Archive for Morning Links

Mass teen rideout leads to violence as man shot in Baldwin Park confrontation; Glendale hosts open streets Saturday

May 27, 2025 / / One comment
Day 147 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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A mass rideout of teens and young adults on bicycles has once again led to violence in Southern California.

But this time, one of the riders was the victim.

According to Baldwin Park News, an adult man was shot following a brief confrontation in the middle of an intersection, during a ride involving hundreds of bicyclists.

The incident came around 2:45 Saturday afternoon, at Main Ave and Olive Street in Baldwin Park.

The man was riding his bike when he was confronted by an unknown person, who pulled out a gun and fired moments later, striking the victim in the lower body. He’s reportedly in stable condition with a single gunshot wound.

There’s no word on what may have led to the confrontation or why it escalated to violence, although it’s not unusual for motorists to become enraged by bike riders taking over the entire roadway or performing stunts as they ride.

There’s also no description of the suspect, or whether the shooter was in a motor vehicle.

This shooting comes after at least three other rideouts have led to violence on the streets of Los Angeles. However, in each of those cases, it was the people on bicycles who attacked drivers and cars after confrontations with motorists.

A 16-year old boy was also allegedly murdered by a motorist accused of intentionally crashing into him after an argument during a rideout near BMO stadium last November, following the victim into a parking lot to run him down.

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Glendale will host an open streets event on Saturday.

https://twitter.com/heybikela/status/1927059765533818886

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

No bias here. The New York Times explores why the city’s drivers get off with a simple traffic ticket, while scofflaw bike riders end up in criminal court, even though people in cars are far more likely to kill someone.

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Local 

No news is good news, right?

 

State

Nearly 200 Chula Vista kids got new bikes, courtesy of the city’s Rotary Club.

Hats off to a Palm Desert couple who parked their car and sprang into action when an ebike rider suffered a “significant” head wound after losing control and falling into the street, working to stop his bleeding before paramedics arrived.

It takes a real schmuck to flee the scene after running down a six-year old San Francisco girl riding a bicycle and her mother; fortunately, their injuries aren’t thought to be life-threatening.

A San Francisco website asks if Davis, home to the nation’s first bike lane, is still the state’s bicycling capital, even if local residents don’t ride as often as they used to.

 

National

The Trump administration wants to ban your bike from federal property under a new proposal from the Department of Homeland Security would “prohibit the unauthorized use, operation, parking, locking, or storage” of bicycles and scooters on federal property. Because evidently, we’re much more dangerous and disruptive than those people in the big, dangerous machines.

A motorsports website considers what urban bike riders can learn from NASCAR safety protocols, arguing that a bike helmet, preparation, and riding defensively are key to getting back home in one piece.

I want to be like him when I grow up. Two years after he set a record as the oldest person to ride a bike across the US, an 80-year old man with Parkinsons is doing it again, this time riding from south to north along the route of the Underground Railroad.

A Dallas, Texas man was lucky to survive after becoming just the lated victim of a police chase, when a man being pursued by the cops slammed into the back of his bicycle as he rode with a group along the side of a highway — then was carried more than a mile on the hood of the driver’s car until another crash threw him off.

Hats off to the Tallahassee teenager who built a mountain bike repair station on a popular trail as his Eagle Scout project.

 

International

Bike Radar considers what not to do that could ruin your next ride to work.

Maybe they’re out to get us. A Vancouver, British Columbia man was killed when a deer crashed into him as he rode his bike down a steep hill; meanwhile, a Swiss woman died after hitting a cat on her ebike.

Apparently, it takes more than an hour to get an unlocked bike stolen in a busy crime-ridden London neighborhood.

BBC reporter Anna Holligan says her whole world has gotten smaller and slower, after thieves in the Netherlands stole the cargo bike she used for news reports from the bike path.

A writer for Travel + Leisure says a bicycling safari is the best way to see wildlife in Africa’s Kalahari Desert.

An Aussie city installs a traffic light giving bicyclist a head start before drivers get a green. And of course the people on two wheels love it, and the ones on four, not so much.

 

Competitive Cycling

Kristen Faulkner out-sprinted Lauren Stephens and Katherine Sarkisov to repeat as the US elite road cycling national champ.

Quinn Simmons won the men’s elite road race with a solo breakaway, finishing nearly three-minutes ahead of second place Evan Boyle, with Gavin Hlady winning a mass sprint for third, another two-and-a-half minutes back; it was Quinn’s second national title after winning in 2023.

The U-23 road cycling titles were won by Ella Sabo on the women’s side, and the aforementioned Gavin Hlady for the men.

US cycling legend Bobby Julich said winning the national championship the ultimate honor of his cycling career.

Twenty-one-year old rising Mexican cycling star Isaac Del Toro finished a very unexpected full week in the Giro’s pink leader’s jersey.

Mathieu van der Poel’s preparations for the Tour de France got more complicated when he broke his wrist in a mountain bike race in the Czech Republic over the weekend.

Speaking of the Tour de France, cycling stars Wout van Aert, Remco Evenepoel and Jonas Vingegaard have blasted plans to have the Tour end on Paris’ Montmartre climb, saying the hilly, curving course that worked for the recent Olympics would lead to chaos, putting riders and fans at risk.

Red Bull profiles 28-year old Colombian cyclist Dani Martínez, calling him the complete package after finishing 2nd in last year’s Giro in just his send year with the Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe team.

Road.cc tells “the amazing story of Wong Kam-po, the cycling king of Hong Kong,” who won the world championships, beat future winners of the Tour de France, and was called the world’s best non-pro bike racer.

 

Finally…

When you’re under the influence and driving with coke and weed in your car, maybe stick to the road and not the bike path. That feeling when a pair of bikeways make the list of 50 stupidly dangerous designs that defy logic.

And a man riding in Yellowstone was lucky he didn’t find out how it feels to get buffaloed. Or bisoned.

Or whatever.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: ,

Cheating alleged in Lyft’s Metro Bike bid, questioning rescue of Georgia bikepacker, and PCH study comments extended

May 23, 2025 / / Comments Off on Cheating alleged in Lyft’s Metro Bike bid, questioning rescue of Georgia bikepacker, and PCH study comments extended
Day 143 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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My apologies to everyone who found an unfinished — or unstarted, for that matter — draft of today’s post in your inbox. 

And yes, spellcheck, unstarted is a real word.

But’s that’s what happens when have too many windows open on your screen, and inadvertently hit the “publish” button when you try to click on one.

Not for the first time, I might add. 

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Now that we have that out of the way —

Today is the unofficial start of the three-day holiday weekend. Which means lots of people leaving work early, and not paying attention to anything but where they wish they already were right now.

Like bikes, for instance.

And long weekends mean parties and barbecues — and a lot of drinking and other forms of imbibing.

So ride defensively all weekend, and assume every driver you see is under the influence of something. Because more than a few probably will be.

I just want to see you back here safe and sound on Tuesday.

And try to take a few moments to remember what this holiday is all about, anyway.

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Raise your hand if you’d be shocked to learn there may have been cheating in awarding the new Metro Bike contract.

Hello? Anyone?

Is this thing on?

Streetsblog reports Metro directors delayed what was expected to be a pro forma vote to award Lyft the contract to operate the city’s docked bikeshare program yesterday — despite a unanimous vote by the Metro Operations Committee to advance the contract.

And after two previous botched attempts at awarding the contract.

But according to LA Public Press, the vote was pulled after allegations were raised that Lyft had inside information giving them an unfair advantage, in violation of Los Angeles ethics rules.

And yes, we have ethics rules, as hard as it is to believe at times.

Anne Marie Drolet, a bike mechanic and shop steward with the bike share union Transportation Workers Union Local 320, told LA Public Press that the allegations, if proven, should disqualify Lyft from the bidding process.

“Lyft’s bid once again seems very unfair, like they’re getting a leg up,” Drolet said. “One of their subcontractors helped write the [request for proposals]. I think it’s ridiculous [Lyft is] still in the running.”

Alta Planning + Design, a transportation design company founded in 1996 with offices in the U.S. and Canada, did not respond to a request for comment Thursday. Metro has previously hired the company to do things like design transportation plans that capture the highest number of riders at transit stations.

LA Public Press also reports that Metro was on the cusp of making the change despite limited cost savings that amount to a rounding error in the massive Metro budget.

Lyft’s proposal claims it can cut costs, build new docking stations, add more e-bikes to the fleet, and develop a new bike share app.

But Metro documents show Lyft’s current proposal offers minimal cost savings. The company said it can operate bike share for $198 million, while BTS says it can operate the program for $202 million.

Opponents of the company’s bid have also pointed out current CEO David Risher’s comments that the company’s takeover of bike share programs is part of a push to get more people using Lyft for ride-hailing.

It’s possible — likely, in fact — that the allegations are an effort by current program operator BTS and unionized Metro Bike mechanics to derail the shift in management.

But that doesn’t mean it’s not true.

And even if it’s not, is it worth risking the bikeshare program as the city prepares to host the World Cup and ’28 Olympics by shifting to a company which has had a spotty record in other cities?

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It’s been a little more than a week since the “miraculous” rescue of Georgia bikepacker Tiffany Slaton after she got lost in the mountains above Fresno, surviving three weeks on wild leeks and melted snow.

But apparently, not everyone believe her story.

According to the Los Angeles Times,

(Fresno County Sheriff spokesperson Tony) Botti defended Slaton, saying that the woman didn’t report herself missing and “there is no evidence to show she knew we were searching for her.”

Fresno County Sheriff John Zanoni called Slaton’s journey “an incredible story of perseverance, determination and survival” saying it is “something that you may see on TV that they would make movies about.”

On the other hand, a Redditor had this to say.

“I’m glad to see that other people don’t believe this story. So many things don’t add up, I hope this office investigates fully since resources were used,” a person wrote on the sheriff’s office’s Facebook. “It’s embarrassing to think people believe someone fell off a cliff, survived 2 hours unconscious (guess she was timing it), popped her knee back into place, and traveled 20 miles after splinting her leg.”

Even the experts had questions. Experienced Sierra mountain guide Howie Schwartz didn’t doubt Slaton was lost.

But,

“It doesn’t seem like a story you can really wrap your head around,” Schwartz told The Times. “Falling off a cliff, having to splint her leg. You don’t splint your leg unless your leg is broken and if your leg is broken, you’re not walking miles on it.”

Never mind the Redditors who said she was probably crazy, embellished her story, or looking for a book deal or crowdfunding cash.

Which probably explains why her parents shut their crowdfunding page down. But not until it had raised over $23,000.

Then again, those same doubts also popped up in my own Twitter/X feed.

So what’s the answer? Don’t ask me.

Her story does seem kind of incredible. But the best stories usually are.

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Caltrans uses a lot more words than necessary to say they’re giving you more time to comment on the PCH Master Plan Feasibility Study.

Maybe they had to use them all before the weekend.

ADDENDUM ADDED TO THE PCH MASTER PLAN FEASIBILITY STUDY AND EXTENSION OF THE COMMENT PERIOD

The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) is pleased to announce that an addendum has been added to the PCH Master Plan Feasibility Study. The addendum, described in Section 7, Project Prioritization/Phasing of the Draft Study, consists of a qualitative evaluation matrix assessing the Study’s recommendations for alignment with the Study’s goals as well as statutory mandates and guidelines related to long-range corridor planning. By demonstrating alignment with mandates and guidelines related to corridor management, the Study is better positioned for additional funding opportunities to support the implementation of its recommendations. The results of the evaluation matrix can be found in Appendix E: Evaluation Matrix.

To ensure the public and stakeholders have time to review the update, the comment period has been extended from June 9, 2025, to June 16, 2025. The updated Draft Study can be viewed here.

Caltrans invites members of the public, stakeholders, and any interested individuals to review the Draft Study and leave your thoughts in the comment box provided here or via email to 07-pchmpfs@publicinput.com. When providing comments via email, please include the relevant section title, page number, figure, or table number when applicable to help us accurately locate the part of the document you’re commenting on.

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Streets For All shares video of their virtual happy hour with LA City Attorney candidate Marissa Roy.

I never know how much to tip my virtual bartender. Or a Waymo driver, for that matter.

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Streets Are For Everyone, aka SAFE, posts video of the recent die-in on the steps of City Hall.

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Active SGV hosts free two-hour ebike rentals this weekend.

https://twitter.com/ActiveSGV/status/1925644608425410632

Here’s the link if Elon is still screwing up proper embedding of Twitter/X posts.

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Of course a bicyclist who used to be a driver would have no idea what a traffic light is. Especially when it comes to right turns.

Or left.

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

Tres shock! New York’s police commissioner says her cops are only targeting reckless ebike riders for six offenses along 14 key corridors; Streetsblog says it ain’t necessarily so.

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Local 

Streetsblog’s Sahra Sulaiman reports on the celebratory grand opening of the “transformative” Rail-to-Rail bike/walk path in South LA.

Long Beach is launching a 12-month pilot program allowing both private and shared e-scooters along the shoreline bike and pedestrian path.

 

State

Palm Springs bike riders demanded action on safety improvements while honoring fallen bicyclists at Wednesday’s Ride of Silence.

The Santa Barbara Independent says the city’s bicycling rates are inching up while bicycling injuries climb, making both bike and Vision Zero goals “distant.”

 

National

A magazine for lawyers examines the legal challenges facing bike riders injured by distracted and/or reckless drivers. Best advice, document everything and find a good lawyer to walk through your options. Like one of those guys over there on the right. 

The Independent lists eight American cities that are surprising great for bicycling. Seven of which actually are. And yes, I’m looking at you, Houston.

The Today Show highlights a dad going viral for his daily bike rides with his seven-year old daughter.

Nice. Washington Governor Bob Ferguson signed the nation’s first law permitting shared streets, with a 10 mph speed limit and strict rules requiring people on bicycles to yield to pedestrians, and drivers to yield to bike riders. Which is how it should be, anyway. 

Salt Lake City is pulling the plug on its ebike incentive program after funding nearly 300 vouchers last year, citing a flat budget for the coming year. But wouldn’t a flat budget mean they could fund everything they did the previous year?

An Idaho dancer says ballet is just like riding a bike. And he should know, since he rides a bike to stay in shape for ballet, mentally and physically.

Damn. A Texas jury gave the parents of an eight-year old bike-riding boy killed by a young man driving a family business truck just at tad more than the $1.1 million they were asking for, awarding them a whopping $80 million. Let’s hope that’s a very valuable family business they’ve got there.  

Your next bike parts could come from a Topeka vending machine. Which wouldn’t be the first thing I’ve bought from a vending machine in Topeka.

 

International

Seriously? London emergency rooms are supposedly buckling because of a surge in demand due to “Lime bike leg,” caused by people trapped by the weight of collapsing ebikes that are “around four times heavier than regular cycles,” while a surgeon warns of “life-threatening injuries.” Call it the modern equivalent of bicycle face.

We know a guy on a bike can beat a someone in a car, but can a London bike rider beat another guy riding the Tube across one of the world’s busiest cities? Would I be writing this if he couldn’t?

A 2,000-mile circular relay ride will connect all 42 Anglican cathedrals in the UK. Or as they call them over there, cathedrals.

A British bike club is proving that age is no barrier to learning how to ride a bike.

 

Competitive Cycling

Your new US national time trial champs are Emily Ehrlich and Artem Schmidt.

Mexico’s Isaac del Torro continues to lead the Giro, as Olav Kooij of the Netherlands won a mass sprint Thursday with a leadout from Wout van Aert. Meanwhile, a reader named Steven points out that del Torro’s name translates to “laughter of the bull,” which seems oddly appropriate.

A Utah newspaper profiles 23-year old Utah native Natalie Quinn as she fights to rise in women’s cycling — without getting paid, after joining American team Cynisca Cycling midseason when the British team she was on folded. Which pretty much sums up the problems with the current state of women’s cycling.

Kenyan cycling coach Evan Wangai discusses his journey from boda boda driver to pro cyclist.

 

Finally…

Why line the bike lane with ugly yellow posts when you can have recycled red plastic tulips? Always use a bicycle as a getaway vehicle for your baby gator heists.

And who needs lube when you’ve got…sand.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Colorado solves hit-and-runs while LAPD keeps public in dark, and CARB pinky swears they’re really ready this time

May 22, 2025 / / Comments Off on Colorado solves hit-and-runs while LAPD keeps public in dark, and CARB pinky swears they’re really ready this time
Day 142 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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Funny how that works.

Just one day after the Colorado Highway Patrol asked for the public’s help finding the hit-and-run driver who killed a man riding a bicycle outside Boulder, a suspect was arrested.

Imagine that.

Denver, Colorado developed the hit-and-run alert system, later adopted by the state, that the ones in Los Angeles and California are patterned on.

The difference is, they actually use them. We don’t.

Which might be why the CHP solves nearly two-thirds of felony hit-and-run cases in the state. No, the other CHP, in Colorado.

In California, that number is about 20%, while in Los Angeles, it’s less than 10%.

But here’s a crazy idea.

Maybe those numbers would go up if they didn’t wait weeks, or months — or never — to even let the public know there was a hit-and-run, let alone ask for our help solving it. Never mind actually use the hit-and-run alert systems we fought so hard to give them.

The City of Los Angeles also offers an automatic $50,000 reward for information that helps the cops solve a fatal hit-and-run, with rewards ranging up to $25,000 for less severe crashes. But no one stands a chance of collecting if we don’t even know about it.

And maybe that’s the idea, trying to save the severely over-strapped city a few bucks so the cops can buy more helicopters.

They should be ashamed.

Or maybe sued.

Image by Alexas_Fotos from Pixabay.

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The California Air Resources Board promises that the state’s ebike voucher program is really, honest-to-gosh ready for the anticipated demand this time, after two mostly failed attempts.

Pinky swear.

Then again, they’ve only had two attempts. And you know what they say about the third time.

The first distributed somewhere around 1,500 vouchers, but deliberately throttling the applications left more than 100,000 frustrated and angry Californians waiting at the gates, blocked from even getting a chance to apply.

The second attempt was even worse, when the system crashed as soon as it opened as potential applicants once again exceeded the system’s limited capacity, and the whole damn thing was shut down with just minutes remaining in the application window, frustrating the lucky few who had somehow managed to get in.

Myself included.

The Los Angeles Times quotes CARB spokesperson Lisa Macumber defending the total clown show, citing the heavy demand.

“As a result, automatic security measures were activated and the website operated and controlled by California Air Resources Board’s third party administrator Pedal Ahead was temporarily unavailable,” said Lisa Macumber, spokesperson for the state agency.

The technology is never 100% certain and it could have happened under any administrator running a program like this, Macumber said.

Sure it could.

But here’s a thought. If each teeny, tiny application window has more than 150,000 presumably qualified people desperately trying to somehow squeeze themselves in, maybe offer more than a few thousand measly vouchers at a time, and give us a much larger window to get those applications in.

And if that many people are willing to suffer this much indignation just for a chance to get a voucher, maybe go back to the state and ask for enough money to actually meet the damn demand.

But have no fear.

Macumber promises they’ll be ready this time.

No, really.

“It’s like getting tickets to a Taylor Swift concert, it can be really hard to get through the technology, and then at the end of the day, find out whether or not you’re successful,” she said. “So we really understand the frustration.”

The agency has rescheduled the second application window for May 29 and says this time it’s ready for droves of prospective applicants.

To ensure they don’t have the same problems this time, they’ve hired the same people who failed so badly last time to do it again, hoping for different results.

And you know what they call that.

So get your documents ready. Mark your calendar for 6 pm on May 29th.

And keep your fingers crossed.

No, all of them.

You can read the Times story on Yahoo if the paper’s paywall shuts you out.

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About damn time.

CD13 Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez introduced a motion to explore using cameras to catch drivers who block bike lanes, starting with a pilot on Hollywood Blvd.

This follows a successful test in Santa Monica, where automated cams captured 1,700 violations in six weeks.

Which, based on my own observations, suggests they weren’t trying very hard.

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Thanks to our old friend Megan Lynch for forwarding this TV news story highlighting a San Francisco bike center as a “pillar of the community” for fixing bikes for free to get people riding.

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

A San Diego letter writer complains about the new traffic configuration at the city’s Balboa Park, warning that one lane for buses, a lane for bicycles, and a single lane for cars causes traffic to back up on busy weekends, calling it “another problem dreamed up by the city traffic engineers.” Apparently, it’s never occurred to him to use one of those other lanes by taking the bus. Or maybe even riding a bike. Because it’s a damn park, already. 

No bias here. London’s Telegraph says new safety data shows that bike advocates are wrong about cars being a bigger problem in the city’s parks, even though the data actually highlights the dangers of serious injuries caused by cars and the people in them.

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

London is now filing criminal charges and imposing fines equivalent to more than $500 for bicycling violations like running red lights and blowing through crosswalks.

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Local 

Luxury Travel Magazine examines why Los Angeles is the best last-minute summer vacation spot. Because all the other cities were already booked?

Beverly Hills police will conduct a bicycle and pedestrian safety operation today, targeting violations that could put either group at risk, regardless of who commits them. So once again, ride to the letter of the law until you pass the city limits sign today, so you don’t celebrate bike month by getting a ticket. 

 

State

Out Sports talks with openly gay pro skier and Olympic medalist Gus Kenworthy about why he’s taking part in the final San Francisco to LA AIDS/LifeCycle Ride next month.

Huntington Beach police and the OC Sheriff’s Department will host a free ebike training session at a Huntington Beach middle school on the last day of the month.

Sad news from Tulare County, where a man was killed when a driver rear-ended the bicycle he was riding; unsurprisingly, the driver was uninjured.

San Francisco “activists” called on the city to recommit to Vision Zero, after six pedestrians have been killed there already this year. Los Angeles officials can’t recommit to Vision Zero, because they never committed to it in the first place. And maybe those “activists” are just people who don’t want to get killed crossing the street.

 

National

Former Calbike chief Dave Snyder assures bike advocates we’re doing the right thing, saying local bike advocacy is good resistance. So make like Andor, and join the rebellion, already. 

No surprise here. In a survey of how 75,000 Seattle commuters actually feel about how they get to work, bike commuting came out on top by a wide margin.

Police in Greeley, Colorado are looking for the ebike-riding asshole who shot a dog last month. But at least the dog survived, even if the person’s last remaining shred of human decency didn’t.

BLM — no, the Bureau of Land Management — will determine whether ebikes are allowed on federal trails in western Colorado, after 64% expressed an interest in using them in a recent survey.

Bicycling crashes in Wisconsin were up nearly 25% over a five-year average last year. It would be nice if someone, anyone, could tell us how many there were in California last year. But keeping actual running stats on traffic deaths would just be too much work, apparently. 

 

International

The leaders of many of the top bikeshare providers called on cities to “move beyond pilot thinking and treat shared bicycles as a permanent, integrated part of the public transport system,” arguing that it’s not an optional add-on or a “climate gadget.”

Once again, a man was killed after a fight over a bicycle. A 34-year old man in Middlesborough, England was convicted of murder for fatally stabbing a man who had borrowed his bike to ride to a pub for a drink. Yet another reminder that no bicycle is worth a human life. Seriously, just let it go.

The “best sommelier in Catalonia, Spain” recommends her favorite route for a meditative bike ride through the region’s Llémena Valley.

 

Competitive Cycling

Cycling Weekly examines the journeys of five champion paracyclists, from initial injury or disability to victory.

 

Finally…

If you find a small snake lying in the bike path, just leave him the hell alone, already. That feeling when that cute little Norwegian e-pedalcar company goes belly-up before you even get a chance to buy one.

And that feeling when you can finally get the 12-foot high banana seat bike of your childhood dreams.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

CA legislature making bike-unfriendly sausage, and bike riders deserve more than bare minimum — but usually get it

May 21, 2025 / / Comments Off on CA legislature making bike-unfriendly sausage, and bike riders deserve more than bare minimum — but usually get it
Day 141 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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The California legislature continues to make the sausage this year.

Or maybe not.

Momentum says California remains on-track for a “game-changing” new bike highways program.

Ventura Assemblymember Steve Bennett’s AB 954 would create a Caltrans pilot program in two parts of the state, instructing the agency to connect existing bikeways into bicycle highways.

If it passes, that is. Which is a big “if” right now, since it remains in the Appropriation Committee’s Suspense File.

Unfortunately, there’s no suspense about what happens if it doesn’t get out. Calbike has a quick email format to urge the committee chair to bring it up for a vote before it dies for this year.

Meanwhile, Calbike put out an urgent call to help get the Quick-Build Project Pilot Program out of committee before Friday, when it must either advance or die for the year.

Santa Monica Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur’s AB 891 instructs Caltrans to develop quick-build bike lane and intersection projects on state roadways to improve safety for people walking and on bicycles.

If it’s passed into law, Zbur’s bill would require that Caltrans speed up its glacial planning process, which can easily take years from inception to construction, no matter how desperately it’s needed.

Case in point, PCH, where we’re just now seeing a draft of possible improvements.

And possible improvements have never saved a single life.

Photo by Ján Števonka from Pixabay.

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He gets it.

Responding to the Boulder County, Colorado hit-and-run we mentioned yesterday, Velo’s Alvin Holbrook quotes The White Line Foundation in stressing that bicycling deaths are preventable.

Then he goes on to add,

Still, cyclists doing everything right can still be hit by a car. Reflective gear isn’t enough to prevent cyclists from being hit by cars, either.

Bike lanes are proven to make streets safer for everyone, and ensuring cyclists have proper infrastructure that protects them is the bare minimum.

Problem is, that’s exactly what too many places do, Los Angeles included.

The bare minimum.

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The annual Ride of Silence to remember fallen bicyclists will roll tonight, with local rides at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena (scroll down) and in Koreatown.

You can find other locations on the Ride of Silence website, though not every ride leader registers with the site, so there may be other rides in your area.

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Streets For All is hosting their monthly virtual happy hour tonight, with City Attorney candidate Marissa Roy.

Personally, I’m voting for ABHFS — anyone but current LA CA Hydee Feldstein Soto.

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

Despite pleading poverty, San Francisco wasted no time in ripping out DIY neighborhood-installed safety improvements along the city’s popular Wiggle bike route, including benches, bike racks and planters installed less than a month ago.

Hats off to New York Councilwoman Inna Vernikov, who is doing her best to keep the streets of Brooklyn deadly by personally blocking new bike lanes in the borough, despite the high rate of bicyclists killed or seriously injured in the district.

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

Sad news from the UK, where a man in his 60s died over a month after he was struck by an ebike rider after stepping out from in front of a bus while crossing the street.

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Local 

He gets it. Colin Bogart, Active Transportation Director at Pasadena nonprofit Day One, says if you saw an ebike going any faster than 28 mph, it’s not an ebike — even if it had pedals.

You’re invited to celebrate the grand opening of Long Beach’s Artesia Great Boulevard Project on the last day of this month, featuring “family-friendly activities, a ceremonial ribbon cutting and a community bike ride.” Although you wouldn’t think they’d make it so hard to find the damn date. 

Streetsblog examines the new sidewalk-level curb-protected bike lanes on Long Beach Blvd in the eponymously named city.

 

State

Newport Beach gave the boot to bicycles, ebikes, pedicabs and motorized bikes from the sand on the beach, as well as any other assorted bikes, boards and scooters.

New protected bike lanes in Vista are just the latest to cause controversy in San Diego County, where the media seems to search high and low for people hating on any new bicycling improvements.

Bakersfield’s triathlete-favorite Finish Line bike shop is just the latest in the state to go belly-up.

Both a sidewalk memorial and a crowdfunding page are growing for the Santa Barbara man killed by an alleged drunk driver while riding his ebike home from work Sunday night; 29-year old Joel Gonzalez leaves behind a nine-year old daughter.

Showing an unusual degree of spine, Caltrans put its foot down and is adamant that new protected bike lanes will remain part of the repaving project for the Bay Area’s Tiburon Blvd, despite predictable opposition from the Belvedere city council.

Sad news from Sacramento, where a 76-year old man died in the hospital, eight days after he was struck by a heartless, cowardly hit-and-run driver while riding his bike; a 29-year old suspect was booked and released following the crash.

 

National

The famed Mayo Clinic offers moderately useful tips on how to avoid injuries on your bike, including all-time favorites like wear a helmet and don’t fall off.

US Senate Republicans are prepared to ignore the chamber’s parliamentarian to overturn waivers granted to California by the EPA, which enable the state to regulate emissions and fuel efficiency for gas-powered cars, and could cause chaos for carmakers if they were cancelled.

A Chattanooga, Tennessee man faces attempted murder charges after he came to a woman’s apartment to return her bicycle, then stabbed her in the chest, palm and thigh when he refused to leave.

 

International

Sarah Ruggins, a Canadian woman living in England, succeeded in her attempt to set a new record for biking up and down the full length of the UK, riding 1,677 miles from John O’Groats to Land’s End and back in five days, 11 hours and 14 minutes, despite suffering from a rare neurological disorder that left her unable to walk as a teen.

Anyone know good lawyer in the UK? A British doctor reportedly gave “false, outdated and misleading” information to a colleague just days before a 13-year-old girl died of sepsis, more than a month after the girl fell off her bike, injuring her pancreas.

Heartbreaking news from Palestine, where a beloved member of the Gaza Sunbirds paracycling team was killed in an Israeli strike on Khan Younis, ten years after losing his leg in another Israeli bombing.

 

Competitive Cycling

Mexico’s Isaac del Toro spent a second day in the pink Giro leader’s jersey, as Dutch cyclist Daan Hoole upset overwhelming favorite Josh Tarling to win the stage 10 time trial. Something tells me I’ll smile just as big every other day del Toro leads the race, too.

The Tour de France’s final stage ascent of Paris’ famed Montmartre promises plenty of spectacle, if nothing else.

Watch the elite classes of this year’s 2025 Unbound Gravel for free on the Life Time Grand Prix YouTube channel.

 

Finally…

That feeling when Wired rates bike helmets, which is kinda like Bicycling rating rack servers. Or when you set off on a fundraising ride around the world with only the most essential gear — like your pickleball paddle.

And how to ride a bike with your dogs — and how not to.

I tried to ride a bike with our corgi, but her feet didn’t reach the stoker’s pedals.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Missing bikepacker found safe, guilty verdict in meth-fueled death of 12-year old OC boy, and letter demands action on HLA

May 20, 2025 / / Comments Off on Missing bikepacker found safe, guilty verdict in meth-fueled death of 12-year old OC boy, and letter demands action on HLA
Day 140 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

My apologies for the extended absence. 

The problems I was having with low blood pressure last week cascaded into a crisis over the weekend I was lucky to weather without ending up in the ER.

Although I probably should have, according to my wife, anyway. 

I have no problem accepting my mortality, given that, as a diabetic in my late 60s, I have a life expectancy somewhere between a fruit fly and a green banana. 

And I accept that I may never ride my road bike again. Or maybe any bike, for that matter. 

But I worry about what happens to this site when the day finally comes that I can’t do it anymore. 

In the meantime, I’ll do my best to keep things going on a regular basis. Or often as my aging body lets me, anyway.

So let’s get back to it. 

………

Let’s start with some good news.

The Georgia woman who had been missing in the rugged California mountains for three weeks was found safe.

Twenty-two-year old Tiffany Slaton disappeared while on an bikepacking trip above Fresno, after she was last seen stopping at a general store.

She was found when the owner of a mountain resort that had been closed for the winter went to get it ready to open, and found her hunkered down inside surviving on wild leeks and boiled snow.

She had lost most of her belongings, abandoning her ebike at a trailhead, and surviving 13 snowstorms in the process.

She had also lost ten pounds.

But she was safe and alive, and soon reunited with her parents, who were stunned and overjoyed by the news.

Photo by Gantas Vaičiulėnas from Pexels.

………

Guilty.

An Orange County jury found 64-year old Richard David Lavalle guilty of 2nd degree murder for the meth-fueled death of a 12-year old bike rider.

The Long Beach man was convicted of killing Noel Bascomb as he was riding a bicycle with his father in a Costa Mesa crosswalk in December, 2020.

The boy’s father was forced to watch the crash that killed his son, screaming for Lavalle to stop his pickup before crushing Noel’s bicycle, and catapulting the boy roughly 120 feet through the air.

Police founds drugs in Lavalle’s truck, and he was unable to stand on one foot for a field sobriety test following the crash; a blood test found meth in his blood hours after the crash.

Although his wife, who was riding in the passenger seat, tried to claim the drugs were hers.

Lavalle had previously been convicted driving under the influence in San Diego County, which allowed prosecutors to upgrade the charge from manslaughter to murder.

………

No surprise here.

Streets For All, the original sponsor of Measure HLA, took a look at the the status of HLA projects that the city reports on the official HLA website, and find it, well, lacking.

Tres shock!

They responded with a letter calling the city out for its failure, and urging it to work with them going forward.

Speaking of HLA, Streets For All urges you to support a version of the law in LA County tomorrow at the virtual meeting of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Community Services Cluster.

……….

Nice to see Los Angeles recognized for something good for a change, as CNN makes the case for why Griffith Park may be the country’s greatest city park.

At 4,210 acres, Griffith outshines other extraordinary city parks of the US, such as San Francisco’s Golden Gate, which barely tops 1,000 acres, and New York’s Central Park, a mere 843 acres. Griffith’s peaks tower above those flat competitors too, with nearly 1,500 feet in elevation gain, making it practically vertical in orientation. And LA’s crown jewel of a park is still largely uncut, much of it remaining a wilderness area preserved more than 100 years ago, and barely developed, unlike the pre-planned “wild” designs of Golden Gate and Central Park.

Add its history, views, recreation opportunities, unique and hidden spaces, a free Art Deco observatory and museum, the most famous sign in America and the park’s overall star-power, and you have a compelling case that Griffith is not just epic in scope but the greatest city park in the nation.

There’s something for everyone there: a zoo, playgrounds and an old-timey trainyard for the kids; challenging and steep trails for hikers; dirt paths for equestrians; paved roads for bikers; diverse flora and fauna for nature enthusiasts; and museums for the science and history learners.

Take that, New York.

……….

Gravel Bike California makes a run for the border by riding the Taco Bell Century with Grizzly Cycles.

………

Cate Blanchett is one of us.

Seriously. What could beat Blanchett on a bike?

Cate Blanchett having the time of her life, as captured by photographer Annie Leibovitz.#BicycleBirthday Cate BlanchettBorn May 14, 1969

— Cool Bike Art (@coolbikeart1.bsky.social) 2025-05-14T20:01:24.143Z

………

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

No bias here. A British paper says the only surprising thing about a London pedestrian being killed by an ebike rider earlier this year is that there aren’t more cases like it. Which is a pretty good indication that it’s not as big a problem as they’re trying to make it out to be. 

An 18-year old New Zealand man was charged with assault with a deadly weapon after throwing a bottle at from the SUV he was riding in, striking participants in a local bike race — including an 11-year old cyclist.

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

The notoriously anti-bike New York Post writes that the city must stop treating bicyclists like a special class, for everyone’s safety. Because it’s not treating bike riders like a special class at all when the cops give scofflaw bicyclists criminal summonses that drivers aren’t subject to, apparently (see National news below).

………

Local 

Speed cams are finally coming to Los Angeles, with operations scheduled to begin by the middle of next year — if they can survive the usual public comment period.

LA officials officially unveiled the first 5.5-mile segment of the Rail-to-Rail Active Transportation Corridor multiuse path linking three Metro train lines through South LA.

Streetsblog’s Joe Linton offers photos and an open thread from Sunday’s Pico-Union CicLAmini.

Metro is holding a series of meetings to gather feedback on the Sepulveda Transit Corridor project, starting with a virtual meeting this Wednesday.

The West Hollywood Bicycle Coalition will host their annual WeHo Pride Ride on Sunday, June 1st.

The Pasadena Ride of Silence will roll at the Rose Bowl Wednesday evening to remember fallen bike riders; Palm Springs will hold one on Wednesday, too.

Caltrans unveiled their draft feasibility study for safety changes on the 21 miles of PCH through the ‘Bu; needless to say, commenters immediately complained about plans for protected bike lanes.

A Venice man relates his attack by a ranting man who shouted that “all bikes must be destroyed” while he was walking his bicycle on the Santa Monica Pomenade recently.

 

State

Streetsblog says “here we go again,” as the California Ebike Incentive Program gears-up for their next attempt at a second round of ebike incentives, after failing so badly at two previous attempts.

No surprise here, either. Calbike says the state has got its transportation spending priorities wrong, as Newsom’s revised budget calls for continued highway spending, but fails to restore funding for active transportation that was cut last year.

Streets Are For Everyone says red light cams work and calls for support for SB 720, which would update California’s red light camera programs and allow cities and counties to opt in. 

Encinitas held an open streets event this weekend, too.

No bias here, either. After the La Mesa council voted to build eight bike lane and sidewalk projects near the city’s schools, a San Diego TV station can only manage frame the story through the lens of the single councilmember who voted against it — then somehow says the city is divided.

Sad news from Santa Barbara, where a 36-year old woman faces multiple charges for killing an ebike rider — including gross vehicular manslaughter, DUI and driving without a license — yet somehow, police still managed to blame the victim for causing the crash.

 

National

A reporter for NPR says bike riding helps with long-term knee and health problems, even if like life, it doesn’t always make sense. True enough. Riding a bike helped keep my failing knee going for a couple decades after a surgeon told me it needed to be replaced. And hid my diabetes for at least that long.

Nevada’s attempt at a Stop As Yield bill died in the state legislature, victim of an arbitrary cutoff date.

Colorado authorities are asking for the public’s help finding a hit-and-run driver who killed a 41-year old man riding a bicycle in Boulder County on Sunday. Note that they asked for help right away, rather than waiting until the trail has run cold and people have forgotten key details, like the LAPD does.

In a story that hits a little too close to home, police still haven’t solved the fatal shooting of a 47-year old man riding a bicycle just 17 miles from my bike-friendly Colorado hometown.

A Manhattan Criminal Court judge gave scofflaw bike riders a good darn talking to on the first day of court for bicyclists given a criminal complaint by the NYPD, rather than a standard ticket for traffic violations; however, not everyone thinks that’s a good idea.

 

International

Bike Radar asks if the latest crop of ebikes have become too powerful, and could be harming the reputation of mountain biking.

You’ve got to be kidding. A British coroner ruled that the crash that killed a bicyclist was “unavoidable,” following testimony from the driver that the dark-clad victim “suddenly” appeared in front of her car after she “momentarily” looked down at her gear shift. Because a) bike riders don’t “suddenly” appear out of nowhere, and b) no crash is “unavoidable.”

An Irish writer says most of the complaints about Dublin bicyclists are actually people on bicycle-shaped objects, aka illegally modified mo-peds and electric motorbikes. Which is probably the case in California’s beach cities, too. 

How Paris became Europe’s best city for young bike riders.

Horrible news from Japan, where a 70-year old Osaka man jumped or fell from a high-rise condo, and landed on a man riding a bicycle in the street below; the victim was believed to be a 59-year old man from a city over 300 miles away.

Sad news from Australia, where 63-year old former pro wrestler Mike Raybeck, aka Maxx Justin and Mike Diamond, was killed in a collision while riding his bike home from work.

 

Competitive Cycling

Cycling Weekly looks at 21-year old Mexican cyclist Isaac del Toro, after the Baja California native became the first Mexican cyclist to wear the pink leader’s jersey in the Giro.

Nineteen-year old British cyclist Matthew Brennan is making waves on the WorldTour with seven wins in just 23 days.

Good question. A Colorado public radio station asks why bike racing has struggled to succeed in the state when it has such a strong bicycling culture. Although it’s not just Colorado; pro cycling has struggled everywhere in the US, as former fans of the Tour of California can attest.

Cycling Weekly looks at this week’s 2025 USA Cycling Road Nationals — starting with 15 paracycling titles awarded on day one.

 

Finally…

You know your locked bike was stripped when thieves even take your handlebar grips. How do you celebrate a Spanish soccer championship? With a bike ride, of course.

And are you at risk for kyphosis bicyclistarum, or bicyclist’s stoop?

Thanks to Steven Hallet for that last one.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Ebike-riding Vietnam vet run down in anti-Asian hate crime, and Aussie ex-pro Rohan Dennis walks in cyclist wife’s death

May 14, 2025 / / Comments Off on Ebike-riding Vietnam vet run down in anti-Asian hate crime, and Aussie ex-pro Rohan Dennis walks in cyclist wife’s death
Day 134 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

A Japanese American man was the victim of a racist attack while riding his ebike in Montebello last month.

According to the Los Angeles Times, 71-year old Aki Maehara, an Asian American history professor at East Los Angeles Community College and Vietnam vet, was run down from behind on April 29th in what appears to have been a targeted attack while riding his ebike on Merle Drive, near his Montebello home.

Before he was struck, he heard someone yell an expletive followed by a racial slur targeting people of Chinese descent, he said. He skidded across a yard and was stopped by a brick wall. Maehara said he heard a man’s voice: “Go back to…” using an expletive and a racial slur, before the car drove off.

“It sounded suspicious to me because I wear a full-face helmet … a helmet with a visor,” Maehara said. “No one can see my face. So how the hell did he know I’m Asian?”

Northwest Asian Weekly reports the driver called him a “fucking Chink!” and yelled, “Go back to Chink-land,” as Maehara lay on the ground after being struck.

He is currently confined to home after suffering serious elbow, neck, cheekbones, jaw, hips and lower back injuries as a result of the attack.

A crowdfunding campaign has raised a little more than half of the $35,000 goal to provide in-home care beyond the few hours provided by the VA each week.

No arrest has been made, though Maehara has provided police with the name of a suspect, saying he’s been targeted for harassment in the past for teaching the history of racism and racist beliefs.

Let’s hope they find this schmuck and lock ’em up for a long damn time.

Photo by Polina Tankilevitch from Pexels.

………

Life is cheap in Australia, where former pro cyclist Rohan Dennis walked without a day behind bars.

Dennis was given probation after pleading guilty to a pair of charges in the death of his wife, Olympic cyclist Melissa Hoskins, despite driving nearly the distance of a football field as she clung to the hood of his SUV, following an argument between the couple.

Hoskins was killed after attempting to open the passenger door, and slipping under the car’s wheels as he attempted to speed away.

Her benevolent parents did not push for jail time, saying it was time to move on for the good of the couple’s children.

………

Calbike will host a webinar on how slow streets can improve our communities on May 28th.

The Slow Streets movement wasn’t new when the pandemic hit in 2020. Berkeley had restricted traffic on neighborhood streets that became bike boulevards decades earlier. But the sudden demand for safe space to walk and bike when everyone was staying home fueled a surge in Slow Streets…

Many of the programs instituted by California cities at the height of the pandemic were temporary, taken down once life began to return to normal. But the experience of the freedom of Slow Streets left a lasting impression and a movement for spaces where kids can safely play in urban environments.

On Wednesday, May 28, 2025, at 10 am, CalBike will host a webinar on Slow Streets as part of our Summit Sessions 2025 series. Robin Pam, from KidSafeSF, and Shannon Hake from the San Francisco Metropolitan Transportation Agency (SFMTA) will share experiences from the advocacy and government agency sides of creating and implementing Slow Streets. And Justin Hu-Nguyen and Robert Prinz from Bike East Bay will talk about a Slow Streets pop-up that their bike coalition just did on one of the Berkeley streets that was a Slow Street during the pandemic.

Register to attend the webinar.

………

Two examples of how to tell when safety just isn’t a priority in Los Angeles.

Crosswalk request: "Too many cars run the stop signs. I've asked my city council field deputy for help and was told it will take YEARS to get a crosswalk due to sidewalk assessments, etc. Also told that there's no money in the budget."Two crosswalks marked at Sycamore & De Longpre in Hollywood.

— Crosswalk Collective LA (@crosswalksla.bsky.social) 2025-05-12T22:11:01.876Z

………

Finish the Ride is looking for volunteers for Griffith Park’s Finish the Run and Finish the Ride at the end of the month.

………

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

Somehow, drivers in Las Vegas have to be reminded not to use a tunnel meant for bike riders and pedestrians as a shortcut or free parking. And they say bike riders are entitled. 

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

A popular restaurant atop an iconic climb on the Spanish island of Mallorca was forced to put up a multilingual sign informing visiting bicyclists that it was not an open air toilet, and begging them not to pee on it.

………

Local 

She gets it. A Streetsblog op-ed from Alex Ramirez, Executive Director of Los Angeles Walks, says bikeshare should be treated like the public good it is, with public investment, strong labor standards, meaningful community partnerships, and deep respect for people with the fewest mobility options and the most to gain from a system that serves everyone.

Metro is expanding AI automated bus cam ticketing of drivers parked in bus lanes to buses on Olive and Grand in DTLA.

Pasadena is marking Thursday’s Bike to Work Day with a free pitstop offering coffee, snacks and surprise giveaways on the Garfield side of Pasadena City Hall. That’s Garfield as in the avenue, not the cat.

 

State

Former LACBC — now BikeLA — executive director and transportation social justice warrior Tamika Butler will be honored, deservedly, by the California Black Women’s Health Project this Sunday.

There’s still no sign of the 27-year old Georgia woman who disappeared on a bikepacking trip in Fresno County with her ebike and trailer, despite an intensive five-day search of the backcountry.

Sacramento public radio station CapRadio reports California faces a big decline in funding from the federal government as the Trump administration cancels infrastructure projects and attempts to claw back funding for projects approved under Biden.

 

National

Outside dreads a near future when all mountain bikes will come with batteries attached.

A San Diego writer and two friends took a one week, 200-mile “hut hopping” bikepacking tour through the most breathtaking part of Colorado and Utah.

I want to be like her when I grow up. An 81-year old Cape Cod woman is back on her bicycle after breaking her elbow in a fall last year.

New York’s embattled mayor is claiming credit, along with the city’s DOT commish, for doubling the amount of space available to bike riders and pedestrians by providing each with their own separate lanes on opposite sides of New York’s Queensboro Bridge.

On the other hand, New York bicyclists are none too pleased about the city taking their sweet time to finish a 30-block West Side bike lane, forcing riders to cope with dangerous detours.

Then again, they’re probably not too pleased that the city is issuing criminal summonses for minor bicycling traffic violations, either, including riding through red lights on the walk sign — which has been legal in the city for the past six years.

 

International

Life is cheap in the UK, where a 75-year old man got a lousy ten months behind bars for running down a 63-year old woman from behind as she rode with a friend, claiming he was blinded by the lights of an oncoming car — even though investigators determined their bike lights and safety vests would have made the victim visible from over 200 yards away.

 

Competitive Cycling

Five-time Olympic cycling gold medalist and 2012 Tour de France champ Bradley Wiggins says he was lucky to survive a “functioning” addiction to coke after his retirement from the sport. And no, he doesn’t mean the soft drink.

 

Finally…

That feeling when your new bike pump is full of weed instead of air. Or when your ad for your cycling team’s Chinese sponsor is so bad, people worry you’re being held hostage.

And yes, it’s probably better not to flip off the cop who nearly ran a stop sign and smeared you across the bike lane.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

WHO promotes bike/walk safety for healthier communities, and gear up for Bike Week events starting today in WeHo

May 13, 2025 / / One comment
Day 133 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

She gets it.

Forbes talks with Etienne Krug, director of the World Health Organization (WHO) Department for the Social Determinants of Health, who says walking and bicycling help reduce the risk of the leading causes of premature death, including heart disease, diabetes and cancer, as well as curbing air pollution, reducing traffic congestion and fighting climate change.

But before communities can enjoy the obvious benefits, we’ll have to do something about the surging rate of bicycling and walking deaths. “At least one pedestrian or cyclist is killed on the world’s roads every 2 minutes,” according to Krug.

Which is why WHO is releasing a new toolkit to help make the roads safer to promote walking and bicycling.

Maybe we can find a way to get Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and California Governor Gavin Newsom to read the damn thing.

We can dream, right?

Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay.

………

Metro is offering free rides on all Metro trains and buses, as well as Metro Bike and Metro Micro for Thursday’s Bike to Work Day, as well as 30-day Metro Bike memberships for a buck, and half-off one-year memberships.

Metrolink is also offering free rides Thursday for anyone boarding with a bicycle. And the same goes for LADOT’s DASH and Commuter Express buses.

Unfortunately, Metro has given up on the Bike to Work Day pitstops we used to enjoy in those heady pre-pandemic days. But you can still find them in Culver City, Pasadena and Beverly Hills (thanks to Streetsblog for those links). 

And West Hollywood is getting the jump on everyone else by marking Bike Month with a free “pit stop” from 8 to 10 this morning — yes, today — at the northeast corner of Santa Monica Blvd and Hancock Ave, featuring safety lights, refreshments and info on local bike projects.

………

Arnold urges us to unite for a pollution-free future.

So that means he got rid of his massive Hummer and Yukon SUVs, right?

………

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

Bike riders are showing up in force to city council meetings in Hartford, Connecticut to protest a plan to roll back the city’s commitment to building bike lanes if small business owners think they will somehow negatively affect them. Even though the opposite is usually true.

A British man was sentenced to life in prison for deliberately ramming a 22-year old ebike rider not once, but twice to teach him a lesson for “showboating” and popping wheelies, then fleeing the scene and leaving the victim to die alone in the street; although in this case, life means a minimum of 22 years behind bars, which means the 21-year old driver will be at least 43 before he’s eligible to get out.

No bias here. An “irate” British bike rider complained on Reddit about being “sick to death” of finding drivers parked in bike lanes every time he goes out for a ride. Yet the tabloids somehow turned that simple complaint around to complain about “entitled” bike riders hogging the sidewalk.

I'm sick to death of cars parking on cycle lanes. This happens each and every time I ride.
byu/d49k inukbike

………

Local 

Streetsblog’s Joe Linton offers photos from, and an open thread about, last weekend’s Beach Streets in Long Beach.

This Saturday, Metro is officially opening the initial phase of the long-awaited Rail-to-Rail multi-use path in South LA, a rail-to-trail conversion between the A Line Slauson Station and the Fairview Heights K Line Station; you can get more information and RSVP here.

Speaking of Metro, they will finally break ground on the long-gestating NoHo to Pasadena Bus Rapid Transit line next month, which, unlike the Vermont BRT line, will include protected bike lanes along Colorado Blvd in Eagle Rock.

 

State

Nothing like describing the California Ebike Incentive Program’s massive failure in the second round of incentives, when the site crashed as soon as it opened, as just a “glitch.”

A Bakersfield judge postponed until July the murder trial of the man accused of the alleged drunken hit-and-run that killed a 30-year old woman riding a bicycle; 27-year old Caleb Nathaniel Rodriguez is also charged with gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, hit and run causing death and driving on a license suspended for DUI.

San Francisco’s new Biking and Rolling Plan promises to connect the city’s bike lanes into a complete network putting everyone in the city within a quarter mile of a bike lane within the next 20 years. Then again, Los Angeles promised the same thing, and you know how that worked out.

 

National

Tragic news from Everett, Washington, where a 13-year old boy riding an ebike was killed when he ran into a braided cable someone had illegally strung between a fence and a post, something his parents say should have never been there in the first place.

The mayor of Spokane, Washington is inviting the public to ride with him on tomorrow’s National Bike to Work Day. Yet somehow, LA’s ostensibly bike-riding mayor isn’t inviting anyone to ride with her, and hasn’t been seen on one since she was elected in 2022. 

Over 200 bike riders have signed up for the 31st annual ride up and over Colorado’s 12,095-foot Independence Pass this Saturday, offering a whopping 2,300 feet of vertical climbing over the short ten-mile distance.

An Iowa man says he saves hundreds of dollars each month by biking to work nearly every day instead of driving. Which oddly still surprises people, even though we keep trying to tell them that.

A man was found dead after becoming separated from his riding companion on a Minnesota river trail; his body was found eight miles away from where he was last seen, and on the other side of the river.

A Minnesota man is on a mission to give 22,000 bike helmets to kids, after he suffered a brain injury when he was 18 after a friend lost control of his car and spun out after a night of partying. So wouldn’t it make more sense to give out car helmets, instead?

University professors in Michigan and Florida are researching perceptions on bicyclist comfort and safety as we “prepare for an e-bike future,” funded by a $610,000 grant from the National Science Foundation. Although they might want to check on that funding, since most bike and pedestrian projects are getting DOGE’d.

A writer for New York Streetsblog is challenging candidates for mayor to ride with him; yesterday he rode with a political novice with 30 years experience riding a bicycle, and a pro-bike, pro-business and pro-police agenda. Although his best qualification may be that he didn’t have a bribery indictment dismissed by federal prosecutors like the city’s current mayor, after — allegedly — promising to cooperate with immigration raids. 

A Florida man was collateral damage when police discovered that a man who had crashed his car into a house had been fatally shot in the chest — then discovered a man on a bicycle had died after being trapped under the car.

 

International

Bicycling examines the case of a former Toronto cop called Canada’s most infamous and prolific bicycle thief, after police raids recovered more than 3,000 bicycles. You’ll have to subscribe to the magazine if you want to read it, though, but you can find the story on Wikipedia.

That’s more like it. A driver in the Cayman Islands was warned he could be prosecuted after he was recorded dangerously passing bicyclists participating in a memorial ride for a fallen bike rider, while driving on the right shoulder of the roadway.

Dublin, Ireland is celebrating Bike Week and Climate Week by telling bike riders to dismount on part of its longest cycle route. Which is kind of a problem for handcyclists and other people who have difficulty walking.

 

Competitive Cycling

A San Diego man will attempt to set four separate world records in a single six-hour ride on the city’s velodrome to raise awareness and funds for the local Parkinson’s community; he’ll attempt to set age group records in 70-74 age group for the farthest distance in six hours, fastest 100 kilometers, fastest 100 miles, and fastest 200 kilometers. They tell me that’s where I’m probably headed in ten to fifteen years. And no, I don’t mean San Diego. Or the velodrome.

 

Finally…

That feeling when you buy a $390 ebike directly from China, and are pleasantly surprised when it doesn’t suck. Your next cargo bike could have a steering wheel over a single tire, with a detachable modular trailer.

And nothing like describing new bikepacking campers using a line from Seinfeld about boobs.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Effed-up ebike voucher program returns May 29th, and driver on trial for murder for DUI death of 12-year old OC boy

May 12, 2025 / / Comments Off on Effed-up ebike voucher program returns May 29th, and driver on trial for murder for DUI death of 12-year old OC boy
Day 132 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

Happy Bike Week!

Not to mention UN Global Road Safety Week.

On the left is the window applicants for the last round of California ebike incentives saw after it was cancelled when program administrators CARB and Pedal Ahead once again failed to meet the demand.

………

Here we go again.

For whatever it’s worth, the California Ebike Incentive Program is coming back yet again for their next fuckup abject failure round of ebike incentives at the end of this month, while doubling the deliberately throttled amount of funding available.

Which isn’t the same as making all of the remaining nearly $30 million in remaining funding available, which is what they should be doing — if they had hired someone who actually had the necessary expertise and bandwidth to administer it.

Regardless, here’s the full text of the email announcing their do-over for the second round.

Dear Subscriber,

Thank you for your continued interest in the California E-Bike Incentive Project.

The California E-Bike Incentive Project will relaunch the second application window on May 29, 2025. This window will include additional funding, up to $2 million, in incentive vouchers. To date, the project has awarded more than $2 million to applicants across California.

We are dedicated to providing a more streamlined application process, and we’ve ensured the website is prepared to handle the large volume of traffic generated by this program.

We apologize for the technical issues we experienced in the initial launch and appreciate your patience as we prepare for the second application window.

~ California E-Bike Incentive Project Team

………

Heartbreaking testimony in a Costa Mesa courtroom, where 64-year old Long Beach resident Richard David Lavalle is being tried for murder, after killing a 12-year old bike-riding boy in 2020 while allegedly on meth.

The father of Noel Bascon testified that he and his son were biking together in Costa Mesa around 5 pm on December 6th, and that he had “triple checked” the lights and reflectors on his son’s bike before they rode home on the sidewalk.

He waved his arms in an effort to flag Lavalle down when he saw the driver barreling down at them as they were in a crosswalk, but only heard a loud bang behind him as Lavelle allegedly ran the stop sign and slammed into his son at up to 50 mph, throwing the boy about 120 feet through the air.

Noel died after being taken to the hospital.

Lavalle faces a second-degree murder charge because he had previously been convicted of DUI in San Diego County in 2013, trigging a Watson notice informing him he could be charged with murder if he killed someone while driving under the influence anytime in the future.

This case could be a third strike for Lavelle after two previous convictions for robbery, triggering an automatic life sentence.

………

Once again, a car in the wrong hands became a weapon on mass destruction.

A 30-year old repeat DUI driver was arrested after he unexpectedly swerved into a group of four bike riders in Hopkinsville, Kentucky.

Two of the victims were transported to local hospitals in critical condition. One died the same day, and the second four days later.

It was the driver’s third offense for driving under the influence of a controlled substance, yet he was somehow still allowed to operate a high-powered, multi-to vehicle. .

Yet another example of officials keeping a dangerous driver on the road until they kill someone.

Literally.

………

Bloomberg questions the rise in New York traffic violence, with pedestrians, bicyclists and motorists all seeing rising injury rates the past three years, despite the city’s decade long Vision Zero efforts.

However, pedestrian deaths have fallen a whopping 45% over the most recent ten year period.

Which is a sign that Vision Zero is in fact working in the city, since the point of the program is accepting that people will make mistakes and crashes will happen, so roadways should be designed to ensure those mistakes don’t become fatal.

………

Join the Pasadena Complete Streets Coalition for a tour of the city’s planned greenways this Saturday, with Councilmembers Jason Lyon and the estimable Rick Cole.

Join us! Pasadena has plans to add traffic calming to four neighborhood streets to make them safer for everyone, including people driving, walking, and biking. This ride will tour some of the planned greenways with two city council members and a member of Pasadena DOT staff to discuss the project.

— Pasadena Complete Streets Coalition (@pasadenacsc.bsky.social) 2025-05-11T20:12:41.631Z

Speaking of Rick Cole, the former Los Angeles assistant mayor and Santa Monica city manger will host a public forum on Biking to a Sustainable Pasadena on Tuesday, May 20th, along with Becky Hartung from Pasadena’s Transportation Advisory Commission, Caltech LIGO Lab Senior Scientist Jonah Kanner, and Brandon Lamar, Vice Chair of the Pasadena Rental Housing Board.

………

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

Hartford, Connecticut is considering a proposal to freeze bike lane construction in favor of preserving parking spaces, once again favoring driver convenience over human lives.

No bias here. The Daily Mail decries the “gangs of brazen teenage riders” “terrorizing” the good people of London and “causing rush-hour chaos with their reckless stunts.” And illustrates it with an extremely misleading graph that makes it look like bicyclists have killed up to 800 pedestrians each year.

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

An 18-year old Louisiana drug addict used his bike ride home from work to make up a story for his dad about being robbed to explain why he was broke; 25 years later, the Black man sentenced to prison because of his lie finally got out — and the two men became unlikely friends.

An 80-year old woman was killed when she reportedly stepped out in front of a man taking part in Manchester, England’s 124-mile Tour de Manc fundraising ride, as he was passing a slower rider.

………

Local 

Sad news from Long Beach, where a man riding an e-scooter in a crosswalk was killed when he was struck by a 19-year old driver who allegedly ran a red light, and may have been speeding.

 

State

Calbike looks at the recent California court case that established that cities are required to maintain the safety of their streets. Someone please tell LA Mayor Bass, whose new budget would slash street maintenance.

They get it. The Times of San Diego endorses AB 981, which would establish a a pilot program requiring that drivers convicted of excessive speeding, reckless driving or dangerously showing off install Intelligent Speed Assist technology to prevent them from exceeding the posted speed limit, as DMV statistics show that 75% of drivers whose licenses are suspended continue to drive anyway.

This is the cost of traffic violence. Students and parents in Menlo Park are mourning a beloved, longtime teacher and high school coach who was killed by the driver of a garbage truck while riding his bike to school in Atherton.

 

National

An Arizona mother is demanding justice after her son survived serving in the 101st Airborne Division in the Middle East after 9/11, only to come home and be killed by a red light-running, unlicensed driver while riding his ebike — yet somehow, the case remains under review by the DA’s office after seven months.

Tragic news from Colorado, where a 76-year old Durango man died two weeks after falling off his bike trying to avoid a loose dog on a river bike path.

A 68-year ofd Texas man was fatally shot while riding his bike, he was discovered lying unconscious on the shoulder of the roadway.

Heartbreaking news from Indiana, where a four-year old boy was killed, and two other people injured, when a speeding driver in a Dodge Charger ran a red light and slammed into the bicycle his father was riding and the trailer the boy was in, before continuing on to strike another car, and fleeing on foot.

This is the cost of traffic violence, too. A 68-year old Catholic priest living in a Massachusetts retreat was killed by an 85-year old driver while riding his bicycle. Once again raising the question of how old is too old to drive, and how do we get elderly drivers off the road before it’s too late. 

 

International

Momentum considers the best bicycle festivals worth traveling for in the coming year, from the original Ciclovía in Bogotá, Colombia, to London’s World Naked Bike Ride.

British bicyclists say a proposal to paint the city’s “invisible” bike lanes red to keep drivers and pedestrians out is just “putting lipstick on a pig.”

No surprise here, as a new survey shows the danger and fear of sharing the road with drivers is the biggest reason why more Irish people don’t ride bikes.

Polish bicyclist Pawel Małaszko is on the final leg of his journey from the shores of the Arabian Sea to the being the first ever to ride a bike to Pakistan’s K2 base camp.

A group of US soldiers deployed to Kuwait are building camaraderie by forming a bike club, riding their bikes in the desert heat in military fatigues and orange vests.

Wired visits the “beautifully appointed bicycles” at the “best bike shop in the world” in Tokyo, Japan; meanwhile, Cyclist also visits Japan, calling it the “world’s most particular cycling culture.”

They get it. Officials in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia reduced speed limits near schools to the equivalent of just 18 mph, arguing that reducing vehicle speeds even one kilometer per hour can reduce the risk of death by 5%.

 

Competitive Cycling

Maybe Albania isn’t the best place to start of bike race, as the Giro d’Italia was almost upended — literally — when the peloton was charged by a road-raging mountain goat; Kiwi cyclist Dion Smith was forced to use moves he didn’t know he had to avoid being knocked off his bike.

In non-goat news, Denmark’s Mads Petersen reclaimed the Giro’s pink leader’s jersey Sunday by winning his second stage, giving him two of the first three stages.

Spain’s Mikel Landa was knocked out of the race in a nasty stage one crash, before being loaded into an ambulance in a neck brace after suffering a broken vertebrae.

Dutch cyclist Demi Vollering won the Vuelta Femenina, aka woman’s Vuelta, for the second consecutive year, cementing her victory by winning the final stage on Saturday,

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. Italy’s Vittoria Bussi set a new hour record — for the third time, no less — covering 50.455km, or 31.351miles, in just 60 minutes at the Velodromo Bicentenario in Aguascalientes, Mexico; that compares to 56.792km, or 25.289, miles for the men’s hour record.

Seriously? The junior Liège-Bastogne-Liège was decided by a motorcycle cop who carelessly swerved into the path of Belgium’s Leander De Gendt during the final sprint, forcing De Gent to duck inside to avoid a crash, and giving the win to British teen Harry Hudson.

Bike Radar examines how Bianchi’s iconic celeste bikes have maintained their winning colors for 125 years.

 

Finally…

One day you’re a distinguished college professor, the next you’re known as the town’s naked cyclist.  Why choose between riding a bike and playing soccer when you can do both?

And if you had Radar Love on your bike riding radar today, here you go.

Remember that song Radar Love by Golden Earring, about driving too fast? Well, here they are.

— Cool Bike Art (@coolbikeart1.bsky.social) 2025-05-11T18:37:36.072Z

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Streets For All’s Schneider confronts mayor’s draconian budget cuts, and DTLA tree-chopper Groft faces 11 felony counts

May 9, 2025 / / Comments Off on Streets For All’s Schneider confronts mayor’s draconian budget cuts, and DTLA tree-chopper Groft faces 11 felony counts
Day 129 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.

In my rush to put up yesterday’s post before I fell asleep at my keyboard, I somehow lost the link to an important Los Angeles Times op-ed from Streets For All founder Michael Schneider.

In it, Schneider took to task the proposed city budget from Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, whose draconian cuts would make our already deteriorating and dangerous streets even worse.

By law, the city of Los Angeles must balance its budget every year. But Mayor Karen Bass’ current proposal to do so represents a dystopian nightmare for our streets, sidewalks and public transportation system. The city should correct this mistake as it evaluates the proposed budget in the coming weeks.

Angelenos already live with streets deteriorating faster than we can fix them, sidewalks breaking faster than we can repair them and streetlights going dark faster than we can replace them. A recent audit exposed the city’s utter failure to achieve Vision Zero, after promising 10 years ago to bring down traffic deaths. These things are happening under the existing fiscal year’s budget, which already made draconian cuts across the city. With further cuts, expect even worse service for everyday essentials.

Bass describes this budget as just a worst case scenario, hoping against hope for a deus ex machina bailout from the state from her own budget failures, as legal settlements and unfounded pay raises have put the city a whopping $1 billion in the red.

Without a momentary lifeboat from the cash-strapped state, Bass proposes cutting 1,600 jobs — slashing staffing at LADOT and street services, as well as putting off desperately needed repairs and capital improvements.

And if you think “desperately needed” is an overstatement, you haven’t been on Fairfax Ave lately, where frame-busting bumps make mountain biking seem boring, and ever-growing potholes threaten to swallow entire motor vehicles.

Never mind that the eyes of the world will be on the City of Angels starting next year.

Keep in mind that Los Angeles is also about to be under a spotlight on the world stage. We are hosting eight matches of the World Cup next year and the Olympics in 2028. We shouldn’t be hosting world-class events on streets full of potholes, broken sidewalks and dark streetlights. It’s a terrible image for Los Angeles, and the coming fiscal year’s budget is our last chance to make progress before the events begin.

It’s more than worth the few minutes it takes to read the whole thing. Because this is the battle we have to fight now, if we want to win any of the other street safety fights to come.

Although not everyone seems to agree.

………

Bike-riding tree-chopper Samuel Patrick Groft was ordered to stand trial on 11 felony vandalism counts for chopping down 13 trees with his trusty electric chainsaw.

Police describe the 33-year old Groft as homeless with a criminal record, and someone who was known to them before last month’s DTLA chainsaw massacre.

LA’s street tree superintendent estimated the values of felled trees on city-owned property at $175,000, while the value of all 13 trees was set at nearly $350,000.

And bonus points if you knew LA even had a street tree superintendent.

Groft faces up to six-and-a-half years behind bars if convicted on all count. He remains behind bars on $350,000 bond, for which trees in Downtown Los Angeles are undoubtedly grateful.

………

Speaking of Streets For All, the street safety PAC’s next virtual happy hour will feature Marissa Roy, candidate for Los Angeles City Attorney.

Although considering what we’ve seen of the incumbent, she already has my vote.

………

That feeling when satire is just this side of reality.

NYPD Tickets Dead Cyclist For Obstructing Bike Lane

— The Onion (@theonion.com) 2025-05-02T18:30:00.000Z

………

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

Convenience won out over safety once again, as residents of a wealthy Christchurch, New Zealand suburb successfully defeated a planned bike lane, preferring saving parking spaces to saving lives.

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

A San Francisco website says yes, the city has an ebike problem, but it’s the “glorified e-mopeds,” not the people on bicycles, who are the problem.

Police in Singapore are looking for the schmuck who slapped a 13-year old boy after they crashed their bikes together.

………

Local 

Clean Technica says Los Angeles will have to rely on the private sector to have any hope of holding a carfree Olympics.

Metrolink will wave ticket fees for anyone with a bicycle on Thursday’s Bike to Work Day — although you’ll still have to pay to ride Amtrak Pacific Surfliner trains.

 

State

When I was a kid, “Your mother rides a bicycle!” was a schoolyard taunt, but Calbike’s Kendra Ramsey recalls it as a badge of honor.

Encinitas is closing a portion of South Coast Highway 101 in the downtown area to cars on May 18th for the Cyclovia Encinitas open streets event.

The CEO of San Diego Youth Services is taking one last great adventure as he rides into retirement, pedaling over 600 miles from San Francisco to San Diego in hopes of raising $250,000 for homeless youths.

Authorities continue to search for any sign of a 27-year old Black woman who disappeared without a trace two weeks ago while e-bikepacking in the Sierra National Forest.

Sad news from Antioch, where a 33-year old man died in the hospital after he reportedly got off his bicycle, and somehow fell into the roadway and into the path of an oncoming car.

 

National

Momentum ranks the top ten cities in the US to enjoy a carfree lifestyle. None of which is Los Angeles.

A team from the University of Washington has developed a small, handlebar-mounted sensor that maps when and where drivers pass closer than four feet to someone on a bicycle, which they found correspond to other indications of poor safety, such as collisions. Although I’d say that a collision is the literal definition of poor safety. 

A Las Vegas bike shop, twice named one of the nation’s top ten bike shops, offers a blast from the past by hosting a virtual museum of vintage, rare and unusual bicycles.

Bicycling examines the strange case of University of Wyoming art professor Nash Quinn, who disappeared last year after riding his singlespeed bike into the wilderness outside of Laramie. But you’ll need a subscription if you want to read it. 

Streetsblog Chicago considers the eternal question of how to convince residents and city officials to support safer street designs.

Donald Trump deflected from tough questions about the failure of the US air traffic control system by mocking former Transportation Secretary Pet Buttigieg for riding his bicycle to work “with his husband on the back.”

There’s a special place in hell for whoever stole the Atlanta Magnet Man’s bicycle; Alex Benigno began riding an ebike with a trailer mounted with magnets during the pandemic, pedaling through the city collecting an average of five pounds of metal debris swept from the streets.

 

International

A Canadian woman is attempting to set a new record for riding up and down the full length of the United Kingdom, despite contracting a rare disease when she was 15 that left her unable to walk.

Cyclist introduces Russel Stout, owner of British bespoke aluminum bikemaker Stout Cycles.

That’s more like it. A commercial van driver in the UK was sentenced to 11 years behind bars for killing a bike rider while drinking vodka behind the wheel, and using not one, but two mobile phones; he continued to use his phone for over half a minute as he drove away after the crash, later telling police he thought he’d hit a bird. Must have been a pretty damn big bird, though.

A 51-year old “super fit road cyclist” who had just moved from the UK to France blames the Moderna Covid vaccine for sending her to intensive cardiac care for two weeks, and needing a pacemaker after suffering a complete heart block.

An estimated 10,000 people are expected to ride their bikes tomorrow for Korea’s 2025 Seoul Bike Festival, with riders divided by skill levels, and different speeds set for each.

 

Competitive Cycling

Road.cc asks whether the women’s Vuelta is already over, as Dutch pro Demi Vollering builds a commanding lead while winning her fifth stage.

Speaking of the Olympics, the Olympics website shines a spotlight on Bike for Future, a Rwandan program using bicycles to help young women build transferable skills, while gaining access to education, employment and entrepreneurship.

The small African nation of Benin is making its move to become a cycling power; the country has already produced elite riders like Biniam Girmay, Louis Meintjes, Kim Le Court and Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio.

 

Finally…

That feeling when your “beloved” gravel event is demoted to just the fifth-hardest bovine-themed ride held in a lesser wine region. Or when you post a bike ad on Instagram, and get told to focus on your football/soccer team — and wear a hemet.

And of course Bing was one of us.

Singer/actor Bing Crosby shows off the superhero-like riding technique that must have been behind his recording more than 1,600 songs & making over 70 feature films.Happy #BicycleBirthday, Bing! May 3 (1903-1977)

— Cool Bike Art (@coolbikeart1.bsky.social) 2025-05-03T04:00:41.134Z

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

NYPD’s heavy-handed crackdown on bike riders, pose your bike in front of a relic, and WeHo promises Bike2Work pitstop

May 8, 2025 / / Comments Off on NYPD’s heavy-handed crackdown on bike riders, pose your bike in front of a relic, and WeHo promises Bike2Work pitstop
Day 128 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

No surprise here.

New York bicyclists say the new police crackdown on bike riders is excessive, requiring them to appear in criminal court for violations like rolling a stop light or riding salmon, which are usually just ticketable offenses.

Which isn’t to say those infractions aren’t serious.

But you’re not likely to see a driver get the same treatment for speeding or using a smartphone behind the wheel, even though motor vehicles and the people in them pose significantly more danger to everyone around them.

………

Bike Culver City says take a photo of your favorite bicycle “in front of your favorite relic” at Saturday’s car show, and show ’em which one is really the future of transportation.

Just don’t try to take a picture in front of me, or I’ll wack you with my walker.

Seriously.

………

It looks like we can count on at least one pit stop for Bike to Work Day.

https://twitter.com/heybikela/status/1920267878957261259

………

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

Seriously? Life is cheap in New York, where a man caught redhanded sabotaging a mountain bike trail faces a lousy month behind bars, as protectors treat it like a silly prank instead of a serious attempt to injure or kill people on bicycles.

Ontario, Canada will appeal the court order blocking the removal of Toronto’s bike lanes, after the provincial premier had the law changed giving him the power to rip them out.

No bias here. A former British weatherman calls for a law prohibiting “idiotic” bike riding, writing “A speeding bicycle with only a bell as a warning is a dangerous weapon.” Because no one knows more about traffic safety than an ex-TV weather guy. Maybe he’d be happier if we just yelled “Get the f*** out of the way!”

………

Local 

Metro is offering 30 day Metro Bike passes for just one buck during May’s Bike Month, as well as free use of Metro Bike Hubs.

A Streetsblog op-ed urges Metro not to hire Lyft to manage the Metro Bike program, given their demonstrated hostility to mass transit and workers rights.

 

State

A Cardiff letter writer says the protected bike lanes on the Coast Highway are the most dangerous area for bike riders along the entire coast, and it’s not a good look for a local politician to continue to support it despite the dangers.

A Change.org petition is calling for immediate fixes to San Diego’s confusing and chaotic intersection where Park Blvd, El Cajon Blvd and Normal Street converge, with one man saying he feels very exposed riding his bicycle or a Vespa there.

Huh? An Imperial PD captain says a 14-year old was arrested for riding an ebike on a local highway because ebikes aren’t street legal, without explaining why this particular ebike wasn’t. Because most electric bicycles and electric motorcycles are both very street legal, although 14-year olds aren’t allowed to ride some of them; only illegally modified ebikes and those that violate California’s ebike regulations are banned.

Police in Goleta wrote 100 citations to drivers last month for violating the state’s hands-free cellphone law. Just imagine how many tickets they could write if they actually tried, since the feds estimate that 6.4% of all drivers are using a handheld phone at any given moment. Which seems like a massive undercount, given how many drivers you can see using one just riding a bike or standing on any given street. 

A San Luis Obispo bike rider was lucky to escape with non-life threatening injuries after being struck by the driver of a pickup while walking their bike in a bike lane, and dragged 30 feet under the driver’s truck; the driver was booked on suspicion of driving under the influence of narcotics.

A 33-year old driver was booked on charges of vehicular manslaughter and hit-and-run after police tracked him down for killing a 53-year old man riding a bicycle in Visalia over the weekend.

The San Francisco Examiner continues its focus on the failure of San Francisco’s Vision Zero, as a new report says the city lost $2.5 billion over five years due to traffic collisions.

Work is nearly finished on moving San Francisco’s highly unpopular Valencia Street bike lanes from the center of the street to the curb.

 

National

This is who we share the road with. A road-raging Oregon driver is under arrest after intentionally swerving his car into a motorcyclist in the next lane and knocking him off the highway, in an attack caught on dashcam from a trailing truck.

An Arizona judge refused a defense request to dismiss 11 of the 12 misdemeanor charges against Pedro Quintana-Lujan, the commercial driver slammed his truck into a group of bicyclists in Goodyear AZ, killing two people and injuring 19 others. As if misdemeanor counts weren’t already a gift, after the DA refused to file felony charges.

An Albuquerque TV station remembers the woman credited with founding the city’s bicycle advocacy efforts; she passed away in 2010, just months before the bike and pedestrian bridge name for her opened.

The US Forest Service wants ebike riders to bail out their $380,000 in red ink for Colorado’s Maroon Bells, with a proposal to charge everyone on a electric bicycle $5 to access the area. That’s half of the entry fee for drivers, even though people on ebikes don’t cause any significant damage to the roadway or the environment, unlike the people in the big, dangerous and yes, stinky machines.

A Wyoming woman considers why bicyclists trigger road rage for some drivers, after encountering punishment passes and a driver rolling coal on an Idaho highway, concluding that it’s just prejudice against the “other.”

After a Pennsylvania woman ordered groceries from Uber Eats, she was shocked when the delivery man showed up riding an ebike, so she tracked him down through social media, and established a crowdfunding campaign to get his car fixed so he didn’t have to ride a bike anymore. Although he’s probably better off on the bicycle. 

According to an Alabama arsenal, the US Army is challenging military members to ride their bikes 1,000 kilometers, or 621 miles, over the next four months, which works out to an easy five miles a day.

A Haitian immigrant will spend the rest of his life behind bars, with no possibility of parole, after pleading no contest to the stabbing death of a married couple as their were riding their bikes back home from Bike Week in Daytona Beach, Florida three years ago.

 

International

Bike Radar offers a complete guide to buying a secondhand ebike. Which beats the hell out of waiting for California’s moribund ebike voucher program.

Frustrated Winnipeg, Manitoba bike riders are complaining about the city’s new  speed limits for bicyclists on bike paths, instead of doing anything about the speeding drivers on a road where a man riding a bicycle was killed almost a year ago.

A British doctor won a £4.5 million settlement, the equivalent of nearly $6 million, after he was paralyzed when the carbon fork of his Planet X gravel bike sheared in two on a grassy hillside.

A writer for Cycling Weekly explains how she managed a six-day gravel ride through Sri Lanka, even though she didn’t own a gravel bike, and had only ridden a total of 29 miles in the previous ten months — and with just six weeks to train.

 

Competitive Cycling

Colombian cyclist Miguel Ángel López lost his appeal against a four-year ban for doping in the international Court of Arbitration for Sport; Ángel López was caught using and holding Menotropin, a female fertility drug that can stimulate production of testosterone in men, during the 2022 Giro. But the era of doping is over, right?

Geraint Thomas, 2018 Tour de France champ, looks forward to one final TdF before he retires after the Tour of Britain.

US cycling legend Dave Zabriskie, the first American to win stages in all three Grand Tours, is launching a “groundbreaking initiative focused on concussion recovery and long-term cognitive health” called Cognitive Protocol, saying he learned the hard way that you can’t ride through a concussion.

 

Finally…

That feeling when you go riding through Moroccan deserts in search of camels. Apparently, race motos are no longer the most dangerous problem with pro cycling, interfering fans are.

And now you, too, can own your very own plastic Volvo bicycle for the low, low price of just $133.

Even if it is a featured exhibit in Sweden’s Museum of Failure.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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