June 15, 2022 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on LA approves ban on bike chop shops, and environmental groups pull support for awful Geary-designed LA River plan
The ordinance is intended to give police a tool to address the proliferation of chop shops dealing in stolen bicycles, often found in homeless encampments throughout the city.
He said the new law, which is modeled after a similar one in the city of Long Beach, would target people in possession of five or more bicycle parts, a bicycle frame with the gear cables or brake cables cut, two or more bicycles with missing parts, or three or more bicycles on public property.
It also is written to specifically exclude people with a valid business license, as well as someone fixing their own bicycle.
While bike theft and receiving stolen merchandise are already illegal, LAPD officers tell me it can be difficult to make a case, since most bikes are never reported stolen, and it’s almost impossible to identify a bicycle once it’s been dismantled.
Even if they can make a case, it’s usually just a misdemeanor, since it’s hard to prove the value of the stolen bikes are more than the $950 value for grand theft. Which means the suspects are usually back on the street doing business again within days.
Whether this will be successful in preventing bike thefts, or simply becomes a tool for harassing and criminalizing homeless people, remains to be seen.
ESPN’s ESPY award winner Jason McElwain was seriously injured when he was hit by a driver while riding his bike in Greece, New York; the autistic student manager of his high school basketball team, McElwain gained fame when the coach put him in near the end of the team’s final home game, and he responded by sinking seven three-point shots. He’s now a motivational speaker.
UPS is testing small battery-powered delivery trucks designed to operate in New York bike lanes. In other words, just one more obstacle putting bike riders at risk. Thanks to Megan Lynch for the heads-up.
An Irish delivery rider has been acquitted of murder for stabbing a 16-year old boy to death, agreeing he acted in self-defense when he was attacked by a group of teenagers while trying to reclaim another delivery rider’s stolen bicycle.
The roadway will be reduced to a single lane for construction work from 9 am to 2 pm, with traffic allowed through in alternate directions, while the bike lanes will be completely blocked.
However, there’s no word on what road conditions will be like if you arrive before or after that five-hour time period.
It’s also questionable whether bikes can be prohibited from using PCH during those hours, since California allows bicycles on any public road where cars are allowed, with the exception of limited access highways in most urban areas.
Whether it would be smart to put yourself in that situation is another matter.
Los Angeles is installing bright red bus lanes in East Hollywood and DTLA, with others coming soon on Alvarado and La Brea; LA interprets state law as allowing bike riders to use bus-only lanes, though some other cities may disagree.
An Atwater Village elementary school is working with the PE Learn-To-Ride program sponsored by All Kids Bike to teach the youngest students how to ride using balance bikes, after a teacher discovered no one really wanted to win a bicycle as a reward for good behavior.
Hermosa Beach police used bait bikes to bust a pair of bike thieves, while making sure the bikes had a value of more than $950 so it would count as felony theft. Which serves as yet another reminder that the LAPD still doesn’t use bait bikes to cut high theft rates, thanks to a misguided opinion from the city attorney’s office concluding they could be seen as entrapment; meanwhile, that same city attorney wants your vote for LA mayor.
Cycling Newsexamines how bikes get made, starting from iron ore or a vat of petrochemicals to the finished bicycle in your garage. Although you’re better off keeping it inside your home, since garages are often easy targets for thieves.
Unfortunately, they don’t break out figures for bicycling and pedestrian deaths, so we’ll have to wait to learn just how bad it’s been for those of us who aren’t wrapped in a couple tons of steel and glass, and protected by seat belts and air bags instead of a little plastic hat.
But if you thought it was getting worse out there, you’re right.
The world may be burning, but Metro is busy erasing bike lanes.
February 2022 update on LA Metro’s joint development project at North Hollywood station. New consolidated transit center with new second subway entrance at current G Line station. Mixed-use development will replace park-and-ride lots and bus facilities.https://t.co/ZsxuPjs0Napic.twitter.com/oBeTq4S4yP
Looks like (according to the presentation shared by @numble) @metrolosangeles NoHo redevelopment would eliminate westbound bikeway on the part of Chandler Blvd that runs just south of the station pic.twitter.com/VbD5mpUyzM
Even if there weren't multiple laws already on the books stating in no uncertain terms that it's 100% against the law to punish-pass a vulnerable road user (the equivalent of firing a bullet over someone's shoulder) it's still a sociopathic and morally reprehensible thing to do. pic.twitter.com/iMTbeoG18m
The Boston Globemarks Black History Month by remembering Kittie Knox, who integrated the League of American Wheelmen — now the League of American Bicyclists, aka Bike League — in 1893, a year before the organization banned Black members to keep her out.
That’s more like it. A drunk hit-and-run driver got seven years behind bars for killing a British man riding a bicycle; he was captured when police spotted him from a helicopter trying to sleep it off in a field.
January 12, 2022 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on New ADA in Woon hit-and-run case, LA paid out 300 grand in hit-and-run rewards, and bike theft down 22% in Long Beach
It’s been awhile since we’ve heard from our anonymous courtroom correspondent.
So let’s have her kick things off today by catching us up with the latest happenings in bike jurisprudence and other related stuff.
Mariah Kandise Banks (charged in the hit-and-run death of Frederick “Woon” Frazier) has yet another DA newly assigned to her case. He was tranfserred from the Van Nuys courthouse on the morning of her most react hearing, December 6th. He had a whole new caseload to familiarize himself with, but was present for Banks’ appearance. I was able to speak with him very briefly and he indicated that the prosecution is continuing to work with the defense on a plea deal.
(Editor’s note — Let’s hope they finally get a conviction while Woon’s long-suffering mother is still around to see it.)
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Samantha Cunha killed her friend during a bizarre road rage incident. On December 1st, the charge was dismissed.
(Editor’s note — This was the case where Cunha was a passenger in a car driven by Sophia Ardalan when they became involved in a running road rage dispute on Sunset Blvd in Hollywood. Ardalan was killed when she either got out, or fell out, of her car attempting to confront the motorcyclist in front of a West Hollywood apartment building, and Cunha somehow put the car into reverse, crushing her against a tree.)
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In the latest episode of Drivers Hitting Buildings:
On the 6th, a driver smashed into a building at Los Altos Dr. & Caricia Dr. in Hacienda Heights.
On Sunday morning, a speeding driver in a Nissan Frontier took out a parked pick-up, a light pole, and the garage at the T-intersection of City Terrace Drive & Ditman.
In the wee, wee hours of Monday, the flower shop at Colima & Lambert, the site of a Black Friday fatality, was again collateral damage in a 3-vehicle collision. This time a driver made a drive-thru of it.
A driver fled a hit and run on the 710, went zipping down surface streets, and ended up hitting the house at 5th St. & Sydney Dr. (This is not the first time that house has been hit.)
On the 3rd, a dipstick departed the Sinclair gas station at Alameda & Nadeau with the gas nozzle still attached. Counts as structural damage?
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There was a candlelight vigil Sunday for a mother & daughter killed on my coworker’s commute route. Last week, she asked, “You do this all the time. Do I take a candle, or will they hand them out there? Is it okay to take more flowers?” I’m kinda upset to be the go-to for advice on this subject, tbh.
The speed limit on this stretch is 40mph, and this intersection is close to the terminus of the 105 at Studebaker, which has frequent collisions, sometimes involving the already red-tagged building on the east side of the street. Currently, the guardrail “protecting” the sidewalk has a 20-inch dent. Just a half mile up the road, Chandler Ray was killed on his bike.
The killer was released last Tuesday before the tox exam was even returned. She’s out there. Just like Mariah Banks.
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This was the third Christmas in a row that it was too wet for me & my friends to put up our hit-and-run reward posters… y’know, the some people are in such a rush on Christmas Eve that they really don’t watch out for grannies trying to make their way home. We have really sharp pictures of the suspect and his vehicle, too! The posters and the reindeer hoof print stencils have to wait til next year.
Prior to last year, the city had only paid three people a total of $55,000 in the previous four years of the program.
The sudden explosion of payments was most likely due the time it takes to make an arrest and for the case to work its way through the court system, according to a police spokesman.
The site also reports that serious hit-and-runs are up in the city, while overall hit-and-runs decreased somewhat.
Los Angeles has seen a rise in people dying or being seriously injured in car crashes. In 2021, there were 359 felony hit and runs in the city that resulted in serious injury or death, up 25% from the 286 in 2020, according to LAPD Traffic Division Compstat data.
Altogether, there were 3,536 felony hit and run cases in Los Angeles last year. That was a decrease of 17% from the 4,273 in 2020.
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Time is running out to voice your thoughts on the planned rush hour bus lanes on La Brea Ave, which would provide a relatively safe route from Hollywood to South LA.
Longtime CNN reporter and host Christiane Amanpour is one of us.
Born on this day, January 12, 1958: Christiane Amanpour, international journalist, who arrived at her first job at CNN in Atlanta "with a suitcase, with my bicycle, and with about 100 dollars." Happy #bicyclebirthday, Christiane!#BOTDpic.twitter.com/04o95o2LXT
San Francisco Streetsblog’s Roger Rudick takes an Oakland TV station to task for displaying its windshield bias by criticizing bicycle rideout taking over a local freeway, while failing to criticize dangerous drivers using bike lanes. Because one is a lot more dangerous than the other, and it ain’t the kids on bikes. Even if riding on a freeway isn’t the brightest choice.
Kind of a strange post from Bike Snob’s Eben Weiss, who finds his knickers in a twist after criticism from Peter Flax and Doug Gordon of The War on Cars podcast, who made their comments without actually naming him.
Bike mechanics, co-ops, and various advocates and nonprofit advocacy groups are joining together to call for more durable and repairable budget bikes that can last at least 500 riding hours before breaking down, and be fixed when they do. You can sign the petition here. However, you’ll be required to give your full address, which is usually a deal breaker for me.
The second shoe has fallen in Las Vegas, where the family of one of the five bike riders killed by a meth-fueled truck driver have filed suit against the driver and his employer, as well as the ride’s escort driver, leaving just three more shoes to inevitably fall. The driver, Jordan Barson, is doing 16 to 40 years behind bars for the crash.
You’ve got to be kidding. Life is cheap in Florida, where an accused hit-and-run driver who killed a man riding a bicycle copped a sweetheart plea deal in a long-delayed conclusion to the 2016 case, walking without a single day behind bars in a case that should could have resulted in four to 15 years behind bars.
Now surprise here, as Australian researchers report three-quarters of people surveyed in the country’s Victoria state want to ride their bikes more, but only if there’s safe bike infrastructure to do it in. Which pretty much corresponds with similar surveys everywhere else, including Los Angeles.
Louisiana’s “challenging” Rouge Roubaix bike race is back this year after a five year hiatus due to flooding and Covid, as well as a misguided local ordinance banning groups of more than ten people on bicycles. Which makes it kind of hard to host a race with hundreds of competitors.
Instead of finding support for their carbon-free travel, cyclists in some communities face unsafe and unjust conditions. In East Los Angeles, only 1% of streets have bike lanes, meaning cyclists are expected to navigate crowded and often poorly maintained streets. Of course people are going to ride on the sidewalk, even if it’s prohibited, because it’s safer.
Yet that rational decision makes cyclists a target for law enforcement. Nearly a quarter of bike stops in East L.A. were for sidewalk violations, The Times reported. In Lynwood, where there are no bike lanes at all, sidewalk violations account for 16% of stops. In West Hollywood, which is predominantly white, more streets have bike lanes and the city allows bicyclists to ride on the sidewalk in areas with no bike lanes. Less than 1% of bike stops were initiated because of sidewalk violations.
And somehow managed, against all odds, to get them all back.
Never mind that the LAPD told her they don’t bother to look for stolen bikes.
Or the Catch-22 clownshow below when he tried to report the theft to the cops.
Weitz had tried to file a police report online. Because his garage was broken into, he was told, he would have to file in person. But his local LAPD outpost in West Los Angeles is not allowing walk-ins because of COVID-19. So he went to the Pacific Division station on Culver Boulevard but was told he had to file it in West L.A.
“My local lead officer said he would get in touch after I file my police report,” said Weitz, “but I can’t file my police report, so he can’t call.”
The well-connected son of prominent local sheep and goat breeders faces six counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, after initially being allowed to walk free when mommy and daddy reportedly showed up at the crash site.
Meanwhile, the Santa Rosa woman injured in the other recent Texas crash, where a pickup driver ran down three people on a cross-country bike tour and killed a Massachusetts man, is still waiting to fly home.
Metro announced the top-scoring picks for open streets events throughout the county over the next two years, including likely funding for CicLAvia and 626 Golden Streets.
If you’re reading this early enough, you may still have time to join a Twitter town hall calling for zero traffic deaths, in advance of this Sunday’s World Day of Remembrance.
Meanwhile, Finish the Ride will host a march for safer roads on Saturday, in an early observance of the World Day of Remembrance.
Join us on Saturday, November 20th, for a march to demand safer roads for those who suffer the most, in honor of World Day of Remembrance for victims of traffic violence. pic.twitter.com/sg4NNkJv1M
More proof that bike lanes are more efficient than regular traffic lanes. Regardless of drivers who claim no one ever uses them.
A bike-lane moved 2.5X as many people as a regular traffic lane in a @TFL study, & given that they are half the width, the study concluded that bike-lanes are 5X as efficient as vehicle traffic lanes. HT @urbanthoughts11
Apparently, even winning the Tour de France isn’t enough to protect against bike thieves, as Geraint Thomas learned the hard way when he popped into a coffee shop while training on the French Riviera.
August 30, 2021 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Help East Side Riders fix hit-and-run damaged van, help get six critical bills passed, and CHP may have your hot bike
Let’s start with a little bad news from one of LA’s best bike clubs.
Because if you’ve got a few extra bucks lying around, Watts’ East Side Riders could use your help.
The group does invaluable work, using bicycles as a starting point to uplift and feed the community. And they give back far more than they receive.
But that work will be on hold for a least a few days, after someone crashed into their van, pushing it up the street. Best case, it was a hit-and-run driver; worst, someone vandalized their van on purpose.
They haven’t asked for help yet, but they can clearly use it. So give ’em a hand if you can. You can donate directly to them right here.
Streets For All is once again asking for your help to get a half-dozen bills across the finish line in the final days of this year’s state legislative session.
We need your help to get 6 critical bills to the governor’s desk
The legislative session is about to end do it’s all-hands-on-deck for getting these final bills passed.
We need you to reach out to your state senator because time is running out.
Here are the bills that need to get to Newsom:
AB 917 – Cameras on buses to enforce bus-only lanes
And it’s yet another reminder that registering your bike now, before something happens to it, is your best hope of getting it back if anything does.
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Kittie Knox was also one of the first women to join the League of American Wheelmen, today’s League of American Bicyclists, aka the Bike League.
She joined just a year before it changed the bylaws to Whites Only, but since the rule was not made retroactive, Knox was grandfathered in and allowed to remain.
And went on to become a trailblazer for Black women on bikes, and all women.
US, late 1800s, Kittie Knox was among a small group of black women cyclists in Boston's early bicycling craze. Kittie also broke taboos by wearing knickerbockers. It was working class women like Kittie who made the bicycle a liberator for all women #WomensArtpic.twitter.com/VMjsRmPzxm
Two passing doctors made sure she was OK at roadside and took her to the Village Inn at Long Framlington to keep warm. I took car to pick up Emma’s written-off carbon bike. The pub was great. Made her comfy, brought hot tea. Wouldn’t take payment. https://t.co/Nck4q0f6JP
Orlando Bloom has been one of us for a long time, as the British actor posts a photo of himself riding a bike while wearing a back brace after a dangerous fall in his 20s. Oddly, I did exactly the same thing by riding my bike wearing a back brace back in the day. But my broken back resulted from a cracked car jack.
Evidently, British paparazzi never give up, turning out to capture former comedian Lee Evans riding an ebike, seven years after he walked away from his comedy career to spend time with his family.
No bias here, either. The New York Post somehow thinks maintaining a smoggy, dangerous and traffic-choked boulevard on 5th Avenue is good for business, and returning the street to a more human scale means declaring war on cars. Right. If LA’s elected and appointed leaders had half the courage and imagination of their New York counterparts, we’d already see this on Wilshire Blvd, and a half dozen other major corridors, as well.
To the NY Post it's a "War on Cars" but this plan to reshape 5th Avenue between Central Park and 42nd Street will be immensely popular and transformational if officials have the spine to see it through. https://t.co/4owljcSxIypic.twitter.com/onimhvEff3
Something must be in the water in Culver City, where another massive 1800-word NIMBY screed decries plans to improve safety for bike riders and pedestrians at the three-way intersection of Overland, Kelmore and Ranch, fearing that a planned refuge island for bicyclists and pedestrians would require dangerous mixing of the two, and that the best solution is just to put up a sign banning street crossings entirely.
State
Sad news from Bakersfield, where a man was killed in a hit-and-run while riding his bicycle early Saturday; police are looking for the driver of a possibly red, late model small to mid-sized SUV. Although it would have been nice if the Bakersfield Californian, which should know better, even mentioned that the car had a driver.
A San Francisco writer decries the city’s “inability to address madness and criminality on public transit and on the streets.” And complains about what she calls “whimsical” plans to put bike lanes on the Bay Bridge, saying most would only “undertake the slog” as a last resort, while insisting that biking is a non-starter for small children, seniors, and others with mobility challenges. Clearly, she’s never heard of ebikes. Or met many older bike riders or paracyclists. And what’s with that whimsical word all of the sudden?
National
It was a big weekend for naked people on bicycles and chaste camera views, as the World Naked Bike Ride was marked in Mad City, Philly and even Amsterdam.
Seriously? A Florida man faces felony charges for stealing $2.67 worth of soup and some crackers after crashing his bicycle into a patrol car while trying to flee from police; the petty theft was escalated to a felony due to his previous theft convictions. Anyone who steals something like that does it because he’s hungry, not for financial gain, regardless of his record.
Calcutta regresses into an auto-centric past by banning bicycles from major streets; an Indian magazine calls it a “warped idea of planning and an antipathy towards the working classes.” Couldn’t have said it better myself.
March 23, 2021 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on DA calls for review police shootings, LA hiker run over by e-mtn biker, and NBA star was sideswiped by passing driver
Way to get the story wrong.
The usually reliable My News LA reports the County Board of Supervisors will vote today on DA George Gascon’s request to appoint a special prosecutor for cases involving police misconduct.
While campaigning against Lacey, Gascon promised to review several high-profile fatal shootings involving multiple police agencies, including:
— Gardena police officers’ shooting of Ricardo Zeferino, 34, who was suspected of stealing a bicycle in June 2013;
Just one problem.
Zeferino was never suspected of stealing a bicycle, or anything else.
Zeferino was helping his brother search for his stolen bike, when police stopped two of their friends who were also assisting in the search. So Zeferino ran up, excitedly gesturing and insisting in Spanish that they had the wrong men.
Except none of the officers apparently understood Spanish. And when Zeferino allegedly made a sudden gesture to his waist that no one else could seem to see, they blew him away.
Which means the only crime he committed was trying to tell a group of trigger happy, possibly racist, cops they were screwing up.
I don’t know if they belong in jail for an overreaction that cost an innocent man his life.
But they sure as hell don’t belong on the force, in Gardena or anywhere else.
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Ms. Honey Bunnyman forwards a Nextdoor post describing a mountain biker behaving very badly, which we’re reposting with the victim’s permission.
Seriously, don’t be that guy.
Always ride safely around anyone on foot. Which includes keeping ebikes off trails where they’re not allowed, and riding with respect for others anywhere they are.
And if you know who this guy is, tell him hit-and-run applies on off-road trails, too.
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We finally have an explanation for how former NBA star Shawn Bradley received the injuries that left him paralyzed as he rode his bike near his Utah home.
According to USA Today, Bradley was apparently injured when he was sideswiped by a passing driver, causing him to crash into a parked car.
Even though police found a fresh scratch on the passenger side of the driver’s van, apparently from Bradley’s bike.
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America Walks is calling for you to demand stronger protections for bike riders and pedestrians in the MUTCD, aka the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices for Streets and Highways, which serves as the bible for traffic engineers.
And tell the former Mayor Pete, who now heads the US Department of Transportation, to make it better.
We need a MUTCD that puts the safety of people walking and moving over the convenience of people in cars. Use our template to tell @SecretaryPete to rewrite the MUTCD in a way that puts safety and equity first. It should take about 5 minutes. https://t.co/SfGzSOVQCspic.twitter.com/vwGNcaIJcX
A San Jose area bike rider paints a dramatic image of a bad road.
And Angeleno riders should take notes, because our streets aren’t much better.
Q:El Camino Real is so bad that I broke a bicycle spoke crossing at El Monte. It’s worse now than when it was first created back in the 1760s as a dirt road. I fear the Ghost of Father Serra will return to haunt the California highway department. It will be a well-earned haunting.
AB 122, which would allow California bike riders to join the nationwide trend of treating stop signs as yields, has passed its first hurdle in the Assembly Transportation Committee, as a retired Davis police chief said the bill is embraced by the vast majority of police officers. Which is a big change from previous attempts at a similar bill, which were derailed by opposition from the CHP and AAA.
Fifty years after Oregon made a groundbreaking commitment to spend at least 1% of the state highway fund on biking and walking projects, the state legislature is considering raising that to 5%. Which compares favorably to California’s longstanding commitment to not making a commitment to fund them. Thanks to Mike Wilkinson for the link.
A UK resident got screwed by Brexit after ordering a bike from a Polish bike shop and being told there would be no import duties on it. Except it was returned to the shop during the chaos as the county left the European Union, and when the shop reshipped it, it arrived with the equivalent of over $2,700 in taxes due upon delivery.
India’s homegrown Hero Cycles is looking to expand its ebike sales worldwide, as it opens a new international headquarters in London and expands its factory to make up to ten million bikes a year. Which only sounds like a lot because it is.
March 22, 2021 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on LA Time’s Lopez calls for legalizing speed cams, Bike Index helps return stolen bike 500 miles away, and LA NC talks ebikes
He gets it, all right.
Last week we quoted LA Times columnist Steve Lopez as he called out the death cult of speeding drivers enabled by the relatively empty, over-engineered streets of pandemic-era Los Angeles.
In the first month of the pandemic last spring, the California Highway Patrol reported that although traffic volume was down 35%, the number of citations for driving in excess of 100 miles an hour had increased by 87% over the same period a year earlier. Between Sept. 1 and Oct. 31, 4,851 more CHP citations were issued for speeding at 100 miles an hour or more, a 93% increase over the same period a year earlier.
On Sunday, when I wrote about the perils of drivers thinking that light traffic during the pandemic is a license to try out for NASCAR, readers shared their own horror stories about speeding drivers and offered their own solutions. One was automated speed enforcement, which I’d already been looking into.
The way it works is that, if you’re driving over the speed limit in a monitored area, a sensor will read your speed and license plate, and you’ll get a citation in the mail.
The problem, as we’ve noted here before, is that they’re illegal here in the late, great golden state.
Currently, the technology is prohibited in California, but 140 communities in the country have used it with impressive results.
“Washington, D.C., saw a 70% reduction in speeding,” said Seleta Reynolds, general manager of L.A.’s Department of Transportation. “New York saw huge reductions in severe and fatal crashes. That technology is going to save people’s lives for years to come.”
As Lopez notes, that’s thanks in part to pressure from police unions, who have blocked previous attempts to legalize speed cams out of fear it will cost cops jobs, rather than simply freeing more officers to focus on more important things.
There are currently two bills before the state legislature to rectify the situation.
Assembly Bill 550 would legalize speed cams on streets previously recognized as dangerous, as well as in work zones, while Senate Bill 735 would limit the cams to school zones.
Both would require giving hotfooted drivers advance notice through signs indicating they’re entering a speed enforcement zone.
Which is kind of like warning robbers the cops have the place staked out, so they can avoid getting caught.
We need them everywhere drivers speed, rather than just limited locations. And as anyone who’s spent much time on SoCal streets knows, drivers speed everywhere.
But it’s a start.
Let’s hope both pass, or they get merged into a single bill for passage.
And let’s keep on top of it, and keep pressure on our representatives to make sure they do.
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This is a perfect example of why you should register your bike.
Even though the thieves took this bike far from the LA area, Bike Index’ free national stolen bike database helped lead to its safe return.
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
No bias here. A conservative commentator wants bike riders banned from the streets because someone on a bike complained about people blocking bike lanes, albeit in a rude and obnoxious manner. Seriously, we’ve all had to deal with people blocking bike lanes, but try to make the same point without being a total jerk about it.
Further proof that cyclists should be banned from the roadways
In a tragic irony, a Berkeley bike and pedestrian advocate suffered major injuries when she was struck by a driver while riding with her son on a street where walkers and bike riders are supposed to have priority — and just hours after meeting with city transportation officials on how to improve traffic safety.
The owner of a burger bar in Bath, England claims a new bike lane will batter his business. Because evidently, only people who drive eat hamburgers. And if drivers aren’t willing to walk a little further to do business with his shop, maybe he should try making a better burger.
A Manilla website tells the horrible story behind the city’s first ghost bike, installed to honor a bicyclist who was shot to death by a driver in a road rage incident following a too-close pass; his killer is now serving life behind bars. A reminder that you never know who has a gun and a short fuse. Especially here in the US.
And we were struck by what a pleasant shopping street it is.
Or more precisely, what a pleasant street it could be without the constant noise and fumes from all the cars and trucks funneling through.
Maybe someone should explain to the merchants along the route just how much they could benefit from a Complete Street that makes room for their customers, and not just the cars they came in.
And thanks to everyone who let me know this site was down Friday morning. I still don’t know what happened, but it seemed to resolve itself after an hour or so.
Sometimes even I get tired of harping about the need to always carry some form of ID and emergency contact information with you when you ride.
And preferably something that won’t get stolen if you’re incapacitated, which sadly happens far too often.
But this comment, which is reposted with permission from Gravel Bikes California, offers a tragic reminder why it matters.
This is long, but please read to the end.
Yesterday I met my friend Adam Lopez for a ride. We met at Eroica California in 2018 and have ridden together a number of times since he got his gravel bike in 2019. We started in Summerland at 11am and did just a wonderful/casual/beautiful ride through Santa Barbara on fantastic pavement, dirt, and gravel. We stopped for a burger at 4pm and were headed back to the cars when he started slowing down on easy climbs. He said that his heart rate was fine but that the air felt cold in his lungs. We passed butterfly beach and stopped again right before the turn at Jameson. We were 2.5 miles from the cars. He decided to press on since we were mere minutes away. He was pacing me just a few yards behind. Every 15 seconds or so I would glance back and see his light. This happened for a about a mile, and then I glanced back and didn’t see him. I rode maybe 150 feet back and saw that he was collapsed over onto the chain link fence, still clipped in, unresponsive and staring. Myself and passers-by who stopped to help called 911. I started chest compressions until fire arrived just a few minutes later. They took over, shocked him twice, established an airway, and continued cpr for 15 minutes. Unfortunately he never revived. He was gone when he hit the ground. His mother died of a heart attack 9 months ago, and his brother died of a heart attack a few weeks ago.
Now for the reason why I’m telling you this: he didn’t have any emergency contact info on him. Although I’ve known him for a while I only had his cell number. The sheriff was required to follow protocol and have the law enforcement agency closest to Adam’s home do an in person notification. I was absolutely helpless. I did advise the deputy that I authorized him today to give my information to Adam’s family, and his wife made contact with me today. She was happy that at least he died doing the thing he loved. She also told me that he had been feeling tired for some time but hadn’t been checked out yet.
Had he had something like a Road ID wristband we would have much more information, and his family could have been notified much sooner.
Please, I BEG YOU, get something like a Road ID so fellow riders or first responders can help. Please look after your health and get checked. And ride with buddies whenever possible. No one should see and go through what I did. I’m deeply saddened and affected.
As I’ve mentioned before, I always wear a RoadID anytime I leave home, whether or not I’m on my bike.
It serves as both my ID and contact information, and a medic alert bracelet for my diabetes.
I’ve never needed it, and I pray I never will.
But as this story so painfully illustrates, I’d much rather have it on me and not need it, than the other way around.
Yesterday, West Los Angeles Detectives reunited a victim of a bike theft with his stolen bike. The victim had registered his bike on Bike Index which helped detectives to return it to its rightful owner.
Nothing like protesting traffic violence, only to be met by police violence.
Tired of police inaction in the wake of too many deaths and serious injuries, bike riders in Mexico City took to the streets to demand better safety and protection from the police.
In fact, while motor vehicle traffic has decreased as much as 50% in the city due to the pandemic, bicycling deaths doubled over the past year.
But instead of addressing their concerns, the protesters were brutally attacked and beaten by the same officers they were pleading with for help.
Even people who were trying to leave were stopped by multiple cops and brutalized.
Every week in 2021 a cyclist has been killed or brutally injured in Mexico City. Fed up with the utter lack of concern for their lives, bikers took to the streets in protest and were met with this police repression tonight. pic.twitter.com/uDXNYEebEr
The police attacked this Friday night a group of cyclists who were demonstrating in Mexico City. The confrontation took place in the Periférico, one of the main arteries of the city, at the height of the Naples neighborhood, during a bicycle protest to demand justice for the deaths of cyclists in the capital. The head of Government, Claudia Sheinbaum, described as “unacceptable” the aggression of the agents to the demonstrators and assured that the Secretariat of Citizen Security will carry out an investigation to determine responsibilities. This Saturday, the mayor reported that “about 10” agents have already been removed from their positions.
Several protesters were injured in the head and face, according to images released on social networks, when they tried to access the second floor of the Periférico. In the recordings, it is seen how several agents surround some of the participants in the shooting and attack them with blows. The group was protesting to demand justice for the death of cyclists who died in traffic accidents in Mexico City, which in 2020 were more than 16, according to the Bicitekas association.
In the videos posted on social networks, protesters are seen with swollen faces and cuts on their faces after the confrontation. “We were protesting, we were leaving, and they ran, and they grabbed me like eight policemen,” one of the injured assured one of the reporters who was at the scene. “They cut my head open, they hurt my ribs,” said another, sitting on the sidewalk, when the protest, which had gathered around fifty people, already seemed dissolved.
The paper goes on the quote officials as saying an investigation has been launched into who ordered the attack, and the officers who carried it out. And that while some riders also attacked the police, the police had an obligation to maintain the peace, and ones responsible for their actions would be fired.
They get it. The Las Vegas Sun reports that efforts to protect bike riders are gaining traction in the wake of the meth-fueled crash that killed five bicyclists near the city last month, while correctly noting that people on bikes pay for the road, too.
There’s a special place in hell for the driver who ran down a Texas boy and just kept going in a crash caught on security cam; fortunately, the kid only suffered a few scrapes, even though he thinks the driver hit him on purpose.
When a teenaged Chik-fil-A employee won a new car at the company Christmas party, she immediately gave it to a coworker who was riding a bike seven miles each way to work every day through the frigid Wisconsin winter.
Thanks to Robert L for his generous donation to help keep SoCal’s source for bike news and advocacy coming your way every day. Our annual holiday fund drive may be over, but donations are always welcome and appreciated.
January 15, 2021 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on County releases draft LA River master plan, making bike theft a tad too easy, and gravel biking to the Hollywood Sign
Thank you all for the kind words yesterday.
I’m still riding that diabetic rollercoaster, for no apparent reason other than my body wants to do to me what rioters did to the Capital last week.
But if you’re reading this, it means I managed to power through this time.
The county river plan is trying to strike difficult delicate balance on many issues. At this morning’s press event Supervisor Sheila Kuehl mentioned the balance between an overall “coherent holistic” vision and a “great deal of local community control.” Solis touched on the need for river revitalization to serve park-poor low-income communities of color, while addressing issues of gentrification and homelessness. Historically plans for the river have struggled to find the space to address a broad range of needs in communities it flows through; these needs include parks – with both active and passive recreation – housing, schools, and much more.
The plan ends up trying to address all of these issues within a fairly limited jurisdictional corridor. The river system is a tangled jurisdictional mess. County Public Works (acting as the County Flood Control District) controls the river channel structures, but the adjacent, and in cases underlying, land is the jurisdiction of various cities. The county’s jurisdiction is constrained by the federal U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which mandates flood damage minimization standards. The county has little control over the numerous freeways and several rail lines constrain the river. Many of the complex issues that impact the river – from watershed rainwater runoff to homelessness to gentrification – are largely situated outside the waterway corridor itself.
You can watch the presentation, recorded on Zoom like everything else these day. Just ignore the first minute where everyone sits around trying to not look awkward before it gets going.
Of course, what matters to a lot of us is the ongoing plan to complete the gaps in the bike path, particularly through Downtown Los Angeles and the meat packing district to the south, to create a continuous bikeway along the full 51-mile length of the river.
But speaking strictly for myself, I’d much rather ride along a park-filled natural riverbank than on a concrete river underneath a lush park.
Thanks to Fatema Baldiwala for the heads-up.
………
Seriously. At least make it hard for them.
Bike thefts, neighbors complaining biggly this the 2nd bike he's had stolen. Gosh he sure makes it easy to steal. https://t.co/NFn9DhblB6
Someone appears to be targeting the owner of a Poway bike shop, after burglars broke in and vandalized the shop while stealing several high-end mountain bikes worth up to $9,000; another of his shops suffered a second high-end break-in, while a third was vandalized with swastikas and racist graffiti, causing $20,000 damage to a new shop truck.
Police in Austin, Texas have a new bicycle supplier, after Lance’s Mellow Johnny’s bike shop refused to sell to them any more in the wake of the George Floyd protests and the weaponization of police bikes by the cops.
A New Orleans woman awaiting trial for the hit-and-run death of a bike rider last January is back in jail for choking her drunk fiancé to death; she has a history of domestic violence arrests, despite blaming her late boyfriend for attacking her. On the other hand, she apparently only kills in January, so we should all be safe the other eleven months.
A 36-year old Japanese company specializing in unique panda, dinosaur, cucumber and eggplant shaped bicycles is struggling to survive the Covid-19 pandemic. Sort of like everyone else these days.
Women’s cycling great Anna van der Breggen will don double rainbow jerseys reflecting world titles in last year’s road cycling and time trial championships as she enters her final year in the pro peloton.
