Well, that sucked.
I sat down to get to work Sunday night, only to find my site was down and I couldn’t access anything, let alone do anything.
The good news is that we’re up and running now. But Monday’s gonna Monday, I guess.
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As you’ve probably heard by now, a motor vehicle in the wrong hands was once again turned into a weapon of mass destruction, this time in North Carolina Saturday morning.
The result was one person dead, and as many as 22 people injured, out of a group ride variously reported as 30 to 40 people. One way or another, that means he took out over half the people on the ride.
And considering how it happened, it seems like a miracle that only one person was killed.
The driver, 76-year-old Donald Robert Morris-Jones, was allegedly under the influence when he drove onto the wrong side of a country road near Raleigh, North Carolina, and slammed head-on into the members of the Capital Cycling Club.
Sixty-three-year old Patrick Turner died at the scene, while seven other riders were seriously injured. Up to 15 others suffered less serious injuries of varying degrees.
Morris-Jones fled the scene, crashing into a ditch about half a mile away, where he attempted to flee on foot.
Oh, did I mention that this all happened around 9:40 am?
Reports have not yet said why Morris-Jones was suspected of being drunk. We should learn more in the next day or two after he’s arraigned.
At last report, he was still being held on $1 million bail, after a magistrate said he posed an “overwhelming danger to society.” Morris-Jones faces one count of felony death by vehicle, seven counts of serious injury by vehicle, eight counts of hit and run, driving while impaired, reckless driving, and driving left of the center line.
Which means, at his age, he will probably die in jail, unless prosecutors give him one hell of a sweetheart plea deal, although that seems a lot less likely in North Carolina than here in California.
According to a statement from the Capital Cycling Club,
“We are all in shock by the senseless decision by the individual that caused the collision. This horrific event was no accident. As far as we know, the individual made a decision to drive in a way that put others in grave and mortal peril.
“We do not think there was any possible way the driver did not know that he had collided with the group. He chose at that moment to keep driving away from the scene leaving mass carnage in his wake. We are working closely with law enforcement on their investigation. We will continue to follow this case closely as it proceeds to see that justice is done for our friends.”
Which is exactly the point. Alcoholism is a disease, as is chemical dependency. And there are any number of prescription medications that can cause someone to appear intoxicated, as I know all too well.
But getting behind the wheel in that state is a choice — as is the decision to keep going after a mass casualty crash. There is nothing that excuses that, particularly when it results in the death of an innocent person.
Needless to say, the local bicycling community was deeply shaken.
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From what I understand, vehicle size wasn’t a factor in the North Carolina massacre.
But an op-ed in California Streetsblog is worth reading, explaining the role that the ever-increasing vehicle size plays in the lethality of motor vehicle crashes, and what can be done about it.
The deadliness of crashes can in part be traced to these big pickups and various heavy SUVs. SUVs used to alarm transportation planners by their size but now are dwarfed by large pickup trucks. American pickup trucks can weigh 4,000 to 8,000 pounds. Many have high front ends that instead of hitting pedestrians low and crushing their legs, instead crush internal organs. And their size leaves no safe space on a travel lane for a bicycle rider. Some in the auto industry are acknowledging the problem. “[Cars] that used to weigh a ton and a half are now three tons,” said Ned Curic, chief technology officer of automaker Stellantis N.V., the parent company of Jeep, Dodge, Chrysler, and Fiat.
And vehicles are getting heavier as they are electrified. Electric vehicles are 10% to 25% heavier than gas-driven ones; in a growing future of electric pickups and SUVs, fatality rates will get worse.
I’ve caught some heat for describing the high, flat grill featured on so many cars, trucks and SUVs these days as murder grills, with people arguing that vehicle designers and buyers don’t intentionally plan to kill anyone.
Yet that is the inevitable result of having so many of these oversized vehicles with their oversized grills on the road. Maybe your SUV will never kill anyone. Most won’t. But someone’s will. Make that a lot of someones.
And that doesn’t even get into the massive size of trucks and SUV that are up to 50% larger than a couple decades ago, increasing both their lethality and the space they take up on the road, too often crowding bike riders and other vehicles off it.
Anyway, give it a read. Because we have to do something about it.
Like, now.
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LAist says Los Angeles transit and safer streets advocates have been cheering Nithya Raman’s win since she defeated incumbent Karen Bass for Mayor of Los Angeles.
”It is time for a cultural shift towards a city that prioritizes pedestrians and cyclists and people who take public transit,” (People’s Vision Zero founder Jonathan) Hale added. “We finally have a mayor who believes that.”
It’s not just bike lanes. Raman’s successful campaign hinged on a policy platform that viewed broken sidewalks, streetlights in disrepair and pothole-ridden roads not as intractable issues, but urgent crises that can be addressed with better governance.
Raman, who has said she used trains and buses to commute to work in the past, also has her eyes on L.A.’s larger transportation network. On election eve, while riding the L.A. Metro B Line with supporters, Raman said the region can buck its car-centric reputation and be home to a fast, safe and connected transit system.
“That vision is totally achievable, if you have the will. I have the will,” Raman said.
I only wish I was cheering.
I mean, like Charlie Brown, I really want to believe that this will be the time we finally kick the damn ball. But I’ve seen it pulled away too many times.
Maybe I’ve just been at this too long. But I’ve seen this movie before.
We’ve passed progressive bike and mobility plans. Vison Zero. A Green New Deal. None of which we’ve actually seen come to pass.
Eric Garcetti made a lot of big promises, but failed to live up to any of them. Karen Bass made a big deal about riding a bike and being one of us, then seemed to forget we existed until she needed our votes once again.
Of the recent mayors, only Antonio Villaraigosa took actual action to improve safety on the streets. And that was only after he went to a mayor’s conference in Copenhagen, and saw what bikes are capable of, and had his Road to Damascus conversion when he got knocked off his bike by a cab driver, despite riding with his security detail.
I truly hope that Raman can emulate her fellow Democratic Socialist mayor in New York, and swiftly prove to everyone that she was the right choice for mayor, while making rapid changes to increase city efficiency and improve bicycling, walking transit and street safety in time for the ’28 Olympics.
But we live in a city that was deliberately designed to be inefficient and practically impossible to govern, with power intentionally taken away from the mayor’s office and distributed to 15 little kings and queens with their own little fiefdoms, all in the name of avoiding the corrupt officials of the past, as the Los Angeles Times’ Patt Morrison explains.
So maybe this time we’ll finally be able to kick that football, and you’ll hear me cheering from Boyle Heights to Santa Monica.
But while I may be hopeful, I’m not ready to start cheering yet.
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Sigh.
The judge hearing Joe Linton’s Measure HLA lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles tentatively ruled that he didn’t have standing to sue as a “transit activist.” However, he agreed to let Linton’s lawyers amend the complaint to demonstrate standing, with another hearing to be held on Christmas Eve eve.
Or, hear me out, maybe Linton just wants the city to uphold its commitments so he doesn’t get killed.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
Montreal plans to remove one half of a controversial bike lane during the winter to restore a whopping 60 curbside parking spaces, bike safety be damned.
Progress on installing bike lanes in Northern Ireland is “very, very slow,” as planners are told to avoid putting bike lanes in front of homes and businesses. Which basically leaves schools, parking lots and farms. Except the latter two are forms of businesses, too.
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Local
The conservative California Post looks at the “powerful,” “influential” forces behind Nithya Raman’s victory — like, um, Streets For All — and a “$3.1 billion street overhaul” that could give drivers the squeeze on some of LA’s busiest streets. God, let’s hope so. Never mind that there were more and bigger powerful and influential forces backing Karen Bass.
Ron Howard rode a bicycle to the premier of his new Netflix documentary at Santa Monica’s Aero Theater, parking it in the alley out back. But Page Six doesn’t want you to know about it unless you want to sign up for their free newsletter. I’ll pass, thanks.
A Japanese man is concluding a ride from Chicago to Los Angeles to spread a message of hope.
Streetsblog reminds us about ongoing project scoping meetings for the Sepulveda Transit Corridor this week, as well as the year’s final CicLAvia in Pasadena on Sunday.
State
OC Sheriff’s deputies used the much-maligned Flock cameras to bust a Los Angeles man and woman for stealing an ebike in San Clemente.
Life is cheap in Escondido — if you’re a cop, anyway. A 36-year old Escondido cop walked with a misdemeanor diversion program for killing a 39-year old man riding an ebike during a pursuit last year; Officer Jason Ingco claimed the victim swerved into his patrol car while making what the DA termed an “ill-advised pass.”
A 40-year old Antioch man faces up to 15 years behind bars after he was convicted of the drunken hit-and-run death of a 29-year old woman riding a bicycle.
Food Network star Guy Fieri was one of us, beginning his career at ten years old peddling soft pretzels from a homemade bicycle cart in Northern California.
National
The founder of the Chemo Riders group spent three years riding 23,000 miles across the US to spell out “HELP” with his GPS, to call attention to the program to help cancer patients access reliable transportation to and from their life-saving treatments.
Maybe someone can explain to me what being a former Playboy model has to do with a woman’s family barely escaping their burning Oregon home after her son’s ebike battery exploded.
An Arizona site looks forward to the 11,000 people expected to participate in the annual El Tour de Tucson later this month.
The annual West Texas Marfa 100 bike ride reminds riders how much they stand to lose if Trump goes through with plans for the border wall in Big Bend National Park.
Oops. A Texas woman told an off-duty sheriff’s deputy that she hit “something” in the road after he noticed damage to the front-end of her SUV; that something turned out to be the 22-year old bike-riding woman she killed.
Former President George W. Bush joined veterans for his annual Warrior Ride mountain bike ride on his Texas ranch.
There’s not a pit deep enough for someone who would kick a Nashville man’s service dog in the face several times because he refused to hand over his bike, then stab the victim in the calf and kick his dog again for good measure before leaving with his bike and wallet.
A website for New York’s Chelsea neighborhood says it’s the forgotten pedestrians who stand to lose in the battle over ebikes and bike lanes in the Big Apple.
New York Streetsblog calls on the city’s mayor to make the former Boulevard of Death Gotham’s first bicycle superhighway.
A Hoboken, New Jersey website examines the most dangerous streets in the city, where crashes continue even though the city is nearing ten years without a traffic fatality. Then again, Vision Zero has never been about eliminating traffic collisions, just ensuring that those crashes don’t result in fatalities.
Protestors participating in a Philadelphia bike ride targeting owners of Jewish restaurants for their reputed support of Israel were overwhelmed by counterprotestors who came to buy food from the restaurants being boycotted, although another report said there were 50% more protestors than counterprotestors. I have no problem with anyone protesting the Israeli government or its decimation of Palestine; I might even join you. But protesting Jewish-owned businesses because they’re owned by Jews is racist and wrong.
Oops. A Pennsylvania cop was caught on video using an anti-gay slur while confronting a teenager on a bicycle. Raise your hand if you haven’t been called an anti-gay slur while riding a bike. Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?
A Louisiana lawyer will once again give away 600 bicycles to kids in eight cities throughout the state.
A 37-year old Florida man faces a DUI manslaughter charge for killing a bike rider after leaving a bar at 3 am, claiming the victim was riding in the middle of the road even though the bike was on the shoulder when he ran it down.
International
Up to 69% of Northern Ireland residents expressed a reluctance to ride a bicycle, with 79% of those citing a lack of bike lanes.
Danish moviemakers spent three months in a “not so big” camper van with “a lot of equipment” to make a documentary about a nomadic bicyclist.
Japanese authorities have introduced a new bicycle helmet designed so it won’t mess up students’ hair, in order to get more young people to wear one. Personally, I’d much rather not mess up my brain anymore than it already is, but you do you.
Now even the cops are committing hit-and-runs. Two cops in Australia’s New South Wales face charges after they hit a 25-year old woman riding an ebike, and kept going without stopping. And it only took six months of investigation to make the arrests.
Tragic news from Australia, where a 47-year old Chinese food delivery rider working in Australia to support his family was stabbed to death when he and another delivery rider confronted a man tampering with their bicycles.
Competitive Cycling
USA Cycling is using AI to improve speed and performance in preparation for the LA Olympics. So be prepared to see members of the US team with six fingers and an extra leg or two.
Finally…
That feeling when even a meteorologist goes riding in the rain, and ends up with his arm in a sling. Or when you get excited about “the greatest bike ride you’ve never heard of,” and it turns out to be about the first transcontinental motorcycle ride.
And that feeling when a potential 007 needs a stunt double because he keeps falling off his bike.
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Oh, and fuck Putin.
