Firefighters union pledges 6-figure fight to keep LA roads deadly, and woman bicyclist critical after Belmont Shore collision

February 15, 2024 / / One comment
Just 320 days until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025.
So stop what you’re doing and sign this petition to demand Mayor Bass hold a public meeting to listen to the dangers we face walking and biking on the mean streets of LA.

Then share it — and keep sharing it — with everyone you know, on every platform you can. Just 60 signatures to go to reach 1,000!

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Somehow, Los Angeles firefighters don’t seem to think LA’s wide street are wide enough.

Or that their trucks can manage to roll over a thin line of paint.

According to the Los Angeles Times, United Firefighters of Los Angeles City Local 112 plans to spend at least $100,000 to fight Measure HLA, the ballot measure that would make the city build out its already approved mobility plan whenever streets within the plan get resurfaced.

Union President Freddy Escobar said his organization, which represents about 3,400 firefighters, is concerned that the measure will lead to slower emergency response times and put new pressure on a city budget already experiencing financial strain. Firetrucks are already being hindered by “road diets” — reductions in vehicle lanes caused by the creation of bike or bus lanes, Escobar said in an interview.

“Every second counts. The road diets slow down our firefighters,” Escobar said. “And it will be so much worse with HLA.”

Like the road diet on Venice Blvd in Mar Vista, for instance. Which we were told was dangerously delaying responses from the local fire station after it was installed, until we learned that the average response for Mar Vista’s Station 62 was just four seconds more than the citywide average in the months following the road diet.

Because every second counts, evidently.

Never mind that when firefighters complain about road diets, they neglect to mention that while road diets reduce the number of traffic lanes, most contain a continuous center left turn lane large enough for firetrucks to zoom through any backed up traffic — actually making them more efficient for emergency vehicles than LA’s congested roadways.

Other major streets in the mobility plan are marked for bus lanes, which also present a perfect lane for emergency vehicles to bypass traffic more quickly than they can now.

Assuming no one is illegally parked in them, of course.

Or that one reason we’re told LA’s “protected” bike lanes are protected by nothing more than flimsy plastic posts is so emergency vehicles can drive over them whenever necessary.

Not to mention that most of the bike lanes in the mobility plan will feature nothing more than a thin stripe of white paint, which should hardly pose a barrier for a massive, multi-ton truck with huge wheels.

So the reality is that road diets, particularly the kind the would be created under HLA, would likely speed emergency response times, not slow them.

Which makes you wonder what the firefighters real complaint is.

Then there’s the simple fact that Measure HLA, and the mobility plan it’s based on, is designed to save lives by dramatically reducing the risk of life-threatening injuries and traffic deaths.

So maybe what they’re really worried about is that improved traffic safety could reduce the need for emergency responses.

And emergency responders.

Of course, Los Angeles isn’t the first city to face this type of manufactured conflict.

New York firefighters complained that city’s road diets and bike lanes were affecting response times, until the brass clarified that it ain’t necessarily so.

In fact, response times were better the year after bike lanes were installed on New York’s Columbus Ave than they were the year before.

San Francisco firefighters also complained about the city’s rapid installation of road diets, neighborhood greenways and bus and bike lanes. So city officials bought several slightly smaller fire trucks to enable them to better traverse San Francisco’s narrow, winding streets.

Not, say, our overly wide, straight and multilane boulevards.

Which makes it seem like the union’s real objection is less about reducing response times, and more about wanting to drive unhindered to and from the fire stations and their suburban — or even out-of-state — homes.

But in the end, it’s only appropriate, in this pre-Easter season, that the firefighter’s union will spend more than a hundred grand of their member’s dues to perform a miracle.

By turning their water into whine.

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Bad news from Long Beach, where a 32-year old woman is in stable but critical condition after she was struck by a driver while riding her bike.

The collision occurred at Second Street and Bay Shore Ave in the city’s Belmont Shore neighborhood at 8:15 pm Sunday.

The victim was reportedly making a left turn after the light had changed, when a driver went through the intersection on the red light, striking her.

A nearby doctor provided first aid until paramedics arrived.

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Um, okay.

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It’s now 56 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And 31 months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

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

A Dublin, Ireland mother was forced to give up bicycling after she was threatened with an £11 million fine — the equivalent of nearly $14 million — and two years behind bars for installing a small bike shed in her front garden to store her family’s bikes and her mother’s wheelchair.

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

New Jersey comedian Rich Kiamco was chased and beaten by a gang of teenaged bicycle riders, who ran him down to steal his ebike; police used the GPS on his bike to track down the thieves and recover his bike less than an hour after it was stolen.

A Singapore botanical garden urged bike riders to slow down, after a hit-and-run bicyclist on a road bike ran over a monitor lizard.

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Local 

It just keeps getting worse. Former Major League shortstop and current Oaks Christian School baseball coach Royce Clayton was busted for DUI early Sunday morning, just weeks after testifying about quaffing margaritas with wealthy socialite Rebecca Grossman and her then-lover, former Dodgers pitcher Scott Erickson, before she allegedly killed two little kids while speeding through a crosswalk.

Metro is looking for volunteers to help audit first mile/last mile connections for the Eastside Transit Corridor, the coming nine-mile extension of the E Line train.

Income-qualified Pasadena residents will be able to get a rebate of up to $1,000 on the purchase of an ebike starting July 1st, while other buyers will be able to claim $500 off a regular ebike, and $750 off an e-cargo bike. And chances are, California’s moribund ebike voucher program still won’t have launched by then.

 

State

Seriously? The replacement project for the Mission Bridge over the Santa Ana River between Riverside and Jurupa Valley has been pushed back until 2025 — but don’t worry, officials plan to protect bike riders by installing a couple of Share the Road signs along the dangerous roadway.

Santa Barbara will seek $32 million in state funds to build a new bike and pedestrian bridge over Highway 101.

The San Francisco Standard examines the proposals to ban kids from riding ebikes, while noting that US Consumer Product Safety Commission research shows it’s people 25 to 44 years old who are the most likely to end up in the ER as a result of an ebike crash — not kids.

 

National

The Manual says you should never buy a used mountain bike.

Once again, a bike rider was a hero, as a Washington state man was saved after driving off an embankment when someone passing by on a bicycle heard his moans and called 911; the driver was hospitalized with life-threatening injuries.

A Boulder, Colorado op-ed says bicycling isn’t inherently dangerous, but bad street design is. (Hint: Stop the page from loading to bypass the paper’s paywall).

Illinois IndyCar vet David Malukas will see his debut with the Arrow McLaren SP Racing team delayed a couple months, after dislocating his wrist in a mountain bike crash — or maybe tearing ligaments in his wrist; he now expects to start his season at April’s Long Beach Grand Prix.

An Arizona man is likely on his way back to prison after allegedly crashing a stolen box truck in Terre Haute, Indiana, and attempting to make his getaway on a stolen bicycle while naked from the waist down.

She may be onto something. A Baltimore bike rider questions whether cars are just a parasitic alien life form that makes people do their bidding.

 

International

Virgin founder Richard Branson claims bike riders need body armor, after his latest bike crash in the British Virgin Islands left him with a “nasty” road rash and a hematoma on his hip. So he and I finally have something in common (see photo).

Canada commits to stop funding large highway projects, concluding that the country’s current highways are sufficient to meet its needs.

No bias here. A London website says bicyclists will no longer have to annoy pedestrians by dismounting and walking their bikes across the city’s Hammersmith Bridge.

Life is cheap in the UK, where a Yorkshire, England van driver walked without a day behind bars for running down a bike rider from behind, after playing the universal Get Out Of Jail Free card by claiming the sun was in his eyes.

The Turkish founders of the annual, worldwide Fancy Women Ride have called an end to it, saying its goal of getting more women on bikes has been met. Although they may find the ride was easier to start than it will be to stop.

An EV website says Sydney, Australia needs to change its perspective and embrace cycling as a viable mode of transportation.

 

Competitive Cycling

A British Columbia paper says Svein Tuft, arguably Canada’s greatest road cyclist, is finally leaning to slow down after retiring at 41 when he lost his competitiveness, and began braking early to avoid injuries.

 

Finally…

That feeling when even the parking cops don’t care about a blocked bike lane. Forget a tandem, what could be more romantic than a bicycle built for five?

And we may have to worry about road-raging drivers, but at least we’re not likely to get shot after being mistaken for a bike-riding wild boar.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

Driver blames bike rider for riding legally, Bob George ghost bike gone, and no SoCal counties deadliest for bike riders

February 14, 2024 / / One comment
Just 321 days until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025.
So stop what you’re doing and sign this petition to demand Mayor Bass hold a public meeting to listen to the dangers we face walking and biking on the mean streets of LA.

Then share it — and keep sharing it — with everyone you know, on every platform you can. Just over 70 signatures to go to reach 1,000!

………

In a letter to the Los Angeles Times, Norwood Paukert recounts the story first told here last week about being intentionally run down by a pair of young men on Griffith Park’s Zoo Drive.

I have no memory of the impact, but I was told by the park ranger on scene that witnesses had watched a car with two young men inside intentionally swerve into the bike lane and ram me from behind, throwing me over the handlebars into the street, and then laughing as they sped away.

We’ve seen similar stories coming from all over the world — as near as Huntington Beach and Las Vegas, and as far as Australia — of young men deliberately running down people on bicycles, usually while driving stolen cars.

Yet no one seems to be connecting the dots here, despite with rumors circulating of a hit-and-run challenge targeting bicyclists.

Meanwhile, another letter on the same Times link asks a “bike enthusiast” to explain why an Eagle Rock bike rider would be riding against traffic on the sidewalk, right next to the painted bike lanes on Colorado Blvd.

When there was a large gap, I checked again for pedestrians, and started to move forward. Out of nowhere, here comes a bike rider, on the sidewalk, coming from my right against the traffic flow. I came within millimeters of knocking him down.

I have seen many cyclists use the bike lanes correctly, but I have also seen them riding in groups so that they overflow the bike lanes into traffic. I’ve seen them at night with no reflective gear on.

Let’s start with the idea that the rider came “out of nowhere.”

Bikes are allowed on the sidewalk in Los Angeles, and drivers have a responsibility to look both ways. That includes looking for anyone walking or biking on the sidewalk, which is bi-directional — meaning there is no right direction, and people are entitled to travel in either direction.

Even people on bicycles.

Secondly, there is no requirement to ride in the street, even if it has a bike lane.

It’s possible that riding with traffic on the opposite side of the street may have been inconvenient if the rider was heading to or leaving a business or residence on the near side of the street, or connecting to a street on that side.

Or they may have just been uncomfortable riding on a busy street with nothing more than a thin strip of paint for protection.

And it’s odd that drivers can accept illegal, dangerous and otherwise bizarre behavior from other drivers, but somehow can’t comprehend when someone on a bicycle does something similar.

People are people, regardless of how they choose to travel. And people will inevitably do what’s most convenient, or which seems to make sense at the time.

So maybe it’s time to lighten up when someone on a bicycle acts like a human being.

Meanwhile, GCN examines just what we do that manages to piss drivers off so much.

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Sadly, the ghost bike for fallen bicyclist and Hollywood producer Bob George has been removed already, his memory erased from a town that forgets too easily.

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A new report from personal injury law firm Bader Scott analyzed data the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, aka NHTSA, to determine the nation’s most dangerous counties for bicyclists.

To the surprise of no one, the worst offenders came from Florida. In fact, the top three counties, and 14 of the top 20, are in the state, which is the nation’s deadliest state to ride a bike in.

California was also represented near the top, with San Joaquin County ranking eight, and Stanislaus County 15th. (Hint: Stop the page from loading to get around the paper’s paywall.)

Surprisingly, no SoCal county ranked in the top 20. Although it would be interesting to see what the rest of the list looks like.

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There’s still time to reserve your spot in next weekend’s L.A. Chinatown Firecracker Bike Ride celebrating the upcoming Lunar New Year, Year of the Dragon.

Here’s how a recent press release described the event.

The 46th Annual L.A. Chinatown Firecracker 5K/10K Run/1K Kiddie & PAW’er Dog Run/Walk & 20/50-Mile Bike Ride – which will be held over the weekend of February 24-25, 2024, where thousands will take to the streets and where the events start and end, as well as a free to the public post-event festival at the historic Los Angeles Chinatown Plaza (Event Festival until 3pm on Saturday as well as a Lantern Paw Festival in Blossom Plaza from 11am-4pm in conjunction with Saturday’s Paw’er Dog Walk, and on Sunday, the Firecracker event festival goes until noon).

In addition, the 50-mile Bike Ride snakes through DTLA, LA River, “Frogtown”, LA Zoo, Travel Town, Burbank, Glendale, Verdugo Foothills, Montrose, La Canada, Pasadena, Altadena, San Marino, South Pasadena, El Sereno, Lincoln Heights, and much more.

The L.A. Chinatown Firecracker is one of the largest and oldest running races in the U.S. which had its humble beginnings from a few Belmont High School Alums (a public school located in the Westlake community just outside of Chinatown).

Meanwhile, there’s just two weeks left to get early bird pricing on the April Finish the Ride and Finish the Run in Griffith Park.

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It’s now 55 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And 31 months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

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

No bias here. A San Diego TV station blames the victims by suggesting the safety of Encinitas ebike riders is in the hands of Gen-Z, meaning teenage ebike riders. Even though the real danger comes from the drivers they’re forced to share the road with, thanks to a lack of safe infrastructure.

No bias here, either. In a clear indication of who they think poses the greatest risk, Fresno police cited 32 drivers in their latest bicycle and pedestrian safety operation — and 96 bicyclists and pedestrians.

Or here. A London bike rider famous for riding with his cat was scolded for riding around a car, after the driver had just pulled out and cut him off.

An Irish driver complains that a bike rider must “enjoy playing with traffic” by riding in the traffic lane when there’s a perfectly good bikeway right next to it — even though it’s blocked by a bollard.

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Local 

The LA Times sums up the prosecution’s case against wealthy socialite and Grossman Burn Center co-founder Rebecca Grossman as “Liquor, Valium, speed and recklessness;” Grossman is on trial for two counts of murder for the high speed hit-an-run deaths of two little kids as they crossed the street with their parents and siblings in Westlake Village last September.

Yo! Venice offers video of the badly damaged Marvin Braude Bike Trail, which collapsed during last week’s heavy rains; remarkably, the bike path appears to have been build with little or no rebar or other means of support beyond the concrete itself.

Hermosa Beach is considering a proposal to allow cops to impound bicycles and ebikes of riders cited for traffic violations. Although that would appear to violate state law, which does not permit it.

 

State

Sad news from Los Altos, where a woman riding a bicycle was killed in a collision.

San Francisco State Sen. Scott Wiener discusses his proposed bill to require speed limiting devices in all new cars, which keep drivers from exceeding ten miles over the speed limit. And which would probably do more to save lives than anything else the state could do right now.

 

National

He gets it. A writer for Bicycling says stop the ebike hate, and love your fellow bicyclists regardless of how they dress or what they ride. Unfortunately, this one doesn’t seem to be available anywhere else, so you may be screwed if the magazine blocks you. 

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, a writer for Visor pens a love letter to bicycling, expressing “the simple yet profound joy of riding a bicycle.”

Portland, Oregon rebounded from a “precipitous drop” in bicycling rates last year with a modest 5% increase in this year’s count.

The rich get richer. On top of Denver’s successful ebike voucher program, residents of the city can now get paid $1 a mile to ride their bikes instead of driving, up to a maximum of $200 a month.

New York bicycling deaths dipped just slightly last year, a full decade into the city’s failed Vision Zero program.

A pair of bills in the New Jersey legislature would impose an $8 annual registration fee and require a $35,000 liability insurance policy for even slow-speed, ped-assist ebikes, as well as e-scooters, in an apparent attempt to kill the ebike boom and keep people in their cars.

 

International

A new report suggests the post-pandemic sales slump affecting the worldwide bike industry will last through at lease next year; meanwhile, sales at Shimano’s bicycle division were down 30% last year.

A writer for Cycling Weekly describes what it’s like to ride in the worst bike lane in the world.

Momentum offers ten ways to go on a bicycle date.

Cyclist explains how to get more aero on your bike. Unless you ride an upright bike, in which case, as you were. 

Canadian Cycling Magazine nominates a Toronto driver for the most egregious case of driving in a bike lane. Which sounds like a challenge to SoCal drivers.

This is why people keep dying on our streets. A driver walked without a single day behind bars, despite being convicted of intentionally ramming a bike rider into a large truck, breaking the victim’s spine and leaving him a “hollow shell of a person.”

Harry Styles is one of us, as he goes on a late-night bikeshare ride through the streets of London with girlfriend Taylor Russell.

Dublin, Ireland offered a plan to halt pass-through traffic in the city center to make room for buses, bicyclists and pedestrians, along with drivers who actually have a destination in town, after a study showed that 60% of downtown Dublin drivers were just passing through.

 

Competitive Cycling

Sad news from Seattle, as former Giro and ‘cross cyclist, and longtime bike industry pro, Tim Rutledge died following a battle with cancer at age 65.

 

Finally…

At 15, most of us were happy just to ride a bike, not run your own bike shop. Now you, too, can ride your bike like the Swiftie you are.

And a corgi on an ebike is all I really ask of life.

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Thanks to Dr. Grace Peng for forwarding the tweet, or whatever the hell it’s called these days.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

Bashing Boerner’s ebike safety bill, dismount bikes signs to be removed, and the Biden-Trump bike race we deserve

February 13, 2024 / / 2 comments
Just 322 days until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025.
So stop what you’re doing and sign this petition to demand Mayor Bass hold a public meeting to listen to the dangers we face walking and biking on the mean streets of LA.

Then share it — and keep sharing it — with everyone you know, on every platform you can. Just over 70 signatures to go to reach 1,000!

Photo by Maxfoot from Pixabay.

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Streetsblog’s Melanie Curry responds to Encinitas Assemblymember Tasha Boerner’s bill to ban ebikes for kids under 12, and require a driver’s license or completion of an online training course for anyone else.

E-bike safety is certainly important. Asm. Boener has been working on developing safety training – more on that below – but the idea of requiring licenses for riding a bike introduces a range of problems. There is racial profiling, for one – the people most likely to be pulled over for potential violations of this law are youth of color. Then there’s the whole problem with making the police deal with what is fundamentally a safety issue in the first place. And as the California Bicycle Coalition has pointed out:

“The bicycle is an efficient and essential tool to fight climate change, and e-bikes make bicycling accessible to a wider range of people. E-bike licensing requirements are unlikely to measurably reduce the prevalence of crashes (see below for why), but they will reduce ridership just as California needs to employ every strategy to mitigate the climate crisis.”

Electric bikes can be easier – and faster – than “acoustic” bikes. This brings both benefits and hazards, particularly to inexperienced riders. But the solution is better information and training, not more policing.

Curry also points out that California law already bans anyone under 16 from riding the fastest category of ebikes.

And that the “real and present danger” associated with ebikes is cars, and the people who drive them. Because even the best trained ebike rider is no match for a speeding, overly aggressive or otherwise distracted driver.

Meanwhile, a comment on the Electrek site sums it up pretty well.

Hard disagree with the current iteration of this bill, the way it reads right now its another power move under the guise of “for the safety of children” and an overblown way to solve a problem that affects some cities locally. There’s smarter and more cost effective ways to increase ebike safety rather than making a big conundrum out of it and then finding a new way to ticket people who have been following the law, while people breaking the law will continue to ignore it…

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Credit Streetblog’s Joe Linton with getting Los Angeles and Beverly Hill to remove signs posted near the Purple Line construction zone on Wilshire which tell people to get off their bikes, for no apparent reason.

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It’s questionable whether these signs were ever enforceable to begin with, since they don’t conform to the MUTCD, and look more like something a Metro contractor might have ordered off Amazon.

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Daily Kos says forget all this talk about who is “infirm” or “feeble,” or capable of passing a basic cognitive test.

What we really need to settle the issue once and for all is a Biden-Trump bicycle race.

I know who I’d put my money on.

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Bike Portland celebrates the city’s Boom Bike, a human-powered, mobile soundstage.

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GCN explains how to commute on an ebike.

Which is kind of like commuting on any other bike, just less sweaty.

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It’s now 54 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And 31 months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

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

Something tells me there’s more to this story, after an alleged hit-and-run driver was charged with first-degree murder for killing a British Columbia bike rider; the suspect is accused of planning or conspiring to murder the victim, as mounties describe the investigation as “sensitive.”

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

An unknown bike rider is the prime suspect after a former British sports commentator found his car slashed by what could have been a bicycle pedal.

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Local 

Los Angeles now has a bicycle-based mobile espresso bar serving Westside communities with beans exclusively sourced from West African farms.

Politico looks at the bad blood delaying Lyft’s takeover of behind-the-scenes operations for LA’s Metro Bike bikeshare program, as political and labor leaders decry awarding “hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer funds to a company that is car-centric and anti-union.”

Torrance is moving towards approval of a proposed multi-use trail linking the city’s new regional transit center with its downtown district.

Long Beach says not so fast to California’s new intersection daylighting law.

 

State

Instead of succumbing to the ebike panic plaguing SoCal’s beach cities, Newport Beach has taken a more rational approach by launching a new webpage devoted to ebike and traffic safety.

Bad news from San Diego, where a 63-year old man suffered severe injuries when he was right hooked by a 33-year old woman while riding in a Carmel Valley bike lane; fortunately, his injuries were not considered life-threatening.

More bad news from San Diego, as a man in his 70s suffered injuries to his head and legs when he was struck by one of the city’s downtown trolleys while riding his bike.

Sad news from Fresno, where a 33-year old man died after he was struck by a driver while riding his bike just doors from his home.

 

National

Velo talks with PeopleForBikes about the five principles required for the year’s best US bicycling infrastructure.

Five years after launching it with much fanfare, PeopleForBikes will shut down their Ride Spot mobile app at the end of this month, after deciding the resources could be better spent in other areas. Which is just business speak for it flopped. 

Bicycling offers their picks for the best President’s Day deals on bike gear. This one doesn’t appear to be available anywhere else, but it also doesn’t seem to be hidden behind the magazine’s paywall. 

Cycling Weekly advises doubling up on bike locks to make your bike less inviting to thieves as bike theft rates rise.

Good question. The Good Men Project says public health and urban planning go hand-in-hand, so why aren’t we doing more to promote bicycling? Actually, that’s easy. It’s because we care more about allowing drivers to go zoom zoom than we do about keeping people healthy.

In a complicated story, the owners of a Houston bike shop got a classic 1950s Columbia bike back after a photographer they loaned it to never returned it; a year later, a friend found it for sale after someone discovered it on the street when the photographer was evicted for nonpayment of rent.

 

International

Momentum makes the case for why building bike lanes is good for more than just people who ride bikes.

Ebike conversion kit maker Swytch recommends the most romantic cities for bike-riding couples to spend quality time together. That none of them one is Los Angeles should go without saying.

Virgin owner Richard Branson once again suffers “nasty” injuries falling off his bicycle, this time after hitting a pothole in the British Virgin Islands.

Toronto bicyclists celebrate riding on the coldest day of the year, on one of the warmest days of the winter.

Um, no. A Manchester, England website explains how the city became the European capital of bicycling. Which will likely come as a big surprise to Amsterdam and Copenhagen, not to mention Paris and Barcelona.

A British community learns the hard way that the equivalent of $17 million won’t even buy a straight bike lane anymore.

The consumer standards regulator for the Netherlands is investigating a cargo bikemaker, after complaints of broken frames on fragile Babboe bakfiets.

 

Competitive Cycling

That feeling when a bike race fan does a face plant trying to keep up with a cyclist in the Tour Columbia.

 

Finally…

Presenting a crossdressing bike ride that could be banned in some red states. When you’re riding your bike at 1 am with illegal drugs, a fake handgun, knife, pepper spray and a half-dozen outstanding warrants, don’t ride salmon without lights on the damn thing,

And that feeling when a magazine thinks every bicyclist needs a new Pinarello — and a balance bike.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

Bill mandates licensing for ebike riders, ebike-riding LA Times editor backs HLA, and La Brea sign orders bike dismounts

February 12, 2024 / / 2 comments
Just 323 days until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025.
Stop what you’re doing and sign this petition to demand Mayor Bass hold a public meeting to listen to the dangers we face walking and biking on the mean streets of LA.

Then share it — and keep sharing it — with everyone you know, on every platform you can. We’re over 900 signatures, so let’s try to get it up over 1,000!

Ebike photo by Markus Spiske from Pexels.

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Encinitas Assemblymember Tasha Boerner introduced her bill to establish education and licensing requirements for ebike buyers without a driver’s license.

AB 2234 would ban children under 12 from riding an ebike of any kind, and require than anyone over 12 pass an online safety course before being allowed to buy or ride one.

As I’ve pointed out in the past, I see several problems with the bill, starting with whether a parent with a driver’s license could buy an ebike for their child without one.

I also think 12 is to young for an ebike, and would rather see the prohibition raised to 14 for ped-assist ebikes, while reclassifying throttle-controlled ebikes as mo-peds or electric motorcycles requiring a driver’s license or motorcycle license operate.

And I don’t understand why ebikes should be singled out for requiring a driver’s license or a separate ebike license, while any other type of bicycle doesn’t.

Which is a far better argument for not having a licensing requirement for anyone, rather than requiring one for everyone, or just for some but not others.

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Los Angeles Times Letters Editor Paul Thornton writes movingly about the need to pass Measure HLA — the Healthy Streets LA ballot initiative — in next month’s election.

I’ve experienced the worsening situation as a cyclist in L.A. for almost 20 years. The growing size and power of cars and the evident impatience of motorists have exposed the city’s halfhearted attempts at improving biking infrastructure as transportation tokenism.

To understand how unnerving it is out there for cyclists, I might suggest you saddle up and pedal in a gutter bike lane during rush hour. But I could never recommend doing that.

Still, none of this should obscure a simple truth about cycling: It’s fun. A lot of fun. If I were leading the campaign to pass Measure HLA, the slogan would be, “Make L.A. fun again…”

It’s a quietly powerful piece, well worth reading. Especially if you’re on the fence or leaning towards voting against the measure.

He might just change your mind.

Or, if like me, you’re firmly convinced to vote in favor, you can wear your support for Measure HLA and/or Streets For All, if not on your sleeve, at least on your chest.

I’ve got a few on the way, myself.

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Posted signs near the Purple Line construction zone on Wilshire still tell people to get off their bikes, for no apparent reason.

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YouTuber John Hicks says you can ride your ebike through the roughest streets of Compton, and get back home with it and you in one piece.

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A new short film documents mountain biker Kelly-Jayne Collinge and her fight for greater inclusion for women in bicycling, especially for new and expecting mothers, after her sponsors abandoned her when she got pregnant.

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It’s now 53 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And 31 months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

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

This is who we share the road with. A 57-year old Kokomo, Indiana man faces charges for driving up onto a sidewalk to intentionally ram a 42-year old bike rider from behind before fleeing the scene; the victim was lucky to escape with non-life-threatening injuries.

Residents of an English city got out the torches and pitchforks over a proposal for protected bike lanes which promise “enormous” community benefits, claiming they will somehow cause “chaos” and “gridlock,” as well as a “sacrilege” if it involves reducing the grass verges.

A 70-something bicyclist and driver in another English town refutes allegations that new bike lanes required the removal of parking spaces, arguing that the street is now safer while still having parking on both sides.

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

Police in Glasgow, Scotland are looking for a hit-and-run ebike delivery rider who rode off after crashing into an elderly woman and sending her to the hospital.

………

Local 

No news is good news, right?

 

State

Caltrans finally released their long-overdue Complete Streets policies, which was more than six months overdue; Streetsblog says a bill in the state legislature mandating Compete Streets is needed, anyway.

The Desert Sun offers photos from Saturday’s very popular and very crowded Tour de Palm Springs.

An estimated 2,500 people rode bikes of all kinds across several miles of new concrete and asphalt at Bakersfield’s Cycle Centennial, as bike riders were allowed access to the new Centennial Corridor freeway connector before it was opened to motor vehicles. Maybe they should just keep it bikes only, instead of allowing drivers to ruin it all.

Fresno police are looking for the heartless coward who drove off after critically injuring a bike rider in his 30s.

A Marin political cartoonist suggests maybe bike riders could use a zip line to cross the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge if authorities rip out the existing bike lane for another car lane.

 

National

A writer for Tom’s Guide offers up five things she wished she’d known before buying her first road bike. I wish I’d known that cars are bigger than me, and they hurt. Actually, I did know that, but bought one anyway because bikes are just too damn much fun.

While usually sunny Los Angeles can’t manage to observe Winter Bike to Work Day, Anchorage, Alaska bike riders demonstrate how easy it is to commute in the snow.

Convicted killer Kaitlin Armstrong spent six grand on plastic surgery to make herself less attractive in a failed attempt to avoid capture following the fatal shooting of gravel cyclist Moriah “Mo” Wilson in Austin, Texas, over a perceived love triangle with pro cyclist Colin Strickland.

DC just approved a new Intelligent Speed Assistance Program, which will allow authorities to slow speeding drivers, similar to a bill recently introduced in the California legislature.

 

International

In today’s entry from the Department of Repetitive Redundancy, Momentum says Valentines Day is the perfect excuse to get a tandem bike built for two. As if there are many tandems built for one.

A Toronto website debunks three common myths about bike lanes, including that bike lanes cause congestion and are bad for business.

Like is cheap in Glasgow, Scotland, where a man walked with just a fine and no jail time for the drunken crash that left a bike rider with life-changing injuries. This is why people keep dying on our streets. 

A new study from Cambridge, England shows that separated bike lanes had no impact on business employment levels or commercial vacancies, despite claims from business owners that bike lanes hurt their sales.

A London man credits his helmet with saving his life when he crashed his bike, despite breaking his face in three places.

London police say bike thefts dropped nearly 90% in the city center after the arrest of a prolific bike theft ring; the group was blamed for stealing the equivalent of over $126,000 worth of bikes over a two-year period.

A crowdfunding campaign in honor of fallen British cyclist and filmmaker Jonathan Gales has raised the equivalent of over $10,000 for his local velodrome; the CAT1 racer was killed by a drunk driver while crossing a Los Angeles street on foot in November, 2022.

Parents in the UK are complaining that bicycling instructors are teaching their kids to ride in the middle of the traffic lane.

There’s something seriously wrong when an Irish cop who gave an unclaimed bicycle to an elderly, isolated man during the Covid pandemic faces discipline for it, rather than getting a commendation.

Momentum recommends the “incredible Trans Dinarica cycling trail” stretching over 1,200 miles through Eastern Europe, as the place to pedal in 2024.

A 12-year-old boy is attempting to become the youngest person to bicycle around Malta. Then again, it’s only 62 miles, but still.

A Bollywood actor met with a fan who rode his bike over 600 miles just to meet him. Most American stars would just have their security team toss the guy out on his ass. 

Bikeshare is helping to ease travel on the congested streets of Cairo, Egypt.

Around 4,500 bike riders turned out for a ride through Tokyo in December to promote bicycle safety.

An Aukland, New Zealand man armed with a knife chased a bike rider down a bike path threatening to stab him for nearly a minute, after the rider told the man to fuck off for laughing at him.

 

Competitive Cycling

Italian road race champion Elisa Longo Borghini says things have finally changed in women’s cycling, and riders no longer have to take a second job to finance their cycling careers.

 

Finally…

Nothing beats the safety of our paint-protected bike lanes. That feeling when the crowd hates autonomous cars way mo’ than anyone expected.

And your next dining room table could be holding your bike up right now.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

Update: Bicyclist killed in Perris Collision Friday afternoon, no information on victim

February 11, 2024 / / Comments Off on Update: Bicyclist killed in Perris Collision Friday afternoon, no information on victim

Someone was killed riding a bicycle in Perris Friday afternoon.

But apparently, it’s asking too much to even release the most basic information about the victim, beyond their mode of transportation.

According to My News LA, the victim was riding at A Street and Redding Way around 2:55 pm when they allegedly rode through a stop sign, and was struck by a driver turning left onto eastbound A Street from Redding Way.

The victim died at the scene, despite the efforts of deputies to revive them.

The victim has not been publicly identified, and authorities have not released any description of the person killed.

Anyone with information is urged to call Community Service Officer Johnson of the Perris Sheriff’s Station at 951/210-1000, or the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office at 951/776-1099.

This is at least the fourth bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the second that I’m aware of in Riverside County.

Update: The victim has been identified as 54-year old Riverside resident Diane Rotarius. 

An autopsy is pending to determine her cause of death, which would seem to be apparent. 

My deepest sympathy and prayers for Diane Rotarius and her loved ones.

 

Category: Injuries and Fatalities / Tags: , , ,

Spring completion for LA River bike path work, Park prevaricates on Measure HLA, and Long Beach 7th most bikeable US city

February 9, 2024 / / 3 comments
Just 326 days until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025.
So stop what you’re doing and sign this petition to demand LA Mayor Karen Bass hold a public meeting to listen to the dangers we face just walking and biking on the mean streets of Los Angeles.

Then share it — and keep sharing it — with everyone you know, on every platform you can. We’re over 900 signatures, so let’s try to get it up over 1,000!

………

Happy International Winter Bike to Work Day 2024!

Or as we call it here in Los Angeles, Friday.

………

Let’s start with a question about construction work on the LA River bike path.

In a comment yesterday, E. Lehrer asked,

Would you please help us out with an update on the work on the LA River bike path between the Zoo Dr. exit and Riverside Dr.?

Fortunately, Streetsblog’s Joe Linton’s provides near omniscience on subjects like this, writing last month that the work is scheduled to be finished this spring.

According to Linton, signage on site says it should be done by the end of this month. However, that’s likely to be delayed by this week’s rain, and could be delayed further by any future storms.

And that’s only if the city has its shit together, which is far from guaranteed.

………

Public radio station LAist offers an overview of the Healthy Streets LA ballot initiative in next month’s election, which has been endorsed by the Los Angeles Times, the LA Unified School District and a host of civic, social and worker organizations.

According to LAist,

This measure arrives after a year in which Los Angeles tallied more traffic deaths (337) than homicides (327). Moreover, critics say the city has ignored the law already on the books to make the streets safer for pedestrians and bicyclists…

Currently, the city is not close to achieving (its Vision Zero) goal of reducing deaths through needed street improvements. Measure HLA requires the city to make progress on the city’s Mobility Plan and to document it for the public.

The story also explains why Measure HLA, which is how the initiative is identified on the ballot, is necessary — my word, not theirs.

Michael Schneider, CEO of Streets for All, said that the measure is needed to spur compliance with the Mobility Plan. Eight years into the city’s 20-year-plan to make the streets safer, it has only implemented 5% of the plan.

“So if you do the math, that’s not a 20-year plan, that’s a 160-year plan,” he said. “Meanwhile, pedestrian deaths and just deaths from car crashes in general keep going up.”

CD10 Councilmember Heather Hutt announced her endorsement of the HLA initiative in next month’s election on Twitter/X yesterday.

Twitter post

On the other hand, CD11 Councilmember Traci Park appears to oppose the measure, after calling for a detailed report on the financial and structural impacts of Measure HLA.

She’s also asking for detailed reports on the measure’s impact on street resurfacing schedules, potential traffic changes, community outreach plans, funding strategies, and compliance with safety codes, in what appears to be an attempt to prevent its implementation by burying it in paperwork, even if it passes.

Park also claims the city has already implemented much iof the Mobility Plan, including more than 300 miles of bicycle lanes and other mobility elements.

Which has not happened.

Streetsblog’s Linton has kept a detailed log of the city’s bike lane mileage, showing just 222.7 miles of new LA bike lanes in the nine years since the Mobility Plan 2035 was adopted in 2016.

Much of which was not part of the Mobility Plan, which remains 95% unbuilt.

The city also counts sharrows as bike lanes, which studies show can actually increase the danger for bike riders. And it measures its annual output in lane miles, meaning bike lanes on each side of the roadway are counted separately.

So the real total is closer to 111 miles of roadway — much of which is low quality, if not actually dangerous.

It should also be noted that what Park is objecting to is not Measure HLA, but the Mobility Plan that was overwhelming approved by the LA City Council just nine years ago. And which was scheduled to be completed by 2035.

That’s before we were told it was merely “aspirational,” of course.

………

Redfin ranks the ten most bikeable cities in the US with a population over 200,000, none of which is Los Angeles.

Although Long Beach, with a population over 450,000, makes a surprising appearance at number seven, while San Francisco came in third behind Minneapolis and Portland.

Considering that Redfin is a real estate site, it’s worth noting that Minneapolis and Chicago are the most affordable cities on the list for home buyers, while Minneapolis and Portland are cheapest for renters.

So you can forward my mail to Minneapolis, when and if I ever hang up my hat.

………

A UC Santa Barbara bicycle repair shop was named Best of the Year for Domestic Small Higher Education by Interior Design, which says the building doubles as a work of art.

………

It’s now 50 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And 31 months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

………

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

A road-raging St. Petersburg, Florida woman faces charges for intentionally running over a man riding a bicycle, after using her car as a weapon by attempting to swerve into him several times before finally succeeding; fortunately, the victim only suffered a broken ankle.

No bias here. Brompton’s plans for a new eco-friendly, carfree HQ and factory hit an unexpected snag when British regulators ordered them to consider the poor, unfortunate folks who have no choice but to drive. Because evidently, bikes and shuttle buses aren’t a thing.

A Canberra, Australia driver says he’s had his issues with “the lycra-clad,” but finds it hard to argue against better bike lanes after witnessing the peak hour terror of lead-foot drivers zooming down painted bike lanes to bypass traffic.

………

Local 

Longbeachize explains the coming 51st Street Greenbelt in North Long Beach, which will include a bikeway connecting the L.A. River bike path and the Daisy Lane Bike Boulevard.

 

State

A San Diego man was seriously injured when he reportedly rode his mountain bike off a San Ysidro sidewalk, and was hit head-on by a 20-year old driver; the victim suffered an open fracture of his right femur, concussion, fractured hand, cut over his eye, and had two teeth knocked out.

Thousands of bicyclists will roll through the Coachella Valley this weekend for the 26th Annual Tour de Palm Springs fundraising ride.

A San Jose auto shop owner faces charges for his role in an international bike theft ring, allegedly fencing high-end bicycles stolen in daytime burglaries for resale in Mexico.

 

National

Velo continues their backward gaze for Black History Month with a recap of the early Black bicycling heroes of the late 19th Century.

Cycling Weekly says sex no longer sells in advertising to a new generation of bicyclists. I’d argue that it never did, but bike brands were slow to catch on. 

Bicycling recommends the 17 best Valentine’s Day gifts for bicyclists, ranging from a bicycle-themed pizza cutter to a portable tube with built-in flint lighter to stash your joint. Read it on AOL this time if the magazine blocks you. 

There’s a special place in hell for whoever used a pickaxe to steal an ebike a Minneapolis woman who planned to use it to help with her multiple sclerosis, before she even had a chance to.

An Ohio bike shop owner takes issue with Bike Snob’s Eben Weiss recent Outside column asserting that there’s no good reason to buy a carbon bike.

A Manhattan website says horse carriages are being squeezed out of Hells Kitchen by the newly widened 10th Street bike lanes, after numerous complaints from bicyclists about the carriage drivers using the bike lanes instead of the roadway.

The New York Fire Department shuttered a bike shop accused of assembling fire-prone “Frankenstein” ebike batteries.

There’s not a pit in hell deep enough for the New Iberia, Louisiana driver who simply drove off after slamming into two people riding their bikes, killing one and critically injuring the other.

 

International

Cyclist offers advice and product recommendations to increase your average bicycling speed.

Bike Radar provides tips on bike commuting in cold and wet weather. Most of which applies here in LA, since it focuses on British rain instead of snow.

A UK petition calls for boosting the maximum assisted speed allowed on the country’s ebikes from 15.5 mph to 20 mph; the country currently follows the European Union regulations, despite leaving the EU four years ago.

That’s more like it. A 29-year old British driver was sentenced to 11 years behind bars, and banned from driving for a whopping 17 years, for the hit-and-run death of a young mother as she rode her bike while driving on the wrong side of the road at two and a half times the posted speed limit; he had multiple previous convictions, was driving without insurance and out on bail at the time of the crash. Just another example of officials keeping a dangerous driver on the road until it’s too late.

Dutch police are rolling out new roadside mobile road test benches to determine if an ebike violates power and speed limitations.

 

Competitive Cycling

Outside is screening Dear 39th Street online; the short film traces the rise of South Central LA native and L39ion of Los Angeles founder Justin Williams, who they say transcends cycling by leading his team to victory after victory.

Bicycling reports that 100-year old gold medal cyclist Charles Coste will carry the torch at the upcoming Paris Olympics. Once again, read it on AOL if the magazine blocks you.

Take it back, damn it! A writer for Velo says the Eddy Merckx bike line is relaunching, following two years away after the brand was purchased by the maker of Ridley bikes — then has the temerity to question whether anyone even remembers the legendary Cannibal.

A British cycling group has advised anyone participating in a time trial to observe the posted 20 mph speed limits wherever they apply. Which could result in a mass tie if organizers can’t manage to plan a course around them.

New Australian pro Rudy Porter became just the latest pro cyclist struck by a driver while on a training ride; the 23-year old cyclist was lucky to escape without serious injuries while riding on the southeastern coast of France.

 

Finally…

If you’re headed to the Bay Area for the big ride this weekend, don’t bother packing your clothes. Apparently, you’re not too old to be president if you can still ride a bike.

And Bicycling says bicycling doesn’t have to be a pain in the butt.

Except for their paywall, of course, which is one.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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