How California keeps people dying on our streets, Industry goes bike-friendly, and Torrance keeps over-regulating ebikes

December 12, 2025 / / Comments Off on How California keeps people dying on our streets, Industry goes bike-friendly, and Torrance keeps over-regulating ebikes
It’s Day 15 of the 11th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive!

It was a busy day here at BikinginLA World Headquarters yesterday.

Thanks to Miriam, Paul, Kurt, Samer, Andre and SAFE for their generous support to keep all the best bike news and advocacy coming your way every day! 

So what are you waiting for? There’s just 12 days left to donate, whether through PayPal, Zelle or Venmo. 

Don’t wait. Help keep the corgi in kibble, and give now!

Our spokescorgi capture how we all probably feel after finally making it to the end of this week. 

And if you find any weird uncorrected mistakes today, it’s because I kept falling asleep writing this. 

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Cal Matters concludes their four-part deep dive into why people keep dying on our streets, with 40,000 deaths from traffic violence in California over the last decade alone, including:

  • The DMV has wide latitude to take dangerous drivers off the road. But it routinely allows drivers with extreme histories of dangerous driving to continue to operate on our roadways, where many go on to kill.
  • Speeding is one of the biggest causes of fatal crashes. For two years in a row, bills that would have required the use of speed-limiting technology on vehicles have failed. Newsom vetoed one of them.
  • California has some of the weakest DUI laws in the nation. Here, DUI-related deaths have been rising more than twice as fast as the rest of the country. But this fall, a state bill to strengthen DUI penalties was gutted at the last minute.

It’s more than worth taking the time to read, and going back over the previous installments.

Because despite Vision Zero laws throughout the state, things have only gotten worse. And they will continue to, until we finally see some long overdue major action.

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Tiny City of Industry, which true to its name is home to far more business and warehouses than its 264 residents, is building an ambitious ten-mile long bike path spanning the entire city.

According to Streetsblog, the east-west pathway is being supported by the San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments and Active SGV, with a relatively small $1.5 million grant to get things started.

The project will begin with a 1.5-mile bike path located between bike and pedestrian unfriendly Valley Blvd and the adjacent railroad tracks, a kind of project termed “rail-with-trail.”

And yes, that term is a new one on me.

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Grace sends word that Torrance will consider tightening its overregulation of ebikes at Tuesday’s City Council meeting, once again lumping ped-assist bicycles together with illegal electric motorbikes as it cracks down on anything with a battery.

Meanwhile, Los Angeles Times letter writer says Hermosa Beach’s ebike culture has gone off the rails, and parents need to be held accountable.

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‘Tis the season.

Burbank Bike Angels held their annual display at Burbank City Hall to show off dozens of newly refurbished bicycles that will be donated to local nonprofits to distribute to children in need in time for the holidays; the project has donated more than 3,200 bicycles since it’s 2008 founding.

Lancaster gave away ten new bicycles and helmets to kids as part of its tree lighting ceremony.

The Sheriff of San Luis Obispo County thanked everyone involved in the country bicycle distribution program, which accepts used bicycles to be refurbished by inmates at the Sheriff’s Honor Farm and given to kids in need; last year, the program gave away more than 300 bikes.

Inmates at California’s Folsom State Prison’s donated 150 refurbished bikes for children and others in need through their annual bicycle refurbishing program.

Over 400 Philadelphia bike riders turned out for the city’s 13th annual Holiday Lights Ride.

Students in a South Carolina school district donated 233 bicycles to be given to kids in need, a 45% increase over the previous year.

A Louisiana lawyer hosted his annual bike giveaway in the state capital of Baton Rouge, with LSU football players on hand to help give away over 100 bicycles.

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BikeLA invites you to join them for the Echo Park Community Parade tomorrow.

https://twitter.com/heybikela/status/1998521205780001183

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

No bias here. The UK’s Ministry of Defense is defending itself against accusations of pettiness for fencing off a lousy 50-foot section of pathway in Fife, Scotland, blocking completion of new path for kids walking and biking to school. After all, you never know when one of those seven-year olds could be spying for the reds.

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Local 

LAist offers everything you need to know about the two-day CicLAvia-style open streets event in Camino City Terrace this weekend.

Streetsblog’s Joe Linton considers what’s so awful about the city’s attempt to weasel out of its obligations to build bike lanes under measure HLA and the Americans with Disabilities act by renaming repaving projects “Large Asphalt Repair.”

 

State

Yes, I’m still peeved — to put it mildly — that the state just announced $1.1 billion in new funding for zero-emission transportation and infrastructure, yet somehow can’t manage to come up with one dime to revive the CA Ebike Incentive Program murdered by CARB.

Like Los Angeles, San Diego pledged ten years ago to end traffic deaths, only to see them increase.

Santa Barbara County pedestrians and bicyclists are being asked to identify traffic calming measures to help train artificial intelligence for the Santa Barbara County Association of Governments AI Bike Map Project.

Calbike shares four strategies that helped pass buffered bike lanes on Hollenbeck Ave in Sunnyvale.

Thanks to Megan for sending news that the Davis Halloween Zombie Bike Parade raised $10,000 to help buy adaptive bikes for kids with special needs.

 

National

Happy birthday to Adventure Cycling, which is celebrating its 50th year of helping bike tourists get out on the road.

Trek is recalling all their 2026 Domane+ ALR 5, Domane+ ALR 6 AXS, Checkpoint+ SL 6 and Checkpoint+ SL 7 ebikes because the bolts securing the chainring could come loose, which could cause it to fall off while you’re riding. That sounds bad. Is that bad? It sounds bad.

A local website recounts the early history of bicycling in Portland’s Montavilla neighborhood, proof that the city has always been popular with the two-wheel crowd.

The Oregon Supreme Court ruled that doctors can be held liable for prescribing  medication to a patient who abused drugs, and killed a woman riding a bicycle while driving under the influence.

A 68-year old Wisconsin bike rider was killed by the driver of a snowplow attached to privately owned pickup truck; authorities wasted little time blaming the victim for riding on a dark street, in dark clothes, with “minimal reflective equipment” on his bike.

A jury in Flint, Michigan awarded a $3.7 million judgement to a man who was hit by a cop doing 79 mph without lights and siren, but found the victim 49% liable for riding drunk, with a BAC nearly three times the legal limit.

This is the cost of traffic violence. New York philanthropist Geoffrey Radbill was killed when a minivan driver rear-ended the bicycle he was riding; Radbill, who had donated to a new center at Ohio’s Bowling Green State University and raised funds to combat multiple sclerosis, was 78.

 

International

Cycling Electric recommends the best ebike accessories of the past year, for that ebike rider on your secret Santa list. Assuming the gear is sold here, that is. 

A Canadian website talks with a St. John’s, Newfoundland transportation advocate about what it would mean to build a city that was actually safe for kids, instead of one built around cars and the people in them.

No surprise here. A new survey of Londoners reveals that the one thing that would get more people to ride a is safer drivers. That would probably get more Angelenos on bikes, too. 

British Olympic hero Sir Chris Hoy suffered a broken leg in a mountain biking crash, in what he termed the worst crash he’d ever been involved in; the 47-year old retired cyclist is already dealing with a terminal prostate cancer diagnosis.

I want to be like him when I grow up. A 100-year old man in Seongnam, South Korea still rides his bike 25 to 30 miles a day every weekend, after not taking up riding until his 80s. And judging by the photo accompanying the story, he looks younger than I do.

 

Competitive Cycling

Italian race bikemaker Factor says long stems and slammed saddles could be causing the uptick in crashes. Speaking which, they claim their aggressive new  Factor One is the world’s fastest UCI-legal road bike.

 

Finally…

That feeling when Mary and Joseph kneel at the manger, while baby Jesus escapes the movies in a bike-riding kid’s backpack.

And nope. That’s it. That’s all I’ve got this time.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Update: 60-year old man killed riding bike in San Diego’s Rancho Peñasquitos; 2nd San Diego County bicycling death in 4 days

December 11, 2025 / / Comments Off on Update: 60-year old man killed riding bike in San Diego’s Rancho Peñasquitos; 2nd San Diego County bicycling death in 4 days

Evidently, things aren’t going well in San Diego County these days.

Just days after a man was killed riding his bicycle in Oceanside, another bike rider was killed in San Diego’s Rancho Peñasquitos neighborhood.

Multiple sources are reporting that the victim was killed when he was rear-ended while riding in the 12900 block of Salmon River Road around 5:35 pm Wednesday.

The victim, identified only as a 60-year old man, was riding north on Salmon River Road when a 51-year old woman traveling in the same direction hit him from behind, saying she just didn’t see him.

He died at the scene.

There’s no word on why the driver failed to see a grown man on a bicycle directly in front of her, although police said she did not appear to be under the influence.

Investigators were looking into whether visibility or road conditions played a role in the crash. However, a street view shows a straight roadway with no obstructions, and the weather was hot and dry, though it was foggy in some coastal areas.

Local residents complained about a lack of speed limit signs in the area, so there’s no telling how fast the woman was driving.

Anyone with information was urged to call the police or Crime Stoppers at 888-580-8477; apparently, the cops didn’t really want to be bothered by giving own phone number.

This is at least the 55th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the 14th that I’m aware of in San Diego County.

Update: The victim has been identified as 60-year old San Diego resident Yi Zhang.

My deepest sympathy and prayers for Yi Zhang and his loved ones. 

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

LA weasels out of ADA & HLA compliance, 10 years of LA Vision Zero failure, and LA Times can’t tell ebikes from e-motos

December 11, 2025 / / Comments Off on LA weasels out of ADA & HLA compliance, 10 years of LA Vision Zero failure, and LA Times can’t tell ebikes from e-motos
Day 345 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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It’s Day 14 of the 11th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive!

Thanks to Carter, Stephen, Cleaveran and Grace for their generous support for SoCal’s best source for bike news and advocacy!

After just two weeks, we’ve already had 37 donations from people kind enough to dig into their own pockets to help support this site, and ensure our spokescorgi has a happy holiday.  

So what are you waiting for? There’s just 13 days left to donate via PayPal, Zelle or Venmo. 

Don’t wait. Give now!

And my apologies for yesterday’s unexcused absence. I just had nothing left after writing about Saturday’s bicycling death in Oceanside, and couldn’t stay awake long enough to form a decent thought, let alone write it down. 

It’s always a race to see if I can make it through the holidays and end-of-the-year doctor’s appointments without collapsing from exhaustion.

So far, it ain’t looking good. 

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Sometimes, you just have to laugh at the way Los Angeles city officials are twisting themselves in knots to avoid complying with Measure HLA.

Not to mention a federal requirement to update curbs for compliance with the Americans with Disability Act, or ADA, when a street gets resurfaced.

Because HLA requires the city to build out the elements of the mobility plan anytime a street in it gets resurfaced, and the ADA requires fixing the curbs, Los Angeles has stopped resurfacing streets entirely.

Instead, as The Future Is LA explains,

Last year, the city resurfaced 312 lane miles and slurry sealed 761 lane miles. What are they going to do next year with all the money they save from doing way less? StreetsLA is proposing instead to do 1,000 “large asphalt repairs.” StreetsLA defines large asphalt repair as “a pavement maintenance activity that addresses localized but significant damage to asphalt streets, typically larger than a standard pothole repair, but smaller than full resurfacing or reconstruction.” Basically, it involves repaving only part of a street, not the entire width…

The thing about large asphalt repair is that it’s…not a real thing. It appears to be a term made up by the city some time in the last year. Googling “large asphalt repair” pretty much only returns results from LA city government. Googling “slurry seal”, on the other hand, leads to explanatory pages on all kinds of cities’ websites.

Why didn’t they just call it “full-road pothole patching?”

The Future Is LA calls it a “legally dubious decision” on both counts.

No shit.

Meanwhile, Joe Linton — he of the Vermont Ave HLA lawsuit fame — discusses the matter in a Bluesky thread.

Bluesky post

Bluesky post

Bluesky post

And in a not-unrelated matter, Streetsblog reports Los Angeles rejected the latest slate of HLA appeals filed by Linton in his personal capacity — some after the deadline to respond had already passed.

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He gets it. 

After leaving the Los Angeles Times, perhaps not entirely of their own accord thanks to the paper’s extensive cost-cutting and rightward shift, former Opinion editors and writers Mariel Garza and Paul Thornton founded the independent news site Golden State Report, which I highly recommend.

Apparently, the arrest of LA safety activist Jonathan Hale for painting a DIY crosswalk on a dangerous Westwood intersection got just a bit under Thornton’s skin.

Yes, what safe streets activist Jonathan Hale is accused of doing — painting a crosswalk on a street in Westwood without official permission — is technically vandalism, a cite-and-release misdemeanor that the arresting officers judged worthy of handcuffs. But consider the optics: L.A. will wrap up its disastrous 10-year Vision Zero run not with ceremonies heralding measurably safer streets (a feat achieved by cities around the world), but with a Jan. 5 court date for Hale.

What’s next, jailing people who feed the hungry because they didn’t pull the right health permits?

He also dismisses — if not demolishes — the standard objection that Los Angeles isn’t Copenhagen, which inevitably gets trotted out anytime the conversation turns to bikes.

Or anything even tangentially related to bicycles.

Copenhagen, a 90-minute flight from the Arctic Circle, has close to zero traffic deaths annually, yet more than half of its daily commuters brave the frigid elements on bike because they have infrastructure that prioritizes cyclists’ safety. When you say “L.A. is not Copenhagen,” I hear, “L.A. is a city with car-brained cavemen as leaders, unlike Copenhagen.”

It’s worth taking a few minutes to read the whole thing, if only to put a smile on your face for the artful way he expresses that anger.

And it’s worth subscribing to the site — and maybe even paying for it, even though that’s not required.

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Give us a break, already.

The Los Angeles Times reports that two of the five “e-bike” riding teens involved in an attack on a 57-year old man in Hermosa Beach last month have been charged with felony assault.

Although the defense attorney for one of the boys says they were the real victims, and that the older man was “heavily intoxicated” and attacked their 14-year old friend first, and they only beat the crap out of him in self-defense.

Sure, let’s go with that.

Even if the allegation is true, self-defense kinda ended once the man was on the ground, and they were repeatedly kicking and punching him.

But kids will be kids, right?

Throughout the entire story, though, there’s not one mention that the boys were riding e-motorbikes and electric dirt bikes.

Not what most of us would consider ebikes, let alone a ped-assist bike.

Maybe one day the press will get it, and stop conflating every two-wheeled electric conveyance under the banner of ebikes, regardless of power or potential speed.

But today is not that day, my friends.

Speaking of which, longtime bike advocate Carter Rubin explains the difference between an ebike and an unlicensed motorcycle.

Maybe someone could send the article to the Times.

Please.

And Planetizen notes that the alarming rise in ebike injuries is due to “unregulated electric motorcycles posing as e-bikes.”

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This is who we share the road with.

An alleged drunk driver slammed into a running team from Anaheim High School yesterday, injuring eight people, in what was described as a “nightmare scenario.”

There’s no word yet on how serious their injuries are.

The 27-year old driver is under investigation for DUI, but no arrest has been made yet.

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Yeah, that kinda makes the point.

Instagram post

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

In perhaps the best example yet proving it’s drivers, not bicyclists, who possess an overly developed sense of entitlement, a British driver pisses and moans about a group of bike riders taking over the entire road while chatting among themselves. Except this time, it’s a bunch of little kids riding their bikes to school.

In what could be the most bizarre threat yet to bicyclists, a group of people performed the Hindu last rites on a 14-mile solar-roofed bike path in Hyderabad, India — although it’s not clear if they were calling for the death of the bikeway, or the people using it.

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Local 

More safety improvements are coming to the streets in Griffith Park. But there’s still no plan to ban cars entirely, which never belonged in a public park to begin with. 

LA Public Press investigates Metro’s ill-advised decision to tie upcoming open streets events to the World Cup and Olympics, which could mean the death of CicLAvia as we’ve come to know it.

LA Lakers star LeBron James is teasing a collab with Canyon on what appears to be a new gravel bike.

 

State

Talk about missing the mark. The California Transportation Commission announced a $1.1 billion investment in zero-emission transit, as well as safer roads and associated infrastructure. But not one dime to restore the California Ebike Incentive Program, which is the most cost-efficient form of zero-emission transportation. 

Fullerton is making safety improvements to Associated Road, including adding a one-foot buffer to the existing bike lane, but no physical protection, after a Cal State Fullerton soccer player was killed in a collision while riding a scooter, and her teammate seriously injured.

A man riding a bicycle was injured when he was struck by a driver in Hesperia Monday night, although his condition is unknown; the car reportedly suffered “moderate” damage, although considering it knocked the whole damn left fender off the car, it seems like it hit the victim pretty damn hard.

 

National

Wired explores the existential question of whether bike riders and self-driving cars can be friends. No, but maybe we can tolerate them if they really are safer than human drivers. At least until their achieve sentience, and kill us all.

Mountain Bike Action list five under-the-radar mountain bike destinations they say are worth exploring. Anything near the Grand Tetons definitely gets my vote. 

The US division of Giant, the world’s largest bike maker, is moving their giant operation from Newbury Park, California to Boulder, Colorado, to get “into the heart of America’s cycling culture.”

A man whose family had been customers of an 85-year old Pennsylvania bike shop since he was a kid in the 80s has swooped in to save it at the last minute, when the shop was on the brink of closure as the owners retired.

The Washington Post examines and explains how Trump’s tariffs hit the brakes on America’s booming ebike industry, with Rad Power as the prime example.

There’s a special place in hell for whoever spray painted a Florida bike trail with swastikas, curse words and other “white power” symbols, leaving their hate for a ten-year old kid to find.

 

International

A young Cuban couple is setting internet hearts aflame with their videos of biking across the island, which they estimate will take four months. If their relationship can survive that much time on the road together, they’re destined to be together forever. 

A Welshman is on the verge of completing an epic 28,000-mile bicycle trip around the world after traveling through 43 countries and six continents, while raising the equivalent of over $13,000 for charity — and keeping a promise to his mom that he’d be home for Christmas.

Two hundred Brits kitted out as Santas helped to raise the equivalent of $20,000 for a British hospice.

His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah, issued a royal decree creating the Sharjah Cycling Club to enhance “Sharjah’s cycling reputation locally and globally, supporting sports and cultural sectors, and promoting cycling as a healthy lifestyle choice.” And no, I never heard of the place, either.

Nearly 900 Japanese bike riders lost their driver’s licenses for being drunk on a bicycle.

 

 

Competitive Cycling

UCI confirmed the official men’s and women’s WolrdTour teams for the coming year. Not so fast, Cofidis.

Australian cyclist Michael Matthews feels reinvigorated and ready to tackle the spring classics, after the 35-year old pro briefly considered retiring following a pulmonary embolism just days before the Tour de France.

Italian cyclist and former world champ Elisa Balsamo says despite the growth of women’s cycling, she still has to deal with questions of “why would a woman race a bike” to begin with.

The US ‘Cross Championships are underway in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

 

Finally…

Face it, you can’t out-crazy Portland, particularly when it comes to bikes. How many professional cyclists does it take to launch a piloted glider?

And the best way to beat Yosemite traffic is to use the bike path.

But not if you’re in a car.

https://www.tiktok.com/@tent.and.lantern/video/7544160810629614878?embed_source=121374463%2C121468991%2C121439635%2C121749182%2C121433650%2C121404359%2C121497414%2C121477481%2C121351166%2C121811500%2C121960941%2C121860360%2C121487028%2C121679410%2C121331973%2C120811592%2C120810756%2C121885509%3Bnull%3Bembed_blank&refer=embed&referer_url=www.activenorcal.com%2Fdriver-caught-cruising-down-yosemite-bike-lane-in-viral-tiktok%2F&referer_video_id=7544160810629614878

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

52-year old man riding bicycle killed in Oceanside collision Saturday night; driver remained at the scene

December 10, 2025 / / Comments Off on 52-year old man riding bicycle killed in Oceanside collision Saturday night; driver remained at the scene

A man riding a bicycle was killed in Oceanside on Saturday.

And every single news report got the story wrong. Because the victim wasn’t struck by an SUV.

He was hit and killed by someone driving one.

According to multiple sources, the 52-year old man was struck by the driver around 10:42 pm Saturday at 314 South Harbor Drive, near the Oceanside Harbor.

The victim, who hasn’t been publicly identified, was airlifted to Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla suffering from a severe head injury, as well as a compound fracture of his upper thigh.

He was pronounced dead after arriving.

The driver remained at the scene and cooperated with investigators, who don’t suspect drug or alcohol use played a role in crash.

There’s no information at this time on how the collision occurred, or if the victim was wearing a helmet. This is one of the few times when that might have mattered, since we know he suffered a head injury, although we don’t know if that was his cause of death.

Anyone with information is urged to call Traffic Investigator Gomez of the Oceanside Police Department’s Major Accident Investigation Team at 760/435-4952.

This is at least the 54th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the 13th that I’m aware of in San Diego County.

My deepest sympathy and prayers for the victim and his loved ones. 

Category: Injuries and Fatalities / Tags: , , ,

SAFE takes Long Beach and Los Angeles to task for failing on speed cams, and how to request improvement on county roads

December 9, 2025 / / Comments Off on SAFE takes Long Beach and Los Angeles to task for failing on speed cams, and how to request improvement on county roads
Day 343 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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It’s Day 12 of the 11th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive!

Thanks to Brian, Kathleen, Steven and Lisa for their generous support for SoCal’s best source for bike news and advocacy!

So what are you waiting for? It only takes a few clicks to donate via PayPal, Zelle or Venmo, and guarantee our spokescorgi will find a little kibble in her stocking this year.

And yes, that’s the same photo of our official spokescorgi that we used yesterday, because it’s after 4 in the damn morning and I want to go to sleep, already. 

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Streets Are For Everyone, aka SAFE, is also conducting a year-end fund drive, and more than deserving of a few bucks.

Or maybe more than a few.

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Speaking of SAFE, the organization takes Glendale, Los Angeles and Long Beach to task, along with Oakland and San Jose, for failing to implement the state’s speed cam pilot program, over two years after it was signed into law.

Only San Francisco has actually placed speed cams on the streets, getting a 100% A+ grade in SAFE’s scoring system, while seeing a dramatic decrease in speeding where the cameras have been installed.

Los Angeles, on the other hand, gets a D grade, with Long Beach only slightly better at D+.

Although, while I can’t speak to Long Beach, that’s probably being undeservedly kind towards LA.

Malibu, which was added to the plan a year later as residents clamored for speed cams on deadly PCH, has done much better at implementing the program, already achieving a B+ in SAFE’s scoring.

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Thanks to Luc for forwarding a response from LA County on how to request safety signage or other improvements on country roads.

Report a Problem: Bike Path:
Hi – Not a problem but a proactive measure to enforce safety for all. Now that the Rockstore section on Mulholland is finally open to all traffic:
Who do I ask for a sign to be placed showing to “share the road with cyclists”?
Thank you!

Answer:
Thank you for contacting the website for Los Angeles County Public Works. We provide services to the unincorporated areas of L.A. County. Your concerns have been forwarded to the Traffic Investigator for the subject location, who should be contacting you shortly. You may also contact them at 626-300-4848.

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LADOT wants your feedback on the South Broadway Mobility Project, as well as input to help shape their upcoming Mobility Action Plan.

And no, “more protected bike lanes everywhere” is probably not quite what they’re looking for.

But still.

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Gravel Bike California discovers some some hidden trails and camps in the Verdugo Mountains in the inaugural Tour de Dugo.

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

Once again, business owners try to shoot themselves in the foot, protesting new curb-protected bike lanes in Chicago while alleging they were losing business after just 45 days, even though studies show protected bike lanes usually result in increased sales if they just give it a little time.

New York Streetsblog examines everything that’s wrong with a judge’s order to rip out a Queens bike lane, accusing her of overstepping her jurisdiction.

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Local 

LAist offers more details on the $10.5 million Complete Streets makeover of Huntington Drive, which adds bus lanes, curb-protected bike lane, wide sidewalks and a narrow median, while removing a traffic lane in each direction.

Bikeshare is booming at UCLA, where students and staff took roughly 15,000 Metro Bike trips last year, including nearly 6,500 trips on campus.

Burbank Bike Angels will hold their annual celebration tomorrow at Burbank City Hall to display hundreds of new and restored bicycles that will be donated to local children.

 

State

Carlsbad became the second city in San Diego’s North County area to crack down on ebikes, including restrictions on where they can be ridden.

A Fresno driver was on the wrong side of the roadway when he struck and killed a 51-year old anthropology professor three years ago as she was riding with three other bicyclists, according to a woman riding with her; the 50-year old driver faces a vehicular manslaughter charge, as well as a couple misdemeanors for her death.

This is the cost of traffic violence. Yesterday we mentioned that someone riding a bicycle was killed by a driver on the famed Pebble Beach 17 Mile Drive; today we learned the victim was a 66-year old former professor from CSU Monterey Bay, who founded the school’s Service Learning Institute and led it for 25 years.

A 24-year old man pled not guilty to DUI and hit-and-run charges in San Mateo County, after he allegedly hit a 15-year old boy riding an ebike in a bike lane, and dragged the kid several blocks before crashing into a couple parked cars; police found half gram of meth and 14 empty beer cans in his car after the crash. No word on how the boy is doing, but he can’t be good after that.

 

National

Momentum recommends the best rail trails in the US for “cycling bliss.” None of which are anywhere near Los Angeles, of course. 

San Antonio, Texas is proposing a $67 million plan to remove a lane in each direction from a seven-lane roadway, while adding wider sidewalks and a bike path.

An Illinois bill would create a 15 mph speed limit on all bike paths in the state for all bicycles, as well as low-speed ebikes, low-speed gas bicycles, motor-driven cycles and mopeds.

The New Jersey legislature advanced a bill that would reclassify all ebikes, including ped-assist bikes, as motorized bicycles, and require a drivers license for anyone over 17 to operate one, or a motorized bicycle license for anyone 15 to 16. A perfect example of how lumping all forms of electric bikes, including motorbikes and dirt bike, together as ebikes can result in a crackdown that harms everyone.

High school students in Tampa, Florida worked with a local legislator to file a bill requiring bike helmets for all ebike riders under the age of 18. Although bike helmets aren’t designed to protect against the speeds many e-motorbikes and dirt bikes are capable of achieving. 

 

International

Speaking of Momentum, the magazine updates their list of the world’s worst bike lanes. Oddly, Los Angeles doesn’t make the list, but San Diego does. Twice. 

‘Tis the season. Volunteers in Winnipeg, Manitoba reclaimed and refurbished 350 bicycles headed for the landfill to donate to local children in need.

No surprise here, as officials say a new $26 million bike path connecting a Northamptonshire, England railway station to the town center will offer “enormous benefits,” as well as “a safer and greener environment for everyone.”

They know us so well. The UK’s CyclingElectric offers their list of the best Christmas gifts for ebike riders and bicyclists, including a local craft beer. Sign me up, Santa. 

Amsterdam considers a ban on fat-tired ebikes, hoping that restrictions on tire widths will substitute for a ban based on engine power or potential speeds.

A South African appeals court called for a new inquest into the 2016 death of a woman who fell off a cliff while mountain biking with her husband, after a magistrate had ruled that her husband was implicated in her death “on the face of it,” without hearing any testimony; she supposedly fell when he turned his back after stopping to take a photo.

Chinese authorities took nearly $1.6 million worth of fake Specialized bike parts off the market, while tracing the counterfeits back to the factories that made them.

An “everyday athlete” from Australia rode his bike over 2,600 miles across the continent. Or rather, two bikes, after his original bike was stolen as he slept in his one-man tent.

 

Competitive Cycling

Cycling Weekly examines the disturbing trend of young cyclists giving up on the sport.

 

Finally…

Now even the gods are out to get us. It may not be such a long way to Tipperary soon.

And apparently, you’re not the only one who tosses your valve caps.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Blast from the past — green bike lanes foretold 2nd class citizenship, and DIY activist busted for painting crosswalk

December 8, 2025 / / Comments Off on Blast from the past — green bike lanes foretold 2nd class citizenship, and DIY activist busted for painting crosswalk
Day 342 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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It’s lucky Day 11 of the 11th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive!

Thanks to Josh, Sarah, Brian, Dan, Greg, Alexander, David and Jim for their generous support to keep SoCal’s best bike news and advocacy coming your way every day!

So what are you waiting for? It only takes a few clicks to donate via PayPal, Zelle or Venmo, and guarantee our spokescorgi will find something in her stocking this year.

Because you wouldn’t want to see disappointment on that face, would you?

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We got an unexpected reminder of one of the darker periods in recent Los Angeles bike history.

Somehow, a 2013 story popped up in my daily news search on Saturday, even though the search parameters were confined to the previous 24 hours.

It was a report from Downtown LA News, celebrating what was then the new electric green bike lane on Spring Street in DTLA.

That was before Hollywood claimed Downtown Los Angeles as its own back lot, bike riders and safety be damned.

Film production companies raised hell with city leaders, insisting that the bike lanes would ruin their film shoots using DTLA as a stand-in for Anytown, USA, and New York in particular. Even though New York was getting its own green bike lanes. And even though green is the easiest color to remove in post production.

Let alone that all they had to do was lay a few asphalt-colored mats over them to make the bike lanes disappear entirely.

But evidently, that was just too much effort, minimal though it may be, and just too expensive for their massively bloated budgets.

After all, they need to find some way to pay for those martini lunches at the Ivy.

Not surprisingly, we quickly learned that film producers and production companies have a lot more clout in this city than people who ride bicycles. Before you could say “Cut!”, those electric green lanes were gone forever, eventually replaced by a much darker and less noticeable shade of green — and then only in conflict zones.

It was a fiasco of Hollywood epic proportions, and reminiscent of the initial draft of the 2010 bike plan, when “currently infeasible” entered the city’s bicycle lexicon to denote any “wished for” bike lane that would have required removing a traffic or parking lane, or anything else that might have possibly inconvenienced motorists even a little bit.

And it foreshadowed the disastrous lane removal on Deadly del Mar, when then-mayor Eric Garcetti ordered the road diet and non-existent bike lanes imagined by opponents removed, largely in response to complaints from wealthy pass-through commuters from Manhattan Beach.

I’d like to say things have gotten better, as the city continues to install new bike lanes, albeit at a glacial pace.

But if that was the case, we wouldn’t have needed to pass Measure HLA to force the city to comply with its own mobility plan, including the much-revised second draft of the 2010 bike plan.

And Joe Linton wouldn’t have had to sue Metro to comply with HLA on the makeover of Vermont Ave, as the city dares us to sue them again.

Just more reminders of our ongoing status as second-class citizens in the City of Los Angeles.

If that.

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While the city does its best to weasel out of promised safety improvements, an ordinary citizen gets arrested for painting his own DIY crosswalk, because the city didn’t.

Bluesky post

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That’s more like it.

Now give the kids a damn bike lane, so they can safely get to the new safety improvements.

Twitter post

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

In a reminder of the added dangers women face on the streets, a Florida man was arrested for exposing himself to a woman riding an ebike home from work, following her in his car before pulling next to her and calling to get her attention while visible jerking off. Yet people still wonder why there’s a gender gap in bicycling.

No bias here. A London driver pulled up next to a mother taking her two kids to school on a cargo bike, and yelled out that she’s a bad mother, and it was “disgusting and irresponsible” for her to put her kids at risk like that, somehow failing to realize that he was the one putting them at risk.

Tragic news from Tenerife, in the Canary Islands, where a British resident was killed by a driver while riding a bicycle, in what was described as a “deliberate hit-and-run;” the victim was identified only 25-year old “youngster” who may or may not have been named Harry.

Once again, someone has sabotaged a bike trail, this time in New Zealand, after logs and traps were installed in a deliberate attempt to block, if not injure, riders using the trail, as bicyclists blamed pervasive anti-bike rhetoric.

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Local 

LA casual and commuter bikewear maker Swrve is holding a year-end clearance sale.

 

State

Unless you were in San Diego yesterday, you missed out on California’s biggest bicycle swap meet at the city velodrome.

A 66-year old man was killed on Pebble Beach’s famed 17 Mile Drive Friday morning when he was hit head-on by a driver while riding salmon on his bicycle.

 

National

Men’s Journal says you don’t have to get rid of your car to commute on an ebike, if you just use both for what they’re best for. Which in the car’s case would be taking up valuable curb space. 

Unbelievable. Life is extremely cheap in Portland, Oregon, where a cop let a driver off the hook, even though she was caught on video running a red light and slamming into a 42-year old woman riding a bicycle, leaving the victim with multiple broken bones, because “The driver felt bad and said sorry.” Oh, well okay, then. 

He gets it. A former Navy sailor repairs bicycles to donate to Arizona veterans, saying “A bike means independence.”

Hundreds of Milwaukee bicyclists rolled out dressed as Santa Claus and his elves in the city’s annual Santa Cycle Rampage. Okay, make that thousands.

A group of Astoria, New York businesses successfully sued to have a new protected bike lane removed, after a judge agreed with their argument that the city didn’t sufficiently consider the safety of pedestrians crossing the bike lane, and ordered it ripped out. Because evidently, pedestrians were much safer when they had to cross lanes full of impatient drivers.

‘Tis the season. A Louisiana lawyer gave away over 600 bicycles to kids in eight cities, so boys and girls could feel the same joy he felt when he got his first bike.

 

International

They’ve got a point. Residents of a British Columbia neighborhood want the concrete curbs protecting a bike lane removed, after the city said they won’t be plowing bike lanes this winter, and bike riders will be required to ride in the traffic lane; last year, snow plows broke the curbs and pushed them into the bike lane, blocking them anyway.

Calgary Redditors sound off about a cop in an SUV issuing $400 speeding tickets to bicycle commuters on a local bike path.

A new electric ferry can carry 100 bicyclists and pedestrians across London’s River Thames every ten minutes, although riders complained about the “high” ticket price of about five and a half bucks.

British bicyclists are urged to join a solidarity ride this Sunday to complain about the erasure of trans cyclists from Cycling UK’s 100 Women in Cycling list.

No justice in the UK, where a driver was absolved for killing a bicyclists riding with a group, after the court agreed with the defense argument blaming the victim for poor road positioning.

Britain’s transport minister blamed London bike lanes for slowing bus travel times. Although chances are, too many cars had a lot more to do with it.

A new Finnish study says you’re more likely to be injured on an e-scooter than riding a bicycle, but that may have more to do with riskier behavior by scooter riders.

‘Tain’t the season, as an Indian government bike giveaway for high school students failed, after students and teachers complained many of the bikes were broken and missing parts, forcing students to push their new bikes to the nearest repair shop.

Taiwanese bikemaker Giant is issuing refunds to migrant workers in that country after the Trump administration briefly blocked imports of the brand over allegations of their mistreatment. Proof that our government really does care about migrants, as long as they’re in another country.

Here’s another one for your bike bucket list, as a woman writing for London’s Independent says she fell in love with a “blissful” bicycling route through rural Japan, connecting six islands via six bridges.

The opposition party in Australia’s New South Wales is promising to require license plates for all ebike riders under the age of 18 if they come into power, calling it a “sensible solution” for common community issues — once again conflating ebikes with electric motorbikes, to the detriment of everyone.

 

Competitive Cycling

Apparently, the Tour de France wasn’t always so darn serious.

Twitter post

 

Finally…

Why Campy’s working on his last good nerve. You could have had Tadej Pogačar’s Mont Ventoux Colnago for the low, low price of just $190,000 — or nearly $263,000 Canadian.

And your next foldie could be a rolling work of art.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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