My apologies for another unexcused absence on Friday.
One of the many insidious effects of diabetes is a dramatic decline in stamina; a handful of errands by bus was enough to knock me out all night, and most of the next morning.
On the plus side, at least I’m starting the week well rested.
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Ryan Fonseca of the Los Angeles Times takes a look at why killer drivers are so rarely charged with murder in California.
Although to be fair, it’s not just here.
From what I’ve seen, most drivers walk with just a slap on the wrist, no matter where it happens. If they get charged at all.
Here’s how he explains it.
First off, killing someone with a vehicle is simply viewed differently under the law. That difference is codified in California’s criminal law, where manslaughter — “the unlawful killing of a human being without malice” — is divided into three kinds: Voluntary, involuntary and vehicular.
The key difference between murder and manslaughter is intention. There’s also the idea of implied malice, or what’s sometimes called a depraved heart — when someone should have reasonably known that an act was potentially deadly, but they did it anyway.
This item will direct the city manager to expedite requests for stop signs, update the city’s guidelines to upgrade unsignalized intersections, update the process through which residents can report dangerous intersections, improve communication between SMPD and the Department of Transportation, update the Take The Friendly Road campaign, develop a proposal to allocate funding towards infrastructure in daylighting zones to address dangerous illegal parking, and more.
And this time, I actually managed to manage my diabetes well enough to stay awake to work.
So let’s get right to it.
And apropos of nothing, here’s an AI image of a corgi riding a tricycle.
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A couple quick reminders of events taking place today.
LADOT is hosting a virtual workshop to discuss building bikeways connecting neighborhoods on the Westside, which they could find in the city’s decade-old mobility plan, if they bothered to dust it off.
However, judging by their tweet/post, the actual time is on a need to know basis. But since you may need to know, it starts at 5:30 pm.
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The other event takes on a sadder tone, as street safety nonprofit SAFE — aka Streets Are For Everyone — will place a ghost bike for fallen Hollywood producer Bob George, who was killed in a dooring in East Hollywood last month.
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He gets it.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
Discover Los Angeleslooks forward to next month’s CicLAvia – South LA on December 3rd, the final CicLAvia of the year. Just my luck they had to schedule it on my sister’s birthday, when I will be otherwise engaged.
Streetsblog’sMelanie Curry takes Caltrans to task after Director Tony Tavares tweeted that safety is the agency’s top priority, arguing that if it is, it certainly doesn’t show. Maybe he can explain how wasting billions to widen freeways makes anyone any safer.
That’s more like it. An Iowa woman was sentenced to 20 years behind bars for the drunken crash that killed two men and injured another when she somehow mistook a bike path for a freeway onramp; she’ll have to spend at least 17 years behind bars before she’s eligible for parole. Which should give her plenty of time to sober up.
That’s more like it. Several members of the Dallas, Texas city council rode their bikes to work as the city works on its first new bike plan in a decade; one council member said he only felt safe on about half of his ride. Which is probably more than many of the city’s bike riders could say.
You’ve got to be kidding. Life is really cheap in Georgia, where a 28-year old man walked without a day behind bars for the hit-and-run crash that left a 60-year old man riding a bicycle with life-threatening injuries; he jumped a raised median with his car, striking the victim from behind and kept going despite literally running the man over. If you wonder why people keep dying on our streets, this is Exhibit A.
The sister of a fallen Welsh bike rider and two of his friends have refurbished the historic village pub where he used to hang out, and are re-opening it in his honor. Although someone should tell the Welsh news site about this nifty new invention called paragraphs, which would make stories like this much easier to read.
Three climate activists who halted this year’s Men’s Elite Road Race at the UCI Cycling World Championships in Scotland by gluing their hands to the narrow roadway got off with a firm admonishment from the local sheriff, while the fourth was fined the equivalent of $307.19.
He was taken to a local hospital, where he died sometime later.
The Camarillo Police Department reports he was wearing a helmet. However, they didn’t say whether he suffered a head injury, which is the only reason that would be relevant.
Anyone with information is urged to call Camarillo Police Traffic Investigator Anthony Zacarias at 805/388-5126.
This is at least the 52nd bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and just the second that I’m aware of in Ventura County.
November 8, 2023 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on WeHo council unanimously commits to protected bike lanes, and Emeryville mayor talks bikes with The War on Cars
It’s a slow new day, which is a good thing since I spent most of the night sleeping off the effects of riding the blood sugar roller coaster all day yesterday.
So let’s get right to it.
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West Hollywood has committed to building only protected bike lanes from here on.
The San Jose Mercury News’ Mr. Roadshow recommends wearing light clothing and reflective bands at night so drivers can see you more easily, and reminds bike riders to use the bike lane, while telling drivers it’s a no-no to use one to pass someone. Then again, some drivers wouldn’t see you if you had a rotating lighthouse attached to your bike.
Tragic news from Virginia, where an 80-year old man riding a bicycle was killed when he was rear-ended by a driver, who got a lousy ticket for reckless driving. Anyone still riding a bike at that age deserves a hell of a lot better.
An Irish man is asking for the public’s help after a pair of bicycles worth nearly $10,000 were “allegedly” stolen from a shed at his home. Which would appear to be a classic misuse of the term “allegedly,” since they were either stolen or they weren’t.
Heartbreaking news from South Africa, where members of a bike club are considering giving up riding entirely after a member of the club was brutally attacked by thieves who stole his bike as he lagged behind the group, and left him for dead; fortunately, he survived after being stabbed in the back, with the blade missing his aorta by a mere 2 mm.
Former Portuguese sports director Nuno Ribeiro received a 25-year ban for “trafficking, possession, and supply” of illegal substances including testosterone, cortisone and steroids; he’s a two-time loser, after he was stripped of one of his two Volta a Portugal wins for testing positive for EPO in 2009. But cycling’s doping era is over, right? Right?
The latest controversy dogging plans to complete the long-delayed LA River bike path comes from pooch owners in the lower San Fernando Valley, who are loathe to give up a sliver of the Sepulveda Basin dog park to make room for the pathway.
Other groups and neighborhood councils have joined the dogpile, adding their own voices to complaints over the location and $58 million cost.
The city is also planning a 6′ to 8′ fence to keep bike riders from “agitating” the dogs.
To be honest, it would seem to make more sense to build it on the south bank of the LA River if they can work it out, rather than the current plan to have the path start on the south side, switch to the north bank, then move back to the south bank.
But frankly, all I want is for the city to finally complete the damn thing.
She’d never complain about a bike path encroaching on her dog park.
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Sadly, the seemingly endless series of ghost bike ceremonies goes on in the City of Angels.
Streets Are For Everyone, aka SAFE, will install a ghost bike this Thursday at 7 pm at the corner of Edgemont and Fountain in East Hollywood for Bob George, the Hollywood producer killed in a dooring while riding in the bike lane on Fountain last month.
I’m told his widow, artist Yasmine Nasser Diaz, and his sister Jennifer will be in attendance.
SAFE is the nonprofit advocacy group founded by hit-and-run survivor Damian Kevitt with a goal of improving “the quality of life for pedestrians, bicyclists, and drivers alike by reducing traffic fatalities to zero,” according to their website.
Tessier appeared to be the victim of a hit-and-run at first, but police now believe he was killed in a high-speed fall when his bike hit the curb on the steep descent.
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Let’s just hope the day finally gets here when these damn things aren’t needed anymore.
According to the New York Times, commute times are down nationwide — including a 6.3% drop in Los Angeles — due to the lingering effects of the pandemic and work from home, although transit use has declined precipitously. Thanks to HombeDeBicycle for the heads-up.
A bike-riding trauma surgeon at the University of New Mexico Hospital is credited with saving the life of another bicyclist who had a heart attack while they were both riding on an Albuquerque trail; four other hospital workers who just happened to be nearby helped with CPR and chest compressions until paramedics arrived 20 minutes later.
Brooklyn bystanders stopped a driver from fleeing the scene, physically holding her down and taking her keys, after she jumped the curb and hit a bike rider and a pedestrian, critically injuring the latter.
November 6, 2023 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Narrower and fewer lanes save lives, a weekend of traffic violence, and passing ghost bikes on to the next generation
Ride or walk carefully today.
The day after the time change usually sees a spike in traffic collisions, so ride defensively for the next few days.
Not to mention encouraging drivers to speed, which increases both the risk and severity of crashes, as we’ve learned from other studies.
Narrowing traffic lanes also provides more room for other road uses, like wider sidewalks and bike lanes.
The key findings from the study include —
Narrower lanes did not increase the risk of accidents. When comparing 9- and 11-foot lanes, we found no evidence of increased car crashes. Yet, increasing to 12-foot lanes did increase the risk of crashes, most likely due to drivers increasing their speed and driving more carelessly when they have room to make mistakes.
Speed limit plays a key role in travel width safety. In lanes at 20-25 mph speeds, lane width did not affect safety. However, in lanes at 30-35 mph speeds, wider lanes resulted in significantly higher number of crashes than 9-foot lanes.
Narrower lanes help address critical environmental issues. They accommodate more users in less space, use less asphalt pavement, with less land consumption and smaller impervious surface areas.
Narrowing travel lanes could positively impact the economy. This includes raising property values, boosting business operation along streets and developing new design projects.
Even on high-traffic corridors that exceed Federal Highway Administration recommendations that road diets should be applied to roadways with fewer than 20,000 average daily trips.
According to the authors —
We found that collisions, injuries, and deaths were lower by 31.2% to 100%, depending on the measure, whereas traffic speeds were lower by about 6.7% (peak) to 7.9% (off-peak). We concluded that in Los Angeles higher-traffic-volume road diets appeared to significantly increase safety with only minor effects on traffic speeds.
Let that sink in.
Road diets on high-traffic corridors — even right here in the automotive capital of the world, where driving is considered a God-given right and obligation — dropped traffic deaths and serious injuries by anywhere from a third, to complete elimination.
And all with a minimal impact on driver speeds, taking a typical 40 mph driving speed down to a more reasonable 36.
Which isn’t going to make anyone late for dinner or to pick up the kids, while helping to ensure they’ll actually get there in one piece.
Two people were killed when a minivan driver being chased by police slammed into a Metro bus in DTLA early Sunday morning, after police reportedly saw someone toss a gun out the window of the minivan. Two people in the backseat, who weren’t wearing seatbelts, were killed while the two people up front survived with non-life threatening injuries; three people on the bus suffered minor injuries, including the driver.
Several people suffered minor injuries, and a number of others were lucky to escape injury, when an alleged drunk driver doing donuts lost control of her car, and slammed into a large group of people standing outside a Valencia bar. And almost needless to say, she fled the scene before she and her passenger were arrested — after reportedly changing seats to hide who was driving.
Video of the crash is appalling.
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Sad to think we need to pass this on to a new generation.
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Austrian stunt cyclist Fabio Wibmer goes for a ride through my Hollywood neighborhood, among other Los Angeles area sites.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
A Fresno woman was collateral damage in an apparent political dispute between a 60-year old pickup driver and a bike rider participating in a Pro-Palestinian demonstration, after the driver, who was allegedly under the influence, tried to speed off when the bike rider began punching him through the open window; the victim was lucky to escape with just a broken ankle, while the driver faces possible hit-and-run and DUI charges, while the bike rider could be charged with assault.
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Local
LAisttalks with new LADOT General Manager Laura Rubio-Cornejo, who swears her priority is to make every Angeleno and visitor feel safe on the streets, while revisiting the city’s nearly moribund Vision Zero program — but without making a commitment to the wholesale changes to our streets required to do that.
SoCal speed cams took a step closer to becoming reality in Los Angeles on Wednesday, when City Council Transportation Committee unanimously approved a motion to create an automated Speed Camera Safety Program when a new state law approving a pilot program in Los Angeles, Glendale and Long Beach goes into effect next year.
A Streetsblog op-ed by Jeanie Ward-Waller, former deputy director for planning and modal programs at Caltrans, relates how she was fired for doing her job, and speaking out when Caltrans officials tried to skirt the law to widen Sacramento highways. Maybe Newsom should just fire the people running Caltrans, and give her the damn job.
A Utah man gets screwed when someone stole a pair of ebikes from his garage, and his homeowner’s insurance refused to pay the claim, stating his policy doesn’t cover “motor vehicles” — even though the state classifies ebikes as bicycles.
Danish pro Jonas Vingegaard, two-time winner of the Tour de France, was awarded the prestigious Velo d’Or trophy for the year’s best cyclist, and was apparently so unimpressed he didn’t bother to show up for the ceremony; Dutch Tour de France Femmes winner Demi Vollering won the women’s Velo d’Or.
GCNtalks with Slovenian cyclist Matej Mohorič, who popularized the now-banned super-tuck position, about his upbringing and his quest to give a ‘higher purpose’ to his racing.
Remembering the good old days of the Tour de France, when doping meant raiding the local cafe to steal a little mid-stage booze.
