We have another late donation to last month’s 9th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive!
Thanks to Ralph D for his generous support to keep SoCal’s best bike news and advocacy coming your way every day.
Even though the fund drive is officially over, donations of any amount or reason are always welcome and appreciated.
Even if you just to help keep the corgi in kibble.
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If you haven’t already, stop what you’re doing and sign the petition demanding a public meeting with LA Mayor Karen Bass to listen to the dangers we face just walking and biking on the streets of LA.
Then share the petition — and keep sharing it — with everyone you know, on every platform you can.
A similar Bike Forum back when Antonio Villaraigosa was mayor of Los Angeles resulted in real change on the streets, as well as in how we were treated by the LAPD. All of which lasted right up until Eric Garcetti became mayor.
So after ten years of being ignored, we need to make the mayor hear us. Because as important as her efforts are to house the homeless, they’re not the only ones in danger on our streets.
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Today’s must-read comes, as it so often does, from Streetsblog’s Joe Linton.
Linton offers a recap of projects Metro and Los Angeles just didn’t get around to last year, which range from the resident-designed Complete Streets makeover of Colorado Blvd through Eagle Rock — which was delayed by a NIMBY lawsuit that was just tossed by the judge — to the failure to break ground on extending the LA River bike path through Vernon and DTLA.
Which means the latter could miss Garcetti’s promise to have it ready for the 2028 LA Olympics.
But he’s in India now, serving as US ambassador, so no one in city government or at Metro really gives a damn what he promised anymore.
In addition, Linton writes about the LA City Council’s failure to follow through on a motion to halt harmful road widening in the city, which passed the council with unanimous support early last year.
Then…nothing. City staff were supposed to write the text of the new law, and bring it back to the council within 60 days.
We’re still waiting.
Or they may not be, since Mike Bonin, the author of the motion, left the City Council to focus on his family in the face of withering abuse.
Maybe they’re hoping they can just sweep it under the rug and forget all about it, which seems to happen all too often these days.
Case in point, the City Council’s version of the Healthy Streets Los Angeles ballot measure, which they promised would be even better than the original created by LA transportation PAC Streets For All.
As Linton explains,
For a year, nothing happened on Safe Streets. (In fact, several city departments did the opposite, going on the offensive to undermine the legitimacy of the city’s own Mobility Plan.)
In August 2023, city staff posted a weakened, problematic draft ordinance (read Streets for All’s critique). The council never scheduled any public hearing which could have received public input and maybe fixed problems, thus strengthening the draft ordinance.
What seemed like the council’s urgent attempt to advance equity and safer streets turned out to be vaporware at best – or deception designed to split advocates at worst.
Now it’s 2024. In just two months, L.A. City voters will decide Measure HLA in the March 5 election. City departments are continuing their push to undermine Measure HLA, the Mobility Plan, and walking, bicycling, and transit in general (see for example Little Tokyo above).
Despite those efforts, Measure HLA continues to gain momentum, picking up endorsements, raising funds, and recruiting volunteers. Get involved via the campaign website.
There seems to be a lot of that kind of chicanery on Linton’s list, as city and Metro staff seem determined to slow walk and undermine desperately needed projects at every turn.
Not to mention a “pernicious double standard.”
The above list points to a pernicious double standard at Metro (one that SBLA has pointed out before). When it comes to freeway expansion, Metro staff and board are quick to insist that “we have to do this because it’s what the voters approved.” When it comes to transit (operations and capital), BRT, bike paths, etc., Metro is fine with delays, years of meetings, and scaling back and canceling projects – whether the voters like it or not.
If only Metro would act with the same urgency on equitable healthy modes – as it does for highway widening – but don’t hold your breath.
If I held my breath waiting for LA and Metro to act, I would have died of asphyxiation years ago.
And I’m not about to start now.
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The 2024 CicLAvia season opens next month with what should be a classic — four miles straight down iconic, countercultural and increasingly bougie Melrose Avenue.
Which was due for a much-needed Compete Streets makeover until former CD4 Councilmember Paul Koretz unilaterally cancelled it.
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Bike writer Peter Flax reminds us that as of this past Monday, you can legally ride your bike through an intersection on the leading pedestrian interval — that brief moment when the walk signal appears a few seconds before the light turns green for everyone else.
Although you might want to keep a copy of the law with you, because some cops may miss the memo.
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This is exactly what I mean when I say today’s massively oversized pickups and SUVs, with their high, flat grills, are designed to kill.
Unfortunately, the study doesn’t seem to be available in English yet.
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15 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And 30 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 Antonio, Texas TV station says police are looking for a bicyclist with a knife who stabbed an acquaintance after a squabble. Not, say, a knifesman or stabber who rides a bicycle.
No bias here, either. A British bike rider appears to speed up to avoid getting right hooked by a large truck turning across a protected bike lane. So people naturally blame the guy on two wheels, accusing him of “racing” the truck.
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Local
The CHP and LA County Sheriff’s Department are finally targeting speeding drivers on deadly PCH, where four Pepperdine students were recently killed by a driver doing up to 105 mph on the highway that serves as Malibu’s Main Street.
Santa Monica police will conduct another Bike & Pedestrian Safety Enforcement Operation today, ticketing any violation that could endanger bike riders or pedestrians — even if it’s a bike rider or pedestrian who commits it. The usual protocol applies, ride to the letter of the law today until you pass the city limit sign so you’re not the one who gets ticketed.
State
Orange County’s “Ebike Lady” volunteers her time to teach new ebike-owning kids how to stay safe on the roads.
Bakersfield news media are still talking about the bike rideout that devolved into hooliganism last month, even though it’s been over a month. Apparently, they don’t get much excitement up there.
Evidently, business owners and drivers aren’t the only ones who hate San Francisco’s new Valencia Street centerline bike lane, with bike ridership dropping — not rising — 50% since it was installed last April.
The Sacramento DA reportedly told the victim’s family that the kid who fatally shot a ten-year old boy with his father’s stolen gun last week won’t face any charges, saying the sole criminal responsibility lies with the father, who was prohibited from owning a gun as a convicted felon; his son reportedly shot the other boy after becoming angry over losing a bike race.
National
New graphene-based battery cells promise to end lithium-ion ebike battery fires.
A new study from Spin says improving bike networks could be the best way to keep e-scooter riders off sidewalks.
Spokane, Washington is considering a proposal to buy a “transformative” half-million dollar snow plow to clear protected bike lanes this winter.
Colorado has suspended applications for its ebike rebate program after running out of money due to unexpectedly high demand. Meanwhile, California’s seemingly moribund ebike incentive program still hasn’t paid out a dime, despite receiving an additional $18 million in funding.
Ohio bike lawyer Steve Magas, co-author of the classic book Bicycling and the Law, offers a neighboring state’s legal perspective on the Illinois Supreme Court’s bizarre ruling that bicyclists are merely permitted guests on most roadways. Meanwhile, a writer for a legal site blames Chance the Rapper.
A Nashville writer calls the city’s new mayor a “trusted advocate for the cycling community, yearning for safer, more accessible streets.” Although any Angeleno bicyclist suffering from hard-won cynicism might tell them to believe budgets, not promises.
A Charleston, West Virginia columnist calls on the city to make the streets safer, over two years after he went over his handlebars trying to avoid a right hook.
Florida’s Delray Beach unveils a new bike and pedestrian plan including over 52 miles of new bike lanes, although the hefty $100 million price tag suggests much of it may be wishful thinking.
No surprise here, as Florida once again leads the nation in bicycling deaths and injuries, with an average of 18 bicyclists injured in crashes every day.
International
Momentum says the “humble” bicycle offers the perfect way to overcome sedentary lifestyles and desk-bound routines to improve health as we start the new year.
Cycling Weekly says Strava data shows a 55% increase in gravel cycling over the past year, because “people aren’t as snooty or uptight,” according to one gravel convert.
Scotland has finally gotten around to banning the common British practice of parking on the sidewalk, though Edinburgh is one of the first cities to announce plans to actually enforce it.
He gets it. A Pudsey, England letter writer tells motorists to “See other road users as human beings — mothers, fathers, daughters, sons — not as obstacles.”
British bike riders bemoan flooded bikeways, and the country’s lack of response.
A divisional commissioner in Lahore, Pakistan called a special meeting to promote “cycling culture,” promising it would create business opportunities as well as a healthy urban environment.
Competitive Cycling
F1 Alpha Romeo driver Valtteri Bottas says he’s serious about gravel racing, after twice standing on the podium at Steamboat Springs, Colorado’s world-class SBT GRVL race, and creating one of his own.
Matthew van der Poel was fined 250 euros — the equivalent of $274 — for spitting at a group of unruly gravel fans he said were tossing beer and urine at him every time he rounded last weekend’s gravel course. Although to be fair, sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference between the two.
Cyclist offers five key storylines for the upcoming women’s pro cycling season.
Finally…
That feeling when your new lakeshore bike trail is a trial. When you’re riding a bike with outstanding warrants for car theft, try not to ride suspiciously.
And you clearly don’t want to mess with singer Elle Cordova, aka Reina del Cid.
Or her bike tubes, for that matter.
Thanks to David Wolfberg for the heads-up.
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Oh, and fuck Putin
