Day 162 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025.
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Streetsblog provides a halftime report from the California legislature, as bills move to one house after passing in the other.
Or die an ignominious death upon failing.
Among the winners so far are AB 954, aka The Bike Highways Bill, and AB 891, Quick-Build Project Pilot Program.
The former would set up a pilot program to connect existing bikeways into bike highways, while the latter would instruct Caltrans to use quick-build designs to improve state roads.
Among the other bills also passing in the Assembly was AB 366, allowing interlock devices for drivers convicted of DUI.
Bills passing in the state Senate included SB 71, streamlining CEQA environmental review requirements for public transportation, bike and pedestrian projects that would reduce car dependency.
Also passing the Senate was SB 445, which imposes a deadline on local agencies to review permits for Complete Streets and sustainable transportation projects.
Dying for this year were a bill that would have placed a statewide bond issue to fund sustainable transportation projects on next year’s California ballot, and one to allow victims of climate disasters or their insurers to sue oil companies to recoup their losses.
Meanwhile, the long awaited Stop As Yield, aka Idaho Stop, law that would allow California bike riders to treat stop signs as yields — and possibly roll through red lights after coming to a complete stop — will have to wait until we have a new governor in two years.
It wasn’t introduced this year because Gavin Newsom already vetoed two previous versions of the bill.
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This is why people keep dying on our streets.
Life is cheap in Los Altos, where a man walked without a day behind bars for the distracted driving death of a 38-year old woman riding a bicycle after he was sentenced to probation and community service; he had faced up to six years for felony vehicular manslaughter. Not a single year, as the story suggests.
And life is equally cheap in Michigan, where a former cop walked without a day behind bars for killing an 83-year old man riding a bicycle, after he was sentenced to 12 lousy months of probation; the victim had just finished a ride across the country, and was on his way back home to Florida.
So what’s the point of even having traffic laws, if overly lenient judges won’t even hold drivers accountable for killing someone when they break them?
Just saying “oopsie” shouldn’t be good enough.
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Local
No news is good news, right?
State
A San Francisco woman has filed suit against Waymo after she was doored by the passenger of a Waymo self-driving cab, and prevented from taking evasive action by another Waymo cutting across the bike lane.
A new website tells you everything you always wanted to know about where and how to bike in and around Lake Tahoe. Okay, not literally in, unless you’ve invested in waterproof bike lube.
National
CNN recommends the best bike shorts for a more comfortable ride, according to “seasoned cyclists.” Which raised the question of how were they seasoned, and whether they should be grilled, baked or air fried.
The rich get richer, as Platinum-level Bicycle Friendly Community Boulder, Colorado could soon get a protected bike lane on a dangerous stretch of one of the city’s main drags.
Kindhearted residents of five Iowa counties collected over 200 donated bicycles to restore and distribute to community members.
That’s more like it. A 25-year old Missouri woman was sentenced to ten years behind bars for the drunken collision that killed a 25-year old man riding a bicycle last year.
Hundreds of people turned out for a Slow Roll memorial ride to remember a 38-year old Ohio woman who was killed when an 18-year old driver crossed onto the wrong side of the road, slamming head-on into her and another woman riding their bikes together, along with a third person who escaped the crash. Maybe if we had a turnout like that when someone gets killed here, we could see some real change in LA, for a change.
This is how Vision Zero should work. An Ohio city received a $1.4 million grant to install new sidewalks and shared-use paths where two young boys were struck by a driver while riding their bikes last year; a nine-year old boy was killed, while a 10-year old survived with serious injuries.
Streetsblog says if New York’s mayor really wants to improve traffic safety, the city should take advantage of a one-year old state law allowing it to lower speed limits to 20 mph, rather than scapegoating ebike riders, since NYC drivers injure over 9,600 pedestrians each year, leaving less than 40 due to all other causes.
Speaking of New York, the highly publicized crackdown on ebike riders is turning out to be, in the words of the bard, “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing,” as judges are simply putting the vaunted criminal summonses on hold pending dismissal.
Philadelphia advocates are racing to get a bike lane approved by City Hall, for the streets around City Hall, in advance of a summer repaving project and before the city council takes the rest of the summer off.
Apparently, Florida drivers don’t know how to avoid curbs, because they keep crashing into the barriers for a new curb-protected bike lane in Palm Springs.
International
Now you, too, can bike your way to better brain health and away from dementia, which is good news for all of us.
Britain’s Cyclist Magazine recommends the best Father’s Day gifts for bicycling dads. Even though the best gift is just more time to ride.
The BBC has finally realized that bicyclists with bike cams aren’t “vigilantes” or “grassing snitches,” belatedly concluding that cameras help bring dangerous drivers to justice and are often the only recourse riders have. Although California law doesn’t allow them to be used against drivers for traffic violations or misdemeanors, technology be damned.
Dutch ebike brand VanMoof is back from the dead with two new models, after it was rescued from bankruptcy by the electric scooter division of McLaren.
A local campaign by a group of young Scouts in Romania has blossomed into a nationwide movement to build safe bike infrastructure, in a country where kids under 14 are banned from biking on public streets.
Here’s another one for your bike bucket list, as a writer for the BBC rides Morocco’s 520-mile Route of the Caravans, offering a view of the country few tourists ever see.
A new Chinese-made ebike conversion kit promises to install the first time in just three minutes, and ten seconds thereafter, while offering one of the smallest and most portable sizes yet; a crowdfunding campaign will launch soon offering an early bird price of just $349. Although how that could be affected by Trump’s on-and-off tariffs is TBD.
Competitive Cycling
Seriously? The solo Race Across America, aka RAAM, kicked off in Oceanside CA yesterday, sending competitors over 3,000 miles virtually nonstop to Annapolis, Maryland. But the only mention anywhere in the news comes from a radio station in Osage Beach, Missouri.
Finally…
When you’re the king’s sister-in-law, of course you wear $900 pumps to a mountain bike park. That feeling when an apparently AI-written story recommends five scenic cyclist-friendly trails, but can’t be bothered to tell you where they are.
And this is pretty much the opposite of sticking the landing.
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Oh, and fuck Putin.
