According to the Daily Breeze, a man was crossing PCH in Wilmington around 5:25 Tuesday morning when he was struck by a pair of drivers.
The victim, who has not been publicly identified, was riding on Eubank Avenue at PCH when he was hit by one driver, then hit again by a second driver and knocked off his bike.
Both drivers remained at the scene.
Police report that he was apparently crossing against the light. However, there’s no word on whether there were any independent witnesses who weren’t involved in the crash at that early hour.
It’s also possible that the light may have changed as the victim was crossing the massive seven lane highway, bordered by a two lane service road.
This is at least the 18th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the fourth that I’m aware of in Los Angeles County; it’s also just the second in the City of Los Angeles since the first of the year.
Update: My News LA reports the victim was crossing PCH headed north on Eubank Ave when he was struck by an eastbound driver, then hit again by someone traveling west on PC.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for the victim and his loved ones.
Because the Neighborhood Bikeway Network we were promised as part of the plan — one of three bike networks that would support everything from local family rides to crosstown commuting — would already give us exactly that, in every neighborhood in the city.
Which is exactly why I started reporting on SoCal bicycling deaths a decade ago, to shine a light under the deadly rock city and state officials were hiding them under.
The magazine leads off with a hard-hitting infographic on bike deaths, including the frightening stat that California accounts for 18% of bicycling fatalities, tied with Florida.
As the nation’s most populous state, California has an explanation, but no effing excuse. Especially when state and local leaders talk about Vision Zero without doing a damn thing to actually save the lives of people, on bikes or on foot.
That’s followed by a trio of stories expounding on the subject.
That’s followed by advice on what to do if you’re hit by a driver, and how to navigate the legal and medical minefields that follow. Although the headline continues the sloppy journalistic practice of putting the blame on the vehicle, rather than the person driving it.
But it’s vital to read them if we’re ever going to change the deadly culture on our streets.
I wish them luck.
Tracking bicycling deaths is very hard, depressing work. Something the Bike League learned the hard way when they tried documenting every bicyclist killed on American roadways several years ago.
And quit after one year.
But maybe, just maybe, it will go a little easier this time, as Covid-19 continues to keep many drivers, and their killing machines, of the roads.
WTF? San Diego has approved a plan for Slow Streets promoted by bike advocates — and opposed by local business groups, who for some strange reason didn’t want people to exercise while social distancing in front of their closed shops.
A New Orleans letter writer complains about scofflaw bike riders, and wonders how they’d react if he drove the same way. Apparently forgetting that he’s behind the wheel of a big dangerous machine, and they’re not.
No bias here, either. An Edinburgh columnist says bike riders need to start obeying the law in exchange for new pop-up bike lanes. Because no one ever builds a new roadway before drivers promise to stop speeding and put their phones away, or make pedestrians pinkie swear before installing a crosswalk.
A special thanks to Los Angeles Bicycle Attorneys Josh and Paul Cohen of Cohen Law Partners for renewing their sponsorship for the coming year.
They join title sponsors Pocrass & De Los Reyes in renewing their support, despite these troubling economic times.
It’s their sponsorship that allows me to do what I do, and bring you the latest and best bike news on a daily basis.
Without their support — and yes, yours — this site would not be possible, at least in its present form.
Now saddle up, because we’ve got a lot of ground to cover.
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Let’s start in Santa Monica, where good things are happening.
And not so good.
On the plus side, David Drexler sends word that the city has taken advantage of the slow traffic during the coronavirus shutdown to install parking protected bike lanes on a short section of Broadway.
Look at this, a gift to cyclists from Santa Monica. They took advantage of the low corona traffic to redo Broadway thus far from 20th Street west a few blocks. They moved the parking away from the curb and replaced it with a very protected bike lane on both sides. These photos were a taken at 19th and Broadway. Not sure how far they will extend it. It goes from 20th to the Santa Monica food coop right now, then the old green lane picks up there.
The picture of the G on the ground is probably where they will pain green.
It makes cycling much safer in those lanes than the ones next to traffic, I feel. Hope they do more.
Advocacy group Santa Monica Spoke joins with other organizations to warn that excessive cuts to the transportation department could imperil the safety of vulnerable road users, as well as any post-pandemic economic recovery.
Santa Monica’s economy depends on a functioning transportation network that safely moves people, goods and services. Current proposed budget cuts will be destructive to transportation work, will disable basic functions, and slow our safe recovery from this pandemic. Transportation staff, infrastructure and services are classified as essential government functions* and perform vital functions that literally keep our community running safely. These cuts will damage safety and the very fabric of services and programs that we depend on living in Santa Monica…
These essential life saving functions are under threat with extreme plans to cut over half of the City Transportation and Mobility Division compared to 20-40% across other departments. While we can only imagine the stress and burden of decisions weighing on City Council, this level of cuts would severely impact basic public safety and infrastructure operation functions, wounding our city’s ability to rebound fiscally from the COVID-19 crisis. It is imperative to be strategic. We must consider the holistic dynamic relationships, dependencies and functions that contribute to safety, economic stability and regrowth. While the City suffers catastrophic shortfalls, we should not use a sledgehammer where a scalpel is needed to balance new budgets. Council needs to take time to cut costs strategically, while maintaining essential staff that would facilitate a safe and secure path to economic recovery and resilience.
As part of the cutbacks, Santa Monica plans to cut all bike, pedestrian and Vision Zero funding for the next year.
Which means those Broadway protected bike lanes may be the last we’ll see for awhile.
And the proposed cuts are more than just a scratch.
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Evidently, Vision Zero isn’t completely dead in the City of Angels.
Just badly wounded.
7th street is getting some new and exciting safety and mobility improvements. Come learn more at a virtual workshop on May 6 at 5:30 pm. Register here: https://t.co/J0AFy1URcqpic.twitter.com/oRun0D1gbJ
— LADOT Livable Streets (@LADOTlivable) May 2, 2020
And about damn time, since the existing bike lane is largely unrideable much of the time, and usually serves as nothing more than free parking in front of the Bloc shopping mall.
And the only rule governing traffic on 7th seems to be to aim for the soft, squishy people instead of the cold, hard cars.
Anyone who’s ridden for awhile can tell you it’s not always the bike rider’s fault in a situation like that; people are unpredictable, and can step out into the street without looking for someone on a bicycle.
But it’s always our obligation to ride carefully around pedestrians, because they’re the only ones more vulnerable than we are. And be prepared to stop or swerve to avoid crashing into someone.
Especially if you’re riding on a sidewalk.
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This working from home thing might just catch on after all.
Yes, May is Bike Month, even if everything has been cancelled and too many cities won’t give an inch on the streets during the coronavirus pandemic. Including Los Angeles.
When a Nova Scotia nursing home worker went to pick up her bike after having it repaired, the shop surprised her with a new bicycle to thank her for her work on the frontlines of the Covid-19 battle.
Tragic news from India, where a couple were killed in a collision along with two other people, after a kindhearted truck driver offered them a lift after riding 250 miles because they couldn’t find any other form of transportation.
San Diego’s Phillip Young has been kind enough to include me in a series of emails with Encinitas city leaders about the dangers of a new and apparently not-so-much improved protected bike lane along the coast highway through the city.
I asked him to explain just what the problem is, and what could be done to fix it.
The City of Encinitas has created a narrow Class 4 protected bikeway/cycletrack with too much going on in a confined space with no escape routes. This stretch of Coast Hyw 101 has recorded no bicycle accidents from 2016 until a week ago. The wheel stops / berms were added a week ago and now the accident count are 3 serious crashes requiring cyclists to be taken away by ambulances. The third accident was today. The Encinitas Mayor and officials ignored input for the public and experienced cyclists at multiple public meetings prior to final design.
Possible factors:
Mix flow of high and low speed cyclists
Many travel modes and stuff: bicycles, eBikes, walkers, runners, baby strollers, three wheelers, inline skates, skateboards, kids in tow by moms, old people, couples, surfboards, beach stuff
Mix of ages and abilities from world class triateletes to first time riders
Two-way traffic possible for all the above types. Only bicycles are allowed but the city design does not accommodate the others travelers elsewhere – no sidewalks.
Too narrow to accommodate the traffic as validated by 3-accidents in a week and the wheel stops / berms have only been installed for 1-week.
Northbound is higher speed due to a descending slope – the three accidents are northbound events
Signage needs improvement but that creates more road furniture to run over
The wheel stops / berms are the problem and offer no true protection from cars and create a maintenance problems because machinery can’t get in to clean and resurface the bikeway with more safety issues
The best solution would be to shift the Coast Hyw 101 roadway from 2-car lanes each way to 1-car lane each way. The old #2 car lane for each direction could be turned into a Class 1 Bikeway with K-rails for separation from vehicular traffic. The old Class 4 protected bikeway / cycletrack with wheel stops / berms could be turned into a sidewalk for non-bicycle use.
Second best solution is to add sharrows to the tarmac in the #2-car lane each way plus pole mounted signage.
These are just a few of my thoughts that come to mind. Riders with more experience may have some better ideas.
We are working to get the word out to the cycling community to be made aware of the new road hazards on the Coast Hwy 101 in Cardiff.
One more example of why bike riders should always be included in bikeway plans. Or at the very least, why they should turn the job over to an engineer who actually rides a bike.
Hopefully, Encinitas will get this fixed before there’s any more blood on the pavement.
Today’s photo was taken from the email chain; I’m not sure who should be credited.
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Today’s common theme is finding space on our streets for people, instead of just cars.
A San Diego man will muster out of the Navy today, and embark on a cross-country bike ride on Saturday to raise funds for wounded vets. Which should be interesting with half the country shut down right now.
A San Jose website offers advice on how to buy a new bike during the pandemic. Pro tip: Always get your bike from, or at least through, a local bike shop. It may cost a little more, but it will more than pay off in service down the road.
A health website comes up with a list of bike safety tips “you’ve definitely forgotten about since childhood,” none of which you’ve probably forgotten about. Any list that starts with “always wear a helmet” reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of how to stay safe on a bike, anyway. A bike helmet should always be considered the last line of defense when all else fails, not the first.
Milton Keynes is full of parks. Maybe not such nice sheep in Campbell Park who appear to prefer cyclists to grass (from earlier this year) #LoveMK@scenesfromMKpic.twitter.com/wqaL7f7j0d
Thanks to Matthew Robertson for his monthly donation to help support this site, and bring you the latest bike news every morning.
On a related note, some people have asked for an alternative to PayPal or Zelle to donate to this site. Does anyone have a favorite free or low-cost online resource you can recommend?
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And wear a mask, already.
My apologies if you got a premature draft of today’s post. Evidently, I somehow inadvertently posted this while I was still working on it.
Either that, or I’ve got a bad case of cyber gremlins.
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In a dramatic reversal, Los Angeles approved plans to install the city’s first Slow Streets on several streets in the Del Rey neighborhood, which would have allowed people to get out to walk or bike while maintaining a safe social distance.
Then the city changed its mind, pulling the approval just hours before it was supposed to go into effect.
Never mind that any delay defeats the entire purpose of the program, which is intended to help people get out now for fresh air and exercise when they need it most to maintain their mental and physical health.
But even if it hadn’t been cancelled, this is exactly what’s wrong with Los Angeles.
One small area would have gotten desperately needed slow streets to allow for social distancing. But only because one neighborhood council asked for them, and one councilmember cared enough to — almost — get it done.
We need citywide leadership in a time of crisis, not 15 fiefdoms with widely varying commitments to safer streets.
As in, none at all in some cases.
Let’s hope LA city leaders get their figurative heads out of their collective asses, and start giving Angelenos safe places to get outside and move around, like the World Health Organization calls for.
Not in one small neighborhood, but in all of them.
And if it sounds like I’m pissed off, that’s only because I am.
Especially after Portland committed to 100 miles of slow streets.
Meanwhile, San Diego County has reopened the SR-56 commuter bikeway between Solana Beach and Rancho Bernardo to pedestrians and bike riders.
As Robert Leone points out, it’s true that the pathway gets a lot of recreational use. But no one is stopping drivers to ask if their trips are necessary.
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Yet another study shows that bikes are good for business.
Note: I missed the date on this before posting it. Not the date of the tweet, but the May 14, 2015 on the video itself. So either the bicyclist didn’t set the date properly, or I need to apologize for posting a five year old video. Thanks to Aurelio Jose Barrera for the catch.
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Phillip Young forwards a full-length film about the glory days of Detroit’s Wolverine Sports Club, dedicated, as their site says, to promoting cycling, speedskating and cross-country skiing at all levels.
And no, I haven’t had a chance to see it myself yet, so let us know what you think.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes goes on.
After Ocean Drive was flooded with people exercising when the beachfront Strand pathway was closed, Manhattan Beach residents call for banning bikes and skateboards, and restricting it to residents only. Which is only slightly illegal, since bikes are legally allowed on any street cars are allowed on.
Prodigal Son actress Bellamy Young is one of us now, after she had two weeks to learn how to ride a racing bike for a part on Criminal Minds. And had to film the scene with a chipped a tooth from grinding her teeth out of fear of falling off.
State
Once again, the CHP accuses a bike rider of a SWSS,* insisting the victim swerved in front of a Fresno County driver and suffered “moderate to major” injuries. *For the uninitiated, SWSS refers to a single witness suicide swerve, which is a bike meme referring to the fact that bike riders usually get blamed for riding in front of drivers in the absence of independent witnesses, when it’s often the driver who doesn’t hold his or her lane.
A writer for Forbes says ebikes are cooler than you think, praising a chunky looking 30 mph bike from a Boston startup. Even though the article says it’s suited for bike lanes, its speed makes it illegal to ride in one in many states, including California. And you’ll need a helmet and a driver’s license.
The BBC questions whether we’re witnessing the death of the car, as cities around the world hope to keep many motor vehicles off the road long after the lockdowns end. Except in Los Angeles, of course, where city leaders seem committed to doing nothing.
No bias here. A London writer describes bicyclists as irritating little wasps that you can’t run down without fear of maiming one, yet gives riding a try anyway, on an ebike the size of a small motorcycle. However, most of the article is hidden behind the damn paywall.
The city had shut it down to keep people from traveling down to the closed beaches and bike path.
Today he sends another one from over the weekend showing just what good it did.
Then again, blocking the bike path and threatening violators with arrest doesn’t seem to be stopping anyone, either.
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On the other hand, Drexler also reports the long awaited bike path improvement through Marina Del Rey is finally ready.
I wanted to share with you these photos from yesterday of what will be one of the most popular destinations for cyclists when it fully opens later this year.
It’s the newly redesigned Marvin Braude bike path section that runs between Mindanao Way and Bali Way. When it opens there will parking for 40 bicycles, dozens of restaurants (seen on left on photos) and shops, as well as a Trader Joes that is already opened and drawing a lot of cyclists right now. It’s on the marina waterfront that will offer ticketed hourly excursions, with Burton Chase park just around the corner.
That section has such a great feel to it. This new path connects to the Ballona Creek path via Fiji Way, and the ocean paths to Santa Monica and Redondo Beach.
It’s like something you would see in Copenhagen, only better.
I would like to see more bike and pedestrian path improvement like this around LA.
This used to be the crappiest section of the bike path, through a section of the Marina that saw its best days back in the ’70s.
Nice to see such a good upgrade.
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Robert Leone forwards word that the bike route through Camp Pendleton from Las Pulgas Gate to the State Park gate will be closed for military operations next week while the Marines blow shit up and stuff.
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Pasadena is offering free basic bike repair to people in need.
Thanks to my old friend Tim Rutt for the heads-up.
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A video explains why an intersection in the middle of nowhere that appears to provide a clear view in every direction could be the most dangerous one in Great Britain.
Hint: It’s not because bike riders run the stop signs.
The mayor of Encinitas is proposing a cycle track alongside Hwy 101 through the city, connecting the new Cardiff Rail Trail with the Solana Beach Rail Trail. Neither of which existed when I lived down there, of course. Thanks to Phillip Young for the heads-up.
Maybe transit isn’t as risky as people think right now, as the executive director of a transportation policy think tank says there are much greater risks for transmitting the coronavirus. And cars aren’t all that safe, either. Thanks to Richard Risemberg for the tip.
A “despicable” bike thief in the UK is refusing to say what he did with a bike he stole from a front-line medical worker, despite being locked behind bars for the past eight weeks in an effort to loosen his tongue.
April 27, 2020 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Anti-urbanist writer insists LA sprawl prevents Covid-19, and cure your coronavirus blues with a simple bike ride
What a load of crap.
In a Sunday op-ed in the LA Times, longtime anti-urbanist Joel Kotkin insists once again that Angelenos love single-family sprawl.
And that spread of the coronavirus proves they’re right.
No, really.
Let’s ignore for now his bizarre belief that Los Angeles residents love living in far-flung communities — and the resulting hours long commutes that come with it, rather than being forced to move to distant suburbs in order to find somewhere, anywhere, they can actually afford to live.
It’s his equally strange insistence that LA’s relatively low rate of Covid-19 infections compared to New York that proves sprawl is better that density.
For nearly a century, Los Angeles’ urban form has infuriated urbanists who prefer a more concentrated model built around a single central core.
Yet, in the COVID-19 pandemic, our much-maligned dispersed urban pattern has proven a major asset. Los Angeles and its surrounding suburbs have had a considerable number of cases, but overall this highly diverse, globally engaged region has managed to keep rates of infection well below that of dense, transit-dependent New York City.
As of April 24, Los Angeles County, with nearly 2 million more residents than the five boroughs, had 850 coronavirus-related deaths compared with 16,646 in New York City.
I’d say someone should remind him that correlation does not equal causation, but that would destroy his entire argument.
In Kotkin’s blindered view of the world, the virus spread rapidly through New York merely because people live close to each other and share transit systems.
And was slowed in its deadly progression through the City of Angels because we hide out in our hermetically sealed SUVs on the way to our single-family homes in socially distant communities.
Never mind that Los Angeles shut down at the first reports of Covid-19 infections and deaths, followed quickly by California, while New York waited until the virus was already widespread within the city and neighboring New Jersey.
For his argument to bear any validity, the virus would have to tear through denser neighborhoods like Maywood, Huntington Park and West Hollywood, while sparing less dense areas in the San Fernando, San Gabriel and Antelope Valleys.
Not so much.
As this chart from the LA Times shows, the coronavirus is well dispersed throughout LA County, in dense areas as well as the sprawling single-family communities Kotkin seems to think are virus proof.
The only way to accurately determine what effect density has on the spread of the virus will be to wait until it’s over, and perform epidemiology studies to look at just how and where it spread.
Because it’s entirely possible that an area with lower population density could show a significantly higher rate of infection per capita than an area with two or three times the population.
And let’s not forget the role that redlining and racial convents have played in how LA’s communities formed, and the relative wealth and health of their residents.
Kotkin concludes by simultaneously making, and refuting, his own argument that people prefer sprawl.
At the same time, most Californians seem less than eager to abandon their single-family homes for the pleasures of what some call “elegant density.” Even before the pandemic, they were voting with their feet for less density and lower costs. Even as L.A. County’s population has started to decline, over 87% of all the growth in the region in this decade took place on the periphery where single-family homes and spacious apartments are still remotely affordable.
State policy, urban planners and pundits may decry this trend, but after a pandemic, dispersion may well seem a safer bet than densification. It turns out Californians are already headed in that direction.
Exactly.
Angelenos continue to move to far-flung neighborhoods, often against their own wishes, because those are the only places they can afford to live.
Besides, the best argument against Kotkin’s love of sprawl is to just go outside and take a deep breath.
And let what has recently turned into the cleanest air of any major city remind you what life could be like without hundreds of thousands of people driving into the city every morning.
It’s just tragic that so many people had to die to get us there.
At the same time, there’s lots of evidence that shows density isn’t destiny.
Highly populated cities in Asia, including Seoul, Tokyo and Hong Kong, have seen a fraction of New York’s cases. The same is true for America’s next densest big city, San Francisco, which issued a shelter-in-place order nearly a week before the East Coast metropolis. As of Saturday, the Bay Area city had reported only about 1,300 confirmed cases — compared with more than 8,450 in the city of Los Angeles.
Unfortunately, they insist on following the lead of too much of the American press by presenting unsupported arguments on equal footing with demonstrable evidence to the contrary.
Because opinions aren’t facts.
No matter who has them, or how loudly they express them.
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On the other hand, Times columnist Robin Abcarian gets it.
After what she describes as weeks of “major mood swings and a bizarre feeling of dislocation,” she found a simple solution.
At this weird moment in history, with an invisible virus making life hell for so many, I daresay that getting outside and communing with nature, where it can be done safely in a socially distanced way, is one of the best ways to regain a sense of well-being and optimism.
I defy you to wander around the wetlands, or get up close to a colony of frisky sea lions, and not be thrilled to be alive.
Seriously? A writer for Cycling News says riding with earphones is pointless and selfish during the lockdown, and any other time. In California, it’s legal to ride with one earphone in your ear, but not both; it’s also smart to keep the volume down to a level that allows you to hear people and traffic around you. But it would be nice if drivers were required to keep their volume down so they can hear, too.
I like him already. The councilman who got the most votes in the Dominican Republic’s latest election arrived for his inauguration on a bicycle, his preferred form of transportation for the past several years.
Sad news from Great Britain, where bicycling fatalities are running twice as high as normal for this time of year, despite the country’s coronavirus lockdown; 14 riders have lost their lives, along with another in Northern Ireland.
Welsh bicyclists are limited to riding within a “reasonable walking distance” of their home under the country’s lockdown rules, whatever that means. That can vary from a few blocks to several miles, depending on who’s doing the walking. And the question is whether the same rules apply to people in motor vehicles, or if they’re singling out transportation riders.
The driver, identified as a 43-year old man from Oxnard, was traveling north on Statham. However, police aren’t sure which direction the victim was riding.
Let alone how or why the driver struck him.
There’s no word on whether excess speed, drugs or alcohol played a role. Or whether the victim had lights and reflectors on his bike nearly two hours before sunrise.
Unfortunately, there’s still no explanation of how the crash occurred, or why.
Police are looking for the driver of a second vehicle that was in the area around the time of the crash, and ask him or her to come forward with any information.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for Michael Nunziato and all his loved ones.
Meanwhile, SaMo resident David Drexler confirms the beachfront bike path is officially verboten. And the path on the California incline is now, too.
Even if that part gets ignored.
SM closed the incline that leads to the overpass that drops you on the beach. They fenced the bottom I saw today but a gap in the fence was open and as you can see some people still went over. But to further discourage you if you venture over to the beach, SM bulldozed sand barriers you see in the photos to make your bike ride annoying (unless you have a Mountain Bike?).
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Things like this are why I love the LA bicycling community.
Just as I was about to post this page, I got a late night — or early morning, if you prefer — email from Daniel Gaffey with a great offer on behalf of his company, Silver Lake Electric Bicycles.
Free bike bailout shuttle
So my company started an electric bike tour a few months ago. It turned out to be a pretty bad time to do that, with COVID cancelling all the rides we had worked so hard to book. Nonetheless we’ll survive but a lot of the equipment is now just idle.
I’d like to offer something to LA bicycling which has given so much to me, by converting our tour van into free emergency transport for the duration of the COVID shutdown. If you (and others) are somehow stranded on a ride, I will send a guide out to help you or your bikes get home. The van holds six mountain bikes or four road bikes and has a good set of tools and air on-hand.
Call 213-537-6774 if your ride goes bad and you have no one else to call. We’re licensed and insured, you can look us up at webikela.com.
Think of it as your own personal rescue wagon when things hit the fan.
So on behalf of all of us, thanks to Dan for a really bighearted offer.
But give ’em a little something for helping out if you can. Because they’re not making any money now either.
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Orange County will mark Bike Week this September, with Bike to Work Day to be celebrated on September 22nd. Thanks to the Orange County Bicycle Coalition for the heads-up.
San Diego’s KPBS looks at how Covid-19 is changing the city’s streets, concluding there’s more bicycling and walking, and fewer cars. The question is how can cities continue to encourage that after the lockdown is lifted? Because the last thing we need is to go back to the former auto-centric status quo.
World champ Ruth Winder responds to the cancellation of the women’s cycling tour by baking sourdough babka and delivering them by bike to her friends in Boulder CO. But riding to LA with a couple wouldn’t be that far out of her way, would it?
