Late this morning, AIDS/Lifecycle confirmed rumors that one of the participants in the 545-mile San Francisco to Los Angeles ride died after an apparent fall at the conclusion of the ride.
According to the group, Glen Brown, an experienced bicyclist and a first-time participant in the fundraising ride, was killed in a single-bike crash.
According to Streets For All’s Michael Schneider, it happened on the 800 block of North Ogden, in LA’s Fairfax District, which likely means Brown was riding home after finishing the ride.
There’s no word yet on what may have caused him to fall, or what injuries he may have suffered.
This is the second death associated with the ride in Los Angeles in less than 60 days. Five-time ride participant Andrew Jelmert was killed by an alleged speeding, DUI driver on Crystal Springs Drive in Griffith Park at the conclusion of an April AIDS/Lifecycle training ride.
The AIDS/Lifecycle ride is a fundraiser for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and Los Angeles LGBT Center, who appear to be blameless in both of these tragedies.
It raised over $17 million for the two groups this year.
This is at least the 41st bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the 15th that I’m aware of in Los Angeles County. It’s also the eighth in the City of Los Angeles.
And a sad reminder that things like this can happen to even the most experienced riders, and the best among us.
Correction: I originally wrote that the ride was 450 miles, rather than the actual distance of 545 miles.
Update: I’ve learned that Glen Brown wasn’t riding home after the end of the AIDS/Lifecycle ride, after all.
According to an email from Bryan J. Blumberg, the last few blocks of the final day’s route took riders east on Santa Monica Blvd, then turned right on Ogden Drive for 4 blocks before entering Fairfax High School, where the ride ended.
Tragically, after 545 miles, Brown died just a block and a half from the finish.
Blumberg also forwarded an email from AIDS/LifeCycle Ride Director Tracy Evans, who reports that Brown, who came out from Chicago for the ride, was rushed to Cedars Sinai, where he died of his injuries.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for Glen Brown and his loved ones.
Thanks to Zoe Kurland and Bryan J. Blumberg for the heads-up.
June 10, 2022 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on California ebike rebate program remains in limbo, riding bikes to fight high gas prices, and CicLAvia returns next month
Good question.
Streetsblogasks what’s going on with California’s ebike incentive programs, as few regional air quality districts have added ebikes to their clean vehicle incentive programs, and the ebike rebate program that was supposed to start this summer remains on hold.
Join us at CicLAvia–South LA on Sunday, July 10!! And join our email list for more details: https://t.co/y2j115TIdd We are planning *more* routes before the end of 2022: ▶️ August 21: CicLAvia–Meet the Hollywoods ▶️ October 9: CicLAvia–Heart of LA ▶️ December 4: CicLAvia–South LA pic.twitter.com/vlZ4JhmhnD
#Recall: Brompton Bicycle Foldable Electric Bicycles. The wheel can lock up leading to sudden deceleration of the bike if an object gets caught between the mudguard and front tire; crash and injury hazards to the rider. Get free repair. Full notice: https://t.co/404gkDTw2mpic.twitter.com/1e4U7zXifC
— US Consumer Product Safety Commission (@USCPSC) June 9, 2022
Thanks to Ted Faber for the heads-up.
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Who needs helmets when the peloton has such stylish hats?
"In 1896, Louis Lumière made the world's first video of a bicycle race. (Lyon-Geneva, 1896)" https://t.co/Mc1Ex8JaLZ
London’s Low Traffic Neighborhoods, the equivalent of American Slow Streets, were an unqualified, if not always popular, success, increasing bike use from 31% to 171% while decreasing car traffic as much as 76% — without increasing traffic on nearby streets.
June 9, 2022 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on LA considers Complete Streets makeover of Valley Blvd, US House hearing on traffic deaths, and Ballona Creek path closed
Proposals for the four-mile stretch of Valley Blvd include bus lanes and a possible sidewalk level, two-way cycle track, while sinking railroad tracks to reduce crossings and improve safety.
But don’t hold your breath.
Actual construction is at least five to ten years off. And what gets built will depend on a series of public meetings, which gives the usual NIMBYs a chance to derail everything.
Photo courtesy of the City of Los Angeles, via The Eastsider.
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bike just keeps on going.
An Idaho man faces up to 15 years behind bars after accepting a plea bargain for driving through a public park trying to run down a boy riding a bicycle; fortunately, the kid was able to jump off before the man ran over his bike.
Police in the UK are looking for the passenger of a pickup who shouted out the window and squirted an “unknown liquid” in the face of pair of bicyclists as the truck passed them. Far from a harmless prank, something like that can startle the victim and cause a dangerous fail — regardless of whether the substance itself was actually harmful.
Zebra sightings continue in Santa Barbara, including one that chased a bike rider on Sunday; locals suggest it could be a free-roaming domesticated animal who has gone on several previous walkabouts.
Dallas is the latest major city to adopt a Vision Zero program, agreeing to halt traffic deaths by 2030. Let’s hope they show more commitment than Los Angeles and other cities have, where it’s failing for lack of effort and investment.
That’s more like it. DC is considering a plan to charge owners of large trucks and SUVs more to register their vehicles in an attempt to improve safety for bike riders and pedestrians, with an extra $175 for vehicles weighing between 3,500 and 6,000 pounds, and $500 for anything over that.
A 42-year old Dutch woman has been charged with attempted manslaughter for grabbing the arm of the country’s former legal protection minister as he rode his bike at a high rate of speed, causing him to fall heavily and break several ribs, as well as his pelvis and collarbone.
The proposed ballot measure would require the city to build out the already approved mobility plan whenever a street gets resurfaced, noting that only 3% of the plan has currently been built out.
Earlier this year, transportation and environmental activists frustrated by the slow pace of progress decided to take the matter into their own hands. The groups began collecting signatures for the Healthy Streets LAballot measure that would require the city to add the promised bus, bike and pedestrian improvements whenever streets are repaved. They expect to have enough signatures to qualify the measure for the 2024 ballot.
But Angelenos may not have to wait that long. City Council President Nury Martinez recently called for an ordinance that would do the same thing as the Healthy Streets LA measure. Martinez said with traffic deaths increasing, Angelenos shouldn’t have to wait. Her motion, backed by four council colleagues, would direct the city attorney to write an ordinance based on the ballot measure that would require that city departments add mobility plan improvements when streets are resurfaced.
Martinez’ motion goes further than the ballot initiative by establishing a unified project coordinator to ensure infrastructure projects incorporate crosswalks, bus shelters, streetlights, stormwater infrastructure, sidewalk repairs and street trees, as well as elements contained in the mobility plan.
But just as important is ensuring that the work gets funded, including hiring sufficient staff at LADOT to carry it out.
And, the paper warns, it could still come undone, depending on what approach the city takes.
Yes, it’s frustrating that residents had to organize a ballot measure campaign to prod city leaders to carry out their own mobility plan. And it’s not a done deal yet. The City Council has a choice — it can adopt its own ordinance, which could be watered down or undone by future city councils. Or, under the city’s initiative law, it could adopt the language of the Healthy Streets LA measure when it qualifies, most likely this summer, rather than send it to the ballot. That would mean any future amendments would have to go to voters.
Let’s hope they take the latter direction, which would achieve all the goals of the ballot measure without the expense and inherent risk that comes with taking it to the voters.
And let’s all keep on top of it to make sure the council follows through without watering it down.
Because we’ve already seen the city won’t keep their commitment to safer streets unless we make them.
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LA’s guerilla Crosswalk Collective has struck again, this time in my own neighborhood.
The city doesn't keep us safe, so we keep us safe.
Twenty-seven-year old Juaquin Mercer Moraga allegedly rammed his car into several vehicles, assaulted a driver and deliberately tried to run over a bike rider.
Thankfully, he missed.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bike just keeps on going.
Bicycling deaths in Washington State have remained steady over the past three years, even while bicycle crashes dropped 30%. But an insurance spokesperson said the repeal of Seattle’s bike helmet law was one factor contributing to the deaths — even though it wasn’t repealed until this year, and only applied to the county surrounding Seattle.
This is why people keep dying on the streets. A Welsh driver got a lousy 12 weeks behind bars, and lost his license for a year, for the hit-and-run crash that left a. bike-riding man fighting for his life.
Forty-year old Capistrano Beach resident Joshua Gene Cervantes was riding north on Avenida La Pata near Avenida Pico when he was run down by an unidentified driver around 1:25 am.
The driver fled after the crash, abandoning his car a short distance away.
There’s no word on how the collision occurred, or whether Cervantes was struck while riding in the bike lane on Avenida La Pata, or while crossing the intersection.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, aka NHTSA, asked if Americans would accept GPS-based speed limiters that would prevent drivers of new cars from exceeding the speed limit, except in an emergency.
A modern take on mechanical speed governors, the electronic system, which is taking effect in the European Union this year, would slowly reduce deaths and injuries due to speeding as older cars are phased out.
It would also eliminate a leading cause of police traffic stops, reducing racial profiling while improving safety for both police and the vehicle occupants, especially people of color.
Although it’s questionable how well it would be received here in the US, where too many drivers consider speeding their God-given right. And it would drive an inevitable black market industry to disable them.
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bike just keeps on going.
No bias here. A writer for City Watchblames road diets for the failure of Vision Zero in Los Angeles, as well as increasing traffic congestion and rising road rage, and all the other ills on our streets. Maybe someone should remind her that most road diets planned for Los Angeles never happened, after cowardly councilmembers cancelled them.
June 6, 2022 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on 41-year old man riding bike killed by Colton hit-and-run driver; 13th SoCal bike rider killed by hit-and-run drivers this year
Once again, someone on a bicycle has been murdered by a hit-and-run driver.
Beverly Hills came tantalizingly close to installing the LA-area’s first advisory lanes, which narrow a roadway to a single two-way center lane and two bike lanes, requiring drivers to move into the bike lanes to get around an oncoming car.
Instead, they settled for sharrows that just sort of hint at a bike lane on both sides of Clifton Way between San Vicente and Robertson, requiring drivers to move to the center to get around bike riders.
Or more likely, impatiently following people on bicycles until they finally find a break in oncoming traffic, before angrily swerving around them.
Because, as we’ve noted before, sharrows only serve to thin the herd, with the arrows there to help drivers improve their aim.
The San Diego Bicycle Coalition is hosting its third bike summit this Thursday and Friday.
This is how SANDAG Associate Active Transportation Planner Josh Clark described it in an email.
In its third incarnation, the Regional Bike Summit has been a wonderful summary of practice and ideas that’s worth your attendance. The full lineup of speakers, panels and fun at the San Diego Regional Bike Summit is hosted by the Bike Coalition. This year’s theme: Pedaling Past the Pandemic will highlight the recent “Boom” that has occurred during the pandemic and how we can maintain it. Highlights of the Summit include speakers and sessions on Mobility Justice, E-bikes, Housing and Active Transportation, MIcro-Mobility and Mobility Hubs, Connecting Communities and much more. We will also hear from our regional elected leaders on the state of mobility and bicycling improvements being made in our communities. Registration includes the opening reception, lunch on Friday and rides on Saturday.
Lime is also offering two free half hour rides Tuesday on any of their scooters or bikes to get you to and from the polls, use promo code LIMETOPOLLSCALI.
Sixty-one-year old Gregory Bachman was killed by the driver of a massive Chevy Silverado pickup while crossing a rural intersection. Local authorities said he somehow crashed into the truck, but didn’t explain how or why.
The gravel intersection doesn’t appear to be controlled by any signs or signals, leaving it up to each person to negotiate a safe crossing. It’s likely the driver wasn’t expecting to find anyone on a bicycle on a gravel country road like that.
UC Davis police defend themselves over accusations that the cop on the scene after a bike rider was struck by the driver of a garbage truck did nothing to aid the victim before paramedics arrived. I’m also told a witness accused the cop of driving over the victim’s foot.
Researchers at MIT have developed a self-driving bicycle, which they say could make docked bikeshare systems three and a half times more efficient, and dockless bikeshares eight times more efficient; the bike automatically turns into a tricycle to improve stability in riderless mode, then converts back when it’s being ridden.
Heartbreaking news from Indianapolis, where one of the last things a bike-riding hit-and-run victim did before she died was to give police the license number of the car that hit her, which led to the arrest of the 27-year old driver.
Around a hundred Boston bike riders turned out to honor late 19th Century Black bicyclist Kittie Knox, who defied racial and gender barriers and joined the League of American Wheelmen — forerunner to the League of American Bicyclists — just one year before they banned Black members in 1894; sadly, she was just 26 when she died just six years later.
A Melbourne, Australia writer laments the city’s decision to stop building bike lanes, after getting complaints from out-of-town, pass-through drivers. Which should sound familiar to anyone who has been biking in LA for awhile.
June 3, 2022 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Plea deal in death of 15-year old Javier Gonzalez, grieving families fight for safer streets, and housing for people not cars
Happy World Bicycle Day!
Now get out there and ride one.
And contact your elected leaders to demand safer streets when you get back.
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It looks like there will be justice for Javier Gonzalez, after all.
If you consider over six years justice for fleeing the scene after killing a teenage boy.
Sentencing is scheduled for June 13th. Prosecutors are recommending a sentence of six years and eight months, significantly above the standard penalty of four years for a fatal hit-and-run in California.
And yet, it seems like it’s still not enough.
Caldera has a lengthy criminal record, with prior convictions for car theft, possessing a forged driver’s license, vandalism, and being felon in possession of a firearm; he was out on probation at the time of Gonzalez’ death.
Today’s must read is a hard-hitting, inspiring and heartbreaking piece from the New Yorker, about families of fallen pedestrians and bike riders who banded together to fight for safer streets — leading to the country’s first Vision Zero in New York, and traffic safety wins at city hall and the state capital.
By century’s end, cars had grown progressively larger, better insulated from the feedback of the surrounding environment, and safer for the people inside them. Those on the outside were less lucky. The U.S. automotive lobby resisted regulations enacted in Europe that made cars and trucks less lethal, and, by 2018, the number of pedestrian and cyclist deaths per kilometre in the United States was more than four times higher than in the U.K., Germany, the Netherlands, and Denmark. Among the most vulnerable are older adults, who in 2020 made up twenty per cent of killed pedestrians, and people who live in low-income neighborhoods where there has been little investment in safe road design.
Between 2010 and 2019, as the number of U.S. drivers or passengers who died in collisions held fairly steady, deaths of those on bikes rose thirty-six per cent, and deaths of those on foot nearly doubled.
It’s a long piece. But more that worth the time you’ll invest in reading it.
Farhad Manjoo calls for the passage of AB 2097, which would prohibit minimum parking requirements near public transit, or at least SB 1067, which gives developers more leeway to get around parking minimums.
For early risers, the LACBC will host a Twitter Space to discuss women, children and bicycling starting at 6:00 this morning.
Yes, 6 am.
So chances are, you may have already missed it.
For those not familiar with Twitter Spaces, think of it as a live podcast. Set a reminder and listen here, and please feel free to share this link with your partners and networks on Twitter https://t.co/ZcgBIAYCea
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bike just keeps on going.
No bias here. Call it friendly fire, as a self-professed non-leg-shaving cyclist says everyone hates bike riders, so we should ride cringingly at the edge of the road to keep from annoying drivers more than they already are. Even in the English countryside where he says hedges block drivers’ views, making it far safer to take the lane, regardless of who you piss off.
Horrible news from the UK, where a woman riding a bicycle was left with a life-changing injury when a man sicced one of his large dogs on her, forcing it to bite her upper leg and clamp down for several minutes until she managed to break free, after accusing her of nearly running into his kid on a bike path. Let’s hope he goes away for a long time. And those dogs — and his kid — get a new home with someone who isn’t so cruel.
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Local
A writer for City Watchpushes back on the recently approved plans for a bus rapid transit line on Colorado Blvd through Eagle Rock, calling the reallocation of traffic lanes undemocratic because it doesn’t give all the road space to people in cars. Even though it seems far more democratic to reserve space for pedestrians, bike riders and yes, transit users, too.
Très scandaleux! A San Diego TV station claims to have caught the 30th Street bike counter double counting some bike riders, not counting others, and even counting an armored truck illegally parked in the lane, which some local business owners claim proves the new bike lane is underused.
Berkeley residents are fighting for a carfree future on Telegraph Ave north of the UC Berkeley campus; as usual, business owners along the street are fighting back, unable to imagine any customers walking or biking to get there. If customers won’t walk or bike a few blocks to do business with you, there’s something seriously wrong with the way you do business.
Housing inspectors in Minneapolis are saying goodbye to their SUVs and using Rad Power ebikes to conduct their inspections instead; the city purchased five of the ebikes for a total of $12,000, and have already put 1,200 miles on them. Which is a hell of a lot less than they would have paid for five motor vehicles.
One casualty of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was New York’s ultrafast bicycle delivery startup Buyk, which was forced to declare bankruptcy and layoff all of its American employees when US sanctions cut off access to its Russian co-founders and parent company, as well as financing from Russian banks.
Life is cheap in Florida, where a Vero Beach driver walked with a lousy $148 fine for swerving into a bike lane and killing a 63-year old man riding a bike, despite his long record of traffic violations and refusal to take a blood test.
A new study from a Sydney, Australia hospital shows injuries to delivery bicyclists are dramatically underreported, with delivery riders 13 times more likely than other bicyclists to be injured between the hours of 8 pm and midnight.
June 2, 2022 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Longtime Chez Panisse wine director killed while riding bike, and Fresno driver deliberately runs down four bike riders
Jonathan Waters was struck by a minivan driver Friday night, as he was riding home from the restaurant where he’d worked for 32 years. He died in an Oakland hospital the next day.
An authority on local wines, Waters was credited with raising the reputation of several small California wineries.
As of yesterday, PCH will be narrowed to one lane in each direction for construction work to replace the 96-year old Trancas Creek Bridge; the new bridge will have bike lanes, pedestrian lanes and 10-foot shoulders, as well as a six-food median. Unfortunately, it will also have capacious 12-foot traffic lanes to encourage speeding.
Bike thefts continue to fall in England and Wales, dropping for the fifth straight year despite a jump in ridership; an insurance company credits less commuting due to the pandemic for the most recent drop.
A New Zealand woman faces a charge of careless driving causing death for dooring a 19-year old man riding a bicycle, who was knocked in front of another driver and killed. Proof that it’s possible to charge a driver for dooring, even where it’s not explicitly prohibited.
