BikinginLA

Day 120 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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You’ve got to be kidding.

The California E-Bike Incentive Program had more than four months to work out all the bugs after their disastrous, deliberately throttled first round.

And they screwed the pooch again.

There’s just no good way to put it. Yesterday’s second round of voucher applications was yet another demonstration of the sheer incompetence of the people running this program.

I signed onto the program’s application window on at exactly 5 pm yesterday. Or rather, I tried to. And apparently, so did everyone else.

What I got when I clicked on the “Apply” button was…nothing. So I tried again. And again. And I kept trying, and kept getting the same result — the very definition of insanity,

Until I finally got this.

Judging by the responses when I posted about it on Twitter/X and Bluesky, so did nearly everyone else. A few, very few, people managed to get in.

Eventually, so did I, entering the portal for the voucher lottery with exactly five minutes left in the application window.

Then two minutes later, I was kicked out. And so was everyone else.

The program administrators knew the volume they could and should expect, after more than 100,000 people tried, and mostly failed, to apply for vouchers in the first round.

Yet they somehow still gave just one hour for all those people to apply. Then remarkably — and foolishly — recommended that everyone the enter the room as early as possible, virtually guarantying they would all hit the “Apply” button exactly at the same time.

And bringing the website crashing down, taking the voucher window down with it.

Going forward, they should provide at least a 12-hour window to apply, if not a week, so it doesn’t crash the system. Then inform the winners by email, giving them another 24 hours to get their applications in.

And don’t throttle the damn applications.

Just release all the remaining funding at once, so people at least have a reasonable chance of getting a voucher. Unlike the current round, where the 1,000 available vouchers represented less than 1% of the anticipated demand.

Once program proves successful — and there’s no reason why it wouldn’t — go back to the legislature to request another round of funding.

Then fire troubled San Diego nonprofit Pedal Ahead, which was contracted to administer the program, and consider moving oversight of this program out of CARB, because they have clearly shown they can’t handle it.

No other ebike rebate program anywhere in the US has had as much difficulty launching, and needed as much time, as California. We were the first to approve an ebike voucher program, and the last to get it up and running right

This whole damn thing should be investigated by the state, because it’s hard to believe anyone could be so fucking incompetent by accident.

They also need to figure out what the hell they’re trying to accomplish, because they have two glaringly conflicting goals.

When you visit the California Ebike Incentive Program website, and watch the required video on climate change, the message is about getting people onto ebikes and out of their cars.

But by limiting applications to lower income residents, and favoring people with the lowest incomes, the clear intent is to provide those people with reliable transportation, whether or not they even own a car.

Which is something they should have figured out in those first three and a half years.

But somehow, didn’t.

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Don’t forget tonight’s die-in on the steps of City Hall to protest the mayor’s draconian budget cuts and layoffs, which could set safer and more livable streets — and Measure HLA — back for years.

Even the General Manager of LADOT thinks it’s a lousy idea.

Dying-In Los Angeles – A Protest for Safer Streets: Don’t “DOGE” LA Safety

A coalition of non-profits and road safety advocates will be hosting a protest on the steps of LA City Hall to raise awareness of LA’s dystopian-level budget cuts.

If these cuts go through, there will be no funding for new safety improvements next year — no speed reduction measures, no protected bike lanes, no pedestrian upgrades. Nothing.

Join us at 6pm, April 30th – LA City Hall.

• RSVP Here: I’ll be There!

And don’t forget to sign the petition telling Mayor Bass not to DOGE LA safety.

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Streets For All wants your support today for a Measure HLA-style ordinance for LA County.

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Bike Culver City want you to celebrate the cars of the past, while demonstrating that bikes are the future.

We’ve grown up surrounded by cars powered by fossil fuel-burning engines. Many of our fondest memories occurred in a car: our first kiss, riding to a beach party, feeling independent for the first time, experiencing pride of ownership, and cherishing and caring for a beautiful machine. Today, these modes of transport have become cherished relics—too precious to drive, costly to operate and maintain, and plagued by traffic congestion, rude drivers, and their contribution to poor air quality.

Displaying cars as cherished relics is appropriate, given their immense sentimental value. Bike Culver City welcomes over 500 exhibitors to our city on Saturday, May 10^th, from 9 am to 3 pm, https://www.culvercitycarshow.com. Please bring your bike to commemorate this event during National Bike Month and send a photo of yourself and your bike in front of your favorite relic to aardus@yahoo.com. We will post the image as part of the Bike to the Future II display at https://www.facebook.com/groups/bikecc. Please patronize our local businesses as you always do.

The Car Show street closures provide thousands of walkers and strollers with the opportunity to enjoy downtown Culver City safely on foot, free from the dangers of traffic, as well as air and noise pollution. Imagine the paradise if downtown street closures were not just a once-a-year event. Join us!

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

After a driver in Baton Rouge, Louisiana struck a man riding a bicycle, he pulled a gun on the victim, ordering him “not to get (his) mf’n license plate” — yet the police somehow responded by telling bike riders to be aware of their surroundings, rather than, say, watch out of angry armed nut jobs.

No bias here. Residents of a DC neighborhood are calling for new protected bike and bus lanes to be removed because delivery drivers are now parking in the one remaining traffic lane, instead of, say, calling for increased enforcement to stop illegal parking.

Japanese bike riders say the country should be focused on building better bike infrastructure, instead of cracking down on bad behavior by bicyclists.

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

An Australian columnist says she’s not opposed to ebikes, but the dangerous bad behavior of ebike riders has got to stop. Although maybe someone can explain why the newspaper chose to illustrate ebikes donated to emergency departments with a picture of ebike-riding young women in tiny bikinis.

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Local 

Culver City announced a 15-week beautification and maintenance program on the Ballona Creek Bike Path, leading to periodic disruptions on Thursdays between 6:30 am and 4 pm.

A Burbank writer for the Sierra Club says trade your car for a bike, and you’ll discover beauty and nature even in the heart of the city.

Pasadena is planning a jam-packed calendar of events to celebrate Bike Month next month, including National Ride a Bike Day, and Bike to School and Bike to Work Days.

Sad news from Castaic, where a man riding a bicycle died after going into cardiac arrest; the victim has not been publicly identified.

State

About damn time. A bill moving through the California legislature would require drunk drivers to install breathalyzers in their cars after their first offense.

They get it. The usually conservative Los Angeles Daily News says the California DMV is working to keep dangerous drivers on the road, instead of getting them off.

San Francisco Streetsblog looks at the new curbside protected bike lanes on the city’s Valencia Street, which replace the much maligned centerline bike lanes.

Novato rejected plans for a new bike lane, with the city council voting 4-1 to preserve a lousy 27 parking spaces over saving lives.

National

Mountain bike legend Tom Ritchey is crowdfunding his new autobiography, promising to add extra pages if he can get the total up to $75,000 by May 15th.

Trek has launched a new technical support hotline, with help available for any brand of bike through their new AI-free Trek Ride Club app.

That’s more like it. A Portland, Oregon man was sentenced to 10 years for manslaughter and an additional 7-½ years for attempted murder for running over and killing a pedestrian, then driving up on the sidewalk and attempting to run down a man riding a bicycle who had yelled at him.

It takes a major jerk to vandalize and destroy a San Antonio, Texas ghost bike.

That’s more like it, part two. An Illinois man will spend the next ten years behind bars for the hit-and-run death of a 64-year old man riding a bicycle, after he veered onto the wrong side of the road while driving at nearly three times the legal alcohol limit.

That’s more like it, part three. A repeat drunk driver was sentenced to at least nine years behind bars for the drunken hit-and-run death of a 30-year old bike-riding Ohio man, and had his driver’s license suspended for life.

New York’s congestion pricing plan cut traffic and raised $159 million in just the first three months, but Trump wants to kill it anyway.

I want to be like him when I grow up. A Louisiana man is still bikepacking at 78.

International

Momentum recommends the best cities to fall in love with your bicycle all over again this summer. None of which is Los Angeles.

An estimated 1,000 Critical Mass riders rode through a newly opened tunnel under the Thames River, where bicycles are prohibited.

Sad news from Scotland, where a 49-year old man was killed by a driver during the Etape Loch Ness, a 66-mile timed ride around the famed home of the Loch Ness Monster, aka Nessie; the ride was on a closed course, but the crash occurred on a road used by riders to return to the start, which wasn’t closed to cars.

A woman plans to ride her bike 1,200 miles across the UK to talk to farm women for her Ph.D, saying the country’s extensive network of bike paths will make it possible.

British TV host and dedicated bike rider Jeremy Vine has sworn off posting his videos depicting bad behavior by drivers and the dangers on the streets due to the abusive comments he gets, including explicit tweets about his wife. Although a British bike racing broadcaster says Vine’s videos made bicyclists look militant and unhinged.

Forbes says Germany offers a “robust cycling network of more than 320 routes, covering some 62,000 miles through country landscapes and storied cities.”

You’ve got to be kidding. Life is cheap in New Zealand, where a truck driver walked without a day behind bars, and can keep driving, after the judge blamed the lack of a bike lane for the death of a 28-year old woman riding a bicycle, and not the man who ran over her in the Kiwi equivalent of a right hook.

Competitive Cycling

Cycling Weekly says the American bike racing calendar in sabotaging itself when gravel, mountain bike and road events all occur at the same time.

America’s other ex-Tour de France champ is finally back on his bike, taking part in last weekend’s Belgian Waffle Ride, while saying it took gravel to get him riding again.

Red Bull looks forward to next month’s Giro d’Italia, which will pay homage to the late Pope Francis with a route passing through the Vatican gardens behind St. Peter’s Basilica, and in front of the Santa Marta hotel where Francis lived.

Finally…

That feeling when mountain bikes break your bones, but horses are what scare you. Anyone can ride around in a circle; try one of these bike races if you want a real challenge.

And your next very expensive Swiss watch can honor everyone’s favorite Italian cycling legends.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin.