December 19, 2022 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Update: 71-year old man riding bike killed by hit-and-run driver in San Diego’s Valley Center neighborhood Saturday
Go ahead and call it murder.
Because once again, a heartless coward has left an innocent victim to die alone in the street.
The victim, identified only as a 71-year old Valley Center man, died at the scene.
The driver fled, leaving behind their right front headlight; police are looking for a Ford Expedition SUV or F Series pickup, no model year or color given.
There’s no word on how fast the killer driver was going at the time of the crash, or how long the victim lay in the street before paramedics arrived. Or whether he could have been saved if the driver had called for help after the crash.
But clearly, whoever was behind the wheel didn’t care enough find out.
A street view shows one lane in each direction, with left and right turn bays leading west to Horse Creek Road. Sadly, there is a bike lane on the recently repaved southbound side of Cole Grade, but not on the northbound side where the victim was riding.
Anyone with information is urged to call the Oceanside Area CHP office at 760/643-3400.
This is at least the 80th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the 11th that I’m aware of in San Diego County.
At least 25 of those have been killed hit-and-run drivers.
The Oaxaca, Mexico native leaves behind his son and daughter, as well as six grandchildren. Family members are trying to return his body to Oaxaca for burial.
Lucero was killed on his way home, shortly after stopping at his favorite restaurant after work.
His 20-year old granddaughter wonders if he could have survived if the driver had stopped and called for help.
Good question.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for Mario Lucero and all his family and loved ones.
December 16, 2022 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on LA city officials back off “aspirational” mobility plan, CD13’s Hugo Soto-Martinez talks bikes, and still more bike giveaways
We’re on the cusp of the last full weekend of the fund drive, just slightly ahead of last year’s record pace. But we need your help to push it over the top, and best last year’s total for the 8th consecutive year!
So thanks to Matthew L and Tom C for their generous donations to keep all the latest bike news and advocacy coming your way every day.
But that’s what I do, all day and every day, confronting misinformation and disinformation about bikes and the people who ride them. And working to shine a light on the problems we face just trying to get from here to there in one piece.
So if you value that work, and have a few extra bucks to spare, ask yourself what it’s worth to you, and donate now to help keep this vital work going.
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Today’s must read comes from Streetsblog’s Joe Linton, who calls out Los Angeles city officials for their mealymouthed support of the city’s Mobility Plan 2035, which we are once again told is merely “aspirational,” despite its overwhelming approval by the city council.
But what has been disturbing has been the city’s wholesale backing off of the Mobility Plan as a plan. Instead city staff – from the Planning Department, Chief Legislative Analyst, Department of Transportation, and others – are casting doubt on the city’s approved plan. This occurred repeatedly in an October 6 CLA memo and a November 30 City Council Public Works Committee meeting [audio] discussing the city council’s alternative version of HSLA.
CLA staff repeatedly characterized MP2035 as just “a policy foundation,” “a working guide,” “not an implementation tool with specific projects,” and “street segments indicated on the network concept maps represent potential opportunities.” (emphasis added).
He goes on to add this.
At the committee meeting, (Department of City Planning) Planner Emily Gable stated that MP2035 is “guidance” for a “general vision.” MP2035 network maps are “guides for decision-makers.” She called the plan “aspirational” and emphasized its “flexibility.”
It’s instructive to note the pernicious double standard of how the city is treating other aspects of the Mobility Plan.
Bus lanes? Guidance.
Bike lanes? Policy foundation.
Safe walking? Aspirational.
Car capacity? Build it exactly as the plan specifies.
Then again, that’s nothing new.
Just weeks after the 2010 Bike Plan was approved, which was later subsumed into the mobility plan, we were told by an LADOT official that it was merely, yes, aspirational.
But here’s the thing.
While the city may consider the mobility plan aspirational, people who ride bikes just aspire to do so without fear.
We aspire to have safe routes allowing us to ride across the city, and through our own neighborhoods.
We aspire to be treated as equals on the road.
We aspire to have secure places to park our bikes when we get to our destination.
And we aspire to have city officials who actually give a damn whether we live or die.
It’s a good piece. So take a few minutes to give it a read.
Then get mad as hell.
Because your safety and right to ride should never be just aspirational.
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If, like me, you missed Streets For All’s virtual happy hour with newly installed CD13 Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez on Wednesday, the transportation PAC has posted a recording online so we can all catch up.
This is how they describe it.
In this month’s happy hour we give an update on Venice Bl and our state efforts, talk about upcoming neighborhood council elections, and go over some wins and fails. Our special guest is Hugo Soto-Martinez, newly elected Councilmember for District 13, City of Los Angeles. We discussed many possible bike, bus, and pedestrian projects, including Fountain Ave, Santa Monica Bl, Hollywood Bl, Vermont, and capping the 101 freeway.
The Bike League wants you to contact your Congress members to push for a return of the Bicycle Commuter Benefit in any year-end tax or spending legislation. Maybe they could also push for the ebike rebate the feds teased us with earlier this year.
Frightening story from Wales, where a 14-year old boy’s heart suddenly stopped while on a group ride with his stepdad, even though he was an experienced mountain biker; he survived, despite four days in a coma, because one member of the group performed CPR while others raced for a defibrillator.
The nascent National Cycling League announced $7.5 million in startup funding from a diverse group of investors, including NBA All-Star Bradley Beal; the league will consist of teams made up of eight men and eight women, who will compete for a slice of the $1 million purse in closed course crits in cities across the US. Although it’s kind of sad that a relatively paltry $7.5 million reflects the largest ever investment in US bike racing, when it’s just a rounding error on Beal’s annual salary.
Track cycling fans should head down to the Velo Sports Center in Carson for a full weekend of racing, starting tonight.
December 15, 2022 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on San Diego woman on life support after ebike hits shopping cart, a carfree Embarcadero, and holiday bike rides
We’re entering into the home stretch just slightly ahead of last year’s record-setting pace. But we’ll need to raise almost $1,000 over the next week and a half to make it happen.
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The victim, who has not been publicly identified, was riding in the westbound bike lane on the 5100 block of Friars Road shortly after dark, which would have made the cart that much more difficult to see.
Which matters in this case, since she suffered a head injury, and this is exactly the kind of low speed crash bike helmets are designed to protect against.
Let’s all hope she makes a full and fast recovery.
Not to mention easily exceed anything found here in Southern California.
Which would be a big improvement from the Embarcadero’s current deadly and dangerous car-choked environment.
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A pair of holiday rides are on tap this weekend, with rides on Saturday in Costa Mesa and Sunday in Glendale.
#CostaMesa holiday bike ride is back! Join us Saturday, 12/17 in your holiday gear & decorated bikes. We’ve got a casual 10-mile route w/ stops at WinterFest & Snoopy House! Wheels roll at 12:30pm, finish ~2pm, and roll over to NEAT Coffee after for hot chocolate & cookies! pic.twitter.com/5BqpiEyRLQ
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You can’t say things aren’t changing in Los Angeles these days.
And Hollywood in particular.
In his first council session after replacing the recently ousted Mitch O’Farrell in LA’s 13th Council District, Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez introduced a motion calling for LADOT to report back with a list of bus lanes, bike infrastructure and pedestrian safety improvements that can be implemented within the next 18 months, as well as calling for placing shelters at every bus stop in the district.
Quite a change from O’Farrell, who spent eight years slow walking most safety projects, if not outright blocking them.
You can ask Soto-Martinez about his plans for the district at this evening’s Streets For All virtual happy hour; RSVP here.
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No bias here.
A retired university professor suggests that San Diego’s commitment to building bike infrastructure, with a goal of achieving a 10% bike commuting rate, is just another special interest rip-off.
Is this a joke? Or is it a monumental rip-off perpetrated by a very small but clearly well-organized special interest group of biking enthusiasts?
And then there is a safety issue. To date, there seemingly has not been any effort by the city or the state to either educate or enforce the multiple safety issues that are important for a mutual use of roadways by bicycles and automobiles. Few bikes on the road after dark have reflectors or lights; it is very rare to see a bicyclist signal to turn. And bicyclists blow through red lights and stop signs consistently — usually as they fly down one of the hills.
Just wait until he sees how people drive, in their big, smelly, two-ton death-dealing machines as they text on their phones, roll stop sighs and race to the next red light.
Of course, his proof that it’s a rip-off is that he and his husband don’t see bikes in the exact bike lane they’re watching, at the exact moment they’re watching it.
And never mind that the well-funded advocacy groups he complains about are in fact dramatically underfunded nonprofits who have to beg for money to continue their work every year.
It would be of interest to know which consultant arrived at this 10 percent number — and how. Special interest groups are focused, connected, well-organized and funded. My guess is that they were heavily involved in the planning for the pathways. And while clearly their prerogative, their influence seems to have outweighed the broader public good.
In reality, the broader public good includes getting people out of their cars — electric or otherwise — before we succeed in our so far successful efforts to destroy our planet, unless and until the erstwhile world’s richest man manages to find another one to move us all to.
And, of course, he can’t manage to make his case without the stunning revelation that “San Diego is not Copenhagen, Stockholm or Amsterdam.”
No, it isn’t. San Diego has much better weather for much of the year. And none of those cities were bike-friendly until they made the commitment and difficult transition to become that way.
But there is one thing he gets right.
San Diego is hilly, built around numerous canyons and hillsides. Yet I somehow managed to find relatively flat routes to get wherever I was going when I lived down there decades ago.
I doubt it’s gotten any hillier since.
Then there’s the ability of ebikes to flatten that terrain, and let anyone ride up and down them with minimal effort.
And if you’re to believe the local media and panicked seaside city officials, the entire place is already being overrun by ebike-riding social terrorists.
It’s possible that the city’s efforts to increase bicycling rates may fail, with too many people clinging to their steering wheels like Charleston Heston to his guns.
But it’s far too soon to give up, when the city’s bike network is still in its nascent stage. Let alone when its success is the only way the city can meet its climate goals.
So give it time, and keep building bikeways.
The worst thing that will happen is that the city will continue to get safer and more livable.
And maybe someday, someone in Copenhagen or Amsterdam will insist that they’re not San Diego.
The survey deadline for the @metrolosangeles Active Transportation Plan on Redondo Beach Blvd. has been extended to December 31, 2022. Provide your feedback for a chance to win a free bike or a $200 gift card! Take our survey: https://t.co/J8WpjtZaVg
After yesterday’s item about the brief flight of a pedal-powered plane, Steven Hallett reminds us about the Gossamer Albatross, the human-powered plane that successfully crossed the English Channel all the way back in 1979.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
The people have spoken. People commenting here have all said we should stop linking to articles here where bike use is just incidental to some crime, rather than central to the story. So from here on, this section will be reserved for bike riders who fuck up big time. Let’s just make sure it’s not you, k?
More on the Michigan bike shop owner killed in a Florida collision while delivering bikes to children affected by Hurricane Ian; 57-year old Steven Pringle was a grandfather and Army vet who founded a nonprofit providing “bicycle therapy” to veterans by repairing bikes to give to children in need.
And that feeling when bikes get squeezed out by pickleball.
I swear, I don't offer this anecdote with any cynicism—just noting out loud that the most established premium bike-shop chain in Los Angeles is about to start dedicating 20% of its floor space for Pickleball equipment.
You know how fast time flies this time of year. Turn around, and it will be Boxing Day already, and it will all be over for another year.
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Some pretty big news: you can now donate tax deductible funds to Streets For All! We are fiscally sponsored by @cayimby's Education Fund. Donations to this fund will be used for non-political advocacy efforts. Set up a $5/mo or $10/mo donation! https://t.co/mKzNeogoE3pic.twitter.com/1RWAtNroFd
A letter writer takes now-former Mayor Eric Garcetti — and implicitly, the Los Angeles Times — to task for the rising rate of traffic deaths in the city, and failure of his Vision Zero plan. And concludes that Garcetti’s pledge wqs indicative of his “’promise now, do nothing later’ approach to any difficult choice he had to make. That toothless, spineless approach will forever be his legacy.” Harsh, but sadly accurate.
Unbelievable. An Iowa man walked out of prison a free man this week, despite being sentenced to ten years for the drunken death of a 69-year old woman riding a bike, after the judge somehow decided the original sentence was too harsh and resentenced him to probation. Just in case you were wondering why people keep dying on our streets, or anything.
Bicycling offers an overview of what year-end Strava data tells us, including that bike commuting is nearly back up to pre-pandemic levels, and you’re more likely to ride further with a friend when it’s cold out. Of course, it also only tells you about people who use Strava. As usual, read it on Yahoo if the magazine blocks you.
Bicycling takes a detailed look at the tragic life of Moriah “Mo” Wilson, whose star burned brightly over the world of ‘cross for a few short years, before she was allegedly murdered by the jealous girlfriend of pro cyclist Colin Strickland. Read it on AOL this time if the magazine blocks you.
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So far, they’ve raised nearly $3,000 of the $15,000 goal.
Twenty-one-year old Savaughn Jojuan Colon Barnes of Hemet is being held on $100,000 bond on suspicion of voluntary manslaughter and hit-and-run resulting in death for killing Castro.
We are trying to help my mom bury her son. Please share, support this gofundme page: https://t.co/nVGXnJUfay
Hopefully we’ll learn more soon, because that’s almost all the information we have right now.
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Somehow, I don’t think LADOT’s favorite little car-ticker plastic bendy posts would have the same, uh, impact.
Although it’s hard not to watch this icy demolition derby without admiring the person on a bike who’s not letting the snow slow him down, let alone stop him.
Sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
In an example of how hard it is to get bad cops off the job, a former San Antonio bike cop still carries a badge, despite being twice fired for giving a homeless man a literal shit sandwich, and spreading his and another cop’s crap over a toilet seat in the station’s women’s restroom. Thanks to Megan Lynch for the heads-up.
An Arkansas man got a well-deserved 15 years after he was arrested with a long knife while riding his bike to his girlfriend’s house after threatening to kill her. Having a boyfriend who rides a bike is a good thing, but something tells me she might want to rethink her taste in men.
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Before we go on, I received a very nice email over the weekend from an American expat now living a carfree life in Berlin.
However, he raised one concern about the section above. I often include links to stories in which someone used a bicycle to get somewhere to commit a crime or make their getaway. But as he points out, if we focused on a criminal’s mode of transportation, we could fill this site every day with people who drove to or from their crimes.
So what do you think? Should we keep mentioning people who only incidentally used a bike as transportation to commit a crime, or drop stories like that unless the bike actually had something to do with their crime?
Streetsblog’s Joe Linton offers actionable transportation ideas for new Los Angeles Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez, who defeated incumbent Mitch O’Farrell in the November election; Linton’s suggestions include a call to revisit the lane reductions and bike lanes cancelled by O’Farrell on Fletcher Drive and Temple Street, as well as a proposal to remove cars from Hollywood Blvd.
In yet another example of keeping a driver on the road until it’s too late, a 63-year old man riding a mountain bike was seriously injured in a hit-and-run in San Diego’s Rancho Penasquitos neighborhood; police arrested the 93-year old driver after witnesses gave them the car’s license number. Once again raising the question of how old is too old to drive.
A Bay Area letter writer asked how to get a dangerous driver to give up the keys, after trying to get an older woman with poor eyesight to stop driving; she only quit after she crashed into someone on a bicycle, injuring them.
Life is cheap in Louisiana, where a 31-year old man will serve just three years behind bars for the drunken hit-and-run crash that killed a man riding a bike, after the judge suspended seven years of the original ten-year sentence.
Manchester, England unveiled the country’s first bicycle roundabout, leading to immediate confusion and comments that it only serves to endanger pedestrians and inconvenience less able-bodied people.
An Aukland, New Zealand man will spend an additional three years behind bars for kidnapping and terrorizing a delivery van driver, on top of the five years and one month sentence he’s already serving for killing a bike rider while fleeing from police; the judge warned he will “almost certainly” re-offend once he gets out.
Also this weekend, the Velo Sport’s Center in Carson is hosting a full weekend of track cycling, hosted by the Los Angeles Racing Velodrome Association. Thanks to David Huntsman for the tip.
A bike race by any by other name is a bike race, and the Holiday Carnival promises to be a doozy! Join us next wknd (Dec 16-18) for our ‘22 finale which will incl Omniums in all categories, a Women’s Invitational, and a fast-action Madison Cup! Details and reg: LAVRA link in bio. pic.twitter.com/Z6JsMyGMfS
December 9, 2022 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Update: Man killed getting off bike on Downtown LA freeway offramp in early morning crash; 4th SoCal bike death this week
Then there was four.
For the fourth time this week, someone riding a bicycle was killed on the streets of Southern California.
This time in Downtown Los Angeles.
And once again, there’s very little information available.
The victim was struck when he got off his bike after reportedly riding on the offramp, which suggests he may have been illegally riding on the freeway in the moments leading up the crash.
He died at the scene.
There’s no word on why the victim may have been on the freeway, especially at that hour, or how and why the crash occurred.
This is at least the 79th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the 26th that I’m aware of in Los Angeles County; he’s also the 14th person killed riding a bike in the City of Los Angeles.
December 9, 2022 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Baldwin Park gets grant for new mini-park, bike rider collateral damage in police chase, and Streets For All party tonight
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Donate today via PayPal or Zelle. And keep all the best bike news and advocacy coming your way today, and every day.
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Baldwin Park announced they’ve received a $761,000 grant from the San Gabriel & Lower Los Angeles Rivers and Mountains Conservancy to build a new mini-park on Maine Ave.
According to a press release from the city,
The Maine Avenue Mini-Park will join a series of new mini-parks along the soon-to-be-extended Big Dalton Wash Trail and the Susan Rubio Zocalo Park in Downtown Baldwin Park, which will come on-line over the next couple of years and promote public health, mental health, climate resilience and educational and employment opportunities for youth…
A bioswale, smart water irrigation system and stormwater capture improvements will ensure the sustainability of the mini-park. Additionally, its proximity to the San Fe Dam Recreation Area and the region’s extensive trail network support active transportation, furthering local and regional sustainability goals…
When completed, the park will include various passive and recreational amenities for the community, including 14 shade trees, an outdoor fitness area, shade structures, picnic tables, a grill, benches, accessible play equipment for kids and restrooms.
A spokesperson for the city suggests it will be great stopping point for bicyclists using the Santa Fe Dam Recreation Area.
The park will be built using an additional $346,000 in matching funds from LA County Measure A. It’s expected to open to the public in 2024.
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A Koreatown bike rider was collateral damage in a police chase.
The California Transportation Commission — no, not Caltrans — is investing a billion bucks in boosting bicycling and walking with 93 projects targeted to low-income areas.
— California Transportation Commission (CTC) (@California_CTC) December 8, 2022
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No one who’s spent any amount of time on a university campus should be surprised that college administrators can’t manage to differentiate between safe, high-quality lithium-ion ebike batteries, and the fire-prone, secondhand junk ebike and scooter batteries.
Gravel Bike California grinds to the highest point in the City of Angels, at a whopping 5,079 ft.
Which sounds impressive, unless you’re from Colorado, like me.
But still.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
No bias here. A report from the uncomprehending National Transportation Safety Board, aka NTSB, incomprehensibly blames the victims for the meth-fueled crash that killed five bicyclists outside Las Vegas last year, for the crime of riding their bikes in the right lane of the highway. In other words, exactly where they were supposed to be. Las Vegas hospitals are about to be overrun with facepalm injuries.
Or here. A New Jersey columnist compares mandatory bike helmets to seat belts, saying he can’t understand why bike advocates would be against a helmet law, while ignoring the reasons advocates gave to opposite it. He also compares that opposition to bike helmets to opposition to motorcycle helmet laws, even they were opposed for diametrically differing reasons.
Sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
A British court dropped the charges against a road raging, 68-year old former Olympian, who called a woman fat and blind in an expletive-laden tirade, and reached into her car as she begged him not to hit her, all because she cut his bicycle off in traffic; the case was dismissed due to his PTSD resulting from an earlier crash.
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Local
Curbed’sAlissa Walker writes about LA’s outgoing Climate Mayor, who’s leaving the city’s broken sidewalks just as bad as when he found them, if not worse — thanks in part to his habit of getting distracted by shiny objects like a potential presidential run that never launched, and a nomination to be ambassador to India that crashed and burned. Eric Garcetti could have been a good mayor, if he had actually been interested in doing it.
A 44-year old man was seriously injured in San Diego’s Point Loma neighborhood Thursday evening, when his bike was left-crossed by a pickup driver while allegedly riding in a crosswalk against the Don’t Walk signal. Although once again, it depends on whether there were independent witnesses to the crash, or if police are relying on the driver who hit him.
A Paso Robles woman faces six years behind bars for pleading guilty to DUI after crashing into several parked cars while driving with a blood alcohol content of .30 — three and a half times the legal limit. She apparently hadn’t learned her lesson about drinking and driving, despite receiving an early release from prison for a ten-year sentence for the drunken, hit-and-run death of a bike-riding Cal Poly student in 2017. If there were any justice, she’d have to serve the remainder of her original sentence, consecutively with the new term.
Apparently, you can make an illegal U-turn while driving on the wrong side of the road, killing a British motorcyclist, then flee to the US under the cover of diplomatic immunity, and still walk without a single damn day behind bars, like the wife of an American diplomat/spy did in the death of 19-year old Harry Dunn.
Life is cheap in the UK, where a driver walked without a day behind bars for the hit-and-run crash that left a bike-riding man barely conscious and struggling to breathe; he later told investigators he thought he hit a traffic cone. Trust me, if anyone runs me down, they’re going to hear enough choice words to know exactly what they hit.
Nice. Dublin, Ireland opened a new community bike hub, providing free use of adaptive bikes for people with disabilities or mobility issues, a project to repair old and unused bikes to donate to community members, and bike repair and safe bicycling courses for kids.
It takes a lot of effort to steel myself to write about yet another bike rider killed on our streets, sometimes.
I tell myself I’m just waiting for more information. But in reality, I’m working up the strength to confront another needless tragedy.
Especially when it’s the third time in three days.
That was the case today, when I received an email forwarding a report from the Redlands Police Department, which announced the death of a man riding a bicycle near 5th Ave and Marion Road, shortly before 9 this morning.
A response to the post indicated that seven people, including two doctors, struggled to save the victim’s life before paramedics arrived. He died at the scene, despite their efforts.
Unfortunately, that’s all the information we have right now.
This is at least the 78th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the eleventh that I’m aware of in Riverside County.
Update: I received the following comment from Amanda Frye in response to this crash, which I asked if I could share here — including the first indication that the victim may have been a 18-year old kid.
Never mind that the crash still hasn’t seen a single word in the local press.
Two days later in Redlands, a 16 year old boy riding a bicycle near Moore Middle School was struck and killed. The Redlands City Council justification for raising speed limits were based on an obviously flawed Engineering and Traffic Survey (ETS) conducted by a company from out of town. The Engineering report contains obvious omissions including schools in the vicinity or residential area with bicyclists and pedestrians. These engineering road condition omissions would have provided justification for lower speed limits in the vicinity where the 16 year old was killed, Fifth Avenue was listed as 45 mph with no notation in the survey for a school in the vicinity. Redlands’ Moore Middle School borders Fifth Avenue. It appears that Redlands staff just rubber stamped the study with little to no review or oversight. Other Redlands schools on streets included in the ETS were not noted either resulting in raised speed limits in residential neighborhoods with the public pointing out these omissions. Near my house the engineer missed the large bicycle symbols on the road as this is a popular bicycle route and failed to note a residential area with pedestrians and bicyclists or an open drainage channel. How could these items be missed?
While residents were asking for lowering speed limits to make our roads safer for everyone, Redlands city council voted to raise the speed limit claiming the police said they had to raise speed limits in order to enforce them. The action and rationale lacked logic especially given the flawed Engineering and Traffic Survey. The California Vehicle Code provides the local authority the ability to lower speed limits to make our streets safer for all.
Update 2: The victim was identified by relatives as 16-year old Juan Pablo Carrillo-Salazar, who was just visiting Redlands from his home in Mexico when he was killed.
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Which makes sense in a way, since Los Angeles also has the second largest population, behind only to New York.
The correlation ends there, though, as Phoenix comes in third, followed by Houston, Dallas and San Antonio; Chicago, the third largest city, ranks all the way down at 7th, which suggests they must be doing something right.
Pedestrian deaths increased every year over the past decade in the US, rising 65% from 2011 through 2021.
2021 deaths were up 13% over the previous year.
People of color accounted for 2/3 of pedestrian deaths, despite being just 24% of the overall population.
Four out of five pedestrian deaths occurred in urban areas, which makes sense since that’s where the most people are. And the most cars.
People in cars continue to cause twice as many pedestrian deaths as those in SUVs, though the number of people killed by SUV drivers grew twice as fast over the past decade.
Largely rural New Mexico had the highest level of pedestrian deaths per capita, followed by Florida, which traditionally leads the nation in pedestrian and bicycling deaths; despite LA’s high ranking, California as a whole is only the ninth most deadly state on a per capita basis.
Nearly a third of pedestrians killed had a blood alcohol level of .08, while a quarter had a BAC of .15 — nearly twice the legal limit for motorists.
However, that last tidbit is meaningless without knowing whether a) they were responsible for the crash that killed them, and b) whether their intoxication contributed to their actions in some way.
It important to remember that it’s a hell of a lot easier to walk after drinking or using drugs than it is to operate a big, deadly machine that’s dangerous even under the best conditions.
To no one’s surprise, Burbank’s Transportation Committee Chair Laura Friedman tops the rankings in the state Assembly, followed by San Mateo County’s Phillip Ting.
Sadly, no Republican appears in the rankings until Jordan Cunningham all the way down at 65; all 19 Republicans reside at that bottom of the chart, accompanied by just two Democrats.
An indication that the car-centric party has a long way to go to embrace the state’s desperately needed shift to transit, active transportation and Complete Streets.
The same holds true in the other chamber, where every Democrat grades out at a C or higher, led by the San Gabriel Valley’s Anthony Portantino and San Francisco’s Scott Weiner.
Meanwhile, every single Senate Republican gets an F.
Which, admittedly, could reflect the political biases of the group doing the grading. But more likely accurately reflects the failure of their votes on mobility issues.
If the GOP has any hope of regaining any kind of stature with state voters, they have to stop saying no to everything.
And start working with Democrats to make this a better state for all of us.
LA’s Livable Communities Initiative was unanimously approved by the city council on Tuesday, enabling the development of lowrise, “gentle density” neighborhoods and walkable Complete Streets near transit hubs.
We did it! Our LCI motion unanimously passed the L.A. city council today. We can't wait to work with LADOT and L.A. City Planning to help implement this vision for walkable, affordable, car-light communities in LA. Thanks for all your grassroots support. Let's do this!#housingpic.twitter.com/gs9AbQaBAV
A new video looks at the legacy of outgoing CD11 Councilmember Mike Bonin, who leaves the council on his own terms after just two terms in office, to protect his own mental health and spend more time with his family.
Bonin was long the lone progressive voice on the council.
And the best friend the Los Angeles bike community had for most of his time in office, responsible for many, if not most, of the wins we’ve seen over the last nine years.
Sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
Life is cheap in Illinois, where a 27-year old man will spend a whole 60 days behind bars, followed by two years probation and community service, after a judge suspended 120 days of his original sentence for the hit-and-run crash that seriously injured a man on a bicycle.
The man accused of using his car as a weapon to intentionally run down and kill a former co-worker at Mt. San Antonio College had engaged in a year-long tirade against the victim, accusing him of leading a campaign of microaggressions.
New bike lanes get the blame for an increase in traffic congestion in Bellingham, Washington, as a key corridor transforms from a “vehicle-friendly thoroughfare to an urban village where pedestrians and bicyclists take priority.” Even though the root cause of traffic congestion is just too damn many cars. And it usually goes away after drivers adjust to the new conditions.
Wheels roll at 12:30pm, finish ~2pm, and roll over to NEAT Coffee after for hot chocolate & cookies! 
