A Long Beach boy was killed riding his bike in Signal Hill last week, and the local police were quick to blame him for his own death.
Maybe too quick.
According to the Long Beach Post, 18-year old Raider Magallanes was training with a couple friends around 7:35 pm on Tuesday, June 18th when he “collided into a moving vehicle” at Cherry Ave and Skyline Drive.
There’s no word on whether Magallanes died at the scene, or after being taken to a hospital after the crash.
And yes, the driver stuck around afterwards, as required by law and basic human decency.
Signal Hill police determined that the recent high school graduate ran the red light after descending a steep hill while headed west on Skyline Drive, apparently based on a security cam from a nearby grocery store.
However, according to Velina Velasquez, the boy’s aunt and legal guardian, numerous witnesses have come forward to say Magallanes — not the driver — had the green light. And that the traffic lights couldn’t be seen in the video that captured the crash.
Which raises the question of whether there were any independent witnesses who told police Magallanes ran the red light. Or if they just took the driver’s word for it.
Magallanes had graduated with honors from Long Beach Polytechnic High School just five days before the crash, and was training with friends in anticipation of joining the Marines in August.
His aunt adopted Magallanes and his two brothers when he was eight years old, and raised him as her own.
Velasquez has stayed near the intersection for the past week, talking with anyone who may have seen the crash. During that time, she’s witnessed several near-misses, along with a hit-and-run, and says more needs to be done to improve safety.
“There needs to be a camera here, there should have been a camera here,” Velasquez said.
June 24, 2024 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Bicycling “disaster for traditional economy,” bike-born antisemitic attack in New York, and LA scores another pitiful bike score
Just 190 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025.
That’s because bicyclists don’t buy cars, make loan payments, or pay for car repairs. And never mind the reduced healthcare costs because people who ride bikes tend to be healthier than people who drive.
Even though reduced healthcare costs and a healthier population are a net benefit to society, and people who ride bicycles still buy stuff — and have more money left over to do it with.
And if bicycling is such a threat to the traditional economy, maybe it’s the traditional economy that needs to change.
Which raises the obvious question of who the hell rides a bike carrying a bag of dog poop?
Never mind that it remains unclear whether or not his intended victim actually was Jewish.
It’s also unclear whether this had anything to do with the current tensions over Gaza, or if it was just some asshole taking advantage of the current tensions.
But regardless of any possible political motives, there’s just no excuse for antisemitism or bigotry of any kind, no matter how you get around. Ever.
There’s another bouncing baby bike lane on the bike-friendly UCLA campus.
Thank you to @UCLACommute for adding this new bike lane on Westholme Avenue, between Hilgard Avenue and Charles E. Young Drive, in response to our Council's request for bicycle improvements here. This will improve safety on a major bicycle route as it enters campus. @UCLAadvocacypic.twitter.com/8cNPUeksPp
— North Westwood Neighborhood Council (@OfficialNWWNC) June 20, 2024
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Mark your calendar for a friendly Orange County bike ride at the end of the week. Thanks to Mike Wilkinson for the tip.
Wisconsin conservatives continued to freak out over the Madison edition of the World Naked Bike Ride, after last year’s complaints, with one official insisting they need to protect the children from seeing naked and nearly naked adult bodies on bicycles, and that the participants “desperately need Jesus.” Then again, the need to protect children from the effects of climate change is exactly the point the bike riders were trying to make.
Thanks to David Erickson for his unexpected donation to help support this site, and keep bringing you all the best bike news everyday, from around the world and around the corner. Donations of any amount, for any reason, are always welcome and appreciated.
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
However, there’s no explanation of whether he was visiting Orange County, or was living here now.
There’s also no word on what was meant by “riding in the traffic lanes.” He would have been in the traffic lanes if he was crossing Beach Blvd. Or if he was riding on Beach, there’s no other place he could have been, since there are no bike or parking lanes.
And there’s no word on how fast the driver was going, or whether the victim had lights on his bike in the pre-dawn darkness.
Hopefully, we’ll get more answers soon. But I wouldn’t count on it.
Anyone with information is urged to call Westminster Police Department Traffic Division Investigator Stewart DeJong at 714/548-3787.
This is at least the 25th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the sixth that I’m aware of in Orange County.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for the victim and all his loved ones.
Or if CicLAvia seems a little too formal for your last, the Los Angeles edition of the World Naked Bike Ride rolls tomorrow. Tip: Bring lots of sunscreen. And a few disinfectant wipes if you’re using a bikeshare bike.
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Evidently, some people just don’t like separated bike lanes.
Or what Los Angeles insists on calling “protected,” even though the usual flimsy plastic car-ticklers wouldn’t stop a Yugo, if you could even get one running.
She explains how she was never a fan of bike lanes. Until moving to California, that is, when she got to experience her first wide buffered bike lane.
But some people insist on ruining those “good enough” buffered lanes by adding little white plastic bendy posts and other assorted permeable and semi-permeable barriers.
In her opinion, anyway.
Imagine my horror at seeing a movement to convert these bike lanes to “separated” bikeways by adding barriers such as flex posts, bollards, curbs, and a host of other innovations.
I get the desire to feel protected from cars, but at what cost? First of all, “feel protected” is all you get. Posts and curbs will not stop a moving car. They will, however, cause a bicyclist to crash. This is a known hazard which causes actual casualties, including serious injuries. Yet, these crashes don’t show up in national crash data, because it counts bicycle crashes only if they involve a moving motor vehicle.
She also takes issue with the stat up there on the right from the Federal Highway Administration.
The research behind the FHWA’s claim didn’t include junctions, only mid-block segments.
The only relevant crash type is a mid-block overtaking crash, around 5% of total crashes for all roads, including ones with no bike lane. The majority of overtaking crashes are actually sideswipes in narrow lanes (the motorist misjudges the space). We have a robust dataset from Mighk Wilson’s crash analysis in Orlando. In it, overtaking crashes on streets with bike lanes were 1.5% of crashes. The majority of bike lanes in the area are narrow and non-buffered. Paul Schimek’s study in Boston came to a similar conclusion.
I get what Caffrey is saying. And it’s worth reading to get a different perspective from what we usually share here.
My personal take is that separated bike lanes aren’t for confident bike riders like her who are comfortable riding nearly anywhere. They’re for the people who would like to ride, or ride more, but are afraid to mix it up with the people in the big dangerous machines.
Although calling them protected does a disservice to everyone by overpromising on safety.
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Any kind of separation or buffer might have helped those Texas bicyclists who were run down by a drunk driver in a crash caught on bike cam earlier this week.
Which could explain why your bags always seem to get lost or crushed beyond all recognition.
Thirty-one-year old Benjamin Hylander has been booked on two counts of intoxication assault with a vehicle causing serious bodily injury, accident involving injury, and driving while intoxicated with a BAC greater than 0.15.
Meanwhile, the victim shown getting run over by Hylander’s SUV after the initial impact, retired physician Tom Geppert, credits his bicycle with saving his life. And allowing him to walk away — if that’s the word for it — with “just” a concussion, injured left hamstring, a fractured rib and a severe laceration.
The other victim, Deborah Eads, suffered a severe laceration as well.
We can only be grateful it wasn’t much worse.
Maybe someday, carmakers will be required to use already-existing technology to ensure intoxicated people can’t get behind the wheel.
No one ever accused Rancho Palos Verdes of displaying common sense.
As we mentioned last month, the wealthy enclave felt a need to address dangerous road conditions on Palos Verdes Drive South, caused by shifting of the bluff underlying it.
Never mind that it’s the people in the bigass cars, pickups and SUVs who cause the most damage. Or that’s it’s in direct violation with state law, which allows bicycles and motorcycles on any public roadway where motor vehicles are allowed, with the single exception of banning bicycles from some limited access highways that have alternate routes.
Oops.
While a bicycle can get its tires caught in cracks in the roadway, bike riders also have a greater ability to avoid obstacles than people in motor vehicles, which are much harder to stop or turn.
And it’s not the people on bicycles who risk causing further damage through their sheer weight.
Unfortunately, however, the only way to beat the new rule is to break it, get a ticket and fight it in court, which is a long, complicated and expensive process. And would probably require a good lawyer to make your case for you.
Let’s just hope the sheriff’s department, which is charged with policing the Palos Verdes Peninsula, has enough sense not to enforce it.
But based on previous experience with the LA County Sheriff’s limited grounding in bike law, I wouldn’t count on it.
He had a roadside BAC, or blood alcohol content, of .25 — over three times the legal limit.
Hylander reportedly insisted he had to talk to the victims to apologize after he was stopped. But he can be clearly seen driving over one of the victims to get away, as the man lay face down in the roadway following the initial impact.
Which doesn’t exactly bespeak regret for his actions.
Remarkably, neither victim was seriously injured.
Thanks to Megan Lynch for the heads-up.
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This is great news for anyone who doesn’t drive, for whatever reason, in a state where driving is considered the default mode.
HUGE NEWS: Our bill with @Portantino SB 1100, which ends driver's license requirements for housing and employment, has passed the Assembly Labor and Employment Committee! pic.twitter.com/hLTi5o9VLX
Here’s your chance to do good as you eat good, as the Morrison on Los Feliz Blvd will donate $1 from the sale of each of their new Finish The Ride burger to Streets Are For Everyone, aka SAFE, for the next three months.
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
No bias here. A Thai website relates how a 71-year old amputee fatally stabbed a drunken 45-year old man who had repeatedly harassed him while the older man played chess with friends — yet they described the murder as a case of “cycling rage” just because of how the killer got back home afterwards.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
Fox News offers video of a crazed, road-raging New York man who threw his bikeshare bike in front of an SUV after arguing with the driver, before the other person drove over the bike’s front wheel and apparently went on with his day; the bicyclist calmly rode off after giving the SUV driver and other honking motorists the bird. Although there’s no mention of what the poor, tormented driver may have done to induce such anger — or that merely driving over the bicycle is a crime.
A British bike rider has been fined the equivalent of $280 for blowing through a red light while a mother was pushing her child in a stroller, forcing them them to stop mid-step to avoid a crash — rising to a well-deserved $500 including court costs and fees. Seriously, it’s one thing to go through a light when there’s no one around. But don’t be an ass when others have the right-of-way.
No surprise here. After Palm Springs bicyclist Bond Shields penned a “Bicycling Manifesto” for the city — composed of common sense safety reforms — he passed it on to the city manager and a councilmember; only the latter promised to do anything, passing it on to the city’s Sustainability Commission, where it apparently died a quick, quiet death.
Speaking of deadly roads, a bicyclist says he’s been failed by prosecutors in Goodyear, Arizona, after they declined to prosecute the truck driver who may have been Snapchatting when he slammed into a group ride last year, killing two people and injuring eleven others; a new video emerged showing the driver videochatting immediately after the crash, rather than calling 911.
Just 196 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025..
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Happy Juneteenth!
My apologies for yesterday’s unexcused absence. Even though the situation is getting better, I’m still ending my days exhausted after caring for my wife and the corgi, while still dealing with my own injuries.
And Tuesday night it just got the better of me.
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Apparently, they really are out to get us.
Video captured a truck driver appearing to intentionally run down pair of Texas bicyclists from behind, before fleeing the scene, running over one of the bikes — and possibly one of the victims — in the process. Thankfully, a still photo shows the driver being led away in handcuffs by police.
Thanks to TacoTheCat for the heads-up.
Bicyclists hit by car and ran over near DFW Airport, driver was arrested by police pic.twitter.com/QCiIckDvES
Meanwhile, a bike rider in Hamilton, Ontario is urging police to charge a road-raging driver who appeared to intentionally crash into him, breaking his pelvis; the driver conducted a punishment pass with his pickup and trailer, after approaching from behind honking and swearing — then swerved his trailer into the victim, knocking him off his bike. He later found video the driver allegedly posted online showing him following and swearing at other riders.
Hey, it’s Congress. Nothing is obvious to them these days.
The ever-growing stain our national reputation is partially attributable to our ever-growing cars, trucks and SUVs, some experts argue. Between 1993 and 2023, the average vehicle on U.S. roads swelled by 1,000 pounds, while simultaneously getting four inches wider, 10 inches longer and eight inches taller — bloat that’s driven by the increasing sales of pick-up trucks and SUVs.
That’s enough to bring the hoods of America’s best-selling cars, like the Ford F-series pick-ups, up to chest level for many adults, all but guaranteeing crashes that cause to vital organs rather than the legs, which are more survivable. The swelling size of the U.S. fleet has also increased the size of blind zones so much that drivers often can’t even see long lines of children right in front of them, and made it far more likely for pedestrians to be pulled under the wheels rather than pushed up onto the hood, where they’re less likely to be killed.
Let’s hope they get to the bottom of it, and discover what’s behind this perplexing — to government officials, anyway — jump in traffic deaths.
And actually do something about it for a change.
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The great bike helmet debate goes on, fueled by celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay’s call to wear one following his bicycling crash, which somehow angered a lot of people.
Pedal Ahead is the organization that has been selected by CARB to operate California’s moribund ebike voucher program — which is now likely to be dead in the water until the state can claw back its funding, and find someone else to run the damn thing.
And a Mastodon user writes that demand is high for Atlanta’s ebike voucher program, with 1% of city residents applying. But says infrastructure has to catch up. Thanks to Megan Lynch for the heads-up.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
This is what people who call for licensing bicyclists are really asking for. And why.
This is what some wingnuts want to impose on people getting around on bikes – kids going to school, folks heading off to work, going shopping, to the theatre, meeting friends at the shops… mandatory high-viz gear with big registration numbers on them.
Santa Monica police are conducting yet another bike and pedestrian safety operation, this time lasting this entire week, ticketing any traffic violations that could endanger either group, regardless of who commits them. As usual, ride to the letter of the law until you cross the city limit for the rest of this week, so you’re not the one who gets written up.
State
Streetsblog’sMelanie Curry updates the progress of traffic safety bills in the state legislature, including a much-needed speed cam pilot program on PCH in Malibu (SB 1297), the ever-shrinking requirement for a warning device to notify drivers when they exceed the speed limit (SB 961) — which started out mandating speed limitation devices to keep drivers from going more than 10 mph over the speed limit — and a bill to redefine ebikes and require only EU or UL certified batteries (SB 1271). Although the latter bill would be a lot stronger if it simply reclassified all throttle-controlled ebikes as electric motorcycles.
Convicted murderer Kaitlin Armstrong has been ordered to pay the family of her victim, gravel champ Moriah “Mo” Wilson, $15 million as judgment in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by her parents seeking a more modest $1 million; Armstrong murdered Wilson in Austin, Texas two years ago over a perceived love triangle with pro cyclist Colin Strickland. But good luck seeing any of the money while Armstrong serves her 90-year sentence — and won’t even be eligible for parole until she’s 67.
This is the cost of traffic violence. A retired Minnesota police chief was killed when he was run down by a semi driver while riding his bicycle; the truck driver doesn’t appear to have been charged.
Los Angeles can take pride in being America’s 5th best city to bike in the nude. And the next time someone complains that no one is using the new bike lanes, show them this.
And that, my friends, is when it all went to hell.
As you may know, we’ve been tracking the moribund California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which has now reached 178 days since we were promised it would open in fall of last year.
And just two weeks before they’re guaranteed to miss the most recent promised launch date in the second quarter of this year, which has now been pushed back to sometime this summer.
They’re not likely to meet that one, either.
Because the program charged with operating the California ebike incentive program, San Diego nonprofit Pedal Ahead, could end up facing charges themselves.
In fact, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports that Pedal Ahead is currently facing not one, not two, but three ongoing investigations. (Although the paper’s newly even more draconian paywall means you’ll have to register with your email if you want to read it.)
It’s a confusing and convoluted story. But the gist of it is that Pedal Ahead is accused of being delinquent in filing the required paperwork with various government agencies, leading to investigations by San Diego County, the California Air Resources Board, and the California Department of Justice.
Yet somehow, they’re supposed to handle the increasingly complicated statewide program, which has now been funded with a still-too-small $31 million to distribute, even though that’s up from the initial $10 million fund, which was reduced to just $7.5 million after overhead.
And even though they’ve been removed as operators of the low-income ebike loan-to-own program launched by the San Diego Association of Governments two years ago.
Yet it was that “expertise” that formed the basis of their selection to operate the statewide program.
But at least that part of the story is clear.
It gets more confusing when the paper tries to explain the numerous nonprofit and for-profit companies opened by Pedal Ahead chief executive Edward Clancy in recent years, many with nearly identical names.
And many, if not most, of which either ran into problems, or apparently never got beyond the naming stage.
Then there’s the fact that Clancy wore a wire for the FBI’s probe into illegal campaign financing involving his former boss and a Mexican businessman, while skating on any possible charges himself.
Clancy was appointed as “bike czar” by former San Diego Mayor Bob Filner, who resigned under a torrent of sexual misconduct accusations after less than a year in office.
According to the Union-Tribune,
Clancy was later reported to have been a confidential informant in an unrelated federal investigation into illegal campaign financing in San Diego County.
The Union-Tribune reported in 2014 that he wore a wire for the FBI, recording conversations with three people who were later charged with coordinating $500,000 in donations from Mexican businessman Jose Susumo Azano Matsura to Filner, then-District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis and two Democratic political committees.
Clancy, who received qualified immunity from federal prosecutors and was never himself charged with any wrongdoing, maintained his political connections after he stopped consulting.
No problem, then.
It’s long past time that the state legislature conducted an open, public hearing into the problems with the state ebike incentive program that have led to its ongoing failure to launch, despite the clear intent of our elected leaders.
And shine a much-needed light on a program that has been utterly opaque up to this point.
Because something tells me what we’ve learned today is just the tip of an iceberg big enough to sink the Titanic all over again.
An important #FathersDay message from me…WEAR A HELMET ! This week I had a bad accident while riding my bike in CT. I'm doing ok and I’m thankful for all the doctors, nurses and staff at @LMHospital who looked after me but most thankful for my helmet that saved my life. Be Safe pic.twitter.com/UMjaoXGpkc
Meanwhile, a writer for the Christian Science Monitor also says wear a helmet, and put front, and especially, rear lights on your bike, offering his own hard-won experience in Long Beach as proof.
Although he misses the mark in calling out bicyclists for riding “two, three or even four abreast.” forcing drivers to “swerve completely into the incoming traffic lane.”
Never mind that riding abreast helps prevent unsafe passing, and using the next lane to go around them is exactly what drivers are supposed to do.
Then again, even Dutch officials are calling for the country’s largely helmet averse population to change “because the brain is very vulnerable.”
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Nothing like have your bike stolen right in front of you on a Metro platform in broad daylight, as passengers look on.
It’s not every day you actually see a positive report about new bike lanes on the local news.
Thanks to Megan Lynch for the heads-up.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
No bias here. A writer for an off-road racing website blames a group of Atlanta bike riders for complaining when a cop ignored the speeding BMW driver who zoomed around them on the wrong side of the road, only to lecture them for some undisclosed reason. “We’ve all encountered entitled, difficult cyclists before,” he writes. “Maybe they’re riding three or four abreast, not letting cars get by, and acting aggressive towards any driver who does try to pass.”
The UK’s best bicycle-friendly homes, starting at just £225,000 — the equivalent of a little over $285,000. I’ll send y’all a postcard once I get settled.
June 15, 2024 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Update: 17-year old boy killed by San Diego Amtrak train after riding around crossing gates; 2nd SoCal bike death Friday
Sadly, there was more bad news for the Southern California bicycling community on Friday.
The victim, who has not been publicly identified, was crossing the railroad tracks on Sorrento Valley Blvd, between Sorrento Valley Road and Roselle Street, when he was hit by the southbound Amtrak Pacific Surfliner at 12:34 pm.
He died at the scene.
The victim was one of three boys who stopped their bikes at the railroad crossing gates to wait for a northbound train to pass. But as so often happens, he rode around the gates after that train had passed, not realizing another train was coming in the opposite direction.
Tragically, Fox5 reports that the victim’s parents arrived shortly after the crash, while officials were still removing his mangled bike from the tracks.
The other two boys were not injured. It’s not clear if they were riding with the victim, or just happened to stop together at the gates.
This is yet another tragic reminder to always wait until the gates go up to cross any rail tracks, regardless of whether it seems safe at the time.
Anyone with information is urged to call the Sheriff’s Department’s non-emergency line at 858/565-5200.
This is at least the 24th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the seventh that I’m aware of in San Diego County.
Friday was a bad day for Southern California bike riders — starting with a deadly pre-dawn wreck in Long Beach.
According to My News LA, the victim was riding east on 7th Street at Bellflower Blvd around 5:05 am, when he was run down from behind by a driver traveling in the same direction.
The victim, who has not been publicly identified, died at the scene before paramedics arrived.
The driver stopped after the crash. Police don’t believe that speeding, distracted driving, or driving under the influence were factors in the crash.
There’s no word on whether the victim had lights on his bike in the pre-dawn hour, or why the driver was apparently unable to see him riding directly in front of their vehicle.
According to reports, the victim was riding in the right traffic lane when he struck by the driver, who also has not been publicly identified.
However, there is a bike lane on 7th, which the victim would likely have been riding in unless it was blocked, or he was moving across the roadway to make a turn.
Since his body was found on the sidewalk, it seems more likely that the driver drifted into the bike lane, knocking him to the right, than the other way around.
Anyone with information is urged to call Long Beach Police Detective Joseph Johnson at 562/570-7355, or Crime Stoppers at 800/222-TIPS.
This is at least the 23rd bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the sixth that I’m aware of in Los Angeles County.
June 14, 2024 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Convenience over safety on Western, assaulting Redondo Beach ebikers, and proclaiming June CA Mountain Bike Month
Just 200 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025.
Then share it — and keep sharing it — with everyone you know, on every platform you can.
We finally made it up to 1,204 signatures! I’ll send this to the mayor’s office on Monday, so there’s still time to sign it!
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Please forgive the recent unexcused absences, caused by my site crashing one night, and me the other, as caring for my wife’s and my unrelated injuries is still taking a toll on me.
The good news is, my ribs are almost healed, and I’m getting PT for my back. The bad news, my shoulder is screwed. I’ll find out just how bad, and what that means going forward, next week.
The project, scheduled to get underway in 2026, is slated to included bus lanes and bike lanes, as well as other traffic safety and streetscape improvements.
However, prosecutors say video evidence contradicts his comments, while also showing his girlfriend took a mighty swing at them with her purse.
Never mind that the “ebikes” in the photo accompanying the story are actually electric motorbikes.
Sort of like in the picture below.
L: This is an e-bike. R: This is what lazy media, anti-cycling activists, and uninformed policy-makers are calling “e-bikes”. They’re not. They’re electric motorcycles. Not even close. Lack of clarity on this basic distinction is really fucking things up for getting good policy. https://t.co/SktmCOr7Lepic.twitter.com/JNohsUA5Yr
The bipartisan and bicameral ACR 152 now moves on to the state Senate for final approval, then onto the governor’s desk for his signature. And while Newsom has been hard to predict when it comes to bike bills, there shouldn’t be any reason why he’d say no to this one.
Congratulations to San Diego bike advocates for successfully pressuring the city to add funding to fix the “Fatal 15” worst intersections.
Big win tonight for safe streets and saving lives.
It's a validation of our team's efforts this past year, and of our advocacy strategy.
We identify a problem, and remind the public over and over again who can solve it, through press & more. That's what we did, and it worked. https://t.co/rczmywmPIq
Active SGV is hosting an easy 17-mile ride tomorrow to explore the Emerald Necklace & Whittier Narrows.
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Sad news from San Francisco, where a 70-year old man died earlier this week after getting doored on his bike last month.
We were heartbroken to hear that a 70-year-old man died last night from injuries resulting from being doored while riding his bike on May 30 in the Bayview, on Fairfax St near Newhall. Though his identity is not yet known, our hearts are with his family and friends today.
No bias here. Washington and Oregon GOP legislators suggest charging tolls to bicyclists on a new Interstate Bridge Replacement project, or banning bikes from the new span entirely, arguing that the project is too focused on non-drivers. Because evidently, only cars should have a right to cross it, and everyone else should just stay on their own damn side.
In a hard-hitting piece, Streetsblog’s Joe Linton argues that cities have no problem blocking off streets for rich residents, so “they shouldn’t be shy about using diverters/closures for prioritizing the safety and convenience of people getting around on foot and on bike.”
After four years of talking about it, Los Angeles finally decides to do something about having someone other than armed cops enforce traffic laws — study it. Which is what the city seems to do best; acting on those studies, not so much.
No surprise here, as the wife of a US spy who fled the UK under diplomatic cover after the wrong-way, hit-and-run death of a 19-year old London motorcyclist failed to show up for a four-day inquest into his death; she has refused to return to the country, despite receiving an eight-month suspended sentence in exchange for pleading guilty over video.
A British police inquest can’t figure out whether a driver’s failure to look, or the victim’s lack of a helmet and hi-viz are to blame for an “unavoidable” collision that killed a popular bike club member. Although it sounds like they think that unavoidable crash could have been avoided.
A Singapore ebike delivery rider was spotted riding without the required helmet and license number, and with a sticker reading “Fuck LTA,” an abbreviation for the island city/state’s Land Transit Authority — which could allow other road users to file a police report for harassment for “potentially offensive content.”
Um, okay. UCI, cycling’s governing body, will try giving out yellow cards to offending riders to improve safety; no action will be taken against recipients now, but riders could face a seven-day suspension after the first of the year. Because that works so well in soccer, evidently.
Evidently, some people just don’t like separated bike lanes.
