Suspect vehicle ID’d in Jefferson Park hit-and-run, Twenty-Eight for ’28 now 1 for 18, and killer driver drags bike rider a mile

April 29, 2026 / / No comments

The LAPD is now looking for the owner of a dark-colored Jeep Wrangler in the hit-and-run death of a 38-year old man riding an ebike in Jefferson Park late Saturday night.

As always, there is a standing $50,000 reward for this, or any other fatal hit-and-run in the City of Los Angeles.

Anyone with information is urged to call LAPD Officer Diaz or Sergeant Nily at 323/421-2577, 1-877/527-3247 after business hours and weekends. Or anonymously at 1-800/222-8477 or lacrimestoppers.org.

Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay.

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This should surprise absolutely no one who has been paying attention for the past several years.

Things are not looking good for the completion of the vaunted Twenty-eight by ’28 projects that we were promised would be finished in time for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

Even after the list was dumbed down by removing the hard stuff, like finishing the LA River Bike Path through DTLA and Vernon.

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It’s happened once again.

A man in Louisville, Kentucky was killed when a hit-and-run driver dragged him nearly a mile under his car, after hitting the vicim and his wife as they rode their bikes.

The driver eventually stopped and called the police, but only after being chased down by a witness, who apparently stopped to pick up the victim’s wife after she had been knocked in a ditch.

Local residents have called for safety improvements following multiple hit-and-runs on the roadway, where speeding is common.

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CicLAvia urges support for open streets events included in the proposed LA city budget for the upcoming fiscal year.

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Speaking of which, as promised, and at long last, here are the photos David forwarded from Sunday’s West LA CicLAvia, where I’m told a good time was had by nearly all.

All photos by David Drexler

As an added bonus, he also sent along a reminder why you don’t park under a palm tree on a windy day, spotted outside a Porsche dealership along the route.

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This is who we share the road with.

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Thanks to Megan for forwarding video of the bicyclist who inspired Breaking Away looking back on his victory in the Little 500.

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Local 

Finish the Ride and Finish the Run will take place in Griffith Park this weekend to call for safer streets and honor the victims of traffic violence; the events will take on added poignancy as Caitlin Cole, the sister of fallen bicyclist Regan Cole Graham — who was seven months pregnant with her daughter Ophelia when they were both killed in Playa del Rey — will ride Regan’s bike to complete the ride they never finished.

 

State

You can now ride the full length of California’s iconic coastline highway from San Francisco to LA once again.

Electrek takes a hard look at the $1 billion valuation for Irvine-based Rivian’s new ALSO ebike startup before a single bike has been sold, arguing that we’ve seen this before with brands like VanMoof and Cake ending up in bankruptcy court.

There’s a special place in hell for anyone who could leave an injured child on the side of the road after a crash, like the older woman in a black Mercedes who stopped briefly after hitting an eight-year old kid riding a bicycle in Novato, then just drove off without helping the victim; fortunately, the child only suffered minor injuries.

Over 100 people turned out in Oakland for a ride to celebrate East Bay bike trails, while offering a reminder that bicyclists can still only go halfway across the Oakland Bay Bridge.

Bad news from East Oakland, where a 38-year old man was in grave condition after he was struck by a hit-and-run driver while riding his bicycle Monday night; police are looking for the owner of a black Land Rover who just kept going without stopping after striking the victim, who is believed to be homeless. Unfortunately, you’ll have to find a way around the paper’s paywall to read the story. 

 

National

A writer for Outside recommends things that will help make your life on the bike easier, based on his 20 years as a bike commuter.

Streetsblog talks with Josh Naramore of the National Association of City Transportation Officials about how cities can get ready for the robo-taxi revolution, arguing that it can be done without losing momentum on building livable streets for people outside of cars, too, if it’s done right.

Jonathan Maus, the editor of Bike Portland, is stepping back from the daily grind of writing one of the nation’s most popular and successful local bike blogs, asking readers what they want from the site as he moves forward.

A Georgia public radio station discusses how bike boulevards have improved life in Henrietta, after a successful fight by bike advocates.

 

International

A writer for Bikepacker makes his yearly pilgrimage to “the epic and wild Vuelta de Citlaltépetl,” circumventing Mexico’s highest peak on a mountain bike and trailer.

Must be nice. Bicyclists in the Netherlands can now install an app on their phones to give them quicker green lights at traffic signals.

 

Competitive Cycling

The USA Mountain Bike National Championships will once again be held in Roanoke, Virginia, in a repeat of last year’s races.

Evidently, Tadej Pogačar is a weight weenie, choosing weight savings over aerodynamics for his new time trial bike.

Britain’s Ineos Grenadiers Cycling Team will will have a new name and team colors for next month’s Giro d’Italia; they will now be known as the Netcompany Ineos Cycling Team after signing the AI company to a five-year sponsorship agreement.

 

Finally…

Now you, too, can submit your original books and bikes artwork for people to drive over.

And if the seat’s buzzing, maybe think twice about getting on.

Just saying.

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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , ,

CicLAvia returns to South LA in June, SaMo bike & ped enforcement day today, and road-raging man rams Georgia group ride

April 28, 2026 / / No comments

To be honest, I’m pretty wrung out after writing about our third SoCal bicycling death in just three days.

And I don’t have a lot of time left to work tonight after dealing with all that before my last drop-dead deadline to get some sleep — hopefully not literally. So let’s just see how much we can get done, and try to catch up on more tomorrow.

And that includes the photos I promised you from Sunday’s CicLAvia, so I hope you’ll be patient with me for a few days.

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Mark your calendar for at least two more CicLAvias this year, despite Metro’s threats of cutbacks to future events that would only coincide with the World Cup and the ’28 Olympics.

Next up is a return to South LA with Leimert Park meets Expo Park at the end of June.

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Streetblog’s Joe Linton offers photos from Sunday’s very busy West LA CicLAvia, including the newly repaired bakery window at the 99 Ranch Market, where an elderly driver killed three people crashing into the building February 5th.

Redditor johnnyshotit has some nice shots, too, while Michael Schneider offers video from the day.

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And speaking of Schneider, he spotted a new LA modal filter.

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Police in Santa Monica will conduct yet another of the LA area’s traffic safety enforcement operations targeted at traffic violations that endanger pedestrians and bicyclists today.

The operation will be in force this afternoon and evening, from 2 pm to 8 pm.

As usual, ride to the letter of the law until you cross the city limits, because the cops may be focused on motorists, but they’re legally required to enforce any violations they see, regardless of who commits it.

Meanwhile, today may be your best day to ride a bike on a state roadway, as the CHP begins a 24-hour Maximum Enforcement Period focused on speeding drivers. Unless you can top the posed speed limit on your bike, which was always a personal goal of mine.

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Once again, a driver has deliberately attacked bike riders for the simple crime of being in his way.

This time, the assault came in Cherokee County, Georgia, where a 72-year old man faces charges for deliberately driving into a pair of bicyclists on a 33-mile group ride, after calling 911 and repeatedly honking his horn — even though the next lane was empty and he could have easily just gone around them.

The driver later told sheriff’s deputies “it wasn’t ‘reasonable’ for cyclists to take a whole lane, so ‘he drove into them.'”

“I told him I had video of the incident and offered to show it to him, which he stated he didn’t want to see because he knew he did nothing wrong,” the report says.

Fortunately, no one was seriously injured.

He is now being held without bond on two counts of aggravated assault, hit and run, reckless driving, aggressive driving and failure to maintain a safe distance from a bicycle.

Which is a lot of charges for “not doing anything wrong.”

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UCLA will mark Bike Month with two days of pit stops, and three bike repair days.

Meanwhile, Pasadena announces a full month of Bike Month activities.

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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.

Trash collection company Waste Management pinky swears they’re going to stop leaving empty trash bins in the bike lane on LA’s Reseda Blvd.

A 73-year old Wisconsin man faces charges for pointing a gun at a 13-year old boy riding an ebike, after the kid kept riding away when the older man tried to confront him; no word on whether the gun was loaded.

Waymo effectivesly tells London bike riders “screw you,” arguing that it’s just too high a bar to expect their autonomous cabs to keep out of bike lanes, because customers want to be dropped off in them. Although the few times I’ve used one, I can’t recall ever being asked whether or not I want to be let out in a bike lane. I can recall getting extremely carsick, however.

But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.

A Binghampton, New York man faces charges for playing repo man with a baseball bat, beating another man senseless when the victim didn’t pay everything he owed after buying an ebike from him; he then rode off with the bike in question.

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Local 

Bike thefts in West Hollywood surged a whopping 250% last year, ten times the increase in shoplifting, though the overall numbers are relatively small.

You’ll now find a new conservation mural facing the Ballona Creek Bike Path on the ima Members Lounge building on Sepulveda Blvd; created by Victor Ving with support from the League of Conservation Voters, the mural calls for protecting our public lands.

 

State

Streetsblog’s Melanie Curry reviews Calbike’s California Bike Summit in Sacramento last week, with the first installment focused on advice for living with Caltrans.

A Eureka father and son made just their 5th stop at a Major League ballpark in San Diego Monday, after roughly one month and 1,500 miles on the road in their journey to visit all 30 American and National League parks in support of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

A 26-year old Stockton man was lucky to escape injury when a car pulled up next to him as he was riding his bike, and someone fired a gun out the window.

There’s a new king of the hill in San Francisco, where British hillclimb champ Harry MacFarlane set a new KOM for the city’s steepest hill, with a ridiculous 41% average gradient.

Streetsblog says San Francisco’s two-mile linear Sunset Dunes park is an unqualified success on it’s first anniversary, as the city’s traffic safety has improved, merchants are doing better and the park is more popular than ever.

Sacramento’s CapRadio explains why California’s crackdown on ebikes may not solve the biggest safety risks, which are caused by e-motorbikes and dirt bikes, often of questionable legality.

 

National

Governing writes that ebike regulations are proliferating across the US, while advocates warn “some laws risk over-regulating low-speed bikes while ignoring high-speed e-motos.” No shit. 

There’s not a pit in hell deep enough for a Pennsylvania man accused of fleeing the scene after killing a third grader riding a bicycle, while driving under the influence; when police smelled alcohol on his breath after tracking him to his home, he first asked “How can I get a DUI if I have been drinking at my house all day?”, before admitting he’d felt “a bump” while he was driving home.

Heartbreaking news from North Carolina, where a 51-year old man faces multiple charges after he “veered off” a roadway while under the influence of coke, opiates and benzodiazepines, and slammed into a nine-year old boy as he sat on a bike in his own driveway, knocking the kid into retaining wall and severing his leg. Speaking of that pit in hell…

 

International

Residents of Liverpool, England say they don’t think plans for a five-mile bike lane connecting two other bikeways is popular with locals due to a loss of parking, even though 77% of respondents support it, and 69% say they’ll use it.

Velo looks at “jaw-dropping” custom road and gravel bikes at London’s Bespoked Show.

Bicycling deaths climbed nearly 4% in Germany last year, with over 61% of the victims aged 65 or more, while nearly half involved ebikes.

Katmandu, meet Los Angeles. Asian News Network says bicycling used to be central to life in Nepal, but now it’s done mainly for sport, as “poor infrastructure, unsafe roads, and status-driven attitudes continue to keep cycling from becoming a mode of commuting.”

 

Competitive Cycling

Tadej Pogačar and French wunderkind Paul Seixas battled back and forth before Pogačar pulled away to wrap up his third consecutive Liège-Bastogne-Liège; Remco Evenepoel settled for third, his day doomed by a badly timed breakaway.

Dutch cyclist Demi Vollering ran away with a solo win at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, demonstrating her mastery of women’s cycling following her uphill victory on Wednesday in Flèche Wallonne.

Tragic news from Spain, where former WorldTour pro Cristian Muñoz died in Spain Thursday night from complications due to a knee infection following a crash at France’s Tour du Jura Cycliste on April 18; the Colombian cyclist was just 30 years old.

More tragic news, this time from Belgium, where U-23 cyclist Milan Bral was killed when he was struck while training for next month’s Gent-Wevelgem under-23 race; Bral is the nephew of Soudal-Quickstep sports director and former pro cyclist Sep Vanmarcke.

Former WorldTour pro Mike Woods asks the burning question we’d all like to know, what the hell happened to North American bike racing in the decade-plus since he competed on the circuit.

 

Finally…

Your next ebike could be a weird little solar powered, 75 mph car — but yes, you still have to pedal it. If you’re going to try to run down someone on a bicycle, try to make sure it’s not a bike cop first.

And yes, it’s true.

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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

70-year old man killed riding a bicycle on PCH in Huntington Beach late Monday morning; 3rd SoCal bike death in 3 days

April 27, 2026 / / 4 comments

For the third time in just three days, someone has been killed riding a bicycle on the mean streets of Southern California.

This time, on Pacific Coast Highway, one of the state deadliest roadways, from Ventura County to Camp Pendleton.

Multiple sources are reporting that a man was killed by a driver on PCH in Huntington Beach just before noon Monday.

The victim, identified only as a 70-year old man, was riding south on PCH when he began to merge left in an apparent attempt to turn left onto Newland Street around 11:50 am. He was struck by a 20-year old driver traveling in the same direction, who stopped following the crash.

Huntington Beach police found the victim lying unconscious in the roadway. Despite the efforts of paramedics, he died at the scene.

Police don’t think drugs or alcohol played a roll in the crash — at least not for the driver.

However, they noted in a press release that it’s “unknown if impairment was a factor with the rider of the bicycle,” which is a very odd statement to make.

It’s not clear what lane the driver was traveling in, or how fast he may have been going. Or why the victim apparently thought he had time to cross the busy roadway, or why police seem to question whether he was under the influence.

Anyone with information is urged to call Traffic Investigator Steve Flynn of the Huntington Beach Police Department at 714/536-5666.

This the 29th bicycling fatality that I’m aware of in Southern California this year, and the second we know about in Orange County.

My deepest sympathy and prayers for the victim and all his loved ones. 

Thanks to Johnson Attorneys Group for the heads-up. 

Category: Injuries and Fatalities / Tags: , , ,

Move along, nothing to see here — today’s post called on account of lateness

April 27, 2026 / / No comments

My apologies.

My site was down for some time Sunday night, preventing me from being able to work. Then I had to write about Saturday’s bicycling death in Jefferson Park before I could get to Monday’s post.

So now it’s after 1:30 am, which means if I started now, I wouldn’t get to bed until the sun is coming up and my wife is already up to go to work.

And I’m way too old and cranky for that crap these days.

So come back tomorrow, and we’ll catch up on anything we missed today, including Sunday’s West LA CicLAvia.

Photo by Sami Raad from Pexels.

 

Category: General /

Update: Man riding ebike killed by hit-and-run driver in LA’s Jefferson Park neighborhood; 8th SoCal bike rider killed in hit-and-run this year

April 27, 2026 / / No comments

Another day, another person killed riding an ebike in Southern California.

This time in Los Angeles.

And this time in a hit-and-run.

Just hours after a 13-year old boy was killed by was killed by an Amtrak train in Simi Valley, a man was killed by a driver in the Jefferson Park neighborhood of Los Angeles.

According to KTLA-5, which is currently the only outlet reporting on the crash, the victim was struck while riding near 36th Street and 5th Ave around 11 pm Saturday night.

The victim, described only as a man around 48-years old, was thrown onto a parked car with enough force to cause significant damage to the rear of the car.

He died at the scene.

The driver fled following the crash. No arrest has been made, and there is currently no description of the suspect vehicle.

There is also no word on how the crash occurred, or where the victim and the driver were located in relation to the intersection.

We also don’t know at this time what kind of ebike the victim was riding; whether it was a Class 1, 2 or 3 ebike, or an e-motorbike or electric dirt bike. An earlier report describes the bike as a motorized or motorbike, but that description was removed from the later update.

The earlier report also describes the victim as 38-years old.

This the 28th bicycling fatality that I’m aware of in Southern California this year, and the tenth in Los Angeles County; it’s also the fifth we know about in the City of Los Angeles.

Eight of those deaths have involved hit-and-run drivers.

As always, there is a standing $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of any fatal hit-and-run driver in the City of Los Angeles.

Update: The victim has been identified only as a 38-year old man, pending notification of next-of-kin, while police are now looking for the owner of a dark-colored Jeep Wrangler, no model year given. 

Anyone with information is urged to call Officer Diaz and Sergeant Nily at 323/421-2577, or 1-877/527-3247 during non-business hours. Or call anonymously at 1-800/222-8477 or lacrimestoppers.org.

Update 2: The victim has been identified as 37-year old Melvin Salgado, no city of residence given.

My deepest sympathy and prayers for Melvin Salgado and all his loved ones.

 

Category: Injuries and Fatalities / Tags: , , , , , ,

Update: 13-year old ebike rider killed by Amtrak train in Simi Valley Saturday; 4th Ventura County bike death this year

April 26, 2026 / / 7 comments

Ventura County is having its worst year in memory for bicycling deaths — and it’s only getting worse.

And this time, the victim was a kid.

According to a late night notice from the Simi Valley Police Department, the victim, identified only as a 13-year old juvenile riding an ebike, was killed in a collision with a train on Saturday.

The victim was riding on the east sidewalk of Sequoia Ave, heading south, when they “failed to stop in time” at the railroad crossing at Sequoia and Los Angeles Ave, and was struck by a passing Amtrak train.

It’s not clear if the victim died at the scene, or was taken to a local hospital.

A street view shows crossing gates on Sequoia, but it would have been easy to go around them on the sidewalk.

If the description is accurate, it suggests that the victim tried and failed to stop in time, raising questions of how fast the ebike was going — and what type of ebike a victim that young was riding. As well as why the crossing gates did not provide more warning before the train arrived.

It’s also possible that the victim may not have noticed the gates were down, or could have tried to go around the gates after they had been lowered.

Either way, it’s a needless tragedy that will be felt throughout the community.

Anyone with information is urged to call Simi Valley Police Department Traffic Investigator Abel Martinez at 805/583-6224, or email AMartinez@simivalley.org. Or contact Simi Valley Police Department Traffic Supervisor Sergeant Josh McAlister at 805/583-6940, email JMcAlister@simivalley.org.

This the 27th bicycling fatality that I’m aware of in Southern California this year, and the fourth in Ventura County.

That compares to three all year last year, and two the year before.

Update: The victim has been identified as 13-year old Reis Beck, “a loving, sports-crazed boy who had a special relationship with his three brothers and his parents.”

According to KCBS-2, he was riding a Class 3 ped-assist ebike, which could have legally reached speeds up to 28 mph. And as Christian points out below, he was riding on the sidewalk that would have faced traffic, so the traffic arm would have been on the opposite side of the railroad tracks. 

KTLA-5 reports that a statement from the Simi Valley Youth Baseball League posted on Instagram describes Reis as “more than a talented ballplayer.”

“He was a beloved son, brother, teammate and a true friend to so many,” the post says. “His love for the game was evident every time he stepped on the field, but it was his kindness, his energy and his unforgettable smile that truly made him special.” 

A memorial has been set up inside Simi Valley’s Sinaloa Middle School, where he was in the 7th grade. 

Meanwhile, a crowdfunding campaign to support his family has raised more than $54,000 of the $90,000 goal. 

My deepest sympathy for Reis Beck and all their friends, family and loved ones. 

Thanks to Linda for the heads-up. 

Category: Injuries and Fatalities / Tags: , , , , , , , ,
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