Just 56 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025.
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If you haven’t already, get out and vote today; Streetsblog offers a list of election resources to help out.
And regardless of what some random guy on the internet told you, if your ballot isn’t at least postmarked by today, it won’t count. At least here in California; in other states, your mileage may vary.
Then get out on your bike, or take a walk, or bury yourself in your work until the polls close to distract yourself and preserve your sanity today.
Which sounds reasonable, but will inevitably fail.
It takes time for drivers to adjust to any road change, let alone a major redesign involving the removal of parking spaces and a traffic lane on each side.
A pilot program of at least six months to a year could offer proof that the change will not result in the traffic and residential chaos opponents fear.
But anything less would just invite drivers to make temporary adjustments until the pilot project gets removed. Or just ignore it and embrace the chaos to force the hand of city planners.
The New York Times examines the great feud over San Francisco’s Great Highway, as residents vote today on whether to permanently close the coastal roadway, and turn it into a linear bike and pedestrian park.
A New Zealand website says yes, you can travel without harming the environment, including on your bicycle. Just don’t leave your old tubes, CO2 cartridges or spent gel packs on the side of the road.
And not many people are aware that the ancient forebears of the modern bicycle lived in what is now Los Angeles during the Ice Age, as memorialized by these sculptures at the La Brea Tar Pits.
What.
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
And probably a lot longer, and far too many since. Including people on foot, and on bicycles.
In the year since, Malibu residents have gone from too frequently opposing safety improvement on the killer highway, to actually demanding them.
It’s about damn time.
The city and state have made a number of improvements over the past year, from increasing traffic enforcement to getting state approval for a limited number of speed cams.
Not to mention adjusting traffic lanes, widening shoulders and introducing a public safety campaign.
None of it seems to have made a significant difference, at least not yet. Despite everything, there has been just one less crash on the highway this year than this time last year, with most speed related.
And it probably won’t. At least unless and until the highway is re-imagined from the current pass-through speedway, to the beachfront roadway and Malibu Main Street it always should have been.
Tinkering at the edges didn’t prevent the deaths of those four students, and more tinkering probably won’t prevent the next tragedy.
Even though safe and convenient bike lanes could help reduce congestion by providing an alternative to driving.
But that apparently never occurred to them.
Meanwhile, West Hollywood residents conducted dueling rallies for and against the lane reduction and protected bike lanes proposed for Fountain Avenue.
The driver faces charges of culpable homicide, which is a significant step down from the original murder charge, and appears to be comparable to our involuntary homicide.
One of the most common arguments against installing bike lanes is that they could inconvenience handicapped people, who need to get around, too.
Never mind that bicycles can make effective mobility devices for people who might otherwise struggle to get around.
But don’t take my word for it.
Our German correspondent, Ralph Durham, took a break from Octoberfest to forward photos of a bike he regularly encounters, which has been specially customized to accommodate a man who needs crutches to get around.
Photos by Ralph Durham
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Megan Lynch forwards a reminder that we got to lay a little rubber on San Diego’s I-805 before all those drivers ruined it for us.
Meanwhile, Thousand Oaks will introduce its own ebike incentive program for income-qualified residents in January. Which will probably be long before we ever see the statewide program launch, if it ever does. Thanks again to Megan Lynch for the heads-up.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
Proving once again that there are still good people in the world, a TikToker calling himself the Neighborhood Bike Repair Dude keeps snacks and drinks on hand for hungry kids, responding “that’s the point” when someone said the kids would keep coming if he kept feeding them.
Tragic news from the UK, where two best friends, both fathers, were killed when one fell off his ebike after a daylong pub crawl, and the other stepped into the roadway to stop traffic; both men were struck by the driver of a Mini Cooper, who was exonerated by police after claiming he didn’t have time to stop on the dark roadway.
Japan is cracking down on scofflaw bicyclists; anyone who rides under the influence or uses a cellphone while riding will be subject to heavy fines or possible jail time. Thanks once again to Megan Lynch.
Just 73 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025.
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I am now officially a non-driver.
Yesterday morning, I went to the DMV to trade my driver’s license for a non-driving ID.
Between my medical issues and the meds I’m on, I simply don’t belong behind the wheel. And I probably never will.
It wasn’t an easy decision to make. I’ve held onto my license despite not driving for the past several years, just in case I needed it at some point.
But it’s just not worth the risk I could pose to others.
I only wish more people would realize that.
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In a surprisingly reasonable op-ed, West Hollywood city council candidate Larry Block, who has opposed bike projects in the past — especially in front of his Santa Monica Blvd store — offers a compromise on his opposition to removing parking for a lane reduction and protected bike lanes on Fountain Ave in the largely residential Mid-City area.
Or as he puts it, a little argy-bargy, a term that should be familiar to fans of cycling announcer Phil Liggett.
Bike lane supporters need to recognize the daily needs of disabled residents, emergency vehicles, delivery trucks, and basic services. Bike supporters must understand that residents need access to their driveways, and services like city garbage trucks and emergency vehicles need space to do their jobs. We can’t take away that access in favor of a ‘build it, they will come’ mentality’. Residents also need to accept that many people can’t afford a car, and keeping WeHo vibrant means making room for bikes and other ways to get around. Their safety matters, too, and it’s our responsibility to do what we can.
While there’s a lot we could take issue with there — like how ebikes ca serve as mobility devices for handicapped people, and the myth of bike lanes slowing emergency vehicles — Block goes on to call for developing a master plan to improve safety and livability in WeHo’s Mid-City area.
We should focus on creating a Mid-City Master Plan while working on the Fountain Ave. Streetscape and Bike Lane project. Instead of just arguing about bike lanes, we need to shift the conversation to mid-city livability and make Fountain Ave. improvements part of the bigger plan.
There’s a livability and safety problem on Fountain Ave., and we need to look at the big picture. Let’s discuss a Mid-City Master Plan that incorporates the needs of all residents. But for now, after several accidents on Fountain Ave. in recent weeks, our top priority should be making Fountain safe today.
If this is the approach a bike lane opponent — or possibly former opponent — is willing to take, there may be hope for WeHo yet.
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As a followup to Tuesday’s piece about an apparent violation of Measure HLA along Western Avenue and 1st Street in San Pedro, Ken Shima forwards a screenshot from CD15 Councilmember Tim McOsker saying the current striping is just a temporary measure, and bike lanes really are coming.
But from Caltrans, not Los Angeles.
As Joe Linton clarified in a comment to Tuesday’s post, HLA applies to “any paving project or other modification,” other than limited work like “restriping of the road without making other improvements, routine pothole repair, utility cuts, or emergency repairs.”
Which would mean it should apply here.
However, as a state agency, I’m not sure if Caltrans is required to abide by HLA, unlike Metro or the City of LA. But it’s definitely something to keep an eye on, to make sure those promised bike lanes really do go in.
Here’s what a press release from Streets Are For Everyone, aka SAFE, had to say on the subject.
“While Los Angeles continues to ignore the problem, San Francisco takes speeding seriously. I commend San Francisco for taking this significant step towards making its citizens safer. Through their selection process, the city has done the hard work and set the stage for other cities to follow,” said Damian Kevitt, Executive Director of Streets Are For Everyone. “Los Angeles and the other pilot cities have no excuse for bureaucratic feet-dragging that is risking people’s lives.”
At the start of 2024, the Chief of Police and Mayor of Los Angeles announced that there were a staggering 336 traffic fatalities, the highest in almost 50 years and more traffic fatalities in 2023 than homicides. Across the state, 35% of fatalities are speeding-related, with over 1,500 speeding-related fatalities in 2021. Traffic violence in Los Angeles continues to get worse, and there is insufficient effort being put into implementing sensible solutions to save lives.
Yep.
That pretty much sums it up.
It took years of fighting in the state legislature to finally pound out a compromise allowing Los Angeles, Long Beach and Glendale to try a speed cam pilot program, along with three NorCal cities, including San Francisco. That was later amended to allow speed cams on PCH in Malibu, as well.
But all of that appears to be wasted on the City of Angels, which seems to be moving with all due non-haste at its usual glacial pace.
Mayor Bass has often said that she was elected to solve the city’s homelessness crisis.
Too bad that’s the only crisis she seems to think she was elected to address.
No bias here, either. A 76-year old Baltimore man died weeks after a driver pulled out of a sidewalk and cut him off while riding on the sidewalk, but the local press somehow blames the victim for crashing into the car. And waits until the penultimate sentence to mention the car even had a driver.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
A 22-year old Novato man faces a felony hit-and-run charge for fleeing the scene after after crashing his bicycle into an eight-year old boy; fortunately, the kid was hospitalized with minor to moderate injuries. Which raises the question of why a felony charge was filed, which under state law on only applies in cases resulting in serious injuries.
Annapurna’s scenic bicycling adventure game Ghost Bike is getting a makeover, and will re-emerge next year as Wheel World, with a lighter design to make it more fun to play. Because ghost bikes may be a lot of things, but fun ain’t one of them.
A Tulsa, Oklahoma TV station responds to the state’s appalling NHTSA ranking as the nation’s 6th deadliest state for bike riders by examining safety concerns for bicyclists. Meanwhile, in 6th ranked California <crickets>.
Just 105 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025.
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No bias here.
WeHo Online’s Steve Martin — no, not the comedian — continues his campaign against the planned safety improvements on Fountain Ave through West Hollywood, insisting there is a “silent majority” rising up in opposition to the plan, despite an informal online survey showing it was supported by two-thirds of respondents.
Then again, he complains that people from outside the city were allowed to respond to it, as if only people who live on Fountain Ave ever use the street.
He also takes issue with a perceive lack of outreach, even though those of us who were paying attention were aware of the plan to remove traffic lanes and street parking to widen sidewalks and add protected bike lanes at least two years ago. As were all those people who took the time to respond to that online survey he disparages.
But they don’t count, evidently.
Then there’s his complaint that Bike LA, formerly the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, will assist with outreach to prepare residents for the changes, calling them “hardly an unbiased party.” And adding that the group will work in conjunction with Streets For All, and “will be able to skewer whatever conversations take place.”
As if merely explaining a project that has already been approved by the city council requires any actual “skewering.”
The city council was scheduled to vote last night to accept a $5 million grant from the California Air Resources Board, aka CARB — and yes, he even gets that name wrong in his sputtering anger — to help pay for the life-saving changes on Fountain.
Let’s hope they had the sense to say yes. And that the approval will finally put an end to this nonsense.
But I wouldn’t count on it.
Graphic for a virtual workshop to discuss plans for Fountain Ave from October, 2022.
Which would no doubt cause apoplexy to the afore-mentioned “silent majority” in West Hollywood. Not to mention in here Los Angeles, where the ability to go “zoom zoom” to your heart’s content is taken as a God-given right, consequences be damned.
Except for all those people who voted for Measure HLA by a similar — wait for it — two-thirds margin, suggesting that maybe, just maybe, that online survey wasn’t so wrong after all.
The steady drumbeat of sad news from Northern California continues, where a 53-year old Ukiah man was killed when he hit something on the trail he was riding and was thrown from his ebike, striking his head; police say he was wearing a helmet, but didn’t have it secured properly.
National
Good question. Velo says that good bike parking is inexpensive, easy to implement and encourages more bicycling, so why is it so hard to find?
A Hollywood producer is dead, apparently because Los Angeles refused to remove parking to build a damn bike lane.
For three days, we’ve been searching for confirmation of a bicycling fatality in East Hollywood, since word first surfaced late Tuesday. Friday it came, not from the traditional media, but from the Hollywood trade publications.
Jones told The Hollywood Reporter that George, who reportedly rode his bike everywhere, was doored by the driver of a parked car as he rode in a bike lane. then immediately struck by the driver of an oncoming car.
The reports I received indicated the fatal crash occurred Tuesday at Fountain Ave and North Edgemont Street, next to the Church of Scientology complex on Sunset Blvd. That appears to be in East Hollywood, but it could be considered Silver Lake.
If the city had removed the parking from either side, they could have installed protected bike lanes in both directions, instead of a single door zone bike lane.
That decision apparently cost Bob George his life.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Peoria, Illinois native began his career as production accountant on big-budget films, including Armageddon, Pearl Harbor, The Sum of All Fears, The Lone Ranger and three Pirates of the Caribbean movies, before moving up to producing.
He was a production consultant on Divergent (2014) before producing his first feature, Scott Free’s Newness (2017). Starring Nicholas Hoult and Laia Costa and written by Jones, it premiered at Sundance and was acquired by Netflix.
He reunited with Doremus on the Ewan McGregor and Léa Seydoux-starringZoe(2018), which bowed at Tribeca and was picked up by Amazon, andEndings, Beginnings (2019), a Toronto title that starred Shailene Woodley, Jamie Dornan and Sebastian Stan and was acquired by Samuel Goldwyn Films.
George was currently working with Jones on Aurora, another Doremus film, as well as serving as a production consultant on the upcoming Brad Furman action thriller Tin Soldier, starring Jamie Foxx and Robert De Niro.
He is survived by his wife, artist Yasmine Nasser Diaz, as well as his sister.
This is at least the 45th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, the 11th that I’m aware of in Los Angeles County, and the sixth in the City of Los Angeles, although there are probably more we haven’t learned about.
It took about two weeks after the crash for Las Vegas police to determine that the killing of retired Bell, California police chief Andreas Probst in an August hit-and-run was intentional.
The reason became evident this weekend when horrifying video of the collision surfaced and quickly went viral.
In the video, which was AirDropped to students at a local high school at the end of last month, the teenage driver and his passenger(s) can be seen cursing at passing cars, before spotting Probst riding his mountain bike in a bike lane.
The 17-year-old driver and his passenger were cruising down a street in Las Vegas on August 14, coming up behind Andreas Probst as he rode his cycle in the bike lane. Filming with his cell phone, the passenger was chuckling with the driver as they plotted to run over Probst. You can hear them say, “Ready?” and “Yeah, hit his ass.”
The vehicle is seen in the footage coming up behind a red-clad man riding a bicycle alongside the road. The motorist pulls into the bike lane behind him, honks his horn, and purposefully strikes the cyclist’s back tire, sending him flying with the encouragement of his buddies.
The passenger records Andreas lying helplessly on the side of the road behind the vehicle. “Damn that n* got knocked out!” the passenger says as the driver can be heard stepping on the gas.
The Review-Journal’s coverage of the incident was also heavily criticized by readers who posted screenshots of a news obituary that ran in the Review-Journal on Aug. 18 — more than a week before the video surfaced — with a headline describing the incident as a “bike crash” and not an intentional killing.
In fact, a source had contacted the Review-Journal about the existence of the video more than two weeks ago, and a reporter had instructed the caller on how to forward the video to Metropolitan Police Department detectives investigating the case. Nine hours later, police announced that the incident had been deemed a homicide.
The Review-Journal also reports the passenger has not been charged, which seems inexplicable unless they were captured on the video screaming in horror at the deliberate carnage.
Hint: they weren’t.
At the very least, such a heinous crime would seem to call for a felony conspiracy charge, since both the driver and the passenger appear to have been planning the fatal assault.
Never mind that his own decision to ride on the sidewalk, rather than risk riding in the street, makes the case for building the bike lanes.
Let’s be clear: While WeHo talks a big game about “uplifting” marginalized people and “amplifying” their voices, the city’s pedestrians — those blue-collar, minimum-wage earning people the city claims to care so much about — are silently struggling just to get from Point A to Point B every day, as they’ve done for decades.
But fixing sidewalks isn’t glamorous, and that’s why WeHo hasn’t given a fuck thus far.
Even now, the impetus for reconstructing Fountain Avenue wasn’t to benefit pedestrians or disabled people. They were an afterthought.
Installing bike lanes, the cause celebre of every young politician and hip urban planner, was the point of this project.
Never mind that many of the “blue-collar, minimum-wage earning people the city claims to care so much about” are forced to ride their bikes to work along busy, dangerous corridors choked with traffic.
And not many use the sidewalks, because they can’t afford to live there.
No bias here. A Singapore website accuses an ebike rider and a motorist of road rage for engaging in a heated dispute in the middle of the roadway. Never mind that the bike rider was minding his own business until the impatient driver started honking at him for no apparent reason.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
Tragic news from New York, where police are looking for a hit-and-run bike rider who killed a 69-year old woman as she was crossing a “chaotic” intersection. Since the bicyclist was on a bikeshare bike, police should be able to access user and GPS data to determine who was using a bike at that time and location. Which raises the question of why they apparently haven’t yet.
An ebike-riding man is recovering from injuries and faces sexual assault charges, after a Virginia woman flagged down a passing car when the man groped her on a bike path, then smiled as he rode away; she was able to catch up with him and apparently kicked his ass, knocking him off his bike and placing him in a chokehold until police arrived.
Streetsblog says Metro has installed new plastic bollards to protect the First Street bike lanes, which could be the first step in meeting their commitment to on bike/walk connections the promised for Metro’s new subway stations. However, it’s worth noting that the new bollards are spaced too far apart to keep motorists from driving or parking in the bike lanes, and won’t actually protect anyone from anything.
Huntington Beach will consider new ebike regulations at tomorrow’s city council meeting; the proposed ordinance would create different classes of electric bikes — which the state has already done — while providing for criminal or civil citations, and adding a section for unsafe riding. However, all of that may be moot and illegal, since regulating ebikes falls under the authority of the state, along will all other traffic regulations.
A La Jolla father calls for action on traffic safety measures after his 14-year old son suffered broken bones in his hand and foot when he was struck by a driver in a left cross crash, as he rode his ebike in a marked bike lane; the driver was waved through the intersection by another motorist, and failed to see the kid on his bike.
An 80-year old New York man was murdered by a black-clad man on a bicycle who circled the area apparently waiting for the victim to return home from a party, then rode up and shot him two times point blank in front of the victim’s horrified wife, in a killing caught on video; using a bike allowed the killer to approach his victim quickly and silently, without drawing undue attention.
More proof bike riders are tough, as a man in Baton Rouge, Louisiana walked himself to the hospital, despite three stab wounds in his back, after three people stabbed him and stole his bike and wallet, then left him bleeding on the sidewalk.
After courts awarded her the equivalent of over $620,000 for the death of her husband, a British woman decried the “inhuman” response of city leaders, who blamed him 100% for his own death after he was killed by a garbage truck driver as he rode his bike.
A Belgian bicyclist shown on video kneeing a five-year old girl in a viral video from Christmas Day 2020 has now won a defamation suit against the girl’s father, after a court fined the bike rider the equivalent of a dollar, concluding he didn’t intend to hurt her.
Helmet use has tripled among Japanese bike riders in the wake of a new law requiring them, although the lack of punishment for violating the law means it’s still only up to 13.5%.
Guyana’s junior cycling team was left standing at the airport, instead of flying to the Junior Caribbean Cycling Championships, because someone apparently forgot to check the airline’s strict no baggage policy, which includes racing bikes.
Especially since that video seems awfully familiar.
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A special thanks to Steve Fujinaka for a very unexpected and generous donation to help keep all the best bike news coming your way that lifted my spirits over the weekend.
Then again, it’s always a red flag when someone feels the need to self-identify as a bicyclist before making their case.
True to form, Brandon Garcia writes that he’s more than happy to take back roads to get where he’s going, and thinks that the planned bike lanes on Fountain Ave and Santa Monica Blvd will be too disruptive to the city.
Never mind, he says, that the existing bike lanes on Santa Monica are usually blocked by buses or double-parked drivers. Although that would seem to be a reason to enforce the laws against blocking bike lanes, than oppose building them.
What the city wants to do with Fountain and Santa Monica will disrupt the lives of too many people who depend on those roads to get across town. Who depend on those parking spaces for their guests or their customers, or whose leases don’t include a parking spot.
Up to 37,000 cars travel down Fountain every day. At most, there are 145 bicycles that use it daily.
The city expects the removal of two lanes on Fountain to reduce traffic by 900 vehicles every hour. 600 of those will be diverted onto Santa Monica or Sunset. The drivers of 250 cars per hour will simply decide not to make the trip, the city oddly believes.
Never mind that, as others have noted before, you can’t judge the need for a bridge by how many people swim across the river. The fact that most bike riders don’t feel safe on Fountain is a far better argument for making it safer, rather than keeping it dangerous.
Meanwhile, numerous studies have shown that making driving more difficult results in a reduction in the number of cars on the road — not an odd belief, but simple traffic science.
And that reduction is absolutely necessary in the face of our current climate emergency, when the world is literally burning from over-reliance on fossil fuels.
The simple fact is, people on bicycles have places to go, just like people in cars, and need safe routes through the city to get there.
He may not need them, or want them.
But that doesn’t mean the rest of us don’t.
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Back when I lived in Baton Rouge, Louisiana about a hundred or so years ago, I had a friend who dealt with the city’s abusive and road raging drivers by riding with a .22 strapped to his bike.
By his account, it made most motorists give him a wide berth. And if anyone actually threatened him, just a tap or two on the holster was enough to defuse the situation.
Maybe.
Although I doubt many drivers actually saw it as they zoomed by. Never mind the fact that they came pre-armed with a multi-ton weapon of their own, should they choose to use it.
Driving home from vacay just now and see this dude riding in the shoulder of I-90 outside of Coeur d'Alene w an “Armed Cyclist” jersey, safe passing flags, dozens of taillights. Absolutely epic. pic.twitter.com/d2PAcWruqa
Frederick Dreier describes an incident when a driver began harassing, then threatening him as he rode in New York.
His response was to first kick out a headlight, then hurl his U-lock, shattering the car’s rear windshield, before disappearing down a one-way street.
OK, back to my anecdote involving the hurled lock. Look, I wish I had the calm and mature demeanor to simply bite my upper lip and walk away from situations like the one I had a decade ago. I’ve been to therapy and I’m working on becoming an enlightened and self-actuated member of society. But I’m not there yet. I can still transform into a raging lunatic at times—specifically when some jerk driver messes with me on my bike. Had I been carrying a gun during my moment of rage years ago, I probably would have emptied the clip into the windshield, which means I’d likely be writing pithy takes from a cell in Rikers right now. And that ugly encounter is hardly the only one I’ve had with drivers. Over the years I’ve been sideswiped, t-boned, intimidated, and buzzed too many times to count. If I rode with a gun, I might be responsible for multiple crimes.
That’s precisely why I don’t own a gun.
I have a temper, which I manage to control most of the time. And I’m a firm believer in nonviolence.
But if I had a gun, there’s just too much chance I might use it.
And one weapon is one too many in most situations, even if most people just call it a car.
It is infuriating and painful to see people speak on behalf of disabled people when they are really only trying to protect their non-disabled car parks. Have you ever wondered where these people go when it’s time to fight for a building code that requires accessible universal design features like lifts, ramps and doorways of a decent width? Or why these same faces and names appear again to oppose the social housing initiatives in their neighbourhoods that would house disabled people? Or why they’re not advocating for more mobility parking at all?!
She goes on to write that many disabled people use bicycles, and consider their ebikes, scooters and trikes to be their mobility devices.
And need safe places to ride them.
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Joni Yung loves the new bus and bike lanes on La Brea, even if they’re too often blocked with parked cars.
Monterey County Weeklyconsiders how fast is too fast on a bike path, with one local city setting a 12 mph speed limit that the writer considers far too low. My take is ride as fast as you want if you’re the only one on it, but slow down around slower bike riders and pedestrians. At least, that’s what I always did.
An Andover, Maryland study finds there wasn’t a single reported bicycle crash in a city square during the study period, despite a total lack of bike infrastructure — but also found most bike riders avoid it like the plague.
NPR reports on the bankruptcy of Dutch ebike maker VanMoof, noting that it’s left owners of the bikes stranded with no way to repair the company’s nonstandard designs. And that owners of the bikes in the Netherlands have resorted to stealing other people’s VanMoof’s just to strip them for parts.
According to the paper, the Fountain Ave proposal is planned for two phases.
The first phase of the study, known as Phase 1 PS&E (Planning, Specifications, and Estimates), focuses on the design of protected bike lanes, with specific plans to reduce travel lanes from four to two and remove approximately 150 on-street parking spaces on the north side of Fountain Avenue. This phase includes an 11-month timeline, with an expected conclusion in July 2024. The construction phase is anticipated to begin in early 2025, taking another 4-6 months. The preliminary construction cost for Phase 1 is estimated to be between $5 million and $10 million…
As the study progresses to Phase 2, the focus shifts to the permanent installation of protected bike lanes and the redesign of sidewalks along Fountain Avenue. The timeline for Phase 2 spans 16 months, starting in January 2024, with potential construction beginning in Q1 or Q2 of 2026. The construction of Phase 2 is estimated to be between $30 million and $35 million.
Meanwhile, the council directed the city to study the feasibility of upgrading the existing painted bike lanes on the western portion of Santa Monica Blvd to protected bike lanes.
City staff were also told to conduct a block-by-block analysis of the feasibility of installing painted bike lanes on the narrower eastern segment of the boulevard, which would likely involve narrowing traffic lanes and the removal of parking spaces.
On Sunday, August 20; between 9 a.m. – 4 p.m., CicLAvia – Koreatown meets Hollywood, presented by Metro, and in partnership with LADOT, welcomes everyone of all ages and abilities to its 47th car-free open streets event connecting Hollywood and Koreatown along Vine St, Melrose Ave, Western Ave, and Wilshire Blvd, for participants to jog, ride, bike, skate, run, walk, skateboard, spectate, play, to enjoy the 5-mile route. Always free, CicLAvia participants just show up anywhere along the route at any time to enjoy the open streets and to take the time to explore two of L.A.’s iconic communities. Participants are encouraged to take Metro.
There are many local gems, activities, and businesses to check out near and along the route – discover them through CicLAvia’s new Interactive Digital Map. Hubs have family-friendly activities, restrooms, free water refilling stations, free basic bike repair, bike parking, and first aid. In addition, free pedicab rides, sponsored by AARP, are available at each information booth. Activities along the route can be found here.
A press conference kicking off the event will be held starting at 8:30 am on Sunday, August 20th, at 1750 Vine Street, at the Hollywood Hub next to Capitol Records.
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Adventure Cycling announced the launch of their Short Routes Program, featuring shorter bike touring routes designed to break down barriers accessibility and make bike travel more approachable, regardless of experience level or how much time someone has available.
The program launches with routes starting from Los Angeles, Washington, DC, Atlanta, Boston, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Austin and Seattle.
Anyone can submit a route in the US that a beginner can bike in two to five days, with approximately 20-50 miles of riding each day.
According to the group, there are three short routes currently available in the Los Angeles area:
Carpinteria to Refugio
Created by tour leader, Johnny Lam, this route has camping available at both ends, in Carpinteria — where riders can easily get to by Amtrak or car with many amenities including a great coffee shop and various restaurants — and Refugio, where the hiker biker site is given the best plot of land looking over a beach and the Pacific Ocean.
LA to Catalina Island
Created by local transportation planner Danielle Parnes, this is a fun bikepacking trip full of beautiful beaches, mountains, and wildlife. It’s relatively easy to get to from L.A. via a ferry departing near Long Beach but feels like a faraway destination. Campsites on this route are only accessible by hiking or biking, making for calm, quiet evenings, and the dirt roads have few cars.
Santa Monicas Overnight
Also created by Danielle Parnes, the Santa Monicas Overnight route leaves from West LA and goes up fire roads into the Santa Monica Mountains, camping in Topanga State Park, and then down to the beach, with a mix of city, desert mountains, and ocean views and swims. This route starts and ends at Expo line light rail stations in West LA, for easy access from downtown or other parts of the city.
Lol @LADOTofficial . If you’re going to use social media to brag about a stripe of paint, at least move the trash cans out of the way for it. Sh*t, maybe go talk to the residents about it. You know, so that your “bike lane” is at least sort of usable. Sorry, am I asking too much? pic.twitter.com/kg4IlgQDMz
A Scottish man is called the “unluckiest cyclist in Scotland” when he was run down by a driver for the third time in two years, but at least this driver stopped, unlike the first two. Although considering he survived all three, I’d call him pretty damn lucky.
Former Syracuse basketball player Terrence Roberts suffered three broken ribs and a collapsed lung after crashing with another bicyclist on a June training ride, just three days after the 6’10” former forward completed in his first crit with LA’s Major Motion Cycling team.
November 23, 2022 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on WeHo approves Fountain protected bike lanes, debate over cyclist semantics, and running over bikes in bike-friendly Davis
Just two more days to one of the biggest, most momentous days of the year!
We’ll be off tomorrow, so have a great Thanksgiving, whether you spend it with loved ones or alone on your bike. And find something to be thankful for.
Besides, you know, this site.
Then come back on Friday to witness me beg, plead, cajole and grovel for your support.
And stay safe out there. I want to see you back here again when the weekend is over.
Mayor Lauren Meister summed up her reason for voting yes, even though city staffers haven’t explained where the cars displaced from parking on the apartment-dense street are supposed to go.
“My goal is to make Fountain just safer, period — for pedestrians, making the sidewalks wider and and making it so that cars aren’t speeding through and going over the curves and actually going into people’s yards,” Meister said.
The proposal, which became a key issue in the city’s recent election campaign, would require the removal of a traffic lane in each direction, as well as reconstructing sidewalks along the street, which are not ADA compliant.
The street currently features some of the area’s most uncomfortable sharrows, which are seldom used by anyone but the most confident bicyclists in the face of frequently speeding traffic.
It’s something I try not to use, as you may have noticed, preferring bike riders, bicyclists or people on bicycles.
But only because so many people read into to it far more than the word actually conveys, which is merely someone who rides a bicycle.
To some, it means bike racers; to others, it’s anyone who wears spandex. And to others still, it refers to people on fixies, or some other bike world niche.
Then there are people don’t like the word because they feel it labels them in some way, when riding a bike is just something they do, rather than something they are.
I can see all of that, and none of it.
The simple fact is we are all cyclists when we ride a bike, and not once we get off. Just as someone is a driver when they’re behind the wheel, and a pedestrian when they get out; no one calls them drivers when they’re home or in the office.
So go ahead and use the word if you’re comfortable with it, or don’t if you aren’t.
Thanks to Tim Rutt for the link.
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Streets For All is hosting a fundraising holiday party next month.
Streets For All has had a great year and to celebrate we wanted to invite you to a holiday party fundraiser on December 9! All funds raised will help us do even more in 2023!
A Davis motorist drove through a line of picketing teaching assistants striking for higher pay and better conditions on UC campuses, driving off with a bicycle still stuck under their car.
Mercedes is adding a subscription fee to their electric vehicles that will increase horsepower and torque. It's happening. Late-stage capitalism is going to have people paying a monthly fee to improve the performance of a car they already bought. pic.twitter.com/7rHIkolC9R
About damn time. The Hollywood Reporter says it’s time to reopen the case in the 12-year old murder of Hollywood publicist Ronni Chasen, which was bizarrely pinned on a destitute, bike-riding Black man who allegedly killed himself as police attempted to take him into custody in a Hollywood flophouse; Beverly Hills police accused Harold Smith of shooting Chasen as she drove home from a premier.
The San Diego Association of Governments, aka SANDAG, wants to give you a ped-assist ebike in exchange for a commitment to ride a minimum of 100 miles a month. Or as I used to call that back when I could still do it, Tuesday.
DC is facing a lawsuit under the Americans With Disabilities Act, as two handicapped women allege that new protected bike lanes make it harder for them to find parking and safely exit their vehicles. Thanks to Victor Bale for the tip.
The first woman to hold the post, and only the second Black Angeleno, Bass defeated billionaire mall developer Rick Caruso, despite being outspent 11 to 1 as he dropped well over $100 million on his own campaign.
The question for us is whether the new mayor’s professed focus on homelessness, crime and housing authority will preclude desperately needed efforts to transform our streets to improve safety and get Angelenos out of their cars.
Let’s hope Streets For All and BikeLA, formerly the LACBC, are already in contact with her office to set up a meeting.
Because after years of neglect under outgoing Mayor Eric Garcetti, and successful efforts by various councilmembers to block progress in their districts, we don’t have any time to waste.
Park has professed support for multimodal transportation, yet drew much of her supporters from Westside NIMBYs who’ve fought bus and bike improvements.
The premature arrest indicated the belief of investigators that Gutierrez had intentionally steered into the recruits, accelerating at he plowed through them, as we had surmised yesterday.
The only problem is a lack of evidence confirming intent. Outgoing Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva stressed that the release is provisional, pending collection of more evidence confirming his actions were intentional.
Why they jumped the gun and arrested Gutierrez on a presumption of guilt, rather than basing the arrest on actual evidence, is an open question at this time.
As is why they have apparently reclaimed the investigation from the CHP, after relinquishing it just one day earlier.
But with Villanueva leaving in a couple of weeks, its likely to become incoming sheriff-elect Robert Luna’s problem.
The lanes would provide a safer east-west alternative to dangerous Santa Monica Blvd, after the existing painted bike lanes on Santa Monica end east of La Cienega.
Which means opponents are likely to come out in force in an effort to block it.
WeHo City Council will take up the question of adding bike lanes to Fountain Ave. Monday, 21st! Speak out: send a written comment by 2pm on Monday, or state your view during the meeting via Zoom or in person! Check https://t.co/oic8JWeDlIpic.twitter.com/CsLhVHSqAy
Meanwhile, WeHo Mayor Lauren Meister is on track for re-election, while former Councilmember John Heilman enjoys a 246 vote lead over Chelsea Wright for the second and third spots; the top three finishers will be seated on the city council.
Portland bike advocates are suing the city under a 1971 state law that requires improving infrastructure for bicyclists and pedestrians any time a street is constructed, reconstructed or relocated. Unfortunately, California doesn’t have a similar law, although Los Angeles could if the Healthy Streets LA ballot proposition passes in 2024.
