Morning Links: LADOT & Ryu keep Rowena safe, Monterey bike news, and back when LA was a bike town

April 12, 2019 / / One comment

Chalk one up for the good guys.

After years of protests from traffic safety deniers and what turned out to be a relative handful of local residents, LADOT has decided to keep the highly successful road diet on Rowena Ave in place.

And surprisingly, Councilmember David Ryu, who many feared wanted to unceremoniously rip out the Rowena road diet — myself included — apparently saw the light, and went along with LADOT’s recommendation.

According to the Los Feliz Ledger, the results of a $90,000 traffic safety study demanded by opponents show the effectiveness of the half-mile Complete Streets project.

Among LADOT’s findings are that the road diet has reduced collisions, from an average of 12.4 per year in the five years prior to the road diet’s installation, to an average of 7.8 in the five years after. 

The city agency also found that mid-day traffic speeds went from 39 miles-per-hour both east and westbound pre-road diet to 36 miles-per-hour eastbound and remained at 39 miles-per-hour westbound post-road diet. 

Traffic volume on the street has remained consistent both before and after the road diet, according to the LADOT’s report.

Additionally, the department found, “Adjacent residential streets Waverly Drive and Angus Street … experienced no discernible increase or decrease in collisions after the implementation of the road reconfiguration.”

Meanwhile, an email forwarded to me from Scott Gamzon notes that the study calls for making the bike lanes on Rowena even safer.

It also includes a recommendation for protected bike lanes on Rowena: Enhanced Bikewav: Installation of the Rowena reconfiguration was intended to improve safety for all road users. Based on the growth in bicycle use along Rowena, upgrading the existing striped bike lane to accommodate a wider Class II buffered bike lane, or Class IV separated bikeway may provide additional safety to people bicycling. The street width can accommodate this facility without additional changes.


Adding: Implementing bike lanes was not a primary motivating factor for the road diet. Nonetheless, LADOT also reviewed bicycle counts along Rowena Avenue and found an increase in bicycle use during peak periods from a high of 14 to an average of 71 bike trips after the reconfiguration.

And Terence Heuston, aka LA Bike Dad, offered some good stats and insights on the subject.

Twitter post
Twitter post
Twitter post

It’s worth clicking on one of the tweets to read Heuston’s full Rowena thread. Because he lays out an effective roadmap to victory in the seemingly endless battles with traffic safety deniers that have cropped up throughout the LA area.

And allowed an angry, vocal minority to put a stop to too many desperately needed safety improvements.

But fortunately, not this one.

Thanks to Sean Meredith for the heads-up.

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In honor of the Sea Otter Classic, a Monterey County weekly took an in-depth look at bicycling in the area, with a series of articles in this week’s edition.

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‘Nuff said.

Twitter post

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Local

KABC-7 catches on to LA’s hit-and-run epidemic.

State

Newport Beach considers waving minimum parking requirements for Balboa Village, with one business owner saying that people should be riding bicycles on the island, anyway.

A new community park provides San Diego’s first free public parkour area and bike pump track.

A 42-year old salmon cyclist suffered serious injuries when he was struck by the driver of a commercial truck while riding in a Kearny Mesa bike lane Thursday morning. Which is just one more reminder to never ride against traffic if you can avoid it. It may seem safer to see the cars and trucks coming, but it actually increases your risk.

Sad news from Berkeley, where a man died suddenly, a month after he suffered a severely broken leg in a hit-and-run collision; however, the actual cause of death is yet to be determined.

Thanks to a Silicon Valley company an a boutique bikemaker, your next ebike could come with a 3D-printed, unibody carbon fiber frame.

National

A writer for Bicycling praises the health benefits of eating nuts. But fails to mention that eating too many is one of the best ways to get kidney stones, as I learned the hard way.

A Microsoft employee in Redmond WA credits riding his bike to work for saving a toddler’s life, after the 20-month old boy survived falling six stories through an open window, when he landed on the roof of the car the Microsoft worker had left behind.

Evidently, that fatal shooting of a bike rider in Las Vegas last month wasn’t a random act after all; police announced the arrest of a suspect, saying he’d had an altercation with the victim prior to the shooting.

A Denver bike shop is making waves in the industry by selling certified, pre-owned bicycles at reduced prices, while guaranteeing to buy them back at predetermined prices after 6, 12 or 18 months.

Am I the only one who sees a problem here? The owner of a Cleveland blue-collar bar fears the arrival of a bike path in front of his business because it will mean the loss of 12 to 15 parking spaces that people use to stop in and down a few drinks on their way home from work.

A New York councilmember says if you want a better bike network, and want to speed up the implementation of new bike lanes, take approvals from community boards out of the process.

Atlanta bicyclists plan to slow roll a major street during today’s morning rush hour to protest traffic danger and call for Complete Streets. As tempting as it is sometimes, we don’t win any friends by making people late to work, or keeping them from getting home at night.

Wednesday was Bike to Work Day in the Big Easy. LA’s version will take place next month, though the city has seen declining interest in recent years.

International

Curbed looks at how cities around the world are rewarding people who ditch their car commutes.

That’s more like it. Bogotá police are responding to a series of violent muggings of bike riders by assigning 170 officers to patrol the city’s bike lanes, along with 800 security cameras and a roving helicopter during the evening commute.

He gets it. A writer for a Canadian driving website says building more roads never was, still isn’t and never will be a solution to gridlock, because induced demand will just fill them again.

The Conversation says Canada’s best urban bike maps are made by volunteers with open source data. Something that’s just as true on the other side of the border.

Despite being annoyed at the “uncivilized” and “ridiculous” response, Hamilton, Ontario officials decide to back off on their ridiculously dangerous plan to allow parking in bike lanes. This is one case where a little uncivilized ridicule is entirely appropriate.

A new English survey shows that bicycling outdoors is on the decline, while cycling indoors is growing more popular, apparently because of the country’s “toxic road environment.”

Hundreds of members of an Irish bike club formed a hi-viz, spandex-clad color guard to honor a founding member who died suddenly while riding home with friends from a charity ride.

A Dublin paper has today’s candidate for the world’s worst headline — “No helmet, no chance if you come a cropper on your bike.” As if everyone who comes off a bike without one will die, and everyone who has one will be perfectly fine. Like the song says, it ain’t necessarily so.

A Kiwi columnist says it’s time for speeding bike riders to slow down.

An Australian advocacy group proposes paying people five dollars a day to bike to work. Which would probably be one of the most effective and least punitive ways to get people out of their cars.

Cycling Tips talks with the author of the Aussie study that shows bike lanes may be more dangerous than streets without them. However, before anyone starts demanding their removal, it’s important to consider that this study only examined how closely drivers pass riders in painted lanes, and not actual collision and injury rates. Other studies have shown that painted lanes improve safety by up to 50%.

Bike-hating former Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson says swapping his car for a bike during a year in Southeast Asia left him a broken man, but in far better shape. Sure, let’s go with that.

Competitive Cycling

Geraint Thomas and Michał Kwiatkowski were cleared to keep riding after a mass crash that took out much of the peloton on the Tour of the Basque Country; the jury is still out on Julian Alaphilippe,

Finally…

Like cocaine, Peloton bikes are “God’s way of saying you have too much money.” If it has e-assist pedals and four wheels, is it still a bike?

And if you’re going to take a food delivery man’s bike, make sure you can ride it.

Category: Morning Links / Tags: ,

Morning Links: Safety improvements on Riverside Drive, and bike riding makes you happier than money

April 11, 2019 / / Comments Off on Morning Links: Safety improvements on Riverside Drive, and bike riding makes you happier than money

Just weeks after advocates and local residents demanded action on Riverside Drive, they’re actually getting it.

LADOT has announced it’s making safety improvements to the Riverside Drive intersection where 17-year old Christian Vega was killed when he was struck by a driver.

Although that news is tempered by the LAPD’s conclusion that the driver wasn’t at fault, after security video showed that Vega was crossing against the light.

Now if we could just get fast action like that before someone gets killed.

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Somehow we missed this one last week.

A new study from researchers at Yale and Oxford shows that exercise makes you happier then money.

But you already knew that, right?

Then again, riding a bike with a fat wallet would probably put a smile on anyone’s face.

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That GoFundMe account for the son of fallen South LA bike rider Frederick “Woon” Frazier is now over $5,000, halfway to the $10,000 goal.

That comes just 24 hours after Peter Flax’s article appeared in Bicycling with a link to the fund.

Which will undoubtedly come as a huge blessing to his desperately poor family, after losing Woon’s income that helped pay for half their rent and expenses.

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Local

This is who we share the roads with. Even Rolls Royce drivers in DTLA don’t seem to feel a need to stick around after a crash.

CiclaValley goes gravel biking on the Santa Clara Truck Trail.

State

This is who we share the roads with too. An Orange County man got 15 years behind bars for killing two road workers in a drunken crash when he slammed into their truck as it was stopped in a bike lane; he was arraigned on a previous DUI in 2014, but never bothered to show up to court.

He gets it. A San Diego letter writer says painting sharrows on the street to encourage more bicycling is just wishful thinking.

A Corona teacher started a nonprofit called Bicycles for Children, which has helped keep kids in school by donating over 4,700 bikes to elementary school kids in the last seven years.

A 13-year old Los Alamos boy who was riding salmon suffered major injuries when he was struck by a right-turning driver.

National

Bike Mag explains the differences in the technologies behind various helmets designed to reduce your risk of concussion. Although the best way to avoid a concussion is to stay on your bike.

An Oregon paper says stop means stop, and bicyclists shouldn’t be any exception.

So much for U-locks. A pair of Denver bike thieves are caught on video using a grinder to cut through a Kryptonite U-lock and steal the bike in just 12 seconds, start to finish. And when the owner opened the app for his Tile tracking device, he found two years worth of weak battery notices and no clue where his bike was.

A Green Bay Packer tradition of borrowing a kid’s bike to ride to the first day of practice led one player to develop a lasting friendship with the boy whose bike he borrowed. And organizing a benefit concert when the boy’s father went into a coma suffering from necrotizing fasciitis.

Chicago’s transit authority says combination bus and bike lanes could be the solution to a faster commute.

When his bike turns up missing, along with the entire storage unit it was in, Minnesota man decides it can’t hurt to enlist the help of every elected official this side of the president in the hunt.

A Cleveland site asks if Vision Zero is the answer, saying the city’s bicyclists and pedestrians need more than a little paint on the street. The clear answer is yes — if, and only if, political leaders fully commit to the program, and have the courage to stand up to angry drivers. Unlike a certain SoCal metropolis we could name.

Maybe you should check under your bed. A Boston family did, and discovered a long-lost masterpiece by a Nigerian artist that hadn’t been seen since it was first exhibited in 1961. The painting, worth an estimated $100,000, shows four children on bicycles swerving out of the way of a truck. Something we can all relate to.

A group of Massachusetts bicyclists will ride to the Statue of Liberty in support of immigrants.

No bias here. A New York TV station sounds the alarm about “two-wheeled terrors” racing along a Hudson River path, after a four-year old girl was left bloodied when she was struck by someone on a bike. Somehow, the reporter seemed shocked when other bike riders refused to offer a collective mea culpa for the actions of one person. But we all need to slow down and ride safely around pedestrians, especially kids.

A Brooklyn jury gave a man a massive $110 million judgment after he was paralyzed when transit worker dropped a railroad tie on him while he was riding his bike next to an elevated subway track.

Great idea. A New York state legislator wants to use traffic cameras to crack down on people who drive or park in bike lanes. Can we do that here? Pretty please?

In yet another example of keeping dangerous drivers on the road until it’s too late, a woman in New York state killed a man on a bike in a drunken crash, despite six previous license suspensions. A driver should lose their license for at least a year after their first DUI. And have their driver’s license revoked after a second offense — and the car impounded so they can’t keep driving it anyway.

A South Carolina firefighter decides to adopt the puppy he rescued from under a pile of rocks, after some bike riders heard the dog crying; naturally, he named the dog Rocky.

No bias here, either. A witness told a Louisiana TV station that a bike rider collided with the front of a car, which had the green light. Unless the rider rode head-on into the car, the driver hit the bicyclist. And chances are, the “witness” was inside the car at the time, since they described the victim as coming out of nowhere, which is an unlikely observation from someone on the street.

Apparently taking a clue from Los Angeles, mostly white-haired St. Petersburg residents rise up against “lane loss,” as the city moves forward with its Complete Streets program. Because why would you want a street that safely serves everyone when you can continue to go “vroom, vroom,” instead.

International

Cars are killing us without even hitting us. A new study shows that pollution from car exhaust causes four million cases of asthma worldwide every year. And never mind what it’s doing to the planet.

Treehugger says 37,000 lives could have been saved over the past 25 years with lower speed limits.

A London ebike maker will pay its employees the equivalent of 68¢ a mile to ditch their cars and commute by ebike; workers who prefer traditional bikes will get just 26¢.

Life is cheap in the UK, where a retired woman was convicted of killing a bike rider in a collision. Yet the judge said she wouldn’t sentence her to jail because the death resulted from “a second or two moments” of inattention. Sort of like most crashes, fatal or otherwise.

A British expat discovers a bicycling paradise in Spain.

Police in an Australian town were forced to delete a victim blaming tweet after a driver hit a seven-year old bike-riding girl, when outraged Twitter users rose up to complain.

An Australian study suggests that bike lanes actually increase the risk for bicyclists, because drivers pass riders in bike lanes closer than they do otherwise.

The price is going up for China’s dockless bikeshare.

Competitive Cycling

Olympic gold-medal cyclist Marty Nothstein filed suit against USA Cycling, alleging the organization defamed him and invaded his privacy by leaking an allegation of sexual misconduct during his failed run for congress.

Lance talks doping to Rice University students, saying he started because everyone else was doing it. And would have won even if he hadn’t doped. Which kind of begs an obvious question...

Finally…

Your next helmet could collapse so your head doesn’t. If you’re carrying weed, meth and a narcotic pill on your bike, put a damn light on it, already.

And your next handlebars could be as kinky as you are.

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , ,

Morning Links: Tearjerking look at Woon tragic death, Pasadena flirts with e-bikeshare, and fix for Spring St

April 10, 2019 / / Comments Off on Morning Links: Tearjerking look at Woon tragic death, Pasadena flirts with e-bikeshare, and fix for Spring St

Seriously, they’re just trying to make us cry now.

Just days after Sahra Sulaiman’s moving story on how Frederick “Woon” Frazier’s mom is coping with the death of her only son a year later, former Bicycling editor-in-chief Peter Flax steps up with a heartbreaking look of his own for his former publication.

And no coincidence, in either case, that today is the one-year anniversary of needless, cowardly hit-and-run that took his life.

Or that, despite the announcement of pending charges against the speeding, uninsured driver who left him to die in the street — then attempted to coverup her crime by repainting her Porsche Cayenne — no charges have actually been filed a full year later.

Even though she turned herself in and confessed to the crime when investigators were closing in on her.

Maybe they’re waiting for today to do it with a big splash.

We can only hope.

Flax describes the day of Woon’s death in painful new detail.

When Woon got to the busy intersection of Normandie and Manchester avenues, less than a mile from home, he arced a slow right turn. Almost instantly, the Porsche was upon him. A nearby security camera caught the moment when a driver in a white Cayenne, who had been speeding in the gutter lane, closed the gap to Woon’s rear wheel and struck him from behind.

The impact was fierce, more than enough to shatter the rear triangle of his carbon-fiber frame. Then the driver took off, leaving Woon to die on Manchester Avenue before an ambulance could take him to the hospital.

Perhaps an hour after her son left the house, Owens (Woon’s mother) heard a knock on her door. On the front step stood three LAPD officers. One detective pushed up his shades—his eyes were red, Owens recalled—and told her that Woon had been in a crash and didn’t make it.

It’s a must read, as Flax delves into the extreme loss, emotionally, physically and financially, for a family that can least afford it, in any sense. Yet refuses to give up on long-delayed justice, even without hope of a civil judgement.

But be sure to have some tissues on hand.

Flax ends his story with a visit to Woon’s ghost bike. And an unexpected encounter, as a monthly South LA group ride came pedaling by.

Everyone was staring and shouting at the ghost bike. Two dudes popped synchronized wheelies. 

I later recalled something Owens told me that afternoon. She and her son had been talking about the dangers of riding a bike in South Central, and Woon looked up at his mother and tried to reassure her. “Don’t worry, Momma,” he said. “If something happens to me, they’ll ride for me.” She said she didn’t understand it then, but she understood it now.

A Latino guy on a tricked-out fixie was riding shotgun at the back of the Fixie Goons. As he passed the ghost bike, we made eye contact for a second. Then he titled his head back and shouted to the sky: “Long live Woon!”

Long live Woon, indeed.

Although the best part of Flax’s story isn’t even part of it.

He mentions, almost in passing, the crowdfunding page set up for Woon’s three-month old son.

Sitting in the small and crowded living room in South Central, Beverly Owens spent a few hours talking about her son and her heartbreak, but there was one more bittersweet disclosure to come. On the day of Woon’s funeral, Owens said, his girlfriend found out she was pregnant. 

The baby is three months old now. The boy’s mother is trying to raise him on her own, but it’s tough. An ongoing GoFundMe campaign helped buy a crib and car seat, but diapers are expensive. A settlement in civil court would have really make a difference for the people Woon left behind.

When I last checked the GoFundMe site on Sunday night, it had been languishing at just over $1,000 for four full months.

But within hours of Flax’s story appearing online, it had jumped to over $3,000. And now sits at $3,555 as of this writing.

A happy ending to a very sad story.

Photo of Woon’s mom looking at his photo from GoFundMe page.

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In a surprise announcement, Pasadena may be getting back into the bikeshare business.

Less than a year after pulling the plug on the Metro Bike docked bikeshare program, the city is considering buying into an ebike bikeshare proposed by San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments.

The program will roll out 1,000 bikes which can be ridden in ped-assist or fully electric mode, across ten SGV cities.

Just don’t plan on riding an e-scooter in the Rose City anytime soon.

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It looks like LADOT heard the complaints about the notorious Spring Street parking lane protected bike lane, and will be making some much needed improvements soon.

At least, we can hope they’ll be improvements.

Twitter post
Twitter post

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

A San Francisco driver chased a man on a bike and intentionally ran him down with his car after the two got into an argument; fortunately, the victim wasn’t seriously hurt.

Yet somehow, police inexplicably failed to make an arrest.

Something tells me they wouldn’t let the suspect go if he’d pistol whipped the victim, which is no different in any real sense than using a motor vehicle as a weapon.

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Usually I’m loathe to share a commercial TV spot on here, especially for an insurance company. And especially without getting paid for it.

But this gecko-less Geico semi-PSA is worth a small exception.

Thanks to David Drexler for the heads-up.

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A new Mobility Lab video shows that walkers and bike riders are the happiest commuters.

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Local

Work has finally begun on the new bike and pedestrian bridge across the LA River using the piers originally used by the Red Car trolleys, which will allow access for people on bikes and on foot to cross the river once work begins on remaking the Glendale-Hyperion Bridge.

Riders using the Expo Line bike path will have to deal with a three-year detour — 1,096 long days (don’t forget leap year) — for construction of an oddly spelled “creative” high-rise office complex at Jefferson and National.

Not everyone likes LA’s demand that dockless bikeshare and e-scooter companies share their usage data with the city; the Electronic Frontier Foundation says the ride tracking pilot program is out of control. Thanks to Steve S for the link.

A Santa Clarita man was seriously injured when he was hit by the driver of a car while riding his bicycle on Sunday; a witness worried the victim would never walk again. Meanwhile, Santa Clarita collisions are down 24% since the implementation of the city’s Head’s Up safety campaign.

The Laemmle theater chain — run by bike-riding former LACBC board member Greg Laemmle — will screen The Bikes of Wrath, a documentary following five Australians as they ride from Oklahoma to California, following the westward Okie migration described in Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath. Thanks to Keith Johnson for the heads-up.

State

San Diego gives the boot to DecoBike, operator of the city’s docked bikeshare, alleging an unspecified breach of contract.

How about a three-day self-paced bike tour through the wine country surrounding Los Olivos?

National

Walmart is moving beyond their typical low-end bicycle shaped objects to introduce a high-end mountain bike selling for up to $6,000.

The question of how many bike shops there are in the US, and whether they’re shrinking or expanding, depends on how you define “bike shop.”

A Seattle radio station offers a discussion on how to ride a bike in a town without enough bike lanes. Which is probably required listening for all of us here in America’s Worst Bike City.

Bike Mag takes a ride in the heat, thorns and amazing desert blooms around Tucson AZ.

I want to be like her when I grow up. A 77-year old Chicago grandmother stops by the Grand Canyon on a cross-country bike ride, as part of a group of 14 senior citizens riding across the US the hard way, going east to west headfirst into the prevailing winds.

Once again, a bicyclist visiting this country has been killed, this time in New Mexico, where an Australian man was run down from behind by an “inattentive” driver. There’s something terribly wrong when someone can’t ride a bike while visiting this country without getting shipped back home in a coffin.

There’s a special place in hell for the Texas thief who rode off with a nine-year old boy’s bicycle as he pleaded with him not to take it.

A bike-riding Maine letter writer freaks out at the sight of a group of bicyclists riding two abreast, which appears to be perfectly legal in the state. Besides, anyone who uses the too-tired phrase that bicycling is a two-way street belongs in cliche jail.

Now that’s more like it. Cambridge, Massachusetts has passed a first-in-the-nation ordinance requiring it to add permanent protected bike lanes anytime they reconstruct a road in the city’s bike plan. LA advocates fought for a clause like that when the bike plan was adopted. Needless to say, we didn’t get very far.

Seriously? A Massachusetts TV station reminds viewers to wear a helmet when they ride a bike, after someone sent them a photo of a helmetless rider popping a wheelie in the middle of a busy intersection. Call me crazy, but I’d think better advice would be don’t pop wheelies in intersections. with or without one.

International

A new study shows the cognitive and psychological benefits of bicycling are the same whether you pedal yourself or let an ebike do it for you. So just get out there and ride, already.

Argentina’s national soccer coach Lionel Scaloni is one of us; he was lucky to escape with a few cuts and bruises when he was hit by a driver while riding in Spain. Just a pity that we too often find out who rides a bike when they get knocked off one.

Montreal tried to close a popular park to motor vehicles after a bike rider was killed — then reopened it after motorists rose up in anger. Which might sound familiar to anyone who remembers LA’s Playa del Rey fiasco.

Adventure cyclist Ishbel Holmes set out on an around-the-world bicycle tour, only to adopt a stray dog in Turkey that she says changed her life forever.

Competitive Cycling

British Continental cyclist Ian Bibby said he’s devastated after thieves broke into his garage and stole his bike.

Cyclist considers the favorites for Sunday’s infamous Hell of the North, aka Paris-Roubaix.

Minnesota’s North Star Grand Prix launched a crowdfunding campaign to make up a $200,000 shortfall in funding in their planned comeback as a UCI women’s race.

And this is how you give a post-race interview.

https://twitter.com/RondeVlaanderen/status/1114898860869074945?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1114898860869074945&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cyclingweekly.com%2Fnews%2Fracing%2Fcecilie-uttrup-ludwig-gives-hilarious-post-race-interview-finishing-third-womens-tour-flanders-413194

Thanks to J. Patrick Lynch for that one.

Finally…

Discovering that bike riding can actually be fun if you try. Why did a bike-riding Domino’s worker get run down with a full load of Little Caesars pizzas?

And adding insult to injury.

Literally.

Category: Morning Links / Tags: ,

Morning Links: Report of fatal bike crash in Gardena, what not to do on a bike, and an oopsie vehicular assault

April 9, 2019 / / 2 comments

Unfortunately, we have to start with bad news today.

I’ve received an unconfirmed report from a credible source that a bike rider was killed in a collision with the driver of a big rig truck in Gardena yesterday.

There’s nothing in the news yet, and no notice from the Gardena police.

Which sadly, isn’t too unusual.

We’ll let you know when there’s more information.

Update: I’ve been informed that the crash actually occurred on the other side of the 110 Freeway at South Broadway near 157th in unincorporated West Rancho Dominguez.

However, there’s still no official confirmation, and nothing in the news.

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A Virginia bike rider stars in his own what not to do video.

Seriously, try to remember that red lights and right-of-way laws exist for a reason.

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

A Dallas-area man intentionally rammed his car into a 13-year old boy in a case of mistaken identity; the victim was just sitting on his bike waiting to ride into the crosswalk when the man drove into him, thinking he was someone else.

Let’s hope an “Oops, my bad” isn’t enough this time.

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Local

Police are looking for a gunman who rode his bicycle up to a man in South LA and shot him to death around midnight Sunday night.

Curbed catches up with LA’s new plan to create permanent memorials for people killed on bikes. But fails to mention that the city will only post 20 year. So unless Vision Zero succeeds in lowering the city’s rate of bicycling fatalities, someone will be left out.

E-scooters finally invade DTLA. It will be interesting to see what effect, if any, they have on Downtown’s docked Metro Bike bikeshare.

Santa Monica-based Bird has reportedly taken repair of their eponymous scooters in-house; a lawsuit alleges the company told freelance mechanics to ignore loose screws and wobbly parts.

State

San Francisco’s popular semi-protected Wiggle bike route puts bike riders at risk by abruptly throwing them into traffic in dangerous mixing zones.

The New York Times examines the heartbreaking story of Olympic cyclist and Stanford math grad student Kelly Catlin, who took her own life just months after suffering a head injury while racing.

National

People for Bikes announced it is merging operations with fellow industry nonprofit Bicycle Product Suppliers Association, allowing the two groups to speak to government leaders with a single, unified voice. Which is only slightly repetitively redundant.

One by one, micromobility companies are throwing in the towel on dockless bikeshare in favor of scooters.

Business Insider lists five tools every home bike mechanic needs for easy repairs. Although I’ve somehow managed to ride nearly four decades without needing any of them, except for the torque wrench.

Oregon considers importing half of the Idaho Stop Law from their neighbor to the east, allowing bike riders to treat stop signs and flashing red lights as yields, but still requiring them to come to a full stop at red lights.

A Nogales AZ man has gone from being a bike skeptic to a bicycling evangelist in just a few years, founding a weekly ride that started with three people and building to over 100. And they don’t take excuses from prospective riders, providing bikes, helmets and lights to anyone without them.

A local paper says suburban Illinois bike riders want a little respect from drivers. Personally, I don’t care if they respect me, as long as give me some space, leave me alone and don’t run over my ass.

Ouch. A Pittsburgh woman is suing REI, alleging that they failed to properly install or adjust the stem on her bike, causing her handlebars to drop while she was riding and throwing her into a concrete barrier.

I want to be like them when I grow up. A bike club composed of riders ranging from 68 to 94 is taking to the streets around their North Carolina retirement community. Not to mention these bike-born AARP badasses call themselves the Cyclepaths.

No bias here. After a Baton Rouge LA bike rider was found lying dead in a ditch just a block from his home, police concluded that he was the victim of a traffic collision. But insisted there was no foul play, even though the driver who apparently killed him was nowhere to be found. Evidently, leaving someone to die alone in a ditch just isn’t considered foul in the Pelican State.

International

No bias here, either. After an Alberta police chief witnesses several distracted pedestrians put themselves in danger, he watches a lone bike rider roll a red light. But feels the need to stress that bicyclists must share responsibility.

Um, okay. A Canadian triathlon magazine offers tips on how run faster off the bike. Because it’s so hard to run on one, apparently.

A 71-year old English driver offers yet another reminder that no one, ever, comes out of nowhere. Not even a 58-year old bike rider dressed in hi-viz.

Horrible story from the UK, where a 15-year old boy has been charged with murder after allegedly throwing a bicycle into the path of a motorcyclist.

Britain’s Lord Winston, who says he only dislikes scofflaw bicyclists even though his anti-bike proposals target everyone on two wheels, is now calling for bike riders to be required to carry some sort of electronic tags that can presumably be read by some sort of device for no apparent purpose.

You can no longer ride your moped in Amsterdam bike lanes.

We need this here. A German app not only names and shames drivers by posting photos of their vehicles blocking bike lanes, it automatically notifies the appropriate authorities to — hopefully — do something about it.

According to Vox, Barcelona is attempting to shatter the dominance of motor vehicles by creating a network of superblocks where “pedestrians, cyclists and citizens mix in safety.” So that means people who walk or ride bikes aren’t citizens, right?

The Philippines is considering legislation that would create the equivalent of a nearly five-foot passing law.

Budget ebike maker Xiaomi has introduced a ped-assist bike capable of going 50 miles on a single charge for less than $400. But once again, if you’re not in China, you’re out of luck for now.

Competitive Cycling

This is the cost of traffic violence. Five members of the Bahrain National Cycle Team were seriously injured by a distracted driver while on a training ride, with three suffering what was described as severe injuries, when the texting driver swerved into the peloton — even though the team’s coach was following the group with a danger sign.

Peter Kennaugh, a veteran cyclist from the Isle of Man, has decided to step away from pro cycling to focus on his mental heath and well-being; Bicycling considers what we can learn from his painful decision.

Finally…

Your next ebike could fold in just 10 seconds. Who says you can’t go to college to study bicycle design and fabrication?

And at least he didn’t try to stuff the bike into his pants.

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , ,

Morning Links: Heartbreaking story of justice at last for Woon, $1000 bike theft reward, and war on bikes goes on

April 8, 2019 / / Comments Off on Morning Links: Heartbreaking story of justice at last for Woon, $1000 bike theft reward, and war on bikes goes on

Call it today’s must read.

Streetsblog’s Sahra Sulaiman writes movingly about the needless death of Frederick “Woon” Frazier in South LA last year.

And the justice that may finally be in the offing, with charges finally pending against the young woman who ran him down while speeding in the parking lane, and left him to die in the street.

As well as the heartbreaking effect the loss of her only son — and the father of her newly born grandson — has had on his mother.

“Look what you did. Look what you created!” he repeated, still marveling over how strong he had become. “I love you, Momma – you know you my queen.”

“I love you, too, son,” she said.

“I’m about to go out here, I’m bout to ride my bike. I’m bout to have me a good day,” he said, smiling. “I feel good today, Momma. Man, I’m free…”

Five minutes later, he was dead.

Seriously, if you can get through this story without tears in your eyes — or anger over a city where people on bicycles are nothing more than car fodder — you’re a stronger person than I am.

And don’t get me started about the heartlessness it takes to leave another human being bleeding in the street.

Or the snail’s pace of justice that takes a full year to file charges after the driver confessed.

I’ve been a fan of Sulaiman’s writing for years, ever since I briefly worked with her as a guest editor for Streetsblog.

But this may just be the best work she’s ever done.

A fundraiser and memorial ride will be held for Frederick “Woon” Frazier next Sunday. And a crowdfunding page for his son is still open, having raised just over $1,000 of the $10,000 goal.

………

There’s now a $1,000 reward for the thief who rode off with a $5,000 road bike from a Costa Mesa bike shop.

………

The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes goes on. And on.

A Toronto man faces a charge of attempted murder for whacking a 40-year old bike rider with a golf club, knocking him off his bicycle; the victim was hospitalized with life-threatening injuries.

………

Local

Nineteen-year old Lenrey Briones was accused of being the bike-riding South LA Slasher who permanently disfigured seven people in a series of random knife attacks; he’s charged with seven counts of aggravated mayhem, two counts of attempted aggravated mayhem and one count of attempted second-degree robbery.

This is who we share the roads with. You know you’re drunk when you back through a Culver City intersection, hit a parked car, then pass out while you’re being frisked. Thanks to Ted Faber for the heads-up.

State

Officials in Carlsbad says bad behavior by scofflaw mountain bikers is destroying the city’s nature preserve. Seriously, always ride with respect for the environment. And stick to the damn trails.

A San Diego man will receive a whopping $20 million settlement for a solo bike crash that left him confined to a wheelchair after riding into an open construction trench in the Sorrento Valley; the city is on the hook for $1.5 million of that. Although something tells me he’d give back every penny just to be able to walk and ride a bike again.

A BMX rider from San Diego ran off to join the circus. And came back this week as one of five BMX riders performing with Volta by Cirque du Soleil.

Apple Valley police are looking for a bike-riding burglar who broke into a coffee shop early Saturday; he should be recognizable by a “distinct” mustache and mismatched wheels on his bike.

Sounds about right. Concord conducted its own traffic safety crackdown on Saturday, ticketing 33 drivers, 27 pedestrians — and just two bicyclists.

CBS looks back at a 20-year old 60 Minutes story about a Citrus Heights man who got 35 to life for stealing a bicycle under the state’s three strikes law; he finally got out after 19 years.

National

Now that’s more like it. A Flagstaff AZ city intern is mapping every sign, trashcan, bench, bollard and fence on the city’s 54-mile trail system to upload it to the city’s digital mapping system. It would be nice if Los Angeles did something similar so they had some idea what the hell is going on with our trail and bikeway system. And notice I didn’t use the work “network,” because it ain’t even close to being one.

A nonprofit bike advocacy group in my bike-friendly hometown is looking for a new executive director.

Arkansas is three months away from being just the second state to implement the full Idaho Stop Law. California could have been, but opposition from truckers, AAA and the CHP killed it every time it’s been introduced in the legislature.

Wisconsin’s new Democratic governor wants to restore the ability of state and local governments to use eminent domain to build bike and pedestrian paths.

Don’t mess with mom. A Georgia man is behind bars after an angry mother tracked down her son’s stolen bicycle online, and identified it for police.

She gets it. The mayor of New Orleans introduces a bike safety initiative by reminding residents that we are all traffic. And the tips for motorists are on target — especially reminders that harassing bike riders is illegal, and to expect to see bicyclists in the traffic lanes.

Speaking of the Big Easy, an op-ed by an urban planner says the city’s rules and roadways are stacked against bicyclists and pedestrians.

International

Even Havana, Cuba has a new public-private bikeshare system, and bike lanes to support it.

A former Canadian cop saved a life on a busy Hawaiian road when he stopped in the middle of a descent to shepherd a rare triceratops-like chameleon to safety; the lizard clearly took a liking to him, following his bike across the roadway, then climbing up on his seat to say hi.

British police arrested an 18-year old serial bike thief after five weeks on the run; he was convicted in absentia on five counts each of stealing and damaging bicycles

An English father wants to know why his son is still behind bars, 12 years after he was convicted of stealing a bicycle when he was 17.

An Irish writer describes what he calls the six kinds of bike riders you’ll meet in Dublin, saying they’re all crazy. Or as he puts it, “Cycling in Dublin always felt like the behavior of post-Catholic masochists to me, stubborn fools at war with reality.” Meanwhile, the Irish Times says at least ten percent of the city’s transportation budget should be devoted to bicycling.

Obeying the law on your bike could get you a cash prize in Dubai.

A 65-year old Pakistani blacksmith is turning heads with his homemade double-decker tall bike. Just more evidence that we have more in common with people from other cultures than we might realize.

Yes, we have to avoid angry drivers, but at least we don’t have to dodge ‘roos.

He gets it, too. The mayor of the ancient Nepalese city of Patan wants to rectify past errors and revitalize the city through a new emphasis on bicycling, saying he wants to correct the “fundamentally flawed perception that new and wide roads are a solution.”

Competitive Cycling

Twenty-five-year old Italian pro Alberto Bettiol scored his first career victory with a surprise eleven-mile solo breakaway in the grueling Tour of Flanders.

The women’s triathlon team from my hometown university swept the podium at this year’s Collegiate Club National Championships.

UCI declares a turf war, ordering cyclists not to participate in an e-mountain bike race sanctioned by a motorcycling group.

Finally…

Pizza delivery rider by day, crime fighter by night. If you’re going to review a kid’s bike, might as well let a kid do it.

And before you jump out to attack a bicyclist, remember to put your car in park.

Category: Injuries and Fatalities / Tags: ,

Man killed riding bike in Rancho Mirage collision; second fatal Coachella Valley bicycle crash in two weeks

April 6, 2019 / / 4 comments

Maybe it’s time to ask what the hell is going on in the Coachella Valley.

Because for the second time in less than two weeks, a Coachella Valley bike rider has been killed in a collision, this time in Rancho Mirage.

According to the Desert Sun, the victim was riding east across busy Bob Hope Drive in the crosswalk on Casino, in front of the Agua Caliente Casino, round 1:30 pm Friday when he was struck by the driver of a car headed north on Bob Hope.

The man, identified only as an elderly man or senior citizen, died after being taken to a local hospital.

There’s no word on who had the green light, or why the driver apparently didn’t notice an older man on a bicycle in the crosswalk directly in front of him.

The driver stayed at the scene and cooperated with police, and did not appear to be under the influence.

This comes less than two weeks after a Canadian man was fatally injured in a collision just eleven miles away in Indian Wells — at least the fourth bike rider killed in the Coachella Valley in the last year, according to the Desert Sun.

Which would make this man the fifth bicyclist to die in the valley, where surface streets are too often designed like freeways, encouraging drivers to exceed the already too high speed limits.

And what little bicycling infrastructure there is does far too little to keep riders safe.

Anyone with any information is urged to call the Riverside County Sheriff’s department at 760/836-1600.

This is at least the 18th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the third I’m aware of in Riverside County.

Update: The victim has been identified as 77-year old Palm Springs resident Jack Peterson.

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

Category: Injuries and Fatalities / Tags: , , ,
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