Police aren’t confirming yet that he was killed in a hit-and-run. That seems highly likely, however, though it’s also possible he may have lost control of his bike on the steep hill.
Anyone with information is urged to call LAPD investigators at 213/473-0234.
This is at least the 51st bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the 17th that I’m aware of in Los Angeles County; it’s also at least the ninth time a person was been killed riding a bicycle in the City of Los Angeles since the start of the year.
And he’s the 16th SoCal bike rider killed in the past 30 days.
If this is confirmed as a hit-and-run, it would also be the 18th time someone riding a bicycle died in a hit-and-run in Southern California this year.
Meanwhile, I’m told Streets Are For Everyone, aka SAFE, is working with the widow of fallen Hollywood producer Bob George to arrange a ghost bike ceremony, after he was fatally doored in a Fountain Blvd bike lane, and will invite everyone to show up to demand safer infrastructure when details are in place.
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The South Bay Cities are punting on safer streets and installing a 243-mile network of sharrows, which have been shown to actually increase the risk for people on bicycles.
In fact, recent studies have demonstrated that sharrows are worse than nothing in terms of bicycle safety, while their arrow motif appears to exist solely to help drivers improve their aim in an effort to thin the herd.
Better yet, the proposal would be implemented without removing any proposed bike lanes from the city’s General Plan, and could include upgrading existing facilities.
Like the bike lanes on Santa Monica Blvd, which currently provide convenient space for double-parking while waiting for a curbside space to open up in Boys Town.
Because as we all know, the convenience of drivers matters more than human lives in the City of Angels.
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For those keeping score at home, The Washington Post offers all the facts you need to know regarding the trial of Kaitlin Armstrong for the murder of gravel cyclist Moriah “Mo” Wilson on Austin, Texas last year.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
Bay Area bicyclists have filed suit against US Bank, after it allegedly installed a gate blocking a longstanding bike path easement used as a shortcut to access Mt. Diablo, forcing bike riders — including a high school and middle school mountain biking team — to ride a busy, steep and narrow highway instead.
Bicycling suggests the best forms of cross training to help reach your bicycling goals. Although I originally read that last word as “goats,” which would have made for a much more intriguing article. Unfortunately, this one doesn’t appear to be available anywhere else, so you’re on your own if the magazine blocks you.
Cincinnati Bengals safety Nick Scott is one of us, riding his ebike to work at the city’s stadium. Even if he thought the terrain in Los Angeles wasn’t conducive to riding in his four years with the Rams.
The Orlando, Florida man accused of murdering a couple riding their bicycles home from last year’s Bike Week festivities — the motorized kind — is back for another mental competency hearing, after he was diagnosed schizophrenia and hospitalized earlier this year.
Carson’s Velo Sports Center will host next years US Elite & Para-cycling Track National Championships, as well as the 2024 Pan American Track Championships.
November 2, 2023 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on LA Mayor Bass caves to Freeway to Nowhere NIMBYs, and new fed bill aims to protect vulnerable road users
But in true LA fashion, the mayor and other local officials were for it before they was against it, listening to the loudest angry voices instead of the voice of reason.
Now, though, my excitement as well as (Streets For All founder Michael) Schneider’s has given way to familiar feelings of frustration. True to form for NIMBY-indulging Los Angeles, the political support he believed was solid has suddenly turned porous.
That includes Bass: “I do not support the removal or demolition of the 90 Freeway,” she said in a statement last week. “I’ve heard loud and clear from communities who would be impacted and I do not support a study on this initiative.”
L.A. City Councilmember Traci Park agrees with her. After conducting a very unscientific poll of her Westside constituents, she wrote in her newsletter that: “The 11th District does not support the demolition of the 90 Freeway. Your voice is why Mayor Bass rescinded her initial support.”
L.A. County Supervisor Holly Mitchell told me that, despite rumors to the contrary, she never decided to back a study or tearing down the Marina Freeway, which abuts her district in the unincorporated neighborhood of Ladera Heights. “But it’s a moot point now,” she said.
As Smith makes clear, what they’re all now opposing is nothing more than a feasibility study.
No one, at this point, is calling for the actual destruction of anything. And nothing regarding this project would be done for years, if not decades, that would inconvenience motorists in the slightest.
The flip-flopping pols cite a lack of public outreach their rapid NIMBY cave-in. Yet the reason there hasn’t been any is simply because it isn’t time yet.
Extensive outreach would be a major part of the study, and there’s no reason to do any outreach now, because there’s nothing to actually discuss at this point.
In other words, it’s not that it hasn’t been done. It just hasn’t been done yet.
So what’s the problem in just studying whether the project is feasible and practical, or even wanted — without spending a dime of city funds?
If the mayor is going to cave to NIMBY voices this easily, it doesn’t bode well for getting anything accomplished on our streets during her administration.
Let’s just hope they don’t adopt, then ignore, the finished document, like a certain megalopolis to the north.
Twitter post
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Tell me again why you need an SUV to carry groceries home.
Twitter post
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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 Francisco letter writer complains that the bike lane on the Richmond-San Raphael bridge “is a joke, foisted on the 40,000 commuters” who use the bridge each day “by the loud and elitist bicycle lobby and its virtue-signaling political allies.” Never mind that the gridlock he complains about is caused by too many people in cars, and won’t be relieved by ripping out the bike lane.
No bias here, either. A British mayor faced criticism for his “abysmal failure” to fulfill a campaign promise to rip out a bike lane that has seen several bicycling and pedestrian injuries, in addition to being filled with illegally parked cars. But those injuries couldn’t possibly have anything to do with the parking problem. Right?
This is who we share the road with. The driver of a heavy electric truck somehow went airborne and slammed through the exterior wall of a pizza place in Hollywood. Which explains all the sirens and why there was a police helicopter circling around our apartment Tuesday night.
Denial is not just a river in Egypt. The Las Vegas driver who killed BMX champ Nathan ‘Nate’ Miller as he rode his bike in the city claimed he’s a good driver who never had a crash before — despite 19 previous tickets, including for driving without a license.
A Memphis newspaper says the city’s depiction as the nation’s least-bike friendly city doesn’t tell the whole story, and that bicycling in the city is amazing and getting better — despite a death rate 21% higher than average.
International
GCN suggests the best Christmas gifts for bicyclists. Can we at least put off the Christmas talk until we put Halloween a little further in the rearview mirror?
Life is cheap in the UK, where an “arrogant” speeding driver who killed a 77-year old man riding a bicycle while driving with traces of ketamine, cocaine and alcohol in his system, walked without a single day behind bars, as a prosecutor described his standard of driving as “just below” the threshold for dangerous driving. You would think that, regardless of the drug use, killing someone while speeding would be prima facie evidence of dangerous driving. But evidently, you’d be wrong.
A British self-described “cycling nut” is suing giant bikemaker Giant for the equivalent of over $243,000, after he broke his back in four places when the fork on his new carbon-frame bike separated from the steerer tube while he was riding, and the bike collapsed under him.
While state and local officials can and should take immediate action to make the road safer, such as putting in more traffic lights and getting permission to install automated speed enforcement cameras, it’s also time to rethink the configuration of PCH through Malibu. It’s a state highway that runs through the middle of the community. The road now caters to commuters and pass-through traffic. It could be redesigned to function as a local road with more sidewalks, traffic signals, bike lanes and crosswalks that force motorists to slow down and drive as though they’re in a city — because they are.
A road redesign won’t be easy. Sections of PCH through Malibu are squeezed between mountains and the ocean, leaving little room to add sidewalks or protected bike lanes without removing a traffic lane or parking or buying expensive property for widening. And it certainly wouldn’t be without controversy, given how many people rely on PCH for different needs. It’s a commuting route, a residential neighborhood, a business district and a destination for beachgoers.
It’s definitely worth reading the whole thing.
Because Los Angeles County’s killer highway is going to keep taking innocent lives until we make some major changes.
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Jury selection began Monday in the murder trial of 35-year old Kaitlin Armstrong, who faces up to 99 years behind bars for fatally shooting rising gravel champ Anna Moriah “Mo” Wilson in Austin, Texas last year.
Armstrong was arrested in Costa Rica after she allegedly fled the country to avoid prosecution, living under an assumed name as a yoga instructor, dying her formerly red hair, and reportedly having plastic surgery to change her appearance.
Prosecutors accuse Armstrong of killing Wilson for being the other woman in a perceived love triangle for the affections of pro cyclist Colin Strickland.
Armstrong added to the media’s fascination with the case by attempting to escape when she was taken to a doctor’s appointment last month, and trying in vain to climb a fence despite being handcuffed.
A road-raging British bike rider admitted punching a driver in a dispute over a close pass last month, arguing that he was clipped by the driver’s mirror. Violence is never the answer, no matter how justified it may seem in the moment.
The California Transportation Commission is holding a public meeting at 1 pm today, both online and in-person, to gather input on the state’s Interregional Transportation Improvement Program, which includes more bike and train projects, as well as flushing more money down the induced-demand toilet for highway projects; they’ll hold another meeting November 8th.
A 41-year old woman suffered a broken pelvis when a driver struck her bike in San Diego’s Point Loma neighborhood; police blamed the victim, saying she was riding with no lights and wearing dark clothing. Because evidently, cars down there don’t have lights that could illuminate someone directly in front of them.
A Texas city installs pretty artistic bike racks, including one that looks like a giant children’s toy. Because everyone knows the best bike racks are the ones no one uses because they don’t look like bike racks.
This is who we share the road with. A New York drunk driver allegedly caused a multi-car crash that injured eight people Sunday, after previously serving six years for the hit-and-run crash that killed a woman riding a bicycle. Just one more example of officials allowing a deadly driver back on the road, as well as argument for why hit-and-run drivers should lose their licenses permanently.
Which is the problem with news outlets mindlessly parroting police reports that too often contain major mistakes. Because the description of this crash doesn’t make any sense.
According to all three reports posted online, the victim was rear-ended by the driver while riding south on Van Nuys at Burbank Blvd, and dragged under the vehicle for multiple blocks.
Except both locations where the victim’s body was alternately described as being found at Calvert, or coming dislodged from beneath the vehicle at Hatteras, are north of the reported impact point, making it impossible to have been rear-ended while riding south.
It also seems extremely unlikely that the victim, described only as a homeless Hispanic man in his 40s, could have been found at Calvert after being dislodged at Hatteras. It’s possible he could have staggered nearly half a mile after being dragged by the fleeing driver, but I wouldn’t bet on it.
It’s also possible that the victim and the motorist were actually traveling north on Van Nuys, which would fit with where the victim’s body was dislodged, but would not explain the multiple locations.
Either way, the cops are now searching for a murderous coward in a red Toyota Camry or Corolla, who fled multiple block while dragging the victim’s body beneath their vehicle.
And if that’s not murder, I don’t know what is.
This is at least the 50th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the 16th that I’m aware of in Los Angeles County; it’s also at least the eighth time a person was been killed riding a bicycle in Los Angeles since the start of the year.
Seventeen of those SoCal bicyclists have been the victims of hit-and-run drivers.
The driver then continued south on Van Nuys, dragging the victim’s body nearly a mile to Van Nuys and Burbank. They made a U-turn at Burbank, dislodging the victim, before traveling north on Van Nuys then fleeing east on Hatteras.
Which means the victim, who died at the scene, was likely found at Van Nuys and Burbank.
The station also describes the suspect vehicle as an older model, light-colored sedan.
The driver remained at the scene. Unfortunately, that’s all we know at this time; there’s no word on who may have had the right-of-way.
The intersection is controlled by a traffic signal, with four through lanes and a left turn lane in each direction on Imperial. That could make it difficult to cross the wide highway in the span of a short traffic signal cycle.
This is at least the 49th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the 15th that I’m aware of in Los Angeles County; it’s also at least the seventh time a person was been killed riding a bicycle in Los Angeles since the start of the year.
