Day 160 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025.
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No surprise here.
Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez says the city is tripping over itself in the lead-up to the 2028 Olympics — including being behind on planned transportation improvements.
And that’s after Metro has already backed off on several improvements originally promised in the Twenty-Eight by ’28 plan, including adding more bus and bike lanes, as well as completing the LA River Bike Path before the Games.
Meanwhile, People For Bikes listed their top priorities for the coming year. starting with redefining electric motorbikes, which are too often confused with ebikes, and improving standards for lithium-ion batteries.
But they also listed reimagining LA’s transportation system in time for the Games.
Looking ahead to the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Los Angeles, and following two major wins in 2024 at the city and state levels, PeopleForBikes is working alongside local advocates and bike companies to champion an overhaul of Los Angeles’ transportation system to include more safe and connected bike infrastructure. Leveraging the attention on and injection of funding into Los Angeles ahead of 2028, we are proud to support the Festival Trail, a multimodal network that links and expands on existing projects to connect residents and visitors to LA28 venues and several of Los Angeles’ famous attractions without needing a car. We are also advocating for mobility hubs that feature bike share stations and bike parking at major transit stations. At the state level, we supported legislation that would provide $3.5 billion for active transportation projects in Los Angeles.
These investments in preparation for the Olympics can benefit Los Angeles far beyond 2028 by supporting mobility opportunities for all Angelenos, particularly in communities that have been historically underserved by public transportation. This is also a chance to show that transformation in one of America’s most car-centric cities is possible and provide a model for other cities to transform their transportation networks to cater the needs of all road users, regardless of whether people walk, ride a bike, take transit, or drive a car.
Let’s hope they can get something done.
Because the city hasn’t given us any reason to believe they can do it on their own.
Logo for LA ’28 from Wikipedia.
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Police in New York bizarrely concluded no one broke the law when a man was was nearly killed by an apparent kite string as he was riding a bicycle.
He required multiple transfusions to replace the blood lost when the string slit his throat, severing his windpipe, even though it seems unlikely that a normal kite string could do that kind of damage.
People who were riding with him suggested that the string could have been intentionally strung across the bike lane, or that it could have been coated with glass for kite fighting.
A woman was also injured when the string struck her hand and forehead, moments before injuring the man, who was riding just behind her.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
The bicycling community in Wellington, New Zealand is fighting back against whoever has been scattering tacks on bikeways for the past decade, offering free puncture repairs and sweeping up tacks and other objects with magnets.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
Irate Salt Lake City drivers complained about getting stuck for multiple light cycles and surrounded by angry bicyclists during a growing, weekly bike ride, as motorists honked, called the riders names and yelled at them to obey the law. Someone should at least teach that group how and when to properly cork an intersection.
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Local
No news is good news, right?
State
Streetsblog says AB 891, California’s Quick-Build Project Pilot Program, is a third of the way home after passing the state Assembly; now it needs to pass in the state Senate and survive Newsom’s overactive veto pen.
A San Francisco man faces a felony hit-and-run charge for last month’s crash that seriously injured a 5-year-old girl riding her bike with her mother. Although under California’s lenient hit-and-run penalties, he’ll face no more than four years behind bar — which will likely by plea bargained down to a slap on the wrist.
Sad news from Northern California, where a 13-year old girl was killed by a driver while riding an ebike in a South Lake Tahoe crosswalk.
An estimated 2,100 people turned out for the 32nd annual America’s Most Beautiful Bike Ride around Lake Tahoe, with rides up to 100 miles to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
National
Wired offers advice on how to buy a bike helmet, while a Pittsburgh paper considers how often you should replace it.
Some rare tariff good news, as Chinese-made bike helmets and aluminum-frame bicycle trailers maintain their exemptions until the end of August.
An Oregon man encountered a turtle while riding his bicycle, which initially played dead before scrambling off the pavement. Unfortunately, that tactic seldom helps bike riders escape threats from drivers.
Oregon Republicans want to rip away funding currently directed to rail, transit, bicycle and walking projects, and redirect it to the State Highway Fund to benefit the people in cars at the expense of everyone else.
Pink Bike offers more information on the delayed opening of Idaho’s Panhandle Bike Ranch, after a judge jerked the park’s conditional use permit just ten days before its planned opening.
Trump’s funding freeze is putting at risk $6.3 million previously approved by the Biden administration to close gaps in a 230-mile pedestrian and biking corridor between Butte and the Idaho border, part of Great American Rail-Trail route.
Bicyclists Colorado State University in my bike-friendly hometown held the second annual Ollie’s Ride for Change, including a Pokemon-themed bike parade, to remember a ten-year old boy killed by a distracted driver while riding his bike in a nearby town; the woman behind the wheel was sentenced to a lousy year behind bars after she was convicted of careless driving.
Bowling Green, Kentucky got its first green lane, but for biking not bowling.
No surprise here, either, as Nashville advocates issue their first State of Our Streets report, calling for more walking paths and protected bike lanes, as well as including quick-build projects as part of the city’s Vision Zero plan.
As the NYPD continues its misguided crackdown on scofflaw bike riders by issuing criminal summonses instead of traffic tickets, the state legislature considers a Stop As Yield law, aka Idaho Stop Law, that would legalize treating stop signs as yields, and red lights as stop signs, taking away tools they use to for pretextual stops and to target riders. California isn’t likely to get one until Gavin Newsom leaves office, since he’s already vetoed it twice.
Sad news from Charlotte, Virginia, where the 73-year old father of a local traffic safety advocate was killed when he was struck by a semi driver while riding the recumbent bike he used to maintain his independence.
Good news from Melbourne, Florida, where 15-year old boy reclaimed the bicycle he inherited from his dad, who died of Covid, after it was stolen while he was working as a lifeguard; he got it back with the help of his swim coach and the local police, as well as hundreds of people who shared the news on Facebook.
International
Bike riders in Halifax, Nova Scotia accuse the mayor of scapegoating bicyclists and backing out of campaign promises by calling for halting bike lane construction, pending a review on congestion and costs.
A Canadian columnist says no, a ringing bike bell doesn’t mean you have to get the hell out of the way — and if someone on a bike hits you, sue ’em.
A new research report indicates that young adults aged 25-34 are driving the rising popularity of ebikes in Britain.
Something doesn’t add up in the UK, where two men face murder and attempted murder charges for the alleged hit-and-run death of a 16-year old boy who recently arrived from Yemen, striking the teen as he was walking after first crashing into an ebike rider — raising questions of why police think the act was intentional and who was the intended target.
She gets it. A Belgian writer wants to know why an unlicensed DUI driver was released by police after killing someone riding a bicycle, asking what’s the message that sends about accountability on the country’s roads.
You’ve got to be kidding. Life is cheap in Cyprus, where a 42-year old driver walked with a lousy $1,370 fine for killing a 62-year old man riding a bicycle while traveling at nearly twice the posted speed limit, and was banned from driving for five whole weekends.
Competitive Cycling
Twenty-four-year old Kiwi cyclist Ally Wollaston says she’s overwhelmed after a final stage sprint gave her the overall victory in the women’s Tour of Britain, edging out previous tour leader Cat Ferguson by four seconds.
Finally…
That feeling when your classic space-age bicycle looks more like an oversized pizza cutter. Now you, too, can have horns coming out of your bike helmet, or maybe a banana.
And when you’re a convicted felon riding at night with illegal narcotics and a loaded firearm, stay in your lane and put a damn light on it.
The bike, that is, not the lane. Or the gun.
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Oh, and fuck Putin.
