April 2, 2019 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Morning Links: Nipsey Hussle was one of us, and kindhearted cop replaces 91-year old Tarzana woman’s stolen bike
No surprise here. Encinitas bicycle advocate and local leader Roberta Walker and her husband have filed a claim against the city for the crash that left her with critical injuries last December, arguing that the signage and sharrows she was riding on were confusing and contributed to the crash. And that there should have been a bike lane, instead.
A pair of Napa parents are committed to promoting bicycle safety after their 11-year old son was seriously injured when he was struck by a driver while crossing the street on his bike; naturally, the driver wasn’t charged.
National
Outside discusses five insects everyone can eat. Most bike riders have probably eaten a few before learning to ride with their mouths closed.
Looks like Seattle is retreating on its bike-friendly reputation. A week after pulling the plug on a long-planed bike lane, Seattle scratches plans for 22 proposed bikeways, requiring an update in the city’s Bike Master Plan.
Grand Junction CO makes a big deal over their new sharrows, saying they show where bicyclists are allowed to use the full lane — before noting that they don’t actually change anything.
A group of bike-riding teenagers swarmed Boston’s former Big Dig tunnel, taking over two lanes of the freeway on the O’Neill Tunnel until they were herded out by police. Although I’m more concerned by the driver who used a handheld cellphone to record them.
They’re some of us, too. US Magazineshows bike-riding celebs around the world. Depending on how you define celebrities, of course. Although I like Lea Michelle, who said she kept a bicycle on the Paramount lot to bike to the set and back.
The BBC’s Piers Morgan insists that bike riders should be licensed and insured, accusing riders of being “completely unaccountable,” “invisible people marching around anonymously on your bikes creating havoc.” Maybe someone should explain to him how bicycling works, because marching ain’t it.
His mother tried to drive him to the emergency room, but stopped to call for help along the way. Paramedics arrived to provide care and take the boy the rest of the way to a Fontana hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
No ID has been been provided for the victim.
Police note that neither child was wearing a helmet, despite California law requiring a bike helmet for any child under 18. However, they added that it did not appear to be a factor in this crash, suggesting that he did not die from a head injury.
This is at least the 17th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the fourth I’m aware of in San Bernardino County.
He’s also the second child to die in Fontana after falling off his bike in the last three weeks; a 13-year old boy was killed after allegedly falling in front of an oncoming car last month.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for the vicitm and all his family and loved ones.
April 1, 2019 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Morning Links: LA approves memorial signs instead of fixing streets, BAC agenda, and Yerba Buena Road closed
I honestly don’t know what to think about this one.
The signs can be requested by the families of fallen bicyclists, memorializing the victim while offering a general nod to bike safety.
They’ll stay in place for five to seven years, after which families can pay to have them replaced.
However, a maximum of just 20 signs will be installed each year, which will barely keep up with the number of riders killed on an annual basis in Los Angeles.
In an interview withKPCC’s Take Two, (Councilmember Bob) Blumenfield explained how the idea for the signs was borne out of a tragedy in Woodland Hills last April. On Easter Sunday, 15-year-old Sebastian Montero was struck by a car and killedwhile riding his bike on Burbank Boulevard.
Blumenfield was in contact with the boy’s family, as well as local police officers— together, they discussed ways to prevent future tragedies.
“I’ve been to too many of those ghost bike ceremonies, and they’re heartbreaking,” Blumenfield said.
After one officer, Duke Dao, suggested the idea for the memorial signs, Blumenfield ran with it.
I’m told be someone who worked closely with Blumenfield on the proposal that he’s absolutely sincere in wanting to do something to both remember the victims of traffic violence, and keep it from happening again.
But a simple sign’s not going to do that.
Blumenfield is one of the city’s better councilmembers on traffic issues, and is working to get a bike lane installed where Montero was killed.
But many of his peers have taken active steps to block desperately needed, potentially life-saving bikeways.
Despite the unanimous vote to establish the memorial program, we have to wonder how many of the councilmembers voted for memorials to fallen bicyclists instead of taking active steps to prevent their deaths.
Because it’s a lot easier to put up a small memorial sign than to fix the roads to avoid the need for them.
Among those voting yes,
Gil Cedillo has blocked road diets on North Figueroa and Temple Street, as well as trying to remove his entire district from the bike plan.
All voted to approve the memorials, while helping create — or at least not alleviate — conditions likely to require them.
Meanwhile, there’s a reasonable fear that the memorial signs will just blend into the streetscape, no more noticeable than the street signs indicating where police officers have been killed.
And if you haven’t seen those, that’s exactly my point.
Ghost bikes are intrusive and evocative. Granted, many drivers don’t know what they are. But once they do, they notice them every time they pass, and that drives the meaning home.
I’m not sure that will happen with these.
Especially if the limit of just 20 a year stays in place. It should be expanded to include not just those riders killed in the future, but the many riders who have needlessly lost their lives in the past.
And it should include pedestrians, as well, since they die in much greater numbers on LA’s mean streets than we do.
Maybe if hundreds of these memorial signs started to appear every year, blanketing every part of the city, people might finally get it. And realize that too damn many people are getting killed just because they rode a bike or went for a walk.
Then the council might finally do more than put up a sign.
Maybe.
Thanks to everyone who sent me links to this story.
No word on whether the alleged speeding driver who killed him was ever charged.
Photo by Steve S
………
The Los Angeles Bicycle Advisory Committee will hold its bimonthly meeting this Tuesday. As always, the meetings are open to the public, and you are encouraged to attend.
The LA City Bicycle Advisory Committee meets Tuesday 4/2/19 7pm in Hollywood to consider a number of topics including Vision Zero update, LADOT's on-street wayfinding sign project, dockless scooters and bicycles in LA +more. See agenda for more details. Bring your bike inside. pic.twitter.com/ErIQrh5wr5
I’d like to think that might actually make someone think twice before getting behind the wheel after drinking, smoking or downing pills.
But the threat of the death penalty hasn’t seemed to stop anyone from murdering other people.
So there’s that.
Thanks to Evan Burbridge for the link.
………
Local
LAistnotes the problems with LA’s troubled Vision Zero program, including a lack of social media presence for the past seven months. What the city doesn’t seem to get is that most of us really, really want to support Vision Zero LA — if they ever get their shit together.
The San Francisco Chronicle complains about the mythical war on cars, exemplified by a discussion of congestion pricing. Never mind that congestion pricing is intended to help improve traffic flow, which is hardly anti-driver. Or that nearly 100% of the roads are already dedicated to motorists, and the rest of us are just hoping for a few crumbs.
Two Kansas men were killed when a driver slammed into their bicycles from behind. No word on why the driver apparently didn’t see a couple grown men on bikes directly in front of him, but I’m sure we could all take a pretty reasonable guess.
An Oklahoma man learned the hard way not to wear a skull mask while carrying meth and weed on his bike. Although his lawyer might want to argue that simply wearing a mask, scary or otherwise, on a public street is not probable cause for a traffic stop. Which makes everything that followed moot.
The upstate New York jerk who wrote a ten-year old boy a letter of non-apology after a judge let him off easy for sideswiping the boy’s bike will now have to perform community service.
Taking a cue from LA Mayor Eric Garcetti’s playbook, Baltimore’s mayor decides to rip out a protected bike lane, and says no way to a planned road diet. Although to be fair, she’s replacing the protected lane with a painted green lane. And she gave it four years, while Garcetti removed the non-protected bike lanes and road diets in Playa del Rey after just one month of driver complaints.
Only after he passed away at the ripe old age of 93 on Saturday was it revealed that a Montreal man was the secret “Mr. Bike Man” who gave away over 1,700 bikes, helmets and locks to children in the Montreal area for the past 34 years.
French drivers are apparently vandalizing speed cameras, costing the country the equivalent of nearly three-quarters of a billion dollars. And it may have contributed to a jump in traffic deaths.
Sydney, Australia residents rise up against what they term a “nonsensical” bicycle superhighway, fearing it would somehow jeopardize pedestrians more than all those cars zooming past. Seriously, why is it that people continue to fight bike lanes that have repeatedly proven to be a net benefit to the surrounding community, regardless of any loss of parking?
Thanks to Matthew R for his generous monthly donation to support this site, and keep SoCal’s best source for bike news and advocacy coming your way every day.
Police are investigating whether he was drunk or stoned at the time of the crash, which seems highly likely.
Video from the scene shows a mangled cruiser bike with plastic baskets front and rear, and a large amount of debris strewn in the street, suggesting the victim may have been homeless or collecting recyclables.
However, that is just speculation at this point.
Anyone with information is urged to call Huntington Beach Police Accident Investigator B. Atkins at 714/536-5666, or Investigator A. Turner at 714/536-5670.
This is at least the 16th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the third I’m aware of in Orange County; two of those three deaths have been hit-and-runs.
Update: The victim has been identified by his mother as 33-year old Ray MacDonald, who lived in the Huntington Beach area for the past three years; he was killed the day after his birthday.
He leaves behind a daughter, and a loving family and friends.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for Ray MacDonald and all his loved ones.
March 29, 2019 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Morning Links: Bike rider severely injured in bizarre hit-and-run, and Garcetti swears he supports road diets
The victim, identified only as a 45-year old man named Esteban, remains hospitalized in the ICU with severe injuries.
But in a bizarre twist, the police have found the car, talked with the owner and identified the hit-and-run driver. They just don’t know where he is.
Thirty-five-year old Jose Miguel Mendez Lopez was running an errand in his boss’ car when he ran the victim down from behind.
And despite informing his boss of the crash, he ignored her pleas to return to the scene of the crash, and is now in hiding at an undisclosed location.
Meanwhile, a young woman suffered life-threatening injuries in a collision while riding at 8th and Hope in DTLA Tuesday evening.
Even though the chance of achieving zero traffic deaths within the decade ending in 2025 is pretty close to zero, itself.
Garcetti also swears he supports road diets, calling them absolutely necessary — when communities support them, that is.
Even though he’s done absolutely nothing to support road diets on Temple Street, 6th Street and North Figueroa, where the local communities have done exactly that.
And he hasn’t shown up at any of the many public meetings to defend the road diet on Venice Blvd, which he also claims to support.
At best, his support so far has been exemplified by benign neglect. Which in practice isn’t much better than outright opposition, allowing opponents to gain an outsized voice with the lack of any vocal support from the mayor’s office.
But who knows?
Maybe now that he’s not running for president he might actually show up for the job he was hired to do.
Presumably it will still remain free to ride your bike through the area.
Although given the lack of infrastructure, and all the angry drivers upset about forking over $4 for the pleasure of driving home from work, I’m not sure if you’d want to.
Call it a mini-ciclovia. With the coming return of the Long Beach Grand Prix, Long Beach will once again open the 1.5-mile course to people without motors, whether on foot, skates, bicycles, or any other form of non-motorized transportation. And once again, only for one and a half hours, in the middle of the work day, when most people can’t go.
State
This is the cost of traffic violence. Both members of the British indie band Her were killed in a car crash, along with their manager, while driving to a show in Santa Ana; no word on just where the crash occurred.
The father of Olympic cyclist and Stanford University student Kelly Catlin, who took her own life earlier this month, says Stanford could have done more to prevent her suicide, despite an earlier attempt and a week’s stay at the university hospital.
Sacramento approves a new bike trail, even though it will mean the removal of unused train tracks and a burned out bridge that train fans had hoped to use someday.
A 75-year old Healdsburg driver will face a misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter charge for killing a woman on an organized charity ride when he drove onto the wrong side of the road to pass a slow moving truck, hitting her head-on.
Two-thirds of British drivers apparently believe in magic, somehow imagining that bicyclists just come out of nowhere. Which is another way of saying they aren’t paying attention behind the wheel, and have no idea what’s going on around them.
An 82-year old English woman suffered a serious head injury when she was knocked down by members of a university cycling team; she was collateral damage when a half-dozen riders went down trying to avoid her as she crossed the road.
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes goes on. An Irish bike rider says he was knocked off his bike after someone threw a catalog at him from a passing car. Which strains credibility, if only because no one uses a dead tree catalog these days.
Australian cyclist Michael Hepburn was praised for his sportsmanship after he got off his bike to help his friend Zak Dempster when he fell during the Three Days of Panne race, even though they were competitors in the race.
It takes a major schmuck to stand over a cyclist laughing and filming as he lies on the ground writhing in pain after going off the road — let alone joke about stealing his bike. Portuguese pro Domingos Goncalves suffered a broken collarbone and shoulder blade in the crash, while the jerk filming him hopefully suffered massive humiliation.
An email from the Desert Bicycle Club identifies the victim as 68-year old Paul Jackson, a part-time resident from Calgary, Canada.
He’s described as a very experienced cyclist, which makes this tragedy that much harder to understand.
It’s possible that the minivan was parked and Jackson didn’t see it for some reason. Or it’s equally possible that the driver may have come to a sudden stop after cutting him off, or he could have somehow been forced into the rear of the van.
Or any number of possible explanations.
Unfortunately, we may never know unless a witness other than the driver comes forward.
Anyone with information is urged to call Officer Conoway of the Indian Wells Police Department Traffic Team at 760/836-1600.
This is at least the 15th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the second I’m aware of in Riverside County; in fact, it’s the second in the county in just the past week.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for Paul Jackson and all his family and loved ones.
He’s described as a dark-skinned Hispanic man in his 30s with a shaved head, and wearing black clothing. He was last seen riding a black bike with mountain bike frame and oversized wheels.
A neighborhood greenway — aka bike boulevard — through a historically black Portland neighborhood has been moved over two blocks to appease residents who want to keep driving to local businesses.
There’s a special place in hell for whoever stole a bicycle from the yard of an Ohio couple, who had kept it there as a memorial to their late son for the last 15 years; the world-class cyclist and nuclear engineer was killed in a collision 25 years ago.
Talk about victim blaming. After the NYPD charged the driver of an oil tanker who killed a bicyclist with a pair of misdemeanors — even though he drove off after the crash, which is a felony — the company he works for said it was the victim’s fault for wearing dark clothes and riding after dark. Neither of which are against the law.
After New Orleans bike advocates installed temporary protected bike lanes to connect segments of the city’s bike network, traffic speeds dropped 26%, while ridership nearly doubled. And 87% of local residents wanted to make them permanent.
Shocking story from Taiwan, where a man riding a bicycle and playing Pokemon Go discovered a baby abandoned by migrant workers. The shocking part isn’t the abandoned baby; it’s that anyone is still playing Pokemon Go.
An executive directive issued by the mayor at that time called for a 20 percent reduction in deaths by 2017, with an emphasis on preventing “pedestrian fatalities involving older adults and children.” Traffic deaths rose 38 percent in 2016 and have fallen just 5 percent since then.
The transportation department’s initial count, which does not yet include the final two days of the year, also indicates that 127 pedestrians were killed in crashes in 2018. That’s down slightly from the 135 pedestrian deaths recorded in 2017, but it’s the second-highest total in the last 15 years.
And nearly as many bike riders were killed in the City of Angels last year — 21 — as all the traffic deaths of any kind in San Francisco, where they actually take Vision Zero seriously.
The mayor’s office argues, contrary to the widespread perception that little or nothing has been done to implement Vision Zero, that the city has made over 1,000 safety improvements over the past three years.
Which works out to just 333 a year.
But even if we accept that total, 1,000 improvements in a city the size of Los Angeles makes a drop in the bucket look like a tidal wave.
And those improvements have represented a form of timid incrementalism. None have been the kind of bold, wholesale changes the city would need to meet that failed 2017 reduction of just 20%.
Let alone put the city on the road to actually eliminating traffic deaths by 2025.
Which ain’t gonna happen.
But still, it’s cute the city still pretends that zero traffic deaths by 2025 is possible, as if closing our eyes, crossing our fingers and wishing really hard will make it happen.
Actually ending traffic deaths will takes major changes to the streets to slow traffic, encourage active transportation and get people out of their cars.
Let alone the political courage to actually make it happen.
One other quick note on the piece.
I’m told new LACBC Executive Director Eli Akira Kaufman was quoted accurately in the piece, but misspoke.
Kaufman says building community support for road diets and other measures will take time, though he argues that making the city safer is about more than individual projects.
“Infrastructure doesn’t save lives; culture does,”he says, arguing that it’s important for people to consider the safety of others when moving around the city.
What he really meant to say, my sources tell me, was that infrastructure alone doesn’t save lives.
As the story notes, both Kaufman and the LACBC both remain firmly in the pro-infrastructure camp.
But he’s right.
If Vision Zero is ever going to have a significant impact in this city — let alone actually end traffic deaths — we have to change the culture that cars are king on the streets of Los Angeles.
And everyone else needs to get the hell out of the way.
No, that’s not vanilla soft serve. That’s thermoplastic in preparation for striping. A kettle heats the material, it’s transferred to the handliner (seen here) and then it’s laid down as striping #behindthescenes#GoLongBeach#bikelanespic.twitter.com/gaY9wq1T42
So you melted the thermoplastic and applied the striping, but there’s one more step. You sprinkle these glass beads on top of the fresh thermo to give it that reflective nighttime sheen. [Pro tip: act fast…thermo dries really quickly] #GoLongBeach#bikelanespic.twitter.com/fX8bK1NxLa
An Indian Wells bicyclist is in critical condition after reportedly crashing into the rear of a stationary minivan; no word on how or why the crash happened. Thanks to John McBrearty for the tip.
Utah legalizes lane filtering for motorcyclists, allowing riders to split lanes when traffic is stopped on roads with a speed limit of 45 mph or less. The story doesn’t mention whether that would extend to people on bicycles.
Now that’s more like it. An Iowa woman will spend the next five years behind bars for intentionally ramming her car into a woman riding a bicycle, then getting out of her car and repeatedly punching her; she accused the woman of sleeping with her baby daddy.
An Argentine cyclist faces a four year ban for being just the latest to get busted for doping with EPO. Seriously, if the era of doping over, why do so many dopers keep getting caught?
My nephew is in the final semester of film school, and in need of a location for his senior project.
If you know of a high-rise building in the LA area that has a long hallway with an elevator and multiple office doors, and might be open to a low budget student shoot, let me know.
An op-ed in the Sunday Los Angeles Times makes the case that the troubled MyFigueroa project represents everything that’s wrong with LA’s alternative transportation efforts.
At the project’s launch last August, Mayor Eric Garcetti boasted of a “safer” and “more enjoyable” way to get around Los Angeles — a harbinger of our transit-friendly, less-car-reliant future.
But when I hopped on a bike share and rode the entire south to north length of the project, I discovered the same patchwork approach to safety that governs the rest of L.A.’s infrastructure….
In isolation, and for blocks at a time, MyFig’s enhancements are worthwhile, even exemplary. But benevolently making things safer for a block or two — only moments later leaving anyone without a car inconvenienced at best, in danger at worst — isn’t enough of an improvement.
As a pilot redesign, what MyFig doesn’t do is as instructive as what it does.
For anyone who remembers the long, difficult process getting the MyFig project off the ground, the final result comes as no surprise.
At every step along the way, compromises were made to appease business owners and drivers, from AAA, who have their SoCal headquarters on the street, to Felix Chevrolet, which didn’t want to give up free street parking.
Too many times, bike riders and pedestrians were frozen out of the discussions to resolve any issues.
So what resulted was a project that was, in effect, designed by a committee that didn’t want it there in the first place.
And not surprisingly, ended up as a very incomplete Complete Street.
The LA Times says yes, Los Angeles will collect data on every scooter ride you take, but no, Big Brother isn’t watching.
Velo Club LaGrangereturns to sponsoring a road race this June after the demise of the popular Brentwood Grand Prix, with closed course race at the Porsche Experience Center.
CD11 Councilmember Mike Bonin offers an overview of Westside Fast Forward, a series of projects designed to help reduce congestion and provide alternatives to driving, including Metro bikeshare and dockless e-scooters. Although it’s disappointing that one of LA’s most bike-friendly councilmembers didn’t even mention building out the bike plan.
Amsterdam’s nine-year old junior bike mayor explains what it takes to make the city safe for kids. Needless to say, Los Angeles doesn’t have a bike mayor, junior or otherwise.
An Indian hit man put that line about “if you want to get away with murder, use a car” into practice, getting away with a hit-and-run that killed a bike rider for five years before police realized it was a contract killing.
