Tag Archive for DEI

Failed bike bill wins in principle, Trump’s war on DEI bike lanes mirrors state’s attack on Forest Lawn Dr, and WeHo sued over Ackerman death

September 3, 2026 / / No comments

Calbike writes that there is victory in defeat for Encinitas State Senator Catherine Blakespear’s SB 569.

The bill would have prohibited the removal of any bike lane without ensuring that whatever follows provides a safe and accessible environment for bicyclists.

Yet the legislature affirmed the general principle behind the bill by adding a budget amendment limiting the application to the Santa Fe Drive project in Encinitas, which motivated SB 569 in the first place.

The budget bill prevents Encinitas from removing the bike lane on Santa Fe Drive, which was built using state General Fund money, unless the city can ensure that bike riders will be as safe without the bike lane as they are with it.

According to Calbike,

In doing so, the underlying principle behind the bill has now been validated by the Legislature: public investment in safe bikeways should have the same presumption of durability we expect from other roadway investments, especially if we expect people to shift how they travel.

The concept underlying SB 569 is bigger than protecting any particular strip of pavement. At CalBike, we see it as protecting the integrity of public investment. A bikeway is part of a network, so removing one segment can cause damage well beyond that block: a comfortable route to a school can suddenly have a dangerous gap, a connection to transit can become inaccessible to many riders, and a network that took years to assemble is often only as strong as its weakest link. When faced with such gaps, many would-be bike riders find the risk intolerable and opt into more car trips.

Which is a lot of words to say that bicyclists rely on an entire bike network to get where they’re going safely, and removing any one segment can make the entire network less safe, and less practical to use.

So even though the larger bill lost in this session, at least the legislature seems to get that bike networks need to be maintained in their entirety. And that losing one link degrades the whole damn thing.

Then again, the same could be said of not building promised bike lanes, which is what Metro is being sued over on the Vermont corridor.

And what the legislature actively prevented on Forest Lawn Drive.

………

Even People magazine has picked up the story of the Trump Administration’s bizarre war on “DEI” bike lanes, as if bikes were part of a secret commie plot to disadvantage white male drivers in favor of trans nonwhite women on bicycles.

The story includes this gem —

In an email statement to NPR, a DOT spokesperson said it “continuously reviews its policies to ensure each promotes safety, efficiency, and common sense.”

“Since nearly 80% of the population uses cars to get to work and their important medical appointments, we are taking a closer look at federal guidance to ensure American families have the infrastructure they need,” the statement said, per the outlet. “This is a common sense approach despite the Left’s belief that everyone should ride a bike to their shoebox-sized apartment to eat crickets to achieve a phony climate agenda.”

I would like it on the record that I, for one, have never knowingly eaten a single cricket, though I do sometimes sleep with my mouth open, so who knows.

Then again, our own state legislature has joined in that same war on bike lanes, DEI or otherwise, by passing legislation at the financial behest of Forest Lawn and Mt. Sinai cemeteries, that will make it difficult, if not impossible, to improve the bike lanes and traffic safety on Forest Lawn Drive.

So it’s not just the right making bizarre decisions to block bike lanes and keep our streets and highways dangerous.

And yes, this tweet from Elmo — no, not that one — pretty well sums it up.

Twitter post

Or this, for that matter.

Twitter post

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No surprise here, as the family of fallen bike rider Blake Ackerman has filed a lawsuit against the city of West Hollywood, as well as the alleged hit-and-run driver who killed him.

WeHo Times writes,

According to court records obtained by WEHO TIMES, Robin L. Ackerman filed the lawsuit individually and as successor-in-interest to the estate of her son, Blake Adam Ackerman. The complaint, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, names Douglas Morton Adams, the driver accused of striking Ackerman, along with several unidentified government entities and other defendants.

The lawsuit alleges negligence, a dangerous condition of public property and wrongful death. It seeks damages to be determined at trial and requests a jury trial.

The family could have a good case, considering the city’s dithering over building the long-promised protected bike lanes on Fountain Ave that might have prevented his death.

As the lawsuit alleges, the city knew the roadway was dangerous for bicyclists but failed to make the necessary safety improvements.

West Hollywood is moving forward with the project now, although with the usual glacial speed. But as usual, the decision to move forward comes too late for Ackerman.

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I recently received a request to add a specialized mountain bike suspension shop in Irvine to our list of bike shops on the Resources page.

However, I’m planning to remove that page, because it’s nearly impossible to keep it current the way bike shops come and go these days. So I responded with a counter offer to allow them to introduce themselves to you.

And yes, I’m open to any other bike shops who want to send me a similar description.

ST Tuned is a mountain bike suspension shop based in Irvine, CA, specializing exclusively in suspension service, tuning, and setup for Fox, RockShox, Öhlins, Cane Creek and DVO. We’re not a general bike shop — suspension is the only thing we do, which means every rebuild, tune, and setup gets the kind of dedicated attention a shop juggling a dozen other services simply can’t offer.

Owner Mike Boon brings over 20 years of experience to every bike that comes through the shop, with a factory-level approach to rebuilds, custom valving, and bushing work. Whether a rider needs a full damper rebuild, a simple sag and setup session, or help troubleshooting a fork or shock that just doesn’t feel right anymore, the goal is always the same: get the suspension performing the way it was actually designed to.

One of the things that sets us apart is our on-trail suspension setup service. Rather than just dialing in numbers in a parking lot, we’ll go out on the actual trail with a rider and fine-tune sag, rebound, and compression based on how the bike feels over real terrain — roots, chunk, drops & jumps, whatever that rider actually rides. It’s a level of setup that’s hard to get anywhere else, and it usually ends with a rider feeling a difference they can’t believe they’d been riding without.

While ST Tuned is based in Irvine, we work with riders throughout Southern California — not just Orange County — and also offer mail-in suspension service for riders further out who want the same level of service without the drive.

Riders can find more information & book a service at sttuned.com or call the shop at (714)213-3083.

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

Murrieta is taking the fight against reckless teen ebike riders a step further, with a new ordinance that penalizes not only the rider, but also the parents of kids who ride recklessly on electric bicycles — even though the problem isn’t actually ebikes, but illegal e-motos and dirt bikes that are inexplicably mistaken for bicycles.

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Local 

Something to look forward to, as you could be banned from using certain streets during the ’28 Olympic and Paralympic Games, with a travel network set aside for the exclusive use of Olympic traffic.

As the late, great John Prine said, your flag decal may not get you into heaven anymore, but your Santa Monica library card could get you discounts are local shops, including Bike Attack Electric and Road Runner Sports, among others.

 

State

Something called Fast Food Club lists ten California towns that are “perfect for a long, happy retirement,” many of which are bike friendly. And none of which are Los Angeles. 

Sad news from Kern County, where an ebike rider was killed in Taft on Wednesday when he was right hooked by the driver of a utility truck while riding against traffic on the sidewalk. And yes, sidewalks are bidirectional, and there’s no restriction on which way you can ride, but drivers too often won’t be looking for you as they look the other way for oncoming traffic. 

Police in Redwood City busted a serial bike thief for the second time, after receiving 10 separate reports of bicycle thefts from the Caltrain commuter line, one year after arresting the same man for the same crime.

Sad news from Auburn, where a 41-year old man was killed Monday when he was struck by three separate drivers as he tried to cross a highway on his bicycle.

Still more sad news from Northern California, where a 62-year old man was killed by a driver while riding a bicycle in Hayward on Monday.

 

National

A writer for Cycling West says local bike shops are fighting for their lives amid Trump’s up-and-down tariffs, and competition from direct sales, big box stores and online retailers. Which is why you should ride to your favorite LBS today and buy something. Anything. 

Portland, Oregon is about to experience its own Carmageddon, encouraging motorists to ride their bikes, while at the same time warning bike riders about increased dangers on the streets when the southbound portion of I-5 shuts down for five weeks.

Unlike the Pennsylvania story a little further down, police in Utah got it right, citing a driver for failure to yield after right-hooking a 14-year old kid riding a bike in the same direction as the driver.

New York bike riders now have a new 5.5-mile protected bike lane between Sunset Park and Dumbo. Insert elephant joke here.

Bystanders in Prospect Park, Pennsylvania came to the rescue when a woman riding an ebike was pinned under a VW bug after she was right hooked, lifting the car off her to free her. Although the local TV station bizarrely framed it as demonstrating the dangers of ebikes and not wearing a helmet, rather than drivers not using their damn mirrors before making a turn. 

She gets it. A North Carolina YMCA cycling instructor talks bike safety in the wake of the recent Milligan University massacre, reminding drivers that the speed limit is the maximum speed allowed, not how fast they have to go, and end with this — “Our roads belong to all of us. Every person using them has responsibilities, and every person using them deserves to get home safely.”

 

International

A bicycling club in Ontario, Canada celebrates their last tandnnmnnffffffsk            em ride of the season for visually impaired bicyclists. Okay, that’s where I fell asleep while typing. Well, one of the places. 

As we mentioned the other day — no, not that one, the other one — a British bike shop specializing in ebikes left customers hanging when they abruptly closed after 34 years, including one customer who paid the equivalent of more than $14,000 for two ebikes that were never delivered.

A writer for France Today invites readers to explore the country’s roads and bicycle routes — and asks French drivers to show a little understanding.

 

Competitive Cycling

Twenty-one-year old British “super-sprinter” Matthew Brennan won his third stage of the Vuelta on Wednesday’s stage 11, as race leader Enric Mas retained his 1:18 lead over Primož Roglič.

British cyclist Lewis Askey won the opening stage of the men’s Tour of Britain yesterday, finishing two seconds ahead of Italian Fillipo Ganna in a sprint finish.

Even Geraint the dog, named for British cycling great Geraint Thomas, turned out to line the course for the first stage of the Tour of Britain.

Nineteen-year old Ezra Caudell of the Modern Adventure Pro Cycling team remains hospitalized with what’s described as “multi-system trauma” after crashing hard with Lotto-Intermarché rider Milan Menten at the Philadelphia Cycling Classic; there’s no word yet on Menten’s condition.

 

Finally…

That feeling when the city paints a bike lane on the sidewalk, even though the same city bans bikes on sidewalks. Or when it’s harder to pedal your bike in rent-burdened neighborhoods.

And seriously, if you’re riding a bicycle after dark with coke hidden in your sock, put a damn light on it, already.

The bike, that is, not the sock. Or the coke.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin.

 

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

Dirty deeds done dirt cheap as legislature passes bill to keep Forest Lawn deadly, and another bill creates 10 mph sidewalk speed limit

September 2, 2026 / / No comments

So much for that.

The state legislature passed a last-minute bill designed to keep Forest Lawn Drive deadly on a permanent basis. The bill, introduced just three days before the end of the legislative session, came after heavy lobbying by Forest Lawn and Mt. Sinai cemeteries, in an apparent attempt to keep drumming up business on their front doorsteps.

I’ll let Streetsblog explain it.

The second trailer was to, in the official Assembly summary of the legislation, “Prohibits reducing vehicle lanes on a road serving two cemeteries in a city exceeding two million people unless specified public hearing, voting, and finding and declaration requirements are met.” This description fits one street in the entire state: Forest Lawn Drive in Los Angeles. This trailer is a political hot potato, as the fate of the Forest Lawn Drive safety project has become a major issue in the mayor’s race. Streetsblog Los Angeles explains:

Many Streetsblog readers are familiar with recent disputes over the city’s planned Forest Lawn Drive safety improvements. Briefly, in 2023, the city Transportation Department (LADOT) and City Councilmember Nithya Raman announced plans to reconfigure Forest Lawn Drive, making it safer for both drivers and bicyclists. Forest Lawn and Mount Sinai cemeteries strongly opposed the project. The project was delayed, but was nonetheless ready to be installed this summer, until it was paused by Mayor Karen Bass.

If the governor signs it — and there is no reason to believe he won’t at this point — it would be virtually impossible to build the fully vetted, funded and shovel-ready project as long as Bass remains mayor, and difficult if she’s defeated this November.

It has also convinced me to vote for the opponent of my current Assembly Member, Rick Chavez Zbur, who signed a letter opposing the project and supported the backdoor legislation. I plan to reach out to his opponent, Democrat Colin Hernandez, this week to get his stand on the issue.

Other legislators who signed the letter include 52nd District Assemblymember Jessica Caloza, 44th District Assemblymember Nick Schultz, 54th District Assemblymember Mark González, and 26th District Senator Maria Elena Durazo.

If any of those represent you, I would at least ask them why they oppose safe streets. And consider voting for someone who doesn’t.

………

One of the bills passed by the legislature creates a 10 mph speed limit for anyone using an “alternative mode of transportation” on any sidewalk in the state. If the governor signs it, AB 2346 would apply to bicycles, ebikes, scooters, skateboards or anything else that doesn’t travel on two feet.

The bill would also allow local governments to establish a speed limit for bicycle paths and multiuse trails, encouraging limits of 15 or 20 mph, or 10 mph in areas with heavy pedestrian use or limited visibility.

And it would require ebike sellers and distributors to provide written disclosures that include an ebike’s classification under California law and maximum speed and wattage, as well as the state ebike laws and age and helmet requirements. It would also require integrated front and rear lights for any ebikes, along with a speedometer for all Class 2 ebikes.

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The New York Times says the Trump administration really does seem to believe that “D.E.I. bike lanes” really are a thing, fighting to roll back funding for bike projects across the US, even though 3/4 of Americans, and 2/3 of Republicans, support bike lanes in their area.

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Streets For All is hosting debates for city council candidates in West Hollywood and Santa Monica.

Twitter post

Twitter post

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

No bias here. A Wichita, Kansas op-ed argues that the city is spending “more than any city ever should” to “facilitate a hobby enjoyed by a relative handful of people,” by building an artistically designed bike and pedestrian bridge ” that will serve “(maybe) hundreds of people in a city of 400,000.” Just wait until someone tells him what it costs to build a bridge for cars. 

They get it. More than 1,500 people turned out for London’s Critical Mass ride on Friday, which doubled as a protest over a recent intentional hit-and-run that resulted in a murder charge for the driver, with riders calling for a lifetime ban for drivers who use their cars as a weapon.

No bias here, either. A member of the Irish Parliament complains about “massive” bike lanes taking over the streets, in a city where less than 2/3 of a mile of bike lanes have been built in the last decade.

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

I think I need an English to English dictionary. After a British teenager refused to move her bike on a train for someone with a fancy racing bike, an online commenter responded “Nta, doesn’t matter how ‘swish’ the other dude’s bike is, it doesn’t give him the right to touch yours.” Google says “NTA” means “not the asshole,” while “swish” translates to “stylish, fashionable, smart or high-class.”

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Local 

Streetsblog reports LADOT has installed new Toronto barriers on a portion of the bike lanes on Imperial Highway near LAX, as well as a new rigid plastic barrier on Crystal Springs Drive in Griffith Park, and plans to extend the protected bike lanes on Hollywood Blvd an 1/4 mile east onto Sunset Blvd. And no, I don’t know the difference between a Toronto barrier and a Jersey barrier. But I do know which term Donald Trump would prefer. 

This is who we share the road with. A high-speed crash in Norwalk involving five drivers and 12 parked cars resulted in the death of one driver, and injured two others.

 

State

The San Diego Reader lists the city’s mot treacherous spots for bike riders, including Friars Road, Nimitz Blvd, University Ave, Pershing Drive and Genesee Ave. Although lately, the answer to that seems to be “everywhere.”

Thanks to a $1.25 million grant  from the Coachella Valley Mountains Conservancy, shade structures and native trees will be installed at five rest stops along the Coachella Valley’s 50+ mile CV Link pathway. Despite the illustration accompanying the article, palm trees aren’t native to the California desert, nor are they technically trees, being a member of the grass family. 

Sad news from Visalia, where a man riding a bicycle was killed in a hit-and-run  Sunday night.

In another backward step, a state board approved new private fences on private properties along the Sacramento River, complicating plans to complete a continuous 40-mile pathway along the river.

 

National

The National Park Service is proposing a new rule to ease access for bicycles and ebikes in National Parks, eliminating some review requirements and giving park managers more flexibility to allow bikes on roads, parking areas and trails. And yes, that includes here in Yosemite.

Authorities identified the person killed by a driver during the New Belgium Brewery’s annual Tour de Fat in my bike-friendly Colorado hometown as a 33-year old Denver man; the driver of the pickup reportedly drove up onto the sidewalk after hitting another vehicle while backing out of a parking space, killing the man and injuring four other people, as witnesses rushed to aid the victims.

Like virtually everywhere else, illegal ebike usage by minors continues to be an issue in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Something that I included only because it’s so much fun to say Sheboygan. 

A 44-year old man was killed, and other person critically injured, in collisions just hours apart as they tried to ride their bicyclists around construction zones in Indianapolis, Indiana on Monday, raising questions about whether enough is being done to protect riders around traffic disruptions.

Tennessee State Senator Kerry Roberts completed a series of five century rides through his district to honor the victims of a 2021 flood that took 20 lives; he began the project after surviving a near-fatal brain aneurysm in 2020.

A 30-year old Massachusetts man was killed when his bicycle “collided” with a pickup truck, in a crash that apparently didn’t involve a driver, and where no humans appear to be in control of either vehicle.

A new 430-mile gravel bikepacking loop snakes through the Endless Mountains in northeast Pennsylvania.

This is the cost of traffic violence. A 63-year old Miami, Florida orthopedic surgeon is paralyzed from the waist down and fighting for his life after he was struck by a driver while riding his bicycle on the city’s deadly Rickenbacker Causeway.

 

International

Nearly 1,400 people took part in the 44th annual two-day, 190-mile Seattle-to-Vancouver bike ride.

Ontario, Canada takes a significant step backward, as work begins to rip out hard won and heavily used bike lanes in Toronto over the objections of city leaders, in order to give the space back to cars and offer a virtual “fuck you” to the province’s bicycling community.

A British man has been sentenced to five years and four months behind bars for killing a 17-year old boy who had just beaten leukemia, after crashing into the teenager’s bicycle while popping wheelies at up to 33 mph on an illegal ebike.

Queensland, Australia passed a tough new ebike law, mandating that ebikes to meet EU standards, banning any ebike riders under 16, requiring at least a learners permit to ride one, and limiting speeds to just 7.5 mph around pedestrians.

An Aussie writer suggests there’s a growing divide between bicyclists and cars in the country’s capital of Canberra. Although I believe he means between bicyclists and motorists, since most cars don’t really care one way or the other.

 

Competitive Cycling

British cycling pro Ben Moore is using his social media platform to help people get their bikes back after a major bike shop unexpectedly closed, locking the doors with customer’s bikes back inside.

French cyclist Bastien Tronchon overcame two late attackers to win a messy sprint to the finish in stage 10 of the Vuelta, as Enric Man held onto the red leader’s jersey with a 1:18 lead over Primož Roglič.

A columnist for Cycling News says Tadej Pogačar’s abandonment while leading the Vuelta and pending collarbone surgery will likely end his season, and could complicate next year’s plans.

 

Finally…

That feeling when you’re an 84-year old globe-trotting bike rider from the neck down, and a teenager from the neck up. Or when your hotel offers a bicycling concierge and multi-use trails right outside its door.

And presenting a bike tour for riders who give a Flock.

Thanks to Megan for the heads-up. And no apologies for the pun. 

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin.

 

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

Feds scrub bike lanes and speed cams from best practices, and Boston mayor joins vigil for bike advocate killed by her funding cuts

July 17, 2026 / / One comment

Just a quick note before we get started that I have another new T-shirt design behind that SWAG button over there on the right — this time in multiple type and fabric colors to suit anyone’s taste.

Maybe even yours.

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Apparently, the Trump administration meant it when they threatened to go after “DEI bike lanes.”

Because not only did US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy transfer nearly $2 billion in transportation grants from bike lanes to roads and bridges, now they’ve removed any reference to bike lanes and speed cams from the list of Proven Safety Countermeasures on the department’s website.

According to NPR, which broke the story yesterday,

The FHWA says the changes to its website, which have not been previously reported, are part of a broader review of safety countermeasures to ensure they align with current DOT policies and the administration’s priorities. But critics say the Trump administration is undermining safety strategies that have already been proven to work.

“We should be making decisions about safety based on evidence,” Stephanie Pollack, the former acting administrator of the FHWA under President Joe Biden, told NPR. “It’s hard for me to understand how you could say you’re putting safety first, and then make arbitrary decisions about what does and doesn’t improve safety.”

No shit.

So instead of reducing traffic deaths, the plan seems to be to see just how high they can drive them.

Pun intended.

Then again, maybe that’s why they defunded public media, in an effort to keep them from reporting on this administration’s Dr. Evil-ish machinations.

If you question that wording, consider this statement from a USDOT spokesperson.

“Drivers paying taxes and vehicle fees expect their dollars to be reinvested into our roads, not social initiatives that burden their commutes,” the statement said. “Under Secretary Duffy, the Department is getting back to basics and putting safety first.”

So, they’re putting safety first by taking actions that put safety last.

Got it.

Twitter post

Again, according to NPR,

“It’s not just changing the web page, but it’s really going to put lifesaving projects at risk,” said Josh Naramore, a policy expert at NACTO, the National Association of City Transportation Officials.

“That list of approved safety countermeasures and all the research really helped change the game for local agencies and even for states to have conversations with the federal government, with state departments of transportation, and even with regional planning agencies,” Naramore told NPR. “So you’re essentially taking tools out of the toolkit that would be available for them.”

For instance, among the measures no longer considered best practices, speed cams have been shown to reduce crashes on urban arterial roads by as much as half, while adding bike lanes on a two-lane road cut crashes by as much as 30%, jumping to 49% on four-lane road, according to a 2021 brochure published by the Federal Highway Administration.

Then again, those figures were backed up by scientific studies. And we’re not supposed to believe in science anymore.

So drivers, start your engines. Speeding is legal once again, and bicycles are just speed bumps on your road to freedom.

And let’s get those traffic death back up to those heady days of the pandemic.

Thanks to Andy for that first link — and sorry it took so long — your email got caught up in spam folder hell.

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Boston is still in an uproar over the recent bicycling death of a city transportation planner.

As we discussed yesterday, 36-year old bike advocate and Boston transportation planner Louisa Gag was killed by a truck driver while riding her bike to work last Thursday.

To make matters worse, she was killed at an intersection where safety improvements had been promised for years, only to be put on terminal hold by the very mayor she worked for.

Today, an open letter to Boston Mayor Michelle Wu signed by 4,000 people — 2,300 Boston residents — was delivered to Wu’s office.

“For years, we have told you, in public and to your face, that continued delay on street safety would cost lives,” the letter reads. “Last week it cost the life of Louisa Gag — a transportation planner in your own administration, a person who devoted her career to making our streets safe…”

“For at least eighteen months, your administration has stalled and re-studied safety projects that were designed and funded,” the letter continues. “You have told us these projects need more process, more consensus, more perfection. But consensus never arrives for the dead, and a study protects no one.”

Four hundred people rode their bikes to Boston City Hall to personally deliver that letter.

Yet somehow, we can’t even get 1,000 people to sign an open letter calling on Los Angeles officials to declare a Traffic Violence State of Emergency, no matter how many people get killed.

Or who, for that matter.

And when was the last time you saw hundreds of people turn out on bikes for anything but CicLAvia or Critical Mass? Let alone demand that someone, anyone, in city office actually give a damn about the safety of people biking or walking?

Or the city’s mayor joining the vigil, for that matter.

Mayor Michelle Wu gave an emotional speech to those remembering Gag.

“I can’t stop thinking about Louisa, but especially the Boston that she wanted to live in,” she said. “A Vision Zero city. A city where everyone could access every opportunity.”

“I really struggled with whether I should come here tonight or not,” Wu said through tears. “Whether it would help the healing that is so needed for a community in such grief in pain, and whether I would be able to get any words out at all.”

If it’s happened here, I don’t know about it. But then again, I’ve only been doing this advocacy thing for about 20 years now.

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So when was the last time you had a deadly poisonous snake stuck in your bike chain?

A woman in Australia was bitten by an eastern brown snake — the second most venomous land snake in a country known for deadly critters — when she accidentally rode over the bigass snake on her bike, and it somehow got caught up by her bike.

Fortunately, it turned out the bite was dry — aka, no venom — after she was rushed to a hospital.

Then again, so was the snake.

An expert snake catcher rushed to the scene, and held the viper’s head as cops dismantled parts of the bike to free it. And yes, they rushed the injured reptile to the nearest wildlife hospital, where it had to be euthanized due to the extent of its injuries.

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

Schumck. A Florida man faces charges, including aggravated assault and child abuse, for intentionally running a stop sign and driving into an 11-year old kid riding an ebike, then getting out of his car to slap the boy and smash his cellphone, because he said the neighborhood kids were harassing him.

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

Police in San Antonio, Texas shot and killed a man riding a bicycle after he refused a traffic stop, then led them on a brief pursuit before he allegedly pointed a gun at them. No word on what they were originally attempting to stop him for, and whether it was worth killing him over. 

A 43-year old woman remains in a coma after a 26-year old man riding an ebike hit her from behind in New York’s Central Park ten days ago, while the rider was allegedly speeding and riding the wrong way in the running lane; there’s no word on what kind of ebike he was on, though witnesses said he appeared to be a delivery rider. But if he was going the wrong way, how could he hit her from behind, unless she was going the wrong way, too?

……….

Local 

The Los Angeles Times belatedly picks up the story about merchants on Pico Blvd fearing the effects of planned protected bike lanes, just like merchants everywhere else, while failing to mention that studies show sales usually go up after protected bike lanes go in, and most people will later fight to keep them.

KNBC-4 reminds us about the Meet the Hollywoods CicLAvia and World Cup final watching party, as well as Santa Monica’s COAST26 open streets event and World Cup watching party, leaving out only the Beach Streets open streets and World Cup watching party in Long Beach, all on Sunday.

A pair of 15-year old boys have been identified and detained by Santa Clarita sheriff’s deputies after one allegedly threw a rock at a man riding a bicycle on a Valencia bike trail, while they passed in the opposite direction illegally riding an electric motorcycle on the bike path; fortunately the victim captured their images on his bike cam.

 

State

The Bicycle Film Festival comes to San Diego next weekend.

Damn. A 50-year old Palo Alto woman remains on a ventilator two weeks after she was struck by the driver of a bus, and dragged underneath until a riding companion caught up to it and pounded on the side to get the driver to stop; according to friends, she suffered multiple fractures, including a broken femur and tibia, a fractured pelvis and a collapsed lung, and has already gone through seven surgeries.

San Francisco is closing another street to cars and converting it to a pair of parallel pathways; the former Twin Peaks Blvd is planned as part of a 550-mile trail tracing the city’s ridge lines.

 

National

PeopleForBikes goes back to their City Ratings to look at which US cities are investing in youth bicycling. None of which are Los Angeles. 

That’s more like it. An 18-year old Nevada driver was sentenced to a whopping 25 years behind bars for killing a 62-year old woman and significantly injuring her husband in a head-on crash as the couple was riding their bikes, after the driver admitted to smoking weed prior to the crash; however, he’ll be eligible for parole after just nine years.

The family of 17-year old fallen cyclist Magnus White settled their lawsuit against Yeva Smilianska, the allegedly intoxicated Colorado driver who killed the US National Cycling Team member in 2023, for just a measly $25,000, saying they just wanted to get her out of their lives. Then again, the Ukrainian refugee likely didn’t have any assets, and that’s probably all her insurance would cover — which is why you need to max out the uninsured motorist section on your car insurance, which will cover you when you ride your bike. 

Hie thee to my bike-friendly Colorado hometown for a beer-infused fondo this weekend. But is it really a “tradition” if it only goes back a decade?

Hats off to Laramie County, Wyoming for their new stagecoach-inspired, e-cargo bike powered bookmobile. And no, it’s not the least bit confusing that Cheyenne, Wyoming is in Laramie County, but Laramie is in Albany County, and Albany, Wyoming is in Albany County, too. 

A Houston suburb is surrounding 330 homes priced up to $1 million with 2,100 acres of trails and bike lanes. No word on whether they will follow the new FHWA best practices, and pave over all those trails with eight-lane highways.

The new documentary Cycles of Resilience follows the Black History Bike Ride, an Austin nonprofit founded by cyclist Talib Abdullah to teach people through bike treks to historical sites; according to the MovieMaker site, “learning shouldn’t have to be an act of resistance. But it is, given the efforts of many states and the Trump Administration to erase Black history.”

A Minnesota man took distracted driving to a new level, watching animated porn on his phone as he ran down and seriously injured a man riding a bicycle, leaving the victim with a fractured pelvis, multiple rib fractures, fractured lumbar requiring spinal surgery, a closed head injury, an acute kidney injury and acute anemia. But other than that, he was just peachy.

The Canadian wildfires are casting a pall over the 400-mile Cycle the Erie Canal bicycle ride, with more than 600 cyclists from 37 states and Canada riding from Buffalo NY to Albany along the Erie Canalway Trail.

As predicted, New Jersey’s new law requiring a license and registration for every ebike, regardless of whether it’s a ped-assist cargo bike or an e-motorbike, is turning out to be a total shitshow that no one’s happy with.

The Washington Post explains how people get trapped by obscenely high car payments, as $1,000 monthly payments become more common. Never mind that you can buy a decent used bicycle for a hundred bucks. 

 

International

Cycling Weekly says modern bikes are becoming more like F1 cars, but we’re still sending them to the equivalent of a quick oil change shop for repairs. I, for one, like the idea of an F1-style pit lane, where you can get your tires changed, your bike lubed and your glasses cleaned, and be back out on the road in under ten seconds.

 

Competitive Cycling

Ouch. Australian cyclist Chris Harper says he’s now “ten grams lighter” after losing part of his thumb in a horrific crash on stage 10 of the Tour de France.

Multiple riders went down like dominoes in a high-speed sprint at the end of Thursday’s stage 12 of the Tour de France; Belgium’s Tim Merlier outsprinted what was left of the field for his third stage win in this year’s Tour.

Forget doping. Cyclists at the Tour are now loading up on Urolithin A, a naturally occurring substance derived from pomegranates. Then again, psilocybin and hemlock are derived from naturally occurring substances too, but that doesn’t necessarily make them decent bicycling supplements. 

Outside asks the burning question, if Tadej Pogačar is so great, why isn’t he a global superstar?

Bike Radar offers 24 “remarkable” photos from the Tour de France, from hosing off riders with a firehose in the ’40s, to that gut wrenching shot of Johnny Hoogerland caught up in a barbed wire fence after crashing in 2011.

 

Finally…

Rasta Rolling on a Penny Farthing through the streets of London. Now you, too, can buy the long-awaited Tesla bike, though you may enjoy if more if you’re still a toddler.

And at last, someone has designed coat hangers, not for your coats, but for your bicycling kit.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin.

 

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

Traffic deaths dropped last year — except for bikes, Trump declares war on “DEI” bike lanes, and Pico businesses fret loss of parking

July 13, 2026 / / Comments Off on Traffic deaths dropped last year — except for bikes, Trump declares war on “DEI” bike lanes, and Pico businesses fret loss of parking

Well, at least it wasn’t my fault this time. 

It turns out Friday’s downtime was the result of a recent WordPress upgrade that left my site vulnerable to an attack by a swarm of 19,000 feed-crawlers. 

And no, I never heard of a feed-crawler before Friday. Let alone 19,000 of the little bastards. 

Anyway, they’ve all been gathered up and shoved back in their little feed-crawler cages, so we should be good now. 

Today’s photo is a new T-shirt design that’s probably my favorite so far. But if you’re more in the mood for corgi designs, check out my other T-shirt site. 

………

In news that shouldn’t surprise anyone, overall traffic deaths continued to decline last year.

Except, of course, for those of us on two wheels.

According to the latest statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, full-year traffic fatalities dropped last year to their lowest level since 2019, while the annual death rate of 1.10 per 100 million vehicle miles traveled was the second-lowest ever recorded.

That trend continues into the first quarter of 2026.

According to Carscoops.com,

According to new preliminary estimates from the NHTSA, approximately 7,770 people died in traffic crashes during the first quarter of 2026, down 4.3 percent from the same period a year earlier. The fatality rate also dropped to 0.99 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, the lowest first-quarter figure since 2014 and just shy of the all-time quarterly record of 0.98…

Despite the positive overall trend, one category continues to move in the opposite direction. Bicyclist fatalities rose 4 percent in 2025 to 1,148 deaths, remaining near the highest levels seen in more than four decades…

According to the NHTSA, the first quarter of this year represents the 16th consecutive quarterly decline in overall traffic deaths.

If only the news was as good for people riding bicycles.

In fact, traffic deaths decreased in every category last year, compared to 2024, with the single exception of people on bicycles.

  • Total estimated driver fatalities decreased 5 percent.
  • Total estimated passenger fatalities decreased 12 percent.
  • Total estimated PV occupant fatalities decreased 10 percent.
  • Total estimated motorcyclist fatalities decreased 8 percent.
  • Total estimated pedestrian fatalities decreased 8 percent.
  • Total estimated pedalcyclist fatalities increased 4 percent.
  • Total estimated fatalities in crashes involving at least one large truck decreased 7 percent.
  • Total estimated nonoccupant fatalities decreased 5 percent.

However, unlike 2024, when bicycling deaths increased every month compared to the previous year, bicycling fatalities decreased in five months in 2025, while increasing in seven.

So that’s something, anyway.

What’s not clear, however, is the effect that ebikes have had on these stats, since the NHTSA stopped listing motorized bicycles as motor vehicles in 2022, and now includes them as pedalcyclists, aka bicycles, if the rider is killed in a collision with the driver of a motor vehicle — and not at all if it involves a single vehicle crash.

There’s no explanation, however, of whether than only applies to ped-assist bicycles, or if it also includes electric and gas-powered motorbikes that fall into the gray area between ebikes and motorcycles.

So at least part of the rise could be due to the increase in electric bikes, legal and/or otherwise.

Hopefully someone, somewhere, will eventually break out those numbers so we can actually know what’s going on out there.

………

No bias here.

In a paywalled story, The Times of London says the Trump administration has declared war on bike lanes.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy made the move after decrying the “DEI” focus on bicycling over cars as he shifts $1.7 billion in funding to roads and bridges, jeopardizing safety projects around the country.

And raising the obvious question of what the hell is a DEI bike lane.

Then again, if Trump handles his war on bikes as well as he has the war with Iran, we’ll probably end up with more and better bike lanes than we would have otherwise.

Or maybe he’ll just give us control over the roadways after declaring they’re open.

………

LAist reports that small business owners on Pico Blvd recognize the street has a speeding problem and can be dangerous for pedestrians, but worry about the loss of 228 parking spaces after LADOT gives the street a Complete Streets makeover.

According to the website,

LADOT will overhaul 3.5 miles of Pico Boulevard between Crenshaw Boulevard and Figueroa Street to reduce speeding and unsafe turns and lane changes. The agency said the project is intended to improve safety by adding a center turn lane for left turns and emergency vehicles, protected bike lanes and new TOUCAN traffic signals at Manhattan Place and New Hampshire Avenue. LADOT will also repair sidewalks and curb ramps.

To make room, the city will remove parking on the north side of the street and reduce travel lanes from two to one in each direction. Construction is set to begin by the end of the year.

In other words, just like business owners everywhere else where protected bike lanes have gone in.

And just like business owners everywhere else, chances are they’ll see increased foot and bike traffic that will more than make up for the loss of parking spaces — and likely more sales, as studies have repeatedly shown that sales and tax receipts usually go up after a project like this goes in.

Something you’d think LAist could have mentioned somewhere in their story.

Never mind that over a ten-year period ending in 2023, there were 75 crashes resulting in severe injury or death on that stretch of Pico, with nearly three-quarters involving people walking or riding bicycles, and all 11 of the people killed on the corridor were pedestrians.

Which is especially important to consider in the largely Jewish neighborhood, where large numbers of people walk to temple every Saturday.

………

According to the WeHo Times, a small group of West Hollywood community members met at Blake Ackerman’s ghost bike on Thursday evening to remember the 27-year old man killed by a hit-and-run driver a year ago while riding his bike home from work.

West Hollywood Councilmember and State Senate candidate John Erickson, who lives nearby on Fountain Avenue, called on WeHo Mayor John Heilman and Council Member Lauren Meister to support plans to remake the corridor to improve safety.

“It’s been a year since the community lost Blake,” Erickson said. “If we just updated a street for street safety for pedestrians, bikers and cars, it would make the most sense. And that is what we are doing.”

Erickson said his own parked vehicle was nearly struck about a week and a half ago, calling it another example of dangerous driving along the corridor.

“I can’t replace my life, and clearly we can’t replace other people’s lives,” he said.

I stopped by the ghost bike the next day, and was please to see several people had left flowers on the bike, in a sign that he has not been forgotten. And hopefully, Ackerman’s will be the last ghost bike we’ll need on the deadly corridor.

Meanwhile, the case against accused 73-year old driver Douglas Morton Adams remains pending, with no trial date currently set.

………

Thanks to Megan for forwarding a story about a hero teenager who rescued an Arizona woman with dementia who was wandering the streets in triple-digit heat, even if he was likely riding an illegal e-moto instead of a bicycle.

………

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

Grand Junction, Colorado goes the wrong way with a proposal to reduce the amount and type of bicycle parking required in the city, allowing developers to make their own decisions on whether to invest in them — even though bike parking is just a fraction of the cost of a single motor vehicle parking space.

No bias here. Bicyclists in a Liverpool, England neighborhood are complaining about a plan to “temporally” decommission a less than two-year old road diet and protected bike lanes, to make more room for cars when they start work on repairing a nearby bridge.

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

Thanks again to Megan for forwarding news about to two Vermont men fined $35,000 for cutting down over 300 trees to build an illegal mountain bike trail.

………

Local 

BikeLA, the organization formerly known as the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, led a bike ride to MacArthur Park for a World Cup watching party on Saturday. Although as far as I could tell, both matches won by VAR.

Santa Monica will host its State of the City 2026 as a free, open street celebration on Main Street from 4 to 7 pm on Thursday, July 23, between Hollister Ave and Ocean Park Blvd; Santa Monica Spoke will host a bike valet on Norman Place.

Internet tabloids had a meltdown over the weekend after the paparazzi caught sight of bike-riding, 83-year old Harrison Ford’s physique when he stripped down to his bib shorts after an LA ride.

 

State

Authorities are looking for 32-year old David Creech, who was last seen riding his bike away from his home in the Spring Valley Lake area of San Bernardino County just before 9 am on Wednesday, July 1st.

More on Santa Barbara’s call for residents to provide feedback on an AI-generated map to create a low-stress bike network.

 

National

PeopleForBikes says bicycling to school matters more than you think, “creating opportunities for independence, physical activity, and lifelong riding habits. In many ways, it is investing in the future of bicycling itself.”

Around 6,000 people took part in the annual two-day, Seattle to Portland STP Bicycle Classic over the weekend.

A Kansas columnist says even as he closes in on 70, it’s never too late to start bicycling again.

A Minneapolis-St. Paul website had a good idea, asking a road cycling grandfather to test a high-end e-cargo bike by transporting his own grandkids, which he described as feeling like “you’re balancing a tray of kettlebells as you walk through a cosplay convention.”

More than 125 Penny Farthing riders converged on Dayton, Ohio to celebrate the Wright Brothers roots as bicycle mechanics before the brothers went on to invent some sort of flying contraption.

This is the cost of traffic violence. A 36-year old Boston woman was killed when her bicycle was struck by a truck driver; Louisa Gag was a city transportation planner and prominent bicycle safety advocate who worked to make Boston’s streets safer for everyone.

DC bicyclists won the fight to preserve a three-quarter-mile bikeway known as America’s Bike Lane from a last-minute effort by the Trump administration to have it ripped out to make room for an an exclusive, high-end golf course.

A new Virginia Historical Marker recognizes Botetourt County’s place on the legendary TransAmerica Bicycle Trail, on the 50th anniversary of the Bikecentennial ’76 cross-country bike ride.

This is who we share the road with. A road-raging Florida driver rammed a 15-year old boy riding an “ebike” off the road, then slapped the kid, when a group of teens had tried to get the driver to stop after swerving at them; naturally, the police responded by impounding several of the teens’ bikes for not being street legal, rather than busting the driver.

 

International

Momentum calls out 30 bike lanes around the world that should have never been built, from blocked bike lanes to lanes that start and stop in the middle of high-traffic areas. I particularly like the ones that go over traffic islands, because cutting through them would have been just too much work, apparently.

Momentum also offers a guide to Quebec’s 3,100 mile bicycle network.

Residents of a Montreal neighborhood have a reasonable complaint after the city removed parking spaces on one side of the street, including disability spaces, for a protected bike lane, arguing that the city wouldn’t even install a crosswalk so one older woman could reach the spaces across the street.

A British Member of Parliament had her new e-cargo bike stolen the first time she tried riding it to town in Oxford.

Residents of a north London neighborhood take a different approach to installing a ghost bike, first towing it on a bike trailer through an intersection where too many people biking and walking have been killed, then putting it on display the local museum’s “50 Years of Cycle Islington” exhibition.

London’s department of transportation failed to install a single mile of bike lane in the city last year, relying on local council’s to do all the building. There’s probably no truth to the rumor that the head of Transport for London has been hired to run LADOT on that basis. 

Irish towns as small as 5,000 to 10,000 people see up to a 50% increase in a ridership when bike lanes go in, according to the country’s transportation minister, despite the fears of local councilors.

Congratulations to Świdnica, Poland, which won a competition to be named the country’s bicycling capital by riding the most miles.

 

Competitive Cycling

Two Tour de France riders, including Eritrea’s Biniam Girmay, were warned by jurors after apparently turning the race into a contact sport during the final sprint on Saturday.

Mathieu van der Poel won the third Tour de France stage of his career on Sunday in a stage reminiscent of the one-day classics he thrives on; race leader Tadej Pogačar finished safely six seconds back.

Former race leader Torstein Træen’s surprising turn in the yellow jersey didn’t last long, crashing out of the race by clipping a teammate’s wheel two days after he gained a remarkable seven-minute advantage on the race favorites.

The rise of the Hincapie brothers’ Modern Adventure Pro Cycling Team saved the cycling career of 30-year old Whitefish, Montana resident Sam Boardman, who signed with the team “just before he hung up his helmet and dove into a ‘real job.’”

The Manhattan Beach Grand Prix returned to the beach city on Sunday for its 63rd running; no results have been posted yet.

 

Finally…

With all the hi-tech innovations in bicycling, no one has yet invented a mosquito-proof face mask. And that feeling when your new bicycle is part folding bike, part Erector Set.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin.

 

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