Safety won out over convenience after all.
According to LAist, the effort to replace plans for protected bike lanes on Fountain Ave parking failed following a tense West Hollywood City Council vote, failing by the slimmest possible margin.
The motion: Meister’s motion, which critics said came at the last minute, aimed to avoid the loss of 60% of the street’s parking as a result of the roadway changes. Meister said on Monday her motion was an attempt to weigh the approved plan against an alternative that “might accomplish the same safety objectives while preserving parking.”…
The vote: The motion failed in a 3-2 vote on Monday night. It would have directed staff to evaluate an alternative plan for the road that maintained street parking but didn’t include bike lanes. West Hollywood City Councilmembers Chelsea Byers and John Erickson and Vice Mayor Danny Hang voted to reject the motion. Mayor John Heilman and City Councilmember Lauren Meister, who introduced the motion, supported the effort.
Except, of course, it wouldn’t have accomplished the same safety goals. Studies show that protected bike lanes increase safety for all road users by as much as 90%. But forcing riders to use the traffic lane, or risk riding in the door zone, would make the street even less safe than it is now.
And right now, it’s pretty deadly.
Today’s photo: Maybe we’ll have fewer ghost bikes now, like this one installed for Blake Ackerman last year on Fountain Ave. But let’s hope they move fast, because who knows what will happen after next month’s election.
………
No surprise here, as ICE swears they didn’t ram their SUV into a Long Beach man before detaining him Saturday, breaking his arm in the process.
Yet video shows the SUV speeding the wrong way on a one-way street before swerving into the path of Ricardo Gonzalez’ ebike, apparently based on nothing but the color of his skin.
A statement from ICE says Gonzalez hit their wing mirror. Which is hard not to do when a massive SUV cuts right in front of you.
An ICE officer can be seen jumping out, gun drawn. Gonzalez was tased and wrestled to the ground before ICE agents pinned him face down in the gutter, his hands cuffed behind his back.
Never mind that Gonzalez is a native-born American citizen who works for the City of Long Beach.
According to the New York Times,
In the video footage, Mr. Gonzalez can be heard yelling. “You hit me with your car. I’m a U.S. citizen!” he says, using several expletives.
Mr. Gonzalez was later taken to a hospital for his injuries, the Long Beach police said. The police was not involved in immigration enforcement and did not make any arrests at the scene, the department added. It said its officers were called in for backup by ICE, which had reported that vehicles were being vandalized and that a person needed medical attention. The extent of Mr. Gonzalez’s injuries was not clear on Tuesday.
It gets worse.
In its statement, a spokesperson for ICE said the agency had been conducting a targeted operation to arrest a “criminal illegal alien.” The agency did not say whether it thought Mr. Gonzalez was that person. The agency also said its officers had used “the minimum amount of force.”
“ICE did NOT hit an individual on a bike. An individual was arrested after he smashed the mirror of a government vehicle,” the spokesperson wrote.
ICE described the man, whom the spokesperson did not name, as a “rioter.”
So evidently, getting hit by federal agents with their SUV, tased, cuffed and having your arm broken in an apparent case of mistaken identity is “rioting.”
Got it.
………
Heartbreaking story from Cleveland, where police are looking for the driver who killed a 35-year old man riding a bicycle, after striking several other vehicles.
According to Cleveland’s WKYC, the tragic series of event began as police were directing traffic just before the end of the Brown’s football game. After officers observed the driver of a pickup truck squealing his tires, they tried to get him to stop, but he just fled on the wrong side of the road.
He struck one vehicle, then several others as he fled down the road, eventually losing a wheel. Despite that, he continued driving before striking and killing the victim.
He then abandoned the truck, fleeing the scene on foot.
Compounding the tragedy, the victim, William Mays, was riding a bicycle he was given him by the suburban Highland Hills Police Department this past July, after officers learned the bicycle he used to get to and from work had broken down.
They posted a memorial to Mays following his death, calling him a beloved member of the community, “remembered for his kindness, warm smile, and the joy he brought to our department.”
The only good news in this whole mess is that no one else was injured in this traffic violence rampage.
………
Boy, does he get it.
A Scottish columnist says city councilors in Edinburgh and Glasgow need to ride the bike lanes in their cities — or try to, anyway — because the bike lanes “appalling” condition amounts to a roadway apartheid. And that bike lanes should be in better condition than the regular traffic lanes, anyway.
He says that parts of the city are beginning to feel like Amsterdam, thanks to more segregated bike lanes, or what we would call protected bike lanes.
But – and this is a big But – very few people will be able to get from A to B on segregated lanes alone. For virtually every cycle journey, however much you try to avoid busy roads without segregated lanes, it will prove impossible.
However, in my experience, it’s far worse than that, as older cycle lanes may well be all but invisible or in a decidedly poor condition, if not also litter, leaves and debris-strewn. I would go so far as to describe the worst examples as roads apartheid – smooth running for cars while cyclists have to put up with bumpy, rutted surfaces.
I believe where that has occurred, councils have got their priorities all wrong. The condition of cycle lanes should be as good as or better than that of the main carriageway – not the other way round.
Unfortunately, the story is hidden behind a paywall for the paper’s “premium” users. But it’s worth finding a way around it to read the whole thing.
………
Note the lovely smoking factory in the background neatly framed by the tire.
………
Toronto protesters erected a sculpture to fallen bicyclists, composed of stacked red bicycles, along one of the bike lanes the Ontario provincial government is in the process of ripping out.
Thanks to Donna for the heads-up.
………
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
No bias here. A clip resurfaced this week of Texas Republican congressional candidate and “gunfluencer” Brandon Herrera fantasizing about killing bicyclists for the crime of being in front of him on the road — “They want to be treated like vehicles, like cars. But they’re not, they travel at fucking arrestable speed limits of not being a fucking car. And they expect you to respect the fact that they just want to be an asshole on Sunday mornings. I had fucking fantasies of running them all over and, you know, maybe one of these days I will.” Nice guy.
No bias here, either. A writer for London’s The Independent — yes, the same paper sportswriter Trent Crimm worked for on Ted Lasso — says now that the UK’s new prime minister is fining people who play loud music without using headphones, he needs to tackle the problem of people who ride bicycles on the sidewalk. Which sounds reasonable, until you consider that no one rides on the sidewalk if the street next to it is safe.
………
Local
CD14 Councilmember Ysebel Jurado is one of us, taking part in the recent Heart of LA CicLAvia.
State
Congratulations, California. We’re number 2 — in more ways than one — on the list of states with the most bicycling deaths. Although with a population more than 24% larger than Texas, the next largest state, it would be surprising if we didn’t rank near the top.
More than 50 veterans and first responders are taking part in the 400-mile Project Hero Ride down the California coast to raise funds to support recovery from PTSD and traumatic brain injuries.
The parents of a 13-year old Garden Grove boy killed when he crashed his e-motorbike into a pole at 40 mph now face charges of child endangerment and contributing to the delinquency of a child for buying their son a “faster and more powerful E-Moto,” despite multiple previous injuries.
Streetsblog reports that speed cams work where they’re installed. And right now, they’re installed and working in San Francisco. Maybe someday, LA. Maybe someday.
National
Relatives of a fallen Seattle elementary teacher have filed suit against a garbage company, alleging the driver of one of their trucks abruptly right hooked him as he rode his bicycle, running over him and his bike. And there ain’t no helmet that can protect against that.
He gets it. An op-ed from a New York bike advocate says the city needs smarter rules for Central Park, where pedestrians have access to all 51 miles of streets in the park, while bike riders are confined to a single 6.1-mile roadway shared with runners, rollers, walkers and dogs.
International
London, Ontario bicyclists called for safer roads during Saturday’s Critical Mass ride, which is kinda the point of Critical Mass.
Sad news from England, where one of the best known bicyclists in rural Cumbria died after a short illness; 87-year old Gerard McCarten was locally famous for his fundraising rides, as doctors listened in to his radio-transmitted heartbeat as he rode after his heart attack ten years ago.
Bike advocates in the UK are calling for action from Prime Minister Andy Burnham to provide safer bike routes for women, after a local task force found that three-quarters of the country’s bike lane users are male.
A 24-year old man from County Cork, Ireland has resumed his 7,500-mile fundraising ride from his hometown to the Mt. Everest basecamp, after returning home for three months to wait out monsoon season.
Competitive Cycling
Polish Olympic silver medalist Daria Pikulik was stripped of her results for a two-year period after skipping three doping tests over an 18 month period. But the doping era is over, right? Right?
Finally…
Your next single-speed belt-drive bike could be a Ralph Lauren. You could have been the proud owner of an antique Leo Grundle chemist delivery bike for the equivalent of a mere $1,366.
And I only wish this wasn’t true.
………
Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Oh, and fuck Putin.
