News broke last night that a man suffered major injuries when he somehow swerved into a car while riding in San Jacinto Saturday evening.
It seemed unlikely then.
It seems more unlikely now, after learning the victim has died.
According to My News LA, 74-year old Hemet resident Pedro Garcia was fatally injured he as he was riding in the right lane on southbound Lake Park Drive, below Soboba Road, in San Jacinto around 6:30 pm Saturday.
Riverside County Sheriff’s investigators allege Garcia somehow swerved left for no apparent reason and crashed into the side of a passing car, falling into the roadway.
He was taken to Riverside University Health System Medical Center in Moreno Valley, where he died at 11:13 pm.
The driver remained at the scene and called for help.
It’s possible that Garcia may have moved to his left without looking, or hearing the car coming up beside him.
However, it seems more likely that the driver may have been passing too close, or swerved to his right and sideswiped Garcia’s bike.
Particularly if there were no independent witnesses who observed the crash. Which seems likely, given the remote location on a weekend evening.
It’s also extremely difficult to pinpoint the exact position of a bicycling collision, due to the lack of skid marks or other forensic evidence.
Unfortunately, Garcia isn’t around to give his side of the story, which leaves the driver’s statement as the only evidence for deputies to base their investigation on. And drivers have a vested interest in seeing their own actions in the best possible light, regardless of the circumstances.
Anyone with information about this incident is urged to call Deputy Ray Cortez of the San Jacinto Sheriff’s Station at 951/654-2702, or the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department at 951/776-1099.
This is at least the 27th bicycling fatality in Southern California already this year, and the seventh that I’m aware of in Riverside County.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for Pedro Garcia and his loved ones.
March 25, 2022 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Hit-and-run driver busted in death of 15-year old Riverside boy, and Metro active transportation virtual meeting next week
Maybe there will be justice for Javier Gonzales after all.
SoCal’s killer highway continues to claim new victims.
I’m told the victim works at the Getty Villa, which leaves no viable option to commute by bike other than PCH, which continues to operate as a cut-through highway when it should be Malibu’s Main Street.
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
In a prime example of too little, if not too late, Las Vegas area cops clamped down on drivers who endanger bike riders, enforcing traffic laws and educating motorists on how to share the road — for a whole four hours. Now they just need to do something the other 8,756 hours in the year.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
Police busted a man who robbed a Kansas gas station, then made his getaway by bicycle. Maybe he was really just an anti-car freedom fighter raising funds for the rebellion. It could happen.
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Local
No bias here. The Hancock Park Homeowners Association hosted a candidate forum for the people running to replace Paul Koretz in CD5 — but notably excluded former Mid City West Neighborhood Council chair Scott Epstein, a longtime supporter of a bike-friendly street on 4th Street opposed by the wealthy neighborhood.
Black and brown Colorado bike riders say the state’s proposed Stop As Yield law, aka the stop sign part of the Idaho Stop Law, would keep them safer from both cars and cops, reducing the risk of Biking While Black or Brown stops that target people of color, as well as reducing potentially dangerous interactions with police. Maybe that argument that would finally get a California bill past Newsom’s veto pen.
A Florida man was convicted — again — of killing a teenaged boy over a stolen bicycle when he was just 15 years old. The victim had purchased the boy’s stolen bicycle, not knowing it was hot, then offered to sell it back to him for just $10; he returned with a gun after riding the bike home because he felt disrespected. The original conviction had been overturned because police had questioned him after he requested a lawyer. We’ve said it before — no bike is worth taking or sacrificing a life. Period.
Life is cheap in Jersey, where a 67-year old driver walked with the equivalent of a $6,500 fine for the right-cross crash — the equivalent of a left-cross in the US — that likely left a bike-riding woman with lifelong pain from a broken back, fractured rib and collapsed lung.
March 24, 2022 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on 26-year old man on bicycle killed by ice cream truck driver in San Marcos crash; victim reportedly under the influence
At least the driver stuck around this time.
Several nearlyidenticalsourcesare reporting a man riding a bike was killed by the driver of an ice cream truck in San Marcos Wednesday night.
According to witnesses, the victim, identified only as a 26-year old man, was riding southwest across the intersection against a red light, when he was struck by the driver turning west onto Mission.
The only way that makes sense is if he was riding south on Pico, and was struck in a left cross when the driver turned with the left arrow, which would mean the driver had a red light.
He died at the scene.
San Diego sheriff’s deputies were quick to blame the victim, suggesting that he may have been under the influence, and said he wasn’t wearing a helmet.
There’s no word on why they suspect he was drunk, however. And as we’ve noted before, whether or not he had a helmet only matters if he died of a head injury, or if the collision might have been survivable with one.
That’s questionable, given that video from the scene shows it was a full-size food truck, rather than a smaller van, that hit him.
Use caution viewing the video, though, since it shows a blurred shot of the covered victim lying in the street next to his bike.
This is at least the 26th bicycling fatality in Southern California already this year, and the second that I’m aware of in San Diego County.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for the victim and his loved ones.
But despite the agency’s professed commitment to Complete Streets, they’re not including bike lanes, even though the roadway will be wide enough to accommodate them at some distant, unspecified date.
Because evidently, they just can’t find a few extra bucks in that $26 million budget for a couple more cans of white paint.
California Governor Gavin Newsom is once again throwing money around prior to an election.
But this time, it goes out to everyone but us.
At stake is the governor’s proposal for a $400 per car rebate for drivers, in lieu of freezing the gas tax as a sop to people complaining about rising gas taxes.
The money would go out to everyone with a car registered in California, for up to two vehicles, no matter how wealthy the owner, or how environmentally destructive the vehicle is.
Or if it even uses gas.
Meanwhile, transit riders would get a three month fare reprieve. And a relatively paltry $500 million would go towards active transportation projects in the state.
The gas tax is about 50 cents per gallon. A $400 rebate therefore subsidizes someone's tax payments on 800 gallons of gasoline. That's 19 barrels of gasoline per registered car. Those 19 barrels, or 800 gallons, weigh nearly 5,000 lbs. Imagine burning 5,000 lbs of gasoline. https://t.co/Lq58vtCtZR
– $9 billion in direct payments to car owners – $2 billion in relief for public transit & to pause portion of diesel sales tax and increase to gas/diesel excise tax – $500 million to support active transportation programs (such as walking, biking projects)
In other words, Newsom is doing everything in his power to maintain the automotive hegemony on our streets, regardless of the environmental damage, rather than use the crisis as an opportunity to make a sea change in how people get around in our state.
And not one penny to the people who did the right thing, and made the sometimes difficult, but environmentally sound, decision to give up their cars.
Instead of rebates to car owners who don’t need them — and in many cases, should have purchased a less wasteful and destructive vehicle to begin with — Newsom should make all transit systems within the state free.
Not just for three months, but permanently.
He should also pay people a monthly stipend to walk or bike to work instead of driving — enough to actually get people out of their cars. Then use the remaining funds to build the infrastructure necessary to support it.
Instead, we’re just doubling down on the same problems that got us here in the first place.
And learning absolutely nothing from the last gas crisis, while just setting us up for the next one.
In a miraculous escape, a 9 year old boy ended up without any serious injuries after his cycle was hit by a state transport bus in Kerala's Kannur. WATCH!#Kannurpic.twitter.com/IU6HWcIpry
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
No bias here. A Santa Barbara letter writer and former “frequent bicyclist” complains about the “bike lobby” that has “gained outsized power in the city government,” while conflating off-street bike paths with on-street bike lanes, and complaining that few people who ride the bike paths are riding to work. And that people in cars, who are apparently far more important than bike riders, really, really need their parking spaces. Although someone should ask him why he stopped riding, and if it had anything to do with a lack of safe bikeways.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
An anonymous Portland writer complains about “asshole bicyclists” who ignore No Bikes Allowed On Trails signs to ride on walking trails in environmentally sensitive areas. Aside from making it clear he or she is as much of an a-hole as the people they’re complaining about, the writer has a point. Never ride where you could cause real harm to fragile landscapes.
Police in Ohio are looking for a hit-and-run bike rider who slammed into the side of an SUV after running a stop sign, and took off on foot when the driver called the police.
A Sebastopol winemaker faces up to 12 years and eight months behind bars after pleading guilty to the drunken crash that took the life of a bike-riding man, and cost the leg of a 12-year old boy who just happened to be riding near him; or he could walk with just time served. Ulises Valdez Jr. was nearly twice the legal blood alcohol limit following the collision.
Bicycling offers a clickbait slideshow with their recommendations for the ten best women’s bike helmets for any kind of rider.Because why let someone just scroll to the one that suits them when you can get a few extra clicks? As usual, you can read it on Yahoo if the magazine blocks you.
This is the cost of traffic violence. A speeding San Antonio, Texas mom lost control and rolled her car, killing an innocent 18-year old bike rider, while injuring herself and her baby. Anyone who drives like that with a baby in the car should have either the car or the baby taken away.
Houston police were quick to blame the victim after a bike rider was killed by a dump truck driver in a pre-dawn crash, accusing him of darting in front of the truck in what appears to be a single witness crash. Which seems somewhat unlikely, since most bike riders try to stay the hell away from massive trucks.
They get it. A Halifax, Nova Scotia newspaper says SUVs are driving us to climate calamity, adding it will never be environmentally sound to use two tons of material to move roughly 200 pounds of human.
Luxembourg — the city, not the country, although the city is in the country — announced plans for seven new bike boulevards, joining three successful bike boulevards opened last year. Although someone should tell them that bikes and cobbles like the ones in the photo aren’t the best combination.
Another day, another bike rider murdered by a hit-and-run driver.
According to My News LA, El Monte police are searching for a driver who didn’t have the basic human decency to stick around after running down a man riding a bicycle.
The victim, identified as 59-year old El Monte resident Ruben Vicario, was struck at Lower Azusa Road and El Monte Ave around 9 pm Tuesday.
He died at the scene.
The suspect vehicle was described as a red or burgundy 2019-2021 Toyota sedan; no description was given for the driver.
There’s no word on how the collision occurred.
Anyone with information is urged to call the El Monte Police Department at 626/580-2100.
This is at least the 25th bicycling fatality in Southern California already this year, and the eighth that I’m aware of in Los Angeles County.
Ten of those SoCal deaths have been hit-and-runs, including the last four in a row.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for Ruben Vicario and his loved ones.
LADOT shows off the freshly painted — and soon to be bollard protected — bike lanes on Riverside Drive.
Check out the new safety improvements done by #OurDOTCrew at Riverside Drive! Recently, we added pavements markings, including bike lanes for protected bike lanes, and updated crosswalks between Los Feliz Blvd and Glendale Blvd. Final markings and bollards will be installed soon! pic.twitter.com/XYwXp5FLVV
If someone loaned you a bike pump during Sunday’s Marathon Crash Ride, LA Bike Dad would like it back, please.
#bikeLA: I loaned my bike pump to a stranded rider on Sunset Blvd near Saddle Ranch during #crashthemarathon. Pls pass the word that if they lost my phone # just dm me to arrange to give it back :). Thx! pic.twitter.com/6sytwpmUjo
Hi @AAAnews might I suggest a slight revision of this advice to drivers. Perhaps I might propose this wording: "Don't ever use your horn to notify or startle riders, especially kids. Instead just focus on slowing down and giving them plenty of space." pic.twitter.com/TUR8Ut2Yff
Time to take those baseball cards out of your spokes. The California Senate Transportation Committee has approved a bill that would allow six cities, including Los Angeles and San Francisco, to use automated noise monitors to ticket loud cars and motorcycles, similar to red light cams.
San Francisco continues their successful quick-build program, approving plans for a buffered and parking-protected bike lane on Evans Ave, despite a lack of protection in some areas. To which Los Angeles responds, “Wait. How can you build something without years of public meetings to water it down until it doesn’t offend or protect anyone?”
They get it. Davis police blame an inattentive driver for pulling out of a parking lot without looking, cutting off a seven-year old girl riding her bike with her grandmother and siblings, and dragging her under the wheel well; fortunately, she’s expected to recover after surgery to repair a broken leg.
Bicycling wants to tell you how to choose the best bike lights.But only if you subscribe, since this one doesn’t seem to be available on Yahoo.
More on the Fox News meltdown over Joe Biden’s bike ride on the beach, as Eric Trump questions what message it sends the world when the president is riding a beach cruiser in the middle of a weekend day. Maybe that it’s not time to panic, and it’s okay to take a breath before diving back in to save the world.
This is what we need in Los Angeles. Eight Seattle bike riders are suing the city over injuries they received while struggling to ride through an unfinished section of a popular bikeway. If every LA bike rider who was injured on one of the many unbuilt bikeways contained in the mobility plan sued the city over it, we might actually force them to build out the damn thing.
Colorado corrected a well-intentioned mistake by legalizing Stop As Yield, aka the Idaho Stop, throughout the state. A previous version of the law allowed individual jurisdictions to approve it, resulting in a patchwork where a bike rider could legally roll a stop in one city, and get ticketed for it in the next.
This is who we share the bike path with. A Montana driver was busted for his 4th DUI in 12 years when he was stopped for driving on a Kalispell biking and walking path. Just one more example of authorities keeping dangerous drivers on the road. Probably not the best idea to threaten the cop, either.
Sad news from the DC area, where a beloved bike advocate and bike race organizer was killed when he was run down from behind by a van driver while riding in Maryland; 51-year old Shawn Blumenfeld rose from a bike courier to a respected leader in the bicycling community.
A DC driver kept apologizing after blowing through a stop sign, and hitting a father with his two-year old daughter on the back of his bike; the little girl suffered a small skull fracture, despite her father positioning his bike so he took the brunt of the impact. Maybe instead of apologizing, just don’t run stop signs and try not to crash into people on bicycles.
Scary/funny moment in Spain’s Volta a Catalunya, where Mattias Skjelmose Jensen went over the side of the road. And rose up from the deep drop demanding a new bike before heading off to a top ten finish.
March 22, 2022 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Bike-riding man left to die by hit-and-run driver in Cypress Park; 9th fatal SoCal bicycling hit-and-run this year
Yet another bike rider has been murdered by a hit-and-run driver.
According to the LAPD, the victim was riding east on San Fernando Road near Pepper Street when he was rear-ended by an unknown driver around 7:15 pm.
The victim was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. He was described only as a man in his 50s or older, which suggests that he has still not been identified three days after his death.
Police investigators have been unable to find any witnesses to the crash, but are attempting to identify the suspect vehicle from debris left at the scene.
The crash occurred somewhere near the park. It happened just minutes after sunset, so victim should have still been visible, with or without lights.
Anyone with information is urged to contact LAPD Detective Berdin at 213/833-3713 or email 31958@lapd.online.
This is at least the 24th bicycling fatality in Southern California already this year, and the seventh that I’m aware of in Los Angeles County. It’s also the fourth that has been publicly reported in the City of Los Angeles.
Nine of those SoCal deaths have been hit-and-runs.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for the victim and his loved ones.
Thanks to Streetsblog’s Joe Linton for the heads-up.
That video we linked to yesterday showing a BMX rider educating a Long Beach cop and standing up for his right to ride may not have gotten it right after all.
This comment from Steve suggests that the cop may have been right, if the video was filmed after 10 am, and the riders were going any faster than a slow walk.
Re schooling the cop…the law was a bit more complex and of course no one bother to look the law up and read it. Typical. the cop was right (unless the riders were under 3 mph..looks like it was daylight hrs from the video..after 10 am?)
§ 16.08.502. Bicycles on Rainbow Harbor Esplanade.
Latest version.
Bicycle riding on the Rainbow Harbor Esplanade is prohibited in excess of three (3) miles per hour between the hours of ten o’clock (10:00) a.m. and ten o’clock (10:00) p.m., except City employees in the performance of their duties.
Although personally, I wouldn’t mind seeing someone crowdfund money for a cruise missile pre-programmed for Putin’s dacha.
But maybe that’s just me.
………
A DC website says maybe the viral bike rider shown below giving the so-called “People’s Convoy” truck driver’s protest a taste of their own medicine was just demonstrating safe urban bicycling skills.
Why wouldn’t William Shatner ride an ebike accompanied by a robed gospel choir?
Born on this day, March 22, 1931: William Shatner, actor, here commanding a gospel choir e-bike parade in a commercial for Pedego electric bicycles. Happy #bicyclebirthday, William!#BOTD
The accused hit-and-run driver who killed an older married couple riding their bikes in Tucson, Arizona Saturday morning claims he blacked out and has no memory of the crash; he admits to drinking and getting stoned the night before, and was still apparently wasted at the time of the 10 am wreck.
San Antonio, Texas bicyclists say a poorly designed bike trail crossing that hides oncoming traffic from view was responsible for a bike rider’s death. The crossing calls for bicyclists to dismount and walk their bikes across the street, demonstrating that the people who designed it live in an alternate reality.
Retired pro cyclist Dan Craven is starting a new brand of handmade steel frame bicycles in his native Namibia to help put skilled craftsmen to work in his home town of Omaruru; the brand name Onguza “comes from the Namibian word ‘okuti-onguza’, meaning ‘the great expanse of desert out there’ in the Himba and Herero languages.”
It’s your responsibility to learn the laws governing bike use where you live. That starts with CVC 2102 for those of us in California, which clearly specifies our right to the road, with a long list of exceptions to the requirement to ride to the right.
Although maybe try to show a little more respect for the cop than this guy did. Regardless of your attitude towards the police, as LAPD officers have explained to me, you never want to count on a cop having a good day.
If you can’t convince them of your rights, don’t push it. Just take the ticket, and take it up with their supervisor.
— Benjamin Young Savage (ᐱᓐᒋᐱᓐ) (@benjancewicz) March 20, 2022
Or at least, they were.
We are asking the public to no longer send us any more tips regarding @dominykasor We have reached out to him on his social media account. We are asking any witnesses to also come forward. pic.twitter.com/vFBASt8MQD
I just talked to street services supervisor James Hawkins. Resurfacing is happening, but the reason it shows the DTLA protected lanes is because the flyer was copied/pasted from that project: "Whatever your bike lane looks like now, it will still look like that when we're done" https://t.co/GMDooLk1Bb
Erik Griswold calls our attention to Pomona’s parking addiction, combined with Caltrans instance on a minimum of 11-foot traffic lanes, standing in the way of a protected bike lane on Towne.
Towne between Baseline and Foothill. A small strip of it is in Pomona to allow the residents of the apartment complex on the western side to park overnight on the street (overnight parking illegal in Claremont) and Pomona won’t give this up. 10-foot lanes would free up space. pic.twitter.com/vzRSokrS6L
— erikgriswold.bsky.social (@erik_griswold) March 20, 2022
Now free 24/7 on-street parking for the neighboring town is resulting in probable sharrows. This is a street notorious for speeds above the posted 40 mph.
“Complete Streets” is truly horseapples.
And we wonder why nobody takes bicycles seriously?
Streetsblog considers Burbank/Glendale state Assemblymember Laura Friedman’s proposed bicycle omnibus bill, which would allow ebikes capable to traveling up to 28 mph on most bikeways, ban mandatory local bike registration laws, require drivers to change lanes to pass, and clarify that bike riders are allows to cross intersections during the leading pedestrian interval.
The rich get richer, as newly bike-friendly San Diego opens a 3.5-mile bike path through the North Park, Normal Heights and University Heights neighborhoods. Which is exactly where I used to live and ride in the city’s notoriously bike unfriendly days, just a few decades too late to do me any good.
The family of a Bakersfield woman is demanding answers after she was killed riding her bike on a street that’s seen 28 traffic deaths in just two years, while Caltrans belatedly discusses a plan to improve safety by removing a lane and adding cycle tracks.
DC is encouraging teachers and other school employees to leave their cars at home by paying them $200 a month to commute by bike, whether at public, private or charter schools. Now make that benefit available to everyone who chooses not to drive to work.
Alt Tour cyclist Lachlan Morton is back to doing good deeds, planning a 660-mile nonstop ride from Munich to the Polish-Ukrainian border to raise money for the Ukrainian people. The 30-year old pro cyclist raised around $700,000 last year by riding the entire Tour de France route solo, and still getting to Paris five days before the peloton.
An Indian man was killed in a bizarre chain-reaction crash, when a group of kids threw water balloons at a truck carrying wood for a bonfire, but missed the mark and hit a man riding a motor scooter, who crashed into a bike rider, killing him.
Bicyclingprofiles 15-year old Maize Wimbush, who recently became the first Black woman to win a US national championship, after taking the title in the 15 to 16-year old junior women’s road race. As usual, read it on Yahoo if the magazine blocks you.
The county, which has averaged nine bicycling deaths per year for the past three years, had already suffered six deaths, less than three months into the year.
The driver remained at the scene, and was not suspected of being under the influence; needless to say, no arrest was made and no one was ticketed at the scene.
There is a narrow paved shoulder on Indian Canyon, a painted stripe the only protection from drivers speeding by at — or more likely above — the posed 55 mph speed limit.
There’s no other information available at this time. No word on which direction they were both traveling, or why the driver wasn’t able to avoid someone on a bicycle in the early morning darkness, over an hour before sunrise.
Anyone with information is urged to call the Traffic Division of the Palm Springs Police Department at 760/323-8125.
This is at least the 24th bicycling fatality in Southern California already this year, and the seventh that I’m aware of in Riverside County.
Which is too damn many.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for the victim and his or her loved ones.
