Tag Archive for California

CA ebike incentive program launches tomorrow — no, really — and El Segundo bike lanes leave something lacking

December 17, 2024 / / No comments
Just 14 days until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025, a decade of failure in which deaths have continued to climb. 
Yet no city official has mentioned the impending deadline, or the city’s failure to meet it. 

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Just eight days left in the 10th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive!

Thanks to Terese E for her generous, if somewhat lonely, donation keep all the best bike news and advocacy coming your way from around the corner, and around the world. 

But time is rapidly running out for this year’s fund drive. So what are you waiting for?

Stop what you’re doing and give now! 

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It’s now 362 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And a full 42 months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

The California Ebike Incentive Program is finally scheduled to launch tomorrow, so get your application in. They offer these tips to get ready, for better or worse.

Let’s just hope they’re up to the task and have everything ready for the launch after this interminable delay.

We’re counting down the days to our official application launch on December 18, 2024 at 6pm PST — just a few days away!

To help you get ready, here’s a quick checklist of documents you’ll need to have ready when you apply. Documents need to be in a digital format to be uploaded. Digital file types include, but are not limited to PDF files, scans, JPEG or PNG file formats.

  1. Proof of California Residency – California Driver’s License, AB 60 License, or California ID card. The document must be current/valid and issued by the California DMV. If the address on the identification is not up to date, this is a listof documents you can submit.
  2. Proof of Income Eligibility – Provide documents to verify that your annual gross household income is at or below 300% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL). The easiest form to submit is a Federal Tax Transcript, easily downloaded or requested by mail from: tax records and transcripts. If you don’t file taxes, refer to this list of acceptable documents.

Taking a few minutes now to gather these documents will help streamline your application so you’re all set to apply as soon as the window opens.

WHAT CAN I DO NOW TO GET READY?

With just a few days ​until the launch of our electric bike incentives, let’s make sure you’re prepared.

Here’s what you need to focus on:

1) Check your eligibility – Click HERE to learn more about eligibility.

2) Watch our how-to apply video – Click HERE to watch our step by step application process video.

3) Prepare your income verification documents – Click HERE to learn more about income verification.

4) Have your current/valid California ID ready and ensure your ID is up to date to avoid any delays.

5) Watch our 2 online training videos – Click the links below to watch our training videos prior to applying.

6) Check out our FAQ’s – Click HERE to review our FAQ page.

For more information, please visit our website ebikeincentives.org.

Let me know how it goes if you apply.

Because to be honest, I’ve kinda lost interest in the whole damn thing.

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South Bay Forward reports El Segundo has striped new bikes on the city’s newly resurfaced streets.

But the news apparently ain’t pretty.

You can submit your own feedback here.

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Seriously, how whacked out does someone have to be to hit a person riding bicycle hard enough to throw him 65 feet through the air, and have no idea they did it — even though the victim’s bike was still embedded in the bumper of the driver’s car?

A 35-year old man in Boca Raton, Florida faces charges for killing a 41-year old man riding a bicycle, seven hours after he took Adderall, Vyvanse and Gabapentin, despite telling investigators he’s in rehab.

And just moments after he passed another man riding in the same bike lane “so closely (the bike rider) could touch the vehicle.”

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‘Tis the season.

America’s Got Talent host Terry Crews, a former linebacker for the San Diego Chargers of Los Angeles, teamed with current members of the team to give new bicycles to hundreds of students at Compton’s McNair Elementary School.

A San Jose nonprofit founded by a surgical nurse has given away over 50,000 bicycles over two decades.

Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels took part in a DC bike giveaway, where the Raising Cane’s restaurant chain gave away 100 bikes to kids from the Boys & Girls Clubs.

Over 400 donated bicycles are sitting in a North Carolina Salvation Army warehouse waiting for families to come get their free bike.

A Miami car dealer gave dozens of “gently used” bicycles donated by community members to children from the local Boys & Girls Clubs, for the 42nd straight year.

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

Once again, a UK bike lane has been intentionally sabotaged by “anti-bike psychos” who covered it with caltrops, a multi-spiked weapon dating back to the Roman era, resulting in crashes that caused at least one victim to suffer hearing loss; adding insult to literal injury, victims complained that Scottish police just “didn’t give a shit” when informed of the crime. Thanks to Megan Lynch for the heads-up.

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Local  

Don’t forget tonight’s virtual meeting of the Hollywood Hills West Neighborhood Council to discuss the proposed protected bike lanes on deadly Forest Lawn Drive — or at least what passes for protection here in Los Angeles. The project is opposed by Forest Lawn and Mount Sinai cemeteries, in an apparent attempt to drum up more business.

 

State

PeopleForBikes announced the ten winners of their 2024 Industry Community Grants, including ten grand each going to Calbike, Rich City Rides and the East Bay Bicycle Coalition.

Velo recommends five winter bicycling destinations where you can leave your thermal clothes behind, including San Diego and Palm Springs.

Bike Magazine calls Natural State a must-see mountain biking movie; the film premiered in San Luis Obispo earlier this month.

 

National

America Walks has opened applications for their Community Change Grants program to provide mini-grants to organizations working to make walking — and apparently, bicycling — safer and more inviting; one recent grant went to a program to assess pedestrian and bicycle safety in Aptos.

A writer for Cycling Weekly discusses what he learned riding his fixie 100 miles through Arizona’s Sonoran Desert; he calls the bike the best $400 he ever spent.

A Colorado woman pled guilty to tampering with evidence for deleting a text proving she was driving while distracted when she killed a ten-year old boy riding a bicycle; she’s also being tried this week on a second misdemeanor charge, careless driving resulting in death. The crash occurred just an easy nine mile ride from where I grew up.

That’s more like it. A 51-year old Pennsylvania man will spend up to 17 years behind bars for the hit-and-run crash that killed a 31-year old father as he was riding a bicycle.

The Franklin, Tennessee police department locks the barn door after the horses escape, conducting a DUI operation in honor of a 54-year old man killed by a drunken Ft. Campbell soldier while the victim was riding his bike.

According to a new lawsuit, a “deeply religious” business owner is dead because a driver high on “Galaxy Gas,” aka nitrous oxide, killed him in a collision as he rode his ebike on an Atlanta sidewalk; the driver bought a canister of the gas labeled for food and beverage use only at a local smoke shop an hour earlier, and allegedly drove around doing “whippets” to get high.

 

International

Momentum explores the top 15 family-friendly North American bicycling routes and destinations from Alberta, Canada to the Florida Everglades.

A British Columbia letter writer says the city’s multi-use paths are great for recreation, but not so much for bike commuting, and the bike lanes aren’t much better.

 

Competitive Cycling

Czech carmaker Škoda’s We Love Cycling website asks if there should be a salary cap for pro cycling, after Tadej Pogačar got a $2.3 million raise that increased his annual pay to $8.3 million. Although that pales in comparison to Shohei Ohtani’s $70 a year — let alone Cristiano Ronaldo’s $200 million in on-field earnings.

Aleix Espargaro took an early retirement from Gran Prix motorcycle racing to join a professional cycling team, just not as a cyclist; he’ll serve as an ambassador for Lidl-Trek team.

Cycling West recaps last weekend’s US national ‘cross championships.

 

Finally…

Nothing like a fully functional, and yes, rideable, steel framed bike too small for a corgi — and named Big Boy, of course. Colnago wants you to wear their clothes off the bike, too, as long as you have $890 to spend on a polo shirt.

And that feeling when your bike stunt garners a round of applause from the ladies who lunch.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Unless it doesn’t, of course.

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

The victim remained hospitalized in critical condition yesterday.

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

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

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

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

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

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

According the organization,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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‘Tis the season.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Local  

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

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

 

State

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

National

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

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

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

 

International

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

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

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

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

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

 

Competitive Cycling

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

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

 

Finally…

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

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

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Bike riding becomes urban culture war, LA world’s 14th best city, and CA Active Transportation requests dwarf funding`

December 9, 2024 / / No comments
Just 22 short days until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025. 
But not one LA city leader seems to give a damn about it.
Or if they do, they’re not saying anything. 

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It’s Day 11 of the 10th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive!

Thanks to Eric L, Andre V, Mary D, Robert K, Kathleen S, Jordan G, Liam W, James B, Robert L and John G for their generous donations over the weekend to keep SoCal’s best bike news and advocacy coming your way every day.

Now it’s your turn.

So don’t wait. Take a moment, and donate now! 

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Good question.

Momentum wants to know why riding a bicycle in the city is turning into a culture war.

It’s hard to ride a bicycle to work on a regular basis, and not turn into a bike advocate. People want to be safe, and riding a bicycle for transportation currently comes with significant risks. But, years ago, even with critical mass movements, the world naked bike ride, and similar political actions, the bicycle vs. car debate had a tone similar to other civic debates. There were wins, there were losses, and a very slow, glacially slow, movement forward.

Something changed. Maybe there have been too many wins of late for some, but the fight for safe cycling infrastructure to protect bicycles is reaching a fever pitch.

There have been attacks on those campaigning for safe cycling. The rhetoric is unbearably predictable. In Montreal, often see as North America’s most European city with a progressive take on cycling and cycling infrastructure, thumbtacks were thrown onto bike lanes to get a rather stark point across.

Then again, these days it seems like everything is turning into a culture war.

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Los Angeles came in at a surprising 14th on a list of the world’s top 100 cities, based on broad definitions of “livability, lovability, and prosperity.”

After a series of recent centennials, including that of the Hollywood Sign and Warner Bros. Studios, L.A.’s focus is now on its “Decade of Sport.” The Memorial Coliseum and the newly built SoFi Stadium will host a slate of global events, from the 2026 FIFA World Cup to the Olympics and Paralympics in 2028, making L.A. the first U.S. city to host the Olympics three times.

The city of storytelling, already ranking #12 in our Lovability index, will only endear itself even more. Cultural investment is equally ambitious. The Hammer Museum reopened with expanded gallery space, while the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures is captivating visitors with film history. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is reopening its east campus with 110,000 square feet of new gallery space, and the Natural History Museum’s NHM Commons and the Getty’s PST ART series are also contributing to the booming arts scene (and #10 Culture subcategory ranking).

Transportation efficiency is equally prioritized. The new $1.7-billion Regional Connector Transit Project offers direct rail travel across the county, and LAX’s $30-billion overhaul includes a people mover train and the world’s largest car rental facility. An even bolder move is the high-speed rail project Brightline West, connecting L.A. and Las Vegas by 2028.

Although that comment about transportation efficiency may come as a surprise to anyone who spends more time on our streets than on the rails.

Meanwhile, San Francisco came in at two notches higher than Los Angeles at 12th, while San Diego was 44th, and San Jose 62nd.

London topped the list, while New York was the top American city just one notch lower.

Of course, that high ranking probably came before Los Angeles kicked Gotham’s butt twice in two different sports this fall.

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No surprise here, as funding requests for California’s Active Transportation Program far outstripped available funding.

According to Streetsblog, the state received requests for a total of $2.5 billion worth of projects competing for the relatively paltry $85 million in available funds.

That works out to enough state funds on hand for just 3.4% of the requests. A number that seems especially minuscule when compared to the $15.3 billion Caltrans budget, making it equivalent to a lousy rounding error for highway funding.

But at least LA County received its share of funding, with projects in Pomona, Inglewood and Rancho Dominguez totaling $35.6 million.

On the other hand, the Inland Empire counties of Riverside and San Bernardino received exactly nothing.

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A basketball site reminds us that the late, great NBA star Bill Walton was one of us.

“I love my bike. My bike is everything to me. My bike is my gym, my church, and my wheelchair. My bike is everything that I believe in going on in the Biosphere. It’s science, it’s technology, it’s the future, engineering, metallurgy – you name it, it’s right there in my bike. My bike is the most important and valuable thing that I have,” remarked Wallton, per epicrides.

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‘Tis the season.

The San Diego Padres donated 250 bicycles to 3rd grade students at Rosa Parks Elementary School in the City Heights neighborhood.

A Louisiana personal injury attorney gave away hundreds of matching green bicycles to kids in six cities across the state.

Czech carmaker Škoda’s We Love Cycling website lists the “ultimate” holiday gift guide for women bicyclists.

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It’s now 354 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And a full 42 months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

The program is finally scheduled to launch December 18th, so get your application in.

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

A bike counter shows one of the Toronto bike lanes Ontario premier Doug Ford wants to rip out saw 308 bike riders on Thursday — despite freezing temperatures and snow on the ground. Thanks to Donna Samoyloff for the heads-up. 

A Toronto bike advocate says video of an ambulance driver using one of the city’s bike lanes to get around traffic proves the importance of keeping them, despite the plans of the Ontario provincial leaders

Bicyclists in Bristol, England are being randomly attacked by masked assailants on mopeds who are pushing them off their bicycles, then laughing as they ride off; at least one victim suffered a broken collarbone.

No bias here. A British police commissioner says she’s not anti-bicyclist, just “anti the full-Sky-replica-kit Sunday cyclists who ignore red lights and drive three or four abreast in front of me,” and “don’t contribute in vehicle taxes.” If she’d left it at complaining about riders who ignore red lights, she might have had a point, instead of making it clear she’s just annoyed by riders who inconvenience her personally. 

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Local  

Bike Walk Glendale recommends Option 1 to improve North Brand Blvd, and urges you to contact the city’s councilmembers before tomorrow’s vote.

 

State

Bike riders in San Carlos called for safer streets at a meeting of the San Mateo County Transportation Authority, three weeks after a Stanford data scientist was killed by a driver while riding her bike.

If you were hoping to ride a mountain bike or a ped-assist ebike on Marin County’s Mt. Tamalpais, you may have to make other plans, after a judge extended a temporary injunction preventing the Marin Municipal Water District from opening the gates.

 

National

Electrek recommends the best ebikes at every price point to put under your Christmas tree. Or Chanukah bush. Or whatever.

A banking website offers the reasons you should opt for an ebike over an EV.

Seattle is trying to cut the rise in traffic deaths by teaching bike safety to little kids. Although they could do a lot more just by teaching traffic safety to the people in the big dangerous machines. 

Police in the Las Vegas area reminded drivers to pass safely, three months after bicycling deaths topped last year’s total; cops cited 84 drivers for violating the state’s safe passing law in just three hours on Thursday.

Sixty-seven-year old 1984 Women’s Tour de France champ Marianne Martin, the only American to win the grueling 675-mile race, talked with a Denver TV station about the challenges in recovering from a life-threatening solo bike crash that left her with a collapsed lung, 12 broken ribs, fractured clavicle, broken scapula and road rash, after losing control on a steep descent.

A Pennsylvania newspaper looks back to an internationally known local bicycling champ who won a 1896 six-day bike race on a bike he built himself, then ran a bike shop until he was run by a semi-truck in 1955, when he was 89-years old.

 

International

Cycling Weekly says bicyclists are no longer the cool kids, and the real glory goes to paddle boarders this year.

Momentum lists 20 “under the radar” bicycling routes around the world, from Estonia to Laos; New York’s Empire State Trail is the only US route to make the list.

A British man returned home after completing a nearly 4,000-mile bike tour across Europe, only to have his bike and belongings stolen when he stopped for a bowl of noodles in Brighton.

Irish operatic soprano Claudia Boyle is one of us, saying the cargo bike she bought to avoid congestion taking her kids to school is the best investment she ever made, adding “the chats, giggles and memories on the bike is something you can’t buy.”

A Scottish newspaper takes a two-day, 77-mile ride through the Dolomites to Lake Garda along Italy’s DoGa trail — short for Dolomites and Garda — offering some of the country’s best views.

A Ugandan company has developed a solar-powered ebike conversion kit to address the country’s mobility problem.

 

Competitive Cycling

British Olympic champ Katy Marchant suffered a broken arm when she collided with German cyclist Alessa-Catriona Pröpster at Saturday’s UCI Track Champions League in London, and went over the rail into the stands, injuring four spectators; Pröpster was able to walk away after ten minutes, while Marchant was on the floor for half an hour before she was carried out.

Triple Tour de France champ Tadej Pogačar has joined the UN’s ‘Make a Safety Statement’ campaign, saying he lives “the reality of the danger of cycling in traffic almost every day.” Seriously, don’t we all?

 

Finally…

Anyone who doesn’t believe in Santa, try thousands of them on bicycles. And no, using a bicycle to weight down a body is not among the recommended uses.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

LA does squat on speed cams, bike lanes boost property values, and judge in DEA case rules running stop sign “reasonable”

December 6, 2024 / / One comment
Just 25 short days until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025. 
But not one LA city leader seems to give a damn about it.
Or if they do, they’re not saying anything. 

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It’s Day 8 of the 10th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive!

Thanks to Ken S, Bonnie W, Mark J, Kent S and Mari L for their generous donations to keep SoCal’s best source for bike news and advocacy your way every day.

So don’t wait. Take just a moment, and donate now! 

………

According to Streetsblog, not one of the six California cities allowed to use speed cams as part of a pilot program to reduce speeding — or seven, counting late addition Malibu — have actually installed any nearly a full year later.

San Jose, San Francisco, Glendale, and Oakland have publicly announced which locations they are considering for the cameras, while the ‘Bu has begun developing a policy and impact report, as required by law.

But is anyone really surprised that Los Angeles doesn’t appear to have done a damn thing so far?

And stop smirking, Long Beach, because you’re in the same sinking boat with us.

Making matters worse, the proposal for the program originated right here in LA as part of our Vision Zero program. You know, back when we actually had a Vision Zero program.

Maybe someday, our current elected leaders with actually give a damn about protecting human lives, at least as much as our previous leaders.

You know, the ones who were great at announcing new programs, without ever actually implementing them.

At least they’ve that last part down.

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No surprise here, as a new English study has confirmed that bike lanes improve property values, with home prices in Manchester increasing up to 8% after its bikeways went in.

And the closer homes were to a bike lane, the greater the increase, as people were willing to pay more to live close to a bicycle network.

Which could be the best argument yet to overcome the built-in resistance of homeowners to any changes to the local streets in their neighborhood — or to the loss of trees or parking spaces.

As in, “Yes, ma’am, you may have to start using your driveway for its intended purpose, but your home will probably be worth more.”

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An Oregon man expressed his displeasure after a judge dismissed charges against the DEA agent who killed his wife of 27 years as she rode her bicycle — while wearing a hi-viz vest, and with multiple flashers on her bike — accusing the agent of “playing Russian roulette with his vehicle pointed at the public.”

His comments came in response to the judge’s bizarre conclusion that the agent “reasonably” believed he could safely run a stop sign while pursuing a suspect at 12 mph over the posted speed limit, without lights and siren.

After all, what could possibly go wrong?

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‘Tis the season.

Cycling Weekly offers this year’s Cycling Christmas Gift Guide for the bike rider in your life. And yes, it’s perfectly acceptable to give yourself the perfect gift this year.

Czech carmaker Škoda’s We Love Cycling website offers “reasonable” Christmas gifts for bicyclists, because unreasonable gifts are just so passé.

One hundred and twelve Raleigh, North Carolina 3rd graders were surprised with new bicycles and helmets for the holidays, after being told they were just going to an assembly.

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It’s now 351 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And a full 42 months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

Meanwhile, no bias here, as the New Santa Ana website calls the vouchers bad news for public safety, suggesting they’ll be used by “crazy and sometimes criminal juveniles on e-bikes” to further terrorize California residents.

Just wait until they learn about rebates for all those electric cars and Tesla trucks.

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

After posting letters in support of a recent badly misguided and misleading opinion piece attacking DC bike lanes, the Washington Post kept their promise to post letters supporting bike lanes and our basic right to survive on the streets. Although they seem to have ignored my suggestion to just link to my piece dismantling the writer’s arguments.

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Local  

Start the New Year right, or at least the Lunar New Year, with the 47th Annual L.A. Chinatown Firecracker, offering a wide range of runs, bike rides and other assorted activities to ring in the Year of the Snake.

 

State

The popular Cathedral Oaks Road bike path in western Goleta now has a shiny new surface, complete with smoother pavement and clearer markings for bicyclists and pedestrians alike.

Streetsblog takes The San Francisco Standard to task for suggesting that Vision Zero is some sort of unachievable utopian fantasy, arguing that other places have reduced traffic deaths to zero, even if San Francisco hasn’t done enough to get there. Actually, Vision Zero is a utopian fantasy as long as cities adopt it without implementing it, somehow expecting traffic deaths to magically go down. And yes, I’m looking at you, Los Angeles.

 

National

Bicycling explains how the wrong bike fit setup could be what’s making your hands go numb when you ride. Unfortunately, this one doesn’t appear to be available anywhere else, so you’re on your own if the magazine blocks you.

Sheriff’s deputies in Houston, Texas arrested a 22-year old hit-and-run suspect as she was trying to board a plane to leave the state, just hours after she allegedly killed a man riding a bicycle, then abandoned her car a mile away.

Streetsblog Chicago offers a virtual ride down the city’s new protected bike lane, which was build in a converted parking lane.

 

International

Cycling Weekly explains the differences between the various flavors of gravel riders, even if the lines differentiating them are a little blurry.

Eleven inspirational stories of people who took transformative journeys on their bike. Or maybe twelve, counting the author, who sold her belongings and took a year-long global bike tour.

Momentum introduces the Toronto artist who developed a virtually unwinnable bicycling video game to demonstrate the need for safe bike lanes. And yes, spellcheck, unwinnable is a word, so stop changing the damn thing.

Recently retired Italian cycling champ Domenico Pozzovivo was fined the equivalent of slightly less than 20 bucks for riding side-by-side with another rider while training at Lake Como, which is against the law in the country — but said that after getting hit several times by drivers, “As long as I ride a bike, I will always ride in double file. I prefer to pay a fine than risk my life.”

 

Competitive Cycling

Snopes tracks down the truth about an apocryphal story of a 66-year old Swedish man who earned the nickname “Grandpa Steel” when he won an 1,100-mile bike race, despite being denied entry because he missed 40-year old age limit by a mere 26 years. And finds that yes, an elderly man actually was given the nickname “Stålfarfar,” — or “Steel Grandfather” in English — after finishing first in the 1951 Sverigeloppet race, despite being told he couldn’t compete because of his age. But he was 65, not 66, and wasn’t actually the winner, because you can’t win a race you haven’t entered.

Cycling Up To Date questions whether anything can be done to prevent collisions on training rides, after Remco Evenepoel joined the rapidly growing club of pro cyclists who’ve suffered nasty crashes. I mean, aside from building safer streets, requiring automotive warning and active braking systems, and getting drivers to put down their phones and pay attention to the road in front of them, that is. 

 

Finally…

Avoid the festive faux pas of giving the wrong bike stuff this holiday season. Now you, too, can build your own e-cargo bike using a discarded bike frame.

And seriously, anyone can cross a bridge the easy way.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

US traffic deaths down but California deaths up, and worldwide bicycling rates flat but up significantly over 2019

November 27, 2024 / / No comments
Just 33 days until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025. 
But no LA city leader has even mentioned the impending deadline. Let alone done anything about it. 

………

We’ll be taking the next couple days off for the Thanksgiving holiday, and what used to be known as the day after Thanksgiving — better known these days as Black Friday. 

Which means you can spend your time haunting the malls and online retailers in search of the best bargains. Or you can get out on your bike and just be thankful for awhile. 

I know which one I’d choose. 

As always, we’ll be around in case of breaking news over the weekend — hopefully including an arrest in the road-rage murder of 16-year old bike rider Jonathan Flores. 

And come back on Friday, when we’ll kick off the 10th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive, so you can watch me grovel and beg for just a small part of your hard-earned funds to help keep this site going for awhile longer, and maintain the corgi kibble fund. 

………

At last, a little good news.

After years or rising rates, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, aka NHTSA, is reporting that early estimates show traffic fatalities actually declined in the US over the first six months of this year, including pedestrian deaths.

According to the NHTSA,

As compared to the first half of 2023, fatalities in key subcategories in 2024 decreased:

  • 12% during out-of-state travel
  • 9% in ejected passengers
  • 8% on urban interstates
  • 7% in passenger vehicle occupants less than 10 years old
  • 7% in unrestrained occupants of passenger vehicles
  • 7% in passengers
  • 6% in passenger vehicle rollover crashes
  • 6% in passenger vehicle occupants
  • 6% in speeding-related crashes
  • 5% in rural or urban collector roads/local roads
  • 5% involving roadway departure crashes
  • 4% at night
  • 4% during weekends
  • 3% in pedestrians

On the other hand, traffic deaths in California were up slightly over this time last year, climbing a statistically insignificant 0.03%. Although if your loved ones were part of the 0.03%, it’s not so insignificant at all.

Unfortunately, there’s no word yet on bicycling deaths this year.

………

A bicycling website asks if the rate of bicycling around the world is rising or stagnating.

Short answer, yes.

A new report from Eco-Counter, a French company founded just to count bicyclists and pedestrians across every continent, shows that bicycling traffic trends in 14 countries declined 1% last year, compared to 2022.

But that still represents an 11% jump over 2019.

And the news is good here in the US, especially when it comes to bike commuting.

For example, in the US, bicycle volumes went up by 1.7% between 2023 and 2022. Whereas counts on recreational bike facilities decreased by 2.1% during this period, counts on commuter paths increased by 6.9%. Bicycle usage is reverting to pre-pandemic profiles, meaning more weekday riding to work and school and less leisure activity.

Which suggests that if we really want bike commuting rates to grow, we need to invest in safe, convenient routes to major employment centers, rather than focusing on recreational paths.

Maybe someone can give LADOT the memo.

Meanwhile, this is what we could have. But don’t.

………

Our friends to the south are raising funds for safe routes to schools this holiday season.

https://twitter.com/sdbikecoalition/status/1861584562788409398

………

It’s now 343 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And a full 41 months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

………

Local  

The LA city council has finally voted to stop forcing most developers to needlessly widen streets in front of their projects, which UCLA urban planning professor Michael Manville called “probably the dumbest regulation” he has ever encountered; the brief street widenings were often incorrectly blamed on nonexistent plans for future bike lanes.

Westside Today offers more on Metro’s efforts to claw back $435,000 it awarded to fund the successful MOVE Culver City street safety project, after the city’s idiotic decision to rip out the protected bike lanes Metro helped pay for.

An e-scooter rider led South Pasadena police on a moderate speed pursuit, reportedly running multiple red lights at speeds up to 35 mph, which was what got their attention in the first place; the suspect was found carrying a replica handgun and an illegal butterfly knife

 

State

Plans for the permanent closure of San Francisco’s Great Highway are still in the concept state, but the early news is more bike lanes, and less parking.

A Sacramento op-ed explains why the city is converting the downtown area to two-way streets, noting that 100% of fatalities resulting from cars crashing into people occurred on one-way streets.

 

National

Streetsblog’s Joe Linton takes a look at the protected bike lanes and bike/walking paths in a pair of Southern Oregon cities.

A Florida bicyclist and triathlete offers her tips on how to stay safe on the road, but really doesn’t say much, except know and follow the rules for where you live. Which you already do, right?

 

International

Road.cc recommends splurge-worthing presents for bicyclists, for when money is no object. Most of which really aren’t that expensive. Key word: most.

Your prayers for an off-road Brompton have been answered at last.

Good news from Vancouver, where a 15-year old girl is emerging from a coma over a month after she was severely injured in a mountain biking crash, although she faces a very long road to recovery; a crowdfunding campaign to help defray her medical expenses has raised over $71,000 of the $75,000 goal.

Things are looking up on the ‘crash not accident’ front in the UK, where most police departments are now using “incident,” rather than the a-word.

Dockless ebike providers could face fines in London for “willful obstruction” of sidewalks due to “problematic” bike parking. Even though it’s usually their users who dump bikes everywhere but where they’re supposed to be.

Czech carmaker Škoda’s We Love Cycling site considers seven wonders of bicycling infrastructure. None of which are in Los Angeles. Or North America, for that matter.

 

Competitive Cycling

Cyclist looks back at the year’s “record-breaking and heartbreaking” pro cycling season.

The latest battle in pro cycling doesn’t involve people on bicycles, but people arguing about them, as Jonathan Vaughters, head of the EF Education-EasyPost team, blasted “fat cats who have never raced so much as a child’s tricycle” after the director of the Tour de France blamed recent crashes on riders “going too fast.”

Happy 146th birthday to the legendary Major Taylor.

 

Finally…

Maybe Bicycle Face is a thing, after all. When you’re fleeing your 13th arrest, at least do it on a bicycle.

And who says you can’t carry 330 pounds of flagstone on a bike?

………

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

Oh, and fuck Black Friday. And Putin. 

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

California rated 2nd safest state for bicyclists, Louisiana worst; and Complete Streets help boost Metro boardings

November 8, 2024 / / One comment
Just 53 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

Shockingly, California was rated as the second-safest state to ride a bike in, behind only Massachusetts.

That’s despite having the country’s second-highest number of bicycling deaths, after Florida. But as Sports Illustrated notes, we also have the nation’s largest population, and the most drivers.

At the other end of the scale, Louisiana ranked as the most dangerous state for bicyclists, followed by Florida, Arizona and Mississippi.

So maybe you might want to route that dream ride across the US a tad further north, just to be safe

………

Streetsblog says ambitious Complete Streets projects along Reseda and Ventura Blvds have helped Metro reach over 1 million daily bus and train boardings.

However, the picture is more complicated for the 217 bus line on La Cienega Ave, and Hollywood and Los Feliz Blvds, where the quick-build Hollywood Blvd bike lane amounts to just two miles of the expanded 15.5-mile route.

………

It’s now 323 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And a full 41 months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

………

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

Police in Ann Arbor, Michigan are investigating a driver who allegedly responded to getting yelled at for nearly hitting a bicyclist by pointing a gun at the bike rider and threatening him, but they insist it was just an isolated incident and there’s no threat to the public. Although someone who threatens random people with a gun over minor traffic incidents seems like kind of a big public threat to me. But what the hell do I know?

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

A Columbian extreme cyclist and bicycling influencer was killed, along with a 13-year old girl riding on the back of his bike, when he crashed his brakeless gravity bike head-on into motorcyclist while trying to pass a car on the wrong side of the roadway. Thanks to Megan Lynch for the heads-up.

………

Local  

The annual cleanup of Ballona Creek, home to the popular Ballona Creek bike path, will take place tomorrow (scroll down).

Streets For All is joining AARP for a Mobility popup in Westwood a week from Sunday.

 

State

Calbike continues its call for safer vehicles, starting with side guards for large trucks.

A Sacramento TV station examines how the city is using bicycle infrastructure to create safer streets for everyone.

Burglars have hit a Sacramento-area bike shop three times in just ten days, making off with around 100 ebikes worth $120,000.

The Bay Area bucked national trends by electing several safe streets advocates, including Emeryville’s “Bicycle Mayor” John Bauters, who is on the verge of moving on to the Alameda County Board of Supervisors.

 

National

NBC News profiles a Chinese man making his way across the US by bicycle to demonstrate the heart of humanity.

A fraternity at the University of Colorado is riding a stationary bike for nearly six days straight to raise $100,000 to protect bicyclists and pedestrians from distracted drivers.

A Denver bicyclist created a new interactive map showing just how far you can get in the city by bicycle in 15 minutes, to demonstrate the practicality of the 15-minute city.

Bike riders say the nation’s oldest bike path, Brooklyn’s 1894 Ocean Parkway Greenway, is in desperate need of a facelift.

The Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia reminds us that this year’s World Day of Remembrance for the victims of traffic violence will take place on Sunday, November 17th.

 

International

Momentum considers 12 cities with “drop dead gorgeous” waterfront bikeways. San Diego’s Mission Bay makes the list, but evidently LA County’s beachfront Marvin Braude trail just ain’t pretty enough.

The CBC looks at how Montreal became a bicycle-centric city.

Shockingly, the British woman sentenced to over six years for the drug-fueled hit-and-run death of a bike riding man was five times over the legal limit for cocaine. No, what’s shocking is that Britain even has a legal limit for coke.

Smithsonian examines how the infamous Berlin Wall became a 100-mile long bike and pedestrian trail along the former border between the erstwhile East and West Germanys.

Evidently, there’s something funny about watching Aussie cops fall off their bikes riding up a steep, grassy hill.

 

Competitive Cycling

France’s Vélo d’Or, aka Golden Bicycle, will honor fallen Swiss cyclist Gino Mäder with a new award in his name for athletes supporting charitable or societal causes; Mäder was killed in a high speed crash while descending at last year’s Tour de Suisse.

Cyclist ranks the top 50 women’s road cyclists of the 2020s; you know it’s a tough list when the legendary Marianne Vos only comes in at number 6.

Cycling Up To Date ranks the top five male Belgian cyclists of this century; again, it’s a tough list when Remco Evenepoel can only hit number 3.

 

Finally…

Your next bike helmet could call for help if you actually put it to use. Your next cargo ebike could be a funky reverse tricycle.

And when you’re riding on Friar Truck Road with meth on your bike, put some damn lights and reflectors on it.

The bike, I mean, not the road. Or the meth.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

A $7 million SD safety fail, U-T sharrows fail, and taking a pass on what passes for record CA traffic safety investment

October 3, 2024 / / Comments Off on A $7 million SD safety fail, U-T sharrows fail, and taking a pass on what passes for record CA traffic safety investment
Just 88 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

L’Shana Tova to everyone celebrating the new year today!

And apropos of nothing, I’m happy to report I wrote today’s entire post wearing a T-shirt with a bear riding a bicycle, as bears are wont to do. 

Just saying.

………

Call it a $7 million fail — one that ultimately cost the life of a San Diego bike rider.

That’s the amount the city paid out to the family of Marc Woolf, who died 17 months after he was struck by a pair of drivers and paralyzed from the next down, dying of sepsis 17 months later.

Woolf was on his way home from his job at the San Diego zoo in May, 2021 when a driver coming out of a blind driveway backed into him, knocking him onto the other side of the street, where he was hit again by second driver.

But instead of blaming the drivers, Woolf’s legal team accused the city of creating and maintaining poor road conditions.

According to San Diego CBS8, those conditions included —

  • Restricted site lines and distances caused by physical conditions
  • Insufficient red curb prohibiting parked cars
  • Overgrown vegetation
  • Confusing and misleading shared lane striping
  • An improperly maintained light fixture which was not functioning on the night of the incident

The station reports the city finally extended the red curb to improve sightlines along the corridor in response to the crash.

As usual, only acting after it was too late.

Now Wolff’s family is $7 million richer, and the city’s taxpayers are $7 million poorer.

But as his daughter notes, no amount of money can bring Wolff back, or ease the pain the new grandfather suffered for so many months.

Meanwhile, the Union-Tribune blamed sharrows in general for the crash.

The case highlights the potential dangers of “sharrows,” marked bike routes that require cars and bicycles to share portions of roadway instead of giving cyclists areas reserved only for them.

I’m no fan of sharrows, which studies have shown to be worse than nothing when it comes to protecting the safety of bike riders.

But that’s a discussion for another day.

The paper was clearly mistaken, at best, in blaming any and all sharrows for this particular crash, rather than the poorly designed and implemented sharrows on this one particular street.

I’ve heard that some San Diego bicyclists have called on the paper for a retraction.

And they may have a point this time.

………

California is making a record investment in traffic safety and enforcement as traffic deaths continue to rise, according to the Governor’s office.

The California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) is awarding a record $149 million in federal funding for 497 grants that expand safe biking and walking options and provide critical education and enforcement programs that will make roads safer throughout the state. This is the third consecutive year of historic funding, exceeding last year’s amount by $21 million.

Yet that record spending to “expand safe biking and walking options” includes just $13 million for bicycle and pedestrian safety programs, up a modest 12% from the previous grant cycle.

Even though bicyclists and pedestrians account for most, if not all, of the recent increase in traffic deaths.

Meanwhile, a whopping $51 million will go to law enforcement agencies to conduct what’s described as “equitable enforcement targeting the most dangerous driving behaviors such as speeding, distracted and impaired driving, as well as support education programs focused on bicycle and pedestrian safety.”

In other words, more daylong — or usually, just a few hours — enforcement actions targeting violations that could put bicyclists and pedestrians at risk, regardless of who commits them.

Which, to the best of my knowledge, hasn’t been proven to do a damn bit of good reducing deaths or serious injuries among either group.

So if that’s what passes for a record investment, I’ll pass.

………

Streets For All politely reminds Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass that Measure HLA applies to Metro projects in the City of Los Angeles, too.

Never mind that the city’s barely competent and very conservative City Attorney’s Office continues to drag its feet on crafting guidance for city departments regarding the measure, nearly seven months after it went into effect after passing overwhelmingly.

Meanwhile, Streetsblog’s Joe Linton reports that new bike lane mileage in Los Angeles fell to a five-year low for the most recent fiscal year, adding up to a massively underwhelming 22.5 lane-miles of new and improved bike facilities.

And remember, lane-miles means they count each side of the road separately, so we’re only talking a measly 11.25 miles of actual street.

Then there’s this.

While there is some year-to-year variation, and some lag time between project planning getting underway and on the ground upgrades, the first full fiscal year does not look like a promising start for Mayor Karen Bass. Bass has prioritized critical housing issues and not paid much attention to safer multimodal streets – at least not yet. FY2024 did see Mayor Karen Bass appoint Laura Rubio-Cornejo to head the city Transportation Department (LADOT). Rubio-Cornejo replaced interim GM Connie Llanos last September.

No shit.

If anyone has heard Bass even mention safer and/or multimodal streets, let me know. Because I sure as hell haven’t heard it.

Then again, the city’s freeze on resurfacing projects to avoid implementing HLA hasn’t helped.

And neither has Bass’ continued failure to meet with us.

………

Momentum wants to see your pics of bike lane fails, of which we should have more than a few.

https://twitter.com/MomentumMag/status/1841505396596342989

………

Presenting the cutest BMX balance bike stunt video you’ll see all day.

………

It’s now 288 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And an even 40 months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

Meanwhile, apparently tired of waiting, San Francisco will consider a proposal for their own yet-to-be defined ebike rebate program.

That deafening silence you hear is Los Angeles not considering one.

………

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

Apparently, elected office provides no protection from dangerous drivers, as an Ottawa, Canada city counselor captures a way-too-close punishment pass on his bike cam while riding past several parked cars.

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

Maybe something was lost in translation, as an Ottawa letter writer complains about the incivility of local bicyclists who “love listening to the music of the folk group With No Headphones,” while riding their bikes without a “ten dollar doorbell.”

………

Local  

Looks like they slipped one past us this time, as a planned two-day closure last week for repairs on the Ballona Creek Bike Path only took one day, with the path reopening before some of us (i.e. me) knew it wasn’t.

Start times for the Long Beach Marathon have been moved up due to a high heat warning, with the bike tour now scheduled to start the same time as the runners at 5:30 am.

Speaking of Streets For All, the Los Angeles-area transportation PAC is hosting a fundraiser in Franklin Hills this Sunday afternoon.

 

State

The CHP has received a $1.55 million federal grant for year-long initiative focusing on “educating the public and enforcing traffic safety laws for drivers, bicyclists and pedestrians.” Maybe they could spend some of the money on educating their patrol officers a little better on bike law and how to investigate collisions involving bicyclists. 

San Diego was dubbed the greenest city in the US for the third year in a row; needless to say, Los Angeles wasn’t, coming in 18th.

San Diego pediatrician Dr. Mike Nelson dropped by a Claremont Mesa fire station to thank the first responders who saved his life when he crashed his bicycle on the way to an appointment a couple months back.

A San Francisco neighborhood is tearing itself apart fighting over a proposal to permanently close a highway to motor vehicles, even though it’s eroding into the ocean anyway.

 

National

Momentum offers ten “amazing coastal cities” in the US for bicycling; Santa Barbara is #9 on the list, while Huntington Beach is #2 — even though three people lost their lives riding in the city in just the last 12 months.

Bicyclists in the Pacific Northwest are challenging online marketplaces like OfferUp to do more to fight the reselling of stolen bikes on their platforms.

An editorial from a local Boston paper says bicycling isn’t safe in the city. Then again, the same could be said in virtually any city in the US. Los Angeles included. 

A proposed Pennsylvania law could authorize parking-protected bicycle lanes for the first time in the state.

Washington DC’s Reagan National Airport is encouraging travelers to skip the taxi and ride their bikes to the airport. Maybe LAX should be taking notes.

More proof bikes make the best emergency vehicles, as a North Carolina family grabbed their chainsaws and hopped on their bicycles to rescue the family’s 87-year old matriarch when they couldn’t contact her after Hurricane Helene.

 

International

Bike Radar considers why mixed-terrain ultra-distance cycling events are rising in popularity.

Residents of a British Columbia city aren’t sold on plans for a new bike path if it means chopping down a tree.

London bicyclists will soon be shuttled through a new motor vehicle-only tunnel under the Thames on special double-decker buses.

The rich get richer, as London bicyclists will soon get a £4 million — $5.3 million — bike route through the heart of the city.

There won’t be any more changes to the UK’s infamous “optical illusion” bike lane, even though it’s led to more than 100 trip and fall injuries. Sounds like they need better injury attorneys over there. 

 

Competitive Cycling

That’s Sir Mark Cavendish to you, as the Manx Missile gets knighted at Windsor Castle. Unless you’d rather call him the new High Performance Ambassador for Aston Martin.

Cyclinguptodate compares UCI to the Mafia for the way they managed the recent Zurich world championships, arguing that the organization implements rules, then neither complies with or implements them.

Rouleur considers the recent rise of WorldTour mega-contracts.

 

Finally…

Maybe your new wireless shifters can be hack-proof, after all. Now you, too, can trade your ten gallon hat for a helmet and bike through LBJ’s Texas ranch.

And maybe you were a bicycling British soldier in a past life, bad teeth be damned.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

Get ready for Clean Air pontificating today, and written test waived for elderly California drivers – for better or worse

October 2, 2024 / / 6 comments
Just 89 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025. 

……..

Happy California Clean Air Day.

That joyful day when all the elected officials and bureaucrats who blocked active street and transit projects and approved highway expansions will bend over backwards to tell us all just how important clean air is.

Then again, those of us who have been biking, walking and using transit have actually been doing something about it all along.

Today you can do something about it for free on virtually any SoCal transit system, Metro included.

And yes, bicycling and walking are still free. At least for now.

https://twitter.com/metrolosangeles/status/1840891052364087321

Meanwhile, it’s also National Week Without Driving, and SoCal Transit Week.

And Metro Bike will wrap things up with a Clean Air Day Joy Ride through DTLA on Saturday, which isn’t Clean Air Day.

But close enough, I guess.

Top image from Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay.

………

Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez celebrates that California drivers over 70 will no longer have to deal with “irritating technical glitches, confusing options and maddeningly irrelevant test questions” by having to take a written test to renew their driver’s licenses.

I mean, what could possibly go wrong?

It’s not like traffic laws have changed in the 50 or 60 years since they first started to drive.

Or last year, even.

I understand the inconvenience, and the fear of losing the driver’s license someone has depended on for so many years in our car-dependent society.

But I also understand the risk posed by people who don’t have a working knowledge of current traffic laws. Like understanding that bike riders are allowed to take the lane on most right lanes in the state, for instance.

Or that some older people shouldn’t be driving at all anymore.

Myself, included.

Meanwhile, in a totally unrelated story, a British woman has become the oldest person convicted of causing death by dangerous driving in that country, at the tender age of 96.

Because we all know drivers, like fine wine, just get better as they age.

Right?

………

A new Calbike report is calling out Caltrans for its repeated failure to build Complete Streets, in violation of their own policies.

Here’s what the organization says about the report, titled Incomplete Streets: Aligning Policy with Practice at Caltrans.

The report details where Caltrans has succeeded in adding elements for people biking, walking, and taking transit when it repairs state roadways that serve as local streets. But the findings also detail, for the first time, evidence of where Caltrans falls short, using data to show pattern and practice at the agency and case studies to illustrate how district staffers downgrade and leave out infrastructure people biking and walking on Caltrans projects.

It should make for a good light read for these long autumn nights.

………

Streetsblog’s Joe Linton takes an up-close look at the new modular curbs on the Main Street protected bike lane in DTLA, expressing hope they can quickly be expanded throughout the city.

Close-up photo of the modular curbs on Main Street at Spring by Streetsblog’s Joe Linton

While they aren’t bulky enough to keep all drivers out of the bike lane, as Linton notes, they could be enough to discourage more people from parking and driving in them.

And they beat the hell out of the usual plastic car-tickler bendy-posts LADOT seems so enamored with.

Let’s hope they try them out on other bike lanes, as well.

Because they could prove to be a fast and relatively inexpensive solution to LA’s painful lack of curb-protected lanes, in a city that doesn’t seem to know the meaning of quick-build.

………

This is who we share the road with.

A Greenfield, California man will spend the next 30 years to life behind bars for intentionally killing a random pedestrian, after leading police on a chase through Monterey County in a stolen car.

Twenty-seven-year old Paulo Cesar Alcaraz Ortiz tried and failed to run down several other people on the street, in the mistaken belief that it would cause the police to stop chasing him.

That is, until he successfully ran down and ran over Guadalupe Garcia with the hot car on his second attempt, after chasing Garcia through a field.

………

A New York photographer captures what Streetsblog calls “the unexpected beauty of the Williamsburg Bridge’s less-than-perfect design.”

I just call it a damn good shot.

………

It’s now 287 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And an even 40 months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

………

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

No bias here. A transportation policy analyst from the libertarian Reason Foundation calls out the failure of Complete Streets in California and Vision Zero Los Angeles, years after their passage, while failing to note that neither one has been adequately funded or implemented — as evidenced by a new law requiring Caltrans to implement their own damn Complete Streets policy.

Bedford, England has banned bicyclists from riding through the city centre, uh, center, in response to bike riders “flying through” and endangering pedestrians — but they’re also fining people for getting off and walking their bikes.

Two British men have been sentenced to a well-deserved 14-and-a-half years each after police arrested them for deliberately running down a pedestrian — and discovered video on one’s phone showing them intentionally running down someone on a bicycle days earlier.

………

Local  

Streetsblog visits the new bike lanes on hilly Avenue 51 and Townsend Ave in Eagle Rock and Highland Park, calling them a “worthwhile modest step toward safer, more multimodal streets.” Although they only have sharrows on the downhill side. 

Call it a win for the Department of DIY, as Los Angeles makes the guerrilla crosswalks at Council and Westmoreland in Koreatown permanent, a year after they were surreptitiously striped by Crosswalks LA.

West Hollywood is hosting a mobility expo in Plummer Park this Saturday.

Um, okay. An Indian American entrepreneur, as opposed to an American Indian entrepreneur, has launched the “revolutionary” CaliBike ebike brand in Corona, bizarrely positioning it as the perfect last-mile complement to the coming Brightline West high speed rail line between Las Vegas and Rancho Cucamonga. Because it’s just too revolutionary for regular trains, I guess.

 

State

Don’t plan on driving — or riding — all the way on California’s iconic coastline Highway 1 until next year at the earliest.

Orange County will invest $55 million in improved street lighting to improve safety for pedestrians and bicyclists.

The California State Universities Board of Trustees has signed off on a proposal for a new bridge on Fenton Ave over the San Diego River, providing car, bike and pedestrian access to Snapdragon Stadium in Mission Valley.

A Fresno man in his ’60s was hospitalized with major injuries when he was hit by a car, which apparently didn’t have a driver, after “riding his bike into traffic.” Which could mean almost anything, or absolutely nothing. 

Sacramento safety advocates are calling for armadillo traffic dividers to be installed in intersections to stop automotive sideshows.

 

National

Streetsblog says maybe it’s time to stop calling bike lanes “bike lanes,” arguing that a rebrand is in order since they “can slow dangerous car traffic, give walkers more space to move, and save lives across all modes by getting would-be drivers into the saddle instead.”

Bicycling looks forward to sales on some of their favorite bike products ahead of next week’s Amazon Prime Days. Which probably isn’t paywalled because they likely get a piece of any clickthrough sales, but you can read it on AOL, anyway. 

The NTSB finally got around to issuing its report on the Goodyear, Arizona mass casualty crash that killed two bicyclists and injured 14 others, blaming driver Pedro Quintana-Lujan’s “diminished state of alertness, likely due to fatigue;” he faces just 11 misdemeanor charges, despite having a “small amount” of THC in his system at the time of the crash.

Bighearted staffers at a Sioux Falls, South Dakota coffeeshop pitched in to give a new ebike to dishwasher at the restaurant, after the bicycle he rode to and from work every day broke down — again.

They get it. Chicago Streetsblog tells a local website that merchants claiming a new bike lane could put them out of business is not a legitimate news story worthy of investigation, any more  than the news item “Merchants say Bigfoot exists.”

Next City asks if low-cost, self-charging ebike libraries can bring newfound mobility to low-income communities in Massachusetts.

Rochester, New York’s Larry the Bike Man donated hundreds of refurbished bicycles to local kids, as the local paper says “everyday heroes don’t always wear capes.” Indeed.

The New York Times wraps up their short-lived Street Wars newsletter by noting the constant state of change on the city’s streets, observing that new battles over traffic and radical solutions mean they won’t always be like this, for better or worse.

Talk about bad luck. A North Carolina bike shop owner got hammered by Hurricane Helene, 19 years after she was chased out of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina.

 

International

Saskatoon, Saskatchewan has installed green bike boxes at an intersection where a killed in a right hook by the driver of a cement truck last year. Proving once again that commonsense safety improvements usually only come after it’s too late. 

Scottish bicyclists have proclaimed a local zig-zagging bike lane the world’s worst. We should invite them to ride with us here in SoCal sometime.

A columnist for The Guardian considers the lesson’s learned falling off a Lime Bike on the streets of London, conceding her initial impression was correct, that “they are a young hoodlum’s game, not an old hoodlum’s game.”

Men’s Health talks with Tokunbo Ajasa-Oluwa, founder of London’s Black Unity Bike Ride, who says people “hear and feel our joy coming through” before they even see them. Which pretty much sums up what bicycling is all about. 

Another UK bicycle company has gone belly-up, after the major distributor behind the Orro Bikes brand filed the equivalent of bankruptcy, and sent workers home without last month’s pay.

 

Competitive Cycling

No one seems to have seen the crash that killed 18-year-old Swiss cyclist Muriel Furrer during the junior women’s road world championships last week, and no cameras captured her riding off the rain-slicked roadway; in fact, her body wasn’t found for over an hour after she crashed, once people finally realized she never crossed the finish line.

The greatest cyclist of all time says Tadej Pogačar is the real goat, arguing that Pogačar has now topped anything Eddy Merckx did himself.

 

Finally…

Your Everesting record is now obsolete. We may have to deal with aggressive LA drivers, but at least we don’t have to worry about rampaging escaped rhinos — even if the victim was on a motorcycle, but still.

And the late, great Kris Kristofferson was one of us, too.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

CA Governor Newsom signs bills to speed coastal bike lanes, and ban requiring road widening with new construction

September 24, 2024 / / 2 comments
Just 97 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025. 

Photo of protected bike lane in Redondo Beach by Ted Faber.

……..

Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill that will make building bike lanes near the coast faster and easier by removing a requirement for a Coastal Commission study.

………

The state also stepped in where Los Angeles tried and failed, as Newsom signed a bill banning cities from requiring automatic road widening with new building projects.

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The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition is launching a new campaign to “demand a visionary Biking and Rolling Plan from our city officials, that helps us achieve our transportation, climate, and congestion goals — and makes our streets safer and more joyful. ”

Thanks to Megan Lynch for the heads-up.

………

Demi Moore is one of us — or was, anyway — riding her bike 60 miles roundtrip from her Malibu home to the Hollywood studio where she was filming Indecent Proposal back in the ’90s, to lose weight after the birth of her second child. Then again, the Boss was one of us back in the day, too.

………

Add this one to the pantheon bad headlines.

Because of course it was the woman on the bicycle who hit the car, and not the other way around. And yes, there might have been a driver involved, too.

………

It’s now 279 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And 39 full months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

………

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

An English bike rider narrowly avoided serious injury when copper thieves failed to replace a manhole cover on a narrow bike path, leaving a large, gaping hole.

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

A group of bike-riding Stockton, California teens caused a couple thousand dollars damage by throwing terracotta pots at passing cars. Although it’s questionable what their bicycles had to do with it.

………

Local  

There will be a public meeting in El Monte tomorrow evening to discuss dedicated bus lanes and class IV physically separated bike lanes on Rosemead Blvd in South El Monte.

Streets For All endorsed Santa Monica’s Measure K increasing the city’s Parking Facility Tax to improve traffic safety and safe routes to schools, while rejecting Measure PSK to divert half of that new revenue to the cops and other public safety departments.

 

State

Residents of San Diego’s Pacific Beach neighborhood are just the latest to complain about teenaged kids recklessly riding ebikes, although the ones shown are better classified as low-powered electric motorcycles.

Police in Santa Barbara busted a trio of suspected knife-wielding bike thieves after tracking them with an AirTag.

Ouch. A Fresno bicyclist was rushed to surgery with multiple stab wounds after his bike was stolen by a man armed with a garden rake.

Speaking of Fresno, the local cops wrote 206 citations during the city’s latest bicycle and pedestrian safety operation on Saturday, including 41 bicyclists and pedestrians.

 

National

Bicycling offers budget-friendly upgrades to improve your bike rides. But reading the article isn’t one of them, because you’ll need a subscription to do it. 

NPR’s Code Switch podcast considers the question of whether bike lanes cause gentrification, as UCLA researcher Adonia Lugo says says that’s the kind of question you have to ask to be part of the mobility justice movement.

Now you, too, can ride you bike to the 14,115-foot summit of Colorado’s iconic Pikes Peak — home to the iconic Pikes Peak Hill Climb auto race — covering 19 miles and more than 6,500 feet of vertical gain.

Houston’s Metro transportation agency pulled the plug on the city’s $10.5 million bikeshare program.

The Illinois State University student newspaper asks if bicycling is a form of civic engagement. Short answer, yes. Longer answer is the same.

Sad news from Massachusetts, where Parlee Cycles founder Bob Parlee died at age 70 after a four-year battle with cancer; Cycling Weekly credits Parlee with “revolutionizing the handmade bicycle industry with his expertise in composite materials.”

A handful of New York bicyclists found a way to game the Citi Bike bikeshare algorithm, earning thousands of dollars a month by bike flipping — moving bikes from one station to another, then moving them back 15 minutes late. Thanks again to Megan Lynch.

BMX pro Nigel Sylvester introduced a new version of his Nike Bike Air shoes at the Sneaker Con convention in New York, but no word on whether they will be released to the public.

A Baltimore program teaches kids how to fix their own bicycles, repairing their perspectives in the process.

 

International

A strategist for a London ad agency says bicycle brands need to reduce the cost of bikes before they lose the next generation of bicyclists.

A Chinese website looks back to consider how Shanghai became the country’s city of bicycles, producing China’s first bicycle in the 19th Century, before becoming home to the Phoenix and Forever brands after the communist revolution.

 

Competitive Cycling

L39ion of Los Angeles crit specialist Skylar Schneider is making her way back to the WorldTour, rejoining the SD Worx-Protime team three years after leaving to race in the US.

The African cycling movement continues to grow, as Tanzanian cyclist Richard Laizer became the first rider from the country to compete in the worlds.

Belgian pro Thomas De Gendt called it a career after 16 years with the pro tour, including stage wins in Tour de France, Giro and Vuelta.

 

Finally…

No, your ebike isn’t supposed to go 70 mph — especially on city streets. Your new ebike could be just one letter from a real schmuck.

And it’s never too early for a skeletal pedicab driver.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

Guest Post: Take a brief SAFE survey to influence the future of California traffic safety

August 21, 2024 / / Comments Off on Guest Post: Take a brief SAFE survey to influence the future of California traffic safety

I received the following email from Sonia Garfinkel of Streets Are For Everyone, asking to share a brief survey about California traffic laws.

Since I’m still working with one hand, I asked if I could share her letter in the form of a guest post.

So please take just a few moments to compete this important survey, and help influence the future safety on our streets.

My name’s Sonia, and I’m pleased to be writing a guest post for this great community and readership. My organization, Streets Are For Everyone (known as SAFE), works to improve the quality of life for pedestrians, bicyclists, and drivers alike by reducing traffic fatalities to zero. SAFE is conducting a research project focused on California drivers’ knowledge of driving laws, and we need your responses! We will use the response data to guide SAFE-sponsored legislation that will require the California DMV to provide updated education on existing and new driving laws. In order for this survey to be equitable and representative, we need to collect data from as many communities as possible.

That’s where you come in! We would love for you to take our 5-minute survey on California driving laws. We would also appreciate it if you could share our survey to your networks via social media, email, or any other method. We have created a social media toolkit to make it easier to share the survey.Thank you for your responses, and your help!

Explanation of our Survey

California Driving Laws Survey (English Version)

California Driving Laws Survey (Spanish Version) 

Social Media Toolkit

Best,

Sonia Garfinkel, on behalf of SAFE.

Category: Guest Columns / Tags: , , , , , , ,
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