Tag Archive for deadly designs

Murder charge for OC 3-time DUI driver, Western Ave 3rd deadliest US street for peds, and new demand for ebike vouchers

Day 324 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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I’ve finally managed to get to a place where my eyes, head and stomach are all in reasonable agreement, allowing me to gaze upon this screen for more than a few moments, without risk of one or the other exploding in a most unpleasant manner. 

So let’s try to catch up on all we missed this week. This has turned into an epic post, so cinch down that saddle, because it’s going to be a bumpy ride. 

Photo by energepic.com from Pexels.

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This is who we share the road with.

A 59-year old San Juan Capistrano man faces a murder charge for jumping a pedestrian island with his truck, and killing 13-year old Luis Adrian Morales-Pacheco was he was waiting for the light to change while walking to school with his brother in Dana Point. Then fleeing the scene, until his truck broke down a few miles away.

Police arrested Bradley Gene Funk at the scene for driving under the influence. For the third time.

At 8:15 in the morning.

In fact, Funk was under probation for DUI at the time of the crash — for his second DUI arrest in just three days, back in 2020, while under the influence of both pills and alcohol.

Yet somehow, he was allowed to remain on the road until it was too late.

Now an innocent kid is dead, and Funk faces life behind bars, just because authorities didn’t take the damn keys away from a driver who had already demonstrated he was a danger on the road.

And if you want to know why people keep dying on our streets, that’s a good place to start.

Because there’s nothing easier to avoid than a DUI, let alone killing someone while under the influence.

Just don’t get behind the effing wheel after drinking or using drugs.

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Maybe you might want to avoid riding on South Western Ave.

Or walking there.

Like, ever.

Because the Washington Post has identified it as one of the nation’s most dangerous stretches of road.

The Post investigation used data from police reports and other records collected by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, focusing from when pedestrian deaths began to climb in 2010 to the most recent year with data available, 2023. It revealed short stretches of road that have become exceptionally deadly. In Albuquerque, 34 pedestrians were killed along a three-mile stretch of Central Avenue between 2010 and 2023. In Los Angeles, 33 people were killed on Western Avenue just south of downtown during that time.

In fact, Western ranks as the 3rd most dangerous street for pedestrians in the US, behind streets in Houston and Albuquerque.

And you can stop smirking, Orange County, because Anaheim’s Beach Blvd ranks tenth on the list.

But the most dangerous city for pedestrians is Memphis, according to the paper. Thanks, in part, to roads like many found right here at home.

The road, seven miles from the city’s heart, has been documented by the city and state as disproportionately lethal but remains mostly unimproved aside from walk signals near where Booker was hit. Cars and trucks roar past apartments, restaurants, corner stores and gas stations, often well above the strip’s 40 mph speed limit. Within two years of Booker’s death, two more people were killed by drivers at the same intersection.

The national data shows how the design of such roads is closely linked to the fatality rate: Those with three lanes or more are by far the most dangerous, because they enable higher speeds. Above 30 mph, fatality risk increases sharply. At 50 mph, someone’s chance of survival when struck is less than 1 in 5.

Then there’s this.

In addition, more than 3,800 people were killed almost immediately when they were struck in 2023, an indication that high speeds and larger vehicles are making impacts more violent. The rate at which pedestrians are declared dead at the scene of the crash has more than doubled, according to The Post’s analysis.

Despite abundant evidence of dangers, state and city agencies have been slow to invest in improvements such as safer places to cross or take steps to curb vehicle speeds, according to experts and former officials. A priority among local transportation agencies remains avoiding traffic jams rather than responding to concerns of pedestrians in the most danger, who are more likely to live in poor neighborhoods and wield less political influence.

The story notes that Los Angeles has taken steps to improve safety on Western.

Not enough, obviously. But let’s hope it takes.

Because that only leaves the rest of Los Angeles, where cars continue to overrule safety.

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A large coalition of California advocacy groups have come together to demand that the state reinstate the Ebike Incentive Program.

The groups include Calbike, Streets For All, Streets Are For Everyone, Active SGV, Pasadena Complete Streets Coalition, Move LA, Day One and Los Angeles Critical Mass, among more than a dozen others.

According to Streetsblog,

CalBike called for the ebike program to be restored, and earlier this week they sent a letter to CARB Board Chair Lauren Sanchez with a dozen other bicycle and pedestrian advocacy groups amplifying that call. While program execution – by CARB and its partner Pedal Ahead – has been questioned, the popularity of the program could not be denied. “It was also clear that the pilot phase succeeded – over 2,000 low-income individuals were able to obtain high-quality e-bikes, and the demand far outstripped the available incentives,” the advocates wrote…

“This is not what climate leadership looks like. Over one hundred thousand Californians lined up for a modest voucher that would help them drive less, save money, and move freely.” said Kendra Ramsey, Executive Director, CalBike. “Ending that opportunity now ignores that clear demand and walks back hard-won progress.”

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Streets For All is hosting a mobility debate next month for the candidates running to replace Curren Price in CD9 in next year’s city election.

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Active SGV is hosting an Easy Access Holiday Ride with SGV Water Action on December 6th.

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Now that’s what I call a train.

@bikinginla.bsky.social

Ted Faber (@snorerot13.bsky.social) 2025-11-16T06:01:35.037Z

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

No bias here. A writer for the Times of San Diego sarcastically opines about Mission Valley bike lanes and bike racks at a new Home Depot, apparently never having heard of cargo bikes to transport the hefty items typically bought at home improvement stores.

Someone sabotaged a Cambridge, Massachusetts bike lane by strewing tacks across it, with one rider picking up 20 tacks in his tire, in what should only be read as a deliberate attempt to injure bike riders.

A British motorcyclist walked with a suspended sentence after he was caught on video knocking a naked man of his bicycle, telling police he thought the man was “some kind of pervert,” without realizing he victim was participating in the World Naked Bike Ride.

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

No bias here. A website says San Franciscans are supposedly rejoicing as the cops “finally” start ticketing scofflaw bike riders, calling for them to do ebikes and scooters next.

A British man had to view a neighbor’s security cam to learn what happened to him, two days after he was knocked cold by a “brutal” crash with an ebike rider.

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Local 

Sunday’s Melrose Stranger Things CicLAvia isn’t the only bike-related event this weekend, as the Natural History Museum will host its LA on Wheels Day tomorrow, displaying cars and bicycles, as well as hosting vendors, screenings, historical slides, skate demonstrations, and “activities focused on SoCal’s on-the-move spirit.”

The Los Angeles LGBT Center will host a new Center Ride Out three-day bicycling fundraiser next April, replacing the annual AIDS/LifeCycle fundraising ride.

Los Angeles continues to underperform, installing 35.6 miles of new bikeways in the most recent fiscal year, although about half of that was new pathways — up significantly from last year’s 22.5 miles, but just a fraction of the 251 miles installed in 2012-13 under Mayor (and current gubernatorial candidate) Antonio Villaraigosa.

Streetsblog catches us up on a new — and long delayed — traffic circle in a deadly Koreatown intersection, as well as coming upgrades on a dangerous stretch of Pico Blvd.

An aging woman says she did the right thing by giving up her car and riding a bicycle, but Los Angeles is failing bike riders like her. Although two of her complaints are actually in Inglewood, but still. 

Plans for a remake of Huntington Drive call for a lane reduction, bus lanes, curb protected bike lanes and wider sidewalks.

A NoHo burglar is charged with breaking into 33 restaurants, while making his getaway by bicycle. But at least he took almost three-dozen car trips off the road. 

LA County is asking for state help to close the gap in the LA River bike path through DTLA and parts south, as the project has somehow ballooned from a relatively manageable $365 million to a whopping $1 billion.

WeHo will co-host a bike light giveaway with the West Hollywood Bicycle Coalition on both sides of Santa Monica Boulevard, just east of San Vicente Blvd, from 5 to 7 pm Tuesday.

The Pasadena Complete Streets Coalition calls for connecting bike paths through the Pasadena Community College campus to help complete the city’s network.

Streetsblog says the Pomona North Metro station will get a protected two-way cycle track extending a little less than two miles.

 

State

Nailed it. Calbike calls a proposal from the chair of the US House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee for the next highway bill to only fund “traditional” infrastructure like roads and bridges “car-brain at its logical endpoint” by assuming bike lanes and sidewalks are “not real infrastructure.”

Tell me about it. San Diego’s dangerous Friars Road is getting a makeover from Caltrans, with a separated Class IV bike lane on one side, and a painted bike lane on the other — although a spokesperson for a safe streets advocacy group says she’d hesitate to tell someone to ride on a bike lane with no protection, with cars going 45 mph or more right next to it.

Fontana cops busted a bike-riding man for firing a flare gun at a house, but are still investigating if he’s the same person who threw a couple Molotov cocktails at it. I’d go all in on “yes.”

Sad news from San Francisco, where someone riding a bicycle was killed on a “wide, high-speed street with painted bike lanes and no protection,” as Streetsblog calls it the inevitable outcome of the street design.

Megan forwards news that Chico is is looking for feedback on how to improve safety on the city’s roadways; if you live up that way, tell ’em they need to build more bikeways.

 

National

Bike Rumor asks if we can finally retire the idea of having to clip into a ‘clipless’ pedal.

A group of 34 Congressional representatives demanded that the Trump administration rescind the cancellation of bike and pedestrian infrastructure projects across the United States, and and reaffirm its commitment to building safer, more connected communities.

Trek is recalling 75,000 children’s and Elektra bikes due to faulty coaster brakes, telling users to immediately stop riding them.

In yet another example of allowing a dangerous driver to stay on the road until it’s too late, a Kentucky man faces a hit-and-run charge, as well as driving with expired plates and an invalid license, for killing a man riding a bicycle despite 15 — count ’em, 15 — previous traffic violations. Which is one more argument for impounding their car instead of just taking their damn license away.

Momentum asks where New York is on the latest Copenhagenize list of the world’s most bike friendly cities.

Streetsblog asks if the NYPD’s security demands will smother new mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s habit of taking the train and riding bikeshare bikes.

A North Carolina teenager was charged with murder after killing a 14-year old boy riding a bicycle and seriously injuring a man driving another car; the 16-year old was allegedly driving drunk at twice the speed limit at the time of the crash.

More horrible news from North Carolina, where the body of a 15-year old boy was found in a ravine, overgrown with weeds, 25 days after authorities believe he was killed in a hit-and-run by the driver of a semi-truck while riding his bicycle home from a party. As we’ve said before, the driver should be charged with murder for making the conscious decision to leave the victim to die alone like that, rather than stop and call for help. 

That’s more like it. A 25-year old Florida man was sentenced to 15 years behind bars, along with another five years probation, for the hit-and-run crash that killed a man riding a bicycle in 2023. The same crime in California would have garnered just four years. 

 

International

A new report considers how bicycling can help fight climate change.

Bike Radar consults an expert on how to be more conspicuous on the roads, saying hi-viz ain’t it.

A Windsor, Ontario driver won the door prize, somehow managing to door not one, but two passing bicyclists with a single thrust.

The leader of a BBC children’s charity resigned his post after he was convicted of careless driving for crashing into a woman riding a bicycle in the equivalent of a left cross crash, leaving the victim with life-changing injuries.

More proof that cars are bad for business. Sales in central Madrid went up 9.5% when the city closed the area to cars during the Christmas period; air quality also improved, with emissions nitrogen oxide emissions dropping 38% and CO2 emissions falling 14.2%.

A Manilla paper says the Philippines bike boom isn’t over yet, despite a 26% drop in ridership in the last bike count.

 

Competitive Cycling

Dutch women’s cycling star Lorena Wiebes was lucky to walk away without getting hurt when a driver rear-ended her ebike, though her bike wasn’t so lucky.

Pro-Palestinian protests have driven a stake through the Israel-Premier Tech cycling team, as sports & entertainment agency Never Say Never acquires the team’s WorldTour license and renames it NSN Cycling, with Swiss registration and a new base in Spain.

Speaking of which, a pro-Palestinian protestor charged with disrupting the Toulouse finish on stage 11 of the Tour de France got off with a warning and a fine, saying he wanted to get people talking about Gaza. As if they weren’t already. 

Azerbaijani junior cyclist Artyom Proskuryakov was provisionally suspended after testing positive for meth at the World Championships. Yes, meth. But the doping era is over, right?

 

Finally…

From bodybuilding to building mountain bikes. Your bike parts could become someone’s new prosthetic leg. Why bikes are bad for the economy.

And if you remember this bike, you’re as old as I am.

The Huffy Wheelca. 1968

Cool Bike Art (@coolbikeart1.bsky.social) 2025-11-14T18:55:30.815Z

But at least I don’t remember this one.

British racer Evelyn Hamilton demonstrated a similar one back in 1936

Cool Bike Art (@coolbikeart1.bsky.social) 2025-11-15T07:28:01.847Z

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

Calling out carmakers deadly lies, Biking While Black in Los Angeles, and reimagining what Ventura Blvd could be

Let’s start with a couple powerful pieces more than worth a few minutes of your time this morning.

First up is a Gainesville, Florida op-ed comparing the auto industry to big tobacco — and the lies tobacco companies told that kept killing their own customers for decades.

Sort of like carmakers keep building deadly machines designed to protect the people inside, while becoming increasingly lethal for people outside.

Not to mention building flashy distractions into the dash, which can take a driver’s attention off the road for as long as 40 seconds — enough time to drive a half mile at 50 mph, virtually blind.

Here’s just a small taste of what op-ed writer Emily Hind had to say.

To achieve change, it’s going to take more than my energy spent yelling at drivers from the safety of the sidewalk. Just like the smoking cessation advocates who took on big tobacco, I’m up against billions of dollars in advertising for the automotive industry.

In 2019, the automotive industry in the U.S. spent $13.8 billion on digital advertising and $70 million on lobbying in this country. Who is funding that big money? You are, sucker. And you’re dooming our children to climate-changed ruin, not to mention robbing them of a childhood of outdoors mobility.

I don’t dare transport my child to most of the places we go on the bike because I’m afraid one of you will murder him by car. Vehicles are more lethal now: The higher off the road they sit (thanks for nothing, SUVs and trucks), the higher the odds that an impact on the human body will be fatal.

She concludes, in part, with this.

If the fight against big tobacco is any indicator, we’re in for a long slog against the obvious untruths spun by the automotive industry. Like smokers before them, drivers are likely going to defend self-defeating habits by standing up at public meetings and railing about the “right to drive” and “right to park” no matter whom it hurts — or kills.

Seriously, it’s more than worth the click to read the whole piece.

And maybe get a little mad about it.

Artwork by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay.com.

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Next up is a short film about the difficulty of Biking While Black in the City of Angels, which comes off as far less than angelic.

A number of Black bike riders talk about things like giving up biking to work after getting stopped repeatedly by the same cops. Or deciding that it just wasn’t worth the hassle to ride through Beverly Hills, day or night.

Yet they somehow continue riding a bike.

It’s a reminder that for far too many of us, distracted drivers aren’t the only dangers we face on the streets. And that everyone deserves to be treated like a human being, regardless of the color of their skin, or how they travel.

Go ahead, watch it. I’ll wait.

The nine minute documentary was sponsored with a grant from SCAG’s Go Human campaign.

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This is what Los Angeles streets could look like.

If — and only if — our elected leaders ever took their own words seriously about reducing traffic, fighting climate change and improving livability.

As the saying went, they’re great at talking the talk, not so much at walking the walk.

Or making it safe and enjoyable for anyone to walk. Or bike.

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A Low Traffic Neighborhood in the UK — the equivalent of a Slow Street in the US — demonstrated benefits throughout the neighborhood.

Results that would probably be replicated here, if anyone bothered to do the studies.

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

A road raging Irish driver faces charges for pushing a man off his bicycle and repeatedly kicking him in his head and body, resulting in at least one fracture and significant bruising.

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

Ventura police busted a 28-year old man accused of attacking a woman for no apparent reason as he rode his bike past her on a bike path.

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Local

The LAPD has released video of the vehicle driven by a hit-and-run driver who killed a woman riding circles around a Venice intersection last month; police are looking for a black, large-sized SUV, possibly a Chevrolet Suburban.

This is who we share the road with. It’s bad enough that so many people have to live on our streets. Worse that their lives are at risk from overly aggressive, distracted, drunk, stoned or merely careless drivers who can’t manage to keep their cars from banging together.

Streetsblog looks at Monday’s celebration of Streets4All and the LACBC meeting their $25,000 goal for the city’s first public/private partnership; the money will fund initial engineering and outreach to reimagine dangerous Sunset Blvd as a complete, livable street.

Walk Bike Glendale is hosting their first post-pandemic bike ride this Sunday. Although Delta and Mu might beg to differ with that description.

 

State

San Diego’s KPBS wants to know why the city is still widening roads when they’ve promised to shift away from cars.

The San Francisco Chronicle considers whether lower speed limits would save lives on the city’s most dangerous streets — if you can get past their paywall, that is. Short answer, yes. Longer answer, hell yes.

An 18-year old Chico woman suffered “significant” leg injuries when she was apparently right hooked by a garbage truck driver while riding her bike; her injuries aren’t considered life threatening, so let’s hope she recovers quickly and completely.

 

National

A provision in the bipartisan infrastructure bill that recently passed the US Senate provides $1 billion to restore urban neighborhoods by removing highways or lessening their impact on the community; too many Black and Brown neighborhoods were destroyed building them.

Morgan Stanley says the death of the American city has been highly exaggerated, although Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Jose are lagging in growth due to the high cost of living.

Interesting idea. A new Kickstarter campaign is selling flat pedals with LED lights to make you more visible from the front, side and rear. Now if they’d just make them for cleats, we’d have a deal.

More on the driver who somehow couldn’t resist zooming along Chicago’s DuSable Lake Shore Drive, dangerously weaving in and out of the bike riders enjoying the ostensibly carfree Bike the Drive on Sunday.

Chicago Streetsblog wants to know why no one has been arrested for the hit-and-run death of a 70-year old entertainment lawyer, despite three witnesses, police camera footage, a license plate number, and the name of the vehicle owner. Good question.

A couple Indiana boys reportedly hopped off their bicycles and stood at attention as a funeral procession for an 89-year old military vet passed by, and remained at attention until the final gun solute before getting back on their bikes and riding off.

Nice. New York will remove parking on one side of the city’s Navy Street and replace it with a two-way protected bike lane, while keeping an unprotected bike lane on the other side of the street.

There’s a special place in hell for the heartless coward who refused to stop after knocking an 83-year old Florida man off his bicycle in the country’s largest retirement community. Never mind that hitting a bike rider with the passenger side mirror is a pretty clear violation of the state’s three-foot passing law.

 

International

A new bikeshare company hopes to undercut London’s famed Boris Bikes and Lime by offering app-based dockless ebikes with no fee to unlock, and the first ten minutes free.

Scotland’s newly-appointed active transport minister — the first anywhere in the UK — is coming under criticism for not wearing a helmet when he rides a bike, saying wearing one makes him feel like he’s competing in an extreme sport. We could use someone like that in an official government capacity here, with or without a skid lid.

Heartbreaking followup to the story of India’s Bicycle Girl, who gained worldwide fame for carrying her injured father 700 miles to their home on the back of her bicycle at the beginning of the country’s pandemic lockdown; her father died of a heart attack a year later, and the funds she received for her feat are exhausted after helping her family weather the pandemic.

 

Competitive Cycling

Bicycling Australia is already looking forward to the world road championships coming to Wollongong, New South Wales next year, even though this year’s worlds in Flanders is still over ten days away.

 

Finally…

How wasted do you have to be to hear a gunshot while sitting on a bike path, and realize you’ve been shot — without realizing you did it yourself?

And nothing like a crustacean bike traffic director.

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

Morning Links: LA City Council does the wrong thing, Metro picks a bike share vendor, and Sir Bradley didn’t cheat

As expected, the LA City Council voted unanimously to do the wrong thing.

The council voted on Tuesday to approve a deadly one-sidewalk design for the Glendale-Hyperion Bridge, which is scheduled to be remade in a seismic upgrade.

Needless to say, bike, pedestrian and safety advocates haven’t exactly welcomed the decision.

Streetsblog’s Joe Linton asks who we should blame for the next death on the bridge — and proceeds to name names — while CiclaValley looks at Tuesday’s wrong-headed decision to throw children crossing the bridge under the bus.

Perhaps literally.

Richard Risemberg calls the council the city’s own death panel for acting to preserve deadly streets and our auto-centric past. The LACBC says the city failed to live up to its ideals of a safe and sustainable future with the council’s unanimous vote.

Then again, after councilmembers quashed bikeways on Westwood Blvd, North Figueroa, Lankershim and 6th and 4th Streets, just to name a few, what else is new?

And MyNewsLA says bike activists booed the decision. Because no one would ever advocate for walking, right?

My take is that the city council has knowingly voted in a dangerous, and possibly illegal, design that will needlessly put Angelenos at risk for decades to come.

Illegal because it may violate the Americans With Disabilities Act by preventing people with handicaps from being able to cross the bridge without using the bike lanes. And because the unanimous vote — after the Public Works Committee sent the design to the full council without a recommendation — suggests that the decision was made in a backroom deal before the public session, in violation of state law.

The vote was rushed through, largely on false pretenses, before outgoing Councilmember Tom LaBonge leaves the council at the end of the month. And before David Ryu, who publicly supported sidewalks on both sides of the bridge, could come in.

It’s a shameful decision.

One that will undoubtedly cause future generations to curse those who left them with a dangerous design they may not be able to fix. And one that flies in the face of the city’s Vision Zero goals contained in the soon-to-be-adopted Mobility Plan.

The question is, where was our supposedly progressive mayor and our new rock star LADOT general manager, who both seemed to vanish just as strong leadership was called for?

Our civic leaders seem to be good at talking when it comes to improving safety and livability.

Just not so good at actually doing it.

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The LACBC’s Central LA Neighborhood Bike Ambassadors are meeting at 6:30 tonight at the Hollywood Branch Library, 1623 N. Ivar Ave.

Among the topics up for discussion,

  • Hollywood Great Streets Challenge Grants– Up to $20,000 Grant to pilot creative projects on Hollywood Blvd between La Brea and Gower
  • Citywide Action Alerts for Mobility Plan 2035 #MobilityMonday – The City’s Mobilty Plan 2035 is going to be on vote at the full Council very soon. LACBC is launching a citywide campaign to support the plan. We need your help to spread the word out! Learn more about the campaign at the meeting and get involved!!

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Looks like there’s white smoke in Metro’s search for a vendor for the planned LA bike share system. And no, it’s no one you’ve ever heard of.

And no, it won’t be compatible with systems being installed in Santa Monica and Long Beach.

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In today’s cheating racing news, charges that Sir Bradley cheated in setting the new hour record last Sunday have been soundly rejected, while Italy’s Southeast cycling team faces a death sentence after a fourth failed doping test linked to the Giro.

Dell says the US Olympic women’s cycling team competes with data, not doping, while an on-bike mid-race shoe change saved the day in the women’s Amgen ToC.

Lance questions critics who question his welcome as he returns to France next month to raise funds to fight leukemia; he risks financial ruin when Floyd Landis’ whistleblower case goes to trial.

And sadly, a Kansas racer was killed in a collision while warming up for the state time trial championships; she was a bronze age group winner in the national cyclocross championships.

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Local

The Boulevard Sentinel’s bike lane hating Tom Topping just can’t resist. After listing all the improvements that have made Eagle Rock more livable, he blames bike lanes on Colorado Boulevard for creating largely imaginary traffic snarls, even though the road diet that created those bike lanes is one of the primary reasons behind that better livability.

Santa Monica Forward says our streets are for everyone. I wish they’d tell that to the LA City Council.

Hats off to Pasadena for the city’s first green bike lane across an intersection, one of the first in the LA area. Meanwhile, Pasadena-based bike lawyer Thomas Forsyth has a spiffy new website.

The new Redondo Beach bikeways on Harbor and Herondo will have their official grand opening on Saturday, although not everyone is happy that bikes are still allowed on the street next to them. Thanks to Margaret for the heads-up.

 

State

BikeSD says human lives should not be the cost of doing business.

Carlsbad police post a trove of recovered bikes online. With a little luck, yours might be one of them.

A 72-year old La Jolla resident is riding in the Race Across America, more commonly known as RAAM, as part of a four-rider relay team.

This is what happens when city officials actually give a damn. San Francisco will limit turns onto busy Market Street to protect cyclists and pedestrians, as well as those in motor vehicles.

Folsom residents call for improvements in a dangerous intersection, too late for an 11-year old boy who was killed trying to cross it on his bike. Why does someone usually have to die before anything gets done?

 

National

The Bike League announces their latest list of Bike Friendly Communities; Rancho Cordova is the only California city added to the list.

Bike Magazine says designer Roxy Lo changed the mountain bike industry. For the better.

In another study from the University of Duh, it turns out lighted streets help reduce severe bike vs car collisions. Who knew being more visible could make a difference?

Good idea. The Spinlister bike rental service allows bike riders to try out bikes on an extended basis before making a buying decision.

The sons of a Las Vegas man killed in a hit-and-run by a suspected drunk driver talk about their loss; it was just the second of the 22-year old driver’s three hit-and-run wrecks that night.

Evidently, Leonardo DiCaprio is one of us; a celeb website recounts his love of blondes and bikes, including New York’s Citi Bikes.

It looks like bike lanes are disappearing in bike friendly NYC.

Caught on video: A Delaware trooper just a tad out of his jurisdiction threatens a bike rider with his badge and gun when the governor’s car blocks a DC bike lane.

Twenty-three firefighters and police officers are riding 650 miles through Florida to honor first-responders who have fallen in the line of duty.

Seriously, slowing traffic in Cape Canaveral isn’t rocket science.

 

International

Toronto also waited until it was too late for a bike riding architect. Meanwhile, the city’s airport says a $2,500 cargo bike should never have been tossed in the trash. Seriously, would they have thrown away a car, even if they thought might have been abandoned?

A woman is offering a reward for the hit-and-run bike rider who knocked her down on a London sidewalk.

Eco-friendly cargo bike delivery firms are popping up all over Great Britain.

Dublin suggests a “most radical” plan to evict cars from the city center, while the mayor of Paris ups the ante by proposing a car-free city center and 100-million Euros for new bike lanes.

Hit-and-run is a worldwide plague, as a cowardly SUV driver sped away after killing a 15-year old Mumbai bike rider.

Afghanistan is experiencing a gender revolution, two wheels at a time.

 

Finally…

A writer says only minivan-driving moms should decide whether bike lanes get built, evidently because families would never, ever ride bikes. Somehow, Bellingham police decided one naked bike rider was apparently more naked than the other 279 naked bike riders.

And if your dog trips up a bike rider in New York, it’s not your fault. But if you’re the bike rider, you’re screwed.