Tag Archive for Berkeley

Longtime Chez Panisse wine director killed while riding bike, and Fresno driver deliberately runs down four bike riders

June 2, 2022 / / Comments Off on Longtime Chez Panisse wine director killed while riding bike, and Fresno driver deliberately runs down four bike riders

This is the cost of traffic violence.

The longtime wine director for famed Berkeley restaurant Chez Panisse was killed while riding his bike over the weekend.

Jonathan Waters was struck by a minivan driver Friday night, as he was riding home from the restaurant where he’d worked for 32 years. He died in an Oakland hospital the next day.

An authority on local wines, Waters was credited with raising the reputation of several small California wineries.

Photo by WikimediaImages from Pixabay.

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Call it attempted murder.

A Fresno hit-and-run driver ran down four bicyclists Saturday morning, crossing the road to strike them head-on in what the victims say was a deliberate attack.

They report the driver looked right at them as he mowed them down one by one as they rode single file on the right side of the road.

Fortunately, they all managed to escape serious injury.

Let’s hope prosecutors take this one seriously, instead of treating it like just another oopsie.

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Mark your calendar for the annual COLT ride — Chatsworth Orange Line Tour — on the 12th.

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Orange County bike riders, be sure to attend tonight’s virtual public meeting to extend the Coyote Creek Bikeway into Buena Park.

https://twitter.com/mikeocbike/status/1532214421795196928

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Local

As of yesterday, PCH will be narrowed to one lane in each direction for construction work to replace the 96-year old Trancas Creek Bridge; the new bridge will have bike lanes, pedestrian lanes and 10-foot shoulders, as well as a six-food median. Unfortunately, it will also have capacious 12-foot traffic lanes to encourage speeding.

Pasadena capped off Bike Month with an 8.5-mile ice cream tour of the city.

 

State 

Encinitas has received a $20 million loan to finance the final phase of a new streetscape on the North Coast Highway in Leucadia, which will include new bike lanes and wider sidewalks.

A San Diego cultural nonprofit is fighting proposals to remove a small amount of parking to make room for bike lanes in Balboa Park, even though it would still leave over 6,700 parking spaces in the park.

Someone riding a motorized unicycle was killed in a collision with the driver of a recycling truck in San Francisco’s Hayes Valley neighborhood; initial reports indicated the victim was on an ebike.

 

National

Streetsblog examines the difficulty in trying to visit our car-centric national parks without one.

Two years after she was paralyzed from the neck down in a car crash, a former North Dakota surgeon will ride again, thanks to a new three-wheeled, e-assist adaptive recumbent.

A University of Maryland professor calls traffic deaths and injuries a silent epidemic on wheels, with Americans are three times more likely to die in a collision than their European counterparts.

A Miami man blames the raised armadillo barriers on a protected bike lane with causing the e-scooter crash that left him with a badly broken leg.

 

International

Police in Ontario, Canada have charged a fourth person in the death of a 59-year old man, who was killed when his bike was struck by the driver of a stolen car.

A group of Canadian researchers consider whether bicycles can help the world address pressing social issues, concluding that despite their potential, bikes can’t do it on their own.

Edinburgh bike riders say they remain at risk from the city’s tram lines, five years after a young woman was killed when she was struck by the driver of a minibus after catching her tire in the tracks.

Bike thefts continue to fall in England and Wales, dropping for the fifth straight year despite a jump in ridership; an insurance company credits less commuting due to the pandemic for the most recent drop.

A speeding, road raging driver got a well-deserved seven years and nine months behind bars for killing a British father of two by ramming his bike from behind at 70 mph; the other driver got eight years for racing away and leaving the victim to die in the street.

The English author of The Slow Road to Tehran: A Revelatory Bike Ride through Europe and the Middle East tells Cycling Weekly she never thought the nearly 7,000 solo bike trip was dangerous, even if others did.

A New Zealand woman faces a charge of careless driving causing death for dooring a 19-year old man riding a bicycle, who was knocked in front of another driver and killed. Proof that it’s possible to charge a driver for dooring, even where it’s not explicitly prohibited.

 

Competitive Cycling

Cyclist sums up the recent Giro d’Italia as a redemption cycle, saying virtually every stage saw some sort of comeback, second chances and revenge rides.

Scottish track cyclist and Olympic Madison champ Katie Archibald was injured when a driver cut her off at a T-intersection while on a training ride, sending her flying over the car’s hood; she escaped with ligament damage to both ankles.

VeloNews lists ten men to watch at this weekend’s Unbound Gravel race, formerly known as the racially insensitive Dirty Kanza.

CyclingTips takes a deep dive into why speeds continue to rise on the men’s WorldTour, concluding it’s probably better tech and techniques, rather than a return to doping.

 

Finally…

Turn your old bike into your new ebike. Your next ebike may not look like one.

And Bike Month may be over, but tomorrow is World Bicycle Day.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

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

90-year old walk advocate severely injured by driver, ’tis the season to give kids bikes, and biking down stairs in hot pursuit

December 22, 2021 / / Comments Off on 90-year old walk advocate severely injured by driver, ’tis the season to give kids bikes, and biking down stairs in hot pursuit

It’s the last three days of the 7th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive!

Thanks to Brandon H and Michael S for their generous donations to bring all the best bike news and advocacy to your favorite screen every morning.

And yes, the corgi is going to keep staring at you while you’re reading this, until you give in. 

So don’t wait. Stop what you’re doing and give now via PayPal, or with Zelle to ted @ bikinginla.com.

Any amount, no matter how large or small, is truly and deeply appreciated.

It’s okay. We’ll wait. 

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This is the cost of traffic violence.

A driver ran down 90-year old walking advocate Jacque Ensign, the co-founder of the Berkeley Path Wanderers, as she walked in a Berkeley crosswalk, leaving her with “multiple severe injuries.”

She’s one of three older residents seriously injured while walking or biking on the same short section of roadway in the Bay Area town.

Which is a pretty damn good indication they have a serious traffic safety problem.

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‘Tis the season.

Sacramento sheriff’s deputies made a ten-year old special needs boy’s wish come true, giving him a bicycle made to look like a police motorcycle, including red light and siren.

Police in Port Isabel, Texas gave a ten-year old boy a new bicycle as a reward for pointing out where a suspect was hiding.

A professional mountain biker performed stunts for a group of 65 Hartford, Connecticut first graders, then surprised them all with new bikes and helmets.

A foundation started by a Baton Rouge, Louisiana man has given adaptive bikes to special needs kids for the last 14 year, donating over 400 of the high-end bikes in that time.

A Mississippi sheriff’s department is teaming with a local chapel to donate bikes to a pre-selected group of children.

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Pink Bike examines the difference between $450 and $2,200 mountain bike wheels.

Now someone tell ’em to do road bikes next, ’cause I need new wheels if my damn hands ever let me start riding again.

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A Seattle bike cop rides his bike down a couple flights of stairs before chasing a suspect on foot to recover a gun and bust a suspected drug dealer.

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

A British politician demonstrates the opposite of the holiday spirit, yelling at a group of kids to get off their bicycles for the crime of riding in a new bike lane that recently opened. Schmuck.

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

Police in Osaka, Japan believe a bike-riding man accused of arson at a mental health clinic where he was being treated attempted to seal the door with tape before lighting a leaking container of gas on fire, sparking a blaze that killed 25 people.

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Local

Metro will offer free bus and train rides on Christmas and New Years’ Eves, along with free Metro Bike rentals the same days.

 

State

San Clemente will consider banning bicycles and ebikes from the pier, as well as the beach trail and sidewalks, in response to complaints about reckless bike riders.

The rich get richer, as the San Diego Association of Governments, aka SANDAG, offers a progress report showing 12 miles of new bikeways, with 11 more currently under construction and another 34 miles in the wings. Thanks to Robert Leone for forwarding the email.

A San Luis Obispo op-ed explains how bike riders can avoid right hooks. Although better advice would be to tell drivers to check their mirrors and blindspots to avoid cutting someone off in the first place.

Bike Davis looks back on the last year in California’s ostensibly most bike-friendly city, in the form of the 12 Days of Christmas. Thanks to Megan Lynch for the heads-up. 

 

National

A triathlon site considers the best reflective and hi-viz gear to keep you safe on your bike.

A small Chicago bike shop is out around $16,000 after thieves broke in for the second time in two weeks, stealing five bicycles worth $15,000; the rest is the cost of having the glass replaced for the second time. Meanwhile, a SWAT team surrounded a bike shop in nearby Skokie, Illinois, but all they found inside was a few missing bikes. Thanks to David Drexler for the tip.

It’s not safe for anyone outside of a car on New Jersey streets these days, as bicycling and pedestrian deaths reach their highest levels in 32 years.

Eight Pittsburgh PA cops will face discipline for killing a man who was tased to death for the crime of taking a bike being sold for fifty bucks for a test ride around the block without permission; the Black victim was tased eight times in rapid succession, dying the next day. Criminal charges are still being considered against the officer who fired the taser, and possible others.

Life is cheap in Georgia, where judge tossed out charges against a state senator for failing to call 911 when his buddy called to tell him he’d just fled the scene after running down a bike rider; he called the police chief, instead, fatally delaying the critical emergency response.

Frank Sinatra would probably appreciate plans to install bike lanes on Sinatra Drive in his home town of Hoboken NJ, since he looked pretty dapper on a bike himself.

 

International

Cyclist beats a dead horse, once again raising the long-settled question of whether it’s safe to ride a bike when pregnant. Not only is it safe to ride when your pregnant, it’s good for you and your baby, who will likely be born wearing cleats and a jersey. Unless you’re a man, that is, in which case it’s not safe at all. 

Jalopnik explains how a group of Colorado bike theft victims worked with Bike Index to uncover a ring of bike thieves who would steal high end mountain bikes, then send them across the border to be resold in a Juárez bike shop.

Mexico News Daily considers a far more legitimate operation, profiling an all-female studio making custom, hand-built bicycles in Mexico City.

With typical Brit understatement, the government of the UK says it has no plans to make people on bicycles wear identification numbers, regardless of what a popular bike-hating lawyer demands.

 

Competitive Cycling

Twentyone-year old Columbian cyclist Daniel Arroyave was lucky to escape without serious injuries when he was struck by a driver while on a training ride in his home country; however, his bike is toast.

Spanish cyclist Rafael Valls calls it a career after 11 years on the WorldTour, concluding that lingering injuries prevent him from competing at an elite level.

 

Finally…

Apparently, cops are perfectly okay with someone flashing a fake driver’s license and a tin foil police badge while riding a possibly stolen ebike. When you’re carrying $13.8 million in coke on your bike, try not to hit a car fleeing from the cops.

And that feeling when a protective barrier is there to protect the sidewalk, not the bike lane.

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

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