WeHo Council to hear Fountain Ave Monday (oops), HLA lawsuit in court today, and Amestoy Ave bridge zoom Monday

September 12, 2025 / / Comments Off on WeHo Council to hear Fountain Ave Monday (oops), HLA lawsuit in court today, and Amestoy Ave bridge zoom Monday
Day 255 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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Today is the anniversary of 2007’s Infamous Beachfront Bee Encounter.

That was when a massive swarm of bees on the beachfront Marvin Braude Bike Trail tried to kill me, sending me to intensive care and four months of medical home confinement. 

And set me on a path to 18 years of bike advocacy, and whatever the hell it is I do now. 

All without a single sting. Go figure. 

It’s worth a read if you don’t know my own origin story. 

Photo of Fountain Ave opponents protesting proposed safety changes by Joe Linton/Streetsblog.

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Okay, I fucked up.

I wrote yesterday that the West Hollywood City Council would consider the makeover of deadly Fountain Ave at their meeting on Tuesday.

Except the meeting is actually on Monday.

I don’t know where I got the wrong date. But I take full responsibility for the massive fuckup, and for not checking the city’s website to verify the date.

So the good news is you have Tuesday night free, but you’ll have to clear your schedule for Monday. Because opponents of the makeover will undoubtedly come out in force, and we need all the support we can get.

But be prepared for a long night, because Fountain Ave is way down on the agenda at item E.1.

If you can’t attend the meeting in person, you can watch live on WeHoTV via Spectrum Channel 10 if you live in West Hollywood, or on YouTube

Public comments can submitted online through September 15th.

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The Measure HLA lawsuit over the city’s failure to include the promised bike lanes in the bus lane makeover of the Vermont Ave corridor will be in court today, as Metro tries to shoehorn in.

The lawsuit, by longtime LA bike advocate Joe Linton, was filed against the city for failing to build the bike lanes as required by HLA, since they’re included in the mobility plan already approved by the city.

Although it’s important to note that Linton is acting on his own behalf, and not as a representative of Streetsblog, where he serves, admirably, as Los Angeles editor.

Metro is arguing that they should be included in the lawsuit, since they are funding the project, even though the work is being done on a city street. Their hope is that they can get the case thrown out if they’re named a party to the lawsuit, since Metro is a county agency, and HLA is a city ordinance.

Let’s hope the judge rules against them. But either way, there could still be a settlement that includes more bike and pedestrian elements as part of the makeover.

You can read the actual lawsuit file here.

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Monday will be a busy day.

In addition to the WeHo Council meeting, the Encino Neighborhood Council’s Traffic and Transportation Committee will host a virtual meeting to consider the fate of the threatened Amestoy Ave pedestrian bridge over the 101 Freeway in Encino.

Caltrans already removed another pedestrian bridge at Encino Ave in 2022, forcing bike riders and pedestrians onto busy thoroughfares and highway underpasses to get from one side of the freeway to the other, which slices across the Valley like an ugly scar.

Removing the Amestoy Ave bridge would make a difficult crossing that much worse for everyone.

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Speaking of Linton, as we were above, he’s compiling an archive of Measure HLA appeals that have been filed with the Los Angeles Board of Public Works on his personal website, B.I.K.A.S., which stands for Bicycle Infrastructure Knowledge Activism and Safety.

According to Linton, there have been 22 separate HLA appeals that he is aware of, which he has posted here, here and here. Most involve relatively minor issues like missing crosswalks and curb ramps that should have been completed when the streets were resurfaced.

However, Linton himself has filed a four-page appeal over elements that were left out when Los Angeles reconfigured a section of Victory Blvd in the east San Fernando Valley.

The city removed an existing peak-hour travel lane to restore car parking during rush hour. But they skipped the bike lanes included in the mobility plan, even though there’s enough space to add basic painted lanes.

And credit Joe with being enough of a bike-riding man about town that he’s familiar with projects like this in far-flung quadrants all over the city.

If you’re interested in filing your own HLA appeal, Linton also offers complete step-by-step instructions on his website.

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The Los Angeles Times The Wild newsletter recommends a pair of bike events this weekend, from Saturday’s World Naked Bike Ride to Sunday’s Historic South Central meets Watts CicLAvia.

Which should pretty much fill your weekend dance card.

1. Bike through Historic South–Central and Watts
Nonprofit CicLAvia will host a free open streets festival from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday where participants can traverse a 6.25-mile route through Historic South-Central and Watts. Visitors can walk and bike the route or choose any other people-powered means of transport. The route will include music, local food vendors and more. Learn more at ciclavia.org.

2. Bare it all on bikes in L.A.
L.A.’s World Naked Bike Ride will start at 10 a.m. Saturday downtown. Riders can choose from a more challenging ride at 10 a.m. or an easier 9-mile ride at 2 p.m. Participants can skate, scoot, jog or bike in their birthday suits along the ride. Body paint optional! Learn more at the group’s Instagram page.

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I’m told there are still a few tickets left for Streets Are For Everyone’s 10th Anniversary celebration at The Morrison in Los Feliz, with CD4 Councilmember Nytha Raman as the closing keynote speaker.

However, the deadline to purchase tickets is midnight tonight, so get a move on. Although you’re welcome, along with everyone else, to drop in for the free pre-reception hour from 3 pm to 4 pm, no tickets necessary.

And yes, you’ll see me there along with my wife. Just look for the couple with the corgi (she’s a service dog, so she gets a pass — the corgi, that is, not my wife).

Meanwhile, you just have four days left to get early bird pricing for next month’s Santa Clarita Finish the Ride and Finish the Run, put on by the fundraising arm of SAFE.

The events commemorate founder Damian Kevitt’s inspiring return to finish the ride he had started before a hit-and-run driver nearly took his life.

And no, that driver was never caught.

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Sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.

No bias here. In a story that reads like it was written by AI, Newsweek says an Idaho altercation began when a bicyclist yelled “Fuck Charlie Kirk,” at a vigil for the murdered conservative activist. Except the person in question was on a scooter, rather than a bicycle, and the video starts with people surrounding and punching him, and doesn’t show the alleged shout.

A London paper lists the city’s worst intersections for bike riders jumping red lights, with the busy Oxford Circus shopping district reaching 50%. Although they don’t bother to offer any reason why, which could have at least something to do with people not feeling safe stopping at the dangerous intersection. 

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Local 

No news is good news, right?

 

State

A bike thief was busted by Huntington Beach cops when he was spotted two miles away, after police were alerted by quick-acting witness.

 

National

Bicycling examines the surprising causes of hand numbness among bike riders, and what you can do to avoid it. But evidently, they want you to keep those numb fumble fingers, because the story is only available to subscribers. Although what worked for me was moving my hands to different positions on the handlebars, holding the bars less tightly, and putting less weight from my shoulders on them. 

Trek launched new “pro-tested” 3D-printed saddles, promising to eliminate saddle sores, as well as sit bone and soft tissue pain. In other words, no more numb nuts.

A 67-year old Philadelphia man described as a “cyclist’s kind of cyclist,” who built his own bikes, rode safely and carefully, and advocated for safer streets was killed while riding his bike Tuesday when he was struck by one of two drivers traveling at high speeds, on what should have been a quiet street.

A Pennsylvania man was sentenced to 15 to 40 years behind bars after pleading guilty but mentally ill to the random shooting of a man riding a bicycle, who he had never met; he reportedly was turned away by both the police and a local hospital when he tried to get help for paranoia caused by issues with mental health and drug addiction, before killing the victim.

Bicyclists in Charlotte, NC are calling for a shift in mindset to make drivers more aware of bike riders on the roads. You know, kinda like people who ride bikes everywhere else.

 

International

A hit-and-run driver in Canada’s Yukon Territory was sentenced to six-and-a-half years behind bars for killing a man riding a bicycle, along with a ten-year driving ban; with credit for time served, he still has five years left on his sentence.

An 80-year old Calgary, Alberta man suffered life-threatening injuries when he tried to stop a man trying to steal his bicycle; the alleged thief pushed him backwards and he fell, striking his head. Seriously, hide a tracking device in your bike, and just let the cops deal with it. Because no bike is worth your life.

A 36-year old soccer player for Mansfield Town in the third-tier English Football League One was named to the roster for the coming year — but only after striker Lucas Atkins is released from prison for killing a 33-year old man riding a bicycle with his $271,000 Mercedes.

British surgeons say ebike injuries are placing a massive burden on the country’s health system. Although once again, they don’t seem to differentiate between ped-assist ebikes and electric motorbikes.

Bike Rumor visits the Zefal plant on the banks of France’s famous Loire River to tour one of the oldest and most affordable accessory manufacturers in the bicycling industry. Speaking of oldest, I remember when nearly everyone had a Zefal pump attached to their steel frame.

Czech carmaker Škoda’s We Love Cycling website asks why can’t bicyclists do vacation photos like normal people, and stop doing things like leaning your bike up against a landmark, lifting it in the air in front of some tourist attraction, or recording yourself unboxing it at the airport.

 

Competitive Cycling

Once again, a race moto sent multiple cyclists to the hospital when a cop on a motorcycle cut from one side of the road to the other with no warning, knocking riders off their bikes as they sprinted to the finish in stage 3 of the Vuelta a Venezuela, while sending at least one competitor flying over the retaining wall.

Cycling Weekly considers what data-driven road cycling can learn from rough-around-the-edges downhill mountain biking, which they call “cycling’s coolest discipline.”

Velo says a new bike racing format called Stadiobike maybe the answer to the cycling’s perennial problems, by staging bike races in front of fans in grandstands on automotive tracks.

 

Finally…

Your next handmade bespoke steel bike could come from Namibia — with “only” a 15% tariff for now. Nothing like buying your own bike back for just 700 bucks, 25 years after building it for a legendary Olympian.

And who needs a helmet when you’ve got a bird house on your head?

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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

WeHo Council considers Fountain Ave on Monday, 19-year old man critically injured in Orange, and swrve rises from the dead

September 11, 2025 / / One comment
Day 254 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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WeHo Times offers a reminder that plans to remake Fountain Ave will come before the West Hollywood City Council at 6 pm Monday.

Correction: I originally said the meeting was on Tuesday, rather than Monday. I’m not sure where I got the wrong date, but I take full ownership of the fuckup, and not checking the meeting agenda to get it right.

The project is designed to slow traffic on the deadly corridor by removing one lane in each direction, widening sidewalks and installing curb-protected bike lanes.

Although it comes too late for Blake Ackerman, who was killed by a hit-and-run driver at Fountain and Gardner while riding his bike home from work, and far too many others.

Local residents and pass-through drivers have been fighting this project, and will undoubtedly turn out in force to object to it because it will remove curbside parking on the street, and eliminate what for decades has been a faster alternative to busier boulevards nearby.

Which means we have to respond in kind to demand better safety and a more livable street for everyone.

The paper reports residents who can’t attend the meeting in person can watch live on WeHoTV via Spectrum Channel 10 or YouTube; although I’m not sure if that works for non-residents, as well.

However, public comments can submitted online from September 10th to the 15th.

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Bad news from Orange, where a 19-year old man suffered life-threatening injuries when he was struck by a driver while riding an ebike on Tuesday morning.

The crash occurred at Lewis Street and El Prado Ave; the driver remained at the scene, and police don’t suspect they were under the influence.

The story notes that the victim wasn’t wearing a helmet, which is not required for anyone over 18, and only matters if he suffered a serious head injury, which isn’t mentioned in the article.

Let’s just hope and pray he makes a full and fast recovery.

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Just in time for Halloween, iconic Los Angeles-based bikewear brand swrve is rising from the dead, reopening under new ownership nearly a year after the company, which invented the first bicycling-specific jeans, shut down operations.

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Santa Monica Spoke reports more curb protected bike lanes are going in on Stewart Street.

And doing it quickly, unlike a certain nearby megalopolis we could mention.

Instagram post

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Oceanside bike lawyer and BikinginLA sponsor Richard Duquette forwards an article about the difficulty of demonstrating brain injuries, and how he worked with legal graphics firm Focus Graphcs to work up illustrations that helped result in a six-figure settlement for a triathlete on the eve of trial.

They’d sure as hell convince me. And evidently, had the same effect on the driver’s insurance company.

Illustrations by Focus Graphics

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We’ve often mentioned that the East Side Riders are far more than just a bike club.

The nonprofit group operates a Watts bicycle co-op, host weekly bike rides, provide a safe, gang-free hangout for local kids, and works as community organizers to help strengthen the community and feed and clothe those in need.

Now they’ve made it even easier for you to throw a few bucks their way. Money that will do more good than most things you could do with it.

So what are you waiting for?

“The happiest people are not those getting more, but those giving more.” – H. Jackson Brown Jr.

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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.

You’ve got to be kidding. A Bend, Oregon driver is somehow considering claiming self-defense after getting out of his work truck, and walking back to assault a 16-year old kid — a boy with a cumulative 4.326 grade point average, no less — for the crime of riding two abreast with a friend, which is legal in the state, leaving the kid with $11,000 in medical bills and over $3,700 in damage to his bike; the attack ended after the driver’s young daughter yelled from the truck “Daddy, stop. Don’t do it.” LAPD officers have told me that in California, drivers are considered to have committed assault the moment they get out of their cars to confront someone. 

No bias here. A London magazine says the bicyclist may be a “kindly spirit in the countryside,” but in in the city, “this peaceable phantom has become a bloodthirsty wraith, terrorizing unsuspecting pedestrians, and refusing to follow the laws of man or motorcar.” Just wait until someone tells him about cars, and the careless and aggressively bloodthirsty people who drive them.

An Aussie hit-and-run driver denied deliberately injuring a bike rider, even though dashcam video from a trailing car showed her braking until the victim passed her, then turning her car to crash into him — something her lawyer said was somehow proof she tried to avoid him; meanwhile, she’s awaiting sentencing for intentionally injuring someone else.

But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.

Sad news from Massachusetts, where a 64-year old man died over a month after he was struck by a rider on a ped-assist ebike in Boston’s Copley Square.

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Local 

Streets For All reminds you to take LADOT’s survey about the new concrete “Toronto barriers” installed on a trial basis on 3rd Street in DTLA.

The LA County Sheriff’s Department is conducting another bicycle and pedestrian safety operation from 5 am to 3 pm on Friday; a press release says they’re focusing on dangerous driver behavior, however, they are legally obligated to enforce the law equally whether you’re on foot, on a bike or in a car. So once again, ride to the letter of the law until you cross the city limits. Thanks to David for the heads-up. 

Police in Hermosa Beach used a drone to find a bike theft suspect accused of stealing a bicycle outside a cafe. Thanks to Jim for the link.

 

State

State Senator Scot Wiener’s SB 71 passed both houses of the legislature with just one no vote and moves on to the governor’s desk for his signature; the bill extends provisions of a 2020 bill to streamline the CEQA permitting process for public transit, and bike and pedestrian infrastructure projects to 2040.

Calbike talks with a representative of Upway about what the California Ebike Incentive program got right, and what it got wrong. Although they could have spoken with at least a couple local bike shops participating in the program. Or even a few who didn’t, and ask them what it got wrong. Thanks to Ellectrek for the article. 

Over 200 people are riding 525 miles down the coast of California from San Francisco to Los Angeles for the 25th Arthritis Foundation’s California Coast Classic Bike Tour.

A writer for San Diego’s KPBS considers whether ebikes can make kids more mobile and still keep them safe, and whether the streets are ready for them. Although a lot depends on whether they’re using ped-assist bicycles, or non-street legal electric dirt bikes. 

For once, justice delayed is not justice denied, as a 28-year old San Francisco man was sentenced to 15 years to life for the hit-and-run death of a woman riding a bicycle, with nine years — yes, 9 years — credited for time served as he awaited trial for the 2016 crash; he reportedly brought both sides of the courtroom to tears by taking responsibility for taking the victim’s life.

San Francisco looks at what comes next after the city’s failed Vision Zero program.

 

National

Bicycling lists 12 mistakes to avoid when shopping for a used bike. But you’ll have to subscribe to read it, since it’s only available to people who pay, and it doesn’t seem to be available anywhere else. 

Good Morning America recommends the “best” bikes for every member of the family. None of which actually are, of course, even if some aren’t bad. 

For the thousandth time, no, bicycling does not affect fertility for most men.

Oops. Hawaii’s governor vetoed a bill intended to rein in high-speed electric bikes, after concluding that its prohibition against “high-speed electric devices” could apply to electric motor vehicles, as well.

As many as 2,000 people who participated in, or attended, an Utah high school bike race may have been exposed to measles, and at least four have contracted the disease. Which seems like a good time to mention that vaccination offers near full protection from the disease, which was nearly eradicated until the anti-vax movement took hold. 

A Denver TV station examines why local bike shops won’t service bicycles purchased online, with shops citing safety, parts and liability.

Chicago bike riders are making like Paul Revere to warn the public about ICE agents and inform immigrants of their legal rights.

Boston bicyclists say new speed bumps installed in a local state park are increasing danger on the roadway, rather than lessening it, as unsuspecting bike riders risk getting knocked cold. Apparently, Massachusetts has never heard of cutting channels into speed bumps to give people on bicycles a safe path to ride through, while still slowing motor vehicles.

Where to stay when you’re in need of dog, beer and bike friendly lodgings in Delaware.

A Philadelphia public radio station examines whether the city is still safe for traditional bicyclists and pedestrians, and what can be done to make it safer.

 

International

Life is cheap in London, where a distracted truck driver walked without a day behind bars for killing a woman on a bicycle, after the judge ruled that the victim had contributed to her own death by attempting to pass the truck on the inside — even though the driver forgot to check his mirror because he was distracted by his truck’s center console and was on a hands-free call.

London bikeshare use is spiking as commuters turn to rental ebikes to cope with a subway strike, although the weather isn’t exactly cooperating and some riders say it’s turning bike lanes into mosh pits on wheels.

A writer for The Spectator takes the contrary view to the common complaints against bikeshare ebikes, calling them “unquestionably, the best thing that has happened to London in my lifetime;” and adding that if you think they’re dangerous, cars are worse.

Here’s a warning from an English nurse and father of three, who thought his persistent back pain was due to bicycling, until he finally saw a doctor and discovered he was suffering from stage 4 prostate cancer.

Two 26-year old men rode their bikes over 4,500 miles from their home in Ireland to Singapore, to help one of them cope with the death of his father from a brain tumor; not only were they inexperienced, but one of the men didn’t even own a bike before they set off.

 

Competitive Cycling

Once again, Tuesday’s stage 16 of the Vuelta was shortened when pro-Palestinian protesters disrupted the race with 3 km, or 1.8 miles, to go; Spain will take “extraordinary measures” to prevent further protest disruptions on the final two stages in the Madrid region.

Wednesday’s stage 17 went off without disruptions, as Jonas Vingegaard maintained a 50-second lead over second place João Almeida.

Dutch cyclist Puck Pieterse says bike racing may be serious business, but you can still have fun, as Cycling Weekly calls her the sport’s “most exciting multi-discipline talent.”

 

Finally…

Your next non-folding e-foldie could fold anyway. The Mounties always get their man — even if he’s just riding without a helmet.

And nothing like riding the length of the UK on a homemade wooden bike as a protest “against a world made of plastic and steel.”

And yes, that includes DIY wooden wheels.

Instagram post

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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Move along, nothing to see here — barely making it edition

September 10, 2025 / / 8 comments

My apologies, once again.

Since my wife broke her shoulder over a year ago — and especially after her heart attack last month — I’ve tried to keep up this site every day while shouldering most of the burden at home.

Most days I feel like I’m barely making it. Except for days like this, when I don’t.

We’ll be back tomorrow to catch up on everything we missed, after I get about 20 hours of sleep.

Except there’s a dog that has to go out. And about a thousand things that need to be done around here.

Category: General /

Support pedestrianized 6th Street & wider bike lanes tomorrow, and building SaMo’s “Great Wall of Shitty Rental Bikes”

September 9, 2025 / / Comments Off on Support pedestrianized 6th Street & wider bike lanes tomorrow, and building SaMo’s “Great Wall of Shitty Rental Bikes”
Day 252 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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Streets For All is calling for action to support a trio of programs at tomorrow’s meeting of the Los Angeles City Council Transportation Committee.

Take action this Wednesday:

The Transportation Committee is hearing three items this Wednesday. One would support wider bike lanes, another would create a pilot program pedestrianizing 6th St in Koreatown, and a third is an update on implementing speed cameras.

HOW YOU CAN HELP:

Make public comment in person:
Wednesday, September 10, 2025 at 8:30 AM
Room 401, City Hall
200 North Spring Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012

If you can’t attend, please comment publicly on the council file, provided in our toolkit here.

MAKE PUBLIC COMMENT

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A Santa Monica man is called a hero for removing rental ebikes — actually scooters with seats — from the beachfront Marvin Braude Bike Trail, building “the great wall of shitty rental bikes.”

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Seriously?

A Baltimore, Maryland man is facing $2,000 in fines and hundreds more to get his bike back, after a couple misguided cops who apparently have never heard of an ebike slapped him with ten traffic tickets and impounded his bike, insisting it was an unregistered motor vehicle.

Because it has an electric motor.

One that makes it a Class 2 ebike under Maryland law.

And yes, he was literally laughed out of the DMV when he went to register it.

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If you missed this weekend’s Maryland Cycling Classic — and who didn’t? —  Velo offers video of the full race broadcast, although you have have to click through to see it.

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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.

An English county councilor was left fuming after the council leaders dropped bicycling safety improvements from plans to remake a dangerous intersection because of “rising costs and limited funding” — apparently without consulting her or the rest of the council.

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Local 

Spectrum News 1 talks with the general manager of Bikes and Hikes LA about calls for better bike safety in West Hollywood, while a Sheriff’s spokesman says bicyclists and pedestrians have the same rights as drivers, but far fewer protections. To which virtually anyone who has ever ridden a bicycle would respond, “Tell me about it.”

 

State

Patch says cops in Laguna Beach issued “60+ citations” during a recent multi-agency crackdown on speeding, loud and modified exhausted systems, and ebike violations — which is technically true, since 184 is more than 60. A lot more.

Police in San Diego are starting to get it, warning about a dramatic rise in ebike injuries among kids, while noting that many of the bikes aren’t true ebikes but off-road motorbikes that aren’t street legal.

 

National

The Try Hard podcast talks with Defector writer Diana Moskovitz about learning to ride a bike as an adult, after her over-protective parents forbade her from riding as a child. You can read a full transcript here, if you’d rather read it than listen to it. 

Portland, Oregon has hosted an official City Bike Bus each month since June, concluding next month. If I held up one finger, that would be one more time than Los Angeles has hosted one. And you can probably guess which finger I’d hold up. 

A Salem, Oregon bike shop became the latest victim of the contraction in the bicycle market, citing competition from big box stores and online marketplaces.

A man in Oregon’s Rogue Valley became an unlikely hero in 2020 by livestreaming damage caused by the Alameda Fire from the seat of his bicycle.

There’s a special place in hell for the Fort Worth, Texas hit-and-run driver who left an eight-year old bike-riding kid lying in the street, after stopping briefly to get out of his car and look at the kid covered in his own blood. Or any other coward who drives off after hitting a kid, for that matter.

That’s more like it. Bipartisan legislation moving forward in the Michigan legislature would allow judges to sentence drivers to up to 15 years behind bars if they kill a pedestrian or bicyclist after violating a traffic law, as biking booms in the Motor City.

Riverside Drive in Downtown Memphis reopened after a major redesign with nifty new protected bike lanes.

 

International

Momentum recommends 16 “incredible” fall destinations around the world that are best experienced by bicycle, including California’s Sonoma Valley.

Bike Radar examines five tech trends that will define road and gravel bikes over the near future.

Puerto Vallarta, Mexico is in planning for a free bikeshare system, along with an improved bike lane network that would make it safer to use.

Nearly 100 Montreal bike riders held a die-in on Monday to call for safer streets after a second person was killed on the city’s busy Parc Ave in less than a year, while eight bicyclists and pedestrians have been killed on the corridor since 2013; meanwhile, the city renamed a bike path for a late bike activist who was pivotal in making it “the bike-friendly city it is today.”

Montreal YouTubers examine initiatives intended to lower the barriers to using cargo bikes, including Canada’s first cargo bikeshare system, run by a local nonprofit.

British Olympic bike hero Sir Chris Hoy’s inaugural fundraising ride raised more than £2 million — the equivalent of over $2.7 million — for cancer charities, as he said it’s possible to “live well and lead a happy life” with the disease, despite his devastating diagnosis with stage four prostate cancer.

Former Wimbledon champ Andy Murray may be one of us, but he doesn’t seem too damn happy about it.

As London prepares for yet another Tube — aka subway — workers strike, a London website wonders if the effects will be muted by bikeshare; meanwhile, Cycling Weekly responded to the strike threat by recommending foldies and commuter bikes.

 

Competitive Cycling

Tragic news from France, where yet another U-23 cyclist has died, this time a 16-year old kid who suffered a heart attack during a race.

A human rights group has asked Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante to ban the Israel-Premier Tech cycling team from Sunday’s Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal because of the war in Gaza, after the team’s owner referred to team members as ambassadors for Israel.

Seriously? Not only did a 2012 Sonoma Press Democrat article about fan activities for the late, great Amgen Tour of California inexplicably pop up on a Google search for today’s bike news, most of the story was hidden by the paper’s paywall. Because evidently, they still want you to pay to read 13-year old stories.

 

Finally…

That feeling when drivers park in the bike lane so often, you carry crude pre-printed crude stickers. Why postpone having beers until after Critical Mass, when you can find a bike with a keg of home-brew riding next to you?

And this is what happens when a confirmed roadie experiences his first black diamond downhill ride.

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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , ,

67-year old woman riding ped-assist ebike killed by pickup driver in Desert Hot Springs collision Sunday morning

September 8, 2025 / / Comments Off on 67-year old woman riding ped-assist ebike killed by pickup driver in Desert Hot Springs collision Sunday morning

Well, it was nice while it lasted.

After horrible month of August, we managed to go a little more than a week without news of yet another person killed riding a bicycle on the mean streets of Southern California.

That ended yesterday, when a 67-year old woman was killed by the driver of a Ford F150 pickup in Desert Hot Springs.

According to the Desert Sun, the victim was riding a ped-assist ebike east on Pierson Blvd when she was run down from behind about half a mile west of North Indian Canyon Drive, shortly after 7 am.

The woman, identified Monday as Desert Hot Springs resident Laura Harker, was taken to Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs suffering from multiple traumatic injuries. She died about half an hour after she was struck.

The driver of the pickup remained at the scene. CHP investigators said it was unclear why the driver didn’t see Harker; however, the occurred about half an hour after sunrise, so the sun would have still been low on the horizon.

Although that doesn’t mean they weren’t distracted, or that there wasn’t some other reason why they didn’t see her.

It’s also unknown how fast the driver was traveling on the perfectly straight rural road, which likely would have had little or no traffic at that hour.

The crash remains under investigation.

This is at least the 40th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the sixth that I’m aware of in Riverside County.

My deepest sympathy and prayers for Laura Harker and all her loved ones. 

Category: Injuries and Fatalities / Tags: , , ,

CicLAvia comes to South LA Sunday, anti-bike lane bike commuter, and reality shifts when ebike-hater downloads rental app

September 8, 2025 / / One comment
Day 251 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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Patch offers a reminder about this weekend’s Historic South Central meets Watts CicLAvia.

Included among the highlights are the birthplace of West Coast Jazz, Watts Towers and the former LA headquarters of the Black Panthers.

Which is not a phrase I ever thought we’d use back in the day,

And BikeLA — the former Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, will host a feeder ride to the open streets event.

https://twitter.com/heybikela/status/1963666212887593338

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A year-round London bike commuter says he’s no fan of bike lanes.

His reasoning is that a) they don’t really reduce traffic — either vehicular or on the Tube — since most people stop riding in bad weather, and b) because they’re often blocked for one reason or another.

Then there’s this.

Most British roads still have no cycle lanes, after all, but they’re still very safe for cyclists. In 2023, 24 cyclists were killed and just over a thousand seriously hurt per billion miles cycled in this country. In other words if you cycle a mile, the chance is about one in a million that you’ll be seriously hurt or worse. I’d have to commute every weekday for well over 200 years – without any holidays – before it would be likely that I’d suffer a serious mishap. Even given today’s gloomy pension prospects, I hopefully won’t have to do that.

As for the danger from cyclists, it does exist: but it’s minuscule. We Brits are roughly as likely to be killed by lightning as by a cyclist. We’re noticeably more likely to be killed in an “accident involving cattle”. In a world with cars and carbon monoxide and food poisoning in it – let alone heart disease, cancer and Alzheimer’s – worrying about being killed by a cyclist would be pretty illogical.

It’s only one man’s view, of course, but I consider the fear that many cyclists have of riding among motor traffic to be pretty illogical too. There are some bad and aggressive drivers out there to be sure, but that’s true of cyclists too, and in fact most drivers in my experience are safe: sometimes even friendly.

He’s right. But wrong.

I made a pretty similar calculation some time back, too.

In 2009, Americans took 4 billion trips by bicycle.

How safe is bicycling? Cyclists suffered in an estimated 52,000 injuries in 2009; making your odds of returning home safely from any given ride nearly 77,000 to one; the chances of surviving any given ride were over 6.3 million to one in your favor.

On the other hand, people do get injured — or worse — riding a bicycle.

So while the odds of completing any given ride safely are astronomically in your favor, they’re still odds. Which means there’s always a chance of losing, infinitesimally small though it may be.

And the whole point of bike lanes is to improve all our odds of getting home in one piece.

He also makes another mistake common to experienced bicyclists.

You may feel comfortable riding in traffic, just like I did for years. But bike lanes aren’t for those of us who feel confident mixing it up with motorists.

They’re for the people who don’t.

Bike lanes — particularly protected bike lanes — provide space for the overwhelming majority of people who don’t feel safe sharing the same road space with drivers.

Especially with bad drivers, which to be honest, most people are at one time or another. They drink, they speed, they use their phones, and just do stupid stuff.

You know, as people do.

So if you feel comfortable riding in traffic, great. But that doesn’t mean everyone else should, because they don’t.

And won’t.

Meanwhile, a Santa Rosa bicyclist insists our London friend is not the only one who feels that way.

………

Another London writer, with tongue planted firmly in cheek this time, says he hates bike riders.

God, I hate cyclists: shooting the lights, ignoring zebras, mounting the pavement, overtaking on the inside, thinking they’re so damned virtuous, being all vegan, pro-Palestine and probably trans, crouched over their racing handlebars like they’re on the Tour de frigging France, in their silly hats with those mincy little shoes, skin-tight shorts disappearing up their bum cracks…

But when he’s on a bike, “the pedal is on the other foot.”

Bloody motorists: fat, entitled, Farage-voting sales reps, slumped in the driving seat like Jabba the Hut, killing the planet with every lazy depression of the gas pedal, oblivious to my presence, distracted by TikTok, missing the light changes, failing to indicate, smoking fags and eating burgers, overlapping into designated cycle lanes, clogging up a city that is perfectly well served by trains and buses…

But one thing we can all agree on, he says, is everyone hates ebikes.

And they’re all drug dealers anyway, and gang members and petty crims, which is why they wear balaclavas and ride with their hoods up. Who cycles with a hood up unless they’re off to bash an old lady or sell heroin to schoolgirls? And if not drug dealers then, worse, they’re Deliveroo and Uber Eats stormtroopers, dispensing poisonous portions of fatty crap to the last few citizens not on Ozempic, feeding the obesity epidemic with cold cheeseburgers their consumers couldn’t be bothered to get up off the sofa and go out and get for themselves; racing to hit the targets they need to make ends meet, unregulated, killing pedestrians to get to the front doors of the people they’re killing with pizzas; a situation I blame, when I’m driving my car, on the illegal immigrants riding the bikes, but, when I’m riding my lefty pedal bike, on the greedy capitalist fat cats at “Big Food”. Farageist or Polanskyite, there’s nothing to love about e-bikes.

And as for the rented ones, the Limes and the Forests and the Santanders, they sit at the top of the pyramid of evil: no accountability, no ownership, no investment in the infrastructure, no dog in the fight. Random chancers leaping aboard them helmetless, no notion of the rules of the road, no tax paid, giggly gangs of students on summer evenings riding seven abreast like the Von bloody Trapps, leaving their bikes, when they run out of juice, strewn across pavements and shop doorways, piles of them in broken heaps all over town like dead green horses at the back door of the slaughterhouse. The very end of civil society.

And then, he downloaded the Lime app, and his world was turned inside out like an Escher lithograph.

Seriously, it’s worth taking a few minutes to read the whole thing. Because it might just be the best laugh you have all day.

………

The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.

A Naples, Florida advocacy group offers sad but necessary advice on how to get away unharmed in a confrontation with an angry driver, including avoiding eye contact, which can be interpreted as confrontational. Just like with angry apes and aggressive subway riders. 

But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.

Life is cheap in London, where a 45-year old man walked without a day behind bars for breaking a woman’s jaw when he crashed into her while riding his bike on the wrong side of the road; he was fined the equivalent of a “paltry and insulting” $675.

………

Local 

That’s more like it. A 64-year old Long Beach man was sentenced to 30 years to life behind bars for the meth-fueled crash that killed 12-year old Noel Bascon in 2020 as the boy rode his bike across a Costa Mesa intersection with his father; Richard David Lavalle’s sentence was doubled because of his prior criminal convictions, and charged as a 3rd strike. He was credited with over four years time served.

 

State

Sunnyvale City Councilmember Richard Mehlinger suffered a broken left thumb and right wrist when he was struck by a driver while riding his bike; the “staunch traffic safety advocate” said the crash showed the “necessity and urgency” of installing bike lanes.

Around two dozen bicyclists rode with their dogs on a three-mile circuit along San Francisco’s Sunset Dunes on the Dogon’ Bike Ride, organized by comedian Sarah Catz-Hyman.

 

National

A pair of entrepreneurs scored a $200,000 invested on Shark Tank, after a stationary bike ride convinced Kevin O’Leary and another shark they had indeed invented a more comfortable bike seat.

A guest writer for Bike Portland says the city’s greenways won’t be safe until they build them that way.

Dozens of Denver residents rode across the city in search of bagels and matzo ball soup on the city’s annual Jewish Deli Bike Tour.

A 22-year old Ohio man set out on a bike ride in 1973, and was never seen again; his body was finally identified this year, 52 years after he disappeared after last being seen in Cleveland — and 45 years after remains were found in a Whitney, Ontario park, 461 miles away.

Hundreds of people turned out for a protest ride in central Philadelphia to demand better protection for bicyclists, after a 67-year old bike advocate was killed in a collision while riding a bike.

 

International

A Montreal columnist complains about possible plans to close a roadway to motor vehicle traffic, arguing that there’s no need to provoke a battle between bicyclists and drivers when so many of us are both. And yet, the roads are unevenly apportioned overwhelmingly in favor of one over the other.

An English man returned to his home after riding his bike around the world,  arriving back in Cornwall 477 days and 22,300 miles after he left.

Life is cheap in Ireland, where a taxi driver on his way to work walked without a day behind bars for crashing into a six-year old boy riding a bike; he was fined the equivalent of $879 for the crash that left the kid with bruising and a broken arm.

The good news is, the coach of the Paris Saint-Germain soccer team is one of us; the bad news, he crashed his bike and broke his collarbone, and will be out of action after surgery to repair it.

UNESCO World Heritage site Albi, France successfully melded a 19th-century railway viaduct across the Tarn River with a lightweight new bike and pedestrian bridge.

Drew Barrymore says her 12-year old daughter crashed her ebike while riding in the mountains of France, and ended up using her bra as a tourniquet for her badly ripped elbow.

French endurance cyclist Sofiane Sehili’s attempt to set a new record for bicycling across Eurasia ended badly at the Russian border, where he was accused of crossing the border illegally and tossed in jail, just 248 miles short of his destination, and 10,936 miles after setting out from Lisbon, Portugal.

Horrible story from India, where a 40-year old man was stabbed to death and his body dumped in the woods over accusations of practicing witchcraft, after riding his bike to a nearby village for repairs.

 

Competitive Cycling

Danish sprinter Mads Pedersen claimed victory in Sunday’s Stage 15 of the Vuelta a España, while two-time Tour de France champ Jonas Vingegaard remained in the red leader’s jersey, with João Almeida 48 seconds back in second place.

Once again, someone protesting the war in Gaza disrupted the Vuelta, causing two riders to crash when he jumped out from the side of the road waving a Palestinian flag; because of the repeated protests, the Israel Premier Tech cycling team switched to new uniforms without the team name.

Welsh Olympic medalist and 2018 Tour de France champ Geraint Thomas called it a career after Sunday’s final stage of the Tour of Britain, capping his career in his hometown of Cardiff, as the race was won by 22-year old Frenchman Romain Gregoire.

Pre-race favorite Neilson Powless was forced to run with his bike when he suffered a flat in Saturday’s Maryland Cycling Classic; he ended up finishing 18th, well behind eventual men’s winner Sandy Dujardin, while Poland’s Agnieszka Skalniak-Sojka won the women’s race.

Around 70 bicyclists were injured, some seriously, in a mass crash in a German bike race involving more than 1,000 amateur and semi-professional cyclists.

Tragic news from Malaysia, where a 28-year old man was killed in an amateur race when he tried to avoid crashing into a group of riders, falling onto the other side of the road where he was struck by a motorist.

 

Finally…

Nothing like stumbling on a bicycle that’s been rolling in the deep like it was sung by Adele. The mountain bike of the future, as designed by AI.

And motorcyclist pot, meet bike-rider kettle.

………

Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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