Tag Archive for Frederick “Woon” Frazier

Morning Links: LA Vision Zero is hiding not dead, and prelims for accused killers of Mike Kreza and Frederick “Woon” Frazier

August 30, 2019 / / Comments Off on Morning Links: LA Vision Zero is hiding not dead, and prelims for accused killers of Mike Kreza and Frederick “Woon” Frazier

One quick correction.

It turns out that LA’s Vision Zero website isn’t gone, it’s just been subsumed into LADOT’s larger Livable Streets website.

Although, since they didn’t bother to forward the previous links, it’s virtually impossible to find unless you know where to look.

Which may or may not be intentional.

And whether that reflects a lessening commitment to saving lives on the part of the city, or just an attempt to bring all the city’s streets programs together under a single roof, is still to be determined.

Thanks to PatrickGSR94 for the correction. 

………

It’s been awhile since we’ve posted an update from our anonymous Orange County correspondent, who reports today from the prelim for the driver accused of killing Costa Mesa Fire Captain Mike Kreza.

Stephen Taylor Scarpa had his prelim last Thursday. The courtroom was packed, mostly with family and friends of the victim. The widow held it together surprisingly well.

Scarpa had so many drugs in his system, my notes are 2 pages long. But he might have just “fallen asleep” at the wheel, ’cause that’s happened to him before.

The defense attempted to present Scarpa as a sympathetic figure, saying Scarpa’s actions “killed” himself as well as Fire Captain Kreza. Yes, the defense actually suggested that Scarpa is a murder victim. Audible gasps in the courtroom.

He’ll be arraigned next Tuesday. I hope to make it, because if he’s wise, he’ll go nolo contendere and take whatever plea deal has fallen in his lap.

Meanwhile, Kreza’s sister decided to honor her brother with a tattoo of angel wings enveloping his initials.

And the state legislature voted to name a section of State Route 55 after him.

………

Our OC correspondent also reports from yesterday’s hearing for Mariah Kandise Banks, accused in the hit-and-run that took the life of popular South LA bicyclist Frederick “Woon’ Frazier, as well as the coverup that followed.

Mariah Kandise Banks was scheduled to have her preliminary hearing Thursday morning.

She was late.

This did not escape Judge Lynne M. Hobbs’ attention. Once Banks was present and before her, Her Honor attempted to impart the importance of punctuality. She told Ms. Banks that she’d been this close to revoking bail. She reminded Ms. Banks of the seriousness of the charges against her, and referenced her priors, although I suspect that she was referring to the failures to appear, not the other hit-and-runs (yes, plural).

The prosecutor, citing Ms. Banks’ (and her mama’s) alleged ongoing harrassment of the victim’s family, requested an increase in bail, which the judge denied. The judge further warned Ms. Banks that any restraining order issued against her would become evidence against her in this case.

As Ms. Banks turned to walk away, she petulantly muttered, “Lies!” under her breath. This was heard by the judge, who immediately informed Banks that she was not yet dismissed. The defense requested and was granted that the preliminary hearing be trailed until September 19th, based on a substantial amount of new discovery (evidence) that had not yet been reviewed.

The judge asked why Ms. Banks had been late. She replied she was late because she is not allowed to drive and is therefore dependent on others for rides. (Um. If she is still at her last known address, she lives half a block from the freeway express bus that drops off a few blocks from the Foltz courthouse.) The judge helpfully suggested she find a more reliable way to get around. Inexplicably, Her Honor did not propose that Banks ride a bicycle to her court appearances.

“You are very much on my radar,” the Judge told Ms. Banks ominously, possibly motivating her to be on time.

I really, really like the prosecutor. She’s going to put this killer away for as long as legally possible.

Meanwhile, Spectrum News 1 checks in with the grieving mother of South LA hit-and-run victim Frederick “Woon” Frazier, and uses that as the jumping off point for a broader look at the problems of hit-and-run, and bike and pedestrian, crashes in the City of Angels. Note to non-Spectrum customers: You can still read the transcript, even if you can’t watch the video.

And no surprise here, as KNBC-4 digs into the stats underlying LA’s hit-and-run crisis, and finds only one percent of fleeing drivers are ever brought to justice for their crimes.

………

She also adds this aside.

Wednesday night at 1am, an asshat motorist failed to negotiate the Zoo Drive offramp, took out a bunch of chain link fence, and left giant divots on the grounds of the Griffith Park Dog Park. The location is so close to the river path that obviously those damn cyclists are responsible somehow.

………

The LACBC urges you to contact California’s governor to urge him to sign SB 400, which would allow you to trade your car in for an ebike if you’re poor enough.

Which is a good start.

But what we really need is a program that would allow anyone to trade in their car for a bicycle, electric or otherwise, or a fully loaded TAP card.

Or get a rebate on the purchase of a bike for commuting, so we can start getting more cars off the roads.

………

Speaking of the LACBC, you still have time to complete their survey on what direction the bike coalition should take as it recovers from the disastrous financial mismanagement of the previous director.

………

Bicycling talks with the founder of Project 529 about the ever present problem of bike theft, as their 529 Garage bike registry releases an infographic to drive the point home.

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Local

The Eastsider offers photos of the stunning bike and pedestrian North Atwater Bridge rising over the LA River, while CiclaValley considers Glendale’s plans for a bike and pedestrian bridge of their own over the LA River, both of which would join two more currently under construction.

KPCC tags along with Danny Gamboa for a first-person look at placing a ghost bike.

A woman was airlifted from the Angeles Crest highway with a severely torn calf muscle after getting hit by a driver, who responded to an oncoming truck crowding the center line by cutting to the right and hitting her bike after getting blinded by the sun. Hopefully the CHP will see that for the confession it is, and not the universal Get Out of Jail Free card it usually serves as. Thanks to Tim Rutt for the heads-up.

Santa Monica-based Bird’s head of sustainability wants to transform America’s streets, even after the company reneged on its promise to fund new bike lanes wherever it operates.

Don’t plan on renting an e-scooter in Hermosa Beach anytime soon. The city has extended its ban on scooters through April, or until they can work out guidelines in conjunction with neighboring cities Manhattan Beach and Redondo Beach.

Long Beach warns residents to approve a sales tax extension, or face crumbling roads in the years to come.

 

State

The California DMV will be releasing a guide to your civil rights during a traffic stop next spring. One key point to remember in the meantime is that is you have the right to refuse a search of your bike and belongings if you’re stopped for a traffic violation.

Brooks McKinney talks with the guy responsible for keeping California’s pavement smooth and rideable. Oh, and drivable, too.

Residents of San Diego’s Point Loma neighborhood would rather have a homemade pump track than more housing.

The Department of DIY reared its head in San Luis Obispo, where local bicyclists made their own toilet plunger-protected bike lane, two years after a Cal Poly student was killed by a drunk driver.

Sad news from San Jose, where a man with a bike was collateral damage when an SUV driver crashed into a pickup and spun into the victim as he was in a crosswalk; his killer fled on foot without even looking at the man trapped under his SUV.

San Francisco responds to a jump in traffic fatalities by redesigning intersections to improve safety. Which is how Vision Zero is supposed to work. But usually doesn’t.

Streetsblog SF applauds the city for its quick build strategy, but says the 7th Street protected bike lane isn’t.

A Sacramento-area e-bikeshare program was put on hold after Trump’s China tariffs made it economically infeasible.

 

National

A new book details how America’s transportation systems are biased against women, including a lack of protected bikeways.

No surprise here, as a new study shows deaths from red light-running drivers has hit a ten-year high. But sure, let’s talk about all those entitled scofflaw cyclists.

A new study finds booze and e-scooters don’t mix, as nearly 40% of seriously injured scooter users were legally drunk when they crashed. Note to Today Show — Nice job of inflating the stats to get clicks, with a headline that says nearly 50%, before stepping it down to nearly 40% in the subhead.

A Washington man chased down and fatally shot his mother’s boyfriend as the victim rode off on a bicycle; the boyfriend was allegedly abusive, and had a history of protective orders filed against him by other women.

A Wisconsin woman who describes herself as a casual bicyclist has ridden over 7,100 miles at AIDS rides to raise funds and keep alive the memory of friends lost to the disease; when asked how much she’s raised, she said “Not enough because AIDS is still here.”

Hats off to the Providence Journal, which recognized that most biking riding kids in the Rhode Island city aren’t out to break the law or infuriate drivers.

New York police are looking for a man who beat and slashed another man in a subway station in an attack that began with a dispute over a bicycle.

A New York driver ran away on foot after somehow getting his car wedged in a barrier-protected bike lane next to a highway.

In a tragic reminder that people on bicycles can get hurt in collisions with pedestrians, the New York ebike rider who was critically injured after crashing into a 77-year old man has died, while the older man only suffered minor injuries.

Gotham bicyclists say just getting to a spacious new bikeway across a bridge is hell.

 

International

A kindhearted British Columbia business owner gave a boy a new bicycle when both his bikes were stolen, after the businessman learned the boy had raised over $10,000 for the charity that gave one of the bikes to him when he was diagnosed with diabetes as a five-year old.

An 82-year old Toronto man was overwhelmed by an outpouring of community support after the bike he relied on for transportation was stolen less than a week after he got it.

Canadian Cycling Magazine offers five tips to safely lock your bike.

Van-driving bike thieves are targeting solo riders with expensive looking bicycles on a popular Irish riding route. Correction: I originally misplaced this story as being from Scotland, not Ireland. Thanks to J. Patrick Lynch for the. correction.

Belgian ebike owners are hacking their rides to remove European speed restrictions.

No bias here. After a Spanish study finds “several cyclist and environment related variables” that led to fatal bike crashes, the authors only suggestion was bike riders should wear a helmet.

Even India’s relatively low-cost bicycle industry is being undercut by cheaper Chinese imports crossing the border from Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

The Radavist takes a gravel bike tour of New Zealand’s South Island.

 

Competitive Cycling

The owner of a women’s cycling team says she was wrong to be skeptical about the Colorado Classic bike race and its commitment to elevating women’s cycling.

VeloNews considers how the Colorado Classic upended the traditional TV model by streaming the entire race for free.

Just one day after losing the leader’s jersey, Nicholas Roche crashed out of the Vuelta.

Cycling Tips says the Cross County World Championships are American mountain biker Lea Davison’s chance to redeem herself after a couple difficult years.

 

Finally…

Now even the birds are out to get us. Who needs a fanny pack when you can carry a fashionable $375 “bike wallet” inspired by chunky bike lock chains?

And who really needs a bike seat anyway?

 

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Morning Links: Remembering late Disney star as son of LA bike rider Victor Boyce, and driving an expert cyclist off the roads

July 8, 2019 / / Comments Off on Morning Links: Remembering late Disney star as son of LA bike rider Victor Boyce, and driving an expert cyclist off the roads

Sometimes the news hits a little too close to home.

And sometimes, it’s far too close.

That’s how Zachary Rynew is feeling today.

The man behind the popular CiclaValley website learned shortly before the world did that the son of one of a close friend had died from a seizure at just 20 years old.

Someone the world knew as Disney Channel star and rising young actor Cameron Boyce.

But Rynew knew him simply as Cameron, the son of LA bicyclist and LACBC member Victor Boyce.

And the grandson of Jo Ann Boyce, one of the famed Clinton 12 — the first black students to attend the previously all white Clinton High School in Clinton, Tennessee, following the US Supreme Court’s order to desegregate the school in groundbreaking 1956 Brown vs Board of Education case that sounded the death knell for legal segregation in American Schools.

Although in reality, far too many urban schools have become victims of de facto re-segregation in the years since.

As Rynew points out, Victor Boyce’s Instagram feed is devoted to two things: His family, and riding his bikes.

In fact, a video showing Cameron dancing in front of Boyce’s impressively organized bike collection last year has gained over 1.6 million views.

Though most of those are probably fans of his son, rather than his bikes.

And it’s with Victor Boyce that Rynew has gone gravel biking up Sycamore Canyon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NESXyJwMhjo

Rynew also adds that a few weeks ago, he was with Boyce when they spotted a couple of junk bikes someone had tossed out by the curb.

He had planned to take them home to repaint as ghost bikes. But Boyce claimed one first.

And later that same day, this photo appeared, after he had already fixed it up and given it to his wife.

So while the world mourns Cameron Boyce, the actor and rising movie star, maybe the bicycling community can take a few moments to mourn with a fellow devoted bicyclist and his family, who lost a loved one far too soon.

And remember that every tragedy touches someone, somewhere, very deeply.

I hope you’ll join me in offering our sympathy and prayers for Cameron and Victor Boyce, and all their family and loved ones.

Photo of Cameron Boyce, center, from the Pedalers West Instagram account. 

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There’s something seriously wrong with our streets when a close encounter with a dangerous driver can make an expert cyclist and former national crit champ rethink his decision to bike to work.

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This is the cost of traffic violence.

Fallen bicyclist Frederick “Woon” Frazier supported his disabled mother until a hit-and-run driver took his life.

While a crowdfunding campaign raised nearly $10,000 to give his infant son a better start in life, part of that was seized to pay his bills — including the hospital that did nothing more than declare him dead on arrival. Leaving his mother struggling to survive while she waits for any kind of justice.

Now a new crowdfunding campaign has started to help get her back on her feet.

Although sadly, in over a week, it’s received just $20 of the $10,000 goal.

We can do better than that.

Thanks to Sahra Sulaiman for the link.

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If riding California’s coast highway is on your bike bucket list, maybe you should get a move on while it still exists.

Not the highway.

The coast.

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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes goes on. And on.

Someone has been laying potentially deadly booby traps on trails in a British national park, ranging from a wall of rocks across a trail and tree branches hung at head level, to pins and carpet tacks placed where they could puncture bike tires.

When a driver deliberately slams into someone on a bike, police call it assault with a deadly weapon. So what do you call it when a New York cop uses his car as a weapon to make a traffic stop by crashing into a red light-running bike rider? Needless to say, the NYPD doesn’t think he did anything wrong. In effect, it’s no different than the officer firing his gun to stop a speeding driver. In either case, it’s using deadly force for what amounts to a simple traffic violation.

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Local

This is who we share the roads with. A pair of street racing teenagers lost control after colliding in San Marino, killing an adjunct professor at Pasadena City College and his dog as they walked on the median on Huntington Drive.

A pair of public workshops will discuss plans to revitalize the upper LA River, starting tomorrow night in Sylmar and concluding in Glendale on Thursday. Thanks to Walk Bike Glendale for the heads-up.

WeHoVille offers tips on how to get out and about on a bicycle from some of the city’s most passionate bike riders, including members of the city’s West Hollywood Bicycle Coalition.

The Long Beach Post talks with Jo Manny Silva of Compton’s Manny’s Bike Shop, calling him the godfather of lowrider bikes.

 

State

San Diego residents turn out to fight for their God-given right to parking along 30th Street, where city leaders plan to remove 420 parking spaces to make room for protected bike lanes.

Thanks in part to its growing bike infrastructure, WalletHub has named San Diego America’s best city for recreation. Los Angeles checked in at a surprising number 10. But probably not because of our bicycle non-network. 

Sad news from San Jose, where a 62-year old man was killed by a hit-and-run driver as he rode his bike; police later arrested a suspect in the case. Thanks to Robert Leone and Al Williams for the heads-up.

A San Francisco newspaper says a new three-mile Lake Tahoe bike path offers magical views of the lake.

 

National

America’s “favorite oddball motorcycle engineer” is turning his attention to making a “handsome, cohesive and convenient” 32 mph ebike with a 125 mile range.

It used to be that a fraternity road trip meant bundling a few brothers into a car and driving to Florida for spring break. Now a fraternity from a Kentucky college is biking across the US, hoping to raise $70,000 for Alzheimer’s research.

A bighearted Massachusetts deputy sheriff better known as Bob the Bike Guy has founded a charity to give refurbished bikes to underprivileged kids, many of whom don’t look too kindly on cops; the group has given away 1,200 bikes in just two years, with another 2,000 bikes in the pipeline.

A Canadian man hops on a restored Schwinn, and revisits his old paper route in Upstate New York half a century later. I used the profits from my paper route to buy my first 10-speed bike.

A Rochester, NY newspaper editor explains why bicycling matters for “women, minorities and everyone.”

They get it. The New York Daily News says Mayor De Blasio’s temporary crackdown on drivers blocking bike lanes won’t end Gotham bicycling fatalities.

New York’s recent rash of bike-by shootings continued over the weekend, as a man on a bike fired multiple shots, injuring two men sitting on a Central Park bench.

A Philadelphia cop will take part in a 65-mile bike ride to raise funds for the children of fallen or severely injured police officers, three years after he was ambushed by a gunman while on duty.

Nominally bike-friendly DC ripped out a bike lane on one side of a street so local residents could get their parking back.

More on the late Lee Iacocca, early adopter ebike pitchman, when he rode one in a Florida parade nearly two decades ago.

 

International

The head of a Winnipeg, Canada bike advocacy group says better eduction is the solution to the city’s dangerous patchwork of bike lanes, not better infrastructure.

Um, no. The annual RideLondon sportive wanted to show that it wasn’t just for white men. So they just photoshopped a black woman into a picture from the event.

After 100 years, a British author says he’s cracked the unsolved murder of a 21-year old bike-riding woman felled by a gunshot as she rode on a country lane, calling it a case worthy of Sherlock Holmes.

The UK’s popular Deliveroo food delivery service plans to switch from bicycle deliveries to motor vehicles, even though bikes are often faster.

No bias here. A new documentary examines the British bike rider who records distracted drivers using their cellphones behind the wheel, while drawing a false equivalency by showing clips of scofflaw bicyclists. It’s as if they think a single bike rider bears responsibility for every other bike rider on the roads, while failing to draw the same conclusion about lawbreaking drivers.

Bicycling experts tell Irish leaders that if they have the courage to reduce the number of cars on the street, people won’t want their traffic back.

 

Competitive Cycling

Fifty years later, the Cannibal continues to cast a long shadow over Belgian cyclists. Meanwhile, forget today’s high-tech wonders; VeloNews says the coolest bike on the tour is the orange, steel-framed classic Ernesto Colnago built for the legendary Eddy Merckx.

Sometimes it takes a pretty good bunny hop to avoid crashing in the tour.

https://twitter.com/RenaudB31/status/1147606446525296640?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1147606446525296640&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cyclingweekly.com%2Fnews%2Fracing%2Ftour-de-france%2Fwatch-tour-de-france-rider-pulls-off-incredible-bunny-hop-avoid-high-speed-crash-stage-one-429920

Now you, too, can buy the same Pinarello Dogma bike defending champ Geraint Thomas rides in the Tour de France for the low, low equivalent of a mere $15 grand. But no, it won’t make you as fast as he is.

Pakistan’s Tour de Khunjerab claims to be the world’s highest bike race, starting at over 9,000 feet and rising to 15,400 feet above sea level; over half of the 88 competitors in this year’s second edition failed to finish in the allotted time. 

 

Finally…

Oh, nothing. Just your everyday, garden variety, bike stealing, armed to the teeth antichrist. Don’t use Civil War battlements for mountain bike jumps.

And if the new bicycle you stole won’t fit in the back seat of a Kia, just dump it at a gas station.

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Morning Links: Garcetti unveils LA Green New Deal, sharing the road with texting drivers, and Woon fund nears $10,000

April 30, 2019 / / Comments Off on Morning Links: Garcetti unveils LA Green New Deal, sharing the road with texting drivers, and Woon fund nears $10,000

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti unveiled his proposal for an LA Green New Deal, calling for a net zero carbon footprint for the city in just 31 years.

Sort of like that 20% drop in traffic fatalities we were promised by 2017.

So how’s that working out for you, anyway?

In addition to other proposals to fight climate change, Garcetti is calling for a zero-emission transportation network by 2050, driven — if you’ll excuse the phrase — by a major shift to buses and trains, resulting in a 45% drop in miles driven.

And yes, he does include bikes and scooters in that LA Green New Deal. Though just how much emphasis they’ll receive remains to be seen.

Which means safe riding routes will be necessary if the city is going to come anywhere near that 45% goal. Let along allow more Angelenos to go carless altogether.

As always, however, the question is whether Garcetti and LA’s other elected leaders have the political courage to make the hard choices necessary to get nearly half the city’s cars off the streets. Or to maintain those goals when new leaders come in to take their place.

Because so far, at least, saving lives hasn’t been enough to do it.

But maybe the city’s climate-conscious councilmembers, such as self-proclaimed environmentalist Paul Koretz, will finally support bike lanes if it means saving the planet.

We can dream, can’t we?

Photo by Markus Spiske from Pexels.

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This is who we share the roads with.

Pasadena police wrote 366 tickets in just four days for texting while driving during April’s Distracted Driver Awareness Month, along with another 273 tickets for other violations.

Which means that if you think you’re surrounded by distracted drivers every time you get on your bike, you’re probably right.

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It’s been a few days since I checked in on the crowdfunding campaign to give the impoverished infant son of fallen bicyclist Frederick “Woon” Frazier a better start in life.

So I was surprised to learn it’s now just $614 short of the $10,000 goal.

Credit Peter Flax for the jump in donations, whose story for Bicycling called attention to the tragedy of Woon’s death, and the heartbreaking impact his loss has had on those who loved him.

And led to over $8,000 in donations in less than a month.

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

A Tulsa, Oklahoma bike rider was shot in the leg three times by someone in a passing car.

A Peoria, Illinois truck driver threw a water bottle at a bike rider, followed by threatening him with a gun, after yelling at the bicyclist to get out of the road. Must be a rough town; a jaywalking pedestrian was threatened with a gun by another driver two days earlier.

Horrifying news from Michigan, where a hit-and-run driver dragged a bike rider under his car for more than a mile before he shook loose; the victim was hospitalized in critical condition. Seriously, what kind of walking human scum could be so cruel, uncaring and violent towards a complete stranger?

A British man drove 65 miles to deliberately slam his car into a bike rider he blamed for ruining his life — then got out of his car to hit, kick and strangle the victim as he lay in the street with gaping wounds and multiple fractures to both legs.

………

Local

More on the opening of LA’s first two-way protected bike lane on Spring Street in Downtown Los Angeles. Meanwhile, the LACBC says they’re already talking with LADOT on how to improve the new lanes.

A Los Feliz newspaper recognizes a number of local streets on LA’s Vision Zero High Injury Network; the city says it’s working to make safety improvements to some. Without, you know, actually inconveniencing drivers or anything.

 

State

A new Riverside bike commuter wonders why everyone yells at him when he rides on the sidewalk. Maybe it’s because sidewalk riding is illegal in Riverside. Or maybe just because bike riders are actually safer riding in the street under most circumstances.

Outside follows a San Francisco bike commuter on his two-hour, 35-mile mountain bike ride to and from work along some seriously technical singletrack trails.

There’s a special place in hell for the coward who drove off and left a Sacramento bike rider unconscious and bleeding in the street.

You never know when the owner of your favorite Berkeley coffee shop could turn out to be a former BMX star.

A 15-year old Carmichael boy was critically injured when a red-light running driver crashed into him as he as riding in a crosswalk with the green light. Yet somehow, the police still manage to blame him for failing to wear a helmet or reflective clothing.

A knife wielding Chico man was severely beaten by another man using an unspecified bike part. Which makes me wonder just what part he was using, and whether the rest of us could use it for self-defense against road raging drivers.

 

National

Speaking of Outside, the magazine is conducting its mountain bike testing in my brother’s new hometown.

A writer for Singletracks says all bikes are gravel bikes if that’s where you ride them.

More proof bike thieves are among the lowest forms of human life. After a Portland man was busted while burglarizing a bike shop, police discovered  he was responsible for the hit-and-run death of an 85-year old woman who was run down on her daily morning walk.

A bighearted Washington cop dipped into his own wallet to buy a boy a new bike after his was stolen and the police couldn’t recover it.

Nice story, as a Utah community gathers to celebrate the 70th birthday of a man known to everyone as Bicycle Brent, who makes a point of honking his bike’s horn and waving to the people he passes.

A San Antonio TX newspaper asks if the city can convince — or force — scooter riders to wear helmets. Short answer, no. Longer answer, no one is going to carry a helmet with them all day on the off chance that they might ride a scooter; they’ll either skip the helmet, or skip the scooter and drive instead.

An Ohio bike advocate is urging the police to take a report on all collisions involving a bicycle whether or not anyone says they’re hurt, because bike riders often don’t know they’ve been injured until the adrenaline wears off. That’s a common complaint, which is why I always advise telling police you were injured, whether or not you feel any pain.

I like it. When a Pennsylvania bike rider got tired of being harassed and run off the road, she responded by strapping a BMUFL sign on her back.

After a Texas paper’s DC bureau chief sent a tone deaf tweet calling bike and scooter riders who run red lights “adult assholes” — on the same day bike riders rallied for safer streets following the death of leading advocate Dave Salovesh — a writer responds by comparing the actual stats on how many people are injured or killed by bike riders to those injured or killed by motor vehicles. And no, there’s no comparison.

The NYPD is being sued for fining delivery riders using banned ebikes, instead of following department policy and fining the restaurant owners.

Former NY Rangers hockey star Sean Avery is one of us, calling it therapeutic to confront drivers who illegally park in bike lanes.

Baltimore bicyclists rally to keep a parking protected bike lane from getting ripped out because drivers can’t figure out how to park in it.

Horrifying news from Georgia, where a teenager fatally shot a 60-year old man just to steal his bicycle.

Four Florida bike riders were seriously injured when the wheelchair lift gate on a medical lab truck fell open, and the driver kept going without realizing he was mowing people down.

 

International

An op-ed in a Saskatoon, Saskatchewan newspaper says the bikelash to the city’s efforts to improve safety for bike riders is unwarranted and short-sighted. Pretty much like the opposition to safer and Complete Streets anywhere else.

The Beeb — as opposed to the Bieb — recounts the history of the bicycle, and explains why the future of bikes is so bright it has to wear shades.

An English soccer legend was seconds away from getting hit head-on by a red light-running driver, as he set out on a long-haul triathlon across the country.

A pregnant, cocaine-binging British mom was busted for driving on a suspended license, after she was released from a year behind bars for slamming into a bike rider while high as a dragon in Westeros.

A man in the UK has put together a Twitter thread to demonstrate just how differently bike riders and drivers are treated after killing someone. Which is an exceptionally rare thing for bicyclists; for drivers, not so much.

Brussels, Belgium is planning a protected bike lane on the auto-centric street in front of the European Union Parliament building.

Now that’s more like it. An estimated 10,000 bike riders turned out in the rain to demand safer streets in Budapest.

 

Competitive Cycling

USA Cycling has named the riders who will compete for the national team at next month’s Amgen Tour of California, which rolls in less than two weeks.

 

Finally…

When you have meth at home and your carrying drug paraphernalia on your bike, maybe riding salmon in the left lane isn’t the best idea. Nothing like installing the bollards in the wrong place on a two-way, now unprotected, bike lane.

And there could be an Android smartphone hidden inside your bike computer.

 

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Morning Links: Murder charge for OC hit-and-run, justice for Woon finally coming, and keep fighting Vision Zero

April 5, 2019 / / Comments Off on Morning Links: Murder charge for OC hit-and-run, justice for Woon finally coming, and keep fighting Vision Zero

Once again, Orange County takes traffic crime seriously.

Garden Grove resident Victor Manuel Romero faces a single count of murder for the hit-and-run death of homeless bike rider Raymond MacDonald in Huntington Beach last weekend.

He’s being held on $1 million bond. Which either reflects the seriousness of the charge, or the depth of his bank account.

No word on whether he will also be charged with driving under the influence and hit-and-run. Although they may be waiting for toxicology tests to come back before deciding on DUI charges.

However, the seriousness of the charge suggests they suspect DUI this may not be his first offense; a DUI conviction in California requires signing a letter stating that killing someone while under the the influence can result in being charged with murder. Which presumably is what happened here.

Or it could just be that they’re finally starting to get it.

Meanwhile, MacDonald’s mother left a heartbreaking comment on this site, including the news that he was killed just hours after celebrating his birthday with her.

………

No official word yet, but the advocacy group Justice for Woon has revealed that charges will finally be filed against 23-year old Mariah Kandise Banks for the hit-and-run death of Frederick “Woon” Frazier.

Frazier was fatally run down as he rode his bike at Manchester and Normandie in South LA nearly a year ago.

Banks reportedly turned herself in last May as investigators were closing in, despite allegedly repainting her formerly white Porsche Cayenne to hide evidence of the crime.

Authorities may be waiting until the one-year anniversary of Frazier’s death on Wednesday to announce the charges.

Or they may be trying to go under the radar after last June’s farce, when charges against Banks were announced with great fanfare, then quietly withdrawn with no further word.

Read more from Streetsblog’s Sahra Sulaiman.

………

This is the cost of traffic violence.

Just a day after we linked to a knee-jerk, anti-Vision Zero comment, we saw the real cost of that kind of attitude.

Two girls were run down by the driver of a big rig gravel truck as they were walking in a crosswalk with the light, on their way to school near Exposition Park.

The driver swears he never saw them as he was turning, even though they were directly in front of him. And kept driving until another driver flagged him down to say he was dragging them beneath his truck.

Now one of the girls, a 14-year old student at Clinton Middle School, has died, while her 12-year old sister clings to life.

But sure.

Let’s all keep dragging our feet on Vision Zero. And all you NIMBY traffic safety-denying drivers keep on fighting it, because a few moments of inconvenience is certainly more important than a human life.

And no need to redesign trucks to provide a 180 degree view from behind the wheel, so drivers could actually see what’s in the road directly in front of them. Or require sideguards so innocent bike riders and pedestrians don’t get dragged underneath them.

Seriously, it’s just a couple of kids.

No big deal, right?

Right?

………

If you’re looking for somewhere to ride on Saturday, you could do a lot worse than stopping for the spring Corgi Beach Day in Huntington Beach.

………

Local

Authorities can’t prove the injuries a drunk driver suffered were the result of an alleged beating by sheriff’s deputies — including one who was just reinstated after being fired for the incident — because the driver admitted head-butting a bicyclist just before he was stopped.

A writer for the Daily Breeze says after 34 years bicycling up and down the coast, he’s ready for his ‘bent phase. After his ElliptiGo phase, that is.

An Aussie writer takes advantage of a layover at LAX to go mountain biking in Topanga Canyon.

Despite the panicked reported from ER physicians, a study commissioned by Santa Monica-based Bird shows similar injury rates for e-scooters and bicycles.

Santa Clarita wants your input on the city’s proposed Pedestrian and Bicycle Master Plan.

State

Bike riders call for a protected bike lane on 30th Street in San Diego’s North Park, calling it a test of the city’s commitment to climate action.

The local community is rallying around the family of an 11-year old Fontana boy after he was killed when he touched wheels with another kid’s bike while riding around his apartment complex last weekend.

The Southern California Chapter of the Police Unity Tour will make a stop at the Borderline Bar and Grill in Thousand Oaks on Sunday’s ride to honor Sgt. Ronald Helus, who was killed in the shooting, as well as the other 144 police officers who died in the line of duty in last year.

A 36-year old Morgan Hill man was shot in the leg while he was riding his bike Wednesday night.

A Streetsblog op-ed says 20 should be plenty under San Francisco’s Vision Zero plan.

More bike lanes are coming to San Jose, even if that means — gasp! — removing parking spaces.

Sad news from Stanislaus County, where a bike rider was killed in a crash yesterday morning; the driver faces charges for manslaughter and DUI.

National

Consumer Reports wants to know why traffic deaths remain so high when safety tech has made so many advances. Simple answer: Too many badly designed roads, too high speeds, and too many fallible human beings behind the wheel.

Curbed says open street festivals can help cities practice for congestion pricing by showing residents there are other ways to get around without driving.

Outside suggests that maybe a roof rack isn’t the best way to haul your bike.

People for Bikes has released their third annual Participation Survey, showing one-third of all Americans ride bikes, but half of adult Americans don’t even own a working bike.

The former police chief of Kauai, Hawaii is still recovering two months after he was seriously injured in a collision while participating in a time trial.

A Seattle website examines the reasoning behind the city’s recent retreat on proposed bike lanes.

They get it. A paper in Grand Junction CO tells drivers that with or without sharrows, bike riders have a right to be in the roadway, and we all have a right to feel safe. Let’s hope they pay attention, because my brother lives and rides there now.

A bike boulevard in Lawrence KS — actually, just an intersection — lasted just two weeks before officials scrubbed it off the streets when people complained.

Life is cheap in Missouri, where a drunk driver walked with just probation after killing a bike rider in a crash. Naturally, her lawyer blamed the victim, and claimed his client wasn’t really drunk at the time of the crash because the booze hadn’t hit her yet.

A Chicago weekly wonders what can be done about those damn scofflaw cyclists.

Neighbors of an Illinois boy who disappeared eight years ago are still keeping his bicycle for him.

Presidential candidate and Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar is one of us, after going on epic bike rides through the state with her newspaper reporter dad.

I want to be like him when I grow up. An Ohio man is still riding at 92, though he recently switched from two wheels to a three-wheeled recumbent.

He’s got a point. A long-time New Orleans bicyclist says the No. 1 rule for riding in traffic is to ride with traffic. And the No. 2 rule is never ride against traffic.

You’ve got to be kidding. A Florida cop is off the hook for killing a 15-year old boy as he was crossing the street because speeding — even at a whopping 21 mph over the limit — isn’t enough to justify a manslaughter charge under Florida law.

International

Forget helmets. Now you need a wearable inflatable air bag.

A couple of Vancouver cops could face criminal charges after the bike rider they were tailing in an unmarked car suffered serious injuries falling off his bike.

Repeat after me — This is Saskatoon, not Amsterdam.

A writer for Forbes says Chinese dockless bikeshare has descended into a horrible game of chicken.

Finally…

Look at the new ebike Look. Nothing like listening to a bike-riding brass band.

And this is how Peter Sagan trains.

No, seriously, I want those little toy cyclists.

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