According to the Union-Tribune, the victim, who has not been publicly identified, was riding east on Friars Road near Rio Bonito Way when he crossed the road diagonally and was hit by a BMW traveling in the same direction.
He died before he could be taken to a hospital. The driver, who remained at the scene, suffered a minor injury in the collision.
A street view shows four lanes of traffic on what appears to be a high speed roadway, narrowing to three near the Rio Bonito Way exit. Meanwhile, a satellite view shows a curving road with an entry lane not far west of Rio Bonito.
There’s nothing on the opposite side of the roadway, which raises the question of why the victim would have been attempting to cross; a more likely explanation is that he may have been moving from the right parking lane into the through lane as the roadway narrowed.
It’s also possible that he may not have been able to see the car coming up behind him, as it could have been hidden by the bend in the road, especially if it was traveling at a high rate of speed. It also would have been out of view if it had entered Friars Road via the ramp at Qualcomm Way, so poor road design may have been a contributing factor.
This is the 71st bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the 12th in San Diego County; it’s also the seventh in the city of San Diego. That compares with nine in the county this time last year, and just one in the city.
Update: KUSA-TV reports that it’s unclear if the driver may have been under the influence.
Update 2: Vision Zero San Diego forwards raw video footage from the scene, which shows a green bike lane that was not shown in the satellite view. It also shows extensive damage to both the car and the bike, suggesting the collision occurred at a high rate of speed.
There is a visible debris field in the right lane shortly after the onramp from Qualcomm Way merges into Friars Road; the victim and his bike came to rest shortly after the exit lane to Rio Bonito Way.
Note: This video shows graphic damage from the collision, and may be difficult to watch.
Update 3: Turns out out the real story is a lot different from what was originally reported.
According to a press release from the San Diego Medical Examiner’s Office, the victim was a 65-year old Matthew Driggers, a homeless man who was walking his bike across the street when he was struck.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for Matthew Driggers and his loved ones.
Give a little to help support LA’s best bike news site this holiday season.
Today’s common theme is the bikeshare boom.
Just three weeks after its official launch, Santa Monica’s Breeze bikeshare already has over 2,100 members who’ve traveled a total of nearly 18,000 miles.
And a new study shows bikeshare really does help get people out of their cars, while taking pressure off over-crowded transit systems.
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Great story from South Dakota.
A couple of 10 and 14-year old kids vandalized a South Dakota car dealership recently, causing $25,000 in damage.
But instead of prosecuting the boys, the owner talked to their parents. And once he learned how impoverished the families were, he dropped the charges, and dipped into his own pocket to find a better home for the older boy’s family, as well as buying him a bus pass and a bicycle to get to school.
The kid responded buy volunteering to help out at the dealership after school and on weekends on his own accord, without being asked.
If there’s a better example of how to make a difference in a child’s life, I don’t know what it is.
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Metro is hosting a series of workshops to develop their Active Transportation Strategic Plan, starting tonight in West Hollywood. Thanks to LADOT Bike Program for the heads-up.
Richard Risemberg writes that civic leaders may or may not be out to get us through their not-so-benign neglect of already deficient bike lanes.
CiclaValley invites you to join pro cyclist Phil Gaimon, the LACBC and Councilmember David Ryu’s office in cleaning up a stretch of Mulholland between Cahuenga and Runyon Canyon on the 12th. Maybe you can talk to Ryu’s people about the need for safe bicycling routes in his K-Town/Hollywood district.
Somehow, West Hollywood sneaks in at number 10 on People for Bike’s list of America’s best city’s for everyday biking. No offense to one of my favorite cities, but to the best of my knowledge, this is the first time WeHo has been rated for anything related to bicycling, let alone on a national stage.
Pasadena’s updated transit system will have bike racks on the front of their new natural gas buses.
Temple City chose the most complete and safest makeover of Las Tunas Drive in a non-binding straw vote, although the real decision will come in January.
State
California scores a 14.5% boost in transportation funds under the new federal transportation bill, including funding for bike and pedestrians projects which some members of the GOP tried to kill.
Three San Diego-area cyclists were injured when an apparently drunk or stoned driver plowed into them from behind while they were riding in a Carlsbad bike lane Wednesday morning. Nothing like being wasted behind the wheel barely after breakfast.
While some call for building walls, a Tijuana businessman is pushing for a transnational bike lane between the US and Mexico.
Chico police are getting in the Grinchly spirit by handing out $78 tickets to anyone who rides a bike on the sidewalk. Before ticketing people for riding on the sidewalk, they should make sure the street is safe for cycling, first.
Blame for a ban on protected bike lanes on state roads in Chicago rests with the deputy chief of staff for the former governor, apparently for political reasons. Isn’t it always, though?
An Indiana newspaper remembers native son Major Taylor, America’s first African-American cycling champ and the fastest rider of his time.
New York’s city council will consider a number of bike-related bills, including one to create a possibly needless bike safety committee, and another that would consider bikes abandoned and subject to removal after just 36 hours. Which means riders could risk seizure unless they move their bikes every day and a half.
A Staten Island website doesn’t get it, saying New York’s Vision Zero is just an excuse for ticketing motorists, while claiming that driving an extra five to ten miles over the speed limit won’t hurt anyone. Unless, of course, they happen to hit someone at that speed.
Heartbreaking story about a former North Carolina football player who slipped into mental illness, chemical dependency and homelessness before ending his life riding his bike the wrong way into oncoming traffic on a busy highway. Thanks to George Wolfberg for the heads-up.
International
While bicycling has boomed in Western countries in recent years, ridership has dropped 50% worldwide in the past three decades.
Here’s an update on those two Polish brothers pedaling their way down the full length of the Amazon. No, not next to the Amazon, on the Amazon.
Caught on video: A verbal dispute turns violent as a Brit van driver gets out of his cab to take on a bike rider in a two round non-title bout.
Caught on video 2: After a British cyclist is dangerously buzzed by a passing bus, the company says he had plenty of room. You might want to turn down the volume to avoid offending your kids or coworkers with the perfectly understandable, but nonetheless NSFW language.
Talk about trading up. A UK bike thief rides off on a $6,000 mountain bike after putting the equivalent of a $75 deposit on a children’s bike.
A Scottish letter writer opposes irrational calls to reign in cyclists, pointing out that drivers have killed over 45,000 people in the UK so far this century, while bike riders have been responsible for less than ten deaths. Although that’s still ten too many.
There once were some bike thieves in Limerick. No, really, Irish police busted a gang exporting hot bikes to Europe.
A South African writer says maybe the country’s president could improve his image if he rode a bike like the Dutch queen instead of riding in a motorized cavalcade.
A Kiwi writer calls on his fellow New Zealanders to get on their bikes after it’s named the most regressive country at the Paris climate talks.
Finally, a little good news about Egee Marbolis, the Silver Lake Trader Joe’s parking lot manager severely injured on the Ride With No Name last month.
According to the LA Weekly, the fork on his bike bent backwards when he tried to brake, causing the wheel to lock up and flip his bike, throwing Marbolis straight up into the air. He came back down feet up, landing directly on his head.
A witness says there was no blood and he looked okay. He even said he was good afterwards, but had no feeling when another rider squeezed his hand.
He’s reportedly regained some movement in his hands and feet following spinal surgery, and friends say he will eventually walk again, though rehab will take years.
As of last night, the gofundme account to help defray his medical expenses had raised nearly $20,000, while the goal had been increased to $45,000.
Don’t miss the LACBC’s annual Open House tomorrow night; admission is free for members, which is a good incentive to join at the door.
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‘Tis the season for bighearted people.
A Syracuse NY funeral director plans to give away 2,500 bikes to area kids and teens; his organization has donated an estimated 35,000 to 40,000 bicycles to children over the past 20 years.
And Palms Springs Life tells the story of how Frank Sinatra once bought a bike for boy on welfare, then disguised himself to delivered it in person along with a bag of groceries, as well as other examples of Ol’ Blue Eyes’ anonymous generosity.
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Local
More than 600 people of all ages attended Santa Monica’s recent Family Bike Festival.
The man accused of being the bike-riding Western Bandit, who terrorized LA’s Western Avenue over a three-year period, pleads not guilty to 53 felony charges, including two counts of murder and 26 counts of attempted murder.
Arizona police recover and return a three-wheeled recumbent bike that was stolen from a partially paralyzed teenager.
A writer for the Grand Junction CO paper says hosting the first stage of next years USA Pro Challenge is marketing, not economic development.
Progress is slow in improving safety for Houston cyclists; one candidate to replace the current mayor want to get bikes off the streets instead of making them safer.
Life is cheap in Chicago, as a drunk driver gets a whopping 100 days for killing a cyclist. On the other hand, a Michigan driver faces 15 years for allegedly killing a three-year old kid out riding his bike while she was high on coke.
A Boston writer takes a test ride on a prototype bike that promises to be virtually indestructible and theft proof. Full disclosure: I turned down a sponsorship to promote that bike through social media; if I mention it — or anything else — on here, it’s because it’s worth discussing, not because I’m getting something for it.
No bias here. Boston-area police blame a bike rider for a collision because a driver apparently didn’t see his signal for a left turn.
New York considers forming a bike safety task force, as a councilwoman’s office naturally focuses on seniors’ complaints about scofflaw cyclists instead of keeping riders safe from cars.
This is the cost of traffic violence. A little girl will grow up without a father after political pundit Mary Katharine Ham gave birth this weekend, two months after her husband, a technology advisor to the White House, was killed in a collision while riding his bike.
A DC-area study shows neighborhoods with access to bikeways have higher property values than those without, using two neighboring communities as examples. Of course, it could be a case of a chicken/egg conundrum, since more desirable communities may get bikeways first, rather than the other way around.
International
Cycling Weekly offers advice on how to deal with those embarrassing problems on a bike, from smelly feet to big boobs. However, they fail to offer advice on what to do when you get dropped by the neighborhood kid fresh off his training wheels.
Mounties bust a British Columbia bike thief after he jumped in a frigid harbor to avoid capture; he was taken into custody after a hot shower for hypothermia.
You know it’s a small Canadian town when ticketing a cyclist for riding on the sidewalk makes the news.
A deadly UK truck driver loses his commercial license for 10 years for running down a pair of cyclists two years ago, in addition to the eight and a half year sentence he received last year. Since those run concurrently, he’s really just banned for two and a half years after he gets out of prison, since he’s not likely to do a lot of driving before that.
A Chinese company is fined £63,000 by a UK court because their hi-viz jackets weren’t; they were found to be 97.6% less reflective than they should have been.
Thanks to Serena Liu for contributing to the BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive. And a special thanks for her note saying my worked helped inspire her to get involved in bike advocacy; that made my day.
Apparently tired of telling kids to get off his lawn, a curmudgeonly SaMo writer complains about a whopping four — yes, four — Main Street parking spaces that are being converted into parklets, which will evidently prevent anyone from parking anywhere in the neighborhood ever again; he similarly bemoans the parklets and loss of traffic lanes on Broadway in DTLA.
As an aside, the story mentions that the Santa Monica Planning Commission will meet on Wednesday to consider the city’s bike and pedestrian plans, which he’s clearly not in favor of, either.
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Meanwhile, Dr. Michael Cahn forwards this letter copied from the Santa Monica Observer, in which a driver is offended when his attempt to educate and/or enforce bike traffic laws from behind the wheel of his car is met with a predictable response.
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LA’s Bicycle Advisory Committee, the city’s only official voice for bicyclists, meets tonight in the LAPD Hollywood Division Community Room, 6501 Fountain Ave.
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The story of popular Silver Lake Trader Joe’s parking lot attendant Egee Mabolis is picked up by LAist and the Eastsider, following the bicycling injury that left him with no feeling in his arms and legs.
A gofundme account to help defray his medical costs has raised 3/5 of the $25,000 goal.
Speaking of Giving Tuesday, you can bid on a Silca SuperPista Ultimate Bicycle Pump hand-painted by cycling scion Taylor Phinney, with 100% of the proceeds going to support the Davis Phinney Foundation to fight Parkinson’s Disease. Phinney — Taylor, not Davis — is putting off additional surgery on his badly injured left knee in hopes of competing in next year’s Rio Olympics.
Take a few minutes out of your day for this must-read piece from CiclaValley, in which he surprises a driver by saying he was lucky he got in a collision, even with his kids in the car, and even if the red light-running driver who hit him seemed to think it was no big deal.
A new video from Metro explains how to use the Metro Bike Hub at El Monte Station, which promises to be just the first of several throughout the LA area.
Temple City will consider a proposed redesign of Las Tunas Drive into a more vibrant, safe and people-friendly business district at tonight’s city council meeting; supporters of a more livable, walkable and bikeable street are urged to attend to counter expected opposition.
State
Good read from a cyclist who offers seven lessons he learned from riding 673 miles from San Francisco to San Diego with no idea what he was doing.
The Coronado bike lane madness goes on, as a letter writer says the town doesn’t need bike lanes because they didn’t slow traffic on a street where average speeds were only 28 mph to begin with.
Two local businesses come to the rescue after a burglar steals 26 bikes from a San Francisco middle school.
A San Francisco bike deliveryman comes to the rescue after a women gives birth to a premature baby on the sidewalk.
Stockton is holding a number of public workshops to update their Bicycle Master Plan. Let’s hope they don’t have to deal with lawsuits and recalcitrant councilmembers trying to overturn the public process, like some cities we could name.
National
The Pew Charitable Trusts says bike tourism means business, as cities and states are warming to the economic benefits of bicycling.
Seriously? Oahu residents suggest ticketing bike rental shops when their customers break the law. Which makes no more sense than holding car rental firms accountable when their customers speed or run red lights.
A Delaware driver faces up to seven years for killing his bike-riding friend in a drunken hit-and-run.
Interesting idea from Florida, as a proposed law would require in-ground safety lights where bike paths cross roadways to alert drivers to the presence of bicycles.
Bighearted Tampa police officers chip in to buy a five-year old a new tricycle after his brand-new birthday bike was stolen in a car burglary.
It’s a dream come true. Bike riders in one Danish town can outfit their bikes with special RFID tags that turn traffic lights green as they approach so they never have to stop for red lights.
A South African cyclist says the way to deal with dangerous roads is to stay off them when you can, and ride facing traffic when you can’t. Which is exactly the wrong thing to do.
Life is cheap in Melbourne, as an Aussie driver is fined a lousy grand for a fatal dooring.
‘Tis the season, too. An Australian town responds to complaints that it has the world’s worst Christmas tree by creating one made out of bicycles.
November 30, 2015 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Morning Links: Daily News spins bike news badly, not getting it San Pedro, and a local bike rider needs your help
Sometimes, good news is bad news, depending on how you spin it.
The story focuses on the possibility that bike lanes could be removed from the plan, likely or not. Along opposition to the plan from Councilmembers Paul Koretz and, disappointingly, David Ryu.
Koretz focuses his opposition to removing bike lanes planned for Westwood Blvd in and near Westwood Village, just outside the UCLA campus, claiming it’s too dangerous for bike riders. Yet somehow, refuses to consider any plans to make it safer or propose any viable alternative.
His only solution is to keep it dangerous, while his search for a long-promised alternative route is seeming more and more like OJ’s search for the real killer.
Meanwhile Ryu, who promised to reconsider the decisions made by his predecessor Tom LaBonge, instead appears to be following in his anti-bike footsteps.
Writing for Orange 20 Bikes, Richard Risemberg says at least the city isn’t stabbing us in the back anymore.
Apparently, parking causes less congestion than bike lanes.
A San Pedro letter writer complains that replacing parking spaces with bike lanes on Western Avenue would increase congestion and make it harder for emergency vehicles to get through.
Which seems highly unlikely, unless cars are currently able to pass through parked vehicles, which would appear to violate the laws of physics. And emergency vehicles usually find it easier to drive through bike lanes than parked cars.
He also complains that the Measure R funds that would be used to pay for the lanes weren’t supposed to be used for bike lanes, suggesting they should instead be funded by supporters of Calbike and CABO, neither of whom had anything whatsoever to do with them. And that funds should be raised by registering and taxing bicyclists, and imposing fines on law-breaking cyclists.
The first of which is impracticalfor many reasons, and the latter already happens, despite his protestations. And those fines go to the state, just like the fines paid by scofflaw drivers.
Popular cyclist Egee Mabolis was badly injured during the monthly Ride With No Name, leaving him with no feeling in his arms and legs. A gofundme account established to help cover his medical costs has raised nearly $11,000 of the $25,000 goal — even though that won’t begin to cover the cost of his hospital care and rehabilitation, since he doesn’t have insurance.
If the name sounds familiar, it may be because Mabolis was profiled by the LA Weekly last year for his work taming the notorious Trader Joe’s parking lot in Silver Lake.
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Film fans take note.
The first film from famed British director Ridley Scott, the auteur responsible for Alien, Blade Runner and Gladiator, was about a boy and bicycle, starring his late brother and future Top Gun director Tony.
While we’re on the subject of films, a writer for the Daily Beast kind of misses the point of the new documentary Bikes vs. Cars, which doesn’t really call for replacing all cars with bicycles, as tempting as that may seem at times.
If you want to see for yourself, Bikes vs. Cars opens this Friday at the Laemmle NoHo 7 in North Hollywood.
A local hiking group voices their support for the planned 50-mile CV Link bike and pedestrian pathway around the Coachella Valley.
San Francisco follows an all-too-familiar pattern of fixing dangerous streets only after it’s too late. But at least they fix them, unlike some LA council districts we could name.
A transportation expert from UC Davis will make a presentation at this week’s Paris climate change conference touting the benefits of bicycling as a climate-friendly measure.
Family members and witnesses question the CHP’s investigation of a cyclist killed by a Sacramento judge, leading them to wonder if it’s just sloppy work or a cover-up.
Life is cheap in Portland, where a truck driver faces a maximum $260 fine for dangerous left turn that took the life of a bike rider.
A Detroit man raised $15,000 to buy a new car for a man who rode a bike to work every day to save money to care for his sick wife.
The bike-hating New York Post blames scofflaw cyclists for the 4,463 bicyclists injured in the city last year, not the people in the big dangerous machines. And insists an Idaho stop law will only make things worse.
International
England’s last Plantagenet king is helping to lead the reclamation of Leicester from automobiles, over 500 years after Richard III famously failed to trade his kingdom for a horse.
British bike thieves get 12 years apiece for stabbing a man who was trying to reclaim his stolen bike.
Police in an English town are on the lookout for a cyclist — to thank her for lending them her hi-viz jacket so they could direct traffic.
A British man rides 400 miles to honor his late bike-riding mother.
A gold medal-winning Thai-American BMX rider is just as happy working in the rice paddy as competing against Asia’s best. No, really, that’s what it says.
And to everyone who has contributed out of their own pockets, far too many to thank here individually; your generosity means more to me than I can ever express.
I am grateful, too, for everyone who has contributed a guest post, forwarded a link or commented on here, for helping to keep the conversation going.
But most of all, I am thankful for the readers of this site. Without you, these would just be meaningless words lost in the ether of cyberspace.
Today is the busiest travel day of the year, and not just in the skies. Starting this afternoon, the streets will be filled with crazed drivers trying to fight their way out of town, or rushing to get the last of their pre-holiday errands out of the way.
So be careful out there.
That doesn’t mean stay home, or bundle yourself in your car and leave your bike behind.
It does mean use extra caution and ride defensively, positioning yourself to be seen yet still assuming that no one will, and preparing yourself to react when some driver does exactly the wrong thing at exactly the wrong time.
LA County has approved a redevelopment of Marina del Rey’s Pier 44 along Admiralty Way, including improvements to the Marina bike path; 18% of the project’s parking spaces will be reserved for bicycles.
A section of Orange County’s Quail Hill Trail has been renamed in honor of Irvine bike advocate Juanita Moe.
An OC bike activist says it’s time to get rolling on safe streets in the aftermath of the county’s recent Active Transportation Forum at UC Irvine.
As long as Caltrans has to replace a couple of Carpinteria overpasses, they plan to widen them to include bike lanes and sidewalks in both directions.
A writer for Wired says San Francisco’s new raised bike lanes won’t keep bicyclists safe, and says what we really need is something like the largely ridiculed British plan to build elevated limited access bikeways over train lines. Never mind that it would force riders into industrial areas, and prevent them from having access to the local market, or anything else anyone would actually want to ride to. But other than that, it’s brilliant, right?
A new bill in Congress would allow bikeshare commuters to use a pre-tax transit benefit to pay for their memberships and user fees.
A Minnesota county plans to install rumble strips on county roads that have significant bike and pedestrian traffic, even though they’re opposed by cyclists and have been removed elsewhere in the state.
Cleveland will be getting a second bikeshare program, provided by the company behind Santa Monica’s Breeze bikeshare, just in time for next year’s Republican National Convention.
A New York councilmember calls for an Idaho stop law in the city, saying it doesn’t make sense to treat vehicles and bikes the same way; needless to say, the Post calls it “extreme,” saying it would allow riders to blow through red lights. They’re right, if coming to a full stop at red lights and proceeding only when it’s safe can be called blowing through.
Former British cycling champ Chris Boardman says the UK’s cycling revolution won’t take off without proper funding. Which goes for this country, as well.
A road raging Brit driver gets a year behind bars for pushing a 74-year old man off his bike, resulting in a broken leg, because he couldn’t tell a wave to go around from an obscene gesture.
A British writer questions why the focus is on what women bike riders wear instead of improving safety and encouraging more women to ride.
Busy night. A teenage Belfast bike rider gets community service after shouting a cheer for the IRA when police try to stop him for reckless riding, then sparks a 50-person fight.
Pro cyclist Guillaume Bonnafond wears a facemask to ride one of cycling’s most famous climbs to call attention to the problems of Chronic Pulmonary Lung Disorder (COPD).
No irony here. A prominent Kiwi architect who designs bikeways somehow avoids prison for dragging a cyclist under his Porsche; he claimed he thought he hit a traffic cone and kept going in an attempt to dislodge it. Because the best way to get anything out from under an expensive sports car is to drag it beneath the undercarriage, rather than stop to see what the hell you hit, right?
Once again, repeat after me: If you’re carrying meth on your bike, put a damn light on it — and don’t tell the cops to meet you at a someone’s apartment when they try to stop you.
The hunt is still on for the bicyclist who left the scene after colliding with an elderly man on Glendale Blvd last month.
That’s the gist of the following email I received from LAPD Det. Felix Padilla on Monday.
On October 15, 2015, around 8:20 am, Levon Avetisyan, 77 years old and a resident of Los Angeles, was crossing Glendale Blvd just north of 1st Street when he was struck by a bicyclist riding northbound on Glendale Blvd. Mr. Avetisyan suffered severe head trauma and was taken to LAC+USC Medical Center by paramedics from LAFD. He was later transported to Kaiser Permanente Medical Center. Despite lifesaving efforts, Mr. Avetisyan succumbed to his injuries on November 1, 2015. The unknown bicyclist left the area before he was identified by police. The investigation is being conducted as a hit and run, however, I believe the bicyclist had no other option other than to leave once the scene was cleared by the paramedics.
The bicyclist was described as a male, White, in his 40’s and was attired with a cycling jersey and shorts. Anyone with information concerning the bicyclist is asked to contact the LAPD Central Traffic Division Detectives at (213) 833-3713 or Central Traffic Division Watch Commander at (213) 833-3746. During non-business hours or on weekends, calls should be directed to 1-877-LAPD-24-7 (877-527-3247).
Padilla notes that the collision appears to be an unfortunate accident, and the rider involved is not likely to face charges.
However, the police still need to talk to him, and the family of the victim is asking the bicyclist involved to come forward.
So if you’re the rider in question, contact the police. Or if you know who it was, urge him to come forward so this case can be resolved, and Avetisyan’s family get the peace and closure they need.
It’s the right thing to do.
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Yet another bicyclist has been critically injured by a heartless hit-and-run driver.
Bystanders reportedly moved construction barricades to protect him until help arrived.
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Bicyclists aren’t the only two-wheeled riders endangered by road raging drivers, as a San Diego-area woman is charged with second degree murder for running down a motorcyclist she’d argued with while driving on a freeway.
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If we can build self-driving cars, it shouldn’t be that hard to develop a system to detect cyclists and keep car doors from opening until the rider has passed to prevent doorings.
No one really wanted those buffered bike lanes on Vineland, which were supposed to give riders safe alternative route on a quiet street, instead of the long-promised bike lanes on Lankershim that were killed by former Councilmember Tom LaBonge. Well, so much for that.
Writing on LinkedIn, urban planner Nathan S. Holmes says we’ve allowed the media to frame the LA Mobility Plan incorrectly; it’s not bikes vs. cars, but rather, all about choices.
Celebrate Small Business Saturday this weekend with pop-up protected bike lanes, bike rides led by the LACBC and Calbike’s Charlie Gandy, and all-day events along Venice Blvd in Mar Vista. Unlike some of his fellow councilmembers, the Westside’s Mike Bonin clearly takes the mayor’s Great Streets program seriously.
Join the LACBC and pro cyclist Phil Gaimon in cleaning up Mulholland Drive between Runyon Canyon and the 101 Freeway on December 12th; there’s a free cookie from Sweetsalt Food Shop in it for you.
State
Irvine residents remember Kevin Jiang, the nine-year old boy killed while riding his bike Friday afternoon; they urge drivers to slow down.
San Francisco will transform half of a busy four-lane street into bike lanes and pedestrians pathways. The mere suggestion of which would undoubtedly cause rioting and lawsuits down here.
A Berkeley cyclist became collateral damage when two women fled from police following an earlier collision; fortunately, he doesn’t seem to be too badly banged up.
National
The new federal transportation budget not only keeps the popular TIGER grants that have helped build bike and pedestrian projects across the US, but expands it by $100 million.
This could come in handy. A handlebar-mounted external battery will recharge your USB headlight, cam or other electronic devices if they go dead while you ride.
After Grand Junction CO officials cited costs in turning down hosting a stage of next year’s USA Pro Challenge, local residents pitch in $63,000, and counting, out of their own pockets. Speaking of which, my formerly sled dog-runningAlaskan brother will be moving to Grand Junction next month, for reasons that escape me.
Chicago’s Deaf Velo Alliance shows hearing loss doesn’t have to be a hindrance to bicycling.
Bike collisions and fatalities have gone up in Mexico City, even as it works to become friendlier for cyclists. It’s possible that increased ridership could have something to do with it, however.
A Windsor, Ontario letter writer complains about “useless” bike lanes, since he thinks bicycles belong on the sidewalk. Although I’m sure most pedestrians would beg to differ.
A British delivery driver gets 44 months in prison for hiding his diabetes from his employer; he killed a bicyclist when he blacked out after his blood sugar crashed.
Caught on video: A London rider gets left hooked — the equivalent of a right hook on this side of the Atlantic — when he undertakes a cab. If you’re looking to assign blame, I vote for both; the cab driver should have checked his blind spot before turning, but the rider should have held up until he knew what the driver was going to do.
Brompton wants your 15-second videos of unexplored parts of your city, to be judged by Brit filmmaker Guy Ritchie, among others.
Alberto Contador says he gets that his signature gun gesture might not be appropriate at next year’s Tour de France in light of the Paris attacks. Meanwhile, the manager of the women’s Canyon/SRAM team says women’s cycling is stronger than ever.
A new Italian e-bike comes with built-in GPS anti-theft system so you always know where your bike is, even if it rides off without you.
An Aussie writer considers the effect of topography on bicycle mode share, suggesting that bicycling is successful in Copenhagen because it’s so flat.
Finally…
Evidently, if you choose to ride in a traffic lane at the same speed as the relatively light traffic around you, you’re a cockroach on wheels. That’s one way to compete with the internet — an LBS that serves a good beer while you wait.
November 23, 2015 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Morning Links: Serious sentence for a serious crime, memorial for 9-year old victim, and blame drivers, not bikes
They continue to take traffic crime seriously in Orange County.
An unlicensed drunk driver got 18 years — yes, years, not months — for fleeing the scene after killing an elderly woman and injuring her blind grandson as they stood in a Santa Ana bike lane to observe fireworks on the 4th of July in 2013.
When she was arrested two hours later, Kelly Michele Wolfe had a blood alcohol level of .31, nearly four times the legal limit.
Now she’s going to have a very long time to sober up.
Maybe someone should tell the LA DA this is what can happen when you don’t bargain away all the serious charges.
He was a recent Chinese immigrant whose parents had come here looking for a better life.
Instead, they lost a son to this country’s deadly streets.
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Great piece from Boyonabike, who says we should “tell car companies to take cynical marketing gimmicks like ‘Volvo Life Paint’ and shove it where the sun don’t shine.”
Because, he says, the real problem is dangerous and distracted drivers, a lack of safe infrastructure, and a “car culture that sells cars on TV by overt appeals to fantasies of speed and danger”
The editor of USC’s Daily Trojan says bikeshare has the potential to revolutionize transit in Los Angeles if anyone actually uses it, while a writer for the Los Angeles News Group questions if people will pay $3.50 a trip to ride a bike.
Writing for Orange 20 Bikes, Rick Risemberg offers advice on how to winterize your riding to prepare for El Niño and what passes for winter in the City of Angels.
Santa Clarita wants your opinion on the city’s off-street biking trails.
Great news from Arizona, as former US Representative Gabby Giffords takes her recumbent on a 40 mile ride less than five years after her near-fatal shooting.
Evidently, a Colorado letter writer really hates bike lanes; he condemns any government official who puts more than 20 cents into bike lane construction to suffer an eternity of spilling hot coffee in their laps while driving.
A discussion of installing crosstown bike lanes in New York’s Upper East Side draws little opposition, even if one community board member says bicyclists’ lawlessness has resulted in a “complete and total Armageddon.” Not to exaggerate or anything.
A Philadelphia magazine explores the challenges of being African American in white suburbia, including a troubling story of black teenagers just out for a bike ride.
London’s Cycling Commissioner says banning large trucks during rush hour won’t save as many lives as making trucks safer and building protected bike lanes. He also called a reporter a liar over claims bike riders weren’t using one of the city’s new cycle superhighways.
London plans to close a busy and dangerous junction in the heart of the city to motor vehicles for at least five years to improve safety and “all round congeniality,” while making more room for bikes and pedestrians.
Two Brit bike thieves have been jailed for a long running con; they’d leave a laptop bag as security for taking a bike for a test ride, which turned out to hold nothing but books when they didn’t return. They’d gotten away with 23 bikes worth $93,000 before they were caught.
A British woman is left with a broken hip after a collision with a sidewalk-riding bicyclist. But if he just rode off without stopping, how do they know he had a foreign accent?
Japanese police are looking for a man who smacked a woman in the head with a blunt object after her clothes somehow got caught in his bike when he rode up behind her.
Finally…
Evidently, it’s okay to steal a bike from a celebrity restaurant as long as you’re a hunk with washboard abs. If you’re going to use a bike as your getaway vehicle after robbing a bank, wearing a cycling cap sets the right stylistic tone.
Thanks to Wes High and Matthew Robertson for their donations to support this site. Thanks to their generosity, the first ever Biking in LA Holiday Fund Drive is now up to, uh, three contributions!
A satellite view shows a residential neighborhood with four lane divided roadway in each direction, with a bike lane on Roosevelt and three parks within a four block radius.
Anyone with information is urged to contact IPD Traffic Sergeant Matt August at 949/724-7023.
This is the 70th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the 17th in Orange County this year.
Update: The Orange County Coroner has identified the victim as Keven Jiang, who lived in Irvine.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for the Keven Jiang and all his loved ones.
