January 9, 2026 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on NY shows what LA bike riders could have — but don’t, ride your bikeshare to the battleship, and ebike vouchers work
You know, just in case you need a reminder what a bike-friendly mayor could actually do, since it’s been so long since we’ve had one here in Los Angeles.
When Eric Adams took office, he too made a show of being a bike lover, riding a Citi Bike to meetings on his second day in office and promising to build 300 miles of protected bike lanes by the end of his term. But then he and top aide Ingrid Lewis-Martin spent four years ripping up protected bike lanes and sabotaging planned road diets — perhaps most infamously the McGuinness Boulevard bike lane, with Lewis-Martin charged for allegedly accepting a bribe (and a film cameo) to stop it. In the end, Adams fell 210 miles short of his promise.
Mamdani spent his first week in office undoing much of what Adams had wrought. On his third day, he and new DOT commissioner Mike Flynn announced they would be installing the original McGuinness road diet, reversing Adams’s reversal. The administration also announced it is working to finish Astoria’s 31st Street bike lane, a project that a judge halted in part because Adams hadn’t gotten the required certification from the FDNY and other agencies. “We are beginning the mandatory consultations and will issue the notices needed to restart the project, while also filing a notice of appeal of the court’s decision,” Flynn said in a statement. Over the weekend, Mamdani also said he would direct the DOT to “daylight” city streets, a commonsense safety measure that would keep intersections clear of visual obstructions like parked cars (a promise the Adams administration made but then backtracked on).
At least you can’t say that LA Mayor Bass has fallen short on her promises to the city’s bicycling community.
But only because she hasn’t made any.
You have to go back to the last years of former mayor and current gubernatorial candidate Antonio Villaraigosa’s administration, after his famous road to Damascus moment, to recall anything like Mamdani’s first week in office.
The South Bay’s Easy Readertakes a look back at the past year in Hermosa Beach, including how a violent assault made the city “part of a multilayered national conversation on the impact of reckless e-bike riding in neighborhoods.”
No bias here. Voice of OC says Encinitas residents continue to blame former mayor and current state senator Catherine Blakespear for the city’s perceived problems, including controversy over the Coastal Rail Trail, which she was for, before she was against it, before she was for it again, even though it’s now widely used and popular among residents.
National
Escape Collective mostly drops their paywall for a tutorial on how to photograph bicycles and bike riding. But you might want to make a quick pdf for reference, because once you hit the paywall at the bottom, it’s gone.
Security video captures the moment a 73-year old New Jersey man was killed when he was riding salmon on an ebike, and crashed into the side of a police car as the driver was turning right onto the street the man was riding on. Yet another reminder to never ride against traffic, because drivers won’t be looking for you coming from the wrong direction, even though drivers should have looked both ways before turning. Even cops.
Owens was allegedly driving her BMW around 100 mph when she slammed into Gallopa while he was attempting to turn left off of Fourth Street near Bonita Ave.
Remarkably, given Owen’s speed, he survived for two weeks in the hospital before dying of his injuries.
The deputy district attorney mentioned the additional killings almost in passing as she asked that Owens to be held without bail, arguing that she is “a huge risk to the community.”
Well, no shit.
Like the earlier crash, she’s accused of running red lights at over 100 mph before slamming into two cars at Sixth Street and Atlantic Avenue in Sunday’s crash, killing two people and injuring three others.
Which makes you wonder how the hell she manages to survive those high-speed crashes.
It also makes you wonder why her license wasn’t immediately pulled after killing one innocent person, let alone three.
It’s also stupendously idiotic that Owens wasn’t taken into custody after the first crash; instead, she was let loose on society after getting booked on suspicion of misdemeanor reckless driving.
Because apparently, inflicting life-threatening injuries at 100 mph on someone riding a bicycle is merely “reckless.”
In a functioning society that actually gives a damn about human lives, that would have been enough to suspend her license at least until a decision was made whether to file formal charges.
But we don’t seem to live in that society.
Instead, we just give dangerous drivers a pat on the back, and send them back out to get their cars fixed, and do it again three months later.
To say I’m disgusted and sickened would be a huge understatement.
To cap it all off, California’s lax traffic laws mean she faces a maximum of six years behind bars if she’s convicted for Gallopa’s death.
Too bad the judge can’t add a year for each 10 mph over the speed limit.
The only good news, if you can all it that, is that she should face a similar sentence for each of the two people she is alleged to have killed on Sunday. Although the DA should upgrade it to 2nd degree murder by arguing that she should have known the danger of speeding after the earlier crash.
We can hope, anyway.
At the end of Monday’s hearing, Owens was ordered held on $200,000 bail.
No word on whether the judge also took away her license until the trial is completed.
We finally got to see the first crack in the New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani thus far flawless bike-friendly veneer.
According to Streetsblog, Mamdani agreed that scofflaw bike riders shouldn’t be getting criminal summons in the Big Apple, rather than regular traffic tickets.
But he stopped short of saying he would direct NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch to end the policy she implemented last year, instead just saying they’re still having “conversations.”
“These are part of the conversations that we’re having,” Mamdani said. “In addition to the question of what kind of a summons, we also have to make it easier to be a cyclist in compliance with the law, because I will tell you that you will find a cyclist biking on a pavement, and sometimes when you ask them why they’re doing so, they’ll point to the car that’s driving in the bike lane.
“We have created infrastructure issues for cyclists that we are then ticketing them for, where it is easier to be out of compliance with the law than in compliance with the law,” the mayor added.
Although if wants to maintain the bicycle street cred he’s built up in the first two weeks of his administration, he needs to stop conversing and start stopping things.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
A Wasco man will likely spend the rest of his life behind bars after being sentenced to 86-years to life for fatally shooting a 51-year old man in a dispute over a stolen bicycle — which is convenient since there’s already a state prison right there. Seriously, no bike is worth a human life. Just let it go, and let the cops handle it.
Forbes writes that ebike regulations are being tightened across the US in the wake of irresponsible drivers. But by “drivers,” they mean the people operating ebikes, not the ones in the big, dangerous machines.
In a surprise announcement, 33-year old British pro Simon Yates decided to quit at the top, calling it a career after after winning last year’s Giro, seven years after his first grand tour win in the 2018 Vuelta and 13 years after debuting alongside his twin brother Adam.
As in, they weren’t willing to risk the wrath of LA’s angry drivers by removing parking to create space for the bike lane on the right side.
Because nothing is more LA than your God-given right to free car storage right next to the curb in front of your home. Or anyone else’s, for that matter.
But giving city leaders the benefit of the doubt, maybe they think they’re going to protect us by putting bikes over there on the left, where no one would expect it. Kinda like safety in invisibility.
And we know how well that’s worked out for us.
But there it shall be, henceforth and forever more running down the center of the road — not in the median like it is in Burbank, but over there on the left shoulder. With nothing but those chunky white bendable bollards that no one would ever think of running over to protect us.
Right next to what used to be known as the fast lane, before every lane turned into one.
Joe Linton shares his own thoughts about the coming new bike lane in a Bluesky thread that somehow seems only slightly less pessimistic than me.
So take it away, Joe.
Please.
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Call it the further adventures of life in a bike-friendly city.
Unlike, say, here in Los Angeles, where our mayor says she’s one of us, while doing everything she can to avoid implementing the city mobility plan — or complying with the Americans with Disability Act — going so far as to replace street resurfacing with something called “large asphalt repair.”
Because resurfacing the street would trigger Measure HLA’s requirement to implement the mobility plan, as well as requiring ADA-compliant curb cuts.
Now Mayor Zohran Mamdani is grabbing a shovel himself to repair a major obstacle blocking the bike lane on the Williamsburg Bridge, infamous among the city’s bicyclists as the “Williamsburg Bump.”
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
Seriously? Business owners in Cathedral City, California try to make the case that new green plastic bike lane bollards are cutting into their sales by reducing visibility and accessibility, leading to a drop in foot traffic. Or maybe foot traffic is down because it’s been raining for the last two weeks.
An ebike rider was lucky to escape without serious injuries when they were right-hooked by a driver while riding in the painted bike lane on Santa Monica Blvd in West Hollywood; witnesses described the crash as a hit-and-run, but sheriff’s deputies insisted the driver stuck around.
Momentum is busy recycling old news stories as new news, making it harder to tell what’s actually new and what isn’t — although it’s kind of a dead giveaway when a story about why cargo bikes are better than minivans for family vehicles begins by predicting Europe ‘will’ sell half a million cargo bikes in 2022.
January 6, 2026 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on NY congestion pricing works while LA keeps studying…and studying, and making a moral commitment to human life
The program, which charges $9 a car for each trip into the city’s Central Business District, has raised $700 million in tolls in its first year. The money has gone to support transit, including upgrades to subway lines and station, as well as Metro bus lines.
At the same time, vehicle entries into the district have dropped, although the void was quickly filled by ride-hailing vehicles. Foot traffic is up. Pollution levels have dropped across all five boroughs, bus speeds have increased slightly, and both collisions and traffic injuries dropped.
Before the first-in-the-nation plan went into effect on Jan. 5, 2025, proponents promised that the policy would bring entrenched Manhattan gridlock to heel, while foes predicted far-reaching economic and environmental harm. Gov. Kathy Hochul, fearing electoral consequences, delayed its implementation. The then-incoming Trump administration promised to kill the program in the crib…
Those same benefits could accrue right here in Los Angeles, including the possibility of free transit, if Metro hadn’t backed down on this city’s congestion pricing proposal.
Instead, we did what LA does best, conducting yet another study instead of actually doing anything.
Maybe someone can explain why it takes seven full years to conduct one damn study.
But even then, if and when they actually complete the study, does anyone really believe the spineless Metro board will somehow find the courage to stand up to LA’s infamous angry drivers.
And if you thought the whole Playa del Rey road diet fiasco pissed local drivers off, just wait until they have to pay a toll to enter certain parts of the city or use specific roadways.
Some may dismiss Vision Zero as being uniquely achievable in Europe given different cultures. But here in the U.S., Hoboken, New Jersey — a city of almost 60,000 with a Vision Zero approach — has recently had a seven-year streak with literally zero traffic fatalities.
And Hoboken is no outlier; many U.S. jurisdictions have adopted Vision Zero policies. Napa County happens to be one of them. But as noted in a recent Washington Post investigation, Vision Zero policies are meaningless without moral commitment to making human life paramount and without commensurate political and economic investment in proven life-saving infrastructure and systems.
Which is exactly why it failed so miserably here in Los Angeles, where traffic deaths are higher now than they ten eleven years ago when it became official city policy.
The boy was found dumped at the bottom of a steep Missouri ravine, a day after he had disappeared while riding his bike to a neighbor’s home half an hour away in Kansas.
An autopsy showed he had died of dog bites.
The suspect faces a charge of abandoning a corpse in Missouri, and interfering with law enforcement, criminal desecration, and allowing a vicious dog to run at large in Kansas.
Sadly, it’s not hard to read between the lines.
Especially if you’ve ever been chased by an angry dog.
Let alone caught by one.
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Rush hour looks a little different in the Netherlands.
And not just because of the snow.
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This is why you don’t park in bike lanes.
I just wish they’d do that here.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
Yesterday, we mentioned that London bike riders caught running red lights will have the option of paying the equivalent of a $67 fine or watching a video of a bike rider getting hit by a bus after jumping one; today we learned that the video is of a woman who voluntarily agreed to share it as a warning to others.
Still more sad news comes from Vallejo, where a man was killed when he somehow lost control and crashed his bicycle; police said there didn’t appear to be any other vehicles involved. Although there’s all kinds of things that can make someone lose control of a bike, from potholes and loose gravel to a too-close pass from a distracted driver.
A writer for Bike Radar lists ten things he wished he know when he started riding, so you can avoid making the same mistakes. Although in retrospect, I wish I’d skipped the carbon bike and stuck with steel if I couldn’t afford Ti.
A 27-year old Aussie man is suing the former premier of Victoria province for defamation, as well as ongoing injuries, a dozen years after he was struck by the ex-premier’s wife while riding a bike; she claimed he crashed into her car after she came to a complete stop, which seems kinda unbelievable given the extent of his injuries and the damage to her windshield.
I can’t begin to tell you how grateful I am to all those who gave this year to support this humble site.
So thanks to John, Norwood, Mary, Robert, Jim and Glenn for their generous donations in the final days of the fund drive to help keep all the best bike news and advocacy coming your way every day.
In the end, more than 60 people opened their hearts and wallets to donate this year, falling just just a few hundred short of breaking that elusive $5,000 barrier for the first time — far more than I expected after what was such a difficult year for so many of us.
Now the holidays are finally over, and I’m tanned, rested — or maybe rusted after all this rain — and ready to get back to work.
And hey, happy new year! Let’s hope it’s a better one for all of us.
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Let’s start with a recent email exchange with someone who seemed to think I write too much about ebikes, suggesting I should change the name of the site to e-BikinginLA.
He warned that things would look a lot different to if I was a parent riding a “real bicycle” with child passenger, and then someone zoomed by in the curb lane or on the sidewalk at 28 mph.
This was my response, which I’m sharing to clarify where I stand on the great ebike debate.
I write about ebikes because that’s what’s in the news these days, just like I’ve written about any number of things that have been in the news over the years.
I’m not a fan of high-speed, throttle-controlled ebikes, which I believe should be recategorized as motorbikes and require a license to operate. I do like ped-assist ebikes with a max speed of 20 mph, simply because they expand the potential for bicycling from the proverbial “young and healthy” we always hear about, to virtually everyone. And provide the potential to trade a car for a bicycle for countless people who might not otherwise even consider it.
I also believe every bicycle should be ridden within the limits of the law whenever practical, which would generally prohibit passing on the inside or riding on the sidewalk at an excessive speed. Everyone should ride in a safe and sane manner, regardless of how their bike may be powered. And no one should ever have a sense of entitlement on the streets, whether walking, biking or driving.
Personally, I’d like to have an e-cargo bike just so I can bike to Costco or the hardware store, and take my service dog with me wherever I go, which doesn’t exactly work on my 18-speed racing bike. However, I’ve never actually ridden one yet, after being a lifelong roadie, and don’t know if I’d really like it or not.
Meanwhile, on a related subject, The New York Daily News says the city could end its “vicious cycle” with high-speed ebikes by requiring them to be licensed and insured as mo-peds, like they do in the Netherlands.
But apparently, they don’t want you to read it, because the editorial is locked behind a paywall for subscribers only.
And a Bay Area woman says she’s all for ebikes, and the problems everyone seems to be complaining about are caused by people on electric motorbikes, not Class 2 ebikes like hers.
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It didn’t take long for New York’s new mayor to demonstrate his transportation bona fides.
Just days after Mayor Zohran Mamdani took the oath of office, he announced a Complete Streets makeover of McGuinness Boulevard, including parking-protected bike lanes the full length of the corridor, considered a key bicycling route connecting Brooklyn and Queens.
Oceanside bike lawyer and BikinginLA sponsor Richard Duquette is sponsoring the Giro di San Diego Gran Fondo this June, complete with cash prizes and KOM kits.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
Streetsblog’sJoe Linton offers his predictions for the coming year, including a 50% drop in new bike lanes in Los Angeles, as the city puts on the brakes to avoid complying with Measure HLA and ADA-compliant curb cuts.
I want to be like him when I grow up. A 79-year old Long Beach man rode his bike every day for more than 18 years, through an appendectomy and the death of his wife, going so far as to pay a man 20 bucks to borrow a kid’s bike after attending the Kentucky Derby.
A 73-year old man was charged with aggravated vehicular homicide for killing a 44-year old Toledo, Ohio man as he was waiting on his bicycle at a red light, running him down from behind before fleeing the scene. The next time someone asks you why so many bike riders run red lights, remind them about cases like this.
Once again, an advocate for safer streets was killed while riding his bike, this time when a Macon, Georgia man was run down from behind by a 73-year old woman, who claims she didn’t see him before the crash — yet police still blamed the victim for simply riding in the roadway, instead of on the shoulder, and not yielding to traffic.
Sad news from Florida, where Joe Montgomery died of apparent heart trouble, 55-year after he founded Cannondale above a Connecticut pickle factory, naming the bikemaker after a nearby train station; he was 86.
Next time you find yourself in Osaka, Japan, make plans to visit the Shimano Bicycle Museum, where you’ll find a century of exclusive bicycling history from the earliest Safety Bikes, to a rain-proof electric trike and a five-seat racing bike.
