Tag Archive for DUI

CA ebike incentive program launches tomorrow — no, really — and El Segundo bike lanes leave something lacking

December 17, 2024 / / No comments
Just 14 days until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025, a decade of failure in which deaths have continued to climb. 
Yet no city official has mentioned the impending deadline, or the city’s failure to meet it. 

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Just eight days left in the 10th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive!

Thanks to Terese E for her generous, if somewhat lonely, donation keep all the best bike news and advocacy coming your way from around the corner, and around the world. 

But time is rapidly running out for this year’s fund drive. So what are you waiting for?

Stop what you’re doing and give now! 

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It’s now 362 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And a full 42 months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

The California Ebike Incentive Program is finally scheduled to launch tomorrow, so get your application in. They offer these tips to get ready, for better or worse.

Let’s just hope they’re up to the task and have everything ready for the launch after this interminable delay.

We’re counting down the days to our official application launch on December 18, 2024 at 6pm PST — just a few days away!

To help you get ready, here’s a quick checklist of documents you’ll need to have ready when you apply. Documents need to be in a digital format to be uploaded. Digital file types include, but are not limited to PDF files, scans, JPEG or PNG file formats.

  1. Proof of California Residency – California Driver’s License, AB 60 License, or California ID card. The document must be current/valid and issued by the California DMV. If the address on the identification is not up to date, this is a listof documents you can submit.
  2. Proof of Income Eligibility – Provide documents to verify that your annual gross household income is at or below 300% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL). The easiest form to submit is a Federal Tax Transcript, easily downloaded or requested by mail from: tax records and transcripts. If you don’t file taxes, refer to this list of acceptable documents.

Taking a few minutes now to gather these documents will help streamline your application so you’re all set to apply as soon as the window opens.

WHAT CAN I DO NOW TO GET READY?

With just a few days ​until the launch of our electric bike incentives, let’s make sure you’re prepared.

Here’s what you need to focus on:

1) Check your eligibility – Click HERE to learn more about eligibility.

2) Watch our how-to apply video – Click HERE to watch our step by step application process video.

3) Prepare your income verification documents – Click HERE to learn more about income verification.

4) Have your current/valid California ID ready and ensure your ID is up to date to avoid any delays.

5) Watch our 2 online training videos – Click the links below to watch our training videos prior to applying.

6) Check out our FAQ’s – Click HERE to review our FAQ page.

For more information, please visit our website ebikeincentives.org.

Let me know how it goes if you apply.

Because to be honest, I’ve kinda lost interest in the whole damn thing.

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South Bay Forward reports El Segundo has striped new bikes on the city’s newly resurfaced streets.

But the news apparently ain’t pretty.

You can submit your own feedback here.

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Seriously, how whacked out does someone have to be to hit a person riding bicycle hard enough to throw him 65 feet through the air, and have no idea they did it — even though the victim’s bike was still embedded in the bumper of the driver’s car?

A 35-year old man in Boca Raton, Florida faces charges for killing a 41-year old man riding a bicycle, seven hours after he took Adderall, Vyvanse and Gabapentin, despite telling investigators he’s in rehab.

And just moments after he passed another man riding in the same bike lane “so closely (the bike rider) could touch the vehicle.”

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‘Tis the season.

America’s Got Talent host Terry Crews, a former linebacker for the San Diego Chargers of Los Angeles, teamed with current members of the team to give new bicycles to hundreds of students at Compton’s McNair Elementary School.

A San Jose nonprofit founded by a surgical nurse has given away over 50,000 bicycles over two decades.

Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels took part in a DC bike giveaway, where the Raising Cane’s restaurant chain gave away 100 bikes to kids from the Boys & Girls Clubs.

Over 400 donated bicycles are sitting in a North Carolina Salvation Army warehouse waiting for families to come get their free bike.

A Miami car dealer gave dozens of “gently used” bicycles donated by community members to children from the local Boys & Girls Clubs, for the 42nd straight year.

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

Once again, a UK bike lane has been intentionally sabotaged by “anti-bike psychos” who covered it with caltrops, a multi-spiked weapon dating back to the Roman era, resulting in crashes that caused at least one victim to suffer hearing loss; adding insult to literal injury, victims complained that Scottish police just “didn’t give a shit” when informed of the crime. Thanks to Megan Lynch for the heads-up.

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Local  

Don’t forget tonight’s virtual meeting of the Hollywood Hills West Neighborhood Council to discuss the proposed protected bike lanes on deadly Forest Lawn Drive — or at least what passes for protection here in Los Angeles. The project is opposed by Forest Lawn and Mount Sinai cemeteries, in an apparent attempt to drum up more business.

 

State

PeopleForBikes announced the ten winners of their 2024 Industry Community Grants, including ten grand each going to Calbike, Rich City Rides and the East Bay Bicycle Coalition.

Velo recommends five winter bicycling destinations where you can leave your thermal clothes behind, including San Diego and Palm Springs.

Bike Magazine calls Natural State a must-see mountain biking movie; the film premiered in San Luis Obispo earlier this month.

 

National

America Walks has opened applications for their Community Change Grants program to provide mini-grants to organizations working to make walking — and apparently, bicycling — safer and more inviting; one recent grant went to a program to assess pedestrian and bicycle safety in Aptos.

A writer for Cycling Weekly discusses what he learned riding his fixie 100 miles through Arizona’s Sonoran Desert; he calls the bike the best $400 he ever spent.

A Colorado woman pled guilty to tampering with evidence for deleting a text proving she was driving while distracted when she killed a ten-year old boy riding a bicycle; she’s also being tried this week on a second misdemeanor charge, careless driving resulting in death. The crash occurred just an easy nine mile ride from where I grew up.

That’s more like it. A 51-year old Pennsylvania man will spend up to 17 years behind bars for the hit-and-run crash that killed a 31-year old father as he was riding a bicycle.

The Franklin, Tennessee police department locks the barn door after the horses escape, conducting a DUI operation in honor of a 54-year old man killed by a drunken Ft. Campbell soldier while the victim was riding his bike.

According to a new lawsuit, a “deeply religious” business owner is dead because a driver high on “Galaxy Gas,” aka nitrous oxide, killed him in a collision as he rode his ebike on an Atlanta sidewalk; the driver bought a canister of the gas labeled for food and beverage use only at a local smoke shop an hour earlier, and allegedly drove around doing “whippets” to get high.

 

International

Momentum explores the top 15 family-friendly North American bicycling routes and destinations from Alberta, Canada to the Florida Everglades.

A British Columbia letter writer says the city’s multi-use paths are great for recreation, but not so much for bike commuting, and the bike lanes aren’t much better.

 

Competitive Cycling

Czech carmaker Škoda’s We Love Cycling website asks if there should be a salary cap for pro cycling, after Tadej Pogačar got a $2.3 million raise that increased his annual pay to $8.3 million. Although that pales in comparison to Shohei Ohtani’s $70 a year — let alone Cristiano Ronaldo’s $200 million in on-field earnings.

Aleix Espargaro took an early retirement from Gran Prix motorcycle racing to join a professional cycling team, just not as a cyclist; he’ll serve as an ambassador for Lidl-Trek team.

Cycling West recaps last weekend’s US national ‘cross championships.

 

Finally…

Nothing like a fully functional, and yes, rideable, steel framed bike too small for a corgi — and named Big Boy, of course. Colnago wants you to wear their clothes off the bike, too, as long as you have $890 to spend on a polo shirt.

And that feeling when your bike stunt garners a round of applause from the ladies who lunch.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Increased charges in Gaudreau brothers deaths, Calbike gets 2025 agenda right, and Glendale boots Brand bike lanes

December 12, 2024 / / One comment

My apologies for last night, when I suffered from an embarrassing case of premature publication, mistakenly hitting the Publish button long before today’s post was ready.

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Just 19 days until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025, a decade of failure in which deaths have continued to climb. 
Yet not one city official has mentioned the impending deadline, or the city’s failure to meet it. 

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It’s Day 14 of the 10th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive!

Thanks to Daniel M, James Z and Herb S for their generous donations to keep SoCal’s best source for bike news and advocacy coming your way every day.

So what are you waiting for?

Stop what you’re doing and give now! 

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Now they’re getting serious.

The charges against Sean Higgins, the driver accused in the allegedly drunken crash that killed NHL star Johnny Gaudreau and his hockey playing brother, have been upgraded from vehicular homicide to first-degree aggravated manslaughter.

According to The Columbus Dispatch, aggravated manslaughter is defined in the New Jersey’s criminal code as “when a person ‘recklessly causes death under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to human life.'”

The brothers were in New Jersey for their sister’s wedding, and were riding their bikes on the night of August 29th, when Higgins allegedly tried to pass another car on the right and slammed into the two men on the shoulder of the highway.

Higgins could be sentenced to 10 to 30 behind bars years for each manslaughter count; he also faces additional charges for DUI, hit-and-run, tampering with physical evidence, and reckless driving.

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Yes, please.

Calbike announced its agenda for the coming year. And this time, it looks to be right on the money.

  • Bicycle Highways — Creating a pilot program to establish numbered highways for bicycles in two major metro areas, allowing for speeds up to 25 mph
  • Shared Streets — Develop a new roadway classification where vulnerable road users would have the right of way at all locations
  • Quick-Build Pilot Program — A program to expedite development and implementation of safe, protected bikeways on the state highway system
  • Bike Omnibus Bill — Including clarifying that bike riders wouldn’t need to signal if they need both hands to control their bicycle
  • Bicycle Safety Stop — Otherwise known as an Idaho Stop, allowing bicyclists to treat stop signs as yields
  • New Bikeway Classification — Create a new Class 5 category for bicycle boulevards
  • Clarifying Ebike Policies — Including making it clear that illegal electric motorcycles aren’t ebikes

Now if they’d just try to do something about the state’s unacceptably high rate of hit-and-run drivers.

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The Glendale City Council followed Culver City’s lead by overruling staff recommendations, and voting to remove the city’s only protected bike lane — an ill-advised action likely to make them liable for any bicyclist who gets injured on the street after it’s removed.

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It’s now 357 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And a full 42 months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

The program is finally scheduled to launch December 18th, so get your application in; Calbike with host a webinar on Monday to go over the application process.

Although to be honest, I’ve kind of lost interest in the whole damn thing.

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

A Utah man faces charges for allegedly ramming into a bike rider during a road rage confrontation; the driver swears he was just trying to politely tell the victim to stay in the bike lane when the rider became enraged and broke his side mirror, and he didn’t mean to hit him — even though witnesses say it appeared to be intentional.

No bias here. A New York councilmember called for mandatory ebike registration to combat “The scourge of e-bikes in our streets, on our sidewalks, and even inside our buildings (that) continues to wreak chaos, injure and maim people, and, tragically, take lives,” resulting in 47 deaths in five years; even the Department of Transportation says it’s a bad idea. And even though most victims were killed in battery fires or by drivers while riding ebikes, rather than caused by them. And they continue to lump ped-assist ebikes together with mo-peds and high-speed, throttle-controlled virtual motorcycles.

Brussels, Belgium is banning bicycles and scooters from the city center, known as the Anspachlaan; a bike advocacy group says all bicyclists are being punished for the anti-social behavior of a very few. Which is exactly how it usually works.

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Local  

Metro is finally moving forward with plans to improve transportation for the upcoming LA Olympics, including 14 miles of bus priority lanes, 23 miles of bus corridor enhancements and 60 new Metro Bike Share stations, as well as a number of new first mile/last mile improvements, including new protected bike lanes. Although three and a half years isn’t exactly a lot of lead time to make a number of major changes to the streets.

 

State

An 18-year old San Diego man suffered a broken leg when he was stuck by a hit-and-run driver, while riding his ebike in a bike lane in the North City neighborhood.

Sad news from Bakersfield, where a man was killed when he fell off his bicycle, and oncoming “vehicle…failed to avoid colliding with” him. Hats off to the Bakersfield Californian for somehow managing to absolve the driver of any agency and responsibility for killing him. 

Speaking of Bakersfield, a cop with a strong case of windshield bias responded to a traffic calming project by blaming the victims, arguing that even though it succeeded in slowing traffic, that doesn’t necessarily mean fewer crashes because it doesn’t account for pedestrians who step out ten feet in front of drivers, leaving “literally no time for the driver to do anything,” or bike riders “with no lights, wearing black clothing, riding the wrong direction in the bicycle lane.”

 

National

Streetsblog has more on the new handlebar-mounted “dashcam” for bikes being developed by a pair of Arizona universities, which are designed to automatically capture images, location data, and other critical evidence when a vehicle passes dangerously to someone on a bicycle.

A pair of Oklahoma men face charges of 1st-degree murder for shooting a man in the back, after accusing him of stealing a bicycle belonging to one of the men’s 10-year old daughter; witnesses never bothered to call 911 because they didn’t think it was a big deal and didn’t want to get involved. As we’ve said many times before, no bicycle is worth a human life. Just let it go, for God’s sake.

Good question. A Massachusetts TV station wants to know why there are utility poles and orange construction barrels in the middle of a new $22 million raised bike lane. Which looks a lot more like a patchwork sidewalk repair job, to be honest.

 

International

Cycling Weekly talks with American adventurer Neal Bayly, cofounder of the Wellspring International Outreach, who recounts memorable rides through Ukraine and Peru, as well as Bhutan’s Tour of the Dragon, described as the world’s toughest single-day mountain bike race; Bayly says he bikes so much his motorcycle buddies are getting pissed off.

Speaking of Cycling Weekly, the magazine says those bigass bike computers are just getting silly.

A Toronto bike advocacy group has filed suit over the new Ontario law that gives the provincial government the final say on local bike lanes, allowing them to remove a number of popular Toronto bike lanes over the objection of local leaders; the group alleges the new law deprives bicyclists of their legal rights to life and security.

Meanwhile, a Toronto bike advocate suffered a broken leg when he was doored while riding in a painted bike lane. Which makes a far better case for improving the city’s bike lanes than removing them.

A Melbourne, Australia radio station considers the eternal question of what if bicycles had to be registered, as the head of a driver’s organization says all road users should pay for the road — even though bike riders already pay for more than our fair share of the roadway, and studies have shown bike registration costs more to operate than it would bring in.

 

Competitive Cycling

Remco Evenepoel is joining with the Belgian Post Office to raise awareness for the dangers of dooring, after suffering multiple fractures and other injuries when he was doored while training in Belgium; the 2022 Vuelta champ aims to get back on his bike in February, and hopes to compete two months later.

 

Finally…

No, bike racks don’t belong in the middle of the sidewalk. Who needs a bike cam when there’s one built into your helmet?

And Colin Jost is one of us, too.

Thanks to Megan Lynch for the heads-up. 

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

50-year old man killed in DUI collateral damage crash while walking bicycle in Rialto; 2-year old boy suffers minor injuries

October 28, 2024 / / No comments

Another day, another bicyclist killed in the Inland Empire.

According to KTLA-5, a man walking his bicycle in Rialto was collateral damage in a crash between two drivers — including one who was under the influence.

“Preliminary information indicates the female driver of the Dodge Caravan was driving southbound on Riverside Avenue and was turning left to go east on Etiwanda and failed to yield, [leading] the black Audi to collide with the Caravan,” Sgt. Smith confirmed to KTLA. “[The collision] caused the Caravan to go onto the northeast corner of the sidewalk, striking the pedestrian.”

The collision occurred around 6:26 pm Sunday at the intersection of Etiwanda Ave and Riverside Ave in Rialto.

The victim, identified only as a 50-year old man, died after being taken to a hospital.

A two-year old boy who was riding in the Audi with his father was taken to the hospital with minor injuries, as was the 32-year old driver of the other vehicle; police planned to arrest her for DUI upon her release.

The station oddly notes that the victim’s bicycle did not appear to have suffered significant damage.

Just the person who had been walking it.

This is at least the 45th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the third that I’m aware of in San Bernardino County.

My deepest sympathy and prayers for the victim and his loved ones.

Category: Injuries and Fatalities / Tags: , , ,

51-year old Costa Mesa woman killed by accused DUI hit-and-run driver; driver held on 2nd degree murder charge

September 30, 2024 / / 2 comments

Call it murder this time.

Multiple sources are reporting that a 51-year old woman was killed when her bicycle was rear-ended by an accused drunk driver in a Huntington Beach hit-and-run early Monday morning.

The victim, identified as 51-year old Costa Mesa resident Kristin Bellovich, was riding in the far-right lane of southbound Beach Beach Blvd at Glencoe Drive, when she was run down by the driver of a Ford SUV just after midnight.

She died after being taken to a local hospital.

The driver fled the scene, but police arrested 68-year old Elias Madriz Gutierrez shortly later. He was booked on suspicion of hit-and-run and driving under the influence causing great bodily injury, along with second-degree murder.

According to My News LA, Gutierrez was convicted of DUI twice before, in January 2009 and April 2018. Which means he would have been required to sign a Watson advisement, stating he could be charged with murder if he killed someone while driving under the influence any time in the future.

As a result, he could be looking at 15-to-life for the murder charge alone, as opposed to up to six years for vehicular manslaughter.

This is at least the 42nd bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the 10th that I’m aware of in Orange County.

Fifteen of those SoCal deaths have now been hit-and-runs.

My deepest sympathy and prayers for Kristin Bellovich and her loved ones. 

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

City Council unanimously orders report on cleaning protected bike lanes, and killer of Gaudreau brothers had .087 BAC

September 16, 2024 / / Comments Off on City Council unanimously orders report on cleaning protected bike lanes, and killer of Gaudreau brothers had .087 BAC
Just 106 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025. 

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I neglected to thank Erik G and Robert L last week for their generous donations to help out with my shoulder issues, and keep this site coming your way now that I’m back to work. 

Donations of any amount are always welcome, whatever the reason. 

And thank you both.

Photo by Richard Rosenthal; no word on whether the city will clear this type of debris. 

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The Los Angeles City Council did what it does best, ordering LADOT and the city administrative officer to report back on what it would take to sweep protected bike lanes on a regular basis.

Which doesn’t mean they’ll ever actually do it, of course.

The motion, which was passed unanimously, requires them to report on both the equipment and staffing required to sweep the city’s protected bike lanes every other week. The agencies were also ordered to report on the best practices to maintain protected bike lanes, and what the city does now.

Which clearly ain’t much.

In fact, the city has just two street sweepers designed for protected bike lanes, and only uses them on a quarterly basis — as anyone who rides them regularly can probably tell.

If that sounds cynical, it’s because we’ve been here before. The city has a habit of ordering reports that never come back, and never get acted on if they do.

In fact, we’re still waiting for the city’s “much better” version of Measure HLA, which was supposed to come back to the council long before HLA was overwhelmingly passed by the voters.

So it’s a positive step forward — but only if we stay on top of them and make sure the city follows through on it.

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The driver who killed the hockey playing Gaudreau brothers as they rode their bikes on a rural New Jersey highway was legally drunk after the crash. But not as drunk as he made it sound.

Despite telling cops he had five or six beers before getting behind the wheel, and had an open container in his car, 43-year old Sean M. Higgins had a blood alcohol level of .087, just above the .08 legal limit.

And even though his attorney described Higgins as an “empathetic individual” and “a loving father of two daughters” who just made a horrible decision that night, prosecutors said he had history of alleged road rage and aggressive driving.

Higgins is being held without bail, charged with two counts of death by auto, along with reckless driving, possession of an open container and consuming alcohol in a motor vehicle.

He faces up to 20 years if he’s convicted, and would have to serve at least 85% of his sentence.

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Megan Lynch forwards a crowdfunding campaign for an Australian father who’s at risk of losing his leg after he was hit by a red light-running driver while riding an ebike.

Yet the original article inexplicably ends with a section on the rising rate of ebike injuries — even though his injuries had nothing to do with the kind of bicycle he was riding.

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It’s now 270 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And 39 full months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

Meanwhile, Pasadena is back with its second round of ebike vouchers, offering city residents up to $1,000 to buy an ebike from local dealers.

And that deafening silence you hear is Los Angeles not even considering a similar program.

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

A man in Rochester NY was critically injured when he was intentionally run down by a driver while riding his bike, after he argued with the driver.

A proposal in the British House of Lords would require visible license numbers for all bike riders and take points off their driver’s licenses for any moving violations, while others compared bicyclists to a plague of mosquitos, and want to chip riders — or at least their bikes — like their cats.

A British man was pushed off his bicycle while riding to work by a “yob” who leaned out of a passing van to attack him, suffering facial injuries, bruised arms and legs, and a swollen knee.

An Aussie parliamentarian wants to make wearing hi-viz mandatory for all bicyclists and scooter riders, rather than just requiring drivers to put their damn phones down and pay attention. And there’s no similar requirement to make drivers dress up like clowns

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Local  

Streets Are Fore Everyone, aka SAFE, reports Glendale narrowly approved major traffic lane configuration and bicycle infrastructure improvements to La Crescenta Ave.

The co-captain of the WeHo East Neighborhood Watch Association is denying that a letter purporting to come from his organization, which was used to obtain more than $8 million in funding to fix sidewalks and install protected bike lanes on Fountain Ave from the California Air Resources Board, was actually written by the group and represented their wishes.

WeHo Online complains that no one who actually lives on Fountain is on the bike lane steering committee.

 

State

A 1.8-mile section of the Ventura River Trail between Ventura and Ojai got a $5 million makeover, including a spiffy new frog mural.

Sad news from Visalia, where a man riding a mountain bike was killed when he was rear-ended by a hit-and-run driver.

More sad news comes from Fresno, where a 41-year old man was killed in a collision while riding salmon on Highway 41.

And still more sad news, this time from Sacramento, where a woman riding a bicycle died in the hospital after she was found lying in the roadway; police don’t know yet if she fell or was the victim of a hit-and-run.

About damn time. Sacramento is considering declaring a road safety state of emergency to free up more resources to confront the rise in pedestrian and bike rider deaths. Meanwhile, here in Los Angeles, we had a record level of pedestrian and bicycling deaths last year, and no one in city government seems to give a damn.

 

National

That 1970’s era drop bar bicycle in John Deere green could actually be one.

Gear Patrol considers whether the new bespoke, 3D-printed titanium bike now taking orders from No. 22 Bicycle Company is the future of bicycling.

Kindhearted Colorado cops surprised a girl with a new bicycle for her seventh birthday, after officers tried and failed to fix her old one.

 

International

Momentum offers a guide to buying your first foldie, and says cargo bikes are better than minivans for the perfect family vehicle.

The leader of a London borough council is tired of abandoned dockless ebikes littering the streets and teenagers zooming along the sidewalks, and wants to have all Lime bikes crushed. Just wait until he learns about all the cars blocking sidewalks and bike lanes, and drivers zooming down the streets.

The owner of a bespoke London bike shop complained about brazen bike thieves targeting the shop with four “Mission Impossible-style” burglary attempts in just the last seven months.

The overwhelming majority of Londoners support the city’s Low Traffic Neighborhoods, but also believe it should be mandatory to use a bike lane if one is available.

Bicyclists in Scotland are complaining that the “birthplace of the bicycle” isn’t exactly bicycle friendly. Then again, there’s also some question whether it’s really their birthplace.

A Welsh woman will spend a well-deserved 45 months behind bars for fleeing the scene after running a bike-riding man down from behind, and selling her car days later to cover up the crime; the victim had to have his leg amputated due to his injuries. And yes, that sentence should have been a hell of a lot longer.

The Guardian’s Peter Walker describes the “five pedaling perils” every UK bicyclist has to watch out for. Which pretty much apply to every bike rider, almost everywhere.

A quartet of British and Dutch marines rode their bikes 360 miles from England to the Netherlands to celebrate the 360th anniversary of the Royal Marines.

More proof that bike riders deal with the same problems everywhere, as bicyclists in Baku, Azerbaijan are complaining about the “incomprehensible” design of the city’s bike lanes, arguing that they weren’t professionally installed.

In a truly heartrending story, someone stole a New Zealand man bike after he rode it the length of the country to raise money for charity; now he’s dying of cancer, and just wants to find it again so he can ride it one more time before he dies.

 

Competitive Cycling

Three-time Tour de France champ Tadej Pogačar prepared for next week’s road world championships by winning the 13th Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal with a dominant solo breakaway.

Samoa named its first-ever national cycling team, with a goal of competing in the 2027 Pacific Games in Tahiti; the country’s new riders range in age from 17 to 53. Yes, 53.

 

Finally…

We may have to deal with swerving LA drivers, but at least we don’t have to worry about dive-bombing birds. Who needs spandex to ride a tandem — or any clothes at all, for that matter?

And why just ride a moving train when you can jump your bike over it?

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

Bike-riding NHL star and brother killed by accused drunk driver, and transportation safety bills on governor’s desk

September 9, 2024 / / 2 comments

We’re back, more or less. 

I’ve been out for over a month after surgery to replace two tendon and fix a number of tears in my right shoulder. I’m now looking at a long recovery, with six months of rehab before I’m back to normal, let alone get back on a bike.

Or whatever passes for normal at my age. 

I’ll do my best to keep this site going on a regular basis, but may face some issues going forward depending on how well rehab goes. 

Before we move on, though, let’s take a moment to consider that the new tendons holding my shoulder together came from caring people who donated their bodies after death.

We tend to think of organ donation as involving hearts and lungs, livers and kidneys. But corneas, skin, bones and yes, tendons, also stem from that same kindness. 

And I couldn’t be more grateful for them. 

So if you haven’t signed your organ donor card, what the hell are you waiting for?

Now let’s catch up on some of the bigger stories we missed over the past 34 days, before we get back to our regularly scheduled programming tomorrow.

Photo by Tembela Bohle from Pexels. 

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Just 113 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025. 

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Let’s start with the biggest — and worst — news of the last month.

It was just over a week ago that 31-year old NHL star Johnny Gaudreau and his 29-year old brother Matthew were killed by an (allegedly) extremely drunk driver while they were riding their bikes in New Jersey.

The brothers were run down on a rural road in Oldmans Township on Thursday, August 30th, the night before they were supposed to be groomsmen in their sister’s wedding.

Needless to say, the wedding is off for now.

They were run down from behind after the driver, identified as 43-year old Sean Higgins, passed one car on the left, then attempted to pass an SUV on the right when it moved left to go around the Gaudreaus.

Higgins failed a field sobriety test, telling police he had five or six beers before the crash, and that his drinking probably contributed to “his impatience and reckless driving.”

He was arrested at the scene, and charged with two counts of death by auto, along with reckless driving, possession of an open container and consuming alcohol in a motor vehicle.

Higgins serves as a Major in the US National Guard, while working for a nonprofit substance abuse treatment center. Which means he should have known the risk of driving under the influence.

A crowdfunding campaign for Matthew Gaudreau’s wife, Madeline, who is pregnant with their first child, has raised nearly $645,000 — over 21 times the $30,000 goal.

Meanwhile, USA Today points out that the NHL star was just one of hundreds of bicyclists killed in the US each year — make that over 1,000 in 2022, actually — while Streetsblog says the real story is the systematic failures that led to the Gaudreau brothers deaths.

And the BBC issued a non-apology, saying they were sorry a bicyclist “did not appreciate” their headline which called the crash an “accident.”

………

Streetsblog offers an update on transportation bills on the governor’s desk after being approved by the legislature, including:

  • SB 960 requires Caltrans to follow their own Complete Streets policies
  • SB 961 is a severely watered-down version of the bill which would have forced automakers to prevent drivers from speeding more than ten miles over the speed limit; the law now just requires an audible warning
  • SB 1297 extends the states speed cam pilot program to PCH in Malibu
  • SB 1261 limits the placement of sharrows to streets with speed limits of 30 mph or less
  • SB 689 eliminates the need for a separate Coastal Commission study in order to convert a traffic lane to a bike or transit lane
  • SB 1271 requires that only ebikes with UL or EU certification can be sold in the state

………

While we were gone, the Glendale City Council narrowly approved the city’s draft transportation plan, along with safety improvements to La Crescenta Ave, after an extremely contentious debate.

Meanwhile, Glendale will consider a a proposal to build the nine-mile Arroyo Verdugo Greenway at Tuesday’s city council meeting.

In 2021 the City began a high-level study which envisioned the Wash as a nine mile green space from its confluence with the LA River up to Crescenta Valley Park. It includes bike and pedestrian trails with access to business and entertainment venues, and connects several important city centers, services and a multitude of neighborhoods that make up a large core of Glendale.

Walk Bike Glendale urges you to attend or call into the meeting, or email the individual council members in advance.

………

Streets For All is hosting a virtual Mobility Debate with the candidates for the Burbank City Council Thursday Evening.

………

Once again, the Los Angeles County Sheriff department demonstrated how little their deputies know about bike law, when former LA-based pro Phil Gaimon — star of the Worst Retirement Ever videos on YouTube — had to educate one on why the ticket he was about to get was against the law.

………

It’s now 263 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And 39 full months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

………

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

After a 14-year old boy was seriously injured by a garbage truck driver while riding to school in La Mesa, California, the city’s NBC station demonstrated how to get the story wrong, with a headline suggesting the boy collided with the truck, rather than the other way around. Nope, no bias there.

A road-raging 19-year old Zion, Utah woman chased down a bike rider and rammed him with her car as he tried to flee, after arguing and spitting at her when she ran a stop sign and nearly hit him. Evidently, she felt a crashing need to finish what she’d started. 

When a road raging driver attacked a group of Black Baltimore bicyclists with bear spray, the community responded with a love ride.

Police in Dublin, Ireland are investigating an apparent road rage attack by a driver who pushed a bicyclist up against a barrier and repeatedly hit him with his fists as bystanders tried to stop the attack.

A 59-year old German man was arrested for sabotaging mountain bike trails by stringing wire across them to fell unwary riders; for once, the charges fit the crime, booked on suspicion of attempted murder. Velo says attacks like that are not something you need to fret about, though.

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

A bike-raging New York bicyclist was busted for allegedly punching a woman jogger in the face after they argued when his handlebars made contact with her as she ran in the opposite direction on an Eastchester bike path.

A British woman says it made her ashamed to ride a bicycle when another rider crashed into her after jumping a red light, and called her a “stupid bitch.”

………

Local 

The New York Times considers whether Los Angeles can really pull off a carfree Olympics just four years from now. Short answer, no. Longer answer, hell no.

Caltrans is still conducting its Pacific Coast Highway Master Plan Feasibility Study to determine just what safety improvements people want — or rather, are willing to tolerate. So if you bike, walk or drive along PCH in Malibu, you owe it to yourself and everyone else to take part. 

Streetsblog’s Joe Linton examines the first six months since Measure HLA passed with overwhelming support, mandating the city to build out the eight-year old mobility plan whenever a street gets resurfaced. So far the news isn’t good, with work on Reseda Blvd moving forward while everything else stalled out — including the city’s workaround on Vermont Ave in South LA to avoid triggering HLA.

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge summarily denied a CEQA lawsuit from Friends and Families for MOVE Culver City to keep Culver City from removing the protected bike lanes through downtown, calling it “the weakest petition (he’s) ever seen in an environmental case;” the group vowed to appeal.

WeHo Times reports on a “tumultuous” community meeting to discuss bike lane designs on Willoughby, Vista/Gardner and Kings Street; as usual, most of the complaints centered on parking and outreach. The city also accepted an $8.2 million grant for transportation and safety improvements, including Fountain Ave, where protected bike lanes are planned.

Santa Monica is dropping speed limits on over 30 miles of streets to improve safety.

The southwest San Gabriel Valley is moving closer to a Metro-funded improvement project linking the First Street, Riggin Street and Potrero Grande Drive corridor, including 5.3 miles of bike lanes through Rosemead, South San Gabriel, Montebello and Monterey Park.

LA County received over $60 million in grants for safety improvement projects, including projects in Long Beach, Palmdale and South LA.

The LA Times picks up the story of how Bike Index’s Bryan Hance uncovered an international bike theft ring on his own when authorities didn’t give a shit show any interest.

 

State

Calbike talks with Wes Marshall, author of the new book, Killed by a Traffic Engineer.

The Voice of OC questions whether deadly Beach Blvd will ever be safe for bicyclists and pedestrians.

Family members are urging any witnesses to come forward who may have seen the hit-and-run crash that critically injured 71-year old Bob Hilborn as he rode his bike in Chula Vista last month.

San Diego is conducting a survey to get input on the forthcoming bicycle master plan.

A man riding his bike on Highway 1 suffered several injuries — and got a couple traffic tickets — after falling over 100 feet when he ignored “road closed” signs and a warning that he would probably die by attempting to ride across a rock slide that shut down the highway. And he nearly did.

 

National

A new bill in Congress would finally mandate federal standards for hood height and visibility in order to protect pedestrians, bicyclists and other people outside the vehicle, after research showed SUVs and trucks with high front ends and blunt profiles are 45% more likely to kill pedestrians in a crash than smaller cars and trucks.

A recent study from Oregon State University shows that the Idaho Stop Law, aka Stop as Yield, does not result in dangerous behavior by bicyclists or drivers; Velo says of course it’s safer for bicyclists. Gavin Newsom vetoed two bills that would have legalized it in California.

A new book from Rob Walker of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy looks at 20 Apps, Ideas, and Innovators Changing the Urban Landscape.

Apple TV+ premiered Ghost Bike, a short film about a mother who meets a stranger in a Greek diner, who may hold the key to solving her son’s untimely death — apparently on a bicycle.

A writer for BuzzFeed offers 22 very tongue-in-cheek reasons why wearing a helmet is “literally one of the absolute worst decisions a person can make.”

Your next ebike could be a Ford Bronco. Or maybe a Mustang.

Texas Senator Ted Cruz is accused of holding up a bill to improve ebike battery safety in a misguided attempt to halt regulations he thinks could lead to a ban on gas stoves.

The New York Times examines what the city could learn from the recent reimagining of the streets of Paris.

A Miami man is on trial for murder for chasing down and fatally shooting a man as he rode in a club peloton, although the defense insists it was self-defense after he was attacked by armed bicyclists with guns that were apparently secreted in their spandex kits and mysteriously disappeared afterwards; a Key Biscayne paper somehow described the incident as occurring in “the ultra-machismo world of the Miami cycling community.”

 

International

Momentum recommends the world’s most beautiful bicycle routes; just three of the 30 routes are in the US, with none in California.

Fifty-five-year old former Canadian IndyCar driver and 2003 ChampCar World Series champion Paul Tracy suffered a dislocated shoulder and three broken vertebrae when he was struck by an SUV driver while riding his bike last week.

A 29-year old British drug dealer was sentenced to a well-deserved 14-years behind bars for the hit-and-run crash that killed a bike-riding man, before driving off to make his weed deliveries.

It turns out the ever-feuding Gallagher brothers from the newly reunited British band Oasis are two of us; Road.cc lists other bicycling musical greats and songs about bikes.

Ireland’s Finance Minister justifiably complained about a new bike shed that cost the equivalent of $372,000 to hold just 18 bikes, when a competitor could have built it for $22,000.

A new German report says distracted bicycling is on the rise, blaming it for a significant, but undetermined, increase in crash risk. Never mind that many of the 10 to 17% of bicyclists who use their smartphones while riding are probably just using navigation or bike apps. 

A new Chinese study shows how ebikes are changing the landscape of transportation, including reduced reliance on motor vehicles and improved mobility for people of all ages.

 

Competitive Cycling

A Parisian website recounts all the paracycling medal winners from the Paris Para-Olympics.

Bicycling writes that America’s Kristen Faulkner was told she had just a 6% chance of winning gold in Olympic road cycling, just before she did it. Read it on AOL this time if the magazine blocks you.

Olympic bronze medalist Wout van Aert is done for the season, after a knee injury suffered in a major crash required a series of transfusions to prevent infection.

Sad news from Las Vegas, where five-time Venezuelan Olympic cyclist Daniela Larreal Chirinos was found dead in her home during a welfare check, at age 51, after not being seen for several days; she apparently died from choking on her food.

Six bicycles “beyond any monetary value” that were ridden by Peter Sagan, Mathieu van der Poel, Julian Alaphilippe and Egan Bernal were stolen from the Netherland’s Shimano Experience Center last week.

 

Finally…

We may have to dodge LA’s flighty drivers, but at least we don’t have to duck dive-bombing magpies — then again, we don’t have to worry about herds of leaping deer, either. Now they’re out to get us on beachfront bike paths, too.

And that feeling when wild horses couldn’t stop your ride. Thanks to Oceanside bike lawyer and BikinginLA sponsor Richard Duquette for that one. 

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

Ramos faces up to 20 years for killing five-year old in drunken hit-and-run, and wannabe Trump assassin was one of us

July 19, 2024 / / Comments Off on Ramos faces up to 20 years for killing five-year old in drunken hit-and-run, and wannabe Trump assassin was one of us
Just 165 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

A few people have volunteered to write guest posts to help keep this site from going dark when I’m out next month for surgery on my torn rotator cuff. 

So if you’re interested in filling in here for a few days, or joining them in submitting a guest post or two, just email me at the address on the About page above.

………

Twenty years.

Charges have been refiled against Ceferino Ascencion Ramos for the alleged drunken hit-and-run that killed five-year old Jacob Ramirez, and injured his entire family, as they were enjoying an evening bike ride in Garden Grove nearly two weeks ago.

Ramos, who had a blood alcohol content of .22% at the time of his arrest, now faces a charge of vehicular manslaughter, as well as felony counts of driving under the influence of alcohol causing bodily injury, driving with blood alcohol of .08% or more causing bodily injury, and hit and run with injury, with sentencing enhancements for leaving a victim comatose or paralyzed and inflicting great bodily injury.

If he is convicted on all counts, Ramos could spend the next two decades behind bars. But the most likely result is that the DA will allow him to plead to a reduced sentence in order to guarantee a conviction.

The lack of a murder charge indicates this is probably Ramos’ first DUI arrest, or he at least hasn’t been convicted before.

The good news, if there is any in this mess, is that Jacob’s six-year-old sister has been released from the hospital after undergoing surgery for her injuries. However, the children’s father is still in a coma due to a fractured skull and bleeding in the brain.

Meanwhile, Streets Are For Everyone, aka SAFE, will install a ghost bike for Jacob Ramirez later today.

The ceremony will take place at 7:30 pm on the 12300 block of Haster Street at Twin Tree Lane in Garden Grove.

………

Wannabe Trump assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks was one of us, as reports suggest he used his bicycle to scout the rally where the shooting took place last Saturday.

He then ditched his bike in full view of cops and crowds of people before climbing onto to warehouse roof and opening fire on the former president.

Which kinda raises the question of why no one noticed a man riding a bicycle while carrying a rifle at a political rally, whether it was in or out of a case.

Meanwhile, a writer for a conservative website writes, with tongue firmly planted in cheek, forget guns, it’s time to ban bicycles.

………

A Seal Beach police captain answers a reader’s question to say yes, bicycles are considered vehicles under California law, subject to the same rules and regulations as drivers.

But he doesn’t get it quite right, insisting bike riders can’t use a handheld phone, even though that law specifically applies to motorists only.

And he bizarrely says bicyclists should slow and come to a complete stop at any intersection without a green light, which would mean pissing off drivers by stopping at every uncontrolled intersection.

Then again, we seem to piss off drivers if we stop for stop signs, as well as when we roll through them.

And God help you if you find yourself blocking a driver’s turn because you stopped for a red light.

………

Gravel Bike California marks their 5th Anniversary by revisiting their favorite LA Area route.

………

It’s now 211 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And 37 full months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

………

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

The solemnity of a poignant Birmingham, England slow ride in memory of a fallen bicyclist was interrupted by angry drivers blaring on their horns over the momentary inconvenience of having to slow down to go around them. Which kinda made the bicyclist’ point for them.

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

Once again, cops and the news media conflate electric motorcycles and ebikes as if they’re the same thing, with sheriff’s deputies complaining about kids on illegal off-road electric motorcycles — not electric bicycles — terrorizing customers at an Orange County mall with air-soft guns.

………

Local 

LAist reports on the health effects of chronic noise, as the US Department of Transportation says Los Angeles is one of the country’s loudest counties, thanks largely to our incessant traffic.

 

State

A writer for Forbes explains how to love living carless in California. It’s long past time stories like this lost any shock value, when up to a fifth of Angelenos don’t own cars, and seem to manage okay without one. 

A San Francisco writer asks if the city’s most harrowing bikeway is about to become a thing of the past, as a new water taxi promises to replace the narrow chasm of the Posey Tube’s bike/pedestrian sidewalk, which he describes as the “ninth circle of cycling hell.”

 

National

Strong Towns looks at ways to build a biking culture to make your city stronger.

Writing for Streetsblog, former Southland resident Melissa Balmer says it’s time to revive the 1990’s Bikes Belong campaign to help deliver needed funds for active transportation infrastructure, and stop killing people.

Planetizen says specially equipped data bikes can help government agencies better understand conditions on bike paths by collecting information on trail accessibility and pavement conditions to prioritize maintenance projects. That’s if anyone actually cares about conditions on bike paths once they’re built, let alone budget for it.

PeopleForBikes says a simple bike bus helped transform a south Tempe, Arizona neighborhood, while reconnecting students and their parents with joy.

Emergency responders were caught off guard when they found themselves in the middle of a Colorado gravel race as they responded to a bicyclist injured in a multi-rider crash, with competitors reportedly swerving in front of the ambulance. Seriously guys, give emergency vehicles a wide berth, regardless of whether you’re competing in a race or just riding to the corner market. Someone’s life could depend on it. 

Boston officials refute claims that new bike lanes and road diets are slowing ambulance response times, saying roadways are engineered to provide room for emergency vehicles, and ambulances can drive through bike lanes when necessary to get around stalled traffic.

This is the cost of traffic violence. The woman killed in a Philadelphia collision while riding her bike Wednesday night has been identified as a 30-year old medical resident specializing in pediatric cancer patients at a Philly children’s hospital.

 

International

Momentum says the health benefits of bike commuting mean it could be one of the best decisions you ever make, cutting your risk of dying from any cause nearly in half.

There’s a special place in hell for whoever tethered an 18-month old horse to an old bicycle wrapped in barbed wire in an English field, without food or water, leaving the horse emaciated and covered in lice; fortunately, it has made an “astonishing” recovery since after it was rescued five months ago.

Heavyweight boxer Derek Chisora is accused of headbutting a food delivery rider outside a London restaurant, after the victim refused Chisora’s demands that he dismount instead of riding near the fighter’s kids.

Business is booming for a British man who launched a cargo bike sandwich delivery service last month, saying he just used his bike to deliver a few ham sandwiches, and things took off from there.

 

Competitive Cycling

Thursday’s stage of the Tour de France went to former hour record holder Victor Campenaerts, who came out in front of a three man sprint to the finish, while the race leaders held back for the day.

Road.cc says Tadej Pogačar could have ridden a heavier mid-tier bicycle and still matched the time of second-place finisher Remco Evenepoel over the Galibier.

 

Finally..

That feeling when they won’t let you use the drive-thru, so you ride your bike up to the counter inside, instead. Why settle for single wheel propulsion when you can ride a two-wheel drive ebike?

And why steal one bike, when you can use a fork lift to make off with four at once?

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

Five-year old Jacob Ramirez dead following Garden Grove DUI hit-and-run; his father and sister remain in comas

July 16, 2024 / / 2 comments

I really didn’t want to write this one.

For over a week now, we’ve followed the story of the Garden Grove family who  were run down by an allegedly drunken hit-and-run driver as the parents rode their bikes, towing their children behind in child trailers.

The crash left the father and two of the kids critically injured, while the mother and their eight-month old baby were hospitalized in stable condition, and released a few days later.

However, the news about their five-year old son, Jacob Ramirez, continued to get worse; by Friday, we learned he had been declared brain dead.

Now KABC-7 is reporting that Jacob has been discontinued from life support.

The crash occurred shortly after 7:30 pm on Sunday, July 7th, on the 12300 block of Haster Street near Twin Tree Lane, when they were apparently run down from behind by Santa Ana resident Ceferino Ascencion Ramos.

Ramos fled the scene, but was arrested shortly later after he was followed by a witness to the crash.

He reportedly had a .22 blood alcohol level at the time of his arrest — nearly three times the .08 legal limit. The station reports he was on his way to buy more beer at an Anaheim liquor store when he slammed into the family.

He has been charged with felony counts of hit-and-run with permanent and serious injury, failing to stop at a hit-and-run accident with injury, and driving under the influence of alcohol causing injury, with sentencing enhancements for leaving a victim comatose or paralyzed and inflicting great bodily injury.

More charges will be pending now, including a likely murder charge if Ramos has a previous DUI on his record.

It’s also possible that the news could get worse.

The story reports that Jacob’s father, 27-year old Angel Hernandez Mejia and his seven-year old sister remain in comas over a week after the crash.

A crowdfunding campaign for the family has raised over $64,000 of the $100,000 goal, though it’s likely they’ll need a lot more than that before this is over.

This is at least the 29th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the seventh that I’m aware of in Orange County.

It’s also worth noting that reports have indicated none of the family members were wearing bike helmets, which are legally required for children under 18.

However, there’s no way to know whether that would have been enough to prevent their injuries in this collision.

My deepest sympathy and prayers for Jacob Ramirez and all his family and loved ones. 

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

Garden Grove mom fears for gravely injured 5-year old hit-and-run victim, and Caltrans discusses PCH safety feasibility

July 10, 2024 / / Comments Off on Garden Grove mom fears for gravely injured 5-year old hit-and-run victim, and Caltrans discusses PCH safety feasibility
Just 174 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

My apologies, again. 

On top of everything else I’ve been dealing with lately, I’ve had a major flare-up in my diabetic neuropathy, which knocked me on my ass Monday night. Or maybe it was just everything I took trying to control it. 

Also, let me know if you’re interested in filling in for me when I’m out of commission next month, whether you’d like to pen a single post, or take over this site a day or two.

Anything goes, as long as it’s related to bicycles or traffic safety. 

Just email me at the address on the About page if you’re interested in volunteering. 

And thanks to tomexploresla for today’s graphics.

………

Graphic by tomexploresla

The news from Garden Grove is getting worse.

On Monday, we discussed the allegedly drunken hit-and-run that took out an entire family in Garden Grove Sunday evening, as the parents were towing their children in child seats and bike trailers.

The crash left the father and two kids critically injured, while hospitalizing the mom and her eight-month old baby.

Now the mother is reporting that, while the father and one child are showing some signs of improvement, their five-year old son, Jacob Ramirez, suffered significant brain damage in the crash, and may not survive his injuries.

A witness followed the driver as he attempted to flee, and police arrested the driver, identified as 29-year-old Santa Ana resident Ceferino Ramos.

A crowdfunding campaign for the family has raised nearly $33,000 of the $100,000 goal.

Although there are also reports that someone created a fake crowdfunding page in the family’s name, demonstrating once again that there are no limits to just how low some people will go to scam others.

………

Caltrans is hosting a series of public meetings, starting tomorrow, to discuss the feasibility of improving safety on deadly PCH through Malibu.

Although the only thing that will really improve safety would be converting the highway into a slow-speed Main Street designed to serve the local community and all road users, rather than pass-through commuters.

………

San Diego announced the official opening of the re-imagined Pershing Drive, transforming the previous car sewer into a tamed street with a fully separated, two-way bikeway stretching from North Park to Downtown.

The street was an auto-centric hellhole when I lived down there four decades ago. And something tells me it didn’t get any better since. So this should be a huge improvement.

Meanwhile, the two-year old closure of popular two-lane shortcut Bachman Place will extend for yet another year, before eventually reopening with “bikeway enhancements” connecting the Mission Valley and Hillcrest neighborhoods.

………

Streets For All is urging you to attend one of a series of public meetings, including today in Pico Rivera and tomorrow in El Monte, to tell Caltrans to stop flushing our hard-earned tax money down the toilet, and cancel induced demand-inducing plans to widen the 605 Freeway.

It’s long past time to drive a stake through this proposal that somehow keeps rising from the dead, and spend the money on transit, bike and pedestrian projects, instead.

………

Megan Lynch forwards video of a woman harassing a New York food delivery rider for the crime of wearing a Palestinian keffiyeh around his neck, calling him a terrorist and blocking his bike with her car.

………

It’s now 202 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And 37 full months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

Meanwhile, Santa Monica is accepting applications for approximately 90 vouchers worth up to $2,000 toward the purchase of ebikes or bicycles, along with safety equipment including helmets, locks and lights for income-qualified residents.

And Salt Lake City has launched their own program, providing up to $1,300 off the purchase of a new ebike, depending on the model and the buyer’s income level.

………

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

That’s more like it. Pennsylvania prosecutors have thrown the book at a road-raging 57-year old Mechanicsburg PA man who deliberately rammed a bike rider and tried to run them off the road, charging him with attempted aggravated assault by vehicle, recklessly endangering another person, terroristic threats and other offenses.

Anti-bike agitators are spreading “factually incorrect and negative” rumors suggesting trees will be chopped down to make room for what will eventually be the UK’s biggest bike lane.

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

A 55-year old man in Oxford, England is on trial for “wantonly or furiously” bicycling for killing an 81-year old woman, who died in the hospital days after they collided on a pathway.

Bike riders in Bournemouth, England are coming under criticism for riding recklessly and weaving around pedestrians on a beachfront pathway.

More bad behavior in Wales, where young bicyclists are accused of causing serious damage to a nature preserve by building their own cycle track and mountain bike jumps.

There’s even bad behavior from the Tour de France, where Belgian cyclist Victor Campenaerts was observed peeing into an empty water bottle, and throwing the piss-filled bottle into a field.

………

Local 

Streetsblog reports city officials are beginning planning work on closing Wilshire Blvd between Alvarado and Carondelet Streets to reconnect the two sides of severed MacArthur Park. While they’re at it, why don’t they just close the whole damn thing from the Pacific to DTLA?

The author of Bike Seattle received an epiphany on a visit to Long Beach, when he realized Seattle could use bikeshare docks to daylight intersection, like Long Beach’s “wonderful” legacy bikeshare system.

 

State

A Santa Barbara writer says something has to be done about young ebike riders throughout the city, complaining that juvenile riders don’t have the training to operated motorized bicycles. Although as we’ve discussed lately, it’s not clear if he’s talking about teens riding ped-assist bicycles, or throttle-controlled electric motorbikes.

Caltrans will install seven miles of new bike lanes on Palo Alto’s El Camino Real. Now someone tell them to do PCH next.

San Francisco residents got out the torches and pitchforks at a community meeting to discuss a proposed bike network in the North Beach neighborhood, fearing it could be another Valencia Street.

A San Francisco website suggests what while doorings are down in the city, a recent death highlights a neighborhood divide, as safety improvements have skipped some areas populated by people of color.

 

National

Forbes vets the best electric foldies.

Bicycling suggests that bikemakers should offer more lightweight bikes for heavyweight riders who outweigh pro cyclists. Unfortunately, this one doesn’t seem to be available anywhere else, so you’re on your own if the magazine blocks you. 

A Denver TV station is raising funds for a makeover of a young boy’s room for when he gets out of the hospital after crushing his voice box when he crashed his bicycle.

Michigan’s carfree Mackinac Island will finally get its first speed limit — for bicycles and ebikes.

Police in Troy, New York have some ‘splaining to do, after a man they were chasing drowned in the Hudson River while attempting to flee on his bicycle.

A New Jersey woman faces charges for the drunken crash that killed a 44-year old man when she slammed into his bike while driving on the shoulder of the roadway to pass another car on the right, with her three-year old in the back of the car.

The family of a 65-year old Louisiana man want answers after he was killed in a collision with an off-duty sheriff’s deputy while riding his bicycle at 1:30 am, in a strange neighborhood 20 miles from home — and want to know why he was supposedly riding in the roadway when there was a freshly paved, fully separated bike path right next to it.

 

International

An automotive website examines which carmakers have also made bicycles, like a mid-2000s “Hummer” foldie, for instance.

Cycling Weekly considers whether tossing the booze will make you a better bicyclist.

Velo reports on their favorite bicycles from the recent Eurobike trade show, including a seriously weird gravel bike.

Toronto bicyclists are getting a new protected bike lane on one of the city’s deadliest corridors.

There’s a special place in hell for whoever stole eight bicycles worth the equivalent of over $33,000 from a Salisbury, England gravel fest.

This is who we share the road with. A British man will spend 17 years behind bars for killing a baby and her aunt when he slammed into their car, minutes after posting a photo showing himself driving 141 mph with a blood alcohol level nearly three times the legal limit; he’ll also face a well-deserved 21-year driving ban once he’s released.

An English website says Bremen, Germany ranks as one of the world’s best cities for bicycling, thanks to visionary leaders who invented the bike lane in the 1970s. Except to quote Gershwin, it ain’t necessarily so.

Berlin is testing a new cycle track built beneath an overhead subway to accommodate future growth. But aren’t subways supposed to be underground?

 

Competitive Cycling

Russia’s Aleksandr Vaslov is out of the Tour de France after breaking his ankle when he veered off the road near the end on Sunday’s stage — shattering his bike in the process — yet somehow finished the stage anyway, despite being clearly disoriented.

Good news from Provo, Utah, where surgeons successfully reattached the right arm of California-based cyclist Ryan Jastrab, after he virtually severed it near the shoulder by catching a metal barricade as he was rounding one of the final turns on the last lap of the Salt Lake Criterium.

Bicycling reports the popular Life Time Crusher in the Tushar gravel race has been cancelled for this year due to wildfires in Utah. This time, you can read it on Yahoo if the magazine blocks you. 

 

Finally…

You can carry just about anything on a bicycle — even 34 pounds of purloined barbecued brisket. Why settle for a cellphone mount when you can mount a ham radio on it, instead?

And that feeling when the mountain lion that attacked you while you were riding was actually just someone’s angry kitty.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

Bike-riding Garden Grove family run down by hit-and-run driver, and charges in 2022 death of Newport Beach bike rider

July 8, 2024 / / Comments Off on Bike-riding Garden Grove family run down by hit-and-run driver, and charges in 2022 death of Newport Beach bike rider
Just 176 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025. 

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Before we start, I’m scheduled to have surgery for my torn rotator cuff next month. 

They tell me I can expect to be unable work for anywhere from two to four weeks afterwards, depending on my tolerance for pain. 

Rather than letting this site go dark for an extended period, I’m hoping someone will be willing to step into my shoes, whether for a few days or a few weeks. 

You wouldn’t need to do everything I do. Or anything I do, for that matter.

Anything at all would help, from one or more people to take over this site for a day or two a week, to writing a single guest post to help fill this space. And it could be anything you want to share with the local bicycling community, as long as it’s related to bicycles or traffic safety. 

Just email me if you’re interested in volunteering. You can find the address on the About page above. 

Photo by Artyom Kulakov from Pexels.

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In breaking news, a hit-and-run driver ran down an entire family out for a bike ride in Garden Grove Sunday evening.

The victims were apparently two adults towing their children in bike trailers.

Reports variously report that one person was hospitalized in critical condition, while others say two children and one adult were critical; the others were said to be in stable condition.

The crash occurred around 7:30 pm near Haster Street and Twintree Lane in Garden Grove.

A witness followed the driver as they fled, but again, there are differing reports on whether an arrest has been made.

Hopefully we’ll learn more today.

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A 58-year old man is facing belated felony charges for killing a bicyclist in Newport Beach two years ago.

Ronald Elston Benjamin was charged with felony counts of vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated without gross negligence and driving under the influence of a drug causing injury, along with misdemeanor child abuse and endangerment, with a sentencing enhancement for inflicting great bodily injury on the victim.

The victim in the June 10, 2022 collision is identified only as George H., but neither the name or date correspond with anything in my records.

There’s no word on why it took so long to file charges. However, the misdemeanor count and hidden identity of the victim suggest he may have been a child, although there may be other explanations.

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Tragedy struck the cycling world once again over the weekend, when 25-year old Norwegian cyclist Andre Drege was killed during the Tour of Austria on Saturday.

Drege was descending the Grossglockner, Austria’s highest mountain, when he somehow crashed, leaving the Tour de France peloton in shock. The only witness, Slovenia’s Jaka Primožič, offered no details beyond saying the crash should never have happened, and was nobody’s fault.

The race’s final stage was cancelled, with the planned competition changed to a memorial ride in Drege’s honor.

The rider for UCI Conti team Coop-Repsol was set to join the WorldTour next year.

Meanwhile, former Italian champ Marta Cavalli was lucky to survive when she was struck by a driver while on a training ride near her home in northern Italy; she was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.

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The holiday death toll in the US ranged from 10-years old in Houston, Texas, to 83 in St. Petersburg, Florida; only one of those drivers cared enough and had the basic human decency to stop afterwards.

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Bike Talk talks with California Assemblymember Laura Friedman, who is virtually guaranteed to be my new Congresswoman.

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Yes, please.

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Britain’s anti-bike whack job Jacob Rees-Mogg was one of the Conservative Members of Parliament shown the door in last week’s UK election.

https://twitter.com/jonburkeUK/status/1809112773072212437

Although maybe someone should tell New York’s governor that support for congestion pricing actually wins elections.

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It’s now 200 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And 37 full months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

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

No bias here. After San Diego attempted to improve safety on Convoy Street by removing parking and installing bike lanes, all the local media seems capable of addressing is a resulting lack of street parking, even as officials work to mitigate it; another station calls it “parking chaos.”

No bias here, either. London’s Daily Mail writes that people in Hove, England are furious over plans for a lane reduction and two-way bike lanes, as the price balloons to ten times the original estimate, with some motorists making the usual prediction for the usual driving nightmare.

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

A red grouse chick was the victim of unauthorized mountain biking in a Welsh natural preserve; a hiker discovered the chick with a bicycle tire mark across its dead body. Seriously, don’t do that crap. There’s usually a reason they say “not here.”

In a prime example of major assholism, a British man allegedly assaulted a teenaged girl after her mom stopped short while backing her car out of the driveway, causing the man to fall off his bicycle; he reportedly responded by slamming the car door into her, then slapping her. There is never an excuse for violence, no matter how justified you may feel in the moment. If you feel that anger building, just get on your bike and ride away.

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Local 

Better bike paths, safer sidewalks, more trees, and reduced traffic could be coming to El Sereno, thanks to funding left over from the defunct 710 freeway extension project. Just imagine what we could build by cancelling every highway expansion project.

 

State

A California resident won a $2,200 judgement against ebike maker Delfast over the company’s failure to deliver their newest model after an apparently successful crowdfunding campaign.

Ventura County has approved a new $1.7 million bike lane on Santa Rosa Road in the unincorporated portion of the county between Camarillo and Moorpark.

The Bay Area will take a big step backward this fall, with construction slated to begin on ripping out the bike and pedestrian lane on the Richmond-San Raphael bridge, to use the space for an emergency motor vehicle overflow lane Monday through Thursday, though officials plan to offer a bike shuttle bus when the lane is closed.

 

National

The Washington Post examines whether self-driving cars can stop the carnage on American streets, saying bicyclists are split on whether to love or loathe them. Considering how crappy food delivery robots have proven to be, I fall in the latter camp, at least for the foreseeable future.

A kid in Colorado was lucky to escape with minor injuries when someone shot at the child and their father as they tried to reclaim a stolen bicycle from shooter’s yard, leading to a barricade situation with SWAT officers.

A Kansas City man is using lowrider bicycles to help keep kids out of trouble while building valuable life skills along with their bikes.

A Chicago letter writer reminds drivers we’re only as safe as they make us.

Here’s another one for your bike bucket list, exploring Maine’s Acadia National Park using 45 miles of historic gravel carriage roads.

A crowdfunding campaign is raising funds to establish a nursing scholarship program in memory of a fallen 25-year old nurse from Rhode Island who was killed when she was run over after falling off her bike.

The National Park Service will begin limiting access to Georgia’s Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park by banning cars, and only allowing bicycles when shuttle buses aren’t operating.

Page Six reminds us that Jennifer Lopez is one of us, as she goes for a casual bike ride in the Hamptons with her “good friend” and vocal coach — but the site fails to recognize Einstein’s “cryptic quote” about life being like a bicycle.

Lyft is hiking the price of New York’s Citi Bike bikeshare system 20%, leading to complaints from users.

Residents of St. Petersburg, Florida still get their mail delivered by bicycle, one of just three such cities in the US. Although there really should be more.

 

International

Momentum considers how to build a 15-minute city with bicycles at the center, like a two-wheeled Tootsie Pop.

A Toronto bike rider visits Montreal to explore why it’s one of North America’s best cities for bicycling.

Vanity Fair reports British Crown Prince William is zipping around London’s Windsor Castle on an electric scooter “like a spring break-ing teen.”

Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce is one of us, taking a bike ride through the streets of Amsterdam, as one does, prior to girlfriend Taylor Swift’s concert in the city.

Traditionally conservative Toowoomba, Queensland, is making a bold move towards bicycling, in an effort to become the Copenhagen of Australia.

 

Competitive Cycling

Bike Radar ranks the bicycles of the Tour de France in order of retail price.

He finally did it. Mark Cavendish set a new record for Tour de France stage wins, breaking the legendary Eddy Merckx’ “unbreakable” record of 34 stages; Cavendish tied Merckx at 34 three years ago, and put off his planned retirement in an effort to break the mark. But he also got a slap on the wrist for not holding his line in the sprint to the finish.

Tadej Pogačar held on to the yellow leader’s jersey on Sunday, though he was unable to drop his rivals on a course featuring 20 miles of gravel roads; France’s Anthony Turgis sprinted for the win.

Jonas Vingegaard was able to remain in competition Sunday despite suffering two flats on the gravel and finishing the race on a teammate’s bike; he currently sits third overall behind Remco Evenepoel.

Pogačar barely avoided disaster when several riders went down in stage 5, using his bike skills to avoid a center divider and remain upright — although it’s arguably his moves that caused the riders behind him to go down.

https://twitter.com/Eurosport_ES/status/1808508323592872121?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1808508323592872121%7Ctwgr%5E0f3d7c29ee4160c5c0eab805149b37f4892159fd%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fvelo.outsideonline.com%2Froad%2Froad-racing%2Ftour-de-france%2Frace-leader-tadej-pogacar-dodges-possible-disaster-in-tour-de-france%2F

UCI proved once again that it has no sense of humor or romance, fining French cyclist Julien Bernard for stopping to kiss his wife during the individual time trial on stage seven; Bernard said it was worth it for the dream moment.

 

Finally…

The future of cargo deliveries could have four wheels and pedals. Your next bicycle could have two chains.

And some people will just park anywhere.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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