Tag Archive for bicycling injuries

Bike-riding man suffers life-threatening injuries in Encinitas crash, and die-in next week to mark LA’s Vision Zero fail

January 3, 2025 / / No comments

This year is already off to a bad start.

Less than eight hours after a bike rider was killed by a driver in Rancho Mirage to inaugurate the new year, a 45-year old man was left fighting for his life when he was run down by a 79-year old woman in Encinitas while riding a bicycle.

The victim, who hasn’t been publicly named, was riding in the area of Encinitas Boulevard and Cerro Street just before 6 pm Wednesday.

Investigators say drugs or alcohol weren’t factors in the crash. But the age of the driver once again raises the question of how old is too old to drive safely.

Or at all, for that matter.

Anyone with information or video of the crash is urged to call San Diego County Sheriff’s Sgt. Jeremy Collis at 760/966-3555, or email jeremy.collis@SDSheriff.org.

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Meanwhile, it’s Day 3 of the Vision Zero failure here in Los Angeles.

Instead of eliminating traffic deaths by 2025, as former Mayor Eric Garcetti committed to ten years earlier, Los Angeles drivers continue to kill bicyclists, pedestrians and motorists at near record levels.

That’s why a coalition of nonprofits and road safety advocates will once again host a die-in on the steps of LA City Hall next weekend to raise awareness of the need for safe streets.

Here’s how Streets Are For Everyone announced the event.

As of this writing, traffic fatalities in the City of Los Angeles are expected to once again be above 300 for the third year in a row.

And yet, 2025 will be the 10th anniversary of the start of the Vision Zero program, a program aimed at reducing traffic fatalities to zero by 2025.

However, the core components of this program were watered down, removed, or underfunded within a few years of its start. The result is that in the last 10 years, there has been an 80% increase in traffic fatalities, primarily affecting pedestrians in underserved communities.

We again need to raise our voices and let the Mayor and our City Council know that the issue of traffic violence needs to be treated as the public health crisis that it is.

*A die-in is “a protest or demonstration in which a group of people gather and lie down as if dead.” (Oxford Dictionary) In our case, to represent the lives lost to traffic violence and protest the lack of effective action by our City and state leaders, as demonstrated by rising fatalities.

We aim to have 300 people in attendance, representing each life lost. Help us make this happen!

  • Date: Saturday, January 11th 2024
  • Location: Steps of Los Angeles City Hall 232 N Spring Street
  • Set-up Time: 8:30-10 AM
  • Press Conference & Die-In protest: 10 AM to 11 AM
  • Breakdown Time: 11 AM to 12 PM

Volunteers and Activists needed:

  • 10 volunteers are needed for setup and breakdown.
  • 300+ volunteer activists are needed to lay on the steps of City Hall during the press conference. White roses will be laid on top of those participating in the die-in to represent the over 300 lives lost in 2024.

What to Bring: We will have signs and poster boards to make signs. However, we also encourage you to bring signs emphasizing the importance of road safety, responsible driving, and the need for change.

Parking: Parking is limited and pricey around LA City Hall. It is recommended that you ride, walk, or take Metro Line B (exit Civic Center/Grand Park Station) to City Hall.

I’ll be There!

And yes, I plan to be there.

Because our elected leaders and other city officials need to be reminded of their commitment to end traffic deaths, and start taking it seriously.

Before we lose one more Angeleno to traffic violence.

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British singer James Blunt is one of us, interrupting his Christmas festivities to call for more peace and patience on the roads.

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

Birmingham, England continues its efforts to ban “dangerous, careless, or inconsiderate” bicycling in the city center, while bicyclists condemned the watered down proposal as a “waste of paper” and the “single stupidest thing” city officials have ever done.

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Local  

Streetsblog says the short bike lane extension on Reseda Blvd is the first LA project clearly forced by Measure HLA, adding a little more than the length of a football field to the existing bike lanes after the street was resurfaced.

Urbanize highlights ten Los Angeles projects to watch in 2025, none of which are bikeways.

 

State

California finally clarifies that if it goes too fast or doesn’t have pedals, it’s not an ebike.

We could have new supporters in Sacramento, as several newly elected California legislators have called for improving safety for bicyclists and pedestrians improvements.

CBS news explains why drivers can now expect a ticket for violating the state’s new daylighting law, which prohibits parking within 20 feet of a crosswalk. And every intersection has a crosswalk, painted or not, unless it’s clearly marked otherwise.

A San Diego letter writer says bike lane critics are wrong, and that bike lanes “are definitely a major factor to get people out of their cars.”

 

National

Smart Cities Dive talks with urban experts to get their predictions for the coming year, including the rise of “playground cities,” and neighborhood decarbonization.

A father shares the lessons he learned trying to teach his young daughter to ride a bicycle, even though she’s already lost interest at the advanced age of four.

That’s more like it. A 23-year old Las Vegas woman will spend the next 11 years behind bars for the hit-and-run death of a 32-year old man who was riding a bicycle; she was sentenced to 15 years for vehicular homicide with four years suspended, along with a concurrent term of three years for tampering with evidence, and 90 days for driving under the influence.

 

International

Road.cc suggests that if those deals on what appears to be Rapha’s website seem too good to be true, it’s only because they are

Bike Radar says the secret to every New Year’s resolution is to buy a bicycle.

Momentum highlights five bucket bikes that could replace your car right now.

British foldie maker Brompton suffers the post-Covid bike boom blues, as its profits drop by 99%, or over 10 million Euros.

An Irish news site explains how to make this the year you start riding a bicycle, adding that you won’t regret it; London’s Independent also tries to get in on the act.

Czech carmaker Škoda’s We Love Cycling website looks forward to this year’s bike trends and predictions.

 

Competitive Cycling

Cyclist looks forward to the upcoming Monuments and spring classics that will start the year’s racing calendar.

A YouTuber crashed Jonas Vingegaard’s Spanish training ride, clinging to his wheel to ask burning questions like “Why don’t you shave your legs in the winter.”

 

Finally…

That feeling when your analog bicycle odometer is more secure than some of America’s most critical infrastructure. Just call it Still Life with Bike Computer.

And no, you can’t pump up your bike tires with a syringe.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Fundraiser for Long Beach woman injured in hit-and-run, more on CA ebike voucher fail, and undercharging killer drivers

December 23, 2024 / / No comments
Just 9 days until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025, a decade of failure in which deaths have continued to climb. 
Yet no city official has mentioned the impending deadline, or the city’s failure to meet it. 

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It’s Penultimate Day of the 10th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive!

Thanks to Jame S, Paul F, Patti A, David A, Penny S, SAFE, Patrick M and San M for they generous donations to keep all the best bike news and advocacy coming your way every day!

But time is running out. So don’t wait!

Stop what you’re doing and give now!

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We usually never hear about bike riders injured by drivers unless someone gets killed.

If then.

That was the case once again in Long Beach this past October, when a staff member with the Long Beach Beer Lab suffered a spinal injury when she was struck by a cowardly hit-and-run driver while riding her bike to work.

A crowdfunding campaign has raised over $8,500 of the relatively modest $10,000 goal, which will likely cover only a small fraction of Julie’s medical expenses.

So it’s okay if you skip donating to the BikinginLA Fund Drive this year, as long as the money goes to help her out, instead.

Thanks to James for the heads-up. 

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Sure. Let’s go with that.

After last week’s failure by design of the launch of the California ebike voucher program, a spokesperson for the California Air Resourced Board discussed the values of ebikes.

“E-bikes help address two pressing problems in the state: pollution from transportation sources and the need to increase mobility options for people who need the boost the most,” said Lisa Macumber, Branch Chief of CARB’s Equitable Mobility Incentives Branch. “The program is a reflection of California’s innovation in finding air quality solutions and its commitment to ensuring that no one is left behind in a zero emissions future.”

Yet somewhere around 100,000 people who qualified among those “who need the boost most” were in fact left behind, as CARB intentionally throttled the rollout, limiting it to just 1,500 applicants. Even though they knew in advance that would meet just a tiny fraction of the anticipated demand.

And by targeting the program to lower-income people who need it the most — presumably meaning those without other means of transportation — they appear to be aiming it at people who would otherwise use relatively clean mass transit, as opposed to those who drive dirty gas-burning private vehicles.

Which would have exactly the opposite effect of addressing pollution from transportation source.

Just two more example of how badly this program has been planned and rolled out.

And don’t get me started on having the program managed by a firm that is currently the subject of a criminal investigation.

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This is why people keep dying on our streets.

A middle school teacher was convicted of the distracted driving death of a 10-year boy riding a bicycle just minutes from my bike-friendly Colorado hometown after a four-day trial.

Yet she was only charged and convicted on a misdemeanor for killing the little boy, along with a second misdemeanor count she previously admitted to for deleting texts from her phone — including one sent just 11 seconds before the crash.

Meanwhile, a friend of hers tried to help her out by getting the boy’s ghost bike removed.

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‘Tis the season.

A formerly incarcerated Bay Area man discusses the joy he feels helping to organize an annual bicycle giveaway program, which distributed 250 new bikes this year; the Community Giveback program — formerly the Big Bike Giveaway — started 25 years ago with inmates in San Quentin who refurbished bikes for kids.

A Maui, Hawaii car dealer has given away bicycles to kids and families for eleven years, this year donating a total of 500 bikes on Maui, Lānaʻi and Molokaʻi.

Kindhearted cops in Gilbert, Arizona gave a new bike to a six-year old girl, after hers was stolen during a recent trip to the park, when officers saw a post from the girl’s mom on Nextdoor.

Equally kindhearted cops in Midland, Texas gave a new bicycle to a young girl when the one she received as an early Christmas present was somehow destroyed. Unless they were the ones who destroyed it, of course, in which case forget the “kindhearted” part. 

The NFL’s Houston Texans hosted their annual bicycle giveaway for 100 local elementary school students.

Over 170 Ohio kids received new bikes and helmets through a bike giveaway program that distributed bicycles to economically-disadvantaged children in a three-county area.

Still more kindhearted cops, this time in Boston, gave a young girl a new bicycle, just because one of the officers knew she wanted one.

The annual Syracuse, New York CNY Family Bike Giveaway distributed over 2,000 bicycles to local kids.

An Alabama Baptist church gave more than 300 bicycles to local kids as part of their 4th Annual Christmas Bicycle Giveaway.

Two hundred children got new bicycles in Sweetwater, Florida when Santa Claus swooped in and gave them all a bike and a toy.

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

New Yorkers should all send a thank you card to New York DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez, who has come out against the mayor’s call to require license plates and registration all ebikes.

The mayor of Guelph, British Columbia is calling for a pause on any new bike lanes that require removing a traffic lane or parking spaces, after some people complained about the most recent one. Once again, prioritizing the convenience of drivers over the lives and safety of people on bicycles.

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Local  

Streets For All posted their annual report card grading every state legislator’s efforts on improving safety and mobility.

Metro closed out the latest round of comments on the “underwhelming” Vermont Bus Rapid Transit project on Friday.

Malibu remains committed to improving safety along Southern California’s killer highway, prioritizing safety over access in PCH transformation plans. Meanwhile, the Mountain Resource and Conservation Authority and sister organization the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy are attempting to derail the plans in order to protect access to parking, while blaming crashes on drunk drivers.

 

State

Not everyone on the road is supposed to be there. A bike rider in Victorville was hospitalized after he was struck by a 16-year old driver without a license. Even if the story said a red bicycle was hit by the maroon car, apparently with no humans involved

A Palo Alto advocate calls for less parking and more homes for a better environment.

Sad news from San Francisco, where a man in his 30’s was killed when he was struck by the driver of a massive Chevy Tahoe while riding his bike near a freeway off-ramp, then hit by multiple other drivers. Although the news report identified the initial driver merely as “the Tahoe man.”

San Francisco cops fatally shot a security guard as he worked outside the Dior store in Union Square, after a bizarre chain of events that began when an ebike rider allegedly scratched his SUV; he then hit two girls coming out of a Chipotle when he jumped a curb while chasing the bike rider with his car.

The Los Angeles Times considers the furor over the planned closure of San Francisco’s beachfront Great Highway, which will be transformed into a walking and biking path, as auto-centric residents launch a recall attempt against a local councilmember who backed the plan — apparently forgetting that the proposal was approved by city voters in not one, but two recent elections. Never mind that part of the highway is already falling into the sea. 

 

National

Cycling Savvy posts ebike resources for parents.

Construction began on a “controversial” protected bike lane in Denver, after the city scaled it back to preserve parking spaces; a driver crashed into a home on the street Thursday night, which could have been prevented if the bike lane had already been in place.

Organizers of Cleveland’s St. Paddy’s Day parade claim they’re being pushed off their preferred street by a new bike lane, which the city’s mayor termed a “$25 million…once-in-a-generation infrastructure investment to improve traffic safety, provide equitable transportation options, and beautify the street.” Seriously, how much room do a bunch of drunk people need to stumble down the street, anyway?

An Atlanta man was robbed when two masked men pulled up in a car and demanded his backpack and ebike while he was riding to work, then shot him in the leg afterwards for no apparent reason; a crowdfunding campaign to help replace the stolen items has raised just $730 of the $5,000 goal.

 

International

Momentum explains why it makes sense for governments to pay people to bike to work.

Canadian Cycling Magazine recommends new things to try on your bike in the coming year, from Everesting to a group ride.

If you think biking to work can be a challenge in sunny Los Angeles, trying carrying a tux and a double bass to work in the Canadian winter, as a professional musician with the Winnipeg, Manitoba symphony does on a daily basis.

Yet another study has confirmed that people who bike to work tend to live longer — this time an 18-year study involving more than 82,000 Scottish adults, which showed that bike commuting “significantly lowers the risk of early death, hospitalizations, and a range of chronic illnesses.”

A British bike rider says potholes are making the roads around Shropshire a “deathtrap,” after a fried suffered serious injuries hitting one on his bike.

A Gazan paracyclist says he still has hope, even if he couldn’t make it to the Paralympics this year. Thanks to Megan Lynch for the link.

A Thai social media influencer learns that hard way that if you’re going to film a video on the train tracks to promote bicycling to your followers, maybe do it after all the trains have passed.

Australia’s Bicycle Bandit’s nearly two decade reign of terror is apparently over.

 

Competitive Cycling

Team Visma|Lease a Bike has signed the youngest-ever rider to a WorldTour contract; 17-year-old junior rider Ashlin Barry will join the team’s developmental squad, following victories in the U.S. national road and time trial races in his first year as a junior.

Mathieu van der Poel is considering skipping next year’s Tour de France to concentrate on winning a world title in mountain biking, after underwhelming performances since making his debut in 2021.

Hats off to American BMX star Hannah Roberts, who won her fifth consecutive freestyle world championship. 

Bike Magazine looks back at “amazing” footage of the evolution of Downhill World Cup Racing.

 

Finally…

That feeling when local officials ban parking in a bike lane, only to realize it was a typo. We may have to deal with flighty LA drivers, but at least we don’t have to worry about getting chased by an ostrich; thanks to David Wolfberg for the heads-up.

And now you, too, can finally have the Schwinn Sting-Ray you coveted as a kid, complete with five-speed stick shift and death-defying handlebars.

Or was that just me?

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Fixie rider suffers major injuries in Oxnard, ebike rider injured in San Diego hit-and-run, and mass casualty crash in Australia

December 16, 2024 / / No comments
Just 15 days until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025, a decade of failure in which deaths have continued to climb. 
Yet not one city official has mentioned the impending deadline, or the city’s failure to meet it. 

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It’s Day 18 of the 10th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive!

Just nine days left to support SoCal’s best source for bike news and advocacy! So thanks to Patt M, Stephen H, Scott G, Michael M, Jim M and Joseph M for their generous donations over the weekend!

Time’s running out for this year’s fund drive. So don’t wait, give now! 

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No bias here.

A 44-year old man riding a fixie suffered major injuries when he was struck by a driver in Oxnard’s La Colonia neighborhood Friday morning.

Yet the local paper somehow felt the need to note that he didn’t have brakes on his bike, and wasn’t wearing a helmet, even though there’s nothing in the article to suggest either was a factor in the crash.

It’s unlikely his lack of a helmet caused the crash, and it’s not relevant to his injuries unless he suffered a head injury, which is not noted in the story.

It also doesn’t say the victim ran the stop sign or was unable to stop before riding out in front of or crashing into the driver, which is the only reason his lack of brakes should matter.

The point isn’t that the paper shouldn’t have reported those facts, but that they need to connect the dots to show why they’re relevant.

Or just leave them out if they can’t.

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An 18-year old man suffered a broken bone in his arm when he was struck by a hit-and-run driver while riding an ebike in a bike lane in San Diego’s Pacific Highlands Ranch on Tuesday.

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Another mass casualty crash, this time in Australia, where two people were killed and four others injured when a woman crashed her car into a group of people competing in a bike race.

Her car continued on before crashing into a tree and bursting into flames; the 30 year old driver and a man in his 60s died as a result.

No word on why she was apparently unable to see or avoid a large group of people on bicycles directly in front of her.

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The Hollywood Hills West Neighborhood Council will host a special meeting tomorrow to consider the proposed protected bike lanes on Forest Lawn Drive.

The desperately needed safety improvement is opposed by the cemetery and mortuaries, in an apparent attempt to drum up more business.

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‘Tis the season.

A Bakersfield man has given away dozens, if not hundreds, of bicycles and toys over the past 30 years, in an effort to make every kid’s Christmas special.

Volunteers in French Camp worked throughout the year to refurbish 250 bicycles to give to local kids for the holidays.

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It’s now 361 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And a full 42 months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

The program is finally scheduled to launch on Wednesday, so get your application in; Calbike with host a webinar on today to go over the application process.

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

No bias here, either. A Staten Island site calls for requiring licenses & registration for ebikes and e-scooters to “stop the carnage,” after 46 people have been killed riding ebikes in New York since they were legalized five years ago. Never mind that the stat counts people killed by negligent and distracted drivers, as well as other cases where the person on the ebike may have been the victim, rather than the one at fault. 

The Urbanist offers a video discussing “the extreme lies that (Ontario Premier Doug) Ford has passed off to justify bike lane removal” in Toronto, while someone posted a banner over a freeway asking what bike lane was responsible for this traffic. Thanks to Megan Lynch for the last link.

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

A Laguna Beach woman complains about reckless teens riding ebikes, including one who crashed into her husband’s car but rode off without stopping, before disappearing down a trail. But from the description, it sounds like what she’s really talking about are electric motorcycles.

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Local  

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is poised to appoint a new member to the Metro board to replace termed-out Councilmember Paul Krekorian; San Fernando Valley leaders say she has to appoint someone else from the Valley.

Streetsblog’s Joe Linton looks at the new Pacoima Wash walk and bike path in San Fernando, and the modular curb-protection added to the protected bike lanes on Main Street in DTLA.

 

State

Streetsblog offers more information about the open letter from a large number of bicycling groups urging state leaders to focus on the real threats to safety, and stop hampering the adoption of ebikes.

Desert Hot Springs will install new bike lanes and crosswalks as part of a $9.7 million infrastructure project to fix deadly section of Palm Drive.

Sad news from Merced, where a man was killed after allegedly riding his bike through a stop sign, and was struck by a driver on the cross street.

A group of San Francisco merchants are abusing California’s CEQA laws to halt the city’s plan to move the Valencia Street protected bike lane from the center of the roadway to a curbside position, which was never the intent of the regulations.

San Francisco public television station KQED examines the ongoing saga of the barrier-separated bike and pedestrian path on the upper deck of the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge; five governmental bodies have voted unanimously against a proposal to convert the lane to a motor vehicle breakdown lane on weekdays, while a petition protesting the plan has gained just under 3,100 signatures.

An op-ed from a Marin County supervisor and a local pediatrician make the case that ebikes are vehicles and not toys, urging parents to do their homework and think twice before buying one for their kids.

 

National

A Washington State police chief wasn’t held responsible for pulling out of an alley in front of a man riding a bicycle, after the victim admitted to riding “hella fast” on the sidewalk, in a town where sidewalk riding is prohibited; fortunately, the bike rider only suffered a bruised knee.

Speaking of Washington, Governor Jay Inslee celebrated the news that the Bike League named the country’s best place to ride a bicycle. Somehow, I can’t imagine California Governor Gavin Newsom even noticing or acknowledging something like that. Thanks to Mike Burk for the tip.

Nice gesture from the City of Cincinnati, which declared Saturday “Bicycle Santa Day” to honor a longtime local bike advocate who died recently of pancreatic cancer, and was known for riding his bike dressed as Santa Claus.

US Weekly summarizes the case against Sean M. Higgins for killing NHL star Johnny Gaudreau and his brother Matthew as they were riding their bikes along a New Jersey highway, when Higgins reportedly tried to pass another driver on the right, while allegedly under the influence.

Police in Alabama are asking for the public’s help identifying a man who was killed riding a bicycle at an intersection where ten people have been killed by traffic violence in 16 years. Seriously, the intersection should have been redesigned after the first death, not the tenth, if then, And this is yet another a reminder to always have some form of ID with you when you ride.

 

International

Momentum recommends the 15 best holiday gifts for the bicyclist in your life. Even if the bicyclist in your life is, well, you. 

A writer for Pink Bike shares his photos and story of a mountain biking adventure through Ecuador.

They get it. A Buenos Aires paper says the Argentinian city should expand its bike lanes, not remove them, noting it’s the parked cars that block the streets, and that bicycling is the solution, not the problem.

Hundreds of people turned out for a London Santa ride to raise money for charity.

A UK bike rider won the equivalent of more than $5,000 in damages against a hit-and-run driver who ran him down from behind, saying all the driver had to do to avoid it was stop and say “sorry.”

Membership in British Cycling has dropped by 15,000 in the two years after the nonprofit organization signed Shell Oil as a sponsor, as bicyclists have complained about the “nauseating greenwashing” deal.

A Czech man learns the hard way that his satellite-enabled Garmin is illegal in India, thanks to a 1933 law that predates both Garmins and satellites. Thanks to D-J Haanraadts for the link. 

An 86-year old Australian man known as “Mr. Fix-It” has donated a handful of his whimsical handcrafted bicycles reimagined from used bikes and parts, with features such as misaligned wheels or unusual frames that offer a quirky riding experience.

 

Competitive Cycling

A Slovenian paper talks with the parents of triple Tour de France champ Tadej Pogačar; his secret advantage was that neither of them knew anything about cycling.

Legendary cyclist Eddy Merckx says he’ll never ride a bike alone again after fracturing his hip when he crashed on a railroad track in a drizzling rain, lying alone in fear and pain before others came by to help him.

 

Finally…

Your next ebike could be 3D printed and look like a normal bike. Riding a bike can give you new hope and help you feel at home, even in a new country.

And probably not the best idea to attack the cops who try to give you a breathalyzer test for biking under the influence.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Man critically injured in Thousand Oaks crash, CA 4th most Bike Friendly State, and new AASHTO Bike Guide released

December 13, 2024 / / 2 comments
Just 18 days until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025, a decade of failure in which deaths have continued to climb. 
Yet not one city official has mentioned the impending deadline, or the city’s failure to meet it. 

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It’s Day 15 of the 10th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive!

Thanks to Douglas M, Nina M and Carter R for their generous donations to keep bringing SoCal’s best source for bike news and advocacy to your favorite screen every morning.

Now it’s your turn. So stop what you’re doing and give now! 

Because I have it on good authority that any donations made today will probably counteract any bad Friday the 13th luck today. 

Unless it doesn’t, of course.

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A 37-year old man suffered life-threatening injuries when he was struck by a driver while riding his bicycle near West Hillcrest Drive and Citation Way in Thousand Oaks Wednesday night, although the local paper makes it sound more like he hit the car.

The victim remained hospitalized in critical condition yesterday.

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The Bike League released their latest rankings of the country’s most bike-friendly states, with Washington moving up to the top spot, followed by Massachusetts, and Oregon slipping to third.

Next up comes California in a surprising fourth place on the list of Bicycle Friendly States for 2024.

Although how that’s possible without excluding Los Angeles, and probably San Francisco, from consideration is kinda questionable.

Meanwhile, the group warns that even the best states aren’t doing enough to protect people riding bicycles, let alone the rest of them.

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AASHTO, aka the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, has released the 5th edition of the industry-standard AASHTO Bike Guide.

The guide provides comprehensive standards for “the planning, design, and operation of bikeways along streets, roads, and highways, as well as on off-street paths in urban, suburban, and rural settings.”

According the organization,

The guide encourages a flexible approach to design bikeways and emphasizes the role of the planner, designer, and engineer in determining appropriate bikeway types and design dimensions based on project-specific conditions and existing and future performance.

It provides information to assist in choosing the appropriate combination of features, design values, and materials to create the design, while considering the context of the project area and surrounding environment, AASHTO said…

Revised chapters include those on bicyclist operation and safety; bicycle planning; design of shared use paths; design of shared lanes and bike lanes; maintenance and operations; and bicycle parking, bike share site location, and end-of-trip facilities.

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Nina Moscol forwards word that The Squeaky Wheel Bike Shop in Palmdale was violently broken into last week when someone smashed a vehicle into the front of the store.

She notes that owners Bob & Shilo Vigil provide support for the local community biking programs in the greater Palmdale area, and the shop is a registered vendor for California’s new ebike incentive program, as well as sponsoring and coaching the local inter-mural youth MTB team.

So if you find yourself in the area, stop in and buy something before the holidays, because they could use the business right now.

And keep your eyes peeled for people selling bikes with prices that seem too good to be true. Because they probably are.

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‘Tis the season.

Longtime Watts philanthropist “Sweet” Alice Harris hosted a Christmas bike giveaway for community kids.

The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Department hosted a bike giveaway for the 35th consecutive year, donating 200 bicycles refurbished by inmates at the local Honor Farm. So the inmates do all the work, but the sheriff gets the credit? Seems fair. 

Restaurant chain Raising Cane’s donated a total of 400 bikes to the Boys & Girls Club of Harlem, and will host a bike riding clinic for any kids who don’t know how to ride one.

A Savannah, Georgia group gave 170 bikes to kids at eleven of the city’s public schools.

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It’s now 358 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And a full 42 months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

The program is finally scheduled to launch December 18th, so get your application in; Calbike with host a webinar on Monday to go over the application process.

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

Good question. A Boston op-ed says bike lanes save lives, so why are people still complaining?

Electrek considers the “strange logic” backing the push to require license plate on New York City ebikes; immigrant rights groups are teaming with a hospitality industry nonprofit to fight the bill.

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

A London woman wants to know why the city is suddenly full of bicyclists charging at pedestrians, after she was knocked down by a bike rider as she was crossing the street; a bike-riding witness told the guilty rider “You’re the kind of prick who gives the rest of us a bad name.”

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Local  

The story doesn’t appear to be posted online yet, but KNBC-4 reports that Walk ‘n Rollers stolen trailer has been recovered, but without the 15 grand worth of bikes and gear they used to teach little kids bike safety; the trailer full of gear was snatched by thieves last month.

Streets Are For Everyone says any donation to the group will be matched dollar-for-dollar right now.

 

State

The State of California claims it invested nearly $13 billion in just the last year to enhance transportation safety, and increase accessibility for people who walk and bike. Although you’d think with that kind of money, the results might be a little more noticeable.

A coalition of over 30 bicycle and active transportation advocacy groups are calling on the state to better regulate illegally operated electric motorcycles, which are often mistakenly called ebikes. Now if they’d just push to reclassify throttle-controlled bikes as electric motorcycles.

A new road diet and parking-protected bike lanes on San Diego’s Rancho Mission Road is raising safety concerns among residents, who claim crashes have increased dramatically since they were installed. However, it’s not unusual for collisions to increase after any change to road designs; what matters is what happens over the long term after drivers adjust to the changes.

Speaking of San Diego, board members for SANDAG, aka San Diego Association of Governments, will discuss whether to increase the budget for a 3.3-mile bike plan at today’s meeting, after estimates came in least 20% higher than expected.

San Luis Obispo finally gets around to rolling out its Vision Zero program, more than eight years after it was approved by the city council, with a goal of eliminating serious collisions by 2030.

Bike riders and local residents in San Carlos are calling for safety changes after a 31-year old Palo Alto woman was killed on a highway overpass, where plans call for a pedestrian bridge that might have spared her life.

The California Coastal Commission signed off the plan to permanently close a section of San Francisco’s Great Highway to motor vehicle traffic

 

National

Bicycling says your stiff neck could be causing the numbness in your hands when you ride. Although the story is locked behind their paywall, so you’re out of luck if the magazine blocks you. 

A writer for Velo lists “five totally random bike events” she wants to do next year, including the “fringey” Speed Project Los Angeles to Las Vegas ultra-endurance race.

An Oklahoma City off-road tri national champ responded to a serious crash that laid her up for a couple years by forming a bike club for the city’s elementary and middle school students.

 

International

People in the South London borough of Merton say you have to be brave to ride a bicycle there, where bike infrastructure lags behind other areas of the city.

They get it. Bicycle Scotland says “Nobody should be allowed near a driving license until they’ve undertaken a comprehensive cycling course” to gain “first-hand awareness of at-risk road users” and how to drive safely around people on bicycles.

An English Parliament member warns of “devastating consequences” if the country doesn’t do more to improve bike infrastructure in rural areas, where riders face added dangers on country roads.

France modified its traffic laws to allow bicyclists to legally ride side-by-side, as well as have additional lights on their bikes, as long as they’re not flashing.

Once again, a driver has somehow managed to plow into a group of bicyclists, this time in Western Australia, where two riders were seriously injured when the driver apparently failed to see the group riding in the same direction.

 

Competitive Cycling

Three-time Tour de France champ Tadej Pogačar rejects calls to slow pro cyclists to improve safety by arguing that “Tech always gets faster – it’s on riders to not do stupid things,” and that “modern bikes break every time you crash.” The problem is that sometimes, so do the people riding them.

Our old buddy Lance offered to give Jake Paul an “ass whooping” when the sometime MMA fighter and former Disney star sort-of but not really challenged the seven-time ex-Tour de France winner to a bike race.

 

Finally…

Who needs a a bike horn when you have a Vietnamese painted frog? When the bike parking is covered, who cares if it stinks?

And when in doubt — or in Toronto — blame it on the bike.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

LA on track for record-setting traffic deaths — including 5 previously unreported bicycling deaths, and injuries continue

October 14, 2024 / / Comments Off on LA on track for record-setting traffic deaths — including 5 previously unreported bicycling deaths, and injuries continue
Just 77 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025. 

The graph on the left is from Streets Are For Everyone; you can find a larger version on the link below. 

………

The carnage continues.

And it’s getting worse.

Streets Are For Everyone, aka SAFE, reports that Los Angeles is on track for its deadliest year on record, as we gear up for next month’s World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims

For those commemorating this solemn occasion in Los Angeles, World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims stings a little more this year. In 2024, LA is once again besieged by traffic violence: 210 people have been killed so far this year on LA’s streets — more traffic deaths than this time last year, which was already the deadliest year for traffic fatalities since 2003, the first year that data’s readily available.

The group goes on to add this.

Crossing the street has never been more dangerous in Los Angeles: motorists killed 112 pedestrians in the first 209 days of this year, or a pedestrian was struck and killed by a motorist every other day — a 1% increase from last year, which was itself a record-setting year for vehicular violence against walkers.

Hit-and-runs also remain frighteningly high: of the 210 fatal car crashes so far this year, 74 of the drivers have left their victims to die in the street, a 10% increase from 2023.

Let that last one sink in.

In over one third of all fatal collisions in Los Angeles — 35.24% — heartless, cowardly drivers left their victims to die alone on the streets.

Unfortunately, the story’s not any better for bicyclists.

According to LAPD statistics, as of the end of August, 15 people have been killed riding their bikes in the City of Angels, a 15% increase over last year.

Most of those fatalities — 73% — have been in the department’s South Bureau.

And just as we expected, we haven’t heard about a number of those crashes. I showed just ten bicycling deaths in Los Angeles at the end of August. Which means either the police failed to publicly report a full third of all bicycling deaths, or the local press failed to report them.

Neither prospect is very comforting. Because if we don’t know what’s happening, we can’t do anything to fix it.

Let alone remember the victims.

But thanks to SAFE for keeping us informed, anyway.

………

Which takes us to the latest bad news on our streets.

A 66-year-old Pasadena man was critically injured when he has struck by an unlicensed driver in a pickup truck while riding his bike in the city Thursday morning; at last report, he remained in critical condition with injuries including a fractured skull.

A teenaged La Mesa boy finally came from the hospital following three pelvic surgeries after he was run over by the driver of a trash truck last month; Caleb Carvalho insists he will walk again, but it could be a couple years before he’s back to normal. A crowdfunding campaign has raised nearly $73,000 for his medical care.

Tragic news from Laguna Niguel, where longtime Laguna Beach High School golf coach Sean Quigley is paralyzed from the waist down, after suffering severe spinal injuries when he was struck by a driver while riding his bike, leaving him with just a 5% chance of regaining function in his legs; a crowdfunding campaign has raised over $75,000 of the $200,000 goal.

………

No surprise here.

A Las Vegas court placed the case against 19-year old Jesus Ayala on hold after he was ruled unfit to stand trial.

Ayala was charged along with another teen for intentionally running down and killing former Bell, California police chief Andreas Probst as he rode his bike on a Vegas street.

The judge ordered the move out of an “abundance of caution” after evidence was presented that Ayala had suffered “significant” brain damage; he was sent to a maximum security psychiatric facility in Sparks, Nevada.

Meanwhile, another case was filed against Ayala accusing him of robbery with the use of a deadly weapon, conspiracy to commit robbery and grand larceny auto. He’s also facing an attempted murder charge for a separate “extremely violent” group attack where another man was stabbed multiple times

So evidently, he’s not so brain damaged he can’t keep committing crimes.

Allegedly.

His 17-year old accused accomplice is scheduled to go on trial next month.

………

They’re all one of us.

Gerard Butler took a stylish bike ride with a friend through the streets of New York.

Leonardo DiCaprio took a virtually incognito ride through the Big Apple with his girlfriend, model Vittoria Ceretti, and his niece.

Formula 1 star Valtteri Bottas rode a bike with his girlfriend while vacationing in Baja California during a break in the racing schedule.

Then there’s this.

And this.

………

It’s now 299 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And an even 40 months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

………

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

Momentum says riding a bike in the city is turning into a culture war.

A road raging Tennessee driver faces charges for repeatedly trying to run down a man riding in a bike lane, before getting out of his car and throwing the victim’s bike at him — all because the victim tapped the car’s hood because he thought the driver was going to bump him.

Once again, a British bike rider has been the victim of an unprovoked attack, with the man suffering a broken arm when he was pushed off his bicycle by a passenger in a passing car, just for giggles.

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

A road raging 73-year old Utah man went off on a calm driver in his 20s, who recorded the whole incident, claiming the driver almost hit him and demanding that the police come and arrest him, at one point screaming “I have more rights than you.” Which isn’t true, of course. And sadly, almost hitting someone isn’t illegal — but disorderly conduct is. 

Police in Des Plaines, Illinois are on the lookout for a road raging bike rider who stabbed a motorist multiple times, after they got in an argument because the man on the bike was riding salmon.

A Montreal columnist says the city’s roads are still nerve-racking places plagued by reckless cowboys in cars, because their behavior is all better now — it’s the people on ebikes, e-scooters and other “e-contraptions” plaguing the streets now.

An Aussie bicyclist got into a fist fight with a postal worker, after punching the side mirror and the side of the van, complaining that the driver had cut him off and threw something at him. Seriously, violence is always the wrong answer. And even you’re in the right, you’ll get the blame as soon as you throw the first punch. 

………

Local  

Streetsblog USA considers how to defeat car culture in the country’s deadliest city for pedestrians,                                                                                                                                                                                                            but other sources say we’re not even in the top ten per capita.

If you’ve ever wondered why you can’t ride your bike through the gated streets of Country Club Park in Mid-City, a writer for Afro LA does a deep dive into the cause. And the effects on the people who live nearby.

Streets For All offers their endorsements on two ballot measures, urging a yes vote on Measure A and Proposition 5, while Streets for All founder Michael Schneider explains why bike lanes often seem “empty” in LA.

Speaking of SAFE, the group is teaming the Los Feliz Neighborhood Council and Council District 13 to clean up debris and litter in the new Hollywood Blvd bike lanes this Saturday.

Yesterday’s Heart of LA CicLAvia leaves just two major open streets events remaining in the LA area this year.

 

State

Calbike urges you to Bike the Vote this November.

Streets For All offers their final update on the safe streets bills in this year’s state legislative session, for better or worse.

San Diego-based Juiced Bikes appears to be just the last ebike manufacturer to go belly up, with all products out of stock, and ghosting concerned customers.

Sad news from Alamo, in the East Bay, where a woman was killed when a driver pulled out from the side of the road, striking her bike.

Sad news from Sacramento, where a man riding a bicycle was killed by a suspected DUI driver.

 

National

Bike Magazine highlights the ten most scenic bike trails in the US, including one in Death Valley.

Velo offers a buyers guide to almost all the best bike lights.

This is the cost of traffic violence. A popular Bend, Oregon chef was killed in a hit-and-run while riding his ebike in nearby Medford; police arrested the driver shortly later for DUI.

Another Arizona mass casualty crash, when an SUV driver plowed into six members of the Major Taylor Phoenix Riders from behind as they road in a bike lane, sending three people to the hospital the hospital with serious injuries; no word on why the driver couldn’t see six people on bikes riding in an effing bike lane — or why the driver wasn’t charged.

Missouri bike thief busted while naked, stoned and armed with a chainsaw. Seriously, what could possibly go wrong?

Czech carmaker Škoda’s We Love Cycling website takes their bike love to the city that never sleeps.

 

International

A Cycling Weekly columnist blocks out the trauma of paying for his last bike, arguing that high prices put dream bikes in fantasy land for most of us.

Road.cc considers the problem inherent with calling a cyclists “cyclists.” Which is why I don’t. 

Momentum suggests eight of the best “affordable” commuter ebikes. Although affordable is a relative term. 

Momentum readers forward their picks for the world’s crappiest bike lanes, including two in San Diego.

An op-ed from Ontario, Canada’s minister of transportation says the province needs to rethink policies that leave drivers stuck in traffic, and should only place bike lanes “where they make sense.” In other words, not where they’ll get in the way of all those hard-working people in cars. 

Now you, too, can rent a home on the English street made famous in Ridley Scott’s 1973 Hovis ad.

A writer for Bike Radar takes a “near-perfect” two-week Scottish bikepacking with his partner, on “incredible island roads” marred by a mere 30 minutes of rain.

A British startup says their “perfect” handlebars will be a greatest aero advancement of the coming year.

An Irish writer explores why greenways are love by bike riders, but loathed by landowners.

Mumbai’s bicycling community continues to grow despite the city’s urban chaos, including a near-total lack of bike infrastructure.

A writer for AFAR spends five days riding through Rwanda, and explains why it’s the best way to see the country.

 

Competitive Cycling

Tragic news from the European Gravel Championships, where Italian masters cyclist Silvano Jane died of a sudden heart attack during the race; he was 69.

This one goes under the heading of bicyclists behaving badly, as former European ‘cross champ Eli Iserbyt stomped on a rival’s bike after a crash during an altercation in the first race of the season. Which does not bode well for the rest of the year.

No surprise here, as this year’s GOAT won Italy’s Il Lombardia classic, with Tadej Pogačar topping Olympic Champion Remco Evenepoel and Giulio Ciccone in a long solo breakaway.

Pogacar responds to the rumbling that he must be on something, saying people don’t have trust in cyclists these days. And for very good reason.

 

Finally…

Pedal your way out of your next hospital stay. Your next bike helmet could inflate like an accordion.

And now you know what happened to your stolen bike.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

Bicyclists framed for bear’s murder in Central Park, and El Segundo bike rider critically injured by driver fleeing cops

August 6, 2024 / / Comments Off on Bicyclists framed for bear’s murder in Central Park, and El Segundo bike rider critically injured by driver fleeing cops

Clearly, I’m still having trouble keeping this site online.

I’m told the problem is outdated and incompatible apps bringing it down, so maybe that’s something I can work on one-handed when I’m out following my surgery. Keep your fingers crossed that I get this post up and you get to read it before it goes down again.

Because that seems to be a thing right now. 

I hope to be back again tomorrow before I go under the knife.

………

Just 147 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025. 

……..

We was framed.

Presidential candidate, vaccine denier and conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy admitted on Monday that he was the perpetrator of a prank that helped fan the flames of anti-bike hysteria a decade ago.

Apparently an aficionado of road kill, Kennedy claimed he in a video with Roseanne Barr that he had found a small bear after it had been struck by a driver, and scooped it up planning to butcher it later and eat it.

But he ran out of time before he had to catch a flight. So rather than let a good dead bear go to waste, he took it to New York’s Central Park and dumped it next to a bicycle, staging the scene to make it look like a bike rider had killed the bear and run away afterwards.

Never mind that a crash with a bicycle is highly unlikely to kill even the barest of a bear. Which, as I recall, was what I wrote at the time, as the media ran wild with the story of the heartless killer bike rider who ran away rather than face the consequences for killing a cute, cuddly walking teddy bear.

This at a time when the media was whipping up a frenzy over New York’s expanding bicycle network, which eventually proved to be a boon to businesses and property values.

As well as reports of reckless, scofflaw bike riders crashing into joggers in Central Park and pedestrians everywhere, in which the person on two wheels inevitably received the full blame for the actions of both parties.

That was the environment in which Kennedy the Younger played his joke, leading to a police investigation that went nowhere.

Evidently, forensics don’t work on bear carcasses, since the cops couldn’t seem to figure out that the fatal injuries caused by a motor vehicle couldn’t have been caused by a lightweight bicycle.

However, it’s likely that Kennedy’s belated confession wasn’t just an effort to cleanse his soul and lighten the bear burden on his conscience.

Rather, he was apparently trying to get ahead of a rumored unflattering story in the New Yorker that would have pointed the finger at the formerly feckless scion of the Kennedy clan for the bear’s demise.

Or at least why its final resting place was next to a Central Park roadway rather than out in the woods.

Thanks to Megan Lynch for the heads-up.

………

It’s happened again.

Just weeks after Raul Castañeda was killed by a driver fleeing police in Irwindale, another man was critically injured when he was struck by a driver fleeing from cops in El Segundo on Sunday.

The driver was fleeing from a traffic stop by members of the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department’s gang and narcotics team when he slammed into the man riding a bicycle at Center Street and Mariposa Ave around 3 pm.

As usual, there’s no word on the victim’s current condition.

Police found the driver’s car nearby after he escaped on foot.

………

A 71-year old man was hospitalized with major injuries after he was struck by a driver in Chula Vista, California.

Border Patrol agents attempted to revive the victim, who hasn’t been publicly identified.

The driver, a woman in her 30s from Vista, was arrested by the Border Patrol agents for charges “unrelated to the collision.”

Local police said alcohol played a role in the crash, but didn’t clarify whether the driver or the victim appeared to be under the influence.

………

Streets For All is hosting a virtual mobility debate between the candidates for the WeHo city council on August 15th.

………

It’s now 229 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And 38 full months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

………

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

Once again, a driver intentionally ran down someone on a bicycle and posted the video to Instagram, this time leaving a Detroit bike rider with two broken legs.

No bias here. A columnist for the Boston Globe swears he’s not against bike lanes, let alone bicycles, but thinks someone was just trying to prove a point by “shoehorning” a bike lane onto his favorite boulevard, which was apparently much better when it was just crammed with cars.

………

Local 

Cronkite News says Los Angeles should prepare for the 2028 Olympics by copying the bike lanes of Paris.

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s adopted son Pax was released from the hospital after nearly three weeks in the ICU with serious head injury suffered in a helmet-less ebike crash.

 

State

How do you say “bikelash” in Mandarin? San Francisco backed down on plans to install a bike lane in Chinatown after business owners got out the torches and pitchforks, arguing that the area is just too crowded.

 

National

A group of New Yorkers took the “worst bike ride ever” over the weekend — a 130-mile ride from New York City to the Montauk Point Lighthouse riding the worst bike they could get their hands on, including a heavy bikeshare bike.

A Queens, New York bike rider was killed, despite riding in a protected bike lane, when the driver of a box truck drove over the armadillos meant to force a wide turn.

 

International

A new re-wilding project in Wales is being funded by the same mountain bikers usually accused of destroying nature, not restoring it. Thanks again to Megan Lynch. 

Here’s another one for your bike bucket list. National Geographic suggests taking a multi-day bike tour of the ancient ruins, nature reserves and seaside villages along Turkey’s Aegean coast.

Hong Kong bicycling deaths tripled over the first six months of this year compared to the same period last year — and already top the six riders killed in all of 2023. Although that’s just a quarter of the 24 bike riders killed in Los Angeles last year, even though Hong Kong has twice the population.

Aussie cyclist Rohan Dennis will face trial on charges of causing death by dangerous driving and driving without due care in the death of his his wife and fellow Olympic cyclist Melissa Hoskins.

 

Competitive Cycling

American Kristen Faulkner won the Olympic road cycling race on Sunday in a surprise victory over the legendary Marianne Vos, just seven years after taking up cycling through Central Park; she was selected as an alternate when another rider dropped out.

Road.cc wants to know if the Paris Olympic road course was the most photogenic ever. And yes, even potty breaks are harder at the Games.

Cyclist offers a preview of next week’s week-long Tour de France Femmes.

Legendary five-time Tour de France champ Eddy Merckx touts Olympic road cycling champ Remco Evenepoel over Tour de France champ Tadej Pogačar at the upcoming world championship.

Sad news from North Carolina, where expert class rider Scott Huntley died Sunday after a major crash at the 2024 Gravity Mountain Bike National Championships, a tragic reminder about the risks pro mountain bikers take on a daily basis.

 

Finally…

Throwing your bike at passing cars is not among the recommended uses.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

15-year old Monterey Park girl found safe, context-free rise in ebike injuries, and elderly man gravely injured in Mira Mesa

July 24, 2024 / / One comment
Just 160 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025. 

Photo from Monterey Park Police Dept. 

………

She’s safe.

KABC-7 reports that Alison Jillian Chao, the 15-year old Monterey Park girl who disappeared on a bike ride last week, was found safe outside their studio in Glendale yesterday morning.

Chao was reportedly recognized by someone who followed her in their car and notified police.

Her aunt says she believes the girl ran away because she didn’t want to live with her mother, who was granted full custody of her on a temporary basis.

One more example of why the courts need to give more consideration to the desires of kids in custody cases.

But the important thing is she’s safe. The rest is details.

………

Researchers are reporting a “remarkable” rise in ebike and e-scooter injuries.

A new study from UC San Francisco shows ebike injuries in the US have doubled each year for the last six years, rising from 750 in 2017 to 23,500 in 2022, while e-scooter owies have climbed an average of 45%, from 8,500 to 56,800 over the same period.

Although ebike injuries still represent less than 2% of the roughly 2.5 million injuries suffered by riders of more traditional bicycles.

And we have to look at that nine-fold rise in electric micromobility injuries in the context of the 50-fold jump in micromobility usage over the past ten years.

It’s also worth noting that the risk of death in comparison to injuries is just one-fifth of one per cent or less for any form of micromobility, ranging from <0.1% for ebikes and traditional scooters to 0.1% for regular bicycles and 0.2% for e-scooters.

Which appears to be a hell of a lot less than we’re usually led to believe.

The researchers also note a lack of helmets among injured riders, as well as drinking and drug use.

“Our findings stress a concerning trend: helmet usage is noticeably lower among electric vehicle users, and risky behaviors, such as riding under the influence, are more prevalent,” said study co-first author Kevin Li.

Never mind that they conflate rental ebikes and e-scooters with devices that are owned by their riders.

Which matters because renting a bicycle or scooter is often a spur of the moment decision. People who have been drinking or using drugs may choose to ride one instead of risking a DUI, and someone with lowered inhibitions may be more likely to ride one on impulse.

It’s also worth noting that less than 10% of e-scooter users were under the influence, dropping to 7% for ebike riders, and just 4% for riders of more traditional bicycles.

Which means that well over 90% of all users were sober a judge. Depending on the judge, of course.

And few people are likely to carry a helmet with them wherever they go, especially if they aren’t planning in advance to ride a bike or scooter, electric or otherwise.

It also appear the researchers conflated relatively low-speed ped-assist bikes with higher-speed throttle-controlled bicycles, which are better classified as lower-powered electric motorcycles.

As for the rapid jump in electric bike and scooter injuries, such stats are absolutely meaningless when not considered in context with the rapid rise in ebike and e-scooter usage.

Without that comparison, we have no way of knowing if the rate and severity of injuries are climbing relative to electric bike and scooter use, or if one is increasing faster than the other.

What’s needed is a side-by-side comparison of annual bicycle, ebike and e-scooter injuries relative to usage for each. Unless and until we have that, studies like this are interesting, but relatively meaningless.

Meanwhile, if you want to read a really badly reported synopsis of a synopsis of the study, you could do a lot worse than this story in the New York Post.

Like maybe this story in The Hill, which somehow blames the increase in ebike injuries on risky behavior and urban design — which may have been inferred, but neither of which were directly implicated in the study.

………

More bad news from San Diego, where a 74-year old man was gravely injured in a solo bike crash.

The victim, who has not been publicly identified, lost control of his bike and hit a curb while riding in the 10700 block of Camino Santa Fe in Mira Mesa, suffering life-threatening injuries including a brain bleed, broken collarbone and several fractured ribs.

Let’s all hope and pray he pulls through.

………

It’s now 216 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And 37 full months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

………

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

A Florida jogger faces a battery charge for hitting a woman in the face with a bottle and knocking her off her bicycle, yelling that she had to share the road, even though she was on a bike path where pedestrians aren’t allowed. Or joggers.

No bias here. Writing for the London Telegraph, the TV editor for the Independent newspaper says she’s a regular bike commuter, but she’s “sick of reckless cyclists ruining it for everyone,” while somehow assuming all those Lycra-clad louts are blowing through red lights at a remarkable 40 mph — double the speed limit, and far beyond the capacity of just about everyone without a motor. But still lower than the 52 mph cited in the headline.

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

Police dashcam and bodycam images captures video of a man on a bicycle evading cops on a chase through the city back in May, after attacking someone with a machete.

………

Local 

To paraphrase Sunset Boulevard, the new Hollywood Blvd bike lanes are ready for their closeup, Mr. DeMille. And from what I’ve seen going by on the bus, they look marvelous.

https://twitter.com/LADOTofficial/status/1815507535148781864

 

State

Calbike accuses Caltrans of contributing to incomplete streets for bicyclists and pedestrians in Orange County by ignoring their own rules on Beach Blvd.

Yes, please. Dozens of Orange County drivers were ticketed for various offenses in a traffic crackdown over the weekend, including having overly loud exhaust systems. Now do Hollywood, where illegal decibel-shattering cars and motorcycles roar through the streets all day and night.

San Diego’s sparkling new fully separated Pershing Bikeway will have a partial opening this weekend, with connecting bike lanes coming online in the next few weeks.

San Diego bicyclists can use the Bike Lane Uprising app to document drivers parking in them.

SFGate says a quiet movement is growing in San Francisco, as more people trade the family car for e-cargo bikes, although residents are divided over the city’s Slow Streets program.

 

National

Americans set a new record for bikeshare and e-scooter rentals last year, topping the previous high of 147 million trips set in 2019 by a full ten million.

Bicycling may cause genital numbness, but doesn’t result in a statistically significant rate of erectile dysfunction in men, while women bicyclists are no more likely to report urinary or sexual dysfunction symptoms than swimmers or runners.

The parents of fallen Boulder, Colorado junior cycling champ Magnus White hope a memorial ride marking his death next month will be the largest advocacy ride in history.

There’s a special place in hell for the 41-year old Pueblo, Colorado man who shot a child in the back over an allegedly stolen bicycle; he faces three counts of attempted 2nd degree murder, despite causing the kid only minor injuries.

Thousands of riders participating in the annual RAGBRAI ride across Iowa visited tiny Greenfield, Iowa — population 2057 — just two months after a devastating tornado killed four people and injured dozens more.

The Boston Globe says bikes are booming in Beantown as new separated and protected bikeways roll out, but barriers to biking remain. Kinda like just about everywhere else, but without the spiffy new infrastructure in a lot of places.

J-Lo continues to impress fashionistas with her casual bike chic, going for a casual ride in the Hamptons in a floral skirt and matching bandeau top.

 

International

British Columbia bike riders complain that bicycles are just an afterthought on the local ferries.

More proof bikes mean business. Hotels and bicycle touring companies in a pair of Scottish cities have seen an increase in business since a new coast-to-coast bike route opened a year ago.

A writer for Cycling Weekly considers whether getting on your bike is really the best medicine, as more and more physicians in the UK prescribe bicycling to cure what ails you.

A British bike shop owner says “it’s a bit of a Wild West out there” when it comes to the safety of ebike batteries, as King Charles calls for better regulation of high risk products such as the lithium-ion batteries found in many ebikes.

You won’t find any “cyclists” in The Hague in the Netherlands, which PeopleForBikes calls the world’s best bicycling city. Although the country does use “the” a lot, and has some weird rules on its capitalization.

Michelin offers a handy guide to biking to newly bike-friendly Barcelona’s hotels and restaurants. Bearing in mind that tourists aren’t exactly welcomed by everyone in the Catalan city.

Good on them. Japan decided to cut the speed limit on narrow roadways from 60 kph to just 30 kph — aka 36 mph to 18 mph — which will affect roughly 70% of the nation’s streets, while improving safety for everyone.

 

Competitive Cycling

Bike World News introduces the US Olympic Cycling Team.

Newly re-crowned Tour de France champ Tadej Pogačar pulled out of the Paris Games after winning the race on Sunday, aiming for a triple crown by winning the world championship, after taking the Giro title earlier this year.

British time trialist George Fox set an unofficial new road bike record over a 10 mile course, knocking two seconds off the current mark, while using a controversial triathlon bike.

 

Finally…

That feeling when you interrupt your ride across Iowa for a cold beer in The Middle of Nowhere. Or when your favorite bike path is closed for a boat race, even though boats hardly ever ride bikes.

And how to catch Olympic motor doping.

Let’s just hope they do a better job with that than they do with regular doping.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

Ramos faces up to 20 years for killing five-year old in drunken hit-and-run, and wannabe Trump assassin was one of us

July 19, 2024 / / Comments Off on Ramos faces up to 20 years for killing five-year old in drunken hit-and-run, and wannabe Trump assassin was one of us
Just 165 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025. 

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A few people have volunteered to write guest posts to help keep this site from going dark when I’m out next month for surgery on my torn rotator cuff. 

So if you’re interested in filling in here for a few days, or joining them in submitting a guest post or two, just email me at the address on the About page above.

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Twenty years.

Charges have been refiled against Ceferino Ascencion Ramos for the alleged drunken hit-and-run that killed five-year old Jacob Ramirez, and injured his entire family, as they were enjoying an evening bike ride in Garden Grove nearly two weeks ago.

Ramos, who had a blood alcohol content of .22% at the time of his arrest, now faces a charge of vehicular manslaughter, as well as felony counts of driving under the influence of alcohol causing bodily injury, driving with blood alcohol of .08% or more causing bodily injury, and hit and run with injury, with sentencing enhancements for leaving a victim comatose or paralyzed and inflicting great bodily injury.

If he is convicted on all counts, Ramos could spend the next two decades behind bars. But the most likely result is that the DA will allow him to plead to a reduced sentence in order to guarantee a conviction.

The lack of a murder charge indicates this is probably Ramos’ first DUI arrest, or he at least hasn’t been convicted before.

The good news, if there is any in this mess, is that Jacob’s six-year-old sister has been released from the hospital after undergoing surgery for her injuries. However, the children’s father is still in a coma due to a fractured skull and bleeding in the brain.

Meanwhile, Streets Are For Everyone, aka SAFE, will install a ghost bike for Jacob Ramirez later today.

The ceremony will take place at 7:30 pm on the 12300 block of Haster Street at Twin Tree Lane in Garden Grove.

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Wannabe Trump assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks was one of us, as reports suggest he used his bicycle to scout the rally where the shooting took place last Saturday.

He then ditched his bike in full view of cops and crowds of people before climbing onto to warehouse roof and opening fire on the former president.

Which kinda raises the question of why no one noticed a man riding a bicycle while carrying a rifle at a political rally, whether it was in or out of a case.

Meanwhile, a writer for a conservative website writes, with tongue firmly planted in cheek, forget guns, it’s time to ban bicycles.

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A Seal Beach police captain answers a reader’s question to say yes, bicycles are considered vehicles under California law, subject to the same rules and regulations as drivers.

But he doesn’t get it quite right, insisting bike riders can’t use a handheld phone, even though that law specifically applies to motorists only.

And he bizarrely says bicyclists should slow and come to a complete stop at any intersection without a green light, which would mean pissing off drivers by stopping at every uncontrolled intersection.

Then again, we seem to piss off drivers if we stop for stop signs, as well as when we roll through them.

And God help you if you find yourself blocking a driver’s turn because you stopped for a red light.

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Gravel Bike California marks their 5th Anniversary by revisiting their favorite LA Area route.

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It’s now 211 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And 37 full months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

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

The solemnity of a poignant Birmingham, England slow ride in memory of a fallen bicyclist was interrupted by angry drivers blaring on their horns over the momentary inconvenience of having to slow down to go around them. Which kinda made the bicyclist’ point for them.

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

Once again, cops and the news media conflate electric motorcycles and ebikes as if they’re the same thing, with sheriff’s deputies complaining about kids on illegal off-road electric motorcycles — not electric bicycles — terrorizing customers at an Orange County mall with air-soft guns.

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Local 

LAist reports on the health effects of chronic noise, as the US Department of Transportation says Los Angeles is one of the country’s loudest counties, thanks largely to our incessant traffic.

 

State

A writer for Forbes explains how to love living carless in California. It’s long past time stories like this lost any shock value, when up to a fifth of Angelenos don’t own cars, and seem to manage okay without one. 

A San Francisco writer asks if the city’s most harrowing bikeway is about to become a thing of the past, as a new water taxi promises to replace the narrow chasm of the Posey Tube’s bike/pedestrian sidewalk, which he describes as the “ninth circle of cycling hell.”

 

National

Strong Towns looks at ways to build a biking culture to make your city stronger.

Writing for Streetsblog, former Southland resident Melissa Balmer says it’s time to revive the 1990’s Bikes Belong campaign to help deliver needed funds for active transportation infrastructure, and stop killing people.

Planetizen says specially equipped data bikes can help government agencies better understand conditions on bike paths by collecting information on trail accessibility and pavement conditions to prioritize maintenance projects. That’s if anyone actually cares about conditions on bike paths once they’re built, let alone budget for it.

PeopleForBikes says a simple bike bus helped transform a south Tempe, Arizona neighborhood, while reconnecting students and their parents with joy.

Emergency responders were caught off guard when they found themselves in the middle of a Colorado gravel race as they responded to a bicyclist injured in a multi-rider crash, with competitors reportedly swerving in front of the ambulance. Seriously guys, give emergency vehicles a wide berth, regardless of whether you’re competing in a race or just riding to the corner market. Someone’s life could depend on it. 

Boston officials refute claims that new bike lanes and road diets are slowing ambulance response times, saying roadways are engineered to provide room for emergency vehicles, and ambulances can drive through bike lanes when necessary to get around stalled traffic.

This is the cost of traffic violence. The woman killed in a Philadelphia collision while riding her bike Wednesday night has been identified as a 30-year old medical resident specializing in pediatric cancer patients at a Philly children’s hospital.

 

International

Momentum says the health benefits of bike commuting mean it could be one of the best decisions you ever make, cutting your risk of dying from any cause nearly in half.

There’s a special place in hell for whoever tethered an 18-month old horse to an old bicycle wrapped in barbed wire in an English field, without food or water, leaving the horse emaciated and covered in lice; fortunately, it has made an “astonishing” recovery since after it was rescued five months ago.

Heavyweight boxer Derek Chisora is accused of headbutting a food delivery rider outside a London restaurant, after the victim refused Chisora’s demands that he dismount instead of riding near the fighter’s kids.

Business is booming for a British man who launched a cargo bike sandwich delivery service last month, saying he just used his bike to deliver a few ham sandwiches, and things took off from there.

 

Competitive Cycling

Thursday’s stage of the Tour de France went to former hour record holder Victor Campenaerts, who came out in front of a three man sprint to the finish, while the race leaders held back for the day.

Road.cc says Tadej Pogačar could have ridden a heavier mid-tier bicycle and still matched the time of second-place finisher Remco Evenepoel over the Galibier.

 

Finally..

That feeling when they won’t let you use the drive-thru, so you ride your bike up to the counter inside, instead. Why settle for single wheel propulsion when you can ride a two-wheel drive ebike?

And why steal one bike, when you can use a fork lift to make off with four at once?

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

Woman critical after hit-and-run in San Diego’s Rancho Peñasquitos, and guilty plea in Tracey Gross hit-and-run death

July 15, 2024 / / One comment
Just 169 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025. 

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I’m still looking for anyone interested in filling in here after my shoulder surgery next month, whether you’re willing to take over for a day or two a week, or simply submitting a guest post or two. 

Just email me at the address on the About page, above. 

Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay.

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A hit-and-run driver left a 60-year old woman with life-threatening injuries in in San Diego’s Rancho Peñasquitos neighborhood Sunday morning.

The victim, who hasn’t been publicly identified, was riding her mountain bike eastbound in the 13100 block of Rancho Peñasquitos Blvd around 8:40 am, when a driver traveling in the same direction swerved into her.

Police are looking for a mid-sized, silver or charcoal gray SUV of an undetermined make. There’s no description of the driver, who was reportedly driving erratically prior to the crash.

The victim suffered injuries including bleeding in the brain, as well as a broken neck.

Anyone with information is urged to call the traffic division of the San Diego Police Department 858/495-7823; or call Crime Stoppers anonymously at 888/580-8477.

Hopefully, the victim will recover from her injuries, and they’ll find — and prosecute — the heartless coward who did it to her.

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A 26-year old Riverside man faces sentencing in September after pleading guilty to killing an Oceanside woman.

According to the San Diego County DA’s office, Christian Joshua Howard pled guilty on Thursday to a single felony count of hit-and-run causing death, along with a misdemeanor count of destroying or concealing evidence for the March 17th collision that killed 51-year old Oceanside postal carrier Tracey Gross.

Howard reportedly dragged Gross’ bike two miles underneath his car as he fled the scene, running her down as she rode her bike home after going into work at the post office on Sunday night.

Meanwhile, a crowdfunding campaign for Gross’ family stands just $55 short of the $20,000 goal.

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It’s now 207 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And 37 full months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

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

A Chicago letter writer pushes back on a bicyclist’s assertion that people drive aggressively and angrily and are actively hostile to people on bicycles, arguing that from a driver’s and pedestrian’s perspective, bike riders are no different.

Yet another Conservative British city councilmember called for license plates for bicycles to put them on a level playing field with trucks, vans and cars, as if bicyclists somehow pose the same risk to others as motor vehicles; meanwhile, another Conservative councilmember complains that no one will ride a hilly bike route — yet at the same time, warns of anti-social behavior by bike riders on their way down.

A Singapore car columnist argues for bicyclists to have to pay the same road taxes as motorists, insisting that “bicycles are not ‘bigger’ than cars, but some cyclists ride like big idiots.”

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

Authorities in Montreal have installed new speed bumps — not for drivers, but to slow down people on bicycles.

Police were called when teenagers were observed riding bikes and smoking week in the aisles of a UK supermarket, searching them and obtaining “their details.”

Police in Dubai confiscated nearly 650 bicycles and e-escooters from lawbreaking bicyclists. Which sounds like a lot, until you consider it’s a country of 3.5 million people. 

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Local 

Writing for a Santa Clarita paper, a retired LAPD motorcycle cop somehow feels the need to remind bike riders that the law applies to them, too. Funny how no one ever seems to feel the need to remind drivers about that, even though they break the law just as often, with far deadlier consequences.

Long Beach leads the way when it comes to SoCal traffic circles.

 

State

Simi Valley will get a new bike plan, after the city awarded a nearly quarter-million-dollar contract to develop a new plan, including an outreach program featuring at least three community workshops, 10 local events, and web and social media engagement. Although as we’ve learned the hard way here in Los Angeles, even the best plan is only as good as the commitment of city leaders to actually build the damn thing.

 

National

A travel website recommends ten beautiful rail trails across the US that they say you need to ride at least once. None of which are in Los Angeles. Or California, for that matter. 

The author of Seattle Bike Blog rode his ebike 30 miles to Everett, Washington to play night hockey, then rode another 30 miles back home.

A Utah man explains what he’s learned from riding the TransAmerica Bicycle Trail nearly 4,000 miles across the US to raise funds for college scholarships in the state.

A 22-year old Florida woman was killed by a Sarasota County sheriff’s deputy as she was just walking her bicycle across the street, raising the question of why the hell the cop couldn’t manage to avoid her.

 

International

Momentum offers ten ways bicycles “deliver the freedom that cars can only promise.”

A petition urging Toronto food delivery riders to obey the law has drawn less than 300 signatures in two weeks, despite being featured in the city’s main newspaper.

Lila Moss is one of us, as the model daughter of former supermodel Kate Moss went for a bikeshare ebike ride through London.

The head of English foldie-maker Brompton warns that contraction in the bike industry isn’t over, predicting that more bicycle businesses will go belly up this winter.

Velo says famed British designer Paul Smilth has the biggest, best and most extensive collection of bicycle memorabilia you’ll ever see.

Bicyclists in the UK are less satisfied with bike lane design and maintenance, feel less safe, and face more barriers to riding than bicyclists in the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and Germany.

A 26-year old British woman will spend a well-deserved eight years and eight months behind bars for the drunken and stoned hit-and-run that killed a 40-year old bike rider

The best bike routes for your next trip to Andalucía, Spain.

Kim Kardashian is one of us, going for a nearly naked, lightless bikini-clad ride after a nighttime swim in Puglia, Italy.

A writer for The Guardian describes how he found his bliss bicycling along the coast of Estonia. Raise your hand if you didn’t even know Estonia had a coast. 

An Aussie bicycle advocacy group looks to tax receipts from San Francisco’s Valencia Street to argue that bike lanes don’t have a negative effect on local businesses.

 

Competitive Cycling

Two-time Tour de France champ Tadej Pogačar won his second consecutive stage on Sunday over fellow two-time winner Jonas Vingegaard; Pogačar enters today’s rest day with a three minute, nine second lead over his chief rival.

The New York Times says forget the rest of the peloton, the Tour de France is down to a two-man race between Pogačar and Vingegaard, between them winners of the past four Tours.

Slovenia’s Primož Roglič is out of the Tour de France after crashing hard and losing time in stage 12.

Covid is taking a toll in the race, with several riders dropping out, while Geraint Thomas is continuing to race despite the illness, and members of the press face a mask mandate.

The pro cyclists union plans to take legal action against a “fan” who assaulted the race leaders — with potato chips.

An Egyptian cyclist was kicked off the country’s Olympic team following uproar over her selection, despite knocking a competitor off her bike in a sprint.

 

Finally…

Why just ride a bike when you can pedal a canoe across Scotland? Who needs tires when your bike can wear slippers?

And you can see a lot of things riding a bike — like a Patagonian rodent as big as a medium-sized dog, thousands of miles from its normal South American range.

https://www.tiktok.com/@accuweather/video/7388563615881661727?embed_source=121374463%2C121442748%2C121439635%2C121433650%2C121404359%2C121351166%2C121331973%2C120811592%2C120810756%3Bnull%3Bembed_blank&refer=embed&referer_url=www.msn.com%2Fen-us%2Flifestyle%2Fpets%2Fcolorado-resident-out-on-a-bike-ride-stumbles-across-a-rodent-native-to-south-america%2Far-BB1pXIhm&referer_video_id=7388563615881661727

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

Garden Grove mom fears for gravely injured 5-year old hit-and-run victim, and Caltrans discusses PCH safety feasibility

July 10, 2024 / / Comments Off on Garden Grove mom fears for gravely injured 5-year old hit-and-run victim, and Caltrans discusses PCH safety feasibility
Just 174 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025. 

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My apologies, again. 

On top of everything else I’ve been dealing with lately, I’ve had a major flare-up in my diabetic neuropathy, which knocked me on my ass Monday night. Or maybe it was just everything I took trying to control it. 

Also, let me know if you’re interested in filling in for me when I’m out of commission next month, whether you’d like to pen a single post, or take over this site a day or two.

Anything goes, as long as it’s related to bicycles or traffic safety. 

Just email me at the address on the About page if you’re interested in volunteering. 

And thanks to tomexploresla for today’s graphics.

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Graphic by tomexploresla

The news from Garden Grove is getting worse.

On Monday, we discussed the allegedly drunken hit-and-run that took out an entire family in Garden Grove Sunday evening, as the parents were towing their children in child seats and bike trailers.

The crash left the father and two kids critically injured, while hospitalizing the mom and her eight-month old baby.

Now the mother is reporting that, while the father and one child are showing some signs of improvement, their five-year old son, Jacob Ramirez, suffered significant brain damage in the crash, and may not survive his injuries.

A witness followed the driver as he attempted to flee, and police arrested the driver, identified as 29-year-old Santa Ana resident Ceferino Ramos.

A crowdfunding campaign for the family has raised nearly $33,000 of the $100,000 goal.

Although there are also reports that someone created a fake crowdfunding page in the family’s name, demonstrating once again that there are no limits to just how low some people will go to scam others.

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Caltrans is hosting a series of public meetings, starting tomorrow, to discuss the feasibility of improving safety on deadly PCH through Malibu.

Although the only thing that will really improve safety would be converting the highway into a slow-speed Main Street designed to serve the local community and all road users, rather than pass-through commuters.

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San Diego announced the official opening of the re-imagined Pershing Drive, transforming the previous car sewer into a tamed street with a fully separated, two-way bikeway stretching from North Park to Downtown.

The street was an auto-centric hellhole when I lived down there four decades ago. And something tells me it didn’t get any better since. So this should be a huge improvement.

Meanwhile, the two-year old closure of popular two-lane shortcut Bachman Place will extend for yet another year, before eventually reopening with “bikeway enhancements” connecting the Mission Valley and Hillcrest neighborhoods.

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Streets For All is urging you to attend one of a series of public meetings, including today in Pico Rivera and tomorrow in El Monte, to tell Caltrans to stop flushing our hard-earned tax money down the toilet, and cancel induced demand-inducing plans to widen the 605 Freeway.

It’s long past time to drive a stake through this proposal that somehow keeps rising from the dead, and spend the money on transit, bike and pedestrian projects, instead.

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Megan Lynch forwards video of a woman harassing a New York food delivery rider for the crime of wearing a Palestinian keffiyeh around his neck, calling him a terrorist and blocking his bike with her car.

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It’s now 202 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And 37 full months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

Meanwhile, Santa Monica is accepting applications for approximately 90 vouchers worth up to $2,000 toward the purchase of ebikes or bicycles, along with safety equipment including helmets, locks and lights for income-qualified residents.

And Salt Lake City has launched their own program, providing up to $1,300 off the purchase of a new ebike, depending on the model and the buyer’s income level.

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

That’s more like it. Pennsylvania prosecutors have thrown the book at a road-raging 57-year old Mechanicsburg PA man who deliberately rammed a bike rider and tried to run them off the road, charging him with attempted aggravated assault by vehicle, recklessly endangering another person, terroristic threats and other offenses.

Anti-bike agitators are spreading “factually incorrect and negative” rumors suggesting trees will be chopped down to make room for what will eventually be the UK’s biggest bike lane.

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

A 55-year old man in Oxford, England is on trial for “wantonly or furiously” bicycling for killing an 81-year old woman, who died in the hospital days after they collided on a pathway.

Bike riders in Bournemouth, England are coming under criticism for riding recklessly and weaving around pedestrians on a beachfront pathway.

More bad behavior in Wales, where young bicyclists are accused of causing serious damage to a nature preserve by building their own cycle track and mountain bike jumps.

There’s even bad behavior from the Tour de France, where Belgian cyclist Victor Campenaerts was observed peeing into an empty water bottle, and throwing the piss-filled bottle into a field.

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Local 

Streetsblog reports city officials are beginning planning work on closing Wilshire Blvd between Alvarado and Carondelet Streets to reconnect the two sides of severed MacArthur Park. While they’re at it, why don’t they just close the whole damn thing from the Pacific to DTLA?

The author of Bike Seattle received an epiphany on a visit to Long Beach, when he realized Seattle could use bikeshare docks to daylight intersection, like Long Beach’s “wonderful” legacy bikeshare system.

 

State

A Santa Barbara writer says something has to be done about young ebike riders throughout the city, complaining that juvenile riders don’t have the training to operated motorized bicycles. Although as we’ve discussed lately, it’s not clear if he’s talking about teens riding ped-assist bicycles, or throttle-controlled electric motorbikes.

Caltrans will install seven miles of new bike lanes on Palo Alto’s El Camino Real. Now someone tell them to do PCH next.

San Francisco residents got out the torches and pitchforks at a community meeting to discuss a proposed bike network in the North Beach neighborhood, fearing it could be another Valencia Street.

A San Francisco website suggests what while doorings are down in the city, a recent death highlights a neighborhood divide, as safety improvements have skipped some areas populated by people of color.

 

National

Forbes vets the best electric foldies.

Bicycling suggests that bikemakers should offer more lightweight bikes for heavyweight riders who outweigh pro cyclists. Unfortunately, this one doesn’t seem to be available anywhere else, so you’re on your own if the magazine blocks you. 

A Denver TV station is raising funds for a makeover of a young boy’s room for when he gets out of the hospital after crushing his voice box when he crashed his bicycle.

Michigan’s carfree Mackinac Island will finally get its first speed limit — for bicycles and ebikes.

Police in Troy, New York have some ‘splaining to do, after a man they were chasing drowned in the Hudson River while attempting to flee on his bicycle.

A New Jersey woman faces charges for the drunken crash that killed a 44-year old man when she slammed into his bike while driving on the shoulder of the roadway to pass another car on the right, with her three-year old in the back of the car.

The family of a 65-year old Louisiana man want answers after he was killed in a collision with an off-duty sheriff’s deputy while riding his bicycle at 1:30 am, in a strange neighborhood 20 miles from home — and want to know why he was supposedly riding in the roadway when there was a freshly paved, fully separated bike path right next to it.

 

International

An automotive website examines which carmakers have also made bicycles, like a mid-2000s “Hummer” foldie, for instance.

Cycling Weekly considers whether tossing the booze will make you a better bicyclist.

Velo reports on their favorite bicycles from the recent Eurobike trade show, including a seriously weird gravel bike.

Toronto bicyclists are getting a new protected bike lane on one of the city’s deadliest corridors.

There’s a special place in hell for whoever stole eight bicycles worth the equivalent of over $33,000 from a Salisbury, England gravel fest.

This is who we share the road with. A British man will spend 17 years behind bars for killing a baby and her aunt when he slammed into their car, minutes after posting a photo showing himself driving 141 mph with a blood alcohol level nearly three times the legal limit; he’ll also face a well-deserved 21-year driving ban once he’s released.

An English website says Bremen, Germany ranks as one of the world’s best cities for bicycling, thanks to visionary leaders who invented the bike lane in the 1970s. Except to quote Gershwin, it ain’t necessarily so.

Berlin is testing a new cycle track built beneath an overhead subway to accommodate future growth. But aren’t subways supposed to be underground?

 

Competitive Cycling

Russia’s Aleksandr Vaslov is out of the Tour de France after breaking his ankle when he veered off the road near the end on Sunday’s stage — shattering his bike in the process — yet somehow finished the stage anyway, despite being clearly disoriented.

Good news from Provo, Utah, where surgeons successfully reattached the right arm of California-based cyclist Ryan Jastrab, after he virtually severed it near the shoulder by catching a metal barricade as he was rounding one of the final turns on the last lap of the Salt Lake Criterium.

Bicycling reports the popular Life Time Crusher in the Tushar gravel race has been cancelled for this year due to wildfires in Utah. This time, you can read it on Yahoo if the magazine blocks you. 

 

Finally…

You can carry just about anything on a bicycle — even 34 pounds of purloined barbecued brisket. Why settle for a cellphone mount when you can mount a ham radio on it, instead?

And that feeling when the mountain lion that attacked you while you were riding was actually just someone’s angry kitty.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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