Support BikinginLA Donate to the Annual Holiday Fund Drive →

Tag Archive for bicycling

Knives come out early for Mayor-Elect Nithya Raman, the cost of traffic violence, and why bike riders don’t fit the usual stereotypes

November 13, 2026 / / No comments

The knives are already out for Nithya Raman on City Watch.

Mihran Kalaydjian follows the lead of the rightwing California Post — actually just a rebranded version of the New York Post — earlier this week in attacking Raman’s support for the $3.1 billion overhaul of Los Angeles streets called for by Measure HLA.

Except that $3.1 billion estimate from the city budget office includes virtually the total cost of all street work, including ADA-mandated sidewalk work, which they lumped into the estimate in an effort to defeat the measure.

As Los Angeles faces mounting financial pressures, the mayor-elect must explain why a multibillion-dollar street redesign deserves priority—and whether ordinary residents will pay the price.

Los Angeles has a budget problem, a public safety problem, a homelessness crisis, and streets that are falling apart. Apparently, City Hall’s next big priority may be making it harder to drive on them.

Mayor-elect Nithya Raman is preparing to advance an ambitious transportation agenda that could reshape some of Los Angeles’ busiest streets, replacing portions of existing roadway with bicycle lanes, bus corridors, and other infrastructure.

The estimated price tag associated with implementing Measure HLA? $3.1 billion over a decade, according to a previously reported city estimate that transportation advocates have disputed.

Kalaydjian goes on, as the Post driveled, to blame the the nearly $8 million spent by “wealthy transportation advocate and hedge fund manager Aaron Sosnick” to support Raman’s campaign, calling on readers to “follow the money.”

As if Sosnick’s support bought Raman’s any more than the millions spent by the police and city employee unions bought Bass.

I would be the first to call for ending that kind of massive outside spending in political campaigns. But you can thank the Supreme Court for tossing out the post-Watergate limits on campaign spending for creating the high-dollar political world we live in.

He goes on to point out the obvious, that Los Angeles is not a bicycling utopia where just anyone can trade their car for a bicycle.

Which is kind of the point of HLA, isn’t it?

It is not currently safe or practical for most people to ride bikes, simply because there are few safe spaces to ride in due to a lack of spending to create them.

And no one is saying that everyone has to leave their car in the driveway and ride a bike absolutely everywhere. But merely that the people who want to ride a bike or take a bus somewhere should have that option, rather than being forced into their car by the design of our streets.

Studies have shown that nearly two-thirds of Angelenos would like to ride a bike if they felt safe on the streets. And that the overwhelming majority of car trips are three miles or less, which most people could easily ride.

Never mind that ped-assist ebikes can easily reduce the effort required, and effectively reduce distances for most people — even elderly and handicapped people, for whom an ebike becomes a mobility device.

Or that bike lanes actually represent just a tiny part of the street repair budget, in most cases costing no more than the striping the city would do anyway after repaving.

But it gets worse.

In another article, a self-identified Spencer Pratt supporter starts his diatribe this way —

IN MY OPINION – The occult ballot-harvesting election machinery in Los Angeles has declared Nithya Raman to be the new Mayor. An obedient media has goosestepped along with that pronouncement. A less deserving candidate would be hard to find anywhere in the country. Nithya and her DSA-Communist comrades should be congratulated for their superior ballot-harvesting skills.

Funny that Pratt supporters still haven’t grasped the concept that he lost because the people of Los Angeles didn’t want him as our mayor. Pratt garnered less than 30% of the vote — even less than Donald Trump received in heavily Democratic LA County just two years earlier.

But maybe someone could explain the difference between a Democratic Socialist and a communist to the writer, Eliot Cohen, who has clearly never heard that the bike-riding, Democratic Socialist Nordic countries consistently rank as the world’s happiest countries.

The drivel doesn’t stop there, however.

Start with the streets. Raman’s transportation agenda favors protected bicycle lanes, bus corridors and aggressive road diets. Her supporters expect aggressive implementation of Measure HLA, which voters approved in 2024. You would think a mayor of a car-driven city would seek to speed up commutes and reduce pollution from idling cars. Instead, Raman prioritizes reallocating road space while fewer than 1% of Los Angeles workers commute by bicycle.

The budgetary problems begin before a single traffic lane disappears. Prop HLA ties qualifying repaving of at least 660 feet on designated Mobility Plan streets to additional planned improvements. The city’s chief budget officer estimated implementation at $3.1 billion over ten years and called it an unfunded mandate. Supporters dispute that estimate, which includes extensive sidewalk work. But where is the money to deliver these obligations while repairing our roads? City report

The consequences are already visible. By May 2026, StreetsLA estimated its budget would support only 60 lane miles of resurfacing that fiscal year, compared with more than 300 the previous year. HLA, coupled with separate federal wheelchair-access requirements and staffing shortages, constrains the work. The city has shifted toward large asphalt patches to avoid triggering additional obligations. Raman’s promise of aggressive HLA implementation requires a funding plan and a tax increase before HLA improvements to street paving can take place. LAist

I’ll let you read the rest, if you have the stomach for it.

But let’s at least consider that $3.1 billion spread out over ten years works out to $310 million a year — less than the current $396 million annual budget for LADOT alone.

It’s also less than the $316 million in unfunded pay raises Karen Bass and the city council gave to the police union and other city employees this current year, which rises to a more than $1 billion burden on taxpayers in 2028.

Or looking at it another way, it’s slightly more than 2% of the total Los Angeles city budget for the current fiscal year.

So if the streets aren’t getting fixed, it’s not because of HLA.

………

This is the cost of traffic violence.

The family of two-time NCAA triathlon champ Hannah Henry blasted the sentence for the hit-and-run driver who killed her during a morning bike ride earlier this year.

Even though any California family would be thrilled to see a killer driver sentenced to ten years behind bars, plus five years probation, which far exceeds the maximum for a DUI hit-and-run in the Golden State.

“I feel some relief that this part is over,” Henry’s mother, Della Doore said. “The pain and the hurt will never be over…”

Doore said she spent her whole life keeping her daughter safe, only for her daughter’s life to be taken carelessly for nothing.

“Hannah didn’t get a plea bargain,” Doore said. “When he got behind the wheel after taking fentanyl, he gave Hannah the death sentence. All she was doing was riding her bike on a Sunday morning. Thank you for hearing me.”

The former Arizona State University star was training for a triathlon, riding in a Phoenix bike lane when she was run down by a driver who had been smoking the drug before getting behind the wheel. He later told the cops that he blacked out, and thought he’d hit a fire hydrant after waking up.

Every traffic death is a death sentence for the victim and their loved ones, who have to live with the consequences for the rest of their lives, leaving a hole in their home and hearts that can never be filled.

Never mind that it happens nearly 40,000 times every year in the US, to nearly 40,000 families, needlessly snuffing out the population of a small city.

Every year, after year, after year.

If a plane crash kills a couple hundred people, it makes headlines around the world. But 40,000 traffic deaths go virtually unnoticed, like the drip of a kitchen sink.

And until that changes, nothing else will.

Et tu, Brute? Photo by Annie Gavin from Pixabay. 

……….

He gets it.

A New Orleans writer discusses a 10-mile community bike ride this weekend, noting that the city’s bike riders don’t fit the usual stereotypes.

To those watching, bicycle riders often fall into easy stereotypes and stigmas. There’s the hipster gentrifier, the commuter, the tourist on a Blue Bike, the geared-up road racer, the trick-bike kids riding on their back wheels, the tour guide leading 12 matching bikes.

Others, observing from behind a steering wheel, will always see bikes as an unwanted obstruction to their dominance of the roadway.

The reality is more nuanced, rooted in diversity and community…

There are the French Quarter-Marigny artist bicyclists who live in neighborhoods where parking is tight and stores are a short ride away. Then there are Carnival and Jazz Fest riders, who pass stopped traffic on their ways home. Then there are native-born New Orleanian men who ride no-frills cruiser bikes — and now growing numbers of e-bikes —  because bicycling is more reliable than our transit system.

Because 1 in 5 New Orleans households don’t have access to a car, people must weigh options and bicycles often win over buses (waits) and Uber/Lyft (expensive).

When I lived in Louisiana back in the early ’80s, the idea of almost anyone riding a bike in the city was a totally foreign concept. As a friend of mine from New Orleans put it when I invited him to ride with me one weekend, he said you’d never see a Black man on a bicycle, because everyone would assume he couldn’t afford a car, or he stole it.

He wasn’t joking, either.

Nice to see just how much the city has changed, even if it only took 40 years.

……….

Get ready for Sunday’s CicLAvia with BikeLA’s annual Bike Fest fundraiser tomorrow.

………

Make time during Sunday’s CicLAvia for Streets Are For Everyone’s observance of the World Day of Remembrance for the victims of traffic violence.

………

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

A Nashville TV station follows the usual template, asking if the measly $14.5 million the city spent on bike lanes over a three-year period is worth the cost, when only 0.4% of Nashville commuters bike to work — which is like asking if it’s worth $14.5 million to build a bridge, when less than half of 1% of drivers attempt to ford the river.

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

Sad news from New York, where a 49-year old man riding an ebike was killed when he was hit head-on by a 50-year old ebike rider traveling the opposite direction in a two-way Bronx bike lane. As usual, there’s no mention of what type of ebikes they were riding, whether legal ped-assist bikes or e-motos.

A London bike rider complained about a “psychopath level” road raging driver who cut in front of him to turn into a gas station, causing the rider to fall off his bike to avoid him, which escalated into a shouting match with the driver threatening to hit him, then squirting a bottle of motor oil into the bicyclist’s face and mouth. Yep, sounds like a psychopath to me, anyway. 

The good news is that former Aussie world road champ Rohan Dennis could end up behind bars after all; the bad news, it’s not for killing his wife, Olympic cyclist Melissa Hoskins, it’s for driving with a suspended license, which was the harshest penalty he got for killing her with his SUV.

………

Local 

The Los Angeles Times considers how much of the county’s 500 miles of open flood control channels can be used for hiking and biking trails, green spaces and parks under a new coalition of LA County officials and local nonprofits known as Urban Natueways.

The Pasadena Star-News offers a last-minute guide to Sunday’s Pasadena CicLAvia. But they naturally hide it behind their paywall, apparently not wanting non-subscribers from outside the city to show up or anything.

 

State

Calbike says the Democratic blue wave — more like a king tide, kelvin wave blue tsunami — also marks a rising tide for bicyclists, with winning California candidates they’ve backed, from Nithya Raman to the Bay Area’s Scott Weiner. Although while they backed Raman in her first run for LA City Council, I don’t recall them endorsing her for mayor this time around.

Sad news from Nevada County, where a search is on for the hit-and-run driver who killed someone riding a bicycle in Grass Valley Wednesday afternoon.

 

National

The Bike League has once again named Washington as the country’s most bicycle friendly state, followed by Oregon, Minnesota and Massachusetts, with California checking in ahead of Colorado for the fifth spot, as unlikely as that may seem; Mississippi, which just entered the 20th Century by electing its first Black senator since Reconstruction, unsurprisingly takes up the rear.

A former Michigan state representative suffered a critical spinal injury when he hit black sewage pipe on a dark sidewalk as he was riding to a bible study class at a nearby Catholic church.

A Toledo, Ohio man was sentenced to a mandatory term of nine to 13.5 years behind bars for the hit-and-run death of a popular 44-year old local chef as he was riding his bike in a designated bike lane; he also received a lifetime driver’s license suspension after his release.

Tragic news from Massachusetts, where a renowned Boston cardiologist who disappeared after leaving for a bike ride last Saturday, only to be found dead in a cow pasture the next day, died of a self-inflicted gunshot.

A bill in the New York legislature would force food delivery services to foot the bill to create rest areas for delivery workers, including bathrooms and e-bike charging and storage areas.

More sad news, this time from Baltimore, where the bike rider who was fatally stabbed in a local park was identified as a 62-year old adjunct music professor at Towson University.

 

International

Stuttgart, Germany is investing the equivalent of $12.6 million to build new seven-foot wide bike lanes on both sides of the city’s Main Bicycle Route 2 on Ulmer Straße, to complete the project.

Japan’s Cycle Trains are growing in popularity, allowing bike riders to board without having to disassemble their bikes.

 

Finally…

That feeling when the city bans student ebike parking near an intermediate school, but car parking is just dandy. Or when your new Chinese ebike folds up into a little 41-pound square.

And the solution for everyone who wants to take a pipe on your bike, in case you need a few puffs while you puff up and down the road.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin.

 

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

61-year old NoHo mofo arrested for DUI & murder, and Culver City approves Sepulveda upgrade over objections from Tracy Park

November 12, 2026 / / No comments

No surprise here.

As many, if not most of us, have probably guessed, the driver in Tuesday’s North Hollywood massacre, 61-year-old Ihor Demianenko, was arrested yesterday on suspicion of driving under the influence, and was allegedly speeding as he drove down Lankershim Blvd.

Demianenko also faces three counts of murder after jumping the curb on the opposite side of the street, and plowing into food vendor stands outside the North Hollywood Metro station.

He is currently being held on $6 million bail, which will likely keep him behind bars until his case goes to trial.

The murder counts suggest this is not Demianenko’s first offense, and that he has previously received a Watson advisement informing him he could be charged with murder if he killed someone while driving under the influence anytime in the future.

Either that, or police believe the crash that killed three beloved food vendors, and injured two other people, in addition to Demianenko, was somehow intentional.

At least one of the women was known to feed local homeless residents when they couldn’t afford to buy a meal.

As for today’s photo, I really don’t give a damn how drunk you get. Just don’t get behind the fucking wheel afterwards.

………

Culver City approved an overhaul of Sepulveda Blvd through the city, despite pushback from a Los Angeles city councilmember.

The plan includes 1.2 miles of physically protected bike lanes linking Culver Blvd and Ballona Creek, along with 1.8 miles of bus-only lanes. The plan will maintain two traffic lanes in each direction, with a center left turn lane and retaining parking on one side of the street. The city council also certified the project is exempt from CEQA review.

Not surprisingly, LA’s CD11 Tracy Park urged Culver City to delay a vote on the proposal by citing the usual fear tactics over traffic gridlock and cut-through drivers clogging nearby side streets in her district — even though those fears have failed to materialize on other similar projects, such as on Venice Blvd.

Park also voiced objections over potential high-density rezoning under Senate Bill 79, which allows construction projects up to nine stories within half a mile of major transit stops.

However, unlike Los Angeles where councilmembers enjoy a virtual fiefdom in their districts, Park has no power over Culver City, and the council approved the project anyway.

……….

Nithya Raman’s support of Measure HLA could change the way Latino workers get around the city, according to Parriva.

A 2015 national study by the Breakaway Research Group, commissioned by PeopleForBikes, found that Hispanic bicycle riders reported particularly high levels of transportation-related cycling.

Among Hispanic respondents who already rode bicycles, 58% reported using them to travel to work or school, compared with 40% of white respondents. Nearly half, 49%, reported riding to connect with public transportation, compared with 23% of white respondents.

The study also found that 65% of Hispanic respondents used bicycles for shopping or errands…

For workers who cannot afford a vehicle or live far from reliable public transportation, a bicycle can make the difference between having access to a job and spending additional time and money getting there.

Bike lanes have been accused of being tools for gentrification, under the false assumption that they will be used primarily by wealthy white bicyclists for recreation.

Yet bike lanes also serve what used to be known as Los Invisibles, or the invisible bicyclists — the students, bus boys and laborers who use bicycles as their primary means of transportation because it’s all that they can afford, and too often go unnoticed on the roads.

So when councilmembers block or delay bike lanes, that’s who they are really hurting. And who HLA will benefit as much or more than anyone else.

……….

Japanese bicyclist Ryo Murata finished his viral bike ride from Chicago to Los Angeles, rolling onto the Santa Monica pier on the 100th anniversary of Route 66, as well as his own 27th birthday.

Murata actually completed a two-part ride across the US that began in New York two years ago, stopping in Chicago when his bike broke down and his tourist visa expired, forcing him to return to Japan.

The LA Dodgers also surprised Murata with a custom Shohei Ohtani jersey; his last stop before the finish was at the massive mural for his idol and countryman in Little Tokyo.

……….

How to rent a bike in Mandarin, courtesy of a Chinese government media service.

………

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

It took a BBC story about a bicyclist left in a coma for a section of England’s popular bikeway linking Bristol and Bath damaged by tree roots to finally get repaved, despite years of requests to get it fixed. As usual, it not only took someone getting hurt, but also national news coverage to get anything done.

A 40-year old British man was convicted of the road-rage murder of a 50-year old father of three, after he deliberately swerved his car into the victim’s bicycle following a brief argument in which the victim had knocked the wing mirror off the driver’s car; the driver had been drinking before picking his kids up from school, who were undoubtedly traumatized by watching dad use his car as a weapon to murder another man.

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

Police in Philadelphia are looking for the shmuck man who smacked a 60-year old woman in the face, for no apparent reason, as he was riding by on the sidewalk.

………

Local 

Los Angeles voters have apparently approved Charter Amendment EE, which would allow the City Council to hold a full meeting just once per week, as opposed to the current three, with the measure leading with 52.76 percent support in the latest vote drop; other amendments leading in the vote count would switch the city to a two-year budgeting plan, and increase the required signatures to put citizen amendments on the ballot from 10% to 15% of the mayoral vote in the last election.

The LAPD’s Pacific Division issued a theft-prevention advisory warning about the dangers of cable locks, after 100 ebikes were stolen in the division in the last six months.

Yet another reminder about Sunday’s 2.7-mile Pasadena CicLAvia, the final one of the year.

 

State

The Regulatory Review reviews California’s efforts to regulate ebikes.

Mountain View is replacing a traffic signal at a busy downtown intersection with a traffic circle, as well as protected bikeways.

Palo Alto is planning a series of upgrades to the nation’s first bicycle boulevard, including traffic circles, curb extensions and other improvements.

 

National

Velo ranks the best bike helmets, skipping over the one rated highest by Virginia Tech, and rates the best bike lights for added measure.

A fifth-generation “preacher’s kid” and grandnephew of the late, great civil rights activist and musical legend Nina Simone is undertaking a 3,300-mile bicycle religious pilgrimage retracing routes slaves traveled to freedom on the historic Underground Railroad.

Bikepacking questions whether the current spike in gas prices will spark the second great American bike boom, following the boom of the 1970s. Even though the most recent bike boom sparked by the Covid pandemic has already come and gone, and even though high gas prices haven’t even made Americans trade in their massive trucks and SUVs yet. 

Speaking of bikepacking, a local writer spent five days and 400 miles riding around Washington’s “breathtaking” Olympic Peninsula, riding past black bears and my brother’s new home in Port Angeles.

Mexico’s Bike Guy has given away over 400 bicycles this year, and plans to give away another 200 to children in need for Christmas. No, the other Mexico, in Missouri. 

A mystery in Massachusetts, after top Boston cardiologist left his home for a bike ride Saturday morning, and was found dead in a cow pasture Sunday afternoon, although police don’t suspect foul play.

New York Streetsblog says Brooklyn’s new bike boulevards will benefit the 90% of residents who don’t drive to work, despite “lazy” reporting that they will divide the neighborhood.

Evidently, Hoboken, New Jersey has decided that ten years without a traffic death is long enough, and will modify a protected bike lane to restore 20 parking spaces.

Philadelphia groups are planning dueling pro and anti-Israel bike rides for this Sunday.

A Baltimore man was stabbed to death while riding in a local park; police were treating his death as a homicide, after apparently concluding he had not repeatedly fallen on a random sharp object.

An Atlanta man drove six hours to install a ghost bike on the North Carolina country road where 63-year old Patrick Turner was killed when an alleged DUI driver plowed into the members of a bike club, injuring 22 other riders in addition to Turner; it was the 217th ghost bike installed by Dave Matthews in the past 15 years. And no, not the musician.

 

International

Garmin and Waze are teaming up to alert drivers to the location of bicyclists via the Waze app — but only if you’re using a Garmin device on your bike.

Another one bites the dust, as 12-year old English bikemaker Temple Cycles announced it’s going out of business.

A 20-year old British man was jailed for six and a half years for a series of violent bike thefts on a Leeds canal towpath, which left two older bike riders “deeply fearful” of riding their bikes.

The best places to ride a bike on your next trip to Abu Dhabi.

American mountain biker Hannah Otto became the first woman to ride up and down Tanzania’s Mt. Kilimanjaro in a single day, finishing the ride in 10 hours, 18 minutes and 51 seconds, despite breaking her leg two miles from the finish line; following a 30-hour trip to return to the US, she was diagnosed with multiple tibia fractures, a blood clot and an ACL that had pulled off her knee, taking a section of the bone with it.

 

Competitive Cycling

Sixty-nine-year old Gulf War veteran Ellie Kennedy is training for the Los Angeles Paralympic Games on her three-wheeled bike; Kennedy suffers from ataxia, a neurological condition that affects her balance, and didn’t start racing until her 60s.

Escape Collective describes what it’s like to have Remco Evenepoel accidentally steal your KOM.

 

Finally…

You, too, could have bought the very same Colnago V5Rs Tadej Pogačar rode to victory in last year’s Liège-Bastogne-Liège for half price. Who among us can honestly say we haven’t taken part in a late night ‘cross event dressed as a duck?

And bad enough we have to deal with distracted drivers without having to worry about sewer equipment, too.

Especially when riding to Bible study.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin.

 

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

Update: Another mass casualty car crash in NoHo with 3 dead, 3 critical — and the CA Post should go back to New York and leave LA the hell alone

November 11, 2026 / / No comments

Thank you to all who have served this nation, at home or abroad, in peacetime or in war. 

Let’s all work to ensure that every veteran comes all the way home after their service — mentally, physically and emotionally.

………

It’s happened again, again.

Just one day after I wrote about the North Carolina mass casualty crash, another driver’s car became a ballistic weapon of mass destruction, plowing through of group of innocent bystanders, this time right here in Los Angeles.

But at least there weren’t any bicycles involved, that I know of, anyway.

According to multiple reports, just before 6 pm yesterday, the driver of a minivan plowed into a group of pedestrians and street food vendors outside the North Hollywood Metro station on Lankershim Blvd, killing three people on the scene and critically injuring at least three others, including the driver.

The driver, reported to be a man in his 60s, was headed south on Lankershim before jumping the curb on the opposite side of the street, and coming to rest on the sidewalk surrounded by scattered bodies.

According to the Los Angeles Times,

Kassandra Guzman, 12, was sitting at her family’s smash burger stand across Lankershim when she saw a car barreling down Lankershim drove straight through the blue tarp where a number of food vendors usually set up.

The vendors sell coffee, tamales, hot dogs and pastries, according to Guzman, who said the people who were injured have been working there for years.

“I’m just glad it wasn’t my family, but it still hurts,” she said.

There’s no word at this time why the driver slammed onto the sidewalk, or how fast he may have been going prior to the crash. Nor is there any word on whether he was under the influence, may have suffered a medical emergency, or if there was another vehicle involved.

All we know for sure is that this wasn’t caused by a bike lane, because the protected bike lane we were promised on Lankershim through the NoHo Arts District was never built, after former councilmembers Tom LaBonge and Paul Krekorian teamed up to kill the project a decade ago.

Whether those bike lanes could have prevented this tragedy is impossible to know at this time; it might have just put more bike riders in harm’s way.

Not only does this crash come days after the North Carolina massacre that killed one bicyclist and injured 22 other, it also occurred just two months after an allegedly drunk driver plowed into the side of a Metro bus at Nordhoff and DeSoto, killing two passengers on the bus. Then a few hours later, a helicopter covering the crash for KNBC-4 tumbled from the sky, killing the pilot and an onboard reporter, as well as a man on the ground.

All because we all trust our lives to motor vehicles and the people operating them, resulting in nearly 40,000 needless deaths and around 2.4 million injuries in the US each year.

Now you can add three more to that morbid score, on both sides of the equation.

Update: No surprise here, as the driver, 61-year-old Ihor Demianenko, was allegedly speeding, and arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence. He also faces three counts of murder, and is being held on $6 million bail. 

The murder counts suggest this is not his first offense, and that he has previously received a Watson advisement informing him he could be charged with murder if he killed someone while driving under the influence anytime in the future. 

………

Which brings us to this idiotic editorial from the conservative California Post, arguing that “leftist snobbery” is behind Nithya Raman’s $3.1 billion bike lane plan.

Never mind that the total they cite includes the cost to build out the entire Mobility Plan 2035, from fixing sidewalks and crosswalks to building bus lanes. And that $3.1 billion was a worst-case scenario basically pulled out of the asses of opponents of Measure HLA in an effort to defeat the proposal — which passed with overwhelming support anyway.

You can almost hear the editors of the paper slobbering with glee at the prospect of once again owning the libs — which in this case means anyone who doesn’t want to die on the mean streets of LA.

Nithya Raman and her allies want to make LA — a city built around the automobile — more congested and even less drivable.

The mayor-elect and some of her large campaign donors have pushed for a $3.1 billion road overhaul that would add bike and bus lanes, while squeezing and subtracting driving lanes.

That would mean less space for motorists, more traffic and longer drives on main city arteries such as Lincoln, Santa Monica, Sunset, Venice, Sepulveda and Ventura boulevards — along with the streets around them.

Let’s see how many mistakes you can find in those three paragraphs.

First of all, Los Angeles was never built around the automobile. Depending on how far you want to go back, the city started with Tongva, Chumash, Serrano and Tataviam Indian trails, followed by the ruts of Spanish horses and donkey carts, and western wagons.

That was followed by the city’s first paved roads, which were built for bicycles, not motor vehicles. But Los Angeles was really built around one of the world’s great rail networks, the Red and Yellow cars, whose former tracks now account for the city’s many wide boulevards.

Then there’s that highly disputed $3.1 billion figure, which the paper’s editors are just running with, without bothering to determine its source or accuracy.

As we noted yesterday, Raman did have a few large donors on her side. But nowhere near as many, or willing to invest as much, as those supporting Karen Bass’ failed effort at reelection. But if you really want to talk about big donors, the tale begins and ends with Elon Musk’s half-billion dollar failed bet on MAGA extremists.

It’s also not the mayor elect, or her donors, pushing that road overhaul. It was the Los Angeles City Council, which passed the bike plan unanimously, followed by a 12-2 vote to adopt the mobility plan that subsumed it. And former mayors Antonio Villaraigosa and Eric Garcetti who signed and supported them.

Then there’s the two-thirds of Los Angeles voters who passed Measure HLA, which made implementing those plans part of the city charter. All Raman and her supporters have done is call for implementing that plan as legally required.

But yes, it would require narrowing many of the city’s traffic lanes, which are currently far too wide to encourage safe driving, as well as the removal of some parking and traffic lanes, less in the name of installing bus and bike lanes than in an effort to improve traffic safety and save human lives.

And slowing traffic is the whole fucking point, because that’s how you accomplish that.

But the Post’s editors slobber on. And on.

What a bleak prospect for LA residents. This plan is woke ideology masquerading as a health initiative.

Raman would do well to drop it, and spend city time and resources on initiatives that would enhance — rather than degrade — the lives of everyday Angelenos.

Never mind that those same “everyday Angelenos” must have thought it would enhance their lives, or they wouldn’t have voted for it. Instead we get the Post’s editors pushing rightwing ideology in a city that has overwhelmingly rejected it — or Spencer Pratt would be getting sworn in next month instead of Raman.

Or did they even stop to consider that she received over 53% of the votes cast for mayor just last week, which kinda suggests that a fair number of Angelenos must have thought she has a few good ideas beyond her so-called “woke ideology.”

Then there’s this.

But reconfiguring LA roads would likely decrease safety — clogging and removing lanes used by police, fire and paramedics — while doing nothing to lower global temperatures. In fact, all the idling in extra traffic might drive emissions up.

Those arguments have been repeatedly studied and found to be false. Where lanes have been removed in Los Angeles, it has not appreciably slowed emergency response times, nor has it done so in other cities. Never mind that bus and bike lanes can be used by emergency responders to get around the traffic congestion caused, not by bike lanes, but by too damn many motor vehicles and the solo drivers in them.

It has also been repeatedly disproven that drivers idling in the traffic congestion they cause drives up emissions to any significant degree.

And the left’s carless utopian vision is particularly ill-suited for LA.

The city is vast, sprawling, spread out. It’s often impractical to take a bike or a bus to one’s destination.

And even if it were feasible to ride a bike for, say, 10 miles each way to work, what then? Can a person also pick up the kids from school on a cycle, and then balance a few grocery bags on the handlebars?

Most trips in Los Angeles are three miles or less, which can easily be done by bus or bike — and could be done a lot faster if we had dedicated lanes to safely get around all those cars.

Then there’s this crazy new invention called an ebike, which does a masterful job of shortening commuting distances, while making that long, boring drive to work — wait for it — fun.

And yes, there are people right now who pick up their kids at school by bicycle, as well as doing their shopping by bike.

Then there’s the reality that impeding mobility impairs economic growth. Large-scale road reconfigurations that restrict vehicle traffic or scrap parking — already a grand frustration in LA — would deter shoppers, hurt merchants and dampen prosperity.

Studies have repeatedly shown that retail sales and sales tax revenue tends to go up, not down, after protected bike lanes are installed, while increasing the walkability and livability of neighborhoods previously choked by pass-through drivers. And that bike riders tend to spend more at individual shops and restaurants over time than motorists, spending less per trip but frequenting businesses, well, more frequently.

Not to mention that protected bike lanes reduce crashes and crash severity for all road users, with significant benefits in reduced car repair, medical and insurance costs, as well as less worker downtime.

Raman conceded on Tuesday that HLA’s exorbitant costs have slowed road fixes to a crawl, and she vowed to determine how many barrier-protected bike lanes the cash-strapped city can afford to install.

What has slowed road fixes to a crawl is the city’s reluctance to comply with the curb cuts required by the Americans with Disabilities Act, not the minimal costs of striping bus and bike lanes, or even the higher cost to install curb-protected bike lanes.

Which the Post’s editors would know if they had any fact-checkers on staff. Or knew how to Google.

They conclude thusly,

But so long as HLA remains on the books, City Hall should address it without punishing motorists. That means no road diets, no lane subtractions, and no pipe-dream notions that people will suddenly, en masse, find the bus convenient.

LA does not need $3.1 billion worth of street redesigns.

It needs mobility — including and especially by car.

Maybe they could ask the families of those people killed and injured in North Hollywood yesterday if we need still more cars on the streets.

Because the simple fact is, cars are the problem, not the solution.

And adding more cars to our already congested streets won’t help anyone anymore than gas fueled, MAGA-fied drivel like this.

………

I’m sorry, but it’s now well after 3 am, and I’ve already wasted too much time and over 1,800 words discussing the harm motor vehicles and California Post editors continue to inflict on this city.

So I’m calling it a night. We’ll be back tomorrow to catch up on the rest of the news.

Oh, and if you’re a subscriber to the California Post, I mean, what the fuck, dude?

Just flush your money down the toilet and spare your brain cells.

Category: Injuries and Fatalities / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

NC DUI driver’s weapon of mass destruction, cars ever-expanding size and lethality, and not everyone cheering after Raman win

November 10, 2026 / / No comments

Well, that sucked.

I sat down to get to work Sunday night, only to find my site was down and I couldn’t access anything, let alone do anything.

The good news is that we’re up and running now. But Monday’s gonna Monday, I guess.

………

As you’ve probably heard by now, a motor vehicle in the wrong hands was once again turned into a weapon of mass destruction, this time in North Carolina Saturday morning.

The result was one person dead, and as many as 22 people injured, out of a group ride variously reported as 30 to 40 people. One way or another, that means he took out over half the people on the ride.

And considering how it happened, it seems like a miracle that only one person was killed.

The driver, 76-year-old Donald Robert Morris-Jones, was allegedly under the influence when he drove onto the wrong side of a country road near Raleigh, North Carolina, and slammed head-on into the members of the Capital Cycling Club.

Sixty-three-year old Patrick Turner died at the scene, while seven other riders were seriously injured. Up to 15 others suffered less serious injuries of varying degrees.

Morris-Jones fled the scene, crashing into a ditch about half a mile away, where he attempted to flee on foot.

Oh, did I mention that this all happened around 9:40 am?

Reports have not yet said why Morris-Jones was suspected of being drunk. We should learn more in the next day or two after he’s arraigned.

At last report, he was still being held on $1 million bail, after a magistrate said he posed an “overwhelming danger to society.” Morris-Jones faces one count of felony death by vehicle, seven counts of serious injury by vehicle, eight counts of hit and run, driving while impaired, reckless driving, and driving left of the center line.

Which means, at his age, he will probably die in jail, unless prosecutors give him one hell of a sweetheart plea deal, although that seems a lot less likely in North Carolina than here in California.

According to a statement from the Capital Cycling Club,

“We are all in shock by the senseless decision by the individual that caused the collision. This horrific event was no accident. As far as we know, the individual made a decision to drive in a way that put others in grave and mortal peril.

“We do not think there was any possible way the driver did not know that he had collided with the group. He chose at that moment to keep driving away from the scene leaving mass carnage in his wake. We are working closely with law enforcement on their investigation. We will continue to follow this case closely as it proceeds to see that justice is done for our friends.”

Which is exactly the point. Alcoholism is a disease, as is chemical dependency. And there are any number of prescription medications that can cause someone to appear intoxicated, as I know all too well.

But getting behind the wheel in that state is a choice — as is the decision to keep going after a mass casualty crash. There is nothing that excuses that, particularly when it results in the death of an innocent person.

Needless to say, the local bicycling community was deeply shaken.

………

From what I understand, vehicle size wasn’t a factor in the North Carolina massacre.

But an op-ed in California Streetsblog is worth reading, explaining the role that the ever-increasing vehicle size plays in the lethality of motor vehicle crashes, and what can be done about it.

The deadliness of crashes can in part be traced to these big pickups and various heavy SUVs. SUVs used to alarm transportation planners by their size but now are dwarfed by large pickup trucks. American pickup trucks can weigh 4,000 to 8,000 pounds. Many have high front ends that instead of hitting pedestrians low and crushing their legs, instead crush internal organs. And their size leaves no safe space on a travel lane for a bicycle rider. Some in the auto industry are acknowledging the problem. “[Cars] that used to weigh a ton and a half are now three tons,” said Ned Curic, chief technology officer of automaker Stellantis N.V., the parent company of Jeep, Dodge, Chrysler, and Fiat.

And vehicles are getting heavier as they are electrified. Electric vehicles are 10% to 25% heavier than gas-driven ones; in a growing future of electric pickups and SUVs, fatality rates will get worse.

I’ve caught some heat for describing the high, flat grill featured on so many cars, trucks and SUVs these days as murder grills, with people arguing that vehicle designers and buyers don’t intentionally plan to kill anyone.

Yet that is the inevitable result of having so many of these oversized vehicles with their oversized grills on the road. Maybe your SUV will never kill anyone. Most won’t. But someone’s will. Make that a lot of someones.

And that doesn’t even get into the massive size of trucks and SUV that are up to 50% larger than a couple decades ago, increasing both their lethality and the space they take up on the road, too often crowding bike riders and other vehicles off it.

Anyway, give it a read. Because we have to do something about it.

Like, now.

……….

LAist says Los Angeles transit and safer streets advocates have been cheering Nithya Raman’s win since she defeated incumbent Karen Bass for Mayor of Los Angeles.

”It is time for a cultural shift towards a city that prioritizes pedestrians and cyclists and people who take public transit,” (People’s Vision Zero founder Jonathan) Hale added. “We finally have a mayor who believes that.”

It’s not just bike lanes. Raman’s successful campaign hinged on a policy platform that viewed broken sidewalks, streetlights in disrepair and pothole-ridden roads not as intractable issues, but urgent crises that can be addressed with better governance.

Raman, who has said she used trains and buses to commute to work in the past, also has her eyes on L.A.’s larger transportation network. On election eve, while riding the L.A. Metro B Line with supporters, Raman said the region can buck its car-centric reputation and be home to a fast, safe and connected transit system.

“That vision is totally achievable, if you have the will. I have the will,” Raman said.

I only wish I was cheering.

I mean, like Charlie Brown, I really want to believe that this will be the time we finally kick the damn ball. But I’ve seen it pulled away too many times.

Maybe I’ve just been at this too long. But I’ve seen this movie before.

We’ve passed progressive bike and mobility plans. Vison Zero. A Green New Deal. None of which we’ve actually seen come to pass.

Eric Garcetti made a lot of big promises, but failed to live up to any of them. Karen Bass made a big deal about riding a bike and being one of us, then seemed to forget we existed until she needed our votes once again.

Of the recent mayors, only Antonio Villaraigosa took actual action to improve safety on the streets. And that was only after he went to a mayor’s conference in Copenhagen, and saw what bikes are capable of, and had his Road to Damascus conversion when he got knocked off his bike by a cab driver, despite riding with his security detail.

I truly hope that Raman can emulate her fellow Democratic Socialist mayor in New York, and swiftly prove to everyone that she was the right choice for mayor, while making rapid changes to increase city efficiency and improve bicycling, walking transit and street safety in time for the ’28 Olympics.

But we live in a city that was deliberately designed to be inefficient and practically impossible to govern, with power intentionally taken away from the mayor’s office and distributed to 15 little kings and queens with their own little fiefdoms, all in the name of avoiding the corrupt officials of the past, as the Los Angeles Times’ Patt Morrison explains.

So maybe this time we’ll finally be able to kick that football, and you’ll hear me cheering from Boyle Heights to Santa Monica.

But while I may be hopeful, I’m not ready to start cheering yet.

……….

Sigh.

The judge hearing Joe Linton’s Measure HLA lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles tentatively ruled that he didn’t have standing to sue as a “transit activist.” However, he agreed to let Linton’s lawyers amend the complaint to demonstrate standing, with another hearing to be held on Christmas Eve eve.

Or, hear me out, maybe Linton just wants the city to uphold its commitments so he doesn’t get killed.

………

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

Montreal plans to remove one half of a controversial bike lane during the winter to restore a whopping 60 curbside parking spaces, bike safety be damned.

Progress on installing bike lanes in Northern Ireland is “very, very slow,” as planners are told to avoid putting bike lanes in front of homes and businesses. Which basically leaves schools, parking lots and farms. Except the latter two are forms of businesses, too.

………

Local 

The conservative California Post looks at the “powerful,” “influential” forces behind Nithya Raman’s victory — like, um, Streets For All — and a “$3.1 billion street overhaul” that could give drivers the squeeze on some of LA’s busiest streets. God, let’s hope so. Never mind that there were more and bigger powerful and influential forces backing Karen Bass. 

Ron Howard rode a bicycle to the premier of his new Netflix documentary at Santa Monica’s Aero Theater, parking it in the alley out back. But Page Six doesn’t want you to know about it unless you want to sign up for their free newsletter. I’ll pass, thanks. 

A Japanese man is concluding a ride from Chicago to Los Angeles to spread a message of hope.

Streetsblog reminds us about ongoing project scoping meetings for the Sepulveda Transit Corridor this week, as well as the year’s final CicLAvia in Pasadena on Sunday.

 

State

OC Sheriff’s deputies used the much-maligned Flock cameras to bust a Los Angeles man and woman for stealing an ebike in San Clemente.

Life is cheap in Escondido — if you’re a cop, anyway. A 36-year old Escondido cop walked with a misdemeanor diversion program for killing a 39-year old man riding an ebike during a pursuit last year; Officer Jason Ingco claimed the victim swerved into his patrol car while making what the DA termed an “ill-advised pass.”

A 40-year old Antioch man faces up to 15 years behind bars after he was convicted of the drunken hit-and-run death of a 29-year old woman riding a bicycle.

Food Network star Guy Fieri was one of us, beginning his career at ten years old peddling soft pretzels from a homemade bicycle cart in Northern California.

 

National

The founder of the Chemo Riders group spent three years riding 23,000 miles across the US to spell out “HELP” with his GPS, to call attention to the program to help cancer patients access reliable transportation to and from their life-saving treatments.

Maybe someone can explain to me what being a former Playboy model has to do with a woman’s family barely escaping their burning Oregon home after her son’s ebike battery exploded.

An Arizona site looks forward to the 11,000 people expected to participate in the annual El Tour de Tucson later this month.

The annual West Texas Marfa 100 bike ride reminds riders how much they stand to lose if Trump goes through with plans for the border wall in Big Bend National Park.

Oops. A Texas woman told an off-duty sheriff’s deputy that she hit “something” in the road after he noticed damage to the front-end of her SUV; that something turned out to be the 22-year old bike-riding woman she killed.

Former President George W. Bush joined veterans for his annual Warrior Ride mountain bike ride on his Texas ranch.

There’s not a pit deep enough for someone who would kick a Nashville man’s service dog in the face several times because he refused to hand over his bike, then stab the victim in the calf and kick his dog again for good measure before leaving with his bike and wallet.

A website for New York’s Chelsea neighborhood says it’s the forgotten pedestrians who stand to lose in the battle over ebikes and bike lanes in the Big Apple.

New York Streetsblog calls on the city’s mayor to make the former Boulevard of Death Gotham’s first bicycle superhighway.

A Hoboken, New Jersey website examines the most dangerous streets in the city, where crashes continue even though the city is nearing ten years without a traffic fatality. Then again, Vision Zero has never been about eliminating traffic collisions, just ensuring that those crashes don’t result in fatalities.

Protestors participating in a Philadelphia bike ride targeting owners of Jewish restaurants for their reputed support of Israel were overwhelmed by counterprotestors who came to buy food from the restaurants being boycotted, although another report said there were 50% more protestors than counterprotestors. I have no problem with anyone protesting the Israeli government or its decimation of Palestine; I might even join you. But protesting Jewish-owned businesses because they’re owned by Jews is racist and wrong.

Oops. A Pennsylvania cop was caught on video using an anti-gay slur while confronting a teenager on a bicycle. Raise your hand if you haven’t been called an anti-gay slur while riding a bike. Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

A Louisiana lawyer will once again give away 600 bicycles to kids in eight cities throughout the state.

A 37-year old Florida man faces a DUI manslaughter charge for killing a bike rider after leaving a bar at 3 am, claiming the victim was riding in the middle of the road even though the bike was on the shoulder when he ran it down.

 

International

Up to 69% of Northern Ireland residents expressed a reluctance to ride a bicycle, with 79% of those citing a lack of bike lanes.

Danish moviemakers spent three months in a “not so big” camper van with “a lot of equipment” to make a documentary about a nomadic bicyclist.

Japanese authorities have introduced a new bicycle helmet designed so it won’t mess up students’ hair, in order to get more young people to wear one. Personally, I’d much rather not mess up my brain anymore than it already is, but you do you.

Now even the cops are committing hit-and-runs. Two cops in Australia’s New South Wales face charges after they hit a 25-year old woman riding an ebike, and kept going without stopping. And it only took six months of investigation to make the arrests. 

Tragic news from Australia, where a 47-year old Chinese food delivery rider working in Australia to support his family was stabbed to death when he and another delivery rider confronted a man tampering with their bicycles.

 

Competitive Cycling

USA Cycling is using AI to improve speed and performance in preparation for the LA Olympics. So be prepared to see members of the US team with six fingers and an extra leg or two.

 

Finally…

That feeling when even a meteorologist goes riding in the rain, and ends up with his arm in a sling. Or when you get excited about “the greatest bike ride you’ve never heard of,” and it turns out to be about the first transcontinental motorcycle ride.

And that feeling when a potential 007 needs a stunt double because he keeps falling off his bike.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin.

 

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

Bass out as LA gets a new immigrant mayor; LA gives us all the finger with HLA noncompliance; and Claremont follows LA’s bike plan blunder

November 6, 2026 / / 3 comments

By now, you’ve undoubtedly heard that Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass officially conceded yesterday, ushering in the Nithya Raman era at LA City Hall, and making her the city’s first mayor of South Asian descent.

According to LAist,

Nithya Raman, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America who offered a message of hope to a city beset by crises, has beaten Karen Bass in the race for Los Angeles mayor, the first time an incumbent has been ousted from that office in nearly a quarter century…

“And that work starts now, so that we can build housing that people can afford, parks for our children to play in, a transit system that can get people where they need to go, a city that is safe for its working people and its families, and a city government that is actually capable of delivering on its promises,” she said in the statement.

“I love this city, and I love its people, and I cannot wait to get started on building a better future together with all of you,” she continued. “Thank you so much, Los Angeles.”

She is also the first immigrant in memory to lead what has become a city of immigrants.

And in the Los Angeles Times’ look at how Raman will remake City Hall, the very first word is “bike.”

Bike lanes. Housing vouchers. A new police chief and many more new apartments, even in single-family neighborhoods.

And above all, data to find out if City Hall programs are working.

That’s a word that has been missing in action for the last four years, as the mayor led the city with a single-minded, and largely failed, focus on reducing homelessness.

Which isn’t to say that housing people living on the streets shouldn’t be a primary focus of a new Raman administration.

But it shouldn’t be the only one.

Los Angeles is failing as a city, with just two years to get our shit together before the world comes to our door for the ’28 LA Olympics. Will those visitors find today’s pothole-riddled and trash-lined streets? Or will Raman somehow find a way to make LA work in the short time before they get here?

This is how Streets For All founder Michael Schneider framed Raman’s ascension.

We will finally have a Mayor who is a trained urban planner who believes that you shouldn’t have to risk your life to cross the street, or ride a bike. Who believes in prioritizing efficient transit, and will accelerate good projects in the pipeline. Who endorsed Measure HLA and will tell city departments to stop fighting it. Who wants to build a ton more housing and will cut red tape to do so. A Mayor who is thoughtful, and cares about solving problems instead of speaking in platitudes.

However, it will be up to us to hold her feet to the fire, and ensure this becomes the bikeable, walkable, livable city we’ve been promised.

Because it isn’t now. And that, more than anything, is why Bass lost.

……….

Speaking of Measure HLA, Streetsblog’s Joe Linton reports that the city continues failing to comply with the requirements of the ordinance.

According to Linton, the city has installed only 300 feet of new bus/bike/walk/accessibility facilities since Measure HLA became law in early 2024. That’s because the city insists that the only project “HLA required the city to install is a 300 foot of Reseda Boulevard bike lanes in Tarzana,” as they’ve continued to find creative workarounds to avoid complying with the measure.

But, according to Linton,

But you shouldn’t have to come to Streetsblog to find this quantified. Measure HLA required the city to set up a website to “provide the public access to monitoring and evaluation data for the implementation of the Mobility Plan as required by [Measure HLA].”

The city’s HLA dashboard website has been online since early 2025, but it’s basically a sad joke: incomplete, opaque, and in many places outdated and incorrect. It’s worse than malicious compliance.

The public still has no straightforward way of tracking city progress related to HLA or the Mobility Plan that HLA requires the city to implement.

In other words, just like with Vision Zero and the mobility plan, where the city was required to maintain a website listing bicycle and pedestrian death, and hold monthly meetings to update the public on progress building out the plan.

Something they gave up on in both cases, when it became just too damned inconvenient for them.

Hopefully, Raman will force the city into compliance with the law. Because right now, the city is just basically giving us all the finger.

………

She gets it.

A Pomona College professor complains that Claremont is one of the state’s most dangerous cities for children on bicycles, as well as one of the worst for speed-related injury collisions. Yet local officials are wasting funds on a hobbled transportation plan.

According to an op-ed by Heather Williams in the Claremont Courier,

Will our elected officials rise to the moment and make Claremont safer and greener? Or will they squander our best-in-a-generation opportunity to change that?

In March 2025, Claremont’s City Council authorized a $482,919 contract with Alta Planning+Design to develop an Active Transportation Plan. The objective was laudable: study our streets, consult residents, and develop a comprehensive strategy for making Claremont safer, more accessible, and more environmentally sustainable.

But she was disappointed to learn that the plan they came back with is disjointed and disconnected — because those were the marching orders Alta was given.

According to participants, Alta’s pedestrian proposals include promising improvements: raised crosswalks, curb extensions, flashing pedestrian beacons, and traffic-calming measures. But the proposed bicycle network is fragmented, with protected lanes that begin and end unpredictably, disconnected routes, and stretches offering little meaningful protection.

Why? Advisory group participants report that Alta was instructed to preserve existing vehicle lane configurations, landscaped areas, medians, and substantial on-street parking, while avoiding conflicts with driveways and school drop-off areas.

These restrictions effectively rule out many of the changes necessary to create continuous, protected bicycle routes.

According to Williams, city leaders need to explain to constituents why they’re spending nearly half a million dollars on a plan that “institutionalizes the very deficiencies it was commissioned to address.”

Most importantly, council members should ask a simple question: would they feel comfortable allowing a 10-year-old child to bicycle independently along the routes this plan recommends?

If the answer is no, the plan isn’t finished.

That was exactly the problem with the first draft of the 2010 Los Angeles bike plan, also prepared by Alta, which brought the phrase “currently unfeasible” into LA’s biking lexicon.

Alta returned a bike plan where most of the key connecting routes were considered “currently unfeasible” because they required the removal of parking spaces or travel lanes — or even just the narrowing thereof — and that was something beyond the comprehension of city leaders.

Fortunately, that plan was rejected by the city Planning Commission at the urging of the bicycling community, which told Alta and LADOT to go back to the drawing board.

Literally, in this case.

The result was a bold plan that re-envisioned Los Angeles streets, and how Angelenos could get around in the years to come. And which was unanimously approved by the city council.

Then allowed to wither and die on the shelf.

In fact, UCLA’s Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies estimates that just five percent of the bicycling facilities called for in the city’s mobility plan have been built out — which is why Measure HLA was required, and passed by an overwhelming majority of LA voters.

The question is, will that be the route that Claremont will be forced to take? Or will city leaders listen to local residents and send Alta back to the drawing board, with instructions to come back with something that actually works?

Let alone something that will save lives, and move the city far down on that list of dangerous cities for bike-riding kids.

………

Local 

Fifty-five-year old Jose Antonio Zayas pled not guilty to murder in the fatal shooting of a Culver City bus driver who refused to turn around or stop in the middle of a traffic lane; Zayas allegedly fled on a bicycle taken from the rack on the front of the bus after the shooting. No one has said whether the bike was actually his, however, or if he just grabbed someone else’s bike to get away. Which probably the least important detail, but still. 

 

State

Circulate San Diego offers an open letter explaining their Vision Zero budget priorities. Which is pretty much the same case they made in their last open letter on the subject, signifying the lack of progress. 

The Guardian examines how Lancaster transformed the former Highway 14 car sewer into a a leafy oasis of walkable ramblas rebranded as The BLVD.

The San Francisco Chronicle dropped its usual draconian paywall for a story about a “whimsical” birdhouse-lined bike trail just a BART ride from the city.

Bad news from Elk Grove, where a 72-year old man suffered life-threatening injuries when he was struck by a driver while riding his bike.

California appropriated $75,000 for an art and storytelling project by Indigenous groups at a new $400,000 bike park under construction in Northern California.

 

National

A Salt Lake City man gets his stolen Surly back after a friend spotted it at a local bike co-op, four years after it had gone missing.

Sad news from Michigan, where an 82-year old man was killed when a driver crossed the center line and hit his bike head-on. Although despite what the story says, he was not “killed after being hit by a vehicle,” unless someone put him out of his misery afterwards. 

 

International

Momentum debunks ten anti-bicycling myths used to argue against bike lanes. Which is pretty much the same arguments they debunked before.

Garmin is working with WAZE to provide drivers with an early warning about the presence of bicyclists.

Talk about missing the point. A writer for Pinkbike considers how El Salvador went from “murder capital to mountain bike haven.” Yet somehow fails to mention flawed elections and President Nayib Bukele ignoring a constitutional ban on two consecutive terms, while glossing over mass arrests, imprisonment without trials, and extrajudicial killings. But I guess none of that matters as long as it’s a great place to bike, right?

Tragic news from Bolivia, where the family of a 33-year old South Korean influencer has asked people to stop baseless speculating and malicious comments after he was killed by a hit-and-run truck driver while on an around-the-world bike tour.

London’s city assembly has called on the mayor to halt installation of floating bus stops until they agree on a better design, because of the danger they pose to blind bus riders when bike riders don’t stop like they’re supposed to.

Cycling Weekly follows a 127-mile singletrack trail along the UK’s River Wye, from its source in the boggy swamps of Wales’ Cambrian Mountains to the Bristol Channel.

A writer for The Independent makes the case for requiring numbered license plates for British bicyclists to rein in scofflaw riders. Because it has clearly worked so well to make drivers follow the laws, right?

Beijing, China has opened a new 21-mile riverfront trail along the south bank of the Qinghe River.

 

Finally…

That feeling when your KOM defeated by a squirrel. Why settle for natural loam when you can make your own?

And not all Limerick’s are funny. Or rhyme.

Especially the anti-bike ones.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin.

 

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

’28 Olympics provide an opportunity to build a real LA bike network, and fight in-person to close a gap in the LA River bike path today

November 5, 2026 / / No comments

A Los Angeles bike shop manager says the ’28 Olympics provide a perfect opportunity to build out an effective, connected bike network.

Writing for Planetizen, Alexander Golden argues that the city could emulate Paris in the buildup to the 2024 Olympics.

With less than 650 days to go and no concrete plan for moving the 3-5 million expected visitors around the city, Los Angeles should be looking to take as much strain off its Metro system during LA28 as possible. Given that the city is more than ready to embrace cycling, one answer could be to look to Paris’ “first bikeable olympics.” Two years before the opening ceremony Paris had no Olympic bike plan at all. By the time the Games rolled around, Paris had created a robust bike network that not only served Olympic spectators, but continues to move Parisians around the city to this day. If L.A. starts now, it could see the same lasting success.

However, Los Angeles has thus far gone the other way, despite years of clearly stated demands of local residents.

Similar to Paris, L.A. residents have spent the last decade begging officials for more bike infrastructure — with limited success. LA’s Mobility Plan 2035, adopted in 2016, maps roughly 260 miles of protected bike lanes and 660 miles of unprotected lanes. Execution has been the problem. By the city’s own count, only 22 miles of the protected network had been built by late 2023, along with 285 of unprotected lanes.

In 2024 voters tried to force the issue by passing Measure HLA, which won 65.5% of the vote. HLA requires the city to add the plans for bike, bus and pedestrian upgrades whenever it rebuilds a street. The City Administrative Officers report on the measurecalled it an unfunded mandate, and the ballot analysis put its cost at $2.5 billion over 10 years. Facing a roughly $1 billion deficit, the city cut the budgets of LADOT and StreetsLA, the two departments that build street safety projects.

It’s worth reading the whole thing. Because, if the current trends hold, Los Angeles is on the verge of electing a progressive mayor, like Paris’ Anne Hidalgo in the years leading up to the ’24 Paris Olympics.

I’m tempted to say we can only hope that a Nithya Raman administration would follow through on her stated support for bicycling and other forms of alternative transportation leading up to the games, and beyond.

But we can do more.

We can demand it. And we should.

……….

Speaking of which, I received the following email from Streets Are For Everyone yesterday.

A critical project to close a gap in the LA River Bike Path near Griffith Park is at risk of further delays, and we need your help!

Public comment at Thursday’s Recreation and Parks Task Force meeting will be accepted in person only, so we need as many advocates as possible to show up in support of this important connection.

Please join us tomorrow morning at 10:30 AM to speak in support of this critical project. Your presence and public comment can help demonstrate the community’s strong support for closing this gap.

Recreation and Parks Task Force Meeting Details

Thursday, November 5, 2026
10:30 AM
Valley Plaza Recreation Center
12240 Archwood Street, North Hollywood, CA 91606

Again, public comment will be accepted in person only.

Context

The approximately one-mile section between Riverside Drive and Forest Lawn Drive, known as “LARiverway – LA River Bike Path Phase 4,” is facing major opposition from some in the local equestrian community.

The project has already cleared environmental review and received City Council approval; however, the Recreation and Parks Department still needs to grant the rights necessary to establish the right-of-way and move forward. An earlier agenda item to approve the Grant of Rights was deferred following significant pushback, again, from some members of the local equestrian community.

This Thursday, the Recreation and Parks Task Force will hear from both equestrian and cycling advocates. We need cyclists and community members to attend in person and show strong support for completing this important connection.

I have written suggested talking points which you can access here: Talking Points – LA River Bike Path Phase 4.

……….

SAFE also invites you to attend their observance of the World Day of Remembrance for the the victims of traffic violence, which will be held just off the Pasadena CicLAvia route, below, a week from Sunday.

……….

The last CicLAvia of the year takes place on Sunday, November 15th when the open streets event returns to Pasadena for just the second time; CicLAvia offers highlights you can expect along the route.

……….

In news that really shouldn’t surprise anyone, a new study of collapsable, aka foldable, bike helmets has found that on average, they provide less protection than other bike helmets, although there is nothing inherent in their design that would prevent them from being improved to match the risks protection of other bike helmets.

………

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

London’s Westminster Council says it just doesn’t know where bicyclists should go after the recent pedestrianization of Oxford Street, even though the council had previously published plans for alternative bike routes. In other word, when asked where bike riders should now go, they politely said go to hell. 

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

Boston cops are looking for a bike rider who “went berserk” when a man told him to stop riding on the sidewalk, arguing with the victim before chasing him down and punching him in the face, then returning to take pictures of the man lying on the ground. While that’s major asshole behavior, it does seem to lower the bar a tad for berserking.

A Long Island man faces charges after throwing an object at a Tesla, then spitting on the car and pulling a pocket knife on the driver after the driver rolled down his window to ask him why; the driver then struck the man when he was attempting to get away. At least that’s his story, and he’s sticking to it, although it seems likely that he may have done something to provoke that response, but still.

Life is cheap in the UK, where a 38-year old London man was sentenced to less that four years behind bars for punching a man nearly twice his age to death, because the older man had told a kid riding a Lime bike on the sidewalk to slow down.

………

Local 

LA officials are encouraging feedback on the second phase of remaking Westwood Blvd to install dedicated bus and bike lanes, and are willing to bribe you with the somewhat slight possibility of winning a $50 gift card.

 

State

A San Francisco woman tells the local public radio and TV station how much she loves riding her ebike 12 miles to work every day, and how much she’ll miss it when she switches back to driving for the winter. Which raises the obvious question of why switch, then. 

San Franciscans have reaffirmed their vote to remove cars from the former Great Highway, which has been converted to the Sunset Dunes linear park, by a nearly two-thirds margin.

If you think you’ve seen women’s cyclist Lotte Kopecky or her husband, Axel Merckx, riding around the Bay Area, you’re probably right.

 

National

The Pedaling Relief Project established by Seattle’s Cascade Bicycle Club reached a dramatic milestone by rescuing two million pounds of food and essential goods by bicycle and delivering them to local food banks.

A 64-year old construction flagger faces a charge of criminally negligent homicide for the death of a school teacher walking her bike through a construction zone in my ostensibly bike-friendly Colorado hometown, after allegedly flagging her into the path of a semi-truck four months ago; the charge carries a maximum penalty of one to three years, plus two years of mandatory probation. Although you’ll have to get around my hometown paper’s paywall if you want to read it. 

A woman in her 30’s describes being terrified of her own body for most of her life after living with spinal scoliosis, until she moved to Colorado and accepted an invitation for a bike ride, and what she thought would be an easy ride around town turned into a 20-mile ride into the countryside.

The family of 34-year old Boston transportation planner begged city counselors to turn their words into action, and improve safety on the street where she was killed riding to work; they also announced plans to distribute the $100,000 raised after her death to ten local advocacy groups.

Tuesday’s blue tsunami extended to ballot measures pushed by New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, which all passed, including measures supporting outdoor dining and speeding the construction of bus and bike lanes.

A Philadelphia bike ride protesting against Jewish-owned businesses has been roundly and rightfully condemned by Pennsylvania’s two US Senators, the state attorney general and local organizations. Just to be clear, protesting against the government of Israel is no more antisemitic than protesting Italy is anti-Catholic, but extending that protest to individual Jews is. 

 

International

Life is cheap in British Columbia, where prosecutors are asking for a lousy two years probation for a 63-year old man who ran a red light a full six seconds after it had changed from green, killing a 68-year old woman riding a bicycle — but it’s no biggie, because he was thinking about his poor mother in the hospital instead of watching the road in an effort not to send anyone else there.

The four people arrested in Toronto for protesting the forced removal of bike lanes over the objections of local officials are contesting their arrests by arguing that police are trying to stifle dissent.

A fan of the 141-year old Luton Town football club had his effort to ride to every one of the team’s away games this year prematurely ended when someone stole his bike after he stopped at Starbucks to use the loo, but says he’s been blown away by the support he’s received from the team and its supporters.

Riding without lights in Oxford, England could cost you the equivalent of $94.

In yet another example of keeping a dangerous driver on the road until it’s too late, the killer hit-and-run driver who dragged a British bike rider under his car for nearly five minutes, while repeatedly swerving to dislodge the victim, has been sentenced to 25 to life behind bars, along with a lifetime ban on driving, after he was convicted of murder; he had 28 previous convictions, including multiple driving offenses, DUIs and fleeing from police.

 

Competitive Cycling

Classic Italian cycling component maker Bianchi has learned the hard way that you can’t mass produce handmade quality, entering the European equivalent of bankruptcy with over $112 million in debt.

Zwift’s new hi-def video world may be a little too realistic, after a user spotted a digitized Tom Doumalin taking a dump on the side of the road.

 

Finally…

Now you, too, can wear Brandon McNulty’s rainbow jersey while you ride Tadej Pogačar’s Colnago. Your old ebike batteries could have a new life as someone else’s industrial energy storage system.

And nothing like going out to ride your bike, and finding a six-foot python curled up under the frame.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin.

 

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

Court rules in favor of bike lanes on Fountain Ave, and victims of LA County traffic violence to be honored on World Day of Remembrance

November 3, 2026 / / 2 comments

This time, the law was on our side.

A Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge ruled that the bike lanes planned for Fountain Ave can go forward, after concluding that they don’t violate CEQA or

According to WeHo Times,

In a ruling issued Monday, Nov. 2, 2026, Judge Richard L. Fruin denied a petition for writ of mandate filed by Michael J. Kilroy against the City of West Hollywood and other defendants. The court granted judgment in favor of the city, rejecting the claims raised in Kilroy’s verified petition and complaint.

The case, filed Oct. 29, 2025, challenged the city’s decision to move forward with Phase 1 of the Fountain Avenue Streetscape Project without conducting a full environmental review. Kilroy, who owns an eight-unit apartment building at 1308 N. Flores St., near the intersection of Flores Street and Fountain Avenue, argued that the city’s reliance on CEQA exemptions was improper…

The project is being implemented in two phases. Phase 1 consists of the initial roadway reconfiguration and safety improvements, while Phase 2 is expected to involve a more extensive reconstruction, including wider sidewalks where feasible, upgraded Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant curb ramps, landscaping, street lighting, traffic signal improvements and utility relocation.

However, as a commenter on the site pointed out, whether the project actually moves forward will depend entirely on the outcome of today’s election. A shift of just one vote coming from a slate of more conservative candidates running in WeHo could be enough to doom it.

So call it a win for now. Whether it stays that way is yet to be determined.

My selfie skills may suck, but today’s photo is a reminder that there’s more than one way to Bike the Vote. 

……….

Streets Are For Everyone invites you to join them to commemorate the local victims of traffic violence on the World Say of Remembrance November 15th, this time at Pasadena City Hall.

Streets Are For Everyone (SAFE) invites you to join us and hundreds of communities worldwide for World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims on Sunday, November 15.

In 2025 alone, 705 people were struck and killed on LA County roads, and 56,893 were injured, over 6,000 of them severely. World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims is a UN-recognized day, the third Sunday in November, when communities across the world remember those lost, support those impacted by traffic violence, and take action to prevent these tragedies from ever happening.

As part of this year’s theme – Remember,  Support,  Act – SAFE is honored to partner with CicLAvia in presenting a large-scale public art installation featuring 705 empty chairs set up in Pasadena’s Memorial Park, each adorned with a single yellow rose, representing a person lost to traffic violence in Los Angeles County last year.

Friends and family of those who have lost a loved one at any point, anywhere (not just in LA County), are also invited to contribute to the public art installation by decorating chairs and adding them to the Field of Remembrance, or by drawing chalk-art pictures on the paths winding through this field.

Our Remembrance Ceremony includes a press event, dove release, and songs – bringing together traffic violence survivors, victims’ families, elected officials, community organizations, and advocates around these three calls to action: Remember, Support, Act. Through personal stories and remarks, the ceremony will honor those affected by preventable violence and carry forward our collective effort to put an end to traffic violence.

Event Details

Date: Sunday, November 15, 2026
Location: Pasadena Memorial Park
85 E Holly St, Pasadena, CA 91101
Field of Remembrance: 10:00 AM – 3:00 PM
Press Conference and Remembrance Ceremony: 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM

……….

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

No bias here. Anaheim city leaders are grappling with “life or death” ebike policies, even though the people causing the problems aren’t riding ebikes, but illegal e-motorbikes and non-street legal dirt bikes.

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

An Irish newspaper says “mobs of yobs” on bicycles and e-scooters armed with fireworks terrorized people walking on the newly pedestrianized Oxford Street — yet illustrated the story with long lines of cars no longer allowed there.

………

Local 

As usual, Metro and most other LA County transit systems will offer free rides today for Election Day. Which should be a paid legal holiday, but isn’t. 

Speaking of Metro, Streetsblog has a list of Metro scoping meetings for the Sepulveda Transit Corridor beginning tomorrow night.

Also tomorrow, Pasadena will host the city’s second virtual community meeting for the 1.8-mile Pasadena and St. John avenues corridor tomorrow, as they continue to accept comments online.

South Pasadena will hold a community meeting on Thursday, Nov. 12, from 6 to 7:30 pm in the South Pasadena Middle School auditorium on the Huntington Drive-Fremont Avenue Corridor Improvements Project.

 

State

An Atwater intersection will now carry the name and memory of 10-year-old fourth grader who was struck and killed while riding his bike near his home and school in April.

Sad news from south Sacramento, where a man riding a bicycle was killed in a right hook by a pickup driver.

 

National

Eighty-four-year old Harrison Ford relies on tennis and riding his bike to stay in shape in his 80s.

A law firm says that 68% of bicyclists killed between 2015 and 2024 were not wearing helmets, but only 19% of bicycling injuries in 2024 involved head injuries. Make of that what you will, because sure as hell don’t know what it means for us. 

Seattle Bike Blog calls for breaking all the city’s records for biking during the dark, rainy months.

Heartbreaking story from Oklahoma, where the family of a 16-year old boy are taking comfort in his decision to be an organ donor, just two weeks before suffering a catastrophic brain injury when he was struck by a driver while riding his bike home from a new job.

Sad news from Wisconsin, where Harry Spehar, Trek’s first product manager, died after suffering a stroke; the Vallejo, California native was 80.

 

International

PeopleForBikes rates the best international cities for bicycling, with the large city category led by the usual suspects, although a few German cities managed to break into the top ten; the medium-sized cities are all in Belgium and the Netherlands, while Canada fares well in the small cities camp.

Despite being in Ontario, bike lanes are not being removed in Montreal, unlike Toronto, but that didn’t keep an 18-year old man riding a bicycle from being killed by a driver in a suspected stolen car who was fleeing from police; hundreds of bicyclists staged a die-in to protest the death.

Also in Montreal, the family of an 89-year old man killed killed by a driver while trying to get into the passenger door of his car honored him with a pair of white ghost shoes suspended from a lamppost.

They get it. An Ethiopian website says “the measure of a city’s greatness is not found in the height of its buildings alone, but in the freedom of a child to walk safely, the ease with which a commuter can cycle to work, the pleasure of a family strolling beside a restored river, and the dignity of people reclaiming public spaces as their own.” Couldn’t have said it better myself. 

A 29-year old Singaporean man was sentenced to five years and nine months behind bars for the 2024 death of a bike rider in Australia; he was originally charged with murder before pleading to manslaughter in August.

 

Competitive Cycling

If you’re going to hold a gravel race, might as well do it in the Great Karoo region of South Africa, if only so Cycling News can show off their knowledge of what multiples of giraffes and zebras are called.

Velo says Chinese bikes are in and Bianchi is out as major changes come to WorldTour sponsorships next year.

 

Finally…

Peddling pies by pedaling. That feeling when the insurance company says blame your marriage, not the bike crash.

And the new British version of Saturday Night Live celebrates Brits joyfully risking their lives on Lime bikes.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin.

 

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

Protesting bike lane removal in Halloween costumes, last minute LA mayoral advice, and flying your bike in the light of the moon

November 2, 2026 / / 2 comments

Well, that was a fun meta moment. 

I asked Claude AI for an accurate count of bicycling fatalities in the City and/or County of Los Angeles, hoping it might be able to ferret out more information than I’ve been able to find. 

It responded by citing an advocacy blog called BikinginLA, giving the latest county figures I’ve been able to dredge up. So while it may be artificial, it at least knows about this site, so it’s clearly intelligent. 

One other semi-quick note. 

Last week, I wrote the following in regards to the double murder counts filed against Valentin Alberto Rodriguez for the two DUI deaths on the Montclair Halloween ride: 

It also means that he could face multiple life sentences — which from what I’ve been told about the crash and the damage he inflicted, doesn’t began to seem harsh enough.

A comment from Charles asked what “harsher than life imprisonment” I would find satisfactory. 

My comment above was based on information that hasn’t been reported in the press — which I’m not sure if I will even share here, given that friends and family members frequently find this site — and the anger and revulsion I felt, and continue to feel, over the violence and cruelty inflicted on the victims. 

It was also based on the knowledge that life imprisonment in California seldom means imprisonment until death. Unless a prison sentence specifies “without parole,” or the guilty party is sentenced to consecutive sentences, rather than concurrent, someone could easily be back out in 15 to 20 years. 

So while I may feel that a given punishment is not harsh enough to fit the crime, that does not mean I actually want to inflict something harsher. I do not support the death penalty, nor do I support torture or dismemberment, as Charles suggested. 

I means that I am mad as hell, and my heart cries out for vengeance, knowing that there is no possible penalty that could ever make something like this right. 

In truth, I can envision no greater punishment than waking up every day with the full knowledge of the harm you inflicted on someone else, and the guilt and shame of living with that every day. 

And I hope you’ll tolerate a little AI slop as our corgis, living and dead, wish you ¡Feliz Día de Muertos!

……….

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

Dozens of Toronto residents spent their Halloween protesting the removal of a popular bike path by provincial authorities, over the objection on city leaders, riding bikes and carrying signs, both in an out of costume, as some handed out candy to passersby.

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

A 75-year old British woman riding a bicycle suffered serious injuries when she was hit head-on by another bicyclist, but at least the other rider apparently stopped.

………

Local 

The Los Angeles Times offers a last-minute guide to the LA Mayor’s race, comparing incumbent Karen Bass with challenger Nithya Raman on issues including housing, policing and homelessness, without touching on streets or traffic safety. But if you still haven’t decided, here’s a simple way to make a choice: If you like what you see when you look around this city, vote for Bass; if not, don’t. 

Politico profiles Raman, calling her an accidental politician drawn into office by concern over homelessness, and an “Evil Elmo.”

Metro will close a portion of Pasadena’s Arroyo Parkway between Holly and Union streets today and tomorrow to stripe new bike and travel lanes.

 

State

A 52-year old Ocean Beach woman suffered serious facial fractures when she was hit by a DUI driver while riding an ebike, when the driver decided to make a U-turn even though she was in the way.

SF Gate tells the story of how one of the most iconic and indelible scenes in modern movie history was shot on a rainy night on a ranch just outside Crescent City, when Elliott escaped authorities on his flying bicycle ride silhouetted against the glow of the moon with E.T. in his basket.

Thousands of people turned out for the 8th annual zombie bike parade in Davis, to raise funds for adaptive bicycles for children with disabilities.

A letter writer strongly urges city officials to the Davis Bicycle Hall of Fame as a temporary shelter this winter, because the building is underutilized. And who really cares about a bunch of old bikes and the people who rode them, anyway?

 

National

Velo considers why flying with your bicycle is always a gamble, and how to improve your odds. Personally, I prefer flying with an airplane and a licensed pilot, but as E.T. showed us, flying with a bike is doable with a little help.

The California Post highlights five destinations from National Geographic’s ‘Best of the World’ travel list, including our own PCH and Catalina Island, though failing to mention that the southern end is one of the deadliest roadways in California.

Nope, no bias here. A Boise, Idaho mom wants to know why the motorcyclist who killed her 15-year old son as he rode an ebike isn’t facing charges, in what the local paper describes as an ebike crash, rather than a collision caused by someone riding a motorcycle 80 mph in a 25 mph zone.

Horrible news from Ohio, where a 26-year old man fleeing from police crashed his pickup into several vehicles, losing a wheel, then proceeded on three wheels before slamming into a 35-year old man riding a bicycle, and dragging him half a mile to his death in the missing wheel well; he faces murder and involuntary manslaughter charges, as well as 31 other counts including multiple charges of felonious assault, tampering with evidence and hit-and-run.

Tragic news from New York, where four people have now died following a fire in the Bronx caused by an ebike battery that blocked escaped from the apartment in a public housing complex.

Relatives marked the ninth anniversary of the 2017 New York terrorist attack in which a man in a rented truck sped down the city’s Hudson River Bike Path, killing eight people and injuring 14 others.

Brooklyn’s best Halloween party was held on a dead-end street by costumed revelers on bicycles, whose only rule was “don’t be an asshole.”

A 24-year old New Jersey man was arrested six days after a hit-and-run crash that killed a 71-year old dishwasher riding a bicycle, and charged with tampering with evidence as well as the fatal hit-and-run; another driver remains to be identified after also leaving the scene.

A Pennsylvania bike co-op is operated by a 32-year old nonprofit group with perhaps the best name in advocacy, the Coalition for Appropriate Transportation.

 

International

The Guardian looks at London’s “Sin Bin” for lawbreaking bicyclists who are forced to watch a roadside safety video in lieu of getting a ticket and paying a fairly minimal fine. Kinda like a hockey player getting five for fighting, or a toddler forced to take a timeout for throwing a temper tantrum.

Meanwhile, calls are growing for cops to enforce a ban on bicycling on the newly pedestrianized Oxford Street in London before someone gets hurt, while bicyclists call for alternate routes, instead. When I visited London 25 years ago on a delayed honeymoon, Oxford was a car sewer of the highest degree, and people got hurt by cars on a regular basis. And a lot worse than with a bicycle. 

Speaking of perceived bad behavior, bicyclists in the English town of Kenilworth were reportedly abused by fellow residents for riding their bikes through a park — which they had to do to get to the bicycle parking on the other side.

Even bicycle advocates call scofflaw sidewalk cyclists in the London borough of Putney “the elephant in the room.”

An English radio host is preparing to ride a bicycle 400 miles to visit all four countries in Great Britain in five days, despite not being a “sporty person” or “a cyclist in any way, shape or form.” In parts of this country, it’s difficult to visit four states in 400 miles, let alone four countries.

A British hit-and-run driver faces life in prison for hitting a man riding a bicycle, and knowingly driving another mile dragging the victim under his car.

The rich get richer, as Paris commits the equivalent of $224 million to improve bicycling, while building 87 miles of new bike lanes in six years.

 

Competitive Cycling

Tadej Pogačar was hurt worse than officials let on, revealing that he broke three vertebra when he crashed at the Vuelta, and the outcome may not be as good if he crashes again. There is something to be said for walking away while you still can. 

Twenty-four-year old American Amanda Coker set a new Guinness World Record by riding a remarkable 86,573.2 miles in 12 months, beating the old record by more than 10,000 miles, and now plans to set another by riding 100,000 miles in the shortest amount of time to break a record set 86 years ago.

 

Finally…

That feeling when you get swept away by flood waters, but recover your missing bicycle after someone fishes it out of a storm drain, fixes it up and posts about it online. Or when a major news service can’t decide whether to call a homeless bike rider he or they, so they use both at once.

And GQ answers the difficult question of what to wear to an ebike jousting tournament.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin.

 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , ,

Double murder charge in alleged DUI Montclair Halloween ride hit-and-run, and San Diego fails to check if Streets For All is already in use

October 30, 2026 / / 2 comments

I honestly don’t get it. 

A couple of trains crashed in Spain, killing 68 people — a horrible tragedy that made headlines around the world. 

Yet every year in the United States, we lose the population of a small city to traffic violence, and almost no one even notices. And ever fewer care

Somebody make it make sense. 

Photo by Kindel Media for Pexels. 

……….

At least it’s murder now.

The San Bernardino County District Attorney’s office filed multiple charges, including two counts of murder, for last Saturday’s fatal hit-and-run that killed two people taking part in a joyful Halloween ride last Saturday.

According to the DA’s office,

“Multiple lives lost in one tragic, senseless, but entirely avoidable DUI. An October celebration turned into carnage because of one person’s decision to drive while intoxicated. There were numerous alternatives available to get home safely, yet he chose to get behind the wheel. That decision has now cost two people their lives,” said District Attorney Jason Anderson.

Filed Charges:

  • Counts 1–2: PC 187(a) – Murder
  • Counts 3–4: PC 191.5(a) – Gross Vehicular Manslaughter While Intoxicated
  • Counts 5–6: VC 23153 – Driving Under the Influence Causing Injury
  • Additional Charge: VC 20001 – Felony Hit-and-Run

Additionally, our Office filed special allegations for Personal Infliction of Great Bodily Injury or Death and Fleeing after Committing Vehicular Manslaughter. Arraignment date and location is pending.

The murder charges likely indicate that this was not Montclair resident Valentin Alberto Rodriguez’s first DUI charge, and that he had received a Watson Advisement indicating that he could face a murder charge if he killed someone while driving under the influence going forward.

It also means that he could face multiple life sentences — which from what I’ve been told about the crash and the damage he inflicted, doesn’t began to seem harsh enough.

I struggle with cases like this, because I recognize that alcoholism is a disease which should be treated, not punished.

But as the DA indicated, no one forced Rodriguez to get behind the wheel after — allegedly — getting shitfaced. And no one forced him to keep driving after the crash, dragging one of the victims with him, or to foot bail after finally coming to a stop.

All he had to do was call an Uber, or take a fucking bus, and Robert Garcia Umanzor and single mother Rumor Ortiz could have finished their ride in peace, and gone home to their families instead of dying in the street.

So if there’s any justice left in this world, Rodriguez will sober up behind bars, and have decades to reflect on the cost of his actions.

………

San Diego has launched a new guide for safer streets. Although they might have picked a name that wasn’t already in use just over a hundred miles away.

The City of San Diego has launched Streets for All, a new resource designed to guide communities that are interested in transforming their neighborhood streets into safer, more welcoming spaces, finding solutions to calm traffic or creating more spaces for neighbors to gather.

Streets for All is community-driven, meaning residents and businesses work together to develop and fund near-term “quick build” projects in their neighborhoods to calm traffic or create more gathering spaces. Communities can use the manual to help identify potential solutions to fit their location and existing conditions.

Whether they can get away with using the same name as the Los Angeles and San Francisco street safety PAC depends on the generosity of, and lawyers for, the Los Angeles-based group.

But you’d think San Diego would have done a basic web search before choosing the name — unless their purpose was to cause confusion with the previously existing group, in which case, carry on.

………

Streets for All — the real one — calls for a no vote on prop 43.

Twitter post

Meanwhile, Calbike concurs on 43 and adds a no on 45.

No on Prop 43: Protect Local Funding for Safer Streets

CalBike urges Californians to vote NO on Proposition 43. The measure would make it harder for communities to approve citizen-led taxes for safer streets, reliable transit, and other essential local services. CalBike’s vision for California is a place where a bicycle can carry more of your daily life: the ride to school, the trip to the grocery store, the connection to a bus or train.

We have worked tirelessly to help California as a whole be knit together by Complete Streets, with signature legislation like SB 960. In this future, safe bikeways and reliable transit work together, putting more destinations within reach. Making a walking-friendly street into a biking-friendly neighborhood and less car-dependent regions or. Read more, or watch on our social media channels.

California voters will have a chance to push back against the Trump Administration’s rollbacks of the laws that protect our public health, air, land, and water this November by voting No on Proposition 45. Prop 45 is backed by PACs representing oil companies, for-profit utilities, and industrial developers, and would make it easier to build data centers, warehouses, and other polluting projects.

Prop 45 harms air, water quality, and public health by severely limiting critical public oversight of a long list of harmful projects. The independent and non-partisan Legislative Analyst’s Office estimates implementing Prop 45 could cost taxpayers $100 million or more annually.

Every voter needs to know:

  • Prop 45 weakens protections in California for clean air, clean water, and public health.
  • Prop 45 doesn’t reduce costs – it shifts them to taxpayers and includes no guarantees to bring costs down for everyday Californians.
  • Big corporations are spending tens of millions of dollars so they can build polluting projects – including data centers – with less public oversight.

Check out the No on Prop 45 website to learn more.

………

Bike Long Beach is hosting a post-Halloween ride on Sunday, although the forecast is somewhat soggy for Sunday.

Bikes and Coffee 11/1/26: Post-Halloween ride

Join us on Sunday, November 1st for a post-halloween Bikes and Coffee ride! This is actually our October ride, which we had to push a week due to schedule conflicts. Starting at SteelCraft, we’ll loop up to Rancho Los Cerritos and other houses before heading down mainly through Wrigley via Daisy/Magnolia, checking out the Bembridge house before making our way down Broadway for a stop at Coffinated Coffee – they’re having their soft opening this weekend.

We’ll meet at SteelCraft at 9 a.m. and roll out at 9:30. This is a casual pace ride of about 14 miles on bike paths and quiet streets. Everyone is welcome, on any kind of bike. Come meet and hang out with fellow bike people. Bring a bike in good condition, helmet and a lock. See you there!

Please sign our ride waiver if you’re planning on attending.

Start and end location: SteelCraft, 3768 Long Beach Blvd
Meet time: 9 a.m.. We’ll roll around 9:30 a.m.
Distance: 14 miles
Route: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/57708403

………

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

Nope, no bias here. An English police force blames “dark clothing” for crashes involving bicyclists and pedestrians, but can’t seem to find the words blame drivers for speeding or looking at their phones.

A British cafe replaced its billboard with an ad on the side of a car, which was thoughtfully parked blocking a bike lane.

………

Local 

Streetsblog offers five amazing simple hacks to avoid getting a ticket from the new Los Angeles speed cams, including only driving 10 mph over the speed limit.

Los Angeles General Medical Center gave away pamphlets on ebike safety and 100 bike helmets in an effort to reduce ebike injuries.

 

State

Um, okay. The Cal State Fullerton Daily Titan says the Anaheim Police Department outlined a three-pronged approach to ebike safety focusing on enforcement, education and engineering, while categorizing ebikes into three classes — which coincidentally just happen to be the same three classes spelled out under state law.

San Diego will host the 13th Annual Jim Krause Memorial Charity Cycling Ride the Point on November 7th to raise funds for pancreatic cancer research, with rides ranging from five miles to a metric century.

Horrible story from Stockton, where a 23-year old Navy vet was found dead two months after his bicycle was found half a mile from the In-N-Out Burger where he was last seen on July 19th; investigators don’t seem to have any idea what happened to him, or why it took so long to find his body. A crowdfunding campaign to help pay his funeral expenses has raised just $340 so far.

 

National

Life is cheap in Utah, where an 81-year old truck driver was sentenced to just 75 days behind bars, with credit for time served, along with three years probation, for the hit-and-run death of a nine-year old boy riding his bike in a crosswalk, because the victim’s family asked for forgiveness and mercy; he said afterwards that he knew he hit a bicycle, but didn’t think anyone was on it. Because apparently, people in Utah just randomly leave bicycles standing in crosswalks. 

Nothing like learning just how cheap life is near your own hometown, where a distracted driver who killed a ten-year old boy three years ago while he was riding his bike in a crosswalk, just 10 miles from where I grew up — then deleted the incriminating text message to hide the evidence — got a whopping one year behind bars, with work release so she could continue teaching other little kids while doing her time. However, the story is hidden behind a paywall, so you’ll have to find a way around it if you want to see for yourself just how little a little kid’s life is worth. 

It’s been four years since an 18-year old Michigan man was shot and killed by a driver while riding his bike, and police have nothing more than a sketch of a long-haired, bearded man and a light-colored sedan to go on.

An Indianapolis, Indiana man faces a felony hit-and-run count for killing a 56-year old woman riding a bicycle and just driving off, leaving her on the side of road where she was found 15 minutes later. But at least that carries a penalty up to three times what a fatal hit-and run would carry in California.

A 41-year old New York State man faces five to ten behind bars after pleading guilty to second-degree manslaughter for the hit-and-run death of a 50-year old woman riding an ebike.

 

International

An Indian man has spent the past 20 years riding over 124,000 miles through 191 countries to spread awareness of HIV/AIDS.

 

Competitive Cycling

Twenty-year old rising French cycling star Paul Seixas, who just happens to share my birthday, calls for better safety standards following the death of 19-year old British cyclist Finlay Tarling at this year’s Volta a Portugal.

Cycling Up To Date says the late, great Tour of California could make a comeback, seven years after Tadej Pogačar won the final edition. Personally, I’d like to see a two-to-three week race that starts in Colorado and continues by stages to the West Coast.

A Dutch amateur cyclist was lucky to escape with relatively minor injuries when he was hit head-on by a driver while on a training ride, leaving him with bruised ribs and one majorly fucked up bike, below.

Instagram post

 

Finally…

Nothing like keeping humans out of the loop by having your AI chatbot answer calls from a customer’s AI chatbot. Or imitating the Wizard of Oz by being lifted up by a tornado while riding your bike.

And nothing like recording a motorist merrily following behind you on a separated bike path.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin.

 

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

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 / / 2 comments

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.

………

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.

………

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.

………

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.

………

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.

………

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.

………

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: , , , , , , , , , , ,
« Older Entries  
Wordpress Theme by ThemeZee