Early reports indicate the collision occurred at the intersection of Wilshire Blvd and Catalina Street in Koreatown at 3:30 am Wednesday, near the site of the former Ambassador Hotel, now the Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools.
The station also reports that coroners smelled alcohol at the scene, suggesting the victim may have been intoxicated, which could explain why he was was lying in the street. Although it does not explain why the driver failed to seem him or the bicycle next to him.
This is at least the ninth bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the fourth I’m aware of in Los Angeles County; it’s also the second in the City of Los Angeles.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for the victim and all his loved ones.
Thanks to Mike Wilkinson, Sindy Saito, David Drexler and John McBrearty for the heads-up. And my apologies for the delay in posting this.
February 20, 2019 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Morning Links: LA traffic isn’t our fault, OC man on trial for stabbing bicyclist, and LA street & transit meetings
It’s a relatively light news day, so let’s just get right to it.
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Somehow, I just can’t spot the bike lane causing all this traffic congestion on Robertson Blvd yesterday.
So it must be a scooter.
Right?
Or maybe it’s just more LA drivers who can’t see the traffic for the cars.
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Local
Los Angeles will host a series of public workshops to help create proposals for the city’s Great Streets Challenge Grants, beginning tonight in Van Nuys.
Montana considers clarifying the right-of-way rules regarding bicycles, requiring drivers to move to the left lane or cross the center line to pass bicyclists, even when they’re riding on the shoulder, and to yield to bike traffic traveling in the same direction before turning.
A Concord NH woman faces a vehicular assault charge for running down a man on his bike from behind while driving without a license; prosecutors contend she was following the victim too closely, even though he was in a bike lane. Although the charges are just misdemeanors and traffic violations, so let’s hope survives that vicious slap on the wrist.
A New Orleans attorney offers tips on riding your bike to Mardi Gras, including advice to avoid riding drunk. Which kind of defeats the whole purpose of the Carnival Season.
Putting 37,000 alternatives to driving on the street is a good thing. But key to the success of any dockless mobility program is providing safe places to ride and park them.
Hopefully, this will spur development of the city bike plan, as city leaders finally recognize the need for safety. And drivers are more willing to sacrifice a few feet of roadway to get scooters out of their way.
It could happen.
The city also needs to provide on-street parking facilities — ideally converting one parking space per block for e-scooter and bike parking.
We should also require every e-scooter to be equipped with a low-volume beeping device to warn pedestrians when one is approaching. And let people with limited sight know when one is parked in their way.
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Talk about getting the story wrong.
Yesterday we linked to a Kansas story about a teen driver getting a reduced sentence for killing a bike rider in a hit-and-run, but criticized the paper for leaving out just how long he would be behind bars.
Not to mention the fact that the crash was intentional.
A passenger in his car told police the driver passed the man as he was riding in the opposite direction, and made a U-turn to deliberately run him down from behind before fleeing the scene.
And never mind that the victim was Latino and the driver was white, giving a racial tint to both the murder and the lack of justice. .
Amazingly, the judge excused the driver’s behavior because of his young age, clean record and that he had accepted responsibility. Although that came long after he had abandoned the car and gone home to play video games, later calling the police to report his car had been stolen.
Sure sounds like taking responsibility to me.
But no matter how sorry he might claim to be, there is no way to justify just two years behind bars for murder.
If he had used any other choice of weapon, from a gun or knife, to a rock or broken beer bottle, it would undoubtedly have been taken more seriously.
Or maybe the problem was just a victim on two wheels, with a Hispanic name.
And they should use “public transportation or ride your ridiculous bikes in your ridiculous bike shorts to your shriveled hearts’ content!” somewhere else, while all those “normal” Americans keep gleefully destroying the planet with their massive SUVs.
Except by repeatedly plugging his books makes it all come off as a shameless effort just to sell a few more.
I don’t care whether you’re conservative, liberal or anything else. Or whether you walk, bike, ride transit or drive.
We’re all need to stop demonizing one another, and work together to make this country succeed.
Period.
And the same goes for our cities and states.
Because the alternative isn’t pretty.
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CiclaValley offers a firsthand view of what it’s like to blow a tire during a descent.
And to have members of one university cycling team help you up while their rival school just rides on by.
Thanks much to the UCLA Cycling team for being very gracious helping me out after yesterday's crash on the Nichols Ride (no one from that other university bothered to stop). Still, trying to figure out why my tire blew out…https://t.co/IdrLFERYKt
You still can’t legally ride an e-scooter in Torrance. The city is slow-walking approving e-scooters, even as other South Bay cities are moving forward with legalizing them.
February 18, 2019 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Morning Links: New scooter hits Westside LA, ambivalent results in LA helmet study, and stay off the sidewalk
There’s a new player in LA’s Westside scooter wars.
The Wheels scooter program has started spreading across the US, offering riders the opportunity to sit rather than stand.
Which means a lower center of gravity and greater stability — especially with the wider tires.
Unlike ebikes, there are no pedals, just small pegs to support your feet.
I’m told they’ve been a hit in San Diego, where they’ve already been on the streets for a few weeks. And from what I saw over the weekend, they’re proving pretty popular here as well.
Even if their website doesn’t show up on a Google search.
Just 14% of the patients were wearing helmets. Yet the prevalence of significant head trauma was virtually the same whether or not the victims were wearing helmets — 35% of the victims were without helmets, compared to 34% of the patients with helmets.
Something tells me just what that means will depend entirely on whatever you already think about bike helmets.
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A New Yorker flips the script, calling for no more car lanes until drivers get off the sidewalk.
Biggest perverts in history: moralizing authors of late-19th c. anti-bicycle medical literature.
The Medical Age, Nov 1897 calls for criminalization of tandem bike-riding, which puts "a girl at puberty bent forward…& right behind her a fellow in a jumping bullfrog position." pic.twitter.com/k8rOhlMZIh
This is who we share the roads with. Pasadena police targeted dangerous driving on Friday, ticketing 158 drivers over a nine-hour period. And for once, not a single mention of a scofflaw bicyclist.
Life is cheap in Kansas, where a 19-year old driver got the minimum sentence in the hit-and-run death of a man riding his bike. Note to Hays Post: If you’re going to run a story like that, you might want to mention what that actual sentence was. And no, the car didn’t flee the scene, the driver in it did.
Why are the women paid less? That is an existential question plaguing professional cycling, and it trickles down to amateur and collegiate cycling. There are fewer female riders, fewer female teams and promoters are less likely to provide big money for a race that can potentially only draw 12 women. At most races, if the number of registrants surpasses a given threshold, then the prize money doubles. This is how we first modeled our prize structure.
However, this traditional model misses the point. If women knew that equal prize money were up for grabs, teams would show up in full force. But many racers, both men and women, often wait until the week before a race to register, especially if they are local and don’t have to plan travel. So, women are checking the registration page in the days leading up to a race, weighing the costs of registering against the possibility of their winnings. Field-contingent prize money holds many back from registering.
The event takes place the first weekend in March, with the Rosena Ranch Circuit Race for collegiate cycling teams on Saturday, March 2nd, and the first ever USC Brackett Grand Prix on Sunday the 3rd.
As of this writing, they’ve raised $271 of the modest $1,500 goal, leaving a gap of just over $1,200.
Which we should be able to help them raise without breaking a sweat. Or maybe someone with slightly deeper pockets would like to sponsor the women’s races.
Because frankly, they race just as hard as the men do.
Meanwhile, the recent spate of op-eds and letters to the editor on the subject is starting to raise questions over whether this is concerted effort to spread misinformation about Vision Zero and road diets across the US.
Watts-based Grammy award winning rapper Jay Rock is one of us, saying he was supposed to perform on the awards show three years ago, but couldn’t because he was laid up in the hospital following a bike crash.
Long Beach says e-scooters are here to stay, as they decide to expand the pilot program while imposing new fees and regulations on scooter companies.
State
The Voice of San Diego says the city can’t meet its state transportation goals without an entirely new vision dictating major changes in transportation. The same goes for Los Angeles, which will have to make wholesale changes in how people get around as part of its LA version of a Green New Deal. But don’t count on it anytime soon.
Bicycling tells the heartbreaking tale of a woman who lost her fiancé when he was killed in 2015 competing in just his fifth mountain bike race. And restarted her life by moving to the Colorado town where he died, founding a company to help first responders deal with backcountry bike crashes like the one that took his life.
More ridiculous jurisdictional issues in Colorado, where the state brings ebike classifications up to the national standards established in California, but leaves the actual regulations up to each community. Which one again means what’s legal in one city could be illegal across the street — without riders ever knowing that they had crossed into a different community, let alone one with different rules.
A federal judge ruled that Trump’s call to execute the driver who killed eight people in a terrorist attack on a New York bike path did not taint the case, leaving the driver eligible for the death penalty.
Incycle store manager Megan Rodriguez suffered a broken hip, ribs and foot, as well as a fractured skull, when she was run over by the thieves’ truck as they tried to get away with the bike.
Store mechanic Raul Ureno was able to retrieve the bicycle from the back of the truck after chasing them down in his car, but wasn’t able to prevent them from getting away.
Police described one of the suspects as a white male, possibly in his 20’s, standing at around 5 Feet 9 Inches tall, weighing 190 Pounds. He had a full beard and was last seen wearing a black baseball cap, sunglasses, black Hollister hooded sweatshirt, ripped denim jeans and black shoes.
The second man was described as a white or Hispanic male in his 20’s, standing at around 5 Feet 11 Inches tall, weighing 165 Pounds. He was last seen wearing a white and blue baseball cap, sunglasses, a black jacket with a gray hood, a red and blue flannel shirt, black pants and black shoes with white lining.
The driver was described as a white female with a thin build and short stature. She has light-colored hair and was last seen wearing round frame sunglasses, a thick black hooded sweatshirt and red lipstick.
The truck they ran down Rodriguez with is described this way.
The three fled in a blue-gray GMC Sierra truck with a black paper plate on the rear and chrome detailing on the sides, handles and mirrors. The rear driver door is missing the chrome trim. It is possibly a 2008 model.
However, it also shows Rodriguez slipping under the truck’s rear wheel as she tried to stop the thieves; you may not want to see that.
There’s a $10,000 reward for information leading to their arrest.
Let’s catch these assholes.
Help us ID robbery/hit & run suspects: Suspects entered Incycle (12345 Mountain) at approx 4:17pm, stole a bike then fled. An employee attempted to stop the truck & was ran over, suffering major injuries. Contact Detective Carrino with info: (909) 334–3005 or ccarrino@chinopd.org pic.twitter.com/PYtVoIYwMT
We’ll know city leaders serious when they finally commit to efficient, clean transit and safe bike lanes and sidewalks, and take concrete steps to reduce the number of cars on the street.
Including in Paul Koretz’ and Gil Cedillo’s auto-centric districts.
Until then, it’s all just more talk. And more BS.
Just like all the other far-reaching the city has adopted, and forgotten.
A San Diego man warns against the dangers of e-scooters after he barely survived a crash when he rode out in front of a driver. The easy way to avoid that is just obey the right-of-way and don’t ride out in front of anyone.
A proposal intended to fight bike theft by homeless people in Alaska would make it a crime to possess a bicycle with the serial number removed, with a fine up to $10,000; that would allow police to seize the bike to search for the real owner. Then again, if homeless people could pay a $10,000 fine, they probably wouldn’t be homeless.
The first Colorado city has taken advantage of the state’s new modified Idaho Stop law allowing bicyclists to treat stop signs as yields; the law allows each town to decide for themselves whether to let it go into effect. The problem with that is that what’s legal for bike riders in one town may not be legal across the street, with no way to tells you’ve gone into another jurisdiction, or what the law is there.
The traffic safety denier attack on road diets continues to spread across the US, as demonstrated by an op-ed from the Waverly, Iowa branch of Keep the US Moving — the offspring of LA-based motorist pressure group Keep LA Moving — claiming that road diets prevent emergency vehicles from getting through.
A British man forgives the truck driver who put him in a coma for a month by crashing into his bike when the driver changed lanes without warning, and tells him to get on with his life. The court was almost as kind, settling for a weak slap on the wrist by fining him the equivalent of just $641 and letting him keep his license.
If you find yourself alone this year, take a few minutes to do something nice for yourself today.
Just don’t ride your bike until this rain lets up if you don’t have to. And if you do, light yourself up so drivers can see you despite the limited visibility.
She stayed at the scene and cooperated with investigators, despite initial reports that it was a hit-and-run.
It’s unknown whether the victim lost control because he was under the influence, suffered from some kind of health condition or fell for some other reason.
Maybe that painted bike lane is safer than you think.
In a new study from a Canadian university, researchers rode bicycles equipped with sensors and a handlebar-mounted camera to measure how close drivers pass people on bicycles.
The results show that on two lane roads without bike lanes, motorists passed people on bicycles too closely 12% of the time, based on the equivalent of a three-foot passing distance.
But on roads with bike lanes, that dropped to just 0.2%.
On four lane streets, incidents of close passing dropped from 6% to just 0.5%.
The university plans to use that data to develop tools to determine where bike lanes would do the most good.
Too bad we don’t have the money to put these up everywhere, one for every rider who loses their lives on the streets.
Maybe then drivers would start to pay attention.
Thanks to Steve S for the heads-up.
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In yet another example of LA leaders’ rhetoric exceeding their actions, bike-friendly Councilmembers Mike Bonin and Nury Martinez were joined by the decidedly unfriendly Paul Koretz in calling for a Green New Deal for the City of Los Angeles.
Never mind that Koretz has consistently blocked much-needed bike lanes in his Westside district, forcing residents to rely on carbon fuel-driven motor vehicles. And gone out of his way to fight the density that would cut trips for work, school and shopping.
Koretz has long positioned himself as LA’s most ecologically minded councilmember.
But until his actions catch up with his words, they’ll remain just that.
If you’ve got four minutes to spare, it’s worth taking a brief break in your day to watch the original video. Which is a lot shorter than the 24-minute explanation.
CiclaValley offers a video essay on the best route from the San Fernando Valley to the Westside, suggesting Fryman Canyon to Franklin Canyon, with a surprisingly low 442 feet of climbing. I’m going to save that one for my next trip over the Hollywood Hills.
Work crews with the California Conservation Corp destroyed three popular, but unsanctioned, bike trails in the forests around Arcata, which a local news site called “the lifeblood of the community forest for generations of bike riders.”
Caught on video too: A London bike rider discovers an air horn can move mountains. Or at least pedestrians blocking bike lanes. Be sure to stay to the end for the totally unsurprising response; thanks again to Steve S.
This morning we mentioned a breaking news report about a fatal crash between two drivers in South LA’s Florence neighborhood that may have involved two people on bicycles.
Sadly, our worst fears have bee confirmed, although several of the details were wrong.
No other bike rider was involved in the crash, despite the presence of two badly mangled bicycles, as seen in this screen shot from the KNBC-4 broadcast, with one attached to a bike trailer.
Findley may have been ghost riding the other bicycle, which is where a person rides one bicycle while towing another riderless bike alongside.
It’s also possible that the second bike may only appear to be damaged, and could have been left by a bystander.
Findley is described as the second youngest out of nine brothers and sisters, and leaves behind an adult son.
According to KCBS-2, the driver who hit him admitted to street racing; however, that has not been confirmed by other sources. He was arrested on suspicion of gross negligence and vehicular manslaughter.
This is at least the seventh bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the third I’m aware of in Los Angeles County; it’s also the first in the city of Los Angeles.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for James Findley and all his loved ones.
Thanks to Steve S and Sindy Saito for the heads-up.
Breaking news: KNBC-4 reports there was a fatal crash between two drivers at 82nd and Broadway in South LA’s Florence neighborhood, which appears to have involved a pair of bike riders in a collateral damage crash.
No word on who was killed, but chances are, it was one or more of the people on bicycles.
Not so simple answer: There is nothing in California law that forbids riding abreast.
Some police agencies attempt to use CVC 21202 to forbid riding abreast, which requires bicyclists to ride as far to the right as practicable, concluding that the outside rider is violating the law.
However, they fail to consider the many exceptions to CVC 21202, which make it clear that the requirement to ride to the right does not apply on lanes that are too narrow to safely share with a motor vehicle. Which is most of the right hand traffic lanes in Southern California.
In which case there is no limit to the number of people who can ride abreast — as long as you remain within a single lane.
However, you still have to pull over to the right when safe to do so if there are five or more vehicles following behind you and unable to pass. But once again, that does not apply in some circumstances.
Like if there are two or more lanes in the direction you’re traveling, in which case drivers can simply change lanes to pass.
It’s also worth noting that the law doesn’t apply if you’re riding at the speed of traffic around you.
So if you’re riding the speed limit, or drivers are slowed to your speed by congestion, you can ride wherever the hell you want.
Including riding abreast if that’s what you want.
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This is why people continue to die on our streets.
And yes, there is video, but I wouldn’t recommend it. Some things you just can’t unsee.
At least the judge told him not to drive, though. And everyone knows meth heads do exactly what they’re told.
Right?
Thanks to Brian Kreimendahl of Bike Santa Fe for the heads-up.
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This is what’s known as a disproportionate response.
A road raging Seattle woman tries to run people over after someone hit her car with a snowball. Then gets out of her car and physically attacks them until she was restrained.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OixUArkFwTE
Seriously.
Attempted murder is never an appropriate response.
Thanks to J. Patrick Lynch for the tip.
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Norm Bradwell forwards a new video that explains how Toronto increased bicycling rates a whopping 1095% on two busy roads for a paltry $1.25 million.
That Portland woman who killed a bike rider while high on her dog’s Xanax got a well-deserved 15 years behind bars. Hopefully that comes with a mandatory drug treatment program for both of them.
He gets it. An op-ed in a Florida paper says the three E’s — education, enforcement and engineering — aren’t enough to lower the state’s worst in the nation bicycling death rate; it will take solid data, and real action based on that data.
Florida lawmakers consider making the same mistake California made by raising the threshold for felony theft from $300 to $1,500, although the Golden State only made it $1,000. Problem is the value of most bicycles is far less than that, making it the equivalent of a Get Out of Jail Free card for bike thieves.
A Florida woman is suing Lime for a crash that left her daughter in a persistent vegetative state over instructions that tell e-scooter users to ride in the street, even though that’s illegal in the state. In California, it’s illegal to use motorized scooters on the sidewalk. Thanks to David Drexler for the tip.
International
Another day, another smartphone app promising to alert drivers to the presence of bike riders and pedestrians. But only if the driver and the person on the bike or on foot both have it installed and turned on. Not to mention convincing drivers they don’t have to pay attention because the app will do it for them.
An Irish cycling coach says 2019 will be the worst year ever for bicycle crashes, because too many people are learning to get fast on virtual trainers before they develop the skill to ride safely on the streets.
Who needs Vision Zero when you have some of the nation’s crappiest drivers? Seriously, when you’re riding your bike with five outstanding warrants while carrying drug paraphernalia and an illegal weapon, obey the damn traffic laws, already.
And it’s probably not the best idea to text your husband to say you’re at the local tavern after just attempting to run his bike down with your car.
