Tag Archive for deadly streets

A $7 million SD safety fail, U-T sharrows fail, and taking a pass on what passes for record CA traffic safety investment

October 3, 2024 / / No comments
Just 88 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025. 

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L’Shana Tova to everyone celebrating the new year today!

And apropos of nothing, I’m happy to report I wrote today’s entire post wearing a T-shirt with a bear riding a bicycle, as bears are wont to do. 

Just saying.

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Call it a $7 million fail — one that ultimately cost the life of a San Diego bike rider.

That’s the amount the city paid out to the family of Marc Woolf, who died 17 months after he was struck by a pair of drivers and paralyzed from the next down, dying of sepsis 17 months later.

Woolf was on his way home from his job at the San Diego zoo in May, 2021 when a driver coming out of a blind driveway backed into him, knocking him onto the other side of the street, where he was hit again by second driver.

But instead of blaming the drivers, Woolf’s legal team accused the city of creating and maintaining poor road conditions.

According to San Diego CBS8, those conditions included —

  • Restricted site lines and distances caused by physical conditions
  • Insufficient red curb prohibiting parked cars
  • Overgrown vegetation
  • Confusing and misleading shared lane striping
  • An improperly maintained light fixture which was not functioning on the night of the incident

The station reports the city finally extended the red curb to improve sightlines along the corridor in response to the crash.

As usual, only acting after it was too late.

Now Wolff’s family is $7 million richer, and the city’s taxpayers are $7 million poorer.

But as his daughter notes, no amount of money can bring Wolff back, or ease the pain the new grandfather suffered for so many months.

Meanwhile, the Union-Tribune blamed sharrows in general for the crash.

The case highlights the potential dangers of “sharrows,” marked bike routes that require cars and bicycles to share portions of roadway instead of giving cyclists areas reserved only for them.

I’m no fan of sharrows, which studies have shown to be worse than nothing when it comes to protecting the safety of bike riders.

But that’s a discussion for another day.

The paper was clearly mistaken, at best, in blaming any and all sharrows for this particular crash, rather than the poorly designed and implemented sharrows on this one particular street.

I’ve heard that some San Diego bicyclists have called on the paper for a retraction.

And they may have a point this time.

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California is making a record investment in traffic safety and enforcement as traffic deaths continue to rise, according to the Governor’s office.

The California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) is awarding a record $149 million in federal funding for 497 grants that expand safe biking and walking options and provide critical education and enforcement programs that will make roads safer throughout the state. This is the third consecutive year of historic funding, exceeding last year’s amount by $21 million.

Yet that record spending to “expand safe biking and walking options” includes just $13 million for bicycle and pedestrian safety programs, up a modest 12% from the previous grant cycle.

Even though bicyclists and pedestrians account for most, if not all, of the recent increase in traffic deaths.

Meanwhile, a whopping $51 million will go to law enforcement agencies to conduct what’s described as “equitable enforcement targeting the most dangerous driving behaviors such as speeding, distracted and impaired driving, as well as support education programs focused on bicycle and pedestrian safety.”

In other words, more daylong — or usually, just a few hours — enforcement actions targeting violations that could put bicyclists and pedestrians at risk, regardless of who commits them.

Which, to the best of my knowledge, hasn’t been proven to do a damn bit of good reducing deaths or serious injuries among either group.

So if that’s what passes for a record investment, I’ll pass.

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Streets For All politely reminds Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass that Measure HLA applies to Metro projects in the City of Los Angeles, too.

Never mind that the city’s barely competent and very conservative City Attorney’s Office continues to drag its feet on crafting guidance for city departments regarding the measure, nearly seven months after it went into effect after passing overwhelmingly.

Meanwhile, Streetsblog’s Joe Linton reports that new bike lane mileage in Los Angeles fell to a five-year low for the most recent fiscal year, adding up to a massively underwhelming 22.5 lane-miles of new and improved bike facilities.

And remember, lane-miles means they count each side of the road separately, so we’re only talking a measly 11.25 miles of actual street.

Then there’s this.

While there is some year-to-year variation, and some lag time between project planning getting underway and on the ground upgrades, the first full fiscal year does not look like a promising start for Mayor Karen Bass. Bass has prioritized critical housing issues and not paid much attention to safer multimodal streets – at least not yet. FY2024 did see Mayor Karen Bass appoint Laura Rubio-Cornejo to head the city Transportation Department (LADOT). Rubio-Cornejo replaced interim GM Connie Llanos last September.

No shit.

If anyone has heard Bass even mention safer and/or multimodal streets, let me know. Because I sure as hell haven’t heard it.

Then again, the city’s freeze on resurfacing projects to avoid implementing HLA hasn’t helped.

And neither has Bass’ continued failure to meet with us.

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Momentum wants to see your pics of bike lane fails, of which we should have more than a few.

https://twitter.com/MomentumMag/status/1841505396596342989

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Presenting the cutest BMX balance bike stunt video you’ll see all day.

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It’s now 288 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And an even 40 months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

Meanwhile, apparently tired of waiting, San Francisco will consider a proposal for their own yet-to-be defined ebike rebate program.

That deafening silence you hear is Los Angeles not considering one.

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

Apparently, elected office provides no protection from dangerous drivers, as an Ottawa, Canada city counselor captures a way-too-close punishment pass on his bike cam while riding past several parked cars.

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

Maybe something was lost in translation, as an Ottawa letter writer complains about the incivility of local bicyclists who “love listening to the music of the folk group With No Headphones,” while riding their bikes without a “ten dollar doorbell.”

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Local  

Looks like they slipped one past us this time, as a planned two-day closure last week for repairs on the Ballona Creek Bike Path only took one day, with the path reopening before some of us (i.e. me) knew it wasn’t.

Start times for the Long Beach Marathon have been moved up due to a high heat warning, with the bike tour now scheduled to start the same time as the runners at 5:30 am.

Speaking of Streets For All, the Los Angeles-area transportation PAC is hosting a fundraiser in Franklin Hills this Sunday afternoon.

 

State

The CHP has received a $1.55 million federal grant for year-long initiative focusing on “educating the public and enforcing traffic safety laws for drivers, bicyclists and pedestrians.” Maybe they could spend some of the money on educating their patrol officers a little better on bike law and how to investigate collisions involving bicyclists. 

San Diego was dubbed the greenest city in the US for the third year in a row; needless to say, Los Angeles wasn’t, coming in 18th.

San Diego pediatrician Dr. Mike Nelson dropped by a Claremont Mesa fire station to thank the first responders who saved his life when he crashed his bicycle on the way to an appointment a couple months back.

A San Francisco neighborhood is tearing itself apart fighting over a proposal to permanently close a highway to motor vehicles, even though it’s eroding into the ocean anyway.

 

National

Momentum offers ten “amazing coastal cities” in the US for bicycling; Santa Barbara is #9 on the list, while Huntington Beach is #2 — even though three people lost their lives riding in the city in just the last 12 months.

Bicyclists in the Pacific Northwest are challenging online marketplaces like OfferUp to do more to fight the reselling of stolen bikes on their platforms.

An editorial from a local Boston paper says bicycling isn’t safe in the city. Then again, the same could be said in virtually any city in the US. Los Angeles included. 

A proposed Pennsylvania law could authorize parking-protected bicycle lanes for the first time in the state.

Washington DC’s Reagan National Airport is encouraging travelers to skip the taxi and ride their bikes to the airport. Maybe LAX should be taking notes.

More proof bikes make the best emergency vehicles, as a North Carolina family grabbed their chainsaws and hopped on their bicycles to rescue the family’s 87-year old matriarch when they couldn’t contact her after Hurricane Helene.

 

International

Bike Radar considers why mixed-terrain ultra-distance cycling events are rising in popularity.

Residents of a British Columbia city aren’t sold on plans for a new bike path if it means chopping down a tree.

London bicyclists will soon be shuttled through a new motor vehicle-only tunnel under the Thames on special double-decker buses.

The rich get richer, as London bicyclists will soon get a £4 million — $5.3 million — bike route through the heart of the city.

There won’t be any more changes to the UK’s infamous “optical illusion” bike lane, even though it’s led to more than 100 trip and fall injuries. Sounds like they need better injury attorneys over there. 

 

Competitive Cycling

That’s Sir Mark Cavendish to you, as the Manx Missile gets knighted at Windsor Castle. Unless you’d rather call him the new High Performance Ambassador for Aston Martin.

Cyclinguptodate compares UCI to the Mafia for the way they managed the recent Zurich world championships, arguing that the organization implements rules, then neither complies with or implements them.

Rouleur considers the recent rise of WorldTour mega-contracts.

 

Finally…

Maybe your new wireless shifters can be hack-proof, after all. Now you, too, can trade your ten gallon hat for a helmet and bike through LBJ’s Texas ranch.

And maybe you were a bicycling British soldier in a past life, bad teeth be damned.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

22 people killed on bikes in LA this year, city on record pace for traffic deaths; no one feels safe on Caltrans highways

November 14, 2023 / / 2 comments

Color me livid.

For some time, I’ve been concerned that we’re not learning about people killed riding their bikes in the City of Los Angeles.

Now know they’ve been keeping the truth from us.

That worry stemmed from this year’s surprisingly low number of bicycling deaths that have been reported in the media, as well as the LAPD’s belated announcements of fatal hit-and-runs that come weeks, if not months, after the fact.

Never mind that they’re asking for our help long after the trail has gone cold, and any potential witnesses have likely forgotten key details.

So much for the city’s highly touted hit-and-run alert system.

Yesterday, Crosstown confirmed that they just aren’t telling us what we need to know to stay safe, and identify the problems on our streets — let alone fix them.

Following the death of Los Angeles resident Samuel Tessier in an apparent fall at the entrance to Universal Studios last week, I had counted nine people who had been publicly confirmed to have been killed while riding their bikes on the mean streets of the City of Angels.

But according to LAPD figures reported by Crosstown, the actual number is more than twice that high. In fact, of the more than 260 traffic deaths in the city through October 28th, 19 were people on two wheels.

It’s actually worse than that, however, because three more people have been killed riding bikes in Los Angeles since then, including Mr. Tessier, for a current total of 22.

Yes, 22.

Although that figure pales compared to the 138 pedestrians slaughtered on our streets, as the city is on track for more than 300 traffic deaths for the second year in a row.

And once again likely to top the highest number of traffic fatalities in more than a decade, topping last year’s total of 314 — or nearly one person killed on our streets every day of the year.

So much for Vision Zero.

We were promised that the city would pull out all the stops and do whatever was necessary to eliminate traffic deaths by — wait for it — 2025.

Which means they have a hell of lot of work to do to if they’re going to meet that goal in the next 13 and a half months.

Especially since they can’t even be bothered to tell us about the over half the bike-riding victims of traffic violence in the city.

Let alone the other 243 people killed in traffic collisions this year.

And if that doesn’t piss you off, I don’t know what will.

Photo by Wendy Corniquet from Pixabay.

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Then again, it’s not just Los Angeles.

According to a new survey conducted by Calbike, a whopping 83% of respondents would feel uncomfortable walking or biking on California highways controlled by Caltrans.

And 99% would be uncomfortable walking or biking those highways with a child.

But let’s just round up, and say all of us.

Then again, there’s pretty damn good reason for that.

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Evidently, LA officials are keeping us in the dark literally, as well as figuratively.

https://twitter.com/im_walkin_here/status/1724333507554718133

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Bike-riding state senator and congressional candidate Anthony Portantino landed a key endorsement in his campaign to replace outgoing Congressmember Adam Schiff, in what appears to be shaping up as a battle with equally bike-friendly Assembly Transportation Committee head Laura Friedman.

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‘Tis the season.

The bicycling holiday gift guides are coming in fast and furious now, with new editions from Bike World News, Popular Science and Engadget.

Meanwhile, Bicycling gets into the spirit by recommending six bicycling-related charities that could use your holiday donations. As usual, read it on Yahoo if the magazine blocks you.

Just remember to save a few bucks for the 9th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive, which officially kicks off after Thanksgiving.

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

Massachusetts Streetsblog reports hating on bike lanes was not a winning strategy for the state’s politicians in the recent election.

A London man got knocked off his bike by a hit-and-run mo-ped rider while biking with his cat, and all the cops care about is his lack of a helmet. And presumably the cat’s, too.

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Local 

Pasadena just got a federal grant for just over three-quarters of a million dollars to boost active transportation in the Rose City.

Long Beach is starting design work on an 8.3-mile, north-south curb-protected Backbone Bikeway on Orange Ave to compliment several east-west bikeways currently under development, as well as a 5-mile bikeway on Atlantic Ave currently in its earliest phase.

 

State

Solano Beach is considering adding signs along the city’s Coastal Rail Trail to encourage courtesy and slower speeds when approaching pedestrians, whether someone is riding an ebike or a regular bicycle.

Ebike riders are calling on San Diego to lift the city’s four-year old ban on riding on its boardwalks.

Seriously? A Blythe man walked out of court already on parole after pleading guilty to shooting a man riding a bicycle after the two men had quarreled over a dice game; 27-year old Deveon Keyshawn Smith was sentenced to four years time served for the crime, after being held behind bars since the 2018 shooting.

Bay Area bike riders turned out in force to celebrate the 4th anniversary of the bike lane on the Richmond-San Raphael Bridge, with an estimated 1,000 bicyclists riding to demand its retention in the face of a relentless campaign for its removal.

 

National

CNN tests 17 ebikes and one conversion kit and comes up with some surprising recommendations, as well as the usual suspects.

Singletracks talks with an attorney to understand why frame warranties for mountain bike frames are written to prevent replacement or repairs.

Pertinent advice from Road Bike Rider on how to keep your bicycling duds from stinking up the room.

That’s more like it. Bike Snob’s Eben Weiss offers five bike safety tips that are more important than wearing a helmet. Which is not to say that you shouldn’t wear one, just that it should always be seen as the last line of defense when all else fails, not the first. 

Bike Magazine considers the drive for ebike incentives across the US. Which serves as yet another reminder that California’s seemingly moribund ebike voucher program still hasn’t launched, over two years after it was approved and funded by the state legislature. 

Oregon Rep. Earl Blumaneuer continues his exit interview tour, as the co-founder of the Congressional Bike Caucus talks with Streetsblog about the state of bicycling, traffic safety and bi-partisanship in the US.

It takes major huevos — or maybe a distinct lack of common sense — to steal ten police bikes from a San Antonio police storage room.

Police in Missouri discovered a body in a local park after someone found an abandoned bike along a bike path, several months after a local person went missing.

I want to be like her when I grow up. An 83-year old Ohio woman wakes up with a smile every morning by looking forward to riding her bike each day, after overcoming polio as a child.

Horrible news from Alabama, where a 63-year old woman was apparently killed by dogs while riding her bike, after she was found unresponsive on the side of the road. A tragic reminder that unleashed dogs can be more than just an annoyance. 

 

International

GCN explains how to fit clip-on mud guards to almost any bike. Which could come in handy with the atmospheric river projected to hit California later this week. 

Nice guy. A Welsh man switched seats with his wife and let her take the blame after blowing through a red light and slamming into a bike-riding teenager, leaving the boy with life-changing injuries.

A British bike rider was suitably horrified as he filmed a swarm of rats along a local bike path.

The bereaved romantic partner of rising Irish cyclist Gabriele Glodenyte warns that the county’s roads are like a war zone, after the 24-year old rider was killed by a driver while the pair were on a training ride in May.

An Irish mother of two faces charges for an alleged drunken and stoned hit-and-run, accused of leaving an off-duty police inspector for dead in a ditch after slamming into his bicycle; she refused a friend’s offer of a ride, despite smoking a joint and downing at least ten drinks.

Two Cypriot bicyclists were hospitalized after they were both run down by a hit-and-run driver.

Eight bicyclist crisscrossed Kolkata, formerly known as Calcutta, during the night on bicycles outfitted to monitor air quality and pollution from Diwali fireworks.

Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan recalls riding his bike 155 miles from Delhi to Chandigarh after graduating high school, because he wasn’t having any luck getting into colleges in his hometown.

Seoul, Korea is proposing a 12 mph speed limit for bicyclists riding in bike lanes along the Han River to rein in speeding riders.

Borrow a bicycle for a free two-hour ride on your next layover at the Singapore airport.

A Melbourne, Australia man riding his bike with an Israeli flag was attacked by a woman and knocked off his bike, in an assault fueled by escalating Israel-Palestine tensions.

 

Competitive Cycling

Grand Tour veteran Geraint Thomas is apparently spending the off-season drowning in booze, admitting to being drunk 12 nights out of the previous two weeks.

The next time someone suggests cyclists aren’t tough, remind them of the time Dutch ‘cross rider Lars Van der Haar causally popped his own dislocated shoulder back in using his own bike. Read it on AOL if Bicycling blocks you.

https://twitter.com/kwoodzie14/status/1723352124828876978?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1723352124828876978%7Ctwgr%5E0ab0d0cb5a4b64820e9398ac0345d32bf7b9d086%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.aol.com%2Flifestyle%2Fwatch-moment-lars-van-der-160100396.html

 

Finally…

Donate a bike, get a free burger and fries. You know you’re in a small town when failing to signal your lane change tops the local news.

And why your new carbon fiber, high-performance bicycle could be made by a Red Sox fan.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

New Central LA bike lanes and proposals for CD1, Move Culver City bike use jumps 1/3, and Metro urged to junk new fares

November 3, 2022 / / One comment

Fun thing about diabetes. 

High blood sugar makes you sleep. But so does low blood sugar. 

And cycling between the two, like I did Tuesday, can knock you out for hours, regardless of whether you’re trying to write something. 

Which is why you didn’t see anything here yesterday. 

But we’ll more than make up for it today.

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Streetsblog’s Joe Linton offers a long list of actionable transportation ideas for incoming CD1 Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, including busways, bike lanes and pedestrian improvements.

Hernandez leadership promises a sea change in the district, where the councilmember she defeated, “Roadkill” Gil Cedillo, earned his sobriquet by blocking virtually every major safety improvement and bike lane in the district, including deadly North Figueroa.

Meanwhile, Linton also offers updates on a handful of new bike lanes in Central Los Angeles, including:

  • Sixth Street Bridge connection in Skid Row and the Arts District
  • Ramirez Street/Center Street/Santa Fe Ave in the Arts District
  • Avenue 19 in Lincoln Heights

He also points out the missed opportunity on North Spring Street in Chinatown, where the street, which is scheduled for a bike lane in the city’s mobility plan, was recently resurfaced.

Sans bike lane, of course.

https://twitter.com/multimodalLA/status/1587664862607380481

As Linton points out, this is exactly why we need the Healthy Streets LA ballot proposal, which is scheduled for a public vote in 2024.

The proposal would force the city to build out the mobility plan whenever a section of street contained in the plan is resurfaced.

Meanwhile, the city’s alternative proposal, which is based on Healthy Streets but likely to lack the enforcement mechanism of the ballot measure, is due back for a vote of the city council in the next few weeks.

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Culver City has crunched the numbers on the 1.3-mile Move Culver City complete streets project along Culver and Washington Blvds.

And the results have been impressive, to say the least.

  • 52% jump in bus ridership
  • 32% increase in bicycling
  • 18% climb in walking
  • Nearly double (92%) micromobility trips

Maybe that will encourage Los Angeles to give it a try.

We can hope, right?

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Metro’s Community Advisory Council urges the Metro board to reject the proposal to “simplify” the fare structure, which is really just a massive rate increase for many, if not most, transit users.

Never mind that it’s the opposite of the fare-free transit they promised to study.

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Whittier Blvd’s Esquina Bicycle Shop is hosting a vigil ride for fallen bicyclist Sergio Cordova tonight.

Cordova was killed in a collision at the west entrance to the new 6th Street Bridge last Wednesday.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CkeBLvHvrY7/?igshid=MDJmNzVkMjY%3D

Meanwhile, a crowdfunding campaign for Cordova’s funeral expenses has raised over $9,500 of the revised $15,000 goal. 

Thanks to Susannah L for the heads-up.

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The LACBC looks forward to Saturday’s Bike Fest, which has replaced the River Ride as the bike nonprofit’s largest fundraiser.

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Did someone say handcycling?

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Streets For All will host another virtual happy hour on Wednesday, featuring Glendale Councilmember Ara Najarian.

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Apparently, robots are no more likely to stop after a crash than human drivers are.

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Why settle for a mere bicycle, when you could have had an early velomobile prototype?

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

No bias here. An Arizona letter writer suggests charging anyone over 16 a $150 annual fee to register a bicycle, with a licensing fee for the rider that oddly declines with age. Because licensing and vehicle registration has worked so well to keep motorists in line, evidently.

No bias here, either. One in three Brits wants bikes banned entirely from public roads, while seven in ten think bike riders would be required to carry liability insurance. Apparently because it costs so much to hose our blood off their hoods.

An English man suffered a broken jaw when someone ran up from behind and knocked him off his bicycle. Although in this case, the attack may have had more to do with the fancy dress he was wearing.

A UK TV show promises to explore road rage directed at people on bikes, but looks at the dangers bike riders face on the road, instead, with a hint of anti-bike bias thrown in.

And especially no bias here, where an Estonian city councillor says he was forced to crash his car into a “verbally and physically aggressive” bike rider in self-defense. Twice.

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

An Illinois man faces charges for fleeing from police while armed with a flare gun modified to fire shotgun shells.

In a bizarre case, police report a New York man was fatally shot in a driveby while riding his bike on the way to shoot someone else.

A North Carolina bike rider is facing charges after attacking three men with a machete, for no apparent reason.

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Local

Metro will host a virtual community meeting one week from today to discuss the first bus-only lane in the San Fernando Valley, on Sepulveda Blvd.

Glendale approves plans for a lane reduction and bike lanes on La Crescenta Ave, between Montrose Ave and Verdugo Road.

A Santa Monica Redditor asks if there’s an increase in the frequency of “needlessly loud” motor vehicles. Short answer, yes. Longer answer, hell yes. Then again, I live in Hollywood, so my perception may be a tad skewed. Thanks to How The West WS for the link. 

Homeboy Industries founder Father Greg Boyle used to be one of us, racing his bicycle towards the sound of gunfire as he worked to reduce gang violence.

 

State 

San Diego is paying out a total of $420,000 to two women who were seriously injured in separate incidents when their ebikes hit the city’s broken pavement.

A San Francisco salmon cyclist questions why the insurance company for the distracted driver who hit her won’t pay for her injuries or damaged bike; a local paper patiently explains the concept of comparative negligence, and says, in effect, get a lawyer.

A new $2.4 million clean air grant could lead to hundreds of new San Francisco EV charging stations, as well as a fleet of ebike for food delivery workers.

Completing our San Francisco trifecta, a local website presents opposing op-ed urging voters to save both the carfree JFK Drive and Great Highway, and arguing that closing them to motor vehicles was a big mistake.

 

National

Surly’s latest cargo bike goes electric.

At last, an e-foldie for everyone with fond memories of their little red wagon.

A new report looks at the ten US cities where bike commuting is growing the fastest. Hint: LA ain’t one of ’em.

A crowdfunding campaign is raising money to publish a new book on Jobst Brandt, author of The Bicycle Wheel and inventor of the bike computer and slick bike tires.

A 68-year old Utah driver was formally charged with ignoring a highway flagman and slamming her car into a pair of competitors in the cycling portion of an Ironman triathlon — yet somehow wasn’t charged with DUI, despite admitting getting stoned earlier.

Billings, Montana is looking for an artist in residence to beautify a local bike path. Although if you have hire someone to beautify it, you probably made it too ugly to begin with.

After a San Antonio, Texas man stole a bike from Target by threatening to use pepper spay on an employee who tried to stop him, he waited nearly six weeks before turning himself in, for reasons only he knows.

A Wisconsin student paper examines why Madison consistently ranks among the nation’s most bikeable cities, where it has comfortably resided for decades.

After a Kentucky Walmart worker had his bike stolen, kindhearted customers not only gave him a ride to work, but went into the store and bought him a new one.

A new lawsuit blames an Atlantic City cop for killing a 63-year old bike rider by cutting him off while driving without lights or siren.

Three years after a highly contentious lane reduction in Alexandria, Virginia, a new report shows it’s led to less traffic while cutting crashes nearly in half.

A 17-year old Virginia driver faces charges for fleeing the scene after a street racing crash that left a bike-riding man with multiple broken bones.

Once again, authorities have managed to keep a deadly driver on the streets until it’s too late. A Virginia man struck and killed a man riding his bike across the street, 11 years after he was arrested for his third DUI for killing a bike-riding woman. But at least he was apparently sober this time.

 

International

Road.cc recommends the year’s best front and rear bike lights.

The new Swytch ebike conversion kit features a pocket-sized battery that promises a nine-mile boost.

Who needs carbon fiber when you can lower your carbon footprint through F1-inspired BioFiber.

Bike Radar offers advice on how to keep bicycling from being a pain in the foot.

Treehugger talks with Toronto’s bike mayor, concluding every city needs one. Which is a reminder than LA still doesn’t have a bike mayor. 

Montreal announced plans for 124 miles of new bike lanes and ten bike highways, to accommodate a 20% increase in ridership.

Life is cheap in the UK, where a gas truck driver walked without a day behind bars for killing a 22-year old woman riding her bike, despite admitting to carless driving and covering the truck’s side camera with his coat.

 

Competitive Cycling

A California teenager just months out of high school spurns an opportunity to sign with a Spanish development team, and decides he’d rather race on gravel, instead.

 

Finally…

Your next ebike could be “almost as ridiculous as the truck that inspired it.” That feeling when 29″ wheels just aren’t big enough.

And now, you can take your last trip by bike, too.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

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

Blaming deadly streets, LA council considers Healthy Streets plan, and stoned driver injures mother and child

May 26, 2022 / / Comments Off on Blaming deadly streets, LA council considers Healthy Streets plan, and stoned driver injures mother and child

My apologies for yesterday’s unexcused absence.

I’m still dealing with what my doctors insist is a form of neurological migraine, even though it hasn’t responded to treatment.

Most nights I struggle to work through it; last Tuesday I couldn’t. My head had me down for the count, and every attempt to rally ended in failure.

I’d like to say it won’t happen again.

But it probably will, until they finally get this damn thing figured out.

Graphic by tomexploresla.

………

Let’s start with this piece from NPR.

The public radio network looks at the recent bike boom, and the unfortunate boom in bicycling deaths that accompanied it. Along with the role played by deadly streets designed for maximum automotive throughput.

Take this brief quote, for instance.

Improving urban transportation safety for all users starts with putting cyclists, pedestrians and those using scooters, e-bikes and other alternative mobility modes on a level playing field with car and truck drivers, says P.S. Sriraj, director of the Urban Transportation Center at the University of Illinois – Chicago.

“There is this lack of awareness about sharing the road between different modes, between motorists and bicyclists,” he says.

“The U.S. has this perception about modes other than automobiles being inferior and that needs to be addressed right from the get go,” Sriraj adds.

It’s worth a few minutes out of your day to read the whole thing.

Thanks to Lionel Mares for the heads-up.

………

It looks like the Healthy Streets LA ballot measure is making an impact at city hall.

Los Angeles Council President Nury Martinez has joined with four other council members to introduce a measure to implement the city’s long-ignored mobility plan while performing unrelated street resurfacing and slurry seal projects.

The proposal, also backed by councilmembers Monica Rodriguez, Kevin de León, Curren Price and Marqueece Harris-Dawson, requires the city attorney to draft an ordinance based on the Healthy Streets LA initiative.

It’s just as notable, however, for who didn’t sign on, including pseudo-environmentalist Paul Koretz, “Roadkill” Gil Cedillo, and Hollywood councilmember Mitch O’Farrell, among others.

While the ordinance would be a big step forward, it could be subject to change down the road, and likely could be overridden by a vote of the council, unlike the ballot measure.

Depending on how it’s written, it could also be weaker than the ballot measure, which would require implementation of the mobility plan, rather that just recommending it.

However, it would also avoid a long, difficult and expensive campaign for passage of the Healthy Streets proposal, with no guarantee it would win.

………

What’s worse than an out of control elderly driver?

A stoned one.

A San Diego mother and her child learned that the hard way, when a 78-year old alleged drugged driver slammed into their bikes at 11th Street and Fern Ave Tuesday evening.

Fortunately, their injuries where not life-threatening. The mother was hospitalized with serious injuries, while the child, who was not identified, suffered minor injuries.

The unidentified driver was booked on suspicion of driving under the influence of drugs.

Once again raising the question of how old is too old to drive. And why can’t we manage to keep impaired drivers the hell off the road.

………

Police believe Kaitlin Marie Armstrong, the alleged killer of top gravel cyclist Moriah “Mo” Wilson, flew to Houston before catching a flight to New York.

Armstrong reportedly shot Wilson multiple times, believing she was involved with Armstrong’s boyfriend, cyclist Colin Strickland, who Wilson had briefly dated when the couple were on a break.

Armstrong is 5′ 8″ tall and weighs around 125 pounds. Anyone with information is urged to call the US Marshals Service at 1-800/336-0102.

………

LADOT has made safety improvements to deadly Foothill Blvd.

Although I suspect most bike riders would prefer to see the bollards on the other side of the bike lane.

………

The rich get richer.

Long Beach continues to lead the way in the LA area by building out an actual bike network.

Speaking of Los Beach, the city will host a Pride Ride tomorrow evening.

https://twitter.com/CenterLB/status/1528835863513288705

………

Pico Rivera is getting a new bike lane, too.

Even if it is just a short strip of paint.

https://twitter.com/ayruem2/status/1528924673248858113

………

As former New York DOT commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan said, first they fight to stop it, then they fight to keep it.

………

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

No bias here. After a Macon, Georgia bike rider was right hooked by the driver of a logging truck, the local press blames him for riding into the truck’s rear tires.

After Welsh police sent a warning letter to a van driver about an overly close pass of a bike rider, the driver posted the letter on Facebook and bragged about getting away with it.

………

Local

Pasadena police will conduct a bicycle and pedestrian safety operation tomorrow, ticketing any violations that put bike riders or pedestrians at risk, regardless of who commits them. So ride to the letter of the law until you leave the city, so you’re not the one who gets ticketed.

Colorado Boulevard recaps the recent 626 Golden Streets open streets event on the first of this month.

Santa Clarita’s Bike Week celebration took 400 car commuter days off the roads.

 

State 

San Diego advocates are calling on the mayor to improve safety by doubling funding for quick-build bikeways, while the mayor calls for “sexy streets,” a plan to repave 54 miles of major roadways while adding bike lanes and improved sidewalks.

No surprise here. San Diego spent over $68,000 to stripe advisory bike lanes on a Mira Mesa street, then rip them out just days later.

Intense has opened a new assembly plan in Temecula, allowing the mountain bikemaker to streamline operations while giving it greater flexibility.

Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Montecito, went for a bike ride with a friend from the old country, where he used to be a royal.

Sad news from Fresno, where a 73-year old man was killed by a driver while riding his bike in a crosswalk; Fresno bike riders say they fear for their safety after a recent string of fatal crashes.

Alameda will decide whether the safety of people on bicycles is more important than convenient parking spaces.

More sad news, this time from ostensibly bike-friendly Davis, where a UC Davis student was killed when she was struck by the driver of a garbage truck while riding her bike — even though the story doesn’t even mention that the truck had one. Megan Lynch, who came upon the crash scene shortly after the collision, says Davis “should NOT be Platinum level year after year without serious work on accessibility, and serious enforcement around car-centrist vandalism and car violence.”

 

National

Cycling News looks at the Memorial Day bike sales to help you find the best deal. But before you buy anything online or from a chain store, check with your local bike shop to see what they have to offer, including better service.

A new white paper from Portland State University considers how to make ebike incentive programs more effective.

Portland and Denver have halted wasteful freeway expansions. Let’s hope LA Metro follows their example at today’s board meeting.

A Denver TV station declares the great bicycle shortage is over, as bike shops are rebuilding their inventory, although prices are still up.

This is how Vision Zero is supposed to work. Days after an alleged drunk driver drove onto a new bike path next to an Iowa highway, killing one person and injuring two others, officials installed a temporary barrier to keep cars out while they decide on a permanent solution.

Guardian Bikes, a fast-growing startup backed by Shark Tank’s Mark Cuban, is building a highly automated manufacturing plant in Seymour, Indiana to overcome supply chain problems inherent in Chinese manufacturing.

Pittsburgh is using complex metrics to design safer streets for bike riders and pedestrians exactly when and where they’re needed.

The best places to ride your bike on your next trip to Cape Cod.

A Boston college student has developed a one-pound backpack for bike riders that automatically inflates into an upper body airbag in the event of a crash.

 

International

Mark your calendar for the 5th annual World Bicycle Day one week from tomorrow.

No surprise here. A new European study confirmed that protected bike lanes help close the bicycling gender gap, with more women willing to ride on safer bike lanes. And no, that does not include bike lanes protected by LADOT’s flimsy plastic car ticklers.

Get a new ebike for less than the equivalent of $1,200 from German grocery chain Aldi this week. But not, sadly, in the US.

You can now borrow an e-cargo bike to transport bulky waste or reusable items to a Rotterdam environmental park.

The New York Times takes multi-day ride from Italy to Croatia.

An Aussie driver will spend the next four years behind bars for killing a respected Adelaide doctor as he was riding his bike; the driver was under the influence of a cocktail of illicit drugs, including meth, ecstasy, coke and weed.

 

Competitive Cycling

Still more bad news, as former pro cyclist Jaime Alberto Restrepo was shot and killed Monday in Antioquia, Colombia; the 25-year old Columbian was targeted by two men on a motorcycle, one of whom was arrested.

The Giro remains incredibly tight, with Ecuador’s Richard Carapaz maintaining a slim three second lead over Australian Jai Hindley with just four stages to go.

 

Finally…

That feeling when you need a massive $75,000 pickup with a three-quarter ton payload just to drive down the street for a cappuccino. When you’re carrying meth, coke and a crack pipe on your bike, put a damn light on it. The bike, that is, not the crack pipe.

And if you’re going to make your getaway from the cops on a bicycle, don’t choose an uphill route.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

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

Riding a bike shouldn’t be so dangerous, a look at LA’s Vision Zero fail, and Garcetti cuts LA’s transportation budget

April 22, 2022 / / 5 comments

Happy Earth Day.

Or as Los Angeles officials call it, Friday.

LA’s elected leaders will undoubtedly pontificate and issue all kinds of public statements stressing the importance of protecting the earth and fighting climate change.

But won’t do a damn thing about it.

And if you happen to see outgoing CD5 Councilmember and current candidate for City Controller Paul Koretz, ask him how he can be a self-professed environmentalist while blocking bike lanes in his district.

………

He gets it.

In today’s must-read story, a columnist for the New York Times writes that riding a bicycle in the US shouldn’t be this dangerous.

Using the recent death of a 13-year old Mountain View boy as a starting point, Farhad Manjoo writes that the boy was right hooked by a truck driver who reportedly never saw the kind on his bike hidden in his blind spot.

And that Andre Retana and the man who killed him didn’t do anything. But Andre lost his life anyway, thanks to roads designed to prioritize automotive throughput over everything else.

Including human lives.

Manjoo goes on to say this —

The United States is in the midst of a traffic fatality crisis. Nearly 39,000 people died in motor vehicle crashes on American roadways in 2020, the most since 2007. American roads have grown especially dangerous to “nonoccupants” of vehicles — that is, bicyclists and pedestrians. In 2011, 16 percent of traffic deaths were of nonoccupants; in 2020 it was 20 percent. The trends are a major reversal — from the 1970s until the late 2000s, deaths on American roadways of bicyclists, pedestrians and people in cars had steadily declined. There are a number of potential reasons for rising deaths — among them that many more of our cars are big and deadly S.U.V.s, that states keep raising speed limits, that ride-sharing vehicles have made our roads more chaotic, and that people drove much more recklessly during the pandemic. But while many cities, states and the federal government have unveiled plans to mitigate the horror, progress has been elusive.

The intersection of El Camino and Grant Road illustrates a major part of the problem. A big reason our roads are unsafe is because they were designed that way — because, as the advocacy group Smart Growth America puts it, policymakers at nearly every level of government continue to prioritize the speedy movement of vehicles over the safety of everyone else on our streets. And even when the dangers of our bad roads become glaring, officials have limited options for fixing them.

Our roads are deadly because officials will still call the inevitable consequences of this ill-design a tragedy rather than a choice.

It’s more than worth taking a few minutes from your day to read the whole thing.

Go ahead, we’ll wait.

………

Call this one another must-read.

LAist’s Ryan Fonseca looks at the failure of LA’s Vision Zero and the city’s mobility plan, citing a lack of funding and political will that has led to a dramatic increase in traffic deaths, rather than eliminating traffic deaths by 2025 as we were promised.

Despite putting both plans in motion more than six years ago, L.A.’s streets are deadlier now than they were then, especially for people walking.

In 2015, 186 people were killed in crashes on city streets. Last year, the death toll was 294, according to city data. Pedestrians make up the largest share of victims, with 132 people killed by drivers while walking last year. That’s up 50% from 2015.

Fed up, a coalition of safety advocates and community groups is working to get a measure on the local ballot this November. The measure would compel the city to follow its mobility plan whenever it repaves a street. That’s rarely happening now, according to the group, called Healthy Streets LA.

Once again, it’s worth a few minutes of your day to read the entire piece.

Because, to paraphrase the NYT’s Manjoo, riding a bike — or walking, or even driving or riding in a car — shouldn’t be this dangerous.

Or deadly.

………

Unfortunately, the mean streets of Los Angeles aren’t likely to get any safer anytime soon, as the mayor’s new budget cuts $14 million from the city’s already underfunded transportation budget, while pumping another $125 million into the LAPD’s bloated $3.2 billion budget.

https://twitter.com/kennethmejiaLA/status/1516818957054791681

Things like this are why both the LA Times and I have endorsed Kenneth Mejia for city controller, because he’s already doing the controller’s job of digging into the city’s finances to uncover what’s hidden there.

………

Los Angeles filled in yet another missing chunk of the LA River bike path in the San Fernando Valley, as the city works to complete the entire 72-mile pathway in time for the 2028 LA Olympics.

………

So tell me again how bicyclists don’t ride in the damn bike lane?

………

The estimable Will Campbell offers a video love letter to the little known 4th Avenue bike and pedestrian bridge over the !0 Freeway.

https://twitter.com/wildbell/status/1517199030052220928

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

More blowback for the coal-rolling Texas car tuner, as bike riders call for a boycott of the shop over the video of a driver enveloping a bicyclist in his truck’s exhaust, which was apparently posted by the shop owner, who somehow feels like he’s the victim the victim in the whole thing. Hint: He’s not.

………

Local

A writer for the LA Times gets four of the five mayoral candidates on the record for their stands on environmental issues, including calls for better bike infrastructure; billionaire Rick Caruso evidently couldn’t be bothered to do more than email it in.

This, too, is the cost of traffic violence. A mountain lion was killed on the busy 405 Freeway just south of the Getty Center early Thursday morning, apparently trying to get across the massive billion dollar car sewer.

Over one hundred people turned out to honor fallen bike rider Andrew Jelmert with a ghost bike ceremony Wednesday night.

 

State 

Calbike credits their advocacy work for California’s 4th place ranking in the Bike League’s roster of bicycle-friendly states.

Costa Mesa opens a new bollard-protected bike lane on Bristol Street, while “enhancing” existing bike lanes on Baker Street. That protected lane is pretty much just separated bike lane marked by green plastid bollards that aren’t going to stop anyone.

La Jolla’s Traffic & Transportation Board unanimously approved plans to repave and restripe the city’s deadly Via Capri to narrow traffic lanes and add buffered bike lanes, after a $1.32 million settlement over a man who was killed when his motorcycle hit one of the street’s many potholes.

Fontana has decided to abandon an undeveloped piece of property the city has owned for 25 years, while vowing to continue the bike races that often start and end there.

Cambria’s Eroica California vintage bike ride returns to San Luis Obispo County next weekend.

 

National

Bike Snob’s Eben Weiss says bike companies may not be perfect when it comes to protecting the environment, but they should keep doing what they’re doing.

Low-income resident’s of Corvallis and Eugene, Oregon can get a $1,200 rebate on the purchase of an ebike.

The wives of fallen bicyclists Adam and Matthew Bullard, the Whittier brothers killed while riding near St. George, Utah, thanked tlocal residents for honoring the men with a ghost bike; the city is also moving forward with plans for a permanent memorial near the site.

Indiana University’s legendary Little 500 is set to roll this afternoon; the race was made famous in Breaking Away.

There’s a special place in hell for whoever stole an adaptive tandem bike belonging to a Missouri special needs kid.

 

International

The City Fix calls out five ways to cut oil and gas use through clean transportation, including building safe bicycling and walking infrastructure, and prioritizing both in transportation budgets. Unlike, say, the budget presented by LA’s mayor this week.

The Belize cycling federation called on all bicyclists to don their team jerseys to ride along with the funeral procession honoring cycling coach and race organizer Edison “Vintage” Usher, who died just days before his 49th birthday when the motorcycle he was riding with another man exploded while on their way to livestream a women’s cross country race.

Canadian mountain bikers call for an apology after an Adidas marketing manager wrote a “willfully ignorant” blog post “steeped in white privilege,” which they say suggests the reason women of color don’t succeed in the sport is due to their own lack of hard work.

The president of a Malaysian road safety research institute says there’s no law banning bike riders from any road in the country, as long as they adhere to basic safety requirements.

 

Competitive Cycling

VeloNews says Dutch pro Mathieu van der Poel may be wiser and more dangerous than ever after bouncing back from a nagging back injury.

Paris-Roubaix really was the Hell of the North for France’s Florian Sénéchal, who claims a spectator doused him with urine during the race. Yet he still managed to finish 13th, despite an earlier crash.

VeloNews offers photos from the first stage of this year’s Redlands Classic.

 

Finally…

That feeling when you just want to go for a buck naked bike ride. Nothing like biking with a goggles and bowtie wearing kitty.

And answering the age old question of why do bicyclists shave their legs?

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

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

Tennery pleads guilty in Oceanside hit-and-run death, end suffering caused by cars, and riders injured in SoCal crashes

October 25, 2021 / / One comment

It looks like we’ll see justice for fallen bike rider Jackson Williams after all.

Such as it is.

Twenty-four-year old Oceanside resident Bailey Tennery pled guilty to killing Williams on Friday, three months after she left the 27-year old Carlsbad resident dying on an Oceanside street.

Tennery faces just four years behind bars when she’s sentenced for misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter and felony hit-and-run, and will likely serve less than half of that.

Just one more example of California’s failure to take hit-and-run seriously.

Tennery was arrested a week after the crash when a transient person alerted authorities to the damaged car parked at her home.

Let’s hope there’s a reward for a conviction, so at least some good will come from this needless tragedy.

Photo by Sora Shimazaki from Pexels.

………

Powerful opinion piece from NBC reporter Erin Sagen, who writes that we have to stop normalizing the suffering caused by cars.

The threat car emissions pose to the environment gets some attention. But what we Americans are still in total collective denial about is how lethal our car dependency already is. Every year, nearly 40,000 people die in crashes, and at least another 3.3 million are seriously injured. Cars put us in clear, imminent danger every day, especially the most vulnerable and marginalized: Motor vehicle traffic is a leading cause of death for children, well ahead of firearms or drownings. Among adults, Black and brown people are more likely to die or be injured by cars than white people are.

This year so far, 21,450 people have died in motor vehicle accidents, up 17 percent from 2019, according to preliminary estimates by the National Safety Council released last month. More than 2.4 million have been injured seriously enough to require medical attention. Usually when millions of Americans are being killed or injured at these rates, it triggers public outcry, even widespread movements. But when it comes to car accidents, we’ve mostly shrugged our shoulders and accepted the carnage as an unavoidable fact of life.

Meanwhile, the Washington Post explores five myths about highways, including the fallacies that wider roadways move traffic faster, congestion pricing hurts the poor, and gas taxes pay for the roads.

Then there’s this.

Some myths have mysterious origins. This is not one of them. In 2015, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) published a reportabout vehicle crashes that stated “the critical reason, which is the last event in the crash causal chain, was assigned to the driver in 94 percent of the crashes.” That figure, often stripped of its context, has had a long shelf life, particularly among transportation agencies. For instance, in 2019, the North Dakota Department of Transportation published a report claiming that “94% of motor vehicle crashes can be attributed to a preventable human behavior.” Autonomous-vehicle companies frequently cite the statistic — as Waymo does on its FAQ webpage — when touting the supposed safety benefits of their technology.

But laying blame on the driver lets many other parties off the hook — such as transportation engineers who could have created a safer road. For instance, slip lanes at intersections are intended to allow drivers to maintain speed while making right turns. That design can work well in rural areas, but in cities it often places too much onus on a driver, who must monitor her speed, watch for traffic while merging and yield to pedestrians crossing the slip lane at a crosswalk. If a collision ensues, police will find the driver to be at fault, ignoring the engineers who placed her in a dangerous situation…

And our own Michael Schneider looks at America’s disastrous SUV arms race, as vehicles keep getting bigger and bigger, and deadlier and deadlier.

………

A man riding a bicycle was critically injured when he was struck by a driver who swerved into the Oxnard bike lane he was riding in Friday night.

The 19-year old driver claims he was avoiding a tractor-trailer that swerved into his lane when he crashed into the victim, who has not been publicly identified.

Just one more example of a driver crashing into the soft, squishy person instead of a big, hard machine.

………

While we’re on the subject of SoCal bike crashes, I was forwarded a notice of a man apparently run down from behind while riding in a bike lane on Palos Verdes Drive North in Rolling Hills Estates on Saturday.

Initial reports are he seemed to be okay, but let’s keep our fingers crossed anyway.

And maybe push for a protected bike lane on a dangerous corridor where this crap happens all too often.

Thanks to Jim Lyle for the heads-up.

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Buyer beware.

Shimano is warning that a clearance website purporting to sell their fishing and bicycling products isn’t legitimate. The company is trying to get the shimano-clearance.store website shut down.

But avoid it in the meantime, because there’s no guarantee what you’ll get from the site.

If you get anything.

………

If the goal is to move people more efficiently, cars aren’t always the answer.

Okay, cars are hardly ever the answer.

https://twitter.com/_dmoser/status/1451527580285345816

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The only thing that could make this photo of hundreds of bikes parked at UC Davis in the 1960s seem any cooler is noting who took it.

………

Evidently, Monty Python’s Michael Palin wasn’t just the Bicycle Repairman.

He was also one of us.

Nice bike, too.

Thanks to Ted Faber for the heads-up.

………

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

After a Portland driver decided he didn’t like the barrels blocking his access to a Slow Street, he just moved them out of the way while leaving a passive-aggressive note explaining why they inconvenienced him.

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

A San Francisco woman has avoided charges for running down an 81-year old woman while riding on the sidewalk in violation of local laws; the victim suffered a broken elbow and shattered hip, as well as hitting her head.

………

Local

Metro is beginning work on a long-discussed bike and pedestrian corridor connecting Little Tokyo with Union Station, including “crosswalk improvements at 19 intersections, bike/walk esplanades with double rows of street trees and nearly 1.7 new miles of bike lanes.”

Ride your bike to Union Station for a scary good time this weekend.

A 30-year old bike rider was airlifted to a hospital in unknown condition Sunday afternoon after he was injured in Santa Clarita’s Whitney Canyon. That came one day after another rider was airlifted out of Placerita Canyon with a possible broken arm.

 

State

A 31-year old SoCal man went from bike-riding Rialto tagger to one of the creative world’s most in-demand young illustrators.

Hundreds of people turned out to celebrate the completion of the first 3.5 mile segment of the CV Link bike trail in Palm Desert, part of a planned 50-mile loop around the Coachella Valley. Meanwhile, a local TV station wants to know why drivers are using it, too.

The brother of famed 86-year old Bay Area bicyclist Joe Shami, called the legend of Mt. Diablo after riding up the mountain every week for 500 weeks, has filed suit against the city of Lafayette over what he alleges is the poorly designed roundabout where Shami was killed by a driver earlier this year.

 

National

Heartbreaking news from Honolulu, where an 89-year old man died over two weeks after he was run down by a cowardly hit-and-run driver, who left the victim lying in the street. The driver should be charged with murder for making a conscious decision to leave an elderly man to die, rather than get the help that might have saved his life.

The man who has administered Tucson, Arizona’s Pima County for a quarter of a century was critically injured when he was collateral damage in a collision between two drivers while on a weekly group ride.

Denver bike riders have a new curb and bollard protected bike lane to help get into the downtown area; the city is also replacing a painted bike lane where a mother was killed riding her bike two years ago with a new protected lane. Someone mention that last one to Rolling Hills Estates, k?

Life is cheap in Boulder CO, where the hit-and-run driver who ran down former Bicycling writer Andrew Bernstein as he was riding home from a velodrome session two years ago got a lousy two years behind bars, with another two years probation, despite leaving Bernstein paralyzed below the knee in one leg, and dependent on catheters. As usual, you can read the top link on Yahoo if Bicycling block you.

A Nashville advocacy group works with a high school design team to fix a dangerous intersection, including a glow-in-the-dark crosswalk, although it’s oddly described as an art installation.

Residents of the Mott Haven neighborhood of the Bronx rallied to protest plans for a bike lane that would require removing 150 parking spaces in what they claim is a parking-poor area, arguing that they’ll have to park their cars in dangerous areas, and that no one would use it from October to April. So they’d rather make people on bicycles ride on dangerous streets. And maybe they haven’t noticed that many New Yorkers ride their bikes year round.

A 23-year old man from Queens, New York was arrested for the murder of a delivery rider to steal his ebike; the 51-year old immigrant was working to send money back home to his wife and kids in Bangladesh.

 

International

Cycling Tips offers more information than you ever wanted about riding tubeless.

A Toronto writer says the economic and environmental benefits of riding a bike are huge, calling bike lanes integral to the global movement away from cars, while connecting those benefits to the local level.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson reportedly likes the bespoke bike President Biden gave him so much he’s riding it, despite refusing to pay for it as British law requires for an official gift.

Paris Mayor Anne Hildago is making her push for a 100% bikeable, 15-minute city the springboard for her candidacy as the Socialist candidate for President of France, although her campaign is starting with just single-digit support.

French fashion icon Christian Dior’s sister Catherine was a hero of the French Resistance during WWII, riding her bicycle up and down the coast of Southern France to draw maps and gather intelligence.

NPR looks at the roaring success of Barcelona’s Bicibús, or Bike Bus, enabling hundreds of children to safely ride their bicycles to school.

A team of volunteers headed by Hyderabad, India’s Bicycle Mayor is fixing up old, unloved bicycles to pass on to people in need.

 

Competitive Cycling

Horrible racing crash in Spain on Saturday, when a woman ran across the finish line just as a rider was crossing it; both victims were hospitalized in unknown condition. The look of sheer terror on the cyclist’s face is gut Twrenching.

There’s a special place in hell for whoever stole 20 bikes from the Italian cycling team at the world track cycling championships, including a handful of gold track bikes worth nearly $35,000 apiece.

Twenty-seven-year old American Alexis Ryan’s rejoins her sister on the L39ION of Los Angeles cycling team, which also allows her to rejoin founders Justin and Cory Williams, who she rode with on the Major Motion team. Meanwhile, the team has also signed 23-year old American cyclist Ian Garrison, who comes on after two years on the WorldTour.

Cycling Weekly talks with Clay Davies, the first openly gay elite male cyclist in the UK.

 

Finally…

We often have to deal with bearish LA drivers; actual bears, not so much. That feeling when you repurpose bathroom accessories on your handlebars.

And once again, a bike rider is a hero.

https://twitter.com/ImSpeaking13/status/1451703729032515587

………

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

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

Why people keep dying on our streets, learn about coming changes to Ballona Creek Trail, and UK’s BoJo gets it

August 2, 2021 / / One comment

You’ve got to be kidding.

In a truly astounding case of authorities keeping a dangerous driver on the road, Louisiana officials finally arrested a repeat drunk driver after he missed not one, not two, but seven court dates.

Fifty-year old Jacob Paul Raffray faces charges for allegedly ramming his pickup into a family of five, breaking the grandmother’s hips and seriously burning a seven-year old boy who was trapped underneath the truck.

That came just four years after he was released for paralyzing a college baseball player in a drunken hit-and-run crash, following three previous DUI convictions.

And bizarrely, just two years after he was pardoned as a first-time offender, despite multiple parole violations.

Never mind his most recent arrest, for possessing meth and drug paraphernalia.

There’s no mention of his license being taken away, so presumably, he’s been allowed to continue to drive this whole time.

And we wonder why people keep dying on our streets.

Photo by energepic.com from Pexels.

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The Friends of the Ballona Wetlands invite you to learn more about the planned restoration of the wetlands, and how it will affect the popular Ballona Creek Trail.

WEBINAR: RE-ENVISIONING THE BALLONA CREEK TRAIL IN THE WETLANDS

An online presentation hosted by the Friends of Ballona Wetlands and Q&A with CA Dept. of Fish and Wildlife.

Monday, August 9, 2021, 5:00PM

Register at:

https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/2782870943479543820

The restoration plan for the Ballona Wetlands will create some significant modifications to the popular Ballona Creek Trail.  The webinar will describe:

  • What is planned for the wetlands restoration
  • What is planned for the Ballona Creek trail in the project area
  • What trail design details in the plan can still be influenced

Presentation by Neysa Frechette, Manager of Scientific Programs,  Friends of Ballona Wetlands

Q&A with Richard Brody, CA Dept. of Fish and Wildlife

View trail map on page 2-42 in the Draft EIR at: https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=149710&inline

For more information, including the final EIR, see: https://wildlife.ca.gov/Regions/5/Ballona-EIR https://www.ballonafriends.org/restoring-ballona

 

 

 

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A Twitter thread from Megan Lynch decries the failure to replace bollards on the UC Davis campus that are intended to keep drivers off sidewalks and pathways.

https://twitter.com/may_gun/status/1421907497477021696

………

Britain’s bike-riding prime minister gets it.

At least when it comes to bicycles and transit.

Speaking of which, it’s really not a good look for a local councilor to stand in the street celebrating as a bike lane gets ripped out.

Particularly when his party supports them.

https://twitter.com/JoeDunne_/status/1420825996513710086

………

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

A pair of Wisconsin men face charges for yelling at a couple of people riding their bikes to get on the sidewalk, then coming back and smashing their bikes, and stealing the woman’s ID, keys and cash.

Irish bike riders question why on earth local authorities painted a parking space directly in front of the East Lothian Harbor Master’s office, blocking access to both it and the harbor’s only bike racks.

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

Police in Culver City are looking for the bike-riding man who followed a 17-year old girl with his hand down his pants, then struck her in the head when she tried to get away.

………

Local

Proving there is no highway project so bad Metro won’t back it, the country transit agency is dumping previously approved plans for a high-desert bikeway and high-speed rail corridor in favor of reviving the long-dead High Desert Freeway Project by widening nearby five-lane Highway SR-38 instead.

An East LA mother is demanding justice for her 14-year old son, who was seriously injured when he was knocked off his bike by a CHP officer who just drove off afterwards.

A 37-year old mountain biker had to be hoisted out of a remote area in Mandeville Canyon on Saturday after suffering traumatic injuries in a fall.

WeHoVille talks with Jason Bowers, general manger of Bikes and Hikes LA, which is offering a 20% locals discount for an LA-area bike tour.

Speaking of WeHoVille, the paper decries poorly parked scooters running amok in the city and terrorizing people on sidewalks. Hint: It’s not the scooters that are responsible for either of those problems.

A group of 15 firefighters left from Santa Monica on a cross-country bike trip to New York to raise awareness for firefighter-related cancers and mental health, intending to arrive in time for the 20th anniversary of 9/11; they were joined by ten riders who set out from Santa Clara Sunday morning.

 

State

Carlsbad has received a $1.77 million grant to build a 2.5-mile segment of the Coastal Rail Trail on Avenida Encinas and Carlsbad Boulevard, which will be matched by $5.2 million in local funds.

Del Mar has settled a lawsuit over the bicycling death of a sheriff’s detective for $3.5 million; 54-year old Brian Villa was killed when his bike hit a rut in the road during the 2017 Amtrak Century.

Over 200 people rode their bikes on Sunday to celebrate the opening of a 1.5-mile protected bike lane in San Diego’s North Park neighborhood, with the mayor calling for the project to be replicated throughout the city; naturally, not everyone is happy about it, especially the loss of 420 parking spaces.

Survey says, Goleta residents want bikeshare.

A Petaluma public schools food service director — in other words, the guy who managed the district’s public schools cafeteria — marked his retirement by riding up Mt. Diablo with ten pounds of sugar on his bike, representing the amount kids could eat in a typical school year.

Once again, someone has been killed illegally riding a bike on a California freeway, when a man was killed riding salmon with no lights on an Oakland Interstate. The victim was reportedly homeless.

 

National

Tips on how to ride with your kids, from finding the right seat to applying plenty of sunscreen.

No surprise here. GeekWire staffers raced through Seattle’s rush hour traffic by foot, boat, bike, car and scooter. And it was the guy on an ebike who came it first.

A formerly homeless Kansas jail deputy won’t get to have to ride his bike 11-miles each way to work and back anymore, after a crowdfunding campaign raised enough to buy him another car after his broke down.

If you build it, they will come. A full three-quarters of Boston residents support building more protected bike lanes, as a case study shows bicycling “increased significantly” in the two years after one protected bike lane was installed.

A Facebook group has become a lifeline for Gotham bicycle delivery riders, working to keep them and their ebikes safe on New York’s streets and bridges.

 

International

Presenting the UK’s most popular mountain biking spots, for your next trip to the country that isn’t part of Europe anymore.

Seventy British bike riders completed a 280-mile ride into London in honor of late Member of Parliament Jo Cox, who was assassinated by a right wing radical five years ago.

An Indian paper says the bike boom is the silver lining in the pandemic.

Bike-riding Indonesian volunteers are delivering vital medicines during the country’s ongoing pandemic lockdown.

 

Competitive Cycling

American cyclist Connor Fields is slowly improving after a horrific crash during a BMX preliminary heat that put him in the ICU with a brain hemorrhage.

Two-time BMX racing world champion and Rio silver medallist Alise Willoughby didn’t have a much better day on the track, but at least she walked away from it.

Britain’s Charlotte Worthington went from Mexican chef to Olympic gold by performing a stunt no other woman has pulled off in BMX competition.

Bicycling explains the often confusing Olympic track cycling events. As usual, read it on Yahoo if Bicycling blocks you.

The sorry state of America’s velodromes doesn’t help the US team.

Cycling Weekly talks with rising Portuguese cyclists and twin brothers Rui and Ivo Oliveira to see if cycling success is in their identical genes.

 

Finally…

Your next bike could be a million dollar, previously unobtainable Pokémon bicycle come to life. Bike to work or school so you can drink more milk — udders optional.

And evidently, it’s just a short trip from getting a slap on the wrist for killing a bike-riding tourist with your garbage truck to becoming a full-fledged enforcer for a Mexican drug cartel.

………

Thanks again to Matthew R for his monthly donation to help keep this site coming your way every day; any donation, no matter how large or small, helps and is deeply appreciated. 

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

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

SD bike riders protest deadly streets, former WY senator dies from bike crash, and LA Times says slow speeding drivers

July 27, 2021 / / One comment

It looks like San Diego bike riders have finally had enough.

After a horrifying 12 bicycling deaths in San Diego County so far this year — roughly double what the county might experience in a typical year — dozens of local residents held a protest ride and press conference to demand safer streets.

That bloody toll includes five people who were killed on their bikes in just the past month.

“Grief makes you angry,” San Diego Bicycle Coalition executive director Andy Hanshaw said. “If there’s not a dedicated path that’s seperate from the road, then we need a safer bike lane on the street, and your typical white stripe is not safe enough.”

Beloved bicyclist and San Diego State University administrator Laura Shinn was killed on Pershing Drive last Tuesday. Police said she was in the bike lane, wearing a helmet, when a driver hit her from behind.

Graphics by tomexploresla

“A lot of people are feeling hesitant,” bicyclist Elizabeth Mayer said. “They don’t want this freedom option of transportation taken from them because they’re afraid of cars.”

Although someone might want to tell NBC-7 that not everyone who rides a bicycle is an “athlete.”

………

Sad news from Wyoming, where former US Senator Mike Enzi has died following some sort of bicycling crash.

According to the local Gillette, Wyoming newspaper, the 77-year old politician was transported to a medical center near my Colorado hometown after he was involved in a “serious bicycle accident” Friday night.

He died of his injuries on Monday.

Newsweek reports that Enzi was found lying in the roadway next to his bicycle, about the same time his Apple Watch sent a distress call indicating a bad fall.

The magazine reports he had suffered a broken neck and broken ribs; there’s no word on whether he fell off his bike, or may have been the victim of a hit-and-run.

Regardless of whether or not you agreed with his politics, he devoted his life to serving his state and his country.

And he was one of us.

………

They get it.

The Los Angeles Times says it’s time to stop letting drivers set speed limits with their right foot.

The Los Angeles City Council was recently forced to raise speed limits on sections of Olympic and Overland boulevards in West L.A. — where a woman was killed this year by a recklessly speeding driver.

Why? Because an outdated and absurd law essentially requires cities to set street limits based on how fast people are already driving on a stretch of road — not whether that speed is safe.

This law is based on a flawed methodology, according to a report released last year. It relies on the overly optimistic assumption that most drivers will drive at a safe and reasonable speed, and that it’s safer to set speed limits that reflect the “natural” flow of traffic.

The paper calls for passage of AB 43, which would modify the deadly 85th Percentile Law to allow cities and counties to lower speed limits by a modest 5 mph on streets with injury high rates of injuries, or heavy bike and pedestrian use.

What we really need is to repeal the 85th Percentile Law entirely.

But until we can get there, this is a start.

………

This is what it looks like to ride the new bike lane on New York’s iconic Brooklyn Bridge.

Just don’t count on riding it yourself for the next few months.

………

Local

Bird is rolling out their next generation e-scooters in Long Beach this week.

 

State

Clean Technica says California’s new ebike rebate program is a done deal. But securing the funding is not the same as approving the program.

Former San Luis Obispo councilmember Robert “Red” Davis passed away peacefully in his home over the weekend. The 76-year old bike advocate had served as president of the SLO Bike Club, as well as chairing the Morro Bay Citizens Bike Committee and the County Bicycle Advisory Committee; a local bikeway is named in his honor.

A San Francisco TV station tries out a $5,500 ebike intended to replace a car, and capable of carrying two passengers and up to 400 pounds at 30 mph. However, that top speed means you’d be required to wear a helmet, and prohibited from using bike paths and protected bike lanes.

San Francisco Streetsblog says a pilot speed cam program may be exactly what the city needs to meet its Vision Zero goals in the next three years. On the other hand, Los Angeles has virtually zero chance of meeting its goal of ending traffic deaths by 2025, by which time the mayor who committed to it will likely be serving as ambassador to India, anyway. 

Sacramento officials identify the 76-year old man who died a month after he was run down by a drunk motorist illegally driving on a bike path.

 

National

TikTok’s Mr. Barricade discusses the benefits and practicality of quick-build bike lanes.

The New Republic says car sales and usage are on the rise, crushing hopes of reclaiming streets for bike riders and pedestrians.

A pair of Navy vets discuss their 1,300-mile bike ride to visit sites marking the 9/11 attacks to honor those who died that day.

The kindhearted staff of a Wyoming co-op dug into their own pockets to buy a new bike for a young girl, after someone stole her bicycle and tried to fix its flat tire at their shop.

Someone please tell San Antonio, Texas that a 35 mph speed limit does not a Slow Street make.

I want to be like him when I grow up. A 75-year old Kansas man is planning to ride 75 miles to celebrate his birthday, while raising funds to help former inmates reenter society.

There’s a special place in hell for the person who jumped out of a car and shot a 12-year old St. Louis boy, just missing his 11-year old companion; fortunately, the boy is expected to survive.

Olympic silver medalist Brent Emery now devotes his efforts to building custom adaptive bicycles for kids with disabilities; Emery won his medal for team pursuit in the ’84 Los Angeles games.

This is the cost of traffic violence. A legend in local television was killed when a driver ran down a 77-year old former Florida TV executive in the fog on Saturday morning; Stephen McKenney Steck had ridden his bike every day for the last seven years.

Speaking of a special place in hell, that goes double for whoever viciously beat and robbed a 68-year old New York grandfather as he rode a bikeshare bike.

 

International

Raleigh wants to replace your car, too, for the low, low price of just $6,000. Apparently, “replace your car” is code for a cargo bike that costs as much as a used car.

Toronto bike riders are complaining after police ticketed dozens of bicyclists for speeding and blowing a stop sign in a local park, setting up a speed trap on a street where the limit was 20 mph for everyone. Although, as another story that was hidden behind a paywall wondered, is it really fair to ticket bike riders who don’t have a speedometer?

The world’s longest solar power-generating bike path is now open in the Netherlands, stretching over 1,000 feet.

Hats off to Mohammad Ashraf, who is completing a 2,300-mile ride across India, despite having to ride with just one leg after the other was paralyzed in a 2017 bicycling crash, which also limited use of his right hand.

 

Competitive Cycling

Britain’s Tom Pidcock took gold in men’s Olympic mountain biking in his first Olympics, after barely qualifying as U-23 rider.

Mathieu van der Poel blames a missing wooden ramp for crashing out of the mountain bike race, saying it had been there during his practice rides.

Dutch cyclist Annemiek van Vleuten says she’s “gutted” after falsely claiming victory in the road race after losing track of Anna Kiesenhofer, who finished over a minute ahead of her to claim the gold.

 

Finally…

That feeling when a cross-state group ride crosses paths with a police chase. Nothing like being 300 miles into a 1,200 cross-country bike ride because you lost a bet.

And don’t count on riding BMW’s compact, folding ped-assist e-cargo bike anytime soon.

Or maybe ever.

………

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

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

Bicyclists call for safety improvements after fatal La Jolla crash, and hundreds turn out for Culver City Pride Ride

June 28, 2021 / / One comment

San Diego area bicyclists call for better education and safety improvements on La Jolla’s deadly Torrey Pines Road, in the wake of Wednesday’s crash that took the life of scientist and mother Swati Tyagi.

However, advocates are split on the benefits of installing a protected bike lane on the busy roadway, with some fearing it could do more harm than good on the steep downhill grade.

It’s been too long since I’ve ridden that area to recall specific details of the roadway. However, in many cases, it’s safer to have a separated lane with a wide buffer to give riders room to maneuver if need be, rather than trapping riders in a protected bike lane.

Which is exactly the opposite of what’s called for on the uphill side, or virtually any other situation.

It also doesn’t help that bicyclists haven’t even been consulted about planned improvements to the street.

(La Jolla Traffic & Transportation Board) Chairman Dave Abrams asked (bicyclist Kurt) Hoffman and others to confer with a La Jolla Community Planning Association subcommittee, which LJCPA President Diane Kane said was looking into pedestrian and car access in and out of The Village, including via Torrey Pines Road.

On June 24, Kane told the La Jolla Light that the subcommittee, called the Village Visioning Committee, has “been working diligently on streetscapes in The Village and on entrances into La Jolla,” such as Pearl and Nautilus streets.

She said she hasn’t seen anything yet for Torrey Pines Road. “So far, bicyclists haven’t been part of the committee’s conversation on traffic calming and streetscape enhancements but will be welcome once the initial concepts are melded into a coherent whole,” Kane said.

Unfortunately, that’s how planning too often works.

And why it too often fails us.

Meanwhile, the Salk Institute issued a statement mourning the death of their colleague Swati Tyagi.

………

A Redditor catches Sunday’s Culver City Pride Ride on his dashcam, featuring what appears to be hundreds of riders.

Although we could do without the idiotas y pendejos popping wheelies while they play chicken with drivers on the wrong side of the road.

Just saw this huge bicycle group ride through Culver City, where are they from?
byu/MechaHitler_ inBikeLA

Thanks to Keith Johnson for the heads-up. 

Correction: That wasn’t the Pride Ride. This is the Pride Ride. 

Thanks to Joni for setting the record straight. 

………

Alabama Representative Mo Brooks is one of us, unlocking his bicycle from a rack outside the nation’s capitol as the Big Lie backer refuses to talk to a reporter from CNN, saying he doesn’t trust the network to be honest.

Which is a great way to duck the hard questions.

Meanwhile, Uber’s CEO is one of us, too, spending a day working as one of his own Uber Eats delivery riders in San Francisco, even as Twitter users decry it as a publicity stunt.

………

No bias here.

Apparently, in Hamilton, Ontario, you’re supposed to wait patiently at a stop sign until drivers in each direction wave you through the intersection.

Which will never, ever happen in real life.

And never wear headphones on a bike, even though you can usually still hear traffic noise, unless you’ve got the volume cranked up to ridiculous levels.

Unlike, say, drivers in their hermetically sealed vehicles, with the sound up so high they can’t even hear a fire truck bearing down on them.

………

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

A man was caught on video leaning far out of a car’s passenger window in an attempt to push a British man off his bicycle. However, the jerk’s failure to succeed in his terroristic attack against an innocent bike rider shouldn’t affect any possible charges one damn whit.

………

Local

A preliminary Metro study suggests congestion pricing really would reduce driving in several areas around Los Angeles.

 

State

The popular Belgian Waffle Ride is back in San Diego’s North County after last year’s cancellation, including a two-day Expo and beer garden. Let’s hope the riders visit the beer garden after the race, though.

Officials in Encinitas are scaling back plans to remake the North Coast Highway 101 corridor, settling for modest re-striping in one section instead of the original plans to change the entire corridor at once.

Sad news from San Luis Obispo, where a 61-year old man was killed by a truck driver in a right hook crash.

A Napa Valley paper calls for repealing California’s jaywalking laws.

 

National

Streetsblog explains why slower speeds are better for “affordable, healthy, equitable, accessible and resource-efficient communities.”

US cities are pushing to make pandemic-era street changes permanent, despite the inevitable auto-centric pushback.

Once again, all it takes to convert a city official to a bike advocate is getting hit by a driver, as a Moline, Illinois alderman becomes a strong voice for better bikeways.

A Nashville bike rider wisely gave up his bicycle when he was threatened by a man with a machete; police later busted the thief, finding meth and drug paraphernalia on him, as well as the hot bike.

A 76-year old New Jersey man faces three counts of hit-and-run for the April crash that left three bike riders seriously injured.

A writer from Lafayette, Louisiana says her bicycle joy went full circle as she rediscovered her love of riding a bike during the pandemic.

A Florida man has just 1,500 miles to go on an 11,500-mile ride crisscrossing the US to raise funds to fight cancer; he’s raised nearly $93,000 of his $100,000 goal for cancer nonprofit Chemo Noir.

The husband of a bike-riding Florida woman who was run down by a hit-and-run driver is worried that the 89-year old woman is still driving while out on bail, even though she somehow couldn’t see two adult people on bicycles directly in front of her. Or cared enough to stick around after getting out of her car to look at the crumpled riders she’d nearly killed. Yet another example of authorities not taking the keys from an elderly driver until it’s too late.

 

International

A Toronto columnist goes all in on bicycling after buying an ebike.

Nat Geo recommends the five best bike day trips starting from London, for your next trip to the UK.

That’s more like it. Britain’s Bicycle Association issued new standards for bike parking, calling for safe, easy-to-use bike racks accessible by all bike riders, including disabled riders.

A former Scottish cycling champ now spends his days traveling the country to support renal failure patients and their families, five years after receiving a life-saving kidney transplant.

India’s Hero Bicycles takes on Chinese ebike manufacturers by cracking the European market for the first time.

A whopping 1,500 bike riders turned out for a mass bicycle parade in Budapest, after it was delayed a year and a half by the pandemic.

An Indian anthropologist says the answer to the country’s choking smog is to bicycle or perish.

A Philippine columnist says yes, the country’s new bike lanes really work.

 

Competitive Cycling

Who says women can’t compete with men? A 52-year old woman won the brutal Race Across America, aka RAAM, for the first time, as Leah Goldstein crossed the finish line in 11 days, 3 hours and 3 minutes.

The Dutch dominated the one-day women’s La Course race which preceded the Tour, taking three of the top four spots as Demi Vollering out-sprinted Denmark’s Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig and former champion Marianne Vos.

Eighteen-year old Sebastopol CA resident Luke Lamperti recounts his surprise win in the crash-marred US national road championship.

The big news from the Tour de France is a first stage crash that took out nearly half the peloton in one fell swoop. What appeared to be an over-enthusiastic fan giving a shoutout to her grandparents knocked down Tony Martin with her sign, causing the others to fall like dominoes, although only Germany’s Jasha Sutterlin was knocked out of the race. Thanks to David Drexler for the link.

Tour officials threatened to sue the woman, even though they have no idea who she is after she slipped away during the chaos; French police are looking for her, too. However, the director of the Dutch Jumbo-Visma cycling team blames Tour de France officials for the massive crash.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t the day’s only massive crash, though.

Bodycam video shows a mechanic for Team Jumbo-Visma leap out of the team car and sprint through the peloton with a fresh bike for one of the downed riders.

https://twitter.com/JumboVismaRoad/status/1408897951984979969?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1408897951984979969%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Froad.cc%2Fcontent%2Fnews%2Fteam-mechanic-sprints-through-crash-help-his-team-284443

Since the race is being televised in the US, we’ll go back to our usual mostly spoiler updates for the next three weeks. Hence this blind teaser that the yellow jersey changed hands yesterday; you’ll have to click the link to learn who’s wearing it now. Or why it fulfills his famed grandfather’s dream.

 

Finally…

Your next bike could be extremely extremely cool looking and made of wood. And here’s your chance to own a DeLorean of your very own.

Flux capacitor optional.

https://twitter.com/dorfman_baruch/status/1409359704271245314

………

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

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

Decrying LA’s death cult of speeding drivers, cycling without going outdoors, and proposed $1,500 US ebike rebates

March 17, 2021 / / 5 comments

They get it.

Letter writers to the Los Angeles Times respond to the recent column by Steve Lopez that we discussed here, decrying the culture of death caused by speeding drivers.

Including this from former LACBC board member and Bicycle Advisory Committee member Kent Strumpell.

To the editor: As an everyday cyclist, I have direct experience with the conditions that Lopez highlighted in his column. In recent years, I have been struck from behind by a distracted driver and have had two frightening close calls that could have ended my life.

Speeding and reckless, distracted driving are commonplace because there are rarely consequences for the offenders. Enforcement of traffic laws is spotty and therefore ineffective.

The technology of speed cameras to automatically cite violators, 24/7, is proven and readily available. It is inexcuseable that our state and local governments have not enabled this much-needed solution that could save lives.

Kent Strumpell, Los Angeles

Then there’s this one, which is exactly what I’ve been asking ever since Monique Munoz was killed in a Westwood intersection recently by a kid apparently attempting to set a new land speed record on Olympic Blvd.

To the editor: Why would anyone allow a 17-year-old to drive a Lamborghini?

Ginger Durgin, Woodland Hills

Why, indeed.

………

Today’s common theme is cycling without the benefit of being outdoors.

Bicycling offers advice on how to keep riding indoors from being mind-numbingly boring, as the Yahoo version puts it.

Meanwhile, an arts critic for the New York Times says Peloton aims for nothing less than totally curating your mind.

The LA Times wonders if newly reopened cycling studios can drag people off their Pelotons.

Compete in Canada’s most grinding gravel race this year without having to hit the rocks. Or go outside, for that matter.

And a writer for a student-run UC Davis website says Peloton just displays the privileges of wealth, allowing the upper class to stay fit while reducing the risk of Covid-19.

………

Write your congress person, and urged them to give ebike riders the same kind of support they’ve long given buyers of electric cars.

https://twitter.com/DavidZipper/status/1371573014689673217

………

Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with a discussion on how to revitalize LA’s aging boulevards at noon today.

Hint: Less space for cars, and more and safer space for bikes.

………

The local neighborhood council is backing a proposal for much-needed bike lanes on Los Feliz Blvd.

………

Utah is now the latest state to legalize a modified Idaho Stop Law, allowing bike riders to treat stops signs as yields.

………

Here’s your chance to work for the bike industry’s biggest advocacy group.

………

Pink Bike offers advice on how to buy a used mountain bike.

Pro tip, don’t buy one from anyone who rides it like you would.

………

Local

Streetsblog’s Joe Linton visits the newly protected bike lanes on Figueroa in DTLA, complete with new bike traffic signals. Although they can be a tad narrow in some spots.

Metro will hold a virtual public meeting this afternoon to discuss a proposed bus lane on Alvarado Street; Los Angeles allows bike riders to bus the lanes, too. As long as you don’t mind having a bus running up your ass, that is.

 

State

About damn time. A new bill introduced in the state legislature would finally get around to legalizing speed cams to rein in California’s heavy footed drivers.

The bike-friendly mayor of Encinitas announced her run for the state senate.

A 70-year old Chula Vista man thanks the Good Samaritan who helped saved his life after he wiped out riding his bike on a rain-slicked road.

A planned ten-mile bicycle superhighway connecting San Jose with Santa Clara will be the Bay Area’s first.

Clint Eastwood used to be one of us, getting the boot from Piedmont High School as a kid for destroying the football field by riding his bicycle in the wet grass.

 

National

Your next bike tires could be based on technology for NASA’s lunar and Mars rovers, without needing a bit of air; Cyclist wonders whether this represents the future of bike tires.

She gets it, too. A writer for Bicycling says it’s okay if you don’t wear a bike helmet, because while helmets can protect against certain head injuries, they’re no substitute for safer streets and drivers who actually pay attention. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be a Yahoo version of this one.

And so does he. A writer for a Jesuit Catholic website suggests Jesus would ride a bicycle, calling it “the only tool that can simultaneously fight climate change, pollution, segregation, poverty, illiteracy, disease and the daily slaughter of 100 Americans a day in car accident.” And fit for a literal God, evidently.

Flux Magazine says fat tire bikes aren’t as hard to ride as you might think.

The Verge recommends the best open-ear earbuds for bike riding.

E-scooter providers are pushing the Biden administration to widen roads to provide more space for their customers. Maybe instead of further reducing greenery and sidewalk space, they could take a little space from cars without expanding the streets, instead.

A Texas-based e-bakfiets startup will be pitching for dollars on Shark Tank on the 26th. Although it’s questionable whether they’ll reel in a shark, since there doesn’t seem to be anything unique or proprietary about a three-wheeled, ped-assist bucket bike.

A new Indianapolis study shows bikeshare can benefit tourists as well as locals, while the higher fees paid by visitors can help fund the program.

New York’s Suffolk County approved the state’s first three-foot passing law.

The North Carolina town of Kitty Hawk, famed for a pair of Ohio bike-making brothers, stood up to the state and rejected a $69,000 grant for a raised boardwalk that would have required giving bike riders the boot from coastal trails.

 

International

Wearable bicycle lock Litelok took advantage of the pandemic lockdown to shed weight while increasing strength, winning the top rating from a British nonprofit rating system.

Brexit is beginning to cause shockwaves in the Australian bike market, as well as in Europe and the UK.

A British financial site says while regular bikes are covered by homeowner’s insurance, ebikes may not be because they have an engine. Which is a good reminder to look into your own home or renters policy to make sure your bike is insured against theft or loss, regardless of whether it has a motor or which side of the ocean you’re on.

An alleged hit-and-run bike rider is on trial for speeding through a red light, and killing a 72-year old English man who was walking home last year.

A New Zealand town attempts to improve traffic safety by installing polka dots and speed bumps in key intersections.

A 58-year old Aussie man was lucky to survive after suffering a massive heart attack while riding his bicycle, in part because an off-duty firefighter happened to notice his feet sticking out of the bush.

 

Competitive Cycling

Reigning Tour de France champ Tadej Pogačar claimed victory in the week-long Tirreno-Adriatico stage race, topping second place finisher Wout van Aert by more than a minute.

After topping the podium at Alaska’s 350-mile Iditarod Trail Invitational, endurance and adventure cyclist Rebecca Rusch sets her sights on becoming the first person to ride a bike across Iceland in the dead of winter.

More proof bike riders are tough. A team of Ohio cyclists prepares to tackle the  grueling Race Across America, aka RAAM, even as the team leader battles cancer.

Australia’s first female Olympic cyclist is donating her brain to science to study the effects of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), caused by repeated concussions and blows to the head. Presumably once she doesn’t need it anymore.

 

Finally…

If you’re going to ride drunk, try not to fall off your bike in front of a cop — three times. When your job is crap — no, literally — but at least you get to ride a bike.

And just call them Shaeros.

………

Be safe, and stay healthy. And wear a damn mask, already. 

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