I hope you had a good, environmentally conscious Earth Day yesterday.
I celebrated by spending most of the day on it.
Meanwhile, today’s image is Metro’s new limited-edition Earth Day TAP card; the fully functional bamboo TAP cards are available at any Metro Customer Center until they run out.
AB 1557, which redefines an ebike as having a motor limited to maximum of 750 watts, and lowers the maximum assisted speed for Class 1 and Class 2 ebikes to 16 mph, passed out of the Assembly Transportation Committee 12-0; the purpose is to clearly distinguish ebikes from e-motos of questionable legality.
AB 2284 passed the committee with 15 votes in favor; it would require the state Attorney General to maintain a public list of electric two-wheeled devices that don’t meet the state’s legal definition of an ebike.
Now for the bad news.
AB 1942 also passed the committee, and would mandate that all Class 2 and Class 3 ebikes have to be registered with the DMV and display license plates, just like cars, trucks and SUVs. It would be one of the most effective ways to put the brakes on ebikes, limit the growth of an otherwise legal alternative to driving, and start us down the slippery slope that could lead to licensing regular bikes and their riders.
Somewhere in between good and bad, and also moving forward, are AB 1569, which requires students from kindergarten up to complete an approved electric bicycle safety training course before they could park an ebike on school grounds, and AB 2595, which creates a pilot program allowing cities in San Mateo County to ban kids under 12 from riding any form of ebike.
Mejer had been warned by deputies last year that the Surron Ultra Bee she purchased for her son was an illegal electric motorcycle capable of speeds up to 58 mph, and that her son had been riding it recklessly.
She is accused of lying to investigators about after the crash, claiming neither she nor her son owned a similar e-moto.
Meanwhile, former Marine pilot and substitute teacher Ed Ashman remains hospitalized, facing a long and costly recovery; a crowdfunding page to help pay his medical expenses has raised over $87,000 of the $90,000 goal.
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The Central Hollywood Neighborhood Council is hosting a CD13 City Council candidate forum next Thursday.
My finely honed political instincts tell me incumbent Hugo Soto-Martinez will probably cruise to re-election in the June primary. But I’m often, if not usually, wrong about such things, so take that with a bag of salt.
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The City of LA reminds us about the first West LA CicLAvia this Sunday.
Get ready for the first @CicLAvia of 2026! Step into the open streets of CicLAvia—West LA on Sunday, April 26, 2026, from 9 am to 4 pm. Whether walking, jogging, or biking, experience 3 miles of car-free streets along Santa Monica Boulevard and Westwood Boulevard.🚶♂️🏃♀️🚴♂️ pic.twitter.com/L81d9DtjBh
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes — and pedestrians — just keeps on going.
County officials in Ireland are urging the country’s government to reconsider a plan for mandatory hi-visibility clothing at night for bicyclists and e-scooter users, even though the initial plan to require hi-viz collapsed within a day from a withering backlash; then again, they’re also calling for pedestrians to wear hi-viz when walking 24/7. Which is about the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
The Victor Valley News reports an ebike rider was hospitalized after being struck by a driver Wednesday evening — although photos of the bike make it look at lot more like a dirt bike or e-moto than anything that could be classified as an electric bicycle under current California law.
The boy was reportedly riding recklessly when he collided with the victim as the older man was crossing the street. Deputies identified the suspect and arrested him after serving a search warrant at a nearby home in Lake Forest.
The Orange County Sheriffs Department reports he was on a Surron e-motorbike, which is not street legal and can reach speeds up to 68 mph, depending on the model.
And thanks to the OCSD for making it clear the boy on an e-moto, and not a Class 1, 2 or 3 ped-assist ebike.
Although whether the results can be replicated in other car-dependent countries, such as the US, remains to be seen.
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We could be getting bike lanes on Vermont Ave after all.
Although the motion only calls on the city to study adding bike lanes to the project. And as well all know, studying is what this city does best, rather than actually, you know, doing anything.
Video circulated throughout the Mideast showing the President of Iran casually riding a bike with the governor of Isfahan and other officials over the weekend, appearing unfazed by the American and Israeli attacks.
Once again, a bike trail has apparently been sabotaged, this time in France near the Swiss border, when someone strung a cable across the trail at eye level that knocked two kids off their bicycles while on a family outing.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
Maybe it’s the result of a bad translation. Two sets of South Korean parents were arrested and released on charges of child neglect after their middle school kids reportedly threatened people with their “Pixie” bikes, the site says is an abbreviation for “fixed-gear.” Can’t speak for you, but “pixie bike” kinda has a ring to it.
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Local
An op-ed in the new Rupert Murdoch-owned California Post looks at LA’s invention of the phrase “large asphalt repair” rather than repaving, which would trigger legal mandates increasing the costs, concluding that fewer streets will get fixed and we’ll all be worse off as long as “fixing a street means triggering a cascade of costly mandates.”
The Smithsonian, of all sources, looks at the history of yesterday’s Bicycle Day, 83 years after Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann accidentally ingested LSD before bicycling home from his lab in Basel, Switzerland, taking the first trip on two wheels.
Taiwan’s Giant bicycle is reportedly on the verge of launching the first ebike powered by a semi-solid-state battery, a step between lithium-ion and solid-state batteries, which could provide more energy for less weight, longer life and less risk of fires.
And state and local government, from the governor and legislature on down to the mayor, city council and school board, are out to lunch…
But the bottom line is this: Government at all levels is failing to lead, course-correct, and address –– with even minimal efficacy –– a range of issues that increasingly degrade life here.
In fact, elected officials, driven by cronyism, interest-group pressure and out-of-touch far-left ideology, mostly make the crises worse.
Look, I’m no fan of our current city leaders, but life here ain’t all that bad.
It just could be a lot better.
And something tells me, we might not agree on who the special interests are. Never mind what “far-left” ideologies are just practical solutions that we haven’t been tried yet.
Like building more bike lanes and providing safe, practical alternatives to driving, rather than doubling down on the same things that got us in this mess.
Liberal hellfire and damnation — or maybe just fire — photo by Sergey Meshkov from Pexels.
California lawmakers are right to be concerned about the spread of high-powered electric devices marketed as e-bikes. There is some truth behind the now-familiar image of 12-year-olds doing wheelies through suburban streets on machines far more powerful than a legal electric bicycle. But too many of this year’s bills respond to that concern by going after the wrong target, and they will not deliver the results anyone actually wants. Instead of drawing a clear line between legal e-bikes and illegal e-motos, these proposals blur it further. They add burdens to the bikes people actually rely on, while failing to directly address the devices creating the confusion in the first place.
California needs to protect the promise of e-bikes, not let the e-moto backlash distort the law. In this century, e-bikes have been one of the most important transportation success stories in the state. They help people replace car trips. They expand access to biking for older adults, working families, and people who might not otherwise ride in hilly terrain. They make biking more practical for longer distances, hills, errands, school dropoff, and everyday life. In a state that talks constantly about climate, congestion, affordability, and mobility, e-bikes should be an obvious part of the solution, and under settled California law, they already are.
It’s worth checking out.
And taking just a few moments to voice your support.
Investigators still don’t have a suspect, but describe the vehicle as a Toyota Previa van that sped away west on Anaheim.
Anyone with information is urged to call LBPD Collision Investigation Detail Detective David Doughtery at 562/570-7355, or anonymously through LA Crime Stoppers at 800/222-TIPS (8477) or LACrimeStoppers.org.
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Streets Are For Everyone is joining with CD4 to call for help cleaning up the Forest Lawn Drive bike lanes on Saturday, April 25th ahead of this year’s Finish the Ride in Griffith Park (and good luck to Kayla as she competes in Hong Kong). For some reason, I can’t embed Instagram Reels, so you’ll have to click on the link.
SAFE is also celebrating the re-opening of the Marvin Braude Bike Trail in Pacific Palisades after it was washed out by last year’s storms, as well as progress on bike lanes in Griffith Park.
Finally, SAFE and Finish the Ride are bringing back the city’s much loved and lamented LA River Ride on May 3rd. And yes, it will still contain that confusing stretch south of DTLA where the bike path hasn’t been completed, and probably won’t be for some time.
Streetsblog’s Joe Linton visits Santa Monica’s MANGo.
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New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez talks healthcare while vlogging from her bike seat.
Thanks to Megan for forwarding the video.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
British bicyclists may be in for a surprise, after an English city finally got around to installing flexible wands to keep drivers from illegally parking in a bike lane. Which if Los Angeles drivers are any example, won’t actually stop anyone.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
The Pasadena City Council unanimously approved plans for the 710 Freeway stub, including housing and multimodal transportation initiatives, but wants to talk more about restorative justice for the mostly Black residents who were unceremoniously shoved out to make room for the never-built freeway.
Louisville, Kentucky has painted new downtown bike lanes a bright shade of neon green, not to keep drivers out, but to make them more obvious to pedestrians, who were falling off the curbs. Evidently, they don’t film many movies or TV shows there, because that looks like the same shade Hollywood producers went to war against here in Los Angeles.
Shockingly, business owners have “concerns” over a proposed new bike lane on a New York thoroughfare. In other words, kinda like every business owner everywhere when new bike lanes go in. Never mind that studies show their business is usually better within a few months afterwards.
Oopsie. The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority said recently that just 1,700 people use a new bikeway each day; that turned out to be the number of people who use the new showers at the end of the path, compared to 7,000 people who used the actual pathway in just a four-hour window.
Before we get started, I hope you’ll join me in thanking Cohen Law Partners for renewing their ad and their support for another year.
Looking back, they’ve helped sponsor this site for 13 years now.
It’s their support, and that of our other sponsors, that allows me to keep bringing this site your way every day.
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Now that’s more like it.
I saw this Tennessee license plate while riding in my wife’s car in West Hollywood on Sunday. And could only wish we had something like it in California.
A Bicycle Awareness license plate was in the works a few years back, but to the best of my knowledge, it ever got enough pre-orders to go into production, though I’d love to be corrected on that.
But even that wouldn’t directly address the three-foot passing law, or any other specific bike safety laws, like specifying our right to take the lane in most cases.
But we can hope, I guess.
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WTF?
Patch offers a muddled, barely comprehensible look at the rise of ebikes, focusing primarily on enforcement and injuries, while not only conflating the usual ped-assist bikes and e-motorbikes, but also tossing e-scooters into the mix while they’re at it.
In fact, they offer only one sentence addressing the difference between legal ebikes and illegal e-motos.
Law enforcement and researchers alike caution that rising injury numbers mirror the explosion in ridership. Still, confusion between legal e-bikes and higher-powered “e-motos” continues to complicate enforcement and policy. That confusion has triggered a wave of legislation.
That’s it.
Then there’s this, as they loop older, helmetless e-scooter jockeys into the mix.
Because they can, I guess.
Not all accidents or scofflaws involve children or teens. On Wednesday a 61-year-old Petaluma man traveling on the wrong side of a sidewalk on an electric scooter without a helmet collided with a pedestrian. However, accidents are more common among youth. And a study by the Mineta Institute reported that existing evidence points to a wide variety of people using electric bicycles for transportation, including children, older adults, and people with disabilities. The study’s authors also noted that electric bicycle patients 65-years and older had both the highest hospitalization rate and highest head injury rate.
They also say a part of the problem is a lack of age limits, while failing to mention that California passed a law last year allowing cities to ban ebikes for younger riders, and faster e-mopeds and e-motos require a license.
And that Class 3 ebikes are limited to riders over 16 — as are e-scooters and hoverboards, for that matter.
But the last half of the piece is devoted entirely to a debate over Lamorinda Assemblywoman Rebecca Bauer-Kahan’s AB 1942, which would require visible licenses for all ebikes, and Encintas State Sen. Catherine Blakespear’s SB 1167, which creates a clear distinction between ebikes and e-motos, while banning deceptive advertising promoting the latter.
In case anyone needs a refresher, here is how ebikes are currently classified under California law.
Streetsblog LA’s “This Week in Livable Streets” is always a must read to keep up on all the meetings and events happening each week in safer streets and livable communities, as well as our own wonderful world of bicycles.
So apparently, the people in the big, dangerous machines don’t have to obey traffic signals or pass safely if someone on a bike isn’t in a bike lane.
Never mind all the other little things like not speeding, not driving distracted as long as you minimize the distractions, or even swigging some swill before getting behind the wheel.
And bike riders are free to do all kinds of stupid and potentially dangerous things, as long as they don’t ride salmon and stop for red lights.
Got it.
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Gravel Bike California rides the Redlands Strada Rossa XII(4K).
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
Police in Florida went out of their way not to blame an elderly driver for a collision that injured two triathletes, using the most passive language possible by reporting that “The driver and bicyclists ‘did not identify” each other ‘until the crash was unavoidable'” — even though the 74-year old driver right-hooked them on a lane that was supposed to be closed to traffic.
Visit California explains how to get around Los Angeles without a car, but somehow forgets to mention walking or riding a bike. Or even renting a damn scooter, for that matter.
A pair of Navy vets plan to ride from California to Shanksville, Pennsylvania and on to New York City to mark the 25th Anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, while benefitting the Tunnel to Towers Foundation. California is a big place, though, so maybe they should mention where they’ll be leaving from.
Heartbreaking news from Spartanburg, South Carolina, where two kids were killed by an alleged drunken, unlicensed driver violating the open container law; the victims, just 9 and 12-years old, were riding their bikes on the sidewalk when the driver jumped the curb.
Before we get started, I hope you’ll join me in thanking Cohen Law Partners for renewing their ad and their support for another year.
Looking back, they’ve helped sponsor this site for 13 years now. Their support, and that of our other sponsors, is how I can continue to keep bringing this your way every day.
………
Now that’s more like it.
I saw this Tennessee license plate while riding in my wife’s car in West Hollywood on Sunday. And could only wish we had something like this in California.
A Bicycle Awareness license plate was in the works a few years back, but I don’t think it ever got enough pre-orders to go into production, though I’d love to be corrected on that.
But even that wouldn’t directly address the three-foot passing law, or any other specific bike safety laws, like specifying the right to take the lane.
But we can hope, I guess.
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WTF?
Patch offers a muddled, barely comprehensible look at the rise of ebikes, while focusing primarily on enforcement and injuries, and conflating not only the usual ped-assist bikes and e-motorbikes, but tossing e-scooters into the mix while they’re at it.
In fact, they offer only one sentence addressing legal ebikes and illegal e-motos.
Law enforcement and researchers alike caution that rising injury numbers mirror the explosion in ridership. Still, confusion between legal e-bikes and higher-powered “e-motos” continues to complicate enforcement and policy. That confusion has triggered a wave of legislation.
That’s it.
Then there’s this, as they loop older, helmetless e-scooter jockeys into the mix.
Because they can, I guess.
Not all accidents or scofflaws involve children or teens. On Wednesday a 61-year-old Petaluma man traveling on the wrong side of a sidewalk on an electric scooter without a helmet collided with a pedestrian. However, accidents are more common among youth. And a study by the Mineta Institute reported that existing evidence points to a wide variety of people using electric bicycles for transportation, including children, older adults, and people with disabilities. The study’s authors also noted that electric bicycle patients 65-years and older had both the highest hospitalization rate and highest head injury rate.
They also say a part of the problem is a lack of age limits, while failing to mention that California passed a law last year allowing cities to ban ebikes for younger riders, and faster ebikes require a license.
And that Class 3 ebikes are limited to riders over 16 — as are e-scooters and hoverboards, for that matter.
But the last half of the piece is devoted entirely to a debate over Lamorinda Assemblywoman Rebecca Bauer-Kahan’s AB 1942, which would require visible licenses for all ebikes, and Encintas State Sen. Catherine Blakespear’s SB 1167, which would create a clear distinction between ebikes and e-motos, while banning deceptive advertising regarding the latter.
In case anyone needs a refresher, here is how ebikes are currently classified under California law.
Streetsblog’s “This Week in Livable Streets” is always a must read to keep up on all the meetings and events happening each week in safer streets and livable communities, as well as our own world of bicycles.
So apparently, the people in the big, dangerous machines don’t have to obey traffic signals or pass safely if someone on a bike isn’t in a bike lane.
Never mind all the other little things like not speeding, not driving distracted as long as you minimize the distractions, and go ahead and swig a few gallons of booze before you drive.
And bike riders are free to do all kinds of stupid and potentially dangerous things, as long as they don’t ride salmon and stop for red lights.
Got it.
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Gravel Bike California rides the Redlands Strada Rossa XII(4K).
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
Police in Florida go out of their way not to blame an elderly driver for a collision that injured two triathletes, by using the most passive language possible, reporting that “The driver and bicyclists ‘did not identify” each other ‘until the crash was unavoidable'” — even though the 74-year old driver right hooked them on a lane that was supposed to be closed to traffic.
Visit California explains how to get around Los Angeles without a car, but only focuses on Metro, and forgets to mention you can also walk or take a bike. Or even rent a scooter, for that matter.
A pair of Navy vets plans to ride from California to Shanksville, Pennsylvania and on to New York City to mark the 25th Anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, while benefitting the Tunnel to Towers Foundation. Although California is a big place, so they might want to mention where they’re leaving from.
Heartbreaking news from Spartanburg, South Carolina, where two kids were killed by an alleged drunken, unlicensed driver with an open container in his car; the victims, just 9 and 12-years old, were riding their bikes on the sidewalk when the driver jumped the curb.
A town in Norfolk, England is being criticized for spending nearly $700,000 to build a mile-long bike lane, which has supposedly made it less safe by narrowing the street, even though that’s been shown to slow drivers while improving safety for everyone — although bicyclists have a legitimate complaint because haven’t kept delivery drivers from blocking them.
The AP correctly notes we’re living in a golden age of cycling, with “weekly brilliance and once-in-a-lifetime rivalries,” thanks to Tadej Pogačar, Mathieu van der Poel, Wout van Aert, Remco Evenepoel and Jonas Vingegaard. And you can add Demi Vollering, Lorena Wiebes, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot and the incomparable Marianne Vos, as well.
Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Oh, and fuck Putin.
A town in Norfolk, England is being criticized for spending nearly $700,000 to build a mile-long bike lane, which has supposedly made it less safe by narrowing the street, even though that’s been shown to slow drivers while improving safety for everyone; although bicyclists have a legitimate complaint because the city hasn’t kept delivery drivers from blocking the lane.
The AP correctly notes we’re living in a golden age of cycling, with “weekly brilliance and once-in-a-lifetime rivalries,” thanks to Tadej Pogačar, Mathieu van der Poel, Wout van Aert, Remco Evenepoel and Jonas Vingegaard. And you can add Demi Vollering, Lorena Wiebes, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot and the incomparable Marianne Vos.
Yet he was still behind the wheel and on the streets until he managed to kill someone.
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Here’s the ebike problem in a nutshell.
Police in the Denver suburb of Aurora, Colorado got in hot water when they spotted a group riding dirt bikes, e-motos and four-wheelers popping wheelies, weaving through traffic, and ignoring traffic signals before fleeing from the cops.
They only managed to capture a single 30-year old rider, as all the others slipped away.
The problem came when they talked about it on social media and described the vehicles as ebikes, even though none would have met the definition of an ebike under Colorado law.
Or most other states, including California.
Yet the cops, the media and most of the public somehow lump all forms of two and three-wheeled electric vehicles together as ebikes.
Never mind how powerful or fast they are, whether they have functional pedals, or have been illegally modified to exceed legal speed limitations.
As far as they’re concerned, they’re all ebikes, whether you’re talking about a ped-assist road bike with a barely noticeable battery, or something that looks, rides and feels like a motorcycle.
And so we end up with laws like the one recently passed in New Jersey that requires a license and registration for any bike with an electric motor, without distinguishing one from another.
Or in California beach towns, which restrict where and how fast ebikes can be ridden, banning ped-assist bikes from bike trails along with electric motorbikes.
Nobody wants to hear about budget constraints from people who helped create them, or that’s it’s someone else’s responsibility, or that making improvements is complicated.
It’s really that simple.
Whether you’re talking about the blight at City Hall, or potholes in the streets, bike lane “barriers” in need of replacement, or a mobility plan that never seems to get built.
The leaders of this city have put us on the brink of bankruptcy, and then complain about a lack of funding to get anything done.
Either fix the damn city, or get the hell out of the way and let someone else do it.
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The early bird may not get the worm.
But you could get the tickets, in this case.
Noche de las Luminarias is back ✨ Early bird tickets are on sale now.
Join us for a special night of good food, music, and community, all in support of the work building a healthier, more connected San Gabriel Valley.
Sad news from Calistoga, where a bike rider was killed after being rear-ended by a driver when they allegedly crossed in front of the oncoming car. As always, the question is whether there were any independent witnesses, since the driver has an inherent interest in seeing their own action in the best possible light.
National
Popular Science digs into the eternal question of why you never forget how to ride a bike, because the brain stores skills differently than facts, making them easier to remember.
A team of people with Parkinson’s will marked the centenary of America’s iconic Route 66 by riding the 1,600 miles from Chicago to Los Angeles, in part to show how physical activity can fight off the effects of the disease.
In a Washington Post op-ed, a Virginia bicyclist and writer builds an effective case that new laws cracking down on ebikes are going too far, “making a basic form of transportation and a familiar element of childhood less accessible.”
In fact, he calls said laws “tyranny on wheels.”
Kevin R. Parker explains that ebikes make the bicycles that gave him a sense of freedom as a child more accessible for people who might not want, or be able, to ride.
But laws like New Jersey’s draconian new restrictions that treat every form of ebike the same destroys that newfound accessibility.
The justification for New Jersey’s legislation is safety. A 13-year-old boy was killed on an e-bike when he collided with a landscaping truck in September, and there are real safety concerns for riders and pedestrians when it comes to faster and more powerful e-bikes. E-bikes that hit high speeds can be a problem. But the law doesn’t distinguish between different kinds of e-bikes when it comes to licenses, registration and age limits. A 70-year-old on a pedal-assist bike riding to the grocery store is treated identically to a teenager on a powerful e-bike doing 40 mph. The proposed regulations are a blunt instrument that restricts transportation options and increases cost for people,
New Jersey isn’t alone. Cities across the country are debating new regulations, and not just for e-bikes. After Murphy signed the bill into law, New Hampshire introduced a bill requiring a $50 annual registration fee on all bicycles that operate on paths, roads or trails funded by state or local government, including children’s bikes. In California, progressive Bay Area communities have moved to ban or restrict e-bikes on paths and in public parks — the same communities that spent years and millions promoting alternatives to cars, now cracking down on the most effective alternative.
We’ve seen similar moves up and down the Southern California coast, as cities crack down on ebikes of every kind, repeatedly conflating electric motorcycles and non-street legal dirt bikes with far slower and less powerful ped-assist bikes.
The answer, Parker says, isn’t found in the usual progressive arguments. Instead, he offers a case that should appeal just as well to conservatives, if not better.
Freedom.
Activists fighting e-bike restrictions frame it as climate policy or transportation equity. The political language focuses on progressive political priorities. There’s a stronger argument to be made based on personal liberty: State governments are restricting personal mobility and imposing licensing and registration on bike riders across the board. There are reckless e-bike riders who break the rules of the road and put themselves and other citizens at risk. If they violate the speed limit, ignore traffic lights or blow through stop signs, local law enforcement should hold them responsible. But by pursuing aggressive blanket regulation, policymakers are making a basic form of transportation and a familiar element of childhood less accessible.
Works for me.
Hopefully, it will work for members of the California state legislature when they consider SB 1167, which would redefine electric bicycles, mopeds and motorbikes to create a clear distinction between them.
The bill would require that an electric bicycle must have fully operational pedals and an electric motor capable of no more than 750 watts; anything else could not be legally called, marketed or sold as a bicycle or ebike.
What is currently termed a motorized bicycle would be redefined as a moped, with clearer definitions of vehicle design, power output, and a top speed of 30 mph on level ground.
The term motor-driven cycles would include electric motorcycles offering less than 3,750 watts and 5 brake horsepower.
Both categories would require that manufacturers and marketers clearly specify that they are not electric bicycles.
The bill represents a rare case of successfully splitting the baby, allowing restrictions on high-power electric motos while maintaining the freedom offered by lower-speed ped-assist ebikes.
it seems dear old dad helped his son convert the bike to an electric motorcycle by replacing the pedals with motorbike pegs, removing the 20 mph speed governor, and rewiring the engine to do up to 60 mph.
That driver’s car was then rear-ended by another driver, because of course it was.
However, only person on the bike was injured.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
You’ve got to be kidding. A Pennsylvania driver is accused of intentionally hitting a boy on a bicycle in a road-rage incident that lasted multiple blocks; the man claimed he didn’t hit the kid on purpose, even though security video shows him blaring on his horn before attempting to cut the boy’s bike off, then ramming him from behind at a red light even though he had plenty of room to stop. He also claimed “he would have never struck the kid if the kid had stayed in his lane,” and bizarrely blamed the boy for purposely trying to upset him. Somehow, I’m guess that the only thing the kid did to purposely upset him was riding his bike in front of the guy’s car.
An Oakland man received a $400,000 settlement after he suffered a fractured skull, concussion, multiple spinal fractures, broken nose, ligament tears, and lacerations to his face, neck and shoulders when his bike hit a pothole that was obscured by shadows and a bend in the road.
Sometimes, I don’t even know what to say. An Ohio ebike rider was killed, and a driver injured, when the ebiker tried to turn left into a church parking lot and struck the side of the other man’s SUV — then they were both stuck by the driver of a second car when the first driver got out to check on the original victim.
That’s more like it. After bicyclists packed a Winnipeg, Manitoba city council committee meeting to demand temporary protected bike lanes, the committee voted to make them permanent, instead. Although they’d have to be pretty damn strong barriers to keep out the speeding driver who killed a bike rider in 2024, doing up to 100 mph.
Take this remarkably mild-mannered introduction to the story.
To offset the cost of the e-bikes, which can run in the thousands of dollars, the state launched a generous voucher program — one that heavily subsidized, and in some cases completely offset, the purchase price. Demand soared.
That’s when the problems began.
Vouchers were quickly snatched up. A website set up to manage applications crashed amid heavy demand.
Despite wide public interest, the program quietly and abruptly ended last year — a victim, in some ways, of its own success.
Now the state is pivoting, leaving cycling advocates disappointed and those who were able to snag e-bike vouchers counting their lucky stars.
No mention there, or anywhere else in the story, of the three years it took the California Air Resources Board to even issue the first voucher.
Let alone the alleged malfeasance by, and investigations into, San Diego nonprofit Pedal Ahead, which was hired by CARB to manage the program. And failed miserably.
And then the whole damn thing collapsed, apparently because getting cleaner cars on the road mattered more than getting more cars off it.
The demand was apparent. Some cycling advocates say they were under the impression additional vouchers — that would have been funded by the subsequent $18 million in state funding — were on the horizon as soon as a new administrator of the program was secured.
But those dollars were instead diverted to CARB’s Clean Cars 4 All program, which helps lower-income Californians trade in their gas-fueled vehicles for new or used plug-in hybrid electric, zero-emission vehicles or motorcycles, she said.
“California is committed to supporting e-bikes as a clean mobility alternative to vehicles. But, ultimately, the state has a limited budget and many competing priorities,” CARB spokesperson Bradley Branan told The Times.
That’s it.
Apparently, they couldn’t find a single disgruntled applicant willing to go on the record with a single complain against how the program was (mis)managed.
And yes, that’s me over here waving my hand until it falls off.
The whole program was the very definition of a clusterfuck and a shitshow from beginning to end. Because calling it a complete and barely mitigated disaster is being far too kind.
Instead, the Times very belatedly and very politely suggests that it was just one of those unfortunate things.
You, just another California program gone bad. Nothing to see here.
And don’t pay attention to the man behind the curtain.
And once again, they couldn’t seem to find a single traffic safety advocate to talk to. Evidently, no one picked up the phones at Streets For All and Streets Are For Everyone.
Or maybe the Times just lost their numbers.
The best they could do was a traffic engineering expert from USC, who evidently doesn’t consider traffic speed or road design a contributing factor when it comes to collisions.
Consider these milquetoast stanzas.
Many of the worst intersection were designed to take a lot traffic. They’ve been optimized for car movement (so pedestrians, buses cyclists come second to moving cars). This is controversial because some feel the city needs to prioritize getting solo drivers out of cars and onto mass transit and other alternatives. But most of these intersections lack protected bike and bus lanes.
As frustrating as the waits at these intersections can be, Moore argues that the city has generally done a adequate job of moving so many cars and is skeptical much more can be done short the type of “congestion pricing” system being tried in New York and European cities.
While I’m all in favor of congestion pricing, I doubt there are many people who would give LA traffic even an “adequate” grade.
That said, here’s the list in all its glory.
Highland and Sunset
Sepulveda and Lincoln
MLK and Crenshaw
3rd and Alvarado
El Segundo and Hoover
Los Feliz and Griffith Park
Pacific Coast Highway and Sunset
Santa Monica and Highland
Fountain and Hyperion
Crenshaw and 9th
La Cienega and Centinela
Vermont and 28th
Wilshire and Sepulveda
Pacific Coast Highway and Channel/Chautauqua
Two of those are walking distance from my apartment. Which probably explains why I feel like my life is in danger every time I walk the dog.
And I’ve ridden, driven of bused through most of the rest, and can attest that they do, indeed, suck.
But I don’t think you can evaluate any intersection without considering the design of the roadways leading up to it, or the speed of the drivers approaching it.
This list should be a call to action to fix each of these. But if we only address the intersections themselves, we won’t solve the problems that put them on it.
The bill would require that an electric bicycle must have fully operational pedals and an electric motor capable of no more than 750 watts; anything else could not be legally called, marketed or sold as a bicycle or ebike.
What is currently termed a motorized bicycle would be redefined as a moped, with clearer definitions of vehicle design, power output, and a top speed of 30 mph on level ground.
The term motor-driven cycles would include electric motorcycles offering less than 3,750 watts and 5 brake horsepower.
Both categories would require that manufacturers and marketers clearly specify that they are not electric bicycles.
Dirt bikes and other electric motorbikes intended for off-highway use will be treated as off-highway motor vehicles and must display identification plates or devices, and be certified by an accredited independent lab.
And perhaps most importantly, it would not require licenses, registration or insurance for ped-assist ebikes — a requirement that would be the best way to kill the growth of ebikes, and limit their ability to replace motor vehicle use.
Four people were hospitalized with major injuries.
The driver then fled the scene, crashing into the curb as he made his escape. After which, someone in the crowd got their revenge by shooting up a couple of nearby businesses, neither of which probably had anything to do with it.
………
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
He gets it. A North Carolina letter writer patiently explains that bike riders already pay for the streets, and that anyone who wants to exclude bicycles from the state’s roadways because they don’t pay gas taxes might as well exclude EVs, too — then signs off that he’s “Not a cyclist or an EV owner.”
Los Angeles city leaders have apparently managed to get their collective heads out of their metaphorical asses long enough to request an extension on $100 million in funding from California Active Transportation Program, rather than give the money back to the state after concluding that city staff reductions meant they couldn’t meet the deadline to finish projects in Wilmington, Boyle Heights and Skid Row.
Locals are enraged when an English bike path is closed for two years because someone living in van community did some unauthorized digging in an embankment next to the path.
A travel website says Kyoto and Hokkaido, Japan have joined better known locations like Amsterdam, Tuscany and Mallorca, Spain as the world’s best bicycling destinations. But they bizarrely feel the need to illustrate it with an AI-generated photo of bicyclist riding in front of a spectacular mountain range and temples that don’t exist.
January 16, 2026 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on New CA ebike bill still 3 times UK limits, Hollywood Walk of Fame officially sucks, and we pay the price for LA potholes
Which anyone who lives or works near, or has ever visited, Hollywood Boulevard can attest to, without ever going to the effort of visiting all the other tourist attractions.
The plans are already in place, after undergoing the city’s usual endless series of public meetings, complete with compromises to placate every possible point of view.
Plans are also ready to convert the stretch of boulevard between Highland and Orange into a multi-block pedestrian plaza, which could do more than anything else to improve safety and reinvigorate the area.
I asked former LADOT Executive Director Seleta Reynolds that very question all the way back in 2018, and was told it was shovel ready as soon as a majority of Angelenos demanded it.
Who, I might add, were never asked that question.
Our leaders just assumed, as usual, that most people would oppose it, based on the city’s standard decision making process of giving in to whoever screams the loudest.
Never mind that an overwhelming two-thirds majority of city residents voted to build sidewalks, bikeways and bus lanes when they passed Measure HLA.
Hollywood doesn’t have to suck.
We just lack leaders with the guts to do anything about it.
Which the city is not fixing, due to massive maintenance budget cuts by a mayor and city council who put us on the brink of bankruptcy due to unfunded pay raises for city employees.
But what would be, at worst, an expensive inconvenience for motorists could lead to serious injuries, or worse, for people on bicycles.
Because your front wheel unexpectedly dropping out from under you can result in severe falls. And swerving to avoid a pothole can put you in the path of oncoming drivers and their big, dangerous machines.
So the city might save a few bucks by not fixing potholes now, and pay for it later in the form of massive legal settlements.
But we’ll be the ones who really get stuck with the bill.
Last chance to share your input! We’re planning safety and mobility upgrades along Broadway in South LA, including bus lanes, safer crossings, traffic calming, and bike connections. Community input matters. Take the survey before it closes: https://t.co/anT8UgTaCEpic.twitter.com/gwF1tMQk0F
In a sight not seen for three years to the day, vehicles travel Highway 1 on Jan. 14, 2026, in front of the newly repaired Regent’s Slide. The highway’s full reopening to travel between Cambria and Carmel revives a vital economic lifeline for local business owners and residents. pic.twitter.com/le7qAiuj2s
— Caltrans Central Coast (District 5) (@CaltransD5) January 15, 2026
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British ‘cross competitors demonstrate the many and varied ways you can fall off a bike.
Police busted a man wanted for probation violation and robbery after he led them on a pursuit from National City into San Diego, riding his ebike on the freeway. Although something tells me he wasn’t riding anything that would be called an ebike under the new California bill, let alone British regulations.
Speaking of recalls, if you’re wearing an R.X.Y bicycle helmet, stop; the helmets violate minimum bike helmet standards, and pose a risk of serious injury or death. Which is definitely a bad thing.
A British mother of three was sentenced to 35 years to life behind bars for a road rage-fueled feud, after running down and fatally ramming an ebike rider with her Range Rover at speeds of up to 75 mph. Once again, the victim probably wasn’t riding something that should be called an ebike.
It will be that particular shade known as “Hollywood Green,” allowing filmmakers to work around the color to avoid the disastrous rollout when Los Angeles first went green.
Painting the lanes is probably a good idea, given that most drivers seem to think the Fairfax bike lane is only there to bypass backed-up traffic, seemingly never occurring to them that there might be a bicycle in it.
And usually there isn’t, for exactly that reason.
Green paint isn’t likely to stop those drivers. But at least they’ll have a better idea what law they’re breaking.
AB 1557 would also reclassify more powerful electric motorbikes as motor-driven cycles, which would require a license to operate.
Maybe then we can finally get everyone to stop calling the damn things ebikes, and blaming all of us for the actions of a relative few teen knuckleheads.
No bias here, either. Aussie commenters set their hair on fire when a photo showed a bicyclist riding in a bus lane, insisting that the single rider was somehow “inconveniencing hundreds” during rush hour. Must have been a damn big bus, because no one else in the photo seems to be even a little bit inconvenienced.
Oceanside police are pushing for a change in the city’s ebike regulations to prohibit carrying a second rider and allow cops to temporarily seize the ebikes of scofflaw riders. Although once again, they seem to be conflating ped-assist ebikes with illegally modified electric motorbikes and dirt bikes.
A New York news site says bicyclists and ebikers continue to exceed Central Park’s 15 mph speed limit, endangering lives, while the speed limit is almost impossible to enforce. Yet the photo shows a couple kids on e-motorbikes with full face helmets, one pulling a wheelie, making it clear that regular bicycles and ped-assist ebikes aren’t the problem. And speed guns work just as well on them as they do with motor vehicles.
Streetsblog says the way to solve the problems in Central Park is to build better bike lanes around the park’s perimeter, so non-recreational riders don’t have to use it as the only safe route across town.
Bike Radar explains why your ebike battery loses power when it’s cold, with a lithium ion battery having just half the power at 4 below zero Fahrenheit that it does at 77 degrees. Which is not a problem most SoCal riders are likely to have.
More proof protected bike lanes work. A year-old protected bike lane in the Australian state of Tasmania hasn’t had a single bicycling crash since it was installed, despite seeing 6,000 trips each month, while overall crashes on the street have dropped nearly a third.
Spoiled little daschund ! Grandpaw built this custom snoopy inspired dog house from scratch for his grand dog Louie! #daschund#dogsoftiktok#dogtiktok#dogmom
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This is the cost of cancelling the state’s ebike voucher program.
According to a paywalled story from the Sacramento Bee, republished by Governing, the California Ebike Incentive Program was literally life-changing for residents of a low-income neighborhood in the city.
Dewayne McDaniel, who got a bike he uses to get to the store to buy food, praised the scuttled e-bike program: He couldn’t afford a car but, with the bike, he could easily pick up groceries for himself and for his neighbor who was unable to walk. Another neighbor in his complex, AJ Ortiz, walks with a cane but loves the e-bike he purchased with a voucher. Ortiz’s bike gives him a low-impact way to incorporate more exercise and movement into his life, and he can visit friends downtown and get to the bank without having to rely on the bus.
The money remaining in the program, about $23 million, was shifted to California’s Clean Cars 4 All vehicle trade-in program, which only helps if you can afford a new car.
And many low-income Californians can’t.
But Ortiz, McDaniel, Crespo, Emery and Sala were disappointed that the e-bike program was ended rather than retooled.
In a lot of our families in our community, those old 15-year-old cars, that’s the only car they have, and they’re not gonna give it up,” Sala said. The Clean Cars 4 All program gives up to $12,000 toward the purchase of an electric or hybrid vehicle made within the last eight years, but participants have to trade in their old, less-efficient car. “To give it up for an e-vehicle that costs more money, that will — they’ll have to get a loan — they’re not gonna do that. … The program the way they’re designing it now will not work for poor communities. It just won’t.”
Not to mention that the vehicle program is a trade-in program, so it only works if you already own a car.
So if you don’t have a car or can’t afford one, you’re screwed. And without the voucher program, many low-income Californians would even struggle to afford a used bicycle, let alone a new ebike.
Sala said that many people in low-income neighborhoods would love to get an e-bike if they could afford the initial purchase: The $2,000 voucher could cover the whole cost of a bike as well a helmet and locks. The California Air Resources Board reasoned that an e-bike can replace many shorter car trips for far less money.
As the story points out, not only can an ebike replace shorter car trips, they can also serve as mobility devices for people who might not otherwise be able to get around.
McDaniel uses the bike to get food, too. He said he couldn’t afford a car and — because he has congestive heart failure — he couldn’t walk very far or carry much weight. “I can only do a limited amount,” he said. But now with a new form of transportation, he can go to the store and pick up food for himself and one of his neighbors.
“It makes life simpler,” he said “It gives you a better quality of life.”
Even with his health issues, he can get around with the help of the bike.
This is what CARB took away from us with their money grab that took ebike vouchers from low-income Californians to redistribute to people who can afford a car, actually want one, and are able to drive one.
But according to CARB, they didn’t have a choice, arguing that the state’s budget crisis required them to transfer any available funds into the car program.
Which may or may not be true.
But if they hadn’t had their heads so far up their own asses so badly mismanaged the program for three years, the funds would have been distributed to people in need long before the state budget became an issue.
I’m not the only one who’s called for a state investigation into the whole damn thing. But California Attorney General Rob Bonta apparently is too busy suing Donald Trump to look into problems closer to home.
So we’re stuck with waiting for legislature to find the funds, and the will, to restore the program.
And hopefully find another state agency to manage it.
………
They get it. And they don’t get it.
Simultaneously.
The Los Angeles Times reports on the problem of ebike-born hooligans who attacked a man in Hermosa Beach, leading to charges against at least two boys in their early teens, along with alleged South Bay teen ebike gangs, and others who engage in aggressive behavior.
Some beach cities residents say the teens’ aggression reflects a broader attitude: that e-bike riders, emboldened by their protected status as minors, increasingly act as if they own the streets.
“They run stop signs, they’re speeding, they’re flipping people off. They’re on their phones or filming themselves for social media,” said Redondo Beach resident Darryl Boyd. “It’s a circus — a psycho circus.”
Then the Times carefully makes the point that there are differing types of ebikes.
The machines cost anywhere from $1,000 to $6,000. Type 1 e-bikes, which are pedal-assisted, and Type 2 e-bikes, which are pedal- and throttle-assisted, can reach up to 20 mph, while Type 3 e-bikes can go up to 28 mph and may only be ridden by those 16 and older in California.
Pocket bikes, electric motorcycles and electric dirt bikes, which are generally not street legal in California, can reach speeds of 45 to 55 mph. These devices are particularly popular among teen boys, who use them to perform high-speed stunts.
So far, so good.
The problem comes in the rest of the whole damn article, which never bothers to point out that the misbehaving lads aren’t riding Type 1 or 2 ebikes. Or even Type 3, for that matter.
Instead, they’re roaming the streets on the bikes discussed in that second paragraph above. Mini bikes, e-motorbikes, dirt bikes, and other assorted fast and high-powered machines of questionable legality, too often purchased by indulgent parents.
Which wouldn’t matter, except when the inevitable crackdown comes — as it has in Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, El Segundo and now Torrance — affecting everyone on any type of ebike, from middle school students and working class bike commuters, to the dirt bike-riding miscreants who caused the problem in the first place.
So congratulations to the LA Times for being one of the first media sources to crack the code on the various ebike classes.
But maybe they could be just a tad clearer on which riders actually cause the problems.
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
This is why people keep dying on our streets. An alleged road-raging driver who chased an Irish bike rider and pinned his bike to the curb, just for the crime of being told to get off his phone behind the wheel, had his two-year driving ban for failing to cooperate with police investigators lifted, after convincing the judge that it was just too darn inconvenient.
This is why people keep dying on our streets, part two. A Fresno man walked without a single day behind bars after pleading no contest to killing a bike-riding college professor and mother of five, after the CHP helpfully testified that it was just really, really hard to see her due to a hill; the judge sentenced him to 180 days split between work release — which doesn’t have to be served in jail — and home vacation.
Albuquerque, New Mexico is addressing a troubling number of bicycling deaths by installing the city’s first protected bike lane, though only as a pilot project. Because apparently, something that has been repeatedly proven to work to improve safety doesn’t count unless it’s proven again here, wherever here happens to be.
Once again, someone has been killed in a dispute over a stolen bicycle, this time in Austin, Texas, where police allege a 30-year old man shot another man after accusing him of stealing his bicycle. How many times do we have to say it? No bike is worth a human life. Just let it go, and let the cops handle it.
Suspected ICE agents, who refused to identify themselves or who they work for, tackled a Columbus, Ohio man off his bicycle as he was riding by. Which begs the questions of whether they had a warrant for him, and how could they tell if he was here legally by how he rode a bike?
The Plymouth, Massachusetts Select Board showed a little common sense by rejecting even a watered-down crackdown on ebikes. By all means, go after the kids on illegal electric motorbikes and dirt bikes, but leave ped-assist bikes out of it.
Adding a shared use bike path to a replacement for Baltimore’s Chesapeake Bay Bridge could add more than a billion bucks to the total cost, which is already double previous estimate of $7.8 billion. Maybe if they didn’t pave the pathway with gold and diamonds it might lower the cost a bit.
Woodstock, Georgia — no, not the one where the famous music festival took place — is considering a crackdown on minibikes and ebikes after two men on the former caused $7,000 in damage by doing burnouts on their e-minibikes in a shopping mall elevator. Once again victimizing all ebike riders for the actions of a few on e-motorbikes.
Momentum says Canadian bicyclists are, like the eponymous geese, migrating south for the winter, but opting for spots in South and Central America rather previous sunny spots like Arizona and Florida, which may seem questionable in the current environment.
