“Permitting right turns on red has always been a dangerous idea, which is why, when the first traffic lights and traffic laws rolled out, it was not allowed,” Jessie Singer told me in an email Thursday. Singer literally wrote the book on how “accidents” happen in America. “It is no coincidence,” she continued, “that in New York City, the most pedestrian-dense city in the U.S., right on red has long and largely been disallowed.”
The practice is inherently dangerous to pedestrians because, as Singer puts it, it “leaves the sanctity of the crosswalk and the life of a pedestrian in the hands of a fallible driver.”
Drivers can wait a few extra seconds to make their turn. Even if they’d likely think its the end of the world.
It would also eliminate the current free transfers by charging the full fare for every ride, with a daily cap of $6.
So if your typical roundtrip involves a single transfer in each direction, you’d pay $2 for each outbound leg, for a total of $4, and $2 for both return legs after hitting the daily cap.
That compares to the current $1.75 each way with free transfers, for a total of $3.50 a day — an increase of $2.50, which would represent a steep jump for many users.
It would also have a weekly cap of $20, which would only benefit daily riders with at least one transfer.
To make matters worse, it would also automatically adjust for inflation every four years, further increasing the already too-high fares.
In other words, the “simplified” fare structure is little more than a dramatic fare increase — exactly the wrong decision at a time when we need to encourage more transit use to get people out of their cars.
Let alone the opposite of the free fare system they promised to study.
The organization reports the current proposal doesn’t include plans to connect to Crescenta Valley Park north of the basin, because of a “small but loud group of opponents who don’t want to see ‘others’ coming into their neighborhood.”
Nope, nothing offensive about that.
The knee-jerk NIMBY reaction is reminiscent of the Trousdale Gap in the Expo Line bike path, which skipped the section along the railway behind the Cheviot Hills neighborhood after residents expressed fears ne’er-do-wells would ride their bikes up to peer in their windows and make off with their flatscreen TVs.
Because people in cars never, ever just drive up and burgle homes, apparently.
A “real-life Mowgli” who fled his Sudanese village to live in the jungle after being bullied over his microcephaly can now ride a bicycle for the first time, after a documentary about him went viral.
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
No bias here, as a New York councilmember says the best way to encourage bike commuting is to discourage it by taxing, licensing and regulating riders.
Yes. If cycling is going to go from a hobby to a major part of our transit portfolio as a loud group of influential activists insist it should, then it only stands to reason it be regulated, licensed, and taxed as any other mode of transport. It’s the equitable thing to do. https://t.co/2T6ZlotVZb
No bias here, either. British bicyclists are urged to stop riding two-abreast and let drivers overtake them because nearly two-thirds of drivers don’t understand recent bike safety changes to the country’s Highway Code. Once again putting all the responsibility for safety solely on the people on two wheels, because of the ignorance of motorists.
Yanko Design says the app-controlled Keyless O-Lock from Copenhagen-based LAAS is the smartest and easiest way to keep your bike safe. Even though it only disables the rear wheel, but does nothing to keep someone from carrying your bike off.
November 11, 2022 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Hunt is on for road-raging Carlsbad bicyclist, and stoned Michigan driver to face charges in Make-A-Wish crash
Happy Veteran’s Day to all those who have served our country!
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Before we get going, it’s time to start digging under your sofa cushions to save up for the 8th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive later this month.
The fund drive page is now live, which wasn’t hard to do since I never got around to taking down last year’s page, in case anyone feels an urgent need to contribute before we officially get going on the 25th.
And I’m open to suggestions if you can recommend a good payment app, since there are always people who ask for an alternative to PayPal or Zelle each year.
The man reportedly responded to being yelled at by one of the kids by trying to open their car door and punching a window, before smashing their windshield. He then rode off, but allegedly lay in wait for them down the road.
As we have repeatedly said, there is never any excuse for violence, no matter how justified it may seem at the time.
Now instead of being the victim of an angry driver, a bike rider finds himself a wanted criminal who could face serious charges and be subject to damages once he’s found.
Metro is hosting a community meeting on Wednesday, as well as a bike rodeo next month, to gather input on first mile/last mile connections for the Sepulveda G LIne, nee Orange Line, station.
Speaking of Streetsblog, the transportation news site is honoring LA County Supervisor Holly Mitchell with their Streetsie Award for 2022 Elected Official of the Year at Mercado La Palomaon December 1st.
Bicycling offers advice on how to ride with your dog. My best tip is to get a tandem with an usually low stoker position, and let the dog do its own damn pedaling. As usual, read it on Yahoo if the magazine blocks you.
There’s a special place in hell for whoever stole a ghost bike for a 13-year old Washington boy who was killed by a driver who went through the crosswalk he was riding in; fortunately, the bike was returned when someone at a scrap yard recognized it and returned it to his family.
The news keeps getting worse from Las Vegas, where it turns out the two mountain bikers killed by an alleged drunk driver during a serial hit-and-run were a couple who had been dating for ten years.
Boise, Idaho is redrawing plans for a protected bike lane after complaints that it would interfere with parents picking up their children from a Catholic school, apparently thinking the ability to drive up to the door is more important than allowing their kids to safely bike there.
That’s more like it. A 22-year old Michigan man will spend 20 to 40 years behind bars after he was sentenced for the hit-and-run death of a five year old boy who was riding his bike in a crosswalk with the rest of his family; his two younger siblings remain traumatized after witnessing the crash.
A Cambridge, Massachusetts judge expressed skepticism over new bendy post-protected bike lanes, saying in response to a lawsuit intended to stop them that the streets appear to be too narrow for them. Which isn’t a decision a judge with no traffic planning experience should be making.
A 12-year old Erie, Pennsylvania boy was severely beaten by two unknown attackers as he was riding his bike somewhere in the city; police were having trouble locating the site because the boy doesn’t speak English and was relying on a translator. No word on whether he was attacked for his bike, or for some other reason.
Let’s start with a quick recap of Tuesday’s election.
The short version is, nobody won.
Yet.
The large number of mail-in ballots received on and dropped off on Election Day means it could be more than a week before we have final results.
However, as things currently stand, Rick Caruso and Karen Bass are in a virtual dead heat for mayor, with Caruso holding a slight lead.
Meanwhile, bike rider and corgi dad Kenneth Mejia holds a seemingly insurmountable lead over termed-out councilmember and career politician Paul Koretz to become city controller and the first person of Filipino ancestry to hold elective office in the City of Angeles.
Bike-friendly Katy Yaroslavsky, daughter-in-law of longtime LA office holder Zev Yaroslavsky, has an 11 point lead to replace Koretz in CD5, which should mark a sea change for active transportation on the Westside.
Tracy Park holds a nearly 11 point lead over bike-friendly Erin Darling to succeed retiring Councilmember Mike Bonin in CD11.
Hugo Soto-Martinez has a tighter five point lead over incumbent Mitch O’Farrell in CD13; if he can hold the lead, it could be a major win for active transportation in the district, where O’Farrell blocked nearly all bike projects, and only came around to support Sunset for All to gain support as he battled for re-election.
Tim McCosker has a seemingly insurmountable 30 point lead over progressive Daniel Sandoval to replace termed-out Joe Buscaino in CD15, following Sandoval’s wage theft scandal that effectively sank her prospects. I don’t have a feel for what McCosker’s expected victory will mean for bike and pedestrian projects in a district that stretches from San Pedro to Watts.
Career politician Bob Hertzberg holds a slim 1.5% lead over West Hollywood Councilmember Lindsey Horvath for LA County Supervisor; a Hertzberg victory would represent a significant conservative shift compared outgoing Supervisor Shiela Kuehl.
The collision that killed MacDonald was just one of three crashes 28-year old Victor Manuel Romero stands accused of on that March night, after getting drunk and into a fight in a bar parking lot.
Despite assuring police he would call for a ride, he instead got behind the wheel of his BMW and tore out of the parking lot, hitting the bar owner’s Caddy on the way out.
He then slammed into MacDonald, driving so fast an Uber driver waiting at the intersection felt his car rock as Romero blew by; MacDonald was like dead by the time he hit the pavement.
He then hit another car after blowing through a red light, and was arrested back near the bar after fleeing on foot.
Unbelievably, his attorney tried to blame his actions, not on being drunk or merely an asshole, but by claiming he suffered a concussion from repeated blows to the head while on the losing end of the fight, which somehow affected his decision making.
Sure. Let’s go with that.
Granted, even the worst client has a right to a defense. And his attorney can’t be blamed for throwing whatever Hail Mary he can in the face of overwhelming evidence.
But maybe he could come up with something even slightly more credible.
The South LA Expo Park to Watts CicLAvia will roll December 4th, on a route that will take it along Martin Luther King Blvd from Exposition Park to Historic South Central — the birthplace of West Coast Jazz — then along Central Ave to Florence-Firestone and ending on 103rd Street in Watts, the home turf of the East Side Riders.
The late date means the event will be subject to the whims of what passes for winter weather in Los Angeles. However, many people who have attended previous South LA CicLAvias have ranked them among the best events in the 12-year history of CicLAvia.
And it certainly offers some of the best food you’ll find anywhere in Los Angeles.
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Nothing like getting right hooked on a protected bike lane.
State Senator Scott Wiener credits his SB288 with exempting the projects from CEQA review, forcing opponents to take it to a vote of the people, where it was resoundingly rejected,
Another fun fact: SB 288 is a key reason why San Francisco’s slow streets program has been able to continue for so long without CEQA lawsuits. Instead, our democratic process gets to make that decision — not whoever has the resources to file CEQA lawsuits.
This is why people keep dying on the roads. A British driver walked without a single day behind bars for using his car as a weapon to ram into a man on a bike in reverse, after the man slapped his car when the driver yelled for him and another bike rider to get out of the road. Adding insult to injury, he’ll get his damn drivers license back after a lousy six-month suspension, when it should have been revoked for life.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
Police in Carlsbad are looking for a road-raging bike rider who attacked a car driven by a pair of teens by trying to open their door and punching a window, before smashing the windshield, then allegedly lying in wait for them down the road; the altercation reportedly began when traffic bogged down as the rider was crossing the intersection, which “got him all spun up and (one of the teens) retaliated at him and got upset at him.” I assume that last quote means something, but we may need a teen-to-English translation before it makes any sense. As we’ve said many times before, though, violence is never the right answer, no matter how justified it may seem at the time.
A fire at the El Segundo Chevron plant inevitably means Southern California gas prices will be going up. To which bike commuters seem oddly unconcerned.
The San Francisco Examiner explains California’s requirements for bike lights and reflectors. However, the law only applies if you’re riding after sunset or before sunrise, although police have been known to use daytime light checks as an illegal pretext stop.
Transport for America says education, enforcement and technology — the cornerstones of American Vision Zero programs — don’t make streets safer; what does is better roadway designs.
Residents of Provincetown, Rhode Island are just the latest to get ebike rebates before California’s long-delayed program goes into effect, with qualified buyers eligible for up to $1,200.
Road.ccrecalls bygone bike tech we’re well rid of. Although if we completely get rid of wing nuts, we’ll have to find another term for all those assorted whack jobs. Oh.
I underwent a minor medical procedure yesterday, and didn’t bounce back as well as I hoped. Then again, as my doctors have made clear, there are no minor medical procedures when your diabetic.
The bad news is, the procedure didn’t work, so I’ll have to go through it again today.
Hopefully things will go a little better, and we’ll be back again to catch up on anything we missed today.
November 8, 2022 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Get out and Bike the Vote today, bike groups demand action at COP27, and more on LACBC rebranding as Bike LA
With COP27 being hosted in Africa, it is worth noting that across the continent walking is already the primary mode of transport for the majority of people. Up to 78% walk every day – often because they have no other choice. And they put their lives at risk the moment they step out of their homes due to roads dominated by speeding cars, missing sidewalks, makeshift crossings and high-polluting vehicles. By 2050, low and middle income countries will own over two-thirds of the world’s cars. With that comes an increasing urgency for even greater investment in safe walking and cycling infrastructure.
For all of these reasons, the Partnership for Active Travel and Health, together with the undersigned organisations, strongly appeal to national and city governments to commit to prioritising and investing in walking and cycling, through Nationally Determined Contributions and integrated and coherent strategies, including plans, funding and concrete actions for:
Infrastructure – to make walking and cycling safe, accessible and easy to do.
Campaigns – to support a shift in people’s mobility habits.
Land use planning – to ensure proximity and quality of access to everyday services on foot and by bike.
Integration with public transport – to underpin sustainable mobility for longer trips.
Capacity building – to enable the successful delivery of effective walking and cycling strategies that have measurable impact.
Organizations including UCI, Rails-to-Trails and World Bicycle Relief have already signed on.
It’s also been endorsed by yours truly, even though this organization is just me and a corgi.
Thanks to Colin Bogart for the heads-up.
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Streetsblogtalks with Eli Akira Kaufman, Executive Director of the newly renamed Bike LA, formerly LACBC, about the bike coalition’s rebranding.
Our staff and board of directors felt that the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition (LACBC) really did not capture who we are and our mission to support more Angelenos to Bike LA. Basically, the thinking is that LACBC sounds too much like the government agencies we work with (LADOT, LAUSD, LADWP) when we’re actually a community-based nonprofit organization committed to advocating for the rights of cyclists. It had become clear that we needed a name change that made it easier for bike-minded people to find and support our advocacy work much like our sister bike nonprofits Bike East Bay, Bike New York, Bike Austin, Bike Cleveland, Bike Portland, Bike Houston to name a few.
Bike LA is both more accessible and a call to action. We thank everyone for supporting LACBC for the past quarter century and for remaining committed to Bike LA for a Better LA!
Kaufman goes on to address some of the other issues facing the organization — and the rest of us — including the lack of safe infrastructure, seven years after the city adopted the mobility plan that was supposed to transform the way we get around the city.
Although as we’ve learned the hard way, a mobility plan doesn’t do a damn bit of good unless someone actually builds it.
It’s worth investing a few minutes to read the whole thing, because this is one of the leading groups representing you in the fight for safer and more equitable streets in Los Angeles.
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Speaking of Bike LA, we featured this one when it first appeared online last year.
But it’s worth posting again, since filmmaker Yolanda Davis-Overstreet was one of the people honored by the group at Saturday’s Bike Fest.
Streetsblog’sSahra Sulaiman took a deep dive into that racist and otherwise offensive recording of three Hispanic Los Angeles councilmembers, focusing on the “seething anti-Blackness” of CD14 Councilmember Kevin de León; while former Council President Nury Martinez has resigned, de León and CD1 Councilmember “Roadkill” Gil Cedillo still refuse to do the right thing.
Let’s hope you took advantage of that extra hour over the weekend to catch up on your sleep.
Or maybe your bike just a little longer.
Just remember that the time change seems to have a deleterious effect on people’s driving abilities.
So ride defensively and with a little more caution for the next few days. And make sure you’ve got a set of lights with you if you plan on riding late in the day.
If you’re still riding in LA without quality puncture-resistant tires, you should get some. I used to suffer flats three or four times a month before switching to Gatorskins, dropping to one or two a year afterwards.
Second, most streets in the City of Angels should be swept on a weekly basis. So if the streets you ride remain covered with glass and other tire threatening detritus — or the bike lanes never seem to get cleaned at all — use the 311 app to complain to the Bureau of Street Services.
More important, however, is this post forwarded by Streets For All founder Michael Schneider.
If this happens to you, you should immediately called the police and report it as a shooting. This is no less a driveby than if they had used a handgun, and should be prosecuted as such.
Even if prosecutors conclude there isn’t enough evidence to bring charges, it could establish a pattern of behavior in case they do it again. That’s what led to the conviction of Dr. Christopher Thompson in the infamous Mandeville Canyon brake check case.
Second, this would make a strong case under LA’s bicyclist anti-harassment ordinance, which allows a claim of $1,000 or triple the actual damages, whichever is higher.
The law also allows for attorney’s fees, although you’d be hard-pressed to find one who will take such a small case.
But you can file it yourself in small claims court.
One way or another, the shooters shouldn’t be allowed to get away it, or they’ll just do it again to someone else.
And next time, the victim may not be so lucky.
Thanks to HowTheWestWS for forwarding the first post.
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About damn time.
It’s been six long years since I served on the board of the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition.
And one question that continually came up during board meetings was a proposal to rebrand the LACBC using the then popular hashtag #BikeLA. But there were always holdouts who weren’t sold on the idea, or thought it wasn’t the right time for one reason or another.
Evidently, support finally aligned in recent weeks, as the organization announced their new branding as Bike LA at Saturday’s Bike Fest.
Not only is it a simpler and more self-explanatory name, but it gives the group a much-needed opportunity for a fresh start after a few very difficult years.
LACBC just announced that they are re-branding and will henceforth be known as Bike LA pic.twitter.com/nAwB0mw2oN
New York bicyclists ride to the rescue to close the gaps in the city’s composting program by using teenage microhaulers to collect and transport refuse the city doesn’t; in ten years, just one such business diverted nearly a million pounds of food waste from landfills, turning it into 427,000 pounds of compost.
Unbelievable. An Irish railroad worker won an unfair dismissal claim for the equivalent of nearly $4,000 after the railroad fired him, claiming he couldn’t perform his duties — because he was in prison after plowing into a group of women bicyclists while driving at four times the legal alcohol limit, leaving two women with life-changing injuries. Thanks again to Victor Bale.
The driver fled following the crash; no description was given of the suspect or their vehicle.
Anyone with information is urged to call 877/527-3247.
This is at least the 72nd bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the 23rd that I’m aware of in Los Angeles County; he’s also the 13th person killed riding a bike in the City of Los Angeles.
Twenty-three of those SoCal victims have been killed by hit-and-run drivers.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for the victim and his loved ones.
Before we get started, a quick reminder that Daylight Savings ends this weekend, and it’s time to set your clocks back on Sunday.
Which means it will get dark earlier, and you could find yourself riding in it more.
So pack lights with you, even if you don’t plan to be out that light; I’ve found myself riding in the dark more than once because of a flat or some other mechanical.
And don’t forget that even an extra hour of sleep is enough to throw drivers off their already negligible game. So ride defensively and use extra care for the next week or so.
I don’t want to write about you because some fool couldn’t manage to concentrate behind the wheel.
The US underperformance in road safety is especially dramatical: 11.4 Americans per 100,000 died in crashes in 2020, a number that dwarfs countries including Spain (2.9), Israel (3.3) and New Zealand (6.3). And unlike most developed nations, US roadways have grown more deadly during the last two decades (including during the pandemic), especially for those outside of cars. Last year saw the most pedestrians killed in the US in 40 years, and deaths among those biking rose 44% from 2010 to 2020…
The closer you look, the clearer it becomes that the US traffic safety crisis is not a reflection of geography or culture. It is the result of policy decisions that elevated fast car travel and automaker profits over roadway safety. Other countries made different choices, and they’ve saved lives as a result.
He goes on to add that the US has fallen behind other countries to the point that we hit a 16-year high for traffic fatalities last year, at the same time Japan and Norway posted their lowest fatality rates since the 1940s, when both countries were recovering from the devastation of WWII.
Not surprisingly, there are some pretty obvious reasons for that.
Europe, for example, has created many more car-free and car-light urban neighborhoods than the US. Since motor vehicles play a role in virtually all roadway deaths, their removal from the urban core is a big boost for safety. Meanwhile, countries like Canada and France have embraced automatic traffic cameras — devices that are banned in many US states — to deter speeding and running red lights. Likewise, safe infrastructure enhancements like roundabouts and road diets have been adopted more enthusiastically in other countries.
A widening gap is also visible in car regulations, which have grown relatively stricter abroad. A case in point: The European Union added pedestrian safety tests to NCAP crash ratings over two decades ago, and Japan, China and Australia now conduct them as well. The US still does not.
He also notes that when famed urban planner Jan Gehl first proposed that Copenhagen remake its streets in favor of bicycles to reduce reliance on motor vehicles, he was told they were Danes, not Italians.
Sort of like we’re constantly told this isn’t Copenhagen. Or Amsterdam. Or any other bike-centric city local NIMBYs have vaguely heard of.
It’s worth a few minutes of your day to read the whole thing.
But if you’re short on time today, just commit every word of this to memory —
For the US, this may be the most important road safety lesson from abroad: Many of the best solutions are quite simple. Build slower streets. Penalize reckless drivers quickly and reliably. Use regulations and taxes — on vehicle weight as well as fuel — to nudge the car industry toward smaller, safer models.
Seriously.
Thanks to Molly Timmons for the heads-up.
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We missed this one somehow.
Probably because we weren’t invited, which is apparently what happens when you’re critical of city leaders.
But still.
Los Angeles officials celebrated the completion of the long-planned Chandler Bicycle Connection yesterday, providing a low-stress, protected bikeway connecting the Orange Line Bike Path with Burbank’s popular Chandler Bike Path.
Join us for the celebration of the full funding and opening of next phase in completing the “cyclists’ highway” from Burbank to the West Valley! pic.twitter.com/Rw92woGPRt
Former pro Elliot Jackson offers a progress report on the Grow Cycling Foundation, a two-year old program to “provide opportunities for underserved communities to experience all that the bike has to offer” — starting with offering bike training at Inglewood elementary schools and building an Inglewood pump track.
That’s more like it. An Aussie driver gets a minimum of five years behind bars for the “despicable and cowardly” hit-and-run death of a 60-year old man riding a bike. Then again, every hit-and-run fits that description.
An Australian man is challenging the settlement he received in 2013, when he was struck while riding his bike when he was just 15 by the man who would become the premier of Australia’s Victoria state a year later; he claims he was ordered to stay quiet and never got a copy of the settlement.
Hernandez leadership promises a sea change in the district, where the councilmember she defeated, “Roadkill” Gil Cedillo, earned his sobriquet by blocking virtually every major safety improvement and bike lane in the district, including deadly North Figueroa.
Meanwhile, Linton also offers updates on a handful of new bike lanes in Central Los Angeles, including:
Sixth Street Bridge connection in Skid Row and the Arts District
Ramirez Street/Center Street/Santa Fe Ave in the Arts District
Avenue 19 in Lincoln Heights
He also points out the missed opportunity on North Spring Street in Chinatown, where the street, which is scheduled for a bike lane in the city’s mobility plan, was recently resurfaced.
The proposal would force the city to build out the mobility plan whenever a section of street contained in the plan is resurfaced.
Meanwhile, the city’s alternative proposal, which is based on Healthy Streets but likely to lack the enforcement mechanism of the ballot measure, is due back for a vote of the city council in the next few weeks.
Never mind that it’s the opposite of the fare-free transit they promised to study.
The LA Metro Community Advisory Council has prepared this draft letter regarding the impending fare increase proposal, for ratification at executive committee Friday (the framework had already passed at last week's general meeting). pic.twitter.com/6EfywCYDYI
Join us THIS SATURDAY for Pasadena's 4th annual Adaptive Sports Festival! People of all abilities are invited to enjoy this FREE, fun-filled day of activities, including handcycling, archery, wheelchair rugby, pickleball, power soccer, tennis & more: https://t.co/w1Nph61YLcpic.twitter.com/Q0Y7WDJPiP
Why settle for a mere bicycle, when you could have had an early velomobile prototype?
"September 1928: A man cycling a ‘One-Man Car Cycle’ in a street in the West End of London. (Photo by Crouch/Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)" pic.twitter.com/qTz5Z1023q
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
No bias here. An Arizona letter writer suggests charging anyone over 16 a $150 annual fee to register a bicycle, with a licensing fee for the rider that oddly declines with age. Because licensing and vehicle registration has worked so well to keep motorists in line, evidently.
No bias here, either. One in three Brits wants bikes banned entirely from public roads, while seven in ten think bike riders would be required to carry liability insurance. Apparently because it costs so much to hose our blood off their hoods.
Once again, authorities have managed to keep a deadly driver on the streets until it’s too late. A Virginia man struck and killed a man riding his bike across the street, 11 years after he was arrested for his third DUI for killing a bike-riding woman. But at least he was apparently sober this time.
