39-year old man killed riding bicycle in Santa Ana Wednesday night; driver arrested for DUI

August 28, 2025 / / 4 comments

Please, not another one.

For the ninth time this month, we’ve learned about yet another person killed riding a bicycle in Southern California.

According to a press release from the Santa Ana Police Department, a man was killed by an alleged drunk driver while riding in the city Wednesday night.

The victim, identified as 39-year old Wilmington resident Andrew Rodriguez, was crossing Grand Ave at Fairhaven Ave when he was struck by a southbound driver around 11:35 pm.

Rodriguez died at the scene, despite the efforts of officers and paramedics. The driver, 26-year old Santa Ana resident Vanessa Anahi Picenavalos, was arrested for DUI.

The intersection is controlled by a traffic signal; there’s no word on who may have had the right-of-way. There’s no bicycle infrastructure in any direction

Anyone with information is urged to call Santa Ana Police Detective K. Briley at 714/245-8215, or the Traffic Division of the Santa Ana Police Department at 714/245-8200.

This is at least the 38th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the fourth that I’m aware of in Orange County.

My deepest sympathy and prayers for Andrew Rodriguez and his loved ones.

Twitter post

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

Repairs begin on Marvin Bruade Trail, share your thoughts on 3rd Street barriers, and LA’s bike “party on wheels” tomorrow

August 28, 2025 / / Comments Off on Repairs begin on Marvin Bruade Trail, share your thoughts on 3rd Street barriers, and LA’s bike “party on wheels” tomorrow
Day 240 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

About damn time.

Work is finally underway to repair a section of the beachside Marvin Braude Bike Trail near Will Rogers State Beach.

The $800,000 project will fix the pathway between Chautauqua Boulevard and Entrada Drive, near the Roosevelt Pedestrian Tunnel, that was washed out by heavy rains early last year.

The popular pathway is used by upwards of 10,000 people a day.

It’s been awhile since I’ve ridden that path, but I’m told there’s also a section further south that’s been washed out, as well.

And raise your hand if you even knew that tunnel had a name. Because I sure as hell didn’t, and I used it for years.

………

LADOT wants to know what you think about the new concrete barriers protecting the 3rd Street bike lanes in DTLA.

Twitter post

………

LA Critical Mass invites you to join their “party on wheels,” aka the nation’s largest community bike ride, tomorrow, and the last Friday of every month.

………

Bike Long Beach invites you to attend a screening of Biking While Black tonight, and join them for Bikes and Coffee on Sunday.

 

………

Bike Portland editor Jonathan Maus talks with Portland Mayor Keith Wilson as they bike to work together.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass claimed she was one of us when she campaigned for office. But to the best of my knowledge, she’s has ridden a bike to work or with any member of the community ever since.

The last LA mayor I know of who actually biked to work was the late Richard Riordan, who frequently led rides with hundreds of his fellow Angelenos.

………

An English man took a tandem ride from his home in Bristol to Beijing after recovering from a rare form or cancer.

Which a reviewer for The Guardian says “makes for a good story but a rather annoying film.”

Ouch.

………

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

A Texas man faces multiple charges after allegedly using a stolen truck to jump a curb and intentionally crash into a man riding a bicycle, then returning three minutes later to run over the victim where he sat injured on the ground; the driver was arrested following a short police chase, after a witness used her own pickup to halt the second attack.

Life is cheap in London, where the father of a two-year old kid was sentenced to just 18 months behind bars for brutally attacking bike riders in two separate incidents, using his mo-ped to kick them off their bicycles while they were riding, and leaving both victims with lasting injuries.

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

A writer for the Southern California News Group explains the rules governing bicycles after an Upland writer asks what can be done to stop scofflaw bike riders from breaking the law. Just wait until they find out about all those scofflaw drivers breaking the law in their big, dangerous machines.

Commenters in Victoria, British Columbia were up in arms after someone posted a photo of a man riding a bicycle with a helmet-less baby strapped to his back. Although it’s my understanding that a baby’s neck isn’t developed enough to support the weight of a bike helmet.

A bike rider allegedly punched a driver in the coastal town of Poole, England and threw his bicycle into the car, causing the equivalent of $1,350 in damage. Nope, that’s the entire story, taking up all of one sentence. 

………

Local 

The LA City Council Planning and Land Use Management Committee approved a motion that could lead to ending off-street parking requirements for new developments, although Streetsblog’s Joe Linton says they’ll probably just build it anyway.

They get it. An injury law firm says LA’s streets are dangerous by design, and have a notable lack of bike lanes, protected or otherwise.

WeHo Times says a driver T-boned another car turning left from Fountain Ave onto De Longpre Ave, reigniting calls to improve safety on the deadly corridor; fortunately, no one was seriously injured this time.

Seriously? Mountain biking events for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics will be be held in the City of Industry, which is better known for housing warehouses than for its challenging terrain.

Police departments in multiple South Bay cities teamed up to crack down on ebike riders on Tuesday, citing riders for illegal ebikes, as well as blowing stop signs and teens not wearing bike helmets.

 

State

An 18-year old ebike rider and a younger relative both suffered non-life threatening injuries when they reportedly went through a red light and crashed their ebike into a car in San Marcos Monday evening. Although judging from the damage to the car, it looks a lot more like the driver hit them. 

Good for them. Bakersfield is formally opposing a recent grand jury report calling for a halt to building bike lanes that might kinda, sorta inconvenience some drivers; meanwhile, the founder of advocacy group Bike Bakersfield remains committed to working with the city to improve safety for everyone.

A San Jose bike co-op is teaming with the YMCA to provide third, fourth and fifth graders in East San Jose with free bicycles to help them get to schools farther away, after the closure of three local elementary schools.

 

National

Applications are now open for next year’s Cherokee Nation Remember the Removal Bike Ride, a three-week tour retracing the northern route of the infamous Trail of Tears.

Bike Mag offers a recap of Portland, Oregon’s MADE Handmade Bike Show, calling it the best bicycle show in North America.

That’s more like it. Portland backed off on plans to rip out concrete traffic diverters protecting bike lanes after a huge hue and cry from the public.

Thirty-seven-year old adventure cyclist Sarah Swallow set off on nearly 3,700 mile trip from Oregon to Missouri, becoming the first person to ride Adventure Cycling’s new, mostly dirt road Golden Gravel Trail.

A Reno, Nevada bike rider was hospitalized with minor injuries after being struck by a 14-year old riding an illegal electric motorcycle on the sidewalk; the kid who caused the crash was cited for multiple violations, while a friend on another bike was released with a warning.

The lead singer of ’90s rock stars The Offspring is one of us, going for a ride through Austin, Texas with America’s seven-time ex-Tour de France champ.

The leader of an Illinois advocacy group urges drivers to have “patience, empathy and attentiveness” in the wake of two serious bicycling collisions in the past week.

This is the cost of traffic violence. A second-generation Methodist paster in rural Tennessee was killed when he was rear-ended by the driver of a big rig truck while riding his bicycle.

Talk about not knowing your market. The owner of a Summerville, Massachusetts donut shop fears the removal of parking in front of his shop for a new bike lane will force him to move. Never mind that studies show bike lanes are good for business. And we don’t need any studies to know donuts attract bicycles like magnets.

A 49-year old New Jersey man will spend the next five years behind bars for killing a “selfless” nurse bicycling with her husband eight years ago, while driving under the influence of “a very high level of narcotics.” Although his two previous DWIs — aka DUIs — would have made him subject to a murder charge here in California. 

Speaking of DUIs, a Pennsylvania man faces a DUI charge for crashing his ebike while riding under the influence.

Seriously? A recent ex-con faces charges for attempting to sell firearms from his ebike, just five months after he was released from prison for his 12th — yes, 12th — felony conviction.

 

International

Bike Radar says carbon fiber is great, but your next bike should have an aluminum frame. Or maybe just get the new steel Pashley.

A former UFC announcer was fined the equivalent of nearly $3,400 for attempting to throttle a 14-year old boy over a Lime dockless bikeshare bike blocking the sidewalk outside his London home — even though he rode one himself to his court hearing.

The New York Times says the fatal stabbing of a 17-year old girl riding her bike home from a night out in Amsterdam has unnerved residents, in a city where riding a bike safely at any hour is taken for granted.

German ebike maker Riese & Müller has stopped shipping bikes to the US as a result of Trump’s 50% tariff on steel.

 

Competitive Cycling

Jonas Vingegaard is back in the leader’s jersey at the Vuelta, after his Visma-Lease a Bike team came in second in the team time trial.

Protesters briefly held up the Israel-Premier Tech team during their team time trial attempt to protest the war in Gaza. While the team is based in Israel, it’s mostly in name only, with only one of the team’s riders currently competing in the Vuelta from Israel. 

Velo looks forward to the third edition of America’s leading one-day bike race when the Maryland Cycling Classic kicks off next week, featuring US stars Neilson Powless, Brandon McNulty and Quinn Simmons.

A website for a tutoring company makes the case that the bikes used by cycling legends matters as much as the people on them, ranging from Fausto Coppi’s Bianchi to Lance’s Trek.

 

Finally…

Don’t mess with a cross-country rider’s Surly Trucker. Don’t let your next ebike make you SchArt yourself.

And probably not the best idea to use the local cop shop as your alibi for the hot bike you pawned.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Man riding bicycle killed by driver in Twentynine Palms Monday afternoon, 8th SoCal bicycling death reported this month

August 26, 2025 / / Comments Off on Man riding bicycle killed by driver in Twentynine Palms Monday afternoon, 8th SoCal bicycling death reported this month

A bad month for Southern California bike riders just keeps getting worse.

For the eighth time this month, we’ve learned that someone was killed riding a bicycle, this time in Twentynine Palms.

According to a press release from the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department reposted by a local radio station, the victim was struck by a driver while riding on the 5100 block of Adobe Road in Twentynine Palms around 12:51 pm on Monday.

Investigators report the victim, who has not been publicly identified, was riding north on Adobe while weaving in and out of the northbound lanes. He was struck by the driver, presumably head-on, after swerving onto the southbound side of the road.

He died at the scene, despite the effort of bystanders and first responders to perform CPR.

The driver remained on scene and cooperated with investigators, and is not believed to have been under the influence.

Adobe is a four lane mostly rural roadway with a center turn lane; there are a handful on businesses on the west side of the road the victim may have been attempting to get to when he was killed.

Anyone with information is urged to contact the Morongo Basin Sheriff’s Station at 760/366-4175, or anonymously at 1-800/782-7463 or at wetip.com.

This is at least the 37th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the fifth that I’m aware of in San Bernardino County.

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

 

Category: Injuries and Fatalities / Tags: , ,

Why there aren’t enough cops to enforce traffic laws, and WeHo advocates call for permanent bike counter on Fountain

August 26, 2025 / / Comments Off on Why there aren’t enough cops to enforce traffic laws, and WeHo advocates call for permanent bike counter on Fountain
Day 238 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

Let’s start with this exchange in yesterday’s comments.

Because it illustrates a common misperception that our streets would be safer if the cops would just do their job.

 

BENJAMIN
August 25, 2025 at 7:06 am   (Edit)

I would argue that an individuals perception of safety, isn’t a great indicator of actual risk. Society can’t be held responsible for the timid and simply because grown men are terrified of riding their bikes on the street, doesn’t meant the streets are unsafe. 99.99% of drivers do not want to hurt anyone, and simply want to get where they are going. Why must they be held responsible of the failings of law enforcement, who are tasked with making our roads and streets safer? Law enforcement takes a large portion of the public budget, so how and why do they fail to uphold their end of deal? Why are they incapable of making our streets safe?

Reply
  • bikinginla
    August 25, 2025 at 9:46 pm   (Edit)

    That one’s easy. There are not enough cops in the world to enforce the law against every person behind the wheel. Take Los Angeles, as an example. We currently have around 9,000 cops on the city payroll. Now divide that by three shifts every day. Subtract all the detectives, and cops working desk duty. Now subtract all the cops on vacation, sick leave and disability. According to officers I’ve spoken with, that leaves around 200-300 uniformed officers on patrol at any given time, most of whom are either responding to or working to prevent more serious crimes, like assaults, robberies and murders. That leaves maybe a few dozen free to enforce traffic laws in a city of nearly 4 million, with the nation’s largest street grid.

    Even in smaller cities are usually in a better position to enforce the streets, but even there the overwhelming majority of traffic violations go unpunished because there aren’t enough cops to be everywhere at once. And drivers know that, which is why most drivers routinely ignore speed limits and distracted driving laws, just to name two.

    As for grown men thinking the streets are unsafe, it’s only because so many are.

    Reply

No one wishes the police could enforce traffic laws more than I do.

I witness drivers routinely breaking the law every time I go out on the street, any time of the day or night.

During the day, drivers roll the stop signs on the corner, just like the bike and scooter riders they complain about. At night, my relatively quiet residential street becomes a drag strip as motorists take advantage of the lighter traffic to race from corner to corner.

And don’t get me started on frequent close calls just walking my dog, which should be the safest thing I do outside of my home.

As one LA cop confided to me, most drivers have forgotten they’re controlling a dangerous, potentially deadly machine. They feel comfortable playing automotive Russian roulette simply because they’ve always gotten away with it.

Until they don’t.

Yes, better enforcement is part of the solution to our deadly streets. So is getting drivers to focus on safety.

But until both of those things somehow miraculously occur, the only real solution is to design our streets so common mistakes don’t become deadly.

Which is the definition of Vision Zero.

As for those “grown men…terrified of riding their bikes on the street,” picture the same thing, but substitute your eight year old kid or grandkid for those grown men, and see if that changes anything.

Because I sure as hell wouldn’t want mine to ride around here.

………

Advocacy group WeHo For All — a chapter of Abundant Housing LA, not Streets For All — is calling for permanent bike counters on Fountain Ave.

The idea is to provide an accurate record of how many people ride on the current sharrows, compared to how many ride there after protected bike lanes are installed.

Which is actually a good idea.

Because, as others have said, counting the bike riders who use it now is like counting how many people cross a river without a bridge, as opposed to how many would cross it if there was one.

You can sign a petition calling for the bike counters here.

………

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

Colorado sheriff’s deputies are looking for a pickup driver who stands accused of intentionally running down a man riding a bicycle back in May; the 46-year old suspect is wanted for attempted murder, and considered armed and dangerous.

A Long Island driver faces charges for a road rage incident caught on Ring cam, after he was seen punching a 70-something man riding a bicycle and knocking him back onto the sidewalk; the incident reportedly started three blocks earlier when the victim yelled at the driver for not stopping at a stop sign.

Apparently, everyone in London “and beyond” is talking about the “problem(s)” with bicyclists, as a writer somehow conflates a recent survey showing slightly more than half of bike riders admitted breaking traffic laws, with a 25% increase in pedestrian deaths this year — even though drivers, not bicyclists. are to blame for the increase.

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

There’s a special place in hell for a Pennsylvania teen who punched a ten-year old little boy in the face to steal his bicycle.

………

Local 

A Pasadena committee is rewriting the city’s bicycle ordinances to bring them into alignment with state law and update outdated provisions; among the changes is defining ebikes, eliminating a prohibited bicycle registration requirement, and allowing sidewalk riding near churches, schools and public buildings.

 

State

More on moves by the Encinitas City Council to remove or water down safety features planned for a redesigned Santa Fe Ave, despite the death of a 15-year old ebike rider there just two years ago.

A crowdfunding campaign is raising money for the family of a 14-year old boy killed by a pickup driver while riding an electric motorcycle in El Centro last week; as of this writing, it’s raised over 65% of the $10,000 goal.

 

National

GQ offers their picks for the best bicycling tops.

A Honolulu bike advocacy group is hosting free ebike safety classes after a 15-year old boy was killed by a 75-year old driver while riding an electric motorbike in a crosswalk; police were quick to blame the kid for riding against the Don’t Walk signal, but didn’t say if he was going against the red light.

Athletes from around the world will converge on Nevada next month to compete in various record categories for the World Human Powered Speed Challenge.

A pair of Austin, Texas brothers are on the verge of completing a 5,500 mile fundraising ride from Anchorage, Alaska to College Station, Texas.

Chicago’s Bike the Drive offers 30 carfree miles of the city’s DuSable Lake Shore Drive this Sunday.

This is the cost of traffic violence. A 57-year old photo editor for the Boston Globe was killed in a collision while riding his bike near his former Illinois hometown.

A car website says Illinois bicyclists are surprised by new rules redefining what counts as a bicycle in the state to include ebikes and tricycles. Except people who ride bikes were probably the least surprised by the new rules, since they’re the ones who ride them and worked for passage of the new law. 

A Michigan man was sentenced to between three and five years behind bars for killing a 50-year old woman riding a bicycle last year while driving under the influence — although he’s credited with nearly a year time served, which could make him eligible for release before long.

Some asshole spray painted swastikas onto a popular Natick, Massachusetts bike path.

New York Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani says he’ll move forward with bike projects current mayor and independent candidate Eric Adams cancelled — including finishing the work on McGinness Ave that a key Adams aide is a accused of accepting bribes to halt.

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources is considering a proposal to allow ped-assist ebikes on state trails.

This is the cost of traffic violence, part two. Georgia bicyclists are in mourning after well-known bicycle attorney and advocate Ken Rosskopf was killed when he was struck by a driver while making a turn on his bike; the 85-year old Rosskopf was described as a legend in the community by his son, pro cyclist Joey Rosskopf.

 

International

Toronto is cracking down on scofflaw ebike and e-scooter users for the next three weeks.

Bicyclists in Killarney, Ireland say hell yes they ride in the roadway, because it’s safer than the new two-way bike path running next to it.

Korean bike paths along rivers and forest trails will now be given road names to help identify them on maps and eliminate confusion.

Apparently Korea is a decade or so behind the times, as the popularity of brakeless fixies is reportedly surging among teens in the country, despite vows from police to crack down on them.

An Aussie cop is on trial for killing a 16-year old indigenous boy suspected of stealing a mountain bike, after parking an unmarked patrol car across a bike trail, in effect creating an illegal road block and sending the boy flying over his car.

 

Competitive Cycling

It’s happened yet again. Vuelta leader Jonas Vingegaard was able to make it to the starting line for yesterday’s stage three, even though thieves broke into the team mechanics’ truck, taking 18 bikes worth half a million dollars. Although you’d think previous similar thefts would have been enough to put a guard on the damn things. 

Despite the theft, Vingegaard was still able to finish third behind stage winner David Gaudu and second place Mads Pedersen; Vingegaard held onto the red leader’s jersey, even though Gaudu closed the gap to move into a tie with him.

Vingegaard’s teammate Axel Zingle was forced to abandon the Vuelta a day after twice dislocating his shoulder, and someone making off with his bike while he got treatment.

 

Finally…

Doesn’t everyone ride a bike with an $80,000 Hermès bag? That feeling when you decide to ride your bike to grandma’s house — over 11,000 miles away on another continent.

And repeat after me — when you’re riding your bike at one in the morning, with over a half ounce of meth, put a damn light on it, already.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

South LA mourns 12-year old bike rider, help end Los Angeles parking minimums, and NY official bribed to halt bike lanes

August 25, 2025 / / 3 comments
Day 237 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

KABC-7 reports the South LA community came together Friday to mourn 12-year old Michael Smith, who was killed by a speeding hit-and-run driver last month.

Twenty-one-year old Kaleah Beasley was arrested shortly afterwards, charged with vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence for allegedly killing the soon-to-be 13-year old boy while driving 75 mph on a residential street.

Not that the cops bothered to tell us, or anything.

“We’re here to say that this community deserves a safer road. That these kids deserve safer roads… that this road right here is a race track, said Damian Kevitt, executive director for the nonprofit Streets Are For Everyone…

“You have a whole family riddled with grief and sadness over what could’ve been so easily avoided,” said Aydian Atwater, Smith’s cousin.

The East Side Riders Bike Club, Faith for SAFE Streets, and Streets Are For Everyone teamed with family members to host a breakfast, followed by a ghost bike installation and memorial ride.

Let’s hope this is the last time we need one.

Instagram post

Photo by Streets Are For Everyone

………

Streets For All is asking for your support to end parking minimums in Los Angeles.

Tuesday: Tell the PLUM committee you support eliminating parking minimums.

The Planning and Land Use Management Committee has an item on its agenda to consider a motion this Tuesday that would begin the steps to eliminate parking minimums.

Parking minimums drive up the cost of housing and result in cities that are oriented toward cars rather than people. This results in unsafe streets and increased traffic deaths as well as buildings surrounded by parking lots instead of walkable communities.

HOW YOU CAN HELP:
Make public comment in support live on item 21
This Tuesday, August 26th at 2:00pm
John Ferraro Council Chamber
Room 340, City Hall
200 North Spring Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012

If you can’t make the meeting in person, comment in support on the council file.

………

What’s a little bribe or two between friends?

The former chief adviser to New York Mayor Eric Adams is accused of taking bribes worth $75,000 and a “brief appearance in the TV series ‘Godfather of Harlem‘” to interfere with plans to improve safety on a Greenpoint street.

Siblings and prominent political donors Tony and Gina Argento allegedly bribed Ingrid Lewis-Martin to override a decision to narrow the street used by their film production company.

Which explains why the city suddenly halted previously approved plans for a road diet and parking-protected bike lanes on “notorious” McGuinness Boulevard in 2023.

Safety be damned.

A text from Lewis-Martin to Gina Argento responded to efforts by neighborhood advocates to get the city to go through with the plan, saying “We do not care what they say. We are ignoring them and continuing with our plan. They can kiss my ass.”

Nice mouth you got there, lady.

Needless to say, they all denied the allegations and pled not guilty.

The city finally installed the bike lanes last year, presumably reversing itself after Lewis-Martin left the administration.

This comes after a longtime ally, adviser and fundraiser for New York Mayor Eric Adams was outed for allegedly stuffing a $100 bribe into a bag of Herr’s Sour Cream & Onion ripple potato chips, and handing them to a local reporter covering City Hall.

………

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

No bias here. A Montreal newspaper pours cold water on a recent study calling for more bike lanes in the city, arguing it will never be like bike-friendly European cities with milder winters like Berlin and Amsterdam. In other words, like just about every other anti-bike lane column ever written anywhere. 

No surprise here, as Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s government is appealing a court ruling that halted his plans to rip out Toronto bike lanes, after the judge concluded bike riders have a constitutional right to not get killed.

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

There isn’t a pit in hell deep enough for the 50-something Korean man accused of chaining a border collie to his ebike and dragging it to it’s death; he is being investigated for animal abuse — which carries a maximum penalty of three years and a fine of less than $28,000. Although that hardly seems like enough for such a heinous and hideous crime.

………

Local 

LADOT finally closed a dangerous 300-foot slip lane extending from Argyle Avenue to Yucca Street in Hollywood, which allowed people exiting the 101 freeway to drive like they were still on it.

MSN bypasses the Westside Current’s paywall to report on efforts to tear down the newly installed “Ralph’s wall” blocking longstanding bicycle and pedestrian access from the Ralph’s parking lot to Yvonne Burke Park and the beachside Marvin Braude Bike Trail.

 

State

State Sen. Catherine Blakespear called on Encinitas to preserve safety components of the $4.1 million Santa Fe Drive Corridor Improvements Project, two years after Blakespear secured $3 million in state funding after a 15-year old boy was killed there riding an ebike.

A man riding an electric motorcycle was killed when he collided with a police cruiser after leading the cops on a high-speed chase along an Escondido bike path Thursday afternoon; no word on whether anyone was using it at the time.

Sad news from El Centro, where a 14-year old boy was killed in a collision while riding an electric motorcycle; although for a change, the local paper distinguished the e-motorbike from a slower ped-assist ebike. Which doesn’t make his death any less tragic. But it does raise once again the question of whether kids too young to drive belong on such powerful bikes.

San Bernardino reopened the newly rebuilt Mt. Vernon Avenue Bridge after five years of work to repair the structurally deficient 1934 causeway, which now has two lanes in each direction, along with sidewalks and bike lanes.

A Kern County man will be sentenced in October after pleading no contest to the drunken hit-and-run that killed a 30-year old woman riding a bicycle over three years ago; prosecutors dropped a murder charge against Caleb Nathaniel Rodriguez for killing Raven Mora, which suggests Rodriguez has a previous DUI conviction on his record, making him eligible for the murder count.

No surprise here, as tariffs on steel and aluminum are causing delays and price increases at a Bakersfield bike shop. And probably every other bike shop in the US.

An op-ed in the UC Santa Barbara student newspaper argues in defense of bike helmets to navigate those “messy” bike lanes, something most college students usually forgo.

Great news from Richmond, where community advocate Najari Smith has re-opened the Rich City Rides bike co-op, after over a year after the shop was forced to close when burglars cleaned them out.

Sad news from North Oakland, where a Berkeley woman was killed by a driver when she allegedly rode her bicycle through a red light.

 

National

Over 1,000 people turned out on Saturday for the nearly 200-mile Seattle to Vancouver bike ride, marking the 45th anniversary of the event.

A Seattle man known around town for pulling his cello in a bright pink case on a bicycle trailer was lucky to escape serious injuries when he was run down from behind on a section of roadway where the mayor had cancelled planned safety improvements, including speed humps.

The local newspaper offers photos of the best bike parade costumes from New Belgium Brewery’s annual Tour de Fat fest as it returns to my Colorado hometown for the 26th year.

The 70-year old namesake and former owner of an upscale Minneapolis Italian restaurant is facing charges for running down a bike rider, then looking down at the unconscious victim and just saying “I didn’t see him,” before calmly driving back to work; the victim was struck when a driver in the right lane stopped and waved him across, and the semi-elderly driver in the left lane didn’t.

Indiana teenagers are lobbying the city to build a 1.5-mile, officially sanctioned trail to replace the DIY bike park officials had ordered destroyed.

A Texas software engineer finished a bike ride from New York’s Times Square to Miami Beach, while relying on the kindness of strangers along the way.

The parents of American diplomat Sarah Debbink Langenkamp are working to push a bike safety bill through Congress named in her honor, three years after she was killed while riding her bike in Maryland; the bill would close gaps in existing bike paths across the US.

The 14-year old boy on an electric dirt bike who killed a man riding a bicycle on Miami’s deadly Rickenbacker Causeway last week has been charged with driving without a license for killing the 54-year old victim after turning himself in to homicide investigators.

 

International

Edinburgh, Scotland claims to have learned its lessons from a previous attempt at operating a bikeshare system, hiring Swedish tech firm Voi to install a “more durable” ebike-based program after vandals destroyed bikes from the initial effort.

The leader of a Hertfordshire, England council hit back at protests saying an “insane” bike lane is coming to the aptly named Gallows Hill, urging residents “not to be misled.”

According to Cycling Weekly, ebike sales in the UK are being limited by a “perfect storm” of factors, as the country ranks 29th out of 30 European countries in adopting ebikes.

A British newspaper offers 20 family friendly bike routes across the UK and Ireland.

Nigerian cyclist Emmanuel Myam, aka Emmiwuks, arrived at the Liberian border, 55 days after setting out from his home to ride through Benin, Togo, Ghana and Cote D’Ivoire on his way to the US to call attention to the plight of children and vulnerable people displaced by conflicts on the African continent.

 

Competitive Cycling

Tragic news from Spain, where 17-year old Ivan Meléndez Luque was killed in a mass pileup when a tire blew out on his bike midway through the second stage of Spain’s Ribera del Duero road race championship, after he was a last-minute substitute for an injured teammate.

The WorldTour peloton paused for a moment of silence to honor Meléndez before the second stage of the Vuelta; the third stage of the Ribera del Duero was canceled as well, along with the remainder second stage.

Two-time Tour de France champ Jonas Vingegaard took both the second stage of the Vuelta and the red leader’s jersey on Sunday, getting back on his bike after crashing on the wet course.

Talk about a bad day. After French cyclist Axel Zingle dislocated his shoulder in crashing the second stage of the Vuelta, he dislocated it again reaching for a gel pack after they popped it back in. But he still managed to finish the stage — albeit dead last — even though someone stole his bike when he asked them to hold it so he could go back into the ambulance after the second dislocation.

British cyclist Finlay Pickering took a 124-mile cab ride from his home in Andorra to the airport in Toulouse, France, then caught a flight to Turin, Italy for the start of the Vuelta, after getting a last-minute call to fill in for an injured teammate.

Dutch pro Mathieu van der Poel is hanging up his road bike and switching to fat tires to focus on mountain biking for the remainder of the year; he finished his road season with a second place in Belgium’s Renewi Tour, behind overall winner Arnaud De Lie.

A 17-year old English track cyclist is now a European and World junior champ, just four years after Ioan Hepburn “pulverized” a kidney crashing his mountain bike before a race.

For some unknown reason, USA Today felt a need to catch us up on what’s going on with America’s seven-time ex-Tour de France champ 13 years after the scandal that ended his cycling career, as if anyone still cares. Or am I the only one who wishes he’d just go away?

 

Finally…

If you teach your kid not to leave his bike on the neighbor’s lawn, you won’t have to ask ’em to fix it after the sprinklers come on. How to stay comfy while riding sans pants.

And that feeling when your 80 mph DIY ebike tops the legal limit by a mere 65 mph.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: ,

WeHo petition supports convenience over safety, Pasadena’s invisible bicyclists, and is anyone in LA listening to voters?

August 22, 2025 / / 2 comments
Day 234 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

No surprise here.

A petition to oppose the redesign of deadly Fountain Ave in West Hollywood has over 2,300 signatures, proving once again that some people will always value their own convenience more than human lives.

Although that represents less than seven percent of the city’s population. And many of those signers are likely pass-through drivers from other cities, who are used to using the neighborhood street to bypass busier Santa Monica and Sunset Blvds.

Never mind that it has taken nearly a full year to draw those relatively few signatures.

But according to the somewhat less than unbiased WeHo Times,

Petition organizers argue Fountain is too narrow for the project and accuse city leaders of failing to adequately consult with residents, including those in adjacent Los Angeles neighborhoods. They point to other cities, including Culver City, Beverly Hills and South Pasadena, that have scaled back or removed bike lanes in response to public opposition.

Concerns listed in the petition include the diversion of an estimated 900 cars per hour to nearby Santa Monica and Sunset boulevards, the inability for cars to pull over for emergency vehicles or passenger drop-offs, and increased pollution from idling traffic. The project’s estimated cost is $35–40 million.

Not mentioned, however, are any benefits of the redesign, from slowing speeding drivers and improving safety for all road users to reducing noise pollution and revitalizing the residential corridor.

Nor is there any mention of the recent death of Blake Ackerman, who was killed by a hit-and-run driver while riding his bike home from work on Fountain just last month. Or any of the other people who have been killed or seriously injured just walking, biking or driving on the corridor.

There’s also no mention that both the sheriff’s department and the county fire department said the redesign would not affect their ability to respond to emergencies along the corridor.

A petition in support of the street makeover has gathered 612 signatures since it was posted in October. And yes, that includes mine.

There’s no mention of that, either.

Photo of protestors opposed to Fountain safety project by Joe Linton for Streetsblog.

………

No bias here.

After Pasadena’s mayor said he can’t see anyone riding bicycles on Union Street, a volunteer with the Pasadena Complete Streets Coalition planted tongue firmly in cheek, and conducted his own highly scientific study.

According to Jonah Kanner’s highly entertaining piece, bicyclists may be using advanced technology, such as an alien cloaking device, to remain hidden from view.

Mayor Victor Gordo, in January, 2024, noted that he is unable to see the cyclists, saying “… we’ve gotta be careful about that, now that we’ve seen what’s happening on Union Street. We were told there would be hundreds and thousands of bicyclists going back and forth—that’s— that’s not what we’ve seen.” Also tricked by the advanced technology, Pasadena Chamber of Commerce CEO Paul Little told the Planning Commission in July, 2025, “As we see with Union Street, the installation of millions of dollars in signals, curbs and re-striping has not significantly increased bicycle usage there.”

A recent study used sophisticated measurement techniques to reveal the invisible cyclists: the author stood on the corner of Lake and Union Street for about 20 minutes holding his phone. In that time, he was able to photograph more than 30 people riding bikes, both on the Union Street bike path and on Lake Avenue. Statistical analysis suggests that over the course of a whole day, a lot of people are riding bikes on Union Street.

Let’s not forget that the city is home to Caltech and a stone’s throw from the Jet Propulsion Lab. So advanced tech is not entirely out of the question.

Although based on the reaction from drivers, I seem to have been using some form of it since I bought my bike back when Reagan was president.

………

California Streetsblog editor Damien Newton says Angelenos are crying out for safe streets.

But he asks if anyone is listening, noting that eight appeals have already been filed against the city for failing to observe the requirements of Measure HLA, which mandates that the city mobility plan must be built out when streets are resurfaced or significantly re-striped.

The appeals, nearly all for missing crosswalks, come on the heels of the saga of the Stoner Park crosswalks where advocates painted crosswalks around the park, two of which were on a “Slow Street,” the city removed the crosswalks, and after bad press and intervention from the local City Councilmember re-installed the crosswalks. While it’s encouraging that in the end the crosswalks were installed, it shouldn’t be this hard.

In March of 2024, voters passed Measure HLA which required the city to implement its own mobility plan when completing repaving projects of a certain size. The popular measure received a majority of votes in all fifteen council districts while cruising to an easy victory. Since then the city dragged its feet, and nearly a year and a half after the measure was passed the city’s implementation ordinance went into effect on Monday. So did the ability of residents to appeal out-of-court if they believe the city is failing to implement the law.

It’s a good question, even though Los Angeles voters passed HLA with a two-thirds margin.

You would think that after that meany LA voters voiced a strong preference for safer and more livable streets, city leaders would be quick to respond.

But evidently, you’d be wrong.

………

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

Here’s a new one. Welsh residents opposed plans for a newly approved bike path because it would a) disturb a territorial dog, leading to excessive barking, and b) force the removal of a van that’s been parked in the area since 1990.

………

Local 

No news is good news, right?

 

State

The US head of Upway says California’s clean energy push is leaving low-income residents behind, even though ebikes and e-scooters are among the cleanest and least expensive transportation modes.

Yorba Linda is just the latest Orange County city to crackdown on ebike riders.

San Diego bike riders will have their annual opportunity to ride around the bay and across the San Diego-Coronado Bay Bridge when Bike the Bay returns this Sunday.

Sad news from Kern County, where an 81-year old man was killed by a driver while riding his bike on Tehachapi’s Highline Road yesterday morning.

San Francisco’s experiment with a carfree Market Street will come to an end next week, when the city will allow Waymo, Uber and Lyft to pick up and drop off passengers, in a move strongly opposed by local advocates.

 

National

Streetsblog’s Talking Headways Podcast speaks with NACTO Executive Director Ryan Russo about how to design and deliver bike networks.

The semi-legendary Tour de Fat returns to my bike-friendly Colorado hometown this weekend for the annual celebration of bikes and beer.

A Denver TV station listens to the concerns of regular bike riders and advocates, after reporting on the dangers faced by vulnerable road users in the Mile High City. So when was the last time a Los Angeles TV station did anything like that? Bueller? Bueller?

Perhaps taking a cue from LA’s successful Streets For All PAC, Chicago’s new Bike PAC political action committee launched to elect pro-bike candidates to the city council.

A 14-year old Miami e-dirt bike rider will face charges for riding without a license after killing a 54-year old man riding a bicycle last Friday.

 

International

Momentum takes another look at some of the world’s worst bike lanes.

A Toronto petition is calling for local venues to allow bike riders to bring their helmets into concerts and sporting events, without charging bag check fees up to $20.

Life is cheap in the UK, where a garbage truck driver walked without a day behind bars for killing an 11-year old boy riding his bike to school, after admitting to using his phone several times while driving prior to the crash.

Twenty-five percent of bike theft victims in England and Wales gave up bicycling completely after their bikes were stolen.

Turns out that the “incremental gains” theory developed by British cycling coach David Brailsford can help ranchers squeeze out a few more bucks in profit.

Police in the Netherlands are looking for a possible bike-riding suspect in the brutal murder of a 17-year old girl as she rode her bike home from a night out.

Another one bites the dust, as the Polish parent company of gravel bike brands Rondo, Creme Cycles, NS Bikes and Octane One has filed for bankruptcy after two to three “really tough years.”

The LCR Honda racing team will be down one rider at this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix, after Spanish motorcycle racer Aleix Espargaro injured his back in a bicycle crash.

The Indian city of Chandigarh discovered the hard way that using paving stones on cycle tracks isn’t compatible with heavy rain storms.

 

Competitive Cycling

Cyclist looks at the six Americans and two Canadians who will take part in the Vuelta, starting tomorrow.

Despite retiring last year while under investigation, French cyclist Franck Bonnamour was banned for four years, after the 30-year old former most most combative rider at the Tour de France showed signs of doping on his biological passport.

The co-founder of Formula Fixed wants to bring bike racing into the TikTok era, with stops including the District of Columbia, San Francisco and, yes, Los Angeles.

Mountain biker Ryan Standish makes a second attempt at setting the fastest known time from Fruita, Colorado to Moab, Utah along the Kokopelli and White Rim Trails after failing last year, traveling 310 miles with 26,000 feet of climbing through stunning desert landscapes.

 

Finally…

A new Ti bike could be yours for the low, low price of just 24 grand. Now you, too, can turn your expensive racing bike into a cargo bike.

And anyone can ride a century facing forward — so try doing it backwards.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
« Older Entries   Recent Entries »
Wordpress Theme by ThemeZee