Update: Bike rider killed by apparent drunk driver in Lake Elsinore

October 11, 2015 / / 6 comments

There’s no excuse. Period.

According to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, a bike rider has died as the result of a collision with an allegedly drunk driver in Lake Elsinore.

The victim, identified only as a 21-year old man from Murrieta, was riding on Railroad Canyon Road south of Summerhill Drive around 8:58 pm Friday, when he was hit from behind by a 75-year old driver.

Police arrested the driver at the scene after concluding that she had been drinking.

The bicyclist was taken to a nearby hospital, where he died the following day.

The press release does not say how far below Summerhill the collision occurred, or which direction they were traveling.

A satellite view shows two lanes headed south, with a right turn leading onto a freeway onramp, and an optional right turn from the center lane. Northbound, there are three lanes, with an additional two left turn lanes leading onto the freeway, and a double left at Summerhill, along with a right-turn only lane.

Nearly 30 people are killed by drunk drivers in the US every day, at a cost to society of over $59 billion dollars a year.

The cost to their loved ones is beyond measure.

There is simply no excuse for getting behind the wheel after drinking or using drugs. Ever. If you think you’re okay to drive, you’re not. And someone else is likely to pay the price.

This is the 57th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the seventh in Riverside County.

Update: The Press-Enterprise has identified the victim as Murrieta resident Mark Heigel. The story reports the 75-year old driver who killed him, Thelma Jeanette Trachy, was released from jail Saturday.

Anyone with information is urged to contact Officer Roberge at 951/776-1099 or sheriff’s dispatch at 951/776-1099.

My deepest sympathy and prayers for Mark Heigel and his loved ones.

Category: Bicycle Safety, Injuries and Fatalities, Update / Tags: , , , , ,

Update: Bike rider killed in apparent Sante Fe Springs train collision

October 9, 2015 / / 4 comments

Word is just coming in that a bike rider was killed in Sante Fe Springs today.

The Whittier Police Department tweeted at 2:49 this afternoon that their officers were investigating the death of a bicyclist at the railroad intersection of Rosecrans and Marquardt.

No other details are available at this time.

The implication is that he or she was hit by a train, but that has not been confirmed yet.

Henry Fung writes that the train tracks run diagonal to the streets at that intersection, and the warning gates are placed prior to the intersection, rather than next to the tracks. So it could be possible for a rider to be inside the gates when they come down, and not see the warning before a train comes.

This is the 56th bicycling fatality this year, and the 22nd in Los Angeles County.

Update: The Whittier Daily News reports the victim, identified only as a man, was riding north along Rosecrans around 2:45 pm when he slipped between the crossing arms, and was struck by a freight train.

Let this serve as a reminder to never, ever go around, under or through railroad crossing arms. They’re down for a reason.

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

Category: Bicycle Safety, Injuries and Fatalities, Update / Tags: , , ,

Morning Links: Guilty in North Fig hit-and-run and meth-fueled Fiesta Island crash, & still more Coronado madness

October 9, 2015 / / Comments Off on Morning Links: Guilty in North Fig hit-and-run and meth-fueled Fiesta Island crash, & still more Coronado madness

It’s been a busy few weeks for courtroom drama.

In the latest case, 21-year old Alexis Virto has pled guilty in the horrifying hit-and-run death of bike rider Jose Luna.

Luna was crossing North Figueroa in a marked crosswalk with another rider last June when Virto’s car smashed into him at an estimated 60 to 80 mph, then sped away with his victim still on the hood of his car, carrying Luna’s body 200 yards from the crash site.

Police found his abandoned car, which led them to arrest Virto as he slept with his girlfriend just six blocks from where the collision occurred; still drunk, with windshield glass glittering in his hair.

EGP News reports he plead guilty to gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated as part of a plea deal; prosecutors are expected to drop additional counts of driving under the influence of an alcoholic beverage causing injury, driving with a 0.08 percent blood-alcohol content causing injury, and hit-and-run resulting in death or serious injury to another person.

He’s due for sentencing on November 5th; the story does not say what sentence he faces as a result of the plea.

North Figueroa had been scheduled for a road diet intended to improve safety and slow speeding drivers. Had it not been summarily cancelled by Councilmember Gil Cedillo, it would have been completed long before this collision, though there’s no way to know if it would have made a difference in this case.

………

Not surprisingly, the meth-infused wrong way driver who plowed into a group of cyclists on San Diego’s Fiesta Island has been found guilty.

Despite her lawyer’s bizarre claim that she wasn’t impaired by the meth in her system. Or the meth hidden in her privates.

According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, Theresa Owens was found guilty of felony DUI causing injury, as well as causing permanent paralysis to one victim and great bodily injury to three others.

She was also convicted on a misdemeanor possession count for the .15 grams of methamphetamine stashed in her vagina.

She now faces up to 18 years in prison.

Let’s hope wherever she ends up, it has a good rehab program.

………

More madness from Coronado, as a resident uses Google to discover various Vehicular Cycling websites, and cites them as proof that bike lanes don’t belong in the crazy little burgh.

Meanwhile, the San Diego Bicycle Coalition offers a more rational voice.

And the Coronado insanity neatly sums up this piece touting the craziest things that have been said about bike lanes.

………

A new study from the University of Arizona shows that wearing a bike helmet reduced the risk of severe traumatic brain injury in a collision by 58%, and the risk of death by 59%. The authors also note helmet use reduced the risk of facial fractures by 29%.

………

Evidently, the reward for winning the world champion’s rainbow jersey is the chance to play waterboy for your teammates in your next race.

………

Local

Outside Magazine looks at Madmen producer Tom Smut’s recent ride to the Emmys, and says what bicycling needs is the perfect A-list champion of bikes. The problem isn’t finding celebrities who ride bikes, it’s getting the world to pay attention. Unless maybe Russell Crowe, Katy Perry and Beyonce aren’t big enough, just to name a few.

South Pasadena students take part in Wednesday’s National Walk to School Day on foot and by bike; KPCC says Walk to School Day raises important safety issues.

Los Angeles Magazine looks at Culver City’s new bike friendly restaurant, The Cannibal.

Bike SGV invites you to attend the Grand Opening of their new Bicycle Education Center on the 25th, complete with Halloween Pet and Costume Bike Train.

 

State

San Diego advocates insist that transit lines and bike and pedestrian projects must move to the head of the line, as the San Diego Association of Governments, aka SANDAG, prepares to vote on a $204 billion transportation plan.

UC Riverside is the latest campus to combat bike theft using GPS bait bikes; so far, they’ve been stolen 17 times, leading to 13 convictions.

Bicycling says Marin County Mountain Bike Hall of Famer Charlie Cunningham needs your help after suffering a life-threatening subdural hematoma in a riding accident that forced him to crawl two miles out of the woods; a gofundme account has be established to help pay medical expenses.

Hollister police haven’t issued a single ticket for violating California’s helmet law for riders under 18 since 2011. Nor should they; a simple warning should be sufficient in cases like that.

A NorCal website explains the difference between Ordinary and Safety bicycles, in case you happen to find yourself in need of a ride in 1880s London.

 

National

Kevin McCarthy’s withdrawal from the race for Speaker of the House means the next leader of the US House of Representatives won’t be a California bike rider.

The Feds propose scrapping regulations that make it difficult to build Complete Streets.

Montana is the latest state to ditch the requirement that cyclists ride as far to the right as practicable; now riders will be allowed to ride as far to the right as they feel safety allows. Are you listening Calbike and CABO? This should be the next big change to California bike law. And while we’re at it, let’s ditch the must-use requirement for bike lanes and bike paths; different types of riders have different needs, and one lane does not fit all.

Bicycling is booming just about everywhere. Except Iowa, evidently.

A Nebraska man is biking the trail the Native American Ponca people were forced to march to their Oklahoma reservation.

Yet another bighearted cop, as a Texas police lieutenant replaces a man’s stolen bike.

One week after a Wisconsin boy finished building his custom BMX bike, a group of teenagers shoved a gun in his face and stole it.

The Wall Street Journal says bike lanes make riding in New York less challenging, but cyclists still face a number of obstacles, from bike lanes blocked by vehicles to lanes that stop and start without warning.

A Brooklyn councilman says the city’s Transportation Committee is more concerned about parking than the safety of bicyclists.

A Staten Island website says with a price tag of $300 to $400 million to add bike and pedestrian access to New York’s Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, just forget about it.

Bike New York offers advice on autumn cycling.

DC’s Metro system blames the city’s successful bikeshare system for their loss in ridership. The brilliance of LA Metro’s planned bikeshare system is that it is designed to be integrated into the transit system, not compete with it.

An OpEd in the Charlotte Observer calls for a Vision Zero there to end the cycling carnage on city streets.

 

International

Three successful women designers discuss women’s bike style beyond the usual shrink it and pink it approach.

A Toronto writer calls the so-called war on cars a mythical fabrication, and says cyclists deserve bike lanes that will allow them to ride in safety.

Two Lycra-clad British bike thieves walk into a bike shop and calmly walk out with a pair of bikes worth $6,600.

SF Gate takes a bike tour along the rugged coast of Ireland.

An Irish cyclist was fined the equivalent of $283 after he was convicted of careless driving for crashing into the back of a parked car.

The bike-riding mayor of Rome has been forced out over an expense scandal; he had won admirers for refusing to stop riding his bike despite mafia threats.

South Australia bicyclists will now enjoy the equivalent of a three-foot passing law and be allowed to ride on the sidewalk, while drivers will be allowed to cross over a double center line to pass cyclists when they have a clear view of approaching traffic and can safely do so. Jerry Brown vetoed legislation that would have allowed drivers to do the same thing here.

Instead of improving safety, the mayor of Melbourne wants to tell riders to just avoid certain streets.

 

Finally…

There’s nothing unusual about a car chase in Los Angeles; on the LA River bike path, not so much. Caught on video: Once again, a Brit rider has been smacked by a crossing bar while trying to beat a train.

And Donald Trump seems to have forgotten about that little bike race he once held.

 

Category: Bikes & the Law, Hit-and-Run, Legal Cases, Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Morning Links: DUI killer gets off with 5 years probation, community service at the urging of the victim’s family

October 8, 2015 / / 4 comments
The ghost bike for James Rapley on Temescal Canyon

The ghost bike for James Rapley on Temescal Canyon

Sometimes the generosity of people astounds me.

Like the family and girlfriend of fallen cyclist James Rapley, and plea deal they requested for the driver who killed him.

As you may recall, Rapley was just visiting our city on an extended layover at LAX in December of 2013, leaving his girlfriend behind in Chicago to visit his family in Australia.

He never got there.

His love of bicycling inspired him to rent a bike and ride up the coast on a sunny winter morning, just days before Christmas.

Maybe he wanted more of a challenge, or a more sweeping view of the coast. We’ll never know why he left the beach to ride up the steep hill on Temescal Canyon.

Because that’s where he was run down from behind as he rode in the bike lane at 9 am on a Sunday morning, by Mohammed Kadri, then 19-year old and still high from the night before. Rapley died there, a visitor to our city, thousands of miles from the people he loved.

Kadri could have faced significant jail time if the case went to trial, although as a first-time offender in a county cramped for jail space, that was unlikely. Even though an OC lawyer got four years for an almost identical crime earlier this year.

Yet despite their obvious grief, Rapley’s loved ones saw no good in sending a young man to jail. Instead, they pushed for significant community service in the hopes that Kadri could turn his life around and be a benefit to others.

Last Friday, they got their wish, as Karen Scott, James Rapley’s long-time girlfriend who moved with him from Australia, explains.

Kadri pleaded no contest to the felony charge of vehicular manslaughter. “No contest” is legally equivalent to guilty however they don’t say the words “guilty”. No contest means they are admitting guilt because they believe it is in their best interest to do so.

• 5 years probation which cannot be reduced in length (the max probation period). 8 days credit from time served in prison (I wasn’t aware that’s he’d served time in jail)

• 150 days community service, 30 days per year min for duration of the probation.

• Proof of enrollment in community service to be submitted to the court by Dec 1st.

• He can’t ever carry a firearm and will be considered more harshly on any future criminal acts due to the felony charge.

• He was registered on probation straight after the hearing and it all goes into place straight away.

Myself and James family believed that community service was the best outcome as James would have wanted this and also there is some good that may come from this for the community and hopefully Kadri will grow from the work he does. I can’t see how anyone who will be doing community service every week (or once a fortnight) for 5 years couldn’t come out of this a better person. 150 days is one of the highest number anyone had seen for court mandated community service, usually its 100 days or less. If we had decided to go down the jail route, as he didn’t have a history, he would probably have been given a maximum of 16 months in jail, but because the jails in LA are so full, he’d only serve half that, at 8 months. And with jail that is it, he wouldn’t do anything in the community and we just didn’t see that outcome being what James would want. We did want to make sure however that he plead guilty to the felony charge as we wanted it to be on his record and clear that he take responsibility for his actions.

Scott also gave me permission to post the Victim Impact Statement she read to the court.

It is a beautiful, loving and heartbreaking document, and one that is difficult to read. But it offers a clear picture of harm caused by traffic violence and driving the influence. And the enormity of the loss she suffered, along with his family.

Over the course of this case, I’ve come to know Karen Scott, through emails and finally, meeting in person when she came to LA for a hearing.

She is a petite, charming and generous woman, with a gentle accent that belies her origins Down Under; her love for James still evident nearly two years later. Yet she has born the incredible weight of this case on her small shoulders, bearing witness for his family when they could not bear to set foot in the city where their son died.

I can’t say I would have made the same choices they did. I would have pushed for jail, and the revocation of Kadri’s license.

But I admire their charity, for lack of a better word. And, if not forgiveness, a willingness to release the need for revenge and craft a punishment designed to make the killer of the man they loved whole again.

They also have me wondering, not for the first time, if there might not be a better way to punish those who kill behind the wheel.

………

After winning the Vuelta, Italian rider Fabian Aru could get the green light to lead the Astana team in the 2016 Tour de France.

A 20-year old Indian track cyclist becomes the first from her country to medal in the women’s elite category, taking five medals at the Taiwan Cup Track International Classic.

The new head of USA Cycling takes pride in being one of the few ex-pros who didn’t dope, saying his instinct is to throw dopers under the bus. There are exceptions, of course, but for the most part, there seems to be two kinds of pro cyclists from the past decade — those who doped, and those who didn’t get caught.

Speaking of which, banned doper doctor Michele Ferrari sues to halt distribution of Lance bio The Program.

………

Local

Streetsblog says Vancouver is a bicycling city with lessons for Los Angeles.

Explore site-specific art installations on the LA River bike path this Saturday with TEN FEET: Art Meets The River.

LAist looks forward to CicLAvia’s fifth anniversary on Sunday the 18th with a return to the Heart of LA route, where it all started on 10-10-10. And yes, I still have the T-shirt.

A writer for the Daily Trojan says bikes are an important part of campus life at USC, but the university needs to be made more bike friendly.

South Pasadena considers hosting a stage for next year’s the Amgen Tour of California. The anticipated $7,800 cost seems like a bargain; it should bring in far more than that in tax receipts from the additional sales local businesses will see.

Speaking of South Pas, a meeting will be held on October 20th to discuss traffic calming on Arroyo Drive. Thanks to Megan Lynch for the heads-up.

 

State

Jerry Brown signed AB 1096 clarifying the rules for e-bikes. Thanks to Mike Wilkinson for the tip.

The lawyer for a San Diego driver charged with driving head-on into a group of cyclists says yes, she had meth in her system but she wasn’t impaired by it. So evidently, she just drove the wrong way and crashed into them for fun.

The residents of Coronado react in the comments to the justified ridicule they received from the Late Late Show’s James Corden. Thanks to Megan Lynch for the link.

A bike rider in her 60s suffered major injuries in a Palm Desert collision Tuesday evening; the second major collision involving a cyclist in that town in just three days.

The Capitola city council will decide whether the safety of bike-riding school children is worth removing 99 parking spaces.

Sad news from Hayward, as the body of a missing mountain biker was found 150 feet down a park hillside.

A Contra Costa writer looks at the arrival of bicycles in California in the 1800s, 20 years after they swept the rest of the country.

Six miles of San Jose streets will go car-free for the city’s first ciclovía.

There won’t be any tolls charged for bicyclists or pedestrians to cross the Golden Gate Bridge, for the next five years, anyway.

 

National

Bicycling offers tips on how to keep your makeup flawless on a ride. Which is apparently the biggest problem women riders face.

Yakima WA releases a draft $6 million bike plan in hopes of getting off the list of the country’s 10 fattest cities.

Grist tells the ghost bike origin story, tracing them back to a 2003 St. Louis art project.

Loss of parking rears its ugly head in Ithaca NY, as residents and councilmembers want to reopen discussion of bike lanes on a major street, even though it’s too late to stop the project.

The Department of DIY strikes in NYC, as someone created their own protected bike lane by placing orange cones and flowers along an existing bike lane; it took four people less than 20 minutes and $516 to install. Are you thinking what I’m thinking, LA?

Norfolk VA unveils a draft bike and pedestrian plan designed to improve 12 critical corridors.

Atlanta cyclists hope the city’s new CBO — that’s Chief Bicycling Officer — can lead it back to two-wheeled glory.

The parents of a Palm Beach boy will receive a $12 million check from a condominium association, four years after their son was killed while riding his bike by an elderly resident who couldn’t see over the building’s untrimmed hedges.

 

International

A review website compares the new SitGo e-bike foldie to a Transformer. Although it looks more like a Star Wars droid to me.

Canada’s Halifax cycling Coalition calls for protective side guards on trucks to keep bike riders and pedestrians from falling underneath. Actually, those should be required everywhere. Now.

The Guardian tries out anti-pollution masks to protect bike riders from bad air.

A cute new magnetic, 80-decible bike bell is detachable and small enough to carry in your pocket. No word on whether it will be available in the US.

A 75-year old British bicyclist now teaches CPR with the 37-year old woman who saved his life when he suffered a heart attack while riding six years earlier.

A Swedish cyclist who “technically” had the right-of-way engaged in a 10 minute stand-off with a truck driver coming in the opposite direction.

Aussie cyclists say upgrading roads without installing bike lanes will only mean more congestion.

An Australian website accuses Melbourne of unveiling a radical plan to make the city bike friendly, including — gasp! — reduced speeds and separating bikes from pedestrians along a popular promenade.

 

Finally…

Seriously? Solve a Rubik’s Cube while riding a bikeshare bike through a London park with a 5 mph speed limit, and get reported to the police for endangering the safety of others. Your next ride could be on a 3D printed open sourced bike.

And no matter how mad you are at the driver who honked at you, don’t bash his car — and him — with your U-lock.

Just… don’t.

 

Category: Bikes & the Law, Legal Cases, Morning Links / Tags: , , , , ,

Morning Links: Did Santa Barbara driver commit 2014 road rage, and bike lanes really are good for business

October 7, 2015 / / Comments Off on Morning Links: Did Santa Barbara driver commit 2014 road rage, and bike lanes really are good for business

Maybe there’s more to the story.

Yesterday we mentioned the Santa Barbara bike collision that sent two-time Olympic gold medal volleyball player Craig Buck to the hospital with major head trauma.

Now Cyclelicious points out the similarities between the pickup involved in that collision, and one involved in a 2014 road rage assault on a pair of bicyclists.

In the earlier case, photographer Carson Blume reports the driver buzzed within inches of them as they rode along a road in coastal Santa Barbara County, then cut to the right, grazing Blume and knocking his companion over.

The driver then brake-checked Blume, and briefly shifted into reverse before driving away laughing. Then came back on the other side of the road, shouting profanities.

Yet despite the presence of an independent witness, police did nothing more than issue the driver a ticket for unsafe passing.

And yes, it certainly looks like the same truck was involved in both cases.

Which would call into question the CHP report that Buck “…cut the corner, driving (sic) on the wrong side of the roadway, while failing to stop at a posted stop sign…” where he hit the side of the pickup.

Unless there’s an independent witness who saw any of that, police may be relying on the testimony of a driver who is accused of using his truck as weapon to attack people riding bikes at least once before.

One who has every incentive to paint the victim’s actions in the worst possible light. And who I’m told is silver tongued when it comes to dealing with police.

The question is whether he did it again, and whether the police will once again let him get away with it.

………

A Chattanooga business owner gets it, saying new protected bike lanes are way better for the downtown area than a few extra parking spaces.

A study from Salt Lake City proves him right, as sales increased more than the citywide average after spaces were removed for protected lanes and other street improvements.

Which may be why streets with scarce auto parking are the best places to remove it, according to People for Bikes.

And unlike some cities we could name, Seattle’s mayor didn’t cave in the face of opposition, but carefully worked out a compromise to overcome a challenge from 300 businesses worried about losing parking spaces for a 1.7 mile protected lane. Thanks to David Atwell for the heads-up.

Which sounds sort of like what happened with the My Figueroa project that’s scheduled to break ground on South Figueroa next year.

………

The safety video prepared by the PCH Task Force has won a national award for Best Public Service Announcement.

You tell me. Maybe it’s better than I think it is.

………

Ian Crane, the pro cyclist who nearly died after going through the rear windshield of a support vehicle in last year’s USA Pro Challenge, turned down a chance to re-sign with the Jamis team for next year in order to focus on his recovery.

The owner of the world champion Velocio-SRAM pro team says the future looks bright for women’s cycling.

And Greg LeMond, America’s only remaining Tour de France winner, gets credit for the innovations that led pro cycling into the modern high-tech era.

………

Local

The editor of the Los Angeles Business Journal calls for an end to the mythical war on drivers; Streetsblog’s Damien Newton very politely suggests he’s full of it.

Turns out the most popular day in LA cycling history was the first-ever Valley CicLAvia back in March, according to Strava data. Pretty impressive when you consider that many CicLAvia attendees have probably never even heard of Strava.

Santa Monica’s two-to-three mile long Colorado Esplanade is on track for completion by spring of next year, including separated bike lanes and walkways. But serioualy, shouldn’t they know how long it’s going to be by now?

The New Urbanism Film Festival screens this weekend, from Thursday through Sunday. Vancouver’s Modacity will come to LA as part of the film fest, with additional engagements Thursday at the Echo Park Film Center and Sunday in Santa Monica.

 

State

An Orange County judge hears testimony from the victim’s relatives as he considers a plea deal for Dylan Thomas Randluby in the death of fallen rider John Greg Colvin in Laguna Beach last year.

Garden Grove’s Main Street goes car-free this Sunday with the seven-hour Re:Imagine Garden Grove By Day and By Night open streets festival.

Long-time Long Beach expats The Path Less Pedaled offer three reasons to attend the National Bicycle Tourism Conference in San Diego next month.

Horrifying case from Fresno, as two people are on trial for torturing a woman and forcing her to watch the murder of another man after she knocked on their door to look for her stolen bike.

City Lab’s Sarah Goodyear takes an in-depth look at San Francisco’s attempt to pass an Idaho Stop Law. What we really need is support to pass the law on the state level, which has authority over all traffic laws. On the other hand, I can’t imagine Jerry Brown actually signing it.

 

National

Denver CO plans to install the same sort of protected bike lanes nearby Boulder is ripping out.

A Kansas driver gets just one year in jail for killing a bike rider he never even saw because he was busy looking at the GPS on his cellphone.

An Albany NY man rides 200 miles with his daughter, retracing the route he took to Boston 20 years earlier to receive a heart transplant.

Gothamist looks at the practice of shoaling, wherein one rider cuts in front of others at a red light. And it’s usually a slower rider, which means having to move into traffic to pass them once the light changes.

New York considers adding bike and pedestrian lanes to the iconic Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.

Philadelphia bike riders shout the universal refrain about the dangers of cars parked in bike lanes, calling for greater enforcement so riders aren’t forced to ride in traffic.

The Wall Street Journal takes a luxe cycling journey along rail-to-trail paths through the Pennsylvania and Maryland rust belt.

An Atlanta musician is running and riding to New York to protest police brutality.

 

International

Advice on how to buy a used bike.

Pot, meet kettle. English cab drivers call cyclists reckless after one jumps a red light in front of Cambridge cops.

A road raging British driver is on trial for driving up on a sidewalk to hit a cyclist before crashing into a salon — with four kids in her car, no less.

No distraction here. A British rider catches a driver watching a movie behind the wheel, while claiming she was only listening to it.

An Irish paracyclist will attempt to set a new hour record this Saturday.

Ireland’s transport minister says it should be left up to individual bicyclists to decide whether or not to wear a helmet.

Huh? An Irish paper says spinal injuries due to bicycling tripled, from five in 2010 to 21 in 2014. Which looks more like it quadrupled, but maybe they do math differently over there. And maybe they use a different kind of bike helmet, since the ones we have don’t prevent spinal injuries.

An Indian writer says someone needs to save the cycling from the county’s cycling federation.

South African police are looking for a car full of white men who reached out to drag a black cyclist in a racial attack.

An award-winning New Zealand architect faces charges for running down a cyclist with his SUV, despite the rider’s lights and bright clothing.

Freestyle cyclist Vittorio Brumotti visits the Philippines, and declares Manilla one of the world’s best places for cycling; he was the victim of a viscous assault just two months ago.

 

Finally…

Anyone can ride a bikeshare bike; not everyone can solve a Rubik’s cube in 40 seconds with one hand while doing it. Cycling really is the new golf, unless maybe it’s running.

And today may be the end of the world, so you might as well skip work and go for a bike ride.

Otherwise, I’ll see you here tomorrow, assuming there is one.

 

Category: Bicycle Safety, Bikes & the Law, Road Rage / Tags: , , , , , ,

Morning Links: LA BAC meets tonight, Los Feliz NC discusses LA mobility plan, and bike Metro’s Rideshare Week

October 6, 2015 / / 7 comments

Let’s catch up on a few events of immediate interest.

First up, the Los Angeles Bicycle Advisory Committee is meeting at 7 pm tonight in the LAPD Hollywood Division Community Room, 6501 Fountain Ave.

This month’s agenda includes discussion of the role of the committee in the city’s Vision Zero plan, and why we’re not going to see the planned Northvale Bike Path that was supposed to run parallel to the new Expo Line extension.

And yes, it matters.

The BAC is the only official voice bike riders have in city government. And in theory, at least, its members should have the ear of the councilmembers who appointed them.

………

The Los Feliz Neighborhood Council is hosting a community forum to discuss LA’s Mobility Plan 2035 from 7 to 9 pm tonight at 1965 N Hillhurst Ave.

The good folks retroactively fighting the Rowena road diet, along with those who want to Fix the City by keeping our streets dangerous, will undoubtedly be there. It might not hurt to have a few rational bike-friendly voices in attendance to balance the scales.

Thanks to BAC VP Glenn Bailey for the heads-up.

………

It’s Rideshare Week, when Metro encourages you to carpool, ride bikes, take public transit, walk and vanpool to your destination.

And how do they love you? Let them count the ways…

First among these new initiatives, Metro has launched a new Rideshare campaign to encourage Angelenos to bring a friend along for the ride as opposed to driving alone. Statistics show that in California 37.3% of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions come from transportation, 71% of those emissions are from passenger vehicles, and 72% of commuters are driving alone. If every commuter were to involve one other person in their commute mode, then traffic would disappear and GHG emissions would greatly reduce. New campaign ads, titled “Friends don’t let friends drive alone” will appear online and on giveaway items available at events.

Second, Metro has collaborated with 3 community organizations to co-host creative ridesharing events:

  • Innovate LA with the Karaoke Rickshaw — Movable Parts, an artist collective of college professors, engineers, city employees and creatives, will construct and deploy a Karaoke Rickshaw. The bicycle powered machine will tour through various LA neighborhoods amplifying street sounds, interviews, and multi-lingual pop hits. The finale performance will take place at LA Innovation Week’s Innovate Pershing Square event on October 9.
  • Share the Ride to Ambulante Film Festival — Empact Communities, a grassroots bicycle advocacy group, has partnered with Metro to facilitate ridesharing to Ambulante Film Festival. Group bike rides led by Empact partners will bring attendants to several film screenings. All Ambulante events will be registered in www.Ridematch.info, a database website that facilitates carpooling with more than 300,000 users.
  • ¡Mobilizaté! Eastside Commuter Interviews — Multicultural Communities for Mobility (MCM) will convene along popular transit lines in East LA and Boyle Heights to engage ridesharers to share their street stories through a photo or short video. All stories will be captured through Twitter and Facebook and tracked by tagging @mcmhandles, @metrolosangeles and #SharetheRide.

Third, Metro is giving away prizes to commuters who register their rideshare trip using www.ridematch.info. Prizes include handbags from Brighton Collectables, Metro 7-Day TAP Passes, Barnes and Noble gift cards, Macy’s gift cards, gas cards, and more. Special thanks to Macy’s, Burbank TMO, AAA, VRide, Brighton Collectibles, and Enterprise Rideshare for the donations!

………

Bicycling recaps the Richmond world championships, concluding they were utterly unforgettable.

VeloNews asks if pro cycling’s WorldTour points championship really means anything. Be honest, did you even know there was a points championship, let alone that Alejandro Valverde won it? I didn’t think so.

Two-time Giro winner Ivan Basso retires at age 37, after successful treatment for testicular cancer. Sad to see Basso go out like that. In his prime, he made Lance work for every now-discredited victory.

………

Local

Another great, if difficult, read from Streetsblog’s Sahra Sulaiman as she looks at the anniversaries of the hit-and-runs that took the lives of cyclists Andy Garcia and Benjamin Torres; the 21-year old drunk driver who killed Garcia and seriously injured two other riders is already out of jail after serving just 16 months of a 42 month sentence. Meanwhile, there will be a ride calling for justice for Torres on Saturday to mark the third anniversary of his still unsolved death.

Councilmember David Ryu’s office is amassing a database of broken sidewalks and cracked streets, and vise versa, that need repairs in the 4th council district. Thanks to David Wolfberg for the tip.

Tired of ticketing cyclists for riding salmon on a one-way street, UCLA responds by devoting half the street to what may be the LA area’s first contraflow bike lane. Update: Richard Risemberg points out there’s a contraflow bike lane on Marengo in Pasadena.

USC is now requiring all students, faculty and staff to register their bikes before parking them on campus, ostensibly to combat bike theft. However, mandatory bike registration programs can easily be used as an excuse to stop and search bike riders in the absence of probable cause, which is why LA’s registration program was repealed in 2009.

Continuing our school report, it’s Bike It! Walk It! Bus It! Week at Santa Monica public schools, while LA has 126 schools signed up for Wednesday’s Walk to School Day. Riding a bike to LA schools seems to be acceptable, as well; walking the last few steps after arriving in Mom’s massive SUV, not so much.

 

State

The anti-bike lane madness continues in San Diego-adjacent Coronado, where apparently any bikeway inspired, designed, assisted or implemented by anyone who doesn’t live on the island must be some sort of plot. And that goes for traffic lights, too. That town may be in more desperate need of a civic colonic than anywhere else on earth right now.

Temecula plans to put the fun in Fondo — just go with it — at the grammatically challenged first annual Temecula Spandex Stampede Cycling GranFundo on November 8th. It may be the first of what’s planned as an annual event, but can’t be called that until the second one. Hey, I don’t make the rules.

A former volleyball player who won a gold medal with the US team at the 1984 LA Olympics was seriously injured when he was hit by a pickup in Santa Barbara, after he reportedly ran a stop sign on his bike and rode on the wrong side of the street.

The San Francisco Chronicle looks at the Idaho stop law, which has become a political hot potato in the City by the Bay; a 2010 study shows it reduced bike collisions by about 30% without causing any known problems. But as everyone likes to say, San Francisco isn’t Idaho, and LA is Copenhagen. Which is just an excuse not to try something that has been proven effective somewhere else.

A former star of the long-running soap opera The Young and the Restless was just two riders back when a rider in Sunday’s Levi’s GranFondo tragically rode off the roadway.

Still more bad news from NorCal, as a Dixon driver is under arrest for felony charges of DUI and voluntary manslaughter after fatally rear-ending a bike rider on Sunday.

 

National

Garmin has released a new rear-facing radar that tells you when cars are coming from behind; the unit also includes a taillight that dims to save battery life when there’s no one behind you, and brightens to save yours when there is.

Boulder CO begins undoing the right-sizing of a city street. Which would seem to be wrong-sizing, mais non?

A moving story from Kansas, as 32 cyclists from a four state area come together to help a five-year old boy suffering from life-threatening aneurisms go for his first bike ride.

An Illinois man gets 55 months in jail for killing a cyclist while driving aggressively under the influence.

A new under-two-minute film looks at a 49-year old Minnesota firefighter who is also a champion track cyclist.

Pittsburgh’s bikeshare system is exceeding projections by averaging 12,000 rides a month.

A handicapped Pennsylvania man was rescued after being trapped for two days in a 300-yard bike/pedestrian tunnel when his motorized wheelchair stalled.

An Albany NY writer says it’s time to stop the debate over a proposed road diet and just do it.

A New York city councilman wants to remove 400,000 cars from the city streets by 2030, in part by subsidizing the city’s bikeshare system. Think an LA councilmember would ever have the courage to call for removing nearly a third of the cars from our streets? Me neither.

Alec Baldwin goes for a rainy bike ride in the Big Apple. Riding with earbuds and sans helmet does not, however, make him a “two-wheeled terror.”

 

International

The New York Times looks at the efforts of São Paulo’s mayor to shake off the city’s dystopian sprawl and automotive hegemony by making room for bikes, buses and people on foot.

A bike advocacy group on Canada’s Prince Edward Island calls for mandatory use of flashing daytime bike lights to stop an apparently non-existent rash of bike wrecks; a police source says the island experiences a whopping seven to fourteen bike-involved collisions each year. The same group wants to take over a program to enforce helmet use, as well. Maybe they define bike advocacy a little differently up there in the Great White North. Thanks to Lester Walters for the link.

In a tale that will sound familiar to anyone who’s followed the debate over bikeways in New York, London or right here in LA — or just about anywhere else – residents and business owners in a British town are up in arms over plans to make the city center more walkable and bikeable, even though studies show they would actually benefit from plans to de-emphasize cars.

Irish police ticket 244 bicyclists after new rules went into effect allowing on-the-spot fines.

A new Irish study says bike helmets are effective protection in collisions up to 31 mph, and not much good above that.

Only 18% of bike-riding Amsterdam club goers use both front and back bike lights. On the other hand, if you’re going to go lightless, that’s probably the place to do it.

Sixty Mangalore, India cyclists rode to save the embattled Netravathi river.

Two South Korean women completed a 3,300 mile ride across the US to raise awareness of Korean comfort women forced into sexual servitude by Japan in WWII.

 

Finally…

Lots of people bike to work; not many do it on a Penny Farthing, though. Don’t express your anarchist leanings by jogging in a DC bike lane or you could face a whole $10 fine.

And who’s the criminal if you break into a home to steal back your stolen bike after spotting it on Craigslist?

Which is not to say I wouldn’t do the same damn thing.

 

Category: Advocacy & Politics, Morning Links, Streets and Infrastructure / Tags: , , , , , ,
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