52-year old man killed riding bicycle in Lakeside collision; 8th San Diego County bike death already this year

July 6, 2024 / / Comments Off on 52-year old man killed riding bicycle in Lakeside collision; 8th San Diego County bike death already this year

It’s been a bad first half of year for bicyclists in San Diego County.

And the second half isn’t starting any better.

Multiple sources are reporting that a man was killed riding a bicycle across a Lakeside highway Friday afternoon, just the latest in a toll that’s taken more than one life a month since the first of the year.

The victim, identified only as a 52-year old man, was crossing SR-67 on his bike, traveling west across the southbound lanes when he was struck by a 31-year old Lakeside man driving a small Chevrolet SUV.

The crash occurred around 3:45 pm Friday, at SR-67 north of Mapleview Street.

The victim died at the scene.

The driver remained following the crash, and police do not believe he was under the influence. However, there’s no explanation offered for why he was unable to avoid the victim as he crossed the road.

Hopefully, that will be explained going forward.

Anyone with information is urged to call Lakeside Police Officer Jared Grieshaber at 619/401-2000

This is at least the 27th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the eighth that I’m aware of already this year in San Diego County.

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

Category: Injuries and Fatalities / Tags: , ,

California media ignoring problems with state’s moribund ebike voucher program, and bike bills whittled down in legislature

July 3, 2024 / / Comments Off on California media ignoring problems with state’s moribund ebike voucher program, and bike bills whittled down in legislature
Just 181 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

Happy Independence Day!

There’s no better way to celebrate the 4th than with a good bike ride, whether you’re riding during the day or to the fireworks at night.

Just remember many people may have been drinking before they get behind the wheel, and many others driving distracted. Or both. And they may not be looking for someone on a bicycle.

So ride defensively this weekend. I don’t want to have to write about you or anyone else.

As for me, if past is prologue, my 4th will be spent all night huddled in a closet comforting a corgi terrified by the near constant bombardment of illegal fireworks outside our Hollywood neighborhood. 

Good times. 

We’ll see you again bright and early on Monday.

Photo by Markus Spiske from Pexels.

………

It’s now 195 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And 37 full months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

Meanwhile, Minnesota’s ebike voucher program ran out after just 18 minutes when over 10,000 people attempted to claim one. This was the program’s second attempt to launch after the website crashed from high demand a few weeks ago.

Neve mind that the launch came just one year after the program was created by the legislature.

That compares with California’s still moribund program, which still hasn’t even attempted to launch yet. And probably won’t anytime soon after serious questions were raised about program administrator Pedal Ahead.

Which oddly hasn’t been mentioned anywhere other than in the local San Diego paper, despite its status as a failed statewide program.

………

Sharrows only exist to help drivers improve their aim.

Twitter post

Meanwhile, Streetsblog’s Melanie Curry reports a bill to ban sharrows from high speed roadways is still alive in the state legislature, along with the Caltrans Complete Streets bill, but both have been whittled down to reflect the status quo.

………

This has got to be one of the most evocative cycling photos I’ve seen.

Twitter post

………

I forgot she was one of us, too.

https://twitter.com/cyclartist/status/1808199538345230525

………

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

No bias here. After new separated bike lanes were installed on San Diego’s Convoy Street, a local TV station focused all its attention on anecdotal reports of customers avoiding the area due to a loss of previously super convenient parking spaces.

No bias here, either. London bicyclists want to know why the Royal Parks Service won’t allow early morning time trials in the city’s Richmond Park over concerns about speeding cyclists, but is going ahead with a much larger duathlon race consisting of running and bicycling.

………

Local 

The Los Angeles Times looks at California’s deadliest freeways, topped by I-15 in San Bernardino County and I-10 in Riverside County, with 48 deaths and 31 deaths in 2022, respectively. Another reminder that any transportation system that accepts death as a frequent and predictable consequence is an abject failure.

Speaking of freeways, Metro still plans to flush billions down the climate change-inducing, induced demand toilet by expanding the 605 and 5 Freeways.

 

State

A 77-year old San Diego man suffered severe, but not life-threatening injuries when he crashed his ebike into a raised curb in the Serra Mesa neighborhood.

A Santa Rosa mother joined with local bicyclists to call for the CHP to address an increase in hostility directed towards bicyclists, as well as stepping up the investigation into her son’s death after he was killed by a hit-and-run driver while riding his bike.

 

National

In a bizarre story, a Denver bicyclist was somehow killed when a driver rolled their vehicle over the center freeway divider, raising questions of just where the victim had been riding, which the local media doesn’t seem to be asking.

Sheriff’s deputies have arrested a suspect in the hit-and-run crash that killed an 82-year old man taking part in the five-day Tour of Nebraska last weekend.

A planned overhaul of the main concourse at Chicago’s Union Station will included expanded bike parking options, after respondents overwhelmingly preferred adding secure, indoor bike storage.

New York’s congestion pricing may not be dead after all, as political leaders attempt to persuade the state’s governor to accept a revised plan with a lower fee for motorists driving into Manhattan.

An off-duty New Jersey cop has been charged with a relatively minor third-degree felony for the hit-and-run that critically injured an 18-year old man riding a bicycle; he turned himself in after giving himself time to sober up the next day.

 

International

Bike Rumor looks forward to the return of the Eurobike trade show in Frankfurt, Germany this weekend.

Megan Lynch forwards a heartbreaking Mastadon post showing the work of an Australian woman who made a quilt from her husband’s bicycling jerseys, after he was killed while riding his bike.

 

Competitive Cycling

Tadej Pogačar climbed back into the yellow leader’s jersey on stage 4 of the Tour de France, dropping rival Jonas Vingegaard on the summit of the Col du Galibier on his way to a 45 second lead over the peloton.

Velo examines Biniam Gorman’s long journey from impoverished Eritrea to cycling stardom as the first Black African to win a stage at the Tour de France.

Greg LeMond remains the only American to officially wear the yellow jersey, after Tour de France stage and general classification wins by Lance Armstrong, Floyd Landis, David Zabriskie and George Hincapie were officially erased, as if both the wins and the people who won them had never existed.

Ouch. A Utah paper asks if anyone in America even cares that the world’s premier bike race has started.

Cycling News offers the best deals on bike gear inspired by the Tour.

Eight years ago, US Olympian Kristen Faulkner didn’t even know how to clip into her pedals; today, she’s a medal contender in the individual time trial at the Paris Olympics.

 

Finally…

Your next ebike could come with drone DNA. Apparently, riding your bike naked with a group is okay; riding naked alone not so much.

And forget debating, make Trump and Biden race bikes.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

New LA-area bike lanes including Hollywood Blvd, and bill banning sharrows on higher-speed roads loses support

July 2, 2024 / / Comments Off on New LA-area bike lanes including Hollywood Blvd, and bill banning sharrows on higher-speed roads loses support
Just 182 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

Streetsblog’s Joe Linton offers updates on three LA-area bike lane projects.

  • The new separated bike lanes on the east end of Hollywood are partially in place on the eastbound side, and already rideable.
  • Bike lanes have been installed on the newly resurfaced Foothill Blvd in Lake View Terrace, demonstrating what’s possible with Measure HLA, which mandates building out the city’s mobility plan whenever streets are resurfaced — if city leaders would stop actively blocking it.
  • Redondo Beach extended and upgraded the bike lanes on a resurfaced section of Torrance Blvd, adding green paint in the conflict zones. Because as we all know, a dab of colored paint stops distracted, aggressive and/or intoxicated drivers every time.

………

This is how the sausage is unmade.

Twitter post

Twitter post

 

………

All you have to do is ask nice, right?

https://twitter.com/BikeLanesLA/status/1807498106285830367

………

Riding a bicycle in the right lane of a multilane highway is legal.

Using a handheld cellphone to record them isn’t.

Twitter post

………

It’s now 194 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And 37 full months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

………

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

No bias here. The New York Times reports on a “bizarre culture war” against bike lanes in Queens, where nearly every home in the neighborhood sports a “No Bike Lanes” lawn sign, as residents prefer the convenience of parking directly in front of their homes to the safety of kids riding their bikes. Although as others have pointed out, nearly every news story about a similar conflict somehow identifies bike lane supporters as “cyclists,” while opponents are always “residents. Because evidently, people who use bike lanes never, ever live there.

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

An Iowa man was shot and killed by police offers after he shot two cops who had responded to reports of a bicyclist with a gun, in an incident in which the shooter’s form of transportation seems incidental, despite being treated by news outlets like the most important detail.

………

Local 

Here’s your chance to tell Caltrans to improve safety on the deadly 22 miles of PCH that runs through Malibu, as the agency calls for comments on the PCH Master Plan Feasibility Study; a virtual workshop will take place from 1 to 4 pm on Thursday, July 18th. Unfortunately though, the link to register for the workshop is broken.

 

State

A bill banning tuning kits that can allow an ebike to exceed factory speed limitations sits on the governor’s desk after passing both houses of the legislature.

The CEO of a San Diego micro ebike company calls for giving ebike buyers the tax credits they deserve, while fixing the outdated regulations that hold them back.

Five years after a 12-year old girl was nearly killed by 17-year old driver while riding her bike in a Sacramento crosswalk at an intersection on the city’s High Injury Network, her parents complain the city hasn’t done anything to fix it. Before you click on the link, though, be forewarned this one is really hard to read.

 

National

Time Magazine selects the best “cheap” ebikes for different types of riders, with most retailing for under a grand.

Cycling Weekly examines how a former Portland high school principal became one of the most in-demand custom bicycle painters, with a client list ranging from Andy Schleck to Ayesha McGowan.

A 31-year old photographer is recreating her great-great-grandfather’s cross-country bicycle trip from 128 years earlier, following his route from Seattle to Boston while taking pictures with the same model of early portable camera he used.

A Houston public radio station considers whether the city will get a new bikeshare, now that the current one has shuttered due to financial problems after a dozen years.

Hundreds of a naked and nearly naked bike riders turned out for Chicago’s nocturnal edition of the World Naked Bike Ride, as bystanders cheered them on.

Vermont now has a four-foot passing law, with a $200 fine for breaking it. But as we’ve seen, a passing law is only as good as the local cops commitment to enforcing it.

A DC train line was stopped for several hours after a man repeatedly stabbed another man on the platform, before throwing a bicycle onto the tracks.

The leader of a North Carolina search and rescue unit was killed when a squirrel caused him to crash after darting out in front of his bicycle, resulting in cardiac arrest and irreversible spinal damage.

A 23-year old Florida woman faces charges for killing a 67-year old Florida journalist and pastor in a drunken, high speed hit-and-run; she was traveling around 90 mph at the time of the crash, with a blood alcohol level more than two-and-a-half times the legal limit, while dragging the victim’s bicycle under her car nearly all the way back to her home.

 

International

Your next bike helmet could inflate before you wear it.

This is the cost of traffic violence. Residents of the 800-year old town of Huntingdon, England held a vigil to honor a “much loved” bike shop owner and bike safety advocate, killed by a careless driver while riding his bike.

Once again raising the question of how old is too old to drive, an 83-year old British man walked without a single day behind bars for killing a 54-year old man riding a bicycle; he was still driving despite suffering from degenerate eyesight and failing a roadside vision test.

Momentum highlights the year’s top 15 European bicycling routes.

Cycling Weekly highlights their favorite bespoke bikes from the recent MADE Australia handmade bike show.

 

Competitive Cycling

About damn time. Eritrean cyclist Biniam Girmay became the first black African cyclist to win a stage in the Tour de France, capturing stage three in a mad sprint to the finish; meanwhile, former Giro champ Richard Carapaz slid into the yellow jersey, while matching the time of Tadej Pogačar.

USA Today highlights the three remaining Americans in this year’s Tour de France after Sepp Kuss withdrew due to Covid, including Tour rookie, US road champ and LA native Sean Quinn.

NBC explains the rules for Olympic road cycling, mountain biking, and BMX competitions.

 

Finally…

That feeling when your new bike shoes honor a tennis legend. You can find a lot of things riding a bike, including your new kitty.

And riding the Tour while unleashing your inner Batman.

Instagram post

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

City leaders dick around on HLA, LA Times profiles “disruptor” Michael Schneider, and the “impact” of bike collisions

July 1, 2024 / / One comment
Just 183 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

Happy anniversary to me. I neglected to note that last week marked the 16th anniversary of this site, which began back in 2008, when I didn’t have a clue what it would eventually become.

So here’s to another 16 years.

Unless Los Angeles suddenly and unexpectedly becomes a safe and enjoyable place to ride a bike. In which case you’ll find me corralling corgis and quaffing craft beer and reposados into my dotage. 

………

Streetsblog’s Joe Linton reports implementation of Measure HLA — Healthy Streets Los Angeles — remains on hold as the city council continues to dick around wait for a draft ordinance that isn’t due until August.

Though advocates had been awaiting yesterday’s committee approvals as the next clarifying step for HLA, the brief meeting yielded very little new information. The Public Works Committee approved the HLA items, but put off further departmental reports and council HLA decisions until an August 7 meeting of the Transportation Committee.

Prior to the March election, the City Administrative Officer had warned that the council would need to “make funding decisions immediately” if Measure HLA were to pass. It did pass, and became law on April 9. Now, “immediately” has slipped to “have a rough draft ready to discuss in August, four months after HLA passage.”

Although reading between the lines, what really seems to be happening is that city leaders are looking for ways to water down or sidestep the measure, daring advocates to go to court to force them to comply.

Meanwhile, bike riders and pedestrians continue to be victimized by deadly LA streets, and the people in the big, dangerous machines.

And city leaders don’t appear to give a damn about it. Or us.

………

The Los Angeles Times offers a brief profile of Streets For All founder Michael Schneider, as part of their series on changemakers who are disrupting LA society as we’ve known it.

Schneider, 43, heads Streets for All — the advocacy group behind the successful March ballot measure that aims to level the paved playing field somewhat in the David and Goliath story that is bike riding on the streets in car-loving Los Angeles.

The ballot measure dubbed Healthy Streets L.A. compels the city to implement its own plans to rework some of its most storied boulevards and streets to make space for bicyclists and pedestrians, who die at a rate of about one every three days.

It’s worth a quick read.

Because Schneider has arguably done more in his brief time in bike advocacy with the passage of Healthy Streets LA than many of the rest of us have accomplished in decades.

Myself included.

………

Under the heading of unfortunate headline of the day, comes one about the “impact” collisions have on the behavior of bicyclists.

Ouch.

The story, from Cycling West, is about the findings of a new study from the University of California.

Researchers interviewed eight experts from different fields to get their perspectives, choosing not to discuss the subject with victims or witnesses because they didn’t feel they could question them reliably enough.

But the findings are certainly worth discussing, if unsurprising, as Cycling West summarizes.

A collision or those caregiving for collision victims could led to changing modes of transportation, taking a new route, or riding on the sidewalk instead of the street. But the results indicated that few people gave up cycling permanently though some did for a while. The main reason for giving up cycling completely seemed to be the need to recover from injuries rather than newfound fear. Near misses didn’t seem to scare bikers from continuing.

………

It’s now 193 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And 37 full months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

………

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

An advocacy group in Hamilton, Ontario alerted the local police to a dangerous hit-and-run driver who clipped a bike rider with his trailer during an illegal pass, after repeatedly harassing bicyclists and running stop signs.

Once again, a bike rider in the UK has been seriously injured after being pushed off their bike by a car passenger, leaving the 29-year old victim with serious facial injuries including a fractured jaw, broken teeth, and lacerations, as well as a concussion. Just to be clear, however, this isn’t a prank, harmless or otherwise. It’s a criminal assault, and could justifiably be considered an act of terrorism since its purpose is to force a segment of society off the roads. 

A bicyclist in Scotland suffered a similar assault when he was attacked by a group of youths on motorbikes, who followed him on a pathway until they kicked his front tire and knocked him into the bushes before riding off laughing; fortunately, he was able to escape with cuts and bruising to his ribs and knees, and called for closed-circuit security cams on bike paths to prevent similar attacks in the future.

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

A London man faces murder charges for allegedly stabbing a driver through the window of his car after he drove over the killer’s mountain bike and dragged it along the roadway. Yet another reminder than no bicycle is worth a human life — let alone two, if you count the killer who will likely spend the rest of his life behind bars. 

………

Local 

Bloomberg examines the coming Complete Streets makeover of Hollywood Blvd that “aims to put the walkability in the Walk of Fame.” And bikeability, too.

The Culver City PD’s Special Enforcement Team took to their bikes on Thursday to bust an alleged stalker, an assault suspect and someone riding a stolen bicycle.

 

State

The Orange County Board of Supervisors approved new regulations for ebike riders in unincorporated areas of the county, including speed limits, helmet rules and age requirements. None of which can legally exceed state law, which has jurisdiction over traffic regulations.

A San Francisco bicyclist escaped with non-life-threatening injuries when he was struck by a U-turning driver while riding on San Francisco’s not-so-protected Valencia Street centerline bike lanes. Then again, just because someone’s injuries aren’t life-threatening doesn’t mean they’re not incapacitating or painful. 

 

National

Gear Junkie rates the year’s best bike shoes for roadies.

Writing for Gear Patrol, a fixie rider celebrates the joys of going brakeless.

A writer for Inverse makes the case for why electric pickup and SUV maker Rivian’s next EV should be an ebike.

That’s more like it. A San Antonio, Texas woman got eight years behind bars for killing a bike rider while driving under the influence.

Damn good question. Volunteers in Austin, Texas want to know why ghost bikes honoring fallen bicyclists have been disappearing in the city.

Cleveland launched a memorial sign program to honor bike riders and pedestrians killed by motorists through traffic violence. Memorial signs are great, but fixing the streets so they’re no longer needed is a hell of a lot better.

North Carolina rapper J. Cole is one of us, riding his bike fearlessly “like a normie through the gritty streets of New York City.” Well, okay then.

 

International

A columnist for Cycling Weekly says if bicycle designers made the same progress the marketing departments are making, bikes would be able to fly by now. Actually, as some of us have learned the hard way, bikes can fly. It’s just the landings that are a little rough.

A new report tells the bike industry to hold on for one more year, since overstock issues should be resolved by 2025.

Actor Owen Wilson is one of us, giving kids in Vancouver, British Columbia a friendly “Ka-Chow!” as he rode by on his foldie, quoting his character Lightning McQueen from Cars.

A Calgary, Alberta woman on a solo cross-continental bike tour says she discovered that trail angels are real, and a source of incredible kindness.

Life is cheap in Yorkshire, England, where a woman who killed a 58-year old man riding a bicycle walked without a day behind bars after her two-year sentence was suspended; she apparently failed to notice him on the roadway because her nose was buried in her sat-nav system. Proving once again that any form of electronic device can distract a driver, with catastrophic results for others. 

 

Competitive Cycling

Two-time Tour de France champ Tadej Pogačar outsprinted archrival Jonas Vingegaard to don the yellow jersey after stage two of the Tour de France, as Kévin Vauquelin took the stage win.

French cyclist Romain Bardet briefly wore yellow for the first time, in his final tour, after winning stage one of the Tour on Saturday.

CNN offers a photo essay on the grueling world of professional cycling by Kristof Ramon, whose upcoming book The Art of Suffering: Capturing the Brutal Beauty of Road Cycling is available now for pre-order. 

Mark Cavendish’s quest to set the all-time record for stage wins at the Tour nearly ended before it began, when he blew chunks and nearly missed the cut struggling in the extreme heat.

This year’s Tour started in Florence, Italy, home to the legendary two-time Tour de France winner Gino Bartali, honored for using his bike to save hundreds of Jews during World War II.

The first crash of the Tour came before the race even started, when Soudal Quick-Step cyclist Jan Hirt was knocked off his bike by a fan’s backpack as he rode to the start line after signing the starting sheet.

An unidentified cyclist with the EF Education-EasyPost was lucky to escape a serious crash when he struck a cellphone held by a fan recording the peloton as it passed.

https://twitter.com/LeTour/status/1807385967864561684?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1807385967864561684%7Ctwgr%5E38103d848eeb98ee480066e99ada90d04efe38e5%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Froad.cc%2Fcontent%2Fnews%2Ftour-de-france-rider-hit-fan-filming-race-mobile-phone-309153

 

Finally…

That feeling when a story about the best bike shorts is actually about shorts for riding bikes, for a change, not the other kind. When you’re riding with outstanding warrants and illegal drugs on your bike, stay off the sidewalk if it’s against the damn law.

And that feeling when they want you to put your life in the hands of tech that draws people with three legs and insists there were Black Nazi soldiers.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

Climate change sucks more than traffic, no progress on broken Braude bike path, and get a grand from Uber not to drive

June 28, 2024 / / One comment
Just 186 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

My apologies for the late appearance of yesterday’s post. My site went down just as I was about to publish it, so I wasn’t able to get it online until my web host got it working again in the morning. 

You can catch up here if you missed it. 

………

He gets it.

The climate columnist for the Los Angeles Times says yes, sitting in traffic sucks, but climate change sucks a lot more.

Talking about California Governor Newsom’s head-scratching decisions to approve projects that can only exacerbate climate change despite his forward-leaning public posture in fighting the onrushing climate emergency — including approval of a half-billion-dollar freeway widening project on I-80 between Sacramento and Davis — Sammy Roth writes this,

But the common thread is this: Instead of putting carbon at the center of his decision-making — which is what one of the world’s most powerful politicians should be doing just about every time — Newsom is treating climate like most other political issues.

Some days he and his team are taking groundbreaking steps to phase out gasoline cars; other days they’re expanding freeways, and failing to fully protect people from extreme heat because they’re worried it would be too expensive, and making it harder to install batteries. They’re letting politics play far too large a role in the risk-reward calculation, to all of our detriment.

He goes on to conclude this way (although it should be noted that electrification will do nothing to reduce induced demand or traffic congestion),

Hopefully over time, as we get more electric cars on the road, “induced demand” from highway expansions will become less of a problem, because more of the cars sitting in traffic will be powered by solar and wind. But for now, state officials have made very clear — in theory, not in practice — that electrification isn’t enough. We also need to start driving less. California’s formal climate plan sets targets of reducing “vehicle miles traveled” by 25% per person by 2030, and 30% by 2045.

That means we’ll need to spend more time walking, biking and taking trains and other public transit — and more money building infrastructure to support those modes of transit. So why is Newsom wasting nearly half a billion dollars widening a freeway when the result will be more smog-spewing traffic, more climate pollution and less money for the stuff we actually need?

It’s worth a read.

Because while Newsom presents himself as a leader in fighting the effects and causes of climate change, his actions often paint a far different picture.

And it’s up to us to make sure he lives up to his word.

………

The Santa Monica Mirror reports that nearly five months after an atmospheric river washed out the beachfront Marvin Braude bike path between Chautauqua Blvd and Entrada Drive, nothing has been done to repair it.

As in, nothing.

Compare that to the emergency repairs that fixed the collapsed I-10 Freeway in DTLA in less than two weeks following a devastating fire at a storage facility under the elevated highway.

Which means the estimated 10,000 people who use the path every day have faced a truncated trail that ends far short of the former terminus at Will Rogers State Beach. And bike riders have been forced onto a particularly dangerous section of PCH through Pacific Palisades if they want to continue north towards Malibu.

The paper says LA County, which is responsible for that portion of the trail, hopes to have a schedule for repairs next month.

LA County Public Works hopes to have a concrete schedule for repairs by mid-July; the cost of which is estimated at $800,000, according to a spokesperson with the department.

“LA County Public Works engineers continue to finalize the repair design for the Marvin Braude Bike Trail at Will Rogers State Beach.” read a statement from the department. “The California Coastal Commission is currently reviewing the project.”

Note that they’re only promising a schedule for repair work, rather than actually beginning — let alone completing — the long overdue repairs.

And we’ll excuse their unintended pun of promising a “concrete schedule” for fixing the concrete pathway.

………

Need a little extra cash?

Uber will pay you $1,000 if you agree not to drive for five weeks, and walk, bike, ride public transit or use ride-hailing services instead.

Like Uber, for instance.

The company will select 175 people to participate in the “One Less Car” challenge; it’s open to residents of Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Miami, San Francisco, Toronto and Vancouver.

I’d toss my hat in the ring, but something tells me they’re not looking for people like me who are already carless.

………

It’s now 190 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And three full years since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

………

Local 

More proof that bikes can be lifesavers in an emergency. A young boy in Valencia was able to escape an alleged kidnapping attempt at a local pool by riding away from the suspect on his bicycle; sheriff’s deputies are looking for the man who followed the kid before he got away.

 

State

An estimated 15,000 people are expected to turn out for the Huntington Beach 4th of July Bike Cruise tomorrow, held annually on the Saturday before the 4th.

San Diego officially broke ground on the $25 million, 3.5-mile Imperial Avenue Bikeway.

Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s deputies are looking for the owner of a white, adult Giant bicycle with a black rear rack, which was recovered when they arrested a 14-year old boy on animal abuse charges while he was riding the bike. He’s accused of killing chickens. In other words, murder most fowl.

The seemingly uninformed editor of a Palo Alto paper says putting bike lanes on the city’s Camino Real will hurt small businesses, arguing that car traffic is essential to their success. Which ignores repeated studies that show bike lanes are good for business, and the increased retail sales that result from them tend to more than make up for the loss of any parking.

Bad news from Northern California, where an allegedly lightless bike rider was killed by a pickup driver in an early morning crash in tiny Colfax.

 

National

Cycling West reposts a recent US university study showing ebike incentive programs are a costly way to cut emissions, but also promote health, equity and cleaner air.

REI is recalling their Co-op Cycles REV 12 Kids Bikes due to the risk the training wheels could detach and cause a fall.

A new bike park broke ground in Lahaina, Hawaii, offering fresh hope to young residents after last year’s devastating fires.

There’s a special place in hell for whoever stole two bikes in Eugene, Oregon from participants in the Texas 4000 charity ride; 25 people are riding from Austin, Texas to Anchorage, Alaska to raise funds for cancer research and support services.

Streetsblog Chicago talks with photographer and longtime city resident Vicktor Köves, creator of Chicagoans Who Bike, about his ongoing visual essay depicting the wide range of people who ride bicycles in the city.

The New York Times considers the consequences of New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s shortsighted decision to put congestion pricing in Manhattan on indefinite hold, after complaints from a handful of diner customers.

Baltimore baseball fans are forming a group to ride to Oriole games together. Which is what happens when a team actually encourages bicycling to their games, unlike a certain Dodger team we could name.

 

International

Frequent contributor Megan Lynch forwards news that bicycling giant Specialized is accused of owing Salvadoran apparel workers over $650,000 in unpaid wages and severance a year and a half after they lost their jobs.

There’s not a pit deep enough for the London cop accused of stealing cash from the body of an Italian filmmaker who died of a heart attack while riding his bike.

Twenty-two-year old English soccer player Anthony Gordon is one of us, becoming the butt of jokes in training camp when he fell off his bicycle two days after making his international debut with the team. Because apparently, grown men aren’t supposed to ride bikes, or crash them. Or maybe just not English footballers. 

I want to be like him when I grow up. An 86-year old British man is Everesting on a trainer in his back yard in memory of his late wife — 60 years after he crashed on a rain-slicked road near the finish line, and lost out on making the podium with the legendary Eddy Merckx in the 64 Tokyo Olympics.

Munich correspondent Ralph Durham sends news that the rich are getting richer, as the city nears completion of a spoke-and-hub bikeway network leading to the city center, with the red pathways on the map approved, and the blue already completed — although you may have to read German, or at least rely on a translation app to read the story.

A German columnist celebrates the “lightness of being a cyclist” after getting back on her bike, a year after breaking her elbow going over the handlebars.

 

Competitive Cycling

Velo looks at the current status of the leading contenders for this year’s Tour de France, which begins tomorrow, including Tadej Pogačar’s admission that he recently had Covid, but he “recovered good.”

Hats off to 14-year old Santa Cruz, California mountain biker Nathan Peterson, who is winning cross-country races while riding his grandfather’s rebuilt 1994 Merlin Mountain.

 

Finally…

That feeling when your local bike path is the world’s worst, and people are using it anyway. Every decent bike trail should have at least one good brewery along the way.

And yes, Biden may have fallen off his bicycle, but at least he rides one.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

3.9-mile Reseda protected bike lanes saved by 2009 outcry, and LA doesn’t suck as much in new bike rankings

June 27, 2024 / / Comments Off on 3.9-mile Reseda protected bike lanes saved by 2009 outcry, and LA doesn’t suck as much in new bike rankings
Just 187 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

Funny how things circle back around.

According to Streetsblog’s Joe Linton, completion of the Reseda Boulevard Complete Streets project means the boulevard now has the longest continuous protected bike lane in Southern California.

The newly complete bike lanes stretch nearly four miles, from Plummer Street to Victory Boulevard.

Just like you’ll see in the tweet below.

Twitter post

 

But it was just 15 years ago that we nearly lost them forever.

That’s when the news broke — courtesy of this site — that LADOT’s bike planning engineers had been told not to bother working on the bike lanes, because the West Department of Transportation was going to install Peak Hour Lanes on the boulevard instead, which would have turned the street into a virtually un-bikeable car sewer.

Similar lanes had gone in throughout the San Fernando Valley in the 1990s and 2000s, back in the bad old days when the highest priority of traffic engineers was maximizing vehicular throughput and level of service.

Fortunately, there was a huge reaction to the story, with countless people calling LADOT, councilmembers and other city officials to complain — resulting in the agency canceling plans for the peak hour lane less than 24 hours later.

And claiming, implausibly, that it was never actually their plan to install the peak hour lanes.

Yeah, right.

Linton called for an apology from the agency for deliberately misleading him, then-Streetsblog LA Editor Damien Newton, former Bicycle Advisory Committee Chair Glenn Bailey and myself. But also said he’d be willing to accept an apology in the form of actually building the bike lanes.

Which is what finally happened.

So thanks to everyone else who raised hell over it. If you were one of them, pat yourself on the back.

And thank you for your service.

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The rest of the world is catching up with the new City Rankings released by People For Bikes that we mentioned on Monday.

………

Congratulations.

The California Public Utilities Commission has selected you to beta test driverless cabs from Waymo, a subsidiary of Google parent company Alphabet, whether you actually want to or not.

The commissioners reaffirmed its approval for the company to operate its autonomous, or self-driving, cabs on the streets of Los Angeles. Never mind the seemingly magnetic attraction they and their competitor Cruise have seemed to have for bicyclists and pedestrians in San Francisco.

But never fear.

You should be able to protect yourself by carrying an orange cone with you when you ride.

………

Feel free to ride Benedict Canyon again.

https://twitter.com/LADOTofficial/status/1805722708660863180

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Gravel Bike California celebrates its fifth anniversary by highlighting the best gravel rides in the state.

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It’s now 189 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And three full years since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

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

A Santa Rosa man suffered a badly broken leg when he was targeted and run down by a road-raging driver while riding his ebike to work early Saturday morning, after the driver yelled at him to “get the fuck off the road.

Police in Victoria, British Columbia were accused of repeatedly using their vehicles as weapons to intentionally hit people riding bikes or scooters, or on foot. That should constitute a deadly use of force, just like firing a gun to stop a fleeing suspect, since any collision or fall off a bicycle or scooter can be deadly.

This is what a punishment pass from a British camper van driver looks like.

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

A 32-year old Hasidic man who had a bag of dog shit thrown at his face by a bike-riding New York bigot predicted his attacker will receive a slap on the wrist if he’s ever arrested, and won’t spend a day behind bars. Sadly, he’s probably right.

A British bike rider was trapped in a literal shitstorm when a farmer covered him in manure after catching him with a tent on the man’s land without permission while on a bike tour.

Twitter post

………

Local 

Congratulations to Streetsblog LA, after their SGV Connect was honored as Best Regular Podcast by the Los Angeles Press Club for their coverage of last year’s Arroyo Fest.

Los Angeles has launched the city’s Let’s Play Outside campaign, complete with a ten-point kid’s bill of rights for outdoor activities, including riding a bicycle.

Speaking of LADOT, the city transportation agency shared additional details about the Hollywood Boulevard Safety and Mobility Project, including mostly parking-protected bike lanes from Gower Street to Lyman Place, and eventually east to the six-way intersection at Sunset Blvd, Virgil Ave and Hillhurst Ave.

Culver City Walk ‘n Rollers totaled up the savings from students riding their bikes to school in the city, with students burning 65,770 calories and removing 1,452 pounds of carbon from the atmosphere by walking or biking 5061 trips.

 

State

San Marcos has a brand new bouncing baby bike park.

Kern County was scheduled to accept state and federal funding to build a north-south companion trail to go with the county’s 35-mile Kern River Parkway, which runs east-to-west. Or vice versa, if you prefer.

Sad news from Kern County, however, where a Bakersfield bike rider died after being struck by a driver while riding in a crosswalk; the county suffered six fatal collisions in just the last week.

The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition has reached a turning point after moving from outsider status to getting a seat at the table with government contracts and the ear of top officials.

When Napa’s street sweeper’s couldn’t fit in the city’s new protected bike lanes, the local bicycle coalition bought a human-powered street sweeper that’s towed behind a bike to do the job, instead.

 

National

NPR show The Indicator from Planet Money examines how Bike Index founder Bryan Hance cracked the case of high-end purloined bikes unexpectedly popping up for sale at a bike shop in Mexico. And yes, you can register your bicycle(s) with Bike Index or report them stolen for free, right here on this site.

A group of Hawaii teenagers reached a settlement with the state over climate issues, with the governor agreeing to take bold action to address climate change, including providing safer options for green transportation — like bicycling — to reduce motor vehicle traffic.

Portland, Oregon is investing $20 million over the next five years to increase access to electric bicycles for moderate- to low-income residents

It was summer Bike to Work Day in Colorado yesterday, including in my bike-friendly hometown. Although some question the lack of recognition for those who bike to work every day.

A San Antonio, Texas man faces sentencing after pleading guilty to killing a woman riding a bicycle, while driving under the influence; prosecutors argued he had at least 11 drinks before getting behind the wheel.

A Central Texas mom says she cried like a baby after a total stranger replaced her eight-year old son’s stolen bicycle upon reading her social media post about the theft.

Ghost bikes are disappearing off the streets of Austin, Texas, apparently thanks to city maintenance workers who don’t know why they’re there.

Heartbreaking news from Michigan, where an 83-year old Florida man was killed while riding his bicycle, just after reaching a lifetime goal of riding 200,000 miles; he was leaving his son’s house to visit his daughter when a driver ran him down.

Just weeks after NY Governor Kathy Hochul cancelled plans for congestion pricing in Manhattan, a new study shows New York has the world’s worst traffic congestion, costing the city $9.1 billion a year in lost productivity; Los Angeles is #7 on the list.

Actress Jennifer Lawrence is one of us, looking “loved up” as she rides a bikeshare bike with her husband on the streets of New York.

 

International

Once again, life is cheap in the UK, where a teenaged driver who killed a bike rider, just weeks after passing his driving test, walked without a single day behind bars after he was sentenced to community service and a lousy £240 fine — the equivalent of just $303.

A Manx bicyclist — no, not that one — just finished a five-day bike ride across the French Alps on a foldie, raising the equivalent of over $7,500 for an Isle of Man hospice along the way.

France Today shared nine of the country’s best bike routes that anyone can bike.

A team from the Netherlands set a new world’s record for the world’s longest tandem bicycle at an incredible 55.35 meters — aka 181 feet 7 inches — perfect for when you really don’t get along with your stoker.

 

Competitive Cycling

This year’s Tour de France hasn’t even started yet, and it’s clear last year’s Vuelta winner, American Sepp Kuss, won’t make the podium in Paris next month, after withdrawing due to Covid.

Bicycling shares the North American cyclists still competing in the Tour, remembering that yes, Canada is part of North America. Read it on AOL this time if the magazine blocks you. 

 

Finally…

You can ride in just about any clothes, but maybe rethink the bell bottoms. Nothing like putting crocheted woolen boobs on your bike to fight breast cancer.

And your next car could be a three-wheeled California-made bike.

On second thought, no it can’t.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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