It only took the near death of a celebrity.
LA County Supervisor Janice Hahn is finally pushing for much needed safety improvements on Hawthorne Blvd, where golf legend Tiger Woods was seriously injured in a high speed end-over-end collision.
Hahn directed the county Department of Public Works to review safety on the stretch of roadway where the crash occurred, which residents described as a scene of frequent crashes.
However, no one ordered a similar review when a 32-year old homeless man, identified as Jonathan Valbuena, was killed in a hit-and-run a few miles north on the same deadly corridor.
And no one ordered immediate action despite the corridor’s inclusion on the equivalent of the High Injury Network under the county’s Vision Zero plan, which doesn’t seem to have made any more progress than LA City’s seemingly forgotten plan.
Then again, none of the six people who were killed or seriously injured over a five-year period in that deadly section of the street were famous.
Which, sadly, seems to make all the difference.
That’s not to say the dangerous downhill street where Woods crashed doesn’t need to be fixed.
But maybe we could do something where the rich and famous don’t live and drive, too.
Photo by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay.
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On a related note, LA County Sheriff Alex Villanueva has given Tiger Woods a pass on the crash, saying his wreck was just an oopsie.
Apparently, Woods was traveling without a driver to film a low-budget documentary show for Discovery when he crashed.
Thanks to Megan Lynch for the heads-up.
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No bias here.
San Diego business owners complain about the loss of 22 parking spaces to create a temporary separated bike lane where a bike rider was killed last year.
Even though they’ll get them back when it’s converted to a protected bike lane later this year.
Yet there’s not a single mention of 65-year-old Dan Sweeney, who died nearly two months after a hit-and-run directly in front of their restaurants. Or that the driver left him in the street to die after getting out of his van and moving Sweeney’s bike out of the way.
Almost as if they don’t even care.
Nor, apparently, did anyone seem to care that the driver, 29-year old Mauricio Armando Flores, now faces up to four years behind bars after pleading guilty to leaving Sweeney bleeding in the street after running him down from behind.
He’ll face sentencing next month.
Thanks to Phillip Young for the last link.
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Local
Opponents of the planned restoration of the Ballona Wetlands have filed a lawsuit to stop the project, saying it’s not needed and could be harmful.
Billie Eilish is one of us, riding her bicycle while listening to the Strokes’ latest album.
State
Encinitas is starting construction on a long-awaited streetscape project to add a roundabout, buffered bike lanes and wider sidewalks to the Coast Highway in Leucadia.
A Chula Vista man was killed when a driver crashed into his motorized wheelchair as he was using a crosswalk.
Livermore officials back down and let a bike repairman keep working from home, at least for now, after over 9,000 people signed a petition supporting him.
A bike helmet offers protection against an overly aggressive Bay Area coyote.
Famed Beat poet, censorship-fighting publisher and City Lights Bookstore owner Lawrence Ferlinghetti was one of us, too.
National
A new US administration means the reintroduction of the 2019 Complete Streets bill, which would encourage safer, people oriented street designs throughout the country.
A new study of Chicago’s bikeshare system shows low-income workers and people of color relied on bikeshare more than their wealthier counterparts during the pandemic.
Minnesota-based Park Tools continues to rule the bike work bench.
Some people just don’t learn. A Boston vlogger took an “epic” ride on the frozen Charles River, just one week after he fell through the ice.
America’s first congestion pricing plan could get the go ahead now that the former Mayor Pete is heading the Department of Transportation, clearing the way for New York’s proposed program. Which could bode well for Los Angeles — if local leaders have the courage to move forward with Metro’s congestion pricing proposal.
He still can’t start a fire without a spark, but evidently Bruce was just drinking in the park.
A Newport News, Virginia man is using his pandemic downtime to ride every street in the city of !80,000 people. Which is a lot easier than it would be here in Los Angeles.
North Carolina politics could put the brakes on the bike boom in the state.
International
How to minimize the environmental impact of buying bike tires.
Road.cc examines where to find plus size bikewear, including LA-based Machines for Freedom.
Life is cheap in the UK, where a drunken hit-and-run driver got just two years and a month behind bars, despite leaving three bicyclists lying in the road with serious injuries.
That’s more like it. Italy has given food delivery companies 90 days to improve the way they treat bicycle delivery riders, saying the mostly immigrant workers are practically treated like slaves.
Maybe they see the bike writing on the wall. Volkswagen is now in the bicycle and ebike leasing and financing business, at least in Germany.
Once again, a bike rider is a hero, after an Indian man wrestled a leopard to the ground when it attacked his family as they were riding bikes together.
Kiwi bicyclists say another three years is too long to wait to improve safety on a popular riding route where a 65-year old man was killed riding his bike last year.
Competitive Cycling
Teams have been announced for the first ever women’s Paris-Roubaix.
The route for this year’s Giro has been officially unveiled, while Cycling News highlights five key stages in the race.
Bicycling highlights twelve cyclists to watch during the upcoming racing season; Sepp Kuss is the only American rider to make the list. As usual, read it on Yahoo if Bicycling blocks you.
No bias here, either. Aussie women’s cyclists face discouragement over the lack of recognition and prize money given to their male counterparts.
Finally…
How did Kermit ride his fixie, anyway? Turning your single-seat bike into a six-legged tandem, even if some people don’t like it.
And don’t hold any bake sales for Lance just yet.
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And wear a damn mask, already.
