He fell into the traffic lane, and was struck by the driver of a slow-moving truck.
He did after being transported to Scripps Hospital in La Jolla.
The victim, publicly identified only as a 65-year old man, was reportedly attempting to pass a slower bike rider when his bike began to wobble. Fox-5 suggests it may have been his first ride on the newly purchased ebike.
There’s no word on why he may have struggled to control his bike. However, Phillip Young reports that the pavement has been pushed up by tree roots in some sections of the narrow painted bike lane, which could have destabilized his bike.
It’s also possible that he may have bumped or swerved to avoid the rider he was passing. Or could have simply lost control due to unfamiliarity with the new ebike.
The reports also don’t mention whether it a ped-assist or throttle controlled ebike, or his speed at the time of the crash, which also could have played a role.
Anyone with information is urged to call the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department at 858/565-5200.
This is at least the 18th bicycling fatality in Southern California already this year. Remarkably, though, it appears to be the first in San Diego County.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for the victim and his loved ones.
February 25, 2022 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on CHP gets bike law wrong after 13-year old right hooked, Phil Gaimon gets it, and gravel bull buffoonery in Bakersfield
Once again, the CHP gets basic bike law completely wrong.
As any pedestrian can tell you, sidewalks are bidirectional, with no requirement to walk one way or the other.
The same holds true for riding a bike — assuming sidewalk riding is legal there. The requirement to ride with traffic only applies if you’re riding in the street.
If the CHP can’t manage to teach their officers that, maybe they shouldn’t be investigating bike crashes.
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Phil Gaimon gets it.
His latest video calls for everyone who rides a bike in LA to sign the Healthy Streets LA ballot petition, which would require the city to build out the mobility plan whenever a street on it is repaved.
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
A Florida driver will apparently get away with killing a man riding his bike on the shoulder of a highway, despite veering all the way off the roadway to strike the victim, who police say did nothing wrong. And despite the driver’s long record of traffic violations and license suspensions. Just one more example of authorities keeping a dangerous driver on the road until they kill someone.
A Metro board motion once again reaffirms that funding for the now cancelled 710 Freeway extension will go for multi-modal and safety enhancement projects, rather than the auto-centric projects the head of Metro’s Highways Program keeps insisting on.
A Portland website tells the tale of the city’s 1890s bike factory, which was originally opened to build an ether-powered bicycle, which was dropped when they couldn’t keep up with demand for pedal-powered bikes.
Despite drawing over 300,000 spectators, hosting the Grand Depart of the 2014 Tour de France in Yorkshire, England has shown no lasting financial benefit.
February 24, 2022 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on No justice for fallen San Diego bicyclist, we’re all the same bike tribe, and greater inclusivity for all kinds of riders
I have to work fast to get a new post online every night.
But sometimes, the need for speed forces me to link to stories I haven’t had a chance to fully read.
The story dealt with victims’ families too often feeling like they’ve been let down by the justice system when killer drivers get off with a slap on the wrist, if that.
But what I missed was the focus on the wife of fallen bicyclist Matt Keenan, who was killed by a wrong way driver while riding in Mission Valley last year.
The county district attorney’s office decided not to charge the driver with a felony, after she claimed she hit Keenan head-on because she’d thought she was on a one-way street.
Call it barely plausible deniability.
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The driver told police she thought the street, Camino Del Rio South, was one-way, and that she never saw the cyclist coming.
Keenan does not buy those excuses. She asked the San Diego Police Department to search the driver’s phone records for evidence that she was distracted, but never heard back on that request.
“Something had to make (the driver) extremely distracted, and really, what that is shouldn’t be the issue,” Keenan said. “She was so distracted that she did not see my husband and his extremely bright lights. She never hit the brakes.”
One problem is that police have to get a search warrant to examine a driver’s phone, which requires probable cause to believe a crime took place.
In other words, before they can get a judge to agree to let them see a driver’s phone, they need evidence that the driver was using it.
A legal Catch 22.
The law should be changed to require implied consent, just as anyone with a driver’s license is assumed to have consented to a blood alcohol test if police suspect they’re under the influence.
Merely possessing a driver’s license should give police the right to examine a phone following a collision to see if it had been in use at the time of a crash.
Failure to turn over the phone should result in an automatic loss of license, combined with a presumption of use.
Only then will we see justice for victims of distracted drivers.
And maybe even stop them from doing it in the first place.
No bias here. Hermosa Beach police report they busted a trio of teenaged ebike-riding taggers, even though their mode of transportation had nothing to do with the crime; they could have just as easily walked or ridden regular bicycles to the places they spray painted.
Congratulations to a Charlotte NC website, which somehow managed to write a five point plan for bike safety, in which four of the points don’t mention wearing a bike helmet. Once again, don’t get me wrong. I always wear a helmet when I ride. But helmets should always be seen as the last resort when all else fails, not the first, last and too often only steps for bike safety.
An 80-year old British man is on trial for fatally running down a bike-riding man in a dump truck; he also faces charges for failing to stop after the crash, and failing to give his name or the owner of the badly maintained vehicle. Once again raising the question of how old is too old to drive. And why the hell an 80-year old man was behind the wheel of a heavy duty truck in the first place, let alone one that wasn’t safe to drive.
February 23, 2022 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Los Angeles finally lowers speed limits on some streets, and “woke” repeal of Seattle bike helmet mandate
It might be time to check snow conditions in the underworld.
And reversing, if ever so slightly, the ever-climbing speed limits forced on them by the deadly 85th Percentile Law.
The move came in response to legislation sponsored by Burbank state Assemblymember Laura Friedman, which allows cities to drop speed limits no more than five mph.
Rantz accuses a “woke” professor of using a small sample size to show the law disproportionately ticketed people of color, while suggesting that some of those ticketed were probably just homeless people on stolen bicycles, anyway.
Schmuck.
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She gets it, too.
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A reminder about Walk ‘n Rollers upcoming 10th Anniversary celebration next month.
The Culver City-based organization deserves a lot of credit for teaching kids how to walk and ride safely.
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This may just be the coolest 100-year old bike I’ve ever seen.
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GCN considers whether a British company’s move to ban bike helmets for its delivery riders is science, or just plain stupid.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
No bias here. An Italian bike rider was fined the equivalent of $380 after he was nearly doored by a careless cop, because bicyclists aren’t required to wear a Covid mask in the country, but pedestrians are — which he became when he got off his bike to argue the point with the cop.
Calbike comes out agains AB 371, which would effectively end bikeshare and e-scooter rentals by imposing an “unprecedented insurance requirement,” after killing a similar proposal two years ago.
Business owners in San Diego’s North Park neighborhood continue to complain about lost business due to the removal of parking spaces for a protected bike lane on 30th Street, even though a nearby parking structure remains underutilized. Which suggests the real problem isn’t the bike lane, but drivers who are unwilling to pay for parking.
Colorado is considering a bill to legalize the full Idaho Stop Law, which would allow bike riders to treat stop signs like yields, and red lights like stop signs. The state currently has a confusing patchwork of local ordinances that allow riders to roll stops in one jurisdiction, while risking getting ticketed for the same thing in the next.
Raw video provided by County News shows the van, with relatively minor front end damage, coming to a stop on 1st, with what appears to be a commuter bike sprawled in the roadway.
(I’m not embedding the video, because it shows blurred views of the victim’s body lying in the center lane near the bike, which is not something his family or friends need to see.)
The victim’s death can likely be blamed on the lack of a crossing signal or crosswalk at Figueroa, which should have provided a safer alternative to busy Harbor Blvd. But clearly didn’t.
Two deaths so close together, both in terms of time and distance, suggests serious problems on the deadly corridor.
This is at least the 16th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and already the fourth that I’m aware of in Orange County, which would usually have less than half that number so early in the year.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for the victim and his loved ones.
They found the rest of the 57-year old victim’s body in the back of a man’s pickup, where it had been since the driver had crashed into his bike around 12 hours earlier.
The driver claimed he didn’t know the victim’s body was there until he got home — and then apparently just went inside and left him there to die once he did.
Graphics by tomexploresla
Which presumably would have given the man plenty of time to sober up before the cops found the body in his truck.
And how anyone could do something like that without being drunk or stoned is beyond me.
Bike Talk talks with Streets For All founder Michael Schneider about the organization’s Healthy Streets LA initiative to force Los Angeles to build out the city’s mobility plan when streets get repaved.
That’s followed by a segment with Bike Snob’s Eben Weiss discussing the Idaho Stop Law, which allows bike riders to treat stop signs like yields, and — at least in Idaho’s original version — treat red lights like stop signs.
A version of which was vetoed by California Governor Newsom last year.
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Remember what we said yesterday about the new Taylor Yard Bridge opening next month?
British singer, songwriter and producer James Blunt is one of us.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
A road-raging British driver walked without a single day behind bars for chasing down and ramming a bike rider who damaged his wing mirror; adding insult to injury, the driver was ordered to pay the equivalent of just $1,359 in compensation, despite totaling the victim’s $9,500 bicycle.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
New York’s legislature is considering a package of bike and pedestrian safety bills that would give cities more control over speed limits, encourage them to build safer sidewalks and bike lanes, and require drivers to study more safety topics for their license test.
