At least 83 people killed riding bikes in SoCal last year, no more “car oopsies,” and Sartre and Hackman are one of us

January 11, 2022 / / Comments Off on At least 83 people killed riding bikes in SoCal last year, no more “car oopsies,” and Sartre and Hackman are one of us

Let’s start with a followup to yesterday’s news.

As we noted, 18 people were killed riding bicycles in Los Angeles last year, a 20% jump over the year before. And ten more than the eight we had counted.

That news confirmed that running total of bicycling deaths maintained on this site was a dramatic undercount. Because too many tragedies on our streets never make the news, and the LAPD is often too slow in releasing reports of bicycling deaths.

If they ever get around to it at all.

Adding those 10 extra deaths to our totals comes out to 35 bicycling deaths in Los Angeles County last year, which compares to 34 in 2019, and around 30 in 2020, when we saw a similar problem confirming bicycling fatalities.

Orange County showed just seven deaths last year, which again seems like an undercount compared to 15 in 2020, and 13 in 2019.

San Diego County suffered through a horrible year, with 17 bicycling deaths, compared to just seven in 2020 and four in 2019.

The nine deaths in Riverside County fell in line with previous years, with ten in 2020 and eight in 2019.

The same is true for San Bernardino County, where seven people lost their lives riding bikes last year, compared to five in 2020 and eight the year before.

Ventura County showed a significant jump, with eight deaths in 2021, double the total of four for 2020, and six in 2019.

Finally, there appeared to be no bicycling deaths in Imperial County last year or the year before, compared to two in 2019. Although it’s easier to get light out of a black hole than news from Imperial County, so take that with a grain of salt.

But bear in mind these are only rough estimates, based strictly on reports in the press or announced by the police, the coroner or some other credible source.

Each death included here has been confirmed, eliminating any risk of an overcount; if anything, this is more likely to be an undercount. I’ve heard of several bicycling deaths over the past year that I haven’t been able to confirm, and so haven’t included them in these totals.

That leaves us with at least 83 people killed riding bicycles in the seven county Southern California region last year.

Eighty-three mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, friends and loved ones who were not here to greet the new year.

And likely more.

Maybe many more, when we finally see the official government totals in a few years.

Photo by Ted McDonald from Pixabay.

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The older term was more accurate.

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Gene Hackman is one of us.

And boy do I want to be like him when I grow up.

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A soaked Sartre on a foldie.

https://twitter.com/nedboulting/status/1480534309387837440

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Those vintage ice bikes we shared with you yesterday?

They’re still a thing, if somewhat more stable now.

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

No bias here. And apparently, no sense of irony either, as a proposed new Virginia law would would charge people on bicycles twice as much as motor vehicle drivers for rolling a stop sign, despite the people in the big, dangerous machines posing a much great risk to others. And just try impounding people’s cars for a simple traffic violation.

https://twitter.com/yitgordon/status/1480610900444778496

At least they’re honest about it. The BBC backtracks on an earlier story claiming new bike lanes are responsible for making London the world’s most congested city, correcting it to lay blame on a number of factors; a reporter admits that the “anti-cycling angle ‘gets more readers.'”

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

Reminiscent of the infamous Crimanimalz ride on LA’s Santa Monica Freeway more than a decade ago, over 100 people taking part in a Berkeley ride out took over the right lanes of the I-80 Freeway on Sunday, before they were escorted off by a CHP officer. As someone else pointed out, despite their scofflaw behavior, fewer people are killed by bicycle ride outs than everyday motor vehicle traffic. Thanks to Keith Johnson for the heads-up.

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Local

No news is good news, right?

 

State

Huh? A San Diego letter writer criticizes the Union-Tribune for using the widow of a fallen bicyclist to illustrate the need for safer bikeways, saying that safety was never raised as a reason for bike lanes on 30th Street, because everyone knows it was too dangerous to ride a bike there.

A 20-year old Merced woman is under arrest after she was found with a man’s stolen bicycle, which was taken when the man was smashed in the head with a hard object; her alleged partner in crime is still on the run.

San Francisco Streetsblog says a fix to the formerly unprotected bike lane used by an SUV driver to bypass stalled traffic last year, killing a pedestrian in the process, still wouldn’t stop anyone with its new car-tickler plastic bendie posts. Although that may not be quite the way they phrased it.

 

National

How not to bonk on your next mountain bike ride.

E-pickup maker Rivian has applied for an ebike trademark, suggesting a foray into bikemaking could be in their future.

A Houston paper says the local bike lanes in the auto-centric city are an “absolute joke and incredibly dangerous to any cyclist who decides to risk it and ride in them.” So, it’s like most other major cities, then.

A writer for Chicago Streetsblog questions who we should really be building bike lanes for, concluding that they should be for inexperienced bicyclists who’d like to ride more, rather than more confident, experienced riders.

 

International

UK GQ recommends stylish and practical panniers for your bike. I’ll take the bright yellow leather ones, thank you very much. 

That feeling when a drunk Irishman breaks into your home and demands an ebike charger. Probably for the e-scooter he just stole to carry your television out on.

A German sociologist concludes that bicycles are becoming status symbols, since poorer people are more likely to drive to show they can afford it, while bike riders tend to be wealthier and more educated, and more likely to send a message by choosing to ride. Methinks he’s full of scheisse.

Life is cheap in Israel, where a professional soccer player was given early release for good behavior after serving just two years for the hit-and-run death of a 17-year old ebike rider.

Popular Bangladeshi actor Bappy Chowdhury is one of us, taking a spill after losing his balance while filming a scene on a bicycle.

An Indian man learns the hard way that if a deal seems too good to be true, it probably is, as he orders a $600 bicycle from a discount site for just $155 — and gets a box full of scrap.

No surprise here. A Singapore report shows an average of 560 serious crashes involving bicyclists in each of the past five years, compared to just 90 a year on bike paths and park connectors. Meanwhile, the island city-state requires ebike and e-scooter user to pass an online test and carry a certificate with them when they ride.  And no, I don’t know what a park connector is, either.

Most of Japan’s abandoned and second-hand bicycles end up in Cambodia’s thriving used bike market.

 

Competitive Cycling

A team of Bangladeshi bicyclists set a new Guinness record for a relay team by riding 1,037 miles in just 48 hours.

VeloNews says UCI is disrespecting women’s cycling by banning team kits, while disrespecting women’s cycling themselves by hiding the editorial behind a paywall.

It’s time to head to Austria and get your snow bike racing on.

 

Finally…

That feeling when your toddler arrives in a bike trailer like an aristocrat. Stop your kid’s balance bike by remote control.

And can we have these on every street?

Please?

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

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

18 Los Angeles bike riders killed in 2021 Vision Zero fail, speed cams improve safety, and Sidney Poitier was one of us

January 10, 2022 / / Comments Off on 18 Los Angeles bike riders killed in 2021 Vision Zero fail, speed cams improve safety, and Sidney Poitier was one of us

It’s worse than we thought.

A lot worse.

Tracking bicycling deaths in Los Angeles last year, it became clear that what I was seeing was clearly a major undercount.

Because the numbers I was seeing were too good to be true, as if LA’s Vision Zero has suddenly started showing results, despite years of just nibbling at the edges of traffic safety.

It’s a problem that has developed over the past few years, as local newspapers and TV stations stopped reporting many bike crashes after the pandemic forced major cutbacks in the newsrooms.

At the same time, the LAPD has taken to telling the public about bike and pedestrian deaths only when there’s a crime involved — and even then too often waiting weeks, if not months, to issue a press release in some parts of the city, particularly in the case of hit-and-runs.

And LADOT has backtracked from their promises to track bike and pedestrian deaths under the Vision Zero program, which has receded to where it seems more like an inconvenience than a priority for the city’s transportation agency.

As a result, I counted just eight people killed riding bicycles in the city last year, a fraction of the 15 to 20 or more deaths that would have been expected in pre-pandemic days.

Sadly, I was right.

According to the Los Angeles Times, that was less than half of the actual total of 18 people killed riding their bikes in the City of Angels in 2021 — a 20% increase over the 15 people killed on bikes in the first year of the pandemic.

The paper points out the ongoing failure of Mayor Eric Garcetti’s underfunded Vision Zero pledge to cut traffic deaths by 20% by 2017 — a target the city didn’t come close to meeting. And the virtual impossibility meeting his commitment to ending traffic deaths in the city entirely by 2025.

According to Los Angeles Police Department data through Dec. 25, 289 people were killed in traffic collisions last year, 21% more than the same period in 2020 and 19% over the same period in 2019. A total of 1,465 people were severely injured, a 30% increase over the same period in 2020. The LAPD defines severely injured as needing to be transported from the collision.

The city’s streets are increasingly dangerous for pedestrians in particular, with 486 being severely injured by motorists — a 35% increase over 2020. Pedestrian deaths rose 6% to 128.

The numbers frustrate transportation advocates, who’ve long argued that Vision Zero — a program to end traffic deaths unveiled in 2015 by Garcetti — is underfunded and given a low priority by the mayor and City Hall leaders.

Then again, that’s what can be expected when our elected leaders quake in fear of getting recalled by angry drivers, and lack the courage to make the hard choices and changes necessary to save lives.

But Garcetti isn’t one to take such criticism lying down.

Garcetti cited the distraction of cellphones as a cause of collisions and said the city has added bike lanes during the pandemic, studied the city’s most dangerous intersections to come up with solutions, and supported a new state law designed to help cities have more control over speed limits.

“But it shows how tough it is,” Garcetti said Thursday.

He pushed back against criticism that he doesn’t mention Vision Zero as frequently as he touts other initiatives. “I speak out all the time,” Garcetti said. “I do on panels, I go out there, internationally, to kind of be part of this movement to make sure that we have more walkable, livable cities.”

So it’s nice to see Garcetti has done what he seems to do best.

Talk and attend conferences.

To be honest, I’ve wracked my brain in recent months, but can’t recall any elected official I’ve voted for and actively supported who has been a greater disappointment than Eric Garcetti. 

He started out great in his first term, before apparently setting his sights on higher office — including the presidency — and appearing to lose interest in the daily work of being the mayor of Los Angeles.

But I can tell you this.

I will not vote for anyone for mayor this year who does not fully commit to making Vision Zero a top priority, and funding it at levels necessary to result in real change. And commit to making the difficult choices and changes we need on our streets to actually reduce deaths and make our streets survivable.

And I won’t support anyone for city council who doesn’t, either.

It’s clear that homelessness will be the primary issue in this year’s campaign. We need to fight to raise traffic safety to a top priority, as well.

Because our lives literally depend on it.

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A new Chicago study shows speed cams really do work. And they really do save lives.

A review of the city’s 162 automated speed cams, which state law allows to be installed only within one-eighth of a mile of a park or school, showed that serious crashes went up in those areas.

But not as much as they did in the city as a whole.

According to Chicago Streetsblog,

  • Fatal or serious injury crashes increased only 2 percent near speed cameras between 2012-13 and 2018-19, as compared to a 21 percent increase citywide. This is similar to the 1 percent and 19 percent findings of last year’s study, which compared 2012-13 with 2017-18.
  • Between 2012-13 and 2018-19, overall crash totals increased 1 percent in the cam locations, compared to a 25 percent increase in all crashes citywide. The figures from last year’s study were 4 percent and 26 percent.
  • Speed-related crashes increased 18 near speed cams between 2012-13 and 2018-19, compared to a 64 percent spike city-wide. Those are smaller increases than were seen in last year’s study: 25 percent and 75 percent.

Two bills under consideration in the state legislature during the past session would have established pilot programs for speed cams here in California.

But both died on the vine, apparently because they would have inconvenienced speeding drivers, which tend to make them mad.

Fortunately, Calbike and SAFE — aka Streets Are For Everyone — say they’ll make getting a bill through the legislature one of their top priorities.

So there may be hope yet.

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Los Angeles Bureau of Streets Services Assistant Director & Chief Sustainability Officer Greg Spotts is one of us.

Which should inspire confidence that he’ll get the job done right.

https://twitter.com/Spottnik/status/1479884374053056515

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Now if all cars were just made like this.

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Thanks to Ted Faber for the heads-up. 

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The immortal Sidney Poitier was one of us. So was his friend and fellow 1940s alum of Harlem’s American Negro Theatre.

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I want to be like him when I grow up.

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

No bias here. Instead of complaining about the one rude bike rider they encountered, a New Jersey father addresses his complaints to “all the arrogant jerks who ride on New Jersey trails and roadways.” On the other hand, if you’re not an arrogant jerk, his message apparently doesn’t apply to you.

No bias here, either. Two cops were disciplined after Irish officials allowed a dangerous driver to remain on the streets until he killed a man riding a bike, despite 42 — yes, 42 — previous convictions, and being out on bail from three separate courts. But the police commissioner quashed their fines and sanctions.

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

A Montreal bike rider responds to being told to stay in the bike lane by smashing his bike against the driver’s car. Which probably hurt his bike more than it does the car. Seriously, violence is never the answer, as tempting as it is sometimes.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CYcErfYoi8V/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=310f8a6c-bbd3-4df9-8baa-2b82c601f84b

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Local

Metro Bike is offering a one-month bikeshare pass for just $1.

The director of the LA chapter of the Sierra Club complains that there are no programs in place to encourage customers to ride their bikes to local businesses.

 

State

A California inventor is working on a bike lane sweeper you can pull behind your bike.

Encinitas residents turned out for the city’s Cyclovia open streets event on Sunday, which shut down four letters worth of the Coast Highway to cars, and opened them to people for four hours from D Street to J Street.

Police in Temecula are looking for a pair of burglars who broke into a local bike shop and stole a pair of high-end mountain bikes.

Riverside’s SMART Tire Company has released the second-generation of their airless metal tire prototype, developed in conjunction with NASA in an effort to reduce weight — and the $2,000 price tag — before it goes to market later this year. Although the investors on Shark Tank didn’t approve.

San Luis Obispo kicked a homeless encampment off a local bike path before closing it for the next eight weeks to make improvements along the route.

A San Francisco writer says he won’t be renewing his membership in the de Young Museum and Legion of Honor, thanks to their demands to return “car-free JFK Drive…to a dangerous highway used mostly by shortcut-takers zipping between destinations outside the park.”

 

National

They get it. Wired says if the US is serious about climate change — which remains to be seen — our leaders need to start treating bicycles like replacements for cars, and not toys.

Mashable considers all the ebikes and scooters presented at last week’s CES in Las Vegas — including one with treads and no pedals to get through the snow.

A series of reports about the “the uneasy coexistence of grizzly bears and humans” recounts the horrific tale of a Montana mountain biker who rounded a blind curve and ran directly into a massive grizzly, who did not take to it kindly.

Once again, an ebike battery spontaneously combusted, sparking a four alarm fire in a Bronx apartment building early Saturday. Thankfully, there were no serious injuries, unlike Sunday’s apartment fire sparked by a space heater that killed at least 19 people.

Nearly 40 injured vets took part in the Wounded Warrior Project’s annual ride through the Florida Keys.

 

International

He gets it, too. A British Columbia columnist says yes, he always wears a bike helmet, but bike lanes will do a lot more to improve safety.

A British automotive website looks forward to the upcoming ebikes that are revving their engines.

UK residents laugh at the idea that people could carry their trash to drop-off sites on their bicycles during a garbage strike. Apparently, no one has ever told them about cargo bikes. Or racks. Or baskets. 

National Geographic examines what makes the Isle of Man one of Great Britain’s best places to ride a bike.

Milan is getting serious about bicycling, unveiling a $272 million plan to build an entire 466-mile network of concentric and radial bike paths connecting 80% of the city.

NPR visits Iraq, where women riding bicycles are often seen as promiscuous, though the women see themselves as activists.

A man from Kazakhstan plans to ride 500 miles from Busan to Seoul, South Korea to mark the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

 

Competitive Cycling

Four-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome is targeting a record-tying number five this year, insisting that he’s fully recovered from a near fatal crash two years ago. Even though He Who Must Not Be Named won seven, before he didn’t.

Cycling Weekly considers who has this year’s best looking pro cycling kit.

 

Finally…

Anyone can hold a naked bike ride in the middle of summer, but a January ride takes balls, uh, guts. If you have to steal an ebike, probably not the best idea to take one marked “evidence” from the police impound yard.

And someone get me some ice and a skate, quick.

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

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

Massachusetts kicks 85th Percentile Law to the curb, new LA protected bike lane, and underground Tesla traffic jams

January 7, 2022 / / 2 comments

That’s more like it.

Massachusetts becomes the first state to completely reject the 85th Percentile Law — and base new speed limits on what’s safe for the most vulnerable road users.

California has been nibbling at the edges of the deadly law, which requires cities to set speed limits at the 85% percentile of driver speeds. And allows drivers to boost speed limits on any given street merely by stepping on the gas.

Instead of repealing the rule, a new law sponsored by Burbank Assemblywoman Laura Friedman allows cities and counties to lower speed limits by 5 mph on high injury streets, as well as streets with a high number of bike riders and pedestrians.

It doesn’t begin to compare with what Massachusetts is doing.

But it’s a start.

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Ted Faber discovers new-to-him protected bike lanes on Airport Blvd near LAX.

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Correction: I initially misplaced this bike lane as being on Airport Ave in Santa Monica, but it’s actually the new protected bike lanes on LA’s Airport Blvd, which were installed last year. Thanks to LADOT’s Tim Fremaux for the correction. 

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Evidently, Elon’s Musk’s vision for the future of urban transportation includes underground traffic jams.

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And it looks like some things won’t change when our self-driving overlords take over.

https://twitter.com/pedaltowheels/status/1479174018280288260

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Country star Dierks Bentley is one of us, proclaiming it perfect whether for a bike ride as he pedals through Nashville’e freshly fallen snow.

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

The Orange County Register once again raises a panic over a “dramatic” rise in ebike injuries, suggesting that ebikes are somehow more dangerous than other kinds of bikes, without noting what should be an obvious corresponding increase in ebike use.  (Hint: Stop the page from loading before the subscription popup loads.) 

Life really is cheap in the UK, where a road raging driver walked with a suspended sentence for intentionally running down a bike rider who’d slapped his car following a dangerously close pass. And kept his drivers license because the judge didn’t want him to lose his job.

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

A Florida man was shot in the neck by his girlfriend as he tried to pedal away on his bike with her belongings; she insists that she only meant to scare him.

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Local

This is who we share the road with. A pair of scofflaw diners used their car as a weapon to intentionally run down a Redondo Beach restaurant manager who confronted them for walking out on their check.

 

State

The allegedly stoned San Diego driver who killed a noted architect has been ordered to stand trial in the death of Laura Shinn; Adam David Milavetz was allegedly high on meth and fentanyl when he ran down Shinn’s bike, then tossed a bag of meth over a fence before police arrived.

The recent heavy rains in Northern California have had an unexpected benefit for bike riders by delaying plans for an emergency water pipeline that would have blocked bike access to the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge.

 

National

The American Business History Center offers a fascinating short history of the American bicycle industry, from the first bikes through Trek and Specialized, even if they’re not made in the US anymore.

He gets it. A writer for Slate says stop idealizing Dutch and Danish bikeways, and start explaining how and why something like that could work here.

Authorities have issued an arrest warrant for a Denver-area driver who skipped a court date for the allegedly drunken crash where he dragged a boy and his bike under his SUV for a significant distance before bystanders flagged him down; they had to lift the SUV off the boy to get him out.

You’ve got to be kidding. South Dakota’s supreme court rules against a woman who was paralyzed when her bike wheel went through a poorly designed storm grate, even though the city was aware of the problem and failed to correct it.

A DC website says traffic may not be moving on the freeway, but yes, people really do ride their bikes in the winter.

A Florida distracted driver was focused on his phone for as much as 50 seconds before slamming into a bike rider and killing him; police say he is remorseful and fled the scene because “he got really scared.” Just imagine how the person he killed must have felt.

 

International

We Love Cycling magazine recommends the ten don’ts of e-mountain biking.

The Bicycle Film Festival has once again gone virtual, with over 40 short films available online for as little as $10.

SRAM’s CEO examines the supply chain disruptions that have created an imbalance between supply and demand in the bicycle industry, but says there really is light at the end of the tunnel.

Nice gesture from a group of English bike riders, who plan to escort the coffin of a man who died of a heart attack while on a group ride.

A British bike theft victim was victimized a second time when he found the bike being sold online and make arrangements with the men who mugged him to buy it, but the cops blew him off after promising to meet him to make the arrest and reclaim his bike.

 

Competitive Cycling

Slovakian cycling star Peter Sagan will miss the official unveiling of his new team and bike, after testing positive for Covid.

San Diego’s popular Belgian Waffle Ride will feature at least $30,000 in prize money when it rolls in April, with another $20,000 on the line for the four race series.

 

Finally…

Maybe someone should tell them it’s not a GoPro unless it’s a GoPro. When your Share the Road message is only slightly sillier than the competition you’re in.

And I’m not saying I’m old, but I remember this one from the first time around.

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

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , ,

Pregnant woman killed in Tuesday’s Chatsworth hit-and run, bike riders save gridlock costs, and e-cargo biking the kids

January 6, 2022 / / Comments Off on Pregnant woman killed in Tuesday’s Chatsworth hit-and run, bike riders save gridlock costs, and e-cargo biking the kids

Let’s start with a quick update on Tuesday’s Chatsworth hit-and-run that took the lives of two people riding bicycles.

An initial report that the victims may have been transients appears to be wrong, as KNBC-4 reports the man who was killed was a 58-year old, longtime resident of Canoga Park.

The station also confirmed rumors that the woman riding with him was pregnant at the time of her death, making this horrible, needless tragedy just that much worse.

The driver, who has not been publicly identified, was arrest on what appears to be a well-deserved murder charge.

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One more benefit of riding a bike.

LA Magazine reports that a new study shows gridlock costs Angelenos an average of $1,816 a year in lost time and productivity.

That figure easily leads the rest of the nation. Yet bike commuters can afford to laugh at it, as we glide silently past long lines of backed-up traffic.

But don’t look so smug, Riverside. You clock in at number nine in the US, with an average annual cost of $1,280.

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Streets For All founder Michael Schneider loads the kids up in the e-cargo bike, and heads off to Griffith Park. Even if bikes are banned from too many trails in the park.

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Rabi Abonour offers a long thread pointing out the needless danger LA’s lack of infrastructure poses to bikeshare riders.

It’s worth the click to read the whole thing.

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Unfortunately, the story is hidden behind a paywall, so this may be all the information we get about the $25 million jury award in the death of a bike-riding triathlete.

However, I can’t see it really changing anyone’s behavior on the streets, since most people are unlikely to ever hear about it.

And even those who do will likely write it off as an extreme example that would never happen to them.

Compensation is good for the victims survivors, and helps to make them whole after the loss of a loved one, even when the result isn’t so eye popping.

Financially, anyway.

At most, it offers a reminder to drive carefully around people on bicycles and on foot. But it doesn’t really send a message to anyone.

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

In yet another example of keeping a dangerous driver on the road until it’s too late, a New Hampshire man faces charges for the suspected distracted driving death of a man riding a bicycle; he was still driving, despite seven previous speeding tickets and two distracted driving charges. To make matters worse, he had known the victim, who used to live under his mother-in-law’s apartment, for years.

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

Albuquerque police busted a pair of men who fatally shot a suspect bike thief who they suspected was riding a bicycle that had been stolen from one of the men; police found the bike inside the gunman’s apartment after the shooting. As tempting as it might be sometimes, no bicycle is worth taking a life.

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Local

Venice-based Linus Bikes will be supplying a half-dozen bicycles for a Palm Beach, Florida hotel, with four regular bikes and two ebikes.

 

State

The man credited with saving California’s citrus crop from an invasive parasite in the 1880s was one of us, dying in an 1895 bicycle crash, just one year after he retired from the Department of Agriculture.

Encinitas launched the first bikeshare system on the north coast of San Diego County.

The San Diego Bike Coalition and Free Bikes 4 Kidz are teaming with San Diego Trek bike shops to hold a bike collection drive this Saturday, asking everyone to donate gently used bikes that can be reconditioned and given to children from at-risk communities.

Sad news from San Jose, where a bike rider was killed in a hit-and-run. It was the city’s second traffic death this year; both were victims of hit-and-run drivers.

Emeryville sacrifices pedestrian safety by removing a crosswalk in a “quiet zone” street makeover, but plans to replace a bike lane also being removed with a protected bike lane at a later date.

 

National

The Mobility Fund released eight grants worth nearly $400,000 for equitable bike, walking and transit projects around the US; Move LA received $50,000 to help restore and expand Metro bus service that benefit low-income and communities of color; Bike East Bay was the only other California recipient, also getting 50 grand for equitable Slow Streets projects in Oakland.

An Arizona woman wanted by the FBI for the hit-and-run that killed a bike-riding woman on tribal land turned herself in on Tuesday, nine days after the fatal crash; the feds are still looking for the silver and black Hyundai Tucson SUV she was driving. Does that mean she gets the $5,000 reward?

Denver’s Vision Zero program is going the wrong way, with a possible record 84 people killed in traffic collisions last year, exactly twice as many as in 2010.

After surviving the wind-driven pre-New Years inferno that destroyed much of the Colorado communities of Louisville and Superior, the owner and staff of a 42-year old Louisville bike shop immediately began collecting bicycles for victims of the fire.

Sad news from my Colorado hometown, where the 54-year old former manager and buyer for the 59-year old bike shop where I bought my first adult bicycle was killed in a backcountry avalanche; Ralph Eberspacher also worked for mountain bike maker Niner Bikes.

The get it. A Lincoln, Nebraska newspaper says the area’s bike trails add to the richness of the city.

Police at Georgia’s Valdosta State University are teaming with a local bike center and the Salvation Army to recycle bicycles abandoned on campus, and get them to people in need.

 

International

The Guardian profiles a London man who has reported more than 1,000 scofflaw drivers captured on his GoPro, 80% of whom have been prosecuted. Unfortunately, that won’t work in most of the US, including California, where video evidence can’t be accepted as proof of a traffic violation or misdemeanor. Which is something that has to change, given the ubiquity of smartphones and action cams.

A UK paper offers tips on teaching your kids how to ride a bike.

Heartbreaking story from the Netherlands, where authorities are looking for a 14-year old girl’s missing ebike, after she was found dead in a park after not coming home the night before; a 32-year old man who knew the girl was arrested on suspicion of murder or manslaughter and sexual contact with a minor.

Even Azerbaijan is getting sort of bike friendly, with a 4.6-mile bike path under construction in the capital city.

 

Finally…

That feeling when your naked group bike ride gets uploaded to a porn site. Or when your son gets a $2,000 bill for failing to pay registration fees on a nonexistent car, starting when he was nine years old.

And that feeling when all your worst-case scenarios come true, and turns your bike trip through Cuba into the worst vacation of your life.

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

Category: Morning Links / Tags: ,

Update: 7-year old boy riding bicycle killed by driver of massive pickup in San Jacinto collision Wednesday morning

January 5, 2022 / / 2 comments

The recent carnage on Southern California streets continued with the death of a bike-riding boy in San Jacinto late Wednesday morning.

According to KCBS-2, the victim, who has not been publicly identified, was struck by the driver of a massive pickup around 11:30 am in the 400 block of Bryce Canyon Way.

The boy died at the scene before first responders could arrive.

The driver of the westbound Dodge Ram 3500 heavy duty pickup, which was hauling a utility trailer, remained at the scene. He was not suspected of being under the influence.

The design of truck, with its high clearance and flat grill — let alone sheer size — almost ensure any crash will be unsurvivable for a child. It’s entirely possible the driver couldn’t even see the boy over the hood of the truck.

A street view shows Bryce Canyon is a quiet residential cul-de-sac, where it should have been safe for a kid to ride a bicycle.

But wasn’t.

Anyone with information is urged to call the sheriff’s San Jacinto station at 951/654-2702.

This is at least the third bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the first that I’m aware of in Riverside County.

He is also the eighth SoCal bike rider killed in the past three weeks, and the third in the past two days.

Update: The victim has been identified as seven-year old Johan Orozco. However, there’s still no word on how and why the crash happened. 

My deepest sympathy and prayers forJohan Orozco and all his friends and family. 

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

Conservative writer says pry his truck out of his cold dead hands, and crowdfunding for new Encino Velodrome lights

January 5, 2022 / / One comment
Um, okay.

A writer for a conservative website accuses car-hating liberals of wanting to take everyone’s cars away because they hate freedom.

No, really.

If there is one thing liberals hate more than guns, it’s automobiles, and not because of the climate; our vehicles are scorned by the Left because they free the individual to go anywhere he or she chooses.

In a word, privately owned cars and trucks equal F-R-E-E-D-O-M.

That’s why, in the same spirit as Charlton Heston once warned the gun grabbers, I now notify today’s successors to what Car & Driver‘s Brock Yates famously called the Anti-Destination League that they will have to pry my cold, dead hands off the steering wheel before they get me out of my pickup.

Never mind that the ongoing burden of car payments, gas, insurance and maintenance represents the exact opposite of freedom, as far too many Americans have to work just to keep a shiny hunk of metal and glass parked in their driveways.

The purpose of encouraging alternative forms of transportation isn’t to force anyone out of their cars — let alone take them away.

It’s to provide people with viable alternatives to driving, so they have the freedom to to travel however they choose, rather than forcing them into the tyranny of car ownership as the cost of getting from here to there.

Which you’d think any real conservative would understand.

………

The sadly neglected Encino Velodrome, a 50-year old open-air treasure nestled in Balboa Park, is raising funds for a much-needed upgrade to the current dilapidated lighting system.

Twitter post

The facility, which has seen bigger and better days — and was nearly home to the track cycling events in the ’84 LA Olympics — has raised just $1,498 of the modest $20,000 goal.

We could easily get them over the top in the next few days with a little support from the city’s bicycling community.

………

That’s more like it.

California may call surfing the official state sport, and three states claim rodeo.

But only Delaware names bicycling as the state’s official sport. Which raises the inevitable question of why the hell don’t we all live there?

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Streets For All is hosting my state senator for their next virtual happy hour one week from today.

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Cincinnati’s newly elected mayor one-ups New York’s new mayor, who took a bikeshare bike to his second day at work, by riding the city’s bikeshare to his inauguration.

Twitter post

………

Now this is art.

Twitter post

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Local

CicLAvia recaps last month’s South LA event, calling it a view to LA’s open streets future.

 

State

Sad news from California’s San Joaquin Valley, where a Bakersfield man was killed when a driver crashed into his bike yesterday. And a 69-year old man was killed in a Fresno hit-and-run when a truck driver swerved onto the shoulder where the man was riding, and left him there to die alone in the street.

On a happier note, a San Francisco dad is taking advantage of the city’s carfree and slow streets to form a bike bus to get kids riding to school, with pent-up demand quickly swelling it to several dozen bike-riding children.

 

National

Forbes recommends cold weather gear to help keep you riding throughout the winter. Just in case you live somewhere where the weather actually gets, you know, cold.

JBL’s new handlebar-mounted speakers are perfect for your next bike party, or when you just want to annoy everyone else around you.

I want to be like him when I grow up. An 81-year old man relates his own history with ebikes, while walking you through everything you need to know to keep up with him on one of your own.

The founder of Bike Index details his investigation that helped uncover a Colorado bike theft ring that funneled hot high-end bicycles to a bike shop in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, for resale at slightly less than their actual value. Yet another reminder to sign up for free lifetime registration with Bike Index today.

Sad news from Iowa, where a longtime mainstay of the annual RAGBRAI mass ride across the state has passed away at 94; she participated in the ride for nearly 30 years, starting when she was 65 and continuing into her 90s.

After watching it deteriorate for a couple years, a Brooklyn writer rescues a rare 1998 Litespeed softail titanium mountain bike that was in the process of slowly being stolen, one piece at a time.

North Carolina has given away over 30,000 kids bike helmets over the past five years, funded by the state’s Share the Road specialty license plates.

 

International

This is why people keep dying on the streets. A British driver has been busted for distracted driving nine times over the past four years, but was still allowed to keep driving. Just one more example of authorities going out of their way to keep a dangerous driver on the road.

Travel site Lonely Planet explains how to tour Edinburgh on two wheels, calling the city surprisingly easy to bike despite its ancient streets and undulating topography.

Life is cheap in the UK, where a van driver was fined the equivalent of less than $750 for knocking a man off his bicycle, fracturing bones throughout his body and leaving him unable to move for two months.

A new study from Zurich, Switzerland shows that shared ebikes and scooters may not be as eco-friendly as we were led to believe.

Commercial cargo bikes are changing the look of German streets.

A Cypriot woman was arrested for injuring a bike-riding woman while driving at six times the legal alcohol limit — before 9 am.

Bike riders in Hyderabad, India are calling for major safety improvements to make the city bike friendly after a man was run down by a drunk driver while riding with three companions.

A new Chinese bike cam system combines a front headlight, rear taillight with brake light, and an action cam into a single unit.

 

Competitive Cycling

Argentina’s early season Vuelta a San Juan has been cancelled for the second year in a row, courtesy of our old buddy Covid-19.

Admittedly, I’m no expert when it comes to ‘cross. But I don’t think this is supposed to happen.

https://twitter.com/cyclocross24/status/1478370522606059522?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1478370522606059522%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Froad.cc%2Fcontent%2Fnews%2Fcycling-live-blog-4-january-2022-289239

 

Finally…

Zwift’s virtual Tron Bike could soon be coming to a real world near you. Your next ebike could be powered by hydrogen. And pedals, of course.

And you’ll now have to put a headlight on your ass to ride it in the roadway after dark.

………

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

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