Tag Archive for Deadly del Mar

Daily News endorses Kenneth Mejia, LAPD busts Playa road rage suspect, and sign LA traffic violence state of emergency

May 7, 2026 / / No comments

Before we get going, I had the misfortune of watching yesterday’s gubernatorial debate.

To quote Doonesbury, back when it was still funny, it had “all the subtle dynamics of a grade school recess.”

Six of the candidates kept insulting and shouting over one another, while Katie Porter asked people over and over not to interrupt her, which they continued to do.

If you listened to the only two Republicans on the dais, you’d be left with the assumption that Democrats were responsible for all the state’s problems, and if you just elect one of them, everything will be sunshine and puppies forever.

Personally, I thought former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa came off best, although with this group, that’s such a low bar he could have tripped over it walking off the stage. But his chances of winning are somewhere south of a snowball in hell. 

My main takeaway when the whole damn thing was over was wondering if it was too late to get someone else.

Which it is.

I’d give you my take on the Los Angeles mayoral debate that proceeded it, but I fell asleep shortly after it began.

But considering the bickering that it began with, that would probably have been my take, anyway.

Photo of Kenneth Mejia and his corgis from Abundant Housing LA.

………

On a related subject, the conservative Los Angeles Daily News surprisingly endorsed bicyclist and corgi dad Kenneth Mejia for re-election as City Controller.

That comes despite a $1.5 million campaign from opponent Zach Sokoloff aiming to oust him, which is funded by Sokoloff’s mother.

Yes, his mommy is paying for the whole thing.

But the Daily News evidently doesn’t want you to know about it, because even their own opinions are hidden behind the paper’s draconian paywall.

You’d think if they really wanted people to vote for Mejia, they’d want everyone to read it.

But you would be wrong.

………

Looks like they got him.

The LAPD made an arrest in the Monday morning Play del Rey hit-and-run that killed a one-year old boy and a 27-year old man on Vista del Mar, aka Deadly del Mar, as they were driving home after a night at the beach.

Twenty-seven-year old Osvaldo Sandoval died at the scene, while his 14-month old nephew Roger Sandoval died after being taken to a hospital; Osvaldo’s 15-year old sister, and Roger’s aunt, remains on life-support at UCLA Medical Center.

To make matters worse, Oscar Sandoval, the driver of the car and the father of one-year old Roger, believes the crash was an intentional act of road rage.

According to KTLA-5,

Oscar Sandoval survived the crash and said he believes it may have been intentional. Family members also told KTLA’s Rick Chambers that the driver of the white Jeep had been flashing his lights and trying to cut them off moments before the collision.

“The Jeep hit my door where my son and brother were sitting, the ones who took the strongest impact,” Oscar said in Spanish. “My son was still alive, but barely.”

Police confirmed a suspect was arrested yesterday morning, but only identified the him as a Hispanic male.

If this was an intentional act, let’s hope prosecutors charge him with two counts of felony murder.

………

If you haven’t yet, sign your name, business or organization to the open letter urging city leaders to declare a state of emergency over traffic violence, sponsored by People’s Vision Zero and Streets Are For Everyone.

Because traffic injuries and deaths continue to be out of control, over ten years after former LA Mayor Eric Garcetti announced the city’s Vision Zero plan — and more than a year after it officially failed.

If you belong to an advocacy group, get them to sign it. If you belong to a bike club, sign for the club and ask members to sign individually. If you own or work for a bike shop or in the bike industry, do the same.

Add your name.

The letter will be released soon. So do it today.

Declare a State of Emergency in LA Due to Traffic Violence

Traffic Violence in Los Angeles is OUT OF CONTROL!

The City of Los Angeles has not been taking traffic violence and the public health crisis that is, seriously.

In 2015, the city committed to Vision Zero – its plan to end traffic violence by 2025. In 2025, traffic fatalities were reported by LAPD to be 290, 56% higher than in 2015.

For the past three years there have been more traffic fatalities than homicides.

An audit directed by the Los Angeles City Council found that Vision Zero failed – and thousands of people died – because of a lack of political will and poor coordination between city departments.

Traffic violence is the leading cause of death for children ages 4-14 in LA County.

Between 31 January and 5 February 2026, there were two mass traffic fatality events, resulting in 5 people killed and 7 others seriously injured.

The City of Los Angeles was about to return 100 million dollars in road safety funding to the State of California because it didn’t have the manpower to use the money.

What We’re Asking You to Do

Sign onto an open letter we will be releasing to the media and sending to the LA Mayor and City Council, demanding that they declare a State of Emergency due to traffic violence and treat it as the public health crisis that it is.

The full letter is on this page. Please spread this around to as many people as possible. Thank you!

Jonathan Hale — People’s Vision Zero
&
Damian Kevitt — Streets Are For Everyone

………

This puts the horrible state of LA’s roads in perspective.

Although Mr. Smith somehow seems to think it’s a “gotcha” that Streets For All is a PAC, which they’re very open about, and that progressives tend to support safer streets that serve all road users, unlike their more conservative brethren.

Shocking, I know.

Twitter post

………

Here’s a couple more posts from one of my favorite Bluesky accounts.

I confess, I never knew that Keith Haring rode a bicycle, let alone drew one. And ’60s bike advertising is just effing cool.

https://bsky.app/profile/coolbikeart1.bsky.social/post/3ml2e6oqdn22t

Bluesky post

………

Nice story from San Diego, where a team of engineering students designed a pedal extension that allows a Marine vet to ride a bicycle for the first time since 2003, when an explosion shattered his leg while he was deployed to Iraq.

………

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

No bias here. When residents of the Scottish Isle of Cumbrae complained about drivers “speeding away from the ferry terminal and ‘pelting’ around corners towards oncoming traffic,” the local cops naturally responded by admonishing bicyclists, including toddlers on balance bikes.

………

Local 

Writing for Torched, the great Alissa Walker had a different, and more positive, take from mine yesterday about Mayor Karen Bass’ Capital Infrastructure Program for the City of Los Angeles, though we’re both in agreement that it was long-overdue.

Metro will offer free rides across the their system, including buses, trains and the Metro Bike bikeshare all weekend to celebrate the three-stop extension of the D, aka Purple, Line subway. Although it still won’t go far enough for my wife to take the train to work. 

Secret Los Angeles writes that Los Angeles will shut down four miles of streets next month when CicLAvia connects Exposition Park and Leimert Park, which is hardly a secret.

The LAPD reminds drivers to share the road during Bike Safety Month. The other eleven months, it’s as you were, apparently. 

 

State

San José Spotlight gently breaks the news that construction on a local street is due to a bike lane project. And yes, I take great pride in including the diacritical in the website’s name.

Oakland skips the work requirement, and celebrates next Thursday as Bike Anywhere Day, instead of Bike to Work Day. Or as it’s known in Los Angeles these days, Thursday. 

A Marin County serial ebike thief was arrested after he was caught using a rented Amazon truck to make reverse deliveries.

The family of a UC Davis student who was killed riding a bike on campus last month are calling for protected bike lanes to be installed in his honor.

 

National

A writer for Bike Mag opens up about how bicycling saved his mental health, forcing him to slow down and breathe following his diagnosis of ACHD.

It’s now illegal to block a bike lane anywhere in Colorado. California, not so much. 

Jefferson City, Missouri, population 43,000, adopts the “Idaho Stop Laws,” allowing bike riders to treat stop signs as yields, and stoplights as stop signs.

Rock Island, Illinois is celebrating a colorful new bicycling sculpture in memory of a long-time local bicyclist, who rode a custom-built bike without a saddle, which is replicated in the sculpture. If anyone designs a sculpture in my honor after I depart this mortal coil, put a damn saddle on it.

Tennessee titanium frame maker Lynskey Performance Products, LLC, is just the latest company in the bicycle industry to go belly-up, filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in hopes of reorganizing after a disastrous move to Shopify.

Massachusetts approves a new four tiered system defining bicycles and ebikes by their speed, with traditional bicycles, Class 1 and Class 2 ebikes, low-speed scooters and mobility devices in the new Class 0, up to Speed Tier 3 covering anything above 40 mph.

Bike advocates in Saratoga Springs NY are complaining that the city is ignoring its Complete Streets plan as it repaves streets, despite an ostensible commitment to improving its multimodal infrastructure. Something people in a certain Southern California megalopolis can probably relate to.

Okay, now he’s just rubbing it in. New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani joined NYC DOT Commissioner Mike Flynn to take part in a bike bus to announce plans for two new bike boulevards. I’m not sure if LA Mayor Bass knows what a bike bus is, let alone has ever ridden one.

Alexandria, Virginia and the DC region will offer giveaways and prizes to encourage people to bike to work next week. Los Angeles, not so much.

Atlanta will celebrate the week-long Atlanta Cycling Festival next week, including Spoke & Word, a two-day “progressive dinner” combining bicycling and storytelling.

 

International

Momentum highlights Canada’s most bike-friendly cities, in case anyone wants to flee north of the border, where things seem a little saner these days.

Speaking of draconian paywalls, that’s the reason I don’t link to the BBC anymore.

A Deutschland magazine looks back on those heady days of National Socialism, when bike races were just another form of Nazi propaganda.

You can now bring your bicycle on China’s high-speed Beijing to Zhangjiakou train line, although it’s limited to stops between Beijing North and Chongli.

 

Competitive Cycling

Britain’s longest‑running, biggest and most prestigious single-day and somewhat cobbled road race marks its 70th Anniversary on Sunday.

Road.cc answers the question of what pro cyclists do after they retire, profiling seven former racers who now work in professions as diverse as firefighter, banker and sommelier — including America’s one-time ex-Tour de France champ-cum-CBD maven.

 

Finally…

That feeling when you’re stopped for illegally impeding traffic in a teeny, tiny little car, and people want to know how many clowns were inside. Or when you pedal across the country to spell out “kindness,” while inviting strangers to ride along.

And now you, too, can have a MagSafe dock in the shape of the world’s ugliest truck.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Two more innocent victims on Deadly del Mar, and 81-year old dies 2 weeks after OC teen on illegal e-moto crashed into him

May 4, 2026 / / No comments

Deadly del Mar just got deadlier.

Just four miles long, Playa del Rey’s Vista del Mar is, mile for mile, one of the deadliest streets in Los Angeles; according to the Washington Post, eight people have lost their lives on the beachfront street in the past ten years — a fatality rate nearly equal to the death toll on PCH on a per-mile basis.

Or maybe even worse now, after a 25-year old man and a 1-year old child were killed in a head-on hit-and-run collision early Sunday morning.

A woman was also hospitalized in critical condition, while another man was taken to the hospital with unknown injuries. KABC-7 identifies them as the father and aunt of the one-year old child.

The crash occurred at 4:34 am near the intersection of Vista del Mar and Culver Blvd, when a southbound vehicle crossed into the northbound lane and struck the other vehicle head-on.

The driver of a white Jeep fled on foot, as the victims in the other car can be heard in an apparent Ring video screaming in shock and pain.

If the street sounds familiar, it’s because it received lane reductions in 2017 to slow traffic and improve safety after a 16-year old girl was killed crossing the street — only to be ripped out when then-LA Mayor Eric Garcetti caved to angry pass-through commuters and shock jock radio hosts, who blamed the nonexistent bike lanes.

Since then, the death toll has continued to mount. Now you can add two more innocent victims, who were just on their way home to Van Nuys after a night at the beach.

………

This is who we share the road with.

Heartbreaking news from Orange County, where 81-year old Vietnam vet Ed Ashman died Thursday, two weeks after he was struck by a 14-year old boy who was popping wheelies on an electric motor bike in the middle of a Lake Forest street.

The next day, the Orange County DA’s office upgraded charges against the boy’s mother, Tommi Jo Mejer, to involuntary manslaughter. 

She had originally been charged with child endangerment and accessory, because she had been warned that the bike required a license, the kid was too young to legally ride it, and he was doing so in a dangerous manner.

And she faced criminal charges if she kept letting her son ride it, which was 16-times more powerful than a standard ebike.

Now elderly man is dead, and a mom faces up to four years behind bars.

No word on whether the kid will face charges, too.

………

A Los Angeles LGBT newspaper highlights the $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the hit-and-run driver who killed a bike rider in LA’s Jefferson Park neighborhood last month.

The reward is part of the city’s standing reward program for hit-and-runs, ranging from $1,000 for simple property damage, to $25,000 for hit-and-runs resulting in serious injuries and $50,000 for fatal crashes.

The victim in the crash was identified Saturday as 37-year old Melvin Salgado.

The only description of the suspect vehicle is still just a dark-colored Jeep Wrangler, with no model year given.

………

Metro Bike is holding a free Bike Month drawing for one-year bikeshare pass and swag, as well as offering free rides on Bike Day May 21st.

………

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

No bias here. The London Times says that despite recent panicked stories that 1,300 bike riders were caught jumping red lights in the city last year — an average of 3.5 a day — drivers get caught running red lights an average of 380 times a day.

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

Um, no. A British Columbia letter writer and 60-year bicyclist says there’s no shortage of bad drivers and bad bicyclists, but there’s more of the latter, since drivers have to pass a test. Except studies have shown both break the law in equal measure, but most drivers break the law for convenience while most bike riders break the law out of perceived safety — and drivers who do pose a far greater risk to others. 

………

Local 

Los Angeles is preparing to toss out the baby with the bath water, as the city council instructed the city attorney to draft an ordinance banning ebikes from the city’s outdoor trails, restricting legal Class 1, 2 and ped-assist bikes along with somewhat less-legal e-motos and dirt bikes, like the one the 14-year old in Orange County was riding.

Streets For All wants to know why it costs $10,000 to install two curb cuts in Beverly Hills, $15,000 for Caltrans — and $50,000 to do the exact same thing using the same materials in Los Angeles.

Hundreds of runners took part in Saturday’s Finish the Run in Griffith Park in honor of Regan Cole Graham and her unborn baby daughter Ophelia, both killed by an elderly driver while biking in Playa del Rey, just blocks from where yesterday’s victims were killed; several hundred bicyclists were expected to take part in yesterday’s Finish the Ride in their honor, as well.

The owner of Boyle Height’s Esquina Bicycle Shop is volunteering his time and skills, along with other volunteers, to refurbish nearly 280 bicycles abandoned in the basement of LA’s long-shuttered General Hospital, giving away 45 bikes to mark last month’s Earth Day. Read it on Yahoo if the paper blocks you. 

BikeLA, Los Angeles Walks and Sunset For All are teaming with LADOT and Metro Bike to host a bike ride to Clockshop’s Kite Festival at LA State Historic Park on Saturday.

The West Hollywood City Council will vote today on hosting July’s Meet the Hollywoods CicLAvia, which apparently isn’t a done deal yet. So show up at the 6 pm council meeting or contact your councilmember before then to urge them to sign off on it. 

The Signal highlights the Santa Clarita bike trails, as well as the city’s new. bike park, saying they offer a variety of terrain for every type of rider.

Santa Monica kicked off Bike Month by deploying California’s first AI-powered cams to enforce illegal parking in bike lanes, which will be mounted on parking enforcement vehicles.

The Press-Telegram highlights Bike Month events in Long Beach, from tomorrow’s Pedal to the Metal May Ride, to a Bike to Work Week popup on the 15th and a nine-mile Moonlight Mash bike ride on the last day of the month. But you’ll have to get past the paper’s paywall to read it. 

 

State

An annual bike ride honoring the memory of Shannon Morris, a 21-year old woman who died from suicide, raised $32,000 for UC Irvine’s Psychological Services Center in just its third year, more than twice what the ride brought in last year.

Coronado’s Pedal Beach Tours nonprofit e-pedicab service is fighting the city’s one-size-fits-all ebike ban, after the city refused to renew the company’s permit, jeopardizing their annual Christmas giving program for people in need. Sometimes I feel like I’m beating a dead horse — or a dead ebike — but that’s the problem with ebike bans and restrictions that don’t differentiate one type of ebike from another, which is like banning all cars because people in sports cars are speeding. 

A 12-year old boy suffered life-threatening injuries when his ebike was struck by a driver as he tried turning left from the westbound bike lane on Del Mar Heights Road onto Old Carmel Valley Road in San Diego’s Carmel Valley neighborhood, and was struck by a Tesla driver traveling in the same direction, the boy required emergency surgery for a broken collarbone and multiple brain bleeds.

A Victorville bike rider was hospitalized after he was struck by a hit-and-run driver, who fled on foot, Saturday afternoon; no word on his condition, but it appears his bike was flattened when the driver ran it over.

Tragic news from the town of Atwater, in Central California, where a ten-year old boy was killed when he was hit by a truck while riding his bike — although the local TV doesn’t bother to mention that the truck had a driver until the last of 17 paragraphs.

 

National

PeopleForBikes says the next two to three months will determine what bike infrastructure funding and policies — if any — make it into the final federal transportation bill. The GOP has seemed more focused on a return to highway funding since Trump got back in office, so we may have to fight for every scrap we can get.

The runner-up on The Traitors TV game show is one of us, as Rob Rausch ended up with facial cuts and a concussion after going over his handlebars when dog ran out in front of him — and after he had loaned his helmet to a friend he was teaching to ride a bike.

Seattle will pay a whopping $9.25 million settlement to a 25-year old man who suffered a severe traumatic brain injury that his lawyer blamed on a bad bike lane design resulting in a blind spot, which led to a driver turning in front of him.

Forbes makes the case for why you should try gravel riding, calling it the hottest trend in bicycling.

Speaking of PeopleForBikes, the bike industry advocacy group looks to an Iowa City, Iowa bike library to make the case for how and why bike libraries increase bicycle access for everyone.

Roughly 32,000 people fought their way through strong winds to take part in Sunday’s 48th annual TD Five Boro Bike Tour in New York City, while New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani became the first sitting mayor to ride the tour and stop in all five boroughs.

 

International

A New Brunswick woman has given away thousands of bicycles and tricycles over the past 14 years, including 400 in the last year alone, just to see the joy on kids’ faces.

The London-based bicycle and ebike subscription service Buzzbike is selling their bikes to subscribers at a substantial discount, as the company shuts down after the collapse of its largest shareholder.

A travel site considers Europe’s best bike trails, from the Atlantic Coast to the Black Sea.

A judge told a 27-year old woman to expect a long prison sentence after she pled guilty to killing a 27-year old music student as he was riding a bicycle in London, while she was high on nitrous oxide and doing 52 mph in a 20 mph zone; the judge criticized her for not taking any responsibility until she walked into the court, and worried she wouldn’t afterwards.

A British husband and wife team is setting off on an 18,000-mile bikepacking trip, attempting to set a new record for riding around the world in a 150 days or less.

Even as war continues in her homeland, a 35-year old Iranian woman is riding more than 3,700 miles across Asia with a message of peace.

Dozens of Wellington, New Zealand bicyclists stood in the street to form a human bike chain — aka a people-protected bike lane — to protest infrastructure cuts in the city. Thanks to Megan for the heads-up.

Ebike sales have seen a three-times increase in Darwin, Australia, as Aussies struggle to cope with the rapid rise in gas prices resulting from the war in Iran.

 

Competitive Cycling

Sad news from Italy, where former Formula 1 and CART race car driver, and paracycling champ Alex Zanardi died suddenly on Friday; after losing both of his legs crashing in the US CART series in 2001, Zanardi took up hand-cycling, winning four Paralympic gold medals, as well as 12 rainbow jerseys. He was just 59.

Not only is LA native Sean Quinn competing on the WorldTour, he’s also creating his own beats along the way.

The Tour du Rwanda relies on an elite bike mechanic named Jean de Dieu Rafiki Uwimana, better known as Rafiki, to keep the cyclists’ bikes humming.

A Missouri newspaper looks back fondly to the only world championship held in the area — an 1887 bike race on a 20-mile road course, using ordinary bikes, or what we’d know as a Penny Farthing.

 

Finally…

Your next bike camper trailer could feature a built-in toilet. Who says you can’t ride a bike with a bag over your head?

And somehow, you know bikes got the blame for this.

Twitter post

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

LA Councilmember calls for action while another “reassesses,” this is LA’s darkest hour, and safe passing laws don’t work

February 10, 2026 / / Comments Off on LA Councilmember calls for action while another “reassesses,” this is LA’s darkest hour, and safe passing laws don’t work

My apologies for yesterday’s unexcused absence.

After writing about two fallen bike riders in a single night — never mind downing two doses of migraine medication — I was done. 

Maybe it goes back to when I started riding, and there weren’t that many of us.

But I feel like everyone I write about is my brother or sister, and every loss feels like a death in the family. 

My heart just can’t take writing about so many, so often. Let alone asking you to read it. 

And for that, I apologize as well. 

Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay. 

………

That’s more like it.

Sort of.

Streetsblog’s Joe Linton reports that CD5 Councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky called for immediate safety improvements in the wake of the 99 Ranch Market massacre, where an elderly driver killed three people crashing into the Westwood market after hitting a bike rider.

According to Linton,

At last Friday’s council meeting [video – remarks start minute 1:26], Yaroslavsky adjourned the meeting in remembrance of the Westwood crash victims. Yaroslavsky questioned, “Why does it feel like safety improvements take forever even after we know where the risks are?” She noted the current LADOT process for Westwood, pledging to accelerate, “I am calling on LADOT to return with an accelerated timeline for Westwood Boulevard – including immediate quick-build safety measures while longer term work continues.”

“We shouldn’t be waiting years for basic interventions while Angelenos die.”

Twitter post

Meanwhile, CD11 Councilmember Traci Park offered a typically weak-kneed call for “reassessment” after a seven-month pregnant mother of two was killed while riding a bike in Playa del Rey with her toddler son in the seat behind her.

The Playa del Rey killing also saw some response from its City Councilmember Traci Park. Via her email newsletter, Park stated she had visited the crash site and was working with city departments “to re-assess the area for additional lighting and speed safety improvements.” Park noted that bike improvements there were installed and removed in 2017, and that “it’s time to re-open that conversation.” She listed two bike/safety projects she is working on nearby.

The entire Playa del Rey area needs a lot more than a mere “reassessment” of Pershing Drive, where the crash occurred, as well as Manchester Blvd, which has been a frequent site of traffic violence, and Vista del Mar — aka Deadly del Mar —  the site of eight traffic deaths in just the last ten years.

………

In a must-read from Streets Are For Everyone founder Michael Schneider, he responds to the needless traffic deaths Play del Rey and the 99 Ranch Market, calling it LA’s darkest hour.

All of this is in the context of the city being beyond broke. Part of the reason is a record number of liability payouts due to people getting hurt on city infrastructure that the city knows is dangerous but hasn’t fixed or won’t fix. Additionally, the city continues to slow walk Measure HLA implementation — the exact kind of implementation that would make streets safer.

As a safe streets advocate, it’s hard not to take it personally when someone dies while walking or biking in the city, because I often walk or bike around the city, often with my kids. Living in a city where a pedestrian is injured every 5 hours and killed every 2 days is deeply painful. To have two horrific crashes claim lives on streets that the city was supposed to make safer — but hasn’t yet, or even worse, backtracked after installing safety improvements — is beyond the pale.

Meanwhile, LA City Controller Kenneth Mejia, who is running for re-election this year, puts the deaths in their proper context.

Twitter post

………

No surprise here.

A new Aussie study shows that safe passing laws don’t really work, because — wait for it — drivers don’t follow them.

The country requires a minimum of roughly three feet, and roughly four and a half feet on roads with speed limits over 44 mph. Which might actually keep bicyclists safe if drivers didn’t keep violating it.

Instead, researchers recommended infrastructure improvements like protected bike lanes, traffic calming and more road space, which would do a lot more to improve safety for people on two wheels.

………

If you need a good laugh, the Desert Sun says a driver and an 18-year old on a bicycle “collided into each other in Cathedral City,” but only the kid on the the bicycle got hurt.

Never mind that the kid got right hooked. Or that it’s almost always the person on two wheels who gets injured, rather than the person surrounded with a couple tons of steel and glass, seat belts and air bags.

Or on second thought, maybe it’s really not that funny at all.

………

Okay, so why is Caltrans refusing to make a lousy three blocks in Santa Monica safer for bike riders?

https://twitter.com/streetsforall/status/2020562040075821418

………

They get it.

https://twitter.com/heybikela/status/2020950735048020448

………

Streets For All is hiring.

Twitter post

………

First, they confiscate the bicycles.

https://bsky.app/profile/coolbikeart1.bsky.social/post/3mecadmgnts2v

………

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

Advocates in Iowa call a proposed bill that would ban bikes on most public roadways “the most anti-biking bill in history;” the good news is that backlash from bicyclists helped drive a stake through its heart.

No bias here. The head of London’s Licensed Taxi Drivers Association launched into a tirade blaming the “white, middle-class cycling lobby” for a proposal that actually came from a representative for Lime to time traffic lights so they create a “green wave” for bicyclists.

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

Although you could make the case that the kids were just “liberating” the 101 Freeway, dangerous and illegal though it may be.

Twitter post

Speaking of bad behavior, Strava has deleted millions of KOMs because people cheated by using ebikes and cars.

………

Local 

There’s a special place in hell for whoever stole an adaptive bike from a nine-year old Los Feliz kid with Down syndrome and autism; a crowdfunding campaign to replace it has surpassed the modest $7,000 goal by over $2,000.

The LA Bureau of Engineering will host a virtual meeting this evening to consider the Glendale Hyperion Bridge Improvement Project, intended to improve earthquake resilience, restore the bridge’s historical appearance, and improve circulation and safety for people driving, biking, walking and rolling.

Advocacy group Santa Monica Spoke and SaMo city staff will host a guided bike ride highlighting recent First/Last Mile safety improvements in the Bergamot Area this Sunday.

 

State

A coalition of San Diego transit and bicycling advocates is asking the city to improve access for people who don’t drive, rather than fighting with drivers who don’t want to pay for parking.

Palm Springs secured nearly $900,000 in increasingly rare federal funding to build a safe pathway to get people to the new CV Link bike and walking path.

Bicyclists fought to save San Mateo’s Humbolt Street bike lanes at last week’s city council meeting — which were threatened by drivers who wanted more free curbside parking — and won.

Sad news from Marin County, where a bike rider was killed when they were struck by a driver in a massive SUV. But at least the driver stuck around and tried to do CPR.

 

National

CyclingSavvy offers advice on how to avoid predawn crashes.

Good advice. If you find yourself in Seattle and are planning to go to the Seahawks victory parade, ride your bike. And if you’re in New England, feel free to ride your bike anyway.

A Phoenix man says he hit and killed a woman riding a bike because he fell asleep behind the wheel, then apparently fled the scene and drove home without waking up — but swears he’d trade his life for hers. The problem with that it’s always too late once someone feels that way. 

A bike thief in Las Cruces, New Mexico was shot and killed after engaging in a gunfight with an off-duty cop who tried to stop him.

Hats off to the crew of Albuquerque Fire Engine 11, who not only took a bike rider who fell off his bike to the hospital, but also gave his bike a safe ride home.

My bike-friendly Colorado hometown will join cities across the country in celebrating Winter Bike to Work Day this Friday. Although a certain bike-unfriendly SoCal megalopolis we could name won’t be participating, despite having some of the country’s best winter weather. 

Chicago is hosting the city’s 28th annual Bike Winter Art Show, with bicycle-themed art that that doesn’t ignore local and national issues.

A Chicago chef is back to cooking, two and a half years after a collision while riding his bike left him on the brink of death.

A Massachusetts woman has figured out a way to get drivers attention that works a hell of a lot better than hi-viz, riding her bike topless, albeit with pasties, to make the case that women should be allowed to shed their tops just like guys do. All titillation aside — pun intended — there’s no reason why they shouldn’t be able to. Period.

A kindhearted North Carolina cop gave a seven-year old boy a new bicycle after he had two bikes stolen in just months. And perhaps more importantly, gave him a lock, too.

A Florida man faces charges for hit-and-run after injuring someone on a bicycle, then abandoning his truck in a creek; he was already on probation vehicle theft, drug possession and failing to appear, and had an active warrant for skipping out on his sentencing for a DUI case. Sounds like a prince.

 

International

Travel + Leisure calls Mexico’s 1,700-mile Baja Divide Trail one of biking’s best kept secrets.

A British Columbia writer says his wife was seriously hurt in a collision with a driver while riding her bike, but she was one of the lucky ones.

A writer for The Independent goes bikepacking on Scotland’s “stunning” National Bike Network. And encounters a massive bicycle sculpture, complete with bike rack and U-lock.

London’s Cycling Mikey may be the city’s most hated and controversial bicyclist for using his helmet cam to keep drivers honest, and turning them into the cops when they’re not. Although video evidence generally isn’t accepted for traffic violations and misdemeanors in this country.

Bike Radar says there are still three performance bike brands being made in the UK.

Dublin will test out letting bike riders make the equivalent of right on red, in a country where drivers can’t. But only when it’s safe.

An Irish man rode over 1,860 miles from Ireland to Australia, traveling across three continents and 28 countries.

Australian bicyclists say a crucial Sydney bicycling route has become a nightmare since the city’s new Fish Market opened, forcing bike riders to compete for space with crowds spilling over from the market.

 

Competitive Cycling…

Meta talks with Olympian and pro cyclist Kate Courtney.

The Athletic profiles Sepp Kuss, calling him the “best American cyclist of his generation.” Although that one may be hidden behind a paywall. 

Elvis star Austin Butler will play America’s favorite seven-time ex-Tour de France champ in a new biopic. ‘Cause he ain’t nothin’ but a hound dog. Lance, that is. 

Three-time Tour de France champ Chris Froome was lucky to escape unharmed when an impatient hit-and-run driver totaled his bike.

Jonas Vingegaard “lost the man who mentored him to grand tour superstardom,” after his longtime cycling coach Tim Heemskerk left the Visma-Lease a Bike team “with immediate effect.”

Colombian track cyclist Martha Bayona Pineda has been banned for 18 months for failing to report her whereabouts, but hasn’t failed any actual drug tests.

A Zimbabwean mountain biker says who needs toes, anyway?

 

Finally…

Now you, too, can get coaching from an actual knight. Now your kid can make the Costco run with their very own cargo balance bike.

And when you’re drunk as a skunk, maybe don’t yell at a cop ticketing a driver as you ride by on your bike. Or run over a bike cop’s bicycle with your car, for that matter.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

 

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

Update: 36-year old woman and unborn baby killed riding ebike on Pershing Drive in Playa del Rey, where bike lanes removed in 2017

February 2, 2026 / / 10 comments

Apparently, last month isn’t done with us yet. And it ends with perhaps the worst news of all.

After a month that had already seen seven people lose their lives riding a bicycle in Southern California, you can add two more to the tragic toll.

And one wasn’t even born yet.

According to a crowdfunding campaign, 36-year old Regan Cole-Graham died after being struck by a driver while riding a bicycle with her husband and two kids this past Saturday.

She was seven months pregnant.

Her unborn daughter survived another day before dying in the NICU at UCLA Children’s Hospital on Sunday.

What appears to be an AI generated site offers information that appears to come from the police report, placing the crash around 6 pm on Pershing Drive in Playa del Rey. A mobile app places it around the corner at 451 E. Manchester Ave at 6:02 pm.

Meanwhile a witness on Reddit says the crash occurred directly in front of the Hacienda Playa restaurant on Pershing.

According to the AI site above, Cole-Graham was pronounced dead on arrival after being taken to a hospital.

There’s no details on how the crash occurred, though the same site says she was riding an ebike. The driver remained at the scene.

Sadly, that’s exactly where bike lanes were installed in 2017 after a years-long community process, only to be removed following complaints from drivers used to zooming along the street.

It’s impossible to know whether this tragedy could have been prevented if the bike lanes were still there. But their removal will almost certainly mean Los Angeles will be liable for her death.

The GoFundMe describes Cole-Graham as “…a loving & devoted wife, a fierce & joyful mother, a hilarious & loyal sister, and a beautiful, fiery daughter.”

As of this writing, the site has raised more than $134,000 to pay for funeral expenses and help her husband and kids with their future, while the goal has been raised to $210,000.

These are the eighth and ninth bicycling fatalities that I’m aware of in Southern California this year, the fourth and fifth in Los Angeles County, and the second and third reported in the City of Los Angeles.

Update: At least now we know what happened.

According to Fox-11, Regan Cole-Graham and her husband were both riding ebikes, with their two sons strapped into the child seats on their bikes. And yes, they were all wearing helmets.

Not that it would have helped under the circumstances.

An 87-year old driver ran down Cole-Graham from behind, knocking her into the street, where he ran over her with his sedan. Her three-year old son remained strapped into his seat as the car pushed her bike down the street, suffering minor injuries.

The driver remained at the scene; police do not think he was under the influence.

According to CBS News,

Yuda Zweda witnessed the incident and says that she briefly spoke with the man afterwards.

“The only thing he really said, ‘Please pray that she survives,'” Zweda said.

People who live in the area say that the intersection is dimly lit and dangerous for pedestrians.

“They put in some speed bumps down there and flashing lights, but I still just don’t think people seem to notice,” said one resident.

Ashley Saglie, described as a friend of the victim, expounded on that.

“I think a lot needs to change. I think there needs to be better lighting, I think there needs to be an expanded bike path,” Saglie said.

Never mind that there was a briefly bike lane on Pershing Drive, right where the crash happened, less than nine years earlier.

According to the California Post, the new West Coast edition of Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post, Cole-Graham was an executive with Google’s LA office.

Cole-Graham had worked for Google in Los Angeles since 2019, where she served as Consumer Marketing Lead and later Brand Partnerships Lead and orchestrated a multi-million dollar partnership with Live Nation among other deals, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Before that, she worked as a Senior Product Marketing Manager for AT&T and marketing manager at DirecTV, where her father also worked as an executive and helped her get her first job after she graduated from San Diego State University, her family’s lawyer said.

According to the Post, her husband described her as an “amazing wife” and “the world’s best mother.”

Brian Breiter, the attorney for the family, commented on the tragedy, as well as questioning why the man who hit her was still driving.

This is the hardest time anyone could imagine, and I just want them to be together. Imagine a three year old little boy and an 18 month old child witnessing that?” Breiter continued.

“And then, of course, their unborn sister, who survived in the NICU but unfortunately didn’t make it.”

Breiter said he’s reviewed horrific footage showing the crash, which remains under investigation by authorities.

He noted the driver’s age at that “at some point it times to take the keys away” from some people.

Which is exactly why I keep bringing it up.

Meanwhile, the crowdfunding page for her husband and sons has raised nearly $200,000 of the $210,000 goal.

Update 2: Cole-Graham’s husband has been identified as Matthew Graham, a writer for Sports Illustrated, who was also one of the founders of USA Today’s For The Win. 

My deepest sympathy and prayers for Regan Cole-Graham, her unborn baby, and all their family and loves ones. 

Thanks to Joe, Richard, Oren and Madeline for their help in piecing this together. 

Category: Injuries and Fatalities / Tags: , , , , , ,

The abject failure of Vision Zero in America, the dangers of conflating ebikes and e-motos, and Calbike’s 2026 agenda

December 5, 2025 / / Comments Off on The abject failure of Vision Zero in America, the dangers of conflating ebikes and e-motos, and Calbike’s 2026 agenda
Day 339 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

It’s Day 8 of the 11th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive!

Thanks to Phaedrus and Michael for their generous support to keep SoCal’s best source for bike news and advocacy coming your way every day, and ensure the corgi will find a little kibble in her stocking this year.

So don’t wait. It only takes a few clicks to donate via PayPal, Zelle or Venmo. 

And no, she won’t stop staring until you give her something. So start clicking. 

………

They get it.

The Washington Post takes a hard-hitting, and heartbreaking, deep dive into the abject failure of Vision Zero in the United States, with a focus on Los Angeles.

And deadly Vista del Mar, aka Deadly del Mar, in particular.

And I do mean heartbreaking.

LOS ANGELES — As the sun set over the Pacific Ocean one Sunday this past spring, Cecilia Milbourne returned from a walk on the beach with her dog, Gucci. To reach her parked Tesla, she had to cross a road that city officials have known for years poses a danger to people on foot.

Eight years ago, as part of a national initiative to stem traffic deaths called Vision Zero, the city shrank the number of lanes on the road, Vista Del Mar, and several connecting streets in the shoreside community just south of Venice. But they restored it to four lanes after an uproar by drivers — among them Octavio Girbau, who railed against a city official in a 2017 Facebook post stating he was stuck on one of those intersecting roads “in the traffic hell you created.”

On March 16, Girbau was driving south on Vista Del Mar as Milbourne was about to cross in a spot with no crosswalk and no sidewalk — just a concrete curb separating her from the moving cars. Girbau bumped another car, lost control and struck Milbourne on the side of the road, sending her flying as his Mercedes flipped onto the beach, according to a police report. Milbourne, 29, a hairdresser and actor who had moved to Los Angeles from Atlanta, was pronounced dead at the scene. Her dog died with her.

Deadly del Mar, to refresh your memory, is where then-Councilmember Mike Bonin ordered a road diet after the city settled with the family of a 16-year old girl killed crossing the roadway from Dockweiler Beach for a whopping $9.5 million.

Just one of the eight people killed on the little four-mile street since 2015.

Then gutless former Mayor Eric Garcetti pulled the rug out from under Bonin by ordering the roadwork ripped out, and restored to its dangerously high-speed previous state, in the face of outraged pass-through commuters, mostly from wealthy Manhattan Beach.

Which effectively marked the death of Vision Zero in Los Angeles.

In addition to pushback from outraged, or even slightly peeved, motorists, WaPo cites too little funding for the death of Vision Zero.

Like the $80 million called for initially in Los Angeles to even put a dent in traffic deaths, which never materialized.

And that has led to endless delays in making the safety improvements the city already knows we needed. Like in Koreatown, for instance.

In some cases, Angelenos have died as planned safety upgrades stalled.

It has been over a decade since the city decided to put a roundabout at the corner of 4th Street and New Hampshire Avenue in Koreatown, a neighborhood where 34 people have been hit by cars and trucks and killed between 2015 and 2023. But there was a dispute between the city and the state over funding, and some objected to the plan to include bike lanes. The roundabout was delayed.

On July 31, Nadir Gavarrete, a 9-year-old, was killed at the intersection while crossing the street on his scooter by a driver in a motor home.

LA guerrilla activists responded by painting their own DIY crosswalk at the intersection days later, working in broad daylight.

Which the city promptly painted over.

Meanwhile, Mayor Karen Bass is busy cutting ribbons at coffee shops, instead of addressing solutions to traffic deaths, which her office says she’s “working on.”

After all, she’s only had three years to come up with something.

Anything.

But back to Deadly del Mar, which Los Angeles is considering for one of the speed cams authorized by a state pilot program passed and signed two years ago.

None of which have yet been installed in the City of Angels, as city leaders continue their usual dithering and obfuscation.

One of the first locations being considered is the spot where Milbourne was killed on Vista Del Mar. This fall, Kevitt and some of his colleagues did their own radar testing on the road. They found that about half of drivers are going above the speed limit during rush hour. In the morning, more than a quarter of cars are going over 50 miles per hour.

Milbourne died near two sets of stairs that lead from the wide expanse of Dockweiler Beach to Vista Del Mar. At the top, there is barely space to stand between the sandy bluff and the road. Cars whip by fast enough to be heard over the sound of planes taking off at Los Angeles International Airport, which sits just east of the beach.

Inevitably, the first response to complaints about speeding drivers is to call for greater enforcement. Except, of course, from the speeding drivers themselves, who fear getting ticketed because they’re unwilling to actually slow down.

But there aren’t enough cops in California, let alone Los Angeles, to patrol every street in LA 24/7. Or even enough to make a difference.

The equation is simple. Lane reductions, aka road diets, slow drivers, sometimes by causing greater congestion at peak hours. But drivers don’t want to slow down, and definitely don’t want to get stuck behind other drivers, blissfully unaware that they themselves are the cause of that congestion.

Not road diets. Not bike lanes.

Not even other drivers.

Even on Deadly del Mar.

………

They get it, too.

Velo argues that the reason ebike injuries are up 1800% has little to do with ped-assist bicycles, and everything to do with e-motorbikes.

When a teenager crashes an “e-bike” at dangerous speeds, communities call for sweeping bans. When batteries ignite and cause a fire in apartment buildings, local governments restrict where electric bikes can be charged. And when pedestrians are struck by riders on sidewalks, cities work swiftly to cut riding speeds or discuss implementing licenses.

The problem? Many of these e-bike injuries and incidents can be avoided if only we defined what makes an electric bicycle.

Several of these incidents involve what cycling advocacy group PeopleForBikes calls an ‘e-moto’: electric motorcycles and mopeds sold as “street legal” e-bikes that don’t need a license or registration.

Many – but not all – of these e-motos sell new following standard e-bike Class 1,2, or 3 speed classifications. But with some modifications, they can reach speeds of 30, 40, or even 50 miles per hour, and are causing growing problems nationwide.

The solution, they say — as does People For Bikes — is federal legislation classifying anything with a built-in capability exceeding ebike specifications to “be classified as a motor vehicle, period.”

That’s just the first step.

They also call for requiring more truthful advertising as to what is actually “street legal,” as well as standardizing state laws regulating ebikes, just like bicycling regulations are virtually identical from one state to another.

It’s worth taking a few minutes to read.

Because as long as anything with an electric motor is considered an ebike, regardless of power or speed capabilities, we risk ill-informed crackdowns on, and condemnation of, all of us.

Like this hit piece in the anti-bike New York Post, which says a plan to create a separate lane for ebikes and e-scooters in Central Park is “plain crazy,” once again conflating dangerous e-motos with standard ped-assist ebikes.

………

Calbike posted their recent webinar to unveil their new legislative agenda for the coming year, and answered some of the questions they didn’t have time for.

Although a recap would have been nice, for those of us who struggle to find time to sit through an hour-long video this time of year.

So let me know if there’s anything in there about hit-and-runs.

………

‘Tis the season.

Raising Cane’s founder Todd Graves donated 500 new bikes to the Boys & Girls Club of Harlem, with Batchelor and Batchelor in Paradise contestant, and season 16 Bachelorette ,Tayshia Adams on hand to help hand them out.

Sixty-two 3rd graders in Fayetteville NC got new bicycles, after telling the assembled that four kids earned one of the new bikes by winning in an essay contest, then announcing that everyone else would take one home, too.

………

………

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

No bias here. Chicago residents complain about new bike lanes causing traffic to overflow onto surrounding streets and alleys — except what’s causing the backup is the construction work to build the bike lanes, not the bike lanes themselves. And a former daily bike commuter says he doesn’t think bike lanes are even necessary, apparently not grasping that bike lanes are for the people who don’t feel comfortable mixing it up with motor vehicles, rather than those who do.

………

Local 

The Snake is once again raising it’s seductive, if ultimately ugly, head, reopening six years after the dangerous 2.4-mile winding stretch of Mulholland Highway was closed due to the Woolsey Fire and subsequent mudslides; the road offers one of the area’s most popular bicycling climbs, while also attracting speeding motorcyclists and supercar drivers.

A CicLAvia-style open streets event is coming to East LA next weekend, when about 1.6 miles of City Terrace Drive and Hazard Ave will go carfree for the benefit of pedestrians, bicyclists, joggers and runners. As well as just plain, you know, people.

 

State

Longstanding Fountain Valley-based ebike maker Pedego has changed hands, and countries, after they were purchased by Chinese intelligent-ebike brand Urtopia.

 

National

Shockingly, the CEO of People For Bikes considers what the world’s happiest countries all have in common, and discovers the answer is — bikes.

Honda wants to move deliveries out of the traffic lane and into bike lanes, as it unveiled its new e-cargo bike storage locker on wheels; meanwhile, foldie maker Tern’s electric cargo bikes have covered more than one million miles of commercial delivery work in New York City. After all, most drivers would tell you no one is using the bike lanes now, anyway.

If your kid is wearing an Outdoor Master bike helmet purchased from Walmart or Amazon in the past year, get ’em a new one, because the feds have issued a recall notice saying they pose a “risk of serious injury or death.”

You know awareness of traffic safety is growing when lane reductions reach even Sparks, Nevada.

Life is ludicrously cheap in Montana, where a driver walked with a gentle caress on the wrist for killing a seven-year old boy riding his bicycle in a crosswalk, after prosecutors reduced a negligent homicide charge down to misdemeanor careless driving, and he was sentenced to a lousy $1000 fine — which the judge deferred for a year, meaning it could be dropped entirely if he keeps his nose clean.

In news that is equal parts heartwarming and heartbreaking, the family of a 13-year old Huntsville, Alabama boy who was killed by a driver while riding his bicycle have installed a Christmas tree at the roadside memorial marking where he was killed, and asked the public to come place an ornament on it.

 

International

Road.cc argues that the bicycle industry is not sustainable by design, and they could do their part to save the environment by returning to steel frames instead of carbon fiber, without sacrificing performance.

Toronto is moving to get around the provincial government’s prohibition on removing traffic lanes to build bike lanes by narrowing 12 miles of traffic lanes to make room for them.

A “passionate cyclist” from the UK is suing Lime over a crash that snapped his leg in four places, claiming the rear wheel unexpectedly skidded out when he braked to avoid pedestrians, leaving him with life-changing injuries.

That’s more like it. A British distracted hit-and-run driver got nine years behind bars for killing a bike rider, after swearing he didn’t know he hit anyone and just thought his van’s engine had blown up; he’d avoided a previous driving ban for distracted driving by claiming he needed to drive for his job. Yet another example of keeping a dangerous driver on the road until it’s too late.

More on the new Irish study showing that protected bike lanes don’t slow emergency vehicles.

Bicycles provided by World Bicycle Relief are giving Kenyan farmers a route out of poverty by providing a safe alternative to paying for dangerous motorbike trips to get their produce to market.

 

Competitive Cycling

Norwegian pro Johannes Staune-Mittet learned the hard way that riding with earbuds isn’t allowed in Spain, even for WorldTour cyclists, when he was fined the equivalent of $116 after cops caught him using them on a training ride.

 

Finally…

We may stress about LA drivers drifting into bike lanes, but at least we don’t have to worry about who’s going to plow the drifts already in them. Now you, too, could own Tadej Pogačar’s Tour de France bike for the low, low price of 70 grand.

And nothing like getting an admitted doper and multi-time ex-Tour de France champ to narrate a doc about an iconic 130-year old bike brand.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Ghost bike and rally for fallen WeHo bike rider, the worst states for bike commuters, and LA pays dearly for Deadly del Mar

July 15, 2025 / / Comments Off on Ghost bike and rally for fallen WeHo bike rider, the worst states for bike commuters, and LA pays dearly for Deadly del Mar
Day 196 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

Let’s start with an update on 26-year old Blake Ackerman, the lawyer and bike commuter killed by a hit-and-run driver in West Hollywood last Thursday.

A ghost bike will be installed tomorrow at 9 am in a small ceremony at Fountain Ave and Gardner Street. The public is welcome to attend.

A larger vigil will be held on Friday, July 18th, starting at 6 pm at Fountain and Gardner, followed by a short march to West Hollywood City Hall for a rally and press conference. Everyone is urged to attend and participate.

And I do mean everyone.

And yes, that includes me this time.

Meanwhile, a crowdfunding page to raise funds to support Blake’s mother and sister has raised nearly $160,000 of the newly increased $200,000 goal.

There’s still no word on the identity of the heartless coward in a white, older-model BMW sedan who left Blake Ackerman in the street.

It’s also worth taking some time to look over WeHo’s two-year old Vision Zero Plan. Because Fountain isn’t the only street that needs to be fixed before it’s too late.

Again.

Photo of Blake Ackerman in better days from GoFundMe page.

………

A new study from a bike insurer ranks Texas as the nation’s second-worst state of bike commuters, behind only South Carolina.

California comes in at a relatively safe 18th best. Which really makes you wonder just how bad the other 32 states behind us must be.

Vermont was rated the best state for bike commuters, followed by Oregon, Minnesota, Alaska and West Virginia.

………

They get it.

Streets For All says Los Angeles is caught in a money-draining spiral of spending millions to pay for deaths and injuries caused by our dangerous streets, rather than spending to fix the streets and avoid the damn injuries in the first place.

As a prime example, they call out Playa Vista’s Deadly del Mar, aka Vista del Mar, where 20 people have been killed in the past 20 years.

That includes five deaths since 2017, when the city briefly installed safety improvements following a nearly $10 million settlement for the death of a 16-year old girl, which were promptly ripped out at the order of former “World Climate” Mayor Eric Garcetti to appease entitled commuters from Manhattan Beach.

(Click this link if Elon Musk’s “improvements” keep the video from embedding.)

Twitter post

………

An anonymous source forwards a Reddit post highlighting a problem too many people fail to consider, myself included, as a Deaf Scottish woman posts a plea for a little more consideration from bike riders on shared trails.

(Click on the post if it doesn’t embed in full)

Reddit post

I have always relied on a shouted “passing on your left” to warn others of my approach. But neither that nor a bike bell will do any good if the other person can’t hear you.

She then followed up on the over 100 replies her post received with this.

“Thanks all for the comments and insights, really helpful!” she said. “Not intending to diss cyclists or anything; I know people have opinions of them.

“My post genuinely was just asking for a bit of respect/shared responsibility although some people don’t seem to get that my being deaf, they seem to think it’s somehow my fault for nearly getting spooked by someone coming behind me.”

As the person who emailed me points out,

It is an important issue to raise because hearing people don’t often think about the fact that sometimes yelling or a horn is not going to be effective. Deaf people are more likely to respond to lights, but even that might not work if you’re coming up behind someone on a path in the open so slow down and avoid close passes of people moving more slowly than you are.

My emailer also pointed out something else I was familiar with, but maybe don’t consider as often as I should, referring to a story based on the Reddit post from Scotland’s Daily Record, which seemed more biased against bicyclists.

They also lower cased “Deaf” when the OP clearly identifies as upper case “Deaf” (which is not just a medical condition, but a culture and thus capitalized when someone identifies as part of that culture).

It’s very easy to go through life — and yes, riding a bicycle — seeing it only from the lens of someone who is hearing and sighted. But it’s important that we also consider the needs, safety and dignity of those who aren’t.

………

Bike Talk talks tactical urbanism in two cities, with diametrically different results.

Bluesky post

………

Okay, that is a little close.

………

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

Despite the Ontario provincial governments efforts to rip them out, most Toronto residents support bike lanes and mixed-use roads.

Huh? A rightwing commentator says the solution to Britain’s immigration crisis is to make all aspiring British citizens pass the country’s cycling proficiency test.

A Dublin, Ireland journalist says that as a new bike rider, she’s “astonished” by the amount of aggression she saw from drivers on her daily commute.

………

Local 

Next City says Denver solved it’s sidewalk problem by reclaiming responsibility for fixing broken sidewalks from property owners, suggesting it could be a solution for Los Angeles, aka “the city of broken sidewalks” in the words of the late, great Donald Shoup.

Streetsblog calls attention to a series of Metro meetings continuing this week and next to discuss the NoHo to Pasadena Bus Rapid Transit project, and the Sepulveda Transit rail project to connect the Valley with West Los Angeles, where rich Bel Air residents are demanding an inefficient monorail so no one will have to dig a subway tunnel under their very expensive homes.

Santa Monica hosts yet another in a continuing series of bicycle and pedestrian safety operations in SoCal cities, this time on Friday, July 18, 2025 from 5 am to 8 pm. Even though they say it’s targeted at dangerous driver behaviors, police are legally required to enforce the law equally against all violators, regardless of mode of travel. So ride to the letter of the law until you cross the city limit line so you’re not the one who gets ticketed. 

West Hollywood sheriff’s deputies issued just 46 tickets during their recent bicycle and pedestrian safety operation, but it doesn’t break down who got the tickets or why.

 

State

Laguna Beach is looking for public input on a proposal to build a mountain bike pump track.

San Francisco wants to expand the Embarcadero protected bike lane, which would require removing up to 30 parking spaces and 15 palms trees. Which is okay because palms are just giant grasses that suck up water and don’t shade anything. 

She gets it. A San Francisco letter writer says “If you oppose bike lanes, pedestrian improvements or expanding public transit, you’re voting for more congestion.”

Residents of the Bay Area’s Alameda County can enter a lottery to receive up to $1,500 towards the purchase of an ebike from the local energy company. To which LA’s DWP responds <crickets>.

Sacramento city officials are upset that the city received a failing grade in People For Bikes new City Ratings, arguing they should have been rated higher. Never mind that Sacramento was rated a full ten points higher than lowly Los Angeles, and not one city official here even gave a damn. 

 

National

Authorities in Oregon are using drones to search for a 52-year old man described as an experienced mountain biker, who disappeared after leaving on a ride Friday morning; searchers found his cellphone in his car, which could have helped pinpoint his location. Which is a reminder to never, ever leave yours behind when you ride. 

Thousands of bike riders took part in the annual 200-mile Seattle to Portland bike ride.

It’s now illegal for Utah drivers to block a bike lane. And yes, Deseret News, that does make it safer for everyone. 

A New Mexico letter writer says most drivers are really polite and considerate, and have your best interests at heart — but if you want to stay safe, you need to dress like a DayGlo clown. Sadly, he may have a point. About that last part, anyway. 

That’s more like it. An Indiana festival combines bicycles, whiskey and bluegrass. So who’s going with me?

An MIT transportation researcher and self-identified car enthusiast says you can love cars, and still support public transportation and decarbonization.

Six hundred people from 37 states descended on New York to bike the full 400 miles of the Erie Canal to mark the canal’s 250th anniversary.

A Manhattan community board called out New York’s mayor for cutting bike and bike lanes out of his auto-centric redesign of the city’s iconic 5th Avenue.

Seriously? A study from a Florida law firm shows that Bay County is the state’s most dangerous county for bicyclists — but instead of demanding safer streets or better drivers, a Florida political site says “wear a helmet.”

 

International

For once, police in the UK are asking for someone riding a bicycle to come forward when they’re not in trouble, as police in Yorkshire look for a bike rider who may have witnessed a driver kill a pedestrian.

An Irish food delivery rider settled a lawsuit over a dooring for the equivalent of $70,000, which required surgery to fix a broken little finger.

Dutch advocacy groups says forget helmets and bicycle speed limits, and upgrade the infrastructure, instead.

A pair of New Zealand Olympians are riding 2,500 miles through Africa to train for the ’28 Games while raising funds to buy bicycles for people in the towns they’re riding through.

 

Competitive Cycling

The Tour de France peloton stormed into Tuesday’s rest day with a major upset, as Irishman Ben Healy took the yellow jersey off Tadej Pogačar’s back, moving from nearly four minutes back to become the first Irish cyclist in yellow since Stephen Roche in 1987.

Britain’s Simon Yates celebrated Bastille Day by winning the Tour’s stage 10 yesterday, coming out on the right end of a long-range breakaway that was slowly whittled down from 28 cyclists to just six at the end.

Bike Radar visits France’s volcanic Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, which hosted the finish of Monday’s Tour de France stage for the first time in the race’s 122-year history.

A Mexican news site celebrates the country’s newest cycling star, after 21-year old Isaac del Toro won last week’s Tour of Austria, to go with his second place finish in the Giro.

 

Finally…

You know things have gone too far when even Jesus objects to ebikes. If you see a pedestrian in a bike lane ahead of you, should you blame the government or deploy torpedos?

And when you’re riding a bike on the 4th of July while smoking crack, and with an outstanding warrant on a meth charge, put a damn light on it, already.

And don’t be a famous musician, for Pete’s sake.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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