No, not mine.
I’ve been up all night nursing a very sick Corgi, and haven’t had a chance to keep up with today’s news, let alone write about it, with the exception of the sad news from Sunday’s Long Beach Marathon.
So please accept my apology for today’s absence. And we’ll be back bright and early tomorrow.
The Long Beach Press-Telegram is reporting that a man apparently died as a result of what was described as a major medical emergency during the bicycle segment of today’s Long Beach Marathon.
According to the paper, the man, who has not been publicly identified, suffered a cardiac arrest while riding near the intersection of Ocean Blvd and Prospect Ave in Belmont Shore at 6:30 am Sunday.
Despite the effort of paramedics, he was pronounced dead after being transported to a local hospital.
No other information is available at this time.
This is the 62nd bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the 25th in Los Angeles County.
Update: News like this is always tragic; it somehow seems even worse when it’s someone who’s well known in the cycling community.
While the victim still has not been publicly identified, I received the following email from Richard Rosenthal Monday evening.
I was on the ride with my girlfriend, and we both witnessed the paramedics giving CPR to a cyclist on ground. It really shook my up, as he was a older man in full kit, much as I am. It was on my mind the remainder of the ride, and when I found out Monday morning that the cyclist had died I was even more shaken.The news just got worse for me personally. I found out that the deceased was my friend Steve Hernandez. We both served together on the Board of Directors of Lightning Velo in Long Beach. Steve was one of the kindest people I have ever met….an imposing bear of a man with long hair and beard, but his personality couldn’t have been more opposite. Always quick with a smile and a laugh, he was one of the most beloved members of our club, and he will be missed sorely.
Update: The LA County coroner’s office confirms his identity as 59-year old Steven Hernandez.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for Steve Hernandez and his family.
Thanks to Danny Gamboa and Richard Rosenthal for the heads-up.
Still working on fixing the problem with email notifications for subscribers to this site. My sincere apologies to everyone who may be inconvenienced.
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It’s getting rough out there, especially if you’re not protected by a couple tons of glass and steel.
Capital Weekly reports overall traffic fatalities were up 7.2% last year. However, bicycling fatalities spiked 12.2%, while pedestrian deaths climbed 9.5%; advocates blame a perfect storm of distracted drivers and inadequate infrastructure.
On the other hand, SoCal bike deaths are defying the national trend by running just slightly ahead of last year at this time, which ended with a total of 73 bicycling fatalities, down significantly from 89 deaths in 2014.
A Philadelphia writer says people are giving up on bicycling as the city’s streets are becoming more congested.
Meanwhile, London is taking a step in the right direction by rating trucks on a five point scale for the danger they pose to vulnerable road users; low scoring trucks will be banned from the city’s roads.
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Let’s catch up with some upcoming events.
Celebrate the second anniversary of the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument tomorrow.
The Pomona Valley Bike Coalition hosts the Pomona Pumpkin Patch Pedal on Saturday, and teams with Women on Wheels to present the Mamas and Me Pumpkin Patch Ride this Sunday.
Go bike camping with Milestone Rides from Ventura to Santa Paula and Ojai this weekend.
Combine bikes and beer when you tour some of Torrance’s newer breweries with a casual ride on Saturday the 15th.
The LACBC is offering a Basic Bike Skills Class on Tuesday the 18th.
The next LACBC Sunday Funday Ride explores NELA and DTLA, with a stop at The Wheelhouse for coffee on November 6th.
And of course, CicLAvia returns to the Heart of Downtown, with a spur to Mariachi Plaza, a week from Sunday, on October 15th.
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Popular 38-year old US pro Tom Danielson accepts a four-year ban for doping after claiming he inadvertently ingested DHEA from a supplement containing Maca root. The two-time Tour of Utah champ could have faced a lifetime ban for a second offense, although a four-year ban effectively ends his career.
A 14-time British Paralympic champ says she won’t risk her life racing on open roads.
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Local
Metro wants to know about your experience sharing the road with buses. In my case, I’d say surprisingly good with a few glaring exceptions.
You only have until the end of this month to order the colorful new LACBC team kit.
Santa Monica is encouraging everyone to go carfree today and walk, bike, skate or use transit.
SoCal Cycling interviews LA-based pro cyclist Phil Gaimon about his upcoming Malibu Gran Cookie Dough, which combines a challenging Gran Fondo along the coast with his penchant for cookies.
State
A Laguna Beach writer envisions a Coast Highway where parking has been removed, lanes reduced, and people walk and bike along a newly pleasant street.
Pedal-assist ebikes bring an Irvine couple back together on the way to better health.
A homeless man rides his bike through Orange County cleaning up streets, bridges and railroad tracks on a volunteer basis.
That Canadian ebike rider finally made it to Indio for the Desert Trip music festival, 2,000 miles later — not the 1,500 he expected — and 20 pounds lighter.
A San Francisco man wisely decides discretion is the better part of valor when a woman armed with a hammer exits a car and demands his bicycle.
DIY San Francisco cyclists get tired of waiting for the city to do something, and install their own bollards to create a separated bike lane.
A San Francisco man suffered life-threatening injuries when he was chased and stabbed by a bike-riding assailant.
National
A globetrotting Spokane cyclist would never have discovered a rail-to-trail conversion in his figurative backyard without a traffic-shy rescue dog.
Bighearted Indiana firefighters buy a new bicycle for a boy after his was stolen off his porch last month.
A Cincinnati bike rider was hit by a car during a rally urging drivers to slow down and watch out for pedestrians; he was rear-ended four weeks after his friend was killed on the same street.
Country star Luke Bryan is one of us, as he suffers a broken clavicle in a solo fall while riding to his concert, but performs anyway.
As New York faces the shutdown of a subway line, the mayor suggests closing a major street to all traffic except buses and bicycles.
Long Island police arrest a bike-riding purse snatcher.
Vibe talks to a black bike messenger about this weekend’s North American Cycle Courier Championship in New York City.
International
A Montreal bicyclist learns that video of a dangerously close pass isn’t enough to issue a ticket if the driver can’t be identified on the recording. Which is exactly the problem we have using bike cam video as evidence down here.
A Quebec cop will face manslaughter charges after allegedly running down a salmon cyclist at high speed, then backing over him.
A London cop goes undercover as a bike commuter to catch drivers passing too closely.
Talk about blaming the victim. British police threaten to prosecute a bike rider for swearing after showing them video of a driver nearly knocking him off his bike in a close pass.
A Scottish city will spend the equivalent of $118,000 to rip out a cycle track that angered residents, even though it didn’t reduce any traffic capacity, after a man rowed in the lane in protest.
Hold on to this list of the city’s best bike shops for your next trip to Dubai.
South Africa’s Democratic Alliance is against bike lanes in Johannesburg, but for them in Cape Town.
A Kiwi website talks with the national cycling director about plans to convert New Zealand into a bicycling nation
Finally…
If your “acquaintance” tries to kill you with a tree stake and steals your bike, maybe you need better friends. Now you can get a $4,000 ebike to match your extravagantly high-end BMW e-car.
And what do you do after stealing $10 million in jewels from a reality TV celebrity? Make your getaway by bicycle, of course.
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Thanks to John Hall for his generous donation to support this site.
If everyone who visits this site today donated just $10, it would fund BikinginLA for a full year.
Still working on fixing the problem with email notifications for subscribers to this site. My sincere apologies to everyone who may be inconvenienced.
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Now we’re getting somewhere.
The US Department of Transportation has announced their own Vision Zero plan to end traffic fatalities on the nation’s roads.
Although unlike most similar plans — including LA’s — with ambitious, if unrealistic deadlines, the USDOT proposes to eliminate deaths on our streets within 30 years. By which time enough changes may have occurred in our transportation system to make it possible, if not probable.
Even in the face of the apparent massive 10% jump in traffic deaths in the first six months of this year.
As usual, however, the feds are approaching it cautiously, budgeting just $1 million per year for the next three years to fund grant programs to explore the idea.
And even that could go out the window next year, depending on who wins the election.
Thanks to Michael of Racers Who Ride for the heads-up.
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London’s Daily Mail goes off on an anti-bike tangent, calling the construction of bike lanes in the UK — including the city’s popular cycle superhighways — lunacy, while pointing out that they may be busy at peak hours, but are often empty at other times.
Sort of like roads, in other words.
Which are flooded with cars at rush hour, but encourage speeding and aggressive driving with their overbuilt capacity most of the day, and especially at night.
The Guardian’s Peter Walker takes exception, calling the Daily Mail story the latest example of the internet’s propensity for example-free, anecdote-driven, fringe activist memes migrating into the mainstream media.
And noting that London’s bike lanes, which take up just 3% of the city’s streets, have contributed to a 60% increase in bicycling rates, with bikes making up a whopping 70% of rush hour traffic on one busy street.
So if something is bringing London’s traffic to a halt, as the Daily Mail claims, maybe it’s just all those cars.
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Speaking of the Guardian, which seems to be today’s voice of reason, they offer a good examination of whether bike lanes cause gentrification.
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Local
The LA Times warns that Los Angeles County voters defeated a transportation tax measure in 2012, and they could do it again with Measure M, which needs a two-thirds vote to pass.
KPCC’s Take Two takes a look at what to wear when you’re riding a bike and spandex just won’t do, including LA’s own swrve.
Joe Linton previews this weekend’s New Urbanism Film Festival.
An overly modest CiclaValley offers some great bicycling photos.
West Hollywood has experienced a jump in bike thefts over the past few months; the sheriff’s department is still looking for the owners of five bikes recovered from an abandoned property last month.
Bike the Vote LA urges a no vote on Santa Monica’s anti-growth measure LV.
State
Huntington Beach police are looking for a bike thief caught on camera lurking under the pier before riding off with a locked bike. What’s shocking about this story isn’t the theft, it’s that Patch is somehow still in business.
San Diego is about to fail its first test for the city’s Climate Action Plan, as the first neighborhoods to prepare plans that fail to meet minimal standards for shifting commuters to biking, walking and transit.
Palo Alto police conclude that a 73-year old bike rider who was killed in an August collision blew through a stop sign before he was hit by a car. As usual, however, there’s no word on whether there were any witnesses other than the driver who killed him.
A Hayward bike rider was found dead next to a freeway onramp, at least five hours after he was the victim of a hit-and-run.
National
Bicycling Magazine anoints Charleston, SC as the nation’s worst city for bicycling, a sharp fall from grace after making the top 30 in 2010; they also rank this year’s bicycling hall of shame.
Alternet ranks the 20 things most likely to kill you; as usual, the only advice on how to stay safe on a bicycle is to wear your helmet. Never mind that avoiding collisions through better infrastructure and learning to ride safely is far more likely to protect you than any helmet. Or that you’re over ten times more likely to die in a car.
Vogue likes the looks of a new collapsible bike helmet that just launched on Kickstarter.
Oregon farmers are fighting plans for a rail-to-trail conversion of an abandoned railway, fearing the presence of bikers and walkers could result in higher crime and complicate pesticide spaying. Which sounds like a great reason to switch to more sustainable farming methods.
Seattle looks into the dangers streetcar tracks pose to cyclists in the downtown area.
Horrifying story from Texas, as a 10-year old special needs boy was set on fire by another child while he was out for a bike ride; he’s currently on life support with first and second degree burns, as well as a lung infection.
An Illinois mayoral candidate says he never wanted to get rid of the requirement for bike lights, even though he proposed an ordinance to do exactly that.
Not surprisingly, the mother of a Chicago woman killed by a flatbed truck while riding her bike last week has filed a lawsuit; the only surprise is that it’s for just $100,000. Thanks to David Wolfberg for the link.
A Boston bike commuter tells motorists I don’t want to die, and you don’t want to kill me.
International
Clearly, hit-and-run isn’t just an LA problem, as drivers fled in 13% of Ottawa, Canada collisions.
A new survey shows the overwhelming majority of Toronto residents approve of bike lanes. Although a Toronto website says local bike shops need an attitude adjustment so getting a bike serviced isn’t an unpleasant ordeal for women.
Adweek picks up on the controversy over a British ad campaign that puts the onus for avoiding collisions on the people on two wheels, rather than the ones operating the big dangerous machines. Meanwhile, 87% of people on the street in a very non-scientific London survey say cyclists should have to pass a test before being allowed on the roads. Thanks to Megan Lynch for the tip.
A British researcher is riding across the UK to find out why Brits voted to leave the European Union.
An English writer says every driver should have to spend an hour on a bicycle to qualify for a driver’s license.
Local governments are derailing Scotland’s plans to become more bike friendly and increase bicycling rates.
An Irish writer insists that bike riders need to pay their share for the roads if they want to be taken seriously. Except they already do, of course. And should be anyway, just like anyone else.
Google is employing a virtually army of bike riding women to help get women in rural Indian villages online for the first time. Thanks again to Megan Lynch.
A South African business site says developing a culture of bicycling would counteract congestion in Cape Town, as the city begins work on developing a cycling strategy.
An Aussie lawyer bizarrely argues that a drugged-out hit-and-run driver should be spared jail because it would cause irreparable harm to her 15-month old son. Never mind the irreparable harm she caused the bike-riding mother of three she killed, along with her family.
Singapore has ticketed over 700 bicyclists, ebike riders and personal mobility device operators for reckless behavior since May.
Finally…
Chances are, bike riding isn’t doing permanent damage to your lady parts, assuming you have them. And Poland unveils a new bike lane apparently made of luminescent Smurfs.
Still working on fixing the problem with email notifications for subscribers to this site. My sincere apologies to everyone who may be inconvenienced.
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Ten years.
That’s how long a sentence Lucas James Guidroz is expected to receive after pleading no contest in the drunken hit-and-run death of Rod Bennett in Santa Clarita earlier this year.
The popular math teacher, musician and band director was riding on Placerita Canyon Road on May 25th when Guidroz plowed his Lexus into Bennett’s bicycle from behind, then fled the scene as Bennett lay dying where he fell.
He turned himself in shortly after police found his car two days later.
The 28-year old Guidroz is expected to be sentenced on November 7th on charges of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and hit-and-run driving resulting in death.
Although the Santa Clarita Signal still can’t be bothered to get the name of the victim right.
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LA County votes to implement a Vision Zero Initiative, without apparently understanding what that means.
Despite the press release from County Supervisor Hilda Solis’ office, Vision Zero is about improving safety with a goal of eliminating traffic fatalities — not encouraging environmentally friendly alternatives to driving, as admirable as that may be.
And as always, the unanswered question is whether county leaders have to courage to make the tough choices required to save lives.
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Maybe it takes awhile for news to make it past the Orange Curtain.
A full week after the Orange County Register reported on the drunken hit-and-run that may have left a bike rider with a broken leg, and a young woman facing charges just hours after posing with her new car, the broadcast media has finally caught up with the story.
LA’s KABC-7 offered a brief report on the arrest of 22-year old Laguna Beach resident Aya Ibish, while Sacramento’s Fox-40 went into more detail.
Maybe they picked up the story from the OC Weekly, which posted it on Monday.
Then again, if they can’t be bothered to read the Register, they could have learned about it right here days earlier.
Or they could have found out about it on YouTube, after the story got the Taiwanese TomoNews animation treatment, which is always good for a laugh or two.
Thanks to David Huntsman for the last link.
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UCLA students discuss whether Westwood Blvd is safe for cyclists, in the wake of the much-needed Westwood bike lanes being removed from the LA Mobility Plan without a valid reason, other than some local homeowners and business owners apparently just didn’t want them.
Thanks to Erik Griswold for the heads-up.
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Local
Writing for City Watch, Tim Deegan says it’s time to embrace New Urbanism, and suggests the New Urbanism Film Festival, which runs tomorrow through Sunday, as the perfect place to start.
The aptly-named Alissa Walker writes about why she’s trying to raise her daughter carfree in Los Angeles.
Richard Risemberg says the Expo Line bike path could have been a contender, but was done in by inadequate street crossings.
Thankfully, the victim of Monday’s Long Beach hit-and-run escaped with just a broken leg; the driver admitted to police he was fleeing a previous crash when he ran into the rider.
State
The Desert Sun urges Indian Wells voters to turn down a resolution that could halt construction of the planned CV Link bikeway through the city.
The Berkeley alumni association talks with law professor Molly Shaffer Van Houweling, a five-time amateur world champ in time trials and road racing who set the women’s hour record last year at age 43.
National
Streetsblog writes about the four biggest sins reporters commit when covering pedestrian deaths, all of which apply to bicycling, as well.
It’s time to apply for the fourth annual QBP Women’s Bike Mechanic Scholarship Program, to prepare for a career as a wrench.
A Tucson AZ veteran made enough money selling bicycle chain art to pay for surgery for his therapy dog.
Good news, as Robert Choi, the founder of Utah-based Volagi Cycles, is showing some improvement after suffering a head injury when he was rear-ended by a driver last week; he was found unconscious in his office after initially refusing medical treatment. Always get checked out by a doctor anytime your head hits the pavement, regardless of whether you’re wearing a helmet; even a small brain injury can have serious consequences.
A volunteer bike repair center is fixing up bikes to give to the homeless in my hometown.
Once again, a visitor to this country is unable to survive America’s mean streets, as an Australian man was killed when his bike was rear-ended while riding in Kansas.
Chicago readers offer their advice on how to make bicycling safer, from licensing and ticketing cyclists to making bicyclists ride salmon.
A New York court rules the city’s bike lanes can stay, after rejecting a lawsuit claiming they caused environmental harm by creating traffic congestion.
Common sense finally comes into play in Maryland, where a 15-year old girl who was slammed into a wall and pepper sprayed for refusing medical treatment following a bicycling collision won’t face charges after apologizing to the police.
International
A Canadian writer, who says he’s a bike rider himself, calls plans for a national bicycling strategy an ill-conceived boondoggle. Meanwhile, a Newfoundland counselor calls for turning his city’s bike lanes into parking spots.
London’s mayor calls for completion of a new bike and pedestrian bridge over the Thames by 2020.
Selfies kill. A British woman died after hitting her head in a solo fall, just moments after taking a selfie as she rode from her mother’s birthday dinner; her husband called for a mandatory helmet law as a result, saying she’d still be alive if she’d worn one.
The BBC talks with pro cyclist Annemiek van Vleuten about the Olympic crash that horrified the world; she argues that Britain’s Lizzie Armitstead shouldn’t have been allowed to compete after missing three drug tests.
Finally…
Evidently, blocking bikeways is nothing new. Bikes are great for transporting anything, including the loot you just stole from a home.
And you can see a lot of things when you ride hopefully a wild panther won’t be one of them.
My apologies for the continued problems with email notifications for subscriber to this site. We’re still working on getting it fixed.
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It doesn’t take much to bring out the bike hate.
Especially when people are allowed to post their comments anonymously.
Yesterday’s LA Times featured a well-reasoned Op-Ed from Tom Babin, author of “Frostbike: The Joy, Pain and Numbness of Winter Cycling,” and the bike blog Shifter.
In it, Babin argued that the laws governing traffic weren’t written with bicycles in mind, and don’t always work effectively for people on two wheels.
It’s true that Los Angeles is finally taking its first serious steps toward making the city more bike-friendly. But the focus is on building bike-dedicated infrastructure, which can be slow and expensive to build.
The Idaho stop law shows there are other ways for municipalities to encourage cycling while their infrastructure catches up. Cities around the world are demonstrating that simply changing the rules in favor of cyclists can make roads more welcoming.
He continues,
Yet streets are already governed by different rules for different users, such as laws that require slower speed limits for big trucks, or that mandate school buses to stop at uncontrolled railway crossings. Rather than demonize cyclists for their inability to conform to rules designed for cars, laws should recognize that riding a bike is different than driving.
All in all, a reasonable request to simply acknowledge that bikes are different that cars, yet bicyclists are forced to act like motor vehicles, regardless of whether it makes sense.
Yet based on some of the comments, you’d think he declared war on anyone who doesn’t ride a bike.
Like this from OptimisticOrgan, for instance. (Unfortunately, the Times makes it impossible to link to any one comment.)
Stop sign being a yield is fine by me. Cycling culture needs to change, though. Too many jerks are going 15 in a 45 in the middle of the lane. Then they act like yr the bad guy for being annoyed by the fact they’re impeding traffic flow. It’s like “I’m sorry brother, trying to stay far enough behind you,” but the cyclist is still pissed that your car is faster than his bike and projects ill will toward you.
Many commenters went great pains to point out that Los Angeles isn’t Idaho, with many times the population, in case we had somehow missed that point. Apparently failing to notice where he pointed out that the Idaho Stop Law is now in effect in auto-clogged Paris, with it’s 2.24 million population, and a reputation for roadway rudeness that makes our streets seem downright polite.
Other, such as feaco11, apparently couldn’t grasp Babin’s key point that bikes and cars are different.
Better yet, let’s change the law so that motorists can treat a stop sign as a yield sign. Just think of the gas that will be saved if our cars do not have to lose momentum going through an intersection. Maybe the same could be applied to red lights. It would certainly free up the court system because there would be less tickets written.
Then there’s this confession to illegal harassment from boneme8978.
i would not consider riding a bike on a suburban street . but i love the people that do . keeps me laughing all the time . you should see them jump when i blast them with my train horn ! the 300 i spent at ‘summit racing ‘ to buy that bad boy was worth every penny !
And it goes on and on, ad nauseum, just like on any other pro bike piece that appears online, filled with constant reminders of that one time a bike rider broke the law, which somehow projects onto every person on a bicycle who ever lived.
Damnable scofflaws, all.
It’s a reminder of who we share the road with. As well as the Internet.
Protected by layers of glass and steel on one, anonymous pseudonyms on the other.
Spelling and punctuation challenged though they might be.
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Long Beach police arrested a hit-and-run suspect at gunpoint after he was found hiding under a car. Witnesses said the speeding driver hit a bike rider after running a red light, then drove erratically, running red lights and nearly striking pedestrians as he attempted to escape.
Both the victim and the driver were transported to a local hospital; no word on their conditions.
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Turns out the bicycle smashed in two by an angry rider in Milan’s Red Hook Crit wasn’t even his.
Deadspin calls it the pinnacle of human rage, though anyone who has dealt with a road raging motorist — or an angry online commenter — would probably disagree.
Meanwhile, VeloNews puts it in the context of other great bike throws in recent years.
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Local
Bicycling finally gets around to posting last year’s profile of LACBC executive director Tamika Butler online.
LAist calls the coming My Figueroa project the city’s first truly protected bike lane.
Bike the Vote LA offers a guide to the candidates in November’s Santa Monica city council election.
In the latest round of anti-developmentism, Redondo Beach residents could vote on whether to cancel ambitious plans to redevelop the city’s aging waterfront, including plans for an improved bike path through the area.
State
New tests from Stanford conclude the unnamed Hövding airbag helmet actually works. And reduces impact up to six times over conventional bike helmets.
A Chico couple propose to replace their daughter’s ghost bike with a sign memorializing her, along with the phrases “How to save a life? Don’t Drink and Drive” and “Share the Road, Drive with Care,” pending approval from Caltrans. Which is not likely, unfortunately.
National
A Portland Op-Ed writer complains about car-hating social engineering, while completely missing the point of Vision Zero.
After being diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, a Nebraska man takes up bicycling and a better diet, and loses 75 pounds while bringing his illness under control.
An Arkansas paper takes a look at bikepacking.
A road raging DC driver gets offended when a cyclist slapped the back of his car after he deliberately tried to run her off the road, then gets out and repeatedly slaps her before stealing her phone when she tried to call 911.
International
A body found near a Halifax trail could be a missing mountain biker who disappeared without a trace two years earlier.
A Scottish parliament member says even a small increase in bicycling could lead to an improvement in air quality, while calling for a decrease in speed limits around schools and residential areas.
At least it’s a creative protest. A Scottish man shows his objection to a new separated bike lane by rowing in it.
Any writer who uses the tired cliché that bike safety is a two-way street should receive a six-month sentence in journalist jail.
A San Francisco rider joins 400 other cyclists in the Haute Route timed cycling event in the Pyrenees; a US event is planned for the Rocky Mountains next year.
Glamour admires the glamorous Iranian women defying the religious edict against bicycling in public.
A South African provincial transport minister says bicycling must be seen as a form of mobility, disputing plans by the mayor of Johannesburg to halt bike lane construction in the city.
Finally…
You can’t compete in your first pro race if you’re stuck in traffic. If you’re fleeing police on your bike, you really just need two legs.
And your next helmet could give a whole new meaning to helmet hair.
Or you could let your kid steer you like a bike.
