Despite the efforts of paramedics, the victim, who was not publicly identified, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Investigators speculated that he somehow lost control of his ebike while riding in the left lane and hit the median, and was thrown from his bike.
The belief that he was riding in the left lane and hit the curb with enough force to cause his death suggests he may have been riding an electric motorbike or dirt bike, rather than a bicycle.
However, it’s also possible that he was on a ped-assist bike, and may have been forced into the median by a motorist or hit a pothole.
With the limited information available, all we can do is speculate. Hopefully, we’ll learn more soon.
This is the third bicycling fatality that I’m aware in of Southern California this year, and the third in Los Angeles County.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for the victim and his loved ones.
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
I can’t begin to tell you how grateful I am to all those who gave this year to support this humble site.
So thanks to John, Norwood, Mary, Robert, Jim and Glenn for their generous donations in the final days of the fund drive to help keep all the best bike news and advocacy coming your way every day.
In the end, more than 60 people opened their hearts and wallets to donate this year, falling just just a few hundred short of breaking that elusive $5,000 barrier for the first time — far more than I expected after what was such a difficult year for so many of us.
Now the holidays are finally over, and I’m tanned, rested — or maybe rusted after all this rain — and ready to get back to work.
And hey, happy new year! Let’s hope it’s a better one for all of us.
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Let’s start with a recent email exchange with someone who seemed to think I write too much about ebikes, suggesting I should change the name of the site to e-BikinginLA.
He warned that things would look a lot different to if I was a parent riding a “real bicycle” with child passenger, and then someone zoomed by in the curb lane or on the sidewalk at 28 mph.
This was my response, which I’m sharing to clarify where I stand on the great ebike debate.
I write about ebikes because that’s what’s in the news these days, just like I’ve written about any number of things that have been in the news over the years.
I’m not a fan of high-speed, throttle-controlled ebikes, which I believe should be recategorized as motorbikes and require a license to operate. I do like ped-assist ebikes with a max speed of 20 mph, simply because they expand the potential for bicycling from the proverbial “young and healthy” we always hear about, to virtually everyone. And provide the potential to trade a car for a bicycle for countless people who might not otherwise even consider it.
I also believe every bicycle should be ridden within the limits of the law whenever practical, which would generally prohibit passing on the inside or riding on the sidewalk at an excessive speed. Everyone should ride in a safe and sane manner, regardless of how their bike may be powered. And no one should ever have a sense of entitlement on the streets, whether walking, biking or driving.
Personally, I’d like to have an e-cargo bike just so I can bike to Costco or the hardware store, and take my service dog with me wherever I go, which doesn’t exactly work on my 18-speed racing bike. However, I’ve never actually ridden one yet, after being a lifelong roadie, and don’t know if I’d really like it or not.
Meanwhile, on a related subject, The New York Daily News says the city could end its “vicious cycle” with high-speed ebikes by requiring them to be licensed and insured as mo-peds, like they do in the Netherlands.
But apparently, they don’t want you to read it, because the editorial is locked behind a paywall for subscribers only.
And a Bay Area woman says she’s all for ebikes, and the problems everyone seems to be complaining about are caused by people on electric motorbikes, not Class 2 ebikes like hers.
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It didn’t take long for New York’s new mayor to demonstrate his transportation bona fides.
Just days after Mayor Zohran Mamdani took the oath of office, he announced a Complete Streets makeover of McGuinness Boulevard, including parking-protected bike lanes the full length of the corridor, considered a key bicycling route connecting Brooklyn and Queens.
Oceanside bike lawyer and BikinginLA sponsor Richard Duquette is sponsoring the Giro di San Diego Gran Fondo this June, complete with cash prizes and KOM kits.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
Streetsblog’sJoe Linton offers his predictions for the coming year, including a 50% drop in new bike lanes in Los Angeles, as the city puts on the brakes to avoid complying with Measure HLA and ADA-compliant curb cuts.
I want to be like him when I grow up. A 79-year old Long Beach man rode his bike every day for more than 18 years, through an appendectomy and the death of his wife, going so far as to pay a man 20 bucks to borrow a kid’s bike after attending the Kentucky Derby.
A 73-year old man was charged with aggravated vehicular homicide for killing a 44-year old Toledo, Ohio man as he was waiting on his bicycle at a red light, running him down from behind before fleeing the scene. The next time someone asks you why so many bike riders run red lights, remind them about cases like this.
Once again, an advocate for safer streets was killed while riding his bike, this time when a Macon, Georgia man was run down from behind by a 73-year old woman, who claims she didn’t see him before the crash — yet police still blamed the victim for simply riding in the roadway, instead of on the shoulder, and not yielding to traffic.
Sad news from Florida, where Joe Montgomery died of apparent heart trouble, 55-year after he founded Cannondale above a Connecticut pickle factory, naming the bikemaker after a nearby train station; he was 86.
Next time you find yourself in Osaka, Japan, make plans to visit the Shimano Bicycle Museum, where you’ll find a century of exclusive bicycling history from the earliest Safety Bikes, to a rain-proof electric trike and a five-seat racing bike.
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And happy Chanukah to everyone wrapping up your celebration this weekend!
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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.
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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.
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Make that over regulating, once again lumping ped-assist ebikes together with electric motorbikes, and safe bike commuters with overly entitled teen gangs on high-speed dirt bikes.
It’s hard for me to effectively evaluate proposals in cities I barely know, and haven’t ridden in for years.
Fortunately, North Torrance Bike Bus organizer Kyle Richardson has shared an open letter to the Torrance council that clearly spells out just how far overboard this proposal goes.
Because this crap is just ridiculous. And dangerous.
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What comes after Vision Zero?
That’s the question San Francisco is attempting to answer after the expiration of the city’s Vision Zero program, which was supposed to end traffic deaths in the city by last year.
But didn’t.
In fact, according to public television station KQED, the city saw 41 traffic deaths last year, the highest total since 2007. This year has been better, with 23 traffic deaths to date, although pedestrians account for over two-thirds of those deaths.
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie announced the new approach will involve streamlining the decision-making process into a new Street Safety Initiative Working Group.
Which doesn’t quite have the same ring as Vision Zero, but still.
Lurie framed the city’s initiative as a more aggressive implementation of the “Safe System” approach, of which zero deaths on the roads is the goal. Lurie said the policy directs streets to be built to handle human error, managing vehicle speeds so that common mistakes don’t become fatal tragedies.
“Too often, traffic injuries are the result of predictable patterns and preventable conditions,” Lurie said. “This initiative will make streets safer for everyone … In San Francisco, safety is non-negotiable.”
The problem is that the Safe System is based on the concept of shared responsibility, which means a seven-year old kid biking to school has the same responsibility for safety as the people in the big dangerous machines.
Even though only one of those is likely to kill anyone.
And it ain’t the kid.
KQED reports the main difference between the new Street Safety Initiative Working Group and Vision Zero — aside from having an actual defined goal — appears to be the involvement of the mayor’s office.
A primary task within the first 100 days of this directive is to confirm and publish the 2025 High Injury Network — the map of the specific streets where the vast majority of severe crashes occur. Once confirmed, the city is tasked with identifying a priority list of “quick-build” projects, which use paint and physical barriers to rapidly improve safety in high-risk areas.
Within six months, the working group is required to release a Traffic Enforcement Strategy Report identifying the top crash-causing behaviors to target.
For advocates who have spent years pushing for safer streets, the directive represents a hopeful, yet overdue, step. White noted that while the Bicycle Coalition sees this as an extension of previous work, the direct involvement of the mayor’s office offers a new level of accountability.
All of which should have been done already, of course.
Still, it’s worth watching, in case Los Angeles ever decides to take another stab at reducing traffic violence, let alone traffic deaths, after the abject failure of this city’s Vision Zero, which was supposed to end traffic deaths a whopping 349 days ago.
Although streamlining doesn’t seem to be a strongpoint in Los Angeles these days.
Never mind accountability.
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No surprise here.
An administrative law judge ruled that CD12 Councilmember John Lee violated Los Angeles ethics laws by accepting expensive food, alcohol, hotel stays and other gifts from three men trying to influence City Hall, in the same case that put his predecessor behind bars.
If you can call a Club Fed minimal security camp “behind bars.”
The judge recommended a $43,730 fine for violations committed when Lee was chief of staff to then-City Councilmember Mitchell Englander, who ended up sentenced to 14 months for his role in the pay-to-play scandal.
Lee was never charged by prosecutors, however, despite being the notorious “City Staffer B” referred to in Englander’s federal indictment, and won re-election last year despite the scandal.
The city Ethic Commission will make a final determination on any penalty for Lee tomorrow. I’m tempted to say that if Lee had any ethics, he’d step down if the commission rules against him.
But if he had shown any ethics, he wouldn’t have gotten caught up in the scandal in the first place.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
An Amazon delivery driver in an unidentified city says he “went postal” on a road raging bike rider who allegedly called him an “idiot” and the n-word, then spit in his face, after the delivery driver reportedly got too close for comfort by edging out into the rider’s path. Look, we all get pissed off by dangerously obtuse drivers who just don’t get it. But spitting, and spitting out racial slurs, is going too damn far.
London’s former Metropolitan Police Commissioner, aka the head of Scotland Yard for those of us over here, is urging a crackdown on “rogue cyclists,” saying too many pedestrians are being injured by people on bicycles. Just wait until someone tells him about all the pedestrians injured, or worse, by people in cars.
A writer for Planetizen says San Diego’s car-centric planning makes the city a paradise for cars, but it’s literally killing children. Then again, considering the toll of school shootings as well as traffic violence, our society doesn’t seem to have a problem with that.
Outsideprofiles the Gaza Sunbirds paracycling team, composed of Palestinian amputees who deliver aid to refugees as well as racing, “turning loss into resilience on and off the road.”
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And deadly Vista del Mar, aka Deadly del Mar, in particular.
And I do mean heartbreaking.
LOS ANGELES — As the sun set over the Pacific Ocean one Sunday this past spring, Cecilia Milbourne returned from a walk on the beach with her dog, Gucci. To reach her parked Tesla, she had to cross a road that city officials have known for years poses a danger to people on foot.
Eight years ago,as part of a nationalinitiative to stemtraffic deaths called Vision Zero, the city shrank the number of lanes on the road, Vista Del Mar, and several connecting streets in the shoreside community just south of Venice. But they restoredit to four lanes after an uproar by drivers— among them Octavio Girbau, who railed against a city official in a 2017 Facebook post stating he wasstuck on one of those intersecting roads“in the traffic hell you created.”
On March 16, Girbau was driving south on Vista Del Mar as Milbourne was about to cross in a spot with no crosswalk and no sidewalk — just a concrete curb separating her from the moving cars. Girbau bumped another car, lost control and struck Milbourne on the side of the road, sending her flying as his Mercedes flipped onto the beach, according to a police report. Milbourne, 29, a hairdresser and actor who had moved to Los Angeles from Atlanta, was pronounced dead at the scene. Her dog died with her.
In addition to pushback from outraged, or even slightly peeved, motorists, WaPo cites too little funding for the death of Vision Zero.
Like the $80 million called for initially in Los Angeles to even put a dent in traffic deaths, which never materialized.
And that has led to endless delays in making the safety improvements the city already knows we needed. Like in Koreatown, for instance.
In some cases, Angelenos have died as planned safety upgrades stalled.
It has been over a decade since the city decided to put a roundabout at the corner of 4th Street and New Hampshire Avenue in Koreatown, a neighborhood where 34 people have been hit by cars and trucks and killed between 2015 and 2023. But there was a dispute between the city and the stateover funding, and some objected to the plan to include bike lanes. The roundabout was delayed.
On July 31, Nadir Gavarrete, a 9-year-old, was killed at the intersection while crossing the street on his scooter by a driver in a motor home.
LA guerrilla activists responded by painting their own DIY crosswalk at the intersection days later, working in broad daylight.
After all, she’s only had three years to come up with something.
Anything.
But back to Deadly del Mar, which Los Angeles is considering for one of the speed cams authorized by a state pilot program passed and signed two years ago.
None of which have yet been installed in the City of Angels, as city leaders continue their usual dithering and obfuscation.
One of the first locationsbeing considered is the spot where Milbourne was killed on Vista Del Mar. This fall, Kevitt and some of his colleagues did their own radar testing on the road. They found that about half of drivers are going above the speed limit during rush hour. In the morning, more than a quarter of cars are going over 50 miles per hour.
Milbourne died near two sets of stairs that lead from the wide expanse of Dockweiler Beach to Vista Del Mar. At the top, there is barely space to stand between the sandy bluff and the road. Cars whip by fast enough to be heard over the sound of planes taking off at Los Angeles International Airport, which sits just east of the beach.
Inevitably, the first response to complaints about speeding drivers is to call for greater enforcement. Except, of course, from the speeding drivers themselves, who fear getting ticketed because they’re unwilling to actually slow down.
But there aren’t enough cops in California, let alone Los Angeles, to patrol every street in LA 24/7. Or even enough to make a difference.
The equation is simple. Lane reductions, aka road diets, slow drivers, sometimes by causing greater congestion at peak hours. But drivers don’t want to slow down, and definitely don’t want to get stuck behind other drivers, blissfully unaware that they themselves are the cause of that congestion.
When a teenager crashes an “e-bike” at dangerous speeds, communities call for sweeping bans. When batteries ignite and cause a fire in apartment buildings, local governments restrict where electric bikes can be charged. And when pedestrians are struck by riders on sidewalks, cities work swiftly to cut riding speeds or discuss implementing licenses.
The problem? Many of these e-bike injuries and incidents can be avoided if only we defined what makes an electric bicycle.
Several of these incidents involve what cycling advocacy group PeopleForBikes calls an ‘e-moto’: electric motorcycles and mopeds sold as “street legal” e-bikes that don’t need a license or registration.
Many – but not all – of these e-motos sell new following standard e-bike Class 1,2, or 3 speed classifications. But with some modifications, they can reach speeds of 30, 40, or even 50 miles per hour, and are causing growing problems nationwide.
The solution, they say — as does People For Bikes — is federal legislation classifying anything with a built-in capability exceeding ebike specifications to “be classified as a motor vehicle, period.”
That’s just the first step.
They also call for requiring more truthful advertising as to what is actually “street legal,” as well as standardizing state laws regulating ebikes, just like bicycling regulations are virtually identical from one state to another.
It’s worth taking a few minutes to read.
Because as long as anything with an electric motor is considered an ebike, regardless of power or speed capabilities, we risk ill-informed crackdowns on, and condemnation of, all of us.
Sixty-two 3rd graders in Fayetteville NC got new bicycles, after telling the assembled that four kids earned one of the new bikes by winning in an essay contest, then announcing that everyone else would take one home, too.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
No bias here. Chicago residents complain about new bike lanes causing traffic to overflow onto surrounding streets and alleys — except what’s causing the backup is the construction work to build the bike lanes, not the bike lanes themselves. And a former daily bike commuter says he doesn’t think bike lanes are even necessary, apparently not grasping that bike lanes are for the people who don’t feel comfortable mixing it up with motor vehicles, rather than those who do.
A CicLAvia-style open streets event is coming to East LA next weekend, when about 1.6 miles of City Terrace Drive and Hazard Ave will go carfree for the benefit of pedestrians, bicyclists, joggers and runners. As well as just plain, you know, people.
Life is ludicrously cheap in Montana, where a driver walked with a gentle caress on the wrist for killing a seven-year old boy riding his bicycle in a crosswalk, after prosecutors reduced a negligent homicide charge down to misdemeanor careless driving, and he was sentenced to a lousy $1000 fine — which the judge deferred for a year, meaning it could be dropped entirely if he keeps his nose clean.
In news that is equal parts heartwarming and heartbreaking, the family of a 13-year old Huntsville, Alabama boy who was killed by a driver while riding his bicycle have installed a Christmas tree at the roadside memorial marking where he was killed, and asked the public to come place an ornament on it.
International
Road.cc argues that the bicycle industry is not sustainable by design, and they could do their part to save the environment by returning to steel frames instead of carbon fiber, without sacrificing performance.
A “passionate cyclist” from the UK is suing Lime over a crash that snapped his leg in four places, claiming the rear wheel unexpectedly skidded out when he braked to avoid pedestrians, leaving him with life-changing injuries.
That’s more like it. A British distracted hit-and-run driver got nine years behind bars for killing a bike rider, after swearing he didn’t know he hit anyone and just thought his van’s engine had blown up; he’d avoided a previous driving ban for distracted driving by claiming he needed to drive for his job. Yet another example of keeping a dangerous driver on the road until it’s too late.
Bicycles provided by World Bicycle Relief are giving Kenyan farmers a route out of poverty by providing a safe alternative to paying for dangerous motorbike trips to get their produce to market.
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At last, we get a little context for the rise in ebike injuries — although, as usual, there’s no distinction between injury rates for ped-assist ebikes and e-motorbikes.
According to the New York Times, Marin County worked to get California law changed after a 15-year old girl barely survived a fall while riding on the back of a friend’s ebike, prompting a local surgeon to look into rising injury rates.
As the pandemic continued, the number of e-bike accidents increased. “You would expect that,” Alfrey says, “because sales were skyrocketing.” Indeed, in 2022, over a million e-bikes were sold in the United States, up from 287,000 in 2019, according to the Light Electric Vehicle Association. But what really struck Alfrey and Maa was that e-bike injuries were far more serious than those sustained on conventional bikes. Maa says they were more like what’s seen in motorcycle crashes. A pelvic fracture, for example, was uncommon on a pedal bicycle — only about 6 percent of conventional cycling injuries. For e-bike crashes, though, it was 25 percent.
The most alarming difference was the fatality rate. “On a pedal bike, the chance of dying from an injury is about three-tenths of 1 percent,” Alfrey says. On an e-bike, the data indicated, it was 11 percent.
These findings signaled what was unfolding around the country. During the same four-year period when nationwide sales quadrupled, e-bike injuries increased by a factor of 10, to 23,493 from 2,215, according to the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System. A study by the University of California, San Francisco, found that from 2017 to 2022, head injuries from e-bike accidents increased 49-fold.
Which means ebike injuries rose 2.5 times faster than ebike sales.
Now we finally know.
The paper goes on to note that Class 2 throttle-controlled ebikes have claimed the overwhelming majority of the market.
By “throttle devices,” he is referring to Class 2 machines, which have captured an estimated two-thirds of the e-bike market. According to PeopleForBikes, the rationale in 2015 for creating a class for bikes with throttles — which can eliminate even the modest exercise benefits of pedal assistance — was that many e-bikes already had them, and the trade organization didn’t want to exclude those products and companies.
But to Mittelstaedt and others, it’s inappropriate to consider these vehicles to be “bikes” at all. “The essence of bicycling is pedaling,” Mittelstaedt says. “A machine propelled by a motorcycle throttle just shouldn’t be considered a bicycle. It can go from zero to 20 faster than a regular bike without any exertion at all.”
As we’ve repeatedly stressed, anything that can travel faster than 28 mph isn’t legally an ebike. And anything without pedals isn’t a bicycle.
Some manufacturers — but not governments — have taken it upon themselves to call such machines “Class 4” e-bikes. Others refer to them as “out-of-class electric vehicles”; bicycle-advocacy groups, which want to avoid being associated with these machines, prefer “e-motos.” In any case, they aren’t bicycles, nor are they street legal without registration and a license, yet they still show up regularly on roads and bike paths. One online influencer called Sur Ronster, who also has a retail business called Ronster Rides, posts videos of bands of teenagers, dozens strong, outdoing one another’s daredevil feats at breakneck speed on city streets and highways.
The boys were part of a group of five kids aged 13-15 identified by police as the attackers, who only broke off the assault when one of the boys mistakenly yelled that the victim, who has not been publicly identified, was dead.
Great Interview Steve Gruber Show on Evil on the Roof of the World The story of two millenials who quit their jobs to bike around the world @mbukmagazine@bikinginla@TheBikingLawyer William Elliott Hazelgrove | Inside New Book: Evil on the Roof of the World…
A Freemont CA rancher has installed a gate across a formerly open roadway, blocking a path used by bicyclists and hikers for years.
Thanks to Megan for forwarding the video.
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A YouTube video considers how Victoria, British Columbia, population 92,000, tripled its bicycling rate in just 11 years.
Thanks to Norm for the video.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
No bias here. A Sunnyvale website says residents feel their voice is being “drowned out by a vocal cyclist lobby,” because they value their God-given right to park their cars on the curbs over the safety of people on two wheels. There’s that mythical bike lobby raising its ugly head again, and Hulk-smashing all who don’t bow down before it.
A man and woman face charges in Lafayette, Louisiana after allegedly yelling at another woman, beating her and threatening her with a gun before yet another beatdown in front of her kid, all because her husband committed the crime of yelling at the woman to slow her car down while he was riding bikes with the couple’s young son.
But sometimes it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
A British reporter launches a “bold social experiment” to see if he can get his phone stolen by ebike-riding — actually, e-motorbike — thieves, then track it to reveal their location. Thanks again to Megan for the video.
Police in Anaheim have arrested the alleged hit-and-run driver accused of hitting a 12-year old boy riding an ebike last week, leaving the kid with a concussion, broken leg and multiple bruises; 29-year old Fullerton resident Jonathan Diaz reportedly took off on foot after crashing his car a few blocks after he struck the boy’s bike, leaving behind evidence he was under the influence.
A writer for Strongtownsmakes the case that Complete Streets has run its course, leaving cities with “expensive, over-engineered corridors that win awards but fail the people they claim to serve.” Although I’d question whether the study the story is based on cherry-picked cities where Complet Streets failed, rather than where they have succeeded.
This is why people keep dying on the streets. Colombian Tour de France sprinter Fernando Gaviria was given a suspended sentence for drunk driving in Monaco — despite being more than five times over the legal limit. Seriously, there’s no excuse for driving under the influence, no matter who you are.
Twenty-one-year old cycling rookie Isaac del Toro was named Mexico’s sportsman of the year with the country’s highest sports honor, the 2025 National Sports Award, after winning winning 16 pro races, nearly winning the Giro and climbing to third in the world rankings in just his first year on the WorldTour.
Day 330 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025.
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Just a quick note before we get started.
As usual, this will be our last regular post for the holiday week. I’ll be taking tomorrow and Friday off to spend with family, so we’ll see you back here bright and early on Monday.
Although if you’re not too busy hitting the Black Friday sales — or better yet, getting out on your bike and avoiding the hell out of the whole mess — come back Friday for the kick off of our 11th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive.
I’ll do my best to put the fun back in fund drive, while simultaneously begging you to part with a small portion of your own hard-earned funds to help keep this whole thing going for another year.
Today’s photo depicts yours truly signing the original petition in support of Measure HLA, corgi in tow, with Streets For All founder Michael Schneider.
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Okay, one more quick note.
Because I’m thankful this year for a lifetime on two wheels, which has led me to so many of my best experiences and memories.
And I’m even more thankful for you, and everyone else who reads this site. Because I couldn’t do what I do without you.
So in all sincerity and with deepest humility, thank you.
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To the surprise of absolutely no one, LA’s Board of Public Works rejected the overwhelming majority of Measure HLA appeals heard on Monday.
First round of appeals: The Board of Public Works partially sided with the appellant in one appeal and rejected the other six. Joe Linton, in his capacity as a resident and not as editor of Streetsblog L.A., filed all the appeals heard on Monday. “It’s the very first time, so we’re kind of throwing a lot of spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks,” Linton told LAist. “Not a lot stuck.”
One appeal approved: Linton partially won his appeal claiming the city did not adequately install pedestrian improvements along a nearly half-mile portion of Hollywood Boulevard that it resurfaced last year. The city said it will publish an “appeals resolution plan” to fix sidewalks there within the next six months. “It was really obvious to me that the city’s justification … was not true, so I was glad that that was acknowledged,” Linton said.
Per the text of the Measure HLA ballot measure, the city does not have to implement its mobility plan if the city is only completing “restriping without other improvements.” This exemption is listed alongside pothole repairs, utility cuts, and emergency repairs. In the six appeals that the board voted to reject, the city did not “restripe” the existing configuration, but installed new lane striping to change traffic patterns, added parking, bike lanes, turn lanes, etc.
The appeals argued that these changes go beyond “restriping without other improvements.”
The city disagrees.
The city’s position appears to be more or less along the lines of: if a street reconfiguration project included installed pretty much any kind of lane striping, then it’s exempt from HLA because it’s considered “restriping without other improvements.”
Not that their prospects look too good right now, with or without it.
Meanwhile, a writer for a surf site puts tongue firmly in cheek to discuss the “grom immolation terror” brought on by the recall, while questioning why the Consumer Product Safety Commission is even still around following the Trump budget cuts. “Grom” being slang for a young or inexperienced surfer, and by extension, any inexperienced and/or overly enthusiastic teen — the opposite of what waits for me in the mirror every morning. And you’re welcome.
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Thanks to the generosity of a fallen bicyclist’s family, all donations to Streets Are For Everyone will be matched dollar-for-dollar through the end of the year.
Calbike examines how Metro’s Nina Kin, Tech Lead on LA Metro’s Digital Experience Team, is building more reliable data and trust for transit riders on bicycles, as Metro begins to recognize that transit and bikes are two “halves of the same promise.” And no, that’s not an exceptionally awkward and unwieldy job title at all.
Pasadena approved a contract of up to $4.8 million to move forward with a new design for the Pasadena Ave and St. John Ave Roadway Network Project, including a safer and more accessible bicycle and pedestrian network — without removing existing traffic lanes, of course.
Santa Monica announced plans for a Holiday Sweater Community Ride on Saturday, December 6th, offering guided bike tours of the Bergamot Area First/Last Mile Improvements, departing from the 17th Street/SMC Metro Station from 10 am to noon.
The Riverside County District Attorney’s Office urges parents to think twice before buying ebikes for their kids, warning that they can be held criminally liable for whatever mischief the little miscreants get up to with them. And once again, conflating electric dirt bikes and motorbikes with regular ped-assist ebikes, to the benefit of no one.
The New York Times also talks with French ultracyclist Sofiane Sehili, who spent 50 days in a Russian hoosegow after trying to cross the border despite Russian border guards refusal to acknowledge his previously approved visa, while attempting to set a new record for the fastest crossing of Eurasia.
Day 329 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025.
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They get it.
While I was out of commission last week, Metro considered a bizarre plan that would have virtually eliminated open streets events for the next three years, other than events tied directly to the World Cup, and Olympic and Paralympic Games, and held within a narrow two-month window each year.
Even though each of the 51 CicLAvias held since October 10, 2010 have averaged more than 100,000 people experiencing the streets of Los Angeles County in a new way, many for the first time.
Not to mention the many Active Streets events hosted by Active SGV in the San Gabriel Valley, and others funded by Metro.
It’s a plan that would mean an end, at least temporarily, to most CicLAvia and Active Streets events outside of that narrow window, with no guarantee that they would resume afterwards.
At issue is a dramatic change in the way Metro intends to fund “open streets” events in the next three years. A true “open street” event is as it sounds: Allowing people on bicycles, scooters, skates, skateboards and pedestrians to ride or walk the asphalt streets free of cars for exercise, while stopping at booths for food and games within various neighborhoods of Los Angeles County…
This round of funding includes 29 events at a two-year cost of $10 million, according to Metro.
But riding to the rescue is a proposal supported by six of the 13 Metro board members, which would commit at least $1 million to fund other events that were rejected by Metro staff for falling outside that Copa Mundial and Olympic window.
And better yet, make that funding permanent.
The group includes LA County supervisors Lindsey Horvath, Janice Hahn and Hilda Solis, as well as CD5 Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky, Whittier Councilmember and Metro Chair Fernando Dutra, and Pomona Mayor Tim Sandoval.
By my math that leaves them just one vote short for the motion to carry. Bearing in mind that I was an English major, so my calculations may leave something to be desired.
Let’s hope they find it.
Because open streets events may be a relatively recent tradition here in Los Angeles. But they have quickly grown to be the largest in the US, and are far too valuable to sacrifice.
Even temporarily.
No guarantee the Daily News link won’t be blocked by their paywall, however. It was hidden the first time I tried to read the story, but not the second. So your luck may vary.
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Once again, ebikes are in the news.
And not in a good way.
As usual, though, the press manages to conflate non-street legal electric dirt bikes and motorbikes with the far slower and tamer ped-assist ebikes.
@bikinginla.bsky.social @streetsblogla.bsky.social This will end badly. The Beach Cities does have youth gangs who use e-bikes. But passerby may not be able to tell the difference between them and the vast majority of teens going about their business.
This is a more nuanced story. Local eBike dealer pointed out that this gang rides illegal dirt bikes, not ebikes. These kids are known to school and local police. Parents that bought their boys illegal bikes seem not inclined to check their boys' behavior. @bikinginla.bsky.social
The problem here is not ebikes, but gangs of teens engaged in random street violence.
But by painting ebikes with such a broad brush, these stories risk the general public confusing illegal electric motorbikes with the legal ped-assist bikes being rapidly adopted by countless bike commuters and recreational riders.
So for the uninitiated — and that includes the overwhelming majority of news outlets out there — if they don’t have functional pedals, or travel faster that 28 mph, they’re mo-peds, motor scooters, motorbikes, motorcycles or dirt bikes, regardless of how they’re powered.
Or they just ain’t legal.
Period.
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Case in point, news broke yesterday that a 12-year old boy was injured in a hit-and-run while riding an ebike in Anaheim Sunday night.
KNBC-4 reports the victim was hospitalized with “a broken leg and concussions.” Which suggests that he may have more than one head, since a single head can only suffer a single concussion in a single event.
The driver fled on foot after crashing his car about a block away. Police suspect he was under the influence based on undisclosed evidence found in the car.
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Our old friend Zachary Rynew shares his take on Sunday’s Stranger Things CicLAvia.
Which, had it occurred next year, wouldn’t have been funded under Metro’s proposed new restrictions, since it would have fallen outside of the World Cup schedule, and had no connection to the soccer/football tournament.
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
A writer for the Cornell University student paper highlights a problem experienced by bike riders almost everywhere, after bicycles are banned from the local Commons, forcing riders to choose between a busy highway and a “bike boulevard” consisting of a couple speed bumps and no protection.
Velo selects the best Black Friday road and gravel bicycling deals. Which reminds me it’s time for my annual “fuck Black Friday” campaign. Seriously, just get out and ride your bike, and let everyone else fight the crowds, virtual or otherwise.
‘Tis the season. The Toys For Tots program in Bowling Green, Kentucky got a welcome surprise when they received a donation of 400 kids bikes, while expecting just a quarter of that.
No real surprise here, as former cyclist and current team sprint coach Marcel Kittel says pro cycling is “absolutely not” clean. But the doping era is over, right?
November 14, 2025 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on LA Public Works pulls fast one on HLA, private group examines CA ebike safety, and bike events on a rainy weekend
Day 318 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025.
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This has been a very long and rough day, leaving me dead on my ass, because I don’t have the strength to get on my feet.
And Friday doesn’t promise to start any better.
So we’re going to depart from our usual format to cover some breaking news and time-sensitive announcements today, and catch up on the rest of the news on Monday.
Scout’s honor.
Meanwhile, the forecast calls for some pretty heavy rain this weekend, especially on Saturday.
So if you can, stay home. But if you do have to ride your bike, make yourself as visible as possible, because drivers will have limited vision, and won’t expect anyone to be out on a bike in the rain.
Also, be careful riding through flooded intersections. It can be hard to judge how deep they really are, and they can hide hidden objects like potholes and bodies.
Okay, maybe not bodies. Hopefully.
Avoid bike paths along river channels. And be alert near burn scars from the January fires, which can be prone to flooding and mudflows.
I want to see you back here Monday in one piece.
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Is the Los Angeles Board of Public Works trying to pull a fast one?
And I mean that literally.
Because the city’s ordinance implementing Measure HLA says they have to give ten days advance notice before hearing an appeal from someone accusing the city of violating the measure.
Yet they only sent out notification yesterday that seven appeals filed by Joe Linton in his personal capacity will be heard on Monday.
Which by my calculations works out to just four days. Then again, I was an English major, so math isn’t exactly my strong point.
Still, it’s a clear violation of the law, any way you count it.
But assuming they don’t care about that — and why would they, since they don’t seem to care about anything else having to do with HLA — the appeals are scheduled for Monday’s 10 am virtual meeting.
You can download the agenda here; just click on the Download button on the right of each agenda item for full details of each appeal.
They have already denied six of the seven complaints. On the seventh, they agreed there was a violation, but only promised to fix broken sidewalks, rather than adding the bike and pedestrian improvement required under HLA.
So it’s worth signing up for the meeting and commenting to demand they follow the requirements of HLA, which is now the law after passing with overwhelming support.
A new statewide coalition funded by a grant from Honda will study “what makes ebikes dangerous and how to make them safer,” without simultaneously discouraging their use.
The California Independent Electric Mobility Council says they will meet six times before releasing recommendations for state and local governments.
Although it seems a little odd to have a set schedule for deciding what the problem with ebikes is, and what solutions there might be — unless maybe they’ve already decided and are just going through the motions.
And that’s assuming that ebikes really are dangerous. We still haven’t seen a study looking at rising ebike rates in the context of increasing ebike usage. Because it’s entirely possible that ebikes are no more dangerous than regular bicycles.
Because to my knowledge, no one has even looked at it, rather than just starting from the assumption that rising injury rates mean ebikes are bad.
There’s also the question of whether they will bother to distinguish between ped-assist ebikes, electric motorbikes and non-street legal dirt bikes, rather than lumping them all together.
You know, like everyone else does.
As a privately funded organization, they won’t be subject to California’s Brown Act, which guarantees the public’s right to attend and participate in government meetings.
So we don’t know yet if any or all of those meetings will be public, and if we’ll even have a chance to offer any input.
I’m not saying this private coalition is a bad thing. It could yield some very positive results.
But there are still a lot of questions we need answered.
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BikeLA, nee Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, says their annual Bike Fest will take place tomorrow rain or shine. And right now, that looks like rain.
Rain or shine — BikeFest 2025 is on!
Good news: Rain or shine, BikeFest is happening this Saturday, November 15, from 12–3 p.m. Thanks to Highland Park Brewery, we’ll be shifting the party indoors as the weather turns, so the celebration is fully covered!
We’ll still be hosting free bike valet for anyone who rides, so bring your bike and pedal on over. And don’t forget to dress for a little rain–jackets and rain-ready gear encouraged!
Join us for a Pedal-Powered Party featuring:
Free bike valet
One beer or non-alcoholic drink
A commemorative BikeLA bandana
️ Our largest-ever bike-themed silent auction, with gear from Spurcycle, Patagonia, Yakima, Tern, Road Runner Bags, ABUS, Kryptonite, and more.
The auction is live now, so you can start bidding today!
Come celebrate with us and support BikeLA’s mission to make L.A. a safer, more connected place to ride.
Meanwhile, Bike Long Beach is hosting a feeder ride to Bike Fest in the morning.
Bike LA Bike Fest annual fundraiser
It’s that time again! Bike LA’s Bike Fest happy hour annual fundraiser is this Saturday and once again we’re riding from Long Beach. Come join us as we head to DTLA for an unforgettable day where bike-minded people come together, celebrate, and keep the movement moving. This time we’re riding all the way there via the LA river trail, about 22 miles. For the ride back we can do the same route in reverse, or you can hop on Metro and ride the A line back to Long Beach.
Everyone is welcome on any bike, but keep in mind that due to the distance it’s not a beginners ride. Make sure you’re okay with a ride of this length.
If you want to attend Bike Fest but rather not ride all the way there, you can take Metro! The venue is very close to the Chinatown station.
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Streets For All is hosting a discussion Monday night on the future of cities, and how to free ourselves from car culture.
Please.
Freeing ourselves from car culture — live in LA
We’re just a few days away from welcoming The War on Cars hosts for a lively and humorous discussion about their national bestseller, Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile.
Join us Monday, November 17th at Dynasty Typewriter for an evening on the future of cities, featuring:
Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez ️ Alissa Walker (Torched.la) Bill Wolkoff (Star Trek: Strange New Worlds)
️ Get your tickets now — they’re going fast! Dynasty Typewriter, 2511 Wilshire Blvd 7:30pm (VIP reception at 6pm for Members Club)
Cleverhood giveaway -> Attend for a chance to win branded merch! A winner will be drawn at random. Choose either a Streets For All Rover 2.0 Cape or Streets for All Anorak.
(Benefit from a 15% discount on gear anytime online)
