Tag Archive for California Air Resources Board

Missing the point on ghost bikes, El Segundo’s new substandard bike lanes, and CA’s failed ebike voucher plan

July 26, 2024 / / One comment
Just 158 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025. 

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An Altamont NY writer kinda misses the point about ghost bikes.

He notes that it’s natural to grieve, and we don’t all do it in the same way. But wonders whether it’s healthy to be reminded of these tragedies every time you pass by, and questions who wants to see something like that, anyway?

But that’s the point.

None of us want to see that. But we all need to be reminded what happened there.

Because a ghost bike is more than just a memorial. It’s a reminder to everyone who sees it about the fragility of human life, and the need to drive in a way that respects that.

A ghost bike is a searing reminder to respect the safety of people on bicycles, and to take your damn foot off the gas, for once.

Personally, I hate the damn things. I hope we never have to install another one.

But I will support ghost bikes until they’re not needed any more. And the last person killed riding a bike on our streets really is the last one.

Photo of ghost bike for fallen South LA bicyclist Frederick “Woon” Frazier by Matt Tinoco.

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Evidently, substandard is the new standard. At least in El Segundo.

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It’s now 218 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And 37 full months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

Meanwhile, Streetsblog’s Melanie Curry has taken an in-depth look at the program. Or at least as in-depth as possible, given the closed-door decision making process, obtuse public pronouncements and obvious obfuscation.

Her piece was posted under the headline What the Heck is Going on with the State E-bike Incentive Program? Which is about as politely stated as possible given the subject matter.

I would have used another word starting with H instead of heck. And even that would be an effort to censure my own thoughts on the subject.

Curry writes that the California Air Resources Board, aka CARB, has continually promised that the the program, which is currently funded at $30 million after the state legislature sweetened the pot, will launch “soon.”

Sometimes that’s sometime in the next quarter, or the one after that. But every time, their self-imposed deadline has come and gone, with barely a dime laid out.

The soft launch that we’ve heard virtually nothing about has funded just 77 vouchers, mostly in the San Diego area, according to Curry. But no dollar amounts have been announced.

And if San Diego rings a bell, it’s because that’s where program administrator Pedal Ahead is located. And where Pedal Ahead and its CEO are reportedly being investigated amid accusations of mixing public and private funds.

As Curry explains,

And now, two recent articles in the San Diego Union Tribune say that the program’s administrator is “under investigation” by multiple agencies for various improprieties, and is being sued by one of its employees who says he wasn’t paid for work he did, and that the nonprofit mixed public money and private business.

When CARB announced that they had chosen Pedal Ahead as administrator for the program in 2022, advocates were quietly but frantically worried that a big mistake had been made. Rumors swirled about Pedal Ahead’s founder, Ed Clancy, and questions were raised about his personal connections to former CARB board member Nathan Fletcher, who helped Clancy launch his organization, Rider Safety Visibility (RSV), of which Pedal Ahead is a part.

But no one would go on record with their concerns, and CARB staff insisted that (former CARB board member, California Assembly Member and current San Diego County Supervisor Nathan) Fletcher had zero influence over the decision. They chose Pedal Ahead, they said, because of the organization’s experience with e-bikes.

Nope. Nothing to see there.

Never mind the apparent conflict of interest that led to Pedal Ahead’s selection, despite an application that wasn’t exactly on point, to be kind.

Rider Safety Visibility turned in an application that implied it would recreate the program it was running in San Diego. But that program was not at all like the state’s plan. That is, the Pedal Ahead program run by RSV is a “loan-to-own” program wherein income-qualified people are given e-bikes, which they could keep after a certain period of time as long as they fulfilled certain requirements, like riding at least 35 miles a week and bringing them in regularly to be checked (and to have their mileage checked on Strava units included on the bike).

The statewide plan, in contrast, would give money to people to buy their own e-bikes.

Nothing to see there, either.

So let’s be honest.

At this point, it’s obvious that the California ebike voucher program is just one massive clusterfuck, with no public openness or accountability.

And it’s long past time for the California Attorney General’s office to audit the program, and open a criminal investigation if it’s warranted.

Because I highly suspect it is.

So if anyone wants to pass this on to them, I’m fine with that.

Thanks to Ellectrek for the heads-up. And to Melanie Curry for her reporting. 

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

A road raging, hit-and-run driver was arrested in Ventura County after plowing into a bicyclist riding at the back of a group on LA’s Mandeville Canyon Road; he’s then seen honking and yelling at the bike riders filming him as he plows through a gate, before engaging in a brief police chase and crashing once again in Malibu.

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

A Florida man has been busted on hit-and-run charges after crashing his speeding ebike into a man playing soccer on the beach, then fleeing the scene. Yet another reminder that you have as much responsibility to stop after a crash as a driver does. Even though they too often don’t.

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Local 

Police are looking for a man suspected of stabbing a man in his mid-40s at the the North Hollywood Metro station, before fleeing on a black bicycle.

Once again, a bicyclist is a hero, as a Venice rider rode his pedicab between boardwalk brawlers to break up a fight.

Beverly Hills plans to restripe the existing bike lanes on Burton Drive, after completing the current repaving project.

Claremont approved spending $41,000 to continue funding the GoSGV bikeshare.

Agoura Hills is rolling out a new bike plan, after receiving a $1.6 million federal transportation grant.

 

State

San Diego intends to use eminent domain to seize two pieces of private property in La Jolla considered essential for completing the Coastal Rail Trail bikeway.

The Ventura County coastline is now officially part of US Bike Route 95.

 

National

National Geographic — yes, it’s still around — recommends the best road cycling gear for beginners.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission, aka CPSC is warning bike riders to immediately stop using Camzimo bicycle helmets, which may not provide adequate protection in a fall.

Oh, hell no. Bicycling wants to know if you’d buy a $100 water bottle. For a change, read it on AOL if the magazine blocks you. 

For what seems like the first time in recorded history, a cop in North Platte, Nebraska offers safety advice for bicyclists that doesn’t once mention wearing a helmet. Although I’m not sure about the requirement to have a front bike light “that protrudes up to 500 feet,” which seems just a tad excessive. And dangerous.

Bill Belichick is one of us, as the 72-year old former NFL coaching great went for a Nantucket bike ride with his much younger girlfriend, after apparently confusing himself with the star of a Woody Allen film.

The New York Times offers a very belated obituary for 1930’s Belgian trans cyclist Willy de Bruyn, who broke gender barriers by announcing he wanted to live as a man, after winning a number of women’s cycling competitions.

No surprise here. The Philadelphia DA announced that the driver who killed a pediatric oncologist as she was riding her bike in the city last week was traveling at twice the posted 25 mph speed limit, with a blood alcohol level twice the legal limit; the 68-year old driver has been charged with vehicular manslaughter, involuntary manslaughter, DUI, reckless driving and other assorted offenses.

Kindhearted Brevard County, Florida sheriff’s deputies bought a new bike for a nine-year old girl after hers was stolen.

In the saddest story of the day, a three-year old Florida boy was killed when he was hit-by a driver while he was riding his bike with family members.

 

International

Toronto suffered its fifth bicycling fatality of the year — more than the previous four years combined — when a woman was struck by the driver of a dump truck, who was apparently unable to stop the large truck when parked cars blocking a bike lane forced the woman into the traffic lane.

Forget cycling. British bike hero Chris Boardman, who won the men’s individual pursuit at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, wants to own a Sussex football club. That’s soccer to those of us on this side of the pond.

Rouleur recommend five unique Parisian bicycling spots to visit during the 2024 Olympics, which start today.

Even in the midst of war, Ukrainian bicyclists call for the preservation of Kyiv’s “American Girl” bike park, one of the oldest in the city. And apparently one of the few sites the Russians haven’t managed to bomb. Yet.

 

Finally…

That feeling when your helmet and goggles-clad terrier is a biketouring RAGBRAI ruff rider. Or when you hold a memorial ride for bike-riding fallen feline.

And when a stray pup joins in on an indefinite bike ride around the world.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

Nonprofit overseeing CA ebike voucher program under investigation, and Gordon Ramsay says “wear your helmet”

June 17, 2024 / / One comment
Just 198 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025.

Image by Maxfoot from Pixabay.

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And that, my friends, is when it all went to hell.

As you may know, we’ve been tracking the moribund California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which has now reached 178 days since we were promised it would open in fall of last year.

Spoiler alert — it didn’t.

It’s also a full three years since the plan was approved by the state legislature and signed into law by the governor. And counting.

And just two weeks before they’re guaranteed to miss the most recent promised launch date in the second quarter of this year, which has now been pushed back to sometime this summer.

They’re not likely to meet that one, either.

Because the program charged with operating the California ebike incentive program, San Diego nonprofit Pedal Ahead, could end up facing charges themselves.

In fact, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports that Pedal Ahead is currently facing not one, not two, but three ongoing investigations. (Although the paper’s newly even more draconian paywall means you’ll have to register with your email if you want to read it.)

It’s a confusing and convoluted story. But the gist of it is that Pedal Ahead is accused of being delinquent in filing the required paperwork with various government agencies, leading to investigations by San Diego County, the California Air Resources Board, and the California Department of Justice.

Yet somehow, they’re supposed to handle the increasingly complicated statewide program, which has now been funded with a still-too-small $31 million to distribute, even though that’s up from the initial $10 million fund, which was reduced to just $7.5 million after overhead.

And even though they’ve been removed as operators of the low-income ebike loan-to-own program launched by the San Diego Association of Governments two years ago.

Yet it was that “expertise” that formed the basis of their selection to operate the statewide program.

But at least that part of the story is clear.

It gets more confusing when the paper tries to explain the numerous nonprofit and for-profit companies opened by Pedal Ahead chief executive Edward Clancy in recent years, many with nearly identical names.

And many, if not most, of which either ran into problems, or apparently never got beyond the naming stage.

Then there’s the fact that Clancy wore a wire for the FBI’s probe into illegal campaign financing involving his former boss and a Mexican businessman, while skating on any possible charges himself.

Clancy was appointed as “bike czar” by former San Diego Mayor Bob Filner, who resigned under a torrent of sexual misconduct accusations after less than a year in office.

According to the Union-Tribune,

Clancy was later reported to have been a confidential informant in an unrelated federal investigation into illegal campaign financing in San Diego County.

The Union-Tribune reported in 2014 that he wore a wire for the FBI, recording conversations with three people who were later charged with coordinating $500,000 in donations from Mexican businessman Jose Susumo Azano Matsura to Filner, then-District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis and two Democratic political committees.

Clancy, who received qualified immunity from federal prosecutors and was never himself charged with any wrongdoing, maintained his political connections after he stopped consulting.

No problem, then.

It’s long past time that the state legislature conducted an open, public hearing into the problems with the state ebike incentive program that have led to its ongoing failure to launch, despite the clear intent of our elected leaders.

And shine a much-needed light on a program that has been utterly opaque up to this point.

Because something tells me what we’ve learned today is just the tip of an iceberg big enough to sink the Titanic all over again.

Thanks to Oceanside bike lawyer and BikinginLA sponsor Richard Duquette for the heads-up. 

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The common theme over the weekend, the one that sucked the air out of the news headlines, is Gordon’s Ramsay’s advice to wear your bike helmet.

Yes, the lovably irascible chef is one of us. Although “lovably” kind of depends on your perspective.

Ramsay revealed in a Father’s Day greeting that he had been the victim of a bad bicycling crash in Connecticut recently, lifting his traditional chef’s jacket to reveal a badly bruised torso. And crediting his shattered helmet and “those incredible trauma surgeons, doctors, nurses in the hospitals” that looked after him with saving his life.

Meanwhile, a writer for the Christian Science Monitor also says wear a helmet, and put front, and especially, rear lights on your bike, offering his own hard-won experience in Long Beach as proof.

Although he misses the mark in calling out bicyclists for riding “two, three or even four abreast.” forcing drivers to “swerve completely into the incoming traffic lane.”

Never mind that riding abreast helps prevent unsafe passing, and using the next lane to go around them is exactly what drivers are supposed to do.

Then again, even Dutch officials are calling for the country’s largely helmet averse population to change “because the brain is very vulnerable.”

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Nothing like have your bike stolen right in front of you on a Metro platform in broad daylight, as passengers look on.

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It’s not every day you actually see a positive report about new bike lanes on the local news.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdK5c-i6HDs

Thanks to Megan Lynch for the heads-up.

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

No bias here. A writer for an off-road racing website blames a group of Atlanta bike riders for complaining when a cop ignored the speeding BMW driver who zoomed around them on the wrong side of the road, only to lecture them for some undisclosed reason. “We’ve all encountered entitled, difficult cyclists before,” he writes. “Maybe they’re riding three or four abreast, not letting cars get by, and acting aggressive towards any driver who does try to pass.”

A UK paper complains about the mythical war on cars over plans to fine drivers who step out into London bike lanes, as if the real problem is the penalty, and not the reason for it.

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

Bavarian police observed over 11,500 bicycling infractions over a one-month period of heightened enforcement.

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Local 

Discover Los Angeles reminds us about this Sunday’s CicLAvia on Western Ave in South LA.

Here’s your chance to tell Glendale you want a permanent calmer, safer North Brand Boulevard, after the city’s successful pilot project.

Pasadena is implementing a quick build safety improvement program on Allen Ave between Colorado Blvd and Villa Street, offering enhanced crosswalks, curb extensions and new bicycle lanes.

Active SGV offers a recap on the recent Active Streets: Mission to Mission, including an appearance by the inimitable Gabe the Sasquatch.

Malibu releases details on the upcoming safety improvements on deadly PCH. All of which only offer a downpayment on what the killer highway really needs. 

 

State

Streets Are For Everyone, aka SAFE, says three speeding bills they support are moving forward in the state legislature, including bills to allow speed cams on PCH in Malibu, and increase penalties for speeding on highways.

Motor vehicle speeds aren’t the only concern for state legislators, however, as AB 1774 would prohibit the sale of any product or device that can modify the speed of an ebike.

The California Building Standards Commission wants your input to shape bike parking standards in the new state building code.

Just days after the heartbreaking death of a 17-year old San Diego boy killed by an Amtrak train while riding his bike across the tracks, comes news that California is the deadliest state for train collisions, with 38 fatal crashes last year, compared to just 21 in Florida, the next highest state.

The Orange County Power Authority is launching its own ebike voucher program, offering up to $1,500 for income-qualified buyers.

Beach cities aren’t the only ones freaking out about ebike safety, as cities in California’s Inland Empire attempt to rein in teenagers on electric bicycles. Although they often conflate ebikes and e-motorbikes.

The latest proposal to replace San Francisco’s widely loathed Valencia Street center-running bike lane would create a slalom course as the bike lane swerves around restaurant parklets.

 

National

A writer for Bike Magazine pens a Father’s Day ode to his favorite riding companion, and the man who gave him everything.

Despite the best efforts of rightwing culture warriors, the World Naked Bike Ride returned to Mad City, Wisconsin on Saturday.

There’s not a pit deep enough for the schmuck who stole an 11-year old boy’s lowrider bike he’d customized himself from a New Mexico museum display.

Hundreds of teenaged bike riders gathered in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley to call for nationwide bike safety improvements at the 10th annual national Youth Bike Summit.

In news that should surprise absolutely no one — but probably will — a new study from New Jersey’s Rutger’s University shows bike lanes calm roadways, improving safety for everyone.

There’s a special place in hell for whoever rode off after stealing a collection jar raising funds for a premature Florida baby.

 

International

The mayor of Quebec City offers a master class in how to respond to accusations that bicyclists don’t pay for the services we receive. Although you’ll need to read the subtitles if you don’t understand French. Thanks again to Megan Lynch. 

A neighborhood in Birmingham, England is now offering an e-cargo bikeshare service to help cut pollution.

The UK’s best bicycle-friendly homes, starting at just £225,000 — the equivalent of a little over $285,000. I’ll send y’all a postcard once I get settled.

 

Competitive Cycling

That’s Sir Mark Cavendish to you, now.

Twenty-year old Norwegian pro Johannes Kulset is demanding an apology from cycling’s governing body after he was banned from the Tour of Slovenia for using the ‘super tuck’ position, denying he used his chest or forearms for support.

A pair of best buds are hoping to set a new record for the fastest duo to cross the Atlantic City finish line for the Race Across America, aka RAAM.

 

Finally…

Now you, too, can own your very own Van Gogh bike. Ranking the Euro 2024 soccer teams based on how bike-friendly their cities are.

And there’s actually nothing funny about using laughing gas behind the wheel.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

Feeling suckered by CA ebike voucher program, CD4’s Raman wins re-election, and why people keep dying on the streets

March 15, 2024 / / Comments Off on Feeling suckered by CA ebike voucher program, CD4’s Raman wins re-election, and why people keep dying on the streets
Just 291 days until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025.
So stop what you’re doing and sign this petition to demand Mayor Bass hold a public meeting to listen to the dangers we face walking and biking on the mean streets of LA.

Then share it — and keep sharing it — with everyone you know, on every platform you can.

As of this writing, we’re up to 1,017 signatures, so let’s keep it going! Urge everyone you know to sign the petition, until the mayor agrees to meet with us! 

Photo by Max J from Pexels.

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Let’s start with a look at California’s virtually moribund ebike incentive program, and its ongoing failure to launch.

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

Life is cheap in New Zealand, where a woman is demanding action after police determine there’s “not enough detail” to charge a hit-and-run bus driver who just drove off after knocking her off her bike.

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

London’s Telegraph complains that the city is building more floating bus stops, even though some bicyclists don’t stop for pedestrians like they’re supposed to. Seriously, don’t do that. It only takes a few seconds to observe the right-of-way, and let pedestrians pass.

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Local 

Alhambra’s city council unanimously approved a new bike and pedestrian plan, which was delayed for two months to get more community input. Although as we’ve learned the hard way, getting a plan approved is meaningless unless it’s actually funded and implemented, regardless of apparent support.

A paraplegic Palmdale man says riding a handcycle in Sunday’s Los Angeles Marathon fulfills his wildest dream.

LA County will spend $250 million to widen the Old Road in Stevenson Ranch to six lanes, while adding a protected bike lane in each direction. It costs an average of $1 million a mile to build a protected bike lane, which means they could build ten miles of protected lanes on both sides of the roadway, and still return $230 million change.

Santa Monica once again learned the hard way that free parking isn’t free; it cost the city $26,000 in lost revenue to provide free parking in city lots the last three days before Christmas, which resulted in exactly no benefit to local businesses.

Speaking of SaMo, the city is encouraging bicyclists to register their bikes through Bike Index or Garage 529 before May’s National Bike Month; you can sign up for lifetime free registration with Bike Index right here, as well as report a stolen bike or check their nationwide stolen bike registry. Full disclosure, I don’t get a damn thing for hosting Bike Index on this site, aside from the satisfaction of helping thwart bike thieves.

 

State

Survivors of a fallen Bakersfield bike rider filed a claim against the county, alleging dangerous conditions on the roadway where she was killed by a driver last year, including inadequate lighting, traffic signals and signage.

San Mateo bicyclists and traffic safety advocates are demanding answers after a hit-and-run driver left a bike-riding 62-year old woman with a broken back.

 

National

A new AI-powered device promises to use “computer vision” to alert bike riders to cars and other dangers on the roadway. So they expect us to rely on the same technology that draws people with three legs, and makes up various “facts.”

He gets it. Bike Portland’s Jonathan Maus says the reason more people aren’t biking is too many cars, with too many driven without regard for others.

Now this is a bike travel guide, as a Boulder CO weekly offers tips on where to stop for food and drinks on your next long-distance ride.

Denver promises to plow bike lanes, as the city prepares to get up to 20 inches of snow, though bike riders are warned they may have to share traffic lanes with motorists. And yet, we’re somehow told that no one will ride a bike during LA’s temperate winters. 

Kindhearted Indiana cops gave a new bike to a 12-year old boy whose bike was destroyed when he was hit by a bus; fortunately, he wasn’t hurt.

That’s more like it. A bill in the Vermont legislature will give bike riders priority at intersections and require a four-foot passing distance.

New York Streetsblog celebrates the new Citi Bike bikeshare dock at the former Shea Stadium, now Citi Field, allowing bikeshare users to ride to a Mets game. But then you’d have to actually watch them play, so hard pass. 

A $9.6 million federal grant will fund a nearly nine-mile bike and pedestrian path between two Mississippi towns, as part of a project to widen US 90 from four to six lanes. So call it a win-lose for the environment and induced-demand. 

 

International

Canadian Cycling Magazine argues there should be tax incentives to buy and ride a bicycle. There should be some on this side of the border, too.

A BBC radio host is riding the “staggering distance” of 500 km across the country — the equivalent of 310 miles — to raise funds for Comic Relief’s Red Nose Day. Or as randonneurs call a distance like that, Tuesday.

Bike-riding BBC host Jeremy Vine is suing a former Man City soccer player for calling him a “bike nonce.” Which I might find offensive, too, if I knew what the hell it meant.

 

Competitive Cycling

Cycling Weekly tips two-time Tour de France champ Tadej Pogačar to win Saturday’s Milan-San Remo, the longest one-day race in pro cycling.

The UCI Ethics Commission fined Soudal Quick-Step team boss Patrick Lefevere for making disparaging comments about women, including suggesting that women drink too much, and that many female pros aren’t worth pro cycling’s current minimum wage.

 

Finally…

This is what it looks like when unloved bicycles are left to die alone. Just let the billionaires pay for a pod to change out of your sweaty clothes after a bike commute.

And that feeling when you promise to ride a bike to see your friends, after getting busted for driving an uninsured vehicle with an expired driver’s license.

At 103 years old.

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Ramadan Mubarak to all observing the Islamic holy month today. 

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

LA Times declares overwhelming victory for Measure HLA, and yet another meeting for California ebike voucher program

March 7, 2024 / / 2 comments
Just 299 days until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025.
So stop what you’re doing and sign this petition to demand Mayor Bass hold a public meeting to listen to the dangers we face walking and biking on the mean streets of LA.

Then share it — and keep sharing it — with everyone you know, on every platform you can.

As of this writing, we’re up to 1,007 signatures, so let’s keep it going! Urge everyone you know to sign the petition, until the mayor agrees to meet with us!

………

Okay, now we can celebrate.

Because yesterday afternoon, the Los Angeles Times joined KNBC-4 in declaring Measure HLA has passed.

Backers of a citizen-sponsored ballot initiative that forces Los Angeles to add hundreds of miles of bike and bus lanes — to make streets safer for pedestrians and bicyclists — declared victory on Wednesday.

Measure HLA was leading by a wide margin, according to semifinal results released by the Los Angeles Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk on Wednesday.

“This says people in Los Angeles want change, they want safer streets, and they want the city to follow through on their promises,” said Michael Schneider, who has led the HLA campaign and is executive director of the advocacy group Streets for All, which conceived the measure.

The measure, otherwise known as the Healthy Streets LA ballot proposal, requires the city to build out the Mobility Plan 2035, which was overwhelmingly approved by the city council in 2015 — then promptly put on the self and forgotten.

In fact, you could count the percentage of the plan that has been installed in the nearly decade since on your hands, and still have plenty of fingers left to tell the city how you feel about their decided inaction.

HLA, which goes into effect next month, will require the city to built out the mobility plan any time a one-eighth mile, or 660 feet, segment of street contained in the plan is improved or resurfaced.

The city will be required to track their progress online. And if they don’t fulfill their obligation, residents can sue to force compliance.

Backers overcame opposition from a handful of city council members, along with pro-motorist pressure group KeepLAMoving, and the city’s chief financial officer, who loaded the cost estimate with over $2 billion in barely related expenses that the city would have been required to spend anyway.

The measure was also opposed by the Los Angeles firefighters union, which took a bizarre stance against improving traffic safety while expressing fears it would somehow slow their response times — even though road diets, bus lanes and bike lanes have been shown to improve emergency responses by allowing vehicles to bypass traffic.

The Times applauded the passage of HLA, noting that it will finally spur action from City Hall to increase alternatives to driving.

People are frustrated with congestion but they don’t have great alternatives to driving. Buses get stuck in the same traffic. There aren’t enough protected bike lanes. And too many neighborhoods lack smooth sidewalks, crosswalks, shade trees, street lights and other basic amenities that make it easier for people to walk.

Measure HLA will ensure those alternatives finally get built, after too many delays by City Hall…

Opponents tried to argue that L.A. is a city of cars and nobody wants to use bike lanes or bus lanes or pedestrian amenities. But they missed the point of Measure HLA — which is that the streets today are bad for everyone, motorists included. If the Mobility Plan isn’t implemented and people don’t have safe alternatives to driving, then traffic congestion and, most likely, the number of traffic fatalities will only get worse.

Fortunately, the passage of Measure HLA means the Mobility Plan is no longer a choice for city leaders. It’s a mandate.

But not everyone was in agreement.

The conservative Southern California New Group somehow considered HLA “controversial,” despite the support of nearly two-thirds of voters in the primary election.

And cited a notorious pro-driving activist to back up that contention.

Jay Beeber, executive director for policy for the National Motorists Association and executive director for Safer Streets L.A., said the measure sounded good but would lead to “a whole host of problems for the city.”

Beeber said voters just created “a massive congestion problem in the city, and they are going to live with that decision for a long time. Most people who read the measure are expecting that it’s just simply roadway improvements and not that it’s going to be taking away car lanes, not that it’s going to be creating congestion, not that it’s going to push traffic into their neighborhoods, not that it’s going to increase (emergency) response times.”

The question now is whether opposition groups will file suit in an attempt to block the measure. And whether city leaders will seek ways to slow walk its implementation, or attempt to bypass it completely.

Which seems likely, given the city’s extensive track record of broken promises.

It seems a very long time ago that the corgi and I met Streets For All founder Michael Schneider in Pan Pacific Park to sign the Healthy Streets LA ballot petition.

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It’s now 78 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And 33 months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

Despite a promised launch this spring, the California Air Resources Board will hold yet another online work group next Thursday to gather input for implementing the ebike incentive program.

Because evidently, nearly three years just wasn’t enough time to work it all out.

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

London police apologized after dropping the charges against a bike rider who filmed a distracted driver using a handheld phone, just one day before he was set to go on trial for allegedly riding “without due care and attention.”

No bias here. A Dublin, Ireland city councillor strongly denies being anti-bicyclist, despite calling for mandatory registration and insurance for bike riders, which is currently required only by the North Korean dictatorship.

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Local 

The Pacific Palisades Community Council will discuss plans for a pedestrian and bike bridge crossing PCH at tonight’s public meeting; the bridge will connect Will Rogers State Beach to George Wolfberg Park, named for the longtime community and bicycle advocate.

Santa Monica police will conduct more bike and pedestrian safety operations today and tomorrow, ticketing any violation that endangers anyone in the two groups, regardless of who commits it. So as usual, ride to the letter of the law until you cross the city limit line, so you’re not the one who gets written up and fined. 

 

State

State Senator Scott Wiener explained his latest bill in the state legislature in an online preview of the upcoming Calbike summit; SB 960 would require Caltrans to fully implement its own Complete Streets policies, similar to Measure HLA.

Bicyclists question a Caltrans Complete Streets plan for El Camino Real in Palo Alto, arguing that the bike lanes planned for the street are intended for roadways with speeds up to 35 mph, while speeding drivers often exceed that.

Heartbreaking news from Dublin, California, where a 10-year old boy suffered “significant injuries” when he was struck by a driver while riding his bike. But at least the driver stuck around after the crash.

The Director of Mobility for the Oakland mayor’s office says he dreams of a day when he can just stick to bicycling, and not have to worry about being stopped for Biking While Black. Read it on AOL if Bicycling blocks you.

 

National

A travel website lists 12 beautiful rail trails across the US, along with the upcoming 3,700-mile Great American Rail Trail that’s currently under construction.

Seattle-based ebike maker Rad Power has introduced four new models featuring a heat-absorbing resin coating the battery to prevent corrosion and “thermal events,” like unexpectedly exploding or bursting into flames.

You now have to be at least 18 years old to ride an ebike in Phoenix, which means that ebike-riding school students are breaking the law.

A bill in the Illinois legislature would require cities specify the safety features and degree of separations between motorists and bicyclists in any maps showing bike lanes.

 

International

London has quadrupled the city’s bike lane mileage since the current mayor took office eight years ago.

A website for the “world’s urban leaders” examines how the Parisian e-scooter ban has affected the city’s mobility, as well as the booming bike use in the French capital.

After a Brisbane, Australia ghost bike was removed by city officials and reinstalled by bicyclists a half-dozen times, advocates put it on a trailer legally parked in a bike lane, instead.

The Australian Bicycle Network examines the safety in numbers effect, noting studies that show more bikes on the streets improves safety for everyone.

 

Competitive Cycling

Tragic news from Iran, where rising track and road cyclist Ariana Valinejad died a week after she was injured when a gas leak in her home exploded; she was just 20 years old.

Colombian pro Santiago Buitrago soloed to a mountaintop win on stage 4 of Paris-Nice, passing Australia’s Luke Plapp to take the leader’s jersey. And no, I never heard of them, either. 

CNN says Team Visma-Lease a Bike’s “outlandish” new Giro bike helmets are under review by pro cycling’s governing body. The helmets include a full face shield, apparently to hide the embarrassment of the people wearing them. 

 

Finally…

That feeling when new bike racks nearly kill your business by preventing drivers from illegally parking in front of it. Who needs a marching band when you can pedal, instead?

And let’s hope they at least read the poor bike its rights. Thanks to Steven Hallett for the photo. 

Photo by Steven Hallett

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

CA ebike voucher program sets next failure to launch deadline, and Times calls out fear-mongering over Measure HLA

February 23, 2024 / / One comment
Just 312 days until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025.
So stop what you’re doing and sign this petition to demand Mayor Bass hold a public meeting to listen to the dangers we face walking and biking on the mean streets of LA.

Then share it — and keep sharing it — with everyone you know, on every platform you can. Only 19 signatures to go to reach 1,000! 

………

Good news, maybe.

But don’t hold your breath.

San Diego’s inewsource reports that the next soon-to-be-missed deadline for California’s moribund ebike rebate program is now scheduled for sometime this spring.

That comes after self-imposed deadlines of January 1st, 2023, and the significantly more vague deadlines of second quarter, 2023, then last fall, which is the most recently missed deadline.

Not that we weren’t all expecting it to launch in 2022, after it passed the state legislature and was signed into law all the way back in those heady pandemic days of 2021.

So if anyone feels like Charlie Brown trying to kick a football, you’re in good company.

The story begins with a focus on San Diego nonprofit Pedal Ahead, which has been tasked with operating the program for the California Air Resources Board.

The nonprofit plans to operate a similar program statewide under a $10 million grant it received from the California Air Resources Board, or CARB. But roughly a year after its originally planned launch date, the program has yet to officially start.

CARB spokesperson Lys Mendez told inewsource that the state’s E-Bike Incentive Project is now expected to begin in the spring, as officials need more time for “infrastructure building” — essentially, making sure Pedal Ahead runs smoothly statewide. That includes organizing with e-bike retailers and community groups that can help get the word out and educate the public about the program, she said.

In other words, the same bullshit they’ve been feeding us for the last year.

The only real news in the story is that the soft launch that was supposed to take place last year actually did happen, despite the complete and total news blackout up to this point.

But as inewsource previously reported, Pedal Ahead suffered from low participation when it launched its San Diego program in 2020, with just a fraction of local participants logging enough miles to keep their bikes — and some reporting far fewer miles than what’s required, or none at all. The program also didn’t use an income requirement, allowing people who didn’t qualify as low income to receive a bike.

Despite that, Pedal Ahead beat two other applicants to administer the state program, with CARB citing the nonprofit’s “proven, on-the-ground experience” in San Diego.

Some money has been spent ahead of the program officially opening statewide. A preliminary “soft launch” is already happening in San Diego, the East Bay in Northern California, Fresno and in tribal communities, Mendez said. In those locations, she said the state is “currently testing key aspects” of the program.

Some, as in a quarter of the original $10 million in state funding has already gone to overhead, leaving just $7.5 million available for rebates.

Of that, $5 million is reserved for the lowest income applicants, with just $2.5 million for everyone else who qualifies with an income less than 300% of the federal poverty level.

Never mind that I would have qualified if the program had launched on time a year ago, and won’t now.

So I hope someone enjoys riding my ebike.

Maybe I can get Tern to sponsor me with one of these, instead. It could happen.

The other news in the story is that even after the moribund program finally crawls its way through the earth to launch, like Dracula after dark, it could take a full three months to be approved for a voucher once you apply.

Residents must also be at least 18 years old to apply for a voucher to get a free e-bike from a program-selected retailer, such as a local bike shop. Participants will need to own the e-bike for at least a year and complete surveys about the experience.

The approval process may take up to three months.

Yes, three months.

And if that’s not a sign of the sheer incompetency behind this program, I don’t know what is.

Frankly, I’m ready to give up on the whole damn thing and ask my state legislators to fire both CARB and Pedal Ahead, and start over from scratch.

Because the thing that other cities and states have seemed to find so easy to do — get ebike rebate programs up and running through multiple rounds of funding — seems to be impossible here.

Meanwhile, if Tasha Boerner’s AB 2234 passes, even adults will be required to pass an online test in order to be able to legally buy one, let alone actually ride it, if they don’t already have a driver’s license.

Because living in poverty isn’t humbling enough, evidently.

Thanks to Ellectrek for the heads-up.

………

They get it.

The Los Angeles Times writes that all the fear-mongering over Measure HLA — the Healthy Streets LA ballot measure — ignores that what’s really scary is LA’s deadly streets.

According to the paper, some of the city’s most powerful officials have been trying to sabotage the measure, rather than actually doing something to reduce deaths and injuries resulting from traffic violence.

Never mind actually eliminating them, which was supposed to happen by next year. But won’t.

But even though the projects have been on the books for years, last week the city’s top budget official released a questionable new $3.1-billion estimate for the plan, while the union that represents city firefighters claimed that making the streets safer will slow emergency response times.

It’s fear-mongering designed to scare Angelenos into voting against the measure. But what’s really frightening is that L.A. leaders could have started building a more walkable, bikeable, transit-friendly sustainable city years ago and perhaps averted some of the recent deaths. They had the blueprint to make streets safer but didn’t make it a priority. That’s why Measure HLA is necessary.

It’s worth reading the whole thing to see just how much your life is — or more accurately, isn’t — worth to many of those leading this city.

Let alone the people responsible for saving it.

………

Bike Long Beach will host a murals and coffee ride tomorrow, to avoid conflicting with Sunday’s CicLAvia, along with a virtual monthly meeting on Monday.

Bike Long Beach Feb Meeting

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Don’t forget Saturday’s 46th Annual LA Chinatown bike ride tomorrow, and Sunday’s Melrose Ave CicLAvia.

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It’s now 64 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And 31 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. Streetsblog says Oakland complains about a lack of resources to build bike lanes, but they somehow had the resources to rip one out along the city’s Embarcadero.

Britain’s CyclingMikey, scorned among the motoring crowd for recording scofflaw drivers with his bike cam, says bicyclists “are seen as the cockroaches of the road.” Well, tell us something we don’t know.

Berlin’s rightwing mayor is fulfilling a campaign promise to make more room for cars by ripping out bike lanes. Which is more proof that we’re never more than one election from losing all the gains we make.

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

Apparently, someone has our back, but not in a good way. After a 19-year old driver hit a bike rider in San Antonio, Texas, someone opened fire, riddling the car with bullets.

………

Local 

The Beverly Press says Measure HLA could pave the future for mobility in Los Angeles.

 

State

Calbike calls on California to divest from wasteful, induced demand-inducing highway projects, and invest in Complete Streets and the state’s transportation future.

Calbike also introduced a slate of 16 bills they’re backing for the current legislative session, including bills that would mandate Complete Streets following Caltrans resurfacing projects, similar to Measure HLA, as well as mandating motor vehicle speed limiters and truck sideguards.

An Orange County mother has made it her mission to preach ebike safety in the face of rising ebike injury rates. Although I’ve yet to see a study that shows ebike injury rates in relation to ebike ridership, without which claims of rising or worsening injuries are merely anecdotal.

San Diego will pay nearly $3 million to the family of Hossein Samadi, who was killed in a 2020 collision with a city truck parked in a bike lane Carmel Valley Road without warning cones or flashers.

San Francisco Streetsblog attempts to cut through the latest misinformation regarding the city’s Valencia Street centerline bike lane.

Bike Magazine examines how Davis became “Bike City, USA.”

 

National

Vehicle-to-everything technology, aka V2X, rears its ugly head once again, as a writer for Streetsblog says we could improve safety for bicyclists by allowing cars and bikes to talk to one another. As long as you’re willing to wear a transponder every time you ride, or be held accountable anytime you don’t.

Velo marks Black History Month with a look at eight groups making bicycling more inclusive across the US.

NPR reports bike helmet use declined almost 6% each year for the last five years, while ebike head injuries saw a 49-fold increase, with just 44% of injured ebike riders wearing helmets. Although as noted above, those numbers are virtually meaningless without a comparison to increasing ebike ridership rates, and comparing helmet use by ebike riders who suffered head trauma with similarly injured riders of regular bikes.

An Oʻahu bike club uses two wheels to explore Honolulu’s Kalihi Valley, one of the city’s most diverse neighborhoods.

This is why you let the police handle it. A Portland woman was nearly killed when she went with friends to a homeless camp to help recover a stolen bicycle, and was shot by a man with a high-powered air rifle.

Denver opened a new $14 million, 1.5-mile protected bike lane that bike riders have been waiting on for more than eight years.

Cleveland’s Vision Zero program is called into question after 550 people were struck by drivers while walking or biking in the city.

The husband of fallen US diplomat and bicyclist Sarah Debbink Langenkamp says littering can get you up to five years behind bars in Maryland, but the driver who right hooked his wife with a 50,000 pound truck walked with a traffic ticket that carried a lousy $2,000 and 150 hours of community service.

 

International

More on the “clever policing” that London cops used to bust a $165,000 bike theft ring by using a bait bike. Something that remains off-limits for the LAPD, over misplaced fears of entrapment, thanks to a singularly uninformed opinion from former City Attorney Mike Feuer, who wants to be my next Congress Person; yeah, good luck with that. Thanks to Steven Hallett for the link. 

Meanwhile, bikejacking victims call for more cops around London’s Regent’s Park, where gangs of moped-riding thieves are reportedly targeting a list of high-end bicycles, including Pinarello, Bianchi, S-Works and Brompton, which are then shipped to Russia to evade sanctions.

A British letter writer says excuse me, but 1 million bicyclists a year, 2,739 cyclists every day and 114 an hour does not a low number using a bike lane make.

Paris is now officially the most bike-friendly city in France.

Over a quarter of Belgians rode an ebike last year, as electric bicycles continue to gain in popularity. That’s a figure we may never see here, as long as officials continue to drag their feet on an underfunded rebate program, and fight against safer, more livable streets.

Czech carmaker Škoda’s We Love Cycling site looks forward to this year’s trends in bicycle fashions. Which are pretty much the same as last year, and every other year.

 

Competitive Cycling

British cyclist Adam Yates was forced to retire from the UAE Tour following a concussion protocol fail, when he continued riding after a crash, until he radioed the crew to ask what happened since he didn’t remember anything.

A writer for Cycling Weekly knows just how it feels when Phil Gaimon steals your hard-won KOM.

 

Finally…

That feeling when you get hit with a bicycle during a pro wrestling street fight. Or when even an Aggie understands we’re second-class road users.

And presenting the driver psychology course for bicycling safety.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

CA ebike voucher program’s failure to launch, what it takes to make LA bike-friendly, and Hyperloop bites the dust

December 22, 2023 / / One comment

It’s the final weekend of the 9th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive!

Just three short days to open your heart and wallet, and show your support for SoCal’s best source for bike news and advocacy.

So thanks to Kurt G and Michael M for their generous donations to keep all the best bike news coming your way every day. 

Now it’s up to you.

We’ve got a long way to go to catch up to last year’s record-setting fund drive — let alone once again top the previous year’s total for the 9th year in a row. 

It’ll be a stretch, but we can do it with your help.

So don’t wait.

Seriously, stop what you’re doing, and donate now!

Because the time to give is rapidly running out.

………

As always, we’ll be taking the coming week between the holidays off, so I can have my annual pre-scheduled emotional collapse after making it through another year.

Okay, I’m joking. Sort of.

So please accept my best wishes for warm and wonderful holidays, whatever and however you celebrate. And a heathy, happy and prosperous year to come.

Just be careful riding over the next ten days, when the number of drunks on the road will increase exponentially, and frenzied shoppers and celebrants will be looking for anyone but you.

I want to see you back here bright and early January 2nd.

………

If you haven’t already, sign the petition demanding a public meeting with LA Mayor Karen Bass to listen to the dangers we all face just walking and biking on the streets of LA, and city’s ongoing failure to actually do anything about it.

Then share it — and keep sharing it — with everyone you know, on every platform you can.

………

Days left to launch the California ebike incentive program this fall as promised: -1

As expected, the California Air Resources Board once again missed their own self-appointed deadline begin operations this fall — in fact, all their self-appointed deadlines for two years running.

Talk about a failure to launch.

Instead, thousands of low-income Californians have continued to burn fossil fuels and clog our roads, when they could have switched to cleaner, more efficient ebikes instead — defeating the entire purpose of the program, which was the first in the nation when it passed the state legislature.

And now could end up being one of the last to launch before they finally get it going.

Or maybe if.

………

Writing for City Watch, former Los Angeles city planner Dick Platkin considers what it will take to create a bike-friendly LA.

From his perspective, the problem stems from —

Reason 1:  Despite bike plans adopted by Metro, LA County and LA City, Los Angeles has consistently underfunded the construction of a robust bicycle lane network

Reason 2:  There is little effort to follow the official plans, no constant funding to build bicycle lanes, and too much bicycle infrastructure is built to serve new commercial projects, rather than meet actual need

Reason 3:  City proposals to construct new, buffered bicycle lanes on wide boulevards often meet organized resistance by people who don’t want to lose parking or traffic lanes

Reason 4:  Too many proposals for new bikes lanes come from local boosters to build stand-alone bicycle lanes so nearby real estate projects can reduce costly parking requirements

I’d say the problem is more a lack of political will among elected leaders, who listen only to the loudest voices, combined with flushing too much money down the induced-demand toilet that could go to reducing the demand for cars.

But it’s worth taking his thoughts into consideration when we consider how to fight for safer, more complete and livable streets

………

Engage schadenfreude now.

Elon Musk’s Hyperloop project bites the dust, after failing to reinvent transit.

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A new book intends to empower women of color to get on their bikes.

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Gravel Bike California returns to Maverick Cycles to go deeper into the dirt around the hills of Whittier.

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‘Tis the season.

An Ohio bike nonprofit donated 137 bike and helmets for local kids in need, and has given away over 1,000 bicycles over the last eight years.

Also in Ohio, an automotive software company continued their six-year tradition of building bicycles to donate to children, many of whose parents are military members.

Forty-four Indiana preschoolers got new bicycles in a holiday raffle, courtesy of the Northern Indiana Hispanic Health Coalition.

A Virginia bike group cooperated with the local Jewish Family Services and a community tool bank to distribute new bikes to families in need.

………

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

A US judge declared open season on bike riders by federal agents, concluding that the case against an Oregon DEA agent could be dropped because he was performing his official duties when he ran a stop sign and killed an Oregon bike rider.

Bike riders in Queensland, Australia could be subjected to random breathalyzer tests to ferret out people biking under the influence, under a new proposal from the state government.

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

Um, okay. A Greeley, Colorado man got drunk and followed another man on his bike, while somehow swinging a 25-pound propane tank. Something tell me there’s more to this story. And chances are, we’ll never find out what it is, dammit. 

A man in New York’s Tribeca neighborhood had to seek medical attention after he was struck in the eye with a hard boiled egg hurled by a member of a bike “gang.” Although the story never actually uses the word bicycle, so the perp could have been a motorbike rider. 

………

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Local 

Streets Are For Everyone, aka SAFE, will conduct another die-in on the steps of Los Angeles City Hall on January 27th.

Santa Monica-based Bird has gone belly-up, as the once high-flying micromobility company filed for dissolution in bankruptcy court; the filing comes just days after West Hollywood extended its contract with the company.

An unusually succinct Westlake Village letter writer says bike lanes are a start, but bike riders need protection, not paint.

 

State

Caltrans continues to flush our hard-earned money down the induced-demand toilet, with a $15.7 billion shopping list of highway projects.

Sad news from San Jose, where a bike-riding man was killed when he was right hooked by a van driver turning into a parking lot; he was the 48th victim of traffic violence in the city this year.

 

National

Ebike sales have quadrupled in the US over the past five years. No thanks to California’s moribund voucher program. 

Slate considers how American motor vehicles grew into massive killers on steroids.

Offroad.cc lists the best offroad podcasts that you must follow in 2024. No, judging by the headline, it appears to be mandatory.

Pink Bike uses AI to makes big bike tech predictions, which promptly proceeds to get much of it wrong. But at least they didn’t let the AI write it.

So much for street art. Spokane, Washington removed a guerilla sculpture depicting a woman riding a bicycle up a massive bridge support column.

More on the moron who fled the scene after running down two bicyclists riding on Colorado’s Lookout Mountain while running another rider off the road, leaving one man in the ICU with major injuries; the story makes it sound like two Mustang drivers may have been racing, without actually saying that. A crowdfunding campaign for the most seriously injured victim has raised over $41,000 of the $50,000 goal. You know, in case you have any extra money left over after donating to this site.

A Texas advocacy group speaks out about the pickup driver charged with running down and killing a couple riding their bikes earlier this year, saying “under no circumstances should anyone drive distracted.”

Illinois bicyclists are pondering their next move, after the state Supreme Court made them all second-class citizens by absurdly ruling that bikes are merely “permitted” on the streets without bike infrastructure, but not the intended users.

Streets.mn recommends being safer and more stylish on your bike at night with Reflauro, a new reflective technology devoted by 3M, and made in America by a women-owned company.

Momentum says New York needs more bike lanes like the extra-wide bike lanes on 10th Ave. Don’t we all.

Conflicting data out of New York, where bicycling deaths reached a record high, while pedestrian fatalities are reaching a historic low.

 

International

An 81-year old Brazilian man and his 19-year old son were both killed in a freak crash when the father went looking for his son on his bicycle, and crashed head-on into the son riding home on his motorbike.

The brother of a missing British man fears he may have ingested a poisonous mushroom while foraging in France, while on a long-distance bike tour from Scotland to India.

Maybe there really is a war on cars, as The Guardian says European cities are turning on the car by adopting varied approaches to reducing traffic congestion and pollution; Paris has joined London in having more bicycles than cars during rush hour.

Speaking of once high-flying companies, Swedish inflatable bike helmet maker Hövding has gone belly-up, after a Swedish consumer agency ruled the helmets are unsafe.

Japan’s National Police Agency is proposing fining scofflaw bicyclists up to 12,000 yen for violations such as running red lights or distracted bicycling. Which sounds scary, until you realize that converts to a tad over $84.

 

Competitive Cycling

Hats off to Australia’s Amanda Reid, who became the first paracyclist and indigenous person to be named the country’s cyclist of the year.

YouTube will premier the second season of the Call of a Life Time series next month, “chronicling the highs and lows experienced by key riders in the past year’s Life Time Grand Prix circuit.”

Cycling Weekly considers the silliest cycling rules UCI should do away with. Like a ban on puppy paws, for instance.

 

Finally…

That feeling when no one uses the new bike lanes but Santa. Or when you want an ebike trailer inspired by the hideous Tesla Cybertruck.

And that feeling when you need a lowrider bike inspired by a regional cult-favorite hamburger chain.

………

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , ,

CA ebike rebate program now set to launch this fall, and more details on fallen bicyclists Bruce Elliott and Roy Wiegand

August 3, 2023 / / One comment

The California Air Resources Board reports that the state’s ebike incentive program is now expected to finally go live statewide sometime this fall, as the launch date keeps getting pushed back.

But don’t hold your breath.

The program was set to launch at the beginning of this year, then pushed back to the second quarter of the year, before now being set for fall.

Hopefully, they mean it this time.

You can learn more about the program here.

Ebike Photo by Markus Spiske from Pexels.

………

More details are finally available about fallen Redding bicyclist Bruce Elliott, who was killed by a driver during a group ride in Mentone on Saturday.

A memorial service will be held at 2 pm this Sunday at The University of Redlands Memorial Chapel for the well-loved phys ed teacher, who was also captain of Don’s Bikes Race Team, and mentor to bicyclists with Big Wheel Coaching.

Elliott’s family requests contributions to a crowdfunding campaign in lieu of flowers, with the funds to be split between the nonprofit Bikes for Kids Foundation and Grand Teton National Park. At this writing, it has raised over $9,400 of the modest $12,500 goal.

You can read more here.

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While we’re on the subject, SF Gate has more details on the crash that killed popular Burbank musician and long-distance bicyclist Roy Wiegand in Monterey County Saturday afternoon, in what was a very bad weekend for SoCal bike riders.

Wiegand was riding alone after his riding partner had turned back, when he was right hooked by a 25-year old pickup driver while riding in the designated bike lane in the same direction.

He was on the last leg of his 2,500-mile Roy’s Ride fundraising ride to benefit the Navaho Nation, and bring clean, running water to impoverished households on the reservation.

The campaign has currently raised more than $35,000, easily topping what had originally been a $25,000 goal.

There’s no word on any charges for the driver, even though the CHP said the driver made an “unsafe” turn.

Which is putting it mildly.

………

Don’t hold your breath waiting for congestion pricing on Los Angeles roadways, as numble reports we still have four years to go before we’re likely to see anything.

………

Calbike has completed a year-long search by hiring active transportation and land use professional Kendra Ramsey as the group’s new executive director.

A member of the American Institute of Certified Planners, Ramsey comes to the organization from Sacramento civil engineering firm GHD, where she served as Active Transportation Project Manager, “developing innovative mobility options, Complete Streets plans, and corridor studies for local and regional agencies throughout the state.”

Let’s hope she finds her footing fast, because we definitely need help.

………

The New York Times continues their anti-ebike campaign, asking if California should regulate the bikes because teenagers are dying on them.

Unfortunately, though, teenagers get killed on regular bikes, too.

The question left unasked by the Times and other news outlets — let alone unanswered — is whether they’re getting killed or seriously injured at a higher rate on ebikes than on regular bikes.

Until the Times can answer that question, it’s all just noise.

………

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

It’s finally happened. A 16-year old Las Vegas boy was killed when he struck a wire booby trap, possibly set by a homeless man, while riding with his older brother and friends. Various booby traps have been set on roadways and trails around the world, but to the best of my knowledge, none have been fatal — until now. Let’s hope that whoever set the trap faces a murder count, if not terrorism charges. 

………

Local 

The Los Angeles City Council unanimously approved a $60 million contract with Metro for the design and construction of the Los Angeles River Valley Bike Path Project, including a new 13-mile segment of the LA River bike path connecting to the existing path in Griffith Park.

Streetsblog reports a new SGV Greenway project is under construction along the Big Dalton Wash in the unincorporated community of Vincent, between Covina and Irwindale; the 3-mile Vincent Community Bikeway is expected to open next year.

NHL referee Dan O’Rourke is scheduled to set off today on a 2,400-mile bike ride from Santa Monica to Chicago along old Route 66, to raise money and awareness for the National Federation of the Blind. Thanks to Megan Lynch for the tip.

The Manhattan Beach city council is urging the police to crack down on scofflaw ebike riders.

 

State

The Los Angeles Times reports that communities around the state are launching ebike and other green transit programs, as Long Beach prepares to open a 40-bike ebike lending library.

Calbike offers advice on how to talk back to the seemingly inevitable bikelash to virtually any bicycling proposal or news story.

Patch says a Temecula bike advocacy group is leading the way in creating harmony on city streets.

Sad news from Modesto, where a 79-year old man was killed in a hit-and-run while riding his bike; police booked the driver on charges of felony hit-and-run causing death and vehicular manslaughter, after she originally stayed at the scene before denying any involvement and driving off.

No surprise here, as San Francisco lowers the speed limit on several streets to 20 mph to improve safety, but drivers keep speeding, anyway.

 

National

Vice considers the best bike bags for your next ride.

Streetsblog says a new book explores America’s revenue-focused approach to traffic policing, including that traffic fines have “no discernible relationship to public safety,” while harming people of color and other vulnerable people.

Arizona bike riders remembered fallen bicyclist Karen Malisa on what would have been her 62nd birthday; she was one of two people killed, and 19 others injured, when a pickup driver plowed into a group ride in Goodyear, Arizona in February. Meanwhile, the driver still hasn’t been charged six months later.

A 22-year old New Mexico man will spend the next 20 years behind bars for fatally shooting another man after trying to steal his bike at a bus stop, and the 43-year old victim tried to fight back.

Colorado’s governor responds to the death of rising 17-year old cyclist Magnus White by reminding everyone to drive safely and yield to people on bicycles. Good advice, regardless of the circumstances. 

The New York Times examines the practical effects of the VanMoof bankruptcy filing, after the company ceased to exist virtually overnight, leaving owners of the Dutch ebikes unable to get repairs and unsure if the bike’s app-based software will continue to work.

A New York program is training formerly incarcerated people to work as bike mechanics for the city’s Citi Bike bikeshare, working with the Brooklyn DA’s office to recruit members of marginalized communities; the bikeshare program is experiencing record breaking ridership despite rumors of a sale.

Former President Trump is being arraigned today on conspiracy charges, but all Fox News seems to care about is President Biden going for a leisurely Delaware bike ride instead of hanging his head in shame over his son’s alleged misdeeds.

Robert Pattinson is one of us, as the Twilight actor goes for a bike ride around his New York neighborhood. But would it kill him to look like he’s actually enjoying it?

 

International

Three young British men face murder charges in the hit-and-run death of an ebike rider, even though police are still looking for their car.

Three people were hospitalized and several others treated at the scene after seven bike riders collided during the World Police and Fire Games in Winnipeg, Canada.

 

Competitive Cycling

In yet another tragic reminder of the dangers of race motos, four people were hospitalized after TV motorcycle crashed into fans with just over three miles to go Wednesday’s fifth stage at the Tour of Poland.

Australian road cyclist Rob Stannard will miss this week’s world championships in Glasgow, after he was provisionally suspended for an alleged doping violation from five years earlier.

Eritrean cyclist Biniam Girmay was reportedly denied a visa to travel to Scotland for the cycling world championships, but it didn’t matter because he withdrew from the race after crashing in last weekend’s Clasica San Sebastian.

Bicycling offers an update on the condition of Dutch cyclist Amy Pieters, who suffered a severe brain injury on a training ride with the Dutch national team two years ago, and still faces a very long road to recovery. As usual, read it on Yahoo if the magazine blocks you. 

Pro basketball star Kevin Durant is now a part owner of the new National Cycling League, joining a number of current and former NBA and NFL players.

 

Finally…

Who needs shift levers when your bike could respond to voice commands? No, you don’t owe a reward to the person who stole your bike.

And yes, Tour de France bikes are different from what you ride.

And cleaner, too.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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