After struggling to write something, anything, over the past few days, it’s become clear that the idea I could return to work this week was overly optimistic.
To say the least.
So let’s just throw in the towel on our daily Morning Links updates for now, and try again next week.
We will have a guest post from my former Iditarod sled-dog racing brother tomorrow, as he recounts the tale of his snowy, 1000+ mile late fall bike tour from the Pacific Northwest to his home in Western California.
No dogs involved. Even if the weather was more appropriate for it at times.
And I’ll be available for any breaking news, which hopefully won’t.
With a little luck, the pain will finally let up and my head will clear, and I’ll see you back here next week.
The good news is, the doctor said my knee replacement surgery went well, and I should get back to near 100%. Eventually.
The bad news is that the damage to my knee was so extensive that what is usually a two-hour operation took nearly four. And the recovery promises to be just as extensive and difficult as that implies.
And don’t get me started on the pain. Or constant sleepiness, nausea and confusion caused by the meds to control it.
Let alone the constant nickel and diming for medical services and devices that oddly aren’t covered as part of the surgery. Even though I couldn’t have it without them.
But I’ll get there.
The only thing standing in the way is the willingness to do the work and fight through the pain to get to where I’m going.
And I think we bike riders know something about that.
But in the short-term, it’s seriously affecting my ability to think clearly and get any work done.
So instead of getting back to our usual Morning Links this morning, let’s go with a more limited edition to try and ease back in.
Call it Morning Links Lite.
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My biggest fear when life forces me to take time some off is that we”ll miss an important story while I’m not able to share it with you.
Which is exactly what happened this time.
Last Wednesday, Allyson Vought forwarded news of a DUI crash on SoCal’s Killer Highway in Newport Beach that left two riders seriously injured.
Our friends Dr. Sherri Bates & Allison Prendergast were hit by a DUI driver at 8am in Newport Beach today on PCH near Superior Blvd. Not sure of direction of their travel. We do know that the driver tried to run away but was stopped by witnesses and later arrested.
Gil Bates, Sherri’s husband, just spoke with the plastic surgeon. Sherri needs facial surgery to repair sinus cavity, eye-socket and nose. Could be done tonight if the swelling subsides. Most incisions can be hidden but one will be at eyebrow line. Her knee is sore and swollen but not serious.
Sheri is going for a neck MRI in a little bit.
Meanwhile, Allison has a broken femur at the hip socket and torn lip. Will possibly have surgery tonight. Really bad so early in the morning.
Unfortunately, there was no way I could write anything from my hospital bed that night, or do anything more than the bare minimum after I was released the next day.
On Wednesday, February 27th, Sherri Bates and Allison Prendergast went for an early morning bike ride from Long Beach and headed south on PCH. They were riding side-by-side in the bike lane and as they approached and passed Superior Avenue in Newport Beach they encountered slowed and stopped morning traffic.
A northbound van turned left between the stopped southbound traffic to enter a strip mall parking lot on the west side of the street. Due to the stopped traffic the van driver, as well as Sherri and Allison, did not see one another. As the van crossed the bike lane, Sherri and Allison had no time to react and they both slammed into the right side of the vehicle. Both Sherri and Allison took the brunt of the impact head and face-first.
Sherri and Allison had to be taken by Paramedics to the closest trauma center at Orange County Global Medical in Santa Ana.
Sherri needed to undergo facial surgery to repair her sinus cavity, right eye-socket and nose. She also sustained neck and head trauma.
Allison needed to undergo surgery to repair a broken femur at the hip socket and torn lip.
As serious as these injuries were, thank God they were not life threatening. Both Sherri and Allison had successful surgeries and will be going home on Friday for many weeks of recuperation.
Allison is self-employed as a massage therapist and will be out of work for an extended period of time. A Go Fund Me account is being set up to assist her with her medical and personal expenses. As soon as more information is obtained regarding the account we will let you know. Any financial donation that you might be able to make to help Allison would be greatly appreciated.
Regarding the driver of the van, NBPD was able to identify his whereabouts within the parking lot area. The male suspect exhibited signs of being under the influence of drugs or alcohol and was arrested.
Accidents like this are tragic, especially when it occurs to fellow Velo Allegro family members that we know and love. Please, be careful out there! Unfortunately, our fate is in the hands of strangers driving past us on the road. We can only hope that they are sober, paying attention to the road, and giving us at least 3-feet of passing clearance. This is sad news but it could have been much worse. We wish Sherri and Allison a quick road to recovery and we hope to see them back on the bike soon. Get well soon! We love you guys!!
Unfortunately, I can’t find a crowdfunding page for either of the victims, but I’ll be happy to share any links once they come online.
And let this be yet another painful reminder that there’s no time of day when you’re completely safe from drunk and stoned drivers.
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This is what happens when attempts to encourage people to walk and bike to Mardi Gras celebrations meet an entrenched car culture in a community dedicated to laissez les bons temps rouler.
The multi-block rampage, which took place just blocks from the popular Endymion Mardi Gras parade, left two people dead and three critically injured, along with another four less seriously injured.
Most, if not all of those, were believed to have been riding bikes at the time of the crash.
The driver, Tashonty Toney, tried to flee the scene on foot, but was stopped nearby by bystanders, who described him as “blind drunk.”
A witness said the 32-year old Toney had swerved his sports car into the bike lane on Esplanade to go around slower traffic, then stumbled out of his car after coming to a stop, and passed out on a street corner.
This came just two years after another driver plowed into crowds at the same Endymion parade.
2 years ago, same night – during Endymion – Nielsen Rizzuto plowed his car, drunk, into a crowd not far from this location. He pleaded guilty, and has already served jail time. More LIVE on tonight’s incident @wdsu at 10PM with @JulianaWDSU @ESTWICKwdsu @FletcherWDSUhttps://t.co/JDZuNP9U8f
Unfortunately, she ended up finishing 74th when the peloton caught her after being forced to cool her pedals for so long.
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Speaking of Belgium, the country’s E3 Harrelbeke race once again rushes into sexist territory where wiser minds would fear to tred, following a number of regretful marketing misfires in recent years.
A street view shows a four-lane road with a single left turn lane and wide parking lanes on Railroad; 15th ends at Railroad with a signalized intersection.
This is at least the tenth bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the sixth I’m aware of in Los Angeles County
My deepest sympathy and prayers for the victim and all her loved ones.
The victim, who appeared to be on a knobby-tired bicycle, died at the scene. The impact was hard enough that a witness described finding his shoes on opposite sides of the wide, four lane street.
Unfortunately, there is no description of the suspect or his or her vehicle.
An infuriating report by KCAL-9 says the victim was riding in the street despite the presence of a wide sidewalk, implying that’s where he should have been.
This is the second fatal hit-and-run involving a bicycle rider on Manchester Blvd in less than a year, following the death of Frederick “Woon” Frazer at less that a mile away at Manchester and Normandie last April.
Which makes you wonder just what it takes to get the DA to file charges.
In addition, no action has been taken to improve the deadly street that has now taken the lives of two bike riders in recent months, despite the presence of both Manchester and Normandie on the city’s High Injury Network.
As with any fatal hit-and-run in LA, there is a standing $50,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest and conviction.
This is at least the tenth bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the fifth I’m aware of in Los Angeles County; it’s also the third in the City of Los Angeles.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for the victim and all his loved ones.
This is going to be the last Morning Links for awhile.
I’ll be having surgery next week to hack out a chunk of my knee, and replace it with a piece of lifeless metal.
Otherwise known as a full knee replacement.
I’m going to need some time to calm my nerves and get ready for the procedure. And once it’s over, I expect to be too drugged out to get any significant work done.
However, I’m planning to put up a guest post or two, and hope to get to a couple of other brief items. And I’ll do my best to keep up with any breaking news while I’m out.
So check back every now and then so you don’t miss anything.
If all goes as expected, I should be back on Monday the 4th with a fresh Morning Links, and knee that actually works for a change.
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes goes on, as some Brit asshole — and I use the term advisedly — pushes a woman off her bike from a moving car.
Let’s hope police find this jerk, and give him a shove into a jail cell.
If you’re on a waitlist for a bike locker at a Metro station, you may have to keep waiting. The transit agency has proposed scrapping the program because of break-ins and bike thefts, and replacing it with smartphone controlled docking racks.
Environmentalists are fighting plans to move a line of palm trees to make room for a Long Beach Complete Streets project. Even though palm trees aren’t native plants and are big consumers of scarce SoCal water.
A San Diego bike rider was seriously injured in a fall, apparently caused by a passing driver. Another reminder that a car doesn’t have to hit you to cause serious damage.
The Oregon driver who killed a woman riding a bike while high on 12 different prescription drugs — including her dog’s anxiety meds — was sentenced to a well–deserved 12 years behind bars. That’s one year for each medication; let’s hope she gets the drug treatment she seems to desperately need.
A professional reporter, who is apparently better versed in the 1st Amendment than some police officers, confronted an Arizona marshal who threatened to arrest her for following on her bicycle and filming him. Did I mention that she’s just 12-years old?
A judge issued a search warrant for the Austin, Texas bus driver who killed a bike rider on the UT campus last month; police say she appeared to be stoned on prescription medications, oblivious to her surroundings and driving distracted at the time of the crash, while failing to brake and ignoring passengers’ cries to stop. Thanks to Stephen Katz for the link.
A Minnesota bicycle columnist calls plans for a coast-to-coast bike path “fanciful but resilient,” saying Adventure Cycling is taking the long view in efforts to complete it. Wake me up when the LA Times — or any other local paper — gets around to hosting a column on bicycling.
Life really is cheap in Ohio, where a driver walked with just a $250 fine, and an order to donate another $250 to a local national park, after killing a bike rider while driving with a fogged-up windshield.
A Scottish road safety researcher says lowering speed limits to 20 mph could actually make the streets more deadly by lulling bicyclists and pedestrians into a false sense of security. Which is another way of saying many, if not most, motorists would simply ignore the lower limits and drive as fast as they damn well please. Sort of like they do now.
After writing about yesterday’s fatal bike crash in Koreatown, and spending far too much time making preparations for my upcoming knee surgery, there’s just no time left to write today’s Morning Links and get it online.
As usual, we’ll be back tomorrow to catch up on anything we missed.
And if anyone knows a good, reliable, corgi-friendly dog walker, let me know.
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.
