Tag Archive for bicycling

A new mayor may not fix what ails Los Angeles, a bike street can improve the whole neighborhood, and Caltrans schedules PCH workshop

October 29, 2026 / / One comment

Somehow, I managed to get through today’s post, after spending all day yesterday flat on my back with my eyes closed to keep the world from spinning around me. 

Good times. 

As for today’s photo, scroll down lower to see what I missed out on over the weekend, dammit. 

……….

It’s not just you.

Crosstown says Los Angeles is spending more and getting less, in a town that’s “not designed to work.” And getting a new mayor won’t fix things.

From street sweeping to tree trimming, Los Angeles residents are seeing less of the basic services they rely on.

With the mayoral race heating up, candidates are promising to fix the problem. But Los Angeles is spending more and getting less — and whoever wins will inherit a system that limits how much they can actually change.

In five years, Los Angeles’s budget grew 34%. The number of sidewalks it repaired fell 33%.

Residents are feeling the effects in their neighborhoods. In 2021, Los Angeles cut street sweeping from weekly to every other week. In Westlake, a group of volunteers responded by picking up trash the Bureau of Sanitation left behind, said Elaine Alaniz, president of the Westlake North Neighborhood Council.

Never mind that the city went eight full months without repaving a single stretch of roadway last year.

Then there’s this.

Rick Cole, an advisor to Nithya Raman’s mayoral campaign, has spent 40 years working in city governments across Southern California. For Cole, the decline in services is the symptom of a deeper problem. In June, during a farewell speech at City Hall as he stepped down from his role as deputy controller, he told the crowd, “LA is not designed to work.” Decades of ignoring “mind-numbing bureaucracy” have made the city ungovernable, he said. “Beneath the broken sidewalks is a broken system.”

On the other hand, Karen Bass has had nearly four years to fix things, and hasn’t shown up for anything but homelessness and rebuilding after the Palisades fire until she was faced with a fight for reelection. And hasn’t made a lot of progress on the former, and complaints from literally burned-out residents on the latter.

So if you like the job she’s done, and the city we have today, vote for her.

If not, don’t.

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A new German study has found that transforming even a busy street into an “advanced bicycle street” can change the character of the entire neighborhood.

Momentum did a good job of translating the dense study results into something a little easier to understand.

Researchers examined Oeder Weg, a 1.4-kilometre (0.87 mile) street in central Frankfurt transformed into what they call an advanced bicycle street. The project went beyond adding signs. It combined traffic restrictions with physical changes intended to make the street safer, more comfortable and more useful to the surrounding neighbourhood.

Before the changes, Oeder Weg carried as many as 9,183 motor vehicles a day, well above the recommended volume for a bicycle street under German guidelines.

The city began by designating it a bicycle street in August 2021. The following April, it introduced bollards, planters and barriers to restrict car access at key entrances and discourage through-traffic. Other changes included red-painted intersections, marked dooring zones, additional bicycle parking and the removal of some on-street parking. Those spaces were repurposed for restaurant patios, greenery, street furniture and delivery zones.

While cars were still allowed on the street, diverters prevented drivers from using it as a shortcut, cutting daily traffic rates nearly in half while increasing bicycle traffic by 25%.

And contrary to common fears, traffic did not increase on the surrounding streets, but actually decreased throughout the entire neighborhood. In addition, traffic collisions fell by nearly half, while bicycling collisions dropped 27%, despite the increase in bicycling rates.

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Caltrans is hosting a virtual public meeting next month to discuss safety improvements on LA’s killer highway.

Caltrans District 7 invites you to the second virtual public workshop for the PCH Segment A Safety Improvement Project – Project Initiation.

Whether you attended a previous workshop or are joining us for the first time, we welcome your participation. This second virtual workshop provides another opportunity to learn about the project, ask questions, and share your input.

Workshop Details

Date: Wednesday, November 18, 2026
Time: 6:00–7:00 p.m.
Platform: Microsoft Teams
Register here: PCH Segment A (meeting link will be sent upon registration)

The project is in the early Project Initiation Document (PID) phase. The workshop will cover the proposed safety improvements and alternatives being considered. Your feedback will help inform the evaluation and refinement of these concepts.

Please share this invitation with others who may be interested. For additional information, visit the PCH Segment A Safety Improvement Project webpage.

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A new movie screening at Laemmle theaters next month is described as “not just a ‘bike film,’ but a film where the bike is the philosophy.

According to a publicity email I received yesterday, A Simple Machine was inspired by a novel from Evan P. Schneider.

Shot in luminous black and white in Portland, it follows Nick Allander (Richard Blackmon) as a recent grad drowning in debt who chooses radical frugality. His bicycle becomes his tool for economic independence: mobility without debt, technology that enhances human agency, instead of extracting from it. In a city where cycling is cultural currency, Hoffman reframes the simple machine as a deliberate choice toward simplicity, dignity, and embodied presence.

This moving film will be in LA on Nov 16 at Laemmle NoHo 7, and on Nov 17 at Laemmle Monica Film Center. Q&As with director Mark Alan Hoffman and star Richard Blackmon will follow both screenings, and Santa Monica Spoke is doing a “ride to show” event on the 17th.

Meanwhile, a new documentary tells the story of a 51-year old Army vet who rode her bike across the US and became a Paralympian after losing her eyesight while working as an EMT.

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Last weekend I was invited to take part in something I would have jumped at under other circumstances — a ride to San Diego on the Pacific Surfliner, followed by a Brompton ride through the city.

Unfortunately, I had to turn it down, despite the combination of two of my favorites, Bromptons and trains.

I’m tempted to say that sometimes dealing with diabetes and the various associated medical conditions suck.

But it sucks all the time.

75 Riders, One Train, Two Cities: Brompton and Pacific Surfliner Celebrate Partnership With LA-to-San Diego Ride

California, October 27, 2026 – Brompton, the London-based folding bike brand, celebrated its new partnership with the Amtrak Pacific Surfliner by bringing 75 riders and their Bromptons aboard the Surfliner from Los Angeles to San Diego. The ride showed how rail and a folding bike together can replace the car for both the daily commute and the weekend adventure.

A bike turns a train trip into a door-to-door journey, and the Pacific Surfliner makes it easy to bring one, with free bike reservations on every train. A folded Brompton goes one step further, riding as carry-on luggage with no reservation necessary. That flexibility is what lets a group this big travel together on a single train.

On Saturday, October 24, riders boarded the Pacific Surfliner at Los Angeles Union Station, with more joining along the way. In San Diego they unfolded their bikes and explored Balboa Park, Little Italy, the Gaslamp Quarter and the Embarcadero, then took the ferry to Coronado Island to watch the sunset at the Hotel del Coronado. Train, bike, ferry and back: a full car-less day out.

The partnership brings together two leading names in urban mobility: the iconic folding bike brand and the busiest state-supported intercity rail route in the country. Together, Brompton and the Surfliner aim to show how multimodal travel can fit into daily life, and they’re doing it as more Californians choose the train. Preliminary July 2026 figures put the Pacific Surfliner on pace for the highest monthly ridership in its history, with more than 300,000 passengers.

“Southern California is our fastest-growing market in the US, and it’s easy to see why,” said Alex Balansay, Brand Manager at Brompton North America. “The climate, the coastline and a growing rail network make it one of the best places in the country to travel without a car. Saturday showed what that looks like: 75 people, one train, and a whole city to explore at the other end.”

“A great rail journey doesn’t begin or end at the train station,” said Jason Jewell, Managing Director of the LOSSAN Rail Corridor Agency, which manages the Amtrak Pacific Surfliner service. “Making it easier for passengers to connect to their final destinations is an important part of improving the overall travel experience. This event highlights how folding bikes and passenger rail can work together to give travelers more flexibility, convenience and freedom to explore Southern California without relying on a car. We’re excited to showcase how simple first- and last-mile connections can open up new possibilities for our riders.”

Riders can plan the same trip themselves. On the Pacific Surfliner, folding bikes under 34 x 15 x 48 inches ride free as carry-on luggage with no reservation. Full-size bikes need a free bike reservation when booking.

Schedules and tickets are at pacificsurfliner.com, and Brompton models and dealers are at brompton.com.

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

Boston is ripping out a newly installed protected bike lane in front of a senior home, after residents complained they weren’t consulted first, it prevents them from crossing the street, and kept an ambulance from pulling up right in front; meanwhile, the head of a local advocacy group offered a perfectly reasonable response promising to work with residents to come up with a solution that works for everyone.

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Local 

That’s more like it. Long Beach has secured the funding for a $73 million project to move a spectrum of Shoreline Drive out of César Chávez Park, and convert it to a miles-long network of open space. Because cars don’t belong in parks, period. 

LA Times readers take the paper to task for a recent article that basically said “boys will be boys” while using illegal e-motorbikes, not unlike I did yesterday.

Congratulations, Los Angeles, your official slogan for the ’28 Olympics is “Stars Align.” Which could pretty much refer to anything, and therefore means absolutely nothing.

 

State

Calbike says California could soon have its best chance in years to pass the Bicycle Safety Stop, aka Idaho Stop, aka Stop as Yield, because Governor Gavin Newsom will soon be out of office, after vetoing two separate versions of the bill.

USA Today takes up the sentencing of 33-year old Samuel Matthew Rocha to 27 to life for intentionally killing 16-year old Pedro Valdez as he rode his bike in Port Hueneme, in a traffic crime rampage that began with a confrontation with another man in a case of mistaken identity.

A Bakersfield bike rider suffered major injuries when they were struck by the driver of a white vehicle. Because evidently, the color of the car has a big impact on how bad the crash is, pun intended.

Sad news from Visalia, where a 63-year old woman was killed when she tried to make a left turn on her bicycle, and was struck by an oncoming driver.

San Francisco Streetsblog says a new 0.2-mile quick-build protected bike lane wasn’t quick, it’s not really protected, and it’s not continuous, with gaps for handicapped parking and a bus stop.

 

National

A woman in an undetermined city posted video of a driver getting stuck in a protected bike lane, as she walked ahead of him — never mind that as a pedestrian, she didn’t belong in the bike lane, either.

The New York Daily News calls for rejecting a ballot measure that would speed approval of street safety projects, including bike lanes, because of “lawless” ebike riders, most of whom are riding e-motorbikes that aren’t legally allowed in bike lanes, anyway. But then they hide the editorial behind a paywall, which kind of defeats the whole purpose of voicing their opinion in the first place.

The NYPD called off a “hastily planned” raid on an ebike parking lot used by hundreds of delivery workers, because a) it’s not illegal for bikes to be parked in spaces which would otherwise be used by motor vehicles, and b) the workers politely moved to the other side of the street. Although a local radio station says the raid was called off after cops spotted reporters waiting for them.

Oddly, New York continues to function as a world-class city, as Mayor Mandami announced plans to redesign a 2.1-mile stretch of one of Brooklyn’s most dangerous streets. Something Los Angeles somehow seems unable to do.

A Florida police captain will ride his bicycle around a four-mile park route for 24 hours to raise funds for a Spanish-language religious mission.

 

International

Life is cheap in the UK, where a 39-year old road-raging driver walked without a day behind bars for grabbing a bike rider by the neck and throwing him to the ground and causing a serious brain injury, for the crime of being in his way.

 

Competitive Cycling

The chief of USA Cycling says the one thing missing after Brandon McNulty won the world road championship is an American WorldTour race.

Nineteen-year old ‘cross cyclist Tofik Beshir has a long way to go in his recovery after he was struck by a driver while on a training ride three weeks ago, as his teammates rally around him; a crowdfunding page has raised has raised over $142,000 of a $200,000 goal.

Instagram post

 

Finally…

You know you’re good when you set a new Strava KOM during a photoshoot. And apparently, bicyclists legally using the roadway are road hogs.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin.

 

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

Port Hueneme man gets 27 years for intentionally killing bike-riding teen, and South LA has two of state’s deadliest intersections

October 28, 2026 / / No comments

A Port Hueneme man will spend at least the next 27 years behind bars after he was sentenced for intentionally plowing his car into a group of seven bike-riding teens, killing one and injuring four others, before speeding away.

Thirty-three-year old Samuel Rocha was sentenced to 15 years to life for the second-degree murder of 16-year old Pedro Valdez in April, 2021, and 12 years total for five counts of assault with a deadly weapon and two counts of battery.

The incident began when Rocha spotted a man he mistakenly thought he knew from his past, punching the man in a laundromat parking lot, then intentionally driving into another man who tried to take a picture of his license plate.

Rocha’s public defenders had argued that he never saw the bicyclists, and even if he did, he wasn’t mentally stable and sober after a “long and documented history of mental illness, including delusions and hallucinations,” and wouldn’t have had time to stop, anyway.

Clearly, the judged didn’t buy it, imposing the maximum sentence on each count.

One bit of good news, as the Ventura County Star reports the Oxnard Fixie Crew, the bike club Valdez started before his murder, is still active.

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Congratulations, South Los Angeles.

You’re home to not one, but two of the deadliest intersections in California, at Obama and La Cienega boulevards in Baldwin Hills and Central Aveand 89th Street, with both seeing three traffic deaths over a six-year period.

But before the rest of Southern California rests easy, the remainder of the top five are also in SoCal, with Hesperia, Costa Mesa and Compton showing two deaths each.

The study, compiled by a personal injury law firm, also showed that Los Angeles was by far the state’s deadliest county for pedestrians, with exactly four times as many people killed while using crosswalks as the number two county, with 80 deaths in Orange County, compared to 356 in LA Countyover the same period.

San Diego, Santa Clara and Alameda counties rounded out that top five.

Which means that Los Angeles, city and county, are number one in both categories. Which should make us all feel like number two.

………

Talk about missing the point.

In an article that appeared online over the weekend, a writer for the LA Times wonders if maybe we’re overreacting about young teens on high-powered ebikes.

According to staff writer Jack Dolan,

If you live in any California city, surely you’ve seen them: groups of boys at that painfully awkward and insecure stage of early adolescence riding around on e-bikes trying — and almost always failing — to look cool.

Especially memorable are the ones who cover their faces like Stormtroopers or ICE agents, hoping to seem more intimidating than their not-yet-filled-out frames would otherwise allow.

The whole thing would be just another cringeworthy display of teenage rebellion if the potential consequences weren’t so serious; many of those bikes are equipped with powerful electric motors and can go up to 60 mph.

After discussing the a) problem and b) reaction to the problem, including the Orange County DA’s recent ebike buyback program, as well as charging the parents of teen ebike riders, Dolan talks about how he felt safer on his motorcycle during his 20-mile commutes, despite the reactions of motorists.

For more than a decade, I made the 20-mile commute to work at the Los Angeles Times on a motorcycle. Given what sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic does to my blood pressure, the motorcycle seemed like the safer option. And, yes, I remember the startled, sometimes angry, expressions on drivers’ faces as I cruised by at twice their speed…

Maybe that’s why, when I look at those kids on their e-bikes, I don’t see Public Enemy No. 1. I know they’re trying to look tough — maybe even trying to scare me — but all I can see is how vulnerable they are. I hope we don’t start treating them all like criminals.

But here’s the problem. Or rather, problems.

Clearly, the kids aren’t Public Enemy No. 1. But they’re kids. They don’t have the training, skills or fully developed cerebellums to handle anything that fast or powerful. And yes, their parents — not the kids — should be held accountable for buying them in the first place.

Which brings up the second problem.

These aren’t ebikes. Ebikes are clearly defined by the state — and even more clearly, after the passage of recent legislation — as having a maximum speed of 28 mph. And even that requires that the riders be over 16 years old.

The kids Dolan talks about are actually riding e-motorcycles, aka e-motos, electric dirt bikes that can’t legally be ridden on the streets, with or without a license, or ebikes that have been — wink wink, nudge nudge — illegally hacked to increase their power and speed beyond what is legal under state law.

So while kids will be kids, parents should act like parents, and keep their children off illegal, overpowered e-motos, because that’s what they are — on both counts.

Children, and illegal. Not to mention dangerous.

It’s better to have your kid mad at you because you won’t buy them one, than to bury them because you did.

………

Sky News reports on two women who escaped occupied Ukraine by bicycle, riding over 1,200 miles through Russia and Belarus while “braving mines, Russian soldiers and a drone attack.”

Thanks to Megan for the heads-up. 

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

No bias here. The press is attacking a new protected bike lane in Salt Lake City, while the Utah legislature passed a bill banning new bike lanes in the city without approval from the state department of transportation. Because no one understands the safety needs on local streets better than a bunch of state bureaucrats. 

No bias here, either. The conservative Times of London complains that “bad cycling has been decriminalized” as the number of tickets issued to bicyclists dropped to its lowest level in five years — even though more people in the UK are killed by cows every year than by bicyclists. Although the cops seldom ticket scofflaw cows, either.

Or here. The east London borough of Havering scrapped fully funded plans for a new bikeway, despite the recents deaths of two bike riders, prompting complaints that the Reform Party has “decided there’s not enough dead people.”

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

The New Haven, Connecticut academic community is morning a local professor who was killed in a hit-and-run collision with someone on an ebike.

The British tabloids are claiming that bicyclists are riding “willy-nilly” through the newly pedestrianized Oxford Street, without fear of penalty or retribution. 

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Local 

Vanity Fair says LA mayoral candidate Nithya Raman is too moderate for the radicals, and too radical for the moderates. But at least she’s wearing a CicLAvia P-22 tee shirt in the accompanying photo. 

Los Angeles now finally has speed cams in 25 locations throughout the city, although it will be another three months before they actually begin issuing tickets. Meanwhile, San Jose has their network up and running, too.

As expected, the LA City Council voted unanimously to ask LADOT to report back on what resources would be required to replace the city’s infamous plastic car-tickler bollards with Toronto barriers. Which is the city’s usual method of appearing to take action without actually doing anything.

Redondo Beach now has bike lanes along the entire, albeit brief, length of Palos Verdes Blvd through the city, including nearly half a mile of “top-notch curb-protection.”

 

State

When you’re riding in Vista while carrying meth and brass knuckles, put a damn light on your bike and stop for the red lights.

San Diego’s annual Bike the Coast ride saw more than 1,300 participants raise over $10,000 for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

 

National

A writer on Substack argues that the bicycle industry is drowning in its own red ink as it fights over the same pot of customers, while ignoring an ocean of potential new bicyclists. Thanks to Ken for the link. 

An 18-year old New Jersey man is facing a murder charge for the hit-and-run death of two girls sharing an ebike, while he was allegedly doing 70 mph in a 25 mph zone.

Schmucks. A 71-year old New Jersey man was found lying dead in the street after he was struck by two separate drivers while riding his bicycle, both of whom fled the scene.

A 26-year old road-raging Virginia man faces up to 23 years behind bars after pleading guilty to shooting — yes, shooting — a 26-year old man riding a bicycle, after cutting the bike rider off with his car; he also agreed to a lifetime protective order prohibiting him from contact with the victim as part of the plea deal.

 

International

Momentum offers a mostly recycled list of bicycle-themed costume ideas.

Um, sure. The attorney for a hit-and-run driver accused of murder for dragging a 56-year old British bike rider over a mile to his death told the jury his client was selfish and thinking only of himself, but certainly wasn’t a murderer.

A district in Seoul, South Korea, recently wrapped up a bicycling festival designed to “ease social isolation among single-person households and encourage healthy leisure activities.”

Japan could consider revising a ban on child bicycle seats for kids after they enter elementary school.

The family of an Australian girl who disappeared while riding her bike to school in 1972, when she was just 14, are now offering a $1 million reward for the arrest and conviction on her killer, 52 years after a piece of her skull was found. Although the chances of finding a living person to convict get slimmer with every year. 

 

Finally…

That feeling when the morning TV news hosts somehow falsely claim — not once, not twice, not thrice, but four times (frice? fource?) — that Dutch bicyclists are required to have license plates and insurance. Just a suggestion, but maybe don’t hold a gravel race during hunting season.

And seriously, when there’s literally jellyfish floating in the street, don’t ride your bike there.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin.

 

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

Change the law to allow DA’s to file 2nd degree murder for hit-and-runs, and drawn into WeHo politics by Fountain Ave bike lanes

October 26, 2026 / / 4 comments

For well over a decade, I’ve been calling for a crackdown on hit-and-run drivers, including immediate driver’s license revocation and impounding their car.

But now, in light of Saturday’s horrific Montclair hit-and-run that killed two innocent people, I’m willing to reduce that to one very simple and achievable ask — change the law to allow DA’s to file a 2nd degree murder charge in hit-and-run cases.

It’s based on a very simple premise. Vehicular manslaughter is defined as “the unlawful killing of a human being with a motor vehicle, without premeditation or malice aforethought.”

But in a hit-and-run, the driver makes a conscious decision to leave the victim injured or dying in street — in this case dragging one victim over a mile with his car.

The defense would undoubtedly argue that the driver was too drunk to consciously choose to let the victim die rather than stop of call for help. But that’s something that a jury should be able to decide, never mind that he never should have been behind the wheel in the first place.

So what do you think? Is a murder charge appropriate in a case like this?

………

He gets it.

I’m used to criticizing op-eds on WeHo Online written by opponents of bike lanes, like perennial city council candidate and store owner Larry Block. So I expected the worst when I saw yet another bike-related op-ed on the West Hollywood website.

But I was pleasantly surprised to read longtime WeHo resident, Jungian psychotherapist and avid cyclist Chris Kilbourne describe wading into local West Hollywood issues and reconsidering old political alliances to argue that the Nov. 3 election could “determine the future of safer streets, housing and the city’s broader vision for progress.”

Now I found myself researching as much as I could through online articles, documents and discussion boards when I’d hear the many terrible things Kyle Brazeal and his buddies, John Duran, and Larry Block the three front-runner anti bike-lane candidates were doing. For example, Kyle wrote a comment in response to an article in WeHo Times (https://wehotimes.com/fountain-avenue-streetscape-plans-up-for-discussion-on-tuesday-aug-19/) in which he appeared to brazenly brag that he would speed in his car along Fountain Ave., even having gotten ticketed several times, which he ignored, declaring that he would never slow down unless there were speed bumps and flashing lights, which violent car-centric attitude horrified me; as well as angry, intimidating outbursts she experienced from him in commission meetings. And regarding John Duran, his sexual harassment scandals certainly concerned me, which concern became heightened as I learned about his allyship with Kyle and Larry, whose unapologetically anti-rent control position is offensive, as are other apparent compromised ethics, especially evident in his supposed recusal from his blog, wehoonline (https://wehotimes.com/west-hollywood-council-candidate-larry-block-accused-of-abusing-ownership-of-news-site-to-attack-political-rivals/) which seems to have a terrible habit of attacking his enemies and promoting his allies.

Kilbourne describes biking to last Monday’s city council meeting, and speaking passionately in support of the city he loves, as well as the need for safe bikeways. But despite the win on Monday, it could all be for naught if the conservative NIMBY slate beats out more progressive YIMBY candidates.

Now comes the election on November 3rd. If Chelsea (Byers), Helen (Kreiger), and Stephen (Post) are not voted in, there is still a chance that the whole humanizing beautification of Fountain Ave. could end up with the same old annoying traffic, now with flashing red lights and speed bumps, after more incessant delays, relinquished state grants, and agonizing injuries and possible lawsuits. And the NIMBYs will have conserved their precious parking spots on the street, which as homeowners presumably with their own driveways, they personally probably don’t even need.

As you can see, itt’s not a quick read. But it’s worth the time it takes to read it, especially if you live and vote in West Hollywood. Or if you’re just looking for a roadmap to get more involved in your own community.

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Good for him.

A San Diego City Councilmember called for a less defensive response from city workers to a recent grand jury report calling into question the city’s approach to building bike lanes, concluding that the city’s lack of a “connected, well‑maintained bike infrastructure discourages many people from bicycling as a viable commuting option.”

According to public radio station KBPS,

City officials said they partially disagreed, and that bike infrastructure in the city is getting better. They also said transportation decisions are influenced by more than just infrastructure.

But Councilmember Kent Lee said he thinks the grand jury got it right, and that unsafe streets clearly discourage people from biking.

“I don’t know about my colleagues, but I would just agree — that’s just factually true,” Lee said. “I understand contextualizing … but to me, it just came off as we’re being very defensive.”

It takes courage for a city leader to publicly defend bike lanes given the level of bikelash seen in San Diego lately, as drivers decry the loss of traffic lanes and parking required to build the kind of safe, connected bike network the grand jury called for.

………

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

Always happy to fan the flames of any New York bikelash, the conservative and contrarian New York Post highlights a coalition of Brooklyn groups opposing a ballot measure that would change the city charter to make it easier to build bike lanes, as the groups somewhat disingenuously say they’re “against decisions being made about our communities without meaningful participation from the people who live and work here,” since they literally get a vote on it.

No bias here. An English town councilor complained that new “nightmare” bike lanes are unwanted and an “utter disaster” for the town, arguing that safer pedestrian crossings would have been better because the local population isn’t exactly young. Maybe someone should tell him that older people bike, too.

………

Local 

The Los Angeles Times considers whether the ebike backlash is an overreaction. Yes and no — it’s an overreaction if you lump all ebikes, legal and otherwise, together.

Streetsblog discovers new bike lanes on Lankershim Blvd in North Hollywood, and near Expo Park on Broadway Place and 39th Street in South LA.

A man riding an ebike suffered non-life threatening injuries when he was struck by a driver in Long Beach Friday night.

 

State

A 12-year old Orange County boy calls for “common sense ebike safety reform,” which would ban anyone under 16 from riding anything other than Class 1 ped-assist ebikes, while requiring testing and licensing for ebike riders. Never mind that New Jersey has already found a similar law unworkable, less than a year after it was implemented. 

Speaking of which, LAist talks with OC DA Todd Spitzer about charging parents and guardians for usage of illegal ebikes by children.

A 35-year old Ocean Beach man was arrested for DUI after hitting a 52-year old woman riding an ebike as she rode in a bike lane, as the driver was attempting to make a U-turn, leaving the victim with multiple facial fractures.

The San Diego County Bicycle Coalition teamed with local organizations to host an ebike safety class for more that 50 kids, after 14-year old Owen Harris was killed while riding an ebike in the city last month.

Kern County is on the verge of completing a new bikeway connecting Northwest Bakersfield to the Kern River trail, with the final railroad crossing expected to be finished next spring.

A Santa Cruz op-ed says it’s time to stop mourning bicyclists and start protecting them on local highways.

A Lodi bike rider was injured when he was struck by a community cop, after allegedly crossing against the red light.

 

National

A Utah man flew to the Netherlands to recreate a more than 100-mile bike ride his father took on a bicycle with no tires, after hitchhiking with Nazi soldiers to deliver food to his father during the famine of 1944-45.

You’ve got to be kidding. A Republican running for Congress told President Trump that Iowans don’t ride bicycles, apparently forgetting the iconic RAGBRAI ride across the state, supported annually by Iowa’s roughly 900,000 bicyclists; officials with RAGBRAI, aka the world’s largest bicycle tour, said au contraire, mon frère. Actually, that’s a little highfalutin for down-to-earth Iowans, but still. 

A Chicago bike route was renamed in honor of a three-year old little girl who was killed by a driver while riding on the back of his mother’s bicycle.

A quaint little Hudson River town wants to build out a bicycle network to connect with a new rail trail along the river. But, you know, parking.

Bighearted DC TV viewers dug into their own pockets to replace an ebike a single mother used to support her family, after she had been robbed by masked teens.

Good idea. A Baton Rouge, Louisiana bike parade raised funds for a local bike co-op.

 

International

A columnist for Road.cc digs into disturbing efforts to “martyr” Georgia hit-and-run driver Jerry Ross, who freely admits to driving into a group ride while blaming the bicyclists for the crash, and warns that the trend could be headed to the UK.

A reviewer for Bike Radar says forget wind tunnels and AI, the best bicycles are still designed by people.

He gets it, too. A Toronto writer says stop calling him a “biker,” as if bicyclists were one big tribe all with the same interests, because bike riders aren’t all the same, and we’re not the enemy. Not to mention that most people think of bikers as big hairy guys with matching leathers on Harley Davidsons.

British bike hero Chris Boardman, now the country’s active travel commissioner, says that police are right to focus on drivers rather than bicyclists, because bicycles don’t pose the same risk as two-ton motor vehicles.

 

Competitive Cycling

If you thought you saw pro cyclists Remco Evenepoel and Demi Vollering riding the streets of Los Angeles recently, you may have been right as they flew in to promote Specialized and scout out possible routes for the ’28 LA Olympics.

 

Finally…

Yes, ebike jousting is a thing now. Then again, so is an annual Cemetery Creep bike ride.

And the obvious key to celebrity bike dating is matching ebikes.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin.

 

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

NYC tops per-capita bicycling rates while LA doesn’t, Georgia driver justifies plowing into group ride; and Streets For All endorsements

October 23, 2026 / / No comments

A new report from Streetlight shows New York led the nation in per-capita bicycling rates, with slightly smaller Boise, Idaho a close second.

According to Fox News,

New York City topped the bicycle miles-per-capita rankings at 58 miles annually per resident, followed by Boise, Idaho, at 53 miles…

Meanwhile, Jersey City showed the strongest bicycle density after New York, with 7,893 bicycle miles traveled annually per square mile, nearly three times the third-ranked San Francisco’s figure.

Irvine made the top ten at number five; needless to say, Los Angeles did not.

I’d like to tell you where Los Angeles ranked in the nation’s top 100 cities, but the online application form for the report refused to work for me.

Our spokescorgi reminds you to vote early and often, and no later than November 3rd. 

………

In a story hidden behind their paywall, the Atlanta Constitution Journal talks with the 73-year old driver who’s charged with intentionally plowing his car into a group of bike riders on Sugar Pike Road in Cherokee County, Georgia, injuring two of the victims.

He, of course, blames the victims, despite passing close enough to knock off his wing mirror while blaring his horn, and promises to take the case to the Supreme Court if he’s convicted.

Eight days after the incident on Sugar Pike Road, which was captured on video and viewed millions of times on the internet, Ross was released from the Cherokee County jail on $24,540 bond. He was indicted last week for aggravated battery, two counts of aggravated assault, and leaving the scene of an accident, among other charges, which means, if convicted, he could be sent to prison long enough to die there. He’s on the arraignment calendar for Nov. 4…

The incident made national headlines in April and May. It was covered by TMZ, People, and the New York Post. Ross finally told his side of the story in October, in extensive interviews with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, where he made it clear he has no intention of going to prison. He plans to spend his final years in the same house where he’s lived since 1986, up a hill on a cul-de-sac between the Woodstock city limits and the Fulton County line, with his Florida Gators doorbell and his Gators shower curtain and an easy chair where he can sit and watch Florida Gators football.

Ross insists he did nothing wrong on Sugar Pike Road that day in April. He will fight to prove that claim.

“I’ll take this to the Supreme Court,” he said.

Except the Supreme Court would undoubtedly refuse to hear it, because there’s no constitutional issue at stake, unless he can argue that it’s in the national interest to require bicyclists to ride single file, and that the state’s three-foot passing law somehow discriminates against motorists.

Even though it isn’t, and it doesn’t.

It’s worth finding a way around the paper’s paywall to read the whole story, if only to see how some people justify driving dangerously, and blame anyone but themselves. And far too many side with them in the court of public opinion, even when the victims did everything by the book.

Never mind that anyone who admits to having to pull over due to dizzy spells because of their prescription medication shouldn’t be on the road in the first place.

And I say that as someone who gave up his own keys because of the effects of my own prescription meds.

………

Streets For All offers their endorsements for the upcoming election.

I’d add to that list Colin Hernandez, who is running against incumbent Rick Zbur for California 51st State Assembly District. Zbur supported the recent bill making it nearly impossible to improve safety on Forest Lawn Drive. And I’m told he’s been working behind the scenes to halt the bike lanes planned for Fountain Ave in West Hollywood.

………

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

A Texas advocacy group condemned remarks from Republican congressional candidate Brandon Herrera, who publicly fantasized about running over bicyclists in an apparent failed attempt at humor.

Utterly disgusting testimony from a British court, where a man is on trial for dragging a 56-year old bike rider to his death; a passenger in the car says they could hear the victim moaning from underneath the car, and the driver kept swerving until he finally dislodged the victim, after twice trying and failing to pull him out from under his car — then spent the night afterwards laughing, drinking and joking.

No bias here. The leader of Britain’s far-right Restore Britain announced the party’s new ebike policy by declaring that the country’s sidewalks “are not racetracks for young foreign men,” while failing to make any distinction between legal and illegal ebikes. Or residents, apparently.

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

A 27-year old man was critically injured when he was struck by another bike rider in Harlem, New York on Thursday, while riding an ebike the wrong way in an eastbound bike lane; the other man was in stable condition with head and body injuries.

No bias here. An English paper says cows and ants have figured out how to travel in single file, so bike riders should be able to, too, showing a photo of bicyclists riding on both sides of a narrow country road. Never mind that it’s a narrow country road, and occupying both lanes prevents impatient drivers from passing unsafely. 

Police in Newcastle, England are looking for bike-riding man who broke the wing mirror off a car following an argument, then punched the two women inside and repeatedly slammed the car door on the driver’s leg. But other than that, he was a perfect gentleman, right?

………

Local 

Biking While Black will host a book reading of the new graphic novel Major Taylor: The World’s Fastest Man, with author Frederick Noland on Sunday, November 1st at Leimert Park’s Ride On! Bike Shop.

Not only did LA Lakers star Luka Dončić pay for parking for fans attending the team’s season opener, he also partnered with Metro to arrange free Metro Bike rides throughout Los Angeles. Of course, most of us didn’t learn about it until afterwards, but still. 

Long Beach will add about 700 ped-assist ebikes to the city’s bikeshare fleet next year, with “thousands” more to come before the ’28 LA Olympics.

 

State

Encinitas plans to sue California over a recently enacted law that will prevent them from legally removing a protected bike lane from the roadway across from a high school, although they may try to move forward with it anyway. Even though next to a school is exactly where a bike lane should be protected.

Good news for California is bad news for Connecticut, where Cannondale is closing its headquarters and laying off 100 people after 50 years, and moving its offices to Santa Cruz.

Bad news from San Jose, where someone riding a bicycle suffered life-threatening injuries when they were struck by a driver Thursday night.

Wailaki tribal descendants are trying to toss a monkey wrench into the 307-mile Great Redwood Trail hiking and biking path being built along a defunct Northern California rail line, decrying people trampling on their ancestral villages and gravesites.

 

National

Seattle Bike Blog offers more details on the lawsuit filed by relatives of a 30-year old elementary school teacher who was killed in a right hook following a sudden right turn by a driver of a garbage truck. Thanks to Mike for the heads-up. 

An 88-year old man made his first court appearance after killing a man at the Tour de Fat bike parade in my bike friendly Colorado hometown; Van Lemaster faces multiple charges for crashing into a car while backing out of a parking space, then flooring his car in the opposite direction, jumping the curb and plowing into several people, killing a 33-year old man. Although at his age, anything less than the minimum on each count would likely be a life sentence.

A Houston, Texas man faces an aggravated assault charge after a teenager rode his bike near the man’s truck in a parking lot, accused of punching the kid in the face while yelling racial slurs, then crashing his truck into to boy and his bike before fleeing the scene; the man was driving despite extensive record of assault and drug-related charges over the past three decades.

Islands Magazine heralds tiny Sparta, Wisconsin as the Bicycling Capital of America since 1990 — with roughly 10% of the population of ancient Sparta — to the surprise of virtually every other bicycling town in America.

Police in Cleveland arrested the driver accused of plowing into multiple vehicles on a multi-mile hit-and-run rampage, before killing a “beloved” bicyclist.

New York Streetsblog talks with the president and public relations director of the Century Road Club Association, America’s oldest bike racing club, founded in 1898 in New York’s Central Park.

New Jersey may walk back its recently enacted draconian ebike laws by exempting Class 1 and 2 ped-assist bikes from the requirement for a license and registration.

 

International

The lawyer for a Saskatchewan driver says he was just scared and confused following a collision on a dark road, and shouldn’t be held criminally responsible for the hit-and-run death of a 21-year old BMX rider, even though prosecutors say he was drunk, speeding and looking at his phone.

If you build it, they will come. Over half of the adults in Montreal rode a bicycle last year, with 58% of adults taking to two wheels after the city built out a 685-mile bike network.

Bicyclists were banned from pedestrianized zones in Clermont-Ferrand, France, meaning the Tour de France Femmes peloton could be the only bicyclists permitted to ride in large parts of the city next year; the race will finish on the iconic Puy de Dôme, approximately six miles from town.

Time Magazine has named the Aerobag wearable airbag safety kit for bicyclists to their list of the best inventions of 2026; the eponymous Belgian company has been working on developing the device since the death of Bjorg Lambrecht at the 2019 Tour de Pologne.

 

Competitive Cycling

Good news from Tennessee, where 19-year old cyclocross star Tofik Beshir is out of the ICU and responsive after he was hit head-on by a driver while training near Lees-McRae College in North Carolina nearly two weeks ago.

You gotta respect Tennessee’s Milligan University, which achieved four top fifteen results at this year’s USA Cycling Collegiate Mountain Bike National Championships in Grand Junction, Colorado, less that two months after two team members were killed when a driver plowed into the cycling team on a training ride.

More bad news from the world of bike racing, however, where a competitor in Latvia’s amateur Vienība cycle race died after collapsing in last month’s race; the 1930s race was resumed in 1995 after the country regained its independence from the Soviet Union.

 

Finally…

As anyone who has ever seen a horror movie knows, when a strange man invites you to leave the bike path and follow him to “his spot” in the woods, don’t. A tree toppled and landed on two cars during this week’s storm across from the Taco Bell and Dave’s Hot Chicken on Western Ave, in case you want to ride by to say thanks and pay your respects.

And if you have to risk arrest for being a spy in a country where you don’t speak the language, maybe think twice about riding alone somewhere on a terrorist watchlist.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin.

 

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

LA committee votes to request report on installing bike lane barriers in-house, WeHo bike lane whine, and GOP both pissed-off and missing

October 22, 2026 / / 2 comments

One quick note before we start. 

I’m going with a shorter format today, after running out of time to keep working as the clock leaves 4 am in the rearview mirror.  

The problem stems from my attempt to set our apartment on fire with an overheated wok last night, said attempt failing only after I remembered the $28 fire blanket I bought last year and stashed next to the stove, thinking I might need it someday. 

That someday was yesterday. 

So we’ll go with the day’s main stories for now, and catch up on the rest tomorrow. And if it seems like my heart’s not in it today, I can assure you it’s on the saddle and in the bike lane, where it always is.

My head, on the other hand, is another matter. 

Today’s photo of 3rd Street Toronto barriers shamelessly stolen respectfully borrowed courtesy of Streetsblog’s Joe Linton

………

Sort of good news today, as the LA City Council Transportation Committee voted to install new concrete Toronto barriers on the city’s protected bike lanes.

Just kidding.

The committee actually voted unanimously to request a report from LADOT on what it would take to install the barriers internally, rather than rely on the Bureau of Street Services to install them.

Which should raise the question of why LA city departments continue to be siloed, with one agency tasked with planning city streets, another with engineering them, and a third with actually building them.

But this being LA, no one bothered to ask that.

Instead, assuming the motion passes the full council, the department will be tasked with compiling yet another report to report back to the council on, reporting why they should or shouldn’t install the barriers themselves, or if they even can.

So I will report on the report, if and when they actually report on it.

And people wonder why nothing reportedly gets done around here.

………

Seriously, would you like some cheese with that whine?

A WeHo Online op-ed complains that West Hollywood City Councilmember Lauren Meister was treated unfairly in her attempt to undo what the council had already done in voting to approve the planned protected bike lanes on Fountain Ave.

Meister, said the mister who wrote it, “demonstrated something increasingly rare on the West Hollywood City Council: a willingness to listen, reconsider, and think beyond the confines of a predetermined political position.”

According to the op-ed,

Her proposal was neither radical nor unreasonable. It simply asked whether there might be a better way to achieve safety for ALL users of Fountain Avenue.

Which is what the council had already done, in approving a plan that considered the needs off all road users, rather than just the ones who want to keep parking on it.

Apparently, all the councilmembers who supported the plan were unreasonable, if not downright rude, in their refusal to reconsider the votes they had cast mere months before, while those who didn’t were perfectly reasonable in requesting that they do.

Then there were the several dozen written comments originating from ZIP codes well beyond West Hollywood. Everyone is entitled to an opinion, but the voices of outside advocacy networks should not be confused with those of residents who will live with the consequences of these decisions every day. Their interests deserve particular consideration, not dismissal as obstacles to someone else’s ideological vision.

Which would make perfect sense, if this was a matter that only affected residents of the city. But Fountain Ave has long been used more by people attempting to drive — or bike — through WeHo to some other destination, than as a quiet side street for those who live along the busy corridor.

If memory serves, Blake Ackerman, whose ghost bike sits at Fountain and Gardner, was riding home from work in DTLA to an apartment in Beverly Hills when he was killed by a hit-and-run driver just last year.

Countless studies show that improving safety on Fountain will benefit everyone who drives, bikes or walks along the corridor, while improving the quality of life for those who live nearby.

So it is not unreasonable for councilmembers to stick to a previous decision that was made after years of street studies and public meetings. It is, however, unreasonable to demand that it be reconsidered every few months.

………

Apparently, the Central Valley Young Republicans are opposed to a proposed sales tax measure on next month’s ballot.

No, really opposed.

According to a letter to the editor in the GV Wire,

The Fresno County Transportation Sales Tax, otherwise known as Measure S, is a scam. The measure will extend the already high sales tax throughout Fresno County. And, while its creators promise “better roads” and “safer streets,” it will not improve either.

Instead, it pads the pockets of the nonprofit CEOs who wrote it and prioritizes the fundamental transformation of our beautiful, family-friendly Central Valley into a dump, similar to what the once beautiful city of San Francisco has become today.

This measure’s main objective is to create a more urban, public transit-dependent, cluttered way of life, similar to the disasters of Los Angeles and San Francisco, with unending bike and bus lanes driving cars off the road, funded and supported by the same elites and politicians who destroyed California and now want to destroy Fresno County.

Okay, but how do they really feel?

Because, evidently, clogging local streets with more and more cars, trucks and SUVs will somehow maintain their high quality of life, while providing alternatives to driving will destroy it.

Never mind the non sequitur of nonprofits padding their pockets.

There is a valid argument to be made about resisting higher taxes, or at least considering them very carefully. There can also be a discussion as to where and when to build bus and bike lanes.

But this ain’t it.

I only wish LA had “unending bike and bus lanes driving cars off the road.” Because what’s really driving cars off the road are all those other drivers in other cars, with increasingly less space to maneuver because of all the other drivers driving them off the road.

And they wonder why Republicans are an endangered species in California.

………

Finally, we’ll end on the sad saga of ICE agents crashing into, detaining and breaking the arm of an American citizen in Long Beach on Saturday.

According to My News LA, four California lawmakers — US Representatives Nanette Barragán, D-San Pedro, and Robert Garcia, D-Long Beach, as well as Senators Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla, both D-California — sent a strongly worded letter to Department of Homeland Security Inspector General Joseph V. Cuffari demanding an investigation into the ICE attack on Ricardo Gonzalez.

But what’s missing from the letter — aside from the likelihood that it will be taken seriously under current DHS leadership — is the presence of any lawmakers with an R following their names.

Maybe I’m dating myself, but I remember when government agents in black SUVs detaining — let alone attacking — an American citizen would have drawn howls of protest from the GOP, as well Democrats.

Maybe someday, our Republican leaders will find their missing integrity. But today is clearly not that day.

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

Fountain bike lanes win in WeHo, ICE pinky swears they didn’t hit Long Beach ebike rider, and bike rider dead after Cleveland rampage

October 21, 2026 / / 2 comments

Safety won out over convenience after all.

According to LAist, the effort to replace plans for protected bike lanes on Fountain Ave parking failed following a tense West Hollywood City Council vote, failing by the slimmest possible margin.

The motion: Meister’s motion, which critics said came at the last minute, aimed to avoid the loss of 60% of the street’s parking as a result of the roadway changes. Meister said on Monday her motion was an attempt to weigh the approved plan against an alternative that “might accomplish the same safety objectives while preserving parking.”…

The vote: The motion failed in a 3-2 vote on Monday night. It would have directed staff to evaluate an alternative plan for the road that maintained street parking but didn’t include bike lanes. West Hollywood City Councilmembers Chelsea Byers and John Erickson and Vice Mayor Danny Hang voted to reject the motion. Mayor John Heilman and City Councilmember Lauren Meister, who introduced the motion, supported the effort.

Except, of course, it wouldn’t have accomplished the same safety goals. Studies show that protected bike lanes increase safety for all road users by as much as 90%. But forcing riders to use the traffic lane, or risk riding in the door zone, would make the street even less safe than it is now.

And right now, it’s pretty deadly.

Bluesky post

Today’s photo: Maybe we’ll have fewer ghost bikes now, like this one installed for Blake Ackerman last year on Fountain Ave. But let’s hope they move fast, because who knows what will happen after next month’s election. 

………

No surprise here, as ICE swears they didn’t ram their SUV into a Long Beach man before detaining him Saturday, breaking his arm in the process.

Yet video shows the SUV speeding the wrong way on a one-way street before swerving into the path of Ricardo Gonzalez’ ebike, apparently based on nothing but the color of his skin.

A statement from ICE says Gonzalez hit their wing mirror. Which is hard not to do when a massive SUV cuts right in front of you.

An ICE officer can be seen jumping out, gun drawn. Gonzalez was tased and wrestled to the ground before ICE agents pinned him face down in the gutter, his hands cuffed behind his back.

Never mind that Gonzalez is a native-born American citizen who works for the City of Long Beach.

According to the New York Times,

In the video footage, Mr. Gonzalez can be heard yelling. “You hit me with your car. I’m a U.S. citizen!” he says, using several expletives.

Mr. Gonzalez was later taken to a hospital for his injuries, the Long Beach police said. The police was not involved in immigration enforcement and did not make any arrests at the scene, the department added. It said its officers were called in for backup by ICE, which had reported that vehicles were being vandalized and that a person needed medical attention. The extent of Mr. Gonzalez’s injuries was not clear on Tuesday.

It gets worse.

In its statement, a spokesperson for ICE said the agency had been conducting a targeted operation to arrest a “criminal illegal alien.” The agency did not say whether it thought Mr. Gonzalez was that person. The agency also said its officers had used “the minimum amount of force.”

“ICE did NOT hit an individual on a bike. An individual was arrested after he smashed the mirror of a government vehicle,” the spokesperson wrote.

ICE described the man, whom the spokesperson did not name, as a “rioter.”

So evidently, getting hit by federal agents with their SUV, tased, cuffed and having your arm broken in an apparent case of mistaken identity is “rioting.”

Got it.

………

Heartbreaking story from Cleveland, where police are looking for the driver who killed a 35-year old man riding a bicycle, after striking several other vehicles.

According to Cleveland’s WKYC, the tragic series of event began as police were directing traffic just before the end of the Brown’s football game. After officers observed the driver of a pickup truck squealing his tires, they tried to get him to stop, but he just fled on the wrong side of the road.

He struck one vehicle, then several others as he fled down the road, eventually losing a wheel. Despite that, he continued driving before striking and killing the victim.

He then abandoned the truck, fleeing the scene on foot.

Compounding the tragedy, the victim, William Mays, was riding a bicycle he was given him by the suburban Highland Hills Police Department this past July, after officers learned the bicycle he used to get to and from work had broken down.

They posted a memorial to Mays following his death, calling him a beloved member of the community, “remembered for his kindness, warm smile, and the joy he brought to our department.”

The only good news in this whole mess is that no one else was injured in this traffic violence rampage.

………

Boy, does he get it.

A Scottish columnist says city councilors in Edinburgh and Glasgow need to ride the bike lanes in their cities — or try to, anyway — because the bike lanes “appalling” condition amounts to a roadway apartheid. And that bike lanes should be in better condition than the regular traffic lanes, anyway.

He says that parts of the city are beginning to feel like Amsterdam, thanks to more segregated bike lanes, or what we would call protected bike lanes.

But – and this is a big But – very few people will be able to get from A to B on segregated lanes alone. For virtually every cycle journey, however much you try to avoid busy roads without segregated lanes, it will prove impossible.

However, in my experience, it’s far worse than that, as older cycle lanes may well be all but invisible or in a decidedly poor condition, if not also litter, leaves and debris-strewn. I would go so far as to describe the worst examples as roads apartheid – smooth running for cars while cyclists have to put up with bumpy, rutted surfaces.

I believe where that has occurred, councils have got their priorities all wrong. The condition of cycle lanes should be as good as or better than that of the main carriageway – not the other way round.

Unfortunately, the story is hidden behind a paywall for the paper’s “premium” users. But it’s worth finding a way around it to read the whole thing.

………

Note the lovely smoking factory in the background neatly framed by the tire.

Bluesky post

 

………

Toronto protesters erected a sculpture to fallen bicyclists, composed of stacked red bicycles, along one of the bike lanes the Ontario provincial government is in the process of ripping out.

Thanks to Donna for the heads-up. 

Reddit post

………

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

No bias here. A clip resurfaced this week of Texas Republican congressional candidate and “gunfluencer” Brandon Herrera fantasizing about killing bicyclists for the crime of being in front of him on the road — “They want to be treated like vehicles, like cars. But they’re not, they travel at fucking arrestable speed limits of not being a fucking car. And they expect you to respect the fact that they just want to be an asshole on Sunday mornings. I had fucking fantasies of running them all over and, you know, maybe one of these days I will.” Nice guy.

No bias here, either. A writer for London’s The Independent — yes, the same paper sportswriter Trent Crimm worked for on Ted Lasso — says now that the UK’s new prime minister is fining people who play loud music without using headphones, he needs to tackle the problem of people who ride bicycles on the sidewalk. Which sounds reasonable, until you consider that no one rides on the sidewalk if the street next to it is safe.

………

Local 

CD14 Councilmember Ysebel Jurado is one of us, taking part in the recent Heart of LA CicLAvia.

 

State

Congratulations, California. We’re number 2 — in more ways than one — on the list of states with the most bicycling deaths. Although with a population more than 24% larger than Texas, the next largest state, it would be surprising if we didn’t rank near the top. 

More than 50 veterans and first responders are taking part in the 400-mile Project Hero Ride down the California coast to raise funds to support recovery from PTSD and traumatic brain injuries.

The parents of a 13-year old Garden Grove boy killed when he crashed his e-motorbike into a pole at 40 mph now face charges of child endangerment and contributing to the delinquency of a child for buying their son a “faster and more powerful E-Moto,” despite multiple previous injuries.

Streetsblog reports that speed cams work where they’re installed. And right now, they’re installed and working in San Francisco. Maybe someday, LA. Maybe someday. 

 

National

Relatives of a fallen Seattle elementary teacher have filed suit against a garbage company, alleging the driver of one of their trucks abruptly right hooked him as he rode his bicycle, running over him and his bike. And there ain’t no helmet that can protect against that. 

He gets it. An op-ed from a New York bike advocate says the city needs smarter rules for Central Park, where pedestrians have access to all 51 miles of streets in the park, while bike riders are confined to a single 6.1-mile roadway shared with runners, rollers, walkers and dogs.

 

International

London, Ontario bicyclists called for safer roads during Saturday’s Critical Mass ride, which is kinda the point of Critical Mass.

Sad news from England, where one of the best known bicyclists in rural Cumbria died after a short illness; 87-year old Gerard McCarten was locally famous for his fundraising rides, as doctors listened in to his radio-transmitted heartbeat as he rode after his heart attack ten years ago.

Bike advocates in the UK are calling for action from Prime Minister Andy Burnham to provide safer bike routes for women, after a local task force found that three-quarters of the country’s bike lane users are male.

A 24-year old man from County Cork, Ireland has resumed his 7,500-mile fundraising ride from his hometown to the Mt. Everest basecamp, after returning home for three months to wait out monsoon season.

 

Competitive Cycling

Polish Olympic silver medalist Daria Pikulik was stripped of her results for a two-year period after skipping three doping tests over an 18 month period. But the doping era is over, right? Right?

 

Finally…

Your next single-speed belt-drive bike could be a Ralph Lauren. You could have been the proud owner of an antique Leo Grundle chemist delivery bike for the equivalent of a mere $1,366.

And I only wish this wasn’t true.

Twitter post

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin.

 

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

Waiting on word from WeHo, lengthy prison terms for killer drivers, Florida cop patrols at 3 times legal BAC, and ebike jousting is now a thing

October 20, 2026 / / No comments

Just a quick update today, since I wasted too much time trying to learn more about Saturday’s ebike death in Huntington Beach. You’d think I’d know better by now. 

And still no word from West Hollywood about the city council vote on replacing the promised protected bike lanes on Fountain Ave with curbside parking. 

Hopefully we’ll learned more today. 

And apropos of nothing, this is my only companion as I work in the dark tonight, while my wife and corgi — no, two separate beings, thank you — sleep in the other room. 

………

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

A 27-year old Florida man faces felony child abuse charges for allegedly pushing a child off his bicycle following a brief altercation; he insists he didn’t push the kid, but merely knocked the boy off his bike by kicking its front tire. Which somehow doesn’t seem to make it any better.

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

A London man says a bike rider ran a Putney red light and crashed into him as he walked in a crosswalk, then punched and kicked him until impatient drivers honked their horns, but did nothing to intervene.

………

Local 

As usual, Metro buses, trains and Metro Bikes will be free on Election Day, which should be a paid holiday, but isn’t.

Local residents are calling for an anti-camping zone for the new park scheduled to open under the 6th Street Bridge next year. Although they’ve managed to fuck up everything else with the four-year old bridge, so they might as well fuck up the park, too. 

Secret Los Angeles spills the secret on the planned Westwood bike lanes that will — finally — connect UCLA to the Westwood/Rancho Park E Line station. And eventually connect the E Line to the D (Purple) Line.

 

State

A 40-year old Rohnert Park man was lucky to escape with non-life threatening injuries when he ignored railroad crossing gates, a train’s horn and warning lights to ride his bike across railroad tracks as a SMART train was crossing. Seriously, train crashes are the easiest collisions to avoid, since they’re confined to a narrow space and usually provide ample warning that they’re coming. And they’re fucking loud. 

Three years after allowing ebikes on an East Bay trail, an unscientific survey finds 80% of trail users feel unsafe around them. Although I wonder if the survey included ebike riders, too. 

Golden State Report’s Paul Thornton says San Francisco’s Prop G is the most LA thing on the city’s ballot; the measure would rip out the popular sunset Dunes Park to restore the former Upper Great Highway. Which clearly wasn’t so great, or they never would have shut it down to create a linear park in the first place. 

 

National

Velo picks the year’s best road bikes, starting with their $2,500 “budget” bike.

PeopleForBikes says that e-mountain bikes are changing the way Forest Service land managers work. Which makes sense, since they cost less than a good horse, and are way cheaper to feed.

A couple of New York legislators who can’t seem to undo the caps lock key on their keyboard propose allowing scofflaw bicyclists to watch a video instead of paying a fine, inspired by a similar London law. If I have to watch a video, I’ll take Casablanca, please.

A bill in the New Jersey legislature would exempt Class 1 and 2 ebikes from the state’s draconian licensing and registration requirements.

A 33-year old Pennsylvania man was sentenced to 10 to 40 years behind bars for beating another man to death with his own bicycle, after pleading guilty to 3rd-degree murder while insisting he didn’t remember doing it, but admitting video evidence was likely to sway a jury. The article kept disappearing on me, but maybe you’ll have better luck. 

An Alabama woman received 25 years behind bars for killing a 13-year old middle school student as he was riding his bicycle, while she was speeding, “under the influence of multiple substances,” and ran the red light he was legally crossing.

This is who we share the road with. A Florida cop was busted for driving drunk while on duty, in his patrol car, with a BAC three times the legal limit.

Thousands of creepily clad costumers climbed on their bikes for Key West’s annual four-mile Zombie Ride.

 

International

Yucatán Magazine looks at the dangers faced by bike riders in Mérida, the Mexican state’s capital city, from disconnected and poorly maintained bike lanes to hazardous urban corridors. Sounds kinda like a certain SoCal megalopolis we could name. 

A fourth person has been arrested protesting Ontario’s moves to rip out a Toronto bike lane, as dozens of people continue their effort to block the roadwork.

A 27-year old London woman was sentenced to a relatively modest ten years and nine months behind bars for killing a music student as he rode his bike in the city’s Hackney neighborhood, while she was high on laughing gas and doing 53 mph in a 20 mph zone. Although typical of British reports, the make of car she was driving seems to be the most important detail.

A new joint German-Israeli study used a robotic bike — no, not what you think — to determined that “dynamic, trunk-related control that keeps the upper body stable while the world tilts beneath the wheels” is more important than general steadiness on two feet in keeping older bike riders balanced and stable on their bicycles.

 

Competitive Cycling

Two-time Leadville 100 champ Melisa Rollins is leaving offroad cycling behind to embark on a new road cycling career.

 

Finally…

Yes, your toddler needs a nearly $700 titanium-frame balance bike. While your kid toddles on ti, your next bike could be made from thermoplastics.

And that feeling when Lime says using their bikes for the noble sport of ebike jousting is a big no-no.

Instagram post

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin.

 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , ,

All hands call to save Fountain Ave bike lanes, ICE attacks ebike-riding CA native in Long Beach, and bike lanes are conservative

October 19, 2026 / / No comments

Man, that was a rough week.

I can’t remember the last time a migraine knocked me out like that, or affected me so badly for so long after the pain was finally gone. 

I’m told my migraines, and the associated dizziness, stem from a traumatic brain injury suffered in the infamous beachfront bee incident that put me in the ICU for a few days 20 years ago.

The impact knocked me cold for several minutes, erasing any memory of the crash and leading to one of those life-after-death visions you read about, which, real or hallucinated, both shattered and cemented my own personal faith. 

The ER doctors at Santa Monica’s St. John’s hospital told me my helmet probably saved my life. But in those pre-MIPS days, it did nothing to prevent the concussions I suffered.

The first migraine I ever had came four years after that, and they’ve continued to grow more frequent and worse in the years since. 

I’ve often been a critic, not of bike helmets, but of the overpromises made by so many people who equate bike helmets with seat belts or air bags, as if they would somehow magically protect you from a multi-ton motor vehicle traveling at highway speeds.

They won’t. 

Even the best bike helmets are intended to protect you from relatively low speed falls off your bike, not collisions. But as I’ve learned the hard way, that limited protection can still make a huge difference in your health decades after a crash. 

Now the Canadian-made Pikio Si Oblik has been rated the safest ever by the testing institute at Virginia Tech. It’s hard to recommend a helmet that costs nearly $400, especially when you can get a decent MIPS model for so much less.

But based on my own experience, it might be worth it. 

………

As we said last week, tonight there’s an all hands on deck meeting of the West Hollywood City Council, as WeHo Councilmember Lauren Meister is once again attempting to kill the long-promised protected bike lanes on Fountain Ave.

Meister tells WeHo Online that the council didn’t receive any other options other than the bike lanes when they voted to approve the project — even though the street was subject to nearly a decade of discussion and public meetings — and she prefers a plan that would replace the bike lanes with parking spaces, calling it a “compromise.”

Although the C-words I would use are “capitulation,” and “convenience,” as in a surrender to the whims of motorists who are used to parking on the deadly street.

Never mind that protected bike lanes have been shown to improve safety up to 90% for all road users, while maintaining parking would only serve to keep the corridor deadly by forcing bike riders to use the single remaining lane or ride in the door zone.

Streets For All explains how you can help by attending tonight’s meeting, or sending an email to the councilmembers in advance of the meeting.

Parking proponents will undoubtedly be out in force at the meeting, and will need to be met with an equal and opposite demand to improve safety for everyone. The alternative will be to keep Fountain Ave unrideable and unsafe to walk along and cross, as well as to drive.

If that’s the plan, they might as well save the money to pay for ghost bikes and white tires for all the victims yet to come.

………

More evidence that ICE is out of control, after a Long Beach man was intentionally run down by ICE agents as he was riding an ebike and struck with an unmarked vehicle, then tased twice and handcuffed face down in the gutter, suffering a broken arm in the attack.

Ricardo Gonzalez was attacked by agents on Saturday, apparently because of the color of his skin, since they had no other means of determining his immigration status as he was riding his bike. Never mind that Gonzalez was born in Hanford, California, making him a US citizen by birth, despite Trump’s efforts to change that.

The agents also rifled through his wallet, and confiscated his ID and Meta glasses.

A crowdfunding campaign for Gonzalez has raised over $13,000, more than doubling the initial $6,500 goal.

Note to ICE agents: Maybe try to determine someone’s citizenship and immigration status before you run them down with an SUV — or better yet, just don’t run them down in the first place.

Thanks to Megan for the heads-up.

………

He gets it.

A Bakersfield writer says bike lanes are a conservative cause, so it’s time to stop targeting them and the leaders who advocate for them.

Here’s what these critics miss: A bike lane makes a road safer even when no one is riding in it. Wide lanes invite speeding and inattention. Narrowing them slows traffic, and the striped buffer puts extra feet between moving cars and people on the sidewalk. Federal data cited by city staff show bike lanes on arterial roads cut car-bicycle crashes roughly in half. If anything, the city should go further and add bollards or other barriers, so a drifting driver hits a barrier before a person. That would also make riders feel safe enough to use the lanes more.

Now consider the money. Many roads in northwest and southwest Bakersfield were built with two lanes each way but enough pavement for three or four, on the theory that traffic would someday need it. At the pace we grow, that day is decades away, if it comes at all, and these roads will need rebuilding long before then. Where were the fiscal watchdogs when we paved all that unnecessary asphalt? Repurposing a few feet of it for the safety of everyone is a bargain by comparison…

And when it comes to bike infrastructure itself, fiscal conservatives have been making the case for years. The Kern County Taxpayers Association, hardly a group of free spenders, has long pushed for a better network of bike and walking paths across the city, including more than 50 miles of trails along abandoned and underused rail lines. When the region’s leading fiscal watchdog says safe places to walk and bike are worth the investment, critics who call it waste should take note.

None of this is a liberal plot to take away anyone’s car. It’s about two things conservatives have always championed: freedom of choice and public safety. People should be free to choose how they get around, whether that’s driving, biking, walking or some mix, to save money on gas, to get some exercise, or to let their kids gain a little independence. But that choice only means something if every option is reasonably safe. Too often, it isn’t. A parent may hesitate to let a 12-year-old ride to school. A retiree may not be able to safely walk to the corner store. Someone who can’t afford a car, or can’t drive one, may be taking their life in their hands just crossing the street. Keeping people safe is among the most basic jobs of local government, and the right to get home alive shouldn’t depend on being encased in a car. Responsible spending, personal choice, public safety and strong families are supposed to be conservative values. Safe streets serve all four.

Maybe someone should show this to Sean Duffy, our current Secretary of Transportation, and tell him enough with the “DEI bike lane” crap.

And I say “current,” because no one seems to have job security in this administration, except for those who seem to least deserve it.

………

A San Francisco writer discusses the difference riding a bicycle has made in his life over the past ten years, improving it in ways he couldn’t have imagined.

My colleague Lily Janiak, our San Francisco Chronicle theater critic who bikes to shows and everywhere else, coaxed me along like a mother duck, warning me about the risks of tires sticking in streetcar rails, getting “doored”, and even other cyclists. Struggling to remember it all, I felt certain I was going to die.

Instead, I was reborn. 

Or at least rebranded. Riding a bicycle has become as much a part of my Chronicle job as exploring new spaces, hanging out with cool old people and breaking big Pacifica Taco Bell news. I now take my bike and public transportation to assignments as a rule.

In the process, I’ve gotten healthier, spent less money and saved time cruising past traffic jams. But the results extend beyond all that (and the smugness that often comeswhen cyclists lecture about health, money and traffic). I’ve become a better journalist and a better community member. I may not live longer — did I mention that I bike in San Francisco? — but I’m definitely doing a better job working for you.

Unfortunately, the story is hidden behind the paper’s draconian paywall. But it’s worth finding your way around it if you can to give it a read.

………

The Hollywood Reporter examines the bicycling documentary The Perfect Road, which premiered recently at the London Film Festival.

Years ago, Maximilian Schnell left his job and his life in Paris and began a nomadic lifestyle on his bicycle. The road has given him freedom and adventure. And he has set himself grueling physical and mental challenges.

Perfect Road, a documentary from Danish directors and cousins Adam and Christian Bonke, follows him on an extreme journey through some of Europe’s highest mountain passes, while also providing a meditation on modern life and character study. For one, even in an age of digital nomads, Schnell’s lifestyle pushes the envelope. And then, his relationship with his partner Nina makes him question his life priorities.

………

We’ve seen this video before, depicting a Slovakian mountain biker outrunning a bear, possibly without even knowing he was doing it.

But an animal website uses this 2017 encounter as a launching pad to consider what you should do if you run into one while riding out in the woods. Hint: Unless you can ride faster than 35 mph, you may lose the race. 

………

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

A Florida convenience store owner is facing a second-degree murder charge after intentionally driving his car into a 14-year old boy riding an ebike, because he thought the boy had attempted to burglarize his store.

In one of the most shameful episodes I’ve seen, a Quebec City family called off a planned ghost bike ceremony for their 11-year old son after receiving “hateful” messages; a member of the group Souliers et vélos fantômes Québec — Ghost Shoes and Bicycles Quebec — called the comments “wildly inappropriate.” Seriously, there’s not a pit deep enough for anyone who’d send something like that to parents whose child had just been killed, under any circumstances. 

A woman is seen on video being chased by a man with a machete for undetermined reasons as she rides her bicycle alone through Kenya.

Twitter post

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Local 

The Los Angeles Times profiles UCLA law student Jonathan Hale, and his DIY campaign to paint the crosswalks the city won’t.

Pasadena is asking for your comments on proposed safety improvements to the St. John and Pasadena avenue corridor.

 

State

Irvine has decided to put the city’s CicloIrvine open streets program on hold while they work through their budget problems. Once again, you’ll have to navigate the OC Register’s draconian, self-defeating paywall. 

Sad news from Visalia, where a man riding a bicycle was killed by a heartless coward hit-and-run driver.

Sleepy Santa Cruz ranks as the sixth most dangerous California city for bicyclists, as Huntington Beach checks in at #1, to the surprise of no one who has been paying attention, while Bell ranks a surprising second; Palo Alto and Gardena were the two safest cities. In a case of good news/bad news, Los Angeles didn’t make either list. 

There’s a special place in hell for anyone who would crash into two six-year old kids as they’re riding their bikes in Half Moon Bay, and just drive off leaving them on the side of the road; 37-year old Robert Schumann faces multiple charges after cops used a drone to track him down as he bravely hid in the woods to avoid capture. Fortunately, the children are hospitalized in stable condition. Once again, however, you’ll have to work your war around yet another unproductive paywall.

 

National

Aussie pro cyclist Lachlan Morton succeeded in setting a new record for the old Pony Express route last week, beating the relay team that carried Abraham Lincoln’s inaugural address to California by nearly 12 hours, while covering the 1,966-mile route in 6 days, 21 hours and 15 minutes. Although Morton did have the advantage of paved roads, pneumatic tires and something slightly more aero than a horse. 

A Salt Lake City letter writer says the city’s bicycle and pedestrian improvements may be confusing for drivers, but the benefits are worth it.

My bicycle-friendly Colorado hometown held a third annual bike parade to honor a ten-year old boy killed by a distracted driver in 2023.

Dallas, Texas is looking for feedback on an interactive map of proposed bike safety improvements, as advocates push to turn research into legislation protecting bicyclists.

New Hampshire state police are investigating after a local mayor and state representative got into a brief “verbal altercation” with someone riding an ebike; the man says he only got out of his car to retrieve his wife after she got out to have words with the bike rider.

New York Streetsblog says Central Park is long overdue for the kind of perimeter bike lanes found at the city’s other parks, and complains that the half-measures implemented after New York banned cars from the park have only made things worse.

 

International

A Nobel Prize winner examines the anti-aging industry, and concludes that the humble bicycle is one of the most effective anti-aging tools out there.

Bike Radar considers how many headlamp lumens you really need to see and be seen after dark. Personally, I’ll settle for roughly 3.9 octillion, which is only slightly brighter than the sun. 

Momentum looks at seven of the longest off-road bike trails in North America.

Ottawa, Ontario identified seven bike lanes that could be impacted by a new provincial law that limits removing traffic lanes to add bike lanes during road reconstructions.

A London writer who wisely chooses to remain anonymous justifies why they’ve ridden though roughly 40,000 red lights and have no plans to stop, although kindly choosing not to ride through red lights and crosswalks when pedestrians are present.

Another London writer says the city has spent the last 15 years building for bikes, before now deciding the bikes are the problem.

Drivers in Scotland have been told to stop driving on a bike path as a shortcut around construction delays.

For the second consecutive year, the UK is holding a series of bike rides across the country to highlight the need for safer routes for women riders.

A British city counselor attends a conference on designing streets through a child’s lens first, and explains that “towns that are safe for children are safe for everyone.”

British actor Taron Egerton paid a fine and received points on his driver’s license after bicycling content creator CyclingMikey filmed him using a mobile phone while driving.

Sri Lanka’s head cricket coach takes time out for a little mountain biking in Pakistan, praising Islamabad’s natural beauty.

Two German men are retracing the route of China’s Long March by bicycle; the military maneuver by the Chinese Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army became a defining chapter in modern Chinese history, leading to the defeat of the forces of Chiang Kai-shek in the Chinese Civil War.

 

Competitive Cycling

Former cycling scion Taylor Phinney finished eighth in the men’s individual pursuit at the 2026 UCI Track World Championships, while beating his personal best by a massive 11 seconds, nearly seven years after he retired from road racing. Although his wife Katarzyna Niewiadoma-Phinney is still kicking ass on the women’s road circuit. 

 

Finally…

Now even the rocks are out to get us, as a 76-year old Florida woman was killed by a falling boulder while riding in Pennsylvania. Then again, London sewage seems to be out to get us, too.

And maybe it’s just me, but this seems like a bad thing.

Instagram post

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin.

 

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

New Bass plan to keep Forest Lawn deadly, Indian girl who carried injured father 700 miles on her bike, and bike-friendly WeHo council candidate

October 12, 2026 / / 2 comments

A quick heads-up before we get started. 

A number of coastal areas remain flooded and/or damaged after the simultaneous effects of a kelvin wave and Hurricane Rachel over the weekend. 

So maybe stay inland for a few days. Or if you ride near the coast, at least check your route for flood conditions and damage before you go, and turn back at the first sign of standing water. You don’t know what may or may not be hidden by the water, and salt water can be very harmful to your bike.

And to you, if a stray wave catches you.

Today’s photo depicts the most recent deadly crash on Forest Lawn, reportedly due to speeding. 

………

I’ll try to get into this more tomorrow, but Mayor Karen Bass released her new plan to add protected bike lanes to deadly Forest Lawn by — wait for it — widening the roadway rather than reducing lanes.

Even though her own staff says it won’t do much to reduce speeding and improve safety. But it will keep her backers at Forest Lawn and Mount Sinai cemeteries happy, as they strive to keep the street dangerous and drive up business.

Yay, us.

………

Life can be hard. Especially when sudden fame brings promises that no one keeps.

NPR discovered that when they checked in with India’s Jyoti Kumari, who gained international acclaim at the height of the pandemic when she bought a hot pink bicycle for twenty bucks, and rode over 700 miles to carry her injured father back home.

Despite never having ridden a bike before, and only 15 years old, she made the trip in just seven days in the middle of the lockdown, often riding on an empty stomach.

But sadly, her father died of a heart attack just a few months later.

Here’s how she explained the rest of the story to NPR, and what happened after the acclaim died out.

That was in 2020. “Now — life is hard,” Kumari told NPR.

What happened to all the promises made — for financial support, especially to support cycling as a competitive sport?

Many promises were not kept, she says.

“The politicians who made promises, saying they would give money for my sports or education — nobody actually gave anything,” she says. “Whatever reward money we collected back then [from individuals who extended help and a government award that came with a cash prize], we put it all into our house, rebuilding it. We had a brick house before, but it only had bare walls. Now we have completed it, added a toilet, a bathroom, and a running water connection. By doing all that, the house has finally become livable,” she says…

At the moment, her mother works as a cook. Her meager income supports Kumari and her three siblings at home (an older sister has married and moved out).

“There are days when we go to sleep hungry,” she says. “Our brother-in-law used to help us earlier, but now he also has a child, a wife and his father to take care of. He works a small job in the city — how much can he really do? So now he isn’t able to help us much.”

It’s worth taking a few minutes to read or listen to the story.

If nothing else, it’s a remind that as hard as life may seem at times, we’ve got it pretty good over here.

And that heroes and remarkable achievements are too often quickly forgotten.

………

Over the weekend, I ran into Stephen Post, a candidate for the West Hollywood City Council, at Plummer Park.

And no, I didn’t hurt him. And yes, I should be more careful.

We didn’t really have time to chat, since my wife was anxious to leave, and the corgi had squirrel treed a few feet away, and was being very aggressive in her attempts to either a) climb the tree to get it, or b) bark it into submission.

However, I did discover Post is a multi-modal bike commuter who lives just a couple blocks from where Blake Ackerman was killed, and he’s a big supporter of the planned safety improvements on Fountain Ave, including protected bike lanes.

I’ll leave it to you to find out more about his positions on other issues. But we agreed it’s long past time for a new generation of leadership. And he seems like someone ready to take that next step into local governance.

So if you live in WeHo, check him out. And if you don’t, check him out anyway.

………

The father and son team of Scott and Ethan Pesch are nearly finished with their 10,000-mile ride to visit every Major League ballpark in the US, with a goal of raising $100,000 for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Meanwhile, another father and son duo completed a 4,300-mile ride across the US, raising $240,000 to fight Type 1 diabetes.

And to think I had a hard time just talking our dad into riding around the block with us. Then again, the racing bike he kept hanging on the garage wall was over 40 years old by then, and it was hard to get parts for a 1920s vintage road bike even back then.

………

Local 

No news is good news, right?

 

State

Cal Matters examines what California’s three new ebike laws actually do.

Calbike recaps the wins and losses in the just concluded legislative session, counting the halting of three bad ebike bills among the former.

 

National

No surprise here, at least not if you’ve been paying attention, as a new study from Johns Hopkins reconfirmed that narrowing traffic lanes does not result in more crashes, and makes streets safer for bike riders and pedestrians.

Someone who owns both explains why mountain bikes and road bikes don’t get along, at least when it comes to riding together.

Hats off to Irish ultra-endurance cyclist Joe Barr, who is now the official Guinness World Record holder for biking the entire 2,448-mile length of Route 66 in 10 days, 6 hours and 27 minutes.

A new Honolulu bike commuter looks to New York for hope and inspiration. As do we all, my friends. As do we all. 

He gets it. A letter writer with the Akron, Ohio Vision Zero program says ebikes aren’t the problem, cars are. Or maybe ebikes are a small problem compared to the big, dangerous machines and the people in them.

Seriously, it takes a major schmuck to steal an ebike from an 86-year old Ohio man.

Um, okay. A 66-year old Connecticut priest says he felt like Moses in the desert on just the first day of a 350-mile ride through the Alps to raise funds for a Catholic school. Even though Moses spent 40 years wandering through that desert, and never did get where he was going.

New York is embarking on a ten-year safety review of the city’s streets, with an emphasis on improving condition for bicyclists and pedestrians. The difference between New York and Los Angeles is that when they conduct a safety study, they actually do something about it. 

A couple of New Jersey cops helped resuscitate a 76-year old man after he suffered a heart attack, the second life they had saved in just three weeks.

 

International

Wired examines how a tiny Vancouver-based startup studied head-banging woodpeckers to discover a new approach to skull protection, leading to the world’s safest bike helmet.

A 27-year old London woman was sentenced to almost 11 years behind bars for killing a music student, also 27, as he was riding his bike; she was high on laughing gas and doing two-and-a-half times the speed limit when she slammed into him.

A Scottish counselor warns that wet leaves can be dangerous on bike paths. Which is a good reminder if you’re riding anywhere in SoCal for the next few days.

In response to a question from the Irish parliament, the country’s Minister for Justice says 1,368 bicyclists and 253 e-scooter riders were fined for running red lights since 2024 — and no, they didn’t note the number of drivers ticketed for the same offense, though a previous study showed drivers run more red lights than bike riders do. Maybe it’s just me, but that number actually seems pretty low for a country of five-and-a-half million people.

Thousand of people rode everything from modern recumbents to vintage penny-farthings as Sydney, Australia shut down the city’s iconic Harbour Bridge for the 40th annual bike ride to benefit a mental health foundation.

 

Competitive Cycling

World champ Brandon McNulty, European champ Remco Evenepoel, and other national champions led a five-minute protest before the start of Il Lombardia demanding safer conditions for pro cyclists after recent deaths and serious injuries; following the protest, 20-year old French wunderkind Paul Seixas broke away with 19km — roughly 12 miles — to go to become the youngest winner of a Monument race since 1944.

Twenty-three-year old Norwegian cyclist Per Strand Hagenes won the one-day Paris–Tours race after breaking away from the lead group with one kilometer — a little less than two-thirds of a mile — to go.

Sad news from North Carolina, where 19-year old collegiate cyclist and rising cyclocross star Tofik Beshir remained unconscious in the ICU after he was struck head-on by a driver during a training ride near Lees-McRae College on Thursday; a crowdfunding campaign to help pay his medical expenses has raised over half of the $200,000 goal.

Speaking of collegiate cycling, congratulations to Colorado Mesa University back in my home state on winning their seventh consecutive national mountain bike title.

 

Finally…

That feeling when a major bike event turns into a “bike-pushing festival” in “the international capital of embarrassing fails.”

Or when your job requires making Amazon deliveries by ebike during a heatwave.

@iamautoboy

you wrong JB #amazon #fyp

♬ original sound – AutoBoy

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin.

 

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

Westwood bike lanes coming over a decade after Koretz killed them, and charges filed in 2025 Desert Hot Springs distracted driving death

October 9, 2026 / / No comments

The long planned and fought for Westwood Blvd protected bike lanes could finally be happening.

Streetsblog’s Joe Linton writes that LADOT is moving forward with a proposal for 2.2 miles of bus lanes and protected bike lanes, from the E Line station at Westwood and Exposition to the UCLA campus, along with another 1.1 miles of  bus-only lanes.

Councilmember Katy Yaroslovsky has urged the city to speed up construction of the project following February’s 99 Ranch Market crash, when an elderly driver slammed into the building, killing three people and injuring at least six others, after hitting and injuring a bike rider.

Despite the work of advocates, any hopes of a bike lane south of Santa Monica Blvd were dashed in the early 2010s due to intense opposition from local businesses and the wealthy Westwood South of Santa Monica Blvd Homeowners’ Association, coupled with double-dealing by former CD5 Councilmember and all-around schmuck Paul Koretz.

However, as Linton explains,

In the past, elected officials, nimby homeowners, and city departments colluded to keep the boulevard car-centric and deadly. This began to change with the 2022 election of City Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky, who pledged support for walkable, bikeable neighborhoods and “getting Angelenos out of their cars.”

Even under Yaroslavsky’s leadership, Westwood Boulevard improvements are taking a long time. Yaroslavsky and LADOT have been working on the fully-funded $10 million Westwood Boulevard Safety and Mobility Project since early 2024.

LADOT is asking for your input on the project. Fill it out, because there’s no reason to believe the opposition will be any less intense this time around.

The only difference is the councilmember won’t be in the pocket of wealthy local homeowners.

Image from LADOT via Streetsblog. 

………

Charges were finally filed against the pickup driver who killed a 67-year old woman riding an ebike in Desert Hot Springs over a year ago.

Cellphone records show Oscar Pinuelas was using Instagram and Pandora on his phone right up to when he slammed into Laura Harker’s ebike from behind, even though she wearing a brightly colored bike helmet and clothing.

Pinuelas remained at scene, but apparently the CHP only recently examined the cellphone data and made an arrest.

………

ActiveSGV invites you to the opening of the Emerald Necklace Mobility Hub a week from tomorrow.

Twitter post

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BikeLA invites you to their annual Bike Fest fundraiser next month.

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A Chicago group says they were “blown away” by the bike lanes in Minneapolis, asking if they’re the best bike lanes in America.

Although the key words there are “in America,” because we may have a ways to go to catch up with China.

Yes, China.

………

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

A reckless driver drove his car onto an Ohio bike path, despite two missing tires, then stole another car at a park after that one became disabled, and returned to the continue along the bike path. No word on whether anyone who was actually supposed to be on the bike path had to bail out of their way.

Police in Gloucestershire, England told ebike riders they need insurance and a license, and need to pay the road tax, apparently confusing the rules for ebikes with motorcycles. And even though the UK’s road tax was halted 89 years ago. 

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

A 43-year old Liverpool, England man “swerved dangerously into traffic” on his bike and rode towards a family walking with baby carriages in an attempt to evade the cops after they spotted him riding on the sidewalk while using his phone; he was fined the equivalent of slightly more than $380 after being convicted of dangerous cycling. Then again, if he’d been in a car, that whole family could be dead right now. 

………

Local 

KNBC-4 reminds you about this Sunday’s CicLAvia — Heart of LA. Unless of course you’re going to Pasadena’s CatCon, instead. 

The LA City Council voted unanimously to set up a donation-funded fund to maintain the instantly iconic 6th Street, including removing trash and other waste from the pedestrian walk and bike lanes; the city recently hired a firm to restore the lighting on the bridge after thieves stole all the copper wire.

Long Beach police released photos of the alleged hit-and-run semi driver who killed 68-year-old Kevin Moran as he rode his bike on the sidewalk; police initially absolved the driver, saying he might not have known he hit Moran, before concluding it was in fact a hit-and-run.

 

State

A Hesperia man had his ebike stolen at gunpoint after a passing driver pulling a U-Haul got out of his car with gun in hand, announced he was taking the bike, and fired a shot past the victim when he initially refused to hand it over.

Oakland’s plans for calming a dangerous street only include proposals for painted bike lanes, and exclude the protected bike lanes advocates argue would be necessary to tame the street.

A suspect was arrested for a Santa Rosa hit-and-run, nearly two weeks after a bike rider was killed and left lying in the street until the body was found the next morning. As I’ve said before, cases like this should be charged as 2nd degree murder, because the driver made a conscious decision to flee the scene and leave the victim to die alone in the street.

 

National

The New York Times recommends the best e-cargo bikes. And for once, I can’t object to any of their picks. 

Aussie Lachlan Morton is attempting to break the record for the fastest ever Pony Express run, set in 1861 when a relay of riders carried Abraham Lincoln’s inaugural address to California; Morton hopes to ride the historic 1,966-mile Pony Express route from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California faster than the record of seven days and 17 hours. Of course, he has the advantage of paved roads, and doesn’t have to worry about anyone shooting at him until he passes through Nevada. 

A new hardcover graphic novel celebrates the life of early Black cycling champ Major Taylor, known as the world’s fastest man for his exploits on the track at the dawn of the Jim Crow era; the book is available on Amazon for 30 bucks, and probably well worth it.

New green bike lanes are hitting the pavement in the Biggest Little City on Earth.

The Texas driver who killed rising professional boxer Hannah “Hanarchy” Rapp in July was formally charged with murder and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon for backing his car into Rapp at a high rate of speed as she was riding with her boyfriend, after he gestured angrily following a too close, too fast pass; he faces life in prison when if he’s convicted.

Oops. New York is suing a Manhattan law firm and its principals, accusing them of running a personal injury fraud scheme that allegedly sought tens of millions of dollars from the city over bike crashes that never happened.

Gothamist says the hottest way for celebs to show they’re real New Yorkers is to record themselves riding a Citi Bike bikeshare.

Lawyers for the New Jersey driver who killed the hockey-playing Gaudreau brothers two years ago blamed the victims for the crash, saying they were riding their bikes in the roadway, making it impossible to avoid the crash. Even though that’s exactly where they were supposed to be, and the driver was allegedly drunk, speeding and passing a slower car on the grass shoulder of the roadway. But yeah, it’s their fault. Schmucks. 

 

International

A new Canadian-made bike helmet has rocketed to the top of Virginia Tech’s safety ratings, scoring a 4.61, over two points better than the second place helmet. Thanks to Megan for the link.

Nice. A London bike shop focuses on giving jobs to ex-offenders to give old bikes new life, as well as offering training workshops in prisons to teach bike mechanics to inmates before they’re released.

Cadillac F1 driver Valtteri Bottas completed his ride from last weekend’s race in Malaysia to this week’s Singapore Grand Prix, dodging pythons and cobras, and jumping over an iguana on the 250-mile ride.

 

Competitive Cycling

Last year’s Tour de France Femmes champ Pauline Ferrand-Prévot says Dutch cyclist Dylan van Baarle’s helmet “definitely saved his life” when he was struck by a driver while on a training ride Wednesday, just weeks before their wedding.

Egan Bernal denied persistent rumors that he intends to retire, as the 2019 Tour de France and 2021 Giro winner says he will definitely be at the starting line next year.

 

Finally…

Apparently, cheating in a marathon by hitching a ride on a bicycle is too much for Brooks running shoes. Pro cyclists don’t have the strength to race a “proper bicyclist” on a normal bike.

And what’s wrong with this picture?

Reddit post

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin.

 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: ,
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