The victim was already dead when police arrived; there’s no word at this time on how the crash occurred.
The driver, identified as 27-year old Escondido resident Alexander Gendron, was tracked down about a mile away, with police relying on witnesses, license plate readers and a drone to find him.
He was booked on suspicion of leaving the scene of a collision resulting in injury or death, DUI causing injury or death, and vehicular manslaughter. That could be upgraded to murder if there is a previous DUI on his record.
Given the hour, the victim could have been homeless, or someone riding to or from work. Or it could have been someone just out for an early morning ride.
Anyone with information is urged to call Traffic Accident Investigator Cpl. Matt Bowen of the Carlsbad Police Department at 442/339-2282.
This is at least the 41st bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the eighth that I’m aware of in San Diego County.
This was also the 13th bike rider killed by a hit-and-run driver in Southern California since the first of the year
My deepest sympathy and prayers for the victim and all their loved ones.
June 8, 2023 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Former BMX champ Pat Casey killed in motocross crash, and driver charged for killing ebike-riding Carlsbad mom
The victim was riding at an offramp to the 905 Freeway near Airway Road and Britannia Blvd in Otay Mesa when he was run down by the driver around 4:33 am Tuesday.
There’s no word on how the crash occurred, or the identity or condition of the victim.
SB 50, which would halt police stops for minor traffic violations to stop pretextual policing
SB 712 requires landlords to allow at least one micromobility device — bicycles, scooters, etc — per unit.
AB 6 would give Gov. Gavin Newsom another chance to sign a bill putting his climate money where his mouth is by requiring regional transportation agencies to prioritize and fund transportation projects that significantly contribute to meeting regional and state climate goals.
AB 7 mandates climate-first transportation planning.
AB 73 would give Newsom yet another opportunity to sign a bicycle safety stop bill, aka stop as yield or Idaho Stop.
AB 361 allows public agencies to enforce parking violations by taking photographs of vehicles blocking bike lanes, although it would not allow individuals to submit photos.
AB 413 would require daylighting at intersections by prohibiting parking, standing or stopping within 20 feet of a marked or unmarked crosswalk.
AB 645 creates a speed cam pilot program for three cities each in Northern and Southern California, including Los Angeles, Long Beach and Glendale.
AB 825 legalizes sidewalk riding on any street without a marked bikeway, while requiring bike riders to share the space responsibly and limiting speeds to 10 mph.
AB 1266 eliminates bench warrants for minor traffic violations, including for bicyclists and pedestrians.
………
Nice to see more progress being made in the San Gabriel Valley.
………
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on rolling.
Actor, humorist, author and woodworker Nick Offerman is one of us, as he talks with The War on Cars podcast about riding a bike in Los Angeles and New York, and “why the best way to explore an unfamiliar city is at the speed of a good walk.”
A Michigan TV station marks yesterday’s 7th anniversary of the Kalamazoo massacre, when a stoned driver plowed into nine members of a local bike club, killing five people and seriously injuring the others; Charles Pickett Jr, was convicted on 14 charges, and will be 90 years old before he’s eligible for parole. Which is still too damn soon.
The New York Times says make way for the bike bus, as more families are commuting to school on two wheels.
This is who we share the road with. A 26-year old New York man faces charges for killing a pedestrian and injuring four other people, including an 18-year old ebike rider, after allegedly drinking all day, and getting behind the wheel with a BAC nearly twice the legal limit.
Bike Radar has advice on how to make your components last longer to prolong the lifespan of your bike. Take good care of your frame and it can last longer than you do, because everything else is replaceable.
Life is cheap in England, where a woman calls for drivers to pay attention after the driver who her down from behind while she rode her bike, leaving her with life-changing injuries, wasn’t even charged.
There’s nothing in the news yet, which is usually a good sign. However, I’m told that the road was closed for several hours, which suggests the victim may have suffered critical, possibly life-threatening injuries.
Thanks to Phillip Young, Serena Grace and David Huntsman for the heads-up.
………
Nothing good last forever, if NIMBYs get their way.
It was only a few weeks ago that I visited downtown Culver City for the first time since the Move Culver City Complete Street makeover went in, and discovered for myself just how much more pleasant it was to walk through the city without the constant threat from cars and their drivers.
But now a new conservative majority on the city council wants to rip out the new bike and bus lanes, and restore Washington Blvd to the dangerous car sewer it was for decades prior to the improvements.
Yes, improvements.
So mark your calendar for what may be the last chance to save them next month.
— Jayro Queme's Tweets for Less Traffic Violence (@ayruem2) March 27, 2023
Although they’ve got a long way to go to catch up to Santa Monica.
Santa Monica is a good case study for showing you can get a lot done for bike infrastructure in a decade if you keep at it year after year. Here’s a signature project on 17th St about to open. pic.twitter.com/osZeW2gaHY
Paris proves that the only thing holding us back is our own leadership. Or the lack thereof.
The most notable thing about Paris’ cycling revolution?
Its expediency is tangible on the street: scrubbed markings, precast barriers, fresh paint and concrete.
It shows the only thing stopping cities from transforming themselves isn’t time, money or skill; it’s political will. pic.twitter.com/l3KuMyC2FL
— Melissa & Chris Bruntlett (@modacitylife) March 26, 2023
………
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on rolling.
No logical disconnect here. When you’re urging people to come protest a bike lane, always encourage them to come by bike or transit due to a serious lack of parking.
New entry for the “Things You Could Not Possibly Make Up” file:
Berkeley’s most unhinged NIMBYs are fighting a bike lane and are rallying folks to go to a special city meeting on April 18.
Their e-mail call to action? “It will be hard to park, so walk or ride your bike.” pic.twitter.com/t0hNv9UAow
— (((Matthew Lewis))) progressive federalism SOS (@mateosfo) March 26, 2023
No bias here. An Arizona state representative thinks Portland has somehow imploded, and bike lanes are to blame; the local paper aptly describes the backlash as “road diet rage. Thanks to Erik Griswold for the link, who calls your attention to the “delightful” comments to the original tweet.
No bias here, either. Top Gear’s Jeremy Clarkson writes that he’s glad bike sales have dropped below pre-pandemic levels in the UK, bizarrely comparing people on bicycles to the East German secret police, and arguing that riding a bike isn’t a cheap and healthy alternative to taking the car, but rather, “a political statement, pure and simple. It’s anti-capitalism with handlebars.”
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
March 17, 2023 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Motorcyclist gets 4 years for killing Carlsbad bike rider while fleeing cops, and tales of an Entitled Cyclist in Los Angeles
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
This is the amateur Olympics of drinking, so ride defensively. And assume every driver you see on the road after lunch this afternoon is under the influence.
Twenty-nine-year old Eric Monte Burns pled guilty to a single felony count of evading an officer causing death, with an allegation of causing great bodily injury to his passenger, for the death of 69-year old Solano Beach resident Brad Allen Catcott last August.
Burns was fleeing from a park police officer for speeding and reckless riding at Carlsbad State Beach, with a 22-year old woman on his bike, when he slammed into Catcott as he merged his bicycle into a turn lane.
Catcott died at the scene, while both Burns and his passenger were seriously injured.
Prosecutors dropped charges of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and DUI, with up to ten additional years in prison, in exchange for the guilty plea.
……….
One of the stars of Los Angeles Bike social media has caught the eye of the LA Times.
Tom’s online moniker formed as he got more involved in Bike Twitter and noticed a widespread “attitude that drivers have towards cyclists as being entitled.” Then his penchant for sarcasm kicked in.
“I’m trying to turn the idea of entitled around to mean: ‘Yes, I’m entitled to be able to move around the streets without getting run over by you.’”
Fonseca goes on to describe the sensation of watching Fonseca’s nearly daily videos of close calls, blocked bikeways and overly aggressive drivers from the comfort of his desk chair.
Watching Tom’s videos can be a harrowing experience — and I’m viewing them safely from my office chair. The number of near-collisions he’s faced due to speeding, inattentive driving and sometimes deliberately aggressive drivers is all the more shocking as I remind myself that this is one person’s regular commute in a county with millions of people and tens of thousands of miles of roads.
On top of the multiple tons of speeding metal that Tom has to watch out for, his feed is full of parked vehicles and trash cans blocking designated bike lanes and sidewalks. He also regularly documents the conditions of bike lanes and other safety infrastructure as he navigates L.A. and neighboring cities.
It’s a good read, and well worth a few minutes of your day to read the whole thing.
And if it gets some drivers to recognize themselves and reconsider the way they operate behind the wheels, that’s a win for all of us.
Do you live in Council District 13? Join our newest local chapter, Bike Central LA, in calling for bike lanes to be added to newly paved Belmont Avenue, between Beverly and Temple. Send a letter at the link below!https://t.co/Tj52j5JGCf
If you were planning to ride the east section of Angeles Crest Highway this weekend, you might want to think again.
*SR-2 in Angeles National Forest* SR-2 remains CLOSED from Mt. Wilson Rd. to Big Pines Hwy. Multiple slides west of SR-39 & a washed out roadway at mile post 46 / Windy Gap. Closure updates at https://t.co/O37QesJHpwpic.twitter.com/Bbyx0EprDn
We may have missed this one earlier this year, but it’s no surprise that bicycles have become tools of survival for the embattled people of Ukraine.
It’s common for people picking up WCK food kits in Ukraine to come by bike—some ride for 30 minutes each way for the support. The kits are heavy, full of items including flour, rice, oil, canned meat & veggies, and tea—enough to last families between deliveries. #ChefsForUkrainepic.twitter.com/Yh4qgTLT6V
This is who we share the road with. A “recidivist reckless driver” has been offered a plea deal of nine years behind bars for driving against traffic on a New York street before crashing into another vehicle, and sending them both onto the sidewalk where they killed a three-month old girl and gravely injured one of her parents; the wrong way driver has nearly 100 previous red light and speed cam violations on his record. Just one more example of authorities keeping a dangerous driver on the road until they kill someone.
Speaking of New York, the city is planning a makeover of dangerous Delancey Street, from the foot of the Williamsburg Bridge in Manhattan to the Bowery; 38 people have been killed or injured in the area directly below the bridge in just a five-year period.
No bias here. A London columnist is shocked! shocked! to discover a price tag for the equivalent of nearly $4,900 for a new cargo bike, while noticing the disparity between cargo bike-riding affluent parents and non-affluent delivery workers. But he probably wouldn’t think twice of people paying ten or twenty times that much for a motor vehicle to haul their kids, or deliver takeout. Or takeaway, as they call it.
Bicycling Australiareviews World Bicycle Relief’s single-speed Buffalo Bike; Trek has named the bike, designed to provide transportation for people in underdeveloped countries, as their Bike of the Year for two years running.
Catcott died at the scene, while both people on the motorcycle suffered serious injuries.
With good behavior, Burns will be out in less than two years. Meanwhile, Catcott received the death penalty, and his loved ones have been sentenced to a lifetime without him.
A similar crime in some other states could result in a decade or more of hard time.
But California’s too lenient traffic laws too often allow killer drivers to escape with a relative slap on the wrist.
In the same story, The Union-Tribune reports that ebike injuries have dropped considerably since Carlsbad declared a state of emergency last year, allowing city officials to “expedite increased attention and expenditures for enhanced enforcement efforts, new traffic safety measures and safe driving education programs.”
There were just two ebike-related injuries reported last month, compared with ten the previous February.
The victim suffered a skull fracture, concussion and several broken teeth while riding her ebike on Carlsbad’s Tamarack Ave, near where Christine Embree was killed by a driver while riding an ebike with her 16-month old daughter last August.
………
LADOT installed a sign honoring Monique Muñoz, who was killed by a teenage driver in an overpowered Lamborghini SUV traveling at over 100 mph.
Yesterday we joined @CD5LosAngeles in unveiling a memorial sign at Olympic and Overland to honor Monique Muñoz, whose life was taken too soon by an act of speeding on our streets. This sign serves as a reminder to drivers to slow down and practice safe driving behavior. pic.twitter.com/DYpk8rpKp2
But as others have noted today, a far better memorial would be to fix the streets so drivers can’t travel at speeds that would be illegal on any highway in the state.
………
The LAPD released security cam video showing the car that killed 51-year old Oscar Montoya in San Pedro shortly after midnight Saturday morning, although initial reports mistakenly located the collision several miles away in Venice.
Police describe it as a possible light-colored Toyota Scion, though it looks more like a Kia Soul to me.
The driver reportedly paused briefly after the crash before hitting the gas and disappearing out of view.
Meanwhile, Guy Piddock described the terror he feels riding the less than one-third mile gap in the bike lane on Pacific Ave where Montoya was killed.
https://t.co/d8IUcJi9oP video just released by local news with an interview with the family after.
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
No bias here. A San Diego TV station reports that a new protected bike lane and dedicated bus lane on Park Blvd will improve safety and connectivity, while opening the street up to all road users. But all they seem to care about is the loss of hundreds of parking spaces.
But sometimes, its the people on two wheels behaving badly.
A Montana man faces charges for using his bicycle as a weapon to attack a truck driver, after allegedly crashing his bike into the truck, then striking the victim several time before slamming the bike over his head. Three witnesses reported the victim, who apparently has major anger management issues, crashed his bike into the side of the passing truck, even though it’s more likely the driver passed too close.
Streetsblog’s Roger Rudick argues that a planned $200 million bike and pedestrian bridge connecting an 800-foot gap over an estuary between Oakland’s Jack London Square and Western Alameda is just too damn complicated; the plans call for a drawbridge mechanism to make room for passing boats, but Rudick says just build a higher bridge with elevator access.
A Boise public radio station examines the origin of the Idaho Stop Law, which has been rapidly spreading across the country in recent years. Except in California, where our governor vetoed it.
A woman in the UK has filed an appeal over her three-year sentence for knocking a 77-year woman off her bike and into traffic, where she was killed, for the crime of riding her bike on the sidewalk to avoid a dangerous street. But the British press is trying to paint her as the victim, stressing the dificulty she’ll have in prison while suffering from partial blindness, cerebral palsy and a deformed right foot — even though none of that kept her from pushing the victim off her bike.
November 11, 2022 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Hunt is on for road-raging Carlsbad bicyclist, and stoned Michigan driver to face charges in Make-A-Wish crash
Happy Veteran’s Day to all those who have served our country!
………
Before we get going, it’s time to start digging under your sofa cushions to save up for the 8th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive later this month.
The fund drive page is now live, which wasn’t hard to do since I never got around to taking down last year’s page, in case anyone feels an urgent need to contribute before we officially get going on the 25th.
And I’m open to suggestions if you can recommend a good payment app, since there are always people who ask for an alternative to PayPal or Zelle each year.
The man reportedly responded to being yelled at by one of the kids by trying to open their car door and punching a window, before smashing their windshield. He then rode off, but allegedly lay in wait for them down the road.
As we have repeatedly said, there is never any excuse for violence, no matter how justified it may seem at the time.
Now instead of being the victim of an angry driver, a bike rider finds himself a wanted criminal who could face serious charges and be subject to damages once he’s found.
Metro is hosting a community meeting on Wednesday, as well as a bike rodeo next month, to gather input on first mile/last mile connections for the Sepulveda G LIne, nee Orange Line, station.
Speaking of Streetsblog, the transportation news site is honoring LA County Supervisor Holly Mitchell with their Streetsie Award for 2022 Elected Official of the Year at Mercado La Palomaon December 1st.
Bicycling offers advice on how to ride with your dog. My best tip is to get a tandem with an usually low stoker position, and let the dog do its own damn pedaling. As usual, read it on Yahoo if the magazine blocks you.
There’s a special place in hell for whoever stole a ghost bike for a 13-year old Washington boy who was killed by a driver who went through the crosswalk he was riding in; fortunately, the bike was returned when someone at a scrap yard recognized it and returned it to his family.
The news keeps getting worse from Las Vegas, where it turns out the two mountain bikers killed by an alleged drunk driver during a serial hit-and-run were a couple who had been dating for ten years.
Boise, Idaho is redrawing plans for a protected bike lane after complaints that it would interfere with parents picking up their children from a Catholic school, apparently thinking the ability to drive up to the door is more important than allowing their kids to safely bike there.
That’s more like it. A 22-year old Michigan man will spend 20 to 40 years behind bars after he was sentenced for the hit-and-run death of a five year old boy who was riding his bike in a crosswalk with the rest of his family; his two younger siblings remain traumatized after witnessing the crash.
A Cambridge, Massachusetts judge expressed skepticism over new bendy post-protected bike lanes, saying in response to a lawsuit intended to stop them that the streets appear to be too narrow for them. Which isn’t a decision a judge with no traffic planning experience should be making.
A 12-year old Erie, Pennsylvania boy was severely beaten by two unknown attackers as he was riding his bike somewhere in the city; police were having trouble locating the site because the boy doesn’t speak English and was relying on a translator. No word on whether he was attacked for his bike, or for some other reason.
For the first seven months of this year, it was one of the safest places to ride a bicycle in Southern California, with just four deaths.
Even though just one is one too many.
Yet the county has doubled that total in just the last ten days, with the latest death coming yesterday in Carlsbad, where the victim was collateral damage in a police chase.
The victim, who has not been publicly identified, died at the scene, while both the 28-year old motorcyclist and his passenger, a 22-year old woman, were hospitalized with serious injuries.
There’s no word on when or where the pursuit started, or how fast the motorcyclist was going at the time of the crash.
However, it raises inevitable questions about the wisdom of police chases that place innocent people at risk, and whether a parks cop was properly trained in how to conduct a chase.
Anyone with information is urged to call Carlsbad Police Investigator Adam Bentley at 442/339-5559.
This is at least the 58th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the eighth that I’m aware of in San Diego County.
It’s also the 4th bicycling death in the county in the last ten days, and the second in Carlsbad.
Catcott was reportedly moving from the bike lane to a turn lane when he was run down by the fleeing motorcyclist, and succumbed to blunt force trauma.
The paper reports Carlsbad Police referred questions to State Parks officials, who said there “is no new information to share with the public” ten days after the crash.
Not that they’re trying to cover their collective ass or anything.
My deepest prayers and sympathy for the Brad Allen Catcott and all his loved ones.
August 9, 2022 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on 35-year old woman riding ebike dies after collision with SUV driver in Carlsbad; her 16-month old daughter unhurt
Because of last night’s breaking news, there will be no Morning Links today.
We’ll be back tomorrow to catch up on anything we missed.
………
Three crashes. Three deaths. Three counties. Two hit-and-runs.
All in less than 20 hours.
A horrible weekend for the bicycling community finally concluded with the last of three innocent victims, who died simply because they rode their bicycles on Southern California streets.
She was taken to a nearby hospital with serious injuries, and died the next afternoon. Her child appeared to be unhurt, but was taken to the hospital as a precaution.
At least the driver stuck around this time, unlike the other two crashes.
The 42-year old woman reportedly cooperated with police investigators, who don’t believe drugs or alcohol played a role in the crash.
Unfortunately, there’s no word on how the crash may have occurred. A street view doesn’t offer any help, showing a pair of two-lane residential streets, controlled with a four-way stop.
Anyone with information is urged to call Carlsbad Police Corporal Matt Bowen at 442/339-2282.
This is at least the 54th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the fifth that I’m aware of in San Diego County.
My deepest prayers and sympathy for Christine Embree and all her loved ones.
The driver briefly stopped a short distance away before driving off, leaving his victim bleeding in the street.
Investigators ask anyone who lives in the area to check their surveillance cameras for any video that might show the crash or the suspect.
Something sheriff’s investigators should have done themselves in the first few days, if not hours, following the crash, before any video would be deleted or recorded over.
But maybe they were, like, busy or something.
Anyone with information is urged to call San Dimas Traffic Detective Christopher Bronowicki at 909/859-2818.
The video is difficult to watch, so make sure you really want to see the crash and its aftermath before you click play, because you can’t unsee it once you do.
Seventy-four-year old John Burgan is in a coma in critical condition with internal injuries, as well as fractures all around his skull, face, ribs and right femur, after an apparent hit-and-run.
The location and condition of his undamaged bicycle suggest he may have been struck by the wing mirror of a driver’s vehicle while making his way to the left turn lane at Hosp Way.
Anyone with information is urged to call Carlsbad Police Officer Adam Bentley at 760/931-2288 or email adam.bentley@carlsbadca.gov.
………
Finally, a little good news from LA City Hall.
Streetsblog is reporting that the City Council Transportation Committee has taken the unprecedented step of — wait for it — actually lowering speed limits in the City of Angels, in hopes of maybe making a fewer of them.
Angels, that is.
The city’s hands have long been tied by the deadly 85th Percentile Law, which worked in conjunction with speeding drivers to push limits ever higher, regardless of whether the new speeds were actually safe.
It took a new state law, sponsored by Burbank Assemblymember Laura Friedman, to reform, but not repeal, the 85th Percentile Law to allow the city to begin reducing speeds on city streets.
However, the committee’s action covers just 177 miles out of LA’s more than 6,500 miles of streets.
But it’s a start.
………
It looks like New Yorkers overwhelmingly support safer streets, and using automated traffic cams to do it.
New Yorkers want these changes to make streets safe. An Emerson College poll found that 68% of city residents support lowering the speed limit to 20 mph, and 72% want the city to have authority to set its own speed limits. A Siena College poll found that 85% of New York City voters, including 84% of car-owners, support red light enforcement cameras. More than three-quarters of New York City voters, including just about the same share of car owners, support automated speed safety cameras.
Not only are the speed and red light cams popular, they’re also effective.
As one example of the consequences, consider New York City’s speed safety camera program, which is currently only permitted by Albany to operate from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., Monday through Friday. In effect, Albany forces cameras to be off for more than half of the hours in any given week. Speed safety cameras are wildly effective: A 55% drop in all traffic fatalities and a 72%decline in speeding followed the launch of the program. Speed safety cameras also avoid racial biases that may be present in armed police stops and avoid risks of stops turning violent or deadly. However, in 2020, nearly 40% of people killed in fatal traffic crashes died in speed safety camera zones, but when the cameras were forced to be off. Speeding doesn’t sleep, but state law forces our speed safety cameras to get plenty of shut-eye.
Let’s hope California legislators are paying attention.
Not to mention the LA City Council, which cancelled the city’s red light camera program, for reasons that mostly boiled down to angry drivers who didn’t like getting tickets for breaking the law.
………
I wouldn’t count on plastic bollards to keep you safer. Even if these are better than the flimsy car-tickler plastic bendy posts.
Santa Monica has these in a few spots but goes for the truly useless ones like these in most places. Disappointingly the latter for the Ocean Ave "protected" bike lane and, shocker, half of then were gone in less than a year and it constantly has motor vehicles in it. pic.twitter.com/5xG7g9zNuS
— lana Negrete mentioned me on rightwing fake news (@schroedinger_) February 17, 2022
Personally, I consider anything marked by plastic bollards to be a separated bike lane, rather than a protected bike lane.
Because those little posts don’t protect anyone.
………
Burbank police will be offering bicycle registration next Wednesday afternoon.
And cookies, too.
Join us for our first ever Cookie with a Cop next Wednesday at Sliders, from 2-4pm. We will also have bicycle registration available, too! @BurbankCApic.twitter.com/yXwRNRRDZS
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
No bias here. A Cincinnati op-ed calls bike lanes a “misappropriation of funds,” calling for the money to be spent fixing potholes rather than catering “to a small group of citizens that happen to bicycle.” Never mind that potholes are more dangerous for people on bikes than those safely ensconced in a couple tons of steel and glass.
Life is cheap in British Columbia, where a man got a lousy 30 months for the drunken hit-and-run that killed a man riding a bicycle, then tried to blame an innocent co-worker for the crash. Never mind that it was the third time in six years he’d been accused of DUI. Just one more example of authorities keeping a dangerous driver on the road until they kill someone.
June 14, 2021 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Carlsbad GOP candidate gets proposed ebike bill all wrong, sexist anti-bike bias, and the high cost of traffic violence
The proposal, AB 117, is supported by current Assembley Member Tasha Boerner Horvath, whom she hopes to unseat.
At a price-point anywhere from $1,500 to $4,000, they are a noteworthy investment, but should the government be subsidizing these purchases without accountability? Absolutely not. Yet Assemblymember Tasha Boerner Horvath wants to spend unlimited amounts of money to do just that.
Maybe someone should tell her about the massive rebates the state already gives to people who buy electric cars.
But rudeness, rather than money, seems to be her chief objection.
Worse, many of us have witnessed near collisions between e-bikes or e-scooters and vehicles. Personally, I have been almost struck while crossing the street in a crosswalk, and many people have observed near-catastrophes on a daily basis.
So, from her point of view, we should make it harder to buy ebikes, because someone almost struck her while riding one.
Because apparently, no one on a regular bicycle — or a scooter, skateboard, roller skates or running shoes — would ever do such a dastardly deed.
And she’s evidently never experienced the way rude, aggressive and/or inattentive drivers treat people in crosswalks, either.
But the most frightening part, from her bizarre perspective, is that the bill would provide up to $10 million in state tax rebates. Never mind that California currently has an $85 billion — yes billion, with a b — tax surplus.
Which, by my English major math calculations, works out to less than 0.012% of that surplus.
Now the state government wants to fund incentives for purchasing electric bicycles — atop significant out-of-control spending already happening at the state level.
Think I’m kidding? One of Boerner Horvath’s latest bills — Assembly Bill 177 — states that the purpose of her newest taxpayer-funded program is to “fund…incentives for purchasing electric bicycles” under the guise of an “air quality improvement program.”
But wait, there’s more!
Despite Horvath’s empty virtue signaling to the environmentalists, the government should not be incentivizing us to purchase electric bicycles when they are already affordable and available. That’s the job of Lime, Bird, and other companies in the San Diego region. Plus, those companies are held accountable by the cities in which they operate — not by nameless bureaucrats in Sacramento.
Maybe $1,500 to $4,000 — or a lot more, actually — is affordable to her. But it’s a major stretch for many of the constituents she hopes to represent.
And she apparently has no idea what Lime, Bird and other e-scooter providers actually do.
Or what bikeshare is, for that matter.
Then she trots out the usual bike hater screeds.
This legislation is a disaster in the making. Beyond the notion that this isn’t the role of government, there are no safety precautions, no spending limits, and no licensing requirements. Above all, there is no accountability to determine the efficacy of the program or its reduction in air pollution.
So, she wants to license ebike riders. Or maybe all bike riders.
Never mind that California already regulates ebikes into three distinct classes, with increasing levels of safety restrictions and requirements.
And did we mention that $10 million spending limit?
As for reducing air pollution, she’s got a point. Everyone knows the paltry electricity consumed by a little ebike, and its burrito eating rider, would create far more emissions than your average massive gas-guzzling SUV.
Right?
Let’s hope that, contrary to her wishes, AB 117 does see the light of day.
And the very confused and uninformed Melanie Burkholder doesn’t.
When white men start using a bike, I often think they experience a sort of status shock. They see what marginalisation feels like: the dehumanisation, the fear, the threat of violence. If you ride a bike and you belong to another group who already lives with this threat, there is a familiarity to it all…
Being a cyclist often reminds me of being a woman. If someone hurts me it’s my fault because I didn’t wear the right thing, I didn’t defer to them and “know my place”, and I didn’t just smile and put up with their abuse. Power imbalances foster bullying.
So, avoid them if you can, the dehumanising stereotypes. All the comparisons to vermin this past fortnight on conservative radio and social media – cockroaches, rats, lice, etc – have been way out of line. Even the fixation with lycra. It’s something male sports cyclists usually wear. The obsession with men wearing tight revealing clothing in public so often veers into an obviously homophobic place. Just don’t.
One of the top dog handlers missed out on this year’s Westminster Dog Show after his van was rear-ended in Laramie, Wyoming while driving ten canine competitors cross-country to the show; he ended up in the hospital, but fortunately, the dogs were uninjured. Which goes to show how much safer cars could be if everyone inside just rode in the human equivalent of a dog crate.
In another form of violence due to motor vehicles, the grave of Robert Meacham, who rose from slavery to Florida state senator and helped establish the state’s public school system, is likely buried unmarked and unremembered under a Tampa parking lot, along with the bodies of hundreds of other Black people.
A year ago, LA Times readers were asked to envision life post-pandemic, but only one lonely response addressed how nice life was with fewer cars on the streets. The simple fact is, if we go back to life as normal pre-pandemic, with cars maintaining hegemony over our streets, we will have failed. And looking outside, it appears we already have.
State
Two armed Orange County men were busted after blocking the path of a pair of Garden Grove bike riders with their car, robbing the woman of her bike, pack and cellphone while her male companion bravely rode away; police seized six guns from their home, was well as gun parts.