Morning Links: New website seeks to undo Rowena road diet, and more news about kindhearted people

September 9, 2015 / / Comments Off on Morning Links: New website seeks to undo Rowena road diet, and more news about kindhearted people

The new Safe Streets for Silver Lake website calls for removal of the Rowena road diet. Even though it has cut injury collisions by half since it was installed, and brought average speeds down to the speed limit.

Which, sadly, is a rarity in Los Angeles.

The site blames the road diet for creating cut-through traffic in the surrounding neighborhood, However, that same video could have been shot on virtually any other street in LA, especially now that Waze directs drivers onto backstreets they might never have discovered otherwise, let alone driven.

And while cyclists have a reputation for blowing through stop signs, deserved or otherwise, most drivers do little more than genuflect in their general direction.

If that.

The solution isn’t to rip out proven safety measures. The answer is better traffic calming to slow drivers down and make it less convenient to cut through neighborhoods, along with better enforcement.

The Silver Lake Neighborhood Council is hosting town hall meeting to discuss the matter next Monday at the Ivanhoe Elementary School auditorium.

There will be plenty of voices calling for an end to the road diet. Let hope there are others to urge a more rational approach.

………

More good news about kindhearted people this week.

After someone stole the therapy bike an autistic Long Beach boy used to ride with his parents, a Huntington Beach volleyball team pitched in to buy him a new one.

And an Idaho boy with cerebral palsy gave away the $4,300 bike he’d outgrown to a special needs girl who couldn’t afford one. And he donated his hair to Locks of Love. Just a reminder that no matter what problems you face in your own life, there’s always someone who could use your help.

………

Cycling officials check bikes for signs of motor doping at the Vuelta, in response to a video showing a Movistar mechanic trying to hide a broken bike.

Tour de France winner Chris Froome will miss the worlds with a broken foot suffered in the Vuelta.

………

Local

Great analysis of why there are so many dangerous intersections around USC, and what can be done to improve the situation. Thanks to Ikawe for the heads-up.

WeHoVille profiles the city’s young feminist mayor, who worked to improve bicycling in her first term on the city council.

The Santa Monica Bike Center is looking for a part-time wrench.

A Redondo Beach man is building custom beach bikes complete with a steering wheel instead of handlebars.

The monthly Spoke(n) Art ride rolls this Saturday. Which just happens to be the eighth anniversary of the infamous beachfront bee incident.

 

State

The Orange County Transportation Authority is holding a roundtable meeting on Thursday on how to improve bicycling in the County’s foothill communities.

Specialized apologizes for the lack of road etiquette displayed by their employees on their lunch ride through Morgan Hill.

There’s something seriously wrong when fire officials would rather keep a street dangerous than improve safety, as they’re doing in Menlo Park.

The East Bay Express says Oakland is still stuck in the 20th Century when it comes to the city’s longstanding love affair with cars.

Just Another Cyclist says the supposedly non-violent bike rider arrested for bashing a car with his U-lock is the perfect stereotype for the Critical Mass cyclist gone amuck.

Sacramento officials debate where sidewalk cycling should be banned.

A Yuba City driver basically confesses to not paying attention after running down a bike rider he’d spotted some distance away.

 

National

A new taillight from Garmin detects the presence of cars coming from behind and flashes faster as they get closer; an optional head unit warns you of relative risk as cars approach. Although its $200 – $300 price tag will put it out of the reach of many riders.

The US Department of Transportation studies how to improve safety for cyclists in Seattle’s seaport area, concluding bikes and pedestrians should be separated from traffic whenever possible, and that signage and infrastructure should be improved to increase predictability.

An Ohio woman plans to bike to Corpus Christi TX to see her four-year old daughter. Maybe she should sign up for Ohio Valley AAA bicycle service before she goes. Ignore the damn zip code window and scroll down to the benefits; thanks to Steve Herbert for the link.

Someone finally said it. A Texas writer says there’s nothing cute about a college student driving a toy Barbie car to class after she was busted for DUI. Drunk driving is no accident, and it’s not a laughing matter. Period.

A Louisiana driver gets three years for the DUI death of a bike rider; the victim’s wife has forgiven him, saying her husband was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Although that might not have mattered if the driver had been sober.

A Memphis bicyclist is in critical condition after he was right hooked, but not hit, by a driver. Just because the car didn’t actually make contact doesn’t mean the driver didn’t cause his injuries.

Four cyclists have died on Vermont roads in the last six months; before this April, no bike rider had killed in the state since 2010.

A New York bike messenger faces a manslaughter charge after fighting with a building tenant; he rode off even though the man was clutching his chest and died of a heart attack.

Now that’s more like it. The Baltimore Episcopal bishop who fled the scene after a drunken collision that killed a bike rider accepts a plea bargain that will keep her behind bars for the next 10 years.

 

International

The mayor of car-crazed Caracas, Venezuela is attempting to carve out a little space for cyclists. Although the first attempt is just a short, three mile bike path that bypasses areas where most people live, and crosses a park that closes at 5 pm.

A new separated bike lane in Calgary is getting rave reviews from cyclists.

Britain’s Near Miss Project shows that bicycling must get safer, since commuter cyclists in the country have up to 60 “very scary” incidents a year. Especially since British cities of the future will be teeming with bicycles.

Someone sabotaged a Scottish bike ride by scattering nails and tacks on the roadway; at least 50 riders suffered flats. That sort of thing is not just a prank, and could result in serious injuries if riders lost control when their tires went flat.

A Swiss driver faces a voluntary homicide charge for the death of a cyclist, in addition to being charged with DUI and hit-and-run.

Sadly, the bicycle a Turkish soldier sent home to his son arrived the same day his family learned he’d been killed in a bombing.

 

Finally…

If you’re going to get busted for a series of burglaries, try not to get caught riding a bike belonging to the judge scheduled to arraign you. It’s a sure sign you don’t ride enough when nature tries to reclaim your bike.

And screw the health benefits; a Rhode Island doctor says older men shouldn’t ride their bikes fast because they’re annoying.

………

Speaking of kindhearted people, let me offer a special thanks to James Lyle, Robs Muir, Harvey Woien, Bryan Jones, Margaret W, Glen Schmuetz, and Mark Jones for opening their hearts and wallets to help support this site. Your generosity is truly appreciated.

And I’ll repeat what I said yesterday. If everyone who visits here today donated just $10, it would fund the operation of this site for a full year.

 

Category: Advocacy & Politics, Morning Links, Streets and Infrastructure / Tags: , , , ,

Morning Links: NY Times fumbles LA’s Mobility Plan, anti-Rowena road diet petition, and a CicLAvia sneak peek

September 8, 2015 / / Comments Off on Morning Links: NY Times fumbles LA’s Mobility Plan, anti-Rowena road diet petition, and a CicLAvia sneak peek

Elitist my ass.

In a piece of journalism unbefitting a great newspaper, the New York Times looks at the new LA Mobility Plan.

But instead of focusing on the city’s efforts to reduce reliance on cars and build a 21st Century mobility network, it directs its gaze on the largely unfounded fears of gridlock expressed by a handful of opponents.

Starting with Fix the City, the unofficial voice of LA NIMBYs everywhere.

The group, which has threatened to sue to stop the plan, has also tried to stop the new Academy of Motion Pictures museum next to LACMA. And they are one of the groups that successfully sued to halt the construction of a half-finished shopping center at Sunset and Western — blocking much needed jobs in a largely impoverished area, while increasing blight in an already blighted neighborhood. Something that the center would have helped to alleviate by bringing life to a long neglected corner of Hollywood.

But evidently, the NYT doesn’t have access to Google, which would have allowed them to research the background of the group in less than five minutes.

Instead, they simply took them at face value, quoting one of the group’s founders.

“What they’re trying to do is make congestion so bad, you’ll have to get out of your car,” said James O’Sullivan, a founder of Fix the City, a group that is planning a lawsuit to stop the plan. “But what are you going to do, take two hours on a bus? They haven’t given us other options.”

Never mind that the purpose of the plan is to cut transit times and provide Angelenos with viable transportation options other than the city’s unsustainable, and no longer desired, reliance on the automobile.

The paper also repeats, without examination, the fallacy that the plan would double the number of congested intersections in the city.

Yes, that’s in the plan. But if they’d bothered to do their due diligence, they would have discovered that it’s a worst case projection, based on the assumption that no one will choose to walk, bike or take transit, despite the alternatives presented by the plan.

Which is highly unlikely.

The paper only has to look outside their own windows to see that if you build it, they do, in fact, come. New York has seen a substantial growth in ridership in recent years, as the city has more than doubled the space devoted to bike lanes.

Never mind the dramatic growth shown in other cities around the country, as they install protected bike lanes like the ones called for in the plan. Or even Santa Monica’s 356% jump in ridership over the last 12 years, as the city has become one of the most bike-friendly towns in Southern California.

And it ignores the probability that more people will choose to use transit as train lines expand and offer greater connectivity, and bus only lanes offer more direct routes with shorter trip times. Or that people are more likely to walk as the streets become safer and more inviting.

Even the city’s planned bikeshare system could offer some relief from traffic, as a new study shows DC’s bikeshare system reduced traffic congestion 2% – 3% in neighborhoods surrounding the bikeshare hubs.

Then there’s everyone’s favorite LA councilmember, “Roadkill” Gil Cedillo, who states his preference for maintaining the current hegemony of the motor vehicle, and goes unchallenged as he calls bike lanes elitist, in a turn of Doublespeak that would make Orwell proud.

“The reality is that Southern California is built around the automobile,” said Gil Cedillo, one of two Council members to vote against the plan. “We’re going to make more traffic and create even greater congestion. I don’t know how anybody votes for that.”

He said few of the constituents in his lower-income district would use the bike lanes, while everyone would suffer as traffic worsened.

“It’s a very elitist policy,” he said.

Evidently, Cedillo has never met anyone who rides a bike. Or noticed the many low income and immigrant riders in his own district as he drives to the office — many of whom can’t afford a car, any car, and rely on bicycles as their only form of transportation.

How he would describe them elitist is beyond comprehension. Let alone how the NY Times would let him get away with it.

There is an important story to be written about LA’s shift to a multi-modal future.

But this isn’t it.

………

A petition has been started to undo the Rowena road diet, even though it has reduced injury collisions over 50%; it currently stands at 200 supporters. If we can’t manage keep a successful road diet in place, it doesn’t bode well for Vision Zero or the Mobility Plan.

Thanks to Northeast L.A. Bikes for the heads-up.

………

Make you plans now for next year’s CicLAvias.

Dennis Hindman sends word that the LA City Council Transportation Committee will discuss plans for three of the popular open streets events scheduled for the next fiscal year at Wednesday’s meeting.

You already know about next month’s CicLAvia in DTLA; others are planned for Van Nuys and Pacoima in March, and Southeast Cities, including Huntington Park and Watts, in May.

There will likely be at least one other LA event later next year, as well as some CicLAvias wholly outside the City of LA.

………

A 60-year old Memphis cyclist was shot by someone in a car Saturday night following an argument after the rider was almost hit by their car. Fortunately, the victim survived in what is described as “non-critical” condition.

Let that be a reminder to all hot tempered riders — myself included — that you never know who or what is in that car that nearly ran you off the road.

It’s usually better to just let it go.

Thanks to Bob Young for the link.

………

With all the bad news out there these days, it’s nice to see some real kindness directed towards bike riders.

Boulder CO police convince Walmart to donate a bike to replace one stolen from a local kid, and dig into their own pockets to buy him a helmet and lock.

Meanwhile, a North Dakota man buys a new bike for a neighbor boy when his was stolen. And friends of a visually impaired Marine vet pitch in to replace his $1,800 motorized bike after it was stolen.

………

Purito takes the leader’s jersey in the Vuelta after 16 stages, though he may not hold it very long. American Joe Dombrowsky gets the go ahead to go for stage victories, while the motor doping rumors refuse to go away, despite a lack of evidence.

Teejay van Garderen says he’s motivated for the worlds after a bad year on the bike.

Caught on video: A French race fan runs out onto the course to retrieve a bike after a rider falls, preventing a massive crash as the peloton approaches. But who wins if you cross the finish line going the wrong way?

Italian prosecutors conclude the late great Marco Pantini wasn’t murdered, but died of a cocaine overdose, as originally thought.

And sad news from Virginia, as a cyclist competing in the Shenandoah Mountain 100 Backcountry Mountain Bike Race died following a severe crash during the race.

………

Local

The Ballona Creek bike path will be closed for maintenance between Overland Ave and National Blvd from 6 am to 5 pm this Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

For once, the cyclist gets the TV celebrity girl, while paparazzi even chase bike riding actresses in Ghana.

Burbank installs electric vehicle charging stations, but the owner of Bicycle John’s bemoans the loss of two parking spaces near his business. Dude, your customers ride bikes; they won’t mind walking a little further to get there.

The planned redevelopment of the Redondo Beach waterfront includes a 30 to 40 foot wide bike and pedestrian pathway along the ocean for the full length of the project.

 

State

The Times says Governor Brown’s compromise proposal is the best bet to fix California’s broken roads; the plan includes investing $500 million in cap-and-trade funds in transit and making streets more bike and pedestrian friendly. Of course, the question is how much of that would trickle down to fund bike and pedestrian projects.

San Diego’s Union-Tribune charts bike theft hotspots in the city. Not surprisingly, it turns out they’re the areas where more people ride bikes.

Evidently, bike theft is a worldwide problem, from California’s Central Coast to the shores of Borneo.

San Francisco police have arrested a man who allegedly was the jerk who bashed a car with his U-lock during last month’s Critical Mass, causing two grand in damages.

Yet another California bike rider has died at the hands of a drunk driver, this time in Brentwood.

A Napa writer repeats the tired and impractical call to require bike riders to be licensed, registered and insured. As if we pose as much risk to the public as the people in the big, dangerous machines that kill 30,000+/- Americans every year.

This is why you should always inspect and maintain your bike. A Folsom-area bike rider was badly injured in what everyone assumed was a hit-and-run, but a witness said he actually fell when his bike snapped in two.

 

National

A new study shows speed cameras save lives, and encourage drivers to slow the f*** down.

Five hundred Nevada bike riders rally to remember a fallen cyclist killed while riding on the Las Vegas Strip, while officials promise to crackdown on drivers who violate riders right-of-way; a similar number honored a fallen rider in Birmingham AL.

If you’re going to steal a bike off an Illinois porch, have the decency to wait until they take it out of the shipping box.

You can now ride a genuine work of art inspired by works in the Minneapolis Institute of Art. Well no, actually, you can’t.

That’s convenient, anyway. After a New Jersey cyclist is hit by an ambulance, they load him in the back and take him to the nearest hospital.

A Virginia bike path jumps from one side of the road to the other at the city limit, with no apparent way to cross to the other side. But an official swears riders won’t be inconvenienced. Uh, right.

A Florida county bans bike riders from a local road in apparent violation of state law. And it can’t be enforced, anyway.

 

International

A 69-year old cyclist will spend his next birthday bicycling from Toronto to Mexico to raise money for a charity founded by his late wife to aid people in San Miguel de Allende and the state of Guanajuato.

Caught on video: A bike-riding hit-and-run Brit jerk claims he doesn’t have a name after plowing into a woman from behind; you can see him reach out to push her away — or maybe push her down — as she walks out in front of him

A bike path-roaming Welsh barista has been put on hold because they can’t find a place to park his three-wheeled cappuccino-brewing bike.

A Finnish advocate says the focus should be on safer roads, not helmets; most bike wrecks in the city are caused by slippery conditions or drunkenness.

Bike riders rally in 100 cities across India to promote bicycling, and encourage daily riding.

Australia’s Cycle Space says it’s not a war between drivers and cyclists, it’s an attack on city dwellers by people in the suburbs.

Despite a favorable sounding headline, a writer for Australia’s Financial Review devotes nearly a thousand words to saying Sydney isn’t Copenhagen, and complaining how bike lanes make her commute worse.

No, it is not a freak accident when a distracted support van driver runs over a member of the Malaysian national cycling team because he was stretching his leg; fortunately, she’s in stable condition and has regained consciousness after surgery.

 

Finally…

Submitted without comment: A six-year old Ukrainian boy was riding his bike when a horse attacked and bit off his penis; the good news is, the horse must have spit it out, and surgeons were able to reattach it. If you’re carrying marijuana on your bike and wanted on two outstanding warrants, don’t ride without reflectors in the middle of the street.

And apparently, not even kite surfers are safe from cars.

………

One last note.

Operating BikinginLA is a more than full-time job that pays less than the minimum wage. But if everyone who visits here today donated just $10, it would fund this site and meet my expenses for a full year.

And please join me in thanking our sponsors Jim Pocrass of Pocrass & De Los Reyes, and Los Angeles Bicycle Attorney Josh Cohen. Without their support, this site wouldn’t be possible.

Category: Advocacy & Politics, Bike Events, Morning Links, Streets and Infrastructure / Tags: , , , , , ,

Bicyclist murdered in Winnetka early Saturday in apparent random attack

September 5, 2015 / / One comment

A bike rider was stabbed to death in Winnetka early Saturday morning.

The man, described only as 20 to 30 years old, was riding on Sherman Way near Lurline Ave around 12:30 am when he was dragged off his bike by three attackers. The victim was beaten before one of the attackers pulled out a knife and repeatedly stabbed him in the chest.

He was rushed to Northridge Hospital Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 1:40 am.

According to My News LA, police suspect the attack could be related to a robbery in the 7600 block of Mason Ave 15 minutes earlier, while KABC-7 says it’s unknown whether it was gang related.

Frighteningly, KTLA-5 suggests it may have been a random attack, quoting a police spokesman as saying the victim had no ties to the first crime, and may have just been in the wrong area at the wrong time.

The suspects were last seen fleeing in a dark, mid-sized SUV. Anyone with information is urged to call the LAPD’s Topanga Detective Division at 818/756-4820.

Whatever the reason, be careful riding in the area since the suspects are still on the loose. And if someone tries to jack your bike, let them have it. No bike is worth your life.

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

Thanks to danger d for the heads-up.

Category: Violence & Crime / Tags: , , , , ,

Weekend Links: Act now for complete streets and more bike funding; Metro releases bikeshare timetable

September 5, 2015 / / 2 comments

Calbike says your help is needed to secure funding for bikeways before the state legislature calls it quits for the year next Friday.

Your California Bicycle Coalition has two hugely important bills that will transform how California funds bikeway projects. Now we need your help to show that we have enormous grassroots support for world class #CompleteStreets policies and increased funding for bikeway networks. Here’s what these laws would do:

  1. Implement a Complete Streets policy for state funding: SBX 1-1 will require “new bicycle and pedestrian safety, access, and mobility improvements” in every state-funded road maintenance project. It calls for sidewalks and protected bike lanes or bike paths in transit-dense areas on most roads with a speed limit over 25 miles per hour. Thank you, Senator Jim Beall for proposing sensible complete streets policies.
  2. Increase dedicated funding for biking and walking: ABX 1-23 doubles the size of the Active Transportation Program (ATP) with a $125 million increase. The ATP is the sole source of state funding dedicated to biking, walking and Safe Routes to School projects. Last year, the ATP was underfunded by nearly $800 million—many shovel-ready walking, bicycling and safe school access projects were denied funding. This bill also includes an innovative grant program that will fund complete bikeway networks connecting every destination in communities like yours with unbroken webs of bike paths, protected bike lanes, and quiet bicycle boulevards. Thank you, Assemblymembers Eduardo Garcia, Autumn Burke, and David Chiu!

Contact your state Senator and Assemblymember now to let them know that you support implementing strong “complete streets” policies and increasing funding for biking and walking.

Streetsblog has more information on the second bill, which would double funding for the Active Transportation Program.

………

Looks like Metro has a five-year plan for building out bikeshare in the LA area, starting with Downtown, then expanding to Pasadena, Central LA and University Park. If they stick to the schedule, it will reach Hollywood and WeHo in 2019-20, and most other areas the next year.

Meanwhile, Santa Monica Spoke is recruiting volunteers to do outreach and spread the word about Santa Monica’s new Breeze bikeshare system. They also invite you to become a founding member of LA County’s first bikeshare system.

And the debate goes on over whether helmets are needed for bikeshare bikes.

………

I received the following email earlier this week from the author of a new book about ghost bikes.

I have finally finished a project that I have been working on the last few years that is near to my heart. I traveled the country photographing ghost bikes (white bikes places as memorials for cyclist fatalities) and have self published a book called: Don’t Forget Me; Ghost Bikes-A Photographic Memorial by Genea Barnes. I would appreciate if you took a few minutes to check it out and if you like it, share it with those you think might appreciate it. This project has taken a long time, and I really wanted to share the final product with all those that I have reached out to along the way.

The book is divided into 2 sections. The first, the journal of my travels while searching Ghost Bikes, including small photographs that document who the bike was for, and where it was located. The next section includes images that were created from the photographs that I took. The book is hard cover, 148 pages, and measures 10.25in x 10.25in x 0.75in (thick).

………

Portugal’s Nelson Oliveira wins stage 13 of the Vuelta in a breakaway from the breakaway group, while American rider Larry Warbasse discusses what it’s like to suffer in a challenging mountain stage.

The editors of Australia’s Ella Cycling Tips respond to the comment by Oleg Tinkov, owner of the Tinkov Saxo team, that Chris Froome was riding like girl as he fought to rejoin the peloton despite a broken foot; they agree, but not the way he meant it.

Cycling News talks with cycling scion Taylor Phinney about his long road back from a devastating injury at last year’s nationals, and looks forward to the coming world championships in Richmond VA. He says the Americans will be on the offensive, while the US men’s and women’s teams were unveiled Friday.

No surprise here, as the Astana team has been booted from the anti-doping Movement for Credible Cycling after letting teammate Lars Boom compete with an un-credible cortisone level, not to mention the five Astana riders busted for doping. And it wasn’t just my imagination; four riders in the pro peloton have been taken out by race motorcycles this year.

The Guardian says cycling shouldn’t forget its rich history and tradition, despite a proposal to develop a “season-long narrative” to produce a single champion at the end of the year.

………

Local

The Guardian offers a pretty good look at LA’s underground bike racing scene. If you can look past describing riding groups as “tribes” and “gangs.” Thanks to Erik Griswold for the link.

Calling all planners. Councilmember Mike Bonin’s office is looking for a “seasoned” professional to join their staff as Senior Planner. After last night’s curry, I’m pretty seasoned myself.

CicLAvia introduces the people behind the scenes who bring you the world’s largest open streets event.

There’s a special place in hell for someone who’d steal a bike a Long Beach family who uses it as therapy for their two-year old autistic kid.

The LACBC’s monthly Sunday Funday Ride rolls through the parks of Long Beach this Sunday.

The Grand Opening of Metro’s first Bike Hub is scheduled for 10 am to noon on Monday, the 14th at the El Monte Metro Bus Station. Show up with your bike and get a free 30-day Metro Bike Hub Pass.

 

State

A Dana Point woman faces a second degree murder charge for killing a woman who was walking in a bike lane with her blind grandson, after knocking back at least a dozen drinks before she got behind the wheel.

This is what the air rescue of an injured cyclist looks like from the perspective of a Contra Costa County rescue team.

Modesto residents pitch in to replace a 75-year old man’s recumbent bike after it was stolen; the bike was the only form of transportation for him and his wife, both of whom are being treated for cancer.

An 11-year old Hollister boy killed in a collision five weeks ago was riding brakeless, though police aren’t sure if that was why he apparently rode out in front of a bus.

 

National

Someone’s assaulting cyclists in Portland to enforce their own vigilante rules about who should ride on a bike path, and how.

Protected bike lanes are coming to Provo UT.

Accidently start an Idaho wildfire while on a mountain bike poop break, and get a bill of up to $75,000 to put it out.

Two-thirds of the bike collisions in Sioux Falls SD involve people riding on the sidewalk.

Boston Magazine responds to that anti-bike screed in the Boston Globe earlier this week, while the local public radio station says bicycling remains a relatively safe way to get around the city, but could be made safer.

The NYPD’s 19th precinct cracks down on cyclists while virtually ignoring people in the big dangerous machines; they ticketed more cyclists in three hours than they did speeding drivers in seven months.

Evidently, they get right on it if you steal a bike from a B-list New York celeb, though.

A writer for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution complains about proposed bike lanes on Peachtree Street, saying it might increase the 1% who ride bikes to 2%.

 

International

The head of Canada’s Green Party can’t ride a bike. Personally, I’d rather see a politician who doesn’t ride a bike but supports bicycling than someone who can but doesn’t.

The Economist says there’s a worldwide shift under way from keeping cars moving to making it easier to walk, cycle and play on city streets.

In yet another piece from the Guardian, a former bike courier explains why he rode 150 miles to donate his bike the people in a French refugee camp.

A London bike safety campaign puts candidates for mayor on the spot, asking them to commit to a 10-point plan to Stop Killing Cyclists.

In China, if a driver hits someone, it pays for them to make sure their victim is dead. Even if that means backing up to run over them again. Thanks to Alan Thompson and Megan Lynch for the heads-up.

 

Finally…

Don’t drive drunk on an Iowa bike path at 4:30 in the morning. Don’t shoot your boss if he tells you not to ride your bike to your second floor office, and don’t beat your neighbor to death if he complains about how a boy is riding his bike.

And once again, Bikeyface nails it.

………

Get out there and enjoy the great SoCal weather this weekend. But don’t forget that three day weekends mean more drunk and distracted drivers on the roads, especially with both UCLA and USC opening their football seasons at home on Saturday. So ride safely and defensively, wherever you ride. I want to see you back here next week.

………

Barring any breaking news, BikinginLA will be off Monday for Labor Day. We’ll see you bright and early Tuesday morning.

 

Category: Advocacy & Politics, Bikeshare, Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , ,

Morning Links: The Mobility Plan battle isn’t over yet, new ARTCRANK website, and rear-end wrecks are most deadly

September 4, 2015 / / Comments Off on Morning Links: The Mobility Plan battle isn’t over yet, new ARTCRANK website, and rear-end wrecks are most deadly

We may have won the battle, but the war is far from over.

Streetsblog’s Damien Newton says the bikelash is spreading to some neighborhood councils, particularly in Silver Lake, which voted to reconsider its support for the new Mobility Plan 2035.

That same bikelash could also be reflected in the Silver Lake NC’s decision to hold a public meeting to discuss the Rowena Avenue road diet on Monday the 12th.

Rowena was the subject of a recent story in the LA Times, which showed it had significantly improved safety by cutting crashes over 50%. However, some people complained about increased congestion on the street and the surrounding neighborhood, even though average speeds were still equal to the posted speed limit or higher, depending on direction of travel.

That’s in addition to defending the Mobility Plan against motions by Councilmembers Paul Koretz and Curren Price to remove planned bikeways on Westwood Blvd and Central Avenue from the plan. Let alone anti-bike Gil Cedillo’s scorched-earth motion to remove his entire council district from it.

Apparently, he never got over not getting that shiny red Schwinn he wanted from Santa.

Newton says those motions will most likely rear their ugly heads in committee sometime next month. When they do, we’ll have to be prepared for all out war to save the Mobility Plan from piecemeal destruction.

Because if opponents see it’s possible to remove one street from the plan, we’ll end up having to defend nearly every street in it. And it will go from a unified, well-thought out network designed to improve safety and mobility for everyone, to the same fractured system of unconnected bike lanes and virtually unrideable routes we have now.

Clearly, the recent passage of the plan doesn’t mean the fight is over. We still face a lot of battles to defend it before any paint hits the street.

………

Straight to Hell by Amy Jo

Straight to Hell by Amy Jo

I’ve long been a fan of the annual ARTCRANK poster exhibitions, offering local artists a chance to sell their limited edition bike-related designs to fellow fans of two-wheeled travel.

But if you missed the show, as I did the last few times it came around, you were out of luck.

But now they’ve — finally — developed a website, allowing you to order original bike art from the comfort of your own home or office, whenever the mood strikes.

As the press release says,

The new online store will be structured similar to ARTCRANK’s live shows, offering 30 different poster designs by 30 different artists in limited edition runs of — you guessed it — 30 prints, all priced at $45. Posters will be sold on the site for 30 days or until they sell out, whichever comes first.

The biggest difference is that, where ARTCRANK’s events feature local artists exclusively, the new online poster shop will feature artists from all over the U.S. and beyond. And of course, buying posters won’t require being physically present at one-night pop-up show.

……..

Evidently, rear-end collisions are more dangerous than we’ve been lead to believe.

Research from the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety shows 45% of bicycling fatalities were hit from behind, while 22% were the result of side impacts at intersections.

The report adds that currently existing technology could be modified to enable car anti-collision systems to identify cyclists and help prevent wrecks with bike riders.

……..

Dutch rider Danny van Poppel took stage 12 of the Vuelta in a sprint finish.

Turns out Tour de France champ Chris Froome had a good reason for cracking in Wednesday’s stage, as he withdrew Thursday with a broken foot. And American Larry Warbasse isn’t just looking for a stage victory in the Vuelta, he’s looking for a riding contract for next year.

……..

Local

City Lab’s Sarah Goodyear says LA’s coming bikeshare program could end up being a leader by incorporating it into Metro’s transit system, as well as LA’s city bureaucracy.

The Hollywood Reporter reviews the documentary Bikes Vs Cars, which focuses in part on riding in LA.

The Spoke Bicycle Café located along the LA River bike path in Frogtown plans to add a full service restaurant, complete with coffee roaster and microbrewery. Go ahead and load up on coffee before you ride, but save the beer for the end.

Cynergy Cycles shares a favorite ride from Santa Monica to the Palos Verdes switchbacks.

A $10,000 donation from an anonymous donor has helped supply Glendale bike cops with twelve new police bikes.

 

State

Evidently, Santa Ana has never heard of a road diet, as the city approves an environmental impact statement for a roadway widening that will require the demolition of 37 residential and 15 commercial properties in order to install bike lanes and a third traffic lane in each direction.

An Encinitas man plans to walk a 10k this weekend, just nine months after he was critically injured in a bicycling collision.

A Fresno boy somehow jumped off his bike moments before it was crushed under a packed school bus.

Bicyclists offer their recommendations for the best bike rides in San Joaquin County.

A candidate for San Francisco supervisor says he supports bike lanes on Polk Street, despite consulting with the group suing to prevent them.

A San Francisco writer offers what he calls an honest guide to startup life in the city, which includes this misguided paragraph:

Those with a death wish cycle to work. It is easy to spot a cyclist. If you see a guy with one side of his jeans rolled up to the shin, he is a moron; if you see a guy on a bicycle, he is a cyclist.

 

National

The editorial editor of a Milwaukee paper says bike safety is a shared responsibility.

This could be a glimpse into LA’s future, as Minneapolis invests heavily in protected bikeways.

Bono says his chances of playing guitar again aren’t looking good following last year’s solo bike wreck in New York’s Central Park.

A Virginia bike rider receives a $300,000 jury award after colliding with a runner who turned around without warning on a shared path. I try to avoid similar situations by passing others with as much space as possible on shared paths, and always calling it out before I pass. Although if they’re wearing ear buds, chances are they won’t hear you anyway.

 

International

A British Columbia bike rider somehow survives a collision with a semi-truck when he grabs the truck’s brake line and holds on for dear life — literally.

The widow of a fallen cyclist calls for more dedicated bike lanes in London.

A writer gives a different perspective on what it’s like to be a female cyclist in London, saying the city is your oyster. Unless you’re allergic to shellfish, of course, or Vegan, in which case it’s your semi-firm tofu.

A British man thanks a recent fall from his bike for uncovering an aggressive malignant tumor that could have killed him.

A woman plans to ride solo across India to raise awareness for women’s safety; she’s raising funds on Indiegogo to pay for the trip.

 

Finally…

A news smartphone app not only reports any potholes you hit, it marks the offending pavement with paint to alert other riders. That new derailleur you’re lusting after is electric, so why not your sunglasses?

And there’s still a place for bike messengers in today’s e-world. As long as you’re willing to move to Jakarta.

 

Category: Advocacy & Politics, Morning Links, Streets and Infrastructure / Tags: , , , , , , ,

Morning Links: Avoiding bike/car collisions, too much bike theft news, and new bike coffee shop in DTLA

September 3, 2015 / / 4 comments

Let’s see what you have to say.

I was forwarded a link to this website on how to avoid the 12 most common types of bicycle/vehicle accidents by one of the people who helped create it.

While it has some good advice, a few things jumped out at me. Like use of the term “accident,” for instance. And the stat saying 75% of collisions at controlled intersections are caused by bike riders going through stop signs.

Which sounds like the sort of victim blaming the CHP loves to indulge in. And makes me wonder just where they got their stats, since it’s not credited on the site.

But before I offer my opinion, I want to know what you think.

Just leave your thoughts in the comments below, and I’ll forward them to the person who sent it to me.

………

Too much bike theft news today.

Bikes continue to disappear in DTLA, with six stolen in one recent week, including two from the Downtown library.

Santa Rosa police bust three bike rustlers with a bait bike.

After a Duluth boy’s bike was stolen off his porch, his mom tracks it down. And in the processes, uncovers a bicycle chop shop with 20 other stolen bikes.

A Dallas mom posts a hand-written notice saying some low-life made her seven-year old daughter cry by stealing her new bike.

A North Carolina writer offers advice on how not to get your bike stolen.

And it’s nice to have a big heart, and want to replace a kid’s stolen bike. But first, make sure you’re in the same town, and not another one with the same name 800 miles away.

………

Chris Froome cracks following a crash on one of the toughest stages ever to grace a world tour, while Astana’s Mikel Landa takes the stage and Fabio Aru slips on the Vuelta leader’s jersey. And yet another rider is knocked out of the race by a collision with a motorbike.

………

Local

Fascinating OpEd from a former New York traffic commissioner and engineer on LA’s new Mobility Plan, saying accessibility trumps mobility and increased congestion can be a good thing.

Flying Pigeon’s Rick Risemberg says the tide appears to be turning against CD1 Councilmember “Roadkill” Gil Cedillo, who is up for re-election in 2017.

Streetsblog says the promised community outreach is lacking on some of the city’s Great Streets, while Cesar Chavez Ave in Boyle Heights appears to be a test case for Vision Zero.

KPCC looks at the UCSF study saying hospital admissions due to bicycling injuries more than doubled over a 15 year period. Here’s my thoughts, in case you missed it yesterday.

A new bike shop/vintage-inspired hangout/specialty coffee destination called The Wheelhouse will be opening soon on 6th Street in DTLA’s Arts District.

 

State

A coalition calls on the state legislature to provide $600 million a year in transit funding, as well as making it safer and easier to bike and walk to transit.

Sorry, Orange County. No 2024 Olympic bike races for you.

Nice. An annual OC Bike Camp teaches children with disabilities how to ride bikes.

A cyclist suffered minor injuries in a left cross collision in Newport Beach Wednesday morning.

A 47-year old cyclist was killed while riding salmon in Modesto Wednesday evening, the second bicycling fatality in the city this week.

A writer for the SF Chronicle says Critical Mass is dying of self-inflicted wounds, in the city where it started but may not be needed anymore. Than again, it wasn’t his song that was playing in the background during the U-lock car bashing.

Turns out you don’t have to risk your life on busy highways to do a wine tour by bike; you can tour wineries in the Russian River Valley on a 5-1/2 mile off-road pathway.

 

National

Maybe a car isn’t the best place to raise your kids after all.

MTV discovers the art of artistic cycling.

A Washington man faces vehicular homicide and hit-and-run charges after running down a cyclist as she rode on the shoulder of a highway.

Colorado’s DOT quickly shelves a tasteless, victim-blaming pedestrian safety campaign.

Taking a page from LA’s playbook, Cheyenne WY paints new bike lanes, but doesn’t bother to fix the cracks and potholes first.

A Montana writer comes across a tense confrontation after two men in a Jeep threaten a pair of cyclists.

A Chicago writer applauds bike riders for taking cars off the roads. She just doesn’t want bikes on them, either. Or bike lanes. And thinks cyclists should all pass a test and carry a license plate because she’s quite sure none ever stop for traffic signals.

Like the writer above, readers of New York’s Daily News seem convinced bike riders are the problem. Because it can’t be the people in the big dangerous machines that kill over 30,000 people a year in the US, right?

A New Jersey man faces up to eight years in prison after pleading guilty to vehicular homicide in the hit-and-run death of a bicyclist; he faces a murder charge in another case.

Newark NJ parents are peeved that police have suddenly begun enforcing the city’s bike registration law. The LA city council repealed a similar law several years back after police used it as a pretext to stop, search and ticket bike riders.

The Baltimore Orioles honor Cal Ripken, Jr. for his 2,131 consecutive game streak, a day after he pulled an endo while riding his bike.

 

International

Former Calgary Flames pro hockey player Cory Sarich is looking for work 14 months after a horrific collision with a truck while riding his bike.

British advocates question why safety improvements made to London trucks to protect bicyclists shouldn’t be applied everywhere else. Good question.

London’s bike seat-melting office tower has been named Britain’s worst building for 2015.

There’s a special place in hell for anyone who’d steal a bike rider’s lights and wallet while he lay unconscious in the street after crashing his bike.

Dubai is planning the world’s largest indoor bike park, with nearly 9,000 square feet of trails, obstacles and walls built from recycled materials.

 

Finally…

Your next taillight could flash multi-colors and call for help in an emergency. Cycling caps move from hipster fashion statement to haute couture on the catwalk. Full disclosure, I own three myself; I don’t know if that makes me a hipster or a fashion model.

And a new British e-bike appears to be a 20 mph cross between a recumbent and an egg.

 

Category: Bicycle Safety, Morning Links / Tags: , , , ,

Morning Links: New study says bike injuries increasing, but without context; comedian rants riding through LA

September 2, 2015 / / 2 comments

Another study attempts to paint bicycling as a dangerous activity, especially for riders over 45.

The study from UC San Francisco shows that bicycling injuries have nearly doubled over a 15-year period ending in 2013, which they acknowledge coincides with the boom in bicycling.

Looking at it another way, the rate of injuries per 100,000 people has increased 28%, with the biggest increase coming among riders over 45, which jumped to 42% of reported injuries.

On the other hand, the number of people riding bikes has increased dramatically, rising as much as 32% in LA in a recent three year period, and 174% in Minneapolis in just five years, according to stats from People for Bikes.

And much of that increase has come from people over 45, as bicycling has become the new golf, as the press loves to tell us.

So it’s only natural to expect that both the rate and number of bicycling injuries would go up. It’s just as likely that the injury rate among cyclists, rather than the general population, may have gone down or stayed the same.

More troubling is the news that the most serious types of injuries have increased. According to the study, the rate of hospitalization due to bicycling injuries more than doubled, while the proportion of head injuries increased 60% over that period, and torso injuries jumped 21%.

That would imply that more bike riders are getting hit by cars, perhaps due to more people riding in an urban environment, as the author of the study suggests.

Which means the solution is not urging greater caution among older riders, or frightening them off their bikes, but improving safety for all cyclists in our cities.

But until someone takes the extra step of placing bike injuries in context with solid ridership stats, studies like this are interesting, but ultimately, meaningless.

Thanks to Mike Wilkinson for the heads-up.

………

This one’s worth checking out, as a bike riding comedian Mario Joyner captures his rants on GoPro while riding the streets of LA.

………

Aussie rider Michael Rogers will get the Olympic bronze medal he didn’t win in Athens in 2004, after gold medalist Tyler Hamilton was stripped of his medal for doping three years ago.

………

Local

Who says LA wasn’t a bike city? As this photo shows, they were the perfect way to get to a 1940s cowboy matinee. Looks like bike corrals are nothing new, either.

Bike SGV wants your support to help turn the massive Puente Hills landfill into LA County’s first bike park.

Examined Spoke questions why Milt Olin’s death has never been reported to California’s official SWITRS database. Why, indeed?

Vancouver’s Modacity will present Observations from an Emerging Bicycle Culture in Santa Monica and Echo Park next month.

 

State

The mayors of seven California cities, including LA and Lon Beach, call on the state to act now to fix our crumbling roads and bridges, including the need for comprehensive bike networks. Let’s not forget bad roads pose a greater risk to the safety of bicyclists than they do to motorists.

To no one’s surprise, Coronado’s NIMBYs have succeeded in killing a proposed bike path along the beach. The way residents reacted, you would have thought someone had suggested rerouting the 5 Freeway through their bucolic burgh.

Maybe bike collisions wouldn’t be rising so fast in Hanford if police would stop blaming the victims and focus on the people in the big, dangerous machines.

The LA Times provides more details on the San Francisco U-lock attack, in which a salmon cyclist breaking the rules of Critical Mass whacked a car with his lock after the driver bumped his bike.

A writer for the Sacramento Bee says a beautiful network of bike lanes will mean nothing if people are afraid to park their bikes out of fear of bike thieves. She’s right; LA’s efforts to encourage more people to ride instead of driving will be doomed if their bikes are gone when it’s time to ride back home.

 

National

Bicycling’s Joe Lindsey says our bike-riding president has done a lot to aid bicycling, but your voice is needed to ensure further progress. Meanwhile, the Feds tell risk averse traffic engineers to get off their ass and stop using them as an excuse.

Sarah Goodyear explains why we call crashes “accidents” and why we need to stop, while bike lawyer Bob Mionske explains what to do if you’re in one.

People for Bikes says protected bike lanes are seven times more likely to encourage people to ride.

Now that’s more like it. A Portland man apologizes for an ill-advised tweet, and says he doesn’t really believe anyone should run over people on bikes.

The cast of Breaking Away will reunite at Interbike in Las Vegas this month, including Dennis Christopher, Jackie Earle Haley, Paul Dooley and Dennis Quaid. If they can get Robyn Douglass to show up, I’m in.

In Houston, cycling concierges will deliver virtually anything you want directly to your door.

This is so wrong in so many ways. A Boston writer, who has evidently never met a bike rider, says bikes don’t belong on urban roads. Note to Jeff Jacoby: Like most bicyclists, I have a drivers license. And we pay the same taxes you do.

A New York bike website talks with the man riding a bikeshare bike from NYC to LA.

Washington DC will teach all second grade students how to ride a bike, which used to be standard practice for schools around the country. Growing up in Colorado, every kid received bike education in elementary school, ensuring that they all grew up knowing the rules of the road.

A South Carolina website gets it, saying motorists must respect the right of bicyclists to use the road on equal terms, but bike riders should assume most drivers don’t know that.

Alabama’s Tuskegee University has partnered with a local bank to give students a free bikeshare program.

A Birmingham AL grand jury will be convened to investigate the death of a prominent African American businessman killed when the driver of a pickup plowed into three riders with the Black People Run Bike and Swim group; the other two were airlifted to a local hospital. Traffic crimes don’t normally go to a grand jury; so the question is whether the DA is just covering his ass, or if there’s something they’re not telling us.

 

International

A British soccer player is banned from driving and gets a year of community service for DUI after plowing into three cyclists who stopped on the sidewalk to fix a broken chain. Yes, they were on the sidewalk when he hit them.

Famed Italian automotive designer Pininfarina has teamed with DeRosa to produce a lightweight, low-drag carbon racing bike.

Denmark will send its first astronaut into space today. To test bike parts, of course.

Syrian refugees are exploiting a legal loophole by bicycling across the border between Russia and Norway, which bans crossings by foot or car.

A South African website offers a photo essay on bicycling in Eritrea.

New Zealand is considering requiring a 1.5 meter passing distance for bicycles, the equivalent of nearly five feet.

 

Finally…

Now that’s a different looking bike, although it doesn’t look like something an Imperial storm trooper would ride. Your next water bottle could be a bike light; then again, your next foldie could be, too.

And you know you suck as a driver when even a car enthusiast website says you should lose your license for doing a massive burnout after an argument with a cyclist.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDaMJLDLK4M

 

Category: Bicycle Safety, Bike Cam Video, Injuries and Fatalities, Morning Links / Tags: , , , , ,

Morning Links: OC driver faces DUI vehicular manslaughter charge, and a long listing of bike academic papers

September 1, 2015 / / 5 comments

The Orange County DA’s office may not move fast, but they take traffic crimes seriously.

I’m told they just filed a felony charge of gross vehicular manslaughter while driving under the influence against Michael John Perez in the death of Michael Bastien one year ago today.

Bastien was riding in a Huntington Beach bike lane when he was run down from behind by the car driven by Perez, who was arrested at the scene on suspicion of DUI.

He now faces between four and ten years in state prison upon conviction.

………

Great post from the Cycling Embassy of Great Britain, as they ditch the usual weekly blog roundup in favor of recent academic papers regarding bicycling. I don’t know about you, but this should keep me reading for the next week, at least.

………

Pro cyclist Kris Boeckmans will remain in a medically induced coma for at least a week after crashing hard in the Vuelta.

………

Local

The LA Weekly catches up on DTLA’s coming bikeshare program.

Ryan Seacrest really is one of us now. He was sideswiped by a car while riding in the bike lane on San Vicente Blvd and knocked into another cyclist; needless to say, the driver claimed she never saw him. And apparently didn’t care. Sounds like an obvious violation of the three-foot passing law violation, along with a failure to yield.

Over a dozen bike riding firefighters roll through Malibu on their way to Santa Monica on the final leg of a 400 mile fundraising ride from Sausalito.

The Santa Monica Bike Center is looking for an Outreach/Communications Director, as well as a part-time tour guide.

 

State

The California legislature’s second attempt to create a hit-and-run alert system using freeway signs now awaits Governor Brown’s veto pen signature; he vetoed a similar bill last year.

An injured off-road rider was airlifted out of Crystal Cove State Park Sunday evening.

OC cyclists are invited to participate in a roundtable discussion on improving regional bicycling connectivity in the foothills area.

Caught on video: A San Francisco Critical Mass cyclist attacks a car with his U-lock after the driver bumps him when the rider blocks his car while riding on the wrong side of the road. Just Another Cyclist says this shows the time for Critical Mass has passed. Incidents like this only serve to convince the general public we’re all Critical Massholes, since most don’t seem to be able to distinguish the actions of one jerk on a bike from the rest of us.

A former bike messenger recalls the glory days of two-wheeled risk-taking delivery in the Bay Area.

A business group calls for reinstalling a third traffic lane on the undulating Richmond–San Rafael Bridge, which would force bikes into the traffic lane, rather than riding on the shoulder as they can now.

A Vacaville driver is arrested for a hit-and-run that left a bike rider with major injuries; a friend of the victim spotted the damaged truck in the trailer park where she lives.

Bad news from NorCal, as a 16-year old bike rider was killed in Hanford, and a 79-year old man died after being hit by multiple cars in Modesto; most of the drivers in that crash fled the scene.

 

National

Riders in Vancouver WA will soon enjoy the city’s first raised bike lane.

Interesting idea, as Chicago allows developers to buy a new bikeshare station in front of their properties. Something like this could help LA’s nascent system expand faster than planned.

Minnesota Public Radio hosts a discussion on bridging the gap between commuter and recreational cyclists.

It’s the usual argument in Duluth MN, as bicyclists call for a protected bike lane on a major street, while business owners argue against a loss of parking spaces. Because no one on a bike ever spends money, right?

It’s one thing to ride a bike to school; two Connecticut men are written up for riding on one.

There are a lot of good people out there. Rhode Island man replaces a boys mountain bike after it was stolen.

Streetsblog NYC says banning bikes from exiting the bridge to Roosevelt Island isn’t the way to improve safety.

New York cyclists will get their first bus bike racks on a route crossing the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.

Seriously, don’t ride through a construction zone after dark or you might go off a cliff, as one Pennsylvania bike rider learned the hard way.

 

International

Make your plans for the first Gran Fondo in Havana this October, newly accessible to Americans thanks to the recent rapprochement between the US and Cuba.

Alberta cyclists call for an Idaho stop law.

A West London man will serve six months in jail after losing an appeal on his conviction for beating a cyclist with a baseball bat after the rider kicked his car during a dispute.

Dublin considers making bike and car sharing mandatory for all new apartment buildings in the city center.

Paris plans to take ciclovía a step further by banning cars from most of the city’s streets for one day later this month.

Treehugger takes a photographic ride along the new bike and pedestrian bridges of Copenhagen.

Ultra-Orthodox Jews rise up in opposition to a planned bikeshare system in Jerusalem, fearing it will desecrate the Sabbath.

After Christchurch, New Zealand suffered a devastating earthquake, the city used it at an opportunity to return to its roots as a bicycling city.

 

Finally…

Your next bike could be 3D printed and turned into compost when you’re done with it. Nothing like having a few hundred naked bike riders photobomb your wedding photos.

And if you’ve used your bike as a getaway vehicle after successfully robbing five banks, don’t ditch it after the sixth one.

 

Category: Bikes & the Law, Legal Cases / Tags: , , , , ,

Today’s post, in which I remember a friend. Rest in peace, Howard Krepack.

August 31, 2015 / / 5 comments

I knew this day was coming.

But the news still hit hard. And hurt like hell.

According to Streetsblog LA, Howard Krepack, one of LA’s first lawyers specializing in bicycle cases, passed away on Saturday, and was buried Monday afternoon.

I had the pleasure of knowing Howard, and was happy to call him a friend. He had a warmth and good humor that welcomed everyone, and made anyone he met feel like an old friend.

With the possible exception of opposing counsel.

Bicycling wasn’t just the focus of his practice, it was his passion. And he was committed to doing what he could help it thrive in the City of Angels, from supporting the LACBC and websites like Streetsblog and BikinginLA, to doing whatever he could to help injured cyclists.

A long time member of Velo Club La Grange, he had the skill to drop riders half his age. Unless he’d rather just ride alongside, discussing everything from the latest frames and components to how the streets could be made safer for cyclists.

Or just how great it felt to be out for a ride on a typically beautiful LA day.

Howard made sure I rode in to the first few CicLAvias with him and his riding buddies. And made a point of including me as part of the team he sponsored for River Ride every year, whether I was able to ride with them, or busy volunteering at the LACBC booth.

I probably learned as much about bike law from Howard the few times we rode together as I have from any other source.

It was devastating news when I learned, shortly after one of those River Rides, that he was suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, better known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. A disease that slowly robs those it afflicts of the ability to control their own bodies. The mind remains sharp, but trapped in a body that no longer functions; first, unable to ride a bike, then walk or speak, and finally, unable to breath.

He already knew he was suffering from an incurable, and inevitably fatal, illness as we had a long discussion that day. Yet there was no hint of it in his bright smile and broad laughter.

And he continued to practice law, first on his own, then through his associates at the firm, managing cases from his home once he could no longer make it to the courthouse, for as long as he was able.

I kept touch with him for awhile after that, first through email, then through his assistant Lisa as the disease took its toll.

Then lost touch as I struggled with my own illness, and an upgrade from Apple robbed me of the contents of my address book.

Yet even so, he served as an inspiration to me on my darkest days.

From some reason, though, he’d been on my mind lately. I’d been meaning to reach out to his law firm to see if Lisa was still there, and had any news about him. And ask her to pass along my friendship and best wishes.

Sadly, I waited too long.

I’ll miss Howard.

And whether or not you knew him, so will you, as LA bicyclists has lost a true champion, in every sense of the word.

The good always die too soon.

Update: Howard and his family have created a fund in his honor at The Robert Packard Center for ALS Research at Johns Hopkins under the leadership of Dr. Jeffrey Rothstein. To donate and read more about this fund, please visit: http://bit.ly/KrepackForACure.

………

Howard Krepack contributed a few guest columns to this site, based on his knowledge of the law, as well as his own intimate knowledge of cycling; you can read them here and here.

I’ll try to get Tuesday’s Morning Links online a little later today. To be honest, I just can’t write anymore right now.

 

Category: Advocacy & Politics, Bikes & the Law / Tags: , , , , , ,

Unidentified bike rider killed while crossing Terminal Island Freeway

August 31, 2015 / / 5 comments

Once again, a bike rider has died on a Southern California freeway.

According to the Long Beach Gazettes, the victim was illegally crossing the Terminal Island Freeway north of PCH in Long Beach around midnight last night when he was hit by a semi-truck at 11:56 pm.

Like most California freeways, bikes are banned from the highway, also known as the 103 Freeway.

The victim, who was not carrying identification, was in the left lane of the northbound side when he was stuck by the truck. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

A street view shows a four lane highway with an unobstructed center divider, making it relatively easy to cross; the victim may not have expected to encounter traffic at that hour.

My News LA places the time of the initial call at 11:56 pm Sunday, while the Gazettes says the police were dispatched at 12:07 pm.

He is identified only as appearing to be in his 60s, while the coroner’s office attempts to determine his ID.

This is the 45th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the 20th in Los Angeles County.

Update: The victim has been identified as 61-year old Jaimes Guadalupe.

My deepest sympathy and prayers for Jaimes Guadalupe and his loved ones.

 

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