This is not the news any of us wanted to end the holiday weekend with.
Just as I was writing for tomorrow’s post that we could be thankful that no one was killed while riding a bicycle over the long Thanksgiving weekend, news broke that it wasn’t true.
Because a man described only as an “adult male” was killed Sunday evening in the Florence-Graham neighborhood of South LA in unincorporated Los Angeles County.
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Homicide detectives are responding to a death investigation involving a bicyclist and vehicle. The incident was reported on Sunday, November 30, 2025, at approximately 5:55 P.M. at the intersection of E. 71st St & Holmes Ave. in unincorporated Los Angeles.
The victim was transported to a local area hospital where he was pronounced deceased.
There is no additional information available at this time.
Anyone with information about this incident is encouraged to contact the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Homicide Bureau at (323) 890-5500.
You can also offer tips anonymously through Crime Stoppers at 800/222-TIPS (8477), or at lacrimestoppers.org.
It seems telling that the crash is being handled by the homicide unit, rather than traffic investigators, though we don’t know enough right now to speculate what that may actually mean.
Never mind that, even for a case being investigated by homicide detectives, they still say that victim was killed by a “vehicle,” rather than someone driving one.
Or as Andrew put it in forwarding the notice to me,
“Death investigation involving a bicyclist and a vehicle,” not “a driver ran down another person in cold blood and didn’t even stop.”
Hopefully, we’ll learn more soon.
This is at least the 53rd bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the 12th that I’m aware of in Los Angeles County.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for the victim and his loved ones.
This is where I’m supposed to plead with you to part with a little of your hard-earned money to support this site.
Okay, beg.
But frankly, I’m just not in the mood.
Not that I can’t use the help. As grateful as I am for the support of our sponsors, we’ve always been one or two short of breaking even.
And it’s the money we raise right now, during this fund drive, that tides us over for the next few months.
Hopefully, anyway.
But honestly, it’s been a very long and hard year. And if you’re like me, you’ve already given more than you can afford to one cause or another.
So let’s do this.
Think about what this site is worth to you, from our near-daily bike news and advocacy to whatever entertainment value we offer to (hopefully) brighten your day. Then decide what you can afford, however much or little that is.
Day 330 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025.
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Just a quick note before we get started.
As usual, this will be our last regular post for the holiday week. I’ll be taking tomorrow and Friday off to spend with family, so we’ll see you back here bright and early on Monday.
Although if you’re not too busy hitting the Black Friday sales — or better yet, getting out on your bike and avoiding the hell out of the whole mess — come back Friday for the kick off of our 11th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive.
I’ll do my best to put the fun back in fund drive, while simultaneously begging you to part with a small portion of your own hard-earned funds to help keep this whole thing going for another year.
Today’s photo depicts yours truly signing the original petition in support of Measure HLA, corgi in tow, with Streets For All founder Michael Schneider.
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Okay, one more quick note.
Because I’m thankful this year for a lifetime on two wheels, which has led me to so many of my best experiences and memories.
And I’m even more thankful for you, and everyone else who reads this site. Because I couldn’t do what I do without you.
So in all sincerity and with deepest humility, thank you.
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To the surprise of absolutely no one, LA’s Board of Public Works rejected the overwhelming majority of Measure HLA appeals heard on Monday.
First round of appeals: The Board of Public Works partially sided with the appellant in one appeal and rejected the other six. Joe Linton, in his capacity as a resident and not as editor of Streetsblog L.A., filed all the appeals heard on Monday. “It’s the very first time, so we’re kind of throwing a lot of spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks,” Linton told LAist. “Not a lot stuck.”
One appeal approved: Linton partially won his appeal claiming the city did not adequately install pedestrian improvements along a nearly half-mile portion of Hollywood Boulevard that it resurfaced last year. The city said it will publish an “appeals resolution plan” to fix sidewalks there within the next six months. “It was really obvious to me that the city’s justification … was not true, so I was glad that that was acknowledged,” Linton said.
Per the text of the Measure HLA ballot measure, the city does not have to implement its mobility plan if the city is only completing “restriping without other improvements.” This exemption is listed alongside pothole repairs, utility cuts, and emergency repairs. In the six appeals that the board voted to reject, the city did not “restripe” the existing configuration, but installed new lane striping to change traffic patterns, added parking, bike lanes, turn lanes, etc.
The appeals argued that these changes go beyond “restriping without other improvements.”
The city disagrees.
The city’s position appears to be more or less along the lines of: if a street reconfiguration project included installed pretty much any kind of lane striping, then it’s exempt from HLA because it’s considered “restriping without other improvements.”
Not that their prospects look too good right now, with or without it.
Meanwhile, a writer for a surf site puts tongue firmly in cheek to discuss the “grom immolation terror” brought on by the recall, while questioning why the Consumer Product Safety Commission is even still around following the Trump budget cuts. “Grom” being slang for a young or inexperienced surfer, and by extension, any inexperienced and/or overly enthusiastic teen — the opposite of what waits for me in the mirror every morning. And you’re welcome.
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Thanks to the generosity of a fallen bicyclist’s family, all donations to Streets Are For Everyone will be matched dollar-for-dollar through the end of the year.
Instagram post
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
Calbike examines how Metro’s Nina Kin, Tech Lead on LA Metro’s Digital Experience Team, is building more reliable data and trust for transit riders on bicycles, as Metro begins to recognize that transit and bikes are two “halves of the same promise.” And no, that’s not an exceptionally awkward and unwieldy job title at all.
Pasadena approved a contract of up to $4.8 million to move forward with a new design for the Pasadena Ave and St. John Ave Roadway Network Project, including a safer and more accessible bicycle and pedestrian network — without removing existing traffic lanes, of course.
Santa Monica announced plans for a Holiday Sweater Community Ride on Saturday, December 6th, offering guided bike tours of the Bergamot Area First/Last Mile Improvements, departing from the 17th Street/SMC Metro Station from 10 am to noon.
The Riverside County District Attorney’s Office urges parents to think twice before buying ebikes for their kids, warning that they can be held criminally liable for whatever mischief the little miscreants get up to with them. And once again, conflating electric dirt bikes and motorbikes with regular ped-assist ebikes, to the benefit of no one.
The New York Times also talks with French ultracyclist Sofiane Sehili, who spent 50 days in a Russian hoosegow after trying to cross the border despite Russian border guards refusal to acknowledge his previously approved visa, while attempting to set a new record for the fastest crossing of Eurasia.
November 25, 2025 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Metro board members propose rescue for open streets funding, and ebikes blamed in Hermosa Beach teen gang attack
Day 329 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025.
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They get it.
While I was out of commission last week, Metro considered a bizarre plan that would have virtually eliminated open streets events for the next three years, other than events tied directly to the World Cup, and Olympic and Paralympic Games, and held within a narrow two-month window each year.
Even though each of the 51 CicLAvias held since October 10, 2010 have averaged more than 100,000 people experiencing the streets of Los Angeles County in a new way, many for the first time.
Not to mention the many Active Streets events hosted by Active SGV in the San Gabriel Valley, and others funded by Metro.
It’s a plan that would mean an end, at least temporarily, to most CicLAvia and Active Streets events outside of that narrow window, with no guarantee that they would resume afterwards.
At issue is a dramatic change in the way Metro intends to fund “open streets” events in the next three years. A true “open street” event is as it sounds: Allowing people on bicycles, scooters, skates, skateboards and pedestrians to ride or walk the asphalt streets free of cars for exercise, while stopping at booths for food and games within various neighborhoods of Los Angeles County…
This round of funding includes 29 events at a two-year cost of $10 million, according to Metro.
But riding to the rescue is a proposal supported by six of the 13 Metro board members, which would commit at least $1 million to fund other events that were rejected by Metro staff for falling outside that Copa Mundial and Olympic window.
And better yet, make that funding permanent.
The group includes LA County supervisors Lindsey Horvath, Janice Hahn and Hilda Solis, as well as CD5 Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky, Whittier Councilmember and Metro Chair Fernando Dutra, and Pomona Mayor Tim Sandoval.
By my math that leaves them just one vote short for the motion to carry. Bearing in mind that I was an English major, so my calculations may leave something to be desired.
Let’s hope they find it.
Because open streets events may be a relatively recent tradition here in Los Angeles. But they have quickly grown to be the largest in the US, and are far too valuable to sacrifice.
Even temporarily.
No guarantee the Daily News link won’t be blocked by their paywall, however. It was hidden the first time I tried to read the story, but not the second. So your luck may vary.
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Once again, ebikes are in the news.
And not in a good way.
As usual, though, the press manages to conflate non-street legal electric dirt bikes and motorbikes with the far slower and tamer ped-assist ebikes.
The problem here is not ebikes, but gangs of teens engaged in random street violence.
But by painting ebikes with such a broad brush, these stories risk the general public confusing illegal electric motorbikes with the legal ped-assist bikes being rapidly adopted by countless bike commuters and recreational riders.
So for the uninitiated — and that includes the overwhelming majority of news outlets out there — if they don’t have functional pedals, or travel faster that 28 mph, they’re mo-peds, motor scooters, motorbikes, motorcycles or dirt bikes, regardless of how they’re powered.
Or they just ain’t legal.
Period.
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Case in point, news broke yesterday that a 12-year old boy was injured in a hit-and-run while riding an ebike in Anaheim Sunday night.
KNBC-4 reports the victim was hospitalized with “a broken leg and concussions.” Which suggests that he may have more than one head, since a single head can only suffer a single concussion in a single event.
The driver fled on foot after crashing his car about a block away. Police suspect he was under the influence based on undisclosed evidence found in the car.
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Our old friend Zachary Rynew shares his take on Sunday’s Stranger Things CicLAvia.
Which, had it occurred next year, wouldn’t have been funded under Metro’s proposed new restrictions, since it would have fallen outside of the World Cup schedule, and had no connection to the soccer/football tournament.
The crash injured 30 people; only his good reflexes saved him from being one of them.
Twitter post
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Evidently, you can transport a wheelbarrow by bicycle.
Reddit post
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
A writer for the Cornell University student paper highlights a problem experienced by bike riders almost everywhere, after bicycles are banned from the local Commons, forcing riders to choose between a busy highway and a “bike boulevard” consisting of a couple speed bumps and no protection.
Velo selects the best Black Friday road and gravel bicycling deals. Which reminds me it’s time for my annual “fuck Black Friday” campaign. Seriously, just get out and ride your bike, and let everyone else fight the crowds, virtual or otherwise.
‘Tis the season. The Toys For Tots program in Bowling Green, Kentucky got a welcome surprise when they received a donation of 400 kids bikes, while expecting just a quarter of that.
No real surprise here, as former cyclist and current team sprint coach Marcel Kittel says pro cycling is “absolutely not” clean. But the doping era is over, right?
November 24, 2025 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on 16 years for killer Santa Ana DUI driver; Burbank approves $3.3 million Chandler Bikeway extension “with trepidation”
Day 328 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025.
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It’s kind of a quiet news day, as the holiday week doldrums hit the bike world. Or at least the press that usually covers it. So let’s just dive right in, for those of us who are still around this week.
Thirty-year old Ceferino Ascencion Ramos was convicted of driving at nearly three times the legal alcohol limit when he ran down the entire family of five last summer.
According to KTLA-5,
The incident took place on Sunday, July 7, 2024, shortly after 7 p.m. Angel Ramirez and Angela Hernandez-Mejia were riding e-bikes with their three young children near Haster Street and Twintree Lane. Angela led with the couple’s 7-month-old daughter in a bike trailer, while Angel followed with a trailer carrying their 5-year-old son, Jacob, and 6-year-old daughter.
A witness told police that the family was riding on the right side of the road when Ramos struck all five members and drove away. The witness followed Ramos until authorities could stop him. His blood alcohol level was later measured at .22, nearly three times the legal limit of .08.
Jacob died at the scene.
The family’s bones and abrasions may have healed by now.
Police in Cambridge, Massachusetts continued their search for the thumbtack-wielding anti-bike terrorist who tossed the tiny tacks across a bike lane, resulting in flat tires for several riders. While it may sound like a relatively petty form of protest, it can be expensive and inconvenient to replace a tire, and potentially dangerous — or worse — if a tire pops at speed.
A San Francisco med student makes the case for AB 981, which would create a test program requiring Intelligent Speed Assist systems for serious or repeat speed violators — in other words, using software to cap speeds for drivers who can’t keep their damn foot off the gas; the bill was left hanging in the Appropriations Committee when the last legislative session ended, and will need public support to move forward.
Life is cheap in Hamilton, Ontario, where a bicyclist says “the laws are not there to protect you,” after prosecutors allow the driver who fractured his hip off on a lessor charge; the bike rider complained he was struck during an aggressive pass, while the driver insists he never actually made contact with the victim. Which shouldn’t matter, since a close pass can do as much damage as an actual collision.
Life is even cheaper in the UK, where the mayor of an English town walked with a fine of 3,000 pounds — the equivalent of $3,900 — for the drunken hit-and-run that knocked a man off his bike; the mayor denied hitting the victim until police found the passenger mirror from his car at the scene of the crash.
A Milan bike lane represents the dividing line in Italy’s politics, with the right promising to rip it out, and the city’s center-left mayor calling the conservative head of the country’s senate a NIMBY. In other words, kind of like the left-right divide in much of the world, and especially right here in the good ol’ USA.
Once again, a pro cyclist has been struck by a driver, as 28-year old Frenchman Thibault Guernalec suffered multiple fractures, as well as a concussion, when he was run down while on a training ride this this week, only days after Dutch cyclist Lorena Wiebes was also struck by a hit-and-run driver.
Relatively slow speed falls like that are exactly what bike helmets are designed to protect against, but this time, it didn’t seem to help.
The victim was taken by ambulance to a nearby fire station, but died before he could be airlifted to a hospital, despite the efforts of first responders.
Apparently the child was unharmed. Physically, anyway.
This is at least the 52nd bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the 12th that I’m aware of in San Diego County.
