and creator-driven content” to San Francisco and Oakland beginning Saturday, September 13th; winners will qualify for the pro league.

 

National

Cycling News says there’s no such thing as a grountain bike, so get over it.

A Washington traffic safety commissioner explains why you shouldn’t ride salmon. Besides the fact it’s illegal, that is.

A Reno, Nevada nonprofit is already getting ready for next year’s Burning Man, even though this year’s just ended, collecting donations of used bicycles as well as bike abandoned by Burning Man revelers.

Now even the deer are out to get us, as a North Carolina man riding an ebike was killed when a hit-and-run deer darted out into the roadway ahead of him; the deer survived the crash but fled the scene before police arrived.

 

International

A staff member working for the Indonesian embassy in Lima, Peru was assassinated by a gunman as he rode his bicycle home from work Monday evening, in what authorities believe was a contract killing outside his apartment in the Lince neighborhood.

British folding bike maker Brompton celebrated its 50th anniversary with a limited edition 1975 foldie.

Momentum offers four great bicycling routes to explore Paris this fall. And no, not the one in Texas. 

You can see a lot of things from a bike, including a rare mama lynx and her kittens along a bike path in Maardu, Estonia.

Add Morocco to your bike bucket list, as Drift Travel highlights the country’s top five bike rides and bicycling routes.

 

Competitive Cycling

No one won yesterday’s Stage 11 of the Vuelta after organizers halted the race three kilometers — around 1.8 miles — from the finish in Balboa, Spain after pro-Palestinian protesters spilled onto the course, disrupting the peloton.

Italian cyclist Simone Petilli crashed after protesters ran out onto the road and police were unable to hold them back, later writing on Twitter/X “Please, we are just Cyclists and we are doing our Job, but if it will continue like this our safety is not guaranteed anymore, and we feel in danger!”

American pro Neilson Powless hopes a new pavé section is hard enough to result in some separation at this weekend’s one-day Maryland Cycling Classic.

USA Cycling is following the lead of the US Olympic & Paralympic Committee by banning trans athletes from all female categories at sanctioned competitions starting September 15th, following Trump’s executive order prohibiting trans women from competing in women’s sports.

A humanitarian organization profiles Rwandan cyclist Olivia Maniragena, who rose from a single mother in the impoverished country to finding success and empowerment on a women’s cycling team, in advance of the country hosting the road world championships.

 

Finally…

Apparently, “Lime bike leg” is the modern equivalent of “bicycle face.” That feeling when a pedestrian was in the road because a bicyclist was on the sidewalk because a car was parked in the bike lane.

And why just carve a few trails, when you can carve your own bike, too.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Bike safety bills limp to the finish in CA legislature, building a prop-propelled bike, and who really needs 2 tires, anyway?

September 3, 2025 / / No comments
Day 246 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

Let’s hold a moment of silence for all the good bike and traffic safety bills that won’t make it through this session of the state legislature.

California Streetsblog offers an update on the status of traffic-related bills that are still alive, although some can’t be voted on until next year.

Like AB 891 Quick-Build Project Pilot Program, which would require Caltrans to develop safety projects on state highways for bicyclists and pedestrians;

AB 939, The Safe, Sustainable, Traffic-Reducing Transportation Bond Act of 2026, which would have placed an initiative on next year’s ballot to fund sustainable transportation throughout California;

AB 954, The Bike Highways Bill, which has been watered down to merely define what a bike highway is, allowing jurisdictions to fund and build their own bike highways, rather than mandating Caltrans to build them;

And SB 445, Transportation: Planning: Complete Streets Facilities: Sustainable Transportation Projects, would impose permitting deadlines on companies and jurisdictions, so they can’t draw them out.

On the other hand, a few good bills are moving forward, though some have been severely watered down.

Take AB 366, Ignition Interlock Devices, which would have expanded the interlock program for convicted drunk drivers, but now just indefinitely extends the existing program;

SB 71, California Environmental Quality Act exemptions for transit projects, streamlines CEQA requirements for public transportation, bike and pedestrian projects that reduce car dependency, and just needs to pass the full assembly;

SB 720, Automated Traffic Enforcement System Programs, changes state regulations so cities can create and operate red light camera programs, or do it better in cities with existing programs, now needs to pass the Assembly Appropriations Committee and the full Assembly.

On the other hand, one very bad bill is still in the running.

AB 697, Protected Species: Authorized Take for State Route 37 Expansion, would allow the construction of additional travel lanes on State Route 37 between Vallejo and State Route 121 in Sonoma County, even though it would run through protected habitats and wetlands.

Nothing like destroying a little fragile habitat for another induced-demand inducing highway project that flies in the face of California’s climate goals.

………

Someone stole my idea to put a propeller on a bicycle, dammit.

Thanks to Steven for the heads-up. 

………

Who really needs both tires, anyway?

Literally just riding along
byu/Natac_orb inJustridingalong

………

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

Several Edinburgh, Scotland bike lanes could be at risk, as officials dither in the face of a deadline to make temporary bike lanes permanent, while bike advocates warn that “every bike could be another car making congestion worse.”

………

Local 

Courtesy of Los Angeles Streetsblog comes word that ActiveSGV and Amigos de los Rios will host an Easy Access ride exploring the Emerald Necklace greenway this Saturday. 

 

State

Oceanside will move forward with completion of an unfinished half-mile segment of the Coastal Rail Trail, the 44-mile bike and pedestrian trail connecting Oceanside and San Diego.

Sad news just keeps on coming, as the Kern County coroner identified a 42-year old Bakersfield man who was killed Friday when his bicycle was struck by one driver, and he was thrown into the roadway where he was struck by another one; CHP investigators were quick to blame the victim for riding at night with no lights on his bike, even though relatives say the first driver was drunk and speeding. A crowdfunding campaign for the victim’s funeral expenses has raised just $250 of the modest $4,500 goal.

 

National

Ultra-endurance icon Kilian Jornet plans to summit every 14,000-foot peak in the continuous 48 states, linking them all by bike and foot. Which means he can skip everything north, south and east of Colorado; Utah, Arizona and Oregon can sit down, too. 

“Tax-averse” Wyoming is considering plans tp charge mountain bikers $10-20 annual trail fees, on top of state park entrance fees, after federal funding was cut off. Although maybe someone should tell them that, too, is a form of taxation.

Um, okay. An Omaha, Nebraska TV station says bike riders are applauding a new road diet and bike lanes, even though neighbors are questioning the changes, like local residents everywhere. But they couldn’t seem to find any of those questionable questioners to talk with.

Chicago bike riders enjoyed a carfree Lake Shore Drive on Sunday, even as the state abandoned plans to redefine the eight lane highway separating the city from Lake Michigan, while making the roadway even more car-centric.

A reporter for an Illinois website says hey, she’s a bicyclist now, after claiming an old bike from her parent’s garage — and setting out for her first ride sans helmet and without making sure it was in rideable condition. But we all had to start somehow, right?

Philadelphia bike riders plead for safer streets after a 67-year-old man was killed in a hit-and-run while riding his bike yesterday, while family members begged for information.

Dashcam video captures the hit-and-run that left a Richmond, Virginia bike rider sprawled in the street, but what really bothers the victim is that no one stopped to help afterwards.

An 80-year old Florida man faces felony manslaughter and hit-and-run charges for killing a nine-year old boy riding a bicycle, then speeding off as witnesses tried to stop him with the kid’s bicycle still trapped under his pickup; he claimed he knew he’d hit a bicycle, but “didn’t think there was a kid on it.” Once again raising the question of how old is too old to drive — and whether a judge will really send an elderly man to prison against the wishes of the boy’s very forgiving parents. 

 

International

Bike Radar says gravel bikes have finally outgrown their awkward years.

Luxury Travel Magazine says Slovenia should be your next ebike adventure destination. You could even visit the somewhat creepy semi-faceless bronze statue the purports to represent local girl Melania Trump — or you could, if it hadn’t been stolen after the original wooden version was set on fire.

 

Competitive Cycling

The training crash that injured Chris Froome was a lot worse than we were initially led to believe, as the four-time Tour de France champ suffered life-threatening heart damage, along with a broken back and five broken ribs, when he clipped a curb and crashed head-on into a road sign at 30 mph; Froome’s wife says he now faces a long recovery, and will be off his bike for the foreseeable future.

Twenty-five-year-old Italian cyclist Filippo Baroncini is going home with a contract extension, after a gruesome crash in Stage 3 of the Tour de Pologne in early August that required putting him in an induced coma and extensive facial reconstruction.

No surprise here, as seemingly inevitable winner Jonas Vingegaard is back in the red leader’s jersey after yesterday’s mountaintop finish in Stage 10 of the Vuelta.

Dutch rider Ide Schelling is calling it a career at the tender age of 27, saying it became clear he “didn’t want to do this for the next five to ten years.”

Cycling News offers a guide to streaming pro cycling this month for those of us in the US. Let’s just hope the Canadian bike races won’t be subject to Trump’s tariffs.

 

Finally…

Probably not the best idea to interrupt your bike ride to threaten someone with a loaded flare gun. Sorry, but an e-assisted pedal boat does not a water bike make.

And like we didn’t already know good coffee and bikes just naturally go together.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Bike-riding teen to be sainted Sunday, ICE attacks bike-riding man in DTLA, and Koreatown/Pico-Union quietway

September 2, 2025 / / Comments Off on Bike-riding teen to be sainted Sunday, ICE attacks bike-riding man in DTLA, and Koreatown/Pico-Union quietway
Day 245 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

Sometimes it takes a miracle to survive a bike crash.

According to the Catholic Church, anyway.

A 15-year old Italian boy will be canonized by the pope — aka sainted — this coming Sunday, 19 years after Carlos Acutis died of leukemia.

Known as the God’s Influencer and the Millennial Saint, Acutis is credited with performing two miracles in response to prayers after his death — the healing of 4-year-old Brazilian boy with a serious pancreatic malformation, and the recovery of a 21-year-old Costa Rican woman who was nearly killed in a bicycle crash.

And he was one of us, riding his bicycle around the neighborhood he grew up in while befriending doormen and others who worked in the area.

But ain’t we all just two-wheeled saints, anyway?

Photo by Pixabay. 

………

ICE officers “bull rushed” a man outside the Metropolitan Detention Center in Downtown Los Angeles while deploying lethal weapons to keep the crowd back, apparently for the crime of just riding his bike past them on the opposite side of the street.

Thanks to Erik for the heads-up. 

https://twitter.com/LongTimeHistory/status/1961208115933937677

………

LADOT wants to know what you think about plans to create a nearly two-mile route along New Hampshire Avenue and Berendo Street between Koreatown and Pico-Union, providing bike riders and pedestrians a quieter, and presumably safer, alternative to busy Vermont Ave.

………

Mark your calendar for the Corazón del Valle Active Streets event on November 2nd, closing five miles of streets in El Monte and South El Monte to cars, and opening them up to people.

………

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

A Calgary op-ed says no one is considering the needs of children and their parents, as three provinces move to rip out bike lanes against the wishes of local governments, leaving kids caught in an endless battle of bikes versus cars.

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

Police in Utah are looking for a hit-and-run ebike rider who knocked a woman walking on a Salt Lake City area trail into a ravine, leaving her with multiple leg fractures.

………

Local 

A Monrovia police chase was caught on dashcam video, showing cops running after and catching a suspected bike thief.

LA County Sheriff’s deputies will conduct a 12-hour bicycle and pedestrian safety operation in West Hollywood Friday from 5 am to 5 pm, ticketing any violation that puts either group at risk regardless of who commits it. So ride to the letter of the law until you cross the city limits so you’re not the one who gets ticketed. 

Santa Monica’s E-Bike Voucher Program marked its first anniversary last month, providing 122 income-qualified residents with vouchers up to $2,000 to purchase bikes or ebikes.

 

State

The San Diego Union-Tribune seems to get it, with a news story that appears to make the distinction between e-bikes and electric dirt bikes, warning parents that the latter aren’t street legal. Although the story is hidden behind their paywall for subscribers only, so we’re kinda riding blind here.

A 29-year old man faces charges for allegedly riding his bike up to a Chula Vista police patrol car and throwing a hammer through the window, leaving one cop with minor injuries.

Sad news from Santa Cruz County, where a 78-year old Soquel man died when he veered off the road and crashed his ebike into an embankment.

More sad news, this time form from Woodside, where a someone riding a bicycle died in the hospital after being struck by a pickup driver on Saturday, although there’s no word on how the crash occurred or the identity of the victim.

Still more sad news comes from Vallejo, where someone riding a bicycle was killed by a driver early Sunday; again, there’s no details on who was killed or how it happened.

 

National

A new study says if you want to ride faster, pay attention to how you hold the handlebars.

Men’s Health explains how to balance running and bicycling the same day, without burning out.

Data from YouGov says young people have a huge appetite for ebikes, but feel priced out by the high cost. Trust me, it ain’t just young people. 

A Roswell, New Mexico man is facing charges for allegedly shooting and killing another man, after the victim kicked over his bicycle. Yet another reminder that no bicycle, or perceived slight, is worth a human life.

Kindhearted South Dakota cops bought a new bicycle for an eight-year old girl whose bicycle was destroyed in a collision; there’s also a crowdfunding campaign to help pay her medical expenses.

A 54-year old Oklahoma man recreated the 958-mile bike ride he took from Fruita, Colorado to Copan, Oklahoma as a 14-year old runaway escaping an abusive home.

I want to be like him when I grow up. A 75-year old Wisconsin man is still riding over seven decades after his training wheels came off, completing his 200,000th mile last week. I may or may not have passed that mark already, since I never bothered to count miles in the first decade or so of my riding career. 

Thousands of bike riders took over Chicago’s iconic DuSable Lakeshore Drive on Sunday, when the annual Bike the Drive shut down a 30-mile section of the roadway.

There’s a special place in hell for whoever assaulted a 44-year old autistic man as he rode his bicycle in an Indiana park, where a group of people set upon him for “following them too closely” when he stopped for a drink.

There are now over 50 candidates for the unofficial title of mayor of a Massachusetts bike path, ranging from cats to a cactus.

A writer for Slate says Alabama is becoming a destination for bicycling with more than 2,000 miles of dedicated biking and walking trails, and a new law that was set to commit the state to further connect the state’s 67 counties — except Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” rescinded an estimated $93 million in federal funding the state expected to receive to expand the trail system.

 

International

Momentum offers advice on how to find a bike for short people. Which my five-foot tall wife can attest is a lot harder than you might think.

The BBC might be starting to get it. The news agency corrected a recent story to say the victim of a Scottish crash was riding an electric motorcycle, rather than an electric bicycle, after a reader complained that they had misused the term “ebike.”

A 19-year old English man used his college gap year to raise the equivalent of nearly $60,000 for charity — including one benefitting jockeys — by riding 2,600 miles to visit 60 UK horse race tracks.

You’ve got to be kidding. A 13-year old boy in the UK has been arrested on a charge of suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving for causing the death of 12-year old boy, after using the wheels of an ebike to propel a park roundabout, or what we would call a merry-go-round.

That’s more like it. A British man has been jailed for 14 years for the drugged hit-and-run crash that killed a 47-year old man riding a bicycle, driving while high on coke and without a license, then burning his car in an alley to hide the evidence.

Dublin, Ireland is working to solve the bike parking problem by rolling out 300 secure bike lockers across the city.

Ireland’s Kildare County is getting a nearly $2 million, less than two-mile long bike lane “in the middle of nowhere” that no one, including bicyclists, seems to want — but they’re getting it anyway to improve safety on a dangerous stretch of roadway.

Around 7,000 bicyclists turned out in the snow for the annual Passo Stelvio Day, when the legendary Giro climb is closed to motor vehicles and open to bicycle traffic.

 

Competitive Cycling

Multiple Tour de France winners Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard will join Primož Roglič and Mexican star Isaac del Toro in a new four-person, two stage bike race in Andorra this October.

Evidently, losing a testicle to cancer really does make you faster. Norway’s Torstein Træen became at least the second cyclist to lead a Grand Tour after surviving the disease, after Lance set the standard for fellow mono-testicled cyclists in the Tour de France before being stripped of his seven wins.

Speaking of which, João Almeida told Tom Pidcock to grow a pair when Pidcock refused to take a pull as they struggled to catch Jonas Vingegaard on the final climb on Sunday’s ninth stage.

French cycling prodigy Paul Seixas threw down the gauntlet for the next generation by winning the Tour de l’Avenir, becoming the youngest ever winner — at 18 years and 339 days — of what Road.cc calls the de-facto U23 Tour de France, beating 19-year old Belgian Jarno Widar by 40 seconds.

British Cycling is breaking records with the help of bespoke, 3D-printed metal bikes.

Palestinian paracyclists competed in the Para Cycling Road World Championships over the weekend as members of the Gaza Sunbirds, made up of bicyclists who have lost limbs as a result of the Israeli war.

 

Finally…

Your next car could be a velomobile — and a real Motofocker. Now even the walls are out to get us.

And that feeling when you enter a car in a bike race, and lose by six days.

Although to be fair, it was over 130 years ago.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Hit-and-run driver kills Hollywood statue, turning 6th Street into a weekend plaza, and Americans like traffic cams

August 29, 2025 / / One comment
Day 241 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

This, too, is the cost of traffic violence.

A hit-and-run driver severely damaged a popular Hollywood sculpture Monday evening, literally decapitating a statue of early film icon Anna May Wong, widely considered to be the first Chinese American film star.

The statue is, or rather, was, part of the Four Ladies of Hollywood Gazebo at Hollywood Blvd and La Brea Ave, a popular photo site for tourists, even if it has been without the small statue of Marilyn Monroe that used to top it until an influencer stole it as a prank and broke it.

According to Beverly Press & Park LaBrea News, the unknown driver fled the scene after crashing into it around 5:50 pm Monday. He’s described only as a male in a full-size, older model, white work van.

Anyone with information is urged to call the LAPD’s Hollywood Division at 213/972-2971.

Let’s hope they find the coward and force ’em to pay for repairs.

………

Good idea.

CD10 Councilmember Heather Hutt wants to close a section of 6th Street in Koreatown on weekends to create a four-block pedestrian plaza.

Or rather, she wants to close it to cars so we can open it up for everyone else.

………

Researchers are discovering that automated traffic cams are more popular than you think, for one good reason.

They work.

According to Bloomberg,

But writ large, the track record of automatic enforcement is overwhelmingly positive. In surveys most Americans understand and value the upsides that traffic cameras offer. A 2022 study found that a majority of American adults back automatic traffic enforcement, and that presenting it as a tool to advance racial justice can make it even more popular. Earlier research identified consistently strong support. A 2012 study of people living across 14 US cities found that two-thirds of them supported red light cameras. Papers published in 2014 and 2016 found that 76% of residents in the District of Columbia and 62% of those in suburban Montgomery County, Maryland, respectively, supported speed cameras.

Public support can transcend party lines and geography. Sarah Seo, a law professor now at New York University, found in a 2020 reportthat a majority of likely voters across the US supported “moving most traffic enforcement to traffic cameras and non-police agencies” (such as a transportation department, as Berkeley, California, has explored), including almost two-thirds of Democrats, a plurality of independents, and 42% of Republicans.

So what the hell is Los Angeles waiting for, already?

………

LADOT wants to know how to make the stretch of Pico Blvd west of DTLA safer.

So tell ’em, already.

………

Gravel Bike California rides Tour de Big Bear.

………

Before there was a Polls-Royce, Rolls rolled.

………

Oops.

Why does it do this?
byu/reviewtechhentai inbikewrench

………

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

Just an oopsie, as a British town removed a barrier mistakenly placed in the middle of a bike path.

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

An 85-year old San Francisco man ended up with multiple injuries when something knocked his cane out from under him and sent him flying as he walked in a bike lane — although he has no idea if it was someone on a bicycle, someone getting out of an Uber, or something or someone else.

More on the road-raging British bicyclist who allegedly threw his bike at a car in a fit of rage after the driver “bumped” into him, causing over $1,300 in damages, even through the driver pinky swears he was only going 2 mph at the time of the crash. Which kinda stretches credibility, because most cars can idle faster than that if left in gear.

………

Local 

Santa Clarita’s forthcoming Haskell Canyon Bike Park is making news in San Francisco, as the SF Gate examines the city’s effort to become a mountain biking destination.

 

State

In an op-ed for the nonprofit Voice of OC, a Huntington Beach man who identifies himself as an “automobile driver, a cyclist, and an e-bike rider” says enough with passing performative ebike laws on a city-by-city basis, since state law already covers it — including defining any two-wheeled electric device without pedals as a motorbike.

Around 50 people will set out today on the 5th annual Suicide Awareness Ride, covering 250 miles from San Diego to Santa Barbara over the next three days.

Carlsbad will consider adopting a minimum age requirement for ebike riders.

 

National

If your toddler wears a FunFix bike helmet, the feds want you to throw it away.

At least a Washington hit-and-run driver had the courtesy to wait until kids weren’t around to crash into a school bike rack.

When is a bike lane not a bike lane? When a high-end Denver steakhouse has a city permit to use it for valet service.

A Guinness World Record-holding adventure cyclist rode 430 miles north to south from one end of Wisconsin to the other, ending with a dip in Lake Superior.

State police in Michigan called for better road safety awareness as bicycling collisions jumped 20% in the first half of this year.

Gainesville, Florida seems to stretch the meaning of “traffic control device,” which is what they call bike lanes.

Commissioners in Florida’s Seminole County are hesitating to install new green bike lanes, after receiving a letter from the state ordering them to remove green crosswalks.

 

International

Czech carmaker Škoda’s We Love Cycling website says Ireland’s “rugged and remote” Donegal coast belongs on everyone’s bike bucket list, especially this time of year.

More proof that bicycling is good for you, as new Italian study shows that riding your bike as little as 2.5 miles to work four to five times a week is enough to boost your heart health as much as 30%.

 

Competitive Cycling

Four time Tour de France winner Chris Froome had to be airlifted to a hospital following a training crash that left him with a fractured vertebra, multiple broken ribs and a collapsed lung; he’s reportedly in stable condition after being rushed into surgery.

It’s happened again, as thieves broke into the TotalEnergies cycling team truck at France’s Tour de Poitou-Charente, stealing 20 bikes made by the American ENVE brand.

 

Finally…

Aways remember to steal your getaway bike from Walmart before you rob a bank, not after. When you’re carrying synthetic drugs and meth on your bike, stop for the damn stop signs, already.

And if you don’t want to censor the maps, maybe don’t start your bike race in Three Cocks.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Repairs begin on Marvin Bruade Trail, share your thoughts on 3rd Street barriers, and LA’s bike “party on wheels” tomorrow

August 28, 2025 / / Comments Off on Repairs begin on Marvin Bruade Trail, share your thoughts on 3rd Street barriers, and LA’s bike “party on wheels” tomorrow
Day 240 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

About damn time.

Work is finally underway to repair a section of the beachside Marvin Braude Bike Trail near Will Rogers State Beach.

The $800,000 project will fix the pathway between Chautauqua Boulevard and Entrada Drive, near the Roosevelt Pedestrian Tunnel, that was washed out by heavy rains early last year.

The popular pathway is used by upwards of 10,000 people a day.

It’s been awhile since I’ve ridden that path, but I’m told there’s also a section further south that’s been washed out, as well.

And raise your hand if you even knew that tunnel had a name. Because I sure as hell didn’t, and I used it for years.

………

LADOT wants to know what you think about the new concrete barriers protecting the 3rd Street bike lanes in DTLA.

………

LA Critical Mass invites you to join their “party on wheels,” aka the nation’s largest community bike ride, tomorrow, and the last Friday of every month.

………

Bike Long Beach invites you to attend a screening of Biking While Black tonight, and join them for Bikes and Coffee on Sunday.

 

………

Bike Portland editor Jonathan Maus talks with Portland Mayor Keith Wilson as they bike to work together.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass claimed she was one of us when she campaigned for office. But to the best of my knowledge, she’s has ridden a bike to work or with any member of the community ever since.

The last LA mayor I know of who actually biked to work was the late Richard Riordan, who frequently led rides with hundreds of his fellow Angelenos.

………

An English man took a tandem ride from his home in Bristol to Beijing after recovering from a rare form or cancer.

Which a reviewer for The Guardian says “makes for a good story but a rather annoying film.”

Ouch.

………

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

A Texas man faces multiple charges after allegedly using a stolen truck to jump a curb and intentionally crash into a man riding a bicycle, then returning three minutes later to run over the victim where he sat injured on the ground; the driver was arrested following a short police chase, after a witness used her own pickup to halt the second attack.

Life is cheap in London, where the father of a two-year old kid was sentenced to just 18 months behind bars for brutally attacking bike riders in two separate incidents, using his mo-ped to kick them off their bicycles while they were riding, and leaving both victims with lasting injuries.

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

A writer for the Southern California News Group explains the rules governing bicycles after an Upland writer asks what can be done to stop scofflaw bike riders from breaking the law. Just wait until they find out about all those scofflaw drivers breaking the law in their big, dangerous machines.

Commenters in Victoria, British Columbia were up in arms after someone posted a photo of a man riding a bicycle with a helmet-less baby strapped to his back. Although it’s my understanding that a baby’s neck isn’t developed enough to support the weight of a bike helmet.

A bike rider allegedly punched a driver in the coastal town of Poole, England and threw his bicycle into the car, causing the equivalent of $1,350 in damage. Nope, that’s the entire story, taking up all of one sentence. 

………

Local 

The LA City Council Planning and Land Use Management Committee approved a motion that could lead to ending off-street parking requirements for new developments, although Streetsblog’s Joe Linton says they’ll probably just build it anyway.

They get it. An injury law firm says LA’s streets are dangerous by design, and have a notable lack of bike lanes, protected or otherwise.

WeHo Times says a driver T-boned another car turning left from Fountain Ave onto De Longpre Ave, reigniting calls to improve safety on the deadly corridor; fortunately, no one was seriously injured this time.

Seriously? Mountain biking events for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics will be be held in the City of Industry, which is better known for housing warehouses than for its challenging terrain.

Police departments in multiple South Bay cities teamed up to crack down on ebike riders on Tuesday, citing riders for illegal ebikes, as well as blowing stop signs and teens not wearing bike helmets.

 

State

An 18-year old ebike rider and a younger relative both suffered non-life threatening injuries when they reportedly went through a red light and crashed their ebike into a car in San Marcos Monday evening. Although judging from the damage to the car, it looks a lot more like the driver hit them. 

Good for them. Bakersfield is formally opposing a recent grand jury report calling for a halt to building bike lanes that might kinda, sorta inconvenience some drivers; meanwhile, the founder of advocacy group Bike Bakersfield remains committed to working with the city to improve safety for everyone.

A San Jose bike co-op is teaming with the YMCA to provide third, fourth and fifth graders in East San Jose with free bicycles to help them get to schools farther away, after the closure of three local elementary schools.

 

National

Applications are now open for next year’s Cherokee Nation Remember the Removal Bike Ride, a three-week tour retracing the northern route of the infamous Trail of Tears.

Bike Mag offers a recap of Portland, Oregon’s MADE Handmade Bike Show, calling it the best bicycle show in North America.

That’s more like it. Portland backed off on plans to rip out concrete traffic diverters protecting bike lanes after a huge hue and cry from the public.

Thirty-seven-year old adventure cyclist Sarah Swallow set off on nearly 3,700 mile trip from Oregon to Missouri, becoming the first person to ride Adventure Cycling’s new, mostly dirt road Golden Gravel Trail.

A Reno, Nevada bike rider was hospitalized with minor injuries after being struck by a 14-year old riding an illegal electric motorcycle on the sidewalk; the kid who caused the crash was cited for multiple violations, while a friend on another bike was released with a warning.

The lead singer of ’90s rock stars The Offspring is one of us, going for a ride through Austin, Texas with America’s seven-time ex-Tour de France champ.

The leader of an Illinois advocacy group urges drivers to have “patience, empathy and attentiveness” in the wake of two serious bicycling collisions in the past week.

This is the cost of traffic violence. A second-generation Methodist paster in rural Tennessee was killed when he was rear-ended by the driver of a big rig truck while riding his bicycle.

Talk about not knowing your market. The owner of a Summerville, Massachusetts donut shop fears the removal of parking in front of his shop for a new bike lane will force him to move. Never mind that studies show bike lanes are good for business. And we don’t need any studies to know donuts attract bicycles like magnets.

A 49-year old New Jersey man will spend the next five years behind bars for killing a “selfless” nurse bicycling with her husband eight years ago, while driving under the influence of “a very high level of narcotics.” Although his two previous DWIs — aka DUIs — would have made him subject to a murder charge here in California. 

Speaking of DUIs, a Pennsylvania man faces a DUI charge for crashing his ebike while riding under the influence.

Seriously? A recent ex-con faces charges for attempting to sell firearms from his ebike, just five months after he was released from prison for his 12th — yes, 12th — felony conviction.

 

International

Bike Radar says carbon fiber is great, but your next bike should have an aluminum frame. Or maybe just get the new steel Pashley.

A former UFC announcer was fined the equivalent of nearly $3,400 for attempting to throttle a 14-year old boy over a Lime dockless bikeshare bike blocking the sidewalk outside his London home — even though he rode one himself to his court hearing.

The New York Times says the fatal stabbing of a 17-year old girl riding her bike home from a night out in Amsterdam has unnerved residents, in a city where riding a bike safely at any hour is taken for granted.

German ebike maker Riese & Müller has stopped shipping bikes to the US as a result of Trump’s 50% tariff on steel.

 

Competitive Cycling

Jonas Vingegaard is back in the leader’s jersey at the Vuelta, after his Visma-Lease a Bike team came in second in the team time trial.

Protesters briefly held up the Israel-Premier Tech team during their team time trial attempt to protest the war in Gaza. While the team is based in Israel, it’s mostly in name only, with only one of the team’s riders currently competing in the Vuelta from Israel. 

Velo looks forward to the third edition of America’s leading one-day bike race when the Maryland Cycling Classic kicks off next week, featuring US stars Neilson Powless, Brandon McNulty and Quinn Simmons.

A website for a tutoring company makes the case that the bikes used by cycling legends matters as much as the people on them, ranging from Fausto Coppi’s Bianchi to Lance’s Trek.

 

Finally…

Don’t mess with a cross-country rider’s Surly Trucker. Don’t let your next ebike make you SchArt yourself.

And probably not the best idea to use the local cop shop as your alibi for the hot bike you pawned.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Why there aren’t enough cops to enforce traffic laws, and WeHo advocates call for permanent bike counter on Fountain

August 26, 2025 / / Comments Off on Why there aren’t enough cops to enforce traffic laws, and WeHo advocates call for permanent bike counter on Fountain
Day 238 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

Let’s start with this exchange in yesterday’s comments.

Because it illustrates a common misperception that our streets would be safer if the cops would just do their job.

 

BENJAMIN
August 25, 2025 at 7:06 am   (Edit)

I would argue that an individuals perception of safety, isn’t a great indicator of actual risk. Society can’t be held responsible for the timid and simply because grown men are terrified of riding their bikes on the street, doesn’t meant the streets are unsafe. 99.99% of drivers do not want to hurt anyone, and simply want to get where they are going. Why must they be held responsible of the failings of law enforcement, who are tasked with making our roads and streets safer? Law enforcement takes a large portion of the public budget, so how and why do they fail to uphold their end of deal? Why are they incapable of making our streets safe?

Reply
  • bikinginla
    August 25, 2025 at 9:46 pm   (Edit)

    That one’s easy. There are not enough cops in the world to enforce the law against every person behind the wheel. Take Los Angeles, as an example. We currently have around 9,000 cops on the city payroll. Now divide that by three shifts every day. Subtract all the detectives, and cops working desk duty. Now subtract all the cops on vacation, sick leave and disability. According to officers I’ve spoken with, that leaves around 200-300 uniformed officers on patrol at any given time, most of whom are either responding to or working to prevent more serious crimes, like assaults, robberies and murders. That leaves maybe a few dozen free to enforce traffic laws in a city of nearly 4 million, with the nation’s largest street grid.

    Even in smaller cities are usually in a better position to enforce the streets, but even there the overwhelming majority of traffic violations go unpunished because there aren’t enough cops to be everywhere at once. And drivers know that, which is why most drivers routinely ignore speed limits and distracted driving laws, just to name two.

    As for grown men thinking the streets are unsafe, it’s only because so many are.

    Reply

No one wishes the police could enforce traffic laws more than I do.

I witness drivers routinely breaking the law every time I go out on the street, any time of the day or night.

During the day, drivers roll the stop signs on the corner, just like the bike and scooter riders they complain about. At night, my relatively quiet residential street becomes a drag strip as motorists take advantage of the lighter traffic to race from corner to corner.

And don’t get me started on frequent close calls just walking my dog, which should be the safest thing I do outside of my home.

As one LA cop confided to me, most drivers have forgotten they’re controlling a dangerous, potentially deadly machine. They feel comfortable playing automotive Russian roulette simply because they’ve always gotten away with it.

Until they don’t.

Yes, better enforcement is part of the solution to our deadly streets. So is getting drivers to focus on safety.

But until both of those things somehow miraculously occur, the only real solution is to design our streets so common mistakes don’t become deadly.

Which is the definition of Vision Zero.

As for those “grown men…terrified of riding their bikes on the street,” picture the same thing, but substitute your eight year old kid or grandkid for those grown men, and see if that changes anything.

Because I sure as hell wouldn’t want mine to ride around here.

………

Advocacy group WeHo For All — a chapter of Abundant Housing LA, not Streets For All — is calling for permanent bike counters on Fountain Ave.

The idea is to provide an accurate record of how many people ride on the current sharrows, compared to how many ride there after protected bike lanes are installed.

Which is actually a good idea.

Because, as others have said, counting the bike riders who use it now is like counting how many people cross a river without a bridge, as opposed to how many would cross it if there was one.

You can sign a petition calling for the bike counters here.

………

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

Colorado sheriff’s deputies are looking for a pickup driver who stands accused of intentionally running down a man riding a bicycle back in May; the 46-year old suspect is wanted for attempted murder, and considered armed and dangerous.

A Long Island driver faces charges for a road rage incident caught on Ring cam, after he was seen punching a 70-something man riding a bicycle and knocking him back onto the sidewalk; the incident reportedly started three blocks earlier when the victim yelled at the driver for not stopping at a stop sign.

Apparently, everyone in London “and beyond” is talking about the “problem(s)” with bicyclists, as a writer somehow conflates a recent survey showing slightly more than half of bike riders admitted breaking traffic laws, with a 25% increase in pedestrian deaths this year — even though drivers, not bicyclists. are to blame for the increase.

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

There’s a special place in hell for a Pennsylvania teen who punched a ten-year old little boy in the face to steal his bicycle.

………

Local 

A Pasadena committee is rewriting the city’s bicycle ordinances to bring them into alignment with state law and update outdated provisions; among the changes is defining ebikes, eliminating a prohibited bicycle registration requirement, and allowing sidewalk riding near churches, schools and public buildings.

 

State

More on moves by the Encinitas City Council to remove or water down safety features planned for a redesigned Santa Fe Ave, despite the death of a 15-year old ebike rider there just two years ago.

A crowdfunding campaign is raising money for the family of a 14-year old boy killed by a pickup driver while riding an electric motorcycle in El Centro last week; as of this writing, it’s raised over 65% of the $10,000 goal.

 

National

GQ offers their picks for the best bicycling tops.

A Honolulu bike advocacy group is hosting free ebike safety classes after a 15-year old boy was killed by a 75-year old driver while riding an electric motorbike in a crosswalk; police were quick to blame the kid for riding against the Don’t Walk signal, but didn’t say if he was going against the red light.

Athletes from around the world will converge on Nevada next month to compete in various record categories for the World Human Powered Speed Challenge.

A pair of Austin, Texas brothers are on the verge of completing a 5,500 mile fundraising ride from Anchorage, Alaska to College Station, Texas.

Chicago’s Bike the Drive offers 30 carfree miles of the city’s DuSable Lake Shore Drive this Sunday.

This is the cost of traffic violence. A 57-year old photo editor for the Boston Globe was killed in a collision while riding his bike near his former Illinois hometown.

A car website says Illinois bicyclists are surprised by new rules redefining what counts as a bicycle in the state to include ebikes and tricycles. Except people who ride bikes were probably the least surprised by the new rules, since they’re the ones who ride them and worked for passage of the new law. 

A Michigan man was sentenced to between three and five years behind bars for killing a 50-year old woman riding a bicycle last year while driving under the influence — although he’s credited with nearly a year time served, which could make him eligible for release before long.

Some asshole spray painted swastikas onto a popular Natick, Massachusetts bike path.

New York Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani says he’ll move forward with bike projects current mayor and independent candidate Eric Adams cancelled — including finishing the work on McGinness Ave that a key Adams aide is a accused of accepting bribes to halt.

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources is considering a proposal to allow ped-assist ebikes on state trails.

This is the cost of traffic violence, part two. Georgia bicyclists are in mourning after well-known bicycle attorney and advocate Ken Rosskopf was killed when he was struck by a driver while making a turn on his bike; the 85-year old Rosskopf was described as a legend in the community by his son, pro cyclist Joey Rosskopf.

 

International

Toronto is cracking down on scofflaw ebike and e-scooter users for the next three weeks.

Bicyclists in Killarney, Ireland say hell yes they ride in the roadway, because it’s safer than the new two-way bike path running next to it.

Korean bike paths along rivers and forest trails will now be given road names to help identify them on maps and eliminate confusion.

Apparently Korea is a decade or so behind the times, as the popularity of brakeless fixies is reportedly surging among teens in the country, despite vows from police to crack down on them.

An Aussie cop is on trial for killing a 16-year old indigenous boy suspected of stealing a mountain bike, after parking an unmarked patrol car across a bike trail, in effect creating an illegal road block and sending the boy flying over his car.

 

Competitive Cycling

It’s happened yet again. Vuelta leader Jonas Vingegaard was able to make it to the starting line for yesterday’s stage three, even though thieves broke into the team mechanics’ truck, taking 18 bikes worth half a million dollars. Although you’d think previous similar thefts would have been enough to put a guard on the damn things. 

Despite the theft, Vingegaard was still able to finish third behind stage winner David Gaudu and second place Mads Pedersen; Vingegaard held onto the red leader’s jersey, even though Gaudu closed the gap to move into a tie with him.

Vingegaard’s teammate Axel Zingle was forced to abandon the Vuelta a day after twice dislocating his shoulder, and someone making off with his bike while he got treatment.

 

Finally…

Doesn’t everyone ride a bike with an $80,000 Hermès bag? That feeling when you decide to ride your bike to grandma’s house — over 11,000 miles away on another continent.

And repeat after me — when you’re riding your bike at one in the morning, with over a half ounce of meth, put a damn light on it, already.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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