Day 273 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025.
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This is day two of a Week Without Driving.
Or as it’s known here in Los Angeles, just another week.
Because officials in this city would never want to suggest to drivers that they might want to leave their car at home for even a week, no matter how good the cause.
And this is a very good cause.
According to the website,
If you can drive or afford a car, you may not understand what it’s like to rely on walking, rolling, transit and asking for rides. But for nearly a third of people living in the United States – people with disabilities, young people, seniors and people who can’t afford cars or gas – this is our every day.
We created the Week Without Driving experience so that those who have the option to drive can learn firsthand about the barriers and challenges that nondrivers face and work with nondrivers to create more accessible communities for all.
And one of those barriers, as I learned last week, is just how difficult it is to replace a lost ID here in California if you don’t drive a car.
Unlike drivers, who can request a new license online with just a few clicks and get it days later, non-drivers have to fill out a form, and schedule an appointment to appear in person at the DMV.
Since evidently, anyone who doesn’t drive is such a strange thing they have to ensure we actually exist.
Never mind that the next available appointment here in Los Angeles is mid-November.
Yes, November.
Then, and only then, according to the DMV’s website, you can expect a replacement ID to arrive in your hot little hands “just” three to four weeks later.
Which means it will be just a couple weeks before Christmas before I’ll once again have a little piece of plastic to tell anyone who the hell I am if I should get hit by a bus.
All because my wallet fell out of my pocket while riding one.
Yet when my wife realized she’d somehow become separated from her driver’s license when the paramedics took her to the hospital recently, she received a replacement little more than a week later.
So not only should drivers use this week without driving to walk in our shoes, officials in this state should try giving up their licenses to see how the DMV treats anyone crazy enough to live without a car in car-centric California.
Go on. I double-dog dare ’em.
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Streets Are For Everyone is urging, well, everyone to email or call California Governor Gavin Newsom to demand — okay, politely ask in a very firm manner — that he sign SB 720, the Safer Streets Program.
The bill is intended to modernize and simplify the regulations for red light cameras in California, to overcome the problems that have prevented their installation and, in too many cases, led to their removal.
And yes, I’m looking at you, Los Angeles.
This is how SAFE describes the problem, taken from a summary of their report.
California’s roads tell a grim story. SAFE reviewed the data. Since 2013, severe injuries and fatalities tied to intersection violations have surged 96.1%. In 2023 alone, red-light violations were linked to 195 deaths and more than 1,200 severe injuries. And these aren’t just drivers—the victims include cyclists and pedestrians, who made up nearly one in five of those killed or seriously injured.
Even seasoned drivers admit they hesitate after a light turns green, waiting to see if someone will barrel through the intersection. That hesitation isn’t paranoia—it’s survival.
Never mind the economic costs.
The human toll is incalculable, but the economic cost is staggering. Using the CDC’s WISQARS Cost of Injury calculator, SAFE estimated the financial burden of intersection crashes between 2021 and 2023:
- $985 million in costs from severe injuries, nearly a third of it from medical expenses.
- $6.96 billion in costs from fatalities.
Altogether, more than $7.9 billion was drained from California in just three years. That’s money that could have gone into schools, hospitals, infrastructure, and community programs—but instead was lost to preventable crashes.
SB 720 is designed to address the problem by improving red light enforcement.
There is a better way. Senate Bill 720—the Safer Streets Program—offers a critical chance to modernize California’s red-light enforcement. Modeled after the state’s successful speed safety camera bill (AB 645), SB 720 would:
- Eliminate facial photography, capturing only license plates.
- Treat violations like parking tickets, keeping enforcement simple and privacy intact.
- Require revenue from citations to be reinvested into safety improvements—not city general funds.
- Reduce the cost of citations to a flat $100 for the first citation and increase fines for those who repeatedly run red lights in proportion to the number of violations.
This approach has already proven effective in other states. Red light camera programs across major U.S. cities have reduced fatal crashes by 21% and saved an estimated 1,300 lives in a single year. When programs are dismantled, crashes and fatalities climb again.
It’s already passed both houses of the legislature, and is just waiting for Newsom’s signature, which is anything but a sure thing.
And that’s where you come in.
Once again, here’s how SAFE sums it up.
The data is clear. The solutions exist. And yet, lives continue to be lost every day California delays reform. SB 720 is now in the Governor’s hands, representing a chance to save lives and reclaim billions of dollars for our communities.
The question is not whether red-light running is preventable—it is. The question is whether California will finally choose to act.
Because every number in these statistics is more than a data point, it’s a life, a family, and a future stolen. And the cost of inaction is simply too high.
You’ll find a sample letter here, along with links to email, tweet or call.
I’m also told that anyone who gets at least ten people to sign will get a super cute photo of this super cute corgi.
And if that doesn’t seal the deal, I don’t know what will.
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A 16-year old boy died in an Orange County hospital on Friday, three days after he was injured in a Newport Beach ebike crash last Tuesday.
Although he was reportedly riding an electric motorcycle, rather than a ped-assist bicycle.
Which does not make it any less tragic.
The crash occurred about 5:55 pm September 23rd, near Superior Ave and Nice Lane. There’s no word on whether this was a solo crash, or if there was a driver involved.
Anyone with any information is urged to call the Newport Beach Police Department at 949/644-3747 or email alaverty@nbpd.org.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on rolling.
A London law firm has claims pending from a dozen clients who say they were injured by faulty Lime Bikes; meanwhile, a London columnist says “Good,” because maybe it will reduce the number of dangerous bicyclists. Yeah, that’s worked really well to get dangerous drivers off the road, hasn’t it.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
A Secaucus, New York Uber Eats deliverista faces charges for fleeing from police following a dispute with a customer, then whacking a cop over the head with a bike lock and vase trying to get away.
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Local
No news is good news, right?
State
Calbike calls for codifying language for self-driving cars to include a high standard for safety around bicycles and other vulnerable road users.
Berkeley has reimagined three interconnecting streets in the neighborhood below the UC campus to improve safety for bike riders, walkers and transit users through the use of bus boarding islands, concrete curbs and parking protected bike lanes.
San Francisco Streetsblog’s Roger Rudick says let’s all thank Oakland for building a bike cut-through they previously said was impossible.
It was a bad weekend in Northern California, where a 63-year old man was killed when he was struck by two drivers while riding a bike in Oakland after reportedly failing to stop for a stop sign, a bike rider was struck by a driver, and possibly killed, in Stanislaus County, and someone apparently stole a Carmichael hit-and-run victim’s ebike while leaving him to die in the street rather than calling 911.
National
A surprising new study shows that road bicycling is actually more dangerous than mountain biking, especially for older riders. So, go out and shred to your heart’s content. But be careful biking to the corner market, let alone riding your next century.
A French pastry chef opened a popup patisserie in a Seattle bicycle store, in other words, a bake shop in a bike shop.
Indianapolis has set a new record for bicyclists hit and killed on the streets this year, just three-quarters into the year.
Bike counters showed an average of 486 cyclists per hour on New York’s Vanderbilt Ave when it was closed to car traffic, demonstrating a high demand for safe infrastructure, despite dithering from the city’s lame duck mayor.
The New York Times visits Brooklyn’s massive and still-growing Bike Flea Market; meanwhile, the New York borough is getting a “game-changing” Dutch-style bike hub.
Tragic news from New Jersey, where two kids were killed when a driver broadsided the ebike they were riding.
Dozens of people rode their bikes through Opelousas, Louisiana to raise awareness and support for families living with the devastating effects of sickle cell disease.
Forty-five-year old Brazilian model Gisele Bundchen is one of us, going for a casual Miami bike ride with her jiu-jitsu trainer boyfriend.
International
A British woman says once she hit 60, she rented out her apartment and set out on her bike with just a tent; seven years and 24,000 miles later, she has no plans to stop.
Spanish motorcyclist Aleix Espargaro is one of us, even if it means he’s out of this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix after crashing his bicycle.
A man rode his bike 1,250 miles from London to Prishtina, Kosovo to raise funds in honor of his father, after the older man died of pancreatic cancer. Which is the same damn disease that killed my mother 25 year ago.
A New Zealand woman known as the Helmet Lady has died, 31 years after her successful campaign to make bike helmets compulsory for all bicyclists in the country, following the bicycling crash that left her 12-year old son paralyzed from the neck down.
Competitive Cycling
Twenty-year old British cyclist Max Hereward is trying to raise the equivalent of over $15,000 to join a European development team, saying he’s gone as far as he can in his home country. Which is a pretty good indictment of what’s wrong with the sport these days.
Finally…
Nothing goes together like bespoke bikes and craft beer. Your next e-cargo bike could be solar powered.
And nothing like making ICE an internet laughing stock when they can’t catch a single taunting guy on a bike.
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Oh, and fuck Putin.
