Campaign launch for Healthy Streets LA, funding sought for Ballona extension, and double murder trial for speeding socialite

January 17, 2024 / / 4 comments
Stop what you’re doing and sign this petition demanding a public meeting with LA Mayor Karen Bass to hear 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.

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The campaign for the Healthy Streets LA ballot initiative kicked off this week

The measure on the March ballot would require the city to build out the already approved Mobility Plan whenever a street gets repaved.

Here’s how California Local effectively framed the issue.

In 2022, a year in which 312 people died in Los Angeles traffic—more than half, 159, pedestrians—the city council in California’s largest city took up a measure that would have required the city to put new traffic safety features in place whenever it repaved a street.

The 15-member council rejected it.

Perhaps not surprisingly, 2022’s traffic fatality numbers, the worst in 20 years, only got even worse in 2023. That year, 330 human beings lost their lives in L.A. traffic, according to police statistics (the numbers did not yet include the final week of 2023). Now, in 2024, the measure, known as “Healthy Streets L.A.,” will get another chance, and this time the verdict will be up to Los Angeles voters.

The city approved the innovative Mobility Plan in 2015 to improve safety while providing safe and efficient alternatives to driving.

Then promptly put it on the shelf and forgot all about it; only a tiny fraction of the plan has been built out in the more than eight years since.

In that time, traffic congestion has only gotten worse in Los Angeles, and our streets even deadlier.

But now you can force the city to do what the city council didn’t have sufficient courage and political will to do, simply by casting your vote for Healthy Streets LA in the March 5th election.

And help make our streets safer and more inviting for all of us.

Twitter post

https://twitter.com/bikinginla/status/1747516957098934559

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Extending the popular Ballona Creek bike path took a small step towards becoming reality, as CD 10 Councilmember Heather Hutt introduced a motion directing Los Angeles officials to seek funding from the state Active Transportation Program.

The motion — council file 2023-0616 — will be heard at today’s meeting of the LA City Council Transportation Committee.

However, the proposal could be complicated by Gov. Gavin Newsom’s new budget, which borrows $200 million from future ATP spending to help close a budget gap that may or may not exist.

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Jury selection began Tuesday for 60-year old Hidden Hills socialite and philanthropist Rebecca Grossman, who stands accused of murder in the death of two young boys as she raced through Westlake Village at speeds up to 81 mph.

Grossman, the co-founder of the Grossman Burn Center, is accused of killing 8-year old Jacob Iskander, and his 11-year old brother Mark as they crossed the street more than three years ago.

The married woman was allegedly having an affair with former Dodger Scott Erickson, and was zig-zagging Erickson’s car as they raced to a nearby home after drinking in a local restaurant.

Neither car stopped after Grossman allegedly slammed into the two boys as they crossed the street with their family, while riding a scooter and skateboard.

According to the Los Angeles Times,

“The speed was insane,” (Nancy Iskander) said of the two SUVs. “They were zigzagging with each other as if they were playing or racing.

“They didn’t stop before the intersection. They didn’t stop at the intersection. They didn’t stop when an 11-year-old was on the hood of the car. … Nobody stopped,” Iskander testified.

In fact, Grossman continued nearly half mile after the collision that killed the boys.

The details of the crash are horrific, justifying the charges.

Grossman, 60, is charged with two counts of second-degree murder, two counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence and one count of hit-and-run driving resulting in death in connection with the fatal Sept. 29, 2020 collision. The murder counts are somewhat unprecedented as Grossman was not charged with driving under the influence, which is typically used to prove gross negligence in vehicular fatalities…

Jurors will probably hear from former L.A. County Sheriff’s Deputy Robert Apodaca, who specializes in traffic crashes. During the preliminary hearing, he testified that he calculated Grossman was driving 71.7 mph when she struck the boys and that the car computer showed 73 mph. Under cross-examination, he said the older child, Mark, was struck by the vehicle and thrown 254 feet, the farthest he has known a human to be tossed in a crash.

Another deputy, Rafael Mejia, testified he had found Grossman a third of a mile away from the crash, stopped at the curb and saying she didn’t know why her airbag had been triggered.

Everyone is presumed innocent until they’re convicted, even overly entitled accused killers.

Let’s just hope her money doesn’t buy an undeserved acquittal.

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27 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 columnist for the London Times wrote about a new study showing bike commuters enjoy better mental health, before devolving into a nearly deranged anti-bicyclist rant about “a mass of angry, intolerant, semi-psychotic Strava men.”

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Local 

No news is good news, right?

 

State

Former Caltrans deputy director for planning and modal programs Jeanie Ward-Waller is back working with Calbike as a consultant; Ward-Waller worked for the bike advocacy group prior to being hired by Caltrans, before she was fired by the agency after blowing the whistle on a Sacramento highway project.

California’s daylighting law is now in effect, prohibiting drivers from parking within 20 feet of a crosswalk, whether marked or otherwise; California law presumes there is a crosswalk at every intersection even if it’s not painted, unless there’s signage indicating otherwise.

Encinitas approved $1.1 million in bicycle safety improvements, a year after declaring a state of emergency following the death of a 15-year old Brodee Braxton Champlain-Kingman as he rode an ebike in the city.

Santa Barbara is the latest California city to approve a Vision Zero plan; the city intends to focus on bike riders and pedestrians in an effort to eliminate traffic deaths by 2030. But as we’ve learned from painful experience, any Vision Zero is only as good as the commitment of city officials to actually implement it. 

A Clovis man pled not guilty to misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter for crashing his $170,000 sports car head-on into a 51-year old Fresno college instructor and mother of five as she rode her bicycle, after he allegedly failed to negotiate a curve and crossed onto the wrong side of the road while speeding.

Sad news from Merced, where a 49-year old man was killed in a collision while riding his bicycle; police blamed the victim for wearing dark clothing and not having a light on his bike.

More sad news, this time from Sonoma County, where a woman was killed when she took a a curve at high speed on her bicycle and went off the roadway, crashing into a tree that had fallen near the shoulder.

 

National

Momentum rates the best American cities to live in for bicyclists. None of which is Los Angeles, of course.

A new short film streaming on Apple TV+, Amazon Prime and Google Play documents filmmaker Daniel Troia’s seven-month ride from New York City to San Francisco without food or money, relying on the kindness of strangers as a hidden camera captures the best and worst of humanity.

 

International

He gets it. Quebec’s coroner responded to the death of a bike-riding father killed by a speeding driver with a suspended license by calling for increased penalties for reckless drivers. There should also be jail time for anyone who drives on a suspended or revoked license.

Glasgow, Scotland is giving low-income residents free bikeshare memberships.

The London Cycling Campaign released a new report titled “What Stops Women Cycling in London?,” which reveals a “shocking” level of abuse directed towards women bike riders, with nine out of ten saying they’ve been subjected to abuse just for riding a bicycle. Although that probably only comes as a shock to most men. 

Ireland’s Minister of State accuses the country’s drivers of developing a culture of recklessness. Sort of like drivers in Los Angeles. And probably everywhere else.

A new Spanish study of eight cities around the world reveals that humble bike buses are a route to bicycle activism.

A 26-year old Indian man is riding from that country to Australia to promote environmental awareness.

Where to ride with family and friends on your next trip to the Unites Arab Emirates.

Here’s another one for your bike bucket list, as Cambodia has opened a new bike bridge to make it easier to visit the legendary Angkor Takeo Temple by bicycle.

Kiwi bicyclists gave scathing reviews to new “bland, ugly” barriers installed on a bike path to slow riders, while local officials insisted the barriers are working to prevent crashes.

 

Competitive Cycling

Thirty-two-year old Olympic gold medalist track cyclist Melissa Hoskins was remembered by family, friends and teammates at her funeral in her hometown of Perth, Australia yesterday; her husband, pro cyclist Rohan Dennis, faces charges for allegedly running over her after she fell from the hood of his pickup as she tried to open the door.

The Washington Post discovers the many joys of mucking through the mud that is Belgian cyclocross.

The fledgling National Cycling League announced the teams competing for this year’s cup, as nine of the teams who took part last year will return in 2024. Unfortunately, none are based in Los Angeles.

A bike transport company has finally released 186 bikes held hostage in a contract dispute following the Triathlon World Championships in Pontevedra, Spain last fall; however, the owners will have to retrieve them from a Los Angeles warehouse.

 

Finally…

There could be less shrinkage in Wisconsin, as the state senate voted to ban naked bike rides. Impress your family and friends with a doctorate in cargo bike urbanism.

And maximizing torque through weird bike engineering.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

Category: Morning Links / Tags: ,

Riding a bike to cure Blue Monday, results from LA’s Universal Basic Mobility pilot, and we’re #1 in hit-and-run

January 16, 2024 / / Comments Off on Riding a bike to cure Blue Monday, results from LA’s Universal Basic Mobility pilot, and we’re #1 in hit-and-run
If you haven’t already, stop what you’re doing and sign this 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 it — and keep sharing it — with everyone you know, on every platform you can.

………

Today is officially Blue Monday, a term coined by a British shrink to mark the “convergence of post-holiday blues, cold weather, and the realization that New Year’s resolutions might be more challenging than anticipated,” that accumulate around the third Monday in January.

But Momentum argues that riding a bicycle is the perfect way to beat the blues.

And forget the Prozac. A new study from the University of Edinburgh found that commuting by bicycle can improve mental health, and that people who bike to work are less likely to be prescribed antidepressants.

Photo by Burst from Pexels.

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Next City reports the results are in from the nation’s largest Universal Basic Mobility experiment.

LADOT and LA Metro teamed to give a “mobility wallet” to 1,000 lower-income South Los Angeles residents — a reloadable debit card providing $150 per month to spend on almost any form of transportation.

The key word is “almost.”

The catch? Funds can be used to take the bus, ride the train, rent a shared e-scooter, take micro-transit, rent a car-share, take an Uber or Lyft, or even purchase an e-bike — but they can’t be spent on the cost of owning or operating a car.

After the first six months of the one-year program, which ends in April, the biggest surprise has been the reliance on ride-hailing services.

According to data from the first six months of the program, the majority of estimated trips taken have been on public transportation (40,087 trips out of 67,379). The majority of the funds (about $500,000) have gone to ride-hailing or taxi services like Uber and Lyft, for about 26,000 trips at an average cost of $20.

You could buy a pretty nice bicycle for $1,800 for the full year.

But then you’d have to find a safe place to ride it, which isn’t always easy in Los Angeles. Especially in South LA.

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We’re number one!

Which should make us all feel like number two.

According to a study by Personal Injury Law Firm Suzuki Law Offices, California leads the nation for the rate of hit-and-run collisions in the state, with drivers fleeing in nearly 10.5% of crashes, compared to a national average of 6.3%.

Although seems low, given that other sources say nearly half of all crashes here in Los Angeles are hit-and-runs.

Either way, it’s too damn high. And long past time state officials actally did something about it.

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LA traffic safety organizations Streets Are For Everyone, Streets For All, Street Racing Kills and Santa Monica Spoke are teaming up for another die-in on the steps of Los Angeles City Hall on Saturday, January 27th to protest the ever-rising rate of traffic deaths in the City of Angels.

I won’t be able to make it this time due to yet another medical appointment, as my doctors work to keep my own body from trying to kill me.

So make plans to be there in my place, and demand that city officials hear us and actually do something to halt traffic violence, instead of the usual endless talks and studies.

Or just ignoring the problem, which is what they do best.

Along with the die-in, supporting the Healthy Streets LA ballot initiative in the March 5th election is a good place to start.

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I want to be like him when I grow up.

A short documentary from a professional filmmaker looks at his 90-year old grandfather, who still finds joy in riding a bicycle.

Then again, what’s not to love?

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26 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.

Men’s Journal blamed ebike battery fires for being a leading cause of death in New York City. They only missed the mark by a factor of 1,000.

A road raging London driver was taken away in handcuffs following an escalating dispute that ended with him knocking another man off his bicycle, throwing his bike away, and running over a passing bike rider who stopped to help.

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

Miami’s annual Wheels Up, Guns Down bike ride once again took over the streets of the city, but what originally began as a ride to end gun violence once again devolved into a two-wheeled street takeover, with teenaged bicyclists, as well as dirt bike and ATV riders, performing stunts in traffic and raiding convenience stores; police made over 100 arrests.

Four English bike riders were fined after police in Surrey stopped a group ride for running a red light, and posted video of it online.

A British teenager faces charges of causing grievous bodily harm and possession of an offensive weapon — the ebike he was riding when he crashed into a cop, seriously injuring the officer.

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Local 

The Los Angeles Times says don’t bet on AI reducing traffic congestion on California roads, despite Caltrans request for Artificial Intelligence companies to pitch AI products to cut congestion and improve safety, noting that nothing short of a global pandemic has had an effect on our traffic. So maybe the solution is providing safe and efficient alternatives to driving, instead.

Streetsblog looks at Safe Routes to School improvements in Koreatown.

 

State

No bias here. A new state report shows California cops stop Black drivers a whopping 132% more than expected, based on a comparison of stop data and residential population.

A writer for the Orange County Register says the climate was the big loser in Gavin Newsom’s new state budget.

Bad news from Ukiah, where a 75-year old man died after falling off his bicycle.

 

National

Velo argues both sides of the issue when it comes to vehicle warning lights to prevent doorings, suggesting they’re useful, but encouraging drivers to use the Dutch Reach by opening doors with their right hand is better.

Momentum talks with the founder of Black Girls Do Bike about the organization’s remarkable growth.

A new anti-theft light uses Apple’s Find My tech to locate your bike anywhere in the world. Which is great if a thief can’t simply remove it from your handlebars.

Seattle Transit Blog says building bike lanes is a good idea, but not if they’ll prevent future bus lanes.

While we continue to wait for California’s moribund ebike voucher program to launch, the small southwestern Colorado town of Durango is tripling the funding for its ebike voucher program, with $150,000 earmarked for the town of less than 20,000 people.

A DC food delivery rider keeps smiling, despite working 17 hour days with his foot in a surgical boot after he was struck by a car in September.

 

International

A new device from Red Bull can turn your bike into an ebike in mere seconds — the second time you use it, anyway.

Talk about bike riders behaving badly. A 43-year old man executed in front of his wife and toddler son as they returned home from a Brazilian bike ride turned out to be a notorious Serbian hit man who’s been on the run from Interpol for the last decade. Thanks to Steven Hallett for the link.

A new study suggests that Toronto police data captures only a small fraction of bicycling injuries, with police reports registering only eight percent of bicycling injuries compared to hospital and ER records over a five year period. The same would probably hold true for any large city, Los Angeles included.

I want to ne like her when I grow up, too. A Toronto woman is still riding at 77, after 56 years on a bike; despite the toll of age and a recent injury, she still feels more comfortable riding a bicycle in rush hour traffic than walking or driving.

Canadians are ditching their cars for bicycles, even in the cold of winter. Yet we’re somehow supposed to believe that Angelenos won’t bike to work in our much balmier climate.

A Scottish BBC presenter says he’s not afraid of dying, after doctors discovered an incurable brain tumor following a fall off his bicycle.

Serious bicycling injuries and deaths have jumped by a third in London over the past five years, far outpacing the 14% growth in bicycling rates over the same period, despite the city’s investment in protected bikeways and slow streets.

A writer for London’s Guardian asks whether tech giant Lime’s ubiquitous dockless bikeshare bikes and e-scooters are a “convenient and sustainable form of transport or a menace clogging up pavements.”

Speaking of Lime bikes, a defender for London’s Fulham soccer team was spotted riding one home following a loss to Chelsea, forgoing the usual luxury car.

An estimated 500 people biked through the streets of London to mark the 100th day since the October 7 Hamas attacks in Israel, including one man whose son died in the attack. Meanwhile, an Australian ride was marred by genocide graffiti sprayed on the wall of a Jewish community center. We’ll have photos from the Santa Monica ride later this week.

The Guardian remembers London’s Lycra lads circa 1987, bike messengers who “were fast, brightly dressed, sometimes earned decent money and rarely obeyed the Highway Code.”

That feeling when Pinarello’s “Fast and Furious new colorways,” aren’t.

Czech carmaker Škoda’s We Love Cycling website looks forward to eight women’s only bicycling events.

A 22-year old man in India built his own DIY solar powered ebike that seats up to seven people, for the equivalent of just $100.

A new study in the prestigious British Medical Journal shows Australian bicycling deaths have declined an average of 1.1% annually over the past 30 years — except for people over 60, who now make up 50% of all bicycling deaths. The authors suggest greater fragility among older riders, though the answer could be as simple as more older bike riders on the roads. 

 

Competitive Cycling

L39ION of Los Angeles unveiled its new team roster for the coming season, as co-founder Cory Williams and several team veterans move to Florida to compete for the Miami Blazers cycling team.

 

Finally…

Who needs a mere bicycle when you can pedal your very own velomobile? That feeling when you can’t tell if it’s a bike path or a slalom course.

And your next ebike could tell you where to go.

And how to get there.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

40-year old bike rider Alex Zavala died two months after October hit-and-run; 20th fatal SoCal bike hit-and-run last year

January 15, 2024 / / Comments Off on 40-year old bike rider Alex Zavala died two months after October hit-and-run; 20th fatal SoCal bike hit-and-run last year

This may be one of the saddest stories I’ve seen.

Late last month a crowdfunding campaign was posted online to help pay the funeral expenses for 40-year old Vladimir Zavala, who went by the name of Alex.

The page said Alex Zavala had died weeks after he was the victim of a hit-and-run while riding his bicycle.

But there were no details. No date for the crash, no location, no word on whether there was an arrest in the case.

It turns out that was because his family has no idea what happened or where.

According to a story from La Opinion, Zavala worked at a bicycle warehouse — likely meaning a bike co-op — and rode his bike everywhere, even spurning the car his mom bought for him.

But when Zavala didn’t come home one October night, his family searched for him everywhere, before eventually finding him lying in a coma in the intensive care unit of Los Angeles General Medical Center, suffering from head injuries, a broken his hip and missing his left eye.

His brother had to identify him, because he had come to the hospital with no identification.

It took a month for Alex Zavala to regain consciousness after the crash — then was somehow discharged despite bizarre ranting and speaking incoherently.

Then his mother came home from work one day in late December to find Zavala convulsing and bleeding from the ear; he died from a brain hemorrhage on December 20th.

If that was the end of it, that would be bad enough.

But the tragedy has been compounded because his family can’t conduct a funeral or bury Alex Zavala because they haven’t been able to get a death certificate, because the Medical Examiner’s office says they’re too backed up.

But I’m sure they’ll get around to it eventually.

To make matters even worse, the crowdfunding account was hacked, leaving Alex Zavala’s mother $25,000 in debt for his funeral expenses and burial plot.

A new crowdfunding campaign currently stands at a little more than $7,000 of the modest $8,500 goal. If you have a few extra bucks lying around, I can’t think of a better cause.

This was at least the 74th bicycling fatality in Southern California last year, and the 34th that I’m aware of in Los Angeles County; it may or may not have occurred in the City of Los Angeles.

At least 20 of those SoCal deaths have been at the hands of hit-and-run drivers.

My deepest sympathy and prayers for Alex Zavala and all his loved ones.

Thanks to Dr. Nina Harawa for the heads-up.

Category: Injuries and Fatalities / Tags: , , ,

Man killed riding bike in Hemet collision Saturday; driver arrested for DUI

January 15, 2024 / / Comments Off on Man killed riding bike in Hemet collision Saturday; driver arrested for DUI

That didn’t take long.

Just days after the year’s first fatal bicycling hit-and-run, we’ve now seen the first fatal DUI involving someone on a bicycle in Southern California.

According to the Hemet Police Department, the victim was struck by a driver traveling north on San Jacinto Street near El Nita Lane in Hemet around 6:30 pm Saturday.

The victim, described only as an adult man, was trapped under the vehicle when paramedics arrived; he died after being taken to a local hospital.

The driver was arrested for driving under the influence. There’s no word on their identity, or whether they are suspected of being drunk or on some other intoxicant.

Anyone with information is urged to call the Hemet Police Department at 951/765-2400, and ask for Traffic Officer N. Reineke or Corporal C. Nicot, reference report #2024-00245, or email nreineke@hemetca.gov or cnicot@hemetca.gov.

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

My deepest sympathy and prayers for the victim and his loved ones.

Category: Injuries and Fatalities / Tags: , , ,

Update: Man killed riding bicycle in Lennox hit-and-run last week; 1st confirmed SoCal bike death this year

January 14, 2024 / / 2 comments

So it begins.

A man riding a bicycle was killed in a hit-and-run in the unincorporated Lennox community of Los Angeles County last week.

Yet the only mention of the crash comes from a pair of legal websites, based on a CHP alert that’s not online anymore.

According to the sites, the victim was struck by a driver around 11:41 pm last Wednesday, January 10th, at the intersection of Hawthorne and Lennox boulevards.

The victim, described only as a man who appeared to around 40 years old, died at the scene.

The driver fled following the crash. The suspect vehicle was described as red Dodge Ram pickup truck; there’s no description of the driver at this time.

This is the first confirmed bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the first that I’m aware of in Los Angeles County.

It’s also the first fatal hit-and-run of the year.

Let’s hope the local media reports the next one, since they didn’t this time.

Update: The victim has been identified as 51-year old Cesar Hernandez. 

My deepest sympathy and prayers for Cesar Hernandez and his loved ones. 

 

Category: Injuries and Fatalities / Tags: , , , ,

NYT blames dangerous drivers for spiking road deaths, and LA & Ventura County rides for the release of Israeli hostages

January 12, 2024 / / One comment
If you haven’t already, stop what you’re doing and sign this 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 it — and keep sharing it — with everyone you know, on every platform you can.

Photo by Artyom Kulakov from Pexels.

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Today’s must read is a deep dive from the New York Times into the culture of driving to explain why traffic deaths are once again surging, thanks largely to dangerous drivers.

The relationship between car size and injury rates is still being studied, but early research on the American appetite for horizon-blotting machinery points in precisely the direction you’d expect: The bigger the vehicle, the less visibility it affords, and the more destruction it can wreak. In a report published in November, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a nonprofit, concluded that S.U.V.s or vans with a hood height greater than 40 inches — standard-issue specs for an American truck in 2023 — are 45 percent more likely to kill pedestrians than smaller cars.

Above all, though, the problem seems to be us — the American public, the American driver. “It’s not an exaggeration to say behavior on the road today is the worst I’ve ever seen,” Capt. Michael Brown, a state police district commander in Michigan, told me. “It’s not just the volume. It’s the variety. There’s impaired driving, which constituted 40 percent of our fatalities last year. There are people going twice the legal limit on surface streets. There’s road rage,” Brown went on. “There’s impatience — right before we started talking, I got an email from a woman who was driving along in traffic and saw some guy fly by her off the roadway, on the shoulder, at 80, 90 miles an hour.” Brown stressed it was rare to receive such a message: “It’s got so bad, so extremely typical,” he said, “that people aren’t going to alert us unless it’s super egregious…”

Then there’s the problem all of us seem to encounter sooner or later, as drivers cut traffic law corners for their convenience, and take their anger out on the most convenient targets.

And aggressive driving, defined by AAA as “tailgating, erratic lane changing or illegal passing,” factors into 56 percent of crashes resulting in a fatality. (Distressingly, this statistic does not cover the tens of thousands of people injured, often critically, by aggressive drivers, or the 550 people shot annually after or during road-rage incidents — or the growing number of pedestrians and cyclists deliberately targeted by incensed motorists.)…

Every year for the past decade and a half, the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety has published something called the Traffic Safety Culture Index — a kind of State of the Union of American roads. I had thought the 2022 edition was bleak (the headline from AAA’s news release: “Going in Reverse: Dangerous Driving Behaviors Rise”), but the 2023 report was equally grim. Of the 2,500 licensed drivers who responded to the AAA survey, 22 percent admitted to switching lanes at high speeds or tailgating, 25 percent admitted to running a red light, 40 percent admitted to holding an active phone while driving and 50 percent admitted to exceeding posted speed limits by 15 miles per hour or more — all within the last calendar month.

Worse, a sizable number of respondents said they knew that people important to them would somewhat or completely disapprove of much of the behavior. They did it anyway, despite the risk of opprobrium and despite the fact that, as the AAA dryly noted in an accompanying news release, “a motorist’s need for speed consistently fails to deliver shorter travel times. It would take driving 100 miles at 80 m.p.h. instead of 75 m.p.h. to shave just five minutes off a trip.”

It’s not a quick read. But it’s worth taking the time to read the whole thing.

Because this is the most detailed examination and best explanation I’ve seen for why things continue to get worse on our streets, despite Vision Zero plans — at least in the cities that have bothered to fund and implement them, unlike a certain SoCal megalopolis I could name.

And this is literally who we share the road with.

………

Thanks to Mitchell Guzik for forwarding more information on the LA and Ventura County editions of Sunday’s international series of bike rides calling for the release of hostages from the October 7th Hamas attacks on Israeli settlements, which we mentioned yesterday.

And you can find information on a Dana Point ride on the link to yesterday’s post.

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South Bay Forward offers a Twitter/X thread recounting the carnage on the South Bay section of SoCal’s killer highway.

Click through for the full thread.

Twitter post

Meanwhile, yet another apparent high speed crash on PCH in Malibu left one person with life-threatening injuries.

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22 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.

Unintelligible, “barmy” bike lane markings make British bike riders want to go back home and get in bed.

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

A 75-year old New York man died in the hospital, ten days after he was struck by an ebike rider while walking in the Jackson Heights neighborhood. But at least the bike rider did the right thing and remained at the scene following the crash.

A artist in New York’s Greenwich Village used a graphic novel format to illustrate the pain of getting hit by an ebike rider, along with a shoutout to the mayor calling for ebike licensing and registration.

………

Local 

SoCal Cycling considers why bicycle crashes happen, and how you can protect yourself.

Alhambra residents will get another month to review the city’s new bike/pedestrian plan, after complaints that it was released just days before it was scheduled for a vote.

 

State

Encinitas approved a new bike safety plan, including protected bike lanes, new striping, signage, and school entrances as the first step in addressing the city’s bicycling state of emergency. Maybe if other SoCal cities would declare a bike and pedestrian safety state of emergency, we might actually get somewhere. Are you listening, Los Angeles Mayor Bass?

The CHP is now offering ebike safety instruction in the San Diego region, as ebike riders present new challenges for the state highway patrol.

Goleta is hosting an Ebike Safety Awareness Week next week, after devoting a single day to the subject last year.

 

National

Yes, you can get in shape riding an ebike.

Three US companies are teaming up to introduce a non-flammable replacement for lithium-ion ebike batteries, which have been blamed for a number of deadly fires around the world.

A Denver man has struggled to find justice after he was struck by four e-scooter riders while riding a bike, after Lime refused to release the names of the people who rented them.

Momentum profiles New York’s Cargo Bike Momma, as part of their efforts to celebrate “cyclists with sass and attitude.”

New York installed K-rails to keep drivers out of bike lanes in the Bronx, but drivers somehow manage to park in them anyway.

A Facebook page memorializes New York food delivery riders who have been killed while working, with over 40 victims just since 2020.

Florida bicyclists have responded to the recent wrong-way crash on the coast highway that injured seven bike riders, two critically, by forming a coalition of ten bike clubs to demand safety improvements. Which is exactly what we need on PCH, where it would make a huge difference if all the bike clubs who regularly ride the killer highway would start demanding a safer roadway.

 

International

Bike Radar offers their choices for the year’s best endurance, race, women’s and entry-level road bikes.

That’s more like it. A British hit-and-run driver has been sentenced to six years and nine months behind bars for downing a bottle of vodka while high on weed, ecstasy and coke prior to killing a 54-year old man riding a bike.

France is now offering residents up to 2,000 euros — the equivalent of nearly $2,200 — on the purchase of a bicycle or ebike; the incentive program also includes refurbished bicycles from a professional dealer. Meanwhile, California’s moribund ebike incentive program continues to be nothing more than vaporware.

Electrek recounts a 2019 Danish study showing just 4.9% of cyclists broke traffic laws when riding on bike paths, increasing to 14% when bike paths were not present; that compares to previous Danish studies showing 66% of drivers broke traffic laws.

More people than ever are riding a New Zealand bike trail, which is also seeing a surge in vandalism and bad behavior, including prohibited motor vehicles.

 

Competitive Cycling

New Zealand’s Ally Wollaston won the first stage of the Women’s Tour Down Under to claim her first WorldTour win; 36-year old Aussie cyclist Matilda Raynolds led much of the race in a breakaway in just her second race at the WorldTour level, before being reeled back in by the peloton — despite riding without the aid of a cycling computer.

Former teammates remembered Melissa Hoskins ahead of the first stage of the Women’s Tour Down Under race, after she was killed falling off the hood of a pickup driven by her husband, pro cyclist Rohan Dennis.

Velo talks with the founder of the relatively rule-less LA Tourist Race.

 

Finally…

Who really needs a wheel hub, anyway? Then again, who needs a bike chain or belt drive, either?

And apparently, hover bikes and self-repairing frames are what you get when you ask AI to predict the year ahead in the bike world.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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