The 26-year old driver fled the scene, but was arrested nearby after police found a white sedan with damage consistent with the collision. Fox 11 reports he was speeding at the time of the crash, and was found in his car obviously intoxicated.
He appears to have been riding a mountain bike with reflectors, but no lights are visible in the news reports.
A street view shows a four lane road on Western with center left turn lanes in both directions at San Marino, and no bike lanes. And little or nothing to slow a speeding drunk at that hour.
This is the 52nd bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the 23rd in Los Angeles County; it’s also the eighth in the City of LA.
At least 19 of those 52 fatal crashes have been hit-and-runs.
October 25, 2017 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Morning Links: LA biking marginally better, single arrest in double Danville hit-and-run, and JuJu’s bike snatched
It’s a relatively light news day, so let’s get right to it.
And remember to bring plenty of water if you’re riding in this heat, and drink before you get thirsty.
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Local
LA 2050 says the city is a slightly better place to walk, bike and take transit today than it was in 2014. Although such slight improvement after three years, following the adoption of the city’s mobility plan, should be seen as an indication that something is seriously wrong; we should be making great strides, but aren’t.
An 83-year old San Ramon man has been arrested for the double Danville hit-and-runs over the weekend that injured three cyclists on the same road 40 minutes apart. Which raises the question of whether he ran down the riders on purpose, or just is one of the world’s crappiest and most cowardly drivers.
National
Bicycling offers tips on how to tell when you need to chill out. I realized I was riding too much when it stopped being fun; that was the day I stopped training and just started riding my bike for the hell of it again.
A Washington man is suing after a crash with a bollard placed in the middle of a bike path left him paralyzed from the neck down.
A Minneapolis NIMBY Op-Ed says density and bike lanes are two separate issues, and should be separated; just don’t try to increase density in more expensive areas or shove bike lanes down their throats, according to the writer.
Just days after mentioning here that former USC Trojan and current Pittsburg Steeler JuJu Smith-Schuster used his bicycle as his only form of transportation, someone stole it. But at least he’s not the only NFL player who rides to the games. Thanks to Jorge Dario Wüey for the heads up.
Life is cheap in Australia, where a driver will get off with a ticket for an illegal U-turn for an August crash that seriously injured five bicyclists. The driver said the sun was in his eyes, which as we all know, automatically absolves the driver of any responsibility for whatever happens as a result.
Instead, he has come back with his own plan, which would remove parking and add one or more left turn bays. Which would only increase the speeding local residents blame for the numerous crashes and multiple deaths on what should be a relatively quiet commuter street.
The people I’ve heard from have described the meeting as a waste of time, saying Ryu’s staffers seemed angry and tried to steer people towards his plan, rather than listening to area residents, as the councilmember has promised to do.
But it’s also hard to imagine Vision Zero succeeding if he won’t listen to the concerns of the people in his district, and take concrete steps to improve safety for everyone.
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The LAPD has sent out an alert to be on the lookout for a hit-and-run driver who severely injured a man riding his bicycle on Victory Blvd near Van Alden earlier this month.
Just don’t expect a bike valet when you get there.
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Adding insult to injury, Belgian pro cyclist Jan Bakelants was lifted to safety after tumbling over a guard rail and failing into a ditch during the Il Lombardia race earlier this month. Only to be run over by a race moped after they laid him down on the roadway.
West Covina is holding a meeting tomorrow to unveil their draft Active Transportation Master Plan. Although they might have better luck if they rescheduled for a night that didn’t conflict with the World Series.
The man charged with stabbing two people as they looked for a stolen bicycle in Coachella is still being held without bail, and will undergo a psych evaluation.
Napa is planning to widen the main road leading into town, but only intends to place a bike lane in one direction; the city says they need to wait until a bike and pedestrian bridge is built to accommodate riders, even though plans for the bridge haven’t even come up for a vote yet.
An 83-year old Michigan driver will avoid jail time in the death of one bike rider and injuring another, after he was sentenced to 1,000 hours of community service and forbidden to ever drive again. Once again raising the issue of how to get older people off the road after they’ve lost the ability to drive safely. And before they kill someone.
A state senator says a pair of New York bikes lanes are continuing to cause crashes. After all, it couldn’t be the fault of careless or distracted drivers who can’t manage to follow the lines on the street banging their cars together.
New York’s Prospect Park is going permanently carfree next year. I’d like to say maybe there’s hope for LA’s Griffith Park, but that would imply that Los Angeles would finally coming to grips with its automotive addiction, which doesn’t seem to be happening anytime soon.
The governor of a Nigerian state has ordered truck drivers who break traffic laws to see a shrink if they cause a crash. Maybe we could offer that here instead of traffic school.
Nothing like a little North Korean propaganda to start your day, revealing that women “is forbidden to ride a Bicycle” because a “skirt should always cover the knees, and wear pants ladies is impossible.” Though you’d think a piece authored by someone named Bill Cooke would demonstrate a somewhat better grasp of the English language.
Note: The weather forecast is calling for excessive heat and high winds for the next several days. If possible, plan your bike rides for early morning or after sunset when it’s a little cooler. If you have to ride your bike during the day, look for cooler, shaded routes, and take plenty of water with you — and drink before you’re thirsty. And watch for signs of heatstroke, in yourself and anyone you may be riding with.
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My wife and I stumbled on this piece by San Francisco artist Tim Weldon at the Beverly Hills Art Walk this past weekend, featuring genuine antique hand-painted tin cyclists on top.
Popular bike riding route Topanga Canyon is now officially designated as a State Scenic Highway for the first three miles up from PCH. It would be more scenic without all those cars, but you can’t have everything.
No bias here. Bakersfield concludes that bicyclists and pedestrians were at fault in 73% of fatalities involving them in the city. At least some of the blame should go to high speed limits, inadequate bike lanes and a lack of crosswalks. Never mind that it’s highly unlikely that drivers were blameless in nearly three-quarters of all fatal crashes.
San Francisco one-ups LA by removing a new bike lane to restore a parking lane. Because having a free place to store a car is far more important that providing people with a safer place to ride a bike.
A pair of cyclists were seriously injured in Danville after a hit-and-run driver plowed into both of them. It’s bad enough when a heartless coward flees the scene after injuring one person, let alone two.
Outsidetakes a deep dive into the new Shimano groupo, designed to make your bike as smart as your car. Call me crazy, but I still think the rider should be the smartest part of any bike.
A Hawaii woman says police haven’t done anything yet, even though she can identify the person who reached out of a passing car to grab her bike basket, knocking her off her bike and leaving her with a concussion and afraid to ride again.
A Chicago TV station explains that bicycles aren’t allowed in some cemeteries because bikes are for recreation and are disrespectful to the dead, while cars are perfectly okay regardless of why or how people are driving them. Because no one would ever want to ride a bike to visit a loved one’s grave, apparently.
If you build it, they will come. The expansion of the bike lane network in Minneapolis is leaving some drivers frustrated, even though it resulted in a 66% increase in bike commuting rates in just four years, from three percent to five percent. And no, Minnesota bike riders aren’t required to use bike lanes even when they’re available — or handlebars, for that matter.
A Vancouver columnist writes a fake press release claiming local bike riders are reaching peak entitlement. A technique I thought was pretty funny when I used it for my junior high school newspaper. Never mind that he comes off like a total jerk.
Another Canadian columnist revives the “I’m okay, you suck” school of journalism, suggesting that he may be one of the few bike commuters who isn’t rude and doesn’t break the law, unlike all those angelic, law-abiding drivers, for instance.
David Ryu, LA’s 4th district councilmember, is hosting a neighborhood meeting tomorrow to discuss safety improvements to 6th Street between Fairfax and La Brea.
While it seems unlikely that Ryu will approve the road diet local residents have been demanding in the wake of the Playa del Rey fiasco, this is our chance to fight for safety on a street that poses needless risks to bike riders and pedestrians.
And just maybe Ryu might prove me wrong.
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The LA Department of City Planning is hosting a pair of public meetings to gather input for the city’s new General Plan, in South LA tomorrow morning and Hollywood Wednesday evening.
The Have A Go website reports that almost no bicyclists attended an earlier meeting, resulting in virtually no one to give a voice to visions of a more bikeable, walkable city not strangled by motor vehicles.
This is your chance to envision a more livable city, and maybe — just maybe — see it become a reality in your lifetime.
Or you could just sit back and complain about it later, insisting you never had a say in the matter.
Just like all those people who suddenly found themselves shocked to discover LA has a mobility plan, or that Vision Zero calls for safety improvements on the streets they like to zoom along.
A cargo bike rider complains to Burbank police officers about just watching while a driver passes within inches of him and his two-year old daughter, directly in front of their squad car.
Naturally, they respond with their best Sgt. Schultz imitation by saying they didn’t see a thing, and asking if he shouldn’t he be riding on the sidewalk, anyway.
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In an update to Sunday’s fatal bike crash on PCH in Santa Monica, a Good Samaritan who stopped to help the victim says the Santa Monica police aren’t being forthcoming with the full details.
And she reports that the driver fled the scene and was chased down by witnesses to the crash, rather than returning on his own as the police had said.
However, drivers who flee the scene of crashes or use their cars to deliberately threaten or harm bicyclists or pedestrians are more than welcome to keep theirs.
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The British team doctor who sent the suspicious package that has left a cloud over Bradley Wiggins has walked away from the organization without talking to doping authorities.
Another missive from self-proclaimed lawyer Richard Lee Abrams, who accuses the city of placing bike lanes on busy streets where smog harms kids on bicycles, as an excuse to install road diets in an attempt to intentionally turn traffic congestion into an unbearable nightmare and force people to use subways and fixed rail. Which might sort of almost make sense if the recent Playa del Rey road diets were anywhere near rail lines. I’m also told the reason Abrams isn’t listed in the California bar is that while Abrams is his real name, he’s listed in the bar under another name. Sure, let’s go with that.
Cycling in the South Bay’s Seth Davidson pens a hard-hitting piece about the failure of the Playa del Rey road diets, and the pain advocates felt when the news broke. However, while his solution to confidently take the lane instead of fighting for bike lanes may work for some of us, it doesn’t address the 8 to 80 problem, or encourage the vast majority of people who might like to ride their bikes if they weren’t so afraid of traffic to get out and try it.
A San Luis Obispo County rehabilitation nurse urges bicyclists to stop riding up and down the Nipono Mesa hills in the traffic lanes where they have every right to be, because unsuspecting drivers would never in their wildest dreams imagine that anyone might actually do that. So the problem isn’t clueless and careless drivers, but the people on bikes who might be in their way. Got it.
The best technical minds in America are hard at work answering the single most pressing issue regarding driverless cars: Who’s at fault when they crash?
A new device promises to let you carry your bike suspended across your back. Wouldn’t that just make it bang into every branch, bush, rock and signpost along the way? Not to mention any people you happen to pass.
A doubly bighearted Virginia deputy bought a new bike for a ten-year old boy after his was stolen. Then bought a second bike for another boy who didn’t have one.
And in the process, throwing bicyclists and anyone else who fought for the changes under the bus. Perhaps literally.
They present it as a compromise, with a long list of pedestrian-focused improvements that won’t do crap to protect people on bikes, slow traffic or prevent crashes between motorists.
But let’s be honest.
This is a compromise like Jim Bowie and Davey Crockett compromised at the Alamo.
Those pedestrian improvements were already planned as the next phases of the community-driven process to improve safety in Playa del Rey — after the road diets, not in place of them.
So instead of improving safety and livability in the area, it will go back to being a virtual freeway for pass-through motorists.
Except now the city will be on the hook financially for every death and injury that occurs in the area, after removing the safety improvements designed to prevent them.
It’s a liability lawyer’s dream.
Worse, though, is the potentially fatal damage it’s done to Vision Zero in Los Angeles, as few, if any, councilmembers will be willing to subject themselves to the hate and vitriol Bonin and his staff have faced.
It’s a surprise they held out as long as they did.
Chances are, road diets are now off the table in this city. Perhaps permanently.
The same with installing the bike plan, which is no longer worth the silicon it’s printed on. Or any other substantive street changes that inconvenience motorists in any way, or makes NIMBY home and business owners sharpen their pitchforks and light the Tiki torches.
Even if they’re the ones who’ll benefit from it.
And even though Vision Zero was never about crosswalks or enforcement — or cutsie football videos — but about redesigning the roadways so that when people act like people do, their mistakes won’t be fatal. To them or anyone else.
Which is what these road diets were supposed to do.
But we’ll never know if they would have succeeded or not, because they were never given the chance.
I’ve long questioned whether LA’s leaders had the courage and conviction to make the tough choices Vision Zero would require, and withstand the inevitable criticism that would be directed their way.
They’ve answered with a resounding no.
The odd thing, though, is that Garcetti somehow got his name attached to the plan to restore traffic lanes — and got top billing, no less.
Even though he didn’t do a damn thing to implement or support the road diets. Or any of the other traffic safety improvements that have gone down to defeat under his tenure, from bike lanes on Westwood Blvd to sidewalks on the Hyperion-Glendale bridge.
He hasn’t shown up for a single public safety meeting since announcing Vision Zero to great fanfare two years ago. Or made a single public statement in support of Mike Bonin and the desperately needed safety changes in Playa or Mar Vista.
And yet, he gets full credit — if that’s the word you want to use — for restoring the Playa del Rey streets to their original dangerous condition, and thrusting a dagger through the heart of his own signature safety policy.
However, traffic truthers refuse to accept the results; the leader of the Bonin recall effort tried to claim the street was actually more dangerous, because injuries went up on a per capita basis since there was a drop in traffic.
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Today’s common theme, kindhearted people — mostly in blue.
And SoCalCross offers a video recap of the year’s first cyclocross race at Irvine Lake.
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Local
The city council’s Public Works and Gang Prevention Committee approved a motion to paint LA’s bike lanes a dull, non-reflective green, prioritizing the convenience of the film industry over the safety of bike riders. After all, it’s just so damn hard for film crews to cover-up a bike lane with some sort of mat, let alone fix it in post.
LADOT has installed what appears to be a very problematic bus loading platform in the bike lane on First Street in DTLA, which forces riders up a sharp ramp while creating a crowded conflict point when people board or get off; as passengers adjust to it, they will likely start to wait on the platform, blocking the bike lane.
Rails-to-Trails recommends some haunted pathways for your pre-Halloween riding pleasure, including one with a ghost bike. No, literally.
No surprise here, as the Washington jerk bicyclist who injured a pedestrian after yelling “hot pizza,” expecting her to jump out of the way, is now facing a lawsuit; he uses the same excuse drivers do, saying 3 mph pedestrians shouldn’t mix with cyclists doing 15 mph.
A new documentary takes a look at MAMILs, following four men from the US, the UK and Australia. Which should be required viewing for anyone who makes fun of middle-aged people on bikes, spandexed or otherwise.
Baltimore’s bikeshare system is sort of back, with just 50 bikes at nine stations; a much larger system was shut down a few months ago due to problems with vandalism and theft.
The LA Times says Chris Froome could face a challenge from Tom Dumoulin as he goes for a record-tying fifth win in the Tour de France. Could have sworn I once watched some guy win seven consecutive tours, but I must have been on something.
An Op-Ed in the Sacramento Bee says the city must become more pro-bicycle if it’s going to have any chance of landing the new Amazon headquarters. Which is why Los Angeles doesn’t have a prayer.
Caught on video: Aussie police are looking for an idiot driver — and I use the term advisedly — who drove up on the sidewalk to pass slower traffic, nearly running down a bike rider in the process.
October 17, 2017 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Morning Links: Second LA River Valley Bikeway meeting tonight, and protesters go nuts over Nazi bike lanes
The project, which will link Universal City to Canoga Park along the LA River channel, is a key step in plans for a continuous bikeway along the entire length of the LA River.
But as he points out, some of the sections are a little problematic, to say the least. And as always, there are those who oppose any sort of bikeway, anywhere.
A little white stripe of paint on the side of the roadway is somehow comparable to the hate-based regime that murdered millions of innocent men, women and children?
It makes a little more sense you consider that the protest began as a hoax before sucking in the kind of people who apparently believe everything they read online, including a pair of city council candidates.
Although something tells me the dog wasn’t there by choice.
LADOT proposes the latest round of speed limit adjustments mandated by the deadly 85th percentile law; surprisingly, there are a number of decreases, as well as the expected increases.
We mentioned this one last week, but it’s worth repeating for anyone who missed it, as a Santa Rosa woman escaped the Sonoma County wildfires by bicycle, with her 70-pound dog in a duffel bag. Thanks to Doug Moore for the reminder.
Oregon’s new distracted driving law comes with a $260 fine for a first offense, rising to $435 for a second offense or one causing a crash, and up to six months in jail for a third. That compares to California, which has a measly $20 fine for the first offense, and $50 for each additional offense, thanks to Jerry Brown’s veto of a bill that would have increased the absurdly low penalties.
The victim died at the scene. He has not been publicly identified pending notification of next of kin.
No word on whether he was using lights at the time of the crash, which came nearly 45 minutes after sunset.
The driver initially fled the scene, but returned shortly later, which should be considered hit-and-run, but probably won’t be. Police are investigating why the driver failed to stop after the crash.
The person driving, who has not been identified in any way, is not currently suspected of being impaired; no word on whether distraction was involved, or why the driver failed to see someone on a bike directly in front of them.
A street view shows a six-lane highway with a center left turn lane, where drivers frequently exceed the 45 mph speed limit.
Anyone with information on the case was urged to call Investigators Pace or Olson at 310/458-8954; or call the SMPD at 310/458-8491.
At least 13 people have been killed riding bicycles on PCH in Los Angeles County since 2005; eight of those have been killed on the deadly northern section of the highway running through Santa Monica, Pacific Palisades and Malibu.
This collision occurred roughly across the street from where Erin Galligan was killed while riding home from work in a 2012 hit-and-run; that driver still hasn’t been caught.
This is the 51st bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the 22nd in Los Angeles County; he’s also the first bike rider to be killed in Santa Monica since Galligan’s death.
I received the following email from Carrie Wick, who was one of the first people on the scene after the crash. She reports the driver did not return of his own accord, as the police suggested, and that the police have not been forthcoming about the crash.
I am contacting you regarding a fatal hit and run incident my friend Kinya Claiborne and I witnessed on PCH Sundaynight where a 23-year-old pedestrian/ bicyclist named Kazumasa Nozaki was struck from the rear and killed by a driver who fled the scene. Perhaps you’re interested in looking into the incident.
Kinya and I were traveling southbound down PCH on October 15 around 7pm, when we noticed debris and a bike in the roadway along with a pedestrian who was laid flat in the east-northbound lane. The victim had significant head trauma and his body was bleeding and distorted. We were the first responders on the scene to provide aid to the victim, who was non-responsive and we called 911 for assistance.
There were several other witnesses including two men who were driving directly behind the driver who struck the pedestrian. They followed the driver, who fled the scene in a white BMW, for 5-10 minutes down PCH honking their horn in an attempt to get the driver to stop. As they were following the driver the witnesses called 911 to report the hit and run, providing the driver’s license plate number and location of the driver. The witnesses took pictures of the car and returned to the scene to provide their statement and evidence in person directly to the police.
There was also a couple on the scene who were driving northbound on PCH and witnessed the bicycle flying in the air when the pedestrian was struck from behind. They also provided their statement to the police on the scene.
There are a lot of inaccuracies being reported. The LAPD/SMPD statement implies the driver fled the scene and returned on his own vs. a hit and run, where the driver immediately fled the scene of a fatal collision. An officer on the scene announced, “We got him”, from the men tracking down the driver and the reporting of the license plate and location to the police.
Also, LAPD/SMPD have not acknowledged any of the witnesses or their statements, including the men who witness the hit and run, tracked down the driver, reported it via 911 and provided a statement to the police on the scene. Authorities are acting like the witnesses and hit and run incident never existed as evident in the press release issued by SMPD on October 16.
It seems as though the LAPD and SMPD have taken a lax approach with completing a thorough investigation and have clearly omitted key facts and witness reports from the fatal hit and run incident. This man does not have a voice any longer and can’t fight for himself, so we will try to on his behalf.
She also reports that the bike was so badly mangled from the impact that it was impossible to tell if he was using lights and reflectors.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for Kazumasa Nozaki and his loved ones.
And outs the person behind it as a Playa del Rey music video and documentary director Justin Purser, who lives steps from the initial Vista del Mar road diet.
Purser admits to being the person who started the account, although he bizarrely contends that he handed it off to a group of people he refuses to name after it was mentioned on this site, following his equally bizarre claim to have co-founded BikinginLA.
You can probably count the number of people who actually believe that on a closed fist, however.
Flax digs into the account, which continues its misleading, false-flag form of fake advocacy.
All the while, the barrage of strange tweets from the Westside Walkers account continues, a maddening mélange of dubious facts and falsely earnest advocacy, leveraging a completely faked identity to convince unsuspecting readers that measures meant to save lives are not working. It’s a total cesspool of bullshit distracting people from an actual life-and-death issue.
Meanwhile, someone from Playa del Rey forwarded screenshots in the upper left corner and below, showing comment by Purser from around the time the Westside Walkers account was started.
His point seems to be that the real goal of people who supported the road diets was to make the streets more dangerous, not less.
If that’s supposed to be a joke, it’s in very poor taste.
And says a lot more about the person who made it than it does anyone else.
Let’s hope his attitude really has changed, as Flax’s article suggests.
AIDS/LifeCycle is holding a pair of Kickoff AIDS/LifeCycle 2018 rides beginning at Balboa Park this Saturday to start training for next year’s 545-mile ride down the California Coast.
Also on the 21st, CD4 Councilmember David Ryu is hosting an open house to discuss much needed safety improvements to 6th Street between Fairfax and La Brea.
Bicycling offers five GoPro hacks to make your videos worth watching. Most important: Install some editing software and learn how to use it. No one wants sit through five minutes of video to get to the 30 seconds where something actually happens.
A New York man says getting run over by a dump truck while riding his bike was the last straw, and he’s officially done with the city. Getting run over by anything can have that effect on you.
Baltimore’s bikeshare returns with a reduced fleet of bikes, now equipped with GPS, after it was shut down due to excessive thefts and maintenance backups.
A 77-year old Australian man needed over a dozen stiches after he was the victim of a random attack by a man who stepped out from behind a tree, and beat the vicim’s face with a bottle as he was riding with his wife.
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