My apology to everyone who received an earlier email containing nothing but an outline.
Evidently, I hit the wrong button, and posted it instead of saving it so I could keep working.
And yes, I freely admit to being an idiot, or any other term that feels most appropriate rolling off your lips.
Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.
Now let’s get on with it.
Photo by Kindel Media for Pexels.
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Evidently, Newport Beach cops were paying attention.
Earlier this week, we brought you the news that cyclists Ben Byra and U-23 national crit champ Luke Fetzer were harassed and threatened by a BMW driver who tried to run them off the road while on a training ride in Newport Beach.
At last count, their videos of the attack have been seen over 10 million times by people all over the world.
One of those viewers must have been someone in the police department, because a suspect is now under arrest for the alleged road rage attack.
According to a press release from the Newport Beach Police Department reposted on Fetzer’s Instagram account, a man identified as Corona resident Samir Weiss was busted for assault with a deadly weapon, as well as a charge for obstructing traffic.
They seized the weapon used in the attack as evidence — Weiss’ blue BMW M3.
The obstruction charge was explained by the Orange County Register.
Video footage of the incident shows the blue sedan driving behind the cyclists in a bike lane, accelerating and honking. At one point, Fetzer’s friend is seen jumping onto a curb with his bike, apparently to avoid the vehicle. The footage also appears to show a passenger throwing water at Fetzer.
According to Fetzer, the situation escalated a few miles later near a Shake Shack, where the driver and several others exited their vehicles and confronted the cyclists. Fetzer said the driver and four other people blocked traffic lanes, made threats and attempted to tackle them off their bikes.
Bizarrely, Fetzer told the Register that Weiss had reached out to him. Not to apologize, as you might think, but to challenge him to fight, MMA style.
Fetzer also shared what he said was a direct message from the driver after the incident.
“Hey bro let’s both sign waivers and meetup for a consensual Full MMA sparring session,” the message reads. “Let’s settle this like men.”
However, I’ve always thought of fighting as something that happened back behind the grade school playground at recess or after class let out for the day.
Although despite the way KCBS frames it, the message didn’t rise to the level of an actual threat, legally at least, since it was framed as a challenge.
But as I learned after reporting an apparent threat I received on here to the LAPD, someone has to actually say they’re going to harm you, rather than just saying they want to.
Or challenging you to “settle it like men.”
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Transportation for America warns that not only is the Trump administration trying to rip out a popular DC bike lane to make more room for cars, they’re trying to do the same thing across the country by cutting off funding before the lanes can even be built.
Not what you’d expect from the bicycle-loving founder of the infamous Tour de Trump, though.
Right?
Meanwhile. Scripps News reports that Congress is now looking at setting nationwide ebike safety standards, which will probably be enforced by masked ICE agents.
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The Metro Board approved the northern extension of the K Line Cedars-Sinai, West Hollywood and the Hollywood Bowl, after a last-minute agreement to allow work on obtaining funding to move forward, while an additional one-year study of the effects of tunneling in the area around Lafayette Square is conducted.
According to the Los Angeles Times,
However, in the 24 hours before Thursday’s meeting, Bass met several times behind the scenes with West Hollywood Mayor John Heilman, a major backer of the K Line extension, to come up with an amended motion that allows West Hollywood and L.A. County to work on securing funding that will allow the project to accelerate while also calling for additional study of the Mid-City section and community engagement. The new amendment, Bass stressed before the board voted in favor, would not delay the project or its funding…
Explaining her push for a compromise, Bass said that Lafayette Square is one of Los Angeles’s most significant historic Black neighborhoods. She recounted the history of nearby Sugar Hill, a once thriving Black community that was “profoundly disrupted” by the construction of the 10 freeway.
The difference, of course, is that the Sugar Hill neighborhood was razed by white city leaders who saw no value in a Black community, while the train will go deep underneath the existing homes.
And to the best of my knowledge, won’t involve destroying an inch of the historic neighborhood.
But still.
No one wants to see historically Black neighborhoods harmed. So if it takes yet another study to calm fears while the project moves forward, so be it.
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Good news for our neighbor to the south, who can really use it.
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Shifter discusses five bicycle advocacy mistakes you didn’t even know you’re making, from thinking it’s you versus the world, to making sure that political leaders who say “no” suffer consequences for their decisions.
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Local
The LA Times recommends an eight-mile bike ride to Cudahy with climate justice nonprofit Nature for All tomorrow. (Scroll down. No, keep scrolling.)
Get ready for yet-another bicycle and pedestrian safety enforcement operation in Santa Monica tomorrow, with cops set to ticket any traffic violations that could endanger either one, regardless of who commits it or why. So once again, ride to the letter of the law until you cross back into Los Angeles or Culver City, so you’re not the one who gets written up.
A local letter writer says Agoura is doing absolutely nothing about all those “little juvenile delinquents riding around in their (e)bikes.” Although when I was a juvenile delinquent, I always preferred to ride on my bike, not in it.
An El Segundo man was arrested for restriping crosswalks and adding his own DIY stop signs to protect children in the neighborhood, after the city decided the street didn’t have enough traffic to warrant actually doing anything about it.
State
Calbike is hosting a webinar April 6th on designing bike infrastructure for heat, flooding, and usability. As long as that last part includes fixing potholes and keeping cars out, I’m in.
A San Diego op-ed from a pair of local bike advocates responds to a previous argument against plans for a bike lane on Governor Drive in the University City neighborhood, saying there’s simply no other place to put it.
Speaking of juvenile delinquents, thanks to The Acorn for making it clear that the kid who was arrested after leading the cops on a wild chase was riding an “off-highway electric motorcycle,” rather than anything the state defines as an ebike.
The Great Redwood Trail Agency board approved a master plan to design and construct a 300-mile rail-to-trail project through the California wine country and ancient tall timbers, from Humboldt to San Francisco.
National
Washington State is rebooting their ebike rebate program, offering vouchers up to $1,200. That compares favorably to California, which no longer has an ebike program because CARB stole all the money and gave it to buyers of electric cars and trucks, forgetting that ebikes are EVs that help get other EVs and gas-burning vehicles off the roads. Schmucks.
Texas is reminding drivers of their “Be Safe. Drive Smart” safety campaign to protect bicyclists and other vulnerable road users. Which replaces the previous slogan “Get the **** outta the way of my truck!”
Wisconsin offers safety tips for bicyclists, which mostly make sense for a change, noting that “in 2024, a bicyclist was killed or hurt about every 11 hours” in the state. Damn, that guy should be more careful.
Former Chicago Bulls basketball great and AA baseball player Michael Jordan was one of us, turning a bike ride with Chicago Bears defensive end Richard Dent into a pain-inducing 30-mile challenge.
For the 11th consecutive year, you can ride a bike to the Indianapolis 500, but only if you buy a ticket for the ride, never mind the race.
While Los Angeles has talked about getting ready for the World Cup, New York is actually doing something about it by opening a new bike lane connecting Union Square and the Brooklyn Bridge in time for this summer’s Copa Mundial.
Speaking of New York, when was the last time you saw an American mayor ride a bikeshare bike seven miles to attend an important fundraiser? I vote for never. But maybe your memory is different from mine.
International
Momentum observes that the biggest bikeshare systems are transforming cities around the world, and safe bicycling networks matter.
A London man says he can’t even remember the birth of his own son after he faceplanted while riding his bike, trying to avoid someone who landed in front of him after jumping out the emergency exit on a double decker bus.
A new German study found that while ebikes can help older people ride a bike, older men without helmets face a particularly high risk of serious brain injuries. Gee, ya think?
Competitive Cycling
Former European ‘cross champ Eli Iserbyt was forced to call it a career, as the 28-year old Belgian cyclist announced that doctors had advised him to stop riding entirely due to years of persistent blood flow problems.
A writer for Psychology Today responds to rumors about Tadej Pogačar’s win in Milan–San Remo, arguing that while we should never forget previous doping incidents, suspicion can become a psychological defense, and “If every new level is interpreted only through the past, then the past begins to limit the future.” Yeah, what he said.
Finally…
Apparently, you have more in common with a horse than you might think (and not just a nasty case of foot and mouth). Now you, too, can build your very own bicycle designed to survive the next apocalypse.
And just because you can take an urban ebike off-roading doesn’t mean you should.
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Oh, and fuck Putin.
