Parking expert Donald Shoup died, council committees consider HLA ordinance, and killing couple riding bikes just no big deal

February 10, 2025 / / Comments Off on Parking expert Donald Shoup died, council committees consider HLA ordinance, and killing couple riding bikes just no big deal
Day 41 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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Let’s get the worst news out of the way first.

Beloved UCLA Distinguished Urban Planning Research Professor Donald Shoup has passed away.

Known to friends and fans as Shoup Dogg, Donald Should gained fame among urbanists, traffic planners and advocates with his 2005 book The High Cost of Free Parking, which established him as one of the world’s leading experts on parking, and the hidden costs it imposes on builders and cities.

https://bsky.app/profile/mnolangray.bsky.social/post/3lhnbxzgt7s2c

Here’s how Shoup was described in his bio by the university.

Donald Shoup is Distinguished Research Professor in the Department of Urban Planning at UCLA. His research has focused on transportation, public finance, and land economics.

In his 2005 book, The High Cost of Free Parking, Shoup recommended that cities should (1) charge fair market prices for on-street parking, (2) spend the revenue to benefit the metered areas, and (3) remove off-street parking requirements. In his 2018 edited book, Parking and the City, Shoup and 45 other academic and practicing planners examined the results in cities that have adopted these three reforms. The successful outcomes show that parking reforms can improve cities, the economy, and the environment.

Shoup is a Fellow of the American Institute of Certified Planners and an Honorary Professor at the Beijing Transportation Research Center. He has received the American Planning Association’s National Excellence Award for a Planning Pioneer and the American Collegiate Schools of Planning’s Distinguished Educator Award.

But that doesn’t begin to do him justice, starting with the love his former students and associates held for him, along with virtually anyone else he came in contact with.

Myself included.

I always found Shoup engaging and helpful, whether in person or on social media. Whenever I reached out to him, he responded immediately, offering me a Cliff Notes education in urban planning, while challenging me to do my own research.

Much of what I know today today about parking and urban planning I learned from him.

But more than that, Shoup has done more than anyone else to get cities to reform their parking policies, including eliminating parking minimums, here in the US and around the world.

The world will be poorer place without Shoup, but far better off because of him.

He was 86.

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No surprise here.

Los Angeles City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto has come back with a proposed ordinance setting minimum standards for Measure HLA.

And advocates have found it, well, lacking.

The city has been slow walking the legally required implementation of HLA — which requires the city to build out the ten-year old mobility plan whenever a street gets resurfaced — since its passage by an overwhelming margin nearly a year ago.

Streetsblog reports the ordinance will come up before a joint session of the Transportation and Public Works Committees at City Hall, starting at 8:30 this Wednesday morning.

According to Streetsblog’s Joe Linton,

Item 4 (council file 24-0173) includes the City Attorney’s draft implementation ordinance, a new law essentially designed to specify how the city will comply with Measure HLA. Some advocates anticipate that the ordinance will be helpful to remove some city department excuses currently blocking HLA upgrades. But the ordinance also attempts to water down some parts of HLA, including introducing a few loopholes where the city could opt out of some improvements required under Measure HLA. It also sets up a cumbersome extra appeal process that would likely mean serious delays before the city improves streets. The item also looks to codify current relatively driver-centric outreach standards for HLA upgrades that “may result in closures or disruption of access to the public right-of-way.” That “access” is not the everyday dangers/barriers faced by people walking, in wheelchairs, or bicycling – it’s a euphemism meaning repurposing space currently for driving or parking cars. Safe streets advocates face Hobson’s choice on this one: push for modifications hoping for a somewhat stronger ordinance (changes could mean sending it back to the City Attorney for months further delaying delayed safety upgrades) or get a weak city processes approved that could facilitate some improvements.

The committees will also consider a requesting preliminary budget for implementing HLA on the next item.

Meanwhile, Streets For All called out specific problems with another separate, but related, proposed HLA implementation document that specifies facility minimums.

While most of the minimums make sense, there are some that either violate HLA or have the potential to violate it. Specifically, the city should:

1. Not include shared bike/bus lanes as acceptable for the Bicycle Lane Network. Bus lanes are bus infrastructure that brave cyclists can also use; they are not a substitute for actual bike lanes.

2. State how they will accomplish speed, volume, and crossing control on the Bicycle Enhanced Network (neighborhood streets); right now, the draft just says they will implement it, but not it should specific treatments such as speed humps, traffic circles, chicanes, etc.

3. Include basic improvements for the “moderate” tier on the Transit Enhanced Network; currently, they have state “none” are required. Improved bus stops, better signage, and transit signal priority are basic things that should be included.

4. Bus lanes should be implemented as envisioned in the Mobility Plan 2035. Currently, City Planning suggests the City can forgo the implementation of a bus lane on a TEN street if the bus lane “would not support a transit operator’s planned or existing service pattern.”

Streets For All asks you to attend City Planning’s virtual meeting at 6 pm this Thursday, basing your comments on the points above, as well as emailing your comments to City Planning.

If any of that seems confusing, it was for me, too. Thanks to Joe Linton for helping me clarify what I had originally written. 

………

Life is cheap in Napa County, where the driver who killed an Oregon couple as they rode their bikes on vacation got less than one lousy year behind bars.

Nike executive Christian Deaton, 52, and 48-year old Nike designer Michelle Deaton were riding on Silverado Trail in October of 2023 when they were struck by unsecured lumber in the back of a truck driven by 57-year old Porfirio Sanchez.

Sanchez had faced up to four years behind bars, but was sentenced to just 364 days in jail after pleading to two counts of vehicular manslaughter; prosecutors dismissed charges of felony hit-and-run, providing police with false information and altering evidence as part of a plea deal.

He will have to serve just over half of his overly lenient sentence before being released.

Proving once again that killing two innocent people is just no big deal, as long as they’re riding bicycles.

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No surprise here, either.

Singletracks reports a number of Los Angeles-area mountain bike and gravel trails were destroyed in the recent Palisades, Eaton and Hughes fires.

According to the magazine, the Mount Wilson, Mount Lowe, Middle Sam Merrill and Sunset Ridge trails above Altadena were burned, along with the Backbone, Rogers Road and Sullivan Canyon trails near the Palisades.

Others, such as the famed El Prieto trail, were also damaged.

While some may re-open as early as May, it will take years to fully recover from the damage.

………

Traffic violence hits a little too close to home for the folks at Bike Talk this week, and Walk ‘n Rollers steps up to help kids affected by last month’s LA Fires.

Bluesky post

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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going. 

Miami Beach becomes the latest city to rip out bike lanes, removing the bike lanes from one-way, pedestrian-friendly Ocean Drive, and returning it to a pedestrian unfriendly two-way street. Because cars.

Nice guy. The UK’s Health Minister was fired after it was revealed that he had sent racist, sexist and otherwise offensive messages on WhatsApp — including his sincere wish that a constituent named Nick would get run over by a garbage truck while riding on a local bikeway.

But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly. 

Nice guy, part two. A 31-year old British man will spend a lousy four months behind bars for ramming his bicycle into the legs of his former girlfriend, knocking her to the ground and calling her obscene names while standing over her.

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Local  

Seriously? Confused Claremont drivers can’t figure out how green bike lanes and bike boxes work.

 

State

SlashGear follows up on what happened after the noseless, gel-padded VSEAT bike seat lured two of the Sharks on Shark Tank to invest two hundred grand for a 25% equity, saying the company founded by a California woman and her trainer is still around, selling the unique seats online while promising to alleviate crotch pain for $119.

A San Diego letter writer says if you really want to keep bike riders safe, enforce the damn traffic laws, already.

An 18-year old Fresno man was hospitalized in critical condition with a head injury after he was struck by a driver when he allegedly rode his bike through a red light.

Once again, a police chase has led to another mass casualty crash, after six people were hospitalized, two critically, when a driver fleeing from the cops crashed into a San Francisco restaurant’s outdoor seating area while people were watching the Super Bowl.

 

National

The US Bicycle Route System has added another 3,568 miles to its cross-country network, bringing the total to over 23,000 miles, nearly halfway to its goal of 50,000 miles.

Seattle Bike Blog writer Tom Fucoloro, author of Biking Uphill in the Rain: The Story of Seattle from Behind the Handlebars, says if the city wants to challenge the dominance of motor vehicles, it “needs support from the people pulling every lever of power.”

A writer for Streets Minnesota says ebikes can mean greater freedom for people with limited vision, for whom driving can be a challenge, if they can do it at all. Thanks to BikeLA Executive Director Eli Akira Kaufman for the heads-up.

America’s leading anti-urbanist has come down strongly against congestion pricing, as President Trump announced plans to kill the program in New York City, even though it has already proven successful in reducing congestion and improving safety. Which doesn’t bode well for implementing it in Los Angeles for the next four years.

A Maryland tourist has filed a $1.6 million lawsuit after she suffered “significant” injuries when a Virginia Beach, Virginia cop doored her without looking as she rode her bike in a bike lane.

 

International

The Velo podcast talks with a British Columbia bike shop owner about the trials and travails of just trying to earn a profit and stay in business these days.

That’s more like it. A 31-year old British woman will spend the next six years and eight months behind bars for killing a 71-year old man riding a bicycle while she was driving distracted and “persistently” surfing Instagram, Facebook and SnapChat behind the wheel, as well as texting.

A writer in the UK thought a ride with a 66-year old grandmother would be relaxing, until the world class masters cyclist dropped him like a sack of spuds.

More proof that bicycling is good for you, as a new Finnish study shows people who bike to work tend to take fewer sick days off from work, along with a reduced risk of long-term absences due to illness.

Bicyclists in Budapest, Hungary will now enjoy a connected, protected bicycle highway on the city’s Grand Blvd.

A Nigerian evangelical minister braved nine days of bad roads, crashes and bigass snakes to ride his bike nearly 400 miles across the country to wish the General Overseer of the Church a happy 83rd birthday.

A new Chinese study shows a one-size-fits-all approach to bicycle and motorcycle thefts won’t work, because bicycle and motorcycle thefts are clustered in different areas, under different circumstances; surprisingly, it also showed that the proportion of low-income residents in a given area led to more motorcycle thefts, but fewer bicycle thefts. Although it would be interesting to see if those results would hold over here. 

 

Competitive Cycling

The peloton put on the brakes and called a halt to the third stage of France’s Étoile de Bessèges in protest after several cars and trucks made their way onto the course, compressing riders into a single lane on the roadway.

Belgium’s Soudal-Quick Step development team has pulled out of the upcoming Tour of Rwanda over fears the armed conflict in neighboring Congo will spread.

Sixty-one-year old Vietnamese cyclist Hoang Hai Nam won that country’s first gold medal at the 2025 Asian Road Cycling Championships in the over-60 men’s individual time trial while riding a borrowed bike, after the Vietnamese team’s bicycles and gear were burned in a truck fire.

Bystanders came to the rescue of a New Zealander competing in the country’s annual coast-to-coast run, kayak and bike race after he crashed his bike just three miles into the 34-mile bicycle stage, loaning him a foldie from their camper when his derailleur snapped completely several miles later.

 

Finally…

Probably not the best idea to crash your speeding ebike into a cop. Your new smart handlebars could have been funded through OnlyFans photos — yes, that OnlyFans.

And who needs spandex when you’ve got chain mail?

Twitter post

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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Paying people to ride a bike works, LA Natural History Museum talks Biking While Black, and where avid cyclists drive

February 7, 2025 / / Comments Off on Paying people to ride a bike works, LA Natural History Museum talks Biking While Black, and where avid cyclists drive
Day 38 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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My apologies for yesterday’s unexcused absence.

Whether it’s diabetes, a migraine, my meds, all of the above or something else, I’ve been so dizzy past two days I can’t keep my eyes open without feeling sick.

Good times.

But thanks to the wonders of modern pharmaceuticals, I should be okay to work now, as long as I keep my laptop at arm’s length and don’t mind a little double vision. Okay, a lot of double vision. 

So let’s give this a shot, and see if I make it through.

Photo by Kaboompics.com from Pexels. 

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Paying people to bike works.

Denver, Colorado conducted “a fascinating psychological experiment” by paying people to ride a bicycle instead of driving.

Not only did they ride more, they kept riding after the experiment ended, offering hope for reducing traffic congestion and fighting climate change.

And demand for the program far exceeded availability, with 1,400 people applying for just 101 slots, demonstrating significant room for growth going forward.

The city invested $442,000 in incentives, paid for through a Climate Protection Fund sales tax approved by voters, while breaking participants into three groups:

  • The first group was paid $1 for every mile they rode, as tracked by an app
  • The second group received subsidies to buy a bike or accessories, plus training and coaching
  • The third group was paid $1 per mile, along with receiving training

According to the Denverite website,

Of the three groups, those paid $1 per mile ended up biking the most number of miles. Those who received both training and $1 per mile experienced the most long-term changes in commuting behavior. The program ran from April through June.

The question is how that compares to the cost of subsidizing motor vehicle use, and the benefit to society and public health of getting people out of their cars.

At the very least, it’s worth trying on a larger and longer basis.

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The Los Angeles Natural History Museum talks with Yolanda Davis-Overstreet, founder of Biking While Black, as part of their online series L.A. on Wheels, “celebrating the diversity of Los Angeles and its people through the lens of creative modes of transportation.”

Thanks to BikeLA Executive Director Eli Akira Kaufman for the heads-up.

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Apparently, when you’re an avid cyclist, you even drive in the bike lane.

Bluesky post

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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going. 

San Mateo is planning to spend as much as two million dollars to rip out the city’s longest bike lanes to restore parking spaces, prioritizing the convenience of drivers over the safety of people riding bicycles — but they promise to replace them with a bicycle boulevard on a nearby street, which one person said amounts to nothing more than a couple signs and bike symbols painted on the pavement.

But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly. 

A London writer wants to know how this became the new normal, after he stepped out of a soccer stadium and was hit by a speeding, if apologetic, ebike rider.

No bias here. The BBC reports that a man in his 50s was killed when a car and a bike “hit each other” — even though police arrested three people on suspicion of dangerous driving. Which would kinda suggest the driver hit the bike rider, instead.

You’ve got to be kidding. A British cop testified that he made “light,” “tactical contact” with an ebike shared by two people while driving at 30 mph, “because of the risk they posed to themselves and the public,” resulting in significant injuries to one of the victims. As if it’s possible to make light contact with someone at that speed. Or with a moving car, period. 

An Aussie woman is no closer to getting compensation, two years after she suffered multiple broken bones when she was struck by someone on a Lime bike while she was three months pregnant.

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Local  

CicLAvia made international news, as Momentum says LA’s “open streets party” has huge plans for this year, starting with West Adams meets University Park in two weeks.

 

State

Calbike’s next virtual summit session will discuss “Creative Approaches to Funding Active Transportation Infrastructure” on Thursday, February 20th.

A 27-year old San Diego man suffered a broken leg and pelvis when he reportedly rode his ebike off a sidewalk, and into the path of a truck driver in Otay Mesa.

A local TV station offers tips on bike safety ahead of this weekend’s Tour de Palm Springs.

A Palm Springs bike tour takes you through the city’s celebrity and midcentury neighborhoods, including the Frank Sinatra estate and Elvis Presley’s Honeymoon Hideaway.

Palo Alto is looking for comments on a new 173-page plan calling for safer streets for all road users, starting with slowing down drivers for the benefit of everyone.

After a 50-year career in high tech sales and marketing, a San Jose man started a second act by founding a nonprofit offering life-changing work for people in need of a second chance, refurbishing and donating over 2,000 bicycles and repairing thousands more at its free mobile clinics.

A San Francisco bike shop owner says he’s just trying to keep up with the price increases caused by Trump’s tariffs on Chinese-made bicycles.

 

National

Cycling Weekly considers the eternal question of how, or whether, to warn the others on a group ride about an oncoming car.

A writer for progressive news site the Daily Kos revisits the story of the bike-riding Buffalo Soldiers who demonstrated the viability of bicycles by riding 800 miles from Missouri to Yellowstone and back in 1892.

Ann Arbor, Michigan is using AI-equipped cams mounted on the seat posts of bike commuters to map where bike lanes are needed.

When a pair of Missouri towns refused to build mountain bike trails, a couple bought the land and built the trails themselves.

Police in Richmond, Virginia are trying to identify a mask-wearing man on bicycle who they say has crucial evidence in a cold case murder.

That’s more like it. A Georgia man will spend the next 20 years behind bars after he was sentenced for a road rage attack on a bike rider; he deliberately rammed the victim with his pickup after they had exchanged words, then stood over him yelling and flipping the bird — and even chest bumped a bystander who came over to help.

This is what a hit-and-run that left an Orlando, Florida bike rider with significant injuries looks like. Just be sure it’s something you want to see, because you can’t unsee it afterwards.

 

International

An Ottawa man launched a nonprofit group intended to help people understand invisible brain injuries, 15 years after he was nearly killed when a sleeping driver ran him down, along with four other people riding in a marked bike lane.

A group of bicyclists will be riding the London’s most dangerous streets to protest a new report showing many of the city’s bicycling routes aren’t safe for women to ride after dark.

Violent bikejackings are creating a climate of fear around London’s Regent Park, with many people now avoiding the popular riding spot.

Former Spanish world champ Óscar Freire has been found safe after he went missing for two days following a fight with family members.

A desperate search is underway for an American competitive cyclist working for Yeti Cycles, who disappeared in Spain’s Andalusia region two weeks ago; his empty van was found, suggesting he was riding his ebike when he went missing.

An Italian ultra-cyclist and former Continental level pro plans to ride more than 1,800 miles through the Himalayas, complete with over 31 miles of elevation gain, to call attention to the role that bicycling can play in reducing global warming.

Travel + Leisure says the “blazing fall colors and picturesque villages” of the Japanese island of Kyushu makes it a perfect spot for touring by bicycle.

 

Competitive Cycling

Introducing the new and improved Paris-Roubaix, aka the Hell of the North, now with even more cobbles.

An oblivious driver somehow found themselves on a side road leading directly into an oncoming pro peloton during France’s Étoile de Bessège, causing a crash that made Belgium’s Maxim van Gils abandon the race.

The Vietnamese national cycling team will have to use bicycles loaned to them by Thailand when they compete in the Asian Road Cycling Championships after all their bikes and equipment were destroyed when their truck went up in flames.

 

Finally…

Now you, too, can have a genuine 1970s Evel Knievel spec’d bike, even if you can’t jump 14 Greyhound buses with it. Your next ebike could come from the same people who made your childhood little red wagon.

And just another Heisman Trophy-winning NFL quarterback pedaling a pedicab while singing like a Venice gondolier.

https://twitter.com/NFL_DovKleiman/status/1887565994920493416?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1887565994920493416%7Ctwgr%5E9155e1ff83aa43330994081f4cf75710dca7b3d8%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2F247sports.com%2Farticle%2Fwatch-jameis-winston-is-giving-fans-a-ride-in-new-orleans-on-a-bike-cab-and-singing-to-them-245341828%2F

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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , ,

Los Angeles belatedly rolls out draft HLA standards, mountain biking ode to LA, and environmentally unfriendly burn scar ride

February 5, 2025 / / Comments Off on Los Angeles belatedly rolls out draft HLA standards, mountain biking ode to LA, and environmentally unfriendly burn scar ride
Day 36 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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Um, okay.

Streetsblog reports that after nine months of slow walking the legally required implementation of Measure HLA — which requires building out the mobility plan when streets get resurfaced — the Los Angeles City Planning Department has finally released its draft HLA Standard Elements Table.

The HLA SET sets out the minimum standards for each tier in the plan, from the Transit Enhanced Network and Pedestrian Enhanced Network, to three tiers of bikeway networks.

Which makes sense, since the bare minimum is all they’ve done so far.

You’ll have your chance to weigh in when the Planning Department hosts a virtual information session on its proposed HLA Standard Elements Table a week from tomorrow, from 6-7 pm.

Click here to register for the session.

Graphic for Healthy Streets LA, as Measure HLA was originally known, from Streets for All website.

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Mountain biker Eliot Jackson celebrates the City of Angels with his Ode To LA, shredding on his bike and guitar.

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Freeride mountain biker Dylan Stark is joined by “freeride legend” Josh Bender as they carve up the burn scar from 2024 Macy Fire near Lake Elsinore.

Never mind the environmental damage to nascent vegetation and animal life as the hillside struggles to recover from the fire damage.

Schmucks.

 

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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going. 

A Philadelphia woman tried to get out of paying after her car was towed for parking in a parking protected bike lane by claiming the four-year old bike lane didn’t exist, because the signs and symbols normally denoting a bike lane were missing due to construction. Never mind that it looks pretty damn obvious even without them. 

No bias here. Drivers in Oxford, England complain about Schrödinger’s bike lanes, of which there are simultaneously too many blocking the roads and causing congestion,  and too few, forcing drivers to somehow cope with people legally riding in the traffic lanes.

But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly. 

Only in Florida. A 67-year old Lake City man kidnapped a woman at knifepoint after she struck him with her car as he rode his bike in a crosswalk, demanding that she drive him home — then called police and her employer to report the crash when she didn’t return with a promised payment, and refused to have a relationship with him.

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Local  

Once again, an LAPD officer has been arrested for a fatal hit-and-run. Sgt. Carlos Gonzalo Coronel is charged with killing a 19-year old man in Tustin early Saturday morning; he’s currently accused of violating probation for a 2011 DUI conviction after he failed to complete his court ordered community service.

Oops. KCBS-2 says former US National Crit champ Rahsaan Bahati partnered with “Costa Mesa nonprofit” Walk ‘n Rollers after someone stole the trailer with all their gear. Except the group dedicated to teaching kids how to ride their bikes safely is based about 45 miles north in Culver City.

 

State

Calbike is working to get the California MUTCD, aka Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, updated to reflect a new law banning sharrows on streets with speed limits above 30 mph.

San Diego is looking for your input on the draft of its revised Street Design Manual outlining how roads and walkways should be designed to accommodate  all users.

Now you, too, can be a star. Or at least make a cool grand demonstrating your bike skills for a healthcare ad shooting in the Bay Area (scroll down).

A San Francisco website says the city’s new bike plan is full of ideas and goals, but short on details, a departure from the its usual approach of ambitious plans that never get built.

 

National

A clickbait slideshow highlights the top ten US bike towns every bicyclist should visit. None of which is Los Angeles, of course. 

A new Utah bill could eliminate mountain bike and gravel racing in the state by imposing a 20 mph speed limit on all trails and pathways, while also revising the definitions of electric motorcycles, e-scooters, mini-bikes and ebikes, and requiring helmets for anyone under 21.

People riding bikes in my bike-friendly Colorado hometown on the Winter Bike to Work Day will enjoy coffee, food, drinks and giveaways, both morning and afternoon. Which compares favorably to LA’s most recent Bike to Work Day, when bike commuters got squat. 

In today’s best story, a family of Ukrainian refugees are living proof of the power bicycles to change lives, assuming ownership of a Boulder, Colorado bike shop from the people who became their substitute parents and benefactors when they arrived here with nothing, despite never riding a bicycle before the war started.

Once again, someone on a bicycle has been killed by a cop, as a 68-year old Norwalk, Connecticut man riding in a crosswalk was hit and killed by an on-duty police detective in an unmarked car.

The Pennsylvania House of Representatives has overwhelmingly approved a bill that would finally legalize parking protected bike lanes, sending it on to the state senate for consideration.

This is why people hate defense lawyers. Attorneys for the man accused of killing the hockey-playing Gaudreau brothers the night before their sister’s New Jersey wedding allege they were both over the legal alcohol limit as they rode their bikes, as if that had anything to do with the driver running them down from behind while passing a slower car on the shoulder of the highway.

 

International

Momentum offers 33 reasons to start bike commuting now. Which isn’t quite as catchy as “I got 99 problems but…”, but it will have to do.

A Nova Scotia city councilmember says the city needs a 2,000 percent increase in bicycling rates if they want to have any hope of meeting their climate goals. On the other hand, at least they have climate goals, unlike a certain SoCal megalopolis I could name, which tossed the last mayor’s Green New Deal out the window before the new mayor even came in. 

Not Just Bikes says the reason Canadians can’t bike in the winter and Finns can has nothing to do with weather, and everything to do with safe bicycle infrastructure. Then proceeds to refute their own argument by showing Canadians bicycling in, yes, winter, albeit less comfortably than their Finnish counterparts.

Seriously? A 32-year old British man is facing ten years behind bars for killing a 75-year old Finnish man with an axe as he lay in his bed, bizarrely claiming it was self-defense after the older man tied him down and raped him — yet the press somehow insists on identifying him as a “cyclist” because he arrived in Finland on a bike tour.

Evidently, the wheels of justice turn slowly in India, where a man was acquitted eight years after his arrest for stealing a bike.

An Aussie website says Bangkok is better for bicycling than they expected. Which doesn’t exactly sound like high praise. 

A Melbourne, Australia woman is called a Karen after she lost her temper during a rideout in the Central Business District, getting out of her car to repeatedly point her finger in the faces of the teen bicyclists stopping traffic with their two-wheeled antics.

 

Competitive Cycling

Wout van Aert says it was just meant to be, after failing to overtake Mathieu van der Poel for the ‘cross world championship.

Czech carmaker Škoda’s We Love Cycling website examines the post pro racing careers of a handful of cycling legends, ranging from The Cannibal to Contador.

Thanks to indoor cycling gear supplied by Zwift and Wahoo, a Congolese cyclist says he’s still able to train, even as armed conflict rages outside, making it too dangerous to ride a bicycle.

 

Finally…

Ethan Hunt has apparently gone rogue and is now raiding Brit bike shops. Your next bike could have two chains — and no, not the rapper. Who says you need to stop pedaling to play the drums?

And surfing, like bicycling, evidently leaves little to the imagination as to the outline of your, um, male appendage.

Assuming you have one, of course.

………

Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , ,

Civil rights complaint filed against administrator of CA ebike incentive; loophole closed on Chinese imports

February 4, 2025 / / Comments Off on Civil rights complaint filed against administrator of CA ebike incentive; loophole closed on Chinese imports
Day 35 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

Nope. Nothing out of the ordinary here.

San Diego County Board of Supervisors Chair Nora Vargas abruptly resigned, despite winning re-election to a second term in November, citing fears for her personal safety over her support for a sanctuary city.

Or maybe it had something to do with a civil rights complaint filed with the EPA citing close ties to Ed Clancy, head of the San Diego nonprofit Pedal Ahead, which administers the California ebike incentive program.

The complaint alleges the ebike voucher program discriminates against Black people, making their vouchers harder to redeem and charging additional fees, along with a number of other allegations.

Just one more example of the total shitshow this program has devolved into.

The only question here is whether the DOJ investigation Reichert mentions is the state investigation we already knew about, or whether a federal investigation has been launched as well.

Twitter post

Thanks to Malcolm Watson for the heads-up.

………

Despite lifting the new tariffs on Mexico and Canada yesterday, at least temporarily, Trump allowed the additional 10% punitive tariff on goods imported from to go into effect, as we discussed yesterday.

Adding insult to financial injury, he is also reportedly closing the de minimis loophole, which allows goods from China valued below $800 to be shipped directly to the consumer, bypassing import duties and regulatory scrutiny.

That’s what allows Chinese websites such as Shein and Temu to offer such low prices.

It’s also what has allowed low-end Chinese ebikes sold through Amazon and Walmart to flood the market.

So it may not necessarily be a bad thing. Even if it means you could pay more for components.

………

The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going. 

San Mateo, California is taking a page from Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s playbook, with a vote last night to consider ripping out the two-year old Humboldt Street bike lanes because drivers are whining about a loss of parking.

No bias here. An English town is benevolently lifting a ban on bicycles on the city’s main shopping street after four years — but only permitting bicycles restricted to the same hours as delivery trucks, rather than allowing the access other shoppers and employees enjoy.

………

Local  

Long Beach will hold a public town hall meeting to discus the city’s Orange Avenue Backbone Bikeway Project a week from Thursday.

 

State

Calbike asks, not unreasonably, why there’s still no new bill in the state legislature to legalize Stop As Yield, aka the California Safety Stop, aka the Idaho Stop Law, after two new studies showed it works, improving safety for bicyclists while reducing conflicts at intersections.

The award-winning Arthritis Foundation California Coast Classic Bike Tour is returning for the 25th consecutive year this September.

San Diego continues to fall short of its Vision Zero goals, with 19 people killed by traffic violence in the county last month — including one riding a bicycle that we weren’t previously aware of.

 

National

My bike-friendly Colorado hometown will join other cities across the state in celebrating Valentines Day with a Winter Bike to Work Day, allowing bike riders to spend the day with their one true love — their bicycles. Yet somehow, no one marks the day to encourage people here in Southern California to bike to work in winter, despite having nearly ideal weather for it. Then again, the summer Bike to Work Day has been nearly moribund here post-pandemic, so why should a winter one be any different?

A Florida couple are now both facing charges after investigators concluded the husband lied about being behind the wheel in a deadly hit-and-run that killed an eight-year old girl as she was riding a bicycle, after they discovered he was at work at the time of the crash, and it was the wife who was actually driving.

 

International

Cycling Weekly considers the burning question of when should you replace your bicycle.

This is why people keep dying on our streets. An Irish parliament member is calling for a public inquiry into the death of a 23-year old man riding a bicycle, after it was revealed the driver of the car had 42 previous convictions, including convictions for traffic violations, theft and possession of heroin, and was was on bail at the time of the crash.

Bicyclists in Melbourne, Australia are complaining about new bike lanes that they say is make things more dangerous, because the concrete dividers do nothing to keep drivers from pulling out into the bike lane, keep taxis stopping in them or prevent pedestrians from using them as sidewalks.

 

Competitive Cycling

Mountain Bike Action says Tom Pidcock And Mathieu Van Der Poel could give Switzerland’s Nino Schurter a run for his money as the world’s top cross-country mountain bike racer. 

Pez Cycling News considers the most shocking moments in cycling history, starting with Lance the doper. And Landis the Mennonite doper, too.

A San Luis Obispo website says a secretive, underground, unsanctioned and arguably illegal bike race known as the SLO Little 500 “puts the fun in dysfunction.”

 

Finally…

Celebrate Black History Month by riding brakeless. That feeling when you race through the muck and mud with a $300,000 Swiss watch on your wrist.

And now you, too, can have a built-in handlebar dashboard on your bike. Because there just aren’t enough ways to suck the fun out of bicycling already.

………

Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , ,

New tariffs could mean higher prices on bikes and parts, and accused road-raging Fresno driver runs down 3 bike riders

February 3, 2025 / / Comments Off on New tariffs could mean higher prices on bikes and parts, and accused road-raging Fresno driver runs down 3 bike riders
Day 34 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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If you were thinking about buying a bicycle, ebike or parts for your bike, you should do it now, before Trump’s new tariffs kick in.

Or be prepared to fork over more money for it.

The overwhelming majority of bicycles, ebikes and components come from China, which will now be subject to a new 10% tariff, in addition to the previous tariffs.

Those previous tariffs already amount to 36%, according to Bicycle Retailer, with the 25% punitive tariff imposed by Trump in his first term, and continued by Biden, added to the previously existing 11% protective tariff approved by Congress.

Which means that with the new 10% punitive tariff Trump imposed over the weekend, the rate will be 46% added to the cost of anything coming in from China.

And despite Trump’s repeated insistence that it will be a tax on and paid for by China, the added costs cost are likely to passed on to the consumer, amounting to a nearly 50% tax on bikes and components that will have to be paid by someone.

In other words, you.

It could also result in shortages if importers balk at the higher taxes, after bike shop are just getting back to full inventory after the pandemic-fueled shortages.

So don’t wait.

Peddle yourself down to your favorite local bike shop now. Or you could be the one who pays the higher prices, or find yourself unable to buy anything at all.

Photo by Kaboompics.com via Pexels.

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A 23-year old Fresno man faces three counts of assault with a deadly weapon, accused of intentionally running down two teenaged bike riders, as well as another man on a bicycle.

The incident started when the driver got out of his SUV to fight with a group of bike riders on the side of the road, after they had argued on the street.

But following the brawl, the man allegedly drove onto the sidewalk to purposely hit the two teenagers as they tried to ride away.

He then backed off the sidewalk and continued down the street, before swerving into a bike lane to deliberately ram the older man, who does not appear to have any connection to the other group.

Not surprisingly, the driver was assaulted by a group of bike riders following his vehicular attacks. And no, that doesn’t mean it was justified, just understandable given the circumstances.

He was hospitalized with minor injuries, apparently stemming from the assault following the crashes

All three victims were taken to a local hospital, but there’s no word on their condition.

The article from the Fresno Bee appears to be hidden by a paywall, but I was able to click through to read it. 

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The Transit Guy is on this week’s Bike Talk, along with LA bike lawyer and BikinginLA title sponsor Jim Pocrass.

Bluesky post

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Streets For All will host their monthly virtual happy hour next Wednesday, featuring newly elected Culver City Councilmember Bubba Fish.

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Gravel Bike California returns with a ride across the rolling foothills of Bakersfield with Grizzly Cycles.

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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going. 

No bias here. Citing insufficient evidence, Florida prosecutors refused to charge a road raging 76-year old woman for attempting to run down a man riding a bicycle, after the two argued when she cut him off in a roundabout — even though the whole thing was captured on the victim’s bike cam, as well as two security cams. Which makes you wonder just what they would consider sufficient.

He gets it. The CEO of Lime Bikes chides Londoners for complaining about a single dockless bikeshare bike parked on the sidewalk, when there are hundreds of parked cars cluttering the streets.

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Local  

Friends and fellow cops held a 37-mile memorial ride for LAPD officer Paul Jordan, who was killed in an off-duty crash on the 118 Freeway while driving home from work last week; Jordan was a frequent road cyclist who reportedly loved bicycling.

West Hollywood may be jumping the gun just a tad, as the city is planning first and last mile connections to the K Line subway, which could be decades away since it hasn’t yet been approved, let alone funded; it also may never even reach the city, with three routes remaining under consideration, two of which would bypass WeHo all or in part. But I do applaud the effort. 

South El Monte decided not to decide between two options for a 1.4-mile bike and pedestrian project on Tyler Ave/Santa Anita Ave, tabling the motion for two months after councilmembers balked at the loss of 99 parking spaces. Once again prioritizing the convenience of motorists over the safety of people on bicycles.

 

State

Calbike will host a webinar on February 20th to discuss creative approaches to funding active transportation funding. Which is even more important now, in light of the freezing of federal funding. 

Now you, too, can see Santa Barbara by bike through the eyes of a longtime local.

 

National

Sigh. A writer for Streetsblog says Trump is putting safety last and politics first by freezing the federally funded “Road to Zero” program, in an apparent attempt to undo anything approved by the Biden administration, even though the funds were intended to improve traffic safety in both red and blue states.

An automotive website says there is no truth to the rumor that Tesla is building an ebike, revealing it was dreamed up by a freelance industrial designer and the internet ran with it. But would you really want an electric bicycle made by the manufacturer of the “the polarizing and fault-ridden Cybertruck,” anyway?

Once again, an innocent bike rider was collateral damage for a driver fleeing from the cops, this time in Las Vegas, where police were chasing a juvenile and allegedly unlicensed DUI driver accused of sideswiping an SUV at a high rate of speed, then crashing into another SUV before both vehicles spun onto the sidewalk, killing a 41-year old man riding a bicycle; a St. Louis bike rider was also injured by a driver fleeing from the cops.

This is why people keep dying on our streets. A middle school teacher in my Colorado hometown was convicted of misdemeanor careless driving for killing a bike-riding 10-year-old boy while driving distracted, after previously pleading guilty to another lousy misdemeanor for deleting texts and tampering with physical evidence. Because evidently, killing a little boy and trying to hide the evidence just isn’t a big enough deal to warrant a single felony count. Or at least that’s the message drivers will take from this kind of chronic undercharging. 

A Cary, Illinois man is suing the local village after he was right hooked by an on-duty cop while riding in the crosswalk with the light.

The kindness and generosity of the bicycle community is on display once again, as West Springfield, Massachusetts’ Bob “The Bike Man” worked with local boy and girl scout troops to package gear to get the city’s homeless people through the worst of the winter; he’s best known for refurbishing bicycles to give to people in need.

Charlottesville, Virginia is the latest city to offer ebike vouchers, distributing $100,000 to 100 residents this year in the form of $1,000 “mini-grants” intended to encourage ebike use; the grants are available to any resident over the age of 18.

A Tampa, Florida woman marked her 50th birthday by riding 50 three-mile laps around a local island in honor of her father, who had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease, while raising funds  fight to Parkinson’s through Team Fox and the Michael J. Fox Foundation.

 

International

An Ontario bike rider responds to the provincial plan to rip out Toronto’s bike lanes by saying “I don’t want to be in this province anymore.” Which is a feeling a lot of us can relate to when government actions — or inaction — threaten our safety.

A new Toronto study shows that a full ten percent of the city’s bicycle traffic consists of delivery riders delivering food.

Cycling Weekly takes up the burning question of why bike lanes in the US and Great Britain end abruptly without connecting to other bikeways . Which pretty much describes most of the bike lanes in the LA area. 

The Guardian’s Laura Laker recommends the best panniers and handlebar bags.

Life is cheap in the UK, where a delivery driver was fined the equivalent of a lousy $1,200 and banned from driving for an equally lousy 12 months, after leaving a woman with a broken neck when he cut across the bike the victim was riding in

Bicyclists in Chennai, India — formerly known as Madras — call for more bike lanes and better infrastructure, and government action to “sensitize” drivers of heavy vehicles to traffic safety. Showing once again that we all face the same issues, regardless of where you ride.

Le Monde Diplomatique reports that Taiwan’s bicycle industry relies on migrant labour and “dodgy employment practices.” But you’ll have to find a way around their paywall if you want to read more than the first few paragraphs.

 

Competitive Cycling

Once again, a promising young cyclist has been killed, this time in the UK, where 18-year old national junior champ Aidan Worden was struck by a driver while on a training ride in Lancashire, England.

A writer for Cycling Weekly says maybe we need more unpredictability in pro cycling, and really don’t want the top riders to compete against each other more often.

 

Finally…

That feeling when you need new-age bike accessories, apparently so you can burn sandalwood incense while you meditate while riding. Evidently, French bike riders can fly over the heads of horses and pedestrians.

And please dismount before breaking your neck riding down the stairs to the Bike Hub at the bottom.

………

Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Driver kills ebike rider in La Habra crash, 2nd victim critically injured; victims may be current & former La Habra High students

February 1, 2025 / / 9 comments

KCBS-2 reported Monday that a pedestrian was killed by a driver in La Habra, with another person critically injured.

It took until Saturday night to discover that the victims were apparently sharing an ebike.

According to On Scene TV, the victims, identified only as a former high school student and a current student at La Habra High School, were struck near Hacienda Blvd & Russell Street sometime before 8:46 pm. Although from the minimal description, it’s unclear whether they had both had attended La Habra High.

The site reports they were riding north on Hacienda when they were hit from behind by the driver, with enough force to throw both victims into the windshield. It also left the ped-assist ebike embedded deeply in the sedan’s grill, as shown in raw video from the scene, which suggests the driver may have been traveling at a high rate of speed.

The former student died at the scene, while the other victim was rushed to a trauma center in critical condition.

The driver remained at the scene, if only because the car appears to be underivable; it’s unknown if drugs or alcohol played a role in the crash.

This was at least the fifth bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the first that I’m aware of in Orange County.

Category: Injuries and Fatalities / Tags: , , , ,
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