Tag Archive for Crosstown LA

LA on track for massive Vision Zero fail, Glendale bike haters go berserk, and CA ebike incentive plan “screws the pooch”

August 2, 2024 / / One comment

This week certainly didn’t go as planned.

First this site went down for two full days, then I spent too much time researching and writing about the tragedy in Camarillo Wednesday night to write anything else — only to get a complaint from a member of the victim’s family that was probably better directed somewhere else.

On the other hand, I can understand the need to lash out at someone, after something like that. 

Which leaves us with a lot to catch up on. So let’s see how much we can get to before I have to pack it in for the night.

And it’s a sad commentary that I’m looking forward to shoulder surgery next week just so I can get a couple good hours of sleep.  

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Photo shows former Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti signing the city’s soon-forgotten Vision Zero plan behind his massive outdoor desk, courtesy of Streetsblog.

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Just 151 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025. 

Crosstown LA reports the city is on track to once again record more than 300 deaths from traffic violence — a truly obscene total that should shame every city official into taking immediate and far-reaching action to halt it.

But if past is prologue, it probably won’t.

In fact, it’s most likely to be noticed as nothing more than just a blip in their busy schedules, if they notice at all.

Move along, nothing to see here.

Maybe we should replace the current city seal with one bearing the “hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil” monkeys. Although, now that I think about it, trained monkeys could probably do a better job building a safer city.

The site also reports that drivers in Los Angeles continue to flee from fatal crashes in ever-rising numbers, with 62 hit-and-run deaths in the the just first six months of this year alone — more than double the total of two last pre-pandemic years, with 28 in 2018, and 29 in 2019.

Meanwhile, Helsinki, Finland, with a population of 675,000, has managed to reduce traffic deaths to a number that can usually be counted on one hand (scroll down), with fingers left over.

Which would equate to roughly 10 to 12 deaths from traffic violence in a city of LA’s size, with nearly four million people.

And that’s a hell of a lot fewer than we’re likely to endure this year.

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This is who we share the road with.

A commenter at a Glendale City Council meeting freely admits that he thinks his time is more important than the life of someone riding a bicycle, and will gladly speed to cut you off.

Maybe someone should have cut him off.

Then again, they would have had to do a lot of cutting, because an Instagram page compiled the comments in opposition to Glendale’s proposed bike plan, showing the sheer numbers and ugliness of it.

You can see the full city council discussion below, beginning at item B. You know, in case you want to fast-forward through the other stuff.

Thanks to Erik Griswold for the links.

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This is who we share the road with, part two.

Family members are demanding justice, two months after a road-raging off-duty LAPD cop shot Hugo Cachua to death in a dispute that started with a fender bender.

Forty-five-year old Rigoberto R. Reyes was sentenced to 14 years and four months behind bars for the Temecula, California road rage stabbing that killed another man.

And topping this week’s Tour de Road Rage, two men in Highland, California pulled out guns and shot each other to death — in front of one victim’s kids, no less — after one man clipped the other driver’s car mirror while lane splitting on his motorcycle.

Which is all probably fair warning before you lose your top the next time a driver cuts you off or passes too close, because they may be armed and dangerous.

Then again, they’re already driving a multi-ton lethal weapon, anyway.

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People for Mobility Justice will host a “scenic bike ride highlighting local landmarks and celebrating the new bike/ped path on Slauson” from 6 to 8 pm this evening.

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Gravel Bike California marks this weekend’s Tour de Big Bear with a series of single-track jewels guided by local host and Dirty Bear organizer Robin Brown.

 

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It’s now 225 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And 38 full months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

Meanwhile, Electrek examines how California “screwed the pooch so badly” in developing its own $30 million ebike incentive program.

A large part of the problem seems to come from issues with the program’s administrator, a program known as Pedal Ahead. It was selected under raised eyebrows by CARB back in 2022 and tasked with managing the program. However, (Streetsblog’s Melanie) Curr) insinuates that personal connections between a former CARB board member and the founder of Pedal Ahead may have led to its application being granted extra weight despite proposing a significantly different incentive program than that envisioned by the state…

But a slew of complicated issues still needed to be solved, ranging from how the vouchers would be distributed to what types of e-bikes would be eligible and whether online retailers would be allowed to participate, just to name a few.

Over a year was spent trying to work out answers to these questions and many more, often complicated by rethinking earlier decisions and creating new project proposals.

All in favor of just scrapping the damn thing and starting over say “aye!”

After a good criminal investigation or two, that is.

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

A Phoenix, Arizona man faces a second-degree murder charge after he was allegedly caught on video beating a homeless man to death and stealing his bicycle.

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

A Bend, Oregon family discovered the hard way that the law isn’t always clear-cut when it comes to ebikes, after a middle school student suffered a fractured collarbone and elbow when she was struck by a 17-year old boy riding one — and the cops said there’s nothing they could do.

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Local 

Streets Are For Everyone, aka SAFE, asks if the new bike lanes mean formerly unsafe Hollywood Blvd is finally ready for its closeup. Which depends a lot on how well LA maintains it going forward. 

Ouch. Jalopnik says LA’s plan for a carfree ’28 Olympics was laughable when it was announced, and sounds even more laughable now after the city’s miserable failure to invest in bike lanes and other clean infrastructure.

KCBS-2 looks forward to the Meet the Hollywoods CicLAvia when it returns to Hollywood and West Hollywood on August 17th

 

State

Good news from behind the Orange Curtain, as the Irvine city council voted to make this year’s inaugural CicloIrvine open streets fest an annual affair.

Researchers from UC Santa Barbara will use a $480,000 Caltrans Sustainable Transportation Planning Grant to train AI to design a bicycle and wayfinding network for Santa Barbara County, while San Jose will get a similar, if considerably smaller,  grant from Toyota to use AI to improve traffic safety. Never mind that we’re talking about the same advanced tech that draws people with three legs, thinks some Nazi soldiers were Black, and suggests shows Netflix couldn’t pay you to watch. Or maybe that’s just me. 

 

National

Speaking of SAFE, as we did above, the LA-based traffic safety organization offers a recap of how the auto industry killed speed governors 101 years ago, as part of their series on Why the Auto Industry Opposes Safety Improvements.

This is how Vision Zero is supposed to work. Chicago has now installed a spacious curb-protected bike lane on a deadly street where drivers killed two teenagers riding bikes in separate crashes recently, and is in the process of building a nearby neighborhood greenway.

Boston’s new CargoB bikeshare represents what is probably the nation’s first on-demand cargo bike system.

Join the nearly 2,000 people who ride their bikes to the iconic Newport Jazz Fest each day.

 

International

A new survey shows that while a third of UK residents now bike to work, up from just 19% last year, nearly half say they can’t afford a bike, and a quarter would have to save up for six months to buy one.

Copenhagen’s new ‘CopenPay’ plan rewards tourists for choosing green activities and transportation options, like bicycling. But the BBC questions whether it actually works.

Makes sense to me. Service workers at the international airport in Frankfurt, Germany get around the massive structure on bicycles. Thanks to Megan Lynch for the link.

Amazon is expanding it’s e-cargo bike delivery program Berlin, which look like cute-little pedal-powered cargo vans.

I want to be like him when I grow up. An 81-year old man from Goa, India could be one of the country’s oldest people to bike 100 kilometers — about 62 miles.

The widow of a fallen Aussie bicyclist has filed suit against the local government, claiming that a bare metal rail blocking access to a parking lot from a shared-use path was virtually invisible and camouflaged; it’s now been covered in yellow safety stickers.

 

Competitive Cycling

A writer for Cycling Weekly rode the cobbled Paris road cycling course on a 44-pound, three-speed bikeshare bike.

 

Finally…

When you’re carrying heroin and meth on your bike, and riding with an outstanding warrant, just put a damn light on it. Inflate your bike tires electronically, without deflating your wallet.

And when you’re a wanted fugitive riding your bike despite being on the lam for the last 30 years after escaping a Wisconsin rape conviction, put a rear reflector on it, already.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

Bike theft season in LA, burning more money on freeway expansion, and shifting power balance with “do-nothing” council

September 13, 2022 / / One comment

Apparently, it’s bike theft season.

Crosstown LA examined the trends, and discovered bicycle thefts tend to spike in Los Angeles during September and October.

According to the site, bike theft has surged in the fall since at least 2015, peaking in October from 2015 to 2019, and September for the past two years.

Bike theft numbers are likely artificially low, as publicly available Los Angeles Police Department data only counts thefts actually reported. Many people may not call police for a missing two-wheeler, either because of time constraints, or because they do not expect doing so will help with recovery.

Still, the annual fall rise in thefts indicates that the increase may be tied to the resumption of school, in particular the return of college students. From Jan. 1, 2015–Aug. 15, 2022, a total of 2,062 bicycles were reported stolen in University Park, where the USC campus is located and where many of its students reside. That is the highest count of any neighborhood in the city of Los Angeles.

The second-highest number of thefts occurred in dense Downtown, followed by Venice, a well-known cycling hub. The fourth-most victimized community in that period was Sawtelle, where many UCLA students live.

It’s worth giving it a quick read to learn how to protect your bike.

Like this, for instance.

Sometimes, the best way to thwart a theft is prevention. Ted Rogers, the editor of the blog BikinginLA and a former board member of the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, said he takes measures to keep his bike safe.

“I’ve been known to walk my bike into stores just so I don’t have to lock it up,” he said. “Never lock your bike to a sign because signs can be unbolted and taken away. Never lock your bike to a small tree because those have been known to be pulled out of the ground.”

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A Streetsblog Twitter thread explains plans by Metro and Caltrans to widen a section of the 405 Freeway through Carson.

We’ve already seen how they might as well just flush the money down the toilet, as other expansion projects — like the $1 billion effort to install HOV lanes through the Sepulveda Pass — have only served to make traffic worse through induced demand.

The money would be far better spent to improve transit, as well as bikeways, to reduce congestion by providing people with viable alternatives to driving.

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A writer for City Watch considers how the Healthy Streets LA ballot proposal alters the balance of power for the “do-nothing” city council.

The Mobility Initiative alters the balance of power.  Now the City Council is not in complete control.  Now it must work with the Initiative’s sponsors.  The City Council and the sponsors both need to consider the voters who will have the opportunity to accept or reject the Mobility Initiative or any other alternative measure cooked up by the City Council.

One of the issues that needs to be addressed is how to pay for the Mobility Plan and the $5 billion needed to repair our streets and sidewalks.  Will this require an increase in our sales tax or a new parcel tax?

Although it should be noted that the Healthy Streets LA ballot proposal requires no additional investment, since it only requires the city to stripe infrastructure called for in the mobility plan when streets are resurfaced, when they would need to be re-striped anyway.

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Finish the Ride wants you to come celebrate Halloween with them in Santa Clarita.

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

More anti-bike sabotage, as someone built a cinderblock wall across a Portland, Oregon bike path, which someone else quickly knocked down.

A Joliet, Illinois man faces charges for a seemingly random attack on a woman riding bikes with her two children, striking her with a plastic pole and repeatedly hitting her after yelling at them to be quiet.

What could possibly go wrong? A seemingly endless line of porta-potties have been installed in an Edinburg, Scotland bike lane to serve people waiting in line to see the queen lying in state. Which puts riders at risk of an entirely different kind of dooring.

More proof that bicyclists face the same risks the world over, as bike riders in Ghana worry about hostile attitudes from drivers, which could “continue to cause fatalities among cyclists and further discourage young people.”

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

Toronto bike cops are called on the carpet for riding through stop signs, setting a bad example for the rest of us.

Police in Glasgow, Scotland are looking for an ebike rider who seriously injured a 55-year old bike rider in a collision; both stopped following the crash, but the ebike rider may have ridden off before learning how seriously the other man was injured.

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Local

A Venice bicyclist pulling a trailer was stopped by another man who insisted the bike was his in an altercation caught on security cam; the second man took the bike after appearing to whack the bike rider with a stick.

Pasadena police will conduct yet another in the seemingly endless series of bicycle and pedestrian safety operations this Friday. As usual, ride to the letter of the law until you cross the city limits so you’re not the one who gets ticketed. 

LA County is investing $15 million in a series of new bike lanes and other street improvements in South Whittier, La Mirada, and Santa Fe Springs

 

State 

A 34-year old repeat offender was arrested by Cal State Fullerton university police for the seventh time on bike theft charges, after they saw through his attempt to disguise himself as a student.

Apparently assuming they’re the only ones who need to get anywhere, residents near San Diego State University’s new Snapdragon Stadium are protesting plans to reduce traffic lanes along portions of Mission Village Drive in order to install protected bike lanes.

Streetsblog looks at the bike treatments currently taking shape in downtown San Jose.

An Oakland website looks at ten road projects underway in the city, including protected bike lanes and road diets.

 

National

Don’t think twice about that odor emanating from your body after a hard ride; NPR says it’s good for you. Thanks to Robert Leone for the link.

More evidence we’re failing the nation’s bicyclists, as The Guardian cites a number of American bike riders who say they are giving up bicycling because they just don’t feel safe on the streets.

Oregon elected officials get out and ride their bikes at Portland’s annual Bike Town Hall. Something we should definitely try to replicate here.

Bikemakers continue to offer seriously overpowered ebikes, as Colorado-based Optibike introduces a bike with the world’s highest power-to-weight ration, and a top speed of 36 mph.

Former Kansas City Chiefs assistant coach Britt Reid pled guilty to the speeding, DUI crash that left a five-year old girl with severe brain injuries, as well as injuring another child; he faces a maximum of four years behind bars.

Sounds familiar. A Kansas City public radio station says the city’s worst intersection is all of them, with too many problematic intersections to fix at once.

Cincinnati bike riders and pedestrians will get a new bridge later this month, connecting multiple trails for the first time.

A Chicago cop could face discipline for running a stop sign and plowing into a bike rider, while traveling without lights and siren.

This is the cost of traffic violence. The head basketball coach of Pennsylvania’s Delaware County Community College was killed in a collision while on a group ride, after police say he lost control of his bike and swerved in front of the driver of an oncoming pickup; he still holds the school record for assists at Coppin State University, where he played in the school’s first NCAA Tournament appearance in 1990.

 

International

Bike Radar offers advice on bicycling while pregnant. 

Bike Biz examines how bike shops can be more inclusive for disabled bike riders.

Another unexpected consequence of the queen’s death, as the introduction of ebikes to London’s bikeshare system — the former Boris Bikes — has been postponed during the mourning period.

Bike riders in Norwich, England are confused by signs closing bike racks during the mourning period, which wouldn’t seem to have anything to do with the queen’s death.

That’s more like it. The UK government has approved a traffic control device allowing Bike Bus chaperones to control traffic signals to improve safety for kids riding their bikes to and from school.

One of South Africa’s largest bicycling organizations is urging riders to wear neon colors during the day, and reflective gear at night. None of which will protect riders from the country’s notorious bike-robbing criminal gangs, however.

Premium bikes are gaining popularity with urban residents in China’s resurgent bicycle kingdom.

 

Competitive Cycling

The owner of the Israel-Premier Tech cycling team is threatening to take UCI to court as his team faces relegation, with two lower-level teams preparing to move up to the WorldTour, while six teams are in danger of moving down.

A San Francisco website looks back at the five-day Mission Crit held in the Mission District September 3rd, billed as “the last great American bike race.”

 

Finally…

In honor of the queen, everyone is expected to drive. That feeling when your gran fondo runs out of food.

And always remember to make eye contact with drivers, even though they may not be able to see you, anyway.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

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