According to the Orange County Register, Ho Cheong was somehow struck by a truck around 1:25 pm; he was taken to UCI Medical Center in Orange, where he died nearly half an hour later.
There’s no word on how the crash may have happened.
Then again, the Register doesn’t even bother to mention if the truck had a driver, let alone if he or she may have been responsible in any way.
And there’s not a word about the victim beyond his name and age.
This is at least the 57th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the 14th that I’m aware of in Orange County.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for Ho Cheong and his loved ones.
November 16, 2020 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Remembering traffic victims and the failure of Vision Zero in LA, fatal hit-and-run in DTLA, and Joe Biden is one of us
Members of SAFE — Streets Are For Everyone — turned out in South LA yesterday to mark the World Day of Remembrance for traffic victims.
The group demonstrated at the intersection of Slauson and Western, one of the deadliest locations in all of Los Angeles, according to the city’s High Injury Network.
And one that has yet to see any significant attempt to make it safer.
In other words, pretty much like the rest of LA’s seemingly forgotten Vision Zero program.
…police say there has been a staggering 29% increase in traffic-caused fatalities and injuries in South L.A. this year so far in 2020 compared to 2019.
Additionally, there have been close to 5,000 hit-and-run collisions in 2020, police said.
There are few people who haven’t been touched by traffic violence in some way.
I’ve lost two people close to me, both at the hands of drunk drivers.
A friend I’d known since kindergarten was killed just weeks before our senior year of high school when a drunk woman somehow jumped the wide median on an interstate highway, and hit his car head-on, killing him and a friend instantly.
She walked away unharmed, with just a slap on the wrist for murdering two strangers.
The other was my cousin, who was killed when she was thrown from her own father’s car, and was run over by him.
And once again, there were no real consequences. Unless you consider the guilt and self-loathing he lived with for the rest of his life.
That’s not counting the hundred of people I’ve written about here who have needlessly lost their lives on the mean streets of Southern California — most at the hands and on the bumpers of drivers.
But then it got hard when the city ran into resistance from auto-centric NIMBYs. And LA’s mayor got distracted by the shiny object of national ambitions, with far too many Wormtongues whispering in his ear.
And so Vision Zero was shoved onto a cold back burner, just another page on the LADOT website, with a handful of piecemeal projects here and there, rather than the massive road safety overhaul we were promised.
Never mind the now laughable goal of eliminating traffic deaths in the city by 2025.
Less than five years from now.
Which leaves us waiting for the mayor and the city’s recalcitrant councilmembers to be termed out, so we can finally replace them with leaders who will hopefully have the courage and political will to make the hard decisions necessary to save lives.
And not just talk about it, for a change.
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LA Bike Dad offers photos from the demonstration at Slauson and Western.
The LAPD’s looking for the heartless coward who ran down a pedestrian in DTLA while driving on the wrong side of the road, then got out to check his own car for damage before driving away, ignoring the victim.
There’s a $25,000 reward for information leading to his arrest and conviction.
Warning — The video is graphic, so be sure you really want to see it before you click the link because you can’t unsee it.
President Elect Biden and his wife Dr. Jill Biden take a bike ride in Rehoboth Beach, DE. He told us he’s closer to selecting a cabinet. pic.twitter.com/J9f0z0MrKe
A pedestrian was killed last night on Pasadena's Orange Grove Blvd. An effort to create a traffic-calming road diet there was killed by NIMBYs aligned with Keep LA Moving. This death is on John Russo and his team. https://t.co/NxsoJ9HZ8Xpic.twitter.com/36o3F9np5c
CALLING ALL LOS ANGELES AREA BIKE SHOPS! Did you know we are now partnering with LAPD? You can provide your customers the extra security of a bike registration in case of theft. And it's free. https://t.co/3FcwQjvDr3
Dallas-area residents mourn yet another victim of traffic violence after a paletero was killed by a driver as he pedaled his cart, following two decades of selling ice cream and chicharrones. Thanks to John Clary for the link.
This is who we share the road with. An Oklahoma state senator faces a first-degree manslaughter charge after she skidded off a rain-slicked road while driving nearly 100 mph, and killed a man whose car was stalled on the side of the road. Thanks to Robert Leone for the tip.
Life is cheap in Ohio, where a 73-year old woman got a whole 30 days behind bars for killing a local Teacher of the Year as he was riding his bike. But at least she’ll lose her license for five years. Although at her age, that should be permanently.
Happy Diwali to everyone celebrating this year. May the divine light spread into your life and bring peace, prosperity, happiness, good health and grand success.
Be safe, and stay healthy. And wear a mask, already.
A driver headed in the opposite direction lost control attempting to pass another vehicle and skidded across the roadway, hitting the victim head-on.
She was taken to Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center, where she died.
Thirty-eight-year old Claremont resident Cheryl Becker was arrested for vehicular manslaughter. She also faces a charge of child endangerment because her children were in the car with her at the time of the crash.
Not surprisingly, police say speed may have been a factor.
A street view shows a two lane roadway on Mills, with a center turn lane and bike lanes in each direction. Police say there’s been an increase in unsafe driving on the street in recent months, including drivers exceeding the 40 mph speed limit.
This is at least the 56th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the 15th that I’m aware of in Los Angeles County.
Update: The victim has been identified as long-time Claremont resident Terri Wolfe Ingalls, who was killed less than a week after her 62nd birthday.
According to the Claremont Courier, she was run down just moments after leaving her home. Her final act may have been waving to her neighbor as she set out on her bike.
The paper describes her as a “thoughtful, lovely” mother of four, and grandmother of seven, who checked in on her elderly parents every day.
They’ll all have to find a way to get along without her now.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for Terri Wolfe Ingalls and her loved ones.
It’s hard to call 16 years in state prison a slap on the wrist. But this one feels wrong for a couple reasons.
If Wicksted really was suffering from psychiatric problems, she need treatment, not jail; too often we warehouse the mentally ill in jail, which doesn’t benefit anyone.
If not, a 16-year sentence for what amounts to first degree murder is ridiculously low. She could easily be out in half that time, or possibly less under current circumstances.
Either way, it’s yet another example of the outgoing DA’s repeated failure to take traffic crimes seriously.
A 49-year old mother of two remains missing six months after she reportedly rode her bike away from her Southern Colorado home last Mother’s Day, despite massive search efforts.
After a Kansas appeals court threw out his original two-year sentence as too lenient, a driver convicted of using his car to murder a bike-riding man following an argument between the two was resentenced to a still too low ten years and a month behind bars.
This is why people keep dying on the streets. A Toronto-area man got a slap on the wrist for jumping the curb and killing a woman as she rode her bike on the sidewalk, while he was allegedly street racing with another driver who fled the scene; the judge said he hoped the paltry 26-month sentence would serve as a deterrent. Not bloody likely.
Something that would have been easy for the former motorcycle racer better known as Pinkyracer, but nearly impossible under the circumstances on her bicycle — especially since her bike computer showed a more modest 18 mph.
We got to know each other as she underwent a painful rehab program to rebuild her shattered body, and resumed her fierce advocacy for safer streets for everyone on two wheels.
She fought for the environment and social welfare, working with homeless children, people suffering from addiction, and the down and out on Skid Row.
She had recently moved to Barcelona with her boyfriend, reveling in the city’s newfound bikeability. Yet even from that distance, continued to argue online for street safety in the City of Angels.
According to her obituary, Susanna “Pinkyracer” Schick died of heart failure in Barcelona less than two weeks ago, on October 30th.
A motorcycle racing magazine adds a little more detail, explaining that she was hospitalized with a bacterial infection, then contracted pneumonia. She was finally released after several weeks in the hospital, but collapsed and stopped breathing just a day later.
She was just 50 years old.
To say I’m stunned and heartbroken is putting it mildly. And judging from the reaction I’ve seen online, I’m not alone.
Schick was one of those rare people who lived life to the fullest, and made this world a little better and brighter for everyone around her.
Photo from the obituary for Susanna “Pinkyracer” Schick.
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Los Angeles unveiled a cute little electric street sweeper for protected bike lanes.
Dutch cyclist Dylan Groenewegen got a nine month ban for forcing Fabio Jakobsen into a horrific crash with a roadside barrier in the final sprint on the first stage of the Tour of Poland, resulting in a medically induced coma and reconstructive surgery on Jakobsen’s face and jaw. But at least Jakobsen was given the stage win.
Sixty-three-year old Sandra Marie Wicksted agreed to a deal to plead no contest after prosecutors took a murder charge off the table for intentionally running down 54-year old Leslie Pray as she was riding her bike in Claremont two years ago.
She was also charged with swerving her car at two other people riding bikes in separate incidents before slamming into Pray.
Wicksted copped to one count each of voluntary manslaughter and assault with a deadly weapon, along with two counts of attempted murder.
What remains unanswered, however, is the most basic question of all.
Why?
What could possibly have convinced Wicksted to try to kill not one, not two, but three total strangers for no other reason than they were riding bicycles?
We’ll probably never know.
But now an innocent woman is dead because of it.
And Wicksted has thrown away what’s left of her own life.
San Diego adopts a new Complete Communities plan, including fees for developers in the city’s most car-dependent areas, which will be used to build bike and pedestrian projects in denser urban areas.
Next time you’re in Seattle, hop the ferry to the Bainbridge Island Cycle Museum, where you can see exhibits like a rare three-wheeled lawnmower bike and a signed yellow jersey worn by He Who Must Not Be Named.
Primož Roglič’s victory in the Vuelta has pulled it out at the wire, beating Tour de France champ and fellow Slovenian Tadej Pogačar for the #1 spot in the UCI World Ranking for 2020, while Anna van der Breggen topped the women’s list. No American made the top ten on either list.
Seriously, just slow the hell down around slower or less experienced bicyclists and pedestrians. Never a good idea to punch a traffic cop, even if they did just door you.
What’s more surprising is that’s also reflected in the dramatic drop in bicycling deaths in LA County this year, at less than half of last year’s total — 14 so far this year, compared to 34 for all of last year.
Now if we could just keep it that way, as traffic creeps back up to pre-pandemic levels.
Today’s photo comes courtesy of David Drexler, combining two of my favorite things — bikes and coffee.
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Your periodic reminder that some people can live forever, and still be gone too soon.
The Bike League is looking for speakers for their upcoming virtual Bike Summit.
Our virtual #BikeSummit21 in March will celebrate the power of bicycling to move us forward, even in the most challenging of times. For the next week, we're accepting proposals from individuals and organizations who want to present at our virtual Summit. https://t.co/MNHilhFZpMpic.twitter.com/NPC7MROvbU
November 9, 2020 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Photo released in Long Beach hit-and-run, Biden endorses bike/ped infrastructure, and no end to bike shortage soon
The good news is, my new carpal tunnel wrist braces are helping with the pain.
The bad news is, they’re really slowing down my workflow by restricting my usually flying fingers.
Both retailers and manufacturers say they haven’t seen such demand for bikes in several decades. Revard said that despite manufacturers significantly ramping up production, his industry contacts estimate the pandemic-fueled bike and part shortage will continue into 2021 and—based on what brands are quietly telling their retailers—may even last until 2022.
The magazine adds the lower-end bikes are in higher demand, so you may have better luck if you’re willing to spend more. Or consider buying a used bike.
Just be sure to check with Bike Index and 529 Garage to make sure you aren’t buying someone else’s stolen wheels.
No bias here. The same London paper that hosted Farage’s diatribe insists it’s time to end the bike lane madness, accusing bike infrastructure of being the cause of traffic congestion, while ignoring the role played by all those people in cars, trucks and SUVs.
When Canadian musician Adrian House’s car-based tour of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick in support of his latest album was blocked by Covid-19, he bought a special pannier for his guitar and did it by bike. And no, you can’t find his music on iTunes, I tried.
Chris Froome pulled the plug on his career with Team Ineos, nee Team Sky, after 11 years and four Tour de France titles; he’ll ride for Israel Start-Up Nation as he seeks a record-tying fifth win next year. Even though He Who Must Not Be Named won seven, but everyone is pretending he didn’t. So there’s that.
November 6, 2020 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Bicycle memorial to French Resistance, Sierra Madre cops recover hot Schwinn Continental, and bike cops behaving badly
Using his spare time during the coronavirus lockdown to indulge his interest in history, Special Forces Cpt. Joseph Ivanov discovered there’s no memorial at Normandy Beach to the roughly 400,000 men, women and youths who risked, and often lost, their lives fighting the Nazis and preparing for the D-Day invasion.
Working with the designer of the site’s Navy memorial, he set out to rectify that with a design that also pays silent tribute to the bicycles that served as a primary means of transportation in the fight.
The pre-invasion shaping operations of the French Resistance, Ivanov says, were crucial to success on D-Day. He noted that French patriots reported German defense positions, produced and smuggled to England a massive map of the beachhead and cut enemy communications lines in advance of the landings. An estimated 1,000 German factories were sabotaged by the French Resistance during the war. Trains were derailed. Intelligence was passed along from children and women to Allied personnel in England and later in France. Around the D-Day window alone – June 4-6, 1944 – the French Resistance is credited for hundreds more acts of sabotage that enabled the Allies to storm the continent.
He hopes to have the memorial, which was initially funded out of his own pocket, installed next year.
Sierra Madre police busted an apparently stoned burglar who allegedly stole a shotgun and a very cool Schwinn Continental ten speed — though not the one shown in the photo.
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Today’s common theme is bike cops apparently behaving badly.
#SeattleProtest – Lawyers from Protesters vs. City of Seattle sent an email describing the arrest of a protester who was injured last night while being arrested by @SeattlePD and is currently hospitalized at Harborview. They are demanding answers from the City & seeking witnesses pic.twitter.com/fJQWgun9P2
GCN wants to teach you how to brake hard without crashing your bike or pulling an endo.
Which I may have done myself once or twice.
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Congratulations to BikinginLA title sponsor Jim Pocrass and the team at Pocrass & De Los Reyes.
But after getting to know them for the past several years, I never had any doubt.
Awards like this are the result of the hard work and dedication of an entire team. That's why I want to thank every single one of my team at Pocrass & De Los Reyes LLP. You deserve this! pic.twitter.com/k0SlZrePHf
This is how Vision Zero is supposed to work. Edinburgh is working to install emergency infrastructure to protect bike riders at an intersection where a woman was killed riding her bike this week, the second bike death there in less than two years.
November 5, 2020 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on San Diego riders fight theft with Bike Index, bike-friendly Raman wins LA’s CD4, and Pendleton path closed this weekend
“There’s a large uptick in apartment building break-ins,” Bryan Hance of BikeIndex.org said to me. “So many new apartment buildings make residents park in their ‘secure’ bike parking areas, which aren’t that secure, and we are seeing so many instances of thieves forcing their way into these at night and then just robbing them blind. Often the bike anchors and racks in these spaces are quite weak, so once they’re inside, it’s like a bike buffet for these thieves. There’s an uptick in bike shop break-ins. With covid-19, job loss, and a pullback by law enforcement, we’ve seen enormous numbers of bike shops get robbed.”
And no, I don’t get a dime for hosting them on this site.
Except for the satisfaction of giving you a fighting chance against bike thieves.
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After opposing bike and pedestrian safety projects for most of his first term — and apparently only — term, it looks like you can now append ex-LA City Councilmember to David Ryu’s resume.
We could not be more excited that @nithyavraman defeated incumbent @davideryu in Council District 4.
– Only the third woman on the 15 person City Council – First time since 2003 that an incumbent loses
The Union Street Protected Bike Lane Project design is approaching finalization to prepare for construction in 2021. Review the design presentation videos and provide your feedback @ https://t.co/gotGxLG3PP. Comments are due FRIDAY, NOV. 13, 2020. pic.twitter.com/pmpDJzfYGJ
Once again, bike riders will face a temporary ban on riding through Camp Pendleton.
Please note that a portion of the bike route within the San Onofre Beach State Park (see attached photo) will be closed for military training during the night/early morning. This closure will only interrupt bicycle travel at night time or early morning (prior to 7 AM). During the time of the bike path closure, cyclists may ride on the I-5 shoulder if needed.
Closure Date and Time
Date: November 7 to November 8
Time: 7 PM from November 8 to 8 7 AM on November 8
Heartbreaking news from San Diego, where a three-year old boy had both legs amputated despite several attempts to save them, after developing a MRSA staff infection when he fell off his bike and scraped his knee; now doctor’s are just hoping to save his hands and arms.
