Tag Archive for CD11

Torrance crackdown lumps e-cargo bikes with illegal minibikes, and quick-build protected bike lane proposed for Jefferson

December 18, 2025 / / No comments
Day 351 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

Just 7 days left in the 11th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive!

 

Thanks to Beverly, Michael and another Michael for their generous donations to support SoCal’s best source for bike news and advocacy!

But time’s quickly running out! Just seven days — one short week — left to give. 

So stop what you’re doing, and take a moment right now to donate through PayPal or Venmo, or via Zelle to ted@bikinginla.com using the banking app on your smartphone.

Just relax, already, and give now!

………

No surprise here.

The Torrance City Council voted 6 to 1 to approve the proposal cracking down on ebikes. And managed to once again conflate electric motorbikes with ped-assist ebikes.

To wit, according to the Daily Breeze,

Earlier this month, for example, a 22-year-old individual was arrested for riding their e-bike inside the Del Amo Fashion Center — and nearly hitting a mall security officer who got in their path.

“When contacted by mall security personnel,” Torrance Police Department Lt. Charles Fisher said following the arrest, “the rider allegedly attempted to strike a security officer with the minibike, constituting an assault with a deadly weapon.”

While the individual was charged with a felony, the Police Department has limited enforcement ability otherwise, Fisher said.

Note that the police lieutenant clearly identified it as a minibike. But because of incidents like that, which have nothing whatsoever to do with kids riding Class 1 ebikes to school, or commuters riding their e-cargo bike to work, they somehow have to crack down on everyone.

Again, according the the Daily Breeze — which embargoed the story behind their paywall while I was in the middle of writing about it —

The code was amended to include class three e-bikes – a bike that offers pedal assistance up to 28 mph – under the definition of a bicycle, meaning they must follow all applicable traffic laws when it comes to where and when a bicyclist can ride.

The ordinance also prohibits class three e-bikes from being ridden on any sidewalks, or in city parks and recreational facilities. Regular bicycles are also not allowed on sidewalks in business districts or adjacent to schools, churches, recreation centers and playgrounds. And any stunt riding, including wheelies and other “acrobatic maneuvers,” and the use of handheld devices while operating a bicycle are prohibited for any bicyclist, under the ordinance.

So a kid riding an ebike to school will be forced to ride in the street, mixing it up with drivers doing 45 mph, rather than being allowed on the far-safer sidewalks.

And this in a town without a single protected bikeway. Because that would require removing parking spaces, and might somehow make someone somewhere just a tad inconvenienced.

So allowing people free storage for their big, dangerous machines right next to the curb is more important than the lives of little kids, as far as Torrance is concerned.

Noted.

As others have said, when someone shows you who they are, believe them.

And they certainly did.

………

About damn time.

CD11 Councilmember Traci Park is calling for a barrier protected bike lane along Jefferson Blvd between Culver and Lincoln boulevards, creating a safe route connecting “Playa Vista to Playa del Rey while respecting the restored Ballona Wetlands trail,” according to Park.

The proposal call for allocating $175,000 from the Coastal Transportation Corridor Trust Fund to install K-rail barriers along the shoulder of the roadway for a quick-build solution to improve safety.

Which offers Park the added benefit preventing the return of a large RV encampment that was recently cleared.

There’s no word on when her motion will be heard by the city council, but it’s worth considering. Although a lot depends on the condition of the pavement on that shoulder she wants to repurpose.

………

‘Tis the season.

A Catholic nonprofit is teaming with a San Jose bike shop to distribute 100 bikes to kids in the local area.

A Scranton, PA state senator’s annual bike giveaway program distributed 2,000 new, mostly identical, bicycles to local kids, double the total from last year.

A South Carolina program is distributing four refurbished bicycles to randomly selected people in the local area.

………

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

A British lord is once again calling for a crackdown on bicyclists, insisting that London is the “Wild West” for bike riders, urging mandatory bike registration, penalty points linked to driving licenses and stricter speed limits on ebikes. Never mind that both the Conservatives and Labour parties have batted down similar proposals a number of times recently.

………

………

Local 

Here’s a great idea. If you rent a Lime bike in LA, you can now round up your total rental price, with the extra money going to fund BikeLA, aka the former Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition.

 

State

San Francisco public television station KQED remembered a 21-year old Stanford student who was killed while riding his bike on campus last spring; the Pakistani student, who was born in the US and raised in Lahore, was mourned by people in both countries.

 

National

Velo picks the year’s best road bikes.

As we mentioned the other day, Seattle-based Rad Power Bikes lived down to expectations by filing bankruptcy, declaring debts of a whopping $73 million.

A Japanese man is crediting luck and the kindness of strangers for allowing him to continue his journey from New York to Los Angeles, after his bicycle was stolen in Albuquerque, New Mexico; local residents provided donations, and he spotted someone riding his bike a few days later, paying the man the $40 to get his bike back and get back on the road to LA.

A 70-year old man from the next town over from my Colorado hometown was blown away by yesterday’s winds. No, literally.

A homeless man from Boulder, Colorado was sentenced to 96 years behind bars after police found the body of a 19-year old woman wrapped in plastic in his abandoned bike trailer; she had apparently been there for several days, after her boyfriend had traded her to her killer for drugs.

Once again, someone riding a bicycle has paid the ultimate price for a police chase, as a 31-year old Nashville bicyclist was collateral damage, killed by a hit-and-run driver fleeing from the cops, who the escaped into the woods after the crash while leaving his female passenger behind.

If you build it, they will come. Boston’s Better Bike Lanes project to install protected bike lanes throughout the metro area has resulted in a substantial increase in bicycle trips, along with a modest decrease in motor vehicle traffic.

That’s more like it. An op-ed on a Queens, New York website agrees with the recent court ruling halting a new bike lane on 31st Street — but only because the bike lane didn’t got far enough to improve safety.

 

International

The Toronto city council unanimously approved dozens of bike lanes in the city’s inner suburbs, which carefully skirt the new provincial ban on removing traffic lanes.

No bias here. Readers of a Bristol, England website are up in arms over new bike lanes, alleging that the construction is complicating their lives and making traffic worse, instead of better. As if every road construction project doesn’t the same problems. 

Five men in Yorkshire, England were convicted of murdering a 28-year old man by breaking into his home and slashing his neck, in a dispute over a stolen ebike.

No justice in the UK, where a truck driver was acquitted for killing a 52-year old wife and mother as she was riding her bike, after playing the universal Get Out Of Jail Free card by claiming he just didn’t see her because the sun was in his eyes.

British broadcaster and bicycle advocate Jeremy Vine received the equivalent of over $800,000 after filing a defamation suit against a former soccer player who called him a “bike nonce” on Twitter/X; nonce is British slang for a pedophile.

Bicyclists in South Africa were outraged after a 27-year old man was released on the equivalent of less than $900 bail despite being accused of killing a 41-year old husband and father riding a bicycle, while speeding and driving under the influence.

Here’s another one for your bike bucket list — okay, mine — with a bicyclist’s guide to New Zealand’s breathtaking “remote and spectacular” Timber Trail through dense virgin forestland.

 

Competitive Cycling

It’s the winter fashion season, and the Ineos Grenadiers opt for bold orange and white, guaranteed to stand out on the runway or in the peloton, although not everyone is a fan — which appears to be an understatement.

Bike Radar names Britain’s Archie Atkinson as their newcomer of the year, while the 21-year old Paris silver medalist aims to become the first paracyclist on the WorldTour.

Reuters is capping the 2025 cycling season by arguing that Tadej Pogačar is nearing GOAT territory, comparing him to the great Eddy Merkx.

USA Cycling unveiled its 2026 national championship schedule for 21 various cycling disciplines.

 

Finally…

That feeling when you ride your bike to your cousin the king’s royal Christmas lunch. Your next gravel bike could be ebike seconds later.

And no, speed limits don’t deter “considerate cyclists.” Just like they don’t deter considerate drivers.

Or inconsiderate ones, for that matter.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Transportation chair Mike Bonin to step down in CD11, and LADOT officer permits parking in DTLA protected bike lane

January 27, 2022 / / Comments Off on Transportation chair Mike Bonin to step down in CD11, and LADOT officer permits parking in DTLA protected bike lane

If it looks like I lost my best friend, it’s because I have.

Or rather, we have.

Embattled CD11 Councilmember Mike Bonin, the best friend the bicycling community currently has on the LA City Council, announced yesterday that he won’t seek a third and final term, and will leave the council when his current term expires next year.

Which will put the leadership of the city council’s Transportation Committee in play, as well as his coastal Los Angeles district, which encompasses Venice, Mar Vista and Playa del Rey.

Bonin has received an incredible amount of abuse in recent years from drivers angered by lane reductions in Playa and Mar Vista, and wealthy NIMBY gentrifiers angered by homeless encampments while actively blocking efforts to build housing and shelters to get them off the streets.

Not to mention dealing with at least three failed recall attempts in recent years, as opponents attempted to undo his overwhelming victory in the general election.

And apparently, it’s taken a toll.

He vows to remain active and keep fighting the good fight in his final year in office, as well as after he leaves.

The problem now is that anyone who isn’t already campaigning to replace him now have just 16 days to file their candidacy with the city clerk’s office. Which could leave the race to the handful of less progressive, decidedly un-bike-friendly candidates who had lined up to challenge Bonin.

They would likely have had little chance of beating Bonin. But now they face a wide open race where anything could happen, and anyone could win.

And not necessarily someone who will support safer streets.

So let’s all give our thanks to Mike Bonin, and offer our best wishes for healing for him and his family as they recover from the challenges of holding office in today’s abusive environment.

And hope we can find someone to take his place who will continue his fight, and have the courage to stand up to angry drivers and reactionary local residents and business owners.

I’ll leave you with this final thought from Alissa Walker.

………

That feeling when even the people responsible for enforcing the law seem to have no idea what it actually is.

https://twitter.com/seanmeredith/status/1486427970323443713

Not only are drivers not permitted to park in bike lanes, it’s a violation of the California Vehicle Code 21211(b), which specifically prohibits parking in any bikeway.

(b) No person may place or park any bicycle, vehicle, or any other object upon any bikeway or bicycle path or trail, as specified in subdivision (a), which impedes or blocks the normal and reasonable movement of any bicyclist unless the placement or parking is necessary for safe operation or is otherwise in compliance with the law.

And yes, LADOT agrees.

Maybe something like this would finally get drivers to stop parking there.

………

Nice to see bike-riding Lakers fans turn out to remember Kobe Bryant, on the second anniversary of the helicopter crash that took his life, as well as eight other people, including his daughter Gianna.

Speaking of Kobe, he drove a hard bargain from a young age, demanding a red bicycle in exchange for his first endorsement deal.

………

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

A UK county council admits it acted illegally by ruthlessly ripping out a temporary bike lane installed on an emergency basis during the pandemic, before it could even be finished.

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

A Black Milwaukee bike rider was convicted of first-degree reckless homicide for the road rage shooting that killed a White immigration lawyer; the shooter alleged the victim had called him a racial slur.

A Spanish bike rider got the equivalent of a $1,120 fine for his drunken crash into a pedestrian, which was captured on security cam.

………

Local

LADOT will host the rescheduled Central LA Neighborhood Design Lab and Tree Adoption on Saturday, February 12th, after the original date was scrubbed due to the Omicron surge.

Streets For All will host their next virtual happy hour on Wednesday, February 9th, with special guest Stephanie Wiggins, the new CEO of LA Metro.

 

State

Gravel Bike California talks with former BMX pro Andrew Jackson about his jump into gravel, as well as his family’s efforts building a pump track in Inglewood.

A longtime Santa Barbara bike rider says he crossed over to the Dark Side by buying an ebike, and doesn’t regret it a bit. Although it’s hard to imagine anything that gets people out of their cars as part of the Dark Side.

Steroids may have kept Barry bonds out of the Baseball Hall of Fame, but that doesn’t stop him from living an idyllic life riding his bicycle in Marin County. Besides, performance-enhancing drugs have a long tradition in bicycling, anyway.

Sacramento will now require people using dockless e-scooters or bicycles to leave them in drop zones or lock them up to bike racks, or face a whopping $15 fine.

 

National

The Bike League has released a new benchmarking report examining five bike-friendly cities to show the importance of safe bicycle infrastructure and connected bicycle networks, while noting that the US is 40 years behind European cities in developing bike networks for people of all ages; City Lab offers an easy to digest summary of the report.

A former Uber driver had bid farewell to fares, and is riding his bike across the US to visit all 50 state capitals; so far he’s just over the halfway point, riding through 25 state capitals and Washington DC.

Michigan finally gets around to banning distracted driving.

There’s a special place in hell for whoever keeps breaking into a Louisiana bike co-op, stealing 15 bicycles worth $4,000 in a series of burglaries.

Florida’s Seminole County is planning to add a pair of bike tunnels to help riders get past the busy intersection of two highways. While bike tunnels may seem like a good safety solution, they’re also prone to collecting debris and can be subject to flooding, as well as providing a home for the homeless. And anything that removes bike riders from public view increases the risk of violent crime, particularly for women. 

 

International

A pilot project will encourage physicians in Bristol, England to prescribe bicycling and walking to address health issues such as obesity, inactivity and loneliness.

A new British study shows more people ride bikes when they feel comfortable on the roads. And aside from a lack of hills, nothing makes bike riders feel more comfortable than speed limits under 20 mph.

The UK’s Transport Minister has proposed law change that would treat deadly bike riders just like deadly drivers, by creating a new charge of death by dangerous cycling. Although wouldn’t treating killer bicyclists like deadly drivers mean just giving them a slap on the wrist, anyway?

Over two-thirds of French people support mandatory bike helmet use, even though only 30% of bike riders currently wear them. Or maybe because only 30% wear them.

 

Competitive Cycling

USA Cycling has announced the ten-race schedule for the 2022 National Criterium Series. Although we Californians will have to travel to Salt Lake City to see the nearest one.

Next year’s Tour de France will kick off in Northern Spain’s Basque Country.

The British cycling organizer behind the Women’s Tour and the Tour of Britain calls for UCI to get off its collective ass and do something to prevent serious crashes, accusing the organization of allowing dangerous crashes to happen.

Egan Bernal’s teammate Tom Pidcock says cyclists need safer ways to train for time trials in the wake of the training crash that left Bernal in intensive care.

Biography profiles legendary American cyclist Major Taylor, the fastest man on two wheels and the world’s first Black international athletic superstar.

 

Finally…

Let’s all wish a happy belated 126th birthday to the ebike. That feeling when certain drivers can’t spot the bikes in a Captcha.

And have a thought for all those poor thieves Van Moof is trying to put out of business.

………

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

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

Invalid signatures sink Bonin recall, Koretz nixes expanded hours for La Brea bus lanes, and Ride4Love Super Bowl Sunday

January 19, 2022 / / 2 comments

So much for that big anti-Bonin uprising in his coastal council district.

Wealthy and conservative activists have been gunning for CD11 Councilmember Mike Bonin almost since he first took office in 2013.

Especially following his bold, but poorly rolled out, attempt at installing much needed road diets in Playa del Rey in 2017, which were removed after Mayor Eric Garcetti cut the legs out from under him following an angry outcry from drivers used to using the roadways as a deadly surface-street alternative to the 405.

Numerous attempts recall him have been announced, despite the overwhelming support Bonin has enjoyed at the ballot box.

And all have fizzled.

The latest attempt got the furthest, as recall supporters actually made it to city hall this time, submitting over 39,000 signatures to the city clerk’s office, far more than needed to qualify the recall for the ballot.

Except, as it turned out, over 13,000 of those signatures were rejected as invalid. Leaving them around 1,350 short.

Now the bike-friendly and bike-riding councilmember can turn his attention to running for a third and final term in office this year, which will most likely return him to his position as chair of the city council’s Transportation Committee.

And avoid the awkward possibility that he could be removed from office amid the typically low turnout of a recall election this spring, then returned when the larger voting public turns out for the June primary election.

As the LA Times points, out, this is the third council recall attempt to fizzle out this year, after earlier failed attempts to oust Nithya Raman and Kevin de León.

Photo taken from Bonin website.

………

Once again, outgoing CD5 Councilmember Paul Koretz shows his true stripes, standing in the way of a much-needed bus lane on La Brea, if it happens to inconvenience anyone even a tiny bit.

Thankfully, Koretz will be termed out this September, when hopefully, someone who actually supports improving transit service to get Angelenos out of their cars can take his place.

So maybe just hold off on printing those Bus Lane No Parking signs for a few more months.

………

Mark your calendar for February’s biggest outdoor event.

Wait, there’s a football game, too?

………

I’m not one to talk about my religious beliefs.

But I confess to saying a prayer to the Madonna del Ghisallo every night, asking that everyone who rides a bike the next day may return home safely.

Sadly, sometimes the answer is no.

So I also pray for all those who have been injured or killed riding a bicycle, and all of their loved ones, that they may be comforted and at peace.

Because what’s the point of having our own patron saint if we don’t ask for her help?

………

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

No bias here. Yet another lengthy screed from a self-proclaimed San Luis Obispo “pedestrian, bicyclist and…commercial driver” complaining that bicycling and walking safety improvements in the city are doing just the opposite — including a new two-way protected bike lane he claims is just teaching children to ride on the wrong side of the road.

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

Riverside police are looking for a bicyclist who repeatedly whacked a 60-something man over the head with a piece of wood in an apparent road rage attack on New Year’s Eve, resulting in head injuries that kept the victim hospitalized until now. Never resort to violence, as tempting as it may be — especially with a weapon, improvised or otherwise. Regardless of what the driver may have done to piss you off.

An alleged road raging bike rider pled guilty to a pair of bail jumping charges on the eve of his trial for fatally shooting a Milwaukee immigration attorney in front of his wife; the defense accuses the driver of directing a racial slur at the Black bicyclist. Which, horrible though it may be, does not justify killing the victim with a gun the shooter was not legally allowed to possess.

………

Local

Streetsblog encourages you to weigh in on Metro’s budget for the upcoming year.

 

State

The HIV/AIDS fundraiser AIDS LifeCycle ride is back this year after a two-year pandemic hiatus, and looking for volunteers to help out.

Spectrum News 1 considers the soaring popularity of ebikes in San Diego.

A Corona man is ordered to stand trial for attempting to sexually assault a schoolgirl, then fleeing naked on his bicycle. Seriously, there’s not a pit in hell deep enough.

Oakland is pulling the plug on their Slow Streets program, rather than making them permanent like some other cities have done.

 

National

Cannondale’s new Synapse is one of the first road bikes from a major manufacturer to incorporate integrated daytime running lights and a rear-facing radar to alert the rider to any approaching motor vehicles, based on Garmin’s Varia bicycle-mounted radar.

You’ve got to be kidding. South Dakota’s Supreme Court tossed a lawsuit from a woman who was paralyzed when her bike wheel got caught in a Rapid City storm grate, after the city destroyed the evidence by removing nearly 100 similar grates — including the one that left her a quadriplegic, making it impossible to prove her case.

Santa Fe bike riders call for an end to automotive supremacy in advance of a redesign of a deadly thoroughfare that was once part of the famed Route 66.

A handful of Good Samaritans pitched in to buy a new racing bike for a Colorado triathlete who lost everything in the recent Boulder County fire, including her carbon fiber Cervelo, which was turned to ash by the flames.

Your old car tires could have a new life as armadillos marking a Memphis protected bike lane. Now if they’d just recycle the rest of the cars.

The NYPD tells moped riders to stay the hell out of the bicycle/pedestrian lane on the Queensboro Bridge. Now if they could just stop their own cops from parking in bike lanes.

Nice move. New York will provide free two-month bikeshare memberships for hospital workers at the front lines in the battle against the Covid-19 Omicron surge.

A new Penn State study shows that even Bike Friendly University’s are failing to encourage members of underserved racial, gender, low-income and disabled groups to bicycle to and on college campuses.

Bicyclist and pedestrian deaths nearly doubled last year in Florida’s Pinellas County, home to Clearwater and St. Petersburg, jumping from 49 in 2020 to 85 in 2021.

 

International

Local residents are delighted that plans to segregate an English bike lane have been scrapped, so they can keep parking in it.

The Vatican now has its very own cycling team, in honor of the bike-loving pope.

A new German study shows that the country’s increase in bicycling is largely driven by highly educated urban residents, who are riding twice as much as they did when the study began in 1996. Although the study only goes through 2018, so it doesn’t include the effects of the pandemic bike boom. Thanks to Ralph Durham for the heads-up.

A New Zealand tour boat skipper spent the pandemic building a new 35-mile mountain bike track, opening up backcountry areas that have never been open to the public before.

Life is cheap in Adelaide, Australia, where police unexpectedly dropped all charges against a 25-year old man accused of deliberately ramming three separate bike riders while driving a stolen car.

 

Competitive Cycling

Sad news from Brazil, where elite mountain biker Mariano Merlo died after a sudden illness; she was just 27 years old.

Russian cyclist and former world junior time trial champ Aigul Gareeva has been suspended after skipping not one, not two, but three doping tests over the past year, which could lead to up to a two year ban. Nope, nothing at all suspicious about blowing off three dope tests. Especially now that the Era of Doping is over, right?

Continental-level developmental team Israel Cycling Academy was victimized by bike thieves on Monday, losing 17 team bikes from a truck at the team’s Catalonia, Spain training camp.

Argentine cyclists discover the hard way that maybe they should slow down just a tad when the road is flooded out in front of the peloton.

https://twitter.com/SC_ESPN/status/1483113665188569089?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1483113665188569089%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Froad.cc%2Fcontent%2Fnews%2Fcycling-live-blog-18-january-2022-289579

 

Finally…

Your next ebike could be haute couture. Don’t stab your companion in an argument over who owns a bike — especially when you’re already on bail for a meth bust.

And it looks like LA tall bike king Richie Trimble’s 20 feet 2.5 inches Stoopid Taller is now just the world’s second tallest bike.

………

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

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
 
Wordpress Theme by ThemeZee