December 21, 2021 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Fed ebike credit dies with Build Back Better plan, and Lime CEO says it’s the cars littering out streets, not the scooters
Welsh dirt and pedal bike riders were warned to be careful, after a man suffered horrific neck injuries when someone sabotaged a bike trail by stringing barbed wire over it at neck level. As we’ve said before, anyone who does something like this should face terrorism charges, because there is a clear intent to injure others to frighten people off their bikes.
Chicago advocates’ warnings of increased danger for people walking or riding bikes if a new Amazon warehouse was approved have come to pass, after a bike lane was erased to make room for a turn lane for the convenience of their drivers, dumping bike riders into traffic without warning.
October 28, 2021 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Driver flees on foot after hitting salmon scooter rider in DTLA, and Long Beach teen rideout marred by shoplifting
LA’s hit-and-run plague just keeps on going.
The LAPD is looking for a shirtless driver who ran off on foot after crashing into a woman riding an e-scooter in DTLA.
The victim was riding against traffic when she was struck, which means the driver probably wouldn’t have faced any consequences if he’d just stuck around.
Instead, he abandoned his car and fled on the sidewalk, for reasons known only to him at this point. It could be that he was drunk or stoned, the car was stolen, or possibly he was in the country illegally and feared deportation.
Or any one of a number of other possible explanations.
Meanwhile, the victim was hospitalized with a head wound, which means there is an automatic $25,000 reward for the arrest and conviction of the suspect.
An Arizona driver who ran a red light and slammed into a Flagstaff bike parade last March, killing one woman and injuring several other people, now faces multiple felony charges for kiddie porn after police discovered thousands of images on his phone when they got a search warrant to determine whether he was distracted at the time of the crash.
This is the cost of traffic violence. A Minnesota man whose license had been revoked faces a charge of criminal vehicular homicide after killing a 73-year old Catholic priest who was riding his bike on the shoulder of a highway; the 26-year old driver has 10 previous convictions for driving with a revoked license in just the last three and a half years. Just one more example of keeping a dangerous driver on the roads until it’s too late. He should have been jailed and his car confiscated after the second offense.
Talk about a rough year. A celebrity chef has filed suit against the NYPD alleging he was brutally beaten for violating a curfew when he attempted to deliver a pizza for a bicycle delivery service, after losing his restaurant when he caught Covid-19.
No bias here. After a Louisiana bike rider was injured in a collision, police bent over backward to blame the victim, while the story fails to mention that the pickup that hit him even had a driver.
International
No surprise here, as data from around the world shows that bikeshare usage goes up with warmer temperatures until it gets too hot, and wet weather discourages people from riding. In other news, water is wet, the pope is Catholic, and bears defecate in wooded areas.
The LAPD is looking for a hit-and-run driver who left-crossed a man on an e-scooter in Huntington Park, then fled the scene dragging the dangling rear bumper of her car behind her.
As always, there is a $25,000 standing reward in the City of Los Angeles for any hit-and-run resulting in serious injury.
But be warned before you click on the video.
It clearly shows the crash from multiple angles, and could be very hard to watch.
No bias here, either. DC’s conservative newspaper suggests the bike lobby is running the city, and forcing anti-car tactics on the unsuspecting driving public by reducing speed limits and improving safety on high risk corridors. And insists some crashes are caused by medical emergencies rather than reckless drivers, and sometimes bike riders might even be at fault. But unlike drivers, reckless bike riders hardly ever kill anyone.
A road-raging farmer in the UK was convicted of attacking a bike rider who followed him home to confront him after a punishment pass, because the man on the bike was riding in the roadway instead of on a separated bike path next to it; he was fined the equivalent of a whopping $146. I know as well as anyone how tempting it is to follow a driver who threatens your safety. But seriously, don’t. Just let it go and get on with your life.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
LA Times columnist George Skelton’s windshield bias is showing, as he says Gov. Newsom was right to veto bills that would have legalized jaywalking and stop as yield, calling them nutty bills that would allow people to harass drivers. Nothing like demonstrating you don’t understand the problem before criticizing the solution.
The current owner of a San Antonio, Texas bike shop once owned by a fallen bicyclist struggles to accept the slap on the wrist given the drunk driver who killed him. Cases like this send a clear message that driving drunk and killing another human being is really no big deal. And the lives of people on bicycles don’t matter.
An English man was the victim of a violent bike theft when a group of young thieves attacked him with a metal pipe as he rode along a towpath, stealing his $4,800 Trek mountain bike and leaving him with multiple injuries to his arm, wrist and back.
You’ve got to be kidding. A court in the UK absolved a driver with a long history of speeding tickets of her latest speeding charge, after accepting her claim that she had no choice but to speed to pass a nearly invisible bike rider, whose helmet was the only thing she could see. Because evidently, slowing down until it was safe to pass just wasn’t an option. Never mind waiting until you can actually see who you’re trying to pass.
Thirty-year old Katie Keough unexpectedly called it a career after more than a dozen years as a pro ‘cross cyclist, most recently competing as a guest rider for LA-based L39ION of Los Angeles.
October 12, 2021 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Blaming micromobility victims in New York, accusations of bias in Texas coal-roll crash, and School Streets kicks off in LA
I’ve known Duquette for some time, after connecting over some particularly egregious bike cases from San Diego and Orange Counties, as well as Riverside and Imperial Counties. Along with the advice he’s shared on topics from staying safe on the road, to how to find a good lawyer if you don’t.
I’m happy to have him join our roster of Los Angeles-area sponsors, all of whom I have personally vetted, to provide access to effective legal counsel throughout the SoCal region.
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The New York Times clutches its pearls over the rise in micromobility, noting that ridership surged 130 percent to 88.5 million in 2019, from just 38.5 million the year before.
Still, the e-mobility boom has brought significant safety challenges to New York’s already congested streets. At least 17 people have been killed while riding electric mobility vehicles this year, according to city officials. Revel, which operates an electric moped share program in the city, voluntarily shut it down for a month last year after three riders were killed.
Many pedestrians and cyclists complain about e-bike and e-scooter riders who speed, ride on sidewalks and run red lights and go the wrong way on streets.
Although if they think e-scooters pose a risk to pedestrians, just wait until they hear about cars.
But let’s be honest.
It doesn’t take a lot of observation to realize that people do stupid things, whether they are driving cars, riding bikes, walking or piloting scooters.
And while all of those can pose a risk to others, it’s the people in cars who do the most damage.
Yes, reckless riding on a scooter is stupid, and dangerous — to the rider and those around them.
But it’s far from the biggest danger on the streets.
“This case was not handled appropriately by the investigating agency. PERIOD,” Mathis wrote in a Facebook post. “Despite being encouraged by the Texas Department of Public Safety to treat the scene as a crime scene and to contact the D.A.‘s Office for advice on how to proceed, the investigating agency chose not to do so.”
Then there’s this, providing the first public clue as to why the kid appears to have been handled with kid gloves.
The attorneys say the 16-year-old was “coal rolling” the cyclists shortly before plowing into them, and said the teen’s connections to Waller County officials were the reason he was allowed to leave the scene after being questioned.
On Monday, Mathis acknowledged these connections, but added that investigators have yet to “see evidence of a city official directing the officer on the scene as to how to handle this particular situation.”
Although chances are, in a small county like that, no one had to tell the cops on the scene who the kid was.
Especially after mom and dad showed up.
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Now that’s more like it.
Los Angeles is closing a section of Westmoreland Ave to cars as part of the School Streets pilot program.
Pasadena now has an extra $462,900 to spend on DUI checkpoints, distracted driving enforcement, and bike and pedestrian safety operations, courtesy of a state grant. What, they couldn’t round up and make in an even $463,000 for some reason? Thanks to Megan Lynch for the heads-up.
California Congressman Jimmy Panetta says it’s disappointing that the proposed federal ebike tax credit was cut in half in a House committee, but it’s still a start. Disappointing doesn’t begin to describe it, especially when e-car buyers get ten times the $750 tax credit they’re planning to offer ebike buyers.
Portland should have a new 475-foot bike and pedestrian bridge over I-84 next summer, named for the city’s bike-friendly Congressman Earl Blumenauer. It’s an odd choice for a name since he isn’t dead or retired, which is usually the primary requirement to get something named after you.
Forbespromotes five new hosted European bike tours, starting at $3,199 for an ebike tour from Croatia to Montenegro. Or spend over five grand, and see where Slovenian cyclists Tadej Pogačar and Primož Roglič got their start.
French police are investigating the murder of a Spanish bikepacker, who was found in the roadway with several facial injuries, close to a popular cross-country bicycling route just south of Lyon on a trip that had started in the Netherlands.
Prior to this year, only three cyclists had ever won Il Lombardia and the Tour de France in the same season — Fausto Coppi, Eddy Merckx and Bernard Hinault. Now you can make that four, after 23-year old Tadej Pogačar accomplished the rare feat last weekend.
SACRAMENTO – CalBike is thrilled to announce that legislators approved a $10 million e-bike incentive program in next year’s state budget. Funded as part of the state’s campaign to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles, the program will help thousands of Californians get access to e-bikes to replace car trips. Bikes eligible will include bikes “designed for people with disabilities; utility bicycles for carrying equipment or passengers, including children; and folding bicycles.”
It joins bills to decriminalize jaywalking (AB 1238) and allow bike riders to treat stop signs as yields (AB122), which both pass out of committee in the state senate last week.
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Calbike and the LACBC are also stepping up efforts to oppose AB371, which would force bikeshare and e-scooter providers to extend insurance coverage to their customers, which could have a chilling effect on micromobility.
This is why we are frightened by a bill in the state Senate that could kill shared bike and scooter systems. It would require nonprofits, government agencies, and private companies that operate shared bike and scooter systems to extend their liability coverage to the sole negligence or reckless behavior of a rider, setting a legal precedent that no other industry is subject to. Just like a rental car company cannot be held liable for the reckless actions of their drivers (Graves Amendment), neither should shared bike and scooter operators Further, the proposed form of insurance would be highly susceptible to fraud due to the low cost and ease of staging accidents, with minimal burden of proof.
The bill would even apply to the nonprofits and government agencies that just got funded to operate bike share systems with some of the $20 million in Clean Mobility Options grants. The Air Resources Board clearly understands the potential of these systems; the legislature should also, and abandon this attempt to impose a fatally impractical requirement.
Let’s hope they get it.
While more probably can and should be done to protect bikeshare and scooter users, and those around them, this is not the time to make them financially untenable and drive micromobility users back into their cars.
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You can kiss Beverly Hills Bike Share goodbye.
The tony city is joining a growing list of SoCal cities in pulling up stakes on its docked bikeshare system at the end of this month.
I wouldn’t hold your breath on those new shared mobility options, though.
At least not as far as bikes or scooters are concerned.
Thanks to David Drexler for the forward.
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Cable news outlet Spectrum News 1 highlighted Walk ‘n Rollers bike repair hub and free bicycle distribution program.
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
No bias here. The mayor of an Iowa town is begging for lawsuits, let alone funerals, after posting a large sign telling drivers not to stop for bike riders where a popular bike trail crosses a two lane highway. Even though he insists he rides a bike himself, and only wants to improve safety by encouraging people in cars to kill people on bikes just keep going. Sure, let’s go with that.
Bike riders in Los Altos are calling a new freeway expansion project a death zone, with riders on the Foothill Expressway now expected to cross left over double right turn lanes in order to keep going straight.
Sad news from Chico, after it turned out the bikepacker killed by a grizzly bear while camping in Montana earlier this week was a 65-year old woman from the NorCal city.
There’s a special place in hell for the owner of a historic St. Louis building, who is threatening to evict a bike charity by Monday after the bicycles they’d planned to donate to disadvantaged kids were damaged in a partial building collapse last summer — even though the owner was renting them space in a building that had been condemned in 2013. They estimate it will take another $40,000 to clean and repair the bikes so they can be safely ridden.
Good for them. Inspired by a five-year old amputee, a group of Lafayette, Louisiana high school students are hoping to take a product they developed for a robotics competition to market; the adaptation kit they created can be added to any bicycle in minutes to assist people with missing or compromised legs to ride a bike.
This is the cost of traffic violence. An eleven-month old baby is dead and his father hospitalized after they were collateral damage in a collision between the drivers of a supercar and an SUV in Vancouver, when one of the vehicles slammed into a group of pedestrians.
When my wife and I visited London several years ago, we quickly learned walking around Parliament and Westminster Abbey meant taking your life in your hands. Now plans are in place to cut Westminster speed limits to just 20 mph to improve safety and encourage more people to walk and bike.
A British motorcycle rider got three years behind bars for fleeing the scene after slamming into a bicycle rider when he clipped the wheel of another bicycle and sliding across the roadway. He was arrested after he returned to the site of the crash on a borrowed bicycle, and was chased down by a cop who had to borrow another bike to catch him.
Sadly, we don’t have to worry about spoilers in women’s cycling. Twenty-one-year old Dane Emma Norsgaard won her first stage in the Giro Donne by just edging out SoCal’s Coryn Rivera on a course that circled Lake Como. No word on whether they waved to George and Amal Clooney as they went by.
Yin died at the scene after hitting his head on the sidewalk.
Initial reports indicated that both Skene and the woman sharing the scooter with him suffered minor injuries; it’s illegal for two people to share a scooter under California law.
Skene was arrested on a DUI charge.
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Yet another clickbait study professes to rank America’s best bike cities.
The report, from lawn care company LawnStarter, rated the 200 largest cities based on criteria ranging from bike lanes per square mile to fatalities and air quality.
For instance, LA’s crappy roads were unsurprisingly in the bottom 25% in terms of road quality, checking in at 163 nationally, while San Francisco came in two ranks lower.
Yet despite that, San Francisco just edged out Portland for number one, while my Colorado hometown checked in at number three.
Los Angeles came in at a deservedly low, low 145 overall, just beating out Bakersfield.
Yes, Bakersfield.
SoCal cities making the top 100 were
Orange 37
San Diego 48
Pasadena 51
Ontario 53
Long Beach 57
Irvine 58
Huntington Beach 59
Garden Grove 64
Torrance 66
Santa Ana 77
San Bernardino 89
Escondido 96
Rancho Cucamonga 98
Santa Monica is evidently too small to make the list, while all the other SoCal cities on the list joined Los Angeles in the bottom half loser’s bracket.
Despite what the anti-bike lane crowd will tell you, bikes increase accessibility for people who might not otherwise be able to walk or drive.
But they need our support, too.
There are loads of cyclists who ignore this as well, not getting behind disabled cyclists when we're lobbying for accessible infrastructure. Don't use us as a wedge, actually be allies. #UCAccessNow (no image descriptions on these photos, either) https://t.co/ZO6M1oLIjI
Outsidesays 2021 is the year of the bike, and gathers stories from the past year to give you all the information you need to get going or take your riding to the next level.
A moving piece from a Canadian writer, who celebrates the open streets and low traffic of pandemic era Toronto — despite the death of his own father, who was killed by a driver while riding his bike less than 20 minutes from his Nova Scotia home.
Scottish cops will don plain clothes and get on their bikes to enforce the country’s safe passing laws this summer, as researchers suggest everyone who regularly rides a bike in the UK will experience a pass so close it can frighten them off their bikes. It’s no different over here, except police are more likely to insist that three-foot passing laws are unenforceable. And yes, I’m looking at you, LAPD. And LA Sheriff’s Department. And CHP. Thanks to John McBrearty for the heads-up.
Thanks once again to Matthew R for his monthly donation help keep this site coming your way every day; donations of any size are always appreciated, no matter how large or small, whether recurring or otherwise.
June 1, 2021 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on “Elderly” Venice man killed by drunken e-scooter user, white woman orders Black prof off “her” road, and ebike bias in CO
Tragic news from Venice, where an “elderly” man was killed when he was struck by an e-scooter user.
Make that an allegedly drunk scooter user.
The crash occurred around 9:45 pm Saturday on Lincoln Blvd at East Marco Court.
According to a report for KABC-7, the scooter rider was allegedly 1) illegally riding on the sidewalk, while 2) illegally carrying a woman passenger on the back, and while 3) wasted.
The victim, who was described only as elderly, or by other accounts, older — which could mean just about anything — died at the scene after hitting his head on the sidewalk.
Both people on the scooter suffered minor injuries, while the man operating it was arrested at the scene for DUI.
It’s unclear whether he can be charged under the state law prohibiting driving under the influence, or the statute prohibiting biking under the influence, which carries a much lower penalty.
This serves as yet another tragic reminder that sidewalks are intended for pedestrians.
While it’s legal to ride a bike on the sidewalk in some California cities, you’re required to operated it safely, without posing an undue risk to people on foot. And basic human decency demands that you give as much space as possible and warn people before passing.
On the other hand, it is always illegal to ride an electric scooter on the sidewalk, or with a passenger.
And never while drunk or stoned.
Although I’d much rather see someone ride a bike or scooter while under the influence of anything than get behind the wheel of a car, which posses a much greater risk to everyone on the road.
But as this crash tragically shows, you can still pose a needless — and potentially fatal — risk to others.
Black University of Washington med school professor Edwin Lindo went out for a bike ride while on vacation, and ran into a white woman — aka a “Becky” — who literally told him he couldn’t ride his bicycle on the road she paid for with her property taxes.
Although this comment from an Aspen mountain bike instructor totally misses the mark.
“This is a framework of why it’s so important for e-bikers to have etiquette because they are now powered up with a weapon, really, that goes 20 miles an hour,” he said. “I say ‘weapon’ because now they can hurt themselves and others pretty easily.”
Never mind that it’s pretty easy to do 20 mph on a road bike, without a motor. And not that unusual on a mountain bike.
And while there’s no shortage of rude and/or inexperienced bike riders, no bicycle is a weapon, unless someone — like a cop, for instance — picks it up and uses it that way.
There’s there’s this bit of advice, which they apparently think is so important that it was repeated verbatim in a caption.
Though you may be tempted to ride side-by-side with your friends or family members so you can chat on your e-bikes, always ride single file and as far to the right as possible, unless you’re passing. This gives other cyclists and cars an opportunity to pass you safely.
Where do we even start?
This is sort-of decent advice for trail riders, but horrible for those riding on the road.
Yes, try to keep to the right on trails so faster riders can pass you. Unless you’re the faster rider, in which case you should pass politely.
And try not to ride abreast if it means clogging up the trail so others can’t enjoy it.
But on the road, riding like a gutter bunny puts you a greater risk of unsafe passes.
Most authorities, like the League of American Bicyclists and Cycling Savvy — and even Caltrans, for those of us in California — tell you to ride in the center of the lane, unless there’s a shoulder wide enough and clean enough to ride safely.
Riding two or more abreast in a single traffic lane can also increase your visibility and help hold the lane by forcing drivers to move into the next lane to pass you.
It’s also legal to ride abreast in many states, but check the law where you ride before trying it.
Like here in California, where police sometimes misapply the requirement ti right to the right to ticket people who ride abreast, even though there’s not one word prohibiting it under California law.
And they may not get it right where you are, either.
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Meet what may be LA County’s first protected bike lane.
A group of Black women rode from Harlem to DC, covering 250 miles in 65 hours to replicate a ride taken by another group of Black women 93 years earlier, while raising funds to provide good used bikes to people in need.
You’ve got to be kidding. An Irish driver walked when he was acquitted of dangerous driving for slamming into a group of bicyclists, and killing a 34-year old woman — despite coming around a blind curve at high speed on the wrong side of road — in part because the victim may have fallen off her bike before the impact. Never mind that she was probably just trying to get the hell out of his way to avoid getting killed.
And this pretty well puts Bernal’s win in perspective.
Just 24 years old, Colombia’s Egan Bernal now has more Grand Tour victories than Geraint Thomas (35yrs old), Tom Dumoulin (30yrs), Simon Yates (28yrs), and Richard Carapaz (28yrs), and an equal number to Primoz Roglic (31yrs) and Nairo Quintana (31yrs). #Giropic.twitter.com/04L8eSiW0M
March 18, 2021 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Ex-NBA star Shawn Bradley paralyzed in bike crash, Lime gets colorful, and calls for all bikes to be included in Fed rebate plan
He suffered a traumatic injury to his spinal cord and underwent surgery to fuse vertebra in his neck. There’s no word on where the paralysis starts, but it implies he may be paralyzed from the neck down.
There’s also no word on whether his condition is permanent. Doctors predict an extremely difficult recovery, while the eight week delay in announcing the injury suggests he may have waited in vain for signs of improvement before going public.
And there’s no mention made of the driver, or whether any charges will be filed.
But as many people have commented on social media, it would have been very hard not to see a seven and a half foot man on a bicycle directly in front of his or her car.
Bradley now plans to use his injury to promote bicycle safety.
And yes, this is exactly the cost of traffic violence.
Thanks to Opus the Poet and Anthony D. Morrow for the heads-up.
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Lime is unveiling colorful, new and improved e-scooters in the City of Angels.
The new Lime scooter features upgrades that make it slightly heavier than the current G2.5 fleet, leading to more stability and durability during rides. Larger wheels and improved suspension lend to a smoother ride, particularly when riding over bumps. The upgraded battery can support up to 18.6 miles on a single charge, versus 14 miles with the older fleet. Other features include:
Dynamic brake on front wheel and drum brake on rear wheel
Bicycle-style brake lever on handle bars
Motor lock on front wheel when not in use
Bluetooth-enabled locking cable that can be attached
Folding kickstand, optimized for stability
The company also wants to give you a deal to check it out.
To help riders get acclimated to its new scooter fleet, Lime is running a promotion for those who spot one of the first scooters to be deployed this week. From today until Wednesday, March 24th, if riders in LA share a photo of the new scooter design on social media with #LimeisRedLA, Lime will provide the rider a promocode for a free unlock.
Because regular bikes offer exactly the same social and economic benefits as ebikes, with less damage to the environment from power generation and discarded batteries.
Although more ebikes still represents a massive improvement compared to motor vehicles.
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This is what can be done with a little imagination.
Better late than never. Livermore police have belatedly decided that a fallen bike rider wasn’t at fault after all when she was fatally right hooked by a truck driver, who fled the scene following the crash; they had originally blamed her for riding in the crosswalk, which is perfectly legal under California law.
Kindhearted cops in Walla Walla, Washington gave a new bike to a high school student who needed transportation to get to his job; the Walla Walla Area Crime Watch has donated 180 bicycles to people in need in the last six years. And yes, it’s entirely possible that I included this item just for the chance to keep repeating Walla Walla.
Road.ccoffers advice on how to buy a bike cam, and recommends their picks to record your rides. Seriously, a cam mounted to your bike or helmet is the best legal protection if anything happens when you’re riding — and the best way to keep from getting blamed for it.
September 18, 2020 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on LASD exonerates itself in Kizzee shooting amid calls for sheriff to resign, and e-scooters just ain’t the problem
According to a department spokesperson, deputies originally attempted to stop Kizzee for riding salmon, a crime that does not normally carry the death penalty.
Deputies fired at least 15 shots after spotting the weapon when he dropped it, along with some clothes he’d been carrying.
However, after giving the deputies over two weeks to get their stories straight talk to investigators, the gun somehow went from the ground, as the sheriff’s department originally stated, into Kizzee’s hand as claimed in the new report.
Never mind that security video appears to show the deputies shooting at Kizzee as he ran away.
Unfortunately, we may never know for sure what happened, since LA County Sheriff’s Deputies aren’t currently required to wear body cams.
But the shooting does raise questions, especially in a department where gang-like groups wear matching tattoos and call themselves names like the Executioners.
It doesn’t matter who Kizzee was, or whether he had a record. It also doesn’t matter that he ran from the deputies, or briefly tussled with one when they tried to tackle him.
For the crime of riding on the wrong side of the street.
What matters is whether the deputies had a legitimate reason to fear for their own lives, or that of the public, before opening fire.
Let alone whether the department can, or will, conduct an honest investigation of its own deputies. Especially under the current administration.
Because this one doesn’t begin to pass the smell test.
Several members of the Civilian Oversight Commission for the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department have called on Sheriff Alex Villanueva to resign. @leilamillersays and @AleneTchek report: https://t.co/6tZKDvWhdm
Which compares to roughly 112,500 people killed in motor vehicle collisions over the same period.
Admittedly, I’ve never been very good at math, but I’m pretty sure 41 is less that 112,500.
A lot less.
So which one is really the problem on our streets?
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Something is seriously wrong when you’re not even safe from cars and their drivers in your own home.
#BREAKING: A person is dead after a car slammed into a house in #Pomona. The person was trapped underneath the car inside the home for about 20 minutes. @LACOFD did all they could but the person died on scene. @RoadSageLA overhead in #Sky9#CBSLA
August 25, 2020 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on CA bill could effectively ban bikeshare and e-scooters, ride for Black and Indigenous mental health, and hot bikes on LetGo
The piece, written by Santa Monica Spoke director Cynthia Rose; Circulate San Diego ED Colin Parent, Finish the Ride and Streets Are For Everyone ED amian Kevitt, and Streets For All founder Michael Schneider, says that regardless of its intent, AB 1286 would “create new rules so onerous that micromobility operators may no longer be able to operate in California.”
Which doesn’t sound like the intended outcome.
Or the right one.
This bill doesn’t just impact newer micromobility like electric bikes and scooters, but extends to traditional, city-sponsored bike share programs as well, including the long running Bay Wheels system in the Bay Area and Metro Bike Share in Los Angeles. As our state grapples with so many pressing issues, including the economic and climate crisis, why is the legislature threatening our most sustainable and lowest cost transportation options?
First and foremost, this bill prohibits micromobility operators from using waivers of liability – the same waivers everyone signs when renting a car or taking a yoga class. No other industry is subject to a waiver provision such as the one proposed by this bill. By gratuitously singling out micromobility operators, the legislature is opening the door to unnecessary litigation, and operators have made clear they will likely have to leave California if they are not able use these waivers. Our cities will be harmed in the process, as waivers shield cities from frivolous lawsuits as well. California law already holds operators accountable and responsible for faulty devices to rightfully protect consumers, so there is simply no need to pursue these changes.
It’s understandable that legislators would want to improve liability laws regulating micromobility.
But this is like using a cannon to kill a mouse in your living room.
Hopefully, cooler heads will prevail, and the legislature will give itself a timeout to work with advocates and company representatives, and consider more carefully just how to improve safety without forcing users back into their cars.
The founder of Break the (Bi)Cycle, Bell-Holter will be leading a 1,500-mile ride from Bellingham, Washington to San Diego, stopping to speak with various tribes along the way.
Bell-Holter said he’d seen similar campaigns, but the topic is one he’s long held close, speaking and raising awareness of across Alaska and elsewhere. There’s a large gap in the availability and effectiveness of mental health care for Black and Indigenous men, especially in Alaska, Bell-Holter said, resulting in intergenerational trauma that can lead to some of the highest rates of death by suicide and substance misuse in the country.
“I’ve been bouncing my head off the wall about this for a few years. There’s so much violence and abuse in Alaska. What does prevention look like,” Bell-Holter said. “There’s a lot of trauma that outside people don’t understand. Non-Native and non-Indigenous people don’t understand there’s a lot of intergenerational trauma that’s not visible from the outside.”
The goal is to raise $100,000, which will be split 20 ways, resulting in just $5,000 each for the various tribes and communities.
Maybe we can all share this one, and get some support for a worthy cause.
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A bike theft victim calls attention to an online chop shop hawking hot bikes on LetGo. And the problem of stolen bikes being sold on the platform in general.
@bikinginla it looks like this platform filled with stolen bike listing. Some sellers listing many bikes, they buy and sell them to make money. Please spread the word to check letgo for searching stolen bikes. Most of sellers doesn’t list with model name. https://t.co/5tFl01E6k3
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
After an 18-year old Virginia man’s bike was hit by a pickup driver while riding with a group of other riders, he responded by breaking the driver’s mirror. And the driver responded by attacking him with a stick.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
Once again, a dangerous driver managed to stay on the road until it was too late. A Chicago man was arrested for continuing to drive with his license suspended due to DUI, after killing an 83-year old man riding a bike, claiming he just didn’t see the man riding in front of him before stomping on the gas pedal. Unfortunately, he’ll likely walk away with a slap on the wrist, while his innocent victim paid with his life.
An Edinburgh woman calls for redesigning a floating bus stop, saying she was furious after she and her son were nearly hit by a bike rider “who came out of nowhere” as she stepped across a cycle track to get to her bus. She’s got a point. But no one ever comes out of nowhere. And nearly getting hit isn’t exactly news, especially after apparently failing to look both ways.
