Then share it — and keep sharing it — with everyone you know, on every platform you can.
We’re slowly gaining signatures, up to 1,027 now, so keep it going! Urge everyone you know to sign the petition, until the mayor agrees to meet with us!
………
It was a light bike news day yesterday. So if no news is good news, this may be one of my best pieces ever.
The better news is, that means you can get out on your bike that much sooner today.
The woman’s attorney argued that the she suffers permanent pain, and was forced to pay hundreds of thousands in medical bills tripping in the pothole, which was shaded by a parked car.
Kwan told CVN he believed the combination of Walmart’s alleged failure to comply with their own safety policies and the extended time the pothole was allowed to develop brought the jury over to his side.
“We presented evidence that Walmart never enforced their own ‘Parking Lot Safety’ policy, which states they must regularly check and fix any potholes in their parking lots,” he said. “We also showed that the pothole in question had been in bad shape since 2018, giving Walmart plenty of time to repair, which they didn’t.”
Duquette notes that the same arguments could be made by a bicyclist injured under similar circumstances.
March 27, 2024 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on The war on bikes shifts into high gear, “There Are No Accidents” author on Bike Talk, and Paris bike boom keeps booming
Just 279 days until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025.
Then share it — and keep sharing it — with everyone you know, on every platform you can.
We’re slowly gaining signatures, up to 1,027 now, so keep it going! Urge everyone you know to sign the petition, until the mayor agrees to meet with us!
My Monday went to hell before I even got out of bed, and didn’t get any better until late that night, by which time I was too tired to form a thought, let alone a sentence.
That was followed yesterday by a shot in my right eye to control bleeding in the retina, yet another of the boundless joys of diabetes.
Good times.
But if you’re reading this, I guess that means I literally saw my way through my work tonight. So there’s that, anyway.
………
Like we note below, the war on cars may be a myth, but war on bikes is shifting into high gear, as the past few days have seen an unusual number of attacks on bicyclists and bike infrastructure.
Starting with a bizarre rant from a West Hollywood columnist who claims the city’s new bike lanes are “just an experiment in social engineering, and we are its test subjects,” followed by “We must not allow ourselves to be herded like sheep toward a future we didn’t choose by technocrats who think they know what’s best for us. Whether or not we’re driving a vehicle, it’s time for us to take the wheel back.” Because forcing people into cars, whether they want it or not, isn’t social engineering, apparently. And some of us would prefer to take the handlebars.
A self-professed bike-riding San Diego mayoral candidate attacks spending on bike lanes and bike paths, while failing to mention that it’s for the entire region, not just the city. It’s also funded by the San Diego Association of Governments, aka SANDAG, rather than coming out of city coffers, as he suggests. And once again confirming that the people who claim they ride bikes are the ones you have to watch out for.
“Countless” Edinburgh residents are up in arms, telling city leaders to “get their priorities straight,” after the city celebrated the opening of a new protected bike lane intended to make the city safer and more navigable. After all, who really wants safe streets when you can keep putting everyone at risk from people going “zoom, zoom,” while wrapped in a couple tons of high-powered glass and steel?
Even the animals are getting into the act, as a New Zealand Staffordshire Bull Terrier will now be under stricter restrictions after attacking a bike-riding 75-year old woman and a postal carrier because it’s triggered by bicycle saddlebags, according to its owner. Maybe the dog just prefers a nice set of panniers.
Meanwhile, one lonely voice of sanity speaks up, as a writer for The Guardianquestions why the right has declared war on bicyclists, which have somehow become the bete noire for the anti-woke, anti-green, anti-liberal crowd.
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
A Marin columnist says a proposal to remove the bike lane on the Richmond-San Raphael Bridge on weekdays doesn’t go far enough, and he wants to give the lane back to drivers full time, even on days when they don’t need it. Because autos uber alles, evidently.
Providence, Rhode Island is considering the same thing, as city officials debate a plan to close the bike lane on a local bridge to make more room for motor vehicles. After all, it makes far more sense to remove alternatives to driving than to try to get more people out of their cars. Right?
Streetsblogaccuses New York officials of putting safety last, after four Brooklyn neighborhoods named Vision Zero “Bike Priority Areas” in 2017 still don’t have any protected bike lanes. To which Los Angeles says “hold my beer.”
WaPo is the latest newspaper to pick up the story of the Atlanta bike rider who tows a large magnet behind his bike to clear the streets of flat-inducing nails, screws and other metallic detritus. More proof that not all heroes wear capes. Or tights, for that matter.
A new Chinese study shows that ebikes serve as a crucial alternative to cars, as well as complementing transit services, and that banning ebikes “would not be conducive to curbing car growth.”
Sorensen was struck by a driver traveling west on Los Angeles. He died at the scene.
The T-shaped intersection doesn’t have a stop sign on Los Angeles, which has a 50 mph speed limit. A bend in the road could have hidden the car from Sorensen’s view until it was too late, especially if the driver was exceeding the speed limit by even a few miles.
The driver remained on scene and cooperated with police, and did not appear to be impaired.
Whether Sorensen actually ran the stop sign depends on whether there were any independent witnesses aside from the driver who may have seen whether he stopped, particularly since the driver’s view of Sorensen could have been obstructed by the bend in the road.
Anyone with information is urged to call Simi Valley Police Officer Bryan Sarfaty at 805/583-6189, or email bsarfaty@simivalley.org.
This is at least the 11th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the first that I’m aware of in Ventura County.
In February testimony to the L.A. City Council (minute 3:00:40), City Administrative Officer Matt Szabo stated that “[Measure HLA] will be effective five weeks – roughly five weeks – after the election, should the voters approve the item.”
“What that means is that,” Szabo continued, “this body [City Council] will be asked to make funding decisions immediately.”
The city could have made contingency plans in case it passed, especially since the city council had promised to come up with an even better alternative HLA last year, but never followed through.
And now they have to scramble to come up with something in just the next few weeks.
Even though neither ones even gone into effect yet.
In defense of the free-spenders, guys like me have been blubbering in newspapers and on talk radio for eons about the consequences of budget deficits, yet the sun continues to rise each morning. Somehow, we stumble through each fiscal year with the usual headlines about layoffs and cutbacks to programs that help paper-over the shortfalls. We’re already reading about school closures, hiring freezes and the inevitable layoffs resulting from HLA and previous spending binges, including Mayor Karen Bass’s homelessness initiatives and LAPD hiring plans. Those who lose their jobs or have their program cut will pay the price. But as long as it’s not our job in jeopardy, as long as somebody else’s taxes get raised… shampoo, rinse, repeat. We’ve seen this movie before. Fiscal “Groundhog Day.”
So for anyone unclear on the subject, literally no one has lost their job because of HLA. Nor has a single school closed as a result of the ballot measure.
Or is likely to.
If anything, HLA could mean additional hiring to implement the city’s mobility plan as streets are resurfaced. And even if the city somehow faced budget problems as a result of the measure, it could compensate by just slowing down the street resurfacing program.
Never mind that most of the $3.1 billion that City Administrative Officer Matt Szabo spuriously projected as the cost for the measure was actually for sidewalk repairs the city is already obligated for as the result of a previous court settlement.
Or that school funding has absolutely nothing to do with the city budget.
But hey, why let the facts get in the way of a good political screed?
The story reports that 32 bicyclists have been injured along the one-mile bike lane since 2020, raising questions about its safety. Although the only way to judge whether it has increased risk is to compare it to the number and severity of any injuries before it was installed.
Tragically, Currie’s four children are now orphaned, after their mother died of cancer in 2019.
Thanks to Phillip Young and Malcomb Watson for the heads-up.
Tragic news from Honolulu, where two people riding bicycles were collateral damage when a 20-year old speeding driver lost control of his vehicle, hit a utility pole, and landed in the crosswalk they were riding in.
A 24-year old Colorado woman was arrested in Arkansas, two months after she fled the Rocky Mountain state to avoid charges for the hit-and-run death of a man riding a bicycle; she’s accused of knocking the 43-year old victim off his bike and over an embankment, and taking his bike to hide evidence of the crime.
Life is cheap in England, where dashcam video captured a careless driver crash into two women bicyclists, resulting in life-changing injuries to both victims, yet the 20-year driver got just ten lousy months behind bars, and was banned from driving for two years. If you ever wonder why people keep dying on the streets, slap-on-the-wrist sentences like this are a good place to start.
March 22, 2024 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on New Flax bike book out now, Hollywood Complete Street plan announced, and Senate bill promises local bike/ped funding
Just 284 days until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025.
Men’s Journal offers an excerpt from the book, describing it as a celebration of “just how far and wide those two wheels can transport us.”
Here’s a brief excerpt from their excerpt:
Of course, a road bike can at times feel like an imperfect instrument for immersing yourself in nature. A beautiful and quiet paved road can disappear beneath your tires, leaving you open to embrace all the gifts that surround you, but too often there is traffic or development or angry drivers. Most cyclists diligently try to find the prettiest and safest routes in their area, but for a growing number of riders, it has gotten tougher to roll a bike out the front door or out of the garage and find peace.
This discouraging trend informs a number of seismic shifts within bike culture—the popularity of gravel riding, bikepacking, cyclocross, adventure riding, mixed-surface touring, electric mountain biking, and indoor riding. Other than that last trend—the Zwift and SoulCycle phenomena—the rest are all activities and equipment that help people have meaningful outdoor experiences without the chaos of cars or the elbows-out personality of road racing. The purity of the experience can be distilled in a beautiful way.
Many of these emerging subcultures highly value self-sufficiency and community. These are styles of riding where your smartphone is not your most important tool. These are communities where sharing an experience with people carries more weight than beating them. Activities in which you still need strength and fitness but are likely more focused on exploration or tenacity than on traditional endurance. You are out in a wild place, in tune with your surroundings, looking to test yourself against natural conditions.
It’s more than worth spending a few enjoyable minutes to read the piece. Or however long it will take you to buy and read the whole thing.
Then follow his lead, and get out and ride your bike for the sheet joy of it, wherever, however and whatever you ride.
The overall project consists of two abutting Hollywood Boulevard stretches being improved collaboratively by two different city departments.
LADOT’s Hollywood Boulevard Safety and Mobility Project will extend 2.3 miles from Fountain Avenue to Gower Street
The city Department of Public Works Bureau of Engineering (BOE) “Access to Hollywood” project will include quick-build upgrades on 1.1 miles from Gower Street to Orange Drive – the famous Hollywood Walk of Fame. BOE is the lead agency for this stretch, where it is collaborating with LADOT, Bureau of Street Services (StreetsLA), and Metro.
But it’s a long-needed project, which will provide the first protected bike lanes in Soto-Martinez’ district, as well as the first east-west bike lane through Hollywood.
Although it stands little or no chance of passing the dysfunctional Republican-controlled House and becoming law this year, even if it does get approved by the Senate.
A Gold Country cycling columnist says don’t let bad behavior define bicyclists, and it’s never appropriate to flip off a driver. No matter how much they might deserve it.
A 24-year old Colorado woman was arrested for a fatal hit-and-run, two months after she knocked a 43-year old man off his bicycle and left him to die on an embankment on the side of the road; the victim wasn’t found for more than two days after the crash. Drivers like that should face a murder charge for making the conscious decision to let their victims die rather than stop and call for help.
March 22, 2024 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on 51-year old mother of two dies in hospital after Oceanside hit-and-run; 2nd North San Diego County bike death this week
St. Patrick’s Day was anything but lucky in San Diego’s North County this year.
According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, the victim, identified as 51-year old Oceanside resident Tracey Gross, was declared brain dead after being flown to Scripps Green Hospital in La Jolla.
Gross was riding home on her bicycle on westbound SR-76 near Singh Way when she was struck by a driver, who fled the scene.
She was found lying in the roadway by passing motorists around 11:35 pm, suffering from severe injuries. Her bicycle was found over two miles away at SR-76 and College Boulevard, apparently dragged there by the fleeing driver.
Surgeons plan to harvest her organs tomorrow to be donated to people on the transplant list, following her wishes.
Gross had worked as postal carrier walking a mail route in Oceanside for the past decade; there’s no word on why she would have been working so late on a Sunday.
Family members say they weren’t notified until nearly noon the next day, despite having both her driver’s license and postal employee ID card on her at the time of the crash.
Oceanside police are looking for the driver of what they suspect is a silver 2013 to 2015 Kia Optima, with damage to the right front bumper and headlight, and parts of the bottom engine cover missing. The damage suggests Gross may have been rear-ended as she rode on the right side of the roadway.
Police suspect the driver lives in the Oceanside area, near the site of the collision. There’s a high probability that he or she may have been under the influence, since the crash occurred late on St. Patrick’s Day.
Gross leaves behind her two adult children, aged 28 and 22, as well as her mother, who flew in from her home in Reno, Nevada to be with her in the hospital.
Her mother described her as an amazing, strong and brave woman, who always stood on her own two feet and loved her family and children deeply.
Anyone with information is urged to call Officer Jose Gomez of the Oceanside Police Department’s Major Accident Investigation Team at 760/435-4952, or email at jjgomez@oceansideca.org.
This is at least the 11th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the third that I’m aware of in San Diego County.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for Tracey Gross and all her family and loved ones.
