Just 26 short days until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025.
But not one LA city leader seems to give a damn about it.
Or if they do, they’re not saying anything.
………
It’s Day 7 of the 10th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive!
Thanks to Ross P and Tom M for their generous donations to bring all the best bike news and advocacy to your favorite screen every morning.
So don’t wait. Give now!
And if you have anything left over, give a little to Streetsblog LA to support their vital work coving transportation in the Los Angeles area.
………
Yesterday morning, a masked gunman stepped out from behind a car on a New York street, and fatally shot the CEO of United HealthCare.
The shooter then walked away, before hopping on an ebike and riding off into the sunset to make his getaway. Or Central Park, anyway.
So what does the Daily Beast focus on?
The killer’s last known means of escape, obviously, terming the gunman the “E-Bike Assassin.”
Actually, almost all of the initial reports focused on a Citi Bike-riding killer, but most of the stories were revised after it turned out the ebike wasn’t a Citi Bike, after all.
Which seemed to take the fun out of it for them, since the stories downplayed the gunman’s means of escape after that bit of news broke.
Although it would have been better if he had been on a Citi Bike, since they have digital trackers that would allow the police to trace the route the shooter took on the bike, enabling them to look for cameras that might show his face, or where he went after docking the bike.
They would also have been able to identify the exact bike he used, allowing them to examine it for evidence.
Instead, they’ll just have to rely on the city’s massive number of public and private security cams, and hope for the best.
………
Better late than never.
A Riverside County Sheriff’s deputy has been charged with vehicular manslaughter for killing a man riding a bicycle in Palm Desert last year.
Deputy Christian J. Lopez pled not guilty to the single count when he was arraigned October 16, a full year and six days after the collision that killed 33-year old Palm Desert resident Christopher Thomas.
Lopez was on duty and driving a marked patrol car when he drove into Thomas around 3:40 am near the intersection of Country Club and Eldorado drives.
Unfortunately, there’s no word at this time on why Lopez was charged, or whether he was charged with a felony or a misdemeanor.
Hopefully, we’ll learn more soon. If not, we may have to wait until his next court date on January 10th, although that is almost guaranteed to be delayed.
………
After Russian generals banned soldiers from driving into battle in commandeered civilian vehicles, following a spate of drunk driving crashes, the soldiers have turned to bicycles to lead their armored vehicles.
Clearly, some Russian drone operators were unimpressed.
Actually, there’s a long history of bicycles used in warfare, leading all the way up to modern ebikes, as well as foldies designed for paratroopers and capable of carrying 500 pounds of gear.
………
It’s now 350 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And a full 42 months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.
………
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
No bias here. Streetsblog says hundreds of people have signed a letter of support for an Evanston, Illinois bike lane, despite a local newspaper’s suggestion that most residents are against it.
Washington Post readers respond to the recent badly misguided and misleading opinion piece blaming the city’s traffic problems on bike lanes, with similarly misguided letters claiming we’re stealing their traffic lanes and parking spaces; the paper says they’ll post letters supporting the lanes tomorrow. Or they could just link to my piece dismantling the writer’s arguments.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
Seriously? Police in Bournemouth, England are looking for a man in his 60s who was reportedly acting suspiciously, apparently because he was riding a bicycle while wearing hi-viz, and had a bike cam attached to his helmet.
Singaporean Redditors go berserk over video of a man on a bicycle riding slowly in front of a bus, forcing the driver to follow him for ten minutes. Or maybe the rider was just nervously waiting for the driver to go around him so he could change lanes.
………
………
Local
More on Metro’s demand that Culver City repay the $435 million they gave the city for the now-removed MOVE Culver City protected bike lanes; the decision to collect the funds will be finalized at Monday’s Metro board meeting.
The Pasadena Complete Streets Coalition has reached the 100-person cap for their third annual Holiday Lights Ride this Saturday. So if you haven’t signed up yet, you’re SOL.
State
The CHP is giving away bike lights in Isla Vista in hopes of reducing the high number of bicycling collisions.
A San Francisco website wonders if the city has learned the lessons of its Covid-era Slow Streets, arguing they could form the backbone of its new bike plan.
Bad news from Santa Rosa, where a man riding a bicycle suffered life-threatening injuries when he was struck by the driver of a minivan, who actually stuck around and cooperated with investigators.
National
Bike Portland reports Oregon could finally reconsider the state’s regressive $15 Bicycle Excise Tax, charged on all new bicycle sales as a performative gesture to the people who falsely claim bike riders don’t pay their fair share for the roads we ride.
Police in Boulder, Colorado ruled no one was at fault in a fatal crash between a 34-year old man riding a gravel bike and a 74-year old man who died when he hit his head after they collided; the rider wasn’t speeding, neither person was under the influence, and both tried to avoid the crash.
Philadelphia just banned parking or stopping in bike lanes, increasing fines to a relatively paltry $125 in the city center, and just 75 bucks elsewhere. There’s something seriously wrong when cities have to belatedly ban something that should have been illegal all along.
International
Momentum examines the world’s best bicycle parking garages. None of which are in Los Angeles. Obviously.
A writer for The Guardian says there’s a Black bicycling revolution sweeping the globe, with the rise of grassroots groups breaking cultural barriers to entry (scroll down).
Toronto’s transit board banned lithium-ion batteries in buses, trains and stations during the winter months, apparently concerned about the risk of ebike and e-scooter fires, although that doesn’t seem to increase in cold weather; the motion was approved despite a report showing it would adversely affect low-income workers. Thanks to Megan Lynch for the heads-up.
Here’s another reason why people keep dying on the streets. The daughter of a British man killed by an 82-year old driver with failing eyesight renewed her call for giving motorists mandatory eye tests, rather than just allowing them to tick a box. Seriously, mandatory eye tests for drivers should be, well, mandatory. For everyone.
Greece is now officially bike friendly, encouraging responsible bike tourism. As opposed to irresponsible car tourism, evidently.
Israel opened a new bike path, built for the equivalent of $2 million, in honor of the 11 people riding bicycles who were killed in last year’s October 7th attack, and call for the safe return of two bike-riding hostages, as well as the other hostages taken in the attack.
The AP looks at Indonesia’s Starlings, the country’s bicycle-born coffee peddlers.
A 47-year old man in Perth, Australia will spend the next four years and three months behind bars for the hit-and-run death of an 86-year old man who was illegally riding his ebike on the freeway; the judge said the question of why the victim was on the freeway in the first place was “beside the point” and termed the driver’s failure to stop as “callous.”
Competitive Cycling
The Athletic offers more details about the dooring that put double Olympic champ and 2022 Vuelta winner Remco Evenepoel in the ER; he’ll spend the next two weeks immobilized after undergoing successful surgery.
The world’s longest single-staged mountain bike race kicks off in Namibia tomorrow, covering 250 miles in 24 hours.
Finally…
Maybe cycling teams should cover their new kits in tape, like carmakers do to road test new models. Now you, too, can just pedal your 10,000 daily steps.
And no. Just no, already.
………
Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Oh, and fuck Putin.
