Day 266 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025.
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No surprise here.
It turns out that Xavier Omar Rigby, the 22-year old Florida man accused of killing a 38-year old woman riding an ebike — then driving eight blocks with her body lodged in his windshield before falling off — is a repeat offender.
According to the Tampa Bay Times, he admitted to drinking alcohol and smoking weed after he was arrested for driving on the wrong side of the road two years ago. Although the Daily Mail reports prosecutors plea bargained the charged down to just reckless driving last year.
The Daily Mail also says this wasn’t even Rigby’s first hit-and-run, since he was involved in another hit-and-run in 2022 — three years before killing the bike-riding Florida mother last week.
Oh, and when police arrested Rigby this time, they found him at a liquor store about a mile from the crash scene.
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
That’s more like it. A pair of British men have been sentenced to life behind bars on murder charges for deliberately driving their pickup into a couple of young men riding ebikes, after chasing them on the wrong side of the road when they mistook them for burglars; the driver will have to spend at least 34 years in prison before he can be considered for parole, while his passenger was sentenced a minimum of 29 years.
Authorities in the UK have arrested six men and one woman for attempted murder after intentionally crashing into an 18-year old bike rider; five of the suspects have already been released on bail. Must have been a very crowded clown car.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
A Colorado magazine recommends eight fall bike rides in and around Denver. Which was always my favorite time to ride when I lived in the city, after the tourists were gone and the students in class, the air was crisp and cool, and the leaves turned vibrant colors.
Life is cheap in Colorado, where a 46-year old man walked without a day behind bars for the hit-and-run crash that seriously injured a bike rider; he received just one year of probation and a lousy 20 hours of community service as part of a very lenient plea bargain.
A Montreal PhD candidate crunches the numbers, and finds that despite the bikelash, bike lanes only take up 2.3% of the city’s roadways, with infrastructure for the big, dangerous machines claiming the other 97.7%.
Then share it — and keep sharing it — with everyone you know, on every platform you can.
We’re now up to 1,057 signatures, so keep it going! Urge everyone you know to sign the petition, until the mayor agrees to meet with us!
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My apologies for yesterday’s unexcused absence. Diabetes, a bum shoulder and a bad back, and suddenly becoming a full-time caregiver for my wife and my dog, all combined to knock me on my ass Tuesday night. And it probably won’t be the last time.
Yet the 77-year old Florida woman who hit them — who already walked without criminal charges — faced absolutely no consequences, after tickets for failing to maintain her lane, no proof of insurance and unknowingly driving with a suspended or revoked license were dismissed.
Why?
Because the damn state highway patrolman who wrote them couldn’t be bothered to show up in court.
Which means the slap on the wrist she was facing turned into a pat on the back. And the people she seriously injured won’t see any justice, period.
The Florida Highway Patrol said the woman had either a seizure, epilepsy or blacked out at the time of the crash, but somehow never bothered to determine which one.
Which means she shouldn’t have been driving with a condition that could cause that, which may have been why her license was suspended in the first place.
Never mind that no one ever bothered to test her for drugs or alcohol.
So if you ever wonder why people keep dying on our streets, this is a damn good place to start.
A Winnipeg, Canada city councilor spent yesterday backpedaling without a bike after coming under withering and well-deserved criticism for saying bicycle Nazis want to “take away all the lanes and the cars,” apologizing for making the statement at a city council meeting.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
LAistlooks back at LA’s elevated, wooden bicycle freeway, which never quite made it all the way to Pasadena before cars took over in the early 1900s; the route now forms the basis for the Pasadena freeway.
The two executives from North Hills-based Hope the Mission have made it to Oklahoma City on their cross-country bike ride to raise attention to the plight of homelessness. Meanwhile, my brother has made it to eastern New Mexico on his cross-country ride, after encountering several weather delays.
Boston bicyclists will return at midnight Sunday for the 16th annual, officially unofficial and unsanctioned 26.2-mile ride along the Boston Marathon route, before the race runs later that morning. The same thing used to take place every year in Los Angeles — until the city made it an official event, then cancelled it, ostensibly over insurance concerns.
Florida man strikes again, as a 73-year old man was arrested for pulling a knife on a boy for riding his bicycle on the sidewalk, instead of a bike lane, telling police he thought his life was in danger because the kid was riding right at him.
Life is cheap in Australia, where a 23-year old driver got just six to sixteen months behind bars for killing a bike rider, despite using Instagram on her phone while driving at least 50 mph. And not surprising, ays she never saw the entirely innocent victim she killed.
Then share it — and keep sharing it — with everyone you know, on every platform you can.
As of this writing, we’re up to 1,013 signatures, so let’s keep it going! Urge everyone you know to sign the petition, until the mayor agrees to meet with us!
LA checks in all the way down at 64th, behind several other SoCal cities, including Long Beach, San Diego and Irvine. But at least we’re ahead of Riverside.
Barely, anyway.
So just imagine how happy we’d all be if everyone felt safe riding a bike.
Prosecutors dropped the case because they couldn’t prove he was under the influence at the time of the crash, making it just another oopsie. And proving once again that killing other people while driving recklessly and illegally is just no big thing.
He now faces a lousy $264 traffic ticket for running the red light, which he has naturally pled not guilty to.
Because as another Florida man has made clear, accountability is for suckers.
Thanks for the story Ted. Wim Wenders came over as we were leaving the event. He commented that his DP has the same bike (a Brompton) that Tish was riding. I thanked him for all the biking scenes in PERFECT DAYS, and he let us know that he uses his bike to get around when he is home in Berlin. One day, maybe LA will be as safe a place to bike as Berlin, Tokyo and others. But I’ll keep riding in the meantime anyway.
From his mouth to God’s ear.
As it turns out, I have something in common with Wenders. We’ve both won Golden Bear awards from the Berlin International Film Festival.
Although mine was for writing an ad campaign for a bank that doesn’t even exist anymore.
Speaking of Pasadena, the city’s police will conduct a bicycle and pedestrian safety operation on Friday, ticketing anyone who commits a traffic violation that could endanger either group, regardless of who commits it; Santa Monica cops will also hold one on Thursday and Friday. As usual, ride to the letter of the law until you cross the city limits, so you’re not the one who gets written up and fined.
Streetsblogtalks with South Bay-based writer Peter Flax, whose new book, Live to Ride: Finding Joy and Meaning on a Bicycle, offers a broad look at bike riding, with a common theme that bicyclists have to work together because strength comes from unity. And yes, I’ve ordered my copy.
State
This is who we share the road with. An unlicensed driver with four previous DUIs over the past decade hit and killed a pedestrian in Orange Tuesday morning, and was arrested after fleeing the scene and leading police on a short chase. And yes, he showed signs of intoxication as he was taken into custody. Which is what happens when authorities take someone’s license away, but let them keep their keys.
Momentum offers 33 reasons to start bike commuting this spring, ranging from reducing your carbon footprint to getting some alone time while connecting to your community. Although they forgot to mention that it’s a lot more fun than driving, too.
Police in Australia are revisiting the seven-year old cold case shooting of a 72-year old man, who was shot multiple times in the head and chest by a man who got out of a parked car to fire at him as he rode his motorized bicycle on a rail trail; he somehow survived, but even a half-million dollar reward hasn’t been enough to solve the case.
I have no memory of the impact, but I was told by the park ranger on scene that witnesses had watched a car with two young men inside intentionally swerve into the bike lane and ram me from behind, throwing me over the handlebars into the street, and then laughing as they sped away.
We’ve seen similar stories coming from all over the world — as near as Huntington Beach and Las Vegas, and as far as Australia — of young men deliberately running down people on bicycles, usually while driving stolen cars.
Yet no one seems to be connecting the dots here, despite with rumors circulating of a hit-and-run challenge targeting bicyclists.
Meanwhile, another letter on the same Times link asks a “bike enthusiast” to explain why an Eagle Rock bike rider would be riding against traffic on the sidewalk, right next to the painted bike lanes on Colorado Blvd.
When there was a large gap, I checked again for pedestrians, and started to move forward. Out of nowhere, here comes a bike rider, on the sidewalk, coming from my right against the traffic flow. I came within millimeters of knocking him down.
I have seen many cyclists use the bike lanes correctly, but I have also seen them riding in groups so that they overflow the bike lanes into traffic. I’ve seen them at night with no reflective gear on.
Let’s start with the idea that the rider came “out of nowhere.”
Bikes are allowed on the sidewalk in Los Angeles, and drivers have a responsibility to look both ways. That includes looking for anyone walking or biking on the sidewalk, which is bi-directional — meaning there is no right direction, and people are entitled to travel in either direction.
Even people on bicycles.
Secondly, there is no requirement to ride in the street, even if it has a bike lane.
It’s possible that riding with traffic on the opposite side of the street may have been inconvenient if the rider was heading to or leaving a business or residence on the near side of the street, or connecting to a street on that side.
Or they may have just been uncomfortable riding on a busy street with nothing more than a thin strip of paint for protection.
And it’s odd that drivers can accept illegal, dangerous and otherwise bizarre behavior from other drivers, but somehow can’t comprehend when someone on a bicycle does something similar.
People are people, regardless of how they choose to travel. And people will inevitably do what’s most convenient, or which seems to make sense at the time.
So maybe it’s time to lighten up when someone on a bicycle acts like a human being.
Sadly, the ghost bike for fallen bicyclist and Hollywood producer Bob George has been removed already, his memory erased from a town that forgets too easily.
Surprisingly, no SoCal county ranked in the top 20. Although it would be interesting to see what the rest of the list looks like.
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There’s still time to reserve your spot in next weekend’s L.A. Chinatown Firecracker Bike Ride celebrating the upcoming Lunar New Year, Year of the Dragon.
Here’s how a recent press release described the event.
The 46th AnnualL.A. Chinatown Firecracker 5K/10K Run/1K Kiddie & PAW’er Dog Run/Walk & 20/50-Mile Bike Ride – which will beheld over the weekend of February 24-25, 2024, where thousands will take to the streets and where the events start and end, as well as a free to the public post-event festival at the historic Los Angeles Chinatown Plaza (Event Festival until 3pm on Saturday as well as a Lantern Paw Festival in Blossom Plaza from 11am-4pm in conjunction with Saturday’s Paw’er Dog Walk, and on Sunday, the Firecracker event festival goes until noon).
In addition, the 50-mile Bike Ride snakes through DTLA, LA River, “Frogtown”, LA Zoo, Travel Town, Burbank, Glendale, Verdugo Foothills, Montrose, La Canada, Pasadena, Altadena, San Marino, South Pasadena, El Sereno, Lincoln Heights, and much more.
The L.A. Chinatown Firecracker is one of the largest and oldest running races in the U.S. which had its humble beginnings from a few Belmont High School Alums (a public school located in the Westlake community just outside of Chinatown).
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
No bias here. A San Diego TV station blames the victims by suggesting the safety of Encinitas ebike riders is in the hands of Gen-Z, meaning teenage ebike riders. Even though the real danger comes from the drivers they’re forced to share the road with, thanks to a lack of safe infrastructure.
The LA Times sums up the prosecution’s case against wealthy socialite and Grossman Burn Center co-founder Rebecca Grossman as “Liquor, Valium, speed and recklessness;” Grossman is on trial for two counts of murder for the high speed hit-an-run deaths of two little kids as they crossed the street with their parents and siblings in Westlake Village last September.
Yo! Venice offers video of the badly damaged Marvin Braude Bike Trail, which collapsed during last week’s heavy rains; remarkably, the bike path appears to have been build with little or no rebar or other means of support beyond the concrete itself.
San Francisco State Sen. Scott Wiener discusses his proposed bill to require speed limiting devices in all new cars, which keep drivers from exceeding ten miles over the speed limit. And which would probably do more to save lives than anything else the state could do right now.
National
He gets it. A writer for Bicycling says stop the ebike hate, and love your fellow bicyclists regardless of how they dress or what they ride. Unfortunately, this one doesn’t seem to be available anywhere else, so you may be screwed if the magazine blocks you.
This is why people keep dying on our streets. A driver walked without a single day behind bars, despite being convicted of intentionally ramming a bike rider into a large truck, breaking the victim’s spine and leaving him a “hollow shell of a person.”
Then share it — and keep sharing it — with everyone you know, on every platform you can.
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Surprisingly, last minute donations are still trickling in for the 9th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive. So thanks to an anonymous donor for their generous gift to keep SoCal’s best source for bike news and advocacy coming your way every day!
After an elderly Florida woman driving on the wrong side of the road plowed head-on into a group of eight bicyclists, sending seven to the hospital — two still critical — a local news website responds by firmly assigning blame.
On the victims, of course.
Asking if “bike herds should be banned,” they say the crash “raises new questions about whether bicyclists belong on area roads.”
Often a nuisance to drivers as they ride in packs, Florida law does permit these bicyclists to use a roadway when no bike lane exists. But these bike herds rarely ride at the speed of traffic. They often seem to lack any awareness that in a bike-versus-car collision, the car almost always wins.
Although a much better question would be whether elderly drivers who can’t confine themselves to the right side of the roadway should be allowed on them.
And maybe someone could assure them that we are all quite aware that cars are bigger than we are, and they hurt.
Unfortunately, however, the writer, or writers, aren’t done yet.
Now we ask you, our readers: should packs of bicyclists be permitted on area roads? Should they be permitted to interfere with traffic? Are there times of day where bike herds should be outright banned, or conversely, are there times of day where you believe it would be okay for bicyclists to ride on area roads? And this question: does anyone really believe that tight, brightly colored spandex offers any additional safety for these people at all?
They obviously don’t realize that we only form herds for protection from apex predators in motor vehicles.
And the purpose of our tight, brightly colored spandex is to get drivers to check out our butts and massive thighs, so they might actually see us for a change.
But hopefully not from the front, as they hurtle blissfully along on the wrong side of the road.
Seriously, the site’s whole argument makes no more sense than suggesting schools should be banned to prevent mass shootings.
Because evidently, someone, somewhere, once rode a bicycle through a red light, which somehow caused this whole mess.
But still.
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A CNN op-ed from journalist Jill Filipovic decries the ever-increasing death toll on American streets, arguing that “Like gun deaths, this epidemic of car-related deaths is a particularly American problem.”
One that she blames in part on the ever-increasing size of American motor vehicles. But she takes it several steps further, to look at other factors contributing to the problem.
Growing vehicle size is a big part of the problem. But it’s far from the only problem. America has too-lax road rules and too few spaces where pedestrians are prioritized. American drivers are too often distracted by cell phones (European drivers, who are much more likely to operate manual-transmission cars, are as a result less likely to have a free hand to hold a cell phone). And enforcement of existing laws is weak: In many areas, officers reportedly have been told not to pull drivers over even for breaking the law.
One solution, she says, is increased camera enforcement — like the speed cams that were recently approved for a handful of California cities, including Los Angeles, Glendale and Long Beach.
Along with red light cams, which are currently prohibited in the City of Angels, because drivers didn’t like getting caught breaking the same laws they accuse bike riders of breaking.
Then she adds this, making the same case I’ve been making for some time.
If your license has been suspended several times, or if you’ve been convicted of multiple DUIs, or if you have double-digit numbers of speeding tickets in your name, or if you’ve been involved in multiple crashes that were your fault, you should lose the privilege to drive entirely. And if you have a record of this kind of reckless or dangerous driving and then you hit and injure or kill someone, you should pay an especially steep price.
Yet over and over and over again, people with long records of dangerous driving are allowed back on the road; dangerous drivers often aren’t even punished when they eventually maim or kill someone, or see penalties that amount to little more than a slap on the wrist. It is exceptionally rare for a driver, even one with a history of dangerous driving, to be charged with murder when they kill someone on the road. Killing someone with a car is, in the United States, too often essentially a free pass.
It’s worth reading the whole thing.
Because things will never get better until we get dangerous cars and drivers off the roads.
Permanently.
Thanks to Mike Wilkinson for the heads-up.
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Thanks to Joel Falter for forwarding news that the annual maintenance work on the Ballona Creek Bike Path will begin today, with intermittent closures this week that could affect your ride or commute.
Now that nearby freeway work is nearing completion, the city is finally getting around to fixing the north end of the LA River bike path. And hopefully, connecting it to new segments in the San Fernando Valley.
I can’t begin to tell you how many times I’ve been tempted to crawl over — or through — vehicles whose drivers carelessly block the crosswalk to enjoy their God-given right to turn right on red.
Ban Right Turn on Red. This guy driving to the beach to ride bikes blocked the crosswalk where someone is walking his bike to the beach. Notice the green light for the crosswalk users. Rosecrans/PCH @Pflax1@bikinginlapic.twitter.com/ldAgM7Hk1B
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
LA-based former pro cyclist Phil Gaimon warned “sane motorists” about “homicidal maniacs on the road” who threaten the safety of vulnerable road users, after a driver responded to the innocuous post below showing Gaimon and friends riding past crawling I-5 traffic — on the shoulder, no less — warning that he would “turn the wheel to the right and ram you” in the same situation. If he actually said he “would,” rather than he’d like to, that constitutes a threat under California law, and should be reported to the police to get that fool off the road before he kills someone.
A Florida man argues that he is a victim of political and social manipulation of physical and circumstantial evidence, insisting that he had a legal and constitutional right to fatally shoot a bicycle-riding man during a confrontation, part of which he live streamed from his motorcycle; he’s been behind bars awaiting trail for nearly four and a half years, largely because he keeps firing his defense attorneys.
Cyclists participating in Australian women’s road cycling championship paused for a moment of silence to honor Olympic gold medal track cyclist Melissa Hoskins, who was killed when she reportedly fell off the hood of the pickup driven by her husband, two-time world time trial champ and Tour de France stage winner Rohan Dennis; Hoskins was remembered as a “beacon of strength” and “a freewheeling spirit.”
The collision occurred on the state’s famed A1A coast highway, leaving a crash scene witnesses described as “horrific”.
Descriptions of the dangers bike riders face there make it sound like an East Coast version of Southern California’s killer Pacific Coast Highway.
I understand there’s a bike cam video of the crashing circulating around. But from what I’ve heard, I wouldn’t recommend watching it.
Some things are hard to unsee.
And never mind the ongoing conversation of how old is too old to drive. Although hitting a group of bike riders head-on while driving on the wrong side of the road might suggest might be.
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Good news from West Hollywood, where Senior Planner David Fenn forwards news that the City Council unanimously adopted WeHo’s first Vision Zero plan at their last meeting before Christmas
And they didn’t stop there, asking city staff “to investigate additional safety strategies like identifying promising locations for roundabouts, reducing landscaping height at crosswalks to improve pedestrian visibility and the orientation of pedestrian push buttons to drivers.”
So maybe they’re serious about actually doing something to reduce traffic deaths, unlike a certain megalopolis I could name.
West Hollywood staff members will return to Council with an addendum to the plan which includes these suggestions in the next few months.
Fenn also forwards news that WeHo is studying first and last mile connections for pedestrians and bicyclists for the future Metro K (Crenshaw) Line Northern Extension. A survey has been posted online to offer your feedback and suggestions.
My best suggestion is to speed up construction, which isn’t scheduled to begin until 2041, with completion set for 2047 to 2049 — too damn long to wait for a line that will finally connect all of Metro’s existing rail lines.
Especially since Metro never seems to meet their completion dates.
According to a notice from the Simi Valley Police Department, the victim, who wasn’t publicly identified, was riding north across Los Angeles Ave west of Stearns Street when they were struck by a vehicle traveling east on Los Angeles around 7:50 pm.
A witness described the suspect vehicle as a late 1990’s to early 2000’s gold Toyota sedan, with probable significant damage to the front or right front side.
I’d say that sounds like my wife’s old car, but it was totaled by a distracted driver just before Christmas.
Anyone with information is urged to call Simi Valley PD Traffic Collision Investigator Martinez at 805/583-6224 or email AMartinez@simivalley.org.
Let’s hope the victim has a fast and full recovery. And they find the heartless coward who did it.
Thanks to Linda Righetti for the heads-up.
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Ralph Durham forwards photos from a recent trip to Milan, featuring a protected bike lane we can only envy.
Road.cc updates their 2016 article on the 10 most hysterical anti-cycling headlines in the notorious Daily Mail tabloid, this time listing “20 of the most hysterical Daily Mail anti-cycling headlines” — including the classic “Lunacy, blight, and the scourge of lycra louts.”
A new law allows Oregon drivers to pass bicyclists in a no-passing zone, as long as they stay five mph below the posted speed limit and there are no on-coming vehicles. Similar provisions have been vetoed multiple times by California governors, for reasons only they and their CHP Wormtongues understand.
A New York Times podcast considers why so many more pedestrians are getting killed on our streets, as other rich nations have surpassed American in protecting pedestrians, bicyclists and motorists. Which is the first and last time they even mention bikes, even though our death rates are climbing, too. Thanks to David Wolfberg for the link.
I’m scheduled to have arm and hand surgery at the end of the month.
As you may recall, I had surgery on the right side last year, and was down for about 10 days before I was able to get back to work, however, that was a more extensive surgery than we’re expecting this time.
So I’m not sure how long I’ll be out; hopefully, it will only be a few days.
But if you’ve been thinking about writing a guest post, this would be a great time to send something to me.
Standard rules apply. Write as much or as little as you want, about anything you want, as long as it’s about bicycling. Feel free to include photos (just send them separately from the text, please).
The only restrictions are to avoid insults and personal attacks, or being needlessly offensive. But I’m pretty damn hard to offend, so that should give you a lot of leeway.
No, this is not an invitation to SEO marketers, so no extraneous links unrelated to the topic at hand.
And I’ll be the judge of what’s related.
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More proof Roadkill Gil supports bike infrastructure, as long as it doesn’t offend NIMBYs or inconvenience motorists just a tad.
The Sheriff’s Department has declared zero tolerance for speeding and crosswalk violations on PCH in Malibu in the wake of several recent pedestrian deaths. Good luck with that. If they really want to slow drivers on LA killer highway, they need to remake PCH so the Malibu’s Main Street isn’t just a speedway for pass-through drivers.
Rancho Palos Verdes will lift a 28-year ban on bicycles and skating at three local parks, in a six-month trial starting at some yet-to-be-determined date; residents have complained that they don’t have safe place to teach their kids how to ride a bike.
Texas Monthlyremembers the state’s own Mr. Rogers, who fixed bikes for all the neighborhood kids until his death at 93 years old in 2004, and says some of those bikes are still being ridden today.
San Diego bike advocate Phillip Young is a frequent contributor to this site.
I always appreciate his insights. But we part ways when it comes to protected bike lanes.
Young penned a guest post for Cycling Salvation, suggesting that protected bike lanes only give the illusion of safety, while posing a hidden risk to new and experienced bike riders alike.
Bordered by raised asphalt barriers and bright plastic pylons, these “protected bike lanes” create a sort of “safety bubble” that protects cyclists from vehicles moving alongside them, in the same direction. In theory, cyclists of all ages and abilities can enjoy the San Diego sunshine and scenery, while cars and trucks whizz by in the adjacent vehicle lane. Motorists will see the fun loving bikers not slowed by traffic jams and join them in droves. Soon, we’ll all be pedaling together, in cycling bliss.
But those rosy assurances crumble, when we confront the real dangers of “protected bike lanes”, and the emotional and economic cost of the accidents, injuries, and deaths that plague them.
He directs his barbs in particular at a recently installed curb-protected bike lane on the coast highway through Cardiff.
According to statistics gathered by North County cycling advocates, there were 24 accidents — all at slow speeds — in just 8-months on a 1-mile flat “protected bike lane” stretch installed last year on the Cardiff 101 beach route. Fifteen of those crashes were caused by cyclists who collided with the raised asphalt barriers designed to keep vehicles away from the bike traffic. A ten-year-old rider flopped into the traffic lane after colliding with an asphalt barrier – fortunately, not run over by a vehicle. Many of these crashes resulted in ambulance rides to a hospital including: 1-knocked unconscious, 1-neck injury, 2-multiple bone fractures, 1-broken pelvis, 2-pedestrian crashes, and 1-hit surfboard.
The “protected bike lanes” on popular beachfront roads also attract pedestrians, joggers, families with strollers, beachgoers carrying umbrellas, coolers, and chairs, and scores of other non-cyclists. Those pedestrians don’t always pay attention to the cyclists, which creates a serious hazard for everyone. Raised barriers are also a pedestrian trip hazard. When a “protected bike lane” is on a steep grade, the added bike speed makes the situation even more hazardous.
Young also points to the death of a bike rider on another protected bike lane, with a design that prevented the driver from merging into the lane before turning, as required by California law.
A cyclist on Leucadia Blvd suffered a much worse fate. A truck driver made a right turn in front of the rider, who was killed when he collided with the truck. The plastic pylons designed to “protect” the cyclist had the opposite effect; they prevented the truck driver from slowly moving towards the curb as he prepared to make that right turn onto Moonstone Ct.
It’s a well argued piece, worth the click and a few minutes of your time.
Even the most critical recent report, from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, found that most protected bike lanes improve safety for bike riders, with a few limited exceptions like narrow two-bike lanes or protected lanes broken up by numerous driveways and turns.
It’s also worth pointing out that the 24 bicycling crashes he refers to along a single stretch of road in an eight-month period works out to just three per month.
And yes, that’s three too many.
But it’s stat presented out of context. What matters isn’t how many crashes there were after the bike lanes went in, but how that compares to before they were installed.
If there were five crashes a month before the lanes were installed, a reduction to three a month would reflect a significant improvement in safety.
On the other hand, if there was an average of two bicycling crashes a month prior to the protected bike lanes going in, then it would mark a 50% decrease in safety.
The same holds true with the severity of the crashes. Even if there are more crashes now, if the victims are less seriously injured, the protected bike lanes are doing their job.
That said, looking at a photo of these particular bike lanes suggests several serious safety deficiencies.
First, the bike lane doesn’t appear to be wide enough to accommodate two bicycle riding side-by-side, making it challenging to safely pass slower riders. And no one is going to patiently ride in single file behind someone riding at a fraction of their speed.
The proximity of the parking lane also means passengers will exit onto the bike lane, potentially into the path of a passing rider — not to mention cross the bike lane on their way to the beach laden with blankets, umbrellas, coolers and kids.
And the narrow, unwelcoming walkway to the right means many, if not most, pedestrians will choose to walk in the bikeway, instead.
As much as I support protected bike lanes, this particular one does not appear to pass the smell test.
Or any other test, for that matter.
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While we’re on the subject, Phillip Young added some more thoughts in an email exchange yesterday afternoon, which is worth sharing here.
Doing research for my article, I came across San Diego County car vs bicycle accident data:
Average number of San Diego County car vs bicycle accident / crashes annually: 629
San Diego County population 3+ million people
The majority (60%) of the accidents are “Bicycle Riders Acting Badly”:
Ran a red light or stop sign
Cutting in between cars
Taking unnecessary chances
Inexperienced male bicycle riders between ages of 15 and 19 account for most accidents.
The overwhelming majority (92%) of the accidents, the bicycle rider sustains non-severe injuries:
1% Deaths (Not all bicycling deaths are solely the car or truck driver’s fault: e.g. gun shot, alcohol / drugs, medical event, bicycle equipment failure, no lights or reflectors at night, etc.)
7% Severe Injuries
92% Complaint of pain and other visible injury
It is very unlikely a car will hit you on your next bike ride (Average 629 annual crashes with a population of 3+ million people). Even if you are unlucky and a car does hit you, 92% chance it will be a non-severe injury.
It’s way more likely you will hit something and crash — we don’t need more stuff sticking up to crash into or bad road surfaces with holes and debris to cause a fall. Even a slow speed bicycle crash can be serious.
Money is much better spent building Class I Bike Paths and Class II Buffered Bike Lanes. Building more miles of Class IV Cycle Tracks (Protected Bike Lanes) will just multiply our problems.
A Sacramento man faces 61 years behind bars for wrapping a woman in his coat and carrying her off a bike path after seeing she was in distress — then fatally stabbing her without warning, for no apparent reason.
A Washington man got a well-deserved nine years behind bars for the hit-and-run death of a bike rider while high on meth; he stopped to dislodge the bike from under his car, and told someone he thought he hit a mailbox. Because lots of mailboxes ride bicycles, apparently.
There’s a special place in hell for whoever stole a three-wheeled adaptive bike that a disabled Missouri man relied as his only form of transportation. And just the opposite for the kindhearted stranger who replaced it.
March 1, 2021 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on LA may not be worst bike city in US after all, bicyclist killed in FL endurance race, and LAPD says they’re not coming
The chart, produced by San Diego’s Tower Electric Bikes, allegedly based on stats from PeopleForBike’s City Ratings, ranks SaMo as the best bike city in the US.
And Los Angeles, not surprising, as the worst.
But while that often feels right, something just didn’t add up.
To start, the stats for Los Angeles on this chart aren’t remotely accurate.
Yes, riding a bike in Los Angeles sucks. But we average around 15 bicycling deaths per year in the City of Los Angeles. Not over 6,200 bicycling fatalities per year, which is what the figure they cite adds up to for a city of nearly four million.
PeopleForBikes puts Los Angeles relatively near the top of their ratings with a 3.0 rating for 2020, compared to a rating of 3.5 — out of a possible 5.0 — for the top ranked cities of San Luis Obispo and Madison, Wisconsin.
Which would undoubtedly come as a surprise to bike riders in SLO, if not Mad City.
With literally hundreds of cities rated below Los Angeles, there is no way those stats support ranking LA as the worst city bike in the US.
Even if it feels like it sometimes.
In addition, the PeopleForBikes City Ratings bizarrely rank bike-friendly Santa Monica far behind Los Angeles with a 1.9 rating. Not, as the chart claims, first in the country.
And Long Beach, which is generally regarded as the most bike-friendly city in LA County, rates even lower at a very sad — and highly inaccurate — 1.6.
It’s possible that the undated chart may have been circulating for awhile; I recall seeing something similar, if not the same, awhile back. But the stats don’t align with the City Ratings for Los Angeles for 2018 or 2019, either.
So I have no idea where Tower got their stats. But they’re not from the PeopleForBikes page, unless something got badly scrambled somewhere along the way.
But anyone who knocks down three people riding bikes — let alone kills someone — certainly should.
But given that it happened in bike-unfriendly Florida, probably won’t.
………
Don’t expect the LAPD to respond the next time you’re in a collision if no one gets badly hurt.
But you can at least report it online now.
Involved in a vehicle collision? We hope not—but if you are & there are no or minor injuries, you've exchanged information & require or desire a police report, you can now file one yourself by visiting https://t.co/XveUCCFl0a
Somehow, I suspect the chances that Los Angeles would ever shut down a busy road and turn it over to bikes for more than a day are somewhere south of none.
@bikinginla Interesting to see how other countries deal with bike infrastructure – here they closed a busy street to cars. pic.twitter.com/UssfBorbap
Bike Index offers free, transferable lifetime registration, as well as your best chance of getting your bike back if anything happens to it. And it’s now used by the LAPD register bicycles and trace recovered bikes.
Now that’s more like it. A bipartisan bill introduced in the US Senate would provide $500 million every year to connect biking and walking and biking infrastructure into active transportation networks, allowing people to travel within a community, as well as between communities, without a car.
Now that’s more like it. DC’s Vision Zero law has real teeth, mandating that protected bike lanes have to be included on any street when road work is done, if it calls for one in the bike plan. If we had something like that here in LA, we might actually be making progress on both the dust-covered bike plan, and the city’s long-forgotten Vision Zero.
Great idea. Devon, England is attempting to keep drivers in line by passing out free helmet cams to bike riders so they can report drivers who break the law. Maybe if we passed them out to bicyclists — and pedestrians — we might finally tame the mean streets of Los Angeles.
An Iowa newspaper remembers a Black cycling champ from the 1890s — not the legendary Major Taylor, but 15-year old Leo Welker, who overcame a five minute handicap to easily win a 14-mile race. But was blacklisted by the League of American Wheelmen six years later, which banned Black cyclists, including Welker and Taylor, from competing in sanctioned races.
The second annual event takes place this Saturday, which sounds like to perfect day to visit your favorite LBS and buy someone a Christmas or Chanukah gift.
Even if it’s yourself.
So far, just three LA-area bike shops have signed up to participate, along with another in Norco, and none San Diego, Ventura or Orange Counties.
Speaking of CicLAvia, the LACBC’s monthly Sunday Funday Ride rolls through the CicLAvia route before making a stop at Dry River Brewing for a little discounted liquid refreshment.
#OnThisDay 1973: Fearing a return to petrol rationing, Nationwide reporters tried cycling to work. Some liked it more than others… pic.twitter.com/Rchq36Myib
Glendale opens the second phase of the Glendale Narrows Riverwalk across the LA River from Griffith Park; a planned bike and pedestrian bridge will eventually connect the bike pathway with the LA River bike path. Oddly, the LA Times doesn’t seem to have the article online, so I’m linking to the story on the PressReader site.
The LA Times suggests that a road diet on a primary roadway in Paradise contributed to the problems evacuating from the deadly Paradise Fire. Even though the mayor denies it had any impact, and they failed to talk with a single traffic planner or engineer.
National
An Oregon man was planning to spend Thanksgiving at home for the first time in five years, after he saved his own life by spending that time riding 25,000 miles around the world; he set out after nearly taking his own life following a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer and the death of his wife in a traffic collision.
Outsideexamines the unsolved murder of Tim Watkins, who was shot to death on a singletrack trail outside of Colorado Springs CO, noting that he is believed to be the first mountain biker known to have been slain while riding.
Ford is using virtual reality to allow British truck drivers to experience the road from a bicyclist’s perspective. Or they could just drop the virtual part, and put them on bicycles next to a big, speeding truck passing a foot off their elbows.
A Kiwi writer relates the horrifying tale of taking a fall off his bike, suffering a number of severe facial cuts and broken bones in the process, including breaking his neck in three places. And of the fellow bike-riding tourists who simply turned their backs and rode away when he begged for help — after bizarrely lectured him for ruining their day.
At age 23, black South African pro cyclist Nicholas Dlamini has ridden his bike out of poverty in the ghettoes of Johannesburg to a nomination for the country’s most prestigious sports award, and is considered the next big thing to come out of Africa.
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