January 13, 2023 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on 38-year Maria Estrada killed riding a bike in unincorporated Nuevo Thursday night, first SoCal bike death this year
It took less than two weeks for the year’s first person to lose their life riding a bicycle on the mean streets of Southern California.
Although how or why seems to be unclear at this time.
Thirty-eight-year old Perris resident Maria Estrada was riding with another person when she was apparently run down by a motorist around 7 pm last night.
Luis Varela was just crossing street at Wilshire Boulevard and Park View Street around 7 pm on Nov. 11th when he was run down by the driver of a dark-colored SUV.
As usual, there is a $25,000 reward for any hit-and-run resulting in serious injury. That will rise to $50,000 if he dies of his injuries.
Meanwhile, a crowdfunding campaign started by Varela’s brother has raised just $1,325 of the $100,000 goal to help pay his medical expenses, and bring his mother in from out of the country to care for him.
The driver who left him there to die should be responsible for that.
And should get locked up for a lot longer than California’s lenient hit-and-run laws will allow.
But won’t be.
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There are now seven people officially qualified to run in the special election to replace former City Council President Nury Martinez, who resigned following the public leak of the racist and otherwise offensive recording she was heard on, along with two other councilmembers.
Which serves as a reminder that the lone remaining councilmember heard on the recording, CD14’s Kevin de León, still won’t do the right thing and resign.
This is the cost of traffic violence, too. After a Georgia bike rider was struck by a driver, a group of bystanders gathered around him to pray. Then just when he started to breathe again, another driver plowed into the group, sending six people to the hospital, with one in critical condition. And we can probably guess who that one is.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
A 75-year old London letter writer complains about “rogue” bicyclists who refuse to use bike lanes when there is a more convenient, but less legal, option available, writing “If people keep on demanding cycle lanes, then why do they not use the damn things?” Because it’s human nature to use a short cut when you find one.
The LA Times agrees with California Governor Gavin Newsom’s plan to reduce spending to close a projected $22.5 billion budget deficit, but argues the state will need to make up for the $6 billion cut in climate change funding, including investments in public transit, bike and pedestrian projects.
Shades of Nipper. Your next throttle-controlled, dirt bike-style ebike could be distracted by listening to its master’s voice, as RCA makes a leap into electric bikes. Let’s hope its better than their electronics have been in recent decades.
Salt Lake City announced plans to join the national Vision Zero Network in the face of rising traffic deaths and injuries. Let’s hope they actually fund and implement the program, unlike a certain SoCal megalopolis we could name.
Police in Durango, Colorado have charged a pair of football players from the local college as co-defendants in an alleged drunken hit-and-run that took the life of a firefighter; the two are accused of helping a third man flee the scene, leaving his car behind with the victim still lodged in the car’s windshield, and his bike stuck underneath.
No surprise here, unfortunately, as a Dutch study has shown a high prevalence of low bone density in the pro cycling peloton. If bicycling is your primary form of exercise, you should think about adding weight training and/or high impact exercises.
It looks like we finally have a winner for all those Tour de France titles Lance unwillingly vacated.
Breaking News: George Santos has declared himself winner of the Tour de France from 1999-2005. The previous self-declared TdF winner of those editions is now threatening to run for Santos’ seat in 2024. Updates soon. pic.twitter.com/Qoyy9xd5HN
The highway has been closed for the past 45 years following “massive mud and rock slides caused by heavy rains and floods.”
Greenspon writes that the closed roadway has long been a popular bucket list ride for many area bicyclists, and part of the more than 90-mile “Circle of Doom” loop.
The choices presented by Caltrans include a no build option, as well as options for emergency vehicles only, or active transportation use. Other choices include a full reopening, building a separate viaduct, or a single travel lane through the currently closed section.
Depending on the final decision, the rebuild could cost anywhere from $175-$325 million.
The question is why the road should be reopened at all, since the past nearly five decades have shown it isn’t really needed.
Do the absolute minimum to make it safer for hiking and biking, and leave it the hell alone.
I’m not sure where I found today’s generic mountain biking photo, but here it is anyway.
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Here’s your chance to make a real difference for active transportation in the San Gabriel Valley, with one of SoCal’s most effective advocacy groups.
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
Good question. The Guardian’s Peter Walker wonders why plans to reduce traffic attract so many conspiracy theorists, as a project in Oxford, England is attacked as a global plot to strip people of their fundamental rights and personal possessions in the name of the environment.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
No bias here. A bike-riding Karen goes ballistic, apparently because a man was walking his dog in a bike lane. Then a New York councilmember displays her own ugly prejudice by painting all bike riders with the same brush. Thanks to Ravener for the heads-up.
This is a bike lane activist. This is what they do.
Screaming at a pedestrian because his dog was maybe in a bike lane. Harassing him and stalking him and not allowing him to pass.
With every new bike lane and open street, we empower these lunatics.
Bad news from Modesto, where a man riding a BMX bike was killed in a head-on collision, after allegedly riding onto the wrong side of the road to pass a slow moving semi. The CHP naturally saw that as an opportunity to remind bike riders to wear a helmet, as if a thin plastic beanie could protect someone from a head-on crash with a motor vehicle. And yes, I believe in using a bike helmet, but they were designed to protect against slow speed falls, not crashes with cars.
This is what’s possible, Los Angeles. The company that operates the arena that’s home to Portland’s NBA team and dozens of other events is opposing a new offramp that could make a dangerous nearby intersection even worse, especially since half of their guests arrive by bicycle or on foot. There’s no reason The Crypt or the Coliseum couldn’t do the same with better infrastructure.
CityLabexamines the world’s most congested cities, where motor vehicle traffic grinds to a halt on a regular basis. Surprisingly, Los Angeles doesn’t even make the top ten, though Chicago, New York, Philly and Boston do. Neither does Mexico City, which consistently makes, if not tops, other similar lists.
The New York Times says sales of electric vehicles are booming around the world. But you have to get down to the last paragraph before learning that Americans bought twice as many ebikes as e-cars in 2020 — and there are ten times as many electric scooters, mopeds and motorcycles on the world’s roads than there are electric cars.
Speaking of Prince Harry and his “todger,” Britain’s naked cross-country bicyclist says there’s no better place to lose your virginity than an open field, as the young prince says he did.
What they have to say is important enough that I am including the entire press release verbatim.
Because too damn many people are dying on the mean streets of Los Angeles. And not enough is being done to change that.
2022 Traffic Fatalities are at a Record High
A Report on Why and What Needs to Change to Start Saving Lives
Streets Are For Everyone, a Southern California-based road safety advocacy group has released a report called “Dying on the Streets of Los Angeles” about traffic fatalities in LA for 2022. The number of people killed in traffic violence on the streets of Los Angeles has seen record highs.
The report breaks down the numbers, who’s been most impacted, and what’s behind the numbers. More importantly, the report lays out 4 action items that Mayor Bass and the LA City Council need to take to start turning these numbers around.
Highlights of “Dying on the Streets of Los Angeles”
(The full report, including links to source data, can be found on the Streets Are For Everyone website by clicking here.)
There were 309 traffic fatalities in 2022, breaking the 300 mark for the first time in over 20 years, which is how far back we have records. This was an increase of five percent from the previous year and a staggering 28% increase over 2020.
Source: City of Los Angeles Open Data Portal. Taken from LAPD records. 2022 figures are preliminary and subject to change as data is reviewed and finalized.
This is a tragedy made worse by the fact that vulnerable road users – pedestrians and cyclists – are impacted the most by traffic violence in Los Angeles. Pedestrian fatalities were up by 19% (157 lives lost, also the highest in 20 years). Bicycle fatalities also increased by 24% (21 lives lost).
LA’s Unhoused are Killed FAR More by Traffic Violence
On average (2018-2022), housed pedestrians and cyclists in Los Angeles are killed at a rate of 2.9 per capita (100,000 individuals), a significantly higher rate than the national average of 2.2 per capita. However, on average (2018-2022), 116.6 unhoused individuals per capita are killed by traffic violence every year. That is 40.2X more than housed pedestrians and cyclists in Los Angeles and 53X the national average.
What is Behind the Numbers? SPEED!
We wanted to see what was behind these fatalities — what were the primary collision factors (PCF), as they are called by law enforcement. The resounding answer is speed. Speeding is the primary collision factor in 34.8% of the collisions in LA, resulting in some degree of injury or fatalities. Speed has been the largest PCF every year since 2010 but has worsened significantly since 2020.
The Vision Zero strategy was initiated in 2015 by the then mayor, Eric Garcetti, to protect the most vulnerable road users and reduce traffic fatalities to zero by 2025. It launched with an impressive roll-out of grand plans, but, by statistics, it has largely been a failure, suffering from a lack of political will, lack of funding, and now, severe staff shortages.
In the 2022-2023 LA City fiscal budget, $50.6 million was allocated to LA DOT for Vision Zero related projects. This is a drop in the bucket compared to what cities that are serious about saving lives spend. For example, the City of New York, with fewer miles of streets – 6300 miles in New York City compared to 6614 miles in LA City – spent over $270 million on its Vision Zero program in the 2019 fiscal year alone. It also had fewer traffic fatalities than Los Angeles in 2021 (273 in NY compared to 294 in LA) with twice the number of people living there.
To make things worse in LA, due to a severe staffing shortage at LA DOT — per a May 2022 LAist Article, 50% of the Vision Zero and Active Transportation positions remain unfilled — approximately 15 million dollars for traffic signal upgrades was left unspent in 2021. That money rolled over to the 2022 budget. Many of those positions are still yet to be filled due to an understaffed and overloaded City of LA Personnel Department.
What Needs to be Done
If Mayor Bass and our City Councilmembers, many of them newly elected, are serious about actually saving lives on the streets of Los Angeles, they are going to have to make some drastic changes related to Vision Zero, not just for one year but for many years. SAFE’s 4 recommendations are:
Cut the Bureaucracy.
Reestablish Vision Zero with Accountability, Transparency, and PURPOSE.
Prioritize Lives over the Right to Speed.
Get Real About the Magnitude of the Problem.
The details of these 4 action items are contained in the full report. As broad strokes, all of these recommendations are vital. We — at SAFE, the citizens of Los Angeles, and the media — will know how much our elected officials actually care about the importance of saving lives in Los Angeles by how much these recommendations are embraced.
Dying-In LA, a Protest for Safe Streets
On the morning of Saturday, 21 January 2023, (weather permitting) SAFE along with many other concerned non-profits and community groups will be holding a die-in protest/press conference on the steps of City Hall to follow up and voice our demands for effective action to save lives on the streets of Los Angles.
Participating organizations will include Bike LA, So Cal Families for Safe Streets, Streets for All, Move LA, Street Racing Kills, Faith for SAFEr Streets, Walk n Rollers, Conor Lynch Foundation, SBBC+, and others.
Three-quarters of that amount is paid by people who aren’t directly involved in the crashes, through higher insurance premiums, taxes, lost time from road congestion, excess fuel consumption and environmental impacts.
Which means that you pay the cost of traffic violence, even if you don’t own a car.
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Streetsblog’s Joe Linton took a deep dive into Metro’s plan to “improve” the SR-57/SR-60 interchange, offering six detailed reasons why the Metro Board should drive a stake through the damn thing’s heart — including that the minimal bike infrastructure they recently added doesn’t meet, let alone improve on, the bicycling component of Diamond Bar’s general plan.
It’s long past time to stop flushing our tax money down the toilet with climate-damaging, congestion-inducing highway projects.
Let alone projects that increase freeway speed, resulting in even more traffic violence and deaths.
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That feeling when your new ebike arrives looking like it fell off the truck.
But surprisingly turns out okay, anyway.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
Of all the many practical uses for a bicycle, throwing one at a moving train usually isn’t considered one of them. Police in Colorado are looking for a man who tossed his bike at a moving train, causing $6,000 in damage.
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Local
The NRDC calls plans to build bus lanes and extend the protected bike lanes on Venice Blvd, among other transportation improvements, a win for transportation and the climate.
This is who we share the road with. Or maybe what, as video captures a Tesla in Full Self Driving mode suddenly swerve into the left lane and brake to a stop in front of oncoming traffic on the San Francisco Bay Bridge, causing a massive chain reaction crash. But somehow, we’re supposed to believe these cars are safe enough to ride a bike next to. Then again, they’re probably no worse than many of the human drivers we share the road with.
In a story that could just as well come from Los Angeles — or virtually any other American city — a Northwest website says dangerous drivers make commuting difficult for Seattle bicyclists, in part due to drivers parking in unprotected bike lanes. Although here in LA, they park in the protected ones, too.
More proof just how worthless sharrows are, as a New York woman riding a bikeshare ebike was killed when she was rear-ended by a truck driver, after the protected bike lane she was riding in suddenly ended and became sharrows, forcing her into the traffic lane in front of the driver who killed her.
Two women from Belgium testified in the terrorism trial of 34-year old Sayfullo Saipov, who is accused of killing eight people in a murderous rampage driving a rented pickup down a Manhattan bike path; one of the women lost her sister in the attack, while the other lost both legs.
According to the paper, traffic fatalities were down 0.2 percent compared to the same period last year, a welcome if modest drop after record increases during the pandemic.
Statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, aka NHTSA, showed nearly 31,800 people were killed in crashes from January through September. That follows increases of 7 percent in 2020 and 10.5 percent in 2021.
However, the news isn’t as good for bike riders and pedestrians. Deaths continued to climb two percent for pedestrians and eight percent for people on bicycles in the first six months of 2022; nine month figures aren’t currently available.
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Hats off to Nebraska, which was named the nation’s safest state for people on bicycles, where just 15 people died in bicycle-related crashes over the past decade, even as the Bike League ranks it the second-least bike friendly state.
Neighboring South Dakota came in second in the NHTSA’s bike safety ranking, while placing fifth from the bottom in the Bike League’s assessment.
Not surprisingly, Florida and Louisiana ranked first and second from the bottom as the nation’s most dangerous states for bike riders.
California was apparently somewhere in the middle, since it doesn’t show up in the top ten states, or the bottom five.
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Work is proceeding on the long-promised curb protected bike lane on 7th Street between Figueroa and San Pedro streets in DTLA, which was one of the conditions for approving construction of the 62-story Wilshire Grand Center.
Great new curb-protected bikeway under construction on 7th Street in #DTLA (plus photos of work on Myers/Mission roundabout in #BoyleHeights ) https://t.co/Q4hHFT5CBN
This is what Los Angeles bike riders have to look forward to. An Austin, Texas bike rider recorded a self-driving General Motors’ Cruise robotaxi veering dangerously into a bike lane; fortunately, no one was riding in the bike lane at the time. Waymo is testing its autonomous vehicles in LA in anticipation of rolling out its robotaxi service; no word on whether they’re programed to respond to an extended middle finger.
Forty-seven-year old Cat 3 cyclist Noslen Ruiz-Gutierrez received a four-year doping ban(scroll down) after a urine test revealed six — count ’em, 6 — banned substances; Ruiz-Gutierrez argued that his doping didn’t matter because he races for recreation, not competition. Sure, try telling that to the other racers he’s not competing against.
Milavetz pled guilty to to gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated after prosecutors dropped the initial murder charge; he’s expected to be sentenced to 13 years behind bars.
Shinn was riding her bike through the park on her way to work as director of facilities planning at San Diego State University when she was run down from behind by Milavetz, who was allegedly high at the time of the crash.
Witnesses reported seeing him run across the streets and dump a bag containing baggies of meth after the crash; police found still more meth, fentanyl and hypodermic needles in his car.
While there’s no mention of a Milavetz having a previous DUI conviction, the original murder count suggests that he may have signed a Watson notice, indicating he was aware he could be charged with murder if he killed someone while driving under the influence in the future.
The authors considered the impact on public health if Los Angeles residents commuted 2.5 miles by bike each day for five years instead of driving.
The result was a 12.4% net reduction in mortality risk, and 600 fewer deaths over the five year period.
However, areas with more Black and Hispanic residents and a lower socioeconomic status showed a significantly lower benefit, suggesting a need for mitigation strategies in marginalized communities.
According to the study, 71% of the fracture patients were white males between 10 and 15 years old. Children who rode without a helmet were most likely to suffer an injury, with 87% of helmet-less riders suffering a skull fracture.
Although that last stat seems somewhat questionable. It seems more plausible that 87% of children who suffered a skull fracture weren’t wearing helmets.
And while that one million figure sounds alarming, it works out to an average of just 50,975 fractures a year across the entire US.
A 2014 study shows that one in three children will suffer a bone fracture before the age of 18. With approximately 73 million children under 18 in the US, that works out to an average of 1.35 million adolescent fractures a year.
Which makes 51,000 less than 4%. And a pretty insignificant figure.
The paper examines projects in Houston and Jersey City, while also using LA’s cancelled 710 widening project as a prime example.
Interstate 710 in Los Angeles is, like the city itself, famous for its traffic. Freight trucks traveling between the city and the port of Long Beach, along with commuters, clog the highway. The trucks idle in the congestion, contributing to poor air quality in surrounding neighborhoods that are home to over one million people.
The proposed solution was the same one transportation officials across the country have used since the 1960s: Widen the highway. But while adding lanes can ease congestion initially, it can also encourage people to drive more. A few years after a highway is widened, research shows, traffic — and the greenhouse gas emissions that come along with it — often returns…
The cancellation of the Route 710 expansion came after California learned the hard way about the principle of “induced demand…”
When a congested road is widened, travel times go down — at first. But then people change their behaviors. After hearing a highway is less busy, commuters might switch from transit to driving or change the route they take to work. Some may even choose to move farther away.
Yet Caltrans and Metro continue to flush tax money down the toilet by pushing for ever wider highways, and “just one more” high speed interchange which promises to fix everything.
But only serves to make traffic worse in the long run. Not to mention damaging the climate even more.
It’s long past time to stop wasting billions on highways, and start investing in alternatives to driving.
And yes, that includes making it safer and more convenient to choose riding a bike instead of getting behind the wheel.
Chances are you’ll live longer. And so will our planet.
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Now this is what I’d call a close pass.
Especially since passing vehicles usually look further away on camera than they feel in real life.
Hello @SanMateoPD wondering if you could reach out to the owner of this pickup and have a chat with them about Assembly Bill 1371 (3ft passing rule for cyclists). This happened on 84 Westbound just west of Skyline. Way too close. CA plate 07385C2 pic.twitter.com/wsm4dTm9dO
Once again, the NYPD is accused of blaming the victim after concluding that a 25-year old woman was killed when she hit a parked car and fell into the street in front of a semi. But the owner of the car says his mirror was already broken, and she never hit it, with witnesses blaming the truck driver, instead.
Road.cccomplains about the rising cost of bicycling, as high-end bikes continue to grow more expensive, and entry-level bikes suffer from feature creep. And no, the problem isn’t just due to the pandemic, inflation or supply chain issues.
Road.cc also reviews the new book Britain’s Best Bike Ride by John Walsh and Hannah Reynolds, about “the ultimate thousand-mile cycling adventure from Land’s End to John O’ Groats.”
Redditors continue to be entranced by South Korea’s solar panel-covered protected bike path running down the median of a major highway, although traffic noise and exhaust pollution continue to be problems. Thanks to Phillip Young for the heads-up.
January 6, 2023 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Study shows bike injuries down, CicLAvia comes to Sherman Way, and NYC safety advocate killed by uninsurable driver
Before we start, I need to correct yesterday’s story.
A comment from Dawn made it clear that I had miscategorized a story about her father’s August death in Irvine.
After correcting it and adding it back into the totals for OC, that made 17 people killed riding their bikes in the county last year, and 82 in Southern California.
Except the study period, which showed a 1/3 drop in bicycling injuries, ran from 2012 to 2021, while the jump in ridership they cited came from 2000 to 2014 — including a dozen years before the study period.
Never mind that the increase in ridership stemmed from “public bicycle utilization,” which sounds suspiciously like they may be referring to bikeshare use, which exploded because of the exponential growth of bikeshare programs as they spread across the US.
Not necessarily because more people were riding bicycles.
However, they at least have to wisdom to conclude that the reason for the decrease is outside the scope of the current study. But then shoot themselves in the foot by speculating that at least part of the reason could be due to the increase in indoor cycling.
And yes, that could have something to do with it. But only because indoor cycling and outdoor bicycling are two entirely different things, with one presenting far less risk of falling off your bike or getting struck by a carless or distracted driver.
His death came 25 years after his wife, renowned health researcher and practitioner Rachel Fruchter, was killed riding a bike in New York’s Prospect Park.
Fruchter had responded to his wife’s needless death by becoming one of the city’s leading bike and pedestrian safety advocates, and was a driving force behind the eventual ban on cars in the park.
In a tragic irony, both Norman and Rachel Fruchter were killed by drivers considered uninsurable due to their bad driving records. And both killers were allowed to walk without charges by the NYPD.
Just two more examples of authorities keeping dangerous drivers on the road until it’s too late.
And even then, letting them off to kill again.
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Streets For All is hosting a family friendly Westside bike meetup in Culver City on the 22nd.
We are excited to be supporting the first Westside Families Bike Meetup! Bring your bike setup and kids and come connect, ride, and snack with other like minded people.
January 22 930am-1230pm Syd Kronenthal Park in Culver City
No bias here, either. Bike riders in Malta will now be required to wear a helmet in an effort to reduce head injuries, while e-scooter riders will be required to wear a helmet and hi-viz. Never mind that at least some of the reduction in injuries from mandatory helmet laws has been shown to stem from reducing bicycling rates. And don’t get me wrong, I’m a firm believer in wearing a helmet, and never ride without one. But mandating helmet use is counterproductive, reducing bicycling rates while leading to over-policing of low income residents and people of color.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
Go SGV is offering ebikes for longterm rental, with prices starting at just $49 a month for students and $69 monthly for other renters, and e-cargo bikes starting at $129 a month.
Someone who apparently doesn’t understand the meaning of ghost bikes is placing white-painted kids bikes with plastic doves on the handlebars at intersections throughout Portland, making the city’s bicycling community mistakenly fear there’s been a rash of children killed riding their bikes in recent weeks.
He gets it. A Kansas City op-ed writer says the city’s new bike lanes aren’t just for “serious” bicyclists. In fact, it’s the so-called serious bicyclists who need them least; bike lanes serve to encourage reluctant riders to feel safer and give bicycling a try.
Once again, a bike rider is a hero, if a wounded one this time, as a Chicago man riding a bicycle was shot in the elbow when he tried to stop a thief from breaking into a car. No word on whether he was successful at stopping the thief, or if he sacrificed his elbow in vain.
A DC letter writer says bike lanes are “for the potential benefit of the few to the detriment of the many;” insisting the city will never be Amsterdam. Then again, Amsterdam wasn’t Amsterdam until people had the will to encourage bike use and discourage driving. Which any city, anywhere can do.
A new Dutch study shows half of likely ebike buyers would question their purchase if they were faced with a mandatory bike helmet requirement, and nearly a quarter would stop riding altogether. And yes, that’s in the Netherlands, which is arguably the world’s most bicycling obsessed country. Or maybe normalized is a better word.
Last year was another terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year for SoCal bike riders.
But at least it was better than the year before.
Maybe.
According to our latest count, at least 82* people lost their lives while riding a bicycle in the seven county Southern California region last year, just two less than the previous year.
Although that figure is likely an undercount; I’ve heard of a half dozen or more deaths this year that I wasn’t able to officially confirm, but which undoubtedly happened.
The total for last year reflects the 26 bike riders I counted killed in Los Angeles County last year, which again is likely a dramatic undercount.
A total of 35 bike riders lost their lives in LA County in 2021, which was over twice the total of 17 that I had counted; I also counted 15 in 2020, compared to 27 reported by the NHTSA.
Which suggests that the local media is failing to report a number of bicycling deaths in the Los Angeles area, for whatever reason.
I also counted 14 bicycling deaths in the City of Los Angeles last year, which is in line with verified totals of 18 and 15 in 2021 and 2020.
Further afield, San Diego County suffered 12 deaths last year, which was a significant improvement over 17 in the previous year, though much higher than the 7 and 8 people killed riding bikes in the county in 2020 and 2019, respectively.
Meanwhile, Orange County appeared to have their worst year in recent memory, with 17 people killed* riding bikes last year, compared to just 7 in 2021, 15 in 2020, and 13 in 2019.
Although it is important to note that only the totals for 2020 and 2019 have been verified by the NHTSA; 2021 data isn’t currently available through their website.
Riverside and San Bernardino Counties also showed increases last year, with 11 bicycling deaths in Riverside County, and 10 in San Bernardino County. Ventura County suffered 4 deaths — half the previous year’s total — while Imperial County recorded none for the third year in a row.
Here’s a quick recap of bicycling deaths for each of the seven counties.
Los Angeles County
2022 – 26
2021 – 35
2020 – 27
2019 – 38
Orange County
2022 – 17
2021 – 7
2020 – 14
2019 – 13
San Diego County
2022 – 12
2021 – 17
2020 – 7
2019 – 8
Riverside County
2022 – 11
2021 – 9
2020 – 8
2019 – 5
San Bernardino County
2022 – 10
2021 – 7
2020 – 6
2019 – 7
Imperial County
2022 – 0
2021 – 0
2020 – 0
2019 – 6
Ventura County
2022 – 4
2021 – 8
2020 – 4
2019 – 4
Source: 2021-2022 BikinginLA, except 2021 LA County data from Los Angeles Times; 2019-2020 NHTSA FARS data
While compiling records of this sort is necessary to bring about desperately needed changes to our streets, it also reduces human tragedy and loss to a statistic.
Correction: A comment from Dawn made it clear that I had miscategorized a story about her father’s August death in Irvine.
*After correcting the error and adding it back into the totals for OC, that made 17 people killed riding their bikes in the county last year, and 82 in Southern California, instead of 16 and 81, respectively, as I had originally written.
My apologies for the mistake.
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On a related subject, rural areas are becoming safer, while urban environments are growing ever deadlier.
And the photo at the bottom of this thread goes a long way towards explaining why.
Promising news about the new LA City Council Transportation Committee members we mentioned yesterday, at least two of whom have taken bike tours with the new BikeLA (formerly the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, or LACBC).
We’re hopeful that we share priorities with Park and Hutt to build safe bicycle infrastructure both in their districts and citywide, and we look forward to working with the whole committee to hit the ground running in 2023.
Transportation PAC Streets For All is hosting their next virtual happy hour next Wednesday, featuring my councilmember, CD4’s Nithya Raman.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
A former contestant on the UK’s version of The Apprenticecriticizes plans for traffic filters on Oxford streets, saying you won’t be able to drive more than 15 minutes in any direction — and somehow manages to get the whole thing wrong.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
A British Columbia man faces charges for stealing a truck and using it to smash through a gate, then hoping on a bicycle to make his escape after the truck was disabled in the crash. Which raises a lot of questions, like whether the fact that he wasn’t charged with stealing the bike means he just happened to have it with him in case he needed to pedal away from the crime scene.
An Arizona man has made a remarkable recovery following the crash in a Show Low, Arizona master’s race that killed one man and seriously injured several riders; 37-year old Shawn Michael Chock was quietly sentenced to 26-1/2 years behind bars for second-degree murder and felony aggravated assault.
Calgary bicycle advocates are calling for safer bike infrastructure, after reports of snow and ice clogging bikeways and creating a hazard for riders. Here in SoCal, our snow and ice comes in liquid form, but still creates hazards on days like this. So be careful out there.
Bike Portland goes riding in London. Which I deeply regret I didn’t get a chance to do when my wife and I visited earlier this century.
The all-important Transportation Committee — at least for our purposes — will be helmed by interim CD10 Councilmember Heather Hutt, with newly elected CD11 Councilmember Traci Park servicing as vice chair.
New members Eunisses Hernandez (CD1) and Katy Yaroslavsky (CD5) fill out the roster, along with CD4 Councilmember Nithya Raman.
We’ll have to wait to see what this will mean for active transportation in the City of Angels, but there’s reason for hope with the three progressive at large members onboard.
It’s also worth noting that the all-female committee roster comes just a few short years after the council raised countless red flags when no women were elected to the board.
Here’s the full list of committee assignments, courtesy of Zahniser.
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Zahniser also reports that just two candidates have qualified for the special election to replace for Council President Nury Martinez in CD6.
Martinez resigned in the wake of the recording in which she was heard making racist and otherwise offensive comments, along with two other Latino councilmembers and a labor leader, who also resigned his post.
One of the councilmembers, CD1’s “Roadkill” Gil Cedillo left the council at the end of his term after losing to Eunisses Hernandez, while CD14’s Kevin de León still refuses to do the right thing and resign.
The idea that neighborhoods should be walkable is lovely. The idea that idiot tyrannical bureaucrats can decide by fiat where you're "allowed" to drive is perhaps the worst imaginable perversion of that idea–and, make no mistake, it's part of a well-documented plan. https://t.co/QRrjVF615q
Streetsblogrecommends the Schabarum Trail Peak, part of the nearly 30-mile Schabarum-Skyline Trail running from San Dimas to unincorporated Whittier, offering sweeping views of the San Gabriel Valley.
State
Planetizen argues that San Diego needs to improve its bike infrastructure if it wants to have any chance of meeting its climate goals. Oddly, the city seems to take such things seriously, rather than calling their goals merely “aspirational” like their larger neighbor to the north.
Intelligent Living offers three reasons to ride your bike to work. But fails to mention how much faster it can be than driving congested streets, and how much more fun you’ll have.
Colorado’s governor is calling for a $120 million tax credit to encourage residents to buy electric cars and lawnmowers, as well as ebikes; the proposed program would offer a $500 tax rebate for ebike purchasers, rising to $1,000 for low income residents. Although the state could save a lot of money, and do more to improve air quality and fight climate change, if they designed the program to simply replace cars with ebikes, instead.
Atlanta is the latest city to consider offering rebates for ebike purchasers. Meanwhile, Los Angeles remains firmly among the vast majority of cities that haven’t even discussed an ebike rebate program, while potential California buyer continue to wait with baited breath for the state’s long-delayed ebike rebate program to finally roll out.
Not only did we set a new record for the 8th year in a row, but a record 103 people donated, breaking the $5,000 barrier for the very first time.
And I couldn’t be more grateful to each and every one of you.
So thanks to Michael W, Lisa G, Mark K, Glen S, Adrienne G, Johanna K, Liam W, Joel F, Sonia B, Michael B, David A, Teodoro C, Carol K, Neel K, Robert H, Beverly F, Matthew R and Kevin B for their generous donations since the last time we posted. And everyone else who gave from their hearts to keep all the best bike news coming your way every day.
Thank you!
Today’s photo shows what happens when my sister and her husband send the perfect gifts.
And in the process, blames every business closure in the neighborhood on them.
Never mind the effects of two years of pandemic closures, or a difficult business climate marked by rampant inflation and endemic supply chain problems.
Or that they also included businesses that closed years before the bike lanes were built.
Fourth photo down was Urban Solace which has been closed since March 2019. https://t.co/lv7qvuqts2
Although by far the best one was the article’s first photo, which showed a damning image of a vacant business under the banner for a roofing company. Except they were simply installing a new roof on the building, and had never occupied the space.
Other shuttered businesses had moved to more desirable locations, or were reopening under new management or new formats in the coming months.
But all were somehow blamed on the bike lanes, which the paper claimed were seldom, if ever, used. Something that could have been easily refuted if they had bothered to check the nearby bike counter.
She spent the next three years shuttling between longterm care facilities, as she struggled just to give a thumbs-up or say the name of her husband of 35 years.
Thirty-seven-year old Chase Edward Richard served just two years of a 44-month sentence for cruelly leaving her alone and bleeding in the street with a severe head injury.
Now he’s free, and she’s gone.
………
Gravel Bike California reminds us that Los Angeles is a mountain town, offering outstanding paved and unpaved climbing.
And plans to stay there until his killer is brought to justice.
At the intersection of 38th & Sheridan in #Denver, Eric and his beloved Andy hold this sign.
Eric’s been out here, in the cold, for more than a dozen days. He’ll stay until justice is served for Andy’s brother, Logan – a cyclist killed in a hit-and-run crash. @DenverChannelpic.twitter.com/ZFXp7eFrrA
No bias here, either. A San Diego TV station tries to raise a public panic over the loss of parking spaces for new bike lanes on Convoy Street, despite citing a restaurant owner who says his customers don’t mind walking several blocks. And says he only knows of two customers who currently bike there. Apparently, if never occurs to him that if two people biked there before, maybe others will now that it’s safer.
A DC driver attempted to run down a bicycle delivery rider after she smacked his car mirror for pulling up too close to her and blocking her right-of-way, then got out of his car and attacked her on the sidewalk, knocking out one of her teeth.
In yet another example of authorities keeping a dangerous driver on the road until it’s too late, a New York pickup driver killed man riding a moped — despite the company truck being cited for 30 traffic violations over a four-year period, including 17 tickets for speeding in a school zone.
Cycling Weekly offers fifteen things about bicycling that really annoys them. Although their complaint about the high cost of bicycling is a relative thing, depending on how you ride; you can get by with spending almost nothing, and still get where you’re going.
A Swiss startup is building elevated bike lanes to address space problems that limit bike lane placement on the streets. Which sounds good, except it removes bikes from the local community, and prevents bike riders from making convenient stops along their route.
Cyclistlooks forward to 2023, including women’s great Annemiek van Vleuten going out on top, and the return of Eritrean pro Biniam Girmay, who missed much of last year after taking a champagne cork to the eye.
Before we go, I’d like to share this Twitter exchange, which offered one of the nicest compliments I’ve received in a long time.
My nominee: @bikinginla . He feels genuine concern for low-wage folks who struggle to bike to work in LA, and real sadness when they're hurt. Also a generous foster of Corgies. Just very loving of humans and animals in a city that sometimes neglects both.
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