73-year old man killed in Fountain Valley left cross collision; Southern California on pace for nearly 100 bike deaths this year

July 5, 2022 / / 4 comments

Once again, a driver has proven that paint is no protection.

Whether it’s a bike lane. Or in this case, a crosswalk.

According to the Daily Pilot, a man died after he was struck by a driver while riding his bike in Fountain Valley.

The victim, identified as 73-year old Fountain Valley resident Dac Them Kieu, was riding his bike in the crosswalk on Garfield Ave at Brookhurst Street, on the border with Huntington Beach, when he was hit by the driver of a massive Ford pickup around 6:57 am.

Dac was taken to a nearby hospital, where he died of his injuries.

The Orange County Register reports the 65-year old driver was turning left off eastbound Garfield when he crashed into Dac, who was riding east in the crosswalk, which would put him on the westbound side of the street.

The fact that Dac was in the crosswalk suggests he had been riding on the sidewalk. That means he wouldn’t have been riding against traffic, since both the sidewalk and crosswalk are bidirectional.

Although drivers don’t always look for anyone coming from the opposite direction, even though they should.

The driver remained at the scene. Police do not believe intoxication played a role in the crash.

Anyone with information is urged to call the traffic bureau of the Fountain Valley Police Department at 714/593-4481, reference incident #22-22611.

This is at least the 48th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the eighth that I’m aware of in Orange County.

That puts us on track for nearly 100 SoCal bicycling deaths this year.

My deepest sympathy and prayers for Dac Them Kieu and all his loved ones.

Category: Injuries and Fatalities / Tags: , , , , ,

Healthy Streets LA submits signatures, moves forward in city council; and Moriah “Mo” Wilson killer busted in Costa Rica

July 5, 2022 / / One comment

So, did I miss anything last week?

Thankfully, my head and stomach finally returned to their standard state late last week, after doing my best to sleep it off all week. 

Now we’re back, with a lot to catch up on.

And no, that fool photo up there refers to the following story, not me. Although the resemblance is uncanny. 

Photo by 1195798 from Pixabay.

………

As a former president famously said, “Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice…won’t get fooled again.”

Let’s hope we don’t.

It was more than a decade ago when a group of LA bicyclists calling themselves the Bike Writers Collective developed the Cyclists Bill of Rights, calling for common sense entitlements for people who ride bikes.

(Full disclosure, I was briefly a member of the group after this Bill of Rights was written.)

Like the right to “travel safely and free from fear”, the “full support of the judicial system,” and the “right to routine accommodations in all roadway projects and improvements.”

It made so much sense, it was provisionally adopted by the Los Angeles City Council in 2008.

Which is apparently what they do when they want to make something go away.

The proposal was sent to the city attorney’s office for review, before being routed to various city agencies and council committees, with an ultimate goal of writing it into city code and including it in the upcoming 2010 bike plan.

And that was the last anyone ever heard of it.

Which should serve as fair warning as the city considers preemptively adopting the Healthy Streets LA ballot proposal.

This past week, Streets For All submitted over 102,000 signatures in support of the proposal, which would require the city to implement the long-forgotten mobility plan whenever a street mentioned in it is resurfaced.

Assuming enough signatures are validated, it would go before city voters, possibly as early as this fall.

But that’s where it gets interesting.

Because before the public has a chance to vote on it, it will go before the city council, who will have the option of adopting it outright.

If they do, it will immediately become law, and require a vote of the public before it can be modified or repealed.

Meanwhile, the city has also voted to move forward with their own version of the plan, based on the Healthy Streets initiative.

The motion, which passed unanimously — although safe streets opponents Paul Koretz and the recently defeated “Roadkill” Gil Cedillo were absent, along with former mayoral candidate Joe Buscaino — sends it back to the city attorney’s office to draft it into an ordinance.

Sound familiar?

The council will have the option of adopting the Healthy Streets plan, their own plan, or approving both. Or neither., for that matter

According to Streetsblog, Streets For All founder Michael Schneider says the best approach would be for the city to adopt them both.

“There are things in the ordinance, good things, that aren’t in the initiative,” explained Schneider after delivering the signatures earlier today. His advice to the Council? “Adopt ours, and then adopt yours as the implementation mechanism.”

The worst option would be for the city to approve a watered down, toothless version of the ordinance that would allow them to back out of implementing the plan whenever a councilmember decides it would be inconvenient to someone — whether motorists, police or the fire department.

Which could be altered or revoked by future council action at any time.

And which is pretty much what we have right now, resulting in less than 3% of the mobility plan being striped, seven years after it was adopted. And just 13 years before it’s supposed to be completely built-out.

Which means, if the city does adopt a weak-ass version, it will be up to the voters to correct their mistake.

So it’s great that the city is moving forward with their own version of the Healthy Streets LA proposal.

But it’s up to us to stay on top of them, and at the same time, keeping moving forward on the ballot initiative, to ensure we don’t get fooled again.

Or as another former president put it, “Trust, but verify.”

………

While we were gone, Kaitlin Marie Armstrong was busted in Costa Rica, after 43 days on the run for the May killing of top gravel cyclist Moriah “Mo” Wilson in Austin, Texas.

The 34-year old fugitive was captured at a hostel on Santa Teresa Beach in Provincia de Puntarenas.

Armstrong was reportedly traveling on a borrowed passport under an assumed name. She was returned to the US to face murder charges.

Wilson was repeatedly shot, apparently in a fit of jealousy for the crime of briefly dating Armstrong’s boyfriend, 35-year old cyclist Colin Strickland, and maintaining their friendship.

US Marshalls tracked Armstrong down by following her obsession with yoga classes, despite dying her hair in an effort to hide her identity.

………

The LACBC has taken a stand against the recently passed ordinance criminalizing bike chop shops, urging the mayor to veto it.

………

Enough said.

………

This is how fast a tragedy can happen. And how it can be avoided by a matter of inches, and sheer luck.

https://twitter.com/adamatic521/status/1540765682689658884

………

Women cyclists competing in the road race at the US Road Cycling National Championships took a knee to protest the recent overturning of Roe vs Wade.

………

This is what it looks like when a whole country bikes instead of driving.

https://twitter.com/annaholligan/status/1542205441069010946

Thanks to Keith Johnson for the link. 

………

They get it. A British police department explains why drivers don’t really want people on bikes to ride single file, regardless of what they might think.

………

We haven’t had much success getting Hollywood to #biketheOscars.

Maybe we’re just asking the wrong country.

………

The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.

No bias here. After six-year old boy was knocked down on a San Diego bike path by a pair of kids on ebikes, a surf website says ebikes are “piloted exclusively by the lazy and selfish and/or young and spoiled, (who) fly down bike paths, sidewalks, anywhere pedestrians amble at full speed cloaked in the gauze of “environmentalism.” Um, sure.

No bias here, either. A chain of UK coffee shops says they don’t serve people on bicycles in their drive-throughs because “they’re not road legal, taxed or insured.” 

But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.

A 17-year old English boy faces a dangerous driving charge for fleeing the scene after running down an 80-year old pedestrian with his ebike. Yet another reminder to always slow down and ride safely around pedestrians. And stop if you hit someone, dammit. 

Also in the UK, a 29-year old man faces a charge of “wanton or furious driving while being in charge of a bicycle” for killing a 29-year old woman as she was crossing the street.

………

Local

Cars are now officially banned from a roughly one-mile section of Griffith Park Drive in Griffith Park, at least for now. More on that tomorrow.

Once again, bad police training has raised its ugly head, after an LAPD spokesperson tells Spanish speakers it’s illegal to ride a bike on a sidewalk in Los Angeles, even though it’s perfectly legal as long as you respect others on the sidewalk.

A man was in stable condition after he was shot while riding a bicycle in central Long Beach early yesterday morning; police have not identified a suspect or motive.

CicLAvia is back, taking over the streets of South LA this Sunday. Or a street, anyway.

Speaking of Streets For All, the transportation PAC is hosting a another virtual happy hour on July 13th, this time featuring LA County District 1 Supervisor Hilda Solis.

 

State 

Several thousand bike riders turned out for a patriotic bike ride through Huntington Beach, in just the ride’s third year.

A kindhearted Castro Valley man fixes up donated bikes, and gives them to people who can’t afford one.

 

National

He gets it. Former President Barack Obama called on cities to fight sprawl and create “livable density…that allows us to take mass transit and take bicycles.”

Writing for Jalopnik, the co-host of The War on Cars podcast says “ban cars” is an inaccurate and incomplete summary of a complex issue, but he means it anyway.

A writer for Slate calls out Joe Biden’s “misguided” plan to suspend the federal gas tax.

A British man is riding across the US to call attention to testicular cancer, under the hashtag #BikingForBalls. No, really.

The Chicago Police Department has opened an internal investigation after a man claiming to be an off-duty cop was filmed pinning a 14-year old boy to the ground, and accusing him of stealing his son’s bike; the boy’s mother accused the cop of racial bias, saying when the boy simply tried to move it because it was blocking the sidewalk.

Police in the Bronx are looking for a hit-and-run driver in a stolen Jeep who killed a bike rider in a high speed crash, then removed a baby from the back of the Jeep, and made off in another SUV.

The carnage continues on American roads, when a DC driver crashed into a man on a bicycle before slamming into a fireworks stand; both the bike rider and a worker at the stand were killed. The driver apparently lost control due to a medical event.

 

International

Amazon is replacing its London delivery vans with a fleet of mini delivery van-style e-cargo bikes.

A British bicycling website says abuse on the roads keeps many women from riding, who might otherwise take to their bikes. The same story could be written for any American city or state.

Copenhagen’s bicycling chef is combining bikes and cuisine to give customers a ride to remember.

A new German study puts ebikes ahead of electric cars as the most popular and attractive form of electric vehicle.

Horrible news from Kolkata, India, where a 25-year old man was electrocuted when he tried to remove fallen electrical wires that got tangled with his bicycle wheels.

A 57-year old Kiwi man has ridden his bike everywhere for more than 40 years, without ever owning a car.

 

Competitive Cycling

Swiss cyclist Stefan Küng learned the hard way that you’re not supposed to grab another competitor’s helmet, grasping Ruben Guerreiro’s skid lid during Saturday’s stage two of the Tour de France.

Danish rider Magnus Cort was a hero to the hometown crowds during Sunday’s stage three, cementing his hold on the polka dot climber’s jersey with an 81-mile breakaway.

There always seems to be a mass crash during the early stages, and Sunday’s stage three was no exception, with several of the leading contenders losing time they’ll have to make up in the coming weeks.

Dutch pro Annemiek van Vleuten cemented her lead in Italy’s Giro Donne with a win in stage four.

LA-based L39ION of Los Angeles swept the podium for the women’s national crit championship, as Kendall Ryan took a bunch sprint ahead of teammates Skyler Schneider and her own sister, Alexis Ryan; 19-year old Sebastopol CA resident Luke Lamperti successfully defended his title on the men’s side.

Kyle Murphy and Emma Langley won the men’s and women’s road cycling Nats.

Veteran cyclist Alejandro Valverde suffered minor injuries when he and a teammate were struck by a driver while training in Spain on Saturday.

Team Novo Nordisk, the pro team composed entirely of cyclists with type 1 diabetes, is out with a new documentary; you can see it here.

 

Finally…

Chances are, you’ve never ridden a bicycle at 169 mph, with or without a tow. Now you, too, can ride your bike on half a wheel.

And I seriously need this one on my wall.

https://twitter.com/davidguenel/status/1541360691742916608

………

Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Move along, nothing to see here — extended edition

June 29, 2022 / / One comment

Despite my best efforts to get back to work, I’m still struggling with my health this week.

So I’m throwing in the towel, and taking the next few days to rest and try to feel better.

I’ll see you bright and early on July 5th.

Category: General /

Woman riding on bike trail killed by alleged DUI driver in Rancho Cucamonga collision

June 28, 2022 / / 4 comments

Yet another bike rider has needlessly lost their life to an alleged drunk driver.

The Daily Bulletin is reporting that someone on a bicycle was struck by a driver while riding on the Pacific Electric Trail in Rancho Cucamonga Saturday evening.

According to the paper, 19-year old San Bernardino resident Jessica Carrillo allegedly ran a red light on Archibald Ave while the victim was crossing on the trail around 6:50 pm.

The Rancho Cucamonga Police Department reports the victim was riding west on the Pacific Electric Trail when she was run down as Carillo drove south on Archibald.

She was pronounced dead at the scene.

A Facebook post identifies her as Debbie Morgan-Alam, a longtime member of the Ride Yourself Fit group.

Carillo remained at the scene, and was booked on suspicion of gross vehicular manslaughter, DUI causing injury and DUI causing injury with a blood alcohol content over .08 percent.

And proving once again that people on bicycles are at risk anywhere cars are present, even when riding on a fully separated pathway.

Anyone with information is urged to call San Bernardino Sheriff’s Deputies E. Rebollar or V. Peterson at 909/477-2800.

This is at least the 47th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the sixth that I’m aware of in San Bernardino County.

My deepest sympathy and prayers for Debbie Morgan-Alam and her loved ones.

Thanks to Victor Bale and Michael Wagner for the heads-up.

Category: Injuries and Fatalities / Tags: , , , , , , ,

Move along, nothing to see here

June 27, 2022 / / One comment

My apologies. I’m significantly under the weather tonight. I’ll try to be back tomorrow to catch up on anything we’ve missed.

Category: General /

South Dakota AG impeached over fatal hit-and-run, win a Metro Bike membership, and cam-enforced blocked bike lanes

June 24, 2022 / / 2 comments

The South Dakota state senate convicted Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg on impeachment charges, removing him from office.

And demonstrating to their counterparts in Washington DC that is it is, in fact, possible, despite all appearances to the contrary.

The Army reserve officer had received a slap on the wrist for the hit-and-run death of a pedestrian two years ago, after pleading no contest to making an illegal lane change and using a phone while driving, claiming he thought he had hit a deer.

Never mind that he never stopped to find out.

The senate’s action made it clear they found his story questionable, at best. As did virtually everyone else who heard it.

Couldn’t have happened to a more deserving jerk.

Photo from Ekaterina Bolovtsova on Pexels. Thanks to Nina Moskol for the heads-up.

………

Metro is offering a chance to win a free one-year bikeshare membership just for completing their Metro Bike user survey.

There are a few weeks left to take our Annual Metro Bike Share User Survey. This survey is open to everyone and should take less than 15 minutes to complete. All feedback is welcome, even if you haven’t used Metro Bike Share before.

Everyone who completes the survey will be entered in a raffle for a chance to win a 365-Day Metro Bike Share Pass ($150 value) and some sweet Metro Bike Share gear.

Take the survey today! This survey will be accepting responses until June 30, 2022.

………

About damn time.

London will start using camera enforcement to ticket drivers who block bike lanes. Now the rest of the world just has to catch up.

Not surprisingly, at least one London tabloid considers it an attack on those poor, beleaguered drivers.

………

The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.

No shit. A Toronto lawyer and bike advocate says cracking down on bike riders for speeding in a park is a waste of resources. 

But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.

Demonstrating a keen grasp of the obvious, a Portland serial bank robber who made his getaway by bicycle admits what he did was wrong. Gee, you think?

An Oxford, England man was sprayed with what appears to be pepper spray by a bike-riding teenaged boy after an argument on a shared-use path.

………

Local

Bicycling talks with Finish the Ride and Streets Are For Everyone founder Damian Kevitt about how a near-fatal hit-and-run motivated him to make Los Angeles a better place for people on bicycles. As usual, read it on Yahoo if the magazine blocks you.

UCLA Bicycle Academy Secretary Dr. Michael Cahn takes the university to task for removing a bike lane during construction of the new Rosenfeld Hall, and replacing it with a dumpster. Which is an apt metaphor if I’ve ever seen one.

The former Biking Black Hole of Beverly Hills continues its ongoing efforts to become more bike friendly, approving plans for bike lanes and sharrows on Doheny Blvd, from Burton Way to Whitworth Dr. Although someone should tell them that sharrows are literally worse than nothing.

Santa Monica-based micromobility startup Veo is expanding the footprint of their sit-down, moped-style scooters into LA’s Westside.

 

State 

Fullerton officials voted to rip out the Walk on Wilshire bike lane, concluding that it was little used, and the removal would improve traffic flow. Although if a bike lane isn’t used, it’s usually a sign it should be improved, not removed.

Oakland approved plans for a long-delayed Complete Streets remake of 14th Street, too late to save the life of a bike-riding father who was killed by a speeding hit-and-run driver in front of his kids.

 

National

Forbes offers their picks for the best bike helmets for every kind of rider, while Engadget recommends what they consider the best bike accessories you can buy.

An architecture website considers how to store your bike in small spaces.

Colorado sheriff’s deputies finally busted the driver who witnesses allege intentionally ran down a pair of women riding bicycles, leaving one woman in a coma.

CNN offers a timeline of the events leading up to and following the shooting of gravel cyclist Moriah “Mo” Wilson, after the car belonging to her alleged killer was found at a Texas car dealership.

They get it. A Milwaukee public radio station says improving street design could help curb reckless driving in the city.

Police in Wisconsin busted a pouting, 62-year old man for the hit-and-run death of a bike-riding man, once again claiming he thought he hit a deer. Which seems to be the universal Get Out of Jail Free card for hit-and-run drivers in northern states.

Life is cheap in Massachusetts, where a driver walked without a single day behind bars for killing a 69-year old man on a bicycle while she was FaceTiming with a friend — but at least she lost her driver’s license for 15 years. Not that losing a license seems to stop anyone from getting behind the wheel anyway, though.

New York is investing $178.8 million for improving active transportation in the state.

New York-based FEND will launch the first folding bike helmet with built-in front and rear lights, after a crowdfunding page raised nearly four times the $20,000 goal.

The mass carnage on the streets continues, as three people in their 60s were seriously injured when a 16-year old driver left-crossed them as they rode in a Florida bike lane, turning her car directly in front of a couple on a tandem and a man on his own bike. Proving once again you can’t spell “carnage” without “car.”

 

International

Bike Radar offers a complete buyers guide to adaptive bicycles.

Hong Kong may move to require helmets for all bike riders, citing an increase in crashes involving bicyclists. Never mind that helmets are designed to protect against slow speed falls, not collisions with cars and their drivers.

 

Competitive Cycling

Italian cycling great Mario Cipollini faces two and a half years behind bars on charges of domestic abuse for stalking and threatening his ex-wife, both before and after their marriage, including breaking her bicycle in half so she couldn’t ride it without him.

Lawson Craddock defended his title in the elite men’s time trial title at USA Cycling Pro Road National Championships, edging 20-year old Magnus Sheffield.

Leah Thomas won the women’s time trial title, beating four-time US time trial champ Amber Neben by a whopping 44 seconds.

A Knoxville, Tennessee news site suggests five cyclists to watch at the national championships this weekend.

 

Finally…

That feeling when your big, clunky plastic bike comes sans chain. Everything Google says you always wanted to know about the Tour de France and weren’t afraid to ask.

And strip down and saddle up for tomorrow’s Los Angeles edition of the World Naked Bike Ride.

………

Thanks to David E for his generous donation to help support this site, and keep SoCal’s best source for bike news coming your way every day. Your generosity, and the support of our sponsors, is what keeps this site going. 

………

Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

Category: Morning Links / Tags: ,

Create true multimodal networks for vibrant cities, Griffith Park Drive closes to cars next week, and ticketing speeding bicyclists

June 23, 2022 / / Comments Off on Create true multimodal networks for vibrant cities, Griffith Park Drive closes to cars next week, and ticketing speeding bicyclists

They get it.

The World Resources Institute says the secret to creating vibrant US cities — and meeting US climate goals — is to invest in true multimodal transportation.

The group calls for a coordinated system of various modes of transportation that work for the entire community.

Transportation emits more climate-warming greenhouse gases than any other sector in the United States, so cutting carbon from transport is also essential to achieving the ambitious goal of reducing emissions 50%-52% by 2030. Recent modeling from America Is All In, a coalition of state and local climate leaders, shows that emissions reductions in the transportation sector can contribute more than one-third of what’s needed to reach the 2030 U.S. climate goal.

The key is to go multi-modal: not just cars, buses, rail, bicycles or walking, but a coordinated system of various modes of transportation. States, tribes, cities, universities and businesses have vital roles to play in developing clean multi-modal transportation systems that work for the entire community while fostering health, safety and economic prosperity.

Photo by Blue Bird from Pexels.

………

About damn time.

Griffith Park Drive will be closed to cars between Travel Town and Mount Hollywood Drive starting next week, part of a pilot program to “reduce cut-through traffic and improve safety for pedestrians, cyclists and wildlife.”

Now do the rest of the streets in Griffith Park. Because parks are for people, not cars.

………

Bicycling questions whether bicyclists should be subject to speeding tickets in Toronto’s High Park, where police are using speed guns to enforce a 13 mph speed limit. Unfortunately, this one doesn’t seem to be available on Yahoo, so you’re on your own if the magazine blocks you.

I’ve long questioned whether speed limits, like the 8 mph limit on the boardwalk in Hermosa Beach, are enforceable for people on bicycles without cycling computers or other forms of speedometers.

After all, how can you be punished for breaking a law if you have no viable way of knowing you’re breaking it?

………

The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.

Even a deaf cat knows ice cream trucks don’t belong in the bike lanes on London’s Westminster Bridge.

A Scottish national time trial champ said she wanted to quit the sport after men on motorcycles leered at her and tried to knock her off her bike on two separate occasions. Seriously, guys. Give that Neanderthal crap a rest.

But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.

A Jamaican truck driver refused to stop after a man rolled a bicycle into his path, in what may have been a robbery attempt.

A man in Donnybrook, Ireland was the victim of a real donnybrook when he was severely beaten by a man riding on a bike path, after reflexively putting out an elbow to protect himself from the distracted rider.

………

Local

Streetsblog reports the long-promised bike lanes on the North Spring Street Bridge connecting Lincoln Heights and Chinatown should finally be striped in the coming months, after nearby street resurfacing is finished.

A woman and her dogs were killed by lightening while walking on the San Gabriel River bike trail in Pico Rivera yesterday. A tragic reminder to always seek shelter anytime you see lightening or hear thunder, and get away from your bike if it has a metal frame.

 

State 

The head of Caltrans District 7, which covers Los Angeles and Ventura counties, got a promotion to become the new leader of the state transportation agency.

Encinitas opened the newest segment of the North Coast Bike Trail, offering bike riders and pedestrians a view of the San Elijo Lagoon from a giant concrete jellyfish.

A UC Santa Barbara geography professor is crowdsourcing data for Bike Maps to identify the city’s best bike routes and worst hot spots.

The co-owners of Emeryville-based Clif Bar are now billionaires, after walking away from a $120 million buyout offer 22 years ago.

A Chico man faces seven years to life behind bars after pleading guilty to the random, senseless shooting of a man riding on a bike path two years ago, when he was just 17.

 

National

No, The Atlantic didn’t call Biden’s bike crash heroic.

Bike Hacks helps you plan what to bring on an overnight bikepacking trip. I’d add bug spray to that list. And a bike.

A Seattle man was been charged with assault and theft for stealing someone’s bicycle in a strong-arm robbery and illegally riding it onto a freeway; that came after he shattered a bus door when the driver wouldn’t let him on at an intersection.

My former home state of Colorado has the second-highest rate of bike commuters in the US, behind only Oregon, although it’s still a relatively paltry 1.1%.

Speaking of Colorado, the state held its Bike to Work Day yesterday, although most of the news stories are hidden behind paywalls; here’s one from Colorado Springs that isn’t. However, the day was marred when a bike rider was killed when he was run down by a pickup driver.

A 60-something Black stroke survivor is riding from Maine to Florida to call attention to stroke awareness, as well as her nonprofit Heels on Wheels; she’s already completed rides from Florida to California, and down the West Coast.

Local readers crowdsource the best places to ride a bike in Massachusetts.

A group of MIT students are riding across the US to conduct STEM workshops — science, technology, engineering and math — for students along the way.

A Pennsylvania driver faces DUI and drug charges for running down a woman on a bicycle while attempting to pass another car on the right.

 

International

Cycling News offers a guide to selling your old bike, while Road.cc goes deep on how to choose a bike helmet.

They get it, too. Toronto’s Globe and Mail calls for Vision Zero to end the 2,000 traffic deaths in the country each year, saying road deaths are never really accidents.

An 83-year old English man says he’s lucky to be alive after falling down a set of steps while attempting to walk his bike down a steep hill while wearing cycling cleats; the stairs were installed as an alternative for people unable, or unwilling, to ride the steep descent.

Credit British acting legend Dame Judy Dench with providing a full 10% — the equivalent of $2,334 — of the $24,333 goal for a man riding his bike across the US to raise funds to fight MS.

Life is cheap in the UK, where a driver high on ecstasy and coke got three years for killing a man riding a bicycle; he was five times over the legal limit for ecstasy and six times the limit for cocaine. Which bizarrely means there’s actually a legal amount of illegal drugs you can have in your system.

Police in Dubai have seized 400 bicycles and mopeds in a crackdown on scofflaw riders.

A Sydney, Australia paper says bike riders and pedestrians want separate trails, not shared paths.

 

Competitive Cycling

VeloNews offers a preview of today’s men’s and women’s elite time trials at the US Professional Road National Championships.

Nineteen-year old Luke Lamperti wants to prove last year’s US crit title was no fluke, setting his sights on the national road race championship to improve his chances of making the World Tour next year.

 

Finally…

That feeling when Strava reveals the location of secret military installations. Or when you get a settlement for getting busted for twerking in a bike lane.

And something tells me there’s a story here.

………

Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , ,

US Army vet from Belize killed in March bike crash in Carson, only makes the news now

June 22, 2022 / / One comment

Too often, someone can be killed in a bicycling crash, and it never makes the news.

Or if it does, it may show up somewhere far away.

That was the case this March, when a 20-year veteran of the US Army was killed, without making a blip in the local media until the story popped up in his home country of Belize yesterday.

According to the Breaking Belize News website, 49-year old Sergeant Brian George Martinez was killed in an early morning collision while training for the Holy Saturday Cross Country Cycling Class, a one day amateur bike race held annually in the country since 1928.

The news surfaced in a story about his mother donating his bicycling gear to the Cycling Federation of Belize following his death.

An April Facebook post from the organization said Martinez was killed in Los Angeles on March 17th, just one week after he sent in his registration for the race.

The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner’s office confirms his death.

Meanwhile, a website for a Los Angeles law firm places the collision at the intersection of East Victoria Street and South Avalon Boulevard in Carson.

He died at the scene.

There’s no word on how the crash occurred, or if the driver was ticketed or charged. Or even stopped following the crash, for that matter.

In addition to his military career, Martinez worked as a Licensed Clinical Health and Mental Health Therapist in Los Angeles.

This is at least the 46th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the 17th that I’m aware of in Los Angeles County.

My deepest sympathy and prayers for Brian George Martinez and all his loved ones. 

 

Category: Injuries and Fatalities / Tags: , , , ,

Worrying about what we don’t know, Los Angeles earns modest rank in bike city ratings, and LA bans bike chop shops

June 22, 2022 / / One comment

This is what keeps me up at night.

As bad as things are on our streets, I worry about the crashes we don’t hear about, wondering how many bike riders are seriously injured, or worse, without ever making the news.

And just how many more victims there are that we may never know about.

That this fatal crash from March, which only now made the news in the foreign press.

According to a Belizean website, 49-year old Sgt. Brian Martinez, a native of the country living in Los Angeles, was killed while training for a Holy Saturday bicycling classic; a lawyer’s website puts the location of the crash in Carson.

The story only came to light when his mother donated bike gear belonging to the 20-year US Army vet to the country’s cycling federation.

I’ll try to write about it later today.

This isn’t the only case like this, though. I’ve heard of at least three other bicycling fatalities that I haven’t been able to document already this year.

Like the woman who was injured when a driver in a street takeover slammed into her bike; a recent news story mentioned her death in passing, but didn’t give any information. And without her name or date of birth, it’s almost impossible to verify her death with the coroner’s nearly useless website.

So I continue to dread stories like this, where we find out about it long after the fact. And worry even more about the ones we may never hear about.

While wondering if our roads are even more dangerous than we think.

Photo by Ted McDonald from Pixabay.

………

People For Bikes unveiled their latest ranking of North American cities, bikeable and otherwise, topped by Provincetown, Massachusetts; Davis, California; and Fayette, Missouri.

Los Angeles scored a modest 31 city rating, placing it 313th out of 1105 cities.

Which sounds about right for a city that has failed to build out it’s bike plan, let alone fund Vision Zero or the transportation segment of mayor’s Green New Deal.

Non-Angelenos can look up your city here.

………

As expected, Los Angeles has banned bike chop shops, at least in theory, after the city council voted for an ordinance to prohibit working on bicycles on public property.

According to KNBC-4,

The ordinance is modeled after one already in effect in Long Beach to prohibit the assembly, disassembly, sale, offer of sale, distribution of bicycles and bicycle parts on public property or within the public right-of- way.

It includes a provision allowing people to repair their own bikes to make them ready to ride, although people have questioned whether that provision offers strong enough protections for everyday riders.

The new law is designed to target the open air bicycle chop shops that have sprouted up around the city, usually in conjunction with homeless camps.

Police have complained that there’s little they could do to target them, since most stolen bikes are never reported to the police, and the value of the bikes seldom reach the $950 threshold for felony theft. Even if they happen to catch them before the bikes are dismantled and sold for parts.

This law gives police a tool to go after them, although it also offers a high potential for abuse.

Whether it actually ends up reducing bike theft, or just leads to harassment of people living on the streets remains to be seen.

………

Must be nice.

Qualified Contra Costa County residents can get rebates up to $500 on a new ebike.

………

The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.

The Colorado driver accused of intentionally running down a pair of bike riders remains at large, three days after fleeing the scene and abandoning his truck, leaving one woman with life-threatening injuries.

But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.

English police are looking for a hit-and-run bike rider who “rammed into” another man riding his bike, sending the victim over his handlebars.

………

Local

West Hollywood dockless e-scooter provider Wheels has sold itself to New York-based micromobility firm Helbiz for an undisclosed sum.

Construction work has begun on Pasadena’s Union Street Cycle Track Project, a 1.5 mile, two-way curb-protected bike lane on Union Street from Hill Ave to Arroyo Parkway.

The owners of Velo Pasadena hosted a fundraising ride last weekend, raising over $10,000 to support a pair of Armenian Paralympic cyclists competing in July’s European Youth Summer Olympic Festival in Slovakia.

Santa Clarita is looking for volunteers to help maintain tracks at the city’s Trek Bike Park.

LA Taco goes biking for street food in Long Beach.

 

State 

Calbike shares an open letter from a coalition of 20 bike advocacy organizations opposing AB 371, which could kill bikeshare and e-scooters in California by requiring providers to carry liability insurance for all their devices and users.

A pair of Idaho women were seriously injured riding rented ebikes on a Balboa Island nature trail, with neither one having any idea what happened; a crowdfunding page to help pay their medical bills has raised more than double the modest $2,000 goal.

 

National

No surprise here. American drivers crashed into buildings an average of 100 times per day, every day. Most of which seem to happen right here in the LA area.

Best Reviews considers the top options for indoor bike storage, while Cycling News rates the best bike trailers to bring your kids with you on your rides.

An editor for Bicycling rides his first gravel grinder, and leaves hungry for more. As usual, read it on Yahoo if the magazine blocks you.

Bike Snob’s Eben Weiss says Hollywood once again got bicycling wrong, in its first foray into celluloid gravel biking.

That’s more like it. A new camper van from a Portland company comes complete with its own bicycle repair shop and room for six bicycles.

Low-end ebike prices continue to fall, with Washington-based bikemaker Gen3 discounting their existing stock to $899.

A Chicago alderman wants to add signage and step up towing of drivers stopped in bike lanes. Or just let bike riders submit photos of drivers blocking bike lanes, and mail out fines. Big fines.

This is why people continue to die on our streets. The taxi that crashed into a bike rider before careening into a group of pedestrians on a New York sidewalk, sending six people to the hospital, had 18 moving violations in just the last 18 months, although it’s unknown if the same driver was behind the wheel for all of them.

Once again, authorities are struggling to identify a fallen bicyclist, this time in Harrisburg PA, where a woman was killed when she was cut off by a driver making a U-turn, while riding without identification. Seriously, never ride without some form of ID, even if that means writing your effing name and contact info on your ass with a Sharpie.

Once again, Florida is the deadliest state for bicyclists in the US, topping California despite having roughly half the population.

 

International

Unbelievable. Canadian mounties blame the victim in a right hook collision, ruling that a bike rider’s speed was the cause of a crash with a water truck, not the fact that the truck driver turned across the multi-use path he was riding on.

Toronto police are cracking down on bike riders ignoring the speed limit in a city park, although they’re just issuing warnings for now.

Brussels bikeshare service Billy Bikes has gone belly up, blaming the pandemic for a slowdown that forced it into receivership. Which means you, too, could be the proud owner of a turnkey European bikeshare system.

Your next German ebike could be made entirely from recyclable plastic, right down to the one-piece wheels.

 

Competitive Cycling

Cycling Weekly looks forward to this week’s US road cycling nationals in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Dutch national road champ Amy Pieters continues her painfully slow recovery from a near-fatal traumatic brain injury while training with the Dutch national team just before Christmas; Pieters can now communicate nonverbally, but is still unable to move her right arm and leg.

Irish cyclist Stephen Clancy is out to show he can still compete, riding for the all-diabetic Team Novo Nordisk ten years after being diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes.

A new documentary is in the works about 1890s Black cycling legend Major Taylor, assuming the director can raise $1 million to fund the film; so far, he’s just $989,440 short.

 

Finally…

Your new Colnago could match your shoes, if you happen to wear Tod’s and have an extra 18 grand lying around. And that feeling when you pat yourself on the back for blocking an annual bike ride.

………

Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

Category: Morning Links / Tags: ,

Update: Ebike rider killed in collision in San Diego’s Barrio Logan neighborhood, police quick to blame the victim

June 21, 2022 / / 9 comments

The bad news just keeps on coming.

The San Diego Union-Tribune is reporting that a 63-year old man riding a “battery-assisted bicycle” has been killed in a collision in San Diego’s Barrio Logan neighborhood.

Evidently, they’ve never heard of an ebike.

According to police, the victim, who has not been publicly identified, was riding west on Harbor Drive near Beardsley Street around 9:30 this morning when he swerved to go around a box truck.

He reportedly struck the right front fender of a Dodge Charger traveling in the left lane, and was thrown across the car’s hood.

He died at the scene.

Police say there’s no evidence of intoxication, even though there’s not a single mention of a driver, as if the Charger was driving itself.

There’s also no word on how fast the driver was going; it seems unlikely that simply crashing into the side of the car would throw the victim over the hood.

There’s also no word on whether the truck was parked in the bike lane on Harbor or traveling in the right lane. And no explanation where the victim was riding prior to the crash.

This is at least the 45th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the fourth that I’m aware of in San Diego County.

He is also the seventh bike rider to die on SoCal streets just this month.

Update: Raw video from the scene shows the car, with a shattered windshield, but no visible damage on the right front side where police say the victim’s bike struck the car. 

I’m not embedding the video because it shows the victim’s body in the roadway covered by a tarp, as well as his broken bicycle. So be sure you really want to see that before you click the link. 

Thanks to T for the link. 

My deepest sympathy and prayers for the victim and his loved ones. 

Category: Injuries and Fatalities / Tags: , , , ,
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