According to an article posted today by the Long Beach Gazettes, the victim, who was not publicly named, was riding westbound with a friend in the center median on Market when she was struck by a speeding car.
Emergency personnel found her lying unconscious in the eastbound lane; she was transported to a local hospital where she was pronounced dead.
The driver was illegally passing another car when he or she struck the victim’s bike from behind before fleeing the scene.
Police later found the vehicle, a 2013 Kia Optima, abandoned 5300 block of Atlantic Avenue. The car, which had a smashed windshield and major front end damage, had been reported stolen in a carjacking the day before.
There’s no word on why the couple were riding in the painted center lane instead of in the traffic lane, where they presumably would have been protected by the car that was being passed.
Police are looking for four people who were reportedly in the the stolen car at the time of the crash. Anyone with information is urged to call Long Beach collision investigations detective Brian Watt at 562/570-5520; tips can also be reported online at www.lacrimestoppers.org.
This is the 48th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and 20th in Los Angeles County. And it’s at least the tenth fatal bike crash in Long Beach since 2010.
Update: The victim has been identified only as a white woman in her 40s, pending notification of next of kin.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for the victim and her loved ones.
Twenty-three-year old Cruz Tzoc was driving at an estimated 60 mph on Burlington Ave in LA’s Rampart District on April 23rd when he struck a parked car and spun around, sliding into Brewer as he rode on Temple Street, before slamming into a tree.
Tzoc was arrested at the scene with an alcohol level over two times the legal limit. A police sergeant had spotted Tzoc’s speeding car prior to the crash, but was unable to stop him before it was too late.
But his decision to get behind the wheel after drinking ended the life of a budding screenwriter, and sentenced Brewer’s loved ones to a lifetime without him.
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Formerly bike-unfriendly Palos Verdes Estates continues its surprising turnaround, as the city’s Traffic Safety Committee voted to replace the hated signs reading “Bike Laws Strictly Enforced” with “Bicycles May Use Full Lane” and signs promoting the three-foot passing law.
Cycling in the South Bay’s Seth Davidson describes the meeting in his own inimitable style.
Meanwhile, a Tustin councilmember explains four reasons why bicycles may use the full lane. But forgets the primary reason — bike riders are allowed to take the lane anytime the lane itself is too narrow to be safely shared with a motor vehicle.
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Today’s common theme is bikeshare, in LA and elsewhere.
Palo Alto plans to replace its failing bikeshare system with a new smart bike program. But it will still likely fail if they don’t install more than five docking stations.
And Portland informs bike owners that those handy little docks at convenient locations around town are not bike racks.
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Drivers often argue that cyclists don’t pay for the roads, but if road users were charged for the damage they actually cause, we could pay our share with pocket change.
Belgian race leader Greg Van Avermaet holds a nearly six minute lead in the race, but will probably fall back in the standings when they reach the mountain stages. British riders dominated the first week of the Tour, while Mark Cavendish says Africa will produce a TdF contender in ten years.
Specialized says you don’t know Jacques about the Tour de France. Thanks to Mike Wilkinson for the heads-up.
As expected, the parents of a 12-year old Oceanside boy killed while riding his bicycle to school last October have filed suit against the driver, as well as two businesses alleged to have contributed to the crash; a lawsuit is expected against the city, as well.
Sixty-six cyclists from the University of Texas rode across the Golden Gate Bridge on their way to Anchorage AK to raise funds for the fight against cancer.
That former Illinois congressman who tweeted what sounded like a threat to the president and the Black Lives Matter movement after the Dallas shootings is one of us; he successfully campaigned for his only term in office by riding his bicycle.
In a widely watched case, a Michigan driver faces up to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to fleeing the scene after plowing into a cyclist on an organized group ride.
A bike-riding writer for the Columbus Dispatch offers a well-reasoned analysis of the SUV driver in last week’s Doo Dah Parade who, in effect, threatened to kill cyclists unless they obey the law; he says what concerns him most is the public’s lack of concern.
Bicycling under the influence is legal in Massachusetts, though not always the best idea. I know some may argue, but I’d still much rather see a drunk on a bike than behind the wheel. Although the best choice is neither.
A Canadian Steely Dan fan nearly missed their Detroit show after paying the toll, then illegally riding through a tunnel across the border; US custom agents were amused, but searched and detained him for two hours anyway.
A mentally ill driver who fatally stabbed a popular British bike advocate following a minor traffic collision has been sentenced to ten years to life in a medium security mental hospital.
Caught on video: A jerk cyclist clips a London bike rider with a far too-close pass, nearly sending him under the wheels of a large truck. Pass another rider at the same distance you’d expect from a motor vehicle, or at arms-length at the very least; if that’s not possible, slow down and announce your presence before passing. Or you could just wait until it is safe.
An Irish business executive pleaded guilty to knocking a cyclist off his bike, then beating and strangling him, for the heinous crime of riding on the sidewalk.
As an added bonus to get your weekend started off right, David Wolfberg forwards the latest video from Colombian superstars Shakira and Carlos Vives, for their new song La Bicicleta (Or The Bicycle, for the Spanish-challenged, like me).
Too often, when a bike rider is injured, the story never makes the news.
And even if it does, we may not learn how it turned out for weeks afterwards. If ever.
That’s what happened in this case, as word has just come in that Dr. Keith Nolop, a 63-year old resident of Pacific Palisades, died on May 31st after suffering head injuries while riding his bike in the Palisades on May 6th.
No other information is available at this time. There’s no word on whether there was a vehicle involved, or exactly where the crash occurred.
The neighborhood Palisades Post reports he worked as a medical researcher, helping to develop the sinus treatment Nasonex, as well as a groundbreaking melanoma treatment and other highly-engineered cancer therapies.
That’s in addition to writing over 50 peer-reviewed articles and holding several patents.
This is the 47th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the 19th in Los Angeles County; it’s also the fifth in the City of Los Angeles since the first of the year.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for Dr. Keith Nolop and all his loved ones.
July 8, 2016 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Morning Links: Bikeshare finally comes to DTLA, and bike-friendly LA city council candidate Jesse Creed
Just a short update today, as my diabetes seems compelled to knock me on my ass following a busy day.
I’ll try to be back tomorrow with a full report for the weekend.
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It’s true.
Los Angeles finally has a bikeshare system.
LA Downtown News takes an early Metro Bike test ride, and finds the bikes comfortable, but with a shortage of safe places to ride them.
A $75,000 grant, matched by $25,000 from Metro, will help make bike sharing more accessible to underserved communities. Note to LA Weekly: That photo from CicLAvia has nothing to do bikeshare; it’s like using a photo of private cars to illustrate a story about taxis.
The LA Times questions whether Los Angeles will embrace bikeshare, while Mayor Eric Garcetti mimics William Mulholland by saying “Here they are. Use them.”
The Daily News says Los Angeles has big plans for the bikeshare system to expand to nine regions, starting next year with Pasadena, Venice and the Port of LA.
LAist offers a full report from the kickoff event, while noting riders proceeding along Grand Avenue were greeted by multiple signs reading “Bike Lane Closed.”
KTLA-5 offers a video report, including a brief interview with the mayor, in which he says he looks forward to taking one of the bikes out to go for lunch.
KPCC explains how to use the bikeshare system, which is currently only available to pass holders; walk-up users can rent a bike using their TAP card beginning August 1st.
It’s (LA) Time(s) for bikeshare in Los Angeles
A massive fleet of Metro Bikes waiting to be deployed
A crowd of a few hundred people turned out for the event
Metro CEO Phillip Washington addresses the crowd of soon-to-be bike sharers.
LA County Supervisor Hilda Solis looks forward to eastward expansion
LADOT GM Seleta Reynolds helps lead the rideoff from Grand Park
Riders like this should be a common sight at LA City Hall and throughout the Downtown area
The loneliest little Metro Bike awaits in front of the Grand Central Market, with the Million Dollar Theater and the Bradbury Building in the background
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If you need a place to ride your new Metro Bike, the LAPD invites you to attend a People and Pets Safety Fair tomorrow at the still-unnamed LAPD Headquarters in DTLA.
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Following the Metro Bike event, I had the pleasure of meeting with Jesse Creed, who’s running against incumbent Councilmember Paul Koretz in LA’s 5th Council District.
Before I even met him, he had my qualified support under the “enemy of my enemy is my friend” doctrine.
But after talking with him, I can remove that “qualified” and say he now has my full support.
I found him to be youthful, energetic, personable and highly engaged, with a clear understanding of the problems facing Los Angeles, and the belief that we can and should do better.
A bike rider himself, his commitment to sustainable transportation goes beyond mere words, including riding his bike for short trips instead of taking the car. And working to represent the entire community to build Complete Streets that benefit everyone, as opposed to arbitrarily blocking them as his opponent has done.
He’s also open to new perspectives. When I recommended a book on how to make government work better, he pulled out his phone and bought it on the spot.
We still face four months of nasty campaigning leading up to this fall’s presidential election, and the inevitable voter fatigue that will follow before LA’s city election finally rolls around in the spring.
But we could do a lot worse than electing Creed to represent the people of the 5th District.
In fact, we already have. And we’re paying the price for it.
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On a related, and belated, note, I’ve been remiss in my failure to note that Josef Bray-Ali, owner of the Flying Pigeon LA bike shop in Northeast LA, now has a fundraising website set up.
If we can elect Creed and Bray-Ali next spring, we’ll be well on our way to making this the livable city it can and should be.
And if #bikeLA finally gets off its collective ass and gets out to vote, we will.
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Once again, construction closes a section of the LA River Bike Path. And for the next three years, no less.
But at least this time, they’re doing it for our benefit, in order to lengthen the path and improve access at Riverside Drive.
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The LAPD has captured a suspect in the string of bike-riding Hollywood parking lot robberies.
The celebration kicks off at 11 am at Grand Park, offering “snacks, live music and good vibes.” And lots of bikes that need to be moved to other locations.
Richard Risemberg questions some of the dock placements, as well as LA’s lack of a connected bikeway network anywhere outside of DTLA, but says, in the words of famed water maven Bill Mulholland, “There it is. Take it.”
Fortunately, given the lack of infrastructure, bikeshare riders have just half the rate of injury as other bicyclists.
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Nice to see Amoeba Music getting on the bike bandwagon.
That would make a perfect place for a bikeshare dock, if and when Metro Bike ever makes it out to Hollywood.
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You can’t spell Trump without rump.
Donald Trump once threatened to sue the organizers of Aspen’s Tour de Rump for trademark infringement for his short-lived Tour de Trump bike race.
Cycling Weekly offers five talking points from the fifth stage of the Tour de France, while the anticipated battle between Chris Froome and Nairo Quintana still looms ahead in the mountain stages.
Look for more doping revelations, as the World Anti-Doping Agency and cycling’s governing body now have over 200 bags of blood saved from the Spanish Operation Puerto case.
Monrovia unanimously approves a new bicycle master plan calling for 3.7 miles of bike paths, 4.2 miles of bike lanes and 18 miles of sharrows; an additional 7.1 miles will be studied for protected bike lanes. Boyonabike calls it an important step, but says much work still remains. Like making sure those sharrows do more than help drivers improve their aim.
A Woodland Hills couple starts their life together with a 55-mile wedding day ride through the Conejo Valley, complete with tux-print cycling jerseys.
This is how Vision Zero is supposed to work. San Diego is making safety improvements to a street where a teenage skateboarder was killed by a hit-and-run driver while skating in a bike lane.
An Atascadero letter writer employs selective reading to insist that state law bars riding two abreast, citing CVC 21202 as proof. But like most drivers and law enforcement officers, neglects to consider that it does not apply on non-sharable lanes.
Clean Technica looks at People for Bikes’ plan to create a Big Jump in bicycling rates in ten select cities in just three years, while the aforementioned national advocacy group wants your help to fix a new Federal rule that could block protected bike lanes.
Outside says the proliferation of bike and helmet cams is demonstrating the dangers bicyclists face on the streets, though it may not make a difference in the courtroom.
Consumer Reports describes the anatomy of a bike crash, while somehow feeling the need to point out that your brain will probably slosh around inside your skull once you hit the pavement.
Bike racer Neil Bezdek describes the experience of going carless from a roadie’s perspective. Decent story, right up until the last sentence.
A 72-year old Iowa man is about to start a 4,000 mile bike tour across the US, after riding over 18,000 miles over the last four years.
An Iowa paper calls for a ban on texting while driving, after a distracted driver walks with just tickets and a license suspension for killing a cyclist. Of course, even if it is illegal, that doesn’t mean prosecutors will actually do anything about it.
Caught on video: A New York cyclist records what it’s like to be an UberRush bike messenger for a day.
After years of complaints, the NYPD finally gets serious about cracking down on drivers parking in bike lanes, issuing 1,757 tickets for blocking bike lanes over a five day period, as well as 810 summons for failing to yield to bicyclists and pedestrians.
London’s Telegraph asks if Majorca, Spain is the world’s greatest cycling destination. Actually, the best cycling destination is wherever you’re going. Especially if you’re not going anywhere.
