Tag Archive for bicycling

WeHo petition supports convenience over safety, Pasadena’s invisible bicyclists, and is anyone in LA listening to voters?

August 22, 2025 / / 2 comments
Day 234 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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No surprise here.

A petition to oppose the redesign of deadly Fountain Ave in West Hollywood has over 2,300 signatures, proving once again that some people will always value their own convenience more than human lives.

Although that represents less than seven percent of the city’s population. And many of those signers are likely pass-through drivers from other cities, who are used to using the neighborhood street to bypass busier Santa Monica and Sunset Blvds.

Never mind that it has taken nearly a full year to draw those relatively few signatures.

But according to the somewhat less than unbiased WeHo Times,

Petition organizers argue Fountain is too narrow for the project and accuse city leaders of failing to adequately consult with residents, including those in adjacent Los Angeles neighborhoods. They point to other cities, including Culver City, Beverly Hills and South Pasadena, that have scaled back or removed bike lanes in response to public opposition.

Concerns listed in the petition include the diversion of an estimated 900 cars per hour to nearby Santa Monica and Sunset boulevards, the inability for cars to pull over for emergency vehicles or passenger drop-offs, and increased pollution from idling traffic. The project’s estimated cost is $35–40 million.

Not mentioned, however, are any benefits of the redesign, from slowing speeding drivers and improving safety for all road users to reducing noise pollution and revitalizing the residential corridor.

Nor is there any mention of the recent death of Blake Ackerman, who was killed by a hit-and-run driver while riding his bike home from work on Fountain just last month. Or any of the other people who have been killed or seriously injured just walking, biking or driving on the corridor.

There’s also no mention that both the sheriff’s department and the county fire department said the redesign would not affect their ability to respond to emergencies along the corridor.

A petition in support of the street makeover has gathered 612 signatures since it was posted in October. And yes, that includes mine.

There’s no mention of that, either.

Photo of protestors opposed to Fountain safety project by Joe Linton for Streetsblog.

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No bias here.

After Pasadena’s mayor said he can’t see anyone riding bicycles on Union Street, a volunteer with the Pasadena Complete Streets Coalition planted tongue firmly in cheek, and conducted his own highly scientific study.

According to Jonah Kanner’s highly entertaining piece, bicyclists may be using advanced technology, such as an alien cloaking device, to remain hidden from view.

Mayor Victor Gordo, in January, 2024, noted that he is unable to see the cyclists, saying “… we’ve gotta be careful about that, now that we’ve seen what’s happening on Union Street. We were told there would be hundreds and thousands of bicyclists going back and forth—that’s— that’s not what we’ve seen.” Also tricked by the advanced technology, Pasadena Chamber of Commerce CEO Paul Little told the Planning Commission in July, 2025, “As we see with Union Street, the installation of millions of dollars in signals, curbs and re-striping has not significantly increased bicycle usage there.”

A recent study used sophisticated measurement techniques to reveal the invisible cyclists: the author stood on the corner of Lake and Union Street for about 20 minutes holding his phone. In that time, he was able to photograph more than 30 people riding bikes, both on the Union Street bike path and on Lake Avenue. Statistical analysis suggests that over the course of a whole day, a lot of people are riding bikes on Union Street.

Let’s not forget that the city is home to Caltech and a stone’s throw from the Jet Propulsion Lab. So advanced tech is not entirely out of the question.

Although based on the reaction from drivers, I seem to have been using some form of it since I bought my bike back when Reagan was president.

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California Streetsblog editor Damien Newton says Angelenos are crying out for safe streets.

But he asks if anyone is listening, noting that eight appeals have already been filed against the city for failing to observe the requirements of Measure HLA, which mandates that the city mobility plan must be built out when streets are resurfaced or significantly re-striped.

The appeals, nearly all for missing crosswalks, come on the heels of the saga of the Stoner Park crosswalks where advocates painted crosswalks around the park, two of which were on a “Slow Street,” the city removed the crosswalks, and after bad press and intervention from the local City Councilmember re-installed the crosswalks. While it’s encouraging that in the end the crosswalks were installed, it shouldn’t be this hard.

In March of 2024, voters passed Measure HLA which required the city to implement its own mobility plan when completing repaving projects of a certain size. The popular measure received a majority of votes in all fifteen council districts while cruising to an easy victory. Since then the city dragged its feet, and nearly a year and a half after the measure was passed the city’s implementation ordinance went into effect on Monday. So did the ability of residents to appeal out-of-court if they believe the city is failing to implement the law.

It’s a good question, even though Los Angeles voters passed HLA with a two-thirds margin.

You would think that after that meany LA voters voiced a strong preference for safer and more livable streets, city leaders would be quick to respond.

But evidently, you’d be wrong.

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

Here’s a new one. Welsh residents opposed plans for a newly approved bike path because it would a) disturb a territorial dog, leading to excessive barking, and b) force the removal of a van that’s been parked in the area since 1990.

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Local 

No news is good news, right?

 

State

The US head of Upway says California’s clean energy push is leaving low-income residents behind, even though ebikes and e-scooters are among the cleanest and least expensive transportation modes.

Yorba Linda is just the latest Orange County city to crackdown on ebike riders.

San Diego bike riders will have their annual opportunity to ride around the bay and across the San Diego-Coronado Bay Bridge when Bike the Bay returns this Sunday.

Sad news from Kern County, where an 81-year old man was killed by a driver while riding his bike on Tehachapi’s Highline Road yesterday morning.

San Francisco’s experiment with a carfree Market Street will come to an end next week, when the city will allow Waymo, Uber and Lyft to pick up and drop off passengers, in a move strongly opposed by local advocates.

 

National

Streetsblog’s Talking Headways Podcast speaks with NACTO Executive Director Ryan Russo about how to design and deliver bike networks.

The semi-legendary Tour de Fat returns to my bike-friendly Colorado hometown this weekend for the annual celebration of bikes and beer.

A Denver TV station listens to the concerns of regular bike riders and advocates, after reporting on the dangers faced by vulnerable road users in the Mile High City. So when was the last time a Los Angeles TV station did anything like that? Bueller? Bueller?

Perhaps taking a cue from LA’s successful Streets For All PAC, Chicago’s new Bike PAC political action committee launched to elect pro-bike candidates to the city council.

A 14-year old Miami e-dirt bike rider will face charges for riding without a license after killing a 54-year old man riding a bicycle last Friday.

 

International

Momentum takes another look at some of the world’s worst bike lanes.

A Toronto petition is calling for local venues to allow bike riders to bring their helmets into concerts and sporting events, without charging bag check fees up to $20.

Life is cheap in the UK, where a garbage truck driver walked without a day behind bars for killing an 11-year old boy riding his bike to school, after admitting to using his phone several times while driving prior to the crash.

Twenty-five percent of bike theft victims in England and Wales gave up bicycling completely after their bikes were stolen.

Turns out that the “incremental gains” theory developed by British cycling coach David Brailsford can help ranchers squeeze out a few more bucks in profit.

Police in the Netherlands are looking for a possible bike-riding suspect in the brutal murder of a 17-year old girl as she rode her bike home from a night out.

Another one bites the dust, as the Polish parent company of gravel bike brands Rondo, Creme Cycles, NS Bikes and Octane One has filed for bankruptcy after two to three “really tough years.”

The LCR Honda racing team will be down one rider at this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix, after Spanish motorcycle racer Aleix Espargaro injured his back in a bicycle crash.

The Indian city of Chandigarh discovered the hard way that using paving stones on cycle tracks isn’t compatible with heavy rain storms.

 

Competitive Cycling

Cyclist looks at the six Americans and two Canadians who will take part in the Vuelta, starting tomorrow.

Despite retiring last year while under investigation, French cyclist Franck Bonnamour was banned for four years, after the 30-year old former most most combative rider at the Tour de France showed signs of doping on his biological passport.

The co-founder of Formula Fixed wants to bring bike racing into the TikTok era, with stops including the District of Columbia, San Francisco and, yes, Los Angeles.

Mountain biker Ryan Standish makes a second attempt at setting the fastest known time from Fruita, Colorado to Moab, Utah along the Kokopelli and White Rim Trails after failing last year, traveling 310 miles with 26,000 feet of climbing through stunning desert landscapes.

 

Finally…

A new Ti bike could be yours for the low, low price of just 24 grand. Now you, too, can turn your expensive racing bike into a cargo bike.

And anyone can ride a century facing forward — so try doing it backwards.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Contentious WeHo meeting for Fountain Ave, can San Diego end car-dependency, and getting FDs on the side of street safety

August 21, 2025 / / No comments
Day 233 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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The next two days are predicted to be the peak of the current heat wave, so be careful out there. 

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It sounds like I missed a contentious meeting on Tuesday.

Writing for Beverly Press & Park La Brea News, Sam Mulick describes how the public meeting to discuss the proposed redesign of Fountain Ave, just weeks after the hit-and-run death of Blake Ackerman as he rode his bike home from work last month.

And before next month’s final vote on the project.

According to Mulick, the meeting was attended by every member of the WeHo City Council, and included a presentation by senior transportation planner Chris Corrao, project manager for the redesign.

Phase 1 includes reducing the street to one travel lane in each direction, while removing on-street parking on the north side of the street and building protected bike lanes. Phase 2 would widen sidewalks and upgrade curb ramps, to be considered later.

The goal, explained Corrao, is to transform Fountain back into “the residential street that it was in the 1960s.”

Community members expressed outrage at the proposed parking losses and claimed the redesign would significantly increase traffic on Fountain Avenue and on Santa Monica and Sunset boulevards. Others urgently called on the council to approve the plan, citing a desperate need to protect bicyclists and pedestrians.

Mike Greenfield, who has lived on Fountain Avenue for decades, said the project’s impact on traffic would be catastrophic and he will pursue legal action against the city if it is approved.

“This is the most maddening thing – I had no idea it was going to get to this,” he said to raucous applause throughout the room. “Do you have any idea what’s going to happen to Sunset Boulevard, West Hollywood and Santa Monica Boulevard? Total lunacy.”

However, both the Sheriff’s Department and the Los Angeles County Fire Department, who protect the city, said they would be able to respond to any emergency calls after the redesign.

Supporters of the project were equally passionate.

Alex Silberman, a West Hollywood resident, said the potential lives saved by implementing measures to slow drivers on Fountain Avenue outweighs the potential increase in traffic.

“We have seen cars slam into buildings. We have seen them slam into each other. We have seen them kill people, and we all share responsibility for not fixing this before Blake Ackerman was killed,” Silberman said to loud applause from attendees who support the redesign.

Although one opponent demonstrated an extreme degree of not getting it, arguing that it was a “disgrace” for people to use Ackerman’s death to justify the redesign.

Because, evidently, his death has nothing to do with safety on the deadly street. Nor did the needless deaths of anyone else on Fountain, apparently.

Which makes it all the more important to mark your calendar for next month’s WeHo City Council meeting on September 15th, at 6 pm.

And yes, I’ll do my best to be there, whether virtually or in-person, if I can manage to avoid any more family emergencies.

Top photo from vigil for Blake Ackerman on Fountain Ave; bottom image from Fountain Ave Project page. 

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Ouch.

A writer for the Voice of San Diego questions whether the city can ever end its dependence on cars.

And adds this comforting thought.

Even at the best of times, in the best of places, San Diego’s car-free transportation options are not good. It makes perfect sense to me why most people drive everywhere. Transit will almost always take longer, and it’s probably not very close to your house. Unless you have no other choice or pay “walkable neighborhood” rent prices, going out of your way to reject car culture feels borderline masochistic.

Sounds a lot like a little megalopolis a couple hours to the north, too.

San Diego has a plan for a more sustainable future, one with “mobility hubs” and express bus lanes, and progressive politicians claim to support it. Yet, history suggests their allegiance to the long-term vision is less important than cutting their short-term political losses.

This plan will require most of us to drive less, but it also delivers on things that politicians and voters say they want: better transit, increased walkability, shorter commutes, safer infrastructure. These investments are largely incompatible with transportation as we know it. It’s no coincidence that the “walkable” neighborhoods where most people want to hang out also have the least parking.

The plan is not all stick and no carrot, but San Diegans seem to want all carrot and no stick.

Seriously, she knows them so well.

And us.

It’s worth taking a few minutes to read the full piece, written by Bella Ross. Because she has a good grasp on the problems both cities face.

And you can probably add Orange County to that list, while you’re at it.

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An upcoming UC Berkeley study considers the persistent problem of getting fire departments to sign onto street safety projects designed to save lives by preventing injuries, rather than responding to them.

According to San Francisco Streetsblog’s Roger Rudick,

When cyclists and pedestrians get mashed by errant drivers, it’s fire departments and Emergency Medical Technicians who witness first-hand the horrific results of dangerous streets. So why doesn’t it follow that city fire departments are 100 percent supportive of street safety measures?

That’s the question behind “Safety vs. Safety: Understanding and Overcoming Conflicts between Street Safety and Fire and Emergency Response Description,” a soon-to-be-released study from UC Berkeley and the Center for Pedestrian and Bicyclist Safety. “How do you change department culture?” asked Zachary Lamb, Assistant Professor of City & Regional Planning at UC Berkeley, and one of the study authors, during a presentation Wednesday morning about the research.

The study authors looked at Austin, Baltimore, Nashville, and, of course, Berkeley, to figure out what works and what does with efforts to get fire departments on board with bike lanes and other street safety measures. An overarching goal is to get fire departments to shift to ‘street trauma prevention‘, the way they try to prevent building fires instead of just putting them out.

Again, it’s worth taking the time to read Rudick’s full story. Let alone reading the actual study when it comes out.

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

A Decatur, Illinois man riding a bicycle was repeatedly shot with BBs fired from a passing car, using a fully automatic BB gun capable of firing up to 1,000 rounds per minute.

The sister of a fallen English bicyclist wants to know why the city council insists the pathway where he died in a solo crash is a sidewalk, if there are signs posted saying it’s a shared pathway.

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

A 26-year old British bike rider walked without a day behind bars when he was given a suspended sentence for seriously injuring a woman walking her dog on a sidewalk, while riding “furiously.”

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Local 

Streetsblog editor Joe Linton discovered an actual protected bike lane in Los Angeles, for a change, after concrete barriers appeared on brief strip of 3rd Street in DTLA.

West Hollywood will lower speed limits by 5 mph on a number of key corridors, including deadly Fountain Ave, and Sunset and Santa Monica blvds.

 

State

The San Francisco Police Department is offering a whopping $200,000 reward in hopes of solving the 2008 cold case murder of a man who was shot in cold blood after he was forced to a stop by the driver of a car, then got into an altercation with the occupants, as he rode his bike home from work.

There’s something seriously wrong when city officials have to beg drivers not to kill kids on their way to and from school, like these officials in San Francisco, and virtually every other American city.

Sonoma County’s State Route 1 is about to get centerline rumble strips and bicycle pullouts. Which is not the same as pull-ups, as any toddler parent could tell you.

 

National

People For Bikes discusses the growth in bicycling, and why participation matters.

That’s more like it. A DUI hit-and-run driver who killed a noted Bend, Oregon chef as he rode his bicycle two years ago will spend the next ten years behind bars, and permanently lose her driver’s license.

This is who we share the road with. Apparently, a pair of Houston, Texas food bloggers should have been wearing helmets and hi-viz to avoid the driver who plowed into the restaurant, and them.

The Green Bay Packers continued their annual tradition of riding bicycles borrowed from fans, including kids bikes, and invited the Seattle Seahawks to join them.

A Milwaukee columnist writes in praise of essential nonessentials, like trading cutoff jeans, T-shirts and tennis shoes for bike shorts with a chamois, and other assorted bicycling gear.

A Wisconsin letter writer reminds everyone that bike riders belong on the road, and their presence isn’t optional or frivolous.

Illinois has officially redefined what is considered a bicycle for insurance purposes, including any ebike or scooter with a top speed under 30 mph.

Good question. A nonprofit Minnesota newspaper celebrates the 5.5-mile Minneapolis Midtown Greenway as it turns 25, and questions why there aren’t more carfree trails in the Twin Cities.

A sharp-eyed Columbus, Ohio city worker helped return a stolen bicycle to a woman who had built it from scrap with her father, and ridden it across the country.

A Vermont city wants young scofflaw ebike riders to go through a restorative justice program, rather than appear in court.

A Boston public radio station discusses why and how the city’s bike lane debate became so divisive.

Great idea. The Boston Museum of Science will host a daylong discussion and activities to promote sustainable transportation in the city.

Actor Glenn Powell is one of us, riding his bike with his stunt double as he films a new movie with J.J. Abrams in Providence, Rhode Island.

A 49-year old Rochester, New York man will spend 20 years to life behind bars for stabbing another man in the shoulder to steal his bicycle in a Dunkin’ Donuts parking lot.

A New York woman says she now thinks twice every time she gets on her bicycle after getting hit by someone on an ebike.

Key Biscayne, Florida upheld a ban on ebikes of every type in a contentious meeting.

 

International

Once again, the Mounties got their man — or bike, in this case, recovering a $10,000 mountain bike hours after it was stolen from a sleeping German tourist.

This is who we share the road with, part two. A British motorcyclist was busted for riding stoned on the same stretch of roadway twice in just three weeks — yet he only lost his license for a whole 16 months. So if you want to know why people keep dying on the streets, that’s a good place to start. 

A travel website recommends 17 “epic” New Zealand bike routes.

 

Competitive Cycling

Cyclist looks at the even dozen British and Irish cyclists preparing to take part in the Vuelta starting this weekend.

Ouch, part two. American Quinn Simmons says pro cycling isn’t much fun, and called on his fellow riders to be more honest and “behave like humans.”

American Brandon McNulty claimed the overall victory at the Tour of Poland earlier this month.

 

Finally…

That feeling when you get recognized by the electric motorbike-riding cellphone thieves you’re chasing. Don’t ride Cuban roads without bike lights.

And getting every bit of life out of your tires.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

13-year old Michael Smith killed by speeding hit-and-run driver in South LA last month; ghost bike installed tomorrow

August 20, 2025 / / 3 comments

This is what keeps me up at night. And what really pisses me off.

Because not only did the police, city and news media fail to inform us about yet another fatal hit-and-run, but the victim was a kid just out for a bike ride.

Here’s what we know so far about the needless death of Michael Smith, courtesy of a press release from Streets Are For Everyone.

The loved ones of Michael Kejuan Ramaun James Smith, Streets Are For Everyone, community members, and members of SAFE Families will host a Ghost Bike Memorial event to honor and remember Michael Smith, who was struck and killed by a speeding driver on July 22nd, 2025.

Michael was riding his bicycle on 83rd Street, headed toward Main Street to pick up a friend for a bike ride. He was struck and instantly killed by a speeding driver who was allegedly traveling at 75 MPH on a residential street. The driver fled the scene but was later arrested and has since been released on bail.

Michael, who would have celebrated his 13th birthday on September 16, was a radiant and compassionate child who loved riding bikes. He was also an entrepreneur, running his own ice cream truck since the age of seven, with dreams of growing his business and future.

The intersection is controlled with a traffic light, but are no bike lanes on either street.

This is at least the 36th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the 14th that I’m aware of in Los Angeles County; this was also the seventh we’ve learned about in the City of LA.

Six of those seven Los Angeles victims lost their lives riding in South LA.

Michael Smith was the 12th SoCal bike rider killed by a hit-and-run driver since the first of the year — fully one third of everyone killed riding a bicycle in Southern California this year.

But at least this time, they — allegedly — caught the heartless coward who left Michel to die in the street.

If you want to attend the ghost bike installation tomorrow, here is the information from the press release. If you do, ask Councilmember Price why we continue to all this to happen in South LA.

And why no one is telling us about it.

Ghost Bike Memorial Details

Date: Thursday, August 21, 2025

Time: 4:30 PM

Location: Intersection of 83rd Street & Main Street, South Los Angeles

Who:

Ellen Atwater, Michael’s Mother, and other family members
Councilmember Curren D Price Jr.
Damian Kevitt, Executive Director of Streets Are For Everyone
Pastor Patricia Strong-Fargas, Co-Chair, Faith for SAFEr Streets
John Jones III, Founder of East Side Riders
Members of SAFE Families
Friends and community members

In addition to the ghost bike, 13 white doves will be released in honor of Michael, who would have turned 13 years old next month.

Update: My News LA reports the crash occurred around 2:55 pm. Michael died after being taken to a hospital. 

Photo courtesy of SAFE

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

Fountain Ave design meeting tonight, LA opens HLA appeals process, and recaps from Sunday’s successful CicLAvia

August 19, 2025 / / One comment
Day 231 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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A quick reminder before we start about this week’s anticipated heat wave, with temperatures in Woodland Hills, LA County valleys and the Inland Empire expected to top well over 100°. 

So try to ride early or late if at all possible, stick to shady, tree-lined routes when you can, and drink plenty of non-alcoholic fluids. 

And keep your phone handy to get help if you get overheated. 

Seriously, stay safe out there. I need every reader I’ve got these days. 

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West Hollywood with host a meeting tonight to discuss plans for the long-delayed Fountain Avenue Streetscape Project tonight in Rooms 5 & 6 of the Plummer Park Community Center on Santa Monica Blvd.

The presentation starts at 6 pm with an open house and refreshments, followed by a presentation and Q&A session.

You can review a pdf of the draft plan here.

Unfortunately, I’m not comfortable leaving my wife alone so soon after her heart attack, so I’m disappointed I won’t be there this time.

And yes, I feel guilty as hell asking you to go in my stead, but supporters need to turn out in force if you can make it.

Because opponents of the plan are certain to be there to fight for their precious free curbside parking spaces and a not-so-secret alternative to busier Sunset and Santa Monica Blvds, valuing convenience over protecting human lives.

Photo by Joe Linton/Streetsblog depicts protesters opposed to Fountain Ave bike lanes.

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Los Angeles officially opened the appeals process for street projects that bypass Measure HLA’s strict requirement to build out the city mobility plan whenever streets get significantly resurfaced or re-striped.

Acting on his own behalf, Joe Linton wasted no time filing an appeal for work not done on Ohio Avenue.

Today I submitted a city-level appeal for protected bike lanes that the city did not install during resurfacing on Ohio Avenue – along the Bundy Triangle Park in Sawtelle. Read my appeal letter.

He is also aware of a number of other appeals that should be filed soon.

I have discussed possible appeals with several people, and I understand that other folks are planning to file city-level appeals today. Below are additional appeals that I am aware of today. (I am adding to this list as I learn of additional appeals.)

  • Appeal of Corinth Avenue in Sawtelle Japantown – pdf
  • Appeal of Kingsley Dr. in Koreatown – one page image
  • Appeal of Kingswell Ave. and Rodney Dr. in Los Feliz – pdf or page 1, 2
  • Appeal of Mesa and Eagle Dale Avenues in northeast L.A. – pdf
  • Appeal of Middlebury St. in East Hollywood – pdf

This is the first step required by the city before a lawsuit can be filed to enforce the requirements of Measure HLA — even though that was not part of the proposition passed overwhelming by LA voters.

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Streetsblog offers an open thread on Sunday’s Culver City meets Venice CicLAvia, along with Joe Linton’s typically great photos.

David also forward several photos, along with these brief comments.

This was an extraordinary one. Maybe the largest group of cyclists ever for a Ciclavia.  It was an impressive turnout of cycles.

Councilwoman Tracy Park set up a Tent in Mar Vista and the Venice end and unlike any other elected politician ever she stayed there from morning till it was done handing out bike flashing to everyone and chatting with anyone about anything that stopped on their bike. I saw her in the morning at Mar Vista and later at almost 4 pm in Venice.

Usually the electeds stay for the 1 hour morning photo-op to start the event and leave their staffers at the table the rest of the day.

Attached is a photo of me with Tracy Park and some Misc photos from the Venice end.  I did not take a lot of photos at this one just wanted to enjoy the experience.

Photos by David Drexler

Finish the Ride was there, too.

 

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Today’s common thread is just how cheap life your life is held if you ride a bicycle.

Like in Nebraska, where an Arkansas man was sentenced to a lousy 31 months behind bars for the attempted hit-and-run death of an 82-year-old man riding a bicycle.

Or in Louisiana, where a former state trooper walked without a day behind bars for the drunken hit-and-run death of a man biking with his two sons, after a judge sentenced him to a three-year suspended sentence and three years probation.

Or Singapore, where a garbage truck driver was sentenced to just six months behind bars for killing a 60-year old man riding a bicycle, insisting he only realized he’d hit someone when he felt a bump under his wheels, although an eight-year driving ban will keep him from working again until he’s 72.

On the other hand, a 28-year old Texas man got 15 years for the hit-and-run that killed a Fort Worth father of five as he was riding his bicycle last year; the driver’s mother told police he wasn’t sure if he hit a deer or a homeless man, neither of which would justify just driving away — or covering his car with a tarp to hide it from the cops.

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

No bias here. Indianapolis, Indiana scrapped several segments of a planned bike lane after gradually paring it down so drivers could keep their precious curbside parking, choosing their convenience over everyone’s safety.

A bike rider in Cheshire, England says people riding on the county’s roads are “fair game for crazy drivers,” after police reject video evidence of dangerous driving due to a lack of witnesses. Although it seems like the cops themselves would be witnesses if they just watched the videos.

Bicyclists in West Yorkshire, England criticized the cops following yet another mass casualty event when a driver cut back into a group of bicyclists while attempting to pass on a blind curve, resulting in serious injuries to two riders, with several others hurt; the “abysmal” police report failed to criticize the driver, or even mention that the car had one.

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

A 20-year old British man was sentenced to eight years and three months in a young offenders’ institution for the hit-and-run death of an 86-year old man just walking to a fish and chips shop, moments after popping a wheelie and swerving all over the road on his ebike. Although it sounds more like he was riding an e-motorbike than a ped-assist ebike, but still. 

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Local 

KCBS-2 looks at Metro’s adopt-a-bike program to assist families affected by January’s devastating Eaton and Palisades firestorms

Secret Los Angeles looks forward to Santa Clarita’s forthcoming $7.4 million Haskell Canyon Bike Park. Even though that scheduled opening is only a secret if you haven’t been paying attention.

ICE agents are accused of snatching a man off his bicycle in a Santa Clarita raid, and heartlessly leaving the man’s bicycle lying in the roadway.

 

State

A Davis columnist recommends an ebike for a friend’s son, saying it’s the perfect solution to allow the 6’10” 16-year old to attend a school in another neighborhood with a better basketball couch.

 

National

Bicycling recommends eight jersey’s built for this month’s extreme heat, with no paywall this time because they hope to make a little on the backend.

Cycling Electric recommends the year’s best e-gravel bikes. Or gravel ebikes. Or something.

A member of the Washington State Traffic Safety Commission busts the myth of wrong-way riding being safer for bicyclists. I still hear from people on a regular basis who insist salmon bicycling is safer than riding with traffic, all evidence to the contrary.

Residents of Houston, Texas demanded better police protection after a 77-year old man was fatally stabbed by a transient as he was riding his bicycle to work on an East Houston bike trail.

An Iowa college professor is employing lessons in the classroom she learned on a 56-day bike ride from Kentucky to San Francisco with her husband along the Trans American Bicycle Trail and Western Express Bike Route.

I want to be like him when I grow up. A 90-year old Milwaukee man is still riding his e-recumbent around 150 miles a week when weather allows.

A Boston company now allows you to rent a cargo bike in eight neighborhoods throughout the city.

The rich get richer, as New York releases a masterplan of 100 projects to expand the city’s 506-mile bicycle greenway network, designed to “connect underserved communities, spur economic development and provide environmental benefits.”

Great idea. Alexandria, Virginia is recruiting bike-riding volunteers to deliver food from local farmer’s markets to residents in need as part of their Bike for Good program.

 

International

A new McGill University study shows Montreal doesn’t have enough bicycle infrastructure to meet demand, taking up just two percent of street space despite a measurable need for more in some areas.

An Icelandic man is working to raise funds and awareness for multiple myeloma, after a new treatment helped ease his pain and get him back on his bike.

Cycling UK opens a new multi-day bikepacking route through “Majestic rolling hillsides, historic regal villages and bluebell-lined woodland trails,” just a stones-throw from London.

A bicycling professor offers advice on how newcomers can safely bike through Amsterdam. Which would seem to be a lot safer than biking in LA, newcomer or otherwise.

 

Competitive Cycling

Canadian Tour de France stage winner and world championship medalist Michael Woods calls it a career, arguing that it’s a “ludicrously dangerous sport,” but Velo says he has big plans going forward.

Former South African champion Ryan Gibbons calls it quits after nine years in cycling’s highest tier, the last two as Mads Petersen’s key lead-out man.

Belgian “domestique extraordinaire” Tim Declercq also calls it a career after 14 years, torching the peloton on his way out for having too many riders who don’t care if they crash and take ten other riders out with them.

A writer for Cycling Weekly argues for making bike racers take a skills test, just like motorsports drivers, with tongue placed firmly in cheek.

 

Finally…

That feeling when “Lime Bike leg” only seems to afflict London bike riders.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

Category: General / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

How LA’s inaction led to a child’s death, LADOT “improves” safety by restoring parking, and CicLAvia rolls again

August 18, 2025 / / No comments
Day 230 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

Of course he gets it.

Writing for the Los Angeles Times, Streets For All founder Michael Schneider says fourth-grader Nadir Gavarrete did not have to die in a Koreatown intersection earlier this month.

Nadir Gavarrete was riding an e-scooter along with his 19-year old brother when they were run down by a drunk driver, who was accused of blowing through a stop sign to make a left turn.

A stop sign, and an intersection, that shouldn’t have still been there.

Koreatown is one of the densest parts of Los Angeles — at 44,000 people per square mile, it’s more crowded than most New York City boroughs. Nearly every major street in Koreatown is on the city’s “high injury network” list — the 6% of streets that cause 70% of the traffic injuries and deaths. In other words, L.A. knows how dangerous Koreatown’s streets can be.

As a result, 14 years ago, in 2011, L.A. applied for a federal grant to improve safety along several city streets, specifically choosing to focus on the intersection of New Hampshire and 4th for one of its projects. The city won the grant money and kicked off community meetings to discuss installing a roundabout at the intersection, as well as adding enhanced crosswalks and other safety improvements to the immediate area.

Needless to say, a decade-and-a-half later, nothing has happened, this being Los Angeles and all.

Except for yet another needless death, added to a long and ever-growing list of failure.

What will it take for Los Angeles to have a sense of urgency in actually making our streets safer? We currently spend more on legal settlements to those hurt and killed on our streets than we do on Vision Zero, the city’s half-baked effort to reduce traffic deaths. Since Los Angeles declared itself a Vision Zero City in 2015, with the ultimate aim of having no one killed in car crashes on city streets by 2025, deaths and injuries have only gotten worse. In the last few years we’ve had at least three children hit and killed while walking to school. And yet the city’s leaders — facing a budget crisis, much of it of their own making — perpetually underfund LADOT and street safety in general.

Good question.

It’s worth taking a few minutes to read the whole thing.

Because the more things change in this city of fallen angels, the more they stay the same.

And that’s not a good thing.

………

Good news and bad news, as LADOT announced plans to remove peak-hour lanes on a number of low-traffic streets throughout the city in an effort to improve safety.

The lanes currently prohibit parking during morning and/or evening rush hours, too often turning them into high speed traffic lanes.

However, the bad news is, instead of converting the lanes to full-time bus or bike lanes, the city is restoring parking throughout the day. Which doesn’t actually improve safety for anyone, just trading one problem for another.

LADOT dangles the possibility of converting the lanes to some other, better use at some undisclosed future time. Although given the city’s financial problems — due in large part to those legal settlements referenced above — that day could be years, or even decades, off.

If ever.

LADOT Begins First Phase of Peak-Hour Lane Removal

LADOT has begun implementing the first phase of a citywide initiative to improve safety and access to street parking by removing peak-hour travel lanes and restoring full-time parking. This initiative, directed by the Los Angeles City Council, aims to enhance safety, improve access, and support the City’s long-term mobility goals.

Phase 1 of this initiative focuses on low-traffic corridors, restoring street parking on corridors where traffic volume is below determined thresholds. Future phases will examine higher-volume streets and may propose alternative uses for peak-hour lanes, such as dedicated bus lanes, protected bike lanes, or expanded pedestrian zones. LADOT will conduct outreach and collaborate with community stakeholders as future phases move forward, ensuring that proposed changes align with neighborhood needs.

In addition to providing greater parking availability to support surrounding businesses, these changes are expected to have minimal impact on congestion while improving street safety, with reduced speeding, fewer collisions, and improved visibility for people walking and biking.

The specific corridors selected for Phase 1 of peak-hour lane removal are:

  • Alpine St, from N. Spring to Yale
  • Alvarado St, Northbound, from James M. Wood to 7th
  • Beverly Blvd, from Rampart to Witmer
  • Broadway, Northbound, from 2nd to 1st
  • College St, from New Depot to Alameda
  • Crenshaw Blvd, from Florence to 59th St
  • La Tijera Blvd, Northbound, from Thornburn to Knowlton
  • Melrose Ave, from Vermont to Virgil
  • Nordhoff St, Westbound, from Corbin to Canoga
  • Pico Blvd, Westbound, from Overland to Sepulveda
  • Ventura Blvd, Eastbound, from Farralone to Tampa
  • Victory Blvd, from Lankershim to Clybourn
  • Washington Blvd, from Vermont to Flower
  • Washington Blvd, Eastbound, from Redondo to La Brea and from Wellington to Crenshaw

Thanks to Dr. Grace Peng for the heads-up.

………

A writer for Circling the News was the first to post a report from yesterday’s Culver City meets Venice CicLAvia.

And the first thing they noticed was the bad shape of the road around Venice and Abbot Kinney, saying it was easy to notice if you’re trying to dodge pavement problems.

The second thing seemed to be members of White People 4 Black Lives, several accident attorneys and the Venice High School Cheerleaders handing out free water along the route, the latter as they tried to raise funds.

And yes, it seems a good time was had by all.

Although I had to miss it because of my wife’s health problems, since she still hasn’t bounced back enough to go herself, or to be left at home alone.

Meanwhile, the Militant Angeleno’s guide to highlights along the route was posted too late to link to before the CicLAvia, but you can still check it out to see what you missed.

………

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

No bias here. A 55-year old Miami man claims he was arrested just for touching a police cruiser, as he tried to ride around the patrol car stopped in a bike lane; police claim he intentionally hit the car hard enough to dent it “four to five times.”

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

A 12-year old Singapore girl was hospitalized after she was knocked cold by a 51-year old man on fixie while riding her bicycle; the older man was being investigated for a “rash act causing hurt.”

A Brisbane, Australia writer offers a carrot and stick solution to the problem of scofflaw bicyclists, saying the answer is more bike paths, while forcing bike riders to wear registration numbers.

………

Local 

Two women were arrested for shooting another woman in the arm on Sepulveda Blvd in Culver City earlier this month, in an attempt to steal the victim’s ebike; a search of their apartment also turned up two assault rifles with high-capacity magazines, ammunition and a kilo of suspected cocaine.

 

State

Mark your calendar for September 4th, when the Orange County Transportation Authority will hold a webinar to discuss the OCTA Bikeways Connectivity Study to expand options for bikeways across Orange County.

A mom writing for the Times of San Diego explains how to select the right bicycle for your kids.

California Streetsblog reports on Bike Bakersfield and Calbike teaming up to “flip the script” on a “ludicrous” grand jury report decrying efforts to implement bicycle safety measures.

A local website reports bicycling and pedestrian deaths in Watsonville far outpace the average in Santa Cruz County, and considers four ways to make the city streets safer.

 

National

ABC News says the deadly 85th Percentile Rule that allows drivers to set speed limits with a heavy right foot could finally be on the way out.

Great idea. The White Line — the bicycle safety group founded by the parents of fallen Team USA cyclist Magnus White — put a group of Colorado lawmakers on a bus, and drove them around for a series of mobile town halls to show them the impact crashes have on vulnerable road users.

I want to be like her when I grow up. A Missoula, Montana woman calls a local octogenarian, peacemaker and bicycle evangelist her hero and mentor, the 87-year old woman is known throughout the community for riding around town in a bright vest, with her dog in her basket.

Chicago Streetsblog says yes, the city has a long way to go to become bike friendly, but People For Bikes’ use of it as a poster child for bicycling problems is just a joke.

New York’s Citi Bike bikeshare will now require users to prove they’re over 16 to use the service.

Florida — yes, Florida — is now the first state in the nation to offer ebike education as part of the regular curriculum, at least in some schools.

A 54-year old Miami man riding a bicycle on the city’s deadly Rickenbacker Causeway was killed when he was struck by two kids riding an electric dirt bike.

 

International

Momentum ranks the ten best European city’s for bicycling and the best time to visit, including four French cities, led by Paris.

An op-ed from a Calgary, Alberta bike advocate urges local drivers not to fear road diets, arguing that they can ease the city’s traffic woes.

An expat website explains how to get around the Netherlands by bike like a local.

Here’s another one for your bicycle bucket list, as Travel + Leisure recommends a 560-mile bike trail through France’s Loire Valley, exploring a unique blend of ancient Gaelic history, Renaissance châteaus, and ancient vineyards.

A 65-year old Tallahassee, Florida high school teacher and tennis coach stopped in Madrid, Spain, a little less than a quarter of the way on his attempt to become the oldest person a bike around the world.

 

Competitive Cycling

Remco Evenepoel will now be on the same team as Primož Roglič, as Roglič says he hopes they can do great things together, after the Belgian star signed with the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe cycling team.

 

Finally…

Your next car could be a bike.

No, seriously, that’s all we’ve got this time. 

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Banning bike lanes for public safety, new armadillos inhabit Adams, and impress visitors with an “enchanted” forest bikeway

August 15, 2025 / / No comments
Day 227 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

It was a light news day yesterday, so let’s get right to it before we all go riding this weekend. 

At least on Sunday, right?

………

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

You’ve got to be kidding. A New York court has temporarily blocked the city from installing a bike lane in response to a lawsuit from local businesses owners, who alleged it would “compromise public safety, negatively impact local businesses and violate city laws.” Because, of course it would.

You’ve got to be kidding, part two. A Philadelphia judge blocked the city from building loading zones next to a bike lane, after the state passed a law banning drivers from stopping a car in one, as well as blocking any other changes to the street or the bike lanes, including installing protective barriers, in a decision that apparently wasn’t explained.

………

Local 

Streetsblog examines new hard-plastic, reflectorized armadillos marking bike lanes on Adams Blvd and Spring Street.

The Los Angeles Times recommends three hikes to impress out-of-town visitors, including an “enchanted” forest walk on the seven-mile West Fork National Scenic Bikeway, which you could presumably do on your bike, as well.

 

State

Bakersfield bike riders rallied at City Hall to call for safer streets in the wake of a misguided grand jury report prioritizing cars over bike lanes.

Alameda apparently decides drivers matter more than kids by removing barriers on a Slow Street near schools, ostensibly to improve public safety.

An “epic” new bike trail winds 33-miles through the heart of a Napa Valley wine country.

 

National

Momentum says the explosion in micromobility is outgrowing bike lanes, which need to be widened and separated for differing speeds.

An Outside documentary tells true story of 31 everyday American teenagers who shared the journey of a lifetime by biking across the country in 1982.

A Wyoming man shares what he’s learned from a lifetime of bicycling, something his wife calls the “most dangerous sport” he could take part in thanks to cars and the people driving them. Although bull riding, skydiving and boxing would seem a tad risky, too. 

Covington, Kentucky finally got around to building its first bike lane, nearly 60 years after the first bike lane the US was striped in Davis, California.

Boston’s Northeastern University considers whether ebikes can become the next form of mass transportation, and what’s keeping them from rivaling bus, metro and rail networks. Hint: safer streets and fewer drivers, maybe?

Bicycling deaths in Connecticut are up a whopping 200% over a five-year average. Although that amounts to just six deaths, which would be a good month for Southern California.

A 35-year old New Jersey man has ridden nearly 2,000 miles covering every public road in Gloucester County, located across the Delaware River from Philadelphia.

 

International

The Ottawa Citizen examines what it will take to make the city safer for people on bicycles, where the streets prioritize drivers like the rest of Canada.

A 32-year old British man was sentenced to four years behind bars for the “horrendous” speeding, hit-and-run crash that left a bike-riding woman with life changing injuries; he fictitiously reported the car stolen at knifepoint 15 minutes after fleeing the scene.

A judge in the UK ruled that video evidence of traffic violations is both legal and valuable to police, dismissing a retired lawyer’s attempt to sue a “disturbing, caped crusader” bike rider who filmed her using her phone while driving in violating the country’s privacy laws.

A 64-year old disabled man in was killed when he crashed his adult tricycle into a poorly marked bollard blocking the entrance to a UK bike lane.

Traffic safety experts called for a major overhaul of Malaysian roads, warning they prioritize cars and trucks at the expense of everyone else. In other words, just like the streets of Los Angeles, and pretty much everywhere else in Southern California. 

 

Competitive Cycling

Track cyclist Matthew Richardson, who left Australia last year to compete for Great Britain, set a new world record for the flying 200 meters with a time of just 8.941 seconds, smashing the previously unbreakable 9 second barrier.

American Hannah Otto broke one of the world’s best known single-day mountain bike records, setting the new fastest known time for a woman on Utah’s White Rim Trail at 6 hours, 36 minutes and 51 seconds.

On the other hand, British cyclist Charlie Tanfield fell three kilometers — 1.85 miles — short in his attempt to set a new hour record.

Sports Illustrated previews the upcoming Vuelta a España, the 80th edition of the year’s final Grand Tour.

Cycling Weekly says domestiques are probably coming to gravel racing.

Participants in the recent Tour de Big Bear, which combined road, gravel and mountain bike events, ranged from three-years old to 90.

 

Finally…

Probably not the best idea to let your dad play Whack-A-Mole on your expensive carbon frame. Riding a century with that healthy nuclear glow.

And a giving taking a header off your bike a whole new meaning. (Click on this link if the tweet doesn’t embed.)

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , ,

Dangerous streets keep kids off bikes, Canadian bike riders have a right to not get killed, and CicLAvia rolls on Sunday

August 14, 2025 / / One comment
Day 226 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

She gets it.

A writer for the Washington Post says dangerous streets make it hard to give kids the freedom they need to roam and explore.

In recent decades, many of America’s roads have indeed become more chaotic: Speed limits are higher; vehicles are (much) bigger; drivers are more aggressive and more likely to be distracted by smartphones. When parents see massive SUVs speeding down neighborhood streets or blowing through stop signs, they might feel less inclined to allow their kids to roam freely on foot or bicycle. And though the number of children injured or killed by cars while walking or riding a bike has fallen steadily since the 1970s, research by the CDC notes that this decline is not because streets are safer, but because fewer kids are out and about in the first place.

This pattern, some parents say, can create a self-perpetuating cycle: If drivers are less accustomed to encountering kids on roads, they might be less likely to drive safely around them, which in turn makes parents more anxious and restrictive of their child’s movements.

It’s worth giving the whole story a read.

Because one of the most common refrains from parents is that they would never allow their kids to ride on city streets, in Los Angeles or elsewhere, whether or not they ride themselves.

………

He gets it, too.

In a piece that starts out very tongue-in-cheek before evolving — devolving? — into legalese, a Canadian columnist takes conservatives to task for complaining about a recent court ruling ordering the government not to remove Toronto’s protected bike lanes.

It was judicial activism run amok, they agreed. Canada’s ever-inventive courts had discovered a “right to bicycle lanes.” What next: a right to volleyball courts? Time to invoke the notwithstanding clause, said some.

Well, that was then. When, one week ago, the Conservative government of Nova Scotia, with the province’s forests tinder-dry and fearing a repeat of the devastating wildfires of two years ago, issued a ban on hiking and camping in forested areas, conservatives were again apoplectic.

But the real issue, he says, is whether the government has the right to kill you.

The issue at stake in the bicycle lanes case is disarmingly simple: does the government have the right to kill you? It is not hyperbole but demonstrable, probabilistic fact that banning bike lanes will sentence a certain number of randomly selected Torontonians to death, and cause serious injuries to still more…

That’s also reflected in our Constitution. Section 7 of the Charter does not assert an absolute right to “life, liberty or security of the person” but the right not to be deprived thereof “except in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice.”

Because removing bike lanes could predictably deprive some people of their “life, liberty or security of the person.”

And likely would.

Which does not mean the government has to build bike lanes. But it does mean the court had a reasonable basis to prohibit the government from removing them.

Nothing in the decision obliges the government to build new bicycle lanes. As such it involves no “positive rights,” which conservatives are right to oppose. It simply requires that before a government takes the extraordinary step of ordering the removal of lanes that have already been built – an action guaranteed to cost some lives and put many more in peril – it ought at least to have some basis in evidence or logic for doing so.

Maybe we should try that same argument on this side of the border the next time someone wants to rip out an existing bike lane here.

………

 

CicLAvia marks its 61st open streets event this Sunday with the 6.75-mile Culver City meets Venice CicLAvia, connecting Culver City, Mar Vista and Venice.

Hard to believe it’s been 15 years since the first one on 10-10-2010. And even harder to believe now that we thought it would never happen when CicLAvia’s founders came to the LACBC, now BikeLA, board to ask for our support.

Meanwhile, KNBC-4 suggests honoring the Venice lifestyle by skating the whole route.

Thousand, a woman-owned Boyle Heights bike helmet-maker, will celebrate their tenth anniversary by giving away 1,000 helmets at their booth at the Mar Vista Hub.

………

The Spring Street bike lanes in DTLA are getting new safety barriers, with enough separation to hopefully prevent the kind of injuries San Diego bicyclists have complained about.

https://twitter.com/LADOTofficial/status/1955736202172092503

………

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

No bias here. Middlesborough, England is going to spend the equivalent of nearly $3 million to rip out a bike lane derided as “an absolute nightmare” and “exploited by drug dealers,” despite spending just $100,000 to settle injury claims after it went in — and spending $2.3 million to install it just three years ago.

A Dublin, Ireland city counselor accused civic leaders of “pure gaslighting” and treating bicycles “like a child’s toy” by shutting down a popular bicycle route, forcing riders into an “anti-cycling death trap.”

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

British motoring lawyer Mr. Loophole accuses bike cam vigilant Cycling Mikey of using his bicycle as a weapon by pushing it into the path of a driver attempting to illegally drive down a closed roadway, resulting in his bike getting run over and shattered into pieces. So he’s saying it wasn’t a very good weapon?

………

Local 

Streets For All released their August newsletter, including calls for protected bike lanes on Pico Blvd and Alameda Street.

 

State

California is hitting pause on a requirement to install bike parking in new commercial and residential buildings, after the legislature passed a bill delaying the requirement until 2027.

A Monterey County woman says there’s no law against kids under 16 riding an e-scooter or a Class 1 or 2 ebike, but maybe there should be. Actually, there is a law against riding e-scooters without a driver’s license. 

Sad news from Yuba County, where a 60-year old man was killed by a driver while towing a trailer behind his bicycle.

 

National

An op-ed writer in USA Today argues that ebikes are driving him crazy, so we need to make them obey the same rules as drivers. Even though most drivers don’t.

Singletracks offers a guide to the ten best downhill mountain bike trails in Idaho.

Portland’s mayor has called a pause on plans to remove diverters and change the traffic flow on two neighborhood greenways, after the bicycle advisory committee increased pressure on the city.

Police in Houston arrested a 40-year old man in the fatal stabbing of a 77-year old man as he was riding his bike to work; the victim somehow made it to his job site before collapsing, and died at the hospital.

This is the cost of traffic violence. A 70-year old cancer treatment specialist in the Indiana University medical system was killed by a driver while riding his bike on Monday.

A Boston writer explains how she fell in love with her ebike after moving here from France, saying biking every day makes her life better.

Princeton, New Jersey banned right turns on red lights as part of the city’s Vision Zero program. Meanwhile, Los Angeles just tells drivers to carry on. 

Arlington, Virginia is joining the ebike rebate movement, offering vouchers for up to $1650 on the purchase of an ebike. Although those ebikes are about to get a lot more expensive, thanks to Trump’s 30% tariff on goods imported from Asian manufacturers. 

An Atlanta photo exhibition documents one man’s journey to bike every single street inside the city’s I-285 perimeter.

A TV station in Lake Charles, Louisiana unmasks a mysterious man on a Mardi Gras-festooned ebike, who says he rides through the community because “he loves to see people smile.” Although something tells me Adorian Hollywood Flavor probably isn’t his real name. 

A Florida teenager was lucky to survive his first day of school when he was struck by a driver while riding his ebike in a crosswalk, after witnesses teamed together to lift the car off him.

 

International

A recent study ranks Victoria, British Columbia as Canada’s most bicycle-friendly city, edging out Winnipeg and Quebec City.

The 134-year old Cycling Weekly introduces the British nonprofits working to transform the lives of refugees and asylum-seekers by providing them with bicycles.

A clueless Conservative city counselor in the UK questioned why disabled bicyclists can’t simply get off their bikes and push them across a footbridge. Um, maybe because they’re disabled?

 

Competitive Cycling

The Cyclists’ Alliance, the union for women’s cycling, is calling for mandatory, annual screening in the wake of Pauline Ferrand-Prévot’s victory at the Tour de France Femmes, amid comments about her drastic weight loss.

Cyclist offers a preview of the three-stage Tour de Romandie Féminin, which kicks off tomorrow.

 

Finally…

What it’s like to suffer for the sake of science on a ten-mile time trial. That feeling when you stop riding in the year’s hottest month because your cleats are haunted.

And we may have to deal with stampeding LA drivers, but at least we don’t have to worry about getting trampled to death by elephants.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

$4.2 million project to fix beach bike path, wall blocks bike path access in Marina del Rey, and Hyundai sued in Probst death

August 7, 2025 / / Comments Off on $4.2 million project to fix beach bike path, wall blocks bike path access in Marina del Rey, and Hyundai sued in Probst death
Day 219 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

They’re finally going to fix it.

LA County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath announced a $4.2 million project to repair the beachfront Marvin Braude Bike Trail, which was washed out at the Santa Monica Canyon Channel outlet along Will Rogers Beach during heavy rains in February of last year.

The work will be paid for using FEMA funds, according to the Santa Monica Daily Press.

The project qualifies for Federal Emergency Management Agency funding due to the federal disaster declaration. LA County Public Works will oversee the restoration work aimed at making the trail “stronger, safer, and more resilient,” according to Horvath’s office.

The paper reports the separate bike and pedestrian paths will remain open during the six-month construction project, though some beach access points may close temporarily.

………

Meanwhile, a few miles further south, a new wall is blocking a popular short cut to the Marvin Braude Trail in Marina del Rey.

According the Westside Current, the wall replaced a door-sized gap in a fence between Yvonne Burke Park and a Ralph’s supermarket parking lot late last month, angering local residents, bike riders and pedestrians accustomed to using it to get to the bike path.

Instead, bike riders now have to use dangerous Lincoln Blvd, where drivers routinely ignore the 35 mph speed limit, to reach the trail at Admiralty and Bali Way.

A petition calling for restoring the access currently stands at over 760 signatures. Correction: That petition is actually for local condo residents angry over losing their exclusive private access to the park, and has nothing to do with the wall blocking access to the bike path. Here’s a link to the actual petition calling to reopen the gate. 

………

The family of retired Bell, California Police Chief Andreas “Andy” Probst have filed suit against the company that made the stolen car used to intentionally run him down in Las Vegas two years ago.

Allegedly.

According to the lawsuit, the Hyundai was sold without anti-theft protection, allowing the two teenage suspects to steal the car using the “TikTok method” shared on social media.

The two suspects are not scheduled to face trial for Probst’s murder until next year. No word yet on when the civil suit will be heard.

………

No bias here.

Readers of the London Daily Mail respond with hate after a video went viral of a dog walker pushing a woman on a bicycle into a Manchester, England canal, saying it’s a pity she didn’t drown.

A bicycle advocate argues that this didn’t happen in a vacuum, and was a direct result of the anti-bike rhetoric spewed by the paper.

………

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

New York bike riders are feeling dangerously squeezed between parked and moving cars after the mayor fulfilled his promise to rip out a protected bike lane.

Halifax, Nova Scotia residents were overwhelmingly in favor of a plan to convert a street to one way to make room for bike lanes, even though the bike lane-hating provincial premier wants to reverse the decision.

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

An 83-year old New York man was sucker punched directly in the face by a man on a bikeshare bike, for no apparent reason.

………

Local 

The West Hollywood City Council will consider design options for deadly Fountain Ave at the September 15th council meeting, after the City Manager recommended interim improvements; that will follow the August 19th Fountain Avenue Streetscape Project public meeting at the Plummer Park Community Center.

 

State

San Diego’s public television station wants to know if you or your kid, or anyone you know, has been involved in an ebike crash.

Tragic news from Oregon, where Cypress, California resident Justin Jay Little was killed by a driver while reportedly riding his bicycle in the fast lane on Interstate 5 near Sutherlin.

Caltrans released a new bike plan for state roadways in the Bay Area, including expanding the bike lanes on the Bay Bridge that currently come to an ignominious end halfway across.

More tragic news, this time from Sacramento, where two families are in mourning because a pair of 17-year old girls were killed by a hit-and-run driver while riding their bikes home after visiting the uncle of one of the girls; police arrested a 71-year old Fair Oaks man, accusing him of being drunk and driving a stolen car at the time of the crash.

 

National

Your next cargo bike could come from Target and sell for less than $500. Or maybe a lot less.

People For Bikes considers the role local bike shops play in creating great places to ride.

Note to Hays, Kansas Post — If a shooting victim collapses and dies after riding his bike away from the scene of the crime, “escaped” may not be the appropriate word.

Surveillance video shows the moments leading up to a crash where a Florida sheriff’s deputy killed a 79-year old bicyclist, but fortunately, not the crash itself.

 

International

Seriously? A prolific bike thief in the UK walked without a day behind bars, despite hitting a man with a wheel after he tracked his stolen bike to the thief’s bicycle chop shop, and “inflicting grievous bodily harm without intent.” Although whacking someone with a bike wheel would seem to suggest intent, but what the hell do I know?

That’s more like it. A British appeals court increased the sentence for a South London bus driver who killed an eight-year old girl riding a bicycle on the sidewalk, while driving with three-times the legal limit for weed in his system; the man was resentenced to six years and eight months behind bars after the prosecutor argued the original four-year sentence was too lenient. And yes, they can do that there. 

No surprise here. The Italian Cycling Federation blamed a jump in bicycling deaths on impatient drivers who can’t stand to slow down for bicyclists.

The Financial Times examines how Italy’s Colnago became the Ferrari of bicycling.

A South African newspaper says road cycling is dying, and roadies as endangered as the rhino.

A Kiwi coroner concluded that a 19-year old woman on a bicycle was killed because authorities put cars first during road repair work.

 

Competitive Cycling

Once again, a cyclist crashed and burned while celebrating his victory before crossing the finish line, this time a junior rider at the Iraqi Clubs Cycling Championship; needless to say, he didn’t win.

 

Finally…

Buzzards and badgers and bats, oh my! Sorry I ran over your arm, mate.

And that feeling when your ultra cycling event is unexpectedly cut short by 100 mph winds.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Conservative writer says there’s no such thing as a bike community, and LADOT wants your input on Spring & Alameda

August 4, 2025 / / 2 comments
Day 216 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

It’s always the ones who claim to ride a bike.

Or in this case, an adult tricycle, when his knees got too bad for a ‘bent.

A writer for the conservative American Thinker takes issue with a recent Cycling Weekly story, in which a self-identified fat Black woman said “You can’t call yourself a cycling community without fat Black women.”

But he not only takes issue with including fat Black women in the bicycling community, but with the very idea of a bicycling community, period.

By Mike McDaniel’s perspective, unless you’re actively engaged in some form of competition, we’re all just a bunch of individuals riding bikes for our own personal reasons.

Just when you think this kind of manufactured nonsense is on its deathbed, Cycling Weekly resurrects it. We’ve been told “silence is violence,” and so is pretty much everything else. Now we learn unless the cycling “community” “centers” fat black women, that community is “participating in exclusion.” Do we need to buy bikes and other cycling gear for fat black women too? How about old white guys riding old recumbents? And fine, I’ll tell a story: I read about a fat black woman who started riding bikes. Good for her. The end.

That’s a leftist view of reality, where it’s all about one’s identity, which must not only be noticed, but praised. In real reality, one doesn’t join a bicycling “community” by riding a bike. There are people with shared biking interests, largely defined by their machines, abilities and participation in types of competition. Beyond that, no one much cares about anyone not in those particular, narrowly defined interest groups.

Then again, he also has something to say about breasts, which he claims to know something about — and Sydney Sweeney’s in particular.

Oh, and he’s not a Nazi.

Good to know.

Iresha Picot’s point isn’t wasn’t identity politics, though, or some sort of DEI for the bicycling community.

It wasn’t even about fat Black women. Or whether or not there really is some sort of bike community.

It’s that our streets — and our preferred form of recreation and transportation — has to be safe and welcoming for everyone, including those on the margins, who you don’t normally see descending at 30 mph on the club rides.

And if you’re not intentionally including everyone, you are by default excluding some, whether they’re fat and Black, poor and Latino, handicapped, old or just puttering along on an old cruiser bike.

It’s a fair point.

I’ve learned over the years that the biking community includes people of every shape, color and description.

Some who charge up and down hills on carbon racing bikes, and some who ride, well, trikes.

It’s not about politics, identity or otherwise.

And it sure as hell isn’t about Sydney Sweeney. Or her breasts.

Photo: Bikes belonging to the non-existent bike community line the street.

………

BikeLA, formerly the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, reminds us that LADOT wants your input on bike safety upgrades on Spring and Alameda streets in DTLA.

https://twitter.com/heybikela/status/1951325962316161423

………

Bike Talk talks about the provincial and old-fashioned views that block progress on streets where people are dying from cars.

Suburban, provincial, old fashioned views often block progress on streets where people are dying from cars. soundcloud.com/biketalk/253… #bikesky @transalt.org@cycletoronto.bsky.social@mlongfield.bsky.social@lintonjoe.bsky.social@bikinginla.bsky.social@streetopia.bsky.social@openplans.org

— Bike Talk (@biketalk.bsky.social) 2025-08-02T22:07:47.532Z

………

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

It’s been a long time since we’ve heard from bike writer esteemed Elly Blue, who rebuts the pervasive, and completely untrue, myth that bike riders don’t pay for the roads.

No bias here. A motorist in Killarney, Ireland was “irked” to actually have to slow down for a few moments because a bicyclist was riding in the traffic lane, right next to a new raised bike lane that had been built “at enormous expense.” Even though a photo clearly shows several bike riders were already using it, and the only way to get around them was to take to the street — never mind that he was hugging the curb, and would have been easy to pass.

………

Local 

Streetsblog editor Joe Linton says the new Metro Bike bikeshare contract remains up in the air and operating on a month-to-month basis, following a “twice-botched process.”

 

State

Laguna Beach is looking for a location to build a proposed pump track.

A New York website remembers the 28-year old former Central New York man and current San Francisco bike mechanic who gave his life to protect a group of women and children from an attacker at a transit station.

 

National

Cycling West says the Trump administration’s efforts to slash environmental rules could make it easier and faster to build bike lanes, but could wreak havoc on the natural world, all while GOP budget cuts are hurting bicycling.

This is the cost of traffic violence. A 19-year old Albuquerque, New Mexico woman became the third employee of the city’s bicycle safety center to be killed by drivers in the last two years — two years to the day after a 64-year old man was killed riding his bike home from working at the center.

Now you, too, can star in a commercial for an ebike brand. But you have to live in Idaho.

Speaking of Cycling West, a writer for the website travels to Austin, Texas to find out how the 900-member Breakfast Club became the world’s largest weekly group ride.

The St. Louis edition of the World Naked Bike Ride brought “bikes, butts and body positivity” to the protest against car culture.

You know they’re doing something right when a Maine neighborhood bike parade and ice cream social returns for the 25th straight year.

A New Hampshire writer says riders of a certain age may be too old for the Tour de France, but can still take part in the “Tour de Pharmacy” to manage their aches and pains. Then again, there are those who say the Tour de France was, and possibly still is, a Tour de Pharmacy.

More than 6,000 people took part in two-day Massachusetts fundraising ride benefitting the Dana-Faber Cancer Institute; despite raising $53 million, the fund drive was still $23 million short of the $76 million goal.

 

International

Writing for Cycling Weekly, a male bicyclist says he was praised for “looking like a real athlete” when he was actually suffering from anorexia.

The Royal Canadian Mounties are looking for a 66-year old Manitoba man who disappeared on Friday while riding his bike.

Canada’s CTV looks at where things stand, and what comes next, in the seemingly endless battle over Toronto’s protected bike lanes, which city officials want to keep, and Ontario provincial officials want to rip out.

A Toronto couple who run a custom bicycle painting shop not only got their stolen bikes back after setting up a sting for the thief, but got a “heartfelt apology,” too.

An English man was planning to ride nearly a thousand miles on a fundraising bike ride, just two years after he was nearly killed when he was stuck by a hearse driver.

Life is cheap in Ireland, where an 82-year old woman got off with fine and lost her license for killing a 78-year old man riding a bicycle, once again raising the question of how old is too old to safely drive a car. And no, I don’t want to see an octogenarian go to the gaol, either. But still. 

A Vietnamese resort will pedal a bike to your suite and make the country’s celebrated coffee for you in person.

 

Competitive Cycling

Pauline Ferrand-Prevot cemented her domination of French cycling, as the Paris Olympic champ demolished her competition in the Alps to win the first Tour de France Femmes for the country, as well.

 

Finally…

Beyonce’s husband is one of us. That feeling when you get tackled by a cop mid-wheelie.

And when you’re carrying over an ounce-and-a-half of meth on your bike, maybe try riding on the right side of the road.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

WeHo: It ain’t the drivers it’s the roads, bike rider busted for being nervous, and maybe LA is better than we think

August 1, 2025 / / Comments Off on WeHo: It ain’t the drivers it’s the roads, bike rider busted for being nervous, and maybe LA is better than we think
Day 212 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

He gets it.

In a WeHo Times op-ed, 23-year old community organizer Nick Renteria argues that the city is one of the most dangerous in the state when it comes to traffic violence.

As evidenced by the recent hit-and-run deaths of Erica Edwards and Blake Ackerman on Sunset Blvd and Fountain Ave, respectively.

But not, he says, because there is something inherently worse about the city’s drivers, but because the streets are “designed facilitate high traffic flow at the cost of our safety.”

And what’s standing in the way of progress isn’t a lack of evidence, it’s inaction.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

As Renteria says,

Imagine a Sunset Boulevard where people stroll safely beneath the billboards. A Santa Monica Boulevard where outdoor dining isn’t drowned out by speeding cars. A Fountain Avenue where no one has to fear crossing the street or riding a bike.

Imagine a city where Erica and Blake’s deaths are the last. Where we finally say: enough.

We’ve imagined it for years. Now let’s do something about it.

………

No bias here.

Border Patrol officers arrested a man riding a bicycle and questioned his citizenship because he looked “startled and nervous,” even though they were looking for someone else.

After all, why would anyone look nervous when confronted by armed, masked men who may not have worn anything identifying themselves as officers.

The Mexican national now finds himself facing deportation, and charged with a misdemeanor count of assaulting, resisting or impeding officers, because he tried to run away and tried to break free from them.

I probably would have done exactly the same thing if I was confronted by a bunch of armed men in masks.

………

Secret Los Angeles makes it sound like the city is rapidly becoming a carfree paradise.

According to the site, Los Angeles is actively investing in innovations to reduce traffic congestion, ranging from subway expansions to new bikeways, including a new transcontinental high-speed rail expected to ope as soon as next year.

Which really would be a secret.

And speaking of secrets, here’s what they have to say about the state of bicycling in the City of Angeles.

Biking in L.A. is on the rise, with new bike trails and bike-friendly upgrades popping up across the city. From coastal paths to urban corridors like the new Rail-to-Rail route, it’s getting easier, safer, and more fun to explore L.A. on two wheels.

Which is kinda true, depending on just where you look.

Although the impression it gives doesn’t exactly align with the reality most of us experience on the streets.

But, yeah.

Maybe someday it will.

………

Police in San Diego are looking for a hit-and-run driver who left a 62-year-old man riding a bicycle lying in the street with serious injuries.

The crash occurred around 7:25 pm Monday in the Golden Hill neighborhood on the 2400 block of F Street.

The suspect was described as a man in his late 20s or early 30s, driving a gray-colored SUV with black rims and possible front end damage, with a woman in the passenger seat.

Anyone with information is urged to call the Traffic Division of the San Diego Police Depart at 858/495-7823 or call anonymously at 888/580-8477.

There’s a $1,000 reward offered by Crime Stoppers.

………

A member of the San Francisco bicycling community is being hailed as a hero for sacrificing his life to protect a group of women and children at a Muni stop.

Twenty-eight-year old Colden Kimber was waiting with his girlfriend when he saw a man harassing the group and stepped between them, only to be fatally stabbed in the neck in what was described as a “completely and utterly unprovoked” attack.

Kimber was a member of the city’s Dolce Vita Cycling team and was a skilled mechanic at American Cyclery, while studying kinesiology at San Francisco State University.

The suspect, 29-year old Sean Collins, has been charged with murder; he was already facing charges for vandalism and burglary, as well as resisting an officer.

A crowdfunding campaign has raised over $44,000 of the $50,000 goal to pay for memorials in San Francisco and Kimber’s native Ithaca, New York, and transportation expenses for his family to attend Collins’ trial.

A memorial ride is tentatively planned for Sept. 7 around the Polo Fields in Golden Gate Park.

I’m not crying, you’re crying.

No, wait. Yeah, it’s me.

……….

Gravel Bike California shouts Yreka after riding in NorCal’s Siskiyou County.

……….

Nope, nothing to see here.

Although the only time you’ll see this many people on bikes in Los Angeles is CicLAvia or Critical Mass.

……….

But seriously, how many city’s have a river you can drive in?

………

Thanks to Megan for forwarding this clip showing that comedian Cheri Oteri is one of us.

………

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

No surprise here, as the Ontario, Canada government will appeal a court ruling that the planned removal of three Toronto bike lanes violates the country’s constitution, while Canada’s conservative National Post calls out the province’s “activist judiciary” for inventing a right to bike lanes.

Bedford, England has lifted its draconian ban on bike riding through the town center, but only after thousands of people were “aggressively” fined for the simple crime of riding a bicycle; new rules target “dangerous” bicycling rather than responsible riding.

………

Local 

Pasadena police will conduct yet another of the region’s bicycle and pedestrian safety operations today; while the purpose is to improve safety for people walking or biking, police are required to enforce any violation that could put either group at risk, regardless of who commits it. So ride to the letter of the law until cross the city limits to make sure you’re not the one who gets written up. 

 

State

California kids under the age of 16 can no longer buy a Class 3 ebike, after Governor Newsom signed AB 965 into law.

A San Diego man has declared a Bike Rebellion, with a new podcast and YouTube series profiling people who have chosen bicycling as their primary mode of transportation.

Bakersfield will add new green bike lanes to the city’s California Ave after a repaving project, while assuring drivers it won’t result in the removal of any traffic lanes.

Eight outdoor experts share their favorite bike rides around the Silicon Valley.

There’s not a pit deep enough for a 29-year old woman accused of hitting a nine-year old Novato boy in an effort to steal his bike, until bystanders stepped in to stop her.

 

National

A Minnesota woman credited a bicycle with saving her life, after a tree crashed through her roof at the exact moment she went outside to get her son’s bike, the tree landing right where she had been moments earlier.

The mayor of La Crosse, Wisconsin took a bike ride with community members on Thursday to talk about transportation and the state of the city. Something no Los Angeles mayor has done since Richard Riordan, unless you want to count Antonio Villaraigosa riding next to me at the first CicLAvia. Or maybe it was the second one. 

Good news from Elmhurst, Illinois, where a nine-year old boy was found safe after going missing while riding his bicycle on a bike path; he was found eight miles away in the nearby town of Glen Ellen.

If you build it, they will come. Bicycling is booming in the Motor City thanks to hundreds of miles of bike paths around Detroit, with cross-border cycling becoming an option later this year.

After the state Department of Transportation put in a new separated bike lane, officials in Tonawanda, New York said they didn’t ask for it and don’t want it, and drivers expressed concern about safety on a street where drivers go ten miles below the 40 mph speed limit.

 

International

A writer for Road.cc describes what he’d do to start bicycling on a tight budget.

Of course not. An English man denies he was responsible for killing a 54-year old woman competing in a cycling time trial while he was driving a commercial van, despite allegedly looking a photos of a family barbecue on his cellphone seconds before the crash, then telling police he never saw her because he was too busy looking for his drink bottle.

Cyclist profiles decorated downhill cyclist James Egercz, the man behind Britain’s Craft Bikes.

Apparently, medieval weapons are back in vogue, after a man in the UK was busted for allegedly threatening another man with an axe to steal his bicycle.

A British writer takes a “mad holiday” in France, combing wine and cheese with “near-death experiences” riding down mountainsides on an ebike.

Evidently, France’s Loire Valley is THE bicycling destination for the coming year. Unless maybe you’d rather take a bicycling vacation at Club Med in the Southern French Alps.

Momentum looks at Trondheim, Norway’s pavement-embedded bicycle lift that pushes bike riders uphill at a steady walking pace, and recommends a handful of hills in North America where it would help encourage more people to ride.

Sad news from South Africa, where a 77-year old man was killed while riding his bike through Cape Town, when he was struck with a bottle by a robber trying to steal his cellphone.

 

Competitive Cycling

French cyclist Maeva Squiban won Stage 6 of the Tour de France Femmes in a 20-mile solo breakaway. Even if Velo wrote yesterday that it happened today, opening up a whole new can of quantum theory.

Apparently, nose strips were the hot performance-enhancing accessory at this year’s Tour de France.

 

Finally…

That feeling when you just happen to get stopped by cops while carrying a section of the US-Mexico border wall on your bike. If you’re going to steal a pro cyclist’s bike, maybe don’t take the one with a Danish flag and his name painted on it.

And apparently, we need to credit Streetsblog’s Joe Linton as the founder and editor of this site, at least according to Google AI.

I mean, who knew?

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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