BikinginLA

Evidently, CARB’s cold-blooded murder of the California Ebike Incentive Program was just one of those things.

At least, that’s the takeaway from a remarkably bloodless Los Angeles Times report that finally made its way into print over the weekend, a couple weeks after first appearing online.

Take this remarkably mild-mannered introduction to the story.

To offset the cost of the e-bikes, which can run in the thousands of dollars, the state launched a generous voucher program — one that heavily subsidized, and in some cases completely offset, the purchase price. Demand soared.

That’s when the problems began.

Vouchers were quickly snatched up. A website set up to manage applications crashed amid heavy demand.

Despite wide public interest, the program quietly and abruptly ended last year — a victim, in some ways, of its own success.

Now the state is pivoting, leaving cycling advocates disappointed and those who were able to snag e-bike vouchers counting their lucky stars.

No mention there, or anywhere else in the story, of the three years it took the California Air Resources Board to even issue the first voucher.

Let alone the alleged malfeasance by, and investigations into, San Diego nonprofit Pedal Ahead, which was hired by CARB to manage the program. And failed miserably.

And then the whole damn thing collapsed, apparently because getting cleaner cars on the road mattered more than getting more cars off it.

The demand was apparent. Some cycling advocates say they were under the impression additional vouchers — that would have been funded by the subsequent $18 million in state funding — were on the horizon as soon as a new administrator of the program was secured.

But those dollars were instead diverted to CARB’s Clean Cars 4 All program, which helps lower-income Californians trade in their gas-fueled vehicles for new or used plug-in hybrid electric, zero-emission vehicles or motorcycles, she said.

“California is committed to supporting e-bikes as a clean mobility alternative to vehicles. But, ultimately, the state has a limited budget and many competing priorities,” CARB spokesperson Bradley Branan told The Times.

That’s it.

Apparently, they couldn’t find a single disgruntled applicant willing to go on the record with a single complain against how the program was (mis)managed.

And yes, that’s me over here waving my hand until it falls off.

The whole program was the very definition of a clusterfuck and a shitshow from beginning to end. Because calling it a complete and barely mitigated disaster is being far too kind.

Instead, the Times very belatedly and very politely suggests that it was just one of those unfortunate things.

You, just another California program gone bad. Nothing to see here.

And don’t pay attention to the man behind the curtain.

Meanwhile, California continues to fall behind the ebike voucher race, as Tampa, Florida is bringing back a program that would award 248 ebike vouchers through a lottery program, offering up to $3,000 for very low income recipients.

That compares very favorably to the zero vouchers for zero dollars offered by the City and/or County of Los Angeles.

And now, California, too.

Image of the murder weapon removed from the back of the California Ebike Incentive Program and California bicyclists by Annie Gavin from Pixabay.

………

Speaking of the LA Times, the paper ranked the city’s 14 worst intersections, based on LADOT traffic counts and LAPD collision data.

Even there, the language and tone are no bolder.

And once again, they couldn’t seem to find a single traffic safety advocate to talk to. Evidently, no one picked up the phones at Streets For All and Streets Are For Everyone.

Or maybe the Times just lost their numbers.

The best they could do was a traffic engineering expert from USC, who evidently doesn’t consider traffic speed or road design a contributing factor when it comes to collisions.

Consider these milquetoast stanzas.

• Many of the worst intersection were designed to take a lot traffic. They’ve been optimized for car movement (so pedestrians, buses cyclists come second to moving cars). This is controversial because some feel the city needs to prioritize getting solo drivers out of cars and onto mass transit and other alternatives. But most of these intersections lack protected bike and bus lanes.
• As frustrating as the waits at these intersections can be, Moore argues that the city has generally done a adequate job of moving so many cars and is skeptical much more can be done short the type of “congestion pricing” system being tried in New York and European cities.

While I’m all in favor of congestion pricing, I doubt there are many people who would give LA traffic even an “adequate” grade.

That said, here’s the list in all its glory.

1. Highland and Sunset
2. Sepulveda and Lincoln
3. MLK and Crenshaw
4. 3rd and Alvarado
5. El Segundo and Hoover
6. Los Feliz and Griffith Park
7. Pacific Coast Highway and Sunset
8. Santa Monica and Highland
9. Fountain and Hyperion
10. Crenshaw and 9th
11. La Cienega and Centinela
12. Vermont and 28th
13. Wilshire and Sepulveda
14. Pacific Coast Highway and Channel/Chautauqua

Two of those are walking distance from my apartment. Which probably explains why I feel like my life is in danger every time I walk the dog.

And I’ve ridden, driven of bused through most of the rest, and can attest that they do, indeed, suck.

But I don’t think you can evaluate any intersection without considering the design of the roadways leading up to it, or the speed of the drivers approaching it.

This list should be a call to action to fix each of these. But if we only address the intersections themselves, we won’t solve the problems that put them on it.

Then again, I’m not traffic engineering expert.

So what do I know?

………

Now that’s what I’m talking about.

Calbike, Streets for All, Streets Are For Everyone, and People for Bikes have clearly heard the call, and are backing a new bill that would redefine some electric mopeds and e-motorbikes to clear up the current confusion and separate them from Class 1, 2 and 3 ebikes.

Unlike AB 1942, which would require licenses and registration for ebikes, SB 1167 would clarify what is actually an ebike, while renaming and regulating faster and higher-powered two-wheeled vehicles.

Like these, for instance.

The bill would require that an electric bicycle must have fully operational pedals and an electric motor capable of no more than 750 watts; anything else could not be legally called, marketed or sold as a bicycle or ebike.

What is currently termed a motorized bicycle would be redefined as a moped, with clearer definitions of vehicle design, power output, and a top speed of 30 mph on level ground.

The term motor-driven cycles would include electric motorcycles offering less than 3,750 watts and 5 brake horsepower.

Both categories would require that manufacturers and marketers clearly specify that they are not electric bicycles.

Dirt bikes and other electric motorbikes intended for off-highway use will be treated as off-highway motor vehicles and must display identification plates or devices, and be certified by an accredited independent lab.

And perhaps most importantly, it would not require licenses, registration or insurance for ped-assist ebikes — a requirement that would be the best way to kill the growth of ebikes, and limit their ability to replace motor vehicle use.

………

Hats off to our very own Marvin Braude Bike Trail, which leads USA Today’s list of the ten best waterfront bike paths in the US.

………

This is who we share the road with.

A driver in Redlands deliberately crashed his Tesla into a crowd of people standing outside a popular restaurant and bar at closing time, after getting into an “altercation” involving several people.

Four people were hospitalized with major injuries.

The driver then fled the scene, crashing into the curb as he made his escape. After which, someone in the crowd got their revenge by shooting up a couple of nearby businesses, neither of which probably had anything to do with it.

………

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

He gets it. A North Carolina letter writer patiently explains that bike riders already pay for the streets, and that anyone who wants to exclude bicycles from the state’s roadways because they don’t pay gas taxes might as well exclude EVs, too — then signs off that he’s “Not a cyclist or an EV owner.”

No one is happy in Manchester, England, where a key bike lane is being dug up for the third time in two years, leaving merchants, drivers and bike riders fuming.

………

Local 

Los Angeles city leaders have apparently managed to get their collective heads out of their metaphorical asses long enough to request an extension on $100 million in funding from California Active Transportation Program, rather than give the money back to the state after concluding that city staff reductions meant they couldn’t meet the deadline to finish projects in Wilmington, Boyle Heights and Skid Row.

Streetsblog reports the LA City Council Transportation Committee will discus plans for automated speed camera enforcement at their 8:45 am meeting tomorrow.

Long Beach will hold a town hall tomorrow night to discuss plans for a revamp of the city’s 2nd Street Bridge, amid reports they’re backing off plans for the promised protected bike lanes, leaving bike riders with just a thin stripe of white paint to protect them from speeding drivers.

Sad news from South LA, where an LA driver continued the city’s longstanding tradition of killing innocent people without fear of retribution, after a 30-year old woman riding a mobility scooter was killed by a hit-and-run driver.

LA Bike Boy takes a carfree trip from Venice to the venerable Huntington Library in San Marino.

State

Sad news from Santa Maria, where a man in his 50s was found lying dead in the street next to his bicycle after a hit-and-run, at the same intersection where a pedestrian was killed in another hit-and-run just a day before. Which is exactly how you know an intersection is a deadly disaster. 

National

WTF? The owner of a Boulder, Colorado bicycle and triathlon shop says his store was sold behind his back and without his consent, after a minority parter misrepresented himself as owner of the property and trademark, and sold it to Mike’s Bikes.

A Norman, Oklahoma man is planning to ride across the country to raise funds and awareness of multiple sclerosis, despite living with the disease for nearly two decades.

International

Banff, Alberta says it’s time to get all arty and funky with the city’s bike racks. Although the problem with artistic bike racks is that too many people don’t realize they are one.

Locals are enraged when an English bike path is closed for two years because someone living in van community did some unauthorized digging in an embankment next to the path.

A bakery manager in the UK got his stolen handmade bike back after posting the theft online, when a kindhearted stranger spotted the bike and bought it back for the equivalent of just 27 bucks.

When a British physician offered to give away her old tandem to anyone who wanted it, she didn’t expect to ship it off to a Kenyan paracycling group, who needed it for racing with the blind.

Heartbreaking story, as an Irish man tearfully recalls that his wife never rode a bike again after his eight-year old son was killed riding in front of her.

The 15-year old son of the chairman of Israel’s Ra’am political party suffered severe injuries, including a head injury, when he was struck by a driver while riding an ebike in Upper Galilee.

A San Francisco urbanist visits his husband’s family Taiwan, and wonders if the country’s “incredible network of protected bike paths” could be brought home to the Bay Area.

A travel website says Kyoto and Hokkaido, Japan have joined better known locations like Amsterdam, Tuscany and Mallorca, Spain as the world’s best bicycling destinations. But they bizarrely feel the need to illustrate it with an AI-generated photo of bicyclist riding in front of a spectacular mountain range and temples that don’t exist. 

A New Zealand farming website profiles a Kiwi dairy farmer who somehow finds time to ride his bike while running a local gravel cycling group, despite milking 450 cows twice a day.

Competitive Cycling

Heartbreaking news from Rwanda, where a race vehicle veered into a crowd of spectators watching the Tour of Rwanda on Sunday, killing two people and injuring six others.

Trailblazing Nigerian cyclist Ese Lovina Ukpeseraye is calling it a career, just two years after she became the first cyclist to represent the country in the Olympics.

Ivanie Blondin, a gold medal winner for Canada in the women’s long track team pursuit speed skating, is one of us, with top-10 finishes in two North American crits last year.

South African Imtiyaaz “Sparkie” Schultz has made the difficult jump from Cape Town gang member to professional cyclist, after asking the local gang leader for permission to walk away from gang life so he could wash enough cars to buy a racing bicycle.

Former WorldTour cyclist and current Costa Rican national cycling team head coach Andrey Amador was hospitalized in “delicate condition” after he lost control and crashed his bike while riding with the national team.

Finally…

The internet has ruled — tell another bike rider his taillight is too bright, and yes, you are the a-hole. Science says the best way to get faster on a bike is to do your training rides in hot tub.

And LADOT says they didn’t mean “If you see something, say something” applies to people pooping on buses, too.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin.