Reports indicated he was headed south on the narrow street with a group of other riders when he was hit head-on by the driver of a dark colored Toyota sedan, who continued without stopping.
The victim, identified only as a 36-year old Vista resident, died at the scene before rescuers could arrive.
After hitting him, the 20-something driver continued on to smash into a parked car.
The victim, described only as a 60-year old man, died at the scene. Police note that he was not homeless, despite the early morning hour.
They also say the area is well-lighted and not considered dangerous for people on bicycles, and that the victim had lights on his bike; video from the scene clearly shows front and rear blinking lights.
Which means there was no excuse for taking the life of an innocent human being.
As if there ever is.
This is at least the 67th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the 30th that I’m aware of in Los Angeles County; half of those deaths have occurred in the City of Los Angeles.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for the victim and his loved ones.
November 22, 2019 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Morning Links: A conservative laughs at traffic violence, upcoming bike rides, and AI won’t replace bike writers yet
Evidently, conservatives are expected to be totally cool with people needlessly dying on our streets.
He — and of course it’s a he — takes issue with Elizabeth Warren’s tweet decrying traffic violence on last Sunday’s World Day of Remembrance for Traffic Crash Victims.
“Traffic violence” is quite a phrase. In the end, it may be all that anyone remembers of Warren’s decreasingly persuasive but increasingly eccentric campaign. In this bold new framing, cars are not the principal way Americans get around, with fatalities being an unfortunate but blessedly rare occurrence (one per 100,000,000 vehicle miles traveled, a rate that is down more than 80 percent in my lifetime). No, to Warren, cars are instruments of violence like, I don’t know, nunchucks or fuel-injected guillotines, and so she issues her clarion tweet to #EndTrafficViolence. So, right now, November 18, 2019, “it’s time” for us to zero out deaths from cars? How? On what planet?
He concludes with this brilliant observation.
Down here in America, where almost nobody has ever doubted that the benefits of motorized transportation have more than justified the various costs, even when the chance of getting killed in a car was 20 times higher than it is today, I’d say cars have a much brighter future than Elizabeth Warren’s White House bid.
Never mind that an estimated 36,750 lost their lives on American roadways last year. And that traffic deaths are going up for anyone not safely ensconced in a few tons of glass and steel, surrounded by numerous safety devices not afforded to the rest of us.
Or that countless Americans, and a number of American cities, are working to bring that death toll down to zero.
And the future of automobiles is in question, thanks to rising traffic congestion, inefficiency and climate change.
So I hope he enjoyed his laugh at Warren’s expense. And pray that no one he loves loses their life to traffic violence.
The next Metro BEST ride will roll to CSUN two weeks from tomorrow.
Twitter post
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Robert Leone forwards word that this week’s closure of San Diego’s Rose Canyon Bike Path was postponed due the Wednesday’s rain.
Due to forecasted inclement weather conditions this week, the full closure of the Rose Canyon Bike Path originally scheduled for Tuesday, November 19, has been postponed and rescheduled for December. The path will remain open this week. The rescheduled closures are anticipated as follows:
Beginning Tuesday, December 3, there will be a temporary full closure of the Rose Canyon Bike Path as crews pave the final section of the newly constructed permanent bike path. The full closure will begin at 6 a.m. on Tuesday, December 3, and will be in place for approximately four days.
More information is on the mid-coast website, click here. During the closure, and as was planned prior, Mid-Coast Trolley crews will facilitate a “bus bridge,” which will include bicycle-carrying capable vans, to transport cyclists and pedestrians around the closure area. Signage will be in place to direct cyclists. The bike path is anticipated to reopen by 6 p.m. on Friday, December 6. As always, we appreciate your patience! Thank you.
My apologies for the late notice, after I lost his email for a few days.
Not only is San Francisco’s new transportation boss one of us, he’s an advocate for increased density, opposes free parking and parking minimums, and prefers automated buses over self-driving cars.
Utah police literally ran down a woman suspected of riding a stolen bicycle, dragging her 40 feet beneath the patrol car; remarkably, she didn’t suffer any major injuries, despite ending up pinned beneath the car with her ankle behind her ear. The cops swear it was just an oopsie, even though the officer behind the wheel is no longer with the department.
No bias here. After a Minneapolis bike rider was fatally right hooked by a truck driver, police say he was the one who struck the truck. Note to WCCO-4 — If police are blaming the victim for striking the truck, it’s a pretty good indication they don’t think the victim was stopped.
The founder of Britain’s Black Cyclists Network says his recent run-in with police — where he was ordered to move his bike to an unsafe spot, then stopped and searched because he allegedly “smelled like marijuana” — says a lot about how the general public views bicyclists.
It’s unclear which street the victim, described only as a Hispanic male, was riding on.
Based on the limited description, this could have been a right hook collision if the victim was riding on Hindry, or he may have been hit as he was riding in front of the truck on Manchester or just after the driver’s turn.
I might just have to re-evaluate my opinion of my local neighborhood council.
Last night, the Hollywood Hills West Neighborhood Council cast a nearly unanimous vote to reject a proposal to weaken the Yucca Street bicycle friendly street, aka bike boulevard.
Literally the only bike boulevard in Los Angeles. And the only safe east-west route through Hollywood.
In a new study that should concern any parent or coach, researchers found that prompt treatment is the key recovering from a concussion. Yet girls wait longer than boys to seek treatment, delaying their recovery.
Bike Snob visits the Arkansas hometown of Walmart, calling it the Disneyland of mountain biking. Which makes suggests you’ll have to stand in line for an hour for a five to ten minute ride.
Antwerp, Belgium does its best to imitate Los Angeles, as a drunk, speeding, red light-running, hit-and-run driver crashed into two cars while fleeing the scene after running down a bike-riding woman, before slamming into two more drivers waiting at a red light. His plates were expired, too.
November 20, 2019 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Morning Links: Unmaintained Long Beach bike lane, and riding the newly threatened Yucca Street bike boulevard
Richard Rosenthal notes one of my long standing complaints, accompanied by the photo on the left.
Cities construct protected bike lanes with great fanfare, then promptly lose interest in maintaining them.
There are brand-new bike lanes on Marina Drive at the 2nd & PCH Center in Long Beach. I ride down the center of that street with the cars rather than being in that debris-filled chute.
Simply put, it’s not enough for cities to build a bikeway, then forget all about it.
They have to be maintained on a regular basis, with particular attention paid to problems affecting that particular bike lane.
Like fallen palm fronds, for instance.
Even in a city as bike-friendly as Long Beach.
Because objects that would simply be a bump for someone on four wheels can be a major hazard to someone on two.
Or you can email your comments, though I’m told they will only be seen by the board president, and only be read at the meeting if there’s time remaining after the comments, which is pretty unlikely.
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The LACBC is pulling the plug on today’s bike light giveaway in Koreatown.
Twitter post
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Costa Mesa councilmember Arlis Reynolds invites you to bring your whole family to this Sunday’s Turkey Trot cyclocross race. Including the dog.
An Oregon website offers a surprisingly practical — and affordable — holiday price guide for the bike rider on your list, ranging from extra tubes and wool socks to a new WaveCel helmet. Or you could just buy them a subscription to BikinginLA.com. No, wait, it’s already free. But still.
Completing our Chicago triptych, the police walked back a victim-blaming statement, saying the death of a bike rider at the hands of an unlicensed and uninsured driver had nothing to do with where he was riding on the wide, high speed street.
If you’re riding a stolen $3,000 mountain bike, probably not the best idea to tell strangers it’s hot. When you’re carrying a handful of stolen credit card numbers on your bike and already have an outstanding drug warrant, just stop for the damn stop sign, already.
