For the second time in just three days, a San Bernardino County teenager has been killed in a collision with a train while riding his bike.
According to the Fontana Herald News, 18-year old Fontana resident Carlos Morales Guzman was riding north on Beech Avenue above Ceres Ave when he attempted to cross the train tracks and was hit by a westbound train. He was pronounced dead at the scene at 5:20 pm.
A street view shows a traditional railroad crossing arm; if it was working, Guzman may have tried to ride around it.
Remarkably, the collision occurred at exactly the same time of day, and on what appears to be the same tracks, as the collision that killed 19-year old Brendan Allen Adams just three days earlier, less than 20 miles away.
This is the 34th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the fourth in San Bernardino County. Guzman is the fourth person killed in a collision with a train since the first of the year, and as noted, the second in just three days.
It’s also the third cycling death in the last three days, following the death of a 25-year old Los Angeles man in Pasadena on Saturday, just 15 minutes after the wreck that took Guzman’s life.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for Carlos Guzman and all his family and loved ones.
According to the Pasadena Star-News, a bike rider described only as a man in his 30’s was hit and killed while riding near Caltech in Pasadena this evening.
The victim was taken to Huntington Hospital where he died from his injuries. The driver of the compact car remained at the scene and was reportedly cooperating with police.
No other details are available at this time; no word on which way the rider was headed or how the collision occurred.
This is the 33rd bicycling fatality in Southern California this year; remarkably, 17 of those deaths have been in Los Angeles County. This is also the third bike death in Pasadena since 2011.
My prayers and deepest sympathy to the victim and his loved ones.
Update: The Star-News reports that the victim, who still has not been publicly identified pending notification of next of kin, was a 25-year old resident of Los Angeles.
According to the paper, he was riding west on Del Mar with a female companion when he was struck from behind, with the force of the impact throwing him into a parked car.
The woman he was riding with was not struck by the car.
Update 2: The Caltech Bike Lab is sponsoring a petition calling for better east-west bike routes in Pasadena, including sharrows on Del Mar; whether it would have helped in this case may never be known.
Update 3: In a comment below, a blogger links to her thoughts about witnessing the collision. According to her, the victim was thrown across the road to collide with the parked car before landing crumpled on the sidewalk, suggesting an impact of significant force.
When I learn about a case like this, in which the victim has not been publicly identified, I pray it’s not someone I know. And feel guilty, because even if I don’t know who it is, someone else will.
Because it’s never just a stranger on a bike.
It’s always someone’s son or daughter, mother or father, sister, brother, cousin, nephew, co-worker or friend. It’s someone someone loves, or likes or maybe even can’t stand, if only just a little.
It’s never just a statistic, regardless of those stats I keep.
It is a real person who was here, and now, suddenly and without warning, isn’t. A meteoric flash of life snuffed out in a relative instant, leaving a gaping hole in the lives of those left behind.
It’s always heartbreaking. It’s always tragic. It’s always a loss beyond our comprehension, if only because we can never know what might have been.
Bike Long Beach hosts Bike Saturdays every weekend; ride your bike to participating local shops and business throughout the city to get special offers and discounts.
The Los Angeles Bicycle Advisory Committee meets at 7 pm on the first Tuesday of each even-numbered month; the next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, August 6th at the Hollywood Neighborhood City Hall Community Room, 6501 Fountain Ave.
Join the LACBC and Where to Bike Los Angeles Saturday morning for a 45-mile Surf City ride along the OC coast. Meet at 8:30 am in Bixby Park, 130 Cherry Avenue in Long Beach; rolling at 9 am.
Flying Pigeon Bike Shop and the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition team up for a Raspados Ride on North Figueroa on Saturday the 15th to promote bicycling in the local area, and support proposed bike lanes on North Figueroa. Riders meet at 3 pm at Flying Pigeon, 3404 N. Figueroa.
Sunday the 16th, Flying Pigeon rides to Downtown’s Good Girl Dinette for their monthly Get Sum Dim Sum Ride. Meet at Flying Pigeon, 3404 N. Figueroa at 10 am, rolling at 10:30.
CD4 Council Member Tom LaBonge hosts his annual Tour LaBonge each Wednesday through August 17th. The next ride meets at 6 pm at Fire Station 88 at 5101 Sepulveda Boulevard in Sherman Oaks. If you go, ask him why he opposes the proposed bike lanes on Lankershim Blvd and the green bike lanes on Spring Street, and has been a major impediment to the long-delayed Bike Friendly Street on 4th Street. If he’s our friend, we don’t need any enemies.
Metro is co-sponsoring a series of bike traffic skills classes throughout the summer, with the first one taking place on Saturday, June 22nd in Claremont, followed by Los Angeles on Friday and Saturday, the 28th and 29th.
It’s time to retake our streets once again as the next edition when CicLAvia rolls down L.A.’s iconic Wilshire Blvd on Sunday, June 23rd, with a focus on exploring the city’s art and architecture. The ride rolls, walks, scoots and skates from Downtown to Fairfax — on both sides this time — with extended hours from 9 am to 4 pm, and pedestrian-only zones on both ends. CicLAvia returns to an expanded Downtown route on Sunday, October 6th.
Once you’ve taken in CicLAvia, head over to City Hall for the first ever Wolfpack HustleCivic Center Criterium, qualifying starts at noon, with races rolling at 4 pm. Note: Prize money is being split evenly between the four races; more racers are needed for the women’s category.
The Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition’s Civic Engagement Committee meets at 6:45 pm on the last Tuesday of each month. This month’s meeting will take place at the Pitfire Pizza at 2nd and Main in Downtown L.A. Now that the election cycle is over, the meeting will focus on where the committee will go from here. The meeting is open to everyone, and you don’t have to be an LACBC member to participate; email bikinginla at hotmail dot com to be added to the discussion list.
On Saturday the 29th, Metro, C.I.C.L.E. and Walk ‘n’ Rollers combine to kick off the summer with a 14-mile trek along the Ballona Creek Bike Path from Culver City to the Sea. Meet at the La Cienega / Jefferson Expo Line Station at 10:30 am, rolling at 11. Alternative start points meet on the bike path at 11:20 am at Overland Ave, and 11:45 am at Centinela.
On Saturday, July 6th, the Red5 Yellow7 Gallery hosts the closing of Passable Atlas, an exhibit by artists Sean Deyoe and Nathan Snider recreating four years of The Passage of a Few People Through a Rather Brief Moment in Time, a weekly Wednesday night bike ride exploring far-flung areas of the city. The exhibit will be followed by a Special Passage ride beginning at 8:30 pm at 4357 Melrose Ave in the HelMel Bicycle District.
Anyone willing to make the trip to the Bay Area may want to head to Oakland’s Jack London Square on Saturday, July 20th for the third annual Pedalfest, a free celebration of bikes, cycling, food family and fun; the event takes place from 11 am to 7 pm. Thanks to prinzrob for the heads-up.
Here’s your chance to bike the famed Las Vegas strip and the surrounding Las Vegas Valley, with the 6th Annual RTC Viva Bike Vegas Gran Fondo Pinarello on Saturday, September 21st. The event will offer routes for riders of all levels, from a 17-mile ride to 60-mile Metric Century and a 103-mile Gran Fondo; the longer rides will visit the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area and Lake Mead.
Just when it looked like death may have taken a sabbatical from SoCal cycling, word comes of a rider killed in a collision with a train in Upland on Thursday.
Very few details are available at this time. However, according to the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, the male rider was hit by a Metrolink train near Benson Avenue and Eighth Street around 5:15 pm. The victim, who has not been publicly identified, apparently died at the scene.
The death is just the second SoCal cycling fatality this month, after a swarm of four fatalities in an eight-day period between May 25 and June 2nd, including bike racer Chris Cono, and Susan Stripko in Huntington Beach.
This is the 32nd bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, compared to 23 this time last year, and the third in San Bernardino County. This is also the third bike rider killed by a train since the first of the year.
Unless the safety equipment malfunctions in some way, or the rider is somehow forced onto the tracks, there is simply no excuse for a collision with a train, which is confined to a clearly defined space on the tracks. Never ride under or around the warning gates or try to beat a train across the tracks.
I speak from experience, having barely beaten a train in a foolish attempt to race it across the tracks when I was a child.
A lesson I survived by just inches. And will never forget.
Update: The Daily Bulletin places the actual location as Montclair, and identifies the victim as 19-year old Pomona resident Brendan Allen Adams. Witnesses saw Adams riding south on Benson towards the train tracks, where he either ignored or didn’t see the crossing arms, for whatever reason.
Mark your calendar and be there if you can. Because it will take all of us to convince the council to values the lives and safety of bicyclists over the simple convenience of filmmakers.
And you can hear the LACBC’s Planning and Policy Director Eric Bruins, LADOT’S Nate Baird and others discuss the bikelash over L.A. bike lanes with Warren Olney on KCRW’s Which Way, L.A.?
A late start meant I didn’t have a lot of time to ride yesterday, so I took a quick spin along the beachfront bike path through Santa Monica and Venice — despite my long-held preference to avoid it as much as possible this time of year.
And I nearly paid for it with a head-on collision with a scofflaw salmon cyclist.
Make that a four-year old scofflaw.
On a tricycle.
She didn’t seem too pleased when I suggested she should ride on the other side, either.
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Yet another coward has fled the scene following a serious collision, leaving a bike rider to bleed in the street. This time in Orange County.
According to KABC-7, a teenage cyclist suffered critical head injuries when he was hit by an unidentified vehicle around midnight Wednesday on North Harbor Boulevard near La Palma Avenue in Orange.
A passing motorist saw the victim lying in the street and called for help.
Anyone with information is urged to call Anaheim police at (714) 765-1900.
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Tuesday’s twin meetings called to oppose bike lanes in NELA and San Pedro may not have turned out the way opponents might have planned.
The special meeting of the Arroyo Seco Neighborhood Council’s Sycamore Grove Local Issues Committee — maybe they could work on shortening that just a tad — gave every indication of being a set-up for opponents of bike lanes on Figueroa Street in Northeast L.A. Even going so far as to allow a bike lane hater to present an uncontested 15 minute video in opposition to the lanes.
A presentation he reportedly botched — eventually leading to his ejection from the room for disrupting a public meeting.
The lanes were installed as part of the 2010 L.A. bike plan, as well as in an attempted to calm traffic on streets with excess capacity — including in front of a school, where parents inexplicably complained about the difficulty of dropping their children off, rather than praising the attempt to increase safety for their own kids.
Fortunately, cooler heads seemed to have prevailed, as Buscaino suggested drivers get used to the changes and find ways to avoid the brief periods of congestion.
I’m starting to like this guy.
Now let’s see if he, and the other members of the council, show as much backbone dealing with Hollywood’s irrational demands to remove the Spring Street green bike lanes at Friday’s council meeting.
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A couple bike-related items from Metro made it into my inbox yesterday.
First up is how to cope with the new locking turnstiles being activated in Metro train stations this summer.
Metro Rail turnstiles will be activated this summer and open only with a valid TAP card. If you bring your bike on board, please plan ahead for how this change can affect your station access.
Follow ADA-accessible routes to find elevators and wider turnstile gates to safely walk your bike in and out of stations.
If lifting your bike over turnstiles, please be careful. Avoid lifting your bike over turnstiles in a crowded station.
Using the emergency exit gate for non-emergency purposes is not allowed and punishable by fine.
Whatever type of fare you’re using – single ride, pass or transfer from another system – it must be loaded on a reusable TAP card to ride any Metro Rail line. Please be sure your TAP is loaded with cash or valid fare before approaching turnstiles at Metro Rail stations. If you don’t already have a TAP card, you canpurchase one along with your fare from the TAP vending machine for a $1.
I can’t say I’m fond of the idea that one-time train users will be forced to buy a tap card, increasing the cost of a single ride to $2.50.
And Metro will be working with bike advocacy organizations to co-sponsor a series of bike education and safety classes throughout the county.
All cyclists can benefit from a working knowledge of the rules of the road.
Continuing efforts to educate all road users, Metro presents a new series of free bicycle traffic safety workshops, rolling out across the county over the next few months.
With funding from the Office of Traffic Safety, Metro is working with the LA County Bicycle Coalition, Bike San Gabriel Valley and Multi-Cultural Communities for Mobility to lead the workshops. A 3-hour beginner’s road rules class will be offered in English and Spanish, and an 8-hour workshop for intermediate cyclists will focus on building traffic skills.
The series kicks off with the following classes. As more classes are scheduled, information will be available able at metro.net/bikes andfacebook.com/bikemetro.
Street Cycling Skills Class Friday, July 12, 6pm-9 pm AND Saturday, July 13, 8am-2 pm
Azusa Memorial Park Recreation Center
320 N Orange Pl
Azusa, CA 91702 Register with LA County Bicycle Coalition here
Bicycling on the Road Class Sunday, July 14
10am-1pm
South El Monte Community Center
1556 Central Av
South El Monte, CA 91733 Register with Bike San Gabriel Valley by emailing info@bikesgv.org
Street Cycling Skills Class Wednesday, July 17, 5:30pm-8:30pm AND Saturday, July 20, 9am-1pm
California State University Long Beach
1250 Bellflower Bl
Long Beach, CA 90815 Register with LA County Bicycle Coalition here
Bicycling on the Road Class Saturday, July 20
10am-1pm
El Monte Senior Center
3120 Tyler Av
El Monte, CA 91731 Register with Bike San Gabriel Valley by emailing info@bikesgv.org
Bicycling on the Road Class Saturday, July 27
10am-1pm
Palm Park Rec Center
5730 Palm Av
Whittier, CA 90601 Register with Bike San Gabriel Valley by emailing info@bikesgv.org
Bicycling on the Road Class Sunday, August 18
10am-1pm
La Verne Community Center, Classroom 1
3680 “D” St
La Verne, CA 91750 Register with Bike San Gabriel Valley by emailing info@bikesgv.org
Bicycling on the Road Class Saturday, August 24
10am-1pm
Barbara J. Riley Community & Senior Center
7810 Quill Dr
Downey, CA 90242
Register with Bike San Gabriel Valley by emailing info@bikesgv.org
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Finally, you could soon fly over potholes; no, literally. And if you’re going to steal precious artwork by a revered artist, bring a bag big enough that it doesn’t stick out of your backpack as you make your getaway by bike at 4:30 am. Let alone big enough to carry everything you meant to steal.
More money for bike and pedestrian projects in the new state budget, but Safe Routes to School programs are at risk. Santa Ana will build two secure bike parking facilities holding a total of just 36 bikes; evidently, not many riders need secure parking down there. It seems the facts are however you spin them, as a San Francisco grand jury says the city must do more to prevent bicyclists’ deaths — but all a Bay Area website hears is a call to crackdown on scofflaw cyclists.
Finally, a self-identifying cyclist criticizes a “small, tiny, sub-section of cyclists” — the cam-wearing, lycra-clad aggressively mentally ill subsection, evidently. Something tells me the conversation he relates may not have occurred exactly the way he tells it.
