March 22, 2024 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on New Flax bike book out now, Hollywood Complete Street plan announced, and Senate bill promises local bike/ped funding
Just 284 days until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025.
Men’s Journal offers an excerpt from the book, describing it as a celebration of “just how far and wide those two wheels can transport us.”
Here’s a brief excerpt from their excerpt:
Of course, a road bike can at times feel like an imperfect instrument for immersing yourself in nature. A beautiful and quiet paved road can disappear beneath your tires, leaving you open to embrace all the gifts that surround you, but too often there is traffic or development or angry drivers. Most cyclists diligently try to find the prettiest and safest routes in their area, but for a growing number of riders, it has gotten tougher to roll a bike out the front door or out of the garage and find peace.
This discouraging trend informs a number of seismic shifts within bike culture—the popularity of gravel riding, bikepacking, cyclocross, adventure riding, mixed-surface touring, electric mountain biking, and indoor riding. Other than that last trend—the Zwift and SoulCycle phenomena—the rest are all activities and equipment that help people have meaningful outdoor experiences without the chaos of cars or the elbows-out personality of road racing. The purity of the experience can be distilled in a beautiful way.
Many of these emerging subcultures highly value self-sufficiency and community. These are styles of riding where your smartphone is not your most important tool. These are communities where sharing an experience with people carries more weight than beating them. Activities in which you still need strength and fitness but are likely more focused on exploration or tenacity than on traditional endurance. You are out in a wild place, in tune with your surroundings, looking to test yourself against natural conditions.
It’s more than worth spending a few enjoyable minutes to read the piece. Or however long it will take you to buy and read the whole thing.
Then follow his lead, and get out and ride your bike for the sheet joy of it, wherever, however and whatever you ride.
The overall project consists of two abutting Hollywood Boulevard stretches being improved collaboratively by two different city departments.
LADOT’s Hollywood Boulevard Safety and Mobility Project will extend 2.3 miles from Fountain Avenue to Gower Street
The city Department of Public Works Bureau of Engineering (BOE) “Access to Hollywood” project will include quick-build upgrades on 1.1 miles from Gower Street to Orange Drive – the famous Hollywood Walk of Fame. BOE is the lead agency for this stretch, where it is collaborating with LADOT, Bureau of Street Services (StreetsLA), and Metro.
But it’s a long-needed project, which will provide the first protected bike lanes in Soto-Martinez’ district, as well as the first east-west bike lane through Hollywood.
Although it stands little or no chance of passing the dysfunctional Republican-controlled House and becoming law this year, even if it does get approved by the Senate.
A Gold Country cycling columnist says don’t let bad behavior define bicyclists, and it’s never appropriate to flip off a driver. No matter how much they might deserve it.
A 24-year old Colorado woman was arrested for a fatal hit-and-run, two months after she knocked a 43-year old man off his bicycle and left him to die on an embankment on the side of the road; the victim wasn’t found for more than two days after the crash. Drivers like that should face a murder charge for making the conscious decision to let their victims die rather than stop and call for help.
September 5, 2023 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Why Vision Zero is failing in Los Angeles and San Francisco, and why you can’t get there from here in Playa Vista
Vision Zero is now nine years old in California, yet people keep dying on our streets.
The Los Angeles Times looks at why, examining the failure of Vision Zero in San Francisco and Los Angeles, the latter just two years away from the deadline by which it’s supposed to end traffic fatalities once and for all.
Not that anyone in city leadership seems to notice.
Or care.
But San Francisco, like Los Angeles, has spent the better part of a decade making such changes as part of an ambitious pledge to reduce traffic-related deaths to zero. Neither city is close to achieving that goal…
“It’s been an abject failure,” said John Yi, the executive director of Los Angeles Walks, a nonprofit that works with immigrants and communities of color to build safer pedestrian infrastructure in their neighborhoods.
Last year, 312 people were killed in car crashes and 1,517 were seriously injured, according to the Los Angeles Department of Transportation. Bicyclists and pedestrians represented 57% of deaths and 41% of severe injuries, though most people in Los Angeles travel by car.
The paper correctly points the finger at deadly speeds, noting efforts at the state level to lower speed limits and legalize speed cams.
But lowering speed limits will only do so much good in a state where they are universally ignored, and drivers routinely travel 10 to 15 miles above whatever limit in nominally posted.
And get angry if they’re stopped for doing so, apparently believing it’s their God-given right as Californians to travel above the speed limit.
Graphic by tomexploresla
Meanwhile, so much has been given away to appease the windshield-addled crowd that California’s proposed bill to legalize speed cams will be limited to a limited effect, in a limited number of cities.
Including a built-in 10 mph cushion above the limit, as state lawmakers seem willing to sacrifice human lives rather than force drivers to take their damn feet off the gas.
The simple fact is, our traffic engineers and planners know what it will take to end traffic deaths, but city and state officials are simply unwilling to do it.
Let alone fund it.
They lack the political will to make the wholesale changes necessary to channel and slow motor vehicles, and the heavy-footed, mistake prone people in them.
Let alone reimagine our transportation system for the 21st Century, abandoning the failed model that’s driven deaths, congestion and climate change for the past century, and moving towards a cleaner, healthier and more efficient model focused on transit and active transportation.
Which is not to say private motor vehicles must go away. But they must be deprioritized, no longer the first choice to transport individuals and goods, but the last.
So instead, we’ve found ourselves nibbling at the edges, adding crosswalks and beacons that work until they don’t. And counting on drivers to pay attention and obey the law, rather than reimagining roadways to force them to.
In the end, the problem causing Vision Zero to fail isn’t speed.
It’s money. And political leadership, or the lack thereof.
Neither of which our elected officials have been willing to invest.
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Evidently, you can’t get there from here.
Joni Yung comes up with a complicated workaround to get to and through Playa Vista.
The soils in the area of the slip out are not stable and adding to the danger, there is a redwood tree along the cutslope (hill) that is encroaching in the travel lane. From the edge of the tree to the edge of the erosion, there is approx. 8-ft, 10-inches of road width remaining. The downhill side is an approximately 12-ft drop into a creek. This is very narrow for any vehicle, car or truck. This reduced width could potentially be a concern for a motorist unfamiliar with the area.
However, despite the name, this isn’t Highway 1 along the coast, but a smaller inland roadway.
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
No bias here. After a bike rider was seriously inured when he was left-crossed by a driver who violated his right-of-way, a Kansas City TV station was quick to blame the victim for hitting the back of the driver’s car. Even though they’d be unlikely to blame a driver who hit another car in the same situation.
An English driver was charged with the equivalent of reckless driving and DUI for the head-on crash that seriously injured a bike rider, after he apparently got tired of waiting at a red light, and went around another car onto the wrong side of the road. The crash was caught on video, but be warned it’s hard to watch.
Colorado’s Sepp Kuss took the leaders jersey in the Vuelta on Friday and retained it through the weekend, becoming the first American to lead a Grand Tour in a decade. However, Remco Evenepoel called him an outsider, downplaying Kuss’ chances and saying he “kicked a hornet’s nest full of majestic eagles!” Um, okay.
September 1, 2023 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Trial starts for alleged Riverside road rage murder, ghost tire memorial in South LA, and new Metro Active Transportation Plan
Welcome to your last pre-Thanksgiving three-day weekend — not to mention the opening weekend for college football.
Which means you can count on a higher than usual percentage of drunks and otherwise intoxicated people on the roads.
So the usual protocol applies.
Ride defensively. And if you’re riding anytime after noon today, assume every driver you see has had a few.
Chances are, you won’t be far off.
I expect to see you back here bright and early Tuesday morning. And I don’t want to have to write about you, unless maybe you pull a pack of puppies out of a burning building or something.
Sergio Reynaldo Gutierrez reportedly made a U-turn to reverse direction and run down 46-year old Benedicto Solanga from behind following an apparent traffic-related dispute between the two men.
Gutierrez was arrested three weeks after the July, 2021 vehicular assault, and continues to be held on $1 million bond.
The victims, including two sisters, were riding in the back seat of the Uber when 31-year old Gregory Black slammed into them while racing through red lights at up to 100 mph.
Black, described as a known gang member with an extensive rap sheet, was charged with three counts of vehicular manslaughter, and held on $4 million bond.
So much for the myth that bail is based strictly on the suspect’s ability to pay. And not a reflection of how seriously prosecutors take the crime.
Black was already serving a five-year probation following his release from prison for attempted murder.
According to Southern California Newsgroup’s Steve Scauzillo, the plan will “create a chain of paths, regional bikeways and pedestrian crossings to connect passengers who are walking, rolling or bicycling to and from the transit agency’s train lines, bus stops and depots.”
Metro, during a virtual public meeting Tuesday afternoon, Aug. 29, outlined three areas for improvement, identifying 602 “first and last mile” areas located near transit, 81 pedestrian districts and 1,433 miles of regional bikeways.
Just completing the list of regional bikeways, which would connect to existing ones, would cost about $36 billion, which is four times the entire LA Metro annual budget.
The plan has a focus on equity, improving service and safety first in areas where fewer people own cars, including including mostly Black and Latino neighborhoods.
But as we’ve seen with the City of Los Angeles, it’s one thing to make a plan, and another to implement it, as ActiveSGV’s special programs director Wesley Reutimann pointed out.
He said Metro should redirect budget dollars from highways toward completing bikeways and walkways. But getting the OK from cities and landowners can gum up the works. Metro is also asking cities to help fund the projects or apply for grant dollars. This can delay or nix projects altogether, he said.
“Long story short: Metro did a plan (in 2016) and most of it was never implemented. It just feels like this plan update is window dressing,” Reutimann said.
Even a fraction of what the agency wastes on highway engorgements could go a long way towards actually implementing this plan.
Let’s hope someone over there figures out how to do that.
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This will be great if it actually happens.
And that’s a big if.
A pair of Los Angeles City Council motions call for streamlining operations between LADOT, LA Street Services, the Bureau of Engineering, and the Bureau of Street Lighting, as well as developing a five-year infrastructure spending plan for the city.
Correction, they both call for a pair of studies on how to do it.
Which is what the Los Angeles city government does best — study problems, rather than actually solve them.
A Denver TV station provides more information on the crash that severely injured professional ultra endurance bicyclist Jay Petervary as he was attempting to set a new record for the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route.
Investigators concluded Petervary was riding on a mountain highway in central Colorado when he was rear-ended by a 16-year old driver, who may have been speeding, while attempting to pass on a “straight on a wide, open road with no trees or obstructions.”
Petervary says he landed about 20 yards from his bike, skidding face first on the roadway.
He is now focusing on his recovery while his wife organizes his transport back home to Idaho, his future care and the legal repercussions. Donations are still being accepted for the Be Good Foundation. As of Thursday morning, he had raised about $9,500 of the $20,000 goal.
Petervary has a lengthy history with long-distance racing. The sponsored athlete has competed for 25 years, exploring new routes and races. But he also loves providing experiences and opportunities for others, he wrote on his website. He has adopted the mantra “Ride Forward” in not only his athletic endeavors, but in his business, relationships, friendships and more.
“It also meant to not have regrets or get bogged down in the past but also reflect and learn to move forward more fluidly,” he wrote online.
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While we’re catching up on crashes, an Arizona TV station talks with the Flagstaff bicyclist who was sideswiped by the driver of a passing RV, taking out around a dozen riders on a group ride like so many bowling pins.
Saturday, Wallace was biking on Lake Mary Road with a local cycling group, “Team Pay and Take” when he was hit in the head by an RV’s side mirror. His helmet came off, and he then crashed into multiple cyclists behind him, causing a pileup. “I mean, these people are like family,” Wallace said. “You know you ride with them every week. My partner was on the ride as well and she crashed right behind me. So your first thought is just like is everyone OK?”
Wallace said the person driving the RV stopped and cooperated with police, but this is an important reminder to share the road as it’s state law to give cyclists at least 3 feet of space. “I think it’s just a sad point that when we get behind the wheel of a car, we don’t see our fellow humans out there as someone who has someone to go home to after the ride,” Wallace said.
No word yet on whether the driver will faces charges; at last report, he was only ticketed for an unsafe pass.
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Good question.
The Militant tried this in 2021 when @JackBox dine-in was still closed during the Pandemic.
Canada’s prime minister is one of us. And so are his kids.
Hopped on our bikes this morning for Didi’s first day back at school. Ella’s also heading back to school today… and I know others across the country are, too. Hope everyone has a great year – you’ve got this! pic.twitter.com/uqbY45RYlj
No surprise here, as a new Belgian study shows you’re twice as likely to be killed in a collision with a bigass pickup or SUV than with a typical passenger car.
BREAKING: New large-scale Belgian study shows shocking impact of vehicle weight increases on road death and injury.
e.g. When a cyclist or pedestrian is hit by a pick-up, the risk of serious injury increases by 90% compared to a car. The risk of death increases by 200%.
No bias here, either. Residents of León, Guanajuato, Mexico protested plans for a new bike lane, arguing that “about 8 cyclists pass the whole morning,” while official stats say over 65 times that many people ride it every day. Never mind that many more would probably ride there if they felt safer.
San Francisco Streetsblog’s Roger Ruddick calls on the city’s transportation agency to tow drivers who park in bike lanes, after talking the staff at a bagel shop into refusing to serve a driver who parked in a protected bike lane in front of the shop. Note to traffic engineers and planners — if someone can park in it, it’s not protected.
Outside says you should spend at least $250 on bike bibs, arguing that high-end bibs will literally save your ass. I’ll reserve comment, since I’ve never spent more than a fraction of that, and my ass is still firmly attached.
Boulder, Colorado threatens to beat California to the ebike rebate punch with the city’s second round of ebike vouchers, before California gets around to issuing its first.
That’s more like it. A Louisiana semi-truck driver is facing a negligent homicide charge for killing a man riding a bicycle by sideswiping the victim while attempting to pass his bike on a curve; the charge is an upgrade from an initial ticket for violating the state’s three-foot passing law.
An Indian woman is calling for a fresh approach to urban planning, saying the country needs a greater emphasis on bicycling to boost the enrollment of girls in both urban and rural schools, increase productivity for individuals, and reduce dependence on fossil fuels.
American super-domestique Sepp Kuss soloed to victory in the sixth stage of the Vuelta, high-fiving fans the final 50 yards; meanwhile, Remco Evenepoel lost time to key rivals Primož Roglič and Jonas Vingegaard, as he handed the leader’s jersey to France’s Lenny Martinez.
They’ve also competed Safe Travels Education Program, aka STEP, safe walking and biking safety campaigns in at least 25 public elementary schools, and worked with a social media influencer to develop an ebike safety tutorial that’s received over 1 million views on Instagram.
Glendale officials rallied in support of AB 645, which would create a speed cam pilot program in three SoCal cities — Glendale, Long Beach and Los Angeles — along with three cities in Northern California.
State
Police in Irvine busted a pair of alleged bike thieves who’d were arrested while ghost riding four stolen bicycles; the also had outstanding warrants, and were carrying burglary tools and drug paraphernalia.
New York bicyclists are marking next week’s 141st birthday of legendary artist Edward Hopper with a bike ride from The Whitney Museum of American Art in Manhattan to his birthplace of Nyack NY and back — entirely which is appropriate since he was one of us.
DC could become the latest city to offer ebike rebates, with up to $2,000 off the price of an e-cargo bike, and $300 to replace crappy, fire-prone lithium-ion batteries. Meanwhile, Los Angeles responds with <crickets>.
Momentum Magazine offers advice on how to deal with the inevitable bikelash, including advice to stay calm and respectful in confrontations. Which can seem almost impossible in the heat of the moment.
A British coroner concluded that all it might have taken to save the life of a 52-year old woman who died in a solo fall off her bike was a sign warning about the badly degraded roadway. Or maybe they could have just fixed the damn road in the first place.
July 7, 2023 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Still no word on launch of CA ebike rebate program, and active transportation bills face Tuesday state senate committee vote
The program has already spent a quarter of the allotted $10 million for administration and overhead, leaving just $7.5 million available for ebike vouchers.
It’s being administered by San Diego’s Pedal Ahead, which operates an ebike loan-to-own program for San Diego residents.
Meanwhile, Calbike offers a slightly different version, saying the program was scheduled to have a soft opening in four undisclosed regions last month, before opening statewide in a few months.
They cite a $13 million budget, anticipating it will fund between 4,000 and 7,000 ebike vouchers.
So if the soft openings do happen and exceed anticipated demand, it’s possible there might not be anything left by the time it gets to you.
The bills include another attempt to get the Stop as Yield bill past Governor Newsom’s veto pen, as well as bills mandating daylighting at intersections, requiring climate-first transportation planning, and legalizing sidewalk bike riding statewide.
The fifth bill would establish a pilot program for free youth transit.
The link above includes a form to contact your state legislature to voice your support for any or all of the bills.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on rolling.
No bias here. After a little kid was struck by a driver in Wales, Britain’s Sky News reports the ten-year old “cyclist” suffered life-changing injuries. I believe the word they were looking for there was child.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
No bias here, either. New Jersey letter writers say a bike rider who is suing a councilmember for the hit-and-run crash that reportedly left him with serious injuries doesn’t deserve a red cent because he ran the red light, regardless of whether the councilwoman fled the scene. And, uh, because he was wearing flip flops.
Bike riders in Barrie, Ontario were fined $180 each for running a stop sign in a community safety zone, as officials stressed “Stop signs are for everyone, including cyclists.” While bike riders should observe the law, they have a much better view of the road and pose significantly less danger to others around them, which should be reflected in any fine, but usually isn’t. Thanks to How The West Was Saved for the heads-up.
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Local
Metro has received over half of the $80 million in grants distributed across six SoCal counties by the Southern California Association of Governments Regional Council, aka SCAG; the funding represents the first local distribution of a $237 million state Regional Early Action Planning, or REAP, grant for transportation and housing efforts.
A Colorado man is recovering after two weeks in the hospital with a broken collarbone, shoulder and damaged skull, as well as “really bad road rash all over his body” after falling off his bike during a fundraising ride to fight human trafficking.
Disappointing ruling from a Minnesota appeals court, which dismissed a lawsuit from the father of a 13-year old boy who was killed by a driver while riding his bike to school, ruling that the city, county and school district can’t be held accountable for dangerous conditions on the roadway.
Columbus, Ohio is the latest city to offer residents ebike rebates, with up to 150 vouchers ranging from $500 to $1,200, depending on household income. Meanwhile, Californians continue to wait for what was the nation’s first ebike rebate program when it was originally approved 19 months ago.
And horrifyingly, that is with only 49 states checking in.
According to new estimates from the Governors Highway Safety Association, “at least” 7,508 people on foot were killed by drivers on U.S. roads last year — an estimate, that notably, excludes the entire state of Oklahoma, which failed to deliver its preliminary totals this year due to technical difficulties but has averaged 92 pedestrian deaths in recent years.
If that estimate sticks, U.S. walkers will have experienced a stunning 77-percent increase in deaths since 2010, rising at a rate more than three times faster than the rest of the traveling public, for whom fatalities increased 25 percent over the same period.
While the total doesn’t include bicycling fatalities, a rise in one usually corresponds with rise in the other.
The GHSA report suggested that common factors in pedestrians deaths include large arterials designed to prioritize vehicle speed, the ever-increasing size of motor vehicles, and dark road conditions.
You can add to that a lack of safe sidewalks and crosswalks, and all the multiple and varied forms of driver distraction — including distracting video and touchscreen systems installed directly into the dashboard.
The GHSA reports that “in the absence of urgent action to address those systemic factors, safety officials are begging drivers themselves to be more careful.”
Sure, that’ll happen.
Notably, pedestrian deaths are estimated to have dropped 20% in California, tied by South Carolina, and exceeded only by New Jersey’s 27% decrease.
Meanwhile, according to a report from Pro Publica, the US Department of Transportation allowed trucking lobbyists to review an unpublished report recommending sideguards on all large trucks.
The goal of the report was to save lives by preventing bike riders and pedestrians from getting trapped underneath turning trucks, or from overly close passes.
Needless to say, trucking firms rejected the modest cost of sideguards, which are already required in the European Union, apparently preferring to pay higher insurance fees and the occasional legal settlement when they actually kill someone.
And making it clear that the USDOT exists to maintain corporate profits, rather than save human lives.
Orange County bike advocate Mike Wilkinson sends word of an important active transportation survey in Buena Park.
THIS IS IMPORTANT! Buena Park is developing its first Active Transportation Plan. This is a rare opportunity for people who bike or walk to tell the city what they need.
There are two surveys. One is near the top of the page linked here, and it asks for basic information about biking and walking in the city. Scroll down further, and there is an interactive map that allows you to click on streets or intersections that need to be improved. It’s a little complicated, but please take your time to figure out how to use it, and then let the city know what needs to be done!
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Wealthy NIMBYs in San Diego’s Pacific Beach used their cars to protest permanent safety installations on Diamond Street, claiming they will somehow cause more traffic emissions.
And missing the irony entirely.
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Rhodes scholar, country singer-songwriter and actor Kris Kristofferson is one of us, or at least he was in his college days at Oxford.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on rolling.
Bike-riding Encinitas Assemblymember Tasha Boerner is making her third consecutive attempt to pass a California Safety Stop, aka Stop as Yield, aka Idaho Stop law, after Governor Newsom vetoed the bill two years ago; last year she pulled the legislation after it passed both houses of the legislature to avoid another threatened veto.
If you’re going to tour Roswell, New Mexico, do it from the seat of a bike. That way, there will be some evidence left behind after the aliens grab you.
He gets it. The Aussie academic behind the recent study showing drivers see bike riders wearing helmets and hi-vis as less than human says “If you have a safe and normal cycling culture, how could you see people as anything but human?”
April 28, 2023 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Deliberate vehicular assault in Point Loma hit-and-run, CA ebike rebates, and comment on Redondo Beach Blvd plan
Tristan Gonzalez, a former San Diego police helicopter pilot and a high school mountain bike league board member — and, I’m told, a really nice guy — was riding on Catalina Blvd near Bernice Drive when he was run down by the driver around 4:50 pm.
He posted about the crash from his hospital bed, describing the suspect as a white male around 35-45 years old, wearing a lighter colored baseball cap, and driving a smaller white pickup truck with an extended cab and non-tinted windows.
He said he first encountered the driver of a white Toyota Tacoma a block earlier near Catalina Boulevard and Narragansett Avenue. He said he sensed the driver was getting dangerously close to him. At one point, he said the driver hit the handlebars of Gonzalez’s bike.
Gonzalez said he approached the truck and looked into the window. He said the driver stared straight ahead and didn’t acknowledge him.
As they both continued down Catalina toward Bernice, he sensed he was about to be hit.
“All of a sudden, I hear honking. I hear a car speed up, and sure enough, the same white truck came up alongside me,” said Gonzalez. “I just had time to look over and to see it was the same truck and to see the driver steer and turn the truck and speed right into me. I went flying and landed in the street with several injuries.”
To make matters worse, I’m told a witness pulled over to help, but accidentally left her car in drive, only stopping when Gonzolez’ helmet was wedged between the front tire, fender and bumper as a wheel chock.
He was hospitalized with a broken hip, clavicle and punctured lung. The good news is, he was scheduled to be released on Wednesday.
Police are reportedly taking the incident seriously, investigating the crash as an assault with a deadly weapon. Although it should be considered attempted murder.
A still photo taken from a doorbell video shows the white extended cab pickup.
An anti-bike member of the British Parliament called for removing a bike lane where 59 people have been injured in the past year as a result of a pale line painted the same color as a curb, creating an optical illusion; he has also used racist terms in the past in criticizing bike lanes. Or they could just paint one or the other a different color, and solve the whole problem.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
The LA Times gets it, saying walking to school shouldn’t be deadly, in the wake of the crash that killed a mom and critically injured her daughter as they crossed the street to get to the girl’s school. Then again, biking to school shouldn’t mean risking life and limb, either.
Metro says this year’s Bike Week is scheduled for May 15-19 and Bike Day, formerly known as Bike To Work Day, will be Thursday, May 18. Let’s just hope it doesn’t fizzle out for lack of interest like it did last year.
The family of fallen Encinitas bicyclist Jennings Worley have begun settlement talks in a lawsuit against Shea Homes, three years after Worley, a leading scientist working on a cure cystic fibrosis, was killed when moving truck driver right hooked him turning into one of the builder’s developments. Which raises the question of how many CF patients will needlessly suffer because he isn’t there to develop a treatment for the devastating disease.
A Spokane, Washington website says 750 bike riders have been struck by drivers in the city since 2014, along with 1,500 pedestrians, and examines what can be done to stop the carnage.
Road.ccexplains what all-road bikes are, describing them as “drop-bar bikes that are fast and capable on any kind of road surface from smooth asphalt all the way to light gravel tracks.” In other words, what we used to call a “bicycle.”
Photo shows a bike dismount sign in Manhattan Beach, because I don’t have one from Redondo.
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I’ll let someone else start things off today.
Daryll Strauss writes that the Redondo Beach City Council was hearing a recommendation from city staffers last night about the long-standing requirement to walk your bike on the beachfront bike path as it passes the city pier.
Not to mention the ridiculous 5 mph speed limit as the bike path snakes through the pier parking garage, which makes it a challenge to keep your bike upright while getting anywhere close to it.
Redondo Beach Pier has a bike path that travels through the pier parking garage. The RBPD has begun a maximum enforcement ($300 ticket) policy requiring bicyclists to walk their bike through the garage through the south end of the pier. A distance of about 300 yards.
The laws in the city allow police to enforce a walk your bike requirement anywhere signs are posted, and signs can be posted anywhere city staff wants. There are signs and flashing lights that say walk your bike when flashing, but they flash all the time.
The South Bay Bicycle Coalition and the Redondo Beach Harbor Commission have recommended loosening the restrictions, but the recommendations from city staff is to keep the status quo.
The staff recommendations are ludicrous. They don’t provide any data to justify their recommendations and make specious arguments. It basically comes down to the fact the police can’t legally enforce a speed limit so they’ll make it “walk your bike”. Their safety concerns for bicycles riding through turns, at an arbitrary 5mpg, are outright ludicrous and can be mitigated with textured pavement. It’s also ironic that they just installed a skate park on the pier which would have much larger safety issues.
I ride this route regularly. I completely understand walking my bike where the bike path crosses the main entrance of the pier when there is significant pedestrian traffic, but the majority of the restrictions are ridiculous.
This is the beginning of the process, so there may be an opportunity to change these rules if the city council doesn’t rubber stamp the staff recommendation tonight.
I always thought the requirement was absurd when I used to ride through there on a semi-regular basis.
Unfortunately, I received this too late to get the word out for last night’s meeting. But hopefully we’ll let you know if they reconsider it at a future meeting.
It will take someone with more financial acuity than I possess to dig into it and see what she’s budgeted for alternative transportation, bikes and Vision Zero, and how it compares to previous years.
But a cursory examination didn’t reveal any mention of it in the budget, or in LAist’s detailed look at the budget. Which doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence.
This is what she had to say on the subject when she was campaigning for mayor. We’ll see how much actually made it into the budget.
8. Prevent Traffic Fatalities and Champion Walking and Biking
Los Angeles has one of the highest rates of traffic fatalities in the nation 11 – and those deaths disproportionately impact communities of color and low-income neighborhoods. 1213 That is unacceptable. Traffic safety is a public health issue.
Meanwhile, survey after survey shows that Angelenos don’t feel safe getting around their neighborhood on foot and by bike – even though they want to. 1415 Angelenos shouldn’t have to worry about being struck by a car when they’re trying to bike to work or walk their children to school. Bass will stand up for safe streets, and prioritize accessibility for the most vulnerable members of our community.
As Mayor, Bass will:
Treat street safety as the public health crisis it is, and leverage all available city resources to address unsafe speeds and save lives.
Prioritize first and last-mile access to transit so that all Angelenos can use the region’s growing rail and bus network.
Invest in street safety infrastructure that saves lives.
Create family-friendly bicycle and pedestrian routes to connect neighborhood destinations and transit stops.
Support and expand monthly open streets events across L.A. like CicLAvia that bring communities together.
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Metro Bike is offering free rides for Earth Day this Saturday.
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BikeLA, the former Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, supports a more equitable distribution of street space on Eagle Rock Blvd.
BikeLA is supporting our friends at @EquitableER to advocate for a transformative vision for a stretch of Eagle Rock Boulevard between Colorado Bl and York Blvd. We urge you to join us and vote Option 2 on the survey: https://t.co/viXeWAPLLHpic.twitter.com/LipVypRXTZ
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
An Illinois man faces up to 30 years behind bars for riding his bicycle over a homeless man sleeping in a parking garage, then attacking the victim with both ends of an axe; the horrific assault only ended when the victim was able to reach an emergency phone.
Bills to authorize speed cams and camera enforcement of bike lanes passed their first committee hearings in the state legislature; unfortunately, a bill that would rip out the bike lanes on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge and replace them with another lane for motor vehicles did, too.
Heartbreaking news from Florida, where an 83-year old man was murdered by a heartless hit-and-run driver, after he was struck by a motorcyclist while trying to ride his bike across the street; the motorcycle rider was critically injured, as well. Seriously, anyone who can still ride a bike at that age deserves a hell of a lot better. Then again, so does anyone else.
More bad Florida news, as Dartmouth College football coach Buddy Teevens had his leg amputated, as well as suffering spinal injuries, as a result of last month’s collision while he was riding his bike home from a restaurant; police naturally blamed him for the crash, and never bothered to test the uninsured driver for drug or alcohol use.
Remarkable news from France, where the 50-year old man who received the first double arm and shoulder transplant two years ago was able to ride a bicycle for the first time after losing both arms when he was electrocuted by power lines 25 years earlier.
The project is under fire from the newly auto-centric conservative majority on the Culver City council, which wants to rip it out so cars can once again go zoom, zoom without having to make room for anyone else.
Here’s just a part of what Rubin has to say.
A recent analysis of the corridor shows MOVE Culer City has delivered substantial benefits with few tradeoffs.
A 52% increase in bus ridership
A 32% increase in cycling activity
A 18% increase in pedestrian activity
Only a 2 minute increase in average peak period travel time for people in cars
Hard-won progress deserves defending. So this week, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) sent a letter to the City Council expressing our support for the MOVE Culver City initiative. In doing so, we joined over 20 other organizations that advocate for sustainable, safe, healthy and equitable transportation.
He also notes that removing the project could violate state environmental laws, as well as federal civil rights requirements.
In our letter, we make the case that any action by the city to increase the number of lane-miles available for mixed-flow vehicle traffic would require analysis, disclosure, and mitigation of potential environmental impacts pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The City must comply with CEQA before making any final decision on a project that changes conditions on the ground today.
Full removal of MOVE Culver City would entail adding approximately 2.6 lane miles of vehicular lanes to principal arterial highways, which is likely to significantly increase vehicle miles traveled, according to the state’s official CEQA guidance. That increase in VMT would contribute to additional greenhouse gas emissions impacts, as well as criteria air pollution, including ozone, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and PM10 and PM2.5, from tailpipe exhaust and brake, tire, and roadway wear.
Further, we note that the City is required by Title VI of the Civil Rights Act to analyze changes to transit service that might disproportionately affect people of color, immigrants and other protected communities who ride transit.
Celebrate Earth Day this Saturday on your bike! We’ll do the usual group ride to get some coffee — this time aiming for Belmont Heights. Then back to Pedal Movement.
For EXTRA CREDIT, keep rolling with us and climb Signal Hill for a chat with the Sierra Club about the threat of future oil drilling in our community.
Hard to tell just where this is, but it looks like it might be the Santa Monica Civic Center complex.
Or maybe SaMo High.
For how long were you going to keep this thing a secret @santamonicacity ? This is PROPER infrastructure; now that you’ve shown you know how to do it right, gimme some more! pic.twitter.com/ABWwXwlLbN
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on rolling.
No bias here. Officials in a Massachusetts town are up in arms after state officials begin work to remove a traffic lane and install bike lanes on a local bridge, insisting no one told them about the plans; one city councilmember actually insists there’s not enough bike traffic on the bridge to justify a bike lane, apparently forgetting that most people don’t enjoy risking their lives in traffic with safe infrastructure.
A New Orleans driver faces up to 15 years behind bars for the hit-and-run death of a “beloved” local butcher as he was riding his bike six years ago; no word on why it took so long to bring the man’s killer to justice.
L39ion of Los Angeles founders Justin and Cory Williams announced the launch of their third co-ed, multi-racial city-based cycling team in Austin, Texas, following the launch of another team in Miami. They may be single-handedly — okay, double handedly — doing more to ensure the survival, growth and spread of cycling in this country than anyone else.
March 7, 2023 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Lower income people bike more than wealthier Americans, and city council committees consider transportation
After controlling for a number of observed and unobserved factors, we find that individuals in low-income, car-owning households are associated with up to 14% more walking trips and 33% more cycling trips in a week compared to higher-income households, on average.
However, the authors note that higher-income households use active travel significantly more than low-income, car-owning households in urban areas, while the opposite holds for suburban and rural areas.
Their conclusion is that active travel is often driven by necessity and lack of other viable options.
We need to flip that script, and move to where people of all income levels choose active transportation because it’s the most convenient option, not because they don’t a choice.
The Transportation Committee will consider the installation of speed tables to minimize speeding, and reimagining the intersection of Ventura Blvd & Woodman Ave to improve safety at its 2 pm meeting.
Meanwhile, the Public Works Committee will meet at 3:30 pm to address sidewalk repairs while preserving street trees, among other matters.
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
No bias here. The chair of a Brooklyn community board endorsed speeding in school zones, and blamed bike riders for “almost” killing someone every minute. Sure, let’s pretend the streets are littered with the bodies of people who were “almost” hit by someone on a bicycle. As opposed to the ones who were “almost” missed by drivers, but weren’t.
Or here. A British writer, who somehow seems to think it’s her job to enforce bike laws, says the recent conviction of a woman who pushed an elderly rider off her bike and into traffic, where she was killed, gives scofflaw bicyclists permission to illegally ride on sidewalks. And not that pedestrians should be more accepting of people who aren’t willing or able to ride on dangerous streets.
How to write a headline — and news story — through a strictly windshield perspective.
Jalopnik explains why automakers are suddenly obsessed with making ebikes. That’s easy — money.
The newest iteration of Trek’s Verve+ ebike tops out at 28 mph. Which means it can only be ridden by someone over 16 and requires a helmet in California, and many other states that have adopted a version of the Golden State’s ebike regulations, and is banned from Class I and Class IV bike paths and cycle tracks.
Family members say a 65-year old Houston driver who killed a bike rider — and drove home with the victim’s bike still jammed under his car — was partially paralyzed following a recent stroke, and thought he had a flat tire. Although if someone’s health makes them so dysfunctional they don’t even know they hit a grown man on a bicycle, maybe they shouldn’t be driving.
Momentum jumps on the anti-sharrow bandwagon, writing that the painted chevron symbols made sense in theory, but are now useless and possibly dangerous in practice. You know my take on sharrows. They’re an effort by transportation officials to thin the bike herd, and the arrows are just there to help drivers improve their aim.
Now you, too, could ride in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, as USA Cycling is holding a series of track cycling tryouts looking for riders with the potential to compete at the highest levels, particularly athletes from diverse and underrepresented backgrounds.
