Update: The victim has been identified as 78-year old Ojai resident Marion Weil, who deserved better. The driver is identified only as a 40-year old Ojai man.
Anyone with information is urged to call Ventura County Sheriff’s Department Sr. Traffic Investigator Shawn Holzberger at 805/388-5146.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for Marion Weil and all her loved ones.
In this report, CalBike makes six recommendations for state policy changes that will shift traffic enforcement in an anti-racist direction.
Redirect funding from the CHP budget to street redesign
Redirect funding from the CHP to automated enforcement
Divert Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) funding from police departments to community efforts
Decriminalize biking and walking
Make public transportation, including bike and scooter share, free
Implement income-adjusted traffic fines
There are some good proposals there, including the shift to automated enforcement. As well as the call to decriminalize common bicycling and walking behaviors.
If nothing else, it’s a good starting point.
And a reminder that this debate touches all of us in one way or another.
“Historically, planners have been responsible for manifestations of institutional racism including redlining and the construction of freewaysand toxic industrial development in poor and Black and Brown neighborhoods, among many others,” reads the letter to the APA dated July 24. “These actions have had reverberating effects, including creating the preconditions for over-policing of communities of color and disinvestment in community health and safety (just as they created the conditions for safety, wellness, prosperity, and limited policing in predominantly white suburbs).”
One example they provide is Vision Zero initiatives, which aim to reduce or eliminate traffic fatalities. Despite their good intentions, the programs “rely on police-led enforcement and may inadvertently direct additional resources to police.” The letter also points to how transit planners have deployed transit police “who notoriously harass riders of color over fee evasion,” and housing planners who’ve ignored how policing contributes to gentrification despite pledged support for affordable housing.
Which is one reason why enforcement shouldn’t be key to Vision Zero, here in LA or anywhere else. And why the automated speed and red light cams Calbike calls for are a better option for improving safety and compliance with the law.
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For once, Los Angeles added bike lanes after a street was resurfaced.
Proving they really can do it, after all.
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No surprise here.
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Caltrans was hard at work on fixing a Ventura County bike path.
This is why people continue to die on our streets. A Canadian woman who killed a man riding a bike after bragging about driving drunk on social media got just 18 months behind bars for yet another DUI, her third drunk driving conviction in just five years.
A combination of an early morning commitment today, and a late night last night tending to a new puppy who got into something she shouldn’t have, means I’m out of time to get anything done tonight.
As usual, we’ll be back on Friday to catch up on anything we missed.
August 5, 2020 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on LA bike crashes plummet during pandemic while deaths don’t, and fight for safe streets on your neighborhood council
Yes, collisions involving bike riders really are down in Los Angeles.
According to a Crosstown analysis of LAPD crash data, the lighter traffic resulting from the coronavirus lockdown led to a nearly 71% drop during the 11-week period starting March 15th.
That’s just four days before the shutdown orders in Los Angeles and California.
Surprisingly, despite the return of motor vehicle traffic and the recent jump in SoCal bicycling fatalities, bicycle crashes remained significantly below last year as of the middle of last month.
More surprising is that LADOT is actually moving forward with bike projects outside the Downtown area.
It seems LADOT is paying attention. Despite facing a shortfall of nearly $31 million due to the coronavirus pandemic, the department has expedited multiple bike lanes and safety projects since the “Safer at Home” order was issued on March 19. According to Colin Sweeney, LADOT’s public information director, there have been nearly 28 miles of bike lanes installed or upgraded, and an additional 5.5 lane miles are under construction in the city…
In addition to Downtown, Sweeney said LADOT also implemented more than 12 miles of new bike lanes to Avalon Boulevard in South Los Angeles since May.
“In South Los Angeles, the Manchester-Broadway, Our Way project has just begun construction and will add new parking-protected bike lanes from Manchester to Century on Broadway,” he said.
So maybe there’s hope, after all.
At least if you live or ride in those areas, because there are large swaths of LA where the city doesn’t appear to be doing anything.
Thanks to Ethan Ward for the heads-up.
Illustration by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay.
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On a related subject, the dramatic drop in SoCal bicycling deaths in March, April and May during the coronavirus shutdown, followed by a big jump in June and July as people started back to work, is a reminder that bikes aren’t dangerous.
Cars — and the people in them — are.
And streets are safer with fewer cars on them.
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Maybe the most effective way to counter LA’s legendary NIMBYs and fight for safer streets is on the neighborhood level.
And the best way to do that is by serving on your local neighborhood council, with openings available right now throughout the LA area.
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Maybe with more bike riders on LA’s neighborhood councils, we might see less of this crap.
Waterloo, Wisconsin-based Trek is gearing up to meet the booming demand for bicycles, after initially preparing for the bike industry to implode as a result of Covid-19. Although one of the best ways to bankrupt any business is by chasing boom and bust cycles.
An Indiana hit-and-run driver was sentenced to a whopping 48 years behind bars for killing a local a local coach and teacher who was riding his bike; the sentence included an additional 20 years for being an habitual offender. Even I think that might be just a tad extreme; the judge could have ordered the sentences to run concurrently, rather than consecutively.
There’s a special place in hell for the woman who drove off after running down a couple nine and twelve year old boys riding their bikes on a Long Island service road; the 31-year old driver was busted ten hours later, which could have given her plenty of time to sober up if she was under the influence.
Road.cc gets it, recommending the best road bikes under the equivalent of $650. And yes, there are good bikes in that range these days. Although whether you’ll be able to find any at your local bike shop after the coronavirus bike boom is another matter.
August 4, 2020 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Driver backs over Brit bike rider, Bay Area bicyclist erases BLM message, and Willis, Hart and Usher are one of us, too
The joys of puppyhood.
Our teething new corgi puppy jumped up to give me a kiss, then snatched my glasses off my face and ran off with them before I could stop her Monday night.
So if I miss any major typos in today’s post, blame trying to see through a badly chewed lens.
That said, it’s a light news day, so let’s jump right in.
Today’s photo, the new intern discovers how it must feel when Godzilla destroys Tokyo.
And my glasses.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
Usher is one of us, as he buys a bike rack for his Tesla. And has it mounted in front of a WeHo fetish shop that should be familiar to anyone who rides Santa Monica Blvd.
No longer the “mistake by the lake,” a rejuvenated Cleveland now offers a 58-mile Emerald Necklace bike loop from the shore of Lake Erie to the Cuyahoga Valley National Park.
The climate group, currently led by LA Mayor Eric Garcetti, encourages the model as a response to municipal budgets ravaged by Covid-19.
Which makes it worth noting that the “world’s climate mayor” is doing nothing of the sort in his own city, except for encouraging greater density.
Which is problematic in itself, after a number of current and former city officials have been implicated in a bribery scheme to approve building projects.
As we’ve noted before, cities around the world have taken advantage of the lighter traffic brought on by the pandemic to make temporary, and sometimes permanent, changes to encourage more biking and walking.
Los Angeles, on the other hand, has done absolutely nothing outside of the Downtown area, where Councilmember Jose Huizar has been a driving force behind a move to Complete Streets.
He is also charged with being the ringleader behind the bribery scheme.
Which pretty much sums up the current state of the city.
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A bike thief was caught on video ransacking an Anaheim building’s bike room. Which is exactly why I don’t recommend using them.
Bike rooms give the illusion of security while providing an enticing target for thieves. Better to find space in your home to keep your bikes inside.
Seriously? A moonlighting Arizona cop says he felt his life was threatened by a mountain biker who ignored no trespassing signs at a golf course while looking for a formerly accessible trailhead — so he tackled the rider off his bike and pulled a loaded gun on him during the scuffle, while insisting the victim somehow lunged off his bike at him.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
LA-area streets are being reimagined as outdoor dining spaces; the question is whether it will last post-pandemic. Actually, the real question is why we can find street space for restaurant patrons, but we can’t manage to find any for bike lanes.
Yreka’s Leslie Burley-Cobb has been nominated for the BMX Hall of Fame; she was one of the first women in the sport in the late ’70s, collecting 268 trophies before she retired in 1985. Raise your hand if you knew there even was a BMX Hall of Fame. And yes, mine are firmly in my pockets.
After a London cabbie posted photos of Dutch parents riding their kids to school on cargo bikes, sarcastically asking if that’s really the kind of morning school run people want to see, the public responded with a resounding “Yes.”
