The victim, identified only as a 40-year old man, was pronounced dead at the scene.
No word on whether he had lights on his bike, or if there was some other reason why the driver failed to see him. And no word on how fast the driver was going.
But at least he stayed at the scene.
A street view shows six lanes with a center turn lane on Rosecrans, with a frontage road on the south side. That suggests the victim may have been riding west on Rosecrans, if he was on the main roadway at the time of the crash.
This is at least the 39th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the ninth that I’m aware of in Los Angeles County.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for the victim and his loved ones.
September 17, 2020 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on LADOT wants input on deadly Lincoln Blvd, Koretz recall effort announced, and wear your damn golf helmet
Since this one is in Councilmember Mike Bonin’s district, it might actually happen; he’s one of the few friends traffic safety advocates have left on the city council.
Although maybe we’d be better served by a shared bus and bike lane during rush hour that converts to a floating bike lane during off hours.
Thanks to Kent Strumpell for the heads-up.
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Anger is boiling over in LA’s fifth council district, as a new effort to recall Paul Koretz gets underway.
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If I still lived in the district I called home for a quarter of a century, I’d be the first to sign the petition.
Next Citycalls freight delivery the forgotten part of Vision Zero, saying streets need to be designed so delivery vehicles can operate safely in mixed traffic. Or better yet, replace delivery trucks and vans with more efficient ebikes. Although in Los Angeles, it’s Vision Zero itself that’s been forgotten.
Busted for Biking While Black at just ten years old. Michelle Obama — yes, that Michelle Obama — tells the story of how her own brother was stopped by a pair of Chicago cops who refused to believe the bike he was riding belonged him.
September 16, 2020 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Virtual Sea Otter Classic opens tomorrow, lasting Covid heart damage in athletes, and Madrid builds greenbelt bikeway
Whether you supported or opposed the project, or something in between, you had a right to be heard.
By unilaterally killing the project at the beginning of the public comment process, CD5 Councilmember Paul Koretz took that away from you.
And all of us.
Never mind that actions like that inevitably lead to suspicions of undue influence, if not outright corruption, on a city council tarred by the Englander and Huizar bribery scandals.
We all deserve open, honest and democratic government from our elected leaders.
This is what can be done if you really want to make a difference fighting pollution.
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Now that’s how you introduce your eponymous new mountain bike helmet line.
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Local
Thirteen things to know about Dijon Kizzee, the Black bike rider fatally shot by sheriff’s deputies in South LA last week — including that he loved riding anything with two wheels.
The person behind the wheel in the self-driving Uber car crash that killed 49-year-old bike rider Elaine Herzberg in Tempe AZ last year has been charged with negligent homicide for watching The Voice on her phone when she should have been watching traffic.
Flores is the minivan driver who allegedly slammed into a 66-year old bike rider near the city’s airport last month, leaving the victim with a life-threatening head injury.
In actions captured on video, he allegedly got out of his van, along with a passenger identified as 50-year old Jessica Bailey, examined the victim lying in the roadway, then calmly removed his bike from under their van and drove away.
They were captured in Kern County less than two weeks later.
There’s no word on whether Bailey is in custody, or if she will face any charges.
And no word on the identity or condition of the victim.
There are several stories from other news outlets, like this one, but they’re all virtually identical. Thanks to Phillip Young for the heads-up.
And how the environmentally friendly project was killed by a single LA councilmember, acting on behalf of a notorious NIMBY group.
Just after the Mid City West meeting, the NIMBYs sprang into action. They viewed Uplift Melrose as a threat to the sacred space of vehicles in this city, and were outraged that a project would even be considered that would rellocate space from cars for a bike lane. Those bike lane thieves, trying to take away sacred car space! And while the project was so much more than a bike lane — it was wider sidewalks, new trees, raised crosswalks, new lighting… all they could see was the bike lane.
Ravnsborg was reportedly driving home from a Republican fundraising dinner, where he swears he didn’t drink.
Even though any rational and sober person would stop to see what they hit after an impact like that.
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Still more proof you can literally carry anything on a bicycle.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
An American marine biologist in the Philippines with a bad case of windshield bias questions why road space is being given to bike riders when motor vehicles bring in much more “revinue” for the government. He may be many things, but an environmentalist clearly ain’t one of them, regardless of what the headline says.
Washington state is adopting the Idaho Stop Law next month, allowing bike riders to treat stops as yields — but not treat red lights like stop signs, as is legal in Idaho.
This is how it works in other places. Austin, Texas is going to make permanent a popup bike lane installed during the coronavirus crisis after it proved successful. Unfortunately, unlike countless other cities around the world, auto-centric Los Angeles never bothered to install any temporary bike lanes during the lockdown period to begin with.
September 14, 2020 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on People’s Court frowns on wacky driver lawsuit, Oregon bike riders ferry food to burn zones, and biking can be bananas
Maybe the arc of the moral universe really does bend towards justice.
The case of the bike rider who was sued by the driver who rear-ended him finally concluded on Friday, after it was heard in America’s highest court.
And by that I mean The People’s Court, of course.
Rochester NY bicyclist Bryan Agnello was sued for $700 for damage to the schmuck’s driver’s car, despite suffering $2,500 in medical bills and damage to his bike.
In his court filing, (driver Jovonte) Cook stated that Agnello was riding his bike on I-490 at about 60 mph and that he “didn’t see him coming at me at all due to bad weather.” It was raining when the collision occurred.
During an interview with CITY, Cook estimated Agnello was traveling 80 mph and “came out of nowhere and splashed on my front windshield” while Cook was driving on I-490 while on his way to his job delivering pizzas.
Never mind that, according to the police, the crash occurred on a city street, not a divided freeway. And anyone who can ride 80 mph on level ground in a driving rain without an engine would easily be the greatest cyclist of all time.
Then again, anyone who could walk away from a crash at that speed should probably be wearing tights and a cape.
A San Diego missing person’s investigator passed away last month after years of battling liver failure — but even at her sickest, she attached an e-bike motor to her bicycle so she could ride along with marchers on a three-day breast cancer awareness event. And when the engine gave out, she got off and pushed it to keep up.
Somehow we missed this piece from Vogue UK on famous, mostly female bike riders of the past 60 or so years. Audrey Hepburn looks as good on a bike as anyone could, although Bogie is no small shakes himself. And Queen Latifah can ride with me anytime.
A Singapore letter writer says bike riders who use public roads should be licensed, while exempting those who only use bike paths. Apparently assuming the latter will never have to use roads to bridge a gap between bikeways, unlike pretty much everywhere else on earth.
A Belfast paper remembers Debbie Barclay, who blazed the way for women’s cyclists in Northern Ireland until she was paralyzed from the waist down after crashing on a descent in a 1988 English stage race; she died last week of an undisclosed cause.
One that had overwhelming community support, both from the general public and Melrose business owners.
A project that could have once again made Melrose the destination street it was decades ago. And one that excited virtually everyone who saw it, with a few notable NIMBY exceptions.
Starting with Koretz himself.
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The self-proclaimed environmentalist and climate advocate caved to a NIMBY minority to stop a project that would improve safety on one of LA’s High Injury Network streets, while giving a significant boost to a once-thriving business district that has been in decline for decades.
Kind of like Westwood, where empty storefronts nearly outnumber occupied ones.
I have done much soul searching, and even driven down Melrose one more time to try and envision the results. Many factors contributed to my decision to not move forward with this process…
I don’t believe that this action will get anyone out of their cars, except for immediate neighbors on short trips who could walk or bicycle. However, it will make it more difficult for potential customers to access Melrose shops by car. The loss of parking could also reduce access by customers, unless the BID is able to cut long-term deals with several locations for large numbers of cars. This is likely to happen, but not a certainty.
I also believe that this will result in a short-term loss of more marginal businesses during construction. Longer term, I think it is likely to raise rents once it is completed, knocking out remaining smaller businesses that give Melrose its charm, for better funded, more chain-like businesses.
Maybe if he actually got out of his car, he could see what wonderful street it could be for walking. Even if it isn’t now.
But bottom line, he makes the anti-environmental, anti-climate choice to keep Melrose a sewer for pass-through drivers, while making it virtually impossible to access the area any other way.
It must be all those boarded up storefronts and Going Out of Business signs that pass for charm in his estimation.
He also ignores the fact that a project like this would once again make the street a draw for people from across the city, and not just out-of-town tourists relying on outdated guidebooks.
Not to mention that the plan actually results in a net increase in available parking, despite the loss of spaces on Melrose itself.
L.A. City Councilmember Paul Koretz has effectively killed Uplift Melrose, a plan to invest in making Melrose Avenue greener, safer, and more welcoming. Uplift Melrose was initiated by the Melrose Business Improvement District and enjoyed broad local support, including from the Mid-City West Community Council and the Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council.
He goes on to cite bizarre opposition from representatives of both the police and fire departments.
LAPD Wilshire Area Commanding Officer Shannon Paulson’s August 25 email to Koretz staff states that Uplift Melrose “would undeniably have a direct impact on the ability of PD to respond along this (previously) primary accessway to emergency locations on this stretch of Melrose, as well as… emergencies in adjacent residential neighborhoods.” She asserts that the proposed Melrose lane reduction would “undeniably” create “traffic congestion and delays” on Melrose and “this would also result in more north/south traffic in those nice residential streets north and south of Melrose” where she forecasts “more calls for unsafe speed… and a higher likelihood of vehicle vs pedestrian accidents, stop sign violations, more people feeling not as safe walking their dogs and pushing their strollers on those streets.”
Never mind that the project was still in the early discussion phase, and that most, if not all, of those objections could have been easily mitigated.
She went on to offer this doozy, making her anti-bike windshield bias even more apparent, while broadly dismissing bike lanes all over Los Angeles:
I would also suggest a comprehensive study of the bike lanes. I have seen a lot of money and energy and planning go into some of these bike lanes in the City– which are fantastic for those who use them. But I think in many LA communities the use of these bike lanes have been exceptionally minimal (to almost zero) – this after surrendering very valuable vehicle traffic lanes to create them. I have also been part of conversations regarding their safety, as they design the lanes to be “two way” which results in some dangerous scenarios. I think immediately of the “two way” bike lane currently on Main Street downtown – where you have City Hall employees pulling out of that CH garage near Temple and they look right only as the traditional vehicle traffic on Main St is northbound, yet that bike lane along the curb is two -way. So you have a southbound bicycle coming along at 25 mph crossing them that the driver never see.
Evidently, in addition to being a cop, Paulson is also an expert in traffic engineering and urban planning.
Or at least thinks she is.
And as Linton points out, we’re still waiting for all that money for bike lanes she talks about. Maybe it got diverted into the LAPD’s coffee and donut fund.
As for the objections from the fire department,
Koretz’ staff received Streets L.A. Landscape Architect Alexander Caiozzo’s response to all of the points raised by Getuiza. Caiozzo’s September 3 email emphasizes that the Melrose design represents a “preliminary plan” and, when funding is secured, further refined designs will address all the specific Fire Department concerns.
Never mind that Linton explains that much of the objections raised by the fire department were the result of a fundamental misreading of what was being proposed.
He goes on to point the finger at a self-proclaimed watchdog group that has worked to block progress throughout the city.
One source is the “notorious Nimby” group Fix the City. In 2015, Fix the City filed a lawsuit to block L.A.’s multi-modal Mobility Plan, asserting that the city was “stealing” lanes from drivers, who do not “have the luxury of being able to ride to work on a bike or bus.” The lawsuit was settled by an agreementbetween L.A. City and Fix the City that mandates extensive outreach and analysis before safety improvements can be implemented. Fix the City then uses this agreement to kill safety projects.
The settlement requires the city to evaluate LAFD response times at the station level for all mobility projects of significant scale. If safety improvements degrade LAFD response times, then Fix the City boardmember Jim O’Sullivan waves the settlement around, badgers the city Transportation Department (LADOT) and City Council, and threatens further lawsuits.
Personally, I’d take it a step further, and question whether it’s the soft corruption of campaign contributions and promises of support for the career politician’s next run for office.
Or something worse.
In the aftermath of the Jose Huizar and Englander bribery scandals, any single-handed action like this is immediately suspect. So the question becomes, not just whether someone inappropriately influenced Koretz, but who might have, how and why.
It could be as simple as Linton’s suggestion that Koretz kowtowed to the notorious NIMBYs at Fix the City.
Or it could be something much worse.
The real problem is that Los Angeles has a failed system of government in which each councilmember rules as a king or queen in his or her own district, enjoying near dictatorial power over what gets built, from upscale condo towers to streetscape improvements.
Something we’ll have to change if we ever want to see real progress in the city.
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Meanwhile, Mid City West Community Council President Scott Epstein — leader of one of the city’s better neighborhood councils — offers his own insights into the project, and Koretz’ open betrayal of the community.
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Bike Talk will be discussing the whole Melrose mess tonight.
