Macmillian was reportedly riding north on the sidewalk on the southbound side of Main Street when rode out into traffic, and was hit by the driver of a 2005 Corvette.
However, it’s very unclear what that means.
A street view shows a T-intersection controlled by a red light, with three lanes in each direction on Main.
It could be that he came off the curb mid-block and rode into traffic on the wrong side of the street, or he could have attempted to cross Main.
There’s also a a utility box and light pole blocking the sidewalk just past Columbine, which could have caused him to enter the street to go around it.
The Register says it’s still unknown whether Macmillian was under the influence of drugs or alcohol. The question is whether his actions on the bike suggest he was drunk or stoned, or if police suspect that merely because he was living on the streets.
This is the 53rd bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the ninth in Orange County. It’s also at least the 11th bicycling death in Santa Ana since 2011.
That compares to 66 in SoCal this time last year, and ninth in Orange County.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for David Lee Macmillian and all his loved ones.
Jim Lyle forwards the sad news that Dan Martin, a member of the popular Big Orange Cycling was hit by a motorist while riding home from a club ride on Sunday. He’s currently in the ICU suffering from a broken neck, and faces a long recovery.
Streetsblog offers suggestions on how Councilmembers Englander and Krekorian could respond to injuries to bike riders, instead of their motion to remove bike lanes — including supporting Vision Zero and reading the 2010 bike plan, which includes an unimplemented requirement to inspect and maintain bike lanes. Only two of six lawsuits recently settled by the city actually occurred on streets with any kind of bicycling facilities.
Ride a Ford GoBikes bikeshare bike in the Bay Area, and you could earn miles on Alaska Airlines. Whether you could earn enough to actually go anywhere is another matter.
A Portland garbage company blames the victim after one of their drivers fatally left-crossed a woman riding her bike; the company said she didn’t have a front light on her bike, wasn’t wearing hi-viz, and was riding under the influence.
Boulder County CO is testing a pair of road signs that tell drivers to give three feet to pass a bicyclist, or instructing them to change lanes to pass a bike.
A Michigan man hit the road on his recumbent following his divorce, spending the last three years traveling the country and living on his modified bike, which, counting him and a trailer, now weighs 600 pounds.
Caught on video: A London TV newsman uses bolt cutters to free his bicycle after someone chained a child’s bike to it, then bought a new chain to replace the one he cut. However, it’s a common bike theft technique for thieves to chain a cheap bicycle to one they want to steal, then come back for it later when there are fewer witnesses.
Caught on video: An Aussie driver confronts a group of cyclists who were riding at the speed limit on the road ahead of him; it took him less than a minute to get around them.
And yet, since the mayor’s 2015 directive, Los Angeles hasn’t just gotten more dangerous, it has become outright hostile to the concept of roadway safety. A small but vocal contingent of residents has taken an increasingly combative posture to any meaningful safety improvements that appear to interfere with their daily car commutes. City agencies have responded to this pushback by buckling — either canceling or watering down proposals to address dangerous speeding on North Figueroa Street, Lankershim Boulevard, the Hyperion bridge and elsewhere. At the same time, we’ve seen a 43% increase in traffic fatalities in the first year after the adoption of Vision Zero, with the fatality rate trending to rise again in 2017.
Garcetti, meanwhile, has been inexplicably and unaccountably silent on the matter.
When Councilman Mike Bonin and Garcetti announced last week that they were removing a multi-street Vision Zero effort in Playa del Rey, it was in large part because Garcetti refused to insert himself in the debate around safety. As the drama escalated and some residents threatened a recall of Bonin over the safety upgrades, Garcetti never came to the councilman’s defense…
This is why I won’t support Eric Garcetti for any higher office, despite strongly supporting him in the past, first on the city council, then in two runs for mayor of Los Angeles.
He has done a great job of setting policy by calling for safer, more walkable and bikeable communities, and bringing Vision Zero to Los Angeles, along with LADOT GM Seleta Reynolds.
But then he disappeared, leaving it up to others to defend those policies, as he set off in search of other initiatives, like so many shiny new toys.
He had the potential to be a great mayor.
But that will never happen unless and until he decides that this is the job he actually wants to have.
And that means rolling up his sleeves and getting to work on the street level with the rest of us.
And somehow we missed this one from earlier in the month, as an architecture critic for the Philadelphia Enquirerlisted seven ways bike lanes benefit motorists and pedestrians. Commit these to memory for the next time an angry driver complains about bike lanes. Which will probably be the next time you go to any public meeting or onto any social media platform.
Here’s your chance to meet Ole Kassow, the founder of Cycling Without Age — the international program that’s changing lives by giving older people the chance to enjoy bicycling again, often for the first time in decades.
Former motocross racer and current Pink husband Carey Hart catches hell on Instagram for the crime of letting his 10-month old son roll gently on a skateboard, sans helmet.
A San Francisco museum is attempting to halt an effort to close Golden Gate Park to cars on weekends year-round; the main road through the park is already closed on Sundays and half the year on Saturdays. On the other hand, if the street was closed, the museum wouldn’t have to worry about the parking spaces they lost when a cycle track went in.
You’ve got to be kidding. A Novato man has been charged with multiple felony hit-and-run counts, despite intentionally running down four bicyclists earlier this month; he faces a maximum of five years behind bars. He should be facing four counts of assault with a deadly weapon at the bare minimum.
A new survey shows that 87% of British cyclists think bike lights should be required day and night, 81% call for mandatory helmets, and over half would require mirrors and hi-viz. Which might be explained by the fact that the survey was conducted by a car rental company, of its own self-identified bicycling customers.
After a friend was badly injured riding his bike, a Bengaluru, India writer asks if it’s better to risk life and limb to be socially and environmentally responsible by taking to two wheels, or add to the city’s choking congestion by driving a private car.
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.
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