Cunanan was riding east on Thunderbird Road at Wichita Road around 9:10 pm Monday, when he was rear-ended by an SUV driver traveling in the same direction at a high rate of speed.
The 36-year old driver remained at the scene and cooperated with investigators.
A message from his church the next day had asked for “fervent prayers” for Cunanan, as well as his wife and children.
The earlier story had said Cunanan was riding in the traffic lane when he was struck. However, that was not repeated in the second story reporting his death; there is a westbound bike lane on Thunderbird, but not headed east.
The crash remains under investigation. Any with information is urged to call the Apple Valley Station of the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department at 760/240-7400, or Sheriff’s Dispatch number at 760/956-5001.
This is at least the 22nd bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the first that I’m aware of in San Bernardino County.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for Victor Cunanan and all his family and loved ones.
There’s no word on whether the driver was ticketed or charged. And as with other similar cases, there’s no information on why Fields was riding on the freeway.
This is at least the 21st bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the sixth that I’m aware of in San Diego County.
I have the answer why the deceased was riding on the freeway shoulder. The section of I805 from Main St to Palm Ave is marked with signage allowing bicycles. Or at least it was, I haven’t been that way in a while. The reason is that there is no way to bike from Chula Vista to South San Diego without using the 805 without going way around. The toll road 125 is similarly marked.
I preferred the north bound side as it was relatively safer. The south bound exit at Palm is a typically chaotic, car centric CALTRANS design seemingly designed to imperil cyclists and pedestrians regardless of whether they’re on the ramp or not.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for Victor Keith Fields and all his loved ones.
June 7, 2024 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Grossman sentencing Monday on hit-and-run, murder charges; and NY congestion pricing decision could jeopardize LA plan
Just 207 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025.
Grossman was convicted on two counts of murder and gross vehicular manslaughter, and one count of hit and run for the high-speed deaths of 11-year old Mark Iskander and his eight-year old brother as they crossed a residential Westlake Village street with their parents.
The wife of Grossman Burn Center founder Dr. Peter Grossman, Grossman allegedly had Valium in her system and had downed at least two margaritas, before racing with her then-boyfriend, former Dodgers pitcher Scott Erickson.
Her attorneys argued the wealthy philanthropist and mother of two has no prior criminal record and should be spared prison time, while prosecutors contend she deserves a heavy sentence because she hasn’t shown any remorse or accepted responsibility for the fatal crash.
Their recommendation of two consecutive sentences of 15-to-life, plus four years for the hit-and-run count, would mean the 60-year old would likely spend the rest of her life behind bars.
She’s scheduled to be sentenced on Monday.
Let’s just hope the judge agrees.
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More fallout from New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s unexpected decision to kill congestion pricing in New York City.
New York Streetsblog questions whether the governor even has the legal authority to cancel congestion pricing scheduled to go into effect at the end of this month, and if she has a plan to replace the billions in lost revenue to fund the city’s transit network.
While it may seem like a New York problem, her decision matters here in Los Angeles, too. Because if it stands, that will make it almost impossible to implement congestion pricing, which has proven successful in London, virtually anywhere in the US.
Including right here in the City of Angels and Traffic Congestion.
BikeSD is sponsoring a bike ride tomorrow to show that bikes mean business, and encourage bike riders to use its coupon book to support businesses along Main Street in San Diego’s North Park neighborhood.
And vice versa.
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Gravel Bike California takes an epic two-wheeled offroad tour of Catalina Island.
Hermosa Beach is banning ebikes and electric motorcycles from the city’s greenbelt, but will still allow them on The Strand and in Pier Plaza, as long as the motor is turned off — making them impractically heavy. Banning ebikes from bike paths and walkways is legal under state law; banning them from public streets is not.
Back in 2019, a four-year old girl was tragically killed by a driver as she crossed the street in Koreatown, while holding hands with her mother.
In a crosswalk. With the light.
Alessa Fajardo and her mom did everything right as they crossed Olympic at Normandie that October day, yet she died anyway. Even though Los Angeles officials knew long before about the dangers of that area and intersection.
In fact, the school they were going to was ranked the city’s 13th most dangerous campus just six years earlier, while Koreatown as a whole was rated LA’s fourth most dangerous neighborhood for bike riders and pedestrians.
That’s pedestrians, like little kids crossing the street with their mothers.
It took four-and-a-half years, and a $9.6 million dollar settlement before anything was done about it.
Starting with the problem of each city councilmember acting like little kings in their own districts, responsible for identifying and approving any improvements before they are made.
Or not.
Neither former District 10 Councilmember Herb Wesson, who represented the district when Alessa was killed, nor his successor, Mark Ridley-Thomas, secured that funding. Ridley-Thomas was indicted on federal corruption charges, suspended from the council and later convicted and removed from his seat in late March 2022. Nobody represented the district until Heather Hutt was appointed that September.
Hutt identified and allocated $530,000 for the new signals in June 2023, but the installation work did not begin until April 2024, four months after the family’s suit against the city was settled.
District 10 staff would not comment on the record about why they could not secure the funds in 2020, 2021, 2022 and early 2023.
No surprise there.
Then again, even on the rare occasions when councilmembers really do try to do something, angry motorists too often rush for their torches and pitchforks — and threats of recall elections.
Two years before little Alessa was killed in Koreatown, the city agreed to another $9.6 million settlement, this time with the family of a 16-year old girl killed crossing — wait for it — Vista Del Mar to get to her car after leaving Dockweiler Beach.
The same beach where the kids were killed on Tuesday.
Then-CD11 Councilmember Mike Bonin responded by ordering long-delayed safety improvements on Vista Del Mar, and a handful of other streets in Playa del Rey. Both because too many lives had already been lost on the deadly roadway, and because the next settlement, for the next inevitable death, would be exponentially higher.
Now just three years after that, two more people have needlessly lost their lives on that same bloody stretch of road. And despite a breathless report from Fox-11, police reports said there was no indication either driver was under the influence.
Never mind that the settlement for this one will likely be exponentially higher than the last one, since Los Angeles installed, then removed, safety improvements that might have prevented it.
Yet despite at least four deaths on the same section of roadway in just nine years, some people still seem to think they should have the unfettered, God-given right to go zoom zoom whenever and wherever they want, innocent lives be damned.
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If you want to know why we can’t manage to do anything about the ever-rising rate of needless deaths on our streets, that’s it.
And it would be nice if our current mayor and council would somehow show they actually gave a damn, since the previous ones clearly didn’t.
Three of the kids were critically injured when the 83-year old driver hit them head-on as they rode single file, leaving the children screaming in terror and pain amid their mangled bikes.
She was arrested at the scene, then released and taken to a hospital after police concluded she wasn’t in a “fit state” for questioning.
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Speaking of deadly roadways, here’s your chance to fight for bike lanes on PCH in Long Beach.
A bike rider in Brussels, Belgium is lucky to be alive after he was knocked off his bike by a driver who tried to pass him and his companion while driving in a clearly marked bike lane, then the enraged motorist got out and slashed the victim’s throat with a knife; the victim managed to escape with just six stitches when the driver barely missed his jugular.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
Streets For All urges support for a proposed 28-mile The Hill to Sea transit corridor traversing 13 cities and unincorporated communities from Pasadena to Long Beach, which would “aggressively reduce car dependency by prioritizing high quality bus service, safe protected bike paths, and improved sidewalks for walking and businesses.”
Orange County supervisors voted to crackdown on ebikes, including restrictions on sidewalk riding, imposing speed limits and reclassifying bikes that generate more than 750 watts through their motors — even though the latter two could put them in direct conflict with existing state law.
Colorado took a step forward by creating a dedicated $7 million funding stream for “proven small infrastructure projects that improve safety for vulnerable road users,” such as bike lanes, sidewalks and other pedestrian improvements. While that’s far too little — even for a relatively small state — it’s a hell of a lot more than most are willing to commit to.
Sad news from DC, where a 34-year old White House staffer was killed while riding his bike when he crossed the center line on a sharp curve during a fundraising ride, and was struck head-on by an oncoming motorist; Jacob Thomas Brewer was the husband of Fox News contributor Mary Katharine Ham.
June 4, 2024 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Silence marks World Bicycle Day in City of Angels, living carfree in LA, and what a real 3-foot passing violation looks like
Just 210 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025.
Then share it — and keep sharing it — with everyone you know, on every platform you can.
We’re up to 1,178 signatures, so don’t stop now! I’ll forward the petition to the mayor’s office in the next few days. So urge everyone you know to sign it now!
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Yesterday was World Bicycle Day.
Or as it’s known here in Los Angeles, Monday.
While other cities around the world marked it to greater or lesser degrees, Los Angeles observed the day by ignoring it entirely.
There was no official proclamation from the mayor, who seems to have forgotten we exist, after claiming to be one of us when she needed our votes.
Ditto for the city council, which offers us only vague promises that they can ignore later.
The silence was just as deafening coming from county leaders, the governor and the state legislature.
But at least Bike Metro remembered.
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Then again, my inbox wasn’t exactly full of messages from state and local advocacy organizations using the day as a springboard to call for safer streets, better infrastructure, and other steps to get more people on fewer wheels.
Let alone the urgent need to provide safe and efficient alternatives to driving, at a time when our world is literally burning.
Instead, World Bicycle Day was just another opportunity for our elected leaders to once again swipe left, and remind us all that they’re just not that into us.
Thanks to Culver City-based multimedia producer and Loyola Marymount University Professor Emeritus Art Nomura for forwarding a couple non-commercial video series about the joys of going carfree.
The first, Carfree, Season 1, is described as a 12-part mini-documentary series released last year about the joys and challenges of living carfree, or carfree lite, in Southern California; Carfree, Season 2 is currently in production.
The second is Carfree Epiphany, a series of self-produced 30 second to two minute stories of how people have become and/or are becoming carfree. You’re invited to contribute your own video, with instructions on how to submit it included on the link.
I gave up driving several years ago. And don’t miss driving in this hot mess of a city one bit.
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Define “three-foot passing violation.”
Or at least it would be, if video evidence of misdemeanors and traffic violations counted for anything in California.
Proving just how quick and easy it can be when the people in charge actually give a damn, and don’t have their skulls firmly embedded between their buttocks.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
Horrifying story from Missouri, where a man was found badly injured 13 hours after somehow surviving a 22-foot fall, after he had to jump off his bike and over a concrete barrier to avoid getting run down by a hit-and-run driver.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
After three cygnets — aka baby swans — were killed along an English trail, suspicion immediately fell on reckless bicyclists, despite the lack of any actual evidence pointing in that direction. If bike riders were really responsible, there would have been feathers everywhere from the impact with the bike tires.
An LA County judge rejected wealthy socialite Rebecca Grossman’s bid to have her conviction overturned for killing two little kids as they rode their skateboard and kick scooter across the street with their parents, citing her speeding and drinking that night, as well as a previous warning from police about the dangers of speeding.
A British driver is on trial for killing a 52-year old triathlete as she was competing in a time trial in 2022, plowing into her from behind despite clear visibility and an open lane to her left — and later telling police he had no memory of the crash, but admitting that he “must” have hit her. Which would seem kinda obvious under the circumstances.
A new book argues that the Netherlands isn’t the bicycling paradise people think, and communities — even the ones filled with people on two wheels — should ask deeper questions about what their streets are really for. While the country may not be perfect, it’s still a hell of a lot better than pretty much anywhere here in the US. Especially LA.
Tragic news from Brazil, where 42-year old cycling champ Lais Saes was killed in a hit-and-run while training with three other women on a dirt mountain road, when she was struck by the driver of a utility vehicle; it took more than an hour for help to arrive at the remote location.
Then share it — and keep sharing it — with everyone you know, on every platform you can.
We’ve jumped up to 1,173 signatures, so don’t stop now! I’ll forward the petition to the mayor’s office in the next few days. So urge everyone you know to sign it now!
I’m finally starting to feel a little better, almost two months after falling and injuring my ribs and back, and re-injuring my shoulder. My ribs are almost back to normal, and my back is getting there. On the other hand, I think my torn rotator cuff is just screwed at this point.
Also, a very kind person reached out to me last week and offered to come over and help around our apartment — the second time that’s happened since my wife and I have both been injured, after another BikinginLA reader generously offered to come do our shopping for us.
I won’t embarrass them by sharing their names, but I truly appreciate their offers of help. And the kindness and generosity of the readers of this site, which I see every year during our fund drive, and throughout the year.
So my sincere thanks to both of these people, and everyone who has given from their heart to help keep this all going.
Not only did they move quickly to remove the protected bus and bike lanes, combining them into a single shared lane, but they made the move without conducting the required environmental review.
If you can make it, show up to show your support for the Friends and Families for MOVE Culver City, aka FFMCC, who filed the suit. And let me know what happens.
Here’s a press release from the group explaining the case.
Friends and Families for Move Culver City Invites Members of the Public to Attend the Hearing on June 5th for its Lawsuit Against City’s Planned Removal of Protected Bike Lanes and Pedestrian Protections from MOVE Culver City Project
Culver City, CA – Friends and Families for MOVE Culver City (FFMCC), a local advocacy group, invites members of the public to attend the hearing for its lawsuit to stop Culver City’s removal of critical infrastructure without proper California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) review on June 5th at 1:30pm in Department 15 at 111 North Hill Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012. The group first raised concerns and filed a lawsuit challenging the Culver City Council’s plans to remove key transportation upgrades in October 2023. The Culver City Council disregarded its own data, hundreds of public comments, letters and warnings from the community, elected officials, businesses, lawyers and environmental and mobility advocates when it first voted to begin the process of removing elements of its MOVE Culver City project in April 2023. Local advocates assert that the City Council’s approval of a CEQA exemption to these modifications is a violation of the law, as it would remove a protected bike lane and pedestrian features to accommodate an additional lane of vehicular traffic without disclosing, analyzing, or mitigating the impacts of those changes in an Environmental Impact Report (EIR).
Despite the warning, in January 2024, the Culver City Council voted to approve funding for a construction contract related to the removal of safety upgrades in the Move Culver City Corridor.
Following the vote, FFMCC filed a lawsuit in October 2023. A copy of the opening brief can be viewed here.
“We’re confident in the strength of our case and expect the judge to rule in our favor,” says Yotala Oszkay Febres-Cordero, Chair of Friends and Families for MOVE Culver City, the plaintiff in the case. “The city clearly violated CEQA by voting to exempt the project from environmental review, ignoring the indisputable fact that replacing a protected bike lane with an additional lane for cars, and removing pedestrian safety features, poses significant threats to public health and safety. This is precisely why CEQA was enacted, to provide notice to and protect communities when a planned project generates these environmental threats.” FFMCC is represented by attorneys Ellis Raskin, Jillian Ames, and Jenny Dao of Hanson Bridgett LLP.
In moving forward with this trial, FFMCC hopes to show the City that proper CEQA review pursuant to state law must be adhered to before any environmentally hostile modifications are made to the MOVE Culver City corridor.
About Friends and Families for Move Culver City
Friends and Families for Move Culver City was formed in response to the Culver City Council’s 3-2 vote to declare modifications to the MOVE Culver City project exempt from CEQA and to proceed with the removal of protected bike lanes, pedestrian protections and safety measures, and the addition of vehicle lanes along Washington Blvd and Culver Blvd in Culver City. Following the council vote on 9/11/2023, a GoFundMe was organized which raised more than $15,000 in less than two weeks, with nearly 200 donations from community members opposing the City’s plans.
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Bike Talk talks with the author of The Art of Cycling in this week’s episode, dropping on Thursday.
The annual AIDS/LifeCycle Ride is underway, with people from around the world riding 540 miles from San Francisco to Los Angeles this week; the fundraising ride will end in LA this weekend.
Paramedics in Anchorage, Alaska gave a young girl a new bicycle after a “distressing” incident that left her impaled by the brake lever on her bicycle, threatening her femoral artery.
Thanks to Cassandra Fulgham for her donation to help support this site — and possibly help defray that ambulance ride and ER visit. As you probably know by now, donations of an amount, no matter how large or small, are always welcome and appreciated, whatever the reason.
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
